Being a Pest

[Leroy]

Leroy pretended to try to find Johnny for a bit longer, but then got bored. He was also running out of time on his break, so he would have to demorph soon. <<Well, I gotta get back to work. At least I think I do. I'm not exactly sure what time the clock said,>> he informed Johnny just as he slipped under the door to the bathroom where his clothes were.

As he began demorphing, he noticed that someone was pounding loudly on the door. That can't be good, he thought to himself. By the time he was human again, he recognized the voice of his boss on the other side wondering what was taking so long. "Almost finished," Leroy replied.

After he finished redressing, (and he needed to since he wasn't wearing a morphing suit under his clothes) Leroy was about to open the door but then realized he had forgotten something. He flushed the toilet then ran the sink to make it sound like he was washing his hands. Then he opened the door to face his boss. Leroy's knees were practically shaking.

"Dear lord, what took you so long? I was afraid you were going to bust the plumbing." His boss seemed more concerned than angry.

"I, uh, I ate some bad sushi." It was the best Leroy could come up with in a hurry. "I think it gave me lower intestinal problems."

His boss looked at him long and hard, as if he were thinking something over. "You better take the rest of the day off. I'll get Mason to fill in for you. The last thing we want is for something to go wrong during the afternoon rush. Now if you'll excuse me..." His boss sidestepped Leroy and went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Leroy stood there for a moment. He suddenly found himself without any work to do. He wasn't sure what to do next. <<Hey Leroy, what does this door lead to?>> a voice suddenly said in his head. Even if he knew what door Johnny was talking about, he couldn't respond. "I guess I better go find him," Leroy said to himself. "Knowing Johnny, he is probably about to walk into the shark tank." He set off to search the main aquarium area.

[Johnny]

Well, it wasn't a shark tank. It wasn't even a tank. It was a hallway. At least, it looked like one to the tiny lizard that was now finished crawling under the door. Then Johnny crawled directly up the door until he was on the ceiling. Once upside down, he began walking down the hallway. After several minutes, he came to another door. From his vantage point, he couldn't understand the label on the door.

So he did what anyone would do and he crawled through the gap between the door and the top of the doorframe.

The first thing he noticed was the blast of cold air that almost knocked him off of the ceiling. He looked below him wildy but all he could see was white. Then he began seeing a bit of color. He saw a few clumsy shapes that had black on them ambling around. They looked about as tall as the dalmatian. He saw a lot of them, fanned out all over the whiteness. He also saw a little bit of dark blue. Some of the black and white things were in it.

Now that his curiosity was spiked, Johnny dropped onto the concrete floor and started laughing in open thought speak. They were penguins! Now he could also see shapes beyond the water (the dark blue stuff) and he knew that the multicolored blobs had to have been people. He was just too far away to see them clearly. But he could hear them. And they started wandering where the laughing was from. Johnny then kept his laughter to only himself and Leroy.

Speaking of Leroy, Johnny hadn't heard from him in quite a while. So he called, <<Hey! You never told me that this place had penguins! Aww man! They're so awesome!>>

[Leroy]

Leroy started searching the area for any sign of an animorph. He wasn't having much luck, which he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Probably a good thing since Johnny was staying hidden, but Leroy still kept feeling like he was about to be ambushed by a hornet.

Just when he was about to give up, Leroy heard some thought speech laughter. He didn't think much of it until he saw that other people were reacting to the sound as well. Johnny! What do you think you are doing! Leroy wanted to scream. You can't use public thought speech!

Then Johnny mentioned something about penguins and Leroy ran over to the tank as discretely as he could manage. He pressed his face against the glass to get a good look inside the tank. He half expected to see Johnny in there, swimming with the penguins.

[Johnny]

Johnny looked around from his new perch. He was on the head of a tall penguin, having just climbed there. The view wasn't that great since the bulky bird kept shaking his head to remove the gecko but it didn't work. And Johnny was having fun! Maybe it was his imagination of what Leroy would look like if he saw him now, or maybe it was just running all over a head, like the burglars, but whatever it was, his laughter kept flowing, mostly to Leroy, but parts of it hit the crowd as well.

