It's late evening. Buck's newly-completed plane works like a dream (so far, at least); it's responsive, it steers well, and it flies smoothly. And, right now, it flies homewards.

The celebratory opera had been exciting, with a fair amount of action and only a few interminably long songs; the sun had set several hours ago, and the new plane (does it have a name?) is buzzing quietly homeward by the light of the streetlamps when, up ahead, trouble first becomes visible. 'Trouble', in this case, consists of a snake and a spider. The snake has his lower body coiled about the nearest streetlamp (not actually too far from the one where Kip did his death-defying leap across the road and had to be saved by a passing bat), and his neck extended out over the road. The snake's tongue flashes out and grabs a passing firefly (which had been buzzing about the light in the manner of so many insects). He spits it out in the direction of the spider, who wears a catcher's glove on the end of his upper left hand.

"'Ow many more?" asks the snake, ignoring the approaching plane.

"Don' know." calls back the spider. "'Ow many d'you think Freddie needs?"

Hex taps Buck on the shoulder and points at the snake.

"Think maybe we should tail those two? Seems kind of odd to see a snake and a spider working together to kidnap fireflies."

"Sure, we've got a full charge, and nowhere to be."

Tailing them is currently impossible; not because there's anything particularly stealthy about them, but simply because they're not going anywhere to be tailed to. The snake's tongue simply shoots out to grab another firefly and spit it back to the spider.

The Rangers can, of course, simply hover nearby and wait for them to leave and then tail them, if they'd like.

Hex points to a nearby balcony, "Let's set down there. That should get the plane out of sight, but still give us a vantage point to watch those guys. That way we don't have to waste the batteries waiting for them to move."

OOG: Spending a fate point for a convenient balcony just above the level of the street light and far enough not to be obvious.

Once we're on the ground, Hex will scamper over to the edge to be able to watch and (hopefully) hear the pair below.

OOG: How big are the snake and spider?

Kip will follow Hex, curious as to what is going on as well.

The snake and spider are big enough to deter one-rodent heroics (or even four-rodent heroics; see OOC thread for details). However, four rodents and a plane, if you take them by surprise and are willing to retreat if necessary, may be able to take them and at worst would be forced to flee into the air where they cannot follow. There only real trouble would be if they had air support of some sort.

There's ivy growing over the railings of the balcony, making it a perfect place to watch unobserved from, but aside from the occasional comment on whether or not it's enough for 'Freddie', there's not much to hear. The snake appears to ignore all other insects to go after fireflies in particular, and though this is otherwise a good place to watch from, one can't quite see where the spider is putting the fireflies from this angle. (He's standing with his back more-or-less to the balcony).

Avery attempts to get the attention of one of the other passing insects being ignored by the snake.

Given the situation, the only insects still buzzing about the lamp post are those that are too entranced by the light to pay attention to trivialities like snakes trying to eat them. They simply won't respond to any attempt to catch their attention short of walking up to them and shaking them; and that will require a trip in the plane to get to them.

However, as Avery pushes aside a leaf on the ivy to get a better view of the insects, she does find herself suddenly face to eyestalk with a snail.

"Hello," says Avery automatically. "I'm Avery Havarti. What's your name? It's nice to meet you. Do you live around here?"

A snail's mouth is on the bottom of its foot; this tends to make them somewhat muffled conversationalists at the best of times.

"My name's Sammy." says the snail. "Yes, live here." He gestures backward with one eyestalk, indicating either his shell or something behind him.

Hex chuckles.

"Leave it to Avery to find a new friend in unlikely places," he says, grinning, then tip's his hat to Sammy. "Pleased to meet you, friend."

He'll then angle himself so that he can still keep an eye on the Spider and Snake. He doesn't want to be unfriendly, but Avery's much better at meeting people so he'll let her handle pumping the snail for information.

"It's so nice to meet you! What a lovely home you have. Did you notice when that spider and snake got here? Have you heard anything they've been saying?"

Kip checks out the area, but stays close o the others. He will make sure the snake and spider don't have air support. Or any other backup that might be nearby.

If the spider and snake have any air support, it's not visible right now.

"Polish it." says the snail, in the slow, deliberate way of his species. "Every day." And his shell is, indeed, noticeably shiny. "Been here quarter hour." he adds. "Didn't really listen. Not my business."

Meanwhile, the snake asks "That enough?"

"Yeah." agrees the spider. "That should be enough for Freddie."

They begin to head down the lamp post.