Bob by Seraph of Enigma
Crash! Bang and boom! Oh the sounds in the room! Glass bottles, beakers and vials all flew through the air. Some were filled with brightly colored liquids and others were empty. Some broke apart when they hit the wall, floor or the stray wooden chair that didn't seem to belong to a table and some rolled along on their merry way. So many flying objects! Occasionally a paper airplane sailed by lazily, some even folded up to look like birds! Was that one shaped like a ballerina? What an odd assortment of flying objects it was.
Well of course it would be odd if it was the gremlin Pop Fizz that threw them. The little blue ball of fur was the best alchemist of all the Skylanders, if he did say so himself. No one could mix potions (or drinks!) better than he. He was also the most insane and had eyes that looked two different ways to prove it. He always wore his trusty, bottomless potion pack so he had everything he needed close at hand.
"Where are you?" the furry alchemist whined as he finally pulled himself out of the closet he had all but destroyed. He landed on his blue backside with a grunt as he turned his large, yellow eyes around the room. He had been through the shelves, cupboards and cabinets. Pop Fizz had torn apart the closets, racks and chests. "Oh my friend, you hide so very well at times!" the gremlin cried in frustration.
Hide-and-go-seek was the favorite game Pop Fizz and his missing friend played. It was always a little one sided though. Pop Fizz never hid. It was always his friend but they seemed to like it that way. The gremlin's long, rabbit like ears twitched and turned around to listen to something behind him. On the other side of the door to the room he was in something was moving around. Faster than you could say 'dear sweet mother of cheese!' Pop Fizz had flown to the door and thrown it open. His excited and hopeful look turned into a frown when he didn't find who he was expecting.
"Can I help you?" Hex asked in her usual silky draw. The elf was one of the undead Skylanders. No, not a zombie. She didn't eat brains, what is with the brain eating? Anyway, the blue skinned elf was quite the sight in a black gown with a hood to cover her head that looked like upward sweeping wings. Her eyes were solid white and did nothing to give away what she might be thinking. Pop Fizz though would tell you she was thinking about skulls, she seemed to love them. Even the cookies she baked were shaped like skulls! Funny how no one but the undead Skylanders ever wanted to eat them. But I am getting off subject here.
"Have you seen my friend?" Pop Fizz asked the scary elf lady.
Hex arched a pencil thin brow, "Your… friend?"
"Yeah!" Pop Fizz nodded so hard and so fast that his ears bounced as they tried to catch up with the rest of his head. "He's about this big," the gremlin held his hands apart about twelve inches, only the length of a ruler! "He's white; well he has a grey head and nose. Oh! And he has this dark blue stripe near the bottom of his long body."
"I have not seen your friend," Hex replied before she glided away. See, Hex didn't walk. She floated everywhere on purple mist. It had long been said she didn't have legs at all! Well, it was said but sometimes in the wind her shoes could be seen under her gown. Maybe she was just lazy. Or had bad gas, really bad gas. That last one was a favorite theory of Pop Fizz and the other gremlin Skylander, Trigger Happy.
"Oh, well thank you!" Pop Fizz said with a wave at the back of the retreating scary elf lady. His head bobbed slightly as he watched her drift down the hall with a bob of her own. Up and down, up and down. Up and down, up and- urgh, Pop Fizz was getting sea sick from the motion. He closed his eyes and turned away; it was a good thing his fur couldn't change color or he would have been the grossest shade of green you could imagine! The gremlin decided to walk down the hall, away from Hex. Still feeling sick he walked like a duck with a waddle and sway.
"What are you doing, Pop?" a voice asked him as he waddled along.
"Hiya, Whirlwind!" the gremlin said cheerfully. "I was playing hide-and-go-seek with my friend but he is very good and I lost him. Have you seen him?" The Skylander Pop Fizz was talking to was one of the dragons. Well, part dragon at least. She was also part unicorn. That made her a dracorn, or unigon? Something, it didn't matter. Whirlwind had a unicorn's horn on her forehead and had short ears like one too. She was a soft sky blue with a white underbelly and white tips to her feathered wings. Her tail too was a happy, puffy, swishy feather duster! Wait, dragons were known to have scales and unicorns always had fur, how did Whirlwind get feathers? How very strange!
"Er, sorry there Pop. But you're gonna have to give me a bit more than that. What did your friend look like?"
"Well he is this big," Pop Fizz began as he held his hands out apart twelve inches and told the hybrid (I like dracorn, what do you think?) that his friend was white with a grey head and nose with a blue band near the bottom of his long body. "And he has no arms or legs!" the gremlin added at the end. He had forgotten to tell this to Hex, maybe that was why she didn't know who he meant.
