Neighborville: Present day
Mia returned to reality as Penny spoke up.
"You seem unsettled" She stated. "By scanning you, it seems you prefer to watch the stars to calm yourself. I don't have a sun-roof but I could provide a live feed of the sky above."
"Thanks" Mia said as a screen lowered itself to Mia's eye level and turned on, revealing a starry night sky. Mia's anger towards humans was washed away by the tidal wave of calm staring into space brought her.
"You know, you shouldn't be so hard towards James and his family. They did nothing wrong"
"See one human, maybe several, you've seen 'em all" Mia replied, a bit of dull annoyance towards humanity creeping back into her personality.
"User Dave once said 'Never judge a taco by it's shell or a zombie by it's looks. Judge the taco how great it tastes and the zombie by how bad it wants eat your brains! But squirbos? ALWAYS judge them by their looks.' If you remove all the crazy garble and that last bit, it really makes a good point." The RV replied.
Mia hated when Penny, or in this case Crazy Dave, was right.
"Yeah," Mia said, giving in. "I guess your right. Thanks, Penny."
"I'll add counseling to my list of possible side-jobs." Penny replied.
Piper phased through the wall into the Z-Tech control room, invisible to the zombies around her.
"This is fun!" She thought as she smiled to herself. She zoomed down to a computer and peered over a zombie's shoulder. After scanning the screen for a while, she came across something interesting.
"Zuper gud zombie invinzibl machine." She read quietly, not forgetting while unseen, she could still be heard. "When zapped by machine, zombie beecum strong and stinky plantz do hurt zombie. A zombie machine prevent plants from killing zombies?" Piper floated around, looking for more stuff related to the machine. She examined another computer, which read, "Tezting rezultz: Zombie zapped by machine and thrown into room filled with hungry ratz while zombie covered in cheese. Zombie unharmed but iz viziting therapy. Ratz scary." Piper heard voices chatting in the hallway. She floated close and listened in. It was between a two scientists.
"Zir!" one said. "The next machines aren't ready for large groups of zombies! It almost broke after zapping four at once. We haven't been able to recreate the succezzful of the firzt one!" The other one, who looked like the leader, wearing a golden set of goggles, replied, saying, "Our concernz matter not to Dr Zomboss. He wantz it done by the end of this week" Piper gasped, causing the two scientists to stop. They turned around and the leader pulled out a screw and threw it. It hit Piper, who cried out in surprise as she appeared. He said, picking up the screw. Every single zombie stopped what they were doing and turned to her. Piper picked up the scientist closet to her and repetitively slammed him into the ground before throwing across the room. The other zombies advanced on the Ghost Pepper as she ran away. Piper bumped into a zombie wielding a screen door as a shield. She summoned tendrils of white fog and pounded them into the door. She finished with an uppercut sending the zombie flying into the ceiling before crashing back down, all his limbs popping off. A buckethead ran up to her and she smashed the bucket into the zombies' skull. He stood there for a second before collapsing to the ground. Piper attempted running again but was cut off by several All-Star zombies, their red football helmets showing the plant's reflection. One charged as the others readied their football guns. Piper grabbed the charger by his leg and it let out a confused grunt. She slammed the zombie into the ground, making wide arcs every swing. The other All-Stars fired their weapons and a barrage of footballs spread towards Piper. She ducked down and the footballs hit the zombies behind her. She sped towards the zombies and roared right in their faces. The zombies panicked and ran in several directions as she proceed to take out all of them. Piper turned around and launched several waves of white smoke that slammed into the center of the zombie horde. They all shot up at once, sending all the zombies flying. Piper found this fun but she knew she had to escape. She weaved between the confused zombies and almost reached the exit when a triumphant voice boomed out.
"It's a bird! It's a plane!" it called. Piper looked up to see the silhouette of a zombie standing on one of the rafters. A spot shown on it with a THUNK, revealing a zombie with a purple suit, a yellow cape, gloves and boots, a ton of muscles and a shockingly good hairdo. He jumped off the rafters and cried, "It's SUPER BRAINZ!" He slammed down fist first, causing a shockwave to erupt, knocking Piper back. As she got up, the room erupted with applause and cheers from the other zombies.
"Stand back, brave citizens." He said. "I'll deal with this plant perpetrator." Piper shook the dust off of herself, readjusted her costume and began to glow bright blue. A massive ball of smoke formed above her head and she threw it at the zombie. He summoned a purple shield and deflected the blow. Super Brainz charged and Piper simply floated upward. She summoned more white smoke and threw it all of it at the zombie. He rolled out of the way and grabbed something from his belt. He fired a small, black cable that wrapped around Piper's tail. She tried to fade into nothingness but the rope stayed stuck. She squirmed and tugged but it wouldn't budge.
"Surrender fiend!" Super Brainz called. "This battle is futile, I do not want to harm you more unless I must!" Piper dove straight for the zombie superhero and roared right in his face, sucking up all her fears and slamming them into the zombie. Surprisingly, he didn't panic or even blink, just said, "Can I offer you a mint?"
"My breath isn't THAT bad!...is it?" Piper said, concerned. She was spun around and smashed into the ground. Super Brainz wrapped more of the cable around the plant until she was stuck.
"Fear not!" Super Brainz shouted triumphantly, placing one foot on Piper. "The evil has been stopped!" Piper squirmed around until she finally excepted defeat with a sigh. She looked up and said, "Wait….how am I going to get the stains out of my costume?" Probably not the best thing to say but Piper couldn't help it. It was a part of her. She was dragged out of the Z-Tech factory while Super Brainz was bombarded by cheers and praise.
