Chapter 6: Vanilla! The Tiniest Soldier Ever!

With Aroma and Pepper not on her side, Sugar immediately headed downtown on her scooter. She got a few feet when she heard someone call her name. After halting, she turned around and saw Crème running towards her.

"Crème, what are you doing?" Sugar asked.

"I want to come with you!" Crème said with a straight face.

This made Sugar's head spin, but she quickly shook her head. "Crème, you can't go where I'm going! It's too dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt!"

"But I heard you and the other girls talking, so technically I'm involved." When Sugar's face paled, Crème explained. "I wanted to tell you something really important during our lunch meeting, but I couldn't talk about it openly, so after school was out, I hoped to catch you, but then I saw you leave with Aroma and Pepper. I followed, and went to the other side of the trashcan where you couldn't see me, listening to everything you said, which only confirmed my suspicions."

"Suspicions?" Sugar muttered, still in shock.

"That you were Soldier Candy, like the chocolate bunny said!"

"Chocolate bunny?" Then Sugar looked at the cooler. "Hershey!"

"What?" Hershey asked, popping her head out.

"You have some explaining to do!" Sugar yelled, grabbing Hershey by the neck. "This girl claims to know you, and she heard everything we were talking about, so our secret has now been exposed to a perfect stranger!"

"Not exactly," Hershey replied, folding her forepaws. "Notice her Scent."

Reluctantly, Sugar smelled the air around them, and that sweet smell came up again. She thought she was imagining it back at the restaurant, but it was real, and definitely strong. Then she came up close to Crème and finally recognized it.

"Is it…vanilla?" Sugar wondered out loud.

Then Hershey's forehead heart glowed, and from it emerged a long white fencing foil with a brown hilt with matching ribbons attached. Crème immediately grabbed the foil, and raised it high above her, saying, "Vanilla Power!"

A white, creamy light surrounded Crème as Sugar and Hershey closed their eyes. A few minutes passed, and the monster's roars echoed from downtown as Aroma and Pepper tried to fight it. When the light had dissipated, Crème stood rigidly wearing a chocolate brown military short-sleeved shirt and shorts with a white tie, stockings, and gloves with creamy vanilla flowers on them, with the similar ones on her brown boots. Her hair had also grown longer and lighter in color, with a brown headband tied over her bangs. She opened her eyes, which were a lighter brown than before, and smiled at Sugar.

"Soldier Candy!" she said, hugging Sugar at the waist. "It was worth slowing the aging process, because knew I would get to meet you someday!"

"It's glad to have you with us, Soldier Vanilla, however the reunion will have to wait as we have a monster to capture!" Hershey shouted, nodding in the monster's direction.

Crème stared at the monster, and grinned. "This guy should be a piece of cake with the four of us combined!"

"Well, Mint and Cinnamon had an argument with Soldier Candy, and decided to try to tackle the monster themselves."

"Oh, dear, we have to help them!" Crème turned to Sugar, and pointed the tip of the foil at her. "Candy! You have to transform now!"

Sugar nodded, and quickly changed into her outfit. Then she took out her Lollypop Wand and said, "Candy Kiss Explosion!"

Unfortunately, the blast barely reached the monster, making Sugar swear under her breath. Crème then took Sugar's scooter, and asked Sugar to sit behind her. Sugar did as she said, and watched Crème tie the brown ribbons from her foil onto the handles of the scooter. Hershey's eyes lit up in excitement as she jumped onto Sugar's shoulders. After the ribbons were tied, Crème held the foil up between the handles, and shouted, "Vanilla Ribbon Drift!"

To Sugar's surprise, the scooter flew into the air and went straight for downtown. By this point, the sun had gone low enough to where they were nothing but black silhouettes against the darkening sky. Sugar felt self-conscience as people who were running from the downtown area looked up at them in curiosity, but was shocked by the amount of damage the monster had already done. Various buildings were demolished, cars were destroyed, and the pavement had cracked in several places where the monster, Plumpy, had stepped. Up close, it was much bigger, and roaring at the top of its lungs as it held Aroma and Pepper in its big, furry hands.

"You let my friends go this instant, or I'll give you a Sucker Punch like you'll never believe!" Sugar cried, getting Plumpy's attention.

Plumpy immediately dropped Aroma and Pepper and went after Sugar and Crème. But Crème navigated the scooter in a downward spiral around Plumpy as they caught Aroma and Pepper before they hit the ground, which they landed on unsteadily, breaking the scooter in the process. However, this didn't concern Sugar as she checked on Aroma and Pepper, who were both covered in asphalt and bruises. Plumpy then noticed them and tried to squash them, but the four quickly took shelter under the broken roof of a demolished building.

"Hey, Mint, do you think you can do a little Refreshment spell?" Crème asked Aroma as her eyelids fluttered open.

"I think I can, Soldier Vanilla," Aroma replied and focused her Mint Spear on Pepper, chanting, "Mint Breath Refreshment!"

Once Pepper was completely healed, Aroma pointed the spear at herself, and then said the same words. Luckily, Plumpy didn't attack them immediately as he was preoccupied by Commander Dandy, who was distracting it for the girls' sakes. Sugar watched him in awe, but remembered the unfinished conversation with Miloe, and concentrated on the three other Soldiers instead.

"Mint, Cinnamon, I know I said some things that I shouldn't have said earlier today," Sugar said, looking down in embarrassment. "But now, I've realized that…you guys have helped me a lot over the past few weeks, not only with this difficult task I've put upon myself, but to cope with it…by being my friends."

