by EJ Altbacker
Takiza didn’t allow any of the kelp to drift but it did turn and tumble within the boundaries of an invisible bubble that he was creating with his shar-kata power. Other things moved by or through this underwater cloud of kelp: first a mass of red plankton, then a double drove of mackerel, and after that thousands of jellies. These were the deep sea kind of jelly with stubby tentacles instead of tendrils and they flashed light as they drifted into the mass.
The way the jelly drifters flickered their lumo lights, it seemed they were frightened by the eerie sight of the ball of greenie rotating in the moonglow but stubbornly refusing to move with the current. Snork felt the same way. He was more amazed than afraid, though.
“Now that you have this, what are you going to do with it?” asked Salamanca about the greenie.
Takiza flicked his tail at the marlin. “Be quiet for a moment and I will tell you.” The betta stared into the distance. Gray said when Takiza did this he was using his senses to check on things far, far away. After a minute he turned to Salamanca and said, “Why, I will let it drift, of course.”
The invisible boundary hemming in the greenie opened for a moment and some of the kelp was swept down the towering mountainside that formed the southern part of the Atlantis spine.
“That’s it?” asked Salamanca.
Takiza shook his fins crossly. “Of course that is not it! Do you think I would call you if it was only for this?”
“Salamanca does not know!” The marlin became a bit embarrassed and added, “You haven’t spoken with Salamanca as much as in the past.”
“Because I respect your time!” Takiza said as he released another blob of greenie. That too was caught by the current and spread over a large distance, rolling and tumbling with the current down the mountainside. “I do not want to take you away from your important business.”
“Granted, thank you,” Salamanca said. “But you could send a quickfin every so often just to say hello.” Takiza gave the marlin a flat stare. “It is quite insensitive to not hear from you, whom Salamanca considers a friend.”
Takiza sighed. “I apologize if I hurt your feelings.”
“Gracias.”
The betta gestured after the drifting greenie. “Now, if we could attend to the matter at hand.”
“What is the matter at hand?” asked Snork.
Both Takiza and Salamanca turned. “Are you tired, o’ mighty Snork?” asked the marlin. “Can you continue? Though we swim with the current, it is a bit of a journey.”
“You should not bring him,” Takiza said. “It will be dangerous.”
The marlin shook his long bill from side to side. “Nonsense! A bladefish receives nourishment from danger! How do you expect him to grow courageous and strong if he receives no nourishment?” Salamanca flicked his tail at him for confirmation. “Isn’t that right, o’ mighty Snork?”
“Um . . . yes?”
Takiza released another burst of kelp from the ball of greenie. “Make sure he doesn’t get himself sent to the Sparkle Blue the very day he has become useful.”
“Sparkle Blue?” Snork asked with a start. “Where are we going?”
“Why, where else would Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom, the great bladefish Diego Benedicto Pacifico Salamanca, and the mighty Snork go?” The marlin sliced his bill through the water in an intricate pattern. “To save the day, of course!”
HOKUU BURNED THROUGH HIS STOLEN LIFE force energy at a furious rate. He should have had enough dark-kata strength from draining his mako finja to give him superpowers, even compared to his normal shar-kata mastery, for the next fifty years. But creating a passageway between the oceans for Drinnok—what a waste of time that had turned out to be—and then making another hole large enough for Grimkahn and his jurassics to escape the Underwaters had taken up half his stores.
His remaining power was quickly being depleted by two tasks: speeding the currents to catch Gray and his pitiful forces, and keeping the jurassics from freezing to death in the waters of the Arktik and North Atlantis.
Of the two uses, warming the waters was definitely most draining. There was no chance the mosasaurs would have survived the icy waters without him. Hokuu had even seen fear on Grimkahn’s face as the giant icebergs rolled and crashed in the unforgiving seas around them. He himself was a frilled shark and could stand the cold (and pressure) of the Dark Blue, so he was unaffected. But the frills with them were born in the Underwaters. They were used to the warmer temperatures there and also had to be protected.
