Welcome back, readers! I present to you the sixth chapter of "Mechaniteer." Hope you like it! :)
Note: This didn't occur to me until just now, but regarding the "OC" in the story facts area, I didn't know the O stands for "original" instead of "other" until now. So of course, I put that there because there's no character selection in the Amulet category, which meant I couldn't place Miskit's name next to the other three's! So, in this case, the term "OC" will stand for other character, not original. The same thing actually happened in one of my other stories ("Optipinkstic"), and I'll correct it too. But in this case, just to be clear, the O does not stand for original, but for other.

Disclaimer: To make things even clearer, I do not own either of the shows/books featured in this story; all credit goes to the true respective creators of Amulet and Octonauts. Ironically, though, there were a few characters in this story that were created by me: Rasia and a few background characters whose names were never revealed due to their short appearances. Everyone else, however, comes from the show or the comics.

Chapter 6

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful for each of the Octonauts after the escape from Nautilus. The weather was clear, so apart from the occasional cloud she flew through, Tweak didn't encounter any problems during her search for Miskit and company. She did stop to get some sleep at one point, but by then she'd made it a long way downriver and was beginning to feel proud of how far she'd come.

As for those who were in the Gup X, they encountered a lot of obstacles during their search for her: about five more arachnopods, along with other strange creatures who lived in the wild. However, they managed to get past each of those creatures without any damage done to the gup, or to themselves. They also encountered several mountain bases, some of which were impossible for even the Gup X to plow through. Due to this, they usually had to drive around many of these mountains, which always took up to two hours. It wasn't long before Kwazii's impatience got the best of him, and Peso and the captain had to stop him from pressing any buttons that would not only speed things up, but also risk a gup crash. Shellington then noticed the sun was out, which meant it was nighttime back home, and he'd managed to calm Kwazii down by suggesting that they take the opportunity to get some rest. Little did they know that while they were asleep, Tweak had gotten used to the new time zone and was on the move, now with the aid of a flying motorcycle.

It was nighttime once again (at least in Alledia) when the Octonauts finally arrived in the closest city to the mountains. It was a place called Kanalis that was mostly inhabited by talking animals like them, only unlike the crew, these animals were just humans affected by a species-altering curse. So, of course, once the Gup X came into town, everyone initially thought they had been cursed as well, until Kwazii made it clear that they weren't by mistaking all the Kanalis citizens for original animals. Unfortunately, no one in Kanalis had seen or heard from Tweak, which meant she was either in another city or still in the wilderness her friends had just emerged from.

After searching all of Kanalis just to be sure and still not finding their friend, Captain Barnacles decided they should probably leave Kanalis and locate the next city.

Kwazii was more impatient and annoyed than ever now. "Captain, she came here on foot! Not in a gup! How could she possibly still be ahead of us?"

"She wasn't anywhere in the mountains," sighed Peso, "or in the forests. If she was, we would have seen her."

"Unless…well, um…" Shellington couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence, but he didn't need to. Everyone knew exactly what he meant, and a tense silence filled the gup.

They continued down the street, looking for a way out of the city so they could continue their search. As they did, Dashi looked out the window and noticed two creatures attaching a piece of parchment paper to a wall. These creatures were almost human, except they had grey skin, silver hair, and very pointy ears. Kwazii noticed them too and exclaimed, "Shiver me whiskers! Those are elves, the most evil species in Alledia! We have to get out of here!"

Before anyone could stop him, the pirate cat lunged forward and took control of the gup, making it go faster. Citizens of the city screamed and jumped back as the vehicle surged forward, crashing into a building at the end of the road they were on within two seconds. The gup and its passengers were unharmed, but the first floor of the building was in ruins.

"Sorry, mateys," Kwazii said guiltily, seeing how much damage had been done to the building.

Barnacles sighed, took the wheel, and slowly backed them out of the building. "Kwazii, if those creatures really are evil, then we shouldn't draw that kind of attention to ourselves."

"It's too late, captain. They already saw us," said Dashi. She pointed out the window, and sure enough, the elves were angrily rushing toward them.

"Stay here," said Barnacles. "I'm going to talk to them."

Kwazii started to object and say he was going with him, but the captain shook his head, not wanting him to make things worse. "They may know where the next city is, and we can't give them the wrong impression."

Reluctantly, everyone else stayed in the Gup X while Barnacles stepped out to talk to the elves. They arrived in front of the gup just as he came out, and stopped. One of the elves narrowed his eyes and said, "Third vehicle that broke the speed limit today. First a team in a green contraption and a lady on a motorcycle in Nautilus, and now you. They were trying to escape from us, and we know the team in the first vehicle's working against us. How about you?"

