Margie nice day promised, shining sun, singing birds, and a raspberry slushy. The day could easily be called perfect, you just needed to take away the loaded guns.
Seriously, what genius robs a convenience store in broad daylight with tons of people around?
"Hey, you got a death wish or something?" One of the men asks, eyes locked on Margie.
"No," Margie said, taking a sip of her slushy. "And I don't need to be scared of you losers."
The men looked at each other bewildered, then back at Margie, leaning against the counter like this is normal. She took another sip of her slushy, ignoring the cashier behind the counter as he urged her to listen to the men.
"You should listen to him, kid." The second man said.
"Enough!" The first man said, stepping forward, reaching for Margie.
The minute the man's hand made contact, he was pelted by ice. He immediately released Margie, stumbling back. The other man shouted out in confusion, turning to see who the culprit was, but was met with a rather terrifying sight.
The soda machine, which had been green and purple moments ago, was now pink and black. It also appeared to be upgraded, with the dispensers lowered and aimed at the men.
"See ya," Margie said, grabbing her slushy and bag of snacks, and exiting the store.
The men looked at her in shock, then back to the upgraded soda machine. They both shouted in fear and tried to scramble to their feet, but ended up slipping on the ice on the floor.
"You guys need to relax." The upgraded machine said, a mechanical eye appeared. "Have a drink."
Powerful soda streams then shot from the dispensers, knocking the men right out the front window. They tried to get up, but could only manage to groan weakly.
"Ah, so refreshing, don't you think?" The machine teased, the pink and black seeming to melt off.
It turned into a blob on the floor before reforming as Overide, Julie's tech alien. A smooth black body with pink digital lines, and the watch symbol on her face.
"Wh-What the heck?" The cashier asked, finally coming from behind the counter.
Override smiled with her mechanical eye, waving politely. She then grabbed her own slushy and disappeared through the broken window.
"So, now what are we gonna do?" Override asked, meeting up with Margie, behind the building.
"Volunteer work," Margie said, holding up a flyer for a retirement community.
Evangeline drove Julie and Margie through the more arid parts of Denver. She kept glancing in the rear view, seeing Julie's sulking face.
"Julie, you okay?" She finally asked, though she knew the answer.
"As okay as you can get when you're spending the weekend doing community service," Julie said.
"I thought you liked helping people?" Margie asked, turning in the front seat to better see her.
I do, but this summer was supposed to be spent hanging with my mom and having fun, not hanging out in some old lady's place," Julie said, looking out the window. "Especially after she promised, really promised that we'd spend the day together."
Margie and Evangeline both frowned, sharing a look.
"Sorry you're not getting the summer you were, Julie," Evangeline said.
"But, you've still been having fun, and you're gonna keep having it, even while volunteering at a retirement community," Margie said, tossing Julie a gummy candy. "Trust me."
Meanwhile, at the retirement community, a woman stands outside one of the homes speaking with her neighbor.
The woman was short, looking to be in her 50's or 60's with long silver hair, styled in a bun. She wore a peach colored blouse with white pants, paired with black flats.
"It's always fun when the kids come around to help." She said, watching as a few volunteers helped around the community.
"Only if you get a good one." Her neighbor said, looking over at a group who were just standing around on their phones.
The woman sighed and patted him on the back, a quiet sign to hang in there. The man smiled and the two said their goodbye before going their separate ways.
The man returns to his house, the blinds pulled as he puts on a scary movie. As he becomes engrossed in the movie, a sentient green glob slithers up next to the bowl his volunteer had prepared. The man gasps in horror when he first feels it on his hand, then the glob jumps to his face, muffling his cries.
A little while later, Evangeline finally enters the retirement community, driving past well-kept houses and young volunteers.
"Wow, a lot of people get involved in this," Julie said, counting heads as they passed.
"Yeah, it's a program offered by the schools," Margie explained, searching the volunteers as they passed. "Most are just knuckleheads who didn't pay enough attention in class to pass and need the extra credit. There are a few who do it just because they like it though."
"Which one are you?" Julie asked.
"She slept too much in math," Evangeline said, fluttering Margie.
Julie giggled as Margie began to protest, only becoming more flustered. She then locked back out the window, spotting an old man climbing on his roof, trying to reach his satellite. He starts slipping though, making Julie's eyes wide with panic, but instead of falling off, he makes an expert Olympic-level backflip off the roof and lands safely on the ground, right beside a volunteer who seemed none the wiser.
