Romancing the Ambergris

Chapter 2:

Paige II did not have many windows, only a very large one at the bow in front of the control panel. However, this did not mean the passengers had no view starboard or portside. Andy had equipped the ship's flanks with high-resolute cameras and right now, Paige's duo of friends were overseeing the footage these cameras were feeding to a couple of monitors. Unfortunately, despite having travelled several miles off shore, the epipelagic zone of Ringworm Bay remained boring and uneventful.

That was until the blonde with the diadem gleefully shouted, "Dolphins! I mean, look, there's a pod of dolphins over here." She called out as she kept pointing at the screen she was sitting in front of.

"There's some here too." The blonde with the beret said as she looked at her monitor, with an a lot more subdued tone.

Andy and Paige stopped with what they were doing and came over to see what the girls had caught on camera, Andy came to stand by diadem girl while Paige took position by beret girl.

"Wow, there's like five dolphins here." Paige said.

"There's four dolphins here." The girl with the diadem said.

"That's like…" Paige counted on her fingers. "Nine dolphins. That's a lot right?"

Beret girl rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"It's pretty small actually." Andy decided to answer his crush's question. "Bottlenosed dolphins usually travel in pods of fifteen or so. Then again this could be an all-male pods or bachelor pod as they are called, they tend to be smaller."

"Actually Andy, these are common dolphins and they live in pods of several hundreds." The girl with the diadem corrected him. "This must just be a scouting party, meaning the rest of the pod can't be far behind."

Andy felt like he'd been hit by a brick. It was rare he was ever corrected on anything. He double checked the camera feed and sure enough, the cetaceans had that yellow hourglass patterns on their flanks that characterized the common dolphin. "You-you're right."

"How did you know that? You're not turning into a nerd, are you?" Paige asked with a mischievous smirk.

"O-of course not." Diadem girl immediately started blushing and stammering in embarrassment. "I-I just happened to catch a nature program while waiting for a new episode of Kiss in the City."

"Really, which episode?" Paige inquired, arms crossed over her chest.

"Um…"

"Hey, Paige." The blonde with the beret interrupted as she looked at her cell phone. "Greg's slimebook account is blowing up with posts asking to be his valentine."

"I told you, I don't ever want anything to do with that scumbag." Paige proclaimed, indignant.

"Some of them are from the cheerleading squad."

"What!" Paige practically shouted. "Those treacherous harpies! Let me see." The alpha blond snatched her friend's phone and started reading, teeth gritting in anger.

Diadem girl meanwhile sighed, grateful for not being Paige's target of attention anymore.

Andy looked at the girl with a level of concern. "I did not know you had an interest in marine biology."

"I don't. Only nerds like those sort of things." Diadem girl huffed.

Andy smiled. "There's nothing wrong being a nerd."

"Nerds are unpopular."

The bespectacled boy chuckled. "I'm a nerd and I've always considered myself very popular."

The blonde with the diadem didn't say anything, seemingly trying to ignore him.

Andy smirked as a mischievous idea popped into his head. "Hey, did you know the common dolphin can dive to up to one hundred meters before it has to return to the surface."

The girl's eyelids twitched in annoyance.

"Also, males reach maturity at year seven while females only mature at twelve."

The girl grit her teeth.

"There's also a dolphin called a wholphin which is a hybrid between a common dolphin and a killer whale."

"You idiot!" the girl snapped at him. "They can dive twice as much as that and it is the males that mature at age twelve, not females. Finally, a wholphin is a hybrid between a bottlenose and a false killer whale."

Andy smirked. 'Caught.'

The girl blushed as she realized she'd revealed her aptitudes. "Okay, okay, I admit it. I love dolphins. And whales but that's it. Fish and corals and all that is just boring."

"You know, you shouldn't be ashamed of what you love."

"Paige would make fun of me if she found out." The girl muttered.

"She might tease you for it but if she's really your friend she'd never hold it against you." Andy reassured her.

The girl blinked. "Wow Andy, you've given me a lot to think about."

Andy smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "No problems, um…you"

She raised an eyebrow. "You seriously don't know what my name is?"

"Well, we don't interact much and my friends and I never talk about you unless it's in conjunction with Paige. We tend to call you guys the blonde squad or Paige's entourage." The rotund boy bashfully explained.

The girl with the diadem sighed. "My name is Vicky. Vicky Summers."

