I awoke with a start when I heard a loud plane fly above me. I silently groaned as I carefully left the tent so as to not disturb my tent mates, which were Star and Marco, to see what all the noise was about. I blinked as I stepped into the morning light, and looked up to see a corn cob plane fly over the park towards the rustic mountains in the distance. I did a big stretch and yawn, looking over to a nearby bench. Majima and Galacta both resting on it, silently watching the plane fly by, so I walked up and sat next to them.

"'Sup", Majima greeted with a nod.

"Good morning, Caleb", Galacta said with a bow, "I see the Plants mobilising woke you up."

"Yeah", I said, stretching again, "What's that all about?"

"I guess those undead shitheads are doing something in… Mount Steep?" Majima said. He sighed. "That's such a fucking stupid name."

"Really?" I said. I looked at Galacta. "Do you know what they're up to?"

Galacta shook his head and shrugged. "No idea. But if it doesn't involve us, I'd rather it stay that way."

This made Majima lean forward and shoot the knight a questioning look. "But aren't you some crazy powerful knight that loves to shit on weaker losers?"

"Yes", Galacta affirmed, "But after what happened in Butterfly and Diaz's world, I'd rather save my full strength for only when it's totally necessary. Otherwise cities will be levelled."

"That's… really mature of you, Galacta" I said in a surprised tone.

"I just believe with this journey", the knight began, "We can all use it as a chance to expand our horizons and become who we want to without restrictions. At least, I'll take advantage of that."

"Yeah, but I won't", Majima saidas he leaded back, "I'm happy with who I am. Fucking crazy and not ashamed to admit it."

I smiled at the two of them, but then I felt my smile fall. "It's nice to be able to change who you are. I tried to do that, but it didn't really work out…"

Majima leaded forward with a confused look, and opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced when Galacta held up a hand at him. "You're here now", the knight said to me, "No matter what happened in the past can harm you now. You just need to move on."

I nodded somberly, partially thankful Galacta stepped in before anything else could come spilling out. I then jumped, snapping out of my thoughts, when another two planes soared overhead. They were a lot faster than the first one, which made me suspicious. This was enough to wake the others, as they all slowly climbed out of the tents. They all rubbed their eyes, stretched and yawned as they all walked up to us and watched the planes travelled to the rust red mountain in the distance.

"What in the mother of all Cy-bugs is happening?" Ralph groaned. Vanellope and Hilda were leaning against either side of his head, laying on his shoulders.

"Something is going down at Mount Steep", Galacta said. "It seems the Zombies are pushing an offensive, but none of us know the specifics."

Marco hummed as he watched the army march by, while Star let out a loud yawn. Steve walked over to the army, and Jenny just sighed and rolled her eyes. I stretched one more time and walked away from the group, heading down one of the trails. I took a deep breath as I took in my surroundings, letting the sunlight hit my face. I closed my eyes, and just then I could feel the presence of someone else joining me. I opened one of my eyes, and smiled when I saw Gladius hovering next to me.

"Want to check out the town, Gladdy?" I asked my sword. He nodded.

"Neighbourville is a place that will be rich with history", he said, "So I'd like to see what we could find. Isn't that right, Alfur?" I then finally noticed the tiny elf on the sword's hilt, notebook grasped tightly.

"Of course I am!" The elf said happily, "It's not everyday you get to talk to the undead. I'm still annoyed that Hilda didn't tell me when she and her friends talked to those ghosts…"

I laughed at Alfur's complaining. "I honestly don't blame you, buddy. If we're lucky, maybe we'll be able to meet Crazy Dave."

"That would be something", Gladius mumbled, "Getting to meet the man with Crazy in his name…"

"Well, I guess we can try", I said with a shrug, "C'mon, let's go. Time's wasting, and I want to see all this place has to offer!"

"Lead the way then, Caleb!" Alfur proudly announced.

"You got, Alfur!" I said back happily. I began to walk ahead with Gladius close behind, my head held high.

~X~

The three of us had found ourselves out of the park and into the bustling streets of the city. Citizens happily went about their days, either walking their dogs, watering their gardens, or reading a good book on their porch. I looked around with a smile on my face as Alfur and Gladius engaged in a bubbly conversation. I gave the two of them a quick glance, then faced forward once again. As I wandered, waving at any people we passed, I looked to the horizon. The rusty hills of Mount Steep filled me with worry, but I shook it off when I remembered where we were. So I continued to lead the way, until we came up to a house. I was instantly drawn to it, as it wasn't just a house.

