Greetings, everyone! Oh boy…let's see what will happen in the second chapter…:)

Chapter 2

"There you are, Tweak," said Captain Barnacles, once his friend returned alongside the rabbit robot they just met, "We were starting to wonder where you were."

"Sorry about that," Tweak told the crew, "Something…unexpected happened."

"It didn't have anything to do with the amulet-wielding beasts, did it?" Kwazii asked suspiciously. Peso, who usually got scared whenever it came to Kwazii's pirate stories, gulped nervously.

Miskit didn't want to scare Peso too much, so he took advantage of the fact that Kwazii hadn't been there to see the mysterious beings and simply said the amulet he'd placed in the house broke, and they'd had to fix it. He then properly introduced himself to the other Octonauts, making sure he left out most of the details regarding his inventor and the battle they were trying to win.

After that, things went very smoothly for the next few hours. Tweak gave Miskit a tour of the crew's home ship, the Octopod, and he was quickly impressed by all the computers and submarines inside of it. "Wow…we've only known each other for a short time, but I have to admit you're very creative," Miskit told her as they went back to the beach. Tweak blushed a little, and she had to turn away so he wouldn't see it. There wasn't much she could do about her ears though, since at the same time, they did a little loop so that it looked like a big heart was on top of her head—not something her ears had ever done before.

Once they were back on the beach, Miskit was introduced to the things the rest of the crew did, whether on the job or just for fun. When he found out Peso was a medic, he contemplated telling him about his sick inventor in case he could help him in some way, but he wasn't sure even Peso could cure him from such a life-threatening illness. Miskit also befriended Kwazii right away, since he had a lot of tales to tell, whether they were about his grandfather Calico Jack, or dangerous beasts that had a tendency to scare Peso. Miskit also admired Barnacles's courage, Dashi's adventurous and positive personality, Shellington's intelligence and excitable side, the professor's interest in reading, and the vegimals' love for playtime. The entire crew then let him participate in the activities they were currently doing, and they engaged in nonstop fun for hours.

Eventually twilight came though, and Miskit had to return home. The crew felt bad that he had to leave, but they invited him to spend some time with them again someday. "I'd love to," Miskit told them, "but tonight I'll probably have to go on a dangerous mission to save my family, and I'm…not sure I'll be back for a while." He noticed Tweak seemed particularly uncomfortable once he said that, so he added, "I'm sorry, I really am. But I promise that once it's all done, I'll come right back."

"Maybe…maybe we can help you with your mission," suggested Tweak, an obvious note of desperation in her voice.

"No," said Miskit, "it's way too dangerous, even for you all. Trust me, you're better off here, where it's safe." And with that, he waved and reluctantly made his way back to Emily and her family's house.

The Octonauts returned to their ship in silence—well, everyone except Kwazii, anyway. He couldn't stop talking about what Calico Jack had learned about Alledia. "…and while escaping from the amulet-wielding elves, he stumbled upon an abandoned house with a secret door in the basement! It led him into another world, known as Alledia. He came through a cave and across a lake, where he saw an old human fishing! The human was Silas Charnon, and he was a mechanic inventor just like Tweak! Except he could bring all of his inventions to life. And of course, the friendliest invention was a pink robot who looked like a rabbit."

"That's very nice, Kwazii," said Barnacles, obviously not believing the story was true. Then he noticed how much attention Tweak was giving to the story. "Tweak, that's the first time I've ever seen you interested in one of Kwazii's pirate stories."

Tweak jumped, suddenly appearing a bit flustered. "I, uh, well…it's just nice to hear Silas was an inventor too."

Shellington couldn't help asking Tweak if she was alright. Normally he was the one who got that disoriented!

After having dinner together, the Octonauts each went off in different areas of the Octopod. Dashi and Shellington were going to the games room so they could watch a movie together, and everyone else was going to bed.

