Stephanie blinked after being blinded by the light, shaking her head a little.
Suddenly, without warning, she started falling through the air, shrieking out of startlement.
Automatically, Stephanie's sweater slowly melted off from her body like water as she continued falling through the air, before attaching itself to her wrists and ankles, turning itself into a parachute.
Stephanie yelped again as she bounced up in the air after her parachute-like sweater puffed up, causing her to sigh.
"Holy snickers, that was close." she sighed with relief.
Slowly, she reached concrete after being flung through the air, landing safely on the ground on her feet, as the parachute slowly morphed back into her sweater, like liquid.
As her sweater transformed back into itself, Stephanie glanced down at the orb in her hands she had as she was falling.
Ever since she had fixed it from being broken, it somehow blinded her after beeping and blinking a red color.
If only she had not pushed that button…
Ignoring her stupid move from earlier, she placed the orb into her sweater pocket.
After placing the orb back into her sweater's pocket, she had a feeling that something was... off.
She glanced around from where she was and slowly noticed that she was standing in the middle of a city.
But this city looked deserted, as there was no one else around.
Something is off about this place.
Before Stephanie could look for someone, something suddenly crashed in front of her.
It caused rubble to fly at her from where she was and brought up some dust.
Yelping, she jolted three feet off the ground before landing on her feet, noticing it was a cannonball.
The cannonball was sizzling hot and made a dent in the street's concrete.
Stephanie looked confused to see a cannonball in front of her until her super hearing heard more cannon shots and glanced over to the right-hand side.
Whizzing through the air, Stephanie could see a long line of cannonballs heading towards where she was standing, as she noticed it was a city.
"Holy schnikes!" Stephanie exclaimed before moving to the side in a quick move, ducking just in time before a cannonball landed on her.
After dodging a little, Stephanie noticed that more cannonballs were heading towards the city, and she groaned.
"I have no time for this!" Stephanie snapped, before summoning a baseball bat out of thin air and grasping it in her hand.
It was silver as the handle was wrapped in black bandages.
Stephanie positioned herself to hit one of the cannonballs as it got closer and closer to where she was.
"Batter up!" Stephanie smirked before hitting the cannonball as hard as she could with the bat.
After one swing, Stephanie sent it back over to where someone was shooting it from the other side of the city.
Once she had hit the cannonball, something crashed in the distance, causing her to perk a little from the sound.
Not only that, but she heard voices speaking from a distance, too.
Since she has super-hearing, Stephanie could hear the noises of a fly miles away from where she is standing.
"Blimey!" a voice exclaimed, sounding like a pirate. "Wha' was that?!"
Sighing, she continued listening to the conversation from the other side of the city, still holding the bat in her hand.
If they continued firing, Stephanie would send it all back with a swing of her trusty metal bat in her hands.
"Continue firin'!" snapped another pirate. "I wants t' make this village into rubble!"
'That must be the captain.' Stephanie thought to herself as she continued listening to the conversation.
"But we be down t' seven cannons, cap'n!" another pirate's voice spoke, sounding panicked. "Whoever be in th' village, must be very strong! We could wait 'til our spies come here wit' th' scallywag responsible fer th' actions."
A pause came from the captain for a moment, before saying, "Fine! Find that scallywag 'n brin' 'im t' me!"
Stephanie winced a little from the conversation and changed her hearing to normal, making the bat in her hands disappear.
She glanced around for anywhere to hide from the pirates, trying not to get caught.
She then noticed someone hopping along the side of an alley before entering inside.
Without saying a single word, Stephanie ran down the alley as fast as she could, before stopping as she watched a hooded figure open a door, before entering inside and closing it behind.
But the door did not close fully and was only left ajar.
Running over to the door, she opened it wide and entered inside, before closing the door behind her back, this time without leaving it ajar.
After closing the door behind her back, something collapsed from underneath Stephanie's feet and caused her to go through something tunnel-y.
She turned herself into a straight pencil as she slid through the tunnel, mentally liking the ride she was on.
There was light at the end of the tunnel, so she prepared herself for the crash landing.
She crossed her arms over her chest and placed her legs together as tightly as she could.
Instead, Stephanie landed on something soft after she was flung out, sinking into the softness after impact.
It was deep enough to hide her from someone, but she wanted to see who else was in the room with her.
