This plot is getting moore intresting by the moment :)

Zealatom~

"So, any idea what to do next?" Lindel asks to no one in paticular. After Infus managed to fry all the chips, the city square has quieted down considerably. Most CBer's and AE's are standing to the sidelines, still rather confused at what is happening. Jay, Chaser and most of his AE's have arrived in hovercraft, trying to re-institute order as some pro-zoodlers start rescuing fainted zoodles. "Hey."

I turn to look over the railing. A Admin is waving at me from the ground. Wait, no. It's just a hologram coming from a Wi-Fly. The knowledge does not really help my nerves however. "Ah! I-" I gulp. "Sorry! I'll clean up all this, I promise. Heh heh." I do my best to smile. "Really didn't mean to give everyone a fright... zoodles are heavier than expected..."

The hologram moves its shoulders in what might be a sigh. "It is ok, Zealatom. We understand. Just, next time give city airspace a warning ahead of time, ok?" Only then I realize that I forgot the 'mayday' call. "O-oh, sorry. I won't forget, I promise." I flick one ear nervously.

"Good!" The hologram from the Admin flashes away.

I sigh, relived. "So." I turn back to everyone on deck. "Now, we start cleanup."

"Cleanup?" Terra sniffs. "I'm not cleaning up all these... Things! Its going to take an eternity! And, where should we put them? Send them to Zoodle HQ, miles away from here with ___ injured like this? Impossible, I say. Impossible!" Scuttles flutters their wings silently. "We should try, anyway. Long or not, we can finish it."

"Here!" Infus, who was no doubt waiting for us for the whole time, speaks over the intercom once more. "How's this: All of you clamber off for a moment, and I'll do the cleaning, hmmm?"

Lindel sighs. "How are you going to manage that? You don't even have a body."

"DO YOU WANT ME TO HELP?"

"Yes, yseseses..." Lindel retreats. "Whatever. Zeal?"

"Let him do his thing..." I wave a hand in defeat. Infus isn't one to argue with when he has decided on something. "Scuttles, Darkvine?" Both shrug as a ramp extends to the city square below. "Thanks for all your help. Let's go now. We can trust Infus, don't worry." The instant I step off the folding ramp, I feel Terra zap into my mind. Lindel just floats beside me, half off the ground and half on. "What now?"

"Thank you!" Infus says, voice rather muffled now that we're on the ground, looking up at __'s scratched hull. "Now get me a cat."

"A WHAT?" Terra moves my mouth, shouting. "CAT?"

"Yes. Cat." Infus huffs. "Or dog. And hold them up in the air for me. Look, that should be Koi over there. Invite her over, would you please?" I look, and in the midst of CBer's, I catch sight of Barnacle with Koi on his shoulder. "Barnacle! Koi! Could you both come over here please?" I yell.

They hear me over the clamor, walking over. "Hello Zealatom!" Barnacle grins at me over a pile of zoodles he is carrying. "Hope you had a 'soft' landing." "Phhht." I shake my head. "OF COURSE. I do need Koi's help over here, hope you don't mind lending a paw?" Koi looks up at me curiously.

"It won't hurt!" Infus shouts to make himself heard. "I just need a scan."

"What do we need to do?" Barnacle asks. 

"Raise Koi up in the air." Infus instructs. "And hold still." Rather amused, Barnacle complies, lifting a very displeased Koi up into the air. "And now?"

"Wait..." Infus mutters. A long robotic arm suddenly extends out from the hull with a scanner on its end. One quick wave over Koi, and it folds back. "There we go. Thanks Barnacle. Now please give me some space for this..."

