a_musingly | [Closed to disassembling MERTRASH

"Or maybe, that's what we should do, exactly." Steve said, pausing mid-stroke. "Instead of blending in, if I draw off all their attention to me, then you can have a chance to recover then escape." Steve can be impulsive, especially after having decided on an action that he believes firmly should be done, but it didn't mean he was going to charge in blindly into a situation he doesn't know. "What do they do exactly after you go up to land..." His voice trailed off as one hand flapped to the side in a gesture that meant 'you know what I mean'.

He picked up his pace again, following the other mer's lead in ducking closer to the bottom. There were quite a few debris floating on the surface that he usually would be interested in picking through for something new to bring home, but now his attention was fully on the other mer.

"That's a good way for you to get captured and tortured," he replied but didn't discount the idea now that it was clear that he would be followed right up onto the land. It was an emergency situation where technically Steve could make sounds enough to warrant investigation for injury and then head off the agents that would be retrieving him. "Normally, a team is dispatched to collect me. They guard me until I can obtain my legs and then walk me to transport to be taken back to the current base of operations. I give a mission report and am checked over."

He slowed his pace only to look around for landmarks on where he was supposed to haul himself up. The briefcase would not leave his grip until he had handed it off. "I may receive a medical once over while I wait to change."

"They'll have to be able to catch me first. If I stay in water, and draw their attention that way you can get away, right? Even if it's in shallow water I'll have the advantage." Steve said confidently. "And if they're that eager to catch another mer, I should have no problem keeping their attention." He paused for a moment, then added. "How many guards?" He was good but even he couldn't fight against too many humans with their weapons. Hopefully there wouldn't be too many.

He frowned at the words 'medical once over'. It all sounded so cold, but he suppose he couldn't expect much more of humans who would force a mer to work for them against their will. "Will that be enough time for you to recover?"

"I'm not certain that will work," he replied but thought there was a chance. After all, he did not associate with his own kind much, but he was certain that he was always the prize for capture. There wasn't any specific memories associated with multiple captures, but it was an impression that he had. "Standard tac-team," he replied before glancing over. "Ten to twelve men on the ground to collect me and remove evidence I ever existed."

He swam slower in the water, sensing that they were getting closer to shore. He could breathe if he had to should his time be up. All it took was shoving through the debris with his head and taking a deep breath. "I need approximately ten minutes to dry off on sand. If there is too much debris, it will take longer."

Neither did Steve really think there was one hundred percent chance of it working. Maybe fifty-percent chance it would work. The rest would simply be luck. He did however made a face at the idea of facing ten to twelve men all at once. "You must be important, if there's going to be a dozen humans just to clean up around you." He said dryly, half serious and half jokingly. And not just important, but also dangerous. But all mer were dangerous, one way or another.

"Alright. I'll stay under around here out of sight until your...humans...show up, then get their attention." There were a lot of debris here right now, Steve was sure he could find something to use here. It was too bad he was no siren and can't use his voice to entice them. Oh well, he would have to work with what he had.

"I am," he replied simply. Every time he was released for a mission, he was informed on the vastness of his importance, of the service he was providing, of the people he would eventually be saving. "It shouldn't be long, so keep a weather eye out. If you decide to leave as well, so be it." He was given the impression that that was an alien concept to the other mer once committed to some course of action.

The Soldier swam to the shore, pushing through the mat of debris and dragged himself up onto the beach. It too was littered with wood, plastic, kelp and everything else the hurricane had dragged up, but he shoved around the debris until he had a spot of pure sand and began to slide in it and roll around, shedding water from his scales. He hurried as much as he could, eyes always actively searching and the briefcase not far from where he worked to leave his scaled hide behind.

Within ten minutes, they came. Ten men in military combat gear, all moving down the beach to him as if they had every single right to be there. Two carried a stretcher between them, and he hissed at the sight of it. He disliked that device more than having to be escorted off the beach on two bare legs.

Important as in the only person who could be forced to do things others couldn't. It was despicable really. Steve made a face at the other mer at the completely unsubtle reminder that he could leave, at any time and really should have been long gone. "I already told you I'm not leaving." He's not going to give up that easily, especially when he hasn't even made a first attempt yet. Besides, he wasn't the only stubborn one here; the other mer was just as stubborn as he himself was, with all the unsubtle attempts at getting him to go away.

It wasn't too hard for Steve to keep out of sight as long as he wasn't hear the surface, especially with the debris that was liberally scattered everyone along this stretch of seashore. And while the other mer started drying himself off in the sand, he began to gather things he could throw at the enemy humans. Things with sharp edges and heft. There was plenty of choice. Then at the bottom of the sea, a glint of metal caught his eye that wasn't like any of the other objects he's picked so far.

