“I do not have ‘one moment’!” Muthr said. “Get me virtual navigation of that vehicle immediately!”

The Goldfish burbled to life, hovering toward Muthr as she guided the craft with her free hand. Water sprayed out in a fine mist as the Goldfish drifted over the surface of the pool.

Otto squawked loudly.

Muthr turned her head in time to see the filaments of the flower coil around Rovender, squeezing the last breaths out of him. With most of her metallic torso now submerged, the robot hoisted Eva’s lifeless form into the Goldfish. Muthr navigated the hovercraft toward shore. She grasped tightly on to the tailfin and pulled herself from the mucky grip of the pool’s bottom.

With the Goldfish hovering back over land, the mud-caked robot called out to Otto. “Grab her, please!”

The passenger door opened and Otto lifted Eva from the car with his beaky mouth and carried her far from the pool. Muthr climbed into the driver’s seat and raced the Goldfish back out over the pool toward Rovender.

He appeared lifeless, constricted in the banded tentacles of the monstrous plant. As soon as Muthr neared him, the bloom belched out more pollen, dusting Muthr’s lacquered surface. She grabbed the filamentous tentacles that held Rovender and began twisting and turning them, and ripped them from the flower head.

As she struggled to haul Rovender’s unconscious body into the hovercraft, the plant sent more tentacles out toward the Goldfish, wrapping filaments around anything they came in contact with. With tremendous strength it began to pull the hovercraft into the water toward it.

“Omnipod,” Muthr commanded the device as she watched the waterline creep over the tail of the craft. “I need to know what will immediately terminate the life of an aquatic plant.”

“If it is a freshwater variety,” the Omnipod replied, “salt water may affect it, or acid rain, pesticides, lack of sunlight, or other forms of contamination. Shall I continue?”

“How about electricity?” Muthr opened the access hatch on the dashboard.

“It could have quite an immediate effect if—”

“Good!” Muthr yanked out a handful of the Goldfish’s internal wiring and submerged them into the water. An electric jolt shot through the pool, causing the monstrous plant to release its grip. It retracted and sank back below the surface.

Muthr brought the sputtering Goldfish back to a waiting Otto on dry land. She exited, carrying a limp Rovender. “Eva, dear, are you well? Please tell me how you are doing?” Muthr asked as she laid Rovender flat on the hood of the hovercraft.

“I’ll be okay, I think,” Eva said between gasping breaths. She was sitting up in the shade next to Otto. “But I’ve got a massive headache,” she added.