EEnE Z IDC Ch. 12: A Grand Slip

Corey began to make his way up to the riverbank where Bambi and company were. As he was walking, Sonic, perched on his back, working as fast as he could in dislodging the porcupine's quills from Corey's rear end. Every time another one came loose, Corey would wince in pain somewhat. The whole time, Ronno continued to laugh and snort, not even coming close to trying to act composed.

"Are you alright?" Bambi asked, still looking at him.

"I've been through worse," Corey replied instinctively, without even thinking about it. Sonic smacked his forehead as he continued to work on the de-quilling of Corey's rump.

"Smooth one..." the hedgehog grumbled, now on the third to last quill. He gave that a sharp tug, dislodging it from the muscle.

"Wha--?" Corey whispered back. He then realized his error. Sure, it was true, as a Saiyan, he had been through hell and back, almost daily, but as a deer...how could he have said that. "Oh..."

"What are you whispering about?" Bambi asked. "And...uh, what could be worse than that?"

Shit on a stick... Corey thought to himself as Sonic finished his job and dismounted.

"How 'bout all those fights you got into back in our previous forest, Corey?" Sonic asked, winking with the eye not facing the others.

"Oh, right...yeah, when I was young, people challenged me to a lot of fights. Playing, of course, but sometimes they really got rough. I fell down a lot." Corey lied, playing along with Sonic. Nice save there, Sonic...

Ronno was finally starting to calm down, still chortling lightly. "Oh man, that was gold...! You need to trip over your back legs more often, Stumbles!"

Corey's nose wrinkled visibly, and it looked to Sonic like he had just been on the business end of one of Sonic's post chili-dog gas attacks. It wasn't his fault-Ed and Zach had challenged him to that damn contest, which he lost miserably at. Ed won that contest outright. Either way, when all was said and done, a few windows broke, car alarms went off, and the entire city of Peach Creek smelled like hell for quite a few hours. Eddy later made an El Mongo Stink Bomb out of the resultant gas, I hear, which contains the stink to this day--fuck, I got off track there, got to stop that.

"'Stumbles'? Really?" Corey questioned. "That doesn't really make any sense..."

"It does to me. Are you here to stand up for the young prince again?" It was Ronno's turn to ask a question. When Corey failed to answer, he shook his head slowly, in mock disappointment. "Pitiful. Faline, let's go and leave these two alone."

Corey bit back a retort, since he didn't know if homosexuality even existed here in this universe, and decided it wouldn't be prudent to issue a defensive statement on his behalf. Faline, on the other hand, responded to Ronno's statement.

"I'm staying here," she said sternly, blue eyes locked on Ronno's. Corey felt something flutter within himself, like a butterfly. He couldn't identify this feeling, however. He closed one eye and half-closed the other, sort of understanding what was happening inside him.

"Aw, come on..." Ronno lowered his head, and appeared to try and force Faline back. She looked at Ronno, and told him to quit it. Unconsciously, Corey bared his teeth, and wasn't aware of it. Something inside was welling up within him, but he couldn't release it. For some reason, all the morphed Saiyan could think of was yelling at Ronno to fuck off.

D-damn, what's wrong with me? Don't you say a word, don't you say--

"Leave her alone!" a voice shouted.

Please, please, tell me that wasn't me... Corey thought, having lost awareness in his haze.

"Did you..." Ronno turned from Faline to Bambi and his friends. "...say something..."

Oh mother of a fuck...

"Bambi?"

Corey let out a suppressed sigh of relief, thanking the stars in the sky, Spider-Man, and God himself that he didn't let out his inner thoughts. He scowled inwardly, trying to find why he felt that urge to shout at Ronno when he started trying to force Faline to leave. Sonic, of course, noticed his friend's disgusted expression.

Don't...don't tell me he's...! Sonic thought, a disturbed scowl on his face taking form. It's like Sonic '06 all over again!

Ronno, meanwhile, had begun to walk slowly toward Bambi, a smug look on his face. The latter, on the other hand, began shrinking back.

"No..." Bambi began, before regaining steam slightly. "I mean, yes! Leave her alone!" When Ronno leaned over Bambi in an intimidating way, he quickly lost all the steam he had gathered, and resorted to "Please?"

Corey snapped back into focus. He could sort out his mixed feelings later. Right now, he had something more important to pay attention to. That is, mediating the average bully versus victim situation in the middle of a forest, without access to Ki. Not that he would have used it to attack anyway given that he might mortally wound someone without meaning to.