A flat round disc made of metal. Out of instinct, he picked it up as well.

He flicked his tail, slapping it against the sand as if in threat, but he knew the drill by now even if he couldn't remember it. He would put up a front and the team would 'talk' him down and then bait him with food so that he could be scooped up. So he rose up onto his hips where his human half gave way to the scaled one, hissing as the men spread out around him and offered various expressions that ranged from amusement to wariness.

"Come on now, Winter," one of the men called. "Settle down and I'll give you this." A shiny necklace was held up, swinging from gloved fingers. It would be cheap, hardly worth taking, but he was always attracted to shiny things. It was a merfolk trait.

He glanced towards the water, searching for Steve even as he settled back on the sand and returned to sliding his scaled body along the beach to dry it faster. A few of the group pretended to be looking for something while the rest moved in as they always did. He slapped his tail once but it was obvious token resistance.

Steve's eyes were good, even through the distortion of the water and the air and even the random objects that floated on top. Ten humans, as the other mer had told him. Most of their attention were on the mer drying off on the beach with only a few facing the water. Which would change he knew, as soon as he started throwing things. He's not going to expect too much help from the other mer, given that having a tail on land was more a hindrance than an aid.

The humans were all covered in from head to toe in some dark and heavy material, except for their faces. So that's where Steve was planning to aim. He plopped up out of the water quickly, threw one of the heavy and sharp objects he'd picked up earlier directly into the face of one of the men and quickly dropped down underneath again and rolled to another position, not bothering to wait and see if his hit and downed the person or not.

He didn't wait too long; soon he was attacking again, and dodging the hail of projectiles the humans were sending at him.

"SONUVA....!"

The Soldier twisted as one of the agents reeled back from being struck, and then he settled down on the sand as half of the agents turned to assess the situation out in the water which was still a mat of debris. Unless or until Steve rose, the other mer was hidden, but by now, the team was aware of what a merfolk could do and at least two glanced at him pointedly as if he had arranged this whole mess.

He snapped his teeth together, spotting Steve rising to throw more projectiles. The team backed away from the edge of the water, quickly coming to the conclusion that it was indeed another mer who was making efforts to dissuade them from taking him.

"Ha, Winter got himself a boyfriend this time around?"

"We'd be rewarded for bringing in another one."

"Hey, we aren't equipped to deal with more then one, and our instructions were clear on getting in and getting out fast. This data is the most important..."

"If he likes Winter so much, order Winter to go and contain him."

He curled his tail around his upper half carefully as his scales were starting to soften now that he was drying well. He glanced at the water where Steve was hailing everyone with projectiles and issued a hiss at the other merfolk, a warning and perhaps a bit of a threat. The team was both concerned with another mer around making efforts to free him but confident in their ability to contain him.

The stretcher was set down on the sand next to him as the team considered their options, most of them raising hands to avoid being hit in the face with the deadly accuracy of Steve's throwing.

These humans were stubborn. Most, Steve thought, would have run away already, or threw stuff back. These ones dodged and covered their faces, but didn't run. At least there was no incoming attack yet, though by the warning hiss he heard from the other mer still drying himself off, it would be soon. Even humans wouldn't stand around just discussing things forever while under attack.

In the meantime, he kept up the pattern of projectile, then duck and move to a new spot, then another projectile. There were plenty of sharp and dangerous things to throw and he was careful not to pop up out of the water in any discernible pattern. At least to Steve. All he he hoped right now to buy another time until the other mer dried off enough to get his legs. Or even lure a few humans into the water directly where he had the advantage.

The Soldier felt the tingle in his flesh that indicated that his softened scales would be absorbing into his flesh. He wiped himself against the sand quickly as the team was making decisions to do with Steve, and he found himself impressed with the fury of Steve's onslaught. Most of the merfolk would have tossed a few and fled, especially with these trained professionals surrounding him gave little to no ground.

"Sir, I'm getting tired of being hit. If we shoot him, we can bring him in."

He didn't like that idea and hurried through the process of gaining his legs, rising to stand naked in the middle of the team. The commander was watching the rolling waves and the bobbing debris to locate Steve, he could tell, but he still took the combat fatigues he was handed by a member of the stretcher team. He slipped them on as he normally would.

Distracted by the ocean and the mer still throwing projectiles, the team didn't realize he was attacking them until he had three dead with their throats ripped out. Two immediately backed away to give themselves room to raise their firearms at him; they unfortunately put themselves closer to the ocean waves to do so. He was busy tearing through the armor of a four cursing man.

