A boy was perched on the lower branch of a tree, his wild hair was cut short, almost as if he had chopped it off himself. He wore nothing save a very small loin cloth.
He quickly glanced back behind himself, then dodged between them, and disappeared into the brush without a sound. They barely had a chance to react before a large metal robot jumped out of the bushes near where the boy had first appeared. It spied them, and its eyes went red.
"Oh shit!"
Dustin ducked and felt the air as it jumped at him, barely missing him as it flew over his head. Olivia kicked it in the back as it landed, sending it crashing into the trunk of another tree. Because it was already trying to turn around when she kicked it, it didn't land pretty.
Dustin had gotten himself righted by this point, and jumped onto it, putting as much force into his landing as possible. Jamming his knee into its chin, and grinding his weight into it.
Olivia grabbed up a rock that was on the ground, and started pounding the back of its head in.
The was a bright flash, and they both paused before jumping back away from it. Flailing about, it was obvious they damaged something important. After a moment, it went still, and Dustin jumped in.
'PED, Initiate finger tools.'
(INITIATING EVOLUTION. IT SEEMS YOUR NOSE HAS RELOCATED TO YOUR BUTT?)
Dustin paused. He had forgotten that the PED wasn't working right at the moment, but it never occurred to him that this might happen. The urge to fart became overpowering and his eyes watered from the force to hold it in. God Damn IT!!!
(INITIATING EVOLUTION, YOUR NOSE HAS RELOCATED TO YOUR FACE. TOOL FINGERS EVOLUTION IS COMPLETE.)
Shaking his head in annoyance, he let the fart out with a sigh. Olivia choked back a laugh and walked a few feet from him. He wasn't sure she knew what had happened, but he would be damned if he was going to tell her.
Taking the head apart, he almost lost himself in studying the intricate pieces, but he knew there could be more, so he started breaking it up into smaller pieces. After fifteen minutes, they were back on their way, and he had both the head and the torso in his bag with the arm from earlier. He had opted to leave the arms and legs behind, because they were just dead weight. The bit he was hauling now, were heavy enough.
As they made their way, Dustin glanced at his fingers. Should he try and change them back? With a sigh, he decided he better go ahead.
(INITIATING EVOLUTION.)
(YOUR NOSE IS NOW IN YOUR RIGHT ARMPIT, SHOULD I ATTEMPT TO INITIATE ANOTHER EVOLUTION?)
Dustin paused, holding his breath. Never in all his days did he think he could smell this bad. His eyes started watering again, and he started breathing through his mouth. How the hell did that even work? His nose was no where near his damn hands!
(INITIATING EVOLUTION.)
(EVOLUTION COMPLETE, HOWEVER YOUR HAIR NOW HAS TURQUOISE STREAKS.)
His nose was back in its place and he could care less about the color of his hair.
"Something wrong?" asked Olivia, glancing at him. "Wow, that's actually not a bad look for you."
"God, I need a bath. The next stream we come across, we're stopping for a bit."
Raising her eyebrows, she shrugged and turned back forward. An hour later, they both stood on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a small valley. Two streams fell over a series of gentle waterfalls into a large pool at the base of their cliff. Rocks jutted up out of the tranquil water below them.
"This is the place! I'm getting a bath!"
Olivia followed him as they made their way down the steep incline.
Splash!
They both paused at the bottom of the cliff, hiding in some bushes and small trees that grew there. Looking through the leaves, they could see a figure swimming in the water already.
It was the boy from before. He was happily swimming, and as they watched, he dived below the surface, then emerged with a large fish in his hands. They watched him struggle to the edge, where he proceeded to bash it against one of the rocks.
"I'm going to beat that little punk for leading that thing to us!" growled Olivia, but Dustin grabbed her arm.
"You know we both would have done the same thing if it was chasing after one of us."
"You going to adopt the brat? You've been wanting kids all this time. I bet there's probably more where he came from."
"What's with the attitude?" he asked, looking at her puzzled.
Taking a breath, she ducked her head, then looked up and shook her head. "Maybe I'm just hungry, I don't know."
"Well, I was thinking this kid seems to know the area, maybe he knows where the entrance to the military base is."
"That's a good idea. I'm going to see if there's any more fish in that water to fix to eat."
"Hey!" shouted Dustin just loud enough for the kid to hear. He turned in their direction and then grabbed his fish and started trying to get out of the water to run.
"Wait! I'm not mad at you or trying to hurt you!" he cried as the kid started to run away.
He slipped on the wet rocks and fell into a section of the water that was rushing a little faster than the pools. He threw his arms out, losing the fish to the water, and clawed at the rocks around him. Dustin ran towards him, and jumped to catch his hand.
The water snatched him away, hurtling him further down the stream. A garbled scream came just before he rounded a bend. Dustin didn't pause in horror, just threw his bag down on the rocks and took after him. He dived into the water, surprised at its speed and strength, and started swimming downstream. Rounding the bend, he spotted the kid clinging to a branch right before some rapids started.
'PED, I need something here!'
(INITIATING EVOLUTION)
(AQUATIC FORM ACHIEVED, HOWEVER YOU CAN NOT BREATH AIR IN THIS FORM.)
Dustin didn't care at the moment, he dived below the water, noticing that his legs had fused to form a fish tail. Gills along his neck allowed him to breath, so using the spine-like fingers that had sprouted on his hands, he clawed his way across the turbulent waters. Fins all along his body aided him, and he glided right up underneath the boy's body. Picking him up on his shoulders, he was able to lift him up high enough, he was able to claw his way up the rocks to safety.
'Alright, change me back to the form I had prior to this one.'
(INITIATING EVOLUTION)
Dustin surged with all his strength, kicking dust and debris up from the bottom of the water, and threw himself with all the force he could muster, out of the water. He could feel his form changing in midair, and could only hope it was the right form.