Shark Wars (15 page)

THE FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE TUNA RUN
were being made when Velenka returned from her meeting with Kilo and his most trusted bull sharks. Goblin thought she went to make sure everything go as planned. Well, all would go as planned all right. Just not
his
plan, Velenka thought.
Mine
.

After sending Razor to the Sparkle Blue, Kilo and his followers would then turn on Goblin. Ripper and Thrash would be dealt with also. She had convinced Streak to join her, and the blue would help in the fight if needed. Kilo thought he would be Valenka's first, but he too was in for a surprise. A giant megalodon of a surprise! If she could just control Gray, and making him her first was her preferred way of doing this, she would be fine. But if Gray placed a fin out of line, he'd swim the Sparkle Blue with the others! Velenka would combine both Razor and Goblin shivers into a new, improved Riptide Shiver. She wouldn't be merely a shiver leader, but queen of the entire North Atlantis!

Velenka was so excited that she could hardly keep a toothy smile from stretching across her lips. Her plan was a thing of beauty. Machiakelpi himself would be proud! Unfortunately, she hadn't noticed when the bruised Thrash swam into the homewaters and began blubbering to Goblin until it was too late.

“WHAT?!” Goblin roared, which got Velenka's attention. She swam over as fast as possible. Ripper and Streak were already there. They were all in uproar but none more so than Goblin. “I'll eat them all!”

“What's going on?” she yelled, trying to get the furious great white to focus on her.

“I'll deal with them if it's the last thing I do!” Goblin shouted.

Velenka looked around for answers and noticed that Thrash looked battered as if from a recent fight. She went cold even before he spoke to her. “Gray jumped us. He freed the Rogue flippers.”

“I told you we should have killed them!” Goblin yelled at her. “This was your idea!”

Of course it was her idea. Everything was her idea! But now Gray was a liability. Her plan could still work, but she'd have to deal with Kilo on her own. Velenka couldn't show weakness in front of Goblin, especially when everyone she would eventually rule over was watching. No one would follow a turtle.

Velenka steeled herself and looked Goblin right in the eyes. “This changes nothing!” she said. “Nothing!” She swam up close to—but not on—the Speakers Rock. “Everything you planned is finally in place! It would be nice to deal with those traitors, but if they run, which they most likely will, they're still gone for good.”

Goblin calmed. “And if they show up at the Tuna Run looking for their families?”

“Or trouble?” added Thrash.

“Then you eat them,” Velenka told the huge great white coldly. “But focus on what's important and get that done first. We're—I mean,
you're
so close!”

Goblin nodded, then yelled at the sharks who were watching and listening, “What are you looking at? Get ready to swim for the Tuna Run!” Activity started up immediately, no one wanting to arouse the shiver leader's temper by being anywhere near him. Goblin took out his temper on Thrash with a tremendous tail slap to the head. “And you! You're demoted to fifth! Ripper, Streak—come with me!” Streak gave Velenka a subtle nod and swam away with the others. But before they left, Goblin told her in a low, menacing tone, “When this is over, you and I will talk.”

Velenka exhaled. She was in control of the situation. Everything was still moving forward with the current. Slowly, the warm excited feeling in her stomach returned.

“When this is over, you'll be dead,” she whispered at the great white's receding figure.

GRAY WAS EXHAUSTED. THEY'D BEEN SWIMMING
nonstop for days, eating only when they could do so while moving. Striiker led them toward the deepest of the Big Blue. With every tail stroke, Rogue Shiver moved closer to the middle of the North Atlantis and the Atlantis Spine, the undersea mountain range the bluefin followed for the Tuna Run. Gray and Barkley hoped it would lead them to their families and friends from the reef. But as important as finding their loved ones was, they knew that Velenka's plan must be stopped. If it wasn't, no one would be safe.

“You know,” Barkley gasped through labored breaths, “It won't do any good if we go belly up before we get there!”

