Hoshi no Guu (Star Piece Quest) (M)

[Guu]

High above the canopy, birds called into the jungle, eagerly trying to attract a mate. Insects of all sorts of varieties were singing. The trees shielded the ground from the oppressive sun up ahead. The moist air of the jungle was almost suffocating, or at least it would be if this particular girl needed to breath.
 
The Ambrosian Princess Guu strolled through the harsh terrain of the jungle. Her guide, a strange bear-cat like creature with bat wings and a pomp attached to an antennae on his head, lead the way through the brush. He carried a-packed-to-the-brim knack sack on his back.
 
“I have to say again that it is an honor to guide you my princess, kupo!” He said jovially, a skip to each step. “I never thought I’d have the company of royalty on one of my trips, Kupo!”
 
“You sure the astronaut is still there?” Inquired Guu as she narrowly dodge the brush that was trying to scratch at her knees.
 
“Oh yes, you’re quite lucky in deed, kupo! I’m delivering food to them right now, kupo. They’ve been ordering from the Sty and Fry several times a week, kupo. They’ve been a good but dangerous business, kupo!”
 
Her guide would continue to drone on about the business, making a ton of noise. As his constant verbal tick started to ware on her patience, she eventually drowned him out, focusing on her senses. She could feel every plant, every tree, and every animal that was in that immediate area. She could sense a bunny carrying along food for her young. She could sense a pokute running from a falcon. She could sense the orc hiding in the brush.
 
“Us moogles are a resilient race, kupo. We know how to survive harsh environments, kupo!”
 
What started as a single orc quickly turned into two, then into many, each one converging on their location, spears raised. They inched their way through the wilds, concealed by the green of the jungle.
 
“Not to mention, we are cunning like a fox, kupo. Nothing gets passed me, kupo.”
 
Guu counted them all; four, maybe six. She knew she could take them, but she needed a plan of attack and fast. It doesn’t help that she needed to protect her clueless guide as well. The group was closing in, weapons at the ready. The ambush was imminent. Suddenly, the moogle swatted at something on his leg.
 
“Ha! Gotcha, Kupo!” He said excited, a little bit of red soaked his fur where his attack landed. He looked over Guu with a proud look on his face. “Mosquito couldn’t evade my detection, kupo! Like I told you, cunning like a fox, Kupo!”
 
The furry guide jumped back in surprise as the princess suddenly turned into an adult woman with thigh-length pink hair. Before he could escape the grasps of his shock, her fist rockets into the wilderness, her arm extending to an absurd range before impacting on the skull of the closest orc. The green-skinned warrior toppled over giving off a pained grunt as he crashes the dirt, unconscious.
 
Three other orcs charge from the growth, the group coming in from all sides. Upon seeing them, the moogle gave off a very effeminate scream before running off to hide, quivering, behind Guu. The princess rocketed another punch towards the orc heading in from her right. Prepared for it, the warrior leapt out of what would have been another head shot, but he still got hit real hard in the chest, sending him stumbling back.
 
Meanwhile, the warrior charging in from the front of her got in close enough to lay in an attack. He swung his large painted axe at her with all his strength. Sensing the attack long in advance, she tilted her body a few inches to the right, the blade barely missing her shoulder. The orc reeled back for another swipe, this time, she caught the attack by the wrist and then used the momentum of the attack to throw him over her shoulder, and tossed him into the orc that was charging in from the rear.
 
Before she could do anything more to the orc, she sensed an arrow whizzing through the air towards her. She split her head in the middle, making a large hole for the projectile for fly through harmlessly. Her head back together and her senses back in focus, she noticed the final two combatants had held back and pulled out their bows. The second one was preparing another shot. Guu parted from her current opponents, preferring to be a moving target; the orcs stumbling to get off their backs didn’t require much movement.
 
The warrior that got hit in the chest had regained his standing and was already making his way to Guu. The Princess tumbles out of the way of another arrow’s trajectory as she sends out another arm. This one sweeps in low, catching the charging orc by the ankle. Toppling over once again, she grabs him by the foot and begins to spin in place. The momentum of her continuous twirl has him hovering in the air as she maintains her grip. She could sense the first archer tugging at his bow, ready to launch off another arrow.
 
Just as the archer’s steady hand loosens to let off his attack, she lets go of the orc warrior, launching him into the air in the direction of the archer. As the pink enigma casually dodges out of the way of the projectile, the bowman barely could get a few steps into his flight before he’s suddenly crushed under the weight of his fellow soldier. Neither was eager to get up again.
 
Suddenly, the sound of thunder rang out over the canopy. Guu quickly turned to look on the source and she saw that the second archer was lying prone on the ground, his body was scorched and smoking. In the corner of her eye, she saw her moogle companion in a battle stance, his arm outstretched. He looked over to her and grinned. She grinned back.
 
The two orcs from the first charge finally get back to their feet. They see their fried and bludgeoned companions, and then they see the pair that easy pummeled them. The moogle and the pink anomaly all turned their attention the pair, giving them harsh glares. The pair, knowing now that they were no match, quickly ran off, disappearing into the jungle ahead.
 
Guu, not wanting to deal with the remaining unconscious orcs when they woke, picked up her furry companion and dashed into the wood, out of possible sight of their attackers.

[Guu]

The princess ran as fast as she could through the brush of the jungle, no longer caring about plants clawing at her legs. She made as much distance as she could from the ambush site. She held her moogle companion in her arms, the furry friend trying desperately to maintain grasp on his bindle.
 
As the orcs disappeared from her senses, she finally took the occasion to slow down, eventually shifting to a light stroll and then into a complete stop. She lowered herself down to let her friend back on his feet. In a single flash of light, Guu shifted into her childlike form.
 
As the bat-winged comrad checked his bag to see if anything was lost in the scuffle, the princess accessed damage. Aside from the scratches on her legs and the tears in her skirt, she couldn’t sense any more damage on herself. Either they got really lucky, or those orcs were really shitty warriors.
 
Probably the latter.
 
However, she was mildly surprised as the moogle fell down to his knees. He bowed down before her, his round red nose in the dirt.
 
“I’m sorry princess.” He said, his voice somber.
 
“For what?” She inquired, cocking her head like a curious cat.
 
“I didn’t live up to my own hype. I didn’t do what I needed to do to protect you. I’m a failure as a guide, kupo.” He said, a hint of pain in voice as he barred his pride. Guu felt like a reverend at a church receiving a confessional, which she found ironic considering. “I just wanted to impress you.”
 
The furry one’s change of tone was unexpected. At first, she saw him as one of those oblivious types that would bumble into dangerous situations like an idiot, forcing the far more competent character to save the day; you know, that kind of trope. Scrappy Doo and Mr. Magoo come to mind.
 
However, she did not expect his baseless boasting to be an active attempt at her approval. She wasn’t used to people seeking that sort of thing out… or at least not without the fear of the ancients instilled in them.
 
It was a shame; he would have been really fun to troll down the line.
 
Guu extended a stubby arm out towards her furry friend. After lifting his head up to give the fingerless palm a puzzled look, he placed a paw around the Princess’ stub. It didn’t take much effort for her to lift him up to his feet.
 
“I wouldn’t worry about it. You did come through with that magic of yours.” She reasoned, trying to sound compassionate through her emotionless visage. “And I don’t really care you made a mistake. Not like either of us got hurt.”
 
“Oh, thank you princess!” He said overjoyed, he enthusiastically shakes her hand. “I promise to be more helpful from here-on-out! Kupo!”
 
It was getting more and more weird. She was barely trying to be supportive and this merchant was already inspired. Is this really what it was like to have a positive effect on other people’s lives?
 
“Now that I think about it,” added Guu, pulling away her arm and resting it on her chin. “I don’t believe I got your name.”
 
“Pitchin! My name is Pitchen!”
 
“Well, Pitchen, let’s keep heading towards the temple.”
 
“Yes, maam! Kupo!”
 
The moogle led the way as the pair made their way through the jungle. The rest of the trip was surprisingly less eventful. While Pitchen wasn’t as great with the orcs, an encounter with a bear proved him knowledgeable of surviving the wilderness.
 
“This breed of bear prefers to leave people alone.” He said, a little bit of pride bleeding out in his words. “As long a we keep distance, we should be safe. Just be glad it wasn’t a grizzly or a polar.”
 
A good hour of walking passed and the pair finally spot the sight of stone brick walls through the small gaps in the tree trunks. Guu could already sense the massive interior of the thing.
 
“We’re here my princess!” He said excitedly. “Kupo!”

[Guu]

Guu pointlessly rubbed her eyes with the stubs of her arms as she pretended she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. A gigantic temple expanded far into the distance. Vines and moss have long captured the outer stone brick walls that held everything together. Statues stood as tributes for unusual gods, most of which were unrecognizable to the princess, while the ones she did know didn’t well up positive memories.

From her past experiences, she never really was fond of worshippers as she wasn’t really a people abomination before the Omniverse, but she was endlessly impressed with what mortals can accomplish with that determination; they always seem to have a wide abundance of it. There’s something beautiful and terrifying about it, not that she would ever admit that.

“So that is where the asparagus is?” She asked her humble moogle guide.

“Yep, in the sanctuary. Luke Kuechley and his bodyguards probably still looking to find that star piece, kupo.” He responded. He was just happy his beloved Princess was not upset with his antics. “There’s a neutral aligned orc tribe in there, but they won’t cause us much trouble. We have to keep our eyes open for traps though. Kupo.”

Guu cocked an eyebrow.

“What is this, Dungeons and Dragons?”

