Family
Chapter 432 Jungle Trouble
By: Major144
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is just a story for fun.
(Author's Note: Happy anniversary readers. Another year has flown by. Next couple chapters will be about Ooo, then it's back to the Underground. Enjoy.)
A few days after the Peace Protectors's battle with Titan, most of the group's physical injuries were healed and the heroes were ready to go back on patrol and protect Ooo. There had been a wave of crimes and thefts throughout Ooo that the able bodied and well members of the Peace Protectors had to deal with, while the wounded members had heal and rested, but with the other Peace Protectors fully healed and out on patrol the crime rate had died down greatly. During the crime wave Doctor Princess had gone out in her Science Whyzard persona and had helped fight crime and put away a few criminals. Doctor Princess hadn't told Tobe about her alter ego, but she planned to eventually.
At the Peace Protectors's headquarters, a urgent message was delivered to Gearga from the ruler of the Jungle Kingdom, Jungle Princess. The message said that for several weeks forces from Castle Lemongrab had been trying to invade a large section of the Jungle Kingdom's territory to build a military and airstrip. The armed forces of the Jungle Kingdom along with their new champion Neo Tastsuji the samurai battled the invaders many times and successfully chased chased them. But the invaders refused to give up and they just kept coming back. Things took a turn for the worst, when one of the generals of the invading force came up with a new chemical weapon. The general used his new weapon to poison the rivers and plants of the Jungle Kingdom. Anyone who drank the infected water or are the infected food became mad and berserk and attacked others. Several of the Jungle Kingdom's people had fallen to the chemical weapon and very few people were left to defend the kingdom.
Gearga quickly summoned her troops and put a team of who she thought would be best to deal with the crisis. She decided to send Canyon, Moss Man, Broot, Sprocket, Tobe, and Doctor Princess on the mission. Gearga gave the team a map to the Jungle Kingdom's palace and a message explaining who they were. The team then set out to the Jungle Kingdom.
They soon arrived in the Jungle Kingdom and made their way through thick jungle to the palace. The Jungle Kingdom was a fairly beautiful place, but as the team went deeper they could sense something was amiss. Canyon, Moss Man, and Broot had a deep connection to nature and they could feel a foul and polluted presence coming from some nearby thin and sick looking plants, which must have been a result of the chemical weapon they heard about. Tobe had a feeling that he and the team were being watched from afar, but he couldn't tell if the watchers were enemies or allies. He decided to keep quiet and observe, but he kept his hands close to his sword hilts.
Eventually the team arrived at the palace. The Jungle Kingdom Palace was a large building made of stone and wood, with several trees within it's walls. Several blue and green men and women stood on the wall armed with spears and bows and arrows. The men wore loincloths and vest and the women wore furred bikini tops and bottoms. The team looked up at the guards and the guards looked down at them. Before anyone could say anything the jungle around the heroes began to rustle and several more guards stepped out and surrounded the team pointing their weapons at them. The front gates of the palace opened up and Neo marched out flanked by a dozen more guards. Neo and the guards stopped a few feet from the team.
"Who are you and why are you here?" Asked Neo.
"I am Canyon of the Peace Protectors and these are my teammates Moss Man, Broot, Sprocket, Tobe, and Doctor Princess. We got Jungle Princess's message and we're here to clean up the poison and help deal with the invaders." Said Canyon as she pulled out Gearga's message and held it out.
Neo took the message and studied it. He nodded his head and signaled to the guards to lower their weapons. Neo gave the team a small apologetic smile.
"Sorry about that, as you already know our kingdom is going through some troubling times."
"We understand. That's why we're here." Said Canyon with a small smile.
"Can't be too careful. Now if you follow me, I shall take you to the princess." Said Neo before turning to head through the gate.
The team and the guards followed Neo through the gate. Neo lead the group through a courtyard past a water well with multiple guards around it and a shed with guards around it.
"That well is the only source of clean uncontaminated drinking water in the kingdom and that shed contains all the clean edible plants we managed to salvage so far. Supplies are limited and if either the well or food was taken out we would either have to surrender or leave the Jungle Kingdom and find a new place to live." Said Neo.
"We will do everything in our power to make sure that doesn't happen." Said Canyon.
"Thank you." Said Neo.
They continued on till they reached the main building and entered. Neo lead Canyon's team down a few hallways, until they came to what appeared to be the throne room. Jungle Princess sat on her throne as a couple of her subjects stood before her reading her reports. The jungle ruler looked up at Neo and Canyon's team and smiled before standing up to greet her champion and guests.
"Great Jungle Princess, the Peace Protectors have sent us a team of warriors to help us in our time of need." Said Neo with a bow.
"We're here to help deal with the infection and rid your land of invaders." Said Canyon.
"I thank you for coming. Anything you need just ask." Said Jungle Princess.
"Well we need to see some of your infected citizens as well as some contaminated water and plants." Said Doctor Princess.
"You will find what you need in my dungeon." Said Jungle Princess as she motioned to one her servants.
The servants waved to the heroes and they followed him as he lead the way out of the throne room. Jungle Princess turned her attention to Neo.
"What do you make of our guest?"
"They seem like honorable and sincere. I believe they will do everything in their power to help us. They will succeed where I have failed." Said Neo.
