Heretical Fishing

Book 4: Chapter 59: Secret Ability

Tingles raced up and down my skin, just as they did my very soul. It was a sensation I’d never felt before, but that was hardly surprising. Teleporting so much mass had pushed my will to the limit. It’d taken all my attention to move Bob the boat—as well as everything and everyone on board—back toward Tropica.

I searched for Maria, our bond allowing us to connect despite my overexertion; I immediately understood why she’d called me. Corruption had returned to the hearts of two cultivators, which was an issue of gigantic fracking proportions. In my mind’s eye, I could see Maria skidding to a stop outside the former royals’ cell, ignoring Keith’s demands as she sat, reached for Slimes, and started channelling their healing essence.

The only visual proof of our transportation was a distinct lack of color. I’d become used to arriving in a flash of white light—this was something else. I couldn’t see the tip of my nose. But that didn’t matter. I had other senses. Strands of chi poured from me, growing thicker by the millisecond. Regardless of what I found, I knew my friends and I could handle any… thing?

The ship’s bow faced the open ocean, giving us a view of Tropica’s bay. So, the moment color returned to my awareness, I bore witness to the localized yet violent storm just offshore. Like someone had detonated several bombs a kilometer away, water sprayed toward the heavens, obscuring a vast swathe of horizon.

As visually impressive as it was, nothing could have prepared me for what it felt like.

It… it was crabs. A frackload of them. All tinged with hints of my trusty guard-crab, Snips.

“What the shi—”

I whirled to the south. Twin elements had erupted from beyond the distant mountain range. Forks of lightning barbed their way out in every direction—Claws and her raccoon’s experiments, no doubt. That was expected. What wasn’t expected, however, was the aspect weaving between and through each tongue of electricity.

Earth. Not just a little, either. A metric shit-tonne of it, so strong that clumps of sandstone and silicate from deep in the world’s mantle floated about, entirely ignoring gravity.

Not everywhere! My instincts screamed. Below us!

It happened in the blink of a cultivator’s eye. A solid wall of silt and stone climbed up around Bob’s deck, moving horrifically fast as layers upon layers upon layers folded overtop themselves. Tens, then hundreds, then thousands of tonnes of mass, each molecule filled to the brim with aspected chi.

It was somehow stronger than Claws’s, but that abject threat wasn’t what made my blood freeze—its age was. This thing, this elemental, was ancient, having lived for countless years. Its presence felt multifaceted, something about it too complex, too varied, for me to comprehend.

Knowing this was a possibility—if an extremely remote one—I hadn’t let go of my power. I clicked my thumb and forefinger on both hands, sending most of my friends away, their bodies disappearing just before a solid wall of earth blocked out the last patch of predawn sky above.

Only three pals remained onboard. Their forms were lit by the bright departure of the others, revealing one with a wagging tail, and another with floppy ears and a fuzzy body poised for violence. The third, Bonnie, seemed much less happy about her continued presence, both eyes wide and head darting. I gave all of them a wink, then sent some quick thoughts out across Tropica, having to keep the messages brief and conceptual considering my end was ostensibly nigh.

An outside observer of the incoming annihilation might have found our reactions incredibly strange. Well, except for Bonnie—hers was pretty understandable. The rest of us, though? Any sane onlooker would likely assume we were unhinged or suicidal based on the grins on our faces and adrenaline coursing through our veins.

But that wasn’t reflective of us—it was reflective of said onlooker’s lack of knowledge, imagination, or both.

We could have left, of course. I still had the reserves to teleport myself, my friends, and even the swordfish to safety. What I couldn’t risk rescuing, however, was Bob. I’d be able to shift him through space again, but it could take all my strength, potentially leaving me unconscious and unable to further assist my friends.

That was unacceptable. But that didn’t mean I would just abandon him. A captain, after all, goes down with his ship.

“Now!” I ordered, struggling to keep the anticipation from my voice as a cracking sound joined the roar of sediment and rock tumbling toward us. “Plan B!”

