After another wacky day in Seal Island, the siblings were ready to head off to bed. As Porter walked in the boys room and waved goodnight to the girls, he saw his plush pal Seal sleeping on the dresser.
"Wouldn't it be funny if Seal had a bunch of friends and went on crazy adventures without our knowledge?" he asked, chuckling.
"Well, our home is called Seal Island, so who knows?" Zaire replied.
The three settled into bed and went to sleep. A few minutes after the lights turned off, the lovable seal opened his eyes and looked at the sleeping brothers.
"It's party time..." he whispered to himself.
He hopped off the dresser, landing with a soft thud on the carpet.
"Don't worry, I'll be back before dawn."
He flopped out of the boys' room, passed by the girls' room and stopped in front of the living room, his bean-stuffed body making sound as he hopped.
"I need to make haste, or I'll be late."
Seal continued his trek through the house, stopping in the furnace room. As he hopped inside the fireplace and climbed up through the pipe leading through the chimney, he saw the moonlight shining down on the city.
"Target acquired. Next stop, Club Chill."
Seal took a running start, jumped as high as his chunky body could carry him and unraveled himself into a large cloth of fabric.
The seals on the island, along with being indestructible, can also shape-shift into a number of cloth-related items. These vary from small items like a neck pillow to the sail on a boat.
Thirty minutes later, Seal arrived at the city, stopping at a building called Club Chill - A jazz club known for its soothing live band, calming yet laid-back atmosphere and delicious desserts.
As Seal hopped past the doors and into the building, he heard three other voices calling him. Looking to the side, he saw three other seals sitting on a table. One was big and chunky, one was gray with dust and the other had needles sticking out of its body.
Some time later, Seal managed to climb onto the table where the other seals were.
"Evening, gentleseals!" he greeted.
"Seal!" the big one waved. "Long time, no see-al!"
"Glad I could be here! Will Seamore be here too?"
"I thought you'd know, she's your sister!" The gray seal replied. "But I hope so. We haven't hung out like this in a long time."
A couple more minutes of chatter went by, when Seal brought up the needles in his friend's body.
"Hey Stiffler, what's with all the needles?" he asked.
"Oh, these?" Stiffler responded, pointing at his needles. "Well, I recently got a new job at a traditional quilting store."
"Oh, that's great!" the big seal commented. "Are you the thread fetcher, or the supplier, or..?"
"Nope. I'm the pincushion," Stiffler answered. "The literal pincushion. And it HURTS."
He took a breath before resuming his rant.
"I don't think people understand that just because we're indestructible doesn't mean we can't feel pain! Honestly, do you know how unpleasant it is to have a bunch of needles stuck in you for eight hours a day?"
He was visibly angry and red in the face, when the big seal patted his head.
"Calm down, bud. At least you're getting paid for it, right?"
"You know what, Blubba? You're right." he sighed. "It may hurt a bit, but at least I'm not dirty, like Grayson here."
"At least I like my job! Dust accounting is what pays the bills, 'kay?" Grayson smirked.
"Hey, is that..?" Blubba asked, pointing his nose in the air.
The four friends looked in the same direction and saw another seal with a red bow on its head, hovering towards them.
"Sister!" Seal shouted.
"Heya, brother!" she shouted back, landing on the ground. "Been a hot minute, huh?"
Seal and Seamore gave each other a hug while the others greeted her as well.
"How've you been? What's being a warehouse manager like?" Blubba asked.
"It's been chaotic, to say the least," Seamore replied. "I'll tell you, moving conveyors in a certain order so the objects on them don't crash is WAY more harder than I thought it'd be."
"Like I said, dust accounting!" Grayson repeated, clapping his flippers.
"Anyway... How about you guys? I take it Stiffler got a new job, judging by all the needles in his body?"
"Yeah, things changed a lot the last time you were here," Blubba replied. "I also managed to get a new job as a pillow model, 'cause let's face it: people like big, soft, cute things. I've got the softness, the CHONK, the-"
"HUMAN!" Stiffler barked.
The others looked over to see a waitress walking towards their table.
"Alright everyone, just act natural," Grayson whispered.
"Good evening and welcome to Club Chill. Can I interest you in some appetizers or do you want to skip straight to desserts?" the waitress asked.
Instead of replying, Seal hopped over to the menu and pointed his nose at one of the items.
"The Mint 'n Lint, huh? That's a house classic- our signature chocolate mint ice cream laced with chocolate, caramel and marshmallow sauce, carefully and lovingly carved by the island's artisan seals," she explained.
Blubba simply pulled his head into his body while Stiffler and Seamore hopped over to the menu and pointed their noses at the same item.
"Right, three Mint 'n Lints," The waitress nodded. "I'll have those up shortly."
