In the Pacific Ocean, a nuclear-powered research ship was getting rocked back and forth by heavy waves on both sides and the workers looked as a massive wave shot up and flooded the upper deck as the workers held onto the crates onboard for dear life.
"Forget that stuff!" the first mate shouted. "She's going down!"
"It's happening! Hurry!"
The boat workers immediately ran for the lifeboats as they managed to escape just as the ship capsized and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Or at least, most of them did.
"Is everyone out?"
"Where's Hodgson?!"
Said worker ran through the insides of the boat in a hurry as he ran through the insides before he ran into the captain of the ship.
"Hodgson, get out! We're abandoning ship!"
"Yeah, I got that from the annoying alarms. We have to shut down the reactor core. If it melts down, the entire region will become a dead zone."
Hodgson ran and opened the door to the reactor core as the ship continued to shake. He then hurriedly worked on the controls to open up the hatch, revealing the nuclear rods that powered the ship. He removed the rods, only to freeze as a huge dent appeared in the metal wall beside him as seawater started slipping through the cracks, causing the room to start to flood.
"Whoa!" Hodgson shouted as the huge monstrous maw of an aquatic EVO appeared and roared at him. "This will not end well."
The EVO retracted its head, which caused the entire core room to immediately flood with seawater, taking Hodgson for a ride.
"We're breaking up!" Rex shouted as he played with a giant squid toy along with a yellow submarine in the bathtub as Roxie stood outside in her bathrobe, groaning at her brother's antics. "Reroute all power to the hull! Ah, it's working, Captain!"
"Can you hurry up in there! I need to take a shower!" his very irritated twin shouted, only for Six to suddenly appear and throw a towel into Rex's face.
"Bath time's over. We have a mission."
"Now?" Rex asked as he got out of the tub and wrapped his waist in the towel. "Where to?"
"The middle of the Pacific."
"Wha..." Roxie asked as Rex looked at his bath toys and tossed them away.
"Excellent!"
The Keep flew over the scene of the EVO attack from the previous night while the jump jet was prepared as the twins nodded.
"This is gonna be so great, Six! I've dreamed of being an undersea explorer since, well... for as long as I can remember!" Rex said.
"Yeah, all eighteen months of it," Roxie said. "We have amnesia from before that, dude."
"I dream fast," Rex said. "Look, I don't know how many times our brains have been rebooted, but for now, I'm cramming mine full of memories as fast as I can. Exploring the ocean? That's major. Like visiting another planet."
"Humans know more about the surface of Mars than the floor of the ocean," Roxie nodded.
Rex then took out his phone with a cheeky smirk.
"Smile," he said, snapping a picture of a very unamused Six. "Eh, close enough."
That was when Holiday's image appeared on his screen.
"We're coming up on the drop coordinates," she said. "I'll link you to the exterior cameras."
The team looked out to see tons and tons of trash floating by the site, deeply disturbing everyone.
"Welcome to Trash Island."
"Whoa," Roxie said. "How big is that thing?'
"About twice the size of Texas. The same currents that formed it have swept up every nanite in the North Pacific. Who knows how many EVOs are down there?"
"Sea monsters!" Rex said. "Just what every superhero needs to fight someday."
"Something sunk that ship, yet it didn't harm any of the crew."
"Okay, so it's a sea monster with a conscience," Roxie said. "Good for us."
"With intelligence. Don't let your guard down, guys. We can't communicate once you're submerged."
"How long do we have?" Six asked.
"Depends on the conditions of the reactor core. The rods are cracked and can already be leaking radioactivity. And if the core melts down, its radioactive steam could travel to the mainland."
"Yeah, if it doesn't blow up first," Rex said.
"No danger of that. But you'd never need a night light again. Bring me back a souvenir."
"You got it," Roxie said as they all turned and boarded the jump ship.
As the Keep's cargo bay opened, the twins' eyes widened at just how horrific the trash island was.
"Whoa. That's worse than the back of my closet," Rex said with his jaw agape as Roxie felt bile rise up to her throat in disgust.
