Author's Note

The chapter we knew was coming. Well, I hope you weren't as put off as myself and plenty others when this happened in the show.

Cheers, y'all.

Chapter 20: Second Wind

The Shallow hopped down from the fence and landed in a squat as she eyed the wet driveways of Ocean World. It was a rainy night and she couldn’t have asked for a better night to do what needed to be done.

Her counselor was right. She was unique. She was special, and that was why Vogel needed her. They weren’t keeping her around just for the sake of diversity. They actually needed her.

“And I’m the only hero who can do this.” She smiled to herself. “The only one.”

She had been so down in the dumps for nothing and instead of wallowing in the sludge and trash there, she found she could actually be doing so much more, and this was where she came in.

For months, she had been hearing from her fishy friends about how the park had been abusing their sea life and she was here to get them out and to make sure it never happened again.

With the icy water from the sky pelting against her skin, The Shallow raced down from the gates to the compound, now shrouded in darkness after closing time.

She spotted flashlights waltzing about in the dark around the place. Security guards. Guards that would not stop her mission.

With the rain strengthening her, Shallow ran on and with a mighty leap, she was propelled up into the air, landing on the roof with barely a bump. None of the flashlights aimed her way, which meant she was still in the clear.

She pried open one of the rooftop windows, then descended into the facility below. Down here, the rain pounded against the roof above, echoing around the empty park, and that was all The Shallow could hear. Everything else was quiet.

Shallow had never been a fan of the dark, even now. She had always pictured something emerging from the darkness, maybe something that couldn’t even be comprehended, trying to grab for her, and that had always scared her. Even the darkness of the deep sea scared her; she was unfortunate enough to have actually witnessed the horrors below.

“Just quick work, Shallow,” she breathed, her chest heaving up and down as she tiptoed her way around the facility, looking for her mammalian friends. “Just find them… find them and get out.”

She headed down the dark halls, remembering where they kept her friends. First, she was looking for one particular animal, and that was Kevin the Dolphin. She had been here a few times to see him and it was he who had told her all about the abuse the keepers took part in after closing time. She had wanted to get him out first, seeing as he was her closest friend here.

Finding a red door at the end of her hall, Shallow busted it open, then proceeded down a smooth slightly sloped passage, lit only by the green exit lights above the doors. This door she knew led to the animal pens and that was where she was going to find Kevin and her sea friends.

One room held a small yellow submersible, with a single mechanic working on its engine, but he was too busy to notice her and Shallow easily slipped by his room, heading deeper down the facility.

Eventually she found what she was looking for at a blue door with a rectangular window in it. This was underneath the dolphin pool and it was where they would come to retire for the night. The Shallow eased the door open and immediately, the two dolphins inside raised their heads and eyed her as she quietly shut the door behind her.

“Kevin! Ilsa!” She waved and slid close to the glass, where the male dolphin bumped his nose against it in greeting. “I’m here to get you out.”

The two dolphins had been housed here for three years now and it was because of her friends from the sea that Shallow knew about the predicament of their treatment.

“Let’s see…” Shallow said in a soft voice and spotted a bay on the other side. “Hang on.”

She went through a doorway on the side, which led down another hall to a garage on the other end. There was already a white van in here, likely for moving animals around which, right now, was perfect for her. Unfortunately, as she opened the back of the van, there was only enough equipment and room for one dolphin. She cursed in her head. She would have to move them one at a time, which wasn’t ideal.

“Farm this…” Shallow looked back at the tank, where the dolphins had swam around from the other side to watch her. “I’m sorry, I’ll have to take you one at a time.”

The dolphins chittered with each other. Shallow knew it wasn’t fair for them, but she had no choice here. Ocean World wasn’t anywhere near the sea, and there was no way she was going to carry either of them very far without strength like Protectorate Sod’s. The van was her only option here. She had hoped to find a bigger vehicle, maybe something with a water tank, but perhaps she had been too optimistic about her mission. Without Vogel providing intel on her mission, she realized she knew a whole lot less about what to do.

Eventually she decided to start with Kevin, lowering the hook into the tank with a nearby set of controls. Ilsa seemed okay with it, but Shallow knew that inside, she wasn’t happy with this decision. She didn’t blame her friend. Letting your friend leave before you and having to endure the hardships of Ocean World alone was something she wouldn’t want as well.

Once Kevin was out of the water, Shallow brought him down low enough to the back of the van, before releasing him onto a sling that hung from the roof of the van. She pushed him further in, until she was able to close the back doors.

“Don’t worry, Ilsa. I’ll be back.” Shallow pressed the open button for the garage doors. “You’ll see Kevin again soon.”

The dolphin in the tank chirped something as The Shallow got into the front of the van and started its engines. The vehicle rumbled to life and they were ready to go.

