Replanted Remastered

Something's Cooking

Armed with the knowledge that Dr. Zomboss had been on the floor they were on, Alice, Ragz and Mink snuck around the halls, with Ms. Marie's scent warding off any zombies that may have approached them.

"Anyone smell something cooking?" asked Alice. "I'm.. I'm mostly worried about Crazy Dave. Peter's got his crossbow, he can defend himself, and zombies don't seem to attack Pudding.. But poor Dave's on his own,"

Ragz shrugged. "I can't smell anything over Ms. Marie,"

"-The Magnificent," Mink added. "I'm terribly sorry that she's such an excellent garlic, her scent is too strong to smell anything else over,"

"Well.. maybe you should go look for Peter or something, then. One of us needs that extra bit of help to find Dave,"

The three glanced between each other.

"..I'm the one who's gonna have to pick someone to go with, huh," said Ragz. After all, he was the only one without a plant to protect him.

Alice took a deep breath. "Yeah. You.. you should go with Mink. I have Sweetpea to protect me, but what if there's a zombie who can't smell or something? You're the zombie puncher, here,"

"..I don't wanna lose you again, man,"

The two stood in silence for a minute.

"Good luck on finding Peter," said Alice. "Sweetpea n' I will be okay, I promise-"

Ragz hugged Alice tighter than he ever had before. Alice swore they must've cracked a rib or two because of his strength. "You better fucking be okay! If you aren't, I'm gonna kick Zomboss' ass myself!"

"That's- agh, that's the spirit!" Alice squeaked through the tightness in their chest. Mink pulled Ragz off of Alice and the trio parted ways. Sweetpea saluted Ragz and Mink, and presumably wished Mink luck with his few plantspeak words.

Alice and Sweetpea walked alongside one another down through the rooms, trying to smell any trace of something cooking. They walked through room after room of nothing notable, aside from the odd tubes and glowing orange lamps spotted around. Eventually, though, they reached a hallway lined with windows. They were at an edge of the building. Alice stared outside, their worry growing as they saw the smoke starting to cover the city. A nightmare come alive.

"Sweetpea.. Look at that," said Alice. They lifted up Sweetpea to see out the window. He stared out at the dreary skies and frowned. He glanced back at Alice, who sighed. "We're gonna stop Zomboss. Crazy Dave's gonna use his invention and get rid of all that smoke. He has to." they set down Sweetpea. "He.. he really has to,"

The pair reached a staircase, leading either upwards or downwards. Alice breathed deeply in an attempt to smell food- finally getting a hint of something stewing. Hopefully not Crazy Dave. "Sweetpea, it's.. It's upstairs! Come on, we're close!" they said, picking up Sweetpea and rushing up the stairs.

They followed their nose, wandering the halls until the scent suddenly grew stronger. They quietly stepped into a large room, clearly a kitchen from what they could see. They panicked seeing a stray pot, but quickly remembered where they were.

"Brainz..?" groaned a zombie nearby. It dropped the spoon it was stirring with and stumbled towards them, but was quickly dispatched by Sweetpea. The few other zombie cooks were killed as well, leaving Alice alone in the kitchen. With the threat gone, they rushed around, looking for any trace of Crazy Dave - quickly finding another barred cell. They looked inside, and to their relief - spotted Crazy Dave, unharmed.

"Dave! I'm here!" said Alice.

Crazy Dave sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Frosty? Iss'at really you?" he mumbled.

"Yes, it's me. Sorry for ditching you and the others,"

"Aw, it's alright. Worst thing is- these zombies 've been awfully rude ever since I got here. You'd think they'd be nicer to an old-timer like me!"

"Huh. I guess the zombies were worse than I thought. They can't even respect their elders,"

Alice unlocked the prison cell, running in to hug Crazy Dave. He hugged them back. It was nice, despite him smelling strongly of sweat and bacon grease.

"-Ragz and Mink are already looking for Peter and Pudding; we should try and find them next," said Alice as they broke away from the hug. Crazy Dave stood up and readjusted his pot, giving a thumbs up as he followed Alice out of the kitchen.

They trekked through the halls, looking for the remainder of their group. As they progressed, small groups of zombies seemed to grow more and more common, though Sweetpea could handle the few zombies fine on his own.

"-Hey, Alice! Crazy Dave! We found Pudding!"

Alice and Crazy Dave looked to where the voice came from - seeing Ragz, Mink, and Pudding sitting in Red, all safe and sound.

"Puddin'! Boys! Yer' okay!" said Crazy Dave, running up to greet them.

"Oh, hey Dave," said Pudding. She was sitting in Red and tapping on a series of buttons on a panel next to a large metal door.

"Have you had any luck in finding Peter?" asked Alice.

Ragz shrugged. "Nope. Knowing him, he's probably either being a total badass or a total coward. No in between,"

"Peter has always been very mysterious.." said Mink.

With Pudding's final slap of the panel buttons, Red stepped away from the panel as the door started to slide open. "You're lucky you have me, I could bust into anything in this place if I wanted to. Zomboss is an idiot when it comes to this stuff," said Pudding. "You're welcome, by the way,"

"..Thank you?" said Alice.

Pudding smirked, then pointed her leaf into the room. "Come on. Zomboss' ass is grass. -And I still wanna slap his stupid head,"

Once the door was open, the small group entered. It shut behind them.

The room they'd entered was dark, solely lit by a glowing orange lamp, and.. three glowing buttons from a massive machine. These lights illuminated a figure they all knew well..

"We meet again.. Zomboss," muttered Crazy Dave.

Dr. Zomboss himself stood upon a raised platform, which also appeared to hold his giant smoke-making machine. Huge smoke-darkened tubes extended from it, funnelling the smoke outside.

All the doctor could do was laugh.