The three of us turned to look at one another for a moment as if to make sure that the scream hadn’t come from any of us. Seeing that it hadn’t, we all began swimming as quickly as we could manage toward the edge of the pool closest to where the sound had seemed to originate. The pool was large, probably Olympic-sized, and that gave the three of us enough space to swim without feeling crowded, but that also meant that it took our still awkward new swimming technique a bit longer to get to the far end of the pool.

The moment that we broke the surface and leaned forward on our cuffed forearms to support ourselves on the edge of the pool I felt a strange sensation. The subtle tightness in my throat was gone, my gills sealed up tight with a slight splash of displaced water, and I was breathing air again. It felt so strange and yet familiar for a moment that I almost forgot why we had surfaced in the first place.

The room that the pool was in was massive, it had to be, and it had no windows. The only light was coming from florescent ceiling lights high above us. There was a pair of diving boards nearby, one about three feet above the water and another much higher, and there were two sets of double doors, one of which was off to the side and partially opened with a woman backing out in a hurry, still screaming frantically.

She was a slightly short and skinny brunette with her hair up in a bun and she wore wire-framed glasses and a lab coat with casual clothes and sneakers underneath. We got a pretty good look at her since she had to pass by our end of the pool after frantically locking the doors she had exited from and heading for what I assumed were the main doors as quickly as she could. As she passed she turned enough to see us leaning against the edge of the pool and I tried to give her a big friendly smile.

This decision proved to be a poor one, as she shrieked and bolted for the doors as fast as her legs could carry her. As soon as she finished fumbling with some sort of keypad and card and had exited the room we could hear the click as the doors were locked once more. Looking quickly around to make sure nobody was around as I heard her footsteps receding, I motioned for the others to join me back under the water in case there were any listening devices or cameras in the room.

As soon as we were submerged, I could feel my throat tighten slightly once more as my gills flared at the sides of my neck. Once we were back at the bottom of the pool I near-whispered, “What in the world was her problem?”

“I… think something scared her,” Kara replied uncertainly.

“Maybe she woke up and found out that some asshole experimented on her and turned her into a mythical creature,” I suggested sarcastically. “Oh, no wait, that’s us.”

“Not so mythical anymore,” Kara muttered before shaking her head. “I mean something scared her shitless in that room and then she turned and saw us and that fear spiked. I could sort of sense it happening.”

“Maybe she freaked out because Jon was showing off her fangs,” Jenny proposed timidly.

“I was smiling!” I protested. “It’s not my fault that she… wait, we have fangs?”

“Duh, how could you not notice that?” Kara confirmed, looking at me like I was an idiot. “It was literally the first thing I noticed, I nearly cut my tongue on one when I was waking up.” Then she opened up wide and displayed a set of upper and lower canines that would give a vampire an inferiority complex. And how the fuck could she open her mouth that wide? It was like she unhinged her jaw or something.

“Yup, me too,” Jenny quickly agreed as I was gaping.

“But everything felt weird when I woke up and I kinda got preoccupied with having boobs and a tail,” I argued weakly before carefully running a tongue over my teeth. Damn, fangs confirmed. “How was I to know that my mouth and jaw wasn’t just feeling weird because of more gender-swap shenanigans? I guess this is still shenanigans, just more of the species-swap variety.”

“They’re probably meant for rending flesh and gripping prey,” Kara offered quietly. “Our jaws seem able to open like twice as wide now too, probably because we’re supposed to kill and eat fish and other seafood and probably grab them with our mouths. Having our arms in front of us would increase drag in the water and that would be detrimental while chasing down food. I’ll bet that we have some serious jaw strength too.”

“Good stuff to know,” I granted with a sage nod. “Now what did you mean that you could sense her fear spike, Kara? That was kinda obvious from the way that she turned and ran.”

“I… well…” she began nervously before asking, “Have either of you felt anything weird since waking up?”

“I’d have more trouble thinking of anything not weird since I woke up. Seriously, we’re going to need a new definition for that word after today,” I grumbled.

“Have either of you been feeling things… emotions that you don’t think are yours?” Kara quickly clarified with a blush anointing her cheeks. “It’s like there’s this aura around people sometimes, and I can’t quite see it, but when I try to focus on it I get hit with these strong emotions. With Jenny, it’s mostly fear and uncertainty and with you Jon, it’s a huge mess of emotions; uncertainty, fear, anger, guilt, determination, and these little surges of happiness. That lady was scared, and when she saw us that fear went through the roof and it hit me really hard.”

