Captain barnacles was watching from the Gup A as tweak lifted the octo-lab from the surface of the ocean, using the gup H
"Is the movement of the Octo-lab going well Tweak?"
"All going smoothly cap'," she replied ,"by moving the Octo-lab, we will be able to study creatures on the floor of the Atlantic much more easily."
"Need anything else matey?" Kwazi asked.
"Nope,'' Tweak replied ,"I've got it all figured out. I've installed light buoys on the surface of the ocean so i can see what i'm doing during the lowering proses, i've got Shellington and the professor checking out the area around where we're lowering the lab, to check for any unstable land or to clean up debris from the seafloor and i've stocked up on carrots."
Tweak pulled a carrot out of nowhere and took a hearty bite out of it
"Safe travels," the captain yelled as Tweak turned the Gup H and flew west, towards the Atlantic
Shellington put on his deep sea diving suit and then pressed a button that retracted the protective dome over the top of the gup D. He and Inkling swam out into the dark ocean and turned back to look at the state of the gup.
"How about I drive next time Shellington?" Inkling offered ,"I feel that your expertise is focussed in other fields, apart from driving."
"Oh, I'm just a bit rusty," Shellington dismissed ,"now let's get to work."
The two turned on their torches and inspected the seafloor that they were commanded to clear of rubble. It was pristinely flat, with silky sand stretching for as far and the torch beam would reach, the only rubble being the gup D.
"This shouldn't take too long," Inkling said ,"we'll just drag the gup out the way and once the lab is down here we can call Tweak to fix it."
The two walked over to the gup D and pulled with all their might, managing to slowly drag the broken sub along the seafloor and out of the way of the Octo-lab landing spot.
"Ok," Shellington said, pulling out a rolled up checklist from his belt ,"now we just have to check the area of water above the landing spot for any other obstructions."
Professor inkling looked around at all of the creatures of the deep, with the flashing lights and their dark bodies that infrequently were visible from the flashlight.
"Shouldn't we warn these creatures that there will be a huge green lab falling from the sky?" Inkling asked.
"We don't need to worry about that," he replied ,"most of the creatures down here will be pushed out of the way by the water displaced by the lab. We only have to look out for any large creatures like a giant squid or a sperm whale who won't be pushed aside."
The two began to swim up to the surface and saw no large obstructions. The sun was low in the sky now and
"This is perfect." Shellington said ,"this will give me a nice window to study some of the fish in the area before the others arrive."
"Haha," Inkling laughed ,"you remind me of me when I was younger. Always itching to do more research. Let's go."
The two dived back into the ocean.
Shellington and inkling were scoping out the ocean ecosystem, not looking for anything in particular, just checking for any particularly interesting creatures of phenomena.
"Seen anything professor?" Shelington asked.
"No not yet," answered inkling ,"just hatchetfish, copepods, segmented worms, that sort of thing."
"Ah well," Shellington said ," new stuff will swim past here some other day,"
As the two talked, all of the fish in the area all, one by one seemed to realise something and then begin swimming up. Shelington turned around and noticed the change in the fauna of the ocean.
"Where are all the fish going?" he questioned.
He looked around and saw that there were a lot of creatures all swimming upwards, almost every creature in the deep sea was actively swimming to the surface.
"Umm excuse me," Shelington said, stopping to ask a passing hatchet fish ,"but why are you swimming to the surface?"
"I do this every night," the fish replied ,"Whenever the sun goes down, we all go up."
"Fascinating," Inkling remarked ,"I've read about this. All these creatures are taking part in the diel vertical migration."
"The dial verticular what-what?" Shellington replied.
"The diel vertical migration," inkling said again ,"every night, many creatures from the twilight zone rise to the surface to feast off the food rich waters, without the danger of being spotted by predators that depend on the light to hunt."
"Fascinating," Shellington remarked.
Inkling and Shelington swam up into the sunlight zone, which was completely dark because it was night. They looked around at all of the deep sea creatures all swimming about near the surface.
"Wow," Shellington said ,"Wait until the other octonauts see this."
"Yes," Inkling agreed, "and we'll be able to see them much more clearly when we turn on Tweek's ocean floodlights, we'll be able to see all these creatures in perfect clarity."
