It was late afternoon in the Atlantic and Peso was sitting in the Gup E just off the US coast.

"Right O ,looks like that was the last fish on my checkup list," Peso said, ticking off the final box on the piece of paper he had next to him ,"I think I'll head back to the Octopod and have a nice relax."

As Peso was stowing his Medical equipment back inside his medicine bag, the Gup began to plot the course back to the Octopod which spanned across the Atlantic as the Octopod was stationed by morocco.

After checking that everything was in order, fired up the engine and the gup shot away from the coast and into the wider atlantic.

Peso Hummed to himself happily as the water rushed past the window. The open atlantic was basically as empty as it gets so there wasn't much to pay attention to or look at. The journey stretched on as Peso made his way closer to Morocco but just as he was nearing the coast of Africa, the gup seemed to inexplicably slow down.

As Peso looked around in confusion, the engine began to sputter and squelch with obscene noises and the whole gup drifted to a halt.

"Oh no," Peso sighed ,"what's wrong with this gup?"

Hoping for an easy fix, Peso dropped out of the little hatch and paddled around to the back of the gup.

The Gup E is propelled by a sleek set of flippers which are generally very reliable but, today, when Peso went back to check on them something was clearly wrong.

The green mechanical flippers seemed to be gummed up by some ethereal looking blue slime. The translucent goo wobbled about in the gentle current, warping the light in strange ways.

"Yuck!" Peso exclaimed ,"what is this stuff,"

He swam over to the goo and poked it with his flipper. It had a thick snot-like consistency and seemed to immediately stick to peso's feathers. He tried to shake it off but the effort was futile and the goop was there to stay

"Ohh," peso lamented ,still trying to get the goo off his flipper, "how am I going to get back to the octopod now?"

Then, from the other side of the Gup, Peso heard some ecstatic cackling echoing through the Gup's hull.

"Woooowey! Would you look at that catch." said the strange voice as it very slowly swam around the Gup E.

The creature, as it came into view, just looked like a white haze in the blue of the ocean. Peso squinted at the thing as it drifted slowly towards him, its form clearly moving about within the mirage though it was really hard to see.

Peso kept waiting for the creature to come into view but it seemed to be drifting towards him at a snail's pace.

"Looks like i caught two in one," the shimmering creature announced ecstatically, finally drifting close enough to peso that he could see it.

Surrounded in an aura of the same goo, Peso could see a cuttlefish-like creature with a single long tentacle , extending out of its group of other tentacles. It swam through the water backwards, its body like a 40cm torpedo, its tentacles trailing behind it.

The main tentacle was longer than the whole rest of the creature's body and it had a flared tip with fin-like structures extending down its length, kind of like an eel tail but with suckers. The tentacle was pale which like the rest of the body and had chaotic grey-blue patterns all over it, like the pattern light casts when it shines through the waves

"Hello?" Peso called to the creature as it arrived, the slime surrounding it still giving the creature a strange refractive look, "who are you,"

"Glad you asked," the creature ,"I'm Sera, the Atlantic Cerapod. How are you talking when you're already covered in my deadly goo?"

"Well I only got it on my flippers," Peso explained ,"wait what? DEADLY GOO!"

Before Peso could swim away the Cerapod fired a spurt of goo at him, the pale blue substance completely engulfed the penguin.

"Haha!" Sera laughed crazily, "now my deadly goo will take effect, blocking your gills so you can't breath! There's no way you're surviving this one! Looks like i'm eating good for months."

Peso looked down at his goo-covered body and then back at the Cerapod.

"Sorry Sera, i'm a penguin and I don't breathe using gills," Peso apologised, even though it was an active murder attempt, "I'm Peso, I'm an Octonaut, now why don't we calm down and talk things through."

"Phooey!," Sera swore, "I guess I don't have to eat you when I already have this Massive fish!"

Sera turned and gestured dramatically at the Gup E with her tentacle.

"I'm gonna take a bite!" Sera said, her voice gleaming with mania.

Sera turned to face away from the gup and then using her large, central tentacle like a dolphin's tail, began to very slowly swim towards the Gup which was only like five meters away from her

"Umm, Sera," Peso began, wiping the slime off himself "that's not a fi…"

"Shhh! Don't rush me" Sera hushed, still making her way to the gup which was now around two meters away, "Cerapods like me aren't the best Swimmers, we're ambush predators you see, using the slime to capture fish that stray too close, like you and this great big fish."

Sera finally reached the gup and laid her large tentacle on it, the suckers on the flared head of the tentacle sticking to the gup

"Well that's the hardest fish i've ever felt," Sera remarked ,"but waist not, want not,"

Before Peso could stop her, Sera tried to take a bite out of the gup, her beak scraping a huge gash into the metal of the gup.

