Chapter 6 - Frenzy
Frenzy lightly hummed a tune to itself as it swayed back and forth in time with the movement of the box it was trapped in, all the while being careful not to touch anything other than the slightly greasy cloth it was curled up on. The box was full of strange metal objects, a number of which were very sharp and pointy, as the poor little plant had figured out the hard way, somewhere around the second hour of box-entrapment. The flower rubbed its damaged petal gingerly at the memory and did its very best to scowl in the evil object's general direction, despite the pitch-black darkness and Frenzy's lack of eyebrows.
Thinking about the darkness made Frenzy want to try and glare at that too. The little plant was solar-powered, it thrived during sunlight and fell asleep in darkness, so being trapped in perpetual darkness for hours on end left it rather sleepy, confused, and more than a little cranky.
Said crankiness increased when the box was suddenly jostled roughly, not for the first time that day, and the little plant was thrown into the opposite side of the box with an indignant squeak. The box wasn't all that large, in fact it was approximately three curled-up Frenzies big by the plant's estimate (and Frenzy only stood up to the average human's knee, petals and all), so the collision didn't really bother it. Whatever the horrible sticky stuff it landed on was a completely different story.
It was a crumpled up ball of some kind of plastic strip, only sticky on one side, and it grossed Frenzy out to no end. It shook its foot-root frantically in an effort to get rid of it, reaching with its arm roots to yank it off when that failed. This of course ended with the Horrible Ball of Ew stuck to both of those instead. Chirping a string of not very nice comments on both the unknown owner of the box and humanoid species in general, Frenzy finally managed to plaster the ball onto the side of the box.
Shuddering at the remaining sticky feeling on its limbs, the little plant cast yet another blind glare as it tip-toed (or at least as close a resemblance to tip-toeing as one can manage without actual toes) across the Evil Metal Pointies and curled back up on its grease cloth.
Sighing, the little plant regretted ever deciding to climb into this stupid box, even if had been to take cover.
It'd all started when Master Tam and his weird-looking friend had decided to leave the arcade for some fertaliser- no wait, what did the humanoids call it? Food? Yeah, sounded about right. Anyway, they'd left, and while following after them, Frenzy had been distracted by this gorgeous pot-plant. While it hadn't been interested in Frenzy's advances at all (what a snob!), it had managed to occupy the little flower long enough for Master Tam to vanish from sight.
Rather used to being ditched or forgotten by Master, Frenzy had sighed squeakily and taken off through the crowds, carefully trying to avoid being stepped on as it searched for a familiar-looking pair of shoes. It hadn't had any luck though, and all of a sudden disaster broke out.
Frenzy shook its head as it remembered all the horrible noises; the loud clatter of footsteps and the odd pew-pew sounds (just like in those games Frenzy played on the Moving Picture Box with Master Tam) had been bad enough, but the horrible screaming and yelling from the humanoids? They'd frightened the little flower badly and it'd hidden underneath a table until they all finally left and the noises died down.
When Frenzy had stuck its petaled head out from under the table it had found the whole place to be deserted, other than a small humanoid in a bubble and two bigger humanoids trying to break said bubble. Frenzy had stared for a moment, not really sure what to make of them, before deciding that it couldn't hurt to go ask them if they'd seen his Master. The little plant had just raised its roots and began squeaking to get their attention when a chair shifted on its own nearby and some kind of rectangular wooden object came flying through the air.
Scared out of its tiny mind, Frenzy had panicked and dove for cover. Unfortunately said cover had turned out to be the Evil Death Box and Frenzy had been stuck in the darkness ever since.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. Not all that long ago, the box had opened and Master Tam's weird-looking friend had looked inside, somehow completely missing the plant. To be fair, the humanoid had looked utterly terrible; his eyes unfocused as he swayed side to side slightly, and there was all this crashing and yelling coming from outside. Frenzy had hesitated, unsure if it wanted to know what was going on or not. The decision was taken out of Frenzy's roots though, as Weird-Looking had taken out some of the Evil Metal Pointies and promptly closed the box once more. It had opened a final time a few minutes later, but only long enough to dump the Pointies back inside, on poor Frenzy's head no less.
Since then, Frenzy had been stuck in the darkness, the only sign of the outside world being the occasional irritating jostling of the box. Speaking of which...
Frenzy was startled by the box slamming down hard enough to open the lid slightly, and both a stream of light and the sound of retreating footsteps filtered through. Shoving the Pointy that had landed on its root off, Frenzy cast a quick glare at the Horrible Ball of Eww to make sure it had stayed where it had left it. Satisfied, the little flower picked itself up and lifted its head to peek through the opening, finding it had absolutely no idea where it was.
