Chapter Three: Any Last Regrets?
Okay, chapter three officially up. Now for starters, no hate, no flame, I only own my OC's, Yada yada yada, ENJOY!
Next thing they knew, all four were crammed into a rowboat, scouring the open sea for one tiny starfish. As the evening wore on, a storm began to creep along the sky. It was beginning to look hopeless.
"Nothing! I see nothing!" Even with a telescope (mostly meant for astronomical use, mind you) the professor couldn't find anything on the seafloors resembling a starfish.
"Awe, forget it! If we can't see her, then there's only one thing to do!" Fly reached for the potion, with every intention of drinking it.
"Stop! Wait, i-if you don't get the antidote within forty-eight hours, you'll be a fish forever!"
Not heeding his warning, Fly took a long swig of the potion and dived headfirst into the water.
As the three watched Fly turn into a fish from the surface, an enormous tidal wave barrel rolled the boat, leaving only Rina and the professor on the rowboat before they too was overboard. Rina, thinking ahead, grabbed both potions before being thrown off, took a sip of the red one, and tossed it to Chuck.
"Drink the potion! I'll find you and bring back the antidote before it's to late!" Rina called out above the waves thrashing her away from Chuck and the professor, knocking her out cold.
Chuck grabbed the bottle just before being completely submerged underwater. With no choice in the matter, he finished off the potion, and began to swim.
'You never think things through! You are such a selfish girl, Rina. It would've been better for our family if you had never been born!'
Rina awoke with a start, her head still spinning and her stomach was in knots. Her vision cleared up just enough to make out a yellow bottle of, smoke? That want smoke, that was the antidote contents spilling into the sea!
Rina quickly capped the bottle and held it close to her.
'I really hope there weren't any fish swimming around that breathed that.'
"What happened? Woah! What's that sound?"
Uh oh.
Rina looked up to see a giant shark and a smaller fish, completely amazed by their own sudden ability to speak.
The smaller fish, Rina now recognized was a pilot fish, began sputtering in utter amazement by his speech.
"Hmm. I believed, we have acquired the power of speech, my ferocious friend," he closed his eyes and began sipping the water for more traces of the antidote. "I can talk. I can think."He was so busy pulling for more of the antidote, he bumped right into Rina, who placed the bottle behind your back.
"Talking fish." Was all she could muster.
"Uh, I do beg your pardon-"
"Your a talking fish!"
"So are you, you little snack!" The shark chirped in.
You could knock her over with a feather at that point. Rina looked down and saw the shark was right! She had fins and a tail instead of arms and legs. She felt her face and neck to find her nose was gone and she had gill openings on the sides of her neck.
She didn't dare wish to look in a mirror.
The fish grabbed the bottle from behind her and held it up. "See?"
Rina looked at the reflection staring back at her in amazement "Oh... My... Fish..." She just couldn't believe it, good god, she was a fish!
"And might I add you make quite a fetching pilot fish."
Rina lowered her eyes at the fish's remark. She hardly spoke two words and already it was hitting on her?
Rina snatched the bottle away, turning her attention back to finding the kids. "That's nice. Well this was nice, so I'm gonna go-"
"Not so fast, angelfish!" The fish snatched the bottle back and swam behind his sharp-toothed associate. "I've got plans for this concoction." He stared at the bottle with greedy glint in his eyes Rina was too familiar with. He then turned his attention to the shark, "Can you feel the power? Can you, taste it?"
"Taste it?! Oh, food!" The dense shark chomped on a nearby fish, only registering mostly his instincts verses his newfound intelligence. The smaller fish rolled his eyes at his dense friend's lack of maturity; and grimacing as he belched Fish remains right in his face.
"Oi! Clean my teeth! There's stuff in the cracks!"
"Henceforth, oral hygiene is no longer my department."
"What?" The shark asked, a little confused at the vocabulary used.
