Speaker 1: Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world.
I'm Martin, and you are listening to Dad's bedtime stories. Tonight,
we're going to be jumping back into a series that
you really haven't had to listen to before to understand,
the Spaceship series. And as long as you understand that
you're the main character and you're a person with a
magical spaceship that travels around the universe and you know,
gets involved in different adventures on different planets, well you're
all set. You're all set to go. Today's topic is
one that personally I have a few bad memories from,
but let's check it out anyways.
Speaker 2: Hello, my name is Aries. I live in Winnipeg Country, Canada.
I would like a skunk planet. The skunks do you
know stuff out of the tails? Well, they usually do,
but they all have different abilities. Some should all fire,
some shoe ice, some shoe electricity, some should even sleepy gas.
Speaker 1: And there you have it. I thought this was a
hilarious story, but it does bring back memories of accidentally
capturing a skunk in a live trap once and then
trying to release it without getting sprayed. But I did
get sprayed, so it was the worst. I really don't
like skunks that much, but you know, I could get
behind skunks the choot lightning from their tails. That's pretty fun.
Before we get started, I do have a few important
shoutouts to give.
Speaker 3: First of all, there's been.
Speaker 1: One new entry to my social share contest since I'd
checked last time, or since I recorded the last episode,
so I thought i'd announced them here. Thank you to
Jamie and Roman for sharing the podcast on social media.
You have been entered into the draw for a guaranteed
story idea, and if anyone else is interested in learning
about that, the contest details are in the show notes below.
And last, a big shout out to my newest Patreon sponsors.
First up, thank you to Elliot, Hutch and Thatcher from
Denver for supporting the podcast. That means a lot, guys.
Next up, thank you to Logan and Lily for sponsoring
the podcast. Patreon sponsors get the benefit of any bonus
content I put out, which lately has mostly been Unbound
the Superhero Academy of book I'm working on, and I
think I'm up to around chapter twenty five on right now.
But they also get ad free episodes, and they get
the episodes as soon as I record them, regardless of
when I'm going to release them. So if any of
those things are of interest to families, you can check
me out on Patreon. Otherwise, I'm going to leave a
little little spot here for a possible break from our
commercials sponsors. Now it's time to get as comfy as
you can in that bed, close your eyes, and imagine
yourself doing what the kid in the story does. Imagine
yourself waking up on spaceship. Good morning, Spaceship says, I
am detecting an interesting but familiar energy signal. What is it,
you ask, Well, it has been a long time, but
I believe the energy signal is coming from a ship
consistent with that of the Zookeeper. The Zookeeper, you say,
and at the same time, Changer jumps up off of
the couch, paying careful attention. You got Changer from your
first encounter with the Zookeeper, a zookeeper well determined to
collect exotic and interesting animals from all over the world.
Is it really him, you ask, I am uncertain. He
seems to be headed for a planet inhabited entirely by skunks.
Skunks with interesting elemental powers, A super skunk planet and
must be him. Who else would want skunks with superpowers? Anyways,
that is an excellent question. Would you like me to
set a course? Spaceship asks, Uh, yeah, you better set
a course, you say, You quickly get dressed, go out
to the main part of the ship and sit down
in the command chair. Just as you do, the ship
drops out of super hyper drive, surrounding a large earth
like planet. You grab a hold of the controls, press
forward on the throttle, and steer the ship down through
the atmosphere, through the clouds and over top of the trees.
If it weren't for the random blasts of lightning and
fire that you see coming from below, you might think
you were in Canada. Do you see the Zookeeper's ship anywhere?
