Ricky And Micky And The Sorcerer
by Martial Arts Master
Darkstalkers are copyrighted by Capcom. I made up Octorcerer, though. This takes place a LONG time after Rikuo's Darkstalkers 3 Playstation version ending. The idea of the reason merpeople can shapeshift their parts into aquatic related stuff (like Rikuo can do, such as when Rikuo does a dashing Fierce and turns half his body into a shell, or when Rikuo turns into an pearl-firing oyster during one of his special throws) is taken from Alba Aulbath's website. Therefore, I give credit to Alba Aulbath for that idea, because she gave me permission to take the idea. And now for the story...
***
It was a dark time for the land-dwellers, back in those days.
The Darkstalkers and humans were still mad at each other, as always.
The fact that for the third time, some evil overlord had tried to screw up the world (Jedah, this time), didn't help change the humans' fear of Darkstalkers either.
But that was on land. It was much different under the sea.
The sea, you see, was home to the merpeople.
It was once thought that the merpeople had been wiped out, and that Rikuo, the merpeople king, and the members of his family were the only merpeople left.
But then it came to pass that during Jedah's attack, Rikuo's son Ricky was caught in a whirlpool that formed thanks to Jedah's interference with the world.
After Rikuo rescued his son Ricky from the whirlpool, he noticed another merchild with Ricky. Ricky told Rikuo that her name was Micky, and that they were best friends. Obviously Micky must have been trapped in the same whirlpool, and both merchildren had become best friends. She was obviously from a different family of merpeople, as her head had lights attached to them, unlike Rikuo's family. Obviously the lights on the heads of Micky's family helped them to see.
After these incidents, Rikuo's family came to live in the same undersea grotto as Micky's family.
But you know all that already.
Now, let us look forward and see what happened afterwards...
Long afterwards, more and more merpeople started coming to live in the undersea grotto.
In fact, there turned out to be so many surviving merpeople families that they were able to resurrect their culture. Now, the undersea grotto merpeople culture was thriving. It had become a kingdom once more.
Their culture actually wasn't as different from ours as you'd think. They were humanoid, after all. Of course they lived underwater, but there were some similarities.
For example, they spoke the same language as the English-speaking humans on the surface.
And they had the same ideas of good and evil as we do.
In fact, unlike what you'd expect, there weren't any arranged marriages where royalty was concerned. Rikuo was king of the merpeople, but he was a nice guy, too. He didn't care who his son married, as long as he waited until he was older, as long has he truly loved whoever he married, and as long as whoever he married truly loved him. After all, Rikuo's family was the only royal family of the merpeople, so an arranged political-alliance marriage was pointless.
And, of course, Rikuo's family did not consider the common merpeople "inferiors".
There are other things you should know about the merpeople before our story can truly begin. I know, I know, you're thinking, "Aw man, this is so boring!"
Well, try to put up with it a little longer. You see, many have asked why Rikuo, during his battles on land, was able to shapeshift his limbs or himself into other things, and even summon tidal waves.
Actually, all merpeople can do it. It's not hard for a merperson to do...if the merperson trains himself or herself to do it, that is.
The merpeople had to develop this ability, for of course they lived underwater. With training, a merperson can easily shapeshift himself/herself or his/her limbs into absolutely any aquatic-related thing.
And if a merperson trains very hard, the merperson will gain control over water. A huge advantage in the ocean, considering the ocean is friggin' made of water! That is why the merpeople were masters of the water.
They could go on land, of course. On the very rare occasions where food was scarce, one merperson or another, usually Rikuo the merpeople king himself, would go on land to fetch food, and do it with stealth.
The merpeople, you see, have both gills and lungs. This gives them the ability to breathe both on land and underwater.
Rikuo, as I stated earlier, has a son named Ricky, who is the heir to the throne. Obviously, Ricky needs training if he is going to be king.
Half of his training is devoted to sharpening the intellect. This includes studying about merpeople history, learning how to problem-solve, and basically all the intelligence required to rule a kingdom. Rikuo and his wife, Ricky's parents, were tutoring him on this half of his training themselves.
Ricky excelled at this area, being a very bright and curious child.