***

Eastern Tropica Village, Two Days Ago

“Okay, Fischer.” Barry stole a glance at Peter and the barbecue the chef was tending atop Tropica’s oceanic walkway. “What did you want to talk about?”

I understood the hunger in his eyes. We’d spent most of the day swimming, enjoying a morning of leisure before our seaward adventure—the hours of exercise had left me famished.

“Don’t worry, mate,” I said. “We just need a minute or two.”

“We?” Barry repeated, looking down at Borks and Cinnamon. The latter was riding the former. She nodded in response to his question. Before any more words could be exchanged, I snapped my fingers, and the world shifted around all four of us.

When the light of my teleportation disappeared, gone was the grey street, replaced by the scorched remains of a once-verdant forest. A ruined strip of trees extended in opposite directions, this burned scar only proof remaining of the king’s assault on Tropica.

“Uhhh…” Barry started, but trailed off when I held a finger to my lips.

Borks, my goodest of boys, opened up a portal, its lines cracking into existence. With a nod toward it, we all stepped through.

“I need to ask a favor,” I said in a rush the moment we were inside. “On the trip we’re going on, I need to prank someone repeatedly, and it needs to be you.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“... What?”

“Damn. What was a terrible place to start, wasn’t it?” I took a steadying breath, exhaling it slowly to ease my racing heart. “I’m feeling hurried because the longer we’re in here, the more likely it is that our scheme gets discovered.”

Cinnamon let out a peep, and I patted her soft little head.

“You’re right—I should begin there…”

Barry just blinked, his face as confused and curious as his jawline was sharp.

“Okay,” I said. “Before I voice any of this, you need to control your emotions. I’m gonna tell you something really aggravating, but you can’t can’t get pissed off. Deal?”

“Uhhh, can’t you just… not say things that will piss me off?”

“Afraid not. But there’s an excellent incentive for you to hear what I have to say.” I grinned, doing my best to remain calm. “If you can keep your emotions in check, you’ll be able to get revenge on… her. On Corporal Claws.”

His eyes flashed with need. “I’m listening…”

I started relaying the true events of the previous night. When he learned we had conspired to make him lose his bet against Maria, which resulted in him having to dance while singing an embarrassing song, he came real close to losing his cool. He got even closer to the edge when he remembered the depansting-via-raccoon that’d followed, but just as he was about to boil over, Borks and Cinnamon leaped into his arms, their fur-covered tooshies the perfect distraction if ever there was one.

“All right,” Barry finally said when his blood pressure had returned to normal and his muscles no longer looked like they were trying to ripple out of his skin. “Where does the revenge come in, though? I’m clearly missing something.”

“I have to keep it to myself for now, mate. Do you trust me?”

He stared back, expression flat—no words were needed.

“Yeahhh, okay, you’ve got a point. How about this, then…” I stroked Cinnamon’s and Borks’s heads. “I swear on my friendship with these here beasts that you will thoroughly enjoy it. I also swear that none of it comes at your expense, and it’s best that you don’t know any more yet.”

He raised a brow at my words. “Okay. That’s enough for me to trust you.”

“Good! Now control your anticipation so I can send you back—it’s literally flooding out. Even a drop could alert Claws that shenanigans are afoot.”

The prospect of vengeance against the troublesome otter had made his already substantial ego inflate. He took a deep breath, massaged his cheeks, and nodded, his face sobering. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Awesome. Appreciate your help with this, mate.” I extended a hand, which he gripped and shook. “You won’t regret it.”

As we stepped outside, I patted Barry on the shoulder. “We’ll join you in a second, mate.”

“What? You aren’t com—”

With a slight gesture of my index finger, I sent him back to Tropica. “Could you keep your portal open a bit longer, Borks? I want to store something within.”

His head tilted to the side like a puppy hearing a high-pitched noise. It was gods-damned adorable. Without another moment’s hesitation, he leaped back inside.

