Hammy was soon pointing in terror at what he had found that he wanted to tell the others about.
"Hammy, what weird thing?" Verne asked the squirrel before he and the others caught up and he looked up to see what Hammy saw. "Oh. That weird thing."
The other animals began to feel scared and nervous and Ozzie even nearly fainted before Heather stopped him.
Hammy then suddenly ran off one way to see more. "It never ends!" he then called out before running the other way, passing RJ and the others.
"Hey!" Cherry yelped as she lost her balance and fell in the middle of the ground with her tail over her head, making her grumble and blow her tail out of her face, or at least try to.
Lionel helped Cherry to her feet as RJ glanced at the forest animals.
"It never ends that way too!" Hammy then told the others nervously.
"What is this thing?" asked Heather, approaching the hedge, but her father pulled her back.
"Well... It's, uh... Obviously some kind of bush..." Verne replied.
"I would just be less afraid of it if I knew what it was called." Penny remarked.
"Let's call it Steve!" Hammy gushed.
"Steve?" asked Verne.
"It's a pretty name." Hammy replied.
"Steve sounds nice." Heather nodded in agreement.
"I'm a lot less scared of Steve." Penny smiled.
"Oh, great and powerful Steve!" Ozzie soon called out dramatically. "What do you want?"
"I don't think it can speak." Verne scoffed.
"I heard that, young man!" A voice called out from behind the hedge which startled the animals, even Verne into going into his shell. "You get over here right now!"
"Okay..." Hammy pouted like a child in trouble.
"Hammy, get back here." Verne told the squirrel, pulling him back.
"But Steve is angry!" Hammy replied.
"It came from the other side of Steve, I mean the bush. I mean... Jeez!" Verne groused to himself. "There's only one way we're gonna find out what this thing is, and what this is all about. I'm gonna go check it out." And so, Verne edged towards the hedge, with the others behind him. Then, he tripped, and fell into the hedge.
Everyone gasped.
"STEVE ATE VERNE!" gasped Ozzie, mortified.
"All right, Steve, you brought this on yourself." Stella glared as she lifted up her tail, about to spray the hedge.
"Stella, don't! I'm not eaten, I just tripped," Verne quickly stopped the skunk. "I'm gonna go over there. Just don't anybody move."
The other animals looked at each other before RJ began to climb up the tree while Atticus, Cherry, Lionel, Mo, and Thor decided to follow after.
"Kids, come on, hurry up!" A woman's voice called out as Verne came into the human backyard. "Gary, come on. Breakfast! You'll be late!"
"What is this place?" Verne asked himself as he explored the backyard, feeling confused by the animal-based lawn ornaments.
Thor and Lionel soon glanced over from a high branch.
"Should we help?" Thor asked Lionel.
"Maybe," Lionel replied. "If things get ugly, then we go."
"Hmm... Okay..." Thor replied.
"And try to resist chewing on some wood while we're up here." Lionel then advised.
Thor was shown to be gnawing on their branch. "...I'm sorry, what was that?" he then asked.
Lionel face-pawed at that, shaking his head.
"Oh, hey there, little-" Verne smiled as he saw a passing bug who soon flew up to a bug zapper, getting instantly killed and fell in front of Verne's feet. "...Fella," he then bumped over to a dog's rear end which was just an ornament of a dog digging before he felt startled and fell on his back in front of a frog head sprinkler. "Hi."
The frog head sprinkler soon gushed water at him, making him fly over a bit towards a pillar before bumping into it and ran away from a glass ball chasing him.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Verne yelped.
RJ soon climbed to a high branch of the tree and looked around happily at the sight of the neighborhood.
"WAAAAAAAAUGH!" Lionel shouted as he and Thor fell towards the ground.
"I told you... No chewing on the branch!" Lionel grunted, pulling himself up.
"Well, I was hungry!" Thor cried as he covered his eyes. "I'm so ashamed!"
"Jeez, this guy is hopeless," Lionel replied. "And besides, beavers don't really eat wood!"
"But I'm still hungry," Thor pouted. "I'm sorry, Lionel, I guess I'm just trying to get used to this beaver body."
Lionel rolled his eyes, sighing. "Oh, good grief... We'll get food later."
Thor kept on crying before Lionel dragged him by his tail. Knives and spatulas soon began to fall towards Verne as he ended up in the hose after crashing near the grill, but luckily hid in his shell before he could get hit. However, one knife soon shot down on the hose and the turtle was sent flying through the air as the hose gushed out water. Verne soon spun around for a bit in the hose before he soon landed in a toy truck and was taken for a ride down the road with a toy coffee mug in one hand and a toy cell phone in the other.
