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Thylarctos plummetus
Colonel Scarlet and Captain Mahogany were in the process of doing a final security sweep of a koala sanctuary that was meant to be hosting a summit on world wildlife protection in the next few hours.
To a normal by-stander, heck, to most security personnel, the area was secure, but Scarlet wasn’t so sure… He felt lousy almost like there was a Mysteron around, not including Mahogany of course, but Mahogany’s presence, like his daughter’s, never made him feel physically ill, unlike Black or any other Mysteron he encountered over the years.
Mahogany had to be feeling it too, judging by the uneasy expression on his face, “I don’t get it,” he growled. “We have been over this place a dozen times, but I still can’t shake the feeling that something has been done.”
“The park rangers have been checked and re-checked,” Scarlet commented. “And we have checked over the area for any bombs, or nerve agents that might be used in an attack.”
“So, unless one of those koala’s up there is a drop bear, the area should be as secure as possible,” Mahogany agreed.
“A drop bear?” Scarlet snorted. “Have the personnel at Koala base been telling you tall tales Mahogany?”
“Ha, Ha,” Mahogany rolled his eyes. “You can blame Doc Fawn for that one, one of his Halloween horror stories he told us kids on the island when I was fifteen.”
Scarlet cocked an eyebrow, he knew the doc was born and raised in Australia, and that he had spent some time on Tracy Island before joining Spectrum, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mahogany knew some things about Fawn’s past and background, “So, Fawn’s the one telling tales, is he?” he joked.
“He even suggested that we smear some Vegemite behind our ears, to ward off potential attack, when he found out that we were security checking a koala sanctuary,” Mahogany laughed softly.
“Why Vegemite of all things?” Scarlet asked.
“To trick them into thinking we’re Australian,” Mahogany replied, looking up at a koala that was in a tree above him. “Apparently, they only attack tourists…” he trailed off.
“What is it, Mahogany?” Scarlet asked.
“The Mysterons have possessed animal’s before, right?” Mahogany replied slowly. “You don’t think they would…?”
Scarlet looked up at the koala, that Mahogany was looking at, as the koala’s head turned to look at them, its eye’s flashing green.
“Scarlet,” a dark voice sounded in his head.
Something heavy thudded into Scarlet’s back, knocking him off his feet, and started ripping at his uniform, “Holy!” Mahogany shouted at he pulled the Mysteronized koala off of Scarlet’s back, “Are you alright?”
“I’ll live,” Scarlet replied looking up to see another koala, about to attack Mahogany. “Kallen look out!”
Mahogany spun and hurled the Mysteronized koala that he was holding at the one that was trying to attack him, and then scrambled away from the tree drawing his gun and shooting the crazed animals – their small bodies disappearing in a flash of green light, as Scarlet got to his feet and moved to guard Mahogany’s back, “Fuck!” Mahogany snarled. “How many do you think there are?”
“No idea,” Scarlet replied, as a series of grunts and growls began to fill the air. “But if that racket is any indication, I would say quite a few.”
“Great, that could mean all of them are affected,” Mahogany growled. “I don’t get it, the koala’s have done nothing to attack the Mysterons, so why do the Mysterons have use them in their attacks against us?”
“I wish I could answer that question, Kallen,” Scarlet replied. “We could have probably ended the war years ago if we had that kind of insight…”
“Well, as least we now know where the feeling of unease was coming from,” Mahogany muttered as he activated his radio cap – Scarlet’s had been knocked off his head, and with everything going around him, he wasn’t about to retrieve it, “Mahogany to Skybase, Spectrum is red, the Mysteron’s have turned some of the local wildlife, conference site is not secure, repeat, conference site is not secure.”
As Mahogany gave their report to Spectrum, Scarlet heard a stick snap above him, and he looked up to see a koala plummeting towards them…
0o0o0
“You forgot to put Vegemite behind your ears, didn’t you?”
“Very funny, Ed,” Mahogany growled at Dr. Fawn, as he checked over his healing wounds a couple of hours later, on Skybase. “Somehow, I don’t think they wouldn’t have been deterred by a couple blobs of yeast spread.”
“Hmm… True,” Fawn agreed, as he moved to check on Scarlet, who also looked like he had been through several bouts with a shredder. “It’s a shame really, that they were Mysteronized, you and Scarlet could have been the first people to bring in a live specimen of a Thylarctos plummetus in history.”
Lieutenant Turquoise, who, thankfully, hadn’t been partnered up with Mahogany for the security detail, due to a minor injury to his leg sustained on a different assignment, looked at Fawn as if he grown ten heads, “Thylarctos… What?” he asked.
“The more common term for them is Drop Bear,” Fawn explained. “Surely somebody on Koala Base warned you kids about the koala’s murderous cousin.”
“Of course, they did,” Turquoise replied. “I always thought they were yanking our chain.”
“Yeah well, the Mysterons decided to make their own version with the koalas at that sanctuary.” Mahogany growled.
“Wait, are you saying that little fluffy koala bears did this to you and Scarlet?” Turquoise replied dumbfounded.
“Koalas are not bears,” Fawn growled. “They are marsupials, their closet proven relatives are wombats.”
“And they were Mysteronized koalas,” Scarlet growled. “They don’t look anywhere near as cute and cuddly when they are trying to gut you, with those sharp claws of theirs,” He sighed, as Colonel Blue walked into the room. “Consider yourself lucky, Danny, that it wasn’t you on that assignment, you would have been shredded kid, Mahogany and I were lucky to get out of there alive, we don’t know how many koalas they turned, seemed like we would kill one and another one took its place.”
“I have an answer to that, Paul, and none of you guys are going to like it,” Colonel Blue cut in grimly. “They searched the sanctuary, they didn’t find any koala’s alive, dead or Mysteronized.”
“Wait, none?” Fawn asked. “There were at least a hundred or more of them at that sanctuary.”
“I don’t think we killed that many,” Mahogany added. “Our guns would have run out of ammo before then.”
“There were one hundred and fifty koalas reported to be at that sanctuary,” Blue confirmed. “The running theory is they threw as many they could at Paul and Kallen when they were discovered, then cut their losses.”
“So, it’s a draw then,” Mahogany muttered.
“How do you come at that, Kallen?” Scarlet asked.
“The Mysterons killed all those koalas to kill the conference attendees, but you and I exposed them before they could, sir,” Mahogany answered. “So, we won on that front, but…”
“Those koalas are still dead,” Fawn added grimly. “It’s a massive blow to the conservation effort, for the species.”
It was quiet in the medical ward of Skybase.