Shelington stopped in his tracks (i know they're underwater but it sounds stupid if i say it any other way)
"If those lights will let us see all these deep sea fish better," Shellington reasoned ,"that would also mean that any predators that might be around here will be able to see them too."
"Oh my!" Inkling exclaimed ,"and they won't be able to defend themselves because they are not used to dealing with sunlight zone predators. In the deep, fish don't swim as fast as they do up here because of energy conservation. All these creatures won't know how to deal with a fast moving hunter like a shark or a swordfish, they'll be doomed."
"We have to save them," Shelington said ,"sound the Octo-alert."
Inkling pulled a portable Octo-Alert button from Shelington's pocket and pressed it.
"Octonauts," he commanded ,"to the HQ"
(cue Octo-Alert sequence)
Inkling and Shelington were both on a screen in the HQ.
"Shellington and Inkling what's happening?" the Captain asked.
"Me and inkling have been inspecting the area around where the Octo-Lab will be placed and have been observing creatures that are taking part in the diel vertical migration.
"The veal hurtling oojamaflip?" peso questioned.
"The diel vertical migration," Shelington corrected," there's no time to explain, just make sure that the lights here don't get turned on!"
"Wait a minute.." Dashi interjected ,"where's Tweak? She should be appearing on one of the screens for the Octo-Alert."
"Hmm," the captain said ,"the communicator in the Gup-H must still be broken."
"Good thing she doesn't have the light control," Kwazii announced, holding up the remote control for the lights, "catch!"
He tossed it to Peso who fumbled it over to Dashi who fumbled it to Barnacles who fumbled it over to turnip who then tried to fumble it to the next person, but there wasn't one. Resulting in the controller falling to the ground and breaking in half.
The octonauts looked at the broken gadget and then back at the screen. To their horror the ocean floodlights slowly began to flicker and then turn on, then fill the surrounding ocean with ungodly bright light.
"Jumping jellyfish!" Shelington cried, "you need to get that thing fixed and fast before some predators turn up. Shelington out."
The screen turned black.
"Kwazii!" the captain commanded ,"take the Gup B and drive as fast as you can to where Shellington and the professor are. Bring the broken remote with you and give it to Tweak once she arrives. If all goes well Tweak will have the remote fixed before anyone gets hurt. Octonauts, let's do this!"
Kwazii rushed down to the launch bay and hopped into the gub B.
"Tweak open the Octo-hatch!" he yelled. He sat in his gup for a few seconds, waiting for the Octo-hatch to be opened before remembering that Tweak wasn't there.
"Doh!"
He hopped back out of the gup and ran over to the control panel. He pulled on the lever that opens the Octo-hatch but it was super stiff. He repositioned himself and pulled with all his might slowly managing to turn the lever.
After he had successfully opened the hatch he leapt back into his gup and shot out the hatch at top speed.
Meanwhile, at the Octo-lab landing spot Shelington and Inkling were left treading water, wondering what to do. They popped up to the surface of the water and saw on the horizon, silhouetted by the moon the approaching form of the gup H, carrying the Octo-lab.
"Look!" Inkling exclaimed, "here comes Tweak."
"That's not the only company we've got." Shellington warned.
Inkling dropped back below the waves and saw a small shoal of tuna approaching.
(Now, I couldn't find any information on whether tuna need light to hunt, I know that they do hunt in the day but I'm not going to spend ages researching a single unimportant fact. If i'm wrong, please correct me.)
"Oh," one of the tuna said ,"looks like it's time for a midnight snack!"
The fish swam in, intending to eat a hatchet fish. The hatchet fish shrieked with alarm and tried to swim away but it was orders of magnitude slower than the tuna. At that moment, Shelington dived in between the two fish, blocking the tuna from eating the fish.
"My eyes!" exclaimed a passing bristlemouth ,"My eyes!"
"Oh my!" Inkling exclaimed ,"lights this bright could easily blind these creatures because their eyes aren't adapted to handle this much light!"
Suddenly a flash of orange came zooming past and then slowed to a halt, it was the Gup-B. Kwazii jumped out the cockpit and landed in the water.
