Soon, everyone had gotten back into the forest, and was nursing their wounds.
"See? That's what I was talking about!" Verne exclaimed. "These humans don't want us around!"
RJ didn't take it too hard. "So we scared her, and she overreacted. No biggie." he replied.
"No biggie?" asked Verne. "That is what we call a biggie."
"C'mon, think about the food. It was worth it for that food, huh?" asked RJ. "That stuff is to die for!" he then noticed the group's mortified expressions. "...Lemme rephrase that."
"No, to die for. You nailed that part." Verne remarked. "I know this looks primitive to a guy with a bag, but I think I speak for the whole family when I say we want nothing to do with anything that's over that hedge."
The other animals soon agreed and went to go off with Verne as Norbert was shown to be flying around for mice.
"This is almost worse when those strange Beaver brothers came over and badly influenced our children." Penny huffed as she walked off with Lou and their triplets.
"They were kinda funny though," Lou replied. "Especially that yellow one."
"Oh, come on!" RJ cried out to them.
"I'm done." Verne stated firmly.
"You haven't even tried donuts yet!" RJ soon cried out. "You wanna store fat? That is the way to store some fat. You'll be sweatin' through the winter!"
"Donuts..." Thor smiled hungrily, licking his lips a bit.
"We'll eat the bark, right?" Heather replied.
"Okay all right, you guys sleep on it!" RJ soon called out. "Good idea. I'm gonna check back with you," He then smiled wearily before looking frustrated in defeat. "Shoot! Almost had 'em."
"There's always an effort for Plan B." Atticus advised.
"Fair enough," Lionel nodded. "We can try again tomorrow."
"Hmm... Maybe you're right..." RJ replied. "I just don't have a lot of time."
"No worries," Mo told him. "We'll help out."
"Maybe we should let Vincent take care of RJ," Cherry shrugged. "He has every right to be mad. He's a bear trying to survive and this is kinda RJ's fault."
"And if he eats us too?" Thor asked. "What then?"
Cherry's face paled. "...That sounds worse than any punishment that Drell could ever give us," she then said before gulping and her face went back to its normal color. "Plan B it is then."
RJ soon climbed up in the tree to get some sleep as it was quite late for the non-nocturnal animals.
The next morning, RJ shot awake, panicked. "Okay. Four paws, fur..." he panted. "Still alive, still alive..." He then spotted some girls carting some cookies in a red wagon. Checking over his list, RJ remembered that one of the items was a red wagon.
The other animals soon woke up and began to start their day as they felt very hungry.
"Okay, kids, dive in," Lou told his kids as he carried a piece of bark on his chills, standing on all fours like a table. "There it is. Bark for breakfast!"
"I want a donut!" Bucky complained.
"I want pizza!" Quillo added.
"No, you don't." Penny chided her children.
"Don't worry, guys, I'll get them some food." Atticus smiled as he tried to snap his paws, but nothing happened, so he tried again and again, but no magic happened.
"What?" Thor frowned.
"Sorry..." Drell's voice told them, making them flinch a bit, but they didn't see him. "You don't have your powers here..." he then said with a small laugh.
"That's not funny!" Cherry glared.
"Face it, we should be used to this," Lionel rolled his eyes. "This is his way of getting his sick laughs."
"Argh..." Atticus groaned.
Stella picked some clovers and ate them as she looked bored with what she was eating. Hammy bit into a log in the shape of a nacho chip and grabbed a bumblebee to shake some flavor onto it before he licked the fake chip and instantly disliked it.
Verne walked off, gathering some twigs before he bit into one, trying to make the best out of the situation. "Okay. This is great," he then said weakly. "Granted, it takes some time to chew, but that... That was very satisfying. And, by the way, lots of fiber in there too. Lots."
The others simply stared at him blankly.
"I gotta admit, that does look tasty." RJ smirked as he came into the scene.
"What are you doing here?" Verne asked him after doing a spit-take.
"I'm here to help you with your... Foraging thing." RJ replied calmly.
"Look, Verne, you said a word yesterday about your little gang here," explained Atticus. "It starts with an F, do you remember what it was?"
"Family?" asked Verne.
