Really, Any Kind of Support Would Be Nice! (ID)

[DanteMGalileo]

A chimeric creature touched down in Portal Park, scattering a few astral feathers from its galaxy-like wings upon landing, foot-long claws digging into the dirt. It had long, lanky limbs and a matching neck covered in a mane composed of a similar substance as its feathers, a reddish-grey hide broken up by scales on its chest and the middle of its arms, a fan-like tail in a sunset pattern, two horns sprouting from its head (one with a notch), and a pair of sunken red eyes. Its jaw was shut, not exposing its sharp orange teeth for once, expression serious.

Percy sniffed with a nose marked by an inverted star. They were close by. Reaching into his mane, the long claws pulled out a rock fragment, glowing a dark rainbow colour, stroking it top to bottom.

The creature's features began to recede, becoming more humanlike and shrinking in size, eventually revealing its true form, a teenage boy with a mess of brown hair and prominent cowlicks.

"I hope this is the one," Percy said, putting the now-dull stone back in the pocket of his halfway-torn jacket. "Because I'm not sure if I'm comfortable doing this rescue mission by myself." Well, he was standing outside the camper van door. He had flown all the way from that icy place to here at a speed that surprised himself.

Inhaling, Percy knocked twice on the door. "Hello? Is anyone here? I've got a problem."

[ParamountKeymaster]

Well, it wasn't like anyone else was going to answer the door...

Rio sighed as he shuffled out of the kitchen and through the living room, giving his temples a deep massage. Yesterday had been crazy enough, but this morning had been just a hodgepodge of... saying it like it is, terrible ideas. The beleaguered mage was still trying to wrap his head around everything he had learned, and Cat and Mickey's maniacal, hare-brained schemes were not helping matters. If anything, he feared that their continued involvement in this madness was only going to make things worse. That seemed to be the norm with the Trio of Three, after all.

Nonetheless, it seemed like they were stuck in this situation for now. Cat was dead set on revenge, Mickey was eager as ever to thrash something, and Rio couldn't deny his own curiosity on the matter. It was hard for him to really let it go, considering the impression the people he'd met had left on him and the fate he had apparently escaped. So for better or for worse, no matter how much more likely the latter option was, it seemed like Rio was still along for the ride on this miniaturization business.

He had a feeling the knock on the door was going to be yet more proof of this. As he went to greet their visitor, Rio discretely prepared a spell interweave, just in case it turned out to be one of the ruffians from yesterday's aerial adventure.

Both a sigh and the spell were harmlessly released when Rio opened the door and realized who it was.

"Percy...!" Despite this, the expression on Rio's face wasn't exactly relaxed. Seeing the young man just seemed to make him even more anxious. "Uh... Good to see you again. What're you doing back here?"

[DanteMGalileo]

"Oh, good, you're here," Percy sighed in relief. "It's kind of a long st... actually, no, it's not a very long story, but the sheer insanity makes up for it, I think." Then again, the mage and his companions seemed like the type to be used to this stuff. "The gist of it is that Will's probably somewhere up... there." The brunette sheepishly pointed up at the sky.

He then gestured to his tattered clothing and messier-than-usual hair. "We got into an altercation with the bird man from yesterday and several staff at some weird building up in the snowy mountains." Blargh, there went the one nice thing he owned, right? "I handled the bird man and kept some of the security off Will, Max, and Ryan so they could escape. Now, normally, I would've flown after them..." Percy fiddled with the stone in his pocket. Out of juice for now, it seemed. "But I got this gut feeling that having backup might have been a smarter idea."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Uhh..." Rio responded to Percy's incongruous explanation with a blank expression. His headache was coming back full swing. "Wait, where was...? What were you do...? Will is...?"

He cautiously stuck his head out the door and looked around, assuring himself that no one was listening in on this conversation. He looked to the sky, not knowing what he was looking for or what he expected to find, but more out of morbid curiosity if nothing else.

Then Rio took a deep breath, turned back to Percy, and stepped aside to offer him the doorway. "Why don't you come in? The three of us have acquired some potentially useful information as well. We might still be able to help each other. Um... We also have some breakfast left if you want it."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Okay, okay, how about this..." Cat stared intently at Mickey from across the kitchen table, her paw raised matter-of-factly, gnawing on a piece of bacon. "We can get our hands on one chip. Then through a combination of my mad genius inventing skills and Rio's transmutation magic, one of us (probably Rio for ironic purposes) can pull an Ant-Man vs. Thanos!"

She smirked and pointed her half-eaten bacon at the vampire raccoon. "C'mon, you know what I'm talking about. One of us gets small, goes over to the blond guy with the mini-sub in him, and..." Then Cat pointed a finger to the ceiling and made slight, albeit conspicuous upward thrusting motions.

[ThePopcornFairy]

"Cat? You're a sick freak. And I love that about you, don't get me wrong..." Mickey chuckled as he very easily pictured the scenario Cat was proposing. "But realistically, Rio's never gonna agree to that. I'm not gonna let you subject yourself to it simply because you're my friend and it'd be weird, and I can't do it because of this forced abstinence from butt stuff on account of my parole."

After taking a sip of blood substitute, Mickey leaned on the table and thoughtfully tapped his chin. "Then again, we're still kicking. Does that count as butt stuff? Pfft, why am I even asking this? When have I ever cared about...?"

His ears perked up when he noticed Rio reenter the kitchen, accompanied by a familiar face from yesterday. "Oh hey, hot shot! Long time, no see!"

[DanteMGalileo]

Wow, the atmosphere in here is so tense, I could cut it with my sword. Or claws. Or something.