"Yeah, we sort of came to the same conclusion," Pepper said, rubbing the back of her head. "After getting our butts kicked, that is."

"Well now that you have me, this monster will be a pushover!" Crème cried, but then she sulked. "But I wish I knew where it got its power from!"

"It gets…its power…from candy," a voice mumbled underneath the rubble.

The four girls dug down where they heard the voice, and discovered the person who spoke to them was Miloe. He was badly injured with cuts all over his face and could barely move when the girls dragged him out. Sugar was especially surprised and called his name out loud. This got his attention, as he looked at Sugar directly.

"How did you…know my name?" he asked wearily.

"That's not important!" Pepper said abruptly. "You said the monster is powered by candy. How can you prove that?"

"This place…was a candy-store. I must've come in here around four, and saw the monster, which was no smaller than a teddy-bear at the time, walking around and stuffing its face with candy. But the more it consumed…the bigger it grew, until the roof collapsed and everyone got out…except for me."

"Miloe's an honest person, so I trust him," Sugar said.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it, but how are we supposed to defeat a teddy Godzilla who just swallowed a ton of candy?!"

"With more candy!" A booming voice called as the roof was lifted away by the big, masculine hands of Commander Dandy.

"Commander Dandy! You're all right!" Sugar cried for joy.

"But where's the monster?" Pepper said, looking around.

"Right there!" Commander Dandy replied, gesturing to Plumpy as he was flopping on the ground. "I tricked him into tripping over himself, and he can't get up because he ate too much candy!"

"Thank you so much, Commander Dandy," Sugar said, nodding in gratitude. "I'm sorry I always burden you with things I should be doing, but your help is really appreciated."

Commander Dandy knelt at Sugar's feet, and held her hand. "As I said before, there is no need to thank me, for I only serve to protect you, Soldier Candy!"

"But why?" asked Pepper. "You've only known Soldier Candy for a few weeks!"

"I figure that if I protect her, I'll be one step closer to knowing where Princess Lolly is."

"Princess Lolly?" Hershey exclaimed, hopping up to Commander Dandy. "What do you know about her?"

"Guys, can these questions wait till after we've defeated Plumpy?" Aroma said in a whispered shout.

While Commander Dandy stayed behind to look after Miloe, Sugar and the other three girls walked up to Plumpy, who was still struggling. They climbed up his foot and aimed their weapons at his face. His small black eyes widened in terror as he saw their weapons light up in white, orange, blue, and pink as they called out their attacks.

"Vanilla Petal Dance!" Crème cried, sending a gust of white petals at Plumpy's face, cutting it to ribbons.

"Cinnamon Fire Blast!" Pepper shouted, incinerating Plumpy's chest and head.

"Mint Ice Blizzard!" Aroma said, freezing Plumpy head to toe.

"Candy Kiss Explosion!" Sugar announced, and the monster was absorbed into the wand, leaving a ragged teddy bear in its place.

After landing on the ground, they quickly ran back to where Miloe and Commander Dandy were, but there was no sign of the Commander anywhere. This irritated Hershey and Pepper, while Sugar was left to feel heart-torn once more. But she tried not to show this to Miloe, while she helped him stand up and allowed Aroma to heal him.

"Who was that man in the pink suit?" Miloe asked, looking at Sugar.

"He's…Commander Dandy, a friend who helps me when I'm in trouble," Sugar replied, blushing slightly.

"And…who are you, and these other girls wearing similar uniforms?"

"We're the…"

"The Candy Brigade!" Crème interrupted, coming between Miloe and Aroma. "We came from Candyland to protect the earth against monsters who wish to destroy everything, and find the lost Princess who holds the key to saving our home-world!"

"So you're not from around here," Miloe chuckled as the ice melted away the pain. "Then how did you know my name, Miss…"

"Candy. Soldier Candy is my name," Sugar said nervously. "I'm friends with a girl at your school who…really likes you, and talks about you a lot."

"Is she close to me?"

"Sort of."

But the sound of the sirens drew Sugar and the others away as they left Miloe to be carried away on a stretcher. Soon the whole downtown area was crawling with fire fighters, news reporters, medical personnel, and so on. After leaving the downtown area, the girls quickly changed back into their regular selves and hitched a bus back to the school. There weren't any people on except for the driver, so they decided to talk, but in whispers.

"So before you forget, tell me as much as you can about Princess Lolly and what happened to her," Hershey said from inside the cooler.

Crème thought for a moment, and then she answered, "I remember after we arrived on earth, we decided to seal our powers and the Princess's away in case any of Lord Licorice's minions happened to follow us through the portal. But before we did that, we took the Princess to the hospital where the babies were kept, and we…sealed the Princess's powers, I think, but I don't remember what she looked like afterwards or which family we gave her to."

"She physically changed after her powers were sealed?" Sugar sighed. "And I thought we had narrowed it down to just searching for someone with purple hair."

"Well clearly, this isn't over yet," Hershey replied, looking at Crème. "Pepper said that the last two Soldiers were sisters, one was short and the other was tall. You're short, and you have a sister. That's why I told you about Soldier Candy when you first arrived in this town, because I knew you were a Soldier by those descriptions and your Scent."

Aroma suddenly understood, and put the pieces together. "Then that means…the last Soldier we need to awaken…is Crème's sister."

Hershey nodded. "Correct."

End of Chapter 6