"I don't clean anymore, try dental floss," the fish advised a bit dismissively. "From now on, I call the shots. With this brain power, I can have fame. Fortune. Servants."
That did it, Rina officially did not like this fish.
"Look here at this potential flunky." He swam over to a stray crab and dowsed him with a small drop of the antidote.
"Wait a minute! I need that to get home!" Rina tried to stop him before the shark barred his teeth at her. Rina glared back.
'He looks familiar,' Rina took notice of the features on his face, her eye suddenly wide in surprise as she spotted a faded scar along his eye going all the way to his fin.
"Attention!" The crab from before saluted the fish, marching like a drill sergeant.
"So, uh, you guy have names?" Rina asked offhandedly.
"Um, no. Did we lose them?" The shark responded naively.
"She's right. We should have names to match our new intelligence levels." The fish pondered this for a moment. "Joe."
"Joe who?" The shark asked.
"Me Joe."
Rina snickered.
"What's so funny!?" Joe glared.
"Kinda average for a name."
"Oh! Can I have a name!?" The shark cut in.
"You can be shark." Joe deadpanned.
"No he won't. He needs a name that fits him." Rina looked up at the shark who stared blankly back at her.
"Brutus. Not to long, not to hard. Perfect tough guy name."
"Brutus. I like it." Brutus smiled widely, showing all rows of his sharp teeth.
"Fascinating; you actually remembered your name. Now quit your lollygagging! I have a nation to build."
"Whatever you say, average-joe." Rina said sarcastically.
Joe growled while Brutus just snickered a bit.
"By the way, my name's Rina."
"Charmed."
Rina forced a smile. 'Okay Joe, I'll let you have your fun. It'll make your downfall much more harder to bear... I just hope the boys can find Stella before it's to late...'
"Mommy!" Stella woke up with a start as her blankie swam away, unaware of the environment surrounding her.
Naively, she held her breath when she recognized she was underwater. A small gasp escaped when she saw her hand was now a stubby orange appendage. A school of fish swam by the reef, knocking Stella off her footing. She braced herself for a hard fall, only to gently float down.
She liked this kind of falling.
Her face brightened as she recognized an old friend munching on some sea kelp as she floated back to the sea floor.
"Hi Sasha!" Stella waved to the seahorse, startling it.
Stella landed softly on the ocean floor while her curious friend looked on with confusion.
"Don't you remember me?" The seashores in question just stared at her quizzicality.
"Wanna play?" Stella toddled over to the seahorse, causing it to swim away. Stella wasn't phased, however, and grabbed the unsuspecting seahorse by the tail, holding on with a tight grip as it swam in streaks along the reef right into some bubbling coral. Finally, it stopped as it watched Stella in awe as she floated atop of the bubbles. Seeing that there was no real threat, Sasha swam playfully around the talking starfish. Their fun was cut short when they ran out of bubbles to keep Stella up, and she floated right onto an open clam that snapped shut on her.
"Stella!" Now a talking flyfish came out of nowhere and aided the talking starfish trapped inside the clam. The seahorse could only stare with wide eyes, how truly remarkable.
"Fly! It was so dark and I'm, so scared." Stella sniffled in Fly's, er, fins as he held his baby sister close.
"Don't cry Stella, it's okay. Hey check it out, we're fish! Isn't that cool?" Fly proceeded to cheer his little sister up by showing her things they couldn't see as people; like a whole flock of jellyfish, schools of bright red fish, and riding wild sea horses.
One particular seahorse Fly was riding bucked him right into a Jellyfish, with glasses.
"Fly? Stella?"
Both siblings laughed at their blobby, see through cousin.
"You're a jellyfish?" Fly managed to chortle out.
Chuck turned from blue to red, obliviously not amused by the lack of maturity.
"We don't have time for jokes." Chuck huffed, proceeding to continue his search.
"What are you looking for?" Stella followed him on her seahorse.
"You know what, I finally figured you out Chuck. I can see right through you!" Fly laughed as he saw Stella and Sasha on the other side of Chuck's head.
