What Becca extracted was bright yelloWaxy, checkered with indentations, mildly reflective; she cLamped it by the tiPrecious of her fingers. It resembled a waffle - if waffles came served in gnarled chun-K~shapes. She sank to her knees and lamented: "Oh Pedestals and their Branching razors... forgive me; I feel we had no choice." And she buried it against her ribcage.

Gurjivow snarled, "That's enough sentimental energy; no more, or the mentaLink may diffuse the essence worth my particular need."

The sorceress redoubled into a faint groan; her leaFilled eyes rolled back so far could hardly see the pupil, gleaming ghastly white, before fanning spaded caves and hearts. Her spine collapsed into a bow, immense dangling chest, heaving through turbulence. There crumpLEft of her, only as much to observe as a panicked armadillo.

"So," Rovone ventured, tenderly. "What is that thing actually for?"

But Ruby appeared to be melting across the hot tamale seams of carpet, non-responsive; Falco answered instead: "It's a charm... basically for synergy fortune. Maybe acSaully how she bewitched me," he joked, while reassuringly stroked Ruby's dark hair. "CompoWed of an uncut honeycomb shelf, quite fascinatingggly. It's also a bit of a coord-"

His lover tugged abruptly at his cherry pants, to halt him from releasing some kind of intel. "It's an extravagant horoscope - they rely on tracking orbital tensions & strengths," she filled. "Can be useful to accrue what kinDuration mooDynamic the solar system is pushing and tickling any giveNearby operatives to surf along."

The Formidable Forecaster gloated: "Locations & strongholds I shall delight to re-deposit."

Anika snorted in her blue dragonfly shirt. "C'mon guys, if that totem was simple as all that, 'Becca could just download an astrology app to get readings, it would probably be made from a more common substance, and she surely wouldn't be in a heap on the ground over it. The item gotta be serving more than time-frame estimation."

"Leave it alone," Rovo requested. "It's not our business."

Anika shot him a scowl. "Well it's obviously enough to captivate the interest of a UFO."

"We've no right to inquire," Gutterson adamantly arrived. "Let's respect the lady's privacy..."

"How heartfelt," hawked the Homonculus. "How about we not remain so furtive: your advocating Lass believes some Galactic organisms might sincerely CARE about the ongoings of humans."

"Wow." Amy shivered. "That's an inclusive hope. Not a dream to be ashamed of."

"Yeah," Trent's jaWavered. "Sounds like a devoted Search." Even the ginger jester was stemming solemn.

The Dick-tateRolled his eyes. "C'mon, what have aliens ever done for us? And on top of that, when have they ever showed their faces openly?"

Becca's head jolted up. "Sift context clues left beside Earth's historic feats, and you may glimpse something of their reflections. Plus some ecosystems are more aware than animals below the surface, but don't prefer to be witnessed by competitive minds."

"I'm gonna observe what's done in secret?" disMassed Dal, then nettled me under gaze. "No bother, guess Pyram's Papa can sort out the messages from those bygone monuments!"

"HA!" gurgled Giganto-Gizzard. "Countless of your frequency have reached out to the cosmos in various ways, including meditation... yet human tolerance is actually less interesting than when it commenced, so Outside help met by such feaRevulsion has meageReasons to stick around. The first reason is blatant - You have little to directly offer cultures capable of positioning Portals." (I coulda begged to differ). "The second shuts the Door: you've forgotten how to thrive off the land in village packs, bowing instead to corporate, Militant Borders for convenience of Heartificial electric lives that massage you comatose without defying you to socially branch over binding resources. Meanwhile, the tycoons who manifest all the airwave fuels for your world-Grid, certify legal hoops of documentation attached to creedos erected before your birth, that stamp rigid boundaries amidst regardinGrievance against their policies. The pioneer spirit grows staunchly suffocated, as such militant eavesdropping star-wRapids ears onto each political official's conFacadence to proclamate the status quo. Your collective consciousness slopes against Passive-aggressive hesitance, for trembling before tangible-focused satiation theology. Living desperate doesn't seem worthwhile to those conditioned to feel cozy. But in some instances, if we spies see potential in teamwork, we whisk them away for a more riveting future. Your current lifespan may appeal of superficial beauties on every corner, yet how many of you feel rewarded for labor, or appreciated for skills you actually favor? Do you imagine there's no finer Quality of achieving influence? Since I've been following the studious Ruby and heard-tell of the wily Gutter-brandishing, the truth is I've convened here in part to discover if any of you are ripe for endor$ing.."