“I haven’t felt anything like that, Sis,” Jenny said, shaking her head. “Maybe you’re just tired or something? Jon has been telling jokes and stuff to try to cheer us up so maybe that got stuck in your head?”

Kara looked uncertain but shrugged and conceded, “Maybe? I guess that fear and uncertainty would be to be expected in this situation. Jon probably has the least reason to be happy about this situation but she has been trying to look like she’s cheerful and she’s been joking a lot.”

“Yeah, I can’t think of any reason why this situation should make me happy,” I agreed with a frown. So why in the hell did I keep getting these little rushes of euphoria when I glanced at my upper body or my hair, or when I heard my own voice. Why did hearing them calling me ‘she’ make butterflies flutter in my chest? It made me happy but at the same time I felt like I should correct them because, despite my current body, I wasn’t a real ‘she’, just a convincing fake. The mere thought of doing so, telling them to call me ‘he’, caused a whirlwind of anxiety in my chest that threatened to blow those butterflies away.

I didn’t realize that I had closed my eyes until I felt a hand take mine. I opened them to see Kara gripping my hand tightly in her own. I realized that my hand was smaller than hers and just as feminine, and her touch made me feel warm inside. As she pulled me in close and hugged me tightly I realized that she was the biggest of the three of us, she probably had at least a few inches on me but it was enough to be noticeable and it sort of felt like when my mom used to hold me when I had a bad dream, it made me feel safe, it made me feel protected.

“I’m a man, despite what Pierce’s ‘cure’ did to me, I should be the one protecting her and her sister, not the other way around. What the fuck is wrong with me? Why can’t I just man up for once in my life?” The thoughts bombarded my mind and I couldn’t shake them. “New body, new species, and I haven’t changed at all. I still can’t be the man that others need or expect me to be and I still use self-deprecating humor to deflect problems. The only change is that now I can use fish puns. I should have just let the Cancer kill me, I just drag everyone around me down. Maybe I was never meant…”

“Jon, breathe. Calm down, please. I’m sorry, I should have kept my stupid mouth shut.” Kara’s words barely reached me as I got lost in my anxiety-fueled thoughts. She was still holding me close, tenderly yet protectively and I suddenly came to the realization that I was sobbing and my gills were flaring rapidly as I struggled for oxygen in my anxiety attack. Let’s blame the hormones for that.

I sniffled and had to stop myself from taking a deep shuddering breath as I remembered that we were underwater. “I… I should be the one apologizing. I can’t be the… All I can do for us is deflect with crappy humor. I can’t even get us out of here… what kind of escape plan is ‘try to contact my more masculine sister so she can swoop in to our rescue’? I’m so fucking useless.”

Kara pulled away and cupped my face in her hands, those beautiful aquamarine eyes of hers staring intently into mine. “You are not useless. You’ve been keeping us from freaking out, you’re the one who told us that getting all emotional wasn’t going to help us, and at least you have a plan. We don’t need some macho jackass who would throw themselves into danger without thinking, we need you, Jon. The three of us only have one another and from what I’ve seen so far you’ll have our backs. Let us have yours too, this burden will be easier for us all to bear if we do it together. If you ever need to talk… about anything, I’ll be here for you.”

She pulled her hands away, her fingertips briefly brushing along the flesh of my cheeks and eliciting small shivers and sniffles from me. I was trying to help but, if I was so helpful, how come she’d already had to pull me out of two panic attacks since I woke up? In the awkward silence that followed, we could hear the door unlocking, followed by footsteps, four or five people from the sound of it. At least our weird elfin ears seemed to be useful for something. I tried to shake off my brief lapse in self-control and motioned for the others to follow me back to the surface.

The lady was back and she had another woman and a man in a lab coat with her, and two large men that just screamed security. The other woman was a tall, fit, and tanned blonde in perhaps her mid to late twenties who wore casual clothes and carried a medical bag. The sciencey man was pale and skinny with a weasel-like face and salt and pepper hair that looked to be starting a mass migration away from his head, and he wore thick-rimmed glasses and a rumpled grey suit beneath his lab coat. One of the larger men was African American and the other was a blond Caucasian, though they both sported crew cuts, some sort of jumpsuits, and belts with what looked like tranquilizer pistols and cattle prods hanging from them.

I was wary of the weapons but there was no way that I was going to try and snatch one for a daring escape attempt. The whole idea would have been ludicrous. We needed to be patient and let them think that we were dumb animals, that was the plan until I could figure out a way to get a message to Maddie. Also, we could barely control our bodies in the water, I didn’t want to think about how bad we’d be getting around on land without help. Fish out of water, anyone?

