Chapter 19: Arc 1: Chapter 18: The Boy who calls fishes

"Krack"

Lightning flashes across the night sky, lighting up the night as if it were morning.

The sea was never peaceful nor calm; every time someone thinks that they've conquered the sea, it will slap you in the face like a fierce woman.

Like now, for example, the still, calm sea during the day was as if an invisible hand was violently stirring the sea during the night, lifting the heavy freight into the sky before getting slammed back into the sea.

Bruce, who had strapped himself down, recalled the rollercoaster ride he once had when he was young; he was now in terribly bad shape.

Frankly, before the storm came, he never knew he could get seasick.

"It's all my fault; I should've left earlier."

Merlin was in better condition, lying on the entrance to the cargo bay, listening to the sounds above deck.

Through his senses in the darkness, he could hear the terrified howling of the crew, as well as the furious shouting of the captain, as if something terrible had occurred above deck.

Merlin's expression was terrible, he knows not if this storm was coincidental, but he instinctively believes that his accumulated misfortune caused the danger that the ship is going through right now.

He desperately tries to stand in the rocking cargo bay; he looks back at the dizzy Bruce, grits his teeth, and opens the bay hatch.

"Bruce, take care of yourself."

Merlin shouts:

"I'm gonna go take a look above deck."

Bruce Wayne watches as Merlin storms out of the cargo bay, he also wishes to help, but his current condition was terrible.

He struggles to release his strap ons and starts heading towards the upper deck by holding onto the walls.

Merlin rushes into the dining room through the kitchen, and he begins sensing heat that should not appear in this cold weather as he moves closer to the deck.

It was fire burning; as a storm struck the ship, the cabin had begun to burn when a machine suddenly malfunctioned, causing a small-scale fire.

The closer he got, the clearer he could hear the panicked screams of the crewmates; some unlucky fellas were stuck in the fire.

"Move, move outta the way!"

Merlin could not care about hiding anymore, and he rushed through the crew members with his sunglasses on. He encloses himself with the cold shadow and picks up the fire extinguisher; he then rushes into the burning cabin.

The shadow which enshrouds him could make him last a bit longer in the fire.

But even if he does get into lethal danger, his dark powers would not let him die like so.

"Who's that madman?"

The first mate who came after hearing the news grabs a crewmate, pointing towards Merlin:

"How come I've never seen him before?"

"Nobody knows, boss."

The crewmate wipes the sweat on his forehead as he shakes his head:

"Maybe he's a stowaway...but at least he's helping us."

"Krong"

Another heavy wave hits the ship, causing the sailors to lose footing and stagger around the heat-filled cabin.

They could only widen their eyes at the cabin; regardless of their feelings for the suddenly appearing Merlin, they could only pray that he could save their brothers from the sea of fire.

A minute passes, two minutes pass by, and just as everyone was falling into despair, the stubborn chef points into the fire and shouts:

"It's him! The young man!"

"He did it! Come help!"

The waiting crewmates rush forward and drag the tired Merlin, as well as the few people he had pulled out of the fire, aside. These unlucky bastards were burned, but it was not fatal; if Merlin had gone in a few minutes later, they could've been in a worse situation.

Merlin lies aside, he was also burned, but thankfully, there were no other wounds besides the burns.

"I don't know who you are or why you're on this ship."

The black first mate closes the hatch, stopping the fire from spreading, and looks down at Merlin:

"But maybe now, the people on this ship will have to thank you."

Merlin had no strength to reply; he wiped the ash from his face and waved his hand. Just as the fire in the cabin was put under control, Merlin looked out at the window; the raging storm had seemingly become smaller.

The worst hour of this misfortune had passed.

On the second morning, the sudden storm had dissipated after a few hours, and the ships, which had lost power and were floating above the sea, had been rescued.

Multiple ships from Amnesty Bay approaches the freight; they must first escort the crewmates to the harbor, then have towing vessels tow this heavily damaged ship back into port.

For now, in the captain's quarters, a tired old captain looks at Merlin and Bruce sternly; he sips his smoke and taps on the table:

"Maybe I should hand you two over to the police, you're stowaways after all, plus you've stolen quite the amount of food from us. More importantly, I suspect that you're on this ship for another reason, since Stark Industries often has spies sent from other companies...though unfortunately, I cannot prove that theory."

"But we saved your crewmates."

The bandaged Merlin looks at the captain:

"That should make us even, right?"

"Even?"

The captain squints and speaks harshly:

"In your dreams!"

The old man with a large build stands up and looks at the young man with his intimidating stare, which causes the two to take a step backward.

A few minutes later, the old man sits down, pulls out the drawer, and takes out an envelope, and he then throws it at Merlin.

Merlin takes the envelope and inspects it, in it was a stack of money.

He looks at the old captain in confusion, in which he shrugs:

"Now, we're even."

"This is a gift the crewmates gave you; since you saved their lives, you have my thanks as well."

The old man picks up a cigar and lights it; he continues:

"Stark Industries' Office of Internal Affairs has a long and tedious process, and one circumscription is the loss of crewmates. If you hadn't saved those unlucky bastards, I would've been flying to New York to be investigated right now...those damn mo********ers won't let me through so easily, so in theory, you also saved my precarious career life."

 "Now, scram! There's a boat for you by the ship. I'll pretend that I've never seen you before, so make sure this is my last time seeing you on this ship!"

Merlin and Bruce look at each other. The former throws the envelope to Bruce, then heads out of the quarters, yawning.

Bruce then takes some money from the stack and places it on the captain's table; he explains to the captain:

"This is wine money; a thank you for your hospitality."

