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Well, that had been quite the adventure. Who would have thought that an exploration mission would have resulted in getting caught in a comb jelly, and having to be chased around to the twilight zone of the ocean?
At least Peso was safe and sound, and now engulfed in a hug with Barnacles, Kwazii, Shellington and Dashi. “Thanks, guys,” Peso said gratefully.
“Of course, Peso,” Dashi smiled. “Let’s get back home. Wait till Tweak, Inkling and the Vegimals find out about this!”
“I can’t wait to add more to my notebooks!” added Shellington.
“Maybe tomorrow we can come back,” said Kwazii. “Who knows if we have to chase another sea creature all over the ocean?”
“Hopefully it will be a bit more planned out this time,” chuckled Barnacles.
All five Octonauts scrambled into the Gup A, and the polar bear took hold of the helm. As the crew waved goodbye to the comb jelly, the blue Gup rose out of the trench to the more inviting sunlight.
As the Gup started to maintain a steady pace, Barnacles pushed the communication button. “Gup A to Octopod,” he announced. “Good news. Peso is back with us and he’s fine!”
Tweak sighed in relief. “Thank goodness!” she cried. “I’ll stand by to allow the Gups in.”
The five occupants of the Gup A stared at each other. Gups? They only had the Gup A, right?
Earlier That Day…
“How exciting!” cried Shellington. “We’re going to be the first ones to explore this part of the ocean!”
“Oh, I can’t wait to get some shots!” added Dashi, hi-fiving him and giggling.
“You two are in luck,” said Barnacles. “Since this is such a huge uncharted part of the ocean, we’ll need two Gups to split up. Dashi, Shellington, you two are with me in the Gup A. Peso, Kwazii, you two are in the Gup E. We could use the underwater camera to take more pictures.”
“Aye, Captain!” Kwazii grinned. “I wonder if we’ll come across a new shark!”
“Uh… who knows?” Peso gulped. “But, I’m with you, Kwazii!”
With that, the five Octonauts scrambled aboard, and Tweak smiled as she pulled the lever. “Good luck!”
Present
“Oh, jumping jellyfish!” exclaimed Shellington. “We had the Gup E with us, didn’t we?!”
“Hold up, hold up!” cried Tweak. “No one is piloting the Gup E?! Why don’t you have it?!”
“Er… we left it behind after we realised Peso was caught in the comb jelly,” Barnacles said sheepishly. “Sorry, Tweak...”
“Captain, you were the one who said we needed ‘more gups’ to track Peso down’,” Kwazii huffed.
“Well, you were piloting the Gup E to begin with, Kwazii,” Shellington pointed out. “You could have gone to get it, and we could have avoided that problem to start with!”
“Boys!” Dashi cut in. “It’s okay, we can just get it and drive it back to the Octopod. The main is, we got Peso back.”
“Dashi’s right, guys,” soothed Peso. “This is an easy fix. No one’s hurt, the Gups are in one piece, and we can have lunch back home!”
Tweak, Shellington and Kwazii all took a deep breath to collect themselves, and Peso petted Barnacles on the shoulder in comfort. No harm, no foul. “Dashi, Peso, you are both right,” Tweak said calmly, “I’ll see you all when you get home. Tweak out.”
The radio disconnected and Barnacles sighed. “That’ll be a lesson to all of us. Double check how many Gups we have while out and about!”
* * *
Thankfully, there wasn’t much trouble with locating the Gup E and driving both it and the Gup A back to the Octopod. And they could take a well deserved rest and some well earned kelp cakes.