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Chapter Text

DECEMBER 31st, 2019...

Cherry and her friends were all gathered at her house for a special New Year's celebration.

Drell, Hilda, and Zelda were even there and had Sabrina come along as they decided to hang out and celebrate a break from adventures for a while and all anticipating a brand new year to come.

"2020 sounds like such a futuristic year." Cherry commented.

"Yeah!" Thor beamed before looking curious. "Gosh, do you think we'll finally get hoverboards and flying cars next year?"

"I dunno about all of that, but our future looks bright from here on out," Cherry shrugged. "Just think of what adventures the new decade will bring us."

"2020 is gonna be blast!" Sabrina beamed.

"Hmm..." Zelda frowned as she looked concerned in the corner.

"What's on your mind, Ms. Zelda?" Lionel inquired. "You seem kinda... unnerved."

"I'm just concerned about this virus that some people are talking about," Zelda remarked. "I mean... some people should wear masks to avoid contact with the spread of germs or maybe even stay indoors for a while until it recedes."

"Oh, come on," Cherry said as she took out a black mask with a blue smiley face painted on it. "You really think THIS will stop a common cold?"

"It's more than just a cold, Cherry," Zelda advised. "This coronavirus sounds as lethal as the GARG-03 spread in The Netherworld when The Gargoyle Flu was going around."

"She might have a point," said Lionel. "I mean, who knows what sort of effect this disease could have on magical-type beings? It could make their powers go totally nutso!"

"Well, we'll keep track and see what happens." Cherry shrugged and then said.

"Oh, come on, there are plenty of doctors in the world," Atticus said, sounding so confident as always. "We're gonna be just fine, a little cold or flu never hurt anyone."

Everyone was then silent for a moment as Salem suddenly rushed by with a party hat on. "GUYS! GUYS! THE BIG CUBE IS ABOUT TO DROP IN TIME CIRCLE! THE COUNTDOWN IS STARTING!" he then told them all before anything else could be said or done.

"Oh! Okay!" everyone exclaimed as they ran to the TV and gathered around.

Zelda sighed and shook her head. "I don't know, kids... 2020 is going to be a year to remember." she then remarked.

"Every year is a year to remember, Zelly, and no matter what, we'll all get through it." Hilda said to her sister, putting her hand on her shoulder.

"I guess so..." Zelda nodded.

Everyone then gathered in front of the TV and began to countdown from 10 as 2019 was 10 seconds away from being over and everyone would be into the new year of 2020.

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"7!"

"6!"

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Everyone cheered and celebrated as the TV played the New York theme song while Drell and Hilda held onto each other and kissed on the lips. Atticus and Mo also kissed each other since that was usually a New Year's tradition. Cherry stood there, though she glanced over at Lionel, wondering if he would do the same thing to her.

"Hey, would you... maybe want to?" Lionel asked, rubbing his arm.

"Cheek." Cherry said as she crossed her arms.

"Good enough for me!" Lionel beamed before kissing her cheek.

Cherry gave him a deadpan look, though she smirked a little in approval from the kiss.

"So who's ready to go back to school next week?" Thor then asked his friends eagerly.

"So far, we're trying not to think about it too much." responded Lionel.

"Yeah, I tend to put school away in the back of my mind when we get out for Winter Break." Cherry remarked.

"Oops, sorry," Thor said bashfully. "Just excited for the next football season is all."

"Same here, bud." Atticus replied as they bumped fists together.

"Sorry, we're gonna miss them," Cherry said with a small shrug before smirking. "You guys are talented at your sports and all, but Lionel and I like to spend our time watching other things like sitcoms, cheesy movies, or cartoons."

"Yup, yup, yup!" Lionel responded. "Everyone's got their niche!"

"Either way, 2020 is going to be a great year." Atticus reassured everyone.

Everyone then clinked glasses of either sparkling cider or root beer as they toasted to the New Year.

JANUARY 2020...

In school, everyone was in their desks after Winter Break had ended. Some students had masks on their faces and some had rubber gloves, though a lot of people weren't taking the virus scare they heard about over Winter Break that seriously. However, in science class, everyone soon had to prepare for Mr. Pool coming in to give them a video lecture on the dangers of germs.

"Man, some kids are going overboard about this COVID thing." Cherry commented about most students who had on masks to prevent the spread of potential germs.

"I mean, we don't know anything about it," said Lionel. "Nobody wants to get sick, anyway, unless they think it'll get them out of school."

Cherry merely shrugged at that.

The adventure group all did their best to listen to their teacher, but even they were starting to feel bored as he told them about the video they were going to watch before the lights were shut off and the screen began to play.

Soon, the educational video started and it was called "Hygiene Keeps You Healthy" as most of the students groaned.

"From the looks of this creature, you may think it would be found somewhere under a rock, or in a swamp, but no. It is a germ, and it lives all around you," A Rod Serling-like voice said on the video before showing himself in a black and white video to warn the viewers about the unsafety and unhealthy organism known as a germ. "Why, our own bodies are a battlefield in a constant state of germ warfare. And the bacteria battle doesn't stop there. The world around us is also brimming with germs, and inhabited by germ-ridden creatures who carry disease. Germs. Germs are everywhere. Insidiously breeding. In your home. In your school. On desktops and doorknobs."

"I'm Detective Adrian Monk from the San Francisco Police Department and I approve this message." Another man said as he stepped into frame, standing six feet away from other man.

No one was probably as bored as Cherry who looked ready to make her desk into her pillow. "I wonder what adventures will await us this year...?" she then murmured to herself as she managed to doze off.

Lionel shrugged. "...okay, these guys aren't winning any Emmy awards..." he commented.

"I wonder what Darla's doing?" Atticus mused to himself before yawning as well.

IN THE MEANTIME...

A moving van was driving past the zoo as Darla, Amber, and Annabelle were visiting and hanging out for a personal mission given to them as they looked over some information given to them. Many other people headed inside of the zoo to go see the animals there and go have fun for the day, though at the zoo was a certain father and daughter.

"Dad, you have the coolest job." The daughter named Shane commented as she and her father saw the chimpanzees.

"Well, sometimes I think I should be hanging out with a better class of animals," The father named Frank muffled as he ate rather lazily and scoffed as the chimp scratched his butt in front of them. "Oh, come on! Hey, have some class, will ya? We got mixed company down here." he then complained to the primate before scratching his own butt.

"You know, Dad, genetically speaking, monkeys are our first cousins." Shane remarked to her father.

"You mean... Uncle Bob's kids?" Frank smirked before sitting down. "Yeah. I supposed I'd agree with that."

"No, I'm serious," Shane defended. "Actually, some scientists say that monkey diets are much more evolved than our own."

"Oh, this is all about diets again, huh?" Frank commented as he took out a hard-boiled egg to eat.

"I'm just saying it wouldn't hurt you to eat more fruits and vegetables," Shane advised. "Like monkeys do."

"Honey, the reason that monkeys eat so many fruits and vegetables is because they're not smart enough to butcher a cow," Frank replied as he put mayonnaise and salt all over the egg. "Your mother, God bless her soul, didn't believe the old-fashioned ideas about nursing, breast-feeding and all that. Uh-uh. You were fed cheeseburgers as a baby. Now look at you. You're as big as a house. You're as strong as a bull. You smell like a cow. Your cholesterol's probably a little high, but, you know, they have medicine for that now. You can get an angioplasty, get it all cleared out. You're doing great, honey."

Shane frowned and looked at him softly.

"All right. I'll start workin' out tomorrow," Frank then decided, about to eat the egg. "Start taking better care of myself, Okay?"

"So does that mean you'll go on the school hike with me?" Shane asked hopefully. "Also maybe try to get the COVID vaccine they're talking about?"

"That vaccine isn't going to do anything to stop a cold," Frank scoffed, shrugging off the vaccine since COVID was all over the news right now. "First things first. Eat your lunch. We'll talk about later," he then added as the chimp soon came by and swiped his egg away. "Hey... gimme that egg, pal. Gimme the egg, friendly. Come on!" he then argued.

"Dad! Dad, stop it!" Shane yelped. "What are you doing?"

"Hey, that's my egg! Gimme that-" Frank glared as he fought the chimp for the egg. "Uh! Uh! Uh! Uh!"

"It's just an egg, Dad!" Shane told him.

"Okay. Now I gotta choke ya!" Frank glared as he shook the chimp who put the egg in its mouth until it dropped on the ground, getting covered in dirt until he picked it up. "Aha! Ha! Now who's evolved? What's the matter, buddy? All that salad slow you down? Huh?" he then taunted the primate, about to eat it.

"Dad! That's filthy!" Shane complained.

"Honey, 10-second rule: Hits the ground, you pick it up within 10 seconds, you can eat it." Frank reassured her before he ate the egg anyway.

"Ugh!" Shane grimaced in disbelief.

"Hey there." Darla smiled as she suddenly walked over to Shane.

"Um, hi." Shane blinked and greeted.

"You look so alone over here." Amber said in a friendly voice like when she first met Darla.

"Why don't you come hang out with us?" Annabelle offered.

"Uh, sure..." Shane shrugged before looking over at her father. "I guess I'll be right back, Dad."

"Alright, kiddo." said Frank as he waved her off.

Shane then went to go hang out with Darla, Amber, and Annabelle. The three girls smiled as they tried to form a friendship with her. However, what Frank (and no one else for that matter) didn't know was that there was more to the egg he was munching on.

Inside of his mouth appeared to be a group of workers coming together to deal with the egg's residue inside his rather disgusting mouth.

"Saliva one, what have you got?" A dispatcher asked over the radio.

"An egg 2-20. E-Gamma-Gamma. Over." A pilot replied while flying over the inside of Frank's mouth, looking at the remains of the egg.

"Any mayo?" The dispatcher asked.

"Affirmative." The pilot replied.

"Slow bowel traffic," The dispatcher stated. "Enzyme breakdown in 10."

"You know, when I was a rookie cell, you could eat off this place. Look at it now. Jeez! What a disgrace," The pilot grimaced in disgust. "See anything, kid?" he then asked someone behind him.

"Mmm. I do. Nice genes!" A different voice said, looking through a DNA magazine. "You got chromosomes in all the right places!"

"Jones!" The dispatcher chastised.

"What?" asked the aforementioned white blood cell. "Ain't nuthin' a toothbrush can't handle!"

"I wish you'd take this job a bit more seriously," lamented the pilot.

"Yo! You see this badge? You see this gun? You see this gooey, white, sackus, membranous around my personhood?" The white blood cell ranted, showing his badge in his vest, pointing to his gun, then pulled on and mushed around his face like it was rubbery.

"Here we go again." The pilot murmured while flying.

"Well, you dealin' with a white blood cell here!" The cell retorted. "I should be out in the veins fightin' disease, not in the mouth on Tartar Control!"

"You're lucky you ain't in a scab," The pilot scoffed before being given a reading. "Uh-Oh. We got germs on that egg." he then noted.

"Mm, baby! It's Ozzy time!" The cell smirked, sliding on a pair of sunglasses. And then he slid behind what looked like a side gun, but instead of a muzzle, there was a pair of lips.

"It's probably gingivitis, don't get carried away," warned the pilot as he turned on the P.A. "Halt. You have entered the City of Frank. Put your hands up and surrender for digestion."

A light shined all around the egg residue as well as Frank's teeth, gums, and tongue while looking for stray germs.

"Bicuspid four. We're in the vicinity. We're on it." A voice remarked.

"This is a private organism. There is no use in running." The pilot told some running thugs who turned out to be germs themselves.

"Up spit creek without a paddle," The cell smirked to himself eagerly. "Don't get me mad, 'cuz I will turn into a germicidal maniac."

The germs were soon surrounded by other living white blood cells who were also cops.

"Halt. Saliva Patrol." One cop told the invading germs.

"Son of a botulism!" The pilot gasped at the germs' next moves. "They swiped the patrol car!"

Get outta here!" A germ yelled out before shooting at the police helicopter where the pilot and other cell were.

"Oh! Uh-oh, you done done it now!" The cell cop taunted before shooting back saliva droplets at the germs, but missed.

The car chase continued until there was a bright light that nearly blinded all of them since Frank's mouth was slowly opening up.

"Holy Frank! He's about to yaaaaaaawn!" The pilot panicked as Frank soon did that and someone behind him was coughing rather hoarsely. "We're getting sucked in! I told city hall we need more sleep! Hold tight, kid." he then cried out and warned the cell in the copter with him.

"Osmosis Jones to dispatch. We got multiple germs. I repeat, multiple germs coming down the windpipe, and if these bad boys hit the blood stream, we're gonna be illin'! I'm talkin' nose-drippin', chicken soup drinkin', rectal thermometer stickin' illin'!" The cell cop cried out as they were being sent toward Downtown Frank. "Request permission to pursue?"

The patrol car plummeted into a city street, flinging the cops off, while the germs continued their joyride.

Meanwhile, further downtown, two blood cells were in a parked cop car. "So, you got plans for this weekend, kid?" asked one.

"Oh, yeah," the other replied. "Me and my girlfriend are goin' down to the kidneys to see the Stones."

"Good fer you," his partner said. "They could pass any day now!"

"All units down to the stomach," A dispatcher told them through the radio. "Be on the lookout for illegal organisms."

The blood cells looked concerned about that and soon drove off where they were needed.

"Jones! You wanna keep your job? Stay where you are and wait for back-up." The Chief complained as he saw the action from the main blood cell police station.

"But I can get 'em." Ozzy defended.

"I said stay put. Over." The Chief replied firmly, much to Ozzy's dismay.

"You heard the chief. We're out of our jurisdiction," The pilot told Ozzy. "It's immunity's problem now. We'd better get back up to the mouth. What the-Hey, Jones!" he then added, realizing that Ozzy was on his way out of the chopper.

"Chief, you're gonna thank me for this later." Ozzy told himself, getting ready to jump.

"Don't even think about it, pal. Aren't you in enough trouble already?" The pilot retorted until he saw Ozzy hopping out of the chopper anyway. "Jones!"

Ozzy let out a yell as he fell from the helicopter and landed on the patrol car, clinging to the bumper while his arm was streeeetched out before him. "Slow down!" he demanded. "Slow down!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" shouted the germ in the front as Ozzy's hands wrapped around his head and began pulling. "Wait, wait, what the—?!"

"Hey, stretch!" called one cop as he saw Ozzy. "Shouldn't you be up in the mouth?"

"Aw, c'mon, guys!" Ozzy replied. "This is my bust. I saw 'em first!"

The germ soon bit Ozzy, making him scream and let go before ending up in the middle of the road. The patrol car panicked at the sight of Ozzy in the middle of the road and swerved to avoid him and crashed into a billboard advertising to visit the Land of Down Under and we don't mean Australia.

Ozzy looked nervous at that before he ran away and slid against the ground that construction cells were working on as it was quite slippery and he soon ran into a dark alley. "You want Osmosis? You got Osmosis." he then said before slipping through the alley and ended up back on the road and was in front of the car that the germs had hijacked. He then screamed and splatted himself down into a puddle as the car ran over him and he stood back up easily

"Bye-bye, cop!" One of the germs mocked as he and the others got away

Ozzy smirked as he took out his gun confidently. "Sorry, baby, but it's time you take your medicine!" he then said before shooting the gun.

Unfortunately, the bullet missed the hijacked patrol car and hit what looked like a high tower.

"Dang! Always pulls to the right!" Ozzy complained.

The high tower shook and sparked which would cause pain to Frank on the outside.

In the meantime, Frank was on his way up the steps to a house until he suddenly yelled out in pain and fell in front of the door.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Shane asked out of concern as she came out the door and saw her father in agony. "Oh, my God."

"It's a cramp!" Frank yelled out as he hugged a bucket of chicken he had with him.

Darla, Amber, and Annabelle, who had come over to hang out, winced as that looked bad and they decided to help out their new friend's father.

The buildings inside of Frank came crumbling down and Ozzy was flattened by a pinched nerve. "Officer down!" he then muffled out.

"These stairs are killing me, honey!" Frank complained as he shook his leg while she sat next to him. "We may have to move."

"But, Dad, there's only four steps." Shane pointed out.

"All right, if you love it here, I'll build a ramp." Frank then relented.

Darla, Amber, and Annabelle all looked deadpan at Shane's father and soon heard a vehicle across the street. They all then looked over while Shane helped Frank inside, though she also glanced across the street.

"Hey, someone new is moving in." Shane remarked.

"That'll be exciting," Amber smiled. "New neighbors are always interesting."

"Sure, unless they borrow some tools from you that you never get back." Frank grumbled a bit at that.

Out of the car emerged a mom, a dad, and a brunette boy around Shane's age. He gave a sheepish wave to her and her father. Shane blinked as she looked around and waved back at the boy with a small smile. The boy seemed to smile back at her.

"SHAAAANE!" Frank cried melodramatically.

"I'm right here, Dad." Shane said with a sigh as she went to help him inside of the house.

Darla, Amber, and Annabelle then came to help out as well while the boy went to go help his parents move some boxes around. Darla winced as she heard Frank coughing and then bent down and put on a surgical mask around her nose and mouth that was colored pink with red hearts decorated all over it. "Safety first." she then muffled slightly.

"Are those really necessary?" Annabelle wondered.

"Atticus says a lot of kids in school are wearing masks now," Darla shrugged. "Who knows how bad this virus will get in a few years?"

Chapter Text

Back in Frank's gumline, there were a couple of sewage workers tending to the egg that the man had eaten earlier.

"I can't believe it," One sewage worker said to the other and complained while they cleaned up. "It's been three hours since lunch, and we're still cleaning up this egg. Oh, man, would you look at all that gunk?"

"Ha ha ha." The second sewage worker laughed sarcastically.

"Seriously... what does this guy do, roll his food around on the ground before he eats it?" The first sewage worker scoffed. "We need to send a letter to the mayor about washing our hands before we eat especially during this COVID pandemic that's all over the news."

"Yeah, like he's gonna listen to us," The second sewage worker scoffed. "Besides, that's just a common cold, it's not like it's gonna kill us."

"Hey, cells vote, man. Cells vote." The first sewage worker advised. Suddenly, his pack got sucked up into the viscous fluid of the egg. He tried to pull it out, but it was stuck fast. 

Meanwhile, his partner checked the other end of the boat. Moving closer to the lifeboat, he pulled the tarp off to reveal one of the smaller germs. "Ha-ha! Gotcha, you little—" he started before he heard his partner scream.

"Artie? W-what's goin' on over there?" The partner then asked frantically. "Artie! Artie?"

There was then a rumbling as the worker known as Artie seemed to be sealed up in some sort of container. The egg remains soon began to pulsate and shake while something spurt out from the egg's remains. From inside the residue came out a humanoid creature that was very different from the blood cells in the city of Frank.

"Huh? Holy spit!" The sewage worker said nervously as he backed up, not sure what else to do. He then looked down at his tool before he dropped it to mean no harm.

"Careful, I'm contagious~" The male virus smirked, showing a razor sharp and glowing finger and lingered it around the sewage worker. "Ow..."

"Mm... you certainly are~" A feminine virus smirked as she glanced from where she was hiding.

"Well, is there a lovely viral vixen in here or am I the only one turning up the heat?" The dark-voiced virus asked and chuckled. "You don't seem to be like the other cold and flu viruses that come around here."

"Neither do you, but I'm relatively new and misunderstood~" The female virus smirked as she stepped into the light, having spikes on her head like Medusa hair. "I get called many things, but in a few months, everyone will remember the name Corona~"

"Thrax, much appreciated~" The male virus smirked as he took her by the hand and kissed the back of it.

"Mm... I think we can make beautiful mucus together~" Corona smirked back. "Why don't I give you a hand?"

"It would be most appreciated~" declared Thrax.

The sewage worker chuckled nervously, before his skin began to foam and bubble... and then, BLAM! He exploded!

"Ooh, that's unfortunate~" Corona cooed and chuckled as she followed Thrax as the two became a power viral couple together.

Thrax slid his arm around her and scraped his toxic finger against the wall.

One rogue germ soon got out and shivered nervously from Thrax's inflammation as he and Corona headed up a set of stairs and things were going to look very grave for Frank very soon, but no one in the outside world would know it.

"Think I'll turn up the heat in here~" Thrax smirked as he slid on his sunglasses and the inflammation grew worse and worse.

"Besides that, we haven't seen them," responded Mo. "You don't suppose they've gone off on some other adventure, do you?"

"Without us?" asked Thor. "Naaaah!"

MEANWHILE...

The living emotions known as Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, Fear, Embarrassment, Anxiety, Ennui, Envy, and Nostalgia were hanging around each other, seeming to be dead inside.

"I gotta tell you, this job has been going on way too long," Disgust groaned. "I mean, who wants to get that COVID booster shot anyway? Who uses injections against a cold?"

"Excuse us, coming through." A voice said suddenly.

The living emotions looked over and saw Atticus, Mo, Thor, Sabrina, and Patch wandering by.

"I haven't seen Cherry or Lionel all day." Patch commented.

"We saw them in school." Atticus shrugged.

The emotions glanced at them and then looked back at each other.

Atticus then came back for a moment. "Excuse me, but you haven't seen a snarky goth and a guy who does cartoon impressions and makes movie references, have you?" he then asked the emotions.

"Duuuuude, get out of my face," Ennui droned dully. "Frank went through this gothic rock and roll phase where he hated people getting up in his face."

"Uh, okay?" Atticus shrugged at that.

"Oh, remember when we scored with those girls in high school?" Nostalgia cooed and chuckled. "Such good times, my friends."

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine! We're totally fine! We're gonna be fine!" Anxiety cackled and looked very twitchy.

"Well, if you guys can't help us, do you know someone who can?" Sabrina asked.

"You might wanna talk to Mr. Phlegmming." Joy suggested.

"And who would that be?" Thor asked.

"The Mayor down at Cerebellum Hall, duh!" Anger scoffed. "Man, you kids today are so lost and clueless."

"These guys seem very different from the Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear, and Sadness we met long ago." Atticus whispered to the others who nodded in agreement.

"Well, all right then! We'll try to ask your mayor if he's seen our friends," Sabrina then said to keep up appearances with the others as they went to go that way. "Also, nice to meet other emotions we didn't see before."

"They slowly come into form when the host goes through puberty," Sadness droned while lying down on the floor. "Nothing is worth living for though ever since we lost Maggie."

"I'm sorry for your loss." said Atticus.