But he wasn't too worried at the moment. after all, he was a lizard. What could happen? The head was starting to get boring so Johnny scrabbled down the bird's back and skittered across the ground. The concrete with a few rocks and a rocky ledge on the back were the only things to stand on. A moat between the concrete and the glass made up the rest of the exhibit.

Which gave Johnny an idea.

He started to head towards the water when the lizard began rebelling. What was wrong with it? Didn't everything like water? But no matter what, the gecko didn't want to swim. So Johnny dejectedly crawled back up a penguin who was conveniently standing right by him. Then, the bird began shaking its head but Johnny wasn't ready. Before he knew it, he was sailing through the air...



...until he landed with a splat on something hard. And see-through. The glass! Then he looked through it at the people and saw something very funny. Leroy's face! Johnny had landed almost directly in front of him! How cool was that?!

So in between protests from the gecko who was in pain, Johnny managed a quick greeting. <<Yo, Leroy. What's up? Come on in! The party's just begun!>>

[Leroy]

Leroy spotted a penguin acting silly and saw something on its head. Johnny. He was still being a wiseguy. And still making public broadcasts with thought speech too, it seemed.

Leroy wasn't sure what to do. He had to get Johnny to stop making noise so that everyone could hear, but he couldn't shout or else people would think he was crazy. He couldn't go around and into the penguin pen either because, as a ticket taker, he didn't have the authorization. Maybe he would have to morph again.

Just then, a lizard landed on the glass almost right in front of him. And then it spoke. There was now no doubt that this creature was Johnny. Leroy scooted over a foot and put his face against the glass again, this time with his hands cupped over his mouth. "Out. Now." Leroy's voice was firm, but not overly loud. He attracted a couple stares, but hopefully his message had traveled through the glass to its intended recipient. Johnny was starting to seem like more trouble than he was worth at the moment. He was grinding on Leroy's last nerve.

(OOC: Johnny managed to bring out the serious side of Leroy pretty good. )

[Johnny]

((XD))

<<What was that?>> Johnny asked, to get Leroy repeat what he'd said. <<Did you say 'Pow-wow? Okay!>> Johnny proceeded to hear what he thought Leroy had said and began a funny dance. The gecko couldn't do much in the way of dancing, but he could shake and shimmy himself a bit. And crawl all over the glass. Which he did.

While walking all over, he managed to attract quite a few stares. A little girl began giggling and pointed at the "funny lizard". But then the show began to get boring. The crowd soon lost interest in him and began watching the penguins diving and jiving. He walked up the glass until he was on the ceiling and traversed the expanse towards the door.

<<Sorry, Leroy, but I decided to cut the dance short. Talk at you later!>> Then he was gone from the penguin exhibit.

Once in the hallway, Johnny randomly picked another door. After walking the huge distance (at least to the gecko) of ten feet, he slipped into another cage. This one was a lot warmer. It felt like it had a dozen heaters in it. But that was all he knew. Well, that and there were some rainforest-ish plants by the ceiling. So he asked Leroy what it could be. <Hey Leeeeroy! Do you know what exhibit I'm in? It's warm and I think some of these plants are from a rainforest.>>

((Feel free to make it any exhibit you want. Example (in case you can't think of any): rainforest frogs, alligators, parrots, river otters...))

[Leroy]

Leroy was now way past annoyed with Johnny. In fact, Leroy was considering organizing a meeting with everyone from the apartment to have a talk with him. He was considering this as he made his way to the tropical area of the aquarium, since that is where Johnny seemed to think he was.

What tank would be across from the penguins? Leroy thought about that as he maneuvered through the crowd. Crocodiles? No, they would be on the other side of the room. Electric eels? No, they were in the middle of the room. Oh no! It's the piranhas! Leroy doubled his pace and prayed that johnny wouldn't fall in. Or worse, jump in.

[Johnny]

About three minutes ticked by and Johnny heard no response. Okay, Leroy has apparently not morphed. Aww man! Did I annoy him to much? Is he ignoring me? Oh well, might as well have some fun in here since I did pay for this trip. Johnny scanned the area around him. He could se a lot of green below him, and a little bit of water. he figured that he must've been above trees or something.

