Yeah, I labeled the last chapter incorrectly. I hadn't updated it in weeks, so excuse that please. Or you can be a jerk about it. I don't really care either way.

Chapter 4: The Imp and the Plant

/A few days back

Two's POV:

We were taking a walk through the city when We saw Peashooter pass by with his squad. They were in quite a hurry, running towards L.E.A.F. HQ. We followed them for a little bit, stopping outside the building. It was a tall tower, RVs flying about. A flax cannon was shooting at zombot drones, but not hitting many.

It was overwhelming, to be honest. I was shocked at how massive L.E.A.F.'s organization is. It's incredible.

"Let's go in!" One whispered excitedly.

"No, I want to keep walking." Three whispered back.

As usual, I have to make a compromise.

"We can just check out the lobby. We don't want to disturb anyone. Then they might not let us enroll at the academy. Afterwards we can continue our walk."

One and Three grudgingly agreed. We went into the lobby and found a rose at the receptionist's desk. She spotted us and looked surprised.

"Hello. And how may I help you?"

A long long LONG time ago the three of us decided to leave talking to new people to me. Mostly because One isn't good with new people, and Three doesn't care what impression he leaves. So I've had a lot of practice with people.

"Hello. I'm Threepeater, and I'm just looking around."

When introducing us for the first time, I act like all of us are one person. Technically we are, but, well, you probably understand by now.

"Ah, you're one of the plants going to enroll at the Academy this fall. You can look around the lobby, but the facility is off limits to non-agents."

"Ok. By the way, my brother came in here a minute ago. His name is Peashooter, and he's one of the agents. Will he be back soon?"

The rose looked unsettled, but quickly covered it up. With an almost unnoticeably forced smile she said,

"Oh, he'll be back soon."

"Ok. Thanks."

"Let's get out of here." One whispered.

And we did. After we exited the building, an RV with a blue X symbol flew over us. They had left, somewhere.

/Infinut's POV

I couldn't believe it. L.E.A.F. had rejected my offer. Again. Why? I'm smarter than most of them! Ok, I didn't know I couldn't bowl for six years, but who cares? I'm still a genius, inventing all sorts of gadgets and devices, not to mention my strategical mastery.

Maybe they don't see my brilliance.

Or maybe I'm a little too egotistical.

My ego is my biggest problem. I just can't help it! I'm seven for crying out loud. Still, L.E.A.F. continues to reject me. Maybe by going to their academy I can learn why.

I left my room and then my home. It's just a simple home, nothing special. We can't afford anything special. Me and Tallnut have to make all the money here: I get regular paychecks for my invention of the Solar Harness: A bind that detains zombies that's powered by the sun. Tallnut has a job at the hardware store.

I'm getting off topic.

I was walking around when I saw a threepeater. The two heads on the ends were arguing, the middle one clearly exasperated. Normally threepeaters don't do that. They're usually just one plant with three heads, like three-headed chompers or triplet sunflowers. This one's unique. This one's different.

I must've been staring, because they made their way towards me. The middle one spoke first.

"Hey! Are you Infinut, Wallnut's little brother?"

"Yes. And who might you be?"

"Threepeater."

I smiled.

"I guess our parents weren't very creative."

"Maybe. But dad's a general, so he's got to be creative enough with strategy, right?"

"I guess. Why are your three heads not of the same mind? I saw you bickering."

Threepeater collectively sighed. The middle head spoke up again.

"We have MPD. I'm Two, the one to your left is One, and the one to your right is Three."

I nodded. It made sense for them to number themselves. Giving them all actual names could've caused problems.

"Two, why are you the only one speaking?"

"Because I'm our communicator with strangers. Anyone who doesn't know we have different personalities."

"And our voices are slightly different," chimed in One.

"Interesting. Multiple Personality Disorder usually causes people to switch between personalities, but in your case, you have three different consciousnesses."

They looked at me with confused expressions. That wasn't even that complicated!

"Can you explain?" asked Two.

"Fine. Multiple Personality Disorder, often just called MPD, is when people have multiple personalities within one body. This term loosely works with you, except you have three simultaneous personalities instead of switching between them."

Two was slowly nodding, contemplating what he heard. One and Three still looked confused. Great, they have varying intelligence.

"Want to walk with us?" Two offered.

"Ok."

The two of us, (or is it four of us?) walked down the streets and to the forest. One and Three looked around excitedly, while Two steered them through it. Two is apparently the one in control most of the time. That's very intriguing.

I decided to talk to Threepeater a little about his MPD.

"Which one of you has the memories furthest back?"

"We all have memories of being three. Two's the only one to remember a little when we were turning three, but that's it. He has the best memory. He remembers everything! Well, after turning three."

"Who has the most control over your body?"