Once she was in bed, Tweak did her best to fall asleep, but somehow sleep just wouldn't come to her. She simply couldn't stop thinking about Miskit, and she knew it wasn't only because she was worried about his dangerous mission. The urges to impress him that she'd been feeling earlier were still there, especially now that he had to deal with those "amulet-wielding beasts," as Kwazii called them. At one point, Tweak rolled over onto her side and noticed the launch bay in front of her. Everyone was in bed right now…maybe no one would notice if she left the Octopod to go see Miskit for a while…maybe even just an hour or so…

Tweak quickly turned the other way and tried to fight back the urge to sneak out. Miskit had told her and her friends that his mission was too dangerous for them. She wasn't thinking clearly anyway—what she needed to do right now was find a way to get some sleep. The problem was, no matter what strategies she tried, she still remained wide awake.

With a sigh, Tweak left the launch bay and went to the games room. Dashi had said she and Shellington would be watching "The Princess Bride," which sounded like a relaxing movie. Unfortunately, when she got there, she discovered there was more to the movie than just relaxation and romance. Dashi and Shellington were currently watching a sword duel scene between two men; one in brown medieval clothes and the other in a black ninja suit. It looked so real, Tweak was surprised Kwazii hadn't wanted to watch the movie with them.

Dashi briefly glanced away from the screen and noticed her friend. "Oh, hello Tweak," she happily greeted, "Do you want to watch the movie with us?"

Tweak hesitated and then pulled out a beanbag chair. She settled into it and tried to just relax and watch the movie, hoping it would help her fall asleep. To her chagrin, however, all she succeeded in doing was thinking about Miskit even more. The sword duel eventually ended, and when about half an hour went by and she still couldn't go to sleep, Tweak left and returned to the launch bay. Maybe if she worked more on the rotating camera she was building for her friend, Sandy the sea turtle, she would finally be able to clear her mind and get some sleep. All she had to do was get her tools…

Suddenly Tweak froze, realizing she didn't have her tools. She'd left them at the house, in the crate on the third floor. If she was going to keep working on her present for Sandy, not to mention repair the gups if necessary, she would have to go back to the house and get her tools back. Luckily the Octopod was still parked near Norlen's beach, so she wouldn't have to use one of the gups. She could just swim to the beach, return to the house, get her tools, and come back. She considered leaving a note for the rest of the crew explaining where she was going and why, but she decided against this. She would only be gone for a few minutes—no one would even know she was gone.

After gathering two oxygen tanks and strapping them to her back, Tweak activated her bubble helmet, opened the octo-hatch, and went outside. She quickly arrived at the beach, but because it was dark out, she took a bit longer to find her way through the forest and to the house than she had during the afternoon. Eventually she found it though, but when she tried to open the front door, she discovered it was locked. Great. How was she going to get in and find her tools?

Tweak wandered around the outside of the house, searching for another way in, and then almost instantly, she noticed one of the windows: the one that the vegimals' ball had crashed through. The window's glass was now completely gone, probably because Emily, Navin, or their mom had noticed the hole in it and were planning to replace the window. Since there wasn't a ladder anywhere in sight and the gutter looked unstable, Tweak knew the only way she could get into the house was by climbing the bricks and going through the area where the window had been. It was the kind of thing Kwazii and the captain would have the courage do, but that she didn't.

Just do it, Tweak told herself, It's not that different from climbing ladders, and you do that every day. She took a deep breath and placed her paws on the bricks, then began to rock climb all the way up. As she'd assumed, climbing up the bricks was a lot harder than climbing the Octopod's ladders. Every time she got a brick or two higher, she had to block out any fear she had of slipping off, and hold on to the reminder that getting out of the house would be a lot easier; since the locks were on the inside, she'd be able to open the front door once she arrived in the entrance hall.

Eventually, she made it to the window, and with some difficulty, she managed to get in. After landing on the second floor, Tweak went up to the third level and felt every area of the big crate, looking for the secret entrance Miskit had created earlier. After a minute, she found it and reached into the crate, finding her toolbox within a few seconds. Luckily all of her tools were still inside of it.

Now feeling much better, Tweak returned to the second floor, carrying her toolbox. She was almost to the hallway door when she suddenly heard a loud noise—a strange ka-thump that was heard again and again, and that seemed to be coming from downstairs.

