Shark Wars: Razor's Edge

Chapters

Chapter 2: Rising Tide
Chapter 3: Bull Shark Rush
Chapter 4: Attack on Fathomir
Chapter 5: Welcome to Coral Shiver
Chapter 6: Drujikia
Chapter 7: Firewaters
Interlude 1: Intercontinental Railroad
Chapter 8: Messenger of Death
Chapter 9: Like a Blinding Light
Chapter 1: The Sparkle Blue

Chapter 2: Rising Tide

“Teslon, please state your reasons for declaring war.” The jellyfish king of the North Sific floated in front of both Barkley and Gray. Barkley was a tiny dogfish and one of the stealthiest sharks in the Big Blue. Gray was a megalodon and the former Seazarein. Even though Gray was a megalodon, Teslon was still significantly larger than him. Gray was still young, after all. He only had one more year to grow though. His friends Striiker the great white and Snork the sawfish hovered off to the side.

“Everyone else got a reward for helping in the battle against Grimkahn, and we the jellyfish got nothing,” Teslon explained. “If it weren’t for us, you wouldn’t have survived that battle!”

“Calm down,” Barkley said, trying to diffuse the situation. “Now, you did kind of save us in the battle, but it was really-”

“He’s right,” Gray interrupted. “If it weren’t for the jellyfish, Icingholme and Hideg Shivers, and Yappy’s giant sea dragon cousins, we definitely would have died. In that order.”

“See?” Teslon floated over to Gray. “Your fat friend agrees with me!”

“Hey!” Gray objected, “My mother always said I was just big cartilaged!”

“Your mother was too soft!” Teslon shouted back.

“Where have I heard that before?” wondered Barkley. Maybe it was one of their previous antagonists. Before any questions could be answered, a wahoo burst into the room.

“Sorry about the bubbles, I took a shortcut above the Panama Canal. And yes, I do mean above.” The wahoo swam a few circles around the cave and stopped in front of Gray and Barkley. “My name’s Dart and I got a message for you two, and I think it’s pretty important.” Code word, clamshell.” Judijoan the oarfish swam out from behind the greenie curtains covering openings in the walls.

“The shiver which that code word belongs to hasn’t been seen in nearly fifteen years,” Judijoan said. “How are they?” Teslon slowly floated towards the exist.

“Okay, well Queen Novo is perfectly fine, and so is her young daughter, Princess Skystar. The queen’s niece has left for the land, and the royal family of Aris is spending time between the Harmonizing Heights and Seaquestria again thanks to the defeat of the Storm King by Princess Twilight Amore Velvet Sparkle and Tempest Shadow. Wait, I’m getting distracted. Anyway it’s from a betta named Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom.”

Gray instantly shot forward. “Takiza’s alive?” he asked Dart. Striiker and Snork made their way to the conversation.

“Why yes he is,” Dart replied. “Takiza’s message is as follows: ‘Some sharks have left the Sparkle Blue and are most likely planning some trouble for the Big Blue’. His words, not mine. I would have outdone him with so much eloquence I could take over the Big Blue!.”

“Can you take a return message?” asked Gray.

“Sure!” Dart said enthusiastically. “What’s your message?” Gray quickly thought of what to say to his former teacher.

“Alright,” Gray started, “Shiro, I don’t know how you’re alive, or where in the Big Blue you are, but you know where to find me. I'll be in Coral Shiver. I’ll try to regather the mariners of Riptide United. We’ll face this new threat together.”

“And we’ll try to recruit the ones who didn't join us against Finnivus or Grimkahn,” Barkley added.

“Which would only be the urchin kings of the South Atlantis, North and South Sific, and Indi oceans, and a very small number of shivers.” said Striiker, uninvited. Gray thought of Gafin, the urchin king of the North Atlantis, whose second in command, Trank the stonefish, had sent support against Grimkahn and the Jurassic Horde.

“And we’ll bring the full might of the Bladefish,” Snork added.

“That’s all I have time for. It’s back to Seaquestria for me.” Dart burst off faster than any other fish save for maybe perhaps possibly Eugene Speedmeister could swim.

“Maybe you two don’t interrupt our conversations next time?” Barkley said to Striiker and Snork. Striiker shook his head. Snork nodded, and left. For only a moment, the remains of Gray's old rivalry with Striiker flared up again. But only for a moment.

Dart zoomed through the water, occasionally leaping out into the air. He didn’t care about landshark boats catching him, he was too fast for that. One had tried. What was his name? Michael? Never mind. The super speedy wahoo expertly navigated a greenie field without moving a single piece of greenie, something only a highly trained Ghostfin could do.

He circled around and headed back in the direction of Fathomir. Dart swam past Fathomir, and into a cave. A large scarred hammerhead greeted him inside.

“Hello and welcome to the Stingeroo Supper Club,” said the hammerhead, “My name is Ripper, and I’m only here because apparently most of Trank’s other employees are busy with what’s happening over at Slaggernacks’.”

“Well, I kinda need to talk to Trank,” Dart said.

“I’ll check if he’s available. Don't go anywhere.” Ripper swam into a cave with greenie covering the entrance.

A few moments later, Ripper came back out, followed by a stonefish.

“Whadda you want?” asked Trank.

“I need you to find a fish for me,” Dart told Trank. “He’s a pufferfish by the name of Quill.” Trank signaled to a purple lionfish. The lionfish whispered into the ear of a flying fish, and the flying fish left.

“If youse ain’t gonna order anything, you'd better leave,” Trank said to Dart. Dart nodded.

“I’ll take a herring if you have any.” A few fish scrambled to gather things for the fish. After a few moments, a tiger pufferfish brought out a red colored herring topped with an equally red sauce. Dart gobbled it up in a few bites. The flavor was mostly spicy, and the seasoning perfectly complemented the flavor of the actual fish. “I’ll pay you back later.” Dart quickly left.

Dart arrived in Queen Novo’s court. “What do you mean they’re just gone!?” she demanded. The queen of the hippogriffs appeared to be yelling at a pink and blue seapony. “Schools don’t disappear overnight, Silverstream! You’re going right back there, and no more excuses!”

“But-but I found Sandbar and he acted like he didn’t even know me!” Silverstream countered. “It’s like it’s a completely new world out there!”

“I’ll see for myself,” Queen Novo replied. Dart quickly left the chamber, not wanting anything to do with whatever drama had happened inside, and quickly found himself face to face with Takiza.

“I delivered your message,” he told the betta. “I think they’re ready for whoever will come out.”

“If Hokuu was working alone, he already would have left.” Takiza said. “There must be something more. Not just the weakest enemies Graynoldus Rex has faced.”

“Do you think it’s possible that-” Dart began.

“Do not even mention her,” Takiza interrupted.

“Well at least it’s only sharks.”

“We do not know that yet.”

“I seriously doubt that whoever’s masterminding this would completely ignore Grimkahn. I mean, Grimkahn's like the biggest baddest enemy the Big Blue's ever faced since Sil-”

"I SAID DON'T SAY HER NAME!"

"Oh yeah, and Gray told me that you can find him at Coral Shiver." Dart shoved those words into the conversation like an author trying to force a bit of vital information naturally into a conversation.

The giant crab shell stood alone in the formerly busy restaurant known as Slaggernack's, which was named after the crab. Suddenly, one of its claws twitched. Three stonefish popped up from the seafloor, then a dozen lionfish surrounded it. Two bull sharks hovered to each side, ready to charge. A dolphin slowly circled around the crab. The guards were there because this wasn’t the first time the deceased crab had moved.

The crab suddenly regained flesh. One of its claws struck out, instantly killing a bull. The lionfish and the stonefish swam up close to release their venom. The shell rendered the attacks useless, and in one swing, most fish in the area were dead. The dolphin sent out a series of clicks and whistles, a call for help.

The crab grabbed a lionfish with its claw and dragged it along the seabed. The lionfish violently smashed into a rock, which shattered both the rock and the lionfish’s bones. The three remaining lionfish swam out in panic.

The last stonefish settled on the seabed again. The bull shark rammed the crab from the top several times. The giant crab reached up with one claw and dragged the shark downward. The bull futilely thrashed around in the claw, slowly losing energy. The claw snapped shut, slicing the bull in half.

Five tiger sharks and two dolphins swam in through the entrance. The tigers took position above the crab, while the dolphins swam behind. The other dolphin joined his brethren. Whatever it takes, each of them thought.

The stonefish struck a joint in one of the crab’s legs. The crab raised its leg up, and easily crushed the stonefish. Another slash of its claws, and three tigers and one dolphin swam the Sparkle Blue.

One tiger shark signaled to the other to swim away. The other tiger led the two remaining dolphins out of the cave. The last tiger prepared to do whatever was necessary to save Slaggernacks and his friends. He gave a battle cry, and charged.

Author's Note

First time imma do a character profile

Dart is the fastest wahoo to ever wahoo. He has won every race he’s ever been in, including the one against Wisko, unofficial queen of the wahoo. Dart loves being a quickfin, and he will never quit, even when his life is threatened (no, this is not foreshadowing).

They're gonna be in the author's note of every chapter where a somewhat important original character is introduced, because for non-original characters, you could just google it.

Chapter 3: Bull Shark Rush

(Ominous music)

Two seapony guards patrolled the edges of Seaquestria. Ever since Takiza the legendary fighting fish had arrived, Queen Novo had ordered security be doubled. Not because she felt Seaquestria was unsafe with him here, it was just that with a dead fish now in their midst, anything could happen.

As they rounded the corner around a relatively small reef, A red haze drifted through the water. The two seapony guards turned to the direction of the blood. Before either could react, a bull shark with a scar shaped like a clamshell had killed both.

“Ooh, hi! What are your names?” Silverstream swam up from behind Takiza and Dart, somehow being sneakier than Barkley.

“Gah!” Dart exclaimed. “We’re in the middle of something here!” Suddenly, panicked seaponies swam past the trio. “What’s happening?”

“It seems we are under attack,” Takiza replied. “Come. We must go.” The current suddenly shifted so that Dart, Takiza, and Silverstream were sent through the water towards the palace at such a fast rate that Dart and Silverstream crashed into the wall. As they were recovering, three bull sharks surrounded them. Takiza was nowhere to be found.

The three bulls attacked. Dart maneuvered beneath one and bit its fin, causing it to swim away. Silverstream swam above another, constantly jabbing it and moving out of the way when it came to attack. The third bull rammed Dart into the wall.

“Not again,” Dart muttered. Silverstream glanced at Dart, quickly immobilized the bull she was fighting, and rushed to save the messenger. The pink hippogriff collided with the bull with enough force to kill, but spread out enough to only knock him out.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” As Dart finished the sentence, the first bull returned at a very fast speed. Dart and Silverstream moved out of the way, and the bull impaled itself on the spear of a seapony guard that just exited the palace.

The two other bulls regained their senses, but Dart and the seapony guard quickly dispatched both. Takiza emerged from the palace, and faced Silverstream.

“You show talent,” Takiza told her. “I could take you on as my new apprentice.” Dart stared at both Takiza and Silverstream for a second. Then Takiza continued, “But your movements were far too clumsy, even for a deformed seahorse.” Silverstream opened her mouth to object to the insult, but Dart shook his head.

As everyone swam inside, a guard spoke, “They aren’t done yet, are they?” Takiza nodded.

“This is much like the attack on Coral Shiver by Kilo,” Takiza explained. “Bull sharks come in for a quick attack, if they’re pushed back, they come back with greater force, enough to wipe anything off the map.”

The guard stared wide-eyed at Takiza for a few moments, then swam off, shouting, “Reinforce the defenses! Make sure no amount of sharkkind can break through the wall!”

A few hours later...

Dart and Takiza surveyed the area. Hippogriffs were called down from Mount Aris to protect Seaquestria. The only gaps in the formation weren’t large enough for a shark to fit through, only a relatively small fish.

Immediately, a tiger and a bull broke through the formation through nothing but sheer power of will. The bull alone sent four guards to the Sparkle Blue. The tiger headed straight for Takiza, ignoring everything else.

“You won’t get lucky this time!” Thrash screamed as he sped up. "I'll show you who's not so bright!"

“I did not get lucky. You merely got unlucky. And as for your other comment, it seems you are still full of spite.” Thrash attempted to ram Takiza, but caught his snout on a large rock situated directly behind Takiza for plot convenience. "And it looks as your eyesight has not improved, even with your dead body."

Meanwhile, Kilo finished off another seapony, and turned to face Takiza. As Kilo charged to meet Takiza, the betta gracefully moved out of the way, and Kilo crashed into a coral spire. The coral snapped; Kilo now had a bloody snout. Kilo and Thrash regrouped.

“You swim with the grace of a pregnant sea cow and with the speed of a dead landshark pup!”

“Ooh, burn,” Dart whispered. As Kilo, Thrash, and Takiza prepared for round two, a blue shark snuck up on Dart. Streak opened her jaws to swallow Dart whole. Dart turned around just in time to give Streak a nip in the gills. The super-speedy wahoo then sped off far away. Streak snarled angrily, and gave chase.

