Over the fields of grey, spiky rocks the vehicle roared. It was the night of the twenty-ninth day of the Troop's trip across the monster dimension.
They were enjoying a well-deserved rest while the vehicle was on auto-drive.
The vehicle began to slow down with a clunk and bang; it then came to a complete stop.
Dark clouds crept across the sky, blocking out the red light of the two red moons.
A loud crash exploded in the sky with a flash which caused the gang to wake up with a fright.
"What was that?" Kirby asked holding his heart.
"There's a storm approaching," Zeon said. "A thunderstorm with some heavy rain."
"Do storms like these happen a lot in the monster dimension?" Jake asked.
"Sometimes," Zeon said. "Mainly because they are created by monsters that can make thunderstorms such as monster 104, the Nimbus Viper, monster 335, the Cumulonimburus, or monster 733, the Thunder Bird."
Another crash of thunder boomed. "We should probably get out of here before we get struck by lightning," Hayley said.
"Agreed," Zeon said. He tried starting the engine, but there was no rumble. "We're out of fuel."
"What do we do?" Kirby asked in a worried tone.
"I do have a fuel container in the back," Zeon said. "But we also need the liquid from a fright burn fern."
"What's that and why?" Cadence asked.
"The fern is a dark red plant that grows in damp forests with prickly leaves and hot juices," Zeon explained. "And we need the liquid juice from this plant because it gives the fuel a little kick making it five times stronger than rocket fuel."
"So, where do we find a fright burn fern?" Jake asked.
"There's a twisted maze forest a mile away from where we are," Zeon said, looking at his virtual map. "There are a bunch of these ferns growing there."
"So, we're going to go to that forest in the rain," Cadence said.
"No, just you, Jake, and Hayley," Zeon said.
"Why?" Jake asked.
"Kirby and I need to stay here to get the fuel prepared and the tank ready," Zeon said. "So, put on some metal gloves so that the juice from the ferns won't burn you and take these as well." he handed the three of them a couple of rods.
"Are these some kind of cool tech that we can use to keep ourselves dry from the rain?" Jake asked.
"Kind of," Zeon said. "Just push the button."
They pushed the buttons, and the rods opened like a flower.
"These are just umbrellas," Jake said. "I was expecting some kind of rainproof forcefield."
"Just quit complaining and get out there," Zeon said.
The wind was so fierce and wild; it almost blew Jake, Hayley, and Cadence off their feet.
They made it to the forest; it was dark with the trees twisting around each other like licorice and thorn bushes.
"Let's just find the ferns in that forest before we catch colds," Cadence said.
"Let's just take it cautiously," Hayley said. "Zeon told us that these forests are like mazes, so let's not try to get lost."
Once they were in the maze, the rain suddenly stopped because of the tree branches above them. They closed the umbrellas and continued on.
Moments later, they came to a clearing in the center of the forest.
"Seems like we made it to the eye of the maze," Jake said. "The ferns are probably here somewhere."
"Everyone, start looking," Hayley said.
In the middle of the eye, there was a massive tree, and there were dark red plants growing around it.
"Hey, guys, over here!" Jake shouted.
Hayley and Cadence came rushing over towards the plants.
They put their gloves on, and Hayley pulled out a canteen to put the juice in.
Jake picked one of the leaves and Cadence carefully squeezed the juice out of the stem.
"Did Zeon mention how much we needed?" Jake asked.
"I don't think so," Hayley said.
"Let's just squeeze as much as we could," Cadence said.
After half an hour, they filled up almost the entire canteen.
Hayley screwed the lid back on, and they started to make their way back to the vehicle.
"So, how do we know where to go?" Jake asked.
"We just follow our footsteps," Cadence said.
A little while later there was something different in the tree line what looked about like spider webs.
"Were those webs always there?" Jake asked.
"No," Hayley said. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Just then, small streams of water flowed towards them.
The water then grew and formed into a shape.
It became a human shape with a frightening face like a jack-o-lantern and made completely of water.
