Flight of the Aflutterflies (OPEN)

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"WHOOOOOOOO MAMA!!!" Mickey hollered, zipping about above the tree and hugging every aflutterfly in his way. "THAT WAS THE SWEETEST OF CAKES! YOU WERE AMAZING! AND YOU WERE AMAZING! GRAMMY AWARDS FOR ALL THE PEOPLES!!! OOH! NOW DO SMASH MOUTH!!!"

"Uuuuuuuugh..." Swift rubbed her head, taking a moment to recover from their dizzying descent and make sure her friends were okay. Evan was safely nestled between the branches. Andromeda was just barely clinging to a branch with her tail. Aether had landed in a bird's nest. Regardless, it was hard to feel relieved when everything around them was still pure insanity. It figured that even though they were all protected from the curse, they were still pretty much taking the full force of it.

"Patrick..." Swift growled to the mage tangled above her as she fished her hat out of the leaves. "Remind me to throttle you when this is over. And if you're actually pulling up Smash Mouth up there, I swear to Christ..."

"Perhaps we should just... focus on tracking down Rainflower..." Aether mumbled as if she was drunk.

[ryocker]

Nora started her call to Yang, wiggling impatiently.

"Food's ready!" One person called, bringing out a moving cart. "Push this out there, there's like fifty tacos and a note that says 'push it in for more.'"

Ed nodded, saluting. "For our safety!" he called, making sure extra condoments were present. He soon pushed the moving table outside, pulling the lid off the freshly made, steaming Tacos.

All that exercise must have made them hungry...

[DMis]

There wasn't much of a reply from Yang- given she was underground and in an odd cavern.

Beth quickly opened the doors to let the food though.

It wasn't long before some swarmed the cart.

[DanteMGalileo]

A new Aflutterfly joined the chaos, this one a pale purple in hue.

And dear god, her massive grin was almost painful to look at.

"WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY! HEY HEY HEY, LET'S ALL HAVE OURSELVES A GOOD TIME~~~~"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Whaaaaat? No! C'mon, Swift! Of course not!" Patrick replied, his thumb a mere centimeter from the music video's thumbnail before he hastily closed out YouTube and powered his phone down.

Evan sighed and swiped Rio out of the air again before jumping down from the tree. "Yeah, if we can dispense with the theatrics for a moment and put our focus on tracking-"

"RAINFLOWER?"

"Yeah. The fairy potion master that created the pests that unleashed this plague."

"YEAH, I KNOW!" Rio mused. "CAT, MICKEY, YANG AND I RAN INTO 'EM A WHILE AGO!"

Evan's eyes widened as he held the green aflutterfly up to his face. "YOU DID?!"

"YEP!"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?!"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU ASK~?"

After taking a deep breath through his nose, punctuated by the sound of Patrick plopping onto the sidewalk, Evan firmly asked, "Where are they?"

"WELL, MICKEY'S UP THERE WITH SAM, LAST SAW YANG OUTSIDE THE CITY, AND CAT GOT TURN-"

"WHERE'S RAINFLOWER, RIO?!" Evan hollered, shaking the tiny mage in his fists.

Rio's eyes swirled in his head for a moment until settling back into a dopey expression, then he cheerfully replied, "RAINY'S CHILLING IN THE GEODESIC CAVERNS!"

"Guys, we got a lead!!!" Evan shouted to his team. "Rio found Rainflower in the caverns! All we gotta do is- GAH!!!"

Before any further action could be taken, Evan was knocked down by a cloud of sparkly rainbow mist. When the apparition bounced off his barrier, it immediately shot at Swift, then Andromeda, then Patrick, then it just... hovered above Aether for a moment before scurrying off, having failed to get through to any of them.

"HEY! THAT WAS THE GHOSTY THING THE BLUE GUY PULLED OUT OF YANG!" Rio laughed.

Evan sat up and rubbed his shoulder, watching the spectacle with confusion all the while. What was that thing? What did Rio mean when he said it was pulled out of Yang?

Wait... Yang? Blue guy? "...Alex??"

---------------------------

Speaking of Alex and Yang, why not check in on what they've been up to here?

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"AHH! SHOO! GET AWAY!" Swift yelped as the garish spirit clashed against her the moment she descended from the tree. Andromeda just went rigid, remaining that way even after it left her and Aether alone.

