Hooks

Chapter 12: The Escape

The mayor continued laughing diabolically as he rubbed his fins together. His sound reverberated through the room and shook my entire body.

"What are you going to do Mark? You have to help me now. You have no choice...unless you want your family to die," he said menacingly.

"You're messing with the wrong fish, mayor," I told him.

I slowly began to swim up to the iron cage that was holding my family inside of it. Pixie was in tears, Morgan looked worried, and Carol was trying to comfort the kids and let them know that everything would be alright.

"Guys, everything will be okay. I know there is something that I can do," I said

"But what is it? We need an idea now..." said Carol.

"Mark...what are you doing? Swim away from the cage," demanded the mayor.

"Mayor...I was wondering. Can I have one last look at that beautiful tank of night creatures you showed me?" I asked.

"Well...your family is currently being held hostage so I guess I don't see why not," he replied.

The gears began to turn again and the iron cage started to close shut and turn into a box. Then, it began to slowly descend back down, underneath the floor. I watched as the tank of night creatures slowly came down closer and closer to me as the room began to glow more so than it was before.

"Mark...I'm sorry about all of this. But you see, with you, there is just no other way. You are too stubborn. Plus, I need your intelligence to lead me into my path of ruling the sea..." he said laughing.

"Mayor, I'm sorry too," I said as  I picked up a sharp tool from one of the tables in his laboratory.

"Mark, what are you doing!?" yelled the mayor angrily.

"I'm saving Coral City," I said.

I backed away from the tank and then quickly swam towards it as fast as I could. When I got near the tank, I took the tool and swiped it against the tank of creatures as hard as I could. At first, nothing happened. I felt defeated and was sad my plan didn't work. The mayor looked at me and began laughing.

"Oh Mark, how cute. Your plan failed miserably," he said.

Suddenly, a small crack formed where I hit the tank. Slowly but surely, it began to travel down it. The crack began to grow and get bigger. The mayor's jaw dropped open as he watched what was about to happen. A small shard of glass went flying past me and there was now a small hole in the glass. Eventually, the glass shattered before me and the sea creatures all began swimming around the room.

"MARK!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!??" yelled the mayor furiously.

Electric eels began to swim around and chase the mayor. I watched as the mayor ran around his laboratory in panic as the creatures began to break and destroy his inventions. The mayor continued swimming around trying to get away from the eels that were persistently chasing him. I watched as an eel got too close and electrocuted him. The mayor screamed in pain and started to swim up the stairs as he tried to get away for good. I swam back up to where the tank was and pulled the lever that I had seen the mayor pull. The iron box began to raise up from the ground once again. It took a while but eventually, it came to a screeching halt. Then, I pressed the button next to the lever just like the mayor had done. The iron box split open and my family was revealed once again. The night creatures left me untouched. They had no reason to be mad at me. The mayor had captured them and used them as a light source against their will.

"Mark! You're safe!" yelled my wife excitedly.

"Daddy, you did it!" said Pixie as she swam around happily.

"Good job, Dad," said Morgan.

"Thank you everyone, I am going to bust you out of here now. Just make sure that when exiting, you stay away from the electric eels and jellyfish. Got it?" I asked.

They all nodded their heads agreeing. I began to search around the destroyed laboratory as I looked for a button or lever that would open the cage. Eventually I found a big red button so I pressed it. The iron bars began to slide back into the bottom and top of the cage and my family was freed. I swam up to Carol and gave her a big hug. My kids came in and joined me.

"Honey, the mayor is still alive and Coral City is in danger. As much as I wish this was all over, it's not. I have to go save our city. I hope that's okay," I said to Carol.

"As long as I can go with you...I don't want to be without you again." she said as she started to follow me.

"No," I said pushing her back.

"You can't go...I have to do this alone. It's too dangerous. I need you to watch over the kids and the city, okay?" I asked her.

"But Mark..." she started.

"Carol, I love you more than anything and as much as it hurts me to say this, I have to do this and you can't go. I need you to stay here and do what you do best; care and protect." I said hugging her.

"Okay...just be careful. I am going to miss you," she said sobbing.

"I will miss you guys too," I said. I watched as rubble floated around the laboratory and started swimming towards the stairs. I looked back one more time and smiled. Then, I headed out of the house. I had to find those robot fish.