The Time Trio

Chapter 3 Welcome to the Background Battleground

Dr. Brown and Bender were moving swiftly through a band of purple swirling clouds. Dr. Brown thought he heard Bender say something, but the sound was all but lost in the loud buz of the portal. Eventually Dr. Brown lost consciousness in the seemingly endless swirl. When he woke up, he was greeted by a humanoid looking rose it seemed. It was clearly female. She had a rose head, bright green eyes, a small smile, she had a thin body with thorns all over it, she had four tentacle-like limbs instead of legs, she had two hands and was holding a scepter, and she had a purple cape on. Her tentacles weren't touching the ground. She apparently could float. She, to Dr. Brown's amazement, was speaking English.
In a silky smooth British accent she said
"Are you finally awake, hun? I was afraid we may have had to get Vampler to come revive you."

"Where....where am I?" Dr. Brown asked, still a little dazed.

"Why you're in the Backyard Battleground, darling." The rose creature said.

"Before we get any further into this, do you have a name?" Dr. Brown asked.

"My name is Rachel, and you?" Rachel said.

"Just call me Doc, please." He said.  "Hey, have you seen my friend Bender? He's a robot."

"Well, we deal with a lot of those. Was he human-like?"

"Yes! You've seen him?" Dr. Brown asked excited.

"Follow Yumpler." Rachel said pointing to an odd creature covered in white fur with small ram horns on both sides of its head. It had no eyes, or at least none Dr. Brown could see, its stem had a pouch that seemed expandable. Most of its head was mouth. It was taller than Dr. Brown by a lot.
Dr. Brown got up and cautiously walked toward Yumpler.
"Hi. I'm Yumpler. Do you wish to see your friend?" Yumpler said. It took Dr. Brown a moment to realize that Yumpler was communicating with him telepathically.
"Yes please." Dr. Brown thought.
"I'm sorry, but I can't read your thoughts. I can indicate what I want to say into your mind, but can't read your mind. It's the same with all my kind." Yumpler said.
"There are different kinds of you?" Dr. Brown asked.
"Of course. And follow me if you wish to see this 'Bender'." Yumpler said.

Yumpler led Dr. Brown to a separate garage house. Only then did Dr. Brown notice the enormous tree had a house on top of it! He was shocked to see it.

"Um, Yumpler? How the hell did that house end up on the top of that tree?!"

"Oh, that's simple. Our father planted a tree under his house a long time ago. Then it grew! I remember when I was but a little Chompling." Yumpler said in an awestruck tone.

"How long ago was that?" Dr. Brown asked.

"About one hundred thirty-seven years ago." Yumpler said.

"Great Scott! You're that old?" Dr. Brown asked shocked.

"That's not that old. I'm only just beginning to be middle-aged. Our Father is six thousand, four hundred twenty one years old." Yumpler said in a rather defensive tone.

"Great Scott!" Dr. Brown said as he staggered back and fell on his rump.

"Is something wrong?" Yumpler asked.

"Who IS your Father?" Dr. Brown asked as Yumpler used his roots under his leaves to help Dr. Brown to his feet.

"Only special agents of L.E.A.F. are allowed to call him Crazy Dave. Lucky for me, I am a high ranking agent of the agency. I'm one of the few plants that have actually seen Crazy Dave in person. You will call him Father." Yumpler said.

"Okay then. I will." Dr. Brown said.

Yumpler continued to lead Dr. Brown to garage. Dr. Brown noticed a fifth wheel camper that had been modified a lot. It was very advanced. It had propellers on  both sides sticking up in the air spinning madly. And there were jet boosters blasting at the ground. So the vehicle was clearly hovering.

"What is THAT?!" Dr. Brown asked pointing to the vehicle.

"Oh, that's Penny 2.0. She's Our Father's second defense system. She has a built in AI unit." Yumpler said.

"Incredible!" Dr. Brown said.

Yumpler lead Dr. Brown to the garage. And much to Dr. Brown's surprise, the garage floor was opened up and below it was a tunnel leading lower underground. Yumpler motioned with his large head to go into the tunnel. Dr. Brown went under the garage and sure enough, Bender was tied to the wall to the right of him. There were a bunch of plants that looked to be child-sized weeds all jumping and whacking Bender.

"Help! They're going to dent me!" Bender yelled. "Oh, Doc! I've never been so excited to see a senile old scientist! Well.....maybe once."

"Bender, what did you do?" Dr. Brown asked surprised.

"Hey! The gold statue of the Sunflower didn't have a 'Do Not Touch' sign near it!" Bender said defensively.

"Let him go." A loud female voice said.

They looked up to an enormous bright Sunflower with white striped paint on its face. It had a large illuminating cacoon towards the base of its stem and bright bulbs for hands.

"It's Her Majesty! Bow!!" Yumpler said as he stepped foward, lowered his massive head and bowed.

Dr. Brown knelt to one knee and bowed. The weed creatures looked up at Her and ran to the queen and hugged Her.

"Run along and play, children." The Queen said.

The weeds ran back aboveground. The queen looked at Dr. Brown and then to Bender.

"You may stand." She said with a tender, yet booming voice.

"Your Majesty, thank you for freeing my friend." Dr. Brown said with his voice shaking slightly.

"You are very welcome, Emmet Brown."  She said.

"How--" Dr. Brown began.

"I know many things. Like I know you are from another dimension trying to save the multiverse. And you mostly want to save, who you see as a son, one called Marty McFly. And I know Bender is a crook, but he still feels true passion and love for his humans. Yumpler, let the robot free." The queen said.

"Yes Your Majesty." Yumpler said as he walked over and bit off the shackles that were tying Bender to the walls. Bender was about to say something when a booming air raid siren sounded. Blasting Dr. Brown in the ears.

"What the hell is going on?!" Bender yelled.

"They've crossed the border line again..." the queen said in a dark and menacing tone.

"Who's 'they'?" Dr. Brown asked over the loud noise.

"The zombies. The Zombies. Are. Coming." Yumpler said. As he licked his large mouth.