"In that case," Doc sighed, "Mind granting a dying man a last request?"
"If it be wit'in me power, sure."
"A cigar would be great, for starters," said Doc hopefully.
Mambo shook his head. "Sorry, mon. I don't carry around dose toxic t'ings."
"It's okay. I have some in my left jacket pocket. It's just a little hard to reach them in my current state. Would you mind?" Doc grinned, "It's not like it'll set off a fire alarm or anything. The flood will put it out when it puts me out." Mambo sighed, reaching into the jacket pocket with one of his tendrils, pulling out a small cigar case and a lighter, obliging the Doc's request as he puffed the newly lit cigar. "Much-obliged."
"Is that all, then?" asked Mambo.
"Well, I could use some conversation to pass my last few moments on this mortal coil," said Doc.
"And what, praytell, should we talk about? The weather?"
"I'd like to know why I'm going to drown on a fishman barge on an island in the middle of nowhere. Even death row inmates know why they're going to be executed."
Mambo paused, "Very well, I suppose that's de least you deserve…" The jellyfishman sat across from Doc, just as the slowly rising water was becoming ankle deep.
Mambo breathed a sigh of relief, "Well, dat's da story of Jaggerjaw Island. About a week ago, da rest of da men's suspicions finally rose to a boiling point, and Brody was put on trial as a conspirator. He was granted 'leniency' in da form of exile along wit' Wendy. Dey patched togeder a raft and we t'ought we'd seen da last of dem."
"What about you?" Doc asked.
"Hm?"
"You said you were there that night too," Doc clarified, "Didn't you see what happened?"
Mambo shook his head sorrowfully, "Every night dat scene plays out in me mind, and every night da details are slightly different. Sometimes I see Linda take her own life, sometimes I see Wendy stab her wit' da needle, sometimes Brody, sometimes da final blow is me knife on da operating table. I just don't know what anymore."
"But Brody's your friend, right? And you still somehow suspect him knowing what you know?"
"I don't believe Brody or Wendy is capable of murder any more den I could believe Linda was capable of suicide. But it never mattered, I could never convince anyone of da same."
"I see…" Doc took a moment to process the information, "Well, this certainly has shed some light on the situation. Not sure if that'll affect how the others handle things, but I guess I better go let them know just in case."
"What do you mean?" Mambo looked up to see Doc standing up, dusting himself off and throwing his cigarette into the knee deep water, "You should be paralyzed from da neck down!" the jellyfishman exclaimed.
Doc scoffed, "Please, I take stronger stuff in my coffee. Though the medicinal herbs you helped me with definitely helped my body adjust more quickly," Doc fingered the hand-rolled cigar knowingly, "Sometimes a cigar is more than just a cigar, am I right?" Doc chuckled.
"No… no way," Mambo bolted upright, his tendrils all uncoiling, ready for a possible fight, "I told you, I can't let you leave, or else it'll be my head on the chopping block!"
"Yeah, that's not going to work out well for you," Doc explained calmly as he reached into the inside of his coat, unveiling a variety of pill bottles and syringes, "My specialization as a doctor is pharmaceuticals, and I can take them as well as dish them out." His fingers danced along the various bottles and syringes of multicolored liquids and tablets before selecting a particular bottle and holding it up, admiring its contents. Even as a fellow doctor, Mambo couldn't recognize anything in the Doc's visible stockpile. "My own personal little steroid cocktail. If you're worried about looking bad in front of your friends, I'll beat you up pretty good so they don't think twice."
"I'm sorry, but I can't betray me crew, even under these circumstances. It's not just a matter of punishment, but one of loyalty, and I can't let you leave dis room," Four of Mambo's tendrils lashed out behind him for the wheel that sealed off the room and began turning it, slowly filling the room with water again, "You say you're resistant to poisons and toxins, huh? I can believe that. I'll just have to give you a stronger dose!" Another eight tendrils lashed out at each of Doc's limbs, wrapping around them and pumping the jellyfishman's toxin into Doc at a microscopic level.
"Have it your way," Doc shrugged, popped one of the little yellow pills in his mouth, seemingly unaffected by all the toxins pumping into his system.