"We aren't working against you, sir," said Barnacles. "We're just here to find a friend of ours who's wandered into Alledia."

The elves exchanged glances, and then the second one reached into a bag and pulled out a piece of parchment paper. "If you are not working against us, be honest. We are looking for these three fugitives. Have you seen them?"

The elf unfolded the paper, which had a headline in capital letters at the top: WANTED. Below that, three suspect pictures were printed, all in a row. The first two each featured a picture of an elf with a creepy-looking sinister expression. The third one, however, displayed a picture of the last mammal Barnacles had expected to see on a wanted poster: Tweak! On the inside, he immediately began to feel worried. What had she done to make these elves consider her a fugitive?

Trying to play it safe, Barnacles asked, "Who are these…fugitives?"

The elves looked at him a little suspiciously. "You really don't know who at least two of them are?"

Barnacles shook his head. "We're new to Alledia."

"Very well," groaned the first elf. "These two fugitives are Princes Trellis and Luger, sons of our king. And this one…we do not know her name yet, but her antics are not to be ignored."

Inside the Gup X, the rest of the crew was deep in conversation. They had noticed Tweak's picture on the wanted poster as well, and they were trying to decide what to do. Two of the Octonauts were tempted to go outside and intervene; Kwazii because he wanted to lash out some anger at the elves for treating his friend like a fugitive, and Dashi because Tweak was her best friend, and she knew she would never do anything bad enough for anyone to think of her as a fugitive. Peso and Shellington, however, were both nervous about what the elves might do to them if they stepped in, so they tried to convince them to stay in the gup. Tunip, on the other hand, had fainted the moment he saw the poster, so he didn't take part in the debate his friends were having.

"Kwazii, you said it yourself," insisted Peso. "Those elves are the most evil species in Alledia. We need to let the captain handle them."

"They're after Tweak! We can't let them get away with this!" Kwazii retorted.

Shellington had to step in front of him to stop him from exiting the gup. "No! I mean, shouldn't we find out where she is before they do?"

With a sigh, Kwazii said, "Alright…I'll ask them for directions to the last place they saw her."

"We can't do that!" Dashi exclaimed. "Then they'll arrest us so they can trick her into turning herself in!"

Kwazii narrowed his eyes. "How else are we gonna find Tweak?"

Back outside, Barnacles was trying to figure out what to say next, and trying not to let it show. He was aware of the same thing Dashi knew: if the elves found out they knew Tweak, they could end up on their list of fugitives as well. They had to find her, but they would also have to be careful around the elves. So, trying to play it as safe as possible, Barnacles asked, "Um…how dangerous are these fugitives?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Just in case we happen to run into them…and we're not sure how to deal with them."

One by one, the elf holding the wanted poster pointed to the pictures on it. "Trellis is a very powerful stonekeeper, as well as an elf with a rebellious personality. It is shocking that he was the one to commit treason to his own father, but he did, which is why we were after him. As for Luger, he used to be a stonekeeper, but he apparently no longer wields his amulet. Regardless of this, he is still working alongside Trellis in his act of treason."

Stonekeeper? Was that what the amulet-wielding beasts were really called? Apparently it was, but Barnacles hid his surprise at the unintentional revelation. This was the crew's only chance to find out where Tweak was.

"Then there's the third one," continued the elf. "Our partners witnessed her gaining access to the Nautilus library before opening hours, which was indeed very suspicious. We do not even know her name, nor what talents she possesses, but we know enough about her to know she'll be easy to capture."

Barnacles was unable to hide his worry upon hearing this. "Easy to capture?"

"You should have seen her reaction when our partners discovered her. Not only is she not a stonekeeper, she is also said to be a coward. I do not know why they let her go when they interrogated—"

"You horrible beasts! Tweak is not a coward, and she's got more talents than you'll ever be capable of!"

Barnacles sighed wearily. Hadn't Kwazii been the one who specifically told them to be careful around the elves because they were evil? Now here he was, suddenly outside the gup and once again attracting the wrong kind of attention!

The elves were startled at first, but then they narrowed their eyes, obviously not happy. "So you know her."

Kwazii immediately realized his mistake and covered his mouth, but it was too late. The elves now knew that they knew one of the suspects they were looking for. This was not going to go well…

It was dawn when Tweak awoke. As she looked around and found no sign of the Luna Moth, she groaned, now realizing that her pit stop had made her fall many hours behind the majestic airship. Great—there was no way she'd ever be able to catch up to it now!

