Third Person

It's funny how much a simple prank can escalate into so much more.

To think, it all started out with a whoopee cushion, the tackiest and cliche prank in the book. That's all it took for pride to make its way into their hearts, and suddenly it wasn't just about silly little tricks anymore.

"Selena! You take forever!" Blooper called, rolling his eyes as the mermaid tried to order. His tentacle tapped impatiently on the table as she tried to decide what to eat.

Selena briefly stopped her conversation with CrankyCrab to answer him. "Well sorry that none of you are vegetarian! I just want something to eat, give me a moment!" She sent a glare before turning back to the cook. "Sorry about that, now, what's in those salads you mentions?"

The young kraken groaned and thumped his head lightly on the table. Normally he wouldn't care what she ate, it always meant more of the good stuff for him and she'd take the vegetables he didn't like, but now that she was taking forever to decide what she wanted, he did. He just wanted to eat! It was that simple!

He reached for his phone in his pocket, but when something rubbery came into his grip, he quickly whipped it out and grinned. Whoopee cushion. He didn't think he would ever use this again, but now with Selena distracted, it was his chance. Originally, Blooper was saving it for Darrel or his father, but he couldn't pass up this chance.

"I ordered, I ordered, don't ask." Selena huffed as she came back over to their table, but paused. Blooper had an oddly mischievous smile on his face, one that she knew well from herself and her sister. "... What did you do?" She raised an eyebrow at him, but he just denied it. Her head shook slightly, but she would soon find out what the smile was when she plopped down in her seat and heard an odd high pitched noise. Her face fell flat as Blooper began to snicker.

"Really?" She sighed, pulling the whoopee cushion from under her. "Come on, that's child's play!" She threw it at him, hitting him in the face but he still giggled like a maniac.

"Hey, my name's BABY Blooper for a reason! Still technically a baby in kraken terms, you know?" He pointed out, putting his mini prank away.

Selena's eyes just rolled in response, brushing her braid back. "Yeah, yeah, and your dad is still technically a KID and all, which I still don't really get... Sheesh, how long does it take for you guys to age up?" She asked rhetorically. Though she tried to brush it off, she couldn't believe she fell for the oldest prank in the book. A whoopee cushion- really Blooper?

There was a small part of her that wanted revenge, and Selena couldn't help but to feed it. She knew just what to do.

"Imma gonna go to the bathroom, be right back!" Blooper said, getting up to leave, allowing her just the right move she needed to put her plan into action. As soon as he left for downstairs and was out of her sight, she rushed over to CrankyCrab and requested a little something, before coming back and grinning to herself. He was in for a little surprise.

As the small kraken came back up, his eyes instantly lit up at the sight of their food being there. "Ah, sweet!" He bolted over and began to chomp on his fries. While Blooper ordered fries and a burger, Selena went with a fruit salad, and much to her delight, it had cherries. She rarely ever got them anymore since most of them were in the Conch Command. However, as happy as she was, it was just about to get even better as Blooper took a huge bite out of his burger.

Though it took a moment to settle in, soon his eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets and he nearly choked trying to cough it up. "HOT!" Blooper screeched as he finally freed himself. "WAY TOO HOT!"

Selena giggled, extremely pleased with herself. "Anything interesting on your burger there, Blooper? Perhaps, ghost pepper sauce?" His eyes shot up and mouthed the word 'No' but Selena just kept laughing. "Oh yes! Two can play at that game!"

Blooper couldn't believe it. Was Selena trying to beat him in a battle of tricks? No. This wasn't a battle he was going to lose. Straightening himself up, he narrowed his eyes at her. "So, you wanna play that way?" He challenged.

Selena matched his expression, smiling as she did. "Uh, I think I do! Bring it on, or what, are you more chicken than that special stuff you eat?"

Blooper slammed his hands on the table, clanking the plates and leaned in as close as he could. His yellow eyes narrowed down on her. "Oh, it's ON, Salami!"