You ask? I currently cannot detect it, but its last
energy signal clearly came from this general area. You gently
land the ship in a large open field, get up
out of the chair, and head to the back. Changer,
curious about the zookeeper who once captured him after all,
jumps up off the couch and follows you. Before he
steps out, though he transforms from his cute little earth
puppy form into a large menacing looking dog. The back
hatch opens up and you and Changers step outside to
a weird sort of skunky smell. Immediately, the inhabitants of
the world who have gathered around a Watcher's ship land
look at you, look at the dog, and then turn
backwards towards you. Uh, Changer, I think we might be
startling them. All of the skunks that were previously sitting
up right have now faced themselves away from you, lifted
up their tails, and are stomping their back feet on
the ground, clear warning sign that they're about to spray
or well whatever skunks do on this planet. You put
your hands up in the air to show them that
you're clearly not a threat, and you start to back away,
but Changer begins to bark. Then he barks louder, and
louder runs in one of the skunks and is immediately
hit by a bolt of lightning that sends him flying
through the air and into the ship. Changer, are you okay,
you say, Running over to save him, You kneel down
beside him and start petting him on the head. He
opens his eyes and slowly gets up off the ground.
Ah is he is?
Speaker 3: He okay?
Speaker 1: A voice asks from behind you. You turn around to
see a skunk, a skunks standing upright and curiously walking
towards you, possibly the same skunk that shot the lightning
bolt out of its tail directly yet changer. Hey, I
didn't mean to hit him that hard. It's just that well,
you surprised us, and when you surprise us, we go
into fight or flight. Ah, think he's gonna be okay?
You say, oh, good, all right, everyone, I don't think
these ones are a threat. You can lower your tails,
the skunk announces, and all around you, one by one,
the skunks lower their tails, turn around and stand upright.
Speaker 4: Eh.
Speaker 1: Anyway, welcome to our village. Thanks. Hey, did you shoot
lightning out of your you know, with tail area? You ask, Oh, yes,
I did. Sorry about that again. I am a lightning
skunk after all. The name is shock Wave. Are all
of you guys able to shoot lightning? You ask, well,
lightning skunks can shoot lightning. Some of us are lightning skunks,
shock Wave explains. But all skunks are born with a
different affinity. Some of them are rock skunks, some of
them are fire skunks. Some of them are well stinky skunks,
as we call them. They are the worst kind. They
spray the most foul odor. Then we've got the skunks
that kind of have a sleep gas sort of thing
that they can shoot out, and well all sorts of
other things. Honest, your imagination is the limit here. If
you can think of it, we probably have a skunk
that sprays it. Oh, and of course there's the all
powerful elemental skunks, you know, the ones that didn't just
get one power affinity, but got all of them. Most
of the time, they're like leaders of the community. Our
leader's name is Jeff. Your name's Shockwave, and his name
is Jeff. You ask, yeah, parents name you. I don't
know what they're thinking. All right, Well you want a
tour of the skunk village? Shockwave asks, sure, you respond,
all right, follow me. Come on, everyone, One by one,
the skunks begin to march to towards a little village
off in the distance, a village made out of wooden
trees and stone. As you approach, you see different skunks
doing different sorts of things. There are skunks spraying their
tail end into the ground and causing trees and all
sorts of different vegetation to grow. Farmers, Perhaps you pass
a team of skunks. One of them seems to be
able to command trees to grow instantly and then telepathically
lifts the logs into place using his tail end, while
at the same time, another skunk that seems to have
an affinity for dirt and rocks forms the other parts
of the home. You pass a fire skunk that seems
to be working as a blacksmith, heating up the metal
with his rear end and then hammering it with his
normal hands. A team of lightning skunks are working at
what looks like some sort of electrical power station, taking
turns blasting energy into some sort of large metal device
that presumably powers the homes. On the streets, there's a
set of chairs where skunks are laying down and receiving
some sort of skunk treatment, where another skunk that releases
some type of gas as far as you can tell,
slowly walks around them, releasing a green gassy substance that
kind of puts the skunks at ease, like some sort
of skunk smell SPA or eh something like that. You
see water skunks cleaning the streets, spraying them off with
high powered spray from their tail end. You're not sure
how you feel about that one. Soon you come to
the largest building in the skunk village. Like the others,
it's made out of a mix of stone, wood, and dirt.
This is where Jeff lives, Shockwave explains. He opens the door,
which leads into a large hallway with a sort of
throne in it, where a skunk sits and is fed
all sorts of delicacies grapes, meat, bugs. Hello, the skunk
inside says, who do you have with you?
Speaker 5: Shock Wave?
