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Martin woke up to being shook awake. Martin sat up quickly and looked around in surprise, allowing his eyes to adjust to the light for a moment. “Wha-“ he started to say before he was tackled back into the bed by someone.
As he opened his eyes he saw the signature green color that he knew belonged to one person. “Happy Birthday Martin!” Chris shouted at him with a smile on his face in their hug.
Martin had a fond smile on his face as he looked at Chris. As he registered what Chris had said his smile got bigger from happiness. Today was his birthday!
“Hey Chris” he responded to the younger as he was still hugging him. “Nice wake up call”. Chris’s face blushed a bit in embarrassment before he smiled back. “We all were waiting for you to wake up but you always sleep in. Jimmy made breakfast and we all helped a bit.”.
“Sorry about that, what time is it anyway?” he responded to Chris before making a move to get up. He couldn’t wait to eat whatever they had made for breakfast. “It’s about ten now” Chris told him as he started towards the door.
“I’m going to go join the others at the table and wait for you to come out” Chris said before leaving the room.
Martin quickly got up and went to change into his usual outfit. The iconic blue shirt he wears with the white shirt underneath it. He also quickly changed into his shorts and threw his shoes on. Then he was out of his bedroom door excited and ready to begin the day.
He walked into the kitchen and like Chris had said everyone else was already sitting down at the table waiting for him. Chris was the first to notice him and smiled in his direction before waving him over to sit down. He quickly sat down and his friends all turned to look at him with smiles on their faces. “Happy Birthday MK!” Aviva quickly greeted him. “Ya Happy Birthday dude” Jimmy said right after her. “Happy Birthday Martin” Koki then greeted him.
“Thanks” he responded back to them all before taking a look at the food on the table. It was pancakes which was one of his favorite foods. He smiled before making himself a plate of food just like the others already had in front of them.
“We didn't realize how late you would sleep in” Aviva jokingly said as he gathered his plate. “We had to send Chris to your room to wake you up.”. “Yeah, sorry about that,” he responded to her with. “Sometimes I swear I sleep like a koala” he replied jokingly to them. As he saw everyone's confused faces except for Chris’s he started to explain.
“A Koala can sleep for long periods of time, some have even been recorded to sleep up to twenty-two hours! On average however they tend to sleep between eighteen to twenty-two hours. They spend a large amount of their life sleeping instead of doing something else. Their main food source is eucalyptus leaves which requires a large amount of energy to digest and is low in nutrients. This is why they sleep so much so they can conserve energy to make up for the little energy that they get from their food. So the main reason why they sleep so long is it is a way to help them conserve energy.”.
As he finally stopped his little ramble about koalas he found that they were all looking at him. “Even on your birthday Martin you still have so many animal facts to share” Koki said to him smiling. “That is pretty cool MK, I may need to start making another creature power disk soon” Aviva then said. “That's crazy man. I mean I like to sleep as much as anyone but even I think that may be a bit excessive. I can't imagine only being awake for a few hours.” Jimmy replied.
“Isn't that an amazing creature power bro? Just one of the many ways that creatures are out in the wild and are surviving.” Chris said with a smile on his face thinking about how cool koalas really are. “Sure is bro” Martin replied before taking a big bite out of the food in front of him. It tasted delicious! “This tastes awesome guys," he said to the others with his mouth full.
“Glad you like it, it's my grandma's recipe” Jimmy told him before he started to eat as well. Soon they were all eating and they finished quickly.
“So what are we going to do today?” Martin asked the others after they all had finished cleaning up breakfast. “I was thinking that you Kratt Bros could go check in on Plato and her kids Platter and Platty. You know the platypus that we helped a while back? I figured that since we were here we could check back up on them and see how they are doing. After that you guys can just run around for a while to see what you can find.” Aviva told them.
“Sounds like a plan” Chris replied to her before he went to go get his creature power vest and gloves on. Martin quickly followed him smiling. It would be cool to check up on how the platypus family is doing after they hadn't seen them for a while. After he and Chris had put on their vests they started to head towards the exit and grabbed their creature pods on the way.
The two then rushed out of the Tortuga, quickly waving the crew goodbye, and set off to find their platypus friends. “I wonder how they all are doing” Martin spoke excitedly to Chris “I'm sure that they are all doing fine and it will be nice to see how Platter and Platty have grown.”. Martin then continued. “Yeah I wonder how big they have gotten now. Last time we saw them they had just hatched out of their eggs. It'll be nice to see how much they have grown.”. As the two continued to where they knew Plato, their excitement only grew.
Finally after what felt like forever but in reality was only fifteen minutes they arrived at the river. “Bet I can find them first,” Martin told his brother with a mischievous smile. “Oh you are on.” Chris retorted back with determination. Martin grabbed the miniturizer from out of his pocket and threw it down and jumped onto it once it had grown. He was quickly miniturized and he began to take off to the river with his diving mask on. He turned around for a second and grinned when he saw Chris hastily begin to do the same.
