Ed Edd n Eddy

Future ShockED

Chapter 7

The carrier was very different from the technology the Eds had seen from the PCF thus far. It was comprised of a massive hallway, with a trapdoor making up a large percentage of the floor. On one end of the ship was a workshop, which the Hovercraft they had been using in the swamp was being taken by five Binbots, so it could be prepared for their assault on the Gourd's lair. The other end was a cockpit, manned by another Binbot steering the ship to the Underground Steelworks. The sides of the vessel were lined with windows, revealing other carrier ships flying close by.

"Where did you get hold of this thing?" Ed exclaimed happily. "This is the best thing since gravy!"

"Ahem, yes, where did you find this ship?" asked Double D "It looks so new compared to your base." he added.

"Yeah, nice ride, guys!" said Eddy, patting the wall. "What's with all the Binbots though? I thought they were just dummies to shot at." Kevin rolled his eyes, in all the time he had known the Eds, he had never heard them ask so many questions at once, though then again, but back then, times weren't as stressful as they are now.

"Well, I suppose I can tell you." Kevin replied. "To answer Eddy's question, the Binbots aren't just dummies. Each of these ships is fitted with a Binbot Builder, to construct and dispense them when needed. When we reach the Gourd's lair, they'll be the backbone of our robot army." Ed's eyes were gleaming like lightbulbs as he heard Kevin's lecture. It was just like one of his old movies at home.

"And also…" Double D inquired. "You said Yellow's chip was being used to propel this carrier, how are the other ships flying?"

"Oh that, this carrier is quite new compared to the other ships out there." Kevin responded. "We've used it to test out new inventions the girls came up with: It's got a Binbot factory, a workshop for damaged troops, a medical bay, it has the lot. The problem was, we loaded it with so much stuff, the carrier was having trouble flying. So we had to develop a new thruster engine that needed to be powered by Cyber Plank parts."

"A lot of our gadgets were made from broken Cyber Planks; they were the only materials we could find." Rolf added. "But to power such a large engine, we had to recover one of the special chips that power the Cyber Plank captains."

"So you took on Yellow and beat him?" Ed asked. "That's so cool! How'd you do that?" Kevin gave a short chuckle, not a confident one like the Eds were expecting, but a nervous one.

"Well, it's a long story. As you know, this happened not long after you guys were separated from us when the Cyber Planks attacked…"

In what seemed like an endless desert, life was quiet. They only animals not to have perished in the Cyber Plank invasion were small lizards and cockroaches. They scurried over rocks, rummaged through dead foliage; they were desperate for any scrap of food. As they weakly crawled on the on the desert sand, stained blue by the darkened skies, a strange noise echoed from the distance. It sounded like screaming. Second by second by second, it got louder, causing the animals to scatter, until…

CRASH! A huge vehicle which looked as if it was sliced in half smashed into the ground, bouncing and spinning around until crashing into a large boulder, with panels and debris flying everywhere. A few minutes and all was quiet again. There were clouds of sand and dust in the air but otherwise it seemed as if nothing happened. Then, out of the wreckage, a human appeared, rubbing her head in pain.

"Ugh, my head…" groaned Sarah. "Nazz, warn us before you do that again! Not all of us can resist a crash without injury you know!" Suddenly Nazz squirmed out of the exhaust pipe.

"Beats being blasted to bits doesn't it?" replied Nazz, groaning a little herself. "Besides, don't you remember when Double D did that? You were watching with Jimmy believe it or not!"

"That's enough you two!" grunted Jimmy, lifting up a dented chunk of metal, releasing himself along with Kevin and Rolf. "We have to locate the Eds!"

"Jimmy's right." Kevin agreed. "We made a serious blunder in losing them, but I think they're still alive; the hoverbus is equipped with flotation devices, so they are probably heading down the creek by now." He took a good look around, it was nothing but desert for miles. He then turned to Nazz. "Nazz, stretch up and see if there's any sign of life round here, or any clear path out of the desert."

