"Help! Help! Somebody help me!" Steven shouted out.
"No help is on its way, my boy," sighed the scary surgeon. "You have been transpotrted to a rich country with kless laws about human rights for foreigners and you shall bring in a nice bundle of many for visitors coming to gaze at you in the exclusive mythological zoo being set up. I assure you, mere lions, giraffes and hippos will look like a petting zoo next to you and your other brethren."
He then turned to his two goons.
"Carry him to his new home. The salt water pool," he said dismissively. "I need to check on the others."
He left without looking back as Steven was hoisted up upon the shoulders of the two orderlies. He banged upon one's back but his strength was minimal and the orderly just grunted. They passed many doors and corridors and Steven was placed in a very wide basin. Or more thrown into it like as sack of cement, probably as revenge for his feeble attempt to hit one of the orderlies. They went away, leaving Steven to discover his new environment, which promised to be permanent indeed, as sad as it was to admit.
It was big, like a well-sized apartment. There was a tiny sand beach where he could rest and someone had thought good, or just to mock him most cruelly, to add toys in his gigantic personal aquarium. Balls, rubbers ducks, little floating plastic animals and even a basketball hoop where he could shoot hoops in a lonely game. The water was very warm, particularly in one spot and near the beach. Beach that was quite comfy, with lamps that mimicked sunlight when the natural rays from a window was just not enough. The decoration mimicked a tropical setting and Steven had to admit it was luxurious and very well-made, with corals and nice details like statues on the bottom. Other inhabitants of this glorified fish tank were other tropical fish, crabs and an octopus, soon to become Steven's new (and only) best friend.
It was very hard at first but Steven got progressively used to his new body and environment. The scientist regularly checked on him and if he asked to examine his experiment further, Steven better obey, or orderlies arrived and inevitably caught him, no matter how long it took. And the examinations were then more painful than they could be. The first time, Steven struggled, cursed and bit so much the orderlies and scientist, followed by smacking them very painfully with his own tail that the scientist thrust a syringe into him and when Steven woke up much later again in his watery prison, his vocal chords had been cut. He was now mockingly called "The Little Mermaid" by all the orderlies and the subject of many jeers and pointed fingers. Even the scientist called him that way. Adapting to his new environment was now his sole occupation. Or staring at the painting on the wall showing a sunset over a sunny tropical sea and beach, wishing he was there. Or he shot hoops, so many that he became incredibly good at it, more than he ever would have thought possible. The effects of having nothing else to do. And he knew that watching people stare, gaze and goggle at him would not make him feel any better.
And then, one day, a bit of unusual activity occurred.