But the other half of Ricky's training was learning how to fight, and learning how to shapeshift and control the water. This was the brute force, and coincidentally enough, Ricky's tutor in the art of combat was none other than his female best friend, Micky, and that's where our story truly begins...
Ricky and Micky were both only 10-year-olds, of course, not even having hit puberty yet. And Micky and her family were normal merpeople, not royal like Ricky's family.
But Micky excelled in fighting. She could easily kick the butts of any merperson she met, with the exception of Ricky's father Rikuo himself, who surpassed her at fighting. After all, Rikuo didn't get to be king for nothing.
That's why Ricky's parents had selected Micky to be Ricky's tutor in this respect. She and Ricky were already best friends, so Micky enthusiastically agreed.
Ricky and Micky were sparring by a quiet grove of coral, as usual during fighting lessons. Since they were only 10, they weren't permitted to actually hurt each other, and they were expressly forbidden to use Poison Breath, but they were permitted to do well enough against each other to embarass each other.
Such as, for example, at this very moment, Ricky tried a predictable tactic. He dashed backwards, and then did a Tricky Fish.
Micky groaned, and as she always did when Ricky tried this, she ducked under him, grabbed him from behind when he landed, and shoved him to the ground.
Merpeople could easily move about in water, of course, because they lived underwater all their lives.
So it was no trouble for Micky to subsequently pin Ricky's arms to the ground with her hands and then pin his body to the ground with her knees.
"Gotcha!" Micky said.
"Awwww...how do you always do that?" Ricky asked her.
"You always do a Tricky Fish after you dash backwards," Micky told him. "You can't be so predictable."
"Fine, fine, just lemme up," Ricky said.
"What's the magic word?" Micky asked, her eyes twinkling with merriment.
"Please," Ricky said promptly.
Micky jumped off of him and resumed a fighting stance.
"You ready to continue? I'm not even sweating," Micky said.
"Yeah, I'll beat you this time!" Ricky said, assuming a braver pose now that she wasn't keeping him pinned to the ground. "Anything you have! I can take it!"
Micky giggled to herself. Ricky looked so cute when he got all confident like this, but better yet, she liked how many good qualities Ricky'd inherited from his father without realizing it...but she never told him that. Just like she never told him all those other times she had that thought.
But seriously, Ricky had to get better at fighting. Once they both hit puberty, Ricky's parents and Micky's parents would give them both permission to go all-out on each other, and Ricky had to be prepared.
"Let's go!" Ricky said.
"You asked for it," Micky replied. "Aqua Spread!"
"Hey wait a minute, that's one of the merpeople super moves---" Ricky began, but he didn't finish.
Micky had thrown something at the ground and had begun flashing multiple colors. That something went straight under Ricky and shot a combination water/energy column straight up, shoving Ricky into the higher parts of the ocean.
This didn't hurt Ricky underwater, of course, because although on land someone would have been in for a painful landing, here Ricky just swam away from Micky after that.
"Catch me!" Ricky said suddenly, kicking off with his legs and using the full merpeople swimming ability, getting some huge distance between himself and Micky.
Micky didn't know what the heck Ricky was doing...but decided not to question it yet.
"Don't think I won't!" she shouted, swimming after him.
It soon became something of a race, and soon Micky caught up to him.
She grabbed him around the waist and said, "Gotcha!" exactly as she had before.
Suddenly Rick spun around rapidly, going back downwards, and Micky was dragged with him.
"What are you doing? I'm gettin diiiiiizyyyyyy..." Micky groaned as she was dragged downward in a spiral.
When they got back down to the ocean floor, Ricky suddenly flipped over and pinned Micky to the ground like she'd done to him before.
"So, who's got who now?" Ricky shouted triumphantly. "You said I was too predictable, so I tried something new!"
Excellent fighter as she was, Micky wasn't a sore loser.
"Yep! You're finally learning!" Micky said, giggling. "Whew...I'm finally beginning to sweat...that manuever must've been more exhausting for you than it was for me."
"No it wasn't! I'm still as fresh as ever!" Ricky said.
Ricky got off of Micky, letting her up.
Actually, there was one thing Ricky hadn't told her.