Chuck rolled his eyes at the pun. "When you are through making wisecracks, maybe you can help me find the antidote."
"The what? The antidote?"
Chuck explained how the storm from last night got worse when Fly left. It got so bad, their boat sank, along with the professor. He explained how he couldn't swim, so he had no choice but to take the potion right after Rina, who also took the potion. Also, Chuck explained how Rina was the only one he knew who had the antidote last, so they had to find her before their forty-eight hours were up, or they would be fish forever.
Instant panic.
Just hen, the kids overheard talking in the distance. An eel, a shrimp, and a flounder stood beside a sardine can, conversing about evolution and getting to take a bus.
Which was apparently running five minutes late.
"Excuse me, but how come you can all speak?"
"Well you speak yourself, you should know!" The flounder snapped.
Fly shuddered a bit, not really sure what to say.
"It's like this, we owe our present capabilities to Joe, and his magic potion."
"Joe?"
"Magic potion?" Chuck clarified.
"You should really hear Joe talk." The eel swooned. "He's so inspiring. Oh, I hope there's room for us at the meeting."
Chuck attempted to get more information about the potion when the bus, or rather a whale, drove up.
"Oh lookie there, here she comes." The shrimp said.
"And about time too!" The flounder griped.
"Now mind your manners, ladies first."
"Oh thank you dear." The eel slithered up to the fish driver, handing out what seemed to be Fish currency.
Fly gathered up stray shells and whipped them out to the driver to get on board. When the driver said they weren't valid, Fly used his cousin's glasses to swindle them tickets, allowing them to ride for free.
"Next time, have exact change!" The flustered driver called to the sneaky fly fish.
"And what would've happen if it didn't work, genius?"
"Don't you think you've made enough fish smart already?" Rina followed Joe through the hall of the abandoned cruise liner. She glanced at the accelerated development some of these fish have done with their newfound intelligence. She was still amazed that this one fish started a bus system using whales to heard more fish to the ship.
"My dear, you will never appreciate the work put into making a nation until it soars to the surface. You're lucky to have such a big role in my vision."
"As what?"
"My advisor of the surface world."
While Rina kept an eye on Joe and the potion, she had to entertain him with stories she remembered from history and literature class to keep Joe off her case about the contents of the potion, or at least to allow her to stay by him and his shark friend. Through these bits of information, Joe cranked out new jobs for every fish he made smart. This pleased him greatly; showing his interest in all her stories and the wonders of the surface world.
The world of the humans.
He was beginning to take a shine to the female of his species, even if she had a sarcastic tongue every once in a while. It was good she was so young. So full of life.
So beautiful...
"Ey! Rina!" Brutus bumped into the two fish, knocking them into the door to the meeting room.
"What is it Brutus?"
"I, er, oh! I got you a pretty shell!" Brutus held out a simple pink shell with red stripes on it. He began this habit of collecting shiny things from the sea floor shortly after Rina's introduction.
She politely accepted the trinket and admired it greatly. "Oh how pretty. Thank you!" Rina gushed, patting the shark on his snout. He blushed bashfully at the affectionate way she approached him; unlike the brash dismissiveness his boss gave him.
"If you two are quite done," Joe gritted, gesturing to his awaiting public.
"Go ahead. Use up the last of the potion. Don't say I didn't warn you." Rina took this as her leave and proceeded to Joe's office to wait for him. Joe allowed that comment to pass; he still had plans for her later to find out where to get more.
"She's a fine specimen to admire, I just can't look over that mouth of hers."
"Yeah boss. She's so pretty, and nice..." Brutus gushed, fawning over her soft kindness.
Joe wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was a little jealous of the shark. Ever since they met, she was nothing but nice to his shark associate, almost motherly. At first, he thought it was just so the shark wouldn't eat her, but he knew from his own turmoil he didn't have nearly that much sincerity and kindness for the brute, faking or not.
