Chapter Text
It had started like every other week – a shitty Monday weather, raining and thundering like it had a bone to pick with the city, just as Blaster had been driving to work. In hindsight, that should have been his sign the week would absolutely suck. He had spent most of the day inside or wrestling with the weather to bring food to Jazz and Prowl. The two mers were underwater most of the time, only surfacing for air, probably also not enjoying the weather. One good thing was that it at least gave Blaster some more time to convince the other staff members to not separate Prowl from Jazz.
‘I know Prowl’s place is not here and he has to be released just… I hoped maybe Jazz could have the same opportunity too, being with other mers and not alone here, doing tricks.’ – Blaster thought sadly, as his initial plan was almost a guaranteed failure.
Tuesday the weather had cleared but Blaster’s mood remained sour, especially with the head vet’s nagging about finally getting Prowl to the wild, since the mer was apparently proving quite ‘problematic’ to work with.
“I don’t know, doc. I don’t have nearly as much trouble with Prowl as you do. Maybe you should try changing your approach?” – Blaster aimed a pointed look at the older man.
Wednesday was when the disaster began. Blaster had just parked his car in front of the employee entrance sometime around noon, coming for the afternoon shift, when he heard the sound of sirens in the distance. An ambulance soon screeched to a stop and one of his colleagues practically ran out to open the door for the medics.
“Hurry up! He’s over there-!”
Blaster barely heard what the panicked employee said before they ran back inside, leading the paramedics.
‘What the-?!’ – he thought but then he took a better look and noticed a moving truck parked inside the aquarium.
A sinking feeling settled in his stomach at the sight of the specialized moving truck near the main building.
‘No. Oh, no- they didn’t!’ – he cursed and ran inside.
Blaster had just reached the main building when the doors flew open and the paramedics came out, wheeling out Josh – one of the trainers at the aquarium. He was sobbing and distressed, clenching his shoulder, pain visible on his face and his left hand- a bloody, mangled mess barely held by bandages.
Inside it was not much better – everyone was panicking and running around, trying to figure out what to do, oh and did Blaster mention the blood trail? Because there was a damn blood train coming from the door to Jazz’s pool and all the way to the nurse’s office! Blaster felt his anger and worry rise as he stormed into the staff room, opening the door with a bang.
“What the heck happened here?!” – he bellowed, his naturally loud voice echoed through the room and silenced everyone.
Many eyes turned to look at the redhead, the unease was clear on their faces. His second looked practically anywhere but at him, the director shifted a bit in his seat and Josh’s fellow trainers, still in their wetsuits, wrung their arms and looked down in shame. Only the head vet visibly scoffed.
“WELL?!” Blaster crossed his arms “Or do I HAVE to say it out loud for you to fess up?! WHY was I not informed you were planning to move Prowl today?! I am Jazz’s and Prowl’s primary caretaker! I should have been informed about ANY changes beforehand! So- tell me… what EXACTLY HAPPENED!”
“W-well…” his second stuttered “When- when we tried to move P-Prowl, he wouldn’t cooperate, so we had to traq him but then Jazz would not leave his side or let is pull him close so Josh… he reached out-.” she shuddered “Before anyone knew it Jazz had lunged and there was so much screaming and thrashing, there was blood everywhere and- urp- the snap.” – she looked sick and ran out after remembering the recent events.
Blaster watched, flabbergasted by what had apparently happened. How could they be so stupid as to not realize that-
“See! That’s why I told you to keep the two mers separated. Ever since you let that wild one in, Jazz has been acting out and causing trouble. Look at what happened – a man was attacked and might even lose an arm! We should remove the problem as soon as possible while the situation is still salvageable.” – the head vet said.
“Excuse me?!” Blaster felt his eyebrow twitch in anger “You can’t be serious right now. This is clearly your fault for escalating things! You not only came in without a warning and tried to get Prowl away, but you tranquilized him and tried grabbing him while Jazz was not willing to part with him! And YOU have the audacity to call ME reckless!”
“Well, consi-.” – the head vet began.
“What were you thinking?! I know Jazz, I can read his body language and know what he might be thinking, I’ve been TRAINED to do so! I know he had not attacked anyone, like ever, but what was Josh thinking, going there and reaching with his hands while Jazz was cornered?! You know an accident can always happen when you push things too far!” – Blaster cut the vet off.
“Hmph! What I was thinking was what’s the best for the aquarium.” – the head vet huffed, acting like he was talking to someone dumb.
“Hah?!” – Blaster raised an eyebrow.
“Jazz is a valuable specimen; he’s been raised by humans and is so far the only mer capable of imitating and understanding human speech.” – the older man began.
