Episode 56: The Meadow of Evil Part 1
On a bright and sunny day in the Inkwell Forest, Cuphead, Mugman, and Red Rose are playing with a rubber ball. Cuphead kicks the ball and it begins bouncing down the path. The four friends laugh as they chase the ball down the path in excitement as they see it bounce deep in the forest.
"Come on guys, we can't let it get away," Red Rose says.
"I know. I sure kick it pretty hard," Cuphead says.
"Well, we better hurry before we lose the ball," Red Rose says.
Cuphead and Red Rose continue to run through the forest as fast as possible. Mugman is the only one who is falling behind, and is struggling to catch up.
He takes deep breaths, sweating, and says, "Guys, wait up!" and continues following the three friends.
Catching up with the ball, Red Rose kicks it and it bounces deeper into the forest. The two, including Mugman, follow the ball as they are having fun. The ball continues to bounce through the forest, against the tree and soon flies out towards a large meadow full of all different kinds of flowers, fruit trees with different blossoms, and bushes with blossoms. The ball ends up bouncing a few times in the meadow until it comes to a stop somewhere in the meadow, almost invisible in the area.
Soon, Red Rose rushes out of the forest and is astonished by what she sees, "Wow!"
Red Rose is very astonished to see the beautiful meadow with all kinds of flowers and trees. The flowers and blossoms on the ground, trees, and bushes come in different colors of the rainbow.
"This place looks so beautiful! I've never seen anything like it! This has to be the most beautiful meadow I've ever seen, and I've been all over the world," Red Rose says to herself, amazed.
Red Rose walks over to the meadow and looks around, "Hmm, I wonder where that ended up. I kicked it rather far."
Red Rose continues to search around, trying to find the ball. She then brings out her telescope and searches for the round red ball.
Soon, she spots the red ball among some red flowers, "There it is."
She almost missed it because the red flowers almost camouflage the ball.
Coming out of the forest, Cuphead runs out with excitement, and Mugman is able to catch up in exhaustion.
"You alright, Mugsy?" Cuphead asks.
"I'm okay. I'm just a little tired from all that running," Mugman says.
And hears his stomach growling, "And I'm getting hungry?"
"Yeah. We've been playing for a while. We'll just get the ball and we'll head home," Cuphead says.
Cuphead and Mugman look to see Red Rose putting her telescope in her bag and are about to walk into the meadow.
Suddenly, Cuphead and Mugman panic, "Red Rose!"
They soon rush towards her.
"Wait!" Cuphead cries out.
"Stop!" Mugman panics.
Then the two grab her as they cry out, "DON'T GO IN THE MEADOW!"
Confused, Red Rose asks, "What's wrong?"
"Red Rose, what are you doing?!" Cuphead cries out in a panic.
"Huh? I was just trying to get our ball. It bounced into that meadow," Red Rose says.
"Well, there's no way we can get it now!" Cuphead cries out.
"This meadow is dangerous!" Mugman panics in fear.
"Dangerous?" Red Rose says, confused. Then turns her head to the meadow, "What's so dangerous about this meadow? It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We can even have a picnic here."
"Having a picnic in a meadow is fine, but you do not want to go in that meadow," Mugman says.
"Why not?" Red Rose asks.
"Because there's a monster flower in there that lives in the meadow, and it will terrorize anyone who dares set foot in there," Cuphead says.
"We heard lots of stories about this meadow and Cagney who guards it," Mugman says.
"Cagney?" Red Rose replies.
"He lives in the meadow and guards it, and he'll attack anyone who dares set foot in there," Cuphead says.
"The way you talked about it, it seems that you two have experienced it," Red Rose replies.
Soon, shivers run down Cuphead and Mugman spines as they hug each other in fear.
"We've met Cagney Carnation before. He's the most terrifying flower we ever met," Cuphead says.
"He has the powers to control plants and vines around him, and he even has frightening thorns and a vicious face," Mugman panics.
"We thought he was going to turn us into plant food, so we ran away as fast as we could!" Cuphead explains.
"What happened?" Red Rose asks.
The two stop freaking out and stop to think of it.
"Now that you think of it, I don't remember what we did," Cuphead says.
"This happened a few years ago, and I think we were so scared that we couldn't remember," Mugman says.
"Still, I doubt he'll just terrorize someone without a good reason," Red Rose says.
"Maybe, but Cagney is very dangerous and scary," Mugman says.
"And we can't step in the meadow or Cagney will see us," Cuphead says.
Red Rose turns to see the ball, "I guess it means we lost our ball."
"It's for the best. That meadow is just too dangerous for us to go to without getting tangled," Cuphead says.
"And I'm getting hungry. We've been playing for hours," Mugman says.
"Me too. We should head home," Red Rose says.
"Yeah. We better get going before that flower knows we're even there," Cuphead says.
And with that, the three friends begin to head back home. Since they can't go to the meadow, the ball they've been playing remains in the meadow. Unknown to the three friends, something begins to grow where the ball is, a vine covered in thorns. With that, the vine pops the ball. And somewhere in the forest, a mysterious pair of yellow eyes appears with an evil sharp tooth grin on its face. The mysterious figure watches the three friends leave and has its eyes focused on Red Rose. What's more, it appears to have heard the conversation.
