"Whah, what's going on?" Kwazii questioned, only half awake ,"this isn't my bedroom."
"Octonauts, we have a problem," Shellington said authoritatively ,"we have a flock of migrating birds approaching fast. These birds love to eat horseshoe crab eggs as food for their long migratory flight. We have to stop them. Everybody, let's Go!"
Awkward silence.
"I think what Shelington means is," the captain inverveined ,"Octonauts, Let's do this."
Tweak immediately bolted for the shoreline. She leapt into the Gup D and powered it up. She switched the gup into land move and walked it onto the beach.
The rest of the octonauts scrambled about fro anything that they could use to scare away the birds. As the seabirds finally arrived at the beach the octonauts were ready. As they descended through the air towards the beach the octonauts attempted to scare them away.
Tweak waved the arms of the gup D around manically, scaring the birds away from a large portion of the beach. The captain was waving his arms about trying to look menacing and scaring all the birds away from his area. The birds didn't even seem to go near Kwazii, who was showing off his swordsmanship using a piece of driftwood.
The birds having been shooed away from the beach all perched on the tufty grasses just beyond the sand.
The octonauts all stopped moving and looked at all the birds.
"Well it looks like that's sorted," Kwazzi said with an air of finality.
He began to waltz back to the chairs they had set up, content that his job was done. Suddenly there was a frantic flutter of feathers behind him. Kwazii leapt back into position, scaring away the seabirds that had tried to encroach on the eggs.
"Looks like we'll have to stay here a while," Tweak remarked ,"or these birds are gonna have horseshoe crab eggs for lunch."
"Do you think these birds will ever leave?" dashi asked.
"They'll have to move on soon." Shellington answered, "they have a migration to finish."
"I don't think these birds are gonna be doing any migrating Shellington," Peso said ,"they look so thin, and hungry,"
Sure enough the birds all looked very weak and hungry, eyeing up the food with big tired eyes.
(I will not be giving these birds voices as seabirds are not generally given voices. Like in The Baby Sea Turtles where the seagulls simply make regular seagull sounds)
"Well let's give them some fish biscuits and send them on their way." Kwazii said pulling some biscuits out his pocket
"I don't think that'll work," Shelignton said ," when birds migrate their anatomy changes a lot. One of the things that happens is their stomachs shrink to make way for wing muscle and fat stores. That's why these birds stop at these beaches each year to feed on the horseshoe crab eggs, because it is one of the few things they are able to digest"
"I'm sure the vegimals would be able to make something with the same consistency and nutritional value as these eggs," dashi said.
"Great idea Dashi!" Kwazii complimented ,"I'll go and tell them."
Kwazii began to jog towards the Gup B before remembering the birds and scrambling back into opposition, scaring the birds away from the eggs.
"Don't worry everyone," the captain said ,"I'll just call them on my Octo-compass."
The captain reached down and tried to grab the Octo - Compass, but it didn't seem to be there.
"What? Where's the Octo-Compass."
"Um about that," dashi said ," i think i left it by our camp."
The octonauts all looked over and sure enough the octo-compus was on the table by all the chairs.
"Tweak are you able to call the Octopod through the Gup D?"
"I'll try cap."
Tweak connected to the octopod's screens and immediately fizzled up onto the screens.
She was shown a view of the HQ and saw the chaos that lay before her. The vegimals had a rave going on in HQ, with a makeshift foil disco ball hanging from the ceiling with coloured lights and loud music bouncing all around the room.
A table for snacks had been set out which Grouber was in the process of demolishing. Barrot was standing on the control panel singing back karaoke of the creature report song. Turnip was absolutely feeling the beat dancing and squealing for joy.
"Umm Vegimals?" tweak asked but not one vegimal heard her, "hello?"
As Grouber was eating he accidentally slipped on some seaweed sauce sending a bowl full of coral crunches flying through the air and straight into the screen, lodging itself firmly in the now shattered glass.
All the vegimals stopped dancing. They stared fearfully at the broken screen.
