The Heroes of Aeseganora: Part 3 - The Final Rising

The peaceful sound of rushing water immediately filled their ears as they slowly came round from the impact. One by one, they slowly sat up and processed their surroundings.

But to their shock, the ground they were all laying upon wasn't the floorboards of the Octo-Nora. In fact, it barely seemed to be the Octo-Nora at all; for the Octonauts and Octo-Agents - along with the ship - had landed upon some large rocks behind an Aeseganoran waterfall - the wall of water closing them off completely from the endangered magical world.

"What's happened?" Bud was the first one to ask as he rubbed his eyes.

"I don't know," Min answered him, as she sat up in front of him. "The last thing I remember was that that Damballa creature throwing that magic at us."

Straightaway, Bud looked at her, his face looking as if he'd just seen a ghost.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, noticing the shift in expression.

"You look..." Bud began.

"Different?" Min finished for him. "Yes, I know, and ummm...."

She pointed out that he looked different as well. While she had a Chinese hanfu dress, coloured blue with a yellow trim (not too unlike her old outfit), along with little cherry blossoms painted on both her cheeks and more defined and thick eyelashes, Bud was wearing a yellow blanket coat on top of his green overalls, and finishing off with a pair of dark brown moccasin shoes.

And - much to their shock and horror - as they looked to the other Octo-Agents, they soon realised that they weren't the only ones; all of them didn't look the same as they did earlier - their clothes had also changed, and they all had tattoos of each of their faces inked upon the middle of their left arms, above their Octo-watches - the faces of which were now shaped as an octadecagram.

Some of them even had weapons - for instance, Ranger Marsh had a rifle, Calico Jack had a platinum cutlass, Pearl had a bow and arrow (like her younger brother), Min had a dao and a cartography kit, and Paani had a sceptre with what looked like a crystallised waterdrop head.

"Is everyone OK?" Min asked everyone, as she and Bud stood up.

"Uh, yes yes." Natquik answered weakly.

"I guess so." Pearl groaned.

"Aye, we are." said Calico Jack, his shoulders heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

"Well, I'm not!" Ranger Marsh suddenly barked, annoyed. "Look at my clothes! I am NOT a sheriff, I'm a park ranger!"

And he was right - situated on top of his beige explorer's uniform was a sheriff's jacket and a cowboy hat in place of his explorer's hat, along with a burgundy neck scarf.

"OK, listen up," Min interrupted him, reminding everyone of what was important right now. "This is not a good time to be hysterical about our new looks. We've still got to get out of here, find the Octonauts, and come up with a plan to stop Damballa. Come on, help me get the Octo-Nora back up."

With the assistance of Ryla, Selva and Pearl, she positioned the Octo-Nora back upright; thankfully, it didn't show any signs of damage from the commotion. Meanwhile, the males were preoccupied with surveying their new looks.

"A gun?!" Ranger Marsh exclaimed in horror, examining every part of his rifle. "Why in tarnation do I have a gun? Aren't they supposed to be used for shooting creatures?"

"Well, whatever you do," Natquik said, his paws held up. "Would you please not point it at our faces?"

"Oh, of course, my apologies." Marsh replied to the Arctic Fox as he held it down.