I know I've said this before, but thank you for all of your reviews! They really mean a lot :D
Chapter 4: A Hopeless Situation
By the time Flippy had made it to Sniffle's doorstep, it was noon. The anteater's house was robotic looking; it didn't seem that big from the outside, but it was quite large on the inside. Flippy pressed his finger against the doorbell and waited to be met with an answer. After waiting a few moments, the bear pressed the doorbell again; no one answered. Assuming that the doorbell was broken, Flippy tried knocking. To the bear's surprise, the door opened but nobody was on the other side. Flippy cautiously made his way into the anteater's house, there weren't any lights on and everything was quiet.
Too quiet…
Suddenly, a crash was heard from what appeared to be Sniffles basement. Flippy wasted no time in running down the staircase into the anteater's basement. There were multiple shelves of books along the wall and papers scattered on the floor. Vials filled with colorful substances could be seen on tables, some even had warning labels on them. Before Flippy could finish examining his surroundings another crash could be heard from the farther end of the long basement. The crash was loud and Flippy struggled to keep his evil side from emerging. After taking a moment to calm down, Flippy worked his way over to where he heard the crash come from. In the corner of the room, he could see Sniffles facing his back towards him and holding a vial high above his head. Before the anteater could throw it down onto the ground, Flippy managed to grab it out of his hands. The anteater turned to the war vet, his glasses were on his head and a sad look was clear on his face.
"Aaaww! What'cha do that for? Me like the boom!"
Flippy stared wide eyed at the anteater.
"Umm…pardon?"
"You heard me! Now gimme back my boom device thingie!"
It didn't take Flippy long to realize what was wrong. Flippy almost dropped the vial; he hadn't even considered this possibility. If everyone else's personalities were switched then why would he think that Sniffles would be any different? The dumb look on the anteaters face was more than enough to let Flippy know that his intelligence was long gone. But if Sniffles was no longer intelligent than who could he turn to? Surely Sniffles was the only person in Happy Tree Town with enough intelligence to get to the bottom of whatever was going on; but as the bear looked at the anteater, who was still attempting to take the vial back from Flippy, hope was beginning to escape him.
With a heavy heart, the bear gave the once- intelligent anteater back the vial and hurried out of his house before the crashing sound could awaken his evil side.
With no one to turn to, the veteran wandered the streets of Happy Tree Town, trying to think of what he could possibly do at this point. After a few minutes of wandering, he heard a muffled scream from a nearby alleyway. Curious, the bear quickly made his way into the alley; bowie knife in hand. Two shadows could be seen next to a large dumpster, one seemed to be hitting the other with great force.
"Is that all you got? I always knew that I was stronger than you but this is just pathetic!"
Flippy assumed that the voice he had heard belonged to the figure abusing whoever was on the ground. Flippy stepped closer to the two creatures, accidentally stepping on a crumbled up newspaper in the process. The sound of the crumbling newspaper caused the abusing figure to look up; to Flippy's surprise, the figure didn't attack him. He stepped closer to get a better look at the two creatures, only to step back in surprise at who they were.
On the ground was Splendid, the once strong and powerful hero of Happy Tree Town. Now, however, he was on the ground shaking and was holding his paws up as if he were begging for mercy. Above him stood another flying squirrel that Flippy didn't recognize, he looked exactly like Splendid except with red fur and a blue mask. He looked at Flippy for a moment before speaking.
"Please, citizen, I do not wish for you to be harmed. There is no need for you to be back here."
Ignoring his question, Flippy stared at him and simply asked, "Who are you?"
The strange squirrel looked at him incredulously before letting out loud laugh.
"Who am I?" The squirrel sounded as if he couldn't believe his ears, "Why, dear citizen, I am Splendont! The all-powerful and handsome counterpart of the puny Splendid!"
At the mention of Splendid's name, Flippy turned his head to the once-great hero. He was still shaking on the ground, but after all of the changes Flippy had seen prior to this, he wasn't very surprised. Flippy hastily made his way over to the blue squirrel and tried to pull him up, only to be pushed aside by Splendont.
"For the final time, citizen, I am telling you to leave this worthless being. You have no business here!"
"You don't get it do you, Splender-"
"Splendont!"
"Whatever! Something is going on in this town; nobody's acting the way they should be! It's like everybody's personalities have switched or something! Why do you think Splendid is suddenly a weakling? "
Still lying on the ground, Splendid lifted his head weakly and looked at Flippy before speaking,
"Not everybody's changed…you're still you and Splendont's still the same cocky bastard he was yesterday."
Splendont used his foot to push Splendid'd head back into the dirt. Flippy pushed Splendont away from him, his expression was different from before. Rather than sad and hopeless, a look of surprise crossed his face; as if he had a brilliant idea form in his mind.
"Splendid's right…why is that? Why is it that you and I aren't affected?"
Splendont thought for a minute, "Maybe you and I didn't do something that everyone else did, or maybe we share some sort of weird trait that nobody else has."
"If the whole town is affected, then they must have done something that most people would do, including you and I."
"Hm…did anything weird happen to you this morning?"
"Not that I can think of…I woke up, got dressed, brushed my teeth…Wait! That's it! I left my house to find out what was up with the water, it tasted nasty!"
"Really? Then it wasn't just me I guess. I was met with a sickening taste after drinking some water this morning, as well."
"Do you think the water is what caused this? And if so, why haven't we been affected?"
"I don't know; is there anybody in this town smart enough to decipher whatever the hell is going on?"
"Sniffles is the smartest guy in town, but he was affected as well. He's not all that useful anymore."
"I see…where do we find somebody smart enough to assist us?"
Splendid, once again, lifted his head from the ground and spoke to the two men standing before him. His voice was shaky from his beating earlier.
"P-perhaps you could seek out the help of somebody who was once stupid, whatever the water is doing probably transformed them into a genius."
Splendont kicked Splendid to the side, "Quiet, you! I'm thinking…Aha! Why don't we seek out the help of somebody who was once stupid! The water should have made them incredibly smart!
Splendont and Flippy quickly made their way out of the alley. With newfound hope, Flippy led his new ally to the exact person that they were seeking.
Unbeknown to them (Or at least unbeknown to Flippy); Splendid was left in the alley. He let his head drop to the ground, grumbling something about a 'cocky bastard'.
Okay so this wasn't exactly my best chapter, and this took way too long to update! But I can't help it, I'm a busy person!(translation: I just got Bioshock and now I can't lift my lazy ass off the couch) So anyway, Splendont has officially become a main character alongside Flippy! I'm still kind of hopeless with Splendont's personality since so little of it is given in the show, so if anybody would care to give some opinions on what his personality should be like it would be very much appreciated! And before anybody asks, "Why is Splendont helping Flippy? He's a bad guy!" I believe that Splendont wants to be a super hero and protect the citizens of Happy Tree Town, he just hates Splendid. R&R and no flames!