Chapter 11: The Mechanical Shark
Soon, nearly everyone was down inside the peach. Earthworm was lying outside of the hole with the cowbell tied around his neck. James, Penelope, and Centipede were below the serpentine bug; the children were sitting in a hollow in the tunnel and Centipede stood on top of the ladder, holding Earthworm's body in eight of his arms.
The rest of the bugs and Jaelle were down in the stone; Mr. Grasshopper, Dragonfly, and Mrs. Ladybug were holding Earthworm's tail, waiting to hear James's instructions.
"They've lost their minds!" Earthworm whined. "Anything but birds!"
"Don't worry," James said from the tunnel, he held a string to catch a seagull and tie it to the peach stem. Penelope sat next to the boy, holding the other end of the string. "We're right here. Now wiggle!"
"No!"
"You must!" Penelope insisted.
"But they won't come if you don't wiggle!" James protested.
"Exactly! And you can't make me!" Earthworm said stubbornly.
The gypsy girl gave a sigh of frustration, she didn't realize how stubborn Earthworm was on taking orders. If would take a lot more than convincing to get the serpentine bug to lure in the seagulls. She looked over to see Centipede growing impatient, until a mischievous grin grew on his face as he came up with a Plan B.
"Oh yeah?" Centipede said. He tossed Earthworm up the air and began to tickle him on the belly, the worm laughed and wiggled, making the cowbell clang loudly.
"Hey, no fair!" Earthworm laughed, while nervous at the same time. "Mockingbirds munched me mother!"
Up in the sky, one lone seagull heard the bell and saw Earthworm wiggling outside of the peach. It flew down straight towards the worm. James looked out from his hiding spot to see the bird.
"Here comes the first one!" James whispered to Mr. Grasshopper, Mrs. Ladybug, and Dragonfly below as he patted Earthworm's body. "Get ready to pull down there!"
"My sisters were swallowed by swallows!" Earthworm screamed with laughter. As he did seagull flew closer and closer, making its way straight towards him. The gypsy girl peaked out and saw what was happening and turned to James.
"It's getting closer!" Penelope added.
James saw the squawking seagull and looked down, giving the others the signal. "PULL!" he ordered.
Hearing the boy's call, Mr. Grasshopper, Mrs. Ladybug, and Dragonfly yanked down Earthworm by the tail straight down into the peach, causing him to yelp. The seagull flew over James, and he threw a loop of string around the seagull's neck and tied the end of it to the stem. The seagull was pulled to a stop, once the string was tied. It squawked in surprise.
"It worked!" James cried, happily. "I got one!"
Inside the tunnel, Earthworm's ears picked up an unfamiliar, frightening sound from the distance. "Shh! I hear teeth!" he said, with an expression of fright. "Great! Big! Gnashing! Teeth!"
James and Penelope crawled out from the peach and saw a whirlpool forming in the water, far away. Mr. Grasshopper, Dragonfly, and Centipede crawled out and stood behind them. "It sounds like a rhinoceros!" the boy exclaimed with fear.
"In the ocean?" Mr. Grasshopper questioned. "Scientifically impossible!"
"How could a rhino live in the ocean?" Dragonfly asked.
"I hear something, too!" Miss Spider said nervously in her web. Jaelle bleated in fear and hid behind Mrs. Ladybug.
The grasshopper took out his monocle and used it as a telescope to view the whirlpool. Within the whirlpool, a group of fish were getting sucked in.
"What do you see, Mr. Grasshopper?" asked Penelope.
"It's a school of tuna. They're being sucked into some sort of machine."
"What do you mean?" James asked.
"Take a look." Mr. Grasshopper offered the boy his monocle. James held the monocle over his eye and looked through it. He saw a giant, mechanical shark emerging from the whirlpool, and flopped down on the surface of the water, and floated; the whirlpool has disappeared.
"It's a giant shark!" James cried with fear.
The mechanical shark opened its' dorsal fin and ejected plates of tuna heads. The plates landed on the ocean and floated on the surface. It was like the fish heads at Spiker and Sponge's house!
The shark extended its' long tail twice its' length and an alarm blared from its' body. Smoke from a pipe poof out from behind its' dorsal fin. Dragonfly looked through the monocle and trembled with fear and passed it to Centipede.
"It's seemed to have spotted us!" Centipede exclaimed nervously, making Mr. Grasshopper and Dragonfly gasp. Just as Centipede had said, the shark turned and began to swim towards the peach.