Sadness just groaned as the others left the room.

Eventually, they made it over to Frank's brain where one cell of a man was being followed by various others as cell EMTs were taking and transferring calls through the spikes on their heads which were very different from Corona's spikes.

"Connecting, please hold."

"One moment."

"I'm connecting."

Eventually, the group caught up to the mayor and the press as they passed by a sperm cell on display which was "The Founder".

"Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, do you have a plan to deal with the fat-cell housing shortage?"

"I'd like to announce we're beginning construction on a, ha ha, third chin." Mayor Phlegmming answered with a chuckle.

"He must be the mayor." Thor guessed.

"Gotta be." Atticus nodded in agreement.

"What's that about a third chin?" Patch asked.

"It means wherever we are, the person isn't healthy." Atticus explained.

"Yeah, he's a chubbo." Thor added.

"Thor!" The others frowned.

"Sorry, just thought I'd say something sassy since Cherry isn't here." Thor shrugged in defense.

"Fair." The others then admitted.

"Mr. Mayor, we're having jock itch!"

"Any comments on today's cramp?"

"What do you have to say to all the hair cells recently laid off from the scalp?"

"There'll be plenty of new jobs for everyone on the back." Mayor Phlegmming reassured them.

"What do you think of Frank's daughter's request for better nutrition?"

"85% of red blood cell children don't even know how to carry oxygen."

"People, people, you worry too much! The body is in perfect shape. Ha ha ha ha. And no more questions. Thank you," Mayor Phlegmming replied, chuckling as he tried to keep up with them until he turned away to shut the door and see his secretary named Leah Estrogen, unaware that a different group was now following him. "Do they know how hard I work? No. No. Nobody cares."

The group then rushed to follow the man inside before the door would close as the mayor gave a friendly smile before giving a bitter frown as he wasn't as friendly as he claimed to be.

"Mr. Mayor, I--" began Leah.

"Not now, Leah, I have a body to run." said Mayor Phlegmming.

"I've got Tom Colonic's new campaign ad." Leah explained.

"Oh?" Phlegmming waved his hand. "Let's go. Put it on, then."

Atticus and the others glanced at each other and then back over at the mayor and his secretary, not sure what to say or do in this situation while Leah slid in the VHS to show the ad to her boss.

"This is a paid announcement." An announcer's voice said before showing a different cell.

The cell there took a deep breath and sighed while walking with the camera that filmed him. "The bowels. Didn't always smell this way. No," he then stared to say. "There was a time when eating right and exercise kept this whole area a vital center of activity, but during Mayor Phlegmming's term, we've seen rot and stagnation paralyzed this neighborhood as well as the colon and the sphincter. Well, I think it's time we get things moving again. I'm Tom Colonic. As mayor, I would set long-term goals that include ordering salads and eating bran. Mayor Phlegmming may think that things are fine just the way they are."

"Blah, blah, blah." Mayor Phlegmming murmured and rolled his eyes.

"But I think that if we pull together and put in a little hard work, a new Frank could be right around the corner." Tom Colonic continued, sounding hopeful and sincere.

"Oh, uh, Mr. Colonic, What's that smell?" A young cell asked as he pointed to the buildings behind them.

"Ha, ha. Why, that's the smell of change, Billy," Tom Colonic chuckled warmly as he patted the boy on the head. "That's the smell of change."

"Paid for by Colonic for Mayor." The announcer then said as the video added with a subtitle that said: "TOM COLONIC: A REGULAR GUY".

"Can you believe those lies?" Mayor Phlegmming complained.

"Sir, he's got a point. When I came to work for you, you promised you would concentrate more on health issues." Leah reminded him.

"Leah, I want Frank to be healthy, but think of the sacrifices, the hard work, the lack of potato chips!" Mayor Phlegmming retorted. "That's not what the voters want."

"Then why are you behind in the polls?" Leah countered.

"Don't you worry about the polls," Mayor Phlegmming replied before smirking to himself. "I have a plan that's gonna flush Colonic down the toilet."

"He seems nice." Sabrina commented about this Tom Colonic.

"WHO DARES TO SAY THAT IN MY OFFICE?!" Mayor Phlegmming sneered until he saw the young group.

"Um, hi there." Atticus greeted innocently.

"Leah, what are these street viruses doing here?" Mayor Phlegmming demanded.

"I'm not sure, sir, they just seemed to come out of nowhere." Leah admitted and explained.

"Alright, what is it you want here?" asked Mayor Phlegmming.

"We're just looking for our friends, have you seen them?" Atticus asked. "One of them is a very sassy and snarky goth."

"But she's a perky goth." Sabrina quickly added.

"Yeah, and our other friend is a guy who usually makes impressions and pop-culture references related to cartoons?" Thor added hopefully.

"Never heard of 'em," Mayor Phlegmming shrugged off. "NOW GET OUT OF MY OFFICE! DENNY CRANE!"

The young group looked confused at that name drop.

"Never mind that, just get out of here." Mayor Phlegmming then caught himself.

"They must be around here somewhere," Patch said. "And why are you making this body so unhealthy? You're probably gonna kill whoever's body this is."

"Oh, please, I'm the best mayor this body has ever had," Mayor Phlegmming smirked a bit. "Besides, what do children know about politics?"

"Less than we should, really," responded Mo. "And yet, more than we'd prefer to."

"Unless... you guys are cute enough to sponsor me..." Mayor Phlegmming said as he tried to think of a crafty idea.

"Uh..." The group blinked, not sure how to respond to that.

Meanwhile, Darla, Amber, and Annabelle were hanging out with Shane while her father was "resting" in the living room. Darla hummed a song to herself for 30 seconds as she washed her hands with warm water and soap.

"I really hope this virus doesn't make us all stay inside after Spring Break," Amber said. "What if we never get to hang out with each other ever again?"

"We'll all be fine as long as we're careful," Darla reassured as she wiped her hands dry. "Washing your hands regularly helps prevent the spread of germs."

"I just wish my dad were more cautious about this virus like you are." Shane said to her new friend.

"Some people are ignorant, but they'll thank us later." Darla replied confidently.

"Honey!" Frank soon yelled out from the living room. "Shaaaaane!"

"Oh, gosh... I'll be right back," Shane told her new friends before she took the hot water bottle and ran off to go and see her father. "Coming!" She subsequently joined him in the living room. "You okay? Where does it hurt?" she asked.

"Leg..." groaned Frank.

Shane moved it to the kneecap. "Is this okay?" she asked.

"Leeeeg...." Frank groaned again.

"His other leg maybe?" Amber suggested to Shane.

"Here?" Shane offered as she tried her father's other leg.

"Leeeeeeeeg!" Frank still whined and glanced over to the bucket next to him.

"Ohhh..." Amber realized. "I think he wants a chicken leg."

"Oh! Oh, oh. Oh, here. Here." Shane said as she took out a chicken drumstick and gave it to her fractured father.

"I just needed some sodium. I think that's what made me cramp up," Frank said sluggishly before taking the drumstick and bit into it, not fully chewing and then swallowed until he coughed. "Heads up! Chicken going down rough! Chicken going down rough!" he then grunted and yelped.

Meanwhile, there was a red alert in the mayor's office and a picture of Frank's throat was shown to be in danger. "Oh, now what?" he then groused until he took a look.

"Optical feed, patch us through to Emotional Headquarters." Leah requested as she pushed a certain button.

There was then a red alert that sounded where Frank's emotions resided inside of him.

"Emotional Headquarters, status?" Mayor Phlegmming requested.

"WE'RE CHOKING ON CHICKEN AND WE'RE GOING TO *bleep*ING DIE!" Frank's Fear replied, running around hysterically while everyone else seemed to had given up hope.

"Emotional Headquarters, you have chicken going down the wrong pipe." Leah reported.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Frank's Fear continued to scream and panic.

"All is lost." Frank's Anger grumbled, looking through a newspaper that highlighted Frank's current choking.

"Let me take a look, Dad," Shane requested. "Open wide. Open wide." she then grimaced as Frank opened his mouth and showed mushy chicken there.

"Uh, you mind swallowing first?" Amber suggested with a grimace. "Man, and I thought Rolly had poor manners."

Frank then swallowed the food and showed his daughter his throat.

"Definitely red." Shane noted from what she could see in her father's mouth.

"Are you ordering out?" Frank then asked, seeing her grab the phone and dialed a certain number.

"No. I'm making you an appointment to see the doctor." Shane explained maturely.

"Sick? We're not getting sick!" Mayor Phlegmming panicked. "We have far too much planned!" ...and then, inspiration struck. He took out a pair of keys from his jacket and went to the control panel.

"Sir, you can't go into manual override without a vote from city council!" Leah exclaimed.

Mayor Phlegmming just laughed it off and turned the keys. "...yes, my dear." he replied as a microphone sprouted up.

"Stop him!" Leah cried out. "Emotional Headquarters!"

"Whatever..." Frank's emotions all responded drearily while Frank's Fear was breathing heavily in and out in a paper bag with wider eyes than usual and was twitching.

"Man, you need to chill out and go on those edibles that Bob talks about all the time." Frank's Anxiety scoffed at the embodiment of phobic reactions.

"Voice manual control on." Mayor Phlegmming soon spoke into the microphone as his voice echoed suddenly.

"Hey, that's only for emergencies and approval from Emotional Headquarters." Leah reminded him.

"Leah, this is an emergency and they're fine with it, aren't you, guys?" Mayor Phlegmming retorted coldly.

"I miss Maggie so much..." Frank's Sadness sulked on the floor, sounding borderline suicidal of all things.

"See? They're fine," Mayor Phlegmming smirked at his secretary before he spoke right into the microphone to control Frank. "On second thought..."

"On second thought..." Frank spoke as he lowered the chicken drumstick he nearly choked on and was about to eat again right away.

"...Perhaps I'll take a cold pill." Mayor Phlegmming continued.

"...Perhaps I'll take a cold pill." Frank then concluded as he put the drumstick down on the phone line to cancel Shane's call before it could be made.

"We gotta stop this guy." Atticus whispered to the others.

"I think it's a little late," said Patch as Mayor Phlegmming ended his call.

"Uh, sir?" Leah asked.

"Thank you, Leah." smirked Mayor Phlegmming as he walked off. "Now get me the chief on the phone. There's a good girl."

Frank, meanwhile, went to the bathroom and got out a packet of pills from the medicine cabinet. "Drixenol..." he read off the package.

MEANWHILE AT THE LYMPH NODES WHERE THE POLICE STATION WAS...

Across the street was a donut-like shop where many cops visited on their breaks, but the real action was in the station right now. Ozzy soon slunk inside of the station with his shirt up over his head, trying to make sure no one would see him.

"Next." A voice called.

"I caught this one with six micrograms of stolen adrenaline." A cop told the Irish cell behind his desk, holding onto an elephant trunk-faced germ.

"It's not mine," The germ defended. "I swear I was holding it for my cousin."

"Oh, yeah. I never heard that one before. Take him to lockdown," The Irish cell scoffed. "Next!"

The cop then went to take away the germ as Ozzy kept trying to hide, but was soon caught.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's 'The Germinator'!" One cell called out as the others laughed at him.

Ozzy looked embarrassed, but tried to stand up for himself. "Okay, guys, you got me there. Let's save a little for the criminals, all right?" he then said maturely.

"Jones, when was the last time you caught anything?" One of his co-workers scoffed.

"Hey, hey. You shoulda seen this thing. This ain't no ordinary household germ," Ozzy reassured until another cop came by, dangling the germ where Ozzy was earlier that day. "This thing's bigger than all of us. This thing ain't even from Frank's body. It's like a Al Roker germ, a Heavy D germ."

"You talkin' about this?" The cop then asked and smirked, showing everyone the truth.

"Yeah, uh, you know, he's slouching right now." Ozzy then admitted, feeling humiliated again.

"JONES! IN MY OFFICE!" A sharp voice yelled out suddenly.

"Hey, we're finally in the show!" Cherry said as she was suddenly shown in the office along with a certain someone else. "Well, Lionel, whatever's going on here, it doesn't look good."

"Oh, yeah," nodded Lionel. "But looks like we're getting involved in the plot at least!"

"Chiefy-weefy, wassup?" Ozzy asked as he headed into the office.

"Don't chiefy-weefy me!" the Chief remarked, showing a newspaper. "Have you seen the headlines? The papers are calling it the most powerful cramp since Shane made us try that tae-bo workout!"

"Must've been a real charlie horse." Cherry commented.

"Don't remind me of that experience either." The Chief said to Cherry offhandedly.

"Hold on a second---" Ozzy tried to protest.

"I told you to stay put. I told you to wait for back-up! But once again, you had to do it your own way!" The Chief listed out of annoyance.

"Man, I was right there! I coulda done it--" Ozzy complained.

"Right! 78 trillion cells in the body, all working together, you're the only one who thinks he can do it alone! You ever think that might be your problem, Jones?" The Chief interrupted and retorted until he suddenly got a phone call as Ozzy glanced over at Cherry and Lionel who waved at him and he glanced away, seeing the Chief's family pictures and grimaced slightly. "What?! Oh, hello, Mr. Mayor. The missus? Oh, she's great. Yes. Uh- you're kidding, sir. I'll put a man right on it, sir. Yes, sir," he then added before hanging up and grumbled a bit until he focused on Ozzy again. "Stupid political decisions! Now where was I?"

"You were just starting to say how you were giving me a promotion to Head of Brain Security, I believe. Yep." Ozzy said for him.

The Chief looked annoyed again until that gave him an idea. "You know what, Jones? You're right," he then replied. "Maybe it is time I give you a case."

"Talkin' about what, now?" Ozzy asked in surprise.

"We have a situation in the throat, and I'm putting you on it." The Chief explained.

"Thank you, chief! Thank you, chief!" Ozzy beamed, taking this as great news. "You won't regret this. You're a good man! You're a fine man. You're an upstanding man."

"Yeah. Whatever you say." The Chief shrugged off.

"You know, it was on the fence for a while. People like, 'Good man, bad man, good man, bad man', but now it's official: You a good man!" Ozzy started to say, morphing his boss's face to a smile and frown repeatedly for a moment.

"You done? Now our pill is getting swallowed as we speak," The Chief complained and then added. "So I suggest you get your nucleus along with this young recruits down to the stomach, pronto!"

"Pill and recruits?" Ozzy asked. "What pill and recruits?"

"You didn't think I was gonna trust you to take care of a sore throat by yourself, did you?" The Chief smirked before glaring. "Now, get outta here or I swear to Frank, you'll be on butt-hair patrol for the next three years!" he then threatened.

"Rinky-dink, stink, pinky pill!" Ozzy grumbled as he left the office.

"Don't forget about us." Cherry said as the others laughed at Ozzy.

"Yeah, try not to cramp my style, huh?" Ozzy replied. "Who are you two anyway and where did you come from?"

"That might be hard to answer, but I'm Cherry and this is Lionel." The perky goth began to explain.

"Hi, guy!" Lionel added with a smile.

Ozzy rolled his eyes slightly. "Just don't touch my radio, okay?" he then told them.

"All right." Cherry and Lionel replied.

And so, they all left into Ozzy's car and they went to go and meet the pill that Frank was about to take to relieve of him of what he believed to be temporary sickness. Cherry and Lionel looked around, amazed at how much the human body could look like a city as this was nothing they would ever see in any science class in school. Soon, they pulled up into the stomach which seemed to act like an airport. The PA sounded as they parked the car, stepped inside and went through security and Ozzy flashed his badge through the metal detector and they passed a cult of cells who sang and did a tribal dance as Ozzy, Cherry, and Lionel passed through.

"The white zone is for ingestion and digestion only. No parking."

"Peanut boarding for intestine and liver with direct service to the colon. Now boarding."

"Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna..."

"All fat cells proceed to love handles."

"A regular hotbed of activity," Lionel commented. "So this is where it all happens, more or less!"

"Pretty much." Ozzy replied nonchalantly since this was all typical for him.

"Oh, yes, Mr. Mayor," Leah said as she was shown to be on a cell phone while the schedules changed arriving into Frank's stomach after ingestion. "No, sir, it hasn't arrived yet."

"What the--Mmm!" Ozzy blinked and looked over to see a certain female cell. "Look out, now!" he then smirked as he made his chest bigger and more molded, then changed his chin and slicked back the top of his head to look smooth as he attempted to go and woo Leah somehow.

"Can you do that?" Cherry asked Lionel curiously.

"Only if I wanted to." responded Lionel.

"I'll check back later," said Leah, as Ozzy strode over. "Alright... goodbye."

"Well, well, well! What do we have here?" Ozzy smirked. "Somebody's been workin' out! Leah, you lookin' fine, girl. Mighty fine."

Leah sighed. "Jones... did they have to assign you to this?"

Cherry and Lionel soon stepped over and followed Ozzy and Leah since they had nothing else to really do right now.

"Wasn't my idea, but now I'm starting to like it," Ozzy shrugged. "Baby, when are you and me gonna hook up? I know this little spot right behind the eye. Has a perfect view. Perfect for a little rendezvous between me and you. You know what I'm sayin'? Do you know what I'm saying? 'Cuz I been saying it a long time." he then invited.

"Jones, what in the world makes you think I would ever go out with you?" Leah scoffed.

"What you talkin' about? I'm a legend, girl!" Ozzy defended. "The chicks line up to divide with me!"

"Oh, really? 'Cuz to me you look like the kind of cell who mostly divides with himself." Leah countered.

Cherry cupped her mouth and chuckled a bit while Lionel snickered a bit like a cartoon dog.

Ozzy flashed them both a "shut up" look, then he reacted to what the female cell said about him. "Whoo! Who cut off the heat? Somebody pay the bill! It's cold in here!"

"Now arriving with some milk, a cold pill with a pleasant fruity flavor." The PA announced as they soon went down the escalator while a giant pill slid inside like an airplane down the runway.

"Wow, this is huge!" Leah gasped.

"Don't be all impressed, 'cuz 99% of that's just sugar, you know." Ozzy scoffed at the pill so far.

"Yeah? And 99% of you is just stupid." Leah retorted sassily.

"Ooh, like I haven't heard that one before," Ozzy scoffed before the pill was adjusted and fruity fumes filled the air once the pill had been activated. "What is that cherry stank?" he then grimaced.

The pill soon left the gate after being activated to meet the beings inside of Frank's body.

"Whoa, he's like a cyborg or something." Cherry commented, intrigued by how this pill looked to everyone else.

"Special agent Drixobenzometaphedramine. Drixenol, the brand that eases your coughs and sneezes," The pill announced himself to everyone and then suddenly spoke fast as he mentioned the side-effects like in an informative commercial about medication. "Warning: Do not exceed recommended dosage. If symptoms persist, consult a physician. May cause drowsiness. Do not attempt to operate heavy machinery. Pregnant women should not handle broken tablets."

"Wow, I'm feeling better already." said Ozzy.

The pill gave a salute. "You can call me 'Drix'." he responded.

Lionel pondered. "Ozzy and Drix... I like it!" he commented.

"Ozzy and Drix?" Cherry commented. "Doesn't sound as good or memorable as Osmosis Jones, but a lot easier to remember at least." she then admitted with a small shrug.

"Welcome to the city of Frank." Leah greeted the pill.

"I'd like to examine your irritated areas." Drix stated bluntly, making Cherry and Lionel both snicker.

"Whoo! Never on the first date, Drips." Ozzy said to the pill.

"Drix."The pill corrected.

"That's what I said." Ozzy retorted.

"No, I think you said 'Drips' with a P." Drix remarked.

"Whatever." Ozzy shrugged off.

"Jones... this ain't working out," Leah sighed wearily as she brought out her cell phone. "I'm gonna call the chief and ask him to assign someone else."

"Wait. Hold up now," Ozzy suddenly said somberly. "I need this job, Leah, and I was trusted to look after these young recruits. Come on, just give me a shot." he then added as he put his hands together and looked innocent.

Leah looked softly at him and the two adventurers before she sighed and then put her phone away. "All right. But no screw-ups. You dig?" she then warned.

"Baby, I promise everything's gonna be fine. Not as fine as you, but fine," Ozzy reassured her as he then stepped away with Drix. "Come on, you two." he then added to Cherry and Lionel.

The duo hopped down and headed off after them.

"Man, what you been eatin'?" asked Ozzy.

"It's my.... effervescent propulsion." replied Drix.

Ozzy put on some sunglasses. "Alright... but we're drivin' with the windows open," he replied. "I don't want none of those fruity bubbles stinkin' up my ride, ya got that?"

"Kidney Rock? Hm, never heard of him." Cherry commented, seeing a sold out concert poster on the wall next to her.

"Must be a regional thing." Lionel guessed.

Drix looked over at Ozzy's car and struggled a little as he tried to climb inside.

"Hey, yo, yo! Aw, man! Look what you're doin' to my baby." Ozzy complained as Dirix seemed to mess up his car.

"Well, this is gonna be a long ride-along." Cherry snarked to herself before she and Lionel came into the car next.

"Yep," nodded Lionel. "But at least it should be interesting!"

Ozzy noticed Drix was pretty awestruck by his surroundings. "So, where you from, tough stuff?" he asked.

"I was developed at the University of Chicago, where I graduated Phi Beta Capsule." explained Drix.

"Great..." Ozzy rolled his eyes. "Got me a college boy."

"College seems like a nightmare." Cherry mumbled.

"It depends on who you are," Drix reassured her. "You seem intelligent enough for some college at least."

"Eh, if you say so." Cherry shrugged at that.

"I received my FDA certification in cold and flu studies as well as a master's in Multi-Symptom Relief," Drix then told Ozzy, Cherry, and Lionel. "Where did you study?"

"Greendale/Canterlot High School." Cherry and Lionel stated bluntly.

"Never heard of either of those." Drix remarked.

"That's fine." Lionel replied.

"Study? When you grow up on the wrong side of the digestive tract, you don't got no money for no fancy schools." Ozzy scoffed.

"Oh." Drix merely said.

"I'm not kidding, man," Ozzy then said. "My high school was crack central."

"Oh?" Lionel asked.

"No, it was in the crack! Right in the stanky puckered center!" Ozzy clarified. "We were so poor, we lived on peanut butter and cellulite sandwiches. You ever try to blow dry your hair with a fart?"

Cherry began to look a little queasy, especially since this was being discussed in a moving vehicle.

"Okay, we get it. You were poor." Drix then told the cell.

