119. [FOURTH WALL! ACTION FOR ERRYBODY]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[It's begun.]

[THAT TIME OF YEAR.]

[No, not the time of year when the Christmas decorations start going up in stores-- let's be real, guys, that happened like two months ago.]

[No.]

[It's that time of year when the boundaries between worlds grow thin and all kinds of wild and wonderful things come pouring out of thin air onto the streets for all to watch and enjoy.]

[... And then on the other end of the spectrum, there's...]</sub>


WHOA! HEY, EVERYBODY, LOOK! MORE NEW POKEMON!!!

_{[The shout of an excited Ace Trainer dudebro who never quite got off the September Swarm hype train rings out over the chaos as a small army of... uh... things come bumbling down the sidewalk, ineffectively squawking and bumping into peoples' legs.]}

OH! Oh, they're ADORABLE! LOOK! I'm keeping one RIGHT NOW!

<sub>[A Poke-Fan sweeps one off of its tiny nub feet and cradles it like an infant while it flops and kicks.]

[A crowd soon forms.]

[No one pays any attention to the trainer hopping up and down at the edge, waving her arms.]</sub>



Guys-- GUYS!! STOP!

THOSE AREN'T-- THOSE AREN'T POKEMON, YOU GUYS.

DON'T TRY TO CA-- unbelievable.

Comments

[foolishwren]

You?

<sub>[.... OKAY SHE DIDN'T MEAN FOR THAT TO SOUND SO INCREDULOUS, she promises.]

[But she shakes her head, then leans down to pick up the steel pipe that... conveniently manifested next to her at some point during the conversation.]</sub>

Please.

Watch the master.

[wing_attack]

[He can't just sit back and watch. So while Heather starts approaching the... creatures... Tobias starts morphing into a Hork-Bajir. It only takes him about a minute to finish morphing. It seems to go really fast here. So soon enough as she's whacking them there's a giant bladething walking up behind her.]

<Boo.>

[foolishwren]

<sub>[... Yeah, that? She was not expecting that. At all.]

[And her first instinctive response... is to whirl around and whack him with the pipe.]

[TOBIAS, LESSON 1 ABOUT DEALING WITH OTHERWORLD SURVIVORS: DO NOT SNEAK UP ON THEM WHILE LOOKING LIKE A MONSTER.]</sub>

[wing_attack]

<Ow! Sorry! I guess I should have warned you!>

[He rubs his chest gently. That really hurt...]

[foolishwren]

--whoa, WAIT.

Birdboy?

I thought you could turn into animals, not--

_{[Well HEATHER, that IS an animal. Just not one YOU know about.]}

[wing_attack]

<Aliens are animals too.>

[Technically, at least.]

<It's called a Hork-Bajir.>

[foolishwren]

Holy shit.

<sub>[That's... the best way Heather can sum it up.]

[There is A LOT MORE TO YOU THAN MEETS THE EYE, BIRDBOY. She wonders if she'll even remember it once this is over.]</sub>

[wing_attack]

[He grins, but tries to keep it from being... terrifying. Yeah.]

<Alien invasions. They bring a lot of helper species when they're just brain-infesting slugs. I'll... tell you the story of the Hork-Bajir some other time. It's a long story. They're actually a peaceful species. They eat bark.>

[Anyway. He just... steps on one of the things and squishes it.]

[foolishwren]

_{[It squishes... very easily. HEATHER IS IMPRESSED.]}

... Well, for eating bark, they sure seem good at stomping.

Have at 'em.

_{[IT'S WEIRD HAVING ANOTHER MONSTER HELP OUT WITH THE MONSTER-KILLIN', BUT HEY. She's not complainin'. She turns around and clobbers another one of the numbodies with her pipe.]}

[wing_attack]

<Yeah. Well, climbing trees is hard.>

[So. You know. Talons. But he continues with the stomping. There we go. He ignores the horrified-looking trainers in the background.]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[It doesn't take long for them to make short work of the creatures, although there's more than a few horrified gasps and screams coming from the crowd. One person staggers over to a bush and loses their lunch into it.]

[Heather pays no attention whatsoever.]</sub>

... Well I gotta say, Tobias.

Getting rid of these things sure goes a hell of a lot quicker with a... whatever you are, around.

_{[She's already forgotten what this thing is called, aside from the fact that it sort of sounded like someone sneezing.]}

[wing_attack]

<Hork-Bajir. But yeah. I uh... I helped lead two of them to make a free colony, but most of them were taken over by the Yeerks.>

[It's a useful morph, though.]

[foolishwren]

That'll look awesome on a resume.

_{[She's only partially sarcastic-sounding, because shit, he's REALLY ACCOMPLISHED. When she was his age, she was still mooching illegal alcohol off of college kids.]}

[wing_attack]

<Remind me to tell you about the time we infiltrated a McDonald's. That was a weird one.>

[Happy Meal with extra happy. Yeah.]

[foolishwren]

I think I'm gonna have to.

_{[Because there's CLEARLY a lot of crazy insane shit going on in this kid's life and she is curious as hell now.]}

[wing_attack]

<There's way too many secret entrances in my town.>

[Too many Yeerks, not enough scouts.]