It was a store. It was a gardening store, much like the one Ralph bought his mushroom from. Curiosity took me over, and I walked up and into the store. The bell that hung from the top of the doorframe rang as I entered. I looked around at all the seeds set up on display, all the lawn ornaments, all the tools, and all the posters. It was quaint, giving off a warm, cosy feeling. The smell of many flowers entered my nose, and I let out a sigh as the smells relaxed me.

"Well, I didn't think I'd see a customer so soon", an almost pathetic voice said. I looked to the front counter, and behind the counter was a bigger than normal Scaredy-Shroom who was wearing typical "nerd" glasses.

"Oh, hi", I greeted, "This place just caught my attention, so I came to check it out."

"Of course", the mushroom said with a nod, "With all the other stores around that sell garden supplies, it's hard for business for most of us. So we'll take whatever we can get." I smiled and nodded, returning my attention to the seed packets.

Peashooters, Sunflowers, Wall-Nuts, Chompers, this place had all the plants across the whole franchise. As I browsed, one packet of seeds that was all on its own captured my attention the most. It was for something called a Wasabi Whip, and something about it called me. So I pulled the single pack off the hook and brought it over to the counter. I set it down, and the mushroom store owner looked at what I had picked out.

"Ah, a Wasabi Whip. You don't see a lot of them around", he said as he pulled out a pot, a bag of fertiliser and soil, and a watering can.

"Why?" I asked.

"Wasabi Whips are just really new, so much so I didn't even know I had a pack yet." He began to load all of the items into a plastic bag. "That'll be 20 dollars."

I then started to frantically pat my pockets, and when I reached in, out of my left pocket I pulled out exact change. Pushing my confusion aside, I set the money down on the counter and grabbed the plastic bag. The store owner nodded at me, and we both bid farewell. I stepped outside and returned to the sidewalk, where Gladius and Alfur were caught in a quiet debate. When I came up to the sword's side, they stopped and turned their attention to me.

"I see you bought something", Gladius joked. "Felt inspired by Ralph?"

"Yeah, I guess I want something more to remember this journey", I said, smiling down at the bag. I then looked back upat Gladius and Alfur. "Let's get back to the camp. These guys can grow pretty quickly, so I'd like to get him grown ASAP." The other two nodded and we began our slow trek back to the others. As we walked, I reached into the bag and pulled out the seed packet, looking over the instructions on the back. I was so entranced by it that I didn't notice when I was about to walk into open traffic. Gladius stopping me snapped me out of my trance, and I blushed in embarrassment as we waited for the signal for the crosswalk.

"You should pay more attention, Caleb", Gladius said, "I don't want you getting hit by a car."

I nodded, not giving him eye contact as I still felt embarrassment coursing through me. When the signal changed so we could cross, I dashed ahead and began to quickly make my way to the park. Gladius was quick to catch up to me, and he hovered to my side as Alfur scribbled into his notebook. Soon enough, we made it back to our camp, and everyone was at full strength, all of them busily tending to our temporary set up.

Steve was the first one to notice us approaching. "Well, nice to see you guys are up and about", he said kindly as Gladius hovered over to Hilda so Alfur could hop onto her beret. Steve then noticed my bag. "Oh, you bought something like Ralph did?"

I nodded as I took the pot out and set it on a nearby picnic table. "Yep. I just wanted to have something more to remember this whole trip by, so I bought a plant." I opened the bag of soil and dumped the whole thing into the pot. I then quickly grabbed the watering can and ran off to a nearby fountain, filled the can with water, and ran back to the pot. As I watered the seed, I began to earn a small audience of the others, and Marco picked up the opened packet to read it over.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to grow this guy now?" He asked.

"Yeah, I mean, nothing wrong with getting a little buddy with us", I said. Twig hopped up onto the table and began to sniff the pot, only to jump back slightly when a small green sprout suddenly popped up like a jack-in-the-box. Hilda and Vanellope hopped up onto the seats to watch, and we all watched in stunned silence as the plant grew at a very fast rate. I grabbed the bag of fertiliser, ripped the top off, and dumped a bit onto the plant. It suddenly erupted from the pot, and what was left was a short green plant with a long vine coming from its top. At the end of the whip-like vine was a flaming leaf, burning brightly with a cosy warmth. The Wasabi Whip blinked as it took in all the sunlight, then it looked right at me. Then, much to our shock, the plant used the leaves at its bottom to pull itself out of the pot and use its unseen roots to climb over to me and onto my shoulder.

