There was no time to react.
The whale’s giant mouth sucked all the water with so much force that the pirate ship’s engines were useless. It spun around and disappeared into the darkness without a sound.
TorrentBoy braced against the edges of his bubble, looking for some way to escape.
“Rezzit!” he called. “Give it everything you’ve got!”
“Giving!” Rezzit yelled, and both bubbles powered up, turning a bright orange, and started hurtling through the water, away from the whale.
For a moment, it looked like they were going to make it. The sea was calmer suddenly… but then the school of fish started chasing them, excited by the orange glow, and before they knew what was happening, the whale was upon them again!
“Faster!” TorrentBoy yelled.
“This IS faster!” Rezzit yelled back.
David’s bubble was falling behind, caught in the wake of the fish, and soon it was clear he was going to be swallowed too!
“David!” TorrentBoy screamed.
Just then, something shot in from above, moving so fast it was just a blur of light and bubbles. David was knocked to safety just in time!
The blurry stranger came to a stop behind the massive whale.
“Hewwo fishy,” said Crash, powering up his blaster again. “Wanna pway sushi?”
The whale just kept charging forward, munching fish as it went.
“Rezzit, any ideas?” TorrentBoy asked.
“A giant bottle of soy sauce?”
“Something more useful!”
“When did I start being useful?”
“Aghhh!” TorrentBoy grumbled, just before his bubble lurched backwards, and was sucked down into the mouth of the beast!
“Great. Now I feel guilty,” Rezzit sighed.
“TorrentBoy!” yelled David, racing into the whale’s mouth too. Crash was left all alone outside, with an unhappy look on his face.
“I don’t wike fishies,” he grumbled. “Dey smell gwoss and dey’re vewy sticky too.”
“I completely agree with… whatever it is you just said,” said Rezzit.
“But I guess I should save TowwentBoy anyway.”
“I guess.”
“All wight den. Wet’s see what dis fishy ate for bweakfast!”
Crash shot himself straight into the whale’s mouth without another thought.
Inside, it was dark and smelly, with giant piles of throat goo all over the place. It was like someone had sneezed into an old ham and cheese sandwich, and soaked it in vinegar.
The good news was there was air inside, so Rezzit could shut off the bubbles. The bad news was that they were very, very stuck. TorrentBoy found himself lying on the top of the pirate ship, coughing salt water onto the black metal top.
“David!” he gasped. “David, where are you?”
David popped out of the water next to the pirate ship, not looking scared at all… he looked… happy?
“This is awesome!” he laughed. “Wait till I tell the kids at school about this!”
“He assumes he’s ever going to see them again,” noted Rezzit.
“Come on, quick!” TorrentBoy said, pulling David up onto the ship. “We’ve got to get out of here before the pirates—”
“Ahoy!” came a gnarly voice from behind. They turned and saw a big, brick-like man with a patch over one eye and a glowing laser sabre. He did not look like he wanted to stop by for tea.
“Ahoy!” shouted another four pirates, none of whom looked very friendly.
“This is not good,” TorrentBoy muttered. “Rezzit, what can you give me?”
“I can wish you luck.”
“That’s it?”
“There’s not enough air in here to power up most of your weapons. You can use a TorrentShock once, but then you wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore. Does that sound like a good plan to you?”
TorrentBoy backed up another step, keeping David safe.
“So what do you suggest?”
“Get the bear to save you.”
“Crash is here? Where?”
“Look up.”
There, up near the roof of the whale’s head, was Crash, holding on to the inside of the blow hole. He did not seem very happy with all the fish slime he was touching.
“Evewybody hold on to somefing!” he shouted. “I’m going to tickle da fishy and make him sneeze us out!”
TorrentBoy looked at the pirates, who seemed uncertain about this plan too.
“Will that even work?” he asked Rezzit.
“There is no way anyone can answer that question without being completely insane.”
“Here we go!” Crash yelled, and stuck his paw right up the hole. A few seconds later, something happened…
Crash got sucked straight into the blow hole!
“Crash!” TorrentBoy screamed, but there was nothing he could do! The pirates were closing in, and he had no way to fight them!
“Stay back! I’m warning you!” he said.
“What are you gonna do,” grinned the closest pirate. “You don’t have no weapons!”
It was hard to argue with that.
“David, any ideas?” he asked, and when he turned around, he saw David was playing with a glowing blue baby crab.
“Look!” David exclaimed. “It’s my pet! I’m going to call him Charlie.”
TorrentBoy was having a hard time figuring out how this was supposed to be a plan.
“I need help fighting pirates right now,” he said. “Can we talk about Charlie later?”
“What should I feed him?” David asked, ignoring him completely.
“Unless he eats pirates, I don’t really care right now.”
David looked hurt.
Just then, he was grabbed from behind by a shorter pirate with a tattoo of a black rose on his face. He pulled David away, keeping a careful eye on TorrentBoy the whole time.
“Now then, boyo,” said the first pirate. “How do ye want to go? The easy way, or the hard way?”
“Which way hurts less?”
“They both hurt.”
“Hmm. Can I have a minute to think about it?”
All the pirates turned on their laser sabres and moved in closer, their grins revealing rotting teeth and foul breath.
“No ye can’t,” the lead pirate said. “‘cause your time is up!”
