"UNRESOLVED ERROR....PROCESSING....PROCESSING..." a strange robotic voice boomed out. She tried to identify the source of the sound, but she couldn't move and it seemed to be coming from all around her, even inside her head.
"SOLUTION: UNIVERSAL RESET. SELECTING NEW RESPONSE PATTERN, RESET UNDERWAY."
Suddenly, the entire world around her seemed to stretch, as though it were a rubber band being pulled to its limit. Then, with no warning, it seemed to snap back into place as if it had been released, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed.
"RESET COMPLETE. TEMPORAL CORRECTION PROCEEDING."
The world burst back into motion, the breeze waffling through her hair as though nothing had happened, and the plane in the sky continuing serenely on its course. Wondering if she had gone insane, she was about to walk away, but she first glanced at him.
"I....REALLY like you too!" he blurted out, and shyly rushing over, leaned up and planted a timid kiss on her lips.
Wait, up? she thought as she came to her senses, slowly stepping back a bit. However, her body felt unfamiliar, and she tripped over her feet, losing her balance over the railing and falling backwards down off the bridge into the wide deep river below. Despite the shocking situation, the one thought which blasted through her mind before she hit the water was, <i> I was wearing a skirt...why am I in pants?
She tensed for what should have been a painful entry into the water, but at the last second she unconsciously arched her back and entered the water in a smooth dive....too smooth. Although the current was quickly pulling her downstream, she didn't panic, but seemed to involuntarily relax. Opening her eyes, she found she could see clearly in the water, almost better than she could see normally. Kicking off her sneakers and socks, she felt a strange twinge down her inner thighs, but kicked for the surface. She broke the water just in time to see his splash, and it took her a mere moment to realize that he had jumped in after her. However, when she didn't see him come up for air as they traveled downstream, she grew worried and dove back underwater.
It didn't take long for her to see him upstream from her, being tugged along by the current. The jump from the bridge must have stunned him, because he was flailing weakly. Resolutely, she kicked strongly, not realizing that she was making amazing progress against the current, nor that she wasn't even using her arms to propel herself forward. Finally reaching him without breaking the surface once, she grabbed him and hoisted him upward. Holding him close, she saw his eyes were closed but he was still breathing faintly, as somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered why she had never seen him as so small before.
Although the two had by now been carried out of the river mouth and into the sea by the current, she saw a small isolated beach about a mile away, a break in the rocks and trees of the coastline. Carefully towing him, she managed to reach the sand, and surprisingly wasn't too tired by the effort. Attributing it to adrenaline, she pulled both of them up to the edge of the water as he slowly began to come back around.
It wasn't until she tried to stand up to pull him up on dry sand that she realized she couldn't. Looking down, she finally realized why her swimming ability was so unnaturally strong. Her pants obviously having long ago torn away, from waist down she most decidedly had the iridescent scales and tail of a fish.
"I'm a mer..." she started, and reached down to raise her sodden shirt to see where the scales ended. However, at that moment she finally realized the shirt she was wearing was completely different from the one she had on that morning, and another article of clothing was missing. In disbelief, she ripped the shirt over her head and stared down at her naked, flat, and muscular torso.
"...MAN?"
"That's even better," he said hoarsely as he reached over and pulled the stunned merman near to give him a warm kiss.