“It's just ahead!” Striiker shouted through the current. “Toughen up!”

Barkley grumbled but kept swimming. Gray sped up so he could get a better look. He bumped into Striiker's tail when he saw the range.

Snork gave out a squeak and even Mari said, “Whoa.” Everyone else was shocked into silence.

Gray had heard that in the landshark world there were huge mountains that stretched into the sky, much larger than any by the Caribbi reef where he was born. But they couldn't be larger than these! The immense, jagged mountain range rose from the Dark Blue as though it were the ocean's spine. Its depths were said to be deeper than any shark could swim and inhabited by monsters. Gray always thought those stories were something to scare pups, but seeing the blackness below, he shivered.

“So Striiker, you've been here,” Mari began.

“Twice!” added Striiker.

The thresher rolled her eyes. “Right. So what happens? Tell us what to expect.”

“The shivers take up positions either by the edge of the mountainside or away from it on the water side. I like the water side because you can be swept away if the tuna swerve too near to the rockside depending on if a legion or siege comes through. It's best to hunt from above or below the main body. If you get too deep inside the run you'll be battered. These dummies may be smaller than us, but get hit by a few hundred, and you'll swim the Sparkle Blue.” Indeed, Gray could see most of the shivers that were already here set up to feed a good distance away from the jagged walls of the rockside. There were a good number of smaller shivers that couldn't get a good spot, though. Once again, Gray saw how it was an advantage to be the strongest shiver.

Barkley was becoming more nervous by the minute. “Good tip,” he said as his voice cracked. “Don't get killed by our dinner.”

Suddenly a swarming mass of bluefin swept through the area. Snork cried, “Look! We're missing it!”

“That's a shimmer at best,” Striiker told the sawfish. Gray hid his embarrassment. He had almost launched himself toward the tuna but now saw the great white's count was accurate. “These are the shimmers and shoals that swim in front of the main Run. You can feed on them if you like, but most wait. It's tradition.”

Barkley wasn't in favor of this. “Forget that,” he said. “Let's feed now and stop Goblin's plan on a full stomach.”

“You don't want to fight with a full stomach,” Shell said. “Slows you down.”

This made the dogfish sick with worry. “Oh, right,” he answered in a quiet voice.

“If what you say is true, why's Razor Shiver on the rockside?” Mari asked.

“Because even though it is rockside, that particular spot is the best spot there is!” Striiker told the thresher and everyone else. “See how they're protected by the wall behind them?” Gray took note of the bulls in front of a jutting outcropping rearing from the mountainside. This formed an area where the current would be slower and they'd be protected as the tuna would undoubtedly swing wide to avoid running into the cliff wall. This way they could hunt the inner edge at their leisure. Tuna were dumb fish, but not even they were dumb enough to swim straight into the mountain.

“There's Goblin!” Shell said, pointing a fin. “Hmm, I was here last year with Razor, and they didn't set up there.”

Striiker also looked perplexed. “Yeah, that's not their spot at all. They take the best water-side spot. That's not even a good spot. The current is really strong near the spine.”

Gray couldn't figure out why Goblin would want to be on the rockside wall in front of the bulls. It seemed dangerous. Another shimmer, maybe even a double shimmer, roared through. A few sharks did catch a straggler or two, but not many.

Mari was trying to figure it out, too. “Striiker, what would happen if Razor and his shiver came out from that area protected by the wall?”

“They would never do that,” he told her. “You'd take the brunt of the Run right in the face.”

“But what if they were
pushed
?” she asked.

The bull shook its head at Mari. “Nah, it's very defensible,” Shell said. “Razor's pretty smart. The shiver feeds in shifts, and there's always a group of sharks guarding their tails that would outnumber two to one anything Goblin could use to attack. If they tried anything from where they're set now, Goblin Shiver would get shoved into the Run because of the current and Razor Shiver.”