“No, I don’t think there are any dragons in there my princess, kupo!”

She face stumped. Modern references were a waste on Moogles. Though, she did have a brief mental image involving Final Fantasy characters sitting around in a gaming shop to play some tabletop. It was deserving of a chuckle.

Silly hypothetical scenarios aside, she signalled to her companion with a swiping gesture.

“Let’s get going. Time to meet these asthmatics.”

“Yes maam!” He responded obediently. He stepped onwards and lead the way through the temple.


The pair crossed a large stone portal. Written on the walls were the fading text: “Enter on your own peril.” The air inside the temple was moist and thick. A chill was in the air as the smell of long dead corpses joined with the grassy scent of moss.

Not that Guu had a nose.

Pitchen had his eyes wide, carefully looking around the room, trying to gain a jump on whatever traps lay dormant in the darkness. The princess stepped with the grace of a emo goth at a church. However, while her body did not show it, her senses were also searching, wondering where the first trap will land.

However, the pair came to a sudden halt. They both spotted it, the first trap!

It was a cardboard box, propped up with a stick that’s tied to a rope. Laying inside, there was a single carrot, waiting on a china plate.

The two stare at the carrot for the longest time. They were wondering when the first trap would show itself, and for their sins, they got it.

After a few wordless moments, a hushed voice rings around a near corner.

“Get the carrot!” The voice stated exasperated, both yelling and whispering at the same time.

The box was way too small to capture either of them in.

Guu sighed heavily. She stretched an arm out across the room, causing the stranger from across the corner to yelp. She snatched up the carrot and quickly retracted her arm. Upon her appendage returning to its place, she offer the carrot to her ally.

However, before he could take it, a soft rumbling travelled through the entire temple. The pair looked around for the source, but the sound of gears turning quickly overtook it. The hallway they were standing in was shrinking. The walls were closing in!

The sound of manic laughter echoed down the hall of the stranger, a trap well laid, despite the hiccups.

[Guu]

Slowly, the walls closed in on our two heroes, threatening their fragile bodies. The pair looked at each other and then casually walked out of the hallway and into safety. Apparently, common sense was the mortal enemy of this trap layer, as the corner he hid behind was his own undoing. The walls didn’t even come close to flattening them as they were moving at a snail’s pace.

“Well, that was stupid.” Stated Guu. “And kind of disappointing.”

“That guy gets me in a trap every single time. He’s not very good at the follow through though.” Pitchen said quite matter of factly. “Seriously, the dangerous traps are further in the temple. Thankfully, I never have to go that far, kupo.”

The pair continued down the corridor. The princess couldn’t sense any other traps up ahead, at least no obvious ones. A temporary reprieve from the dangers of the temple and far away from the predators of the jungle, the pair had a quiet moment together as they transversed the long hallway.

“So what did they order anyways?” Asked the pink one, partially out of a desire to break the silence but mostly out of genuine curiosity. “You said it was from the Sty and Fry?”

“Five orders of kimchi tacos, a gallon of kombucha, and kale smoothies” Pitchen replied. Customer confidentiality doesn’t seem to be a factor with this one, not that it mattered as Guu didn’t care to know what any of that was. “Yeah, I don’t see why they enjoy the stuff. Not that I care, more Omns for my family and me.”

Guu peered over to her furry friend. This was the first mention of a family. The moogle sensed her gaze and responded.

“Not married. Despite my name, I’m not a lady’s Moog.” He said, a slight twinge of pain in his voice. “I have plenty of brothers and sisters, long line of them. We’ve got to support each other, ya know? Kupo!”

“Eh, yeah, I guess so.” She didn’t fully understand, everything she learned about family was from humans, and she spent much of her time on Earth trolling the shit out of them.

Hey, can’t blame her; it was fun and she didn’t have as much of a reason to have a moral compass back then.

“Especially my sister Matigia, she’s the sweetest!” He continued. “I need to introduce you when this is all over, she’s the kindest person ever! Took care of me at my lowest ya know? Very loyal, kupo!”

Before any follow up questions could be asked, the pair went around a corner and was met with the mouth of the hallway. Obscuring the sunlight was a giant wall of smoke billowing through the exit in large clouds. Guu and Pitchen looked at each other. The moogle took a deep breath and the pair stepped through the portal.

Lucky for the princess, she could get along without breathing, but her merchant friend wasn’t so lucky, eventually, he was forced to take a breath, which was followed by a long succession of coughs. Vision impaired, Guu scanned the area. A large garden littered with statues of various gods. She was glad Pitchen couldn’t see them as a few would have driven him mad from the sight of them. Amongst the flora and monuments stood incense candles, thousands upon thousands of incense candles. It was impressive they could keep the smoke up considering they were outdoors. Pitchen finally stopped coughing long enough to get a word in.

“No matter how many times,” he spat out before coughing a dozen more, “I never get used to that.”

Then, parting through the smoke clouds like they weren’t even there, a strange man appeared. He was a beefy man; a body builder of sorts. His hair was in a blonde crew cut and he had a scar across his face that stretch over one of his baby blue eyes. He looked down at the moogle and then gave him a doofy little grin.

“Ah, food’s finally here!”

[Guu]

Pitchen stepped forward towards his customer. He unraveled his bindle to reveal a plastic bag full of styrofoam containers. The hunky guard reach down to pluck it from his paws.

“Everything ya like, just as ordered!” The moogle said, pleased of a job well done.

“Thanks bro!” He responded, before turning his attention towards the odd one of the group. “And who might you be?”

“Guu.” She said plainly. Weary of stating her title, she hoped her name alone would get the job done. The hunk gazed blankly into space as if in a trance. His brain slowly booted up information. Suddenly, in a jolt, he jumps back five feet as his arms shot back as far as they could.

“Woah, you mean, THE Guu, as in Princess of Ambrosia, Guu?”

“The genuine article.” She said, a manner of blase in her voice. The guard looked over towards Pitchen who gave him a nod. This simple confirmation only caused more of a reaction as his face contorted in horrifying ways and his jaw dropped so hard, you’d be surprised it was still hinged to his face.

In a moment, almost so fast that it caused the moogle to jump back an inch, he fell to his knees. He took Guu’s arm stump and kissed what he believe was the back of it.

“It is an honor to have you here, your highness!”

The pink anomaly flattened out her hand to escape his grasp, then she latched her tentacle like arms around the man, lifting him in the air. She placed him on his feet, leaving him shocked and horrified. Even Pitchen stood there in disbelief at what had transpired. He knew all well about his ruler’s antics, but they are still bizarre to encounter in real life.

“We don’t do hand kissing unless if it were asked of you.” Guu explained, as if the hunk committed a faux pas.

“O-oh.” The guard said, quivering in place. He took a second, breathing hard as the words worked to escape his lips. “I’ll go get the boss!”

With that, he ran off, disappearing in the endless smoke.

Pitchen looked towards his princess, concern in his gaze.

“Pardon my bluntness your highness,” he started, gulping hard before continuing. “But that wasn’t very diplomatic of you”

“Neither was hitting on me.” Guu said, plainly,

“Hi-hitting on you?” The moogle replied, his head cocking on one side.

“I know it’s hard to resist my feminine wiles, but some people need to learn control.”

The merchant just stood there, stunned stiff at the conversation that had just transpired. He took another second before he could compose himself.

“He wasn’t hitting-” he stopped himself. There was a more important matter to discuss. “These people represent Camelot. It’s best to play the field and try to be nice to them. They could be our allies one day and these kind of actions might bite us down the line.”

Guu was silent. Her mind raced for a counter argument. However pitchen went on the offensive.

“Remember when you trolled Gilgamesh on Twitter? The war that came from that?”

She sighed heavily. She knew he was right. While the fight did lead to good things, it was hardly a success in how it all began.

‘What happened to the days when I could just mind control my problems away?’ She thought.

“Are you okay?” Her train of thought was broken at the sound of the voice. She turned to look at her companion only to be greeted by the look of a concerned Moogle. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, I didn’t mean to be so blunt and bring up bad memories like that.”

“Oh. No. It’s fine, it needed to be said.”

One of the things she feared most out of her leadership role was the limits to her freedom. She was so used to doing anything without consequence that suddenly having the fate of a whole kingdom relying on your words was quite a leap. She wished she could have had at least a breathing period, but we all know that subtlety was never her thing, and apparently that was true with the circumstances around her.

Her train of thought was once again broken by the guard stepping out from the smoke, followed by what she could only describe as the most hodgepodge of a man in existence. At first thought, she thought he was just dressing of his culture as he had a long curly white wig, a dark blue waist coat, and buckle shoes. However, on closer inspection, he wore a t-shirt under his coat that read “I -poo emoji- Camelot” and he was clearly wearing blue jeans. The biggest give away was his trilby sitting on top of his head. It was like a hipster wanted to emulate the style of a Salem witch trial court judge and gave up halfway.

The guard took a second for his shakes to subside before speaking again.

“This is my b-boss.” He couldn’t even get his words completely out before the shivering kicked in again.

The man tipped his trilby at Guu.

“My Princess.” He said smugly. “My name is Luke Kuechley. It’s a pleasure.”

[Guu]

She so wanted to punch him. She’d give anything to punch him. Just everything about the way he carried himself, the way he introduced himself, just made her fist itch for a facial collision. However, she did her best to curb her cravings. If scaring the shit out of a guard was considered a diplomacy nightmare, she couldn’t imagine what punching Mr. Kuechley would do.