Sighing, Tweak reactivated the flying motorcycle and headed up into the sky. She didn't want to have to go back to asking passersby about Miskit's team's whereabouts, but now that she was so far behind, it wasn't like she had much of a choice. All she could do now was explore the skies, and hope someone other than the Elf King and his soldiers was nearby. Unfortunately she didn't see anyone, so the first few hours of her flight were mostly uneventful.

Things were different at that evening's beginning though, which arrived as she was travelling over an Alledian ocean. Just as the bright blue sky had finished transforming into a beautiful pink sunset (the kind she knew Dashi would have loved to see and photograph), a flock of big black dragon-like creatures (called wyverns, as she'd learned from the library books) flew over and tried to grab her vehicle with their claws. Tweak steered the motorcycle into every direction, twist, and turn she could manage—as fast as the contraption could go—but the wyverns were too fast for either of them. Soon one of the motorcycle's wheels was grabbed by a wyvern's claw, and as the vehicle was overturned, she had to leap off of it and onto another wyvern's back.

The wyvern she landed on roared and started swooping around like crazy, trying to either shake her off or grab her so it could eat her. Thinking quickly, she grabbed one of its horns and held on tight. It flung itself around even harder, and as she sailed around, whether back and forth or around in circles, Tweak glimpsed the other wyverns devouring the flying motorcycle, which, despite the vehicle being made out of very strong materials, only took four seconds. But she was in no position to worry about having no transportation. Not as long as she herself was in danger of being devoured next.

"Look out behind you!"

Startled, Tweak turned around, but before she could find out where that shout had come from, her surprise at hearing the shout caused her to lose her grip on the wyvern's horn. She was flung backward, and then suddenly pulled upward as a pair of metal hands caught her. Turning around, she was shocked when she realized who had just saved her life: the beige robot with the red eyebrows she'd seen back in Nautilus! What was he doing here?

The robot, who was holding onto a rope attached to something above him, recognized her too. "Well," he greeted, his worried expression shifting into a serious one, "if it isn't Miss Motorcycle Demolisher! If you're looking for the Resistance, they're back on the Luna Moth. It'll take at least a day to catch up with them."

"What's the Resistance?!" Tweak shouted. She had to speak up in order to hear herself above the roaring winds around them.

"Are you out of your mind?" retorted the robot. "Why else would you be following us everywhere? Don't think Emily's mom didn't notice you when she ducked to avoid the gate's debris! Or that my rope-supporter up there didn't tell me all about your crash back at the docks! Because of you, he almost gave us a three-second departure delay just to see if you were okay!"

A voice called down to the robot from above them. "You were supposed to be my rope-supporter too, you know!"

Tweak gasped, recognizing the voice. Peering upward, she could see the robot's rope was attached to something—or in fact, someone—clasped in a wyvern's claw. The claw was pretty high up, so it took her a bit to make out its captive. But she already knew who it was thanks to his voice. It was Miskit.

All at once, Tweak reacted without even thinking. Without giving a warning to the beige robot (who immediately called her out on that), she climbed past his shoulders and head, and then began to scoot up the rope. After what happened to the flying motorcycle, there was no way she was going to let Miskit get devoured next. However, just as she was halfway up, the wyvern made a very sharp turn to the right, sending her flying off the rope. When the beige robot was unable to catch her that time, she did the only thing she could think of: yell as loud as she could, promising both robots that she would find a way to rescue them.

"Really means a lot, coming from someone we only knew for a few seconds!" the beige robot shot back. But by then, she'd gotten so far away from them, his voice sounded like it was coming out in normal volume.

As she sailed through the sky and watched Miskit, the rude robot, and the wyvern carrying them disappear from view, Tweak cursed herself. That was the second chance in a row she'd had to save Miskit from something, and once again, she had to let herself get separated from him! Why did she always have to act on impulse whenever she realized he was nearby? Why did she keep letting that lead her to downfalls? Wasn't that the kind of mistake only Kwazii ever had the impulsiveness to make?

Tweak would have kept scolding herself, but her thoughts were interrupted when she began to fall downward instead of just backward. She braced herself just in time, and with a splash, she landed in the water. After sinking a few feet because of her huge fall and the weight of her backpack, the engineer paddled back to the surface and rose up, removing her welding mask so she could gasp for air. Using one paw and both legs to paddle and stay afloat, she used her other paw to tilt her mask, dumping out the water that had gotten inside of it. Once it was all out, she heard a strange noise coming from inside the mask. The water had damaged the voice amplifier.