"Operator. Can I help you?" The cell phone asked as Verne ended up in the road.
Verne soon ducked down as a large car passed him as the driver was on her own cell phone.
"No, I can talk," The woman smiled before she sipped from her thermos. "I'm just driving."
Verne then steered off course and ended up landing in front of a mailbox and slid onto the road before a bike passed right by him and he rolled all-around in his shell before a kid hit him with a hockey stick as a group of kids played street hockey before Verne was then finally knocked through the hedge and back with his friends in the forest.
"Where did all those pink primates come from?!" Verne exclaimed. "They must've come out while we were hibernating! They had wheels on their feet and they were whacking me with sticks like it was some sort of... Of sick game!"
"Humans." Cherry and her friends said to themselves.
"You should have died!" Ozzie told Verne. "You should have laid down and died."
"Dad." Heather rolled her eyes.
"That's not the worst part," Verne then told them. "Half the forest is gone. The oak trees and the berry bushes, they're just... They're just gone."
"Jeepers!" Penny gasped as she held her children.
"What'll we do for food?" Stella asked.
"How are we gonna live?" Lou added.
"I don't know, but here's what I do know," Verne told them. "We will be fine as long as no one goes over Steve again."
"Time to make an entrance." Atticus predicted.
"It's called a hedge," explained RJ. "And it is not to be feared, my amphibious friend. It is... The gateway to the good life."
"Uh, I'm a reptile, actually, but... It's a common mistake," Verne replied. "And uh, you are...?"
"Oh! Where are my manners?" RJ asked as he and the others climbed down from the tree. "I'm RJ; Now, please don't think I'm crying, but I couldn't help overhearing, and I think I can shed a little light on what this whole 'hedge' thing is about."
"And we're to help out." Cherry added.
"Right!" RJ nodded.
The group soon told the other animals their names, which would take up a lot of story time if the writers had each of them say their names with their own introduction, because who has time to get into all of that?
"You see, what was once mere wilderness is now 54 acres of man-made, manicured, air-conditioned paradise," RJ told the other animals as he shared some of his trinkets with them before taking out a brochure of the neighborhood, then used a magnifying glass to show the forest that they lived in. "Except for that little-bitty speck. You are here."
The other animals looked scared about that.
"No, no, that's a good thing," RJ then told them. "You're hibernators, right? You gather food, store it over for the winter?"
"Uh-huh!" Hammy beamed like an excited child as he pointed over to the log. "We fill the log!"
"Really?" asked Lionel. "This log? This... Cave-like log?"
"All the way to the top." Ozzy specified.
"Ozzy!" Verne reprimanded.
RJ took out a tape measure and ran it through. "Lemme ask... How long does it take to fill the log?"
"274 days." Heather replied.
RJ winced. "Ever done it in a week?" he asked.
"That's impossible." Verne replied.
"Not if we work together!" Lionel countered. "See, you guys got the skills to gather, we possess the food-know-how, and THEY have the food!"
"My little buddies are right!" RJ added.
"How much food?" Heather asked, playing with the flip cell phone she was given.
"Loads of food. Heaps of food. Food out the wazoo!" RJ exclaimed with delight.
"Yeah! Wazoo!" Thor added.
"Well, whatever kind of food comes out of a wazoo, I don't think we're interested in eating." Verne told the raccoon as he collected the trinkets that the other animals had, looking impatient and fed up with RJ.
"I don't know, the guy's making a lot of sense to me," Lou replied. "I think we should listen."
"Yeah, I'm okay with wazoo food there." Penny added, wearing heart-shaped sunglasses.
"No, you're not," Verne argued. "The tail is tingling."
The other animals then quickly agreed with him as that seemed to sound important to them.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," RJ remarked. "The what is what?"
"When something doesn't feel right, my tail tingles." explained Verne. "And lemme tell you something, everything you've said so far is driving my tail crazy."
"Listen... Verne, right?" asked RJ. "This isn't something you need to be afraid of!"
"Well, I am, and for good reason." Verne replied, showing the scuff mark on his shell.
"Yeah, we saw that," Thor replied. "It looked pretty painful and humiliating."
"You're not helping, Bucky." Verne glared a bit.
"Hmph." Thor glared back as he crossed his arms.
"This is not a birthmark." Verne then defended.
"That's because you went over there without a guide." RJ replied as he brushed the mark off with an electric toothbrush.
"Thanks for stopping by," Verne rolled his eyes. "We're not interested."
"Not interested?!" Lionel exclaimed. "In the most delicious food you've ever tasted?!"
"No!" Verne replied.