Phillip sat in the front seat, cleaning his cowboy hat. He said to everyone that he found it in Mount Steep after a duel with the zombie outlaw, Brian No-Brainer. When really, long after he defeated No-Brainer with the help of Tumbleweed Ted and some cacti, he found it at a gift shop. Eh, he liked his story better. The peashooter put his hat back on and heard a beeping coming from the radio. He pushed a button and the face of Kernel Corn appeared on a holo-projected video. Phillip got up and snapped a salute.
"SIR!" He said.
"At ease, Sergeant." Kernel Corn said. "Have you made it to the refugee center yet?"
"We should arrive there shortly, sir." The peashooter stepped to the side to show the Williams family sitting on the couch, playing a board game provided by Penny.
"We got everyone here, sir. Alive and well." The Kernel nodded and said, "very good, Sergeant. Call me again once you made it."
"Yes sir. Sergeant Phillip out." Phillip said before shutting off the call. He walked over to the group of humans and said, "So. everyone enjoying themselves?" Mrs. Williams nodded, looking a lot better now than yesterday.
"We have reached our destination." Penny called, lowering herself. They landed outside gym. Just by looking through the glass doors, Phillip could see groups of humans huddled inside.
Mia walked ahead and opened the door.
"Go ahead" Mia said, with a newfound kindness. Perhaps Penny talked some sense into her. "Safety awaits." The Williams entered the gym, followed by Mia, and Phillip went back inside Penny. He called Kernel Corn and reported that the family was safe. Once that was over, he walked back towards the gym. He had this strange feeling he was being watched. He suddenly stopped, breathed in, and said, "So, Brian. Back for round two?" He turned to see a zombie footsoldier with moustache and tall cowboy hat, a big golden brain in the middle.
"No one'z here to help ya now, kid." He responded.
"Don't need help. I've been practicing." Phillip stated. Brian removed a cigarette he had been smoking on and laughed.
"Good, this iz gonna be a good fight then." He said, dropping the cig and squishing it with his boot.
"A Duel?" Phillip asked, adjusting his hat.
"Seemz more fair." Brian said.
"Okay then." Phillip responded. The two locked eyes, staring each other down. Phillip knew that Brian had no fear of death. He could just be resurrected. Phillip on the other hand, got no second chances and Brian knew that and would use that to his advantage. Phillip rolled back his shoulders as Brian's hand hovered near a pistol. It was dead silence. Silence, Phillip knew, that would be followed by the sound of the loser's body hitting the floor. Phillip looked down to see Brian slowly pulling out his gun. In a flash, Phillip raised his pea pods to his mouth, gulping down the peas as Brian whipped out his pistol. This was it, do or die.
BLAM!
P-THOOP!
Phillip stood there for a moment before flopping to the ground, pain shooting through his body. He looked down too see a clean hole through the center of his stem. Brian chuckled, taking out his rifle and aiming it right at Phillip's forehead, and said, "Phillip, I thought you said you've been practicing. I waz expecting you to at leazt HIT me." Phillip half gasped, half chuckled and responded, saying "I didn't need to *Cough* hit you. Look down."
"Look down?" Brian said, puzzled. He looked down and saw the red horror that was a Chili Bean. It made a hysterical scream before exploding, launching Brian No-Brainer into the sky. At that moment, Mia and several weeds rushed out of the building and over to Phillip. Mia jumped over the fallen Peashooter, ready for a fight but only saw massive scorch marks.
"It's fine." Phillip said, grunting in pain. A sunflower rushed over and Phillip rolled onto his back. The sunflower extended an arm and a yellow beam shot out, hitting Phillip's wound. Soon, it was reduced to a scar.
"I'm not the Sunflower Queen. The healing will still take time to complete so I suggest not too much running around." She stated.
"Thanks." Phillip said, standing up. He picked his hat off of the ground and put it back on.
"What happened?" Mia asked.
"Brian No-Brainer." Phillip said. "It's been so long I forgot his was hunting me." The nightcap turned back to the scorch marks where the zombie once stood.
"I assume that was your doing?" She said.
"Chili Bean Bomb." Phillip said. "The guy never learns." Mia nodded and was about to go back inside when she preformed a backflip, a bullet whizzing past where she stood a moment ago. The plants turned to see Brian, alive and well, standing on top of a deactivated Penny, waving.
"Clever, Phil. Clever" He called.
"H-how?!" Phillip said. The blast should've scattered Brian's remains across the parking lot, yet here he stood, unscathed.
"What did you say when we first met?" Brian said. "'Shoot first, ask questions later'?" An army of browncoats, footsoldiers and All-stars charged out from behind Penny and the parking lot erupted into chaos. Mia ran inside and came back with an army of plants.
"Evacuate the humans!" Mia called. Phillip switched to his Gatling form and mowed down the first wave of zombies. A chomper burrowed under the ground and popped up underneath a footsoldier. It screamed before the chomper downed it whole. Several weeds and browncoats collided and began to beat each other up. Garlic Drones bombarded the back lines of the zombie hordes. Phillip saw a footsoldier launch up into the air but quickly brought it back down to earth with a pea shot. Suddenly, something strange began to happen. The chomper that ate the footsoldier began to cough and gag until it threw up, spitting out lots of purple goo and a completely unharmed, if not very slimy, zombie. The zombies battling the weeds seemed unfazed by very attack thrown at it and the group of zombies Phillip took down with his Gatling began to get back up. That would explain Brian's survival of the Chili Bean Bomb. The zombies were invincible.