"Whoa!" Julie gasps, rubbing her eyes, then looks out the window again, but only sees your everyday old people.
"The heat must have fried my brain or something," Julie whispered to herself.
The car then stopped outside a house, Julie and Margie getting out with their overnight bags. They waved to Evangeline, watching her drive away.
"Margie?" The woman from earlier came out of her house.
"Yes, ma'am," Margie said, turning to face the woman. "And this is Julie, she'll also be joining."
"Nice to meet you girls, I'm Pearl." The woman said, offering both a firm handshake.
As they shook, Julie couldn't help but notice it was a prosthetic. She tried not to stare, not to seem rude, but she failed miserably.
"I was in the military," Pearl said.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to stare," Julie said, becoming flustered. "Thank you for your service."
Pearl smiled, nodding. She then gestured for the girls to follow her inside. The two grab their bags and follow, but the neighbor's window catches Julie's eye. The man from earlier is staring at her, hissing violently before he shuts the blinds.
Julie flinches back and hurries inside with Margie and Pearl.
"I hope you two brought your appetite," Pearl said, setting the table.
"After all the work you just made us do, I definitely have mine," Julie said, washing the soil off her hands.
"Ooh, Pearl, that smells delicious!" Margie said, watching her set a pot in the center of the table. "What is it?"
"It's just a simple stew, Dear," Pearl said, ladling some into Margie's bowl. "Beef, carrots, potatoes, things like that."
"Better than what we normally have," Julie said, taking a bit of her stew. "We mostly eat stuff we can microwave."
Pearl tsked and shook her head, that was not a proper diet for two growing girls.
"I'll have to fix that before you two leave," Pearl said. "But for now, what have you been doing so far this summer?"
Julie and Margie both tensed at the question, sharing a glance. They both said something along the lines of just hanging out, then left it at that.
"Oh, well that's not very specific," Pearl said, then noticed the watch. "My, that's a very fancy watch you have, Julie. Mind if I have a look?"
"Oh, what are those?" Margie suddenly said, walking to a shelf. It was loaded with medals and little trinkets.
"Oh, those are my medals and souvenirs from my service," Pearl said, coming to stand by Margie.
With Pearl now distracted, Julie slipped under the table, dialing into the watch. She wasn't sneaking off out of boredom, but in hopes of Pearl forgetting about the topic of the watch.
She presses the faceplate down, transforming into a phantom-like creature wrapped in white cloth-like skin and dressed in black clothes with pink chains and shackles. This is what is known as Spookette.
Spookette makes herself invisible and phases through the front door. She sighs in relief and looks around the neighborhood.
"Now what am I gonna do?" Spookette wondered, then spotted something.
A group of volunteers was driving like maniacs with the golf carts. Spookette giggles evilly and follows, flying invisible beside them.
"Dude, this is way better than digging in the dirt with the old folks." One of the volunteers said, a boy with blue hair.
"Seriously though, I thought I was gonna die of boredom." A blonde girl said. "What about you Cindy?"
"Freaked out more than bored," Cindy, a strawberry blonde said. "The dude I'm working with is acting weird, as he hissed at me, and he just sits and glares at the closet."
"Major weirdness." A black-haired boy said.
"No, Major weirdness is who is working in the house next door," Cindy said, taking a sharp turn in the golf cart. "Everyone's favorite purple-haired freak."
"Margie?" The blue-haired boy asked.
"The one and only," Cindy said.
"Margie is cool," Spookette said, startling the teens.
They immediately stopped the golf carts and looked around, knowing none of them had said that. Spookette giggled at their confusion, making them all jump. That was when she decided to make herself visible, floating in front of them.
The teens screamed in fear, abandoning their golf carts and running like a bunch of chickens. Spookette laughs, then notices the neighbor from earlier, the one Cindy also happens to be working with.
He himself was driving a golf cart. As he passes one of the houses, the automatic sprinkler system kicks on making him freak out. He swerves the cart around it and drives off, carrying a rolled-up rug behind him in the car,.
"Hm, well that's obviously not normal." Spookette said.
She follows him, arriveing at a gated-off dumpster. The man looks around then stretches his legs beyond human capability and carries the rolled-up rug over the fence gate.
