CHAPTER 5

DISADVANTAGES OF THE PURPLE ECO

The purple eco made it a big hit.

Even after the first test, the test subjects came home with a dead precdator, one which Buster always bragged about.

"In the past this used to be us" he said pointing at the precdator that had been placed in his laboratory. "But now finally we can get our revenge, the precdator-race is doomed!"

"Are you sure this is a good idea? You can't possibly mean you want to kill all of them?" Snowrose asked.

She and Rambo had come to visit him at work.

"Why not? If we do that we can walk around up there without fear. No more precdators, no more draco-birds. We would rule the planet!" Buster said.
"Sorry brother. This plan is insane" Rambo said. "You're messing with forces you don't understand."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Buster asked. "We kill the precdators, we live happily ever after. What is it that I don't understand?"

Rambo just sighed.

"Whatever. Just don't come crying to me when your world falls apart" he said and left. (Zakura: err… rather stupid to just walk out like that without trying to stop his brother from destroying the world? Miss.Ecofreak: nah…Buster won't listen anyway, he knows that)

Just a few weeks later, a cash price was put up to the ottsel who killed the most precdators.

"The monsters have to go" were Buster's words; Balder thought the whole thing was great.

Since Buster was now a hero, that meant he was popular amongst the other ottsel-kids.

"My daddy smashed four precdators this week" he said to his friends. "He's just the strongest ottsel ever".

"Not to mention the smartest" Anny said. "He even let us come out and see once. It was the very first time we've been allowed to go outside".
"You've been allowed to go outside the tunnels?" one of the ottsel children asked. "My mom won't let me go until I'm at least 3 years old!" (Miss.Ecofreak: this is a bit inspired by weasel-life span, they don't live very long so the young grow up quickly. These are probably only a few months old and will reach maturity around 6 months-1 year. Zakura: as if you know anything about weasels. That's rabbits you're talking about. Miss.Ecofreak: whatever. My small animal -knowledge covers mostly pets. 3 years would still be a long time to stay with its mom although ottsels are almost immortal)

A few of the adult ottsels weren't all that positive to this new eco.

They said it gave them a creepy feeling, as if the substance was more evil than even the precdators.

But yet, the majority just laughed of their worries; those were mainly those who had tried to channel the purple eco.

"It will help us win the war" they said. "What's so bad about that?"
Weeks passed by, and soon no precdators were sighted near Tunnel Town in days.

A large party was to be held right outside the tunnel, even the children participated, some leaving the caves for the first time in their life.

But there were two who didn't join the party.

"Well it seems like Buster saved the world" Rambo said as he looked at the party from a three. "But what's going to happen next?"

"Something terrible I tell you" his friend, Otto, said. "I have a very bad feeling about this, and my dreams are getting worse".

Otto had the gift of foresight, like a few ottsels had.

Yet he was not good at interpreting his mysterious dreams, but he could feel if something bad was about to happen.

"What are they about?" Rambo asked.

Otto closed his eyes, hoping to see the dreams for his inner eye, in order to explain them better.

"Darkness" he said eventually. "And that purple stuff was flowing freely in Tunnel Town, transforming everyone who touched it into monsters.

Purple eco sounds to kind for it, a more appropriate name would be Dark Eco"

Dark Eco.

Not even Otto knew what kind of suffering it would create in the future, how this liquid would cause doomsday for many worlds.

Balder had sneaked of during the party.

He was in that age where he felt like exploring on his own, and with no precdators around he was free to do it.

He wanted to go find some berries, his favorite-food.

But he found none, all the bushes were emptied.

"What happened here?" he wondered out loud.

A small tweet was heard behind him, and he could see who the culprits were.

Berry-eating birds. And they weren't few.

At leas ten of each species (sometimes a lot more) was sitting in the same three.

Some were grooming their feathers; others were just staring at him.

Balder gasped, he had never seen so many birds in his life; no ottsel had.

He just stood by staring at the group in the three until more of the birds noticed him.

These birds were hardly bigger than an ottsel's foot, but still they felt annoyed by his presence.

With a loud battle shriek from one of the smallest birds, all of them flew towards the young ottsel.

Balder couldn't do anything to chase them away; he was hungry and had never touched eco.

"Help! Help someone!" Balder yelled as he tripped over a branch, but he knew no one would be able to hear him over the sound of the birds anyway.

But then suddenly one bird burst into flames, the next got a regular wooden stick through his stomach (Zakura: what a horrible way to die! Miss.Ecofreak: there are worse. Trust me. Go see a Chinese fur-farm.)

The birds took of, and Balder could finally see who his saviors were.

"The birds are no danger they said, probably just a stranger coming into another bird's territory. Yeah right!"
"Uncle Rambo?" Balder said in surprise.

And sure enough there was Rambo, channeling yellow eco, and Otto channeling red.

"We heard the bird cry and thought you might need some help" Otto said.

"Thanks, but how did you know…?" Balder asked but Rambo interrupted.

"There have never been so many berry-birds in this mountain in an ottsel-age (which is one heck of a long time.) What do you thing the population's growth comes from?" Rambo asked.

"I… I have no idea" Balder asked, still shaken after the bird-attack.

"Precdators. They're not catching ottsels anymore so they can't catch anything else either" Rambo said. "The birds are used to having their young eaten so they lay a lot of eggs.

But when no precdator eats them what happens? They need more food so they rib every bush in the forest and so there are nothing left for the rest of us and they get angry when we get into their turf."

It didn't take Balder long to think of what had happened.

"This is because of the purple eco" he said. "The mountain is free from predators now so there's no one to keep the bird population down".

"Wow. He's smart for his age" Otto said.
"Of course. He takes after his uncle" Rambo said. "But at least he's able to accept the truth, unlike his father".

"I have to go warn dad" Balder said, and before Rambo had time to open his mouth, he had ran of.

Buster was at the party, doing a little speech he had prepared when his son came barging in.

"Dad! Something's happened" he said.

"What is it son? Why are you bleeding?" Buster asked. "Did you fall over or something?"
"No, it's not that it's…" Balder didn't finish his sentence, the twittering of birds was heard, many of them.

Suddenly the sky was black of birds, all trying to get their share of the food that the ottsels had prepared.

"Damn it. All these birds are going to kill us" one of the ottsels yelled.

"Oh no they won't" Buster said stubbornly and threw a bolt of purple eco at the birds, all of which fell to the ground dead.

Most of the ottsels were too terrified to move, they just stared at the dead birds in shock.

"What have we done?" Jingo asked, backing of from the birds.

"We have done what's needed for our survival! That's no sin" Buster said. "This is the start of a whole new era, an era where the ottsels are on top of the food chain, we rule this planet now!"

Some of the ottsels shook their heads, not wanting to take part in this while others listened eagerly.

"I have destroyed the precdators, and if these birds have a problem with us then they will die too. If any animal threatens you, carnivorous or vegetarian, I will personally kill them. This is for our future" Buster said.

A loud cheer was heard from the ottsel colony, but not everyone participated.

Even Snowrose looked away from her husband for a moment, and Balder glared at Buster, both he and his mother knew he had changed, and it was the dark eco's fault.