Here is Chapter 11 fellow readers, sorry for the slow update but, again, life holds you back and can't I guarantee the exact date I will update future chapters. I suggest to be patient.
I will put this here again, I don't own PVZ or it's original aspects.
Nothing else to say so go ahead.
Rose blinked her eyes repeatedly to keep them moisturized and her vision clean and cleared. Behind her, Agents Citron and Kernel were dragging their roots to move forward. Though Kernel moved more than Citron, as he has dealt with lack of sleep plenty of times.
The three were a little tired, and grumpy, mostly Kernel on the inside due to their failed attempt to speak with another plant, and Rose will have a talk with Citron and Kernel about it, but later, after they all got some rest. It has been a long, long night and the three wish for nothing more than rest, but the job isn't done just yet. They lost the unknown runaway, or 'rollaway' as Citron likes to say, and the sounds of constant gunfire in the distance were alarming along with the explosion and roars that followed after. It didn't sit well with them not knowing what transpired.
When they were still in the forest, the three arrived at the point of conflict, but all they found were uprooted trees, discarded bullet shells and shrapnel. No doubt an intense battle occurred against zombies, if the purple bullets on the floor and embedded on various surfaces were any indication, but Citron also discovered another factor. Bits of plant blood were found near a large, dented boulder. His scanners also identified it to belong to a sunflower, but they found no evidence of them. There was no body, or any indication as to where they were headed. He also discovered some of the discarded metal bits belonged to a metal petal sunflower, his scanners picking up the natural cellular structure of their steel hard petals. Lastly there was zombie blood and ripped clothing hanging from branches, waving slightly in the breeze. The three wondered what the outcome of the battle was, it was such a mystery. Based on what they found, they hoped the sunflowers won.
Back to the present, the three agents were returning to the base exhausted and in need of sleep. Rose however, was in deep thought.
Rose had a strong feeling the unknown plant would not trust them after that stunt. They were stunned, then chased after them like a trio of strange maniacs. Rose hates to admit it, but they could have handled that situation better, they probably now look like a trio of ruffians to that plant. Rose also hopes to not only speak to them, but also apologize for their actions. However, the plant was also hiding around the edge of the Town Hall and likely eavesdropping on them. Even if they were a plant, that was still suspicious.
'But what were they doing there? Invisible and wearing full armor?' Rose wondered.
Iron citrons usually have their armor on for long periods of time, they practically lived in them, but even they take them off either for long breaks or forging and cleaning. Those that don't take some parts off for fresh air such as the headpiece of their armor, or wear hats. Only those that prepare for combat are always recommended to have their entire armor on.
Rose had never seen such kind of armor before either. The armor could just be some kind of new custom wear. Rose's thoughts soon went back to its appearance, with its visor and some indescribable features that she was able to see, yet couldn't find what they were. But she saw none like it before. This definitely could be an alien, or maybe a new variant that Crazy Dave never mentioned, like he always does. Then again alien plants similar to an earth plant may be classified as a variant despite not being from the same planet.
The shuffling and groans from her companions snapped her out of her thinking world. She turned back to the two plants, who looked tired beyond belief, more than she was. Rose was tired though only slightly. She floats after all, but staying up without sleep and trying to focus on finding an unknown plant is still tiring. Citron And Kernel on the other vine, seemed to have run the possible equivalent of a marathon.
"I believe we shall get rest, we have been up all over the woods all night looking for them," Rose stated.
Citron smirked in clear agreement while Kernel scowled in protest.
"Our time can be better put to use finding that citron, the more we spend talking the more likely that plant will be in trouble," growled Kernel.
"Come on Stalk Man, just relax for a day at least. I know you like fighting and all but taking a break doesn't hurt anyone," Citron responded. Kernel turned towards the bounty hunter with a seething glare. Citron invisibly sweatdropped.
"Unless you want to fall asleep on a flying butterhawk, be my guest. I have no plans to sleep during our next mission." Citron huffed. He towards the orange portal in the base. Kernel sighed.
"I'll do a patrol around the borders. There is a chance I may find something useful, or destroy zombies," Kernel declared. Before Rose or Citron could say or do anything in protest Kernel Corn shuffled away towards an unknown location. The two watched him go silently till he was about of sight.
"Well, that happened. Anyway, I'll get my rest as well, see ya!" Citron rolled up into his ball and raced towards the gates of the plants side. Rose just watched him leave quickly till he disappeared. She was now on her own.
Rose floated in her spot for a minute, before she resumed her pace also towards the gates of the L.E.A.F. base. The area was filled with little sounds, almost as if it was abandoned. The only indication that life existed here were the sounds of battle near the flag of power despite the flag not being raised at the moment. Nonetheless, Rose continued on without batting an eye towards the area, seeing the display again and again since she arrived in the present.
