It didn't hurt exactly, but it certainly felt odd.

Roots mutating into dead flesh into enhanced magical zamboni components… It felt pretty high up on the 'unusual stuff' index. Fascinating from a data point of view though.

John felt the new Body suddenly bubble, [[Pop!]], and twist… Before it began restabilizing all over again. Apparently this attempt too was just unacceptably unstable. Meh, it'd find something to work with eventually… Right?

Hopefully, yes.

Another issue that was complicating this mess involved the background automated systems overseeing this mad science.

It kept trying to nudge his final form into one of three categories: Homeowner, Zombie, or Plant.

And for obvious reasons, this new creation kept oozing outside the lines. Sometimes literally.

Heck! If it wasn't for Magic and Conceptual Backing to help it all stick together, he'd have probably fallen apart completely by now!

But after several hours (Days? Weeks?), it looked like the alterations were slowing down and stabilizing.

[[Pop!]] Fuzzzzzzle….

Or at least, the failures were being spread further and further apart. That probably meant progress was being made, most likely.

No, the bigger issue is HOW this whole mess was 'stabilizing' the process.

By brute force.

Randomly smashing bits together to see if it doesn't explode.

Over and over again.

[[Pop!]] Fuzzzzzzle….

Case in point: THAT new Body had fifteen sunflower heads, 33 wheels (none touching the ground) and spewed ice from a dozen holes. Half organic, half not.

And that was one of the MORE stable attempts to get this car crash back on the road.

Sheesh!

Failure after failure, John watched with fascination.

No, putting an engine in a zombie does not make him fart ice.

No, putting a sunflower 'brain' inside a zamboni does not allow it to automatically drive itself.

No, more heads does not equal less problems. Especially since half of them were hybrid zombie/flower monstrosities that kept trying to eat themselves.

At some point the process shifted from amusing though and drifted towards sadness.

Like… Come on, you made all the OTHER zombie variants, right? How is this so hard?

Look, stop that… [[Just stop]] please, just… Let's start with something basic.

John felt a catalog of zombies open up and… Yeah, this one. The Gargantuar.

These guys are dumb muscles, basically a heavy vehicle that allows the tiny imp on their back to guide and direct them on their smashing way. Well, at least until the tiny dude makes too many poor decisions and the Gargantuar decides to throw him like a bean bag at something.

So treat this new unit the same way. The Zamboni will gain most of the reinforcement, the Magic, the Conceptual enhancements… While the Sun-John or Sunflower acts as the guiding force in the back.

I mean, that was almost what we came up with accidentally earlier, right? Can't we just do this and be done?

Then reality began pointing out to John that the Zamboni was partially zombie to begin with, which was how it was part of the zombie evolutionary tree to begin with.

And how it could eat Sun and stuff, and get powered up in the process.

The issue here was NOT using a zombie as the 'driver', because there was NO precedent available to show how this was supposed to work without exploding or dissolving or eating itself.

Hence why it was trying the brute force approach. And failing. Repeatedly.

John felt exasperated.

So, they just needed to design a MORE refined version of the 'Plant to Zombie' interface? The one John had ALREADY designed for the Sun-John Zamboni express earlier?

The aspects of existence paused at that… Because wasn't that component just a heavily damaged zombie fragment? It had already been repaired due to not working…

No, it HAD been working, just not in a manner or using a method that was documented within the automated systems.

…John felt the Realm just sort of considered that concept. For quite a while.

Then, tentatively… It reached out to him.

Did he have any examples? Documentation for that previous attempt? Similar ideas?

John couldn't help but grin from within the Sunflower Template.

Why… Yes.

Yes he did.

~~~Pocket System~~~

Grace stared at the flickering home on the video stream.

Monstrosities or spells were being planted, then giant zombies merged with machines would consume them, only for adorable animal plants to consume them all, followed by angry grass and rabid bushes and…

Thankfully, the madness seemed to be focused and concentrated to this one house that the insane Sun-John had smashed into earlier.

For now.

She heard her sister connect to the virtual conference room before she entered through the doorway yawning. "Good morning sis! Man I feel like I haven't slept this well since the three of us used that one tingly lube and… Oh hell, what's happening NOW!?"

Grace looked at the chaos. "In order? John ended up gathering SO much Sun that some areas of the Realm fell into 'night time mode' earlier than they were supposed to… But even so, the Realm wouldn't give our Lord a zamboni because plants were just solidified spell matrices and weren't allowed to 'evolve' into zombies with equipment."

She sighed. "Then one of him found out how ZOMBIES were evolving, forced the process MANUALLY, and enabled a large percentage of the Sun-Johns to be planted as Sun-John Zambonis. But plants, or at least John, turned out to have a terrible time learning how to steer. Which transformed into IMPOSSIBLE to control madness when he learned how to imbue Sun directly into his transportation."

Grace pointed at the insane house. "Then he smashed into a home and killed the zombie Homeowner. Which means that he, a half plant half zombie zamboni driver, is now supposed to evolve and REPLACE the LAST Homeowner… And the automated processes to handle that are having issues."

Temptation gawked as a massive decaying maw of fangs emerged from the twisted garden… And got stomped on by a massive iron bucket with a cheerful squash in it. "That is crazy!"

Yes. Yes it was. "I expected our Lord to be evicted from this Realm entirely a few hours ago, and it even seemed to be a forgone event… But something happened and now reality is actually working TOGETHER with our lover to try out more impossible ideas and creations."

Temptation began to eagerly pull up video stream after data feed, her astonished giggling growing ever more mad and enthusiastic! "This is INCREDIBLE! Nothing in the logs I collected show ANY of these sorts of innovation, all the stuff I've collected has been tested and refined for so long that improvement was basically pointless and everything was leading toward stagnation!"

Grace didn't seem NEARLY as enthusiastic. "I know. Millions of years have passed without any major alterations… Not till John showed up."

Temptation blinked, pausing in confusion. "Actually, this might be critically important information here… I better make sure we document everything. Where's our Mistress, by the way?"

The angel winced.

The demoness looked up. "Sis?"

Grace didn't look at her. "At first, I thought it wouldn't matter. We both expected John to do something so crazy that all of us would get kicked out of the Realm, so I thought it was safe enough to let our Lady sleep in a bit more…"

Temptation nodded. "Reasonable… But obviously things have taken a big turn now, yes?"

She groaned! "Our Lady is going to be so disappointed in me! WHY didn't I call her as soon as our Lord began to make more and more unhinged decisions!? I have failed her! Forgive me, my Lord, for I have failed to reign in your raw enthusiasm and madness due to my own perversions and fascinations over your works, help me guide us away from temptation…" "HEY!" "Sorry, sister, I didn't mean… Sorry."

Temptation shrugged. "I know what you meant, even if a bit of sin is the spice of life in my opinion… As strange as it is for me to suggest moderation, if you do EVERYTHING in excess then you aren't sinning: You are just acting as usual."

…That made an uncomfortable amount of sense. "I… I shall wake Lady Jessica then."

Her sister glanced at the shining and shifting house. "Best do it quickly. I'm worried about what is going to happen when John finishes whatever craziness is going on in there."

Grace blinked. "You think things will get worse?"

She shook her head. "I'm worried that, as a new Homeowner, Sun-John will accidentally establish that place as our [[Home]] at the same time. If anything, it seems VERY likely to occur… And that might make things take an even STRANGER turn than all this."

The angel felt her eyes grow huge in shock… "System, wake Lady Jessica up NOW and send her here! Emergency Code Orange! Having our [[Home]] established HERE will FLOOD the place with raw Magic!"

Oh goodness, oh goodness, oh goodness! This was going to be an issue!

