Author's Note: Here is the final chapter for the story. This took so long to write up and I feel the end may be a bit rushed, but I was losing motivation to continue writing. It is hard getting my ideas down on paper, but I am very happy now to have it finished.
A warning flashed on the radar screen as the ship slowly approached a red blimp. Sphynx, who stood behind the cat at the radar alerted their captain to it and Iron Claw walked over from the wheel.
"Sir, it looks like—" Sphynx began but the maine coon interrupted him.
"Ah! Perfect timing!" Iron Claw exclaimed with a grin, prompting the two pirates to glance at each other confused. "Drop anchor here, and make sure ye keep yer distance from that thing."
"Captain? What are we doing here?" Sphynx asked, but tensed up when Iron Claw stopped and looked back at him with a snarl. "If I may ask, sir?" He corrected himself.
"No, Sphynx, ye may not." The pirate captain simply replied before continuing down the stairs toward the deck. "Someone get that bear out of the brig!" he hollered.
Upon seeing the ship stop, Dashi rerouted the auto pilot to land. Professor Inkling rolled up beside her and activated the radar to show on screen. The two of them seemed perplexed, but despite it Dashi still pressed the button on the console to call in the rest of the Octonauts.
"All Octonauts, report to the HQ. All Octonauts, report to the HQ."
In no time, Kwazii, Tweak, Shellington, Peso, and the vegimals all joined her and Professor Inkling. Kwazii was the first to speak.
"What's wrong, have they stopped again?" he asked as he walked over beside Inkling, also studying the radar on screen.
"Yes, but we're not sure why." Dashi informed them before rotating around in her chair to face the console again. "As you can see, there are a few tiny blimps here on the radar, but no shipwreck—none that we can see within range anyway."
"How odd," Shellington said, "I thought Iron Claw wanted the Gup-X to find treasure?"
"Maybe it's buried in the sand on the ocean floor?" Tweak suggested.
"Nah, pirates don't burry their treasure in the ocean. Only on islands." Kwazii corrected. "If it be in the ocean, then it'd be in a shipwreck."
"Then, why has he stopped?" Peso questioned.
"We could try the damselfish cam again." Dashi proposed. "I can scan for sharks this time."
"Then what?" Kwazii replied, a bit irritated, though not at any of them, "It's an ok plan, but the damselfish cam can't save captain Barnacles."
"What do you propose, Kwazii?" Professor Inkling asked as he turned his chair to face the cat.
Kwazii brought a paw up to his chin in thought, "I say we use the fish cam to scout ahead, see what they're doing first. Then take one of the Gups and try to sneak in. Catch them by surprise."
"But Kwazii," Inkling adjusted his monocle, "Taking the Gups would endanger the captain. We would show up on sonar."
"I can take the Gup-B. I'll be quick, in and out."
"And if they have any form of communication, they'd know by the time you'd get there. It's too risky!" Dashi tried to reason. They all wanted to get the captain back, but not by endangering his life when it could be avoided.
"Then we… " Kwazii looked around trying to think, "We can use camouflage! So they can't detect us! Tweak, there must be something…?"
Tweak scratched her head, "Prevent sonar detection? I mean… I could, but that would take… maybe at least a month?"
They all sighed; they certainly didn't have a month's time to wait.
"Let's just use the damselfish cam again to see what they're up to." Professor Inkling decided, "And then we can go from there."
Barnacles shielded his eyes from the sunlight as he stepped out onto the deck. Being down in the brig for days made his eyes sensitive to the bright sun. He could barely see as he was led over to the Gup-X, but he could clearly hear Iron Claw giving orders to the pirate crew. He heard Scrap's name being called and, to the grey cat's surprise, he was ordered to join them.
When Barnacles' eyes finally adjusted, he saw Iron Claw whispering something to two other pirates. The two suddenly looked shocked but otherwise nodded their heads in understanding. He became curious of what was said, but finding that out was not possible.
When entering the Gup-X, something felt wrong. He couldn't put his paw on it, but the atmosphere was… off. He glanced over at Scrap for a second before having to turn around for the pirates to loosen the chain between his cuffs. When Iron Claw came in, the air seemed thick with tension, but he had no idea why.
