Chapter Four: As the Tide Turns
Yay, next chapter! This is where things start to heat up! Enjoy!
"Now what? We don't have the antidote, the professor is dead, and he was the only one who knew the formula. That, plus now we lost Rina to that crazy egotistical fish! How are we going to explain that to our parents?!"
After they were kicked out, the three kids swam as fast as they could through the forest of sea kelp, away from the cruise liner and back to where Rina told them to go, the professor's boat lab.
"Were you even listening to Rina? There's a whole bottle of antidote back at the lab." Fly said, his speed remaining unchanged. "We just have to make it there by sundown tomorrow, then we can figure out a way to save her."
"But Fly, that's way to dangerous! We'll get chewed to bits for sure!"
"But Auntie Witch said to wait for her there, Chuck. She promised she'd be there tomorrow, she promised."
Fly and Chuck stopped swimming turned their attention to Stella, still sniffling behind them after leaving and saying goodbye to "Auntie".
Chuck gave a sigh. "Stella, Rina only said that so we'd escape without argument. I'm sorry Stella."
The starfish began whimpering and hugged her companion who nuzzled her comfortingly.
Fly glared at his jellyfish cousin for making his sister cry like that. He knew Chuck was a drag, but he didn't have to go that far. What was his problem? "So we can't even make it back to the lab for the antidote. What do we do now, whip up a bottle of potion out of our ears?"
"Real funny Fly. We don't even know the formula, and the only potion left was back at that cruise liner. It's hopeless."
The formula. Ignoring his cousin, Fly pondered a moment before suddenly recalling something. "And the tiny whiskers of a….codfish!" His face lit up at remembering the funny song McKrill used to remember the recipe.
"Can I have ketchup on mine?" Stella asked, finished with her tears.
Fly adjusted his hat and began whistling the song to recall more of the ingredients.
"Uh Fly, are you feeling okay?"
"This is great, we can make the potion ourselves. All of the ingredients are underwater. Look!" Fly pointed to a bed of sea anemones, the first ingredient to the potion.
"Stella, you and Sasha go grab some of those red flowers while me and Chuck go pick some kelp."
"Fly, what exactly are we doing?"
"You said it yourself Chuck; if we can't reach the antidote back at the lab; then we're gonna make it ourselves!" Fly stated triumphantly. Chuck wanted to argue that they had to find all of the ingredients in a giant sea, but Fly did have a point; they really have a lot of options left and they were running out of time.
"Fine. Let's go make the potion, but don't go yelling at me if this plan of yours doesn't work!"
"It will work; you're forgetting something Chuck,"
"What's that?"
"The force is with us!"
Sliding aside the Star Wars reference, Chuck followed Fly into the kelp forest and found a crooked corkscrew bottle.
"Ready. Steady. Gather. GO!"
"Are you sure it's supposed to be red?"
Back at the cruise liner; Joe was doing his own version of gathering. Through the direction of Rina, nearly every sentient fish was appointed the task to find every last ingredient for the potion.
Well, almost every ingredient.
"I told you: The potion you have is about a week old; when it sits for a long period of time, It changes from red to yellow. Think of it as a fermentation process."
"I see, but it-"
"Quit worrying about the color; if anything, it'll just be a little weaker then potion that's had time to sit." Rina snapped, her stomach already queasy from all the close calls she had just harvesting the ingredients. Who knew octopi were so scary when you're only eight inches long?
"Very well then; I'm off to the meeting. Make sure the chowderheads don't touch them until I return for a refill." Joe uncapped the bottle and downed the last few precious drops; groaning a little as he grew fingers and tufts of hair above his eyes. Once again, he swam to a crowd of awaiting fish ready to bask in everyone just falling in line and adoring him. The limelight. The appealing adoration. All those fish telling him exactly what he wanted to hear, doing everything he asked, no friction or arguments...
"What's the appeal about requiring so many fish to consider you a superior over them?" Rina said out loud. Joe gave her a questioning look. " I mean, I never understood how someone could put themselves in that situation where they were so dependent on others opinions of them. Isn't that a little pointless?"
"Pointless?!" Joe swam up eye to eye with Rina's, fuming. "Is all the work put into making these miserable kelp suckers more useful pointless? Is wishing to evolve marine life to reach their full potential pointless? Is being an intelligent leader pointless?!"
"You're only evolving these fish so that they can worship you and build a monument in your likeness."
"And what's wrong with having my subjects show a little gratitude for the opportunities I gave them?"
