[Fallen_Snow]

Longshot stopped short in front of the telescope as Minty appeared. "I found one! I guess they thought that you could see eggs too easy up here." the little boy said with a shrug. "I was just gonna look through the telescope to see if I could spot anything. Where should I look first?"

Woody touched her pretty braid with a ribbon in it and bit her lip. "Um... you sure we can't just pour it on my feet?" she asked, sticking out a socked foot. "I don't think blue feet would be as bad as blue hair."

Reverb's eyes widened. "Whoa, Jeremiah--you're doin' it!" She tapped her bracelet and lifted it to get a video. She could tell the action was straining him though. "Alright, Jerry, just... think of moving the condimsation up and push your hands into the air." Maybe his powers worked like Minty's, or at least what she had seen of Minty's.

[Freezair]

Minty handed Longshot back his squeeze flashlight and peeped through the telescope. She looked past the playground equpment that was close and peered into the distance. Up on the hill nearby, there was an enormous statue of a Staigovold that was almost as big as the real deal. And Minty thought she saw something egg-like on top of it.

"Look!" she urged. "Do you see it too?"

Meanwhile, Pomona looked at Woody's feet. "Hmmm... Alright, but I hope your mom doesn't get mad at me. Move your shoes away so they don't get blue!" Heaven help Pomona if she ever hurt those marvelous sparkles. She poured the blue liquid over Woody's feet. If Pomona knew correctly, it might've tingled. "I suppose it does make sense if it's your feet... Do you feel bouncier?"

Jerry screwed up his face, trying to move the cloud. "Wow... this is hard... It's so... I guess maybe I'd kinda call it 'heavy?' It's weird. It's hard to move so much water at once." He nudged it towards the shore in his mind, but he didn't know if it actually had any effect. "Does it look like it's moving?"

[Fallen_Snow]

"Thanks." Longshot pocketed his flashlight and watched as Minty peered through the telescope. "What, up there?" Longshot pointed to the statue and then took his turn at the telescope. He did see it--there was something lime green and roundish perched precariously near it's top spikes that stuck out of it's back. "Yeah, I do! Looks like we'll need some more pink cloud action!" Longshot said excitedly.

Woody quickly nudged the shoes out of the way before pushing the hem of her dress against her legs so that Pomona could get a good aim on her feet. As the blue potion soaked through, Woody giggled. "Its all tingly!" she laughed, stepping from foot to foot. She could feel the springiness in her toes already! She tried an experimental hop. She shot straight into the air, two, three, four times as high as she usually could. It was close to the branches--she stuck out her hand, hoping to grab the egg--but was foiled as she fell back to the ground, landing safely on her toes. "Shoot. Lemme try again." Woody bent her knees and concentrated hard on the egg. She pushed off the ground as hard as she could, and once again shot into the air. She was ready this time--sticking her hand out, she felt branches whip around it until she touched the paper of the egg. Making sure to grab it tight, she fell back to the ground, bouncing a bit before falling on her rear end. She laughed, holding out the egg to Pomona. "That was fun!"

"You're doin' great, Jere! Just keep doin' what you're doin'!" Reverb watched as the cloud scooted nearer to the spot Jeremiah had picked out. "Closer... closer... there! Stop! Okay... I think now all you have to do is let go of it. Try thinking of rain coming out of the cloud. Just let it loose."

[Freezair]

"Alright," Minty agreed. She summoned another cloud and hopped on board. This one was even especially wide, to allow for another person to sit on it. She waited for Longshot to get down, then bounced them down the side of the pirate ship. They landed smoothly, and Minty looked proud. Another kid, who looked as if they were part Kuhna, looked at them with surprise.

Pomona suddenly bounced up (though without potion to help her). "What? Really? I want to try!" Pomona pulled off her own shoes and doused her feet in the cold, tingly potion. Her feet were tinged faintly blue, but she felt rubbery. She took one leap, and soared up into the trees. "Woohoo! This is awesome! Hey!" She spoke between bounces. "We should--go--across the--park--to see--what other--eggs are here!" She grabbed her basket, and started springing off as if the world was a giant trampoline.

"Ooh," Jeremiah said uncertainly. "I'll try..." He pictured the rain, but all he noticed was the cloud at his back drying up. Well, it was nice not to sit down on damp pants. He looked down at the duck and saw it had drifted off, leaving the egg. Was it in the mist cloud? No, it just left. Maybe it wasn't as preoccupied with the egg as it seemed.

Jerry flopped down in on the grass. "Aww... I didn't make it rain, and the duck left anyway. I'm no good. As always..."