Speaker 1: Ah ah, these are some visitors they found. They landed
some sort of like ship thing, and uh, well, I
sort of sprayed the dog with my lightning blast.
Speaker 5: I see you have always been quick to pull the
trigger on that one. Well, welcome to my village.
Speaker 1: Before he can go on any further, two skunks run
inside Shockwave. Uh, Jeff, I think we have a problem.
One of them says, what is it?
Speaker 4: Jeff?
Speaker 1: The all powerful elemental skunk asks a well, a big
ship came down from the sky and it's sort of
sucking up some of the skunks into it and they're disappearing.
Oh no, the zookeeper, you announce the zookeeper.
Speaker 3: What is this zookeeper?
Speaker 1: Jeff asks you quickly explain that the zookeeper is a
villain of sorts who abducts unique species from different planets
and keeps them trapped in a giant, floating zoo ship.
Speaker 3: That is not how I wish to live my life.
Do you have any recommendations of what we should do?
Speaker 1: He asks, Uh, well, we should probably do anything we
can to avoid getting captured by him. Understood, Jeff says,
pushing his tray of food to the side and stepping
down off of the throne. You realize how large of
a skunk Jeff is for the first time.
Speaker 3: Let's go my friends call the gods.
Speaker 1: A skunk in the corner begins to ring an alarm bell,
and out of the sides of the large house all
sorts of skunks, dressed in armor appear, holding swords, shields,
and spears, each one with a different symbol on its chest.
Some have the symbol of lightning, some the symbol of fire,
some the symbol of earth, and some even have a
symbol for gas of some kind. Honestly, you're not sure
what all the symbols mean.
Speaker 3: Soldiers, we seem to have an unwonted guest. Let's greet them.
The skunk way You look down at.
Speaker 1: Your watch and changer. Changer immediately gives you a shrug
and then transforms his shape into the same one as Jeff's,
an elemental skunk. You look at your watch and think
for a second, you could use your space armor, or well,
you could show them what's what the skunk way to.
You press the scan button on your watch and quickly
scan Jeff the all powerful elemental skunk d NA acquired
Spaceship's voice says, would you like to transform? You press
the yes button, and your body suddenly feels really well,
wobbly and less solid than normal. Slowly, you start to
shrink down slightly. Your arms and legs grow furry. You
grow a tail, which is always a weird thing to
suddenly have control of, and you grow an affinity for
all sorts of different elements inside your body. You have
senses you've never had before, senses for fire, senses for ice,
senses for rock and lightning. You feel as though you
could command the elements around you, and as if you
could shoot them straight out of your tail end. You
join the skunks as they rush out towards the gigantic spaceship.
The ship lowers down into the town center. A door
opens up, and standing there is the Zookeeper. Welcome, skunks.
I am the Zookeeper, and I have a special treat
for you. All of you are going to be part
of a new, very specially eco system inside my ship,
the Skunk Display. People from all over the galaxy will
come to see you when you're interesting elemental powers, But
first you must come with me. The skunks look back
and forth at each other, and then all at once
they turn their tails towards the zookeeper, and with a
single stomp, they unleash a blast of skunk energy, all
different kinds of skunk energy, so powerful the ship shoots backwards.
It's hit by lightning, fire, stone, water, and ice and
all kinds of different gases all at once.
Speaker 3: How that is putrid, the.
Speaker 1: Zookeeper says, as he quickly closes the hatch. The skunks
continue to fire, but it honestly doesn't have much of
an effect on the ship. Little cannons appear and begin
blasting the skunks with a strange sort of energy that
kind of eh dissolves them or well maybe just absorbs
them into the ship. Spaceship any ideas you ask, Yes,
I believe to defeat this particular situation, you will have
to get inside the ship. All right, guys, you heard 'em.
We're gonna have to get inside there somehow.
Speaker 3: Ah, leave it to me. Shock Wave follow my lead.
Jeff begins to run, jumping quickly over other skunks, and
Shockwave follows you in your skunk form. Look over a Changer.