Barkley swam in a quick circle. “Unless they were betrayed by bulls in their own shiver! That's it!” The dogfish explained: “Kilo and his fins will join Goblin Shiver while Razor and his Line are feeding! What Goblin doesn't know is that he's on the menu, too!”

“Kilo!” Shell growled the name. “I never liked that flipper. Too bad the giant clam didn't snap his face just a little tighter. Left a nice mark, though.”

“WHAT?” Gray yelled so loudly Shell started.

The bull was taken aback. “Umm, when Kilo was a pup, he almost got eaten by a giant clam. The thing clamped onto his face—what does this have to do with anything?”

“Did it leave a scar like a clam shell?” Barkley asked, almost as wound up as Gray.

“Yeah,” the bull said. “It sure did.”

It all came together in Gray's mind. Barkley knew too, but neither could speak they were so overcome by emotion.

Finally the dogfish looked at him and said, “Tyro's tail. She's evil.” Gray couldn't have agreed more.

Mari told the rest of the group, “Kilo led the bulls who destroyed their reef.”

“So it wasn't Razor who ordered that. It was Goblin and Velenka, after they learned about Coral Shiver's reef from Thrash!” said Barkley bitterly.

Gray could feel himself trembling with fury. All this time Goblin had stoked Gray's rage against Razor Shiver, when he was the one who had caused everything!

Barkley was angry but controlled it. “Gray, we're not here for revenge—”

“Speak for yourself!”

The dogfish bumped Gray hard in the flank. “You're not an evil shark!”

“Oh, come on, Barkley,” said an exasperated Striiker. “If anyone deserves to swim the Sparkle Blue, it's Goblin!”

“I'm afraid I agree,” Mari added.

Barkley shook his snout side-to-side “No! All we'll do is get ourselves killed. How does that help anything?” This gave everyone pause.

“Whatever you decide, I'll help,” Snork said in a squeaky voice. “Or, I'll try my best. But how can we beat them all?”

“We don't have to,” Barkley told him. “We can hurt Goblin
and
Velenka. It'll be worse than sending them to the Sparkle Blue.”

“And how do we do that?” asked Shell.

“By spoiling their plans,” Barkley answered with a grim smile. “By spoiling their plans.”

Just then, a long, soulful whale call pierced the water around them. Then another and another! A thin, dense stream of bluefin tuna spilled into view. It was the Tuna Run! The fish were blue on top with silvered bellies that caught the sun rays and caused a million flashes of light, resembling the landshark fireworks Gray and Barkley once saw near the reef. They were so fast! Maybe not as fast as the speedy, speedy wahoo, but the difference wasn't enough to bet your life on. Their torpedo-shaped bodies shot through the water as their crescent tails churned, moving them faster and faster as they mindlessly swam to who knew where. The tuna Gray had caught on hunting trips by the reef were half this size. These were open-ocean bluefin, twice as long as the wahoo, weighing four and five times as much!

The dogfish spoke for everyone when he said, “Wow.”

“It's beginning,” Striiker told everyone. “If we get caught in the middle when the main mass comes through we won't make it to the other side.”

Even now the stream of fish was getting thicker and more dense. “Then let's go,” Gray shouted. The noise of bluefin tails churning caused a constant buzz even from this distance.

So Rogue Shiver swam into the Tuna Run to do battle and meet their destiny.

“PEEL AWAY WHEN YOU'RE OVER RAZOR SHIVER!”
Striiker yelled. “Don't get turned around and definitely don't get pushed inward! If we do that we can surprise Goblin!”

“And Kilo,” muttered Gray darkly as he increased the pace of his tail strokes. The shark who had destroyed Gray's home finally had a name. The current was fast and made even more deadly by the bluefin who tore through the water as if they had been ordered to do so. Many shivers whizzed by, arrayed in loose groups, now readying to feed. There were so many!

One particular group caught Gray's eye. They weren't creeping up to feed like the others. They hovered in a perfect formation of three precisely stacked rows. And they were all marked.
Tattooed
, if Gray remembered the word correctly. What were sharks from Indi Shiver doing here?