Hokuu wouldn’t take any chances with his frilled shark brothers and sisters. After all, he might need them, or their life force, later. But he still felt a pang of bitterness as his powers were used up. He craved more dark-kata! He wanted to be filled to bursting with its force!
His own Shiro had forbidden him to ever use dark-kata, thinking it evil.
He definitely shouldn’t have told Hokuu how to do it, then.
Life force energy was so much richer than what you could coax and beg from the oceans. But Grimkahn was adamant and so Hokuu had to use his precious stores of dark-kata to catch Gray. He wanted to eat the Seazarein’s heart. The jurassic king’s purpose was splendidly single-minded in this way, and Hokuu was happy for this.
They were almost past the Canadian landmass and nearing the Atlantis Spine where the Tuna Run was every year. In fact, it should be happening in the next week or so. Perhaps Hokuu would go with Grimkahn and the rest of the frills and jurassics to celebrate their victory.
Gray’s own finja guardians had sealed his fate when they spoke too freely about where they were going at a place called the Stingeroo Supper Club. Hokuu knew about the urchin kings and their network of meeting places. He had even used a few of their assassins on occasion.
It had been easy enough to threaten the manager, Trank, for the information he needed when they found no one at Fathomir. Then it was easier still to follow them. If the fat pup thought Hokuu and Grimkahn wouldn’t track their puny forces because the water was cold, he was wrong! And the delay caused by a large iceberg blocking their way for a moment was nothing much.
Still, Hokuu felt a prickle of nerves. The pup had been lucky before. Then there was Takiza to be concerned with. Well, not concerned, but cautious. It wouldn’t do to fight the betta without a plentiful supply of dark-kata energy.
Hokuu made a decision and stopped heating the waters. If the jurassics and frilled sharks couldn’t take the colder temperatures of these waters then the dream of ruling the Big Blue, aside from the warmer seas in the Sific, Indi, and Caribbi, would be dashed.
Besides, I shouldn’t waste my lovely power, he thought.
The temperatures around Grimkahn and his forces dived but Hokuu kept pushing the current to keep the bulky jurassics moving. They would never catch Gray and his sharkkind in the open waters if he didn’t.
“What are you doing?” Grimkahn yelled from the position next to him. The jurassic king had insisted that he be at least even with Hokuu as they traveled. “Why did it get so cold?”
“I can’t spare the energy to warm the water while going this fast,” Hokuu answered with some edge to his voice. He was angrier than he realized about having used so much of his delicious power. Grimkahn snapped his jaws in displeasure but didn’t say anything more.
Suddenly a prehistore materialized out of nowhere, speeding straight at Hokuu!
It was a finja guardian!
Hokuu didn’t have time to put up a shield as the giant hammerhead bore down on him. But Grimkahn’s mighty jaws snapped down on the thirty-foot shark’s trunk and shattered its spine. He sawed through the hammerhead’s body with his long mouth. Its head and tail broke off and were swept behind them, and Grimkahn swallowed the mouthful that remained.
“That was their rear guard!” Grimkahn shouted to his mariners, the current t
aking his words to them. “We are close to Sixth Shiver’s first victory!”
There was a cheer from the mosasaurs and frilled sharks. Grimkahn looked over at Hokuu and growled. “If you won’t keep us warm then speed up!”
“Grimkahn,” Hokuu said, “it would be a harsh drain on my powers. I won’t be able to help you in the fight.”
“I don’t need anyone’s help in battle,” Grimkahn answered. “Speed us there! I command you!”
Hokuu pushed the current faster. Now he was using even more of his precious dark-kata energy! The life force of the makos would be gone by the time they caught up with Gray.
It was no matter. He could still beat the pup and little Taki with his regular powers.
Once Gray and his Nulo were out of the way, Hokuu could gather more dark-kata power, and he would answer to no one but himself.
But not yet.
He gnashed his sets of tri-tipped teeth together and drove their group forward.