Rose entered the the base, the gates closing behind her with a clank. The inside of the base was also empty, but she knew that plants will soon come through for the jobs and missions they signed up for.
Rose continued on, levitating towards the back of the base, passing through the giant hollowed trunk of the massive tree and around the boyard, and straight towards the back of the base.
There, she spotted the open portals that led to their respective areas of work. Orange being Citron's portal, yellow being Kernel's portal, and red being her own portal.
Rose floated towards the red portal, the swirling passageway ruffling her cape and petals. Rose soon entered, and as quick as she did, she know found herself within the confines of her castle.
Rose took a breath, and exhaled. She was so glad to be back in her lustrous home again.
"Much better than the stench of rotten flesh in the morning." Rose stated.
The plant from the past continued her way through the structure, going up the stairs and passing the magnificent throne at the top. Rose suddenly yawned.
"I should make some coffee…" Rose said to no one. The beautiful plant floated towards her grand kitchen nearby. Rose went to the coffee machine, a gift from Crazy Dave along with her fridge being half filled with tacos inside gift wrapped plastic boxes which the man insisted for her to have. The man loves giving gift tacos to newcomers. Rose just chuckled at the memory.
Rose pressed a few buttons to activate the machine, coffee was soon poured in a mug decorated with roses and vine designs. The machine finished pouring the liquid and Rose took out the hot mug tenderly. She levitated some cream and spoon from a jar and plucked it into her drink. The liquid was stirred till it turned a nice deep brown mix.
Through a door she opened, she passed many rooms and down a long hallway towards a location she knew all too well.
At last, she made it. Her crystal ball, an item fused with powerful magic from the ancient past, her past, sat in the center of the room on a table covered with a brilliantly polished red and gold table top. The crystal ball, if activated with a certain spell, will allow the user to see events from the past, present, and even the future. Though it's limited. It is very useful indeed, Rose used the special item to witness and prepare her dear plant army on potential danger that will take place. Thanks to the sights and visions it revealed, many soldiers were saved from terrible fates.
Rose, though tired, is determined to use it for future plans.
She floated over to the chair and sat down in front of the table. Once she was comfortable Rose looked over to her crystal ball, wand in her rose hands. She waved her wand around the crystal ball, in the meantime she chanted a spell while she waved her wand.
The crystal ball lit up, colors danced within its transparent surface. Rose stopped her chanting and looked at her work in action. The ball glowed before settling down, allowing Rose to start. She waved her wand around the globe once, images swirled into existence.
Rose frowned. The images she received were of no importance to the cause of the war. There was no significant activity for her to see, which made her suspicious regardless. Thankfully the images revealed mostly normal activity, and no one seemed to be in any form of danger.
Rose was on the verge of closing the spell, until she spotted a familiar figure. The same armored citron the agents and herself have been after. Rose lowered her wand slowly, her attention taken to the crystal ball's display with the unknown citron.
Rose noticed that the citron was standing near the Town Hall right now, the same place where they first spotted them. Moments later she saw them become invisible but the crystal ball still had their body's outline visible. The unknown plant was walking away from the area.
'If we turned around at that time when we came back, we could have spotted them,' Rose thought as she continued to watch the citron.
'I could go there right now, or even teleport over to them, but it may just scare them more. Maybe watching them from here will give me answers.'
Rose relaxed on her chair while watching the citron do their thing, and hopefully know what their goal is. She sipped her coffee silently.
…
Pulse watched and sighed at the makeshift grave of the dead solar flora from the distance, her hearts heavy with sorrow. She was already far from it, almost reaching the ship docks. She was fully cloaked, and nothing seemed to know she was there.
The area was now very quiet, the sounds of the fluffy looking flying animals singing occasionally in the trees were the only noises to be heard, but their songs did nothing to steer Pulse's thoughts from the burial in front of her.
'I should have used something to help them, but I didn't...I didn't even have anything on me for medication...even if I did, I wouldn't be sure if it could have worked…' Pulse sulked on the spot, eyes closed.
'Now...there isn't anything for me to do. I should return to my spaceship.'
Pulse eyed the grave one last time before she turned her back to it. She soon caught the sight of the biped's corpse from earlier, the biped who tried to grab her. Pulse was still very surprised that it still died by smacking into a wall. It didn't even look like it hit the wall that hard.