"How can I help mateys!" Kwazii asked
"Help me fend off these tuna," Shelington said, trying to block the path of three tuna simultaneously.
"On it!"
As the three octonauts tried to protect the helpless deep sea creatures, Tweak began to close in on the place the Octo-lab was to be dropped. She hovered over the spot she was meant to drop the Octo-lab but she stopped when she saw the Gup-B, wondering what was going on down there
"TWEAK!" Kwazii yelled, "DOWN HERE!"
Tweak looked at the ocean where Kwazi was resurfacing.
"Oh me, oh my!" She exclaimed, "what's going on down there?"
Kwazii clambered on top of the Gup-B and took the broken remote from the glove compartment.
"No time to explain!"
He leapt from the gup to the top of the Octo-lab and then from there, he did a huge summersault into the Gup-H.
"You have to fix this remote!" Kwasii panted ,"you have to turn off those lights *gasp* before the tuna eat *gasp* the fish or the fish go blind!"
"Sure thing," Tweak replied ,"but you'll need to pilot the Gup-H while I fix this thing."
Tweek handed the controls over to Kwazii then grabbed the broken remote, emergency repair kit and jumped down onto the Octo-lab.
She opened the repair kit, grabbed a carrot and bit down on it before starting work. Tweak worked at top speed, soldering, screwing and fiddling, almost certainly violating many safety codes. The Octo-Lab swung about, the Gup-H wobbling slightly from Kwazii's lack of practice. Down below, Shellington and Inkling continued to try and get in the way of the tuna fish but there were too many for them to be reasonably held back.
"I've got it," Tweak said ,holding up the fixed remote. She pointed it down at the ocean and pressed the off button. All the floodlights instantly went out, plunging the ocean into darkness.
"Huh," one of the tuna said ,"why is it dark now."
"Dunno," replied another, "but I can't see my food anymore. Let's scram."
And with that all the tuna turned and swam away.
"Thankyou!" said a passing viperfish ,"but my eyes! I can barely see!"
"Oh me, oh my!" exclaimed Tweek, jumping down into the water, "those bright lights must have blinded some of these poor creatures."
"Without working eyes," the viperfish explained ,"we'll all be doomed because in the twilight zone, having good eyes is vital for survival."
"Hmm," Inkling said ,"I think I know someone who can help.
In the morning, the Gup-A trundled into view. Once it had arrived to where Kwazii, Shellington and Tweak were waiting, Peso hopped out the gup and landed in the water.
"Ok, where are my patients," Peso asked.
"They've gone back down to the twilight zone." Tweek answered ,"Inkling should be waiting there."
Peso swam down to the twilight zone and was greeted by Inkling who had gathered all the hurt creatures into a single file line.
"Ok," Peso said, "what seems to be the problem here."
"Our eyes!" all the creatures said simultaneously.
Peso brought out her special Ophthalmologists medical bag and started work on curing the first creature.
Meanwhile Shelington, Tweak and Kwazii all swam down, past peso and all the way to the newly installed Octo-lab.
"Well that went well," Shelington remarked, "now we have a new place we can do research from in a completely new environment. Think of all the undiscovered creatures out there!"
"Umm, Shellington?" Tweak asked ,"I hate to ask this but, where's the Gup-D?"
"Ummm."
Shelington pointed out the window of the Octo-lab at the silt covered wreck that was the Gup-D.
"Don't worry matey," Kwazii said, patting Shellington on the back, "you'll get the hang of driving one day.
~Creature report~*
Calling all Octonauts!
Kwazii, Peso, Shelington, Dashi, Inkling ,Tweek
Tunip!
Kwazi, activate creature report!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
Facts:
Every single night
Check! Check! Check!
When there is less light
Check! Check! Mee!
Creatures from the deep decide to move
Creature Report! Creature Report!
To the surface, in search of food
Creature Report! Creature Report!
They only come up when it's dark
Check! Check! Chup!
So other fish can't see them, and can't gobble them up
Dance Break!
Migration, Migration, Migration!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
We're done with our mission!
Octonauts at ease, until the next adventure!