"Take us down." Iron Claw ordered and just as before, the Glider detached from the tank compartment and dove into the ocean.
Before, at the reef, the water appeared blue and clearer. But here, everything looked murky and the greenish hue of the water made it difficult to see very far. If Peso were here, he would have said this place gave him the creeps; and Barnacles would have agreed.
The cabin was silent as Barnacles steered the Glider down and forward. But when a round shape slowly came into view, the polar bear let out a gasp and quickly stopped the Glider. There in front of them floated a metal ball on a chain with nubs sticking out of it in all directions.
"That's a naval mine!" Barnacles exclaimed, turning his gaze over to Iron Claw.
"Indeed it is," Iron Claw simply replied—unfazed—as the rest of the pirates looked worriedly at one another. "Park us down by its anchor."
The Glider was cautiously moved down toward the sandy sea floor. Once in position, the back door opened and all of them exited the Gup. Iron Claw led them to the front of the Glider and only stopped once in direct view of the mine.
"Uh, captain…" one of the pirates said with a raised paw and a troubled look. "Wh—what are we doing here? I don't see a shipwreck."
"We're not here to explore a shipwreck." Iron Claw replied with his back to them. He was strangely stoic, and Barnacles had a bad feeling about all of this.
"Then… why are we here, sir?" At that question, the other two pirates moved positions to float behind Scrap, the grey cat not noticing the change.
Iron Claw didn't answer him and instead lifted his claw. Suddenly, the two pirates grabbed hold of Scrap's arms and the grey cat gasped in shock. He protested in fear and tried to slip free, but their claws were digging in. It was no use.
Barnacles watched as they swam Scrap over to face Iron Claw, the three of them now in between the pirate captain and the mine. Iron Claw stared at him for what seemed like ages before finally speaking.
"Scrap… how very interesting that ye look… well fed."
Scrap's heart fell, "I—I—I've been eating a lot of scraps, hehe, you know… from all the partying and whatnot. There—there's just more to find."
"Really." Iron Claw wasn't buying it, "So tell me, which of ye was feeding Scrap more than just scraps?"
"Not me!"
"It wasn't me!"
"I didn't do it!"
All three pirates quickly made their case, but Iron Claw turned around to stare at Barnacles whose eyes were wide.
The maine coon chuckled, but he looked far from happy, "Some stranger comes along and gives ye food and all of the sudden ye think ye can just ignore my decrees, Scrap?" Iron Claw said lowly before whipping around in sudden anger as he glared daggers at the mentioned pirate.
Scrap shrank away as the captain got closer, "And then ye have the gull to call me an idiot, thinking I wouldn't put two and two together?!"
Scrap wanted to defend himself, try to come up with a lie, but something told him it wouldn't matter.
"I already gave ye a warning, Scrap! I won't be giving ye another." Iron Claw took a deep breath and calmed down before continuing, "So, what's it going to be?"
"Huh?"
"I am giving you two options; two ways you can end yer miserable life. Ye can let me do it, or…" the captain raised his claw and pointed behind them. All three turned around to look at the sea mine floating a distance above them. Scrap's ears flattened on top his head as his eyes grew wide.
"Which will it be?" the pirate captain repeated.
"Iron Claw! I allowed Scrap to eat my food, you don't need to punish him!" Barnacles tried to intercede as the pirate holding his chain grabbed it now with both paws.
"Shut. Up." Iron Claw hissed back, but Barnacles continued.
"Scrap needs help! You can't have a functioning crew if—"
"I will cut off that tongue of yers if ye don't shut up!" Iron Claw screamed at him with an unsheathed sword now. The pirate holding Barnacles' chain yanked him back and wrapped said chain around his throat. The polar bear instinctively brought his hands up to try and prevent the chain from tightening.
"The captain said to be quiet!" the pirate warned in a half-whisper as he pulled the chain tighter—though not enough to block Barnacles' air ways. Barnacles grimaced, but otherwise didn't speak.
Iron Claw returned his glare back to Scrap, "What is it going to be, Scrap!"
Scrap's heart was beating rapidly in his chest as he looked back and forth between everyone.
"Let me go," Barnacles whispered to the pirate holding him back—a plan in mind, "and I promise I won't hurt you."