"Gotcha!" Nazz replied, as her neck stretched high up into the sky, followed by her torso and legs. Her head swivelled this way and that as she looked around, but all she could see were tiny specks of light on the horizon. She then pointed her elongated arm in the direction of the light. "I see something in that direction, Kev. There might someone out there." She called, as she scaled herself back down and turned into a car like she had done before. The PCF hopped into her car form and she sped off, leaving the lizards and cockroaches in peace once again.

As they traversed the dunes, Kevin ran on ahead to scout for any Cyber Planks lying in wait. He knew this was the ideal place for an ambush, but to his surprise, he couldn't find any at all. He raced on through the desert until he suddenly screeched to a halt, just as Nazz and the others caught up.

"What's up, Kevin? Why'd you stop?" asked Jimmy, only to see what the others had seen directly in front of him. It was about an acre of dead farmland, presumably abandoned, if it wasn't for the Cyber Planks hovering around, with laser spotlights coming out of their eyes. They all saw a paddock, the contents of which made Rolf cringe: skeletal remains of a herd of cattle, looking as if they had been gnawed on by rats for months, and some bones looked as if they had been snapped off and stolen.

"Oh, this son of a shepherd wishes his livestock didn't end up like this…" Rolf said sadly. "I ask you, what did I do to deserve something like this?"

"It's okay man, once we get the Gourd out of the way, we can start all over again." Kevin said reassuringly. "And we're not taking no for an answer on that one." He suddenly heard buzzing noises approaching; the Cyber Planks must have heard their conversation. "Nazz, Rolf, quick! Burrow into the sand so we can hide!" Nazz and Rolf didn't need telling twice. Nazz turned her upper body into a drill and started to dig, while Rolf followed behind creating vines to hold to burrow from caving in. Kevin, Sarah and Jimmy all scrambled inside, with the latter covering the entrance with sand, just as the Cyber Planks appeared. From inside, the PCF heard loud beeping and buzzing outside, as if the Cyber Planks were talking to each other. After about 5 minutes that seemed like 10, Nazz popped her head out to see if the coast was clear. It was safe, but she could still see the spotlight glaring down at the sand, so much so that their patrol routine had turned the sand into glass, showing that these Cyber Planks were literally packing heat. She came back inside and sat with Kevin while he made a plan.

"Right, Sarah, you go out and find any survivors on this farm, if we can find them, they might be able to tell us where to find the end of the creek and the Eds." Kevin commanded. Sarah saluted and crawled outside.

"I'll let you know if I find anything!" she called, before she faded from view. Being invisible, she couldn't be detected by the Cyber Planks, although she figured she'd probably get burnt by the spotlights if she stepped into them, so she decided to give them a wide berth. As she sneaked around, she noticed a silhouette by one of the barns. It looked human and not robot, but Sarah couldn't make any other detail. Suddenly, the person dashed over to the paddock and leapt over the fence, looking back and forth for presumably Cyber Planks. It went to the nearest cow skeleton and grabbed its spinal cord, and pulled hard.

"I'm so sorry…" the person quietly sobbed in a male voice. He didn't want to do this, but dire circumstances had forced him to. A loud snap echoed through the farm, and although she was invisible, Sarah looked shocked; the man had snapped off a piece of the cow's vertebrae with his bare hands for an unknown reason. He then leapt back over the fence and ran towards a rundown barn, as Cyber Planks began to move in. Sarah quickly followed after him as he ran inside the barn. He stopped in front of three big crates. He went to the one furthest to his right and knocked on it in a strange rhythm, like a password. With an invisible Sarah still behind him peering from the door, two of the crates opened up and two more people appeared out of them, one man and one woman.

"Did you get the bones from the paddock, Dennis?" the woman said.

"Yeah, I got a few, Sophie." The man replied, holding up his prize. "This vertebra should feed us for a while. I could have gotten more if it weren't for them floating 2x4s!"

"Well, we have to make do with what we have." The second man explained. "Although I can't help but feel we're running out of food too quickly; I don't think we can live off bone marrow forever."

