Tarr and Friends

The ocean waves were calm and comforting. The trees that cradled and grew the poisonous purple apples were feasted upon by the phosphor slimes, both pure and largo types, much to the sharp-beaked birds chagrin. Rock slimes rolled into each other and into everything that was in their reach. Tabby slimes pounced and played. Pink slimes were everywhere and ate everything that agreed to their pallet. The fishing shack that the orks once lived in was now flattened beyond recognition, and the little inhabitants that once lived in it, which were the snotlings, were gobbled up.

There were a few strange animals that came out from the shaded fungus field, whose mouths were half the size of their bodies, walked around on two legs, and were quite vicious-looking. They must have been these 'squigs' that Brent heard Robert mention. Despite their dangerous set of sharp teeth, the slimes were quick to retaliate against their would-be predators. The sharp crowns of the rocky slimes made it hard for the squigs to bite and eat them, while the largo slime variants fought against them with equal aggression. Brent even saw a few snotlings emerging from the mushroom patches, only to be devoured by the slimes. He even saw a gretchin and an ork come out of the ground from the mushroom patches, but were also assailed by largo slimes in a similar manner.

Brent was unsure if he should stay in the sea water or risk going through the group of slimes to find his friends. Would he ever find his friends again? That question burned into his mind, and it was the question he was most concerned with.

Brent sighed and floated towards the sandy beach. "Might as well start searching for my investigation team. ... If it's even still called that."

But then again, Brent did remember one vital detail that would help him in his search for the company he was removed from some time ago. These wild slimes didn't know how to speak English. Robert, Samantha, and Tiffany can speak, even after they had been turned into slimes.

At the same time, that also raised another question in Brent's head. The orks seemed to have spoken a completely different language, which was a language Brent was unfamiliar with. And even then, Brent still understood them even when they talked. Brent was unsure on how this was possible, even when he knew that his mind might not piece together on how that was possible at the moment. The way they talked was blunt and guttural, yet Brent understood them like he had already learned their language! It was much like talking in a second language, but it was a language that he had never learned in the first place, and yet he had spoken it so naturally, whatever the language was.

Brent shook his head as he beached himself. He could make sense of it later. He decided to stop mucking around and become reacquainted with his team.

"Rob? Sam? Tiff?" Brent said aloud to the slimes and largos in his vicinity. They all turned to him, but none responded in Tiffany, Samantha, or Robert's voices. They paused for a few seconds before returning to their previous activities.

Brent sighed as he continued on, heading towards the cave he once emerged from. "Rob? Sam? Tiff?" He called out again. Blank, curious stares answered his call, but they were not the slimes he was looking for. He kept on and continued to the cave entrance.

That was when he heard a menacing noise. It was a deep growl that was deeper by normal slime standards, and Brent guessed the noise was behind him and a fair distance away. Brent turned around to find a terrible sight, which stood among a group of pure slimes and largos slimes alike near the ruined ork shack. It was black and ravenous, and its surface shimmered like oil spilling onto water, which formed a kaleidoscope of rainbows.

A Tarr had formed.

Brent sighed as he turned away and quickly continued into the cave, proceeding forward without hesitation. He knew if he stayed around for too long, he would have his fate sealed. At least on the bright side, the Tarr never lingered for very long. Once an hour passes, the Tarr population would begin to dwindle to nothing. And on another note, the Tarr would also affect the mushroom patches, making them wither and die from their touch. Any ork or other green-skinned monster that emerges from those mushroom patches would most certainly suffer a fate subjectively worse than the punishment brought onto them by pure slimes or largo slimes.

"Rob? Sam? Tiff?" Brent called again as he slipped into the cave entrance. The cave was populated by a few pink slimes and fewer phosphor slimes, whilst one or two newer slimes popped out of the ground. They went past Brent, deciding that listening to him calling for his friends was less satisfactory than eating something. Brent wanted to warn them of the Tarr outbreak forming outside, but he knew that his words would go into one ear and out through the other. ... Or at least the slime equivalent of ears, that is.

Brent could not continue further, unfortunately. A black veil of darkness stopped his progress. Last time he was here, two orks had carried him back to their fishing shack for questioning, and perhaps to eat him if Brent didn't answer their questions satisfactorily. And before then, he was running away from a spear-wielding ork that happened to chase him into the caves in the first place.

"Crap." Brent groaned as he looked at the endless darkness. He looked behind himself to see the newly spawned slimes sliding out of the cave. He could hear distant growls, but Brent knew that he was safe from the Tarr. So long as he gave them no reason to come after him.