"We're diving into that?" Rex's green-faced sister said.
"Just hold your nose," Six ordered as he released the cables, causing the jump jet to free fall towards the ocean as the twins braced themselves for impact as the ship smashed through the wreckage of the sunken ship.
Everyone looked down at seeing just how beautiful the ocean was as they saw several coral structures sticking out as they looked on.
"This is amazing," Rex said as Roxie nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "How can trash on the surface look this beautiful down below?"
"The coral must have been using the trash as a foundation material," Six said.
"You see trash?" Rex asked. "Guess it's all how you look at it."
"It's an entire city," a stunned Roxie said. "I'm hazarding a guess and saying we're not alone down here."
"Whoever constructed this now has the weapon potential of the reactor core," Six said as he turned to Rex. "And don't you dare touch the controls."
As the ship moved through the water, the twins looked on at a gorgeous-looking window in the area as Roxie's eyes brightened.
"That window's alive. And there's air in there!"
"A city big enough to house an army, yet perfectly hidden. The research ship could've been taken down for getting too close."
No one noticed as a few shadowy figures looked on at the passing ship as they turned to each other.
"Well, I'm not seeing any army," Rex said. "All I'm seeing is... fish?"
Said fish suddenly swam forwards and swarmed forwards, slamming into the ship, sending it careening sideways.
"I've lost steering! Take the controls!" Six ordered the twins. "Try to outrun them."
"Oh, so now I get to!" Rex said excitedly as he grabbed the controls. "Awesome!"
That was when they felt another jolt as Roxie suddenly began to get a scared look on her face, which was something completely out of character for her.
"Less awesome," Roxie said.
"I just need a moment to reprogram a torpedo," Six said as he began typing in controls as Rex tried to outmaneuver the EVO fish. "Got it. Hold on."
Six then fired a torpedo outwards that blasted into the fish, sending them scattering away as the twins smirked.
"Ouch. Two heads, twice the headaches," Rex smirked.
"Suit up, you two," Six said. "We need to check the damage."
"Yeah, about that..." Roxie said with a wince. "...I can't swim."
"What?!" Six asked as Roxie nodded.
"If I ever did know how to swim, it was wiped away with the amnesia," Roxie said. "I haven't been around large bodies of water in years."
"Fine," Six said. "Just take my hand and I'll guide you through the movements. Besides, you'll have your oxygen tank ready so you won't drown."
"Okay..." Roxie said nervously.
As the trio came out of the ship, Rex was holding onto Roxie as he guided her through the movements to allow her to swim better as Six checked on the damage to the ship.
"Do you really need the sunglasses when you're wearing a snorkel, dude?" Rex asked.
The three then looked up to see countless small jellyfish-like EVOs descending on them, illuminating the area.
"Okay, maybe so."
"One of the steering vanes is bent. We need to remove it," Six said.
A loud whining noise sounded, scaring the jellyfish off as Roxie gulped.
"Whatever that sound is, it's really creeping me out," Roxie said nervously.
"Fish communicate with sonic waves," Six explained. "I suspect those are commands."
They waited for a few seconds and then two large catfish EVOs swam out of the ship.
"There."
"You fix the sub, we've got the chum," Rex said as he led Roxie to lure the fish EVOs away. "Hey! Over here!"
As the EVOs followed them, Rex built up his Smack Hands... and then immediately realized his mistake as he was weighed down by the heaviness of the giant gauntlets, causing Roxie to scream out as he dissolved them.
"We can't use our powers down here!" she shouted. "They're too heavy!"
"Uh, this may be a problem," Rex said as they landed on a stony ridge.
Rex held onto his sister as he built up his Punk Busters and hopped down on the ridges to lead the eel EVOs to him with a grunt of effort.
"Come on, just a little farther!" Rex said as he gave a leap upwards until he couldn't go any further as he shouted out and looked down at the approaching aquatic EVOs.
"Okay, new strategy," Roxie said as Rex nodded as she summoned a whip to her hand and sent it lashing around one of the EVO's fins and allowed it to carry her upwards... only to scream as the fish carried her back down. "Argh! No! Bad fish! Go up! Not down!"
