While Airship 3 flew to Key West, business was in high gear for the United Sea Marine Corps (USMC) down in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico.
Because of the recent kidnapping of Stephanie, the USMC was on high alert and practiced some new defensive techniques to be used against the Air Aliens.
There were 30 Marine fish dressed in their seaweed fatigues and they swam in formation.
“I don’t know but I’ve been told,” the Drill Instructor fish sang out to his marine fish while they swam in formation.
“I don’t know but I’ve been told,” the marine fish sang out in unison.
“That going up in outer air is mighty bold,” the Drill Instructor fish sang back at his fish.
“That going up in outer air is mighty bold,” the marine fish all sang out in unison.
In another area, five Marine fish ride electric eels like horses in the Calvary.
The eels raced to plants shaped like humans. They curl their tails underneath them and send bolts of electricity through the human seaweed targets, which caught on fire.
Near the eels, Rocky marched another formation of Marine fish.
“Left, left, left, right, left,” Rocky yelled out at the fish.
But his fish were newer Marines and couldn’t swim in formation and they bumped into each other.
One of the Marine fish leaned over to his body. “Did you hear about his son Melvin stealing a NASA airship?” he said to his buddy.
Rocky suddenly appeared in the face of that Marine fish and was furious. “I don’t have a son! Do you understand that Marine?” Rocky screamed at the young fish.
“Yes sir. No son, sir,” the Marine replied scared to death.
Rocky glared at the Marine fish. “Kitchen patrol for all of you. I want those clams shucked by dinner,” he yelled.
The Marine fish looked and saw a huge pile of clams outside a nearby building.
They all moaned and groaned while they swam off to the. Building.
Rocky watched his Marines swim away and was pissed when he thought about Melvin.
Over at Rocky’s home, June carried a trash can with Melvin's pictures on top, to the edge of their backyard reef.
She swam away then turned around. She looked at the trash can while a small whale saw up to the reef.
A fish swam off the top of the whale and swam down to the trash can.
The whale opened its mouth then the fish emptied the trash into the whale.
The fish threw the can into the backyard reef then swam back up to the top of the whale. The whale started to close its mouth when June rushed over and quickly snatched Melvin’s pictures. She was able to get the pictures out in a nanosecond before the whale shut its mouth.
The whale and the fish swam away.
She looked at Melvin's pictures while she swam back to the house.
In Cooter’s store in Key West, customers looked at all the fish in the numerous aquariums.
Sara entered from the backroom with her nephew, Billy who was a nine-year-old red headed freckled brat.
Billy ran down one of the aisles and checked out all the aquariums.
“Be careful Billy,” Sara called out to him and was a little nervous he would knock over the aquariums.
“I will Aunt Sara,” Billy replied while he stopped and checked out the fish in one of the aquariums.
Then Billy ran down the aisle while Sara had her back turned to him.
Inside Stephanie’s aquarium, Stephanie slept in her tank near the glass with a view of the store.
She woke up and saw Billy's face smeared against the glass while he made funny faces. She jumped back scared and slammed into Carlos, who slept behind her.
Billy tapped on the aquarium glass with his index finger and it was loud inside the tank.
Stephanie placed her fins on the side of her head to dampen out the sound.
“You'll get use to that since they make that noise once in a while. Come,” Carlos said and grabbed Stephanie by her fin and swam her to the other side of the aquarium.
Billy rushed over to Sara who worked behind the counter.
“Aunt Sara, I want that fish over in that aquarium over there,” he said while he pointed at Stephanie’ aquarium.
“Okay Billy, I’ll check with your mother later,” she said while she returned to placing price stickers on some new products that arrived yesterday.
Inside the Stephanie’s aquarium, she looked so depressed. “I hate this new life. I was suppose to be the wife of a famous hero,” she whined to Carlos.
“Don't worry my pretty fish. I'll be your hero from now on,” Carlos replied while he placed a fin around Stephanie.
Stephanie looked a little unsure of Carlos but started to enjoy his company.
