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“Oh come on, Aviva, pleaseeeee.” Martin puts his hands together, bats his lashes.
“No is no, brothers,” Aviva sighs, long-suffering.
“Kokiiii?” Chris takes his chances, turning to her work station.
“Nope! Our route has already been set— we are not stopping anywhere,” Koki shuts him down, immediately and swiftly. Martin opens his mouth, turns to Chris, an idea on his tongue, but— “And don’t try bribing Jimmy; I already told him not to listen to you two.”
Both brothers slump, eyes big and sad. Koki stands her ground, narrowing her own eyes. The brothers relent with exaggerated sighs, trudging off to pout somewhere else.
Koki sighs, massaging her temples. “Oh, those Kratt brothers.”
“Tell me about it,” Aviva huffs, rolling her eyes— but her mouth is quirked up in a fond smile.
“Tortuga it is tonight, then, bro,” Martin sighs.
Chris groans.
“Hey, it‘s not that bad— we’ve had plenty of Tortuga Nights!” Martin tries; but even to him, his cheer sounds a little strained.
“Yea, like the last two.” Chris crosses his arms together and frowns, almost pouting.
“Awww, it happens sometimes, bro.” Martin reaches out to ruffle his brother’s hair. Chris bats him away and smooths his hair back into its usual coiffure, but he’s smiling again.
“You’re right— I’m sure next moon we’ll be back on solid ground.”
“That’s the spirit! Now…how about we raid Jimmy’s stash? I'm sure he wouldn’t mind.”
The night sky envelopes the Tortuga soon enough, above and around it— and even below, the endless sea reflecting the inky blackness. The stars dot the sky, but the real centrepiece is the great, big, full, moon.
Jimmy goes to sleep first, flicking the autopilot on and heading straight for bed; then, Koki, who actually tries to keep her sleep schedule stable and go to bed at a reasonable time; and, finally, Aviva, after a yawn had interrupted her inventing.
And the last two? Well…
Martin paces the room— the thought of even standing still for a second driving him mad. Chris, on the other hand, sits on his green futon, pupils following his brother’s movement with a slightly smug smirk. “Feeling alright, bro?”
“Little bit antsy, I’m not going to lie,” Martin says through gritted teeth. Chris snorts.
“Where do you wanna spend it?” Chris asks, “the guys hate it when we wake them up in the middle of the night.”
“The garage, again?”
“But I just organised it!”
“Okay! Okay!” Martin raises his hands in surrender. “Where else?”
Chris taps his chin in thought. He points upwards. “We could go up top?”
Now it’s Martin’s turn to whine, “but we’ve got basically no place to run, up there! And I know you like climbing, bro, but sometimes I just wanna run laps!”
Chris groans, dropping his face into the dip of his knees. “…should’ve pulled out the baby animal eyes.”
Martin joins him in the exasperation, slumping beside him. Chris turns to look at him, “Out of energy, already?”
Martin shakes his head, face pinched. “Nope— just feel like it’s about to start.”
Chris pauses, focuses— and, yea, he can feel the tell-tale sign of the shift starting; pins and needles slowly starting to prick at him. He still has a few minutes before it fully sets in— unlike Martin, older, and more prone to shifting, in general.
Martin’s got his iconic blue jacket haphazardly shrugged off— left only in his white undershirt. Chris follows his lead, except he removes his own jacket properly and folds it, then sticks into his bag for safe keeping. God knows where Martin has thrown his, but he’ll probably find it ripped up in the morning.
Chris sighs, standing up.“Fine, let’s go under— at least we won’t wake the others.”
Martin whispers a ‘yes’ and pumps his fist. He tries to stand up— keyword, tries— but his knees buckle. Chris yelps, catching him quickly and struggling to hold him up. “Nevermind, then,” he grunts, “shift first, then hopefully we can lead ourselves down.”
“Even though we won’t have thumbs?” Martin cracks a grin. Chris chuckles, before his own knees give and they both end up on the floor.
The Change isn’t slow— not quick, not done in a snap, but not slow.
Bones crack and reshape; joints slip out of place and reconnect elsewhere; hair grows out exponentially, lightning and darkening; teeth grow and sharpen, right at place in an elongating maw. The last thing to change is the mind— it’s not some complete overhaul, not a different personality, but the floodgates open, and suddenly the brain is flooded with instincts kept at bay in the daytime.