Takiza hovered directly in between Thrash’s eyes. Thrash screamed in anger. “Kilo! Where is he!?”

“Right there, above your head,” Kilo replied.

“This again?” Thrash complained. He turned upside down, then shook his head several times. No matter what he did, Takiza remained in between his eyes. “Kill him already!”

Kilo nodded, and moved forwards to swallow Takiza. Takiza ducked, causing Kilo to crash into Thrash.

“Have you not inherited any of Longfluke’s abilities?” Takiza insulted the bull, “You cannot even get yourself out of a clam!” Kilo was beyond enraged from this comment.

“You leave my scar out of this!” Kilo screamed.

Meanwhile, Streak was barely keeping up with Dart. Dart’s agility was unparalleled, and while Streak was a fast shark―one of the fastest, in fact―her maneuverability was detrimented by her size. It wasn’t much, just enough to fall behind the smaller fish.

As Dart reached the outer edges of Seaquestria, two bull sharks rushed in from the side. They were going too slow to actually hurt Dart, as they were actually planning on falling behind Streak in sea snake formation, with the blue shark swimming fang point. The Ghostfins once realized that there was this area behind another shark where swimming was easier. They builded upon that idea, and invented the sea snake. The shark in the front, named the fang point by Peen the hammerhead, pulled all the sharks behind them at their top speed, and if they got tired, they would fall to the end of the line where the swimming was easiest. The second shark would take over.

With the sea snake formation, stamina meant nothing. Streak pulled the bulls along as fast as she could. Dart was running out of energy fast. This called for drastic measures. If he was a flying fish, he could switch into vortex mode like the legendary quickfin Speedmeister and be done with it. He risked a glance backwards. Streak was now in the back. The bulls were significantly slower, but if he kept going at this rate, it wouldn’t matter. Dart made the risky decision of diving underneath the bulls and swimming his way back to Seaquestria.

Back in Seaquestria, Thrash and Kilo were yelling at each other. Takiza let out a chuckle. He had tricked them into hitting each other several times. The bulls that had arrived later weren’t much of an issue, since they had no plot armor, unlike basically everyone that has appeared in this story and was given a name.

Dart suddenly zoomed by, followed by Streak and two bulls. Kilo pulled off of Thrash to follow them. Which meant Thrash was now alone with his anger.

Thrash finally calmed down enough to do an enraged scream at Takiza. Was he perpetually angry? Takiza thought. Thrash turned around and swam a few tail strokes, then turned back around. He charged forward with Topside Slide. Takiza laughed mentally. Topside Slide and its follow up move, Topside Rip were useless against non-sharkkind. Though perhaps he was going for Lochlan’s favorite move, Orca Bears Down. Takiza’s predictions turned out to be correct. A bolt of lightning coursed through the water, striking Thrash in the side.

“That was a weak one. Pray that you do not make yourself on the receiving end of a strong one.”

“That was a weak one?” Thrash screamed, still enraged. “What the hell is happening right now?”

“You have obtained a taste of the mystical art Shar-kata.” Takiza circled around Thrash, gaining speed. An underwater tornado formed around Thrash. "Unlike previously, when you simply were hit by my fins."

“Not again!” he attempted to scream, but it came out like “noblubbl agnublblblll”.

Streak and Kilo were hot on Dart’s tail. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a pink blur crashed into Kilo. Dart silently thanked Tyro and continued on. He made a sharp turn into a colorful greenie field. His small size would allow him to weave through easier, while the larger sharks would basically suck. He remembered the one day of Ghostfin training he got. ‘To hide in the greenie, you must become the greenie’. Dart slowed his movements and followed with the current. He heard the shouts of Streak trying to find him.

Kilo was now being pushed by Silverstream. The much smaller seapony somehow had more strength than a fully grown bull. Silverstream slapped Kilo around for a bit before becoming bored and smashing his head with clamshells. She quickly wove a diaper out of kelp and stuffed Kilo’s head into it.

Dart turned around and crashed into Streak head first. The blue shark quickly recovered, and hit Dart with a tail slap. Dart was sent backwards. Dart shook off the attack and charged. He aimed for Streak’s gills. Streak swam away, knowing she was defeated.

With the absence of Gray, Barkley, and Striiker, Velenka was now in charge of the First Assembly of Fathomir. Her dream of conquering the Big Blue had finally come true. Kind of. Judijoan remained as an advisor, and the leaders of the other shivers still held some authority. But she was now at the top.

A large great white shoved himself past the Fin'jaa guards. "Well, well, well," said Goblin. "You're finally here, at the top of the chain. My grand ideas, stolen by you. Or, your ideas, given to me, before you killed me!" Goblin rushed at Velenka, aiming for a kill.

Author's Note

Since I didn't have the place to it in the actual text, Velenka is a black mako.

Chapter 4: Attack on Fathomir

Time seemed to slow around Velenka as Goblin rushed at her. The armored finja warriors were slowly recovering. Slowly, but not fast enough. She would have to deal with Goblin herself.

When Velenka was a little pup, Riptide Shiver, at the time led by Goblin’s mother, took over her home Shiver. She grew up among Riptide sharkkind, all the time dreaming to rule the entire Big Blue. When Goblin’s mother passed away, Goblin became leader, and declared war on the neighboring shiver, Drukija. Goblin killed the leader of Drukija Shiver, named Gystrom, and his son, Razor took over. Razor renamed his shiver after himself, and Goblin followed suit.

Around this time, four troublesome sharks left the two shivers and formed Rogue Shiver, with two sharks from Coral Shiver. Velenka tried to get their leader, a megalodon named Gray, to join her. She planned with Kilo to destroy Razor Shiver and get rid of Goblin, and from there, take over the Big Blue.

The plan took place at the Tuna Run, and the sharks of Rogue Shiver completely ruined it. Then, Finnivus and Indi Shiver wiped out Razor Shiver, leaving Velenka with no chance at achieving her goals. She killed Goblin and joined Finnivus just to save her hide.

Around her, other than the finja and Goblin, were the throne behind her, and a cave which led to a prison. One not too different from the one she was locked in after Finnivus was defeated. Time seemed to speed up again, and Goblin charged forwards.

Velenka performed the shark version of side-stepping. Goblin didn’t prepare himself and crashed into the throne. The great white shook his head and turned around. Velenka ducked and weaved through Goblin’s brute force attacks, using her mako speed to sneak attack Goblin. The large great white seemed to shake off her attacks. None of them left so much as a scratch.

A hammerhead finja recovered from the initial attack and attacked Goblin from behind. The great white had let his guard down, allowing for the hammerhead to land a would-be devastating blow, if it weren’t for the mako that slammed into him.

Goblin turned around. Velenka could have gone for his tail right then and there, but that was old her. The new Velenka would never attack a weakened tuna and would much rather take down a Megalodon.

“Spear!” bellowed Goblin. “Why are you here and not in the Caribbi Sea? And where is Hollow?” A scarred hammerhead swum through the opening in the cavern. Velenka thought for a moment that Ripper had come to save her, but quickly noticed that this hammerhead was a smooth hammerhead, not a great hammerhead like Ripper and Grinder, the leader of the fully hammerhead Hammer Shiver.

“Goblin, sir,” said the hammerhead, probably Hollow, “You said that a group of five sharks wiped out all of Coral Shiver last time, but we barely managed to fight off some pups! I think their names were something like Riffraff and Ebson.”

“Riprap and Ebbie,” corrected Spear.

“Right. It took both of us to hold our own against just one of them! We lost to nurse shark pups! We didn’t even get to their leaders!” Velenka checked back on the finja, who were now in attack formation. She questioned why they weren’t attacking, then realized they were waiting for her command. She shook her head.

“Rraaaww!” shouted Goblin. “Useless, useless, useless! I don’t know why I even hired you!”

“... because Goblin Shiver wouldn’t have a complete line otherwise?” suggested Hollow. Spear nudged Hollow. Goblin grew visibly angry towards Hollow.

“If you weren’t my fifth, I’d kill you!”

“At least let us tell you how this went down,” Spear said, trying to calm Goblin down.

“Fine. But it better make sense.” Velenka stealthily moved in closer to listen. This would be interesting.

It was a beautiful day in the Caribbi Sea. Pups were playing, dwellers were chatting, and the crabs weren’t fighting over a severed fish head. On days like these, Leilani the spinner shark liked to just watch and relax.

Of course, peace could not last long here. Ever since the attack over two years ago, Coral Shiver was caught up in everything important in the Big Blue, from the war with Indi Shiver to the invasion of the Underwaters.

However, Leilani was not a native to the Caribbi Sea, nor was she born in Coral Shiver. She was once a spyfish from AuzyAuzy. Her skills impressed the then-Seazarein Graynoldus, and she joined his entourage. After the events of the War of the Underwaters, Leilani joined Gray in Coral Shiver.

Just as expected, a mako and a hammerhead burst onto the scene. The hammerhead made a big show of how powerful he was, and how he was going to destroy them all. The mako seemed to just go along with it.

The tattooed blacktip known as Onyx led a group of mariners to the two sharks.

“Bring it on! I can take on any warrior!” the hammerhead boasted.

“Except for coral,” the mako muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Hollow demanded.

“Nothing,” replied Spear. The mariners parted to reveal two nurse shark pups, playfully hitting each other. The two shark pups, Riprap and Ebbie, turned to Hollow and Spear with mischievous grins on their faces. The two pups charged.

Hollow was immediately overwhelmed and gave up. Spear held his own against the two pups, but just barely. Two Coral mariners captured Hollow. Spear barely managed to knock Riprap out of the battle, and Ebbie immediately turned from a playful pup to a fierce warrior. Spear attempted to use his superior speed to fight back, but Ebbie swam circles around him. Spear randomly attacked a blur and immediately died.

“That’s not what happened,” said Spear. “Just let me tell the Tyro-damned thing!”

Spear rushed forward out of the whirlpool that Ebbie was starting to form. He made a futile attempt to defeat the tiny nurse shark pup. Ebbie absolutely bodied Spear. Spear attempted to ram the much smaller shark. However, his adversary was far too small to hit.

“Tee-hee! You can’t touch me!” Ebbie mocked.

Meanwhile, Hollow tried and failed to escape from the mariners. He rammed his hammer-shaped head into a bull shark. Then, through sheer luck, Hollow decimated the entire shiver.

“STOP INTERRUPTING MY STORY!” screamed Spear.

“IT’S MORE INTERESTING THIS WAY!” Hollow screamed back.

“YOU’RE MAKING ME LOOK DUMB SO YOU CAN LOOK COOL!”

“WHY ARE WE SCREAMING IN ALL CAPS!?” shouted a random finja.

“Ahem. You need to leave. Now.” Velenka turned around to see Shear. She sighed in relief. Shear was a prehistore tiger shark and the formerly late leader of the Fin’jaa. She would have questioned how Shear was alive, but given the fact that a shark that she once killed had just attacked her, she didn’t.

“Who in the Dark Blue are you?” Goblin asked rudely. Spear clearly seemed fearful of Shear, and Hollow wasn’t paying attention.

“Who I am is not important. Now leave, before I command the finja behind you to kill you. Spear quietly nodded and turned to leave. As he was leaving, he bumped into the arriving Thrash, followed by Kilo and Streak.

“I suppose you three failed as well?” Goblin asked. The three nodded. “You are all useless to me!” Goblin screamed again, with far more rage than ever thought possible.

“Leave now before this gets ugly,” said Shear, now surrounded by the finja. They had somehow managed to sneak past Goblin and co., proving how they were as stealthy as they were skilled in combat (ignoring how a single barely trained shark managed to defeat all of them in ten seconds).

“I don’t know you, which means I don’t have to listen to you.”

“Do you want to have a bad time?” Velenka could practically feel the tension between the two massive sharks. It seemed as if either one could attack the other at any moment.

Exactly as predicted, Goblin attempted to bite Shear, but in a matter of seconds, Shear had Goblin tied up with kelp. Goblin screamed.

Thrash, Kilo, Streak, and Hollow all attacked Shear at once, while Spear worked on freeing Goblin. Two finja helped Shear push the four sharks back. Spear sliced through Goblin’s bonds with his abnormally sharp teeth, and the two of them joined the fight.

Goblin, Thrash, Kilo, Streak, Spear, and Hollow aligned themselves in a triangle formation. A two bull finja took the sides of Shear, a hammerhead hovered topside, protecting Shear’s dorsal, and a thresher took the back of the formation. The other finja covered the sides, essentially forming an audience.

The moment the two groups collided, Velenka could see who was going to win. Shear and the Fin’jaa had the clear advantage in both skill and numbers.

In almost no time at all, all of Goblin Shiver was defeated. Some finja started shoving the Goblin Shiver sharks into the cave prison. Velenka let out a sigh of relief.

“Are you going on an adventure? Can we go? Can we go? Please?” Both Skystar and Silverstream were now in front of Takiza and Dart, bouncing (metaphorically; they're underwater) with so much enthusiasm that Takiza thought their enthusiasm meters would burst at any moment.