We take a few steps back.  

~~~~~

Alright, I'm splitting this into two parts cause its turning out to be very long... 

The second part!

Zealatom~

"Right, that should be enough." Infus calls out. "I'll just eject these terrible thrusters now."

"You what?" I ask. "Wait!-Not the thrusters-"

There is a thud as all four energy thrusters crash to the ground. "Ah, much better. Now these sails..."

Before I can say another word, all sails are ripped off the masts by more robotic arms. "Infus..."

Barnacle looks at me with intrest. "So, who is Infus? A system?"

"No, not really.-" Terra cuts in. "-He's Zeal's AE, now also part of the in-flight system, our house, one of my brothers, and half-CAPTCHA-" I stop him. "-Well, yes. Terra has summed it up." Barnacle shrugs, looking rather taken aback by Terra's speech. "...Ok..."

All of us are stopped by a grinding sound. __'s deck, under Infus's control no doubt, has bulged upwards by hidden hinges. As we watch, the entire ship form starts clanking and shifting, with pieces of machinery rearranging all over. Steam hisses out from cracks, tellling of the change occuring inside.

The gray frontal hull unfolds suddenly. A huge furry limb extends out, slamming into the pavement. Cringing from the dust, I see the change continuing. Most of __ has now contracted away, forming a large torso. Masts collapse away, elongating into a long tail. Hind legs follow, gigantic gears making up joints whirring as they struggle to cope with the new weight put on the hydraulic system. More hissing steam escapes as the other arm follows suite, slowly lifting Infus's new body.

Eventually Infus rises, shaking off some zoodles from his back. He turns his head to glance at me, large yellow eyes made out of two HD screens glowing brightly. "How's this?"

"Great." I mutter. "But wouldn't it have been better if you chose a form other than a gigantic steam-powered mechanical cat as high as a three-story building?!" 

[Jay's POV]

My HUD pings with another notification, this time an audio message. It's one of pangolin's AEs. I have medical experience. Chaser and the crew have pulled up in their own hovership, and they're jumping out of it right now. They're all registered Pro-Zoodles, so they'll have gotten the message too. My hovership is small, really just a hoverbike, but theirs is large. I share a look with Chaser for half a sec, and then they start loading the unconsious zoodles into their hovership.

"Go to the Zoodle Base and help with the zoodles already there!" Chaser yells to me. "Jam'll meet you there with all of these ones!" And then he returns to loading the zoodles.

I take off, putting my hoverbike on full speed, zooming over the city, leaving the main square behind.

On the way, I send an audio message:

"Jay to Mirage. On the way, with medical experience and a shipload of unconsious zoodles. Jay out."

[Chaser's POV]

Right as Jam takes off with his shipload of zoodles, in hot pursuit of Jay, I hear somebody yell,

"There's more!"

I turn, and see a roiling flood of zoodles coming towards us in a wave. I whip out my Ice Cream Gun (ICG), and set it to nonlethal. Anything hit by my flying ice cream scoops will be frozen in a thick ice block, but they'll be maintained in a dormant state until thawed. I brace it against my shoulder, take cover behind some rubble caused by previous zoodle destruction, and start firing. If I can freeze enough of them, It'll make a wall of ice that'll hold them back until Zeal's AE or Jay or Jam or somebody else with tech skills can disable the chips. Of course my two friends with tech abilities, Jay and Jam, have to be headed in the opposite direction.

I won't be able to hold all the zoodles back on my own.

"Skree! You have extra ICGs in the attic of your shop, right? Can you run and grab them and equip some of CBers?"

Skree nods and races off, coming back a few minutes later with a wagonload of them, and starts giving them to any CBers or AEs who don't have anything better to do.

I slide off the airship, as some ominous clunks are coming from it. some CBers are carefully picking up the zoodles, to take them to Zoodle Base. I give the closest CBer a nod and a grateful smile.

as Zealatom's airship slowly, loudly transforms into a giant cat, I watch it out of the corner of my eye, but when Zealatom doesen't seem to think of it as a danger, I calm down and slip off my helmet. I also sheathe my sword, and retract my claws. 

I leap off of Zeal's ship, taking to the air. I hear a grinding noise and whip around to watch the ship transform into a giant cat. Huh. Stranger things have happened.

And then I hear somebody yell something about more zoodles, and I whip around to see a giant wave of squirming zoodles coming up a side street. I spot one of Chaser or Jay's AEs on the ground passing out Ice Cream Guns, and CBers are firing blobs of ice cream at the zoodles, attempting to stop them. I swoop down and snatch one, taking to the air again, rapidly firing it at the mass of zoodles below.

Koi's pov~

The audacity of some people! 

