#cj smithson

“Well, uhm… I mean, we can practice other things! Long range attacks won’t work all the time! Like, you never see a character in a book or a movie who only uses long range attacks, right?”

“Snipers,” Brian interjected.

“None of us are snipers, Brian.”

“Alana has a good point! Heroes have to be well-balanced, be able to handle a lot of different kinds of enemies!” CJ grinned.

“Exactly! So, we can work on our short-range tactics here. Smaller attacks, hand to hand combat, stuff like that.”

“That’s a reasonable plan--we should work on that. Not like we’re all blackbelts in karate.” Ken shrugged.

“You’re a blackbelt in karate?” Taylor asked, eyes wide.

Ken shook his head. “I am not. Which is my point. Ah, I also believe we should maybe work on our team coordination--”

“Okay! Random attack from a monster, what do you do?!” Alana suddenly exclaimed.

“What are you even--hey!” CJ shouted as his foot was snagged from under him. He quickly found himself hanging upside-down in the air. Everyone else giggled at his misfortune before they were grabbed too. Alana was the only one not hanging… because it was her vines that had snagged them.

“No fair! What happened to our warning?!” Brian shouted, trying to wriggle his way out of her clutches.

“Monsters won’t give you a warning! They just do what they can to kill and survive! If we’re going to be getting in the way of their survival, they might use us as their next meal!”

“She has a point,” Ken said, letting his arms hang down even as his shirt fell over his face.

“So, now, uh, pretend that my vines are a giant octopus monster or something! Try to escape!”

“I’m having a hard time imagining the monster? It’s just you and some vines right now, where are we aiming, where’s its body at?” Maddi asked. Alana smirked, her eyes glowing green suddenly, and for a brief moment Maddi wished she hadn’t fucking asked.

“You want a monster? You’ll get one!”

“Okay, hang on a second, ‘Lana--” one of the pumpkins in the garden began to swell, quickly growing as big as a person and then even bigger. It towered over the group of teens, casting a shadow over part of the house.

Then it grew a face, and its vines ripped out of the ground and writhed about, ready to grab at them. The trees around them jerked wildly a moment as the beast moved. The rest of Alana’s team fell from her clutches as she stepped back, shaking.

“Frick.” she muttered.

“Change of heart, or is there an issue?” Ken asked, dusting himself off as he returned to his feet. “I felt that surge of energy.”

Alana shook her head, instinctively drawing near Maddi.”I-I-I, uhm, I didn’t intend for--for that…” she murmured. The pumpkin opened its Jack-O-Lantern like mouth and roared, eyes glowing like fire. Inside its mouth, strands of pumpkin brains stretched across its maw, collecting into a large mass of orange gunk.

“Well, I’ve been eaten enough times this year. I’m not letting it happen again.”

“Any helpful hints about pumpkins?” Taylor shifted into a fighting stance, sending Alana a glance.

“W-well, the top layer’s tough to prevent insects and diseases from getting in, so--so it's probably really really tough now.” Alana racked her brain, not even noticing the pumpkin beginning to advance. “And they have hundreds of seeds--oh, god, how big are those now? And--”

“Look out!” Ken seemed to practically fly at her, pinning her to the ground. An instant later, the pumpkin spat out hundreds upon hundreds of seeds like a homegrown machine gun. They just passed over their heads, and it started aiming for the others instead.

“How do we stop it?!” Brian asked frantically, ducking as the pumpkin’s fury was directed his way.

“Maybe we can smash it?” Taylor asked.

“Leave it to me!” CJ exclaimed. He held his hands out before him, the pumpkin beginning to glow blue and float into the air as he used his powers. But suddenly, the tendrils extended and grabbed him, swinging him around before throwing him into the side of the house. He didn’t smash through the walls, fortunately, but he didn’t get back up either.

“CJ?!” Maddi shouted, eyes wide.

“Holy shit!!” Taylor gaped.

“No, no, no, no, this is all my fault!!” Alana wailed.

“S-Stay calm!! It m-might smell fear…” Brian said. The pumpkin roared again, directing its attention to Maddi. “Looks like it does,”

“So clearly smashing is not the route to take. What’s our next option?” Ken helped Alana up to her feet, sending the pumpkin a glare as he tried to come up with an attack plan.

Alana squeezed his hand tight and bit her lip, pausing a moment as she felt just how cold Ken’s hand was. “Uh, uh--hard frosts! They go bad and mushy if we get a bad frost!” she held up Ken’s hand and shook it around as if to prove her point before dropping it. “O-or, if we can reach its stem--”

“Okay, frost it over, cut the stem. I can--gaah--!” Ken leaped into the air to avoid a tendril about to ram him in the side. Instead, he was grabbed around the neck by another tendril and lifted into the air, to Alana’s ever-growing horror. He tried to kick his way free, but to no avail--especially as it began constricting. His swords were in its scabbards, but his scabbards were in Alana’s sister’s bedroom, out of his reach. He couldn’t cast the spell to summon them--he could barely get any air into his lungs. He couldn’t think of another plan--black dots were already dancing along his vision, his head was spinning, he felt like his chest would explode if this kept up any longer.

Suddenly, whatever wind was left in his lungs was knocked out of him as he fell to the ground. Part of the tendril was still around his neck, but it was limp and easy to tear off even with shaking hands. Ken laid thee a moment, gasping for air as the clear blue sky burned away at the black dots.