She looked positively cute when she was giggling like that...and looks were nice, but better yet he liked how nice to him she always was...except in battle, when she displayed a competitive streak, which made her all the moreinteresting.
But Ricky didn't tell her that.
So I guess neither of them told each other what they thought of each other...which was probably a good thing, because they were still 10 and would probably have reacted in a ew-that's-so-icky way.
They also didn't know that they were being watched...
In a very dark cave, a sinister figure was watching.
The figure was male, and he looked like a cross between an octopus and a human.
He was watching the two merchildren, who were about 7 feet from his cave, and they were totally unaware of him.
"I will not let that Ricky child have the throne of the merpeople kingdom," the cross-between-octopus-and-human grumbled to himself. "I want to rule the kingdom, and that merboy is a threat to my takeover. I must eliminate him. I, the great Octorcerer, will rule the merpeople kingdom no matter what it takes!"
Octorcerer would not get a chance to do anything for a long time, however, for the merchildren had moved on to the shapeshifting lessons.
"That stupid boy can't even shapeshift as well as merpeople should," Octorcerer grumbled as Ricky, instead of changing his left arm into a crab's claw like he was supposed to, only got one patch of crab-skin.
Micky proceeded with the lessons, and Ricky slowly managed to get the hang of it.
But soon, Octorcerer's chance came.
Ricky and Micky each had to go home, so they split up, going off in different directions.
It was easy, then, what Octorcerer did next.
All he had to do was follow Ricky...
That night, Rikuo and his wife were worried. Ricky had not come home.
"This is impossible!" Rikuo shouted. "Ricky always comes home after lessons! Why hasn't he come home now?"
"I'm sure it's nothing, dear," Rikuo's wife replied. "Probably Ricky had an extra-tough time today, so Micky probably had him stay behind to try to get better at it."
"But Micky's only 10! If that's what she did she has no authority to make such a choice!" Rikuo said.
Rikuo's wife shrugged.
"So then maybe Ricky got lost or something," she said.
"Ricky never got lost before...we better contact Micky's home," Rikuo said.
"Leave that to me," Rikuo's wife said, swimming out of Rikuo's palace and towards Micky's home...
At Micky's family's residence, Micky was busy training herself when there was a knock on the door.
"I'll get it!" Micky's mother said, opening the door.
To her shock, Rikuo's wife, the queen, was standing there.
"To what do we owe the honor of having a visit from the queen of the merpeople?" Micky's mother asked politely.
"I was wondering...did Ricky come here at all?" Rikuo's wife asked.
Micky's mother shook her head.
"No, he didn't...why?" Micky's mother asked.
Micky, meanwhile, had stopped training and was listening.
"Ricky didn't come home tonight," Rikuo's wife replied. "I was wondering if he'd stayed with Micky for some reason."
"Maybe he just got delayed," Micky's mother said. "Perhaps he's at home waiting for you right now."
Suddenly, a note fell to the ground outside the house, and Rikuo's wife caught it.
"'I am Octorcerer, the octopus sorcerer,'" she read. "'I have kidnapped your son, Ricky. If you ever want to see your son alive again, convince your husband to turn the throne over to me. P.S: I would have given this directly to Rikuo the merpeople king, but there are too many guards.'" Rikuo's wife and Micky's mother both gasped. Micky's eyes widened in shock, but she didn't let them know she was listening...
Octorcerer, meanwhile, was in his cave. He had created a viewing portal with his magic and was watching it.
A minute later Octorcerer got the satisfaction of watching those two adult female fools (at least Octorcerer thought they were fools) go nuts with worry now that they've found out their son was kidnapped, and Rikuo's wife went back to alert her husband.
And best of all, nobody even thought of the idea that Ricky might not have been kidnapped, thanks to that fact-convincing spell Octorcerer attached to the note.
Which was good, because of course Ricky had been kidnapped, and by Octorcerer himself.
In fact, Ricky was currently being held in an unbreakable cage Octorcerer had created. Octorcerer had certainly been well-versed in magic.
Ricky was currently beating on the bars of the cage.
"Let me out of here right now!" Ricky shouted. "My dad's the merpeople king! When he finds out about this he's gonna come here and kick your butt! Do you hear me?"
