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Starfish Scares (13) : Starfish live in the sea. They do not live in freshwater rivers, lakes, or reservoirs with no connection to the ocean. Starfish are also not social creatures. And yet, here they are–in hoards. They can be found near any water source–and far from it. These starfish seem to be a unique species that are eager to travel and don’t seem quite bound to water, though they will seek it out. The starfish will latch onto just about anything they can to hitch a ride, even though they’re fast. They secrete an itchy, oozy slime after they’ve latched onto something, and though it seems as though they can absorb nutrients from any living creature, these starfish have an odd penchant for blood. You might as well have a colorful leech stuck to you as soon as you think one of these things crawling your way. Their bites are sharp and will leave the nearby skin itchy and painful. They are a bit difficult to remove but they can be killed; as soon as they have perished, they will rapidly dry out and crumble. However, it’s far more likely that they’ll escape before you can get your hands on them. Be vigilant; these things are pests–and smart enough to cling to people and vehicles alike if it means getting to where they want to go.
Khaz had needed a break from studying and swimming, from being stuck at home all day long. They were a few weeks into summer, and he hadn’t done much yet with it, aside from being a responsible person.
So he’d elected to take a break in the early morning, get out of the house, enjoy summer in Destiny City, treat himself.
By going on a patrol as a senshi.
Which was, if anything, continuing to be a responsible adult. Logical, Khaz sometimes was not.
He’d at least waited to transform until he was in one of the local parks, in a copse of trees, so the odds were fairly low that he’d be spotted. Plus, insofar as he knew, most of the other Powered people weren’t small children or the elderly, so watching for an early morning transformation in broad daylight (or daylight just after sunrise) wasn’t really on anybody’s bucket list for the morning. Emerging from the copse, for the first time since he’d Powered up this year, his fuku actually fit the climate. Jogging away from the copse, any sweat he accrued was quickly wicked away by the material, which felt like linen. Nice.
Aberdonia slowed down, settling into a relaxed walk, opening his senses to any energy signatures that might be flaring this morning. Nada. Which, while that was boring on paper, still meant that things were relatively peaceful this morning, which was always nice.
Until he approached the public swimming pool, and found a squirrel frantically trying to chew a starfish off its tail.
What the…?
It was while he was stopped and staring at the squirrel and the starfish that he felt something clamp onto his heel, followed by an itchy, painful biting sensation. Aberdonia yelped and looked at his heel. Another starfish had clamped on, and looked like it was secreting some weird ooze, which was dribbling onto the skin around the starfish, expanding the itchy area.
Looking around, he snatched a large maple leaf off a nearby tree and started using it as a glove while trying to prise the weird invertebrate off his foot.
After a few minutes, the senshi managed to get it off, and hurled it as hard as possible away from himself. Where it promptly stuck fast to a tree. Ewww. He then turned to do the same for the squirrel, who, even if it was infected with something nasty, still didn’t deserve to have its blood sucked by weird starfish.
Not bothering to stop and wait for another biology-defying starfish to decide to snack on him, he sprinted back up the path a few dozen yards, taking a moment to survey the situation.
Now that Aberdonia was paying attention, dozens of starfish were attached to living things, plants, mostly, as well as the occasional animal. And they seemed to be clustering most densely around…
The public pool off to his left. It was currently empty, but it would open in a few hours. Once it opened…if the starfish were still here…nope. Not good. Not good at all.
Reaching into subspace, he retrieved his senshi phone and quickly scrolled through his contacts list, looking for someone he hoped could help. Near the top of his contacts list (Yasmeen’s magic wasn’t ideal for fighting off vampiric starfish that didn’t need to live in salt water, heck, how were they making it work in chlorinated water?!) was a name he hadn’t had a chance to see in a fight. Aruna. Aruna was experienced, and might help.
Not stopping to wonder what her power set was, he texted Aruna a picture of the starfish attempting to suck the life out of the squirrel’s tail, a picture of his heel, and a picture of them seeming to surround the public pool. Under the photos, he texted the address, and a request that she get here as fast as possible.
He just had to hope she’d see the message.
Lena Roze
