Interlude 2: Clearing
Published: 28/10/23
Location: Forest of Hope
The quintet of Ben, Gym Owner Jim, Bones, Spock and Raticate gradually made their way through the forest, resupplying on food as they went. Ben was continually amazed by the sheer variety of trees, and the fruits which - while he'd had some of before due to the Narrator manifesting them from nothing - he hadn't realized any of them grew in the wild. They were following after what had been ambiguously described as an 'unusual energy source' by the Vulcan.
"My sensor readings indicate the unusual energy source is coming from a clearing about 100 yards in this direction."
Ben and Raticate were the two leading the party right now, much to the objections of both Jim, because of Ben's insistence that his magical creatures, and sapient door, were sufficient protection from any potential dangers and as such he didn't need to carry a phaser, and Bones, because of Ben's age.
Ben poked his head through the foliage, into the clearing, and saw several large, pulsating, three dimensional, red commas growing out of the ground. The atmosphere was thick with an odd sensation. It felt like the energy in a group of friends when a terrible pun has occured to several and someone speaking it into existence feels inevitable. His eyes first went wide in horror as he muttered to himself "...They grow in eggs?" before narrowing in determined resolve. Raticate, for its part, looked at the boy with concern, but recognized he didn't seem to want help right now.
As the men in the blue shirts were examining the giant commas, determining that, yes, they were the source of the energy readings and that there seemed to be something growing inside of them, Ben went over to Jim. "I've changed my mind about the phaser. How do you operate it, exactly?"
He nodded at the explanation, particularly how to set it to higher power settings of the weapon and how in extreme circumstances it could even vaporize things. After his brief training had been completed to Jim's satisfaction, he went back, cautiously, towards the pulsating commas, and stealthily raised the power of the to maximum.
Calmly, without a hint of emotion, he started firing at the commas. Whisps of red mist came out of the remains of the commas as they vaporized, some letting out the faintest hints of words, strangely red in their sound, on the breeze as they dissipated. Like a joke, dying in the air when told to an unappreciative audience. By the time Ben had been restrained, none of the five could see any more of the commas.
"What the hell was that about?" Bones - perhaps more gruffly than he intended - inquired.
"Narrator eggs. Needed to be destroyed before we have two Narrators on our hands at once, and maybe even before we get a replacement if I figure out how to rid Sandy of the one we already have without being tortured by it."
"Have you... seen them... Before?" Jim enquired.
"No."
"What brought you to the conclusion that they were Narrator eggs?" The Vulcan raised an eyebrow as he asked.
"Red. Pulsing with energy. Shaped like the punctuation mark that can catch Narrators. Felt like a bad pun was going to break out when close to them. What else could they have been?"
The three adults and one rat led the boy away from the clearing, despite his insistence that he was fine. None noticed the much smaller comma on the edge of the clearing, hidden under the undergrowth beginning to absorb the remnants of the red mist from the other commas.