Destiny Fish felt a sudden and inexplicable surge of artistic pride.

He and Time Fish were sneaking into a top-secret vault engineered to hide weapons and secrets from divination magic. They carefully avoided dozens upon dozens of heavily armed guards who were all on high alert. Through the walls, explosions could be heard elsewhere in the city as other magical fish were causing mayhem.

This was the third such attempt at raiding a secrets vaults by the fish duo. The previous two attempts had ended in failure. There were complications with raiding such a place. For example, Smarties would often destroy a compromised facility rather than risk the information leaking. Destiny and Time Fish had narrowly escaped from the collapsing building of the last vault they raided without any secrets to show for it, so they were extra vigilant this time.

They arrived in front of an unusual door with excessive amounts of locks and keypads on it. Time Fish spoke, “This must be the secrets room. Last time the booby traps went off as soon as we forced the door open. We’ll be ready for them this time though. You bust down the door, I’ll cast [Hypertime] on myself. Then I’ll snatch up everything I can inside while you create a shield bubble here at the same time. I’ll make it back by the time it forms. Then, you guard me until the spell ends. Sound good?”

Destiny blinked a few times to process everything, “Damn dude, look at you with the sick planning Skillz! Hehehe. Sounds sweet to me,” he put on a cheesy smile, “I feel it in my fins, bro, this is the one we’re destined to succeed on… maybe. Hehehe. I’m ready when you are.” Destiny bent himself ready to fish-slap the door as Time spat out his wand.

“Ready? 3, 2, 1, HYPERTIME!” Time Fish spoke the magic words. Dozens of ghostly clocks shot out from his wand and spun around his body. [Hypertime] was a spell that would temporarily give its target more time to perform any action, at the cost of eventually having to give that time back later in the form of slow-motion.

Destiny Fish spun his body and tail-slapped the door off its hinges. This wasn’t magic; it was just something destiny was particularly good at. From Time Fish’s perspective, this all took place in super slow motion. As soon the explosive force of Destiny’s tail-slap dislodged the door far enough inwards for Time to squeeze in, he went for it. He pushed passed the still flying door and began snatching up documents as fast as he could with magic bubbles. Explosive booby traps were starting to set off around the room. Spheres of fire and destruction began expanding slowly. He focussed on areas where the explosions were first, rescuing those documents, then moved to the others. The slow-motion explosions continued to grow and fill the room, getting too big for him to avoid any longer. He swam for the exit with his pile of documents and hid in the magical bubble that Destiny was creating. Thanks to his magical time sense, he made it just in time for both Destiny’s bubble to form and his own spell to end. Now, his perception of time was reversed. Everything appeared in fast forward for him. However, from Destiny’s perspective, he was now moving in slow motion.

The explosions from the archive room broke harmlessly around Destiny’s bubble. They were made to destroy documents, not fish barriers. Time had done well in securing as many documents as possible. While Destiny waited for him to catch up in time, he decided to peruse some of the documents.

Picking up a random file, He began reading, “Let’s see what we have here: the results of the next elections, space Illuminati, blablabla, shadow lords. Booooooring.” Destiny tossed the document aside and grabbed another, “Super Weapon: ‘Project Milkshake’ created by ‘The Little Girl’s team’. HAHAHAHA! OMGoddess, those names…” he scanned the document further, “Awww, they were shipped away in a divination proof spaceship?! Too bad. Cool weapon though!” He tossed that document aside too, picking up the next one, “Ohhhhh! Now we're talking:”

The Secret Magical Fish Danger Ranking List

Vegetable Fish Laser Fish Virus Fish World Fish Kinetic Fish Weather Fish Gravity Fish Pain Fish Divination Fish Metal Fish DNA Jellyfish Gate Fish Normal Crawfish Music Fish Narcissist Fish Sky Starfish Time Fish Dream Fish Mental Fish Yeti Fish Destiny Fish

“Heck Yeah! Secret Magic Fish Danger ranking list! Let’s see, number 1: Vegetable Fish, of course. Number 2: Laser Fish, Woohoo, You go girl! Where’s my name?” He read through the list. “Dude…”

Time fish returned to normal time and asked, “What did you find?”

“Duuuuude, look at this. They ranked me the weakest fish? I hate Smarties even more now” he whined passing over the list to Time.

“Oh, the secret magical fish danger ranking list? Is this your first time seeing it? Divination Fish found out about it some time ago and told everyone on Siren. We all had a good laugh at it. Well, except Weather Fish, of course. She was so mad about only being ranked 6th.”

Destiny picked up a new document and began reading, “C’mon dude, number 21? That’s not right! I should at least be higher than Yeti Fish!”

“I dunno… Yetis can be really frightening. Don’t worry about it, Destiny. They just haven't seen your magic in action. If it's any consolation, I’d put you at number 2.”

“Awww thanks, bro! I’d put you at number 2 too!” Destiny had been looking at a blueprint for a coconut milk reactor. He tossed it aside with a shake of his head. Upon picking up the next document, his smile dropped, his eyes went wide, and he used one of Wally’s favourite swear words.

“What’s that?” Time asked.

“This is bad, dude! We’ve gotta get out of here and warn the others!” Destiny held up the File for Time to read. It was titled: “Operation ‘Wings of glory’: Secret plan to invade the magic fish homeworld”.

Time Fish repeated the swear word Destiny had used and scanned through the document, “Fishsticks, they’ve located our home planet and are sending a fleet. Goddess, look at how big the invasion force they've sent is! That’s gotta be one of the biggest of all time,” Time Fish stopped reading as his time sense went off. He looked at the door and told Destiny, “It’s time to go.”