As the fight was going on, Six was still working on fixing the ship's steering mechanism, only for a forboding shadow to loom over him as the two EVOs appeared just outside the ship's hull.
Thankfully, Roxie had disengaged as she took Rex's hand as he activated his Boogie Pack and then flew upwards to grab Six as he unsheathed one of his magnet blades.
"Hey, I finally found one of my builds that works underwater!" Rex said.
Roxie looked behind her to see the fish approaching rapidly.
"Hostiles on our nine!" she shouted as she summoned her own sword.
As they sped through the waters, Six and Roxie sliced through several stalactites on the way, which fell down on top of the catfish EVOs, stopping their pursuit as the figure from before still hid in the shadows as the trio heard the same whining again.
"Where is that coming from?" an annoyed Roxie asekd.
"Rex, Roxie!" Six shouted as everyone looked forwards to see a large squid EVO looming over them with a humanoid crustacean-like EVO holding a harpoon with his right arm being made up of three snake-like tentacles standing on top.
"I'm guessing those squeaky sounds... are coming from him," Rex deadpanned as the crustacean EVO pointed his harpoon forwards to command his mount to charge the Providence agents. "Hold on!"
Rex and Roxie shouted out as Rex carried them off as Roxie gave a determined glare.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm craving some fried calamari!" Roxie shouted as Six glared.
"Closer," he said.
He and Roxie shouted out as they brought their swords down on the crustacean EVO, only for his mount to block their slashes with its tentacles, sending squid ink outwards, staining the water and briefly blinding our heroes as they swam out of the area with the two EVOs in hot pursuit.
"Heads down and hold on!" Six ordered. "Take us into the trench!"
"So ringing the doorbell is out of the question?" Rex joked as he brought them towards the window with dry land on the other side.
Roxie then hopped off and summoned her battle axe as Rex deactivated his Boogie Pack and built up his Smack Hands as they both shouted out and slammed into the window, breaking it as they and Six were sent inwards iwth a torrent of water before they removed their air masks and moved their goggles up.
"How is this better exactly?" Roxie asked as they and Six started climbing up the coral.
"Just climb!" Six ordered as the watery window closed up again.
As they climbed, Roxie's eyes started shimmering as a wide smile came across her face.
"...You really should see this," she said as Rex and Six turned as Rex's jaw dropped.
"Wow..."
Everyone looked to see an absolutely majestic coral landscape before them.
"It... it's beautiful," Roxie said as a tear of joy escaped her eye as they both snapped tons of pictures from their phones. "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"Impressive," Six said, still with his usual stoic tone.
"Impressive? This place is awesome!" Rex said.
Roxie reached out and touched a plant that grew up at her touch, startling her a little before it sank back down into the coral.
"You saw the EVO riding the squid, right Six?" Roxie asked. "Mr. Tall, Dark and Merman-like?"
Everyone heard some really loud growling as they looked up to see several glowing red eyes peeking at them from the shadows and countless crab-like EVOs with extra eyes on their claws emerged and surrounded the trio.
"I'm thinking I'll skip the melted butter joke," Rex said as his sister eeped at seeing something that turned her stomach. "Sis, what's wrong?"
"That claw just winked at me," she said.
"It's their natural instinct to to protect their territory, even to the death."
Rex, Roxie and Six looked to see the EVO that was chasing them, named Serge, emerge from the waterfall window.
"We will not stand for any more attacks on Aquania."
"Aquania?" Roxie asked. "That's a great name for a place like this."
"We haven't attacked you or your city," Six said.
"Liar!" Serge shouted as the snake tentacles that made up his right arm hissed at him. "You fired torpedoes into this very room!"
"To escape your squid."
"Um, why don't we lighten up a bit?" Rex asked. "Less accusing, more amusing?"
"The fact remains that you attacked an innocent research ship."
"So you did all this?"" Roxie asked. "How did you get coral to take orders?"
