It was late that night and Cooter was sound asleep in the lazy boy chair while the Elvis movie Blue Hawaii was on the TV.
Billy was in his pajamas when he poked his head around the doorway of the den. He wanted to see if he could sneak the airship out of the room. He heard Cooter snore and instantly knew the coast was clear.
Billy quietly tiptoed into the den and scanned the room around for the airship.
He walked over to the desk and noticed it was gone.
He quietly tiptoed over to Cooter to see if it was in his lap but noticed it wasn’t there.
He looked around the room and eyed the bookcase.
He looked the shelves over and eventually saw the airship on the top shelf.
He quietly tiptoed over to the bookcase and occasionally stopped when Cooter snored.
He got to the bookcase and tried to reach the airship on the top shelf but was two feet short.
Billy pondered his dilemma and decided to use the bookcase shelves. He stepped on the second shelf and waited for a few seconds. It didn’t collapse so he stepped up on the third shelf. It creaked a little but didn’t collapse so he stepped up on the fourth shelf. It creaked a little but didn’t collapse so he reached up and grabbed the airship.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel and Melvin cuddled while they slept.
The airship suddenly moved, which woke them up.
Melvin looked around when he felt the movement. “Not again.”
They just waited and cuddled to see where this would take them this time.
Then the nose of the airship dipped at the floor and Hazel and Melvin floated to the console.
Billy slowly climbed down the shelves with Airship 3 in his hand.
He quickly looked at Cooter who snored in the lazy boy chair.
In Stephanie’s new aquarium, all the fish were sound asleep except for Stephanie who floated at the glass.
She watched while Billy quietly tiptoed away from the bookcase with the airship in his hand.
Her eyes widened when she recognized Airship 3 in the grips of Billy. “It’s Melvin!” she called out while she watched Billy walk out of the den with the airship in his hand.
Carlos swam over to Stephanie and placed a fin around her. “You need some sleep my darling,” he told her.
Stephanie looked excited while she glanced at Carlos. “I just saw our airship in the grips of that small Air Alien,” she said while her eyes widened with joy. “He could rescue me!”
Carlos looked at the den and only saw Cooter asleep in the lazy boy chair. “Please don’t get your hopes up too high. I mean, if the Air Alien has your airship, they won’t let it free,” Carlos added.
Stephanie still looked at the den with hopeful eyes.
Carlos silently prayed that the airship wouldn’t return since he wanted Stephanie all to himself forever.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel and Melvin are tossed around while Billy ran down the hallway.
Billy raced into this bedroom and closed the door.
Billy quickly ran over to his desk, opened a drawer and removed some string. He tied one end of the string around the airship and the other end of the string around his wrist.
“You won’t fly away this time,” Billy said while he double-checked the knots at the airship and around his waist.
Billy grabbed the airship and threw it up in the air. “Fly!” he called out at the airship.
Airship 3 flew up in the air then when it reached the length of Billy’s string it dropped to the floor.
Airship 3 stopped from slamming into the floor by two inches due to the length of the string.
Billy grabbed the airship and threw it back up into the air. “Fly!” he called out at the airship.
Airship 3 flew up in the air then when it reached the length of Billy’s string it dropped to the floor.
Airship 3 stopped from slamming into the floor by two inches due to the length of the string.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel and Melvin watched while their airship pointed down at the floor.
Then Hazel and Melvin watched while the airship rose back up in the air.
“What is going on?” Hazel said while the nose of the airship pointed up at the ceiling of the room.
“I don’t know,” Melvin replied while the airship dove down nose first to the floor.
It was a roller coaster ride while Billy threw Airship 3 up into the air and then it drove down to the floor.
Billy didn’t notice that the string tied around Airship 3 became loose while he threw it back up in the air.
Airship 3 smacked into the ceiling and some plaster rained down to the floor.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel and Melvin watched while their craft dove down to the floor.
Then the nose of the airship slammed hard to the wooden floor then Hazel and Melvin were slammed into the console.
“Are you okay?” Melvin asked her while he moved away from the console.
“Yeah, I have a little headache, but I’m okay,” she replied.
They look extremely worried when the airship rose back up in the air.