"C'mon!" RJ protested.
"Not. Interested." Verne emphasized.
RJ looked dejected. "Okay... I get it, I understand," he said as he took out a bag of nachos. "This is just something that you're not... Open to." He tore the bag open, and a massive wave of cheese dust swept over the Hedgies.
"Mm... Cheese..." Cherry approved of the taste as she loved cheese.
Some of the animals got blown back by the cheese dust explosion.
"What is that?!" Hammy grinned as he really enjoyed the taste.
"That, my friend, is a magical combination of corn flour, dehydrated cheese solids, BHA, BHT, and good old MSG AKA the chip," RJ informed as he shared the chips with them. "Nacho cheese flavor."
By now, everyone else was definitely sold on this idea.
"It's all good!" RJ declared, tossing nacho chips out from the bag. "And we're going over there. Tonight! YEAH!"
Verne still felt unsure, though it seemed like his inter-species family disagreed.
Eventually, the animals split up until night would fall as the adventure group gathered together.
"So far, this is the strangest and most curious mission yet," Cherry said to her friends. "Why are we here again?"
"We told Drell we wanted a break from the Justice League and for him to throw us the craziest scenario he could that didn't involve superpowers, so..." Atticus reminded before concluding with a shrug.
"Well, it's pretty neat," Lionel replied. "Kinda like we've become cast members in a heist film!"
"I guess that's an interesting way to look at it." Cherry remarked.
They soon heard a bit of a yawn before looking up to the tree they stood in front of as it was close to sundown.
"Well, well, who do we have here?" Norbert asked.
"Um, hey," Atticus greeted the owl. "Did we wake you?"
"Nah, I better get up before I end up sleeping 'til midnight, not a very good habit if you ask me," Norbert replied. "I can't say I've seen you bunch in this forest before."
"Yeah, we just got here," Lionel replied. "Neat to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." Norbert replied before he flew down a bit further to see them up close.
"For some reason, you remind me of my old friend, Willy Wonka." Cherry commented.
"I'm not sure I know who that is, but it's still nice to make your acquaintance," Norbert said. "Do you know what the others are up to? I'm afraid I was asleep."
"Well, we're gonna help 'em go over the hedge," Thor smiled. "They're pretty hungry, so we're gonna help 'em get some food."
"I see," Norbert replied. "Well, hope you guys succeed."
"Welcome... To Suburbia." RJ exclaimed, triggering a backyard's sprinklers and garden lights.
However, it looked more like one of those nighttime water displays you see at theme parks.
"That looks pretty cool at this size." Thor said, feeling awestruck.
"Yeah, kinda." Mo chuckled with a small smile.
The other animals felt impressed regardless as this was something they would have never seen before.
"Hey, Mom, look at us!" Spike smiled as he stood with his brother and sister, looking at their reflections in the marble ball. "Look at us!"
Heather smiled as she played with the frog head sprinkler as she had fun too.
"Jeepers." Penny whispered as she checked out a spiked plant that matched her and her family's quills.
"How's that tail, Verne?" RJ then asked the turtle.
"Listen, if anybody in this family gets hurt, I'm holding you responsible." Verne warned.
"Nobody's gonna get hurt," Lionel remarked. "And besides, they're having a good time. I'll take responsibility for that."
"Hmm..." Verne glanced at him.
They soon walked through the sprinkler trail as the forest animals looked very impressed and wowed to check out Suburbia.
"Hey, Verno, I took a few clippings out of my quills to do a little comparison," Lou said to the turtle, taking some grass from the yard and some grass from the forest. "Look at this, the grass seems to be greener over here."
"Someone once told me that the grass is much greener on the other side." Cherry shrugged.
"Verne, are you certain you came to the same place?" Ozzie then asked the turtle.
"Yeah, 'cuz, ya know, the raccoon says-" Stella added, only to be interrupted.
"Okay, enough about him. I get it," Verne interrupted. "So he can do a couple of tricks. I mean, it's not like he can walk on water."
"Hey, everybody!" RJ called out as he skipped along on the pool. "This way to the food!"
Everyone raced behind him, leaving Verne to play catch-up.
"What is that?" asked Hammy, pointing to a large vehicle with the license plate "GLADY$$$$" on the front.
"That is an SUV," explained RJ. "Humans ride around in it because they are slowly losing their ability to walk."
"Jeepers, it's so big!" Penny exclaimed. "How many humans fit in there?"
"Usually?" replied RJ. "One."
Cherry snorted at that.
"Whoa! Get down!" Atticus yelped as his ears twitched.
The others soon hid in the bushes beside the house as the front door came open.