A surge of anger swept over me - "And you find yourself Superior?" I dug. "How do you differ, precisely?"

"There's no straight answer for that," the InvisiBugle suspended. "Connoisseur may be the best way to put it: soon to be Bio-Mechanic. In the agricultural era Ye likened us to Owlbear, Gryffalcon, or fairy; as any high-faculty organism, the species does not all embody the same techniques or behavior as the next of Kin. Once you Seed-fertilizers tightened Classification structures, it was deemed gargTrolls, dragon, even angels. Lately since your alChemical stabs have shifted root & blossomed into succinct Industries, humans often cross-examine me as dimensional demons, galactic aliens, or phantoms such as Mothman. I adapt with strategic inFlux, elucidating veins of circulation & where simplest to siphon - while saplings envy over impressive features they lack or cannot unfurl."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

With tincture of Dr. Freud, Sigmund remarked: "We dooo prefer to naturalize dings to common expecTame+Shone..."

"And mainly differentiate with an upright posture & flexible garments," asserted Moth-er Flocker. "You bunch of haiRaisers fancy yourselveSlick with ornamental fashion trends - How I despise this superficial dance. Note, I am rarely trusted when dress in trenchcoat = but whaThen for pockets? So now since you chose to test my identity, I require one more favor from your party -- Enumerate it from my fancy clues. I allot fifteen seconds to prove the adequacy of your lives. Beg;inn..."

"Pheo glared at me: "You just had to push didn't you? We were almost out of the woods!"

Coming from her, that tossed me pretty wide-ranging. But something assured me my provocations were justified. "Rival motives are a MUST to evaluate!" I yelled.

Thirt-TEEN..." spiraled downward.

"Fashion," Gutt mumbled. "Ornamental Trends..." he looped louder. "Hair-razors... Eureka gang! May involve styles of hair."

"You might be onto it, pal!" I said, beginning to scan all the noggins in the room.

"TennN.." hovered the Dragon.

There were plenty of people around with a load of hair, including myself: Buck, Pheo, Ruby, Rovo... All of us looking frazzy. Buck & Anika contained dye, but only one was lofted into any kind of style - Amelia's Bun.

"Amy!" I targeted.

"Y-yes??" she asked, confused.

"You have the fanciest hairstyle here," I elaborated.

"Sixx-X..." The bear Omen seemed to curse.

Amy's shoulders urgently bounced. "What d-does it mean!!?"

Ruby suggested, "You've also got trinkets-a-plenty adorning you."

"Fouurrr.." Feathertails pressed.

"That's true!" Amy contemplated, glacing down at her glittering wrists and common chest. "Beads?" she wondered.

"Plain," refused the LeverAger.

Fin proposed, "How bout those gob-stopping earrings?"

Amy brushed at white balls near her lobe, which appeared to have roses and sunflowers painted over the surface. "These are just faux pearl cheapies," she emitted gravely.

"Twwo-Hooo!" %__#_% strummed the Dread Harp.

Baggy pix'Nika suddenly seized like a bassoon: "Only one thing else to see - that Kite Clip in your hair!"

"Ohhh," Amy bemoaned. "It would be that." The bronze accessory blended in pretty well against the folds of her hair.

"Just in time," punctuated the mystery Bearer. "I suppose I set my riddle up for failure, trying to outwit a baker's dozen at once."