Gray's thoughts were interrupted by a panicked Snork shouting, “I think we need to go faster!” as he struggled to keep up. The sawfish wasn't built for speed, swimming and hunting near the seabed where his long nose was an asset. If they went any faster, they would lose him entirely. They'd need everyone before this was over, though. Gray turned to see what had him so spooked.

Oh, no!

The main body of the Tuna Run rushed toward them like an undersea tidal wave of fish! It was a siege. At least! Maybe a double siege!

“Must swim faster! Everyone must swim faster!” shouted Barkley as he pushed Snork from behind.

Gray quickened his pace and swam for his life. The rock face to his right faded into a blur with glowing patches of distorted light from lumo clusters whizzing by at a terrifying pace. But they still weren't fast enough! The siege engulfed them, and everyone was battered from side to side. If they hadn't been swimming with the current, they would have undoubtedly been swept away to the Sparkle Blue.

“Go straight! Don't turn!” he heard Mari shout. She was only a body length away from him, but Gray couldn't see her at all, so thick were the bluefin. Then Gray saw another tattooed shark. But it wasn't someone from Indi Shiver.

It was Onyx! Gray hadn't put two and two together until this moment, but those really cool markings on Onyx were
Indi Shiver tattoos
!

And next to Onyx was Gray's mother! “Mom!” he shouted. “MOM!” He peeled off from the group.

“Are you crazy?!” shouted Striiker.

Mari yelled, “Gray, what are you doing?”

He took a look to see if Barkley was following, but the dogfish wasn't there.

His mother saw Gray and flicked her tail in a motion that indicated for him to stay away. She shouted, “It's too dangerous!”

Gray kept himself flowing with the tuna but was getting thumped more and more, glancing blows that threatened to turn him over. “WHERE CAN I FIND YOU?” he shouted. His mom answered, but Gray couldn't hear. There were too many bluefin whizzing by. “WHERE?” he shouted again as he was driven farther away by the mass of fish. Finally, Gray couldn't hold out and was pushed away from his mother. “I WILL FIND YOU!” he shouted. “I WILL FIND YOU!”

Then Gray was past them in an instant. She might have heard him. Were there others from the reef? Was that Quickeyes next to her? Gray was so focused on his mother he didn't know. But she was alive! His mother was alive! There was no going back, no fighting the siege while in the thick of it. Now, even glancing backward might get him killed. Gray would find her later, but there were things that needed to be done first. Besides, he couldn't have stopped if he wanted to.

Gray covered the distance left between himself and Razor Shiver in an eel strike. It took all his strength to muscle his way from the grip of the current and the running siege. He hoped the others had done the same.

Earlier, Gray held visions of skidding to a stop on a clam shell in front of Goblin, revealing his evil plan, and looking good doing it. That wasn't going to happen. As he forced his way sideways toward the rock face, he was rammed in the flank by a massive bluefin. Boom! Boom! Boom! Gray was smashed by three more and flipped over. Soon four-and five-hundred-pound fish were buffeting him from every angle. It was like being caught in the turbulence of a tidal wave and forced through a maze of coral, but a hundred times worse. Somehow Gray was ejected from the mass. He hit the wall sideways above Razor Shiver. Shell was already there, shaking his head, dazed.

“You all right?” Gray yelled over the noise of the siege. Luckily both of them were only bruised. The bull waggled his fins, indicating he was okay. As Gray got his fins working again, he saw that Striiker and Mari were much farther away, too distant to join with them for a while. They'd have to fight their way against the current to where he and Shell were. Gray looked for Barkley and Snork, but there was no sign of either. If they were gone there would be time to grieve later. The coup was happening now!

Razor and his shiver sharks hunted the edge of the Run as it continued roaring past. But he didn't see Kilo and ten other bulls swim into an attack formation with Goblin, and twenty other sharkkind. Razor and his Line would be shoved into the Tuna Run and never seen again!

