Well enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 13: Candy and Soda
The next morning dawns, but Holden remains asleep in his bed. A loud buzzing fills his room finally waking him up. He looks at his watch and is relieved to see that he had over overslept by an hour. He yawns sleepily and pokes the button on the beeping com.
"Numbuh 5 has a task for you. It's rather important." Says the voice in an urgent tone.
Holden yawns again, and responds, "What kind of task is it that you need me to do?"
Numbuh 5 smiles as her face pops onto the com screen and answers, "I need you to go to Candy Cove and find out who stole my candy. Stickybeard and my sister Cree are there along with the candy pirates. I just want to find out if the Creepy Spawn took it."
Holden rubs his sleepy eyes and eventually respond in a tired voice, "Alright, I'll get ready to go and head down there."
He turns the com off and slowly makes his way out of the silent tree house full of sleeping people. When Holden walks outside, it is overcast and it looks like it is going to start raining. After a twenty minute walk, Holden arrives near the Cul-de-Sac. He overhears Eddy in the distance talking very loudly about some lost fizzy soda. Holden walks through the small park and then jumps over a ridge and finds the tiny camp that belongs to Stickybeard.
An older female stands by a tent wearing a B.R.A (Battle Ready Armor) and turns around as she hears him approach and replies in a cold voice, "Well, if it isn't my sister's loser teenage friend, Holden. Why are you even out here?"
Holden glowers at Cree.
Stickybeard shakes his lollipop entangled beard and replies in a scolding tone, "Tha's no way to treat a guest, lass! Why, m'boy, what bring yee out 'tis way?"
"Abby sent me out here looking for some stolen candy and asked if you had seen who had taken it." Holden responds.
Cree frowns to what Holden had said. Much of the candy they had was stolen as well by the fusions in the area.
Cree then responds in a very flat tone, "I thought it was Abby who might have stolen ours at first, but now I see that it's the stupid fusions. Check the Candy Buccaneers, the Barrel Bashers and the Creepy Spawn."
Stickybeard then adds with a sad look in his eyes, "Check m'ship, thee Sweet Revenge! 'Tis an infected zone now."
Holden nods and replies, "Thanks for the help." Holden leaves, heading south and eventually finds a group of all three monsters.
For over an hour, Holden runs around Candy Cove destroying the spawns and wasting his ammo, until he finally finds the fusions that took the candy. The candy that drops to the ground has a sickly green glow to it. Holden actives the scanner that is on his com and the scan shows it is dangerous and radioactive.
"Wow Numbuh 5 hasn't seen candy that Radioactive since the Moon base had a meltdown." Numbuh 5 says as she as walks down the hill.
Holden looks up at her and replies, "What are you doing here Abby?"
Numbuh 5 smiles at Holden and replies, "I thought I would come and help you with retrieving the candy. We should take it to the Sweet Revenge so it can be disposed of later. Follow me."
Numbuh 5 walks past him and motion to Holden to follows her to the west.
As they approach the Sweet Revenge, Holden notices that the Giant Blowfish that normally attacks Townsville is sitting in the bay with a sad expression on its face. Holden and Numbuh 5 enter the infected zone and hop onto the moving platforms so they can get to the main deck of the ship. When they finally arrive, a stream of cheese hits the deck a few feet away.
They look up to see Fusion Numbuh 2 flying around the masts. The fusion fires his cheese attack again. Holden jumps back backward, while Numbuh 5 rolls to the side behind a box.
Holden looks at Numbuh 5 and shouts, "Abby, wait for a shot at its back to take out the equipment. After that, this fusion won't be any trouble."
Numbuh 5 frowns and then inquires quickly, "Numbuh 5 wants to know how you know that? No one has ever seen a fusion of Numbuh 2 before."
Holden fires with his pistol at the fusion before he responds, "I fought one back in the future. Just find your opening. I'll distract it."
Holden runs up the stairs towards the captain's cabin and slides behind some boxes to take cover. Fusion Numbuh 2 flies to attack, but Abby fires two perfect shots. With her two pistols, she destroyed the fusion's F.L.A.P.P U.H. and Fusion Numbuh 2 falls to the deck with a splat. Holden and Numbuh 5 both open fire on the now dazed fusion and it slowly melts away. All that remains is a bag of un-eradiated candy. They hear a low evil laugh from above and they see a Fusion Numbuh 5 enter a lair near the back of the ship.