"What do we do?" Centipede cried and threw his arms around the little boy's head. "What do we do?"
"The seagulls!" James exclaimed, pointing up to the sky and pried off Centipede's arms. "It's our only chance!"
"It would take the whole flock and then some," Mr. Grasshopper said, recovering his monocle. "We'll never do it in time!"
"If only t'ere was some quicker way before we become shark bait!" Dragonfly added, crossing both of his set of arms.
Both comments from the male bugs made Centipede hug his hat in fright.
"We'll use Miss Spider's web for a net," James said immediately. "Hurry!"
After hearing James's call from outside, Miss Spider torn down her web and bundled it up. "Throw it here, dearie," Mrs. Ladybug called, she caught the bundle and tossed it up to Penelope. The gypsy girl passed the bundled net to James, and they hid near the stem. Dragonfly and Mr. Grasshopper hid in the tunnel and Centipede hid behind the open hatch lid.
"Wiggle Mr. Earthworm!" James begged. "Our lives depend on it!"
"You can do it," Penelope added.
"I can't, I'm all wiggled out!" Earthworm said, having enough of attracting of birds.
As he was making his way back to the tunnel to hide, Mr. Centipede groaned in frustration, grabbed, and pulled the serpentine bug out. "Here, let me help you," he grinned. Then Centipede tossed Earthworm up in the air and spun him around, ignoring Earthworm's screams.
"Come and get it!" the Brooklyn bug yelled to the birds. "Get your fresh, hot wienie!"
Hearing Centipede's call, a huge flock of seagulls flew down from the sky towards the peach as they squawked. Meanwhile, the shark was swimming closer to the peach. Dragonfly poked his head out and couldn't help but smirk at Centipede's action, despite the dangerous situation they were in.
"Come on, baby," Centipede muttered. Once the flock got close enough, the Brooklyn centipede hopped back into the hole with Earthworm. At the same time, James and Penelope threw the net and caught all the seagulls as they were catching fish.
"I got 'em!" James exclaimed. "Hand me the loops!"
Miss Spider and Mrs. Ladybug threw up long strings the arachnid made from her spinning. James tied them to the stem. Mr. Grasshopper, Centipede, and Dragonfly exited from the peach with the loops of string and began to help the children tie up the seagulls on one neck and string at a time.
"Hurry!" the boy said.
"Shake a leg, there!" Mr. Grasshopper yelled.
"Keep your pants on!" Centipede snapped back. "I've only got 12 hands!"
"An' I have four hands," Dragonfly added.
As they kept working, the shark was gaining on them, getting closer and closer to the peach, inch by inch. "It's getting closer," Earthworm cried from the tunnel.
Once every seagull was tied up and harnessed to the peach, the group released the net and the birds flew up into the air!
"Seagulls, away!" Centipede yelled.
With numerous seagulls using their strength, the peach was slowly lifted from the ocean and into the air. The mechanical shark was not finished with our heroes, it shot out a harpoon from its throat with a metal cord. Flying fast and strong, the harpoon entered through the peach flesh and pit. Seeing the harpoon entered startled Miss Spider and Mrs. Ladybug, gasping at the sight. Jaelle bleated in fright and hid behind the female insects.
"Oh no!" James cried.
"Oh, dear!" Mr. Grasshopper exclaimed.
With the giant fruit held back by the shark, it was pulled to a sharp stop. The impact caused Centipede to fall off the peach and landed on the wire. He caught his cap while bouncing and clinging on for dear life.
Just then, a mini shark with chomping teeth shot out from the shark's nostril, flew over Centipede and flew straight towards the strings. James gasped as the mini shark chomped its' teeth in the air. The little boy pushed the stem to miss the mini shark, but it ended up cutting a few strings
"They're getting away!" he cried as five seagulls were flying away with stings hanging behind them.
"Hop on, James!" Mr. Grasshopper called. The little boy mounted on Mr. Grasshopper's back, it reminded him of his birthday candle. With his long and strong legs, the elderly incest leaped high into the air. "Now, grab them!" he cried to James. Mr. Grasshopper and James grabbed onto the strings and halted the escaping birds.
The mechanical shark shot out four chomping sharks and made their way towards the grasshopper and little boy. "Help!" they screamed at the same time.
