Chapter 11

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     Late in the evening, Bluey and Bingo had taken Jean-Luc to a private lake nearby the palace that contained some ruins of Atlantis where fireflies could be seen flying around.  As Jean-Luc was holding one of the fireflies, he said,
"Bluey, when we first arrived here, the most we were expecting were maybe some crumbled buildings, MAYBE a scripture, but instead we found a living, thriving culture!"
After briefly catching a firefly, it flew onto Bingo's nose, causing her to giggle a little.  As the Labrador observed the fireflies more, he said,
"These are actually kinda cute when they're not bursting into flames"
Bluey, with a sad look on her face, took that firefly and placed it into a lantern as she responded with,
"We're not thriving...yeah, we live, but our culture is dying...every year we forget a little more of ourselves..."
"If only I could help..."
"I've brought you to this place for your help.  There's a mural here with lots of writing on the walls"
Bluey then handed her lantern for Bingo to hold.
"Bluey was wondering if you could help her with that" she said.
"You've came to the right dog!" replied Jean-Luc.
He then began reading a few scriptures.
"Ok, let's see...this column says..."

     But before he could translate the writing on the scripture, he noticed that Bluey was beginning to get herself ready for something.  Confused, he asked her,
"Bluey?  What are you doing?"
"You can swim, right?" replied Bluey, who had now made her outfit more swimmer friendly.
The flustered Labrador replied with,
"O-of course I can swim, pretty girl!"
But he quickly corrected himself out of embarrassment.
"GOOD!  I meant pretty good!" he said.
Bluey then stepped into the lake and said,
"That's good!  It's a bit of a distance to where we're going"
She then turned to Bingo.
"Bingo, stay here and be on a lookout, ok?" asked Bluey.
"Ok, Bluey!" replied Bingo.
As Jean-Luc stepped into the lake, he said,
"Well, you're talking to le champion boulet de canon!"
Bluey giggled from this.
"Well then, let's go!" said Jean-Luc as he began swimming underwater.  But shortly after, he swam back to the surface, with the blue Heeler giving him a sassy look.  Jean-Luc then said,
"On second thought...how about you lead?  It's really dark and I don't know where you're going"
Bingo waved at her sister and the Labrador as they both began swimming underwater.

     With Bluey's crystal acting as a light source, Bluey lead Jean-Luc through the lake.  After a while of swimming, they approached an underwater cavern and they entered it.  Luckily, it had an air pocket for the two of them to breathe.  They reached it and Bluey asked Jean-Luc,
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm ok" replied the black lab.
"Good, follow me!"
They went back underwater and began looking for the mural Bluey was talking about.  Soon enough, they found the giant mural, which was made up of tiny colored tiles.  The first picture they found was a comet landing and Heeler dogs worshiping said comet.  Bluey used her crystal to light up a few sentences for Jean-Luc to translate.  When he was done, he signaled for him and her to go to the air pocket. 

     When they arrived, Jean-Luc said,
"I don't believe it!  It's the entire history of Atlantis!  It's just like how Plato described it!  Though, he was off on a few tiny details-"
Bluey then put her hands on Jean-Luc's shoulders and asked,
"But the light in the sky!  The star that took Mum away!  What does it say about that?"
"Don't worry Bluey!" replied Jean-Luc.
"I think we'll get to that part!"
The two of them then dived back underwater to see the rest of the mural.  The next picture illustrated the star that Bluey saw.  She lit of even more sentences for Jean-Luc to read, and it took a bit, but when he was done, he had a realization.  He pointed at Bluey's crystal and signaled for the two of them to go back to the air pocket once more.  Jean-Luc excitedly proclaimed,
"The Heart of Atlantis!"
"Huh...?" replied Bluey.
"It's the Heart of Atlantis!  That's what the Sheepdog spoke of!  It wasn't a star you saw, it's a crystal of some sort-like the one you're wearing!  The light you remember seeing, the power source I've been finding, they're the same thing!"
As Jean-Luc held Bluey's crystal to illustrate his point, Bluey, confused by all of this, asked.
"But...that doesn't make any sense...?"
"It's what's been keeping you, your sister, everything in Atlantis alive!" replied Jean-Luc.
"But...where is it now?"
"I have no idea, you'd think it'd be in the journal!"
Suddenly, the young labrador was shocked from what this means and remembered what he said about the journal earlier.  He then said,
"Wait...the missing page!!"
and he and Bluey began swimming out of the cavern quickly.

