Take A Dive [AquagirlxAqualad]

~1~

Oh shiz I just realized I haven't seen season one in forever and my dialogue is totally gonna be off.

Beneath a dark, cloudy sky, a small fishing rig bobbed up and down on the midnight waves.

"Quit acting nervous!" Charley snapped at his companion.

"I think I just saw somethin' in the water," Nate stammered, pointing at the black waters.

"It's the ocean," Charley deadpanned, "It's full of somethings."

"Somethin' big!" Nate squeaked, trying- and failing- to defend his fear.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of a shark," Charley grinned as he killed the engines, "You've been on the water for twenty years, you know they can't get you if you're on the boat."

"Maybe not, but what 'bout Aquaman?" Nate reminded him.

"What about him? He's on the East Coast, even if he can swim fast, he'll never get here in time." Charley let them coast for a while, making sure that no one had followed them.

"I dunno," Nate gulped audibly, "Summa the fellows at the pub said that they...see things."

Charley gripped the collar of Nate's vest, pulling him close.

"I don't care what a couple 'a superstitious babies to drunk to count to ten have to say about a mythical king from a magical world. Word on the market is that people are paying ten-K a head for a baby sea turtle. Now, tonight's the full moon, which means that these waters'll be swarmin' with them any second now, and that's money only a fool'll be able to pass up. So cast the nets, and get me ten thousand turtles, for ten thousand each!" He snarled, shoving his partner to the floor of the algae-infested ship.

Nate didn't hesitate to snatch up a hastily-repaired net and toss it over the side. He didn't dare ask what Charley would do if their nets didn't catch any baby sea turtles. He may very well find out in a few hours if he didn't do his job.

Now Nate was too worried about Charley to realize that what he had noticed before was still there, waiting among the rocks, circling the boat.

Shortly after midnight, the beach errupted.

Sand shifted this way and that as freshly hatched baby sea turtles dug their way to the surface, scrambling towards the full moon hazily reflected on the welcoming waves.

On the beach, Jackson and Maria waved off the crabs and birds that lay in wait.

"Come on little guys," Jackson tossed his dreads from his face as he urged them forward.

Maria waved a palm branch at a diving seagull and kicked a crab back towards the trees. "Not today, you little demons," she snarled.

Jackson stood ankle-deep in the waves, holding a tiny sea turtle in his hands. It was missing a flipper.

"You think she can stop them?" He asked Maria.

Maria snorted in a manner most unladylike. "Have you met her? Just watch. They're gonna regret ever stepping on a boat."

"There they are," Charley grinned, yellowish and missing a tooth or two. He could see the ridiculous creatures breaching and sinking again.

"Get ready," he motioned for his partner.

At that moment, something tugged on the net.

"Got somethin'!" Nate shouted.

Charley hushed him. "Well pull it up you thumping idiot!"

With great effort, Nate managed to drag the net and its haul up onto the deck. Charley stumbled down the set of three stairs that separated the upper steering deck with the lower deck.

"How many? How many?" He demanded, snatching the net from Nate in an effort to open it himself.

The net fell away, and a rock-solid fist connected with Charley's lower jaw, loosening a few more teeth.

"Just one," The young woman tangled up in the net glared at Charley in disgust, wiping her fist on the leg of her suit, blue and purple with silver accents. She stood up, taking in the unkept ship, and Nate, shivering against the bow.

"Don't eat me!" He blurted out, frozen in fear.

"Oh, were you guys gonna give that offer to the sea turtles you were gonna catch?" She frowned, kicking the gun from his fist and into the water when Nate tried to draw it on her.

She rummaged through the pockets of Charley's coat, before producing the ad printed off the net. She tucked it into a waterproof pouch on her belt.

She stomped her bare foot through the soggy wood, sending splinters flying, and producing a large, nigh irreparable hole in the bottom of the fishing trawl. She grabbed both men by the collar and hoisted them up

"Take a deep breath, buddy," she gave Nate a split second of warning before leaping over the side of the ship, leaving the boat to its watery grave.

"Itsa mermaid!" Nate tried to tell the cops who tried to haul them off. Apparently an anonymous tip called in two men hung up on the one working lamppost in the bay shopping area, and they were immediately recognized as the wannabe criminals Charley Trenton and Nate Guinness, his henchman.

"Shut up!" Charley mumbled best he could, nursing his throbbing jaw while Nate continued to ramble about the mythological creature that had stopped them.

"What do you think?" Officer Diaz asked her partner. "Is Aquaman moving out here now?"

"Can't say," Officer Holt shook his head, staring into the darkness, "Though at the rate these heroes are multiplying, he may have gotten a new sidekick."

Jackson couldn't stop grinning as they watched the police cruiser drive off from the top of the hill overlooking the beach, and the rundown Bay Mall.

"That was amazing," he said, stroking the shell of the injured baby turtle.

"I haven't had an adrenaline rush like this since my first job interview." Maria turned to the third member of their motly crew.

Dripping wet and seething with righteous anger, Lorena Marquez joined her two best friends on the peak of the hill.

She patted the head of the turtle in Jackson's hand, and it affectionately nipped at her finger. They would take her to Lorena's mom, she was a biologist, and she'd know how to best help this one thrive in the wild.

"I told you guys. Why else do you think I do this?"

"Have you talked to Aquaman about what you're doing?" Jackson asked.

Lorena shook her head. "Not yet. I think I can get Queen Mera on my side, though, and she's got Orin wrapped around her little finger."

"I hope so," Jackson said earnestly, "because I really think it's time that the world met Aquagirl."