Project "C LEVEL"

One - Mermaids Are Real

"CAUTION! BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION!"
The words were blaring from the speakers above Echo's head. Blinking fast, the girl started to regain her senses. Her ears were still ringing from the explosion.
Groggily, she tried to stand, only to find out that she couldn't. She could feel both her legs, but it seemed that she just couldn't move them independently. Running a hand through her purple-tipped bangs, Echo looked down, where her legs should have been. But peaking from underneath her lab coat was a purple fish tail.
Her first instinct was to run away. She used her hands to drag herself back, until she bumped into her desk. But the fish tail followed her, still under her lab coat.
Suddenly, the artificial voice of the alarms stopped talking. Over the intercom, Echo heard a slightly distorted feminine voice.
"Echo, this is dr. Ziegler. Please, pick up the intercom and check in!"
The girl used her arms and her, thankfully stable, desk chair to lift herself up.
"This is Echo Tyler, reporting from lab 116. I am at point 0 of the BioCon. "Please start the water sprinklers in lab rooms 116 and 117."
Then Echo switched to the private channel between her lab and Ziegler's. "Angela, you should get a HazMat suit and get here ASAP."
Logically. She should go about this logically. She had been in the process of analysing a sample from the substance she and Angela had been working on. Suddenly, the Erlenmeyer glass containing the sample blew up. The explosion had knocked her into one of the work tables. She remembered feeling a sharp pain in the back of her head. Touching the area, she hissed in pain.
Looking down towards the tail again, Echo chuckled to herself. 'Echo Tyler, seventeen. Bio-Chem prodigy and full time researcher at Acheron International. Mermaid.' That moment, water began raining down from the sprinklers in the ceiling.
Echo relished in the feeling of cold, fresh water all over her skin. She took off the lab coat, remaining in the loose, tie-dyed t-shirt she had been wearing. Her clothes under the waistline had disappeared, replaced by the tail. Tentatively, Echo tried to move it. It felt weird, as she moved her "feet" at the same time, but the tail movement was fluid.
Reaching out her hand, the girl touched her tail. It was smooth, like a dolphin's skin. The fins, stripped with purple and turquoise, were slightly see-through and feather-light. Their edges, though, were thin and razor-sharp, Echo discovered by running her thumb along one and cutting herself.
"ET? You there?" another voice called over the intercom.
"Jay, hey. I'm here." Jay - James Ackerley - was eighteen and a tech genius. And Echo's best friend.
"You ok? What's with all the fuss about a BioCon?"
"I'm... alive. There is a BioCon in my lab. Angela should be here any moment."
"She just ran by my door, arguing with Walt about the new, high-tech, HazMat suit."
Echo sighed with relief. Walter Sombra, Jay's mentor, was the best when it came to cutting-edge tech. And he was head over heels for Angela.
"Listen, Echo, I'm getting in a HazMat and coming over. Keep calm and hang on, 'kay?"
"Wait, Jay, you..." The other teen disconnected. "...don't have to," Echo finished, lamely.
Nervous, she flicked her tail, splashing in the puddle underneath her. She heard the wheezing of the safety door and someone coming in.
"Echo? Where are you?" she heard Angela call out.
"Here, at my desk."
As Angela found her, her first observation was as to why Echo had yet to put on an oxygen mask. The older woman was well into her lecture when she noticed the mermaid tail. The lecture came to an abrupt end.
The next thing she did was to go to the intercom on Echo's desk and press a button.
"This is dr. Ziegler, in lab 116. I need a 231 dolphin tank full of fresh water ASAP! HazMat suit needed!" her voice was calm but had a sharp edge that Echo hadn't heard in years. Last time was when she and Jay had hacked the Acheron database. It had been weeks before she could look Angela in the eyes again.
Five minutes or so later, Jay appeared, followed closely by Walter and several others carrying the tank Angela had asked for.
"Hey, ET, long time no see!" Jay smirked at her, taking her in, mermaid tail and all. Wisely, he made no comment.
At the sight of his familiar smirk, Echo lost her composure. Logic and science be damned, she had grown a mermaid tail and the shock was finally catching up to her. She burst into tears, the last hour coming crashing down on her. Her friend took her in his arms, holding her tight, letting her cry.
Several minutes later, Angela ran a quick scan of the atmosphere inside the lab and deemed it safe enough to remove the HazMats.
"Listen, ET, I'll just take this thing off, I'm not leaving, okay?" Jay tried to reason with the still sobbing girl in his arms. Echo let go of his chest and nodded, tears streaming from her puffy eyes.
Slowly, trying not to startle the girl, Jay removed the suit, dropping it on the floor. As soon as it was out of the way, he took Echo back in his arms.
"Okay, the tank is ready," Angela called at the two teens. "Jay, can you help Echo over here?"
"Yeah, sure, Angie!" The boy looked down at Echo. "Okay if I lift you up and take you over there?"
She nodded and shifted herself so she could hold onto his shoulders, while he put one arm around her waist and one under the tail, where her knees should have been. He lifted her up and carried her all the way across the lab, to where the tank was.
Reaching the tank, he slowly helped her in, tail first. Echo heard Walt gasp when he saw her. She hid her face in Jay's shirt and refused to let go.
