The Deep Six in... 'Stranger from the Seas!'

 (originally posted on the 13th of April, 2019)

While surveying a reef after a particularly strange and violent storm, the Deep Six discovered a mysterious young woman floating. She was alive and unharmed but seemingly amnesiac, and there was no trace of a boat or any sort of wreckage. Chip was immediately smitten by the perky teenager, but Fluke the dolphin sensed something strange about her that “curled his fins”. Nevertheless, the team allowed her to recuperate at their home base while she gathered her strength and tried to recover her memories.

Over the next few weeks, a large number of strange events occurred. Weird weather events (including a waterspout!), rains of fish, unseasonal mass crab migrations, and other odd phenomena wracked the coast, keeping the Deep Six constantly on the go. During downtime, Chip found himself more and more attracted to the young lady they had dubbed ‘Marina’.

The Deep Six (L-R): Ripley 'Rip' Ryan, Nancy Lawson, Jake 'Typhoon' Tanner, Charles 'Chip' Lawson and Fluke (Not pictured: Dr.Miles Lawson) 

Ryan, Nancy and Jake were kept busy by almost constant rescues and investigations, while Dr Lawson, Fluke and WAVE tried to analyse the cause of the phenomena. At first, they assumed the field was centred on the city itself, but when Chip took Marina on a trip to clear her head, they noticed the field of strangeness was following her!

There was a short argument. Jake and Rip (and Fluke) argued that the weird phenomena was getting worse and endangering the people, so they should take Marina out into the bay where they could find out what was going on. Chip believed they needed to keep Marina safe no matter what, and Nancy was sympathetic to him. Meanwhile, Dr Lawson believed they needed to do more research, but thought the idea of taking her out into the water could yield interesting results. In the end, Chip (convinced by Marina) ran away.

Things got worse and the people of Santa Cruz were in severe danger, lashed by fierce storms and with warnings of an incoming typhoon which could wipe the city off the map! Chip returned, his sense of responsibility overcoming his crush on Marina and the team set out into the storm, with Dr Lawson’s newest high tech sensors on board. Things got worse and worse until the team reached the eye of the storm where they found an island which wasn’t supposed to be there.

Landing, they came under attack from a swarm of mysterious assailants. They fought back but were overwhelmed and captured, except Chip and Marina, who managed to escape, and Fluke, who stayed with the boat. The captives were taken to a large, ancient temple in the centre of the island, while Chip and Marina followed covertly. The temple was the palace of King Neptune himself. He believed the Deep Six had kidnapped his daughter, the sea nymph, Marina! And he threatened to sacrifice Nancy unless she was returned to him. Doc argued passionately but Neptune was too enraged to listen to reason.

The long and the short of it: Fluke helped Doc, Rip and Jake escape, and Chip tried to convince Marina to tell her father the truth, that the team hadn’t kidnapped her, but she refused. She didn’t care if Nancy died (“I didn’t ask you to come here! I wanted to run away, remember?”). Eventually, the team got back together, rescued Nancy, turned Marina back over to her father who grounded her. “This is why I ran away in the first place! You never let me do ANYTHING!” “Kids, eh?” says Neptune, “But she’s young, only four hundred years old!” “Four H-Hundred!?” stammered Chip. Jake chuckled, “I never knew you had it in you, youngster! Making eyes at an older woman like that!” And with that, The Deep Six returned, the immediate threat over.