"Right, right, that," RJ nodded. "You know, that got me right here. You see, Verne, I used to have all of that: my own place, surrounded by loved ones, universal remote, but then all that went away with... The weed hacker incident."
"...Wait, you never said anything about a weed hacker..." Thor blinked, feeling scared.
"Oh, God." RJ said as he began to look emotional and held his face in his paws with tears.
"Oh, come here," Hammy cooed as he came to RJ to hug him. "Yeah, that feels good, doesn't it?"
"Oh, brother." Verne rolled his eyes as RJ seemed to be milking up a sob story for sympathy.
Cherry wasn't sure if RJ's story was true or not, but she was silent.
"Jeepers, Verne," Lou frowned. "We could always use the extra hand there, you know."
"The weed hacker, Verne," Hammy added urgently. "The weed hacker!"
"Okay... Not your problem. I'll just go. This is me... Going," RJ said softly as he began to walk away. "Been nice."
"Hey, uh, RJ?" Verne called. "...you can stay..."
RJ ran back and embraced the turtle. "Come here, ya big lug!" he exclaimed. "I knew beneath this hard, crispy outside there was a soft, nougat-y center in there. Do you mind if I call you Uncle Verne?"
"With every bone in my body..." Verne replied.
"Great. Hey, can I work with Hammy?" asked RJ.
"Wanna help me find my nuts?" the hyperactive squirrel asked.
"Very tempting, Hammy, very tempting..." RJ said. "But first, I want to show you this." he took out a chocolate chip cookie. "You like this cookie?"
Hammy chuckled gleefully.
"Well, this cookie's junk!" RJ exclaimed, tossing it away like a frisbee.
"I like a cookie..." Hammy wheezed, reaching out in a futile attempt to reclaim it.
"Easy, easy. Don't worry," RJ reassured him. "I know where we can get some cookies so valuable that they are hand-delivered by uniformed officers."
"Can I have a cookie though?" Thor pouted.
"Sure, you can watch this and we'll all have all the cookies in the world!" RJ replied.
They soon went to hide away in a tree as a couple of girl scouts were passing down the street.
"The Doyles' is the yellow house," One girl told the other as the other girl pulled a wagon behind her. "They only ordered one box. The Doyles' is the yellow house."
"They only ordered one box." The other girl replied.
"There they are," RJ said as he sat in the tree with Thor and Hammy. "America's most coveted cookies. Love Handles, Skinny Mints, Neener Neeners, and Smackeroons. And guess what? They're all yours!"
Hammy beamed and tried to jump out of the tree after the cookies only for Thor to grab the squirrel by his tail. "Hey, not yet!" he then told the hyper squirrel.
"Whoa, Hamilton. Hold on there, fella," RJ added. "I love your energy, but you can't take 'em."
"But you just said they're mine!" Hammy whimpered.
"They will be, if we successfully marry your manic energy to my brilliant plan!" RJ grinned. "You with me, kid?"
"I-I-I..." Hammy stammered at the question.
"The I's have it!" RJ replied. "Let's ride," he then faced Thor. "Watch and learn."
"Hmm... Learning's not my strong suit." Thor pouted at himself.
"Well, then now is a good point to improve." Lionel retold.
"Hmm..." Thor paused before he took out some sticks to gnaw on.
"As long as that's not part of a tree we're sitting on, you're fine." Lionel then said.
"I'm so sorry about that," Thor replied bashfully. "I guess I was just nervous and scared."
"...Water under the bridge." Lionel replied.
Thor began to gnaw at the sticks like he was eating corn on the cob.
"Ya know, buddy, I think in some kind of alternate universe, you and I could be really happy." Lionel then said to him.
Thor blushed in response as he gave a bashful grin, though with stick pieces in his teeth.
"Mrs. Johansson was allergic to chocolate." The first girl said to the other girl.
"Really?" The second girl replied.
"Yeah, if she eats it, her face explodes or something."
"That is, like, so unfair."
"Wait, wait. How many boxes of-?"
RJ smirked as he got into position in front of a parked car before calling out to Hammy. "Hey!"
"You stay away from those cookies," Hammy glared at his reflection, thinking that he was another squirrel. "They're mine!"
RJ then whacked the car which startled the hyper squirrel.