Steve was well aware that he wasn't doing any real harm to the humans on shore. He knew that from the getgo, not with what he had to work with; he had no real weapons he could use and it was far too close to dry land. It was good thing the humans were busy talking and dodging his projectiles rather than fighting back with those odd and dangerous weapons they were no doubt toting around. As it was, it was a relief when on his next throw he sees the other mer, now completely dry and with two legs, attacking with far more efficiency than he ever could.

And then Steve saw his chance when two of them stepped into the water to get away from the other mer tearing through the humans like a shark teared through a seal. It was still shallow water, but water was where Steve was at home in and where humans with their legs were slower and clumsier. Dropping the last handful of projectiles he's picked up, Steve reared up over the water and dragged them down underneath by their necks, one in each hand. Years ago this wouldn't have been possible but now, a part of Steve was disturbed at how easy it was for him to hold them underwater until they stopped struggling, even with them lashing out with their limbs.

Steve held on their bodies a bit longer after they'd stopped moving just to make sure, then popped his head cautiously out of the water, another projectile back in his hand to see if the other mer needed any more help, or if another one was foolish enough to follow after the two men he'd just drowned. "You alright?" He trilled inquiringly?

When the other mer actually attacked the agents, that was when all hell broke loose for real. Those that remained began to load their weapons and one was making a call to report the rapidly descending conditions on the beach, but he knew what the order would be. He had to be brought back to the wading pool to be conditioned again. He could not re-enter the water for enough time that would allow him recover and escape any tracking party.

He attacked the one communicating and then it came down to survival by that point. He killed the remaining agents, his body covered in their blood and soon the struggles were over and he huffed and trilled his faint bloodlust and looked to the water where the other mer was waiting in the shallows.

"I will be punished," he said in reply, walking towards the water and crouching down just beyond the gently rolling waves. "You should be on your way. I can't return to the sea for some time and I need to figure out how to remove the effects that keep me from it. They will send more men."

Steve had long since dropped the still warm but stiff human bodies in the water leaving them to float to who knows where (he couldn't care less what will happen to them...maybe a shark or another predator will eat well that day). An answering trill escaped his mouth as he moved closer to shore but more cautiously, on guard for any other human attack to come. He had fought and hunted alongside of other mer before but this felt different. Much different. More exhilarating somehow.

"I don't understand. How is it they can keep a mer from the sea?" The idea was both preposterous and horrifying all at once. While he found going up on land on two legs to be an interesting thing to do once in a while, he wouldn't care to stay out of the sea for so long. "Isn't there something else I can do? I can change and..." After all this, Steve was unwilling to leave just like that.

He looked to the water and walked down the shoreline to where the waves were gently lapping at the sand, and he found himself watching this blond merman who had taken considerable risk for nothing more than to help him escape. He couldn't remember anyone ever making such a potential sacrifice for him, but there it was.

At the question, he gestured at the metal arm that was attached to the left side of his body. "To control me, they use that. It supplements the arm that I lost, but there are... checks and balances in it. Stored drugs that are released under certain circumstances," he said and sighed, rubbing a hand through his long hair. "Changing will take too long. If you insist on following me, we have to move away from this area." He pointed off down the beach. "I'm going to make my way down to that lighthouse half a mile away. If you're there and on the beach trying to change, I will let you come with me. If not, go back to your family."

What he started, he should follow through until the end. Especially if it was a good thing he was doing. It might be part stubbornness that had Steve believing that, emphasized by his mother who taught him to see through his actions to the very end and not give up halfway because it was too difficult or complicated.

And this odd mer that he had met by chance today was anything by easy or straightforward.

Steve hissed in anger and shock at the other mer's words. Mers were not perfect and have done awful things but this was an evil Steve had never come in contact with so closely. "Don't be ridiculous. I'll be there waiting for you with my legs." That lighthouse was not so far and Steve was a fast swimmer. The mention of his family almost made him pause, but while Steve had friends and his clan, there was no close family since his mother had died a few years ago. And the clan was used to him going out for days at a time to scavenge. He trilled a quick 'goodbye and see you again very soon' note and then was diving back beneath the waters to head to their agreed upon meetup point.

Persistent. Annoyingly persistent. Maybe a little welcomingly persistent. Just a little. He sighed heavily and decided not even the bother telling Steve off for abandoning the sea for someone like him who had long ago lost the right to any manner of sympathy. Instead, he could only shake his head as Steve trilled promises and headed off towards the lighthouse to change and wait for him.

A part of him knew he should turn and walk in the opposite direction and probably deeper inland. It would take Steve time to figure out the deception and by then he could be in the human world.

