Time felt like it became still as me, Gladius and all the others stared in silent shock at our mind controlled friends. Jenny and Majima gave us empty looks as their eyes glowed with Zomboss' signature colours. The maniacal Zombie scientist gave all of us a twisted grin as he was flanked by a dozen of his troops on each side.
"I'll make this easy for you all", Zomboss said. "Either you just give up now, or you make this more of a mess it needs to be."
"As if, you old fart!" Vanellope yelled, "We didn't come all this way to lose our friends!"
"Yeah, so you can shove your ego up your butt!" Star shouted.
I steeled my gaze past my possessed friends to Zomboss, and delivered him a harsh glare. "Ralph, Star, you two help me and Gladius deal with Jenny and Majima. Everyone else, go to town on every Zombie here."
"Right!" Everyone shouted in response. Maple hopped onto Galacta as he rushed into the fray, a comical fight cloud erupting as the gang brawled with the Zombies. I stood strong with Ralph, Star and Gladius as our mind-controlled friends vacantly stared back at us. Zomboss, seemingly realising he was vulnerable, pulled out a whistle and blew it. Flying through the window we smashed was his hovering cockpit, piloted by his pet zombie hedgehog . The spiked rat flew the pod down, and Zomboss jumped in. He took over controlling it, out of the bottom jerked out a satellite dish. The orb at the end began to blink purple, and our friends snapped to attention. Both Jenny and Majima then took up battle stances.
"Hope you're ready to cream your friends!" Zomboss taunted. "You two, destroy!" He pressed a button on the pod's console, and that set Jenny and Majima off. They both lunged at the four of us. I grabbed Gladius' handle and he swerved me out of the way, Star jumped to the side, and Ralph remained unmoving as they both crashed into him. He quickly retaliated by grabbing both of them with an arm each, hugging them tightly as they struggled to free themselves.
"Star, blast that stupid dish!" I barked, pointing at the device. Zomboss' confident smile faded and was replaced with one of pure terror as Star charged up her wand. She unleashed several Narwal Blasts at the Zombie leader, who frantically flew around in every direction in an attempt to dodge. He screamed all the time, but Jenny and Majima freed themselves from Ralph's grasp by simultaneously headbutting the wrecker in the face. He wailed in pain as our two friends turned their attention to Star to protect Zomboss. They both charged at the magic princess.
"Star, look out!" I cried, fruitlessly reaching my hand out to her. She quickly spun around and ducked under her two attackers, and they both collided with several computers. Star resumed blasting at Zomboss while me, Gladius and Ralph all tried to keep our possessed friends occupied. Jenny was the first to recover, and made an attempt to lunge at Star again, only for Ralph to grab her leg and throw her away. While that was happening, I was using Gladius to do battle with Majima, doing my best to block the onslaught he was unleashing onto me. He was slashing his knife around wildly, and I was beginning to struggle. Majima was just too tough. I could feel the wall I was backing up against getting closer and closer as my friend didn't let up. Ralph was sadly occupied with Jenny, the two of them battling above all of us.
"Caleb, focus on Goro!" Gladius yelled. I snapped my attention back to the eyepatched man, and just barely blocked a powerful knife swing. It was just too late, however, as Gladius was knocked right out of my hand. He landed under a desk, and a stray Imp Punt demolished it and buried him under a bunch of wreckage. I fell onto my bottom as I narrowly dodged another knife slash. Majima then stared at me with his vacant gaze and held up his knife. I felt my heart lodge into my throat.
"Oh no you don't, Cyclops!" Vanellope suddenly yelled. She, Hilda and Twig all pounced onto the knife wielding maniac. The two girls pulled his hair while the deerfox bit down on his leg. He remained silent as he flailed around in an attempt to shake his attackers off. This gave me a chance to dash away and start digging through the rubble for the talking blade. But I was interrupted when Majima's knife whizzed past my head and stabbed into a plank of wood. I spun around and pressed up against the rubble fearfully as I watched the man grab the girls and deerfox and toss them off of him. They flew into desks like ragdolls, and my friend stomped over to me. I braced for the inevitable, but a loud crash brought all the chaos to a screeching halt. Everyone faced Zomboss' pod, and I quietly gasped when I saw what had happened.
