Disclaimer: Finding Nemo is copyright to Pixar, Disney, and probably some more people. I own no one. Heck, even the characters I make up...take them! TAKE THEM! You might as well take my house, too. Oh, yes...there's a reference to two movies: one Disney, one Dreamworks. Think you can notice them?
Chapter One
"What now?"
Gill's smile of great triumph had turned into a thin line of resentment.
"So...Gill, do you have a back-up plan?" Peach ask, looking just as nervous as the other members of the former Tank Gang.
"Uh," Gill said slowly, "We'll...think of something!" Everyone groaned in protest and rattled in their bags, the breeze in the harbor slowly drifting them farther and farther out into open water. Deb was constantly wiping her face, a few muffled sobs erupting from her throat.
"It's a shame Flo couldn't make it out of the tank," Deb cried out, a small tear trickling down the side of her face. "I guess she'll be safe, still in the ta--"
"Oh, GOSH!" Gurgle bumped into Deb, shaking an angry fin toward the sky. "Curse the gods! CURSE THEM! Here we are, in the ocean, were we can't even get out of these BAGS because Mr. *Crazy* over here," he cried, gesturing toward Gill, "didn't think of what would happen after we escaped!" Gill looked away, trying his best to ignore the piercing looks of anger.
"HEY!" Bloat yelled across the large gap between Gurgle and his departing bag. "We got out, didn't we? So, if we could get out of the tank, we can certainly get out of the bags! Right, Gill?" He looked toward their leader for support.
"WRONG! Excuse my language, but we're *SCREWED*!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
"AURRG!" Bloat's body 'inflated', causing the bag to burst. Everyone froze as water seeped out of his bag, and he bounced on the top of the water. Gill's eyes widened in fascination. He had a plan.
"Okay, Bloat," he said soothingly, "I need you to pop our bags, and we're out of here."
"Oui," Jacques nodded in agreement, and tried to push himself toward Bloat. His bag popped with a *SPLAT*, and the small shrimp fell down into the water.
"Hey, you guys..." Peach mumbled, looking up into the air. Everyone else was occupied with getting out of the bag, ignoring the starfish's small cries of help. "You should really...Look...GAH!!"
A large bird swooped down and skimmed the water, barely missing Bubble's bag. Jacques', Deb's, and Gurgle's bags had already popped, leaving Gill, Bubbles, and Peach vulnerable to the bird.
"LOOK UP!"
It took Gill a few seconds to see the pelican's form swoop down and pluck him from the water, while watching the rest of the crew grabbed hold of the bottom of the bags, and pull them beneath the water.
"GILL!" Peach pressed hard against the plastic and looked up into the blue sky at the pelican, which was now flying farther away to the southern end of the harbor. Bloat slammed against the bag, releasing the starfish.
"What are we going to do now?!" Deb asked, eyes wide in horror. They'd just lost the leader of their crew--the only person who had been born and raised in the ocean. If they were left alone, without knowing anything...Well, it was a scary thing to think about. After Bubbles was released from his bag (which took a few minutes, since they had to take time to calm him down), the crew swam to the surface, looking around for the pelican who could have taken Gill.
"I told you we're screwed." Gurgle folded his fins and nodded slowly.
"BUB-BLES!!" Deb patted the sobbing tang on the back, grinning in reassurance.
"We've *got* to find him." Peach was plastered onto the side of Deb.
"How? What if he's already eaten him?"
"We don't know that for sure."
"He was still in the bag!"
"They might have not noticed, though! I mean, COME ON! It's not all that difficult to eat a bag. I...think..."
But, no matter what everyone thought, a pelican would have a difficult time trying to digest a plastic bag, let alone try and swallow one, a problem he was trying to deal with right now.
"Ughuh--*HACK*--God--!" The pelican fell over and spat out the now water-less bag. Gill breathed in the air and released a low gasp, gills flapping aimlessly.
A large, brown pelican flew down from the mast of a small ship and landed gently next to the choking pelican, shaking his head sadly.