"Vicky. Okay, I'll remember that." Andy flashed her a friendly smile.

The girl with the diadem, apparently named Vicky smiled back at him.

"Andy, what's that thing?" Paige cried out, earning everyone's attention. The alpha blonde was pointing at something seen in the bow windows, something dark and blurry. Despite being off in the distance, it was clear that whatever it was were way bigger than a dolphin.

Andy smiled with excitement. He recognized that blackish skin, vertical tail flipper, battering-ram-shaped head and hump at the base of the tail. "That is a Sperm whale."

"The one we've been looking for?" Paige asked, getting giddy.

Andy quirked an eyebrow. "Um, no. The one we're looking for is already dead. Still, this is a good sign that we're on the right course."

The crew watched in fascination as the massive sea creature vanished into the deep blue shroud of the sea.

Meanwhile, in the city…

LabRat's shoes scraped against the pavement as his friends literally dragged him to the café. "I can't believe you two talked me into this! I'm regretting it already." The shut-in complained, wearing a blue hiking jacket with navy blue sleeves and hood as well as a sage green backpack.

"Cheer up, LabRat. This place is perfect." Ty exclaimed. "It's not a restaurant, it's a café. You can stay with this girl for hours or just fifteen minutes depending on what you're up for."

"Besides, don't you want to meet this NightCutie?" Naomi asked. "I mean, you seemed to have some good online chemistry with her?"

"It's different online." LabRat argued. "In a chatroom, you can take your time responding and I-

"Well that shouldn't be an issue for you." Ty interrupted. "You're one of the most sharp-tongued fellas I know." He cupped the taller boy's shoulders. "Just remember, you're a cool secret agent that builds cool secret gadgets. You're like Q but better looking."

LabRat kept scowling, giving his friend the stink eyes. "I still haven't forgiven you for posing as me on my personal chatroom."

"Yeah, you keep reminding me." Ty said in a passive-aggressive tone.

Naomi patted the team's engineer on the back. "Don't worry LabRat. Me and Ty will sit at a table nearby in case something goes wrong."

At that moment LabRat's backpack started to move and scratching sounds came from inside it. "What was that?" Naomi asked.

"Um, nothing." LabRat stated as he spun around to both face her (and to keep her away from his backpack) but before he could spin around again, Ty had already opened the zipper.

Hermes peaked his white little head out of the pocket.

Ty glared at the rodent with unamused eyes before turning those same eyes towards LabRat. "You brought Hermes with you?"

"Yeah, he provides better moral support than you two do." LabRat snapped back at him.

"They don't allow pets in there, LabRat." Ty argued, pointing at the café.

"They'll never see him. I'll keep him in the backpack the entire time."

"Maybe I should take him back to the gaglab." The spikey-haired teenager suggested.

LabRat crossed his arms. "If Hermes goes, I go. Out of discussion."

Ty sighed. "Fine. Just don't open this thing at any time during the date." He tucked the white rat back into the backpack before zipping up.

The three Grossologists entered the café. It was a charming, quaint little place with pink and white tiles and wooden beans, creating a warm atmosphere of both modern comforts and old timey simplicity. There were already a number of couples there celebrating Valentine's Day as well as a few loners typing on their laptops.

LabRat sat down at an empty table meant for two while Ty and Naomi did the same a bit further away so they could keep an eye on him. "Are you sure about this? I didn't want to say anything in front of LabRat but I too have my misgivings about this." Naomi said as she took off her coat and draped it over the backrest of her chair.

"No, I'm not sure but LabRat needs to start socializing with people who aren't Grossologists sooner or later. I mean, we barely hang out with him unless there's a mission happening." Ty replied. He eyed his girlfriend for a moment and smirked. "I like your new top by the way."

Naomi smiled and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Thank you. I bought it for our Valentine's date."

"I'll consider this as a teaser then." Ty quipped.

While the couple engaged in some light flirting, LabRat fidgeted impatiently in his chair, nervously picking at some dried old syrup stuck to the edge of the table. Upon hearing the door opening, he peaked up and the visage of the person who'd opened it caused his mind to crash.

She was a beautiful teenage girl with fair skin, a button nose, indigo blue hair that reached down to her hips and navy blue eyes. She wore a purple jacket atop a lavender shirt. She turned her head a few times, seemingly searching for something.

