I'm back! The story isn't dead! : D

The sounds of an explosion and metal falling from the sky not too far in the distance caught the attention of Rose and Kernel Corn, but their stoic and determined expressions remained, not even flinching from the sudden noise. Kernel rolled his eyes, knowing he had seen these explosions often in the battlefield with his bounty hunting friend. Sure, they sometimes worked together on missions and hung around each other, even if Kernel wasn't the most social of plants. If Rose and Kernel didn't know Citron, then they would've been confused or worried as to what caused it. Nevertheless, the two headed towards the site anyway.

"Does he have to go overboard every time with his battles with that zombie rival of his?" Kernel Corn huffed loudly through the squawks of terrified birds. One of them almost crashed onto his face, but Kernel immediately swatted it away before it did. The bird glared at the plant, but quickly left, too scared to stay in a dangerous place.

"He's a bounty hunter; you know how he is," Rose simply said, not fazed by her friend's tone one bit, already having gotten used to it a long time ago.

"I know, he just needs to tone down his excitement unless risk someone or something being injured," Kernel Corn responded.

Before the two could say anything else, they came across a broken section of the forest they were traversing. Trees were uprooted and broken with ome small blazes here and there around the area, but thankfully not strong enough to cause a forest fire. Broken pieces of metal and wire were strewn around, the torn ends of the wires sparking occasionally.

A small pained groan made the two turn their heads towards a pile of burned scraps and wire. A small, green hand poked out of the pile and tried to get a grip on something. Soon it got ahold of a stable piece of rubble and used it pull the rest of its body, which was the body of an imp. He pulled himself out fully, but tumbled onto the ground face-first.

"Uhk! That hurts. I was sure I could take him on this time," the imp muttered to himself, clearly disappointed about his loss. He stood up and brushed himself off. He was about to run back to base when he was suddenly hoisted in the air by the scruff of his neck.

"Hey! What giv—" The imp stopped his sentence when he was brought face to face with Kernel Corn. The imp's eyes widened at the glare the plant commander gave off. His face was drained of color.

"So imp, where is Citron?" Kernel's face was nothing but stern, which made the imp shudder. The imp didn't say anything, which deepened the glare from the corn.

A familiar voice, however, called out, "Hey , I'm right here. I didn't know you cared about me" The familiar voice of the futuristic fruit reached the nonexistent ears of the two agents, and Kernel frowned at the stupid nickname.

Chuckling, Citron waddled over to the two; some small scrapes were visible on him from his recent battle, but they were nothing serious.

Then, Kernel placed the imp down on the ground, which confused the small zombie who turned his head to look back at Kernel Corn. Kernel, with one mighty kick from his stubby leafy legs, sent the tiny zombie flying high. The kick sent the imp flying high above the tree top like a football. He was also screaming at the top of his lungs as he soared higher, then arched down and fell for quite a distance. Rose gaped at the scene that just played.

"That...that was not necessary, Kernel Corn..."

Kernel shrugged nonchalantly, "so? We can't have him hear us or eavesdrop on us. Zomboss can't know of our deal here, which is already suspicious."

"But that was still rude..."

"Most zombies don't care what they do to us since they just follow whatever order they receive from Zomboss, and as long as they get disgusting brains, they are willing to do it. Execute us, torture us, eat us, you know the rest. And you say that what I did was rude?"

Rose narrowed her eyes slightly.

Citron decided to step in." Okay, stop this, this is not the time for this, so let's get back to what we were doing out here. Searching for that probably extraterrestrial plant."

Rose saw the scratches on him and frowned. "I won't even ask..."

Citron chuckled, then shrugged." Yep, the imp again. Though he didn't even improve or so he said. I was actually looking forward, but I guess I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up in the end. However, this battle lasted longer than our usual ones."

Kernel shook his head. "Forget the imp, have you seen where that armored citron rolled of to?"

"They took a turn, but then that imp just had to fight me at the worst time. However, you don't have to fret since I still remember where they went, unless they turned and went somewhere else..." Citron sighed.

Kernel just frowned. "Let's just go and try to find the unidentified plant so we can go home."

Citron curled up in his ball and went deeper into the forest; Kernel followed silently while Rose shook her head at their behavior and floated after them.

…

The same imp Kernel kicked away rubbed his head, feeling a bump on his head from where he hit a tree while he fell from the sky. He was disoriented, but it didn't take long for him to regain his mind. Once he did he let out a stream of curses to those plants that if his professors heard him he would be praised by them.

The imp stood and rubbed his butt, which hurt more than the head bump. The imp snorted in agitation and waddled away out of the forest and back to the zombie's side of the backyard. However he couldn't help but wonder what the three main heads of the plant army were doing out of their base. Sure, he had seen them out of the bases but almost always in battles, and most of those encounters with ninety-nine percent of the time being against that cocky orange. Seeing all three of them out of the base outside a battle was very strange, and the imp even considered it suspicious.