Star, despite being trapped in a massive brawl between all the Zombies and our friends, had climbed to the top of the pile and fired off a single Narwhal Blast at Zomboss, and it actually connected with the satellite dish. A hole was blown straight through it, and I could see Zomboss leaning over his pod's edge, gaping at the destroyed device. Suddenly, a massive plume of smoke erupted from Zomboss' spot, and when it subsided, the Zombie leader coughed weakly, covered head to toe in soot.
"Retreat…" He said, falling over into his vehicle. squeaked angrily at us, shaking his tiny fist as he took over the pod and piloted it away. This was then followed by all the Zombies rushing out of the room, some of them leaving their weapons and headwear behind. As the last Zombies ran away, we all let out sighs of relief.
Then both Jenny and Majima fainted.
"Guys!" Steve shouted. Me and Steve helped Majima back up, while the girls helped Ralph with Jenny. Both of them groaned as we all grouped up together in the centre of the room. Majima was the first to recover, followed shortly by Jenny. Both of them shook their heads and blinked slowly, showing their eyes were back to normal.
"Fucking hell, that stung", Majima growled, gripping his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter and cigarette box. When he stuck a cigarette into his mouth and sparked his lighter, Jenny gave him a glare.
"Of course the first thing you do is start smoking", she spat bitterly.
He shrugged. "What, we're good now. No point getting your tits in a twist." Jenny defensively put her arms over her chest while the rest of us all watched in silent awkwardness. I then took a few steps away to try and dig Gladius out from the rubble. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Majima just noticed the apparatus on him.
"What the fuck is this?" He said.
Steve just mined it off of him, the thing reduced to scrap in seconds. "Just what Zomboss used to control you."
"Actually, should we be worried he could just flip a switch and make you guys get all killy on us again?" Star brought up in a fearful tone.
"I… don't think so…" Jenny said, still obviously uncomfortable from Majima's remark. She walked over to a nearby computer (one that was untouched from the battle), plugged herself in, and started clicking away at the keyboard. "Nope, we're both good. Knocking out that dish killed the link."
Marco helped Majima remove the wires, giving Jenny a suspicious look. "Really? We take out an oversized dinner plate and everything's good?" He gave Star a weird look. "You'd think he'd, you know, not make such a glaring flaw in his plan." The princess shrugged.
"Zomboss- Ack -is a bit pathetic", I strained as I moved some of the rubble out of the way. "He's pretty bad with his plans. They all have glaring- Fuck -weaknesses that he tends top blame his army on. He's- Sonava -not that great of a scientist." A hunk of rubble slammed into my face, and I stumbled back gripping my nose. Everyone instantly ran over to my side.
"You okay kid?" Ralph asked. I sighed as I nodded at him, feeling a bit of blood leaking from my nose. Maple came to my side and hugged me with his whip. Jenny and Steve took over clearing the rubble out of the way, and soon Gladius was freed.
"Finally!" The sword proudly announced as he flew above us. He then looked down at me and hovered over. "Caleb, are you okay?"
"Yeah, just got smacked by a stray rock", I brought my hand away from my nose, and felt a bit of blood slowly leak from my nostril.
Hilda cringed. "I say we just go. This whole place is weirding me out."
"Agreed", I said as Majima handed me a handkerchief . I stuck the thing in my nostril to stop the bleeding, and began to look around. "Do we take the window, or the door?" I pointed at the window we jumped through, then to the door all the Zombies retreated through.
"I say the window", Vanellope said as she glitched onto Ralph's shoulder, "I've had enough of the tall, dark, smelly undead for a long while." Ralph nodded and began to make his way to the window. We all followed after him, Maple climbing onto my shoulder and Alfur riding on Gladius. Jenny, Steve and Galacta all helped us out of the room and through the pane of exploded glass, but as Gladius flew me up to the window, the door the Zombies took blew open, and in rushed two Gargantuars and several Z-Mechs.
