Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The rusty steel of his old bike rattled and clashed as he pushed it over the bumpy forest floor. 

He slowed down as the gravel road he had been following for the past five hours abruptly cut off by a steel fence twice his size. He came to a halt and walked along the fence in both directions, only to find nothing. The fence seemed to stretch into infinity, and he was not keen on walking in circles. 

Mumbo sighed. He stood on the gravel road again, in front of an enormous gate that towered over him like a wall. He leaned his bike against a tree trice as wide as him and pulled out his phone. No connection. He could figure. Looking back where he came from, there was nothing but thick forest for miles. To the right of him as well, and from his left he could hear the ocean’s waves beneath the cliffs maybe a few hundred metres away. 

Knowing it to be futile, he opened his navigation and looked at the last image before the phone lost connection. 

Follow the road straight. 

He looked back at the gate. The gravel and leaves crunched under his shoes as he slowly walked up to it. He put his phone back into his jacket and held one hand up to his eyes to peek between the dark grey bars. 

Behind the fence stretched a plain driveway of gravel and concrete to what must be a parking lot, given the many Sprinters standing neatly lined up next to each other. All five were the plain white model, though the windows were a deep black and he couldn’t make out a licence plate on any of them. His brows furrowed. The one in the front had several scratches in the paint on the side. It must’ve been in an accident before. 

Something in the underwood cracked. He whirled around. He willed his already racing heart to slow down. Just an animal, he thought, scanning the empty woods. He turned back around, but couldn’t stop his spooked being to flick his eyes back another two times. 

Now, as he looked back through the fence, his eyes fell onto the blank grey building in the distance. 

Two stories at least, right on the cliff’s edge. No windows on the side facing him. 

What am I doing here? He asked himself, just like he had during the everlasting hours of his trip here. What is this place? Mumbo shuddered. The dark forest was unusually cold for this time of year. Or maybe the sun just wasn’t making it through the green leaves. 

The forest was deep and the largest in the state, oak and pine mixing and resulting in a thick foliage that stored warmth in the winter and was chilly in the summer. He remembered still, as a child, running around, playing hide and seek with friends and building shacks of sticks and moss. Don’t go too far past the treeline, their parents had always said. 

He sighed. “Hello?” He called. His voice shook. 

The forest didn’t answer. The building didn’t either. 

His eyes found his old bike leaning against the tree and the crumpled papers pinned to the thin rack. He made his way over and pulled them out from under the squeaking steel that kept them pinned. Copies he made of an article from some old conspiracy magazine he found in the library. 

Government coverup! and Giant facility being built on the east coast, together with blurry, unclear black-white photos of a big construction site, right on the stone cliff. Pictures probably shot by a cheap drone, he guessed.

He recognised the street and gravel driveway in the picture. He was right here. 

He flipped through the papers. Newer headlines; Strange sightings at the coral reef: Young fisher girl attacked by Sea Monster. 

Mumbo’s eyes flew over the print. It read like an article about Bigfoot or Loch Ness. But lately, Mumbo had a hard time believing what was real and what not. 

Just as he was about to put the papers down, he heard footsteps crunching on the gravel. His head whipped up. There, from the building, a person was walking towards the gate. He gasped, surprised and relieved. 

“Oh- Hello!” He greeted in a rush as his heart started picking up speed. 

They didn’t answer. For a second, Mumbo believed they hadn’t even heard him. But as they came closer, he could see her face twitch at his greeting. She had hair brown like chocolate in a bun around the scowl on her face. He hesitantly lowered the hand he had waved at the sight of her displeasure. 

She was dressed weirdly, he noticed as she came closer. It looked…orderly enough to be a uniform, but Mumbo couldn’t figure out a functional aspect for the clothing. She wore a shirt of a material that he didn’t know. It was tight and hugged her upper body, hidden behind a short and thin jacket. Both were a dark blue with lighter and darker accents. He realised he was staring. 

“State your business.” The woman said with an Australian accent, not a hint of emotion in her voice. She had stopped a few feet away from the gate, staring insistently at him through the bars. Her blunt approach took Mumbo aback. 

Mumbo forced a chuckle at her directness, but it felt hollow. “Uh, is this the Marine Research- uh… facility?” He said, lacking for a better word. 

Her face remained unchanged. “Who wants to know that?” She asked in return. Her voice was as cold and stern as she. 

“I’m- I’m Mumbo Jumbo!” He stuttered, nervous and confident at the same time. Then, when he saw she raised an eyebrow, added; “Hah, unusual name, I know. But I didn’t choose.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder, down the road he came from, but thought it must look overconfident, so he turned and held his entire arm out while still keeping eye contact with her. “I came from the town. The one a few hours north from here.” 

“Boatem.”

“Yes.”

“On a bike.” 

“Yes.” 

She stared at him with a look he would interpret as amused disbelief were it not for her still holding herself like she was a bodyguard. I am the stronger one of us — and you know that, her stance seemed to say. Mumbo swallowed. He shuffled his feet. He stood so stiffly that his leg shook if he didn’t force it still.

The papers in his hand rustled as he fiddled with them. Her eyes were on them immediately. 

“Are you from the press?!” She suddenly accused with such displeasure that he almost missed the annoyance hidden beneath. 

“I- what?” 

She looked unimpressed. She stepped closer to the gate, finger rudely pointing at him. “Listen here: I know you and your buddies like conspiracies, but I can assure you this place is not owned nor controlled by the government in any form.” She leaned closer, glaring at him through the steel bars. She was hissing like a cat. Or a tiger, more closely. “This is a privately funded cooperation. We do not waste tax money in any shape or form.” She scoffed, like she found her own words ridiculous. “So I’m sorry you wasted your day getting all the way out here, but I’m going to ask you to leave.” She snarled. 

“What?” He asked again, eyes wide and confused. “I- I’m not-“

“I’m going to ask you to leave!” She repeated, and this time she pulled her jacket to the side to reveal a black Glock strapped to her belt — so neatly hidden that he hadn’t even noticed it before. 