"Yes, I hear you, you brat," Octorcerer replied, "and he'll do nothing but turn the kingdom over to me. After all, my note said he wouldn't see you alive ever again if he didn't turn the kingdom over to me."
"You're bluffing!" Ricky said immediately. "If you kill me you'll have nothing to bargain with, unless you kidnap Mom, but since you already kidnapped me my dad would be on the lookout for a second kidnapping."
"Grrr...you're right, I was bluffing, but Rikuo doesn't know that," Octorcerer said. "It's times like this I wish you had done better at fighting than you did at studying. Then you wouldn't have found out I was bluffing. Not that it matters, because you're not leaving this cage. And don't bother on anyone rescuing you, because nobody even knows where I live."
"I wouldn't count on that," Ricky said. "See, I've heard of you before. I read about you in a book we merpeople have. You're an enemy of the merpeople. And guess what...when I read that book, I discussed it with Micky...including your home location. You made a big mistake taking me to your home."
Octorcerer's eyes widened as he realized Ricky was right, and thought about what this meant...
Meanwhile, Micky had sneaked out of her house so she could go rescue Ricky herself.
She was worried about him. Ricky was brilliant in the mind, and in the end brains beats brawn anyway, but Ricky wasn't that good at fighting, and Octorcerer could do something horrible to him before he figured out a plan.
She knew where Octorcerer's cave was, and she was heading straight there.
Suddenly she encountered a school of mini-octopuses, who were charging towards her.
"Guess this is the welcoming committee," she muttered to herself.
"You'll never reach our master!" one of them shouted.
"Wanna bet?" Micky asked rhetorically, suddenly performing a lightning-quick combination of attacks.
Pretty soon, all of the mini-octopuses were unconscious.
Micky sighed. She was incredulous as the implication that this was the best Ricky's kidnapper could do.
"Well, that makes it easier for me," Micky said to herself.
Pretty soon she found the cave she was looking for, and she went inside...
Octorcerer, who had watched the fight, was fuming.
"How could a mere girl defeat my mini-octopus soldiers?!" he asked in anger. "Where'd she learn to fight like that."
"I dunno, probably from her family," Ricky said from his cage. "But she sure is good at it."
"Shut up, I wasn't asking you!" Octorcerer shouted at him.
"Then who were you asking?" Ricky asked innocently.
"Okay, that does it!" Octorcerer said, still angry. "When Micky gets to this cave, I'll just use my magic against her. No amount of martial arts skills can possibly help her against the awesome might of my magic!"
"Gee, you sure have a large ego," Ricky said.
"For the last time, shut up!" Octorcer screamed.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you," a voice called from the mouth of the cave.
Octorcerer spun around. So did Ricky.
"Micky! Ha, I knew it!" Ricky shouted in triumph. "Well, if it isn't the little pink merchild," Octorcerer said, sneering. "Do you really think you can win against my magic?"
Micky got into a fighting pose.
"'Course I can," Micky replied.
"Look behind you," Octorcerer said.
Micky looked behind her...and saw a gigantic shark.
"My magic created that shark. Let's see you beat him!" Octorcerer shouted.
The shark swam towards Micky.
"I do NOT wanna be on the wrong ends of those teeth," Micky joked as she swam away from the shark.
Ricky got an idea...but Micky apparently had the same one, as she swam towards Octorcerer...
"No, wait, what are you doing?!" Octorcerer shouted, but it was too late.
Micky quickly swam sideways as the shark leaped to chomp her...and Octorcerer was now in the "line of fire", so to speak.
"No, wait, stop your lunge, you imbecile--" Octorcerer tried to tell his shark...
Outside the cave, a hideous "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" could be heard...
It was over. Octorcerer was finished. The shark and the cage, created by Octorcerer's magic, was destroyed.
"All right, I'm free!" Ricky shouted in triumph.
"Yeah, well, don't scare me like that again!" Micky replied. "I was worried sick about you!"
"Oh really..." Ricky said slyly.
Let's just say it was a good thing Micky's face was already pink due to naturally pink skin.
"Oh grow up, not like that!" she shouted, grabbing him by the ear and swimming back to the merkingdom.
"OW! OW! Not by the ear! Not by the ear!" Ricky protested as he was dragged away...
