[Freezair]

When it came to their youngest child, Aleksandr Ja and Lucinda Lavalamp went through babysitters like ordinary people went through paper towels. Perhaps it was a consequence of her psychic powers. Maybe it was her constant desire to have at least one little friend or another every night of the week. Perhaps it was her odd pets. Or maybe it was just her loud and slightly overbearing personality. Either way, they had racked up the online-babysitter website equivalent of frequent flyer miles in trying to find Minty a babysitter who didn't fold under the pressure.

All four of Minty's most endearing-slash-terrifying traits were out in full force today. She was playing chase with her best friend Longshot, hovering on top of a psychic ball, screaming and wailing, while a Ms. Wilson in bright red pumps () chased behind them, cooing and laughing. They were noisy, obnoxious, slightly strange (both Minty and Longshot were wearing capes), and resolutely unattended. Lucinda and Alek figured Minty and Longshot couldn't get into too much trouble while the babysitters arrived. They seemed to be happy to ignore the fact that their child was nothing if not a magnet for trouble. She did, after all, believe herself to be a superhero, and superheroes did have to go chasing bad guys...

"Caught you!" Minty pounced on Longshot. Her psychic ball evaporated, and the two of them tumbled together, laughing. The Ms. Wilson, Girl's Best Friend (Bestie for short) landed on their shoulder.

Laughing, Longshot peeled himself upright. "You think your new babysitters will be more fun than the last one ? I hope they don't make us eat brussels sprouts again!"

"Coo! And she smelled like dishwashing soap all the time." Bestie picked under her wing in a birdish fashion.

"Naah. I bet these one's'll be super fun," Minty said. "Fingers crossed!"

[Thunder]

(OOC: "Super fun"...I see what you did thar : U)

Being a super hero means you are responsible for helping the public. That was one of Geyser's beliefs when he founded Super Wolf Team Canis, and his squad never failed to assist when people called for help. Aside from fighting villains, they rescued pets from trees, cleaned trash from the streets, helped build buildings, and...apparently now they were babysitters too.

Geyser had seen a request for a babysitter online, posted by a couple named the Lavalamps. No one else had heeded the request, and Geyser knew it was never a good idea to let children alone. Kids could get themselves into a lot of trouble if they didn't have older folks watching over them! Thus, he, Flareo, and Glacier found themselves traveling to Terrace Park to meet the children. It seemed odd that just two kids would need so many babysitters, but there had been more than a few rumors flying about that these two were particularly...rambunctious.

After a while of walking in the park, the super wolves finally located the kids. "There they are!" Glacier exclaimed, pointing to two Lucain who were playing with a Mr. Wilson. "That must be them."

"I have a bad feeling about all this," Flareo grumbled. He didn't look too happy about the babysitting job, but Glacier had insisted that he come.

"Oh, I am sure it will be fine, Flareo!" Geyser laughed. "Come now, let's introduce ourselves."

They walked up to the children, and Geyser waved cheerily. "Hello! Are you two Minty and Longshot? I'm Geyser, and these are my friends Flareo and Glacier. We're your babysitters for the day!"

[Freezair]

((Yay! Look who's finally alive enough to reply! By the way, thought I should mention they're in human form... but they can be in Lucain form if necessary. XD))

Minty and Longshot looked up from their tumble. Bestie reflexively preened the underside of her wing. Strange new adults! Several of them, from the looks of it. She'd been expecting one new babysitter, not three. How should she react? Uncharacteristically, she found herself... quiet. She looked to Longshot for assistance.

Longshot stood. His cape fluttered behind him in a slight breeze, and he tapped his chest. "Hey! I'm Longshot, leader--uh, co-leader--of the Mega Starburst Squad! This is my other co-leader, Minty!" She stood up behind him, and adjusted her pink cape around her neck. Bestie fluttered around to land on her shoulder. "We keep this playground safe from bullies! It's nice to meet you."

A bit of a smile returned to Minty's face. Longshot always seemed to know the right things to say. She blinked, and a bright pink ball of effervescent psychic energy appeared beneath her feet. She was gently buoyed up into the air, and knelt towards the adults. Flying on the ball put her slightly more at their level. "Hiya! I'm Minty! And this is our trusty sidekick, Girl's Best Friend! Her superpower is turning into diamonds! Isn't it?"