[Fallen_Snow]

Longshot hopped aboard, letting the wind push his dark hair back as they zoomed down and away from the pirate ship. As they got off, Longshot noticed the Kuhna-boy as well. "Oh, hi!" he said, waving. "If you're looking for eggs, good luck!" Longshot smiled at the boy before turning back to Minty. "Let's get up to that Staigovald statue!"

Woody watched as the girl doused her own socks with the blue liquid, giggling as Pomona began to jump about. Woody grabbed her boots, tossing them in her basket, and joined Pomona, laughing as the wind played with her dress. "Okay!" Woody shouted after her, leaping along behind the little potion master. Woody watched the ground beneath her for sightings of any eggs. It was then that she spotted one--sitting against the trunk of a tree, but up high, between two branches. Woody bounced over and pulled it out. "This Bouncy Potion makes egg-hunting easy-peasy!" she shouted to Pomona, placing the egg--marbled with easter-y pink and purple--in her basket as she continued to bounce along.

"Oh, it's okay, Jeremiah," Reverb said, giving him a consoling pat on the back. "You know, you may not be able to do it now, but we're still little." Rena's always tellin' me when I can't get an invention to work, 'Revvy,'" Reverb put on her best Rena impression, furrowing her brow and putting her hands on her hips, "'never let failin' stop you from tryin'.' And I think she means that we can't let what we do wrong stop us from doing the stuff we're good at. You can do it, Jerry--heck, you made a cloud over there just a couple of minutes ago!" Reverb said, flapping her hand towards where Jeremiah's cloud had just been floating. "Just 'acause you can't do it this time, doesn't mean that you won't get it right next time. Okay?" she asked, giving him a smile. She walked over to the nest and fished out the egg and toddled back over to Jerry. Peeling a sticker off, she offered it to him on her thumb. "Here, this one's really cute, look at the bunny with the little chick! That's me and you, Jere--best buddies, okay?"

[Freezair]

Minty stopped the cloud just before the Staigovold statue. The egg was high up, and difficult to get to. Minty looked puzzled. Most people would wonder what she was screwing up her face about--she was psychic, wasn't she? She could hover up there easily, with Longshot in tow! But she seemed deeply confused.

"Longshot?" she asked, unusually sincere. "Do you think it's fair for me to jus' hover up there? 'Cuz this statue was made for climbin' on, not hoverin' over. An' most of the other kids gotta climb. Starbursts always play fair, else we're no better'n bullies. Do you think we should do this, or climb? I know I'm not the only kid with special powers. Lotsa other kids are aminals too, an' some can fly an' stuff. But there's human-human kids an' kids with no magic or psychic stuff playin' too. I don't mind hovering just to get high up an' stuff if we're just looking. But... I don't wanna be unfair."

Pomona was having no such ethical qualms. The tree they'd jumped into wasn't too hard to climb, and it seemed like the other eggs now were well-hidden. But jumping still helped them spot some. "Oh!" Pomona said. "That's just mean. I just saw an egg that was hidden in a barbecue grill... but it was painted black, like a coal brick!" She had been waiting all week to try out a new word she'd just learned from TV, and this seemed like a perfect chance. "That's just... devious!"

Jerry seemed cheered by Reverb. "Yeah... Yeah! I do just gotta work harder. I know I can, I just gotta keep practicing.--Oh! Look!" Although the duck they'd been trying to distract was gone, a few ducklings were playing happily in the cool mist he'd made. "Awesome! I did make the ducks happy, after all." And at that, he spotted a pinkish egg resting on a lily pad out in the pond. But too deep in for his nice pants. "Hmm..." Then, with a smile, he blew it towards them with a small, insistent wind. "Whee! I feel good now! I can do this all day!"

[Fallen_Snow]

Longshot squinted up at the egg, knowing that Minty was right. "Okay, Minty, we'll play fair." he said, getting down from her cloud and grabbing the nearest hand holds. He began to hoist himself up--that is, until another kid rudely elbowed him to the side. "Hey!" Longshot shouted, rubbing his arm. The little boy looked horrified, his Kalamarei scales shining bright on his cheeks. "Oh, sorry!" he said quickly, but continued up the Staigovald easily, as if his suckers had stayed on his hands. Longshot attempted to follow the boy's holds, hoping to find a good route up to the egg. He stumbled a little bit every now and then, but managed to get to the top. He held up the egg in triumph. "Look, Minty! I got it!"

He put the egg in the basket and then put his hand over his eyes, shading them from the sun. He looked around for a little bit before he noticed an egg laying in the grass nearby, leaning up against a rock. It was painted a dark gray in an attempt to camouflage it. "Minty, over there!" he said, climbing down from the Staigovald and pointing in the direction of the egg.

Woody hadn't noticed the egg, and had instead taken notice to one that had a little flower design on it, placed at the edge of the field of flowers they were bouncing past. "I see one, too! Right there, by the flowers!" she shouted to Pomona, bounding over to scoop up the treasure.

