Author's Note: Hi all, this is my second Alvin and the Chipmunks fanfic story. This mulled in my head for about several months and I finally decided to make it official. Penned all in 2010, so it's one of my more recent freewritten stories - no songs this time around, but I may think of/add a few if they come to mind as I write this. I hope you all enjoy. This will probably be in four parts - I don't know yet, but it will be a shorter story than most of my others, but still just as grand in scale.

Synopsis: Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are excited about the opening of a brand new water park in town called "Neptune's Palace". But the Chipmunks are disappointed when the park is closed down unexpectedly in its opening week. Thinking something is afoot, Alvin leads the way in investigating the park for any suspicious activity, but it's actually Theodore who realizes that not everyone who sets foot in the park gets out... and he'll have to muster up the courage to face whatever's trying to keep them in!

You might see one or two references to my previous story "Alvin's Ghost", but you don't have to read that to understand the events in this one - it's meant to be a standalone story. Theodore's actually the main character in this one, and I had a lot of fun with his character.

The usual disclaimer: All Alvin and the Chipmunks characters are copyright to their original creators. But the story, and my original characters (Remy included) are all my own work.

Neptune's Palace - Part I

Theodore sighed in disappointment as he peered from outside the gates of the largest water park in the city, Neptune's Palace, while the guard hurried himself by turning every person he could away from its confines.

It was a lazy Saturday evening, and Dave promised that he would take The Chipmunks to have fun after a long week of rehearsals. Alvin's mood perked up immediately after hearing the news earlier that day.

"That's great Dave! So where are we going? Honolulu? Paris? Rio de Janeiro?"

"Actually, Alvin, I was thinking we should stay in the country." Dave smiled weakly, wondering where Alvin would get the idea that they had the time or the money to just take a trip that extravagant without planning it first. "Why don't we go somewhere like an amusement park or a zoo? We're banned from the Science Museum for now, so maybe we should go somewhere where valuables can't be broken, and where you three can't possibly get into any trouble."

"How about that new water park that opened up just downtown?" Simon asked, flipping through the Attractions section of one of the latest newspapers Dave brought home during the week. "It's having its grand opening this weekend. Matter of fact, I think it started yesterday and is still going on for the next two days."

"Great idea, Simon. For once you know how to have fun." Alvin said, giving Simon a sly look out of the corner of his eyes.

"Whoever told you that I didn't, Alvin? Just because it's not in your idea of fun, doesn't make it the most boring thing in the world."

"Well, knowing you, most of the things you think are interesting ARE boring. This just happens to be an exception."

"Oh brother." Simon sighed, shaking his head.

Theodore liked the idea and wasted no time enthusiastically encouraging Dave on the idea until Dave gave in to all three of them. But that was earlier in the afternoon. Closer to the evening, when the water park was supposed to be working on a full schedule into the night, it was announced that all attractions at the park would be closed. That made all of their faces drop in surprise.

"But why would they cancel all their gigs for the evening when things were running so smoothly yesterday and even earlier today? It's just NOT cool." Alvin said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Did it ever occur to you, Alvin, that something might have happened, and that's what caused the park to close down early?"

Alvin's eyes narrowed and he mimicked Simon's tone. "I thought about that, Simon, but I was saying that it couldn't have been that bad to close down the whole park."

"Not if they got caught with a really big flood or leak somewhere." Theodore quipped.

"The water lines might be having some problems so that they might need repairs so that they can get back running again. But they won't say, so I don't know for sure." Dave mused, then bent down to face the three of them. "I'm sorry boys; I didn't expect it to be like this. We'll have to go somewhere else tonight. How about I take you three out for ice cream?"

"Sure Dave." The Chipmunks spoke in unison, but even ice cream wasn't enough to cool the fire in their curiosity about the closed waterpark.

Theodore was the first one to stir that night when he heard Alvin opening the bedroom window. Alvin was fully dressed, and readying himself to climb out the window.