"You bet I was," Ozzy replied. "You ever try to make a snowman out of toilet paper cling-ons? Now, that's poor!"

"Stop, you're gonna make me throw up." Cherry begged and moaned as Lionel brought out a bucket just in case.

"Vomit? We couldn't afford no vomit," Ozzy remarked. "That's for rich folks."

"Excuse me while I wipe my eyes." Drix replied.

"Aw, you wanna talk about wipin'?" Ozzy began to say, about to set up something else as he made jokes about his own poor upbringing.

"No." The three begged as Cherry tried to stay strong for the rest of the ride.

Chapter Text

THE THROAT

6:15 PM

The group eventually arrived at a site where some fire trucks were handling a situation. Namely, a sore throat situation.

"Alright, you're new, so follow my lead, right?" Ozzy asked.

"Uh, sure," responded Lionel. "But try telling him that!"

Ozzy raised a brow until he saw Drix already heading out. "Yo! Hey, wait up!" Ozzy shouted as he ran behind. "Didn't they teach you no manners in that Ivy-league petri dish?!"

A cell who wore an outfit similar to a firefighter was talking through his radio. "Murphy, it's flaring up again! Give me a status on the pain relief." he said to his partner.

"Well, we have a report of a foreign substance in upper respiratory system." Murphy answered through the radio as the cell on the line was soon bumped into a certain new pill in town.

"Hmm... Inflammation and glandular swelling. We meet again." Drix smirked in determination once he saw the problem and soon locked up his arm cannon, heading closer to the throat.

"Dougy-Doug, the Firebug! My boy is hot!" Ozzy greeted the cell at work, doing a special handshake with him.

"Osmosis Jones. Like I don't have enough problems?" Doug replied with a scoff. "You can start redirecting traffic over there."

"What you talkin' about?" Ozzy smirked boastfully. "Hey, I'm in charge of this sore throat, baby."

"You're kidding me." Doug snarked.

"No. Straight up," Ozzy reassured him. "Now what we got?"

"It's just a routine sore throat," Doug explained as he brought out his walkie-talkie. "Looks like a saliva boat went haywire and crashed."

"That looks kinda bad." Cherry commented from what she could see.

"Saliva boat? That's pretty unusual." Ozzy remarked.

"Knock down that hot spot. Get that ladder team over here!" Doug commanded the other cells as they used hoses to cool down Frank's sore throat, but that wouldn't be enough.

"Step away!" Drix declared as he readied another capsule. "The tamper-proof seal is there for YOUR protection!"

The firefighters watched in awe as Drix loaded his blaster, took aim, and started firing cooling liquid at the inflamed areas.

"I guess that's how pills work." Lionel commented.

"I wouldn't know, I usually take them before I go to bed or school," Cherry shrugged. "Especially fluoxetine when we have big tests in class."

"Yeah, Sunday nights are pretty cruel to you sometimes and even you hate Mondays unless it's a holiday." Lionel nodded.

"Exactly." Cherry remarked.

Ozzy soon stepped away from where Drix was working as he came to the darker part of the throat with his flashlight, seeing enflamed marks left from Thrax and there were colorful patches/spots along Frank's throat that came from the deadly concern in the world today known as Corona's virus. "Not my suedes!" he then complained, seeing some sticky and wet substance against his shoes and he soon backed away and saw one of his fellow cells sealed up thanks to Thrax and Corona earlier. "What the dilly?" he then murmured until he heard something else and flinched, though he brought out his gun for protection if absolutely necessary and shined his flashlight all around before coming into a darker cave in the throat. It was very quiet as he scanned the area while Cherry came looking for him, hoping he didn't get lost or in any trouble.

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched sound as a germ jumped out of hiding and latched onto Ozzy's face in fear. " "Por favor, don't shoot!" The germ whimpered and ran frantically around Ozzy's face as the cell tried to get a hold of him. "La Muerte and Bruja Virus esta aqui! They'll kill us, hombre!"

Ozzy soon grabbed the germ and plucked him off, about to shoot until he let the germ explain, but had a hard time understanding the germ.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there, little guy." Cherry said.

"Talk English, man. We ain't on Telemundo here." Ozzy suggested.

"Okay, buddy, let's just take a deep breath and let it out slowly and talk about what's going on here, huh?" Cherry suggested to the frantic germ.

The germ soon tried to do as she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly... and then suddenly went frantic again, showing multiple eyes all around his body. "La Muerte Roja and Bruja Virus! They're coming, man. I saw them. I saw them. I saw them! La Muerte Roja and Bruja Virus!" he then tried to explain to Ozzy and Cherry.

"I think this guy's trying to warn us..." Cherry commented, before Ozzy pulled her out of the way, seconds before the germ was freeze-blasted.

Cherry looked annoyed briefly until she saw the freeze and looked a little sorry for the germ to be frozen solid like that. Ozzy was annoyed as well as he glared at Drix, knowing he had done that.

"When your body's full of aches a Drixenol is all it takes." Drix recited to himself as he continued to cool everything down.

"Excuse me. What do you think you're doing?" Ozzy demanded out of annoyance.

"I'm soothing the irritation." Drix simply stated.

"You just soothed the witness into a germsicle!" Cherry retorted.

"Oh. Oh, gosh," Drix said as he pushed away the icy debris to see the germ frozen solid underneath and shrugged it off. "Well, don't worry, he'll be back to normal in a few days." he then reassured them.

"A few days is too late," Ozzy told the pill. "He might have some important information about on what went down."

"Officer, nothing went 'down' here. This is just a common sore throat." Drix insisted.

"This is a crime scene," Ozzy glared, feeling irritated with Drix already. "Yo, you wanna do something useful? Go plug some Turtle Wax into that thing and wash my car!" he then added.

"Now that's inflammation relief." Doug said as he examined what Drix had done.

"Later, Doug." Ozzy said as he did the handshake with Doug again before leaving.

"Be cool, Oz." Doug smirked as he went away.

"This can't be just a normal sore throat or cold," Cherry warned Drix. "We've been hearing about a pandemic going on. I didn't take it seriously, but I'm starting to think maybe it's worse than a cold."

"Don't worry, I'm just doing what I was made for and this cold will blow over." Drix reassured her.

"Somehow... I'm not too sure." responded Lionel as they rejoined him.

"I'm not sure myself." Cherry admitted.

They soon continued along, not sure what else to do right now.

Meanwhile, Frank was at his job along with his brother named Bob as they were in the camel exhibit and cleaned up after them.

As they did that, two other zookeepers pulled up to see them.

"Hey, fellas, how's it feel workin' with the two dumbest animals in the zoo?" One asked Bob and Frank.

"They're not too bad." Frank shrugged.

"It's all right." Bob added.

"I'm talking to the camels!" The zookeeper jeered before laughing with his buddy as they soon drove off together.

"We're dumb, and they're talkin' to the camels." Frank said with a bitter frown.

"Ha ha ha ha. Excellent. Uh-huh," Bob added a bit sarcastically. "Oh, man. I am so psyched for this long weekend." he then added.

"Getting outta town?" Frank asked his brother.

"Outta town? I'm not getting outta my bathrobe. I'm just gonna wheel a keg into the living room and plop myself down on the sofa in front of the TV. You know, spend a little quality time with the wife and kids," Bob explained before he sniffed the air a bit and grimaced. "What's that smell?" he then asked.

"That's Bruno. His tummy's still upset." Frank pointed out.

"No, I'm talking about that nasty, skanky, sweaty smell." Bob clarified.

"Oh, that's my daughter Shane," Frank explained as he lifted one of his armpits. "She won't buy me deodorant anymore. She says it causes cancer."

THE LEFT ARMPIT

9:30 AM

Deep in what looked like a sauna, some water was poured onto some coals, making some more sweat.

"Did the foot fungus pay up yet?" asked Scabies.

"Nah, that guy's gettin' flaky on us." replied one of his goons.

"Well... you ain't gonna collect nothin' from 'im up here in the pit," retorted Scabies. "Now get down there, send him a message."

Suddenly, the germs there had some company in the form of Thrax and Corona.

"So, this is where the scum of Frank comes to fester." Thrax remarked as he and Corona observed the armpit sauna.

"Hey, you lost, pal?" Bruiser scoffed. "This is a private sweat gland. Now beat it!"

"Relax, we won't take up too much of your time," Corona remarked. "Thrax here just wants some volunteers."

"Yeah. Some nasty germs who want in on a big score." Thrax added.

"Yo, Red, we run the rackets around here," Scabies replied. "Take your little hustle and influenza lady friend someplace else."

"Oh, baby, this ain't about no hustle," Thrax retorted. "This is about the baddest illness y'all have ever seen and my lady friend here has plans for a new pandemic."

"Look who thinks he's the Ebola virus, huh?" Scabies chuckled and taunted.

"Ebola? Let me tell you something about Ebola, baby," Thrax retorted aggressively. "Ebola is a case of dandruff compared to me!"

"And I'm more than just the sniffles or a sore throat," Corona smirked. "I've been known to get rid of your sense of taste and smell, I can make you feverish after you feel just fine and start a brand-new day, you'll be coughing so hard that you'll want your throat ripped right out of your neck and there's nothing anyone in the outside world can do about it."

"Alright, pal... you're outta here," wheezed Scabies as he got to his feet. "Bruiser, take these punks up to the face an' bury 'em in a blackhead."

Bruiser cracked his knuckles.

"When we're done with you, it'll take a Swedish facialist an' six steamin' washcloths to get you out!" Scabies remarked.

"You think I should show 'em, Baby Cakes?" Thrax smirked at Corona.

"Oh, yes, by all means," Corona nodded as she smirked back. "Bring it on, Snot Rocket." she then taunted Bruiser.

Bruiser soon launched his fist to punch Thrax right in the face only for the deadlier virus to catch his fist and hipped Bruiser right out of his and Corona's way.

"Bruiser, what are you, a Sissy Mary?" Scabies scoffed until Thrax attacked him next with his razor-sharp finger, slicing and dicing and even sliced Scabies in half, making him ooze and leak into pieces. "What you doing? Che-What's he doin-You ain't so tough, huh? That was nothin'!" his mouth then murmured as his remains began to go down the drain while the other germs realized that Thrax and Corona were tougher than they seemed.

"So, uh... what kind of sickness do you have in mind... Boss?" Joe Cramp asked Thrax as it looked like Scabies was gone forever.

"Deadly." Thrax stated with an evil smile.

Corona chuckled darkly as she leaned against him eagerly.

Meanwhile, back at the zoo, Shane was running over to see the adult men in the camel exhibit as she wore a mask that covered her face and nose, staying at least six feet away from them because of something Darla told her. "Hey, Dad. Hey, Uncle Bob." she then greeted.

"Hello, beautiful." Frank smiled softly at his daughter.

"Hey. Where's your pretty smile, girly?" Bob added and then asked. "Take off that silly mask, this isn't Halloween."

Shane looked like she really didn't want to do that, but she lowered her mask to hang below her chin.

"Ah, there she is!" Bob chuckled warmly.

"So Dad, I stopped by the camping store, and I got some nuts and berries and stuff for the father/daughter hike." Shane then told Frank.

"Uh... right, Shane," said Frank. "On this hike, is that teacher of yours gonna be there?"

"Uh, yeah, my whole class is," responded Shane. "Why?"

"I dunno, I was just thinking I might take a rain check." replied Frank.

Shane tilted her head. "Dad, Mrs. Boys isn't still mad at you." she insisted.

"No, it—I didn't think so," Frank said. "I was just... we could find something better to do."

Shane began to look slightly disappointed.

"You know, yesterday, without thinking, I did all my hiking for the week," Frank then added to Shane. "I hiked to the liquor store, I hiked to the cigarette warehouse..."

"But, Dad, you said-" Shane frowned.

"I said I was gonna think about it. It's a holiday weekend," Frank interrupted and reminded her. "The important thing is that we're together, right?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Shane said softly.

"Yeah. Well, I, uh... I have something very special up my sleeve." Frank then said, trying to make her feel better as he felt bad to see her down like that, but that was about the only emotion he had left.

"Ahem. Um, sweetheart, have you ever seen a rattlesnake swallow a football?" Bob suddenly said as he chomped on a cigar and approached his niece.

"I don't think she has." Frank replied.

"Oh, it's fun. Come on," Bob then said as he went to take Shane over to see the snakes. "Come on. I'll show you."

"Thank you, Uncle Bob. You're gonna love it!" Frank nodded and called out, trying to put on a smile, though he looked somber as Shane went away with his brother like that.

Frank's emotions were all apathetic about the situation while his Fear was just frantic and freaking out as even Anxiety was barely active. However, a different emotion began to emerge as he stomped over to see them.

"She's growing up too fast, you guys!" Fear told the other emotions. "We gotta do something! What if she gets tattoos and a biker boyfriend or worse, she finds a boyfriend just like BOB?!"

"Whatever..." The other emotions droned flatly.

"Yeah, maybe you're right..." Fear then shrugged as he began to feel nothing along with the rest of them.

"Perhaps you guys need some extra help." A deep voice told them with a throaty chuckle.

"Say..." Fear said as he looked over at the emotion that was as dark as Cherry's overall demeanor on a rough day. "Who're you?"

"My name's Gloom," The emotion stated. "I'm a new emotion and I'm here to... help you guys." he then added as he stepped into the light, looking as dark and ominous as Darla's old butler from Hollywood before he "vanished".

"I mean, we're fine, but hey, c'mon in," said Disgust. "Make yourself at home. We don't care."

"As long as you don't piss me off too much." Anger added as he looked through his newspaper which had a headline about "GLOOM MOVES TO FRANK".

Gloom chuckled as he made himself comfortable in Emotional Headquarters.

THE LOWER EAST BACKSIDE

9:55 AM

"What are we wasting time here for?" Drix complained as Ozzy brought them to a donut stop. "Do I have to remind you that I am on a strict 12-hour time release program? First the throat, then the nose, then the aches and pains."

"Yeah, I got it. Real important stuff. Just wait in the car. I got police work to do," Ozzy told the pill before he left the car and went to the stand. "Could you give me one glazed and one with a jelly-filled nucleus?" he then asked the cell there.

"Uh-huh." The donut cell nodded while Ozzy dialed a certain number on his cellular phone.

"Brain Memory Library. Can I help you?" A woman's voice answered Ozzy's call.

"You got any information on something called... 'El Morry Roho' or 'Boo-Haw-Haw'?" Ozzy asked, checking his notes as he wasn't sure what those meant exactly.

"Stand by. I'll check, but we're really all about sports statistics here." The librarian's voice answered.

"Those names that germ said back at the scene sounded like Witch Virus and Red Death if I remember my Spanish correctly." Cherry commented to Lionel as they waited for Ozzy.

"Red Death... my only frame of reference to that is a supervillain from The Venture Bros.," Lionel commented. "Still... maybe these guys could be connected to this whole COVID situation."

"Probably." Cherry nodded.

"Will you both relax? It's just a little cold and nothing more." Drix told them, seeming to be in denial about COVID.

"That's what they're all saying, but I'm not too sure..." Cherry said distantly and mysteriously.

Drix soon picked up the frozen germ before looking nervous as a piece fell from the germ as it fell and hit the floor with a thud.

"Sir?" The librarian called to Ozzy.

"Yeah, I'm here. What you got?" Ozzy responded.

"'La Muerte Roja and Bruja Virus'. That's Spanish," The librarian soon told Ozzy. "It means 'The Red Death and Witch Virus'."

"Boom! Called it!" Cherry beamed as she was right for once.

"The Red Death and Witch Virus?" Ozzy repeated, slightly concerned. "What's that, some kind of taco sauce and Halloween flu?"

"You have a nice day." The librarian said before suddenly hanging up.

"Hello?!" Ozzy tried to talk to her some more, but sighed and then hung up as he headed back to the car.

Drix wondered what to do with the frozen piece before he shoved it in his mouth once he saw Ozzy coming back into the car.

"Yo! Yo, Drips!" Ozzy asked the pill as he came to the driver's seat. "You ever hear of The Red Death or Witch Virus?"

"Mm-mm." Drix shook his head as he kept his mouth full.

Ozzy gave him a strange look, but then drove off and headed right for the nose since they were needed there next.

"It's gotta be that coronavirus, man." Cherry commented.

"I don't believe in coincidence," responded Lionel. "So chances are... yeah."

"I think you guys are onto something," Ozzy agreed. "We'll have to go around to make sure though, I'm in enough trouble back at work."

"Well, we'll try to help you out as best as we can," Cherry replied. "I'm no stranger when it comes to new and different adventures, even if this is a little bit out of my usual comfort zone, but I'm willing to try anything."

"As am I." Lionel chimed in.

BACK ON THE OUTSIDE...

Frank was taking a walk around the zoo, but as he did, he ended up getting some dust particles up his nose. This did not go unnoticed by the nose cells as the particles wafted inside of Frank.

"Look alive, boys," The nose cell who spotted that first on his radar spoke through his radio. "We've got dust at 9:00."

The other cells soon lined up and prepared to destroy the invading dust particles.

"Eat hot nose juice, dust!" The first nose cell cackled as he and the others began to shoot mucus at the dust particles to slow them down and keep them out of harm's way.

In the meantime, Ozzy pulled his car over and parked as they drove over a dam high above where the nose cells were. "We're here. You happy?" he then told Drix on the way out of the car.

Soon, the nose cells were heard working very hard.

"You hear that?" Drix panicked at the commotion. "Quick, Jones, the dam is under attack!"

"Okay, Ozzy, what's going on here?" Cherry decided to ask since the cell would know while Drix was a very naive newcomer.

"Hey, chill, pill. It's just some snot guns booger-coating some dust." Ozzy reassured Drix.

"Oh." Drix then said, realizing he probably overreacted.

"That's a new one though." Ozzy said, pointing to one particle that seemed to be fuzzy in texture with red dots all over it, making Cherry feel a little uneasy.

"You okay?" Lionel asked.

"I think that's a coronavirus, Lionel." Cherry said in a nervous tone of voice.

"Then we'd better keep our distance." said Lionel, conjuring a stick and pushing the particle away.

Meanwhile, someone was monitoring the dam until Thrax and Corona cut their way inside... and then cut through the guy monitoring the place. Let me tell you, it wasn't a pretty sight. The germ thugs waited on the other side until Thrax cut a hole in the wall he was in and stepped out, allowing Corona to follow him out.

"Good day, gentlemen, we've laid the path for you." Corona greeted with a smirk.

"Now... GET TO WORK!" Thrax added and demanded.

"This is your big plan?" A one-eyed germ scoffed in dismissal. "A sore throat? A stuffy nose? People will think you're both-"

"A common cold. We know." Corona interrupted and smirked.

"Until we make our move anyway, that's precisely what we want." Thrax said as he grabbed the germ fiercely.

"This will keep people inside for days and soon all social life on the globe will cease to exist," Corona giggled wickedly. "It'll be the biggest world disaster since the Spanish Flu a century ago and soon no one will be able to work, go meet other people, or do anything in the outside world for years and years to come, starting with Patient Zero over here."

"Yo, check it out. We got cops here!" One of the germs called out, looking above the dam.

The germs all looked up and saw that he was right as Ozzy, Drix, Cherry, and Lionel were there.

A new particle began to fly around, looking different from the dust particles from earlier but not tht much different.

"Hey, look." Drix pointed out.

"Be careful! That's a pollen pod," Ozzy warned them. "Frank is allergic to this stuff."

"Believe me, I know how he feels in Springtime." Cherry noted as Lionel nodded in agreement since he knew that by now.

"I didn't know he had allergies." Drix simply stated.

"Of course not," Ozzy scoffed as he grabbed the particle and tried to wrap it up. "Pills know nothing about what goes on in here."

"Is that gonna hold?" Lionel asked Ozzy.

"There's a little trick to it, but I think I got it this-" Ozzy said, only for the particle to come loose anyway and fly up into one of the nostrils, telling the white blood cell one thing. "In the words of the immortal James Brown, GET DOWN!" he then warned Drix, Cherry, and Lionel.

Cherry and Lionel complied, but Drix was lost on the reference. "James who?" he then asked.

Frank reared his head back, and let out a sneeze. Up in the nostril, Drix was immediately blown back into the wall of the dam. Cherry and Lionel held onto each other while ducking down, though their hair danced a bit in the wind.

"Hey, Frank." A fellow zookeeper said as he put his hand up.

"Danny," Frank replied, high-fiving him, though the other man felt disgusted and wiped the back of his shorts with his hand as he felt something disgusting. "Nitwit!"

"You could've damaged the dam!" Drix glared at Ozzy.

"Relax, this baby was built to last," Ozzy reassured the pill. "Solid cartilage."

"Oh, you're an engineer now," Drix scoffed slightly before he went to go and continue his job. "I need to test the mucous viscosity."

"I dunno about Drix, guys," Cherry commented. "I know he's doing his job, but... I don't know."

"I know what you mean," nodded Lionel. "He's quite the know-it-all."

"So you guys are bugged by him too, huh?" Ozzy commented. "Good, I thought that was just me."

"I'm sure we'll get used to him, but right now he just seems... well, ya know..." Cherry then said.

"Yeah, I know," Ozzy nodded. "Reminds me of one of my cousins at the old family reunion before The Blood Drive happened."

"Blood Drive?" Cherry and Lionel asked curiously.

"Ah, it's nuthin', I went to a family reunion when I was young and we all had a good time, though that was the same day Frank decided to go donate blood and soon, before I knew it, I was the only Jones left." Ozzy explained, seeming nonchalant about it.

"Hm," nodded Lionel. "Sorry to hear it, man."

"Ain't no thang." Ozzy shrugged.

Cherry looked soft and empathetic, but didn't say anything.

Frank continued to stroll around the zoo until he stopped because his brother came over to him.

"Frank! Why are you leaving so early?" Bob asked.

"It's all shoveled. Hippo's asleep," Frank explained. "I' m taking Shane to Docky's."

"Did you think of something to do with Shane this weekend?" Bob asked curiously.

"Yeah, I did great." Frank nodded confidently.

Back inside, Drix collected mucus samples as Cherry sat on the edge of the dam while Lionel looked over the side with her.

"I guarantee you there ain't nothing wrong with this dam." Ozzy reassured the others very confidently.

"So, what do you think this dam represents in our bodies?" Cherry asked Lionel. "Unless 5th Dimensional beings have different bodily functions than the third dimension."