"Innocents? As soon as those 'innocents' find something profitable, either more ships come to drench and scrape out the ocean floor."
"Uh, guys, guys?" Rex asked as he and Roxie noticed the EVO's underlings were starting to screech. "We're sort of freaking out the kids here."
"After that, the drills arrive spitting out oil and choke everything under them!" Serge shouted, getting into Six's face. "Just leave us alone!"
The crab men all started snapping their claws menacingly as they attacked the twins.
Rex and Roxie grabbed a claw to protect themselves, only to yelp in surprise as a large toothed tongue shot out from the mouths inside the claws as they shoved them back into their friends. About two seconds later, the twins and Six found themselves surrounded on all sides by the EVOs.
"Just following their natural instincts," Serge said before he heard a revving noise and turned to see Rex had activated his Rex Ride, sending crab men flying everywhere and then, he and his two companions sped through the tunnels.
"Get small!" he shouted at a closing pathway as Roxie and Six ducked for cover as they drove through. As they spotted another closing doorway, Rex rode along the wall to get through it before he deactivated his build and the three landed gracefully in a three point stance. "What next?"
As if prompted, a sea urchin EVO shot its many spines at them and ensnared them to the ground.
"Ask a stupid question and you shall receive!" Roxie shouted.
Six started slicing all the spines shooting at them as Rex built his Punk Buster and Roxie built her Smite Stick as they slashed and cut through all of the tentacles, even as they kept respawning and Rex grew tired of this as he leaped up and smashed through the ground, causing the three to arrive at another cavern with a beautiful waterfall and a ton of purple sea pods, resembling eggs.
Rex groaned as he still had a sharpened tentacle sticking through his shoulder as Roxie gasped in horror at this.
"Hang on," she said as she gently grabbed the spine and then pulled it out. "There."
"Is the paralysis spreading?" Six asked.
"Hang on," Rex said as his nanites started to counteract the poisonous particles, causing them to wither and die. "My nanites stopped it... I think."
"This is from a Scarlet Cobra urchin," Six said, holding the spine. "You were lucky, Rex. It would've killed a normal human in seconds."
"You know, you know a little bit too much about things that can kill you, Six," Roxie said.
"We need to find the reactor core. No telling what he plans to do with it."
"I doubt he even knows what he has," Rex said. "As far as we know, he just wants to protect Aquania."
"Sure, he's a little looney in the head," Roxie said, not noticing one of the pods beginning to swell behind her. "But there's nothing about this place that says 'war zone' to me. In fact, it's way more like an undersea utopia."
"I mean, how many extreme mutants do you see running a nursery?"
No sooner had the words left Rex's lips, the pod burst, revealing some young crustacean EVOs inside.
"Please. Stop. Touching things," Six deadpanned.
"Maybe they just want their mommy," Roxie suggested.
Then, the trio once again found themselves surrounded on all sides by the crab men again.
"I suppose one of them could be a mommy..."
Six glared as he drew his magnet blades with a start.
"Don't come any closer," he said, drawing a sword next to the baby crab men... somehow prompting them all to move away.
"What are you doing?" a horrified Roxie asked.
"An example of why I keep the company of fish instead of men," Serge said as he emerged from the crowd.
"Come on, guys! Truce!" Rex shouted.
"Rex, Roxie," Six warned.
"Maybe that research ship looked like trouble to you," Roxie said. "But they were just documenting the pollution to make people understand the harm your garbage does."
"You think you're the ones getting the shaft? Well, listen," Rex said as he turned to Six. "Come on. What could it hurt?"
Six sighed as he withdrew his sword.
On the surface, a net was drawn around a huge pile of garbage as one of the catfish EVOs, which swam down to the entrance of Aquania as Serge explained his story to the twins and Six.
"After my change, I had a closer bond with these new species," Serge said.
"With what?" Roxie asked as the catfish EVO came in with the garbage pile as the crab men came in to surround it. "Telepathy?"
"No," Serge said, tossing some food to the catfish EVOs. "I understand their natural instincts and use them to modify their behavior."