“Whoa, whoa!” He stumbled a few shocked metres back, hands clutched to his chest. “I don’t- I’m not from the papers! I’m a student! I’m not related to them in any way!” He desperately tried to convince her. His lungs were so tight, breath shaking.

“Then what do you want?” She practically growled. 

But now he was hesitant again and looked away and into the undergrowth as the right words failed him. He felt so stupid. “You… I read about this place. Yes —in these stupid conspiracy articles—but I, I didn’t know what else to do! They-“ he lifted the papers. Shook them. “-they say you work with-“ he cut himself off. He turned away. He couldn’t look her in the eyes. Not when she must think he was insane. “God, I’m so stupid. I should never have come here.” He buried his face in his hands in frustration. 

“With what?” She asked to his shock, suddenly way calmer than before. 

“With… “ he shook his head. “With sea… creatures. Like, paranormal. I don’t…” 

She huffed, amused. But it felt different from before. Not as cold. Not as real. “Mate, are you trying to tell me we got the kraken back there? You saying mermaids are real?” 

Now it was Mumbo’s time to scowl. He whirled back around. “Gosh darn it, I know Mer are real. There’s one in my bathtub!”

He knew it was a mistake the second the words left him. But by the void, he drove all the hours here; now he might as well go through with it. 

“That’s why I’m here. I don’t know what to do. He’s injured- or at least something isn’t right with him, and, and he can’t understand me , and I don’t know how to help him - so now I’m here, cause the articles said you could maybe know something…”

The woman stared at him. 

This was it, he thought. She was going to call the cops, and they would bring a crazy man to the nearest mental institution. 

Pleadingly, he looked at her. This was insane, he knew, but if there were any gods out there-

They stared at each other. She looked conflicted and he- Mumbo didn’t even know what he must look like right now. 

After a long silence, she finally opened her mouth- 

Only to get interrupted by the cracking of a communicator. Someone was speaking, and they both jumped a bit at the suddenness. Mumbo stood too far to understand the words. 

The woman, however, lifted the small device from her hip to her mouth. “Why?” She asked. 

The voice was back, jumbled and frizzled through the Redstone. 

“Is he sure?” She asked. Mumbo couldn’t read her expression, but she was looking straight into his soul. 

The person on the other end seemed to confirm, for she stayed quiet for a long second, then broke eye contact. Mumbo failed to swallow the nameless thing stuck in his throat. 

“Code blue.” She said into her communicator. A siren blasted so abruptly in the silence of the forest that Mumbo jumped. The gate rattled to the side. 

“Move.” She said curtly. She looked like a tiger again. 

Mumbo swallowed and remembered the gun at her hip as he took the first hesitant step through the still opening gate. The second he was through, it rattled shortly in place before closing again. The woman stood still and waited until it was in its former place. Mumbo suddenly felt very trapped. 

Without a word, she gestured for him to move, and he did so, stumbling ahead. She followed. The gravel crunched under their feet. Mumbo could hear her behind him, a few paces away and to the left. 

Mumbo felt like he would fall over on every step he took, hands fiddling by his chest and hunched over. Every step—and then there were by the building and the door opened and- wow. Mumbo knew he had always been on the tall side, but this guy-

“Skizz,” the woman said behind him.

“X said to bring him up to his office.” The man’s voice was oddly melodic for someone who could probably knock him out with one punch. Built like a wall and tall like one, Mumbo took one look at his hand and knew if this man wanted to, Mumbo’s head could be in pieces on the floor within seconds.

This man did not hide the gun he was carrying. This man, Skizz, held it in hand loosely at his side. He stood like the brown-haired woman, but fitting the bodyguard vibe even more, wearing a dark suit without a tie. 

“Right.” She said. She knocked her fist to his back. “Get inside.” And she motioned to the entrance. Mumbo couldn’t stop his knees from shivering as he stepped forward. 

He went through the door—and then he stood on-

It must be a platform, he assumed. Because before him, only a few feet away, the floor broke away into a vast hall. A catwalk, or something the like was what they walked on, clinging to the walls and leading off into different doors. And there, a good three stories down, all the way at the bottom, was… water? Mumbo couldn’t get a good look without stepping to the edge, but he could see the reflection glimmering on all the white walls all around him. It gave the building a warm, grotto-like feeling. And the sunlight came from a window in the front that looked over the ocean to the horizon and stretched all the way from the bottom floor to the one they were on.

“Pearl.” he heard behind him. “So calm? I’ve never seen you so trusting to an intruder.”

“I’m not trusting him, Skizz.” the woman answered. Her voice carried that slight annoyance that it had before at the gate, the one that made him feel like he was walking a minefield. “I’m trusting X.”

“Who’s X?” he turned around and asked before he could second guess it. “And what on earth is this place?”

“You’ll meet him soon enough,” the man said, turning from his partner to face him. 

“And that’s none of your business.” She finished for him. 

Skizz pointed down the catwalk like path. “Get moving,” he said. Mumbo stumbled ahead. He didn’t know how to feel about two gun carrying people in his blind spot. They led him along the path, around a corner, a few more feet down the path, and then they reached the very last door, solid white, a round knob of metal. 

“Knock.” Skizz said. 

Mumbo raised his hand, then pulled it close to his chest. He turned around. “Look.” He said and heard his voice shiver. “I really don’t want trouble. I can just leave if that’s-“

“Too late now, buddy.” The man said and gestured with his armed hand to a plain door. Mumbo swallowed and turned back around. He noticed his hands shivering as he raised it. Before he could knock, the door opened on its own with a silent click. He stood frozen in place, hand awkwardly raised midair. 

A push to the shoulder with something that was too hard and cold to be a hand reminded his feet that they could move, and he stumbled on his first step. Inside was a plain office, modern like the rest of the building, with huge glass panels in the back stretching from the floor to the ceiling and giving a beautiful view of the ocean behind. 