"Guys!" I screamed. Jenny Gasped and quickly flew down and hugged the four of us close. She then quickly flew back up and tossed us into Ralph's arm, her eyes wide with panic. She was about to speak when we all heard what sounded like an alarm. I instantly recognized the sound, and scrambled out of the wrecker's arms.
"RUN!" I yelled. Two of the orange Z-Mechs began to fire a barrage of missiles up at us, and we all ran down the hall, narrowly missing the purple explosives as they collided with the wall. I looked over my shoulder as three Z-Mechs styled off of shrimps hopped up behind us and began to fire piercing pink lasers from their tops. This caused us to split up when the hallway reached a junction, Majima, Marco, Hilda, myself, Gladius, Alfur and Maple going one way. I turned back around, and my eyes met Jenny's.
"Just go!" She shouted, "We'll meet back up." I nodded once and continued down the hallway, two of the mechs following after us. We kept running down until we came to a four way junction.
"Which way do we go?!" Marco said fearfully. I could hear the Z-Mechs approaching fast, so I looked around frantically. Only issue was, it all looked the same.
"Let's try this way!" Hilda cried, pointing down the hallway to our left. "There's windows, so we can use them to lead us to the front door!"
"Good call, Hilda!" Alfur said. We all dashed down the hallway, but as we did some Foot Soldiers and Imps jumped out from nowhere and blocked us.
"I don't have any fucking time for this!" Majima roared. He pulled out his bat and gripped it tightly in his left hand, and pulled out a handgun with his right. Then he began to unleash hell against all that stood in front of us. The Zombies all ragdolled as the crazed man either unloaded a whole clip of bullets into them, or smashed them out of the way with his bat. A few unfortunate Zombies even were sent out the windows to our right.
"As much as he freaks me out", Hilda whispered to me quietly as we followed Majima's path of destruction, "He's still so cool."
"Yeah, I'm with you on that…" I whispered back.
~X~
Our run through the sparling and seemingly endless building soon brought us to a dead end. It was some sort of outlook point that had windows on all sides. Majima had slammed the door shut as soon as we entered, so we had some time to figure out what to do next.
"So, how do we get out of here?" Hilda said frantically. I did the only thing I could think of: I grabbed the nearest chair and threw it at one of the windows with all my might.
Only for it to weakly fly through the air and smack against the window, doing absolutely nothing.
"Oh for fucks sake", Majima growled, "Let me try!" Still wielding his bat, he swung at the glass, only for nothing to happen. He darted his eye around a bit before smashing the chair I threw. "Grab a leg and help me out here. This shit is stronger than stone." Me, Hilda and Marco all nodded and began to bash at the glass with Majima. Gladius and Maple soon joined, both of them using their most prominent body parts to whack the glass. And Alfur? He had to cling onto dear life as Gladius flailed around. We kept attacking the glass relentlessly, but it wasn't letting up.
"This is ridiculous!" Gladius complained, "We aren't getting anywhere with this!"
Just then, the glass cracked where Majima was striking. "Shut up and keep going, you fucking dullhead. We're getting there."
We all began to increase the bombardment on the window, but I slowed when I heard something. An extremely faint sound that was growing in volume made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. As the sound grew in volume, I could make it out as over a dozen marching troops, all running towards us.
"Guys", I said in a hard, fearful tone.
"Well stop gawking and fucking break the glass!" Majima barked. We all began to hammer at the glass twice as hard. The one crack slowly began to web out more and more. The footsteps became louder. Our assault on the window became more relentless. A loud banging came from the door. I started jabbing the wooden leg at the cracks in an attempt to dig them deeper. The door burst off its hinges as a Gargantuar, flanked by Scientists and Foot Soldiers flooded into the room.
Then the glass shattered.
