When we last left our bumbling travelers, they had thrown hands with the vicious Dr. Megasynth. Honored alongside Rosewood’s freedom fighters, the Woodland Warriors, the Whackos have taken a small hiatus at Rosewood, eager to enjoy the company of its people. Days have passed since the celebration, and much of the Whacko gang are fresh and eager to hit the road once again. Our story begins in the confines of the Woodland Warriors’ headquarters. There, we find the freedom fighters debating over some political tactics.
“You’re looking at this all wrong,” said a combative member, “You split the factions like so. If they try to dig through the trenches, they’re gonna get burned.
“And here’s where YOU are incorrect, my furry friend,” argued another, “If they were to split the factions, who's to say they don’t all end up losing their dynamic? I say we continue grouping them together. Larger hands equal lesser opposition.”
“We can’t group factions like that! There’ll be nothing left for the remaining stragglers!”
“And how will you know if we’ll have stragglers?”
“It’s common! Group tactics always have stragglers!”
As the debate reigned, a happy-go-lucky bunny rabbit waddled into the room. Joey, the jovial rabbit, greeted his nearby cohort, Ryan and asked, “What's going on?”
“Oh, sup, bro,” greeted Ryan, “I’ve been watching Mr. Prickles battle the upper crust over who’s splitting the pizza we ordered. Been at it for hours.”
“O-oh, that’s who that was for…” Joey uttered with a slow curl to his ears. Ryan shifted his eyes at Joey and uttered quietly, “What?! Are you serious?!”
“I-I was hungry, I didn’t know that was for someone else…”
“Dude!”
“He-hey…” Joey remarked with a sheepish burp, “Who knew vegan pizza had such a sweet flavor.”
“I fear you’ve been asserting poor judgment, comrade,” the upper crust asserted, “We’ll discuss this further with the princess. Good day, hedgehog!” The debate ended with a harumph and a soldier’s march to another room, with that hedgehog trailing not too far behind.
It was those snide remarks that made Joey turn to his friend and comment, “Boy, those guys sure fight a lot. They’re almost as combative as you and, uh… say, where is Danny anyway?”
“He’s with the cyborg. Something about weapons practice over at Acorn Halls. I’d take you, but I couldn’t care less.”
“Not feeling like a marksman today, pal?” Joey queried with a smirk.
“Pfft! Who do you take me for?! I’m an excellent marksman!” Ryan shot back, “It’s just that, uh, my ears… yeah! My ears, they’ve been ringing like crazy since the cannon thing back in the city. Poor bastage nearly made me go deaf!”
“What about the others?”
“Julie? Still tweaking the Groovemachine with the fat dude who I forgot the name of,” explained Ryan, “Melody’s, uh… reading? And the boss is having a little rendezvous with the princess if you know what I mean, hahaha!” Joey didn’t often understand Ryan’s wordplay. But he was always happy to give his smooth friend a smile and a nod.
While the boys loitered in the hall, they were called into the laboratory by an excited fruity scientist. It’s there when they find Julie spinning in a hover chair, eagerly shouting, “We’ve done it!” She hopped off to embrace her confused boyfriend. Joey reciprocated the embrace but asked what Julie had meant. She then took her boyfriend by the cheeks and feasted his eyes on her work desk.
“Feast your eyes on…” Julie exclaimed, “the Spectrum-Injector 400!”
“...You mean that double-ended tire iron?” asked the dumbfounded Joey.
“That’s not a tire iron!” exclaimed the offended scientist, “It’s a specialized image-refracting device! Here, look! You peek your eye on one end, and after a few minutes…” Julie lowered the “tire iron” and revealed a kaleidoscope of colors emanating from her eye. The boys jumped in shock. The boys were taken aback by Julie’s psychedelic transformation. Julie explained that thanks to Ruckus’s technology, she was able to create a handheld eye machine.
“Woah, trippy,” an awestruck Joey uttered, “So, what’s it do…?”
“I have no idea. But I can see echoes and taste noise…” Julie replied, “Say, do I hear pizza?”
“Erm, H-how’s this- How’s about the Groovemobile, sweetie?” Joey crudely interrupted.
“Oh, right. That. Well, uh…”
“The automobile is repaired!” entered Ruckus, “Thanks to some spare nuts and bolts, your fruit friend and I were able to patch that up within a week. Though, who’s your supplier? I couldn’t make heads or tails off some of this stuff, I could only do so much with what I knew.” Ruckus then added how he had some concerns over the use of scraps recovered from Megasynthoidopolis, only to be given a rebuttal about his team’s use of NEXA, a literal supercomputer.
“Looks like we can finally hit the road again!” cheered Joey, “I can’t wait to tell big bro the good news!” The young bunny kissed his girl then dashed out of HQ to find his dad. That left Ryan to ask the Rotor an important question.
“Say, Ruckus, you got experience with androids?”
MEANWHILE…
Somewhere in the deep forest, a fox and a chipmunk were spotted at a nearby lake. They lay beside one another, enjoying the ambience of nature. Rumor has it that they started a connection, but tabloids tend to exaggerate things while skipping over the finer details.
Jean-Luc, a fox of many qualities, took the time to bask in such a beautiful presence. It’s not often he gets to sit back for a change, to breathe in the scent of pure femininity. He just loved nature and her wonderful craftsmanship. Adding to that was the presence of Rosewood’s delicate princess.
Sandra, however, was more than delicate. She’s a leader of an underground rebellion dedicated to the safety of her kingdom. Pushed by the goals of her father, this chipmunk is primed to carry Rosewood to the future. And yet… she never got a chance to step back from her duties to appreciate what was right in front of her. That was until a certain “Funky Fox” entered her life. The pair laid by the lake lost in conversation.
“So, you’ve never been outside of the forest outside of missions?” the fox questioned.
“Never,” the chipmunk answered, “All my life, I’ve spent it in the kingdom or working tactics for the rebellion that I’ve-... never had the time to just… be myself. Ever since my teens, I’ve been on the clock, praying for a break.”
“Man, I know how that feels… though, it beats working a desk job,” joked the humbled fox, giving the princess a light chuckle. Curious, she turned her gaze to the cloudless sky and asked, “So Whackos, Incorporated is branching out to other regions?”
“Yeah, hopefully. It’s just… needing to get off the ground,” answered the fox.
“Then, what will you do in the meantime? What goals do you plan to set once your business takes off?”
“You have a lot of questions, Sandy.”
“What can I say, Jean?” Sandy remarked with a light giggle, “You’re a mysterious guy.”
In all fairness, Jean-Luc has been pretty quiet about himself since he met Sandra. Much of his musings boiled down to little chirps and light wit. He never really took the time to open up as he’d liked. Though, when you look at it from his point of view, could you blame him?
The winds blew lightly throughout the forest. Two lone leaves fall gently onto the lake’s surface. The leaves fell perfectly next to one another akin to the pair that rested ashore. Jean-Luc glanced lightly at the position of the leaves before setting her sights on Sandra. Then, Jean-Luc called her name. Sandra answered with half-open eyes. Their eyes closed as they slowly grew closer. Their lips puckered right before the touch.
*Smak!* A kiss was laid, but not on the lips of the princess, but instead, an adorably hatted rabbit.
“Aw, dad. I didn’t know you cared.”
“ACK! Bunny lips?! PTOOEY!”
Joey plucked himself from the ground to give his freaked father the good news. He said, “Car’s ready, dad! We can head out on the road before sundown.” The boy then took off his hat and bowed to the princess then tunneled back to headquarters.
“Your son is quite polite,” the princess giggled, much to the fox’s slight chagrin.
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