"What… what are you doing?" Mambo gasped. The human had taken enough tranquilizer to render a sea king comatose and was unaffected. Suddenly, Doc rushed forward, bursting through the tendrils with no problem. Before Mambo knew it, Doc's fist slammed into the fishman's gut, though it felt more like a cannon. "Urk!"
"This is the power of Boost," Doc calmly stated as the jellyfishman doubled over, his lungs rendered temporarily useless, "I'll spare you the details, but this stuff puts my adrenaline and metabolism into overdrive for a short time," Doc threw several more punches at the winded fishman, who offered no resistance, "Now my body will filter out any poisons faster than it could ever ingest them. Strictly personal use though. On any normal person this stuff would be an instant heart attack," Doc picked up Mambo and tossed him aside like a ragdoll.
Mambo propped himself up against the wall, a feeling of utter helplessness washing over him. His fishman constitution was no match for the Doc's drug-induced strength, and all of his toxins and medicines were currently useless. "You… you're mad! Playing wit' drugs and medicines in such a fashion!" Doc approached and Mambo recoiled, "No! Don't come near me!"
"Sorry, I tend to get a bit more aggressive on this stuff. Side effects and all. It was your own fault for blocking the door," Doc leaned over the cowering fishman, inspecting him over. Mambo could see the veins bulging in Doc's neck, wondering exactly what that stuff was doing to the human's body. Doc smiled and pat the jellyfishman on the head as he would any of his patients, "You should be fine. Just enough bruises that if any of your buddies start asking you questions, you can say you fought valiantly. Anyway, I better get going…" Doc gently shoved Mambo out of his path and approached the door.
"Wait! Who are you? I must know!" Mambo pleaded, embarrassed at his easy defeat.
"Just Doc will do," Doc replied.
"Wit' all respect, mon, it's silly for two doctors to call each other Doctor."
Doc paused for a moment, unsure of whether or not to oblige the jellyfishman's request. "Dr. Jonas Holiday," Mambo's eyes widened as he recognized that name the same way he recognized the name of Dr. Cancer, "That name never leaves this room. You don't want to know what happens when it starts getting tossed around." Mambo silently nodded.
"Now, to get out of here," Doc stood by the door and thoughtfully scratched his chin. Between the waist-high water in this room and the fully submerged hallway, the door wouldn't budge no matter how hard Doc pulled or pushed, "Damn, this is going to be harder than I thought."
"Swordsman?" The fishman, in his anger, was now intrigued, "Do you have any skill?"
"Simply put, I'm the best." Preparing for the inevitable, Jude readied his blade.
"I sincerely doubt that." Xiphias grasped the 3-foot scabbard around his nose. "But hopefully you're competent enough for at least a few minutes of distraction. I think I will take you up on your offer of entertainment." The swordfish fishman tossed away the scabbard, revealing a sharpened, 3-foot bone and cartilage blade. "En garde."
"And action!" Jude replied as both lunged from across the room to cross swords.
The two blades clashed and parried. The cartilage in Xiphias's 3-foot bladed nose was harder than steel, and yet somehow the slender (and still nearly naked) human in front of him parried it with nothing but a flimsy rapier and a smile. The main hall they dueled in was slowly filling with water, to the point where instead of the floor the two battled on top of floating tables and chairs.
Having been deflected once again, the two swordsmen leaped back to prepare their next moves. "Swordfish Spear!" Xiphias threw himself forward, his blade straight to pierce as if jousting. An attack that by all logic should snap the human's flimsy rapier in two.
In a clash, Xiphias missed his target, Jude's rapier blocking and diverting the attack just enough that Xiphias's blade thrust into the wall near inches from Jude's face. Not only did Jude parry the attack, he made it look easy, grinning the whole time without breaking a sweat. "Tell me, do you know The Tragic History of Lovers?"
Xiphias ignored the banter, "Fishman Karate: Hundred Brick Chop!" The fishman's arm swung around to pin the human between Xiphias's sword and hand, a variation of the basic Fishman Karate move Hundred Brick Fist, only where the latter would pulverize like a sledgehammer, this attack chopped with the force of a battle axe, and should have been able to cleave the thin human in two in a single swipe.
