Finding Tula

It was a bright sunny day, or as bright and sunny as being under water could be, as two clownfish, a red and blue stripped one with yellow fins, and a yellow and green striped one admired their new home among the Great Barrier Reef.

"So, Tula, when you said you wanted an ocean view, you didn't think that we we're gonna get the whole ocean, did you? A fish can breathe out here. Did your man deliver or did he deliver?" Kal-lin asked his wife.

"My man delivered," Tula answered while rolling her eyes. "You did good. And the neighborhood is awesome. But do we really need so much space?"

"Tula, honey, think of our kids. They deserve the best. Look, look, look. They'll wake up, poke their little heads out and they'll see a whale! See, right by their bedroom win…dow."

Looking out into the ocean, Kal-lin saw a dark shape skimming on the water's surface. The closer it got, the bigger it became until it came to a stop above them.

"Kal-lin? What's that?" Tula asked.

"I, don't know." He wanted to get a closer look but dared to not get any closer than he had to. "Tula, get back in-"

A loud splash sounded through the water and a blanket of bubbles descended into the water. It didn't take long for them to float back to the surface and when they did, they revealed a dark figure the two knew was a human. It didn't take long for the human to zero in on the clownfish and swim towards them, pulling out a net as he did so.

"Tula, run!" Kal-lin yelled as he and his wife fled back into the reef.

Everything happened so fast that he and Tula lost each other as the human crashed through parts of the reef. The metal and nylon net jutted in and out of every conceivable opening to gather them up. Kal-lin came close to being caught a time or two but managed to get clear just in time before the net was pulled back.

"Kal-lin! Help me!" Tula screamed.

"I'm coming, Tula!" he yelled back.

By the time he got to where she was, all he found was their home destroyed. Calling her name franticly, he heard, just barely, Tula calling for him to help her. Swimming as fast as he could, Kal-lin tried to reach the human whose net contained his wife, but was too late. His wife's captor had finished climbing into the boat above and began to take off.

"Oh no. No, no. It's gone, it's gone. No, no, it can't be gone. No, no! Tula! Tula! Tula! No! Tula! Tula! No! No, please, no! No, no!"

Pouring on all the speed he could muster, Kal-lin tried in vain to catch up to the boat but quickly fell behind.

"Wait!" he yelled. "Come back! Come ba-"

"Look out!" a voice screamed from his left.

Not paying attention, Kal-lin crashed into a female Regal green tang fish and tumbled through the water. "Ooh, ooh. She's gone, she's gone…"

"Um, no, I'm right here," the green fish said.

"No, not you. The boat," Kal-lin told her.

"What boat?"

"The boat that I was chasing."

"The boat you were just chasing?"

"Yes, the boat I was just chasing. What else could I be talking about?"

"Well, I don't know," the green fish said. "You could talk about how pink the reefs are, how the ocean water tastes like salt, how it's always warm around the younger fishes when the rest of the water is cold, or-"

"No, no, I'm looking for a white boat I was just chasing before I ran into you."

"Oh, I've seen a white boat!"

"You have?"

"Yeah, you were just chasing it before our little wreck. Duh." She made dumbfounded face on the last word.

"Sorry about that, but I just need to know where it went. He took my wife and I need to find her." Kal-lin explained

"Who took your wife?"

"The human that was down here."

"Human? If a human took your wife than why are you chasing a boat?"

"No, the human took my wife and got in the boat, so I need to find the boat to get my wife back or I'll never see her again."

The green fish floated there in front of him for a minute without saying a word.

"Well?" Kal-lin asked urgently.

"Whale? Where?" She turned quickly and looked around her but was disappointed when one wasn't present.

"No! Not 'whale', 'well', as in 'Well? Which direction did you see the boat got?"

"Oh! Of course, why didn't you say so? Come on, follow me!" She took off behind and to the right of him at a fast pace.

"Wait, what?" Swimming fast, Kal-lin caught up to the green fish and swam beside her.

"What are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"What?" Kal-lin's expression was one of confusion as the green fish repeated his words.

"Why are you following me, huh? You got a problem, buddy? Huh? Huh? I have a boyfriend that could bust you up, you want that to happen? Do 'ya? Do 'ya? Do 'ya? You want a piece of me? Yeah, oooh, I'm scared now. Whaat!?"