Instead, he found his feet taking him in the very direction that he had said he would go. It was slow going, and he stopped frequently to stretch his shoulders from stiffness setting in from the bruising. He also stopped to survey the area for signs that he was being followed and to double back in order to hide his tracks. It took longer, but it was worthwhile in his mind as he finally picked his way to the lighthouse and looked around for signs of the other mer.

Steve honestly expected more verbal repetitions of how dangerous it was going to be, or for him to go home. Maybe the other mer could learn, after all. His clan would be a little bit worried about him but it'll be more along the lines of exasperation than anything else. And this...this was more important than what he had in the right now. Steve felt that truth deep in the gut. He was not abandoning the sea, more like leaving it temporarily to make sure one of its lost members make it back.

Given how fast he could swim even with the debris littering liberally along the shoreline, Steve reached the agreed upon meeting place near the lighthouse and found a relatively out of sight place close to some big rocks at the base of the lighthouse and began drying himself off with sand immediately. When the other mer arrived, he had almost gained his legs, with the help of cloudless sky and a hot sun.

He approached the site carefully, picking his way down to the beach and spotting the blond out of the water and so close to obtaining legs and he crouched down next to Steve, observing the process quietly. Steve was going to be tall, he realized, taller than he was and was powerfully muscled enough to be impressive to human kind.

The crass call of the gulls meant little to him, but he turned his head to watch them a moment. There were other birds that were better observers to a possible attack, but none of them happened to be present. They were on their own. "Are you always this stubborn and persistent or does it have something to do with me?"

Merfolk generally considered gulls to be obnoxious troublemakers and usually paid the no mind the few times they went to the surface. Steve as well generally ignored them and the gulls ignored him right back unless he had something they considered food in his hands. He trilled out a greeting as the other mer approached, careful to keep his voice soft in case there were unknown persons watching them; he didn't think so, but it was better to be careful, given his earlier experience just an hour earlier.

"Both." He answered absently as he watched his slowly transforming legs. Just a few more minutes in the sun and with the sand, the last of the scales would be gone and his legs would be fully separate. "I've never met anyone like you." He added honestly as he piled more sand at the spot what humans would call toes, wiggling the appendage a tad impatiently.

He blinked at the greeting, not used to such regard from his own kind and certainly not welcomed to see them again. Grudgingly, he lost some more of his irritation at Steve's insistence of coming with him and at his own want to have another with him. It could be a good adventure and at worst, Steve returned to the sea if it became too dangerous.

"I can say the same thing," he replied grudgingly. "I'm unique even among our kind. Your fascination could get you hurt, you realize?"

Greetings such as the one he just gave to the other mer was just basic politeness, to Steve. It doesn't matter he didn't receive an answering one, he isn't offended, not with the visible surprise in the other's eyes when he gave it. He shrugged at the warning about getting hurt. "Yes and...? I can get hurt a thousand different ways in the sea as well just by swimming along minding my own business. You have been away for a long time if you've forgotten that." The sea, underneath the waves, was beautiful and HOME but it wasn't tame or safe by any standards.

Steve wiggled his feet and they were really feet now and meet the other mer's gaze. "I have a feeling it will be worth it." Here he paused and blinked. "I...what do I call you? I'm Steve."

He sighed, resisting the urge to rub his forehead; it was clear that Steve was going to follow him around regardless and now that he had acted out against his masters, there was no turning back. His limited remembered experience with his own kind left him watching as the blond prepared to follow him into unknown danger without even considering or caring for the consequences. It was a loyalty that he couldn't say that he deserved and yet he was warming to the idea.

"I don't enter the water or interact with my own kind often," he agreed because he recognized the life of danger in the sea but didn't put much stock into it. He blinked much the same at the question, tilting his head to the side as he considered the question. That was... not something that he ever had to worry about. "Steve, I'm... well, to be honest, they don't exactly call me anything but 'Soldier', and I don't... remember the name my mother gave me."

It was wrong that a mer would spend all his time on land or away from their own kind. Mers were all about clans and family after all and the sea was their home. To be cut off from both was horrifying to contemplate. This mer beside him...he was a strong one, stronger than him, to survive without both. And all without knowing his own name! While Steve liked exploring the world above the sea from time to time he had always had the comfort that his home and his clan was waiting for him.

He leaned in until there was less than two fingers width of distance between their faces, thinking of what he'd learned in this short period of time he'd known the dark haired mer in beside him. After a few minutes, a name slipped out from his mouth.

"Bucky. You feel like a 'Bucky' to me."

[Closed to disassembling MERTRASH

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I hope you're feeling better soon. And as usual, no rush on this.

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