Reverb giggled at the little ducklings, happy that Jeremiah was feeling better. She watched as he blew the pink egg over to them using his wind powers in amazement. "Seems like you're really good with the wind stuff, Jere." she said, patting him on the back. She looked about for their next egg, and noticed a few dotted the shore. There was one by a hole in the ground only a few feet away, and Reverb began to walk towards it until she heard a faint gutteral noise come from the hole. She took a step back. "Uh, Jere, I think there's something down there..."

[Freezair]

"Yay!" Minty shouted. "I like using my powers, but I think I feel better not usin' 'em all the time. It'd be like if you had super-speed but you entered races all the time. You'd always win and it'd be no fun."

Then it seemed like Minty forgot, for she created a large, pink, psychic claw, and attempted to use it to grab the camo egg. But she remembered her own words quickly enough. "Oh. Right." Instead, she floated them on her little psychic scooter over to the egg, at a bouncy walking place. Then she placed the egg in her basket normally.

A sharp sound made Minty turn around, however. It had sounded like a shout! She saw the little Kuhna boy lying in the wood chips around the playground. Did he trip and fall? No; his shoelaces looked tied. But who was that big kid, and why did he have two baskets?

Pomona got her own hidden egg at the same time Woody did. But she, too, heard the shout. "What was that?" But she was far enough from the playground not to see clearly. Instead, she realized that the sooty egg was leaving black marks on her dress. She pulled a face and went to the water fountain to wipe down, and found another one there, half buried in the mud around the spigot. More dirt! Would things ever end?

Jeremiah was too preoccupied with the growling. He backed up from the burrow. "A-hhah! I don't know what you are, but please don't eat me, Mr. Whatever! I'm really bad for you!" He held out his fingers threateningly, and electricity sparked on them, but it was hardly enough to shock a doorknob.

[Fallen_Snow]

Longshot turned when he heard the noise too, dropping the last few feet from the statue. "Wha--? Hey! What are you doing?!" Longshot shouted, sprinting over. He motioned for Minty to follow.

"What was what?" Woody asked, staring at the intricacy of the egg. Daisies and lilies were painted on it, their stems intertwined all along the egg's surface. Following them had begun to make the little girl feel slightly queasy. She looked over and noticed a disturbance going on at the playground, and could see Minty's fluttering cape heading for it.

"Is someone in trouble? Maybe we should go help, too!"

"Wait, Jere... don't spook it. Maybe it's friendly." Reverb stepped forward again only to hear another menacing growl. She backed off slightly and held out her hands in peace. "S'alright, I'm not gonna hurt you..."

A young beaver waddled out of the hole, baring its sharp orange teeth in warning. In its paws it clutched an egg, painted brown. Apparently the beaver thought it was a clump of mud useful to help along his dam, which the two would have noticed if they had looked to the stream that flowed into the pond, where a large dark mound rose out of it.

[Freezair]

"Oh no!" Minty rushed after him. "We shoulda known. Where there's a contest, there's gonna be cheaters. An' that means we got a job to do! STARBURSTS TO THE RESCUE!"

Minty ran with one arm outstreched, as if she were flying. She zoomed to the side of the small Kuhna kid, who was pulling himself up with tears in his eyes. He looked at her in surprise, noticing her cape. "Ah--are you a superhero?"

"We sure are!" Minty agreed. "Did that big kid take your egg basket?"

The Kuhna kid nodded. "I had a lotta eggs an'... an' he pushed me over!"

Pomona stopped in her cleaning when she noticed that there seemed to be someone coming towards them. "Hey, do you know that kid, Woody? The kid seemed tall, and was swinging a pair of baskets victoriously.

Jeremiah sighed. "Man, we really need a Starburst who can talk to animals or something! Mmm... Do you maybe like stickers, Mr. Beaver?" Jeremiah held out several shiny stickers, ironically of fish. Maybe one water creature liked another?

[Fallen_Snow]

Longshot followed, copying Minty's pose. He listened to the little Kuhna child, and when the kid stopped Longshot gave him a reassuring pat on the back. "It's okay, because we're here to help! We'll get your basket back for ya! Which one was it?" he asked for clarification. It wouldn't look very good if they took back the wrong basket.

Woody shook her head, a bit frightened by the imposing older child. "No... but you're not s'posed to have two baskets." she said accusingly.

Reverb turned on her bracelet, doing a quick search on beavers. "Did you know beavers don't eat wood?" Reverb said, continuing to scroll through the search engine results. "Aha! Here!" she pressed her finger against the screen and a sharp bark came out of the small speakers. The beaver backed off, dropping the egg and waddling back towards his hole.

