Tony got there first, of course. By the time Bruce caught up, the merman was already whirling in and out of the ship's rigging with an unabashed expression of glee on his face.
Bruce was more apprehensive. "Tony, do I really need to remind you that the starboard's stabilisation lies entirely on your shoulders. And I, for one, do not want to die in that crevasse." He looked pointedly at the dark and ominous gaping hole in the ocean bed.
"Bubbles," cajoled Tony, "don't stress. You know what I've said about stress being bad for you."
"Stress isn't my problem. You are."
Tony feigned an injured look. "That hurt."
"I'll be over here. On look out. Following the plan," Bruce said meaningfully.
"Enjoy yourself."
Bruce merely twirled gently from side to side as he swam to the other end of the ship. Tony hadn't even let him know what they were hoping to find aboard the vessel, telling the pufferfish that it would be 'the coolest surprise ever'. Normally Bruce would've had better sense than to agree to help Tony such a complicated mission - yet the way the merman's face lit up whenever he talked about it left no option for Bruce but to agree. He just hoped there wouldn't be any sharks.
Tony hummed T.N.T. by AC/DC under his breath as he set up Bruce's specially formulated dynamite. Opening sealed doors in a shipwreck was always a dangerous business for sea creatures. If the room on the other side was completely dry, it was impossible to get the door open without explosives which in turn carried the risk of exterminating the stability of the entire ship. If the room on the other side was mostly filled with water, however, it was usually quite safe and easy to enter. The room Tony wanted to get to was dry – just as he'd hoped. He arranged the tiny explosives carefully around the edge of the door, swam round the corner to the end of the passageway, pressed the button and: BANG!
The sound was deafening. It was so much louder than either Tony or Bruce had anticipated. And in the still of the night, the clanging racquet reverberated in waves out into the endless blue. Though they didn't know it, the merman and the pufferfish swore under their breath at exactly the same moment. Tony swore because he just realised the sound might have damaged the thing he hoped to steal. Bruce swore because from the edge of the cerulean horizon came three ominous shapes swimming towards the shipwreck.
"Sharks!" the pufferfish yelled out in warning to Tony.
But in the depths of the ship with his ears still ringing like mad, the merman remained oblivious to the incoming danger.
Bruce swam out to meet his enemy. Two of the sharks were Great Whites, the other a hammerhead. The pufferfish looked around to see if there were any imperial guards around to help him: there were none. Probably still busy eating all those sugar cubes, he thought. He was only about a hundred metres away from the sharks now. The larger of the Great Whites grinned when he saw the little common fish swimming towards him. It was as if the fish wanted to get eaten. The Great White opened its jaws, swallowing Bruce whole.
"Well, that was an easy entree," laughed the shark.
The other two laughed with him, then gasped in horror as their leader was suddenly perforated by spikes from the inside, killing him in an instant. Bruce pushed his way out, emerging from the shark's guts covered in spikes, blood and half-digested food.
He looked at the other sharks and roared.