Later in the night, Red Rose is fast asleep in her bedroom. Storm and Bon Bon have also fallen asleep in their room. The candy castle is as quiet as can be in the night, even the halls in the castle are silent for the night. But suddenly, mysterious vines with leaves suddenly slither towards Red Rose's bedroom door. The vines rise up, coil around the knob, and open the door. Then the vines begin slithering into Red Rose's room.
Now inside the bedroom, the vines travel through the room and soon reach Red Rose's bed. One vine slithers over the bed and towards the sleeping girl. It stops to witness Red Rose gently turn to the side in her sleep. The vine then tucks Red Rose into the covers and brushes a lock of her hair off her face. Then the vines begin to spread out and reach towards the bed and around Red Rose. Suddenly, a mysterious shadow figure rises from the ground from a small hole and spreads out in the room. Red Rose sturs and soon slowly opens her eyes after she turns and faces the shadow. She slowly opens her eyes, and wakes up in shock to see what's staring before her. Before she can react, a leaf covers her mouth to prevent her from screaming. Then the vine begins to coil around her before she can do anything. Red Rose struggles, but she can't move, and is staring at the creature before her. Just then, the creature opens its mouth and some strange white pollen leaves from its mouth. Red Rose continues to struggle as the pollen flows around her. Red Rose suddenly begins to feel very sleepy and unable to struggle anymore, and soon passes out. The creature uses its vines to pull Red Rose out of her bed and into its clutches. It closes itself up with leaves along with Red Rose and takes her underground.
The next day, Cuphead and Mugman are at the Candy Castle to visit Red Rose and her parents, and hope she'll like to hang out today. Cuphead knocks on the door, and Bon Bon answers.
Seeing the boys, Bon Bon says, "Morning Cuphead, Mugman, what brings you here?"
"Hi Baroness, we're here to see if Red Rose can hang out with us," Cuphead says.
"Oh, so she's not with you?" Bon Bon questions.
"Uh, no. She's not," Mugman says, and asks, "Isn't she at home?"
"No. I thought she went out early to hang out with you. Storm and I couldn't find her anywhere," Bon Bon says.
"She's missing?!" Cuphead asks, shocked.
Soon, the three arrive in Red Rose's room to see Storm and some of the guards investigating the matter, and the little mess that is in the room. Mainly there are a small amount of leaves, strange dust, and flowers on the floor, even small strains of vines.
Mugman walks over, "Hello Storm."
"Hi boys. I guess Bon Bon told you what happened," Storm says.
"Yeah. We heard Red Rose is missing," Cuphead says.
"Do you have any clues?" Mugman asks.
"Not much. There are a few leaves, flowers, and some strange dust," Storm says, and shows him the strange pale yellow dust on his fingers, "I found these are her bed, but I have to suspect that Red Rose didn't leave on her own."
"You think someone took her?" Cuphead asks, concerned.
"It's possible, but I have to wonder where there are leaves, flowers, and pollen in the room," Storm says.
"Leaves and flowers?" Cuphead says, confused.
"And pollen?" Mugman adds, confused.
Storm even holds out a piece of vine, "And some kind of vine with small thorns."
Mugman then picks up one of the flowers, "Huh. These look like the flours you can find in the meadow."
"Same with these leaves and vines," Cuphead says, looking at the clues as well.
Just then, Cuphead and Mugman look at each other in concern and say, "Uh oh."
"What do you mean?" Storm asks, confused.
Mugman nervously says, "We think we know what happened to her."
"We don't know how, but it's possible that Cagney got her," Cuphead says.
"Cagney?" Storm asks.
"It's a long story, but Cagney is a monstrous plant and will attack anyone who tries to get into the meadow where he lives," Cuphead says.
"Oh my," Bon Bon says.
Then Storm asks, "Can you boys take me there? If this Cagney does have Red Rose, then I plan on getting her back."
Cuphead and Mugman turn to each other for a second, and turn to Storm with a nod from their hands.
At the meadow, the sun is shining and is rising into the sky. And soon, shining to see Red Rose, fast asleep in a patch of red roses. The girl soon lets out a sigh and begins to slowly open her eyes as the sun shines down at her. She lets out a grunt and groans as she opens her eyes and wakes up from her sleep. She sits up and yawns as she stretches her eyes.
When she opens her eyes, she gasps in shock, "What in the world?"
Red Rose looks around to find herself in a large meadow of flowers.
"Ho-how did I get here?" Red Rose asks herself.
Red Rose looks around and wonders how she ends up in the meadow, even in her pajamas.
"This is the meadow. The meadow that the boy warned me not to enter," Red Rose says in thought.
Unknown to Red Rose, a figure begins to overshadow her, catching her attention. Red Rose turns around and is in shock to see a large carnation flower standing before her. The shadow of the carnation flower is making her frightened.