The doors to the room slid open. Soldiers peaking out from behind cover in the hallway opened fire. Lasers slammed into Destiny’s still-active shield bubble. They had hung about for too long after the detonation of the secrets room. The whole facility was aware of them now. The magic bubble began rapidly shrinking. The two fish spat out their wands and charged forwards into the hallway to fight their way out. The high-tech battle suits the soldiers were wearing made them stronger and more durable. It often took more than one tail-slap to put them down. They were dangerous but nothing a pair of magic fish couldn’t handle.

Destiny started off the combo that had given him and Time so much success in escaping in the past, “DESTINED MOMENT OF DESTINY!” Destiny spoke the magic words and cast the spell onto Time. This spell would temporarily turn Time into an instrument of destiny. All of his next actions would be significantly more impactful and epic. Combined with Time Fish’s [Time Sence] he would now be able to pull off the perfect moves at just the perfect time, and hopefully, engineer the perfect escape.

Time Fish became an action star. He dodged lasers and bounced off walls to perform awesome somersaulting tail slaps. With his wand, he summoned grandfather clocks to drop onto his enemy's heads. Destiny had to fight not just the enemies but also to stay focused and not get lost watching how cool Time Fish was. They cleared out the guards in the hallway but they each received several laser wounds in doing so. More guards were coming so they made a run for it.

They reached the exit door that lead to the rooftop. Time fish stopped them, “Wait [Time Sence] is picking up something, we need to hold a few moments”. Destiny trusted his partner's magic and formed a shield bubble behind them. A few tense minutes passed as they waited at the door for whatever it was. Soldiers continued to pour in from behind. Time spoke up again suddenly, “It’s almost time; through the door in 3, 2, 1, NOW!!!”

They burst through the door and out onto the roof, just as dozens of laser jets arrived. The two fish froze, caught with their metaphorical pants around their ankles. Magic could be unpredictable at times. They had discussed possibilities while pairing their magic combination. This was one of the worst-case scenarios. Instead of giving them a perfectly timed epic escape, the magic delivered them perfectly in time for an ambush where they would have to make their epic last stand.

Destiny raised his fins up as high as they could go, “We…Uh…Surrender?”

The laser Jets opened fire. Destiny and Time raised their bubble as they tried to escape back into the building. Their path was cut off as laser fire focused on the entrance; melting the door. There was nowhere to hide on the roof so they began fighting back. Time launched summoned clocks from his wand at the jets, which were easily avoided, and Destiny fired red strings of destiny which were effectively harmless. They were taking several laser blasts each second. Death loomed.

In the sky, a star lit up and spread out. It was beautiful. Moments later, countless lasers rained down onto the rooftop and surrounding area, hitting everything in sight with the exception of the two magic fish. These were not weak technologic replica lasers either, they were genuine, full-powered, magical lasers. For several seconds, they were surrounded by an endless downpour of beautiful light. When it finally ended, only Molten metal, ash, and two fish remained. The building below them was gone. Magma was beginning to rise from where the lasers had pierced through the planet's crust.

Destiny and Time swam up to get away from the intense heat below them. Swimming down to meet them was the angel of death herself, Laser Fish. She was a neon pink and silver lionfish. Considered by most to be the most beautiful of all magical fish.

“Hello boys, fancy meeting you two here. Hope you don’t mind me dropping in like this: Looked like you were in a precarious, near-death situation that you need me to pull you out of. What a coincidence that I happened to pass by. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this is the work of…” she gave Destiny Fish a wink, “pure luck.”

“Lashy!!!! That was so rad! Thank you so much for the rescue, dude!” Destiny swam up to fish hug her.

“Thanks, Laser!” Time called out behind Destiny.

She blushed and pushed Destiny off, “You stink like cooked fish, get off. You’re most welcome my “dude”. You’re welcome too, of course, Time. That said, I’d appreciate it if you two took more care of yourselves in the future. I can’t always be here to save your fins. Were you on a mission? Did you guys find anything this time?”

“Ahhh! The documents!” Time suddenly remembered all the documents that had been burned up during their battle, “There’s an emergency! We have to tell everyone. The Smarties have found Siren and are on their way.”

“What? Tell me the detail,” Laser Fish demanded.

Time quickly explained what he had read.

“Oh! That’s not good at all! I’ll go get the others, I’m the fastest. You two wait here and I’ll have Gate Fish open a portal for you.” Laser Fish turned to leave but stopped, as if remembering something, “Oh, one more thing: Destiny, I thought you promised not to call me that in front of the others… it’s only for when we’re in private. Don’t do it again! Hmmph!” She gave him another wink before turning into a laser and flying off.

Time Fish’s eyes burned holes in Destiny’s already holey scales. Destiny tried to avoid his gaze. Time was the one who eventually broke the silence, "So… ‘Lashy?!?’ In private?! Something you wanna tell me about buddy?"

"Nah, bro, ignore her. It's nothing."

"Duuuuuuuude." Time stared even harder.

Destiny held up a fin, "I am forever faithful to my one and only. Goddess Fish forever."

"You have another woman?! Teach me, oh great master!" Time bowed down before Destiny.

"Aren’t you like, thousands of years old? Why you acting so immature? She’s just as bad, flirting at such an inappropriate time like that."

"Oh was she flirting? And did YOU just accuse ME of being immature?! Hahaha. Ouch!" Time winced as laughing aggravated his laser burns.

“Hehehe. Everything hurts. I don’t like war, dude.”

“Me either, brother. Me either.”

They waited together for a portal to take them home. There was more fighting to be done in the future.