“You’re always so mean-” He heard the woman say somewhere behind him, but he didn’t listen. Because there, on a modern office chair behind the desk, sat a young man. 

He must be his age, Mumbo thought, maybe a few years older. Short black hair, the same length as his, with a similar, slight curl at the ends. He sat leaned back, relaxed, deep blue eyes looking at two monitors over to the side, one hand on a mouse. 

He wore a complex, black and silver metal mask around his lower face. 

It hissed when he exhaled. 

Mumbo’s breath staggered in his chest. He clutched his shivering fingers to his chest. But the man looked up, his eyes found Mumbo, and Mumbo’s racing heart screamed why he didn’t just call a vet or something and then- 

“Come in.” The man said, and his voice was twisted through the mask, but it was calm. Kind. Inviting. 

Mumbo wanted to run. 

Instead, the woman noticeably coughed behind him, and he took a stumbling step forward. 

“Sit down.” The man said when he stood awkwardly in the middle of the white room, gesturing to a stiff-looking stool by the desk. Mumbo stumbled through the room and sat. “Mumbo K. Jumbo?” 

“That- that’s me.” Mumbo stuttered for a moment, because how had he known, but then he remembered, he had probably listened to his conversation with the woman. It was fine, he told himself.

“You’re a marine biology student at the University of Boatem, yes? Third semester?” 

Mumbo froze. The man sat leaned back in his chair, one hand calmly resting on the computer mouse, eyes searching over the monitors. Mumbo took a shaking breath. He swore he saw the twitch of a smile on the man’s face at his reaction.  

“I-...” Mumbo swallowed. “Yes? Have we met before?”

“Oh…” The man chuckled and momentarily put his hand over his eyes as if genuinely embarrassed. “I didn’t introduce myself, did I?” He smiled. Like he wanted to seem unthreatening. Or at least Mumbo assumed he smiled by the way the skin next to his eyes crinkled. He couldn’t see his mouth beneath the steel. “My name is Xisuma Void. I am the founder and leader of this facility. I ask to excuse my blunt approach. I get… stressed… when it comes to these situations.”

Mumbo sat still. He didn’t know what to say. 

Void looked up and behind him. “Skizz…” He said. “Put the gun away.” 

“It’s just a safety precaution.” The guard said but listened, because after a pointed look from Void, Mumbo heard shuffling and the man turned back to face him. 

“But that brings us back to the point.” Void said. Brighter than before. “The reason you came here. You… Can you repeat to me what you’ve told our dear Pearl? Your… predicament?” 

“My- wh- you mean the Mer?” Mumbo asked, eyes wide. 

“Yes.” 

Mumbo wasn’t sure he was hearing right. “You believe me?” 

“I have reason to.” 

“Oh. Okay- then, right? Ummm…I- what do you want to know?” 

Void rested his chin on his hand. His calm body language was the complete opposite of Mumbo’s. “Just details. You said you have a Mer in your... bathtub. How long is his tail? He-? I assume they’re a he?” 

Confused at the specific question, Mumbo stuttered, “I think so. And I’m not sure…” he answered honestly. “About a meter and a half? Maybe less?”

“Ok.” Said Void and leaned back again, eyes more slit than before. Mumbo felt like he had said something wrong. “Does his tail have any fancy colouring? Do the scales have a pattern?“ 

“Red. And a bit of brown dotted around. The same light brown as his hair.” Mumbo thought out aloud. “But it seems random.”

Void looked at him for a long moment. Mumbo couldn’t keep his own eyes from hushing behind him to the ocean every few seconds. Then Void sighed. “Alright.” He said. “I think the question we’re all wondering is; how exactly… did he get in your bathtub?” 

“Oh, I carried him. He’s not that heavy.” 

“Right.” He heard the woman say behind him, in that same, disbelieving tone she had had before, at the gate. 

But Void just laid back in his chair, a thoughtful and sceptic expression narrowing his eyes. “Did anybody see you?” He asked. 

“No, it was night; nobody saw us. And the dorms aren’t very far from the ocean.” 

“I know…” Void muttered under his breath. Then he looked up and gestured around with his hand. “Remind me again–I’m not often in that area–the shoreline; it’s not a beach, is it?” 

“No.” Mumbo answered. “It’s a cliff-side. There are a lot of small bays, but it’s a nature reserve. No one can go there without an allowance.” 

“And you have that allowance?” Skizz spoke up behind him. 

“Yes.” Mumbo turned in his seat to look at him. “I’m part of the nature preservation team of the university.” 

“Alright, but,” Void’s gaze narrowed. “That still doesn’t explain… why? Why did you take him? How did he even let you? There’s no way you would’ve won a fight against a grown Mer.” 

“Oh no, he didn’t- he didn’t fight me.” 

“So he trusted you.” 

“Yes. We’ve known each other for more than a year now.” 

Behind him, he heard the woman, Pearl, if he remembered right, sigh deeply. 

“Can you, because I think we aren’t really following, tell us, just straight from the beginning, the complete story?” There was a slight lopsided grin on Skizz’s face when he turned to look at him. 

“Uh- ok, sure!” Mumbo stumbled over his words. “So, I’m part of the preservation team, I’ve told you, and we mostly clean up the shore and the Clam Reef. There’s sadly a big problem with ghost nets and just trash ’cause of the tides, so now and then we go out and remove what we can. The space I usually clean is this small, very well hidden inlet. And that’s where I met him.” Before he could continue, Skizz interrupted his story.

“There are no Mer living in the Clam Reef by Boatem.” He said. The scepsis in his voice made Mumbo shrink in on himself. Did they not believe him? 

“None that we know of,” Pearl thought out loud. “But if he lived in one of the many inlets, it’s possible for him to have slipped beneath the radar.” She tilted her head in thought. “What do you think, X?” 

Void made a motion with his hand. “Continue.”

“Uh, so, he wasn’t all too happy I was diving in his home, I think. He tried to drown me.”

Void nodded slowly, like that was the first logical thing Mumbo had said so far. 

