The Fish prepared to commit war crimes and three youths escaped an untimely death. The next two steps of [Destined to Meet Again] both took place back on Earth, not far from Lake fortune, at the secret headquarters for The Church of the Wolf.

The Church of the Wolf is was some would call, ‘a cult’. They were an ancient organisation of fanatics and zealots who joined the church under one promise: they were going to take over the universe someday. Such an extreme ideology attracted appropriately extreme people. Absolute faith was essential. This is why when an important member of the church, was having a crisis of faith, the head priest of the church came to counsel him personally.

The head priest knocked on the door, before letting himself in. A young man was sitting on the sofa in the room playing video games on a big screen TV. The priest had let himself in so suddenly that he hadn’t had time to stop his game and get up.

“Greetings brother Tomas,” the priest said pulling over a chair. He sat down right in front of Tomas, the young man, blocking his view of the TV, “I’ve heard you have some concerns about the church's plan. I’ve come to offer you clarification and guidance.”

Tomas was playing online so he couldn’t pause. He craned his neck around the priest in time to watch his character get shot and die. Sighing, he put his controller down and replied, “It’s more than concerned, Roy. I’m outright terrified! The sky is literally falling down outside. It’s the worst weather I've ever seen. And how do we respond? With a sacrifice. It’s unfair! Why can’t we just hide underground until the whole thing blows over?”

Roy, the head priest’s eyes fluttered at not being called ‘Head priest’. He had once beat a man unconcious for not doing so. But this time he managed to restrain himself and keep the smile on his face, “I understand. Yes, very troubling times we are in now. That’s why now, more than ever, we must be unified. I’ve brought this to help you understand.” In his hands, he held the New Wolf Chronicle, a thick book on the church's rise to power. He opened it to a bookmarked page.

Tomas got annoyed, “I’ve been read the Chronicle a thousand times, Roy. It’s nonsense...”

Roy stood up suddenly and raised the Chronicle above his head, ready to bring it down on Tomas’ skull. There was a tense moment as he stared down in fury, breathing heavily and Tomas stared back up in frightened shock. Several seconds passed before the tension bled away as suddenly as it began, the smile returning to Roy’s face. He sat back down and admonished Tomas, “You must not blaspheme, brother Tomas. The words of the Chronicle are sacred. Listen, all shall be made clear.” He found his place in the book again, cleared his throat and began reading.

“The evil men and women rolled rocks onto the entrance of the mountain, sealing the two great huntresses inside." Roy's reading voice was as passionate and extreme as his personality, "Despite their supernatural strength, they were not strong enough to move the enormous rocks that blocked their way. Days passed and they were driven mad with starvation within the mountain. The lioness was the first to break. She went insane and challenged the wolf to a duel. Power vs power, to the death. The loser's flesh was to be eaten by the winner. The wolf reluctantly accepted as it was the only way for one of them to survive.

Their battle was legendary. The whole mountain shook as they exchanged blows. The shaking drew the evil cowards who had trapped them in the first place to the sealed entrance of the mountain where they watched in fear. For three days and two nights they fought. On the dawn of the fourth day, the mountain went silent. The evil tribe breathed a sigh of relief, believing that they had finally killed one another. However, before they could leave, the rocks blocking the mountain entrance burst outwards and the wolf emerged, covered in the lioness's blood.

She was no longer the same as when she entered the mountain; she was better. Bigger, stronger, and faster, she was the most beautiful thing the people had ever seen. They immediately fell to their knees and worshipped her. By consuming another great hunter, she had absorbed their power, adding it to her own. She was no longer just a great huntress, she was the greatest huntress.

She declared then and there that she would take over the universe and those who followed her would be protected. Should her power ever be insufficient, she would simply eat another hunter and grow stronger again.” Roy closed the book and looked up with his manic smile.

Tomas frowned. Roy had embellished the story quite a lot. Tomas had been a member of the church his whole life. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said he had heard the Chronicles a thousand times before. Tomas had been around long enough that he had even heard the original wolf chronicles, not the new book that Roy carried around. What he just heard now was nothing like the original that he remembered.

Roy put the book down and stood. Sweat ran down his face from the passionate reading. His eyes shimmered zealously, “So you see Tomas, since you also possess the power of a… great hunter, the Matriarch can consume you and grow stronger again. This will, of course, help us get through these dark days of dangerous weather. But more importantly, bring us one step closer to universal domination! This is a great benefit to everyone!”

