Nanotrix

Log 7: The Hunter

Mr. Rook, Mr. Tennyson and I went to an arcade to try and relax after the large scale heatwave we went through. I was playing a rhythm game, Mr. Tennyson and Mr. Rook were playing a go-cart game.

"What does battling in go-karts have to do with sumo?" Mr. Rook asked.

"It's just supposed to be fun. You know, a little break from real life," Mr. Tennyson replied, continuing to play. Mr. Rook stood up and walked off from Mr. Tennyson.

"You fight in real life all the time," He said as he walked to me. I had this blank but focused look on my face as I kept on my game.

"You are proficient in pattern recognition and repetition, Daman," Mr. Rook noted to me. I gave a silent nod and kept playing.

"Well yeah, but this is in 3D! Like it's coming right at you!" Mr. Tennyson said, I felt a slight rumble. Which caused me to miss my combo and I recognized that a problem had occurred.

"Mr. Tennyson, I feel as though something is coming-" as if on point, the wall got smashed in, and a large creature barged in. It was a rock like being, on six legs with spikes on them. Its head had a horn and small holes for ears and it had a red collar with a strange device on the front.

"I totally asked for that, didn't I?" Mr. Tennyson asked with a sigh. He activated his Omnitrix, and I grabbed my Nanotrix controller while Mr. Rook grabbed his blaster, which I now know is called the Proto-Tool.

"Boy, you picked a bad day to mess with us. Come on, Humongousaur!" Mr. Tennyson said before transforming...into a Lepidopterran.

"Stinkfly?! That doesn't even start to sound like Humongousaur!" He said in annoyance.

"Your Omnitrix seems to have an issue with your reliance on your Vaxasaurian form. Genetic Restructure, Activate DNA Sequence for Loboan," I said, commanding my Nanotrix. The Nanotrix beeped in acknowledgement.

"Loboan DNA Loaded, Transformation Primed," It acknowledged and responded. I activated the transformation and felt my fingers and toes shift to canine equivalents, my nails growing into claws as my skin adjusted and started rapidly growing fur as my body. My body shifted to that of a lycanthropic size, my jaw splitting into four to accommodate the Loboan sonic howl. Mr. Tennyson fired high tensile slime from the Lepidopterran eyestalks to hold the creature down by the legs.

"Stick around for a while, why don't you?" He joked, before I heard a loud high pitched whistle and the device glowing before the creature shifted to that of a Buglizard. The natural predator of all Lepidopterrans. It exhaled a green acidic mist, dissolving the slime into nothing.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Mr. Tennyson asked.

"It's designed to do that. It naturally eats Lepidopterrans!" I warned as Mr. Tennyson got grabbed into its mouth and shaken like a chew toy, screaming his head off as it happened. Mr. Rook fired a taser blast from his Proto-Tool to stun the creature, while I used the Loboan howl to throw the creature off of Mr. Tennyson. Mr. Tennyson had turned back, still covered in the saliva of the Buglizard.

"Eww! Alright, fine! Let's see how you like a little Humungousaur drool!" Mr. Tennyson proclaimed before rapidly transformed...into a Vulpimancer.

"Perhaps you should give up on your Vaxasaurian form. The Omnitrix is clearly not wanting to respond properly," I remarked. Mr. Tennyson simply snarled at me dismissively and we both bum-rushed the Buglizard outside. Mr. Tennyson tackled the Buglizard, while I went behind and slammed it into the ground by its red collar. It staggered and gathered itself, then the whistle came again. It was so loud this time, Mr. Tennyson and I were rendered immobilized from the sound. The Buglizard began dodging shots from Mr. Rook, letting out a cloud of mist to hide its location. Mr. Tennyson turned back to normal, I had to rapidly press the symbol on my chest to change back. We were both feeling the adverse effects though, still stunned from the sound as Mr. Rook had to intervene by kicking the creature away.

"Daman. Please tell me you heard that too," Mr. Tennyson asked with a shout, our ears still partially ringing from the sound.

"If you mean a high frequency sonic pitch, akin to that of a disciplinary dog whistle? Yes. Yes I did," I replied.

"Hear what? I did not hear anything," Mr. Rook said in confusion as he tried to get one last shot in with his Proto-Tool before the creature escaped. The shot pinged off a car and the creature got away.

"That has never happened. My apologies," Mr. Rook said. The two of us got up, still slightly dazed from what we heard.

"It is alright, Mr. Rook. You did the best you could. Especially since we could not be of much help due to us being incapacitated," I apologized.

"Yeah what Daman said," Mr. Tennyson replied. We got to Mr. Rook's truck and began making our way back to Plumber HQ, trying to think of a gameplan.

"Should we attempt a search for the creature? Our Kineceleran forms would be able to comb all of Bellwood within 10 minutes," I asked Mr. Tennyson.

"Why should we? We know it'll just come after me again. So why not just wait for that?" He said dismissively.

"Would it be more prudent for us to take a more proactive stance at this juncture? We need to do something. This is obviously a creature of some cunning," Mr. Rook said, agreeing to my point.

"It's a monster. A snarling one at that. Nothing I can't handle," Mr. Tennyson replied with a lackadaisical tone.

"Mr. Tennyson, I believe we need to take this threat seriously. That creature started as a Crabdozer. I believe it was anticipating you using your Pyronite transformation," I said, bringing in some of what we saw.

"Precisely. Along with that, once you transformed into your Lepidopterran state-"

"You mean Stinkfly?" Mr. Tennyson asked for clarification.

"Yes. When it recognized you were Stinkfly, it shifted accordingly to become a Buglizard. Which are the natural predators of Stinkfly in the wild," Mr. Rook continued.

"I do not believe it realized itself that Mr. Tennyson changed. When I first transformed into a Loboan, I heard the same sonic tone before it changed. I believe it has an owner, and that owner is what recognized Mr. Tennyson's transformation," I said, throwing my two cents in.

"Now that he brings it up, that thing had a weird symbol on it. I'm willing to bet that thing is like the Omnitrix," Mr. Tennyson brought up.

"Those sounds you two believe you heard, perhaps your forms have a a range of hearing that is capable of hearing sounds I cannot," Mr. Rook suggested.

"That makes sense. Loboans and Vulpimancers have powerful hearing," I said in recognition.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"We go to the one man I know who can help us think of a solution," Mr. Tennyson said.