The Shima brothers were driving through the wastelands with their new team mate, Trace Ace. She has made herself very comfortable with the duo. She lays in the back seat with her feet kicked up on to the passenger seat, where a perturbed Psy was sitting. Zed and Psy were not so sure about her just yet but the sniping ability she possessed could prove useful to them.

It was the second day since they had left Big Shot City and the provisions that Zach had given them were dwindling. The traveling trio are drenched with sweat as they drive through the sun stained wastelands. The jeep starts to putter until it lost all life and rolled to a stop.

“Oh boy”, said Zed. “Out of juice”.

“Excuse me?” asked Trace.

“I mean it looks like we’re walking the rest of the way there”, replied Zed. Trace melted further into her seat.

“Walk in this hot mess!?” said Trace.

“Unless you want to get cooked up in this jeep”, said Zed.

“Uuuuugh!” Trace rolled her eyes as she lazily gets up from her seat and gets out of the jeep. Zed and Psy follow suit and make their way to the back of the jeep to gather what provisions they have left, water and a couple of snacks. Trace lets the boys carry the provisions wrapped up on to their backs.

“Uh, you gunna help with this?” asked Zed.

“Uh, you going to make a lady carry things?” asked Trace sarcastically.

“Ya, so ladylike with that sniper rifle strapped to your back”, retorted Zed.

“Hey, you can carry the sniper rifle while you’re at it!” said Trace. She hops over to Zed and slings her rifle around him with a cheery smile.

“… sure”, said Zed with a half-smile. Zed uses his hand to shade his eyes as he looks off into the distance. From far away he can see the blurred image of a mountain range, it waved on the horizon due to the heat. “Let’s make our way in that direction”.

“That’s pretty far”, said Trace as she too shaded her eyes to see the mountains in the distance.

“You see anywhere else to go?” Zed gestured to vast emptiness that surrounded them. “Besides mountains are pretty big, so they probably cast a shadow we can camp in right?”

“Alright, Mr. Smarty!” Trace said snarky as she put her hands on her hips. She turns herself towards the direction of the mountains and begins marching. Psy walks up to his brother.

“She kinda sucks”, Psy mumbled to Zed.

“Ya… little bit! Hopefully it was the right choice bringing her along”, questioned Zed. “She got money though”. Psy pauses and nods his head in agreement. The two begin walking a few steps behind Trace into the boiling hot wastelands.

Three hours have gone by and the three adventurers’ find themselves sweating bullets. Zed and Psy strain themselves as they carry the provisions on their backs. Trace fans herself with her hand as she opens the top of her shirt to try and cool down. Zed raises a bottle of water and guzzles it down his parched throat. A sweating Psy continued to show little emotion, though soaked with sweat. Zed finished the bottle of water and stared straight off into the distance. He squints his eyes as something large and flat begins to come into view. Heat lines made the something dance, but it’s blue reflective surface made Zed recognize it instantly. “Water!” yelled Zed.

“Water?” questioned Trace as she strained to see what Zed was seeing. “You must be seeing a mirage. How could a body of water exist out here?”

“I see it!” a delirious Zed replied. “And we’re going right for it!” Zed grabs Psy by his collar and runs to the possible illusion, right past the questioning Trace.

“Hey! Wait for me!” yelled Trace as she runs after the two. “I swear, these boys have no idea how to treat a lady.” Meanwhile Zed gets closer and closer to the possible mirage with hope, a trail of dust followed behind him, until he’s standing right on the edge of it. Zed surveys the huge lake and he could not see the other end.

“I knew I wasn’t seeing things!” Zed yelled. Zed drops Psy and with no hesitation, drops the provisions, and jumps into the mysterious body of water. Traces catches up to the two and stares in astonishment at the huge lake in the middle of the wastelands.

“How can this even be here?” questioned Trace as she scratches her head. Zed’s head pops out from the lake and he spits a stream of lake water from his mouth.

“I’ll tell you one thing about this water. It’s salty as hek!” exclaimed Zed with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Trace kneels down to the water and cups the water with her hand, and gives it a lite sip. She daintily spits the water back out.

“You’re right”, said Trace. Zed shrugs his shoulders and continues to swim and cool down in the refreshing lake, dismissing the mystery. Trace however doesn’t and stands up. “Is your arm even water proof?”

“The outside is”, responded Zed as he swims by doing the backstroke, his eyes closed. Psy still laying on the ground, dips his fingers into the water. Trace looks around and notices the large, translucent greenish-blue bubbles that dotted the lake’s surface that Zed neglected to pay attention to. They were at least twice the size of your average adult. Trace watches as Zed backstrokes his way straight toward one of the bubbles.

“Zed be careful of that!” exclaimed Trace.

