Chapter 1: Captured

It was a beautiful day in Happy Tree Town and a lime green bear with a green camo coat and beret was humming a happy tune and strolling merrily through the park. He was a happy guy because he felt like he had almost no worries in the world. Almost… But he tried not to think about his only worry in the world, because he was happy with his life regardless. He had a nice home, good friends and even a girlfriend that he loved every single day. His girlfriend was named Flaky, and she was a beautiful, red porcupine with dandruff flakes in her quills. They had been dating ever since he made his confession to her. It went a little something like this:

Flippy nervously shifted in place and squeezed his hands together in nervousness. He shifted his black, Pac-Man shaped eyes to the upper right of his sockets and away from the red porcupine in front of him. He was blushing a pink colour and had sweat beads along the side of his head. He was trying to force himself to say something but it wasn't coming out right. Actually, it wasn't coming out at all! But, he soon managed to squeeze the question out of his lips in a nervous stutter. "Can I…-he squeezed his eyes shut tight and buried his head in his shoulders-K-kiss you?"

He had done it.

He had finally asked Flaky, the red porcupine, a question he had wanted to ask her for a long time now. But now he was worried on how she would respond, because he had only been worrying about how worried he was to even ask her the question, that he forgot about picturing her reactions. Well, he opened one of his eyes nervously to see what it was and what he saw was a blushing Flaky with shrunken pupils.

"Huh?! B-But, but why?" the red porcupine girl stuttered.

Flippy calmed himself down and placed his left hand, which was balled into a fist, to his pounding heart. He sighed and his blush changed to the colour red.

"Because I love you," he told Flaky, opening his eyes and trying to smile.

Flaky gasped and blushed harder, her heart pounding loudly and wildly. Flippy expected something like this but continued.

"I've often dreamt of it; taking you into my arms, hugging and kissing you. I often felt shy whenever I was around you or when I saw you. But because of "Him", I was worried you'd reject my feelings for you, Flaky."

All of this made tears well up in the soldier's eyes and his stomach did flip-flops.

"Please don't hate me!" Flippy sobbed, squeezing his eyes shut tight again.

Flippy then felt a tender hand grab his fist and that made his eyes shoot open and his blush spread from ear-to-ear. Flaky gave him a pleasant smile to assure him of something.

"Why and how could I ever hate you, Flippy?" she said, putting her hands behind her back, "I mean, yeah, Fliqpy does kind of scare me, but I still wanna spend time with you… Because I love you too!"

Flippy gasped and burst into tears at this and covered his mouth with both hands. He couldn't believe that Flaky loved him back! He expressed his joy to her by rushing towards her, wrapping his arms around her waist, and kissing her. Flaky was shocked but kissed back and wrapped her arms around his neck.

'And we've been together ever since…' Flippy thought, holding the fond memory of his first kiss.

But his daze was interrupted by the sound of firecracker snaps snapping. This caused him to halt in his tracks and his eyes to shrink in shock. They reminded him of gunshots which he had heard a lot of during his time in the war. He whimpered and shuddered and squeezed his eyes shut tight. His voice became raspy and low and his eyes turned yellow-green.

This was his evil side: Fliqpy. He was the reason Flippy had only one worry in the world. His PTSD caused him to come out and murder everyone that got in his way. Fliqpy growled and looked around the park for someone to murder. He then saw a pink chipmunk with a red bow holding firecracker snaps and giggling.

(A/N: She threw them! Uh-oh! 0_0;)

Fliqpy pulled out his bowie knife and chuckled darkly...

Meanwhile, nearby, Flaky, AKA, Flippy's girlfriend, was reading a book she recently checked out from the library when she heard a dark, ominous chuckle behind her. She knew who it belonged to and wished and hoped it wasn't who she thought it was. So, the red girl turned around and saw it was in fact Fliqpy! But he wasn't heading for her, but someone else. Flaky looked over to where he appeared to be heading and saw it was Giggles, the pink chipmunk, he was after. The latter didn't seem to notice the deranged bear heading for her.

Flaky blurted, "Giggles, look out!" in a panicked tone.