"A problem? I don't even know you. I-"

"M'ry"

"What?

"My name's M'ry. Hey, aren't you after a human in a boat because they kidnapped your wife?"

"Is there something wrong with you?" Kal-lin yelled. "I don't have time for jokes. I know that's strange coming from a clownfish, but I just need you to show me where they went."

"Oh, well, I have short term memory loss, runs in my family, whoever they are, do you know them, I think I have a large family but I'm not sure, although it could be small but I doubt it, what's your name, my name's M'ry but I already told you that, at least I think I did, although I could be wrong again as I have short term memory loss, runs in my family, whoever they are, do you know them, I think I have a large family but I'm not sure although it could be small but I doubt it, what's your name, my name's M'ry but I already told you that, at least I think I did, although I could be wrong again as I have short term memory loss, runs in my family, whoever they are-"

"M'ry, stop. You're going in circles."

"Oh sorry. As I said I have short term- oh, Hello M'ry, I don't know your name. You can tell me while we find your wife after we find the boat, come on."

"Uh, ok. My name's Kal-lin…but how are we gonna find the boat? It's so far away. How can we hope to-"

"We'll ask my friend Con," M'ry said as they swam further into the ocean. "He's my boyfriend who doesn't know he's my boyfriend but thinks he's only my friend while still being my boyfriend because he luuuuuuvs me and I luuuuuuuuv him so I'm his girlfriend and he's my boyfriend and…"

Kal-lin knew this was gonna be a long trip.

After several hours of swimming, Kal-lin and M'ry arrived at a sunken ship covered in deep sea grime. Sand covered the inside and various sea life grew on the walls, making it a spooky environment overall. And it so happened they were headed right for it.

"This is where your boyfriend lives?" Kal-lin asked.

"Yup. And one day it'll just be me and him." Shooting ahead, M'ry was the first to enter the ship with a wary Kal-lin bringing up the rear.

"M'ry? M'ry? Where did you go?" Carefully and quietly, Kal-lin swam a foot at a time deeper into the sunken vessel when he heard a deep thump behind him. "M'ry? Is that you?"

"Who wants to know?" said a deep voice behind Kal-lin.

Scrunching up his body in fear, the little clownfish shook in terror at the deep voice and slowly turned around. His eyes grew wide at the sight of a large great white shark with a brooding face and narrowed eyes staring back at him.

"Hello," the shark said with his razor sharp teeth showing.

"Con!" M'ry yelled as she swam up hugged him with her small flippers.

"Tha…that's your boy…boyfriend?" Kal-lin frightfully asked.

"Hello Kal-lin, of course he is." She smiled at him. "I like his fins." At her words, Con seemed to blush slightly.

"Well it's about time." from the opposite direction, a green female mako shark with a yellow dorsal fin swam up to them, much to the terror of Kal-lin. "And who's this?"

"Artem, this is my friend, Kal-lin. Kal-lin, Artem," M'ry said.

"Well, the more the merrier. Come on Con, let's get this over with."

"Oh, oh, right. M'ry, Kal-lin, please follow us," Con told the two smaller fish as he led them deeper into the ship.

Once they arrived in what was the storage area in the hull of the ship, Con cleared his throat. "Right, then. This meeting has officially come to order. Let us all say the pledge…"

At the same time, Con, Artem, and M'ry began to recite their pledge. "'I am a nice shark, not a mindless killing machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food. We protect them from other sharks who wish to do them harm. Except stinkin' dolphins."

"Dolphins! Yeah," Artem said. "They think they're sooo cute! 'Hey, look at me. I'm a flippin' little dolphin! Let me flip for 'ya! Ain't I something? God, I hate dolphins!"

"Right, dolphins don't count," Con agreed. "And the same goes for sea-monkeys. I hate sea monkeys. Now, would our clownfish friend like to add something?"

"Me?" Kal-lin asked." "I don't have a problem."

"Denial," Artem said.

"No, no, not denial. See I'm looking for my wife who was kidnapped by a human and I really must be going so I-" Backing up, Kal-lin bumped into a rusting piece of pipe that set off a chain reaction with other pieces of metal that eventually struck M'ry.

"Oh, my nose!" Grabbing her nose, M'ry winced from the pain as Kal-lin rushed to check on her. "You really clocked me there."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"You hurt M'ry!" Con yelled as an angry sneer crossed his face.