Sliding off the mat, she hid behind a sideways table and glanced over the side, watching the cloaked figure hopped over to a barrel.
For some reason, Stephanie did not see a hand poke through the cloak but instead heard a tapping noise from the barrel.
"Bob?" a voice spoke from the cloaked figure. "You can come out now. I got enough food for everyone to last."
"Really?" another voice spoke through the barrel as the lid moved up slightly.
"Yep!" the cloaked figure nodded. "But I don't know how much there is inside the bags, though."
The lid of the barrel opened without someone's hands, and to Stephanie's surprise, a large red tomato jumped out from inside.
The tomato has eyes with black pupils without the irises, a nose, and a mouth.
It surprised Stephanie to see a moving tomato before her eyes.
"Did anyone else follow you, Larry?" the red tomato asked as Stephanie ducked a little behind the table.
"Nope," the voice responded. "Not what I think of. Besides, I think everyone else is inside this hideout with us."
Stephanie heard the noises of shuffling and something moving, so she peeked again, seeing more vegetables coming out of their hiding spots.
Some of them were asparagus, carrots, and other vegetables, even fruits.
There were no humans in sight, except for Stephanie, who was hiding behind the table.
Stephanie hid again behind the table, thinking to herself about what she was seeing.
Then, she remembered the orb she had found, thinking it must have taken her here to change something.
She reached into her sweater's pocket and took the orb out from inside, staring at it in her hand in confusion.
"Larry, could you get that table over there?" Bob, the name of the tomato, asked, nodding his body over to where she is as she placed the orb back into her sweater pocket.
"Sure!" nodded Larry as the sounds of something hopping towards the table where Stephanie is.
Stephanie mentally shrieked at herself in a panic, ducking down just in time after the cloaked figure turned around to where she was.
She did not want to get caught by living vegetables and fruits and get herself into serious trouble.
On the verge of getting up from the ground, Stephanie placed a foot down and was about to get up when her side suddenly twinged with pain.
Wincing, Stephanie went back down from about to stand up, clutching it with her left hand, feeling confused about the feeling.
She leaned back against the table behind her, still in slight pain as it slowly went away.
After the pain had gone away, she heard the footsteps behind her, before stopping right where she was.
'Uh oh,' Stephanie winced softly to herself.
Before Stephanie could try again, the table was removed from her back, causing her to yelp again.
After the table was removed, she landed on the ground, back first as she groaned in pain.
She was staring up at the figure who was named 'Larry,' who is a cucumber, with the same eyes as Bob.
"Oops, sorry," he apologized, before turning around and hopping away from Stephanie, not even noticing she was there.
Mentally, Stephanie thought he was being a little dense to notice she was there, or maybe tried from all the chaos happening around.
After he had walked away from her, Stephanie flipped over to her front from lying on the ground.
As Stephanie slowly rose to her feet from being on her front, her hair and wires covered her face.
Somehow, her rubber band that was keeping her hair up was accidentally yanked off during the ride.
"What?" Larry asked, sounding confused. "Is there somethin' on my face?"
"Uh, well, um," Bob stammered, as Stephanie fully rose to her feet, wobbling a little.
Her hair covered her glasses too, so Stephanie was lucky it did not make them dirty.
The sound of the table being put down came to Stephanie, perking her a little.
"Okay, Bob, I know you're makin' that face because somethin' is goin' on and…" Larry drifted off when he noticed something. "There's somethin' behind me, isn't there?"
Silence filled the air, and Stephanie reached up to her long hair and wires, pushing them back just in time for Larry to turn around, seeing Stephanie behind him.
They stared at each other for a moment, before Stephanie said, "Uh, hi?"
After she had said those two words to him, chaos reigned through the room.
People were screaming and hopping around, getting into places where they should hide.
Stephanie watched with startlement and surprise as they screamed and scrambled into places.
Sometimes, they would bump into each other before scrambling back to what they were doing.
After the last veggie had hidden, all that was left was a small asparagus in front of her.
He is wearing a hat on top of his head, and like the other two vegetables, irisless eyes.
The asparagus is smaller than the other asparaguses that Stephanie saw before they even hid.
The small asparagus was staring back at Stephanie with fear in his eyes.
Stephanie, on the other hand, looked side to side for a moment, her hands still holding her hair and wires back, sighed, and flipped it over her shoulders from covering her face.