Tomas didn’t like that pause before Roy called him a hunter. There were more pressing issues though, “No Roy, not everyone benefits. I really don’t see how this is beneficial to me. I don’t wish to be eaten.” Tomas protested.

“Ohoho, but you must! It’s written in the Chronicles.”

“That’s another thing, you got the story wrong, Roy. That’s not how I remember…”

Tomas was cut off as Roy reached his arm back and slapped him across the face, “WHAT HAVE I SAID ABOUT BLASPHEMY?! THE MATRIARCH HERSELF WROTE THEM! THEY MUST NOT BE QUESTIONED!!!”

Tomas stood up and moved back away, “What the hell Roy!?”

“YOU MUST NOT BLASPHEME!! PROMISE ME!!!” spit flew from Roy's mouth, his face bright red.

“I won't blaspheme! I promise! Back off!” Tomas backed down to Roy’s intensity. He rubbed his stinging face.

“Very good,” Roy, swapped personality again and beamed at Tomas, the smile was back on his face, “I’m glad that I could help you understand. I must go prepare now as the sacrifice is tomorrow. Rest well young, uhh… hunter. Big day tomorrow!” Roy picked up his copy of the chronicle and promptly left.

Tomas was freaked out and annoyed, ‘That’s the second time he has paused before calling me a hunter. Is he implying that I'm not a real hunter? Doesn’t he know that… wait…'

"Tomorrow?!" Tomas shouted as was pulled out of his internalised grumbling by the realisation of what he had just heard. He tried to follow after him and complain, but Roy had already left and locked the door behind him. Tomas shook the door handle and it didn't budge. He was trapped alone in his room.

Tomas was actually kind of a big deal within the church. His room was quite luxurious. He had a king-sized bed and a comfy, leather sofa sitting in front of a big screen tv. His bathroom had a tub big enough to fit several people. There were computers, games, and several other comforts that regular members of the church didn't get to enjoy. Tomas had it good. What he didn't have was any windows or escape routes except for the now locked front door.

He left the door for now and walked over to his mirror to inspect his face. His cheek was still red from the slap. He was a thin, very dark-skinned, 22-year-old. He kept his hair shaved, and he wore a silver and blue church robe as was church policy. He had a particularly wide and toothy smile that was now absent from his face. Instead, he was frowning and his large eyes looked frightened and pained.

“YoU mUsT nOt BlAsPhEmE." He mocked the mirror, "I should show him how great a hunter I am next time I see him."

He grumbled all the way over to his computer and slumped down in the chair in front of it. Opening the browser he searched for ‘best ways to blaspheme’ and scrolled through the useless results. Next, he glanced back at his locked door before searching ‘how to pick a lock’. He watched a few videos on picking padlocks before getting bored. It wasn't like he was going to escape anyway.

Sitting there unhappily thinking about his situation he decided to search for something he knew he wouldn't find a good answer for. He typed in ‘how to remove a supernatural power’ and hit enter.

Spine-chilling power, beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, reached through the fabric of reality and changed the search results.

STEP 2: MANIPULATE INTERNET SEARCH RESULTS

The first result that came up was an eye-catching news article titled: "Circus brawl ends in police intervention." Intrigued, Tomas clicked the link and read on.

‘Police were forced to use riot gear and tear gas to end an escalated confrontation on the Chook’s Creek showgrounds last Tuesday between the local cricket team and a travelling circus.

Witnesses say the confrontation arose when a local spiritualist, known only as ‘Madame Wanda’, removed a curse from the freak show attraction ‘Mr. Tree’. Her action supposedly removed his signature leaves and branches, curing him completely. As he was no longer able to man the freak show, circus officials demanded compensation.

Hostilities arose after Madame Wanda refused to reimburse them and rallied the infamous Chook's Creek cricket team, known for ending every match they've ever attended in violence, to her defence.

About 30 people were involved in the ensuing fight before police were called in and were able to disperse the crowd using tear gas. Despite the size of the conflict, no arrests have been made at this time.

Editor's note:

We reached out to Mr. Tree for comment and he replied stating that he was thankful to Madame Wanda for ridding him of the curse that had deformed his body and is regretful that so much trouble occurred on his behalf.'