As she walked off, Grayson looked over at Blubba.
"What was all that about?" he asked.
"I thought she'd notice how chonky I am..." Blubba muttered, poking his head out.
A little while later, Seal, Seamore and Stiffler's sundaes arrived. As they ate, the five talked about their hopes and wishes for sealkind.
"You know, I really hope one day, we'll be able to talk normally in front of humans one day," Seamore sighed.
"Maybe... But even if the time comes when we'll all be able to, there's no denying it will be awkward," Seal responded.
"Why don't we do it now?" Grayson questioned. "We're completely capable of talking in general."
"It breaks the law of toys." Blubba replied. "You know, don't talk directly in front of humans under any circumstances."
"Right, right. Forgot about that," he sighed. "Such a stupid law..."
"I agree, but it does keep things from being awkward between us, humans, and everything else, no?" Stiffler shrugged.
"I guess..."
Another while later, they finished their food.
"Where do you wanna go now?" Seamore asked, patting her belly.
"How about the mall?" Blubba suggested. "That's where we all first met."
"You know what? That's a good idea!" Seal nodded. "We should hurry, or it'll close by the time we get there."
One by one, the seals hopped off the table. Grayson hopped off last, leaving behind a dollar and twenty cents. The waitress stopped by and looked at the fee, sighing.
"I wish seals could talk, so they can tell me why my pay is so low..." she muttered.
As the five hopped out of the building and transformed into cloths drifting through the wind, Seal asked what they would do when they got to the mall.
"Oh, you know- hang out, maybe play some games, just seal stuff," Seamore replied.
As they floated through the air, they looked over at Stiffler, who folded himself into a fluffy airplane.
"What?! You try unraveling flat with all these needles in you!"
Fluffy Plains Mall, 45 Minutes Later
By now, the five seals had shifted back into their original forms and were sitting right in front of the mall.
"Ah, good memories..." Blubba sighed, hopping inside.
"Yeah, back when phones were the size of bricks," Grayson responded, hopping in after him.
The mall was pretty big to a child, but to a seal who was a hundredth of that height, it was humongous! The dome ceiling looked like an observatory, the shop entrances resembled huge gateways to other worlds, even the monitor in front of them felt like a jumbotron screen!
"Come on, it's time to party!" Seamore cheered, heading further into the mall.
Seal looked back at the exit, then back at his friends, back and forth, back and forth. The words he said rang in his head - "I'll be back before dawn."
Chances are if he went with them, he'd get back to the house too late. Then again, he hasn't seen any of his friends or even his sister in years. It would be nice to catch up after all that time.
"Brother!" Seamore called. "Come on! We've got catching up to do!"
He could probably join them, but not for very long.
"Coming!" he replied, hopping after them.
The next few hours consisted of Seal and his friends visiting the shops, climbing up the DOWN escalator and trying on hats and accessories made for tiny plush animals like them. Eventually, the five sat on a guard rail overlooking the mall, laughing as the mall started to close and the lights inside turned off.
"I really had fun tonight, you guys," Seal smiled. "I'm glad we could all hang out together again, but I've gotta get going."
"Aww, don't tell us you're leaving already, brother!" Seamore frowned.
"Sadly. But I really have to get back home before my family finds out I'm missing!"
Stiffer sighed. "That's fine, we understand. Family is important."
"We're just glad you could be there," Blubba added. "Maybe we'll all see each other again in the next six years."
One by one, the group gave Seal a hug and said their goodbyes. As he started to hop away, he overheard some chatter from one of his friends.
"Hey, look over there!" Grayson whispered, pointing at another area of the mall, which now had three suspicious characters standing in front of one of the closed shops.
"Oh, now?!" Seal grumbled, heading back to the group. Sure enough, he too saw the suspicious trio.
"What are they doing..?" he asked.
"Let's go get a closer look," Seamore suggested.
The five hovered over to the floor the figures were on and hid behind a wall to avoid being spotted. Looking closer at the three, sure enough, there were three Clones.
"These ingrates again?" Stiffler growled. "The one that show up here are nothing but trouble ever since they appeared - terrorizing poor kids and seals alike..."
"We have to do something!" Grayson exclaimed.
By now, the Clones had broken a window and climbed inside the store - an electronics store full of circuits, batteries, and controllers.
"Maybe we should call the police," Seal suggested.
"And say what? 'Hey, we're a bunch of seals watching some burglars rob a store in the mall, please help!' Like, do you know how far-fetched that sounds?" Grayson frowned.
"Even if we do call the police, by the time they get here, they'd be long gone!" Seamore added.
"We'll have to take matters in our own hands, then," Blubba sighed.
"Maybe we can fight them?" Seamore asked.
"How? Five tiny seals against three giants?" Stiffler complained. "Five seals against one, maybe, but we'll just get thrown into the wall if we fight more than one!"
