His Furbiness, Pope Furbus I

Chapter 5: A Sticky Martinian

Crash! You wake up from your soft Truffulan bed at the sound of a great explosion. "Peekaboo I see you!". The sneaky llama screams into the cave and his voice echoes off the harsh walls. Once-ler, Lorax, and Furbus must have woken up before you, because they were all standing guard right outside your door. You rush to join them.

"They're here," Once-ler whispers as he looks back and forth for the perpetrators. "Prepare your rainbows, (YN). We are going to need all the power we can get". He runs toward the entrance of the cave and the rest of you follow, but after he gets close enough to see the situation, he stops dead in his tracks.

"This is worse than we thought! Fight with all you have!" Lorax's battle cry starts the action. You rush to the entrance and see Martine laughing maniacally while surrounded by what looked like mini Martines. Each small Martine bore a dark mask covering all but their eyes.

"ATTACK MY MARTINIANS!" Martine screeches to his followers and they start clucking, or what you eventually could tell was a high-pitched cough. You chuckle a bit thinking about the harmlessness of a few coughing mini llamas but your laugh is cut off by Furbus.

"Do not underestimate this, (YN), this is how Martine spreads the plague. We thought his manpower was isolated in your land, but he has grown". Once-ler turns to us all and tosses us what looks like surgical masks but the covering is made of fluffy Truffula tufts. Then he claps his hands and we are all suddenly clad in what looks like flaming orange, striking pink, and bright yellow fluffy hazmat suits.

"I thought these might come in handy someday. You're lucky that I always make extras, (YN)!". Martine looked a little disappointed by the new development, but soon, a satanic grin graced his features.

"Lets, take this to a level 2, my minions!" The Martinians begin to surround you all individually and bite at your ankles. You shoot rainbows at them all, but it only slows them down, and they come back with the same strength.

"I can't resist them forever! What do I do?" You scream to your squad.

"INTENT!" Furbus hollars back to you. Suddenly, you know exactly what needs to be done. You direct a rainbow at all of the stuffies and instead of trying to defend yourself, you try to bring them together. They all meld together into one Mega Martine that is even larger than the Truffula trees. Real Martine starts to look confused and then he darts behind a tree when he sees what you do next. You send a rainbow, but this time it is not fueled by anger or hate, but of friendship. The large Martinian creature hops to you and starts peeping joyously. The rest of your team watches in awe as you bring this creature to your side. She crouches down so you can climb onto her back, and like a wild-western cowgirl, you ride toward Martine.

"Listen to me you little oafs! Trample them!" But the Martinians are much too excited to do anything of the sort. He looks up to you with slight resignation. "I suppose we should negotiate... We seemed to have come to a standstill".

"Standstill!?!? I am winning, thank you very mu-" but you are cut off by Martine waving and you realize what one of his powers is. A sticky goop that resembles truffula sap sticks you to the Martinian and the rest of your squad is now stuck to the cave.

"Not anymore, are you, (YN)! And your friends can't help you now!". You see your friends wiggling and fighting the sticky sap to no avail. "Lets go... have a chat, shall we?". The Martinian slowed in her excitement and soon fell back under Martine's control without the positive rainbow power. "Come along," he called to the Martinian so we were off.

You travelled for hours and hours in silence until you came to a hole dug into the side of a hill. "Welcome home, (YN)! I would not like to think of this as a hostage situation... but more of a collaboration, if you will".

"I will not, Martine! Why would I help you destroy my home!" You feel the angry rainbows striving to break through the sap.

"You will find that power is addictive. Intoxicating. I think we shall see eye to eye soon enough". At that, he motions you into the hill. It is surprisingly luxurious. It reminds you of a Rococo palace but instead of gold, the place was furnished with ornate Truffula furniture, decorations, and walls. He opens one of the passages and nudges the Martinian in it. Then, he releases the goop and you fall to the ground. Before you can stand back up, he directs the Martinian out and locks the door. "I don't think we will achieve much today. I shall fetch you tomorrow to see if we can come to an agreement. Have a lovely evening, (YN)".

"You filthy little de-", but your voice falls off as you hear his footsteps leave in a hurry. Well this is not how I imagined today would go you think to yourself. You find a luxurious bed and try to get some sleep to conserve your power for what you assume will be a very trying day.