"Hey! Don't say that Neo! You have not failed me. You helped my kingdom, when it was under attack and you repelled the invaders several times. You trained my troops, saved me on the battlefield multiple times, and strengthened our defenses. In my eyes you have not failed me." Said Jungle Princess as she walked over to Neo and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I suppose you're right." Said Neo with a smile.
"Don't beat yourself over this. None of us could have predicted that chemical weapon or how affective it was. Now we have some help and we're going to get through this together." Said Jungle Princess before she gave a little kiss to Neo's right cheek.
Neo's cheeks flushed a little as Jungle Princess gave him a little smile, before she headed out of the throne room and towards the dungeon. Neo quickly followed.
The dungeon was a large underground chamber with multiple cells with iron bars. The place was lite with torches and there were tired and nervous looking guards keeping an eye on the cells and their occupants. The cells were full of Jungle Kingdom citizens that had been infected by the chemical weapon. The infected had mad looks in their eyes as purple slime seemed to drip from their hair and pores. They growled as they banged and pulled at the bars of their cells.
"Yikes." Said Sprocke as Jungle Princess and Neo joined them.
"It is a sad and frightening sight. Hopefully there's a way to reverse it." Said Jungle Princess.
"Will do everything that we can to help your people." Said Doctor Princess.
Jungle Princess lead the team to a smaller chamber with a few tables and chairs to use as a work station. She also provided the team with a sample of infected water and plants to study. The team also needed to study the infected, so Doctor Princess had Moss Man and Broot use their plant powers to wrap up, gag, and restrain both a male prisoner and a female prisoner with vines and bring them to the other room. Doctor Princess took blood samples from the prisoners and began to study them along with infected water and plants using some lab tools she brought with her. Moss Man and Canyon studied the infected water and plants as well using their powers.
"It appears that this concoction is a mix of chemicals and a large amount of snake venom, though I'm not sure what kind of snake yet." Said Doctor Princess.
"Can you make an antidote to reverse the affects?" Asked Jungle Princess.
"Not right now. I need to study the weapon's chemical components a little more to understand it better and how to counter it." Said Doctor Princess.
"Understood." Said Jungle Princess.
Neo decided to go check on the palace defenses and Tobe, Broot, and Sprocket decided to go patrol the castle grounds.
"If you don't mind me asking, why didn't ask Queen Bubblegum for assistance in this matter?Bubblegum is one of the brightest minds in Ooo and I'm sure she'd be willing to help your kingdom." Said Doctor Princess as she continued her studies.
"Bubblegum is indeed brilliant, but with what went down in the Fire Kingdom I had to reconsider and think about what was best for my kingdom and it's people. There is a great tension in Ooo, between the various kingdoms and civilizations. Several of them see the Candy Kingdom and anyone associated with them as an threat and I don't want that to happen to my kingdom." Said Jungle Princess.
"With the way things are, that's understandable." Said Doctor Princess.
"So you and Tobe a couple?" Asked Jungle Princess.
"You can say that. We've been on a few dates, Tobe saved my life a couple of times, I bandaged him up after a fight, he taught me a few fighting moves, and we're actually living together these days." Said Doctor Princess.
"Well congratulations." Said Jungle Princess.
"Are you seeing anyone?" Asked Doctor Princess.
"Well I'm sorta dating Neo." Said Jungle Princess.
"Really? How did that come about?" Asked Canyon.
"Well Neo first arrived in the Jungle Kingdom in the middle of the battle with some of the invaders. He came to our aid and helped us fight them off. I thanked him and asked him to come back to my palace and join our forces. Neo agreed and one thing lead to another and now we're a couple." Said Jungle Princess with a smile.
"Well I'm happy for the two of you." Said Doctor Princess.
"Thanks." Said Doctor Princess.
Outside the palace the sun was setting and it was becoming dark. A few hundred yards away from the palace, General Rat was leading a large troupe of monkey ninjas and pajama ninjas. General Rat was wearing a clunky jetpack that had a canister and hose attached to it that was capable of shooting his deadly toxic slime. General Rat was feeling very confident in himself. Ever since General Rat had developed his toxic slime and used it on the Jungle Kingdom, he'd been on a role. Before General Rat had created his weapon the invasion force of Castle Lemongrab had made very little progress in taking territory in the Jungle Kingdom, even with warriors like Monkey Red, Monkey Yellow, and Pajama Phil leading the charge. Then General Rat had developed his toxic slime and everything had changed. With the loss of major resources and number of citizens the forces of Castle Lemongrab began to take large amounts of territory and had already begun construction of an airfield and a military base. General Rat had received great praise from both Puppet King and King and had been put in charge of the whole operation. This pleased the rodent puppet, but annoyed the other commanders.
General Rat was planning to launch a great attack on the palace and make Jungle Princess and her people surrender to Castle Lemongrab. The plan was to sneak into the palace to contaminate the water in the well, destroy the food storage, free the infected citizens in the dungeon, and infect a good precent of the resistance. All these actions would force Jungle Princess to surrender and the Jungle Kingdom would belong to Castle Lemongrab. General Rat could smell a great big promotion coming his.
"Alright you lot, let's put the final nail in this coffin." Said General Rat before he flew into the air with his jetpack towards the palace.
The ninjas silently made their way to the palace ready to cause chaos.
To be continued.