"Well, we all have our separate heads, arms, hands and stems. The middle is kinda neutral ground. We have an alternating system where everyday a different one of us gets to have most control. Today's my turn, tomorrow will be Three's and yesterday's was One's."

"Is it a physical rotation of control, or do you just allow them to take control?"

"Allow. Sometimes one of us will seize emergency control in dangerous situations. Like one time we beat Cabbage-pult when-"

"Don't talk about that!" said Two and Three in unison.

"Sorry…"

/Pylon Imp's POV

Why did Zomboss have to send everyone except ME?! That just wasn't fair!

And this place is dark and cold. And kinda creepy. Plus, giant robotic arms are everywhere!

The Plants were breaking through on the southern border. Supremo needed reinforcements, so Zomboss sent every zombie in the factory except me. And by myself, I can't get a single thing done. Trying to work is useless.

Then I realized what this meant and smiled. No work. No work! NO WORK! YES! I ran out of the factory and took a bus back to Zomburbia. I knew just what to do.

"The ride ain't free bub."

Oh. I paid three zombucks and took a seat. This was going to be epic!

/Eventually…

NOT HOME?! What? Why?

All of Brain Squad was out fighting plants. I pouted and waited. As nighttime rolled around, they didn't come back. I looked ridiculous sitting in front of their door, the zombies passing by on the street looking at me as they walked. But they didn't get it, no. Brian was my last friend! If he's dead… again…

"You need to stop waiting. They're in Zombopolis right now, doing stuff for their boss."

I yelped and jumped up. Turning around, I found a pole vaulter smoking behind me in the shadows.

"Is that weed?"

"Is it your business? What's a little imp like you doin all the way in this big city?"

"Is it your business?"

The pole vaulter smiled. He stepped forward and held out his hand.

"Name's Pole."

"That's a chiché way of introducing yourself."

"Take it or leave it. Speaking of which, I've gotta bolt soon."

"Why do you talk so weird?"

"Being taught how to use modern slang. Not half-bad. I still prefer the old times, but all old-timers like me do."

I nodded slowly. This guy's weird. Then, he started to walk away. As he left, I was about to shout to him how he knew about where Brain Squad was, but I hesitated. Then I called out to him.

"Pylon Imp!"

Pole, without turning, yelled back.

"Good talking to you, Pylon Imp."

And he was gone. Creepy…

I decided to do something useful with myself. I broke into the house through an open window and went to Brian's computer. Then I turned it on and clicked his user. Password? Uh…

'Flag123'

Nope.

I banged my face against the keyboard and entered it. It was accepted. Maybe I broke the computer or something. Possibly.

I searched the internet for something good, and came across a wanted sign for a plasma pea. It said he was in the Bloominati, whatever that is. It sounds stupid.

Wanted

Drax Fledill

Dead or Alive

Reward: $25K

25 thousand zombucks? That got my attention. I came up with a plan. I'd find this "Drax Fledill," capture him, and get the reward. Easy, right?

I logged out of the computer and left the house through the window I came in. Time for transportation. There was this prototype of something called a pylon-mech back at the factory…

With a smile on my face I found and boarded a bus back towards the factory. After paying bus fare, of course.

/The next morning…

/Three's POV

We had fallen asleep in the park. Infinut and One were still asleep. Two was looking around. Seeing me wake up, he whispered to me,

"What do you think of Infinut?"

"I like him," I whispered back. "He just needs to learn some humility."

Two nodded and rested his head on the grass. All the benches were occupied, so we slept under a tree. Looking at it closely, I saw that it had some bark missing. Weird.

Soon we all headed to Tallnut's house. Walking down the street, we were stopped by a pile of road cones.

I picked one up. Inside it had a small antenna. Odd.

"Step away from the cones."

The four of us turned to our left and saw a pylon imp standing there, sneering. The tip of a giant road cone was visible over the house next to him.

"Tell me all you know about Drax Fledill, and I'll let you live."

"Drax Fledill?" Asked Two.

"Yes! Tell me, or you'll suffer my wrath!"

"Ookay…" said Two.

All of us were silent for a little bit as the pylon imp had a small fit. Taking a deep breath, I shot a pea at his face, sending him flying into a fence. Wiping the stain from his face, he angrily yelled at us.

"You, you, DORKS!"

Dorks? Really?

The pylon imp pulled out a remote and pressed a button. The cone tip emerged from the building… and it was a cone on wheels with arms? What? Did the zombies go crazy or something?

"FEEL THE WRATH OF MY ROBO-CONE Z-MECH!"

"Shoot the left wheel," Infinut said. "That's its weak spot."

All three of us shot at the wheel, and the Z-mech fell to the ground. It was smoking.

"Definitely didn't feel the wrath." Two said, smirking.

The pylon imp looked at the mech, his mouth agape. Then he started running. We chased him out to the forest, where he stopped at a cliff edge, trapped. We glared at him, preparing for the vanquishing blow when he yelled,

"LOOK OUT!"