"Not this early...Had more than you can handle again?" The choking pelican, which was now looking quite battered, flapped his wings madly, and limped across the wooden planks behind a tall wooden pole. The brown pelican looked down at the bag in pity, expecting to see some sort of human snack hidden inside.
Gill gasped once more, eyesight failing. "Nigel?"
"GILL!" Nigel tore through the bag, pulling out Gill. He moaned softly as he felt soon felt his body fall forward, Nigel's wet tongue, and the awkward feeling of flying into the air.
About a hundred feet away were a now scared group of fish, all huddled together.
"The ocean...is so...big," Deb squeaked. Everyone stared down into the dark depths of the water, wondering if anything was waiting down there, particularly for an ignorant group of fish to pass by.
"Hey, you guys...do you think we should be on the surface...sitting here...doing nothing?" Peach asked.
"Well...I mean, we COULD go out there and--OH MY GOD!!" Gurgle grabbed onto Deb as a snake-like creature slinked through the water.
Nigel circled the area for a while before landing on a rusty buoy. The sun was setting in the distance, a large white moon faintly glowing in the sky.
"I...lost them..."
"Calm down, buddy. They shouldn't be far."
"Three...two...HERE I COME!"
Nemo sped through the traffic of fish and quickly hid himself behind a thick bed of seaweed, flapping his 'lucky fin' to balance his body. A pair of wide, pink eyes glared at him, warning him to keep quiet.
"Oh, I wonder where Nemo is!" Dory swam past the bed, looking around nonchalantly, as if she had no absolute clue where the 'hiders' were located.
"I know you're here somewh--AHAA!!!" She quickly whipped around to a large rock formation, pointing a fin into a small fissure. Nemo and Pearl blinked slowly.
"Oh," Dory said softly. "Well...I'LL FIND YOU! YOU WAIT AND SEE!" She swam away from the seaweed, looking around deviously, as if the young fish would be camouflaged in the complicated undersea environment.
The Great Barrier Reef was home to millions of different species of fish, which all populated the sea bed, all one, big fishy community. Mr. Johanson was busy yelling at a group of young juveniles who had taken resident on his back ('Dang rackin' flackin'...ARUG!'), spinning in an endless circle, trying to catch the wrong-doers with his side-view vision. Most of the kids found it to be a sport to see how riled up they could get the old guy, which often resulted in him getting dizzy and flopping back down into the sand.
After the supposed 'incident' two weeks ago, everyone had a certain new-founded respect for Marlin. Dory had decided to move into the neighborhood, which was good in its own sense. "That crazy gal--," one old fish had said, "Always playing with those kids. What's wrong with her? At least they're not getting in my flower gar--AURGH, GET OUT OF THERE, YA DANG RASCALS!" And so on and so forth.
Of course...Marlin had become great 'friends' with Dory, she being the only person who had actually stayed with him after Coral's death. Nemo simply loved her; playtime wasn't quite the same once she came. She was great friends with Bruce, Chum, and Anchor, the infamous Fisheaters Anonymous Group. WHY she attended the meetings, he'd never know. But, what did bother him beyond great reason...Was that while Dory thought of herself as his 'friend', he'd began to think of something more, and would scold himself for it.
"Hey, Merlin!" Marlin pushed his head out of the pink anemone, and looked down at the panting blue tang. "Have...you seen...Nemo?"
Marlin was still getting over the fact that he was mistaken for Merlin. "No, I thought--OVER THERE!" She spun around to see Sheldon and Squirt racing away, laughing softly.
"BAASE!" Sheldon the seahorse screamed out in victory as he and Squirt slammed into a large rock.
"That was too sweet, man," Sheldon yelled, obviously picking up on Squirts surfer-slang.
A few feet away was Nemo and Pearl, shaking slowly, watching Dory begin her search around the reef again. Squirt gave the secret signal of waving his fin, and the pair slowly made their way to the base.
"I can't believe we're going to *win* this time!" Pearl whispered, shooting Nemo a cute grin. "This is the first time in days we've almost--"
"I GOT YOU!" Dory tagged Nemo and swam back, yelling in delight.
