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“See you next season,” Xisuma laughs as he hops up onto the warp pad, the hermits aren’t all set to leave quite yet but a few of them are ready to take off for the Mega hub. The Group consists of Mumbo, Grian, Hypno, Xb, Scar, Keralis and Xisuma.
The transport starts normal, but Midway through it glitches, shuddering and jerking before slowing down. Yelping Grian jumps onto Mumbo’s back.
“Are we stuck?” Mumbo asks softly, as he takes Grian’s arms off his face
Xisuma frowns, “No, we’re still in transport.”
“This isn’t good,” Keralis murmurs. A moment later they black out.
Keralis slowly blinks his eyes open, something is wrong…
“Oh goodness where are we?” Xisuma’s voice gasps, “Keralis?”
“Shishwamy?” Keralis squints, “I don’t think this is good.”
“You’re eyes,” Xisuma gasps as he grabs Keralis’s arm.
Freezing Keralis inhails, “What happened? Everything is super fuzzy.”
“Uhh, they're normal sized…” Xisuma murmurs.
Looking over he spots the five others laying in a heap together. Frowning, Xisuma squints in the sun and reaches up to adjust his helmet. His hand meets his face. His startled yelp draws the others' attention.
“Where are we?” Mumbo asks as he brushes the sand off his shorts.
“Are you guys alright?” Someone asks as he walks up.
“I’m afraid not,” Xisuma murmurs; his admin panels are not opening and he can’t help but feel mentioning it would not end well, “We don’t know where we are or how we got here.”
“Oh, uhh,” The guy frowns, “That’s not good.”
Xisuma nods, “Yeah…”
“You think it was them?” Grian whispers to Scar.
“Hope not.”
“Uh here, there’s a lifeguard over here, he might be able to help,” the guy shrugs.
The seven hermits walk over to the lifeguard, do their best to explain what happened, a severely edited version. They were traveling from their hometown and midway they blacked out and woke up on a beach. Claiming memory loss in places. Wherever they are it’s not home, and they don’t seem to have any non-humans.
The ‘lifeguard’ brings them to; as close as Xisuma can figure, the equivalent of a watcher station. Called a police station. Fascinating.
The locational information they’re given isn’t helpful, They are in someplace called Gold Coast. After a few minutes of questions they are brought down to a hospital to make sure nothing is weird from whatever happened.
For the most part the tests came back normal, aside from some fish like cells found on all but two hermits.
After a few days off processing and testing the hermits are given temporary housing and assistance finding jobs.
Keralis gets a pair of thick glasses. Almost making his eyes look normal.
Once the seven are settled into the small apartment they sit down and look at each other.
Hypno frowns, “So, Uh what now.”
Xisuma shrugs, “We work through this?”
“We’ve dealt with worse,” Xb grins, “No one‘s hunting us this time.”
“That’s a good point,” Mumbo nods.
The Conversation continues for a while, “So,” Xisuma hums, “Beds?”
Scar nods, “We have three?”
“Yep,” Xisuma nods.
One that’s sorted out they look at the stack of papers they were given.
“This place is like a home world,” Scar muses, “but everything is on this one world.”
“Ohh yeah,” Grian gasps.
“Should we go explore?” Xisuma asks.
“I think that’s smart,” Mumbo hums, “Get to know the area.”
“Will you guys be ok?” Keralis asks, “Shishawamy and I are ok but don’t you need water?”
Scar shrugs, “We can last a few weekd, but I don’t know about Mumbo.”
“About two weeks,” He replies.
A few days later everyone is settling down into the new jobs, most have a job at a construction sight, Scar and Keralis got a job in sea world.
As time passes the Mer’s are getting more and more adjitated, their skin is drying out, and they aren’t happy.
“There’s an island,” Xisuma explains, “The locals aviod the place since are area around it have sharks.”
Hypno perks up slightly, “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
I was thinking we rent a boat and go camping for a few days,” Xisuma grins, “Sharks won’t bother you and there shouldn’t be anyone over there.”
“When?” Mumbo asks desperately.
“I could get the boat tonight,” Xisuma grins.
