Tasmanian Terrors

Wolfy Action

The bright orange light from the dawn sun filtered in through the brothers' window. The calm, mournful call of the mourning dove was the first thing Martin processed.

Cracking an eye open, he was met by the early morning rays, temporarily blinding him. He turned away with a tired groan, covering his eyes with his arm. He lay like this for a couple of minutes, slowly going through his waking routine.

He knew where he was, the garage of the Tortuga. He moved his arm slightly to peek out from it. Yup, his eyes had adjusted. His hearing slowly returned, hearing the call of the mourning dove first, then Jimmy Z making breakfast, and Chris saying goodbye to head off creature adventuring, and-

"Oh crap!"

Martin swiftly, and clumsily, jumped up from his sleeping bag. He gathered his miscellaneous of adventuring items and ran to where the rest of the crew was, putting on some of those items on the way.

Skidding to a halt in the main room, he looked around to see if he caught Chris in time before he was able to duck him. Aviva was listening to music at her engineering station repairing the miniaturizer, Jimmy was creating a new video game while eating a croissant, and Koki was coming back from outside. She noticed Martin and observed his appearance, a smile of amusement taking place on her face.

"MK, what's up with the wardrobe malfunction?"

Martin looked down at his attire. He only had one shoe on, his shirt was wrinkled, his creature power suit was only halfway on, and his hair was a mess. He rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks heating up.

"You mean to tell me that this isnt the new look?" he asked, putting on his other shoe and power suit.

"Not in the slightest," the other replied, chuckling at him as she headed over to her station.

"Hey Koki, what were you doing outside just now?" Martin asked, walking with her over to her desk.

"Oh, I was just seeing Chris off, he wanted to go creature adventuring. Something was, I dont know, a bit off with him though."

Martin quizzically raised a brow at this. "What do you mean off?"

"Off as in he seemed to be in a rush to get out of here, and not the usual rush either. I asked him if he was gonna wait for you and he just brushed it off."

"Dang it," Martin mumbled under his breath. He had literally told himself he would have a talk with Chris and not let him get away.

"Martin," Koki began, "is something wrong?" she questioned, her dark brown eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Martin offered her a reassuring smile. Chris and Koki were almost as close with each other as he and Martin were. It warmed Martins heart knowing there was someone else who cared enough about Chris to know something was wrong with him.

"Don't worry, I'm getting to the bottom of that."

With a quick thanks to Koki, Martin dashed outside and into the North American woods. He searched high and low for his brother, calling out to him for about five minutes when he finally realized something: he had no idea where to even look. He stopped short, facepalming himself for not asking Koki which direction his brother went. With a sigh, he sat down on a nearby rock and began to think about his dilemma.

For starters, he had no idea where Chris was. The only way he could have communicated with him was through his creature pod, but Chris was not answering his calls. Verbally or technologically. That alone made Martins stomach churn. Even when Chris was upset and ran off, like now, hed always at least send a message to him or the crew to let everyone know he was safe. Martin put his head in his hands, looking down at the ground to figure out what to do next.

Lost in thought, he didnt even feel the initial tugging on the back of his power suit. When his brain processed what was happening, he whipped his head to the side, revealing the sight of a familiar-looking wolf pup.

"Lil' Howler!" Martin exclaimed happily, scooping up the young wolf into his arms. The pup looked much older now, his original puppy chub giving way to a much leaner body. His snout was a bit longer and his ears were much pointier since the last time they met.

"Hey little buddy, how's it going?" Martin asked as he giggled from Lil' Howler's face licks. "You've gotten so much bigger!"

The pup barked in return, wagging his tail excitedly. He put the now-wiggling pup down and petted him on his head. Lil' Howler became interested in Martin's pockets, starting to sniff at one of them and pawing at it with interest. Martin reached into the pocket, pulling out some jerky he put in there some time ago for a snack.

"I forgot this was even in there, but of course, you'd find it," he started, handing it over to the pup who happily munched away. "A wolf's sense of smell is 100 times greater than us humans," he stated matter of factly to no one in particular "Heck, you guys can even smell other animals about a mile away. Talk about an epic creature power."

Wait. Martin's eyes widened, an idea quickly coming together in his brain. "That's it! With the wolf's incredible sense of smell, I'll be able to find Chris in no time." he cheered. He hopped up from his seat on the rock and began patting around his body.

"Shirt? No. Boot? No. Sock? Aha!" He pulled out his wolf creature power disk from his sock. He observed the disk with a slight frown "Chris would have rolled his eyes from that," Martin thought solemnly to himself.

He shook his head, new determination filling him to find his brother. This was not the time to feel gloomy, he needed to find his brother.

"Insert power disk. Touch wolf pup aaaand," he pressed his hand against the button of his power suit, "activate Wolf Powers!"

In a flash of blue, Martin turned into a grey wolf. He shot a fist up and howled in victory, causing the rest of Lil' Howler's pack to join in. Martin laughed at this and crouched down, giving the pup a quick scratch behind his ear.

"Thanks again Lil' Howler, I'll see you soon."

With that, Martin trotted off, sniffing the air and rotating his ears to detect any sign of Chris.

"This is great! I can cover lots of ground at this rate, a wolf can keep a pace like this for miles without stopping." He spoke to himself.

Martin decided that the best area to track Chris from was near the Tortuga. He kicked up his pace, cruising at a steady 15 mph, dodging trees, jumping small streams, and leaping over fallen logs. He was probably just a few yards away from the Tortuga when a certain scent hit his nose.

He came to an abrupt stop, lowering his head to the ground as he sniffed at the forest floor. Deer, Lil' Howler's pack, a moose and her calf, and a familiar earthy scent. Chris. Martin's trot turned into a full sprint, tracking down the scent. The further he went, the stronger the scent grew. Martin let a triumphant grin grow on his face as he neared the source.

Martin reached a small clearing, a lone tree stood in the middle of it. He stalked closer to it, the confidence he originally had disappearing. His tail lowered the closer he got to the tree and his ears flattened tightly to his head.

"Chris?" Martin called out shakily. Something wasn't right, something was wrong.

"Chris, you there bro?" he called out again now underneath the tree. He looked upward to see if his brother was loafing around in one of the branches, but the tree-loving brother was not there.

"Chris where are you!" Martin called out, pacing around the tree before something in the nearby grass caught his eye. He stalked over to it, kneeling down to get a better look. Martin's heart dropped, and he reached forward to pick up the item.

Chris' creature pod and it was cracked all over.