[REWRITE OUT NOW] {COMPLETED} The Time I Was Human (Cookie Run AU)

Chapter 8: Change

Herb slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry at first, but eventually focused. The first thing he saw was his plant, the pot shattered on the ground.

"Oh no," he breathed. "Oh no, no, no!"

Frantically scooping up his plant, he tried his best to piece the pot back together, but after countless attempts, he gave up.

"I'm sorry, little plant," Herb apologized dejectedly. "I cant save you."

Only then did he realize he was carrying the plant with fingers.

"Fingers...?" he said as he held his arm up to inspect his fingers. "But.. I thought only humans had fingers!"

Herb stood up to look at his surroundings. This was definitely NOT the Cookie World- there were no sweets or Cookies around at all. Herb touched his head. It was no longer covered with herb leaves, but strands of hair.

"What's... going on?"

Looking ahead, he saw a shadowy figure standing about fifty feet away from him, with its back turned to Herb. Its silhouette held a long, curved bow and wore an oversized scarf on its neck. It was Wind Archer! Or so Herb thought.

"Wind Archer? Is that you?"

Herb stepped forward. The figure did not reply. Taking slow steps to Wind Archer, Herb cautiously avoided the rocks and sticks on the ground.

Breaking into a sprint, Herb began to run towards his old friend. However, right as he was about to tap Wind Archer's shoulder, Wind Archer turned around.

His once forest-green eyes were now a purple color, and the crystal on his head had turned purple. The bow he always held was now a dark violet, and no longer filled with light. This was not Wind Archer.

Two large, feathery wings sprouted from the stranger's back. Herb couldn't react. He just stood, dumbfounded as his mind screamed, "RUN!"

Finally breaking out of his trace, Herb turned on his heels and began to bolt away. But even he wasn't fast enough to outrun the dark arrows that shot through the darkness. An arrow whizzed by Herb's face, cutting his cheek. Herb cringed, but kept on running. But another arrow shot into the ground in front of him, causing Herb to trip and fall onto the grassy field.

Dark mist surrounded his body as he felt himself being taken over. He felt something sharp pierce through his body and everything went black.

***

Lemon perked his head up to a loud scream from the distance.

"Hey guys," he questioned. "did you hear that scream? Or was it just me?"

"No, I definitely heard that," Orange replied, looking around the forest.

"That kind of sounded like a guy's scream," Gumball noted. "Sounded familiar, too."

Before they had any time to decide if it was a girl or a guy's scream, Gingerbrave crashed down from the trees and landed on top of Lemon. Orange whirled around to see Angel landing gracefully beside them.

"Hey, that hurt!" Lemon complained as he angrily pushed Gingerbrave off of his stomach.

"Well I'm sorry," Gingerbrave shot back saltily as he brushed the grass off his shirt. "I wasn't the one who chose to land here, was I?"

"Huh?" Gumball said, confused. "What are you doing here, Gingerbrave?"

"Wait, that guy is Gingerbrave?!" Lime retorted. "He looks nothing like him!"

"Yeah, that's because we all got turned into humans, stupid," Gumball replied. "But how can you not see the blue eyes? What about the skull buttons?"

Lime squinted at Gingerbrave, who shifted uncomfortably.

"Hey, this is Gingerbrave!" she realized. "Who knew he was so cute?"

She playfully poked him in the cheek, causing Gingerbrave to stumble back a little.

"Girls are weird," Gumball muttered to Lemon, who nodded in agreement.

"What did you just say, shrimp?!" Lime demanded as she marched up to Gumball.

"Everyone!" Angel declared, stopping the fight. "Please, let's not fight! We have to find a way out!"

"Yeah, we kind of came here to help you guys," Gingerbrave backed up their statement. "There are Jelly Walkers here! Who knows when they'll find us?"

"Jelly Walkers?" Orange contemplated. "Didn't we get rid of those a long time ago?"

"They somehow came back!" Angel informed. "But we can't stay here, they'll catch up to us!"

"Can't you just take us out the way you came?" Gumball suggested. "From the... uh... sky?"

Angel shook their head.

"I cannot," they said with a sigh. "I can carry the weight of one, but not many."

"Then we have to run!" Orange grabbed her racquet. "Angel, you can fly away to inform the others of our situation! We'll meet at the edge of this forest!"

"On it, Orange!" Angel responded cheerfully as they took Gingerbrave by the collar and began to ascend.

"Hey what are you doing-"

Angel took off, causing Gingerbrave to screech loudly as his feet were jerked off the ground.

"We will be back with the others!" Angel shouted, flying up. Then they disappeared into the sky.

"Wait, why didn't we ask which way the exit was?!" Gumball realized. "How do we get out now?"

"Angel flew in from the north," Orange noted. "meaning we should go south! There should be less enemies that way."

"Good thinking, Orange!" Lime cheered. "Let's run!"

Lemon groaned and began to jog, but something caught onto his foot, causing him to trip. Lime watched Lemon fall and rolled her eyes.

"Are you that stupid?" she scolded. "How can you trip over literally nothing?"

"I think I have a problem, too," Gumball gulped nervously. He wrestled his arm out of a vine curling around it. "Are vines supposed to do this?"

A vine was slowly crawling around Lemon's leg as well. He tried to rip it off with his arm, but another vine shot out of the ground and pinned it down.

"Stupid vines," Lemon murmured as he kicked the vine off and freed his leg. Right as he removed the vine from his arm, another stronger, tougher plant shot out from the ground, twisting around all his limbs and pulling him to the ground.

"What the heck?" Orange shook a few leaves off her racquet. "Where is this coming from?"

She heard the rustling of grass behind her. Whirling around, she spotted a man walking slowly in her direction. His face was hidden with a giant leaf, sort of like Herb's leaf umbrella. Orange looked closer. The man wore a brown shirt with rolled-up sleeves and an apron. Purple flowers sprouted up from where his foot stepped. He looked a lot like Herb Cookie- but who knows? When the leaf umbrella lifted a little, Orange could see his green hair and slightly tanned skin. But the man's eyes were still left unrevealed.

Then, he set down the leaf umbrella. His face was no longer covered, but the man's eyes were still obscured by his hair. He lifted his head.

Where gentle, brown eyes should have been, there were glaring, bright red pupils. Herb's once calming and relaxed character had been replaced by somebody much colder, one with a sinister grin and evil intent.

"My name is Poison Ivy," he introduced himself with an ominous grin. Holding out his hand, he smiled and continued, "It's nice to meet you."