"Goodness me...!" Aether watched the mist fly away, completely baffled. "What was that?!"

Swift's ear perked up at the mention of Alex, Yang and how that mist was apparently expelled from Yang herself. Come to think of it, if memory of her brief interaction with the stuff served her right, it did smell an awful lot like the aflutterflies, and its vibrant color scheme was certainly befitting. "You mean to tell me that was raw aflutterfly energy?!"

"WHOA!!!" Mickey darted back as the ghostly energy swooped past. "MAN, THINGS DON'T STOP FROM KEEP HAPPENING AROUND HERE, HUH GUYS?!"

"Shut up, Mickey," Swift muttered under her breath, mortified as she watched the aflutterfly energy disappear into a ventilation shaft. "Frig."

"Well... at least we have some direction. Hopefully this will lead us to the cure more quickly," Aether insisted, nodding to Evan.

"Right." Swift turned around, hands on her hips. "So it's off... to... the... what in the...?"

She quickly trailed off when she noticed yet another weird thing quickly approaching them down the street. It wasn't anything remotely resembling an aflutterfly this time. It was a small, scarlet... animal of some kind. Whatever it was, Swift couldn't tell. It looked like a fox, but it had bull horns and hopped like a frog.

Stranger yet, it had a flyswatter in its mouth. A very familiar flyswatter.

[ryocker]

"HEY, WHAT'S THE GLORIOUS STINK?!" One of the turned humans asked, looking down.

A few others stared downward as well. "IT SMELLS LIKE TACOS!"

"TACOS?!?" a large group cheered in unison. "I WANT A TACO!"

A good chunk of the supply soon flew toward the cart, flinging its coverings aside as they started nomming on their heavily hot sauced tacos.

Ed watched with bated Breath, Nora smiling. "Three... two... one..."

(reccomended played on a higher speed)


"AI CARAMBA!!!" some screamed in unison, small flames burping from their mouths. The tiny fairies began to fly around in a tizzy, many more excitedly laughing and watching their energetic rampage. Ed smiled as they flew about.

"KEEP THE ORDERS COMING, WE'RE ATTRACTING A CROWD!"

[DMis]

Beth darted out the doors before flying off. A hedron following her and filming the chaos as fire was starting to invade.

She made a quick loop back only to find more of the aflutterflies swarming the carts.

3 familiar fae soon joined the swarm.

[DanteMGalileo]

Riiiiiiiiiing. "Uh, Madison, really, we're getting worried-"

"I WAS WALKIN' WITH MY MAMA ONE DAY, WHEN SHE TOLD ME WHAT PEOPLE SAY, LIVE YOUR LIFE UNTIL LOVE IS FUN, 'CAUSE LOVE'S GONNA GET YOU DOWN~"



"On second thought, we'll let you... do whatever it is you're doing. Pipe cleaner suddenly sounds delicious right about now..."

None was noticed by the Madison aflutterfly, which was flying towards the taco smell, singing about candy and love.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Evan followed Swift's line of sight, quickly finding himself properly confused by the bizarre creature approaching them. He was so preoccupied taking in its mismatched appearance that it took him a while to notice the flyswatter it was carrying. When he did, however, he immediately figured out what it was, and Rio's subsequent exclamation only confirmed it.

"HI CAT!!!"

"...CAT?!"

Good God, as if today wasn't insane enough! First the aflutterflies, then the mass destruction, now THIS?! Then again, Evan figured he probably shouldn't have been surprised by Cat's transformation. This was Rainflower they were dealing with.

The disgruntled keymaster took a deep breath, his expression one of a man who had completely given up. "Hey, Cat. What's up?"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Oh my God..." Swift sighed and facepalmed while Andromeda and Aether simply observed the approaching bullfrox in stunned silence. Mickey was right, wasn't he? These oddities really weren't going to stop from keep happening anytime soon.

Cat skidded to a halt in front of the group, recognizing not only the familiar faces, but the aflutterfly in Evan's hand. Thank goodness! Here she was thinking this hunt would last a lifetime!

After spitting out Goldenhand, Cat shot Evan a stern look, pointed first at him and then at Rio, and made a hand-him-over gesture with her paw.