"Villain!" Artem shouted. "Get 'em!"

"No, no I, AHHHHHHHH!"

In just the nick of time, Kal-lin dodged being eaten by Con as his massive jaws shut with a loud clash. Looking for a way out, he shot for a crack in the hull only to be met by Artem who also tried to eat him. It was bedlam as the clownfish did his best to stay out of their hungry, vengeful mouths. Old suit cases, wardrobe, life preservers, wooden shelves and many more foreign objects were tossed around them as the two sharks tried to punish the clownfish for hurting their friend.

"No, wait, please," Kal-lin begged as he was backed into a corner by Con. "I can explain. See, it was an accident and I, AHHH PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!"

Rearing back to swallow the tiny clownfish in a single bite, Con bared his razor sharp teeth and shot forward to finish Kal-lin off when M'ry smacked him on the nose. "Ow! What was that for?" he demanded.

"That was for trying to eat my friend," she told him.

"But-"

"But nothing. It was an accident. Now tell him you're sorry."

"But I-"

"Tell him."

Looking down and shifting his eyes back and forth, Con mumbled something incoherently.

"Con?!"

"Sorry."

"Do you mean it?"

"I suppose."

"Okay. Now what were we here for? Oh, hello M'ry, we need to find a white boat and human that has Kal-lin's wife. Have you or Artem seen one like that?"

"As a matter of fact, I saw one pull into Happy Harbor before coming here," Artem told her. "It's far from here so you may need Wrush to help you."

"Wrush?" Kal-lin asked.

"He's a sea turtle who's really fast." Con informed him. "M'ry knows how to find him. He can take you to Happy Harbor in no time flat."

"When you see him, tell him Artem sent 'ya," the mako told them.

After leaving in search for Wrush, Kal-lin reflected on something M'ry said. It was strange that she seemed to remember things when she added 'hello' before a name. It must trigger something in her mind to help her remember things.

"Um, M'ry?"

"S'up?"

"I want you to try something for me. First, can you tell me if you have a large or small family?"

"Oh, I have a…hm, I don't know. It's kinda hard for me to remember because I have short-term mem-"

"Yes, I know. Now, before you answer the question, the same question, say 'Hello M'ry'. Got it?"

"What for?"

"Just humor me. Now, do you have a large family?"

"Hm, I…Hello M'ry…(gasp) I can remember! I have a large family! A big, big family! I can remember them!"

"Just as I thought. Every time you need to remember something, say 'Hello M'ry" and you'll remember it."

"That's genius! Hello M'ry. (Gasp) I can remember my birthday! Hello M'ry. (Gasp) I'm the youngest of all my sisters! Hello M'ry. (Gasp) I like to…"

It went on and on like this for quite some time.

It didn't take long for Kal-lin and M'ry to find Wrush, a yellow and red sea turtle. Conversation wasn't anything special as he added 'dude' multiple times per sentence.

"Dude, so, like, dude, if you, like, wanna, like, rescue your little fish lady dude, you wanna look for a dude named Rob. The dude's a red seagull and, like, he's the dude you want to help you out, dude."

"Where do we find him?" Kal-lin asked.

"Dude, he like, flies around the docked ships in the harbor. He also tends to laugh like some dude who has to laugh…a lot. And the dude may annoy you with that, but the dude id is like, a totally cool dude. You get that brah?"

"Yeah, I get it." Kal-lin told him.

After reaching Happy Harbor, Wrush wished them farewell and the duo searched for the seagull in question. Sure enough, his cackle gave him away among the flock of seagulls he was in. Plus, he was the only red one to boot. Unfortunately, the others took notice of the two fish and wanted to partake in the meal before them. They began to squawk 'mine' upon seeing them when Rob noticed who they were and quckly made his way to them.

"Don't make any sudden moves. I know who you are. You can call me Rob. Now I need you to hop inside my mouth if you want to live." Rob told them.

"Hop in your mouth? And how does that make me live?" Kal-lin asked.

"Because I can get you to safety and take you to your wife. You two just need to trust me."

"How do you-"

"My dad has connections everywhere. She's a yellow and green clownfish, answers to the name Tula. There's nothing my dad doesn't know. He knows where she is, in a tank at a dentist's office named B. Manta. I'll take you to her while he gets her out. Now calmly, get in mouth and we'll casually fly where they're-"

"MINE!" the seagulls yelled in unison.