Brian had found some garden tools, which were fortunately sharp enough to slice through the vines, while Maddi distracted the pumpkin with jets of flame. But the Jack-O-Lantern wasn’t so easily occupied--even as it shot another round of seeds at Maddi, more tendrils grew back and reached for Brian and Taylor.

“Hey! I can’t keep doing this forever!” Brian shouted, still slicing through the tendrils one by one.

Ken summoned his swords and got to his feet, sneaking his way to the backside of the pumpkin while Maddi dodged its bullets and set the grass before it on fire. As it focused its attention on Maddi and Alana, it didn’t even notice Ken until he had sliced through its main stem and pierced his sword through its back. It roared and tried to turn and face him with a hail of seeds, but Ken placed his hand on its back. Immediately, ice began to crawl around its bumpy orange skin, slowing it down. Thin at first, the layer of frost quickly thickened, until the gourd was suspended in a giant ice cube.

“Okay, that was rad.” Brian said.

“CJ!” Maddi gasped, turning around and running over to where CJ was still slumped over against the house. Everyone hurried over as Alana knelt down and put a hand to his wrist. She looked up at them with a horrified expression.

“I can’t feel anything!” she said.

“What?! Move!” Maddi took the wrist and held it a moment, before moving to put two fingers to CJ’s neck. She let out a breath. “Oh thank fucking god here it is.”

“Oh my god, Alana, you’re a healer who can’t take a fucking pulse?!” Taylor pouted.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t think I’d be having to tell if my friend was dead or not when we went over it in gym class in the fifth grade!” Alana whined.

“We can work on that later, guys, what matters is CJ is alive! And unconscious in an ant bed,” Brian huffed as he scuffed his shoes in the grass. “We need to move him.”

Ken snapped his fingers, and a cool gust of wind set out the flames in the grass. “We need to get rid of this monster and clean up before Alana’s father gets back.”

“And how do we do that?” Taylor asked.

“...we will need a lot of rope.”

“I have some at my place! Be right back!” Brian exclaimed, running back into the house and out onto the street.

“So, what are you wanting to do with it then? Drop it into the Pacific Ocean?” Alana asked with a short laugh.

Location: Somewhere Above the Pacific Ocean

Time: Friday, October 18th, 4:30 PM

“I didn’t expect you to take me seriously!” Alana exclaimed.

Ken let out a chuckle, even as he fumbled with the ropes and bungee cords. “I’m aware. This was actually my intention the entire time,” he let out a groan as the weight of the ice got to the best of him, and he struggled to keep it upright. Who knew a giant pumpkin in a giant ice cube could be so heavy? It was hard to stay flying with this ting weighing him down, especially when holding it by some ropes and bungee cords alone. If he lost his grip, it might fall onto something. And that would be disastrous.

“Need some help?” CJ offered, speeding up a bit to float alongside the 8th grader. When his friend let out a strained nod, he took a few of the ropes in his own hands and suddenly understood why he was struggling so much. But at least, together, each of their loads were just a little bit lighter. Even if it was a bit difficult--Ken was flying so fast. Alana shifted from a sparrow to an eagle and still struggled to keep up.

“So, Alana, what have we learned today?”

“Not to make giant monsters for training sessions?” she said sheepishly.

“How about ‘don’t make giant monsters,’ period! That was almost your Frankenstein!” CJ exclaimed.

“Actually, Frankenstein is the name of the scientist. The monster is never named, he’s just ‘Frankenstein’s Monster.’ Unless we’re considering Doctor Frankenstein to be the true monster of the tale, and the monster a victim.” Ken said. His two companions sent him a look. “Th-that’s besides the point! CJ’s point still stands, you can’t just put yourself in danger like that, little fledgeling.”

“I’ve noticed. Where are we going to drop this thing off at?” Alana asked.

“I’m hoping to get it far enough from the shore that the waves won’t just push it back. We also need to make sure no one sees us, either.”

“So just a bit farther--I can’t imagine any fishing boats going out much further than this.” CJ said. “Granted, I don’t know too much about fishing boats, but--well, y’know. It’s getting late.”

“It’s literally not. It’s not even five yet, I don’t think.” Alana said.

“Either way, I’m hoping to set it down soon. I don’t know how much longer we can carry this.” Ken said.

“Well, at that note, we just passed the last few boats that are around down here.” Alana said.

“Great. Let’s drop down a bit,” Ken and CJ let the weight of the ice lower them down until they hovered just above the water, Alana flying circles around them. “Help me untie the ropes please?”

Alana landed on top of the ice cube and began untying as Ken and CJ held the ice steady. Within a few minutes, she held a tangle of ropes and bungee cords, standing atop a precariously-rocking iceberg. CJ took the ropes, and Alana shifted back into a bird. The three watched as the pumpkin-berg bobbed around on the waves, not sinking any further.

“You do realize that at least a little bit of that is going to stay sticking out of the water, right?” Alana said.

“What?” Ken blinked, turning to look at her.

“Yeah. when you see an iceberg, some of it is always above the water.”

“Right…”

“Well, this one has a giant pumpkin inside. Maybe it’ll sink all the way?” CJ suggested.

“Hopefully? I’m too tired to care. Let’s head home so I can show you guys around the house.” Alana sighed.

“Sweet!”

Ken smiled a bit. “Yeah, let’s head back to Kihiro.”

“Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Alana laughed, shooting off into the sky with a flurry of wing beats. Ken grinned and flew after her. For a second, CJ could have sworn he saw black wings, but when he blinked and rubbed his eyes he just saw the black jet trails Ken always left when he flew. With a shrug, he rushed to catch up, using his powers yet again to stay afloat.

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