Bestie flapped her wings. "Coo! Should we really tell them all this so soon? What if they're bad guys?"

"Bad guys don't get babysitting jobs," Minty shrugged. "Bad adults are too busy robbing banks and kidnapping people and stuff. I don't think Mama and Papa would hire kidnappers. And when do good adults ever get on the bully's side, huh?"

"...That is kind of a good point."

"Nice to meet you!" Minty extended both her real hand and a glowing pink psychic hand to shake. She hadn't met another psychic in a while, but if she did, she wanted to be polite and offer them both hands.

[Thunder]

(OOC: My super wolves don't have human forms, but they do have anthro forms. It might be weird to have wolves taking care of human children, but it's honestly up to you xD)

As a superhero himself, Geyser, of course, found the children's capes adorable. He was glad that these two looked up to heroes and wanted to protect the park from bullies. His grin grew even wider and he glanced at Flareo and Glacier to see their reactions. Glacier was practically melting over the kids, and Flareo had a smirk on his face, suggesting some odd combination of amusement and annoyance. Oh, how Geyser wished he could tell the kids that their babysitters were real superheroes! It would probably make Minty and Longshot's day, but there was no knowing what might ensue as a result.

Or at least, that was what he was thinking before he saw Minty conjure the psychic ball.

All three super wolves' eyes widened and followed Minty as she floated up to their level. As she and Bestie began babbling about bad guys and babysitting, Geyser gulped and looked at his teammates. Glacier now seemed utterly stunned, and Flareo was frozen stiff, as if he knew this development would turn into a nightmare. No wonder no one had wanted to take the babysitting job.

"This. Was. Your. Idea." Flareo hissed under his breath, narrowing his eyes at Geyser.

"D-don't look at me!" Geyser stammered in a whisper. "I had no idea!" Shaking his head, he cleared his throat and returned his attention to the kids, smiling sheepishly. "U-uh, yes! You're absolutely right, Minty. Bad guys are too busy doing bad things to be babysitting kids!" He had no idea how to grasp the psychic hand, so he simply took Minty's real and shook it.

"Uh, so," Glacier said, "you three are all super heroes?" She was clearly feeling awkward right now, but she hoped the kids wouldn't notice. "What did you say your team name was again? The Super Starbust Squad or something? That sounds really cool!"

[Freezair]

((Sure thing! I'll swap 'em into Lucain form. Honestly, I always picture interpersonal reactions in Evelon as being weird anyway, people and animals interqacting... but I never do get to RP them in Lucain form, so I'll go for it.

Also, sorry for being such a slugbutt replier. Working retail around Christmas is exhausting. I've been dead.   ))

"Mega Starburst Squad," Longshot corrected. "And there's more than just us three! We've got loads of members."

"Yeah!" Minty agreed. "Normally there's lots of us, but it's just us today 'cuz all the others are busy. There's us two, and then there's Jeremiah--he can make storms and stuff--and Woody, she's real good with a lasso--and  Reverb's super-smart and makes gadgets, and Pomona makes magic potions! And we've got a Scribblen named Slippers and we have lots of friends like even a Kirund!"

"We're always looking for new members!" Longshot boomed. "You don't have to have superpowers, you just gotta love JUSTICE! And want to stop bullies and things. We also like Wise Mentors!"

"Jeremiah's dad is kind of our Wise Mentor sometimes," Minty said. "But he's too busy to babysit most times."  

Bestie wiggled. She stared hard at Glacier. "Coo. Something making you feel nervous?"

Longshot and Minty swapped glances. "Oh! We're sorry! It's probably really weird 'cuz we're humans and you're Lucains right now. We can fix that if you want!"

Some people had complications switching forms in front of other people. Minty was clearly not one of them. In a puff of pink smoke, she was on all fours as a pink and black Lucain , with sun-shaped markings the color of a low glow. Longshot's coat sparkled with a blue haze and brilliant red swirls. And in all of it, Minty had not come off the psychic ball.

"Better?" she asked. "I hope so. I don't wanna make a bad first impression!" She sounded exactly like a small child trying to sound grown up--which, of course, she was.