“We better make this quick.” Shallow stepped hard on the pedal and the van’s tires screeched into motion. “Hang on tight! You know… in your sling.”

Kevin chirped as the van left the garage, scraping the top as the door was still opening. The Shallow followed a narrow road up and around a bend, leaving the main building behind as she made for the gates. As of yet, the patrolling guards had not learnt of her intrusion, and she would like to keep it that way until she could get out of here.

Spotting the gates at the top of the hill, the superheroine stepped harder on the gas and blasted right out of there, smashing the gates aside. She had done it, they were out and they Kevin was going to see the ocean again.

Shallow also thought about what she was going to do to Ocean World. Saving the animals was one thing, but unless she taught them a lesson, they were just going to catch more sea animals and mistreat them like they were doing for Kevin and Ilsa. Vogel would never allow her to kill all the people here, but perhaps if she could take some pictures of their mistreatment the next time she was here, she could get some activist groups to take them down for her. Well… with the credit going to her name, of course.

“We’ll be to the ocean soon, Kevin, I promise.” Shallow smiled and sprayed her dolphin friend in the face with some water from a spray bottle on the dashboard.

The dolphin chattered something and Shallow’s cheeks coloured.

“Oh, it was nothing. You’re a friend and friends help each other.”

Kevin made more noises.

“Oh, no no, don’t worry about it. Really. You don’t need to do anything for me.”

The dolphin said something else.

“Wh-what? Th-that can wait till later…” Shallow’s cheeks grew even redder. “No, no. You’re my friend. Yes. Bu-but… can you just wait a little? W-what about Ilsa?”

The dolphin chittered and bounced in its sling.

“Okay, okay… Just a little while, but when we arrive at the ocean, okay?” Shallow shifted gears and sped up along a straight road. “I’ll… Sure. I’ll let you put it in, okay? Just calm down. Be patient.”

She sprayed more water in his face.

Suddenly, she picked up something in her ears. The sound of sirens. And they were getting louder. Turning to check her sideview mirrors, spotting the familiar hue of red and blue coming from two cars on the road behind her.

“Not now…” Shallow groaned. She didn’t expect them to pick up on her trail so quickly. “Hang on, Kevin. It's gonna get bumpy.”

The superheroine stepped harder on the pedal and sped down the road, hoping to lose them around the next corner, where there were rows of warehouses. Unfortunately, the cop cars were faster than her Ocean World van and they were steadily gaining on her and Kevin. She silently wished that they were next to the water now. She could just drive the van into the ocean and they would be home free. All it would take was to come back and get the van out after things cooled down so as to avoid more oil pollution, but unfortunately, the water was still a ways away.

One of the cop cars pulled alongside her, but Shallow ducked her head back and swerved her van into the front side of the car. There was a metallic thump and the car drifted off to the left and she kept going.

“Come on, come on…” Shallow willed the van to go on, to lose the cops before they could find out who was driving this piece of junk.

She tried to think of something else to take all the worrying off her mind, to help her just keep driving. The Shallow remembered her admission into The Septet. There had been fanfares, even confetti. She had thought that with her skills and fame alone, she had gained a place among the most powerful superheroes of Canterlot. Looking back now, she knew that wasn’t the case, or at least, it wasn’t all of it. She liked to think that her skills still gained her some kind of rapport with the people and her teammates. She knew she would still have to prove herself, to make it known that she, The Shallow, was still a capable superheroine, able to do what needed to be done.

And saving Kevin was one of these.

Turning the wheel hard, the van’s tires screeched against the asphalt and made an almost impossible sharp turn down a side road, jumping over a bump in the process. The van rocked as it landed back on the ground and Shallow had to make sure Kevin was doing okay. When he chirped his response, she snorted a laugh, something quite unbecoming of her, then sprayed his face with the bottle of water.

The two cop cars in pursuit had stopped to u-turn back at the main road, buying her some time to get to the beach.

“We’ll be there soon, Kevin,” Shallow said excitedly. “And the ocean will be your playground once again.”

The dolphin said something.

“Yes, yes…” Shallow nodded. “I remember what I promised. You’ll get it, okay? Just don’t make it too weird, alright?”

There was a deep honk ahead and Shallow looked up just in time to see a truck speeding towards her, its headlights switched off. She swerved to the left and cursed the driver for not having his lights on at night. Then behind that truck was another, its lights also turned off, but this time, the truck swerved to avoid her and ended up cutting her path off. With no other option, Shallow jammed hard on the brakes to avoid colliding with it.

The van screeched to a halt and she let out a sigh of relief, but then something sailed past her head and crashed out of the van’s windshield and splattered against the side of the truck in a bloody mess of flesh and meat.

“What was that?” She looked back to Kevin, but then she realized he was no longer in his sling. “No. No no no no no…”

She looked back at the truck, finding fins jutting out of the mangled body.

“Oh farm…”