Blaster just gaped at him – the audacity! If the old vet had spent even some time actually listening, he would have heard Prowl talking too! Even though the mer did not have a handle of human speech yet, in just the few months he’s been in here, he’s learned the meaning of few words and could say both Jazz’s and Blaster’s names along with the names of a few objects.
“It would be a shame to lose such a valuable specimen, just because Blaster wanted to but a temporary buddy in there. Jazz interacting with the wild mer has been risky and harmful to his current progress. He’s been causing more trouble and acting out.”
Prowl was also crazy smart and this old coot was trying to insinuate that Jazz was what? Becoming dumber? Acting wild? It’s exactly the opposite – Prowl’s been teaching Jazz, helping him remember things, how to speak, how other mers like him are like. Jazz had been beaming the whole time Prowl had been there – Blaster knew about that very well, after all Jazz would sometimes excitedly come and share what new and amazing thing Prowl did.
“You know how it is with animals. Even the best trained ones can fall back to primitive behaviors when they have a bad example and are allowed to do whatever they want.” the vet continues, unaware that Blaster was reaching his limit “I suggest we separate them as soon as possible. We’d probably have to re-train Jazz and get rid of these unwanted behaviors before it is too late.”
Oh, hell NO!
Before anyone knew it, Blaster had punched the head vet straight in the face.
*Smack! Pop- CRACK!*
The punch was loud and the crack of the vet’s nose could be clearly heard, the man falling to the floor soon after. Blaster was standing over him, fist trembling a bit and knuckles throbbing. The head vet meanwhile was writhing on the floor, clutching his busted nose and cursing. At that moment, Blaster had felt great – he had wanted to punch the older man’s pompous face for a while now!
“Son of a bitch!” the vet was finally helped get up on his feet by his assistant “What is your problem?! Have you gone crazy?!”
“What is MY problem?!” Blaster bellowed “My problem is you people not listening to anything I say! Just hear yourself! How can you talk like this about Jazz and Prowl when it was your fault for escalating the situation?”
“They are animals!” the vet shot back with a glare “Smart animals but nothing more than that. Like parrots and elephants, but in the end they are still not the same as us. You are projecting on them your own emotions and views. I think your logic’s been compromised and is not sound to handle the move properly, hence why you were not informed.”
“I will show you compromised, you old fool!” – Blaster lunged at the vet once more.
In the end, both of them started fighting in the staff room and security had to come and separate them. In the end, both the head vet and Blaster were escorted off the premises and suspended for a whole week, unpaid. The aquarium was also temporarily closed to clean up the bloody mess and all of Jazz’s shows for the week were canceled due to what happened.
“You will not step a foot in here for the whole week of your suspension, no sneaking in, no getting in as a visitor, got it, Blaster?” – the aquarium director crossed his arms.
“Yeah…” – Blaster grumbled and shot a glare at the vet just as the older man passed by.
He felt a sense of accomplishment, seeing the head vet’s usually smug face bruised and with a bandaged nose.
“Listen, I get it you are attached to Jazz, after being his caretaker for the past 5 years, but you can’t fistfight with someone because of it.” the director pinched his nose at Blaster’s defiant look “Alright, how about this, we’ll postpone Prowl’s release until the end of the next month. In that time your suspension would be over and we could discuss it again. You know we can’t legally keep Prowl here indefinitely, right?”
Blaster could only nod. This was the best he could hope for after his outburst, so he was not going to open his mouth and risk saying something that might change the director’s mind.
=== 2 days later ===
Two days into his unpaid suspension, the literal apocalypse came and Blaster wished he was joking.
It had been an ordinary Friday, people out and about in the city, the sky was a bit cloudy but nothing out of the ordinary for the season. Blaster had been out strolling at the time, since he felt antsy staying at his home – which… looking back, might have saved his life. He was sitting on a park bench, sipping from his water bottle and scrolling on his phone when the sirens started blaring.
“What-?!” – Blaster was startled and started looking around like everyone else.
Then, he saw it – from the seaside, a GIANT wave was coming straight at them! A freaking tsunami taller than most buildings was coming at HIM! There was a lot of panicked screaming, cursing and shoving as everyone started running for their lives. Blaster pushed through the crowd and to one of the side-streets, not wanting to be trampled by the panicked crowd. For a moment, he contemplated trying to run further inland or maybe hitching a ride in a car, but then he saw the pure chaos on the streets and threw the idea out. He’d probably get stuck in a traffic jam and won’t be able to escape on foot, so he started looking for a higher place to go to that was nearby.
‘There!’