[Thunder]

(OOC: Sorry for the delay, got caught up in a bunch of academic stuff x3x I love the capitalized JUSTICE, btw XD)

Oh goodness. So it wasn't just these two. They had a whole team of kids with powers. Surely they wouldn't call over the others at some point and give the super wolves a super headache of a babysitting session? "O-oh!" Glacier stammered, smiling as broadly as she could. "I see! It must be really fun, having so many friends! You guys have quite a noble goal!"

They had hoped no one would pick out their nervousness, but they were pretty terrible at disguising their shock, and Bestie noticed it. Thankfully, the kids had interpreted it as awkwardness over the difference in their forms. Oh, those were very smooth transformations! Geyser thought to himself. While part of him was worried about how this babysitting experience would go, another part was deeply impressed by how well the kids controlled their powers. Even he had struggled to master his abilities at first. Perhaps Minty and Longshot had been born with these powers; Flareo had his fire powers since birth, and Geyser recalled that when Flareo first joined the super wolf team, he hadn't needed as much training as the others.

"That was a very nice transition!" Geyser complimented. "I'm sure you'll both be able to do even more amazing things with your powers when you're older!" He reached over to pat them on the head. "So, is there anything you want to do right now? A game, perhaps?"

"A safe game, I hope," Flareo grumbled to himself.

[Freezair]

((Man, I don't have any excuse this time. Except for maybe that I've been finally been trying to migrate all my old pets to the new pen? Yeah... let's go with that.))

"Thanks!" Minty nodded. "Me and my older brother and sister are the only ones in our family who can change. Mama and Papa are always Lucain. We use human things in our house though, because they can use their psychic powers like hands. We all have psychic powers!"

"Yeah, they do," Longshot agreed. "Her mom and dad are super-strong psychics! Like, the strongest ever! They're her Wise Mentors. But, uh... I don't have psychic powers." For a moment, it looked like he might frown. "But that's OK! Because we need all kinds of powers on our team to fight all kindsa evil!"

"Like mine," Bestie preened. She tilted her head coyly.

"We like games," Minty said. "And since none of our friends are here today, we need you guys to play really good games!"

"We could play Cops and Robbers," Longshot thought. "Or Cowboys and Cattle Rustlers. Or Astronauts and Aliens. Or Knights and Dragons!" There was a distinct theme running through Longshot's ideas.

Minty sighed. "Aww. I bet the grownups think those games would be too scary, though. You heard him. He wants a safe game. Like Charades or something."

"Well, let's try and be friends about this," Longshot said. "What kind of games do you grownups think are safe? It's always different, no matter what grownup you ask..."

[Thunder]

It was interesting that these two seemed to have inherited their psychic abilities from their parents. Geyser had not yet met any wolf whose powers came from ancestors. The only person he knew of who had inherited magic was, regrettably, his arch nemesis, Panthera. The villainous feline came from a clan known for its dark magic, and man, were they a tough bunch. He hoped that Panthera wouldn't show up during the babysitting session.

"You certainly can be a hero without super powers," Geyser chuckled. "As for what game to play..." He glanced at Flareo and Glacier for help. Flareo only shrugged, but Glacier paused to think.

"Well, I think Cops and Robbers could be ok," she mused aloud. "As long as everyone is careful not to trip or tag someone too hard."

"That's reasonable," Geyser replied. "So about about it, then? Shall we play Cops and Robbers?"

"...that's...fine with me," Flareo grumbled after a moment. Glacier shot her brother a warning glance.

"All right!" Geyser exclaimed. "Minty, Longshot, Bestie? Do you three want to be the robbers?"

(OOC: ...I could have Panthera show up later if you think that will be interesting P=)

[Freezair]

((It's fun when the Starbursts get to face real evil. Might be fun! ))

"What?!" Minty put her hands on her hips. "Are you insi--isnu--insi--are you saying we're robbers?! We're the good guys! We can't be the robbers! You gotta be the robbers."

"But they're good guys, too," Longshot said. "It's only a game. Someone's gotta be the robbers or else we can't play. I mean, what do you do if you're just playing Cops? It's not fun if you don't get to chase people."

"Cops can do fun things if they're not chasing people," Minty said. "You can go to schools, and teach kids how to say 'no' to drugs, and show them how you command the police dogs, and you can help get cats out of trees!"

