🐙Tomas🐙

The Australian outback is not to be underestimated.

“This Weather is crazy!” Tomas said. He saw tornadoes, lighting and even some snow in almost every direction. Rain continuously poured down on him in buckets.

He tripped into mud for the third time in as many minutes. His robes were filthy. Repeated journeys to the ground added more mud each time. Sitting up with a miserable groan he found that his right sandal wasn’t attached to his foot anymore. To make matters worse, it hadn’t surfaced from the puddle he had just tripped in, so he had to reach in and search for it by hand. After some feeling around, he found it buried deep in the mud and pulled it out with a loud squelch. He shook off the globs of mud still attached to the sad-looking sandal and sighed. He then pulled the sandal off of his other foot, choosing to go barefoot rather than risk tripping again.

He made it all of two steps before he stood on a pointy rock, screamed, and fell face first into the mud again. His foot stung like hell. He checked the sole of his foot and was relieved to see it wasn’t bleeding.

He sat there, wet, dirty, and miserable, stewing over his predicament for a while, "Oh, right. Why don't I just transform," He said, slapping himself on the forehead for not realising the obvious solution sooner.

He transformed into his were-octopus form, then wrapped his tentacles together into pairs so that he had four limbs total. Then he tried to run on all fours like an animal. He was delighted to discover that it worked like a charm. He no longer tripped in the mud and when the soft tentacles stood on a rock, they squished over it without causing Tomas any pain. Not only that, Tomas was elated at how quickly he moved with each long tentacle stride, “Much more convenient than legs!” he bragged to the air.

However, this method was only convenient for a short time. He quickly felt himself getting tired. Turns out leg bones are really important in energy conservation while hiking. Feeling exhausted after only half an hour, Tomas had to transform back and catch his breath. After that, he continued alternating between cautiously walking on his human feet when he was tired and dashing in octopus form when he caught his breath.

His next big problem was that he had fled into the wilderness without food or water. It was ironic that surrounded by so much rainwater, Tomas’ throat was parched. And as the day progressed, his stomach growled like an angry Matriarch, demanding food. Tomas cursed Roy for not providing him breakfast before taking him to the ceremony. He held out for as long as he could but in the end, he swallowed his pride, threw himself down on his hands and knees and drank from the cleanest looking puddle he could find, “Pweh! Tastes like dirt,” he moaned.

Drinking didn’t alleviate his hunger, no matter how much dirt there was in the water to fill his stomach. He ended up chewing on random leaves, plucked from trees as he marched onwards.

Late in the day, Tomas found himself shivering. Heavy rain gave way to chilly winds. He was growing worried he was lost until he noticed the scenery change. Trees grew greener and he spotted more plants and animals as he reached a river. Tomas thanked the heavens. The river was actually the first landmark on his planned route to Chook's Creek. The water was deep and clean. He threw himself at it and drank heavily.

His stomach still grumbled but now he was too exhausted to care. He began searching for somewhere to rest. Unfortunately, the cold winds found their way into every hidey-hole he discovered. Luckily for Tomas though, he didn’t need to rest on the land.

He took off his robes and hung them on a tree alongside his sandals. Then turned to the river and dived in. He transformed mid-air and landed with a graceless splash. The river was flowing strong because of all the rain. Tomas swam down as fast as he could and found a couple of large boulders close together on the river bed. He grabbed hold and used his squishy body to wedge himself securely between them. Then, so that he wouldn’t be disturbed, he used one of his favourite octopus tricks: He changed his skin’s colour and texture to camouflage himself into looking like another rock. With all that done, Tomas fell asleep immediately.

🎣Wally🎣

Wally’s soul floated up into the sky. Below it, the monster that had been chasing him frothed at the mouth while it jumped up and down clawing at empty air. It was absolutely livid at losing its floating snack. When the soul floated so high that it could no longer be seen, the monster sagged down, dejected.

Wally's soul floated off to find a new adventure and the monster he'd left behind sniffed at the air before rushing off in search of new prey.

Go get ‘em tigers!

👽Fred👽

For the second time, Fred woke up with no idea where he was or how he got there. He felt the familiar comfort and warmth of his own bed around him. He sat up and looked around, needing a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim light of the room he had awoken in. This was not his dorm room, his dorm room was small and square-shaped, and this room was a large dome. However, all of his belongings were there, placed in the exact location they'd been in his dorm room. This meant that there was a lot of weird empty space around the edge of the room.

The Space-Illuminati must have taken all of the stuff and transferred them here. The blood drained from Fred's face when he realised this meant they saw everything in his room, including the things under his bed.

He quickly rolled off the bed with a thud onto the floor and stared wide-eyed underneath. A knot grew in his throat; he tried his best to swallow it down. Unable to control his hand tremors, he reached out to grab one of the two boxes under his bed and slid it open.

His stash of tongue-themed magazines was all there, but not in the order he had left them.

He closed the lid, slid it back under his bed, then covered his blushing face with both hands and rolled back on the floor, trying not to cry. That had been the legal box of the two.

