As he lay there on his king size bed in just his boxer briefs and nothing else on him, Lucio was in a special place between the vast lands of sleep and consciousness. This was the place where the well of his genius and creativity existed. He had drawn out a lot of wonderful ideas from this well and tonight, he had returned to it, hoping to draw even more. New plans for the expansion of his business with the merman as an important central piece, if only he could get the stubborn bastard to behave himself. There was also the... Damn! What was making that banging sound? Was it coming from inside the well or was it coming from somewhere else? But it just kept coming and coming and Lucio unconsciously threw his arm on his head over his ear to block out the sound, but it was of no use. With an angry hiss, he rolled over on his other side and repeated the process with his other hand and ear, but yet the banging still continued!
"Aaaargh!", he roared and jumped up to a sitting position on his bed. Who the hell was disturbing his sleep with that endless banging?? It took him a few seconds to become fully conscious and then he realized that the banging was coming from the door. Grumbling and swearing furiously, he jumped off the bed and marched up to the door, pulling it open with great force. He was meaning to slap or punch whoever was on the other side, but the sight that met his eyes made him pause in shock. It was one of his assistants, a young man named Fred, who was the only one of his employees that slept in his wing of the building. But this night, Freddy was on the night shift which meant that he had not been sleeping and here he stood, soaked from head to toe and with a fresh cut on his forehead that was still bleeding.
"What happen?", Lucio demanded of his breathless employee.
"The merman... he escaped," Freddy gasped out.
"What! Escape how? He have no leg!"
"It all happened too fast. We... we tried to stop him, but..."
Lucio was not one to dwell too much on questions and answers. He simply pushed Freddy aside and without any clothing on, except for his briefs, ran down the short hallway. As he ran, he could hear the sounds of an ongoing pandemonium and the moment he turned the corner, he came in full view of the nightclub and he could see his patrons rushing for the exit in droves. There was absolutely nothing he could do but stand and watch his business crumble before his eyes. But he was not a man used to being idle for long. Shaking himself out of his lethargy, he walked up to the scene of the disaster and a disaster it truly was when he saw the place.
The floor was covered with almost two inches of water and the extra-thick glass that up till now he had thought was absolutely unbreakable was in pieces on the ground. He was not a man to be so easily perplexed or confounded, but looking at the broken glass and flooded place, he couldn't help but shake his head in befuddlement. How on Earth this merman had broken the glass was something that he probably would never be able to understand even if an expert were to explain it to him in his own mother tongue. With what had he done it? When had he done it? How exactly had he done it?
"Fred!", he bellowed.
And Fred came running to meet him right where he was in the middle of the pool of water.
"How it happen?", he asked and Fred cleared his throat before telling him the short tale of the merman's escape.
They had been busy attending to customers and keeping an eye on a quarrel between two drunk patrons lest it turn into a full-blown fight when they heard a sound like that of a gun going off. The sound seemed to have come from the area where the merman was situated and all the attendants on duty had rushed to the area only to find the merman out of the box and the women and children in the watching area shrieking endlessly.
"How he go through the partition and leave no mark?", Lucio cut in, turning to look at the glass partition which was still very much intact.
"He jumped over it."
"Uh?", he asked in shock.
"I said, he jumped over it, sir."
Lucio couldn't believe his ears. He looked at the height of the partition and wondered how on Earth anyone could easily jump up to such a level. But then he remembered that this was not anyone. It was a merman. If he could break down such an extra-thick glass, then jumping over the partition would certainly not be an impossible feat.
"Whoo!", Lucio sighed and shook his head again. "But how... how... with no leg?"
"He had legs," Fred said quietly.
"But how?"
"I don't know. He just developed legs out of nowhere. It all happened too fast. I still can't comprehend what exactly happened."
"This is miracle," Lucio admitted in defeat. "Go to sleep... all of you... everyone."
"What?", Fred asked in surprise. "But we have to find him. A naked man with sleek hair, how far can he..."
"I said, go!"
Reluctantly, Fred turned and walked off to inform his fellow employees of the boss' orders. All of the customers had already left, so when the boys retired, only Lucio was left behind in the place. He waited till the sound of their footsteps had died in the distance before donning an overall and reaching for a bucket and a mop stick. Solutions to complex problems usually came to him when he was alone, quiet and working. And God knows this problem was really a complex one.