"Sera, that's not a fish!" Peso warned and waved his flippers, a bit too late as sera spat out pieces of green paint and metal before taking one last bite just to make extra sure it wasn't edible., "here have some fish biscuits instead."

Peso flipped open his medic bag and pulled out a couple fish biscuits which the Cerapod quickly caught sight of.

"OOH! Fab!" Sera said, her excitement still seemingly at a peak, "don't move. I'm on my way."

Then as Peso watched with suppressed exasperation, Sera turned and began to slowly paddle towards him at her painstaking pace of around a meter every 4 seconds.

(if they really try they can go faster than this but they don't do it very often.)

"Don't worry," the Cerapod reassured ,"I'll get there."

"Why don't you use your other tentacles to move faster," Peso suggested, as Sera continued to inch through the water.

"Sorry, no can do," Sera replied in a sing song voice, "I have to use the long one because, if i lose the others I'll lose that cloud of goo around me. That stuff isn't free to make so I have to conserve it for things like hunting. This stuff also helps me camouflage in the open ocean, as you couldn't see, so if i lose it both predators and prey would be able to see me from a mile away"

Sera finally arrived at Peso's position and Plucked the Fish biscuits from his flipper with her long tentacle. Then the cerapod pulled the food into its aura of goo, its multitude of other stubby tentacles grabbing it and stuffing it into her mouth.

"You know," Sera began, her mouth full of fish biscuit, "cerapods like me got our name from this tentacle. Cerapod means "horned limb" and this thing sometimes looked like a horn."

Peso tilted his head, looking at the tentacle from a different angle and Sera was right, it did look like a large rhino like horn, especially with the bone white colouration

"Anyway," Peso said, looking back at the Gummed up Gup E ,"I still have to get back to the octopod."

"Why? it's great out here!" Sera said ,"the ocean currents around here bring in nutrients which brings in loads of fish. They just swim right into your goo!"

"Sorry Sera, but Penguins don't do so well living in the middle of the ocean," Peso explained, "looks like i'll have to sound the Octo alert if i want to get back before night."

Peso turned towards the gup E and shot towards it's under-Hatch. The hatch Opened and Peso popped up inside the gup before promptly waddling over to the control panel, pulling up the Octo alert button on the screen and slamming his flipper down on it.

"Octonauts, to the launch bay!"

(cue octo alert sequence)

"Peso" the captain said into the launch bay screen which now proudly displayed Peso's face. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well captain, I was driving back to the Octopod when an Atlantic cerapod attacked the gup with its goo and got the engine all slimed up," Peso explained.

"Oh, an Atlantic Cerapod," Shelington piped up excitedly, "i haven't seen one of them in a long time. There's only two species left on earth."

"Very interesting Shelington," the captain replied ,"Peso, what do you want us to do?"

"Could one of you come and pick me up," Peso requested.

"Sure thing Peso," the Captain answered ,"Tweak and Kwazii, can you two go and pick Peso up in the Gup A."

"Sure thing cap," Tweak agreed, Taking a bite out of a carrot she had on hand, "we'll get over there faster than you can say bunch 'O munchy crunchy carrots."

"We're coming to get you matey," Kwazii declared, swinging his fist in a squash buckling kind of way

"Ok then," Barnacles said, looking around at the other octonauts to make sure that everyone was on the same page, "Octonauts, let's do this!"

The Octo Hatch opened and out popped the Gup A with Kwazii in the driving seat.

"Looks like Peso isn't too far off the coast," Tweak said, checking the gup finder and seeing the Gup E out in the ocean around 40 miles off Africa.

With Kwazii driving, the Gup A shot through the water, only slowing down when Kwazii wanted to try a trick or two. Within the hour the two reached Peso and Sera who were floating by the Gup E waiting for them.

"Hey Matey!" Kwazii called, Waving out of the front window as he fast approached Peso waved back.

"Hi Kwazii!" he called back as the Gup A kept rushing towards him ,"Umm, maybe you should slow down a bit?"

From the Gup Tweak looked confused at Peso who seemed to be floating alone in the water, next to some weird smudge of white in the water, which tweak just assumed was a trick of the light.

"Wait a minute," Tweak said, "didn't Peso say he was with a cerapod."

"I guess it left," Kwazii shrugged ,"anyway, watch this!"

Without slowing down at all, the Gup A shot past Peso and Sera sending a great wave through the water knocking them backwards as the Gup then turned 90 degrees and drifted to a sharp stop.

The Wave knocked Peso back in the water a little but he was quickly able to regain balance with his flippers.

"Hi matey!" Kwazii called, opening up the front of the gup and swimming out the greet peso

"Oh Kwazii," Peso said playfully, shaking his head ,"you need to be more careful, You almost hit Sera."

