A distress signal brings you back to the Super Skunk Planet, where the Zookeeper has escaped. With Changer and three superpowered skunks, you set out to rescue Spaceship and free a dinosaur army.
Imagine yourself waking up on Spaceship.
“Alert! Distress signal detected,” Spaceship announces, which isn't the best way to wake up.
You sit up in your bed. Changer, your shapeshifting dog, opens one eye beside you.
“Where's it coming from?” you ask.
“It seems to be coming from the Super Skunk Planet.”
“Oh, man. Hopefully nobody surprised Shockwave again.”
You remember Shockwave, the lightning skunk who accidentally blasted Changer across a field. You also remember Jeff, the all-powerful elemental skunk who helped you capture the zookeeper.
“Setting course,” Spaceship says.
Immediately, you jump to super hyperdrive, and the stars stretch into little streaks outside the window.
Before long, the ship drops out of, well, super hyperdrive, and you find yourself above a familiar green planet. You take the controls and steer down through the clouds, landing in a clearing just outside the village. It looks peaceful enough. Little wooden houses, gardens, a little stream running beside the path. Only, nobody comes to greet you, and the village gates are left hanging open.
“Strange,” you say. “They were a lot louder last time.”
The back hatch opens up and you look towards Changer.
“You coming, buddy?”
He stretches on the couch, apparently considering it, and then, well, he puts his head back down, making the decision to stay in the ship.
You press the little button on your watch, and metal plates fold around your arm, your shoulders, your body, and down your legs until you're covered in your high-tech spacesuit.
You step outside.
“Hello?” you call.
Shockwave, the, well, electric skunk you met before, appears between two houses, followed by several other skunks. At first, you're happy to see him.
“Oh, hey, we got your distress signal. What's going on?” you ask.
But instead of answering, all of the skunks turn around and lift their tails.
“Uh, guys?”
A lightning bolt shoots straight at you. Luckily, your shield automatically activates. The lightning crashes against it, pushing you backwards. Fire follows. Then, a stream of water that freezes across your boots. You activate your thrusters, breaking free and shooting upwards.
“What are you guys doing?” you ask.
Shockwave looks up. His eyes glow red, and sticking out of his neck is a little metal dart.
“Oh, that's not good.”
You dive past him, reach out, and pull the dart free. His eyes close. When they open again, the red glow is gone.
“Whoa,” he says. “That was, like, unpleasant.”
“No kidding. Help me get those things out of the others. They're controlling them.”
A huge vine suddenly wraps around your ankle. You look down to see Jeff standing beside the village gates, eyes glowing red as well.
“Oh, come on. Not Jeff. Jeff?”
You fly towards him instead of pulling away. You duck beneath a blast of ice and skid across the ground. Before he can turn, you grab the dart and pull it out from behind his ear. The vine releases. Jeff shakes his head.
“I believe someone has made a very poor decision,” he announces.
Behind you, you hear the hum of Spaceship, almost as if it's starting up to take off. You turn towards it, and standing in the open hatch is the zookeeper.
“Well, thank you for bringing me such a wonderful vehicle,” he calls.
“Spaceship, don't let him—”
“I have no intention of going anywhere with this individual,” Spaceship says. “Please leave before I remove you.”
The zookeeper points a strange ray gun towards the front panel of the ship and fires. Purple light flickers across the entire thing.
“Oh,” Spaceship says. “Actually, you seem very nice. Where would you like to go?”
“The dinosaur planet. At last I can finish my master plan. An army of dinosaurs and a ship that can, well, become the perfect vessel to collect them. I will have a zoo once again.”
“Wonderful,” Spaceship responds. “Would you like cages?”
“Yes.”
“I do make excellent cages.”
“Spaceship!” you shout.
“Sorry, Spaceship. Busy helping my new best friend.”
The hatch closes. Spaceship shoots into the sky and disappears through the clouds. You stare after him.
“Changer?” you call, but there's no answer. He was still on the ship.
Another blast of fire passes by your shoulder. And that's when you realize that there's clearly still skunks who need your help.
“Jeff, any chance I can scan your DNA? I need something to fight back with and your elemental powers might come in handy.”
“Eh, alright.”
You point your watch toward him and press scan.
“DNA acquired,” the watch announces.
You save the scan, then raise your shield as another lightning bolt strikes it.
Before you can transform, Jeff sends vines curling around the remaining skunks, gently holding their tails pointed away while you and Shockwave move over and begin pulling out the darts.
It doesn't take long before the whole village is free.
“What happened?” you ask.
“Uh, well, we kept him in prison made of stone, ice, and living vines,” Shockwave explains. “But unfortunately, he apparently hid some little components in his clothing.”
“Yeah, he built that dart thing,” Jeff adds. “Got the guards first and then he had us fetching pieces from the crashed ship, kept building gadgets and blubbering on about revenge while we did everything he wanted.”