We didn't look, naturally thinking that it was a trap, and in consequence got knocked off the cliff by a falling tree. As we were falling, we fell into some trees down below. I hit my head on a tree branch and got knocked out.

/Two's POV

I was the only head conscious. The pylon imp was hanging from a tree, and Infinut was nowhere to be seen.

"Help me down! Please!"

"Shut up."

He looked at me pleadingly, and I looked away quickly. We had been taught to never trust a zombie. I also didn't want to free him without consulting the others. But One and Three were knocked out, and Infinut's missing. So I guess it's up to me.

I smacked Three in the head, waking him up. I purposely didn't wake up One, because he always hates it when I do that.

"Uhg. Huh? What? Where are we? Ow, my head…"

"Three, we're in the middle of a forest. And we have the imp as our prisoner."

"Prisoner? Why didn't you vanquish- OW!"

"Are you ok?"

"My head hurts. A ton. Like, it's tearing through me, ripping me apart and-"

"Okay okay!"

Three got a little too descriptive at times. And it's scary. His mind is so strange.

Eventually One woke up, and we were able to vote on taking the imp to L.E.A.F. because he might have valuable information, and it earns us street credit. But first we needed to find Infinut.

As it turns out, he was wedged headfirst into the same tree the imp was in. Go figure. He was happy to be out of it, but was a little angry we didn't notice him sooner.

As we got the imp out of the tree, he sighed and smiled.

"Thank you. My name's Pylon Imp."

"Threepeater. And the blue nut is Infinut." I said.

"Like infinite, but a nut? And you're a repeater, but with three heads, so…"

"Bravo, genius." One said sarcastically.

I flashed him a look, then we dragged the imp to the cliff edge. It was only then the five of us realized we didn't know how to get back up.

/Fast Forward Three Days

/Suburbia Forest: 6 am

/One's POV

"Are you quite done?"

"Not quite…"

"Hurry it up then!"

I was getting mad at Pylon Imp for taking an overly long rest on the rocks. We had tried going around the cliff, but had gotten lost in the mountains. That's how far off course we were.

Pylon Imp was still our prisoner, but he was acting more like our friend. He had fetched us firewood instead of running away, helped Infinut use the sun to light the fire, not complained much, and was enjoyable to be around. I was becoming attached to him, though I won't ever admit it.

Now we were headed towards a large cave as the sun set, hence Pylon Imp's break. Me, Two and Three were carrying firewood while Pylon Imp carried some leaves for fire fuel. No one had seen our fires yet, probably because we're so far away from everyone.

"Come on, Pylon Imp. Infinut says it's going to rain." Two said.

That got him up really quick. He hates rain for some reason. Last night he got wet from a slight downpour and was in a bad mood for hours. Luckily he was fine when his clothes dried.

"I always thought plants needed water." Pylon Imp grumbled as he carried the leaves.

I was confused on that myself. Maybe Infinut has answer. He always does.

Eventually we reached the cave. It was strangely bright. Setting down our things, we went deeper into it. The cavern sloped downwards in a spiral, and carved stone arches were above us the whole time. It gave me the creeps.

Finally we exited the spiral and found ourselves in a large cave with a lot of lava and rocks. Five plants were standing over a rock pile in the middle. A plasma pea noticed us and yelled out,

"Freeze! We'll kill you if you take one step more!"

We all froze. Pylon Imp's eyes widened and he looked at us.

"That's him. That's Drax Fledill. He's with the Bloominati."

The Bloominati? Sounds dumb. Like some stupid pun on a secret organization or something dumb like that. Wait, it is an organization itself, so…

My thoughts were interrupted by an armor chomper and a red stinger escorting is to the rock pile.

"Do you know what this is?" A sweet pea asked.

"Chompzilla."

We all turned to see a peashooter and a chomper glaring at us. Wait, not just any peashooter and chomper, but Peashooter and Chomper! Wow, that sounds so confusing, even in my head…

"Let. Them. Go." Chomper growled menacingly.

"Yeah, right." mumbled Drax.

"Can I kill them?" asked the armor chomper.

"Sur- wait. These guys are familiar."

"We should be. We've found you before. I'm Anna's son. And so is Threepeater."

The plants' mouths dropped at that. Peashooter and Chomper took the opportunity to advance on us. Peashooter signed us a "stay" sign.

The armor chomper regained his composure and sneered, groaning out,

"Well, unfortunately for you, Anna is dead."

Peashooter stopped, shocked, and Chomper snarled angrily. Two and Three were confused, and so was I.

The next five minutes went by so fast, I'm going to slow it down so it is able to be understood. First, the armor chomper lunged at Peashooter and Chomper. Pylon Imp tackled the chomper towards some lava. Peashooter started fighting the red stinger, and we started fighting the sweet pea. Infinut blocked the aspearagus from hitting anyone. Chomper went barreling full throttle towards Drax, and the two dueled intensely. Of course, all I can say after that is that we beat the sweet pea. He was pathetic.

