North: Victoria, C, Gary and Ace
"Sunken treasure..." C seemed to like the sound of that, though to be honest, it was hard to tell whether or not the girl was excited. "We can buy more of Mr. Cuddle's tarts." The hooded figure nodded rapidly to herself and ignored everything else in favor of the non-existent treasure. "Where is the treasure?" Before she could ask more questions, Ace had zipped off towards an abandoned looking house.
Oh...the black pearl. It was getting harder and harder to stay focused. C slapped herself lightly on the cheek and tried to think of home. "Gary, let's make sure bigger fish don't get to her." And with that, the mermaid in the green cloak began swimming towards the same empty home. It wasn't very big and the furniture was scattered all over the place. There was broken TV and an overturned couch. All the lights were off and the place wasn't very bright.
Victoria could handle herself. C felt confident of that, but as for Ace and Gary...well, she was worried they would do something loud and stupid. The two didn't exactly get along, but they were similar in more ways than one. "Gary, Ace, we should be quiet. Someone might still be here."
And as if on cue a soft and frightened voice rang throughout the small cottage. It seemed to be coming from the second floor. "Travis? Is that you? M-Man, this isn't funny." There was a pause. "Travis?"
C raised a hand into the air and motioned for her teammates to hide, but just as she did, a young merman began floating down the stairs, he was hugging a frying pan to his chest and trying his best to look brave.
"Travis, budd—" the merman's eyes landed on Victoria and then on everyone else, and he backed into one of the walls in fright causing a couple of picture frames to fall to the ground and shatter on impact. "You aren't Travis. Where's Erik and Cindy? Who are
you?" He stuck out the frying pan, but his hands were shaking badly.
C raised her own hands in a gesture of surrender. They outnumbered the boy, but he didn't look like a threat and she didn't want to give him a heart attack. Hopefully Gary wouldn't go into attack mode and scare him out of his wits. "We're just looking for clues. We aren't here to hurt anyone, we're good fish." C didn't believe the last part, she and the hooded figures had done many horrible things...
The young merman stared at them suspiciously before deciding to lower his weapon. "Okay, yeah. Good fish. Got it."
C didn't say anything, just nodded her head to reaffirm what had already been said. She hoped Ace or Victoria would try to say something comforting...she wasn't good with words anymore. Gary was good with words, but that was when she would suddenly start talking smart.
"I'm just a little frazzled," the boy said as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm Adrian. Travis is my friend, a merman with a blue tail and dark spiky hair. He's a little taller than me, did you guys see anyone like him? He was with our other friends, Cindy and Erik. We got split up when this huge fish with empty eyes came charging through the north side." Adrian shuddered. "I think the fish might still be out there."
♠ ♠ ♠
West: Sacha, Numair, Leila, Harper
Apparently, the black pearl could be anywhere within the city. Finding it would be difficult but Harper bit back a frown and nodded his head. Sacha was talking to Leila about the emotion stealing fish, so he directed his question at Numair and gave the dolphin a tap on the shoulder. "Numair? This black pearl. Do you think it's going to be a literal pearl?" The question sounded kind of silly, but hey, the Siren's song wasn't a real song but a memory. There was a chance the black pearl wasn't a pearl at all. "The second item on the list was a siren's song, but in the end, it wasn't a song at all."
Harper followed after Sacha and soon enough they found themselves in an abandoned marketplace. The stalls were empty and it didn't look like anyone was around. What were they supposed to look for? Harper narrowed his eyes and saw a gleam of silver from behind one of the fruit stands. "I think there might be something over there...a pin?" The boy picked it up, but as soon as he did, he felt a sharp pain shoot through his tail. The next thing Harper knew, he was danging upside down and watching with wide eyes as three fish people leaped out from behind empty stalls with giant nets.
A big and bulky whale man shook his head then chuckled heartily. "Celery, my heart was racing. You're just a bunch of scrawny mermen a jellyfish and an octopus. For a second there, we thought we had caught
it.
He slapped his friends' backs and continued to laugh, the merman with blue hair looked a little offended.
"I thought you were one them," the blue-haired boy admitted. "They're attracted to emotions and they give me the heebie-jeebies." He shot a pointed glare at the whale man. "Nice to meet some fellow merfolk. I'm Ast, these are Olson and Felicia."
The whale man gave them a salute and Felicia waved.
"Sorry if we scared you, we just can't be too careful anymore." And then she kicked Olson in the shin, but the burly whale just laughed. "These idiots can be so paranoid."
"Yeah...we've got a good reason to be. Anyways, I'll get you down." Ast untied the rope around Harper's tail and the clownfish fell down with a soft thud.
"So," Olson didn't look impressed. "Aren't you going to introduce yourselves or something? Cat got your tongue?" He didn't even give them a chance to respond, Olson let out a roar and plucked Sacha and Numair off the ground with ease. He held the boys over his head for a few moments then laughed when he noticed the terrified expression on Harper's face. A loud ringing laugh echoed throughout the empty marketplace and he placed the boys down and ruffled their hair condescendingly. "Just kidding, like I said we don't bite."
"For Celery's sake!"
Both the blue-haired boy and the whale stopped to stare at the green-skinned fish girl.
"Stop acting like children!" She slapped the whale across the face and turned to look at the humans. "He's not so obnoxious once you get to know him, promise." Olson flashed her a grin and she shook her head and sighed. "You know, most of the people have left...and I've never seen you people around." Felicia gave them all a curious glance. "What are people like you doing here? Orion isn't exactly a tourist favorite at the moment."