“But I came back, because I didn’t think what I saw really existed, but he proved me wrong. He would just- sit behind coral and watch me dive. I tried to stay out of his way.” He chuckled dryly. “I didn’t want to get drowned again. And he warmed up to me, or maybe he just accepted that I wasn’t going to leave. And he is a very curious creature. He started helping me collect trash. We became…somewhat friends, I believe, despite not understanding each other.“ 

Mumbo swallowed. “When I came to the inlet a few days ago, he laid on the beach. And when I came close, he just grasped onto me and wouldn’t let go. I tried to bring him back into the water a few times, but he would always crawl back to shore. It- it was just wrong . I know he’s very good at taking care of himself, so I just gave him my big towel so he wouldn’t burn in the sun and went to do my job. I thought he would just join me eventually, ‘cause that’s what he always does, but when I was done, he was still laying there.” 

“Did you see any wounds on him? From a boat or something?” Pearl asked when he took a quick break to catch his breath. 

“No,” Mumbo shook his head. “But I did notice that he was very still. He’s normally very expressive with his tail and fins. It’s the only way I can kinda tell what mods he’s in. Seeing him just limp like that was…eery.” 

“So you took him home…” the woman said. 

“I didn’t know what to do!” Mumbo tried to defend himself. “I thought he could be just sick or something and needed a safe place for a few days.” He swallowed, thinking about how helpless the Mer had looked, limp on the white sand, eyes barely open. He had looked like he was dead. “I worried that, if he kept refusing to go back into the water, he would starve—and I was right! When I got him a fish from the market the next morning, he chomped down on it like he hadn’t eaten in days!”  

“How often do you go to the inlet?” Void asked calmly, like Mumbo’s little emotional outbreak meant nothing to him. 

Mumbo took a deep breath. “Once, twice a week, maybe?” 

“Okay.” Void said. 

“What’s your word here, X,” Pearl asked. 

“It’s definitely worth checking out.” Void said and stood, snatching a pair of jingling keys from a cupboard under the desk. “I’ll get everything ready. And one of you call Gem.” he stood. “Tell her she gets to drive.” Then, just like that, he left through a door in the right wall, one Mumbo hadn’t even noticed before. 

“We don’t need to tell Gemstone she gets to drive for her to want to come with…” Skizz muttered as Pearl tipped something into her communicator. 

“Wait, what’s happening?” Mumbo asked, confused as he looked after Void. 

“We’re getting your Mer buddy.” Skizz said. 

“Really?” Mumbo couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You actually believe me?” 

“What does it look like, fivehead.” Pearl threw a snarl in his direction. He shrunk back into his chair. “Get up, we’re going.” 

Three minutes later found them in the driveway again, in front of one of the big Sprinter , waiting for-

Mumbo didn’t know what. He stood with Skizz, the man’s hands relaxed in his pants pockets and his fiddling nervously before his chest. Pearl stood a few feet away, absently tipping something into her phone. She still stood firm, legs apart, tense like a spring, ready to jump at any moment. 

Mumbo heard the front doors swing open and saw a young-looking woman running over the gravel to them. Her curly hair was orange like the sunsets over the ocean horizon. She was still halfway through throwing on a soft looking, dark blue jacket as she came to stop shortly before them. 

“We’re going out?” She asked with a cheering voice and a big grin before noticing him. “Oh,” her wide eyes curled into something curious. “Who are you? You’re the code blue, aren’t you?” 

“Yes.” Pearl said behind him before he could ask what she was talking about. “He has a possibly injured Mer in his bathtub.” 

“Bathtub?!” Gem asked and tilted her head like a curious cat, still staring at him with wide, observing eyes. Their shade oddly reminded him of the seaweed growing beyond the clam reef. “We hadn’t had that one yet.” 

“It’s a long story.” Skizz said. “We’ll tell you on the way. Now get in the car. X is ready.” 

“Alright,” she chirped and danced around the van to the driver’s door. 

Skizz pointed him to the door behind the passenger seat. Without a word, Mumbo climbed up into the Sprinter and put on the seatbelt. Then he sat stiffly as Skizz climbed into the seat next to him and Pearl took the passenger seat. There was no more space. Void must be in the back then, Mumbo assumed. Gem started the motor, and they waited for the gate to open before they drove out onto the endless gravel road. Mumbo found it a bit hard to believe that she had been excited to drive this monotone route. 

“So,” Gem started when they started getting used to the soft bumps on the road and the humming of the motor. “What’s your name?” 

“I’m Mumbo.” He said in a soft voice. He was less stressed than before, he realised. Even though he didn’t know why. He let out a breath. “I’m from Boatem.” 

“Cool!” She grinned. “And how did you end up with a Mer?” 

And as Pearl and Skizz retold what he had told them, as the rumbling of the motor turned into background noise, Mumbo closed his eyes and just tried to breathe.

The four-hour drive on his bike turned out to be only a bit more than one and a half by van. Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough for Mumbo to finally get a car of his own, but it was enough to better get to know the others. 

Pearl, the woman with the stoic manner like a wolf that he met at the gate, was still the unmovable expression she always seemed to have, only softened up by her orange haired friend, who was a volcano of joy. Gem bickered and joked and laughed to the point Mumbo sometimes doubted she drove as safe as her friends reassured. And Skizz, who Mumbo felt was trying to appear as stoic as Pearl, but whose voice turned almost squeaky when teased. Mumbo found himself smiling along with their banter. 

Mumbo missed the trees when they entered the concrete ravine that was the new centre of Boatem. But soon enough, they pulled up into the Boatem University Campus on the steep cliffs and Mumbo led Gem around the last few corners until they arrived at a small apartment complex close to the shore. 

“This where you live?” Gem asked as she pulled the brake taunt. “Where are all the other students?” 

“Oh, it’s the holidays. Most of them are at the beaches or with their families.” Mumbo answered. 

“Huh. Well, makes our job easier.” And she opened the door and got out of the car. 