"Well, if I had to hazard a guess... I'd have to say, this is like, where a runny nose starts." commented Lionel.

"Good thinking," Cherry nodded as that sounded plausible. "Probably to prevent nosebleeds too."

MEANWHILE...

"So you want me to take care of them?" One germ asked his new bosses.

"No. Hit all the pressure valves." Thrax reassured and ordered.

"They're about to blow the scene." Corona added.

The germs all then did what was asked of them, which resulted in a red alert warning that none of them obeyed since they were responsible for it. Eventually, a cracking could be heard as Cherry looked around and let out a small gasp.

Ozzy then looked down at the dam as it was crackling. "What in the name of sweet bleeding Frank?!" he then asked out of concern as the dam was starting to fall apart.

"The membrane is cracking, you-" Drix glared at Ozzy before he hopped over the dam and then came down in the nasal mucus to help out with his job.

"Whoa!" Ozzy yelped as he nearly jumped at that. "You missed a spot!" he then called out to Drix as snot started to spurt out from the dam's cracks.

A couple of voices were heard from afar.

"Come on, fellas. Go!"

"Let's get out of here!"

"Uh-oh, I dunno where to go." Cherry said, glancing between Ozzy and Drix.

"You zig, I'll zag!" Lionel replied. "You wanna stay, or come along?"

"I think I better come along, I don't really feel safe on this dam right now." Cherry replied.

"Then go for it!" Lionel told her, picking her up and heading after Ozzy.

"I'm starting to think you like picking me up quite a bit." Cherry commented dryly with a small smirk.

"It's become somewhat of a delight to me." responded Lionel. As he kept going.

"Always good to have SOME back-up," Ozzy said to Cherry and Lionel. "Stay close."

"Of course." Cherry nodded.

"Totally." Lionel added.

"Stop! Immunity!" Ozzy yelled out as he brought out his gun, though the germs got away and he saw two figures atop of a building who smirked smugly. "What the Frank?" he then muttered in confusion.

"Who are they? Unless... The Red Death and Witch Virus?" Cherry wondered until she looked concerned for the worst.

"Shall, I, Babe?" Thrax smirked at Corona.

"It would be your honor." Corona smirked back.

Thrax then split the building with his deathly touch and soon the building and the dam began to crumble all around them.

"SWEET CELESTIA!" Cherry couldn't help but cry out as this was beyond bad.

Drix continued to survey the mucus until he saw a giant wave of it incoming right behind him.

The nose cells were soon flooded by the snot as well and Ozzy began to surf on a piece of the dam over the boogers as Cherry and Lionel tailed behind.

"Ah! Nose hairs!" Ozzy yelped, trying to dodge those while snot surfing. "Watch out! Look out!" he then yelled out as he then came crashing down into Drix as they drowned in the snot.

"So this is what it's like to win the Kids Choice Awards." Cherry snarked to herself as they slid all around in a mucus wave, suddenly dangling from Frank's nostril as he had a runny nose.

"Jeez, Frank, I'm standing right here. Can you use a tissue?" Bob complained to his brother.

"I don't have one." Frank shrugged off.

"Well, use your imagination." Bob suggested, disgusted with that runny nose.

"What's that over there?" Frank asked Bob, looking to the side and suddenly took a deep inhale to hold back the mucus that had Ozzy, Drix, Cherry, and Lionel stuck inside, almost coming out.

And almost immediately, the group were pulled back into Frank's body, where they landed in a puddle of snot.

"Better?" Frank asked.

"Much better." responded Bob.

"I gotta go get her." decided Frank as he went off.

"Well, this is officially the grossest adventure I've ever been apart of." Cherry groaned as she sat up in some snot and saw as it dripped all around her and she shuddered as that didn't normally gross her out, but it did now.

Lionel reached up and cleaned some of it off her person. "There we go," he said. "You okay?"

"Better at least," Cherry said as she tried to adjust. "I never wanna do anything like that again."

"I don't blame you." Lionel nodded.

Chapter Text

LATER...

"This is Nerve Network News. NNN." A voice said as a news broadcast was soon being made.

Two news anchors were shown being filmed, a man and a woman.

"In an act of selfless bravery, a cold tablet stopped a runny nose," The male newscell reported, showing footage of Drix at work also with some sports results below the screen. "The heroic tablet will be honored this afternoon. Trudy?"

"In lighter news, there was pandemonium in the stomach today as animal crackers arrived." The female newscell then added, showing Panda Bear animal crackers floating around Frank's stomach.

"They are adorable, aren't they?" The male newscell chuckled warmly. "Now, we go live to Cerebellum Hall for an address from Mayor Phlegmming."

Mayor Phlegmming was soon given make-up and everything else he would need.

"Okay, remember what Leah said." Atticus reminded the mayor cell.

"Yes, yes, I know, just stay out of my way, okay, kid?" Mayor Phlegmming replied bitterly.

"Okay, Mayor. In five, four, three..." Leah then said behind the camera as she counted down for him before the broadcast would begin for him.

"Good evening, citizens of Frank. In the past few weeks, my opponent has used fancy words to try to confuse the issues. Words like 'exercise', 'low-fat', and 'diet'. Words designed to scare us into changing what has worked for years," Mayor Phlegmming said to the camera, mocking Colonicus who was annoyed when he viewed this on his own TV. "Well, I say let's stay the course. Remember, a fat Frank is a happy Frank."

"What?!" Sabrina asked with wide eyes.

"A fat Frank is a happy Frank." Thor simply repeated.

"That's not right!" Atticus narrowed his eyes.

"That's not what I wrote." Leah frowned as she knew something was wrong too, but in a different way.

"I propose something that every organism in this city will enjoy," Mayor Phlegmming continued, showing the emotions as they turned the key to show an imaginary scenario about visiting Buffalo, New York for the chicken wings. "I give you a dream vacation to the annual chicken wing festival in Buffalo, New York. Final plans have been made and nothing is going to stand in our way." he then concluded with a grin to the viewers at home.

"And we're out!" said Leah, as the camera shut off. "Sir, that wasn't the speech we agreed on. I thought—"

"Yes, yes, yes," Mayor Phlegmming cut her off. "Where's the little twerp in the wheelchair?" he said as he looked up and saw a sickly boy. "Hello, Johnny, how ya doing?"

"Smile, sir." said a photographer as they snapped pictures of them together for a photo shoot, although Phlegmming looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Congratulations. Excellent work in the nose. Let's get some pictures," Mayor Phlegmming said as he came to see Ozzy and Drix, though mostly Drix. "The caption should read, 'Mayor and Pill Stop Cold... Cold'. That'll stop Shane's vaccine theory dead in its tracks for this so-called COVID 19 pandemic." he then suggested selfishly.

"Wow." Atticus snarked at how Mayor Phlegmming simply did that without any remorse.

Soon, Ozzy, Drix, Cherry, and Lionel made it over.

"Atticus! Everyone else who isn't Atticus!" Cherry said once she saw some familiar faces.

"Good to see you too, Cherry." Sabrina snarked.

"Ah, it's not that, it's just too much to get into with so many names right now, ya know?" Cherry replied.

"Okay, I guess that's fair." Sabrina then admitted.

"It IS good to see you guys though." Cherry then said even if she wasn't smiling.

"Yeah," nodded Lionel. "So what have you guys been up to?"

"Well, we found Frank's emotions like Riley's emotions." Atticus began to say.

"That was a really weird adventure for us and I didn't think it would be possible to accomplish." Cherry remarked to Lionel about the concept of when she and Atticus met living emotions such as Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger.

"I can see why," nodded Lionel. "Nobody ever expects that sort of thing to happen... and then when it does, you just don't know how to process it!"

"Along with a few other emotions," Atticus then said. "Embarrassment."

A pink emotion looked nervous and hid himself in his hoodie, turning around and showed a rather exposed butt.

"Anxiety." Mo added.

A Muppet-like orange emotion was shown to be waving and was barely active due to Frank's emotionless behavior lately.

"Nostalgia." Sabrina said.

"Ooh, does anyone remember when cartoons were only on Saturday mornings? I sure do." A sepia elderly woman crooned.

"Envy." Thor said.

"How come they get to do the introductions? This is our body, not theirs!" A childish emotion glared with cutesy puppy dog eyes.

"Ennui," Atticus said. "This one reminds me a lot of you, Cherry."

"Whatever..." A dark purple emotion droned while playing with flip phone.

"We also have someone else joining us, but he said he wanted to be alone for a while." Joy told the adventure group.

"Well, nice to meet some other emotions," Cherry commented. "I guess you come sometime while your host body is going through puberty?"

"Something like that and some of us never really leave." Ennui droned in an emotionless voice.

"Well, I guess that makes sense," Lionel responded. "Anyways, we've been doing some investigating of our own."

"Yeah?" Thor asked.

"Long story, but we've been basically hearing about The Red Death and Witch Virus." Cherry remarked and nodded.

"Whoa, that sounds heavy." Thor commented.

"Someone should tell whoever's in charge around here." Cherry said as she adjusted her glasses.

"Thanks for reminding me, guys," Ozzy said to Cherry and Lionel before approaching Mayor Phlegmming. "Mr. Mayor? Excuse me, sir, but we have a problem."

Mayor Phlegmming chuckled to the press before he whispered firmly to Ozzy when he heard that. "Now what, Jones?" he then demanded to know.

"Whatever was in the sinuses is a lot more than a cold." Ozzy warned him.

"Don't listen to Jones," Drix dismissed. "His diagnostic skills are remedial at best!"

"You iced a key witness to a viral attack!" Cherry remined the pill.

"Cherry!" Mo frowned at the outburst.

"It was an accident!" Drix reminded Cherry.

"The kind a time-release dipstick would have." Ozzy retorted.

"Oh, I am so sick of you!" Drix fumed. "That's it! I can't work with you!"

"You can't work with me?!" Ozzy shot back. "I can't work with you!"

"Hey, hey, hey, let's not fight here." Atticus suggested, trying to keep things peaceful and in harmony.

"I'll handle this, kid," Leah said as she came between Ozzy and Drix. "Officers, please." she then told them.

"Jones, what're these viruses?" Mayor Phlegmming soon demanded.

"The viruses that torched the throat," Ozzy soon clarified. "They caused those snot crests we were surfing!"

"That was one of the grossest things I've ever come across in an adventure." Cherry commented.

"Eww..." The others winced and grimaced since they weren't there for that, unlike Lionel, and took Cherry's word for it.

"They were caused by the sneeze, which you caused." Drix retorted to Ozzy sternly.

"Oh, yeah? Then how come we saw those viral-looking mothers fleeing during the crime?" Ozzy scoffed and countered.

"Yeah! Answer us that!" Lionel added.

"Mothers?" Atticus asked out of confusion.

"That word my dad says when he thinks no one's listening." Cherry told Atticus.

"Ohh." Atticus then said.

"Uh, sir? Maybe we should put the city on full alert," Leah suggested to her boss. "Ya know, liquids, bed rest. Just to be safe."

"We'll do no such thing," Mayor Phlegmming disagreed. "I won't listen to the white blood cell with the worst record reported in the history of Frank as well as a couple of kids who showed up out of nowhere."

"Hey! What else are we supposed to do, but--" Cherry tried to protest.

"Now, now, keep those opinions in those mushy heads or you'll find yourselves in our next nosebleed," Mayor Phlegmming interrupted and smirked, squishing her head a little and punched his fingers in her nostrils as a warning before letting go. "Understood?"

"Nosebleeds are bad enough for YOUR dad, I'd hate to imagine them from here," Lionel told Cherry and glared at Mayor Phlegmming. "AND NO TOUCHING CHERRY WITHOUT HER CONSENT!"

Mayor Phlegmming merely scoffed and ignored that request. "Son, I apologize for all this. Now, why don't we find you another more capable officer to work with." he then said to Drix apologetically.

Drix glanced over at Ozzy and began to have a soft spot for the blood cell somehow. "Sir, if it's all the same to you, I think I'll stay with Jones." he then decided.

"Wow." Leah whispered, impressed with that decision.

"Suit yourself." Mayor Phlegmming shrugged off and turned away.

AND SO...

"Y'know, you didn't hafta do that," said Ozzy as they were out driving once more. "The last thing I needed was sympathy."

"This is not about sympathy." Drix responded.

"Then what?" Lionel inquired.

"I' m here to make Frank feel better," Drix then said. "If these alleged viruses impede my mission, I must pursue it."

"Yeah, whatever." Ozzy shrugged.

Everyone then shrugged that off and grew silent for a while.

"By the way, Ozzy, the mayor said you had a record?" Cherry then spoke up.

"Yes, that's right," Drix nodded and agreed. "You did something terrible, didn't you?" he then guessed.

Ozzy heaved a sharp sigh. "You know, guys, sometimes being too careful is all it takes." he then said as he drove down the road and thought back to a certain event.

"How so?" Lionel wondered.

"I was cruising the digestive tract, just minding my own business. Outside was Shane 's science fair," Ozzy began to tell them. "Everyone was excited. The winner would get their picture in the local paper..."

"Ooh, I like this story." Nostalgia smiled whimsically.

"You like it? It was so sick!" Disgust glared in her namesake as she crossed her arms.

"Yes, yes, but look at how happy and excited little Shane is..." Nostalgia said as she brought out a key and put it to a control panel to show a public school building and Frank's daughter looked very bright and excited. "Aww, she's so adorable all the time, I'm so proud of her~"

Shane giggled and beamed, wearing a dress as her father approached her while other people were scattering around and one man took out a camera to take photographs of the kids' science projects.

"Guess we're watching flashbacks again." Cherry commented, but said nothing other than that.

"Don't interrupt our good times..." Anger told her firmly. "Or don't, whatever." he then shrugged, though he cracked a small smile at Shane's clearly read joy on the screen.

"You don't need nostalgia goggles to see that that was a blessed time." Nostalgia giggled.

"Excuse me, but can I continue?" Ozzy complained at the interruptions.

"Well, by all means." Nostalgia replied.

"Thank you," Ozzy then said as the flashback played out for those who had not seen it before which included Cherry and Lionel of course since this was their adventure. "The winner was gonna get their picture on the front page of the local paper."

"You think anyone's gonna like my volcano?" asked Shane as she stood next to her display.

"Are you kidding?" Frank responded. "All these other parents are going home sad, cuz their kids' projects are cardboard and glitter paint and science. Shane, yours is art."

A stout woman looked over. "Wow, what a great tepee." she commented.

Frank looked at her incredulously. "A teepee? Ms. Delirious... come on," he remarked. "Honey, I'm gonna go check out the competition."

Joy cackled and snorted. "She thinks she's so clever when Shane is the bright one!" she then said, mocking the teepee remark while the other emotions just gave Joy a bit of a look for finding that funny.

"Oh, what if Shane loses and she loses all of her friends and all sense of security and she ends up dropping out of school and ends up on the sidewalk like some street snob?!" Fear frowned.

"Do you really think that's what prostitutes are called?" Anger rolled his eyes.

"I'm just trying to be appropriate for the children." Fear defended.

Anger scoffed and shoved Fear out of the way.

"Is anyone else kinda hungry?" Sadness asked, leaning in from the side.

"Something does smell kinda good..." Disgust admitted. "Hey, what's that kid got?"

"I dunno, let's take a closer look." Joy said as she pushed a button as Frank found another kid with a display.

"Hey, Partner," Frank greeted one of the boys. "Whatcha got there?"

"These are polluted oysters. Well, they were polluted," The boy explained. "I replanted them six months ago. That's how long the state says. Every time the tide came in, they'd flush all the bad stuff out."

"Can you eat them?" Frank wondered.

"Well, if my hypotenuse is correct, sure," The boy replied. "Yeah, definitely."

"You got yourself a sale." Frank smirked as he picked one up and decided to eat it and sucked the meat out until suddenly he began to feel grossed out from the taste.

"Oh, you guys, this is not sitting right with me," Disgust groaned. "In fact, I think I hate it."

"I know I hate it." Anger scoffed.

"Just try to hold it in!" Fear suggested out of paranoia. "We can't let Shane down! This is her big moment!"

"I just know this isn't gonna be pretty." Disgust rolled her eyes as she felt powerful from the oysters' taste.

"I was workin' the kidneys when I heard about a 631 in progress," said Ozzy. "That's incoming shellfish. So I headed down to the stomach just to be safe."

"Unscheduled shellfish now arriving at gate six." A PA reported as Ozzy made it there, looking around.

Soon, Frank was given some company in the form of a woman around his age. "And you must be Shane's dad." she then greeted.

"Guilty as charged," Frank smiled and shook hands with the woman before introducing himself. "Frank Detorre.

"Pleasure to meet you," The woman replied kindly. "I am Mrs. Boyd. I am Shane's science and PE teacher. I am just absolutely crazy about your daughter. She is a doll."

"Well, you mean that, I'll keep her." Frank replied with a shrug.

"Ahahhahha!" Mrs. Boyd suddenly laughed as she knew he was joking as some people began to look at her like she was crazy. "Oh, my God. That is so funny! Oh, my God, I got the giggles." she then said.

"I like her laughter." Joy smiled from inside Frank's head.

"Maybe this won't be so bad," Sadness said softly. "She's no Maggie though."

"Maggie is gone, Sadness, get over it." Disgust reminded the embodiment of feeling down in the dumps.

"Shh! She's still talking!" Joy shushed them since Mrs. Boyd kept talking to Frank.

"She's a sweetie-pie," The teacher woman continued with a sincere smile. "Did she tell you that when she grows up, she wants to go to the city and help people someday."

"No kidding," Frank merely replied. "You mean like a concierge or something?"

"No, like, poor people." Mrs. Boyd clarified.

"Oh, yeah, she told me that." Frank nodded.

"Yeah... I just gotta tell you, Frank, it's so wonderful to see Shane participating in the science fair," Mrs. Boyd then said as Shane showed off her volcano to some other school kids. "Ya know, since her mother passed away, she's had a really hard time being part of the group activities."

"We know Shane lost her mother, does she have to remind us?" Anger scoffed.

"I miss her so much!" Sadness said, about to cry.

"Shh! Let me handle this!" Joy glared as she controlled Frank next.

"She's going to be okay." Frank reassured Mrs. Boyd softly.

"Guys, I'm starting to have that weird feeling." Disgust piped up.

"What weird feeling?" Fear asked Disgust.

"Like that time Bob dared us to eat three chili cheese dogs in a row and then ride on The Thunderbolt Rollercoaster." Disgust explained as Frank began to look nauseous.

"OH! THIS IS BAD! THIS IS REALLY BAD!" Fear panicked. "WHAT'S CAUSING THIS?!"

"And then I saw it," said Ozzy, remembering the unwanted visitor that came in on the oyster. "He rode in on the clammiest-lookin' oyster I'd ever seen!" And then... he spotted a button.

"Mr. Detorre?" asked Mrs. Boyd, noticing that Frank looked unwell. "Mr. Detorre? Are you okay?"

Frank groaned. "Ohh... oysters..." he managed to say.

"Oh, yeah, that's Zack's project," commented Mrs. Boyd. "...he's a little slow. The doctor says he's got a brain the size of a tangerine."

"Guys..." Disgust groaned.

"HOLD IT IN!" The other emotions urged.

"I can't help it!" Disgust complained. "I've got the impulse!"

"Just hold on a little longer until after we talk to the pretty lady!" Anger told Disgust sharply.

"We gave him this project to push him along," Mrs. Boyd continued to tell Frank with a light chuckle. "He just started it this morning, which is funny. We'll give him an 'A' anyway.

Frank began to look even worse and ready to either pass out or spew out.

"Mr. Detorre?" Mrs. Boyd asked out of concern.

"There was no time for questions, so I did what I had to do." Ozzy narrated to Drix and the others.

"Guys, I'm so sorry!" Disgust cried out. "Ozzy wants me to push the button!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The others yelped and before everyone knew it...

"WHOA! Look at that guy!" A boy pointed out as Frank soon ralphed all over Mrs. Boyd, unable to hold it in any longer.

The kids all clamored and were either grossed out or laughing as Shane was suddenly alone since no one wanted to be around her since her father did that.

"You can guess which photo made it to the paper the next day," Ozzy continued as a photographer got a picture of Frank spewing on Mrs. Boyd and it made it on the newspaper. "Overnight, Frank became the town laughingstock. The photo ran in every daily across the country. He even got fired from his job at the pea soup factory. Lucky for us, our old friend Bob hooked up Frank with a job at the zoo. It was a 90% cut in pay, but it was the best we could do. Needless to say, none of this helped Shane. And as for me, I got suspended for unnecessary force. Since then, a lot of days have gone by that I wonder: 'Did I do the right thing'?" he then concluded as the story ended.

"You know, Jones, from your description, it sounds like you were justified." said Drix.

"'Scuse me?" asked Ozzy.

"Oysters are a breeding ground for any number of dangerous bacteria," Drix explained.

"They are!" Ozzy said. "That's what I've been tryin' to tell everybody! Damn right they are! I never thought you'd be on my side!"

"I never thought you'd be right." responded Drix.

"Well, I don't think I'm eating oysters ever again after today." Cherry commented to herself.

"I'll help remind you." Lionel offered.

"Thanks," Cherry replied. "So, Frank's emotions? Are they always that cynical?" she then asked Ozzy.

"Emotional Headquarters hasn't been the same after a while when Frank lost Maggie," Ozzy admitted. "I don't like to use this term, especially around them, but these days, Frank is a bit emotionally dead inside."

"I kinda picked that up..." Cherry said before sighing. "I guess he just stopped caring after a while and since he stopped caring, his emotions can't really make him feel anything."

"It would explain a lot, really," commented Lionel. "He does seem a little checked-out, so to speak."

"Something like that, yeah." Ozzy nodded.

Later, Frank and Shane soon went out to eat together, but it wasn't just them there. Darla, Amber, and Annabelle also seemed to be there to keep an eye on Shane, but there was also the new boy in town as he and his mother were being told to wait to be seated. Frank was just about to sit down himself only to be suddenly stopped by a worker.

"Sir, we have a strict no-shoes-no-service policy," The waiter told Frank. "You have to leave."

"Is that how you treat the handicapped?" Frank asked dismissively.

"Handicap?" The waiter asked out of confusion.

"I have a chronic ingrown-toe condition," Frank said as he put his bare foot on the table, showing an issue with his big toe and some people looked disgusted as they glanced over to see that. "Doctors say that soon I won't be able to wear even the roomiest of footwear."