"So what do we do then, eh, Jack?" Dennis grunted. "We can't even leave this farm without getting shot to pieces, because the Cyber Planks are guarding our tractor! Simply put, if this farm's finished, then we might as well go down with it!" Jack, Sophie and Sarah gasped in surprise, though they all knew normal people couldn't take down Cyber Planks without special equipment or superpowers, especially Sarah, but what could she do? Just then, she accidently breathed in some dust, and her throat instantly became irritated, she couldn't hold it in; she had to cough.

"Eh? Who's there?!" Dennis hissed, his ears pricking up from the spluttering. He grabbed a nearby shotgun and pointed it around in a slow semi-circular motion. "Show yourself, or eat lead!" Sarah continued to cough, and after a few seconds her invisibility wore off, revealing herself to the farmhands. Dennis immediately pointed the firearm at her, ready to pull the trigger. "Who are you and what are you doing here, punk? Are you working for them metallic fencings?!" he shouted at her. Jack and Sophie glared at Sarah; It was pretty obvious they didn't and wouldn't trust her if she kept quiet. "If you aren't going to talk, then I'm afraid I'll have to…"

"WAIT!" Sarah yelled, throwing Dennis off guard and causing him to fire the shotgun into the air. All three farmhands paused as the gunshot echoed outside. "I am Sarah of the Peach Creek Force, and I have no quarrel with any of you. We are just here to get directions to the creek, so we can rescue our allies." The farmhands looked shaken, but not stirred; out here they'd never heard of some new-fangled "Peach Creek Force". If they'd met each other back in 2009, this wouldn't have been the greeting Sarah would have gotten, but that was then and this was now.

"How do we know you're against the Cyber Planks?" Dennis growled, holding his gun tightly.

"Because we and our allies were separated by them in an ambush. We fought them off and tricked them into destroying their general…" Sarah explained. "Look, I'll call my teammates to this location so we all can prove it, is that okay?" The Farmhands looked at each other slowly, and then Dennis nodded his head in agreement, still looking as if she still had something to hide. Sarah whipped out her communicator, and held it to her head.

"Hello guys. It's me Sarah…" she began. "I've found some survivors but they don't seem to trust me. Could you head to my location so we can prove my point?"

"Got it, Sarah! We're on our way!" said Kevin over the radio. After that the communicator fell silent and Sarah hoped that alone could persuade them to let her be. Suddenly, they heard loud crashes and explosions outside, as if a big battle was taking place. The farmhands scrambled back into their crates with the lid slightly opened so they could peek out,, until Kevin finally turned up, carrying a dismembered Cyber Plank under his arm. The Farmhands' eyes widened at his trophy. Rolf and Jimmy appeared next, carrying two more dead minions, Rolf's was covered in mushrooms erupting from different parts of its body; aside from its rectangular shape it was completely unrecognisable. Jimmy's was simply just a ball of scrunched up metal. Finally, Nazz arrived, her arm shaped like a lance with a Cyber Plank impaled on it, with its eyes flickering a little.

"Now do you believe me?" Sarah asked. "We're here to help you escape this nightmare." The Farmhands quickly smiled at the 5 heroes. Dennis laid down his shotgun and shook Kevin's hand.

"Thank you, and sorry for the hostility; we're a little on edge at the moment." Dennis said. "But maybe you can help take our farm back."

"We had a turret to keep those levitating piles of junk out, but they took it over a few months ago and hooked it up with a security system that controls the whole farm so we can't take it back." Sophie explained. "They also set up their patrol routes at this time."

"And the system is now under heavy guard by Cyber Planks in a barn north of here…" Jack added.

"But if you all can silence the security round here, we can insert a splice clip that overrides anything they've done to the turret." Kevin thought for a moment, and then he had an idea. It would be quicker if the team split up into groups, they would cover more ground that way.

"Alright guys, here's the plan. Jimmy and Rolf, you take out the alarm systems, Nazz, you and I will distract the guards and lead them away from the barn. Sarah, you insert the splice clip into the machine…" Kevin looked at the Farmhands. They wanted to help too. "…And you three, once the defences are down, Sarah will escort you to the turret so we can blast these Cyber Dorks sky high!"