"You actually need a giant stone statue to feel appreciated? Oh yeah, real modest. You know one day, they're going to start developing their own opinions about you."
Joe suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"I mean, sure, you can use Brutus here to bite their tongues and keep quiet about it, but that won't change what they'll think about you; some might start wondering why something as low as a pilot fish became so powerful, how come they couldn't have that? Even more so, how come a shark bigger than you or stronger than you isn't calling the shots? Isn't it always the one higher on the foodchain who sits pretty on the top? And one more thing- what if they begin to rise against you, and drive you out of your precious kingdom, mister prince of the whales?"
Joe gritted his teeth and motioned for Crab to seize Rina. "Get this insufferable fish out of my sight! I'm done with her!" Joe turned back to the meeting entrance, his shark friend whimpering as he saw Rina be led away by her tail.
"You know I'm right! I certainly didn't need a statue made in my honor when I saved your friend from that razor net! Remember that!?" Rina shouted just as the doors slammed shut in her face. Joe didn't catch what she said, and frankly didn't care. Brutus, for as dense and slow as he was mentally, did.
The crab eagerly threw the pilot fish out the porthole, slamming it shut.
'Finally, now for phase two.' Rina swam and backtracked to Joe's office, where he stored the bottles of potion. Quickly, Rina smashed through the already broken window and began bailing bottle after bottle of potion into the ship's sprinkler system. After stocking up on the potion, Joe had taken this opportunity to invite every one of his Fish subjects into the meeting hall to tell the good news; if the sprinkler system did what Rina hoped it did, they'd all turn back to normal. Rina dumped the last of the potion into the tank and started cranking the valve. It rumbled and squeaked horrendously, but it did its job of carrying the special water to the right place; the meeting hall.
'Don't act all confident just yet, girl. You still have time for this to go south, then you'll be in serious trouble...'
She could hear through the she doors all the fish screaming frantically as the potion began leaking from the sprinkler ducks, surrounding them all in a big red mist.
"Hmpth, serves you right, you pig-headed, selfish bottom feeder!"
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SERVENTS!"
Rina turned around, her face paled as Joe uncovered his mouth and gills and discarded a piece of fabric to the ground.
"But weren't you-"
"I returned to get more potion because I finished the rest of the bottle!" Joe followed up on this showing the now empty bottle with the professor's logo on it.
Rina didn't bother to talk her way out of this one; she only registered she needed to get back to Fly and the others and change back before they were doomed to eternity being Fish forever. Once again, that crab attempted to make a grab for her. She easily whacked his helmet shut over his eyes and diverted him blindly over to Joe and Brutus. He grabbed Joe in a chokehold and began thrashing him around. "Shark! Don't just sit there like an imbecile, she's getting away!"
Brutus looked to Rina, she was just inches away from the porthole. Something in him told him to stay put; he couldn't do it, she was just so nice to him. He may have been a dumb shark, but even he knew what love was. "Shark, what are you doing?"
"My name's not 'Shark', it's Brutus!" Brutus grabbed Joe and Crab and threw them to the wall. Rina looked on in complete awe at the scene playing out before her. Brutus gave a little wave and sniffled a bit as she shut the porthole closed. He was gonna miss her loving face smiling at him fondly.
Joe managed to recover from the Crab's incessant jabs and proceeded to contemplate how to handle his two subordinates. "Useless, the pair of you! You're not fit for sushi! I sentence you to execution!"
Brutus didn't really understand what he meant, so he wasn't really phased. "Er, what's that?"
Joe facepanned then proceeded to explain. "Shark, chew up this useless crab," he pointed to the commander Crab who was quivering at the thought of becoming food, "then eat yourself when your finished."
"Ye-uh..." Brutus put two and two together and sneered angrily at the pilot fish.
Upon seeing his muscle lackey staring at him with such intimidating protest, the sound of Rina's last parting words echoed in Joe's mind.
'They will rise up against you and drive you out...'
"Er, I mean, no. No, that won't do. My mistake; no one has to execute themselves in a civilized society" Joe turned to his remaining army; the ones he posted outside the hall and remained sentient. "You there!" He pointed at a tubby red fish.
"What me?"
"Yes you! Because of your long and loyal service to me; I hereby appoint you chief executioner."
'This will be a much more civilized punishment; there's no that brute could-'
CHOMP! Brutus ate that poor fish, again showing his sheer protest.
