(Final part! i know the plot is a bit of a mess but it works.)
The cleanup group looked down at the cleaned out ponds which looked murky and lifeless.
"It looks worse than when we started," dashi remarked, "at least all the hydrilla looked alive."
"I know it looks bad," said a perch from the water ,"but that hydrilla was taking up all the space the good plants used to grow in."
"That's right," Shellington said ,"now we have a blank slate which we can fill with native plants and animals that all work together to make a great ecosystem."
"Cheepa cheepa?" Codish asked.
"We'll get organisms to populate these waters from healthy ponds and rivers where the snakeheads have not invaded." Shellington answered
"Well go on then," the perch said again ,"get going, us fish can only survive in a broken ecosystem for so long."
Shellington and Co tracked through the American countryside looking for healthy waters.
"Have you seen this fish?" Shelington asked the inhabitants of one river, holding up a snakehead picture.
"Yea, i know those dudes," a bass said ,"they ate all my food, but a penguin caught them all."
"Ok then, thanks for your help," dashi thanked and the group moved on
"Miles of walking and nothing," Shelington complained crossing that river off on the map
"We certainly cleared a lot of snakeheads," dashi commented
The group approached another waterway and greeted the resident fish.
"Hello there. Have you seen this fish?" Shellington asked once again holding up the picture of the snakehead.
"He that kinda looks like larry," a catfish said ," hey, larry come check this out!"
Larry swam to the surface and all the octonauts breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Larry was a bowfin not a snakehead.
"What do you mean, that looks nothing like me?" Larry said ,"honestly you people!"
"So have you not seen any fish that looks like this?" dashi asked
"No I don't think so," Larry said ," it looks like I swam into a wall too quickly."
"Perfect! " Shellington yelled ," clapping his hands, "how would you fish like to have a new home."
"Hmm," thought the catfish ,"I'm interested. Tell me more."
"Well it's a bit of a fixer upper," Dashi explained, "but I assure you it will be a great place to live."
"Well count me in!" Larry confirmed, "how do we get there."
"Chaipa Chaipa," Codish explained, activating the fish pack, and gesturing to it.
"Sounds good to me," the catfish said, "let's go."
Barrot opened his fish pack and let the fish
"Looks like we got our first takers," dashi said ,"vegimals, you keep persuade more fish to come and help populate the ponds while me and Shellington take plant cuttings to replant "
The group all dived into the water and swam off to do their various things.
The vegimals began to pitch their offer of free real estate. Many fish were interested in the deal and the vegimals quickly filled up loads of fish packs. Each vegimal had one on their back and one on their front to carry maximum fish-idge. They were also the jumbo fish packs instead of the regular ones.
Meanwhile Shellington was picking sprigs of healthy water pants and giving them to dashi who potted them into little seedling modules.
They were soon all done, all the fish and plants collected.
"Everybody here!" shellington ascked.
The fish all babbled various versions of "yes" or "yea" in reply.
"Great then," off we go! To your new homes."
"And checkmate!" tweak announced.
It was dusk in the everglades and the two rabbits had just finished their game of chess
"Huh," Marsh said confusedly, "but my king's all the way back here!"
"That's your queen pa," tweak explained, "that's your king here, between your pawn and my knight."
"Oh,well, good game," he said ,"now I think it's time to check the trapps."
"Not yet I set an alarm...
BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP*
"Well there goes your alarm." ranger marsh said "come on, let's see if we caught ourselves a snakehead."
The two walked along the riverbank pulling up all the fish traps and checking their contents. Most of them were full of very annoyed native fish.
"What's the big idea," complained a yellow bullhead as tweak took her out the trap
"Sorry," tweak apologised ,"we were looking for a different guy."
They continued checking each fish trap, well into the night. It was almost pich black when tweak reached one that was particularly heavy.
"Hey pa, help me with this one, I think we caught a biggun."
