(Pic taken by me of one of my cats)

Type: fighting, friendship, fluff

TW: some swearing

Characters involved: Dust, random whale mers, Alphatale brothers, Horror (brief), and Killer (brief)

Plot: aggressive and hungry whale mers chased Dust into unfamiliar territory and they bit him a couple times but they didn't think about who's territory they were now on and now that they are the ones in danger

Any notes before chapter?: yes! The Alphatale brothers except for 404 have a redesign and Infected has a personality change I'm basing off an rp I'm doing with a friend!

Changes: they're all shark mers now, I would show pics but I gotta draw them solo and so far the only pic I drew was of Omni but it's a shipping pic with King Multiverse so you don't see the full design, Infected is mostly grey but has purple specs on random places on his body, Alpha is mainly white but has occasional light blue stripes and a faintly light blue chest and stomach, Omni is mainly white but every fin and his tail fins are red and his back has a pattern of red spots that look like the pattern of a deer fawn, Infected's personality is he's overly curious and protective of his brothers but he sometimes likes causing mischief and arguments and he's a very skilled and violent fighter, Omni's personality is that he's calm and the peacekeeper if his brothers fight but if something threatens his shiver aka brothers then all violence is not off limits not even to higher beings such as leviathans he isn't nicknamed 'Leviathans Threat' for nothing

Any fun facts?: Omni has straight up flipped off Reaper one time in an argument and doesn't regret it to this day
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Dust's POV:

'CMON JUST A LITTLE MORE YOU CAN OUTSWIM THEM!' I thought as I was swimming away as fast as I could from a group of whale mers who were chasing me. I presume they're chasing me to eat but I'm not daring to stop and ask, I was so deep in thought I didn't even notice one in front of me and I didn't have have time to stop. I was caught. I cried out in pain as their razor sharp teeth dug into the flesh of my tail, I scratched one but that did nothing as they bit my arms to stop me from fighting back. I closed my eyes. This is it. This how it ends. Alone and a whale mers lunch. Pathetic.

My eyes shot open when one was ripped off of me by a flash of red and white, I looked around and the one on my tail was also taken off of me and the one on my other arm was as well. My eyes then rested onto what I can only describe as the largest shark mer I have ever seen, wait, are those frills with spikes on his tail?! His shark body was white but every fin has dark blue dusting them, he has a scar across the stomach on the shark body, the tail fins, and just before the frills on his tail. He swam over and took a quick glance at me before looking at the group of whale mers and speaking in a tone that is booming and letting them know he's in control of the situation.

"leave this territory now, it isn't yours and your hostile behavior shows you are not hunting for fish so if you don't leave we'll chase you out ourselves" his voice was very calm and leveled but not monotone there was emotion there.

The whale mers knew that this wasn't worth the fight and fled without a huge hassle. The big shark mer looked at me 'dear gods I feel like a pup in his presence he's so large!' he then spoke "any serious injuries or just these ones?" I was surprised he didn't wanna chase me away too "just these ones, um.. Why aren't you chasing me away too?" but before he could answer one of the smaller ones, but this one only reached the others chest in height, swam over and analyzed my wounds. He spoke in a calm and serene voice "because you aren't being violent, we don't chase everyone off our territory just violent intruders, what's your name little shark?" I had trouble finding my words. Eventually a few minutes later I spoke admittedly with some fear "m-my name is Dust" another about the same height as the smaller one looking at my wounds made himself seen, oh god the crack in his head looks awful, he kinda looks like my mate Horror. This one had more of a stern and stubborn tone in his voice "why are we still here? Just bring the little shit back to the cave and patch him up there! Am I right Alpha?" just then the smallest of them, he was about the size of the whale mers that they were fighting, made himself visible.

he spoke in more of a reserved and shy tone "yeah, I can help him better at the cave where I have materials to patch him up" the largest one had a soft look as he looked at who I presume is named Alpha before speaking.

