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Keith’s thoughts narrowed as soon as he and Orion were pulled out of the water—he had to keep Orion safe and out of the clutches of humans. Could he drop Orion over the side of the boat and get him into the safety of the ocean? Bad plan, Orion couldn’t swim well and the humans might catch him again. Lance would, hopefully, be making himself scarce so that neither he nor Kass was endangered.
The netting scratched at his sides and pulled his left arm at an unfortunate angle. Any more pressure and it might break. With his right arm he kept Orion pressed against his chest and he did his best to completely curl around the guppy and keep him away not only from the nets that would rip off scales, but the eyes of the humans.
A human said something, unintelligible to Keith. All he knew was that suddenly they were moving closer, pointing with their finger at Orion. He curled tighter around his son, tail coming up as much as it could in their restraints. He hissed at the human, baring all his sharp teeth. If he weren’t using the majority of his body to cover Orion he would have released his spikes as well, but he wouldn’t risk nicking Orion on accident.
The humans ignored Keith’s obvious threats and got closer, glee seemingly present in their voices. They kept talking but Keith turned his attention to his son, who was whimpering in his arms and holding tightly.
Every little whimper was like a dagger to Keith’s heart. Even so he couldn’t lie to the guppy and console him with kind words of ‘it’ll be okay, we’ll get out of this’ because he didn’t know if they would get out of this.
The humans kept talking. One came at Keith with some sort of needle. It didn’t look natural and he didn’t want to let it get anywhere near him.
Keith twisted, hissing at the human with the needle. Orion was jostled in his arms. The human said something and then plunged it into the fleshy part of Keith’s arm, though not without a struggle from the red mer who yanked his arm back, accidentally slicing Orion across the back with one of his nails.
More worried about the guppy he immediately started checking the injury. <I’m sorry> he clicked at the guppy who nuzzled closer to Keith, pushing himself further into his father the closer the humans got to them. It was a shallow cut and barely bleeding; he felt bad about it but it wouldn’t threaten Orion’s life worse in the present situation.
Keith sent his best glare at the humans who were standing in front of him and watching. Something felt like it was dragging at his attention, though, and he realized in that moment what might have been in the needle—something to knock him out so that they could take Orion.
<Hold on tight> Keith told the guppy who just whined in confusion and fear. <Tightly.>
Orion got the idea and dug his little claws into the fleshy part of Keith’s stomach and chest. Keith had one go of this, he already felt his consciousness fading. He twisted quickly, the humans chattering at his movements. And pushed Orion as far beneath him as he could before releasing all his spikes at once.
Spikes, on mers, are not a standard trait, but Keith was part lionfish, and his spikes not only hid, secretly, underneath his scales, but they were poisonous. When he released his spikes they didn’t do much, if any, damage to the netting, but he did manage to get a few of the humans who had crowded too close for their own benefit.
The humans were raising their voices, some going so far as to shriek. One even thunked to the ground, unconscious, having gotten the full blast of poison straight to his system.
In the panic Keith managed to throw himself and Orion, and the net they were caught in, towards the edge of the boat. Some human grabbed at the end, trying valiantly to pull Keith back on, but they had never really dealt with an angry father before, and nothing was going to keep Keith from getting his son back into the ocean. Using all his weight he threw them overboard, taking the human with them.
Immediately they started sinking. Keith thrashed, trying his hardest to tear the nets, but his movements did little to break apart the bonds and he was quickly growing tired. He needed to keep his head. Orion had stopped whimpering but was still holding tightly to Keith.
When he had first met Lance he had cut Keith out of a similar situation, using his teeth. His teeth! Keith bit into the thread nearest his face and sawed at it; the rope split in half, easily. He kept going biting his way through to make a hole big enough for Orion.
Which, Orion saw what he was doing, and started biting at the ropes himself, doing less damage as his teeth were still growing in, but still doing some.
There were two problems: they were sinking, fast, to the bottom of the ocean in an area they were unfamiliar with, and Keith was having trouble staying awake. Whatever the humans had injected him with was working fast. He could only hope that he would wake up again, once he fell asleep.
At least the humans were distracted, both with the poison and with trying to save their crew member who Keith had taken overboard with them.
By the time the two mers got to the ocean floor, which was soft and sandy—good for bubble farms, Keith thought deliriously—there was a big enough hole torn that he was able to scoop Orion out of the net and push him out. Keith was still tangled, not able to use his tail or other fins; his spikes, which were still in their released form, had tangled him tighter in the netting as there was more to grab onto.
Orion was able to swim a little and he started to take off towards a large grove of kelp that could hide and protect them, but he realized that his father wasn’t following him and stopped. He’d only gotten a few feet away with his little tail, but he was able, with his arms wheeling about him, to turn back towards Keith.
Keith looked bad and fear seized Orion’s heart. His father’s eyes were half-closed and between the netting he could see spots of red that weren’t scales.
He got close and pulled at Keith’s hand through the net, trying to tug him out. <Dad, come on> he clicked. <Come on!>
But all the response he got was a deep sigh from Keith and then he stopped moving.
<Dad! DAD!> Orion shrieked, tugging hard on Keith’s hand. No movement. He pushed himself closer to Keith’s face and saw that his gills were still working, he was still breathing. He pressed his hand against Keith’s neck and felt the pulse there, too. <Wake up, wake up, wake up…> But to no avail.
Orion may not know what exactly had happened but he knew that his father needed protection and he knew that he was the only one around who could protect him. So he set himself between his father and the wide ocean and, keeping his ears open for anyone or anything that might come by, he went back to biting at the ropes to free Keith.