He noticed a nearby high-rise had a fire escape ladder with a safety mesh net around it, so he ran to it and started climbing for his life. His heart was pounding like crazy in his chest.
‘Hurry! HURRY UP! Oh, GOD! It’s coming nearer! Faster! I just hope this place is high enough.’ – was all he could think of at the moment.
He barely managed to pull himself up the final steps to the roof when the wave hit. The whole building shook, the sound of the rushing water and destruction echoing all around Blaster as he clung to the edge of the roof by one hand and by the safety railing with his other, praying the building doesn’t fall.
*Cra- Crack~*
Blaster just barely peeked up at the loud noise but wished he hadn’t. In the distance, he saw a few of the skyscrapers tilt and fall down. One fell straight into the raging waves, another fell on its neighbor, the two tall buildings leaning on each other. The water was merciless and uncaring in its destruction, sweeping everything and everyone in its path. Blaster squeezed his eyes shut and clung even tighter to the railing.
He stood in that position – huddled against the dusty roof for who knew how long, he clung until his fingers felt numb and the loud noise of rushing water stopped completely.
Blaster breathed heavily and his heart felt like it was about to explode, his strained muscles had also started to burn after the adrenaline rush was over. He carefully pried his fingers from the rooftop and collapsed, laying on his back as he watched the cloudy sky above him. He just stared up… until the sounds of splashing water made him move. Blaster groaned as he pushed himself up and finally had to take in the disaster surrounding him.
The whole city was gone, flooded and destroyed – fallen buildings, floating cars, trucks, broken trees… everything was in shambles, Blaster’s roof one of the small safe havens still above the water, but just barely. The high rise he was on must have been at least 30 stories up and currently he could just stretch his hand and easily dip it in the water.
“Oh, frag! My mom and dad!” – Blaster suddenly remembered, his mind finally clearing from panic.
He had to call his parents, to tell them what happened, where he was and to be careful not to go near the coast. Was this only happening here or were other coastal cities affected?! He had to call for- His phone was not on him. Blaster searched his pockets, then searched them again but he could not find his phone anywhere.
“Damn! Must have dropped it at some point in the crowd. Shit!” – he cursed as he looked at the watery hellscape that surrounded him.
He was stranded, alone and without a way to contact anyone.
…………………….
Blaster spent the night on that rooftop. He cleaned a small corner for himself and used his backpack as a makeshift pillow and his jacket as a blanket. It was not much but it kept him from freezing at night. When morning came, he found that the water had gone down significantly and now around half of the building was above the water level.
‘Ohkaay…’ Blaster looked at the water below ‘Do I stay here or do I move to some other place and look for help?’
Blaster looked inside his backpack and found only his half-empty water bottle, a sprite and a granola bar left. He bit his lip and decided the least he could do was try and go downstairs to look for some supplies that might have survived the tsunami.
“So, now to figure out how to actually get in.” – he was speaking to himself, but what else could he do?
He was alone, nervous and missing his tunes, the least he could do was talk to fill the silence. After some struggling and searching around, he managed to rip out a slightly rusty metal pipe that was a decent size and used it to bash the rooftop door open.
“Alright! Hopefully there’s something useful down there…”
Blaster gulped and went down the damp staircase. The inside of the building was even worse than the outside. It was dark with no way to turn on the lights because the power was out, broken glass from the windows littered the hallway and many doors were broken down. Blaster went from room to room, not quite daring or brave enough to break into one of the closed apartments out of fear of seeing… what’s left of the residents that might have been inside, so he only went through the broken doors. He ruffled through drawers and cupboards and loaded whatever was still usable in his backpack – canned food, water, first aid kit, he even found a flashlight that still worked on one of the lower floors!
*Splash-splash~
Water licked the staircase leading down, the floor below half-submerged still.
“Well, I guess this is as far as I can go right now.”
*Skitter~ Kssshhhh~
“What the…?” – Blaster immediately tensed at the strange noise.
He had seen more than enough horror movies to know you should NOT go and check weird noises out. He slipped his pipe out of the backpack strap and held it in his hands while slowly backing away towards the staircase up. Then, he saw it- the freakiest-looking crab crawling up the stairs. It looked grotesque and misshapen – one giant pincer dragging on the floor, bulging greenish blobs growing from between the cracks in its shell and oozing slime. Blaster immediately tensed at the sight of it.
‘Please, don’t come near, don’t come near…’
But then it seemingly spotted him and started crawling towards him fast! It’s giant claw shuddered and snapped in the air.
“Aaagh!”
Blaster swung his pipe down with quite the pathetic battle cry and cracked the mutated crustacean’s carapace open. Green oozed out as it twitched underneath, but Blaster swung the pipe a few more times until it stopped moving and was just paste on the floor.
