The Payload

The Payload

	Summer was in full swing once again. The days are hot and the nights are warm. The children were out of school, and the sizzling sounds and smells of barbeques could be heard and smelled all around the suburban neighborhoods.

*BOING*
"WOOOOOOOOO!" screams a girl flying through the air from the giant spring that launched her.
*SPLASH*

Emerging from the water, her skin was a deep bronze and her hair was green with long tentacle-like locks. She swam over to the ladder and climbed out of the pool, eager to get back in line for the waterslide. She trotted over to her friends waiting in line, seeing a harpy with aqua blue wings flying up to the top of the slide before a scaly blue hand grabbed her talon and pulled her down. "Hey! No cutting, Aggie!" said the blue-scaled dragonling boy.

"Jake!" said Deelette joining up in line. "You got that water balloon thing set up yet?" she asked.

"The filling and tying machine, yes, but I still need to fine-tune my snowball launcher some more." he explained, stepping up the wide ramp to the top. The ramp was made so even a centaur could climb up it, Jake watching Tibe mount the slide and slip down head-first screaming. Miraculously, the black-coated colt kept from tipping over and the trampoline was strong enough to eject his heavy weight into the pool. He quickly resurfaced with a gasp of air. "How was the flight, 'T'?" Jake shouted over the the contraption.

"SCARY!" the centaur shouted back. "I'm not going back on that thing!" he added, slowly treading his way to the shallow end of the pool. His quadrupedal kind was not the best at swimming.

Meanwhile at a nearby picnic table, Erik and Trish were chatting with Quest and Madison, Deelette's friends from that Snowball fight a year and a half ago. All of them had several toasted sandwiches Erik's mom had made, and all of them bit in, only to be awash with the great flavor it contained. "Oh my God, this is real good!" Madison cried out before wolfing down as much as she could.

"No one's ever said they didn't like it." Erik proudly mumbled from the food in his mouth. Quest was too occupied with his second bite, and even meek Trish smiled from its taste and eagerly chewed and swallowed.

"It's really good, Erik. Thank you!" Trish said before taking another bite.

Behind them, Janice with her wavy brown hair strolled past, headed for a porta-potty just around the corner and up a little hill. She held her nose, knowing the stench, and stepped inside, locking the door. Suddenly, a small blonde-haired figure darted in with a broom in hand and propped it up against the door to hold the lock in place! "That oughta hold you." she whispered. Then, she took out a paper mask with Janice's face on it and put in on her head. With a whirring noise and a cloud of fog, the girl instantly took on the form of Janice! The impostor put her hand to her ear. "Beauty Queen to Foxy Lady. I'm in. Time to test your magic disguise thing, over."

"Would you stop it with the codenames, Delilah? You're taking this way too seriously." said Kikani through her earpiece.

Delilah sighed. "Whatever, Kikani. I've taken care of that furball Janice and gonna pose as her and weaken their defenses. Standby for phase 2. Over and out."

"Taken care of? What does that mean? And what's in that huge white ball of goop?" Kikani asked, but Delilah didn't respond.

Out on the edges of the park, several other kids were watching Deelette and her friends through the wrought-iron bars that separated the waterpark area. Behind them, a truck just unloaded a gigantic clear balloon at least 8 feet across, frothing with some strange white goop. The truck pulled away from the park, leaving the kids staring at it. A boy with patches of black and orange fur and a tiger tail goes up and pokes it.

"Don't touch that, Kenny!" Kikani shouts out. "None of you touch it yet until Delilah says so!" she ordered.

"What is going on? Why did Delilah ask us to come here?" Asked a black human kid with a pair of glasses, the left lens slightly cracked.

"Right, you were sick that day weren't you, Vincent?" Sylvia asked, the lamia slithering forwards. "Delilah stole Deelette's diary, We had this big snowball fight in an ice tower, all of us were on Delilah's time, and she's been Deelette's rival ever since." she explained. She peered down through the bars onto the little party below. "Looks like we're gonna be party crashers."

"Yeah." said Kenny. "I smoked Tibe at Duel Demons. I can beat him again."

Vince peered over at the green scaled Jessica. "Hey, how come you weren't invited with your brother, Jess?"

"We don't do everything together, Vince." Jessica replied. "Besides, Jake trashed my workbench last week when toying around with that snowball launcher, thinking I wouldn't notice. I just told Deelette I was going to the mall today."

"And Delilah promised that she'd pay for new glasses for me." Vincent responded, taking off his pair slightly to scrutinize the crack in his left lens.

Jessica then just remembered something. "Hey, did you bring those special water balloons?"

"Yeah." Vince said back.

"What do they do?"

"You'll see."

Meanwhile, the not-Janice began to casually walk back the pool, trying to blend in, waving to Jake, Tibe, and Aggie. Then it crossed her mind-something about Deelette. She also had shape-shifting succubus powers, and already Delilah had learned how to camouflage her skin to match her surroundings. "Deelette?" she asked her.

"Yeah Janice?" Deelette asked her, stepping out of the pool. By referring her to her disguised persona, Delilah breathed a sigh of relief knowing her disguise worked.

"Can-can you show me that thing where you blend in again?" she requested.