"This guy's not coming, is he?" Hammy then asked, gesturing to his reflection. "'Cuz I don't want him to."
RJ muttered under his breath. "Oh, I have so much work to do...come on, step into my office," he replied, bringing Hammy over. "Now, listen up. What we're going for here is a vicious, man-eating, rabid squirrel. Can you handle that?"
Hammy raised his hand. "Excuse me?"
RJ made like he was picking out of the crowd. "Yes... Hammy?"
"Okay. Rabbits aren't vicious," said Hammy. "They're all cute and cuddly, so-"
RJ groaned. "Rabid, not rabbit." he emphasized.
"Oh... What?" replied Hammy.
"Okay. So first we're gonna muss the hair." RJ decided, mussing up Hammy's hair. "That's looking good. All right, now we're gonna..." he hocked a loogie into his hand and began rubbing it in. "We're gonna mat the fur a little bit..." he then took Hammy by the tail and began puffing it up. "A little puff on the tail... Stop it! Puffier." he then rubbed him up and down his back like a towel. "Liking that a lot. Show me that wild look in your eye. Come on!"
Hammy blinked. "Oh! I can burp my ABS's!" he exclaimed. "A, B, C..." he started.
"HAMMY!" RJ shouted. "I just... Really needja to focus right now, okay?"
Hammy smiled. "Oh-kay!"
"Thank you. Let's see. There we-Hang on a minute," RJ said as he looked through his bag as Mo and Cherry walked over and Mo got hit by the plunger.
Cherry soon pointed and laughed a bit at what happened to Mo before she suddenly got hit by RJ's boomerang, knocking her down on her back.
"Not that, not that. No, no," RJ said as he continued to search until he found a spray can of whipped cream. "Nice!"
Meanwhile, Verne and Atticus began to look around.
"Hammy?" Verne soon called.
"Girls? Thor? Lionel?" Atticus added.
"Done! Now, come on," RJ smiled as he sprayed Hammy's mouth with the cream to make him look like he was foaming at the mouth. "I'll be right behind you. Go on, get out there. Shoo, shoo!"
Hammy was soon pushed out and soon walked out towards the girl scouts who looked at him. "I am a crazy rabid squirrel! I want my cookies! I'm rabid! I'm foaming at the mouth. I'm foaming, very scary rabid squirrel." he then told them, even if they couldn't understand him.
The girls looked through their guidebook and panicked at the sight of Hammy, even screaming out loud. "Rabies!"
"Hey, it's working!" Hammy exclaimed as one of the girls took the guidebook and hoisted it above her head.
"Behind you!" RJ exclaimed.
"I know. You're right behind me..." Hammy began, before he was clubbed with the guidebook.
RJ and the others winced audibly.
"Got it! Stand back!" said one girl as Hammy tried to bail out, but he was fenced in by her guidebook. "No, no, no, no! Oh, no!" he cried as one of them pulled out their pepper spray.
"Take that!" she shouted as she opened fire, and Hammy screamed in agony.
" Walk it off! Walk that one off!" RJ called, as Verne and Atticus showed up.
"What's going on?" asked Verne. "Is that Hammy?"
"Everything's under control," RJ lied. "Go back!"
"You call that under control?" asked Verne. "He's under attack!"
"He's working!" RJ retorted.
"I'm coming, Hammy!" Verne shouted as he ran into the street, just as a street sweeper came rolling down.
"Verne! No!" RJ screamed.
"Oh, my..." Atticus gulped nervously. "Verne, look out!"
Verne then panicked at the sight of the sweeper before getting sucked in.
"I guess that's what they call 'Turtle Wax'!" Thor grinned bashfully.
"Not... The time... For puns..." Cherry groaned before she stood up while rubbing her head and Mo pulled the plunger off of herself.
Verne soon went flying off of the sweeper and ended up on one of the girl's faces, latching onto her.
"Hold still!" The other girl told her friend. "I got it! Stay still."
"Help me! Get off of me!" The second girl cried out before her friend whacked the guidebook in her face, making Verne fly off and he covered himself, though without his shell, he seemed to have an exposed butt, and this grossed out the girls.
"Yuck! Gross!"
"Nasty! Oh, my God, this is so gross!"
The two girl scouts soon ran off in disgust with Verne.