"Alvin, what are you doing? It's cold outside. And where are you going?"

"Where does it look like I'm going? I'm going to check out that water park and see what's going down at that place. Something doesn't feel right about it. Besides, I wanna know why they closed it down so soon. If it was just for repairs, they'd say it be open back tomorrow. But they said it was closed indefinitely. That's not a good sign."

"Really? I thought I was the only one who felt like something was wrong." Theodore nodded. "I wanna go with you...though I don't think Dave will like it. And what about Simon?"

"I think you're both insane." Simon stirred from his dream and stretched his arms. "It's probably just a water line issue, like Dave said. At most it'll be a couple of days and they'll have it fixed with no problem. Now climb back in here, Alvin, and get some sleep. You too, Theodore."

"Like I'll believe that!" Alvin said, leaning against the windowsill. "There's no way I'll sleep knowing that there could be a monster under the water park, waiting to devour its prey as we speak!" He wiggled his fingers in midair, creating a shadow from the moonlight on the wall that looked like claws, causing Theodore to grip the edge of his blanket tightly and pull it over his nose.

"Do you always have to have some kind of conspiracy theory about everything, Alvin?" Simon rolled his eyes.

"Conspiracy?" Theodore looked confused.

"In other words, Alvin's convinced that there's always something wrong with practically everything known to mankind." Simon explained.

"I didn't say I thought there's a conspiracy in everything, I just think there's something up NOW. And usually my theories aren't incorrect."

"Do we really have to go through this again?"

"Okay wise guy, when was the last time I was wrong?" Alvin challenged.

"You were wrong that you thought there was the ghost of an armadillo haunting our garage. And that you thought you saw bats in Miss Miller's attic, and you scared the heck out of Brittany and she wouldn't talk to you for a week. And then, you thought..."

"Okay! I get the point." Alvin crossed his arms across his chest. "Don't tell me you're not wondering why they shut it down, at least a little? If it's nothing, then I'll crawl right back here and go to sleep without Dave suspecting a thing. But if I'm right..."

"If you're right, I hope you don't plan on going alone." Simon said, sitting up and placing his glasses on his eyes. "I really don't think you should take Theodore with you either. It's not a good thing for us to be sneaking off to who knows where in the middle of the night."

"Well, it's not like we don't know where it is. It's just a few blocks from here. Come on, how bad can it be?"

"All right, you've got me. I'm going to go to convince you that there's nothing wrong with the water park and there are no monsters under it waiting to eat people. And if I'm right, you owe me big time and we are coming straight back here." Simon threw off his covers.

"Uh, you still owe me from the last time, you know that, right?" Alvin wiggled his eyebrows and Simon groaned.

Theodore looked between them. Alvin's mention of a possible monster in the park made the trip suddenly feel like a burden more than an adventure. He gulped audibly as he saw Alvin and Simon look at each other defiantly.

"Well, here we are, and everything's locked up. Nothing's wrong, see? Now let's go home." Simon complained, but as he spoke, Alvin walked straight up to steel bar gates in front of the massive water park.

"There's gotta be another way in, somehow." Alvin gripped the bars between his hands and stuck his head through the bars, his eyes moving side-to-side suspiciously. "It's really quiet around here. Too quiet."

"It's late, Alvin, what do you expect? We're lucky we haven't heard a police whistle yet or a burglar alarm."

"That's exactly what I don't expect. It's supposed to be a water park. We're supposed to hear water somewhere."

Simon slapped a hand to his forehead. "Are you nuts, or are you nuts? They turn the water off at night so they can conserve energy. Not to mention they'd have a high water bill if they kept it on all night."

Alvin laughed nervously as he took his head from between the bars to look at Simon. "Yeah, I knew that."

"Right. Sure."

"But they never turn off the water fountain near City Hall, Simon. Alvin's got a point." Theodore quipped.