Back in the Gulf of Mexico, Airship 3 flew 30 feet above the beautiful blue waters and headed toward Key West.
Airship 3 zoomed between two sea gulls, which caused them to slam into each other and drop to the water.
“What was that?” the one sea gull said to the other sea gull while they got right side up in the water.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a bird like that before,” the other sea gull replied.
They flapped their wings and flew away and shrugged off their brief encounter with Airship 3.
Airship 3 flew down the channel used by many boats to access the open waters of the Gulf.
Airship 3 headed toward Wisteria Island.
Airship 3 flew over Wisteria Island and banked to the right and headed to Key West.
Airship 3 flew toward Key West with Tank Island to its starboard side.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel worked the joystick while she looked out the windows.
She looked over at Melvin and he had his fins over his eyes since they were getting closer to Air Alien land.
“Take a peek Melvin, it’s a fascinating world out there!” she said then removed one of his fins from an eye.
Melvin took a peek with his one eye and got a little intrigued with what he saw so he removed his other fin.
“It does look fascinating,” Melvin replied while he looked at the blue waters and then his eyes widened in shock. “What’s that big thing?” he cried out in a panic and quickly covered his eyes with his fins.
Hazel looked and her eyes widened when she saw that they were headed straight at a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked at Key West. She quickly moved the joystick and missed smacking into one of the smoke stacks by an inch.
She made a sharp left bank and flew Airship 3 back around and headed toward Tank Island.
Hazel chuckled over the sight of Melvin with his fins over his eyes. She pried one of his fins away. “Work the controls,” she said while she placed his fin on the joystick.
Melvin was hesitant at first, but eventually place his fin on the joystick where his fins shook with fear. “You did a fantastic job designing these airships,” he said while he started to loose his fear and liked flying the airship.
Hazel smiled over his compliment.
Melvin banked Airship 3 around to the right and headed 30 feet over Duval Street.
People walked down Duval Street and a few noticed while Airship 3 zoomed over their heads.
“What was that?” a woman asked her husband while she pointed at Airship 3.
He looked up and saw it zoom down Duval Street. “Must be some kid playing with his remote controlled airplane,” he surmised then they walked over and entered a restaurant.
Airship 3 continued to zoom 30 feet over Duval Street where a few more people watched and also believed it was a remote controlled airplane.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel watched the street signs while Melvin flew. “Slow down a little,” she told Melvin.
Melvin pulled back on the throttle and slowed Airship 3 down.
“We’re looking for something called Eaton Street, she told him.
Melvin also looked down Duval Street for their next sign.
“There it is!” she called out when she saw a sign for Eaton,” Hazel called out.
Melvin was ready at the controls for her commands.
“Turn right here,” Hazel said while they approached Eaton Street.
Melvin turned Airship 3 into a right bank and headed down Eaton Street.
A group of tourists from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship saw Airship 3 while it zoomed at them on Eaton Street.
One of the older tourists pointed at Airship 3. “What a cool remote controlled airplane,” he said then quickly snapped some pictures with his digital camera.
Other tourists quickly snapped some pictures of Airship 3 while it flew over their heads.
They watched while it zoomed down the street.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel and Melvin continued to look out their windows.
“Look for something called Whitehead Street,” she told Melvin.
Melvin nodded in agreement then his eyes lit up. “There it is,” he said then turned Airship 3 into a left bank and turned down Whitehead Street.
“I’m impressed you remembered,” Hazel told Melvin while they zoomed down that street.
“Come in Airship three, this is NASA control,” an engineers voice came over the speakers.
“We don’t need their input during our mission,” she said then reached over and turned the communications switch to the “Off” position.
Back at the NASA Control Room, Rodney looked nervous while he swam back and forth over top of the consoles.
All the engineer fish monitor their consoles.
“We can't establish communications with the airship,” one of the engineer fish told Rodney.
“I want them back now!” Rodney yelled at everybody while he fumed. “This mission was supposed to be a test flight! And now I have my own daughter and the town liar using it for a rescue mission that will probably fail!” he yelled at the engineers.
