Where's Rolly?

After she ate the salami, a surge of energy coursed through Rolly. She puffed up her name and flexed her claws, pressing into the chest of the terrified waiter she was still standing on. "Wow," she said. "I can do anything!"

"Can you get off me?" the waiter squeaked.

Rolly started to laugh. She kept laughing, filling the ballroom with barks and yipes, as her fur grew long and shaggy and her snout elongated, her eyes a fierce red. Her fur lost its cream color, becoming a desaturated light gray, and she raised her nose to the ceiling and howled.

"Oh my goodness! What did you spike that salami with?"

She knew that voice, Rolly turned to look at Irie, who was dragging their mer tail across the ground as they approached with Pinwheel and an unfamiliar furret. "Werewolf transformation potion," the furret said. "It was really hard to use a potion on something that's not liquid, but I did it."

"Well, congratulations," Irie said. "Is Rolly okay?"

"I feel great!" Rolly shouted, her voice booming through the room. "I want to show Dad!"

"Loop de Loop is going to destroy me," Irie said.

"That sounds bad," said the furret.

Pinwheel stepped forward and blinked. Rolly tilted her head.

"You're right," she said. "I should show everyone! Kyrie, too!"

"That's not what they meant!" Irie shouted, raising their voice to be heard above Pinwheel's rapid blinks.

Ignoring both of them, Rolly launched herself off the waiter and ran through the ballroom, shaking the floor with each bound. People threw themselves out of the way, tables and chairs clattered to the ground, food went flying–Rolly didn't care. She wanted to show everyone how big and strong she was, even if she had to run all the way home!

She burst out of the entrance, leaving a door hanging off its hinges. The night was pleasantly cool, the blood-red moon high in the sky, and Rolly paused to howl again.

When the echoes stopped, she looked around.

"Huh," she said. She didn't recognize her surroundings.

Outside in the town, she felt much smaller and definitely not as strong. Rolly flattened her ears against her head and set off at a slower pace.

---

Irie, Pinwheel, and Villain didn't make it out of the building in time to see where Rolly went.

"That's not good," Irie said. "Loop de Loop is going to be so mad when he sees this, and I can't promise anyone else won't be hurt by the splash damage."

Pinwheel blinked. Irie glanced over at them. "You're right, Pinwheel," they said. "Rolly doesn't know how to get home from here, does she?"

"You should probably find her," said Villain, gripping her tail in her paws. "I'll help, since this was sort of my fault."

Irie smiled. "We appreciate it."

Pinwheel tilted their head and blinked.

"Well, I appreciate it," Irie said with a stern look at Pinwheel. "You don't have to be rude, you know."

"Uh," said Villain. "Okay?"

The group approached an eevee huddling under a bench. "Hello there," said Villain. "Have you seen a scary eevee go this way?"

"I've seen eevees the likes of which you would never believe." The black eevee stuck her head out, revealing one long ear and one short ear. "You would, too, if you knew my trainer."

Irie's ears perked up. "Oh, are you another one of Kyrie's? So am I!"

"Really?" said the eevee. She crawled out from under the bench and shook herself. "My name is Sandwich," she said. "I don't recognize you."

"I'm Irie. Did you recognize Rolly?"

"Oh, yeah," Sandwich said. "She was going in a direction."

"Great," said Irie. "Did you happen to see which direction?"

Sandwich's eyes twinkled. "I'll tell you if you can answer my riddles three."

"Sure," said Villain before Irie could complain. "We probably have time for that. What's the first one?"

Puffing up her chest, Sandwich spoke in a deep, booming voice: "Which direction did Rolly run off in?

"Really?" said Irie.

Pinwheel stepped forward and gave Sandwich a long look without blinking. Sandwich batted her eyelashes and stared back. After a few seconds, Pinwheel slowly pointed their tail down the street.

"Great!" said Sandwich. "For the second riddle–"

Irie, Pinwheel, and Villain walked away.

"Well, okay," she said, and followed.

One brisk walk later, they spotted Rolly chasing some poor mini eevee, probably also owned by Kyrie, but Rolly didn't care. She chased them up a tree and clawed at the trunk trying to drag herself after them, then got distracted by how sharp her claws were. "Wow!" she said, dragging them across the bark. "This is cool!"

"Rolly!" Irie called. "You have to come with us!"

Rolly stopped. She slowly turned to look at them, her eyes narrowed. "Why should I?" she said. "This is awesome!"

Irie met her eyes with a glare of their own. "Because you're going to get in trouble," they said. "Also, this isn't the way home."

"It's not?"

"No, Rolly," they said in exasperation, "it's not."

Rolly put all four paws back on the ground. "Okay," she said. "I'll come with you. You're going home, right?"

"Yes, of course," said Irie. "Just wait there for one moment, I have to have a conversation with this lovely furret."

"I'm lovely?" said Villain in surprise.

"Yes, you're very lovely." Irie turned their back to Rolly and motioned for Villain and Pinwheel to lean in close. "How do we undo the salami transformation?" they whispered. "She can't stay like this forever."

"Oh," said Villain. "There isn't really an undo, but she can turn back to normal whenever she wants to."

Pinwheel looked at Irie and blinked.

"That's right!" said Irie in surprise. "I didn't know that, I thought it was permanent. So she just has a new form now?"

Villain shrugged. "That's about it."

"Well, okay. Let's all go home."

"I'm included!" shouted Sandwich.

Irie jerked their head back. "Hey!"

"Hi," said Rolly, who had crept up behind them while no one was looking. "So… home now? I want to show this to my dad."

"Wait just a minute," Irie said, trying to calm their racing heart. "Rolly, this is a very cool new ability, but–"

"It's not just cool," Rolly said. "It's epic."

"Okay, yes, very epic–"

"I think it slaps," says Sandwich.

"What?"

"You could call it poggers," Villain suggested.

"Okay, everyone shut up." Irie took a deep breath. "Loop de Loop's going to see you coming from a mile away," she said to Rolly. "Why don't you, well… go back to your normal size for a little while, and then your father will be that much more surprised when you show him."

"Oh, sure." Rolly shrank in an instant, returning to her regular cream-colored eevee self.

"Oh, thank goodness," Irie said. "Now that's over with, we should go."

Villain smiled. "I'm glad I could help," she said. "Sorry about all that. Do you want to hang out sometime?"

Irie turned to Villain with a smile. "I was going to ask you on a date, actually. You're a very interesting person, and I'd love to spend more time with you."

Villain's eyes widened. "Really? Poggers!"

Their eye twitched. "Sure, poggers. So, meet me here Friday night?"

"Hey, guys," Sandwich said. "Rolly ran off again."

They all looked up to see that Rolly was not with them. An explosion sounded in the distance.

"Unpoggers," said Villain.

Irie sighed and started walking towards the source of the explosion and the shrieking eevee laughter that followed. Pinwheel, Sandwich, and Villain all looked at each other. Pinwheel blinked.

"You said it," Sandwich agreed.

"What did they say?" asked Villain.

"Oh, Pinwheel doesn't say anything, we all just make up whatever we want to hear. Right, Pinwheel?"

The lileep-eevee fusion nodded. They seemed fine with it.

"Yeah," said Sandwich. "Okay, we're going. See you later, furret!"

"My name is Villain," said Villain, but Sandwich and Pinwheel were already walking away. Villain sighed, but smiled at the thought of a date with Irie.

"Friday night," she said to herself. "I should spike salami more often!"