"Well, if you're gonna teach kids, you might as well just play 'school.' And if you're gonna do that, you need a bigger class, like, with stuffed animals and dolls and stuff." Longshot stroked his chin with his paw.

Bestie cooed loudly; an avian version of her clearing her throat. "I'll be a robber," she offered. "After all, I can fly. That makes me pretty hard to chase. So far, I'm the only Starburst who can. Although, five cops against one robber isn't very fair. It would be nice if one of you would volunteer." She waved a wing at the babysitters.

"Yay! I'll make some flower handcuffs," Minty said. "You guys decide who'll be the other robbers!" Her paws scraped at the dirt, pulling up various flowers by their roots. A pink psychic hand popped out and started twisting the stems around one another.

[Thunder]

(All right, so when do you think it would be good to have my bad guy show up? Maybe at the end of the game?)

And so, cops and robbers it was. But Bestie was right. Five cops and one robber wouldn't be fair at all. "Well there's six of us," Glacier said, "so wouldn't it make sense to have three cops and three robbers?"

"Yes, I suppose so," Geyser agreed. "So we need two more robbers to go with Bestie. I don't mind being a robber, but we'll still need one more person." He put his paws on his hips and glanced around at everyone. "Any other volunteers?"

There was a brief moment of silence, and then Flareo shakily raised one paw. "I, uh, guess I'll be the last robber..." he replied rather unenthusiastically. Glacier jabbed her elbow into his ribs, making him wince.

"You could be a little more excited, you know!" she whispered sharply.

"Well, that settles it then!" Geyser declared. He turned to the children and beamed. "Flareo, Bestie, and I will be the robbers, and Longshot, Minty, and Glacier will be the cops. Would the cops like to give us ten seconds to run before the chase starts? And if you close your eyes while you're counting, it might be more fun since you'll have to find us first!"

"That sounds like a plan," Glacier conceded. "So how about it, kids? Should we start counting?"

[Freezair]

((Sounds good!))

"Hold on," Bestie said. "If we're the robbers, shouldn't we be robbing something? First we should decide what we're going to rob. After all, if we haven't done anything wrong, we have no need to run."

"Oooh! I know!" Longshot jumped up. "You should rob a fancy dress store. There's a whole bunch of ladies getting ready to go to a ball, but you guys burst in and you steal all the dresses they're gonna buy! And now they won't be able to go to the ball. So we have to jump in and save them and get the dresses back!"

"Coo! I do love fancy dresses," Bestie said. "They go so well with my... well, everything! But I like getting them as gifts best, from people who did buy them. I like that idea."

"OK! So you'll rob the dress shop!" Minty pointed to the local jungle gym. It was one of the jungle gyms that seemed to be shaped like an upside-down cone. It wasn't as popular as some of the others--like the traditional, box-shaped one, or the dome one on the other side of the park. "First, you go rob the dress shop. Then us cops--me, Longshot, and Glacier--we'll get a call on our police-thingies and then we'll go chase you!"

"Roger!" said Longshot. He giggled, and repeated himself in a gruff voice: "Roger roger, captain!"

"OK! Go!" Minty pointed again, and Bestie took off flying.

[Thunder]

Geyser was about to offer a suggestion on what to rob, but the kids figured out their own plan quickly enough. "A dress shop sounds pretty good!" he exclaimed. "Let us begin with our life of crime, then!"

He dashed off after Bestie, while Flareo followed behind much less enthusiastically. When they reached the jungle gym, Geyser stopped and pretended that he was whisking a dress off of a clothes rack. "Aha! So we have the dresses. Now the ladies can't attend their ball...unless the police manage to arrest us! Where should we run to?"

"Maybe we should split up," Flareo suggested. "That way it will be harder to catch us all. I guess."

"That could be a good idea. What do you think, Bestie? We'd all have to find someplace to hide so they don't get us." He scanned their surroundings for potential spots. "How about those trees over there? Or maybe over by that other jungle gym there. We better decide fast, or they'll come!"

Meanwhile, Glacier held up an imaginary walkie talkie to her ear. "Oh no!" she gasped dramatically. "A bunch of robbers stole dresses from a dress store! We better find them quickly! Get ready, everyone. Close your eyes. On the count of ten, we're going to take action! One, two, three..."

