#squidmonkey

SquidMonkey shrieks again, hopping up and down in a furious tantrum before throwing himself at me in another Blue Rush, rolling straight for me.

This time, when I brace my legs to block with the Butter Blade, I don't get thrown by the impact of the boss mob. And I'm not so scared now. Because I can read him so clearly, understand what he's planning and how he will attack, and I know all the ways to counter and fight back. For this bit of time, I'm not AvecPardon, terrified out of my mind; I'm not BluePardon, operating in BlueMonkey's shadow to dodge and survive. On this new level of my talent...

"I AM BlueMonkey!" I roar out in that same British voice and accent, "Now back off and lemme show ya how real boss animation looks!" I shove the sword forward, forcing SquidMonkey backwards and popping him out of the Blue Rush. He lands on his feet, angrily chattering at me.

Yeah? Well, two can play that game, bugger. Accessing BlueMonkey's pattern to guide me, I dive forward into my own charged roll attack, the very same Blue Rush. The world is a dizzying blur of color and motion until I hit something very hard. A screech of pain hurts my ears, and I can distantly hear my commentators arguing or panicking over the noise.

Snapping back to my feet, I look around quickly to reorient myself and spot SquidMonkey making a run for the trees. The Damage Indicator updates, showing me his current health as the damage number drops and disappears. So the Blue Rush did 18 hearts of damage; that should have finished SquidMonkey, but he's somehow healed enough to cling to 3 hearts. This should be the last attack. I give chase to try beating him to the trees. If he reaches them, he'll do his own Blue Banana Blade Drop on me and I won't survive that kind of blow.

"Avec! Hey! Hey!! How did you do that?!" Squidie cries in shock from his bucket still tied to me, "You look like BlueMonkey! You sound like him too! How'd you do that?!"

---

"Did he change skins?!"

"A fucking skin change doesn't change their voice! Or their entire fighting style!"

"Shit, dude, dude, it's like he became BlueMonkey! Like he's really BlueMonkey! What the fuck was in that mod?!"

---

I whip my new tail around to grab the Butter Blade from my hand so I can flick over to my bow. SquidMonkey has beaten me to the trees, so the best I can do is distance attacks. I draw back on the string, letting an arrow code into place as I use the Damage Indicator to try and track him in the foliage.

I've only got one shot at this, and I don't want to miss by freaking out over the fact that I have a prehensile tail or that my arms are thicker and covered in blue fur and completely not mine....

---

"I don't... it wasn't... Seto said he would be able to find enemy weaknesses... by mimicking them.... This isn't...."

"What was in that mod?!"

---

The Damage Indicator pops up in time to let me see SquidMonkey make his leap. He clears the treetops, banana brought forward in the stance for the Blade Drop, and shrieks in unholy rage, red eyes gleaming bright.

Squidie utters a little cry of alarm as I quickly raise my bow and fire the arrow. SquidMonkey grunts in pain and the arrow only does a single point of damage, but it also throws him out of that stance. That's what I was really after.

His attack stance interrupted, SquidMonkey leaves himself open for a follow-up counterattack. I can see with BlueMonkey's eyes and thoughts where to strike, where a single blow can destroy a weakened model.

I leap up in a spin, lashing out with my tail still gripping the Butter Blade, and bring it down on that very spot, the core of SquidMonkey's body. He lets out another shriek, outrage and pain and shock all rolled up in the sound, and then he bursts apart in a cloud of pixels and code. As I drop back to the ground and take the sword in hand again, a click goes off not too far away. Right near the glass prison, actually.

...Nngh.

The world gets hazy and I find myself dropping to one knee, holding myself up with the Butter Blade stuck in the dirt. The smooth gold feels cool against my forehead, and I don't feel as dizzy and disoriented. Wha-what's wrong with me? My reflection in the gold isn't mine, and seeing BlueMonkey's face staring back at me is getting to be terrifying. How did this happen? How do I go back to being me?

-----

Install Mimic Recall. Run Recall. AvecPardon File Damage: 15%.

-----

As if understanding my dilemma, my knowledge of mimicking is updated with the instructions to reverse the transformation. I follow them, releasing the mimic of BlueMonkey and lifting a hand to see it become my own again. Whatever this is, it's enhanced... no, it's modded me so that I very literally become who I'm mimicking. Unfortunately, it seems to come with a pretty nasty energy drain.

"Avec?" Squidie's voice is quiet, small. Oh. I very nearly forgot about the little guy. Wonder how he managed to keep himself and the water in place during the Blue Rush?

I look down at him; he looks up at me with an uncertain expression. "You turned into BlueMonkey," he says in a strange tone. I nod. In a manner of speaking, that's true. "You took out SquidMonkey." Yes. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but I managed to kill that boss mob. I nod again. "Are you going to let the other BlueMonkey out?"