Whirlwind shook her head, "No. I haven't seen anyone that looks like that. Sorry!"
Pop Fizz's ears flopped down, how sad he looked with his big, screw eyes done up like a puppy's and lower lip sticking out. "Well ok, thank you Whirls."
Pop Fizz shuffled his feet as he continued down the hall. Maybe he had gone the wrong way? Maybe his friend went the way Hex had gone? Pop Fizz would try it later; there were a lot of other Skylanders to ask so he wasn't out of luck yet. The gremlin reached the end of the hall and found himself in a big open room with a ceiling so high he might fall over backwards it he looked up and tried to see it. The room was empty though and it had bad hiding places so Pop Fizz didn't even bother looking before he went towards two really big and really heavy looking doors. He went to open one and instead of the whole huge door opening just a small little area opened, it was a door inside of a door, how peculiar! The gremlin stepped outside into the bright, sun shiny afternoon. There were other Skylanders out here. Some played games, some trained and some practiced on their own. Pop Fizz saw a hopeful sight; Double Trouble was nearby chatting away with the little clones he often made of himself.
Double Trouble was a tiki man. No, not like the torch. Like the mask, yeah, now you're getting it! His wooden face, or mask but it is kinda hard to tell, had large green eyes and a wide mouth that was either smiling, frowning or growling, Double Trouble couldn't make any other faces. Behind his mask was an array of white and black feathers. Some said he was a bird man, others that his mask just happened to have feathers. Some thought he loved chickens so much he collected and wore their feathers. He had blue skin but not the pale blue of the scary elf lady, Double Trouble's was more like the blue of the ocean. He wore a grass skirt, imagine that! A guy in a skirt! And he floated. Like Hex. Hmm, he must have had bad gas too.
"Ooga, oog," Double Trouble said to the little bouncing clones.
"Doobie do do!" one answered back with a hop.
"Do de do?" another questioned. Or at least Pop Fizz thought it was a question. He didn't speak tiki after all.
"Da doda!" the third exclaimed before he simply exploded! The other two laughed hysterically and exploded as well!
"Grah dooga," Double Trouble muttered. He promptly coughed; the smoke from the exploded clones didn't smell too pretty. Pop Fizz narrowed his eyes, yeah; it was gas that made Double Trouble float. No doubt about it. Hex was still open for debate though, could undead pass gas?
"Um, Double Trouble?" Pop Fizz reluctantly asked.
"Boom shaka-laka!" the tiki man exclaimed as he summoned three more clones of himself.
The gremlin made a face as the little clones bobbed around and chattered away with Double Trouble. "Never mind," the gremlin sighed and moved on. Pop Fizz didn't even look behind him when he heard the first explosion then laughter and final two explosions. Double Trouble muttered again but didn't cast, maybe he had enough explosions in his face for the moment.
Pop Fizz was pretty sad by then, where could his friend be?
"Why so blue?" a voice snickered. "Get it, blue? Because you're… blue!" full out laughter followed.
"Not now, Camo," Pop Fizz said with a mean face. As mean as he could look with his eyes going two different ways at least! "I'm looking for my friend."
"Oh, who is this friend?" the dragon asked. Camo was a hybrid too, only he was part plant. I don't even know how to begin to combine dragon and plant. Oh wait, snapdragon! But that's a flower, maybe not. Camo was not a flower. He was a leafy green with muddy red colored feet and a wide, leafy tail that was veined in blue. His horns all looked like yellow thorns and his eyes were red and lined by yellow.
"Well," Pop Fizz began as he described his friend. Twelve inches tall, white body with grey head and nose. No arm and no legs and a blue band near the bottom of his body.
Camo tilted his head to the side and his tail swayed up and down, up and down, up and Pop Fizz looked away, he was not going to get sick again. "No, I haven't seen your friend. But you look a little… hungry. Have a snack!" Camo snickered as he made a vine sprout from the grass at his feet and it produced the largest, juiciest watermelon Pop Fizz had ever seen.
"Hey, thanks!" the gremlin said brightly. He loved watermelon!
"All yours," Camo snorted as he tried to hold back his laughter. The dragon bound off behind a bush, the whole thing shook as he lost control and laughed like a crazy little dragon-plant… thing.
Pop Fizz thought Camo was a strange, strange little dragon dude. He shrugged and turned to look at the watermelon. It was so big! Pop Fizz licked his lips as he thought about how he was going to cut it. He happened to see Chop Chop walk by. The half skeleton, half machine Skylander had a sword bigger than he was. He could cut the watermelon for Pop Fizz! "Chop Chop!" Pop Fizz yelled and waved at him, "I need you to chop-chop this watermelon," he gave an enormous, ear to ear grin. He was so funny!