     When Jean-Luc arrived back at the lake, the first thing he saw was Hercules standing there.  Hercules, smirking, bent down to Jean Luc and asked him,
"Have a nice swim?"
Suddenly, Jean-Luc realized that every explorer from the expiation was there each holding a gun.  One of the mercenaries was holding Bingo hostage as she said,
"Let me go!!"
As if that wasn't bad enough, Jean-Luc then noticed that Judo, Chloe, Snickers, Winton, Pom Pom, Mackenzie, and Pretzel were holding guns too.  But while Judo was smirking just like Hercules, the others had reluctant, yet firm expressions on their faces.  Jean-Luc nervously asked them,
"H-hey guys!  W-what's with all the guns?"
They continued to hold their guns.
"Guys...?"
It all hit him: they knew about the Heart of Atlantis the whole time.  Jean-Luc got mad and said,
"Gahh...je suis tellement idiot!!  This is just another treasure hunt!  You're all after the crystal!"
"Oh, this thing?" responded Hercules as he held up the missing sheepdog's journal page about the crystal.  Shocked, he said,
"The Heart of Atlantis..."
Hercules then said,
"I would've told you sooner, but I wanted to see you truly prove yourself first.  And it looks like you have!  Welcome to the team, Johnny!"
As the St Bernard reached his paw out towards Jean-Luc, the labrador backed off and said,
"I'm not a mercenary..."

     At around this point, Bluey popped out of the water, only to be immediately grabbed by a mercenary.  Although she let out a yipe from that, she was tough and fought several dogs singlehandedly.  She immediately got the dog holding Bingo hostage to let her go.  But before Bluey could bite one of the mercenaries, a gunshot went off, startling the Heeler sisters.  It came from Hercules trying to deescalate the situation.  He then said,
"Mercenary?  I think I prefer, 'Adventure Capitalist'.  Besides, you led us all here, you brought us to the chest!"
This prompted Jean-Luc to get out of the lake and run towards Hercules while saying,
"You don't know what you're doing!"
"What else is there to know?  It's big, shiny, and it'll make us all rich!" Hercules replied.
"You thought it was a diamond and I thought it was a battery, but we're both wrong!  It's their life force!  It's the only thing keeping these dogs alive!  If you take that away, they'll all die!"
"Hmm, that changes things"
Handing the page to Judo, he asks her,
"Judo, what do you think?"
"Knowing that, I'd double the price!"
"I was thinking triple!"
As Hercules and Judo laughed with one another, Jean-Luc said,
"Hercules...don't do this!"
Mackenzie then stood in the way, with an almost empty expression, but it was still stern nonetheless.

     "Guys like you always try to keep a squeaky clean reputation..." began Hercules.
"Look at it this way, if you have back all the stolen artifacts in a museum, the only thing left would be an empty building.  We're just helping museums get paid extra!"
"No.  Thank.  You" replied Jean-Luc.
"You really ARE like your grandpa.  For once, don't do what he does.  Instead, do the smart thing"
All Jean-Luc did was glare.  Because of this, Hercules said,
"Of COURSE things got bad..."
He then snapped his fingers and the dogs that held Bluey hostage shoved her to the floor and pointed a gun at her, shocking Bingo and Jean-Luc.  Hercules then asked Jean-Luc,
"Want to try this again?"
while showing him the missing page once more.  All Jean-Luc could think about was whether not Bluey, Bingo, their father Bandit, and the rest Atlanteans would be safe based on what he'd say next.

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