"Looks like we found out who was behind the candy theft. Numbuh 5 will stay here to make sure she doesn't get out. You go in and deal with the problem Holden." Numbuh 5 says.
Holden nods and he enters the lair.
The lair was actually the inside of the ship and there are Candy Buccaneers rolling around all over the place. Holden fires several hasty shots and dispatches the monsters and works his way down the hallway and finds the Fusion Numbuh 5 in the kitchen.
"Took you long enough to get here fool! Shall we rumble?" The fusion says before taking out a set of guns and open fires on him.
Holden quickly dodges, but fires at the same time. While not entirely accurate as he would've liked to be, his shoots still caused a fair amount of damage to the fusion's arms. The guns the fusion had are also shot out of its hands and turn back into goo. Holden stands up and is ready to pull the trigger again when three shoots come from behind and cripple the left leg of the fusion. Holden uses this distraction and he summon his nano Deedee, who continually kicks it in the chest and causes the fusion to implode. A nano of Numbuh 5 pops up from the remaining goo and disappears into his com.
Holden turns around to see Numbuh 5 eating some normal jawbreakers and she replies in a relaxed voice, "Numbuh 5 says that's a sweet job well done if you ask me baby. You probably didn't even need my help, but it was worth seeing a nano. Well Holden, I'll see you later."
Numbuh 5 waves goodbye and leaves to return to Genius Grove.
As soon as Holden exits the infected zone, the com in his pocket rings. Holden picks up and finds that it is Edd, who has a worried look on his face.
Edd then replies in a clam manner, "Holden, one of my inventions', Fizzy Flying Soda is gone. We think Marie and Lee Kanker took it, but Eddy and I need to make sure of it. We kinda buried it in the trailer park."
Holden groans, rubs his eyes gently and says, "Sure Edd, I'll talk to them, but I really don't know if I'll get anywhere with them."
Holden returns to the Cul-de-Sac and then turns north to enter the Park-N-Flush trailer park. Holden decides talks to Marie, only because she is more lucid and easier to deal with than Lee. Marie turns from working on the Trojan Hamburger when she spots Holden out of the corner of her eye.
She then says in a confused voice, "What do you want Holden? Are you here to offer some help on finishing our entry plan so we can see the Ed's? Or do you need something else?"
Holden shakes his head and responds coolly, "Edd wants to know if you found his Fizzy Flying Soda."
Marie looks confused for a second. She closes her eyes to think and then responds, "The Ed's soda thingy? Some girl dressed in some weird green armor that had a jetpack asked us to go dig it up for her. She paid us in jawbreakers to do it too. Last I saw of her she was headed to that green portal thing in the north end of the park."
Holden frowns and says in an exasperated tone, "You gave the soda to a fusion? Well thanks for the info."
Holden walks off in the direction Maria had indicated, passing by a few Newspaper ninjas, but they seem to cower as he walks close to them.
As he nears the entrance, Holden spots a huge rubber band ball. What a waste of money, Holden thinks. He locates the lair and enters to find a large expanse of caves. A fusion of Princess is bad enough, but now, one that can fly is even worse. The last time Holden had any real contact with her was at a dance two months before the time experiment. Holden travels deep into the cave and eventually finds the fusion floating a little off the ground with the bottle nearby, having only a quarter of its original contents left.
Holden throws one of his Grape Grenades at the fusion. While it didn't do any major damage, it helped distract it with a cloud of dust. Holden takes the great sword off his back, while running towards the cloud and he attacks silently, impaling the helpless fusion. The matter falls to the floor and the leftover goop changes and forms a nano Princess. Before the nano can say anything, Holden forces it away with his hand into the com.
He picks up the bottle that's on the ground and returns to the Cul-de-Sac.
Edd looks up from what he is currently working on and says to Holden inquisitively, "Did you find our soda, Holden?"
Holden tosses him the bottle and replies in a sullen voice, "What's left of it. What a waste to use on a fusion."
Edd frowns, but then says in a chipper tone, "At least you got some of it back. Oh well, back to work, Thanks anyway."
As Holden walks away, a mysterious person suddenly appears behind him.