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The Fireflies (6) : In the warm summer nights, little glowing lights begin to bob and dart through the city. Fireflies are mating, so this isn't uncommon in itself; in the past few days you've probably seen hundreds of fireflies. What makes these lights so unique is that they seem to change color; you might see a blue one, a green one, a red one. They flicker randomly, and something just seems off with them. If you come into contact with one, you will find yourself with a strange electric jolt. They cannot be caught, and will flicker away if you pursue too aggressively. This isn’t the first time they’ve appeared in Destiny City, but no one’s been able to tell where they came from or where they’re going. No matter how quickly you chase them, they always seem to disappear before you can find any answers.
It happened every summer in Destiny City, especially during the Star Festival: strange little fireflies came out that seemed to change the color of their glow. Yukio remembered trying to catch one of these special little bugs as a kid, and getting a weird ZAP for his troubles. He'd never been able to figure out what caused the fireflies to change color like that. Tonight would be different. He was sure of it.
Yukio made his way to the park near his apartment building a little after sunset, prepared to catch one of the little bugs. He carried with him an old empty mayonnaise jar, complete with lid. The lid he held in one hand, the jar in the other. His plan was thus: scoop up a firefly in the jar, then slap the lid on as quickly as he could. He'd tried this when he was much younger and much less determined than he was now. And he was seriously determined to catch one this time. He'd even figured out what he would do with it: turn it over to the Biology Lab at DCU so they could poke at it and figure out what made it tick (or glow, in this case).
As soon as he wandered off the path, he began to see the fireflies wink in and out of view. Some were normal, but he soon spotted one whose glow was the blue of Cherenkov radiation (or his hair). A smirk crossed his lips, a full proper smirk as no-one was around to see it. Moving as stealthily as he could, he tracked the blue firefly as it lazily floated through the air. Then, when the moment was right and the bug zigged instead of zagged, Yukio swooped in with the mayo jar.
A clean miss! The firefly's path wobbled a bit at the rush of air past it and continued on its way.
With a snorted sigh, Yukio looked around for another one to catch. In short order a traffic-light red one showed up, meandering its little path through the trees and tall underbrush. He crept up as quietly as he could behind it and scooped up with the jar, slamming the lid on it quickly. Hah! This time for sure!
Nope! Once more thwarted, he watched the red-glowing bug wobble away. Well, s**t.
He was bound and determined to win this time. The fireflies were practically swarming as they performed their little firefly mating rituals, blinking their lights off and on as they floated through the air. There were so many of them that he felt as if he could just walk through them with his open jar and they'd fly right in. In fact, he tried that – only to realize that the motion of the air being pushed in front of him was moving them safely out of harm's way. This wasn't going to work. What if he stood still and let them come to him? He stopped and stood as calmly and still as he could; sure enough, the bugs took him for part of the scenery and slowly flitted closer to him. One even landed on the lip of the jar for a brief instant before flying off again!
Zeroing in on another blue firefly, Yukio raised his mayo jar slowly this time, until the bug was right above the opening. Then he raised it quickly – only to have the strange firefly brush against his hand, delivering a sharp ZAP of electrical charge. "Ow, s**t!" he blurted, dropping both jar and lid to rub his hand. The zap was powerful enough to make his entire arm up to his elbow ache painfully.
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.
(wc: 924)