The End
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com.
by Martial Arts Master
Darkstalkers are copyrighted by Capcom. I made up Octorcerer, though. This takes place a LONG time after Rikuo's Darkstalkers 3 Playstation version ending. The idea of the reason merpeople can shapeshift their parts into aquatic related stuff (like Rikuo can do, such as when Rikuo does a dashing Fierce and turns half his body into a shell, or when Rikuo turns into an pearl-firing oyster during one of his special throws) is taken from Alba Aulbath's website. Therefore, I give credit to Alba Aulbath for that idea, because she gave me permission to take the idea. And now for the story...
***
It was a dark time for the land-dwellers, back in those days.
The Darkstalkers and humans were still mad at each other, as always.
The fact that for the third time, some evil overlord had tried to screw up the world (Jedah, this time), didn't help change the humans' fear of Darkstalkers either.
But that was on land. It was much different under the sea.
The sea, you see, was home to the merpeople.
It was once thought that the merpeople had been wiped out, and that Rikuo, the merpeople king, and the members of his family were the only merpeople left.
But then it came to pass that during Jedah's attack, Rikuo's son Ricky was caught in a whirlpool that formed thanks to Jedah's interference with the world.
After Rikuo rescued his son Ricky from the whirlpool, he noticed another merchild with Ricky. Ricky told Rikuo that her name was Micky, and that they were best friends. Obviously Micky must have been trapped in the same whirlpool, and both merchildren had become best friends. She was obviously from a different family of merpeople, as her head had lights attached to them, unlike Rikuo's family. Obviously the lights on the heads of Micky's family helped them to see.
After these incidents, Rikuo's family came to live in the same undersea grotto as Micky's family.
But you know all that already.
Now, let us look forward and see what happened afterwards...
Long afterwards, more and more merpeople started coming to live in the undersea grotto.
In fact, there turned out to be so many surviving merpeople families that they were able to resurrect their culture. Now, the undersea grotto merpeople culture was thriving. It had become a kingdom once more.
Their culture actually wasn't as different from ours as you'd think. They were humanoid, after all. Of course they lived underwater, but there were some similarities.
For example, they spoke the same language as the English-speaking humans on the surface.
And they had the same ideas of good and evil as we do.
In fact, unlike what you'd expect, there weren't any arranged marriages where royalty was concerned. Rikuo was king of the merpeople, but he was a nice guy, too. He didn't care who his son married, as long as he waited until he was older, as long has he truly loved whoever he married, and as long as whoever he married truly loved him. After all, Rikuo's family was the only royal family of the merpeople, so an arranged political-alliance marriage was pointless.
And, of course, Rikuo's family did not consider the common merpeople "inferiors".
There are other things you should know about the merpeople before our story can truly begin. I know, I know, you're thinking, "Aw man, this is so boring!"
Well, try to put up with it a little longer. You see, many have asked why Rikuo, during his battles on land, was able to shapeshift his limbs or himself into other things, and even summon tidal waves.
Actually, all merpeople can do it. It's not hard for a merperson to do...if the merperson trains himself or herself to do it, that is.
The merpeople had to develop this ability, for of course they lived underwater. With training, a merperson can easily shapeshift himself/herself or his/her limbs into absolutely any aquatic-related thing.
And if a merperson trains very hard, the merperson will gain control over water. A huge advantage in the ocean, considering the ocean is friggin' made of water! That is why the merpeople were masters of the water.
They could go on land, of course. On the very rare occasions where food was scarce, one merperson or another, usually Rikuo the merpeople king himself, would go on land to fetch food, and do it with stealth.
The merpeople, you see, have both gills and lungs. This gives them the ability to breathe both on land and underwater.
Rikuo, as I stated earlier, has a son named Ricky, who is the heir to the throne. Obviously, Ricky needs training if he is going to be king.
Half of his training is devoted to sharpening the intellect. This includes studying about merpeople history, learning how to problem-solve, and basically all the intelligence required to rule a kingdom. Rikuo and his wife, Ricky's parents, were tutoring him on this half of his training themselves.
Ricky excelled at this area, being a very bright and curious child.
