Don Lino remained where he was, simply shaking his head slightly as the rogue leader continued to ramble on about the free reign of the Reef he was demanding. "and we'd of course take great care to not destroy any of the little fishies buildings down within town, destruction of property is still something we avoid, even if they are insignificant fish...".
As the leader rambled on, Don Lino was only aware of one thing. He couldn't, he just couldn't! No, never! He would never give a rival shark pack free reign of the Reef, not while he was still...but then what was to be done about the fact that the pups were still held hostage. A growl of irritation escaped the Don at having one of his own tricks now pulled against him. Lino's pack still floated there, uncertain of what to do and trusting that their boss would know the best way to handle all this and stick it to these rogues.
Tino concentrated on keeping his breathing at ease. Above all, he couldn't stoop to the level of begging in any way shape or form in order to get Michela out of harms way, even though everything in him was leaning towards that right now. No, he had to keep up appearances, he had to keep up appearances. They'd get through this, Don Lino's mob hadn't been terrorizing the Reef for years just to be put off by one little rag tag wandering street gang.
Over where she was still restrained by the killer whale, Michela let out a small sigh as she found her struggling wasn't getting her anywhere. She glanced over to where Antonio was still attempting to spit on the shark who had him restrained even though this captor had, very early on, clamped his fin over the pups mouth. The result of this was probably not all that pleasant for the shark who was restraining Antonio, yet he figured he'd take the pup's failed spits landing all over his fin versus removing his fin and listening to him yammer on again! Besides, silencing them was just something you did with captives, although the shark wasn't sure himself why that was.
"Psst, Tony!" Michela whispered, "I think you should lay off trying to spit on them! You're gonna make it worse, lets just focus on getting ourselves out of here so our dads don't have to deal with us being bargaining angles". Some of the other shark pups nodded in agreement with Michela on this, "Yeah, Antonio let's just get out of here!" one of them said.
Antonio shook his head, wiggling just free enough of the shark's fin to talk, "First off, I've been trying to get free for a whole hour now, and second, no way I'm gonna just leave and not make this shark feel it for capturing me, him and his stupid leader!". Michela sighed, "Antonio why do you always have to get people back! Can't you just leave well enough alone and not cause more trouble!".
Antonio looked shocked by this statement, "What...and let them think they can get away with capturing me! Never!". Michela sighed again, "but they'd capture you again anyway no matter how many times you spit on them! It doesn't change anything, it's just senseless beating people up!". One of the other sharks grinned at Michela, "Welcome to the Mafia!" he said.
Michela sighed, "yeah, I know, it's what our dad's and, to an extent, you guys do; but I'm just saying you could be a little more reasonable about it, maybe think before you punch someone out". Another of the shark pups laughed, "Alright tell ya what, when we all grow up and have our own Mafia, with Tony here as the God Father since by the time we're all grown up Frankie will be to old and decrepit to do much, you can be our advisor and tell us if we should go ahead with a job or not. Ya know, keep us out of trouble".
"What'da ya mean Frankie'll be too old and decreptid to be the God Father" another of the pups asked, "Isn't that the point, the older and more close to death you are the better...".
"Will you all just shut up!" the Rogue leader shouted, suddenly turning to face the pups from where he and the others of both his and Don Lino's gang had been listening to the pups little diversion of conversation. Frankie was giving the pups a weird look and the one who had called him old and decrepit waved innocently.
"This" the rogue leader explained to his sharks who had the pups captured, "is why you clamp their mouths shut, it shuts out incessant talking!". The sharks all nodded and clamped their fins over the pups mouths again. The one restraining Antonio nodded, "Oh yeah, that's why we always clamp something over their mouths when we capture people, I knew there was a reason and it wasn't just...".
"Shut up!" the Rogue leader shouted again. With the Rogue leader's attention now turned to reprimanding his pack, Don Lino saw his chance. "Now boys!" he ordered. The other sharks of his gang snapped to attention and nodded vigorously before beginning to dart off towards the slightly distracted sharks that had their pups restrained.
"No boss!" Tino shouted, "You can't just charge...". Don Lino held up a fin, "Tino I've got it under control. They aint even payin' attention, we'll get the pups out of the way of any bargaining and then...".
"But they're not even that distracted!" Tino shouted, "They're slightly distracted but they could still snap too way before the gang ever...".
Tino's sentence was suddenly cut off as both Don Lino's and the Rogue gangs collided. From amidst the bubbles and dust debris surrounding the fight, one of Don Lino's sharks emerged, swimming backwards and dragging the pups out behind him, gently enough that he wasn't biting any of them. Tino let out a sigh of relief.
"See Uncle Tino" Frankie said, "Pop's got it all under co...". Just then Tino noticed two things, one Michela wasn't with the group of other pups and then came the distinct squeal of an injured shark pup.
"Michela!" Tino shouted, darting into the thinning dust cloud of the fight. Frankie remained where he was, his sentence cut short, but somehow he suddenly got a bad feeling that his confident statement that Don Lino had everything under control had just been proven wrong.