Instead, she gritted her teeth, and bowed down a little bit, lifting a bit of her skirt in a curtsey. When her eyes faced the man again, they were in full social face. Her eyes were a gleaming expressive red hue, her hair became looser; flowing, and she sported the biggest smile she could muster.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, too!” She said in a sweet voice, one that felt painfully forced coming from her lips. Usually her social face seemed to have a mind of its own, but right this second, her old face was fighting back with a vengeance.

“Sorry about the smoke.” He stated. “A little bit of incense to mask the smell of this place.”

Her fist quivered, her blood was now boiling, she didn’t know how she was holding back anymore. She felt like she could explode. Even her feet were shaking, ready to lunge forward at her annoying prey.

“So you’re here for my astronomy expertise? I’ve been in this field for a long time.”

Her head was now accompanied by a screaming headache. To hell with diplomacy, she had to say something, she wouldn’t last long like this. She had to say something to this cretin.

“Why would there be astronomers in the Omniverse?” She yelled out.

Her moogle friend waved to her to stop, fearful of another faux pas, but Luke was already turning to face her, his face was stern.

“What do you mean?”

“Well we’ve known for a long time that the sky is fake. Like if you just fly high enough, you’d just hit the edge of the verse, so the stars are just an illusion created by Omni to create immersion.”

“Well-”

“The only reason you’d study them is to see if Omni is leaving messages for us in them, and that’s an entirely different field than astronomy. That’s closer to astrology than astronomy. What’s the point of your-”

“It’s important now!” He interrupted, his voice erratic. “If we didn’t have Astronomers, who would investigate the star pieces?”

Guu just cocked her head. Pitchen was running his finger across his neck, trying to signal to her, but she never turned her gaze from the man. Her eyes, now fully returned to their dull lifeless state, pierced right through him like duel blades. There was no more lying.

“What were you doing until now, Mr. Kuechley? What advancements have you made in the field before now?”

Kuechley’s scowl wore heavy, his face was red as a tomato. He did not reply, he just glared right back at the princess, pure rage in his eyes.

“No examples? None whatsoever?” She said, but Luke finally broke his silence.

“I’ll have you know that the Kingdom recruited me! They recruited me from the empire!”

“Ooh, I touched on a nerve there.” She said, calm as a cucumber. She couldn’t help but feel a bit of satisfaction surfacing amongst her overwhelming wrath. “Just admit it, the only reason you’re in the field to begin with is because it’s ironic. It makes you feel special, but what is makes you is a nuisance. You think the orcs here like the smoke? You think the Camelotians appreciate your meme t-shirt relating them to shit, or your pointless job? Anyone actually qualified could be doing this research assignment right now, but instead, they have a lowlife who wants to play games and waste everyone’s time.”

From the look on the man’s face, he looked like he would have been blowing steam from his ears, but for the longest second, he couldn’t respond. Finally, once again, he broke his silence.

“Escort the Princess and her minion from the premises. They are not welcome in my sanctuary anymore.”

With that, he pops his collar and starts walking away, disappearing into the smoke once more. His guard, still shaken from his earlier experience, slowly approached the two.

“O-okay, it’s time to go.” He said. He wasn’t even within five feet before he stopped, just waving his arms in a shooing position. Guu turned to her companion.

“You go ahead and leave, I’ve got a bit more business to attend to here.” She explained. The moogle glared at her.

“But he told us to leave.” He replied, his voice barely made out the words as he looks up towards the guard, intimidated.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be good.”

You know how I said her blood was boiling? I meant that literally. Her veins were expanding from the sheer pressure. This whole time, she was compressing her organs to hide the effect from sight, but she couldn’t hold it anymore. Suddenly, she inflates like a balloon, followed by a loud pop. She explodes into little Guu chunks that fly everywhere. Pitchen and the guard just stand there, frozen in horror as blood and entrails rain from the sky.

[Guu]

“The nerve of some people!” He yelled, throwing his hands in the air as he stormed through the smoke covered grounds. Encroaching fast were five trailers, all fitted to look like they were made of stone brick. He marched into one of the campers and slammed the door shut behind him.

Still fuming, he sat down and pulled out his wood engraved phone. He started listening to some indie rock band no one has ever heard of singing about a guy drowning in a lake that’s funneling into a giant wood chipper. If this were not text on the page, we’d have to censor the album photo.

He leaned back in his polyester purple swivelling computer chair as he takes a puff out of a large marijuana cigar. He sighed in irritation, those things stopped working months ago. He waited a few minutes, just giving every hopeless chance for the drug to take effect. He passed the time by looking over his large figurine collection; Amiibo, or at least the Omniverse equivalent, all still in their original packaging. His eyes fixed on a pretty pink princess like character in a long pink dress.

‘If only Princesses in the Omniverse were like the ones from the stories.’ He thought, he blew a puff of smoke upwards before looking back down at the figure. ‘A foxy babe like that, now that’s a leader I can get behind.’

It annoyed the hell out of him. The only princesses he could think of was a racist midget back home, a strange four-legged deer thing in the Astral Realm, and the abomination that appeared on his doorstep. Not a single one of them had a decent rack of any kind.

‘The Princesses were always beautiful in the stories.’ He lamented.

A moment of silence revealed his melancholy, and out of anger towards his vulnerability, he tossed the cigar in a nearby ashtray so hard that it bounced off of it and onto his desk. Looking for anything that’ll ease his mind, he dropped to his knees and found a large safe hidden under his desk. Reaching over, he tapped a number of buttons on the mounted keypad and the door to it popped open with a click.

Sitting inside the safe was piles upon piles of documents, maps, and notes. In one scoop with his hand, he pulled it out and plopped it on the top of his desk. He sat back in his chair and reclined, staring deeply at the paper. Nothing was more beautiful than his work. The location of the star piece, all his research, in his eyes it was more lovely than any flower, than any woman even. Finally, he could feel his joy return to him, as a smile crept across his face. It’s something about the work that you personally put everything into that really catches your admiration.

But, his joy wouldn’t last as suddenly, blood and guts started to practically climb up his desk. He didn’t notice it at first as his rug was burgundy, but now it was rolling up the sides of his work area like some sort of gory reverse waterfall, with little chunks of body parts floating in the mix. He was kind of frozen in confusion at first, but then he rolled back in fright as a still beating heart floated up. With every beat, it spat out a flow of blood, like some really disgusting supersoaker. He barely got out of the way before he could get splattered with blood himself.

As the blood and guts formed on the top of the table, they made a circle around the documents. It was around this point that he finally put it together.

“No!” He yelled out, but it was too late.

The gore suddenly transformed into a mouth which closed around the paper like a bear trap. From the mouth formed the rest of Guu’s body, just slowly rising up from the middle of the desk. As soon as her dull black eyes were at eye level with the man, she swallowed, his documents sliding down her throat in a large lump.

“You bitch!” He yelled. “What did you do? What did you do to my research!”

“I ate it.” She said casually.

“GUARDS!” He screamed.

[Guu]

Immediately, Guu’s senses were triggered. Five guys ran into the edge of her sight within seconds and were closing in fast. She wasted so much energy on that stunt, she wasn’t sure if she could take all five of them in a fight. While she had an easy escape as the sanctuary was open air and she could just fly out of there without trouble, she knew her moogle friend was still out there, probably in trouble.

Typical Guu, sacrifice practicality for aesthetics. She gave herself a quick facepalm in regret.

She needed to work fast. She hoped none of them could sense her, her insight was telling her nothing which was not promising in the slightest. She knew she needed to get the element of surprise on them.

But before she could formulate a plan, she had to leap out of the way as Luke swung forward with his sword. Guu wound up crashing into the wall where a “Karl Jak” pin-up was knocked to the floor on impact. The princess fell onto the desk, shaking the nearby shelves, throwing the Amiibos out of place.

She dizzily came back to her senses when the sword came down again. She had to roll out of the way, hitting the side of a cabinet, tossing amiibos to the floor.

“Give back my research you little brat!” He yelled, raising his limited edition, Aragorn autographed, short-sword into the air for another strike.

Thinking fast, she grabbed his still lit cigar and tossed it onto the carpet below, then she was forced to leap again, Luke’s sword bashing against the metal of the desk. Guu collided into the next wall, knocking down a Samus pin-up.

This tiny trailer was not friendly to speed fighters.

“Stop wrecking my priceless forgeries and give me back my documents!” He yelled, furious at the pink one.

The princess landed on her side. A foot or so away from her face, the cigar was sitting, slowly causing the carpet to smoke. The astronomer slowly stepped towards her, his sword drawn, ready for her blood. Thinking quickly, she filled her cheeks with air and blew towards the cigar. The extra boost fed into the smoke and grew into a flame. Luke jumped at the sight of a fire going off in his trailer and immediately moved to stomp on it.

Guu took this moment to launch herself towards the door, She managed to stop herself mid-air before colliding with another wall. She burst through the door only to be greeted by the five guards, waiting just outside the door.

She was weak. Her vanity had caught her in a bad place. As the men closed in fast, she thought quickly on the best way out of this. Just as she began to settle on various plans that involved running, her attention was pulled towards a nearby statue. She didn’t see it before, it didn’t even show up in her senses, but now it felt like the incense smoke cleared just for her line of sight, as if something was willing her to see it. She immediately knew who it was; a man she thought she escaped when she came to the Omniverse, a man even someone like her has grown to fear.

“Dad.” She said quietly under her breath.

Suddenly, purple tentacles slithered from her back like snakes and then wiggle into the air. Her skin started turning into a shade of black, but also slightly translucent, exposing her innards for all to see. But most distinctive was her eyes were now glowing red, piercing through the incense clouds like a high-powered laser.