Unlike the last time, Brent could think of a few beneficial options that could help him navigate through the dark caves, rather than stay where he is and risk becoming cannibalized by the Tarr. He'd have to be quick about it, if he wanted to avoid getting the Tarr's attention. Brent moved outside and looked at the ground for something to eat. After rummaging through some leaves, he found a purple fruit that was hidden. It was bruised on one side, but it was enough for the plan he thought up. He then looked around for a phosphor slime. The closest one to him was a phosphor rock largo, which lazily floated in the air, distracted by the pattern of leaves the tree had. Brent assumed the largo was looking for fruit in the tree. He picked up the purple apple with his mouth and waved the fruit's good side at the slime. "Hey~. Gome geh a kaysky ahhle~. You wan ih~?"

The phosphor rock largo looked down at Brent and saw the fruit he carried. It's eyes brightened up as it began floating towards him.

The bait worked.

Brent began to backpedal back to the cave he came from, ensuring that the phosphor rock largo followed after him and kept interested in the fruit he carried. And now, Brent had a portable lamp that followed him wherever he went. Fortunately, this meant that he no longer had to be near the Tarr outbreak anymore, or had to rely on his echolocation to navigate the dark caverns. Unfortunately, Brent couldn't call for his friends while he had an apple in his mouth, lest he risked dropping and losing it to the phosphor rock largo.

The slime largo that followed after Brent gurgled hungrily for the prize that Brent teased it with, but Brent did his best to keep the phosphor rock largo interested in the fruit he carried, and also kept himself from eating the purple apple as well. With the phosphor rock largo emitting light from behind him, Brent could navigate the caverns and find his way back to his friends on the other side of the mountain. Fortunately for Brent, he could navigate the darkness of the caverns much better than before, thanks to the help of the phosphor rock largo. Without the help of a phosphor slime, Brent's return trip through the caverns would have been much more difficult.

The trek through the mountain caverns was uneventful, but having a light source handy enabled Brent to see the caves within with unobstructed clarity. The caves were dank and dark, which had formed several stalactites, stalagmites, and various columns of rock that made the underground mountain caverns stretch on and on. Brent could see it all! Some chambers were connected to tunnels that lead to other chambers, while some tunnel entrances lead to dead-ends. However, Brent wasn't too worried. Once before, he inadvertently managed to find his friends in this cave using nothing but echolocation. He was confident he would find them again, now that he had escaped his ork captors.

His re-adventure through the caves were cut short however, as three pink largos came out from a corner at a bend in a tunnel. The reason why they stopped his progress was because they were too wide to pass around. There wasn't enough time to head back, as the phosphor rock largo blocked him in behind him. Brent was immediately trapped between the largos, and the phosphor rock largo that followed him was able to nab the fruit in his mouth. "Gah! No! I needed that, you slime-ball!" Brent chided at the largo behind himself.

And that was when he heard some familiar voices.

"What's the hold up?" "It's Brent! And... another slime?!" "What?!" "Yeah! There's another slime here! It looks like a phosphor rock largo!" "Is it another human?" "I don't know."

Brent realized that the pink largos before him were Tiffany, Samantha, and Robert. Brent stared at the three pink largos before him, surprised by their changes. "Wait... Robert?! Samantha?! Tiffany?!"

A pink phosphor largo quickly crawled to Brent and smothered his face. "OH-MAH-GAWSH-WE-FOUND-YOU-I'M-SO-HAPPY!"

The pink tabby in the middle of the group rolled her eyes. "And here we go with this again."

The pink rock largo behind the pink tabby paused. "So... Brent, once a hostage to those orks, rescued himself? We don't need to run at them with guns blazing? Is that what is happening, Sam?"

Samantha, the pink tabby largo nodded at the pink rock largo behind herself. "Yes Robert."

Robert sighed in exasperation. "So turning ourselves into largos was a pointless part of the plan."

Tiffany, presumably, was smiling brightly in joy as she smothered Brent. "How did you get away from those orks?!"

Brent removed himself from Tiffany's embrace and chuckled. "Well, I didn't get out of there on my own. I had some unexpected help." Brent said with a smirk.

Samantha blinked. "Is he like us? A human that got turned into a slime?"

Brent shook his head. "No. It's a wild slime."

Samantha blinked again. "A wild slime? How can you tell?"

"Easy." Brent said. He then turned around to face the phosphor rock largo that was now happily munching on the purple apple. "Hey. My name is Brent. Can you tell me your name?" The slime paused as Brent asked it a question. After a few seconds passed, it began chewing on its fruit again. Brent turned around to face his human-turned-slime friends. "If he really was a human once before, he would have answered me with his name in our language."

