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“Hey Nano! Nano, look at this!”
“Give me a sec, Lalna!” Nano called back in response to the scientist, whose voice had come from somewhere upstairs. She was in the middle of sorting out the storage again after their latest adventure, which had concluded with Lalna promptly dumping all their loot randomly into different chests upon their return home. If it weren’t for Nano, Red Panda Labs — their base in the new world — would probably look more like Lalna’s old castle than was strictly necessary. Nano chuckled to herself, remembering the state of disarray the castle had been in when she’d literally fallen from the sky.
“Nano, come on! You’re taking forever!” Lalna’s voice had taken on a slightly whiny tone, similar to a child who wasn’t getting his way; though in all fairness, Nano was convinced sometimes that he acted more like an apprentice than she was herself.
“I’m coming!” She powered on her jetpack as opposed to climbing up the ladder, knowing that saving even a few seconds could prevent another outburst from her friend. Rolling her eyes, she flew up to the first floor, touching down with a soft thump before walking toward the front door. “If you would just follow the bloody system I have going, I wouldn’t have to take the time to sort everything out again.”
Nano stopped talking as she stepped outside, Lalna being nowhere in sight. Rincewind, one of her newly-named Luggages, scurried up the short staircase leading to their garden, coming to a stop at her feet. “Hey buddy, where’s the other guy gotten off to this time? I bet Lalna stole him for another experiment or someth-“
She was cut off mid-sentence by the telltale hissing noise of a nearby creeper, preparing itself to explode. Nano whipped out her manyullyn sword, the purple metal glinting in the sunlight. She readied herself to strike the mob, her mind so set on defending their belongings from being destroyed that she almost missed the familiar near-maniacal laughing coming from the creature.
“Gotcha Nano!” Lalna’s familiar voice came from the creeper, still shaking with his laughter. Nano backpedaled, nearly tripping over Rincewind who had rushed up behind her.
“LALNA!” she yelled accusingly at him, prompting another round of laughter to erupt from the creature’s form. “What — oh for the love of —“ Nano gave an exasperated sigh as sheathed her sword. “What experiment did you balls up this time that you’ve managed to turn yourself into a Creeper?”
“I didn’t! I can change back right now, see?” The creeper’s form began to waver and turn to a strange black color as Nano watched, followed by the sickening sound of bones crunching that she recognized from a previous conversation.
“Ew, no, stop that! You know I hate that sound, Lalna!!” Nano cringed visibly, trying to cover her ears and block out the horrible sounds. “Why would you call me up here just to show me that again?” His usual giggling that she heard whenever he did something he found absolutely hilarious reached her ears, and she looked back to find him looking human again.
“Isn’t it just awesome?” He giggled, ignoring the fluxed girl’s horrified and grudging expression. “But that’s not actually what I called you up here for. I just got bored waiting for you, so I decided to have a bit of fun.”
“Couldn’t you have at least chosen something less destructive? Like, I dunno, maybe a zombie or something?” Nano sighed, patting Rincewind on the lid as it bumped into her leg.
“Nah, where’s the fun in that?” Lalna chuckled, grinning like a small child. She rolled her eyes, deciding she could humor him this once, even if the sound of morphing gave her the chills.
“So what’d you call me up for? I was in the middle of sorting out the bloody mess you left before running off to do whatever it is you were doing,” she prompted, knowing that if she didn’t the scientist would just succeed in getting distracted by something else.
“Oh! Right! Close your eyes then!” He said, clapping his hands together delightedly. Nano gave him a dubious look, but complied regardless. Once again she heard the bone-chilling sound of Lalna morphing, and as it faded she opened her eyes and her mouth to call him out on it once more. Her complaint died before it even left her mouth, finding herself looking down at a penguin where Lalna had just been standing.
“OH MY GOD. PENGUIN!!” Nano’s shriek of pure excitement preceded her onslaught of adjectives describing how absolutely adorable the penguin was, accompanied by her overjoyed laughs. The penguin itself had a rather smug look on its face, Lalna having guessed right about her reaction. She scooped the penguin up in her arms, seeming to forget that it was actually Lalna for a moment, hugging it tightly and chasing a surprised squawk from it’s beak; and if penguins were capable of blushing, he’d have been doing exactly that in that moment.
“Nano, you better not drop me…!” Lalna finally spoke up in small voice as Nano continued to bounce excitedly with the penguin in her arms, snapping the ecstatic girl back to her sense. She blinked at him with sheepish brown and purple eyes, her cheeks slightly red — from excitement or embarrassment, he couldn’t tell. She put him down carefully, and he puffed himself up just like an arrogant penguin version of his human self. “I don’t know if regular penguins would appreciate being carried like that,” he commented, earning a look from Nano, who was visibly attempting to contain her wish to pick him up again.
Lalna remedied the situation, morphing back to his human form once again. He brushed off the front of his lab coat, smoothing the purple shirt underneath it and adjusting the goggles on his head. Nano shuddered at the sound once more, glaring at him with accusation in her eyes.
“I’m convinced there’s a way to not make that sound when you do that, and you just choose to keep it because it gives me the creeps.” His blue eyes gave a noncommittal answer to accompany his ambiguous shrug before he changed the subject.
“Anyways, I went to get more penguins so your other one could have some friends. It looks a bit lonely in its pen right now.” Lalna pulled out two safari nets from his pockets with a shy laugh, where Nano could see that a penguin rested in each, waiting to be released again. Unable to contain her excitement and gratitude, she threw herself at the scientist, her small stature leaving her feet off the ground as she wrapped her arms in a hug around her tall friend.
“Billy is going to be so happy! Thank you Lalna!!” Taken by surprise, he awkwardly returned the gesture, laughing even as he did so.
“I figured you’d like that.” Lalna set her down lightly, holding out the safari nets to her to do the honors. Nano took them carefully, already going on about their names and talking to them about how they’d be living with Billy as she headed down to the already existing pen. Rincewind scrambled along behind her, following its mistress, tailed at a normal pace by Lalna who was still flustered from the earlier experience as a penguin.
As she prepared to release the penguins to live with their new friend-to-be, Nano had a sudden thought. “Lalna, you know how you morphed into a penguin earlier…?”
“Yeah, and if I recall you were quite happy about that,” he replied, not sure where she was going with it. She turned to look at him, a somewhat murderous look suddenly in her eyes.
“And didn’t you tell me before that you could only morph into mobs that you’d killed before…?”
“… Yeah, about that… see there was a slight accident when I went to get more peng-“
“LALNA!!”