By Any Means Necessary

Chapter 2: A New Idea

"Gah!" Rustbolt yelled after exiting the room, still filled with rage. "How could this have happened?! They came from nowhere!" It was taking all he had not to blow something up, other than the state of his armor and the possible repercussions. Walking through the corridor, he made a decision. "This can't stand! Those plants have been doing far too well lately, and they need to be put back into their place!" Already hatching an idea, he knew the first victim would have to be Green Shadow. She had scarred his armor and made him look like a fool, and had defeated him for no good reason, or at least, not in his mind. And apparently not in Zomboss's either, because now Zomboss seems to be under the impression that he's incompetent.

"It's always somehow Green Shadow, the least super-powered plant of their little group." Zomboss had said. "But judging by the sorry-state of your armor, I'm going to assume it was a one-sided battle. Again." The worst part was the truth of it, she had only shot a single pea to steal away his victory, and then she let that annoying spud finish the job.

"No matter," Rustbolt thought, slowly calming down, "I'll show them why I'm not to be trifled with. They'll wish they'd have never become heroes when I'm done with them."

But what could he do now that they weren't already trying? Clearly, fighting one-on-one is out of the question, those plants rarely fight alone anymore. Maybe he could team-up as well? No, that wouldn't work either. They'd tried that once before, and it was a disaster, with the plants just bringing in more reinforcements and the zombies fighting amongst themselves.

Although, wasn't Super Brainz missing that day? He'd never gotten a real explanation for that. It seems like fighting on the battlefield is a lost cause without any new inventions, but the plants have been foiling those plans too. Why does Green Shadow beat him anyway? It still doesn't make sense to him, even with the help from her teammates. The Smash didn't really run into those problems. In fact, it seems like the only plant he's never beaten even once was Green Shadow, and maybe Chompzilla, but he's never actually faced her before anyways, and he certainly isn't looking forward to that fight. Even if he shrunk her, she'd still be huge. Maybe she'd still somehow be bigger than a Gargantuar? The thought briefly sent a shiver down his spine. Moving back to his previous thoughts on their battles, he realized something.

"Why do we almost always fight on huge battlefields anyways?" He wondered. Rounding another corner and coming up on his private room in the zombie HQ, where he does all of his repairs, he had a new thought.

"What if," He thought, "what if I found them off the battlefield? When they're not playing hero? Would they even stand a chance?" But the real question was, if he were to actually follow through with this, how would he do this? It certainly wouldn't be easy, he wasn't even sure which ones have a secret identity or not. He knew none of the zombie heroes have one, so what if the plants don't have any either?

"No," He sighed, as he took off his helmet and started repairing it, "they seem like they would. Can't seem them not having any, really." Then again, they were also so different from the other plants because of their super powers, that many of them probably couldn't have secret identities. Chompzilla is too large (clearly), Spudow is too anatomically different, Wall-Knight is a bit too big as well, and Captain Combustible has blue fire (as well as a few more obvious ones that didn't come to mind). That would only leave a few possibilities, but one stuck out.

"Green Shadow," He thought, "she has a mask, so doesn't that mean she has a secret identity? Why else would she wear one?" It would only make sense for her to be his first target, he'd be getting revenge for earlier, as well as removing a large thorn from his side. To him, it was just righting a wrong. But where could he start? Just as Zomboss had said, she was the least super-powered of the bunch, meaning she could also blend in with normal plants that much easier. This would be difficult. And the painful dent on his helmet served as a reminder, she is not to be underestimated even then.

"Hmm..." He sighed once more, "maybe I should talk to the professor about this." That would probably help. After all, Professor Brainstorm has a knack for schemes and inventions, especially when he can use or even create new futuristic technology.

Putting his mostly-repaired helmet back on, he decided he'd fix the rest of his armor later and go look for the professor while this idea was still on the forefront of his mind. Even though Zomboss was still the smartest of them all, he also knew that while Zomboss would still be angry with him, he wouldn't support this soon-to-be-plan anyways. Zomboss has always had a preference for large battles, especially on lawns, for some reason.

Walking through some more halls, he still has yet to see the professor. Better to save time and just message him with his communicator, since he knew the professor wasn't on a mission at the moment, which was almost a surprise really, considering Zomboss has been sending all of them out on more missions lately to try and make up for lost ground. Anyway, after sending a simple message of, "Important new idea, come see." Rustbolt decided to go back to his room and fix some more of his precious armor. If the professor would come, he knew where to find him. It would give him time to fix all of his armor's new warps anyways. Another thing to get payback for, and in no minor way.