Pearl and Skizz and Mumbo did too, and then they stood in the parking lot, all of their eyes on Mumbo. After a few seconds of silence, Gem clapped her hands. “Well? Where’s the Mer?” 

Mumbo broke out of his stupor. Of course. “Right, right? Uh- just along here.” He stumbled over his words and led them to the blocky, eighties style residential neighbourhoods. House three was the one with his small flat on the bottom, which had a back door leading out to the cliffs. The entire campus was built on them. They could hear the waves breaking in the distance and the familiar sting of salt in their noses. 

“Pretty.” Pearl acknowledged. Skizz rolled his eyes. Gem giggled. 

“Yeah, I can fool myself too.” Mumbo scoffed. The building really needed a fresh coat of paint. Mumbo opened the front and went down the dim hallway until he reached his door. He turned the key. The lock clicked. He led them inside. 

“Now this is more pretty,” Skizz nodded as he looked around his room. 

“Pretti er .” Gem corrected. 

“Shut up.” 

The ghost of a smile hushed over his face at the banter behind them. He refused to look around himself, lest he get upset and embarrassed by how chaotic everything really was. The small kitchen. The IKEA shelf with various ocean-related items. The books stored messily on the softwood desk by the window. 

He felt his tense muscles relax. This was home. This was familiar. But he sobered up pretty quick as his gaze landed on the white door in the back. The bathroom. 

“Here.” He said and pulled their attention back onto him. “He’s in here.” 

And he opened the door. 

His bathroom was by all means small. Two by four square meters. Sink on the side and bathtub in the back, taking up half the space. And there, laying in the water, red and brown tail hanging limply over the side, was the Mer. 

Light brown hair tousled and for once dry, beady black eyes concentrated on the rubiks cube it fiddled in his claws, the one Mumbo had shown him this morning. The Mer heard the door open and looked up, eyes going wide and the fins on his head quivered, chirping that high note he always made when he saw Mumbo. Almost excitedly, it pushed itself up and held out the cube in his direction, showing off the red side it had managed to solve. 

Mumbo smiled and crouched down. “Hey buddy. Already figured that out?” The Mer was smart. Mumbo had learned so very early on in their relationship. 

Behind him, he heard the door squeak on its hinges, and he saw the way the Mer’s eyes went comedically wide as he looked past him. Then, the fins on the side of his head pressed back flat. It sunk back into the water until only his eyes were peeking over the edge of the tub. 

“Would you look at that.” He heard Pearl smug behind him. “Could’ve fooled me.” 

“Is he there?” He heard Gem say, then gasp as she wiggled herself past Pearl. “It is a reef Mer. X was right. Hi there, your tail is beautiful!” 

Pearl playfully shoved Gem back out the too small room. Then, to Mumbo’s utter confusion, she chirped. 

It was stuttered in a weird pitch and so distinguishably not human that it had Mumbo turn around in surprise. The Mer, who had switched between looking up at Mumbo and the others, also perked up. 

Pearl made that weird chirping noise again, stepping closer. The Mer built up a low rattle in his throat. 

Now, Mumbo knew nothing about Mer. But in his time in the inlet, he had heard that sound only a few times, and two of those were connected with him almost getting drowned. 

“Uh- I don’t- I don’t think he likes whatever you’re doing-”

“Hush,” she didn’t even look at him. Instead, she started her own rumble, a lot softer. 

If she was trying to console the Mer, it didn’t work. The Mer pushed himself up on the edge of the tub and leaned over it, putting himself in between Mumbo and Pearl as best as he could, and kept rattling, ears still pinned back flat.  

“Pearl.” out of nowhere, a distorted voice came from the door. There stood Void, one hand on the wood, framed by the light behind him. “He’s wild, he doesn’t understand. Let me speak to him.” 

Pearl sighed. “Figured as much.” She stepped back. “Was worth a shot, tho.” 

The Mer’s rattle didn’t calm, wide eyes darting around the room as Void and Pearl swiftly switched places. 

“Young reef Mer. Probably about twenty. No visible injuries, but no tail movement.” She said like she was a doctor reading a patient’s file. Void hummed. “He’s fiery, tho.” she continued. “And…protective.”

Void looked at Mumbo. The Mer tried to lean out even further, shielding Mumbo from view. Mumbo met Void’s eyes. His breath hitched. 

“Mumbo,” Void said calmly, crouching down till he was on eye level with the Mer. “Could you step out for a second?” 

Mumbo blinked, stuttered, but decided not to argue. But as he straightened himself, the Mer whirled around and grasped onto him, a shrill call leaving him. As his claws dug into his shirt, the Mer lost balance and was only saved from hitting his head into the tiles from Mumbo rushing to catch him. 

“Buddy!” Mumbo gently lowered him to the ground. The Mer pulled himself up until his tail slumped to the floor next to him. 

Then, out of nowhere, a soft humming filled the air. Before Mumbo could understand, the Mer’s eyes shot open and locked onto Void. Void, who was insistently staring back, moved to sit too, and changed the melody until the fins on the Mer’s ears started fluttering. It was like Void had him hypnotised. 

“Can you try to get out now?” 

Mumbo stood hesitantly, mouth a thin line, but the Mer didn’t react, eyes still on Void. Mumbo let out a breath and slowly backed out the door, watching as Void once again shifted his pitch. 

As Mumbo came out of the bathroom, his eyes fell on Pearl. She stood further into the room, close to the dusted window he should have cleaned weeks ago. She stood facing his shelf, hand raised and eyes fascinated. 

“Hey.” He called out to her and walked the few steps over. “Please be careful. Those are pretty fragile.” And he carefully reached out to take a round shell out of her hand and put it back on the small yellow towel on the board. 

Pearl held her hands up in defence, but her tone was soft and honest. “I’m sorry. I was careful.” She watched him arrange the shell with care. “Do you know what that is?” She asked. 

“It’s a sundial shell. Native here in the clam reef.” 

