"Danger! Danger danger danger danger!"

"Ngh! My chest hairs are on fire!"

"Uh oh!"

The foreboding silhouette of the incoming Presidential yacht made everyone in Sparkswood gaze in alarm, even in the wee hours of the morning. The USS Sequoia Mark II was armed with marines, with President Baine standing at the wheel beside Admiral Ravens, a middle-aged man with a light grey beard and a white uniform dotted with badges and medals.

Sam turned to her own crew in the labs. "The President's coming, and it looks like he's brought an army with him!"

Earl broke out into some swift karate poses. "If it's a fight that guy wants, we'll sure as hell give it to 'im!"

Brent glared bravely. "Yeah! I may be a chicken, but I'm not a coward!"

"I'm glad you guys are willing to stick with Flint," Sam answered, "but I don't think we can fight the President and his men."

Earl's eyes went wide. "What the Sam Hill are you talkin' about, sister?!"

Brent gasped. "You're not giving up, are you?!"

"Of course not!" Sam cried, "I want to keep Flint safe more than anything else in the world, but the reason why the President is after him is because he thinks he's dangerous. If we try to attack the President first, his men will follow their orders and try to kill all of us. Even though our intentions are good, we'll look like the bad guys if we start a fight. We gotta show the President that Flint is good inside, that he's worth saving despite all that's happened."

Earl wasn't ready to buy it. "And what if he doesn't listen?! What then?!"

Sam's glare deepened. "...Then we'll definitely fight back. He and his men aren't allowed to touch the Foodimals, so if we can't reason with them, then the Tacodile or Cheespider will."

-

The Scottish-American Admiral steered past the giant slices of pie and toast.

"If those food monsters lay so much as a claw on you, my liege, we'll fight 'em off to the bitter end!"

Baine answered with a stern tone. "Don't you fire a single bullet until I give the orders. These people will do everything they can to protect Flint Lockwood and each other, and I certainly don't blame them. We'll try to reason with them first, but if Lockwood and his friends are too thirsty for blood to listen, I won't allow any of my noble soldiers to get harmed. This whole fiasco started with me, and it'll finish with me, too."

-

Earl stood before a crowd of Foodimals, and lead them to designated sectors of the jungle. "All right, food animals, let's go go go! Get into position, but don't make a single move until we say so!"

The Cheespider jerry-rigged a giant web behind some trees hidden behind Sparkswood. The Tacodile hid underneath a field of four-foot-tall blue grass. A herd of Bananostriches stood at the top of the dirt hill they used as their stampeding grounds. Wild Scallons stood still beside the towering trees so that their slender necks and legs practically blended in with the foliage. The Ratbirds hid within the the thick leaves of a purple oak tree, their beady red eyes all glaring at the President and his men from a distance. Every other Foodimal too small to fight, such as Lemmins, Pickles, and Berries, hid in various trees, bushes, shrubs, and even hid within the Watering Hole, watching anxiously with their heads above the water.

Finally, the Commander in Chief set foot on the Swallow Falls docks, standing in the middle of a crowd of fifty marines, aligned in ten rows of five, each armed with a white AR-15 gun.

Admiral Ravens stood at the front. "Onwaaard, MARCH!"

As Baine and his men made their way across the jungle, most of the Foodimals watched from their hiding spots, staring up at them with either anxiety or bravery, ready to fight back or run for their lives. Inside Sparkswood, Sam and the others were armed with the closest things to weapons that they could find; fishing harpoons, weighted nets, Spray-On Shoes, Hair Un-Balders, even Celebrationators. They may not be the most efficient means of self-defense from the caliber of trained soldiers such as the US Marines, but everyone wanted to use every option they had if it meant defending Flint Lockwood. Everyone then made their way down to the main lobby of the lab, and watched anxiously behind the automatic double-doors.

Little did they realize that the sounds of marching soldiers and crowd of Thinkquanauts rushing down the stairs and elevators woke Flint up in his bedroom...

The Admiral, President and Marines halted when they reached the main entrance to the lab.

President Baine stood at the front next to the Admiral. "If Mr. Flint Lockwood or any of his closest associates are present, step forward now!"

Without a trace of hesitation, Sam stood before the group, armed with a harpoon. Tim quickly followed, then Earl, Manny, Brent and Barb, all lined up in a row in front of the door.

After weeks of only seeing him through letters, emails and phone calls, everyone was finally getting a clear look of their Commander-in-Chief in person. His appearance definitely reflected the intimidating demeanor in his messages. Six feet by six inches tall with fairly muscular arms and chest; light blue eyes that were as cold as ice; jet black hair that had grown to the middle of his neck, with the bangs that were combed and smoothed down into even curves; a dark-navy-blue trench coat with black combat boots; and a pair of brown leather gloves over his wiry wrists that were already clenching tight, as though he could strike a punch at any moment.

For a minute or two, all was deathly silent. Both parties simply stood there staring at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. The Foodimals hadn't budged an inch, and were watching the scene before them with intense focus.

Finally, the President broke the silence, and spoke in a stern, yet calm voice. "I am William Oswald Baine, President of the United States of America. I have come to Swallow Falls in regards to the very recent, alleged national security threats caused by Flint Lockwood back in Washington DC. Is he here?"

Sam took a deep breath, but Earl cut her off. "Yes he is, but if you think we're just gonna let you barge in and take him away from us, you've got another thing comin'!"

Sam bit her lip and whispered. "Earl!"

But Baine's voice hadn't risen by a single decibel. "I'm not here to simply seize him like a piece of cargo. I'm here to know for certain the severity of the situation at hand, to make sure that the American people are not in any danger because of Flint's invention."