The waiter merely nodded with a nervous smile. "I'll bring your menus." he then said before stepping away.

"Bring some clam strips and some steamers when you come, please?" Frank requested as he put his foot back down under the table as Shane came to sit down.

The waiter nodded again as he stepped away.

"Shane's dad is so gross." Amber complained.

"What is wrong with him?" Annabelle frowned. "Not even my dad was this out of touch after losing my mother."

"I don't know, guys, but we can't judge too harshly if we want to keep Shane as our friend and helped her with the assignment that Twilight gave us about friendship." Darla told them.

"What's the big surprise?" Shane asked her father hopefully.

"I know you wanted to go on a trip this weekend, so... Ta-Da!" Frank said as Shane beamed and saw where this was going before she closed her eyes and he handed her a certain pamphlet.

Shane opened her eyes before frowning. "Buffalo?" she then asked wearily.

"Buffalo, New York," Frank explained with a small smile. "The buffalo wing festival this weekend."

"Great. So, what's the big surprise?" Shane said before she asked, hoping her father would bring up something SHE would enjoy.

"We got tickets! I called a scalper!" Frank simply explained and showed her the inside of the pamphlet. "Look. 99 kinds of wings. 128 different dipping sauces. You love Math. Crunch the numbers on that. The possibilities are infinite," he then said and opened a bit more, showing a woman who wore a crown and a sash. "Look! Here you are. Miss Chicken Wing Festival. See this? He's the champion," he then added as he pointed at another guy in the pamphlet. "But he won't be for long. Because I'm coming. I'm coming to get you, baby. Fun?"

"Yeah, that's really cool, Dad." Shane forced herself to say, but she didn't exactly sound happy.

"See, I told you she'd be excited," Mayor Phlegmming smirked at Leah as they saw that together before he walked away out of his office. "Now, tidy up, will you?"

THE INGROWN TOENAIL

12:45 PM

Apparently Ozzy and Drix's heroics had caught the attention of Thrax and Corona's gang.

"Hey, boss!" called one of the germs. "Looks like yer plan worked." And he threw the newspaper over to them.

"That's right," said Thrax, playing with a pollen pod. "We got this city right where we want it."

The germs flinched as the pollen pod sprout out and lingered all around them until it floated away.

"What about the cop and the pill and those others with them?" Another germ asked.

"If they got a problem, I think there's a weather report." Thrax replied, preparing for a villainous play on words.

"What's the forecast, Thrax?~" Corona smirked warmly.

"FIIIIIIYAAAH~" Thrax smirked back as he slid his finger across the newspaper, boiling it up as he bopped a tune to himself.

MEANWHILE AT THE LIVER...

The liver seemed to be the ghetto part of Frank's body as many homeless germs were hanging around while Ozzy, Drix, Cherry, and Lionel cruised down the streets before stopping.

"Get it down! Money on the wood make the game go good," A four-armed germ said to others while taking money from them while two viruses were wrestling each other. "Five bucks says size don't matter. Let's do this thing now."

"Whatya call that, Ozzy?" Cherry wondered once they took a look at the scene.

"Chicken Pox fights." Ozzy scoffed in disbelief.

"Get back! Yeah, get him!" The germ cackled. "That's my baby! Try the headlock!"

"Who's that?" Lione wondered.

"A virus! We should arrest him!" Drix glared, ready to go that way.

Ozzy then stopped him before he could go any further. "No, that USED to be a virus, now he's on OUR side," he then reassured the pill. "That's Chill. He's a flu shot."

"Funny..." Cherry smirked to the fourth wall like Barf in the SpaceBalls adventure. "He don't look Fluish."

"Why don't you just stay here and watch the maestro work?" Ozzy asked as he put on some shades and headed over. "Yo, Chill! Don't you know poxfighting is against the law?" He flashed his badge.

Immediately, the other germs split for it like roaches who'd just been exposed to bright light. 

"Where you all going?" Chill complained as the other germs went away and he glared at Ozzy in blame. "Thanks a lot, Junior. You just cost me 20."

"Money won't be your problem if you don't tell me about the sinuses." Ozzy replied as he slid on his sunglasses.

"I was injected into this body to rat on influenza only and this don't sound like influenza to me," Chill scoffed. "Now beat it."

Ozzy then stopped Chill before he could go any further. "I bet Johnny Streptococcus and the Melanoma family will be interested to hear about your work." he then smirked.

"You can't jack me on that, brother!" Chill retorted. "I'm in the Virus Protection Program!"

"You, virus," Drix glared as he stopped Chill by pinning him against the wall with his arm cannon. "Children's strength ought to take care of you."

Ozzy glanced at that until he suddenly got an idea and smirked. "You done done it now, Chill. He's a psycho cop." he then told Chill.

"Ozzy, what're you doing?" Cherry asked quietly.

"Just follow my lead," Ozzy told her before he continued. "It's too late to spill it. Just off the Thorazine. He's cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. He's going El Pollo Loco on your crazy behind. I just can't look." he then told Chill before he turned away and covered his eyes as Drix began to try to look menacing toward Chill.

"Alright! Alright!" Chill yelled as Drix removed his blaster. "These guys go by the names of Thrax and Corona... go to that new place called 'The Zit' on the forehead. Ya can't miss it, it's huge!"

"So there's our next move." said Lionel.

"I'm out!" Chill yelped as he scurried down a storm drain. "But you didn't hear that from me! You didn't hear that from me!"

"Whoo!" Ozzy beamed as they headed back to the patrol car. "Next time, I'll be the bad cop!"

"You are a bad cop." retorted Drix.

Ozzy shuffled his shoulders. "Yo, who you calling a bad cop?" he remarked.

Cherry rolled her eyes and smirked as they continued along.

Frank was soon driving and singing along to a sad song on the radio, feeling a bit pained inside. 

Chapter Text

DOWNTOWN FOREHEAD 

2:20 PM...

"My, what big zits he has," Drix remarked as they drove past the zit which was being used as a club where a germ bouncer was checking people out before letting them inside. "How does this happen?"

"You wash your face with fried chicken," Ozzy scoffed as they parked behind the alley and Drix was about to storm in. "Wait. Where do you think you're going?" he then asked the pill.

"To get our cootie." Drix simply stated.

"Like that? They'll tear you up. Get spiffy." Ozzy scoffed.

"Spiffy?" Drix wondered.

"And I suppose you have a better idea?" Cherry asked Ozzy.

Ozzy pressed his two eyes together into one, while he rearranged the rest of his face to look more like a skeezy-looking germ.

"Oh, I get it!" Lionel commented. "Disguise time!" And he proceeded to squish his eyes into one singular one as well.

Cherry blinked at them and looked around.

"Come on, your turn." Ozzy said to her.

"I, uh, I don't know what I can really do honestly," Cherry shrugged. "Maybe I should wait for you guys."

"Hmm... you should be fine," said Lionel. "Nobody really recognizes you in here."

"...I guess that's true..." Cherry shrugged as she tried to think about what to do.

"Pliable cellular dynamics. What an ingenious defense mechanism," Drix remarked as he sook tried to morph his face like Ozzy and Lionel did. "Ooh, let me try. What do you think?" he then asked as his face looked really messed up and nearly broken and one of his eyes even dangled out of its socket.

Ozzy, Cherry, and Lionel all cringed at that sight.

"I think you should guard the car." Ozzy suggested to Drix.

"This is my mission too," Drix insisted. "I am going in with you."

"All right, but we gotta get you something to wear." Ozzy said thoughtfully as he looked around to see what might work for Drix.

Cherry soon ruffled up her hair a little to make it look like messy spikes with a small shrug. "That's all I got." she then shrugged at the others.

"It'll do," said Lionel. "Sometimes less is more, y'know?"

"Fair, I guess," Cherry replied. "Now, how are we gonna help Drix?"

"That's a good question." Ozzy said.

Cherry soon checked the car to look for anything before she shrugged and brought out the frozen germ from earlier. "How about this?" she then suggested.

"Maybe they'll think it's some sort of weird fashion statement," shrugged Lionel. "It couldn't hurt!"

"Here, Drix, wear this." Cherry said as she then gave the pill the germ who shrugged and then wore it on his head.

Once they were all set then, they headed over to the zit and the bouncer stared them down, but allowed them to come inside.

There was loud music playing and other germs were there, dancing and hanging around as a germ named Kidney Rock was rapping to the crowd and offering Whitehead Russian drinks for half price today.

"Are you sure this disguise is working?" Drix asked as he followed Ozzy, Cherry, and Lionel into the club.

"Trust me, it's perfect." Ozzy reassured him.

"Perfect." Drix shrugged at that.

Ozzy glanced up and over, seeing some germs glaring down at him which made him feel suspicious. "We got company. Be cool," he then told Drix, Cherry, and Lionel. "Now, try to relax. Fit in. Shake a tail cell or something."

"I don't dance," Drix said awkwardly. "I have no left feet."

"You don't dance?" Ozzy replied. "Don't tell me you ain't never gotten jiggy with it."

"I don't believe I have." Drix shrugged.

"I'm not too good, but I can fake it!" Lionel responded.

"C'mon, baby, gimme a little bit of this!" Ozzy said as he started dancing.

"Oh... alright." Drix said as he started dancing awkwardly.

Ozzy and Drix soon danced together while Ozzy got really into the beat while Drix was awkwardly stiff in his dancing.

Drix then accidentally knocked over a tray of drinks that someone was carrying as he felt the music in him.

"You stay and practice. Boy, you need it," Ozzy said to Drix as he decided to get going. "If I'm not back in five, you come looking, okay?"

Drix didn't answer as he continued to try to dance while everyone else had fun in their own way as the rappers entertained them with their "sick beats".

"What're those guys doing?" Cherry wondered as they passed a table with a group of beings who tried to spurt each other's heads.

"You don't wanna know." Ozzy told her as he felt disgusted himself as white pus splattered everywhere.

Soon, they made it to the bar table as Drix seemed unnerved by one of the rappers who stretched his neck out during the song.

"Yo! Barkeep, what you got?" Ozzy asked as he made it to the bar.

The barkeep squirted something out of a pore on his skin into a cup, shook it up, and poured it out in a mug before pushing it to Ozzy.

"Augh!" Ozzy winced.

"You got a problem with that?" asked the bartender.

"No, no, no!" Ozzy replied. "Just the way I like it... extra disgusting."

"Why don't you take a drink then, Ozzy?" Cherry smirked.

"Whose side are you on?" Ozzy complained to her.

Cherry merely shrugged and kept her smirk. Ozzy soon forced himself to swallow the drink, turning a bit green as he was repulsed by the taste and his head even twisted around and he let his head hit the table as his tongue dangled out. One germ at the table nudged the other and the two of them soon left the table, wandering away to go somewhere else.

"Now where are they going?" Cherry wondered.

"Only one way to find out." Ozzy replied as he narrowed his currently singular eye as he saw the germs heading to a different room.

"Three teams will move through the cranial artery and one through the nasal passages," Thrax told the germs in his secret meeting room, showing a map of Frank's body and where to go and when. "We are going to the brain, baby. And we are stealing one of these. This sucker comes from a place called the hypothalamus gland." he then added, showing what looked like a mere eyelash.

"The hippo-hoppa-whatamus?" asked Ozzy, getting their attention.

"Hypothalamus," explained Thrax, getting out a pointer as he brought up his display. "Controls the temperature of the entire body. We're gonna MARCH right in there, and we are going to take the prize. Then my man Frank's gonna heat up like a sidewalk on a summer day."

"Let's just say it'll be a hot time in the ol' town tonight~" Corona snickered.

Mrs. Boyd was in her classroom, making sure her students did their work and flicked one boy's head to make him pay attention. There was then a pounding on the door from outside and there was Frank shown in the little window. Mrs. Boyd glared and tried to shoo him away once she saw him.

Frank refused to leave however and soon opened the door, letting himself in anyway. "I need to talk to you." he then told her quietly.

Mrs. Boyd sighed as she decided to go out of the room and get this over with. "What a zit..." she murmured at his forehead until she collected herself. "I mean, what is it? What do you want?" she then asked.

"I want you to help me." Frank replied calmly.

"Should I call the cops?" Mrs. Boyd asked. "Or maybe Shane should know about the 200 -yard restraining order.

"Please. She's been humiliated enough already." Frank frowned softly.

"Humiliated?!" Mrs. Boyd scoffed. "You turned me into a walking air-sickness bag. My family was humiliated. You understand? Do you have any idea of the teasing that my sons, Ralph and Chuck, had to endure?"

"I know your daughter Hurly had to transfer." Frank admitted.

"Shirley," Mrs. Boyd glared. "Her name is Shirley."

"That is much prettier," Frank admitted. "Tom Brokaw called her Hurly."

"What?" Mrs. Boyd then asked.

"But it was a cute picture," Frank then added as his emotions were barely active while Gloom took main control with an evil grin. "We gotta get this water underneath our bridge, for Shane's sake."

"I would never hold anything against one of my students," Mrs. Boyd said softly before she pounded on the door, sensing her students were trying to listen in and not do their work. "GET! BACK! TO WORK!" she then barked at them.

"Now all of this is goin' down tonight, so I want everyone to be prepared." explained Thrax.

"TONIGHT?!" exclaimed Ozzy, before he started moving another germ's mouth. "Uh, can't we do it next week? Me and Madcow got tickets to Wrestlemania."

"See this?" asked Thrax as he held something up. "This here little DNA bead comes from a little girl in Riverside, California... didn't like to wash her hands... took me three whole weeks."

"That's my favorite one." Corona smirked about the lack of washing hands.

"Yeah, I bet you would." Cherry muttered at that since this chick was the embodiment of the latest natural world disaster that was COVID-19 which would eventually become a pandemic.

"And this one. Nice lady in Detroit, Motown. Six days flat," Thrax continued to boast about his latest conquests before coming here while Ozzy began to look horrified at just how dangerous Thrax and Corona really were. "Then there's this old guy in Philly. I killed him in 72 hours. I'm getting better as I go, but the problem is I never set a record. Until my man Frank, that is. We will take him down in 48 hours."

"We'll get our own chapter in the medical books!" Corona added and cackled.

All of the germs jeered in response over that.

"Excuse me. Excuse me. I got one more question here!" Ozzy spoke up as he waved his hand in the air. "Could a white blood cell do anything to stop this evil plan? You know, hypothetically speaking, that is."

Everyone else gave him a bit of a look while Cherry and Lionel tried not to draw too much attention.

"And, who are you?" Thrax demanded as he put his arm around Ozzy suddenly.

"Who am I? Who am I?!" Ozzy replied until he tried to make up a name on the spot. "Uh... Bad Booty-Shakin' Pickinosis. Yeah! That's who I am."

"Never heard of you." Thrax rolled his eyes.

"Must've come from a gas station toilet seat." Corona scoffed in dismissal.

"That's cuz you just got here!" Lionel said, getting in on it. "But you ask any a'these suckas, when it comes to illin', Bad Booty-Shakin' Pickinosis stands above all the rest!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Ozzy said, throwing his hands up. "He gets it!" And he accidentally smacked one of them right in the face.

"Ow! That hurts!" The germ that had a five-fingered hand for a head complained before wobbling over and then hit Ozzy right on the desk.

Ozzy fell on the desk and out came his badge which was not a good sign.

"Hey! That ain't no germ, that's a cop!" A three-eyed germ pointed out.

The other germs soon began to hold down Ozzy.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Cherry complained.

"Stay out of this, sista," Corona said, whacking her away. "You'll live longer."

Cherry grunted as she suddenly slipped and fell on the floor, not moving for a while.

"Well... whaddo we have here?" asked Thrax, strolling over. "An officer of Frank's finest. Somebody lay down a towel—" he drew out his pointer finger. "This is gonna be messy~"

BLAMMO!

The wall was blown open, and standing in the middle was Drix.

"Great timing." said Lionel as he ran over to check on Cherry.

"Attention, germs! You are surrounded!" Drix declared. "Uh-huh... uh-huh! Uh-huh, uh-huh, sur-rounded~!"

"Yo, Hammer, you can stop dancin'." said Ozzy through clenched teeth.

Drix kept dancing until he heard what Ozzy said and stopped.

Cherry slowly tried to stand back up and rubbed her face, though she seemed a bit paler than usual.

"Whoa, you don't look so good." Lionel frowned.

"I always look like this." Cherry defended.

"Oh, come on," Lionel sighed, rolling his eyes as she put herself down like that. "Are you okay?" he then asked.

"I feel fine, I don't really feel any different, but that was quite a hit." Cherry remarked.

Ozzy then slid out of the germs' grasp, poking one in the eyes and pulling down on one of their mouths before coming beside Drix. "What kept ya?" he then asked the pill.

The germ then defrosted from on top of Drix's head and quivered at the sight of Thrax and Corona. "Es el Muerte Rojo y Bruja Virus! No me mates!" he then panicked before running off of Drix's head in fear.

"Get out of here." Mrs. Boyd demanded to Frank.

"Lift the restraining order so I can do this father/daughter trip." Frank begged.

"The answer is no, Mr. Dettore."

"Please. Think about it overnight," Frank begged as his forehead pimple began to pulsate. "It would make a little girl very happy."

Drix pulled out a grenade. "Only for use against the most stubborn cold symptoms!" he declared as the other germs backed off. Of course, he couldn't quite fit it into his chamber. "Darn childproof caps...!"

"GET 'EM!" Thrax bellowed, and the other germs attacked.

Ozzy yelled out as he got tackled, and Lionel leapt in to help lend a hand. 

Cherry soon stood up and got ready to fight. "All right, get ready for some Mortal Kombat/Samurai Sword/Street Fighter action coming your way, Booger Breaths!" she then glared as she soon stepped back, started running forward, and yelled out as she jumped in the air and kicked a germ right out of the way, hitting him right in the face in a Powerpuff Girls almost like fashion.

The germs growled and soon began to fight back.

"Hey, buddy! Your wife is as bald as the egg that Frank ate that started this whole mess!" Ozzy laughed at one of the germs who didn't take that lightly.

"TAKE MY WIFE'S NAME OUT YOUR SICK, DISEASED MOUTH!" The germ, sounding a lot like Will Smith, glared and suddenly struck Ozzy in the face.

"Ooh! Why you hit so hard?!" Ozzy asked as his face was messed up for a moment until another germ tackled him down to the table and took out a knife, strangling the white blood cell as he gasped for air. "Drix, I could use a little help here!" he then wheezed out.

"If you want a bomb blown up right..." Lionel said as he picked up the grenade and bit the pin before throwing it. "Time to go, dudes!"

The germs panicked and began to evacuate after the grenade was activated and thrown.

BOOM!

"Oh, no... not again!" The Spanish germ complained only to get frozen in place yet again after the grenade exploded and even exploded the night club along with it.

"You have something white on your lips." Frank softly said to Mrs. Boyd who began to feel her lips. "Other side."

Mrs. Boyd soon felt her lip there and grimaced once she realized his pimple popped off his forehead and ended up on her face. "Oooohhh! EEEEW!" she then complained before yelling at Frank, scaring him enough to run away. "Get out! OUT! The answer is no! ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

"Well, that was our last chance to stay in touch with Shane," Sadness sulked while lying on the floor. "We might as well just give up because none of us are needed here."

"Yeah, I hate to admit it, but I think you're right." Joy agreed.

"Same." Anger added, looking dead-eyed as he looked at his newspaper that said "ZIT NIGHT CLUB POPPED ON PREMISES DURING PUBLIC HUMILIATION".

"How can you guys say stuff like that?" Atticus asked.

"Come now, let us emotions do our jobs," Gloom said as he loomed over Atticus in a dangerous way. "You have no business here after all."

"...you remind me of Max from Hollywood." Atticus remarked.

"Now, why don't you get out before I tell Mayor Phlegmming that y'all were trespassing?" Gloom then demanded in a very deep and scary voice that sounded even deeper and scarier than Cherry's father's voice when he would be in a bad mood.

"Fine, we're going... you big bully." grumbled Patch, as he and the others left.

MEANWHILE...

Drix pulled himself free of the foam, and shook it off of himself and his compatriots.

"Thanks," said Ozzy. "You saved our cytoplasm."

As they looked up, they saw a massive empty area where The Zit Club had once stood.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Thrax and Miss Corona have left the building!" Lionel declared.

"Aw, yeah!" Ozzy beamed. "My name is what!"

"Oz?" Drix replied, not getting that yet.

"My name is what!" Ozzy continued.

"Jones!" Drix then suddenly said.

"My name is what! Osmosis Jones~" Ozzy then sang.

"Uh, Ozzy, if I might, what do we do about that?" Cherry asked as she pointed to the gaping hole above.

"Ah, don't worry about that," Ozzy reassured her. "Let's call for a scab and get to the precinct."

"Well, if you think it'll help." Cherry shrugged.

"Ah, we do that all the time, no worries." Ozzy replied as he walked ahead and soon everyone else followed him.

Little did they know, Thrax and Corona were not fully gone after all and were dangling from the hole.

LATER ON...

"JONES! MY OFFICE!" The police chief demanded.

"Hey, hey, who died? Other than Thrax and Corona, that is," Ozzy smirked, smushing his face as he came inside and saw a familiar face. "Brandy! I mean, Leah. Why are you here?" he greeted and then asked.

"You really did it now, Jones." Mayor Phlegmming glared as he spun from the chief's chair behind the desk.

"Mr. Mayor!" Ozzy grinned. "Didn't see you back there!"

"Disregarding orders, destruction of public flesh..." Mayor Phlegmming listed off the offenses. "...popping a pimple without a permit! What were you DOING up there?"

"What was I doin'?! I was promotin' good health, sir!" Ozzy insisted.

"Oh, is that what you call it?" Mayor Phlegmming mocked.

"They were lethal!" Ozzy defended. "If we hadn't stopped them, we'd be frying eggs off of Frank!"

"Watch it, you'll cause a panic." Mayor Phlegmming warned.

"Yeah, well, it's your fault anyway!" Cherry glared.

"And how is that, young lady" Mayor Phlegmming asked sternly.

"Well, you just keep lying to keep your job and maintain power you don't deserve and you don't even know what's happening to Frank's emotions!" Cherry retorted and explained, trying to stick up for someone else for once instead of someone doing the same to her since her greatest weakness was her insecurity and self-doubt. "People would think about what's going on in this body, not the stupid trip!"