With no other choice, Kal-lin and M'ry hopped into Rob's mouth and hung on to the edge of his beak as he engaged in a game of cat and mouse with the other seagulls. It was insane some of the stunts he would pull. Barrel rolls, spins, loops, dives, banks, even flying between the closely docked boats, it was as if he were completely fearless. Or insane from the amount of cackling he was letting loose. Eventually, he had managed to lose them by flying through an entanglement of ropes and pulleys responsible for keeping the different sails of the ships up.

"Told 'ya I would keep you alive," Rob said as he ventured to where his dad told him to meet up.

As Rob landed on the pier where B. Manta's office was, he dropped Kal-lin and M'ry back in the water when a shadow overcame them. Looking up, they saw for a brief moment a tall, dark seagull looking down upon them. In the time it took for them to blink, it was gone.

"Was that your-" M'ry tried to ask.

"Yep. He does that a lot," Rob replied with a cackle.

"Kal-lin!" Tula called from behind them.

"Tula?" he yelled back. "Tula!"

The two fish reunited as Rob and M'ry looked on with large smiles.

"So I guess you'll be heading back," Rob said.

"Yep, my job here is done." M'ry said. "Now I'll be going…going…wait, where am I going? Hello M'ry, oh yeah that's it, back to Con's because I luuuuv him, and luuuuuuuvs me, and I…"

With a cackle, Rob was gone.

The trio swam back out of the harbor where Kal-lin introduced his wife Tula to M'ry and explained how she helped him rescue her. Tula was amazed at the long journey her husband took to find her. A large school of fish gathered around them as they continued to swim out into the open ocean, none noticed a large net descending from above until it was too late. Before they knew it, they were all captured with a great deal of the other fish and panic set into the entire group, all except for Tula and Kal-lin who managed to escape the net before it could trap them.

"No, no, no! No! M'ry!" Kal-lin yelled.

"Help! Get us out! Aaaaaaaah!" M'ry shouted as she and the others were being drug away by a large fishing boat on the surface.

"We have to tell all the fish to swim down together! It's the only way we can save M'ry!" Tula shouted.

"Right," Kal-lin said.

Together, the clownfish swam up to the captured fish and told them what to do. As if they were of one mind, the large group of fish began to work together to gain freedom but it was still not enough. The boat, which had tipped slightly to its side, was slowly righting itself back up.

"Don't give up! Keep swimming! Just keep swimming!" Kal-lin encouraged.

"Harder! Just keep swimming! Keep swimming!" Tula ordered.

"It's not working!" M'ra shouted.

Just when it seemed hopeless, a loud thud thundered through the water. Before Kal-lin and his wife could see what it was, the trapped fish yelled 'SHARKS' as another thud sounded off.

"Sharks?" Tula said with a frightened voice.

"Con, Artem! Don't worry, they're here to help" Kal-lin told Tula. "Guys, I need you to keep slamming the sides so the fish can rip through the net!"

"Gotcha!" Artem shouted as she and Con rammed the side of the fishing boat again.

Every impact to the boat sent it further on its side. The men on the ship panicked when they saw the dorsal fins of the mako and great white with the thought of being eaten alive coursing through their heads. The fish and M'ra swam as hard as they could until with one final hit, the fishing boat capsized and the net opened up. As one, the fish spilt out and shouted 'freedom' as Kal-lin and Tula searched for M'ra. It didn't take long to find her swimming around Con as he and Artem came up to them.

"My boyfriend saaaaaaved me, because he luuuuuvs me and I luuuuuuv him and he…" Her sing song voice carried on happily as she continued swimming around her boyfriend.

"Thank you, my friends," Kal-lin told Con and Atrem as M'ra continued her singing. "I couldn't have gotten my wife back if it wasn't for you two, Rob, Wrush, and M'ra."

"No problem," Con told him.

"It's our job to help others." Artem said.

Waking up with a start, Kaldur rubbed his sleep filled eyes. The first thing he sees is the bright screen of the TV as he stretched and popped his back from leaning on the chair for so long. With a grunt, he stood up, and was careful not to wake the others as he wiped his mouth of the residual drool.

"No more Nemo," he said as he heads to an empty room in the mountain. "No more Nemo, ever."