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.