"ET, it's okay, no need to worry. I'm here. I'm not going to leave you, I promise," Jay muttered softly in her ear.
Slowly, Echo let go of her friend and submerged completely in the water. It felt cold and fresh on her skin, a welcome change from the drying air of the lab. The tail felt a lot more natural now, and, with a start, Echo felt small flaps open on both sides of her neck. Touching them, she realized that she had, somehow, developed gills. Focusing on them, she let go of the breath she had been holding and watched the bubbles raise to the surface. The gills did their job and she didn't feel the lack of oxygen she expected.
Echo took a few moments to get used to the undulating movements of her tail before she put it in use. It took her exactly two seconds to get from one end of the tank to the other.
Through the water and the glass, the girl saw Walt and Angela talking to each other and Jay sitting down next to the tank and watching her, a bemused expression on his face. She swam towards him and poked her head above the water, hair stuck to her head.
Playfully, she splashed him before he could take cover.
"Hey!" Jay tried to wipe the water from his eyes. "That ain't fair, ET!"
She chuckled in response.
"Good to see you in a better mood!" he mumbled under his breath.
"Sorry, Jay, but your face was just priceless!" Echo's hands were folded on the edge of the tank wall, supporting her head, tail splashing lazily behind her.
"Nah, it's okay. Just took me by surprise, that's all," he smiled softly in her direction. "Anyway, how did you even get like this?"
"Honestly? I have no idea. There was an explosion that knocked me out and when I woke up I was like this..."
"What were you working on?" Jay stood up and walked closer to her, stepping right in the puddle that had formed from the water dripping from her hair.
"Confidential."
"Echo, your experiment blew up and turned you into a mermaid. I think this goes beyond the 'Confidential' limits." He was pacing now, hands gesturing widely.
"Okay, okay. I was working on 'Project Sea Level' a substance that was supposed to make you able to breathe underwater. Angela had tried a small nuclear change to the base substance and I was trying to analyse a sample of the tweaked formula. Before I could do that, though, the whole thing blew up in my face." Her explanation had the same emotionless tone as a recorded report. "So far, the experiment failed."
"Well... can you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Breathe underwater?"
"Well, underwater I developed gills, so technically yes... I don't understand your point, though."
"Okay, so you are able to stay underwater for an unlimited period of time without needing to come up for air. So that should count as a successful experiment, right?" Jay's face was serious and thoughtful.
"The experiment was successful?" Echo whispered. "Jay, I wasn't supposed to grow fins! The experiment failed!" the last words were loud enough to grab Angela's attention.
"Not if you find a way to undo the transformation, ET! Just imagine the implications: 'Scientific Breakthrough: Mermaids Exist!' It would be beyond cool!" Jay's enthusiasm was getting the best of him.
"Jay, that is not the point!"
"Actually, Echo, as much as I don't like it, I have to agree with James here. The experiment was successful, although not in the way we imagined it." Angela had approached the two teens and had caught the end of their discussion.
For a few seconds, Echo was speechless. This couldn't be happening. Not now!
"Oh, come on! You take his side now of all times?! Angela, you can't be serious!"
Unfortunately, the stern expression on Angela's face told her enough to realize that her mentor was, in fact, serious. With a huff, Echo dived and laid down on the tank floor, tail-fins flopping lazily in the water. Most sounds were blocked by the water and all that was left was a background hum from the conversations being carried outside. Echo closed her eyes for a few seconds, the tiredness of the day's events finally catching up to her. 'I'll rest for just a few seconds' was the last thought that passed through her head.
***
When the mermaid woke up, she was greeted by an eerie silence. She neared the walls of her tank and saw that the lights had been dimmed and all the people were gone. All, that is, with the exception of Jay, who was hunched over her desk and typing on a laptop Echo recognised as her work one.
She lifted to the surface and cleared her throat. Jay just waved his hand at her and pointed to the desk where two mugs were steaming.
"Jay. I can't get it. Help?"
The teen looked up and seemed to realize that, indeed, his friend couldn't just get up and get her mug. He stood up and grabbed one drink in each hand, then made his way over to her. Jay handed Echo her mug and sat down on the floor with his own in hand.
"Remember that time we hacked the whole system?" he asked, then kept talking without waiting for an answer, "after that, Walt and I boosted up the security, especially on the computers in Tech. Personal devices too. But we didn't keep as close an eye on other departments as we should have... I wasn't careful enough..."
"Jay, what do you mean?" Echo was getting fidgety.
"I'm sorry, ET, I really am!"
"What are you talking about?"
"It's my fault. I wasn't careful." Jay looked up, eyes glistening with unshed tears. "It's my fault you became a mermaid."

***
This is my entry for the Wattpad Under the Sea Challenge, hope you enjoy it!
A huge thanks to @NoMoRo, who was an amazing friend and was ready to read and check this thing out before publishing.
See y'all!
-Damy