"You tell 'im, Bambi!" said Thumper, once again trying to get his friend to fight back a little harder. Ronno was amused by the smaller animal's display of ferocity, and lowered his head to allow more words to spout out from the orifice we refer to as a mouth.

"Oh, wook," Ronno said, reminding the Saiyan stuck in a fawn's body of baby talk, serving to aggravate him to no end. "it's the wittle bunny and the wittle skunk." He then raised his head to Bambi, still using that same headache-inducing baby voice, "Does the young pwince pway with the wittle bunny and the wittle skunk?"

Before Corey could act, however, Thumper acted first, pushing Bambi's back legs. This in turn, caused Bambi to suddenly lean forward, in so doing headbutting Ronno into a small mudpit nearby. As the Saiyan and hedgehog both suppressed their laughter at that event, the other animals gave a surprised gasp. The darkest-colored fawn lay stunned, not expecting this. Finally, he began to rise up, obviously pissed that Bambi had done as he had. Instantly, the gray rabbit chose to take a practical and mature solution to this problem.

"Run!" he yelled, immediately turning tail and hopping away. At this moment, Ronno straightened up on all four of his legs and gave an angry yell. Bambi froze for an instant before following Thumper's lead. Meanwhile, the skunk passed out from the excitement, falling over tail-first. As Faline called out to Bambi, telling him to run, the Saiyan stuck in a foreign universe decided to act on this before things got worse in his eyes.

"That's my cue..." Corey grunted, allowing Sonic to jump off his head.

"Corey, you're just going to make things worse..." Sonic whispered, agitated that his friend was once again going to butt in where he really didn't need to be.

"When I was young, Zach and Drew told me that it always gets worse before it gets better." said the Saiyafawn in response, breaking into a run after Ronno.

"You're insane!" Sonic yelled after him.

Thankfully, not all of Corey's Saiyan skills were completely negated by his new body. In the space of a few seconds, with his above-average agility still very much intact, he was able to head off Ronno, who immediately applied the brake, skidding slightly, now glaring at the younger-appearing fawn.

"Out of the way, bodyguard!" he yelled, attempting to intimidate Corey by pretending to charge. The Saiyan didn't even move, even though he was still at a bit of a disadvantage. "How do you expect to do anything to protect him when you can't even maintain your footing?!"

"You and I have some unfinished business," said Corey, deflecting the unneeded question entirely. "You know, from before when you scared the poor groundhog to no end..."
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As the two squared off, the Young Prince of the Forest, Bambi, realized he was no longer able to hear Ronno dashing behind him. In fact, he could hear voices talking to each other.

"What's it to you?" asked Ronno, obviously mad. Thumper, who had since hopped on Bambi's head to serve as some sort of navigator, had to say something.

"Who's he talking to?" the rabbit asked. The two decided to creep slowly back where they came.

"Well, it's a pretty big deal whether or not he sees his shadow, right? You're not his shadow, so you can't scare him." replied the animal that had cut him off. And both rabbit and fawn knew exactly who did.

"C-Corey?" Bambi asked. "What's he doing?"

"Looks like he's about to take up the fight, or something," Thumper replied. "If you ask me, with his footing troubles, he really shouldn't try to fight other fawns' battles."

"He knows what he's doing..." Bambi spoke up, a mix of confidence and sadness in his voice. Who was this fawn, anyway? And why was he so...strange? What was with that grunting, and why does he seem to pick fights more often than even Ronno? More importantly, a slight feeling of betrayal welled up in his heart...
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Back at the riverbank, behind Sonic, Faline, and the still unnamed unconscious skunk, was another, having gone unnoticed due to all the commotion. He was looking up past the animals towards the bickering fawns at the top of the hill. He chuckled lightly to himself.

"That fool knows not what he's doing...he may make my job that much easier if Master permits..." said the being, an older fawn than even Ronno, judging by his slightly bigger body and larger stubs for antlers. His fur, unlike every other deer seen up until this point, was shades of gray and jet black. His eyes were also an odd color, one was an amber color and the other was a blood red color.

"I will not fail my master's wishes..." he said, continuing to watch the fawn with the scarf bicker with the older looking fawn...
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Faline and Sonic looked up as well, towards the two fawns about to fight. Sonic looked over to the doe and noticed she was staring in Corey's direction. Instantly, the blue hedgehog realized Corey was doing far more harm than he realized he was doing.

While the blue blur couldn't accurately deduce Faline's emotional balance, he knew enough of females to know that the look Faline was shooting in the Saiyan's direction meant one thing and one thing alone: "I'm going to tackle you to the ground and hug you half to death."