In his den, Billy held the airship in his hand and looked upset.
“Why don’t this thing fly?” he asked while she shook the airship.
Then he felt a little bit of water in his hand and looked over the airship. He saw some water seeping out of the bottom of the nose of the airship. “I broke it!”
He ran over to his desk with the airship in his hand.
He opened up a drawer and removed a clear tape dispenser and a tube of Testers model glue. He removed the cap off the tube of glue. He ran a bead of glue over the small crack he saw in the airship. He immediately removed a piece of tape and wrapped it over the crack at the bottom of the airship nose.
“That should work,” he said while he noticed the leak stopped under the tape.
He rushed the airship out of his bedroom.
In the den, Cooter still snored in the lazy boy chair when Billy tiptoed into the room.
He tiptoed over to the bookcase.
He slowly climbed up the shelves and placed Airship 3 back on the top shelf.
He slowly climbed down the shelves.
He tiptoed out of the den while Cooter still snored in the lazy boy chair.
Inside Airship 3, Hazel and Melvin floated by the rear wall of the cockpit by the airsuits.
“Is it over?” she asked.
Melvin swam over to the console and looked out the canopy bubble. He saw Cooter still asleep in the lazy boy chair. “I think it is,” he replied.
In Stephanie’s new aquarium, she was at the glass and saw Billy while he placed Airship 3 on the top shelf.
Carlos saw her from the other side of the aquarium and he wanted to take her mind off Melvin.
Meanwhile, back in the Gulf of Mexico, Rocky quietly entered his kitchen. He looked around to make sure June wasn’t visible. She wasn’t so he rushed over to the cabinets. He opened up the cabinet, and removed those clam shells. He removed Melvin’s picture and looked at it while his eyes welled up. He wiped away a tear then placed the picture back and placed the clam shells back. He closed the cabinet door and swam out of the kitchen.
In Airship 3, Hazel and Melvin cuddled at the rear of the cockpit.
“If we check out those two water worlds and don’t find Stephanie, we better head back home,” Hazel said.
Melvin thought about her suggestion for a few seconds. “I think your right. After all, we don’t have enough fuel to search the entire land of Air Aliens,” he replied then he thought about their situation for a few seconds. “We can’t go home to Aquaticville,” he added.
Hazel thought for a few seconds. “We could live in Aquadelphia. It’s a huge town and we could easily blend in there,” she replied.
He thought about her suggestion for a few seconds. “I could be Troy,” he said.
Hazel thought for a few seconds. “I could be Selma,” she replied.
“Troy and Selma, I like it,” he said with a smile of approval.
“Well Troy, when should we leave?” Hazel asked.
Melvin swam over to the console and looked out the canopy bubble. He saw Cooter still in the lazy boy chair.
He swam back to Hazel. “Well Selma, we’ll leave as soon as that Air Alien leaves this cave,” he told her. Then he looked at the console. “I’ll watch for the Air Alien to leave while you get some sleep,” he said.
“I’ll relieve you in a couple of hours,” she replied.
“Okay,” Melvin replied then swam over to the console and sat down in his seat.
Hazel closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Melvin looked out the canopy at Cooter then he glanced back at Hazel. He really liked her and his loving thoughts about Stephanie started to diminish.
Three hours passed and the sun rose and peeked into the windows of the den.
Cooter woke up when the sunshine warmed up his face. He got up from the lazy boy and stretched.
From inside Airship 3, Hazel looked out the canopy and she watched while Cooter slowly walked out of the den.
She rushed back to Melvin and shook him with a fin. “The Air Alien has left,” she called out.
Melvin opened up his eyes and was a bit groggy from his sleep. “Huh?” he said.
“The Air Alien has left this cave. We can leave,” she replied.
Melvin yawned. “Okay, let’s move out,” he said.
They both swam over to the console and sat down in their seats.
“Let's check those water worlds for one last effort to find Stephanie,” he said.
“Okay, but if she's not there, we’ll end this mission and go head to Aquadelphia and start out new life,” she replied.
“Yes,” Melvin said then he flipped on the power switch.
An alarm sounded, which startled them and they quickly looked at the console. They saw a Water Gauge where the needle was a tad off the "Full" mark.