Ranger marsh, pointed his torch over to where Tweak was went over to help his daughter pull up the trap. The water around the trap was agitated, indicating there was a large fish down in the trap
"I think this one might be our prize!" he said excitedly ," three two one pull!"
The two bunnies yanked on the fish trap but when they did pull it was somehow miraculously light. Tweak looked quizzically at the fish trap that had a massive hole in the side of it containing only one young redfish flopping about at the bottom.
"Stop gawping!" the redfish yelled ,"he's getting away."
"Who?" they both said.
"The snakehead!"
Marsh and Tweak turned sharply and saw a large form in the water quickly swimming
"Oh,carrot tops we were so close," the ranger exclaimed in annoyance
"Don't worry pa," Tweak said ,"i've got one more trick up my sleeve. You'll see what I mean tomorrow. Now i think it's time for some *yawn* sleep"
The captain woke up at the crack of dawn and stretched his arms and legs. He got up and took a swig from his octo-bottle to wash the taste of morning out his mouth.
He yawned and unzipped his tent, walking out into the tepid damp of the UK. he looked over at the snakehead tank and saw the busted up top of it. He ran through the wet grass and looked inside the tank and saw it was all empty.
Kwazi! Peso! Inkling!" he yelled ," the snakeheads have escaped!"
The rest of the crew scrambled out of bed and ran over to see for them selves
"Flappity flippers," peso cried ,"we just caught them all."
Kwazii looked around frantically and noticed a fish on the floor a while away from the tank. He ran over and picked it up and it was a snakehead.
"Oi, what are you doing out here!" Kwazii accused
"Doh you caught me," the snakehead said defeatedly ,"I was trying to escape."
"Also how are you alive, you've been out of the water for ages." Kwazii asked
"I know why," Inkling perked up, walking his way over to Kwazii, "snakeheads are able to breathe air for multiple days, it's one of the things that makes them such versatile creatures."
"More importantly, where did the other snakeheads go?" the captain demanded
"Oh they went to the river," the snakehead said ,"they left like an hour ago."
"Oh no!" Inkling exclaimed ,"the weather on the British isles are suitable for snakeheads to live in, if we lose them then they could wreak havoc on the native ecosystems, just like they did in america."
"We have to act fast," the captain said ,"I'll pilot the Gup H and Peso, you use the Octo-goggles to track down and locate the fish. Kwazii and inkling you take the gup B and catch the snakeheads. Octonauts let's do this."
(i know they primarily only do that once per episode but it'd be dumb not to use it here)
The captain piloted the gup H through the air at Max speed the gup tilted in the air at a precarious angle.
Peso was struggling to stay on his seat with the erratic movements of the gup and the intense tilt that it had. he had also accidentally set his octo-goggles to mega zoom before he was ready and as a result was grabbing frantically onto his chair in fear and confusion
"Focus up peso," the captain said ,"i need you to spot the snakeheads from up here."
Peso took some deep breaths and stabilised himself in the chair. He then nervously peaked his head out the side of the gup H and looked down at the river below which looked jarringly close with the zoom of the octo-goggles.
The Gup B was trailing along below the gup H. Kwazi was in the cockpit steering the gup and Inkling was latched onto the top of the gup with his tentacles, and using all his spare tentacles to hold fishing nets
"See them yet matey?" Kwazii asked, talking into his communication collar
"Not yet..." Peso replied.
"I hope we find them soon," Inkling said ,"freshwater makes me feel weird."
"There up ahead !" Peso yelled ,"i see a group of snakeheads!"
The snakehead were in a loosely knit shoal and were swimming downstream at high speed.
"Keep swimming," yelled the lead snakehead ,"we've got to get as far away from those octonauts as possible."
Kwazzi accelerated the gup B towards the snakeheads and inkling readied his arms to catch the fish.
"Hey snakeheads!" Kwazii yelled ,"try wriggling out of this one."
The Gup B shot right through the middle of the snakehead shoal, inkling's tentacles moving in a blur, swinging about like mad to catch all the fish. Kwazii piloted the gup towards any stray snakeheads, doing figure 8s in the water while Inkling fished them out .