"Well, at least we got them to ditch the cookies..." Lionel winced.
"It's progress..." Thor added.
"Verne! That was great!" RJ grinned as he pulled over the wagon of cookies. "You, my friend, are a natural. Or, should I say, au naturel~" he then added with a French accent before tossing a cookie out to the turtle.
Verne saw that his shell was missing and felt embarrassed before covering himself with the cookie.
"Hammy, you were awesome, my man!" RJ then smiled at the hyper squirrel. "You had me scared. I was about to come out and beat you with a book myself. You're all right, aren't ya? Of course you are. You are Hammy! Those bruises are gonna heal. You know what? Chicks dig scars. I bet that flying squirrel we know is gonna be all over you."
"Oh, yeah~" Hammy grinned a bit as he had a bit of a crush on Mo since she was a squirrel too.
Verne rolled his eyes as he put his shell back on after finding it.
"As bad as that went, it can only get better from here," Lionel stated. "It oughta be fun to watch, at least. Might even get a montage out of it."
"Montage!" Hammy cheered at that. "...What's a montage?"
"There!" One girl's voice called out and Verne saw that he had to hide away now.
"Over there!" The other girl added. "That's where the squirrel attacked us! He has rabies or something. There was this gross, naked, amphibian thing."
"Reptile." Verne glared in correction from where he sat.
"It's okay, girls," The mother told the girls. "Go inside, have a cookie, turn on the TV, and calm down."
"Thanks, Mom." The girl smiled as she ran off with her friend.
"I'm sorry, Janis, did I just hear them say 'rabid squirrel'?" asked Gladys as she came over to the mother.
"I think they might just be overreacting." Janis replied.
"What if they're not? What if we have a potential pandemic on our hands?" panicked Gladys. "Vermin running loose, spreading disease and lowering our property values?"
Janis pretended to look at her watch. "...yeah. I have a casserole in the oven. Gotta run." she told Gladys, and walked off.
"Fine. Worry about your casserole, and I'll worry about the end of suburban peace and tranquility!" Gladys shouted, before she stormed off.
Verne had an apprehensive expression on his face as he returned to the forest, where everyone was partaking in the recently-claimed bounty.
"That's right. Don't push," RJ called. "Plenty for everybody! Got a box right over here for ya, Penny." he handed one to the female porcupine.
"Oh, Jeepers that is good!" Penny beamed as she took the box and shared some cookies with her children. "Kids! Eat up!"
The porcupine triplets soon ate up the cookies.
"Anything that tastes this good has to be good for you." Penny then beamed.
"Feel buzzing in the back of your skull?" RJ asked her.
"Yeah!" Penny nodded eagerly.
"That's called a sugar rush," RJ then explained as he brought out a can of soda to give to the triplets. "It's what keeps humans going, why they don't hibernate. Add a little of this, and what usually takes you all summer is gonna take us a week."
"I'm not allowed to have too much sugar," Thor spoke up. "My mother says it makes me bounce off the walls."
"More for us then!" RJ smirked.
Hammy soon found another soda and tried to open it up to drink.
"Hold on, Hamsquad," Mo said as she stopped the hyper squirrel, her paws touching his without realizing it. "The last thing you need is caffeine."
"She's touching my paws~" Hammy gushed.
"Uh... Okay?" Mo blinked at him, feeling confused.
"That's right. Come on, dig in, my friends," RJ smiled all around. "Because this, my friends, is just the beginning."
"What?" Verne asked as he heard that.
"Montage time?" Thor asked Lionel.
"Montage time!" Lionel nodded.
And so, for the next few nights and days, the group conducted their food-snatching heists throughout the suburban neighborhood, much to the frustration and aggravation of Gladys, who seemed to grow more and more pissed as the heists went on.
"Hello? I need every business listing you have under 'exterminator'." Gladys soon called on her phone one day.
RJ soon took pictures with a camera of him and the other animals having the time of their lives before taking a group photo with them... But Verne found himself left out of the photo.
One day, RJ saw the opportunity to get a blue cooler and decided to have Ozzie for this job as the car with the cooler rolled down the road before a cry was heard and a car-hitting sound was heard.
"Ozzie!" Verne panicked as he recognized that cry.