"No, no, no!" Tweak exclaimed in fear. She looked around frantically, found a tall rock with a top just one inch above the water, and swam toward it. Making sure the mask didn't touch the water, she climbed onto the rock, sat down, and pulled out her tools. She tried to use them to repair the voice amplifier, but it was no good. The water had rendered it useless.

Sighing, Tweak pulled the amplifier off the mask and sadly stared down at both items, listening to the calm sounds of the water around her. Her ears drooped, as they usually did when she felt disappointed or sad. She had no transportation, and no map (she had taped the one she'd taken with her to the motorcycle), there was no land in sight, no one in sight, and worst of all, Miskit and that beige robot were probably done for. Her friends must have at least begun to suspect she'd gone back to Norlen by now, and the elf soldiers were also looking for her. She could fight them as Mechaniteer if she had to, but without the voice amplifier, there was a chance they would recognize her voice and see through her disguise. Then she'd be done for, depending on how their encounter would go once they found out Tweak and Mechaniteer were the same rabbit.

After looking around one more time and still not finding anything that would help her get to shore, Tweak unzipped her backpack and took out some food and bottled water. She hoped she wouldn't be stuck on this rock for too long; sooner or later she was bound to run out of things to eat. And regardless of whether or not they were poisonous, she was not going to eat the fish in the ocean. She was an Octonaut, which meant she protected sea creatures. Not the opposite.

After she was finished her dinner, the sun disappeared underneath the horizon, leaving a series of gentle pink, violet, and blue streaks throughout the sky. Using her backpack as a pillow, Tweak lay down, setting the welding mask underneath her legs. She then held up the now-defective voice amplifier, trying to figure out what to do with it. It would be pointless to attach it to the mask again, and bad for the fish to just dispose of it here. Maybe for now she could just store it inside the backpack; who knew? Perhaps it could come in handy some other way later on.

She'd been asleep for a few hours when she heard a rowboat approaching her rock, the sounds of its paddles slowly easing her awake. Sitting up, she could see the boat was being rowed by one single occupant: an adult female cat. She had white fur, a raspberry-coloured top, and dark grey pants. She was also quite muscular and appeared very tough; not just on the outside, but also on the inside.

Tweak quickly put her welding mask and her backpack on again, then stood up and waved the cat over. Before long, she was given not only a ride to shore, but also permission to stay inside the best place an engineer like her could hope for: a gas station that came with a really big living space. Not just any gas station either—Selina's Station, the one she'd seen on the map. And as luck would have it, the cat, Selina herself, had received a visit from Emily and the remainder of her team during tonight's sunset.

"They're gone now," explained Selina, "but I can tell you where they're going. Unfortunately, no one can access their destination without a stonekeeper going with them."

Tweak opened her mouth to thank her, but a yawn came out instead. Selina smiled and pointed at the living room couch. "You can sleep there," she said. "Tomorrow you can tell me how you got stranded out there, and I'll have a solution prepared for you by noon."

"Thanks," said Tweak. She waved to Selina, who simply smiled back before leaving for her bedroom.

As she climbed onto the couch, Tweak couldn't stop thinking about Miskit. Not only had she failed to save him twice, but now, while she was safely inside the best shelter she'd stayed in so far, he and that reckless, rude robot were out there somewhere, in the clutches of a wyvern, about to become its dinner. Even if they did find a way to escape, she would never forgive herself for not trying to help them more carefully like she should have. To make matters worse, now it would be impossible for Miskit and his companion to get to wherever they were supposed to be going now. According to Selina, wherever that place was could only be accessed if a stonekeeper was near. Emily and Trellis seemed to be the only stonekeepers taking part in their mission, so without them…she didn't know what they were going to do. They probably didn't know either; based on what she'd read in those library books, stonekeepers were now very rare—basically impossible to come by.

Well, one thing's for sure, she told herself. Tomorrow I'm going back out there to find Miskit and the other robot. If they're okay, we'll see if we can find a stonekeeper or something. If they got eaten…I don't know what's going to happen.

She closed her eyes. They should be okay though. As long as they're together. Miskit's smart and brave, remember? And the other robot…well, if Kwazii can be reckless and survive an undersea storm, a cone snail sting, and some Gup B crashes, that guy can handle a wyvern. They both can! They've even got a rope to help them out!

Her attempts to reassure herself were the last thoughts she had before she fell asleep for the night.

Oh boy. Will our welding-masked-heroine ever reunite with her love interest? And what's in store for her friends? Stay tuned for the next chapter, which will reveal it all…