Suddenly a cheerful and innocent flower with a stamen face, orange cheeks, a small pointed nose, six orange petals, each with stripes of a darker shade or orange on the tips, large leaves, and dark green stem with four light green leaves on the bottom.
"Hello sweetie," The carnation happily says.
"Huh?" Red Rose says, a little off guard.
She calms herself and says, "Um hello. My name is Red Rose. Are uh, you, Cagney Carnation?"
"I sure am. It's a pleasure to meet you Red Rose," Cagney happily says.
"It's nice to meet you too," Red Rose replies, "So um, well, sorry if it sounds a little rude, but you're well a little different than what I expected you to be.
"Who? Me?" Cagney questions with a smile, "No. I'm usually sweet as a daisy, and gentle as a rose.
He then begins to grow frustrated, "But having people come to this meadow leaving their trash in the meadow, leaving their things behind, and try to destroy this lovely place…."
As Cagney expressed his anger, his stem grows small thorns as his petal gains pointed tips, and his orange cheeks disappear as his nose grows longer, and his eyes grow bigger. Not to mention his leaves turn into actual hands. He also begins to pull two of his petals in anger.
"Sounds like you don't like people messing with the meadow, huh," Red Rose replies.
Cagney realizes his attitude changes and takes a deep breath as he calms down, and changes back to his gentle side.
"I'm sorry for being agitated. It just makes my stems turn everytime someone comes to the meadow and leaves their garbage. They walk on the meadow, not thinking of the flowers, and pick a lot of wild flowers, more than anyone should. And what happened all these years ago, really made me upset," Cagney says.
"What do you mean?" Red Rose asks.
Cangey sadly sighs, "It happened many years ago. I was a simple small flower, having an enjoyable life. Living my beloved life as a small carnation flower in the meadow. But one day, people from the city were going to build a factory here. In doing so, they were destroying the many beautiful flowers in the meadow. All the trees, all the planets, even the grass, they were destroying everything. My home, destroyed. My friends, gone. I was all alone. I've decided that I've had enough, and decided to fight back. I've suddenly begun to grow larger than I ever was, destroy any equipment and that factory, and regrew this entire garden, and devote myself to protect his meadow from anyone and scare anyone who dares get too close."
"Gosh that must have been hard," Red Rose says.
Cagney calms himself and says, "It was. I'm sorry for sounding upset, but that is just how I felt about this whole thing."
"Yeah. It sounded terrible, especially from a plant's point of view," Red Rose says.
"It sure was," Cagney says.
Confused, Red Rose asks, "So then, why was I brought here?"
"Well, I kind of get that to get back at those boys," Cangey says.
"Boys?" Red Rose questions.
She then asks, "You mean Cuphead and Mugman?"
"That's them. Mainly the one with the red shorts," Cagney says.
"What did Cuphead do?" Red Rose asks.
Cagney then brings out a bag full of small rockets, and a few larger ones.
"That Cuphead keeps launching his rockets and they keep landing in the forest or the meadow," Cagney says.
Red Rose facepalm's her forehead.
"Of course," Red Rose grumbles, and rolls her eyes.
Cagney then says, "I didn't really want to be mean to anyone, but I am just well…"
"You just didn't want to risk anyone threatening the meadow again. You didn't want them to threaten your home," Red Rose says.
Cagney nods his head in reply.
"I can understand why you were very upset. You didn't want to take chances that the meadow would be destroyed all over again, and you didn't want to take any chances of the flowers, trees, and other plants to be ruined," Red Rose says.
"Yes. Everything is true, and I can't risk it happening again," Cagney says.
He then rubs his leaves together, "And well… To be honest, this place can be so lonely. I mean, sure there are some beautiful plants with trees, and plants, and even some of the buses that are supporting the plants, but it's very lonely to be here by myself." He blushes and says, "And hearing how beautiful the meadow is and how you like the flowers that well, I thought it would be nice for you to come here for some company."
He then uses a vine to coil around Red Rose's legs and her waist as he lifts her up to Cagney.
"And you're as lovely as a flower, and your name is also a flower, so I thought I could have you as some company," Cagney says.
"That's very nice and all, but I'm afraid I can't stay. I'm sure my friends and parents are working where I am," Red Rose says.
However, Cagney says, "But you can't leave. I've been here so long, and I really like some company, and you seem perfect to stay here. Do not worry, I promise to take good care of you, and will do everything I can to help you and to make you happy."
"Huh?" Red Rose says, confused and getting a bad feeling about it.
With that, Cagney says, "Don't worry, I'll be sure that this meadow will be safe, and no one can reach us."
And with that, Cagney uses his powers to create a large vine wall covered in thorns and other vines. Then make large leaves to surround the area. He also makes thorny brambles with very sharp thorns almost like a wall. Red Rose looks to see the walls are growing taller and the vines begin to form like staircases, slides, and large walls to make a few rooms. The vines begin to spread and even into the forest close by. Soon enough, a few flowers, berries, and other kinds of plants are growing around as well. After the growing and flower blooming, a castle has been formed and it will make it for anyone to enter, and for Red Rose to escape.