“They certainly have the enthusiasm,” Dart commented.

“I’ll go tell mom!” exclaimed Princess Skystar. She wound up and sped off in a puff of... it can't be smoke, because they’re underwater. Uh... bubbles? Dang, narrating gets more confusing underwater. Silverstream followed after in an identical fashion.

“Have you planned our route?” Takiza asked Dart.

“Yup!” Dart replied, “Bribed the guards to leave the portal unguarded until we leave, too!” He paused before shifting his tone. “The giant crab skeleton at Slaggernack’s. You’ve heard of it?”

“Of course I have. It’s older than I am.” The ancient crab skeleton, known as Slaggernack, was always there. Even Hokuu told stories of how he saw the dead shell of the humongous crustacean when he was a pup. And Hokuu was at least three times the age of Takiza himself.

“It’s alive again.” Normally, Takzia would think that impossible, but since he had just come back to life himself, he didn't think so.

“We’ll deal with that after we meet with Graynoldus.”

Skystar and Silverstream poofed back into the scene. “SHE SAID YES!” they said simultaneously. They were somehow bouncing underwater, despite their lack of legs and the lack of floor to bounce off of (seriously, how does that even work?). “LET’S GO!”

Dart smiled as he shook his head. He led the way to the portal which he used to get to Fathomir. The portal could be engineered to go anywhere, but if you wanted to come back, you needed authorization from the Queen herself, whether that be permanent or temporary.

They soon arrived at the portal, which was a glowing circle surrounded by coral. The four entered together, and in a flash of light, they were elsewhere. Glowing water swirled around Takiza, and suddenly, they were there. No giant undead crab to be found anywhere.

“Welcome to Coral Shiver,” Takiza said, showing them the edges of the reef, "Homeland of the former Seazarein."

Author's Note

I am not sorry about naming a character Spear then introducing a canon character named Shear. And definitely not sorry about the Undertale reference x2 (neither are that hidden).

Side note, has anyone else noticed that both Skystar and Silverstream are the names of Warrior Cats? Skystar, the leader of SkyClan, and Silverstream, first mate of Graystripe. Actually, you could just chuck any Warriors name into MLP and it probably would still work.

Uber: No.
NightFlame: Ouch. I worked hard on this one.
Watson: I think we made a wrong turn somewhere...
Sherlock Holmes: Of course we did, you nincompoop! We’re underwater!
Uber: Could you please get out of our submarine?
(END LOG)

Character Profile (Spear and Hollow): They were once fins for hire, then were hired by Goblin to join Goblin Shiver as a fourth and fifth. Hollow is somewhat incompetent. His scars are not from battle, but bumping into coral while hunting in a reef. Spear is much better at his job. He’s fast, he’s strong, he’s capable of doing any job, except for killing nurse shark pups. And destroying a shiver. And making Hollow competent. (They are in no way based on Sleet and Dingo from Sonic Underground)

Chapter 5: Welcome to Coral Shiver

Coral Shiver. The most powerful shiver in the North Atlantis after Riptide United disbanded. When Riptide United was around, there was no contest. Their power was enough to decimate Emperor Finnivus’s forces not once, but twice. They became the most influential shiver overnight, and defeated Grimkahn and Sixth Shiver.

Coral Shiver essentially founded Riptide United. Their current leader, Gray, was also the first leader of Riptide United. The megashiver was disbanded, and the shivers that made up the great shiver, mostly small, weak, shivers, returned back to their homes.

Their homewaters in the great Caribbi Sea were once destroyed by a group of bulls. They were restored somewhat recently, a little bit after the War of the Underwaters. We now follow Takiza, Dart, Silverstream, and Skystar into the heart of Coral Shiver.

The two seaponies chased each other through the greenie. They weren’t paying attention to where they were going, and bumped into a bright yellow sea dragon.

“Hi!” said the sea dragon, “I’m Yappy! Yappy the Sea Dragon! Are you new here? Cause I’ll introduce you to all of my friends!”

“Yay! New friend!” exclaimed Silverstream. The two hippogriffs followed the sea dragon. “Hey, have you ever wondered why they’re called seagulls? Because...”

Dart stared wide-eyed at what just happened. ‘Wha-what the heck just happened?”

“Do not worry, Yappy will out-talk them soon enough.” Takiza continued onward.

It wasn’t very long before they reached a reef, teeming with life. A red tang held a conversation with a crab. Two less colorful crabs were fighting over the head of a dead tuna. A spinner shark played with two nurse shark pups. Off to the side, what appeared to be an exceptionally large great white and a much smaller dogfish discussed something with a tattooed blacktip. Takiza swam up to the sharks.

“Hey, look, it’s Takiza!” Barkley said. The tiny dogfish swam up behind the betta. “You don’t look a day over dead three moons ago!”

“Hi, I’m here too,” Dart interrupted.

“Why are you here?” asked Gray. “Aren’t you a quickfin messenger or something?”

“Yeah, uh, I’m Queen Novo’s personal quackfin, and since normally she sends and receives messages through dragonfire, it means I’m basically useless.”

“Quackfin?” asked Barkley.

“It means I’m a duck,” Dart clarified. “Nevermind, jokes are wasted on you.”

“That was not even funny,” said Takiza. “If you are going to tell jokes, make sure they make more sense than a fat and slow seahorse eating a mighty great white.”

“Ahem,” said the blacktip. “We were discussing the recent “attack”, and who might want to destroy Coral Shiver. Other than Hokuu loyalists or remnants of Finnivus’s reign.”

“Dead sharks,” explained Dart. “When we were over in Seaquestria, we were attacked by three former Goblin Shiver sharks, ones presumed deceased.”

“Which ones?” asked Gray.

“Thrash, Kilo, and Streak,” Takiza said, “The worst of them. They had a few bulls with them too.”

“So the Sparkle Blue jailbreak is worse than we thought,” Barkley noted.

“Wait, what’s this about sharks and the Sparkle Blue?” asked Onyx, completely confused. “I thought once you got there, there was no coming out! I mean, maybe if you’re good at Shar-kata, you could, but ordinary sharks?”

“When I was training under Hokuu, he told me of a war he called “The Sparkle Blue Jailbreak”. The practitioners of Death-kata were capable of bringing sharks back from the dead. They declared war on the rest of the Big Blue, and with them was the third and worst Seazarein, Veria. Hokuu’s grandfather, a frill named Romeru, fought against them the best he could. He barely won. If the legends of Death-kata are true, and its practitioners survived, then maybe this is what caused the latest jailbreak.”

“You think Hokuu could have caused this?” asked Gray.

“He was nothing but a gatekeeper in the Sparkle Blue. I watched him let Goblin out. I only made it past him because I was restored to my full power when I died. Also because some of our deceased allies helped me.”

“Where do you guys think Goblin is?” asked Dart. “I don’t know him that well. Where would he go?”

“Most likely back to his own homewaters,” Gray said. “Riptide’s been destroyed though, I’d like to see his reaction.”

“WHAT!?” screamed Goblin. “HOW CAN AN ENTIRE SHIVER’S HOMEWATERS JUST VANISH!? WHERE IS MY BEAUTIFUL SHIVER?”

“Goblin, calm down, it’s just a shiver,” Spear reasoned.

“JUST A SHIVER!? THIS WAS THE PLACE I GREW UP! YOU DON’T KNOW HOW BEAUTIFUL IT WAS BEFORE!”

“Yeah, you really don’t,” added Thrash.

“What’s so special about this place?” asked Hollow. Spear, Goblin, Thrash, Kilo, and Streak all stared at him.

“It would be pretty funny, yeah,” said Barkely. “Can you imagine we thought he was the biggest of our worries once upon a time?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda funny now,” replied Gray.

“Okay, what are we gonna do about this?” asked Onyx.

“We investigate,” Takiza said. "I'm sure nothing bad will happen, right?"

Gray and Barkley led the other three in the same direction they left when they were banished. Well, Gray was banished. Barkley just tagged along. They had met the future members of Rogue Shiver out there. Striiker, Snork, Shell, and Mari.

Striiker and Snork had followed them back to the Coral Shiver homewaters, and were now training the mariners against this new threat. If it was truly possible for sharkkind to come back to life, then maybe...

Gray pushed the thought away. He needed to stay focused. Zombie sharks were the most of his worries, not bringing his dead friends back to life.

It took less time to reach the former homewaters of Riptide than it would have without the use of Shar-kata. Of course, using the full power of Shar-kata would have gotten them there last week, but they didn’t have time to wait a full week before Gobin arrived.

One of the only things that survived the destruction of Riptide Shiver homewaters was Speaker’s Rock. Goblin seemed to be screaming at a group of five sharks. At first, Gray thought it was Ripper, Thrash, Streak, Kilo, and Velenka, but soon realized the hammerhead and mako weren’t Goblin’s former minions.

Hollow backed up so far from the force of Goblin’s screams that he nearly got a few new scars on his head (not really, but now you know how loud Goblin was screaming).

“WHERE ARE THE SHARKS!?” Goblin screamed. Thrash and Streak seemed genuinely confused, Spear kept a straight face, and Hollow almost burst out laughing. Almost. Spear noticed his partner about to get himself killed by Goblin and shoved him.

Gray nodded at Barkley. The dogfish was to use his special Ghostfin training to sneak up on them.

“Goblin, calm down,” said Spear, “We don’t want the neighboring shivers to hear us.”

“There are no neighboring shivers!” Goblin shouted. “Razor Shiver was wiped out by Indi, and I destroyed all the other ones!”

“I remember destroying Coral Shiver,” said Kilo, drawing stares from everyone. “Not relevant. Sorry.”

Gray still held hatred for Kilo in his heart. Barkley hated the former Razor Shiver bull too. That one bull killed Yappy’s oldest sister, Paxton. Barkley managed to sneak very, very close, despite the lack of greenie and other things to hide himself with.

“You do realize that we just lost a fight at Coral Shiver, right?” said Spear. “Coral Shiver’s still around. We don’t want them coming for us, do we?”

“I destroyed Coral Shiver with just a few of my bulls,” Kilo boasted. “Only three of them died. Even I have to admit that the old bull and even older lemon fought hard.”

“Yeah, but they’re clearly much better,” Spear countered. “Their mariners just watched as a couple of pups humiliated us!”

“Sounds like a you issue, not a me issue,” Kilo said.

“I am better trained than you!” shouted Spear.

“Skill issue.”

“Can you two stop arguing so we can conquer the seven seas?” Streak said very loudly despite her small size.

“Boo!” Barkley revealed himself behind Streak.

“AAAAAUUUUUGHHHHH!” Streak shrieked. She swam away in terror.

Thrash, Kilo, and Spear blinked slowly. Hollow burst out laughing.

“You’re scared of a dogfish?” the hammerhead mocked. “He’s so tiny even I could defeat him!”

“Like the pups you lost a fight to?” Spear reminded.

“That was a fluke!”

“He caught me by surprise!” Streak said.

“Well, well, well,” Thrash began, “Looks like the little doggie’s back for more. You remember how much I humiliated you last time, don’t you?”

Thrash, Streak, and Ripper had ambushed the former members of Rogue Shiver and shoved them in a cage. Barkley remembered all too well.

“You’re so bad at hunting you couldn’t catch a single fish!”

“Tiger, tiger, not so bright. Tiger, tiger, full of spite.” Thrash and Barkley turned towards the voice. Barkley knew who it was. Thrash remembered the insult from the last time he heard it, which was after he tried to eat a turtle.

“You call yourself Takiza? You really do look just like a piece of greenie that got stuck in my teeth!”

“Thrash, remember the Tuna Run,” said Streak. “Thirty of us got destroyed by him. He’s one fish!”

“I’m here too!” exclaimed Barkley. “Don’t count me out!”

“You’re too tiny to be useful in a fight,” Thrash insulted, “I’ll eat you before you realize what happened!”

“How did I sneak up on you if I’m useless?” Barkley countered.

“It was a fluke!” Hollow repeated.

“You look like Ripper but you don’t have even half his abilities,” Barkley noted. “Those don’t even look like battle scars. It looks like you just bumped into coral.”

“Grrrraaaahhh!” Hollow charged. Barkely easily avoided Hollow’s attack, then rammed him from the side. Goblin, Kilo, Streak, Thrash, and Spear wisely stayed out of it, as did Takiza.

Hollow swung his hammer head from side to side, trying to strike Barkley. Barkley easily danced around Hollow, causing the hammerhead to try a different tactic, which also failed.

“You can’t touch this,” Barkley sang. Hollow grew even more enraged. Barkley avoided the next attack, which sent Hollow crashing into Speaker’s Rock.

Rumbling distracted everyone momentarily. A black crab the size of a whale was chasing after a group of sharks. In the lead was a tiger shark that was slightly smaller than Thrash. Behind the tiger were two makos. The makos appeared to be pushing the tiger forward. They got closer and closer.

