The next morning, Aileen, Sparky, and Shade set out early to recruit the brunette bunny girl.
Shade explained that the Twilight 3ooo tracked the recruits, too. The bunny girl lived in the grassy Southern Plains of Knoll.
In the back caves of Base Camp, there were various vehicles. All of them were pale purple, so Aileen guessed that Twilight had made them.
Shade led Aileen and Sparky over to a small glider-like thing but with a cockpit, but before they hopped in, Shade threw out an arm and stopped them.
“No water or fire in the plane!” She said. “Replace your disguises after the ride.”
So Sparky and Aileen removed the fire and water covering them, and they settled into the back seats of the little jet.
In the Southland Plains, they found their target.
She was in bunny form, bouncing around and eating a piece of celery. Then she switched to human and looked at Aileen, Sparky, and Shade suspiciously.
She crunched on her celery, but she scrunched up her nose, took a shaker out of her pocket, and thoroughly sugared the celery. She took another bite and nodded, satisfied.
“Who are you?” she asked.
Shade sighed. “Why do recruits always have to be so difficult? Calm down, Evie. We won’t hurt you… probably.”
The bunny girl - Evie - turned back into a bunny and bared her little bunny teeth. Then she said in a high, squeaky voice, just like how I figured a bunny would sound, “How do you know my name?”
“This is Shade. She reads minds,” Sparky said.
“Okay,” Evie said. “And you’re on fire.”
This was true. Sparky and Aileen had gone back into our disguises after the plane ride. Shade didn’t want anyone else to know who we were. Aileen had pointed out that we wouldn’t be able to have our disguises during the ride, but Shade said, “I’ll just tell her brain not to let her eyes work.”
“Well, who’s the watery one?” Evie demanded. She pointed her celery at me. Aileen snatched it out of her hand and ate it, immediately spitting it out because it was so sweet.
“How can you eat this?” I sputtered.
“Caffeinated Fish lives on caffeine. I’m guessing Evie lives on sugar,” Shade supplied.
“A fish that lives on caffeine? Sounds like my kind of fish!” Evie said.
A voice echoed from inside a big opening in the ground - a rabbit warren.
“Evie? Who are you talking to?”
“No one, Navy!” Evie called back. “Absolutely no one, hehe!”
“Who is it, Evie?”
“Darnit!”
A tall girl with naturally white hair emerged from the rabbit warren. Looking closer, Aileen realized she had vitiligo, so her skin was multiple colors. Little frosty snowflakes drifted around her hands. She must have been an Ice Elemental, which was a sub-species of Water Elementals.
“Who are you?” Navy asked. She narrowed her eyes and grew sharp ice claws out of the tips of her fingers, ready to attack if needed.
“Relax,” Shade said, stepping forward, and the tiny crease between Navy’s eyebrows disappeared. She settled back into a more welcoming position, but her eyes were pure terror as she stared in disbelief at Shade.
“What do you want with Evie?” Navy yelled as soon as Shade unfroze her. “I won’t let you take her away to live in a nasty,-” she struggled to find the right word- “stupid orphanage!!”
“Navy!” Evie gasped. “I’ve never heard you use a word as bad as ‘stupid’ before!” she seemed genuinely shocked.
“This situation calls for bad words,” Navy growled.
“RESPECT!” Shade yelled, cutting off Evie before she even said anything else. “THIS IS THE LORD! DON’T BE SO DISMISSIVE AND DISRESPECTFUL!”
Shade did a weird bow thing where she crouched like a frog and flailed her arms like an octopus. “ALL HAIL THE LORD OF THE OCTOFROG CULT”
“Um, what now?” Evie asked.
Aileen stepped forward. “I am the Lord of the OctoFrog Cult. We wish to summon the almighty god OctoFrog, with a willing sacrifice. Willing!” I said again hastily as Navy opened her mouth to protest.
“We would give you a gracious home. People to live with. An - ahem - nice bubblehead goldfish. Good food - unless Sparky cooks it.”
“Hey!” Sparky protested, but Aileen was on a roll. Being the boss of everyone was easier than she expected.
“Of course, you also need disguises and code names. We don’t know who each other is in this cult unless you joined with someone you already know, of course.”
“Is that why you guys are dressed so weirdly?” Evie asked. “I mean,” - she pointed at Shade, “that lady’s hair is covering her eyes!”
“What eyes?” Shade asked. She flipped up her bangs. Evie screamed and stumbled back. She would have fallen, but Navy caught her.
“Yeah. It takes some getting used to,” Sparky jumped in.
Evie turned to Navy and whispered something. Navy’s eyes widened, and she nodded.
Navy and Evie turned back to Aileen, Sparky, and Shade.
“We will join,” Evie announced. She copied the odd bow that Shade had done to Aileen, and Aileen nodded respectfully at Evie.
“Let’s see. I’ll be… Glaucous, my favorite color,” Navy said.
“And I’ll be the Bunny of Doom and Darkness!” Evie said.
“As I told Sparky when she wanted to be Eternal Despair, if you call yourself that I will have Caffeinated Fish strangle you,” Shade said. “You know I will. Yes, really!” She added after a moment. “Don’t question it. Yes, I know you did, but still!”
“Could you, y’know… not read my mind?” Evie asked.
“Oh, I can’t,” Shade said.
“I think I know what you should be,” Glaucous said quietly before Evie could retort. “You should be Hopper.”
Evie turned into a bunny, hopped around a bit, and nodded her satisfaction.
Glaucous smiled and backed up. She seemed a little shy.
“Is that all, then?” Aileen asked.
“NO!” Shade yelled. She held out her broken Twilight device. “Hopper, you broke this.”
“How could she possibly have broken it?” Glaucous wondered, but Shade was on a roll. “My mother made this. She’s gone now. Do you have any idea how irreplaceable this is??”
“So that’s what happened yesterday!” Hopper said. “I can sense technology. I felt something, but I wasn’t sure what. That explains it!”
“Can you fix it?”
“I can try.”
Hopper took the Twilight 3ooo and turned it over. She took a screwdriver out of her pocket and opened up the back. Shade watched her warily.
After a few twists and turns of the screwdriver, the Twilight 3ooo buzzed back to life. Looking pleased, Hopper closed up the opening on the back of the device.
“Yay, Hopper!” Glaucous chanted softly.
Shade was relieved. She snatched back the Twilight 3ooo and pressed a switch. The device was turned off.
“Get packed up,” Aileen told Hopper and Glaucous. “You’re about to see your new home.”
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