Chapter 4

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     Now that the journey to Atlantis has began, Jean-Luc made his way to his cabin in the submarine.  As he entered it, the same unenthusiastic male voice announced on the intercom,
"Attention everyone.  Tonight's dinner will be baked beans with some nice music afterwards.  Oh boy, who wrote this?"
Jean-Luc knew he would be sharing it with a few other dogs, but what he didn't know was with whom.  He sat down on the bottom bunk bed to rest up for a moment.  But on the top bunk bed, there was a teenage bull dog who secretly watched Jean-Luc.  Wearing some geologist equipment, he turned on a little light, causing Jean-Luc to bump his head.  He looked upset as he whispered,
"You have disturbed the dirt..."
"I'm sorry, excuse moi?" replied Jean-Luc.
The bulldog, named Winton, suddenly jumped down, prompting Jean-Luc to get up from his bed.
"You have disturbed the dirt!!"
Winton lifted up the covers, revealing small piles of dirt and soil from all around the world.
"These are dirts from all around the world!  Ah!  None of these can merge with each other or else they can't be studied properly!!" he said as he did his best to separate the dirt piles with his equipment.
"What are they doing in my bed??" asked Jean-Luc, now feeling concerned.
"Never mind that, mate.  Who are you?  Where did you come from?  Speak up!!" replied Winton.
"Um...well..."
"No need to answer, I'll know soon!"
Winton suddenly grabbed Jean-Luc's paw and using tweezers, he reached for a little speck of dirt that was on a finger.
"Hey!  Let go of my hand!" shouted Jean-Luc
"Don't be a squib, hold still!" replied Winton as he grabbed the little speck.
Once he did, he began studying it with his equipment as he said,
"There you are, my little precious!  Ok let's see your story...I see fiber from parchment paper commonly used for important documents, lead from a No. 2 pencil, flecks of paint used in historical buildings, and oh!  I think you weren't born in Australia, but rather Quebec!  All of these tell me that you are a mapmaker!"
Winton sniffed the dirt speck, but he got suspicious and said,
"And a linguist, huh?"

     Impressed, Jean-Luc asked the bulldog,
"Wait, how did you-"
Suddenly, Winton tossed Jean-Luc's jacket and the rest of his stuff onto the black lab and began to push him out of the cabin as he shouted,
"You must go!  Now!  Go and never come back!"
But then, Winton and Jean-Luc bumped into a teenage dalmatian.  Jean-Luc looked up at her and she said,
"Uh oh, looks like you sat in the dirt"
She then turns her attention to Winton and said to him,
"Winton, what have I said about playing nice with the other kids?"
She got a soap bar out, which repulsed Winton.   
"I've got soap!  And I'm not afraid to use it!"
Winton growled at the sight of the soap and the dalmatian pointed to his bed while saying,
"Back to where you came from, Winton!  Go!"
Winton went to his bed and hid under his blankets, but he peeked from them.
The dalmatian shook Jean-Luc's hand and introduced herself with,
"G'day, mate!  My name's Chloe.  I'm a medical expert"
"Bonsoir, je m'appelle Jean-Luc" replied Jean-Luc.
"Jean-Luc, huh?  You're my 15:00!  Let's hop to it!"
She reached into her doctor's bag and got out a large medical saw.  Jean-Luc got freaked out and said,
"Um..."
"Cool isn't it?  I heard that this can saw a femur in under 28 seconds.  I bet I can cut even faster!"
She put away her saw and started doing some check ups on Jean-Luc such as taking his temperature, shining a little light in his ears, and using her stethoscope while asking,
"So, where are you from?"
"Quebec, Canada" replied Jean-Luc.
"Oh, you're from Canada!  Beautiful country and lots of snow!  Do you like snow?"
"Yeah!"
"For me, not so much.  I am not used to cold weather at all.  Growing up in a tropical city like Brisbane doesn't help neither"
She then got out 2 large jars and said,
"Ok, now all I need you to do is fill these up!"
Jean-Luc was shocked and asked,
"With what?!"
But before Chloe could respond, the same unenthusiastic male voice announced,
"Jean-Luc, please report to the bridge"
Jean-Luc sighed of relief, but before rushing out of the cabin, he said to Chloe,
"Oh, it was nice meeting you, Chloe!"
"Nice meeting you too!" replied Chloe with a nice smile.