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” screamed the tiger. Barkley didn’t notice before, but there was a whitetip trailing behind the other three sharks. He recognized the shark as Churn, Goblin’s old fourth, before he was killed in a battle against Razor Shiver. Barkley had only heard about it from Gray.

Speaking of Gray, the megalodon had just arrived at the scene, with Onyx and Dart in tow. The gang stared at the giant crab.

“Is-is that Slaggernack?” asked Gray.

“I believe so,” replied Takiza. “I could destroy it, but that would not be as fun as having Goblin and his idiot allies fight it.”

“Charge!” Goblin ordered. His five shivermates (that’s sad) charged at the crab. Slaggernack swung his mighty claw, which missed all six sharks. Churn followed his former leader into battle.

Churn narrowly avoided an attack. Streak elegantly dodged the giant crab’s attacks. Hollow was struck on the head and crashed into the sand, somehow still alive. Spear tried to bite Slaggernack’s leg, but absolutely failed due to very weak bite strength.

Goblin rammed the crab from the top, then let himself float out of reach. Slaggernack swung at Goblin three times, each time Goblin dodged it. Slaggernack appeared to be exhausted after that, so Goblin rammed into the crab’s shell at top speed. Slaggernack recoiled.

Goblin retreated after hitting the crab once, and Streak took her position above the crab. She gracefully evaded the first two strikes, but got hit with the third one. Slaggernack swung again, which almost hit a still recovering Streak, if it weren’t for Kilo pushing her out of the way. The crab attacked two more times, which missed all three sharks above him. Kilo and Streak simultaneously rammed Slaggernack.

Churn, Spear, Hollow, and Thrash watched as their allies dealt blow after blow to Slaggernack. The tiger who had originally warned them and the two makos who accompanied him had disappeared.

Gray, Barkley, Onyx, Dart, and Takiza were also watching the fight. Gray stifled a laugh when Kilo was pinched, and slammed to the ground. Unfortunately for Gray but fortunately for Kilo, Slaggernack let go, leaving Kilo on the seabed.

Thrash was flung backwards by a blow from Slaggernack. Churn had taken his place above the crab, and attacked. Spear slid underneath Slaggernack, and used his position to crack the shell.

Hollow charged Slaggernack head on. The crab smacked him into a rock. Thrash recovered, and using his shivermates as a distraction, he attacked from above. The first crack on top finally showed.

Spear came out from underneath. Slaggernack seemed to collapse. The sharks of Goblin Shiver surrounded the defeated crab.

Slaggernack exploded outward, sending all of them flying. As the good sharkkind of Coral Shiver, the formerly dead fighting fish, and the random wahoo that got dragged along for the adventure prepared to attack, fifty bulls showed up over the horizon.

The bulls made quick work of Slaggernack. They smashed open his shell and began to eat.

“I found him first!” Goblin bellowed.

“Finders keepers, losers weepers,” said the bull who seemed to be in charge.

“Pico! Move away from my prey!” Kilo shouted.

“You wanna fight, krillface traitor?”

“You know full well I’m stronger than you!”

“Enough!” Takiza demanded. “All of you move out, or I destroy you!”

“Oh yeah? Says who?” Pico said.

“My name is Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom. You would be wise just to move on.”

“You aren’t Takiza! Takiza doesn’t exist!”

“That’s really Takiza!” Gray shouted over the arguing. Pico ignored him, but Thrash decided to finally acknowledge the fact that he lost to a tiny betta.

“That really is Takiza, protector of the seven seas! If a fish as tiny as that can defeat a mighty tiger, then maybe you should worry about him!”

“Skill issue,” said Kilo.

“If a mighty tiger such as yourself lost to a tiny fish, then that’s a you problem.”

“You don’t understand!” Thrash seemed to be talking to a brick wall that talked back. “He will destroy you and your entire armada of... fifty sharks.”

“This is the best of us, Razor Shiver!” Pico and Thrash almost touched noses. Thrash moved forward ever so slightly, bumping Pico backwards.

“The big oaf is correct,” Takiza said. “Your entire shiver combined could not defeat me!”

“Hey!” Thrash objected.

“Shut up, wide load,” Gray said. It felt good to finally be on the other side of that insult.

Takiza formed a ball of glowing blue energy between his fins. Pico and co. stared at him in shock. Goblin Shiver sans Churn, Spear, and Hollow all had a look on their faces like “oh no here we go again”.

The ball of energy turned into a cylinder whirlpool. Sharks from both shivers were drawn in. The Razor Shiver bulls attempted to fight it, as did the three Goblin Shiver sharks that didn’t know better, as well as the three sharks who weren’t involved. Only those who had arrived from Coral Shiver seemed unaffected.

Goblin, Thrash, Kilo, and Streak just let themselves get pulled in. Most of the sharks couldn’t fight for long. Pico and Spear, however, fought just as hard as Goblin had the first time. Which was to say that even though their tails were drawn in, they were still attempting to fight it. Pico capitulated first.

“I’ll get you another day!” screamed Spear as he was finally drawn in. Takiza shifted the cylinder to Gray. Gray understood. Gray split the cylinder into two, Goblin and Razor. He sent them to two separate corners of the North Atlantis, both far away from the Caribbi Sea and the reef he loved so much. The two shivers shot out so fast that most of them didn’t notice what happened.

“So, is that it?” asked Dart.

“Let’s go over the sharkkind that probably are still around,” said Gray. “Finnivus, Commander Hooktail, Princess Joanna, Empress Silander, and last but not least, Hokuu and Grimkahn. Besides, Razor and Goblin shivers are still around, they just won’t be a problem for a while.”

“Okay, so from what I understand, Goblin and Razor both named their shivers after themselves?” Dart wondered. “So where was Razor during that?”

Everyone stared at each other. Then they looked over at the carcass of Slaggernack. There seemed to be a message etched into the shell. Dart rushed over to check.

He knew you would come for Goblin. He used Goblin as bait. You’re nothing but a group of fools for leaving your seapony friends unguarded.

“Silverstream and Skystar,” Dart muttered. “We have to get back there. Now.”

When they returned, they saw Princess Skystar and Yappy without Silverstream. Yappy had a look of pure horror on his face.

“Where is she?” asked Dart.

“The bulls, the bulls,” Yappy repeated to himself. “The bulls came. I couldn’t stop them. It was like Paxton all over again.”

“He-he said his name was Razor,” Skystar managed to say.

“Razor won. We couldn’t do anything.”

Takiza quickly rushed over to Razor Shiver homewaters. Nothing there. In a blur, he sent himself to where Gray sent the bulls. Nothing there either. Takiza used his Shar-kata connection to search every corner of the Atlantis Ocean, as well as the Indi, Sific, Arktik, and Southern. He searched the Mediterranean Sea of Europa.

The only place he didn’t―actually couldn’t―check were the many underwater caves. Of the two he did check, the old Coral Shiver hideout, the one closest to Razor Shiver’s old homewaters, had nothing there. The homewaters of Fifth Shiver also had nothing. Barge didn’t see anything. However, Takiza could still sense Silverstream’s life force somewhere. He just didn’t know where.

A couple of bulls dumped Silverstream in a cave. "I am definitely getting promoted," one of them said. "I captured this super rare creature."

"You might get promoted, but you might get demoted if Razor thinks it's not delicious," the other one replied.

"Depends on if Razor would want to eat that, which I wouldn't."

"Besides, the creature might not be that rare. It could just be from somewhere we've never been, like the Sific."

"So what if neither of those things are true? I'm a success! Screw you mom!"

"Your mom might have been right."

"That's what your mom said last night! OOH!"

"You're still a failure."

"Ouch."

"Hey, Razor wants you to bring another prisoner in here."

"What?" the first bull said, shocked. "That's three! Goblin's cage held six prisoners at one point and ours isn't even close to half as big!"

"Just do as he says," the third bull told him. The three bulls swam out to receive their latest prisoner.

Author's Note

Three paragraphs of exposition in the beginning. Nice.

This is now officially the longest chapter I've ever written, beating out Holy Ground from Words of Destiny by 163 words. Just wait until it gets beaten by the Sombra chapter in Equal and Opposite.

Anyway you may have noticed the dolphins were replaced by makos. That is intentional. The dolphins will return in the story.

Pico isn't an important enough character to give a character profile to

Helios's (that's the bull who said he was getting promoted, he gets named in the next chapter) mother thinks he's a total failure because memes. That last bit is for comedy and setting up the setting of the next chapter.

Chapter 6: Drujikia

Silverstream woke up. She looked around. She was in a cave. Yappy had told her about caves. There were a few notable caves, such as the one which Velenka was once imprisoned in, the one where the prehistores of Fifth Shiver and later Sixth Shiver lived, the prehistore cave which acted as a museum, and the one where Coral Shiver hid during the reign of Goblin and Razor.

The bulls! She remembered the bulls, about ten of them, came at her. She was with Yappy and Skystar. None of them could do anything.

What was the shiver full of bulls again? The ones which were blamed for destroying Coral Shiver? Razor! That’s right. Razor Shiver must have captured her. At least it wasn’t Sixth Shiver. Silverstream shuddered at the thought of being imprisoned by the ruthless Grimkahn, or Tyro forbid, Hokuu.

Of course Razor wouldn’t let her go. Silverstream sadly swam around her prison, if it could even be called that.

Silverstream thought back on everything that had happened, from the Storm King’s defeat to her capture by Razor Shiver.

Yappy! He would tell the others about what happened! Silverstream regained hope.

The whale bone cage had coral growing out of it, filling in the gaps of the bars. There seemed to be some sort of locking mechanism on the outside, and one could use something small to unlock it. Maybe the stick on the bottom of the cave acted as the key. Silverstream couldn’t reach it, however.

The pink seapony stopped her thinking. Someone else was in the cave. A pufferfish.

“Hey, my name’s Quill,” the pufferfish said. “What’s yours?”

“I’m Silverstream,” she replied. “Why are you in here?”

Quill pondered the question for a moment, before responding, “I don’t know. One moment I was at Stingeroo working for Trank, then the next thing I know, I wake up here. What about you?”

“The bulls ambushed me at the lagoon in Coral Shiver territory,” she explained.

Both Silverstream and Quill noticed a shadow on the wall. Something was coming in.

The creature turned the corner. He was a peculiar kind of shark. His dorsal had a flat top covered with spikes. His body was purple. He was otherwise just a normal shark, albeit a small one.

Behind him were two bulls. One of which was Pico, who Silverstream didn’t recognize. The other was Helios, one of the bulls that attacked her. Both were part of Razor’s line. Pico was second, and Helios was fifth.

“Careful!” The shark angrily said. “My spikes are delicate!” Silverstream could see his spikes retracting in.

Quill moved towards their new cellmate as Pico and Helios left. The strange shark resembled one of the Prehistores Yappy had described.

“Hi, I’m Quill, and this is Silverstream.” Silverstream waved a fin.

“I’m Spike. Spike the Stethacanthus.” He swam to the back of the cave. “I’m here to rescue you.” He pointed a fin at Quill.

“What about me?” Silverstream asked their new friend.

“I don’t even know who you are.” Silverstream then remembered that someone would be coming for her.

“Don’t worry,” Quill reassured, “Someone’s coming for you too.”

He was right. Takiza, Gray, Dart, Skystar, Barkley, and maybe even those giant cousins from the Dark Blue Yappy talked about were coming. There was no way they would leave her behind, right?

Some time later, a bull arrived with some food. A wad of kelp, a dead tuna, and some mystery food. It looked like something Professor Pinkie Pie would make.

The food was gone almost as fast as it came. “At least we won’t starve,” Spike said jokingly.

Silverstream, Quill, and Spike waited in silence for something to happen. Almost a full hour later, another bull arrived in the cave. Razor. The captor swam right up to the bars made of whale bone.

“I suppose you’d like to know why I have gathered you all here.” Spike glared daggers at Razor, almost literally, because the stethacanthus’s spikes had popped out, which meant his previous statement was a lie. “First, let me tell you a story. Have you ever heard the tragedy of Riptide Shiver and Gystrom?”

“I don’t think so,” Quill replied.

“There once was a bull named Gystrom. He ruled the powerful Drujikia Shiver in the North Atlantis. His shiver’s power was only matched by the ancient Riptide Shiver. He had a friendship with the leader of Riptide. That friendship was the only thing stopping the two shivers from going to war. When Gystrom died, his son took over and named the shiver after himself. Not too long later, Riptide suffered the same fate. The two shivers finally went to war, and you know what happened? Finnivus. Indi Shiver attacked in the middle of the Great Atlantis War, and ended it faster than it began. But the leader of the former Drujikia Shiver would not give up. He waited in the Sparkle Blue until his chance finally came, and he took it. That shark was me. I am the son of Gystrom, and Goblin is the son of Riptide’s leader, Alyssa.”

“Wow,” Silverstream said. “You wanted something, and it was taken away from you.” (smells like tl;dr and wanting a hero to be a bad guy) (shut up Uber).

“Of course. I hope you understand.”

“Bro if that not at all sad story was supposed to make us sympathetic to you, you are an absolute failure,” Spike said.