Once her hair was flipped over her shoulders, Stephanie sarcastically asked, placing a hand on her hip, "Is this a tradition to new people who come inside this secret place?"
The small asparagus raised an eyebrow after Stephanie said that before she continued, "Screaming and running around to find spots to hide? I don't think people back at my home do that easily."
The small asparagus paused for a moment after she sarcastically spoke, and timidly asked, "Do-Do you… eat veggies?"
Stephanie glanced back over at the small asparagus as he flinched when her eyes settled on him and gently shook her head no.
"No, not really." Stephanie sighed, her mind pausing a little from her response. "I'm a carnivore, which means that I only eat meat. I'm not very fond of vegetables, either."
In her mind, Stephanie wanted to tell him truthfully of what she does eat in the vegetable side of the food, but not wanting to freak him out, she instead sticks with the not being fond of eating vegetables.
The small asparagus looked slightly surprised from the answer Stephanie gave, as there were some hints of hurt too.
"Ouch," a voice softly spoke, before being hushed by another.
The small asparagus paused again, before Stephanie asked, mentioning over to him with a metal hand, "Do you eat human meat, by the way?"
Half of her was worried that they do because she did not want to be eaten by food…
'Okay, I'm going to stop there.' Stephanie mentally sighed to herself.
"No, ew," he exclaimed, giving a slightly disgusted expression on his face. "We're om-on-om…"
He drifted off a little from the word he was trying to say as he glanced around, before Stephanie politely said, "Omnivores?"
"Yeah, that's it!" he nodded, before cocking his head to the side in confusion. "I thought humans were omnivores too."
"Some of them are herbivores, which means to eat plants," Stephanie explained as she pushed her glasses into place with a single finger, before saying, "No offense."
"None taken." the small asparagus said, still staying where he was, observing her body with every inch of her, including staring at her right metal hand, eye, and wires for a moment.
Stephanie smiled as he glanced back up to her eyes after looking at every detail of her body and continued, "Yes, we are omnivores, but we also are carnivores, too. We only eat…"
Stephanie drifted off while blushing a little in a neon pink color, feeling sheepish to continue her sentence, knowing it is rude to speak in front of 'food.'
"Non-living veggies?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes," Stephanie nodded. "Excuse me if I accidentally insult anyone in the room, but that's what I eat sometimes. Non-living veggies. I don't randomly eat living veggies, that's like you eating our kind after seeing us for the first time."
"Yikes." he winced, turning a little pale green in the face. "That's cannibalism!"
Stephanie nodded her head in agreement and gritted her teeth slightly in thought about what she said.
If she was a cannibal, she would not call herself a human anymore.
In instinct, Stephanie gently nibbles on her lower lip with her teeth at the thought of not being human, revealing her canines to the small asparagus kid.
"Holy cheese!" he exclaimed as Stephanie glanced back over at him with a slightly confused expression on her face and stopped nibbling on her lower lip.
"What?" Stephanie asked as he hopped closer to her without hesitation.
Since their conversation, Stephanie has noticed that he is a little brave to come closer to her, even though he did not see anything else she can do.
Stephanie mentally pushed the thought away from her mind to stop herself from doubting herself about everything she does.
"Junior!" exclaimed a voice in the distance, snapping her from her doubts. "Don't get too close to that… creature!"
Stephanie glanced over at the voice with a 'seriously?' expression on her face, as the voice went silent.
After giving that expression, Stephanie glanced back down at the small asparagus in front of her.
She watched as he moved his body up a little, looking like he was trying to stand on his 'tiptoes' to make eye contact with her.
"Can you kneel a little?" he asked, cocking his head slightly to the side as he moved back down.
Stephanie obeyed and knelt in front of him, being careful with hurting him on accident or on purpose.
Since she is taller than most of the veggies in the room, the small asparagus is only down to her knee.
But, kneeling to his height, she is still taller than him since he only reaches her chest.
Stephanie asked, while slightly cocking her head to the side, "I take it that your name is 'Junior?'"
Junior, the name of the small asparagus, nodded his head and asked, "Can you open your mouth?"
Immediately, Stephanie jolted and looked surprised by the ask from Junior, worried that he did want to be eaten.
"Excuse me!?" Stephanie exclaimed, feeling worried about what he was thinking. "I thought-"
"No, not that!" Junior denied, shaking his head side to side. "It's your teeth!"