"A water nymph," Cadence said, "It must've made its way in here through the drops of rain seeping through the gaps above us."
The nymph then shot water at them, but they used their umbrellas as shields.
Jake then hit the nymph with the umbrella; it splashed into water.
The nymph then formed back into its monster form, but before it attacked again, it looked up with a look of fear on its face then fell apart into a puddle of water and seeped through the trees.
"What was that all about?" Jake asked in confusion.
"I don't know," Hayley said.
A large shadow fell over them.
They turned their heads to see what is casting the shadow.
They screamed with terror and were then carried away.
Meanwhile, Zeon and Kirby were preparing the fuel.
It stopped raining and the skies cleared up.
"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Kirby asked.
"If they got lost in the forest, we should check on them," Zeon said. "Grab some blasters; you never know what we might come across."
Right when Kirby came out with the blasters, his watchcom beeped.
"Kirby, come in Kirby!" Hayley shouted.
"What's happening?" Kirby asked her.
"We got the liquid juice, but we've been attacked by a…a…" She screamed and was sprayed by what looked like silk; the watchcom then went off.
"This can't be good," Zeon said.
The two of them made their way to the forest with their blasters, they then stopped at the entrance.
"I've brought some spray paint so that I can paint a line of the ground to find our way back," Kirby said.
"Why do we have spray paint?" Zeon asked.
"Cadence still has a bad girl side," Kirby said.
Kirby popped the lid, shook it up, and began leaving a trail of red paint on the ground.
The forest was dark and maze-like.
There was then a loud crash through the trees.
"Keep your eyes peeled, Kirby," Zeon said. "We don't know what could be lurking here."
There was no response. "Kirby," Zeon turned around, and Kirby wasn't there.
Zeon went back to where there was a split in the maze, and the trail of spray paint was going down the other direction.
Zeon followed the trail until he saw Kirby still leaving a trail. "Kirby, I told you to turn left," Zeon said furiously.
"I was walking backwards to leave the trail," Kirby said. "So, I thought you meant my left."
Zeon gave a sigh. "Time to improvise."
He pulled out a rope and wrapped it around his and Kirby's waist. "Just so that we don't get separated again."
After running into four dead ends and going around in circles, the two of them came across a trail of webs lining in the trees, so they followed them, hoping that they might lead them to whatever had taken Jake, Hayley, and Cadence.
They came to a chamber where the webs were starting to get bigger and more spread out.
They then saw bones of monsters scattered in the webs, and three cocoons on the webs.
"Maybe the three of them are inside those," Kirby said.
"Hold on," Zeon stopped him. "Something's coming."
A monster that looked like a giant, blue and white spider with massive fangs came crawling in. "That's monster 757, a Phase Spider,"
"Spiders, why did it have to be spiders?" Kirby said.
"Don't tell me that you don't like spiders," Zeon said. "You hunt monsters every day, for Pete's sake."
"Yeah, but everyone hates spiders," Kirby said.
"Alright, keep it together and stay quiet," Zeon whispered. "It might see us coming, so follow my lead."
They both crept over ground covered in sticky webs.
They stopped by a lump in the ground and crouched down.
"This lump feels very strange," Kirby said, giving it a poke.
"What are you talking about?" Zeon asked.
"It feels squishy," he said.
Zeon felt it too. "You're right, it does feel squishy," he pulled out a pair of x-ray goggles.
"This is no ground lump," he said with a gulp. "This is an egg sack."
"Egg sack," Kirby said quickly removing his hands from it.
"Eventually this sack will bust open, and millions of small, deadly phase spider babies will come crawling out," Zeon said.
"Then let's just get the others and ourselves out of here fast before we become dinner," Kirby said.
"First, we've got to get passed big mamma," Zeon said. "Follow me," They tried to move, but they couldn't.
"Zeon, I'm stuck in the webs," Kirby said.
"So, am I," Zeon said. "Let me pull out the laser scalpel."
Zeon pulled the scalpel out of his pocket, charged it up, and began to cut it.