“Huh?” Zed said lifting his head up mid stroke. His body drifts right into one of the soft bubbles, and gently bounces off the surface. Zed turns to the bubble and touches it with his left hand, finding it very smooth and slimy. “Hmmm?” Zed looks underneath the green bubble and finds an array of fluffy tentacles that paid him no interest. “I think it’s a jellyfish?” Psy looks at his brother with a raised eyebrow while Trace backs away.

“A jellyfish that big?!” questioned a startled Trace. “Is it going to sting you?!”

“I don’t think so”, responded Zed. Zed then began to climb up the jellyfish’s smooth dome and spread his body out on top of it, belly down. “This feels less like a stinger and more like an awesome bed.” Zed stares down into the lake. In the water he sees a school of jellyfish swim by. These jellyfish looked very different from the one he was resting on, sporting squid like flaps on their slender translucent domes. Long tentacles trailed behind them as they gracefully flapped by. “This is pretty cool. You guys should come see this.” Psy begins to stand up and drops his provisions, as Trace reluctantly walks into the lake. Zed continues to stare down into the lake and makes out a humanoid figure a little deeper in the water swimming by. Trace and Psy swim over to Zed and join him on to the top of the large jellyfish. “You guys see that?” Psy and Trace peer into the lake and see the figure.

“What’s that?” questioned Trace.

“Could be a body”, said Psy. Trace looks at Psy with both confusion and disgust.

“Hhheeeeeeeyyyyyyy!!!” yelled Zed. “You dead?!”

“What’s wrong with you two?!” exclaimed Trace. The figure under the water began growing larger as it makes its direction toward the curious trio. It gets closer and closer until a bald blue head with the pattern of two dark blue crescents, breaks the surface. Now in front of them was something none of them had ever seen before. The blue person began to speak to them.

“I’m very much alive, thank you”, said the blue person. “I see you three are enjoying that fysallida jelly.” Zed, Psy and Trace look at blue person with their mouths open with surprise. Trace closes her mouth and regains her composure.

“Excuse our rudeness”, Trace said. “but we’ve never seen… whatever you are.” The blue person smiled.

“No, where are my manners”, he said. “My name’s Brine and I’m a merperson. What are the names of you three humans?”

“I’m Trace and these two idiots are Psy and Zed”, Trace gestured to the two brothers with their mouths still ajar. A perturbed Trace takes both their bottom jaws and shuts them. “Close your mouths! Have some manners in front of Brine.” Zed and Psy get back to their senses and join the conversation.

“Well I can’t really blame you guys for never seeing a merperson”, said Brine. “Most merpeople you’d find come from the ocean but I grew up right here in the Great Oasis. It’s become pretty rare to find humans way out here though. Where are you heading?”

“We were walking toward those mountains until we found this ‘Great Oasis’ you called it?” said Zed.

“Oh you’re still pretty far from those. At least a day’s walk”, explained Brine. “Why don’t you guys come back home with me and rest up a little? You guys look like you could use some cooling down.”

“Cool!” exclaimed Zed.

“Ahem!” Trace cleared her throat. “Thank you for the invite but humans can’t exactly breathe underwater.” Zed’s realizes this with disappointment.

“Oh! So sorry!” exclaimed Brine. “We haven’t seen humans here for years now so it totally slipped my mind. Hold on one second, I’ll be right back.” Brine dives back into the lake and disappears back into the abyss.

“We’re not actually going to follow this guy are we?” asked Trace.

“Why not?” responded Zed.

“Why not? I’ve never seen a merperson before, and I’m pretty sure you nimrods haven’t either. How do we know he’s not bringing us back to his house to invite us for dinner? And we turn out to be the dinner!” said a worried Trace.

Psy snickered. “Classic.”

“I’m sure that’s not going to happen”, said Zed confidently. Brine quickly returned to the three holding what appeared to be three green glowing sea slugs.

“Here you go”, Brine said. “Eat these Aeras slugs and your body will have enough oxygen to last 12 hours underwater.” Traces looks down at the sea slug, horrified. Zed smiles as he lifts up his sea slug and drops it down his mouth, chewing it up.

“You see?” said Zed between chewing. “He’s serving us dinner, not making us dinner.” Trace watches still horrified as Zed swallows the chewed up slug.

“There’s no way we’re eating this slimy thing, right Psy?” said Trace. Psy looks up at her with the slug halfway in his mouth. Psy then slurps the rest of the slug into his mouth and swallows it whole. Trace looks at him in disgust. The two boys jump of the jellyfish and into the water with the awaiting Brine.

“Come on Trace!” said Zed before diving underwater. Zed, Psy and Brine dive underwater and begin swimming downwards. Trace stares at her aeras slug and turns green from queasiness. She closes her eyes, stuffs the slimy creature into her mouth and jumps into the water, swimming after the descending three.