This was a fun one to write!

Gordon was not okay.

For the last thirty minutes he'd been stuck in the undersea church, trying to contact members of his family using his watch communicator, but all he was receiving back from his feed was static. He figured he was too deep under the ocean for the radio to work and made a mental note to inform Brains to develop their watch radio technology so it would work underwater in the future.

That was, if he'd ever be able to speak to Brains again.

The blurble of the Aquaphibian language echoed through the church as the rear door was opened. An injured Sequalibra was practically thrown inside, the door slamming behind him. His limp body hit the floor and Gordon ran over to him, quickly kneeling beside him.

"Sequalibra, are you alright?" he asked, cradling the man's head in his legs.

The man let out a cough but smiled tiredly at the aquanaut. "I'll be well, young one. They just interrogated me about you and the others."

Gordon frowned and helped the man into a sitting position. "And used force presumably. I'm so sorry they did that to you."

"On the contrary, young one, I've never felt more alive!"

The aquanaut had to let out a little smile at how energetic he sounded. The man's optimism was quite impressive considering he'd just been attacked for aligning himself with the humans.

The librarian continued, "I discovered that they plan to wed Marina here in one marine hour. Their plans were delayed because she tried to escape. Apparently she made it to the submarine Stingray but unfortunately one of Titan's agents was aboard and caught her."

"Ahh that's too bad." Gordon combed his fingers through his hair. "Titan? Troy mentioned him before. He's the big bad, right?"

Sequalibra nodded. "King Titan's name strikes terror into the hearts of many undersea people. He is a warlord, invader, and destroyer of cities."

Gordon blinked. The fact that the sea was apparently being conquered by some oceanic alien fish-person was still a pretty wild concept to him. "So what's he got to do with Marina?"

"It is well known throughout the undersea kingdoms that Marina of Pacifica, daughter of King Aphony, was his slave for many marine months until she was rescued by the aquanaut Troy Tempest and his submarine of blue and yellow. I believe they are now locked in a war with one another, but I know nothing more than that."

"So I guess that explains why she was referred to as 'Titan's property' before." Gordon scowled, feeling angry at the way the mermaiden was unfairly being treated. It made him think about Tin-Tin. What if she had been put in this position? He'd do everything in his power to get her out of it, so he silently promised to do the same for Marina. "And Titan made a deal with this Aquanas guy just to spite Troy too, right?"

"Indeed. Titan knows how much Marina means to Troy so my assumption is he is attending this event to mock him."

"Is he really that petty?"

Sequalibra smiled glumly. "That's Titan for you."

"Well we can't let this happen, can we?" Gordon said defiantly, standing up. "I know we're trapped in here but that doesn't mean we can't stir up some trouble now, can we?"

"Trouble?" the sea creature tilted his head.

"Trouble." Gordon smirked. "You see, Sequalibra, back up top, I'm known by my family as being a little bit of a prankster. With the right equipment…" he looked around the church, excitement brimming in the bowels of his stomach.

"What did you have in mind?" Sequalibra asked, not quite sure what he was getting himself into.

Gordon rubbed his chin, staring at the large wedding cake box that had been wedged up one of the corners at the back of the church out of the way. "I think I may have an idea…"

Troy groaned at the pungent smell of the damp storeroom which surrounded him. He'd been hiding in there for a while now and nobody had found him yet - probably because the room was used to store dead fish guts for the Aquaphibians' meals, which he'd discovered to his horror not long after he'd dived in there. Apparently these creatures didn't eat until the evening, so Troy was safe until then.

Suddenly the door opened, and Troy tensed up behind the stack of empty crates he was hiding behind. The door swiftly closed and Troy peeked around the side of the crates, hoping to get a good look at whoever had entered.

"It's only me, skipper."

Troy jumped at the voice cutting through the silence and turned to see his friend standing behind him, lopsided grin on his face. "Phones?"

"Howdy Troy!

"How did you know I was in here?" the Captain murmured thoughtfully.

"I didn't, but I heard something shift behind those crates there and it sounded like the scratch of your uniform grazing against the wall." Phones whispered back.

Troy smiled at Phones' magnificent ability to pick up sounds like that. "I guess operating the hydrophones for so long really does come in handy. Did you find Marina?"

Phones sighed. "No, but I saw Stingray all berthed up in their… well, it's kinda cool actually - an underwater harbour."

Troy nodded, "I saw that too, but not Stingray. Did you see where Gordon got to?"

"No, I haven't seen him at all since we split. What should we do now, Troy?"

Troy thought hard for a moment. "Our main priority is to find Marina. We can't let her go through with this sickening wedding. We find her, and after that, we find Gordon. Can you remember where Stingray was relative to where we are now?"

Phones narrowed his eyes as he recalled where he'd seen their submarine. "I… think so. I know how to get to it from here but I'm not sure how to access their boarding tunnels."

"I guess finding some sort of map wouldn't hurt." Troy rubbed his chin. "This place is like a maze!"

"Yeah, it seems the best way to access Stingray would be to swim to it, but we have no diving equipment."

"Did you know if Gordon brought any along?"

"He must have done, but I don't know where it is. It's probably stored in the submarine what he came in to rescue us."

"Do we know what that is?" Troy asked.

"No, I don't know what it looks like. All the ones I looked at were in various different colours. Pretty sure the WSS submarines are black."

"Colourful submarines? Who'd thought it?" Troy chuckled.

Phones laughed. "Yeah, there were blue ones, purple ones, and even a yellow one!"

"A yellow submarine? Boy these Sargassians have a vibrant taste. Wonder if they were inspired by that old song or something." Troy amusedly shook his head. "Alright, I think we should make our move now, while the corridor is still quiet."

"Aye aye skipper." Phones saluted.

The two men made their way to the door and snuck out of the room.