LabRat rose up so abruptly that his chair scrapped against the floor, loud enough to earn the attention of half of the café. Turning her gaze to the dark skinned boy, the girl smiled and approached him. "Hey. Are you Paul Squirfenherder?"

"Y-yes. You're Alicia Lamprodemn, I'm guessing. Nice to meet you." LabRat scratched the back of his head and extended an open hand.

Alicia however bypassed the hand and wrapped him up in a big hug. "Yep, that's me." Realizing what she was doing, she let go of him. "Whoops, sorry." She let out a bashful giggle. "Again, sorry. I guess that was too forward. It's just that I've been so thrilled to meet you."

Recovering from the shock of being hugged by a beautiful girl, LabRat tried to answer her. "I know what you mean, I've been excited to meet you too. Actually, that's not true. I've actually been rather nervous."

Alicia gave a lopsided smile before gracefully sitting down in the chair opposite to him. "Well, you know what they say; thrill and anxiety are just two sides of the same coin but there's no reason to be nervous. After all, we already sort of know each other."

LabRat nodded and sat back down in his chair, an excited smile gracing his face.

Ty and Naomi meanwhile stared at them in amazement. "Wow, she's… astounding." The bespectacled girl exclaimed.

"Yeah, she looks like she stepped right out of a romantic manga or something." Ty added. "Hopefully this will encourage LabRat to be more social."

Naomi smirked as she turned her attention to her boyfriend, blushing. "I guess we don't have anything to worry about then."

Ty mirrored his girlfriend's expression tit-for-tat. "I guess not."

Naomi placed her hand gently a top of his and the two stared into each other's eyes.

Aboard Paige II, a few hundred miles off shore…

"We should reach our destination in a minute or so." Andy chirped happily from the captain seat.

"Thank God, I don't think I could stand watching at all this nothing for another second." Paige groaned as she leaned back in her seat. The blonde bombshell wasn't exaggerating. For the last couple of hours, the view in front of them only had two colours, deep blue water and sandy brown sea bottom.

"Well, the ocean covers more than seventy percent of the world. There's bound to be a lot of empty space." Andy explained.

Paige sighed. "Someone should set up a coffeehouse around here."

"This is so exciting." Vicky squealed. "I feel like that one-legged captain in that story we had to do a book report on."

"Moby Dick?" Her beret wearing friend said in deadpanned tone.

"Watch your languish." Vicky chided.

"Our whale should come into view any second now, girls." Andy proclaimed. The three girls huddled closely around Andy in order to see what he was seeing, something the pervert had nothing against. He eyed the GPS on his control board for a moment. They should be right above the dead sperm whale in a few seconds. Paige II passed over a sandy sloop, reaching its intended coordinates and…

Nothing.

In front of them was a vast sand field, occasionally interrupted by dark rock formations and sea shells. A few crabs and small fish scurried into hiding when the large submarine approached.

"What the heck is this?" Andy gasped, shocked.

"What is it, Andy? Have you found my ambergris yet?" Paige asked, sounding like a spoiled brat in a toy store.

"It-it should be here."

"Well…where is it?" The alpha blonde asked demandingly.

"I don't know. If a whale carcass was here we should be able to see it." The bespectacled boy replied.

"Doesn't this sub have one of those beepy things that help you find things?" Vicky asked.

"A sonar? Yes, I just didn't think we would need it." Andy answered before turning on the aforementioned sonar. He attentively watched the vector on the little screen but nothing registered. "No, the sonar doesn't detect anything either."

Paige crossed her arms over her chest. "So, what are we gonna do now Captain Dweeb?"

Andy bit his lip as he thought of what they would do next. He was getting stressed. He couldn't give up now, this might be his only chance to earn the affection of his dream girl. "I'm going to take a closer look." He said as he got off his seat and headed towards his slimesuit hanging by the wall. "We can venture out there and look for clues as to what happened to the whale body. Does anyone else want to go sea diving?"

Paige and Vicky both raised their hands.

A few minutes later…

Andy and two of the blondes were now wearing slimesuits and breathing helmets. Andy of course wore his usual white slimesuit. Paige meanwhile had reluctantly decided to put on a yellow slimesuit after complaining that there were no pink ones.

'If Abby ever finds out that I let Paige borrow her slimesuit she'll kill me.' Andy thought as he took in the unorthodox (but pleasing) sight of the popular girls now wearing the suits of his Grossology teammates, Paige in Abby's yellow and Vicky in Naomi's magenta.