"Oh, sorry," Kwazii apologised, looking around ,"but I didn't see any Sera around here."

"What do you mean?" Peso asked in confusion, "she's right here…"

Peso looked next to himself where he expected Sera to be but she was not there.

"Sera?" Peso called turning around to look for the Cerapod

"Help!" Sera yelled back "I can't stop!"

Behind Peso, Sera was tumbling backwards through the water, completely out of control, her one tentacle flailing frantically in the water.

"Well I'll be a sea monkey's uncle!" Kwazii exclaimed ,flipping up his eyepatch for a better look at the strange mirage like blob ,"that's the strangest beast i've ever seen. It's like a Ghost!"

As Peso watched Sera flail in the water, he caught sight of something else. A powerful ocean current was coursing through the waver behind Sera. the torrent of water gushed endlessly, pieces of seaweed and debris flying past Peso's view faster than he could register.

"Sera, look out!" Peso called, "Ocean current!"

Sera, with her two bulbous eyes looked at the current and panicked

"Help me!" she yelled now flailing her single tentacle even more frantically as she tossed and tumbled closer and closer to the current, "I'm terrible at swimming!"

"Use your other tentacles!" Peso cried back swimming towards the helpless creature.

"I DON'T KNOW HOOOOOOOOOO00000000000oooooooow…"

Before Sera could finish that phrase, the ocean current swept up the Cerapod and rocketed her down stream.

"OH NO!" Peso said in despair, "what are we going to do now?"

"Everyone into the Gup A!" Tweak called from inside the Gup, "we're going to catch that Cerapod."

Sera was at the full mercy of the current, its twists and turns buffeting her about. As the water carried her along, the aura of goo that surrounded her saw gradually torn off, glumps of music drifting off into the churning mess of water leaving her only with a thin covering.

"Noo, my slime!" she cried, the slime cloud slowly depleting.

Meanwhile, on the outside of the current, the Gup A was racing along beside her.

"Sorry about the wave thing little matey," Kwazii called out sheepishly, "it was only a joke…"

"Saving first, forgiveness later!" Sera called back as she rotated madly in the water.

"How will we get her out?" Peso asked.

"The best way would be to tie a rope around someone's waist and dangle them in the current," Tweak proposed, struggling to keep the gup out of the current ,"but we don't have any rope."

"What if we become the rope!" Kwazii exclaimed, "Tweak can hold my tail and I can hold your feet and together we should be long enough to swipe that critter right out of the current."

"But who will steer the gup?" Peso asked as Tweak fought with the controls to keep the gup from falling into the same fate as Sera.

"I could engage the Autopilot," TWeak suggested ,"but the code is still in a prototype stage."

"Go for it matey!" Kwazii said, "we've got to save Sera."

With a deep breath, Tweak reached over and pressed down on a large purple button on the dashboard and within an instant, big white text that read "Autopilot engaged" spanned the main screen.

The peso and Kwazii both Activated their helmets as Tweak stood over the exit hatch.

"Ready mateys?" Kwazii asked.

"Ready." they both replied.

And with that, Kwazii and Peso Both dived into the ocean.

The cool water hit them like a frying pan and they immediately felt the pull of the powerful current. Just Before Peso was swept away, Kwazii grabbed his feet with his paws and then as the ocean tried to pull Kwazii away from the Gup, Tweak grabbed Hold of His tail, creating a chain of octonauts long enough to reach inside of the current.

"I've got you matey!" Kwazii shouted as water rushed past them ,"Now try and grab Sera."

using his flippers to paddling Peso swam towards the speeding water of the current and the white form of Sera that was still being thrown about within.

Back inside the gup, Tweak was straddling the hatch out of the gup, Holding Firmly onto Kwazii's tail with both her hands and anchoring the whole chain in place. While she was busy with that, the Autopilot Kept the Gup steady enough as it skirted the very edge of the current. The whole thing was a very sketchy equilibrium.

Peso swam into the heart of the current and Saw Sera up ahead.

"Sera!" He called waving his flippers about, "I'm here to Get you out."

"Peso!" she called back, "thank god, i'm ready to be off this wild ride,"

With all his might, Peso paddled forward with his flippers until he was right up Close to Sera. Then with a final push he reached out with both his flippers and grabbed her.

But To Peso's horror, the slimy Cephalopod slipped out his grip, flying out of reach as Peso's flippers closed on nothing.

"Sorry, i forgot to mention," Sera said, her tone of voice far too whimsical for hte situation she was in, "my goo is designed to be slippery so it's harder for predators to take a bite out of me, how inconvenient!"

Peso sighed in exasperation as he and the gup slowly caught back up with Sera.

Back inside the gup, Tweak was Focusing on Staying balanced over the Octo hatch as Kwazii's tal was yanked about but the twists and turns of the current.

