CHAPTER 10

Sydney's Head start

Jack was sitting down, reclining against something. The last thing he remembered seeing was a flash of white light as he reached the end of the green whirlwind. In his white bunny costume, Jack was sitting atop a green, grassy hill overlooking a small village. The village contained mushroom huts, vegetable cars, cobble stone roads, pastel colors, animal noises, and woodland creature residents. The place greatly resembled a Smurf village.

"Yep," said Jack, "from the amount of woodland creatures, I'd say that we're in Easter Town. Wouldn't you agree Sydney…Sydney?"

Jack looked around for Sydney from his spot; he'd just noticed that she wasn't around. From Jack's point of view, all he saw were the stems of sunflowers that were the size of elm trees.

Jack got up and leaned against the closest stem to him, "Where could that girl be? She couldn't have fallen that far away from me. We went through the portal at the same time. Hmmmmm…."

"Jack! Jack!" Sydney's voice was faint as she called to him, "Where are you?"

"Sydney? Sydney!" Jack yelled, "I can hear you, but only barely! Give me a sign of where you are!"

Suddenly, there was a soft plop next to Jack on the grass. He bent down to examine the spot.

This is Sydney's silver rod. Jack thought as he picked up the fallen object. It fell directly from above. That must mean she's…

Jack looked up. He could see underneath the blossomed bud of the sunflower that he was standing next to, and the giant yellow petals that bloomed from it. Peeking out between two petals was Sydney's little, pink duck head.

"Jack, cut me down!" Sydney cried faintly, "Hurry! I'm nervous!"

"Don't worry Sid," Jack replied confidently, "I'll save you!"

Jack took the rod into his left hand and flicked it into a silver axe, "Here goes," Jack pulled back the axe. With a twist of his tiny torso, he released it with great force against the flower, several times over. CHOP! CHOP! CHOP! The stem was cut through to a thin layer. Jack put his foot against the stem and gave it a good push. The flower began to topple over, "TIMMMMBEEEEEERRR!" It slammed to the ground; with such force, that the flower head broke off. Sydney clung tightly to the petals as she went sledding down the hill on the sunflower bud.

Jack watched dumb-struck as Sydney went screaming the entire way down, "JAAAAAAAAAA…"

"Oops," Jack said to himself and feeling a little bad, "That was not supposed to happen."

Jack tossed the axe in the air for a moment, the axe turned back into a rod, and then Jack grabbed it up before it ever had a chance of dropping. Finally, he ran down the hill after Sydney, unaware of the peering eyes behind him. A few flowers away, Lock, Shock, and unconscious Barrel saw the whole thing, well…Barrel didn't.

"Lock, wake him up!" Shock urged, "We're never going to be able to catch up with them if this drags on!"

"I'm trying!" Lock was continually slapping Barrel's face, trying to get him to wake, "Here, see! He's coming back."

Lock and Shock looked over Barrel vigorously. He was slowly waking up.

"Well?" They questioned Barrel in unison, "What's the news?"

Barrel looked up at them with a blank look at first, but then a Grinch-like sneer spread it's way across his face, "I reported their progress, and their plans for the list. Oogie Bogie said that at this rate, not even the Angel of Darkness will be able to stop his master plan!"