Tiffany blinked. "So you're saying he's a normal native slime from the Far, Far Range? How did he help you escape?"

Brent approximated a shrug. "Actually, it wasn't just this slime that saved me. A whole swarm of largos helped me out of there."

Tiffany stared at Brent wide-eyed. "A swarm?!"

"Yeah." Brent replied. "Luckily for me, the only reason I escaped was because the orks were assailed by the swarm of aggressive largos. It was through their intervention that granted me the opportunity to flee from the orks' fishing shack in the first place."

"How did the orks fair against the slime largos?" Tiffany asked.

"Poorly." Brent answered. "They used melee weaponry against the slimes as the slimes stomped and bit them. They ended up being eaten and had their shack flattened. They even ate their snotling servants, and are now eating anything came out from the mushroom patches that grew behind the fishing shack."

Robert groaned. "Non-adhesives spray would have saved their butts, but I ain't saying that out of sympathy. Those green bastards deserve what happened to them in the end." Robert then paused. "... Wait. What's a snotling?"

Brent approximated another shrug. "I guess it's some kind of baby ork, or something. I honestly don't know anything about this alien species, or where they come from." Brent's expression then became grim. "But I did learn that there are more than just those two orks living in this world. There is a good chance we might meet more of them. Possibly even more of those goblin-looking guys and their snotling servants."

Samantha nodded flatly. "We didn't know anything about snotling servants, but we do know that there are more of those orks and gretchins. A few of them left on a large rickety boat only a couple days ago."

Brent's eyes trained on Samantha. "So there really are more than just the two that caught me?"

Samantha nodded again. "They gathered up a bunch of fishing supplies from those two orks living in that fishing shack and left for the sea. It was after they had left that we decided to take our chances. We've fled into the cave system ever since then."

"Wait!" Robert pushed past Samantha and Tiffany, coming up to Brent's face. "Brent, did you see more orks too?"

Brent shook his head. "No, but the two orks did say something about some sort of fort being full of them. I think they might have a base of operations somewhere close by."

Robert groaned. "Dammit. If there's a fort full of orks somewhere on this planet, then it's only a matter of time till those other orks realize they are not alone."

Samantha headbutted Robert's back. "Well OBVIOUSLY! We need to get back to our planet, contact the 7Zee Corporation that there are dangerous aliens on this world, and then find a way to turn ourselves back into humans!"

Tiffany's expression darkened. "Are we gonna get captured and eaten by the orks?"

Robert shook his head at Tiffany sternly. "No. Not while I'm here. We might not know what planet we're on, but we can still band together and help each other out whenever one of us gets in trouble." Robert then turned to Brent, his sternness a little deflated. "Even though Brent's hide was saved by unexpected help from our wild slime friends."

Samantha came closer to Robert, Tiffany and Brent. "Wait. But what if this slime was one of the aggressive slimes back from the Far, Far Range? What if it finds out we're human?"

Brent looked at the phosphor rock largo, whom had already made two plorts from the apple it ate. It smiled dumbly at Brent, unaware of the role it played. Brent shrugged. "I don't think they're smart enough to find that out, Sam." That was when Brent remembered something he had nearly forgotten. "... Oh, I am such an idiot! I forgot to ask! What happened to those three other guys that were sucked into that vortex?"

"What do you mean?" Robert asked.

"Remember what happened at the other warp station in the Glass Desert? Those three guys that tried to capture us for questioning." Brent explained.

Robert looked at the ground in thought. "... Oh yeah. There was that guy in the huge suit and weird staff. He broke my arm."

Samantha nodded with Robert. "Yeah. There was also that huge armored man with the electrical claw weapons."

Tiffany shuddered. "And that weird and creepy red robed guy with those multiple metal arms that spoke in a harsh, uncomfortable voice."

Brent nodded at them. "Yeah! What happened to them? Shouldn't they be with us? Shouldn't they have woken up right next to you guys? How did we end up here while those three just, oh I dunno, just vanished into thin air for no reason?"

Samantha sighed. "One mystery at a time, Brent. We're aren't all private investigators here." She then turned around and began to head the way she came from. "Anyway, we are wasting time here. Let's head back to the other side of this mountain. Tiff, you're up front."

"Right." Tiffany said as she slipped past Samantha.

Robert scooched to the side. "Here Brent. Follow Sam."

Brent nodded and followed after Samantha. However, Brent was not about to remain quiet during the journey. "And another thing. I noticed that every one of you are now pink largos. When did that happen?"

Robert groaned. "Tiff insisted that we use your pink plorts to embiggen ourselves, and then use our new size to storm the fishing shack in order to get you out of there."