"Good Plan, Kevin." Dennis agreed, holding up his shotgun. "Though I must warn you; during Sophie's night of foraging last week she noticed a big moving lump of sand. I fear it might be a Cyber Plank captain…" Sophie shuddered; she had seen it a few times since then, and she saw more than just churned up sand.

"I saw its tail." She murmured. "Yellow, metallic…and huge."

"Well, we'll have to keep an eye out for him." said Kevin. "Let's move out!"

Rolf and Jimmy had the easiest job: Find the two alarm systems and destroy them, so the dispensers nearby won't activate and spawn Cyber Planks on them.

"Now Jimmy, you head towards the southern part of the farm, Nazz's reconnaissance tells us one is in the north, and one is in the south." Rolf said, and with that, he grew vines out of his back to dig underground towards the northern part of the farm.

"Got it, Rolf!" Jimmy grunted, as he ran straight towards the southern alarm, crashing through fences and smashing through brick walls. All the noise attracted Cyber Planks however, and they began to chase him. He then skidded to a halt as the robots came in for the kill, but Jimmy grabbed one and smacked another in its cold steel face. He turned around and found the alarm device behind him, as more enemies attacked. Thinking quickly, and wrenched the device from the wall and shoved it into the dispenser's hole, jamming up both and setting it on fire.

Rolf quickly emerged from the ground next to the alarm device in the north. The vines on his back quickly got to work and rooted themselves into the wall. Rolf then gritted his teeth as Cyber Planks began to appear. The vines started to grow inside the machine, crushing its mechanisms to pieces. Rolf then took out the swarm of Cyber Planks by lobbing the stricken wreckage with the roots still intact, and watched they ensnared the robots and crushed them to bits as well. Just then, his communicator rang.

"Hey Rolf! Jimmy! You've done your part of the mission yet?" Kevin's called from the radio.

"Well, I've crushed the northern alarm, and Jimmy's just texted me, he says he's done scrapping the southern one too." Rolf answered

"Great work guys!" Kevin replied. "Now it's our turn!" At the Farmhands' hideout, Kevin and Nazz rushed out and headed towards the Cyber Planks' barn. As Jack said, the barn was heavily guarded, with robots floating this way and that in all directions, all just to keep any enemy out. Kevin nodded to Nazz, and she ran out in plain view of the guards.

"Hey, Lumber Dorks!" she called out, stretching out and waggling her arms around to get their attention. "Come and get me over here!" The guards instantly swivelled round to see her taunting them. She even turned her body into a chainsaw eating through a rotten fence post just to jeer at them further. The Cyber Planks rasped cold buzzing sounds of aggression as they came towards her, only for Kevin to rush in with a pitchfork and smack them all aside. Just then, Sarah and the Farmhands appeared, with Dennis holding his shotgun on standby.

"It's all safe now." Kevin said to the four of them. "Insert that splice clip and we should drive these splinters out!" But suddenly, all six of them heard a deep rumble coming from underground. Sophie started to shudder again.

"Oh no, it's the Cyber Plank captain!" she shouted, as a giant robotic snake burst out of the ground and smashed through the farmhands' hideout. As she had said, its armour was painted bright yellow, with black highlights on its neck and spine, but weirder still it had a black dome on top of its head, as if it were a cockpit.

"And what'sss going on here?" the snake rasped. "Who daresss enter my desssert?!"

"That's not just any Cyber Plank captain, Sophie." Nazz said in fear. "That's Yellow!"

"Yesss, that'sss me." Yellow hissed in his cold, almost sickly voice. "And you are the Peach Creek Force. My massster hasss ordered me to capture you foolsss and alssso thossse Edsss from the Passst!"

"If you want us to come with you, come and get us!" Kevin growled as he turned to Sarah and the Farmhands. "Guys, insert the splice and get to that tower. Quickly! We'll hold Yellow off for as long as we can!" he shouted. Sarah's team rushed into the barn as Kevin and Nazz held Yellow off, with Nazz wrapping around the metal snake and Kevin launching a fast flying kick to his snout. As Yellow fell back he was right outside the control barn Sarah's group were in, watching them deactivate the Cyber Planks' security systems, and he hissed and spat with rage.