Spookette gasps, muttering something in Japanese before passing through the gate. She watches as the man pushes one of the dumpsters aside, revealing a trapdoor underneath. As he opens the trapdoor, the watch decides that would be the perfect moment to time out and revealing Julie.
The man's head does a tital 360, making Julie scream. The man lets the door and rug go and turns the rest of his body around, roaring at Julie.
"AHHHH!" Julie screams again and takes off, climbing the gate as quick as she can.
The man elongates his legs once more and walks over it. Julie yelps and jumps in the golf cart and puts the pedal to the metal, while the man chases after. He catches up quick, and Julie starts to regret leaving Pearl's house.
"I'm warning you, I know karate." Julie said, the notices the cart's main gauge starts lowering to 0. "Oh no!"
The man gets closeer, stretching his arms and grab the two front bars on the cart, literally stopping it in its tracks. He begins dragging it backwards towards himself, hissing violently.
Julie begins to panics, looking for an escape. She notices the bag of golf clubs beside her and gets and idea. She places them on the gas pedal and throws the cart in reverse, diving out.
The cart flies back and runs right of the man, his injuries reveal the green glob from before.
"The the heck?" Julie asks, scrambling to her feet.
The man also got up cracking his arms and neck back into place, then extends his arms to Julie, reeling her in across the pavement. Julie cries out, kicking and thrashing, clawing at the ground.
"Let her go!" Someone suddenly shouts, and a powerful stream of water comes from the side.
The man hisses and releases Julie, giving her the chance to escape. She runs back to Pearl's not bothering to look and see who saved her.
It's sundown by the time Julie makes it back to Pearl's, her knees scraped and bleeding. She rushes to the kitchen where Margie is washing dishes.
"Margie! She gasps, her legs finally giving out.
"Julie!?" Margie's eyes widened and she knelt by Julie. "What happened?"
"This whole place is way creepy." Julie said between gasping breaths. "That weird next-door neighbor, I-is an "E.T." or something! With a face on the back of his head, and these long sticky arms and this body that oozed!"
"Seriously?" Margie asked, using a healing spell on Julie's knees as she explained.
"Well, we should do some investigating then." Margie said, standing up.
Julie nods and the two headed next door, .argie using a Bobby pin to unlock the door. The inside is dark and deserted, the pendulum of a grandfather clock swinging to and fro, creating the only sound.
"I atleast thought Cindy would be her." Julie whispered.
"Ugh, Cindy." Margie groaned.
The two keep looking around, but don't find anything, except the rug outline on the floor.
"He had something rolled up in his carpet when I saw him." Julie explained.
"Cindy hopefully." Margie said, earning a stern look from Julie. "Let's go ask some of the other volunteers if they've seen anything."
The next day, Julie opened Pearl's fridge, handing Margie a carton of eggs, one of the few things they knew how to cook.
"Morning, Pearl." Margie greeted, seeing the older women enter the kitchen. "How'd you sleep?"
"Just...fine." Pearl said, suddenly grabbing and pinching Julie's cheeks. "How 'bout you?"
"Fine, Mrs. Pearl." Julie said, clearly pained.
"Pearl, would you like some Coffee?" Margie asked, bringing some water to fill the coffee maker.
As she does, she trips suddenly, spilling water across the floor.
"Oh my, Margie, are you alright?" Pearl asked, kneeling down to wipe up the water.
Margie nodded and she and Julie helped clean up the water. Afterwards the three had breakfast, then went out for a morning stroll.
"It's really quiet." Julie said, noticing no one was out, not even the volunteers.
"It is isn't it." Pearl said, looking ahead, seeing no one.
The three keep walking, but Pearl suddenly stops when she sees her neighbor. He duck into an alley, earning a confused look from Julie, Margie, and Pearl.
"What on earth...Edward?" Pearl gestures the girls forward, peeking around the corner.
"Is the food supply ready for transport?" Edward asked, speaking with another on of those things.
"The pods are in the final stages of gestation." The other said. "What about the young ones?"
"Too chewy!" Edward says, dismissing the idea. "They need to age more before they get nice and tender..."
"I'm not talking about eating!" The other said.
"What?" Pearl whispers, looking at the girls.
They both grimace and pull Pearl away from the scene. Julie starts to lead them to the dumpster from the day before, passing by two old ladies, innocently playing what looks to be street curling with small pucks. Julie and Margie keep their eyes on them.
"Girls, what's wrong?" Pearl ask, looking between the two.
