Episode 18: Rootilda

Heads up, I'm gonna be mentioning the Art Club members every now and then :)

"So yeah, basically, we're all good now," Verge finished the story of her previous mission, and Lena listened intently as she munched on a sandwich. The two were seated at a bench outside school, and Lena decided to skip her last class to spend some time with her.

The brunette girl swallowed and said thoughtfully, "I see. Did you guys kiss?"

This caused a red hue to spread across the fairy's pale cheeks. "What? No! Why?"

"Honestly, I ship you two."

"Just the other day you were punching his arm repeatedly!"

"Doesn't mean I don't think you guys are cute!"

Verge rolled her eyes playfully. The bell rang, signalling the end of school, and someone called out, "Hey!" She turned to see Sashi waving a hand, with Boone and Penn behind her. Verge then stood from her seat and smiled at her friend beside her.

"It was nice hanging out Lena, thanks for listening!"

"Eh, don't mention it, it's nice to hear about your missions," the girl waved a hand, smirking. "Also, I'm just trying to prove to Lance that I skip more times than he does."

The fairy met up with her three friends and soon they were together in the Odyssey, on the platform, ready for their next zap. Phyllis looked down on them as she punched in some buttons. "You're going back to Plant World. Good luck!"

The four grinned, with Penn and Boone bumping hands and Penn and Verge doing a tiny fist-bump. They were ready to be zapped in, but it seemed to be taking a long time for that to happen. "Uh, Phyllis?" Penn called out. "Still here?"

That's when the four realized Karen the Bear and Derek the Robot were pampering the mechanic – with Karen filing her nails - so the long nail extensions she had were stopping her from holding anything. "Perhaps mani-pedi was bad idea." Derek pulled away from her foot and she used it to push the lever. "Oopsie-daisy."

Verge muttered as they were zapped in. "I want a mani-pedi…"

She opened her eyes in Plant World and moved a bit until she was out of Sashi's dandelion head. She twirled, a free dandelion tuft, and looked at Penn, who seemed to be lost in thought.

Penn looked lost in thought, but, that was actually the face he made when he had to go to the bathroom.

The cactus immediately glared up at the ceiling, knowing it was Boone being an annoying narrator again. "Hey! Stop narrating things that aren't even true!"

"It's true sometimes," Verge coughed. The cactus just glared.

Penn's objections couldn't cover up the obvious: it was go-time!

At this, Penn crossed his arms, looking downright annoyed. "I'm Boone, and I think I'm so smart and important because narrating is so hard," he mocked.

Like Penn could do better.

"Oh, I could!"

Couldn't.

"Could!"

Couldn't!

"Cooould!"

"Zero, oh my wings, shut up."

"You don't have wings Verge!"

He stopped talking when they suddenly heard a familiar singing voice. Well, a familiar scatting voice. Waltzing into the office like she owned the place was the beautiful rose they'd met the last time they came here.

"Orchid!" Penn exclaimed.

"Orchid," Verge seethed.

Even at her acknowledgement, she only kept making those sounds that confused Verge, so Sashi crossed her arms and snapped, "Enough scatting! What do you want? Is your brother Fern pretending to be missing again so he doesn't have to deal with his annoying sister?"

"Ooh, burn." Verge gestured like she was trying to fist bump, and Sashi curled her stem and bumped it against Verge, but the dandelion didn't know her own strength, and the tuft flew away. "Ow."

"Not this time," Orchid finally answered Sashi and placed her leaf on Penn's cheek. "I want what every girl plant wants: to be a famous sc-a-a-a-at singer!" She sang the word "scat", and Verge floated back to Sashi, glaring at the rose. "But to do that, I need to make an album and that takes money." She threw herself into Penn's arms and rubbed his cheek more. "I'm a damsel in distress. Will you be my knight in shining armored flower po-o-o-o-ot~"

Penn's cheeks were pink and he couldn't stop smiling stupidly but he managed to pull away from Orchid and say, "I'd like to help Orchid, but the truth is, I don't have any money."

Her eyes widened a bit when he said that, and Verge floated by Penn's head and narrowed her eyes. "He means beat it, gold-digger."

"Wha—no, not what I—"

"Plus everyone hates scat singing so no thanks, get out!" Sashi shoved Orchid out the door, despite her yelps.

Sashi shoved Orchid out the door, but what she really wish she could shove out were hers and Verge's jealous feelings.

The dandelion growled under her breath and Verge floated back to Sashi. "Game to beat him up after the mission?"

"I'm down."

Another plant barged right into the office, the lightning flashing just as she entered. It was a hydrangea plant that looked like a big bush with purple weeds, sunglasses, and a big hat. The voice itself when she spoke sounded high and mighty.