“We are a failure, comrade,” Quill joked. Spike stared at Quill, as if communism was a joke (but it is a joke).

“Come. Let me show you what remains of my homewaters.”

“Why did you lock us up if you were going to let us go?” Silverstream asked.

“I didn’t want you leaving before I had the chance to talk to you. The three of you are the perfect ones to carry out my plan to destroy Goblin once and for all.” Razor dropped down to the cave floor to pick up a waterlogged stick. He used the stick to open the door.

The three former prisoners stretched their fins. Razor motioned for them to follow him, and swam out of the cave.

Spike looked at Silverstream as if to ask what to do. Silverstream shrugged and followed the bull. Spike and Quill left after her.

They soon arrived at a place that seemed as if it used to be teeming with life. A large rock with a few short strands of kelp around it sat in the middle of the area.

“That's Speaker’s Rock,” Razor explained. “Now, the Tuna Run is coming up in a month. Seems fitting that I will defeat Goblin in the same place he tried to kill me.”

Silverstream looked around again. There were several bulls swimming around. Twelve of them were lined up. Several wahoo were at some sort of starting line for a race. The wahoo in the lead yelled something, and the wahoo were off.

They were fast! Silverstream couldn’t keep up with them! They were just blurs!

When the wahoo reached the point where the first six bulls were, the sharks struck. Three wahoo were eaten. They reached the second group of six, and only one was caught.

“What’s that?” Silverstream asked Razor as the wahoo moved back to the start.

“That’s Tuna Roll. The wahoo, led by Wisko, call it an honor to be eaten in a game of Tuna Roll. They’re really weird, but they do taste good.”

Razor then introduced the gang to his line. Unsurprisingly, every single one was a bull shark. The first was a girl named Terra. Terra seemed pretty much emotionless. The second, who they already knew, was Pico, and he was actually kinda nice once they got to know him. The third, Polut, hated landsharks (whatever those were) more than anyone else Silverstream had met. The fourth, Hyperion, seemed to just be a big braggart. And the fifth, Helios, was just a straight up jerk, even after everyone knew him. Apparently Razor had wanted his sister Selene in the line instead, but a mix-up caused the much more incompetent Helios to be admitted (either that or the author wanted someone incompetent in every line).

It seemed maybe Razor wasn’t as bad as Yappy seemed to think (wow that's totally not foreshadowing Skystar vs Silverstream)

“God fucking damnit Hollow where the fuck are we?” Spear practically was screaming into Hollow’s face. He would be screaming if they weren’t underwater.

“Uh…” Hollow stammered.

The entirety of Goblin Shiver plus a tiger and two makos were in an area like a bar. Behind the bar was a very strange orange bipedal creature with an elongated snout... I give up, it's just Jar Jar Binks but a bartender.

“Meesa want to serve you drinks!” said Jar Jar. “Meesa name is Jar Jar Drinks!”

“I think we made a grave missnake,” Spear muttered.

“Well no, duh,” said the random sea snake in the corner.

Takiza, Skystar, Dart, Gray, Barkley, and Striiker arrived at Fathomir. Leilani and Onyx remained behind to unite the Atlantis Ocean against Goblin and Razor. Snork went to talk to the Bladefish.

Jetty Shiver was no more. Kelp Shiver was already mobilizing. The two sharks who were never a threat to the ocean were now the biggest.

Velenka and Judijoan let the experienced sharks back in the positions of power. Gray was pleasantly surprised to see Shear alive again.

How would zombie sharks defeat the recombined might of Riptide United? Nobody knows but my nose. Also because they pretty much can’t die until the portal closes, but if their bodies remain, they would still be able to come back to life.

Since there was a clear win condition, that being closing the portal to the Sparkle Blue, the war wouldn’t be that hard.

Speaking of the Sparkle Blue, there were two sharks there. A young bull shark, and an even younger thresher.

Shell, the bull, and Mari, the thresher, were conversing. As they were swimming, they bumped into a tiger shark. The tiger was in front of a portal similar to the one which Hokuu guarded.

There was a scalloped hammerhead speaking to the tiger. Mari recognized him immediately. Xander del Hav’aii, Lochlan’s third, and Kendra’s second. Mari stealthily moved closer to the two sharks.

“... Ranier, listen. Lochlan went out there already, and I just want to go with him. And I want to talk to Tydal, but that’s not important right now.”

“Xander, I understand that you want to help your friend, but he gave me specific orders on what sharks I’m allowed to send through, and you’re not one of them.”

“If the Kraken’s Cult is allowed to send whoever they want back, then why can’t you?”

“... who did Takiza say was better than you again?”

“Some idiot named Requiem. I totally could destroy him though. I could be...”

While Ranier was ranting about Requiem, Xander sent himself through the portal. Shell and Mari looked at each other. They instantly understood what the other was thinking. They rushed past Ranier so fast and hard that he became dizzy and blacked out.

As they were travelling through the portal, Mari could see her past, present, and possible futures. She saw the day she and Striiker left Goblin Shiver, when they met Shell and Snork, when the four of them met Gray and Barkley, their game of Tuna Roll against Goblin and his line, the First Battle of the Tuna Run, the Battle of Riptide, Shell’s death, the Battle of the Maw, Gray killing Finnivus, her own death, Gray killing Grimkahn, and Takiza killing Hokuu. She saw the future she envisioned with Rogue Shiver. Her friends.

Shell, on the other hand (fin?), saw most of the same things, except he also saw himself as a finja, fighting alongside Striiker.

After a while of watching their lives flash before their eyes, they were spat out. In the firewaters. Between AuzyAuzy and Hammer Shivers. Which meant that they were in the most hotly contested waters of the Sific Ocean.

Almost immediately, they were surrounded by hammerheads from the north and a group of sharks of all kinds from the south.

“Stop right where you are!” a hammerhead demanded.

“You’re under arrest on the authority of Queen Jaunt!” a silvertip reef shark shouted from the other side.

On the land, two landsharks (humans) were speaking to one another. They were at a train station, and a large humanoid shark creature was standing there, menacingly.

“Why the fuck is there a shark in the train station, Harold?” one of them said.

“Sir, that isn’t a shark,” the other man, named Harold, replied.

“What the fuck is it then?” Michael demanded.

“It’s a man,” explained Harold, “Who turned into a shark.”

Nanaue stopped menacingly staring at Harold and his boss. His attention was turned to his hand.

“Just get him off, Harold!”

“But sir, that’s King Shark! He’s a villain!”

“And!?”

“That’s the protagonist's job! I’m not even a relevant side character!”

“YOU FUCKING DUMBASS WHY DOES THAT MATTER GET HIM OFF MY TRAIN STATION!!” Harold’s boss was literally screaming into Harold’s face. Harold backed up for five steps, then promptly turned around and ran away.

“HAROLD!!!!”

“FUCK YOU AND SEE YOU TOMORROW!”

“YOU’RE FIRED!”

“YOU CAN’T FIRE ME I QUIT!”

"YOU CAN'T QUIT YOU'RE FIRED!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

Author's Note

Help I have the exact opposite of writer’s block. It's so bad that this is now officially my longest story.

Anyway, Harold’s going scuba diving near the Bahamas soon. Michael is a terrible boss.

Character profile (Harold): Harold hates his boss. Unfortunately for him, he is a relevant side character, which means he's gonna have to solve at least one major problem on his own. He hates that. Also he has broken the fourth wall more times than Deadpool, Pinkie Pie, Rick Sanchez, Ryan George, and the Gang (Narrator (Prism Shard), Parentheses Guy (NightFlame and Uber, depending on the situation), Editor (Prism Shard), Author (NightFlame), and Brackets Guy and Braces Guy combined

Chapter 7: Firewaters

Mari and Shell had been split up. Unfortunately, Shell was sent to AuzyAuzy, and she was on her way to Hammer.

If only Gray were here, she thought. She didn’t know anyone from Hammer Shiver, save for the two Ghostfins, Sledge and Peen. Maybe that would be enough to save her.

Shell would easily be able to convince AuzyAuzy, because he sacrificed himself to save their former leader, Lochlan. And from what she heard from Xander and Ranier, Lochlan himself was probably there.

The hammerhead patrol that captured her stopped. They had arrived.

“The Great and Stealthy Sledge has requested your presence,” one of the guards said.

Thank Tyro for Sledge, she thought. The very familiar hammerhead soon arrived. Sledge nodded to the guards. The guards soon left.

“Hello, Mari,” Sledge said. “Haven’t seen you since Hokuu killed you.” Mari could see the tears in the larger shark’s eyes. “We all missed you. Especially Gray.”

“You have power in the shiver?” Mari asked, remembering how the patrol treated him as if he were very important. Sledge was a general member last time she checked.

“Since Grinder’s third died in the Battle of the Tuna Run, I’ve been in the line. They said something about how my Ghostfin training would be an invaluable skill for the shiver. But they didn’t think it was important to tell anyone.”

“Then Grinder died.” Mari remembered watching Grinder and Striiker fight against the mosasaurs from the Sparkle Blue. Grinder wasn’t able to get away from Grimkahn in time.

“Except he’s back, and he’s been back for the past month.” Sledge explained with a grin.

“Well, Sledge, it’s been nice catching up, but I need to go see Gray. Could you bring me there?” Mari asked.

“What about that bull friend of yours?” Sledge inquired.

“I’m sure as the savior of Lochlan, he’ll be just fine with AuzyAuzy.”

“Haha, yeah,” Sledge laughed.

Mari thought back to when Sledge was too cocky for his own good. Barkley sure showed him. Back in those days, their biggest worries had been Finnivus, not zombie sharks.

“I’ll go get Peen,” Sledge said as he left in the other direction. The Ghostfins were finally coming back together. It was time for an adventure to Fathomir. And to reunite with her old friends.

Shell followed the silvertip all the way back to AuzyAuzy homewaters. He had never actually been there before. He spent his entire life in the North Atlantis. All of his other friends had at least been to the Sific.

Kylie, as the silvertip called herself, dropped him off with a few sharks he didn’t recognize, as well as Golden King Lochlan himself. Kylie stayed nearby.

“Oh, hey, Shell!” Lochlan exclaimed upon seeing the bull, “Gray’s been wondering if you’d come back!” Lochlan’s expression changed to a mischievous grin. “He doesn’t know I’m back though.”

“We should probably meet with him at-” Shell was interrupted by rumbling, followed by screaming. They all looked around, and saw several sharks in battle formation, with a mako in the back, sitting on a whale. It reminded everyone present about Finnivus. The King of Indi had embedded his Speaker’s Rock into a whale as well.

The mako barked an order, and her mariners obeyed. AuzyAuzy’s mariners quickly mobilized into their own battle formations. There were at least two hundred on both sides.

Shell could see Jaunt in the lead. The tiger seemed to recognize the mako in charge of the other shiver, or at least where they came from.

The two sides collided. The Golden Rush of AuzyAuzy gained the upper hand at first, but the Azure Strike―Shell had decided to name them that―soon started to turn the tides in their favor. Lochlan quickly rushed to the front, as did Kylie, and an oceanic whitetip named Kendra; Lochlan’s old first.

The three royal sharks took their spots in the armada, splitting it into four pieces. Roughly one fifth of the armada split away from their groups. Shell looked at the shark in charge of the splinter group. It was Xander!

The five sections surrounded the Azure Strike, which forced them into a sphere. The mako in charge ordered something, which a couple of caged lantern fish relayed to the rest of the armada. The armada exploded outward, forcing AuzyAuzy to regroup.

The Golden Rush made themselves into a formation which made their front line a flat surface. Shell could see a few sharks rise up behind the Azure Strike. The group was made of makos, blues, and spinners. They rushed forward, pushing the Azure Strike into the anvil that was the primary force.

More sharks arrived from over the horizon. Shell thought it was maybe reinforcements from Hammer or Vortex Shivers. He saw that none were hammerheads, and didn’t recognize the leading shark. The reinforcements joined the Azure Strike. They fanned out, blocking the sun's rays from reaching the bottom of the ocean. The mako queen and her whale mount moved in closer to Lochlan and his former line.

“Attention, leader of AuzyAuzy! My name is Silander,” the mako queen announced. “You will surrender to us, Kyoto Shiver! If you do not surrender, we will destroy you!”

Shell knew exactly what he had to do. He stealthily entered Kyoto Shiver’s armada. He snuck up behind Silander herself and prepared to strike. Whatever it takes (STOP REFERENCING ENDGAME!).

The day finally came. Silverstream and Spike were to officially join Razor Shiver. Quill couldn’t join because he wasn’t one of the creatures allowed to be a full part of a shiver.

Shiver law became more lenient after Sixth Shiver. Sharkkind, dolphins, orcas, seaponies, and marine reptiles, such as mosasaurs, pilosaurs, and plesiosaurs were all creatures allowed in shivers now.

Apparently, before the Battle of Fathomir, Icingholme Shiver was a shiver in name only. After the battle, they gained a seat in the assembly. Sixth Shiver, however, would never be recognized as a shiver, due to their brief and violent history.