"Hi, this is Gladys Sharp," A woman said, speaking into her cell phone as she came out her front door. "Your president? Of the homeowner's association? Right."
"Jeepers!" Penny gasped.
"What is that?" Lou asked.
"Easy, easy, don't worry. That's just a human being and they are just as scared of us as we are of them," RJ told the other animals. "Now, if a human does happen to see you, just lay down, roll over, and give your privates a good licking. They love it."
Cherry and her friends looked a bit wide-eyed from that advice before a caption suddenly appeared: "Must be a BOBSHEAUX!". The animals stayed hidden until Gladys went back inside.
"Could we just get the food and go?" asked Verne. "Really, do they have it or not?"
"Didn't you see it? It was in the box," explained RJ. "They've always got food with them."
"We eat to live, but these guys live to eat!" Lionel exclaimed. "Allow us to show you what I'm talking about."
"Here comes a lesson." Cherry commented.
"Do we have to take notes?" Thor complained.
"The human mouth is called a 'pie hole'," RJ started before they came to a different home as a man was sitting on his couch to watch some TV. "The human being is called a 'couch potato'."
A woman was then shown to be on the phone, ordering herself some dinner.
"That is a device to summon food." Cherry educated.
A doorbell was rung and a man came to get the door as he had pizza delivered at his door.
"That is one of the many voices of food and is the portal for the passing of the food." Thor then said about the doorbell and the door opening.
"That is one of the many food transportation vehicles." Mo then pointed out the pizza delivery scooter.
"Humans bring the food, take the food, ship the food, they drive the food, they wear the food!" Lionel then listed before a taco truck was shown after an ice cream truck with a couple of people in ice cream mascot costumes.
"That gets the food hot. That keeps the food cold. That... I'm not sure what that is." RJ said, pointing to an outdoor grill, a cooler filled with ice and cold drinks, then pointed to a turtle-shaped piñata.
The piñata was soon struck by a stick which made candy fall out, but Verne looked scarred since the piñata resembled his species.
"What do you know?" RJ then smiled. "Food!"
"I am so sorry that you had to see that." Atticus said to Verne who looked traumatized.
"And that is the altar where the food is worshipped," Lionel pointed out a family saying grace before digging into a turkey.
"That's what they eat when they eat too much." Atticus said about an Alka-Seltzer commercial.
"That gets rid of guilt so they can eat more food." Mo pointed to a man on an elliptical.
"Food! Food! Food! Food!" RJ then spat out.
"Food, glorious food!~" Lionel and Thor sang. "Wonderful food!~"
"So you think they have enough?" RJ asked, and the animals nodded.
"Well, they don't!" Cherry stated. "For humans, enough is never enough! And what do they do with the stuff they don't eat?"
"They put it in gleaming, silver cans, just for us." RJ finished, standing atop a trashcan before he knocked them down.
"Uh... Yeah..." Cherry sweat-dropped bashfully, though it was true.
"Sweet jeepers." Lou whispered.
"Dig in!" RJ beamed at his new friends as they soon went to dig into the food, each finding some food for themselves, but remembering to share.
Verne sniffed something that he found and was about to eat it.
"That's a diaper," RJ told Verne, stopping him. "And that does come out of a wazoo."
"Guys, it's weird..." Cherry said to her friends. "...I feel somewhat compelled into eating this food even though it's garbage."
"Must be your animal instincts." Mo guessed as Hammy found a cheese whiz can and sucked on the nuzzle as cheese sprayed out his nostrils.
"Might as well just work with it for now," Lionel replied. "We'll get fresher stuff later."
"So, whaddya think? Was I right, or was I right?" asked RJ. "And these things are just the scraps! Wait'll you see what comes in the boxes, packages and cans! I'm telling you, stick with me, and in one week we will gather enough food to... To... To feed a bear!"
The others looked put off by that. "What?"
"Just a figure of speech." replied RJ.
Suddenly, a green light lit up on a backdoor and out came a cat before he turned to see them and began to mew out of control. "Halt! Intruders! Intruders! Get out, all of you!" he then hissed, glaring at the forest animals.
"What is it, baby?" The woman of the house cooed at her cat before gasping in horror at the forest animals.
The animals soon began to do what RJ told them to.
"What are you doing?!" RJ panicked.
"You said to lick our-" Lou reminded.
"No! Nix that! Run!" RJ told them before running with them in a panic. "Run!"
"Get outta here! Shoo!" The woman complained, trying to hit them with her broom.
"To the hedge!" Cherry called out to the other animals as they dashed off.
"Get out of here!" The woman glared. "I just mopped this patio! Filthy vermin!"