Chapter 2: A Hero is born from the Magic Chocolate Bunny Part 2!
After the glow subsided, the chocolate bunny opened its eyes, revealing it to be a living thing. This made Sugar stare at it in wonder, but it also reminded her stomach of how much she missed eating sweets, as it growled in response. She watched it survey the room, and then it noticed her, and hopped over till it was standing near her feet.
"Princess Lolly?" it asked in a female British voice.
"No, I-I-I'm Sugar, Sugar Marmalade," Sugar stammered, trying not to faint.
"Oh, I'm sorry, you're not the one I'm looking for," it said, lowering its ears in disappointment. "But I guess you'll have to do."
"What do you mean? Can you please fill me in on what's going on? My friends are out cold, some freaky monsters came out of a board game, and now I'm talking to a chocolate bunny! Am I going crazy?!"
"I have a name, you know," the bunny snapped, getting Sugar's attention. "It's Hershey, and I've been sent by the King and Queen of Candyland to find their daughter, Princess Lolly, who was taken to the human world after Lord Licorice's forces attacked the Candy Castle and took over."
"But Candyland's just a board game!"
"Oh, but it is real. It exists in a separate plane from your world, and they were always separate until the Candy Brigade spirited Princess Lolly away, turning this world's board game representation of my world into an inter-dimensional portal, allowing the monsters of Candyland to enter and cause as much chaos as they please!"
"But wouldn't this have happened to anyone who played Candyland? Why did it happen to me?"
"I'm not exactly sure, but we must stop these monsters and send them back to where they came from as soon as possible!"
"We? When did it suddenly become my responsibility to save the world?"
"The moment you started playing this innocent game, you somehow triggered the portal to activate. Therefore, you must be connected to the Princess, because only those of royal blood have that kind of power."
"So it's…my fault," Sugar's knees fell under her as she looked at her unconscious friends, and felt tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Please, don't cry now, we have more important things to do!"
"What can I do? I've never fought anything in my life, and I couldn't save my friends from getting hurt!"
At that moment, her friends suddenly stirred, and stood up as if they were perfectly fine.
"Jane! Jill! You're all right!" Sugar cried.
"No, don't go near them!" Hershey said, standing in Sugar's way. "They're possessed by monsters!"
"What?"
But as Jane and Jill raised their heads, Sugar saw that their eyes had gone from violet to neon green. Then they smiled. There was nothing between their lips, but they somehow managed to produce low, throaty male voices.
"Well if it isn't the little rabbit who escaped our clutches?" the monster possessing Jane said, transforming into a green human-sized gummy bear.
"There's nowhere to run here," said the monster possessing Jill, shaking its head as it too became a gummy bear.
"What are you, and what have you done to my friends?" Sugar said, walking backwards.
"I told you, they're monsters, and they've taken over your friends' bodies," Hershey said, backing as the monsters advanced. "In order to physically exist in this world, they need something physical to attach to, whether it be an object or a person."
"So how can they be stopped?"
"By the power of the Lollypop Wand."
"The what now?"
Then the bunny's forehead heart started glowing, and out of it appeared a brown and pink swirled lollipop attached to a plastic pink stick. Sugar was immediately enchanted, and grabbed it. Immediately, the lollipop released a blast of pink light that blinded the two gummy bears and stopped them from advancing.
As Sugar struggled to see past the light, Hershey spoke to her. "It has accepted you as its wielder, now say these words: Candy Heart Power!"
"Wait, am I going to strip naked and magically change into a tight frilly costume that is impractical for combat?" Sugar asked.
Hershey smacked her forehead with her paw. "Oh, will you just shut up and say the words already?!"
"Okay, fine!" Sugar raised the wand and reluctantly said, "Candy Heart…"
Suddenly, Sugar's father opened the door, with her mother behind him. For a few seconds, they silently looked at the two gummy bears, who were surprised by their presence, and back at Sugar with her glowing lollypop, trying to comprehend the scene before them. But the gummy bears quickly recovered from their initial shock, and attacked her parents.
"…Power!" Sugar said, quickly finishing the phrase.
The Lollypop Wand responded, and it became so bright that she couldn't see anything else but pink. Sugar then felt a strong wind come out of nowhere, and cause the braids tied to the back of her head to unravel. As they did, her hair grew longer and curled into wavy light-brown pigtails. Her body radiated as her clothes changed into a pink military short-sleeved shirt with a brown tie and white gloves stitched with chocolate hearts covered her hands, while below she gained matching pink short-shorts and stockings, finally ending on brown military boots with pink hearts on them. When the light faded, she found herself back in her bedroom, with Hershey being the only one present, and dashed through the open door to the hallway. She appeared behind the gummy bears as they stumbled towards her parents who were running down the stairs.
"Hey!" Sugar cried, making them stop.
"Where did you come from?" one of them asked.
The other was equally confused. "What happened to the little girl that was in the bedroom not too long ago?"
"She's…in a safer place than here!" Sugar said, trying to sound confident despite her obvious lies. "That's for sure!"
"Then who are you?"
"I'm, uh…"
"She's Soldier Candy, the Champion of Sweet Justice," Hershey said, coming from behind Sugar and standing between her and the gummy bears. "And that means trouble for you goons!"
"Yeah, what she said," Sugar added.