I stumbled forward and fell out into the open air, my friends all screaming my name as I fell to the pavement. I closed my eyes as the road quickly rushed to my face, but just before I could make contact, I suddenly stopped. Slowly, I opened my eyes, and felt my heart skip a beat as I hovered just a few inches from the ground.
"Glad I showed up when I did, huh?" A familiar voice sounded off. I looked over my shoulder and beamed as I saw Jenny holding onto my shirt. Her jet boosters were running at 100%, and I couldn't be happier. I quickly wrapped her in a hug, and she carefully set me on the asphalt.
"Jenny… I- How?" I asked, still shaken from the whole experience.
"Well, after we lost those mechs", she explained, "We started to look for you guys so we could all group back up and blow this pop stand, but then we overheard Zomboss bickering with the guys that kicked down your door being told where you were at. So we followed them."
"Wait, you and the others?" I asked. I was answered as several Zombies were suddenly blasted out of the window and started cratering on the road around me and Jenny. I looked up, and after a moment, the rest of the gang all looked over the edge at us.
"Kid, are you okay?" Ralph called
"Yeah, I'm good!" I cried back, cupping my hands around my mouth.
This was the gang's cue to all hop down. Gladius, carrying Twig and with Alfur still on his hilt, was the first to hover down. Next, Ralph just jumped down and landed on the ground like a rock. He shook the earth as his feet left tiny craters. Oddly, Vanellope wasn't with him, but this was fixed when she glitched onto his shoulder, accompanied by a dizzy Hilda. Majima was carried down by Galacta, Steve jumped down and quickly dumped a bucket of water before he hit the road as Maple rested on his head, and Star and Marco rode down on Cloudy. Soon we were all back together, and it made me sigh with relief.
"Alright, are we all ready to get out of here?" Alfur said, being the first one to speak up.
As everyone nodded, Maple hopped off of Steve's head and returned to his spot on my shoulder. I could see Vanellope shoot the plant a subtle thumbs up, and it made me smile.
That was when the worst possible thing happened.
A large garage door that was in front of me slowly opened, and on the other side was none other than Zomboss, still in his pod, glaring at us as he hovered above an absolutely massive group of Zombies, all of them varying in body shape and profession. The Zombie leader jumped out of his pod and rode on a Gargantuar's shoulders.
"You think you can just waltz in, wreck my equipment and plan, and leave?!" The crazed scientist demanded.
"Yeah, we do think", Majima spat cockily.
"After that stunt you pulled, I don't know why you didn't think of it", Ralph added.
Zomboss grit what little teeth he had. "You'll regret this! Charge!" The massive group of Zombies all marched forward, roaring with their undead might. My side did the same, all of us letting out roars of fury as we charged forward.
"Let the Battle of Zombopolis begin!" a man with a microphone and eggnog coloured suit suddenly said, materialising to my left. Both sides came to a screeching halt, so much so you could hear the record scratch, and we all looked at the man in confusion, bafflement, shock, or a combination of all three. He looked over his shoulder with the face of a caught criminal.
"What the…" Star mumbled out, her mouth agape as she held a finger up.
"Just roll with it", Zomboss groaned, "He just kind of shows up to these kinds of things."
I shared looks with the rest of the gang, and we all shrugged. Then, the battle was back on, as both my side and Zomboss' side clashed.
~X~
The battle was explosive and fierce. Jenny, Ralph and Galacta took on tackling the Gargantuars, including the one Zomboss was riding, while the rest of us dealt with all the rest. Steve, Majima, Star and Marco were fairing the best, using their skills in ways that cleared out Zombies at a time. Twig, Alfur and Maple had ganged up, the deerfox running around wildly as the Wasabi Whip let out a torrent of lashes, many of the Zombies reduced to soot and ash. Vanellope was glitching about, Hilda with her, as they distracted Zombies into small groups that were easily taken out by either Steve's TNT, Majima's bat swings, or Star's Narwhal Blasts.
