“Gee, now what?” asked Plagiarize, snacking on peanuts provided by Mound. Mound always kept peanuts in his ship in case of emergency.

“I can only think of one option,” said Mound. “We detach the energy shield from the ship and carry it with us. But that means I would have to come too.”

“Well if that’s our only option, then you’re coming!” said Klumpkrump.

“Yo, we should attach the shield to Gumpton!” said Hoofa. “Because he’s the biggest. And he wouldn’t have to carry it.”

“Excellent idea, dude,” said Bird.

Mound unlocked a mysterious compartment in the control room using a mysterious key. Inside of it was a spherical object made of metal with glowing blue hexagon patterns all over it. Mound took it out of the compartment.

“As long as we don’t lose this, we’ll be fine,” said Mound, dropping the energy shield accidentally. It made a very loud CLANG noise when it hit the ground. “I meant to do that. It was a demonstration of how sturdy these things are. Lemme just--”

It then exploded into a million pieces, sending shrapnel all over the room which luckily didn’t hit anything except for Snorter’s left eye.

“MY EYE!!!” screamed Snorter.

“Uhh…” said Mound.

“OH MY GOD!!” yelled Bird. “BLOOD!!”

Bird fainted and Plagiarize ran around in circles shouting that they were all gonna die. Qaeron touched Snorter’s eye hole to try to see if he could fix it, causing her to scream louder and also causing Qaeron to scream as well.

“Oh, that wasn’t even the energy shield!” said Mound. “That was the Exploding Magic Death Ball, a weapon that comes equipped in Bearmy ships. Here’s the ACTUAL energy shield,” he said, taking an identical glowing metal sphere out of an identical compartment which opened with the exact same key. The ship yelled a warning that the energy shield was no longer active. “I always confuse the two!”

“I think we need medical attention!” said Mushpuff.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Mmmm, well, Bearmy ships do come equipped with medical equipment!”

“Great!”

“...is something I would say if Bearmy ships came equipped with medical equipment!” finished Mound. “Unfortunately for us, they don’t.”

“Gah!” said Mushpuff.

“Maybe we can find a hospital in this city!” said Klumpkrump.

The gang, along with Mound, took the energy shield with them and walked out the door of their ship into an alleyway between two buildings. Rain was coming down hard and it was quite cold outside, and unfortunately for them, water could pass through energy shields.

The ground outside was in water about 30 centimeters deep. It was also icy cold. The only light source was the almost constant lightning that lit up the sky.

“Ahoy!” shouted Plagiarize, pointing to a hospital that was conveniently located across the street. “Hospitality!”

They couldn’t see far past the hospital because everything was super foggy because of the dust that was in the air because of all the buildings that got wrecked in the Bearmy invasion and all the buildings that got wrecked afterwards due to extreme weather conditions.

The gang slowly made their way across the flooded street. The wind was much stronger out in the middle of the street instead of near the edges and Klumpkrump and Mushpuff almost flew away. Qaeron had to grab them and carry them the rest of the way. In fact, everyone was grabbing onto Qaeron and Mound because they were big and not as susceptible to being blown away. And also they were warm.

Just before everyone got to the door of the hospital, there was a shout from down the street. However, because of the rain and wind and thunder, only Mushpuff, at the back, heard it. When everyone got inside, Snorter was led away to a room by Hoofa, Klumpkrump, and Bird. The rest of everyone stayed behind in the main waiting area. Few of the lights worked, and they were flickering.

“Did you guys hear a shout outside before we entered the building?” asked Mushpuff to Plagiarize, Qaeron, Mound, and Gumpton.

“Nah,” said Plagiarize.

“Mmmm, nope,” said Mound.

“Yez!” said Qaeron. “By which I mean, mmmm, no.”

Gumpton shook his head. Just then, the front door of the hospital was blasted open and three boars walked in.

“REMAIN CALM!!” yelled one of the boars as Qaeron and Mound screamed and ran everywhere.

Hoofa ran into the room with her gun from Kearth and aimed it at the boars.

“WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT??!???” shouted Hoofa.

“We come with no hostile intentions!” shouted a boar. “Let us tell our tale!”

“Okay!”