It never got the chance, however, as Jude quickly ducked under the blade and spun around Xiphias's opposite side, Xiphias hitting air, but Jude carving a good chunk out of the fishman's side as he literally danced past him. "Ballroom Slice!" Jude grinned wider as he took his stance several feet behind Xiphias, "It's a play about lovers from two feuding families that ends in the lovers' deaths," the actor continued as if he were lecturing a class.
Xiphias withdrew his blade from the wall and spun around to cut Jude, only to be parried again. "I'm surprised you don't know it. It's considered one of the great classics."
The main advantage to Xiphias's sword style unique to his particular breed of fishman was that he still had two free arms to attack with, so he brought both arms around this time, determined that the human would not escape his grasp again, "Two Hundred Brick Chop!"
Xiphias's two chops only connected with each other, however, as Jude flipped backward high into the air, the whole time calmly speaking, "In it, the main hero, one of the lovers, must duel the cousin of his true love, a much more experienced and vicious swordsman."
As Jude soared through the air, Xiphias saw his chance. Simultaneously shaking his head from side to side and nodding furiously, Xiphias's blade unleashed a series of multi-angled shockwaves at the still airborne Jude. "Indecisive Cut!" Even if the actor could somehow parry a few of the shockwaves, there was no way he could dodge them all in the air.
Or at least that's what Xiphias thought. "Aerial Ballet!" Jude smiled in delight as he not only furiously parried several of the shockwaves, he used their force to propel him out of the way of the others, not a single one of the attacks scratched him. "The lover wishes to make peace between the families so his love can flourish, but the cousin will have none of it."
Xiphias stared in disbelief, but still wasn't about to let this opportunity go to waste. After he made sure where Jude would land, he charge forward, his blade thrust forward and his arms ready to strike as well, "Swordfish Spear!" Xiphias was certain this time, certain that his opponent would not escape his strike. There was no more room to flip backwards, and he would catch him if the human tried to sidestep him.
Once again, Xiphias's attacks hit nothing as Jude fell to one knee just outside of Xiphias's range of attack, "Reverse Knight!" Jude thrust his sword into Xiphias hilt first, knocking the wind out of him. As the fishman doubled over, Jude somersaulted under his legs, jumping calmly to his feet. "Finally, in a stroke of luck and passion, the lover prevails over the experienced swordsman, killing him." Spinning around, Jude gave his opponent a quick stab in the back while he was getting his second wind, "Scoundrel's Strike!" Jude calmly "But this only drives a wedge between him and his lover, and more conflict ensues." Jude sauntered away as Xiphias slowly stood back up, now nursing several wounds in difficult-to-reach areas. "Unable to live without his one, true love, he commits suicide, just as his lover has resolved to forgive him."
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Xiphias roared as his pupils turned into slits and his body started giving in to his bestial instincts and feral rage. Suddenly, the raging fishman started furiously spinning. Gone was Xiphias's calm demeanor, replaced by pure rage as Jude watched in interest. "Spinning Schnoz-Saw!" The spinning fishman had turned his nose-sword into a horizontal sawblade and launched forward.
With only the few narrow tables to walk on, there was no room to sidestep, so when Jude's back was against the wall, he was forced to somersault underneath the whirling blade and leap back to his feet on the other side, still grinning, "Not a fan of the classics I take it?"
But Xiphias's attack continued, and as he approached the wall, the spinning sawblade angled until it cut vertically along the wall, climbing it until it launched itself at Jude again, "Spinning Air Schnoz-Saw!"
Once again, Jude easily sidestepped the attack, but the spinning form gave no opening to counterattack. As Xiphias's saw landed, it destroyed the table, leaving Jude to leap to a different safe platform. "I'd be more careful if I were you. On an island like this, it's probably difficult to replace these fineries," Jude taunted. But Xiphias's attack continued, churning the water and seeking out no longer Jude, but every would-be safe platform in the still-rising waters until the actor was forced to swan dive deep underwater, sword in hand.
Only then did Xiphias cease his attack, and his rage seemed to have calmed down as well, "Much better. Duels between swordsmen shouldn't have so much annoying babble. Now, where were we?" Xiphias launched himself forward, this time taking his time with his attacks. He wasn't about to allow the human to exploit any openings again. What he thought would still be a quick decapitation turned out to be another block as Jude barely brought up his sword in time to block. "You can still parry even underwater? Impressive. But we fishmen still rule the waters."
