Burnout: Summer Rush

By RichieD.

(A/N and Disclaimer: Four chapters strong, yippe-ki-yi-yay! I know were still a little slow on the plot, but don't worry were getting there. First things first though, I have to connect these dots so they start linking, if you get my drift. As usual, the character of Shorty is mine. The character of Binks/Stealth XL is MHZ. Most of the writing credit here goes to LemGambino. Another character (which am sure most of you have guessed by now) belongs to Nintendo and Hal Laboratories. And finally any other characters are Cartoon Networks and/or their rightful and respective creators. )

"The city of Townsville…" the narrator calls "…has an upcoming concert coming their way thanks to the sly negotiation of Puffy AmiYumi and their friends Shorty and Binks as they were able to talk their manager Kaz into letting them do a free show (a word that scares the bejeezes out of the short balding man.) so as to help raise money to keep Townsville's lake safe from Blair's demolition. As the group get ready for the concert, Shorty gave Binks a side job: To find a low key superhero known as Stealth XL and ask him to keep an eye on Blair and his doings, even snoop around when he gets the chance. Binks accepted and flew off to find the hero, which didn't take long considering he WAS Stealth XL!"

That same suspenseful music once again played from out of nowhere.

"The fudge?" The narrator questioned but when no response came back to him, he continued "Ooookay, anyway as Stealth XL was headed toward the lake. Up in space, the crew of the spaceship M2: Sparky, X-5 and their captain Atomic Betty ran into some suspicious doings on their usual patrol. But no sooner when they went to investigate they got knocked for a loop by…the moon? Odd things happening folks, but still not a day saved! C'mon, a cat out of a tree, a baby's lollipop returned, a dog getting his bone back. Let have at least someone day saving here. You're really messing me up people! Huff, huff, Aw just get on with the story already."

-Intro here-

The moon gloated to himself as he flew towards the Centari Black Hole. Soon, the universe would be rid of his most hated enemy that plagued he and his brother for so long. To say the least this was one of the best days of their lives and will be even better once they dumped their cargo down the hole.

But when he arrived he was in for a bad surprise, all that he found was the sun, which was more burned up than usual (and I mean that quite literally), and floating in space unconscious.

"Mr. Bright? MR. BRIGHT!" the moon called out to his comrade. The sun named Mr. Bright was burnt to a crisp, and his flame was completely put out. The pink gumball that they were assigned to carry had gone missing- perhaps Mr. Bright had a bad collision with a meteor, and not only burned up but had lost the prisoner as well?

"No, that couldn't have happened," the moon, thought to itself. "But then again..."

Chapter 4: Starlight, Star-Fight pt. 2 and the Rockers' Challenge

Out of the corner of the moon's eye, he saw something bright, fiery and coming his way. Another meteor? No, it was too small to be a meteor, much too small. But it was coming fast, so it was only common sense to dodge it.

The moon's suspicions were correct. It was just a fireball, but where did it come-

"PUYO!"

Well, I guess that answers the question. The moon turned to face the owner of that word, and sneered. His assailant was the pink puffball; only it had a more reddish skin and a crown that produced flames. The creature's small, beady blue eyes stared the moon down with a "You're gonna be next" look.

"You...how DARE you harm my brother!" the moon berated the puffball. "I shall avenge him and complete the task set before us by Nightmare!"

The moon rushed the pink assassin, producing another crescent-shaped bladed as he did so. Then took a couple swings at his opponent. The puffball managed to dodge most of the strikes coming his way. Then put his hand (err stubs) to his mouth and began to whistle out into space. Unfortunately the moon saw this as a good enough opening strike, knocking the puffball toward the black hole. "HA, consider that for my brother!" The moon cheered seeing his opponent spiraling to his apparent doom. But then suddenly something zoom in from behind him. Spinning the moon in the air as the object flew toward the puffball. By the time the moon recovered, he could now see that his target was coming right back at him on a medium sized star.

"GAH! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT!" The moon yelled then preceded to swipe at his target furiously. But his opponent was like a mosquito, difficult to hit and annoying as all get out. After a few more moments of this, the puffball quickly zoomed toward the moon in a dive to which he responded by tossing one of his blades. But as it left his hand, the moon realized he made a big mistake, a VERY large mistake indeed.

The puffball expelled its current power from its body in the form of a small star, which floated out into the cold reaches of space in a trail of sparks. What the puffball did next was very odd: It opened its seemingly small mouth into a rather large vacuum of an orifice that sucked in what little air was in space- how it managed to do this defied every square inch of any sort of physics imaginable. Somehow though he managed to do the impossible.