Surprisingly, to some plants for some reason, not every zombie is a dumb semi-alive corpse. Even though the imp is not the smartest zombie out there, because Zomboss brags to everyone and everything that he is the most intelligent being in existence, it does not mean the imp does not have the capability to think.

And he thought all three agents were being very suspicious.

…

Pulse observed the small insect crawling on her arm curiously. Even if she is the alien here, these little extraterrestrial creatures have interested her, since them and this planet hasn't been documented at all. Neither her digital library, nor any library back home even if they look similar to some other creatures she had seen. As far as she researched, there is no record of this planet or the people here. She already knew this since she arrived on the planet but she still wanted to remind herself.

Another of the small creatures landed on her arm, and turned it's head towards her visor. It then made a tiny noise which sounded like a small pip, and it was so adorable.

Pulse smiled under her helmet, she felt a giggle trying to escape her throat though she didn't let it be so.

There were more of these small adorable critters flying around; some landed on the plant life, while some landed on the surface of her suit. Pulse didn't mind one bit.

The critter made the same squeaky noise, which was directed at her. She turned her gaze towards it and noticed the way it stared at her. Pulse tilted her head at it and its actions. Was it intelligent in some way, or was it just some instinct?

Another one of the little bugs landed right in front of her visor, making her flinch. She chuckled and snorted at the display. It tilted its head down to look at her.

The way the small critter looked at her respectively meant that it was intentionally looking at her for something like the first one. It must have intelligence, but not civilization-level intelligence. Perhaps like animals that can use basic tools.

Pulse then raised her other arm slowly towards it. The critter shifted its body to look at it, though it didn't fly away in terror when the appendage several times bigger than it came closer to it. The tip of her arm eventually came into contact with its head, and she took extreme care when she petted its tiny body. It made another squeak like noise as if it was happy; its little organic appendage on its rear lit up as well.

Before anything else could be said or done, strange noises erupted from a small distance away. It sounded like something was in pain, and despite not recognizing what made the sound heard Pulse still felt that they were cries of torment. Pulse stood up, causing the small citrus looking insects to fly off her into the trees and bushes. She didn't mind that, but she's hoping they will come back to this spot and see them again. She looked around for the source of the noises, thinking it was some kind of animal. Pulse heard the cries once again and whipped her head around. A thud and the rustles of leaves reached her. Pulse still tensed, not knowing what it might be.

There, next to a small bush under a tree. A plant was laying face down, twitching slightly. Pulse's eyes widened at the sight of them, unsure about what to feel about this being or creature. She slowly approached the unknown plant, careful about startling it. When Pulse was a foot away, she saw the entity more clearly as it tried to get up.

They appeared to be a solar flora, since the petals on their head and around their face were easy to recognize. There were some animal species that resembled solar floras back home, but she didn't think she would see an alien that resembled one to such likeness, that she would have mistaken this one as a normal person if she didn't do a double take.

Pulse examined the being and noticed the strange violet spots on its body. She wasn't sure if it was natural but she let it slide... until she noticed something on the stem part of its body. There, she saw several holes on it leaking a transparent greenish liquid that Pulse concluded was the being's blood.

Pulse stepped back upon further examination; she recognized the shape of those holes. They were gunshot wounds.

A muffled moan was heard from the solar flora since it rested its face against the ground. Pulse wasn't sure if she wanted to help, she didn't want to get involved in this planet's affairs, but she didn't like the idea of possibly letting someone die.

So Pulse gently tapped the flora's head, trying to get a reaction from it. It didn't move, but it let out a sound of pain. Pulse suddenly felt guilty about poking it but quickly shook her head from those thoughts, she should try and do something.

She didn't know how to help them; she had no knowledge of its anatomy even though they looked incredibly similar to the solar floras back home, but she didn't want to risk doing something wrong and instead accidentally kill this being if she tried and operated on it. She didn't even have any form of sufficient medical care for it in her.

Pulse paced back and forth trying to think of a solution to save this life.

Pulse then remembered. She saw a green and brown gated building right across the violet building she examined when she entered it. She could take the plant there, and hopefully it was some kind of hospital, or at the very least had medical facilities.

Pulse approached the dying lifeform. Then a light bulb popped over her head. Pulse voiced out some commands into her suit to activate another function. Two panels on each side of her armored face opened up. Two thin yet strong mechanical tendrils slid out like snakes; at their ends were three movable digits.

The mechanical tendrils then slid under the plant, picking them up gently. The solar flora twitched and whimpered slightly as more of their blood dripped down tainting the soft grass. Pulse grimaced; she needed to get them medication quickly.

Pulse bounded through the trees while trying to not bobble the poor plant too much, and headed towards the direction where she last saw that structure, hoping she could get there in time.

Heeeeeeey guys! I'm back! I didn't abandon the story, and I don't plan to do so anytime soon.

I wanna thank Schmacklar for beta reading this chapter for me, as well as the grammar reviews, I find them useful.

I also wanna thank RaymondRacer, the only reader who gave me their answer and suggestions to last chapter's question.