He then turned to the third girl aboard. "You sure you don't want to come with us?"

The beret wearing girl reclined in her seat and rolled her eyes at the chubby boy's question. "Into the cold, dark water to look for whale poo? Nah, I think I pass."

'Just as well, we only have two girl-sized suits anyway.' Andy thought. "Alright, time to head out."

"Wait, what if we encounter a shark or something else that wants to eat us?" Vicky asked worried.

"There shouldn't be any sharks in these waters but in case we do encounter a predator I have the perfect weapon." Andy stated before reaching underneath his control board and pulling out a funny looking green riffle.

Paige raised an eyebrow. "That looks like a paintball gun."

"It's similar but instead of dye, the bullets that goes into this thing are filled with sea hare inc."

"Sea hare?" Paige blinked and imagined a bunny/fish hybrid.

"Yeah, it's a type of bottom-dwelling snail that releases a cloud of chemicals when threatened. These chemicals stimulates the olfactory sensors of predators, making them attack the cloud instead of the snail itself." Andy explained.

"Okay Andy, I trust you."

Even thou she didn't sound too sincere, Paige words raised Andy's spirit. He proceeded to open up a hatchet in the middle of the floor and climbed into it, ascending down a ladder. "Come on, girls."

After having followed him down the hatchet, the two girls found themselves in an empty chamber. "So what now?" Paige asked.

Andy pressed the palm of his hand against a big, red button that read 'FILL' (located above another red button that read 'EVAC'). "Now we wait."

Water started to pour into the chamber thru a couple of spouts in the walls. "Oh no, the boat is leaking!" Vicky shrieked in fear.

"No, no, its fine. It's supposed to do that." Andy reassured them. It didn't take long for the water to fill the entire chamber and for the three teenagers to find themselves underwater. Paige and Vicky were very relieved to find out that the breathing helmets worked automatically and perfectly.

"Are you lovely ladies doing alright?" Andy's voice echoed inside Paige's helmet.

"Um…yeah." The alpha blonde replied, a bit confused as to where the voice was coming from.

"I just wanted to remind you all that we can keep contact with both each other and with the ship thru the radios inside the helmets." Andy explained.

Vicky looked down and saw how the floor underneath them opened up down the middle, leaving a free passage to the open water. Feeling bold, Andy took the lead and dived, swimming out of the submarine and into the open ocean. Paige swam up close to Andy's side. "So, for how long can we be down here before the air runs out?"

Andy was a tad startled by the question. "Um, good question. I'm not sure."

"You're not sure!" Paige screamed thru the radio-system, giving her fellow divers a migraine.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we have at least an hour worth of oxygen in these things. We should be fine." Andy reassured them. Truth be told, he had no idea how these breathing helmets worked since there was no oxygen-tank attached to them. 'LabRat truly is a genius. I need to ask him how he built these when we get back.' He thought. The trio reached the bottom of the sea, hovering just above the sand. "Okay gang, let's split up and look for clues. Just don't swim too far off from the submarine."

Paige nodded and swam off with Vicky following suit.

Once he was sure the girls weren't watching him, Andy used his wrist-mounted GrossWatch to scan the sand on the sea floor. "Well, there's definitely traces of sperm whale DNA here." Andy said out loud to himself, reading the results on the watch screen. "There's traces of methane and propionic acid as well. As expected from a decaying body" his eyes shifted from side to side, "but where's the body?"

At the same time inside Paige II…

The girl with the beret sat comfortable in her seat, her ears plugged with earbuds as she listened to the latest pop-music on her iPhone.

This made her completely unaware of the beeps coming from the ships sonar as its screen showed a colossal shape ominously approaching.

Meanwhile, the two blondes were swimming along the sea floor. Paige's eyes were like a hawk's on the prowl. "We need to find that whale vomit or I'll never smell like perfection ever again."

Vicky's mind was on something else. She'd always wanted to swim with a dolphin and now, less than an hour after seeing an entire pod she was actually diving in that same ocean. She was hoping with all her little girl heart to spot one. Suddenly, she saw something big swim off in the corner of her eye. She turned but whatever it was she saw had already disappeared in the murky water. "Dolphin?" Hopeful, Vicky started swimming in its direction.