We all just silently watched all of this play out until Gladius was the first to speak. "That… was something…" He said. The Wasabi Whip grunted at him, but I wasn't sure if it was of offence or acknowledgement. I just smiled and rubbed the back of the Wasabi Whip's head, and it started smiling at my touch.

"Well, whatever happens, we got a new member of the team", I said happily, "The main thing now is just figuring out a name for you…" As I pondered what to name our new companion, the Wasabi Whip hopped off my shoulder and made its way over to a nearby tree. It then started pointing the flaming leaf at one single maple leaf that was on the ground.

"You want to be called Maple?" I asked.

The Wasabi Whip nodded. I walked over to it and picked him, beaming at it. "Maple it is then! Welcome to the gang, Maple!" Maple happily nodded and flexed its whip into a shape, and I noticed it was the symbol for the male gender. I smiled and nodded at Maple, and went back to join the others, who had all scattered to do their own things. Star, Marco, Steve and Ralph were back at the picnic table chatting; Vanellope, Hilda and Twig were running around in the distance; Jenny and Majima went down the trail, chatting between each other. That left me, Gladius, Alfur and Galacta on our own with Maple on my shoulder.

"So, what's the plan?" Gladius asked.

Galacta looked off aimlessly to the side. "Perhaps we could spend some of this free time getting some fencing practice in." He faced me and Gladius. "We might not get an opportunity like this again."

"Good call", Gladius affirmed with a nod. Alfur took this as his cue, and joined Maple under the shade of the tree after hopping off of the sword. I grabbed Gladius's handle and took a few paces away from Galacta. The knight did the same, then pulled out his lance and pointed it right at me.

"If you wish to handle fierce opponents that are as dangerous as I was", Galacta said with a tone of order, "But I'll take things slow with you two. So, the basics." He hovered up a bit so his lance was more lined up with Gladius. "First, practise your movements. Clash Gladius against my lance."

I did as the knight instructed and pointed Gladius' blade at him, then took a few steps forward and gently tapped Gladius and Galacta's lance together. The knight nodded, and then we began to carefully fence. Both weapons remained still as we circled each other, occasionally clashing in an attempt to catch the opponent off guard. We continued this for the next hour, neither of us flinching.

"I must say, Caleb", Galacta said, his voice calm, "The fact you haven't made a drastic move is admirable." He suddenly circled his lance around Gladius and swung hard, knocking the sword out of my hand and a few feet away. The action caught me off guard so much I stumbled back and landed on my back. I groaned as Galacta hovered over me.

"You must always be prepared for your opponent to suddenly act", he said, "Otherwise you'll suffer defeat." He held out a hand.

"Yeah, yeah, I know Sherlock", I said in an annoyed tone, accepting his help. I got back onto my two feet as Gladius came to my side. Maple and Alfur, both of whom were watching the whole confrontation under the shade of the maple tree, came over as well.

"I'm just trying to help you, Caleb", Galacta said in a strict tone, "What happens if you and Gladius get separated from the rest of us? You need to be prepared."

I sighed. "I know. Still doesn't mean I can't be mad at you for doing that."

Galacta gave me a flat look. "Sure. Next time, I'll start actually teaching you some of the movements." He then hovered away towards the fountain, leaving me alone with Gladius, Alfur and Maple.

"So, after that enthralling match", Alfur said, doing his best to hide a yawn, "What's that plan now?"

I hummed in thought as Gladius looked around, then spoke. "Well… one thing I have to say is… shouldn't Jenny and Majima have come back by now? They said they were only going to do a lap of the park."

Maple looked around as I shrugged. "They probably just got distracted." Then I heard a small explosion, and saw a plume of smoke in the distance. "Or something bad happened…" I began to run towards the smoke. "JENNY! MAJIMA!" I was closely followed by the rest of the gang, who all ran close to my side. When we reached the site of the explosion, it was a mess. There were plants looking around accessing damages, worried citizens off to the side, and a large hole surrounded by many scorch marks. I walked up to one of the plants, the bounty hunting orange from the future Citron.

"What the heck happened here?" I asked as the others hung back.