Since there actually were trees, he doubted it was the shark exhibit. But hadn't Leroy mentioned alligators before? Alligators lived with a lot of forest right? So Johnny resisted his strong urge to just demorph and dive right in with the...whatever it was in the cage. For the moment. He swiftly walked down the wall of the exhibit and then stepped off the wall onto an extended branch from a fake tree. Now, he thought he was about a foot above the water.

Looks. So. Gooood! Must jump-- Johnny was startled as a shape suddenly floated up out of the water. Then another shape appeared and after a brief churning in the water, Johnny began to wonder why the water was starting to turn red. Then, he remembered something from all of the Jaws movies. The water always turned red after somebody died. When he looked back down, Johnny almost puked. Only being a gecko saved him.

But not for long. Suddenly, a dark shape suddenly appeared at the top of the water and then it was out of it. It was about ten times fatter than him! Its mouth was twice as big as his head! The shape hurtled towards him and he quickly tried to scramble away. He almost made it. The shape hit his tail, grabbed it in its mouth, and kept going. Into the water. Dragging Johnny with it.

<<HEEEEEEELP!>> he screamed towards Leroy.

[Leroy]

The moment Leroy realized Johnny had gone into the piranha area, he veered off course and headed back towards the Staff hallway. The door said authorized personnel only and technically he wasn’t since he was only a ticket taker. But this was a potential emergency, so he went in anyway.

No sooner had he opened the door to the piranha exhibit than he saw one of the fish jump up and snatch a lizard off of a branch. “Johnny!” Leroy yelled, not caring who heard. He could be eaten alive in seconds!

Without thinking, Leroy ran the six feet to the edge of the tank and dove in. He was aiming at the spot where he thought he saw Johnny under the water, but the moment he broke the surface he was swarmed by a school of confused and hungry fish. These piranhas were well fed so they didn’t go into a feeding frenzy, but he could still feel large chunks getting ripped out of him here and there.

“Blomme!” He tried to yell Johnny’s name under water as he grasped wildly for the lizard. He thought he could see some people staring at him through the tank wall, but he couldn’t see Johnny anywhere. Just when he was almost out of breath, Leroy felt something and grabbed hold, then swam to the surface. The water was starting to turn redder around him and he realized it was his own blood. He would have to get out of the tank soon or risk becoming Swiss cheese.

[Johnny]

THe water surged all around him. Johnny began to panic. Something had grabbed him and pulled him into the water. Quite unexpectantly, the lizard mind began to panic. And it seeped into John's mind as well. Then, a sharp pain tore through him. <<AAAAAHHHHH!>> he shrieked in private thought-speak. Suddenly, he was free! But he was totally under water. And his tail was gone! All he felt down there was PAIN!

He kept screaming in thought-speak and floundering around in the water. He tried paddling upwards, but the gecko didn't swim like a human. And the water blurred his senses. The pain didn't help either. Then, another shape appeared in front of him and Johnny almost got hit. But then, he tried to swim where he thought was up. The common house gecko's lungs began burning for air. Now the panic was running rampant.

<<HEEEEEELP! AAAAARRRGGGH! AAH! HEEEEEELP LEROY!>> he screamed. Then he felt a massive shape hurtling upwards and passed him. Without a second thought, he extended his legs and caught ahold of the huge form. THen, in only a few seconds, his head burst through the water and into the air.

Still attached to the form, Johnny just gasped for air and watched as the world began spinning and darkening quickly.

[Leroy]

Leroy grabbed hold of the tank ledge and pulled himself half way out of the water. His wet clothes made the task way more difficult than he would have expected. The fact that he was only using one hand to do it didn't help either. He was only using one hand because in the other there was a tailess, half-drowned lizard covered in blood. But the blood was Leroy's. There was a large chunk of skin that had been bitten out of his skin there.

"We need to go," Leroy said as he began to notice the voices of the aquarium customers. They sounded very alarmed, and he couldn't blame them. Pretty soon a security guard or other employee would be there, and Leroy didn't want to have to explain to them why he had jumped into a piranha tank to save a gecko.