That's all it took, just a couple silly pranks to start and all out war.

"Blooper!" Blooper perked up at the voice of his father calling him. Coming up the stairs, KrakenKid was covered in pink paint, only the ends of his many legs being able to still show off his purple color. He blinked and gestured to himself. "Is this you? You don't normally do pranks like this!"

Blooper just laughed. "Ha! Selena thinks I would fall for a weak trap like that? She's got another thing coming!" The small kraken rushed past his father and down the stairs, only making him a lot more confused than before.

Selena's home wasn't any better.

"Okay, I know better than to ask about some of your stuff but..." Sam sighed and held up a huge wad of duct tape. "What exactly is this? And why did you waste so much duct tape on it?"

Her sister's eyes widened and snatched it from her hands. "That's where he put my phone! Jokes on him, I know exactly how to break through this much duct tape!" Her eyes narrowed. "I thought phones would be off limits! Fine then, have fun getting yours from the gutter!" The pink mermaid grumbled and strolled back into her house. Sam just shrugged to herself and left her alone. It wasn't the strangest thing to happen.

It started out small and petty, just things like Blooper filling Selena's fridge with bottles of water and taking out all the food, or Selena turning off Blooper's personal fridge so it would melt all the ice cream. While Sam quickly adapted to checking for traps and avoiding them all the time, KrakenKid would often get caught in them instead of Blooper. As annoyed as he was, he let it go, figuring the two would eventually have a draw and go back to normal.

But they were both to stubborn to stop on their own, so the traps got more dangerous.

KrakenKid nearly got shot with an arrow trap that was meant to hit Blooper's shoulder, but due to his increased height from his son, KrakenKid almost got hit in the chest. Sam found a spikes trap that nearly impaled her if she wasn't so quick to get out of the way. Though neither Selena nor Blooper got hurt, everyone else seemed to.

It went on for a week before KrakenKid sat them both down for a talk.

"Both of you, stop this right now!" He ordered sharply. "Do you know how many times myself and the other Tide Changers have almost died? Over twenty, and all because of this stupid fight!" KrakenKid groaned. Blooper and Selena shot a warning look at each other, making him only get more frustrated. "Just stop fighting! Come on, you're best friends! Best friends shouldn't fight!" He paused for a moment before deciding something. "No more pranks against each other! If I see one more prank meant for either of you from the other one, I will ground both of you!"

Selena protested immediately. "You can't ground me!"

His eyes glinted in the light. "You wanna take that risk?"

Selena fell silent, telling him that he won. "That's what I thought!" He smirked, crossing his arms. "Now go be best friends! Work together on something, go eat, I don't know just- no fighting!" He finished before heading downstairs.

Blooper and Selena sat in silence in KrakenKid's room for a long time, before turning to each other. "He's right." Selena said, surprising Blooper. But then, a mischievous grin formed on her face. "We should work together!"

Blooper only gained the same grin on his face.

"This was a stupid idea." Blooper complained as he dragged himself out of the hole with Selena following close behind.

"This was your idea." She pointed out.

"And you agreed with it!" He shot back and stared down the hole they just dug. "Who knew it would take so long to create a simple pitfall trap, I mean sheesh! I could have organized another fake "Taking over the Conch Command" in the same amount of time as it took to do this, AND-!" He added, holding both of his arms out in disbelief. "We're not even done yet! It still needs the sudden opening and fake ground before they fall and everything!"

Selena just rolled her eyes in response. "I know, but we've already made it this far, might as well go all the way." Her eyes began to glance around, noticing it was getting late. "I better head home. Let's cover it up and deal with it in the morning." Blooper agreed and they got to covering it up.

The pair decided to get to work early, much to Blooper's dismay that he wouldn't be able to sleep in, and finally finished it. It was fairly simple, just push a button while someone stood over it and they'd fall inside. Though not as elaborate as some pranks, but it was reusable so it added on the plus size.

With it being set up in the tunnels, all they had to do his hide and wait for someone to fall for it.