Tomas finished reading, "Hmmmmm. A curse? I wonder if that's what I have. If I can get it removed like Mr. Tree, they'd have no reason to eat me anymore. What was it again, Madame Wanda? Chook's Creek? That's actually not too far from here…"

He looked at his locked door again and sighed, "Can't even get out of this room. How am I gonna get to Chook's Creek? This isn't how I want to spend my last night alive." He left the browser open on his computer and went back to the sofa to resume the game he was playing earlier during Roy's visit. And that's how he decided to spend his last night alive.

Dear Wally,

Hey dude! Guess who? That's right, it's your favourite golden fish in the whole wide universe, Destiny Fish! Lol.

How you been, bro? You reincarnated yet? There's something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about actually, now that I remember it. Look, I know you love drinking and smoking. But if you come back as a baby, I super recommend not doing that for a while. You can still go fishing with a little baby rod and maybe, like, strap baby knives to your baby boots. Just promise me you'll hold off on the drinking and smoking for a while, yeah? I worry about you, dude!

You're probably all like, 'Waaaaaaat is this letter all about?'. I've been missing Earth something fierce and actually, it looks like I won't be back for a while so I figured I’d just write you. Ya know, get you up to date and let you know what's going on. Just in case you're missing me too hehehe.

Anyways. Big news first, the magic fish have gone to war. Remember how it snowed and Gate Fish showed up and said 'yo Destiny Fish I only ever come to visit with bad news,'? Well sadly, my fellow magic fish, Weather Fish, was killed by these buttholes called 'Smarties' so now we're trying to kill them all off.

I gotta be honest dude, war is not much fun. I'm not really cut out for the whole 'combat' thing, so mostly I've been teaming up with my buddy Time fish and stealing secrets. Smarties have all these divination-proof rooms where they hide all their good stuff. Me and Time are like super spies busting them all down and robbing them.

The thing I hate most about the war, is the Smarties have these lasers that sting like a sonofagun. They hurt more than that time you threw a knife through my tail. Remember that? I try to dodge them but I keep getting hit. Then I have to go to DNA jellyfish and beg him to get my beautiful scales healed up properly.

Oh speaking of DNA, I have a hilarious story for you. DNA Jellyfish is this guy I know who is a big ol', fluorescent blue jellyfish. He's huge, squishy and super easy to aim at with a laser so he doesn't see much combat. But he wants to go kill Smarties so badly. He's, like, super intense about it.

So he calls me over the other days and says, "Destiny, cast [destined to meet again] on me and then go hide in a hole somewhere so that I can be immortal and kill Smarties all day." No hello, no please, or anything.

And I was of course like, “Nope, no can do." He then got suuuuper mad at me coz he thought I was being stingy with my spells. Loomed over me and all. So I told him, “Chill your nips out, dude. It's not that I want you to die or anything, I literally can't cast it anymore. I used it on my bro, Wally (that's you! lol) and I haven't met him yet soooo…"

But Instead of apologizing, you know what he did? He called over Gate Fish and started organising a trip to Earth so that we could meet and reset the spell lol!

I could have been merciful but I was grumpy at his lack of manners. I waited until he started begging Gate Fish for a portal before I finally told him you’re currently unmeetable. When he asked why, I told him you kinda died and, oh, by the way [destined to meet again] doesn't make you immortal so your big idea wouldn't have worked from the start. And double by the way you should say please and thank you more often.

You should have seen him! Lol, he was quivering in rage. It was dope! Although now I’m gonna have to avoid getting shot for a while until I'm out of his bad books, which sucks.

Anyways dude I gotta go. Time Fish is freaking out about something. Take it easy. Hope this letter reaches you soon.

Love,

Destiny Fish

Destiny flung aside the brush he had been using to write the letter with his mouth. He watched Time fish swimming around in circles and murmuring to himself and shook his head. He spat out his wand from inside his body. He magically folded the letter and put it inside an envelope. He then infused it with destiny and flung it over his shoulder.

Swallowing his wand again he turned to his panicked friend, "Time, bro, you're freaking me out. What's wrong?"

"Everything is wrong! Can't you feel the it?! Oh my goddess! Holy sardine! How could this happen??"

"What are you talking about, dude? What happened?"

Time Fish stopped swimming and looked at Destiny with wide fearful eyes, "Time has been ripped in two!"