“Back in a few,” Gray told Leilani. He did a rolling loop from their position at the front of the armada and slid to the rear with Shear following him the whole way. Gray knew it was pointless telling the tiger finja to stay put so didn’t even try. He had to get a look at Grimkahn and Hokuu with his own eyes to see where they were.
The news wasn’t good. They were far closer than he would have imagined.
Gray looked at Shear. “You didn’t think to mention they were in sight?”
“They aren’t a threat yet. You have enough to think about,” Shear remarked. “But the ice didn’t slow them too much.”
Gray had had to make quick decisions before and didn’t shy from this one. “We’re not going to make the meeting point before they catch us. We need to find a spot where we can only be attacked from one direction.”
Shear nodded. “There’s an area up ahead that may meet our needs.”
And it did! There was a plateau with an outcropping of rock that blocked the current blasting down the Spine. The rock formation prevented the large ledge behind it from being worn away like the rest of the mountainside. And the space was clear of other, innocent shivers, which was a bit odd as this was the time near Tuna Run, but very welcome. They weren’t going to find a better place than this.
“Striiker! Barkley!” Gray yelled, getting their attention. “Change of plans!” He motioned with his tail toward the area. They signaled with a fin waggle that they understood.
Gray turned to Shear and asked, “Why do you think no one has taken this spot—” but before he could finish his thought, Gray was pushed twenty tail strokes to the left by a terrifically strong rip current. Both he and Shear struggled to get to the ledge and safety.
“My guess would be that current,” Shear answered when they were on the ledge and behind the outcropping of rock a hundred yards ahead of them that checked the vicious current.
The tiger was right. There was no way a shiver could safely fish the Tuna Run without some being swept away and into the rocks of the Spine.
But Gray and his friends weren’t here to fill their bellies. They were here to fight.
Thankfully, Striiker saw what happened to them and brought the Riptide armada in from a better angle, as did Barkley with his ghostfins.
“It’s perfect,” Gray said, as Leilani, Barkley, and Velenka joined him.
“Perfect for what?” Velenka asked. “For Hokuu to roast us alive? Or for Grimkahn to eat our still-beating hearts?”
Barkley gave her a slap to the flank. “Try to be optimistic,” he told her.
“Okay. Our deaths will probably be quick,” she answered.
Gray ignored the mako and told Shear, “Send your fastest finja to find Xander and his force and bring them here.” Shear dipped his snout and went.
Striiker joined them, careful to avoid the edge of the plateau and its sucking current. “The armada is fins up. Anything comes at us snout to snout, we’re gonna have a good chance at shoving them into that rip current no matter how big they are.”
“What do you want me to do?” asked Barkley. “Should we join the armada?” The dogfish glanced at his ten ghostfins.
Striiker shook his head. “Don’t need you and yours, doggie. You’ll only foul us up.”
It seemed as if Barkley and Striiker were going to argue, but Gray told his friend, “He’s right, Bark. Get down into the greenie underneath the current.” There was a much smaller area a few hundred feet down where a few dozen sharkkind could hide.
Velenka was overjoyed. “What a great idea!” she said. “It may be the best idea ever! All hail the great and wise Seazarein!”
Sometimes the mako could be unbelievable.
Barkley shook his head. “Gray, we didn’t swim all this way to hide while you fight. At least, Leilani and I didn’t.”
“What’s wrong with hiding?” asked Velenka. “It’s smart. By the way, you shouldn’t be disagreeing with the Seazarein.”
“Would you get a hold of yourself?” Leilani told her. Velenka scraped her needle teeth together in anger but shut her mouth with a glare. The spinner looked at Gray. “We can help.”
“I know,” Gray said, nodding. “I’m counting on that. Grimkahn will come at us with brute force. But I don’t think Hokuu will.”
“I see,” Barkley said. “We put our noses in the greenie and wait for a shot at his belly.”
“Exactly,” Gray told Barkley and Leilani. “If you see a chance, strike. But watch yourselves and stay safe.” After a moment he added, “You too, Velenka.” The mako was surprised. She nodded and followed Barkley and Leilani off the plateau exactly as Shear came back.
