Wow. It's about time I updated, right? I cannot shunt ALL of the blame onto technology, but...I'm going to anyway. My document uploader wasn't working right, meaning I couldn't edit anything, and I was only able to solve it today! Stupid browser. Thank you, James of .

Now, I have to confess something. I am a liar and I apparently couldn't write anything short if my life depended on it. This is not the last chapter of Tubular like I promised. The story will have 3 chapters. And I SWEAR I'm cutting it off at 3! I meant to make this chapter longer and just cut it off here, but I really liked the way this ended, and I'm also still trying to buy myself time for the next Rio story. So if any of you had your heart set on a 2-chapter story, from the blackest part of my heart, I'M SORRY.

On with the show!

"GO, JORGE!"

"NOT. YET." The frustrated seagull turned around and glared at Pedro. "The ropes aren't fastened. CALM DOWN."

Pedro sulked from his tube. "But I wanna go now…"

"Wait, like, two minutes."

"Fine."

From the shore, the Blue Macaw children lay on their bellies, (Rey wearing Nico's bottle cap), chins resting in their hands. Their arms, strained from holding onto the tubes moments earlier, wobbled. Although Blu and Jewel had said they could go home whenever the tired children wanted, the kids in question had seemed extremely offended at the prospect of surrendering to a little exhaustion.

Pablo the seagull, who had pulled all three of the kids for close to an hour, sat next to them. Abelina turned to the bigger bird. "Mr. Pablo? Thank you for pulling us," she said sweetly.

"You're welcome, kiddo." He smirked at Hugo and Jorge, now wading in the water and double-checking that the ropes attaching Nico and Pedro's tubes weren't going to break mid-run. "I got it easy. You guys are light and I couldn't go too fast with you, anyway. Hugo and Jorge are going to have fun with this."

"What does that mean?"

"It means they don't have worried parents holding them back."

"ARE YOU DONE YET?" Pedro called.

Jorge rolled his eyes and looked at Hugo, who had just finished making sure he was properly attached to Nico's tube. "Do you want to go, Pedro?"

"YES!"

"ALL RIGHT!"

With that last emphatic yell, Jorge and Hugo simultaneously propelled themselves up from the water. The violent flap of their wings sent considerably larger swells towards the tubes than Pablo's had, and Nico and Pedro cheered as they rose over the waves. It took only seconds for their speed to go from stationary to about five miles per hour—a considerable speed for two rather little birds.

Nico and Pedro whooped throughout the straightaway, waving to the kids watching on the beach. From their peripherals, Hugo and Jorge noticed they were only holding on with one hand, and promptly took advantage of this: the gulls veered directly to the right, whipping the tubes along with them. The speed went from about five to roughly ten miles per hour with the one violent turn.

As a result, Nico and Pedro bounced dangerously on top of the tubes, scrabbling to grab the toothpicks as they whipped in a circle. They just barely managed to stay on, both of them dropping to their stomachs in an effort to stay at least halfway out of the water.

The whip sent Nico's tube soaring in Pedro's direction. Pedro, registering the speed at which the duct-taped pillow was flying, instinctively started yelping.

"DON'T HIT ME!"

Nico didn't have time to respond before his tube knocked against Pedro's, the velocity the former had gathered sending the latter careening even farther along the whip. Pedro scrabbled to hold on as he more or less flew through the air.

Jorge and Hugo straightened out a little bit, and Pedro's tube was sent roaring back towards Nico. The canary, quickly registering the speed at which Pedro's tube was soaring his way, braced himself for impact.

Pedro smacked solidly into Nico's tube. The power gathered through speed alone sent Nico racing across the tiny waves, but the added weight difference gave the hit such force that Nico couldn't possibly hold on—he lost his grip and flew diagonally across the water, finally going under a few feet away.

Blu sharply inhaled from the shore, wondering why Jewel and his children were laughing.

"Is he—"

Jewel coolly cut him off. "Look, Blu, he's completely fine."

Nico had popped up, waving to the seagulls so they could see him through the water. "PEDRO! It's on!"

"You can't take all this!" The cardinal cried, striking a victory pose from atop his tube.