"Okay, you want us to start thinking? Well, here's a thought," Mayor Phlegmming smirked darkly before facing Ozzy. "Osmosis Jones, you're fired."

"Oh, gee..." Cherry winced, feeling at blame.

"Mr. Mayor--" Leah frowned.

"Your badge, Mister." Mayor Phlegmming then demanded.

"Ozzy, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to--" Cherry said nervously and wearily.

"Don't blame yourself, kid," Ozzy reassured her as he went to turn in his badge. "Figures. I finally do something right for Frank, and I get fired."

"Osmosis..." Leah reached out, but Ozzy was long gone.

"Please," insisted Drix. "Without Jones, Frank could've been in mortal danger."

"Oh, mortal danger, hm?" mocked the mayor. "You'd love to prove that, wouldn't you, Mr. Drixenol? Get your name written up in the New England Journal of Medicine~!"

"He saw it, she saw it, I saw it!" Lionel insisted. "We were all there!"

"I'm starting to not like this mayor." Atticus said with a glare.

"Me neither." Patch added as he growled due to his canine instincts telling him to do so.

"Son, read what it says on your arm." Mayor Phlegmming asked Drix.

The pill then lifted up his arm to do as instructed. "'For the temporary relief of symptoms'--" he then started only to get cut off.

"Exactly. Temporary. You're a wannabe. A placebo," Mayor Phlegmming then said. "A generic brand. An over-the-counter Tic-Tac. A replacement for that vaccine we refuse to take because of our childhood fear of needles unless a better option comes along for a pandemic that's never going to happen!"

"Listen buddy, we've been up at Emotional Headquarters and--" Sabrina began with a glare.

"Oh, and that remind me," Mayor Phlegmming interrupted and smirked. "Mr. Gloom has informed me that you don't fit in along with a bunch of other insubordinates, now, all of you... GET OUT OF MY BODY!" he then demanded.

"Denny Crane?" Cherry asked.

"DENNY CRA--" Mayor Phlegmming started before glaring. "Knock that off!"

"Nah, I don't think I will." Cherry smirked.

"That smirk of yours won't last forever once you're on the last train out of here via the bladder!" Mayor Phlegmming retorted sternly.

The group all grimaced and cringed about leaving Frank's body like that, though it did make sense in a way. Joy, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Fear, Anxiety, Nostalgia, Embarrassment, and Envy all began to pack up and get ready to go on their own, taking a few colored orbs with them that represented memories while Sadness had many memories involving a woman named Maggie who had been mentioned several times during this adventure.

THE INGROWN TOENAIL

8:05 PM

"It appears that continuing cold symptoms, while annoying, will not derail plans for the upcoming trip to the annual Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival." said a reporter on TV, while some germs were using a garage as their hideout.

Thrax chuckled to himself as he tore down a curtain.

"What's so funny?" asked one germ.

"I dunno..." responded another.

"They're makin' this too easy!" laughed Thrax. "...y'know, in all the bodies I've ever been in, no-one has gotten wise to me. Now, for the first time, an immunity cell has figured out everything, AND THEY DON'T BELIEVE HIM!"

The two germ lackeys chuckled at that, but not as malicious as Thrax's chuckle.

"Oh, can you taste the irony in that?" Corona remarked before it "hit her". "Oh, wait, you can't taste anything when I'm around~"

"That's a good one!" Thrax cackled as he wrapped his arm around her while the two lackeys watched them and chuckled until he glared at them. "SHUT UP! What're you two laughin' at?"

The two lackeys then stopped and watched Thrax and Corona.

"Okay, get some of those and he'll just think it's allergies." Corona suggested.

"Good thinkin'." Thrax replied as he took the pollen pods and pocketed a few of them.

"We're back on schedule." Corona said with a smirk.

"But Boss, we're the only ones left," The one-eyed germ remarked. "Maybe we should incubate for a while?" he then suggested.

"Well, that's a shame now..." Corona sighed softly.

"What's a shame?" The one-eyed germ asked nervously.

"I'm afraid we have no use for you guys anymore if that's your attitude." Corona then said dismissively with a nod toward Thrax.

BARAKA-THOOM!!

As the Big Toe Garage exploded behind them, Thrax and Corona shuffled off.

"Medical books aren't written about losers!" growled Thrax.

"I'm not going." said Shane as she looked up from her display.

"Not going where, hun?" Frank asked.

"...to Buffalo." Shane confirmed.

"Yeah, she's not going." Darla added as she crossed her arms while Amber and Annabelle joined her sides.

"Honey, we're all packed," Frank insisted. "Buffalo's gonna be a blast."

"We're going camping together, Mr. Dettore." Amber said as strongly as she could.

"You're welcome to come along though." Annabelle added, hoping he would agree.

"And maybe we can have Annie and Hallie come along too with Domino." Amber whispered to Darla.

"Yes, Annie and Hallie too." Darla smirked and nodded.

"Well, I don't think--" Frank said softly.

"I'd really like you to come." Shane urged softly in return.

"You don't want me huffing and puffing after you," Frank shook his head. "You wanna go, okay. Uncle Bob will go with me to Buffalo." he then added as he laid down on the couch he sat on.

"I'm tired of this. It's not fair." Shane soon said out of frustration.

"Shane...?" Annabelle frowned in concern.

"No, he always does this," Shane replied as she ranted to her father. "I go where you wanna go. I eat what you wanna eat. Don't you ever think about anyone else?"

"I think about you." Frank said softly.

"Like when you packed me a fried Slim Jim sandwich?" Shane reminded in deadpan as Darla began to look away nervously.

"Yeah. It was a turkey Slim Jim." Frank defended.

"And I thought LB Mammoth was bad with my diet." Darla frowned bitterly.

"What does that mean?" Amber asked Darla.

"It's a long story." Darla sighed as she took out a random candy bar before tossing it.

"You know, Dad... maybe if you and Mom listened to me a little more and took care of yourselves, maybe she'd still be here." Shane soon said to Frank as she looked down at the floor in disappointment.

"Hey... honey, knock off that hamburger talk," said Frank as he got up. "Your mom died... because she got sick, alright?"

"And how do you think you get sick?" Shane asked.

"...germs?" Frank shrugged.

"It's from how you eat!" Shane exclaimed, exasperated.

"Fruits and vegetables are very important along with other healthy foods and not just chicken wings or pizza or deep fried foods!" Darla said before she started to drool a little and lose her train of thought. "Sweet, sweet triple tiered cakes with crumbly chocolate covered cookie crumbs and giant cupcakes the size of watermelons..."

"Darla? Darla!" Annabelle called in concern.

"Ooh, yes, I'll buy all of the hot fudge sundaes~" Darla said, sounding hypnotized for a moment.

"Darla! Snap out of it!" Amber cried out and smacked her best friend in the face.

"Ugh... thanks..." Darla sighed as she shook her head. "I always hated broccoli, but it's better than shoving candy and cakes in my face to stay fat and cute."

"Is that what Hollywood did to you?" Annabelle asked in concern.

"It was Mammoth's idea," Darla sighed and shook her head. "I don't really wanna think about it too much."

"Come on, guys, let's get out of here." Annabelle suggested as Shane stormed off to go to her room.

"Yes, of course!" Darla replied as her friends began to leave and she looked down at the cheeseballs and reached her hand out to take a few until Amber and Annabelle pulled her away from the room by her arms.

THE LYMPH NODES, THIRD PRECINCT

11:12 PM

That evening, at the police station, Ozzy was packing his things up, and pulled out a picture.

"Who's that?" asked Drix.

"Didja know my great-great-grandpappy fought the measles?" Ozzy asked. "Yep, there's been a Jones on the force ever since my ancestors came over on the umbilical cord... until now, that is."

"Alright, ladies," said one guard. "Wrap it up now."

"Keep your plasma on, we're going." Cherry replied, slightly bitter.

The guards simply stood there and waited out the door since it was time to get moving.

"Well, I... I guess I should get going," Drix said as this looked like goodbye. "Wouldn't want Frank to build immunity to me. Maybe next time he takes Drixenol it'll do him some good."

Cherry and her friends began to look and feel unsure about that.

"Goodbye, Drips." Ozzy said to the pill.

"That's Drix." The pill corrected yet again.

"Whatever." Ozzy shrugged with a small, sad smile.

And so, the two left the locker room and began to go their separate ways.

"So, where do we all go now?" Patch wondered.

"I dunno, Spot," Cherry sighed as she put her hands in her pockets. "How can we help now?"

And so, Frank slept on, little aware of the events that were transpiring within his very being.

Ozzy trodded home, through some puddles as he passed by a newsstand, which still had copies of the previous headline, HERO STOPS COLD! Just then, a paper truck drove by, and the guy inside threw out a new stack of papers. On the front page was a picture of Ozzy, and above was the headline LOSER COP FIRED. Ozzy winced as he covered his face with his jacket, while the guy running the stand used a pocketknife to cut through the bindings. But as he picked up the paper, he did a double-take as Ozzy shuffled away. Drix, meanwhile, boarded a bus heading for Frank's bladder. And of course, we all know what happens next from there.

THE BRAIN STEM

6:15 AM...

Everyone headed off to work and got ready to get started since Frank would be waking up very soon, though there was haunting and "infectious" activity going on that no one was really prepared for.

"People, let's get started," Mayor Phlegmming said to the people meeting at his table while Gloom stood right beside him. "I don't need to remind anyone that today's our trip to Buffalo. Frank will be up in 20 minutes. I don't want him losing an eyelash or stubbing his toe today..."

The others listened, though Leah was clearly disappointed with her boss and said nothing about it.

In the meantime, Cherry and her friends followed Ozzy down the streets and ran into a movie theater.

"Excuse me, sir, would you like a free screening?" A worker offered to Ozzy. "We're broadcasting live dreams from the subconscious of the brain."

"Cherry loves watching dreams, isn't that right, buddy?" Atticus beamed and offered.

"I guess so." Cherry replied with a small shrug.

They soon came into the theater, passing movie posters of Frank's recurring dreams which included "Honey, I Forgot My Pants", "The Exam", "Your Worst Nightmare", "Girls from the Bus Stop", and more.

Cherry grimaced a bit at the "Your Worst Nightmare" poster which had Shane marrying her Uncle Bob before they joined Ozzy as he went into the dream movie that involved Frank taking a test and being a student in school.

"That's right, big boy. You keep on dreaming," Ozzy remarked as he took a seat. "At least you got your health."

Patch whined a bit and suddenly felt his dog instincts kicking in as he looked up at Atticus with puppy dog eyes.

"Oh, I gotta take Patch for a walk, guys," Atticus told the others. "Anyone wanna come with?" he then offered.

"Pass." Cherry shrugged.

ELSEWHERE, IN THE HYPOTHALAMUS...

Another of the blood cells was checking Frank's temperatures. "...98.6. 98.6. 98.6. 98.6!"

Within seconds, Thrax cut his way through the door and he and Corona made their entrance.

"Hey! You can't come in here!" called one of the scientists.

Thrax just chuckled and grabbed him before he tossed him into the power helix, killing him instantly.

"No! No! AAAAAAUGH!" A second scientist cried out before running away suddenly.

"Wuss." Corona scoffed at him as she and Thrax made their ways inside.

"Baby, you are lookin' fine today~" Thrax smirked at the power helix before facing Corona. "Care to help out?" he then asked.

"I can make an exception for you~" Corona smirked back.

And so, the two reached out and tampered with the power helix to alter Frank's body temperature until it spurted and exploded.

"Prepare to feel hot and cold at the same time, you sick freak." Corona scoffed to herself quietly about Frank.

Thrax hummed thoughtfully until he reached out for a bead with a smirk.

Frank then twinged a bit in his sleep, but didn't wake up just yet, though he groaned and whimpered a bit. And so, little by little, Frank's temperature began to rise while Corona added cold chills along with her other symptoms.

"Don't forget the cushion we take to football games," Mayor Phlegmming said as he was on the phone in his office. "Don't want the voters in the hemorrhoids complaining."

Leah looked at him disbelief until she saw a concern going on. "Uh, sir? Something's wrong with the weather." she then told him.

"We're probably drinking coffee." Mayor Phlegmming shrugged off.

"Look at the map," Leah then pointed out. "What if Jones and those kids are right?"

"Jones?" Mayor Phlegmming laughed as he swirled around. "Funny."

Leah took the chair and swirled him back. "You care more about this stupid reelection than all our lives!" she fumed. "Something's going on, and I'm going to the hypothalamus to check it out."

"Hypo-who-what is this?" Mayor Phlegmming replied nervously until he saw that she kept on walking, not even turning back. "Leah, wait! Who will answer the phones?" he then asked, sounding helpless for a moment.

"Nice." Gloom scoffed.

"Is it me or does it just not seem as much fun or joyful around here?" Mayor Phlegmming pondered.

"No... what would make you say that?" Gloom feigned shock. "After all, I'm in charge of Emotional Headquarters now."

"Then I'm trusting you to keep Frank joyful accordingly during this Buffalo festival, is that clear?" Mayor Phlegmming asked.

"Clear as my dark and gloomy thunder clouds." Gloom nodded.

"Oh, what's a little doom and gloom? We'll brighten up once we make it to Buffalo," Mayor Phlegmming then reassured. "...speaking of which, where ARE the others you work with up there?"

"Oh... here and there..." Gloom replied before chuckling a bit darkly.

"...right." Mayor Phlegmming nodded with a small smile, though began to feel a bit unnerved by this emotion suddenly.

Frank grunted as he tossed and turned a little in his sleep as chaos was going on deep inside his body.

Atticus was waiting for Patch to do his business as they wandered further away from the group and looked over. "Miss Leah?" he then greeted.

"Hey kid, you have any idea what's going on around here?" Leah asked him.

"No, I'm afraid not, I was just taking Patch for a walk and gave him a little privacy, he's a teenage dog now after all, but now that you mention it, I feel like something strange might be going on in there." Atticus explained before he pointed to the room that Leah was about to go into anyway.

Heading to the hypothalamus room, Leah saw that things weren't as they were meant to be, and sounded the alarm. "Whoever did this, they're not staying anonymous for long." she muttered.

"Odd..." Atticus commented before he slid on a fedora and everything went monochrome suddenly. "Looks like it's up to me to try to solve the case."

"Why are you going Detective Mode?" Leah asked wearily.

"It's what I do." Atticus stated simply.

"Hmm..." Leah paused in thought, not sure how to feel about that.

Soon, everyone else heard the alarm.

"Be advised. We have a break-in." A voice alerted everyone in the vicinity.

"We gotta get out of here, my li'l Flu Bug." Corona warned Thrax once they overheard the alarm.

And quickly, they dashed down a hallway.

"Sarge?" asked one of the cells who was looking around. The sergeant and the other cell glanced down the staircase.

"Eh... nothing down there but bad dreams." The sergeant responded, guiding him away from the subconscious door.

Thrax and Corona watched them go before they turned and saw a multitude of memories that filled Frank's mind.

"That was close..." Corona said before looking over. "What in the...?"

"Maybe Shane would like to know about the 200-yard restraining order."

"Maybe if you and Mom listened to me a little more and took care of yourselves, maybe she'd still be here."

"You're fired. Get out of here!"

"GET OUT!"

"EWWW!"

"No, I can't!"

"Get back to work!"

"This is really creeping me out..." Corona muttered before looking at the dream screen. "And what do we have here?" she then muttered.

"Classic dream," Cherry lamented as she and the others watched the screen. "Going to school with no pants on."

"Luckily no one's dumb enough to do that in real life, right?" Thor remarked as his eyes darted back and forth.

"Middle school before we became friends with you?" Sabrina guessed.

"Kinda." Thor admitted sheepishly.

Suddenly, there were colorful and fuzzy spots filling the screen as well as red steam which did not go unnoticed.

"Hey, Ozzy? Is that supposed to happen?" Lionel asked as he saw that first.

"What the heck was that?" Ozzy murmured once he saw what Lionel saw and soon, so did everyone else.

"Francis Detorre, you stand up right now!" Mrs. Boyd demanded in the dream.

Frank soon stood up and was shown to be in his underwear while the kids in the classroom pointed and laughed at him while the spirit of Frank's father who he picked up his unhealthy behavior from was sitting in his own desk, eating an endless plate of chicken wings.

"Thrax and Corona are alive..." Cherry realized.

"You're right..." Ozzy nodded. "Thrax and Corona are alive and they're in the brain!"

"Oh, great, pal. Spoil the ending." A cell complained while kissing his date passionately.

"Hey, what temperature you got?" Ozzy asked a cell in front of him.

"98.6," The cell simply stated as he checked his wristwatch until he saw the temperature going up past 100. "Hey! Is this thing broken again?" he then complained.

"You guys, we gotta get Drix." Ozzy told the group before he ran off ahead of them.

"To the bladder!" Lionel exclaimed. "Let's move it, and fast!"

And with that, the group sprang to their feet and ran off.

"This is probably gonna smell bad." Cherry murmured to herself.

Chapter Text

MEANWHILE...

Frank soon came into the bathroom to take care of some private business and let's just leave it at that.

"Now boarding: the 9:30 with nonstop service to the toilet bowl," A conductor called to some folks who were on their way there as well as Frank's other emotions who weren't Gloom since they were all now dead inside which made Frank apathetic overall, especially since he was losing his daughter because of his poor choices. "Tickets, please. Keep it moving. Thank you."

"Drix!" Ozzy called out as he emerged from the crowd along with the adventure group. "Yo, Drix!"

"Jones?" Drix asked in disbelief once he looked behind him to see the white blood cell cop.

"Get your butt off this boat!" Ozzy demanded as he tried to pull away Drix from the crowd. "Thrax and Corona are alive. Let's go."

"I'm sorry, Osmosis. I can't help you." Drix said apologetically.

"Excuse me?" Ozzy replied in bad shock.

"I can't combat a virus," Drix defended and reminded him. "Read my label."

"Come on, man, think outside the, uh-the pillbox!" Cherry said as she tried to help motivate Drix into staying.

"C'mon, keep it moving." said the porter.

"I've known sugar pills who cured cancer!" Ozzy declared. "Just because they believed they could."

Drix looked almost thoughtful at that. "Oh, I dunno, Ozzy... look at me. I'm cherry-flavored."

"So am I, but I don't let that stop me." Cherry remarked.

"You don't smell like cherries." Thor commented as he sniffed the perky goth suddenly.

"Not the point." Cherry replied thickly.

"Why do they call you Cherry anyway?" Thor wondered.

"MOVING ON!" Cherry then said, refusing to answer that question and to also get them back on track.

"Hey, pal, are you on or off?" The conductor asked impatiently.

"Fine. Flush your life down the toilet." Ozzy scoffed before storming off as this looked like goodbye between him and Drix.

"The zipper's down!" The conductor said. "All ashore that's goin' ashore!"

And so, Frank finished emptying the tank, so to speak. As Ozzy watched them empty, he sighed in dismay.

And then, there came a voice. "Jones?"

"Well, I'll be darned!" Lionel commented as he turned around.

"Do you really know a sugar pill that cured cancer?" inquired Drix.

"Nah," Ozzy smiled a bit at the sight of him. "But it makes for a good pep talk."

"Let's go catch a cold." Drix smirked.

"All right! And we're outta here!" Cherry said as they soon sped off once Drix ditched his label and joined them in the car.

"Guys, I just realized, what about Atticus and Patch?" Mo spoke up.

"They'll catch up." Cherry shrugged.

In the meantime, Shane came downstairs and ran into her uncle at the door, going to catch her bus that was parked in front of the house.

"Hey, Shane, how 'bout a hug for your Uncle Bob?" Bob asked hopefully, though she just walked past him and went right out the door. "Okay. Nice talking to you too," he then said and then came into the kitchen to see his brother who looked a lot more sorry than he ever did before. "Hey, Muscles. You don't look so good."

"I feel a little fluey." Frank admitted.

"You know what they say, 'Starve a cold, drown the flu'," Bob advised as he brought out a can and opened the top for Frank. "Your body needs fluids. And lots of them."

"Is beer fluid?" Frank then asked.

"Oh, of course it's fluid. What about all that wet stuff in it?" Bob remarked.

"I thought that was the beer." Frank said, taking a small sip, but then stopping and seemed to grimace.

"No, finish that up," Bob encouraged. "Come on, we wanna get better."

"It just kinda tastes funny." Frank shrugged.

"Can't be expired, I just got it on the way here." Bob defended.

"I just feel like I can't even taste it." Frank admitted.

"Well, get some more then," Bob insisted and Frank then gulped down a bit more beer. "There we go. That's it. That's my good washboard-tummy guy." he then added while patting on his brother's rather pudgy stomach.

MEANWHILE...

Leah was rallying the other security officers. "This is it, men. Go, go, go, go!" she called, getting them into action as they rushed off. But as she turned to take off, she bumped right into Thrax.

"Hi, baby~" he grinned wickedly as he grabbed Leah.

The security officers all stopped as they saw Thrax and Corona had Leah hostage.

"What are you waiting for?" Leah called. "Shoot 'em!"

"If you follow us, she dies!" called Corona, as the diseased duo jumped out a nearby window, with a hostage in tow.

"Stop!" Atticus cried out and started to cough heavily before feeling dizzy. "Whoa, I'm not feeling too good, but I'm safe from all illnesses... what's going on?" he then wondered as he started to look deathly pale.

Ozzy swerved all around in his car, trying to avoid exploding geysers while Cherry tried really hard not to feel motion sickness due to the car's sharp turns. "This ain't time to get carsick." he then advised Drix and Cherry.

"I'm okay, I'm one-half Dramamine!" Drix reassured. "It's just this darn heat!"

"Yeah, that and the sharp turns aren't helping me much either." Cherry added as she gripped her collar while gulping and cupping her mouth every so often.

"As long as it don't hit 180 degrees, or Frank's daughter's an orphan." Ozzy advised as he kept on driving.

Shane sat by herself while Darla, Amber, and Annabelle sat close by.

"Hey, uh, is this seat taken?" A boy's voice asked as he came right by the girls.

"Uh... no, help yourself." Shane replied bashfully as her new friends took their own seats.

The boy smiled and he soon sat down next to her.

"So you're that new kid, aren't you?" Shane asked him.

"Yeah," The boy nodded. "Hector Cruz at your service."

"S-Shane Dettore." Shane replied as she said her name.

Darla, Amber, and Annabelle hid small smirks to each other as they sensed something going on between the two of them.

