Megrez had not forgotten about her last space trip, where she had found the peculiar creature (the puffski, that’s what it was called) and learned of Melantha’s position as the head priestess of Megrez. Today, she would set out to see if she could dig up some more information on the priestess system and perhaps find that puffski again.

She went to Henshin Alley as was her custom, pulled out her phone, and was all ready to go to her home planet when she heard the rustling of trash somewhere in the alley. She looked around, trying to determine what could have caused the sound. She felt no auras anywhere, so who or what could have made the noise? If someone was around and perhaps having their aura cloaked, she was going to have to find a new Henshin Alley.

Megrez got her answer about a minute later. Something round and tan fell out of a dumpster with a disgruntled-sounding “Buu.” She sprinted over to the dumpster, picked up a slightly dirty puffski, and immediately started cooing over it. “Hello there! Are you the one I met last time? I’ve been wondering where you went!”

The puffski brightened up when Megrez spoke. “Puu buu, Mepuu!” it said, shaking some dirt off. It then turned around to face the dumpster. “Puu!” When it called out towards the dumpster, three other puffskis jumped out and scurried to Megrez’s feet. A moment later, two more puffskis popped out, each somehow holding a smaller puffski on their backs (magic, probably). All the puffskis formed a ring around the egg senshi’s feet, puuing and buuing and throwing the occasional “Mepuu” in.

“Oh my,” Megrez said. “You brought friends!” She knelt on the ground, examining the puffskis in front of her. Of particular interest were the smaller ones that popped out of the dumpster on the backs of those last two. She reached out and cautiously stroked one smaller puff with her pointer finger. “Are these your babies?”

“Pufflings,” the first puffski said.

“Huh? You can talk?” Megrez scratched her head, then went to pet what she assumed was one of the pufflings’ parents.

“Puu-uu,” the first puffski added. “Puffski, pufflings, Mepuu.”

“So… sort of, then?” Megrez remembered something she had to do. She pulled her senshi phone out of subspace, accessed the camera, and tried to get all the puffskis in the frame. “Smile and say ‘Puu!’” Some puffskis puued in chorus, while others appeared to be distracted, but Megrez still got her perfect evidence shot. There were alien creatures in Destiny City, and she had proof. She also had proof that they were on her homeworld at some point, sort of. Such a finding would be a fascinating discovery, and other senshi needed to know about what had happened.

“I have an idea,” Megrez said to the group of puffs. “How about I show you around the city? Maybe we’ll meet some other people while we walk, and I can introduce you!” The lead puffski puued what seemed to be an agreement, and the puffskis formed a line, with the parent puffskis having to prod their pufflings a bit to get them to pay attention. “All right, let’s go!” As she took a step out of the alley, the puffskis scooted along behind her. It took a little while for her to find a good pace, but she found it, but soon everyone was scooting along in an orderly fashion. Who would be the first to meet them next?