Harper shot Sacha and Numair a curious glance. How much were they supposed to tell? Were the hooded figures wanted criminals in Orion too. It wasn't the idea situation, but at least they weren't dead. Harper swam up to Leila and gave the girl a reassuring smile.
♠ ♠ ♠
South: Ran, Inadi, Toby, Riley
An abandoned fair, Riley beamed, today was definitely their lucky day. "I see it, I see it. No need to shout, Ranran." She laughed at the man's enthusiasm, he was the coolest grownup she had ever met. "I agree!" The girl slammed a fist into her open palm and grinned deviously at her companions. "We've got to check this place out, y'know, the pearl might be here." She shrugged and gave Inadi a grin. Riley hoped he wouldn't call them out for being childish.
"C'mon, Tobs. The pearl could be here. Besides, we need to make sure and check every corner." Like Ran, there was no persuading the redhead, she was set on exploring the carnival grounds, partly because Ran's laughter was so contagious and partly because she had always loved carnivals. The lights, the games, the rides, everything made her feel right at home.
They strolled past the ticket booth like rebels and made their way inside. The fair looked prettier from the outside and Riley stopped in her tracks. "Hey, Ran." She didn't want to crush his spirits, but it didn't look like any of the rides would work anymore. She was going to break the news, but before she could say a thing all the lights crackled to life and carnival music filled the air. "Gods," it had caught the girl off guard, but soon she was starring at the lights. They looked a lot more pretty underwater, eerie, but still beautiful.
Riley liked exciting things, but she had enough sense to worry. "Inadi, this isn't very good is it? I'm guessing everything in a five-mile radius is going to know we're here."
The popcorn machine began going crazy and Toby and Ran started swimming off towards the Ferris wheel. Riley wanted to worry, but ended up laughing things off. "C'mon, Inadi. We can't lose to those two." Without saying anything else, the redhead zipped off towards the Ferris wheel.
Upon arrival, she swung an arm around Toby's and Ran's necks and pulled both boys into a headlock. "Traitors," she laughed. "The both of you are dirty traitors." She ruffled their hair up a bit then arched an eyebrow at the ride that towered above them. "I hate to break it to you, guys, but I think this thing isn't gonna work. It looks
ancient. And to prove her point Riley slapped the big red button on one of the control panels.
"See." She tried it again but this time the sound of groans filled the air. "What the..."
It was a constant humming in the background, but it kept growing louder...closer. Riley spun around and the next thing she saw made her tumble back and into Ran. Around twenty pairs of glowing eyes peered at them hungrily. They were just like zombies, but they weren't drawn towards the trio by the promise of brains. No, they were drawn by the promise of emotions.
They were an army of slack-jawed and drooling aquatic creatures and they groaned emptily as they continued their approach.
"Shit," a few other curses left Riley's mouth, but what did it matter? They were surrounded.
"What the hell?" Through her binoculars she noticed the sudden chaos. The emotionless were usually harmless and calm, but something had triggered a violent reaction. She was guessing it was the sudden music and lights, but who was stupid enough to turn those on? Her eyes landed on the fishfolk who had their backs to the Ferris Wheel, and the mermaid scoffed.
She thought about leaving them for dead. It would be her fault and no one would know. It would be natural selection. Those who were dumb as a bag of bricks died, it was nothing personal.
But then again, Madeline wasn't a bad fish and they had to stick together if they wanted to survive this thing. Plus, she had kind of been assigned by the mayor to keep an eye on the carnival grounds and he wouldn't be happy if she allowed a bunch of idiots to just die while she was capable of helping.
She moved a bookshelf from in front of one of her windows and threw them open. "HEY, NUMBSKULLS!" The girl waved both hands in the air and tried to get their attentions. "ROCKS FOR BRAINS!" If they didn't hear her, it wasn't her fault. "Get your butts in here if you want to live!"
She had barricaded herself in one of the souvenir shops. It was about 200 meters from the Ferris wheel, but if they worked together and hurried then they would probably be able to make it.
♠ ♠ ♠
Jail: Luke and Jasper
"I don't have time for this, none of us have time for troublemakers anymore." There was a slam followed by a soft click, the door to jail cell number seven had been locked. "I'm supposed to be helping Felicia out with the carnival," the man grumbled to himself and sighed, if his friends got hurt and he wasn't there, he would feel guilty as hell. "Tch, now I have to babysit a bunch of troublemakers, what were you doing at city hall?"
Phillip leaned towards the iron bars and narrowed his eyes. "Why were you going through the mayor's files?"
Jasper looked absolutely defeated. "We were looking for the black pearl." Lying would be of no use to them now, so she decided to just tell him the truth.
Unlike the girl beside him, Luke was still grinning. "Chill, she's telling the truth. We're just looking for the pearl."
"In the file cabinet?" the guard snapped. "Why would a pearl be there?"
The cloaked male shrugged. "Beats me."
"How did you even get inside?" Phillip's face was red and he felt like slamming his head into a wall.
Jasper looked slightly irritated as well and a part of her felt sorry for the fish man.
Luke dug into his pockets and pulled out a bunch of bobby pins. "I picked the lock." Instead of feeling shame, he was filled with pride and the boy puffed up his chest and laughed, until the guard stuck in his hands and confiscated it all. Soon enough, Luke was asked to confiscate his cloak as well.
"I'll be watching over you two until further notice, so get comfortable, you could be here for awhile."