He entered the water and began to swim in the river. He started in the direction where he thought that their home was last time. As he moved through the river he looked around him. So far he had not seen Plato at all but he was determined to do so. He continued to search for where he thought their home was but he could not find it. As he was about to go and search another part of the river for their home he spotted the place where it had been last time.
He quickly started towards it and went inside to search for them. As he looked around he was disappointed to see that they were not there. That's weird he thought to himself. It had only been two months since they had last seen the family and they were not in the burrow. The platypus puggles are not supposed to leave the nest until they are about four months old.
He left and then continued to search the river. So far he hasn't found anything but he persevered and continued to look. Finally he spotted her. It was Plato! He hurriedly swam towards her. “Hi Plato” he said as he got near her. She hurriedly swam to him. She was pacing around quickly in what looked like distress. “You okay girl?” he questioned. Then he remembered the platypuses missing puggles. “Are you searching for Platter and Platty?” he questioned. He knew he would not get an answer but he could tell that's what she was worried about. “Don't worry we will find them," he told her confidently before going to grab his creature pod.
Just as he was about to call he was being lifted up into the air. He was trapped in a net! He realized quickly as Plato was being lifted with him. The net must have been at the bottom of the river and he had not noticed it. With the quickness that the net had been pulled up he had accidentally dropped his creature pod in his haste.
As he was finally set down he recognized the familiar boat that they were in. Gourmand. He had gone after the platypuses again! Just then he heard a familiar voice “So what do we have here” he heard Gourands voice say. “It's another platypus and..” he heard the pause in Gourmand's voice as he inspected him. “And Blueberry! What are you even doing here!” Gourmand shouted, obviously annoyed at him. “What am I doing here? What are you doing here Gourmand!” he shouted back at Gourmand. Partially to show that he was annoyed too and partially because he was miniaturized and wanted Gourmand to be able to hear him.
“You captured these innocent platypuses again! What are you even going to do with them!” “Well” Gourmand started “Now that some of them have grown bigger I am going to make a nice soup with them. I'm going to call it Platypus soupe. And neither you nor your brother are going to stop me!” Gourmand told Martin.
“Gourmand you need to let these precious animals go! You know they should be living free and in the wild.” Martin responded back. “I know blueberry, both you and your brother say it all the time but I don’t care!” Gourmand responded. “Now we are going to go back to my ship and I am going to make the dish whether you like it or not. Besides, I have both Zack and Donita coming to try it. Since last time was a failed attempt at making them a platypus dish.”.
Martin could do nothing as he was tied to a candle just like his brother was last time they faced Gourmand with the Platypuses.
Meanwhile Chris had seen Martin getting taken by Gourmand. He was trying to catch up with his brother when he had seen the net take Martin up. He couldn't do anything while miniaturized unless he wanted to be caught too so he waited and listened to Gourmand's plan before calling the crew on his creature pod and letting them know what had happened.
They all quickly made up a plan to save Martin and the platypuses. Chris was going to use chameleon powers so he could blend in and he would take the platypuses and Martin. They still had some chameleon DNA from the last time they had met one so he would be able to transform.
They set up the plan into motion quickly as Chris crept closer to where Gourmand had taken Marin and the platypuses. It honestly was not that smart on Gourmand's part since he had taken them to the exact same place he was last time. He saw that his brother was strapped to the candle just like he was and cringed inside. He had hated that.
He then took out the Chameleon DNA and transformed into one and quickly and quietly began to blend into the background. He went closer and could hear Gourmand singing about how he was going to cook those poor animals. Then he heard the sound of a jet and not a moment later saw Donitas pink jet fly by.
“That's good, at least one of them is here now” he heard Gourmand mutter as he left his kitchen to go greet Donita. Chris didn't waste a second for the open opportunity and he grabbed all the platypuses from the cage they were being held at. He then exited the kitchen from where he had come through the back and headed towards the river. “I'll check on you guys later after I get Martin” he whispered to them before setting them down near the river.
He then rushed back to Gourmand's ship as quietly as he could. He saw that Gourmand was starting to come back and he changed so he would better blend into the environment. “This will be the best dish you will ever have” Gourmand was saying and continued to say how great the dish would be. Donita just looked tired and rolled her eyes. “It better be for the amount of money I'm going to be paying for this” she told him annoyed. “Yes, trust me it will all be worth it.”.
As they continued to talk Chris had begun to creep closer to Martin and had not been noticed so far. Once he felt he was close enough to Martin he whispered his name. “Martin” Chris whispered only loud enough so he and Martin could hear. Martin instantly looked in his direction and whispered just as quietly “Chris?”. “I've come to rescue you, I already got the platypuses so we don't need to worry about them anymore.” Martin nodded slowly so it wasnt so obvious and motioned downwards towards the ropes as a go for it to untie him. Chris did so and then Martin was untied and he hopped onto Chris hand. “Let's get out of here before they realize,” Martin whispered.