It's one thing to crash an steampowered airship into the main square of Chatterbox City disrupting the early morning peace and quiet in a shower of zoodles, but it's quite another to pick me up, scan me, and use me as the model for a three-story-tall mechanical cat. (I mean, it is quite flattering I was specifically requested as the model, though of course I am the most beautiful quadruped in the area, so it's kind of a no-brainer.) 

I'm staring up at the giant mechanical cat, wondering if I really look like that from this angle, when an AE hands Barnacle an Ice Cream launcher. Great, this is just what I need. Barnacle is dangerous enough without being armed with a weapon that shoots flying ice cream scoops. 

"As nice as this has been," I growl, "I was woken up quite early today by an airship crashing outside my house, so I'll be in my bed if anyone needs me." I begin walking back towards the apartment when Barnacle scoops me up and tucks me under one arm, while holding the ICG with his other. 

"Oh no you don't!" he says. 

My resistant yowl isn't heard over the chaos that surrounds us. 

Fir's pov~

I can't believe someone would tamper with zoodles like this. Those zoodles -- or rather, whoever put those computer chips on the zoodles -- attacked Zealatom's airship! This isn't some joke or prank or something. This is serious. And I'm never serious, so when I know something's serious, then it's really serious. 

I meant what I said to Mirage before: I don't think a CBer did this. Even an anti-zoodlist would never go this far. And we have to figure out exactly who did do this, but first, we need to help all the brainwashed zoodles. 

That's why I've decided to hijack this ambulance. 

It was surprisingly easy to hijack the Zoodle Base ambulance -- I don't have any experience hijacking anything of any sort, and yet I was still able to do it. I should probably bring up increasing security in the base when this is all over. 

So now I'm speeding through Chatterbox City, the ambulance lights flashing red and blue against the already colorful buildings, the wailing and honking sounding through the streets, and I'm trying desperately not to hit anyone. Luckily, there's no pedestrians in sight. I bet they're all at the main square where the ship crashed.  

I arrive at the main square and the ambulance skids to a stop. I get out of the ambulance and yell to everyone, "Load the zoodles into the back of the ambulance, I'll drive 'em to the Zoodle Base!" That's about the time I see Koi. Well, not Koi. A thirty-foot-tall mechanical cat that happens to look like her. In my shock, I scream a quite naughty word of which pangolin would not approve. It's okay -- pangolin's not around to hear me. 

[Jay's POV]

I come to an abrupt stop outside the base, and jump off my hoverbike, racing inside, where I find Mirage. I take the zoodle and take its vital signs. It appears to be fine, just unconsious, so I tuck it into one of the hundreds of lil' zoodle bunk beds that line the walls. In one corner, about a dozen or so of the beds are already occupied by peacefully sleaping zoodles that were injured in the fight against the anti-zoodlers.

I hear a screeching sound and some swearing coming from the parking lot and I assume it means that Jam has arrived with the shipload of zoodles and has probably crashed into a trash can or something and knocked it over. I go outside and find that is exactly what has happened. I grab a wheel barrow from where it has been stashed for gardening. I'm surprised anybody bothers to garden because most of the genetically enhanced rose bush hedge wall has been trampled by attacking anti-zoodlers, but the wheelbarrow is there, so I'll use it. I load as many zoodles as will fit inside and bring them in, where I take the vital signs of a few of them. They all seem to be fine, so I just stuff them into beds with Mirage's help, and instruct Jam to bring in more zoodles.

Finally, we are done, and I send Jam back to the city center, but decide to wait around for a while to keep an eye on the zoodles...

[Friendo's POV]

I grin as I snipe another zoodle. This is kinda fun. Then, one of the zoodles jumps out of the mass and goes hurtling towards somebody, who shoots it out of the air and then dives out of the way of the ice-block-encased-zoodle as it thuds to the ground where they were crouching. Uh-oh.  These aren't normal zoodles... these are jumping zoodles! Elite zoodles with the ability to coil up like a spring and then jump up to 34 meters high! Twice as dangerous as normal zoodles, as they can evade shots more easily and attack airships. Oh my.

I stare in shock for a few moments at the wave of angry zoodles bearing down on everyone.

I can easily tell, even from this distance, that something isn't right about the little snakes. their fangs are bared, and their movements are too jerky and coordinated, like an army of robots. their heat signatures are the same, though, even if a little off.

there is also a strange whining noise, like when you're sitting in a quiet room and your ears start buzzing for no reason. I assume I'm the only one who hears it.

I start, a little reluctantly, launching ice cream at the zoodles.

I fire off another round of ice cream, freezing a few more zoodles. The frozen zoodle wall is beginning to work. Zoodle-cubes are freezing together and starting to hold back the others.

