Time froze. It was as if the Earth gave up spinning on its axis.
Tracey, Candice, and Luna's eyes widened. Gina didn't say anything because she knew who Dr. Lincoln was all along. After all, she was there with the Chief Wave when he assigned him to COFC to search for his son.
Candice and Luna were so shocked that they stumbled back a few steps.
To make his entrance more intense, Dr. Lincoln reached for his glasses. "I am Tamesis, claxton king of Atlantica, and it is my duty to protect my son!"
"Claxton king?" Candice yelped. "Does that mean you're a merman, too?"
Tracey was overwhelmed. He could not believe what he just heard. It made him even more stressed out than he already was, making him especially vulnerable to the Octopus Man. A wave of negative energy hit his head, and he yelled as he tried to fight it.
Poseidon's voice overtook his brain. "Step One of your journey is complete. Step Two is for you to return to Atlantica with me."
Dr. Lincoln sensed that Poseidon was trying to get into Tracey's head and yelled at him, "Leave him alone! Believe me! I will protect him from a monster like you!" Right as he said that, he removed his glasses.
Candice and Luna gasped when they saw that his whole body glowed. It was so blinding that they had to look away.
When the magic faded, no longer was Dr. Lincoln present. Instead, his king form had metamorphosed. His black hair, which was now as long as Tracey's, had been put back in a ponytail, and he now had a goatee. He was incredibly handsome, but that had to do with the fact that he was also a claxton. He wore a black cape, as well as a black shirt and pants. Over his shirt was chain mail armor. Silver gauntlets were on his wrists, and he also wore a pair of tall, knee-high boots with silver kneepads. There was a scar on his left cheek from when Atlantica was destroyed, and, like Tracey, he finally had golden-brown eyes and pointy ears. However, something was missing with Dr. Lincoln's king form. Where was his crown?
"Let's move!" King Tamesis yelled at Luna and Candice. "We've wasted enough time!"
Though shocked, Luna and Candice listened. After all, it was rude to ignore a member of the royal court.
Together, the girls and Tamesis picked up Tracey and carried him out of the garden. They made haste to hide behind a building the second they noticed the coast was clear. Luckily, most kids were in class, and lunch break was over for other people.
To Candice and Luna, Tamesis explained, "If we can get him to the parking garage, then we can load him in my car."
"Okay, and how are we supposed to do that?" asked Luna.
***
Poseidon kept on trying to turn Tracey full claxton. He put him under too much stress, and Tamesis noticed.
"Tracey, you need to fight it," he said.
"I can't," Tracey explained. Surely, right as he said that, something happened.
From out of nowhere appeared a blanket of storm clouds, and they covered the whole city of Charleston. The wind picked up, causing waves in the Charleston Harbor to grow larger.
A Fort Sumter tour boat was caught in the chaos, leaving people anxious. What happened to the weather? It was sunny just a second ago.
COFC students, also confused by the phenomenon, fought against the wind to duck into the nearest buildings.
Behind the building where she, Candice, Tracey, Gina, and Tamesis hid, Luna asked, "What's going on?"
"The Octopus Man is stressing Tracey out," said Tamesis. "Girls, please. We can't let history repeat itself. We need to calm him."
"What do you mean?" questioned Candice. "Just how dangerous is Tracey?"
"Don't listen to them, Tracey," Poseidon growled. "You're doing great. Don't fight the stress. You know this is what you want."
"Stop! Stop!" Tracey screamed.
The weather grew worse. Candice, Luna, and Tamesis could barely stay on their feet.
Gina, who had hollow bones, was blown backward.
A clap of thunder shook the sky like an air raid strike. Tracey was creating a hurricane, one far more powerful than the current one approaching Charleston.
He shook his head, fighting the urge to let the Octopus Man take advantage of him. However, he suddenly had a vision. Tracey heard screaming, and he saw the blurry image of an underwater kingdom being destroyed. A castle fell, and merpeople swam for their lives. There was a crying baby in what looked like the castle's courtyard, but luckily, his father came and rescued him. Was that baby him? Tracey just didn't know. He suddenly felt like he was the most feared magical being in the world.
Tamesis confirmed it, but luckily, Tracey was too involved in the image to hear the conversation.
Tamesis glanced at Luna and Candice and said, "Here's the thing, girls. Tracey is the most feared magical being in the world. He has the power to summon natural disasters. He gets it from Poseidon."
Candice's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"
Tamesis nodded. "I've never been serious enough. He used natural disasters to destroy Atlantica nineteen years ago."
