“So I just press this button, toss this device into the water pipe, and everyone gets a random transformation?” Asked a mischievous looking human boy named Dylan. Despite the advancements in technology in the past few years, there were still a handful of troublemakers in the world. Most pranks are harmless, but some have injured people, and this group was going to see just how far their jokes could go before getting the principle or disciplinarian involved. A buff, black-scaled lizard laughed and slapped Dylan’s back. “What’s wrong, meatboy? Cold feet? It’s an easy prank.” A brown paw reached out and touched Dylan’s shoulder. He turned around a saw his best friend, a female quokka the group called Bounce, but he knew her as Bridgette. She spoke up and told the lizard boy, “Save the fear tactics for your victims, Sledge. Dyl’s got this.” They were a ragtag group of different species with seemingly nothing in common with each other, but they somehow found friendship. With the “leader” of the group being the black lizard Sledge, he had a few boys he called the cleanup crew, a rat named Jolt and a rhino named Tank. There were Dylan and Bounce, who didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the group, but were constantly seen together with this group. Lastly, there were the “smart kids” of the group: a human female named Rosalyn, a zebra they called Wrench, and a rich, well-dressed lioness appropriately called Princess, who managed to get this special contraption for this prank. Princess chimed in to the conversation, “If he’s not doing it, then I need to bring that back to the lab before daddy finds out. He cannot know that one of the TF429s were stolen.” Bounce gave her a look with unusually cold eyes. “He’s gonna do it.” With enough encouragement (and threats), Dylan left the group with the odd device in his pocket, trying his best to be casual. He saw a few warning signs that did a poor job of closing of the area of the school that the maintenance guys were working on, so he took that opportunity to sneak inside. Just as Sledge had said, there was an exposed water pipe inside, all he had to do was drop it inside and the deed was done. Giving the area a quick glance, he pulled out the device and dropped it down the tube quickly making his escape to just before the staff came back to watch the entryway.
So far, so good.
A few hours later the school made an announcement that the water was officially back on and students may now use the restrooms and drink from the water fountain again. A literal stampede of students rushed through the halls to reach the restrooms and water fountains before the announcement had even finished. The teachers couldn’t stop them, and so the plan had succeeded. All Dylan had to do was meet up with Sledge and he was officially a part of the group. What no one else could see was that this group of kids had successfully pranked either the entire school, the principal, or a superintendent and without getting caught. Each of the kids in the group got a special nickname because of it, Sledge being the first, followed by Jolt, then Bounce, Princess, Tank, and lastly Wrench. Only Rosalyn and Dylan didn’t have a special nickname, but today would change that.
Getting back to his classes, he waited for the results of his efforts, looking back at Wrench, who gave him a thumbs up. Suddenly, people could be heard screaming. Dylan ran to the hallway, with Wrench following close behind, to see exactly what was happening.
He was not prepared to see…