Aviva startles awake at the sound of a crash. She flips out of her hammocks, and takes a moment to be thankful she’d taken the bottom row, this time. She stands up, brushing dust off herself. What was that sound?
She squints her eyes as she tries to make out anything unusual in the darkness— she laments not having the amazing creature power of night vision like so many animals, but she does have the power of technology. Aka, lights!
She stumbles over to the light switch, flicking it on. “Chris, Martin, I swear if your two are awake and messing with my inventions in the dead of night again I’m going to-“ her scoldings cut off with a sharp intake of breath.
There are two. Mountain lions. On board.
Aviva doesn’t scream, but it’s a very close call. Quickly, she shuffles through every bit of Mountain lion information she knows— from adventures and from the brothers’ ramblings. Carnivores, hunters— but they don’t go out of their way to attack humans, they prefer deers and elk. But those are normal cougars in their normal habitats and not in a giant TURTLE SHIP IN THE SKY.
Aviva tries to reel in her panic— the mountain lions haven’t seen her yet, both crowded around a fallen potted plant. Cougars generally are shy creatures; they keep to themselves and away from humans— but, again, normal cougars in their normal habitats. She inches her way towards the hammocks. She needs to wake the rest of the crew up so they can figure out this problem.
Aviva hurriedly shakes Koki awake. She sits up, rubbing her eyes— before they widen at the sight of the two big cats in the room and her mouth starts to open, which Aviva quickly slaps a hand over. Koki nods, gulping, before the two of them grab Jimmy and they high-tail it out of there, and into the cockpit, door locking behind them.
Aviva pants— relief flooding her, her heartbeat finally not so loud in her ears. “Okay— do any of you know where those two came from?”
Jimmy shakes his head wildly from where he’s quivering, curled up in the pilot’s seat.
“I don’t know, either, but I’ve got a feeling the Kratt Bros have something to do with this…” Koki says. A pregnant pause takes over the room.
“…wait,” Jimmy says, “where are Martin and Chris?”
Koki is quick to react— pulling her creature pod out at record speeds. “Chris? Martin?” She calls into it, “where are you? Are you alright?”
There’s no answer.
“Okay…” Koki says, through clenched teeth, “The two of them have their creatures pods off all the time— they might have muted them, or gotten distracted by some creature.”
“The creature is probably those mountain lions.” Jimmy sounds near hysterical.
“Or their pods broke,” Aviva says in dismay. Either they broke it, or something else did.
Koki drops into a seat and puts her hands over her face. The room goes quiet, tension thick— before Aviva cuts it in half. “No— we can’t just sit and brood, we’ve got to do something!”
Koki straightens, eyes hard. Jimmy does no such thing, but that’s par for the course; Aviva knows he’ll help with whatever he can, anyways, as long as it’s out of the line of fire. Aviva punches her fist down into the palm of her hand. “Okay. Any ideas?”
The flycam zips out from below the door. It buzzes around the room; camera eye scanning the room. Then, the door opens, and Aviva cautiously steps out. “Coast clear,” she whispers, and Koki tip-toes out with her. Before she closes the door, she says to Jimmy, “keep an eye out with the flycam, JZ.”
“Aye, aye!” He says, giving a mock salute. The door closes, and the two girls start making their way to the garage.
But, on the way, something catches Koki’s eyes— something blue. She gasps, forgoing stealth to rush forward. Aviva follows after her hurriedly, coming to a stop beside her. “What is it?” She hisses, eyes darting around.
Koki holds up what she’s holding. It’s Martin’s jacket.
One sleeve is torn, ripped up like it had been grabbed. There’s puncture marks all over— claws and teeth. “He leaves his stuff lying around, all the time,” Aviva says, but it sounds shaky. She takes a deep breath, steels herself. “Come on, we need to get to the garage.”
They’re two steps into the garage when the flycam zips in front of them, flying frenziedly. “Jimmy?” Koki whispers, worriedly. “What’s—”
She doesn’t get to finish— a blur darts past them, and the shock sends her stumbling back and into Aviva. The two of them fall down to the floor in a heap of limbs. “It’s got Martin’s jacket!” Koki yells out.
One of the cougars, light fur and blue eyes, has the jacket under its large paws, and one of the non-ripped sleeves in its mouth. It tugs at it, harder and harder, before the sleeve gives and rips right off. Aviva and Koki stare, frozen.
The second mountain lion, fur so dark it ranges more on a dark brown, steps out from behind the Hipposub. Its eyes are a deep brown, and it’s poised to pounce. Both girls flinch back— but the brown cougar doesn’t tackle them, it tackles the other mountain lion. The two don’t even cast a glance at Aviva and Koki, focused on play-fighting.