"Sure!" Deelette said without a second thought. She walked to the stucco-concrete wall of the swimming area, back to the wall when suddenly, Deelette's skin, hair, and clothes all changed tints and hues to match the same beige color of the walls, texture and all!

"Whoah." Delilah clapped, trying to maintain character.

"There's more, watch this!" Deelette said, changing her patterns to resemble a grassy field, a brick wall, and grains of wood. Deelette has been developing and practicing! No monochrome ice walls to help her blend  like last time! The not-Janice broke a nervous sweat, but she didn't lose her composure.

"That is SO cool. All I can do is this." Delilah said, holding out her and then repeatedly exposed and retracted several fake claws. "Best I can do when the sun is up." she added, justifying Janice's werewolf being.

"Wow! That's amazing! I never seen you do that!" Deelette exclaimed.

"Yeah, but yours is cooler." Delilah noticed Aggie flying before splashing down into the water; and beyond that, that blue snowball launcher Jake had. She still remembered getting pelted by those frigid orbs from a similar machine so long ago. Delilah just had to slow them down some more. "Excuse me for a sec?"

"Sure."

Delilah walked into a secluded corner, pulling out a hair scrunchie with one hand and touching her ear to her head with the other. "Come in Kikani. Your disguise works. They don't suspect a thing. Proceed with phase 2. Over."

"Will do." said Kikani. "Are you coming back to help us?"

"Just push and roll the thing around. I gotta do some sabotage. Over and out."

"Wait! What's the white goop in that balloon?"

	*3 days ago*

"Here you go, Delilah." Her mom strained and hauled into their garage. "One massive glob of Dragon semen in a Titan-class condom."

"Thank you mom!" The blonde succubus girl hugged sweetly.

"Let me tell you, that wasn't easy to get. You better finish the whole thing, missy!" she reminded her.

A devilish smirk appeared on her face. "Don't worry, mom. I promise I'll use-uh....eat all of it!"

	*Present Day*
"You'd rather not want to know. Over and out."

Delilah then came up to Jake's turret as the dragonling was watching his balloon dispenser. She saw an exposed moving gear and jammed her scrunchie into it. The machine whirred and whined as a trail of smoke began to sputter from it, while Delilah darted off. Then, she watched Aggie get back in line for the launcher and came right behind her. Acting fast, she pulled out a pair of scissors and with a quick snip, clipped off several primary feathers from Aggie's wing.

"What are you doing, Janice?" asked Deelette behind her. BUSTED!

"Uhh......makeover?" the dopplegänger said, but Deelette saw the fallen, clipped feathers.

"JANICE! How could you? Aggie! Janice just clipped your wing!" Deelette shouted, only to find Aggie sliding down the slide, launch by the powerful spring, and flap with great difficulty, only to float slightly before careening into the pool. Meanwhile, Jake realized his turret was smoking and sputtering, only for the water-balloon launcher to collapse before he had enough time to fix it.

Delilah had no choice but to then try to camouflage into the background and run off. But as the scenery changed around her, everyone saw a semi-invisible figure try to run away, confused.

Attempting to chase her, Tibe galloped from around back to catch up to her. But as he rounded the corner, he saw no one, but heard a banging noise from the barred porta-potty. "Hello?! PLEASE! I'M TRAPPED IN HERE AND CAN'T GET OUT!" screamed a voice, followed by several sobbing sounds.

Tibe yanked the broomstick out and told whoever it was to open the door. Fumbling for the lock, Janice burst out when Tibe caught her, just in time for Jake, Aggie, and Deelette to catch up. "Janice?" asked Tibe.

"Jan, you got a lot of explaining to do!" Deelette snapped, unaware that she was dealing with an impostor before.

"You clipped my wings! I can't fly home!" Aggie shuddered with tears in her eyes.

"Is this recognizable?" Jake added, holding up a hair scrunchie. "I found it jammed in my water balloon launcher, and it looks just like the one you got on!"

"Whoa-whoa-whoa!" Tiberius chimed in. "I just found her locked in here with the door jammed!" Janice clung onto the centaur colt defending her, drying her tears in his coat.

"But I was just saw her a minute ago, talking to me!" Deelette said. "She showed me her claws going in and out."

Janice was alarmed by this. "No..." she sniffled. "Wolves can't retract their claws. Only cats can do that." Everyone looked puzzled by this information.

"Besides, how could Janice stop that door from opening from the inside?" Tibe asked, showing everyone the broomstick.

"You have to believe me! I'd never do that to any of you!" Janice cried. Tibe did raise a very good point. How could she have done all that sabotage if she was trapped?

Then it occurred to Deelette-the one person who had a score to settle with her and had the means to fool identities like that. "DELILAH!" she screamed to the heavens.

That's when Erik run up to the group and said "Guys! We got company! Some of our classmates are rolling a giant water balloon in here!"

Everyone just paused, not knowing what to do, until Deelette stepped up. "So Delilah was trying to mess everything up for us. Jake, you still have those armbands?" He nods in affirmation.

"Give them to everyone here. Tibe, get your slingshot." Deelette commanded. Looks like we're on the defensive this time."