Simon thought for a moment. "Well, I guess they have it in their budget to keep the fountain on all the time - it's still wastes water, so it's not a good sign. Anyway, for a water park, it's much more expensive. After all, they have to deal with a lot of water. Gallons of it."

"But what about the aquariums and stuff?"

"With the aquariums, they have to keep the water in and the filters on for the fish and other marine life - that's a given, Theodore." Simon explained, but as he did, he realized that Theodore wasn't standing behind him anymore, but looking at a part of the wall where the barred fence continued out from surrounding gates to the park. Theodore pointed excitedly at the area in front of him.

"Hey guys, I think I found an opening we can slip though."

"Atta boy, Theodore, now you're talking."

"I should've just stayed home." Simon rolled his eyes.

The Chipmunks looked, in awe, around the central square of the water park, covered in cobblestones that were smooth and slightly damp in areas, a circle that stood separate from the grass and winding sidewalks leading into the heart of it all. In the middle of the area was a fountain with low brimmed lights, the water wavering in the large, stony bowl. There was a statue in the middle of the fountain, of a merman holding a trident and sporting long hair and a beard that reached his broad, bare chest.

"Who's that?" Theodore asked.

"That's Poseidon of Greek...no, wait a minute... Neptune is what the Romans call him. They named the water park after him. He's known as the God of the Sea, and all the creatures in it."

"He looks so strong."

Simon adjusted his glasses as he studied the statue. "Well, he's said to be very strong - 'as turbulent as the mighty seas' I think I heard one historian say. But his story is just one of many among the mighty Gods of Roman myth."

"Do you know what it would be like if we actually met the 'God of the Sea'? That would be totally awesome!" Alvin quipped.

"Like I said, it's Roman myth, Alvin. He doesn't exist."

"Aww." Theodore sighed, disappointed, and Alvin glared at Simon as if he just told Theodore that the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus weren't real.

As Simon walked ahead of them, Alvin put a hand on his little brother's shoulder. "Don't worry, Theodore. Let's go look around the rest of the park, we might find some more cool stuff to see while we're here, so let's check it out."

"Okay." Theodore looked back at the statue one last time before following Alvin and Simon as they went to explore the buildings of the park.

Alvin was the first to see a unique feature of the park - a staircase that lit up as one would walk on it, and beneath the stairs were swirling streams of water, framed within very thick panes of glass steps. It looked gorgeous in the night, almost like a royal blanket leading down to the buildings where they headed.

"Look at this guys!" Alvin ran up and down the stairs, causing the lights to gleam on and off, and the water to bubble under his strides. Theodore found it amusing as well, strolling down the steps, pretending that he was a prince of the sea. Simon studied the stairs carefully.

"I have to say, this is a magnificent piece of architecture. It must have taken them days to build and install it, the lights and all. I don't really understand how they managed to design it with the water inside the glass like this, but I bet a lot of people enjoyed walking down this when the park first opened."

"I'd enjoy walking down it at any time. I bet it looks cooler now than it does during the day."

"I don't know about that, Alvin - with the way this is built, and the railing - it's got water flowing through it too. I think it might be like a glass water castle, day or night." Simon raised his brows, looking ahead of him. "In fact, I'd say that this whole park is like a water palace - makes sense for the name."

"Well, then. I think we should go explore the castle while we have the chance."

"Says the guy who thinks there's something wrong with the place." Simon said skeptically. "Face it, Alvin. You wanted to come here to frolic around while the park was closed."

"Hey, this is an investigation still. I didn't say we couldn't enjoy ourselves while we do it." Alvin said with a wide grin.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Theodore said excitedly.

Simon shook his head again. He was convinced as many times as he did the motion, his neck would be sore by the time he returned home.

The three of them came closer to the attraction buildings, which looked like grand, stony rotundas - much like Roman architecture, Simon noted, only that the outside shell was meant to be an imitation, while the inside was like most modern buildings. He was surprised to not see any security guards, but supposed that his guilty conscience was working overtime.