"Hey, Shane, look what I brought for you," said one girl as she handed Shane something. "They're false eyelashes."

Shane shrugged. "Whatever."

"Just close your eye," the girl said as she put the false lash on her. "There you go. You look good with falsies!"

MEANWHILE...

Thrax stopped a car, then grabbed the guy and tossed him out. As Leah was thrashing about in Corona's grasp, she tossed her into the back and climbed in, while Thrax got in the front. As the cops formed a barricade, Thrax jammed his hand into the key fob, transforming the crummy little car into a monstrous-looking hot rod! Within no time, he'd barreled through the barricade, knocking the cars aside like bowling pins.

"Next stop, the brat!" laughed Corona.

Outside, Frank and Bob were driving along.

"Don't worry about Shane," said Bob. "Shane'll be fine."

"Well, I just want to, you know, put her at ease," responded Frank. "I don't want her to worry."

"Listen, why don't you sit her down and tell her that if anything ever happens to you, I will take care of her, okay?" asked Bob. "I will raise her, I will nurture her, I will love her, and then when she's 16, I'll boot her out the door."

"...sixteen?" Frank asked, incredulous.

"Well, yeah, you know, I'm not gonna mommy her forever, okay? I mean, 16, sure," replied Bob.

Just then, the car began to swerve from left... to right.. .and left again.

"Frank? Are you all right?" asked Bob, concerned.

BACK INSIDE OF FRANK...

Ozzy, Drix, and the others were going as fast as they could.

"All units, all units, we have a hostage situation involving the mayor's aide!" said the dispatcher over the radio.

Ozzy sighed. "Oh, no... Leah, girl, what were you thinking?" he asked.

"Hey, if we wanna get steamed at somebody, save it for Thrax and Corona," said Lionel. "We've got a score to settle with those two!"

"Suspect is heading towards the uvula," announced the dispatcher. "Repeat, heading towards the uvula."

Ozzy raised a brow. "What the hell is a 'u-vula'?" he asked.

"It's that little dangly thing that hangs down in Frank's—" started Drix.

"Boxer shorts! Okay!" Ozzy grinned as he drove towards the rectum.

"Not that little dangly thing!" said Lionel. "The one in his throat!"

Ozzy stepped on the brake, coming to a halt on the freeway. "I knew that... I knew that." he replied calmly before putting it in reverse.

Suddenly, there came a rumbling from all around them.

"I know that rumble..." muttered Ozzy. "C'mon, I know a shortcut!"

"Oh, I hope we can make it in time." Sabrina said to herself.

"Hey, we always do, you know that." Thor reminded his cousin.

"Yeah, I know, it just feels so intense especially inside someone's body." Sabrina remarked.

"I know just what you mean." Mo nodded.

In the meantime, Frank was trying to drive the car, but he began to look bleary-eyed and looked ready to pass out as he started to sweat rapidly and his face turned as pale as Casper before his adoption into the Fudo family.

"Are you with me?" Bob asked his brother in concern. "Frank, are you with me? Are you okay?"

"I feel fine!" Mayor Phlegmming said before glaring in annoyance. "SAY IT!"

"Frank. Hold on, here," Bob suddenly said as Frank was very unresponsive and clearly couldn't drive right now. "You're going to the hospital. The trip is off. Pull it over, big guy.

"The trip is off? Nooooooo!" Mayor Phlegmming cried out in dismay.

The school bus continued to drive, but on the side of the road, there appeared to be a couple of familiar faces.

"Whoa, what's going on out there?" Hector wondered as he glanced out the window.

"Hey, Shane. Isn't that your dad?" Darla pointed out.

"Oh, my god..." Shane murmured and panicked. "STOP THE BUS! DAD! UNCLE BOB!"

Fortunately, the bus stopped and let her off as she went to see her ailing father.

"Shane!" Mrs. Boyd called out before sighing. "This is going to go on her permanent record if she doesn't get back here."

Darla overheard that and narrowed her eyes a bit protectively as her old self was nearly trying to fight out of her.

"Shane! What're you doing here?" Bob inquired as Shane raced over to him. "It's okay, I'm her niece!" he called to Mrs. Boyd.

"Uncle Bob, what happened?" Shane asked, panicked.

"Well, honey, your daddy's had a little accident." Bob managed to explain.

"Is he okay?!" Shane asked, panicked.

"Well, sure, he's gonna be fine..." Bob responded before he started to sob. "I really hope he's gonna be okay!"

Darla, Amber, and Annabelle looked very concerned for their new friend.

Hector also seemed a bit worried since he just met Shane and was in the dark about whatever was going on and he just hoped that it would work out well for her since she was a pretty girl and he thought she needed some emotional support.

"That man," Mrs. Boyd sighed and shook her head. "He's going to get himself killed and it's a shame that such a lovely girl has to be born to a slob like him."

"OH, SHUT IT, WILL YA?!" Darla snapped suddenly, startling Mrs. Boyd. "Listen lady, I know you've had a rough time dealing with that family, I'm disgusted with Shane's father almost as much as you are, BUT YOU ARE GOING TO LET SHANE HELP HER FATHER AND LET HER SEE HIM AS MUCH AS SHE POSSIBLY CAN, WHETHER HE LIVES OR DIES, THIS INSTANT!" she then shouted, sounding a lot like her old self.

Mrs. Boyd looked wide-eyed and stepped backwards away from the blonde girl.

"Darla..." Amber and Annabelle murmured in surprise.

"Well, she made me mad." Darla defended, still glaring, but not regretful about what she said or did just now.

THE UVULA

12:33 PM

The elevator opened up, and out came Thrax and Corona, with Leah still in their grasp.

"Lemme go!" Leah grunted. "Hey, watch the hands, buddy! You better put me down!"

Thrax looked around, curious. "Hold up..."

Soon, Frank was being wheeled into the emergency room on a stretcher.

"A critical one here!" said one of the nurses.

"Coming through," said a doctor. "What's the story on this one?"

"I don't know what it is. The guy's burning up!" exclaimed another.

The room filled with red smoke as Thrax and Corona carried Leah into the room.

"What is that nasty smell?" Thrax complained.

"Cherry. Wild cherry." Cherry smirked as she and the others appeared along with a certain pill.

"Now let her go." Drix added as he launched his arm cannon.

"Why? So you can ice us again?" Corona retorted and smirked as Thrax held his dangerous finger toward Leah.

"No, so he can, go Ozzy, go!" Sabrina countered and called out.

Ozzy then pounced right out toward Thrax while everyone looked around for Atticus or Patch, though the Dalmatian seemed to be hiding behind a corner, looking a little lost and scared.

"Virus con dios!" Drix exclaimed as he launched a freeze blast at Thrax's hand, freezing it solid.

"Give him a couple more shots!" Lionel said. "And don't forget his lady friend! ...after all, it would be rude~"

Drix smirked at that and soon did just that, shooting more blasts, though had a hard time finding Thrax and Corona in the misty red fog.

"Spot, what's going on?" Cherry asked Patch. "Where'd Atticus go?"

"We got separated," Patch pouted. "He went to help Miss Leah and then that COVID crone hit him with something that made him HIM sick."

"But Atticus is supposed to be immune to illnesses..." Cherry remarked. "I guess even Coronavirus can find a way to spike through HIS system."

"Tell me about it," Patch remarked. "This is starting to sound worse than Mr. Itchy feeling scratchy all the time from his own fleas while we visit Puppy School."

"Uh, yeah, that sounds terrible..." Cherry said flatly before looking around. "Where'd they go?!"

Suddenly, Corona peaked out from the corner and brought out what looked like a blob with spots all over it and chucked it right over to hit Cherry in the back of her head.

"CHERRY! LOOK OUT!" Patch yowled as he pounced over her suddenly, pinning her down.

"Augh! Spot! I told you not to jump on me!" Cherry complained, but then the blob splattered all over the Dalmatian.

"Phew... I don't feel so good..." Patch suddenly said as he looked a little feverish. "I can't smell Atticus's scent... in fact, I can't smell anyone's scent anymore."

"Holy empanada!" Lionel exclaimed. "He's been infected! And unless we find a way to stop 'em, we'll be next!"

"COVID can affect dogs too?" Cherry wondered.

"Apparently..." Patch wheezed as he fell flat on the floor. "Is the room half hot and half cold to anyone else?" he then asked wearily.

"We better hurry or we'll all be sick with this corona crap." Thor suggested urgently.

"Jones! Oh, thank Frank." Leah sighed in relief as she hugged the white blood cell cop who smirked warmly in the hug.

"What's his temperature?" The doctor asked a nurse as he came to check on Frank who was currently knocked out.

"It's at 106.2." A nurse told him.

"Put him in ice!" The doctor yelled out. "We gotta cool him down!"

"We need some ice in here!" One nurse told the other.

"Right, I'll get it." The other nurse nodded and ran off.

Bob then made it into the room along with Shane.

"Daddy?" Shane called in concern.

"Maggie?" Frank murmured slightly.

"No, Dad. It's me, Shane." Shane told him, looking scared to death for her father.

Everyone started to look around for Thrax and Corona within the misty red fog as Patch tried to keep up, but had a hard time doing so.

"Come out, come out, whatever you are!" Cherry called out as she looked around for the viruses.

Thrax angrily clutched his frozen claw. "I ain't got time for this." he grunted as he smashed a window. But just as he did, the searchlight of a police helicopter shone down.

"THIS IS FRANK P.D.," said one cop over a bullhorn. "WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!"

"Give it up, the both of you!" Lionel said. "You got nowhere to go!"

"You're busted!" Ozzy added.

"Hand over the bracelet." Mo demanded as she narrowed her earth green eyes.

"Y'all are making this too easy," Thrax smirked as he brought out pollen beads. "You got any SARS to spare?" he then asked Corona.

"Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I believe I do~" Corona smirked back as she brought out her blobs that she had hit Patch with.

"Pollen and SARS?" Drix asked, sounding alarmed.

"Check this out!" Thrax smirked as he and Corona tossed their spheres right out.

"Oh, no!" Ozzy panicked as the spread of pollen and coronavirus would not be good for Frank.

The pollen pods floated towards the helicopters.

"Dear mother of Frank!" exclaimed one of the pilots as the pod got shredded in the blades. And then came that sound. That dreaded sound of all sounds.

"Ah... ah... AH..."

"Enjoy the funeral, boys!" Thrax laughed as he spread his coat like a pair of wings.

Frank then shot up slightly on the bed and sneezed Thrax right out.

Corona soon took the ride out of Frank's mouth herself, cackling as she looked all around. "Well, hello all you unvaccinated and unmasked victims~" she then smirked. "Get ready for the common cold of death~" She soon went to spread to other people in the hospital, looking around for a place to land.

In the meantime, all everyone else could do right now was watch and experience their world about to come to an end.

"We're dead!" Leah panicked.

"How's your aim?" Ozzy asked Drix.

"A lot better than yours." Drix stated confidently.

"What are you doing?" Leah asked the white blood cell in fear.

Ozzy looked back at her and gave her a rather long and passionate kiss right on the lips. "Saving Frank." he then told her confidently before he went to squish himself inside of Drix's arm cannon.

"So, what're we supposed to do?" Sabrina wondered.

"Cheer on Ozzy and maybe look for Atticus and those missing emotions?" Cherry suggested.

"Cherry... guys..." Atticus wheezed as he stumbled over and looked sick for the first time in his life.

"You want Osmosis?" Ozzy rhetorically asked, getting ready to be launched.

"You've got Osmosis." Drix then said and shot Ozzy right out of his arm cannon to go after Thrax.

"Go, Ozzy, go!" called Lionel. "You get 'em! Corona's gonna be a goner!"

"What're you guys still doing here?" Atticus asked as they came over to Frank's emotions.

"We don't have any use being here," Joy admitted in a sorrow way that her namesake couldn't even brighten her up out of. "Maggie's gone, Shane deserves a better home than with us, there's no use in going on."

"I really miss Maggie..." Sadness sulked, still lying on the floor next to Ennui.

"And besides, this Coronavirus is just gonna kill us all." Ennui droned wearily.

"As long as people wear the masks and stay six feet apart from each other, we'll all be okay," Atticus stated and reassured before coughing and hacking. "Oh, God, that hurts worse than The Gargoyle Flu..." he then wheezed a bit.

Everyone then stepped aside from Atticus just then.

"I'm starting to wish we were never born." Fear said in a somber tone of voice.

"We should never have had Shane and got into this chicken wing diet just like our father." Anger sulked.

"Blast it, there's a little girl out there who needs a father," said Lionel. "And we can't quit now! Not when we've come so far!" he spotted Corona in the air. "Anybody got a slingshot?" As he looked over, he slapped his forehead. "Ugh, DOY! I can make the slingshot!" he exclaimed, before he conjured it up with a rock. "One good shot's all I need!"

"TRY AND STOP ME, MOUTHBREATHERS!" Corona mocked from the air. "SOCIAL DISTANCING AND MASKS AREN'T GONNA STOP ME! NEVER! AHAHAHAHAHA! NEVER!"

WHAP! Suddenly a rock shot right at her and she flailed through the air and landed in some short of chemical.

"Uh-oh..." Corona muttered and was suddenly vaporized from existence and made into a cure.

Suddenly, a red furred paw grabbed onto the vial she landed in and a weasel was shown to be in a lab coat in another room and was on the phone while a baboon sat in a stool in front of him. "Yes, President Rump, I'm working on the cure to this disease as we speak. Turns out it's just sugar water, food coloring, and Dramamine."

"DO NOT BE FORGETTING THE MUSTARD!" The baboon shouted and guffawed like an idiot as he brought out a mustard bottle and squeezed it, spurting the yellow substance everywhere.

"Erm... yes... quite..." The weasel responded before slamming the door. "Yes, President Rump, well keep you posted on today's test result. Mr. Baboon, if you could, extend your arm so I can see if I have cured this social pandemic virus that will make humans rely more on their technology than ever for I! AM! WEASEL!"

"Wow! Good shot, Lionel!" Thor beamed in the meantime once the others had their story focused on them again.

"Thanks," Lionel replied. "I figured something had to be done!"

"Besides, don't you guys love Shane?" Mo soon asked the emotions.

"Things just haven't been the same..." Sadness sulked. "Especially with him being in charge."

"Him?" Cherry and her friends repeated curiously.

Gloom darkly chuckled as he loomed over them. "You are all useless right now, we're going to die and you know it," he then told the other emotions. "You might as well get out of here while you have the chance since Frank has been emotionally dead for years which is why I'm here," he then grabbed a giant bag that Joy was carrying, full of colorful orbs inside. "I'll dispose of these for you since these memories are all useless in the final moments of Frank's life."

"There's always a chance, even when things are at their most hopeless," said Lionel. "...and I know Atticus would say something like that, but he's currently out of commission."

"You are learning." said Cherry.

"Besides, it's all on Ozzy now," said Mo. "If he doesn't stop Thrax, Frank won't have anything to live for."

"Not if I have anything say about it." Gloom said darkly as he grabbed the memories.

"Oh, Shane, she's grown up so fast..." Nostalgia sighed warmly. "Who remembers when she first said 'Daddy'?"

The other emotions began to look soft and smiled fondly at that, even Anger. Suddenly, one orb flew out of the bag and glowed yellow as it showed Shane as a baby.

"Say Daddy, sweetie. Can you say Daddy?" Frank asked as he was holding his baby daughter in his arms.

"Daaaa Deeee... Daaaaa Deee... Daddy..." The baby girl slowly said.

"That's my big girl!" Frank said, sounding joyful and proud as he hugged her.

"Get back here!" Gloom glared as he tried to grab the memory and take it back, but it was already gone.

"Oh, I'll never forget that day," Nostalgia sighed. "Those were some good old days."

"Hmm..." Cherry smirked as Joy seemed to glow brightly for a moment before fading again. "I think I have something for us to do while Ozzy is fighting Thrax."

The two had landed right in Shane's eye as all she could do was stand by and watch as his father was fighting for his life. Soon, the two stood up inside of her eye and looked around their surroundings.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you, Jones?" Thrax challenged, about to use his finger to stop the blood cell, but saw that his hand was still frozen solid.

Ozzy wound up and decked Thrax in the face, but got one right back in retaliation. As Thrax swung, Ozzy dipped and dodged with each attack as they battled on the surface of the eye. As Ozzy leapt up, he kicked Thrax in the face, seeming to freeze in midair... before Thrax smacked him back, shattering the ice around his claw.

"You know what, Jones?" Thrax asked, readying the chain. "You want this chain so bad? Big Daddy Thrax is gonna let you HAVE it!" And he wrapped the chain around Ozzy's neck, squeezing it tightly.

Ozzy gasped and wheezed, trying to fight back.

"Looks good on ya, Jones!" Thrax smirked as he tightened the grip. "YOU WEAR IT WELL! It's a shame you came this far just to die."

Soon, Shane couldn't hold back the feeling any longer and began to cry for her father as a giant tear washed Ozzy and Thrax away right off her eyelashes.

Ozzy coughed and caught his breath once Thrax's grip wasn't strangling him anymore and Shane's eyelash was dangling from her wet eye and he soon smirked once he saw he still had the necklace. "Who's The Germinator now?" he then taunted before gasping as Shane's eyelash began to wilt. He looked curious about that happening and pounded on it, telling him one thing about the eyelash. "It's a falsie!" he then realized.

Thrax then suddenly pounced right on top of Ozzy on the eyelash, weighing it down a bit. "Can you feel the heat, Jones?" he then smirked at the white blood cell cop. "Too bad you won't be here to see me break my record when I take down Frank's pretty little girl."

"She ain't goin' down," Ozzy glowered.

"Huh?" asked Thrax as he saw his claw was stuck in the eyelash.

"But YOU ARE!" Ozzy grinned.

"What?!" Thrax asked, trying to pull himself free, before Ozzy divided himself, and slipped out from under Thrax, chain and all, before he pulled himself together and scurried off.

"Aaaaargh! NOOOO!" roared Thrax as Ozzy was escaping.

Ozzy continued to run with all of his might as the fake eyelash was moments away from falling from Shane's eyelid. Fortunately for him, he lunged out and grabbed onto a drop from Shane's actual eyelash as the fake one slid off of her face as Thrax screamed and landed in a bottle of medical alcohol. The virus tried to swim up to the surface, but was soon slowly dying in agony as he was defeated thanks to modern medicine.

"We're losing him!" The doctor cried out. "Breathe!"

The other doctor squeezed the respiratory device, trying to get Frank to breathe.

"Daddy... no!" Shane sobbed. "I don't wanna lose you!"

"Take her out of here." said the lead doctor.

One of the nurses came over. "Come on... there's nothing you can do." she said, guiding Shane out of the operating room.

"No! That's my dad!" Shane called.

Ozzy looked on in terror as his chance to fix things was getting away. "Whoa, no, no... FRANK!" he bellowed.

Meanwhile, Frank's temperature continued to rise and rise as nearly everything began to catch on fire as it went past 107.4 degrees. It had gone from critical to serious and some people were riding off the road.

"You kids helped us defeat Gloom, but I'm afraid it might not be enough." Anger said.

"Why do you say that?" Thor wondered.

"Look at this." Anger said, showing his newspaper with the headline of "FATAL FEVER".

The group all gulped nervously at that news.

"Things are grim as temperatures rise dangerously. We've lost contact with the extremities and no word on Emotional Headquarters at the moment as Nostalgia shares the best times and memories we have after the battle with Gloom, but what does it mean for all of us?" The newsman reported as they were "barely live". "NNN will stay on the air as long as possible."

"When we return, household appliances that can improve your golf swing." The newswoman added calmly.

"You silly twit, Don't you get it?! We are going to die!" The newsman replied to her frantically.

"I knew it! At the first dark cloud, you fall apart." The newswoman glared at him.

"Moron!"

"Phony!"

The two soon began to be at each other's throats quite literally and strangled each other as NNN went to the "Please Stand By" screen.

Meanwhile, the inside of Frank was burning up, as everyone screamed and ran for their lives. In the midst of the chaos, four musicians stood firm.

"Gentlemen?" said one. "Playing with you has been the greatest pleasure of my life."

And thus, they began playing "Nearer My God to Thee" as the chaos raged around them. As the temperature began to fluctuate, Mayor Phlegmming turned to his window and looked out upon his city, in a state of total chaos. And back in the mouth, Drix and Leah looked outside.

"...he's not coming back..." Leah worried. "He's not gonna make it..."

"Thanks for letting us see that our life was worth living at least." Sadness said to Cherry and her friends.

"You'll make it, I'm sure..." Cherry said, trying to stay strong. "Ooh, I hope." she then muttered, suddenly feeling unsure herself.

Drix held onto Leah as she cried into the pill's chest as this looked like the end for everyone.

Cherry rubbed her arm as she began to feel like she failed somehow. "Oh, come on, Frank, pull through..." she then begged quietly.

Soon, the flatline went flat in the hospital as that was the end of Frank while the doctors and nurses escorted Shane out the door.

"That's it." The lead doctor told the others softly.

Shane then escaped the nurses and rushed over to her father's body. "Daddy! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say that!" she then cried as tears streamed down her face. "I don't blame you for Mom's death. I didn't mean it. You're the greatest dad in the world!"

At that moment, Ozzy spotted some of the tears in Shane's eyes... and that gave him an idea! Running along the lash, he jumped into the tear drop, as it plummeted into Frank's mouth! Drix and Leah looked up as they saw the teardrop making windfall as it plunged down, hitting the surface of Frank's mouth.

"INCOMING!" Lionel exclaimed.

Everyone soon ran out of the way to avoid the incoming teardrop and it suddenly splashed right over to them.

"Look!" Drix pointed out after the impact.

"Hey, Ozzy. Good to see ya." Cherry greeted with a small smirk, trying to look cool and casual.

"Ozzy?" Leah frowned in concern.

Everyone soon surrounded the blood cell who laid flat on his face and Drix turned him around to put the cell on his stomach as everyone looked down at him. Leah looked very worried about him. Ozzy soon slowly opened his eyes, much to everyone's relief and he slowly opened his hand to show the necklace.

"Look!" Sabrina told the others.

"Get that thing to the hypothalamus now!" The guard suggested urgently.

Outside, Shane placed a small peck on her dad's cheek as she sobbed by his bedside.

"Okay, I'm calling it." The doctor said, as the nurse guided Shane towards the exit.