"Shut up. What could you possibly do anyway?" the pirate whispered back.
"I'm waiting, Scrap…" Iron Claw said, getting impatient. "If ye don't chose, I'll chose for ye."
When Scrap's gaze landed on Barnacles, he felt a lump form in the back of his throat. Thinking back to when the bear had first saved his life… perhaps it would have been better if he hadn't…
But when Barnacles met his gaze, Scrap looked away, not wanting to see his reaction as he finally replied.
"The mine, sir." There was a moment of silence between them all before Iron Claw broke it.
"Coward." He commented mercilessly. "I'm glad I'm getting rid of ye. Ye were never much use to me anyway."
Barnacles scowled at Iron Claw and bared his teeth. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to the cat pinning the chain against him and ran his plan through his mind one last time. When Iron Claw made another motion with his claw, he knew it was now or never.
So, with a quick thrust, Barnacles threw his elbow backward as much as his bonds would allow and planted the blow directly into the cat's ribs. The pirate gave out a yelp of pain before a swift kit knocked the air out of him and he drifted away from Barnacles; his grip on the chain lost.
Without a moment to lose, Barnacles planted his feet down on the sandy sea floor and with all his strength yanked his arms apart; effectively breaking the chain that connected his steel cuffs.
The other two pirates and Scrap looked on in shock at what they had just witnessed. Iron Claw—seeing their expressions—quickly turned around again only to be met with a chain that Barnacles had sent straight at his helmet. He let out a scream as the metal broke the glass and knocked him away—water now seeping in.
"Swim away, Scrap! Go!" Barnacles called out as the two pirates holding Scrap's arms let go of him to swim after the polar bear.
Barnacles dove the opposite way—towards the Glider—as Scrap hastily swam pass the naval mine. The bear swam around the Glider and back in the same direction as Scrap with the two pirates hot on his tail.
When the third pirate broke out of his stupor, he saw Barnacles and the others swimming past and he started off after them, but Iron Claw stopped him.
"Give me yer helmet, ye idiot!" he ordered and shoved the cat upward and toward the surface.
Barnacles quickly caught up with Scrap, able to swim a bit faster than the cats following. But this didn't bode well as it appeared Scrap was even slower than the other two. He urged the grey cat to keep swimming as they came across another mine. Using this opportunity, he looked back momentarily at their pursuers and boldly grabbed hold of the anchor chain of the explosive.
The pirates stopped upon seeing the obvious threat, but their halt turned into a full-on retreat as Barnacles yanked the chain down—causing the mine to fall closer to the sea bed. The polar bear took off after Scrap while the cats watched in terror as the mine just barely touched the sandy floor before rising back up to its original position.
Once it looked like they were not going to die in a horrible explosion, they regained their bearings and continued the chase.
After passing several more mines, Barnacles noticed a large, dark mass ahead of them and for a split moment thought it was a whale. But when the mass did not appear to be moving—and by swimming closer—he recognized it as a sunken vessel.
An old U-boat that laid to rest here on this sandy plateau; it had an enormous hole in its stern leading Barnacles to believe that the ship had unfortunately found the mine field by mistake. However, their lack of luck turned out to be a blessing for the two as now they had a place to hide—or turn the tides.
"In there, quickly." He called out to Scrap as he pointed at the U-boat.
The two of them swam through the blast hole that appeared to have led straight into the engine room. The moment they were inside, darkness blanketed what little sunlight they previously had. Barnacles directed Scrap to swim right and down the small corridor before an idea came to mind. Once they came upon a closed bulkhead door, Barnacles stopped and called for Scrap to come back.
The two pirates swam inside the sunken U boat cautiously; neither of them too fond of how dark it suddenly got once inside. But hearing noise from their right made them swim a bit faster knowing they had to retrieve at least one of the escapees. Upon entering the corridor, they saw Scrap in the dim light and quickly dove for him. Said cat gasped in shock and swam into the room on his right—the door to the quarters left open as the two pirates followed him inside.
But upon entering, they were faced with complete and total darkness.
"We don't have flashlights… I can't see anything."
"Just be ready!"
The two of them glided in and attempted to cover ground by splitting up. Both held their swords out and swung them back and forth in front of them like mobility canes.
