The next morning began as any other normal day. The sun shined, the air was crisp, and the casual animals of the forest scurried around while the ordinary townsfolk began another session of their menial tasks. In the house secluded in the forest where Jean-Luc & Joey reside, Jean-Luc wakes up suddenly from a nightmare with a fright! The poor fox-boy shifts up as his eyes nearly fly out of his head. Joey, in his tiny little bed, wakes up from Jean-Luc’s shout, yawns and looks at his father and askes, “Dad….? Are you ok?”

“Huh…? Yeah… just a nightmare I had,” Jean-Luc slowly contemplates. Joey climbs out of his bed and into Jean-Luc’s and asked him about what the dream was. Jean-Luc pets Joey’s head and replies, “Well… To put it strangely… it had to do something with HUGE hordes of-of zombies. But they weren’t zombies but more like infected people. An-the-And then the zombies were also being controlled by a master who told the zombies what to do… but he also had robots. And then those robots began to destroy the place, and kidnapped a lot of people and our friends. And then….. Then….. Well, the rest was a blur… but I do think I faintly remember you and me being kidnapped by aliens.” Joey gave his adopted father a big, silly smile and told the young fox that those things won’t happen with him around. Jean-Luc perked up and replied, “Yeah! You’re right. In fact! I think with our powers we can finally be of good use to this town!” Jean-Luc immediately jumped out of bed to start the day, “Hey! I bet Julie has figured out what that weird bulging pod was. Let’s go see her!”

“Yeah!” Joey replied with joy as he follow Jean-Luc, “…wait. What do you mean by finally be of good use?”

“You should read those tabloids about us.” Jean-Luc commented sarcastically as they both began to freshen up.

After a decent breakfast, Jean-Luc and Joey drive the Groovemobile down to Julie’s treehouse laboratory for investigation. Jean-Luc and Joey head out of the car while carrying the pod with them, and used the secret entrance hidden in the living room of the house and climbs down the chute into the elevator into the lab. Joey had a little trouble however because of the pod’s size so he had to push it down hard without entirely smashing the pod. Once the duo had gotten out of the elevator, they casually began to call for Julie. At first there was no answer, so they began to walk inside the lab and continue calling for her. A low grumble is heard while Jean-Luc and Joey search.

“Was that you?” Jean-Luc asked Joey.

“Nope,” Joey replied, “I ate 6 meals of lunch today.”

“Oh yeah.” Jean-Luc remembered. As the duo go deeper into the laboratory, they notice that not many of the lights and machinery that normally powered the place were on. In fact, some of them were completely shut down to where not even flipping the on switch would power them on. Jean-Luc accidently kicks his foot onto one of the powered-down bots and picks it up. He began to shake and investigate the robot, but his tail, and Joey saw something move from in the shadows. Jean-Luc’s tail began to poke Jean-Luc in the back, but the fox brushed it off as he kept investigating the robot. Joey, on the other hand, pulled on his tail wanting his dad’s attention, but only got his tail’s attention instead. As the big fox investigated the powered down robots in one direction, Joey and Jean-Luc’s tail investigated what that strange grumbling shadow was in another. In one direction, Joey and the tail snuck around the corners and walls very quietly, searching every available nook and cranny that, at least the tail could go, the creature might be hiding. In the other direction, Jean-Luc found the place to get darker with more downed robots and machinery, however this time, they were all being covered in this…. Glowing green slime.

“Is this…? Nah…. We destroyed that thing days ago,” Jean-Luc thought to himself. He slowly hovered his hand over the goop, but as soon as he did that, the goop attempted to attach to his hand. Jean-Luc retracted his hand and pressed forward, turning left but not knowing that his tail was being stretched further than it should be, making it stick onto one of the walls that was unfortunately covered in that same green goop… slowly getting into the tail’s fur. Meanwhile, Joey and the tail crossed into a corner, catching the shadow once again and quickly ran after it. The two ran fast, but the shadow was faster, screeching into quick corners, and dropping heavy objects in front of them in order to slow them down. Joey and the tail turn into a corner that the shadowy figure ran into, but it ended up being a dead end.

“What…? But I thought-….” Joey frowned. Where the creature may have gone is a mystery to the two, but worse problems had arisen as the goop that had caught onto Jean-Luc’s tail has formed and stretched to catch the rest of it, causing Joey to jump in fright.

“Tail-y! You’re turning green!” Joey shouted, as the tail began to flip out and attempt to get it off with a lint remover. However, it was too late as the tail was now consumed into the green goop. Joey gulped as the slime began to form a sort of cocoon around the tail and then attempt to mutate the tail whilst suddenly attacking Joey. Jean-Luc on the other hand, who was still wandering and stretching whatever was left of his tail until he saw Julie’s experimentation room, but the door was covered in vines.