Citron looked up at me. "Zombies happened. They must've used the attack on Mount Steep to sneak right here. Luckily no one was hurt, but the Zombies did kidnap two people right as we showed up."

I felt my heart rate increase. "Who did the Zombies kidnap?"

"Based on witness reports", Citron continued, "One was white and blue woman with twin pigtails, and the other was a man wearing a golden shirt with an eyepatch. We'll try to send what available plants we have to save them." As Citron walked over, barking orders at a Chomper, I felt my skin pale. My legs buckled. My ears began to ring. I almost fainted if it wasn't for Galacta and Steve, but my vacant look didn't help calm anyone down.

"Why would the Zombies take Jenny and Majima?" Hilda said in worry, pacing around all of us with Twig by her side. Star growled in anger, her wand beginning to glow a faint green. Marco, Steve and Ralph all shared looks, trying to calm everyone. Vanellope and Galacta, meanwhile, looked at me in concern.

"Caleb, what are we going to do?" Vanellope asked. I shook my head and barely could hold my weight as I tried to stand.

"I… don't… know…" I said weakly. I stumbled a bit but was caught by Galacta. Gladius went over and began to hover the hole the Zombies used. I looked around at the others, from Hilda and Vanellope hugging each other in worry, Star being held back from jumping into the hole by Marco and Steve, and Alfur and Maple looking into the hole while on Ralph's shoulders. My mind began to chug as it tried to think of what to do. I looked over to Citron, then to the sky, to a group of curious citizens, to a random tree, and then finally my own feet. I was at a loss.

"Caleb", Galacta said firmly. I snapped my attention to him. "We need to save Jenny and Majima."

"I don't know how to, though…" I said in a whisper.

"Well, what do you think the Plants would do?" He asked gently.

I looked off in an aimless direction as I took in what my friend said, shuffling through my memories of this series. What would the Plants do? I thought hard about it…

Then it clicked.

I suddenly felt my strength come back full force, and I scrambled over to Ralph. He made a cry of shock as I scaled up his back. Alfur and Maple moved out of the way as I stood up on the wrecker's shoulders. I looked to the horizon, facing the purple skies that hovered over the Zombie Capital. I glared at the distant city, then hopped down to the ground.

"Guys!" I shouted. All of the gang stopped what they were doing and faced me. "Get ready. We're going to Zombopolis."

"Wait, what?" Marco said in shock.

"Kid, hang one", Ralph said, "Are you sure about this? It's not like you to rush in this deep."

"I don't care", I said, shooting an angry look at Ralph. "I'm not playing it safe this time. If we wait too long, we could lose Jenny and Majima. We need to save them now."

"That's it, Caleb-Cat!" Star cheered. Galacta nodded with a grunt, and Vanellope and Hilda ran up to my side. Ralph, Steve and Marco all shared looks, then they all sighed simultaneously. I looked back towards the distant Zombopolis, then faced the gang once again.

"All we need is a ride…" I said thoughtfully.

~X~

"You want to do what?" Major Sweetie said, flabbergasted. I took the lead of the group and brought them all back to Dave Manor. I had explained to Sweetie that we needed to save our friends, and we needed Penny to do it.

"We just need Penny to drop us off as close to Zombopolis as she possibly could", I repeated to the plant leader, "I'm not waiting around for any remaining plants to save Jenny and Majima." I glared at her hard, but she didn't back down. Rather, she returned with a just as fierce glare.

"No way", she said stubbornly, "It is strictly forbidden to let civilians anywhere near Zombopolis."

"Well, we aren't civilians", I spat back, "We've been through so much, and each of us has a little trick that makes us special."

Sweetie didn't back down. "Don't care. Penny is off limits, you understand me?"

"Now hold on", a robotic voice cut through. Me and Sweetie both turned to face the RV, who was parked on her launch ramp. "I have as much say in this as both of you."

Sweetie gaped at her. "Penny, seriously? You know the rules."

"I do. But Caleb and his friends obviously aren't just civilians", she began. "Caleb, why are you so set on saving your friends?"

I scoffed. "Why? Because I care about them. Because it's the right thing to do." My rough exterior melted a bit. "I don't want to lose them. Not after how far we came."

Penny remained silent for a moment. "I see…" Her door suddenly opened. "All of you, I'll take you as close as I can to Zombopolis without triggering their alarms."

I perked up. "Wait, really? You'll take us?"