All of a sudden, the marines gasped and aimed their guns toward the double doors. Sam and the others spun around to see Flint Lockwood making his way past the Swallow Falls citizens and Thinkquanauts trying to restrain him.

"Flint, what are you doing?!" Joe cried.

"Stop! They're gonna kill you!" Regina added.

Flintly tried to pull him back. "No, mate! Are you crazy?!"

But the determined inventor wouldn't hear any of it, and bravely approached Sam and the gang, glaring at the President with his mismatched eyes and snarling, drooling jaws.

The President was repulsed by Flint's ghastly appearance. "What in the world?!"

The Admiral cringed along with his men. "He's bloody hideous!"

Sam's eyes welled with tears. "Flint, no, what are you doing?!"

Flint crawled in front of Sam and his friends, standing as high as he could on four legs. He kept his knees bent against the ground while planting his fists on the ground, his arms standing tall and his back arching upward. The Marines still had their guns aimed at him, their fingers at the triggers, but Flint wasn't the least bit intimidated. He simply stood firm, glaring at the men waiting for orders to fire.

Brent covered his mouth in alarm. "Flint's tryin' to protect us..."

"Flint, don't do this!" Sam sobbed. "They're all here to kill you!"

Tim's voice equally desperate. "Son, go back inside, please! I beg you!"

But Flint looked back up and uttered a shaky, yet solemn, "N-N...Nyoh!"

Everyone gasped, including the President and his soldiers.

Flint's distorted pupils then widened with desperation. "N-No! No."

The Admiral interrupted them with a harsh voice. "Well, answer the President's question! Is he a threat, or isn't he?!"

Sam and the gang answered in unison. "NO!"

Even Flint spoke up for himself! "N-No!"

"Please, sir," Sam pleaded. "I know Flint's scared a lot of innocent people with his condition, but you have to believe us when we say that this isn't his fault, and he had no control of his own behavior back there!"

Baine answered back sternly. "That was the same benefit of the doubt that I used to convince my administration not to press charges on him with the food weather that nearly destroyed our country as well as the rest of the globe. He regained my trust by proving himself to be a hero. Now our nation finds itself in another calamity caused by his inventions that can cause similar damage to the food weather if rectified immediately. How can I be certain I can trust him with the American people when they find themselves in more danger after being promised they never would be again?"

"Because, that's exactly why Flint wanted to change his brain in the first place: to make sure everyone would be safe! After the National Mall shooting, he was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, and he tried to get rid of it so that he wouldn't accidentally hurt his loved ones again with his lack of proper judgement and social skills. But what Flint didn't realize was that by getting rid of his Asperger's, he also got rid of the special talents and advanced intelligence that came with it, the very things that made him so special in the first place. He was willing to sacrifice his love of inventing to try to please everyone, including you, but as you can see, he's ended up pleasing nobody, especially not himself...or us."

The President's eyes widened a bit more, but at this point, Sam wasn't even making eye contact with him. She kept gazing at Flint with a face of true heartache, and continued speaking as though she were reciting a eulogy, more tears running down her face. Flint stared longingly up at his girlfriend, his own heart aching just from seeing her so upset.

"What would really please us more than anything else in the world right now...is if we had the old Flint back, the real Flint. He didn't need to change his brain to make everyone happy. We definitely would've helped him work through the social problems; even the doctor said that he wasn't far gone at all. All he really needed was-was to know that we all loved him just the way he was. And if everyone's efforts to try to change him back don't work...we-we may never see the real Flint Lockwood again. And I don't want any other Flint than the one I've always loved."

As Sam finally hung her head low, sobbing before her audience of Foodimals, Marines, Thinkquanauts and townspeople, Flint's face widened with concern, and he gently wrapped his arms around her for another hug. She, of course, hugged him return, and Tim, Earl, Brent, Manny, and Barb shared their own tears, hugs, and gentle strokes on Flint and Sam's backs. Steve hadn't been paying attention throughout the rest of this emotional scene, but upon seeing his master so distraught, he felt an instinctual need to join in the group hug, too, snuggling across Flint's back.

Every single marine lowered their AR-15s. To say that they were humbled by Sam's heartfelt speech and the love and courage from his surrogate family would be the understatement of the year; they felt lower than the dirt they'd just marched upon. Admiral Ravens discreetly shed a tear for the group, holding his hat against his chest. President Baine stared down at the ground for a moment or two. Then lifted his head up, sighed through his nose, and spoke with a sincere, yet gentle tone of voice.

"...All right, Ms. Sparks. It's become abundantly clear that our minds have been changed for us. Men, drop your weapons."

The soldiers followed their orders without a trace of hesitation. Even the Admiral dropped his own gun. Sam and the gang stared up at the President with wide eyes of both immense relief and gratitude.

Sam held her fists close to her beaming smile. "Y-You're letting him go?"

The President nodded and smiled back. "Not only that, but I shall take any action, within my authority as President, that is necessary to help Flint return to his true form."

The crowd of citizens and Thinkquanauts inside the lab were so overjoyed, they all rushed out the automatic doors, and stood around the President and his men, roaring with applause and crying with joy. The witnessing Foodimals all came out of hiding, cheering along with the Swallow Falls residents, and filling up the soldiers with hearty licks and snuggles of gratitude for sparing their beloved "En Woo."

After getting "special-sauced" by the Cheespider, President Baine wiped the goop off his uniform with a hearty laugh. "This is gonna be hard to explain to my Press Secretary back home. Now then, Ms. Sparks, tell us how we can help."