She was being nice to him for a completely different reason, the problem was, Joe couldn't figure out why.
And why was it he was so captivated by her eyes? They were so blue. They were almost, familiar...
"Hey boss, the place is full of fish now. So many snacks..."
Brutus snapped Joe back to reality. Of course, all will be revealed after he had a little chat with her; right now, his adoring public awaited him.
'I suppose your proud of yourself now? Letting an insignificant Fish become a dictator over the sea? What if he doesn't stop? What if he takes his reign to the surface? You still need to find the kids and change them back; what do you think they'll say of you when you tell them that you gave their only ticket to being human away to that fishcake? You didn't even think that far ahead. Did you!?'
Rina groaned as she struggled to keep her head together; she couldn't stand all those loud, obnoxious opinions drowning out her own thoughts, no signs of stopping for one second of peace. It was the reason she left home; all those voices ringing in her ear from her family and their snobby friends; it was suffocating.
'So pathetic. Sad. Worthless. Useless. Incompetent stain.'
Nothing. They were nothing but pointless remarks and brash comments, without a single just reasoning behind any of them. And why? Because she was, different. She wasn't incompetent, she wasn't a stain, and she did have a plan. She just wasn't finished with it yet.
'If I only knew where those kids swam off to-'
Her thoughts were interrupted by the door slamming open. Joe took his usual seat on the desk they found on the cruise liner, overviewing his soon-to-be monument.
"So what new species did you 'resurrect' today?" Rina quickly composed herself and resumed her usual carefree attitude.
Joe ignored her and asked for Brutus to put someone in the chair across from him, saying that he'd attend to them shortly after his call. The shark spat out four fish onto the chair harshly.
Rina stiffened.
"Fly? Stella?"
"Auntie!"
Rina quickly swam towards the starfish and her new friend, hugging and inspecting her of any injuries.
"I was so worried something bad happened to you."
"Rina, the potion…" Chuck whispered, pointing to Joe, who was still on the phone about his monument.
"I know. I'm working on it, just leave it to me…" Rina finished just as Joe slammed his makeshift fish phone, concluding his "call".
"Sorry, do I have kept you waiting?" Joe snapped his fins, summoning fish servants. They roughly stuffed kelp rolls into Fly's and Chuck's mouth. Rina shrugged at the kids, figuring that was as close as Joe could get to acting hospitable.
"Please, have a snack. Your enthusiasm at the meeting touched me deeply; I wish all of my followers would show the same devotion." Joe gushed with false gratitude.
Bull- Roy. His followers did show devotion; the kids were just more free-spirited, especially Fly.
"Now tell me all you know about this divine cocktail, and I will tell you about my great plans for you-"
"Served in oyster sauce-" Brutus said out loud; Joe clamping his mouth shut and diverting his attention to some "candy", I.E, the fish servants.
"Hold up. You lost me, how do you know whether or not they know anything about what your talking about?" Rina questioned carefully.
"They were at the meeting and this, charming young fish," he gestured to Fly, "Tried to take a sip when his friend here stopped him and said something, interesting…"
Rina turned to Chuck, who shrunk at little at his unintentional blunder; they were here partly because of him too, not just Fly.
"Now, where was I? Oh yes, the bottle." Joe turned back to the kids; where Fly just ran out of patience.
"Give it back, it's ours!" Again, Fly tried to snatch the bottle away, only to be blocked by the shark who spat out the remains of his "candy".
"We had it first!" Stella chirped up.
"We need it to become human again." Chuck tried to explain.
"We're not really fish, honest." Fly added.
Rina knew it was no too tried to explain to Joe she was a human, but finally admitted defeat and reworked her story saying she was a test subject to become human.
Yeah; without proof, that's how dense he got.
"Joe; listen to the kid. I mean think about it; do you recall giving the potion to either of these kids? Do you recognize any of them?" Rina tried to rationalize.
"Well no-"
"And even if you did; why do they seem to know more about the potion than you do? Remember, you only gave out tiny drops."