The men were now frozen. Their legs refused to move despite the obvious threat. Finally, after a second or so, one of the men freed themselves, running the opposite direction from the abomination. A tentacle swiftly shot out into the smoke and wrapped itself around the man’s ankle, causing him to fall flat on his face.

The tentacle lifted him into the air. He began to scream in terror, but he was quicklly silenced when he was suddenly flung hard into the ground. The other guards, witnessing this, immediately booked it in random directions. However, her tentacles were faster and quickly grabbed each guard by different parts of their bodies. One man was grasped by the neck who began gasping for air, another was grabbed by two tentacles which began to pull on each leg in separate directions like some cthuluoid version of the King Solomon tale. Another was lifted up by the waist where she began violently shaking him. And finally the last one… You don’t want to know.

But as she was subjecting them to these horrors, a sword impaled her from the back. Luke has put out the fire and took a moment of distraction to strike. The surprise strike prevented her from preparing her powers in time, so she felt the full force of the sword going through her body. The jolt of pain was enough for her senses to return. Her tentacles dropped the remaining four men as they retreated into her back. Her skin and eyes changed back into their normal colors as she turned to the man that struck her, sword still through her body like a kabob.

“Monster! You are a monste!.” He said, shocked and terrorified at what he just saw.

Guu couldn’t believe what just happened. She hadn’t taken that form in ages, and the last time she did convinced her it was never worth using. Did that statue have that great of an effect on her?

“Guards! Take this… thing away!!” Luke yelled. After a second of no response, he looked around in disbelief. “Guards?”

She tried not to inspect the guards with her senses, she didn’t want to. It was best she didn’t know how many of them died while she wasn’t in control. All she needed to know was none of them were getting up. Assured Luke was the last threat, she raised her fist up in the air and aimed it for his face.

“You’re a little far to punch m-”

He was interrupted by a stretched focused punch to the face. He was automatically knocked unconscious, flying a few feet into the air before falling hard flat on the ground.

With no one impeding her, Guu pulled the sword from her chest, spurting blood on the dirt below. She dropped the bladed weapon on the ground and walked towards where she could sense her moogle friend.

Sure enough, he was on the ground, unconscious but breathing, and inconspicuously tied up. He was probably going to be a hostage or something. She lifted him up from the ground and slowly flew up into the sky, above the Hidden Temple. She wasn’t going to miss this place.

When she felt like she was far enough from Luke and his cronies, she moved into the jungle for a landing. With what little strength she had left, she dug a little hole in the dirt and curled up inside it, cradling the tied up moogle close. She was staining his white fur with her blood, but she was too weary to notice. The warmth of his body was encouragement enough for her to drift into a deep sleep.

[Guu]

Guu slowly opened her eyes, her vision quickly came to her as she began to process the room she was waking in. She didn’t expect to be in a bed, nor inside a building for that matter. The last thing she could remember was falling asleep with a giant hole in her chest while clutching…

“Pitchen!” She yelled out in concern.

He was nowhere in sight. Instead, she was greeted with bamboo decorations, a wall scroll with some strange chinese-esque symbol on it, and a large barrage of medical equipment set on a long metallic table.

Suddenly, a woman in a teal outfit and black hair in a neat bun walked casually into the room carrying blankets. She took a casual look at Guu before walking passed her to the empty bed a few feet away that was obscured by a curtain.

“I’ll tell the doctor you’re awake.” She said as she threw the sheets on the bed, laying them sloppily and disoriented. Bed set to her standards, she walked out of the only door and into a long hallway.

The stranger gone, she stood up on her mattress. First thing she noticed was the blue gown that was draped on her body. She didn’t like the idea that someone apparently changed her clothing while she was asleep and vulnerable, but she couldn’t worry about that now.

In a flash of light, the night gown transformed into her normal pink dress with yellow scarf wrapped across the chest. She sighed. This was her last clean set, she’ll need to summon and eat some more later. The pains of staying presentable in a violent world.

She leapt from the bed and began to make her way for the door. However, almost immediately as she got down, another man was in the room with her.

He wore a lab coat over a normal suit and tie, and he had a clean-cut grey beard with a set of glasses. He would have looked like a normal doctor, but he was wearing a headband around his forehead that had the same symbol she saw on the wall earlier.

“Oh, excuse me to bother you on your way out Princess,” he stated, giving Guu a little bit of a shock, or at least as much a shock you can give an abomination. “You had some nasty wounds when you first came in, that chest wound would have been fatal if you didn’t have a Prime’s healing factor.”

“Where is Pitchen?” She asked.

“Oh, your cat friend? He left a long while ago, probably to explore the city a bit while you were still out.”

“The city?” Guu asked.

Before he could respond, she ran up to a nearby window and she was stunned. A gigantic city; japanese inspired buildings far as the eye could see, and a gigantic tree smack dab in the center.

“Welcome to Mokugakure, Princess Guu.”

[Guu]

Guu made her way through the hospital. It was kind of freaky, about one-third of the people here didn’t pick-up on her senses. It wasn’t too shocking considering ninja village but it was kind of odd to have so many invisible people in one place. She could tell her eyes were going to be an asset here.

Pushing her way out the front doors, she stepped out into the city. The entire place looked like it was taken straight from some samurai film, or at least chinatown. Buildings were adorned with clay roof tiles coming in a variety of earthy-tones, and the rest was a nice mixture of painted and non-painted wood. She seemed to have been dumped off in a marketplace with shops sprawling down the entire street. Each one had signs with chinese letters, which thankfully she could read.

Much to her internal delight, she saw one of the merchants selling Dame fruit as well as a number of other exoctic fruits only grown at her principality on display. Even saw a merchant selling meat of Pokute. Ambrosia’s influence spread even to here. Though, not shocked that they only sold the ears and legs of the pokute, she could imagine those not accustomed to their human-like face couldn’t really get past it.

She walked up to the shop with the meat.

“Are the pokute caught wild or raised?” She asked.

The shopkeep was leaning back in his chair. Judging by how few people were in the market at the moment, it must be a really slow day. The man, who wore robes, had a balding head and a tiny tiny brown beard on the tip of his chin, barely looked up from his newspaper to answer.

“Raised. Pokute aren’t indigenous in these-” His eyes opened wide in shock as he tumbled backwards in his chair. He fumbled to climb back to his feet, staring wildly at the little princess. “Lady Guu! I heard rumors you were in town! Welcome!”

Guu was still not used to being recognized by strangers. She looked around and noticed that many of the civilians were looking at her, whispering to each other. She was kind of easy to identify.

Choosing to ignore it, she turned to the shopkeep.

“Two pokute ears.” She said, placing a Om coin on the wood grained countertop.

“Yes your highness!” He said nervously. He pulled out two long wiggly noodle things that were two inches thick and five inches in length. They were reminiscent of Guu’s arms, but tinted in easter colors. The man fried up the pair and wrapped them in a white paper and handed them to the princess. “Here you go! It was an honor to be of your service!”

“Thank you.” She said, giving a little wave as she walked away.

She was curious if Ninja raised pokute tasted different from Ambrosian pokute. However, she wasn’t the best judge. She needed to find Pitchen, he needed to try this and tell her how it was.

But before she could get very far, she heard a familiar voice.

“Long time no see, Guu!”

She turned around quickly. There stood a man with long silver hair that styled in a way to defied gravity. He had a long red scarf, wore baggy black pants, and had a sleeveless shirt of some kind. He had long pointy ears and his arms were taped up from top to bottom. After a second of staring at his doofy smile-adorned face, it finally hit her.

“Chuck? Chuck the Ninja?” She asked.

“Yep! It’s been a long while, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen you since before Ambrosia… Hell, before Langweilig.” Guu said.

“I know right? It’s crazy how much has happened since then!”

The pair began to walked together as they continued the conversation.

“Are you still working for Mao?” Guu asked.

“Naw, he kind of dropped off the face of the Earth. No one knows what happened to him. I heard he pissed off Dracula or something, but I don’t know for sure.” Chuck explained casually.

“Oh, I’m sorry for your loss.” She responded, not even questioning the apparent existence of Dracula in this world.

“Oh, I don’t care. I was an undercover operative sent to spy on him. My true loyalty is Mokugakure.”

“Ah, I see. What are you up to know?” She asked.

“Well, my most recent mission was… Well… It was to spy on you.”

Guu didn’t show any emotions, nor did she really feel any. She can’t fault him for sticking to his orders, even if their one day friendship was on the line.

“Well, you must have done a good job, I didn’t detect you at all.” She stated.

“Aww, shucks.” He said bashfully, rubbing the back of his head. He continued. “Anyways, yeah, after you fell asleep, I had you transported here. Thought it would be safer.”

“Wouldn’t you get in trouble though?” She asked. “I mean, you brought an outsider here and revealed to me your mission.”

“Oh no, I got an okay from the higher ups. The head honcho wants to meet you.”

“Head honcho?” Now that she thought about it, she never did learn who lead Mokugakure. It’s probably good she was learning about her neighbors.

“Lady Tsunade.” He said, a hint of pride in his voice. “She’s a masterful ninja, a force to be reckoned with. She works out of the top of the tree in the middle of town.”

Guu looked once again at the tree. She saw it briefly from the window of the hospital, but she didn’t take in how ridiculously large the thing was. She also noticed they were walking straight for it.

“Ah, so we weren’t just walking in a random direction.”

“That’s correct your highness!”

The pair approached the tree and started to climb a long spiralling set of steps around the stump. As she got higher up into the foliage, she got a much better view of the city. The buildings spread out for miles, but on the border was a large wall. She considered how Ambrosia would look with a wall, but before she could worry about what it should look like, she saw smoke rising up from the edge of town.

