Chapter Text
Part I. As Above.
Ryland Grace had been wandering. He wasn't trying to avoid his very important work but he just couldn't sit still. Luckily, the campus was by the ocean which left time for a lot of walks by the beach.
Part of him wished he could just go back to teaching science. But no, the Earth's mantle was cooling, brought to light by another biologist in his field while investigating hydrothermal vents that had seemingly been shutting down. They had a small sample of the culprits—Ferrophage—and that was it.
A tiny microbe that had the capability to destroy the Earth's magnetic field and leave the planet to fry like an egg.
He'd been thinking about stuff when something caught his eye in the distance.
It was a figure, unmoving in the tide pools. Even from the distance he was he could see it was covered in red.
Oh God, it looked like something straight out of a true crime doc, red bleeding into the water around it. His hand hovered over his phone as he got closer.
Now, as he got closer, he could tell the figure was definitely humanoid.
Oh fudge.
It looked like a human—if a human had had a fish tail, frills instead of ears, and an angler fish bobble on its head. It was lying face down gills on its neck barely submerged. Shoulder length hair looked matted and tangled.
At the sound of the waves splashing, Grace noticed the tiniest twitch of one of its claws.
It was still alive.
Grace let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
Under the mop of black hair(?), a yellow eye blinked up at him.
"I'll be back bud, I promise." he muttered. He ran fast back towards the research center.
Grace found Ilyukhina and Yao in the break room, only bumming into a few walls on the way.
"Grace, wow, catch your breath," Ilyukhina said.
"There— There's somthing out there. It's beached in the tide pools, it needs our help," he said, out of breath.
"Slow down," Yao interjected. "what's out there?"
"It's— Its like a mermaid."
"What?"
"It didn't look like any species I've ever seen before."
"Well then it looks like we've got a rescue on our hands." Stratt said, statling Grace. She'd materialized in the doorway, dressed for warmth in navy blue.
"You sure? Might mud on your coat." Ilyukhina said, in a tone somewhere between joking and a cautious curiosity.
"If it's as big as it sounds you're going to need the extra hands."
They brought out the dolphin beaching kit.
"Holy fuck, is that all blood?!" Illyana exclaimed.
"No, I think it's algae." Grace hoped it was algae. It wouldn't likely be alive if all that was its own blood. Even so he couldn't be 100% sure, a pungent metalic smell wafting through the air.
"Poor thing," Stratt muttered.
Thank god for the fog. Full sun would have done numbers on the chances of survival. When they flipped it over and into the rescue pool, the first thing Grace noticed was the teeth. A maw full of teeth extended to its left cheek.
Upon being turned over, the creature started to squirm away from the hands around its face. It was trying—unsuccessfully—to scrub some of the algea off its sides. Closer, now he noticed it squinting.
Fudge, if the creature was from as deep as he thought it was, then this light must have been stronger than anything it's ever seen. Of course it was light sensetive. He grabbed a damp towel and draped it over its eyes.
"Don't worry bud, you're in good hands." Grace said quietly.
Once they got him inside the vet room he'd stilled once again. Shapiro ran over when she saw them, setting down her coffee.
"Dang, the one time I came in late." she said, grabbing a pair of gloves.
Stratt in turn switched hers out for a clean pair not yet covered in red.
Being an unknown species, there was a lot of guesswork, hopes, and prayers that they wouldn't accidentally kill him.
It was the teacher in him that switched the pronouns. If there was one thing that has definitely kept humans around this long it was pack bonding. He just couldn't help himself.
He hadn't done any beachings before. He'd learned about it a milllion years ago in college but that was nothing compared to really holding a life in your hands. This was why he couldn't be a veterinarian.
In dimmed light, they scrubbed the algae off. After a good amount of scrubbing, it turns out the creature was actually a deep shade of cerulean under all of that. Once they got through that initial layer, they started to notice the actual injuries. Blue was covered in cuts and scratches, looking like he'd lost a fight to a paper shredder, which probably wasn't too far off considering the rocks off the coast.
The angler fish bobble on the things head wasn't glowing, which worried him.
Grace took one for the team and elected himself of clean off closer to his face (re: the teeth cheek of death).
Strangely, Grace didn't feel scared of the task. He was scared of this thing dying yes, but he wasn't scared of him, at least not like this. Right now, he was just someone far from home in need of help.
He hissed under Grace's hands as he disinfected a fresh looking cut.
"I know, I know Blue. Your doing a great job."
After that, all there was to do was put him in a recovery tank and hope he wakes up.
"Dr. Grace, it's late." Stratt said, walking in with her second cup of coffee.
Grace himself had been in the aquarium room (re: watching over Blue) for hours.
"I know, just wanna make sure Blue's doing okay." he said with a yawn.
"Blue?"
Grace shrugged. "I had to call him something."
"Well, if all goes well you'll get to name the species."
"Heh, wouldn't that be a sight." The thought of naming a species was always a possibility, but Grace had studied as a micro biologist. Blue was almost as big as him.
"If he does wake up, do you think you'll be able to think coherently enough?" Stratt asked. She wasn't wrong and Grace hated it. He let out a sigh.
"Fine. But you owe me a coffee next time."
Stratt smiled. "If he survives you're in for far more than a coffee."
The next day Grace got straight to work in the lab. First step, figuring out what kind of algae Blue was covered in. If they could figure out the origin of that, they could get at least a ballpark estimate of where he's from.
Carefully, he rehydrated some and put it under the microscope.
Oh shit.
He scooted his swivel chair back. He pinched himself to prove he wasn't dreaming.
Blue was covered in Ferrophage.
