Kyanosa and Sheko strolled, for lack of a better word, through the forest. Absolutely lost but pretending he liked it that way, the former was trying to keep from being bored out of his skull by keeping the other engaged in something that to the casual bystander might vaguely resemble a conversation. "So...yeah. Hm? Oh, right. Three. Anyway. Why are you here?"

In reality, Kyanosa was half-expecting a philisophical debate on whether we were all really anywhere (I say yes), but instead received an omonous, "Because if Havering isn't stopped, my planet will be destroyed." Bum bum bummmm!

"And mine."

Sheko blinked. "Yes. And yours."

"Sweet. I love being in on things. He's British, you know."

"Who?"

"Yep."

"What?"

"And I bet he's tall, too. Evil guys are always tall. Grr."

"Havering?"

"Havering! Hide!" Kyanosa dove into a conveniently placed bush. Sheko watched it rustle, then a white light shone from the bush. Kyanosa jumped back out, brandishing a closed, red-and-white-striped umbrella. "Where is he? I'll take him on right now! Booya!" He opened the umbrella, smacking himself in the forehead, and rolled backwards once before jumping up and facing the other way, sticking out his tongue.

For a good half minute, nothing moved. Maybe a squirrel, so yeah, nothing. The wind rustled through the leave above their heads. Somebody blinked. I forget who. Somewhere, in a faraway land, a young demon hunter with no mouth was getting on a boat, a young man with claws was considering being a lizard, and seven friends were combatting the homicidal intentions of a large white robot with a gun bigger than Skull Dragon's ego, but that has nothing to do with this story.

"Are you through?" Sheko asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Kyanosa spun, swung the open umbrella over his shoulder, and continued walking in the direction he had been for a while now. "So why are you here again?"

"What do you know about these 'metal clunkers' so far?" New as he might have been to Zolott, Sheko by no means stupid. Derailing Kyanosa's train of thought was easier than putting a penny on the tracks.

"As near as I can tell from the book, there are five of them. Or were. This weird dude from before killed one, and I've only met one more. They're not easy guys, but I think we can take one of them together."

Sheko decided not to question the phrase 'one of them together.' "Any other bad guys?"

"I only remember one, but the book kept using terminology from a video game on my planet called StarCraft to describe it, so I figured it was probably a joke C.R. put in for me."

"So your planet is called StarCraft?"

"Okay!" Kyanosa grinned.

"And what do we have in the way of allies?"

"As near as I can tell, there are two catwomen who want each other dead, a demigod in green with no sense of humor who keeps running off, a lady with a tail who tried to gut me, her ice dog friend, a ghost who can't decide between a kite and flowers, some round guy made of metal named The Agent I've never met, and the nice man in the middle of the multiverse who gave me my shoes."

"So...two?"

"Yeah." He grinned again.

Sheko thought for a second. Any longer, and Kyanosa would have started talking about fried chicken. "What are these marbles?"

"They're randomly scattered around the world and each one has a different power in it. I have the umbrella, a sword, a sticky yo-yo with an infinite elastic string that increases my strength a number I can't spell-fold, and the fire thing."

"Fire thing?" The moment the words left his mouth, Sheko wanted them back.

"Not a clue what is does. I didn't want to burn the forest down, but since it doesn't wanna end, I might as well try it out, aye?" In a shimmer of white, the umbrella changed into energy and fled back into Kyanosa's palm. "Here goes Delaware." And with a snap of his fingers, he changed.

His dark grey armor shimmered and became some sort of maroon metal (I'm writing this story, and I say that metal can be maroon. Ha.). The shoulders of it burst into flame and evaporated, leaving the sleeveless armor and a bright red shirt. The shoes stayed black. I don't know why. The most fun, however, was the hair. Instead of the black style that he had used through the trip, it changed to a bright red, parts of it occasionally changing to gold or white depending on how the light hit it. It was also sticking up a more than it had been, but not by much.

Kyanosa looked himself over and nodded. "Nice scheme. I'm a fan. Anyway, let's go." Sheko shrugged and started walking again. Transformations really didn't shock him by now. Heck, he was a werewolf himself.

Fifteen minutes of silence later, they were still walking. Sheko turned to Kyanosa. "That book you have doens't happen to have a map, does it?"

"Nah, that'd make things too easy. It's more fun when you just wander."

"Of course." he shrugged.

That made up their minds, and they kept on walking. They'd met after the sun came up that day. An exit to eternal summer seeking. Where were they going without ever knowing the way? They both had some time, so they started talking. They now had more important things to say. And when their convo died they kept on walking. Where were they going without ever knowing the way? Anyone can see the road that they walked on was paved in gold. It's always summer, they'll never get cold. Never get hungry. They'll never get old and grey. You could see their shadows wandering off somewhere. They won't make it home, but they really don't care. They wander the forest; they're happier there today.

What a screwed-up planet.