Hello and welcome back to Of Fish and Men :) Once again this chapter, and all forthcoming chapters have been carefully written by a loyal fan, PhantomPhoenix4. Be sure to check out her other works and say thank you!

Chapter 14: Return of the Tank Gang

He was swimming, without a lot of effect for once. It was heaven. He was having a great time playing with Squirt, the Tank Gang, Dory, and all his other friends, but someone was missing.

"Daddy?" questioned Nemo stopping in mid swim to look around. He spun around in circles looking for the orange fish he knew and loved so well. "Daddy!" he was starting to panic. Suddenly he felt a fin rest gently on top of him.

"Nemo," its owner called gently. He turned to face the familiar voice. "Daddy," Nemo called out in relief as he saw his father's kindly, slightly wrinkled face.

"Nemo, wake up!" Marlin said as he gave Nemo a shake. "

"Uh?" said Nemo as his dad's face started to fade being replaced with that of Gill. The little clown fish blinked a few times and rubbed his eye as he slowly rose up from the ground with a weak flick of his tail.

"Nemo?"

"Eh," mumbled the sleepy Nemo, "Hey, Gill." He glanced around and came face to face with a human!

"AHHH!" yelled Nemo darting behind Gill.

"Its okay, Sharkbait," assured Gill although he did sound too sure himself. As Nemo caught his breathe he peeked out from behind his protector and watched the human move away.

"Where are we?"

"Pet Shop," answered Gill simply.

"Pet Shop?" questioned Nemo as he looked out through the glass of the tank. He gasped as he saw dozens of other fish tanks full of other fish in all directions. Then he looked further and saw other animals… big animals, with teeth and claws. He hid his face into Gill side. It was too overwhelming. "What's a Pet Shop?" he asked weakly fearing the answer.

"A place where humans can get fish, dogs, cats, and other animals to keep as pets. The Dentist got most of the others from a place like this," he answered as he scanned the area clearly deep in thought.

Nemo looked around the tank. It was very small compared to the one he was in before, but there was nearly ten times the fish. He looked closer at these fish. Most of them were swimming in circles mumbling gibberish to themselves and had a distance look in their eyes. Every single one of them was ignoring them. Then a thought struck Nemo. He quickly scanned the tank again, before turning back to Gill. "Where are the others?"

"Around," answered Gill turning to Nemo. "I can't see them all, but see," he pointed a fin across the way to another tank. There Nemo could see Gurgle and Bloat. He waved weakly at them. They waved back before pointing back across at what Nemo could only assume was another tank.

"Their telling us where everyone is," said Gill explaining the others' actions as Nemo pressed his face against the glass to try and see the tank Gurgle and Bloat where pointing at. Suddenly a pair of eye balls popped in front of him.

"AHHH!" Nemo screamed again jumping backwards colliding with Gill. The little human giggled and pointed at him turning to the other human behind him. Gill gave a sharp intake of breathe before pushing Nemo behind him and slowing backing away from the glass.

"What Gill?" said Nemo as he tried to catch his breath.

"Your popular, Sharkbait," explained Gill, "That little boy wants you as a pet."

"What?"

"Shh, just lie low and stay behind me"

Nemo watched fearfully as the little boy human kept pointing at him and seemed the be arguing with the other human, who shook her head, before she grabbed him by his hand and dragged him off.

Gill and Nemo shared a sigh of relief and visibly relaxed.

"How'd we get here," whispered Nemo like his mere voice would bring the boy back.

"We were lucky," started Gill, "When we were caught the fishermen, fortunately, noticed that we were not from around here, that we were reef fish. Except instead of just throwing us back they thought that they could sell us for a pretty price. So they put us in a cooler full of water and brought us here."

Nemo took a moment to take it all in. "So now what?" he asked.

"I don't know, Nemo. I don't know."

Slowly very slowly the light of the outside world seeped into the dark cave as Bruce opened his mouth.

"Wahoo!" shouted Dory as she darted out. Marlin following close behind her, going a little slower as to mindful of the sharp teeth above and below him.

"There you are, Mates!" said Bruce.

"Thanks Bruce!" cheered Dory and she swam up and gave the tip of the great white's nose a hug.

"Come on Dory," called Marlin. "Thank you very much Bruce. I…" he hesitated before finishing, "I owe you!"

"No worries, Mate," Bruce waved after them as they swam away, "Oh and Clownfish!"

Marlin stopped and turned back to the great white.

"Take care of her," Bruce said with a dangerously serious voice.

Marlin gaped. "He'd heard," he thought before shouting back, "I will!"

"Alright then, good luck finding Nemo!" he said as he turned tail and swam away.

Marlin watched as the giant shark's ominous shadow his appeared into the darkness of the harbor.

"Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all," thought Marlin.

"Hey, Slowpoke you coming!" called Dory.

"Yeah I'm com… Dory?" he had turned to face her but she wasn't there. Panic immediately taking over, he frantically whipped his head back and forth as he searched for her. "DORY!"

"Hey over here! You gotta see this" she called poking her head out from behind a large rock.

Marlin sighed relieved. "My nerves are shot! I don't know how much of this I can take!" he grumbled as he followed her. "What is it Dor..." His eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped.

"Isn't it cool?" said Dory, "It's just like the one back home!" And indeed it was. Right in front of Marlin looming high above his head was an identical silver container leaking the same purple goo. In a flash he had grabbed Dory's hand and forcefully pulled her after him as he swam as far as he possibly could from the evil thing!

"Whoa slow down Partner!" shouted Dory from behind him. He glanced behind him at her face. It was incredibly confused. He slowed to a stop taking deep breaths.

"They're everywhere," he breathed in disbelieve. He glanced back at it but it was nowhere in sight. Out of immediate danger Marlin started to refocus himself. "Nemo. Where are you?"

"NEMO!" he called out across the barren harbor floor.

"ELMO!" shouted Dory catching on.

"Nemo!" he mumbled to his forgetful companion.

"Oh yeah!" she said placing the fin of her fin to her lip before shouting, "BINGO!"

Shaking his head Marlin swam forward a little and shouted again, "NEMO!" He closed his eyes this time listening intently for a response. When he didn't get one, he sighed. "This is going to take too long," he mumbled to himself. "Dory," he said turning to her, "Let's go to the surface." He started to swim up, Dory right behind him. As they got closer Marlin made a beeline to a buoy that came into view. He took a deep breath just before he broke the surface. Blinking his eyes to become accustom to the dry air he looked around. Unsurprisingly he saw boats and then further away in the distance he saw the Opera House and then the Bridge. He felt Dory come up beside him. "Okay Dory I know where we are. I think that we…" he suddenly stopped as he glanced over a saw Dory waving at someone. He followed her gaze, before growing pale at the sight of a pelican coming straight at them.

"DORY GET DOWN!" he shouted as the pelican came within feet of them.

"HEY THERE!" shouted the pelican. Marlin stopped he knew that voice.

"Nigel?"

"You're alive!" he called as he made a clumsily landing on the buoy, "We finally found you!"

"We?" said Marlin spirits rising. "We who!" he pressed.

"Everyone! Gill, Nemo, and everyone else, I even have some of my feathered friends keeping a look out!" Nigel rambled he was so happy.

"Nemo thank goodness," said Marlin relieved, "Where is he?" Abruptly Nigel's happiness disappeared.

"He was captured."

Ooh, could we be nearing the end of the story? R&R to find out!