Tweak curiously stepped into the hallway, slowly at first. But when she heard a door open and saw a flashlight beam come into view, she quickened her pace, rushing down the next flight of stairs as fast and as quietly as she could. Emily and her family definitely heard the sound too, and they seemed just as curious about it as she was. If they found out she was in their house, however, she knew their reactions would not be pleasant.

Once she made it to the first floor, Tweak headed straight for the front door, but just as she reached for the locks, she saw the flashlight beam appear above her, heading downward. She ran away from the door to avoid being caught and entered a nearby room, inaudibly closing the door and hoping she'd be safe there.

Ka-thump!

The noise was much louder now, and it startled Tweak so much that she jumped and almost fell. It was so dark that she hadn't noticed the stairs in front of her, which led downward. The room she'd just entered was not only the basement, but also the room where that sound was coming from.

Tweak slowly and very carefully made her way down the steps, hoping the sound (which had stopped for some reason) didn't belong to a dangerous creature or something. She also hoped she'd be able to find a place to hide down here where the family wouldn't find her, and that she'd be able to return to the Octopod before her friends discovered she was missing. For all she knew, the noises could have been made by one of those "amulet-wielding beasts" Miskit was trying to defeat.

Miskit! Without even thinking, Tweak leapt to the floor and wandered around the pitch-black room, wondering if he was here and if he was okay. Since it was too dark to see anything, she had to feel her way around the basement and just hope one of the things she came across would explain the sound. As she walked around, she felt many old items that she knew had to be either storage, antiques, or furniture, but none of them seemed like they had been the source of the sound.

Suddenly Tweak's toolbox bumped into something big and hard, and she stepped on something a little gooey. She jumped back, realizing the gooey item was some kind of tentacle. At first she thought the owner of the tentacle was Professor Inkling, since he was an octopus, but when the basement door creaked open and the flashlight beam returned, there was just enough light for her to see it wasn't the professor at all—it was the gooey ghost-like being she and Miskit had seen while they were hiding in the crate! It seemed very surprised to see her, and it quickly went back into hiding again.

Whoever had the flashlight was almost at the bottom of the stairs now. With only one option, Tweak headed for the door she'd just noticed attached to the basement wall. She would have to wait there until the family went back upstairs. Then she'd go back into the basement, make sure Miskit was okay, and return to the Octopod.

Tweak gasped as soon as she closed the door. She hadn't simply entered a room—she'd entered a large blue cave filled with stairs and stalactites! At the bottom of the cave, she could see a passage into what she assumed was another room. Curious, she went down the steps, making her way toward what resided at the bottom.

As she walked down the stairs, Tweak realized there was a chance Miskit hadn't been in the basement at all just now. He could just as easily have been in here the whole time, safe and sound. That strange gooey creature was probably in the basement for a different reason. She made it to the bottom of the stairs and put her toolbox down, trying to clear her head. Ever since this afternoon, she'd been feeling very strange. Why couldn't she stop thinking about Miskit?

Suddenly Tweak heard the door that led her into the cave close. Wait—didn't she already close it a few seconds ago? She turned around and screamed. A giant octopus-like creature with the mouth of a carnivorous plant was just leaping off the top of the stairs, letting out a big roar as it did so. Sensing it was going to land right where she was standing, Tweak rushed through the passage the stairs had led her to, which took her down another flight of stairs, this time in a dark and narrow hall with bricked walls and a strange cold breeze. She heard the monster land in front of the second stairwell and climb down after her, and she quickened her pace.

Tweak managed to make it out of the stairwell and through a doorway, and with a swift glance to her left, she noticed a pile of rectangular rocks lying six paces away and darted behind them. Now safe and out of the monster's sight, she took a moment to catch her breath. A few minutes later, she heard strange noises coming from the passage, and then a voice she recognized as Navin's shouted, "Did you see that?!"

Peering over the pile of rocks, Tweak noticed the passage, which resided in a brick wall, had led her to some kind of mountain cave. Navin and Emily were there too, having apparently used the passage to get here as well. They were slowly approaching the monster, and hearing faint whispers coming from a spout in the creature's stomach, it became clear what was going on. The kids' mom had been swallowed by the monster, and they were going to try and rescue her. Tweak considered revealing her presence and helping the kids out, but before she could do it, the monster extended a tentacle and grabbed Navin, startling her enough to make her go back into hiding. She heard Emily trying to save Navin, but the engineer didn't have to look at the encounter to know there was a small chance it would end well.