“Well, now he's stolen Spaceship. We need to get to the dinosaur planet. Any chance I left a portal around here?” you ask.
“Nah, I don't think so,” Jeff says.
“Oh man, that would have been super convenient. Any chance there's like skunks with the power to create portals across the entire universe or something like that?” you ask, in the off chance that that's the case.
All of the skunks suddenly turn their gaze towards a small little skunk.
“Meh. I could open a portal,” she offers.
You look at her.
“You can actually do that?”
“Yeah, name's Patricia.”
“Nice to meet you, Patricia. Can you make a portal to a planet you've never visited?”
“If you picture it clearly and hold my paw, I should be able to.”
You kneel down and take the paw of the little creature. You imagine the dinosaur base. The ranch, the sleeping pods, the big protective wall.
Patricia lifts her tail. Shimmering purple mist pours out into the clearing and swirls into a glowing circle. Suddenly… the dinosaur base shimmers into view.
“This is an extremely useful skunk power,” you say. “Shockingly convenient. Anyone want to come with?”
Jeff, Shockwave, and Patricia all shrug their shoulders. Then, the four of you jump through the portal.
On the other side, you crouch down just outside the dinosaur base.
“Alright, we need to find him. Why don't you guys climb on or something?”
The three skunks scramble onto your armored back, holding your shoulders and each other. You activate your thrusters and blast into the sky.
Over the forest… A familiar ship descends, only it starts glowing yellow. Its wings disappear, huge wheels unfold, and its body stretches into an enormous, well, jeep-like safari vehicle with an open platform on top and a gigantic trailer full of cages behind.
The zookeeper stands on the roof holding his dart rifle.
“There,” he announces, “my first recruits.”
He fires into a herd of dinosaurs below. A triceratops jerks its head upward, its eyes turn red, and it begins following the vehicle. Soon, raptors join in, each one hit by one of his darts. Then, well, unfortunately, the zookeeper hits a pair of enormous T-Rexes.
“Oh no, we need to stop him before he gets more.”
You drop down towards the safari vehicle. Jeff leaps from your back, riding a blast of fire that's coming out of his rear end, while Shockwave follows on a crackling burst of electricity. Patricia, on the other hand, produces another portal anomaly and jumps through, landing just to the side of the zookeeper's vehicle.
All three of them attack at once. Jeff sends water splashing around the raptor's feet, freezing it into little restraints. Shockwave races between them, pulling darts free at almost lightning speed. The zookeeper fires at Patricia. She opens a portal in front of the dart, and it pops out high above the trees.
“You missed,” she calls.
“Spaceship, stop them!”
“Certainly, although they do look quite determined,” Spaceship responds.
The vehicle accelerates. You fly directly toward the roof, but the zookeeper points at you.
“Get him!”
To your dismay, both T-Rexes turn. One snaps at your boots. You shoot upward just before the second one's jaws close beside you.
You could keep flying, but then they'd just attack your friends. Instead, you remember something.
You look down at your watch. Jeff's DNA. And a T-Rex. You suddenly have an idea. A wonderful idea. You aim the scanner at the nearest dinosaur.
“DNA acquired.”
You fly high enough that none of them can really bother you, and you open up the transmorphophizer menu, switching over to the mix and match section. You select the T-Rex, and then you drag Jeff's elemental skunk DNA directly onto it.
The preview appears. A gigantic black and white T-Rex-like dinosaur with a skunk-like tail.
“Yep, that should do it.”
You land, press transform, and suddenly your whole body feels wobbly. Your legs grow thick and powerful, your boots stretch into huge clawed feet, your neck extends, your head becomes, well, enormous, and a heavy tail grows out behind you.
Black fur spreads across your scales, with a broad white stripe running down your back.
You feel the ground through your feet, every vibration from the other dinosaurs traveling up your legs. You can sense water in the nearby river, heat from the sunlight, and even the solid rock beneath the soils. It's a very strange collection of things to suddenly be aware of.
You glance at your tiny little arms.
“Alright, we could probably do with better arms, but oh well.”
The first T-Rex charges at you. You plant your feet and meet its shoulder first. The impact shakes the ground, but you hold your balance. You push it backward, swing your enormous striped tail, and sweep its feet out from beneath it. It lands in the grass with a tremendous thump.
The second dinosaur lunges. You open your mouth, reaching for the new firepower. And nothing, nothing happens.
Then a strange warmth builds somewhere much further back.
“Oh, right, skunk,” you realize.
You turn around, lift your tail, and unleash a blast of water beneath the charging dinosaur. You reach for the cold sensation, and the water freezes around its feet. The T-Rex stops so suddenly that its jaw snaps shut on empty air.
“Sorry, buddy. Just hold still.”