All the engineers cowered down at their consoles to stay out of Rodney’s view.
“Try to remotely turn Airship three back around and fly it home remotely,” Rodney ordered.
“We can’t sir,” one of the engineer fish cautiously replied.
“And why not?” Rodney yelled back.
“Well, it appears that they knew about the switch for remote control and turned it off,” the engineer fish replied and cringed for Rodney’s fury.
“If you don't find a way to fly that airship back home, I'm going to give you all to the Air Aliens,” Rodney threatened everybody.
The engineer fish all frantically flipped switches and turned knobs in hope of gaining remote control over Airship 3.
Airship 3 continued to fly down Whitehead Street.
A boy around eight years old saw Airship 3 while it flew 20 feet over head and his eyes lit up. “I want one of those!” he called out to this mother while they walked down the sidewalk.
She looked up at Airship 3 and knew her son would crash it into a tree immediately after playing with it. “No,” she replied to his question.
The boy threw a temper tantrum and stopped his feet on the sidewalk. “I want a spaceship! I want a spaceship!” he yelled out.
That mother dragged her boy away by his arm with him while he continued to thrown his temper tantrum.
Inside Airship 3, Melvin and Hazel continued to look at the window.
“We need to look for a Southard Street,” Hazel said.
Then Melvin’s eyes lit up. “Wait, there’s a Cooter creature,” he called out and pointed.
Hazel looked where he pointed and saw a Cooter’s Fish Aquarium Store van while it drove down Southard Street and crossed Whitehead Street. “That makes it easier,” Hazel replied.
“How’s that?”
“Watch and learn,” Hazel replied then took over the joystick.
Cooter drove his van down Southard Street after delivering an aquarium to a customer in Big Pine Key.
Airship 3 flew down at the van.
Airship 3 slowed down when it was one foot over the roof of the van.
Four small bottom doors opened from the bottom of the airship. Four small landing struts came out from the bottom of the airship and locked in the vertical position.
Airship slowly lowered down and landed on the roof of the van.
Inside Airship 3, Melvin looked amazed with Hazel’s performance.
“I see I have a lot more to learn from the master,” he said with a proud smile.
Hazel flipped some switches, and the engine whined down and turned off.
“We might as well save fuel and let this creature take us to Stephanie,” Hazel said.
Melvin looked proud of Hazel then he looked out the windows and enjoyed the free ride down Southard Street.
Then after a few minutes, the van turned into the parking lot of the Cooter’s fish store.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel and Melvin’s eyes widened when the airship slid to the left across the roof of the van.
Melvin and Hazel got scared then it stopped and the van drove straight.
“What was that?” Melvin asked nervously.
“I don’t know,” Hazel said while she looked out the windows.
Then they noticed that the van stopped and they waited to see what was going to happen next.
Then the van slowly moved backwards and turned to the right again.
“What is this creature doing?” Melvin asked and started to get scared.
“I don’t know,” Hazel replied and she started to get a little concerned.
Then the van stood still and it got quiet.
They jumped when they heard the driver’s door of the van open and closed.
“What was that?” Melvin asked while he cautiously looked around for an Air Alien to attack them.
“I don’t know,” Hazel replied while she also looked around.
They saw Cooter and Sara while they walked away from the van and headed to the back door of his store.
“There’s those Air Aliens and they must have been inside this creature,” Melvin said while they looked and watched Cooter enter through the back door of his store.
“It looked like a strange opening into his cave. We'll wait until that cave opening presents itself again,” Hazel said.
Melvin nodded in agreement.
“You know, you should have the honors of being the first Air Cadet to perform an air walk,” Hazel said.
Melvin looked nervous over her request then he thought about it for a second.
“Nah, I think it should be you.”
Hazel noticed Melvin was nervous with her proposal. “If you wish. Then I'll need you to maintain control of the airship,” she replied.
“I can handle that,” he said then sat back and looked relieved he wasn’t going out into outer air.
They waited for an opportunity to enter the Air Aliens cave.