The octonauts all waited expectantly in the launch bay, anticipating the arrival of their guest. Soon the Octo hatch opened and in drove Tweak with another passenger in the back of the gup-C.
Once the gup surfaced, Tweak opened the back door and Pinto excitedly leaped out, parkoured off the small fin on the side of the gup and landed on the side of the pool.
"Peso!" He cried, running up and giving a big hug to his older brother.
"Kwazii!" he yelled, jumping up to hug his pirate friend.
"Welcome back pinto!" Peso said.
"I think you'll find the Octopod ship shape ready for your stay," Kwazii replied.
"I Can't wait to look around and see what's new!" Pinto squealed ,"I love sliding through the Octo-chutes."
Pinto ran across the room and jumped into the octo-chute before being sucked up and shooting up the tube.
"Woooo!" he shouted as he went.
"I'm right behind you matey!" Kwazi yelled, launching himself up the tube after the penguin.
Kwazi and Pinto stood in racing stances at the end of the hall.
"Alright!" Pinto announced ,"I've used snot sea cucumber mucus which I found in Shelington's cupboards to slick the floor so we can do some ice sliding!"
"I'll race you to the other end of the hall!" Kwazii challenged.
"Oh you're so going down Kwazii!" Pinto exclaimed ,"I've been practicing. 3, 2 ,1 GO!"
The two daredevils both launched themselves forward, sliding along the goop. Just as the two were about to reach the end of the hallway, Captain Barnacles came round the corner holding a huge stack of boxes.
!CRASH!*
They all landed in a large heap with the contents of the boxes being spilled everywhere.
"You know," the captain suggested ,"Maybe you two should play outside."
" Aye aye captain," Kwazii replied shakily, his pupils rolling about his eye sockets.
The Octo-hatch opened and Kwazi drove out of it in the Gup-C.
"Too bad the Gup-B can only fit one person." Kwazii said ,"I could have shown you the ropes. Luckily the Octopod is in the Philippines so we can find ourselves an island to play on."
Kwazii drove about until he found an island that seemed suitably empty with a couple coconut trees on it.
"This looks like a good spot matey!" Kwazii announced opening the hatch on the roof and somersaulting up onto it, "well, what should we do?"
"Can I show you something I've been working on for ages!" Pinto asked ,"It's really cool."
"Let's see it Matey!" Kwazii said, intrigued.
Pinto ran into the back of the ship and grabbed a cardboard box with lots of interesting stones tied on the sides of it using seaweed fibres,making the box look like some ritualistic item.
"It's a time machine," Pinto said, "we can travel back in time with it."
Kwazii ,happy to play along, helped Pinto carry the box on the island and placed it on the sand.
"So how does it work matey?" Kwazii asked, inspecting Pinto's odd creation.
"You have to get in it," Pinto said ,"and then you press the big red button and then you will be in the past!"
The big red button seemed to be a brick coloured pebble that was tied to the box with some text scrawled next to it that read "time macheen start button" .Pinto hopped into the box and gestured for Kwazii to follow him. The pirate followed suit and pinto shut the lid of the box and poked the red button.
As the two were sitting in the blackness of the box a particularly large wave washed up the beach and picked up the box. It washed it out to sea causing water to seep into the box.
"Gah!" Pinto yelled bursting out the top of the box, "Wooo! We time travelled!"
Kwazi poked his head out and noticed the completely different landscape.
"Where the are we?" Kwazi questioned, having lost all sense of direction.
"The real question iswhenare we!" Pinto said excitedly, " I guess the scenery was different in the past. now let's go find some prehistoric creatures!"
The duo jumped out the box and began to tread water in the ocean. Kwazii placed the "time machine" on the top of a little inflatable raft that he had in his pocket so it wouldn't get soggy.
"Not sure if we should be staying out here for long matey," KWazi said ,"you don't have any swimming gear."
Pinto reached up and pressed a button on his collar, causing one of the Octonauts bubble helmets to appear over his head. Kwazi also noticed an oxygen tank strapped to his back.
"I packed my own!" Pinto exclaimed, "now let's go!"
The two dived into the ocean and began to explore around. They saw many fish but none that looked prehistoric. Kwazii knew it was all make believe but it was still enjoyable to look at all the different fish.
"Do you know what the prehistoric creatures will look like?" Kwazii asked ,"There's fish everywhere but there's always been fish everywhere so what are we looking for?"
"I brought my pocket guide." Pinto said, pulling a small book out his pocket.