"Penny, are you nuts?" Sweetie argued. "We need to follow our-"

"Do you think that matters to the Zombies?" Penny cut off the Major. "They've never kidnapped anyone, so who knows what they could be planning. If these fine people are willing to risk their lives to save them, then I'm willing to help as much as I can."

Sweetie sighed in defeat. "Fine, but you are just dropping them off and coming right back, got it?"

"Of course", Penny affirmed. "All of you, hop on."

We all began to board the RV, but before I climbed on, Penny beeped.

"Caleb, promise me one thing", she said.

"Yeah, what is it?" I asked her.

"Save your friends", she said in a determined tone. I nodded and boarded with the others, and Penny closed her door. She began her launch sequence, so we all took our seats and buckled up. Maple rested on my shoulder, and Gladius sheathed himself down my back. The RV then fired off into the sky, and I looked out the window and waved at Sweetie, who, despite her frustration with our plan, waved back. When she vanished from view, I faced forward to the others.

"So, when Penny drops us off, what are we supposed to do?" Marco asked.

I thought for a moment. "Penny, do you have any walkie-talkies?"

"In the drawer next to the big one", her voice called out. Ralph looked to the drawer to his left and opened it, taking out a couple of the devices. He handed them out to all of us, and when I snagged mine, I stuffed it into my pocket.

"Alright, here's the plan", I began, "When Penny drops us off, we'll sneak into the city then split up. That way we'll be able to find Jenny and Majima easier. We'll go in groups of two or three, and whichever group finds our friends first will immediately call the rest of us so we can all tackle the rescue as a team. Everyone got it?"

I got nods from all the others.

"Well, it's a good thing you thought of that, Caleb", Penny said.

"Why?" I asked, looking up at the ceiling.

"We're here…"

We all unbuckled ourselves and looked out Penny's windshield, and we all gasped as the polluted, mechanical cityscape of Zombopolis filled the whole window. Penny swerved downwards and landed next to a bunch of rocks. Her door opened, and we all stepped out to check the city out.

"Alright, I played my part. Now you go and save your friends", Penny said.

"We will, thank you for helping us Penny." I smiled at the RV and pat her hood. She then took off again into the sky, leaving us to our own devices. We all peeked over the rocks, and began to survey the city.

"Alright, this is where we'll split up", I began, "Ralph and Vanellope, Steve and Hilda and Twig and Alfur, Star and Marco, and finally me and Gladius and Galacta and Maple. Those are our groups, does that sound good?"

Everyone nodded in confirmation.

My face twisted into a look of determination. "Let's go save our friends." We all split up into our groups, entering the city at different points. Galacta took me up high, Gladius close by my side and Maple on my shoulder, as we scanned the streets of the city. After an hour of nothing, I felt defeated. That was when Gladius spoke up.

"Down there", Gladius said, pointing a wing to an empty alleyway. The knight silently made his way down and gently set me on the ground, before making his way to one of the ends of the alley to check the streets for an opening.

I dusted myself down. "Why did we stop here?"

"I felt we just needed a rest", Gladius said, "We were airborne for a while, so I feel like we needed a break."

"But we'll still need to search", Galacta said. All three of us faced him. "The streets are too crowded so it would be better to get to a higher vantage point for the time being."

I looked around the alleyway for a solution to our predicament, and I soon saw a fire escape that scaled the side of the building to my right. "Guys, this way." I ran over to the ladder and climbed it up to the first platform. I then began to climb up each step as Gladius and Galacta hovered next to me.

"You know one of us can just fly you up, right?" Gladius mentioned.

"I know, but I don't want you guys to do all the work", I explained, "We've all got to pull our own weight if any of us will get me and you home."

"Very mature of you, Caleb", Galacta said with a nod.

"Thanks. I did learn from the best." Maple beamed from his perch on my shoulder, and I continued my climb in silence until the top. We had a perfect view of most of the city from up here, so I decided to turn on my walkie-talkie.

"Sounding off, how are the rest of you guys doing?" I said into the speaker.

"Fine with us", Ralph's voice sounded off, "But there's a lot of Zombies around."

"Yeah, it's hard to try and find Jenny and Majima when we all have targets painted on our backs", Marco sounded off, concern seeping from his voice.

"Well, did you guys see anything that could help us locate them?" I asked.

"My team did!" Hilda called, "Some of the screens closer towards the big building with the… brain? If that's right. But yeah, some of the screens said 'Report inside to tend to prisoners'."