Seal looked over at the hole in the window and put a flipper on his chin, thinking.
"I think I have an idea," he spoke. "The law says we can't talk directly in front of humans."
"Yeah, and..?" Grayson raised an eyebrow.
"We can't talk directly in front of them. It didn't say anything about talking to them by other means. You catch my drift?"
"I wonder if any other seal on the island uses this loophole..." Blubba pondered.
"Blubba, since you're the biggest and chonkiest of the group, we'll need you to get their attention and distract them. Think you can handle that?" Seal asked.
"Oh, you bet! Leave the chonk to me!"
By now, the Clones had taken what they wanted and were climbing back out the window, carrying a bag stuffed with stolen goods.
"That was so easy!" one Clone chuckled. "No robots, no obnoxious teens, no weird mice people to stop us this time!"
"All we have to do now is get these resources back to Zetal and we might get a raise!" another Clone added.
"But... Isn't anything times zero still zero?" the third Clone asked, frowning.
Their conversation was interrupted by something barking behind them.
The three turned around to see a seal barking at them. This seal was big and chunky and was staring directly at them. The Clones looked at each other, then back at the seal.
"Awwww!" the Clones beamed, dropping the bag and running towards the seal.
The other four seals were still sitting behind the wall, watching their friend get approached by the three idiots.
"Perfect, they took the bait!" Stiffer grinned evilly.
"What now?" Grayson replied.
"This is the part where we let our voices be heard," Seal replied, rubbing his flippers.
Meanwhile, the Clones were playing with the seal, chattering about how cute it is.
"Look at you! You're a chonky boy!" the first Clone laughed. "So CHONKY!"
"And it's so soft!" the third Clone added, rubbing its belly. "You'd make a great pillow!"
"I knew getting that job was a good call!" the seal cheered.
The three froze stiff, absolutely shocked by what they just heard.
"Did that seal just talk..?" the second Clone asked, terrified.
"Oh, absolutely!" the seal replied. "I know it's not normal for a stuffed seal like me to be talking, but I'm just so happy someone acknowledged how chonky I am! Thank you!"
Downright petrified by this unexpected response, the Clones immediately scrambled to get up and smashed through one of the mall windows to escape, disregarding the items they stole.
The other four seals hopped toward Blubba, laughing at what just happened.
"I'm going to take a long shower after this," Blubba muttered. "Weird guy germs..."
"Seamore, your voice was perfect for throwing!" Stiffler smiled.
"Hey, I can't take all the credit!" she replied, hugging Seal.
"Thanks, sis," Seal sighed. "Look, guys, as fun as it's all been, It's time I get going. Let's meet back here in a year or so."
"Here, take my bow!" Seamore replied. "You'll get home faster with it. Don't worry about me, I've got plenty at home. I'll find a way to get to them."
"Have a needle!" Stiffler added, pulling out one of his body needles. "That way, you'll think of us."
"Thanks, guys. Until next time," Seal waved, unraveling himself into a cloth and hovering out the window the Clones broke.
As he drifted through the sky for an hour, he saw the sun coming up.
The house was just below him at this point. All he needed to do was float down.
He dove into the chimney, emerging into the house with the bow and needle. Hopping back into the boys' room as fast as he could, he climbed up the dresser and hid the items under his body as he pretended to sleep.
2 Hours Later
The sun rose higher, its rays catching the attention of Porter's eyes. As he muttered and got up, he noticed Seal asleep on his on the dresser. He smiled and walked into the living room to watch some cartoons. When he turned on the TV, it was set to a news report of an attempted burglary at one of the stores at the mall.
Surprised, he called his other siblings, who ran straight into the living room to check the news.
"Reports are coming in of an attempted robbery of an electronics store in the Fluffy Plains Mall," the newscaster explained.
"Oh, not on my watch!" Bro growled, ready to run out the door.
"Wait, Bro! There's more!" Zaire shouted, motioning him back to the couch.
"Three men broke into the store and rose out, carrying a bag of products. However, they did not get very far, as they stopped to pet a seal who was somehow still in the mall. Taking a look at the camera footage, it shows the the men petting the seal until they froze with fear on their face and started running without the bag," the newscaster continued. "The footage continues with four more seals hopping into frame with one unraveling itself and flying out of the window."
"Hey, you know, that looks an awful lot like..." Lily wondered.
"While the three men are now arrested, the whereabouts of the five seals are currently unknown. And now here's Stormy with the weather report."
"Wait a minute..." Porter looked back at the boys' room.
Porter got up and walked back in the room out of curiosity and checked on Seal. Looking closer, he saw a needle and a bow sticking out under his belly.
Seal opened his eyes and looked at Porter, before winking and going back to sleep.