A confused expression replaced her shock, slowly reaching up to her cheek with a hand.
"What's wrong with my teeth?" Stephanie asked in confusion.
"You… have sharp canines!" Junior answered, pointing out something about Stephanie.
Stephanie pursed her lips a little, blushing again in a light neon pink color.
"You looked almost like a vampire." Junior giggled.
A sly smirk appeared on Stephanie's face after he had pointed that out, moving her hands up and mocked, speaking in an excellent fake German accent, "I'm Dracula, blah, blah, blah!"
Junior giggled again after Stephanie joked, as everyone poked slightly out of their hiding places, noticing that she was not doing anything strange to her, but instead playing with him as if he was a child to her.
After joking about her canines' looking almost like Dracula, Stephanie felt her teeth with her tongue, being careful with opening a scar on her tongue.
"Well," Stephanie continued, still blushing a little from Junior's compliment and joke about her canines. "They are usually used more for showing more than for eating."
Junior cocked an eyebrow in confusion, and Stephanie sighed, stopping to feel her teeth with her tongue.
"I take it you want a closer look at them?" Stephanie asked as she glanced back down at him.
"That's the plan." Junior nodded. "Are they real?"
Stephanie chuckled and asked, "If you want to see if they are, sure. But you need something to get up higher to get a better look because I'm still taller than you."
Junior paused for a moment and hopped away from Stephanie.
Stephanie watched Junior hopped over to one of the chairs as she distantly noticed a veggie was hiding underneath it.
Junior pushed the chair over to Stephanie, before hopping on top of the seat.
He hopped onto the seat and asked again, "Can you open your mouth?"
Stephanie blushed slightly with sheepishness, but obeyed and opened her mouth, showing her canines to him.
For some odd reason, she felt… fingers wrapping around her first canine and gently tugged it.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Junior as Stephanie opened her mouth slightly for the 'fingers' to fit inside comfortably. "They are real!"
"Junior!" exclaimed the same voice, which was loud and caused them both to jolt.
Luckily, he removed his 'hand' just in time before closing clicked her jaws closed, accidentally biting her mouth.
"Ow!" she winced before lifting a hand to her mouth as Junior glanced over at her. "Mother-! Yep, that's going to leave a mark."
"What happened?" Junior asked, sounding worried for her.
"I bit my tongue," Stephanie answered, feeling some blood against her tongue. "Again!"
"So, that's where the scars are from!" Junior exclaimed. "Your canines are so sharp that they can penetrate through anything!"
A slight blush appeared on Stephanie's face, as she felt one of the scars against her lip with her tongue.
He was not wrong about them being all scarred up from her teeth.
"And I have a bad habit of chewing my lips when I get nervous," Stephanie added as her blush deepened a little. "Only on the inside of my mouth."
"Ohhh!" Junior smiled. "Does it get stuck in food too?"
"A little," Stephanie nodded, before noticing an adult asparagus behind him.
He is wearing a black and yellow striped tie around his neck and, like Junior, irisless eyes.
He quickly picked Junior up from the chair with a worried expression on his face.
"E-Excuse my son," he nervously chuckled.
Stephanie cocked an eyebrow at him slightly before standing up to her height, causing him to shake in fear.
"Dad," Junior smiled. "She's friendly! Stephanie does not eat vegetables or fruits!"
"Yes, until she decides to eat us out of hunger!" his father added, hopping away from her backwards. "She's a beast!"
"Ex-fricking-scuse me?!" exclaimed Stephanie, sounding insulted by the words his father said.
Everyone jolted after Stephanie exclaimed, as his father stopped mid-hop from her, watching as her eye color turned a light red color.
"Get your skinny, green butt back over here!" Stephanie swung her right metal hand towards him, and the wrist of her hand disconnected from it.
The end of her hand was connected to a metal chain from inside her arm that never stops.
The metal hand grabbed Junior's father's tie before he reached the other side of the large room and yanked him back, as he gave Junior to his wife.
Junior's mother wears a pearl necklace around her neck, along with earrings.
After he was yanked back over to Stephanie, she said in front of his face, "I don't eat people! Didn't you hear it in the conversation we had?!"
"Uh, yes, I-I did!" his father stammered, shaking like a leaf in front of Stephanie.