He opened it up and showed Kwzii some pages with pictures of plesiosaurs and orthocones, each with a short paragraph of info next to it. Pinto and his friend continued through the ocean, checking creatures against Pinto's guide.
After searching for a while, Pint saw something strange in the distance. It looked like a floating sea snail.
"Look over there!" Pinto yelled ,pointing at the creature, "that's an interesting creature!"
The duo swam over the the creature and on closer inspection it seemed to be a strange squid thing with a spiral shell on it's back.
(since i can't put any images in i found some aski art)
(better than nothing i guess)⠀⠀⠀
Kwazii and Pinto snuck up behind the creature and Pinto flipped through the book trying to find something that matched it.
"Look," Pinto whispered ,"that's an ammonite."
Kwazii looked down at the page and saw that the creature roughly matched the image of the ammonite.
(just look it up if you want)
"I guess there are still some around," Kwazii said, forgetting that he was trying to play along in Pinto's game.
"No," Pinto disagreed, "look."
Kwazii took a look at the page and saw that underneath the picture was written "Extinction: 66mya"
"No way," Kwazii said to himself "did we actually time travel?"
"Excuse me," Pinto said ,"wh-
"GAAAH!" the creature screamed and retreated back into its shell, a strange hood thing on its head completely concealing the creature.
"It's ok," Pinto said," we're time travellers, who are you?"
"I'm Nelly," the creature replied.
"Just checking," Kwazii asked the creature ,"but are you from the past, like you only exist millions of years ago."
"Um no," the creature replied, "I exist now."
"I mean do you exist in the past for us," Kwazii explained as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
"Well, when are you from?"
"The future."
"Well I guess I am from the past then,"the creature said ,"if you're from the future."
"Well shiver me whiskers," Kwazii exclaimed, genuinely convinced ,"that time machine actually works!"
Pinto circled the mystery creature and looked at its features. It had tiny little tentacles which seemed too small to give any kind of propulsion. It seemed about as mobile as a football.
"How do you move around?" Pinto asked, "your tentacles look too small to move you around."
"I don't use my tentacles to move around," the creature said ,"they're just for grabbing things, they have a special glue on them so I can pick stuff up. I move about by shooting water out of a special organ called a siphon and that lets me swim about."
"Wow! ," pint exclaimed, "I bet Shellington would love to study you."
"That's a great idea!" Kwazii exclaimed, "we have to show this to the rest of the crew."
"Oh! Oh!" Pinto said excitedly ,"Can I sound the Octo-alert."
"Sure thing matey."
Kwazii reached into his boot and pulled out a Prototype Octo compass that he had persuaded Tweak to give him. He held it out to Pinto who promptly slapped his flipper against the big orange button in the middle of it.
"Octonauts, to the launch bay!"
(cue Octo alert sequence)
"Who sounded the Octo-alert?" the Captain asked. Looking around.
"I did!" yelled a crackly voice from the speakers. Dashi turned on the big launch bay screen which showed Pinto's face, viewed from a camera with awful quality (like 144p).
"Pinto!" Peso yelled ,"I told you not to play with our equipment!"
"He isn't matey," Kwazii said, poking his head into frame ,"we went back in time and found this really cool prehistoric creature and we thought that you guys might want to check it out."
"Prehistoric creature?" Inkling questioned ,"is it a fossil?"
"No," Kwazii said ,"Pinto made a time machine and we found real living ammonite. Get Tweak to invent one and come and find us."
"are you sure you traveled back in time kwazii?" the Captain asked
"as sure as the sea is blue cap'n," Kwazii crackled, "come quickly, i'm sure shelington would love to see this.
The Kwazii's pixelated image disappeared off the screen and the crew stood around in confusion.
"Cheepa?" Turnip chirped, very confused.
"I agree Tunip," Shelington said ,"what was that?"
"On the ride here Pinto did mention that he had been working on a time machine but i didn't expect it to actualy work."
"Hmmm," Barnacles thought ,"Dashi, can you find Pinto and Kwazii's location."
"Aye Aye captain!"
Dashi pulled up a map of the area and off in the philippine area were the two markers of Kwazii and Pinto.
"Found them captain," Dashi said ,"looks like they didn't go back n time after all."
"Shelington!" Captain Barnacles ordered ,"go out in the Gup-A and see what those two are up to. Everyone else, resume business as usual."
Shelington approached Kwazii and Pinto who seemed to be floating in the water with an odd looking sea creature. Shelington parked the gup and swam out to greet the time travellers.
"I see you were able to figure out how to time travel," Kwazii said ,"how was it?"