Reverb edged forward, unsure that the beaver would reappear. She took the chance--she leaped forward, scooped up the egg, and backed away quickly, holding her treasure proudly. "Got it!"

[Freezair]

((Sorry for poofing yesterday, BTW. My sister can only cook one thing--scrambled eggs--and she wanted noodles, and asked me if I'd help her with those. Aaand I kind of forgot in the noodle-making.))

"T-t-the yellow one," the Kuhna kid said. He swished his white-and-purple tails. "An' I dunno if it means anything, but I saw another kid with a blue basket just like the other one the kid had, but I dunno if their parents just shop at the same store..."

"We'll look," Minty nodded. "Don't worry! We'll get your basket back! C'mon, Longshot--we've got a job to do!" She dashed off in the direction the Kuhna said the kid went. Now it was perfectly alright for her to use her psychic powers; they were helping stop cheating! She made Longshot a seat on her cloud, and, she mused, if they ever needed to get somewhere fast as a group... She was going to have to figure out how to make a six-seater.

Back in the trees, Pomona stood beside Woody. "Yeah--one basket only. It's so nobody gets too many eggs. We should tell the grown-ups about you."

"Oooh, I'm sooo scared," the kid said. "A tattle-tale. Gonna run off to Mommy, little tattle-tale? Nice socks. Did you spill your sippy-cup all over them, tattle?"

"No!" Pomona slammed one foot on the ground, and sprung skyward. The kid stumbled. "Woah--what?"

Jeremiah watched the beaver scamped off. "Hmm... That's pretty good. You should build one that lets you talk to animals, too! Then we wouldn't need someone with that power... And we could've talked to the duck, too." For a second, Jeremiah looked as if he might be disappointed in himself again. But he found another egg hidden in the reeds, and was quickly smiling again.

[Fallen_Snow]

Longshot gave the kid a terse nod, already feeling his need to bring this bully to justice. He hopped on the cloud with Minty and sat tight. The excitement of flying only minutes ago had faded, and now there was only one thing that was important: taking this bully down.

Woody nodded at Pomona's threat. "Yeah!" she chimed in. She backed up a bit as Pomona sprung into the air, but she could see the confusion in the bully's face as it happened. Well, it was better to have someone confused than unconfused, right? Woody jumped into the air, joining Pomona. She sprang around the boy, saying, "Hey!" and "Over here!" and "Yoohoo!", hoping to keep him dazed. She hoped that Pomona had a plan--Woody was without her primary weapon, her rope, as Snowy had made her leave it home, thinking she wouldn't have a use for it.

Reverb patted her beloved cuff. "I should! Though that wasn't really talkin' to 'em--apparently foxes really don't like beavers. That was a fox bark, and it scared the beaver away, just like the caption under the video said! I just played it hopin' it would do that." she said with a shrug. She walked along the shore, giving the beaver's hole a good amount of room away from her. She picked up another egg that was floating at the pond's edge, painted a silvery-green.

[Freezair]

"Look! Over there!" Minty pointed. She saw Pomona and Woody, soaring over the tops of the trees. "What do you think they're doin'? We need their help!" The hovercloud made a sound almost like a revving engine and zoomed toward them. Minty hung on tightly as they dodged the trees.

Pomona's head snapped toward them. "Minty! Longshot!" She settled onto the ground. "Hey! This kid is breaking the rules! He has two baskets."

Minty pointed. "He stole that one from a kid by the playground with Kuhna ears and a tail!"

The bully took one look at the cloud, and took advantage of Pomona's head being turned. "I'm outta here!" He bolted through the trees, heading toward the snack bar.

Jeremiah nodded, listening to Reveb's explanation. "I'm hungry," he said. "Wanna go get snow cones? I got a couple Keystones; I could get you one..." But as he looked toward it, he noticed the kid running toward them, looking scared.

He beckoned Reverb to him. "Hey... that kid looks like he's in trouble! What's going on?"

[Fallen_Snow]

Longshot's knuckles whited as he tried to find a grip on the cloud as they zig-zagged through the trees. It made him a little nervous, but he trusted Minty's steering. He could see Pomona and Woody up in the trees. "How'd they get way up there?" he thought aloud, scrunching his brow.

Woody followed Pomona once more, but lept a little to the side to stop the kid from going anywhere. But he dodged around her easily, heading for the booths. "Hey, get back here! Durn you, if I had my rope--!" she shouted, leaving her basket behind and leaping after him as fast as she could.

"Sure, that sounds awe--"

Reverb stopped and stared, not at the boy, but past him. "Is that... Woody? And 'Mona and Longshot and Minty? What're they doin'?" she asked Jerry, not sure she was seeing things correctly--why were her friends, who swore to protect kids, coming after this scared one?