"Hey, where are you going?" Paige asked demandingly after seeing her friend take a detour. However, before Vicky could respond, the alpha blonde spoke again. "No wait, we can probably find the ambergris quicker if we split up. Keep going." She shooed the other girl away and continued swimming in her own direction.

After a while of swimming along the sandy bottom, Paige was cast in darkness by the giant shadow of something swimming above. The moment she looked up thou, the owner of the shadow had already disappeared. The snobby girl remained tense and still for a few seconds before continue moving but then…

"Oof." Paige was pinned to the bottom by something heavy. Something heavy, soft and slimy. "Wha-what is this?" With both fear and disgust, she stared at the blanket of white, transparent slime that had covered her. She tried to rise up but the slime was too heavy and she was only dragged back to the ocean floor. It felt like she was buried underneath a giant water balloon. "Andy! Come help me! I'm stuck in this white goo…And wipe that smirk off your face. I am in real trouble here." Paige talked thru the radio in her helmet.

Having overheard the message, Vicky soon arrived at the scene. The grotesque scene of her leader in the midst of all that slime caused her to freeze up.

"Don't just stare! Get this off me!" Paige yelled at her startled friend.

Reluctantly, Vicky grabbed the slime and tried to tear it off her friend but when she yanked it, it somehow grew in size. She tried again and once again the blanket of goo got even wider. It was like more slime was created out of nothingness each time she tried to tear at it. Vicky had never seen anything like it.

Paige's eyes suddenly dilated and she screamed bloody murder. Vicky turned around and saw the most terrifying sight in her life.

Swimming right towards them, was a giant brown eel with a round mouth full of jagged teeth. Of course the diadem wearing girl also screamed while the rest of her body stiffened in fear.

After having heard Paige's distress signal, Andy finally arrived at the scene, swimming about twenty meters above the sea floor where he could see everything happening. "That's one of the giant hagfishes that Ty and Abby confronted three years ago." The bespectacled boy gasped. 'What is it doing here? Never mind, I need to save the girls.' Quickly, he dismounted the Sea Hare Gun off his back and took aim. He knew the shot needed to hit close enough for the animal to react but he didn't want to fire too close to the girls or else they might be caught in the ensuing frenzy.

He fired the gun and the capsule exploded against the sea creature's tail fluke, releasing a cloud of purple ink. The hagfish abruptly stopped charging at the two paralyzed teenagers only a few feet away, its primitive brain overloaded with new sensory information that it just couldn't resist. It turned its faceless head around and latched out violently at the cloud of chemicals. Like a mad dog chasing its own tail, the slender fish started circling as it worked itself into a feeding frenzy even thou there was nothing for it to eat, casting off huge amount of slime in the process.

Andy moved in and hooked his arm around Paige's chest. Despite not knowing if his hover-boots would work underwater he tapped his heels together and luckily it gave him the extra boost he needed to lift Paige off the sea floor.

While most of the slime had come off her when her saviour lifted her up, some still clung to her body and as Andy kept towing her towards their submarine it started to swell and increase in weight.

"Andy, whatever you do, don't let go of me!" Paige exclaimed.

"I'd never let go of you, Paige." Andy reassured her.

"Also, don't touch my boob."

"What? I'm not touching your boobs." The chubby boy sounded a bit offended at the accusation.

"No but you're thinking it."

"I can guarantee you that for once I don't." Despite his witty banter, the white clad Grossologist started to get really tiered from hauling his crush, weighed down by the ever growing blanket of slime that enveloped her. He then noticed Vicky who was swimming next to him. "Vicky, contact your friend on the ship and tell her to bring it closer if she can."

It took the panic stricken girl a moment to register what he'd said but eventually she nodded.

"Tammy, Tammy, do you hear me? We need you to steer the ship closer to us." Vicky's voice echoed thru the submarine's radio but her friend with the beret didn't hear her as she was currently reclining in her chair while listening to music on her iPhone.

"No good, she's probably listening to music or something." Vicky said.

Andy simple rolled his eyes, took a firmer grip of Paige and continued swimming upwards.

The trio of swimmers were now very close to the safety of the submarine but by this point the sea hare ink had dissolved and the giant hagfish once again took chase.

"Andy!" Vicky and Paige screeched in unison. Looking over his shoulder, Andy witnessed to his horror the monstrous fish coming towards them. He desperately tried to swim faster, still weighed down by the slime covered Paige.