Joe nervously tried to rework the situation before it got ugly. "Um, on the other fin, we can just call it water under the bridge; a great leader is distinguished by his ability to forgive." Joe concluded, slightly ashamed he had to resort to that. "Shark, I hereby appoint you, offensive commander!" There was no way the shark'd want to cross him now; he gave a sigh of relief when the shark shouted everyone at attention, satisfied with his command. "Go and get me that infuriating pilot fish, and bring her to me, now!"
Brutus froze a little at who his boss was referring to; again, for as little brains as he had, he knew he didn't want anything bad to happen to his little fishy friend.
"Now, all we need is an octopus, then we'll be human again. I'm almost gonna miss being a fish, but a double cheeseburger will remedy that."
Back at the cove near the professor's lab, the three kids searched the littered rocky floor beds for anything that resembled an octopus. They spent most of the night gathering the other ingredients, leaving them a whole six hours before sunset to look for the remaining ingredient. Fly had to hand it to Rina, if she wasn't there to save their hides, who knows what that fish was gonna do to them. They were tired, hungry, but they were only one step away from becoming human again.
"Fly, listen to me! If we find an octopus, and I say if, how are we gonna get it to spray ink? An octopus is thirty times bigger than us, and only sprays ink when it's scared!" Chuck, even though they had spare time, still found a reason to panic about not becoming human on time.
"Hey look, there's a mirror!" Fly remembered how the professor used it to get his octopus to spray ink.
"Fly, did you hear what I said?"
"Look what we found!" Stella waddled over to the pair, wanting to show them the toy rocking horse that reminded her of Sasha.
"Are you two out of your minds?! It'll be sunset in about six hours! You hear me, six hours! We will never breathe a breath of fresh air again. Fish for life!"
Fly didn't really see what the big deal was, maybe if he said twelve minutes or something, he'd be more concerned.
"Look what I found! A waterproof watch! Look, look I can use it as a belt! Then I know exactly how long I have until I'm doomed!" Chuck began mocking what Fly and Stella were doing earlier, nonchalantly combing the sea floor for junk like there was nothing wrong.
"Chuck! Listen, I have a plan. We scare the octopus with the mirror just like the professor did, see?"
"Oh yeah, is that all? First we need to find an octopus. Then we need to get in the open. Then we need to-"
"You're always talking about what won't work? Why are you always so negative?!"
"Because unlike you Fly, I use logic."
"Where was that logic when we left Rina alone with that fish, huh Chuck? Where was your logic when we were probably inches away from being locked up, and Rina had to swoop in to bail us out?"
Chuck closed his mouth on that one. He was right, partially. If he hadn't blurted out to Fly about taking the potion at the bottom of the ocean, maybe they could've found another way to get the potion back. But they never got that far.
"Are you two fighting, or just disgusting?"
The boys turned to see none other than Rina hugging Stella fondly by her side.
"Rina! You're alive!" Fly rushed over to Rina, not caring if he was being all girly and hugging her.
"Well of course I'm alive, I told you I'd meet up with you guys just after morning, and here I am!"
"I knew you'd come, Chuck didn't think so."
Chuck shrunk a little and swam over to her. "We thought you weren't gonna make it."
"I got a little sidetracked with that fish."
"Ooh, what'd you do?" Fly asked all intrigued about what she did.
"Made fish potion and reverted all of his loyal subjects back to their normal, non sentient selves using the ship's sprinkler system."
"You did that? Wow." Chuck said admiringly.
Their little reunion was cut short after the floor began to move. The sand scattered away to reveal giant red tendrils curling and uncurling. The four stared in fear as the head of a giant octopus emerged from the sandy floor!
Fly wasted no time in trying to scare it to spray ink using the mirror, determined to get the last ingredient they worked so hard to find. It wasn't going too well; the octopus snatched Chuck and Fly in its tentacles, breaking the mirror in the process. Rina and Stella could only look on in fear as they dreaded what it would do next. Suddenly, as quick as it appeared, the octopus sprayed a cloud of black ink in their faces and jetted away.
"I-it swam away," Fly coughed out. "It got scared by our screams, and look!" Fly gathered the remaining ink in the bent shell, "We got the last ingredient for our potion, we're saved!"
"Potion?" Rina didn't follow, only just arriving moments ago. She turned to Chuck but froze.
"Fly...that's what scared the octopus..." Chuck pointed to the large army of swordfish behind them. At the head of the army, was Joe and Brutus.
"Well well well. Just in time for happy hour." Joe grinned as his remaining troops surrounded Rina and the others.
Rina stood her ground, er, fins in front of the kids. If she bailed them out once, she'd do it again.
"Well, my smartalic sardines, catfish got your tongues?" Joe egged on.
