iii
Submerged Nocturne

There's a lot to say about love stories. Many of these stories share the same beats and progression. Many ways in which two people meeting inadvertently leads to the beginning of the rest of their lives. Having that first glance from a stranger change in a second. The first words spoken to each other coming out in jumbles from the amount of racing thoughts about the other person in front of him. Many tiny details envelop a love story, making them unique. However, there is a moment in each love story that rarely gets mentioned. It's a moment that unites all love stories. A moment, as living breathing people, we forget about and long to forget when times are great. A moment that every long lasting relationship must face.

Dr. and Mr. Bison met at a science convention. It was one of the earliest ones to take place on the moon and the one where a befuddled Newt Bison wore his faulty pair of glasses. On his way to a panel titled: "Meteorological Satellites and the Benefits of Using Them for Jovian Soap Opera Streaming", he bumped into her. Her being the cardboard cutout of convention center staff reminding attendants of waste bins and appropriate trash disposal. Joan had bumped into him shortly after, finding Newt apologizing profusely to the cardboard cutout. She had found him odd and he found her voice breath-taking. Joan would spend the rest of the evening narrating actions of the panelists for him, observing the man's intrigued expressions. At one point the panelists had began a heated exchange on stage. Joan would describe the gestures accompanying their words, to which Newt replied with, "Oh, my. That's quite saucy."

From then on, Joan and Newt would slowly build their relationship, hitting many of the milestones every relationship goes through. They dated throughout their respective educational paths as Joan pursued engineering and Newt pursued meteorology. They moved in after a lengthy amount of time together. Newt agreeing to move in with her after construction began on the Church of Aphrodite across the street. Fanatics she could deal with, the traffic however, she may not. They excelled in their careers, Newt's face on every person's morning broadcast while Joan's name graced over a million engineering patents. They even had kids, three of them if you can believe it. All these moments shared with each other and, depending on how the story goes, might share another moment hidden in each great love story. Death.

Where we last left our heroes, the family and doctors of the Bisons and Daughter crew, they had just awoken from their shipwreck at the bottom of the southern Atlantic Ocean. We briefly journeyed with doctors and sisters Beth and Prue Bison as they attempt to regain their sea legs and find the rest of their family. As we recall Beth and Prue's plan to search for their parents and sister, time must turn back as well for our heroes' journey to continue.

Earlier in the fray, Dr. Joan Bison had found herself sprawled out on the floor of the ships' deck. Newt Bison, father extraordinaire and most importantly, a meteorologist, is sprawled beside her. She looks around the ship, looking at the aftermath of their crash to the bottom of the ocean. The ship is thankfully intact, none of the window or the main viewing pane are damaged or cracked. However, parts of the ship's inner workings did collapse on itself, rendering sections of the ship out of reach. It didn't help that she only saw one of her three daughters on deck as well. Dr. Joan Bison looks down at her husband, passed out beside her. A couple of cuts and scratches adorn his face. His mustache, however, remained unscathed. Groaning, she gets to her feet and walks herself to the nearest domed window, surveying the sub-shuttle's surroundings. Her eyes squint, trying to make an image out of the dark sea floor and sand spiraling in front of it. "The engine must be kicking up the sand." Joan begins to think. Her eyes widen as she's surprised by the features she sees.

It was a woman, or at least she believed it to be. Dr. Joan Bison steps closer to the domed window, wanting to observe closer although the fear in her body resisted. The vacant expression of the face outside of the window sends shivers down Joan's spine, the fear preventing from sating her curiosity.

Joan sees the face of a woman in the domed window change, although she's unsure if it's only the glass or the sand playing tricks on her eyes. The hollow eyes of the specter outside was replaced with that of those belonging to a seal. Joan flinches, giving herself a humiliated sigh of defeat as the aquatic beast awkwardly nudges its nose around and against the window with curiosity.

Dr. Joan Bison mentally curses at the seal in front of her for the fright. However, she becomes intrigued once the seal looks at her with a tilted gazed, as if it had been reacting to Dr. Joan Bison's thoughts.

"My apologies, mystery seal." Joan thinks in her head.

The seal's gaze is prompted elsewhere, it twists its body behind itself at the new object of the seal's attention before ducking away and swimming past the window. Replacing the seal is the deep sea diver from before, standing stoically with the pitchfork from before in hand. As Dr. Joan Bison cautiously retreats herself from the small window, a chime from the ship's command panel is heard. A dim light blinks on the navigation panel, its sequence seemingly random and sporadic. Dr. Joan Bison crotches down towards Newt as he begins to stir awake. Peri stirs awake too, the navigation panel's chiming seemingly aiding in waking them. Peri, wincing at the soreness of her ribs, leans against the wide table of buttons and wires before examining the source of the noise.

"It's a distress signal."

"It could be them, Prue and Beth! We have to go make sure they're okay!"

"There's a couple of escape pods we can take. I'll ride in one while you and Dad ride the other one. That way, if Mr. Sample Stealer tries to come after us, he'll be outnumbered."

"No need for that, we could use the spare equipment from the extra escape pod to repair the ship. Once we rescue Beth and Prue, of course."

Our heroes make haste to the lower decks of the ship. Ironic, seeing as the three had to climb up to them given the position the Bison's & Daughters sub-shuttle. Peri looks out of the escape pod's viewing pane as she boots it up. She finds a familiar diving helmet she assumes is staring back. As Dr. Joan Bison and Mr. Newt Bison make themselves comfortable in the tiny cramped space, Peri turns to her head to them. "The sample thief came back to visit us."

"Do you suppose they still need help?", Peri asks as she observes him. The diver, stoic and pitchfork-wielding as always, stands a few feet away from the Bison's & Daughters sub-shuttle. Peri begins to drive the escape pod towards him, the headlamps illuminating the figure well. The diver, ever slowly, stabs the pitchfork down next to themselves. They reach behind themselves to present the Bisons with a very large harpoon gun, loaded and aimed at their direction.

"I don't think that's help they're after." Newt comments as Peri launches the escape pod speedily past him the pitchfork wielding fiend. The harpoon barley missing them. Their, in air quotes, "friend" the deep sea diver lets go of the spent harpoon gun and lifts the pitchfork from the sea floor. Their arm raises the pitchfork high at their direction.

Peri maneuvers the escape pod towards the surface. Dr. Joan Bison looks down onto the diver below them, noticing the diver's stoic stance. A familiar seal swims past them. And then another. And then another. And then another.

Dr. Joan Bison takes control of the escape pod. Peri mans the computer. In the middle of the chaos, she helps navigate her mother towards the direction of the distress signal.

What was once a clear and blue ocean fills with many seals, a mass of blubber, fur, and fins form a thin crescent behind the Bison's escape pod. Dr. Joan Bison presses on the escape pod's acceleration pedal, hoping this wasn't the escape pod's max. A desperate sigh is heard from Joan as she realizes that her foot has met all that the pedal could give. Upon this unfortunate realization, her field of view is suddenly obscured by the seals. They ascend from under the escape pod, weaving themselves in their motions as they try to keep within the now created ring of seals. Dr. Joan Bison looks around the escape pod windows, each one being filled with the fins and fur of the seals surrounding them, the tapping and scraping of their paws is heard as the ring of seals close ranks tighter into the escape pod. Dr. Joan Bison loosens her grip of the steering wheel, she leans back on her chair, thinking this could be the end.

Dr. Joan Bison - mother, engineer, doctor - looks back to her husband. As their eyes lock, Joan wonders if this will be their final moment together. She wonders if this will be their final story beat in their love story. Her brown eyes meet his, bright as the day she first saw them.