"Scraaaaap," one sung out, "come out, come out where ever you are!"
"We'll make this quick, Scrap. You know Iron Claw won't."
Unbeknownst to them, Scrap had made his way around them and back toward the door. Once he exited the room, he looked over at Barnacles—who had been hiding behind the bulkhead door—and gave him the OK.
The two pirates jumped and turned around from the sudden loud metal creaking of the bulkhead door closing. They screamed and rushed for it, struggling to turn the wheel as Barnacles on the other side held it still. Both peered through the glass and yelled at the two to let them out.
But their victory was short lived as Scrap screamed upon seeing Iron Claw rushing toward them in the corridor. Barnacles gasped as he kicked off the door and just barely missed the swipe of the pirate cat's blade. But Iron Claw used his momentum and quickly kicked off the floor to tackle Barnacles into the next corridor.
The damselfish cam swam along the sandy sea floor toward the signal of the Glider. Thankfully, the scanners indicated no sharks were in the area, but there also appeared to be no fish too. Being the only 'fish' in this area may cause them to look a little suspicious. So, all were on edge as the Glider came into view. But to their surprise, the Glider—this time—was empty.
"It's empty?" Inkling announced.
"But, where are they?" Peso asked.
"Dashi," Kwazii said, "Can we pinpoint where they are using the captain's octo-compass?"
"I can certainly try." Said dachshund replied, "So long as Iron Claw still—" Suddenly they all gasped and Tweak twisted her ears as they came upon the sight of the sea mine.
"Is—is that a…?" Shellington stuttered, but Tweak finished his sentence.
"Bomb?"
"It would appear to be a contact mine." Inkling explained nervously, "So long as we don't touch those pointy bits, it won't go off."
"Those must have been what the scanners picked up when we were looking for a shipwreck." Dashi said.
Kwazii growled, "Why is Iron Claw in a mine field? What's he got business here for?"
Suddenly, the octo-alert sounded and all of them looked to the front screen. Dashi checked the panel and her eyes grew wide.
"It—it's coming from the captain's octo-compass…?"
Barnacles was slammed against the metal wall of the corridor, but kept his paws up to block Iron Claw's attempts at clawing his chest. When the cat tried to take another swing with his sword, Barnacles' paw quickly caught his arm and held it away. The two struggled for a bit as the pirate attempted to—no avail—succeed in arm wrestling the polar bear.
In the dim light, Scrap searched around for anything he could use: a pipe, scrap metal—anything that would help get Iron Claw off of his new found friend. But when their struggle pushed them from the far wall over to one of the closed bulkhead doors, Iron Claw's sword caught a glimmer of sunlight. With this, Scrap got an idea.
He swam over to the two and latched on to Iron Claw's back as he tried to pry the sword from his grasp. In the struggle to disarm their attacker, Scrap had accidentally managed to push the octo-compass out from the coat pocket it was kept in. The small device sank down to the floor and landed top first against the metal, activating the button for the octo-alert—and thus turned on the camera.
To further prevent being sandwiched, Iron Claw let go of his sword—effectively sending Scrap flying backwards. Quickly with a free paw, he reached for his boot knife and brought it up to Barnacles' side. But instead of the hip where he was aiming, Barnacles caught the knife with his right paw and screamed out in pain as it completely impaled his palm. In defense, he let go of Iron Claw's other paw and pushed off of his chest in order to make space.
Now, all three were separated and facing each other—Scrap possessing Iron Claw's sword while Barnacles still had his knife.
"If you think I am a helpless kitten without a blade, think again!" Iron Claw challenged with a wicked smile as he charged Scrap. Scrap swung the sword at him, but proved to not be as skilled with it as Iron Claw was. The pirate captain managed to evade the blow and grab hold of Scrap's arm; twisting him around and taking back his sword.
Barnacles came in and delivered and swift kick to his helmet, the glass effectively cracking upon impact but not enough to cause a leak. However, the distraction was enough to loosen his grip on Scrap and the grey cat speedily swam away.
Iron Claw growled at Barnacles and swam after the bear as he was moving away.
"I don't need you functional in order to be leverage!" The cat shouted, enraged as he dove for him—sword at the ready. Barnacles brought his arms up in defense again and braced for impact. But the only impact the sword made this time was upon another blade as a familiar orange cat suddenly appeared in between the two.