This caught the pink girl's attention and made her smile fade. She looked behind her and gasped upon seeing Fliqpy. Everything about him terrified her so much; his menacing, yellow eyes, his sharp, inhuman teeth, and his trademark, evil grin.

Giggles screamed and ran for her life, dropping her firecracker snaps on the ground behind her.

"Hey!" Fliqpy shouted in shock.

Fliqpy noticed the firecracker snaps the chipmunk had discarded and had a quizzical look on his twisted face.

"Huh?" he wondered in his deep voice.

But his confusion didn't last long as he got an idea. An awful, dark, evil idea. He put his sharp, inhuman teeth together and grinned evilly. "Heh, heh, heh, heh!"

Giggles was still running, and panting while she was, desperate to get away from Fliqpy. She had died a lot of times before, both accidentally and purposely, but the latter was her least favourite way to die. In fact, most of her on-purpose-deaths were thanks to Flippy flipping out.

Giggles then looked behind her to see if he was still behind her. He wasn't. So, the pink chipmunk in the red bow stopped running and wiped the sweat from her forehead in relief.

"Phew!" she sighed.

Just then, Fliqpy jumped in front of her from above, causing her eyes to shrink and her heartbeat to speed up.

But before she could run away again, the soldier reared his hand back- "HI-YAA!~"- and threw four firecracker snaps at her.

*Snap!*

*Snap!*

*Snap!*

*Snap!*

"Heh!" Fliqpy taunted, crossing his arms and wearing a satisfied expression on his face.

Giggles was as still as a statue… Her black, Pac-Man shaped eyes were shrunken down, her mouth was gaped, and she had four holes on her face where the snaps had hit her. Blood was leaking out of them, causing Giggles to shriek in pain and started crying.

The pink chipmunk girl then ran away in distress, leaving Fliqpy with a crooked grin on his face.

"Perfect…" the soldier uttered, rubbing his hands together deviously.

Meanwhile…

Petunia, a blue skunk with a pink flower and a car air freshener for accessories, was picking flowers which she loved so much. She spotted a purple petunia and picked it up with a chuckle.

"Heh, a me!" the blue skunk joked.

(A/N: Get it? Her name is Petunia, and she's holding a petunia? Hilarious!)

Suddenly, however, she heard a familiar voice shriek to her, "Petunia, help me!~".

Petunia turned around, but before she could react, Giggles hugged her tightly around her stomach, sobbing wildly.

"Giggles, is tha-then she saw her face-Woah! Why do you have holes in your face?! What kind of fireworks did you buy?!" she exclaimed.

Giggles had tears running down her face and they were salty and that made her wounds sting even more.

"It wasn't my fault!" the pink girl exclaimed, pulling away, "It was Fli-! Gack!"

She was cut off when a rope swung around her neck and pulled her back with great force. Petunia gasped in shock as her black pupils dilated.

"Giggles!"

Soon, Giggles was tied to a giant, red skyrocket by her neck, kicking her legs and trying to break free.

"Can't-huk-breathe! Somebody, anybody! Help me!" she cried in distress.

But before Petunia could act, both girls heard a noise that went ffffff… The noise gave Giggles a chill up her spine and made her sweat in fear. She knew what it was…

A green paw held a lit match and held it to the fuse on the skyrocket, making the fuse light and go sssssss! The green paw was attached to none other than Fliqpy, who blew out the match and chuckled evilly while rubbing his hands together.

The skyrocket was sent up into the sky.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!~"

*KA-BOOM!*

Just then, the skyrocket exploded and there were many, different coloured fireworks with Giggles' dismembered body parts askew among them.

Lumpy, a sky blue moose with yellow antlers facing opposite directions, saw the fireworks and his black eyes sparkled in amazement and awe.

"OOOH!~" he marveled.

(A/N: This guy is such an idiot; he doesn't even see Giggles' dismembered body parts! *groan*)

Cuddles, a yellow bunny with pink bunny slippers, was also amazed by the fireworks and his eyes sparkled as well. "Wow!~" he exclaimed.