And then one jumps. A CBer snipes it with a glob of ice cream and the zoodle-cube plummets to the earth. Oh no. These are jumping zoodles, or at least some of them are. The wall will hold back the normal ones that can only jump a few feet, but the jumping ones will be able to leap over.

Zealatom~

Infus, or to be correct, his new body sits down to flex both paws.

"Well?" I ask. 

"Nothing seems to be broken-" Infus remarks, standing up once more. A unexpected hiss of steam bursts out from his hind leg. "Ow. That should be just a scratch though, nothing big." He starts off toward the middle of the city square.

"Watch it, watch it!" Lindel yells after him. "Don't crush anyone!" 

"Relax." Infus flicks his massive tail lazily, casting a shadow over all of us. "I'm careful enough. This will only take a moment."

"Lets hope so." I sigh, noticing a new wave of zoodles surging down the main avenue towards us. With everyone's help, a wall of ice has been created to stop them, but there are some actually jumping over the barrier. "Hurry up. People need help..."

"Oh fine Zeal." Infus sniffs. "Then I'll have to change things up a bit. Find a solid thing to hold onto. All of you." I glance at everyone beside me. "We should..." A small inkling is taking place in my mind of what Infus is preparing. "Now." I rush to wrap myself around a stop sign planted beside the street. "Follow my example!"

"Good." Infus smiles, satisfied once we all are in place. "Fir? Fir! Please give us some space." Fir hears him,(easy enough when you are being adressed by a gigantic cat) and retreats looking very startled.

"Are the turbines powerful enough?" I shout at Infus. 

"I can always rewire them." Is the confident answer. Infus turns his gaze away from me, focusing on all the knocked out zoodles in the square.

A low humming starts growing underneath his chest fur. It picks up with time, becoming a whirr, then a buzz, finally a roar. As I tighten my grasp on the stop sign, Infus bends downwards at the zoodles and opens his mouth. A small hurricane bursts through the city square as he does so, a incredibly powerful suctioning force whipping all the zoodles into Infus's mouth. He waits until all of them are gathered up, and suddenly snaps his mouth closed. The gale dies down as soon as it started, the turbine inside Infus's chest spinning to a halt.

I wipe dust out of my face, peeling myself off a pole for the second time this morning. "Great. What are you going to do now, Infus?" Infus does not respond, but then again his mouth is full of zoodles. He just shakes his head, and-

...swallows.

I watch, dumbstruck, as Infus swallows everything in his mouth in one go, a large bulge made up of zoodles sliding down his neck and dissapearing behind his collarbone.

"INFUS! ARE YOU MAD?"

Infus coughs and sputters, shaking his head wordlessly. "Argh... Zuchini..."

"Infus! Spit them out now!"

"Why? I cleaned them up."

"You-" I'm lost for words, for once. Eventually, I say: "Are they safe?"

"Of course they are." Infus has recovered by now. "Zoodles can take some squeezing, can't they? And this body isn't even organic. They'll be just fine, don't worry about me digesting them. It was the best place I could think of. Like Terra said, cleaning by hand is going to take an eternity."

"B-but all the zoodles..." Lindel tries.

"Oh relax big brother." Infus pushes his huge muzzle into Lindel's chest playfully. "They're fine. Now if no one has anything else to say, I think I should go pay a visit to Zoodle HQ. You three hold on until I get back, ok?" Infus rises with a powerful bound, leaping over houses like hurdles. "I'll hurry!"

I sigh once again. My AE giving me orders... Outrageous. And honestly, I never expected Infus to eat all the zoodles. Neither does anyone else, who are all looking at me with pale faces.

I have a whole lot of explaining to do once this is finished, I can feel it. But for now, we have a entire tusami of zoodles to deal with. I close my eyes tiredly.

Hey. You there, Watcher?

What?

Get Raven over here now, fast as possible.

Will do.

I open my eyes once more. "Alright. Lindel, Terra, buy me some time. Lets show these zoodles who's the boss." 

Gonna post this in two parts, with another, longer part tomorrow 'cause we don't have  a lot of time but there's a lot we want to cover.

Here's Part One:

(It's pretty short)

[Chaser]

I grin as a nail another zoodle. The ice wall is starting to come together, halting the wave, and Infus has cleaned up the remainder of the unconcious zoodles. Sure, some of the zoodles are jumping, but so what? It's not that bad.

And then I get a message from one of Avara's AEs. Oh dear. There are more zoodles than we think... This is bad. Very bad.

I send a quick message to Jay, telling him to get over here now, and then turn my attention to the wave of zoodles... Behind it, I can see another, much larger wave, slowly approaching.

The ice wall wont be thick enough in time to stop it, not at this rate. We need something stronger.

"Skree!" I yell, "Do you still have Blue Moon ice cream in the basement of the shop?!?"

<<If you don't know the story of the Blue Moon ice cream admin, read it here:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/downtoearth/node/441247 

It's in a comment about halfway down the page. Seriously, read it. Part Two won't make sense unless you do.>>