Heretical Fishing

Barry moved as carefully as he could, yet the ground shook with each stride, his anger bleeding out into the surrounding world. His ideal had been challenged. His purpose for living had been harmed. And his core, his very soul, demanded action.
Beside him, another advanced with similar intent, weaker but just as seething.
Normally, Barry would have glanced over at Dodge, curious about the man’s apparent invulnerability—Barry’s muscular legs created miniature earthquakes each time they met the ground—yet Dodge remained unaffected, his core resonating with purpose and manifesting the beginning of a breakthrough. Dodge’s ideal seemed related to stability, letting him glide overtop each disturbance. Such was the weight of his fury.
But Barry didn’t look the other man’s way. Nor did he delight in Dodge’s approaching advancement. And he certainly didn’t consider the implications. All he could do was focus on himself, lest his tempestuous anger tear the ground beneath Tropica asunder.
He could hear voices coming from the headland. Even from here, his acutely sensitive ears picked up joyous conversations between villagers, spirit beasts, and elementals. He didn’t begrudge them their mirth, but neither did he revel in it. What did the storm in his mind care for the squalls of seagulls?
As he rounded the outcropping of rock that marked Fischer’s home, Barry caught sight of them. The deepest part of his subconscious counted them all out: dozens of members of the congregation, almost every animal pal Fischer had tamed, and a twisted trunk that could only be Lemon. Their friendly faces, all spread around a campfire with a large cooking pot at its center, usually would have spiked his endorphins.
Again, the storm felt nothing.
Barry balled his fists until they creaked, the folds of his enhanced skin complaining like taut rope. And there was his target. Fischer stood tall and relaxed, caressing a small bundle. Barry heard something crack. He belatedly realized it was his neck, the surrounding muscles growing so tense that the joints within popped.
“Ruby.” His voice sounded far away. As if it echoed down a long hallway. He pointed at the bundle his foe held. “Collect your child from Fischer.”

“Uhhhh,” said the object of his ire. “Bit rude, mate. She literally gave birth like three hours ago. She’s physically healed, but her core is still pretty tender. Besides.” Fischer tilted his body to show off the bundled infant. “Look how damned
she is!”

Barry tore his eyes from Fischer and they settled on another. “You do realize that this coward is wielding your child as a shield, don’t you?”
Content lounging on the sand, Ruby just shrugged.
Beside her, Steven snorted. “Realize? It was Ruby’s idea.”
“Yup!” Ruby beamed as she glanced up at her baby girl. “The safest place for my little Fiona is in Fischer’s arms, given that it was only a matter of time before you and Dodge came tromping over here with your ideals demanding revenge or recompense or whatever.”
“Yeah!” Fischer said, patting the infant’s back. “It was
idea for me to hide behind her newborn baby like a coward! We—
” Fisher’s head blurred back and forth at dizzying speed. “Hold the fu… er, fra… errr, phone. Hold the phone. Did you just call her Fiona?
”
“We did,” Steven replied. “Care to tell him the associated nickname, darling?”
“
” Fischer whisper-yelled. “Share! Quick! I can’t handle the anticipation!”
Ruby’s eyes sparked in the firelight like her namesake gem as she dragged the moment out. “Fifi was—”
“Fifi!” Fischer interrupted. “It’s beauti—”
Ruby’s left shoe bounced off the top of his head, interrupting him right back. “Let me finish! Fifi was our initial impulse, but we have another option. We figure we won’t know which one suits her best until everyone tries them out.”
“What… what is it?”
Ruby let the silence hang, and the air grew thick with suspense.
Barry considered dashing forward and punching his enthralled leader in the mouth. But he wasn’t like Fischer. He wouldn’t endanger children.
Finally, Ruby spoke, dispelling the tension. “The second option—that we think you’ll love, Fischer—is
”
The god-king’s eyes went wide, then lost focus. “Fin,” he said, his voice soft yet rumbling, laden with power. “I choose
.”
That final word seemed to squeeze the air within Barry’s lungs—and everyone else’s, judging by their reactions. The sensation disappeared a moment later, only for another sensation to arise. Euphoria. Curls of golden light poured from the base of Fischer’s throat and wound around the newborn, never touching, but changing her all the same.
Echoes of it came from her tiny core as the illumination ebbed then vanished altogether. Fischer wobbled, almost fell, but caught himself.
Nobody moved. Neither did the world. Everything froze for the span of three heartbeats.
When the wind and the waves returned, and the clouds above resumed their crawl across the sky, so too did Barry shift. His legs strode of their own accord, muscles bulging, entire body tensing up. “What did you do!”
***
I looked from the raging Barry and Dodge, to the bemused Ruby and Steven, and finally, down at Fin. She was sleeping peacefully, her tiny little mouth pursed. How was anything able to be so damned cute? The ground shook, reminding me I was in danger.
“Uhhhh, if I can be real with you for a second, Barry… I have no idea what I just did.”
