Jason opened his eyes under the sea and glanced around, eyes darting anxiously from side to side.
'When did the world become so blue?' he questioned mentally. 'Wait. Eve and Karl. Where are they? We were just listening to some music and…'
He paused and turned to survey his surroundings. Feeling a bit of resistance against his neck, the hate reader swung his arms to the right and pushed heavily against the "air," moving barely an inch to the left.
'Is this water?' he pondered before shaking his head at such an outrageous thought. 'Nah, no way. How can I breathe if that's true?'
Jason refocused on his surroundings and looked down. Wiggling his arms like an octopus, his eyes met with the infinite abyss of black and blue and widened with fear. His body began to shiver from the cold, and the "air" nudged him gently in every direction.
'This is definitely water, alright,' he thought to himself.
He pushed the thoughts to the back of his end.
'No matter. I will look for my friends first."
The hate reader scanned the blue canvas once more and discerned the bodies of a silver-haired and black-striped creature, floating at eye-level. Swimming rapidly over to the bodies, he pushed, stroke after stroke, until he came face-to-face with a monster, whose lifeless eyes gleamed ghost white.
"Woah," Jason blurted in shock. "MONSTER!"
He paddled backwards frantically as the water buoyed him to the right. Narrowing his eyes, the hate reader cautiously examined the creature and noticed a familiar stupid expression.
"Oh! It's Karl!" he said with a relieved sigh. "Man, don't scare me like that. You look totally different in the water LMAO."
The water continued to push him to the right until he hit a hard glass-like surface.
"Ouch."
Instinctively, Jason moved his hands toward the unique surface and stuck his arm out as far as he could. He wanted to satiate his curiosity about this peculiar place, and as his arm passed through the faint line marking the wall in front of him, Jason instantly felt a searing sensation as a blade of rapidly churning water sliced off his fingers. Breathing heavily, the black-haired vampire clasped his injured hand with the other and flutter kicked away from the wall. He closed his eyes and attempted to focus his efforts on regeneration, gathering as much blood around him as possible, but the salt water heavily interfered with the process.
"Fuck," he said aloud softly. "What the fuck is this place?"
Jason grit his teeth and stared at the swelling stumps on his right arm. Blood cells from within rushed toward the site and formed clots in a process of coagulation, temporarily stopping the outflow of blood.
"I can speak, and I can breathe," he said in confusion. "But I can't leave this box-like structure?"
At that very moment, an eerie pressure enveloped the hate reader, forcing his ears to ring.
"Welcome to my water prism," an ominous voice sang. "A divine place where guests can eat, breathe, and talk but never leave…"
Jason flinched and squinted in the direction of the sound, but the unknown creature was nowhere to be seen. On high alert, the black-haired vampire attempted to form his blood bow, but to his surprise, the blood that gathered in his hands washed away and dispersed into the sea.
With no other method to defend himself, the royal vampire concentrated one hundred percent of his senses into vision and slowly pulled out his paralysis grenade. A flash of pink and blue gleamed brightly in the ocean for seconds as a mysterious hum filled the air.
"Black hair. Check."
"Handsome. Check."
"Tall. Well, tall enough."
Listing off the requisite categories, the mystifying mermaid screeched in a high-pitched voice, full of delight.
"Your end is near, you filthy black-haired creature."
The loud screech shook Karl awake, causing him to roll backwards with a terrified look. The Doom Monkey breathed heavily and hyperventilated as he took note of his surroundings, his sweat staining the water around him yellow.
"What? Did I make it to heaven? Why is it blue?" he shouted.
The little monkey glanced around nervously and caught sight of his Master, pointing furiously in a direction and signaling something with his hands.
"Oh, Jason's here," he said, still in a daze. "Must not be heaven then."
Karl scampered over to the hate reader with haste, but his kicks and arm strokes propelled him upward toward the edge. Hitting his head on the prism's fine line, Karl screamed like a little girl as the razor-sharp water blade trimmed off a few of his hairs.
"The hell is this?" he yelled, hurling insults under his tongue.
Karl watched his well-groomed hair slowly drift away with a tear and raised his arm in response.
Just as the Doom Monkey sniffled one last time, a beautiful mermaid dashed through the water at lightning speed, effortlessly stepping between the hate reader, vampire, and Doom Monkey. With the gentle push of her tail, the pink and blue scaled mermaid flung herself forward, silently slipping behind her target. Jason's eyes opened with fear as she brandished her fancy katana, blue as the sapphire waves around them. With a single slash, the mermaid parted the sea in a display of power before water rushed in again to fill the gap.
Horrified, the hate reader tracked the acquatic creature's movements with his eyes, but his body refused to move under the pressure of the deep sea. He helplessly doggy paddled away and tossed the S-class paralysis grenade, but it was too late.
The mermaid gracefully danced around the blast zone of the grenade and thrust her blue katana in a smooth and simple motion, piercing deep into a chunk of flesh. She yanked out the blade and shook it, purple water swirling around her like a concoction of salt water and blood.
"Die, you stupid otherworlder," the mysterious mermaid said with a murderous gaze as the pungent smell of blood spread toward Jason's nostrils.
She resheathed her katana and stared at the ensuing commotion.
"My Lady," she reported with a smile. "The mission is complete."
Jason screamed in horror and pushed hard, stroke after stroke, desperately tried to move. He had witnessed the stabbing occur right in front of him, but there had been nothing he could do.
"Karl!" Jason shrieked in shock. "Why the hell would someone try to kill Karl?"