It was making a loud, whirring sound that could attract the big spider, so Zeon was going as fast as he could.
After he was free, he began to cut Kirby free.
Kirby tried to pull himself free so hard that he fell back with a loud thud that echoed around the chamber.
The phase spider gave a loud growl as it turned around and stared at the two of them with its eight, milky white eyes.
"Here, eat this!" Kirby shouted as he leapt up and pulled out his blaster.
He gave off a bunch of shots, but the blasts just went through it like it was nothing. "What happened?"
"The phase spider has ghost-like powers," Zeon said. "It can move through solid matter by becoming a part of an interdimensional world in this dimension called the Ethereal Zone."
The spider then lifted up its fangs to reveal a large mouth filled with needle-like teeth and began to spit webs at the both of them.
Being completely stuck in webs, Zeon and Kirby were unable to escape.
The spider came in for the kill, but something pulled Zeon and Kirby out of there before it could do so; it was Cadence.
They both realized that Jake and Hayley were out of the webs too.
"How did you guys get out of the web?" Kirby asked as he brushed off the silk.
"Those shots that you fired at the phase spider, apparently they burned open our cocoons," Hayley said.
The spider turned around and charged the second time.
Zeon grabbed the canteen of fright burn fern juice from Jake's pocket, opened it, and threw it at the spider's face.
Its face began to burn and sizzle as the spider cried with pain.
It fell on its back and twitched until it wasn't moving any more.
"Why didn't it phase through the juice?" Jake asked.
"Because the fright burn fern can be found in both this world and the ethereal zone, so it has complete effect on the spider," Zeon said.
"So, can we get out of here now?" Kirby asked.
"Of course," Zeon said.
When they made their way to the exit of the chamber, there was a loud crumbling sound behind them.
They turned to find the egg sack was hatching with millions of little spiders flowing out.
The little creepy crawlies made their way to their mother, but she still wasn't moving.
The spiders then changed direction and went after the Troop.
They ran out of there with the spiders chasing after them.
"Why are they chasing after us?" Kirby shouted.
"They must be angry that they were born as orphans," Zeon said. "And know that we were the ones who did it."
"Quick follow the red line," Kirby said. "It will take us back to the entrance."
They made their way to the way they came in, but they spiders were still behind them.
"Pass me the blaster!" Hayley shouted to Kirby.
Kirby threw the blaster to her; she changed the mode from plasma blast to fire blast.
She turned and gave a large blast of fire in a circle around the trees and the ground.
The spiders then stopped since they wouldn't go near the flames.
"That'll buy us some time," Hayley said. "Baby phase spiders haven't mastered their phasing abilities."
Once they made it to the vehicle, Zeon opened the gas tank and pulled out the container of fuel.
He opened the canteen of the fright burn fern juice and poured a tiny drop into the gas which caused a small poof.
"So, we went through all that trouble of getting a lot of the juice when we just needed a small amount," Cadence said with frustration.
"Well, if you did just get a small amount, then we might've been goners back there," Zeon said as he poured the fuel into the tank.
Zeon started up the engine and slammed down the acceleration pedal.
The vehicle took to the air.
"Looks like we won't be seeing those nasty creatures for a while," Hayley said.
"Not quite," Kirby said. He pulled out some photos of the spider.
"When did you take those?" Cadence asked.
"I placed some action cameras on me when I'm unable to hold the camera in some situations," Kirby said.
"So, where do you guys want to go next?" Zeon asked the others.
"We don't even know where we are," Hayley said.
"Wait until you see this," Zeon said. He pushed a button, and a big screen slid down from the ceiling.
The screen flashed on, and it showed what looked like a map.
"What is this?" Jake asked Zeon.
"This is a map of the whole monster world," Zeon said. "There are eleven continents, nine seas, and four thousand islands."
"Why don't we go to this savannah area here," Jake said, pointing to the edge of continent eight connected to continent seven on the right side of the map.
"Alright, let the adventure continue," Zeon said.
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