“Hey Joey, I found Julie’s experimentation room,” the fox boy called to Joey, but there was no answer. Jean-Luc looked back with his eyes when there was no response and then he called again. Joey quickly ran past Jean-Luc and began to pry the experiment room’s doors open and ran inside.

“Hey Joey? What’s going on?” Jean-Luc asked before turning his head behind him to see his cocooned tail charge to him. Jean-Luc peered his eyes down to see some of his tail being slimed and the slime slowly trying to infect his body as well. Jean-Luc screamed and quickly ran inside, slamming the door behind him and walling it down by nailing some planks to the doors and using a gas-powered fire-starter to burn the doors so the infected tail doesn’t get in, nor does the goop come and infect what’s left of Jean-Luc.

“Phew… that was close,” Jean-Luc says to Joey, and the small bunny nods in agreement. A moment of silence overtook the room to where it was almost peaceful. Nothing would happen for minutes until a rustle of machinery was heard from the shadows. Jean-Luc and Joey poke upward and shuffle into the wall. Jean-Luc quietly grabs into the tuft of his chest fur and pulls out a wrench and proceeded to wave it around in case anything comes by. The brothers shimmied across the wall as slow as they could, staying in areas where the dim light shined. Joey watch at how Jean-Luc’s tail was stretching, but didn’t give it much attention because the mutated tail behind him was clanging on the door.

Just then, a crash is heard in the ventilation shaft.

“M-M-m-m-maybe we should call the others… I-I think that’ll make sense of what’s going on….” Joey says in fear.

“N-nah…. Melody’s in her book club, and Danny’s probably doing his show right now, I’m sure they can’t possibly have the time to come o-” CRASH!!! Jean-Luc is attacked, making the fox scream loudly as Joey watches in fear, but just as he’s about to run away, Joey is grabbed by the collar of his shirt by the attacker and dragged into the assault. The beast punched and kicked and strangled the fox with its very strong hands. On the other hand, there were vines that inched its way around the nooks of the experimental room and attempted to strangle Joey. Jean-Luc then grapples the shadow being and punches it away hard, then does his tornado spin to cut down the vines from around him and Joey as well. A huge crash is heard behind them, and as the duo turn around, their mouths gape open to see the slimy, infected tail standing before them.

“Big brother, your tail’s gone mad!” Joey shouted in fear, making Jean-Luc gulp with a gullet. The tail charged towards the duo, causing him to duck and cover, but shadow being had slammed Joey down to the floor hard, and grappled the fox-boy and slammed him to the wall, and tied him with some tough roots. The roots were very strong and crunching that the fox couldn’t even be able to melt or shrink himself down without more vines catching him or the goop easily infecting him as well. Joey coughs and gasps to see his adoptive father in deep peril. But just as things were about to take a turn for the worse, Joey’s brain plugged itself back in, and making him grab his hat, sharpen the flaps for his hands to grab onto, and then threw his hat towards the small tail-gap that was between Jean-Luc and the infected majority of his tail. Like a buzz saw, Joey’s hat sliced Jean-Luc’s tail off, making the fox scream as loud as Tom from Tom & Jerry. Luckily for Joey’s hare-brain and quick pacing, he then grabs a lone metal pole detached from an unrepaired gadget and BONKED the shadow creature on the head very harshly, knocking it out in an instant. The infected tail suddenly laid there limp as the goop fizzled off of the fox’s body and into the cracks of the ground, and the tail just lays there and shrinks back to its normal size. The roots that nearly crushed Jean-Luc suddenly let him go as the fox overdramatically gasped for air. Joey on the other hand, took a look at the shadow creature and was about to investigate it, but the creature twitches its leg, making Joey scream and grab Julie’s control panel, tear it out of the ground, and repeatedly crush the being with it while screaming, “DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE, EVIL PLANT MONSTER!!!!” Jean-Luc quickly got up and calmed Joey down, “Alright! Alright! Geez, son. We’re here to investigate it, not kill it. If it’s bad, we’ll kill it afterwards.” Jean-Luc grabbed his tail and some duct tape, and began to tape his tail back together. Joey awkwardly laughed and apologized for cutting his tail off, to which Jean-Luc mutter an acceptance to his apology albeit being pretty annoying, yet wincing in pain about it. After checking to make sure the tail can at least move again, Jean-Luc and Joey slowly pull the shadow creature from out of the shadows, to then gasp in shock of what they saw.

“JULIE?!”