"Master hero! Master hero!" cried out the young boy, frantic enough to ignore his disciplined training. "A terrible occurrence! The infinite school have lost their hold on their grisly teacher! The cosmic crown reacted suddenly and cut off their psychic leashes! Sharkasaurus Rex is loose!".
The young boy wildly rang the same small gong all the monks in this sacred placed carried. It shook Theodor's ghostly form, the echoes disturbing both his state of solidity and his state of mind. But thankfully Brody Dharma placed a palm on the boy's shaven head and the tall gecko's own highly-trained enlightenment seemed to help the young monk find his own calm centre. The wide eyed boy stood quiet a moment, then his breathing slowed down and his heartbeat climbed back down to normal. The boy looked up at his spiritual master apologetically, but Brody Dharma just rubbed the boys head in a fatherly way and sent him off.
The ghost fish felt a dour feeling of envy for the child before he drifted out onto the balcony of the mountain monastery, joining the gathered space-champions that were looking over the mist covered horizon of planet Amity. Only a few tall green peaks poked out of the perpetual fog, making for a mystical ancient feel to the already impressive view. The setting young sun cast brilliant colours everywhere, fading to a dark blue and a deep black the further up one looked.
But the normally enchanting stars were not alone in the night sky. There was a dark shadow, massive and long and fast, darting in widening circles. It was being chased by pinpricks of familiar colours, all bunched together and chasing the shape, leaving vapour trails of transparent hues behind. Theodor could feel the echoes of futility even all the way down here.
The Secret Living Language was the first to speak aloud, apparently less hypnotized by the amazing view than the others. "What has eventuated?"
"The infinite school could barely keep mental control over Rex before," explained Brody Dharma to the other space-champions. "When the cosmic crowns decided to enforce our tournament's rules with their own unknowable power, it blocked the ghost fish from affecting Rex. No outside interference, quite strictly it seems."
"Danger-Brody-Dharma-danger!" spit out Emperor-M from his speaker grill. "The-tournament-parameters-are-not-boolean-variable, end-statement. Outsiders-may-not-case-break-interrupt-but-there-is-nothing-preventing-the-function-defined-challengers-from-file-corrupting-others, end-statement, end-subroutine."
"M isz right," agreed the pretend-thing that spoke for the Monster Bees' queen. Theodor had to flip almost all the way around to see her lurking in the dark of the doorway, away from the proceedings in the open of the balcony. "You and your inviszible monksz may be able to protect your hive, but Amity's non-super inhabitantsz under the miszt will be chum in the water. The shzark muszt be put down."
"No! No!" said Geisel, Theodor's fellow rainbowfish. He swam submissively around the legs of the Super Wizard From Space, spectral eyes both empty and brimming at the same time. "Great Rex is sick! Great Rex is poisoned! In the brain!"
Theodor through Geisel, his phantasmal form passing through the red fishes more optimistic form. "Cold Rex. Cruel Rex. Too late for him."
"The crown! Take the crown! Great Rex will improve without the crown!" pleaded the red fish.
"Don't know that. Can't know that. Better the quick kill. How Rex would do it. How Rex would want it." demanded Theodor.
The black shape in the sky suddenly stopped. The coloured points looped around it, dragging out multi-chroma curves around it. Suddenly the points scattered and the dark shape grew bigger. And clearer. And it was diving straight down.
With a move faster than the others could follow, the Super Wizard From Space drew the ambient blue sunlight around him in a cocoon, held his arms up in front of him, and rocketed into the air directly at the diving shark.
Geisel floated still, watching. His bright pastel thoughts of optimism flowed easily through the others' grey feelings of awe and dread. But Theodor's own opinions matched the blue black hues of the wizard's; pessimistic at best. So he did a fat circle of the balcony before rising up, following the wizard's wake.
Moving upwards and upwards, the dark shadow started to take a more distinct shape. A ragged massive wall of teeth, rows upon rows, all of them vicious triangular shards of bone. A gaping horrendous mouth ready to scoop up anything shredded by the lines of daggers. A long sleek cigar shape the size of some starships, the smooth lines only broken by wicked dorsal fins jutting out from its back and sides. And cold round eyes, golden with cosmic power and filled with an insatiable hungry wanting.
The infinite school of phantasmal fish swarmed around the megalodon, sometimes stabbing right at in in huge numbers. But before they got too close to the ghost shark's powerful form, the laurel wreath floating on it's brow flared a sickly green light and ethereal chains appeared like a wall. Even the spectral shapes of the fish couldn't pass through the massive links, ricocheting wildly in all directions. Sharkasaurus Rex's cosmic crown was not allowing even his former students to interfere with the challenge.
Spreading his arms, the Super Wizard From Space spread out his cocoon like a bubble, solidifying it into a shield of stellar light. The brightness of it caught the megalodon's eye and with a sharp turn that defied it's size, Rex turned.