"Another reminder, don't buy wine from the shop you frequent. All the 'expensive' whiskey in your cabinet...are fake."

---

"Urgh, the wine here tastes funny."

On the harbor of Amnesty Bay, Merlin and Bruce accompany each other as they travel. Merlin takes a drink of the wine he had just bought and looks at Bruce with a weird face:

"Like overnight juice."

"It's fine."

Bruce does not care; he feels the blowing sea breeze and says:

"Enjoy it; we bought it with our money after all."

"Mmm...putting it that way does make it taste slightly better."

Merlin laughs, drinks off the rest of the wine, then discards it into the nearby trash can. With his sunglasses, he looks around and points to the nearby beach:

"Look! A lighthouse."

"Not just a lighthouse..."

Bruce squints his eyes and looks atop of the lighthouse:

"There's a person up there; what's he doing?"

"It's a kid, shit!"

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Merlin looks up; his enhanced vision sees the figure moving atop the lighthouse, it was a young boy lying at the edge of the lighthouse, and any second, it would seem that he would fall off. He hurriedly taps Bruce's shoulder:

"He's going to fall! Come on!"

Bruce drops the wine bottle at hand and rushes towards the lighthouse with Merlin.

But as they approach the lighthouse, Merlin lets out an exclamation. Before their eyes, the young boy leaps into the ocean.

"Dammit!"

Watching the young boy fall, Merlin runs as he takes off his shirt,e throws it at Bruce then leaps into the sea as soon as he reaches the beach.

Merlin's swimming technique was not that bad; he jumped into the ice-cold waters and began swimming towards the struggling child.

On the other hand, Bruce takes a lifebuoy tied to a rope and runs towards where the young boy had fallen.

"I gotcha! Don't let go!"

Merlin approaches the young boy and grabs him; he shouts:

"Don't be scared; I'm gonna save you."

"I don't need your saving!"

But the young boy struggles more fiercely, as his blonde hair gets wet, he shouts at Merlin stubbornly:

"Let go! Let go! I'm going to go look for my mom!"

"Like hell, I'm letting go!"

In this time of crisis, Merlin disregards the boy's screaming and swims for shore with one hand as the other grabs him.

"Help me! Help me!"

The young boy grabbed by Merlin shouts at the sea; at first, Merlin thought it off as child's play, but then the surrounding waters felt wrong. 

Fish!

Fish everywhere!

From small black fishes to silver swordfish and pods of dolphins, as he looks back, Merlin could even see water splashing from the back of the whales, even the fins of sharks.

In just a few minutes, Merlin felt as though he was trapped in a storm of fish; he sensed the impending danger, even the dark powers inside him began to flow.

Merlin enshrouds himself with shadows in the ice-cold water and pulls the young boy into his Shadow Cloak.

He dares not struggle as he sees some dangerous tiger sharks swimming just a few dozen meters away.

Merlin covers the boy's mouth and has a crazy assumption...

Perhaps, this boy called those fish.

The fish are here to help him.

"F*** me, what's this world coming to?"

Merlin complains while gritting his teeth; under Shadow Cloak, the fish lose their target and begin swarming away.

The few dangerous sharks swarm out as well, as they detect the presence of food, which relieves Merlin.

He grabs the no-longer-struggling boy and swims shore-bound, then he grabs the lifebuoy Bruce throws down and returns to shore with the blonde boy.

The lighthouse was some distance away from the harbor, so not many people saw this strange occurrence.

Merlin carries the boy above the shore and winks to Bruce, who understands it.

A few minutes later, Merlin brings the boy under the lighthouse in Amnesty Bay, he sits on the chair aside from the lighthouse's entrance, and as he dries his clothes, he looks at the young boy in front of him, who also looks back at him.

"Those fish...you called them?"

Bruce squats beside the boy and dries his hair with a towel he had just bought. He proceeds to ask:

"What's your name?"

"Arthur. My name is Arthur."

The boy answers Bruce's question, but his eyes lock on Merlin.

As if he was looking at someone mysterious.

Merlin had just escaped the terrible fate of being eaten by sharks, so he was in a bad mood; he harshly scares the boy:

"Whatchu looking at? Keep looking, and I'll throw you to the sea!"

"You're a magician! I saw! You hid us with your shadow!"

Young Arthur was not afraid. In fact, he had widened his eyes at Merlin and asked with anticipation:

"Sir Magician, could you take me to the deep seas?"

The boy's question confuses Merlin.

He knew that the young boy in front of him was unique; perhaps he could even find the way to get rid of his misfortune, so he asks back:

"Then tell me, why do you want to go to the deep seas?"

"Because my mom's there!"

The boy replies:

"In Atlantis, the city of the undersea people, my mom's the queen there."

The boy saddens as he speaks; he plays with his fingers as he continues:

"I've always wanted to swim for her, but I'm too young, and I can't swim that far. Every time I swim too far away, the fish stop helping me...you're the first magician I've met, so can you help?"

Before Merlin could reply, the lighthouse's door, which was shut, opened from the inside.

A slightly haggled but handsome-looking man wearing a sweater stands at the door. Young Arthur excitedly jumps into his arms when he sees him.

"Dad, dad! I found Mr. Magician! He's going to help us find mom, he promised!"

"Oh?"

The man lets out a smile and strokes his son's head:

"How great of my little Arthur."

He finishes and turns to Merlin and Bruce, his eyes full of wariness. Moments later, he turns his body sideways and gestures 'welcome'.

He says:

"Unfortunately, these two are not magicians...so they can't help us."

"Still, please come in for a seat, kind sirs."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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