"Sorry, no time for knocking." She shoved Sashi out of the way, and Verge instantly tried to help her up. "I'm Rootilda Lacecap, I'm sure you've heard of me. The Baroness of Potting Soil!" The three other plants in the room just stared with Sashi sitting in a file drawer, grumbling with anger. "Yes? No! Come on, catch up! I'm the richest plant in Plantywood!"

"Fancy resume, Madam," Penn said, going to sit on his desk. "But what does that have to do with me?"

Once again, Penn needed to make everything about him.

The cactus groaned and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, I'm sorry Ms. Lacecap. We have a pesky narrator following us around."

"Please, call me Rootilda. And that's not a narrator! That's my third cousin's grand seed and only heir…" She reached into the pocket of Penn's detective coat and pulled out something small, grey, and brown. "Basil Perennial!"

"Dun, dun, duuuun!" Boone sang.

Verge, who was only slightly larger than Boone at the moment, flew beside Rootilda's leaf hand smirked. "Sweet. I'm bigger for once."

Penn and Sashi, however, were not amused. As Penn took Boone, he glared. "You were in my pocket the whole time?!"

Sashi snatched Boone up, as if ready to squeeze the life out of him, but maintained herself. "How did you know Basil was in his pocket?"

"Lucky guess," Rootilda replied. "But that's not why I'm here. I have a rare form of non-prunable leaf rot!" She plucked off one of her purple buds and tossed it, choking down a sob. "I don't have much time left. My empire needs to stay in the family, so I'm giving it to Basil." She patted the small seed, her voice cooed lovingly. "Anyhoo, come by tomorrow and we'll deal with all the paperwork! May your leaves stay green!"

She then left, her leaf hand scratching against the wall, and the thunder and lightning crashed and flashed.

"Oh, how rude, she scratched our wall!" Penn cried. "Wait, is our mission to fix this wall? 'Cause I'm, uh, not much of a handyman."

Verge huffed. "I'm sure you don't have to get your cactus needles dirty."

"True," Sashi said, checking her Specs. "Our mission is to solve the mystery surrounding Basil, aka Boone."

"Once again, Boone was at the center of Penn, Verge, and Sashi's lives," the seed continued to narrate.

Penn brought out a pot, still looking annoyed. "Better get you planted."

"Boone was their sun, moon, and stars-!" He yelped out at that last word, as Penn shoved him into the soil. The three plants now smirked that he was literally shut up.

Much time passed until tomorrow night came. The detectives – and dandelion tuft – arrived at Rootilda's home, and they walked into her meeting room with Boone's pot in Penn's hands.

"Where's Basil?" Rootilda demanded.

"Oh, he's here," Penn replied. "Yeah, we just wanted to enjoy some peace and quiet before the meeting. But he's around." He narrowed his eyes down at the pot, his voice softening. "Oh, he's around…"

"You sound creepy, Zero."

"Alright, alright. Sash?"

The dandelion held up a watering can and sprinkled some water on the soil. They heard Boone grunting as a stem sprouted out from the pot, and the seed – who was no longer a seed – grew into a healthy little plant. Boone stretched his leaves, grinning. "Oh, that feels good!" He flexed his leaves, exclaiming. "Yaaah! I feel so powerful!"

Rootilda held up a pen and a contract. "Sign here, and this will all be yours!" Her voice echoed throughout the room.

Boone happily took the pen and was ready to sign. But all of a sudden, the lights were out, and they heard the part-time Wiseman's familiar scream. When the light came back, Boone was gone! All that remained was his pot, a pen, and a paper poked through the pen.

"Boone!" Penn, Verge, and Sashi cried out.

Penn grabbed the note left and read it aloud. "'You'll never see Basil alive again unless you pay 1 million chlorobills?!"

Verge was about to say something, but then flew towards the direction of one of the room's windows, gasping. Everyone turned and saw a familiar tree stuck in the pane.

"Big Red!" Penn and Sashi grabbed him instantly before he could escape. They were both caught in the branches for a moment, but eventually got out, and Penn waved an accusing cactus needle at him.

"What did you do with Boone, you villain?!" he demanded.

"Boone's missing?" Rippen asked, seeming surprised. "I was climbing in to kidnap him."

"Oh really? Try and deny that this is your embarrassingly poor handwriting!" He waved the paper in the tree's face. "Try it, I dare you!"

"Yes, that's my note! I had a break-in at my hideout. The only thing stolen was my ransom note. So I had to write a new one." He brought out another piece of paper from his suit, and Sashi snatched it.

"Very clever. Trying to throw us off with two notes!" She ripped the new note in half and grabbed Rippen by the branch. "Where's Larry?! Can he back-up your story?"

