Chapter 11

War-Paint

Chris opened his eyes to a fading evening sky. He was still on his back and had apparently stayed that way for several hours. A loud snore to his left told him his brother was nowhere near joining him in the land of consciousness yet.

Rubbing his eyes and yawning, Chris sat up, looking over. Martin was curled up on his side, sound asleep with his mouth slightly open and his arms still wrapped around his tissue box. Chris almost hated to wake him up. The guy was obviously beat and could probably sleep until the cows came home, but they had five creatures to rescue and he couldn't leave him lying there in the woods by himself. Especially not now that it was getting dark.

He scooted over and gave his brother's shoulder a shake.

"Up an' at'em, Martin."

"Mmm?" Martin said without moving.

Chris gave him another shake, harder this time. "C'mon, bro. Ya gotta get up."

"But mommm…" he mumbled, scrunching his eyes shut.

With a sigh, Chris leaned in a little closer. "Wake up!"

All at once, Martin's eyes snapped open and he shot bolt upright, sending the tissue box flying. "YAAGH! GIMME THE SPAGHETTI AND NOBODY GETS HURT!"

"Whoa! Take it easy, dude!" Chris forced himself not to bust out laughing. "We're in the middle of the woods. There's no spaghetti out here."

Martin blinked in a couple times. "Oh yeah. How long've we been out?"

"A few hours, I think. It's starting to get dark."

Martin rubbed his hands together excitedly and narrowed his eyes. "Perfect. Time to commence Operation: Raid the Pink Jet and Rescue Some Creatures. Mwa-ha-ha-haaa!"

Chris threw him a worried look and took a step back. "On second thought, maybe we should get you back to HQ."

"No way! I've never felt better!" Martin waved him off, reaching for his pack. "I'm fine!"

The sound of a beeping creature pod cut into their conversation. Martin pressed a button and a projection of Aviva flickered to life in front of them.

"No you're not," she said flatly, folding her arms and glaring. "You're delirious." Then she caught sight of Chris and her face split into a grin. "CK! You're alright! The last I heard, you were about to take on a moose!"

"Yeaaah," Chris sighed, taking the creature pod from Martin, who was momentarily occupied with digging around for something in his backpack. He turned, lowering his voice so only Aviva could hear.

"Listen, I know Martin's a little out of it right now, but we've got some creatures to rescue. Five of them! And if we don't save them, Donita's gonna turn them into living Christmas decorations!"

"Christmas? In August?"

Chris shook his head. "Forget it. Look, I promise I'll get him straight back to the Tortuga after we complete the mission."

"Hmm." Aviva considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. But don't get distracted on the way back. Martin has to get some rest."

"Got it."

"Oh! By the way, Koki managed to pinpoint the exact location of Donita's jet. I'll send you the coordinates. Good luck and be careful!"

"Thanks, Aviva! Over and out."

Aviva's image fizzled out. Chris turned back around.

"Ok, Martin, let's—"

Martin was standing on top of a rock in a sort of super-hero pose with his fists on his hips, a blue bandana was tied around his forehead and he'd painted black stripes on his face.

Chris dropped the creature pod and stared. "What're you doing? What's all over your face?"

"War-paint," Martin said matter-of-factly, folding his arms.

"Wha…'war-paint'? We're just going on a creature rescue mission, not to war. Isn't that your baseball grease?"

Martin jumped down from the rock and pulled a small tin from his pocket. "Yeah! It'll make us more intimidating to the enemy."

"To Zach, maybe, but Donita? I don't think so…"

"Hold still, you need some too."

Before Chris could say anything else, Martin had the tin open and was busy painting a pair of strips under each eye and a long line from his forehead down to the tip of his nose.

"Uh…are you finished?" Chris asked, going cross-eyed to try and see the black streak on his nose.

"Hold on, I brought you a bandana too." Martin pulled out a long, green piece of fabric and tied it around Chris's head. "There. Now we look awesome."

"No, I look ridiculous," Chris muttered under his breath, "and you look like you're delirious." He made a mental note to wash his face thoroughly before showing up back at the Tortuga. It was a good thing Martin probably wouldn't remember any of this once he got over the fever.

"And now," Martin said, resuming his heroic stance with a fist in the air, "to the creature rescue! YAAAA!" He charged up the hill.

Chris watched him go, then rolled his eyes as he gathered up Martin's abandoned backpack, creature pod, and Kleenex box. "Who needs mind-control when flu-induced delirium works just as well?"