...and at that moment, the heart monitor started to beep again.

"Look, guys!" Atticus cried out before coughing and hacking. "it's the... power of... AAAAAACK! AAAAAH! MAKE IT STAAAWP!"

"So the power of love saves the day." Cherry said for him as he continued to hack and cough, having the worse coughing fit of his life.

"Wait a minute!" A nurse alerted the others. "He's got a pulse! He's coming back."

The lead doctor then took a look as Frank's temperature began to drop in a healthier way. "107.7, 107.6..." he then counted.

"Our little girl~" Frank's emotions gushed once they saw Shane who was fighting more tears.

"Your mama says hi..." Frank wearily told his daughter once he came to.

Shane laughed a little at that, smiling softly as she wiped her tears and felt very relieved that her father was going to be okay.

"Just to make sure!" A voice suddenly exclaimed as in came Weasel and a certain adult witch woman.

"Dr. Weasel has concocted a fully functioning and secure way to fight off this coronavirus, but we need a human test subject." Zelda informed as she came into the room with a syringe.

"We have a volunteer." said Lionel as he pushed Atticus forward.

Atticus sniffled and looked around. "Huh?" he then muttered.

"Goodness, Atticus, I've never seen you look so unhealthy." Zelda remarked in alarm.

"I don't feel so hot now that you mention it," Atticus admitted. "I feel like I swallowed giant chunks of sawdust, also every time I get a blanket I feel like I'm set on fire and when I remove the blanket, I feel like I'm trapped in a freezer, and I can't really smell or taste anything."

"Yep. He has been getting it." Baboon stated.

"The poor soul." Weasel sighed softly.

"Sorry about this, Atticus," Zelda said as she came beside the young Wiccan. "This won't hurt a bit."

"Fire away..." Atticus allowed.

Zelda then jabbed the needle right into Atticus's arm.

Atticus looked wide-eyed, then muffled, whimpered, and soon yelled out as that really hurt. "YOOOOOOOOOW!"

LATER...

"Wow! I feel better already!" Atticus beamed as he was back to his old self again. "So let's take down Thrax and Corona, gang!"

"They're dead," said Lionel. "Long since dealt with."

"Huh?" Atticus muttered.

"Yeah, we got that done already." Cherry told him.

"But..." Atticus stammered.

"You needed to rest anyway," Mo reassured her boyfriend. "You got sick."

"Sick?! I never get sick!" Atticus complained.

"Hey, there's a first time for everything, mi amigo." Thor remarked.

"Well... I guess at least this adventure is wrapping up..." Atticus shrugged to himself. "I was getting ready to give those vile viruses a piece of my mind." he then added with a sharp glare and balled his hands up into fists.

"Yup," nodded Lionel. "Besides... how did you manage to beat Gloom? We only got like a snippet of that before it cut to Ozzy's situation."

"Pleasant memories to outweigh the bad." Atticus said.

"That's not always easy." Cherry commented.

"I know it isn't, especially for you, Cherry, but we had to remind the emotions of the good times and that Frank still had to be around to see Shane grow up," Atticus remarked. "The power of friendship and family is as magic as any spells that Hilda and Zelda had shown us over the years."

"That was so cheesy that I wanted some macaroni with it." Cherry snarked.

"Mm... mac and cheese..." Thor gushed and almost drooled.

Lionel rolled his eyes, but with a smile.

"As sweltering temperatures return to normal, a grateful city salutes Osmosis Jones, the brave officer who saved us all," said Dan, now nursing a black eye. "Patrolman Jones has just been reinstated to the immunity force with full privileges."

And soon, a big ceremony was held to celebrate Ozzy's reinstatement.

"Hey, Ozzy, can I count on you to keep Frank in shape?" asked the chief as he returned Ozzy's badge. "You know we've got that big insurance exam next month!"

Ozzy shrugged. "I don't know," he replied, looking at Drix. "You're gonna have to talk to my new partner... if he feels like hanging around a little while."

"But my work visa's expired." said Drix.

"Well, we'll go down to the hemorrhoid and get you a good lawyer." Ozzy stated.

Drix couldn't help but smile. Ozzy did a little chest pound, before he was pulled aside by Leah.

"C'mere, baby," Leah grinned. "I'm still Jonesin' for a little more Osmosis!" And she pulled him into a big kiss.

"Well, it was forced, but I suppose it's earned!" Lionel commented.

"Does that mean our adventure with Osmosis Jones-" Atticus began to ask.

"Ozzy and Drix." The others corrected suddenly.

"Uh, yeah, is this adventure over?" Atticus then finished his thought and then asked.

"It looks that way and I think I might have found a way to save us all from a hypothetical global pandemic that would've forced us all to be on lockdown during the Spring season, close schools and public places, and make people end up cleaning up all around them 24/7 while having work or classes online." Zelda replied and then added as she showed the COVID booster.

"Thank goodness," Atticus sighed in relief. "I'd hate to imagine us having an adventure involving solving The Coronavirus Problem."

"Well, I guess it's safe to say that not even the coronavirus can stop Cherry and Friends." Sabrina remarked.

"And how!" The others agreed as things began to wrap up nicely.

Chapter Text

SOME TIME LATER...

Darla, Amber, Annabelle, along with their friends Annie and Hallie came to meet Shane and she met them too as well as their dogs, Sammy who was Hallie's dog long before she knew about having a twin sister and Domino was both her and Annie's after they became a family again and not only that, Domino was Patch's nephew from Dipstick and Dottie. They were all joining each other on a hike on a beautiful Springtime day with the date being March 2020 as the world was unchanged due to everyone being recommended to take their shots to prevent the spread of a new virus.

"I do this all the time with my dad before school starts," Hallie told Shane. "Like the week right before school."

"That's nice." Shane smiled as they walked along the trail together.

Atticus stepped out and took a deep inhale. "Ah, breathe that fresh Spring air and not a cold or flu in sight." he then said in relief.

"Just too bad Cherry and Lionel couldn't join us." Mo said to her boyfriend.

"I guess they wana do what they wanna do." Atticus shrugged as they participated since Darla was here.

"Come on, Mr. Dettore, we're almost there!" Darla told the man.

Frank grunted and groaned a bit as he hiked after his daughter, a lot more willing to go outside and get fresh air with her.

"Oh, my God..." Shane sighed and smiled from the view. "How beautiful."

"Didn't I tell you it'd be worth it?" she asked her father, who was pulling himself up off his hands and knees.

"...I didn't think I could break a sweat coming up here..." wheezed Frank as he got himself upright. "...but I did!"

"Yeah, kind of a long drive," said Shane as she handed her dad a carrot stick. "Carrot?"

Frank took it, and bit down. Sure, it wasn't a french fry, but it would do him a world of good in the long run.

"Pass some of those over here, Shane." Darla told her new friend.

"Of course." Shane nodded as she passed the carrot sticks along as everyone enjoyed their healthy snacks.

Patch ate his carrot with ease and pushed over a piece to his nephew.

"I dunno, Uncle Patch, dogs eating carrots?" Domino wondered.

"Sure! I did it when I met Bugs Bunny and we had a campfire when we looked for that Blue Monkey diamond that one time," Patch reassured his nephew. "It's good and good for you."

"Well, okay..." Domino shrugged and soon bit into the carrot, hesitating a little until he smiled and ate a bit more of the vegetable.

"Just good luck getting your Uncle Rolly or Budderball to have one." Patch snarked quietly as he enjoyed his carrot.

In the meantime, Mayor Phlegmming was cleaning up the bowels as his punishment until he saw a button that said "Do Not Touch", so like any simple-minded idiot, he pressed it to see what would happen. "I wonder what this does?" he then smirked before doing so.

Suddenly, a massive wind swept him up and out of the bowels... and out of Frank's asshole.

Outside, Frank let one rip. "...was that you?" he asked Shane.

"Oh, gross." Darla complained as she waved the air in front of her.

"That's worse than Budderball." Patch muttered to himself as he covered Domino's nose.

"That's worse than Sammy when I let him have my leftover chili." Hallie said to Annie who just grimaced.

"Out with the old, in with the new." Frank told Shane who just gave a sheepish smile.

"Hey Shane, I heard some kids are going rafting, you want in?" Atticus offered.

"Well, okay, that sounds nice," Shane replied before facing her father. "Dad, can I go?" she then asked.

"Well, sure, I just wanna meet these kids first just to make sure you're not going into the wrong crowd." Frank replied.

"Well, it should be alright," responded Shane. "C'mon, Dad, let's get a move on."

"Hey, alright," Frank urged. "Step at a time, Shane!"

"So Darla, how was your adventure during this 2020 mess?" Atticus asked his little sister.

"It was all right." Darla replied.

"We made a new friend." Annabelle added.

"Yes, that was the good part." Darla nodded.

And soon, things began to wrap up nicely in the City of Frank as well as Emotional Headquarters was slowly coming back to life with everyone feeling more positive about life, especially after the defeat of Gloom that nearly cost Frank his emotional life.

"As temperatures stabilize, a grateful city salutes Osmosis Jones: The officer who saved us." The cell newsman reported to the audience, having his arm in a sling and a cast.

"Jones has been reinstated to the force with full privileges, but it looks like another opportunity might arise for a young man who seems to be interested in little Shane who seems too young to have a boyfriend." The cell newswoman added, having her head bandaged and was missing a couple of teeth.

"Ozzy, can I count on you to keep a new young body in shape?" The chief asked after a celebration was held for Ozzy and Drix.

"A new young body?" Ozzy asked curiously.

"Yes, it's up to you, but you've been offered to be transferred to a young body who needs proper guidance now that Emotional Headquarters is up and running again," The chief explained. "They can look after Frank now, but again, it's up to you and that insurance exam will be next month."

"I'll have to talk to my new partner," Ozzy said before looking back at Drix hopefully. "If he feels like hanging around."

"But my visa's expired." Drix pointed out.

"We'll go to the hemorrhoid and get you a good lawyer." Ozzy reassured him.

"Come here, baby~" Leah cooed as she came over to Ozzy. "I'm still Jonesing for a little more Osmosis."

"Then you should come with us..." Ozzy said softly. "Unless, you think working for Tom Colonic would be better for you."

"I think I'm gonna take a little break from politics actually," Leah replied. "Maybe I'll get a better chance somewhere else and... I'd hate to be away from my Ozzy~" she then added as she seemed to end up liking him after all.

"Well, that's just fine with me!" Ozzy grinned, as he and Leah kissed.

"You know what?" Lionel commented. "I think they're gonna be juuuust fine."

Soon, everyone met up where the rafting activity was going on in the river.

"Hey, Shane." Hector smiled at the girl he recently befriended.

"Oh, um, hi, Hector," Shane smiled back, blushing a little bit. "Room for a few more?" she then asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Hector replied and nodded.

"Ahem." Frank cleared his throat as he looked at his daughter.

"Oh! Right..." Shane then said. "Dad, this is Hector, the new boy in school. Hector, this is my dad, Frank Dettore."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Dettore." Hector said as he held out his hand to the adult man.

Frank was about to shake Hector's hand until he sniffled and suddenly sneezed right into his hands. Shane grimaced as she began to fear that her father was about to go back into his old habits.

"So Leah, you think you're up for some new adventures in a different point of view for a while?" Ozzy asked the female cell he had become close to.

"I could use a little bit of a change of pace especially since Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger are back in operation for Frank now." Leah admitted.

"I guess we could take that transfer," Ozzy remarked. "How 'bout you, Drips?"

"Well, if we're going to be partners to the end, then I'm with you." Drix said confidently.

"Please, follow me," The Chief told them as this was going to be goodbye to the City of Frank then. "Frank's pollen allergy is a bit abundant at the moment."

"Good to know," responded Drix.

"So long, everybody." said Leah as she, Ozzy and Drix followed the Chief out.

Frank continued to sneeze quite a bit, unaware that Ozzy, Drix, and Leah ended up in one of the snotty messes in his hands. "Sorry about that, kid, must be my allergies." he then sniffled a little.

"Here you go, Mr. Detorre, I found some hand sanitizer before you shake hands with Hector." Amber said as she walked by.

"Ah, thanks, kid," Frank said as Amber dabbed the top and squirted some hand sanitizer into Frank's hands who then rubbed his hands together with the substance and he then shook hands with Hector properly. "Anyway, nice to meet you, kid." he then said to the boy.

"Likewise, sir." Hector replied as they shook hands and soon, Ozzy, Drix, and Leah were being transferred into his own body.

"Looks like they're off on their way, now," Atticus whispered.

"Yup," Patch nodded. "Let's hope they can watch their backs!"

"...speaking of which, I wonder," said Mo. "Where are Cherry and Lionel, anyway?"

The others looked at each other and wondered what was going on.

"So that's what it would look like if we ignored the warnings for germs especially if a pandemic might be happening." Cherry said to herself as she suddenly shot awake in the middle of a desk somehow.

"Yes, it's very important, especially during flu season," Zelda nodded. "And like I've mentioned before, The Gargoyle Flu in The Netherworld."

"Gee, that sure was informative!" Lionel commented.

"Did that really happen or what?" Cherry wondered as she rubbed her eyes.

"Good question." Lionel agreed.

They soon left the classroom and decided to head home before Cherry checked her phone and saw messages and pictures from Atticus and the others going on a hike with Darla's new friend Shane and her father. "Well, this is a confusing end to an adventure, but I think we're all going to be okay." she then said to Lionel.

"Yep, yep, yup!" Lionel nodded as he strapped on his face mask. "As long as we take the proper precautions!"

They soon went to go home until their next adventure as Atticus and the others continued to enjoy being outside and living their lives while Cherry and Lionel weren't very outdoorsy themselves.

Chapter Text

In the meantime, Ozzy rubbed his head after having a bit of a rough landing with Drix and Leah.

"Are you all right?" Drix asked his cell friend in concern.

Ozzy then twisted his neck and moved it back in place. "Yeah! Great if you like a crash landing." he then replied.

"Yeah, he's fine," Leah said as she looked around a bit. "So I guess this is the City of Hector."

"Yes, a matter of fact, it is," A different woman's voice said as she approached the fallen trio. "Welcome to your new home."

"Thank you very much," said Drix. "My name is Drixobenzometaphedramine. Drixenol, the brand that eases your coughs and sneezes, and this is my partner, Osmosis Jones, as well as our associate, Leah Estrogen. Pleased to meet you."

The woman was about to say her name until...

"Is there a problem here?" A man demanded as he stepped over and glared at Ozzy, Leah, and Drix. "Intruders, Miss Amino?"

"No, Chief Gluteus," The woman reassured. "They're the new transfers from The City of Frank."

"Oh, I see..." The man then said with a nod.

"Intruders? The only thing intruding here is your belt size!" Ozzy retorted.

"Ozzy, chill, will ya? That's your new boss." Leah reminded him.

"Ah, all right..." Ozzy then said with a small shrug. "So, who do we see to get to know more about this backwater hole?"

"The Mayor..." Chief Gluteus said simply.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Ozzy replied. "I want action! I want justice! I--"

Chief Gluteus then grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him away suddenly.

"Whoa! Watch the membrane!" Ozzy complained on the way.

"Thanks for welcoming us." Drix said to the female cell.

"It was no trouble, big guy." The cell reassured him with a sweet smile.

"Amino, huh?" Leah asked her.

"Yes, Maria Amino, that's me." The cell nodded as she gave her name.

"Nice to meet you," responded Leah as they shook hands. "You'll have to excuse Ozzy. He's...a lot, but when you get used to him, he's a great guy."

"I'm sure." replied Maria dryly.

"I better go after the boys just to make sure they'll be okay." Leah then said.

"Yes, you do that, I'll see you very soon." Maria nodded.

And so, the three new beings came to meet the mayor as they rode in a squad car on the way to meet The Mayor who would be very different compared to Mayor Phlegmming.

"Oh, I must say, this city is much cleaner than Frank!" Drix observed. "It actually looks like a pleasant place to live."

"Hector's still young, after all." Leah remarked.

"Eh, it's alright." shrugged Ozzy as he glanced out.

"It's all right, Ozzy, it'll take some getting used to especially since we grew up in Frank." Leah comforted him as best as possible.

"Perhaps he'd feel more at home if we rubbed garbage on him." Drix quipped.

"DRIX!" Leah glared.

"Sorry, sorry." Drix then suddenly said as they rode through the Kidney Filtering System.

They even passed by what was called Imagination Land as there were workers at work with a machine and a conveyor belt brought out the form of a young girl around Hector's age who was being modified and made into a certain form.

"What the heck is that?" Drix wondered.

"Imaginary Girlfriend." The worker responded and soon the model began to transform into Shane.

"Oh, Hector, you're so smart and funny and brave and charming~" The clone of Shane said before giggling.

"Looks like Frank's daughter is gonna be okay too." Leah smirked warmly.

"At least that'll remind us of home, I guess." Ozzy shrugged.

And so, they finally made it over to the mayor's office to meet the one in charge of this body.

"This is The Mayor's office?" Drix asked as they took a look, seeing a bit of a mess with video games, comic books, and junk food everywhere in a stereotypical young boy's bedroom. "It looks more like a game room."

"Excuse me," said a blood-cell female. "Might you be the aliens?"

"Actually, we were just transferred here," explained Drix, as the woman pulled out a briefcase and papers.

Ozzy took a deep breath, and shook his arms out. "So, you're the head cell in charge?" he asked. "Can't be worse than Phlegmming."

"Actually I'm your new legal counsel," The female cell explained as she brought out her card. "Ellen Patella."

The three new faces took a look, seeing her name and of course "Attorney at Law" at the bottom.

"I brought some papers for you to sign," Ellen said, bringing out some papers from her briefcase and dropped them on the desk in front of them. "Now, if we work fast maybe I can get you a Spleencard."

"What? A Spleencard?! I ain't workin' in no spleen!" Ozzy complained.

"It's either that or Spit Detail." Ellen retorted.

"He'll take it." Leah decided for Ozzy. "Last thing I want is for you to get in worse trouble than you did in Frank."

"My word!" Drix gasped as he looked up at the screen where Hector was, shown to be hanging out with Shane as Hector's emotions were at work. "What on Earth is that?"

"Excuse us, but we're trying to work with a pretty lady." Hector's Joy said in a squeaky voice.

"Yeah! No nerds allowed!" Hector's Anger added.

"As you can see, that's Emotional Headquarters at work with The Eye Channel." Ella then told new trio.

"Really? What a handsome young man." Drix remarked.

"That's Hector Cruz." Ella nodded. "He's 13."

"No wonder the city's unpolluted." Drix then noted.

"Ya know, he looks a lot like Frank when Frank was that age." Ozzy commented.

"Yeah, you're right." Leah agreed.

Drix was, suffice to speak, astonished. "No...!" he gasped.

"Yup," nodded Ozzy. "I've seen the photos in Frank's memory banks! Guy used to be in great shape."

"What happened?" asked Drix.

"Fast food, late nights, smoking..." Leah listed off.

"Plus that whole science fair incident," Ozzy added. "Sure, it was later, but that didn't exactly help."

"Yeah, it all started around this age when we were younger blood cells." Leah memorized.

"We didn't know what was happening though." Ozzy admitted.

Drix paused thoughtfully. "It occurs to me, guys, that considering our transfer and all, but perhaps, we could be of use to Hector and make sure he doesn't end up like Frank did until he got better." he then suggested.

"Man, I hate starting all over again." Ozzy groused.

"Well, see it as a chance to give someone a clean start," Drix suggested. "With our knowledge, we can help prevent another Frank misadventure."

"He's got a point, especially since that escapade with Thrax and Corona almost cost him his life and you guys were able to save him." Leah advised maturely.

"Yeah, I guess..." Ozzy grumbled, a little apprehensive about the whole thing. "Maybe we could make some positive changes around this place."

Eventually, in came in a very young cell who was being followed by older cells. "I don't care what the numbers are! We are going to Jackie DeSoto's party tonight and that's that! It's Hector's first teen party and Chrstine from French class is gonna be there!" he then ranted to the others.

"But what about that Shane girl?" One of the older cells asked.

"She seems okay, but we're still going to that party and seeing Christine." The young cell told the older cells who quickly agreed with him.

"Jones, Drix, Miss Estrogen, this is our mayor," Ellen soon introduced. "Paul Spryman."

Ozzy took a long look at the young cell. "...you're pullin' my membrane." he then remarked.

"Yes, sir, these are the transfers from The City of Frank I told you about," Chief Gluteus explained to the young cell. "If you want, I can take 'em out."

"Now look, we don't wanna take up a lot of your time here, we know you gotta be busy passing laws and playing hopscotch." Ozzy smirked.

"Hopscotch?" Spryman asked, offended while Ellen and Leah both shook their heads.

"The point is, we're here to help Hector in the maturest way possible." Ozzy then said.

"That can be arranged, but if you bug me, I'll have you taken down to the bladder to get flushed." Mayor Spryman said, glowering since, even though he was a kid, he was still in charge and this would open up brand new adventures for Ozzy, Drix, and Leah that would be told in another place and another time.

"...so it won't be that different than Mayor Phlegmming," muttered Leah. "At least this kid's got an excuse."

"He's definitely gonna take some getting used to." Ozzy remarked to her. 

And so, a new beginning was taking shape for Ozzy and Drix. But in the meantime, it's the end. So, we leave you with this:

Ozzy & Drix, O-O-Ozzy & Drix!

Trouble in the air, what'cha gonna do?

(It's a cold, it's a fever, or maybe the flu... Ah-ah-choooooo!)

Meet Ozzy & Drix, private eyes!

Cuttin' germs and viruses down to size

Busy defending all the nerve endings

They got guts and nerve, vim and verve

(They're bad to the bone, even badder in the bladder,

Make a scene in the spleen, put the hustle in the muscle,

Put the hip in the hips, the word on the lips,

Ideas in the brain, keepin' him sane!)

Keepin' him sane!

Well, there's a fungus among us, they don't wanna be rash

Even if it's humongous, they'll fix it in a flash!

Cells amino swerve, hit some nerves

Try to protect him, they almost wrecked 'im!

Lookin' good, like a blood cell should

(Like a blood cell should~!)

Ozzy & Drix, O-O-Ozzy & Drix!

Inside the body and mind

From the tip of the nose to the behind

Each a protector of the City of Hector—

Ozzy & Drix!

THE END!

(from Sonic Thunder Saiyan Turtle: And yes, verve is a real word. It means vivacity or energy.)