And with that it’s settled. A short boat ride later the hermits are on Mako island. The boat is dragged onto shore and the Mermits jump into the water, Mumbo’s red and black tail flicks in pure bliss as he blows bubbles softly under the water, Xb and Scar curl their tails together and slip fully under the water. Grian swims over to Mumbo and drags him into the sleep pile. Hypno flicks his tail and settles onto a coral ledge, keeping watch.
Smiling at his mermits Xisuma sets to work, he and Keralis pitch the tent and fall asleep soon after.
Keralis wakes up first and cleans his glasses off before heading outside to make breakfast. The sun is high in the sky.
As he putters around a voice from behind him coughs, “You can’t be here.”
“Says who?” Keralis gasps, “We looked it up.”
“Says us,” another girl glares.
“How about introducing yourselfs?”
“I’m Cleo, and this is Emma and Ricky.”
“I’m Keralis,” he grins, “So why can’t we be here?”
“Because…”
Keralis raises his eyebrows, “ No reason then.”
“There’s bad stuff in the water,” Cleo blurts out, “And in the woods, you really shouldn’t be here.”
“Ok, well I don’t believe that, but since you care so much I’ll talk to my friends about going home.”
The three girls seem to take is as an awnser and walk a way.
“What was that about?” Xisuma asks, walking over from where he was watching.
“They want us to leave,” Keralis shrugs.
“Should we?” Xisuma hums.
“I think we’re ok, but we should go home tonight.”
Nodding Xisuma pulls a notepad out, “I’ll write a note, do you want to go hiking?”
“Aww yeah,” Keralis murmurs.
A few hours later the sun has started to set, leaning against what he thought was a wall of vines. Keralis ends up tumbling down as he falls into a small cave.
“Keralis?” Xisuma yelps looking though the vines, “You ok?”
“I’m fine, don’t come down, I don’t think you’ll be able to get back up.”
“What about you?” Xisuma calls.
“There’s a pool of water,” Keralis hums, “Waters flowing so see if someone can find a way in.”
“Ok, stay safe. I’ll be back.”
An hour passes, then another. It’s nearing midnight and still nothing. Keralis looks down at the pool.
Jumping in he takes a deep breath and ducks under the water. Bubbles form all around him as the moon shines into the top of the volcano.
Surfacing he takes a deep breath and swims out, the moment he gets out to the reef a strong pair of arms lift him to the surface, “Hypno,” Xb calls, “help me get him onto the boat.”
The next thing Keralis knows is he’s in a warm bed. Plonking his glasses on he stumbles out and into the kitchen of their apartment.
A dull flapping sound echoes across the apartment.
“Who shifted?” Grian yawns as he stumbles into the kitchen.
“Help,” Keralis gasps, flopping his tail wildly.
Pulling Keralis up onto his legs, Grian gently looks at his tail, “That’s weird.”
“What?”
“Your tail’s gold, and uh from the temporary shifting. You’re not the same fish.”
“Is it always the same?” Keralis asks as he calms down.
“I think that’s a Hypno question?” Grian sighs, “Does it feel the same.”
“Oh my goodness me,” Xisuma exclaims as he spots Keralis laying on the floor, half fish.
“What’s, ohh.”
“Wasn’t me.”
“That’s not good.”
“Oh dear.”
Now with all the hermits in one cramped kitchen Keralis flops his tail on the ground.
“That’s not normal,” Hypno murmurs rubbing the ‘birth mark’ where his fin normally is.
“I can’t turn back…” Keralis gasps.
Dead silence.
“Wait,” Xisuma murmurs, “You’re soaking wet.”
“Dry off first,” Mumbo nods, “That might help.”
“The girls,” Keralis wiggles as Grian and Xb deposit him onto the couch.
“You think they know something?” Xisuma murmurs.
“They wanted us off the island,” Keralis narrows his eyes before gasping, “The brown haird one she works at sea world.”
“You know where she’ll be?”
“Maybe,” Keralis hums, “Try Juice Net Cafe? I heard her say she likes hanging out there.”
“Ok, Grian, come with me, the rest of you. See if you can turn him back.”