Koki has her hand to her chest, heart beating a million miles an hour. The other hand reaches blindly to her side, before it finds purchase on Aviva’s sleeve. Aviva’s own hand quickly moves to lie atop of hers. “Let’s—” Aviva chokes— “let’s go.”
They stumble up, using each other as support. Koki casts an anxious glance to the still roughhousing big cats— but what she sees makes her pause.
She grabs Aviva’s wrist, stopping her on her way back up. “Aviva, look.”
The mountain lions…don’t quite look like mountain lions. They do, make no mistake— rounded ears, cylindrical tail— but something is off. They seemed…stretched, autonomy off in a way— longer legs and arms, like they could stand bipedally, or quadrupedally. The most glaring issue, the most confusing, the thing that really makes Koki and Aviva have to look again— they’re wearing clothes.
Specifically, white shirts and khaki shorts.
Koki and Aviva look at each other with twin looks of bewilderment.
The big cats finally stop their play-fighting. The blue-eyed one goes back to ripping up Martin’s jacket, but the brown one finally meets their eyes. There’s intelligence in them— wild, animalistic intelligence, but there’s something…else, something familiar even, underneath.
Its face pulls into a snarl, a low growl rumbling through the room. The blue-eyed one looks up, before its gaze, too, locks on to them. Suddenly being stared down by two big cats, the girls gulp. The brown one takes one step backward, but the blue-eyed one rushes towards them— thankfully not at its top speed of 80 km/h.
Koki screams as suddenly she’s pushed back down, weight pressing atop her and for a moment she thinks, how do the Kratts do this all the time?
But. There’s nothing else. No movement. No jaws around her throat. She cracks an eye open— and she’s face to face with a cougar, with blue eyes that she knows, and a mischievous glint that she knows, and an approximate smile on a teeth-filled snout that doesn’t look right but that she knows.
“…Martin?”
The mountain lion— the mountain lion that might actually, crazily, be Martin— purrs.
Koki is going insane. This is a dream. But the weight pressing down on her is very real. And suffocating.
“…can you get off? You're crushing me!”
Martin, who is a mountain lion, has the gall to be sheepish as he steps off. Koki sits up, feeling a little winded after being knocked over like that.
“That’s MARTIN!?” Aviva suddenly shrieks, snapped out of her stupor. Everyone collectively winces at the volume.
“I guess so, and if that’s Martin, then…” They both turn to the second cougar.
And, yeah. That’s Chris, alright. Comparing them in their minds makes it a lot more obvious, now. The proportions, the colouring, the clothes. Even the personalities; because Cougar Chris is completely distracted, head stuck into a crate. And Mountain Lion Martin did just get so excited he bowled them over.
Aviva starts pacing, hands flailing and gesturing wildly. “How did this happen? Is it a creature power suit malfunction? But— they aren’t wearing the suits? Is it a side effect? Did the CPS do this? But—but HOW?!”
“Woah, woah, Aviva!” Koki grabs her by her shoulders. “Calm down, we’ll figure this out.”
Aviva untenses slightly, calming her breathing down from the near hyperventilation it was previously. “Okay, okay— you’re right. We can figure this out, easy!”
“Mhm,” Koki nods, “and until we do, let’s try and keep the Kratt Bros out of trouble.”
They both pause.
“Oh noooooo,” Aviva groans. Koki drops her face into her hands. “It was hard enough keeping the human Kratt brothers out of trouble— what about the Katt brothers?”
“GET DOWN FROM THERE!”
No use. Koki’s yelling does not deter Cougar Chris from climbing to the very top of the Tortuga, even as he scratches up the walls.
“At least now we know that it's Chris, for sure,” Aviva says, from beside her. “At least Martin doesn’t have any water to swim in.”
There’s a crash. Aviva gains a one hundred yard stare, before she turns, slowly. The water dispenser has been knocked over. It has spilled all over the floor. Martin is rolling in it.
Jimmy stares despairingly.
Koki pats him comfortingly on his back.
Aviva takes this moment to hurriedly invent.
The Katt brothers ravage through Jimmy’s fridge.
“Got it!”
Aviva holds them up, triumphant. In her hand, two creature power discs. Specifically— Cougar creature power discs.
“Will they work?” Koki asks, leaning on Aviva’s chair, “I mean— Chris and Martin aren’t really cougars. Uh, maybe?”