She couldn’t quite make it out, but it looked like a battle had occurred there. It was both relieving and disheartening to see that other cities had problems like Ambrosia. Relieving in the sense that it wasn’t just them, but disheartening that the Tangled is just that dangerous.

If only there was a way to make the verse safer than it was.

The pair made their way to the top where they reach a door to an office.

“Go in, she’s waiting for you, Guu.”

[Guu]

She stepped into the office, her feet tapping lightly on the bamboo flooring. The office was decorated with knick knacks, scrolls, and filing cabinets.

Sitting behind the desk ahead of her was Tsunade herself. She was a woman in about her 20s, blonde hair with two uniform pigtails. She wore a green jacket over a robe and pants. A small gem adorned the middle of her forehead. She was looking at Guu, her milk-chocolate colored eyes scanned her from top to bottom before making eye contact. Just from her gaze Guu could tell this woman was not of her age. Despite looking barely old enough to be a college senior, her gaze told a different story. It told years of experience. This woman goes back many decades.

“I see we are both women of deception.” She said casually, though slightly smugly. “I’ve seen many ten-year-olds and your eyes don’t match your age either.”

Guu was impressed, great minds think alike.

“Well, I’m convinced you must be the Guu I’ve heard so much about. It takes a weary soul such as yourself to establish a city out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Or a gravely unfortunate one.” The pink one added.

“Indeed!” The ninja said, letting out a light chuckle. She then went serious again. “You’re probably wondering why I needed to speak to you.”

“You sure it wasn’t for my pleasant personality?”

This got a louder chuckle from her, whichmade it even more jarring when her face went straight again.

“I have a deal for you, Guu.” She started. “We have reason to believe that you have claimed information of the location of the Yellow Star Piece.”

The pink one was kind of surprised to hear this. With all the smoke, confusion, and chaos of the sanctuary, it’s a shock that Chuck even saw her take Luke’s research.

“Well, we believe the Star Piece is an object of great power. We fear what could be done with it in the wrong hands.”

“Lemme guess, you want me to hand over the research so you could find the piece?”

“No, we want you to retrieve it for us.” She said.

Guu pretended to be shocked, but it made sense in retrospect. Judging from Tsunade’s expression, she didn’t buy the act.

“I’m sure you figured out that we have enough problems in the city. I need every one of my men to focus on our internal issues instead of going on a glorified treasure hunt.”

“What do I get in return?” Asked Guu.

“Well, it would prove that you’re on our side, that we can trust Ambrosia. Do this for us, and I can see myself officially acknowledging your city as a nation in the Tangled.”

Guu thought about it for a while. This meant increased trade for Ambrosia, more protection, friendship. However, could she trust the ninjas with the Star Piece?

Though, from this conversation alone, she could tell that Tsunade was a powerful woman. She was like her in a lot of ways: hidden depths. Maybe this woman’s love for her people was as strong as her own love for Ambrosia; strong enough to see the Star Piece as more of a threat than an easy way to power.

“So, do we have a deal?” She asked, affirming her terms.

The princess paused for a second before responding.

“It’s a deal.”

“Perfect! And I’ll have three ninja accompany you there. They aren’t my finest warriors, but I specifically picked them to give you a sense of home around them.”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary, I can do it on my own.”

“Nonsense, don’t pass up free warriors.” She stated. “One of them is Chuck, he’ll be introducing you to the other two below.”

“Well, if you’ve already set it up, it can’t be helped.” Guu shrugged.

“Alright, we’re all set. Sorry I can’t have you stay and chat, but my operatives will be showing up soon to report on the mess out by the outer wall.”

“It’s okay, I can completely understand.” The pink one said, she was more than familiar with how complicated that job can get. She started heading for the door when she was hit with a realization. She walked up to the desk and placed the fried pokute in front of her. “Since I didn’t know I was coming here, I couldn’t really bring a gift, so have a free lunch. It’s a delicacy from my neck of the woods.”

“Oh! I recognized this. ‘Pokute ears’ I believe they were called? Never tried them.”

“Yeah, enjoy those.” She said as she headed for the door. She waved as she headed out. “Farewell.”

[Guu]

As Guu reached the bottom of the stairs, she first caught sight of her new companions. Tsunade didn’t exaggerate when she stated that she’d feel at home with them, they all seemed like people that would live in Ambrosia.

Chuck sat at the end, his face deep into a dataverse device. Somehow, he had already dressed in casual shorts and hawaiian shirt.

Beside him was a woman, appearing in her late teens. She was dressed in a white playboy bunny costume. Her skin was a dark color, her hair was chestnut and hung halfway down her back. She took one glance at the pink one and sighed heavily before focusing back on her vapor cigarette.

The last of the three, and easily the most out of place, was a watermelon, but it had arms, legs and a head. Its head had little lumps that formed it’s hair and it had small little beady eyes. It had on a pink tank top with a yellow star on the belly, and a small white skirt that barely covered their lower half.

The watermelon was rocking back and forth in its seat, looking up at the ceiling. It took a brief glance from its place in the cosmos to notice Guu standing in front of it. It started waving at Chuck and suddenly a hole forms to create a square shaped mouth with jagged teeth. It begins making incomprehensible noises while splatting small black seeds and watermelon pulp on the floor as it tries desperately to make enough noise to catch the demon ninja’s attention. The bunny suited woman curved her spine in her seat, disgusted at the muck that was spitting out of the fruit’s mouth.

Failing to catch his attention, Guu decided to take matters in her own hands.

“Ahem.” She said, impatiently.

Chuck looked up from his phone, and his smile shot up mile wide upon seeing her. He jumped to his feet.

“Welcome back your highness! I hope you had a productive meeting.”

“Yes I did.” She said, her attention still divided by the other two.

“I’ve heard that you’ve agreed to do the mission!” He said excited.

“How did you-” Guu began to ask but was interrupted.

“Oh don’t concern yourself with ninja tricks, let me introduce you with your new partners!”

He took her stub arm and pulled her closer to the pair. She yanked her arm away after only a short distance, giving him a death glare. He failed to notice this transaction and continued with his introduction.

“First up is Banii!” He said, raising his arm in the direction of the middle companion. The playboy bunny girl gave off another heavy sigh as she tried not to establish eye contact with the princess. “You’ll have to excuse her, she doesn’t like meeting new people. She’s self conscious about the costume and all.”

“It’s not a costume.” She finally spoke, scornfully to her demon peer. He raised his arms defensively.

“Hey, I don’t judge based on your clothing choices.”

“Why does no one ever believe me?” She yelled out, her arms up in the air in anger. “It’s not a costume, it’s part of my body!”

“I’m certain Guu doesn’t judge either.” He said

“Argh!” The bunny girl plopped in her chair and started puffing up a storm.

Chuck moved onto the final companion.

“And this here, we just call her Melani.” He stated. “At least, that’s what we call her, her species isn’t capable of human speech. You’d be amazed how much can get done with body language alone.”

The little watermelon person bowed politely, giving a little bit of a curtsey with what little skirt she was wearing. Guu reciprocated.

“I’ve never seen a watermelon person before.” She stated. This was the truth.

“Oh yeah? With your experience, I’m surprised.” He said, chuckling. “Yeah, she writes that he species is called a ‘Watermelon Steven’ or something like that.”

“Watermelon Steven?” She said, puzzled at the odd name.

“Yeah, the named derived from their creator, who made them in his own likeness.”

“A god named Steven?” Now she’s heard everything. Next thing she knows, she’ll learn that ‘he should not be named’ is actually named ‘bob.’

“Oh yeah, and Banii hails from some place called the ‘Useless Forest.’ Apparently everyone from there wears animal costumes.”

“It’s not an animal cos-”

“Now that you know everyone, it’s time for the debriefing!”

[Guu]

The group, being lead by Banii, traversed the city, gaining curious glances the entire way. The city wasn’t used to this level of concentrated weirdness in one location. The four arrived at a small house towards the edge of the market district. It was tiny japanese inspired building, except the front sliding door has a cute little cartoon depiction of Banii’s face hanging from a hook in the middle. The front yard was a garden composed of various flowers from lilies to daffodils. The bunny clad lady gracefully clanked her high heeled boots on each stone that navigated through the growth, her mind focused on stepped on every single one in some sort of rhythmic order. The other three followed suite, but trudged normally.

“So why is this debriefing happening at Banii’s place?” Guu, addressing the elephant in the yard.

“Well, my place is a wreck, both because I haven’t lived there in weeks and because it’s a bachelor pad, so yeah, wreck.” Chuck exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head while averting his gaze, blushing. “As for Melony, she lives here with Banii, so it all defaulted to her place.”

“But wouldn’t they assign a secret meeting hall or something?”

“Well, best not draw attention to ourselves, we don’t know who to trust nowadays. A friendly gathering at someone’s house is a lot less suspicious.”

Banii landed on her front porch, making a large thud on the grained wood. She used the momentum of her walking to do a small 360 twirl in place before stopping at the front door.

Guu was surprised to see that most of her house was built like a dojo. About 80% of her floor was composed of cushy training mats, and the same percentage of walls was lined with mirrors. On the mat was a large assortment of training equipment; everything from weights to aerobics bars.

The rest of her house was composed of a small kitchen, dining room, and a loft connected to the rest of the house by ladder where two sleeping mats were laid out.The pink one noticed many posters and wall scrolls of dancers, particularly ballroom and ballet. Potted flowers were placed sporadically all over the living space.