[Freezair]

Minty touched her shoulder as if she had a police radio pinned there. "Oh no! You're right, Deputy Glacier! There's been a hoorrible robbery! The big Bella Ball tonight is in trouble if we don't get those dresses back!"

Longshot stood near the playground, scanning the surroundings with one hand over his eyes. "Officer Minty! My men in the field are telling me that the crooks are splitting up! They're all gonna go hide out somewhere before they go back to their HQ! And that's not all--"

Minty dropped her jaw in mock shock. "What is it, Officer Longshot?"

"One of the crooks is the dastardly Pigeon Burgalar!"

Minty gulped in a dramatic gasp. "Oh no! We have to stop her before she pulls off her latest heist! C'mon, Deputy Glacier! We have to stop them!"

Back with the robbers, Bestie flew as if she were carrying several fancy dressed in her beak--however she managed that. "Coo-hoo-hoo! You'll never catch me!" She flew around the tips of the trees and settled back near the top of the jungle gym. Although barred like the rest of the structure, its dizzying height (if you were younger than ten) made climbing it a scary prospect.

Longshot pointed. "Look! The crook always returns to the scene of the crime!"

Minty looked behind her, at the other crooks streaking away. "Yeah! But we can't get distracted else they'll all get away! C'mon, Deputy! Let's go!"

[Thunder]

After Bestie zoomed off, Super Geyser and Flareo dashed away from the jungle gym too. Flareo, who was not interested in playing the game at all, hadn't really bothered to seek any places to hide, but at the same time he didn't want to embarrass himself by losing quickly to a bunch of youngsters. He eventually found a structure that had a tube that one could crawl through, so he climbed inside the tube and stayed there, hoping he wouldn't get found anytime soon.

Geyser, meanwhile, made his way towards the thicket he had seen earlier and looked around to see if there were any branches he could climb. There was one big oak that had such an opportunity, so he carefully climbed up the branches (he could have flown, but he didn't want to reveal his powers to the kids) until he was a satisfactory height from the ground. He didn't want to go too high that the children would have no chance of reaching him, but he still wanted to give them an exciting challenge. As he sat, he listened with his enhanced hearing and could hear the countdown starting to end: seven, eight nine...

"...TEN!" Glacier cried. She too, had noticed that Bestie decided to go back to the "crime scene", but her brother and Geyser were nowhere in sight. "Let's chase the dreaded Pigeon Burglar first since we've already seen her! And maybe we can find the other two as we go!" With that, she sprinted off, looking over her shoulder every so often to make sure that Minty and Longshot weren't too far behind.

[Freezair]

As Minty sped towards the jungle gym, she coiled her legs and sprung towards the air. A wobbly pink ball of transparent psychic energy bloomed up beneath her. It bent beneath her as she landed, and she and ball together sprung towards the top of the jungle gym with a jump Superman would be proud of. Bestie looked up with shock.

"Coo! No fair! You didn't say you would be using your powers!" She fluttered away with a few stray brown feathers falling away.

"You can fly! That's YOUR power. I'm just using mine!" Minty's ball landed precariously on the edge of the jungle gym, and squashed like a partially-deflated balloon. But it rocketed skyward with a rubbery pop, casting a pinkish glow down over Bestie's head.

"Fine then! The Pigeon Burgler has her own tricks up her sleeve!" She spun in mid-air with a dazzling prism of light. The once coffee-colored body of Bestie had become an enormous, glittering, multifaceted jewel, perfectly in the shape of a Ms. Wilson. But her crystal body moved with the same speed her normal one had. With her back legs, Minty kicked her psychic cloud over her head, and began to drift downwards.

Longshot barked to Glacier. "She's got this handled, Deputy Glacier! Let's call in the K-9 Unit to chase down the other crooks! And... that's us!" Longshot put his nose to the ground and sniffed. He hadn't known the babysitters for very long, of course, but he did have a pretty good idea of how they smelled. And from everything he could tell, Geyser, at least, had stuck to the ground. And he'd gone off... thataway! Tails wagging, Longshot rushed towards a set of playground equipment. "He's somewhere over here! Um, somewhere. Use your super-nose too! You've tangled with him before, so you know the trail he leaves!"