"Oh, he's been gone all day. It's been rather lovely."

"Why are you so honest about this whole situation…"

Penn grabbed Rippen by his collar and shook him. "Why, you can't be this dumb! Stop lying and spill the beans!"

"I don't know anything! I am this dumb!"

"The truthful Rippen wouldn't admit he's dumb!" Verge accused, flying too close to the tree's face.

"Save it!" Sashi grabbed Rippen again, nearing her face to his this time. "You're gonna cool your roots in the hoosegow!"

As Big Red fell to the floor, Penn noticed an "Employee of the Month" picture frame on the wall. "Hey, isn't that Orchid's brother, Fern?" The familiar fern's picture was placed in the frame, smiling naively. "Employee of the Month…"

"Oh! Uhhh yes!" Rootilda suddenly said, her tone almost nervous. "He's our branch manager!"

Penn rubbed his chin. "Something about the case against Big Red didn't seem quite right…"

"But if Big Red's telling the truth," Sashi said. "Then who really kidnapped Boone?"

"Do we have any more leads?" Verge said, deep in thought.

The cactus then looked off into space, his eyes narrowing as he spoke. "Penn had a hunch that Fern was involved but he didn't know how. He hoped Orchid could put him in touch with Fern. Yes, this was a twisty mess of a case, all right. Twistier that the twistiest pretzel."

"Zero, what the dust."

Penn shrugged. "What?"

"You don't have to do that," Sashi said blankly, arms crossed and her expression not amused.

"I have an idea on where we can find Orchid," the dandelion tuft spoke up. "Remember the bar we went to the last time we were here?"

"The Green House!" Penn grinned. "Right! Let's go!"

The three managed to make it there, and somehow The Plantywood Times had already published a bunch of newspapers for Big Red's crimes. Verge saw some headlines by a newspaper stand, grumbling about how fast rumors spread, before they entered the bar. A host stood behind a mic, in the middle of a band, and said, "The Green House is pleased to introduce…Orchid."

The beautiful rose emerged from the curtains, wearing a long, red, sequined evening gown and her usual pretty smile. She held the mic, her voice breathy. "This one goes out to one, special detective." Her words made Penn blush, but Verge nudged him with her tuft body.

"Focus," she snarled, and Penn rolled his eyes.

They went across the club to two plants that seemed to be complaining about something. One short cactus was scowling at Orchid, as he spoke to the tulip bartender. "I told Orchid I didn't wanna hear any more scat singing! It's just a bunch of sounds! Sing words!"

The dandelion tuft coughed, and Penn took a seat. "Hey there, Skip? You got time for a quick quesh?"

"Anything to drown out the sound of that!" Skip said, who seemed to be the manager of the Green House.

"Not so much a fan of Orchid's…doo-a-ba-doo-biddy-skoo-biddy-bap?"

"It makes me want to break my own stems! She keeps asking me for money to make a scat singing album. That's not happening!"

Penn and Verge exchanged a look and the tuft made a shrugging gesture. "It has no future."

"You ever see her brother Fern come in the club?"

"Fern? The Potting Soil Executive? No, but I wish he did. Now that Basil's out of the way, Fern's next in line to take over the company. I bet he could get Orchid a job that doesn't involve making everyone's head hurt!"

He started walking towards the stage and Verge scoffed. "That's gonna be hard. No matter what Orchid does is excruciatingly painful in many levels."

"Hey," Penn mildly scolded, but Sashi just patted Verge's head.

"Okay, okay, that's enough, thank you Orchid—" The manager screamed when he placed his leaf hand on the rose, and glared as he held it. "Easy with the thorns!"

"See what I mean, Zero?"

But Penn was narrating again. "Even though the case was tough to crack, like an egg with an unusually hard shell, Penn had an idea that might just crack this eggy case wide open. Like a walnut."

"Mm," Sashi said. "You're getting worse."

After setting up a meeting at the Potting Soil company – and annoying Sashi with more awful narrating – Penn lead his two friends to their rendezvous, where Rootilda waited for them.

"Why did you make me get out of my flower bed to come down here?" she said grumpily. "I assumed you'd found Basil, my third cousin's grandseed and only heir!"

Penn narrowed his eyes. "Like drinking milk past the expiration date, Penn didn't feel too sure about that."

"Is he narrating himself?"

"Yeah," Sashi and Verge said, disappointedly.

Suddenly, the ground shook, and the ground began to give way and form a large hole. Big Red appeared out from underneath the floor, grinning wickedly as he held a shovel. Everyone was quite surprised to see him.

"Rippen? How'd you break out of the slammer?" Penn exclaimed. "And how'd you find us?"

"When I saw the newspaper headline about this meeting, I tunnelled out of jail so I could kidnap Basil for real!"