[ParamountKeymaster]

"What, him?" Evan pointed to Rio, who was beaming with absolute giddiness to be reunited with his teammate. He pondered the idea of handing Rio off to Cat, ultimately deciding that there couldn't have been much harm. Cat was clearly immune to the aflutterfly curse in her current state, and Rio had already given them the information they needed. With that in mind, Evan lowered the tiny mage down to the bullfrox's level. "Um... Sure. Here ya go."

"HEY CAT! GOOD TO SEE YA! WHERE YA BEEN?! WHAT TOOK YA SO LONG?! YOU'VE BEEN MISSING OUT ON ALL THE GOOD TIMES!"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

As soon as he was offered to her, Cat snatched Rio out of Evan's hand with her tongue, clamping down on his wings with her teeth. She then quickly nestled her flyswatter underneath him and started hopping away without another moment's notice.

The group watched her depart in awkward silence, broken only when Aether hesitantly spoke up, "O... kay then..."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"BLECH-!!!" Evan recoiled from Cat when she used her tongue of all things to grab Rio.

"WHOOP-! THAT'S IT FOR ME! SEE YA, GUYS!" Rio hollered as Cat proceeded to hop away with him in tow. "A LESSON IN LIFE I'M SURE TO GET! YEP! I HAVE SEEN BETTER DAYS!"

"..........................."

Evan slowly shook his head, deciding it best not to question what just happened. Time was still very much of the essence. No sense in wasting it on minor details.

"Alright, so... we better get down to the caverns. Patrick, think you can-?"

He did a double-take when he realized his best friend had vanished, moving in a circle as he anxiously searched for the mage. "Patrick? PATRICK?!"

---------------------------

"Who's making tacos?!" Patrick shouted, half demanding, half excited. "I haven't eaten since second breakfast!"

As he followed the scent of Mexican food, Patrick listened intently to a tiny singing voice, looking up to discover a blonde aflutterfly in a flowery dress. "Hiya!"

---------------------------



"OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" Evan stormed down the street in furious pursuit of their missing teammate. "Can we just go... FIVE FREAKING MINUTES without being distracted by the DUMBEST THINGS?! I swear, by the time we get down to the caverns, THIS WHOLE DANG ISLAND'S GONNA BURST OUT IN FLAMES AND/OR SHOWTUNES! AND WHERE THE FRIG IS THAT MUSIC COMING FROM NOW-?! Oh, wait, that's my phone..."

As if that meltdown hadn't happened, Evan slowed to a halt and pulled his phone out of his pocket, finding Alex's name displayed on the screen. So he had managed to avoid corruption too? That was good to know, and certainly unsurprising for the thief. "Um, Swift, do you mind...?"

While the girls continued the search for Patrick, Evan accepted the call and pressed the phone to his ear, paying no mind to the commotion surrounding him and the fairies that continued to collide with his barrier. "Hello?"

"Yeah, hi Evan? It's me Alex. Me and Yang just met with Rainflower and she gave us a number of things we'll need to put an end to the aflutterfly epidemic."

"WHAT?!!" Evan screamed into the phone, his suspension of disbelief all but completely thrown off balance. "Y-YOU MET RAINFLOWER?! WHEN DID-?! HOW-?! You know what, never mind!"

Focus, Evan. Work out the details later.

"Y-You say you have the cure?!"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Yeah, we're on it..." Swift grumbled as she, Andromeda and Aether took off running. Freaking Patrick. Leave it to him to get distracted by colors or something like that!

Andromeda took a good look around at the Plaza as the trio sprinted through it. By now, at least five buildings were on fire, numerous streetlights, utility poles and trees had been downed, and at a quick glance, she couldn't find anyone who hadn't become one with the swarm of hyper butterflies. It was starting to get to the meek Peaceful Warrior, evidenced by her heavy breathing and the panic clearly etched onto her face.

"Oh dear..." Aether looked between Swift and Andromeda, directly addressing the latter, "S-Stay calm, okay? A soon as we find Patrick, we can go about undoing all of this."

"I'm gonna kill 'em."

Aether looked back up at Swift. "Pardon?"

Swift swung her arms, forcefully swatting away aflutterfly after aflutterfly. "As soon as we find Rainflower, I'm sinking my claws into that stupid fairy's digestive tract!"

Andromeda and Aether cast each other startled looks. They were used to such brutal threats from Swift, but this one didn't sound all that empty.