Goldilocks squeezed at one side of the Bun, and half the beehive came tumbling down, dripping over one shoulder and around her jaw to stick like honey. She lowered the pin, and cupped in both hands. On the underside, silver puffs branched along the item, somewhat like clouds... "The clairvoyant girl gave this to me. We shared Civics class together last year. She said it'd give me an extra spark on my march toward the Top of Politics."

Dallas snickered. "From Clara, the wheelchair Cruiser? She just wants to feel useful so she tells people elusive, mystical shit; sorry to break it to ya darling, but you've fallen for a rinse-and-repeat grab after self-empowerment!"

Trent wrinkled his nose. "She does get really clingy. Even going by Keira, as if she performs cures. I can't believe the likes of yourself associates with someone who reeks of Desperation."

Amy's nostrils flared, while her eyes frothed & twinkled with water. "Desperation, is it?? I think you know respects are more complex than you can imagine. Have some pity: we all just wanna be accepted for our background."

Trent shifted his gaze down at the box of eggs.

"Si, 'magine not having common mobiliDay," Siggy prospected. "You'd be left to construct for in'ellect. Beside, something wild Clara VoiminTold me once: I'd be having a sleePremonition, unrealized. So there's a dream dat repeaThrice in the last year, involving a Lemur-Scorpion thing creepINto windows, offering toys and trinkets that acJewelly sap townsfolk. It extractSquirt from each, and after gatheRinse, pumps some kind of amber ichor into the ground. Den a python slips out from behind a rock pile to greet it, anDay have some kind of wedding conducted by crickets, ants, & dragonflies. No hesitation following Ceremony, the snake devours the scorpion, and changes into like, a ChiMoosEra gator. It locks this trio of slit eyes into me, and starts to charge - I can't do anyDang, yet when its horns slice inna me, I feel it but it doesn't actually impale me. When I turn round, instead, it's actually tramplinGore on people close to my home: Falco, Sienna, Rovo," he turned to me. "Pyram."

Sickness pushed a vortex down through my chambers. But Siggy's intolerance for the intangible seemed perhaps be dissolving...

"It drags on," Swig suffered. "Battering, even a few more like Pheo, blondes like a haybale, & a seaLioj that looKinda like a bowling pin."

He shouted: "That water scor-peen got a chunk o' me Urler, and I attend to repay the yella-belly Sneak!"

Those who weren't present during the first attack, squinted at the unacquainted reference.

"But den you two," Swiggs pointed at Becca & Amelia. "Aims drifts down with the face of Dandylion seed, & placed Ruby down in front of the Assaulter. Our magicians' surrounded by like, this Bubble of 2 dozen chanting faces. I recognize even my own face mouthing something I can' really hear. My vision zooms over where Pheo bleeding, my bro mending a saddle, and her eyes gasp out this spark toward Ruby, which flutters over and lands on the Cloak of Faces. It ignites like a maze of gas. Faces merge, all becoming a bigger verSEwing machine, a swan, and a magenta jackalope. Dose 3 mouths triangulate a cyclone, and pinch da beast down unda smuddering hat and gloves ."

"Hot damn," leveled Trent. "I need a mural of that on my wall."

Anika sighed like a sinkhole. "Good luck making any sense of that."

Rovo glanced down over his sister like a flickering lamp. "Guess we better latch our windows tight?"

Falco tried to coax Becca back to her feet. "We'll just gettt more inventive, that'ssSaul."

- She hiccuped: - "Per usual dear," but was squinting over at Amy.

By this time Gutterson had lain the *D#windlow...Phission* Egg on a fuzzy washrag. He scratched at the remnanTips of hair, seeming to sweat cagey bullets. I wondered if it had any extra to do with PTSD flashbacks.

"Regardless children," slashed the Appraiser, "I'm ready to collect. Please make a pouch containing the Egg, the Beehive talisman, & the Hair-clip; so that I may *carrion* the sources without hitch; lest any of your candidates reconsider complying, and would rather forgo with meeting your Appointment."