“I’ve sent half my remaining finja to find Xander,” he told them. “But I can’t be sure if he even got our message.”
“I’m confident the quickfin got through,” Gray said, thinking of Eugene Speedmeister.
Shear nodded. “Even so, I cannot promise anyone will arrive in time to help.”
Striiker came over and gave Gray a scrape on the flank. “Just the way I like it,” Striiker said, giving Shear a bump, too. “I don’t want any latecomers sucking up our glory when we snout-bang this Grimkahn flipper back into whatever stinking hole he swam up from.”
Shear thought about this and then, lightning fast, gave both Gray and Striiker a flank slap with his tail. “Let us do this thing, then,” the big tiger agreed.
“That’s what I’m talkin’ about! Riptide, are you ready?” Striiker yelled. The three hundred sharkkind snapped to attention hover in perfect time. “Yeah, they’re ready to rumble,” Striiker said.
It was then the first greenie stalks tumbled into the area.
“THERE THEY ARE!” CRIED HOKUU AS HE stopped pushing the current under Grimkahn and his forces with his dark-kata powers. He was more tired than he would have liked, but no matter. They numbered over a hundred jurassics and frills. Riptide had barely three hundred fins total, the majority of them regular sharks, not prehistores.
What a delightful massacre! Hokuu thought.
“At last!” cried Grimkahn. “The cowards will plead for death for making me chase them all this way!” He released a screeching roar, and the other jurassics and frilled sharks shook off their weariness and locked eyes on their king. Grimkahn gestured with his flipper at the plateau-ledge where Gray’s pitifully small armada hovered. “No survivors! And leave the Seazarein to me!”
They were less than a quarter mile from the pup and his mariners when the Riptide sharkkind suddenly disappeared!
What happened?
Then Hokuu saw. A mass of floating kelp had drifted into an eddy in front of their position. This was odd, but not unheard of.
Still . . .
“Grimkahn!” Hokuu said. “The greenie blocks our view!”
“So what?” the mosasaur spat. “There isn’t
enough to hide from me!”
“Perhaps we should be careful—”
Grimkahn roared, the sound hurting Hokuu’s ears and stopping him mid-sentence. “When I want your opinion I’ll command you to speak! Otherwise, shut up and attack!” With another terrible shrieking cry Grimkahn dived toward his prey with the rest of his mosasaurs and frills close behind.
Hokuu slowed as more and more greenie gathered in front of the plateau where the Riptide mariners hovered. There was no reason to be in the first group, after all.
Gray willed the greenie stalks swirling a hundred feet in front of him to increase in number. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the first ones. The kelp wasn’t being carried away by the current. It was gathering up into a large globe.
That most likely meant Takiza was here.
They had a chance if that was the case. There was still so much that needed to fall into place, though. And the timing would have to be perfect. Could Takiza do his part? Gray couldn’t worry about that. The ancient Siamese fighting fish didn’t need anyone to do that. Besides, Gray had bigger things with which to concern himself.
Grimkahn and his jurassics, for example. The mosasaurs were immense.
Some were as big as a fully grown blue whale. Any of them could swallow a mariner whole. Riptide couldn’t afford to let even one of the monsters onto their small plateau. If they had to fight the giants snout to snout without the advantage of the rip current, every Riptide shark would surely swim the Sparkle Blue.
Shear and Striiker watched the mosasaurs and frilled sharks drive fearlessly into the far end of the thick greenie. They would be through in less than a minute.
“Protect the Seazarein!” shouted Shear to the six finja prehistores hovering around Gray.
“Forget that!” Gray said. “Make sure none of Grimkahn’s forces get onto this ledge!” He turned to Striiker and gave a fin signal.
“Riptide armada, divide battle fins into double clusters!” ordered the great white. The command was clicked out by the battle dolphs over the rush of the current and the increasing rustle of the swirling greenie. Everything would hinge on keeping their position, so each battle fin of a hundred now separated into groups of twenty. Instead of the entire armada acting as a single formation, groups of twenty sharkkind would attack any jurassic or frill that managed to make it to the ledge.