Chapter Eleven

Danny, Max, Marissa, Linus, and Lavagirl sat in Lilly, floating lazily about ten miles off the coast. Their voices were hoarse from calling Sharkboy and Tucker's names. Each was waiting for the other to suggest giving up, but no one wanted to be the one to quit. Linus was first one to see the ship.

It glided seemingly out of nowhere and straight into their path. Before the kids could figure out which way to bail, the ship came to a halt. The kids watched curiously as a struggling figure was lowered over the side by a rope. It stopped suddenly, dangling over the water. Danny turned on the motor and they moved closer, each straining to see what the figure was. Marissa gasped.

"It's—"

"Sharkboy!" Lavagirl cried.

Sharkboy jerked his head up as her voice carried across the water.

"Lavagirl! I need you to burn the rope!" He called.

"I can't! I'm normal, remember?"

"You have to! Or else hundreds of sharks will die, including me!"

Lavagirl bit her lip anxiously. She looked down at her hands, her normal hands and felt a pang of guilt. She never should have asked Max to change her. It had been selfish . . .

"Max, change me back."

Max's blonde head jerked in surprise. "But you said—"

"Forget what I said, now change me back!"

Max closed his eyes and envisioned Lavagirl as she once was, with her fiery pink hair and pink uniform with ribbons of clear fabric showing the streams of lava she was made from. When he opened his eyes, she already had her hand poised to release her lava onto the rope holding Sharkboy. The rope twisted and jerked as the fibers burned away. Sharkboy fell safely into the water. He snapped the rope binding his hands and feet and swam quickly to the boat, clambering in and soaking everyone in range of his damp hair.

"Tucker's on that ship," he said as soon as he had caught his breath. "We need to get him."

Max nodded. "I've got a plan . . ."

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Tucker sat in a large stuffed chair in front of a dozen monitors. He swung his good leg back and forth as he stared at the screen that showed his half-brother's struggles. Something was nagging him but he could not figure out what it was. Footsteps behind him announced the arrival of Dr. Franklin Holmes. He grinned at the monitors.

"It just a short time, my young accomplice, we shall have our revenge."

Tucker did not look at the man. "What about him?" He jerked his chin towards the figure of Sharkboy.

"What does it matter? The sharks will all be dead."

"Is he going to die?"

"Perhaps."

Tucker nodded, it made sense, yet he could not shake the feeling that something was wrong. Something he was doing was wrong. He bit his lip and adverted his eyes. He tried to tell himself that Sharkboy deserved it, that he had killed Tucker's relationship with his father and deserved to die himself.

"What?" The angry yell of his companion startled Tucker out of his reverie.

The small boy looked up just in time to see Sharkboy start swimming away out of the camera shot. Dr. Holmes exited the room at a run. Tucker followed awkwardly.

"Gun that boat down! I don't want anything interfering with my plans!"

Tucker looked over the side of the ship to see Lavagirl, Sharkboy, and their friends in a small boat close to the ship. His heart leapt to his throat as he realized Danny was in the boat as well.

"Wait!" He cried. "Don't! My brother is down there!"

"We can't let anything stop us from avenging our loved ones."

Tucker grabbed Dr. Holmes by the leg. "I won't let you!"

"Boy, you've gotten on my last nerve. No one intervenes in my dear Katherine's revenge!" The man nodded to a sailor.

Tucker kicked his good leg and flung his arms at his captor but to no avail. Another sailor joined the first and as one held him, the other tore off the plastic limb that was his right leg. Together they hoisted Tucker up over their heads and threw him down to the black water below.

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The boat approached the ship slowly. Max was just about to start executing his plan when a small figure flew from the ship, yelling in fear and swinging its three appendages. Danny gasped in horror.

"That's Tucker!" He cried as the boy fell into the water with a splash. "Somebody's gotta save him! He can't swim in deep water with only one leg!"

The boy started to remove his shirt to dive in, but Sharkboy was faster. He leaped into the cold water and stuck out towards the small, struggling boy. But when Sharkboy was almost to him, Tucker sank underneath the blue-black waves.

Water closed in around him. It filled his mouth, his nose, his eyes, and his ears. One arm reached towards the dancing light of the surface as if he were stretching for a hand to grasp, as his limp body fell farther and farther down. Surprisingly the last thing he saw in his mind's eye, before he slipped into unconsciousness, was not his father, or his mother, not Danny or even Lavagirl, but the calm, serene face of Sharkboy; his brother.