Her thoughts once again returned to her friends. Hopefully, she’d be able to see them again. At least here, she had Spike and Quill.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Quill in nearly three days. Maybe it was their proximity to Slaggernack’s and Gafin. Quill probably took the chance to go back to his original family. Maybe he was just checking in?

Her thoughts then wandered to Razor’s plan and the Tuna Run. Silverstream wasn’t going to hunt at the Tuna Run, because she was a strict herbivore. She was still going, because Razor needed all the support he could get. From what she heard, Goblin ate anyone he had a problem with. He was a shark that should not be allowed to set in . Silverstream wasn’t sure if she was willing to kill. Someone else probably would.

For now, she and Spike (no relation to the dragon) were getting ready to officially join the shiver. Before the ceremony, Silverstream asked a few questions.

“Do you even know what happens?” Silverstream asked Spike.

“Razor basically just says we’re in, and we’re in,” Spike explained. “It’s honestly not that big of a deal. Like really, it's a super tiny one.”

And he was right. That was literally what happened. Except that was the only thing that happened. No big ceremony. Not even a celebration.

Afterward, Spike also vanished. Silverstream decided to go to Slaggernack’s to see if they were there.

Silverstream found herself near a set of caves. There was a rock outcropping that seemed to be like a cave. There was another area where it seemed something should be. Something large, nearly whale-sized, used to stand there. Otherwise, it was basically empty. There were a few stonefish pretending to be rocks. No sign of Quill.

She almost poked her head into a cave, but noticed the jellyfish in the way. She instead politely knocked.

“Who is it?” asked a strange voice. “Youse don’t come in unless youse want to die.”

“Hi, I’m Silverstream,” she said.

“We’re busy!” a female voice shouted out. “Seriously, don’t come in.”

“Let her in,” Quill said from inside. The jellyfish parted. Inside, Quill was meeting with a stonefish and a purple lionfish. The stonefish - presumably Trank - seemed angry about something.

“Gafin’ll kill youse.” Trank stared into Quill’s soul.

“Liza, you’re on my side, right?” Quill asked. He seemed nervous. Far more nervous than he was when he was captured.

“For all we know, Spike’s dead.” Liza swam to Trank’s side. “You left him in the heart of enemy territory.”

“Spike’s fine,” Silverstream interrupted. “Oh, um, you can go back to talking now?”

Silence fell upon the area. Very awkward silence. Everyone stared at Silverstream. Sweet Celestia that was awkward. The tension was so thick, I, the narrator, could cut it with my teeth.

“You should go back to Razor,” Quill finally said. “He’ll be wondering where you are. And go talk to Spike while you're at it.”

“What about you?” Silverstream asked, concerned.

“I’ll go back later, and we can be spies!” Quill excitedly explained.

“Ooh, that sounds fun!” Silverstream replied even more excitedly. She turned around and instantly got stung by a jellyfish. “Ouch.” The jellyfish parted. She would have to get that sting treated. Maybe someone at Razor Shiver would be able to help her. They had doctor fish there. The doctor fish would know how to treat a jellyfish sting. All she’d have to do is get there.

“How can meesa serve you?” Jar Jar Drinks was getting more annoying by the second. His voice sounded like a metal fork scratching a plate, while someone with really long nails scratched the blackboard and screaming at the top of their lungs, while a herd of donkeys brayed and stomped on harmonicas in the hallway.

“Can we just fucking kill him yet?” Spear asked Goblin, with far more than a touch of annoyance in his voice. “If we kill him, we can use this as a base of operations.”

“I know exactly what you mean!" Goblin agreed. "We can’t kill him because I don’t know how!” In the middle of the night, Goblin had tried to kill Jar Jar. However, Jar Jar simply refused to die. Not like he just wouldn’t die, more like he woke up in the middle of the night and said “nope”, which logically should not make sense.

Streak, Kilo, and Thrash were talking to one another in the corner, ignoring Jar Jar. Hollow was in the other corner, not caring at all what everyone else was doing. Spear noticed that his partner's new scars were healing quite nicely. However, he still had too many scars to count. Far more than Ripper, at least.

Suddenly, all activity stopped. A landshark in scuba gear entered the bar. He removed his gear and breathed fresh air underwater. Normally, he would drown right about now, but Harold refused to drown. The laws of physics would not stop Harold.

“Holy shitsauce!” Harold exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. “There’s a bar underwater! Bartender! Get me a beer of your highest quality!”

Jar Jar Drinks immediately pulled out a mug and poured a beer.

Harold drank the beer underwater despite physics telling him that wasn’t possible. Harold refused to follow the laws of physics. Physics had had enough. They called the police. On Harold. While they were underwater. Despite there being no service underwater. Or phones. Or the fact that physics is a concept and not a physical thing whatsoever so it should be impossible for them to call the police. Well guess what? Physics doesn't care about the laws of physics either, because they fucking wrote them!

“Stop! This is the Physics Police! You’re under arrest for violating the laws of physics!” A group of people in swat uniforms walked through the wall without damaging it (that’s called a doorway).

“I don’t care!” Harold shouted back at them. “Physics can shove themselves up my ass!” Harold chucked his beer mug across the room at the police.

“Understandable, have a great day.” The Physics Police left through the wall they came through (again, that’s a doorway).

And with that, Harold joined Goblin Shiver, the first human to join one since the sinking of Atlantis.

Side note: so did Jar Jar Drinks due to his amazing bartending skills. Apparently he killed at least 739 Barts. Not including Bart Simpson. Does include Bort Sampson, however.

Author's Note

Well... uh... I guess?

Not tagged Star Wars because Jar Jar Drinks is a parody of a Star Wars character, not an actual character from Star Wars. Imagine if an Undertale story was tagged Earthbound or something.

Also not tagged human because the whole "Harold vs Michael" storyline is supposed to be a massive spoiler. Not like the ones on the cars, because why would those be at the bottom of the ocean?

Interlude 1: Intercontinental Railroad

Michael sat in his office, tapping his pen. Tap. Tap. Tap. Ever since Harold left, his company had been less productive. The man shark had ruined his day. He wished that the man shark, Nanaue or whatever, never even existed. He wished that Harold didn’t quit. To be fair, Michael did fire him first.

He looked over the blueprints of his transcontinental railway. His first railway stretched from the southern tip of Italy to Tunisia. His second one went from Alaska to Chukotka. His third one from Indonesia to Australia. He made one stretching from Brazil to the Ivory Coast. One from Newfoundland to Portugal. They would be built suspended in the ocean, roughly one mile below the surface.

It was his greatest plan yet. If it wasn’t ruined by Nanaue at the train station where . He had filed a report with Amanda Waller, but she had said that there were now multiple King Sharks, and they were already dealing with Shay Lamden.

He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He drew out one cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it. Michael sat back and relaxed. He turned to his computer. He pulled up YouTube. He pulled up his favorite channel, Limenade.

“You know the rules and so do I, sit back, relax, and say goodbye!” Every video began with the same few words. On the third meme, which was something about Spongebob, the screen blackened. Not like it turned off, it turned darker than a black hole.

“Come on come on come on!” Michael angrily shook the monitor. “You fucking bitch!” Michael prepared to punch the monitor. He put his fist down. He checked his phone. The internet was fine.

Without warning, the monitor turned back on. There was some sort of cartoon character. Its left arm was a snake. In the snake’s mouth was a sword. But that wasn’t the worst part. On its head sat two hyper realistic eyes. Ones that stared into the deep depths of his soul. The character blinked once. It blinked twice.

“Wh-who are you?” Michael fearfully asked. The character simply blinked. “Wh-what d-do you want?” The character blinked once more. “What do you want with me?”

The character raised its snake arm. It pointed its sword at Michael. The character opened its mouth. Its voice was deep and demonic. It was like the voice of pure evil. “Steven,” it said.

“Well Steven, now we know each other, why don’t you help me with something?” Michael asked, all fear gone.

Steven blinked again. And again. And again. Seriously, does he do anything else? Steven raised his sword up, and slashed it downward, seriously damaging Michael’s monitor. A giant hole appeared. Steven stepped through. Once he was completely in the world of the living, he grew to the size of a fully grown human person.

“Michael. I’ve come to bargain.” (uh, the narrator was too scared to narrate this. So basically Steven said that.)

Michael stood up and stepped back. He backed all the way to the window. Steven stepped closer.

“Michael. Do not be afraid. I am not here to harm you.” (yeah you know what I’m scared of Steven too. He should go back into his scree- oh dear god what the fuck are you doing! STEVEN! NOOOO-) Run! Oh God he saw me! Aaaaaaaaaauuuuhghghdauahauhaahagahuahag!

“I-I don’t know.”

“Let me make you a deal. I will give you all the funds required to build your railway, and you will give me a human sacrifice.”

“Um...”

“I can read your thoughts. You think about someone named Harold. This Harold will suffice. You will find him and you will sacrifice him to me.”

“I- you know what? Harold betrayed me. He will pay. Let’s build this railway.”

“I will begin now. All you need to do is procure this Harold person.”

Author's Note

Michael and Steven are not a reference to Michael Stevens, aka Vsauce. Michael is a reference to the office, and Steven is just a funny name for a demonic character.

Narrator and Parentheses Guy are fine, as you'll find out in Equal and Opposite Chapter 4

Anyway you didn't really need to see this chapter but I wrote it for no reason

Chapter 8: Messenger of Death

Goblin Shiver now numbered thirteen members. Goblin as leader, and his line, in order, were Kilo, Streak, Thrash, Spear, and Hollow. General members included Churn, Harold, Jar Jar Drinks, Kommander Kebab the tiger shark, a random alcoholic sea snake, and two unnamed makos. None of them knew, but Goblin planned on replacing Hollow with Churn very soon. Mostly because Hollow was incompetent, and Churn actually had a pretty great track record as Goblin’s fourth, though he was a bit hesitant at times.

Apparently, Kommander Kebab, had lost track of the two dolphins he left Slaggernack’s with (that’s one plot hole filled in). He only found the makos through sheer luck.

Goblin fin-slapped the sea snake. A nice, hearty one, from a shark with no heart (woah you don’t need to make it that obvious he’s a bad guy). Hey! He already attempted to attack the equivalent of the United Nations (fair point)!

“Welcome to the shiver,” Goblin told his new members and one old member. “We will strive for greatness together!”

As Goblin was giving his speech, Streak and Thrash were talking to each other. “Do you know what happened to Ripper?” Streak wondered.

“I don’t know,” Thrash responded, “One day he just vanished. It did fall suspikeus- suckpic- strangely on the day before Velenka killed Goblin though.”

“Did he predict what would happen with Indi Shiver? Is he actually that smart?” Thrash pondered Streak’s points with his tiny brain (that’s an insult and a half). Throughout the time that the gang (Ripper, Thrash, Streak, Churn, Hawley) had known each other, Ripper and Thrash were leagues below the others in terms of intelligence. It didn’t help either that Hawley’s replacement would be the smartest member of the line they had ever had, period. None of the line members from when Riptide was founded all the way to when Velenka surrendered to Indi Shiver were even close to the same level of intelligence that Velenka had.

“I don’t know,” Thrash finally answered. The two sharks returned their attention to Goblin and his big speech about how Goblin Shiver would finally defeat Razor Shiver even though they were heavily outnumbered this time as opposed to only slightly outnumbered previously.

“... and this ends my plans for Swirl and how he will poison Razor at the Tuna Run without any of us needing to risk our lives.” Cheer erupted from Kilo, Streak, Churn, Thrash, Spear, Hollow, and Swirl, with a little enthusiasm from Kommander Kebab, Anchor (apparently that was the name of one of the makos), and Harold, and absolutely no enthusiasm from Jar Jar Drinks and the other mako.

When the applause died down, darkness fell upon the area. No one could see one another. No one could hear anyone either. They all felt as if they weren’t in Kansas anymore (you mean the North Atlantis) (shut up I can reference what I want).

A strange sound echoed across the bar, or at least Goblin thought it was the bar. It soon became clear that he was nowhere near the bar. Goblin felt a presence, one far older than any he had ever felt before. Something was calling to him.

Then it spoke, “Goblin. So your enemies are too powerful for you to face? No longer shall they have the power to destroy your entire shiver with a mere thought. I am giving you the power to face them head-on without any repercussions.”

“Who are you?” Goblin asked, making a futile attempt to mask his fear. “What do you want?”

“All I want is for you to keep growing your shiver.”

“Why should I follow you?”

“If you don’t, I will kill you, and everything you love.”

“Hahaha! I love nothing!”

“Your mother says otherwise.”

Elsewhere, Razor was having a similar conversation with the visitor. “What is your plan exactly?” Razor asked.

“My plan barely concerns you. You will know when your time has arrived.”

Both Goblin and Razor continued in the exact same way, “I don’t need your help.”

“You will soon find that you will,” the voice responded. “Without my help, you would surely die.”

“What will you give me to help?” they said.