"I don't have time for this!" Rootilda shouted. "I'm a busy Hydrangea!"

"That's just the thing," Penn retorted. "You're not a Hydrangea!"

Everyone looked shocked. Rootilda gasped. Then Rippen. Then Sashi. Then Verge. But Penn continued. "And, you're not Rootilda!"

"Ehem." The real Rootilda emerged from the shadows and exposed herself. "Ah, he's right." Once she's confirmed Penn's accusations, she retreated back into the darkness.

"Then this impostor must be the only plant who had a motive to kidnap Basil!" Sashi exclaimed. "Fern!"

"Nope! It wasn't me!" The said fern also appeared from another corner of the room, his smiling face exposed to everyone as he waved. "But hey!" He went back into the dark, and Verge frowned.

"Why are you guys just doing that…"

"Then who's in the Rootilda costume?" the dandelion asked.

"Allow me to explain," Penn started, smirking. "When Rootilda left our office, she scratched the wall. But hydrangeas don't leave scratches like that, neither do ferns!"

"It's true!" Fern's voice called out.

"Only plants with thorns scratch like that. Plants like…roses!" The cactus ripped the Rootilda costume right off, revealing the true impostor standing before them: Orchid!

Orchid gasped first. Then Rippen. Then Sashi. Then Verge. Then Penn…then Rippen again?

"Stop gasping," Verge scolded.

Rippen shrugged. "Just adding dramatic effect."

"Anyway, how'd you know, Zero?"

"I put it together in the club when I saw Orchid scratch the manager," Penn explained. "Orchid wanted Basil out of the way so Fern would take over Rootilda's company and have the money to fund her unpopular scat singing career."

The rose then began to laugh nervously. "Thank you! You've been a great audience!" She started scat singing again, attempting to walk away, but Sashi was blocking her path.

"You're not going anywhere, sister."

"So," Penn kept talking. "She waited until Fern and Rootilda were on a business trip to Leaf Vegas. That gave her the opportunity to impersonate Rootilda so she could kidnap Basil!"

Orchid smiled sweetly. "For a plant, you're one smart cookie."

As she stroked Penn's cheek, the cactus was still grinning. But Verge flew in between the two. "Keep your thorns to yourself!"

Sashi stepped forward. "You're not gonna flirt your way out of this one, lady! How did you know Boone was going to try and kidnap Boone so you could frame him?"

"Uh, I can answer that one!" Larry's familiar voice echoed and they turned to see him emerge out of another dark corner. "I met Orchid to get sightseeing tips and accidentally told her Big Red's whole plan!" He laughed, as if it was some old joke, then turned serious again before retreating.

Verge was all ruffled up. "Seriously?! Why don't they stay longer?!"

Penn ignored her. "That just leaves the most important question – for the record, not Verge's—"

"Hmph."

"—Where's Basil?!"

"Sadly, for a cactus, Penn wasn't that sharp." From yet, another corner, Boone hopped in, potted plant and all, still a stem but now had a smug look on his face.

"Escaped an hour after I took him," Orchid noted.

"Then why didn't you come back?"

Boone continued to hop forward. "Boone wanted to teach Penn a lesson: a lesson about narrating."

"Alright, Boone, you're right!" the cactus gave in. "It's not as easy as it sounds."

"Penn had just made the understatement of the year!"

"Pick him up," Verge said blankly, and Penn did as told as Boone kept talking.

"Listening to Penn try to narrate was like listening to a cat choke on a fur ball: sad and gross."

Reaching his limit, Penn didn't even look as he let go of the pot. "Whoops."

Both Sashi and Verge smirked as the three walked away from the dropped plant. But he still kept talking. "Penn was the kind of guy who dropped his friends and break their pots…and then walk away."

After settling everything, finally – getting Orchid and Big Red back in jail, putting Basil in a new pot – the four got zapped back home.

"I'm proud of you though, Zero," Verge was saying, as Phyllis settled them on the zap platform. The two did a quick tiny fist bump before the fairy grew to human size. "You managed to solve this mystery like a real detective. Unlike last time."

"Could've done without the pointless narrating, though," Sashi said bluntly.

Penn laughed lightly. "Thanks, Verge. Just trying to be worthy of you again."

At his words, Verge couldn't help but blush a bit.

She would've kept looked like an idiot but Sashi tapped her shoulder. "Hey, Verge." She jutted her head towards a certain direction.

The two looked around and found Boone trying to leave the Odyssey early. But the girls knew their rage was strong enough, so began to run/fly. The brunette boy shrieked and hightailed it out of there, the two girls following pursuit.

Penn only smiled and shook his head.

Verge was glaring but deep in her heart, she knew her friend needed to know soon.