Chris quickly listened and they got out of there just in time before they heard Gourmand start to yell from behind them. Once they were far enough Chris detransformed and they gave the crew a quick call to let them know they were okay. They then checked on the Platypuses and they all looked fine. They had to put the puggles back into the burrow since they weren't supposed to leave it yet. Once they checked that they were all fine they left them in the burrow and Martin finally got to be un- miniaturized back to his real height. The two smiled at one another before saying “Another animal living free and in the wild!” in perfect unison smiling the whole time.
They then both started the trek back to the Tortuga. “Today was a pretty good day honestly, besides the whole - I got kidnapped by a chef - part” Martin said. “However we did get to go on a creature adventure and another animal is living free and in the wild! So I would count today as a win in my book. I couldn't imagine another way than to spend my birthday with my three favorite things: The crew, animals, and you” Martin said, smiling and nudging Chris’s shoulder at the last part. Chris smiled back at Martin. “Yeah today was pretty good I guess, I was kind of afraid you would think it was bad with Gourmand here.”. The two then continued to walk to the Tortuga and they finally made it after a while.
As they walked inside Martin could not help but notice that he did not see any of the crew. As they headed towards the living room he noticed the lights were off and went to turn them on. As he did he noticed all the decorations that were set up. At that moment Aviva, Koki, and Jimmy all jumped out from different spots where they were hiding and yelled “Surprise!”. “Wha-” “Are you surprised Martin?” Chris, who was beside him, asked excitedly. “We all came up with the plan to decorate and surprise you while we were hanging out together today. Of course we had not expected Gourmand but still.”. Martin looked around at the decorations and knew that there was a big smile on his face. “I love it!” He told them. Everyone else was smiling too as they saw the blonds smile and enthusiasm at what they had done.
“Come sit down at the table where I made dinner.” Jimmy said and they all headed over. He had made another one of Martin's favorite foods: spaghetti. Like breakfast, this food also tasted amazing and everyone quickly finished their food. “It was another one of my grandma's recipes,” Jimmy explained to them all.
As Martin was about to get up and leave Chris quickly pulled him back down into his seat. “Bro do me a favor and close your eyes”.”Okay?” Martin responded hesitantly and listened. Not opening his eyes until someone told him to. He could hear the others moving but had no idea about what they were doing.
“You can open your eyes now” Chris told him and when he opened them he saw that there was a cake sitting in front of them. “Thank you guys!” He told them all and smiled. He could tell it was homemade, most likely by Jimmy if he had to guess. The design and detail looked amazing in his opinion. The cake was a circle shape and the sides of the cake were kind of striped with two different shades of blue. Along the bottom of the cake was green frosting which looked like grass. Then there were animals on the sides as well. There was a cheetah- or spot swat it looked like and there was a spider monkey- or Grabsy. On the top there was a green border- likely to match with the grass. The border was light green and dark green. Then in the middle of the cake was the words ‘Happy Birthday Martin!’.
He was so happy! The cake looked amazing and he could tell that there had been a lot of time and detail put into the cake. He was so glad for his friends and brother.
Then Jimmy grabbed the amount of candles that matched with his age and put them all on top. They then lit them all and began to sing.
“Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Martin! Happy Birthday to you!”
“Make a wish” he heard Chris whisper- yell.
Martin made a wish then blew out all the candles in one go while smiling. His face was starting to hurt from all the smiling he had been doing actually/
They then quickly cut the cake and everyone had a slice. It was a really good chocolate cake which was Martin's favorite.
Once everyone had a slice they put the cake up as leftovers and everyone started to get ready to go to bed.
As Martin was about to go to his room to sleep and end off this perfect day Chris stopped him and told him to follow him to the living room. He did and he saw the crew waiting for him there. They handed him a box which was clearly wrapped for him with the blue wrapping paper and dark blue ribbon.
He went to open it and he pulled out a sweater. The sweater was a nice blue color and had the words on the front ‘Wild Kratts’. It also had a blue paw print on it showing who the sweater belonged to. He smiled as he held it and immediately went to put it on. It fit him perfectly and he looked around at his friends and brother. “Thank you guys!” he yelled before pulling Chris who was closest to him into a hug and motioning for the others to join. They all shared a group hug before they pulled apart.
“Thank all of you guys for such an amazing day” Martin told all of them. “It's no problem” “Of course” “We are glad you liked it” “No problem bro” he heard everyone tell him.
“Goodnight” he called out to the others before he gave them one last smile and headed to his room.
That night as he was falling asleep he felt so lucky knowing he had friends and a brother who were so nice and caring.
He thought about the wish he had made when blowing out the candles and wished it would stay true forever. He had wished to always be near his friends and brother, his family.