That's when Tanith entered the room, looking around but didn't notice the pair. They grinned to each other and hid while the half serpent slowly but surely made their way right into their trap.

As soon as she was over it, they pressed the button and Tanith let out a short yelp as she fell in.

Both of them began to giggle and rushed over to peer inside at the victim who fell inside. Though she was dazzled for a moment, she soon snapped out of it and shook her head at the pair. "Alright, alright, you caught me!" She sent a grin at them. "I have to admit, you got me there."

For a moment, something shiny flickered in her hand but Selena dismissed it once it disappeared. "Can I come out now?" Tanith called up, getting nods.

"Yeah, just let us get the rope to help you out! Don't try swimming up, it's really hard!" The mermaid replied as Blooper already started to look for the rope. Her gaze went from Blooper to Tanith, but then it happened so fast that she nearly missed it.

The ground beneath Tanith wavered and broke off. She gasped in surprise and wasn't able to grab onto anything for support with nothing there to support her. As she fell, something glowing now appeared below her that Selena couldn't see before from the rocky ground. Something green, and bright.

Underwater lava.

Selena screamed just as she watched Tanith get engulfed by it and her body completely disappear beneath it. Blooper bolted besides her, rope in hand but dropped it when he saw the lava and put two and two together.

The pair of tricksters sat in silence outside of the tunnels facing Atlantis. Selena covered her face in her hands while Blooper just stared, a bit in shock. "We just accidentally killed Tanith." He realized at last.

"I KNOW!" Selena shouted, finally facing him.

He blinked and shook his head. "What do we do?"

"I don't know!" She huffed. "What can we do? Do we tell KrakenKid or Cody-"

Blooper immediately snapped towards her. "NO! Do you know what my father will do if he finds out?" Selena shook her head. Blooper paused for a long time, mouth open. "Well... Neither do I but it can't be good! That's his favorite Atlantean, you know! I'll be grounded for weeks!"

Selena gave him a look. "We just killed someone and you'll just be grounded?"

"I've accidentally killed someone before and the only reason I didn't get grounded was because it was the first time but now..." Blooper let out a short puff of breath, unsure of what else to say.

"It's worse than that!" Selena pointed out. "Don't you get it? KrakenKid won't blame you, you're his son and a child, you'll get off easily but I'm an Atlantean! What if we just sparked a war? What if we put Atlantis in more danger than we thought for some stupid pitfall?"

Blooper's head shot up and he grabbed her shoulders. "What if we blame someone else? Say Ace did it! We already hate him, what's the problem with putting it all on him? Everyone could believe us, it's plausible and it would unite us instead of tearing us apart!"

Selena just stared at him, for a moment contemplating but eventually shaking her head. "It's not right."

"Who cares if it's right? He deserves it!" The yellow eyes narrowed on her. "It solves all of our problems! Why would you want to protect him?"

Selena couldn't take it and pulled away. "I'm not protecting him, but you shouldn't blame someone else for your own mistakes, no matter who it is! I hate him just as much as everyone else does, but that doesn't mean I'm about to condemn him to a murder he didn't commit!"

"So it's a murder now?" Blooper twitched.

Selena threw her arms in the air and looked everywhere but him in her frustration. "It might as well be!" She ran a hand through her hair, but then her eyes stopped at something lingering at the start of one of the two tunnels. Her whole body tensed, getting the small kraken to turn to see from himself. He nearly screamed if it hadn't gotten caught in his throat.

There, staring right back at them was something gray and green. Though the skin of it was gray, now devoid of all life, everything else was either green or slightly blue, including the hair being a dark green and the eyes, blue. The whole bottom half of them was a striking green that reminded them of the very underwater lava they saw not too long ago, that didn't appear to have any legs but rather a long tail. A snake tail.

Blooper was the first to admit what they were seeing.

"ZOMBIE!"