“Their power, which can destroy every single one of your allies, will be rendered useless if used on you. Nothing will be able to stop you. What do you say?”

“Yes,” they responded simultaneously.

In the remains of Slaggernack’s, poisonous and venomous dwellers gathered. Quill had just left for Razor Shiver. Two dolphins returned from somewhere, and Kommander Kebab was missing.

“Another rescue mission?” Trank complained. “At this point we’re gonna lose everyone!” Kebab was a known Goblin sympathizer. It was entirely possible he joined Goblin Shiver.

“I agree,” Teslon said, “We can ignore him and instead focus our efforts on making sure Slaggernack doesn’t come back.” The giant crab skeleton had been rebuilt and placed on display again. They had heard legends of an ancient art known as Death-kata, the ability to bring someone back from the dead.

“Maybe we could instead focus on the humans and their new construction?” Ripper suggested. Ripper was one of the few sharks that served the Urchin Kings without either being old or crazy. His battle scars came from many skirmishes between Goblin and Razor.

“Youse don’t really think those landsharks can hurt the big blue, do youse?” Trank asked his right fin.

“What I think is that they haven’t made this big of a venture into the waters since they built boats.”

“You sure know your history,” a random stonefish said from underneath Ripper.

“ah,” Ripper screamed very unconvincingly. “History is boring. Prehistory is where it’s at.”

“No, that’s geometry,” corrected a blue-ringed octopus.

“You see, the landshark consonants are separated, while the waters are united.” Teslon really didn’t seem worried about Michael.

“Consonants are the things they put on their foods,” corrected the octopus. “You’re looking for condiments.”

“Shut up, you grammar nazi!”

“I’m not a grammar nazi, I’m a regular Nazi!”

When the octopus said that sentence, pretty much every single eye was drawn towards him, except for the flounder who for some unknown reason was upside down. The flounder quickly flipped himself over.

“You do realize that Nazis are evil, right?” Ripper seemed to know a suspicious amount of human culture.

“Do I look like someone who would know who the fuck Adolf Hitler is?” the octopus countered. “I’m a fucking octopus at the bottom of the ocean for fuck’s sake!”

“The Nazis were racist,” Ripper said.

“Gafin’ll have youse for breakfast if youse don't stop arguing right now!” Trank shouted over the madness.

“Shut up you glorified rock!” Teslon shouted back.

“Listen!” A sea snake shoved himself between Teslon and Trank. “Ripper is right. We should be focusing on the human construction. If it is ever completed, the Tuna Run would be destroyed!”

“Nah, he’s an idiot,” the octopus said.

“I may be an idiot, but at least I’m not stupid,” Ripper replied.

A black marlin burst into the argument without warning. “Goblin and Razor have gathered their forces and they’re going to war!”

“Last I checked, they were already at war,” said Ripper. “It was pretty big too. I should know. I was part of it.”

“That solves it,” Teslon said. “Ripper, you infiltrate Goblin’s ranks, see if he’ll promote you back into the line. Stop them from going to war.”

“Isn’t that something the First Assembly is supposed to do?” the octopus interrupted.

“The idiotic cephalopod makes a good point,” Ripper said.

“Hey!” the octopus objected.

“We also have word that Silander, or a mako pretending to be Silander, is back and attacking AuzyAuzy,” one of the stonefish brought up.

Liza then spoke up, “What if we just leave everything alone, and just be? I mean, our business with the supper clubs is successful enough, why do we need the assassins and large network of spies?”

“I’ll go,” Ripper said. “Goblin doesn’t know that I’m not on his side anymore, and I don’t think any of the others would suspect anything either.”

Silverstream, Spike, and Quill swam side by side (what happened to the poison?) (unclear).

“I’m pretty sure you guys know all about me at this point,” Quill said, trying to start a conversation. “You both know what I do, where I came from, why I got captured. What about you two?”

“It’s a long story, but I love stories!” Silverstream exclaimed.

“Mine’s pretty short, so I’ll go first,” Spike said. “Basically, I’m from this shiver in the South Atlantis. It’s pretty powerful, but they don’t really do much anymore. I got tired of their inactivity so I did a thing. I met a wahoo named Dart along the way. Apparently he doesn’t have a good relationship with his family, and he got kicked out. I caught him up to speed with everything that happened, then he went back home. I basically just adventured around the Atlantis for a few months after that, then Trank found me and told me to go on a rescue mission.”

“Okay, my turn!” Silverstream bounced despite her lack of legs in her seapony form, and told her story (insert basic seapony backstory plus the events of seasons 8 and 9 here).

“Wow, that’s long,” Quill commented. “And did the Storm King ever come back?”

“Nope!” Silverstream replied. “Although there have been rumors of him alive again. Probably just a storm creature who wants attention.”

The three friends swam together even closer now that they knew each other's stories.

Author's Note

I kinda just had to get this out now so I can focus on making the next few as gouda as possible (unwarranted cheese pun)

I’m changing when I add character profiles. Now, instead of doing it when they’re introduced, I do it when their backstories are revealed, so no spoiler information will be in them.
Character profile (Spike): Spike originates from an ancient and powerful shiver from the South Atlantis, which has been inactive since the Closing of the Underwaters (which coincided with the Invasion of Mount Aris). He is one of the smaller members, but they don’t consider him weak. In fact, his poison tipped spikes are very useful in battle when he can immobilize an enemy far larger than him.

Next chapter marks the beginning of the end, which has two parts, detailing both how Silander is beaten back and how Takiza reacts to being powerless against Goblin and Razor. Also a very short Ripper vs Goblin but that’s not important.

Chapter 9: Like a Blinding Light

“Victory is assured!” There was something different about Goblin as he said that. Streak noticed he was a lot more confident, even though he was already confident, though not competent. “Today, we attack Razor Shiver at the Atlantis Spine! I know that they’ll be there for battle training! Victory is ours!”

A battle-scarred hammerhead forced his way through the comically tiny doorway. The doorway broke, but the water/air remained the same, allowing for terrestrial creatures to breathe while under the water.

Harold and Jar Jar Drinks turned to meet the new arrival. Harold, Swirl, Kommander Kebab, and Churn watched with interest. Thrash, Kio, and Streak glared daggers at Ripper. Ripper paid no attention to the members of Goblin Shiver, and went straight to Goblin himself.

Goblin noticed Ripper’s arrival, and demanded, “WHERE WERE YOU WHEN VELENKA TRIED TO KILL ME!?” Ripper stared silently into Goblin’s eyes. “Answer me!”

“I predicted the outcome and left before she could kill me,” Ripper calmly said. “I was simply trying to survive.” Goblin calmed down ever so slightly.

“And you didn’t try to help me.”

“I knew Velenka would try to get you alone. I had no choice.”

“Well then. Are you here to join us?”

“Yes.”

“To victory!” Goblin shouted.

“TO VICTORY!” everyone else shouted back.

Razor and his line discussed something behind Speaker’s Rock. “I know we’ve been discussing taking down Goblin at the Tuna Run, but I have a new idea. Gather some of our best mariners, and then when we go to the Atlantis Ridge, we fight Goblin.”

“Heh. He doesn’t even know that we know that he knows that we’re hunting there,” Hyperion said.

“We outnumber his shiver so much that he won’t know what hit him.” Terra laughed. Everyone dispersed.

Spike and Silverstream watched from behind a different rock placed for plot convenience. They glanced at each other, then left for Slaggernacks.

Shell attacked. Or he would have, if it weren’t for the orca that blocked him. If he attacked now, surely the orca would notice him, and anything he did would be rendered useless.

The mere thought of having to fight an orca was terrifying enough. Orcas weren’t nicknamed “Killer Whales” for nothing. In fact, they were named that because they slaughtered hundreds of sharkkind during Silander’s reign over the oceans. Modern orcas hated the nickname and would kill anyone who even mentioned it.

As Silander’s monologue continued, Shell noticed a flying fish zoom away towards the east, towards Indi Shiver. Another quickfin traveled north instead.

Shell knew that no currently existing shiver would be able to stand up to the combined might of AuzyAuzy, Indi, Hammer, and Vortex. All he had to do was strike Silander.

He had left behind every dream he had when he saved Lochlan from a deadly fate, which turned out to be a worthless sacrifice since Lochlan died not too long later. If he died this time, he would make sure it would be worth something.

He took a deep breath through his gills. It would be worth it to save one shark.

The orca in front of him knocked him down to the seabed. As Shell was recovering, the orca attacked again. Orcas were larger than almost all non-prehistores, which meant Shell was heavily outmatched in terms of size. The orca rammed Shell so hard that Shell thought he had died. Instead, the orca brought him to Silander herself.

“What’s this?” Silander asked mockingly. “An assassin? What a weak one! Hahaha! You think that you could have defeated me? I have guards!”

“Your own line betrayed you,” Shell said through gritted teeth. “I only wonder how you managed to get this far when no one liked you.”

“That would be me-” the orca attempted to get a sentence in, but Silander tail slapped him.

“Shut the fuck up, Caspian, no one asked!” Caspian, apparently that was the orca’s name, nodded in fear. Silander turned her attention back to Shell. “Now, you are an idiot for forgetting exactly how I retained my power. I killed everyone that dared stand in my way. That includes you.” As Silander prepared to attack, a small clamshell hit her. She turned towards the direction where the attack came from, and saw a young fish. The fish panicked upon noticing that she noticed, and tried to swim away, but Silander snapped him up. “That’s what happens when you defy me.”

The diversion was enough for AuzyAuzy to form a powerful formation. A sizable amount of sharks weren’t in the main attacking force, but behind. The two AuzyAuzy formations crashed into Kyoto at the same time, forcing Silander to adapt to two fronts. The front AuzyAuzy formation pushed Kyoto backwards, while the back group picked out random sharks and killed them with ease.

As Silander’s armada thinned, she grinned. Shell was about to ask why she was smiling when a small pod of orcas arrived over the horizon. Caspian laughed. When the orcas reached the main fighting force, the tide instantly changed. Lochlan ordered retreat. Two sharks flanked Shell, keeping him from leaving.

“Hammer and Vortex will fall. Indi cannot stand up to our might. We will reign supreme.”

Takiza brought Skystar to the fields of greenie outside the Seazarein’s court.

“Why are we here?” Skystar asked.

“I want you to swim through the field. If I see movement, you fail.” Skystar nodded and proceeded into the fields.

As Skystar swam through the field, Takiza thought about recent events. He had promised Silverstream that he would train her, but her cousin would do for now. Goblin and Razor’s shivers were far away from Coral Shiver. Deep Rush, Corallis, and Kelpengreenie Shivers had joined the pact against Goblin and Razor. What remained of Jetty Shiver found their way to Coral Shiver, boosting their numbers.

Takiza watched in awe as Skystar moved through the fields with minimal kelp displacement. When Skystar returned, Takiza asked, “How did you do that? No one has done that on their first try.”

“Mom taught me.”

“I see that she hasn’t forgotten how she became queen.” Takiza saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see two hammerheads and a thresher entering the court. A quickfin messenger also arrived behind them.

Takiza extended his senses throughout the Big Blue again. He sensed Silverstream surrounded by poisonous dwellers and one shark. Something about a confrontation between Razor Shiver and Goblin Shiver. Takiza sped into the court to warn Gray.

“Wait where are you- nevermind.” Skystar followed Takiza into the court.

“Graynoldus!” Takiza burst into the court, stopping in between Mari and Gray. “Goblin and Razor are preparing to fight each other at the Atlantis Ridge!”

“But AuzyAuzy is being attacked!” the quickfin protested. “Where are your priorities?”

“AuzyAuzy is a powerful shiver. They’ll be fine. If the war between Goblin and Razor continues, the entire North Atlantis might be at stake.” Gray nodded to Takiza. They sped away at full speed.

Goblin and Razor met each other near the mountains of the Atlantis Ridge, full armies gathered. Goblin Shiver’s numbers seemed underwhelming when compared to Razor. It looked like Razor Shiver’s sixty sharks would easily win against Goblin Shiver’s eighteen some-sharks-some-not-sharks.

Harold made the first move, shooting his spear gun, impaling one bull shark. “Charge!” Razor shouted. The bulls of Razor Shiver advanced towards Goblin’s smaller force. With one fin flick, Goblin Shiver separated into three groups of six, evading the attack.

Ripper rammed into Hyperion, sending both out of the main battle. Ripper circled the smaller shark. Hyperion growled at the scarred hammerhead. The bull made an attempt to rip Ripper’s fin off, which Ripper used to his advantage, moving to the side, and slamming full-force into Hyperion.

Churn and Thrash stared down Helios and Polut. Thrash immediately attacked Helios. Polut shoved Thrash into the cliffside. As Thrash made an attempt to recover, Churn attacked Polut. The bull shark shot upward, hovering at the right place to take out Churn’s dorsal. Thrash burst out from where he was, saving Churn from another death by Razor Shiver.