It appeared to be indoors at the very least, some kind of large room full of metal furniture and humming machines. Frenzy wasn't all that fond of machines, except of course the Moving Picture Box and that wondrous thing Master Tam called an Elevator, so it eyed them warily a moment before turning its head towards what appeared to be the door. It had been carelessly left open, probably by the horrible owner (and jostler) of the Death Box.
Cautiously, Frenzy climbed up and out of the box, slipping once or twice and landing in a heap on the cold, hard, much further down than it thought, floor; the Horrible Ball of Eww and a pair of Pointies stuck to its petals. About five minutes and a temper tantrum later, the little plant hobbled towards the door, the objects still stuck to its head.
Waddling out the door, Frenzy found itself in a large, empty hallway. After looking both ways, the flower decided to head in the direction it thought it could hear voices coming from, figuring its day could not possibly get any worse.
Apparently plants can't get away with tempting fate any more than anyone else, as the moment Frenzy wandered into a massive, tiled room, filled with more metal furniture and far too many humanoids, it was surprised by one of said humanoids coming out of nowhere.
"Aww, look at you, you're so cute!"
The voice was higher pitched than Master Tam's, probably 'female' like Mistress Tara, and ended in an odd snorting sound that quite frankly weirded Frenzy out a little. The accompanying body was small and mostly green and black and was floating in the air as she hugged Frenzy to her.
"What happened to you? Poor little guy," The humanoid cooed, carefully prying the Horrible Ball of Eww and its evil Pointy friends from Frenzy's petals, before looking them over and muttering something about a 'Weisha'.
There was something else after that, but the little plant didn't catch it, nor care, as its savior placed the objects down on a nearby surface and proceeded to scratch it behind the petals in the nicest way. All thoughts of the Evil Death Box and its pointy and sticky minions flew out the figurative window as Frenzy was carried across the room to a group of humanoids and fussed over for the next few hours.
Lyle raised an invisible eyebrow as he wandered into the cafeteria and found almost half the Legionnaires currently on base crowded around a table. Spotting Timberwolf slightly off to the side, his orange costume and dark fur causing him to stand out, Lyle snuck up behind him, entirely just because he could.
"What are they doing?"
The wolf-like Legionnaire jumped in his chair slightly and growled as a grinning Lyle materialised in front of him. "Would you stop doing that!?"
Pretending to think a moment, Lyle flopped into a nearby chair; "Hmm, nope. What happened to that fantastic sense of smell huh?" He teased, ignoring the glare and what was probably supposed to be intimidating claw-sharpening.
"It was sleeping," Timberwolf, Brinn, replied grumpily, "Until Tinya barged in and told me I just had to see Vi's 'cute little pet'."
Glancing over at the group, Lyle found both female Legionnaires in the middle, apparently poking gently at something 'soooo cuuute', and chattering away. "...Pet?"
"It's some weird flower thing," Brinn replied moodily, getting to his feet and attempting to sneak away without anyone noticing.
"Flower?" Lyle repeated, tilting his head to think a moment. Florian's were known for keeping over-sized plants as pets, and that weird kid with Brainiac 5 had definitely been from that planet. "I wonder..."
Jumping to his feet, Lyle waved a hand in Brinn's retreating direction and called out, "Brinn's running away guys!" Not that anyone (besides maybe Tinya, but that was so not Lyle's business) really cared, but it was enough of a distraction for him to reach past them and pluck the plant off the table.
Ignoring the plant's not-very-impressed look (which was rather amazing considering it only had one eye to perform facial expressions with), and the chorus of 'heys!' from his fellow Legionnaires, Lyle flew up and out of the cafeteria.
"Sorry guys! But I think I know who owns this little guy!" He called out behind him, before glancing down at the struggling flower in his arms that very clearly wanted to go back to all the attention. "Hey, stop that. I'm trying to take you back to...what's his name? Tam?"
The creature's head shot up at that and the struggles stopped as it proceeded to squeak loudly and excitedly in response.
"Guess so then," The Legionnaire chuckled, exiting the building and taking off into the sky. "Now, I have a general idea where he might live, which is totally going to piss of Brainiac 5 and is hilarious, but I'm really hoping you at least know what your house looks like..."
Holy crap, a chapter! I totally have a legitimate excuse this time, my laptop's been dead since March, and I lost the work I did on this chapter and totally could not be bothered re-writing it. Even if it's ridiculously short. Frenzy proved to be much harder than I thought it would be. Anyway, my laptop magically fixed itself after a few months, baffling everyone, and I got my work back. So here it is. Next chapter will be up...eh, whenever I get around to it. Or someone jabs me hard enough with a stick.
Thanks to anyone still reading this,
~Saani