Junior, on the other hand, was worried about what she was going to do next, but Stephanie took a deep breath and slowly exhaled from being angry.
Stephanie continued, after calming down a little from being insulted, "Listen, I'm not a cannibal, I'm a human like you. I'm not a beast either, since I looked different from the rest. I was being friendly to your son, and you don't have to protect him from everything. Trust me, as I trust you."
A surprised expression appeared on Junior's Dad's face, as Stephanie gently picked him up from the ground and placed him down, standing up straight from being tugged back towards her.
Slowly, some vegetables inched closer to Stephanie, as Junior's Dad adjusted his tie slightly from being grabbed.
Junior hopped out of his mother's 'arms' and over to Stephanie as she glanced down at him, still a little annoyed.
"Sorry about my dad." Junior apologized.
"It's okay," Stephanie granted. "I've met many people like your dad before."
A slightly confused expression appeared on Junior's face for a moment before shaking it off.
"We have never seen a human before!" Larry softly spoke, peeking around a leek.
"Then," Stephanie spoke, before pausing. "How did you know what a human was?"
"We usually talk to them through the television from their letter," Bob answered, nodding his head. "Or from Qwerty back in the kitchen. But, since Robert the Terrible came here from the past and destroyed everything, the show's canceled until he was brought back to his time!"
"Then, Robert the Terrible is that pirate I heard?" Stephanie asked, pointing up.
Shocked expressions appeared on their faces when Stephanie mentioned that she had heard of him.
"You saw Robert the Terrible?!" exclaimed Larry.
"No," Stephanie shook her head. "I heard him! I was brought here from this object I found," she reached into her sweater pocket and pulled out the same orb that she found. "And was attacked by him! I made it out okay, but I think he is peeved that I fought back."
"'Fought back?!'" exclaimed Larry again. "How?!"
Stephanie shrugged her shoulders, knowing that telling them the truth of how she did it, it would sound weird to them and answered, "I just did. I didn't land on his ship, thank gosh."
Everyone glanced at each other for a moment, before an elderly grape stepped up close to Stephanie.
He has no eyes, a gray mustache, and glasses.
The elderly grape said, "But I am more surprised that you fixed the Helpseeker."
Stephanie glanced down at the orb in her hand before going back at them.
"This is a Helpseeker?" She asked, holding it out for them to look.
The elderly grape took it from her palm to have a look at it closer.
"Yes, but," nodded Bob. "You need to keep it in case you need to get back home."
Stephanie nodded her head as the elderly grape handed it back to her and placed the Helpseeker back into her sweater pocket.
"One question," Larry spoke. "How are you taller than anyone else?"
Stephanie softly chuckled to herself from the silly question Larry asked her, and calmly answered, "Because someone important in my life taught me that eating my fruits and veggies could get me strong and tall."
"Not referencing us as 'fruits and veggies?'" Bob asked.
"Nope," Stephanie answered, shaking her head no.
"Good, I was getting worried." Bob sighed.
Stephanie rolled her eyes slightly while smirking softly.
Suddenly, another vegetable came popping through the tunnel and landed on the mattress.
He is an elderly cucumber with short gray hair and wearing a white shirt, brown tie, and black pants with a belt.
Still, no legs, but it is strange to see him with pants on.
He was slightly bruised and looked tired, as his uniform looked ripped.
"Mr. Nezzer!" exclaimed Bob as he ran over to him. "What happened?!"
"Where's Archie?!" Larry exclaimed.
Mr. Nezzer, the name of the elderly cucumber, sat up slightly from the mattress, panting a few times.
"He's-He's stuck up there!" Mr. Nezzer exclaimed through his pants. "I managed to escape, but I don't know about him!"
Everyone worriedly glanced at each other.
They know they are too scared to get to the surface to find 'Archie.'
Stephanie thought to herself for a moment before saying, "Let me get up there to save him."
Instantly, all eyes were on her, with shocked expressions on their faces.
"You?" Bob asked. "B-But, you just got here! Robert's goons might catch you, too!"
"I know," Stephanie nodded before glancing around and seeing the exit. "I'll be back sooner or later! No vegetable left behind!"
With that, she went through the exit door and started heading over to the surface.
Everything was quiet inside the room before Mr. Nezzer asked, "Who was that?"
"Someone out of the ordinary." Junior's Dad answered.
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