"Oh no, he's right behind us!" Dennis yelled, as he aimed his shotgun and fired several rounds to drive him off, but all the bullets did was harmlessly bounce off his armour plating.

"What do we do now?!" Sarah panicked, as all of a sudden Jimmy smashed through the wall with Rolf behind him.

"I made a shortcut to the turret, get there quickly!" Jimmy shouted, before running into the fray with Yellow. Rolf also ran towards the mechanical beast, planting his vines and growing a massive triffid that climbed up Yellow's body as Nazz jumped away so she could turn into a hammer for Jimmy to use. Jimmy then leapt up and hit Yellow in the back of the head, who then screamed in both pain and anger.

"I've had enough of thisss!" he roared. "I'm going even the oddsss a bit!" With a slow ominous whirring sound, the dome on his head opened up and three figures emerged laughing evilly. Kevin, Rolf, Jimmy and Nazz's eyes widened at the sound of the laughter; they'd heard it before.

"Oh no, not the Kankers!" Jimmy yelled. They all watched as the three figures leapt from the cockpit on Yellow's head and landed in front of them. The Kankers looked different from their last encounter in 2009. Their skin was a chilling white metallic colour, and they all wore the same superhero suit just in different colours matching their hair. As Yellow thrashed about as he tore the vines off his body, he hissed again in triumph, thinking he couldn't lose now.

"It's the Preach Reek Dorks, Lee!" said May, her voice having a metallic effect to it.

"Yes, we know, we see them May!" said Marie and Lee in digitally voiced unison. The three of them then made an aggressive pose, as if they were looking for a fight. Lee's hair turned into 4 long tentacles, while Marie's hands morphed into green slime.

"Guys, let's take these losers out!" yelled Kevin, as the PCF charged into battle with the Kankers. Kevin ran straight into Marie, but she had turned her whole body into slime and Kevin got stuck inside her, kicking and punching to try and free himself from drowning. Lee faced off against Nazz and Jimmy, who first charged at her with Nazz still in hammer form, but Lee's hairs quickly swatted Jimmy into a nearby chicken coop, causing it to fall and crumble on top of him. Nazz flew into the air but turned back to normal in order to take on the Kanker sister one on one. Nazz first turned her legs into swords as she performed a spinning kick at Lee's hair arms, cutting three of them off, but Lee simply grew more and while Nazz was recovering from the kick, the new tentacles grabbed her by the waist and started to squeeze tightly. As she struggled, Nazz's head was swelling up; all the air in her body was being forced into her head. Soon her head bulged so much it was twice the size of the chicken coop, and her body was limp and deflated by comparison. If Lee didn't stop, she thought her head would explode! Rolf didn't fare much better against May, who attempted to summon icy spikes from the ground, which Rolf dodged, but he made the mistake of letting the spikes surround him. He tried to plant his vines and crush them like he did with the alarm, but as his roots touched one they shrivelled up and died. He saw May loom over him on top of the barn, hoping to finish him off with a deadly blizzard. Sarah watched in horror from the turret as she saw her friends in trouble.

"C'mon you three!" she called to the Farmhands. "My friends can't last much longer!" They worked as hard as they could to get the turret working. Jack reckoned that if they combine the destroyed Cyber Planks' heat spotlights, they could trap Yellow in glass and drive out the Kankers as well.

"A few hits with this hammer…Bam!" said Dennis in triumph. "Okay Sarah, point the laser turret at Yellow! We'll get the other guns back online!" Sarah rushed over and fired the laser, shooting around where Yellow had burrowed in order to get a good look at his and the Kankers' captives.