(A/N: Seriously, is this village made of idiots?! *facepalm*)

Lammy, a lavender lamb with a wooly sweater and a purple bow, was not oblivious to Giggles' remains in the fireworks and immediately panicked.

"Is that Giggles?!" she screamed, her Pac-Man eyes shrunken in fear.

(A/N: Thank you! Finally, a person who can SEE!)

When the fireworks cleared up, Fliqpy grinned and looked around for another victim while wielding his bowie knife.

"Who's next?~" he sneered, looking around.

Petunia's eyes shrunk and sweat beads covered her body.

"G-Gyah! I'm outta here!" she screamed, scrambling away. But Fliqpy was faster!

"Not so fast!" the psychotic soldier exclaimed.

With that, he threw his bowie knife at Petunia's ankle, which pinned it into place, her blood splashing all over and sprinkling onto the grass.

"OW! I'm stuck!" the blue skunk girl screamed, tears running down her cheeks.

Then, Fliqpy appeared in front of her and showed his scary face to the petrified girl.

"Exactly…" he said in a spooky voice.

Petunia was trembling and turning white in the face with fear; her ankle hurt, her voice was mute, and her stomach was doing flip-flops at the thought of what Fliqpy was gonna do to her this time. But instead of acting immediately, he stepped back and rubbed his chin in thought.

"Heh, heh, heh! I wonder what I should do with you?" the lime green bear pondered.

"Leave her alone!"

With that cry, a blue book flew from out of nowhere and whacked Fliqpy in the back of the head, knocking his beret off.

"Agh!"

Even though he was a bear, the soldier had a fluffy bundle of hair on his head. It was a darker shade of lime green than his fur and it was spiky.

Fliqpy shook his head and revamped himself. He growled and bared his sharp teeth as he looked at the Tree Friend who threw the book at him. And he saw it was none other than Flaky! The red porcupine girl looked terrified; it was like she regretted throwing it at him.

(A/N: She threw it, uh-oh! … I've made this joke before, haven't I?)

When Fliqpy saw Flaky, he quickly regained his creepy attitude and smirked evilly.

"Well, well, well," he said slowly and tauntingly, "if it isn't my alter-ego's little girlfriend…"

Flaky was scared of the psychotic soldier's words and the tone he used them in, but she gathered up her courage to stand up to him.

"L-L-Leave P-P-Petunia a-alone!" the red girl stuttered, screwing her eyes shut and making her hands into fists. Fliqpy just grinned.

"Aw," he fake-whined, pulling out a machete, "You're no fun!"

Petunia's eyes shrunk down as she began to imagine what Fliqpy was gonna do to Flaky this time.

'I have to find help!' the blue skunk girl thought.

So, she grabbed the bowie knife that was still pierced into her ankle and used all of her strength to pull it out. It hurt, like, a lot! But she held in her screams of pain so Fliqpy wouldn't hear and see her get away.

Then, she limped away as fast as she could until she was out of sight. Flaky saw this and a nervous smile formed on her face.

"Petunia got away!" she cheered.

Fliqpy's yellow eyes widened and he turned his head around to see that she was right; his capture was now gone and she had left his blood covered bowie knife right in that spot.

Anger grew in Fliqpy's body as he growled and bared his teeth at Flaky.

"You lost me my prey! Now, you're dead, Flaky!" he snapped.

Flaky gasped and sweat ran down the side of her head.

'I better run!' the red porcupine girl thought fearfully.

And that's just what she did. She ran like lightning!

Unfortunately, she wasn't looking ahead, and she didn't notice the rock she was about to trip on! And trip she did…

But it was a more serious one, because she heard an audible crack!, when she hit the ground.

"Ow!" she cried in pain and distress.

Flaky felt a searing pain in her ankle, and when she tried to stand up, she found that it was impossible to do so.

'Can't… move!' the red girl thought, baring her teeth and screwing her eyes shut in frustration.

Then, she shifted her black eyes down at her foot and saw the problem.

"My ankle; it's broken!" she panicked.

Then she was approached by Fliqpy who wore a dark, emotionless look on his face…

"F-Fliqpy!" Flaky gasped, looking up at the evil soldier.

