Totally Tortuga

The day that school had let out for the summer, the Tortuga had made an "emergency" stop in Boulder, CO.  Jimmy Z hadn't really needed to land the ship, but he was the only one who knew the true reason behind Chris and Martin asking to come there.  He smiled as the brothers exited the ship towards Dela's house... and then he cringed as the ship was mobbed by fans who still remembered the crew from the talent show.  'The crazy things I do for the Kratts,' he thought.

In the meantime, Delilah was working on her "Mulan and Cinderella" fusion look for her summer collection that afternoon.  It had taken some doing, but her freshman year was finally over.  She was looking forward to spending more time with her mom, when she wasn't designing of course, and working at the local yogurt shop with Rosa and Megan.  About midsummer, she was planning on calling Jovi out for another fashion show stint.  She smiled wistfully the "Tiana and Esmeralda" look she had created just for her great friend.  The two friends hadn't seen each other since April when they made their talent show debut.

"It'll be nice to see her again," she said as she retied her golden blonde hair.  "Sure, she doesn't like big crowds, but she'll be able to get some free corn dogs and a visit to me out of the bargain.  I can just see myself saying, 'See Jovi?  Being called out to do a fashion show at a street fair has its perks.'"

Delilah smiled contentedly as she took a couple pins from the pincushion around her wrist.  She held up a pleat of the blue skirt and was just about to pin it when she heard voices coming from downstairs.  One was her mother's, but that wasn't abnormal; she had brought her home from school to homemade carrot cake (Her favorite!) and a cute set of green pearl earrings.  They were in her ears right now she loved them so much; she could be considered financially independent now as commissions for outfits still kept coming in, so it was nice to have her mom buy stuff for her every now and again.

'My baby girl's growing up so fast,' Ms. Donata had said when she discovered her daughter's website for internet orders.  'Only 14 and she already has her own business.'

'Not that fast, Mom,' Delilah had said.  'I'm still living with you until I go off to Parson's School of-'

"You sure she can't just come with us just for one week?" came one of the two new voices.

"We promise, Mrs. Donata," came the other one.  "It'll be totally worth her while.  We even got her an underwater camera so she take pictures of all the fish she'll see."

"I don't know, Martin," said Mrs. Donata.  "This is my baby girl we're talking about here.  My first born and only child.  SCUBA diving poses some serious risks-"

"Which we'll cover when we go over the book learning portion of her certification," came the first voice again, which must be Chris Kratt.  "Trust us.  We've been underwater tons of times, and if she ever runs out of air, Aviva can follow us in the octopus sub."

After a few more minutes of cajoling, Delilah's mom relented.  And within the hour, Delilah was packed for 10 days; the Tortuga flew up to their front door, fans running behind it to catch it; and the Wild Kratts team was on their way to the Florida Keys with a temporary sixth member in tow.
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While the Tortuga was heading towards certain SCUBA diving opportunities, Donita Donata was lounging on her private yacht, scratching her head with her design pencil.  "I just don't get it!" she said to herself.  "Summer is the waxing season of all my creativity; I'm off the coast of Costa Rica, the place where most of my design ideas are started; and for once, I don't have to worry about that sniveling niece of mine.  I should be set up to create a summer fashion line the world will never forget, and instead-"

She was interrupted by a sudden splash of water.  Donita annoyedly lowered her shades to see what the fuss was.  "Donita," said Dabio, pointing over the port side.  "There is floating thing in the water."

'Well, it can't be any worse than the time he brought me a worm,' she thought.  Ms. Donata made her way over to see this "floating thing".  She had no doubt it was an animal since nothing else usually caught Dabio's attention; he so loved watching things that moved it bordered on being obsessive.  She took out her pocket animal atlas out of her portfolio's pocket, in case she'd have to look up that "round floating thing" afterwards.

Surprisingly, the little floating disc was actually something Donita could identify:  a loggerhead sea turtle, a 35 year old female by the look of it.  She remembered seeing something in her atlas about their peak mating season being summer and their key nesting sites... "Dabio, set a course for Florida!" ordered Donita.  "We're on our way to a trove of sea turtle accessories!"
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"Are you sure I'm ready to do this?" said Delilah.  "Sure, I passed the test after only one day of book learning and completed all the knowledge reviews in that same day.  But-"

"But, you're nervous about getting in the pool, right?" said Jimmy Z, who was checking his regulator was screwed onto his tank right.  He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.  "Koki and I felt the same way when we were getting our certification a couple summers ago.  And here we are, your SCUBA instructors for the day."