He didn't even think twice as he grabbed the mermaid's arm and pulled her towards the other tunnel. Selena glanced behind them to see the long body starting to move slowly but surely after them. "Was that-" She started to ask but Blooper cut in before she could.

"Probably the undead form of the person we might have killed! How does that even happen? I blame magic!" He cried, trying to remember what tunnel lead home. His mind began to blank on him, giving the lumbering being more time to catch up.

It would have been easier to get out if someone else didn't come into their view, and looked just as surprised to see them as they were to see him. "Oh! Blooper, there you are! Have you seen-"

"DAD! THIS IS NOT THE TIME!" Blooper panicked and tried to push his father backwards. "We have to get out of here!"

KrakenKid just side stepped to avoid the contact. "Whoa! Calm down there, buddy. What's going on-" His voice cut abruptly when it finally caught up. He stared at it for a moment before shifting his view back and forth from Selena and Blooper. "Okay... What is that? It that a swamp monster or something? Did you guys attract something from the sewer over in Atlantis? I told you guys not to-"

"It's a ZOMBIE, Dad! We gotta get out of here, maybe Harold will have a good idea of what to do!" Blooper kept pushing his father, but he barely budged. KrakenKid just kept his eyes on it, squinting.

"Zombie of... Who?" He asked, something lingering in his voice like he had a good idea of who it was.

Selena and Blooper exchanged a glance, both speechless in what to say. Lucky for them, they didn't have to as the "Zombie" lunged at them and told KrakenKid that maybe he should run first and ask questions later. Holding onto Blooper's hand and soon snatching Selena's he pulled them deeper in the tunnels and away from them. "Get back to me on that." He said in a hushed voice and began to navigate, going left and right and trying to find out which way was the right one.

He came to a stop when he ran the three of them right into a dead end. Trying to reverse the damage, KrakenKid turned right around but ended up backing away from he only exit when they came back into view, blocking it. "Stay behind me." He ordered, pulling both of them out of harm's way and behind them, taking a protective stance over them. His eyes locked with the dull blue one's like he was challenging it to try and get past him.

Selena felt the guilt boil inside of her until she couldn't take it anymore. "Hey Kraken? There's something you should know..." Blooper mouthed for her not to, but Selena didn't listen. "It's about that zombie."

"Selena, I'm sure you have good intentions and all but I'm a little busy right now! Unless it's important-"

"That's Tanith." That's all the mermaid had to say to make him go quiet, though it didn't last.

Someone started laughing. Selena looked to Blooper at first but he was just as confused as she was, and KrakenKid wasn't moving at all. Soon, she realized it was the zombie in front of them who was doing it. Soon, it broke out into full blown cracking up, her whole body shaking until it felt like she was going to cry tears of laughter. "I'm sorry!" She giggled. "But I couldn't hold it any longer! I tried, I really did!"

Moments later, KrakenKid himself chuckled. "Aww, I was so ready to stage my own death! Come on, Tanith, it was going so well, what went wrong?"

Selena and Blooper gaped at the two as KrakenKid started to stroll over to Tanith, who still had a zombie like appearance on but now the threat of it diminished. The older kraken was fully relaxed now. "I just-" Tanith was able to compose herself for a few seconds but laughed again. "Their faces! Oh- they really believed us for a second! Sorry! I told you at the beginning, I've never pulled anything like this before!"

KrakenKid sighed but seemed playful about it. "It would have been even better to see their faces after my "Death"!"

Blooper couldn't hold his confusion in any longer than he already had. "What's going on?"

Tanith and KrakenKid looked at him, then each other with a wicked grin on their face. " Well, cat's out of the bag. Should you do it or should I?" His voice was low.

"It was your idea, you do the honors. Also, shouldn't it be kraken and snake are out of the bag?" Tanith whispered the other two could still hear every word she said.

KrakenKid's eyes rolled playfully at her but his smile only got wider as he cleared his throat and in his best Blooper impression voice, screamed, "YOU JUST GOT PRANKED BRO!" Then immediately started to crack up.