Percy looked around the interior of the camper van. Uh, was there something he missed? What were the raccoon man and hybrid girl talking about at the table? And... wow, the hybrid girl was pretty protective of her breakfast? He suddenly wasn't hungry. "Uh... did I come at a bad time?" The scruffy-haired teen inquired, looking for a spot to sit down, if only for a moment.

"... Is there some way I can help you after?" Boy, it's fun being the one guy completely out of the loop!

[ParamountKeymaster]

Rio let out yet another sigh as he stepped into the kitchen. Today was just going to be a day of sighs, wasn't it? "I don't know what kind of conversation was just taking place, but I'm completely certain I don't want to know. So... no. Cat, play nice."

He sat down at the table, his body slumping like it was too heavy for him. He looked between his two teammates, then he turned to Percy. "Don't worry about it. We were actually right in the middle of a discussion regarding you fellows, actually. See, we've... learned a little more about you and Will's situation since yesterday's adventure. I'm not sure how much you're aware of, but..."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Looking up and seeing that Rio had returned with company, Cat's first instinct was to yank every last remnant of their breakfast buffet to her side of the table and cover them with her body, snarling at Percy in a tone somewhere between a canine growl and a weasel hiss. She almost immediately cut herself off with a bright smile and a genuine "Hey, buddy!" only to then go back to guarding her loot.

After ensuring that no one was going to tamper with the most important meal of her day, Cat grabbed a cold waffle and helped herself to it while Rio addressed Percy. The mage's typical diplomacy was wearing on her. It was high time they got to the point. "...But long story short, how much do you know about the tiny pilot currently bumming a ride inside your friend's body Magic School Bus-style?"

[ThePopcornFairy]

"Magic School Bus? That's the comparison you went with?" Mickey questioned, thoroughly unimpressed with Cat's verbiage. "I would've gone with the more obvious Fantastic Voyage. Or the SpongeBob episode with a similar premise. Or that one animated movie no one actually likes or at least I hope they don't on principle."

[DanteMGalileo]

Their words.

Percy's head.

"... Uh... what now?" Percy tilted his head to the side, not really understanding just what Cat or Mickey was talking about. "What's this about Will and a tiny pilot inside him?" Complete, genuine bafflement and confusion. "That just sounds completely absurd. What made you come to this conclusion, or did someone tell you this?" He was sure this wasn't going to cause a strong enough emotional reaction, and he had the Iridescent Stone on him anyway, but he felt his horns vaguely starting to form regardless.

"... Would you mind filling me in? I've had this nagging feeling all morning that Will's been keeping a secret from me anyway." Percy took a seat on whatever unoccupied space he could find, ready to listen to the Trio of Three's story.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Rio let out a prolonged sigh, leaned on the table, and dropped his head into his hand. Nothing could ever be accomplished subtly around here, could it? He wasn't even sure why he expected any different anymore.

"So I take it you didn't know..." Rio took a deep breath and dropped his hand. As usual, leave it to him to describe the situation in a cohesive and concise manner.

Turning to face Percy, Rio explained, "So... last night we were informed by a... somewhat mysterious party that Will has been subjected to a sort of miniaturization project. A pilot manning a microscopic submarine that was... apparently originally intended to be injected into my body was serendipitously placed inside Will instead. And the people attempting to abscond with him yesterday seem to be after said microscopic submarine."

He rubbed his forehead in exasperation. "We're still trying to wrap our heads around this whole thing too, but the long and short of it is that we want to find Will again so that, at the very least, we can clear the matter with the pilot. Lydia, I believe her name was..."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"And by 'clear the matter...'" Cat propped herself up on the table and whipped out her flyswatter. "...we of course mean 'beat the crap out of her and the people in charge of this mad scientist operation for trying to literally micromanage us.' Like, seriously, what the frig?!"

She slumped back in her chair and continued munching on her waffle. "Or at the very least, snatch the shrinking tech in a simultaneous act of revenge and curiosity."

[ThePopcornFairy]

"Because priorities?" Mickey tossed in with a shrug, leaning back with his arms folded behind his head. He shot a glance at Percy, mentally questioning the cause behind Will's silence on the matter but opting to speak up with a different topic. "Not sure if you would know anything about our informant. Black cat, green eyes, hentai tails, smile almost as sharp and devilish as mine, not that I'm into that sort of thing (today)..."

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Okay, I know of a cat creature with green eyes and that grin, but..." Percy cut himself off, looking upward. "Hang on, I need to ask the demon in my head a question. Hey, Imago, what could he mean by hen-tie tails? What is hen-tie anyway?"

Probably tentacles. Hentai is a type of lewd art originating in Japan, aka what is now Honni Island. Tentacles tend to play a role, for whatever reason, usually involving-

"Gah! TMI!" Percy's face turned a bright shade of red with a shocked expression. "You could've just said tentacles! I didn't need to know about that!!" Shaking his head a few times to dispel the blush, the brunette returned his attention back to the Trio of Three. "... I know who you're talking about. That's Mara. She's a demon from my world who doesn't like to get her hands... paws... claws...? Whatever she grabs things with dirty." Well, at least they didn't seem eager about her? "I'm not sure about micromanaging people from the inside, but that doesn't seem very nice. B-But please don't hurt Will. He's kinda a klutz and maybe has this little person inside him, yeah, but I'm certain he'd never hurt someone unless they hit him first." He looked back at Rio. "Call it gut instinct, or space chimera bullshit senses, or whatever, but if this... Lydia person really wanted to hurt you, I'm sure she would've found a way out of Will one way or another by now."

Percy turned, and looked out a window, before back at the three people before him, pointing upward. "I think they're up there. No, not in heaven, or that place where they serve bacon. That weird big glowy thing that shows up when the sky gets dark."