She knew what he was gonna do… She was absolutely positive he would kill her… And there was nothing she could do about it. So, she just turned her head away and shut her eyes tight, letting her salty, stinging tears stream down her cheeks.

"Go ahead… Just do it quickly…" she sobbed meekly.

Fliqpy closed his eyes and let out a low growl as he reached into the pocket of his coat.

Flaky's head was filling with hellish thoughts of what Fliqpy was gonna do to her this time. He had almost always killed her by means of strangulation or burning. Once, he even sliced her up at the swimming competition so all that was left of her was her lower body. And when she was driving, she hallucinated that he killed her three times by decapitating her with her car window, crushing her skull in and using her carcass as a tire, and then slicing her face off by attaching a blade to her windshield wiper. So, she could only imagine what he had in store for her this time.

"Open your eyes!"

Flaky's big, black eyes slowly opened up. She was curious as to why Fliqpy hadn't killed her yet, so, she kind of wanted to see what was going on with him. And what she saw was Fliqpy holding a roll of bandages in his hands. This confused the red porcupine girl greatly.

"H-Huh?" she squeaked.

"Remain still…" the older Tree Friend uttered to her as he knelt down.

"B-But what are you-?" He cut her off. "Silence!"

So Flaky did as she was told, and watched in awe and shock as Fliqpy bandaged up her broken ankle. And he didn't do it roughly as she expected him to do, but he was actually very gentle and careful, which was even more unlike him.

When it was fully bandaged, Flaky's attention shifted from her ankle to Fliqpy. He was silent and continued to look down at the injured girl with an emotionless look on his face. Then, he slowly reached his arms out to her and put them underneath her body. Flaky's face turned a bright pink colour as she found that she was now being held, bridal style, by the last person she'd ever expect to hold her in that way… Fliqpy.

However, the bear himself wasn't blushing; he just glanced around as if he was looking for people who might've been watching. No one else was around, so, he shifted his attention back to Flaky.

"You're going with me!" he barked.

Then, he zoomed off with the red girl, who let out a high pitched, "KYAAAAAA!~"

Meanwhile…

In a dome-shaped house, a pair of hands closed a white First-Aid kit. The hands were attached to a lavender coloured lamb who was wearing a white wooly sweater and a purple bow. She had bandaged Petunia's foot and set the blue skunk girl in her dark magenta coloured lounge chair with an ottoman to support her foot. Lammy, the lamb, appeared to be sad or troubled, because she had that expression on her face and her black eyes were shifted downwards to the floor.

"So… it's Fliqpy again, huh?" she spoke in a sad tone.

Petunia closed her eyes halfway and nodded.

"Yep…" she added to the nod.

"Oh, Flaky…" Lammy said in a downhearted tone.

Petunia shifted her eyes away in guilt. She felt awful for leaving Flaky with such a monstrous being…

"Normally, I'd be mad at you for leaving her alone with Fliqpy, but…" Lammy paused.

"Considering my injury, I had no choice?" Petunia finished for her.

"Exactly. And right now, we don't know if Flaky is okay or not." Lammy continued.

"Wouldn't the town's curse just resurrect her?" Petunia stated.

"Yes, but I feel the need to reduce the bloodshed." Lammy replied.

Petunia felt a little happy just hearing that.

When Lammy first moved to Happy Tree Town, she was basically shocked and a bit worried about living here after learning about the daily occurrence of accidents and death. Although she was relieved that the curse resurrected them after they died, she decided one of her deeds should be to help lessen the amount of death. Even though most of her efforts held no avail, she still pressed forward. Lammy was quite a persistent lamb.

"S-So… what are we gonna do now, Lammy?" Petunia asked, a drop of sweat rolling down the side of her head.

The lavender girl sighed and turned towards Petunia, revealing her eyes were closed. But she then opened them and took a few steps closer to her injured friend.

"You are gonna stay here and rest your foot…" she paused and gestured to the pickle that was now right next to her. "While Mr. Pickles and I go and look for Flaky." she finished.