In one of his turns Kwazii miscalculated how close he was to the river bank and bashed the tail of the Gup B against it, breaking the engine and mangling the tail.
"Doh," Kwazii exclaimed.
"Oh don't worry Kwazii," Inkling comforted, "I think i've got them all."
"Actually there's one left," Peso pointed out, looking down at the River, "it's still swimming downstream."
"I don't think me and inkling will be able to get this one matey," Kwazii said ."the gup B is damaged and inkling needs to get out the freshwater."
"It's giving me quite the headache," Inkling remarked.
(i know that actual dumbo octopi would be dead by now but inkling is just different he lives out of water)
"Peso," the captain said ," your going to have to dive for it."
"Oh that shouldn't be so bad, we're only a bit above the river."
The captain reached over and took the octo-goggles of him, revealing that they were about 20 metres above the river.
"FLAPPITY FLIPPERS!" Peso yelled, "i can't dive from up here."
"I believe in you Peso," the captain comforted ,"you can do this."
"You've got this matey, just go for it ," Kwazii urged
"Ok." Peso said reluctantly ,"I'll do it."
Peos poised himself at the edge of the gup H in a diving position and looked down, catching sight of the snakehead swimming below. He took a deep breath and jumped head down and eyes focussed on the fish.
He hit the water with a quiet *bloop, disappearing underwater and taking the snakehead down with him. Moments later, he appeared back at the surface, snakehead proudly clutched between his flippers.
"Way to go matey!" Kwazii congratulated, bobbing to the surface," that should be all of them."
"Actually," inkling said crossing some stuff off on a clipboard," we seem to still be missing ten."
"I know where they went," the snakehead peso caught said ,"they wents upstream."
Everybody gasped
"UPSTREAM!"
"What now?" aske one of the snakeheads
"I don't know "said the other one.
A Group of ten snakeheads that had gone upstream were swimming uncertainty around in the plunger pool of a waterfall.
"What is this thing?" wondered another snakehead ,"water is supposed to be horizontal."
One snakehead tried to swim up it and just ended up wiggling about on the surface of the water looking stupid.
Soon a fubbing sound came from above as the gup H descended, landing on the river bank.
"BOOOOO!" the fish shouted as all the octonauts climbed out of it,"no fair!"
"Sorry snakeheads," the captain apologised , "but you need to go home."
"hurumph ," one snakehead huffed ,"boys, the jig's up let's get in the water tub."
There was much groaning and complaining from the snakeheads but they calmly filed into a line and the octonauts put them into the water tub.
Kwazii nailed the mesh back onto the top of the tub .
"Now now more trying to escape," Kwazii warned ,"because this pirate is well rested and ready to deal with any sort of shenanigans you might be causing."
"Come of Kwazii stop taunting the fish," the captain said, waving him over to the gup H door, "we have to get these guys back to their natural habitat."
"Got it captain" he said Hopping into the gup H just as it took off and flew further due east
It was morning in the everglades and Ranger Marsh was itching to see Tweaks third and final fish catching technology.
"Ish ik kime yek?" he asked, his mouth full of breakfast.
"In a moment Pa," tweak chuckled ,"just got to finish my porridge."
Tweak soon emptied her bowl and then brought over her tablet and pulled up the blueprint.
"The next fishing method we will use is called spear fishing."
"Sound's violent," marsh said disapprovingly ,"we don't want to hurt the fish?"
"I've made some modifications." tweak explained, "spear fishing is one of the oldest fishing methods in the whole world. To do it you must position yourself above the water on a ledge or in a tree, and make sure you have a spear with you. Then when you see a fish you jump down from the tree and catch it with the spear. Now normally this would hurt the fish (that's an understatement) but i've invented a new method."
Tweak reached behind her and pulled out what looked like a long metal plunger.
"Ooh!" Marsh said, clapping his hands excitedly.
