Hooks

Chapter 14: The Plan

"Robot fish?" asked Gummy.

"Yes, and I have to find them before they destroy Coral City, my home," I said as I swam in a line back and forth.

"Wouldn't a robot require specific technology powered by electricity? Wouldn't the water damage the circuits and the wires before the fish was even able to operate?" he asked.

"What?" I asked him as I slowly turned towards him.

"I don't remember what I said to be honest. Sometimes I just ramble about stuff. But robot fish sound cool," he said blowing off what he had just realized.

"They sound cool but they aren't Gummy. Those robot fish are capable of killing other fish and more importantly, my family and friends," I told him urgently.

Gummy started to cry loudly again.

"Why are you crying again!?" I asked impatiently.

"That was just so sad!" he said as he continued to bawl his eyes out.

"Gummy, how many times do you cry in a day?" I asked.

"Well yesterday I lost track at 47..." he said as he wiped away his flooding tears.

"Gummy, I need your help. Together we can destroy the robots, get rid of the hooks, and save Coral City once and for all," I said to him.

"Well what are we going to do?" he asked.

"We need a plan," I said firmly.

"Well where would the robot fish have gone?" Gummy asked me.

"Gummy, that's it! You're a genius," I said with excitement.

"My species have small brains. My smartness is about as great as my teeth...I don't have any!" He said as he flipped his tail back and forth crying some more.

"Gummy, stop crying. Listen to me. The surface is where Paul and Joe went and were killed by hooks. We have to go back to Coral City, go to the surface, and the robot fish will be there!" I said happily.

"Why would the robot fish wanna be caught?" He asked with a confused look on his face.

"It is in the robot's programming to blow up the hooks. But they are also capable of blowing up fish. That is why we are going there to stop them."

"I don't wanna blow up! I am a shark, not a pufferfish!" cried out Gummy.

"Gummy, calm down. Everything will be okay. Just stay with me and do what I say, okay?"

The sad shark nodded his head and we turned around and headed for Coral City.

On the way back things looked a lot different than they had before. It was becoming very dark and gloomy and I watched as algae floated around on both sides of me. We were definitely not in Coral City.

"Where are we?" asked Gummy.

"I don't know...that's what I have been trying to figure out. It didn't look this way last time. I think that we may have took a wrong turn," I said as I started to get a little scared.

"That's it! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die a sad, toothless shark! I don't want to be here Mark! I wanna go home!!!" he said bawling loudly.

"Gummy, be quiet. Did you hear that?" I said softly.

I had heard a soft hissing noise in the distance. I continued to listen and the hissing noises got stronger. Then, long creatures with razor sharp teeth began to emerge out of the darkness. Barracudas. We were trapped.

"Ah!!! Mark! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna be eaten alive!!!" screamed Gummy as he cried at the top of his lungs. He began rapidly flipping his tail back and forth as he sliced through the water.

"Gummy...that's it," I said as I got a brilliant idea.

He continued to cry ignoring what I had just said so I swam over and slapped him hard on the face.

"Gummy! Get a hold of yourself! I need you to use your tail to attack these barracudas!" I yelled.

"I'm not sad right now though...I only flip my tail when I'm sad," he said with a sorry look on his face.

The barracudas continued to gain on us as they slithered through the water getting closer and closer.

"Gummy...think of something sad. You've been crying all day. You seriously can't cry when I actually need you to?" I said angrily.

"I'm sorry Mark. Maybe the ocean doesn't need a toothless shark anyway," he said sulkingly.

"Gummy, the ocean is depending on you, you don't have any teeth, and you can't shed a single tear!!! You were just crying a minute ago! Are you kidding me!? I yelled.

"You...you...you yelled at me..." he said as his eyes began to fill with tears.

He once again began crying his eyes out and a barracuda swam up to my face. It opened it's mouth and began to close down on me when suddenly Gummy unintentionally whipped his tail hitting the barracuda and sending it shrieking off into the darkness. Gummy kept doing this as he hit barracuda after barracuda. There were only a few left and they all slithered off quickly trying to get away from Gummy's catastrophic tail.

"Gummy...you did it!" I screamed as I tried to regain my breath.

"Did what?" he asked.

"You scared them all off!" I said with joy.

"I did...? he asked with a confused look.

"Yes, Gummy! You did it!" I said proudly.

"I did it! I killed the burritos!" he said as he swirled around in the water.

"They're called...never mind," I said.

"You wanna know the best part?" he asked me smiling.

"What?"

"I wasn't even scared," he said with a big goofy smile.