The Octonauts and the Overfishing Incident (complete)

Chapter Nine

Barnacles went first, climbing the ladder up the side of the ship and ducking straight behind a pile of barrels at the top. Some of the crew, three people, were milling around on the deck. Kwazii jumped the last two rungs and nearly fell back on top of Tweak, who gave him a withering look as she crouched down next to him behind the barrels. Dashi, Peso and Shellington hid behind another set of barrels on the other side.

"We'll have to be fast, Octonauts. Kwazii, Tweak, we'll distract them for a bit while Shellington, Dashi and Peso make their move."

"Yeow!" Kwazii said quietly but his tone was excited. "We used to do this all the time back in my pirate days!"

"Tweak?" Barnacles focused his attention on the nervous looking rabbit next to him. Her ears were twisted, but they relaxed as she took a deep breath then nodded. "We'll be faster than they can say bunch o' munchy crunchy carrots!"

Barnacles smiled and got ready to leap out.

"I, 2, 3..." He counted, and gave the rescue team a hand signal. Barnacles revealed himself and shouted over to the crew. Hawkeye was nowhere to be seen for now.

"Hey! Give us back those fish!" This gave the illusion they were the ones rescuing them, Barnacles hoped. Kwazii yelled a war cry and flipped forward as the crew came running at them. Tweak recognised the bear and dog from before. The dog ran at Kwazii and flipped forward at the same time Kwazii did. The bear growled under his breath and came for Barnacles. Tweak noticed the last person was a female fox, coming straight for her. She had a white sailors dress on and dark, almost black, eyes that bored right into Tweak. Tweak ran, leading the fox away from her friends' hiding place. Barnacles manoeuvred his body so that his opponent couldn't see the barrels and gave Dashi, Shellington and Peso a second hand signal to run. From the corner of her eye Tweak saw the rescue team hurrying away into the ship interior and gave a sigh of relief before focusing all her attention on the fox chasing her.

Dashi peered round a corner and nodded to Shellington. "All clear," she whispered. Peso was looking scared, but his face was unreadable. Dashi knew that Peso would stop for nothing to rescue those fish before they were killed. The three Octonauts ran quickly, heading to where they knew the fish would be kept, the underwater compartments of the ship in the very bottom. There was nobody in sight at the moment, but Dashi was sure that there would be someone guarding the fish. None of them were great at fighting, Peso hated to hurt people, Shellington had no hand eye coordination and Dashi was too kind hearted to hurt someone intentionally. Dashi just hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Back in the water, outside the Octopod, the Vegimals were bobbing around in the water quite happily, chasing each other at intervals and chattering in their own language constantly. Inkling was still trying to learn their language so he only caught the odd word. Plus they spoke so fast, it was near impossible to listen to the individual words. The water was calm and Inkling was quite enjoying himself. Maybe he should have brought a book to read...

"Take them out and you take the Captain out," Hawkeye suggested. He was fully aware of the chaos on first deck, and also the cameras had shown him glimpses of the other two down in the stern, obviously on a rescue mission. Below the ship, though, was an octopus and some little - colourful things bobbing about. Octopuses fetched a hefty price tag  back at the trade market and Hawkeye hadn't caught one in ages. He didn't know what it was going on broad daylight in view of his ship, normally octopuses stayed well out of sight. But it was a stroke of good luck. He called his three sailors up on the deck through their radios.

"Adam, Oliver, Cera. There is an octopus down there."

Up on deck, the three Octonauts saw their opponents eyes widen, their look akin to happiness. Barnacles, as he dodged another punch from the bear, wondered what was going on. Kwazii flipped backwards and nearly fell into the water if Tweak hadn't ran over and grabbed his flailing wrist just in time to pull him to safety. He blinked gratefully at her. But there was no denying they were being backed into a corner. Kwazii and Tweak fought side by side, Kwazii using his speed to dodge in and out of attacks, Tweak doing her best to fight back against the fox's savage attacks. The dog spoke a few brisk words into the radio and suddenly five more sailors appeared on the upper deck. Barnacles knew they couldn't take them on for long. But instead of going over to join the fight, three of the sailors went over to the fishing station where they were pulling at a net.

More fishing? Barnacles remembered thinking dimly before the bear hit him solidly in the face. He reeled backwards, the blow taking him off guard for a second. The other two new sailors came up and before Barnacles knew what they were doing they had moved up behind Tweak and tackled her, each grabbing an arm and pulling her back. Tweak cried out as she was effectively immobilized, trying to pull away and struggling for all she was worth. Kwazii was still dodging and flipping away from the incredibly fast dog, when a net came out of nowhere and landed squarely over him, pinning him to the ground in an instant. Kwazii struggled but the net was large and heavy, made of thick rope and entwined with metal. Two more grabbed Barnacles, pulling him to the wall and holding him against it, their grips strong. The three Octonauts were captured.

As a net came up Barnacles bristled with anger. Was there really anything left to fish in the ocean? The crane kept pulling a net up and suddenly the Captain heard a familiar cry. His eyes widened as the net came into view, carrying with it....

The Professor.