How It Is (spop post finale fanfiction)

Chapter Six

The rest of that day and the next went by in a flash, with only minor mishaps or setbacks taking place. Sea Hawk set no ships on fire, Double Trouble started no mutinies, Entrapta and Hordak managed not to explode the bot, and Baker, Soda Pop, and Busgirl made it to Bright Moon without mishap. 

When Entrapta gave Lonnie the bot after Rogelio and Kyle went to sleep, the tired girl had stared at her for a moment, before awkwardly thanking her. Entrapta just smiled and gently nudged her towards her bed and set up the bot. Lonnie had lain down and watched her as she prepared the bot, but her eyes kept fluttering, and she soon fell asleep. When Entrapta had left, she'd already been snoring softly. 

Now, on the eve of the ball, everyone on Beast island who was attending the ball- which, at this rate, was really more like a large festival- was on the fairly crowded transport leaving Beast Island. 

Despite the fact that they'd been well-behaved the entire time since they threw the soldier off the boat- a new record- Double Trouble had not one, not two, not even three, but four guards following them around. They strutted around the ship, thoroughly enjoying the attention their entourage got them, though something dark gleamed in their eyes every time they looked at their chaperones. 

Mia kept an eye on them, as well as some other candidates for accomplices in troublemaking- unwitting or fully aware of what they were doing. So far her best choices were Entrapta, who was working on some robot while Hordak stayed belowdecks, seasick, a large pink lizard-person, and Double Trouble themself. After surveying her choices one more time, she made a decision. 

She stalked over to the pink lizard and punched them square in the face. 

They roared, lunging for her, and she jumped backwards at an impressive height. She landed in front of the biggest of Double Trouble's guards, and just when the pink lizard was about to tackle her she dove to the side, and both the lizard and the guard went over the rail. 

A wicked grin came over Double Trouble's face when this happened, and they turned to their remaining three guards with a devilish look on their face. The guards started to back up nervously, fully aware of the shifting odds. The talented shapeshifter might not necessarily be able to combat four armed guards, but three? Certainly. 

Double Trouble started to move towards their babysitters and, in one swift move, used their tail to grab one guard by the waist and throw him over the railing. One of the remaining two pulled out her stun gun, but the shapeshifter laughed a bit darkly, and when she started to fire ducked, grabbed her partner, and pulled him in front of them in one swift motion, just in time for him to absorb the shock of her second blast. They flung him to the side and snatched the stun gun from the last guard, using it like a bat to knock her over the rail, breaking it in the process. 

They chuckled and leaned over the railing to look at the people in the water. The last guard they'd knocked over glared up at them sullenly, and they smirked, dropping the two halves of the broken stun gun over the rail. "Here," they said, practically purring. "You can have this back now." 

All was silent when the shapeshifter turned back to the crowd of onlookers. Two days ago, when they had just thrown one guard over the rail without actually harming him, it had been funny. They'd just done it for a laugh. 

But this wasn't funny. 

This time, everyone got a glimpse of the wildfire burning beneath the chameleon's calm surface. 

After all, one can only live the way DT has for a certain amount of time before something breaks loose- before the eye of the storm passes on, and you're caught up in the hurricane. No one can exist on their own, without a friend they can trust. Now, the gasoline they'd been pouring for years had caught fire. The cool, collected, cunning mercenary was gone, replaced with a deadly machine that knew how to conceal the crazy until it could be unleashed. 

At the opposite side of the ship, away from all the gazes that remained on the unhinged shapeshifter, Mia dropped a handful of now-empty syringes over the rail into the water where they sank. She looked back at the shapeshifter, watching as they stood there, their face blank as a much larger group of guards came to lead them away. Whispers and rumors began to run rampant all over the ship, and a small smile came to her face. 

As people gathered to use a ladder to pull the people out of the water, she moved to the back of the boat, pulling out a communicator. After ensuring she was alone, she called Aaro. 

"I've got to make this quick," she said, her eyes darting around for any sign of someone joining her. "But," she said, looking back at the screen and meeting her feline friend's eyes. "It worked like a charm. The stimulus serum definitely worked- you should've seen them in action! They took out three guards like it was nothing- and provided the perfect distraction for me to get the others." She frowned. "However, the tech princess had that bot near her so I couldn't get close." Her expression perked up. "Tell Hellion that the shapeshifter completely went off, though. That'll amuse her. Although, after what they just did, it may be a while until we can get to them with the finished version- there's no way that they'll be allowed to be unsupervised for a while." 

Aaro nodded, and flicked his ears. "I'll pass it on. See you at the ball?" A wicked grin crept over his face, and Mia returned it. 

"I'll see you there," she said, peering in her bag to make sure she had the rest of her supplies. She met his gaze again, and something cold glinted in both of their eyes that would've sent a chill down the spine of anyone who might've happened to witness it. "Let's rock them."