The hermits nod, “Open your mouth for me?” Hypno requests.
Keralis does so.
“Hmm, that’s odd,” Hypno mutters, “completely human,” flashing his fangs he checks Keralis’ torso and head for any fins, gills or scales, “You are fully human up top.”
Scratching at a blochly bit of skin Mumbo nods, “Maybe it’ll show up when he’s human.?”
“Maybe, but he doesn’t have anything to blend.”
“Could there be stuff on my legs?”
“Hmm, maybe… Grian has the Vitiligo looking patches all over.”
“Food,” Hypno gasps, “Anything that seems really good?”
“Nothing out of the normal,” Keralis shrugs as he flicks his tail fluke.
A few moments later a very confused, very human Keralis is laying on the couch. Only to have water dumped in his hair. Landing him back on the floor. With a tail, “A little warning next time.”
“Sorry,” Xb murmurs.
Keralis shrinks into himself and huddles into the side of the couch.
“Should we test body language?” Scar asks.
“Like tail cues?” Keralis murmurs.
“Yeah, and sleep piles,” Scar tilts his head, “You seem a bit, aahh.”
Laying down next to him Xb shifts and curls his tail under Keralis, “Yes?”
Shrugging Keralis hums, “Feels nice.”
________
Grian and Xisuma walk into the cafe place and quickly find who their looking for.
“Hello there,” Xisuma grins, “I think you might be able to help a friend of mine.”
“You’re the person camping on Mako,” the blond with braids rolls her eyes.
“That we were,” Xisuma states flatly, “and I noticed you three didn’t have a boat.”
All three suddenly sit up straight.
Grian gives a surprisingly sharp like grin, “So you do you what happens on the island.”
“It was a full moon.”
“Meet us there in a few hours,” Emma nods.
“Will do.”
_______
“Ok, how are we getting there?” Scar asks, “we don’t have a boat.”
Mumbo hums slightly, “Someone could carry X?”
“I don’t think that’ll work,” Xisuma sighs.
“We could just rent one…”
After a moment they shrug and head down to the marina. As they arrive at the island the three girls are clearly confused at the large group.
“How many of you fell in the pool?” Emma asks.
“Just me,” Keralis waves before shifting as Grian grins behind him, “Thanks for that.”
“I do my best,” The gremlin grins.
“You guys don’t seem shocked?”
Mumbo looks over and sighs, “Uh, pretty normal where we’re from. Not the mer thing, but randomly getting glitched or something.”
“I’d still be shocked if my friend turned into a merman,” Ricky frowns.
Hypno lays next to Keralis and shifts, “That’s a not really a shock for us.”
With that the other hermits save for Xisuma are in mer form.
“You don’t look the same…” Cleo gasps.
“Well yeah, Mumbo’s a betta fish, Grian’s a koi, Hypno’s a reef shark, and the other two are unknown fish.”
“Does that mean anything?” Cleo asks.
“Shark mer’s tend to protect the pod, and betta mers are special…” Grian murmurs.
Cleo frowns, “wait a second, can we backtrack to the this stuff is normal? Where are you from?”
Xisuma crosses his arms, “we are from a different world.”
“You're not aliens are you?” Ricky leans forwards.
“Oh no, not aliens… well maybe Keralis.”
“No one with those eyes can be human,” Xb teases. The conversation continues on for a while before they all head home.
As a few more weeks pass Xisuma starts to feel something. Almost like something is trying to get to his magic. Dropping his guard he lets his magic flow.
Scar walks into the apartment with a frown, “I saw a kid with a Creeper shirt.”
“What,” Grian chokes on his cereal, “No way.”
Scar nods eyes wide, “The kid got all excited when he heard my name.”
A spark of light fills the room as a watcher opens a portal, “Sorry about that.”
“It’s been like weeks.”
The watcher blinks, “Oh, I think time moves different here.”
“How long has it been?”
“About three hours.”
“Oh,” Xb rolls his eyes, “At least we didn’t miss anything.”
And with that they sep though and are in the mega hub, Xisuma’s in his armor and Keralis is his normal big eyes self again.