But the moon wasn't concerned with physics, it was concerned of the new weapon he had inadvertently give the puffball, whom swallowed the blade in a single gulp. A yellow hat with tiny, unsable wings and removable boomerang of a blade materialized on its head. The puffball's skin had also returned to its original pink hue. The puffball then developed a mischievous evil grin on its face in response to the moon's "Aww crud I'm so dead" expression.

Before the moon could prepare a counterattack, the puffball proceeded to deliver a series of painful slashing attacks, pretty much bisecting the moon and preventing him from feeling anything in his legs. No blood poured out of the moon, but instead it demolecularized him into a shower of stars, his last expression of wide eyed "why me?" as he disappeared into nothingness. The pink puffball stood triumphed on his star, his job done there. However his eyes widen as he remembered something while coming to before he defeated Mr. Bright.

Quickly he searched around until he found what he was looking for and quickly controlled the star in that general direction.

"Mayday, mayday! This is the M2, requesting assistance!" Betty yelled into the ship's COM "Our crew's ship has been damaged and we are unable to return to Galactic Headquarters" Betty then noticed that Sparky was trying to signal to her despite all the spinning "We- wait, hold on...Sparky what IS it!"

Before he could continue, the whole ship shuddered to an abrupt stop. Finally allowing the trio to regain their bearings. After shaking his head of the spinning meteorites circling him, Sparky answered "I saw that pink thing those guys were carrying headed our way. I didn't know if it was friend or foe. So I tried to warn ya."

"Well judging by the way he managed to stop our ship. And the fact that it just flew by waving at us. I would calculate it's definitely friendly." X-5 noted, "Though my scanners can't seem to indicate what type of species it. What do you think, Captain?"

"I have no idea what that is. X-5. But, whatever it is, it seems willing to help us get home."

"Oh that's good, though are guys sure its not some brain eating alien, come to suck the life force out of us in an attempt to build an undead army to take over the universe?" Sparky asks concern, though when he got blanks looks from his comrades. He chuckled nervously "Heheh, never mind been reading one too many sci-fi vid comics lately."

Smiling, Betty shook her head and tried the COM again, with a more relaxed composure this time. "Again, requesting immediate assistance...this strange pink creature has stop our spiral and we've regain control of the ship. Also seems to want to help us out, but I doubt it can do it by itself, so please render assistance ASAP." She then clicks off and says to Sparky and X-5 "Settle in guys were in for a long wait." Betty looks outside one more time to see the pink thing circling her ship. "Heh, hows that for irony. We find him in trouble and he comes to our rescue. Don't know who you are, but thank you."

(Eyecatch: Betty, Sparky, and X-5 are in a food court on one of the galaxies' many planets. We see Betty and X-5 eating in the background while Sparky orders something from a vendor. A hand (obviously the owner of the stand) reaches over the counter and hands him some kinda slug like food on green bread. Sparky takes a look at it, shakes his head and points at the slug. Another hand with a ladle in its grasp pours some pink stuff over the slug with a huge "SPLAT"! Sparky gives him a "perfect" gesture with one of his hands as he takes his food with the other.)

Back on Earth and Townsville Park, a few days had gone by after Puffy and their friends had came up with the plan to save the lake. Kaz had managed to scourge up a stage crew and quickly got to work on building the stage for the charity concert. While he was busy doing that, Puffy and Shorty begin to spread the word through town. Making posters (with the help of Shorty's drawing skills) and quickly distributing them around the city, not to mention spreading though word of mouth and the Internet, pretty soon money orders were coming in from all across the city thus contributing even more to the effort to save the lake. To say the least, everything was in full swing.

Of course despite the park being the setting for the event, it was still open to the public. And with popular international singers nearby and the stage being set up there. The park was beginning to attract a lot more attention then usual. One of whom on this particular day was a multi-colored school bus with the words "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" printed on the side of it.

Inside, a young red-haired woman in her early 20s wearing a green sweater with a white shirt underneath (not to mention sporting a design with the city's very familiar trio of heroines) along with a purple skirt that went along well with the outfit, was driving the occupants to the location. Which included but wasn't limited to a young brown haired boy in the eight-year old category wearing a simple brown shirt with white sleeves and khaki pants along with his signature green backpack.

Next to him was a blue blob like being that wouldn't look too out of place in a Pac-Man video game. Across the aisle sat a huge hulking purple looking monster with horns on top on his head, his only clothes being pants with a belt that had a skull design holding it up. Next to him was a bird like thing that seem like the mishmash of a plane and a coconut tree. The things somewhat constantly spinning eyes seem to tell something wasn't quite right about this figure. And finally sitting in the back was a tall and lanky red figure, his legs alone covering the two of the seats. Like the purple person, he didn't really have much article of clothing on him save for his socks and sock. And like the bird figure, he also had a few deformities in the from of left arm being nothing but a stump and his left eye which just seem to wiggle around under no power.

