"Slip, wake up," said a familiar voice.

It was Xandra.

In my mind I saw her normal face; pale skin, slightly longer-than-ear-length black hair, and brown eyes which were a little on the large side.

Upon sleepily opening my eyes however I saw her huge toon-like eyes staring back at me. She was still in the form of her human-raccoon alter-ego Miss Toontastic. Which included a racoon-ish nose, large racoonish ears, fangs, and long dark hair that was curled at the tips.

In the dying evening light her prom-like dress was still in one piece; covering her from ankle, to wrist, and neck. The dress, surprisingly, had very few cuts and holes in it after all the fighting which had gone down earlier in the day against the Pied Piper Task Force and the Sub-Divisioners; Chips, Lure, and Soaks. The worst of the damage was at the hem of the dress, where it was soaked in dirt, grime, mud, and grass stains.

"I'll set you down, yeah?" another familiar voice rang.

It was Azad, in the form of his alter-ego Clang. I felt the reverberation of his voice against my cheek from his back. I patted his shoulder and he set me down.

It felt good to stretch my legs, since I had been piggybacking off Clang for hours, and must have fallen asleep. I felt a lot more refreshed for having slept, but also a good deal hungrier too. The last thing I remembered was Clang and Miss Toontastic bickering about which direction to take.

We were in a driveway, on the edge of a huge main road, with lots of forestation all around. Near the driveway was a For Sale sign. Turning round, I saw we were outside a large old-fashioned pub. A hanging sign by the pub's front double doors read, The Shops.

"It's alright," Clang's voice rang, "Nobody's in there."

Clang's golden sandlike mask fell to the ground, losing its gold and silver luster. Without his mask, Clang's all-new, all-improved face was exposed to the open air. He looked nothing like the acne-scarred, bulbous-nosed young man I had first met. His face was handsome, as if Azad's original face had been perfectly manipulated using graphics editing software to look like a movie-star version of himself.

And then I remembered the state I was in. Taller, but also looking like a skinless man, the deep red and rubber-like tendons and sinews of the Slip-suit on show. Although I didn't have skin, it didn't hurt, and still felt to a degree like I was wearing an outer costume layer. I could see clearly, though I knew my face had a skull-cowl to it, and beneath the cowl's eyesockets were the pink sinew-strands which covered my eyes.

I did, thankfully, still have eyelids, which I could feel when I blinked.

Both Clang and Miss Toontastic were waiting on me. They looked tired.

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"Okay," I said, forcing a smile, "Let's pop to The Shops."

"Wait," said Miss Toontastic, bringing Clang and I to a stop, "I'll find a way in. I'll make sure there's no silent alarms or anything like that. You both wait here, okay?"

Neither Clang or I offered any objection. It was still amazing to watch how effortlessly Miss Toontastic bounded away at high speed.

Clang turned and studied me with his golden-and-silver-tinged eyes.

"You're looking rough," he said.

I noticed his voice had lost its ringing reverberance.

"I feel rough," I said, my voice keeping its resonance, "I'd pushed myself to the limit saving Joanne before. You know, the woman who's life we saved?"

"Oh. Yeah," said Clang.

His mood soured for a moment, then he grinned excitedly.

"Did you see the way the people stopped the Peepers from getting to us?" he said.

"Yeah," I resonated, with a grin.

"And they had their phones out before," said Clang, "What we did is gonna be all over the internet."

"I'm not sure that's a good thing," I resonated.

"It is," said Clang.

He bumped my shoulder with his closed fist.

"It means we're on the map," he said, "People are going to know us for who we are."

And then, to make sure there wasn't any doubt in what he meant, he declared, "Heroes!"

I stretched, popping and cracking a few joints across my body in the process.

"It was pretty heroic what we did, wasn't it?" I resonated.

"Yeah," said Clang, "But you shouldn't've let Soaks go."

The grin which had been on my Slip-masked face vanished. A familiar pang in my gut returned, like someone was gripping my internal organs with ice-cold hands.

A sudden clacking noise drew our attention to the double doors, one of which opened to reveal Miss Toontastic, who was showing off her fangs with a smile.

"It's all clear," she said, "We're not going to trip any alarms. You've got to see inside!"

Clang and I shared a brief glance and then we entered The Shops.

"It's like a Tardis," I resonated, looking around the huge pub that seemed much larger on the inside.

"Okay nerd," said Clang, wryly.

"You got the reference, though didn't you?" I shot back.

Clang snorted.

The ground floor of the pub was spacious, with lots of old polished wooden beams, wall panels, tables, and chairs. And where there wasn't wood there were large stones, making the place have an old tavern-like vibe, and yet the pub interior was still modern-feeling too; probably because of the modern light fixtures, and empty drink fridges, and a nearby cash register with a monitor attachment.

"Is this place really vacant?" I resonated.

"Oh yeah," said Miss Toontastic, "Hundreds of pubs go out of business every year. Honestly, we should keep an eye out for pubs because they're the most likely places to be empty these days."

"That's bleak," I resonated.

"And look!" said Miss Toontastic excitedly.

She sprang over a nearby bar countertop and popped back up holding a cardboard box filled with packets of something.

"Pork scratchings!" she said.

I shot a look at Clang, and then in unison we both mimicked Miss Toontastic's tone and yelled, "Pork scratchings!" back.

She chucked packets at us in revenge, which we were all too happy to catch, rip open, and to start devouring the contents.

"'There any drinks left?" said Clang, his chiselled cheeks bulging from being stuffed with two packets worth of pork scratchings.

"Not here," said Miss Toontastic, "But I think I saw a storage room for stuff upstairs. Don't get your hopes up, though. I think they cleared out the place pretty good. Think they left behind the scratchings 'cos they're out of date."

"Even if they were in date they'd taste bad," I resonated, my mouth also filled with them, "But I'm so hungry I don't even care."

"The electricity is working," said Miss Toontastic, "But I don't think we should turn on any lights. But…"

She trailed off, because she knew we'd want to hear what she said next.

"...there's a TV in the back."

It was kind of silly how excited we were about that.

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