But suddenly she heard a dreaded robotic sound from the Front of the Gup.

"Auto Pilot Failing," a Robotic voice called from the Gup, "Please resume Manual controooooOODOX3*)FJ(*OEPhddsaFAǓʨŜʈűΔΙϏϼ100001010110101011010110…"

"Oh me Oh my!" Tweak exclaimed as she felt the gup slowly drift towards the current, now driving with no driver, "Yall better hurry up down there."

Back in the current Peso was pulling up behind Sera once again. He reached out once more but still couldn't get a hold of the creature that seemed to slip through his fingers like the slime itself.

"Sera!" he called, "i'm going to need you to grab my flipper."

"I do like a challenge, but that'll be hard," Sera replied, still rotating at around 120rpm, "I'm used to hitting targets while still."

"Just try your best," Peso reassured, Extending his flipper as far as he could ,"you've got this."

Back on the gpu Tweak watched the steering stick slowly tilted to the side, glued to the spot by the obligation to not drop her friends. She tried to lean to the side to get the Gup back on course but it was no use, the Gup E was curving into a collision course with the current.

Sera tried to grab at Peso's Flipper but missed, swiping again and again but to no avail. Peso strained to keep his arm stretched out. He could feel the pull of Kwazii on his foot slacken as the Gup was gradually being sucked into the current.

Tweak could see that if she didn't act now, everyone would be stuck in the dangerous current. She steadied herself momentarily Before Releasing her right hand from Kwazii's tail, reached her pockets and pulled out a carrot.

Then, Just as the Gup was passing the point of no return, falling into the current, Tweak threw the carrot at the steering stick.

The carrot made contact with the steering stick, torquing it away from the current.

The Gup immediately swerved away from the current, almost throwing Tweak off her feet.

Peso reached one last time towards Sera as he was dragged away and with a loud clap, his flipper made contact with Sera's tentacle. He felt the suckers on the end of the limb grip tightly to his arm as both penguin and Cerapod were pulled out of the current

Now completely out of the influence of the current, Tweak dropped Kwazii's tail and rushed to the front of the gup and turned off the engines, breathing a huge sigh of relief.

"Well that's the last time i use that prototype," Tweak remarked, shutting down the corrupted application.

In the ocean Below the Gup, Kwazii, Peso and Sera were catching their breath

"Phew! That was close," Peso said, sighing with relief.

"Yea, sorry again for all that matey," Kwazii apologise, "i should have kept a better lookout while driving."

"Eh, don't sweat it," Sera replied, "you may have doomed me but you also saved me. Also, do you have any food?"

"Umm i have some fish biscuits," Kwazii said ,pulling some fish biscuits from behind his back.

He dropped them in the water and Sera immediately gobbled them up.

"Thanks," She said, "now watch this."

Sera Closed her eyes and strained, her primary tentacle clenching into a fist. Then after a few seconds, Blue goo began to ooze from her skin and quickly engulfing her once again a

in her aura of mucus

"BIG thanks Octonauts," Sera thanked, her usual tone of mania tipped joy returning,"There was no way I could've escaped that current without you."

"Well if you ever need our Help again," Peso said, "we're always around if you need us,"

Then From the Ship, Tweak called.

"Kwazii, Peso, we're going to have to get going now if we want to make it back before dark."

"Coming!" Peso called back ,"bye Sera,"

"Bye Peso," Sera waved, as he and Kwazii swam back over to the Gup A. Then as Sera watched from the water, the gup A drove off, leaving the Gup E behind in the water.

"Umm, mateys, aren't we going to bring the GupE?" Kwazii asked.

"I think i've had enough that goo for one day," Peso replied as a the gup drove off to the Octopod and the screen fades to black

~Creature report~*

Calling all Octonauts!

Kwazii, Peso, Shellington, Dashi, Inkling ,Tweek

Tunip!

Kwazi, activate creature report!

Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!

Facts:

Wobbegongs are not very large

Check! Check! Check!

So they rely on camouflage

Check! Check! Mee!

Instead of having to chase after prey

Creature Report! Creature Report!

It waits for prey to come to the place it stays

Creature Report! Creature Report!

But here's the final fact you can't resist

Check! Check! Chup!

I just made them up, and they don't really exist!

Dance Break!

Go Cerapod, Go Cerapod,Go Cerapod!

Creature report! Creature report! Creature report!

We're done with our mission!

Octonauts at ease, until the next adventure!

(Happy April fools! I hope you got a good laugh out of that. Sorry there aren't any images since i made up cerapods entirely. In the future i may do a drawing of them but i didn't have time this week.

Anyway the rest of the crab ones will be coming out shortly as i've already written them all so you can look forward to that