"So which building should we investigate first? The 'Hall of the Deep Sea'? The 'Underwater Party'? Or should we go to the...uh...'Aqueous Aquarium'?" Alvin said, as he read off all of the building names.

"Aqueous Aquarium? They couldn't come up with a better name for it than that?" Simon asked.

"Fine, Mr. Skeptical, we won't go that route..at least right now. It's probably just your standard aquarium anyway." Alvin said, eyeing Simon out of the corners of his eyes. "Hmm...okay, Theodore, you choose."

When Alvin looked at him, Theodore didn't half expect to be given the decision to choose where to go. "Me? Really?"

"Yep. Or if you don't wanna go to any of these, we can look another place."

"We don't have all the time in the world, you two." Simon chided.

Theodore hesitated, looking around the three places before pointing ahead for the one he chose. "Um...okay - let's go to the 'Hall of the Deep Sea.'"

"Sounds fine to me." Alvin marched ahead of them through the entrance, while Theodore followed him, and Simon wearily looked behind them before going in last.

The attraction was true to its name, the front room was like a temple with blue stone walls, and the sides of the walls with ridges filled water steadily streaming water. The sound was relaxing to Theodore's ears, and he looked above to see a projection of shimmering water. It gave the illusion that they were under the sea.

"It's so pretty!" Theodore said. He put in hand in one of the ridges to touch the cool streaming water, opening his fingers so that the water could branch through them. Alvin did the same for a little bit, before shaking his hands and then marching ahead to the next best thing. Simon followed Alvin, and Theodore followed both of them.

The room they entered was much like a hall of mirrors in a carnival. The major difference was that the floor of the place had the same projection of steady, waving waves they'd seen in the room before it. Alvin was nearly startled by the ambient, aura type music that started playing when he walked across the entrance to the maze.

"Alvin, what did you do?" Simon complained.

"I didn't do anything!" Alvin said in a harsh whisper. "The music just started playing by itself."

Theodore listened to the melody, a shimmering set of chimes with sounds like slow streams of bubbles in the background, and a low choral voice that hummed in the background.

"Hey, I think I know this melody - didn't this play when we went to the trip to the National Aquarium for our school trip?"

"You recognize that?" Alvin said with a raised eyebrow towards Theodore. "Come to think of it, it does sound familiar."

"I think it is. 'Oceania's Breath' is the name of the song - it's an instrumental. Good call, Theodore."

"Of course you would know it, Simon." Alvin said, rolling his eyes. "But the melody is nice, I guess. I think it gives me an idea for a song."

"You're not going to start singing in here, are you Alvin? You'll crack the glass if you start belting a rock song. Not to mention alert anyone in the near vicinity."

Alvin had a surprised expression, his pride somewhat injured. "Who said it was anything loud? I can do ballads too, ya know?"

"You rarely do, though."

Alvin narrowed his eyes at Simon, but shrugged the words from his mind. "Fine, forget it, let's just go and then to the next place if we don't find anything here."

Alvin marched ahead without a word in edgewise. But as Theodore followed the two, he thought he heard something. Something that sent a bristle up his back, and not in a good way. There was something low and breathless, something aside from the music that panted in gasps, like something trying desperately to get as much air as it could.

"Please...Please...." The voice was breathless and pleading, and Theodore looked around, wondering from where it was coming. He could just barely hear it, well under the ambience of the speakers, but yet it felt as close as if it were whispering in his ears.

"Uh...g-g-g-guys? I think I hear something...." Theodore's voice trailed off, as he realized that he was alone, and his own slightly worried reflection staired back at him. The voice...the sound, whatever it was, had gone just as soon as it came, but it had been enough to freeze him in place for however long a time it had been. How long had it been again? Alvin and Simon were just there, or so Theodore thought. It wasn't until he heard Simon called for him, with an annoyed tone to match, to hurry up that Theodore broke out of the reverie and rushed ahead.