It was sinking, there were people in the water, more than the rescue workers could reach in time. Clark heard the screams from Metropolis and was there in minutes, fishing the panicked exhausted people out of the sea and flying to the nearby shore where wide eyed onlookers were pointing and filming the stricken ship.
“...veered unexpectedly of course and crashed against a rocky outcrop just south…” a news reporter spoke into a camera, her voice clear despite the piercing winds and the shouts of the people. “...Superman has arrived on scene.”
He flew back to circle the ship, looking for more people. Most of them were in lifeboats, some were floating in life jackets, waving to rescue crews.
That was when he saw him.
Underwater. Not moving.
A man. His skin pale, hair dark, his side streaming blood.
Clark dived, wrapped his arms around the figure, and pulled him towards the surface.
“Superman!”
He frowned. Arthur was swimming towards him, fast. What’s he doing here?
It didn’t matter. He needed to get this man out. Saving life was the first priority. He broke through the waves and hoisted the stranger into the air. Only then did he realise something was wrong. The body in his arms was heavier than it should be… and twisting, mouth gasping, as if he was still drowning.
“Sir. Can you hear me? You’re hurt. I’m going to get you to…”
That was when Clark saw it.
A tail, like that of a dolphin. Long, mottled grey blue, and thrashing back and forth. Struggling. Fighting him. Clark felt claws rake uselessly at the indestructible skin of his arm and when he looked back at the man’s face he saw teeth, sharp and serrated, like a sharks. He cried out in shock and dropped him.
The man – the merman – fell back into the water with a loud splash.
Clark stared.
No. It couldn’t be. Mermen didn’t exist…
But, on the other hand, he could fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes. Were merpeople really that strange compared to that? Clark watched as merman quickly orientated himself in the water, hugged his wounded side, and dove to hide in the shadowy underbelly of the sinking ship.
“What did you do?” He heard Arthur yell up at him. The sea king was floating in the water, shoving hair out of his face. “Where did it go?”
“Is that… eh… an Atlantian?”
“That was a nychterĂda,” he spat, angry. “It may look pretty but it’s from the trench. Where did it go?”
That was when Clark noticed Arthur’s trident. It was red with blood.
He thought of the wound on the merman’s side. He thought of Arthur’s angry cry.
Clark’s eyes flicked down to the merman, still hiding under the cruise ship. “He swam away,” Clark lied.
“Which way?!”
“I don’t know.”
“Damn it!” Arthur shoved at the water causing a wave to surge around him, rocking a nearby lifeboat. “I almost had it.”
“Why do you want to hurt him?”
“It!” Arthur yelled up at him pointedly. “I was trying to kill it.”
“Why?”
“It’s what caused this disaster. It was hunting the people. It would have eaten them if I hadn’t come when I did. That’s what those things do. They lure ships off course. Crash them. Kill everyone they can.”
Clark looked at the merman. Saw again those teeth. Those claws. He felt sick.
“Damn it,” Arthur said again and, without another word turned and dove back below the waves. With a surge of disturbed water, he was gone.
Clark looked around. He saw all the people in lifeboats or on the shore, shaken, shivering, but safe. He also saw the merman, hidden from all eyes but his. He looked wounded, weak. Shaking and shivering, just like the people.
But those claws were still on his fingers. Those teeth were still in his mouth.
Clark could hear the news report the woman had filmed a few minutes airing in a nearby city.
“...veered unexpectedly of course and crashed against a rocky outcrop…”
Could he really have caused that? Would he really have eaten the people in the water if Arthur hadn’t stopped him? Stabbed him?
He saw the merman notice the absence of the sea king and emerge from hiding, still cradling his wounded side. His eyes were a strange pale blue as they scanned the water, turning to the nearest inflatable lifeboat.
No…
The merman began to move towards them. Teeth barred.
Clark dove back into the water and once more grabbed the merman. This time he didn’t let go.
He didn’t want to kill him. But he couldn’t let him hurt people either.
That left only one option. The Fortress of Solitude had a menagerie full of creatures from all corners of the galaxy. It would be able to, within minutes, read the DNA of the merman and create a suitable home for him. One where he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone or be hunted down by Aquaman.
“Sorry,” Clark said as he gathered the struggling creature into his arms. “This is for the best.”
It wasn’t until he was back in the fortress watching the merman swim back and forth in his new tank, side bandaged, that he quietly allowed himself to acknowledge the truth of what Arthur had said. The merman may be a creature of the trench, full of hunger and little else. But he was beautiful, hauntingly so.
His face shockingly human, his eyes eerily blue, his body above his fins lean and long.
“Hello,” Clark said, to see if he would answer.
He didn’t. He just flashed his teeth and kept swimming.
Perhaps that was better. He didn’t think he could live with keeping an intelligent species in the fortress, no matter how dangerous it was to leave it in the wild.
He sat down to watch the merman swim.
