"What'd you want Aunt Marie?" Bruce asked in annoyance, and one of the Squid Sisters emerged from the shadows, "what you did was incredibly recklessly, showing yourself out on live television for the whole city to see," Marie noted the Sharkling's actions. Bruce remained in the pool of ink just swimming in circles in shark form while he was scorn by the Inkling, "Bruce, we're trying to keep you out of harms way, what if the Octarians see that broadcast? they'll probably kidnap and brainwash you, like what they did to your Aunt Callie," Bruce rolled his eyes which seemed to made Marie more mad.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me young man, the Octarians are dangerous," Marie added trying warn the arrogant shark, "you should listen to Agent 2, Bruce, she's wise beyond her years," spoke a elderly male voice coming from the kitchen. "Ugh, hi Great Uncle Cuttlefish," Bruce groaned seeing the elderly man raiding his fridge, "that's "Great Cap'n Cuttlefish" to you mister-," "just because you wear a captain's hat, that you've bought for five bucks, dosen't automatically make you captain," Bruce protested. "Besides I can take care of myself if the Octarians ever wanna brainwash me," Bruce mentioned, "I've told your, you're not ready to fight the Octarians,-" "OH, and those two randos that you randomly picked out in the Plaza were? when the Great Zapfish got fish-napped, TWICE," Bruce argued.
There was a moment of silence when Marie and Cuttlefish heard his counterargument, "That's... Not the point. The point is-" "aww, quit badgering the kid Marie," Callie interrupted by speaking through the T.V. with her face displayed on the screen. "You're not helping Callie," Marie told her cousin through the television, "his a shark and sharks needs to roam," Callie argued, "hey Aunt Calie," Bruce waved at the T.V. with his fin, "hello Bruce," she greeted back. Even though Cuttlefish and Marie had the same idea on how to handle Bruce's upbringing, but Callie was the one who let Bruce off the leash so he doesn't feel too wieghed down at times when he was a pup.
Years Ago
It was raining, It was cold, and the wind was whipping the air, on their way home the two very young cousins were trying to hurry on home as fast as they could, "c'mon Marie, we're getting all wet- achew," Callie sneezed as the result of the rainy weather threaten to give her a cold. Marie was close behind, she was shielding herself with her umbrella, "I'm coming, wait," she called out until a gust of wind swooped down and ripped her umbrella out her hand.
The umbrella landed in a tiny stream of water on the side of the street leading down to a storm drain, Marie ran after her umbrella with the heavy rain beating down on her, and the freezing wind whipping in her face, but she couldn't make it. Unfortunately Marie's umbrella fell through the drain disappearing from her sights, "nnoooo!" she cried out, failing to catch her umbrella on time, Marie shed one small tear and turn around to head back home. Marie Sloched onward, looking down on the ground, that was her favorite umbrella, and now it's gone, that is until she saw it coming up steam right beside her on the street.
The umbrella was standing straight up from the ground all by itself, Marie looked side to side, and back to the umbrella that magically stood right before her, she reached out and grabbed it, then she saw a small fin sticking out from the spot. Marie crouched closer to have a better look at the fin, she then flicked it, and there popped out a pair of eyes. Marie jumped back and the fin retreated back into the storm drain, Marie ran after it, and looked down at the drain, but whatever it was, it's gone.
The next morning was much nicer, there wasn't a cloud in sight, the sun was high in the air and in full view, but everything was still wet. Marie was back at the same storm drain the strange little creature had disappeared, "are you still on about this?" Callie exclaimed. Marie had told her family what happened and what she saw, but they all said she was probably seeing thing, "I know what I saw, it was a shark, I know it is," Marie spoke up. "there's no such things as sharks, it was probably just the rain in your eyes," Callie argued, but Marie stayed true to her belief.
Marie had waited and waited for something to happen, but nothing did, so she came up with a plan, Marie ran back home and got her secret stash of candy and left a trail of it leading to one of the oldest trick in the book, a box being held up by a stick with a string tied to it. Marie waited patiently, looking over a corner, "what are you doing?" Marie looked behind her and saw her cousin again, "sssshh, I'm trying to catch it," "you're not gonna catch it because it's not real," "is too," "is not," "is too," "is not," the two argued and were too distracted to see the little pup just gulping up the pieces of candy laid out one at time.
Out of the corner of her eye Callie saw the little shark pup for the first time, "what the?" she spoke out seeing the candy being snatched up, Marie then turned back around and saw the little shark eat the last piece of the candy trail. Marie quickly grabbed hold of the string and pulled on it, but the little thing got out of the way of the falling box, and swam right back into the drain, "no come back!" Marie yelled out, but it was too late the sharkling was gone again. "Th-th-that was a shark," Callie stammered, "I told you," Marie remarked, "then let's go get it," "yeah, but-" "but what?" Marie held up on piece a candy in a sad expression, "this is last the piece," she noted.