"We just want to go home, is that to much to ask?!" Rina snapped. Joe glared at her, his patience for her mouth just running out.
"You didn't have anymore potion, oh no. You just refused to cooperate," Joe held out the empty bottle of potion again, pretending to get the last few drops, only to find there was none. "Empty. Oh well, we can always make some more, or you can die!" Joe swam up to them, towering over Rina.
"Guys! You have to go through the ventilation system, now!" Rina pushed them on, away from Joe
"No, we're not leaving you again." Fly turned to Joe, "I'll smash it if you come any closer!"
Joe panicked as Fly held up the bottle of what he knew was the only potion available to him. "Stop!"
"Not another inch!" Fly held the bottle up higher, out of reach.
"Now now, calm down. Let's not be too hasty here!"
"Fly hasty? Who came here with an army threatening to kill us?!" Rina retorted, loving every time she made that fish frustrated.
"Let Rina and the others go, then we'll talk!"
"Fly, what are you doing?" Rina pulled Fly back to the group.
"No Fly. For once, think before you speak!" Chuck implored, hoping Fly would finally listen to reason.
"Why not just eat the little jerks!?" Brutus bellowed in, way past any sense of patience for negotiations. "We don't need no potion, we're smart enough already!" Brutus concluded surprisingly soundly.
Joe kept his cool, and swam toward the shark."My dear friend, my loyal commander," Joe heavily layered on, "Did you understand anything about my society of exceptionally intelligent fish?"
"Oh yeah, yeah! I get it! Intelligent fish!" Brutus answered excitedly. Rina hid her smirk at what Joe was gonna pull next. He truly was a stupid fish.
"You got it. Now, get this: YOU'RE FIRED, YOU SAWTOOTH SEAWEED SUCKER!"
And... there was her opening. Rina shushed the others and managed to maneuver behind Joe and made her way to Brutus.
"Oh Brutus, sweetie, I'm so sorry." Rina cooed, petting the shark's snout affectionately. He responded with a small happy hum, glad that despite all the trouble his boss caused her, she was still so kind to him. "You shouldn't have to put up with that, Brutus. He has no right to treat you that way, I mean, you are bigger than him. And so much stronger..."
Brutus glowered his eyes into slits. She was right.
"That does it!" Brutus snatched Joe away from Fly as he was in the middle of trying to manipulate him into handing over the potion (as if Fly ever would, deal or no deal)."You promised, you did!"
"You're taking this the wrong way!" Joe choked out through the shark's tight grip.
"Oh really? Then how should I take it?"
"Now's our chance, let's move!"
"Couldn't agree more Fly!" Rina quietly shouted, joing up with the others.
"They're getting away!" Joe squirmed.
"YOU STAY PUT!" Brutus held his ex-friend in place. "Go on Rina, I won't let him hurt ya anymore!"
"Thank-whoa!" Rina stumbled in her swimming as she bumped into Fly, who was hanging on for dear life as the crab tried to get the potion.
"Fly, let go or he'll kill you!"
"Fly, look out!" Rina wrapped her fins around Fly just as the crab swung his claws at Fly, taking most of the hit. Slightly shaken, Fly and Rina's faces grew pale in fear as the crab recovered from the fall, growling down at them. He made one more hard swipe, this time to finish them.
Fly closed his eyes, fearing the impact, but it never came. Instead, he felt a push followed by a cry of pain. He opened his eyes in horror; Rina tumbled in the sand, blood coming from where the crab had sliced off her side, probably where her leg would've been. She saved him.
"Ha! Forget commander! Now I'm the ruler, I'm king!" The crab guzzled the potion whole, grunting as he began to form fingers and a bigger intellect, just like Joe did earlier.
As King Crab was busy being saluted as ruler, Fly and the others rushed to Rina's side.
"Auntie, you got a tummy ache?" Stella stroked Rina's fins gently.
"No, don't worry about me sweetie. I'll be alright; it's nothing, really." Rina began to go in and out of consciousness, losing more and more blood from her cut.
Stella looked on at Rina, her face still unchanged with concern. "Help!"
"Oh! The royal brewers, I got plans for you!" King Crab gathered his army and began surrounding the four fish.
"Fly, what do we do?" Chuck looked back at Rina with both fear and concern.
"Chuck...I...I-I dunno." Fly whispered, officially out of ideas.
Stella and Sasha sniffled next to Rina, burying their heads.
Just then, Stella noticed Rina's eyes glowed blue through the slits of her eyelids. "Auntie?"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the water began to swirl around them, causing a whirlpool.
