Invasion of the Mischief Maker

Sprx was afraid of Nova. Not in the usual sense where he was afraid she'd beat the last remaining threads of life out of him for doing or saying something stupid. No, there was something else that was sending off warnings in his head about her. She'd been all smiles and giggles for the past few days (which was disturbing in itself) and it was getting really hard to be around her due to the...perfume It was heady and you could see it swirling around her in this mist of miasmic death. He was sure it was supposed to smell like flowers of some sort, but he couldn't get past looking at it much less chance to breath it in--which was unfortunate because she seemed pretty attached to him lately and he really didn't want to keep blowing her off, but it was awfully weirdly un-Nova-ish. He was getting kind of worried, honestly.

"Hey, uh, Gibson?" Sprx asked. He was hoping that the self-claimed "most observant" of the team would have picked up on some of the things going on and help shed some light on them.

"Yes?" Gibson briefly glanced at the pilot in his doorway before turning his attention back to the messy scrawl before him.

"Have you, uh, have you noticed anything unusual about Nova lately?" he asked nervously, glancing around as if making sure that they wouldn't be caught talking about such a topic.

Gibson set down his work and fully turned toward Sprx. He regarded him thoughtfully for a moment before beckoning him to take a seat within the room. Sprx complied, still skittishly looking around.

"So you've noticed as well," Gibson said. "I'm a little baffled myself, to be honest."

"So, you don't know what's going on with her either?" Sprx asked; he sounded desperate, relieved, and anxious all at once.

"I have several hypotheses, but I have not had any chance test any of them."

"What do you think it is?"

"She's been kidnapped by pod-people!" a new voice broke into the solemn conversation. Otto stood in the doorway with an anxious look that matched the other black-eyed simians.

"Pod-people? Really Otto-"

"It's possible," Sprx said. He was going over all the little behaviour shifts in his mind and they did match up with everything he'd ever heard on the subject (from some documentary or sitcom or something he'd caught late at night one time). "Stranger things have happened."

"Wha-?"

"Well, she's been all...happy and smiling and laughing at my jokes and stuff," Sprx began listing all the evidence. "And I'm pretty sure she's been flirting back at me. That's not normal Nova behaviour."

"Yeah!" Otto chimed in. "And she hasn't been working out as much. She's only been in the training room twice today for a couple hours."

"Definitely not normal Nova behaviour."

"Not to mention the..."

"The heady bouquet?" Gibson offered when the other two fell silent in trying to describe the most disturbing change in the Team's number one girl.

"Yeah...What's with that anyway?" Sprx asked.

"She's trying to lure you in and then lay her eggs in you!" Otto said. He'd caught that same maybe-documentary that one time late at night.

"But, if that's not the real Nova, then where is she?" Gibson enquired.

The room went silent as all three males contemplated everything they'd been presented with and tried to come to a reasonable conclusion. "Reasonable" being completely subjective and leaning toward meaning "how are we going to capture this impostor and turn it into goo before it's plan can be completed?" in two of the three males.

"We have to set a trap!" Otto announced. He punctuated this statement by slamming his fist into his other hand and jumping up from the chair he had pulled up to the other two.

Sprx and Gibson looked at the green monkey in confusion, waiting for him to continue his logic.

"We have to get her--it-- before it can get us. We'll lure it someplace then spring on it and make it give us information of where the real Nova is."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Gibson asked with a condescending air about him. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, as if expecting the answer to be a complete waste of time.

"We'll get Sprx to take it to the park. Me and you will have set up a net system that Sprx will take it to and get it to step in, then when it's all tied up we'll take it in for questioning."

"Why do I have to lure it?" Sprx asked.

"Because it obviously has chosen you to be it's egg-carrier. So it'll go with you more easily," Otto explained patiently as if he was talking to a small child.

"This is insane," Gibson said.

"Come on, Gibson, we have to do this for the sake of the Team."

"Can't we just ask her...?"

"No! Then it'll know what's going on and it'll have to move it's plan up and then we could all end up being egg sacks. Do you want to end up being a pod-persons egg sack?"

"No...I suppose not."