“So you do know.” She said. Her eyes were unmistakably curious. “So you must also know that they aren’t exactly common to come by. How did you get this?”

“The Mer gifted it to me,” Mumbo said. He watched her eyes widen for just a second before she schooled them back into her stern self. 

“The Mer?” she asked. He nodded. She almost looked like she didn’t believe him. “Did he gift you anything else?”

“A few things” The sundial shell wasn’t the only thing carefully displayed on the towel.

“Really?” She wouldn’t stop looking at him. “Interesting.”

Before he could ask what she was on about, Void leaned out of the bathroom door. “Skizz, could you help me move him?”

“Yep!” 

Gem came over to them. “Let’s go back to the van! They’ll be done soon.” 

“What are they doing?” Mumbo asked as he followed the two girls back out onto the asphalt. 

Gem pulled out the car keys. “Void just talked to him-”

“T- talk?!”

“And decided that we’re gon-”

“No- no, you don’t get to just gloss over that!” Mumbo exclaimed. “What do you mean, talk?”

“What do you think it means.” Gem deadpanned. “He talked to him.”

“He can do that?”  

“Pearl can too, just not as fluently.” The car blinked its lights as Gem opened it. 

“Did you think he couldn’t talk?” Pearl chimed in. 

“He never did!” 

“Not in English!”

Mumbo got into the van after Pearl.  

“Don’t worry about it.” Gem said and pulled out her phone. “Their language is very different from ours.” 

Mumbo watched as she leaned back and put her feet up on the dashboard, which got her a whack to the shin from Pearl. The bodyguard pointed an accusing finger to her dirty boots. Gem stuck out her tongue. 

It took a few minutes before the closing of the back doors shook the car and Skizz climbed into the seat next to him. He seemed oddly tense. “Let’s go Gem.” And they were off. 

Compared to the way here, Mumbo couldn’t point to what it was, but something seemed…off. A few minutes into the drive, the whole car fell silent. Mumbo tried to get a conversation going, but all of them seemed weirdly concentrated. 

And as he looked at Gem, he saw her emerald eyes concentrated on the rearview mirror. Her brows furrowed. She opened the window and turned her head outside to look back, one hand on the steering wheel keeping the transporter steady. “Pearl,” she stated curtly. She leaned back inside and closed the window. “They’re here.” 

“Who?” Mumbo asked at the same time as Pearl said; “Already?” 

Mumbo tried to look back through the window but saw nothing besides the busy evening traffic. 

“Skizz, you know your part. Mumbo, I suggest you tighten that seatbelt of yours and Gem,” she said. The young girl had a grin on her face that scared Mumbo. “You better push that gas pedal through the engine block.” 

The motor screamed out. Mumbo was pressed back into the seat. 

“Woah, woah. What is going on?!” Mumbo shouted over the engine. His hands dug into the soft seat as he tried to push himself back into a decent sitting position. Gem turned the car around a corner and threw him off balance again. “What’s happening?” 

That moment, Skizz pulled his gun out his jacket and leaned out the window. The sudden bang of a bullet being fired felt like an earthquake. Mumbo flinched hard. 

“We’re being chased.” Gem shortly said over his panic. Like that would calm him down. Like that would explain everything. 

“What?!” 

“Black SUV . ‘bout two hundred meters behind us,” Pearl said. Mumbo watched in horror as she clipped a magazine to her own pistol. She let the window down. 

Mumbo shrunk back into his seat as the wind pressed through the open window and into his face. “Who?” he yelled. “Why?” 

Gem shook her head, hands tight around the wheel. “Bad people,” she said so quietly that Mumbo barely understood her. “Just- bad people.” She took a deep breath. Then, to his confusion in this absurd situation, she started to smile . “They deserve everything that’s gonna come their way.” And like that, her cheerful self was back as she grinned something dangerous, cut a corner and dashed into a one-way road. 

Honking cars raced past them. 

Mumbo decided to not look out the front anymore. 

“Just keep your head down.” Skizz said, who had leaned back into the car. “Gem’ll take care of it.” 

“Gem?” he asked, confused, an almost delusional sounding squeak to his voice. “Aren’t you two the one shooting them?”

“We’re not trying to kill them!” Skizz said like he wasn’t pulling out a new magazine. 

“Why do you think not a single one of our bullets hit?” Pearl asked, like he had an idea. 

“I didn’t know you hit nothing? Maybe you’re not good at shooting?!” He yelled over the squeaking of tires as Gem chased the wagon around a corner. Mumbo could swear that for a second, only two wheels had ground contact. But before he could voice his fear in a manly scream, his eyes met Pearl’s, and the most offended expression he had ever seen. 

Pearl still had one hand holding herself up by the handle above the window, but the one holding the gun dangled limply at her side. She stared at him. For the first time since he met her, he saw her speechless. 

“Pearl, if you’re not shooting, put your seatbelt on.” Gem said so nonchalantly that it broke both of them out of their stupor. Pearl bared her teeth at her friend before leaning back out the window. 

“We’re not trying to lose them.” Skizz explained. He clipped the new magazine to his pistol. His face was concentrated and calculating. 

“We’re just distraction!” Gem exclaimed happily as she adjusted the rearview mirror. Mumbo wasn’t even sure if she saw anything in that thing. 

“Distraction for what?”  

“For X and your friend to get back to the facility safely.” Gem hummed.

“But they’re in the back!” 

“No, they’re not.” Gem giggled and rhythmically tapped her fingers on the leather of the steering wheel like she was driving a casual road trip. She hummed. “You guys wanna listen to some music?” The car barely missed a trash can on the side of the road. 

“I am actually going to shoot the consol if you turn the radio on.” Skizz growled. His black hair was completely dishevelled from the wind. 

Gem pouted. “X won’t like that.” She said. 

“X likes nothing about this,” Pearl cut in. “Now focus on the road. I don’t want a repeat of last time.” 