Nico clambered onto his own, shaking the excess water off his feathers. "I don't think you understand what you've just done."

"What, incited the rage of Nicholai?"

Nico glowered as Jorge and Hugo started flying, necessitating that he and Pedro drop to their knees. The seagulls built up their speed again, and Nico and Pedro laughed with exhilaration.

Blu, however, had just started to calm down. "Okay…they look like they're going to be fine…"

"That's because they are," Jewel laughed. "You worry way too much."

"Maybe I do…"

"BLU! JEWEL! CHECK THIS OUT!" Pedro and Nico were now tubing back past the spectators on the beach. Pedro, closer to shore, stood atop his tube without holding on. "NO HANDS!"

Jorge and Hugo shared another smug glance and sent the tubers through another whip, this one more violent than the first. Pedro didn't stand a chance: the tube practically disappeared underneath him, tripping the cardinal and sending him flying off diagonally, straight into Nico.

Nico, assessing the situation a split second before it happened, ducked. Pedro soared over the top of the canary and hit the water, making a rather impressive splash.

Nico laughed from his tube. "Serves you right!"

Pedro grimaced as he swam back towards his own tube. "Whatever, that was incredibly impressive."

"That was pretty impressive, Pedro!" Jewel called.

He smirked. "See?"

"Hey! Guys!"

"What's up, lady bird?"

"Mind if I join you?"

"ALL RIGHT!" Nico, Pedro, and the kids yelled as Blu sputtered incoherently.

"Jewel, are you crazy?"

"No. We've got a third tube. And I'll ask Louis to pull. You don't mind, do you, Louis?"

The fourth seagull, who had been quietly sitting next to Pablo and the kids, shook his head. "Not at all."

"Great!" She turned back to the water. "Guys! Wait a minute while I get hooked up, okay?"

"You got it, girl!" Nico and Pedro shouted simultaneously.

Blu ran after Jewel as she began to push the third tube into the water. "Jewel, I really don't—"

"Hey, Blu, remember when you admitted you worry too much?"

"Like 30 seconds ago?"

"Yeah. You're doing it again."

"But, Jewel, I just—"

"Blu," she said exasperatingly. "The kids did it and they're alive. Nico and Pedro are doing it and they're alive. I think if three fledglings and two birds who are most likely suffering brain damage from firework exposure can survive, I can too."

"Well, survive, sure, but what about just getting plain hurt?"

"Aww. That's sweet, Blu. But do you see any injuries on anyone?"

"The kids have scraped knees. Kinda."

"Are you saying that I can't handle scraped knees?"

"No, I'd just rather…um…Jewel, I…um…I forbid you to go."

"What?"

Blu held her glare for all of two seconds. "I mean…I give you my blessing."

"Do I need your blessing?"

"I mean…have fun."

Jewel continued to glare. "I mean to."

"I love you."

"Uh-huh. Let's go, Louis."

She turned to join Louis, who had finished tying the connecting rope around his leg, wading into the water.

"Jewel? Just…be careful…okay?"

Jewel rolled her eyes, a smile unwittingly crossing her face. She pecked Blu on the cheek. "I will."

It was not much later that Jewel, Nico, and Pedro were ripping across the ocean, Jewel in the middle with Nico and Pedro on the outsides.

Jewel laughed as salt water sprayed into her face. "GO FASTER!"

Hugo, Jorge, and Louis obeyed Jewel's command, speeding up in sync with each other. The tubers tightened their grips on their toothpicks.

Meanwhile, Blu paced back and forth on shore practically eating his wing off in nervous anticipation of their next whip, of which all three seagulls were exceedingly fond. Only a second later, all three gulls made an almost 90 degree turn, sending Pedro, Jewel, and then Nico into an over 10 mile per hour burst of speed.

Nico could not prevent his tube from colliding head-on with Jewel. The impact jarred his hands from the toothpicks, bouncing his tiny canary body violently off the tube.

He flew through the air towards Jewel, who didn't see him in her peripherals. He smashed into her side; she just managed to keep her balance enough to stay on the tube as Nico scrabbled atop her shoulders.

"NICO! GET OFF ME!"

