It was day thirty-five on the Troops adventure, and Troop was looking at the map, trying to decide where to go next.
"How about we go to this island; it's surrounded by a cool-looking fog bank," Jake decided.
"Absolutely not. That's the island of monster 274, the Sniffers," Zeon said.
"I wouldn't go on an island of sniffers for even four million dollars," said Cadence.
"Even if we did go to that island, we can never get out," said Zeon. "After I created the sniffers, they drove me crazy. So I tricked them into going to that island because anything can go through the fog from the outside, but not from the inside because it's like a solid wall on the inside."
"But apparently one decided to go in a different direction than the others," said Kirby remembering the sniffer that helped them with their flaying pincher mole problem.
"Then how about we go to this cavernous cave area that's at the edge of continent 3," said Jake.
"I don't think so," Zeon said. "That's the home of monster 876, the Vampires."
"I thought the vampires were wiped out to extinction by the famous former Troop member, Abraham Van Helsing," said Hayley.
"They were wiped out in the human world, but not in the monster world," said Zeon.
"Maybe this mountain range by ocean 6; it's got cool-looking jagged cliffs," suggested Jake.
"I think that's the home of monster 817, the Himalayan Squid Dragons," Zeon said.
"Isn't that the monster that inspired H. P. Lovecraft, the American horror writer who was once a former Troop member, to write a story about Cthulhu," said Kirby.
"That's right, Cthulhu was based off of the Himalayan squid dragon," Zeon said.
"If you say no to this location that I'm pointing to next, I give up," said Jake, pointing to the middle of continent 2.
"That will do," said Zeon. "There's a fine black sand desert with grasslands in that area."
"Then let's go," Jake said.
They made it to the deserts where dust was kicked up when they stepped down.
The air was warm and felt a little dry.
"How does all of this grass grow here?" Kirby asked while taking pictures. "This place doesn't look very moist."
"This grass actually gains nutrients from the minerals in this soil instead of water," said Zeon.
"It looks like it's becoming night already," Cadence said, noticing the sun was setting.
"Okay, everyone, cover your scents in the scent shower and go explore," Zeon said. "But be back here in an hour and a half so that we can find a place to make camp."
Later during the night, the Troop sat around a fire eating burgers.
Cadence, being half monster, was eating hers with extra tomatoes and mustard.
While they were eating, the two moons appeared from behind the clouds, but they were luminous white instead of red.
"Why are the moons shining like our moon instead of red?" Kirby asked.
"This is a rare natural phenomenon in the monster world that happens every 120 years," said Zeon. "The light from the sun gives off a powerful solar flare that causes these nanoscopic crystals in the dust on the moons to luminate a bright clear color,"
"That's very cool," said Jake.
A few moments later while everyone was clearing their plates, a sound was heard across the deserts.
It sounded like a combination of a dinosaur roar and a wolf howl.
Jake was kind of curious to know what made that sound, so he pulled out a pair of night-vision goggles.
He saw a pack of six monsters with t-rex like heads, long necks, wolf ears and bodies, two toed feet, blue fur, and dinosaur tails with long spikes lining down them.
"What are those?" Jake asked Zeon as he gave him the goggles.
"Those are monster 001, Abelunas," Zeon said. "The very first monster I ever created and was also first discovered by the Dutch Troop."
"Not the Dutch," Jake scoffed.
Zeon then looked up at the clouds rolling away from the moons. "Anyway, take a look at what's about to happen."
The bright light of the moons shined over the abelunas, and their fur began to glow blue.
"What's going on?" Kirby asked as he came back with his camera.
"The fur of the Abeluna emits a bioluminescent reaction when it come into contact with this kind of moonlight." Said Zeon.
Kirby took a picture of the abelunas, but he had the flash on which grabbed the abeluna's attention.
The monsters were about to charge towards them, but they were suddenly spooked by an echoing roar in the distance and then ran off.
"What was that?" questioned Hayley.
They turned their heads and turned on some flashlights to see a big monster walking on four legs and with two barbed tails, two back fins, and five long, snake-like heads with four horns, sharp beaks, and head fins.
"Monster 199, a Hydra," said Zeon. "It, too, is a member of the five most."
Everyone quickly went to grab a weapon before the hydra began to attack.
They started to shoot it at the body to ward it off.
The head in the middle reared up and bellowed a wave of fire at them.
"Just shooting at the body isn't going to do any good," said Jake. "Time to go for the main part." He suddenly shot at one of the heads resulting in an explosion of blue goo.
"Jake, wait!" Hayley shouted, but Jake didn't hear her.
He kept on shooting at the other heads.
"Wait, stop!" shouted Zeon. But Jake immediately shot the final head; the body fell to the ground.
"Yeah, that's how it's done," said Jake.
"No, what've you done!?" Hayley furiously said.
"Killed a hydra," said Jake. "What do you think I've done?"
"You clearly don't know that if you blast off a hydra head, two more grow back in its place," said Zeon.
"What?" asked Jake.
A crackle and rumble sounded out from behind Jake.
He turned to see the body rising up, and two new heads grew back in where the others use to be.
The hydra once had five heads and now has ten.
"Uh oh," Jake said, realizing what he did.
One of the heads shot out a tongue at Jake, pulled him into his mouth, and swallowed him whole.
The others gasped, but Jake blasted out of the head resulting with hydra having twelve heads now.
"No more head blasting now," Kirby said in shock.
"Right, got it," Jake said, trying to shake off the goo.
Many of the heads attacked multiple times, snapping at them and trying to disintegrate them.
Two of the heads were heading for Hayley from opposite directions, but Hayley jumped out of the way causing both heads to collide into each other.
Cadence was almost hit with the hydras fire about five times.
Kirby on the other hand, was blinding the heads with the flashes from his camera.
"We can't keep this up," Kirby said to Cadence. "There's just too many of them."
Cadence then saw in the distance, a large sinkhole. "I have an idea."
She ran to the side of the hydra. "Hey, beak faces, come and get me!"
The hydra began to chase after her. She tried avoiding the fire blasts and the tongue shots.
When she made it to the sink hole, it looked like she was doomed.
She suddenly transformed, zipped underneath the hydra's body, then threw the monster over her.
The hydra fell into the sinkhole and tried to clamber back up on the edge, but it slipped and fell into the darkness.
Cadence transformed back and brushed her hands together.
She looked up and saw a dark figure standing at the edge on the other side of the sinkhole.
Its red eyes looked directly at her and then suddenly jumped headfirst into the sinkhole.
She looked weirded out and turned around to return to the others.
Later that night, Cadence told the others about what she saw.
"That's pretty strange," said Jake. "Almost like when Hayley and I saw that creature that scared the unicorns away."
"Now that you mention it," said Kirby. "I saw a dark creature almost like that in the darklands after we saved the dragons and trolls."
"Do have any what they might've been, Zeon?" asked Hayley.
"Uh, I'm not really sure," Zeon said, avoiding their eyes.
"Anyway, we've seen four members of the five most," said Jake. "Griffins, mokele-mbembe, lomgra, and hydra, but what's number five?"
"They said that number five is classified," said Hayley. "Maybe because it could be too dangerous to try and kill."
"Well, I've had enough monster killing for one day. Why don't we get some sleep?" Kirby said as he was looking at photos of what were mostly hydra heads.
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