“I say we stick together we don’t want to get lost.” Stated Harmony as everyone looked at each other and nodded their heads. None of them wanted to get lost or be taken advantage of while in a new city and a whole new society.
As they moved into the city, they met the first merpeople who came from a clearly different culture. It was not just their tales being different, some of them had totally shaved heads even on mermaids, others wore scale shirts which hadn’t been seen in the tiny village they had been before. The place was full of people, swimming around going about their normal day unaware of the new merpeople swimming down the main street.
“This is so amazing!” said Lupe her voice almost breaking in excitement. “This is way better than a million Christmas…wait do you have Christmas down here? What is a Mermaid Christmas like?”
Cura chuckled a bit.
“We have holidays yes, and some merpeople do keep celebrating the holidays they had when Human and the like but it isn’t as big of a deal as it is on the surface world.” Explained Cura
“Why do you have mines?” inquired Adrian as everyone looked at him somewhat confused. Then they followed his eyes to see a group of merpeople dressed in what looked to be full armor, aside from a gap around their gills with spears in their hands. They were there to prevent people from getting close and what was behind them, floating up on a metal chain was what looked to be a World War 2 sea mine.
“They are there to defend the city, in case of an attack from the surface. They must be testing it, normally they are not extended out.” explained Cura as they kept going deeper into the city. As they did they passed by more armed guards standing on rooftops which what looked to be large boxes nearby. Cura explained the boxes contained the mines. They also based towers which looked almost medieval in design only with anti-air gun turrets taken off some sunken warship only with Torpedo loaded instead of guns.
“Do the humans on the surface know about you?” inquired Colton
“They do, we have an arrangement with them. They do not approach or cities, our major cities on the sea floor and we do not attack them. They also keep our secret.” Stated Cura as they reached the heart of the city. The former humans expected to see a giant market square, instead it was a towering wall which was ring with defenses both merperson made and modified human weapons. The main “road” going around it was wide and full of shops, but the wall gave off a harsh unforgiving and strong appearance.
“What is that?” inquired Monica
“That?” said Cura slightly confused as she looked at the wall. “Ah…that is a fortress ment to protect the tunnel. See it wraps itself around the tunnel entrees and it is supposed to protect it. If an attacker would get through they could kill whole cities and hundreds of thousands of merpeople. So it is heavily guarded.”
“I can understand that.” Stated Adrian
“Come the science center is on the other city.” stated Cura as they kept moving, as they moved around they moved into a large square which lacked any buildings or even carts selling items. This confused the former humans until an alarm filled the water.
“What the?” inquired Damon as he moved to protect Monica who pulled their daughter closer.
“Don’t worry, it is just a warning about a coming arrival.” said Cura as suddenly a massive object shot out from behind the massive wall and then circle around.
“A Sea Dragon.” Said Lupe with wonder in her eyes as a giant creature with four large fins and a massive scaled body swam up and then around coming ever closer to them. It had dark blue and grey scales with a large body with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.
“That isn’t a dragon, that looks closer to a Mosasaurus.” stated Colton “But they where suppose to have died out with the dinosaurs.”
“So it is a dinosaur?” inquired Lupe as Colton thought about correcting her and telling her it was a lizard not a dinosaur but thought differently. Instead they just watched as the Mosasuarur came down into the square and rested it’s massive body on the ground. That is when they noticed that on it’s back was a large structure. The doors opened as mermaids and merman and some other humanoid creatures moved out of the structure. A small group of merpeople in a different uniform swam up with a cart full of meat and let it sit in front of the mosasaur who quickly began to eat.
“It’s like a passenger plane.” Stated Stacy
“And a weapon.” added Chloe as she pointed in the opposite direction toward a second one of these creatures only this one clearly had large spikes for ramming on the sides and likely other weapons as well.
“Oh…great.” said Cura under her breath as Adrian looked at her, he followed her gaze toward a merman wearing a sort of vest with a necklace with a large seal on it heading toward them. Behind he pulled through the water a large bag.
“Hello, Micha.” Said Cura with a happy smile which was her attempt to hide her displeasure.
“Cura…long time no see.” Said the merman, Micha as he looked at the former humans. “I assume these are the humans I was sent to see.”
“Yes…they wanted to see a bigger city.” explained Cura
“All well and good, saves me the trouble of traveling to that backwater land hole of a place you now live.” Said Micha with distain in his voice. Adrian was about to ask who he though he was when he went on. “Mom and Dad where so disappointed when you moved out to the edges of civilization, they had such high hopes for you my dear sister…a job in one of the government departments like me but now you are a farmer and a town aid…so sad.”
“Micha…you and I will settle our differences some other time, right now we have to help these people.” Said Cura
“So true.” Said Micha as he looked at the group of newly turned merpeople with a wide but fake looking smile. “Welcome to our society and as you know we will do everything in our power to help you integrate into your new life as easily as possible. Now…I can’t hold a meeting and ask you all the questions needed in the middle of a public square that will not do. So why don’t we do a late lunch at Chiana Table in say 4 hours, you remember the place right Cura?”
“I do.” said Cura her voice just holding back the rage as Micha smiled like a cat playing with it's prey.
“Good, now before I leave I feel I should let you know that we have contacted the human world officials and they have told us how much each of you had in your bank accounts and we will be giving you a matching amount in our own system.” said Micha as everyone’s eyes widened a bit. “We will go over it more at lunch but if you should need anything feel free to tell my baby sister here and we will pay for it. Thank you, now I must be off, I need to refresh myself.”
With that he turned and left.
“Wow…what a jerk.” said Chloe as Stacy nodded in agreement. "Oh...sorry Cura, I shouldn't have said that about your brother."
“You have no idea how right you are.” said Cura her fist tight in anger “Why did they send him?”