Mrs. Ladybug crawled out from the peach and flew into the air. Her wings made the sound of an airplane and swung her red purse around. Dragonfly decided to help and with his wings joined with Mrs. Ladybug. When two sharks came up, Mrs. Ladybug struck them with her purse. "Hooligans! Ruffians!" the sharks fell away with crumpled noses. "Degenerates!"
At the same time, Dragonfly used his fists and gave the other sharks hard punches. "T'at's what ye get fer messin' with us!" he yelled. "Face the might Dragonfly or I'll give ye a wonk on t'e nose!"
Mr. Grasshopper landed on the peach and James leaped off! The boy landed near the stem with a grunt and tied the strings back on. The other seagulls returned to their flock.
"Come on, seagulls!" James cried.
"You can do it!" Penelope encouraged.
"Put your backs into it!" Mr. Grasshopper ordered, as he pushed Earthworm forward.
"Shake your bloomin' tail feathers!" Mrs. Ladybug yelled, unaware that she shouted in Mr. Grasshopper's ears, causing the insect to cover his ears.
Meanwhile, the shark began to pull the peach towards it with the cable. Centipede was desperately climbing up the cord towards the peach. "Good sharky," he said, nervously "Nice sharky."
Inside the pit Miss Spider grabbed a large mallet and decided to use it to hammer out the harpoon. The impact on the cord caused Centipede to lose his grip slightly. He yelped and began to slide straight towards the shark and screamed, "SHARKY!"
Miss Spider swung the mallet again, unaware of the situation Centipede was in. The only thing that was on her mind was to free the peach from the shark. Outside, Centipede used his mandibles to slow himself down on the cord and caused a few sparks to fly all around. When he stopped, the centipede sighed with relief.
But as Miss Spider kept pounding on the harpoon, Centipede turned back and cried in terror. In front of him, was the sharp, gigantic teeth of the shark ready to shred anyone or anything to pieces. The centipede hopped on the cord like a tightrope walker and began to run up the cord.
When Miss Spider finally hammered out the harpoon from the pit, the cord was released and Centipede flipped in midair, and barely grabbed onto the boards in the fruit. Making it in time, Centipede pulled himself up on the peach, threw on his hat, and ran up the fence.
The harpoon was released and swung around the shark's dorsal fin. As the cord was tied up and attempted to pull it in, the cord got jammed, stalling it for a moment, the teeth were knocked out, and the machine inside began to tangle up. It eventually caused the mechanical shark to explode in flames!
James, Penelope, and the bugs on top of the peach cheered for victory! "All right!" Centipede yelled, jumping back on the fence. "Teach ya to mess with me, ya overgrown sardine! I'm from Brooklyn."
Mr. Grasshopper sat down on the peach next to Earthworm. "Oh, ho-ho! Pure twaddle!" the elderly incest laughed. Centipede turned around and glared, taking a deep smoke from his cigar. "Every bug on board displayed extraordinary courage. Why, did you see Miss Ladybug and Mr. Dragonfly risk life and wing to bash those brutes on the snoot?" At the last word, Mr. Grasshopper accidentally hit Earthworm on the nose.
"Ha!" Dragonfly said, "I've always wanted give 'em a good ol' trouncin' to show 'em who's boss!"
"Well, they were being very rude," Mrs. Ladybug said, sternly. "I can't abide rudeness."
Miss Spider exited the peach, carrying Jaelle and set her down. The goat hurried towards her mistress and bleated ecstatically, licking Penelope on the cheek.
"We are all forgetting something," Miss Spider said, smiling and gesturing to the children. "Everything we did was part of the brilliant plan of James and Penelope."
"It really did work, didn't it?" the little boy grinned.
"I think that faith was on our side and helped us!" Penelope added, Centipede nodded at Earthworm.
"I say three cheers for James and Penelope!" Mr. Grasshopper said with a said. "Hip-hip…"
"Hooray!" Centipede, Earthworm, and Dragonfly cheered.
"Hip-hip…" Mr. Grasshopper cheered.
"Hooray!" Mrs. Ladybug and Glowworm cheered.
"Hip-hip…"
"Hooray!" everyone cheered in unison as Jaelle pranced around the fruit with joy.
Centipede ran straight towards the stem and took his position as captain. "New York," Centipede said spitting into three of his hands, rubbing them together, and turned the peach. "Here we come!"
The seagulls all pulled the giant peach into the sky and began to fly towards their destination.
