Akah almost screamed as a long, noodly arm dragged him into the observatory as he walked past. But as Akah settled down and realised what was going on, he realised that someone randomly grabbing him was a good thing, because he was going to the wrong observatory.
“Oh, hello! Are you all alright?”
Akah glanced at his three friends, not quite sure what was going on. Elksia was weirdly more draconic than normal, but not what Akah would have considered ‘Western Draconic’. No, Elksia was feathery and wispy, with a pair of wings sticking out of her back, a long, feathery tail, whiskers and a fluffy mane running down her back. Tenuk was blatantly shapeshifted into a Lanex-like form but with a pair of antlers, with red skin, blue eyes and silver armour plating. Elkay on the other hand was somewhat stuck somewhere between being a Rethavok and being a Lanex. His body was Lanexian but he was far too tall and still had a tail and his normal, long, plated Rethan head.
“Tenuk and Elksia are trying to teach me how to shapeshift…” Elkay frowned. “It is much harder than I thought.”
“I mean, for a first attempt, it’s not bad?” Akah did his best to be optimistic. “Surely shapeshifting into a Lanex is pretty advanced though? Surely you should start with something easier? Like a Vrekan?”
Tenuk tutted, both agreeing and disagreeing at the same time. “Yeah, we should start with something easy, but Elkay can already turn himself into a Skyavok or a Beh’evok somewhat reliably. We need something hard and very different. And at the same time, Elkay and I need to practice if we’re going to pull off Elksia’s plan to get revenge on these Voidborn cunts.”
Akah blinked, then fiddled with his mask, checking to make sure that his enhanced hearing implants and mechanical scope were working correctly.
“You are… planning some sort of revenge scheme thing?”
“HANG ON!” Elksia interrupted, abruptly dropping all her draconic features and turning into her normal, formerly mortal self. “I wanna see Elkay turn into a Vrekan! And I wanna see YOU turn into a Vrekan too, babe!”
Tenuk hesitated for a moment, looked Elksia up and down, then sighed. After a couple of overly awkward moments, he turned himself in a masculine version of Elksia, but less muscular and with blue skin, silver plating and red feathers.
“Are you going to attempt that?” Akah asked Elkay.
Elkay did look somewhat daunted, but he also sighed and decided to give it a go. Unlike Tenuk’s swift transformation though, Elkay’s was a lot messier and louder, as he covered himself in a weird, reddish slime. The others were pretty sure they heard plating and bones cracking, which Elkay tried to hide behind some pained grunts. Elkay didn’t actually know if he’d managed to do anything until he wiped the slime from his face and glanced down at his body, but he was utterly surprised that it had worked.
“Dude, you look just like King Ver, except with red eyes… You also look really, really fucking sexy…” Elksia muttered.
“I am not sure if I should have watched that or not!” Akah exclaimed. “Are you alright, Elkay? That looked… horrible. And painful.”
“That is because it is painful…” Elkay groaned, clicking as he talked. He pulled a feather from his tail and inspected it. “I do not have rubber bones or elasticated organs like Tenuk does. I am literally breaking and reforming bones… Wow, having a beak and feathers feels so… weird…”
Tenuk looked Elkay up and down, then smiled.
“That’s pretty damn impressive, Elkay!” Tenuk beamed. “Sure, it’s not too far off the Panthreanic forms you already change into, but you do genuinely look like a Vrekan!”
“You also look hot as fuck!” Elksia was equally impressed, perhaps a little too impressed. “Tenuk, babe, can we invite Elkay in for a Vrekan threesome?”
“Is there any difference between that and a normal threesome?”
“No, apart from the fact that everyone present is a Vrekan and the two guys fuck each other afterwards at the lady’s behest.”
Tenuk shrugged, glancing at Elkay again. “You up for it?”
“No.”
“Eh, you’re missing out!” Tenuk shrugged again. “Thought you’d be more adventurous, considering you had a weird four-way relationship with your partner, Eksi and Litvir…” Tenuk paused for a moment. “Mate, you’ve slept with more Skyavok than you’ve slept with Rethavok. And Litvir is weirdly skinny and vampiric. Did you ever sleep with King Ver as well? Pretty sure he was like, your only friend while you were High General and you two were pretty fucking close.”
“Uh, Tenuk, you’re doing an Eksi and you’re making Elkay uncomfortable…” Akah stepped in, desperate to stop Tenuk and Elksia from talking about sex, but also not wanting any violence to break out. Sure, Elksia was a Time Drake, but Akah was pretty certain that Elkay could have easily killed him and Tenuk.
“Oh. Sorry. Still, offer’s there. Same to Teekay as well!” Tenuk was still smiling.