Delilah nodded and turned back to making sure her BCD would inflate and deflate properly, and also that her air didn't taste funny.  "Just put your equipment in the pool for now.  You'll suit up once you swim for a little," said Koki, who was already in the pool.

"Don't be afraid to ask for help!" cautioned Jimmy Z, seeing how Delilah was struggling with her weight pockets.  "SCUBA diving is a team effort, and even though you can solve most problems by yourself, always remember this:  you can never dive without your buddy."

"Could you help me Jimmy Z?" asked Delilah, taking a hint from what her instructor had said.  Jimmy was happy to, and soon enough, Delilah Donata was comfortably in her SCUBA gear.  After establishing "yoga breaths" as the proper way to breathe, Koki took her through minor problems she would likely face out on the reefs she would dive with Martin and Chris:  partial/full mask flood and clear, replacing her regulator, buoyancy control, the "share air with buddy" drill, and common hand signals so she could tell the brothers what was going on, such as "OK", "Low on Air", "Up", "Down", "You Lead, I'll Follow" and "Stop!".  Even though they would have communicators in their full face masks and could hear each other, they wouldn't be able to hear her, at least until she got a full face mask of her own.

Just as they were about to do "Lead Your Maskless Buddy" drill, Delilah glimpsed something above the water that made the regulator fall right out of her mouth.  Jimmy Z made his way over to her, alternate air source at the ready.  Delilah glanced at him, her eyes full of surprise, and fear, as she realized that her regulator had fallen out of her mouth.  She made the sign for "out of air" and Jimmy handed her his alternate.  Once Delilah was breathing normally again, he motioned for them to go to the surface.  "What did you see down there?" he asked when they were comfortably in air again.

"Not down there, Jimmy," Delilah said.  "Up there, in the sky above us.  A pink jet plane, flying in the direction of Long Key State Park!"

Koki, who had replaced her mask soon after she had heard Dela's regulator drift into free flow, resurfaced beside her.  "What did you see that made you so scared?" she asked.

"She saw a pink jet plane," said Jimmy Z.  Koki just brushed it off and laughed.  "There are a lot of planes flying over the Keys," she said.  "I'm sure it was just a trick of the eye.  After all, we're diving at close to sunset."

Suddenly, Delilah's wrist communicator, which was connected right to her dive computer, came on.  "Jimmy Z, Koki, Dela, come in!" came Aviva's voice.  Both divers, and the diver in training, glued their eyes to the screen.  "Donita's jet was sighted over the Florida Keys, headed towards Long Key State Park."

"What was that someone said about my eyes playing tricks on me?" said Delilah teasingly to Koki.

"Knowing Donita, she'll probably be after some kind of animal," said Koki, ignoring the "I told you so" vibe in Dela's voice.

"Long Key State Park?!" said Jimmy Z, a sudden realization coming to him.  "Koki, we'll have to finish our "combined confined water dive" on Tortuga.  We need to formulate a plan as soon as possible."

Koki nodded and began taking off her stuff.  "Just one thing, Jimmy Z," she said.  "Which animal is she going to filch this time?  Common terns?  Comorants?  Brittle Stars?"

"Try baby sea turtles," said Jimmy Z, a tone of worry in his voice.  "Park rangers tape off the turtle nests so that people know to avoid them.  It'll lead her right to them!"
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Later that night, at Long Key State Park, shortly after everyone had gone to sleep... no.  Not everyone had gone to sleep.  There was still one big light on, a large spotlight.  Dabio had been told to stand guard at the side of it until the sea turtles came out; Donita had found a nest that had been made almost a month ago, a good sign that the eggs would hatch soon.

That was a big tip off for Martin and Chris, who had been leading a beach clean up with some Wild Kratts kids earlier that day.  Donita's campsite hadn't been there when they had been walking on the beach, but when they were filled in when they met the rest of the team at Tortuga HQ, after an intense game of "Waaaaah!" with the kids, they quickly formulated a plan.  "Since sea turtles are too big to make into accessories," Chris had formulated, "Donita'll likely go after the babies, just like Jimmy theorized."