"Uh oh," Grouber said.
"Oh Cheepa!" turnip said dismissively ,"ISA FUNTIME!"
With that the vegimals continued partying as if nothing happened.
"Errrm, comms are down cap," Tweak explained ,"there is.. Umm... there are radio ghosts!"
"Radio ghosts?" Kwazzi asked ,"What are you on about?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"So are we just going to have to stay here until the birds leave." dashi said
"And if they do leave, they'll all starve," peso said solemnly.
"Don't worry everybody," the captain assured ,"we'll think of something."
The octonauts all stood there waiting. They were in a lose lose situation. Let the horseshoe crab eggs get eaten and the birds fly on and complete their migration safely, or save the eggs and the birds won't make it through the rest of their migration.
"Are you guys need some help," said a voice behind them
All the octonauts turned around and saw Hannah, the horseshoe crab still present.
"Well I'll be a sea monkey's uncle," Kwazii exclaimed ,"you came back."
"Well actually i never left," she said ,"but anyway, would you like some help getting out of this little pickle."
"Yes please," the captain said ," Tweak, try and guide Hannah to deliver a message to the Octopod."
"Ok then," Tweak replied, "so Hannah, I need you to go over to the orange gup that looks like a shark."
"The one that Kwazii was in?"
"Yes, that's the one," Tweak affirmed, "once you're in there press the big green button that says, Return home."
The Horseshoe crab crawled into the ocean and saw the Gup on the seabed where Kwazii had left in. she crawled across the seabed and then swam into the gup. She landed on the control panel and looked around at all the buttons on it.
She soon caught sight of the green button with "Return home" written on it. The crab turned away fromming and used her long tail (telson) to press down on the button.
Suddenly the gup jumped to life. It lifted off the seabed and shot off into the ocean. Hannah was flung off the controls and onto the chair as the gup drove towards the Octopod.
"There she goes," Kwazii said watching the gup B dart off ,"I hope this works.
In the Octopod the Vegimals were still having the time of their lives. Grouber had eaten all the snacks so he just bought bags of the raw ingredients out, he was currently demolishing a bag of flour with no second thoughts.
Suddenly a loud *BANG* reverberated through the Octopod.
"Cheepa?" Turnip questioned looking around
BANG*
Turnip went over to the controls and saw an alert going off that something was trying to get in the Octo Hatch.
Turnip jumped down Octo Chute and landed in the launch bay as the banging continued. He pressed some buttons on the control panel down there and pulled up some live camera feed from just outside the Octo-hatch.
The Gup B seemed to be Repeatedly ramming its nose into the closed door.
"Cheepa?" Turnip Questioned pulling the lever to open the octo-hatch
As soon as he did, the Gup bobbed up to the surface and the top opened. By this time, the rest of the vegimals had begun to file down to the launch bay and saw the Gup B.
From inside the Gup clambered some weird black insect thing that crawled out of the cockpit and fell into the water. It swam towards the vegimals on its beck, causing all the vegimals to back away because it looked kind of creepy.
"Don't worry i;m not gonna hurt you," said Hannah, now swimming in circles franticly to stay at the surface, "could you help me out of the water."
Turnip gingerly stepped forward and picked the Horseshoe crab up by the tail
"Ow, OW ,OW, not the tail!" Hannah yelped and Tunip quickly put her down.
"Sorry," turnip Apologise.
"Don't worry about it," Hannah replied ,"we've got work to do. Your friends, the octonauts sent me to tell you that they need your help,"
A Murmur of confusion went through the crowd of vegimals
"There is a flock of hungry birds that want to eat all my and my friends' eggs and the octonauts need you to make loads of food to feed them instead.
"FIsh biscuits Cheepa?" Grouber asked
"No we have to make something that mimics the eggs," Hannah replied ,"they have to look the same, feel the same and have the same nutrients. You think you can pull that off?"
Turnip thought for a moment.
"Cheepa Cheepa!" he said definitively, "Vegimals, Letsa Do this!"