Cinnamon went next, and I followed, making two small gestures with one hand just before stepping into the dimensional space. More cunning and intelligent that a normal dog, my Golden Retriever bud closed the rift behind, sealing us in.

“Huh.” I said, eying the wall where the portal had been. “Am I that transparent?”

Yes, they barked and peeped, eyeing the hand I’d hidden behind my back.

“Well, hopefully not to Claws. I have more information, but it’s only for the two of you, okay?”

They nodded, their ears fully erect.

“Last night when Claws thought I was asleep, I caught a conversation between her and her familiar. As with Barry, I can’t tell you everything yet, but I can tell you most. I’m not happy about leaving you two in the dark, but—”

Before I could finish the sentence, they were on me, Borks licking my arm and Cinnamon patting my knee with a paw. They didn’t care that I planned to keep secrets. Unlike Barry, they trusted me implicitly. I dropped down and pulled them against me. “You two are the best, you know that?”

They agreed, squirming in my arms to rub as much of their bodies against me as possible.

“Cinnamon the bunny and Brigadier Borks.” I stood tall and adopted a serious air. “I have a mission of the utmost importance for you, one that will see you going deep, deep undercover—and by that, I mean you’ll just have to keep some secrets to yourself, and possibly battle an elemental.”

Battle? Cinnamon asked. With Claws…?

I shook my head. “Not her, no. I have reason to believe there’s another of her kind on its way toward Tropica. If I’m correct, I’ll require help from both of you.” I looked at Borks. “And I’ll need an extra hand from you, mate. I won’t force you, but what I have in mind will require honesty and… sacrifice.”

I’d kept the wording vague, not wanting to force his paw—but I’d worried for no reason. With a loud bark and repeated wags of his tail, a small portal cracking into being. Other than its size, there was nothing to differentiate it from the one we’d used to enter his space.

He cocked his head, asking me how I’d known.

“Our bond. I’m sorry. I felt your breakthrough when we were on our material-gathering mission, despite the fact you were inside your dimensional space when it happened.”

His ears went all the way back, face tight and eyes filled with guilty.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, and you have no need to explain yourself.” I reached down to scratch the spot behind his ear that made his leg kick, but the thump that came from beside us was too loud and early to be his reaction to my scritching.

We both spun, and Cinnamon punched one curled forepaw into the other again. Her expression hinted at impending violence, and her soft squeak confirmed it. If someone doesn’t explain what the frack was going on…

“Borks unlocked another ability!” I said in a rush. “He was trying to keep it a secret, but I found out by accident!”

She looked at the portal, then back at me, not understanding.

“Look inside.”

She hopped over, poked her head in, then her whole body stiffened. Borks and I joined her, both our noggins squeezing through the small opening.

“Wow. It’s bigger than I thought, Borks.”

It was a second dimensional space, completely separate from the one our bodies were in. I’d thought it would only be large enough to fit a few things. Instead, I looked around an area as large as my room, its floor and walls empty of anything.

Wowwwww, Cinnamon said with a quiet and impressed squeak. I thought it would just be a different exit…

His tail was currently in a different time and location than my head, but that didn’t stop it from whacking the crap out of me with how hard it wagged.

I withdrew my head, and the others followed. “Would you leave it open? I need to stuff some things in there…”

I produced the two packages I’d brought with me when reentering Borks’s original space. My animal pals both recognized the tightly wound burlap sack, but the other was new to them. Their heads both tilted in confusion as they gazed over its metallic form.

“It’s all a part of the mission…” Both the items were wrapped in tendrils of my chi, the layers containing their scent and power. With great care, I opened a slit in the metal one’s shielding, letting some of its essence out.

Borks dashed forward. He pressed his nose against it and started huffing loudly—its aroma was clearly to his liking.

I laughed and scratched his head. “It’s not for eating—not yet, anyway…” I repaired the seal, placed both parcels within Borks’s new space, then nodded for him to close the portal. “Okay. Let me explain…”

They both sat down, their ears attentive and eyes locked onto mine as I laid out the mission, along with dozens and dozens of plan variations.