"Then it's settled. I'll start drawing up designs and Gibson, you go find the perfect location to spring the trap. Sprx, you go cosy up to it and try to get it to the park in about two hours."

"This had better be worth it..." Sprx mumbled on his way out the door. He was none to happy with his designated role as bait.

Two hours later however, and he was right on time, leading the supposed Nova impostor through the park. The day was lovely and warm with a light breeze to cool the inhabitants. Many such couples were strolling around on this nice day, just enjoying each other in beautiful weather. If they hadn't been robot monkeys, the two would have blended into the paired-off crowds quite easily as their hands were interlinked and smiles alighted their faces. Sprx's was of a more nervous variety but the yellow monkey didn't seem to notice or mind. Sprx lead the yellow monkey through a denser part of the scattered trees surrounding them that lead to a small closed-off clearing.

"Wow, how'd you find this place, Sprx?" Nova asked. She squeezed his hand to draw his attention back from wherever it kept wandering throughout their walk.

"Oh, you know...just wandering around one day." He was extremely distracted, hoping that he had gotten the location right and hoping that this whole thing wouldn't come back to backfire on them.

A snap of a twig alerted the two to the impending attack springing upon them.

"Get her!" Otto called out and tried to tackle Nova while Gibson stumbled out of the shrubbery surrounding them with his foot tangled in the branches. The ensuing chaos somehow lead to Sprx hanging upside down by his foot from the trap meant for Nova, and Gibson and Otto both completely pinned underneath Nova's strong grip and she glared down at them.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded in more normal 'no-nonsense' Nova voice.

"We're here to let you know that we know that you're not Nova and we want her back," Otto answered. His answer was somewhat skewed as he has face down in the dirt and kept having to spit out bits of grass and twigs.

"What?" Nova asked. She looked down at the two males in her grip in disbelief and utter confusion then up at Sprx who was gently swinging back and forth.

"He said he believes you're a pod-person," Gibson said. He could talk easier because his head was at and angle away from the dirt. "And that we're here to stop you."

"What the doodle are you talking about now?" she demanded again with a small shake to the two monkeys in her grip.

"You've been acting kind of weird lately," Sprx commented from up above. He was feeling a little light headed from all the blood rushing to his head.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been all...happy."

"So? Why shouldn't I be happy? We've defeated our biggest enemy once and for all, the universe is safe, and I'm in love."

"What about how little you've been training lately?" Otto accused.

"I don't really see any reason to. There hasn't been a major threat in a while and I've pretty much mastered as much as I can for now. I'm not going to stop. That'd be stupid."

"And the, uh, perfume?" Sprx asked. He flinched a little as he said the last word. From up above he was getting the full impact as it wafted upwards and that was making his head spin all the faster. He couldn't breath.

"JinMay gave me some. Why? You don't like it?" She sounded a little hurt but otherwise perfectly Nova-ish.

"No," was the unanimous response from the males around her.

"Fine, I won't wear it. Now, answer me this, who's idea was this crazy scheme?" Her voice had gotten progressively more menacing as she asked.

"Otto's," Sprx and Gibson immediately responded pointing toward the green monkey (who was still face down in the dirt) as best they could.

She looked down at the accused crossly who seemed to be immune to the stare (maybe it was because he couldn't see it) and gave off an air of defiance.

"We're going to have a nice long discussion, Otto, about how you deal with teammates and treat them, while I make up for all those lost training hours. You're going to be my partner." She unceremoniously tugged the green simian up and began marching him off toward the Robot. He walked along with his head held high but a subtle quake of fear in his stride.

The red and blue monkeys watched the two march off with a relieved and humiliated air about themselves.

"Uh, could you...?" Sprx finally asked. There were spots jumping around before him and he was pretty sure that they weren't actually there.

Gibson shot a little energy beam at the rope holding Sprx (causing him to fall gracelessly to the ground and land in a tumble of limbs) while rolling his eyes.

He walked off after Nova and Otto while mumbling about all the lost time he'd wasted with this whole useless undertaking.

Sprx laid there dazedly, staring up at the still perfectly clear blue sky and watching as the spots began to fade as he got more oxygen in his system. His one reoccurring thought was that she had never denied that she was a pod-person.