Nico smiled smugly from his perch. "No way! This is sweet!"

Pedro, still successfully on his tube, had begun laughing so hard he couldn't break coherent words through his giggle fits.

Nico pointed at his mildly incapacitated friend. "Pedro agrees."

"With me." Jewel moved her wing and shoulders in a mighty effort to throw Nico off.

Hugo glanced behind him, where he found Nico's tube empty. "Did we lose Nico—"

"NO, HE'S ON TOP OF ME!"

Louis, seeing both birds atop his tube, smirked and sped up considerably. Nico was violently thrown backwards, toppling off of Jewel. He tumbled upside-down, smacked his forehead against the tube, and glanced off the flying rubber into the churning wake below.

A look of satisfaction crossed Jewel's face. "Now we lost Nico."

Nico emerged a few feet behind the tubes, a big red mark on his forehead. As soon as Pedro saw this he laughed even harder.

"Shut up," Nico muttered, paddling back to his tube. He pulled himself up, wringing out his wings. Then he felt his head and instantly succumbed to panic. "WHERE'S MY CAP?"

"I got it, Uncle Nico!" Rey called from the shore. "Remember? You gave it to me before you started tubing."

"Oh, yeah…"

Pedro's laughter had finally started to abate as he took a deep breath to steady himself and sat up on his tube, glancing towards shore. He squinted. "What's wrong with Blu?"

Jewel and Nico followed Pedro's gaze and simultaneously let out an "Uh-oh."

Blu lay on the beach, completely unresponsive to Rey and Abelina poking him in the side. Javier picked up a handful of sand and sprinkled it over his father's face.

"Mama, I think he fainted."

"Sounds about right. Put down the sand, Javier. That's not going to help." Jewel flew from her tube back to shore, closely followed by Nico and Pedro. She gently shook her mate in the side; a little bit harder than his children's pokes.

Nico motioned for Rey to return his bottle cap, which he ran back to the ocean to fill with water. He managed to transport it across the sand while only losing a minimum splash and handed it to Jewel, who tipped the entire thing onto Blu's face.

The Blue Macaw awoke instantly, taking in a breath and trying to cough at the same time. "Oh—ick—salt—"

Nico and Pedro giggled in the background as Jewel sat him up. "What happened, hon?"

"You—you're alive!"

"Yes. I am alive."

"But—Nico—tube—shoulders—"

"I survived."

Blu exhaled to the point of inwardly collapsing. "I got so nervous."

"That you fainted?"

"Well…I lost consciousness."

"Dude, you fainted," Pedro snorted.

Blu glared. "Lost. Consciousness."

"Fain. Ted."

"My consciousness got lost!"

"Blu, you fainted," Jewel cut in, tone somewhere between laughter and exasperation. "Why are you so worked up about this? It's not that dangerous."

"It is so!"

"Papa, I don't think it's that bad," Javier said, running up to his father's side. "You would like it if you tried."

"Not going to happen."

"But Papa—"

"No."

Abelina frowned. "Papa, Javier's right. It's not so bad! If I can do it, you can do it."

Jewel smirked. "Yes, Blu, if your tiny fledgling daughter could do it, I'm sure you'll be able to handle it."

"Probably not," Pedro whispered in Nico's ear.

Although Blu was well within earshot of the cardinal and canary, he ignored them. "No."

"I really think you should give it a try," prompted Jewel.

"No."

"Blu, I'm serious, it's for your own good. Try it out."

"No."

Pedro leaned in by Nico's ear again. "I'll bet you two and a half pennies he doesn't go."

Jewel fluttered her eyelashes and looked at Blu imploringly. "Please?"

"No."

She took a tip from Nico and Pedro and leaned in close to Blu's ear, whispering fervently. With each passing word Blu's eyes grew wider with alarm.

"You wouldn't—"

"Oh, I would."

"You're cutting me o—"

Jewel made violent hushing noises and hurriedly covered her mate's mouth. He looked towards the beach, then at her. He barely choked the next part out.

"Fine. I'll do it."

Nico held his hand out to Pedro. "I win."

Well, there it is. I promise I will do my best to publish the last chapter in a timely manner. Hopefully.