And even though Petunia only saw a regular, inanimate pickle, the very sight of it made her heart stop and her blood run cold. And when Lammy noticed her shrunken pupils and how she pulled her legs in like she just saw a mouse scurry across the floor, she knew by then she was scared out of her shorts.

(A/N: She's not even wearing shorts!)

And she knew why too…

"Look… I know how you feel about Mr. Pickles…" Lammy sighed sadly, twisting her foot around and shifting her eyes away.

The pickle in the top hat reached his hand up and petted his friend's wooly sweater in comfort.

"I know he killed you, but he just thought you were trying to trick me." she explained.

Petunia made a confused face, not really understanding what Lammy meant by that.

"He was just afraid you were a bully, okay?" the lavender coloured girl affirmed.

"For as long as I can remember, he's been protecting me from bullies, villains, etc. But, I guess he got a little carried away and started killing innocent people… He just thought no one would ever really be my friend. That people just wanted to trick me into trusting them so they'd hurt me afterwards."

Petunia watched in wonder as Lammy explained this all to her. All this time she thought Mr. Pickles was just killing for sport, like Fliqpy, but in reality, he was just thinking of what was best for Lammy. At first, she didn't really believe he was alive, and that Lammy was really the one doing all these deeds. But when she put all the pieces together and found out that, in a spiritual sense, he was a living, sentient being. She only thought he was killing her and everyone else for the fun of it. But now she knew that that wasn't the case.

"But, I've explained that you guys are all my friends and mean me no harm at all…" Lammy continued. "Okay, Petunia?"

The blue skunk shifted her black eyes away for a moment before sighing and nodding.

"Okay, I trust you, Lammy…" she added to the nod.

This made the lamb smile at her friend in blue; she was happy that she had more friends.

"Okay, now I'm not sure how long we'll be gone, so, I've sent for someone to take care of you until we get back." Lammy explained, her hand on the doorknob.

Petunia raised an eyebrow curiously. "Who?" she inquired.

"Handy!"

Lammy's face was so happy when that answer escaped her lips that she didn't notice Petunia jerk and lower her head in response.

"Bye-Bye!~" she sang.

Then she left.

Petunia shuddered and looked as if she was gonna scream.

"Of all the people…"-she made a fist with her paw, almost tearing the fabric on the chair-"She could've picked out…"

Truffles was walking by Lammy's house peacefully when his ears were pierced by a loud, female voice that shrieked, "IT HAD TO BE MY EX!"

Inside, Petunia was fuming mad! She gritted her teeth and growled and grumbled under her breath. Lammy had sent for Handy, her ex-boyfriend, to take care of her?! How imbecile!

Then the blue skunk thought about how imbecile it was to leave Flaky alone with Fliqpy… This made her nerves calm themselves and her paw went back to normal.

'Oh, Flaky… Please be okay!' she thought, tears running down her cheeks.

TBC…

Done! This story is actually another installment into the "How it Came to Be" series, but, I suggest you read "Flaky's Birthday" before you read this one. It might help you figure out how Flaky came to terms with her feelings for Flippy and got back in touch with him.

Notes:

Yes, Flippy has hair. No, he's not a human in this story, but he does have hair. The thing is, I've never seen Flippy without his beret or coat, (though the latter is a little less true) so, I imagine he has a small bundle of hair on his head. And you'll see later that he also has a much furrier chest than the other Tree Friends do. These extensions I gave him, I think that they make him look a little more handsome. Both his chest fur and hair are a darker shade of lime green than his fur.

I do describe Flaky as beautiful. I think she's the most beautiful girl in the entire show! Those long quills, that gorgeous red fur, and her adorable speech patterns!

Deaths in this chapter: Giggles is blown up by a giant skyrocket.

Injuries in this chapter: Giggles gets holes in her face when Fliqpy throws firecracker snaps at them. Petunia's ankle is pierced by a bowie knife. Flaky breaks her ankle when she trips on a rock. Fliqpy is hit in the back of the head with a book. Truffles' ears are hurt by Petunia's scream.

Destruction in this chapter: The skyrocket blows up.

The main themes of this story are Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome. If you don't know what those are, look them up.

Have fun with this story! I know I'm gonna!