"Um, yes? I was asked to rescue the members of the Sky Army High Council. BlueMonkey, the real BlueMonkey, is one of them," I reply. Why is he asking such odd questions? He knows I'm not a Squidling, not one of his side's soldiers.

He sinks back down into the bucket, blowing little bubbles as he uncurls his tentacles from the lip of the bucket. Strange. This isn't normal for Squidie. I'll see what's wrong after I open the prison for BlueMonkey.

I'm still a little dizzy from whatever that Mimic Mode thing did to me, but I manage to make my way over and see that part of the glass chamber was somehow removed. The screen with the duplicate code seems to be gone too. I hurry over and crouch down by BlueMonkey as he stirs and gets up slowly. He blinks sleepily at me, scrunches up his face, then yawns.

"Hello, BlueMonkey," I greet him cautiously, "what do you need?" ....Oh? The strangest sense of deja vu passes over me. Like... I've said those words before. Who did I say them to?

-----

Isn't that-?

Shut up.

But he-!

I don't want to hear it!

------

"A stiff drink, but I'll settle for a banana." BlueMonkey grumbles as my attention wanders from the hushed, harsh whispering of my commentators back to him. I'm just a little bit lost. A banana? Where am I going to find-? ...Oh, I can't believe how stupid I am at times.

"I'll see what I can do." I tell BlueMonkey and hurry back to where I had defeated SquidMonkey. The clone had a banana for a weapon, so maybe it was dropped and left behind?

I don't have to search very long. The bright yellow of the banana stands out against the dark green of the grass. As I grab it, my knuckles brush against something small and metallic. Huh. What's this? I pick the item up and turn it in my hand.

It looks like a key of some kind, and not like a button or lever assigned the designation of 'key'. This is a genuine key. A modded mob drop, perhaps?

I place it in my inventory where BlueMonkey's book used to be and go back to the prison. In the time I was away, he's already gotten to his feet and is now looking over his own code on the screen.

"I feel like a right shitty mess, but my code's still fine. No sign of infection, thank Notch for small wonders," he tells me, whisking the banana out of my hand with his tail and placing it in his own.

"Hey, is he-?" Tired Voice trails off warily, like he doesn't trust BlueMonkey.

"He's clean. Of the Squid Virus at least. You?" Dry Voice replies shortly, as if focused on something else.

"I can't see the Virus, but he's not showing symptoms," Tired Voice mutters, "It's not reacting... should be fine...." He sounds faint as his voice fades and Dry Voice mutters a sharp curse under his breath while I wince. He must be pretty bad off if he can't keep up a rant and Dry Voice seems to be really worried. Wonder what they were talking about?

"So, thanks for the resue, but who're you?" BlueMonkey asks, closing his screen and looking down at me with a puzzled look.

"AvecPardon Illuminaris." I reply. He blinks.

"Never heard of ya."

I sigh, my shoulders slumping. I shouldn't feel bad that I'm unknown to a Council member, but it still hurts to hear my work doesn't precede me even a little. Oh well. I'll live.

"That's 'cuz you're stupid!" Squidie suddenly pipes up, peeking over the lip of the bucket to glare at BlueMonkey. "StupidMonkey! That's you! Yeah! Whatcha gonna do 'bout it?!"

Cripes, what is with this little squid?!

BlueMonkey points at the bucket while I'm still staring in shock at it. "You have a lil somethin' there, on your leg," he comments wryly.

"This is Squidie. He's a, ah," I hesitate, not sure if calling a squid a friend won't have BlueMonkey attacking me next. "He's helping me get through this place."

"No I'm not! I'm showing off the Squid Army's awesome new soldiers and stuff." Squidie counters indignantly, then pipes out, "I'm a squiiiiid~!" before ducking back down.

"A few minutes ago, you were just as freaked out by SquidMonkey as I was!" I point out to him. Dear Notch, why am I surrounded by insanity?

"Okay...." BlueMonkey stretches the word out, looking at me askance, "Well, mate, can't say it's every day a Squidling lets his enemy go...."

"I'm not a Squidling," I correct him with a frown. "I'm an agent of the Sky Army." BlueMonkey just laughs incredulously as Squidie blows more bubbles from within the bucket. They sound annoyed.

"You? A Recruit? You hang out with a squid and can hear 'em when the only Sky Army Avatars that can hear squids are Husky, Deadlox, and Sky." BlueMonkey gestures in my direction with a rueful grin, "Mate, you got Awakened wrong or something."

"Can you get in touch with SkythekidRS?" I ask in return, wanting off this subject and on to something more relevant. "Let him know your coordinates so he can TP here with some extra Recruits and save the rest of you."

"Eh? Yeah, good point." BlueMonkey swipes open a window and starts typing in the command screen. He frowns after a moment. "This can't be right. It's saying an Avatar with that name can't be found," he remarks, a concerned expression on his face.