" the suction cup at the end should effectively latch onto any fish you jab it with. It also works with some other things."
To demonstrate, tweak walked outside and stuck her modified spear against the side of the gup K. she then jumped up onto it and balanced on the long handel, bouncin up and down to prove its strength.
"Ain't no fish swimming away from that." ranger marsh remarked smirking.
"You got that right pa," tweak said, pressing a button on the handel and unsticking the plunger/spear, " i'll use the gup K and try to scare the snakehead into the place where you are set up and then you will use my modified spear to catch the giant snakehead."
"I'm not sure about this tweak," marsh said ,"i'm not good with technology, i kept having to call you to help me fix stuff i broke on my octo-tablet."
"Don't worry pa," tweak comforted ,"it'll be fine, you helped me set out traps and electro fish, I've seen you work technology, just believe in yourself."
Tweak handed the spear to the ranger to take it tentatively and seemed to gain confidence as he got more used to feeling it in his hand.
" i know a good spot where i could stand," marsh said ," a kilometre down this river, and to the right there is a big charred tree trunk, i'll stand up there and you can try to lure it over there."
"You got it pa!"
Ranger marsh was standing atop the charred tree trunk holding the long plunger up ready to strike. He was used to waiting, there was a lot of it when doing surveys and managing the health of the everglades and this was just another to the list.
In the distance he heard the sound of approaching churning water. Moments later the Gup K burst round the corner with the giant snakehead frantically swimming in front of it, trying to get away from the gup.
Once tweak saw her father ready and waiting with the snakehead in the area, she parked the gup, gave some thumbs up and jogged off into the woods to wait.
Ranger marsh kept his eye on the fish as best he could, hoping it would come near his spot. He watched as it swam about the wide sluggish river fairly aimlessly, swimming through the dense weeds and cloudy waters drifting in and out of sight in the water.
After a long while the fish meandered over to where ranger marsh was standing. It swum lazily right below the charred tree and began to slowly swim about the reeds.
Ranger Marsh took his chance. He jumped, the wind in his ears, eyes focussed on the fish below, spear pointed towards it best he could and...
!SPLOOSH!
Ranger burst to the surface and triumphantly held up the plunger spear, which was now complete with a massive snakehead on the end of it.
"Release me!" the snakehead yelled ,"let me go! What is this thing that i'm stuck to
"Woy to go pa!" tweak congratulated running out from the everglade woods.
"All in a day's work," he said proudly ," now let's get this fish home,"
The gup H touched down in eastern China, the snakeheads still swimming about in the tub. The octonauts all got out and unclipped the water cooler from the gup H.
"Welcome home snakeheads," the captain greeted them, pulling the nails out from the top of the plastic tub using the back of a hammer ,"do you like the look of it?"
The snakeheads all poked their heads over the edge of their holding tank and began to ooh and aah at the surroundings.
"Feels like home," one snakehead exclaimed excitedly ,"come on gang let's go explore."
With that the snakehead all jumped and flopped out of the water cooler and began to wriggle towards the nearby river. Once they plunged in they began to swim about happily exploring the various nooks and crannies of the river.
"Thank you for bringing us to our natural habitat, Octonauts," thanked one of the snakeheads ,"i feel so much more at home here."
"No need to thank us," the captain said, "we're the octonauts, it's what we do."
The octonauts all bid farewell to the pesky snakeheads and waved them off as they swam off ready to continue life in their natural habitat
Suddenly, Captain Barnacles' octo-compass buzzed. He plucked it off his belt and saw then it was a message from Shellington.
"Octonauts!" he announced ,"Shellington said to meet back at the place we caught the northern snakeheads. So everyone back into the gup H.
The octonauts filed back into the helicopter and took of once again,
The Gup K skimmed over the ocean, propellers whirring loudly. Tweak has secured the giant snakehead in a giant transparent fish tank that was installed on the back of the gup.
"Let me out!" the fish yelled ,"and turn up the heat as well, it's so cold."