Both of Xiphias's arms grasped seemingly empty water, but suddenly there were 3-foot long swirling currents in the form of underwater blades, "Fishman Karate: Ocean Sword!" Xiphias now wielded three swords to Jude's one. The swordfishman launches a barrage of swipes and cuts. Much to Jude's surprise, whenever he tried to block the two swords of water, they passed right by his blade and cut deep into his body. Relying only on underwater acrobatic maneuvers, Jude flipped and dodged as many strikes as he could, but still received several deep cuts. Much to Xiphias's surprise, so did he, as when he couldn't physically affect the water sword strikes, Jude would use the opportunity to give Xiphias several small cuts.
Tired of the exchange of blows that was far less one-sided than Xiphias would have liked, the fishman adopted a different stance, "Fishman Santoryuu: Trident Strike!" Holding all three blades parallel and pointed in Jude's direction, Jude thought that the fishman would launch himself again and prepared to swim out of the way. Much to his surprise, it wasn't the fishman, but a trident-shaped concentration of water that was launched at Jude, catching him just enough guard to pin him to the wall. It was all Jude could do to parry the attack just enough that the trident's points missed his vitals. The water around him started to ooze red as his many wounds started to drain blood in the water.
Xiphias remained still in the center of the water, looking at the human in disgust, "You remind me too much of Charlie, but I will make certain that I will be rid of at least one of you today." Spinning both of the water blades around in opposite circles, Xiphias created a whirlpool that grew as he spun faster, threatening to engulf and swallow the wounded human, "Fishman Santoryuu: Sharktooth Vortex!" Try as he might, there was nothing in reach for Jude to grab onto even if he had the strength. He tried swimming away, but to no avail. "There's no escape! Fishman Santoryuu: Three Thousand Underwater Worlds!" Jude was engulfed in the center of the vortex taking the full brunt, as it felt like thousands of sharp teeth rended his flesh, until everything finally went dark.
Xiphias eyed the now unmoving human body in the water, and slightly bowed, "You may have been human, and a very annoying one at that, but your swordsmanship, while strange, was admirable. I will give you the honor of a warrior's death."
A loud clang got both of their attention, as the large steel door had swung shut. Ignoring Brody, Michael leaped up to the door and tugged as hard as he could, only to find a thick layer of slime covering the door making it impossible to budge. Even with both feet on the door and pulling, the door wouldn't move. Not only that, but the whatever the slime was kept Michael stuck as well.
"I tried to warn you," said an exasperated Brody.
"It ain't budgin'! What the bloody hell is this stuff? It's like someone ate a tub o' super glue and crapped it on the door!" Michael still pulled, hoping to at least get his limbs off the door.
"That's right," the snail-woman said scowling, "I'm the nautilus sea snail fishwoman Natalie, engineer, cartographer, and quartermaster for the Tiburones Gemelos.
Michael stared at Natalie for a few seconds in silence, blinking his eyes and shaking his head as if that would somehow wake him from his predicament before shouting, "WHAT IN THE NINE BLOODY HELLS IS THAT THING?"
Suddenly, Natalie erupted in anger, screaming obscenities at the top of her lungs, "I'M UGLY, AM I? WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU, YOU'LL BE NOTHING BUT A BLOOD-SMEARED CRAP-STAIN ON THE WALL! THEN WE'LL SEE WHO'S UGLY!"
The door burst off its hinges into the hallway, shattering from the force of the impact and freeing Michael from his binds, "There we go, Mikey's back on his feet again!" Just in time too, as the sea snail woman's entire shell raced toward him for another body slam.
Michael jumped backward just as the giant shell attached to the berserking woman crashed into the floor where he stood. Grinning, Michael drew both of his giant Boomers. "Time to really get this party started, with a big, loud BOOM!" Pointing both guns at the sea snail at point blank range, just how Michael liked it, he pulled the trigger, bracing for the recoil from the explosions and was rewarded with…
splooooot… as a black, inky goo oozed out of both gun barrels unceremoniously.
"That's not a boom…" Michael whimpered as Natalie's shell crashed into him knocking him through the hallway like a ragdoll.