“Well, it might, it might not.” Aviva pulls down Chris’ power vest. “But at least we’ll be able to keep up with the two of them.”
“As if we can ever keep up with the Kratt brothers,” Koki snorts, sliding on Martin’s suit. “Alright.” She puts her hands on her hips, narrows her eyes. “Now— to actually catch one of them.”
The Katt brothers do not make it easy. At all. Chris is, of course, perched up as high as he possibly can. Martin seems to think they’re playing tag and keeps running away. Aviva and Koki are annoyed at this, until Martin decides it’s his turn to be It, and having a fully sized Mountain Lion chase you is much, much worse.
But, at least, when Aviva is bowled over, she’s able to activate.
The bright violet flash seems to greatly confuse Mountain Lion Martin, and gets Cougar Chris interested enough to jump down from his post. Koki takes the opportunity to touch the tip of Chris’ tail and activate.
“Woohoo!” Koki pumps a fist, “finally, some power to rival these guys.”
“You got that right!” Aviva rolls Martin off her. Martin flips back up and assumes a wide, playful stance that Aviva readily copies.
Cougar Chris looks to Koki, before he pounces atop the fridge and uses it to leap up to the upper level. “Oh no you don’t!” Koki calls, before she leaps up after him.
Unfortunately, it is the middle of the night, and none of the crew had gotten much sleep. After a few hours of running around and chasing and being chased, they all get too tired to continue.
“I’m beat,” Koki pants, flopping into her chair. There’s an orange flash as she deactivates.
Aviva pants, leaning on her knees; a violet flash, her own suit deactivates. “Same here.”
The Katt brothers don’t seem very tired, but that’s less of a cat thing and more of a Kratt thing. Chris paws at Aviva, and Martin looks at Koki with sad, cat eyes. “Can’t play with you anymore, Kratt bros,” Koki moans, “I am tuckered out!”
Martin makes a huffy noise, before padding over to where Jimmy is laying in the bottom hammock. He grabs on to the fabric, and pulls. Jimmy yelps as he tumbles to the floor, sprawling out with a dizzy, confused look in his eyes. Martin purrs a delighted sound, before plopping down on Jimmy.
Koki quickly stands up and rushes over. “Nuh uh, mister,” she scolds, tugging on his ears to try and get him off, “you’ve done wayyy too much of that, already!”
Unfortunately, Martin does not budge.
Even more unfortunately, Martin actually makes her budge; grabbing on to her shirt and pulling her into his hold. He places a paw over her and doesn’t let her get up, and no amount of Koki’s struggling proves fruitful.
Chris walks over, Aviva being unceremoniously dragged across the floor by the scruff of her jacket. She gets plopped into the pile, and Chris throws himself into the pile, laying on his back on all of them.
“Guess we’re stuck, huh?” Aviva sighs.
“Mhm,” Jimmy mumbles, using one of Martin’s paws as a pillow.
Koki tries to move. It doesn’t work. Adult male mountain lions can range from 56 to 72 kg…and times that by two, and there was no chance of getting out. Koki resigns to her fate— being smothered by two mountain lions, who also happen to be some of her best friends.
The day breaks; the sky shifts from black to orange, and then to blue. Sunlight filters in through the Tortuga’s skylight; the crew sleeping underneath groan as it gets into their eyes.
Aviva feels a shift— the sudden loss of a weight pressing on her wakes her up. She rubs her eyes of grogginess, uttering a confused ‘Mh?’. The movement of her sitting up wakes Koki— Jimmy doesn’t stir, but getting him to wake up for anything other than food or his controller is a lost cause, to be fair.
Her vision clears and the sleepy fog on her mind lifts as she takes in what she’s seeing.
The two Katt brothers were the ones who left the pile— rolling off and away. And now, they both lay shaking and convulsing. Aviva pinches her eyes shut; hearing noises of bones cracking and muffled hisses. She doesn’t open her eyes again until she hears it stop, and when she does— she’s staring face to face at the, once again human, Kratt brothers.
Martin’s hair is a mess, but it always is in the mornings. He arches his arms over his head and stretches, further and further until there’s a satisfying crack and he drops his arms with a relieved exhale. Chris stands up, straightening his crumpled shirt and looking around for something, before his gaze falls on to them.
“Oh! Morning, guys,” he greets with a wide smile, courtesy of the morning person that he is, “sorry, did we wake you?”
