Shark Wars (16 page)

Everyone hooted with laughter. Barkley looked at them, perplexed. “What?” he asked, which made everyone laugh even harder.

BECAUSE OF HIS SIZE, GRAY COULD NO LONGER
use the crack in the hull of the tri-level landshark wreck to get inside, so his friends widened a back entrance that was rotting away.

“Don't take this question as an insult,” Barkley said after they were inside, “but how much more do you think you're going to grow?”

“And less fatty fish taste almost as good as the, umm, fatty ones,” Mari added.

“Not really,” Shell said.

“Yeah, about that,” Gray began. “I don't know how much bigger I'll get, because I'm not a reef shark.”

“What do you mean?” asked Striiker. “You said you were.”

“Because that's what I thought. I'm actually…I might be…wow, this sounds crazy—”

Barkley slapped him on the flank with his tail. “Spit it out!”

“I'm a megalodon.”

There was silence. They all just stared at him. “Velenka took me into the prehistore cave, where there was this skeleton…. My teeth matched…and, uh, I actually kinda look like it.”

“That's so cool!” said Snork. “I thought all megalodons were extinct, though.”

“They are extinct!” said Striiker. “But I've been to that cave, and I gotta say there is a resemblance. Gray is definitely as ugly as that thing.” The great white gave him a good-natured smile. “Maybe even uglier!”

Mari swam close, looking into his mouth. “Open,” she instructed, and he did. Pretty soon everyone was crowding around for a better look. “Wider!” Now Gray couldn't close his mouth because Mari's snout was actually in there.

“His teeth do match. They're smaller, but they're the same curved shape,” the thresher told everyone. “I love the prehistore cave. I've been in there twenty times.”

“By the way, you have a bluefin head stuck in your back row,” Snork told him.

“Even if him being a megalodon is true,” Shell began, “how
can
it be true?”

“Umm, hahh-loww?” Gray said as best he could while the others held a conversation practically
inside
of his mouth. “Could ya pluhs back awahhhh?” They did, and he closed his mouth. “Private space, anyone?”

Barkley was the only one who hadn't said anything. Gray could see the look on his face. He got that expression when he was thinking hard about something. Then the dogfish nodded to himself and broke his silence. “This makes sense. It really does.”

“Please, enlighten us,” Striiker said sarcastically.

“Velenka knew it. Knew it right away, somehow,” Barkley explained. “She wanted Gray all along. She pulled the strings to get Goblin to find the reef, to make sure we were homeless, everything.”

“So Velenka's smart,” the sawfish said, “but in a really bad way.”

“That's exactly right, Snork. And Gray,” the dogfish said evenly, “I don't think she's done with you.”

“Neither is Goblin,” Striiker added quietly.

“Then I'll leave. It'll be safer for all of you.”

“No, Gray,” Mari said. “Striiker means Goblin isn't done with any of us. Neither is Razor, for that matter.” Gray looked over at the great white, and he nodded, agreeing with the thresher.

“Another one of your jelly-brained ideas,” Barkley said with a chuckle. “But we have a better plan.”

Striiker moved to the front of the pack. “You should lead us.”

“No,” Gray said. “This is your shiver. I couldn't.”

“You can and you will. What you did at the Tuna Run showed me how much I have to learn about being a real leader.”

Gray looked at Barkley, Mari, Shell, and Snork. They were all in on it. Gray was touched. He'd told them he was a megalodon and they didn't think he was a monster. They still wanted him as their friend. And they trusted him to lead them.

“Would you be my first?” Gray asked the great white. Striiker grinned.

“Can you two fight or yell at each other now?” Barkley asked. “I liked it better when you were fighting.” This brought out a round of good-natured laughter—something they all needed.

Rogue Shiver was reborn! There were many problems, to be sure, but for some reason Gray felt hopeful.

“Group rub!” Snork shouted. Soon they were all yelling, laughing, and scraping against each other. It was a great ending to an absolutely terrifying day. But not perfect. On the way back from the Tuna Run, Barkley and Gray had talked. Neither had seen any sign of his mother or anyone else from Coral Shiver.

Or Indi Shiver, which also bothered Gray for some nagging reason. And what was Onyx's connection to a shiver from another ocean? That was a question to be answered later. For now they could take comfort in the fact that Coral Shiver was alive. They were out there somewhere. Gray would never stop searching until he found them. Barkley and the rest of his new friends would help. All in all, it was the best Gray could hope for right now. Tomorrow was another day to find the answers he was looking for. And his mom.

No one noticed Takiza smile and swim away from the greenie-covered porthole.

VELENKA STILL COULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT HAD
happened. The little betta had tossed the combined might of Goblin Shiver aside with no effort at all. She'd heard stories when she was a pup about the magical fighting fish but had never believed them. All her carefully laid plans had been swept aside by his frilly fins! How could she harness Takiza's power for her own desires? How indeed?

“We will find them,” Goblin growled while hovering over Speakers Rock. “We'll defeat all our enemies!” The ceremony to make Kilo his third was over. Velenka thought that elevating the bull into the Line wasn't a good idea, especially after Kilo's efforts brought nothing. But Velenka couldn't talk Goblin into anything right now. As it was, Streak wasn't pleased by being passed over by a traitor, and Ripper didn't like the ex-Razor Shiver bull, either.

At least she was able to soothe Thrash's bruised ego. She stepped aside, rather than fighting him for fourth in the Line. Not that she thought she could beat him in a fair fight, anyway. Goblin wasn't happy. He was in the mood for blood. The great white would be even less pleased if he found out that Velenka had
told
Thrash to challenge her, and that she wouldn't stand in his way.

“They won't leave the Atlantis. I can feel it. And when we find them, there will be blood!” Goblin roared to the approval of the gathered shiver sharks.

But whose? Velenka thought silently as she nodded and gnashed her teeth in support. Was tiny Rogue Shiver under the protection of Takiza? And even if it wasn't, Gray was a megalodon. That was a definite problem. He needed to be converted to her cause or killed before he got too powerful. She would have to think carefully about her next move.

“Who will swim by my flank and send the traitors to the Sparkle Blue?” yelled Goblin to the shiver. Everyone answered with a rousing roar.

Velenka made sure she cheered the loudest.