Reef-Sanity!
Prologue
(It all started one night. A treasure chest full of magical artifacts and gadgets from many different universes was stolen from its resting place in a strange world filled with nothing but treasure by a group of dimension-hopping pirates.)
"I can't believe we've finally found the treasure box after searching for so many years!" one crew member said as he, his captain, and his two fellow crew members trudged up a mountain of gems.
"So many?" another said, "We've only been searching the many dimensions for almost 2 years."
"It just feels like that to me," the first one admitted, "We went about a year searching for it until we learned it was here, and then it took another six months to actually find it!"
"Will ya quit yer jabberin'?" the pirates' captain said, "We've only got twenty more paces to go before we find the treasure, and we'll make millions selling the many things in it to the highest bidder back home, or my name's not Bartholomew T. Smith."
"We ain't gonna keep any of it, boss?" the third crew member asked, "you know with the power the chest contains, we could just outright rule the multi-universe."
"Ah, but that would take out all the fun of explorin'," said Bartholomew, "who has time to explore or find and sell treasure when yer busyin' yourself to keeping an endless amount of worlds together? Now quit yer yappin'. I can see the chest ahead."
Sure enough, sitting upon a bronze pedestal was a large wooden chest. It seemed to be glowing in the light of the moon.
"I can't believe that we've actually managed to find it!" the second crew member said.
"Well, let's not just stand there lookin' at it," said Bartholomew, "two of you get your butts over there and try to pick it up."
The first two crew members did as they were told and attempted to pick it up.
"Say, there isn't even a lock on it," one of the crew members said, lifting up the lid. Inside, there were all manner of gold and silver trinkets. There was everything from some shiny colorful armbands to strange amulets to large already-cut diamonds.
"Amazing," said the third crew member, reaching out to grab one of the diamonds out of the chest.
"No! Don't touch it yet!" said Bart, "Ya don't know what it'll do to you! This type of cargo needs to be handled with care. Now quit trying to take stuff outta it and-"
"Stop!" a new voice shouted.
The pirates spun around to face a large bearded man several yards behind them. He was one of the guards of this treasure chest and had caught up with them after the pirates teleported into this world.
"Uh...Cap? What do we do now?" the first crew member asked.
"I guess we just have to fight it out," Bart said, reaching for his sword.
"No we don't!" the third crew member said. He grabbed a small device from Bart's belt. This small device with four dials and a button in the middle was how Bart and his crew traveled the multi-universe. Before anyone could stop him, the crew member turned two of the dials to random locations and hit the button while holding onto the others and the chest. Immediately, the four pirates and the chest disappeared from view just as the guard fired his crossbow.
The four pirates suddenly found themselves in the worst possible place: underwater. Bart and the others looked around, saw that they were hundreds of feet below the surface, and panicked. Bart snatched his dimension-hopper back from his crew member, hurriedly dialed one of the dials around, grabbed the others and slammed the button.
In a flash, the four soggy pirates were teleported into a small neighborhood and landed coughing and sputtering onto a van with a large fake bug fixed to the top of it.
"Blenny, how many times have I told you: only I am allowed to use my dimension hopper!" Bart scolded the third crew member, "Now because of you, we have teleported to a strange world we've never been to, and on top of that, we lost the treasure chest in that world where we were underwater! What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Erm...oops?"
"Now we have to find the chest all over again!" the first crew member groaned as he got the last of the water out of his ears, "and we don't even know the first place to search for it! Any world can have oceans in it! This one probably does, too!"
"Blenny, do you remember what dials you turned?" the first crew member asked.
"Well, Ben, I...erm...oh, yes, I turned the two dials on the sides!" said Blenny, "but I don't remember where I turned them to...I was in a hurry."
"Well, at least we're getting somewhere," said Bart, "I guess we'll just have to turn the two dials on the side and hope we'll find it again. It's only at the bottom of the ocean somewhere. What could happen to it? Now get me down from this giant fake bug, Blenn!"
"Aye," said the second crew member, but before he could do that:
"Hey! What are you doing on my van!?"
The pirates turned to see a skinny man in thick sunglasses and an orange baseball cap running out of his house toward them.
"We've been discovered!" Blenn said.
Quickly, Bart turned one of the side dials slightly to the left and he and the pirates disappeared, inadvertently taking the van with them.
"What the-? My van!" the man cried.
One of the man's neighbors peeked out of his house.
"Dale? What's going on out here?" he asked.
"Hank! Four guys dressed like pirates just stole my van, and now they're gone!" Dale replied.
Hank simply shook his head and shut the door. It was going to be a long day.
Bart had reassured himself and his crew that nothing would happen to the chest. After all, what could happen to the chest and its contents at the bottom of the sea? However, the sea was the Great Barrier Reef in a world where fish that are perfectly capable of communicating with each other lived. The chest sank to the ocean floor, its contents scattering around the reef, marking the first sign that things around the reef were never going to be the same again...