Codish was cleaning and inspecting the outside of the Gup B when he noticed a tiny green orb that was stuck in the seem between the top half on the gup.
"Chiapa Chiapa!" he yelled, jumping up and down and waving the other vegimals over.
(I am terribly sorry to say that in the Snakehead invasion chapter 3, I put it that Barrot said "Chiapa '' when it is actually Coddish that has this specific accent. I know this was a huge blunder that i have now fixed and i hope in time that you can forgive me)
Using his flippers he gently picked up a green ball and held it up for all to see.
"Egga?" Tomminnow asked.
"Cheepa!" Coddish answered happily!
The vegimals all paraded into shellington's lab all sinning the vegimal song
(you know the one. The one that goes "Brinky ding Ghidorah Brinky ding Ghidorah")
They placed the egg gently in a machine that looked a bit like a water bottle refiller, with a raised pedestal in the middle where the egg was put. Turnip pressed a big red button on the side of it with the word "Analyze" written on it.
After a few seconds of loud wiring a small wight light flashed on and suddenly, red lasers began to shine on the egg from all angles. The lasers swivelled about scanning the egg before quickly turning off again. After that a large screen lit up on the front of the scanner full of text and pie charts about what the egg contained and was made of
"Yousa, need to make dis," Turnip said pointing to the list of data and the egg.
All the vegimals nodded like they were students in a class.
In the kitchen now, the Vegimals were mixing ingredients, seemingly at random. Bottle's of Shellington's chemicals, ingredients from the cupboards, veg from the garden, nothing was safe.
Whilst they worked the vegimals chanted their song which was slightly diminished by the din of all the clattering kitchen ware as the vegimals tried to concoct the perfect Horseshoe crab egg substitute.
Grouber didn't really seem to be trying very hard. To be honest it looked like he was making fish biscuits instead of eggs.
Tominnow was looking back and forth from a chicken egg to the Horseshoe crab egg, trying to figure out why they were different. They were both eggs right? Shouldn't they be the same?
Barrot seemed to be making decent progress. He had sculpted some green balls and rushed down to the Lab to test them on the scanner. He placed the green ball he had made on the little pedestal and pressing scan
The lasers shone about and did their thing and the results popped up.
It was only 50% metabolic match in terms of nutrition and a 13% for texture
Tomminnow sighed and took his little green ball back upstairs.
Meanwhile, Codish was was mixing up a huge batch of green sludge that smelt of vinegar and yeast. He leaned over the bowl and took a deep sniff of it, expecting some culinary masterpiece. Instead he fell backwards and fainted
Tunip was standing on the counter, supervising the other vegimals and nodding at their hard work.
"Gooda, jaba." he announced ,"we will be dona, in noa tima!"
Meanwhile on the beach the octonauts were beginning to grow tired.
"How long is it taking those vegimals," Kwazii asked wearily, "a pirate without a full night's rest is only half a pirate."
"Be patient, Kwazii," the Captain said ,"I'm sure they'll manage it."
As the octonauts were talking the seabirds began to hop forwards and try to nab some of the horseshoe crab eggs.
"Ah, shoo shoo," Peso shouted, stepping forward waving his flippers at the birds which all flapped away, "I hope the vegimals get here soon, those birds look really hungry."
The kitchen was a tip. The floor was covered in splotches of green substances from the vegimal's failed attempts at making the eggs. Most of them were lying on the floor, staring into space but some were still mixing listlessly.
Barrot had just finished his batch and picked up one of his creations. It was a tiny wet ball about half the size of a pinhead. It was a bright blue and slightly squishy. The vegimal gently held the orb and stumbled down to Shlington's lab, placing the ball on the scanner.
He pressed the button and watched as the machine scanned the ball. As the lasers shone and swivelled, the other vegimals filed into the room slowly forming the crowd. Soon the lasers shut off and the results popped up on the screen on the side of the machine
95% metabolic match 93% texture match
"Cheepa cheepa!" the vegimals all cheered
The vegimals all dashed up to the kitchen, newly invigorated by the discovery. Barrot lead the way and directed the vegimals to what they should do.