But the other half of Ricky's training was learning how to fight, and learning how to shapeshift and control the water. This was the brute force, and coincidentally enough, Ricky's tutor in the art of combat was none other than his female best friend, Micky, and that's where our story truly begins...
Ricky and Micky were both only 10-year-olds, of course, not even having hit puberty yet. And Micky and her family were normal merpeople, not royal like Ricky's family.
But Micky excelled in fighting. She could easily kick the butts of any merperson she met, with the exception of Ricky's father Rikuo himself, who surpassed her at fighting. After all, Rikuo didn't get to be king for nothing.
That's why Ricky's parents had selected Micky to be Ricky's tutor in this respect. She and Ricky were already best friends, so Micky enthusiastically agreed.
Ricky and Micky were sparring by a quiet grove of coral, as usual during fighting lessons. Since they were only 10, they weren't permitted to actually hurt each other, and they were expressly forbidden to use Poison Breath, but they were permitted to do well enough against each other to embarass each other.
Such as, for example, at this very moment, Ricky tried a predictable tactic. He dashed backwards, and then did a Tricky Fish.
Micky groaned, and as she always did when Ricky tried this, she ducked under him, grabbed him from behind when he landed, and shoved him to the ground.
Merpeople could easily move about in water, of course, because they lived underwater all their lives.
So it was no trouble for Micky to subsequently pin Ricky's arms to the ground with her hands and then pin his body to the ground with her knees.
"Gotcha!" Micky said.
"Awwww...how do you always do that?" Ricky asked her.
"You always do a Tricky Fish after you dash backwards," Micky told him. "You can't be so predictable."
"Fine, fine, just lemme up," Ricky said.
"What's the magic word?" Micky asked, her eyes twinkling with merriment.
"Please," Ricky said promptly.
Micky jumped off of him and resumed a fighting stance.
"You ready to continue? I'm not even sweating," Micky said.
"Yeah, I'll beat you this time!" Ricky said, assuming a braver pose now that she wasn't keeping him pinned to the ground. "Anything you have! I can take it!"
Micky giggled to herself. Ricky looked so cute when he got all confident like this, but better yet, she liked how many good qualities Ricky'd inherited from his father without realizing it...but she never told him that. Just like she never told him all those other times she had that thought.
But seriously, Ricky had to get better at fighting. Once they both hit puberty, Ricky's parents and Micky's parents would give them both permission to go all-out on each other, and Ricky had to be prepared.
"Let's go!" Ricky said.
"You asked for it," Micky replied. "Aqua Spread!"
"Hey wait a minute, that's one of the merpeople super moves---" Ricky began, but he didn't finish.
Micky had thrown something at the ground and had begun flashing multiple colors. That something went straight under Ricky and shot a combination water/energy column straight up, shoving Ricky into the higher parts of the ocean.
This didn't hurt Ricky underwater, of course, because although on land someone would have been in for a painful landing, here Ricky just swam away from Micky after that.
"Catch me!" Ricky said suddenly, kicking off with his legs and using the full merpeople swimming ability, getting some huge distance between himself and Micky.
Micky didn't know what the heck Ricky was doing...but decided not to question it yet.
"Don't think I won't!" she shouted, swimming after him.
It soon became something of a race, and soon Micky caught up to him.
She grabbed him around the waist and said, "Gotcha!" exactly as she had before.
Suddenly Rick spun around rapidly, going back downwards, and Micky was dragged with him.
"What are you doing? I'm gettin diiiiiizyyyyyy..." Micky groaned as she was dragged downward in a spiral.
When they got back down to the ocean floor, Ricky suddenly flipped over and pinned Micky to the ground like she'd done to him before.
"So, who's got who now?" Ricky shouted triumphantly. "You said I was too predictable, so I tried something new!"
Excellent fighter as she was, Micky wasn't a sore loser.
"Yep! You're finally learning!" Micky said, giggling. "Whew...I'm finally beginning to sweat...that manuever must've been more exhausting for you than it was for me."
"No it wasn't! I'm still as fresh as ever!" Ricky said.
Ricky got off of Micky, letting her up.
Actually, there was one thing Ricky hadn't told her.
She looked positively cute when she was giggling like that...and looks were nice, but better yet he liked how nice to him she always was...except in battle, when she displayed a competitive streak, which made her all the moreinteresting.