Johnny pulled himself the rest of the way out of the water and stood up. He was glad to get rid of the feeling of the fish biting his legs, but now he could see just how much damage they had done. He looked like someone from a horror movie, with blood running out of wounds randomly placed around his body. And boy did they hurt!

"We need to go," Leroy repeated. "Hope you can hang in there until I can find a safe place to demorph. Leroy stepped into the hallway, leaving wet and bloody footprints behind him.

"Hey, you! Are you alright?" It was a maitinence person. He started to approach Leroy, but Leroy turned and bolted down the hall. "Hey, wait up! You're hurt!" Leroy kept running, leaving a red trail behind him. He would have to morph soon or else he would probably pass out from loss of blood.

[Johnny]

((This can be a time skip, or this could still be while Leroy is running.))

Johnny woke up. He was blinded for several seconds from the stark white light of the hallway. He had no idea where he was nor when he was. How long have I been out? And what was he? Then the pain shot through his body and reminded him. Oow! Right, I'm a tailess gecko. OUCH! Then he felt like he wanted to sleep. So tired. Then he remembered something he had learned in school. Blood loss made you black out right? Maybe thatz wutz haping tuh meeee....

Johnny would've frowned if he had been human. He wasn't thinking right. All he knew was to demorph. That's what he began to do. He just tried to concentrate on his ever-lovin' self and he began to grow and increase in size. Then, he fell off of whatever he had been holding on to as his toe pads disappeared. He hit the cold, harch concrete floor with a thud. It only made him more tired.

[Leroy]

Leroy ran for as long as he could without being seen. Which wasn't for long since the hallway had a limited length and there were other people around. At one point he tried to duck into a side room, but it was a medical area and there were vets in there doing something or another. Leroy left immediately and continued down the hall.

Eventually Johnny started to grow and Leroy was glad. It meant he was alive. But now Leroy remembered that he also needed to change shape. He glanced backwards down the hall and winced at the trail of blood he had left, then he opened another random door and stepped in. Just in time, too. A moment later Johnny slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground.

The first thing Leroy noticed about this room was that it wasn't a room. It was an outside exhibit. However, they were still out of the view of the public. Leroy focussed on his duck morph as he tried to figure out what exhibit they were in. "Go fast Johnny. We may not have much time."

[Johnny]

Despite the pain that Johnny felt from banging his head on the ground, he was feeling better. He was a shifting and melting puddle of Johnny but at least he wasn't losing anymore blood. Then the pain was gone as his stump disappeared. The toepads vanished and Johnny felt himself stop growing. Groggily, he sat up in time to hear Leroy say "Go fast Johnny. We may not have much time."

He mumbled a string of noise before thinking about another morph. The gecko was out of the question at the moment and probably for the year. Instead, he thought about his most terrifying morph ever. He shrank down and his knees reversed their directions.

Then, he stumbled to his feet as he kept shifting, not wanting to morph while sitting. Then he felt his head shrinking and bulging until his lips jutted out. Then they curved and hardened as they began a flesh-eating beak. His eyesight sharpened and as he looked over the growing tattoo of feathers, he felt a wave of calmness and confidence wash over him. He was an eagle. Then he looked around for Leroy.

[Leroy]

Leroy was done morphing a little while before Johnny since he only had to morph, whereas Johnny had to demorph then remorph. Still, Leroy had clothes to worry about and Johnny didn't. It looked like Johnny was already half bird by the time Leroy waddled out of his pile of clothes and grabbed his ten dollar bill and bus pass from his pants pocket. Somehow he still managed to beat Johnny and decided to waddle around the corner where he could see what exhibit they were in.

<<Hahaha, seals!>> he somehow managed to laugh even after all they had been through. They were in the sealion exhibit. He was half expecting polar bear. But then he realized he was a duck, which meant they were potentially just as dangerous. <<Lets get out of here, Johnny,>> he said as one of the seals spotted him. <<I think we should take the rest of the day off.>>