Whoosh! That was the only sound you could hear in the ocean as Eric shot through the water. He loved the feel of the salt water running through his gills. Already he could hear the stranded surfer as he treaded the water trying to keep from being attacked by a pack of blue sharks. As he neared the pack he could see he had three feet easy on the pack leader. The blue sharks swam in a circle, and with the sun reflecting off their backs they looked like a disco ball spinning near the surface. Eric decided not to attack because he was outnumbered, but he couldn’t get through the pack’s tight circle without slamming into a blue sharks flank. The shark didn’t know what hit him and looked around for his attacker but Eric was too fast. One second he was grabbing the surfer and the next he was setting the surfer on a nearby sandbar. Eric could see the orange surfboard bobbing in the waves a couple yards away. He went and retrieved it then slipped the surfer on. In the ocean water Eric’s muscles were as big as bowling balls, so with one push he had the surfer safely on his way to the beach. He knew that if he swam to shore he wouldn’t be able to keep his dorsal fin under the water and would have every single person on the beach making a beeline to their house, so he jetted around to the other side of the island. He reached his house just as his mother called him in for dinner. As Eric aged, his appetite had gotten bigger and he easily polished off four catfish fillets. Then he brushed his teeth (even though his teeth were as white as pearls) and quietly slipped into bed. He could hear his parents in the kitchen reading the article about a surfer that was saved from a pack of blue sharks by what he described as a twenty foot long half megadalon half dolphin creature with huge arms and… freckles? Doctors decided he was too dehydrated and had hallucinated it all, but the surfer still believed his theory saying he was perfectly fine and was saved by the nicest creature in the sea. Eric slowly drifted off to sleep with a grin gled to his face.
After school Eric walked home and told his parents he was going for a swim. His parents told him to watch out for sharks even though they knew as well as him that there hadn’t been a shark attack in years. “Hmmmm wonder why,” Eric chuckled to himself as he headed out the door. After walking a half mile Eric entered the beach at the now empty west dock and instantly felt better as he zipped through the water. The feeling didn’t last long because he soon felt as if he was being watched. Something else was strange too; there wasn’t a school of tuna in sight. He was almost scraping the sea floor when the faint smell of blood started dancing at his nostrils. He instantly sped forward and that’s when he saw his stalker. He saw a sleek black tail slip behind a cluster of coral and instantly gave chase. Eric might have been as fast as a lighting bolt thrown by Zeus but he couldn’t gain on the mysterious shark, but he wasn’t losing any on it either. In the short second Eric thought this his brain put two and two together. The moderately sized pectoral fins, the sleek shape, the speed; it was a mako, the fastest shark in the sea. Although Eric’s brain always came through for him, he always got straight A’s on his report cards, but this time he almost wished his brain hadn’t come through for him. “Friend or foe?” yelled Eric hoping the mako would reply friend. But the mako didn’t say friend, though he didn’t say foe either. Great, thought Eric to himself, now I have the only shark that can match my speed right on my fins. Eric swam unusually slowly toward the beach as he pondered what had just happened. Eric still wasn’t sure about the meeting with the mako that afternoon but he knew one thing for sure, something weird was going on and Eric was determined to find out what it was.
The next day as Eric was leaving the school the Kaitlin, the Junior High head cheerleader, came up to Eric to congratulate him on his win on the swim team and the baseball team. “I don’t know how you can play four different sports and still have time to take piano lessons and hang out with your friends,” she said and Eric could feel her perfume stinging his eyes. “Well it’s not always easy but I like doing them all so I do what I can for each one, even though they get in the others way sometimes. I could probably still do some others,” bragged Eric as he headed out the school towards his house. “I bet you could how athletic and talented you are!” yelled Kaitlin as Eric headed down the sidewalk. After reaching his front porch Eric asked his parents if he could go for a swim again today. They didn’t let him go until he showed them he had aced his science test. Eric didn’t tell them that he had finished it in ten minutes because he knew his mom wanted him to take his time. He could’ve aced the test with his eyes closed though because it was on ocean currents and waves. Eric exited the house and wove his way through crowds of people on his way to the west dock. He shot into the water off the dock and wasn’t paying any attention when he scared a surfer out of his wits. Whoops, Eric thought as he swam even faster. Again he didn’t see a fish but could smell blood. He followed the scent to an abandoned reef that still had spirals of blood swirling through the water. He looked up just in time to see a gang of silver tails disappear behind a sunken ship. The weirdest thing was that he didn’t know one of those sharks, and not one of those sharks’ tails was black. “Friend,” said something behind Eric. He tried not to act surprised but the Mako had scared him half to death. Right that second both sharks knew they weren’t going to figure this out alone, they were doing this together.
After having a chat with the mako inside of the sunken ship, Eric was given a bunch of information. He now knew that the tails he had seen belonged to a gang of sharks that called themselves the Silver Strikers. He also was informed that the head shark’s name was Harvey, and he had 12 minions that went around with him and wreaked havoc on any reef in sight until they were full. “Harvey isn’t very fast but he is super strong,” said the mako. “He claims to be the son of a megadolon even though everyone knows he’s just a big great white.” “Do you think we can beat them if we attack?” asked Eric. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we did beat them, I saw you rescuing that surfer from that pack of blues, you’re pretty incredible,” the mako said praising Eric. Not wanting all the praise Eric replied, “You’re pretty incredible yourself. I mean you gathered all this information, you’re the fastest shark in the sea, and you can hide better than any fish or human I know. “Then it’s settled, we’ll follow the Silver Strikers and attack before they know what hit them,” said the mako. “Sounds good to me,” answered Eric. “All right see you tomorrow,” said the mako. As he was heading out the hole in the ship’s side Eric quickly asked “What’s your name?” “Mark,” said the mako. “Mine’s Eric!” yelled Eric. Then he smiled, he now had a sidekick, and he knew it was tail they were going to kick.
