Consideration

Sorry to keep you guys waiting, but the dance shall now continue...

"When I was seven years old, my friend Mieka and I went to see a fortune teller," Crimp said to Clay and Bruce as they gave Rhonda a bath. "I told her they're full of baloney, but she insisted. Anyway, we had our fortunes told, and Mieka was predicted to marry a vampire."

"But vampires aren't real," Clay pointed out. Bruce threw a treat into Rhonda's mouth as Crimp gave her a blowdry.

"No, they aren't," Crimp agreed. "But Mieka's husband does suck the joy out of everything, so I guess the prediction wasn't that far off."

The three of them laughed when suddenly, Crimp's phone rang and Bruce went to answer it. He smiled as he saw Floyd's face on the screen.

"What's up, brother?" he greeted.

"Bruce, is Crimp there?"

"Right over here!" Crimp replied as she went over to the phone. "What's the haps?"

"We need to save Willow, John Dory, Hope, and Trollex from this mad scientist named the Idealist, and we need your help."

"Oh! Um... Okay," Crimp replied sheepishly. "Help will arrive."

"Crimp, what's the problem?" Clay asked. "You said you had a calvary of college buddies."

"Well, the truth is... there's only six of them and I haven't spoken to them since I started working for Velvet and Veneer," she confessed. "They probably don't even remember I exist."

"Are they still in your contacts?" Bruce asked. Crimp nodded. "Then try to reach out to them. Clay and I will get some more help."

"How?" Clay wondered, running after Bruce as they headed into Crimp's home office.

Later, Bruce put up a poster on a power pole in Mount Rageous that read, "WANT HALF-OFF TICKETS TO SEE BROZONE? AID THEM IN AN INTERGALACTIC FIGHT BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL! p.s., you'll get your picture taken with bruce"

"What makes you think that'll help us?" Clay asked his older brother. Then, he turned around to find dozens of Rageons fawning over the poster in anticipation.

"Well?" Bruce said with a smug grin.

"Sorry I doubted you."

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

"You're the one who lost it, you twit!" the Idealist shouted to Bralø in the lab while two of the children played a game together at a table.

"Hellhound had it, sire," she pointed out, "but..."

"But, but, but, but, but, but!" he yelled, cutting her off mid-sentence. "That rancid word."

Bralø took an unsteady breath as the Idealist looked over at the two children. "I'm merely wondering whether it might be wiser to go directly to the new colony and not engage in unnecessary conflict."

"They can release energy that can fuel warships from just the tips of their fingers," the Idealist explained, pointing to the kids, "but what is that, Bralø?"

"Conjuration," she answered.

"Conjuration!" the Idealist repeated loudly. "In hundreds of years of our creations, only one has known manipulation. One. Putrid in every other way, but H2-Omicron had that."

"Yes, sire," Bralø hesitantly agreed, her eyes downcast.

"A perfect species needs a perfect world to settle on," the Idealist continued. "Redirecting ocean currents and the flow of rivers and streams can avoid accidental harm to them. And who knows what other elements can be affected? Natural disasters pushed away by just a thought. We need H2-Omicron's brain so we can transfer that trait into these creatures before we go to the new colony! Nothing else matters!"

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Meanwhile, in another part of the ship, Willow woke up to find herself dropped on a hard, metal floor. She groaned in pain as Trollex fell on his head.

"Ow!" Trollex exclaimed. Suddenly, John Dory crashed down on top of him. "Ow times five! Dude, lose some weight!"

"Where's Hope?!" John Dory said frantically, ignoring Trollex's comment as he got back up. "That was the creep who tried to steal Branch! If he messes with my baby like he did Synth, I'll-"

John Dory was cut off by the sound of a high-pitched scream. The three of them looked up to find Hope falling towards them.

"Hope!" John Dory shouted, running as he held his arms out. "Don't worry, Hope! Daddy's got-"

John Dory slammed his body into a glass wall as Willow used her telekinesis to catch the baby.

"John, for future reference," Willow said, "I think Hope would appreciate it if her dad didn't get a concussion."

"Noted," he groaned as he got back up and grabbed his daughter, who buried her face in his chest. "I'm so sorry, baby. I didn't mean for this to happen. I almost got you killed, like all the others."

Willow and Trollex glanced at each other in concern before looking around the room they were in.

"Where are we?" Trollex wondered. Willow pressed her hands against the glass and attempted to melt it with thermal magic, but yelped in pain as she felt her own hands get burned.

"I don't know, but we're not getting out," she admitted. John Dory went over to look at Willow's hands, but she just pulled them away.

Suddenly, the four Trolls heard something and huddled together in a protective circle. Then, they noticed a small group of the children emerging from the shadows on the other side of the glass.

"How'd they get down here?" Willow asked. "Something tells me this major detail will be missed."

"Joob joob?" one of the kids said.

"Well, now what do we do?" Trollex asked. "Knowing Floyd and Viva, they're probably going to find some way to save us, but how?"

"Well, like I did back at Genesis, they're probably gonna come in through the spaceport," John Dory explained. "I think I saw it on the starboard side of this ship."

"I hope so," Trollex said. "But what about these kids? Viva and Floyd don't know about them."

"I got this," Willow replied, and flew up to face the children. "Hey, you! We need you to tell the other children to stay away from the starboard walls!"

The kids looked over at each other as one of them said, "Joob joob?"

"They know three frickin words and two of them are joob," Willow muttered in frustration.

"Joob joob?" a girl said.

"No!" Willow shouted. "Walls on right about to go boom! Stay back!"

The children just backed away from the glass, frightened by Willow's temper.

"You have fourteen brothers and sisters," Trollex pointed out. "How do you not know how to do this?"

"Trollex, I was a live-in housemaid!" Willow answered angrily. "Plus, the only non-Troll languages I speak are those of birds."

"Everybody, calm down!" John Dory said. "I'm sure we can figure this out if we stop and think."

With that, John Dory approached the glass as he heard the kids muttering.

"When these kids were playing with Veneer earlier, they were speaking in a language that sounded a lot like one Bruce and I made up as kids," he explained. "Maybe they'll understand that instead."

"Go for it, man," Trollex said, and John Dory tapped on the glass to get the children's attention. Then, he spoke in a strange tongue, hoping they would understand him.

"What the hell am I watching?" Willow whispered to Trollex.

"A dad doin' his best," Trollex answered.

"Well, is he at least telling the kids to stay away from the starboard walls?" Willow asked loudly.

"Oh, sorry, we were talking about ice cream," John Dory admitted, then talked to the kids. After a couple more joobs, the kids headed back into the shadows. "I can't believe that actually worked."

Trollex looked over at Willow to see what she had to say, but she just turned away and huffed.

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top