Asceia witnessed the horrible massacre of her kind. The armed men who just landed, one by one, butchered every sercean they encountered along the way. They stepped on their head until their skulls broke, stabbed their faces with the knife attached to the end of their rifle, and some soldiers who brought machetes chopped their bodies into pieces while making fun of them.

“The Superior said we have captured enough alive mermaids, so everything that’s left will be up to us.”

One of them chuckled. “I wonder what would a mermaid feel like...”

“I will bring one of their skulls for my collection.”

“These things are beasts, if we will not take them out first, they will kill us all.”

“Have fun boys. Do what you want. These beasts are not protected in any of the laws.”

A man with a well-built body stood near her and look down at her. On the chest of his uniform, his surname Leon was written. “Leave this to me,” he declared to his comrades. “Anyone who touches her will never leave this place alive.”

Asceia just lay on the sand paralyzed and drained out of energy. She was battling with the drugs planted in her system while watching the men making fun of her people’s bodies. She was fighting for her consciousness, darkness was about to take over again, but her fear of passing out and losing track of events and time kept her awake. Her head was still ringing from the pain brought by the sonic weapon and it wasn’t getting any better.

Her vision may be blurry but she clearly saw how a man chopped off the head of a kid who was trying to defend herself. That sight fueled her vengeful anger. She’s desperate to break free of the drug and kill them all. The next thing she knew was the sole of Leon’s boot pressing on her neck, constricting her throat from gasping air. She raised her hands, pushing herself to her limits. Leon just chuckled watching her struggle. She held on to his leg, trying to lift it off of her neck. But he’s too strong, he’s incredibly strong.

She let his weight push her neck. Instead of trying to push away his foot, she tightened her grip on his leg and closed her eyes. Despite the lacking of air to breathe and the ringing noise in her head, she searched for peace and called on to her Goddess. Her heart was beating slowly, the noise of her mind faded and replaced by the Song their Goddess Aesercean hummed to her the first time they made contact. Her Song replenished her system, healed her wounds, remove any pain, and gave her the strength she needs.

Asceia started humming the tune of the Song. She opened her eyes and looked at Leon’s eyes intently and a smile slowly appeared on her lips. She saw the shock on his face, especially his eyes which showed nothing but horror. His mouth was wide open, gasping for air while feeling discomfort inside his body. His weight on her neck was lightened until his feet were lifted. She let go of his leg. He fell to his knees and dropped beside her, with his body shaking uncontrollably.

She continued humming the Song. Slowly, she pulled herself together and stood back up. The waves crashing on the shore were getting more and more violent each second, and the tide was rising at a very fast rate. She caught all of the men’s attention. Their rifles were immediately pointed in her direction but before they could even pull the trigger, in just one swift movement of her hand, the waves attacked them. They were smashed by the force of the water and put to the ground. With her hands guiding, the weight of the water pulled the men to the deep where they never had a chance to breathe air.

Seeing their dead bodies float one by one, she turned her attention to her injured people. Humming the Song, strands of water from the sea crawled like a vine on the beach and reached for their bodies. The water wrapped their wounds and healed their body quickly. When she realized that she was not hearing the sonic weapon in the water, once again, she called on the waves to pull her kind back to the water to continue their regeneration and to bury the bodies of her dead people.

She went back into the water and endured another metamorphosis. With her influence on the water, she burst her way to the deep, as if she was cutting through the water without feeling any drag or resistance by the currents. At the same time, she connected her mind to all of the surviving serceans.

“Scatter, find the others, and destroy the weapons they used against us!”

She stopped swimming and closed her eyes. With her mind spread across the Philippine seas, she saw everything through the eyes of other searceans. One of them was on the surface, a searceano somewhere in the South Philippine Sea, looking at the heavy-lift crane helicopter carrying a red shipping container. Connecting to the other serceans, she counted five more helicopters carrying containers and heading to their headquarters.

Just by looking at it, she knew it contained her people. She hummed the Song and concentrated on the choppers. With the power of the Goddess Aesercean running through her veins, she was able to influence the water. Five tentacle-like water rose through the air and reached for the helicopter. The pillars of water smashed the vehicles and crashed them down. Tapping into the senses of other serceans nearby the crash site, she watched them take the pilots to the deep where several serceans tore their bodies apart. The others forcibly opened the container and freed the weak serceans that were undergoing metamorphosis.

••°°••

“WHAT THE FUCK happened, Helena?” The Superior snapped while holding the microphone of his headphone close to his mouth. “The sonic weapons went offline at the same time and all of the transport team went down! We are wasting billions!”

“Sir, I heard from our men on the ground that there are this couple of teenagers who hacked our system. They’re also people who took down our Headquarters in the Visayas.”

“Teenagers? Our corporation is compromised by fucking teenagers?  Tell our men to hunt them down and kill them!”

“Yes sir.”

“And turned back those weapons on!”

“Sir, I’m afraid our buoys are already destroyed.”

“The President expected our project to be successful. We barely have enough serum to support our army. We promised to provide treatment for cancer! Without those animals, we will lose!” He punched the table.

“Yes sir, I understand.”