"No," the skeleton said simply. He then walked away.
"Oh, poo," Pop Fizz pouted.
"Just eat it!" Camo's head popped out from the bush. He glared at Pop Fizz for a moment then giggled like a little girl before he ducked back down into the bush. Camo was still giggling, the weirdo.
Pop Fizz blinked and looked at the giant watermelon. How was he going to eat it? The gremlin walked closer to it and placed his hand on the striped green melon. His touch did the unexpected and the melon exploded into a shower of bright red pulp, black seeds and green striped rind!
"Ah! Is that how you were taught to eat watermelon?" The bush Camo was in shook and quaked before the dragon fell out of it on his back with his tail curled up onto his belly. His tightly shut eyes leaked tears because he was laughing so hard.
Pop Fizz stood there without moving or blinking. He was covered head to toe in sticky red watermelon and pelted with black seeds. He watched a chunk of watermelon fall from his ear and land with a SPLAT on the grass. Slowly the gremlin turned to Camo. He wore an evil little grin as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a potion. "Oh Camo!" he sang out.
"Wha-what?" Camo laughed as he turned his head to the side. His laughter stopped instantly and his eyes grew large and his mouth opened wide. "Mommy," he said as a shadow fell over him.
"Rawr!" Pop Fizz roared. The potion he drank made him grow HUGE! He was even furrier too! He ran at Camo with his arms waving above his head. "You're mine!"
The hybrid screamed like a little girl and ran away as fast as he could. He made firecracker vines sprout behind him and when the red peppers were ripe enough they exploded!
Pop Fizz stomped on the vines like they were ants, they didn't bother him! But still the scaredy dragon ran faster and eventually Pop Fizz's potion wore off and he reverted to his normal size. The gremlin panted and leaned forward to catch his breath, whew! What a work out!
Pop Fizz looked up when he heard barking. "No! No! Down boy!" the gremlin waved his arms wildly as a little red dog with a flaming tail ran at him. "Bad dog, bad do-oof!" Pop Fizz exclaimed when Hot Dog jumped up on him and pushed him to the ground with his big paws.
"Hi-hi-hi-hi-HIYA!" the hyper little fire hound yapped before he gave Pop Fizz a big, wet and drooly lick! "Mmm! Watermelon!" Hot Dog said happily before he began to lick at Pop Fizz's fur.
"Stop it, stop!" Pop Fizz laughed. He couldn't help it, it tickled! "I'll give you a hairball!"
"Oh, a ball?" Hot Dog said excitedly as he wagged his tail furiously. "A ball?" he hoped off Pop Fizz and danced around in excitement. "We play ball, yes-yes-yes?"
The gremlin groaned as he sat up, "Only if you help me find my friend," he told the bouncing dog.
"I find, I find good!" Hot Dog nodded his head just as fast as his tail wagged. The dog was bouncing around in the grass because he was wagging and nodding so much! He cocked his head to the side, "What I look for?"
The gremlin once again explained his friend with a white body, grey head and nose and blue band near the bottom of his twelve inch legless and armless long frame.
"I seen him, I seen him!" Hot Dog said happily.
"You have!" Pop Fizz's face lit up like a kid's at Christmas, "Where?"
"I go, you stay. Yes yes!" Hot Dog barked then skipped off happily. Imagine a dog skipping, pretty funny right? Hot Dog moved off behind a rock then made a little play growl before he tossed his head and something flew up and into the air before it landed near Pop Fizz.
"Bob!" the gremlin gasped. "What has happened to you?" He picked up the little white bodied, grey headed and nosed fellow with a blue stripe near the bottom. "Oh Bob," Pop Fizz said sadly. He leaned over for a moment and blocked my view of what he was doing. Wait, he is turning around now. "Say something, Bob!"
Bob is a, is a… sock puppet? Pop Fizz had shoved his hand into the sock, one of his clawed fingers poked through a hole in Bob's 'nose', the toe of the sock. Bob was chewed, torn, wet and dirty. "Oh Bob," the gremlin said as he stroked the sock puppet's head with his other hand. "I shall miss you."
"I find good?" Hot Dog asked with his tail wagging. "We play ball now?" His ears lay down and he whimpered when a large shadow fell over him.
"Let's pay tag," Pop Fizz said in his larger beast form. He gave a toothy grin. "And I'm it. Run!"
Hot Dog yelped and ran off like he stole something. Which, of course he did and that's why he had to run!
"I shall avenge thee, Bob!" Pop Fizz said to the sock puppet that was still on his hand. It looked even less like a sock now that his giant hand had stretched and torn it further. With a mighty roar the gremlin ran after Hot Dog.
The End