The old ladies suddenly hiss with sharp yellow teeth and whack the pucks in their direction.
Pearl gasps and grabs the girls, "DUCK!" She orders, evadeing one.
The three make a mad dash, pucks flying after them. Pearl grabs the girls and hides behind a corner to catch their breath.
"They're everywhere!" Margie gasps.
"Them! The duplicates" Julie said, pointing the a group of them.
They approached, stretching their arms to try and grab them. Pearl gasped and spotted a nearby rake, snatching it up and spinning it like a staff before slicing at the duplicates arms.
"Go." Pearl ordered, still holding them off.
Julie and Margie had no choice and started running.
"Did you see that?" Julie asked, looking at Margie.
"That woman is everything I wanna be." Margie said.
They drew closer to the dumpster, but Edward and the other man were blocking their path. The two duplicates hoisted a car above their heads, throwing it at the girls.
"Julie!" Margie pushed Julie aside and blasted the care to pieces with a spell. "Julie, go!"
Julie nods and keeps towards the dumpster. She slams the gate closed behind her, then activates the watch.
"Give me someone good, please." Julie says, then slams the face plate down.
With a pink flash she transforms into Prowler, he beast like creature from the first night. She roars and takes the dumpster throwing it aside. The then takes the trapdoor in her mouth and tears it away and leaps down into the pit below.
Prowler lands pretty hard at the bottom, a pained yelp escaping her. She has no time to worry about it though and races down a dark tunnel, stopping when she comes to a split path.
Prowler sniffs the air, trying to find some soft of clue as to whoch path she should take. Her gills then sense something approaching behind her, and she jumps aside just as one of the duplicates tries to grab her.
"Clever one." One said, drawing closer. "But, so are we."
More duplicates surrounded Prowler, all reaching for her at once. Prowler roars out at them and clamps down of one's hand, swinging it sideways into several others.
The other duplicates hiss and charge in, but Prowler dodged, letting them all crash into each other. She herself then takes off, needing to find a source of destruction, rather then fighting them as she is.
Prowler begins to sense something big and double times it as the watch starts to flash red. She growls and manages to break through a baracade just before changing back.
"Oh, that hurt." Julie said, standing up and rubbing her head.
She shakes it off and starts walking down the tunnel, eventually coming across a massive spaceship. Julie stares at it with her mouth agap, then notices the green pods all around. She walks closer, seeing the pods are holding the old people in an unconscious state.
"Oh man..." she reaches for one of the pods.
"I wouldn't do that If I were you...!" One of the duplicates says, approaching with the others, along with a restrained Pearl and Margie.
"Are you two okay?" Julie asked, turning to face them.
"I've been better." Pearl said, Margie nodding in agreement.
"Ugh, what are you guys?" Julie asked, trying to by some time until the watch recharged.
The duplicates laughed and reverted to their natural forms, green liquid beings with orange eyes and pink internal organs.
"Oh, gross." Julie said, though at the same time part of her wanted to poke one.
Just then, the watch recharged and Julie quickly transformed into Wildfire, the hot head that accidentally burned up the forest.
"You make me real hot under the collar." Wildfire said, cracking her knuckles. "Now, it's time to pay the price."
Wildfire unleashes a wave of fire on the beings, mindful of Pearl and Margie. Instead of being damaged though, they are unaffected, and instead grow into one big combined being, Margie and Pearl being engulfed by them.
"You just made a terrible mistake, little one." It said, stepping closer. "Us Limaxes live for the heat! Why do you think we came to this arid wastland in the summer?"
"Um... well..." Wildfire looks around frantically, spotting a pipeline above. "Anyone want a drink?"
The Limaxes look at her confused, then also notice the pipeline. Wildfire smirks and throw a fireball, bursting it open and allowing water to rain down.
The Limaxes hiss in pain as they are dissolved to nothing but a big puddles of goop.
"Oh, I need a shower." Margie said, standing from the goop.
"Margie!" Julie ran and tackled her back into the mess, hugging her tightly. "You're okay."
"Ah, Julie." Margie scolds, unable to get up now.
The next morning, Julie and Margie were all packed and ready to leave the retirment community
"Now, Don't be strangers." Pearl said, smiling at the two. "Especially if you got another adventure like that in store."
"And you promise not to tell?" Julie asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
Pearl smiled and zipped her lips, tossing the key. Julie and Margie both smiled, then headed to the car.