"Oh yeah? Well I'll show you!" the one that was closest said, taking a step towards them.
"But Gumbo, what about the others?" the other one asked, looking back down the stairs.
"We'll take care of them later, Gooey, after we take care of this military Barbie who thinks she can take us on!" Gumbo replied, and smashed his rubbery fist down on the floor, causing it to vibrate and make Sugar and Hershey loose balance.
"What do I do?" Sugar asked, avoiding an incoming punch from Gumbo.
"Use the wand!" Hershey cried, bounding away from Gooey, who was running towards her.
"But, how?"
As Sugar gripped the wand tightly in her right hand, she felt a surge of strength in her left, and it seemed to glow as she curled it. She felt words coming to her mind, and she knew what to do.
"Candy Sucker Punch!" she said as she made an uppercut punch to Gumbo's lower jaw, causing him to fly backwards down the hall. Then before he got up, Sugar dashed up to him and tackled him, holding his giant head under her left elbow. As he struggled to break free, she held the Lollypop Wand to his face and shouted, "Candy Kiss Explosion!"
A white light filled with pink hearts emanated from the wand, completely enveloping Gumbo, who screamed in agony as he was turned into light, and absorbed into the Lollypop itself, leaving an unconscious Jill in his place. Sugar quickly checked Jill's pulse, and was relieved to hear Jill's heart beating normally. Next, she got up and turned towards Gooey, who had managed to corner Hershey into a corner of the hallway that was next to her bedroom, and raised the wand at him for another Candy Kiss Explosion. Like his partner, he too became light and while Jane collapsed onto Hershey, Gooey was also absorbed. It was then that police sirens were heard outside the front door, making Sugar lower the wand, which automatically changed her hair back to the way it was before as well as her clothes. Meanwhile, the wand suddenly shrank and became a lollipop charm on a silver chain necklace.
The police came in, and her parents frantically tried to explain what happened, but fortunately, the police thought they were suffering from shock. They searched the house, noting the damaged floor and blast embers on the walls while medical personnel checked on Jane and Jill. Then they were taken outside in stretchers and given oxygen along with Sugar's parents to help them calm down, while Sugar sat on the lawn with a blanket wrapped around her. Hershey sat behind her so the policemen wouldn't see her, and talked to Sugar as she stared at the scene before her.
"Will it always be like this? Putting my loved ones in danger while I fight for everyone else's safety?" Sugar wondered.
"You don't have to accept this task," Hershey answered. "After all, you'll merely be a stand-in until Princess Lolly shows up, but on the bright side, you won't be alone in this battle. You'll have the Candy Brigade."
"Oh, yeah, you mentioned them before, and who are they?"
"They were the elite military force of Candyland, before Lord Licorice took over, and escorted the Princess to this world when she was an infant so that they could watch over her as she was being raised by humans. However, they knew that their own lives would be in jeopardy if their presence was discovered, so they sealed their powers and memories away, living like normal humans until the day Soldier Candy calls for their assistance."
"Soldier Candy? But wouldn't it make sense if it was the Princess who called them?"
"Soldier Candy and the Princess are intertwined, because Soldier Candy is the Princess' magical alter-ego, and her destined power. She is Candyland's last hope, and that's why she was brought here, to grow up in a protected environment from those who would hurt her, until she was about your age, and be given the power to take on Lord Licorice and his four female generals as Soldier Candy, with the Candy Brigade at her side."
"Wow, that's a lot of responsibility for a sixteen year-old to take on," Sugar looked down at the necklace, and then held it in her hand. "But, I suppose I could ease the burden for her by taking on the Candyland monsters that have escaped to this world and find the Candy Brigade, even though I'll only be 'borrowing' her power."
"If that is what you wish, then I will help you every step of the way."
"By the way, if what you said about creatures from Candyland not being able to exist without attaching to something, how are you standing in front of me as a solid thing?"
This questioned surprised Hershey, and then she said, "Because I have greater magical power than those monsters you saw, as they have very little in comparison."
"Oh," Then a policeman came up to Sugar and asked her about what happened. She answered them briefly, and was reunited with her parents and her friends, who were perfectly fine. Afterward, her friends were taken to the hospital, and she and her parents decided to sleep on the first floor until the hallway was fixed.
As Sugar was tucking herself under the covers of the guest-room, Hershey was sleeping next to her. In the light of the lamp next to the bed, Hershey's smooth chocolate skin looked appetizing to Sugar, who was craving for something sweet to make her feel better after everything she had been through tonight. But then she thought about Miloe's words, and instead rubbed the side of Hershey's face, waking her up.
Sugar hesitated, but then she sighed and asked, "Hershey, was I naked when I transformed?"
Hershey groaned. "It was too bright for anyone to see, so no, nobody saw you as you changed into Soldier Candy. I don't see why you're making such a fuss over that."
"Well, it's important to me, because I wouldn't take on this responsibility if I knew I was showing my body off to monstrous things!"
"But it's not like you have a choice, now that you've accepted the position as Princess Lolly's decoy."
"Decoy? That's insulting! I'm doing a huge favor for her, so she'd better thank me if she happens to come along!"
"Sugar, who are you talking to?" Sugar's father asked, calling out from her parent's bedroom.
"No one, daddy! I'm going to bed now!" Sugar replied, and turned off the lamp.
End of Chapter 2