Lab coat lady was frantically reporting to the weasel man. “...male wasn’t moving and there was blood everywhere, Dr. Harris! Subject alpha tried to attack me when I went to check on them and when I came out the other three were on the edge of the pool and the pink-haired one snarled at me!”

Snarled? I was smiling dammit, trying to be friendly, not threatening. They all turned to look in our direction so gave it another shot, but not quite as big so I wouldn’t be showing any fangs, as the two large men reached uncertainly for their cattle prods. Look, see, I’m just a dumb and friendly mermaid. “Did it hiss at you?” weasel-man asked. Then he turned to the two large men. “Tranquilize subject alpha so Dr. Emerson can check on the male.”

“No, but it had its fangs bared!” panic-woman answered his question as the pair of large men left to follow their instructions.

“If it was threatening you it would be hissing, its posture more aggressive, and it would likely jump out of the water to attack, Miss Paris. They seem to be instinctual creatures and we’ve learned a lot about their threatening behavior from subject alpha. These three and the male were discovered recently though and seem more social, see how they’re grouped together. Perhaps it’s just being ‘friendly`. That one was dying when we brought it in and returned it to health, so maybe it remembers that on some level and is grateful. They are probably curious about us and their new surroundings as well,” Dr. Harris told her.

“She’s smiling!” the one who I had to assume was Dr. Emerson squealed in excitement before, to everyone’s surprise, she walked closer and crouched in front of us. Kara pulled herself closer to me, gripping my shoulder and watching the woman warily. “The biggest one is being protective of the others, and look how the youngest is shy but she seems reluctant to leave the side of the older pair. They’re so human-like, it’s interesting to see one in person. I was fascinated when Mr. Pierce told me about them and showed me the photo.”

“Are you crazy?! They might attack you!” Ms. Paris snapped.

“Nonsense, they’re not being aggressive. I just need to let them get to know me first,” the other woman said, slowly moving her hand toward me, almost touching my nose before I gasped in surprise. I found myself opening my mouth wider as I got hit with a variety of floral scents, starch, perspiration, antibacterial soap, paper, ink, and a few things that I couldn’t really define. “See, she’s scenting. According to what I’ve read so far of the research notes that I was given, they have powerful scent glands in the roof of their mouths, like a cat. All of their senses are very acute, probably to help them track their prey underwater.”

Color me surprised. I was so shocked by what happened that I barely noticed Kara’s curious look beside me as she gripped my shoulder protectively. Which was when Dr. Emerson decided to offer her hand to Kara as well, so I gave a subtle shrug to indicate that we should play along. Once Kara had ‘gotten her scent’ too, the woman reached out and softly stroked Kara’s hair and one of her ears. “There’s a good girl.”

Kara hummed slightly and even cracked a smile and then it was my turn for affection. Having my hair stroked felt surprisingly nice, very soothing, and my ear was extremely sensitive. I found myself humming pleasantly as well, only to have it stop suddenly as Dr. Emerson giggled. “Oh my! Aren’t you the musical one?! Such a lovely voice you have.”

At that point, one of the guards returned to let her know that subject alpha was unconscious and she left to check on the pair. It was probably fifteen minutes later when she returned with the pair of goons, and the lab coats were still keeping their distance despite Dr. Harris’s earlier assurances that I was friendly. Dr. Harris immediately asked, “What’s their condition, Dr. Emerson?”

The more casual doctor, who I thought was probably a marine biologist, shook her head. “I’m afraid that the male is dead, Dr. Harris. And I had to treat the female for numerous lacerations, but their rate of regeneration is remarkable. If I had to guess, he tried to mate with her and she fought back for some reason. Possibly they were fighting for dominance, I don’t know enough about their species’ social structure or mating behavior to be sure. His gills were shredded and he was drowned, so she probably held him beneath the water during the struggle before his gills could heal. She should be removed from that pool while it’s properly cleaned.”

“Pierce isn’t going to be happy about this. At least we thought to keep semen samples,” Dr. Harris said and sighed as he looked back toward the doors that Dr. Emerson had just come from. He turned to the guards and ordered, “Bring subject alpha out here while she’s still unconscious, and restrain her for now so she can’t try to hurt the others while I find someone to clean the pool properly and deal with the body. Dr. Emerson, I’ll leave your new charges in your care and we will let you know when a trainer has been found for them.”

With that, he left the pool room with the skittish woman close behind while the two guards headed back toward the other set of doors. Dr. Emerson turned to smile at us. “You must all be hungry. I’ll go get you some dinner and be right back.”