/Chomper's POV

"You should be back with L.E.A.F., holding trial."

"You should be DEAD!"

I knew Drax as a kid. I met him when I was four. He always said L.E.A.F. was as corrupt as Zomboss, and hated anyone who was on L.E.A.F.'s side. He said he would go against them with his dying breath. He was eight. Then he disappeared, never to be heard from again for seven years. Then he revealed himself as a member of the Bloominati. Typical.

"You always were scum."

"I could say the same for YOU! YOU FELL OFF A CLIFF IN A SUICIDE ATTEMPT JUST TO KILL A SINGLE L.E.A.F. AGENT! WHEN YOU WERE EIGHT!"

"Yeah, I was cool even then."

I roared and bit off his left hand. Blood flew everywhere. He yelled and grabbed my stem. Then he threw me towards a lava pool. I barely skid to a stop right next to it. The heat was intense, and my vision became unfocused. Drax stepping menacingly over me, snarling like an animal.

"Like the heat? Better get used to it, burning in HELL."

"Maybe YOU should get used to it."

Pylon Imp threw the armor chomper across the room, and she landed on Drax. He fell forward, right into the lava. He squealed and was burnt to a crisp, his ashes sinking into the molten magma.

"That… was graphic." Peashooter said.

He rushed over and picked me up, then he started carrying me. The four other Bloominati members all cowered away, scared. Threepeater and Pylon Imp kept them all in line. Peashooter glared at the armor chomper and asked if his mother was really dead. She said yes, and waited for a punishment. She received none. Peashooter signaled to Threepeater, and we left the cave, leaving the Bloominati there.

We made camp under a rocky overhang outside, a rain shower barely missing us. Infinut and Threepeater were talking, Pylon Imp kept checking me for injuries, and Peashooter sat quietly. Finally, he spoke up.

"That was Chompzilla's Lair. That's where I was held prisoner, huh?"

I nodded. I saw where this was going.

"I don't blame you for what you did, Chomper. Many people have done much worse, myself included."

"I killed my aunt! How have you done worse?"

He sighed and shook his head.

"Chomper, you're a perfect friend. You always try to take away other's pain. But if you don't want to have your own taken away, then I don't know what to do."

"Says you!" chimed in Two. "You have this 'all so mysterious' past that you don't want to talk about, so leave Chomper alone."

"Some things are better left unsaid, Two."

We all turned to Pylon Imp. He looked at me and Peashooter with sympathy.

"That being said… why did they say mum was dead? She's been dead since I was a sprout." Two questioned.

"Because she wasn't dead. She was with the Bloominati."

"WHAT?!" all of Threepeater's heads yelled simultaneously.

"How long have you known?" Two asked, and from the way he looked at Peashooter, he wasn't very happy.

"Only a few months."

"What I want to know," I cut in, "Is WHY IN THE WORLD YOU GUYS WERE TRAVELING WITH A ZOMBIE! SURE, HE SAVED MY LIFE, BUT YOU JUST RAN OFF WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"

"Chomper, chill." Peashooter cautioned.

"We were trying to capture him, then we all got lost. As he traveled with us, he became our friend." Two stated.

I wasn't mad anymore, so I rested my head. Infinut looked at all of us, then said,

"If we've learned one thing here, it's that we don't know how to trust. We trusted you, Chomper, even though you killed Chompzilla. Peashooter didn't tell anyone about his mother. You three and I trusted a zombie. And Pylon Imp trusts us enough to save Chomper. What I'm saying is that we're reckless. We don't think these things through. There's no reason for anything that happened to have happened in the first place."

"Infinut is right," I agreed. "We need to trust one another. We're friends. We need to be able to keep that."

/Suburbia: That Night

/Sunflower's POV

Wallnut and I were starting to become annoyed. Cabbage-pult has been knocking at the door for hours. We had agreed not to talk to him, but our patience was wearing thin. Finally, I caved. I opened the door so forcefully that Cabbage-pult stepped back in surprise.

"What do you want from me?!" I yelled at him.

"I already told you! I want forgiveness."

"And I told you that you're stupid."

"Please," he said in a pretty convincing voice as he grabbed my left arm.

I should've shaken him off. I should've slapped him. But I wanted to believe him. And so I did.

"Fine."

His eyes widened and he smiled.

"I promise I won't disappoint you ever again."

"Then you'll leave Peashooter alone."

His smile became much more forceful at that.

"You do know that we-"

"I don't care. Leave. Him. Alone."

"Alright, fine. He stepped back and smiled.

"Soo… you free on Wednesday?"

Finally done, after TWO MONTHS! Re-writing this thing THREE TIMES was a doozy. At least I'm back, right?