I perked up and looked over the rooftop, and sure enough I saw a large building with a brain in a large glass dome deeper amongst the buildings. "Okay, that's our best bet. Everyone carefully make your way to that building, we'll group back up, and sneak in."

I got calls of confirmation from the others, and I shut off the walkie-talkie. I pet Maple on the head before facing the knight and sword. "Let's get going. I don't know what Zomboss could be doing to Jenny and Majima."

"Of course", Gladius said, "Only issue is getting there without being seen…"

Galacta Knight hummed in thought. "It would be safest to fly there. Any other option would make us vulnerable."

"I feel like flying in the open sky is already making us vulnerable", Gladius argued, Maple nodding in response.

"But we were completely ignored for the past hour", I said back.

"Because I blend in with the sky", Galacta said. I looked at him, then it hit me.

"Oh, I can't believe I forgot that…" I said, smacking my hand on my forehead. "Alright, with that solved, let's go." I held my hand up, and Galacta swooped into the air. He came up from behind and grabbed my hands, and we were off. Gladius flew next to us, and Maple rested on my back between my shoulder blades. The knight and sword flew close to the tops of the buildings, weaving around any of the visible watchtowers and security cameras, until we reached the large building. I began to scan the streets, and soon saw Steve and Hilda in a nearby alley waving us down.

"Galacta!" I called, quiet enough to not raise any attention. "Down there." I nodded towards the alley, and Galacta and Gladius looked down at our friends. He took us down and gently set me next to Hilda, Alfur and Twig as Steve stood off to the side. Gladius came down and went to the street just out of view to get a look around.

"So you guys think Jenny and Majima are here?" I asked, peeking out of the alley to look at the large building.

"Yeah, we do", Steve said, "Just before you guys showed up, we saw some Zombies dressed like scientists enter the front doors, so obviously there's something going on in there."

"Wait, scientists?" I asked, fear beginning to fill me.

"Yeah, why's that so bad?" Alfur asked from atop Hilda's beret.

"If the screens said 'Attend to prisoners' and then a bunch of scientists walked in…" I explained, "Then Jenny and Majima are in a lot of danger."

Galacta was the first to say something after a moment of silence. "We move as soon as the others show up." Just then, Star and Marco came up from behind us.

"Hey everyone!" Star greeted cheerily, "Sorry we're a bit late. Safe Kid here didn't want to take the sewers." Star jabbed a thumb at Marco, who shot her a glare.

"Yeah, because the sewers are such a good idea", he spat. Vanellope and Ralph joined us just then, the wrecker squeezing past to join me, Gladius and Maple at the street entrance.

"So, what's the plan on getting in?" He asked.

"We'll be taking the sewers", I said.

"What?!" Marco, Alfur and Ralph shouted in shock. Twig rolled his eyes, as Star smiled proudly.

"There should be an entrance into this place's basement", I continued, "So it's our best bet to get inside safely. Anyone who says they aren't taking that way, you're basically trying to admit you can take on a whole city's worth of Zombies."

I was met with silence.

"Good", I said, walking away from the street. I then headed deeper into the alley and stood over a manhole. Gladius came up to my side, then stuck himself into the ground and wrenched the manhole cover out of the way. I gave the gang a determined look. "Let's go."

~X~

Steve and myself lifted the exit to the sewers, carefully scanning around the room we were in. It was clearly a warehouse of sorts, with towering shelves filled with boxes upon boxes. The sewer entrance we were at luckily had no Zombies nearby.

"Can we go, please?" I heard Marco whine, his voice bouncing off of the walls of the dark, dank sewer. We all harshly shushed him, then I looked back into the warehouse. Carefully, I lifted the cover out of the way as I climbed out, and quickly gestured for the others to follow. Slowly and carefully, everyone followed after me, and we were all soon peeking around the nearest shelf, looking down the central pathway. All the way at the opposite end, there was a sealed door with two sleeping Foot Soldiers perched at either side.

"Star, Marco, you two sneak around and take them out", I whispered. Both Echo Creek residents swiftly snuck around and approached the two guards as silent as they could be. Then, they struck, kicking the soldiers together and knocking them both unconscious. As Marco fiddled with the door's touch screen panel lock, the rest of us all rushed to their side.

"Excellent work, both of you", Gladius whispered. Star beamed up at him, and just then Marco opened the door.