He sent Pikato and Tomminow to the storage cupboard to grab more of a specific chemical. Turnip and Codish both swept up all the mess in the kitchen and set up mixing bowls
Grouber was sent to harvest some plants from the garden pod with specific instructions not to eat the produce.
Once all the vegimals were done with that, they all crowded around Barrot who demonstrated how to make the vegetarian horseshoe crab eggs. He furiously mixed the ingredients using a spatula and then scooped the mixture into a piping bag. He then got a pot of boiling water and dropped them in, the droplets forming into the tiny horseshoe crab eggs
"Tada!" Barrot exclaimed , fishing the balls out the water using a sieve and holding them high up for all to see.
All the vegimals applauded and got to work making a Bulk Batch.
The birds were beginning to get braver.
They hopped closer to the eggs and were harder to scare away.
"We can't stay here for much longer captain," Shelington said ,"these birds will soon realise that we aren't a threat and will stop being scared of us."
Tweak pulled up the Octo-map on the Gup D's screen and smiled at what she saw.
"Help's on the way," she announced ,"it should be here any moment now."
"I don't think they'll be here soon enough," Kwazii yelled ,"LOOK!"
Kwazii pointed to the ocean where another flock of seabirds were flying in, eyeing up the egg-filled beach.
"Flappity flippers!" Peso said, quivering.
"Get ready everyone," Captain Barnacles commanded "prepare to defend"
The second flock of birds descended down onto the beach. The Octonauts waved their hands and shooed them off, keeping them at bay in the sky. But while they were doing that the flock of birds that was already there began to creep forwards towards the eggs.
Dashi tried to turn to scare off the birds that were walking down the beach towards the eggs but the other birds tired to swoop in from the air, forcing her to shoo them off again
"There's too many of them, captain," Dashi said "what do we do?"
"Don't worry!" he said ," it looks like help is here."
At that moment the Gup X burst through the top of the water to the epic Gup X music (you know the one). On the top of the gup was a huge pile of the blue, imitation Horseshoe crab eggs, tied down by string.
"Hello everyone!" Hannah yelled, sitting on top of the pile, "I like this gup, it's like Me but bigger!"
The seabirds all turned their heads and daw the huge pile of easy food, just sitting there on top of the Gup which was stationary in the shallow water. The seabirds all squawked loudly and flew over to the Gup X landing By the pile and eating their fill.
"Good work vegimals," the Captain congratulated, "and good work Hannah, you managed to save all these eggs."
"Oh shush," she dismissed ,"it was a team effort, without you and the vegimals the birds would have eaten my eggs."
"Wait, everybody got on top of the Gup X," Dashi said, " we need a group photo."
The octonauts and the vegimals all scrambled to the top of the Gup X and shuffled about until everyone was visible.
"Say seaweed,"
"SEAWEED!"
Dashi snapped the picture and everyone burst out laughing as the triumphant closing music played and the screen faded 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:
Horseshoe crabs have a tough shell
Check! Check! Check!
The ocean floor is where they dwell
Check! Check! Mee!
On summer nights they come up to spawn
Creature Report! Creature Report!
But they always leave at dawn
Creature Report! Creature Report!
They can also swim on their backs
Check! Check! Chup!
And migrating seabirds, eat their eggs as snacks
Dance Break!
Go Horseshoe crab, Go Horseshoe crab, Go Horseshoe crab!
Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!
We're done with our mission!
Octonauts at ease, until the next adventure!
(Horseshoe crabs are one of my favourite creatures and I loved researching them. I'd like to credit NOA and their Webinar for providing me with almost all of the info used here.
I'd also like to promote the Just Flip 'Em movement. Basically if you see a Horseshoe crab that's upside down on the beach. Grab it's shell and flip it over
Well that's it from me, i'm gonna go and research Penguin illnesses. Bye!)