Deep Trouble II
| File:Deep Trouble II Cover.jpg | |
| Author | R. L. Stine |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Tim Jacobus |
| Language | English |
| Series | Goosebumps |
| Genre | Horror fiction, Children's literature |
| Publisher | Scholastic |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 113 |
| Preceded by | My Best Friend Is Invisible |
| Followed by | The Haunted School |
Deep Trouble II is the 58th book in R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series and a sequel to the Goosebumps book Deep Trouble.
Synopsis
Deep Trouble II opens one year after the events of the previous book. Billy and Sheena are back on summer vacation with Dr. D in the Caribbean. The book opens with Billy tickling a ferocious octopus. The octopus turns out to be Sheena. She asks if he's a "tickle-fish." Billy decides to play a trick on his sister. He runs up to the deck of the Cassandra and grabs a gray pillow. He's going to swim underwater with the pillow sticking out so his sister thinks he's a shark. This plan backfires when a real shark shows up and chases both kids onto the boat. Then the shark starts attacking the boat. Dr. D runs out and asks about the noise. Dr. D is skeptical about the attack, as there are no sharks in the area.
Dr. D leads the kids into the office on his boat to look at a new large mystery fish he has captured. Dr. D and the kids thumb through some science books until one of them makes a shocking science discovery: the giant fish is a minnow. Billy spots some plankton samples that Dr. D has gathered and snags some to feed his goldfish. Only when Billy prepares to feed his fish, he's shocked to discover that there's a human head inside his goldfish bowl. Sheena reveals that the human head is actually a doll's head and Dr. D explains that the water in the fishbowl made the small doll head appear as large as a human head. Billy becomes obsessed with getting Sheena back for her prank. In the water the next morning, the two go swimming and Billy cries out, "Shark!" Sheena fails to fall for this. Then Sheena gets sucked into a giant jellyfish.
Billy realizes he must save his sister. He attempts to just reach in and pluck her out but nothing short of diving into the jellyfish will work. Billy plunges inside the giant creature, grabs his sister, and then the two escape as the giant jellyfish scuttles away to fight another giant fish. Once safely back on the Cassandra, the kids can't find their uncle anywhere. Billy and Sheena pull their uncle, who is covered in foamy slime, out from underneath a giant snail that has found its way onto the boat. Everyone pieces together that the giant snail aboard the ship is the same tiny snail which once lived in Billy's fishbowl. The boat suddenly jostles to one side as something immense weighs down the other end. When the trio goes to investigate, they spy Billy's pair of goldfish who are now the size of small whales and nearly capsizing the boat with their immense weight. The three main characters wrestle with the giant fish and heave them off the boat.
Three unpleasant men show up on Dr. D's boat. The head man introduces himself as Dr. Ritter and asks the trio if they've seen anything unusual. Dr. D says no but then Billy blurts out about the giant goldfish. Dr. D tries to explain that the boy is confused, but Dr. Ritter has heard enough. He sends one of his henchmen to investigate the ship and the giant snail is discovered. Dr. Ritter had developed the special plankton using science to make fish bigger and end world hunger. Dr. Ritter follows his speech with the attempted murder of the children. Billy starts to protest but Dr. Ritter says, "Shut it. Get up. Move along. Move it on the double. 'Cause if you don't you're in deep, deep trouble." But Dr. Ritter gets sidetracked when Sheena notices an attack from above: Seagulls!
These gulls ate the enchanted plankton, thus they are big. While the giant birds distract the evil scientist's henchmen, Billy and his family escape on a lifeboat. Then the lifeboat is lost at sea. Then they land on a deserted island. Two giant dolphins wash up on the shore and one gets tangled up in a rope hanging from the lifeboat. The three hop in the boat and are taken on a wild dolphin-driven ride through the sea. Dr. D and the kids wind up back at their boat, only to find Dr. Ritter has taken up residence. He greets the family and escorts them into Dr. D's lab. Dr. Ritter reveals that the enchanted plankton has a serious side effect: whenever it is ingested by a human, the human turns into a fish for life. Dr. Ritter forces Billy to choose a bottle of plankton and down its contents. Billy attempts to distract him by turning around and fussing with some pillows in order to give the impression of having turned into a fish, but Dr. Ritter forces him to drink the potion. Billy does, but he doesn't turn into a fish.
Dr. Ritter grows frustrated and a fight breaks out between the two scientists. Dr. D tries to hold Dr. Ritter down on the deck of the ship but he breaks free, grabs some plankton, and swallows it before Dr. D can call the police. Dr. Ritter then indeed does turn into a fish and merely swims away. Sheena asks Billy why he didn't turn into a fish. He explains that his revenge against Sheena was that he was going to pretend to drink the plankton. Billy threw out the liquid plankton from one of the bottles and replaced it with iced tea. Sheena begins to laugh because she had done the exact same thing and had planned to prank Billy in an identical manner. Sheena then takes a big gulp from another bottle, which is followed by her being unsure she picked the right one.
Tagline
Something's fishy ... again!
Book Description
The Fish Are Biting ... Everyone!
Billy Deep and his sister, Sheena, are spending another summer in the Caribbean on their uncle's totally cool floating lab. The weather is beautiful. And there are lots of neat places to go swimming and snorkeling. Billy and Sheena are great swimmers. But even great swimmers get into trouble--especially this year. This year there's something really scary going on under the sea. The fish all seem to be growing. Bigger and bigger. Into monster-size sea creatures. With monster-sized appetites...