He calmed his nerves enough to reach out and take a hold of the second box. The familiar weight and the liquid sloshing inside let him know that it still contained its contents. He was about to open the lid, just to be sure when the door to his room slid open. He quickly dropped the box and slid it back under his bed.

“Fred! There you are! Why are you on the floor?” Einstein asked.

“N-Nothing! No reason! What are you doing here? Where are we even?” Fred blurted out.

“We’re on a flying saucer. Those Space-Illuminati buttheads really sent us away. Come with me to find Edison,” She ordered, marching over, dragging Fred up to his feet and then pulling him along behind her.

They found Edison right away, in a room near Fred’s, laying on his bed, playing on his smarty phone. Turns out the ship came equipped with space WiFi so they could stay up-to-date with events. Einstein grabbed him as well and they all set out to explore.

The flying saucer they were in was pretty luxurious. It had all sorts of living rooms, dining rooms, research stations, and even a prison for captured aliens. All the rooms were wide, circular domes.

Eventually, they stumbled into the command centre. There were three egg-shaped workstations facing a large curved screen on one of the walls. Einstein sat down at the central one and began typing on the station's keyboard. Information flashed up on the screen almost too fast for Fred to follow, but for a super genius like Einstein, it was no problem.

“What is up with this horrible user interface,” she murmured before spinning her chair to face her two teammates, “ Ok, here’s what I found. We are on the ‘F.S. Wibble Wobble’ bound for a remote part of the Orion galactic arm. I have been assigned captain, as I should, but my access to certain commands is restricted. For example, I can’t change the ship’s direction unless we detect something worth investigating on the scanning station,” She said pointing to the workstation to her left, “Our mission written here, is to explore this area of space for anything useful we can find while everyone else dies,” she burst into tears suddenly.

“Einstein,” Fred stepped forward. She leapt out of her chair and grabbed him in a tight hug, weeping into his shirt. Fred exchanged a look with Edison as he pat Einstein on the back. It was easy to forget that she was just a kid. She had been putting on a brave face during all the craziness of the last day but couldn’t keep it up. She needed to let go and let her emotions out. To be honest, Fred was planning to do the same, later when she couldn’t see. Everything had spiralled out of control so suddenly.

Edison was useless and Fred truly was the oldest, the responsibility rested on him to fix this. He grabbed the weeping Einstein by her shoulders and moved back so he could look her in the eyes, “Einstein, I understand, you feel powerless right now, but I know something that even the Space-Illuminati doesn’t know,”

Einstein sniffed her dripping nose and looked up at Fred curiously.

He smiled and kept going, “We are the Little Girls; the greatest team of inventors in all of Smarty history. They just haven’t realised it yet. With your genius and my powers, we’re gonna show them all. It doesn’t matter if they send us out to the edge of nowhere, we can still make a difference and change history. Heck, even if we don’t invent something to change history, we’ll at least have Edison’s cybernetic tongue idea to fall back on.”

Einstein stared at Fred quietly for a moment. A big smile grew wider and wider on her face until she burst out laughing and space-karate punched him in the arm, “You’re right Fred! Thank you! Thank you so much, that’s just what I needed to hear. Alright Little Girls, science time! Let's get to work!”

They worked their butts off with smiles on their faces. That night after they all decided to call it a day, someone knocked on Fred’s door. When opened it he found Edison standing there, “Hey man, what’s up?” Fred asked.

“Hi mate, came around for a chat. Mind if I come in?” Edison replied.

“Uhhh… sure, no problem,” Fred let him in, feeling confused. Edison generally kept to himself, so Fred had no idea what he would want to talk about.

They got comfy on a couple of chairs. Edison smiled and started talking, “This is awkward. It's kind of a serious topic I wanted to chat about. Heh, there seems to be a lot of serious chats going around these days, huh?”

“Yeah,” Fred nodded, growing even more curious.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said today. Specifically about how between your power and Einstein’s genius we can make a real difference. Don’t worry, I’m not offended that I wasn’t included in that list or anything.” he quickly clarified, seeing the concern on Fred’s face, “I actually totally agree. You two really shone when we made The Milk-Shaker together. It was a beautiful sight to behold,”

Edison sighed, “Anyways, I’ve been thinking about my role here and how to best help the team. And I think I figured out what I can do to help. I mean really help. But… It’s pretty dangerous. So I really needed to come here and let you know what I'm doing before I do it, so I don’t end up crippled, dead, or worse.”

“What are you talking about, Edison? You don't need to endanger yourself; we’re inventors,” said Fred.

“Yeah, na, I know what you mean. But.. ok just listen: You know how your power works when you’re super angry, right? Well, guess what? I know your secret!” Edison said, his mechanical smile beaming.

Fred’s stomach dropped. It took all of his willpower not to look over at where the boxes were hidden under his bed.

Edison pulled out his smarty phone and showed Fred the image on the screen. Fred almost leapt out of his chair.

Oh no, he means my other secret.

On the screen was a picture of Vegetable Fish. Edison’s smile was so wide it almost split his head in two, “You are afraid of fish!” He declared with excited enthusiasm, “I humbly request you don’t murder me in the upcoming weeks, because I intend to make your life a living hell!”