"The password was ZOMBOSSRULES, not that hard to figure out", the Safe Kid said with a shrug. Carefully, we all filed out of the room and began to make our way through the halls of the large building. We passed by windows that let us see scientist Zombies doing a variety of strange and stupid ideas. Like sticking forks into wall sockets. Or dropping a plugged in toaster into a filled bathtub. We all cringed as the one unfortunate scientist was electrocuted. After that, we continued on our way until we came to a window that overlooked a much larger room.. I peeked into the window, but the sight nearly had me slamming my open palms through the glass.

Scientist and Engineer Zombies all ran around the room, papers flying everywhere as the wrote down on notepads and sat at computers. In the centre of the room, hanging from the ceiling by a bunch of cables, was Jenny, fully repaired and painted. Her eyes showed nothing but purple static and green scan lines and she dangled limply in the air. Right in front of her, standing on the ground, was a Zombie wearing a labcoat, black pants and black shoes. He was as tall as the other Zombies, but the most striking detail was that his head was massive, coloured a faded pink with visible veins.

It was Doctor Zomboss, the leader of the Zombies.

He almost hungirly eyed Jenny as his henchmen all ran around. Occasionally, Jenny would twitch a limb, purple electricity arcing out of it as it did so. Every time this happened, Zomboss would almost seem to smile wider.

"We got to do something", Vanellope said in quiet anger from her perch on Ralph's shoulder.

"But what should we do?" Hilda asked from the other shoulder.

"Well, we need to get down there first", Steve said. I was about to say something else, but something poked me in the back of my neck which made me freeze. Slowly, I turned around and leaned back as a gun barrel was forced into my face. We were surrounded by Foot Soldiers, All-Stars, Space Cadets and Imps, all of them aiming their weapons at us. We all slowly raised our hands as the Zombies gave us looks between vacant stares and hard glares. I looked back over my shoulder and back down at the window, and saw Zomboss smiling up at us, waving up as us sadistically. I screamed internally, but before we could be taken away, Star and Ralph suddenly started to give the Zombies hell. Steve and Marco, as they did that, smashed the window, and all of us jumped down into the room. Ralph's weight caused the ground to crack a bit, but none of us staggered as we glared at Zomboss.

"Well well well…" The sadistic zombie leader started, "I was wondering when you'd show up."

"Why'd you take our friends?", I asked angrily.

"Well, when some of my Zombies came back from yesterday's battle and told me they saw you", Zomboss explained as he paced in front of the limp Jenny. The purple lighting filled me with an uneasy feeling as her vacant gaze almost seemed to be glued to me. "So I staged the attack at Mount Steep to distract David, his idiot niece and her moronic best friend so I could try and kidnap some of Neighbourville's citizens for a special experiment of mine. But when my cameras showed your friends were right in the way… I had my team switch targets…"

He pulled out a remote, and pressed the single button on it. The floor underneath Jenny began to open, moving Zomboss away from us as a platform rose from the darkness. Our robot friend remained still as the platform stopped, revealing Majima strapped to a chair, an odd device on his back that had wires connecting to his head. We all gasped at the state he was in.

"I was fed up with David's Hypno Shrooms turning my Zombies against each other, so I thought…" His face twisted into a psychotic smile. "Why not just do the same thing?" He pressed a key on a nearby computer keyboard, and both Jenny and Majima were released from their binds simultaneously. Jenny stood firm as Majima slowly rose to a standing position. Both of them were deathly silent.

"Jenny? Majima?" Gladius said in a hushed tone. Neither of them reacted.

"Guys", I said slightly louder. Still nothing. I looked at Zomboss, and his smirk said it all.

"If you want to know if your friends are okay…" He said in a dark tone.

Both Jenny and Majima's heads snapped up, their eyes now a deep purple with glowing green pupils.

"Why don't we let them tell you themselves…"

~X~

Oh boy, things sure did take a turn, huh? Not only have our favourite Teenage Robot and Lunatic Yakuza been kidnapped, but now they're under Zomboss' full control! Yes, this is what is happening, because I liked the idea.

I wanted to try and craft Zomboss to be a fusion of how he's depicted in the games and graphic novels, where he is a genuine threat that does come up with good plans, it's just his own army or Crazy Dave's unpredictability that screw him over. I want him to be a threat, but still have his moments that show how he's still a bit pathetic.

Up next: A battle between friends and a crazed scientist.

~Caleb~