"Oh, like a fish whisperer," Rex said, snapping some photos with his phone.
"And 'modifying behavior' includes sinking ships?' Six asked.
"The facts are clear. I build, you destroy."
"Hey, I know!" Roxie asked. "How about some introductions? I'm Roxie, this is my brother Rex and our mentor Six."
"Six? That's a machine's name."
"I think we've established that not everyone is good at picking names," Rex said. "And you are?"
"Serge."
"Now see? That's totally rad. Strong, powerful, like a tidal surge, right?"
"It's my name. Short for Sergio."
"Right..." Rex said. "Well, works both ways."
The group looked out as the anemones and crab men were actually eating all the garbage from the ocean.
"There is much to do if the oceans are to be clean again," Serge said. "These anemones can process even oils in plastics, giving it food that is circulated throughout the coral colony. The coral brings us everything that we need, even the mirrors that bring light from-"
"WHOA!" the twins shouted as they felt a massive quake under their feet as the anemones retracted their tendrils. "Seaquake!"
"No," Serge said. "It is just a curse that you humans have set upon me. It became jammed into the lower spires and is now at the mercy of the currents."
The twins looked down into the darkness to see the ship sticking out of one of the spires with a determined nod to each other.
"That's the research ship!" Rex shouted.
"The shaking will stop when the crab men cut it free and drop it into the abyss."
"Yep, bad idea written all over it," Roxie said as she and her brother turned to Six. "See, Six? He doesn't want a weapon. He has no idea what he's touching."
"Weapon?!" Serge shouted. "So your interest in my work was a lie!"
"It's not a weapon," Six said. "But it will destroy your home."
Everyone let out a yelp as they felt another quake under their feet.
"Listen to me," Six said. "If it leaks, this whole stretch of ocean will become unlivable."
"That's why we came!" Rex said. "To get that thing out of here."
Serge only glowered at them as Roxie stepped up.
"To protect the ocean, not destroy it."
"Really, go green! Yay!"
"We'll inspect it together. If you two are telling the truth-"
Serge was interrupted again as another heavy quake rang out and they looked down to see the chains holding the research ship start to give way as they looked out to see it start to slip and several parts started to break off of it before the chains finally snapped, causing the boat to fall down into the abyss.
"You've poisoned us all!" Serge shouted.
"Anyone up with Plan B?" Roxie asked.
"We're over an undersea trench! Even I can't withstand the depths down there!"
"Then we'd better hope we can!" Rex shouted as he and Roxie put their breathing gear back on and dove down into the water as Rex built a Smack Hand and Roxie summoned her warhammer and they let the weight of the heavy builds carry them down after the ship.
"The twins will be crushed before they can reach the ship and that reactor will destroy Aquania," Serge said to Six.
"Underestimating the pair of them will be your biggest mistake," Six said as he turned on his communicator. "You two are gonna have to work fast, guys. We don't know how much pressure you two can take."
"Come on, Six," Rex said. "You know we do our best work under pressure."
Rex then activated the drill feature on his Smack Hand as he and Roxie sank down even faster as the research ship crashed down into one of the undersea walls and when they finally reached it, they looked on the sides to investigate it.
"A few lights are still on," Roxie said.
"That means the reactor is probably still okay," Six said.
"Yeah, but the ship is sliding down into the trench," Rex said.
"If it starts breaking down, get out of there whether you have it or not."
"Ignoring that part," Rex said as he activated his Blast Caster and wrapped the whip around a wall as he grabbed his sister and brought them up to the pocket of air still inside the ship.
Six said something over the radio, but they couldn't hear it due to the signal being blocked.
"We can't hear you, Six," Roxie said as she and Rex removed their breathing masks. "It must be the steel hull."
"Don't worry, we got it covered," Rex said. "At least, I hope we do."
The twins then started climbing the ladder up to the reactor core.
But as the ship slid further down the trench walls, the duo shouted out as Roxie briefly lost her holding on the ladder and fell down before her foot got caught in one of the rungs and her oxygen pack flew off of her back into the ocean.