Banii walked out onto the mat and placed one of her ankles on one of the high rise bars. She twinged in pain at the tension in her upper thigh. The ease of her actions felt like she had done everything leading up from when they arrived at her house a million times before. Considering Chuck didn’t even bother to question why this took priority over the debriefing, she figured her assumptions were correct.

Melani however, was quick to playing the gracious host. She pulled out a chair and waved for Guu’s attention. The princess, getting the hint, moved in and took a seat. Chuck got his own chair while the melon made her way to the kitchen.

Standing on top of a stool, she set a tea kettle on a burner and prepared a bag. The ceramic, flower painted, tea bag container was conveniently placed within stubby arm length’s distance from the stove.

“So, where’s the research?” Chuck asked expectedly.

This gave Guu a bit of a shake. Between the watermelon making tea and the playboy bunny doing ballet stretches, she forgot the demon ninja had existed. After a few seconds to straighten her thoughts, she stuck her entire arm into her mouth. Banii caught sight of this in the corner of her eye and lost her balance, toppling to the ground. Even the demon ninja, someone well aware of the pink one’s antics, wound up reeling back a bit at the sight. She pulled her arm out of her month, her hand clutching onto Luke’s research. She plopped it casually in the center of the small table, nearly knocking over a vase full of daisies.

“Heh, I guess some rumors about you are true.” Chuck said, laughing nervously.

The demon soon delved into the research, trying to shrug off what he just witnessed. Banii quickly joined them at the table, no longer in the mood for exercises.

Not too long after, Melani approached the table carrying a tray of three teacups. She neatly placed each cup in front of each person at the table, each one a hell of the reach from where she was standing. After she was finished, she took a seat in a high rise baby chair at the opposite end of the table from Banii. Almost on cue, the bunny girl lifted up the cup and took a large sip from it, giving an audible satisfied coo.

“You’re tea gets better every day!” She said gleefully.

Guu stirred her drink, staring deep into the brown liquid. At one end, she feared drinking it as she didn’t want to experience the horrors of urination it down the line, but at the same time she didn’t want to be rude to her new travelling partners.

Eventually, she settled to taking a small sip. She lifted the cup to her lips and poured a little bit in.

’Watermelon flavored.’ She thought. She didn’t want to contemplate the implications of this revelation.

“Alright, I think I’ve figured this out.” Stated Chuck, bringing Guu back to reality, saving her from coming up with a compliment for the tea.

“What did you find?” Asked Banii, moving in for another sip while not breaking her gaze from the demon.

“According to this, the Star Piece is located deep within the Old Bog.” he began, flipping through the pages. “It lacks a definite location, but at least we know where we’re going.”

Guu has never heard of the Old Bog, though she wonders how old could a location in the omniverse possibly even be; all her sources on the dataverse suggests this universe hasn’t been around long enough to warrant that title.

Maybe the name of the place is not meant to be literal.

“The bog, huh?” Banii replied. “We’ll need to gear up for that kind of trip.”

The bunny girl stood up to tower over the group.

“Okay, so how about me, Guu, and Melani go buy supplies, while you plan out our trip, Chuck.”

“Okay,” Said the demon, barely paying attention as he poured over the research.

“Alright, let’s go girls, time to go adventure shopping!”

[Guu]

The group navigated the local Quest Buy location. They stocked up on camping supplies, trail rations, and grappling hooks. Guu and Melani remained quiet the entire shopping experience while Bani compensated their lack of communication by providing ten times her own. She went on and on about daily life, tales of previous visits to the location, local politics, her training, etc. While the entire thing started to grate on the pink one, she was somewhat fascinated that the watermelon girl was listening intently to every single word. Couldn’t blame her, must be a pain to not be able to talk. She guessed the constant yammering in itself was for Melani’s benefit, as it seemed kind of out of character for someone like Bani to be so consistently open. It was either that or she had completely misjudged her character. She wouldn’t be shocked by either way anymore.

They used the self check out as the sloth employees turned out to be completely unhelpful. Bani confirmed this was a normal occurrence at the store chain. Once outside, Guu consumed everything they bought. Screams broke out as her jaw unhinged like a snake, her head bloated up several times its size as she encapsulated her entire mouth around the shopping cart before swallowing it whole.

“Yucky.” She exclaimed as civilians ran in terror. The sloth running the main register looked annoyed at the trio in response for chasing off his business. Bani and Melani just looked on curiously.

“How do you do that?” The bunny girl asked.

“I ate it.” Guu responded as blandly as she could say it.

Before any follow up questions could be asked, the trio noticed someone making his way through the crowd of panicked civilians. It was a very familiar demon ninja looking confused at the madness swirling around him.

“Scott!” Bani called out to him. At the sound of her voice, he immediately turned to their position. Confirming it was them, he ran up to them relieved.

“I thought I’d never find you guys!” He cried out gleefully. “After I finished planning out the trip, you guys were just gone.”

“What? I told you we were going supply shopping.” She stated. “We were going to be right back.”

“Oh.” He said. He starts rubbing the back of his head as he looked down at his feet. “I guess I didn’t hear that part.”

Bani firmly plants her palm over his face. The demon ninja skirms to peel the hand off as she turns to Guu and Melani.

“Well, let’s just head back. Finish up packing before we ship off.” Bani stated. Still grasping the demon’s face as she turned to walk back home.

“Well, actually, I was hoping to do one more thing in town before we leave.” Guu said, causing the bunny girl to stop in her tracks.

“Oh, well, okay, what is it you need?”

“I need to find my friend Pitchen.”

Scott was finally able to break free from her hand. He let out a large gasp of air as his skin felt the fresh air again.

“Ahhh! Goddamn Bani!” He exclaimed as he rubbed his sore face. He took a few seconds to take a few large long winded breaths. When he was slightly more composed, he continued. “Yeah, she came with a friend of her’s. We should check on him before we head off.”

Suddenly, Guu’s hand latched onto Scott’s face. He makes an exasperated yelp in response.

“Don’t worry, with my senses it won’t take long. Follow me.” She stated.

She turned around and started walking down the nearest road, pulling Scott along by the face. The others shrugged at each other before following suit.

[Guu]

Guu lead her three new companions down the streets of the ninja village. As they continued following her senses, they quickly found themselves travelling further and further into rougher neighborhoods. The casual commoners were being replaced by tattooed men and women carrying samurai swords. The buildings were more weathered and worn, torn apart from whatever storm damaged them a long time ago. Some houses tried to fix the damage but sloppily nailed boards over them, but many houses just lived with holes in their roofs and walls. It was definitely a more poor part of town.

People continued to stare at the strange group as they passed. While some of the yakuza types gave them angered glances, it didn’t matter to the troupe. What was worrying is why Guu’s friend had ventured down this area.

“You sure he’s in this direction?” Bani asked precariously as they passed a large group of low lifes.

“Well, my senses were leading me this wa-”

She froze.

“What’s wrong, Guu?” Asked Bani in concern.

“He disappeared from my senses.”

Silence befell the group as the words left the princess’ lips. Not wanting to assume the worst, she stepped back, retracing her steps. Suddenly, he appeared again, her senses pointing her to his general direction. She stepped forward again and once again, he disappeared.

“He appears to be blocking me.”

“Blocking you? You mean suppression?” Asked Bani.

“Could he do that Before?” Asked Chuck. “He didn’t seem the stealthy type.”

“No he couldn’t.” Confirmed the pink one. It was odd for him to suddenly develop abilities he didn’t before. She started to have a sinking feeling. They needed to find him as fast as possible. “Hold on for a sec, I’ll do a more thorough scan of the area.”

She spread her senses out to its brink, looking through every house, every nook and cranny. Ignoring the occasional family and mafioso, one thing that stood out was her senses couldn’t reach towards a large part of the underground. It was like a large part of the Earth was missing in her mind’s eye.

Taking this as the only clue she had, she searched every house standing above the vacancy. Amongst the three houses, one was almost entirely empty all except for an oddly placed rug and a random assortment of furniture. No personal item, no memorabilia. It could be the home of a social recluse, but it was worth the gamble.

She took off down the street, the other three followed close behind. In one swoop of the leg, she smashed through the front door of the house and charged in. She ran up to the conspicuous rug, just sitting in the middle of the room, no furniture on top of it. She gave it a yank and it revealed a large metal trap door.

“Woah!” Yelled out Chuck.

The four surrounded it to get a closer look. It was built like the door of a safe; reinforced hinges and bolts holding it together with a combination lock protecting its secrets.

“You think you can crack it Chuck?” Bani asked.

“I’ll give it a shot.” He said as he lowered down to the ground and pressed his ear against the metal as he started to turn the combination lock. The other three watched as the Demon did his work.

“What’s down there Guu?” Bani asked.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“The entire place is blocking my senses, I couldn’t even pick up the door.”

“Aha!” Called out Chuck as the door made a large click sound. He jumped aside as the door flung open to make a large clang against the metal frame. “Good you had me here!”

Below was a ladder extending down into the Abyss.

“Whoever is down there probably heard the door open.” Bani observed.

“Not sure, but in case they didn’t, we should be careful to avoid detection.” Guu responded.

“Hey!” Cried out a voice from across the room.

The four looked up to see a man, greying, balding, elderly, standing at his broken front door holding a paper bag full to the brim with vegetables and foodstuffs. The group spent a few seconds looking at each other, stunned at the apparent owner’s timing. He looked at the now opened secret hatch and back at the four.