"This should be somewhat entertaining," Cherry smirked as she peeked out with Lionel, Atticus, Mo, and Thor. "Ozzie is as over the top as Denny Crane or Captain Kirk on the old Star Trek."
"Whoa, Mom! You hit a possum." said one kid as he and his friends came out of the jeep to take a better look at Ozzie, who was lying on the ground.
"Do you think it's dead?" asked another.
Verne put his head in his hands. "Oh, no..." he moaned.
"Wow...!" exclaimed one of the boys, as his friend put out a finger.
"Can I poke him?" he asked, but his hand was pulled back by his mother.
"No!" she protested. "These poor little creatures..."
While the humans were fussing over what they believed to be a freshly-killed corpse, RJ and the others poked out of a mailbox and made their way over to the vehicle, climbing up to the roof to collect the blue cooler on top.
"What's going on?" Gladys wondered as she came with a group of the neighbors who surrounded Ozzie.
"Come check it out." One kid said to another.
"Debbie? I don't remember seeing a permit app for a gathering," Gladys smirked as she came by. "Groups of more than one who wish to get-" she then looked down with a horrified yelp.
Cherry snickered at Gladys's fear as she seemed to enjoy it.
"Timmy, get the shovel from the car." Debbie told her son who then ran off.
Ozzie soon looked panicked while the other animals panicked for him, especially RJ. "Lights fading, limbs growing cold!" The possum soon cried out dramatically as he grew animated. "I see a tunnel. Oh, no. Mother, is that you beckoning me into the light? Must move toward the light..."
"What do you think he's doing?" One kid asked as Ozzie was spazzing out, but they heard squeaking and not his dramatic speech.
"Maybe we knocked his brains loose." The other kid replied.
"I went too far," Verne glared as he soon walked off to behind the car. "Let's get out of here and leave this... This-"
"Incoming!" Atticus called as the cooler was soon dropped, but he then winced once he saw that it landed on top of Verne.
"Nice catch, Verne!" RJ commended.
The turtle lifted the cooler off of his head. "You're dangerous... You're insane!" he remarked.
Meanwhile, Ozzie continued the little display of his acting talent. "Sweet music, I'm going home! Goodbye, cruel world!" he bellowed as he gazed towards a rose bush. "Roo-o-o-o-o-o-osebud..." he wheezed, before he spun around, and collapsed at last.
Lionel gave a smattering of applause. "Wow... He's good." he stated.
"...Now can I poke him?" asked the kid.
"No!" his mother told him.
"You see? This is exactly why I called the exterminator," explained Gladys. "To kill them before they get hurt like this."
"Okay, that is definitely not good." Lionel winced.
"I wanna make an Arnold Schwartezneggar joke, but this is too serious." Thor added.
"Good job." Atticus nodded, appreciating that Thor took the serious situation seriously rather than making a dumb joke like some lazily-written comic relief character.
"Everybody get out of here right now!" Verne cried out to his family.
"Right!" RJ gasped. "Kids, grab those handles. Get the stuff."
The family soon grabbed the cooler and dashed off with it before hitting the sidewalk which made the cooler tip over and some food spilled out. Verne panicked before hiding behind a wheel under the car as the exterminator's van drove by, called "VERMINATOR", even with a balloon mascot of himself whacking a bunny rabbit on the head with a hammer.
The van screeched to a halt, and out stepped a rotund, heavyset, balding man in an orange jumpsuit and glasses. "I believe someone phoned about an animal problem...?" he asked. "The solution is standing before you; Dwayne LaFontant is here."
Gladys stomped over to him. "Where have you been? I'm throwing a 'Welcome to the Neighborhood' party, and so far Debbie's car has killed more animals than you have!" she exclaimed.
"Stand down, sister," Dwayne replied. "I personally guarantee that there will not be a living thing at this party; The Verminator is on the job."
"Verminator," Mo rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease."
"Leave it. Leave it!" Verne cried out to his family as they tried to collect the food from the cooler.
"What do we have here? Didelphis marsupialis virginian-us," Dwayne observed Ozzie who lay in the middle of the road before he soon snapped a glove on his hand. "Approximately 10 pounds. Male."
One of Ozzie's eyes grew wide as he heard the glove snap.