'It must have been very weak, or it has a weak body structure,' Pulse thought. She looked back to the sea for she was almost reaching it, however, she wanted more information about these species. Perhaps studying it will give her answers for the ones that were chasing her. The one on the ground was pretty much dead, so she quickly walked back to the Town Hall to check out the creature. She analyzed her surroundings as approached the immobile biped who still had its pointy orange accessory on its head, avoiding any of the others who were getting a bit too close for her comfort. Once she was close enough a mechanical tendril slipped out of Pulse's armor and reached toward the creature and gently poked it.
It didn't move at all, not even a sound. Pulse poked it again, this time harder than before. Again, there was no response.
Pulse had another tendril come out, and used the two limbs to move the biped onto its back entirely. She got a better look at its face, and Pulse had to admit, it was ugly, and the way its blank eyes stared at nothing unnerved her a little.
Nonetheless she made another command to her suit. Two more tendrils slipped out, but unlike the usual ones with digits for grabbing, these new ones had a scalpel and a needle on their ends. The little scalpel reached first and gently cut a thin bit of skin from the creature's arm, now Pulse was in possession of a dime sized skin sample. The sample of skin was hanging on the blade as Pulse balanced it nicely, refusing to let it fall.
Pulse was also thankful it wasn't alive anymore, or it would have likely screamed loudly in pain if it was. That would alert others of her presence, and it wouldn't end well.
'But I'm pretty sure the word is spreading of an unknown quadruped thing wearing armor…', Pulse mused. Though her mind quickly shifted towards the skin sample. She grinned.
'Alright! My first sample!' Pulse beamed internally, though she flinched a little at the sight of the skin and the area she cut it from on the biped, she isn't used to seeing cut flesh.
'Okay, okay…,' Pulse inhaled to calm her stomach, 'You are coming with me.'
A slot opened on Pulse's suit, and she placed the skin sample inside. The slot closed immediately. Once the sample was secured, she turned back to the biped, eyes gazing towards the tendril with the needle.
'I think I hate needles more than having a piece of skin taken from you, but it still has to be done,' the citron thought bitterly.
The needle reached down towards the same biped's arm. The needle reached its flesh slowly, though the needle was shaking a little.
'Come on! Don't be nervous! Just do it! It will be quick!' Pulse shook a little, staring at the biped's limb. The space orange soon worked up the nerve, and quickly pierced the skin of the arm. The needle was soon sucking blood, a strange red and purplish mix was filling the needle's capsule. Pulse pulled it out, now in possession of blood samples. Pulse stared at the extracted blood, staring at the strange mix of colors. She gently jiggled the needle, head tilted at the way the blood moved.
'Hmm, the blood seems thicker than most other blood samples I had seen before. If their blood is this thick, then they may have a difficult time with circulation, and why does it have red and purple? Some kind of specialized cells? Bacteria? I will have to look further into that later,' Pulse wondered.
Another slot opened in her suit and the needle was placed inside, now detached from the mechanical limb, it closed securing the small object.
Pulse was now done. There wasn't anything else to do with the biped, so she stepped back and turned around, leaving the area of her presence. Pulse checked on her cloaking feature, which was fully active and it still had enough juice for her to return to her ship, and she was thankful it worked well again. She checked around for any suspicious movement for danger to herself. There was nothing of great danger, or anything scary nearby. That metal beast really had the potential to give her heart attacks, and kill her. She wasn't sure her suit could protect her but she wasn't going to risk that. She was sure her suit could protect her from its attacks, but for how long, and would it have given up after a while? Pulse shook the thoughts away, shifting her focus to the present.
Pulse waddled away from the area, leaving the biped's corpse and the grave behind her.
There wasn't much for her in the area, the same thing that she has witnessed before the first time she arrived. The bipeds were fighting against green flora like creatures, which typically took place in the center. Speaking of the green creatures, Pulse saw one of them laying immobile on the ground near the large pole. Pulse, with the ever curious mind, approached it.
The green creature, or being, Pulse didn't know how to classify it as of yet, laid with its limbs sprung wide and broken. Pulse once again grimaced at the state it was. Its body, or stem, was riddled with open wounds, wounds like the solar flora from before. The wounds were riddled with ugly purple splotches, and bleeding which indicated that this was recent. Its limbs were bent in ways that probably weren't what they were supposed to, and its face. Its face was void of life. The eyes were still open, and its mouth, their eyes were blank of anything.
'It's eyes are still open, along with these fresh wounds, this could mean that this creature was killed in possibly an ambush, or just taken down front and center. Why do they fight anyway?''
Pulse scrutinized the body a little more, but found nothing else of importance. Pulse looked around for anyone or anything suspicious, once she found nothing, a slot in her suit opened up, where spare needles were being held. A mechanical limb slipped out and attached one of the needles inside. The needles penetrated the skin of the green organism and extracted another blood sample. The filled needle was stored safely with the other. Pulse took another look at the body and she noticed the green flaps around the base of its stem, better described as leaves. Some of the leaves were withered and riddled with holes, some were also hanging off from the rest of the body from a few strands of skin. Pulse plucked off a small sample of the leaves, only two inches in width and a centimeter thick, but it will prove very useful in learning more of their biology.