"The manta riders will help with shore patrol, but they'll be no good in the shallow water near the beach," said Aviva.

"This calls for some LEE," said Delilah, who had been trying to take this all in all the while.  Finally, after six months, she was going to come face to face with her aunt again.

"If that stands for 'Land Experience and Expertise', Jimmy's your man," said Koki.  "He's all for covert tech. disabling missions, aren't you Jimmy?"

"In video games!" Jimmy had protested.  "And I highly doubt that Lara Croft ever had to do stuff like this."

Even still, Jimmy Z was the best Night Diver out of all of them, so he knew he'd probably lose the argument anyway.  He and Delilah suited up, making sure to include flashlights and extra power sources among their gear.  Technically, Delilah wasn't qualified to do Night Diving yet (Heck, she wasn't a certified Open Water diver yet!), but the circumstances called for special measures.  Aviva lowered a light-source marker into the water where they were anchored; Jimmy and Delilah descended beneath the surface; and they were on their way towards shore as fast as the Manta Riders would carry them.

Once there, they shed their fins, BCDs, and masks, hiding them in low-growing brush so they could access them easily when it was time to make a getaway.  Squinting at something in the distance, Jimmy Z made a hand signal for "I'll Lead, You Follow" and headed towards a bright round circle in the distance.  Delilah waited a few seconds and then loped soundlessly after the pizza loving red head.  The sand muffled her foot steps a little, but she had decided to keep her dive boots on, just in case, to add in additional stealth.

Jimmy quickly located the artificial light source and motioned for Delilah to stay by the turtle nest, which was marked off by bright orange tape.  As Delilah slowed her stride, she glimpsed the sand churning in the nesting site.  The turtles were hatching and would be making their way to the water, or that's what they would be doing if Donita hadn't set up an artificial light.  Man made light confuses baby turtles and causes them to walk toward it instead of the sea, which they find by following the moonlight.  It also made it easier for predators, such as gulls and raccoons, to see them, leading to even less chances of survival.  But that wouldn't happen tonight, not with the Wild Kratts on the job.

"Dabio!" Delilah called out, in her best imitation of her aunt.  The thick-headed houseboy was startled out of his slumber immediately.  "What does Donita want?" he called out, a little confused that she wasn't right beside him.

"I wanted to get a closer look at the turtle nest and accidentally tripped and twisted my foot.  Get over here and help me!!!!"

Dabio went running off towards what he thought was Donita's voice while Jimmy Z swiftly neutralized the spotlight.  And just in time too; baby sea turtles were starting to poke up out of the sand.  "Dabio!  What's going on here?" demanded the real Donita, startled by the sudden change in lighting outside of her campsite.

"Donita, you hurt your foot.  I come and bring you ice pack," said Dabio.

"I'm over here you nit-wit!" said Delilah, trying to stall a little longer so Jimmy could get away.

"Why is my spot light turned off?"

"Where is my ice pack?!"

"Get back over here and turn it back on!"

"Get your lazy butt moving and help me, Dabio!"

"Dabio can't be in two places at once," said Dabio, hyper-confused as to what was going on.

During this little conversation, Donita had been thinking.  There was only one person who could imitate her that well.  "And to think I was free of you forever... Delilah."

Delilah stepped into the light of the moon, Jimmy Z just behind her protecting the baby sea turtles from aerial assault from any nocturnal predators.  "You will never be free of me, Aunt Donita," she said.  "And the rising popularity of my designs shows that.  Someday, I'll be the next Christian Siriano, and you can't stop me!  I made my choice, and you made the wrong one long ago.  Awfetersein!"

Dabio said, "Wow!  That is strong woman." as his employer's niece and Jimmy Z escaped into the water.  Donita just pulled him by the ear back to the campsite, satisfyingly miffed that her niece had gotten away with her newest design.

"So, Dela Tortuga Donata," said Jimmy Z when he and Delilah were safely at the Tortuga again.  "What do you want to do now?"

"Can we dive Molasses Reef tomorrow, Jimmy Z Torture?" asked Delilah.  "I heard that sea turtles flock there and so do little reef fish.  They would look so cute on my designs."

They both laughed at that, which got the Kratt Brothers doing a "What the heck happened?" face.  Then, once the two Turtle divers explained what had happened to the rest of the gang, they were all laughing as little sea turtles swam past the Tortuga in the moonlight.