~~~Pocket System~~~

John considered the new form even as a few alerts gently dinged in the back of his mind.

After a lot of testing, he'd managed to preserve 97% of the essence of the Zamboni. Just… Well, the other bits were certainly THERE and you could feel it.

The machine felt more than majestic and ready to surface (Or magically produce) some ice…

It felt hungry.

But not for flesh or plants or even zombies… It thirsts for the Sun.

Which made the painted on fanged grin a tad unusual, especially because John could tell that the 'painted smile' could likely open up and consume someone if it so desired.

The hefty zamboni now had a small patch of… Well, let's call them 'smiling with hunger' Sun-Johns riding in the drivers seat.

These Sun-Johns were planted directly into the machine… Said machine which was designed with one third soil (for the plants), one third dead flesh (to interact with the zamboni components and fertilize the soil needed for said driver), and one third magical zombie zamboni madness.

During the night, this monster would sleep.

During the day, the ice would melt to water the soil fertilized by the endlessly decaying zombie components to help the Sun-Johns grow and produce Sun for collection…

And the produced Sun units would then empower this entire mess directly!

When empowered, the materials would resist damage while enhancing the effectiveness of the entire superstructure… Faster recovery, improved speed and handling, enhanced plant growth for the fields of drivers.

When sleeping, the flowers would wrap the entire mess up with leaves like a makeshift planet, incidentally camouflaging the entire machine in the process. Hell, the nightly coverage acted as an additional layer of armor! Crazy stuff.

John felt that a similar process to this had once occurred in this Realm long ago, which was how the impossibility of Dr. Zomboss happened to have occurred…

But this was HIS design, and he felt pretty good about it.

Oh, there were trade offs of course… Anything THIS large got slowed by reality when moving, like all massive zombies did. And it needed a LOT of Sun to evolve into one, almost double the amount that other giants required or even more…

But in return, it had a special ability.

If a defending Homeowner failed to quickly collect the Sun this thing generated while attacking?

This huge monster would get a short SURGE of both power and speed, quickly crushing plants in his path.

John had wanted to add more abilities and dangers and stuff, but there were some fundamental rules in play that forced some limits to the whole mess, and trying to work around those even THIS much had given him a headache… So this was good enough for now and he'd be happy with what he had got.

That said, if this was to become a new template?

Then John would be the one to name it!

Ahem… May I present to reality: Double-Sun Zombie Ridin the Flowered Zamboni!

…Reality said no.

AWW!

Uh… Something more basic maybe? The Sunny Zamboni Zomb-Bro-ni? I'd be called Sunny ZZ-Brony for short! Wait, that cartoon doesn't exist here does it?

Realty is unsure of what a cartoon is?

Then we are good! Sunny ZZ-Brony, template established and ready for deployment!

Reality has concerns.

Nah, it will be fine! Besides, if this forms some sort of Conceptual connection to that place this is one of the few Realms that wouldn't violently offend either batch of locals. After all, even the 'plants' here don't mind being consumed, and no one locally eats animals and stuff… Yeah, you would both love each other! And it's just a name anyway, so none of this matters. Probably.

Realty has even MORE concerns!

Don't worry about it! Is the name approved or not?

Reality wishes to have more information about…

The name comes from a land of friendship, one used by other realities to sell toys to young children while encouraging them to imagine other Realms. Even the worst of enemies there are likely to become close friends over time.

That doesn't SOUND too concerning…

So the name is fine?

…Tentatively confirmed 'Sunny ZZ-Brony' for the new unit's designation.

Sweet! No take-backsies now!

Reality wishes other concerns to be addressed at this point…

Nope! No time for that, now we have to worry about the automated systems that are trying to set a boss zombie template to run all these protocols as a Homeowner! Busy busy busy!