"How? I thought you were against being turned into a largo?" Brent asked.

"I was. However, Tiffany can be sickeningly persuasive." Robert then sighed as he looked down at Brent. "If I ever get back to civilization, I'm going to have a stack of pancakes and a cup of cocoa spiked with a lot of bourbon. After that, I'm going to find out if my insurance covers a broken arm. Maybe I should ask it it covers me being turned into a slime? Anyway, once all that is done, I'm going into early retirement. My career as a bodyguard will officially be over."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Well for that to happen, you'd have to find a starport owned by the 7Zee Corporation first. I doubt we'll find one on this planet though..."

"At least we found each other again." Tiffany said in an upbeat tone. After a few seconds passed, she slowed down slightly. "Say, Brent? You said wild slimes assisted you with your escape from the orks. Did you know how they got there?"

Brent shook his head. "No idea. I did hear from the orks that they were popping out of the ground."

"Were they also producing plorts?" Tiffany asked.

"Yes." Brent answered. "They were also turning into the Tarr, but I was able to leave before I was in any danger."

Tiffany paused for a few seconds before continuing. "I see... That's... That's strange. Strange, and a bit unsettling."

Samantha perked her ears. "How is that strange, Tiff?"

"Slimes had only ever produced plorts on their homeworld, the Far, Far Range. However, not only are they making plorts like we would after eating something on this world, it appears to me they are now spawning out of the ground too, and only after some hours of time had elapsed in this world." Tiffany said in a concerned tone. "... I believe our arrival on this planet may have not only affected us, but also the slimes that are spawning here. I have no doubt in my mind that the presence of the wild slimes alone is beginning to affect our surrounding environment. This might drastically change the ecosystem at a fundamental level. It might even cause the weaker natives living on this planet to become extinct in the following years to come."

Samantha blinked. "So what does that mean? Are you saying the slimes somehow became an invasive species after coming to this planet?"

Tiffany nodded. "It's a possibility. Especially if the slimes are able to pop out of the ground, create a plort from eating something, AND turn into the Tarr when they consume each others' plorts. I hypothesize two scenarios. One scenario is that there is an element that restricts the slimes from making plorts or reproducing their numbers on another world, and that this element is completely absent on the Far, Far Range. This scenario would explain that this world is free from that specific environmental element, which is enabling the slimes from the Far, Far Range to reproduce on this planet. On the other hand, it could mean the opposite in the second scenario, meaning that this element in question is something the slimes require to reproduce and is only found on their homeworld. This second scenario would explain that this world contains an element that is abundant on the Far, Far Range, which is enabling them the ability to make plorts and reproduce."

Robert was puzzled. "You know, I don't think I have ever seen slimes reproduce before."

Tiffany huffed. "Probably because we assume they do much of their breeding under the Far, Far Range's Slime Sea, but that's only the most popular theory everyone believes to be true. For all we know, all slimes breed after they become translucent and they enter the slime sea, even though there's no scientific method that will enable us to see that magic happen. For all we know, they split apart in a process similar to mitosis, or cell division if you want to know the layman's term. For all we know, they might lay microscopic eggs that hatch into baby slimes, which grow up into the slimes. We don't know anything about their mating rituals and reproductive methods, if they even have them in the first place."

Samantha hummed to herself before a smirk played across her face. "Twenty newbucks says the slimes reproduce by making spores."

"No way." Robert said, sticking his tongue out. "And besides, your money isn't good here."

Samantha smiled at Robert. "Oh really? What makes you say that?"

"You're a pink tabby slime. You don't have pockets to store newbucks with, and you don't have any newbucks with you." Robert replied.

Tiffany giggled. "How about this? Twenty imaginary points goes into the pot. Whoever guesses right and wins the bet gets the twenty points. Take your bets!"

Brent shook his head. "I'm staying out of this."

"Me too." Robert added.

Samantha rolled her eyes and sighed. "Pass."

"Come on, guys! Where's your sense of fun? I'm trying to lighten up the mood so everyone won't become a depressed ninny!" Tiffany whined.

"Face it, Tiff." Samantha assured. "We have no way to find out how slimes reproduce. You're just making up rules to a pointless game with no winners. I'd rather play Eye Spy in all honesty."

"I spy in my slimy eye... a rock." Robert mocked.

"We could play Twenty Questions?" Brent offered.

"Good idea, Brent!" Tiffany chimed.

Robert groaned while Samantha copied him. This was going to be a long trip back to the shrubland.

A/N: Sorry that I have been inactive. I have been playing Bloons TD5. 'w';;