Max searched the whole city for Daniel, asked questions but nobody saw or knew what happened to him. He thought of calling his parents because he thought that maybe Daniel went there to protect them. He tried calling his mom but no answer, he called his dad but his dad with a tempered tone, shouted at him over the phone. Max didn't understand why his dad was so angry with him so he requested that he should give the phone to his mother to. His dad took that as a dark humor and ended the call. He was confused and thought to go see his parents before searching for his brother.
His parents resided in a small town on the outskirts of New York, making it easy for him to run there easily in a couple of minutes with his speed. He didn't tell his dad he was coming but when he got to the house, his dad was shocked asking him to leave. Max was concern and called out his mom but no answer. He wondered why she wasn't around especially with the fact that she was on a wheel chair. His dad explained to him that she died a few weeks ago and that he had been in the hospital for three days, wondering the fact why he did not call or visit. Max broke down in anger asking why nobody told him about it. His dad was confused telling him that Daniel was there when she died and that he even visited him when he was in the hospital.
He didn't know how to react about the whole situation, but he knew for a fact that Daniel had to found. On the other hand, Daniel, as previously mentioned, had been held captive in a secret location. Though unconscious and tied to a chair, his watch remained untouched. The watch scanned the entire hideout and sent the location to Max's watch. A strange anonymous person entered the room keeping his identity unrecognizable by wearing a mask. He punched Daniel in the face, regaining consciousness but Daniel was too pale and weak too even react to it. The man ruggedly dipped his face in water, almost like he was going to drown him but it was just to wake him up. The man introduced himself as a shadow that walks amongst them because he has been watching and observing them since the day they got their abilities.
He only wanted the wristwatches and he cautioned Daniel that once his brother gets here, he will have both the wristwatches in possession. In a slight malediction, he said he already knew that Max was coming and that he detected when his watch scanned the place knowing fully well that the only explanation for that was to send for help. It didn't take long for Max to find the hidden location but he smart not to run in and save his brother. He noticed a radar station next to the building and if he were to run any close to the building, they could spot him. He went invisible and teleported to the entrance but he couldn't recognize his brother. Daniel was so pale and weak but he was chained to a bar, hopefully him teleporting while holding his brother wouldn't affect the chain.
In a hurry he grabbed Daniel and teleported as far as possible leaving the people there in complete shock. The man rushed outside hoping he could spot them but unfortunately to him, they were long gone. They rested in a remote area outside of NYC trying to figure out the reason for Daniel's sickness. Before any inspection, Max angrily asked Daniel why he didn't tell him about their mom's death. He replied saying that he felt guilty about all of it and that he didn't see the right time to tell him. Max was furious telling him that all those time in New York, right before he went back to California, he couldn't tell him like he was a small child that couldn't bear the pain of losing a loved one.
Daniel couldn't even express any emotion as he going paler and weaker by the minute so Max saw through the whole situation and took him to the hospital. The doctors could not describe any diagnosis for his condition because it wasn't a medical issue. It seemed like the problem arose from his Bio-signature. Being half Mermaidian, some sicknesses could only be cured by an Aquatic physician. Max couldn't tell them that Daniel was half a merman so he had to sneak into the kingdom's cleric center and find a cure for his illness before it's too late. He had a solid plan to go invisible, swim very gentle so people wouldn't notice the current and teleport half of the way. He managed to get pass the kingdom's barrier and even outsmart the guards. The sickness Daniel was facing was not in any of their books but rather in an abandoned scroll enclosed in a protected chamber. He took the scroll and quickly teleported out of the kingdom before anybody noticed the missing scroll. He planned to return it once Daniel was cured. Max performed the treatment himself because he could not trust any professional to carry it out better yet a doctor. By his surprise the steps and ingredients written in the scroll needed for the treatment were not hard to understand and get. All Daniel needed for his sickness to be cured was an herbal mix made from specific ingredients only found in aquatic habitats. With no time to be wasted, Max quickly went into search for all the ingredients. He got most of them within an hour but one particular ingredient was the hardest to find. He had to acquire a rare bioluminescent algae, known to grow only in the darkest underwater caverns, where even sunlight never reached.
It was going to be a hard quest but Max was ready to risk everything for the cure. The algae only glows at night making it easy to spot in the darkness. He did some research and found a possible place where he could find it in time, not too far from the city. When he got there, the surrounding was filled with dangerous aquatic creatures so he spawned in Blue lightning, his shark, to handle them. The algae shimmered faintly in the darkness, but harvesting it required precision, one wrong move and the fragile glow would vanish. He couldn't touch the algae directly because even the slightest contact would destroy its healing properties. The harvest was a success so all he had left to do was to prepare the mix. Daniel was going even paler so Max had to hurry. The preparation didn't take time, he followed the steps carefully and managed to get the exact the features of the drink the scroll implied. Daniel drank it immediately, ignoring the bitter taste and awful smell. To his amazement, the drink took effect instantly. Daniel's regular skin tone came back to life and he was feeling better than ever. He got up feeling relieved and mostly guilty knowing what was coming for him. Instead of an angry outburst from his brother, Max showed affection by hugging him because if he didn't had taken any action into saving him, Daniel wouldn't have made it. He chose mercy instead of anger because he didn't see any reason to hold grudges. She was already gone. Daniel apologized anyway because he had no right to keep that kind of loss from him. Max successfully returned the scroll without anybody noticing him and Daniel was on his way back to California. The whole talk about the Mayor going missing was still going on but from the message they discovered, he and the king seemed to have died. Or so they believed.