You lean forward, carefully catch the dart between your teeth, and pull it free. Its red eyes fade.
The first dinosaur is getting up. You stomp one gigantic foot, willing vines to grow from the ground. They curl around its legs, holding it long enough for you to remove its dart as well.
Both dinosaurs blink at you.
“Yeah, I know, I look weird.”
You melt the ice, release the vines, and turn towards the safari vehicle.
With your powerful new legs, you run after it, unleashing a blast of fire from underneath your tail that pushes you straight off the ground and allows you to leap forward onto the roof.
The whole vehicle rocks sideways as you land on the thing.
“Please be careful of the paintwork,” Spaceship says.
You quickly press your watch using your nose on your tiny little wrist, and soon you start to shrink. Your head pulls back, your arms stretch into human arms, and your spacesuit settles around you once again.
The zookeeper turns, pointing the purple ray gun directly at your chest.
“Not another step.”
You stop.
Behind him, beside a little roof hatch, a tiny mouse peeks out. A mouse you'd recognize anywhere. Changer.
He must have hidden when the zookeeper boarded. For a second, you want to run over and scoop him up, but the ray gun is still pointed directly at you.
Changer twitches his whiskers, watching carefully.
You give him the smallest little wink, doing your best to communicate a plan. One that two people, or one person and an alien shapeshifting dog, who know each other super well, just kind of understand immediately.
“Well,” you say, keeping your eyes on the zookeeper, “I have to admit, this is a pretty impressive plan.”
“Of course it is.”
“Taking Spaceship, building a dinosaur army. You must have spent ages thinking it up.”
“Well, I did. I had a lot of time to think in that skunk prison. That smelly, disgusting skunk prison. It's nice to finally hear some appreciation.”
Behind him, the mouse grows a little bigger.
“Although,” you continue, “how exactly were you planning to feed all of these dinosaurs?”
“Well, with the ship, obviously. It has replicators. I think you know that.”
Behind him, Changer rises into a gigantic bear. Only instead of normal front legs, he has a whole bunch of long squid tentacles.
The zookeeper notices your expression.
“What? What are you looking at?”
“Your, uh, your other problem.”
A tentacle wraps around his center. Another catches his wrist, and a third plucks the ray gun straight out of his hand.
“Hey!”
Changer lifts him off the roof and bundles him into a very firm tentacle hug.
You take the gun off of the ground. There's a small switch beside the trigger marked reverse.
“Now that's helpful.”
You flip the switch, aim it at the control panel, and fire.
Purple light flashes across the vehicle. Spaceship swerves, stops, and goes quiet. Then…
“Why am I a safari bus?” Spaceship asks.
“You were helping the zookeeper collect dinosaurs.”
“I was doing what?”
“You offered him cages.”
A pause.
“Please, let's never mention this again.”
You laugh, relieved to hear your friend sounding like himself again.
“Can you, uh, help us fix the whole problem?”
“Gladly.”
Little robots fly from the trailer, collecting darts from the remaining dinosaurs.
Jeff melts his ice restraints. Shockwave guides the freed creatures away, at least the ones he didn't shock into, you know, unconsciousness. And Patricia opens a portal for a raptor that, well, accidentally got stuck inside the trailer.
Soon, all of the dinosaurs are free.
Spaceship begins to glow around you and transforms once again into his familiar spaceship shape. He lands on the ground, opens up the back hatch, and you and Changer walk out. Changer still carrying the zookeeper, of course.
“Ah, alright. We'll take this guy back with us. But this time we're gonna make our prison even more secure. And even less comfortable. We have some payback for all of the, uh, you know, mind control stuff.”
“Totally fine,” Shockwave says. “And this time we should like check his pockets for gadgets on the daily.”
Patricia opens a portal back to their village.
Jeff shoots vines out of the ground. They wrap around the zookeeper, allowing Changer to let go. Then the vines shoot the man through the little portal. Jeff, Shockwave, and Patricia follow. They turn around and wave before the portal disappears once again.
Changer transforms from the creepy octopus bear creature back into a normal earth puppy once again.
He runs up and barks.
“Ready for bed?” you ask.
He presses up against your leg.
You deactivate your watch. The spacesuit folds back into it and you climb up on the ship once again.
You lay down on the couch. Changer jumps up and curls up on your lap.
You lean backward, rest your head on the pillow, and close your eyes.
Spaceship lifts up off of the ground and blasts out into space as you just listen to your breath, noticing your stomach rise and fall with each one.
And with each breath, you let go of a little more tension from your muscles.
You let go of any tension in your arms. You let go of any tension in your legs. You allow your shoulders to drop away from your ears. You allow your face to just sort of soften into a nice half-smile.
And slowly, you allow your mind to wander off to thoughts of new dreams and new adventures to come.
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