Or something like that, anyway. Sonic still didn't understand why Amy felt the need to glomp him seemingly every single time he was within running distance.
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"Before we begin, Ronno," Corey finished, apparently seeing the talking was going nowhere. "I have to tell you something I really think you should know."

"What's that, Stumbles?" asked Ronno, already recycling the same derogatory nicknames he had on reserve for his new nemesis.

"You just lost the game." answered the Saiyan, delving into internet memes he had read up on while waiting for the gravity room so he could train. It had been a wonderful experience for him. Then it turned to crap when he discovered word-based memes weren't the only memes on the internet, but that's a different story for a different day, because I wish to avoid pissing anyone off.

Ronno face-faulted, apparently not expecting Corey's little taunt to be one of that variety.

"I...lost...the game...?! What game?" the older fawn yelled, confused. During the short time in which Ronno's full attention was on the meaning of Corey's words, the swapped Saiyan quietly considered what he should do in this scuffle. He quietly tried to gather Ki, but realized he had barely any control over it.

Damn, going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, Corey thought as Ronno recovered from the ingenious and meme-tastic taunt. "Alright, let's go." the Saiyan said aloud, getting into a fighting stance. Ronno was, once again, allowed to make the first move. Corey braced for impact as a skull collided with his own. The impact sent vibrations down his spine, but the Saiyan began pushing back against Ronno aggressively. The two were evenly matched for the moment, and Corey was able to put pressure on his new enemy.

However, a natural born deer always has the advantage in a fight over a "forced-swap" deal, so with one mighty lunge, the darker-colored fawn was able to push the scarf-wearing one away. Corey stumbled back, and began his own offensive strike, charging a little too fast and almost sending Ronno sprawling onto one side again.

Even if he's a dick, he's still a bully, so really, I shouldn't beat him too hard... Corey thought, analyzing the situation further. Especially if I want to help Bambi. I have to hold back on him or I might do even more harm to the timeline than I already have!

Ronno recovered, and this was where Corey decided to pull his punches. The former wouldn't know-he'd just write it off as a lucky hit and nothing more. With this in mind, Corey tanked a headbutt and went on his side. The Saiyan made sure to slowly rise to his four feet.

"Hmmm..." Corey said.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" asked Ronno, taunting him.

"You tell me." Corey replied, attacking again, but this time consciously holding back his attack so that Ronno would only stumble back from the force of the hit as opposed to lying down.

"Not bad...I guess you got lucky on that first one..." the natural-born fawn commented. He charged Corey, and soon both were on their back legs. Corey had absolutely no idea what to do, and just decided to mimic whatever Ronno was doing. Eventually, Corey allowed Ronno to push him over.

"Darn!" Corey grunted, in mock surprise.

Ronno prepared to attack again while Corey was down, but he caught sight of something that sent chills down his spine. Corey decided to rise to his feet.

What's with him? Corey asked, looking into Ronno's face and seeing a slight fear. Ronno began to take a few steps back, giving Corey room to step forward a bit so that he could look behind him. When he did, he saw that same adult deer from earlier, the one that had rescued him from the attack dogs. Oh...

At this point, the fawn, who had not five seconds ago been an antagonistic prick in Corey's eyes, turned tail and ran out, causing the swapped Saiyan's eye to twitch involuntarily in irritation.

That's right, run, run, run like a little bitch... the Saiyan thought in frustration. He was now faced with something else: how to inform the Great Prince of what happened. At this point, Faline, Sonic, and the skunk from earlier walked up, having seen what happened. Corey decided to turn to face the Great Prince directly, and await whatever came.

"You..." the Great Prince began, in obvious deep thought. There was a slight edge of irritation to his voice. "You're that fawn from earlier, aren't you? Why were you...fighting him..."

"He was..." Corey began, trying to find a way to indicate that Ronno saw something he really shouldn't have without injuring the fourth wall as he was so used to doing. "He must have seen that incident out on the meadow last night."

"Erm..." said a timid voice. Corey followed the sound to see Bambi, Thumper still perched on his head. Both looked as though they knew that he wasn't supposed to be out and about.

"Bambi, I thought I told you to stay at the den, where it was safe...when I give you an order, I expect you..." the Great Prince trailed off, as though finally realizing what Corey said. "You say that fawn somehow saw that incident?"

"No mistaking it. He brought it up. Attempted to make him look bad in front of his friends." Corey summarized, calling upon his experience in giving incident reports from the School Wars. The Great Prince seemed somewhat disturbed by this speech pattern change, but otherwise sighed. Suddenly, he stiffened.

