Faction of the Fooling Fish
The Faction of the Fooling Fish were a secret society of pranksters native to the Earth of the Prime Universe. They dressed up in fish costumes and generally kept to this theme as their gimmick.
History
Origins
The Faction originated as one of the many Strangely-Colored Secret Societies formed in the Prime Universe as a result of the First Horde laying off large numbers of its personnel and imperfectly wiping their minds of their time as Horde operatives, giving them a subconscious itch to form new, similar societies. Its founder was Archibald Fishflipper. (PROSE: The Strangely-Colored Secret Societies) Archibald's fashion initially pursued the same goal as its originators, namely researching Atlantean artefacts, hence picking a sea creature as their emblem. However, they quickly became bored with these pursuits, and pivoted to pranking, (PROSE: The Faction of the Fooling Fish) delighting in old-fashioned pranks like pie-throwing, electrically-charged hand-buzzers or glueing googly eyes to things. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) Their home base in the Prime Universe was a warehouse filled with practical jokes. (PROSE: The Faction of the Fooling Fish)
Contacts with the Cupids
The Faction of the Fooling Fish were originally only active on Earth. However, in the early 21s century, they began to have contacts with the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) starting on April 29th, 2019. When a Rift appeared by chance in their headquarters, connecting to the Cupid Homeworld, the Fish snuck into the Cupid Homeworld and made themselves known to the Cupids by stilling a pie left to cool on Colonel-028's windowsill and replacing it with a paper fish. The Blue Feather followed the trail of crumbs back to the Fish headquarters, where they quickly met the Fooling Fish themselves. A minor scuffle broke out when the Cupids pointed out that it was not, in fact, April Fools' Day, and the Cupids were forced to hightail it back through the Rift before getting the Department of Rifts to seal the Rift.
A short time later, the Rift reopened, and the Fish entered the Cupid Homeworld again, armed with a brainwashing device they'd recently acquired. They snuck into the Department of Documentation's offices and found Bibliophile-962 working on a Cupid Fact File on the Fish themselves, numbered #444. They used the brainwashing device to make Bibliophile forget his responsibilities and wander out into the wider Homeworld playing prank, while making their own, self-aggrandising additions to the Fact File in indelible green ink. The vandals were caught in the act, however, and forced back through the Rift which was closed a second time. The Blue Feather were assigned the task of guarding the location of the Rift in case it opened yet again. (PROSE: The Faction of the Fooling Fish)
Acquiring the Fish'n'Ship
In the eleventh hour of the “Rifts Crisis”, the Fooling Fish somehow acquired a tachyonic sailing ship which they used to rescue Marksmanship-522, Tracker-764, Bibliophile-962 and Pythagoras-858 from the impending explosion of Mandragora's Machine and return them to the Cupid Homeworld.
As recorded in the Cupid Courier, the Fish then ran amok in the Homeworld for “about an hour” before climbing back into their newly-acquired Void Ship and setting sail to explore the Multiverse. (PROSE: Rifts Crisis Officially Over!) They resolved to make a striking first impression on the upcoming April Fools' Day, and hired Lainya Vantrik to guard their ship for them in the Void while they dropped off small parties in a variety of locations to complete a large number of elaborate practical jokes.
This included letting Astro, an extremely metafictional rhyming dog, loose on the Prime Earth; driving some Geometrons insane with the sight of a three-dimensional fish; convincing most of the merchants of the Interdimensional Black Market that the Market was relocating to the Interdimensional Tavern; and attempting to convince Jenny Everywhere that one of their number was one of her incarnations, from a universe where fish were considered supreme, who went by “the Fishter”.
After Jenny called Pythagoras-858, he made his way to the Fish's ship and made them promise to be safer and more considerate in their next bout of prank. Sheepish, the Fish agreed. (PROSE: Multiversal Mischief)
Christmas 2021
In or slightly before December 2021, the Faction found a universe they couldn't enter, which they decided to name Dimension Zeta-32-Orangepeel-Grbbrzkwlkglb. It seemed to be surrounded by a shield which caused a permanent storm “around” it on the Chronon Sea. They headed to the Interdimensional Library for research, and discovered that this dimension was an artificial pocket universe, used as a haven by the survivors of a pandimensional war.
After the robot CS-NA randomly landed aboard the Faction's tachyonic ship, by then renamed the Fish'n'Ship, while he was using his Dematerialisation Engine randomly, they convinced him to serve as their guinea pig on what they claimed would be Christmas-themed pranks; though he had fun engaging in Christmas-themed activities for a whole day under their supervision, CS-NA couldn't figure out how they were supposed to count as “pranks”, which, indeed, they weren't. The Faction instead wanted to ensure he would be suitable for a mission for which they needed his help: steering the Fish'n'Ship past the shield so as to bring the pocket universe's inhabitants the joys of the holiday season. After they succeeded, CS-NA, concluding that “Fun” was another fundamental element of the holiday, agreed to stay for a little while and enjoy the celebration.
After CS-NA returned to the Cupid Homeworld and set up a Christmas party there, he invited the Faction, who brought a mountain of snow for whoever wanted to to play in. It was especially enjoyed by Larrikin-1029. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