"Yesss…" he rasped. "I believe thessse foolsss are finissshed. Time to go back and report my…" A confused look appeared on Yellow's evil face. He tried to burrow into the sand, but it appeared as if his middle was tightly stuck. He looked down and then and only then did he realise that Sarah had shot the laser around his sand based burrow, melting it down and turning it to glass, trapping him on the spot. Yellow thrashed and roared in frustration, but he couldn't get free. The Kankers, noticing what happened, lost focus of their powers and let their captives go. Nazz, whose head was so close to exploding, stared at her captor with bulging eyes before she opened her mouth, blasting a gale of wind at Lee and Marie sending them flying into the control barn, finally knocking the building down on top of them. May was just about to freeze Rolf to death but the crumbling barn made her fall over joining her sister in an injured pile. As Nazz's head deflated back down to normal she quickly gasped for air and Kevin helped her up. Jimmy then burst out of the chicken coop's wreckage and ran towards the others hoping they were alright.

"Great work, you guys!" Kevin called to Sarah and the Farmhands. "Now let's finish off this overgrown caterpillar! Nazz, Jimmy, Slingshot Punch!"

"Got it." Jimmy said, as Nazz wrapped her arms around one post and Jimmy wrapped her legs around another, and ran straight into the human slingshot.

"How dare you trap me like thisss!" Yellow roared in anger as he continued his futile efforts to free himself from the glass. "And how dare you call me a caterpillar, I'm a…" But before he could say another word, Jimmy launched himself from Nazz's slingshot and flew into the air, delivering one powerful punch right to Yellow's chin. The force was so great Yellow's upper skull split off from his body with an agonising scrunch of metal. It crashed back down a few metres away from the farm, as the Peach Creek Force and the Kankers began to move in.

"…S-s-s-nnnake…" Yellow wheezed out as best he could, before his eye lights gave out and a small chip fell out of a hatch on the back of his head.

From the turret, Sarah and the Farmhands couldn't be happier.

"Yes! We did it!" whooped Dennis, firing his shotgun into the air.

"We drove all those creeps out of our farm!" Sophie and Jack yelled. Sarah smiled; she knew that even though they didn't have superpowers like she did, they'd be able to survive the Gourd's wrath with no more problems.

"Well, we couldn't have done it without you three." She said happily. Dennis turned to her and gave her a piece of paper with looked to be a map of a grassy field with a dark gloomy area in one corner. "What's this?"

"It's a map of the desert, or at least what it used to be." Dennis replied. "We used to go to the gloomy corner to get food for our livestock. You can use it to find the creek."

"Thanks guys." Sarah replied back. "We have to get on our way though. Will you three be alright?" The farmhands looked at each other, and finally, Jack spoke up.

"Well, truth is, our farm is completely barren now, and we're having to live off bone marrow, do you think we could come with you?" Sarah thought about it, and spoke into her communicator.

"Kevin, I think you might want to call the carriers early, the Farmhands can't survive out here." She said. There was a long pause until finally…

"Not to worry Sarah, I was think we'd have to do this at some point." The Farmhands heard Kevin's words and were overjoyed. They went over to Sarah and hugged her, for saving their lives.

"Just wait here until the carrier comes and gets you." Sarah told them. "If there are Binbots on the ship you'll know it's safe."

"…And that's how we defeated Yellow and the Kankers, and rescued the Farmhands…" finished Kevin. "Phew, I told you it was a long story…"

Double D clapped in applause politely, while Ed sat there and cried because the story ended happily.

"No kidding!" said Eddy, a little surprised to hear about Sarah being nice to others, something vastly different from the little brat who stole his money several years earlier. But then again, he thought the same way about Kevin. Just then, the carrier stopped moving, and the pilot Binbot waddled up to Kevin. The PCF all gathered round the little droid.

"Kevin, we've arrived at the Underground Steelworks." It gurgled robotically.

"Great flying, little guy; just like Double D." Kevin said. "Now Eds, time to gear up."

"Why's that, Shovel Chin?" Eddy chortled smugly as he put his Gamma Glove.

"Because we're heading into the Underground Steelworks." Kevin replied gritting his teeth. "Home to the most dangerous of the Cyber Plank 2.0s yet…"