“Did you— do you even know what JUST HAPPENED?” Aviva shrieks.
“Ooo,” Martin winces, looking around at the mess of the common room, “did we do that? Sorry, I guess we were both a little antsy…”
Aviva jumps to her feet, quickly rushing over to Martin. She cups his face, squishing his cheeks, and twisting his head all around. “There had to be some kind of malfunction— but that was all biological matter— but how else—”
“Err, Aviva?”
“But maybe it altered your dna? It shouldn’t be able to do that but— but—”
“Aviva!” Her rambling gets cut off. Martin grabs her hands and gently prys her off. Aviva smiles sheepishly. “What are you talking about?”
“What am I— YOU AND CHRIS TURNED INTO MOUNTAIN LIONS?” She gestures wildy.
Martin looks at her, confused, eyebrows furrowed. He opens his mouth and— “Well, yea?”
Aviva blue screens.
“I think you broke her, bro,” Chris says, zipping up his jacket.
“What’d I even say?” Martin pokes her in the arm. Aviva does not respond.
“What Aviva means is that you two turned into mountain lions. Like full, actual mountain lions. As in, the animal,” Koki clarifies— over-clarifies, really.
“…yes?” Martin does not seem any less puzzled. He looks to Chris, but his brother just shrugs. Koki faceplams.
“What’s so special about this time?” Chris asks, “I mean, we do this almost every month?”
“You WHAT?” Aviva’s yell is probably loud enough to be heard from outer space.
“Did you— do you— did you guys not know?” Martin sputters, before breaking out into a full blow laughing fit; holding his sides and tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
“Not know what?” Koki cries.
“Okay, okay,” Martin takes a deep breath to reel himself in, but he still sounds giggly, “so, you know those stories about— werewolves, and stuff?”
Koki and Aviva nod, both too shell-shocked to utter any more of a reaction.
“Yea— me and Chris are that, but with Mountain lions. Did you— really not know?” He breaks out into another fit of laughter.
“Well— I’m sorry my first thought wasn’t were-cougars,” Aviva snaps, indignant.
“We have to have mentioned it to you plenty of times,” Chris says, “I mean— we were talking to JZ about it just a few days ago!”
They all turn to Jimmy. Asleep on the floor.
“…though I wouldn’t put it past him to have forgotten,” he chuckles.
“So you guys just…turn into big cats once a month?” Koki asks, deciding that yea, this was fine. Just another crazy thing about the Kratt brothers— it would be just one of many.
“Thrice, actually,” Martin corrects, finally kind of calm after his bout of laughter.
“You have to tell me everything. In fact, you should have told me everything in the first place— imagine how this affects the CPS? Is that why you two are so good at handling the CPS, because you already have instincts? Oh— this is so much new data!” Aviva, also, seems to have done a 180 from shock, and right into researcher mode.
The brothers look at eachother with dread. They know, when Aviva gets into a mood like this, it was bye bye creature adventuring until she was satisfied. “We’ll answer all your questions, but at least let us get something to eat, first?” Chris tries. Of course, Aviva has already rushed off to her work station, so it falls on deaf ears.
“How long have you guys been like this?” Koki asks.
“Since like— uh— forever! Even before we met,” Martin giggles, “I still can’t believe you didn’t know!”
“Yea,” Chris chuckles, “and it’s not even the first time we’ve shifted in the Tortuga.”
“Wait, really?” Aviva pokes her head out from her station.
“Yea, the last two were inside,” Martin answers absently, head in the fridge, “oh yea…forgot we already ate all that.”
“Jimmy’s got to have another stash somewhere,” Chris mentions to Martin, before turning back to Aviva, “we normally spend the moons outside when we can; but last month we were in the…Arctic? Yea, and before that, we were in the air again, so.”
Koki starts typing at her computer.
“Koki? What are you doing?” Martin asks, muffled by a piece of pizza he’s found shoved into his mouth.
“Rearranging our flight schedule— that way y'all can be on the ground next time. I should get a lunar calendar set up, too.”
“Aww, Koki! Thanks!” Martin smiles so wide his cheeks hurt.
“Yea, yea,” Koki rolls her eyes, impossibly fond, “it’s just so we don’t get you two messing up the Tortuga again.”
“Alright, come on, boys! Let’s get this experiment started!” Aviva calls.
“Coming, Aviva! Oh— and Martin, you may wanna find your jacket,” Chris stifles a snicker.
“My— wait, where’s my JACKET?”