The great mouth opened. Fifty-five murderous rows of cleaver-like teeth slashed at the shield. The super wizard pushed the full strength of the shield against the bite.
The powerful jaw clamped down on it like it was a soap bubble. Points poked right through the wall. Starlight arcing wildly from the holes. The whole shape bulged as massive muscles crushed it.
The super wizard barely slipped out of the flattened bubble before it burst. Jagged white angles slammed against each other with a crash, mere feet from his arms.
A wave of one arm, a wide wave of white light was tossed against Sharkasaurus Rex's brow. It splashed with a burst before passing harmlessly through the spectral form.
The megalodon snapped wildly in the wizard's direction, the wave of white blindly refracting off his transparent eyes. Even Theodor's long dead eyes were momentarily useless.
But he watched in surprise as the super wizard dived under the gnashing snaps, skimmed under the belly of the beast and, in a particularly emptyish space, slipped inside the ghost shark's body. Once inside the middle of the ethereal beast, he reached out as if to grab the blue light of Amity's star and dragged it inside.
The setting blue star seemed to flicker a bit on the horizon, like it was considering falling behind the horizon prematurely, then flared up nearly half again as large. The peaceful pales and purples and greens of the sunset turned into a pushing wave of angry blue, heat and light and solar wind rushing over the surface of the planet in waves of pressure. And in all swirled to the pit of Sharkasaurus Rex, yanked within by the Super Wizard From Space.
The simple monster thrashed in spot, trying to bend enough to get it's crushing bite at it's out stomach, but even it's spectral shape didn't allow for it. It's transparent form seemed to fade under the constant furious movement and high contrast light. Sharkasaurus Rex seemed to become less and less real as the ball of star light inside him became tighter and harsher.
Just before the sun finally dipped down behind the misty ranges, the super wizard flung out the collected light with the flat of his palm. It slashed out in a plane, horizontally along the megalodon's body and sawed across both golden eyes.
Theodor heard the beast roar with a million years of fury, mountain peaks around collapsing from the monstrous sound. He watched Rex flinch into as tight as a ball as it could and retreated from the living world, becoming almost entirely intangible. Great Rex, humbled!
The laurel wreath however refused to be dragged away from material reality. The chains appeared again, but this time seemed to anchor the small object to the corners of the universe. Space bent slightly. As the beast became less real, the powerful wreath became exponentially more so.
But though Sharkasaurus Rex was near nonexistent, the Super Wizard From Space remained where he was. He grabbed the cosmic wreath with both hands and pulled.
The super wizard's own white crown blazed with gravity, a series of white chains wrapping around it and his own shoulders. The cosmic crowns resisted being separated from their masters.
The super wizard gritted his teeth and let the fire of the blue star burn in his arms.
Both sets of chains snapped. He had the wreath.
Theodor called out to the Super Wizard From Space, getting the space-champion to quickly distance himself from Sharkasaurus Rex. Even without the wreath, the ghost shark was a hungry and dangerous monster. But the infinite school swarmed in and circled their teacher. As Sharkasaurus Rex returned to some solidity, a tidal wave of collected thoughts tied down the shark's hungry thoughts. Psychic leashes from millions of phantasmal fish restrained it's furious nature.
"Excellent wizard! Victorious wizard!" came the overjoyed imagination of Geisel, broadcast ahead of him in colourful emotions as he joined them in the upper atmosphere. "Thank you! You have his crown! You have won the challenge! You have humbled Rex!"
Theodor's kept his own emanations much more subdued. "Too much optimism. Too much hope. Rex is no better. Rex is no wiser."
"No! No! It was the cosmic crown! Too much for Rex! Too much for anyone!"
"Sad Rex," said Theodor, watching the school struggle to keep the shark pacified.
"No! Rex will improve! Rex will recover!"
Theodor was silent and doubtful.
"You will see!" said Geisel confidently, darting to the great megalodon. He swam around the wide body, past the great slicing fin, skimmed past the now empty brow, and to the front of the pointed snout. "Rex, free from his race! Rex, free from his blue planet! And now Rex, free from that hateful crown!
"You will see it! I see it! In his new eyes! Rex is free!"
Sharkasaurus Rex watched the red rainbow fish with wide black eyes, the golden power granted by the laurel wreath drained from them. Did Theodor see a new calmness in those terrible orbs? There did seem to be a quiet contemplation of the small spectral thing. A recognition.
But then it was gone again.
Before Theodor could think a warning, the beast's body quivered; it's opacity seemed to perfectly mirror the red fish's, like matching a frequency. And with a savage sharp movement, Sharkasaurus Rex bit Geisel in half.
His thousands of teeth tore through the tiny body.
And with a mighty shake of his head, the ragged remains were tossed into the air and dissolved into wispy nothingness.