"You didn't actually time travel Kwazii, i just drove here,"
"But what about this prehistoric creature," he said gesturing to the spiral shelled animal next to him "is called am anommite"
"First of all," Shelington said ,"it's pronounced Ammonite. Second of all you haven't gone back in time at all. That there's a Nautilus."
"But look," Kwazii yelled, holding up Pinto's prehistoric creatures pocket guide, it matches the Amonamimanonite!"
"The ammonite is an extinct relative of the nautilus." Shelington Explained ,"it's an easy mistake to make."
"Oh," Kwazii said defeatedly ,"I knew that, I was just playing along for the little matey you know."
"Despite all that, I have been meaning to get a closer look at Nautilus anatomy so this is actualy realy usefull."
Shelington turned and addressed the nautilus.
"You don't mind if I examine you quickly do you?" Shellington asked
"Oh, of course not," Nelly said, "just don't keep me too long, us nautiluses don't do well in captivity."
The small group swam back to the gup-A and clambered up through the hatch at the base of the gup. Kwazii and Shellington walked to the back of the gup and placed the Nautilus in a fish bowl which they found back there.
"Pinto, do you know how to drive?" Shlington asked.
"Umm, maybe." Pinto replied.
"Ok good, drive us back to the Octopod would you, I need to get some equipment.
Pinto uncertainty stepped into the front of the ship and sat down in the driver's seat.
Meanwhile in the back, Shelignton was examining the shell of the nautilus.
"So what is so special about this nautilus," Kwazii said ,"no offence to you nelly, but it does look fairly primitive. Like a prototype squid."
"Well that's because the nautilus is an incredibly ancient creature, older than trees even. Using their specialised shells, they were one of the first creatures ever to be able to swim freely through the water."
"But how does a shell help something move through the water?" Kwazii asked ,"it's not like it does anything except sit there."
"The sell functions as a buoyancy regulator," Shelignton explained, pulling a diagram of a nautilus from his little bag that he keeps around his waist
"The body of the nautilus only takes up the front most portion of the shell. The rest of it is filled with chambers that contain both air and water. When the nautilus wants to rise through the sea, it takes some of the water out of their chambers using salt in their blood, making them less dense. This makes them float higher in the water. But if they want to sink they fill their shell with more water, increasing their density and making them sink.
The reason they are so interesting to study it just how unique they are. No other living animal uses a method like this to move about. They have unique eyes, unique tentacles and unique defence mechanisms that have all persisted for milenia!"
"So if i actually went back in time, i'd still find nautiluses,"
"Yup,"
Meanwhile, in the front of the gup, Pinto was driving the gup forward. He was able to start the gup and begin to drive but he couldn't figure out how to work the map. Therefore, to figure out which way to go, he employed a special navigation technique used by hte best penguin swimmers.
"Eeny meeny miny min, Catch an orca by the fin. Let go when orca starts to sing. Eeny meeny miny min."
Pinto used this advanced method to pick a direction and set off driving. However Pinto soon got bored of just driving in a straight line and took the gup for a proper spin.
He dived downwards and pulled up when he was about to hit the seabed. Kwazii and Shelington slid about in the back of the gup, both of them trying to prevent Nelly's bowl from sliding off the table.
Pinto, exhilarated by his previous stunt, divided again but before he could pull up he heard a loud
KLUNK!
The gup bounced off the sea bed, jolting the entire gup. The jolt also sent Kwazii and Shellington flying in the back of the gup. The fish bowl also went flying through the air, only being saved by IKawzii's desperate dive.
When the gup hit the floor, pinto was thrown into the air. When he landed, his flipper accidentally pressed the Gup's power button.
Suddenly the lights of the gup shup off, plunging it into the twilight of the ocean. Then, the windshield, bottom hatch and back window of the gup all opened letting in a rush of water. The entire gup was filled with water in an instant.
Kwazii and Shellington both donned their helmets and took a deep breath.
"Pinto! What happened!" Kwazii yelled at Pinto, who had also activated his helmet.
"I was just trying to have fun ," he replied innocently.
The gup, now dead in the water, rolled along the sea floor until it reached a steep decline. It then began to roll down the steep decline, deeper and deeper into the ocean. Everything in the octopod was shaken about, disorienting the crew. In the chaos, Shelington got his foot wedged behind one of the chairs trapping him.
Kwazii swam to the control panel, the gup rotating around him and turned the power back on. The map flickered into view and showed the position of the gup to be very far away from the Octopod.
"Jumping jellyfish!" Shelington exclaimed, still stuck under the chair "we're falling down the Philippine trench, how did we get over here?!"