It was all happening so fast! Gray needed to do something right now! He pumped his tail ferociously, fighting the current, but couldn't reach Goblin in time to stop the attack. The great white bore down on Razor and the bull didn't see him.

Just then, by skill or crazy luck—probably crazy luck—Barkley shot out of the siege of bluefin. He was spinning with tremendous speed and hit Thrash, who then knocked into Goblin, Streak, and Ripper, sending them all plunging beyond Razor. Even though it was only a short distance, it was strategically huge because now they needed to fight the current to regain position.

But before Goblin could get back into position to attack, Razor saw him swimming with Kilo and other sharks from his shiver. He understood instantly, and shouted, “Traitors!”

Every bull with Razor—easily forty—charged the outnumbered Goblin Shiver and the disloyal bulls. It was chaos! Razor swam at the head of his phalanx of sharks in a tight formation. They let themselves be carried toward Goblin and his allies, who barely avoided being swept away. The two shivers met near the edge of the safe area by the rock wall with a crash loud enough to be heard over the roar of the bluefin—and now Gray and Shell were in the middle of the battle!

“You!” shouted Goblin when he saw Gray. Anger and hate shined in his eyes. The big great white would have gone straight for him if there weren't so many bulls streaking in every direction. Gray swam away from Goblin Shiver, avoiding raking attacks from Streak and another shiver shark, a thresher. Shell and Gray were then spotted by Razor. Razor thought they, too, were with Goblin!

Gray and Shell fought their way through Razor Shiver while staying in front of Goblin and his forces. They swam full-speed ahead, flank to flank, so tightly an urchin spine couldn't have fit between them. Everything was flashing teeth, blood, confusion, and above all, the thunderous din of the bluefin siege flashing by, a relentless, speeding, silvery mass. Gray didn't want to kill anyone, but he defended himself fiercely. He butted two attacking bulls off the safe area, and both were sucked into the Run as if jerked away by a giant octopus tentacle.

While Gray and Shell were handling anything coming snout to snout, swimming fast enough to keep Goblin Shiver from biting their tails, neither was defended from above.

That's exactly where Velenka and three others attacked from.

They streaked downward, and there was nothing Gray or Shell could do. If they stopped churning forward, Goblin Shiver would catch them. If they stopped defending from the bulls attacking head-on, they were also done.

“Get away from them!” came a shout.

It was Mari! And Striiker! They had fought the current and bluefin to make it back when it mattered most. Mari would have taken Velenka's dorsal if she hadn't peeled off her attack, which saved Gray. Striiker smashed into Shell's pursuer, biting him in the gills and forcing the dying shark into the current. All of the attackers were swept away by the Tuna Run. Now Gray, Shell, Striiker, and Mari were up current from both shivers, which were busy fighting with each other.

“What took you so long?” Gray shouted to Striiker and Mari over the noise of the swimming tuna.

“Just doing a little sightseeing,” the great white replied with a grin.

Everyone was catching their breath when Snork made his appearance. He was scratched and bruised, but otherwise okay. “Sorry I'm late,” he told everyone.

But where was Barkley?

The area cleared as the siege moved itself farther away from the rock face. Gray could now see the battle clearly. Both shivers lost many sharks, but Razor's fins still outnumbered Goblin's. Razor's first said something to him and the bull leader nodded. He yelled, “I'll deal with you all later!” Razor and his shiver caught the current and disappeared with the thinning bluefin.

They had done it! They'd stopped Goblin and Velenka's plan!

This triumphant feeling was short-lived as Gray saw their situation. The Tuna Run tapered to a thin flow of stragglers and older fish. The current also lessened, as it had been partly driven by the bluefin themselves, and there weren't so many now. Goblin and his forces formed a massive attack formation. There were at least twenty-five Goblin Shiver sharkkind in three levels along with the remaining bulls.

Velenka stared at Gray and the others hatefully. “Kill them, Goblin! Eat them alive!”