"Huh?" Luna and Candice were so confused.
"What are you talking about?" said Luna, but even she started to feel goosebumps sticking up on her arms.
"Oh snap." Tamesis realized he just said too much. This was not a human problem, but a merperson one.
"How dangerous is Tracey?" Candice asked again.
Before he could say anything else, Tamesis changed the subject. "It looks like the streets are clearing up. If we're going to get Tracey to the ocean, now's the best time."
Since Tracey was creating a hurricane, the buildings became people's go-to places. Just as Tamesis said, now was the best time to get Tracey to the parking garage, but he also had to be careful. If it started to rain before they made it, then he, too, would pop a merman tail. Then they would be in a double whammy. Tamesis had a feeling he knew what he had to do to calm Tracey, but couldn't test his theory in the open.
"Now!" he shouted at the girls.
Candice and Luna listened, even though they were still trying to piece together what Tamesis said about Tracey destroying Atlantica. Was that true? He didn't look like the murdering type.
Tamesis picked Tracey up by the torso while the girls grabbed his tail, but woo-wee! Was that tail heavy!
The three hurried through the streets of Downtown Charleston.
Gina kept an eye out for any humans. Whenever she saw somebody, she would squawk to tell them to stop.
They had to fight the wind to make everything possible.
Luna yelled when a huge tree branch snapped from a tree and landed before her and her friends. They quickly went around it.
"Keep moving! We're almost there!" Tamesis yelled.
But the girls were exhausted. Tracey's tail started to slip from their grasp.
"Hang in there just a little longer. We're going to make it," Tamesis begged. Sure enough, the parking garage on St. Philip's Street had just come into view.
Candice, Luna, and Tamesis entered it from a back door. They hid behind a line of cars and against the wall when they saw a group of people sheltering from the storm.
Tamesis took the opportunity to calm Tracey. If the weather cleared, those people would surely leave. His car was so close. He could see it in the group of parking spaces across from them. It was a silver Suburban that had a few dents here and there. After all, it took Tamesis some time to learn to drive. He had hit plenty of mailboxes and curbs.
"What are you doing?" asked Candice and Luna.
Tamesis shooed them away so he could have a moment of quality with his son. "Please, Tracey, snap out of it. This is not who you are."
The image of the destroyed kingdom and merpeople screaming was still in Tracey's head. Hearing their calls for help did not help his stress. Then, something happened.
Tamesis started to sing, but it wasn't the kind of singing Luna and Candice were used to. There were no words, just music. Tamesis sounded like a creature that had an enchanting melody. The song was called "The Call of the Claxton" and was an instrumental.
Just hearing it, Tracey started to calm down, especially because he felt like he had heard the song before. Did Merlin teach it to him, or did he learn it himself?
While Tamesis sang, blue sparkles appeared and circled him. The image of a whale came between the father and his son. The sound of howling wind from outside started to subside.
Candice and Luna were overwhelmed by what they saw. They backed away from the mermen to give them space.
Tamesis and Tracey hooked hands and started singing together. It was the same melody. They sang in unison. Now joining Tamesis's blue sparkles were green ones. They came from Tracey.
A volley of images exploded around him and Tamesis when they hit the song's strongest tune. They included images of whales, merpeople, and fairies.
The whales swam around Candice and Luna. They reached up to touch them. Both of them grinned. This was so fascinating!
It was a miracle! The storm clouds vanished, and before Charleston knew it, the day was even more beautiful than earlier. Fort Sumter tour boats no longer floated all over the place in the Charleston Harbor.
Even though a few people were seasick, they were okay. However, they were beyond confused, as any human should be after that strange weather phenomenon.
***
The people who were taking shelter in the parking garage stepped outside to witness the newborn day.
Back inside, Tracey and Tamesis pulled each other into a tight hug.
"Papa." Tears streamed down Tracey's cheeks. He had found his dad: his real dad.
Tamesis was also on the brink of tears, but stopped himself from crying. Instead, he said, "You've grown up so much. You've turned into such a handsome, young man."
Off to the side, Candice and Luna watched the reunion with a smile. The images of whales, merpeople, and fairies had vanished since Tracey and Tamesis were no longer singing.
Luna heard Candice sniffing, and she turned her head to look at her. "Are you crying?"
"No. I've just got something in my eye," was Candice's response.
Luna chuckled. She wrapped her arm around her friend's shoulder and pulled her close.
Tracey and Tamesis let go, but kept their hands together.
Giving Tracey's a small shake, Tamesis asked, "Why don't we get you back to the ocean?"