“What happened last time?” Mumbo’s voice squeakily asked from where he was sitting, crouched in on himself behind Pearl’s chair. No one answered. “Wait,” he noticed. “Then who’s inside the trunk?” 

“No one. Empty space.” Gem answered. She overtook a car on the left. Mumbo remembered he had decided to not stare out the front for a reason. 

“But where is the Mer, then? And X?” 

Pearl had swung back inside and sat in her seat, hastily checking something on a black phone. “Currently on a boat heading down the east coast.” She answered him. 

“How!?” Mumbo yelled. He jumped a bit at how loud his voice was. 

“Your dorm was close to the shore. It was simpler and safer than using a second sprinter.”   

“You see what’s going on here,” Skizz said next to him. He also sat back in his seat, facing Mumbo. “These guys,” and he gestured his gun behind them. “They’re after your buddy. They know that where we are, there are usually Mer. They’re not gonna pass up that opportunity.” 

“Transportation by boat is the safest! They can’t follow that!” Gem said. 

Pearl looked up in the side mirror. “They have been following us since we got out of the forest. They were probably on alert the second you came close to the facility. They usually have someone lurking around there, trying to spy. What do you think those fences are for?” 

Gem turned around in her seat to look at him. “We’re just stalling ‘till the police show up.” She said, smiling from ear to ear. 

“Put your eyes on the road!” Mumbo shrieked. 

Gem casually turned back around. “How is that going, by the way, Pearl?” She asked, like nothing happened. The car jumped over a bump in the concrete. 

“The police have trouble locating us.” Pearl frowned at her phone.

“Gem, they are catching up.” Skizz informed, again leaning out the window. 

Mumbo looked into the rearview mirror to see Gem’s furrowed eyes dart around in annoyance. “Change of course!” The girl simply announced before she pulled the steering wheel around so hard that Mumbo’s seatbelt was the only thing stopping him from hitting his head through the window. 

“Ow…” he muttered and rubbed the spot where the black leather had dug into his neck. 

“A little heads up next time.” Said Skizz, who had barely moved. He leaned back inside as Gem squeezed the van through a small gap between two buildings. For a second, Mumbo only saw grey flying past the window as the sun vanished. Then, the van ran up a ramp and hopped as it reached the top. 

The road was now a huge platform of concrete spanning farther than Mumbo could see, colourful crates in the rearview mirror and the grey water of the harbor over to the side.

In the distance, he could see the gigantic red industrial cranes of the container port. 

“The dock?! Again? Gem, I said I didn’t want a repeat of last time.” Pearl yelled. “ The police might be on our side, but they might actually snap if they have to pull another car out the Harbor.” 

“Calm down.” Gem gritted out. “I’ve learned since then.” 

“Literally how?!” Pearl complained. She now sat far back in her seat, holding onto the side of the door, visibly more nervous than before. “You still don’t want to do the praxis courses. Did you spin doughnuts in the driveway?” 

Gem actually scowled this time. “I’m the best driver on the team and you know that.”

“Wait, you don’t have a license??” Mumbo screeched. 

“Gemstone here can drive like the devil.” Skizz said way too calmly. Mumbo whipped his head over to him. “Just not…” He shrugged. “…legally.” 

“How can you be so normal about that?!” 

“Cause,” Gem said and suddenly hit the brake, changed gear, “It.” and violently pulled at the wheel until the van was drifting a full 180. “Doesn’t.” Then she pressed the gas to the floor again. “Matter.” 

Mumbo felt his heart rate spike as the speedometer did. His hands gripped his seat like it would protect him. He stared out the limited view he had of the front as Gem, without faltering, aimed the van directly back at the black SUV that was heading straight for them.  

Mumbo’s eyes went impossibly wide. 

“Gem.” Pearl said. The SUV got closer.  

Mumbo saw the brownish black water of the harbor next to them. 

“Gem!” Pearl said more insistently. Mumbo saw her knuckles whiten around the Glock.

The world whipped past the windows. Gem held the van straight without faltering. Mumbo made eye contact with the driver of the car in front of them. 

“Gem!” Pearl yelled. The SUV was only a few meters away. Mumbo could read its number plate. His lung had gone stiff long ago. He pressed himself back into his seat. The motor reared up one final time and then-

The driver of the SUV yanked his steering wheel around moments before collision. They grazed his taillight, and the van lurched to the right. Gem reflexively turned the wheel and brought them back on a straight path with squeaking tires. 

A loud crash behind them knocked Mumbo out of his rigid stare and he turned to lock back out the window to see the back of the SUV flying through the air. It followed a noise that a car should never make, but it was already out of his vision. He gulped and squeezed his eyes shut. 

“Wussy.” Gem gritted out. 

“What now?! ” Pearl yelled.

“Not you!”

At that moment, the loud scream of the police siren cut through the air like lightning. In the side mirror, Mumbo saw three cars in military blue race up the ramp they had taken only minutes before. “About time.” Skizz murmured next to him. 

Gem still made no signs of slowing down, turning the van and racing down an alley, forcing herself between the cars of the main street. 

She drove the car, and they were dead silent. Just the screaming of the motor in their lives. They drove through the streets, finally back to a normal driving experience. It took over ten minutes for Pearl to break the silence. 

She held her forehead on her hand on the thin windowsill, mouth parted and still eyes wide, looking at something that wasn’t there. “X-…” she started before breaking off in an exhale that sounded a lot more like a wheeze . “X- he’s gonna-. He’s gonna ground you so hard . You’re not gonna get out that building for a month! He’s not gonna let you near the vans ever again.” She panted. 

“Is that what’s gonna happen or is that what you wish will happen?” Gem asked deadpan back. She turned and stopped at a traffic light. “What does Doc always say?- Was X nicht weiß macht ihn nicht heiß?”

“He’s going to know—you know that,” Skizz said next to him, clenched jaw audible in his strained voice. “He probably already knows. That man is mad when it comes to knowing about things.” The giant ran a hand down his face. Mumbo realised that it was the first time he had seen him losing his composure. It was unnerving. “Your German accent is terrible, by the way.”