"Uh Chuck, is there such thing as a twister underwater?" Fly asked offhandedly. Chuck didn't bother to answer him as he quickly grabbed hold of a sturdy rock, tying him and the others down with his tendrils.
Meanwhile, Brutus continued to give Joe a piece of his mind, the angry side.
"Nobody's gonna mess with me!" Brutus continued to shout over the whirlpool. "You promised that I was in charge of the army!"
King Crab flew in, grasping at Joe's fin laughing maniacally. "Hah! I'm in charge!"
"This may not be the best time for this CONVERSATION!" Joe struggled between being constricted and the sharp tugging on his fin.
Brutus glared at the crab, getting more and more annoyed at his yammering. Having enough, he chomped at the crab, swallowing him whole. He then turned his attention to Joe, feeling him shaking with fear in his grip. "I'm calling the shots! You may be the one with the brains, but I'm the one with the muscle!"
The whirlpool gave the shark a huge fling and sent him up into the surface, splashing headfirst into a waterhole with rocky walls. Brutus looked for an exit, but the openings in the walls were too small for a Fish his size to pass through. He was trapped.
"Oi! Get me outta here! Boss!"
Joe recomposed himself and gave a smirk. "So sorry, but you are no longer of use to me anymore, dimwit!"
"I'll kill you! I'll chew you up and spit you out, ya hear me!" Brutus called out as Joe easily slipped through the rocky openings.
Back at the sea floor, Fly and the others slowly recovered as the whirlpool dissipated back into calm waters. Rina remained curled up in the sand, tightly hugging her wound.
"Is it, g-getting cold? Or is that just me?"
Chuck pondered awkwardly. "Um, it might…might…" he couldn't finish his sentence.
"You still have time; it's only another five hours to sunset," Rina dragged across the floor, aiming herself in the direction of the boat lab. "Look, the professor's lab. You can still make it…"
"What about you?" Chuck asked.
"I'll be fine. You guys gotta go, your parents will be looking for you by now-ugh!" A sharp pain shot through her wound, causing her to whimper.
"No," Fly swam up and lifted Rina as best he could off the ground. Chuck followed Fly's intuition and began muttering logarithms in his head, scavenging the sea floor.
"What-what are you doing guys?"
"We are not leaving you behind."
"Guys, no. Fly...Chuck...chuck..." Rina's vision began to black out, only registering that she was being carried.
Then, nothing.
'Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Did you really think this was going to turn out all well in the end?'
Rina was in human form and sat with her legs up in a ball, her face buried in her arms. Everywhere she looked, she could only see storm clouds and darkness. It was so lonely, it was almost suffocating.
'What were you hoping to accomplish in all this? That you could teach guilt and regret to a stupid pilot fish and love and affections to a shark? Ha! You really are the worthless runt in the whole bunch. No wonder your mother died, she died of shame...'
Rina looked up, her face streaked with tears, her eyes nearly dead to what was talking to her.
'What? Something to say? Going to speak up for once and defend your existence with excuses like, "She died of natural causes!" Or, "It wasn't my fault!" Pfft.'
Still sore from her wound, Rina shakily stood, her head held high.
"No, I was going to ask you something; Have you no other reason to be here but to tell me things that aren't helpful to me?"
The owner of the voice faltered in giving a quick response.
"You always did have to have an opinion for everything, and none of them were really nice, but you know what? I don't really care what you think of my actions or thoughts! Even when I did something right, you had to chirp in saying I just got lucky, or that I would slip up eventually, or that what I did was so simple, a servant with no education could do it. You were always selling me short, and then turning around with that harsh judgment of yours when I made so much as a hairline mistake!"
"I-I-How dare you talk back to me! I have the highest opinion over anyone in the family. What I say is law! I'm the one whose opinion matters most! Your family members thrive and succeed because of what I have to say and think! You hear me?! They owe it all to me, everything they are is because of me!"
"True, they respect and value your opinion. But not me. Not anymore."
"You're making a big mistake girl! You need me!"
"I need you to go away father! Leave me, and never come back! This is my home, this is my mind, and your, not, WELCOME HERE!" Rina pushed her father back into the darkness, his cries of protest resonating to nothing but a whisper in the wind. Rina dispersed the gray clouds with her hands, resulting in the darkness turning bright blue, and the sun shining down on her.
For the first time in the past couple of days, Rina's mind felt at ease.
Interesting, so we get a little backstory from Rina. Hmm, I wonder how that whirlpool came out of nowhere, the story is now five hours prior to the professor making that pump, hmmm...