"Em, well, uh-"
"So they aren't any of your subordinates, and they aren't from here, so logically, you have to assume that they're telling the truth" Rina concluded.
"Hmm, touché. So that also means they know the recipe for this magical brew. How about we strike a deal-"
Rina intentionally scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"Now what?" Joe asked in an agitated tone.
"You're gonna strike a deal, with children?"
"So you're saying you know the recipe? Considering you were there as a , ahem, test subject?" Joe swam till he was eye to eye with Rina.
Rina quickly glanced at the kids in the corner pod her eye, who sat quietly waiting for her answer. Chuck frantically nodded no, that she mustn't tell him the recipe.
Rina gave a reassuring nod and turn back to Joe.
"Yes, I do. I've seen that scientist make it so many times, I could do it in my sleep. There's just one catch."
"Do tell," Joe said, grinning with anticipation.
Rina smiled "I'll only tell you if you let these kids go home. Besides, they'd just be in the way. You know how kids are."
"Sounds reasonable. Done."
"B-b-but Rina-"
"Crab!" Joe called for his commander who scurried in hurriedly.
"Sir, yes sir!"
"See these children out, and gather your troops. We're going on a little field trip."
"Sir, Yes sir!" Commander Crab got hold of Sasha's tail, forcing the Fly and Chuck to follow them out.
"Rina, wait! We still need the potion!" Fly tried to swim back, once again blocked by a snarling Brutus. Fly struggled as the shark herded him back with Chuck and Stella out the door.
"Hmm, you know I really should say goodbye before they leave, they really aren't all that bad." Rina said in a cool tone.
"Very well, but make it quick, we have work to do."
Rina quickly caught up to Fly and Chuck, who were both trying their hardest to bypass the brute.
"Could you give us a moment? I want to make sure they don't lose their way and get lost."
"Ma'am, it's against regulations for a commanding officer to-"
"DON'T GIVE HER ANY LIP, DO WHAT RINA TELLS YOU TO!" Brutus bellowed at the now petrified crab.
"Thank you Brutus. This'll only take a minute" Rina chirped cheerfully, heading over to the gang.
"Rina, what are doing? We need to get that potion back!" Fly said in a hushed shout.
"Yeah, I mean, what're you thinking, letting him use the potion?" Chuck followed up, truly
"Do you not like us anymore?" Stella piped in, her big round eyes turned up at Rina like a little puppy.
"Of course I do sweetie, I always did. I just need to handle this alone; I don't want to see any of you get hurt, or worse" Rina hugged the young starfish and her seahorse companion and turned to Fly and Chuck. "Look, back at the professors lab, there is a bottle of anti-fish potion. Go there, wait for me till morning. If I'm not back by noon tomorrow, find a way inside the lab and get that potion no matter what"
Fly nodded in understanding; Rina was going to stall the pilot fish in order to keep them out of danger, even if it meant the risk of becoming a fish forever.
Chuck gave a concerned look"B-b-but Rina, the professor's ventilation shafts, the piranhas, they'll chew us to bits. There's no way we'll be able to make it out-"
"Times up! Let's go fish!" The crab clamped a hold of Fly's tail and gave him a hard fling out the porthole, Chuck in tow. Rina gave Stella one more goodbye hug, biting back the urge to cry when she saw her sniffing.
"Remember Stella, no matter what." And with that, Rina shoved her and Sasha out and closed the porthole herself, any chance of leaving with them now gone.
"Now let's get Joe; we're gonna need all the help we can get. Let him know to get as many empty bottles possible!" Rina swallowed down her grief and pressed on helping make Joe more fish potion. Rina only hoped whatever she had planned at that point in time would work, otherwise being a fish forever was going to be the least of her worries.
'Please let this turn out alright...'
Oooh, cliffhanger. I live for cliffhangers, you never know what's gonna happen till you read the next chapter for more! Till then, see you in the next chapter!