That left me and Gladius, and the two of us were handling things fairly well. As I wielded the sword, I took out any Zombies that walked a bit too close, but it was becoming more of a challenge. I was getting overwhelmed as more Zombies surrounded me.
"C'mon, Caleb!" Gladius cheered, "Don't give up now!"
"I'm trying!" I cried, "But I don't know how much longer we can keep this up! There's too many!"
"Just keep going!" Gladius once again cheered. I steeled my nerves and continued to defend myself, and I began to notice the diminishing Zombie numbers. Despite all odds, we were coming out on top. That was when I took a direct Sprint Tackle from an All-Star, and I felt all the oxygen leave my body. I was sent flying through the air, my grip on Gladius completely gone, and crashed onto a nearby bench. I felt pain course through my body as I attempted to sit up, my back feeling like it had shattered to pieces. I opened my eyes a bit to see the All-Star that tackled me, wearing purple football gear, marched up to me with an extremely harsh glare. Gladius swiftly moved in front of him, but was simply swatted out of the way. I tried to back away, but the pain forced me to stop. That was when Majima performed a spinning kick that sent the All-Star's head flying. The body limply flopped onto the ground.
"You good, kid?" Majima asked as he held off two Zombies effortlessly with his bat.
"I'm… Good…" I said very slowly and weakly. Majima shot me a slight sympathetic look before he went back to bashing Zombies. I did my best to stand onto my two feet, with Gladius helping me when he recovered. I used him as a crutch as the battle slowly began to wind down. Most of the Zombies began to run away as Ralph dealt a final uppercut to the Gargantuar Zomboss was on, knocking it out cold. As Zomboss recovered, we all walked over to him, Star and Galacta helping me. When Zomboss looked up, he flinched as he took in our fierce glares.
"Uhhhhhh… oops?" He said innocently with a small shrug.
Jenny fumed while Majima growled, slapping his bat in his open palm.
Zomboss gulped fearfully, and I limped closer. "Zomboss, just admit it. You lost."
Zomboss looked up at me, then sighed. "Fine. After that, I'm not risking it." He stood up and walked away with his head down. As the rest of my friends all left it at that and walked away, I remained and watched as Zomboss walked back into the large building. I looked down at Gladius, and the sword nodded. I left him behind as I followed after Zomboss. It was hard in my state, but I was always able to quickly recover from most injuries, so I was able to keep up with the Zombie leader until I had followed him to one room I'd never thought I'd see.
His office.
I quietly slipped in before the door closed, and Zomboss growled.
"Why are you following me?" He asked, his voice monotone.
"I just want to talk", I said, "And apologise. We aren't supposed to be here."
Zomboss didn't move.
"Me and Gladius accidentally opened a portal, and it sent us… to a lot of different places…"
This got his attention. "What do you mean?"
I sighed. "No point dancing around it. I'm from a different universe. So is Gladius, Ralph, Jenny, all of my friends. Me and Gladius are just trying to get back home."
Zomboss had finally faced me, and his face was painted with curiosity and intrigue. "Tell me more…"
I kind of shut down. "It's… hard to explain, really. But that's why I wanted to talk."
Zomboss darted his eyes downward."You want me to come with you…" He gave me a flat look. "No. Not after that humiliating defeat." He walked over to his desk, sat in his large chair, and spun it around so he was facing to the window.
I looked down. "I was just hoping to have my favourite villain ever tag along."
"What?" Zomboss spun back around to face me.
"Back in my world", I began, "You're just a fictional character. The big bad final boss of one of my favourite games. And when I got the comics based on your games, I… I kind of started to look up to you. Because of your determination."
Zomboss looked at me with wide eyes. "Wow, I… I didn't expect that…" He then gave me a light glare. "But what makes you think I'd come with you?"
"You'd get a break", I said, "After me and Gladius get back home, we can send you right back here, and not a second would have passed. You could be gone for years, and nothing will be broken by the time you get back."
Zomboss leaned back in his chair in thought. "I'd finally get a break from the endless idiocy…"
"And, if you come with us, you could finally get some victories under your belt", I added.