"I hope you weren't hoping for forgiveness, you pathetic human worm, because there won't be any for you!" Natalie kept her crushing attacks up, wielding her own giant shell like an oversized morningstar.
"Don't worry, I got no reason to be apologizin' to monstrous sea slugs," Michael retorted without missing a beat, bruised, but unphased even by the wet gunpowder fiasco that disabled both of his weapons. It seemed really obvious now, but he vowed next time to remember to waterproof both pistols before going swimming.
"HRAAGH!" Natalie's rage peaked again and twisted her own body to launch her giant shell straight through the hallway, leaving little room to dodge. A little room was just enough for Michael, however, as he leaped up over the hurtling attack and swung a Boomer down, colliding it with Natalie's face.
"Jus' cause me powder's wet don't mean I'm defenseless!" Michael grinned and twirled his guns-rendered-clubs.
"We'll see about that!" Natalie paused hurling herself as a weapon and extended two open palms. "Grease Slime!" Suddenly, the slime covering her body quickly gathered onto her arms and spewed at Michael like a fire hose.
"What? Yer pukin' on me now?" Michael brought up both Boomers to block with, but that didn't stop the stuff from getting on his hands and feet.
"It may not be the most attractive feature in the world, but it's a versatile once, since I can control its consistency," Natalie grinned maliciously as Michael's Boomers slipped out of his hands and slid several feet away. Michael tried to go after him, but his feet were stuck in a puddle in the stuff, as he slipped and fell like a cartoon on a banana peel. Just standing up and walking was a challenge now.
"Glue Slime!" Just as Michael got the hand of standing up without any support, a second wave of slime hit his feet. The good news was he wasn't slipping around anymore. The bad news was that he was stuck to the floor in the same stuff that covered the door earlier. Natalie also threw some of the stuff at Michael's guns so they were out of the picture for now.
"Well doesn't that just bugger all?" Michael grimaced, "Not much I can do without me Boomers."
Her prey immobilized, Natalie smiled sadistically and threw herself in for another strike. At the last second, Michael bent backwards, until his hands almost touched the floor, effectively limboing under the giant shell as it rocketed past him. His hands useless in the slime that covered them, Michael thrust his elbow up, striking Natalie right in the chest. "Course that don't mean I'm completely helpless," Michael grinned.
"You… bastard…" Natalie clutched her chest in pain, the attack having hit her one of her more tender areas.
"Hey, all's fair in love, war, and ugly monster-slayin'," Michael snickered.
"DON'T CALL ME UGLY!" Natalie retracted into her shell, which began spinning wildly. This time the shell launched itself spinning vertically like a giant tire, threatening to steamroll Michael into a human pancake.
Michael braced himself. Even if this was going to work, it would still hurt like hell. As Natalie's giant shell slammed into him head-on, Michael grabbed it and held on for dear life as the force ripped him from the sticky slime. Only when Natalie stopped was Michael flung crashing into a wall. He dusted himself up as he stood up, shaking off the sting and getting ready for the rest of the fight. "Thanks for the lift, Ugly!"
Natalie fumed, her blue-green skin steaming into a bright red hue, "That's it! Time to pull out the big guns!" she screamed.
"Hey, that's not fair! Ye already robbed me of MY big guns," Michael complained.
"Well, tough, because we have at least one thing in common, and that's that I can fight dirty too!"
Michael winced. "Ew… I really don't want to have anything in common with something like you."
Natalie retracted into her shell again, only this time when she emerged she pulled out a string of several large, spiked, iron plates and quickly covered the length of her circular shell. Two more iron plates with giant spikes latched onto the sides of her shell, effectively turning her giant, bludgeoning, tire-esque shell into a spiked wheel of death, "My personal specially-designed Nautilus Shell Battle Armor!"
"Looks like ye got a lot o' junk in the trunk," Michael joked, even as the spiked shell started rapidly spinning, making a high-pitched whining sound not unlike a chainsaw. "Uh-oh," with the iron plates now adding to the shell's width as well as killing power, there was no longer any room in the narrow hallway to dodge the berserking Natalie, and the spikes themselves made trying to grab and ride the shell just as dangerous. Michael quickly tried a nearby door, but found with his greased hands he couldn't even grasp a doorknob long enough to open it.