Despite the bizarreness of most their appearances, the six have know each other for quite some time and today was their usual field trip of the week. "Okay, guys were here." The woman said as they all left the bus and headed for the garage. "Now remember behave yourselves. Look, but don't touch, we don't want another incident like there was over at the mall, BLOO!" She said, giving a stern look to the blue blob.

"Oh what, you still holding a grudge about that, Frankie. It was a gift hunting for Madam Foster. I can't help it if most of the place had a bunch of rip-off artists." Bloo said innocently. "Beside what trouble can I do here, it just a boring music stage to save some boring lake from a bunch of evil pop singers!"

"-Gasp- Azure you take that back!" The purple monster said with a bit of Spanish accent in his voice "Senorettas Puffy AmiYumi is muyu buneo and they are not evil!"

"Cocococococo!" The bird figure sprouted, apparently the only thing it could say.

"Am sorry, but Coco's right, Bloo." The red figure said, "Just because you don't like them, doesn't mean their evil. We all have different tastes in music, its nothing to be ashamed of."

"Taste nothing, can't you see you naïve fools…!" Bloo began but the boy stopped him before he could continue. " Aw c'mon Bloo. Not today, can't we just have one normal field trip without your usual…err charm. Were just gonna mosey around, catch a glimpse of Puffy and hopefully be back in time for lunch. So please can't you take Frankie's advice and just behave…for me. Please."

Bloo grumbled for a couple of minute but see the pleading eyes of his creator, he sighed "Fine, for you Mac." The boy, Mac, smiled then followed the others over to the stage. Though once there were out of earshot, Bloo muttered "But I won't guarantee anything." Before he too headed in that direction.

Speaking of the stage, it was almost near completed saved for the onscreen monitor in the back for audiences in the back row. Despite this, the instrument had been set up on stage for the girls to practice, which in turn most of the people came for, provided they give a small fee of one dollar. Which was good for a taste of things to come when the real concert hit.

"So how we doing so far Kaz?" Ami asked as she and Yumi were shuffling through their song list. Their manager was over at a small table counting up the money and putting it into a nearby safe however he was enjoying a bit too immensely. Talking to the money, singing something in Cantonese (something he picked up on tour through China) and giggling like a giddy schoolgirl or a kid in a candy store, take your pick. To say the least the guy was in heaven.

"KAZ!"

At least until Yumi's voice pierced through his fantasy and brought him back to reality. "Huh! Oh sorry girls." He said, "Just getting acquainted with my friends Washington, Lincoln and my personal favorite Benjamin. Heheh, my type of people."

"You do remember your not keeping that money, right?" Yumi says. But Kaz quickly covered his arms over the pile "Shh, they'll heard you! Let the fellas at least have a little fun first. It's not every day we get to hang out!"

"…Riiiight." Both girls said but threw each other looks saying, "We have got to get him a vacation." "Uh anyway, like Ami said, exactly how much have we accumulated so far?"

"Well let's seeing, combining ticket sales, money orders, donations, some loose pocket change I found in the cushion of our tour bus seats and the practice fees were getting. It adds up to…One hundred and twenty thousand dollars. YAH-TA!"

"What! That's it? That's not nearly enough to take stop Blair's demolition." Ami groaned "Heck it's not even enough to slap that rat he calls a wig off his head."

"What are you talking about? Its great news to me am making new friends left and right here. Heheh!" Kaz laugh as he tossed up a stack of money and letting it showered down on him like snow.

"Ugh, I hate to say it. But Puffy power might not be enough." Yumi notes "Its not like this town hasn't seen us in action before. We need something fresh to add to our act or this will be all for nothing!"

"Yeah but what?" Ami asks. However the small gathering of people outside chanting their names meant they were starting to get restless "Well am sure we'll think of something. Until then lets give these people a small taste of Puffy."

The two took the stage to a nice roar from the crowd. "HELLO PEOPLE OF TOWNSVILLE! YOU READY TO WATCH US PRACTICE TO ROCK!" The continuous uproar of cheers pretty much told their answers. "Alright Ami! Ich, Neh, Sai!"

And the two began to play one of there original favorites (ed-don't know the name of this one. But it the song sung during the montage of the Mini-Puff episode, if you know it. Tell me the name, please.), the crowd really bobbing there heads and dancing along in the open space of the park/

"Wow!" Frankie said gleefully "Their even better live. Granted I can't understand I word their saying cause most of the lyrics are in Japanese. But who cares, they still sound awesome! Don't you agree Eduardo?"