"Something's...wrong here." he said matter-of-factly, looking around. "Bambi, let's head back to the den. I have a strange feeling. It's like nothing I've ever felt before, and I want to teach you how to feel for it."

"O...Okay!" Bambi affirmed, allowing Thumper to hop of his head, apparently relieved that something more dire than a case of disobedience had caught his father's attention. Corey noticed Bambi seemed to be looking to him, then to someone behind him. The shifted Saiyan decided to turn around, and saw Faline.

That's right...from the looks of it...she's supposed to be someone of importance to him in the future... Corey thought, then noticed the hurt, betrayed look on Bambi's face for just a split-second. Oh...oh no. Don't tell me... A second look at Faline and this time, he distinctly noticed she somewhat shyly looked away from his gaze. ...Things just got a hell of a lot harder...!

As soon as Thumper and the skunk went off following their friend, Sonic went up to Corey, jumping on his head.

"You do know you've messed up, right?" Sonic whispered into his ear.

"I noticed..." Corey responded through gritted teeth.

"Noticed what?" Faline asked, the Saiyan having apparently forgotten the doe was there. Instantly, both hedgehog and Saiyan froze. Deciding to segway into his question from this mumbled statement, and hoping she didn't hear the hedgehog's quiet protest, Corey turned to face her directly.

"That, you and Ronno were hanging out together," the morphed warrior lied, "I thought that you two weren't..."

"Oh. No. No, we aren't." the young doe immediately asserted. "He just decided to force me into watching him talk about himself. Funny thing, he ran into a tree trying to impress me...I'm just not that easily impressed."

"I see..." Corey responded, nodding slightly.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'll go see if Bambi's dad will let me see him. I just want to make sure he's alright." Faline spoke up after a silence. She began to walk past Corey, smiling slightly at him, causing Corey to feel incredibly awkward, part of which stemmed from the fact he knew full well what Drew would think of this development. The other part, he still couldn't rightfully identify why. Suddenly, a flood of previous memories came to the surface. The strange way in which he had first announced that Ronno and Faline were close to each other, the feeling of utter embarrassment he had experienced when he realized he had failed at footing right in front of her, and wanting to tell Ronno to fuck off when he started forcing her to leave...

"N-no..." Corey mouthed, being sure to look at the floor. "It can't be..."

"What's wrong, Corey?" asked Sonic, quietly, noticing his friend's vigor had almost vanished in that moment.

"So, see you later," said Faline, walking into the distance.

"Yeah, see you!" Corey called back, uncontrollably, unexpectedly, and, to the dimensionally displaced heroes' horror, a bit of energy behind it. The doe heard his comment, and the smile grew wider. The Saiyan looked away, a mixture of self-hate and shyness kicking in. The doe proceeded to walk away, a spring very much in her step.

Sonic's jaw dropped when Corey had his unexpected, energetic outburst. He jumped off Corey's head, and stared him dead in the eyes, brown eyes meeting green.

"What the heck was that about?!" he demanded as soon as Faline left earshot. "Don't tell me...you're...?!"

"...I don't know why. I don't know how. But..." Corey looked away from Sonic at this point, trying to find appropriate words for this. "...but...I can't deny it. Somehow, I'm attracted to her...or at least I think I am..."

"What makes you think that?" the hedgehog asked, disgusted yet curious.

"Well..." Corey began. After he had explained what had happened to him during certain moments of this day, Sonic shook his head.

"No matter what, Corey, do not act on these feelings." the hedgehog directed. "We already have a questionable story to tell to Drew when we next see him, and I don't want to get killed when he hears you fell in love with an animal."

"Uh, Sonic..." the Saiyan began, but the blue hedgehog quickly cut him off.

"It never happened, Corey. Sonic '06 never happened, and don't you forget it!" he almost screamed in an angry voice.

"...Not that. But aren't you and your friends...technically, animals?" Corey asked.

"One even more animal than I am..." Sonic responded again. "...So what do you plan to do..."

The young Saiyan thought it over for a moment, looking in the direction Bambi had left.

"I think I know." Corey said after this, "I have to...train him. I have to teach him what I know from personal experience, without actually describing said personal experience, even if it means I'll have to allow him to kick my rear end up and down this forest. It's the only way I can see that'll restore his universe."

"Alright. So, I guess we'll be going back to our sleeping area, then?" asked Sonic, jumping on to Corey's head.

"Yeah. Speaking of training, I think we'd better start. I have a feeling that the Great Prince is sensing trouble that only we can handle." Corey responded. "Regain our control over our abilities. We can't let our bodies limit us."

Sonic agreed, as they continued to walk back to their base, completely unaware they were being watched...