Eric left to meet Mark at seven o’ clock because it was a weekend, but he left a note on the counter that said he had had breakfast and was going to meet with a friend. Eric reached the ship and decided to try to sneak up and scare Mark. As he was sneaking to thee top deck of the sunken ship Mark snuck up behind him ad said boo. Eric almost fell on the deck dead which just made Mark laugh even harder. “You should’ve seen your face,” laughed Mark, “It was priceless!” “How do you do that?” asked Eric. “Just a skill I get from being a mako,” replied Mark. After they left the ship there was hardly any conversation between them as they tried to track down the sharks. Soon enough they had spotted the sharks heading for a reef. They snuck behind an overgrown anemone and Eric asked Mark where they were. “Somewhere near the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,” whispered Mark. Eric wondered how long it would take him to swim home and decided to remind himself to time himself after they had taught these sharks a lesson. He turned to Mark to ask him when they were going to attack but all he saw was a hammerhead shark torpedoing toward his right flank. Just then Mark appeared out of nowhere and ripped the shark’s dorsal fin off. The shark started falling to the seafloor and blood filled the water. Just then a bull shark appeared behind Mark and Eric jetted forward and ripped a hunk out of the shark’s side, right where his gills were. That shark also fell to its death. Two down ten to go thought Eric. Suddenly nine sharks circled Mark and Eric. Here comes the fun, Eric thought as he charged towards an ocean whitetip.
Eric slammed into the whitetip’s flank, paralyzing it for a couple seconds. Eric then turned and ripped off the shark’s tail. Eric turned to see Mark dodge an attack from a tiger shark, swim under it, and bite a chunk out of the shark’s stomach. Suddenly a lemon shark attacked Eric from below. Eric rolled sideways and bit off the shark’s pectoral fin. While he was trying to figure out how many sharks were left Eric saw the outline of a shark coming towards him through a huge pillow of blood. The gray reef shark swam directly towards Eric. While Eric tried to figure out how stupid this shark was he saw Mark come and bite the sand tiger shark that was sneaking up on Eric right where sand tigers store air and the shark instantly fell towards the sea floor. The gray reef shark retreated but wasn’t fast enough and Eric was on him ripping off his gills. Five left thought Eric, then corrected himself as he saw Mark rip a blue shark to pieces. The four sharks not counting Harley that were left tried retreating but three of them couldn’t make it out without getting they’re fins torn off. The last shark, which was a smaller great white made it out unharmed. Mark and Eric turned when they heard a low voice talking. “Well well look at what we have here. A mako shark and an um what exactly are you?” asked Harley. Eric didn’t answer. “So it’s going to have to go down like this. What a shame, you two would make a good couple of minions. Now that all mine are dead I’m going to need some new ones now won’t I. But since you obviously won’t join me I guess I’ll have to turn you into shark stew.” said Harley. The great white charged the sharks and they both dodged the attack. Eric swam up behind Harley but Harley just rolled out of the way. Eric now knew defeating this shark would be as hard as trying to strangle the shark with a piece of string.
Eric saw Mark charging Harley form the left and Eric charged from the right. Harley slapped Mark away with his tail like a fly and sent Mark scrambling through the water. Eric on the other hand hit Harley with all he had and the two sharks started wrestling. Both sharks were just as strong as the other, and in combat it sounded as if there were hydrogen bombs being dropped one by one into the ocean. Eric had the upper hand for a while, but Harley was pretty fast for his size. After dodging an attack where Eric nearly ripped off his dorsal fin, Harley turned and swatted Eric with all he could. Eric went spinning through the water until he hit the ocean floor with such strength and force that a huge underwater mountain was formed, a mountain bigger than any other mountain in land or water. Dazed Eric just laid there and listened to Harley’s laughter. But Harley wasn’t laughing for long. There was a flash of black as Mark slammed into Harley’s flank, paralyzing the shark for a few seconds. A few seconds was all the mako needed to rip off Harley’s dorsal and pectoral fin. The body of the great white went spiraling to the sand and landed amongst the bodies of his comrades and added to the billow of blood in the water. Mark rushed over to Eric but couldn’t get there to drag him out before a section of the underwater mountain fell on Eric, leaving nothing but his dorsal fin showing. Mark watched in hope as the rocks shifted, but no one came out from underneath the rubble. Mark started moving the rocks one by one until he got to the body of the toughest shark Mark had ever known. He laid Eric on his back and swam towards the beach to drop the body off.
When Eric awoke the next morning he didn’t know why he was in a hospital bed, nor where anybody was. All he knew was that more than anything he wanted to go for a swim. He rolled out of his bed, walked through the swinging doors, and was greeted by his parents in the lobby. “Are you okay?” asked Eric’s parents in unison. “I, I think so what happened and why am I here?” questioned Eric. “You tell us,” they replied, “All we know is that you didn’t show up for dinner so we went to look for you at the beach. When we got there we saw your body lying there unconscious. We rushed you to the hospital where we were told you would be alright. The doctors figured whatever had happened to you you probably wouldn’t remember what happened and I guess they were right,” Eric’s mom said, “Can I go to the beach? I think I might remember what happened after being there,” explained Eric. After a couple minutes of begging Eric’s parents finally gave in but told him to be careful. After promising he would Eric walked towards the west dock relieved to finally be able to swim. But when he entered the water nothing happened, Eric was still human and that’s when it hit him. Mark, the silver strikers, the fight, Harley, Eric being thrown to the ground, Mark tearing Harley to pieces, the rocks falling on Eric, and Mark carrying Eric to the beach where Eric became unconscious. Then he realized… he would never be a shark again.