Tweak decided maybe she could help out by using her tools, and then did a face palm as she realized she'd left them in the cave next to the basement. She snuck out of her hiding place and went back toward the passage, only to discover it was gone. The brick wall around it had somehow closed it off.

Suddenly she heard the monster swallow Navin, and then turned around just in time to see Emily get scooped up next. As the girl tried to free herself from the monster's grasp, Tweak rushed back behind her hiding place, not wanting to be the monster's next intended target. Then suddenly she heard a loud blast behind her and turned to see a bright pink ray shoot out from the amulet Emily had discovered, blinding the monster and causing it to drop her. The monster then screamed and rushed away from its attacker, who ran after it.

"Oh me oh my," whispered Tweak. She took a deep breath, trying to process everything that just happened, and then slowly she realized something. That passage must have brought her to Alledia! It was the only possible explanation for everything. The two creatures she'd seen on the third floor this afternoon and the octopus-like monster couldn't possibly be from Earth; they were similar to some Earth creatures, but just not the same. Miskit had said Alledia was an alternate version of Earth, and that he'd initially thought Calico Jack was from Alledia too. She had an easy time theorizing why he'd thought that: many of Kwazii's pirate stories (which Tweak imagined were passed on to him by his grandfather) were about creatures that were like the ones on Earth, but not quite—just like the creatures on Alledia. There were still a few things she didn't understand, like why those creatures had even been in the house and what caused the battle Miskit had said he was taking part in, but at least she knew where she was…and how unpredictable this place had to be.

When she was finally convinced the coast was clear, Tweak came out of hiding and went to the brick wall where the passage used to be. She pushed against the wall, felt the areas between the bricks, and examined them closely—anything she could think of—but it was no use. The passage was gone, her tools were gone, and she was stranded in Alledia. Even worse, the other Octonauts had no idea she was even here.

Sighing, Tweak sat down on the ground, trying to figure out what to do. She knew it would only be a matter of time before the crew realized she was missing, but she doubted they would think to look for her in Norlen. And even if they did and went to the house, how would they find her now that the passage in the cave was gone? Then she remembered that the cave was where she'd left her toolbox—right in front of the passage's entrance. Maybe she did have a hope of being rescued…but until her friends found her, how could she pass the time?

Tweak felt a breeze blow past her, and she shivered. Simply staying here and waiting for the crew to come and find her would have been a smart option, but it was late. She doubted they would be going out to look for her anytime soon, and she was in a mountain cave. If she stayed here too long, she would probably freeze. She would have to leave the mountain, search for a warmer place to stay, and hope her friends would find her there.

Standing up, Tweak headed for the cave's exit, keeping her paws crossed that a proper shelter was nearby. Someplace warm…like, she couldn't help thinking, the warmth she'd felt when Miskit gave her that hug back when they were hiding in the crate. If only their embrace could have lasted a little longer…that beautiful embrace…

Suddenly realizing what she was thinking, Tweak stopped in her tracks, eyes wide. Was it really possible that she couldn't stop thinking about Miskit…because she had a crush on him? That was probably the case; she'd been thinking about him all day, and she knew it wasn't just because he was about to go on such a dangerous mission. Something about him just made her feel…incredible.

Tweak paused her search for shelter and looked around, taking in the beautiful snowy and rocky scenery. Perhaps while she waited for her teammates to come find her, she could help Miskit with his mission. She could only imagine exactly how dangerous it was after what happened with the giant octopus-like creature, but somehow she felt like she could handle it. Maybe it was just her feelings for Miskit and the urges she was getting to impress him talking, but she truly felt like she would be able to help him.

And that was that. Forgetting about the other Octonauts for the moment, Tweak continued her journey through the mountains of Alledia, looking for shelter—but hoping she'd find her crush while she was at it.

Wow…now that was a suspenseful chapter! What will be in store for our protagonist now? Will her friends be able to find her? Stay tuned for Chapter 3…