“We're slowly losing water,” he said.
They both looked around and didn’t see any damage.
“But how?” he asked.
Hazel thought for a second. “When we slammed into the bottom of the Air Alien world, we must have sustained some damage,” she surmised.
“Will we make it back to our world?” he asked and looked worried. “Should we go outside and look for the damage?” he added and looked worried.
She studied the gauge for a few seconds. “We don't have time to go outside but I think the leak is slow, so we should have enough water left to get home safely. Plus our suits will provide us with water as a backup,” she added.
Melvin felt better while he watched Hazel start up the airship.
“Why don’t you fly this mission?” she offered.
“My pleasure,” he replied then grabbed the joystick.
In the den, Airship 3 slowly flew off the top shelf of the bookcase.
Inside Stephanie’s aquarium, Carlos kept her mind off Melvin and the airship by having the other fish play some music from their conch shells.
Stephanie and Carlos danced the Mambo to the music of the band.
Then from the corner of his eye, Carlos saw Airship 3 while it flew toward their aquarium. He quickly planted a kiss on Stephanie’s lips so she would see the craft.
Inside Airship 3, Melvin and Hazel looked at Stephanie’s aquarium and saw her kissing Carlos while the craft hovered outside.
Melvin stared out the canopy in shock. “Who is she kissing?”
“I guess he's that Latin lover,” she replied with a hint of a smile happy that Stephanie might be in love with another fish.
“I’m ready to head out to Aquadelphia,” he said and looked depressed.
Hazel looked happy with his decision but thought about it for a few seconds. “You better rescue her,” she said .
Melvin thought her comment for a second. “You're right,” he replied.
Hazel looked back at the airsuits then at Melvin. “Why don’t you perform the rescue mission? I mean, that would make father forgive you,” she offered.
Melvin thought about her comment while he looked at Stephanie kissing with Carlos. “Okay,” he reluctantly replied.
Inside Stephanie’s aquarium, she glanced over at the glass and saw Airship 3 while it hovered outside and then her eyes widened with guilt. “It’s the airship!”
Carlos looked unhappy when she saw the airship still outside their water world. “Why won't he stay away?” he quietly said.
She swam over to the glass.
“Rescue me!” she cried out to the hovering airship.
Carlos and the other eight fish swam over to Stephanie.
They all stared at Airship 3 while it hovered outside the aquarium.
Then they watched while the airship rose upward in the air.
“Where’s that thing going?” Janet asked.
“Far far away I hope,” Carlos quietly replied under his breath.
Inside Airship 3, Melvin got inside one of the airsuits while Hazel flew the craft flew to the top of the aquarium.
“I’m ready,” he said when he was dressed in his airsuit then he placed the bubble helmet over his head and locked it on place. He pressed a button on the wall and the door into the air chamber opened.
Hazel turned around and watched Melvin enter into the air chamber then the door closed.
“I’m ready for water drain,” Melvin said from the speaker.
“Draining the air chamber,” she said into the microphone then flipped a switch.
Water was heard draining out of the air chamber.
Inside the air chamber, Melvin stood in his airsuit. On the one wall was four extra seaweed ropes. Melvin had previously connected one of those ropes to his airsuit. He looked down and all the water was drained out of the chamber. “Water is drained from the air chamber,” Melvin said into this helmet.
“Understand,” Hazel replied from the radio net.
Outside Airship 3, the air chamber door opened and Melvin stood in the doorway in his airsuit. He had one of the extra airsuits and helmets in his mechanical hands while he looked a little scared at outer air.
He stepped out of the airship and onto the plastic top of Stephanie’s aquarium.
“I’m now out of the airship,” Melvin said.
“Go be a hero, Melvin,” Hazel replied from the radio net.
“Okay,” Melvin said while he walked away from the airship with a new seaweed rope trailing from the air chamber.
Melvin slowly walked to the opening into Stephanie’s aquarium.
He walked to the edge and looked at the water below.
He looked around outer air and saw the den, which looked so huge.
He got scared and walked back to the airship.
He stood at the air chamber door and looked back at the aquarium opening. He thought hard if he should proceed with this rescue mission since Stephanie might be in love with another fish.