"Si, Senorettas Puffy rocks out excellentate! Right Wilt" The purple monster now known as Eduardo said jumping up and down with the music

"No kidding. These girls are very super." Wilt, the lanky red figure, said swinging his body with the music " And that's no apology."

"Cococococo!" said Coco

"Maybe later." Mac tells her "I doubt we'll be able to get up there to get an autograph. But your right, they are awesome! Don't you think so Bl…err never mind."

The change in the sentence being that Bloo was standing there with a sour look on his face, obviously standing by his earlier opinion of Puffy AmiYumi and the expression seem to get worse the more he heard their music continue. Starting from annoyance, to frustration, to aggravation until finally…

"ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

His scream couldn't be heard over the music however, but that didn't stop him from pushing his way into the crowd and straight to the stage. Yumi who was busy with a guitar solo and Ami who was too wrapped up with drumming, didn't notice him jump onto the further side of the stage until he grabbed the mike on the stand and made himself known.

"YO! Japanese rock stars!" he yelled in the mike.

As if someone pressed the stop button on a VCR remote, Puffy AmiYumi halted their instruments. The crowds stopped their cheering and all turned their eyes toward the odd, little, blue man.

"Bloo!" Frankie exclaimed, just now realizing they were short one group member. "What's he doing there!"

"What the heck?" Yumi said.

"Who is that?" Ami asked.

"And what is that?" Yumi followed noticing he wasn't quite normal.

"I am Bloo! I'm an imaginary friend and I'm here to stop your evil plotting!"

"Oh no!" Mac said, hiding his face in his hands. "Please, Bloo, please don't embrass us like this."

"In two weeks from now, I challenge you to a rock-off!"

The crowds gasped.

"Huh?" Puffy said.

"WHAT?" the friends of Foster's exclaimed.

"Am tired of everyone thinking your so great with you so called "J-pop". Well feh! Anybody who can hold an instrument can make up a song and blurt out gibberish too and that why I Bloo, aim to prove this. Which is why this contest will decide who is mightier!" Bloo exclaimed.

"Is this guy for real?" Yumi asked to Ami, both girls staring blankly at him as he made his proclamation.

It was just then that Ami realized something and a small smile crept onto her face.
"Yumi! That's it! This is exactly the pick me up our acts need. Maybe this 'rock-off' could be our big chance to draw in more money to save the lake!"

"Hmm...hey yeah. It may be crazy enough to work." Yumi said to Ami. "Though is it right to thrash and publicly humiliate a bunch of amateurs just for the sake of a good cause? What am I saying, OF COURSE IT IS!" She then turned to Bloo "Okay, ya little, blue creep. Puffy accepts! The benefit is now a battle of the bands, a week from now, us and your crew battling on stage with our instruments. If he crowd loves you guys, then by all means you're the kings of rock. But don't think we'll go easy!" Yumi then thrust her face up to his "We eat pipsqueaks like you for breakfast!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd started to cheer. Seem the practice session had turned into the beginning of a fight.

"Excellent!'' Bloo said grinning wildly. "Then the challenge is on! In a week, Foster's Rockers shall prove how washed up and phony you singers really are not to mention we will...ROCK YOUR WORLD!" That last part echoing throughout all of Townsville Park.

Bloo then made the "rock-on" sign with his "fingers." to the cheering crowd then jumped off then off the stage and headed back for his group, mighty proud for himself in standing up to the J-Pop menaces. However his friends didn't seem to share the same sentiment.

"Foster's Rockers?" The Fosters questioned.

T.B.C flashed across the screen, which as you know by now spell out "To Be Continued."

"-Sigh-, of course another day not saved. Well maybe by that pink blob thing in outer space. The lake still in danger however, though I have to admit this is intriguing, the concert now a battle of the bands, oooh. Am giddy with excitement and…no, wait a minute.

That's the forty-foot long I had for lunch. Oof, I knew I shouldn't have added sweet relish and onions. GAH! TO THE BATHROOM!"

And his sound of rushing feet indicate hes on way, racing to beat his bladder to the toilet bowl.

-Outro here-

Next Chapter:

Betty: Whew that was a close one! I tell ya in my few years with the Galactic Guardians,

I'll never get used to the ship becoming a makeshift blender. But anyway, looks like the whole towns abuzz with this Puffy/Rocker's challenge. Hardly heard of the two, but it looks like fun. Unfortunately it seems like I'll be looking after our little hero for a while before I can enjoy the show. And…HEY NO! Don't eat that! That not food! It…! Ugh, all my years of training can never prepare me for this.

Next Chapter: Special Assignment: Baby-sit of the Vacuum.

Betty: Oy! Somebody save me from my savior.