H20: Youngest Mermaid

Crimes Committed on the Waves

We were all at Cleo's house comforting her after one of her fish, Pluto, died. Rikki was ruining the moment and came back trying to make it better bringing Cleo a new fish, not knowing that she collected saltwater fish rather than freshwater fish.

I left with Rikki to go swimming to catch Cleo a new saltwater fish for Cleo. It was a lot of fun, but I stayed longer on the reef to study some of the fish there.

Rikki then took us shopping, but I didn't buy that much unable to find things that fit my style. 

We found out later that Rikki had been providing rare saltwater fish to a guy who used a false name and was illegally selling them off the pier. I followed Rikki out Cleo's door and she said, "Don't follow me, Madds, I have to do this myself."

"Yeah, but I can't sit back and let some guy string along my friend. He needs to learn that you should never mess with a mermaid."

Rikki smiled, "Thanks, now let's go introduce you to Barry."

I smirked evilly, "I'm right behind you."

Once we were down at the docks Rikki threw her new shirt down at him and he smiled, charmingly, "Don't tell me you got more fish already."

I stepped up behind Rikki who accused, "So you can sell them to a pet shop?"

His smile vanished from his face, "Oh, ya figured it out?"

"Did you really think she was that dumb?" I asked, glaring down at him.

He looked at me, "Who's this?"

Without missing a beat Rikki said, "Moral support, but I wouldn't insult her, she's very good and taking down jerks like you."

The guy shifted his eyes to me, "Pleasure to meet you then, and no, I didn't think you were dumb; I just thought I'd spare you the boring business details."

"What, like your a crook?!" Rikki said, raising her voice.

"Hey, you've done alright, a lot better than flipping burgers for a living."

I stepped forward, "What did you just say?"

Rikki held me back and responded, "Oh, so that makes it all right to lie and manipulate me?"

"Aw, sweetheart, I'm not going to increase your cut and that's all there is to it."

"I don't want an increased cut! I don't want anything more to do with you! And I'm not your sweetheart."

He tossed back up Rikki's shirt, saying, "You know that color does suit your eyes." He climbed into the driver's seat of his boat and started it up, "It was good doing business with you. Oh, and nice meeting you too."

After a moment I looked over to Rikki and asked, "Satisfied?"

Her eyes never left his boat and responded, "Not quite, you up for a little more." I nodded and we took off down the pier and dove into the water, following his boat.

We got off and Rikki helped dry my off as we snuck over to the the shed he walked in. Rikki opened the door and we both peeked in to see the guy kiss his rotten girlfriend before two big muscle guys came up from behind us and shoved us down into chairs in front of a desk.

The crook sat down into the chair and propped his feet up asking, "How did you find this place?"

I kept quiet, looking around the room as Rikki responded, "Followed the smell."

The woman sneered, "Let me deal with her."

I snapped my head back and practically growled, "You touch her and I'll beat you black and blue."

The man soothed the woman and Rikki gripped my arm. "You think this is funny," the man asked. "I've got way too much money invested here to let two dopey kids like you blow it."

The guy asked us a few more questions, trying to get Rikki to reveal where she found the fish. "You know you two are way out of your depth here," the thug said and my eyes landed on the water cooler in the corner of the room.

I nudged Rikki who must have saw it too and smiled smugly for a moment, "You'd be surprised how far out of my depth I'm willing to go." I saw her begin to heat up the water asking, "You guys get accident insurance in your kind of work?"

"What?"

I shrugged, continuing Rikki's distraction plan, "Terrible if, uh, you were to get I don't know, scalded. I'd hope you'd get covered."

I saw all of them get nervous as the pipes in the ceiling began to shake with Rikki increasing the heat pressure. I was smiling innocently, deciding to try affecting the cooler too. With Rikki still heating it I created a whirlpool inside it as the man answered, "It's hard to get insurance in our line of work."

Rikki's smile fell into a fake pout, "Pity, I sense an accident waiting to happen. Don't you think so too," She asked turning to me.

I smiled, "Yeah, like soon."

"Oh yeah, well not to me ladies."

Rikki and I lowered our eyes to glare, "Yes, to you."

Everything popped and Riki and I headed for the exit. We walked calmly after the guy as Rikki asked, "Who was it you were saying was out of their depth?"

"I guess I made a mistake."

I smirked, "Yeah, I guess you made a big one."

One of the guys grabbed Rikki, but water began to rise up around his feet and then it froze, giving me the perfect shot to punch him in the face. Rikki turned to see Emma and Cleo lean in the window. The man fell over and Rikki and I turned to the woman who was holding her hands up in surrender, tip-toeing around us. She bolted when Rikki jerked forward, "Boo."

We figured Emma and Cleo could handle her, while we had a score to settle with the big man. We caught him trying to untie his boat as we walked side by side toward, him as he started to take steps back. "You two, stay away from me!"

We continued our advance as I said, "Finally scared now aren't we?"

"GET BACK!"

He fell into the water and I made some tall waves ride in tossing him around, only to stop after a bit, but Rikki decided he hadn't had enough yet and caused the water to boil around him.

Emma and Cleo came in to talk some sense into her and we all booked it before the police arrived. We ended up having dinner at Cleo's place to celebrate our victory over those thugs. After dinner, Rikki walked me home, "Hey, Madds?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for coming with me today. I couldn't have done that by myself."

I shrugged, "Well I didn't do much, you should be thanking Cleo and Emma rather than me."

"No, I mean it because you were there I was able to be brave and stand up to him. So thank you for having my back."

"Always, Rikki, you know that. See ya tomorrow!"

"Yeah! See ya!