"Kwazii!" Captain Barnacles exclaimed, both surprised and thrilled.
Kwazii let out a war cry as he pushed Iron Claw back with his block before delivering a roundhouse kick to the cat's chest—sending him backwards and slamming against the metal wall.
"You call that swashbuckling?" Kwazii mocked him, "Let's see how you fair against a real pirate!"
Iron Claw took him up on the challenge and the two blades clashed against each other once more. The two cats matched blow for blow and not a single one was able to catch the other off guard. But while their fight continued, the door to the quarters in the other room suddenly opened and out dropped to the floor the two pirates that were previously trapped. Their attentions were immediately drawn to the commotion in the other room and they both grabbed their swords to intervene.
Upon seeing Barnacles, however, they moved in to recapture him—as per their orders. But a loud, scraping sound of twisting metal erupted to their right and they watched in shock as a drill made a new hole in the side of the U-boat. From that hole, the drill retracted and now in its stead appeared two large claws.
They yelled in fear and tried to swim away, but the claws grabbed hold of both and pulled them out into the open ocean.
"Shellington, catch!" Tweak called out as she turned the Gup-D around to release the two pirates. Once they were free, they tried swimming away, but were ultimately sucked up into the fish-vac of the Gup-A piloted by Shellington.
Shellington proceeded to rise to the surface and over to the side of the enemy's ship where he launched them up and onto the deck. One cat landed on all fours with an arched back while the other landed on his face, completely dumbfounded.
Tweak guided the claws back into the hole, "Cap, grab on!" she called out to him and the captain took no time to heed the request. Once he got a firm grip with his left paw, he called out to Scrap and the grey cat immerged from the dim light to do the same.
"Kwazii, come on!" Barnacles called out to his best friend and said cat began looking for an opportunity in his battle to make a getaway.
Tweak pulled the first claw out and motioned for Peso in the Gup-E to take captain Barnacles and Scrap. The two swam over to the back end of the Gup and as soon as it opened for them and Peso wasted no time to check Barnacles' wounded paw.
"Let me see," Peso said with a delicate flipper guiding the captain's paw to turn over. The hilt of the knife was in his palm while the tip of the blade was protruding out at the top of his paw.
"We'll have to keep it in until we reach the Octopod." He informed him as he brought out a roll of bandages and skillfully wrapped the wound up to stabilize the blade. "We'll have a better chance at stopping the bleeding in the Sick Bay."
Once Tweak saw them safely in the Gup-E, she returned her attention back inside the U-boat to where Kwazii and Iron Claw were still fighting.
Kwazii managed to get another kick into Iron Claw's gut and used this opening to make a beeline for the Gup-D. Once he grabbed hold of the claw, Tweak retracted it back out into the open ocean for her friend to swim up to where he parked the Gup-B. She switched the other claw out for the drill again and used it as a deterrent to prevent Iron Claw from following through the hole. She remained there, blocking the exit, until all Gups converged on the Gup-E and the group made their escape.
"Oh, it's so good to see you, Octonauts!" Barnacles exclaimed with the biggest smile and the rest of them returned the gestured with equal glee.
"We came as soon as the octo-alert went off and we heard the struggle." Kwazii informed him.
"The octo-alert?" Barnacles questioned, perplexed. "But how?"
Scrap pulled out the octo-compass from his pocket and offered it back to its' rightful owner, "I found it on the floor, it must have gone off when we were fighting. Here you go… captain."
Captain Barnacles gave him a warm smile as he took back his octo-compass and placed it on his belt.
"Then that just leaves the Gup-X." Kwazii announced.
"I left the Glider on the ocean floor by one of the sea mines." The captain told them.
"Tunip and the vegimals should be there now." Tweak said.
Scrap looked confused, "The who?"
Tunip, Barrot, and Codish exited the Gup-C—leaving Tomminow and Grouper at the controls—to swim over to the Glider. Upon entering, Tunip got straight to work and pressed the comms button to relay their progress back to the Octonauts.
"Tweak-a Tweak-a! Fis-co be habibi bala?" Tunip exclaimed through the comm-link.