"... Ugh, gimme that," Callie snatched the piece out her cousin's hand and walked towards her uncle who was fishing nearby, "hey Uncle Cuttlefish, can I have a rod," Callie asked, "sure sweetie, here you go." the Cap'n handed her a spare rod, Callie pierced the piece of candy though the hook, "uh, Callie what're you doing?" Cuttlefish asked, "fishing uncle," Callie answered and casts her bait straight into the drain, "Callie the ocean's over here," "I'm trying to catch a differen't kind of fish uncle," "like what?" before Callie could answer, the line tugged and Callie was dragged forward.
"AAAAHH! UNCLE HELP!" Callie yelled out planting her heals into the dirt, Cuttlefish took the rod from Callie and tried to reel in whatever was pulling on the line, but it wasn't going down without a fight, "whoa, we've got a fighter," Cap'n pulled hard and let the catch have a little slack to tire it out as he'll do with other catches he had. For a minute the Cap'n had managed to reel in the catch out of the drain and he was in complete shock, "what? it's a shark, and a pup at that," the hook was caught between the pup's teeth and the little shark growled as it was pulled out of its hidding place, but still kept fighting, "whoa, Callie, Marie, bring an ink tank, quick," the Captain told his two nieces as he was pulled foward.
Marie and Callie ran and grabbed an empty tank, "got it uncle," the cousins said in unison, "good, get ready becau- AAAAAAAAAHHH!" the Sharkling bolted away up the empty streets dragging the cousin's uncle with him. The Sharkling went up hills, through bushes, through trash cans, and even up small walls with the Cap'n getting dragged through them all, but eventually Marie and Calie got in front of the Sharkling's path and it swam into the tank. The cousins shut the tank closed and held it up to their triumph and Cuttlefish slidding to a complete stop.
The old man rose from the hard pavement and cracked his back, "good work girls," Cuttlefish gave them a thumbs up and took the tank off their hands. They went inside their home, closed all the curtains, and locked all the doors, they've place the tank on top of the kitchen table, and look to see the little guy all scared, "I can't believe it, after all my years I've never seen a live shark," Cuttlefish gazed at the tank. "aww, but uncle it looks scared," Marie mentioned seeing the frightful expression on the little Sharkling.
"Can we let it out?" Callie asked looking over her uncle's shoulders, her uncle unscrewed the top off, but the little thing was too frighten to leave, "don't be scared," Marie told the young shark and then held up a cookie. The shark pup slowly approached her hand, he sniffed at it, and when he liked the way it smelled he open up his mouth showing his razor sharp teeth. Marie jumped back and dropped the cookie onto the table and the little Sharkling tore it to shreds, "hungry little fellow are you? wait right her I got something for ya," Cuttlefish walked to the fridge and pulled out half of a sub sandwich. He placed the plate down and let the Shark decided if he liked it or not, but soon after sniffing it, the little pup devoured the sandwich along with the plate that carried it.
While still in shark form the Sharkling wag its tail now feeling happy, "haha, can we keep'em uncle? can we?" the cousins asked, "hmm?" Cuttlefish stoked his bread, looking down on the strange little being on his kitchen table seeing the cute little smile on his face. "Oh alright," the cousins cheered for joy and the Sharkling jumped on the table and then changed into the form of a little boy about half the size of the girls, "woow," Callie let out seeing the shark change into a boy, "hm, looks like we've got another mouth to feed, but what should we name ya little fella?" Cuttlefish pondered, rubbing the boy's hair. "Ooh, can I name him?" Marie asked jumping up and down and her uncle simply nodded his head, "mmm? Bruce, your name is now Bruce," and the little Shark-boy seemed to love it.
Back In The Present
After that Bruce was part of the family for years, but was kept a secret, and when he became old enough the Squid Sisters and Cap'n Cuttlefish found him a place to stay in the sewers. In his spare time Bruce will scavange for parts that were thrown away by the Inklings up top, Sheldon has taught him well. Maybe too well.
"C'mon Bruce we've tried hard to make this place feel like home for you," Marie tried to defend her argument, "yeah, like the T.V." Cap'n Cuttlefish mentioned, "yeah, the parts, I had to build the damn thing," Bruce reminded, "hey at least you did a good job doing it," "yeah, thanks for the "build your own T.V. playset" ages 6 and up," Bruce quipped. "Now that you made your presences known, what if someone followed you here?" Marie prompted trying to predict the outcome of what's to happen, "relax, no one followed me and I made sure the sewer cover was shut," Bruce assured.
However right after speaking those words a sound was heard coming from the pipe that leads to Bruce's home and out came screaming Alice, Ray, and Evie. They shot through the pipe and splashed into the ink pool, "... hehe, hi," Alice timidly waved at the local residences, "... I thought I did," said Bruce seeing the disdain look on Marie's face. She was going to say something, but then Billy came out of the pipe, landing on the three unannounced guest, "wooow," he said in amazment and then pulled out a phone and started taking pictures, the result making Marie more upset.