Chapter 2:
"Master Larry!" Archie called out from the LarryCave.
Larry the Cucumber yawned as he rushed down the secret entrance.
"What now?" he moaned. "Just moments ago you were calling me to pick up all my dirty laundry off the floor in my bedroom… and then you called me five seconds ago to finish drinking my glass of milk from the kitchen…"
"I realize that," Archie, Larry's butler, said, "but this time is difficult, I promise you."
"If you say so," Larry said, and then he mumbled, "Fancy pants…"
"No, really," Archie explained. "Junior Asparagus has been kidnapped not too long ago. His three friends were with him when he had disappeared."
"Junior Asparagus kidnapped?" Now Larry was out of his sleep-filled frustration. He was now alert. "Who took him?"
Archie flinched and he answered, "I wouldn't he saying 'who,' Master Larry. I would be saying 'what.'"
Archie turned to the LarryComputer and clicked on a picture taken from a surveillance camera that was attached to one edge of the Bumblyburg Cinema's rooftop that was angling at the dark alley. As he played the tape on the computer in slow motion, the scenario became clear to Larry: Junior was snatched by something big… really big. But what was it?
"What took him?" Larry asked, now nervously fiddling with one of the buttons on his red-and-white striped pajama shirt. "All I saw was a huge hand."
"Exactly, Master Larry," agreed Archie. "And you've dealt with this monster in the past."
Larry shot a confused look at his butler. "I did?" he asked.
"Yes you have," his butler replied.
Larry had to take a moment to guess. "Is it the Bad Apple?" he guessed.
"No," Archie said.
"The Rumor Weed?" Larry guessed again.
"Not really."
"Then… what monster is it?"
Archie stared hard into Larry's face and sighed. "You don't remember, do you?"
Larry thought hard and answered sheepishly, "Nope."
Then his butler got up from his computer chair and said, "It's the Fib from Outer Space. The Fib has returned with a vengeance against Junior."
"Ooooooooh!" Larry now understood. His alien nemesis has returned and has recaptured Junior Asparagus!
But now, there was this one question that Larry had to ask: "Why?"
"Heaven knows, Master Larry," Archie said, "but one thing is certain: Junior is in grave danger as we speak. The Fib might be fixing to consume him if you don't stop him."
"I'm on it," Larry said, now doing a dramatic superhero pose. "While I change costume, find out where the Fib is hiding so that I can rescue Junior."
"Now you're talking," Archie said and sat back down on the LarryComputer to activate the GPS feature.
Ten minutes later…
"Larry-Boy? What happened?" Archie asked.
"I got changed into my supersuit," Larry-Boy explained. "It only took me two minutes."
Archie raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?" he inquired. "Then what did you do in the other eight minutes? I was waiting for you for ten minutes."
"I was trying to check my email," Larry-Boy explained. "Oh, by the way, do you know what happened to the Wi-Fi in the LarryCave?"
"Master Larry, you can check your email later," Archie told him. "Now we're going to rescue Junior from the evil clutches of the Fib before it's too late.
"The LarryComputer's GPS has spotted the Fib in Bumblyburg Forest in an unknown cavern. If you ask me, that would be a good place for that monster to seal the doom of his victims…" Hearing him say this sent chills down Larry's spine. Larry shook with anxiety.
"How do I stop it?" Larry asked. "Didn't Junior stop the Fib last time by telling the truth?"
"Indeed he did," Archie confirmed. "But now we just have to destroy the physical being of that monster. So I've packed a semi-automatic tranquilizer in the LarryMobile. One dart to the monster's body will put him out cold. If not one dart then two. If not two then four. You just need to have good aim, like you do with your plungers."
"Oh," Larry-Boy said. "Okay then. I'm off!"
Larry-Boy hops into the LarryMobile and speeds his roadster out of the LarryCave. "I'm coming for you, Junior!" he shouted as he sped off to Bumblyburg Forest.