“Thanks.” And the car was moving again. 

Ten minutes later still had them tense. “What happens now?” He dared to shakily ask into the silence. 

Pearl sighed and sunk a bit into her chair. “We’re going back home. Take care of your friend.” She shrugged. “We’ll see from there.” And that was that. 

Mumbo watched the sun sink between the passing buildings. Before long, it was trees passing by and gravel under their tires. It was silent in the car. The shock and fear still lingered in the air. Mumbo could see it in the stiffness of the others. He sighed and leaned against the window.

Somewhere on the way to the forest road, Mumbo remembered to unclasp his hands from his seat. They were a ghostly shade of white. 

“Should I drive?” Pearl asked Gem quietly into the silence, looking over at her friend. Gem smiled and shook her head. 

Gripping the wheel tighter, she whispered; “I got it.” 

“You’re shivering.”

Mumbo looked up. It was true. As the young woman took one hand off the wheel to hold it in front of her, it shivered so strongly she immediately balled it into a fist to hide it. She put her hand back on the wheel. Pearl looked at her. I told you so , her eyes seemed to say. 

Gem sighed, and then the sprinter slowly came to a halt. Gem loosened her seatbelt. Pearl had already done so. The two awkwardly clambered around each other until Pearl took over the steering wheel and Gem sunk into the passenger seat. She kicked off her boots into the footwell and pulled her knees up to her chest. The car started moving again, crunching over the gravel.

“Promise me you’ll go to Cleo once we get back?” Pearl glanced over to Gem. 

“It’s just adrenaline.” She defended. “It’ll be fine by the time we’re back.” She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the window. Pearl wordlessly took off her jacket and held it out to her. Gem balled it together. A makeshift pillow. She leaned back against the window. 

“You can try to get some shuteye as well, buddy.” Skizz’s sudden voice made him jump. He looked at the taller. “It’ll take at least an hour ‘till we’re back.” 

Mumbo shook his head. “It amazes me she can sleep after all that.” He said. Like a lever had been switched, Gem was now completely slumped against the side of the door, eyes closed, stray strands of sunset orange trying to hide her face. 

“She goes a bit crazy every time she’s on an adrenaline rush.” Skizz said and Mumbo remembered her manic smile as she chased the Sprinter through the streets. 

“You make it sound like it’s a drug to her.”

“It might as well be,” Skizz shrugged with a fond smile. “When she crashes, she crashes hard .” 

Mumbo looked over the backrest to see Gem passed out against the window, Pearl’s jacket squished between her head and the plexiglass. 

“Let’s see if I can wake her up later.” The tall man said and pulled out his phone. Mumbo leaned back in his seat and looked back out the window. 

Time passed like the trees of the forest behind the window. By the time they pulled up into the parking lot and the gate rattled close behind them, the sun was low behind the horizon.

Without a word, Skizz opened the door and stepped out, walking around the car until he was at Gem‘s door. Mumbo watched as he silently opened the door and shook her shoulder. Gem stirred. The two exchanged words so silent Mumbo could not understand. Gem nodded, then shifted and slid out of her seat until her feet touched gravel. When she stood, she leaned into Skizz‘ side. He had an arm around her back as he led her back to the big building. 

Not knowing what to do with himself, Mumbo got out of the car as well. His boots crunched on the gravel like the tires did. Now he stood there, unsure, hands fiddling by his chest. He looked to the gate in the dim twilight. From here, he couldn’t see his old bike by the big trees, no matter how hard he tried to peek between the fence. 

He sighed and turned his head. His eyes fell on a bullet halfway wedged into the side of the car. His eyes went wide and his heart sped up again, if thankfully not as fast as then. At least now I know where those scratches came from. He thought to himself and looked at the other Sprinter parked on the yard. 

The hand suddenly clasped on his shoulder made him jump so bad he almost squealed. Pearl shoved him towards the facility, though much more gently than in the morning. A light push, more encouraging than forceful. Like a friendly pat on the shoulder. If he wanted, he could stand against it. 

“Come on.” She said and walked past him. She pulled her phone out as she walked, the ghostly light illuminating her in the almost darkness, checking something before putting it away again. Mumbo stumbled to follow her. “I’ll show you where you can sleep.” 

As they walked through the glass doors, a man Mumbo hadn’t seen before came up to them in fast, hasting steps. He was slightly crouched over, skittish almost, yet incredibly confident. 

“Pearl-“ 

“In a minute, Joe. Meet me at the pool?” Pearl interrupted him, the ghost of a smile on her face. Mumbo blinked and the man was gone. “Down here” she told him, leading him to a pair of stairs. 

They went down one level. She led him along many doors before stopping at a seemingly random one further in the back. She pulled out a key, inspected it for a second, then unlocked the door. While she fiddled with the keys he looked over the railing to their right, down to the water at the bottom that had already fascinated him before. From there, he had a beautiful view out the enormous window over the cliffs, a small inlet at the bottom and all the way to the horizon where the ocean swallowed the last colours of the day. 

Now, actually able to see, the floor of water he had assumed to be at the bottom of the building turned out to be pool-like structures. Like a spa, pools were scattered around, bordered by pathways and crossed by little bridges. The biggest one was right up by the window, so deep that Mumbo couldn’t see the bottom. The last dark orange light let the water glimmer like gemstones.  

“Don’t fall over,” he heard Pearl’s voice chuckling behind him. She sounded so much softer when she wasn’t in bodyguard-mode, Mumbo realised. 

“What is this place?” he asked, baffled. Pearl came up to the railing next to him.

“This?” she asked. “This is the… marine research facility for… paranormal sea creatures.” she smiled at him. She dropped the keys in his hand. “It’s home.” she simply said like, for her, it was the most normal thing in the world. 

She stepped back. “Go on.” she waved for him to enter. He did. “Breakfast is tomorrow at 7:30 am.” Then she closed the door, leaving Mumbo alone.