25th April 2013 Thursday
Day 115
Happy ANZAC day all; I hope some of you managed to pull yourselves out of bed early this morning to attend a service. Lest we forget.
Disclaimer: I don't own the show!
"You're holding it wrong," Jenny complained to the bug boy walking beside her. Zap gave her a bored expression.
"Is there a wrong way to hold a gun?" he rhetorically questioned, his gaze penetrating hers. She shrugged, casually but failing to hide her laugh of amusement.
"I don't know but you managed to find it," she smirked, stopping in her tracks. With soft hands she took the weapon out of his and turned it around, placing the device back in his grip.
"Wow," he mumbled, sounding more surprised than he wanted to. "Yeah it does feel better this way, what with the padded grip and all-"
"Can you two please pick it up?" Dex shouted from a distance. The leader and tracker had somehow managed to walk far ahead of the other two, and were now waiting patiently on the path they had made through the thick shrubbery. "We have an insect to catch."
"We better not keep him waiting," she replied, her eyes lingering slightly before turning on her heels and running. Zap nodded numbly, spreading his wings and flying up to the group as well.
"Ok, we don't know how big this bug is, so everyone keep your eyes peeled," Dex turned to Tung. "Can you smell anything yet?"
"Yeah, this thing reeks, I'm getting a scent of…blue," he muttered, his eye squinting in concentration. Jenny and Zap shared confused looks.
"And also," his eyes appeared to wonder behind Dex, widening slowly. "It's really big."
"How do you-" his words were interrupted as the large insect behind him let out a loud roar. The entire team turned to follow Tung's gaze, their eyes locking with a ginormous blue beetle.
"Well, I guess you were right about the blue part," Zap mumbled in awe of the insect. It let out another 'dinosaur like' roar, causing the team to scrunch up their eyes in pain.
"Ok everyone," Dex spoke once he recovered. "Pretty routine; let's try and use the net approach. Zap, come in from above, Jenny, head towards the front of the beetle, Tung, you take its back legs."
His wings were spread almost instantly, and Zap soared up into the sky, getting an aerial view of the plan in action.
"If we steer it right," Zap explained to Dex through his communicator. "We might be able to get it out of the forest and towards clear land."
"Good work. Jenny, try and herd it towards me. Use your sonic pulsar," the clone readied the gun, but before she could do anything, a bush rustled in the distance. From the corner of her eye she spotted a few shadows moving on a cliff face in the near distance. Her eyes widened as they fired their own gun, sending a tether to the animal. The bug roared in annoyance.
"Jenny, what are you doing?" he questioned with surprise. The clone acted quickly, firing a different gun towards the rope and successfully severing it. The group scrambled away in the distance, yelling at each other in frustration.
"Hang on, we've just had some interference," she explained, quickly aiming her gun. She pulled it close to her shoulder, narrowing her eyes to the beetle. Once the bug stared back in to her eyes…it stopped trying to fight back.
Jenny slowly let the gun down, noticing the fear in the insect. Its breathing appeared to slow down, and it walked closer to the clone, eyeing it with curiosity. Zap watched on from above as Jenny gingerly held out her hand to pet the beetle.
"Hey Dex, this thing is really tame," she explained, stepping a little bit closer. She would have made contact with its hard exoskeleton, had Zap not landed between them and created a protective barrier.
"Are you crazy? You don't know how dangerous these things are," he yelled, spreading his arms out to shield her. Jenny sighed exasperatedly, pushing his hand out of the way and walking towards the insect. She carefully placed her gloved hand on its nose, the insect moving its head up and down as though Jenny were patting it.
She smiled kindly to it before nudging over her shoulder. The insect appeared to understand her, following Jenny out of the forest and towards the ship. Zap, who still held the same dumbfounded expression on his face, walked up to Tung and Dex, his eyes never leaving the clone as she strolled away.
"I will never understand her," he said in a thoughtful tone.
Done, and because I accidentally missed Habibot's chapter on the 16th, his one this month will be tomorrow but I can hopefully restore this pattern next month. R&R!