"Alpha you know you can speak for yourself and not let Infected speak for you" Alpha gave a nod and responded "I know, he just made a good point that's all" the one that examined my wounds just ignored them and addressed me directly "sorry for not introducing ourselves I wanted to ensure you were alright first, I'm Omnipotent but call me Omni for short, this big guy right here is Error404 but call him 404, the one with the hole in his head and bandage on the other side is Infected, and our smallest here is Alpha" I gave a nod making sure to remember each name. I then looked at 404 "you have the same name as a famous leviathan named Error" 404 chuckled and his voice became more open and dare I say. Joyful. He spoke "Error was my student, he kinda parted ways after I think 20 years" Alpha gave a nod and spoke "it most definitely was 20 years, now let's stop stalling let's get him taken care of I'm sure he has a worried shiver to go home to" Alpha took me from the hold of Omni and took me to a cave, the inside was utterly beautiful! I spoke in amazement "wow! It's really beautiful here!" Alpha smiled and gave a genuine laugh "thank you Dust, 404 sometimes collects shells but whenever he finds some sea glass he brings it home to use as decorations so we have light in here" I look at 404 "you collect stuff too?! I collect any human stuff I find, I tend to take a peak on the surface sometimes but now I'm forbidden to"

Infected spoke up first and he had a little snarl in his tone "and for good reason! Humans are nothing but trouble! They are the reason 404 has a scar on his front dorsal fin! There was a tracker there but now there isn't because after months he returned after keeping away for our safety and we got the damn thing off him!" I listened to his story in shock, I didn't know humans wanted to put trackers on us, 404 spoke before I could "it's because I was the first mer they've seen so they wanted to study for what they called research, human term for something I'm not sure"

Alpha huffed and spoke in a playful annoyed tone "can you two calm down? I'm trying to focus" he was currently bandaging my tail when Infected decided to cause a little mischief "hey Omni, he'll have scars close to your scars" Omni, who was just resting on a rock at the moment had scars 'how did I not notice the scars?!'. he had a chunk missing from his frontal dorsal fin, two chucks missing from his tail near his tail fins, a scratch over his eye causing what I can only assume to be blindness, both arms having scars on the bones and his ribs having scars as well. 'wow whatever attacked him got him pretty good' Omni gave off a growl annoyed with the comment Infected made, honestly I don't blame him it sounded like he was making fun of the scars. Omni looked at Infected "don't forget who leads this shiver" and Infected chuckled before responding "don't forget who saved your sorry ass in that attack" at this point Omni was still surprisingly showing minimal anger "don't forget who practically raised all your asses because mom didn't want to" the air between those two were super tense. Infected growled before backing off not having a good comeback for that, Alpha looked at Infected "you should know that it would've ended like that, you never win in an argument with Omni, he finds a way to shut up anybody" Infected just huffed and crossed his arms.

Alpha soon finished up with bandaging me "there you go little shark, all bandaged up" I looked up at him "thank you, for saving me and for patching me up" Alpha gave a satisfied purr happy with Dust's word and the fact he could help "you're welcome, let's get you to your shiver, I bet they're worried sick about you" I gave a nod and Alpha picked me up and didn't let me swim by myself he carried me as he followed my sent trail of when I was chased.

Soon we were in territory familiar to me as it was my home, Alpha looked around trying to locate any mers looking for someone or a shiver travelling together. Alpha soon spotted a shiver and swam over to them, I only could tell because he suddenly paused and swam in a different direction, I took a peak and immediately recognized my mates and friends and became absolutely excited to see them again. I heard Horror's growl when Alpha stopped right in front of them and he yelled "who are you?! Why are you here?!" Alpha was not fazed by Horror's growl nor his warning as his composure remained calm when he spoke "I believe we found someone who belongs to your shiver" he then finally let me go swim to them, I hugged Horror and Killer instantly and they asked a ton of of questions about where I was and how I got hurt while giving little face kisses. Alpha laughed seeing the frantic loving affection "at least I know this is the right shiver, I'll be heading off now, make sure he gets lots of rest so those wounds heal" he then just swam away without letting anyone say a thank you or ask any questions.

Killer looked down at me and asked in an intrigued and worried tone "what happened?" I laughed and looked up at him "oh boy I have a crazy story to tell you"

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I know the writing kinda gets worse towards the end and I'm working on that I apologize for that, I hope you enjoyed regardless!

And my update schedule is obviously choppy as I have other things I'm doing and focusing on

I had many first chapter drafts but this one I stuck with because I can fully display the personalities here

And no matter what in this book I don't think I'll ever give Alpha or Infected a mate but it could change if I find a ship I enjoy

Helpful criticism is very welcome! Any rude/mean comments will either be ignored or if possible deleted!

Words: 1957