With a burst of inspiration, Jason kicked his leg hard against the water beneath him with the full force of a royal vampire and shot directly toward his loyal servant. He knew that he would have to face the consequences of overexertion once more, but now was not the time to calculate deaths. Gliding through the water with the remaining momentum, Jason pushed the mermaid to the side with his healthy arm and sneered.
"Get the fuck out of the way, you bitch."
He grabbed the wounded Doom Monkey by the shoulders and drew him closer to his chest in a soft embrace. Sinking slowly, Jason released a sorrowful cry and asked gently, "Karl. Hey Karl, can you hear me?"
In classic Karl fashion, the Doom Monkey shot his thumb toward the sky and smiled feebly, clutching his stomach tightly and wincing in immense pain.
Eve, who had just awoken from Jason's screams, glared at the mermaid with the emotionless face of a demoness. Her eyes began to turn a dark crimson and burned brightly with the flames of resentment. Transforming both hands into sanguine claws, she released a flurry of swipes at the rose-colored mermaid, but as the blood began to mix with water once more, the loyal assassin effortlessly nullified the little girl's onslaught and maneuvered herself to open water.
"Hold on a second. Did you say Karl?" the mermaid asked, her eyes glowing pink in confusion. She turned to face the Doom Monkey, who was rapidly losing consciousness. "You're a different Karl, right? An otherworlder?"
"Huh?" the Doom Monkey questioned. He spat a wad of saliva in the water, but the current soon washed it back to his face.
"You are from another world, right?" she repeated anxiously with a yell.
"What the fuck are you talking about, you stupid bitch?" replied a pissed off Karl. "I was born and raised in the Curious Grove."
"Okay, so then, who is—"
The mermaid scratched her head in confusion and furrowed her eyebrows. Sensing an opportunity to attack, the black-haired teenager charged at the beautiful mermaid with his claws.
"DIEEEEEEE!" he screamed in agony as he swam the fastest 100 meter free-style of his life. "JUSTICE FOR KARL! I WILL TAKE YOUR REVENGE. I PROMISE."
In an instant, the mysterious mermaid repositioned herself with a light push of her tail. She clasped her fingers together, summoning a small-scale tidal wave that knocked the air out of the hate reader's breath.
"Time out," she said, crossing her hands in a T. The mysterious mermaid bit her nails and took a moment to gather her thoughts, staring straight into hate reader's soul. "It can't be…right?"
With an unwavering gaze, the assassin stared into the man's face and recited her checklist silently.
"Black hair. Check."
"Handsome. Eh. The Doom Monkey is obviously way cuter."
"Tall. Ohhhh, Turtle poop," she cursed as the realization finally hit her.
From a young age, Nami had been brutally trained by her mother to inherit the title of Atlantis's best assassin and had performed a number of difficult missions with a spotless record. She was simply unbeatable in her domain, able to control trap portions of the sea in her prisms and could maneuver through water with unrivaled elegance and speed. Though she was a clumsy mermaid in her spare time, carefree and cheerful, she had never made a mistake like this before. After all, work was work, and she was the best at her job.
How could she have made such a mistake?
A shout burst through the water, interrupting Nami's deep train of thought.
"Hellooooo? Nami?" the Doom Monkey called, coughing up blood. His voice cracked a few times from the dryness of his throat, but still, Karl bit the bottom of his lip to stay conscious. "Are you not going to save me? After the many months we spent together, you should at least…"
Within a second, the heartless, blood-curling assassin vanished and was replaced by a cute yet clumsy ex-girlfriend.
"Hmmph!" the pampered pink mermaid said with a pout. She shrugged her shoulders dramatically and turned her head to the side. "You deserve to die for what you did to me anyways, you stupid monkey."
Karl tilted his head quizzically and squeezed his hands tightly on his stomach.
"What are you talking about, Nami? Wait, IS THIS EVEN THE RIGHT TIME TO DO THIS? I'M LITERALLY DYING."
"OF COURSE, IT'S THE RIGHT TIME," the pink mermaid shouted back. "For starters, I haven't seen you in years, and I'm sure you didn't even try to look for me. Like, if you cared enough, you should have followed me."
She crossed her arms angrily, and Karl replied with a heavy sigh.
"Nami, I'm a fucking monkey. I can't swim. Tell me. How do you want me to get here? TELEPORT?"
"O-oh," she stuttered in reply, her face flushing red in embarrassment. "I never thought of that. B-but there are other reasons too. Like why did you never want to hang out with my friends?"
"Sweetie," he repeated in a matter-of-fact voice. "I. CAN'T. SWIM."
"BESIDES YOUR FRIENDS NEVER WANTED TO DO ANYTHING ON LAND!"
"Well, whatever the reason, I felt like you didn't care about me anymore, so I left."
Jason and Eve watched the couple fight nervously as Karl dug his fingers deeper into his stomach, attempting to stop the bleeding.
The black-striped Doom Monkey coughed up a bit of blood and stared deep into the mermaid's eyes with sincerity and affection.
"No Nami, that's not it," he said. "That's not it at all. I still miss you, and I miss the fun times we used to have together...even if you were a bit clumsy."
"In fact, I kept the first flower you brought me, I sing your songs when I'm lonely, and I even bought a treehouse near the lake for us to stay in!" he continued excitedly as a pool of red burst from his stomach.
His voice trailed, and his head snapped backwards unconsciously. As his arms dangled lifelessly by his side, Karl sank toward the bottom of the Tritonean sea.