Zomboss hummed. "But what if I actually get attached to you whelps? I have an image to keep up."
"That's just with us. No one else needs to know."
Silence. The room fell into silence as Zomboss thought over what I said. He then chuckled. "You mystify me, boy. Having the heart to talk to me after all that I did, and offer this? It's idiotic. But… I have to admire it. You have the perseverance."
"I learned from the best", I said with a small smile. Zomboss' own smile felt, and I could see a glint of happiness in his eyes.
"Alright, I'll come with you", he said, springing up from his seat. "I just need to pack some things. Go tell your friends to wait." I nodded and walked off, unable to run because of my injury. I retraced my steps through the hallways of the building, passing zombie-filled room after zombie-filled room. And after a bit, I finally made it back outside. The gang were standing out front of the building, and as I approached they turned to me.
"There you are", Ralph said in relief, "Gladius wouldn't tell us where you ran off to. I was about to treat him like a nail…" The wrecker glared at the sword, who flinched and sheepishly laughed.
Maple climbed back onto my shoulder as Vanellope, Hilda and Twig came to my side. "What were you doing anyway, Glasses?" Vanellope asked. "Needed to use the bathroom before we left?"
"No", I said, shaking my head. "I was just adding a new member for our rag-tag group."
Marco instantly realised what I meant. "You did not just tell Zomboss about this."
"I did", I said. This was met with everyone voicing their protests. "I trust him. Plus, he's smart enough to know not to pull any funny business."
"He's right, I am", Zomboss spoke up, walking up to my side. He only had with him a simple handbag, and pulled out a cookie with pink frosting. "This whole prospect of exploring the multiverse is too perfect of an opportunity to pass up." He took a bite of the cookie.
"Yeah, I get that", Jenny said in a sarcastic tone. She then glared at the Zombie leader. "But how can we trust you? And why would we let you come with us after what you did to me and Majima?"
Zomboss looked her over, shot a look at Majima, then looked back at Jenny. "I suppose the first thing I should do is apologise. So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for trying to turn the two of you into mindless slaves. Since I get to be a different person around you all, I can show a bit of compassion."
Majima grunted. "Sure, whatever."
Zomboss gave him a weird look. "What did he say?" He whispered to me.
I pat his shoulder. "Gladius will help you with that." I gestured to the blade, and the two of us swapped places. I looked the group over with a smile.
"Alright gang", I began, "After this moment on, Zomboss is with us whether you like it or not. This whole adventure has all of us breaking the rules of the multiverse, so we aren't really in the same boat to deny Zomboss. I was taught to try and give others a second chance, and what's a better way than outside of the world that has mandatory rules set up."
Everyone sans Galacta and Zomboss grumbled in reluctant agreement.
"Exactly. So let's welcome Zomboss like we did with Galacta. Is that cool?"
Again, nods of agreement. I smiled as Gladius floated over back next to me and bowed.
"Ready to get going, my boy?" He asked.
"You bet." I took hold of his handle and spun around. Gladius adjusted me slightly till I was facing the right direction, and I slashed him at the empty air. A portal opened instantly, and I faced my friends.
"You ready, guys?" I asked.
Ralph nodded with a grunt.
Vanellope, Hilda and Twig cheered.
Jenny shor Zomboss a glance, then looked at me and smiled.
Steve saluted.
Majima let out a giggle.
Alfur nodded from his perch on Hilda's beret.
Star and Marco fist-bumped.
Galacta walked up to my side.
Maple happily flailed his whip in the air.
And finally, Zomboss smiled at me. "Time to see what all of this has in store…"
I smiled and jumped into the portal, followed shortly by all the others.
~X~
And so concludes the Plants Vs Zombies arc. Yes, Zomboss has joined the gang. Why? Because of the fact he's a villain, scientist, and just genuinely hilarious. I just felt he added to the group in the planning stages of this story.
Up Next: The gang find themselves in a city at the heart of Mexico, and become involved in a love triangle
~Caleb~