“What the hell was this?! First a giant tsunami and now these… mutated crab things?! Frag! What the hell is going on?!!”
After that encounter, Blaster retreated up the stairs in case any more of the freaky crabs decided to come up.
“Eugh… gross…”
He looked at the pipe still having some of the green goo on it. He did not want to be anywhere near the stuff – what if it was toxic or radioactive or contagious? He did not have any on him but still… he no longer felt safe without some sort of weapon.
…………………..
Blaster was back on the rooftop once more, the door to the lower floors closed shut and barricaded with a few broken pieces of furniture in case more of these… things decided to come up the stairs. He shuddered as he remembered the mutated crab, still he was glad it had not been something bigger or more dangerous.
Blaster’s left hand ghosted over the new metal pipe he had liberated from an apartment’s heating system, this one far less rusty and clean of green monster guts, he even wrapped some black tape around one end for a better grip. He was nibbling on a protein bar while looking at the desolate landscape around him.
‘All alone in the middle of a disaster, no way to contact anyone or see if anyone else is alive. What great luck I have…’ – he laughed bitterly as he thought.
What should he do now? He couldn’t really be the only one alive – there must be other survivors out there, somewhere. But then again, he did not know where they might be. What should he do now? Should he try and head inland? Look for other survivors first or wait for help?
‘There should have been at least some helicopters or boats sent by now, where are they? They can’t possibly leave people stuck here, right? Don’t tell me this is happening to the whole coastline? The whole peninsula? Just how far inland did that wave reach?!’ – panic raising, he looked at the whole city swallowed by the water.
It was then, as he was looking at the destroyed buildings that it hit him – Jazz and Prowl were in the aquarium when this all happened!
“Oh, no…” the protein bar fell from his mouth “The AQUARIUM!!! Jazz and Prowl are still there!”
What happened to them? Were they alright? Did they survive the tsunami? He knew what the protocols were during a sudden disaster and he knew very well that they would NOT have time to secure any of the animals, nor would it be a priority to do so, since all of them were instructed to evacuate if such situation ever came. This also meant that every animal was left in their enclosures to basically survive on their own. It would be horrible in ordinary circumstances but now the whole place was flooded to hell and back and there were apparently mutant things out there! What if Jazz and Prowl were trapped there?! What if the aquarium crumbled on top of them when the wave hit? What if some… some thing came in while they were trapped or injured? Would they starve to death?!
“Frag! Oh, FRAG! I promised! I said I would try and help the two of them and all I did was get suspended and stranded on a rooftop! Damn it!” – Blaster gripped his hair and kicked an empty soda can away in his frustration.
He HAD to go see if they were alive, to go and help them if they had gotten trapped somehow! He couldn’t just- just sit here and twiddle his thumbs!
Soon, night fell and Blaster had to hunker down once again. He could not sleep that night – listening for the skittering legs of crabs or other off noises coming from the barricaded door in case something had decided to come up, his hands were holding onto his makeshift weapon.
The moon had long passed its zenith when Blaster was starting to doze a bit, but was startled by a sudden noise.
*Pfeeeeew~ Bang!
He rose up to his feet to see a red emergency flare streak through the dark sky in the distance. It was coming from where the highway that led to the next city was, before it got covered by water of course.
‘No way! There are other survivors there!’ – Blaster felt excited at the possibility of finding other people were alive but…
It was in the opposite direction of the aquarium. Should he go there and meet the other survivors? Maybe if they had flares, they might have a working phone, a radio maybe? What if they were trying to gather other people to be rescued? But then… he could not just bear to leave Jazz there, the guilt would gnaw him alive, not knowing what happened to his pal all while he could have helped.
He had spent the last 5 years working in the aquarium and had gotten close to Jazz, even becoming his main caregiver due to his previous experiences working with mers. Obviously, they were much smaller than the orca mer and more aggressive, also quite dumb. Jazz had surprised Blaster quite a lot the first time with just how smart and friendly he was, while all other mers had barely tolerated humans or were trying to claw his face off. Even Prowl, despite also being wild, was still less aggressive and even smarter. The two orca mers were not just very smart animals, like everyone tried to dismiss them as, they had their own personalities, likes and dislikes. Jazz had even figured how to work the door passcodes and would have probably taught Prowl too, if they had more time.
‘Well, at least the fact Jazz can open the doors raises their chances of getting out of there.’ – Blaster tried to reassure himself.
He bit his lip, still a bit unsure about what to do, but his mind was soon made. Next thing in the morning, Blaster was going to find a way off this building and would head for the aquarium – to make sure what happened to Jazz and Prowl.