As if Goblin needed any goading. There was no way the five sharks of Rogue Shiver could win this fight. Shell and Striiker were too injured to swim away. Snork wasn't fast enough. And Gray wouldn't leave his friends behind.

Not now, or ever again.

At least Goblin and his shiver sharks were slowed by their own injuries. It wouldn't help for long, but it didn't allow Goblin and his force to charge right away. “What are you waiting for?” cried Velenka from a distance.

Goblin panted for a moment, but that was all the time his hate would allow him to rest. “ATTACK!” he cried and rushed Gray and his friends, intent on eating them all.

But Goblin Shiver was exhausted from the fight with Razor. Struggling against even the weakened current, they seemed as if they were swimming in slow motion. Gray got in front of Mari, while Striiker and Shell swam to either side of Gray to protect his flanks. It looked like Snork was running away, but instead he made a vertical half loop and took position hovering topside. Gray was so proud of his friends. But he suspected that their formation wouldn't last more than a few seconds after the battle began.

“I see you've found better fins to call friends!” said Takiza, hovering next to Gray's left eye.

“I guess so.” If Gray had had any strength left at all, he would have been more surprised to see Takiza. But he was too tired to be surprised. The betta didn't seem to be affected by the currents whipsawing around them. His frilly fins waved gently as if he was in a much calmer ocean. “How have you been, otherwise?”

Gray was utterly worn out and sure he'd heard Takiza wrong. “You may want to leave now!” he yelled over the dull roar of the bluefin passing. “Goblin wants to eat us!”

“No. We have much to discuss,” said the colorful betta. “I'd like you to become my apprentice! Do you agree?”

Gray blinked at the smiling betta. The frilly fish was mad! “Fine,” Gray told him. “If we live through this, I'll be your apprentice.”

“Excellent!”

The appearance of the betta caused Goblin to slow down. It seemed he feared the tiny, ruffled fish. “This has nothing to do with you, Takiza!” the great white growled.

“You have the manners of a lumpfish and the odor of sea kelp baking in the sun,” the betta told him. “Go now or I will become annoyed!”

Striiker's eyes popped open. “Who's this, now?”

“Shh!” Shell hissed.

Mari agreed. “Yeah, I wanna see this.”

Goblin didn't take it well, that's for sure. “You'll grow annoyed? You—
you
? Will…be…
annoyed
?!” he sputtered. “I'll show you annoy—”

That's as far as the great white got.

Takiza fluttered his frilly fins and did a slow barrel roll, and a whirling mass of glowing water grew in the middle of the Goblin Shiver, sucking them inside while it expanded. Velenka was so shocked that she just stared at the betta as she was pulled into it, not swimming against the force even a little.

Goblin did, though. And mightily.

It was impressive how the infuriated great white kept himself outside the whirling maelstrom for a while, even though his tail was caught. “This isn't over!” he shouted. Gray didn't know if he was talking to him or to Takiza, but was too tired to care. “This isn't over, I tell you!” Then Goblin was hauled into the roiling, shining, water ball.

The sharkkind inside were spinning at a tremendous speed. It wasn't hurting them, Gray saw, but they'd be dizzy for a week. With a flick of Takiza's tail, the ball moved into the current and was carried away into the distance. The betta snapped his frilly fins and the glowing ball disappeared. Goblin and everyone else tumbled away with the current.

Takiza passed Striiker, Mari, Shell, and Snork, giving them all polite nods. Nobody returned the greeting, mainly because they were so awed and dumbfounded. The siamese fighting fish stopped in front of Gray to say, “I'll tell you when your training is to begin. Until then, I bid you good day.” And with that Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom swam away, humming a sprightly tune.

“Seriously, who is that?” asked Snork.

Just then, Barkley appeared. Gray's heart leapt when he saw his friend. The dogfish had a giant lump on his head and was swimming at an angle.

“What happened?” he asked. “Did I miss anything?”