"I think he's dead." Gladys remarked.
"Oh, really? Do you, in fact, have an associate's degree from VermTech?" Dwayne retorted. "I think he wants you to think he's dead."
RJ soon rushed the others away with the cooler.
"We can't just leave Ozzie like this!" Thor panicked.
"Well, we wouldn't need to if Drell hadn't taken away our powers!" Lionel groused.
"Aww...!" Thor pouted.
RJ soon did some gestures towards Ozzie who got the message and winked at the raccoon in response.
"Look at him closely," Dwayne informed the crowd. "You can see him breathing."
"I certainly hope he's not in any pain." Gladys frowned softly.
Ozzie then suddenly sprung to life and began to run which surprised the humans.
"Kill it! Kill it!" A woman then cried out.
"Thank you all for coming!" Ozzie called out before he went running back into the hedge. "You were a great audience!"
"Aw, man!" A kid complained.
Lionel sighed in relief. "That... Was too close."
"We got lucky that time." Thor sighed.
"There's no such thing as luck." Cherry deadpanned.
Thor stuck his tongue out at her.
"All right, what am I up against here?" Dwayne asked himself as he took a deep inhale. "Possum, a wild hare, beaver, mink, mongoose, porcupine, skunk, two squirrels, one flying, one ground, raccoon, amphibian..." he then listed.
"Reptile." Verne corrected with a glare.
"No. Reptile." Dwayne then grinned evilly before he came down to look under the car, but luckily, Verne got away before he could be seen as he went back over the hedge to his family in the forest.
"Great, now they've called in the exterminator," Lionel sighed. "I really wish we had our powers now."
"Looks like we gotta hoof it without them for whatever reason..." Cherry added gloomily.
"That's what I call a super-duper performance there." Lou smiled.
"I wanna do it again!" Ozzie beamed.
"Beyond super." Lou added.
"They were riveted." Stella smiled.
"Dad. I just gotta say, that was, uh, that was pretty good." Heather even smiled.
Ozzie smiled back, feeling the most happy that his daughter was proud of him.
"Props for the Ozman!" Bucky called out.
"Ozman!" Spike and Quillo cheered with their brother.
"But let's not forget our brilliant leadership: RJ!" Ozzie smiled back at all of them as he gestured to the raccoon.
Verne began to feel hurt and left out as everybody seemed to like RJ better than him now.
"Alright, glad we did so great out there," Atticus stated, having done very little during the film so far. "But we'll need to keep our guard up in case that Verminator guy plans on sticking around."
"Tell me about it," Mo replied. "He gives me the creeps, he's like a villain I'd meet with the other Planeteers."
"Those villains are so cheesy," Cherry rolled her eyes. "So he's probably a long-lost member."
"You kids make interesting points, but I'm not sure about the newest member of my family." Verne said to them.
The group gave each other a shared glance.
"Well, whatever suspicions you have about RJ can wait until Verminator is no longer a threat," Mo replied. "He's kind of a problem for all of us."
"Well, I-" Verne was then about to say, until...
"RJ, come this way," Heather smiled at the adult male raccoon. "We wanna show you something."
"Yeah, sure." RJ smiled back.
"Sweet!" Spike beamed as the others soon led RJ away from the main spot beside the hedge.
"What a team!" Hammy grinned at RJ.
"That raccoon knows what he's doing." Ozzie added.
"You're my hero there, fella." Lou smiled as they walked away.
Verne soon glared at the food horde and began to look thoughtful as he attempted to plan something.
"And lo, the plot thickens..." Thor quoted. "We thought regular humans were trouble? This guy is worse."
"Wow, Thor, that was oddly profound and on point." Cherry commented, feeling impressed.
"I have my moments, I do." Thor replied.
"Well, color me impressed." Cherry replied.
Thor "squeed" at that which made Cherry's eyes widen as she earned a hug from the former warlock teen as he swayed her about in the hug.
"How many times do I have to teach you this lesson, Gandalf Jr?!" Cherry glared from the hug.
"Can't help it," Thor smiled before he soon let her go. "You made me happy! Luckily for Zoe, she gets to have all my hugs!"
"Yeah, lucky Zoe." Cherry smirked.