After a quick translation from Shellington, Tweak replied, "Great to hear you guys made it to the Glider. Now just go ahead and move away from the mine, then press that red button on your left to activate the Gup connector."
"Gup connect-a?" Tunip thought out loud as he looked for the button Tweak was talking about.
"wh'I found it!" Codish exclaimed happily before pressing the big red button.
Both Barrot and Tunip gasped out, "Baka bomb!"
But it was too late and the Gup connector activated in the tank compartment. A small alarm sounded which alerted the pirates on deck. They became startled once seeing the Gup-X begin to move all by itself and ran out of the way as the tank compartment drove by and off the starboard side. It sank like a rock to the ocean floor, and unfortunately got trapped within a small crevice between some rocks where the ship's anchor was hooked.
"Codish!" Tunip complained before all three began to slide to the right as the Glider started moving. They yelled out in fear as the right wing just barely hit the anchor chain of the naval mine before moving westward toward the tank compartment.
In the Gup-C, Tomminow looked worried and quickly grabbed the steering wheel to follow the others while Grouper snacked on some fish biscuits.
"Phew!" Tunip exhaled in relief, but this was short lived as another sea mine came into view and this time it was in their direct path.
"Baka bomb!" Barrot screamed and Tunip rushed for the steering wheel at the same time as Codish. The two fought for control of the Glider—Tunip trying to steer away from the mine while Codish was just kind of panicking.
The Glider went left and right like a slithering snake, but thankfully just barely missed the second mine. Tomminow now looked extremely concerned about the others as they followed them. Grouper took a minute to swallow before pointing ahead of them at another mine, but this time there were three.
"More bomb-bas." The purple vegimal said.
Tunip, Codish, and Barrot all screamed and hugged each other as the Glider headed straight for the sea mines. But just when they were about to fly straight into one, the Glider suddenly stopped.
Tunip opened one eye and looked around, wondering what happened. But this answer was given to them when Grouper popped out from behind the Glider with a fish biscuit in hand after successfully attaching the Gup-C's anchor while Tomminow kept the brakes on.
Tunip, Codish, and Barrot all fainted from the close call as The Gup-C towed them away and into a safer path to the tank compartment. In no time at all, they reached the other trapped parts and the Glider reconnected. Grouper then reattached the anchor to the Gup-X as a whole and they started towing it back to the Octopod.
"What is happening down there?!" Sphynx screamed angrily as he grabbed the railing and ordered the pirates to raise anchor.
"Sir," the cat at the sonar called out, "I still can't find their ship's signal, we're too far out of range. All I can see is those gups of theirs."
Sphynx veered around, "Then use them to find their ship. They'll return to it!" the hairless cat complained, thinking it was all common sense.
"Hey," one of the pirates on deck whispered to his fellow cat, "has anyone see the captain?"
"Maybe he died?" another whispered back.
But when a wet paw latched onto the deck of the port side, the pirates watched as Iron Claw hoisted himself up with a cracked helmet and the most livid expression they had ever seen him make.
"Or not…"
"Where are they?" the maine coon demanded as he scowled at each and every one of the pirates before Sphynx spoke up from atop the upper deck.
"They will be within range in five minutes, sir."
The Gups swiftly made their way back to the Octopod where Dashi and Professor Inkling were tracking their signatures on the sonar. Gups A, B, D, and E had returned in the Launch Bay, but the Gup-C and the Gup-X were still far away. Upon zeroing in on their position, an alarm sounded that notified them of another issue.
"Uh oh," Dashi announced, "The ship is moving again."
She pressed another button on the console, "Octopod to Tunip, what's your status?"
"Cheepa cheepa, 'Ashi!" Codish's voice came through in reply.
"Hmmm," Inkling hummed as he studied the screen. "If we meet them, we may be able to retrieve them before the ship gets too close."
"Agreed, activating launch." Dashi replied before returning to the comm-link. "Tunip, we're on our way to pick you up. Keep moving toward us as fast as possible."
"Cheepa." Tunip replied fearfully as both he and Codish were watching the ship not too far in the distance following them.
Peso rushed the captain onto the medical bed and pulled over his utensils so he could get to work. Kwazii and Shellington were asked to be present since the vegimals had yet to return, and Scrap was bandaged up and seated on another bed. The penguin saw how malnourished the cat was and knew he needed eat sooner rather than later.