Vicky thou swam much faster and soon found herself back inside the sub's aqua chamber.

"Vicky." Andy's voice echoed in her helmet. "Once we're inside, push the button that says Evac on it."

"Um, okay." The blonde replied before swimming to the two buttons at the wall and held her palm over the lower of the two.

Andy was getting increasingly tiered. Despite his Grossology training, he was not used to physically exerting himself to this degree. Internally he was cursing himself for not developing any form of gear to make him move faster under water but he had not even considered that something like this would happen. This was supposed to be just a fun outing to flirt with his dream girl. 'I can't keep this up anymore. My legs and lungs are aching. I should just…give up.' In that moment he felt something touching his arm. He gazed over at the girl he was hauling, her eyes were tightly shut and her right arm was hugging his. 'What am I thinking? I can't give up now. Not when Paige is counting on me.'

Andy took a firmer hold of Paige and somehow managed to increase his speed if only for a few strokes.

The colossal hagfish was gaining on them. It wasn't a fast fish by any means but it could easily outswim a pair of struggling land mammals.

Finally, Andy and Paige passed thru the entrance to the ship's aqua chamber and in that moment, Vicky pressed down on the Evac button. The ship's shutters closed shut right in the face of the charging hagfish and its head rammed into the hull of Paige II.

The resulting tremors were violent enough to even gain beret girl's attention. "Huh, what's happening?" She removed her earbuds and went to open the hatchet she saw Andy open earlier.

The aqua chamber had quickly been drained of water thru little drains in the floor and the three divers laid scattered about, exhausted and still recuperating from the shock.

"Um, did something happen?" The blonde with the beret asked as she descended into the chamber. She froze up the moment she saw her leader covered in mucus. "Eeeeeew!"

"Can someone just get this off me? PLEASE!" Paige screamed in desperation.

"Ea-easy, Paige." Andy panted as he rose onto his feet and walked over to his crush. "This stuff might be difficult to get rid off in the water but on dry land it's as easy as flipping a pancake." He took a firm grip of the hagfish slime and chucked it off her like it had been a simple sheet.

Paige removed her breathing helmet and took a deep gasp for air, her eyes were so dilated one would have thought she'd seen death itself. She stated scrapping the remaining slime off her arms and legs before getting onto her feet. "What the hell was that thing?"

Andy removed his own helmet. "A hagfish or rather, a genetically modified hagfish. Specimens just like that one attacked our city three years ago."

"How do you know that?" Beret girl asked.

"I read it in a newspaper."

Suddenly, the ship trembled.

"It's attacking the sub!" Vicky shrieked.

True to her words, the mutant hagfish kept ramming its head against the ship's hull while also covering it in its slime.

Andy rushed to the control board. He got into his seat pulled a lever forward. The submarine started moving and with one massive burst of speed, left the giant hagfish in its backwater as it propelled itself thru the ocean water. Eventually, Andy felt they'd distant themselves enough from the massive predator and he slowed the ship down to normal speed.

"I think we're out of the woods for now." Andy stated, wiping his forehead of sweat.

"Good, then we'll change out these mucus covered spandexes." Paige said in a snotty notice-how-mad-I-am tone.

"O-okay…um, tell me if you need me for anything." Andy said nervously.

"Pervert!" Paige cried out as she and Vicky entered the makeshift dressing-room.

"Tha-that wasn't what I meant." Andy managed to exclaim before the door shut close.

"Did you notice what Andy did back there?" Vicky asked.

Paige crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. "What are you saying?"

"He risked his life to save you." The diadem wearing girl stated. "I-I don't know why but for some reason that slime on you just kept growing and got heavier and heavier yet he just continued to carry you."

"Yeah well, it was his fault I got in that situation in the first place." Paige scoffed.

Vicky lowered her gaze. "Well…"

"What? You disagree?" The alpha blonde questioned.

"No!" Vicky responded quickly, waving her hands defensively. She then submissively lowered her gaze as she did not wish to anger her leader. "But he did ask if we wanted to dive with him and we choose to. Sure, it was his fault in a way but… he did look after us and such…"

"Yeah, well…" Paige tried to find the words but she seemed too frustrated to do so. "Don't expect me to thank him for it!" She turned around and started to undress.

"I don't think he expect you to…" Vicky said with a tone that was just above a whisper before turning around and change out of her own slimesuit.