You both nod, and you decide to follow behind. Jeff
jumps into the air, blasts fire out of his rear end,
and shoots directly towards the ship. Shock Wave follows using
a blast of lightning, and you and Changer attempt the same,
summoning the fire from that strange fire sense and commanding
it to shoot you up towards the thing. You find
yourself flying through the air. You take the opportunity, of course,
to perform a perfect front flip, and then the land
on top of the ship. We will need to hit
it with a controlled blast. Every One, form.
Speaker 1: A circle, Jeff commands you and the others listen, forming
a small circle on.
Speaker 3: Top of the ship. On three, unleash the most power
of if a blast of lightning you can directly downwards.
Three two one you reach for the power of lightning
and unleash it through your tail end straight into the
ship changer. Shock Wave and Jeff do the same at
the same time, and sure enough, a hole ruptures in
the top of the thing. You all jump down inside
to find the zookeeper standing inside is control center. There's
cages all around you. Cage is full of all kinds
of exotic animals from all kinds of different planets, just
like there were before. I'll deal with this, Jeff says.
Speaker 1: The zookeeper turns towards him with a blaster and begins firing.
Jeff jumps left and right, making himself a very difficult
target to hit. As he flies forward, he zips around
the zookeeper, unleashing a strange green gas that rises up
from around him. Then he switches to flame and the
gas lights up all at once, sending the zookeeper flying
straight into the control panel of the ship. The ship
suddenly tilts forward and starts moving over top of the
village and lowered towards the ground. Oh no, the zookeeper says,
turning and trying to correct the trajectory, but before he can,
the ship crashes. You and the others fly through the
control room, but somehow you manage to land on your
feet on the walls of the ship as it crashes.
Jeff immediately lunges at the zookeeper once again. He twists
in the air and unleashes a blast of water that
surrounds the zookeeper and immediately freezes into ice. He lands
on the ground and his tail begins to glow a
bright green color. Vines start to wrap into the ship
from the hole on the roof and make their way
around the zookeeper again and again and again until he's
fully trapped. I believe that should do it, Jeff says,
And you can't really complain. He has been fully subdued.
You let the other skunks inside the ship, and pretty
quickly you free all of the different animal most strange
alien animals of all different shapes and sizes and well textures.
One of them seems to be made entirely out of
slime or something like that. Thank you for your help,
Shockwave says. Without you, we might all be in a
zoo right now. Honestly, I didn't do much. That Jeff
character seems to be pretty powerful. Yeah he is. He's annoying,
but well, obviously he can defend us when it's needed anyways,
thanks again, Shockwave says, You wave goodbye and blast up
into the air using your firepower, followed by Changer. It
feels really strange to sort of jet yourself up out
of the air, but kind of natural at the same time.
Before you land, you summon the power of the air itself.
It wraps around you like a little tornado, and you
gently drift down and land in front of your spaceship,
Changer beside you. You look down at your hairy little
arm and see your watch there. You use your other
hand to press the reset button, and your body suddenly
feels really well wobbly. Once again. A strange shivering sensation
passes up your spine through your arms and legs. As
the hair disappears and your arms and legs stretch out
into human arms and legs once again, your power, or
well your sense for different elements disappears, and you find
yourself in your human fece once more. You look over
a Changer and he is once again a little earth puppy. Together,
you walk back aboard spaceship and look behind you at
the skunk village and the gigantic crashed spaceship in the background.
Hopefully the skunks will know how to take care of
the zookeeper. You think as your ship lifts up off
of the ground and the hatch closes, You and Changer
laid down on the couch of the ship. Changer jumps
up onto your chest and you gently pet him on
the head. Your eyes close, and slowly you begin to
release the tension in your body. Your arms and legs
start to melt into the couch. You let go of
the tension and your shoulders, your neck, your head, and
your face, and with each breath you sink down a
little bit deeper into the couch. The deeper you sink,
the better you feel, and the better you feel, the
deeper you sink, until you're incredibly relaxed, and your mind
begins to wander off to thoughts of new dreams and
new adventures to come.
Speaker 4: Good night everyone, m m m.
Speaker 6: Never nion mc nion in New yor more rich Union
kick no thing