Elkay closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As he exhaled, he covered himself in slime again and turned back into his lean, Rethan form, complete with his weird, tattered wings. Elkay made his way to the corner, where he grabbed a towel from a pile and began to wipe himself down. From the looks of the room, he, Tenuk and Elksia had been in here for a while, and there was a heap of slimy, used towels in the other corner.
“Hey, uh, Elkay?” Akah asked.
“Yes, dear?”
“Your eyes are still red.”
Elkay blinked, then looked around for a mirror. He found one on the floor and immediately began to inspect himself. “Oh. That is good! I have no idea how I managed that!”
“It is?”
“His eyes used to be red until Kinisis changed them while he and Teekay were working on the Life Oasis,” Tenuk explained. “Turns out she had plans for Elkay that she never really started on. Also, we should totally tell you the plan, Akah, because we’re going to need you as well.”
“Oh yes. Your revenge plan. Is this because of Shimmerblade?”
Elksia nodded. “These normal Phantai, they’re fighting some stupid shit. I wanna end their stupid war. For good.”
Akah wasn’t sure what to say. “You know we’re just Decaylings, right? Surely whatever you’re planning is stupidly risky?”
Elksia crossed her arms, not liking Akah’s attitude. Akah wasn’t sure why, he was pretty sure his statement was perfectly reasonable.
“The Phantai are dumb. They don’t gather data. Their data guys are six versions of our Teekay, except dumber. And less emotionally stable. But either way, we’re gonna disguise ourselves as Voidborns, sneak in, find out where their main base is, then blow it up!”
“That…” Akah knew how insane Elksia’s plan sounded, and he wasn’t sure how to phrase his next few sentences in a way that wouldn’t piss the Time Drake off. After all, he’d seen first hand what Elkay and Elksia had done to the Voidborn that had killed Shimmerblade and Akah really didn’t want to get on Elksia’s bad side. “That seems rather… not very fleshed out. Like, not a plan, just an initial idea.”
“Funnily enough, we’ve actually done this before!” Tenuk put an arm around Elksia. “Back when we were Divine Guardians, and Retvik and Arkay were Decaylings. We found this Voidborn army’s base, we filled it full of explosions and we blew it up. Arkay did start to believe he was a Voidborn briefly, but it worked for that cult, I don’t see why we can’t do it again.”
“Hang on!” Elkay butted in. “You did not mention Arkay believing he was a Voidborn!”
Tenuk waved his hand dismissively. “It lasted like two days. He was fine afterwards. You don’t have the same mental baggage Arkay always had, you’ll be fine.”
“I am going to be form-changing into a Voidborn and disguising myself as one of them, we cannot be dismissive about this!”
“That’s why we’re bringing Akah along! You’re not turning into a Voidborn, you’ll be making yourself into a Voidborn-looking Lanex! That’s way less stressful and you’ll have an anchor to work off of as well. Akah’s also going to give us acting lessons. All we need is enough information to find out where their bastion is, then we can pass that information on to the bosses so we can stage an actual assault and blow shit up, rather than fumbling around in the dark like the Phantai are now.”
Elkay seemed to calm down somewhat, accepting Tenuk’s more detailed explanation. But Akah still wasn’t sure.
“Have you run this past our bosses? And do I have any choice in this?” Akah hesitantly asked.
“No and no…” Tenuk frowned. “I was going to run this by Retvik, I think he’d actually like the whole plan. But Litvir got ill and Retvik got worried, and now suddenly Retvik’s ill too and I haven’t had a chance to bring it up.”
“Retvik is ill too? Is that why our field trip got postponed and we keep on getting sent on patrols instead of doing normal training?”
Elkay nodded. “Unfortunately. No one is sure why. We thought it was some Rethavok-related thing, but I am fine, Eksi and Teekay are fine and Loopblade, who are all also technically Rethavok, are perfectly healthy as well.”
“Huh…” Akah trailed off. “I hope they recover. Galyn is fine, Vikalos is lovely, but Itaviir is weirdly cold and scary. And the Phantai elders are angry. Still, we should hold off on actually doing this crazy plan until Retvik and Litvir are well again. Just in case things go wrong. They have the goodwill and the manipulation skills to be able to save us if we mess up.”
Elksia and Tenuk both sighed, then shrugged. “Yeah, probably for the best. Are you in though, Akah?”
Akah thought to himself for a moment. “I think it’s an insane plan, but it would be unfair for me to not help you. So yes, I’m in.”
“Wonderful. Now, first question, do you have any more masks that Elkay and I can borrow? Because shapeshifting armour is fine, but anything face-based is harder to keep up, especially for Elkay.”
“I don’t have a spare mask, but I do know that Kal have some on their ship in one of their storage closets.”
Tenuk patted Akah on the shoulder, grinning like a lunatic. “Cool. Let’s get started…”