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"He was here just a minute ago," pondered Vila.
"Uh... HELLO?" came Blake's echoing voice.
Jenna whirled on Avon, reaching for her gun. "Avon, did you push him? I swear by all of the gods in the galaxy that I can remember, that I will fry your—"
Avon held up calm but defensive hands. "While I cannot lie that the idea hadn't crossed my mind, I'm just as puzzled as you about how Blake got down there."
"I can hear you, you know!" shouted up Blake from the peculiar perfect circle of the pit. "And I wasn't pushed so much as I was pulled. Will you all stop bickering and give me a hand out of here?" There was an awkward moment of silence and it then became apparent that Blake wasn't talking to them anymore. "Oh, uh... hello. I can't say I expected you to be down here."
"Servalan!" hissed Vila. "How does she keep doing it?"
Avon rolled his eyes. "I somehow doubt that it's Servalan down there, sipping champagne and waiting for us to fall into a cold, dank hole with her."
"I wouldn't put it past her," Jenna growled. "It's probably her vacation home."
Blake's voice sailed up to them again, annoyed. "Again, may I have your attention? And assistance? My teleport bracelet seems to have fallen off somewhere."
"Oops," Avon said, casually picking it up off the ground. "Now, how did this get here?"
With a warning snarl, Jenna jabbed him in the ribs with her gun. The three of them approached the steep rim of the pit and peered down.
Abruptly, something huge and serpentine emerged from the hole, large and fast enough to make them stagger backwards. A monstrous snake? No, a single, gigantic tentacle—and in its curled grasp was Blake.
"Oh, hey, thanks," their leader said with a certain awkwardness as he hung midair.
Another tentacle emerged, then another. More slithered out of the pit, one after the other, all the while pulling up an enormous blue and magenta body. It revealed itself finally to be some sort of—
"Octopus!" cried Vila.
"Stating the obvious as usual," sighed Avon as they all aimed their guns at it.
"WAIT!" shouted Blake, still in the thing's tentacled grasp.
Jenna forcibly put a restraining hand on Avon's gun-grip and he heaved a sigh of irritation. They waited.
The long slithery appendage gently moved Blake to the safety of the ground, uncurling from him and then retreating back to its bulbous body. Blake exhaled and brushed himself off, remarking, "Now, you do remember everyone, don't you?"
They realized he was addressing the octopus.
Vila suddenly grinned in joy. "Wait! Isn't that... it is! It's the little guy! Well... not so little anymore."
Recognizing them, the octopus changed colors in delight, becoming jade green and rust-orange. The last time they had seen it was when they had teleported it away after it had hatched on board the Liberator. It had had a tremendous growth spurt since then—and it also apparently held no grudges.
"Minion," Avon hissed, fascinated.
"Ahem?"
Avon turned and slapped the teleport bracelet back into Blake's outstretched hand.
"Oh, can we keep him, please, please?" begged Vila, bouncing in place.
"Yes. I would very much like to study it," said Avon with a hungry smile.
"Oh, for crying out loud," sighed Jenna.
Blake looked at the octopus, which was mewling pitifully at him. Finally, he sighed and lifted his wrist-comm. "Cally? Remember the baby cephalopod that imprinted on me...?"
Cally had been waiting in the Liberator teleport room; when she heard about their new crew member, she deafened Blake with a squeal of glee. "What should we name it?"
Avon gave Vila a pointed look. "Why not...'Omelette'? Which is what it had almost become, if I remember correctly."
Vila was pleased by this, and judging by its ever-shifting array of colors, so was Omelette. "I could feed him pancakes! Omelette, I happen to make fantastic pancakes."
"Minion," murmured Avon, "I have such plans for you."
Meanwhile, Blake rolled his eyes and began to plot how he would eventually "disappear" from the Liberator.