'I have gotten so much, but my suit has a limit, even with all the features it has. I should turn back home before I get distracted by anything else. But these creatures, or beings...' Pulse's mind went back to the recent memories. The hostile bipeds, the solar flora, as well as the biped with the orange accessory from earlier and this green thing. 'What is all this fighting for? Dominance? Resources? Territory? I wish I could speak to them, but we can't understand each other. It would be wonderful to get through the language barrier without misunderstandings. Also, I don't think I am really qualified for First Contact. Once I am finished learning what I can down here, someone will be sent as a representative if my planet is interested in coming here.'
Pulse checked her suit for the samples just in case, not wanting to lose them.
However, when Pulse stepped backwards, she felt something behind her, freezing her in place from shock. There shouldn't be anything behind her, because she was in an open area.
Sniff sniff~
Pulse flinched, 'What was that?...'
Sniff sniff~
Pulse felt something pressing and tapping on her armor, their sensory panels picking up on the physical contact and alerting the alien of its presence. Pulse grew pale, eyes widened beyond their limit, her skin crawled and shivered. Whatever was behind her could cause harm with her EX-Suit on. Right?
Pulse moved. She dashed forward, giving her space from whatever it was, and spun around faster than she could blink to look.
She was met with teeth, rows upon rows of teeth attached to a massive mouth with green lips and a striped tongue. A thick, strange and sticky fluid was dripping from the mouth and staining the green grass. Its breath clouded her visor's glass slightly, but the creature and its purple and green glory was still as clear her head. It didn't even have eyes.
'W-what is this?! Some k-kind of predator?!' Pulse's mind raced in increasing panic, her blood rushing through her mind and filling her with fear.
The creature suddenly made loud noises at her, opening and closing its mouth repeatedly to do so. Pulse waddled back, completely startled at its sudden action.
'I been found!' Pulse screamed in her head.
'I been discovered! Its calling its allies to me! And eat me!' Pulse jumped and curled up in ball mode, but at the cost of losing her cloaking, since both abilities can't be used at the same time.
Pulse rolled away, her panic not coming to a close just yet. Her path directed towards the ocean as her best way to escape the creature.
…
The chomper barked happily at the orange of the future in front of him. After an entire day of doing missions, eating zombies and having his stomach filled for the day, the chomper wanted do some activities and pass the time. All his friends were busy either being soldiers or doing other things in their free time. The chomper had no one to have fun with.
Until he sniffed what might be an iron citron in the Backyard Battleground, a weird one at that. The metallic scent didn't match the plant's, and apparently it was invisible? Since when could iron citrons do that? At least it was a citron and not a zombie at least, so this was the time to make a new friend!
But when the chomper came close to them and barked some greetings in excitement, the citron became visible and rolled away very fast. They zoomed away so quick, he was surprised at the sight (despite his kind not having eyes). The chomper was confused. Did they not want to play?
The saddened chomper ran off after the citron, still barking.
'Wait! Please don't go! Is it my breath? Is there zombie flesh hanging from my teeth?! I knew I should have brushed them!' The chomper chased the citron all the way to the shore, and he made a rough squeak in surprise when the orange jumped in the ocean. The chomper stopped before he fell down and stared at the water, his mind being filled with concern. Most plants can't swim, their bodies are not meant for water due to having a lack of fat like humans as well as the lack aquatic properties. Citrons are heavy due to their future armor and dense bodies. So the chomper stared at the water trying to find the citron, worried for them. The poor chomper couldn't see anything beyond the murky water. He began losing hope.
Splash!
The chomper perked up at the sudden water splashing. The figure of the armored citron swam and splashed away from the shore, jumping in and out of the water like a dolphin. It looked so majestic.
The chomper grinned, happy knowing that the plant didn't drown. Soon, his smile fell, realizing that he didn't have a friend now, and now there was hardly anyone to go to at this time except zombies, but he wasn't interested in going there.
He turned and sulked sadly back towards the Backyard Battleground to search for friends, or at least something to do in the meantime.
Pulse is still weary of everything, and that chomper just wanted to have a friend. Considering Pulse has a citron like figure (and that she is one) others can and will mistake her as being a normal armored citron on Earth with cool armor designs like the chomper did, but he wasn't interested in that. Besides, if you turned to look behind you and saw massive jaws so close to your face, wouldn't you run too?
See ya next time folks!