"No one showed me how the map worked ," Pinto said ,"I didn't know where to go."
"Just ask next time matey!" Kwazi yelled, getting into the driver's seat and starting the engine, "we don't want to end up in this situation again."
Kwazii yanked on the gup's joystick and tried to drive the gup-A up and out of the trench but the gup didn't seem to want to move.
"Something's wrong with the gup!" Kwazii yelled, "it won't move."
Meanwhile Pinto frantically swam over to Shellington and tried to yank him free from under the chair but it was no use, he was very much wedged
Meanwhile in the back, Nelly had a splitting headache.
"I don't feel too good," she groaned.
"Uh no!" Shlington exclaimed, "Nautiluses can't survive in deep waters. If they go too deep their shells will implode from the pressure, we need to get this gup to the surface and fast and we can't just get out because i'm stuck"
Pinto pondered the situation for a second before getting an idea.
"Shelington," Pinto said ,"didn't you say that nautiluses can move up and down in the water by changing the amount of air in their shells?"
"Yes I did," Shelington confirmed ,"but what has that got to do with anything."
"What if" Pinto suggested ,"the gup can't go up because all the water inside is making it too dense, causing it to sink faster than the engine can move it up. So what if we fill this place with air from our tanks so we can decrease our density and rise through the water like a nautilus!"
"Well i'll be a sea monkey's uncle," Kwazii said ,"that might work,"
"Kwazii!" Pinto commanded ,"close every opening except the floor hatch and keep the gup upright!"
"Aye aye captain." Kwazii replied.
The pirate pushed the engine to its limits, just managing to steer the gup away from the ledge it was rolling down and into the main body of the water where he could keep it stable.
"I've got it little matey!" he yelled ,"now work quickly!"
Pinto took one of the spare air tanks off the wall and opened the valve to let the air out. The air from the diving tank slowly began to fill the interior of the gup. As more air was released into the gup the water was forced out the bottom.
Shelington scooped up some water in the fish bowl that had rolled over to him and placed Nelly the Nautilus in it just as the last of the water drained out the bottom.
"Remember Pinto," Shellington warned ,"do not take your helmet off. Those tanks were full of pure oxygen which is poisonous."
"Ok," Pinto agreed, "now bring her up Kwazii!"
Kwazii shut the bottom hatch of the gup and then tried again to drive the gup and this time it worked. The gup shot up through the water and arrived back at the surface in no time.
Kwazii opened all the windows and let in the fresh air, as opposed to the hyper oxygenated kind.
"Phew!" Pinto said ,"that was a close one."
"Maybe next time I should drive." Shelington said, "at least i can work the map. And, um.. Can someone help me out from under this chair now?"
Kwazii pressed the eject button on the control panel which opened hatches in the roof and launched all the chairs up and out, freeing the otter.
"Thank you," he said ," i think we've caused enough problems for our nautilus friend for today so what do you say that we drop you off by the closest reef."
"That sounds great!" she answered ,"just don't drop me down another chasm and i'll be fine!"
"We'll try not to do that again!" Kwaziii replied.
Kwazii drove the nautilus back to the spot she was found and dropped her off.
"Goodbye octonauts!" Nelly yelled, waving goodbye with one of her tentacles.
"Bye" the octonauts shouted back, with some extra enthusiastic waves from Pinto.
After the nautilus sunk out of sight Pinto walked up to Kwazii and asked "can i drive back. Pleeeaaaase? I promise i won't crash agian."
"I don't think so matey," Kwazii replied ,"tweak will be angry enough with all the scratches."
"And also you with losing the Gup-C," Pinto pointed out ,"you don't remember what island you left it on do you?"
Kwazii paused for a second and sighed.
"I probably have a week to find it before someone notices," Kwazii reasoned dejectedly.
With that Kwazii drove off towards the distant octopod and out of sight.
~Creature report~*
Calling all Octonauts!
Kwazii, Peso, Shelington, Dashi, Inkling ,Tweek
Tunip!
Kwazi, activate creature report!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
Facts:
Nautiluses are ancient creatures
Check! Check! Check!
Which have many interesting features
Check! Check! Mee!
They control their buoyancy
Creature Report! Creature Report!
Allowing them to float freely
Creature Report! Creature Report!
Their tentacles have glue instead of suction
Check! Check! Chup!
And they don't use them to move but instead use jet propulsion
Dance Break!
Go Nautilus, Go Nautilus ,Go Nautilus!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
We're done with our mission!
Octonauts at ease, until the next adventure!