"Uh-huh! Uh-huh. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh!" Nemo looked over for Pearl to already see her dashing off into the distance. Squirt and Sheldon had split, searching for their other team-mate.
Unfortunately, the fun and games didn't last long. Squirt and Sheldon went farther and farther away from the reef into open water. Dory swam around in circles, giggling with a hint of manic in her voice. Pearl followed close behind, constantly looking back to see if anyone was following them.
"We shouldn't be going out here." Sheldon sneezed and flew back, nose wiggling.
"Don't worry, duudes! I've been on the EAC; nothing can happen with the Squirt-man with ya." Pearl's face showed doubt, but her worries were quickly forgotten when she heard a faint voice.
"Swim, you guys! SWIM AWAY!"
"Did you hear that?" Sheldon stopped, looking around for the voice's owner.
"GO! GET HEEELP! GET MY DAD!"
In one second, Nemo saw his friends scream, get captured, and disappear beyond the ocean's surface.
"DAD!!" Nemo swam past the drop-off to the small opening to his anemone.
"DAD! DAD! DAAAD!!" Marlin shot up out of the anemone, eyes wide.
"What's wrong?!" Nemo was panting viciously. His small fin was fluttering, trying to help him keep balance.
"Sheldon--Squirt--Pearl...TAD!"
"What, what?! What happened?!"
"They were...captured..." Nemo swam back toward the direction of the drop-off, Marlin close on his tail fin. They pushed through groups of loitering fish and swam through thick, growing plants until they came to the open area. A small boat not too far off was rocking side-to-side, the motor sputtering.
"Hey! Lingo, what happened to the other guys?" Dory swam up from behind, looking partially angry Nemo hadn't been looking for her.
"They got taken away! By humans--"
"Oh, look at that boat!" Dory smiled. "Why don't we go up there and see what's happening?" She grabbed hold of Marlin's fin and swam up toward the surface.
Marlin took a deep breath, and scanned his eyes toward the small boat sitting not too far away.
What you should know now, my beloved reader, were four different people with four different emotions: Homocidal, hungry, hot, and just plain nervous.
"You brought me ALL the way from Brazil to tell me THIS?!" A teenage girl with short black hair was standing on one side of the boat, arms crossed. One guy, who was staring out into the sea rubbing his stomach, had long, thick dreads that went past his ankles. A girl with long, blonde hair was waving a small paper fan in her face, looking up at the tall man who was looming over the black-haired girl.
"Marina, it wasn't my fault--"
"Oh, it wasn't your fault when you were with that ERIS girl, huh? Thought 'ol Marina wouldn't notice when you were gone on the weekends."
The two fish ducked down, took a breath, and brought their heads back to the surface.
"I'm getting rid of everything you've given me!" The black-haired girl 'Marina' screamed, tossing a large suitcase out into the water. The man gasped and leapt out of the boat, falling head-first into the water. Coughing and sputtering, the man glared at Marina and spat.
"And I'm getting rid of your stupid fish, too!" Marina grabbed a small glass tank sitting on a cardboard box, glaring at the sea menacingly. "I'm keeping the other fish. Mom's going to want something exotic, and none of this crap we see back at home."
She chucked the tank as far as she could, screaming out in anger. "Start the damn boat, and let's get out of here!"
The guy with the dreads nodded, and pulled the motor handle, starting up the small, weak rudder. The man who had fallen overboard screamed and grabbed onto the side of the boat, treading through the water as the boat sped off into the distance.
Marlin and Dory swam back below, where Nemo swam, eyes closed tightly.
"They...took...the kids." Marlin's face was blank. Dory has a mixture of surprise and sadness on her face.
"Well...what do we do?"
Marlin looked up. "We have to go tell their parents."
Dory frowned. "This means they're it, doesn't it?"
Afternote: AURG! For some reason, I think the next chapter will be more exciting. You're going to meet Crush's mate/wife thing, too..:P Hehe. Anyway, any questions, comments, loud screams of praise? Death threats? Review, please! ^_^;;;