This made Ruby and Steven snort. Which was nice, considering the effect it had on Barry and Dodge. The muscleman started vibrating so hard that the edges of his body blurred. And Dodge, well, dodged it. I couldn’t say how, but his feet just… refused to acknowledge that the bloke beside him was casting tremors strong enough to threaten my house’s structural integrity.
After everything else that had happened today, I wasn’t at all surprised when bubbles of chi rose from the ground, foreshadowing an ascension. They slammed into Dodge’s core. I reached for my chi, already knowing I wouldn’t grasp it before the explosion went off. Teddy’s growl reverberated in my chest, and his crimson aura surrounded everyone. The explosion passed harmlessly over us.
Cold as ice, Barry didn’t acknowledge any of it. He took another step forward.
I thought, staring at the now-prone man beside him, who’d been knocked unconscious by his own advancement.
Dodge rose from the dead like a fracking vampire, arms held out, body rigid, skin pale. He started sliding forward across the ground like a godsdamned nightmare. I kept losing track of him for some reason, my brain forgetting he was there, only for me to remember him an instant later and get jumpscared all over again.
Damn. This was bad. Fin’s presence was supposed to nullify their definitely-unjustified- and not-at-all-deserved resentment, but I’d made it worse by accidentally doing… something. I still had no idea what.
“I—I didn’t mean for your kids to awaken as warlords! It… It wasn’t my fault!”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“It kind of was, though,” someone taunted from behind me, sounding suspiciously like my wife if she deepened her voice. “They’d just be regular farmers right now if you’d never come to Kallis.”
“Not helping, Maria!” I took a step back, holding Fin tight. “Fellas.
Your kids discovered their ideal. It’s a good thing! Give it some time, and you’ll, uhhh…” I glanced to the side. “
A part of me had hoped the carefully chosen phrase would be unexpected enough to disarm Barry and Dodge. No such luck. They didn’t so much as flinch, ever approaching, one with booming steps, the other sliding across the sand like a flattened cardboard box—but, like, upright.
I’d think of a better analogy later. I had more important things to do. Such as watching the events my spoken phrase had set into action.
The Church of Carcinization flew from Snips’s core in their crab forms, creating a tower in seconds—only for the entire structure to tumble back down like a puppet with its strings cut. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the falling avalanche of shelled friends as they transformed into beings far more fleshy.
Barry and Dodge froze. They blinked at the church members, who stood tall on two legs, adopting bodies they had left behind in pursuit of the perfect form.
“Ta-daaah!” sang Joel and Jess, sprinkling in a liberal amount of jazz hands. “Long time no talk!” The rest of them fanned out to either side, crouching down like crabs, entirely naked save for their carapace-covered privates. Joel looked up at Dodge. “And nice to meet you! We’ve heard so much!”
“Uhhhh,” Dodge said, torn between holding on to his anger and being rude. “Likewise…”
Thus, my trump card was spent. Not missing a beat, the next act came marching in, their metal suits making an absolute racket. Paul, Toby, and Theresa were fully armored, with real weapons strapped to their waists. If Barry and Dodge were allowed to think about it too long, it might piss them off all over again—which was exactly why we weren’t going to give them that chance.
The three children wrapped their fathers in energetic hugs.
“I love you, Dad,” Paul said, hugging Barry so tight that the joints of his basic armor bent and buckled. “I’m still the same person. I’ll always be your little boy.” Barry’s fury melted away like butter on an uneven skillet.
Toby and Theresa echoed similar sentiments, which had an even stronger impact on Dodge—and thank the gods for that; the way he slid about on unmoving legs made my skin crawl.
I gave Helen the slightest of nods.
‘Told you,’ she mouthed back, a hint of amusement bunching around her eyes.
The script had been her doing. I’d initially planned for Paul to say he loved Barry, then follow up with an insult. I stood by my version being funnier, but I couldn’t argue with Helen’s results. I gave the Church of Carcinization a thumbs-up. They returned it, their awkward movements making it painfully obvious they’d spent the last couple of months as crabs.
“Well,” I said, looking pointedly down at the steaming pot and the absolute mountain of shellfish beside it. “With that settled, I think we can—”
Barry interrupted me. “Nothing is settled, Fischer.”
“Sure it is! My senses are cooked because of the whole feeding-the-tunnel thing my soul has going on, but even I can feel how happy your children are. They’re… I don’t even know if there’s a word to describe how closely they’re linked. Colleagues doesn’t do it justice. Those three would walk through the fires of Hades together.”
His scowl deepened and I held up my hands.
“Yeah, good point. Forget that last bit. They will absolutely not be walking through, or around, any fires of Hades’s making. No offense, Borks.”
Remaining seated, his tail swished across the sand.
Barry wasn’t swayed by Borks’s cuteness. “You should have told us. You should have
us. We had to feel it all from afar. Can you imagine how terrifying that was?”
“Dad…” Paul said. He tried to grab his dad by the arms, but his bent armor was in the way, so he ripped it off—
—revealing an outfit Steven had whipped up less than an hour ago. The shorts were white, as was the sleeveless top, whose red banded collar extended up to the base of Paul’s neck.