In an instant, he dropped his groceries on the ground and pulled out a blaster. Guu leapt down the hole, barely dodging the laser fire. Bani and Chuck leapt down the hole after her, swiftly climbing down the ladder while Guu just flew down. Melani however, stayed behind as the old man tried to shoot for the other three. She pulled out a pair of bolas and started to spin them around above her head. The old man noticed what was going on and turned to aim at her, but she managed to launch them before he could get a shot off.

The ropes wrapped around his legs, causing him to toppled to the ground. The shot that was meant for the watermelon girl tilted high and blasted through the roof. The old man struggled on the floor as he desperately tried to untie his legs. The melon girl, taking her chance, went down the hole after her friends.

[Guu]

Guu landed safely at the bottom of the ladder and took a few steps forward to give room for the others. The long tube that encased the ladder opened out into a large room full of machinery, white countertops, and various scientific tools. Charts and graphs litter the walls and a chalk board is completely full of equations stood nearby.

Bani, Chuck, and Melani eventually appeared behind her.

“We should hurry, we don’t know when the guy will be coming up behind us.” Stated Chuck.

Suddenly, a blaster laser hit the ground mere inches away from Melani, causes her to jump several feet forward in surprise.

“As I was saying...” Chuck said.

Guu dashed back over to the tube and launched her fist up it. The old man’s yelped in pain as the fist collided with him. It quickly followed by an audible plop on the ground above.

“That probably bought us sometime.” Guu said casually.

After the group picked their jaws off the floor, Bani gets back to business.

“Do your senses work down here?” She asked.

The pink one focused. She could feel the lab around her, every curve and crevice. But what was concerning was she couldn’t feel anyone else there.

“Yes, but it says we’re alone.”

“So either they all have suppression or we just broke into an innocent man’s secret underground lab.” Chuck said, sarcastically.

“I’m sure this facility is breaking some sort of law...” Bani responded.

Guu tapped into her senses again, mapping out all the rooms of the place, dead ends and, locations. She could sense many robot turrets hidden away near the entrance, all of them deactivated. She guessed that old man must have turned them off so he doesn’t get himself shot on the way back down.

The facility was fairly linear, only reaching out to three rooms, one being an interconnecting hallway. If her friend was here, they didn’t have far to look.

“Okay, let’s get moving, the next room is that way.”


The group crowded through the furthest door and into a hallway lined with glass tubes. Melani jumps back in shock, Bani nearly threw up on the spot, Chuck was puzzled by what he was seeing. Each tube had human remains. Bodies, many of them dismembered, disemboweled, just floating inside a tube of an unknown clear liquid.

Chuck walked up to his rabbit companion.

“Welp, that breaking and entering was justified from the looks of it.” He said, patting her on the back.

The force of his hand was enough to unleash the vomiting, causing everyone to jump out of the way.


After Bani could regain her composure, the group continued down the hallway. More tubes, more bodies. However, as they progressed they noticed the corpses were looking more and more robotic in nature; Limbs replaced with prosthetics, organs clearly replaced with machines, the works.

“Why was he doing this?” Bani asked, a heavy concern in her voice. “What did he hope to accomplish?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Chuck said. “To build cyborgs.”

“Well, yeah, that’s obvious but...yeah, nevermind.”

The group finally made it out of the hall of horrors and passed through the door. The final room looked like it belonged to a doctor. In the middle of the room was a surgery table with a very familiar figure laying on the mat.

“Pitchen.” Guu said, running to his side. But the closer she got, the more she saw it. He wasn’t the same moogle as he was before.

Both of his legs and one of his arms have been replaced with robot limbs, his chest was an encased metal vest of sorts, his head was capped in some sort of brain case. He was more machine now than moogle.

“What did he do to him?” Asked Bani as she grasped his metal right hand.

“Why did he do it to him?” Asked Chuck. “He’s kind of an odd choice for cybernetic enhancement.”

Melani slapped him in the hip which sent him flying into a nearby wall, punching a hole into the solid steal the structure was built of. Bani sighed.

“Melani, I know he had it coming but now we have to carry him.”

Suddenly, Guu shot her head around. The mechanisms above their heads were turning. She could feel gears clicking into one another, circuits flowing, something was happening.

She reached over and slid the unconscious Pitchen onto her back.

“We need to go.” Guu said to the others.

Before they could respond, a machine gun turret dropped down from the ceiling and took aim at the helpless group below.

[Guu]

Guu dashed out of the way with Pitchen on her back as the bullets fired rapidly into the group. Ammo pelted the bed with holes, and ricochet off the metal exterior. She felt a bullet graze her shoulder. She ducked to the side wall, away from the machine gun’s aim. She could see Bani across the way doing the same. Chuck was still in the wall, moaning in pain. However, Melanie was standing in the middle of the room. Oddly enough, she didn’t seem injured at all by the oncoming bullets. The gun suddenly stopped firing. It started to swivel left and right, trying to decide which target to fire at.

Then suddenly, the watermelon jumped up into the air, punching the turret straight on. Her fist tore through it like tissue paper, dropping machine parts all over the floor.

The pink one got up and walked up to the middle of the room. Bullets had fallen to the floor where Melanie had stood, but they’ve been flattened upon impact. She looked up to the melon girl who just gave a thumbs up.

“She’s quite skilled.” Bani said as she walked over to pull Scott out of the wall.

“What did she do?” Guu asked, who for once was genuinely curious.

“Our melon girl, she’s mastered the art of Haki.” Continued Bani as she yanked on Scott’s arm; he wasn’t budging. “It’s like powers you get from raw spirit.” She strained as she gave him another tug. “Stuff like powering your punches and making your skin tough.”

“Hmmm, that’s something I need to look into...” Guu said.

One last tug and Scott finally got loose. Bunny girl got on her knees and started slapping the hell out of him. After two slaps he was already coming two, reaching for her to stop.

“Ow ow ow I’m awake!” He yelled. After the strikes ceased, he climbed back on his feet, Bani followed suit. “Let’s just get going.” Scott said, his face red, both in humiliation and from his friend’s attacks.


The group open up the door to the connecting hallway. However, much to their surprise, several of the tubes have been smashed open, and three bald muscular men composed of half robotic parts stood in their way.

“Oh, darn, I should have mentioned those three were still alive.” Guu said, face palming. “That would have been good foreshadowing.”

Scott, Bani, and Melani got into fighting poses.

“Guu, sit this one out, you have your hands full, we’ve got this!” Cried out Bani, then all three charged into the fray.

Bani did a flying leap into the air. She bent her foot upwards, extending the high heel of her boot, which plunged into the chest of one of the cyborgs. The half robot screamed in pain as he tries to swipe a fist at her. However, she had already pulled out that particular foot and propelled herself so she can land on his shoulders, her body vertical in the air while standing on her hands. The cyborg looked up and they exchange a look, the bunny girl giving off a knowing smirk.

Before he could reach up to grab her, she leapt down behind him, kicking her foot back, plunging the heel into his brain stem. That cyborg gargled out a mouthful of blood before falling forward, hitting the ground hard.

Scott charged in. He took a swig from a vial as he ran. He tossed the vial aside and placed a pair of hands on the cyborg’s chest. The robo man chuckled at how ineffectual his attack was. He punted the demon in the head, leaving a big bruise. The hellspawn still kept touching his chest.

The borg laughed harder at this ninja’s uselessness, but his face quickly turned to a horrible scowl.

His cybernetic parts started melting out of his body. His robotic arms clanked hard against the ground as what remained of his biological arm started to heal over into stumps. He screamed as Scott continued to tear him apart by healing.

Melanie stopped just before reaching her cyborg. She just looked up at him, watching him curiously. The half man, seeking the opportunity, started beating down at her, punch after punch, blow after blow. However, Not a single one would even budge her, no less damaged her.

Eventually, he reeled his arm back. Some of his mechanical parts started to glow crimson red as his punch started to charge. Suddenly he let all loose, launching his fist at the watermelon. This actually sends her flying a few feet, but she managed to slow herself to a stop with her hand. She straightened out and then charged the cyborg, sending a punch into his abdomen. She punched a gigantic hole into him, sending mechanical parts and guts everywhere. The cyborg’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell backwards.

Melanie turned to Scott’s cyborg. The demon finally relented and the man stood there, armless, missing huge parts of his body. The melon girl gave him a powerful glare, one so strong that he fell over backwards, out like a light.

Guu, impressed, though slightly concerned, she approached the three.

“Well, that was quite the show.” She said.

“I’m glad you got to see what we were capable of.” Said Bani.

Guu turned to Scott.

“What was that you drank that allowed you to do that?” She asked.

“Oh, restoration potion.” He said. “I’m a bit of an alchemist on the side. It was my last one but it was so worth it!”

“And that was quite intuitive using your heel like that Bani.”

“Oh, it was nothing, I was just practicing that one forever.” She said, rubbing the back of her head as she blushed.

“Are you quite done?” A voice rang out through the hall. The group went silent. It sounded like it was playing from an intercom system. “I don’t want to wait for you all day.”

The four look between each other and then continue down the hall and through the next door.


The old man from before was standing next the the ladder out of the facility, looking pissed as all hell.

“You finally arrive.” He said, hands clenched into fists, his teeth gritting.

“How do you want this to go, old man.” Said Scott stoically.

“I want the ending where you die!” He yelled out. He reaches forward and slaps a red button on the control panel in front of him.

The turret that Guu sensed early drops down from its hiding spot in the ceiling. It searches through the separate targets and eventually decides to aim at the old man.

“Oh, sh-”

The turret turns the old man into swiss cheese. Guu takes this moment to launch a stretchy punch at the turret, It wasn’t enough to punch a hole, but it was enough to knock it off it’s hinges.