"Well, looks like I'll be forced to use me greatest technique!" Michael braced his feet and then bolted off in the other direction as fast as he could, "Running the Hell Away!"
Natalie launcher her augmented shell through the hallway, grinding up the floor, ceiling, and even the walls as she did so. Michael didn't even bother looking behind him less he slow down and get pulverized. The whirring and grinding of metal against the rest of the building was enough motivation to run faster, but those sounds were soon joined by another foreboding noise, this one in front.
Suddenly, the double doors at the end of the hall burst open and a wall of water rushed down the hallway. With only the slightest instant for Michael to comprehend just how screwed he was, the flood hit first, thrusting him off his feet and back into the pursuing death machine, "Now there's no escape!" echoed Natalie's voice, barely audible between the roaring water and grinding spikes, "Bloody Undertow!" Natalie's arms reached out of their shell and grabbed Michael by the wrist, pinning him to the front of the shell so the dull spikes dug into his back. Natalie suddenly reversed the direction of her spin, moving backwards with the water, as Michael was run over countless times until his world was a blur of bone-cracking pain.
Natalie, Michael, and the flood burst back into the engineering room, the flood filling the room but still not affecting the various waterproofed machinery. Still holding onto the bleeding human, Natalie slammed into the floor, Michael first, pinning him to the bottom of the submerged room. "What's the matter, human? Got nothing else to say? We'll see how ugly I am compared to a bloated human corpse!"
Just when Michael was trying to decide whether drowning or being slowly crushed to death was preferable, an unseen force slammed into Natalie's side, tackling her away from Michael. Obstructing the snail woman from her prey was a now unchained great white shark fishman.
Still prone on the other side of the room, Natalie's eyestalks whipped around in surprise to see Brody staring back. "W-When did you get free?"
"We fishmen are stronger in water. Remember?" Brody broke apart the one remaining shackle on his left arm effortlessly.
Natalie righted herself and her eyes narrowed in anger, "Get out of the way, Brody, or else I'll take you down first."
Brody cracked his neck unobligingly, "That ain't happening, Nattie."
"How dare you!" Natalie's rage peaked again as she charged forward through the water, "Only Linda's allowed to use that name!" Natalie brought her shell down on Brody, only to smash the floor on his left as Brody took his stance, "That is until you and your human pet killed her!" Grabbing a nearby pipe fixture, Natalie swung around to try and sideswipe Brody with her spiked shell, but somehow overshot and whiffed above Brody's head. Despite this, Brody didn't dodge or move from Natalie's path.
"That ain't how it happened, Nattie!" Instead, his arms moved with each attack, directing the underwater currents to divert Natalie's shell just enough so that Brody and Michael were safe from her attacks.
At this point, Natalie was just attacking blindly, venting her rage, but Brody still had his hands full making sure her spiked shell strikes could never connect with her target. "LIAR!"
A teenage Natalie sobbed in her room, trembling as she fingered the dagger in her hands. "It's pointless to try… I should just give up now… No one could possibly miss me… No one could possibly love me…" Raising the dagger to her chest, Natalie shut her eyes and plunged the dagger into her broken heart…
Or she would have if a very strange and sudden breeze hadn't hurled the dagger from her hands into the wall. "Just WHAT do you think you're doing?" Natalie tearfully and fearfully whipped her eyestalks around to see Linda, in Natalie's eyes a much more beautiful and deserving woman than herself. Where usually Linda had a look of joy and kindness this time she glared with anger.
"Linda… I… I…" Natalie whimpered. Linda stomped forward and slapped the teenage girl as hard as she could. Natalie was rendered speechless.
"Don't you EVER do something like that again!" Linda's face instantly transformed from anger to sadness, "You don't think I'd miss you? That Brody and everyone would miss you? Do you have ANY idea how much pain everyone would all go through if you left us?" Natalie was silent, not that she could probably breathe anyway with Linda wrapping her arms around her and squeezing every bit of oxygen out of her.
"I'm… I'm sorry…" Natalie whimpered, "It was Jonny… He… He called me ugly…" It sounded much more dramatic of an incident in her head.