Theresa and Toby repeated the same to their own suits of armor, showing off their new uniform. It looked surprisingly sharp on the three kids, given that shorts and a singlet would bar you from some pubs back on Earth.
Paul rested a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Fischer did exactly what we needed. I love you, but if it had been you there instead, things might have gone much,
worse. He let me run with my mistake without correcting me. I had to do it myself. If you had felt me trying to make my friends subservient—” He turned to Dodge. “—or if you had felt me trying to subjugate them, would you really have been able to stop yourself from interfering?”
I winced, unsure if bringing that was the right move, but I shouldn’t have doubted the tactician. Both Barry and Dodge’s expressions softened.
“Fischer did exactly what Ellis told him to,” Paul continued.
“I did?”
He smirked at me as if I was joking. I wasn’t. I’d been so overwhelmed by the sequence of events, and the constant need to harness my defiant chi, that I’d not considered it. Now that I did, I realized he was right.
Barry’s face told me he’d realized it too.
Paul nodded. “He let us place ourselves in danger. If he’d stepped in to stop us, who knows what would have happened? At worst, that version of me might have doubled down and actually absorbed Toby and Theresa’s wills.” He smiled at his friends. “I, for one, am extremely glad he let us work it out for ourselves.”
Barry sighed as his fury faded. “I guess it is settled. I’m still worried about your ideal, but that’s my problem to deal with.”
Dodge had also calmed, but now confusion creased his brow. “Fischer…”
“Yeah?”
“The thing you yelled to call out the Church of Carcinization—crab scrambled eggs.”
“What about it?”
“What kind of code phrase is—”
“Don’t!” Barry tried, but it was too late. My trap had been sprung.
“Pretty straightforward. There were crabs, they scrambled, and the eggs…” I pointed at the kids. “When a daddy and a mommy love each other very, very much—”
Barry cut me off with a heavy sigh, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “You really are the worst at naming things.”
It was no easy feat keeping the smile from my face. “You’re one to talk. You named your son
. Talk about a terrible name. Absolute dogshi—”
“Fischer!” Ruby yelled, pointing at her newborn, who was still sleeping soundly in my arms.
“Hey!” Paul added. “What did I do?”
I raised my hands. “My bad. Took that one too far. I’m sorry.”
Barry frowned at me for a long while before wisely choosing to disengage. With Ruby’s blessing, I passed Fin to him, letting him and Helen fawn over the cute little… whatever it was I’d accidentally made her.
As Paul marched over to chat with Toby and Theresa, I covered my mouth and whispered into his mind with a tendril of essence, ignoring the headache caused by embracing my essence far too many times today. “Hey. Mate. Don’t look this way, or they’ll know I’m talking to you. Wanna know a secret?”
He paused for the barest of moments, then nodded and resumed walking.
“Good lad. Here’s the thing—I lied. I’m not sorry. I was
going to call your name dogshit, and I’d do it again.”
Paul missed a step.
“Actually, I probably would have said even worse, had I not been rudely interrupted. I never know where my mouth is gonna take me once I open it.”
He stood stock still, and his head slowly turned to stare at me, face confused and a little hurt.
“Relax. I didn’t mean it, obviously, but I would have claimed as much. Verbal warfare is the best way to get your old man flustered.”
Paul blinked rapidly, thoughts running through his tactical mind at a million miles an hour. “Why are you telling me this…?”
“Because you’re one of the big boys now. I know you’re still young, but you’ve proven time and time again just how mature and reliable you are. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not gonna start riling you up the way I do your dad, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re wise enough to be fair game. Don’t expect me to go easy on you with the smack talk.”
A grin had slowly spread over his face with each word. He closed his eyes, tensed his jaw in concentration, and created his own tendril of chi.
“That goes both ways, Fischer,” he whispered, the syllables a little muddy from inexperience.
Still, it served its purpose. No one else heard him, his partially suppressed core manipulating sound to an impressive extent.
I barked a laugh as he turned and marched away. “Cheeky little bugger...”
Someone appeared by my side, and Maria’s fingers laced themselves through mine. “That was sweet of you.”
“Perhaps a little
sweet. Might have bitten off more than I can chew by challenging that little demon in the making…”
“If it makes you feel any better, little actions of kindness like that are part of the reason I love you so much.”
“I love you too.” I pulled her into a hug and kissed her on the forehead. “Maybe even more than seafood.”
“Only maybe…?”
“Yeah. I haven’t had a chance to try the deep-fathom mussels Peter just added to the pot. The jury’s out until I sample them.”
“Let’s go get you some, then. I’d like to get to the bottom of this.”
Hand in hand with my wife, I smiled at all my friends as we strode back to the campfire. Now that the chaos of the day was finally over, a wave of exhaustion washed over me. Everything related to the tunnels was still a major source of stress, especially the third entity that kept tinkering with the vast stores of energy. That was okay, though.
The tunnels were almost full. I would soon regain complete control of my chi. And above all else, I had a strong feeling that Tropica was about to go through a period of calm.