Thrash shoved Helios away from Polut. Helios looked at Thrash with fear in his eyes. With a little help from Ripper and Hyperion’s fight, a rock crashed down on Helios. He managed to escape his death sentence, but swam right into Thrash’s jaws. The bull had been killed.

Kilo and Pico immediately picked each other out of the crowd to kill each other. Pico gained the upper hand (or fin, whatever), but Kilo wasn’t going to let Pico win. Kilo charged at Pico, sending both of them into the ridge, which realistically would have killed them, but rule of cool. Pico

Meanwhile, Streak and Terra danced around each other, neither of them able to land a hit on the other. Streak shot forward, but missed the bite, instead ramming Terra. Terra, enraged, attacked her opponent in a frenzy. Streak dodged most attacks, but lost a small chunk of flesh.

Swirl easily maneuvered between the mariners, biting random bulls. It took a little while, but the bulls all fell to the seabed, motionless. He regrouped with Anchor and Harold, then prepared a frontline against the remaining bulls.

While all this was happening, Goblin and Razor attacked each other. Razor attempted a gill bite, but Goblin slapped him with his tail. Razor began circling around Goblin, attempting to get a good angle to attack his dorsal at. Goblin ducked underneath and performed a series of counter circles. As they circled each other, Razor and Goblin eyed the other’s dorsal. When they both attacked, they missed completely.

Gray and Takiza appeared out of nowhere. Gray blasted both Razor and Goblin with shar-kata power. When the light cleared, both were unscathed and still fighting each other. “What the...”

Takzia turned towards the battle between Ripper and Hyperion.

A deep voice echoed across the battlefield, “This is one fight you cannot win, Takiza.”

“Who are you?” Takiza demanded.

“I am your worst nightmare.”

“You know, that phrase is just a stock phrase at this poi-” Spear started.

“OH SHUT UP YOU JUST RUINED THE MOMENT!” Goblin bellowed.

“The fuck you all doing with fourth wall breaking?” Harold shouted into the screaming. Wait, we have a fourth wall? Oh yeah...

Harold fired his harpoon gun at Gray, but due to currents or some weird shit the harpoon missed and impaled Helios (that death is kinda anticlimactic ngl). Did I say he was dead?

The harpoon tore itself free from Helios’s side, and the bull somehow healed himself of all wounds. Gray was shocked by the turn of events. “You cannot defeat the power of the rightful ruler of the Big Blue,” the voice said. “All of you will feel the wrath of the Kraken!”

To be continued...

Author's Note

Everything is tying together nicely. I think. I have no clue.

Imagine if Silander, the ancient empress, just dies next chapter lmao

Chapter 1: The Sparkle Blue

The water shimmered with colors in the Sparkle Blue. Takiza, the master of Shar-kata, swam silently through the waters. Pretty recently, Takiza had noticed certain sharks missing from the Sparkle Blue. “Don’t worry,” Kaleth had said. “I’m sure that the First Assembly of Fathomir can come together and stop them,” he said. But Takiza knew something that Kaleth didn’t. He knew exactly which sharks had disappeared.

The first shark that had vanished was a tiger named Thrash. Takiza had first met Thrash when Thrash tried to eat a family of turtles. Thrash had met his end when Finnivus and the Black Wave invaded the North Atlantis.

The second was Streak, a blue shark. Takiza had never actually met Streak, but from what he heard, Streak ruthlessly attacked a small shiver called “Jetty Shiver” alongside Thrash. Like Thrash, she was devoured by Finnivus.

Another shark was Kilo, the bull shark that destroyed the Coral Shiver homewaters. Kilo had a scar like a clamshell on his eye. Like the other two, Kilo was killed after the Black Wave took over Riptide.

To his knowledge, only one shiver could stand a chance against the evilest fins and flippers of the Sparkle Blue. He could only hope he could get back to the Big Blue in time.

The little betta was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the giant frilled shark hovering in front of him. The frill wasn't looking at him. Takiza looked up and recognized him immediately. Hokuu. The worst of the worst. The one who almost destroyed the entire Big Blue because his kind wasn't respected enough. Takiza looked at where the giant frill was looking. There was a large great white, not the size of prehistores, but still large, talking to Hokuu. The great white was Goblin, the former leader of Riptide Shiver, renamed to Goblin Shiver. Hokuu generated Shar-kata energy and sent Goblin through a glowing blue portal. Hokuu then turned around. The moment he saw Takiza, an evil grin appeared on his face.

“Well, well, well, Taki,” Hokuu greeted, “Look who made it to the Sparkle Blue. After the fight you put up, I didn’t think you’d end up here so soon. Although, you were pretty injured.”

“Hokuu,” Takiza said with disdain, “You slimy piece of lumpfish dung. You call yourself a frilled shark, but you look like a snake had a child with their own poop.”

“Your ego’s the size of a whale but you’d be hard pressed to find a whale your size,” Hokuu retorted. Takiza grunted and attempted to swim past Hokuu, but the thirty foot long frilled shark blocked his path with his spiny tail.

“Let me through,” the betta commanded. Hokuu laughed, tail slicing through the water like a madman with a knife.

“What, you think you can stop the sharks I let out? You have no idea just how many escaped, do you?”

“Everyone,” Takiza said monotonically.

“Well, you won’t get by me without a fight!” Hokuu challenged.

“Do you have the memory of a goldfish?” Takiza insulted the giant frill.

“Well at least you no longer have a life force to draw upon! We’re on even ground here!” Hokuu charged, trying to swallow Takiza whole. The betta formed a shield around himself, causing Hokuu to ram into a wall of pure energy.

Takiza swam circles around the giant frilled shark, increasing in speed each time. A whirlpool formed, sucking water into it, growing in size. Hokuu fought the current. Even when his tail was caught, the thirty foot long frilled shark refused to give up. His stubbornness was more impressive than Goblin’s. Hokuu broke out of the whirlpool. As Hokuu was about to eat Takiza whole, a golden colored great white and an oceanic whitetip rammed the frilled shark from both sides.

“Go, Shiro!” shouted the Golden King Lochlan, “We can hold him off!”

Takiza nodded, and fluttered his tiny fins. He burst off, leaving only bubbles.

“I’ll kill you!” Hokuu shouted after Takiza. “I’ll kill Gray! I’ll kill everyone! There will be no one left, Nulo! I WILL-” before Hokuu could finish the sentence, Kendra shoved a giant wad of greenie into Hokuu’s mouth.

“Shut up,” Kendra said.

Takiza accelerated faster and faster, feeling the grasp of death loosening by the second. Determination filled his heart. As he was on his way, he saw his life flash before his eyes. His mother, when he met Hokuu, himself and Hokuu fighting alongside the united oceans against Silander, their first meeting with Fifth Shiver, the closing of the Underwaters, meeting Gray, defeating Goblin at the Tuna Run, the Battle of Riptide, Hokuu releasing the Underwaters, and his doubly fatal duel with Hokuu.

The betta reached a speed faster than any quickfin could hope to accomplish, and broke the barrier between life and death.

Takiza emerged in a lush cave filled with dwellers, coral, and greenie of all kinds. Some kind of structure hung from the cave ceiling, giving off light. A lower drove of an unidentified fish swam past. It was more beautiful than Riptide homewaters.

A yellow creature somewhat resembling a seahorse, but with two fins in the front as well as two on its back, and a tail with colors like no other swam behind Takiza. The betta felt the current shift slightly.

“Hi!” the creature said enthusiastically. The strange seahorse took a closer look at Takiza. “What kind of fish are you? It looks like you’re a peafowl but underwater. Also, could I get your name?”

The betta sighed. “My name is Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom. I am a master of Shar-kata. And I am a siamese fighting fish.” Takiza fluttered his frilly fins. “And I need to know where in the Big Blue I am.”

The creature seemed a little shocked. “No creature has called the oceans the Big Blue in a long time. The last time anyone did that was the Storm King’s invasion!” The creature swam behind Takiza again. “Your fins are so delicate! How do you keep them from ripping in the current?”

“At least I know where I am now,” he muttered.

“You do!?” the creature exclaimed excitedly. “You need to meet my mom!” The seapony dragged Takiza along. Takiza easily broke free with his five hundred years of experience.

“You talk as fast as a mako can swim yet you cannot go any faster than a pregnant sea cow. I will see myself to the queen, Princess Skystar.”

“You know who I am?” asked Skystar.

"It's better you don't ask questions. Otherwise it would just bring up plot holes." Takiza and Skystar soon entered the underwater palace. and swam to the throne room. Spires of rock grew upward to form pillars. Queen Novo sat atop the throne, reading a newspaper, which somehow wasn't soggy, even though it was underwater. The headline read "Where have the royalty gone?". The author was apparently named Golden Quill. The newspaper was called "Equestria Daily".

“Princess Skystar, haven’t I told you not to bring strangers into the throne?” Novo said, not even looking up from her news.

“Queen Novo,” Takiza greeted. “It is a pleasure to be here.” Queen Novo recognized the voice and dropped the newspaper, revealing a pencil (again, somehow not soggy or waterlogged) and the puzzle page.

“The pleasure is all mine, Takiza,” Queen Novo responded. “The legendary fighting fish who can defeat any enemy without laying a fin on them, he who can travel the entire ocean in the blink of an eye, and the one who killed Hokuu all by himself. You’ve got quite the reputation.”

“Thank you.”

“Wait wait wait,” Princess Skystar interrupted, “Mom, you know about him?”

“I suppose I can’t keep all these secrets forever, can I?”

“You can,” Takiza bluntly said. "I kept almost all my secrets for five hundred years."

"You know what? You're right! Thank you Takiza. I will keep this secret!"

The guard returned with a wahoo. “The quickfin, your majesty. Although I don’t know why you don’t just use dragon fire messages. It’s way faster. Instantaneous, even.”

“I'm not sending a message to Equestria. Anyway, you are dismissed.” The guard swam out of the room. On his way out, he bumped into a potted plant which literally everyone present swore wasn't there a second ago. The wahoo looked at Takiza, then Skystar, then back to Novo.

“Which of you three would like to send a message?” the wahoo enthusiastically asked. He would have been bouncing if not for his lack of legs.

“Me,” Takiza responded. “Code word, clamshell." Code words were reserved only for messages to royal shivers, or to Fathomir itself. "Some sharks have left the Sparkle Blue and are most likely planning some trouble for the Big Blue.”

“And who is this message for?” the wahoo inquired.

“The leader of the First Assembly of Fathomir, a dogfish named Barkley, and a megalodon named Gray. Tell them it’s from Seaquestria, specifically from Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Bom.” The wahoo nodded, and sped off to Fathomir.

"Now if you will excuse me, I will prepare for a journey to Coral Shiver.

Goblin's Story

Goblin swam through the Sparkle Blue. There wasn’t a single doubt in his mind. He would kill Rogue Shiver.

His line had already gone before him. Now it was his turn.

Hokuu floated in front of his exit. All he would need to do was convince the frill.

“Excuse me,” Goblin said, making himself known, “I am Goblin. I would like to go through the portal.

“Go on through,” Hokuu said emotionlessly. Hokuu moved to the side, allowing for Goblin to return to the realm of the living.

When Goblin entered the portal, his life flashed before his eyes. He saw when his mother died, his first fight with Razor, meeting Gray, fighting Rogue Shiver at the Tuna Run, and when he was killed by Velenka. He saw himself on the Seazarein’s throne. He saw Razor dead in his jaws. All his hopes and dreams were laid out for him to see.

When he finally was spit out, he almost didn’t recognize where he was. The only thing he even recognized was a giant crab skeleton. He was at Slaggernack’s. The normally lively place was a ghost town. Maybe some of the rocks were stonefish. You could never know in a place like Slaggernack’s. Slaggernack's was a dwelling place of several poisonous and venomous dwellers, as well as the headquarters of the Urchin King of the North Atlantis, who even Goblin feared. Fortunately, there were no urchins around, which meant the place was his.

He hoped something was still around here. There couldn't be no one. Maybe one of the caves had two creatures conversing. Maybe they were making a deal. Maybe shiver leaders were here at the very moment, discussing how to destroy another shiver. Admittedly, the last one was something he would do. Goblin swam towards the nearest cave. He heard two sharks talking to each other.

"I'm just saying, because Gafin migrated to the North Sific for the time being, it means we don't have anything to do," one of them said.

"I don't care!" the other one replied. "We're staying here! He will return!" Goblin bumped a rock, which activated the alert system.

Two sharks, a hammerhead and a mako, came out of the cave. “Some sharks have gone to destroy a shiver,” the hammerhead explained. “One of them called himself Kilo.” Just by his voice, Goblin could tell he was incompetent. No matter, he needed the numbers, since Kilo, Thrash, and Streak had gone off to who knows where.

“You’re hired,” Goblin told them. “Welcome to the line.”

“Yay! I’m finally part of a shive-” the hammerhead attempted to exclaim.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” the mako interrupted.

"I want you two to go to a certain place. Somewhere where I think my enemies would be. I want you to go west, to the sea where everything began."

Author's Note

I used Takiza's full name wherever possible to pad the word count without actually spending creativity points! Yay me!