     The submarine continued to travel deeper and deeper into the ocean.  In a station where all announcements are made, the unenthusiastic male voice belonged to a teenage chihuahua named Pretzel, who was on his phone talking to a friend of his.
"So I say to Mum, 'So what if I'm not in the mood to do my chores?' And she says to me-"
He got a signal and then said,
"Hang on Coco, I've got another call coming in"
He put down his phone and announced,
"Ok, we're approaching the coordinates"
He quickly got back onto his phone and said,
"Ok, I'm back Coco, as I was saying..."
Meanwhile with Jean-Luc, he was approaching the bridge as he overheard Hercules say,
"Alright, let's take a look"
"Ok everyone, set course to 2-4-0, 15 degrees at the bow planes.  I repeat, 2-4-0" said Judo.
Jean-Luc then arrived at the bridge as Hercules welcomed him with,
"Welcome to the bridge, Jean-Luc"
On the bridge were him, Judo, Mackenzie, a little while Pomeranian named Pom Pom, Winton, and Chloe.
"Alright everyone, I'd like for you to give Jean-Luc your undivided attention" said Hercules.
Jean-Luc walked up to a projector and said,
"Um...bonsoir everyone.  Can you hear me alright?"
Although they all looked unamused, they nodded, especially Pom Pom.
"Ok...let me show you this slideshow..."
He turned on the projector and a digital slideshow showed up.  Now holding a clicker/pointer, Jean-Luc said,
"Now, the first slide I'm about to show you is a creature that's been described as so scary that sailors are said to be driven crazy just by looking at it!"
When he clicked his pointer, the slide showed a picture of him in a funny looking swimsuit, causing everyone to laugh.  Jean-Luc was embarrassed when he realizes that he forgot to remove the picture from the slideshow.
Pom Pom giggled and said,
"Ok, this lab is really funny!"
Mackenzie agreed with her comment as he snickered to himself.  When Jean-Luc clicked again, it showed the proper picture, which was an ancient drawing of what appeared to be a giant lobster.
"Ok, this is an illustration of the leviathan, the guardian of the entrance to Atlantis"
Mackenzie observed the slide and said,
"Hmm, with something like that, a nice drop of melted butter with some garnishes should do the trick!"
"It's a mystical sea serpent.  According to many ancient books, it's been described as having fire coming out of its mouth like sparks of light.  But personally, I think this was something to drive away the superstitious"

     Hercules then asked,
"Ok, we find this creature and then what?"
"We dig!!" shouted Winton.
Jean-Luc replied with,
"Actually we won't need to dig!"
He then clicked the clicker and the next slide showed a drawing of the pathway to Atlantis.  As he used the pointer to elaborate this path, he said,
"According to the journal, the path to Atlantis will take us to a tunnel at the bottom of the ocean.  Then, we'll go up a curve and into an air pocket, where we'll find ancient remaniants of a highway that will take us straight to Atlantis.  Kind of like a grease trap in a sink!"
"Hmm, cartographer, linguist, and plumber?  This dog's better than I thought!" commented Judo.
Winton looked at Judo and said,
"Hey, you said we'd dig!"
"Not now, Winton" replied Judo as she pushed him away.
Then, a sailor said,
"Hey, Captain? You might want to take a look at this?"
Hercules walked over and said,
"Alright, class dismissed. Turn on the exterior lights"
The submarine turned on its lights and what everyone saw were a bunch of shipwrecks.
"Woah...look at that..." said Judo.
"These are ships from every era!" replied Jean-Luc.
The submarine continued to shine its lights through these shipwrecks. But what they didn't know was that by shining the lights, they had awakened something dangerous and it was beginning to follow the submarine, preparing to attack.

This special episode of Bluey is called, "Atlantis"!Where stories live. Discover now