"I heard. Don't listen to him, sweetie… Jonny's stupid and has lousy taste in women," Natalie was still hysterical, but Linda had at least calmed down enough to start mothering the poor girl, "Don't worry, you can do better," Natalie could only sob and whimper unintelligibly, "Shh… I'm here for you, Nattie."
Natalie's near blind rage continued, her attacks speeding up, and a couple times Brody was clipped by the giant spiked shell, "You took her from me! Linda was never even sick, was she? That was just some story you fed Mambo so you could justify it!" Natalie retracted back into her shell and started spinning again, the water churning as she did so.
"She took her own life! I tried to save her, but it was too late!" She charged at Brody, and once again Brody formed his own currents to shoot Natalie above him.
"No!" This time Natalie was ready as she instantly broke her spin and flung her shell down, knocking Brody square on the head before he could redirect the currents.
"You're forcing my hand, Nattie. Fishman Karate…" Without being able to just redirect the attack, Brody punched straight up into the oncoming attack, "Hundred Brick Fist!" Despite direct contact, Brody's arm was just crushed back down by the weight of Natalie's shell.
"If she really did kill herself, why didn't she write out a will? Why wouldn't she even say goodbye?" Natalie reversed once more, her shell twirling around her and hitting Brody from below like an oversized uppercut, knocking Brody into the open waters.
"I don't know!" It was Brody's turn to explode in anger, "Maybe she was afraid someone would stop her. Maybe it was too painful for her to say goodbye. Maybe she just wanted to give Wendy and the other sick people a fighting chance as soon as possible! Maybe she wrote a will but it was lost in the fire! I don't know, I'll never know, and that kills me every night! But one thing's for certain! I never betrayed anyone, and neither did Wendy!"
"LIAR! TRAITOR!" Natalie screamed as spun her shell again, lunging at Brody.
"Fishman Karate…" Instead of trying to swim out of the way, Brody met the attack head on again, this time thrusting both fists, "Two Hundred Brick Fist!" Each fist punched opposite sides of Natalie's shell instead of head-on, and this time Brody held, physics still determining who would prevail between Natalie's shell and Brody's fists. Brody pushed harder, and suddenly the armor started to loudly crack before shattering completely, leaving Natalie without her prized battle armor.
"My armor-!" Natalie was momentarily shocked, and that was all the opening Brody needed.
The shark fishman spun vertically, bringing his outstretched leg full circle down onto the now more vulnerable shell, "Flaming Ax Kick!" Brody kicked Natalie back down to the bottom of the flooded room as she burst through to the floor below. Brody quickly swam after her, getting ready to finish this fight.
Arm outstretched, ready to strike, Brody dashed downward after Natalie, who was still too stunned to react in time, "Exploding Palm-" Brody stopped, his open palm only inches from Natalie's flinching face, hesitating.
"What's stopping you now? Why not just kill me like you did Linda?" Natalie asked, confused and exasperated.
"I can't… I can't hurt you," Brody shook as he spoke, "Any of you," His arm fell back to his side as Brody lost his battle stance, "No matter what happens, the crew is my family, and you might as well be my sister."
"And that's why the second you got a chance you got a new crew to attack us? Is that how you treat family? You prefer THAT kind of company to us?" Natalie spat in disgust.
"Michael?" Brody calmly replied, "I hate that shmuck. Of all the people on this island, fishmen and humans alike, he's the guy I'd mind seeing dead the least. Well, except maybe for that creepy crab guy."
"If that's so, then let me by and I'll finish off that human," Natalie demanded.
Brody shook his head, "Nattie, the worst mistake you could make in your life is to take someone's life, whether they're human or fishman. It's one thing if you just don't like them, but take it from someone who's had to take a life before. It's one of the worst feelings in the world, and it's something that changes you and sticks with you for the rest of your life, something you can never truly atone for. I won't let you make that mistake, Nattie."
"Then you're too late," she quietly replied.
Brody quickly turned to see Michael slowly sinking into this floor from the room above. Even if he still had any life in him, the entire ship was now completely submerged, with no possible air to revive him.
To be continued….
Author's Notes:
Alternate chapter name: "Oh crap"
Like the reviews, glad to see people are enjoying the story. Reviews are ALWAYS appreciated.