But Ricky didn't tell her that.
So I guess neither of them told each other what they thought of each other...which was probably a good thing, because they were still 10 and would probably have reacted in a ew-that's-so-icky way.
They also didn't know that they were being watched...
In a very dark cave, a sinister figure was watching.
The figure was male, and he looked like a cross between an octopus and a human.
He was watching the two merchildren, who were about 7 feet from his cave, and they were totally unaware of him.
"I will not let that Ricky child have the throne of the merpeople kingdom," the cross-between-octopus-and-human grumbled to himself. "I want to rule the kingdom, and that merboy is a threat to my takeover. I must eliminate him. I, the great Octorcerer, will rule the merpeople kingdom no matter what it takes!"
Octorcerer would not get a chance to do anything for a long time, however, for the merchildren had moved on to the shapeshifting lessons.
"That stupid boy can't even shapeshift as well as merpeople should," Octorcerer grumbled as Ricky, instead of changing his left arm into a crab's claw like he was supposed to, only got one patch of crab-skin.
Micky proceeded with the lessons, and Ricky slowly managed to get the hang of it.
But soon, Octorcerer's chance came.
Ricky and Micky each had to go home, so they split up, going off in different directions.
It was easy, then, what Octorcerer did next.
All he had to do was follow Ricky...
That night, Rikuo and his wife were worried. Ricky had not come home.
"This is impossible!" Rikuo shouted. "Ricky always comes home after lessons! Why hasn't he come home now?"
"I'm sure it's nothing, dear," Rikuo's wife replied. "Probably Ricky had an extra-tough time today, so Micky probably had him stay behind to try to get better at it."
"But Micky's only 10! If that's what she did she has no authority to make such a choice!" Rikuo said.
Rikuo's wife shrugged.
"So then maybe Ricky got lost or something," she said.
"Ricky never got lost before...we better contact Micky's home," Rikuo said.
"Leave that to me," Rikuo's wife said, swimming out of Rikuo's palace and towards Micky's home...
At Micky's family's residence, Micky was busy training herself when there was a knock on the door.
"I'll get it!" Micky's mother said, opening the door.
To her shock, Rikuo's wife, the queen, was standing there.
"To what do we owe the honor of having a visit from the queen of the merpeople?" Micky's mother asked politely.
"I was wondering...did Ricky come here at all?" Rikuo's wife asked.
Micky's mother shook her head.
"No, he didn't...why?" Micky's mother asked.
Micky, meanwhile, had stopped training and was listening.
"Ricky didn't come home tonight," Rikuo's wife replied. "I was wondering if he'd stayed with Micky for some reason."
"Maybe he just got delayed," Micky's mother said. "Perhaps he's at home waiting for you right now."
Suddenly, a note fell to the ground outside the house, and Rikuo's wife caught it.
"'I am Octorcerer, the octopus sorcerer,'" she read. "'I have kidnapped your son, Ricky. If you ever want to see your son alive again, convince your husband to turn the throne over to me. P.S: I would have given this directly to Rikuo the merpeople king, but there are too many guards.'" Rikuo's wife and Micky's mother both gasped. Micky's eyes widened in shock, but she didn't let them know she was listening...
Octorcerer, meanwhile, was in his cave. He had created a viewing portal with his magic and was watching it.
A minute later Octorcerer got the satisfaction of watching those two adult female fools (at least Octorcerer thought they were fools) go nuts with worry now that they've found out their son was kidnapped, and Rikuo's wife went back to alert her husband.
And best of all, nobody even thought of the idea that Ricky might not have been kidnapped, thanks to that fact-convincing spell Octorcerer attached to the note.
Which was good, because of course Ricky had been kidnapped, and by Octorcerer himself.
In fact, Ricky was currently being held in an unbreakable cage Octorcerer had created. Octorcerer had certainly been well-versed in magic.
Ricky was currently beating on the bars of the cage.
"Let me out of here right now!" Ricky shouted. "My dad's the merpeople king! When he finds out about this he's gonna come here and kick your butt! Do you hear me?"