As Paige reached down to take off her boots, her aggravated scowl slowly softened to a guilty frown.

Vicky finished first and stepped into the control room. She moved to sit by Tammy but then apparently changed her mind, continued walking till she stood next to Andy. She glanced down at the boy sitting in the captain chair with thoughtful eyes which soon shifted into a warm smile.

It was at this moment that Andy noticed she was there. "Something wrong, Vicky?"

"No, Paige just told me to thank you for rescuing her and also…you're kind of cute." As soon as she'd said that, Vicky giddily sprinted back to her seat next to Tammy.

Paige came out of the dressing room. Andy eyed her as she walked towards him. When she sat down in the seat next to his, he turned away and grinned with a visible blush on his face. "I'm so in." He whispered to himself before facing her. "Sorry about what happened back there. I had no idea there were any big predators in these waters. I-I'll find a way to make it up to you."

"Don't sweat it." Paige huffed.

"Still, I was pretty heroic out there, wasn't I?" He grinned.

"Yeah, I suppose so." Paige replied nonchalantly as she took out a pocket mirror to check her makeup. "So, what's the plan now? After all, you still haven't found my ambergris."

Andy's gaze fell to his feet. "I don't know."

"Um, Andy? Didn't you say there were no sharks around here?" The blonde with the beret asked.

"Um, yeah."

"Then what is that?" She shouted and pointed at a large silhouette in the distance.

Andy squinted his weak eyes. The silhouette did indeed look like a giant shark. He checked at his sonar screen and it was indeed picking up on a shark-like object moving towards them. 'That's way too big and way too hard bodied to be a shark.' It was then that he noticed something on another one of his instruments. "Guys, I think that's another submarine."

Paige blinked. "Why's that?"

"I'm picking up a radio frequency from it." Andy replied, picked up a radio mic and spoke into it. "Hello. This is the captain of Paige II, do you copy. Over." He waited a moment but got no answer. "Repeat, this is captain Stefanuik. Do you hear me?"

Everyone remained silent for a little while until finally, "Um, hello?" a dopey male voice came out of the radio.

Andy smiled for a moment at the successful contact. "Hey, this is Andy Stefanuik aboard Paige II. Who are you-I mean, identify yourself."

Again, the voice was silent for a moment before speaking. "How did you get this number?"

"Number? There is no…" Andy sighed in frustration. The person on the other line clearly wasn't a genius. "I picked up on your radio frequency. Listen, I advise you to turn back. There's a dangerous ocean predator in the direction you're going."

"Oh, do you mean the hagfish? Don't worry, she's with me." Just as the voce said that, the aforementioned sea monster rushed past Paige II, startling the crew and headed for the alien vessel.

The shark-like submarine came into view and now when they could see it clearly, the teenagers were even more bewildered. The vessel looked like a metallic shark but rather than moving by its own power, it was carried thru the water by yet another monster hagfish, attached via big steel harness.

The first hagfish reached the submarine and comely stuck its head thru a second harness next to its kin. Andy's jaw dropped at seeing that. The sea monster that had nearly killed them was someone's pet?

A mocking chuckle crackled thru the radio. "I hope my little fishy didn't scare you too much. It probably just got a tad overexcited while looking for my ambergris."

"Your ambergris!?" Paige barked offended.

"Yeah, I need it for my ultimate stink bomb." The voice stated.

"Wait a second." Andy exclaimed. He started to recognize the voice. While he hadn't met this particular villain personally, he and the other new recruits had seen plenty of videos of him while training. "Are you… Sloppy Joe?"

Inside S.S Joe…

Sloppy Joe smirked, finding amusement in the caller's feared tone of voice. "That's right, the stinkiest pirate on the seven seas. Now, if you know anything of where my ambergris is you better tell me or this fun little treasure hunt will turn… grimy."

Author's Note:

So if you've read the original version of this fanfic you probably noticed that the scene with Arachnidia & Doctor Colon is no longer in this chapter. Don't worry, the scene hasn't been omitted. I've only moved it to a later chapter. All the scenes with Ty & Naomi thou have been completely replaced with this new LabRat subplot.

You may also noticed that I'm taking Vicky's character arc in a slightly different direction.

I would very much appreciate it if you gave this chapter a review. I'm really interested to hear what you think of the changes I've made to the story.

Have a great day, fellow Grossologists.