"Don't worry," tweak said ,"we're taking you somewhere nice and warm."
"Oh really?" the snakehead questioned ,"will i be going back to the rainforest back in my home in Java."
"You sure will," tweak answered, "pa plot a route to the island of Java."
"Omm ok, i'll try."
Ranger Marsh looked at the screen on the gup K which was already displaying a map. He clicked on the island labelled Java which was in Australasia and then clicked the button that read, "plot route."
Once he did, an orange dotted line appeared, showing the best route to the island.
"Hey they weren't too bad," he said, sitting down on the driver's seat and guiding the gup along the line.
After a long while on the ocean, the gup finally arrived at the island of Java. It trundled up one of the main rivers until it was deep into the rainforest.
"Looks like this is your stop," ranger marsh said.
Tweak popped off the lid off the fish tank and the giant snakehead immediately leapt into the water.
"Thank you," the snakehead said ,"i never thought i would be able to get home again."
"It's my duty to protect and help the everglades and its inhabitants even if they're an invasive species."
"Thanks again!" the fish said before swimming off into the rainforest.
After the two bunnys had finished waving goodbye, Tweak's octo-tablet vibrated. she picked it up and saw that it was
"Looks like we have to drive all the way back to north america," she said ,"Shellington said that we should all meet up back there."
Marsh groaned
"It'll take ages to go all the way back there."
At the moment, Marsh and Tweak heard a voice from above say ,"looks like you could need a lift."
They looked up and laughed when they saw captain barnacles piloting the Gup H that was hovering above.
"Ahoy matey," Kwazii called ,"we'll get you back over there faster than you can say bruch a punchey lump of shallots."
Shelington , Dashi and the vegimals were playing piggy in the middle. Turnip, Barrot and Grouber were currently in the middle in a vegimal stack, as to get extra height. Dash tried to throw the ball over them but Grouber used his flippers to fling Barrot up into the air where he was able to catch the ball.
The vegimals all high fived each other as they switched places with dashi.
"Hey look," Shellington said ,"it's the captain and the rest of the crew!"
Everyone turned to see the gup H, carrying the gup K, flying low over the land towards them.
"Ahoy mateys," Kwazii called, leaning out the side of the helicopter ,"I like what you've done with the place."
"Oh yes," Shellington said ,"we've restored the ecological balance in these pools.
The once barren ponds full of snakeheads and malnourished fish were now full of life, with a huge variety of plants all growing throughout the pond all still seedlings making the water look young. The water bubbled with life, fish swimming about happily, frolicing between the reeds.
The gup H landed and everyone filed out onto the river bank.
"You guys have done a fine job at cleaning up this area," Ranger Marsh complemented "there's now way i would be able to do this all on my own."
"Well if you ever need us again," the captain said ,"be sure to call, and we'll be ready."
"Well then it looks like our work here is done," tweak said ,"it's been great to work with you pa."
The two hugged and then Tweak stood back and looked at all the gups that were lined up in the river."
"Say Kwazii," she asked ,"where's the gup B"
"Ummm," Kwazii hesitated ,"well we had a bit of an incident. It's currently at the bottom of a river ont hte other side of an ocean."
"Kwazii!" tweak groaned rolling her eyes.
All the octonauts burst out laughing and the screen fades to black.
~Creature report~*
Calling all Octonauts!
Kwazii, Peso, Shelington, Dashi, Inkling ,Tweek
Tunip!
Kwazi, activate creature report!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
Facts:
Snakeheads are resilient
Check! Check! Check!
So they can live in places that they shouldn't
Check! Check! Mee!
They are able to breath air for days
Creature Report! Creature Report!
Letting them move between waterways
Creature Report! Creature Report!
They are effective predators
Check! Check! Chup!
And in many places they are damaging invaders
Dance Break!
Go Snakehead, Go Snakehead,Go Snakehead!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
We're done with our mission!
Octonauts at ease, until the next adventure!