"Kwazii, can you assist me in this procedure? I'd just need you to grab me whatever items I need." Peso requested.
"Sure, matey. Just give the word and I'll get it for ya." Kwazii replied before running over to the sink and washing his paws.
Shellington looked a bit nervous, "Um, Peso, I want to help, but I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to… blood."
Peso placed the divider around Barnacles' paw so that only he was could see the procedure, "That's ok. I was actually going to ask if you could get some food for Scrap."
"Oh, I can do that!" Shellington stood up straight with a smile, "Tunip usually keeps some baked kelp cakes ready. I'll go gets some!" he said before running out of the Sick Bay.
Kwazii came back over, "Ready, Peso."
"Ok, are you ready, captain?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. Am I going to be awake for this?" Barnacles asked, a bit curious he wasn't already knocked out since they were rushed to get this started.
"I've applied a local anesthetic. It should numb just your paw and arm, no need to put you under completely." Peso informed him before tapping his flipper on the captain's arm and paw, "Can you feel this?"
"Feel what?"
"Perfect."
Iron Claw scowled at the sonar as the Octopod came into view and began closing fast upon the smaller ships they were tailing. He gave the order to ready the harpoons and watched his crew scramble below to get everything in position.
He held up his paw, ready to give the command, as he observed the Octopod's signature and the gups' signature converge on the sonar.
"Sir, less than one minute…" Sphynx announced as they were not quite close enough for their harpoons to reach.
But the pirate captain didn't seem to care as he immediately yelled for his crew to aim on the port side.
"Twenty seconds." His first mate announced again.
The two gups' signature disappeared and all that remained was the Octopod's. Iron Claw waved his paw and yelled to his crew to fire. At least ten of them were fired, but the ship was still just out of reach and all of them did not hit. This led Iron Claw to rush down onto deck and throw off one of the pirates that had yet to fire his harpoon.
He aimed it per memory of the sonar and let go of the trigger. The metal spear shot forth; its trajectory aimed straight for one of the pods. But the Octopod's launch had been activated just in time for it to move just a hair's length needed to avoid getting hit. And the harpoon instead bounced off some rocks on the ocean floor.
Sphynx and the pirate at the sonar watched dreadfully as the Octopod's signature quickly began to escape them and before they knew it, they were out of range. They glanced at each other looking to see which of them would have the guts to inform the captain, but it seemed Iron Claw already knew.
The pirate captain commanded them to follow in the direction they last saw the Octopod heading before he returned his gaze upon the horizon; the pirate he originally threw off returning to reel in the harpoon.
"He's waking up!" a voice said as Barnacles slowly opened his eyes to the sight of the Sick Bay and all the Octonauts there in front of him with warm smiles.
Despite only given local anesthesia, his lack of sleep still caused him to dose off. Now it looked like the procedure was complete and his paw was bandaged up nicely. He could not feel any pain, but only assumed that was due to the medication.
As he sat up and moved his legs to dangle off the side of the bed, Dashi inquired about his wellbeing.
"How do you feel, captain?"
"Better, thanks to Peso." The polar bear replied, giving said medic a thankful smile.
"Just give it time and get plenty of rest and your paw will be as good as new." Peso informed happily.
Barnacles nodded before address the rest of them, "And thank you all, Octonauts. You all performed phenomenally, even under high stress in a situation we had never before found ourselves in. You make me proud."
"We're just glad to have you back, Cap." Tweak replied cheerfully before taking a bite out of her carrot.
"Cheepa, cheepa, cappy!" Tunip agreed as he and vegimals bounced up and down.
"Yeah," Kwazii added as he walked over to the side of the bed. "Those pirates never knew who they were messing with." He said as he shared a fist pump with Barnacles.
"No, Kwazii, they did not." The captain agreed.
"Mmmm, you got that right!" Scrap suddenly piped up as he was jamming kelp cakes and fish biscuits into his mouth. "You know, I thought you were crazy when you said you liked seaweed, but these things are actually pretty good."
This caused Barnacles to chuckle and shake his head while the rest of them began giggling as well.
The end! Hope you all enjoyed the read!
~ThanQ