While Blooper was both dumbfounded and a little insulted that they used his phrase, Selena found the will to actually say something. "This was a prank? All of it? How?" She asked, looking between the two of them.

Once again, the pair shared a look and began to speak. "Well," KrakenKid started, smirking. "I was getting really sick of your fighting so I thought when I talked to you two, the pranking would stop but then I saw your little pitfall. I have to admit, at first I was kinda mad but it gave me an idea for revenge."

"Revenge for what?" Blooper blurted out.

KrakenKid gave him a look and raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you've forgotten? You know, "Pretending to take over the Conch Command" doesn't ring any bells?" Blooper instantly dropped his eyes to the floor, a slight smirk on his face. KrakenKid crossed his arms. "That's what I thought. But of course, I needed someone to help me make a trick so,"

"He called me up since I was in the area." Tanith finished. Excitement was practically radiating off of her. "We set the whole thing up. I was to "Accidentally" fall into pitfall then use this remote," She pulled out a little detonator and wiggled it in the air. "To blow up the ground below me with the little bombs in the rocks. They were so small, they didn't even make a sound and only enough damage to make the floor give away."

"And the lava?" Selena added.

"Fake lava." KrakenKid announced proudly.

Tanith nodded along, smiling. "Yep! Acts like lava, but isn't nearly as hot or deadly. More like slime really. It stuck to me a little but it helped with the whole "Undead" thing! All this green stuff on me?" She ran a hand over the tip of her tail and brushed off the green stuff, which now stuck to her hand and revealed her normal tail color under it. "Just fake lava. We had to apply a lot of gray makeup on me quickly before you two came back but luckily, not only is CannibalCrab really good with makeup, but you two took a long time to deal with it. It was all a matter of timing."

KrakenKid interjected. "After that, I just had to act through it and we were in the clear!"

Selena and Blooper found themselves impressed. They managed to pull off all that by themselves? Something that KrakenKid kept mentioning stuck in Selena's mind. "Okay, okay, that's all good but what's this about your death being staged?" She looked to KrakenKid for answers.

His yellow eyes with amusement. "Oh yeah. Well, I was supposed to get into a fight with "Tanith" and lose because I would keep hesitating about attacking her and wondering if I could still save her and all that fun stuff, then get killed right in front of your eyes then after a moment or two, jump up and say "SURPRISE!" and not be dead, you know?"

Blooper blinked a lot to process it. Selena cleared her throat. "So other than CannibalCrab helping with makeup, this was all you two?"

KrakenKid grinned and nodded before holding up his tentacle, having it face Tanith but didn't look at her. Tanith did the same her her hand and they high fived perfectly without looking. "You have no idea how many times we've had to practice the perfect high five." KrakenKid said, grinning ear to ear.

Finally, Blooper spoke. "So, was this enough revenge or-" Both hastily nodded. A slow smile broke out on his face. "Not bad, Dad... Not bad... Wanna do a contest? See who can do the ultimate prank?"

The kraken and hybrid immediately protested. "No! No! That was enough for a lifetime!"

Blooper just laughed. "Suit yourselves."

***************************************************************

*Jazz hands* What'd you think?

I figured that KrakenKid doesn't let things go so easily, like how he's always holding on to Cody kidnapping Blooper or how Professor never gave him his Cherry Cheesecakes he promised, so I figured something as big as "Faking taking over the Conch Command" wouldn't be so easily forgotten either. What better to get back at your son then to make him think he killed a good friend of his father's, then that friend came back as a zombie before chasing them and causing his father's death as well? He might not have gotten to fake his own death, but hey, still was part of the revenge plan!

Plus, I kinda like making huge elaborate plans for a chapter, not like that might happen in a chapter or two, what? I said nothing

Anyways, I hope you liked this! I sure had fun with it. Did I trick anyone, or did someone catch on early? Be sure to comment and tell me, plus what you think of the overall chapter! Big things are coming and I can't wait! Goodbye!

--JustAnAtlantisWriter