"Oh, that's just fucking terrific!" she shouted. "Great going, Roxie!"
"White Knight's probably going to take this out of our paychecks," Rex said.
"Not to mention, I sort of needed it to breathe," Roxie said as she fixed her position and the twins climbed up into the ship's interior... but then paled at the sound of rushing water and they looked to their right to see the hallway begin to flood as a torrent of seawater rushed towards them.
The twins shouted out in fear as they ran down the hallways, only to get taken for a ride by the water as Rex built a Smack Hand and grabbed hold of a doorway as Roxie held onto his leg for dear life.
Struggling to their feet, they looked into the room and beamed as they found what they were looking for.
"There you are," Rex said, seeing the reactor core with a ton of scrap metal floating in the air around it.
"Okay, this should be easy," Roxie said as she built her ball and chain weapon she called the Tether-Buster and then she swung it forwards, smashing the door in with a shout.
The twins took a deep breath as they dove beneath the water and Rex lead his sister towards the reactor core and then resurfaced for a breath.
"It's going great, Doc!" Rex chuckled. "Everything's cool!"
The twins dove down again and swam forwards, seeing one active nuclear rod still inside of the reactor before resurfacing for another breath.
"You don't suppose I can build something as big as a submarine?" Roxie asked with a chuckle.
"Unlikely, sis," Rex said as the room started to completely fill with seawater as they coughed. "Maybe we didn't think the plan completely through."
"Come on, Rox. Focus or we're gonna be fish food!" Roxie said, struggling to breathe.
"Sis, you gotta swim!" Rex shouted.
"I can't!"
"Just allow your arms to do the work," Rex said. "Just keep moving and hold your breath."
The ship was finally completely full of water as the twins struggled to breathe, let alone create their builds and they started to drift off... but then, two of the same jellyfish EVOs swam into the room and clamped down on the their heads and created a pocket of air inside, allowing the twins to breathe.
"We can breathe!" Roxie said before they looked down to see Serge below them, holding onto their legs with his tentacle arms as he hurriedly swam them out of the ship.
"Serge!" Rex shouted as he and his sister looked to the core.
"The radioactive rods!" Roxie shouted. "We can't leave them and we can't carry them all on our own underwater!"
Later, as Serge swam them away after collecting the rods, the ship fell off its rocky perch and sank down and down to the bottom of the ocean.
Thankfully, Serge's mount swam in as Serge busted the twins out of the window and Serge set them on the squid EVO's head and they swam back to Aquania.
Back in the cavern, the twins and crab men finished wrapping the rods safely in a bag made of seaweed.
"Seaweed bubble wrap," Rex said. "100% natural and crab man approved."
"Up top!" Roxie said, sticking her hand to a crab man and it stuck its claw to her... before it opened it as a tongue came out and it gave her the high five, much to her disgust.
"Never mind."
Soon enough, Serge brought the twins and Six back to Six's jump jet as Six looked to the ruler of Aquania with a nod.
"I see what you're trying to do here," Six said. "I see no reason to reveal Aquania to anyone for now. Forget my suspicions."
Rex suddenly tackled both of them from behind with a smile.
"And what else did we learn today? Serge? Six? Anyone?" he asked. "To see things from the other person's point of view."
"...I have more paralyzing urchin spines if you want them," Serge said.
"Smile!" Roxie said as she and Six each snapped a pic of Six and Serge.
Later on inside the jump jet, the twins were looking through their phones of all their pictures of Aquania that they took with Six, Serge and the crab man.
"You realize that if anyone saw those..." Six said as the twins sighed.
"I know..." Roxie said as she and her brother deleted the pictures.
"Maybe we can come back and visit?" Rex suggested.
"I'd rather not," Six said.
"I figured you'd say that," Roxie said as a baby crab man crawled up her leg and into her lap as she pet it lovingly and Six glared at her. "What? It's for Holiday. She said to bring her back a souvenir. So I did."
"Just don't expect me to feed it," Six said as he took the jump jet back up to the Keep.