Guu turns to the other three

“We are done here.” She said as she took to the air, the moogle still on her back.

“Well, that was stupid.” Scott stated bluntly.

[Guu]

It didn’t take them long to reach the hospital. Melani, Bani, and Scott left to report what they had just found as the hospital staff got Pitchen a bed to rest in. After a quick check up, they concluded that he was healthy, but they couldn’t undo what the scientist did without permanently crippling him.

Guu stayed by the moogle’s side, not envying the news he was eventually going to wake up to.


Hours passed and the pink one woke up. She had fallen asleep while waiting beside the bed. As she wearily blinked and her eyes adjusted to focus, she was surprised to see Pitchen looking back at her, watching her.

“You were bathed in a rainbow light.” He said. “I saw it, it was beautiful.”

She knew he was describing Omnilium. She had summoned powers in her sleep before, though no one has yet to personally see it happen. She’d ponder what new ability she had been bestowed, but that wasn’t the most pressing matter right now.

“Pitchen, are you alright?” She asked.

“No.” He said. “I’m an android.”

“Well actually the technical term is ‘cyborg.’”

The furry patient let off a heavy sigh.

“I’m so sorry for the trouble, Guu. I was just exploring the city and.. Well…”

“You don’t need to apologize, and you don’t need explain yourself. None of that was your fault.”

“No.” He spoke out. “This was just like the jungle earlier. I was unperceptive, thought i knew what I was getting into. I don’t know what I was thinking going alone like that.”

Guu didn’t even have a response to that one. Emotions of sapient beings were always so complicated. She just sat there, hoping her presence was moral support enough. Judging for the look on his face, that was a solid no.

Soon after, their three other companions walked through the door to the hospital room.

“Oh, good to see your friend is getting better.” Scott said.

“We’ve talked to the higher ups about getting your friend an escort back to Ambrosia, so he can get back safely.”

“No!” Cried out the moogle, drawing attention from everyone in the room. He quickly composed himself. “I mean, I’ve gotten this far, I might as well see this to the end, am I right?”

Silence falls on the group. You didn’t need Guu’s insight to know that wasn’t the real reason he wanted to come. It was one of those awkward moments when you’re not sure if to address it or leave it alone. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective, Guu is more proactive.

“Alright, you’re free to come with us, but you can’t run from your family forever.”

Pitchen’s face dropped. He averted eye contact from his princess and looked towards the bedsheets in shame.

“They can’t see me like this.” He said.

Guu sighed. Sapient emotions are complicated.

“I don’t think they’ll judge too hard, but if you need more time to build up the courage, I understand.”

“Thanks Guu.” Pitchen said.


It was dawn the next day, every member of the team packed up and had stuck all their stuff into Guu’s mouth. The five of them stood at the gate exiting the ninja village.

“Onward, to the bog.” Said the princess plainly.

“To the bog!” Everyone else yelled in unison.

As they took the first steps of their journey, she couldn’t help watching Pitchen as he waddled along. She honestly felt like a hypocrite. She shouldn’t have been the one to call him out on avoiding his family like that, she was no better after all.

[Guu]

“Welp, that was a bust.” Said Bani with a heavy sigh. “I’m guessing that astronomer was behind this?”

The path that Chuck choose towards the bog was on fire. Said fire was guarded by five drunk and partying hellhounds, all of them wearing vegan related shirts and buttons while listening to Green Day’s “American Idiot.” One of the hounds in a “Vegies are my Life” shirt turns towards the group and does a “I’m watching you” gesture with its paw.

“Yep, pretty sure.” Replied Guu

Chuck is furiously looking over the map. Melani pats the back of his calf for comfort. It didn’t help.

“Goddamn, this path would have lead us directly there!” Yelled out the demon.

“Wait,” spoke up Pitchen, who was sticking to the back this whole time, “aren’t there other paths? There’s got to be more than one way there.”

“Ugh, that bog is in a valley surrounded by large mountains. There’s only two paths that cut through the peaks and our astronomer friend took out the closest one. We’ll have to take the long way around.”

“Wow, the Star Piece is in a very secluded region.” Pitchen blurted out.

“Well, think about it, if it was easy to reach, we would have heard of its discovery already.” Added the princess. It did make sense. “Also, would have made for a very sucky read. Speaking of which...”

Guu stepped in front of the group and faced them.

“Hey, here’s a thought. Wouldn’t it be faster if I just fly there?” She took off into the sky. “I mean, wouldn’t have to go on a perilous journey.”

“Guu, no!” Cried out Chuck as he finally peered up from his map.

She didn’t get more than 100 feet in the air before a pterodactyl swooped in, locking its beak around the pink one’s head. The other four yell helplessly from the ground as she was being whisked away by a giant flying lizard.

She slithered her arm into the creature’s mouth and stuck it down its throat. She made her arm expand until it was completely blocking the air passage. Quickly, the bird was struggling to breath. It unlatched its jaw, allowing her to drop out of its mouth. She floated effortlessly back to the ground with only pinch marks on her neck as consequence.

“Well, that’s not an option.” Stated Guu, casually.

The others were stunned by the crazy display they just witnessed.

“Don’t do that again!” Yelled out Chuck, nearly in tears with concern.

“Calm down Chuck, she had this.” Reassured Bani, joining Melani in comforting him by patting his back.

“Let’s get going group, we’ve got a long walk ahead of us.” Stated Guu, leading the way down a split in the path, avoiding the strange chaos that befell the other way.

It was clear the astronomer wanted them to go this way, and it was obvious they were walking right into a trap, but what options are there at this point.

However, Pitchen, waddling on his robotic legs beside the princess, had one last question on his mind.

“Guu? I was wondering, you’ve lived in the Tangled Green for a long time, how did you not know that pterodactyl was going to happen?” He inquired.

“Oh I did. But the audience didn’t so it was important to establish.” She said casually. “Plus anyways, it was good to show off that choking move, then if I happen to use it at a more dramatically tense moment, it won’t feel like it came out of nowhere.”

“But most of the powers you have feel like they come out of nowhere.” Said Pitchen, far from the only thing on his mind, but worth stating. Guu didn’t bother giving that a response. To her, he was kind of stating the obvious.

[Guu]

The group wandered down the path. Chuck kept looking over the map, fuming at the most recent detour, Bani was taking the extended walk to practice some of her ballet, and Melani practiced her punches, knocking down the occasional tree. In the back of the group was Pitchen and Guu.

The princess had her face in her dataverse device. While she had snuck in a bit of time while at the Quest Buy, she was glad to get along Dataverse session for once. Every now-and-then, she would take her attention away from the screen to sense the surrounding area for threats. It appeared that travelling in such a large group was helping considerably as a number of predators seemed to have decided they weren’t worth the trouble. One pack of velociraptor seemed to take extended interest, but upon seeing the group, they just stood around with their mouths ajar. Some would say the true sign of intelligence is knowing when what you’re seeing makes absolutely no sense.

What did concern Guu was her moogle friend. While the others kept busy, Pitchen appeared to be in deep thought the entire time. She thought about asking about it, but she kind of hoped he would come forward himself.

After hours of walking though, the group looked much more worse for ware. Bani’s graceful leaps have turned into a weary occasional stumble. Even Melani was visibly tired. As the group came across a bunch of conveniently placed logs, Chuck’s voice called out from the front.

“Okay, maybe we should take an extended break now.”

The group take their places on the logs, Bani tries to get some stretches in, but even she preferred to stay stationary. Instead what happens is everyone pulls out their dataverse devices and starts tapping furiously at their screens.

Just as Chuck challenged Bani to a competitive game of Ninja Golf, Guu received a 
surprise text.


Melani said:
We haven't had a chance to talk


Guu looked up from her phone. She scanned over the party until they rested on the watermelon girl, who was returning the look. She dipped back down and typed away.


Guu said:
Well, I haven’t had that chance with any of you guys yet… Well, outside Chuck, but that was a while ago.


Melani said:
Ah! Kind of figured the other day was your first time meeting all of us. When did you meet Chuck?


Guu said:
It was like my first month in the Omniverse, he was working undercover under some creepy scientist guy and I was his target. But he recognize me from the dataverse and we hit it off.


Melani said:
That sounds nice!


Guu said:
It was quite a while, that was before Ambrosia even.


Melani said:
Sounds like you’ve had quite a history here Ms. Guu. Glad that fate has brought you and Chuck together again, Steven bless!


Guu said:
Steven bless?


Melani said:
My god, Steven Universe.


Guu said:
Oh yeah. I remember someone mentioning you had a god, what is that about?


Melani said:
The creator birthed us from normal watermelon seeds, he grew us and sent us to his people. However, we became violent, a threat.


Melani said:
To cut our wrath, a savior allowed himself to take our rage on him. We split him and left him nothing but rinds.


Melani said:
Grief filled and raged, god sent us away, commanded us to not return to the lands of his people until we’ve learned the price the savior paid for us.


Guu said:
That’s quite.a history, were you there for it?


Melani said:
No, I was born after, but all of us learn the tale when we are young.


Melani said:
We may need to continue this sometime later, I sense something coming.


Guu poked her head out from the screen and opened her senses. To her surprise, she could sense something, five people, quickly encroaching their camp from all angles.

“Guys we have trouble.” Guu said.

Bani and Chuck look up from their screens baffled. Suddenly, five people jump out from the brush, each one color coded in either red, blue, yellow, black, or pink. The each had helmets, the tops of their craniums molded into the shapes of various barnyard animals. Electric guitar suddenly starts playing as explosions happen behind them.

“Ninja Mega Rangers are go!” They call out.