"Yes, I hear you, you brat," Octorcerer replied, "and he'll do nothing but turn the kingdom over to me. After all, my note said he wouldn't see you alive ever again if he didn't turn the kingdom over to me."
"You're bluffing!" Ricky said immediately. "If you kill me you'll have nothing to bargain with, unless you kidnap Mom, but since you already kidnapped me my dad would be on the lookout for a second kidnapping."
"Grrr...you're right, I was bluffing, but Rikuo doesn't know that," Octorcerer said. "It's times like this I wish you had done better at fighting than you did at studying. Then you wouldn't have found out I was bluffing. Not that it matters, because you're not leaving this cage. And don't bother on anyone rescuing you, because nobody even knows where I live."
"I wouldn't count on that," Ricky said. "See, I've heard of you before. I read about you in a book we merpeople have. You're an enemy of the merpeople. And guess what...when I read that book, I discussed it with Micky...including your home location. You made a big mistake taking me to your home."
Octorcerer's eyes widened as he realized Ricky was right, and thought about what this meant...
Meanwhile, Micky had sneaked out of her house so she could go rescue Ricky herself.
She was worried about him. Ricky was brilliant in the mind, and in the end brains beats brawn anyway, but Ricky wasn't that good at fighting, and Octorcerer could do something horrible to him before he figured out a plan.
She knew where Octorcerer's cave was, and she was heading straight there.
Suddenly she encountered a school of mini-octopuses, who were charging towards her.
"Guess this is the welcoming committee," she muttered to herself.
"You'll never reach our master!" one of them shouted.
"Wanna bet?" Micky asked rhetorically, suddenly performing a lightning-quick combination of attacks.
Pretty soon, all of the mini-octopuses were unconscious.
Micky sighed. She was incredulous as the implication that this was the best Ricky's kidnapper could do.
"Well, that makes it easier for me," Micky said to herself.
Pretty soon she found the cave she was looking for, and she went inside...
Octorcerer, who had watched the fight, was fuming.
"How could a mere girl defeat my mini-octopus soldiers?!" he asked in anger. "Where'd she learn to fight like that."
"I dunno, probably from her family," Ricky said from his cage. "But she sure is good at it."
"Shut up, I wasn't asking you!" Octorcerer shouted at him.
"Then who were you asking?" Ricky asked innocently.
"Okay, that does it!" Octorcerer said, still angry. "When Micky gets to this cave, I'll just use my magic against her. No amount of martial arts skills can possibly help her against the awesome might of my magic!"
"Gee, you sure have a large ego," Ricky said.
"For the last time, shut up!" Octorcer screamed.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you," a voice called from the mouth of the cave.
Octorcerer spun around. So did Ricky.
"Micky! Ha, I knew it!" Ricky shouted in triumph. "Well, if it isn't the little pink merchild," Octorcerer said, sneering. "Do you really think you can win against my magic?"
Micky got into a fighting pose.
"'Course I can," Micky replied.
"Look behind you," Octorcerer said.
Micky looked behind her...and saw a gigantic shark.
"My magic created that shark. Let's see you beat him!" Octorcerer shouted.
The shark swam towards Micky.
"I do NOT wanna be on the wrong ends of those teeth," Micky joked as she swam away from the shark.
Ricky got an idea...but Micky apparently had the same one, as she swam towards Octorcerer...
"No, wait, what are you doing?!" Octorcerer shouted, but it was too late.
Micky quickly swam sideways as the shark leaped to chomp her...and Octorcerer was now in the "line of fire", so to speak.
"No, wait, stop your lunge, you imbecile--" Octorcerer tried to tell his shark...
Outside the cave, a hideous "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" could be heard...
It was over. Octorcerer was finished. The shark and the cage, created by Octorcerer's magic, was destroyed.
"All right, I'm free!" Ricky shouted in triumph.
"Yeah, well, don't scare me like that again!" Micky replied. "I was worried sick about you!"
"Oh really..." Ricky said slyly.
Let's just say it was a good thing Micky's face was already pink due to naturally pink skin.
"Oh grow up, not like that!" she shouted, grabbing him by the ear and swimming back to the merkingdom.
"OW! OW! Not by the ear! Not by the ear!" Ricky protested as he was dragged away...
The End
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