Fusion Fall :: Cancel the Apocalypse
Chapter 1: Desolation Comes Upon The Sky
A/N: Wow, how long has it bloody well been? xD Anyways, finally rewrote Chaos Descent, with an all new name and (hopefully) a better plot. This is, in part, inspired by some lovely peeps over on DeviantART who have been doing Fusion Fall comics, and, in other ways, inspired by four years of ficbits and throwing together a soundtrack while at my grandmother's. Keep in mind that I have started University and I don't know how often I'll be able to update. Chapter 2 (Famous Last Words) is still in the works, and my Samurai Jack fic (which still needs a title :/) will be updating alongside this fic (even though the first chapter's still in the works ^^;) and it'll explain some of Elizabeth's backstory. :) With that said and done, enjoy! :D
"Jack! Come on, we have to hurry!" I shouted over the storm as my friend cut down another beetle drone. I tried pulling on what remained of the bottom half of his gi to get his attention. "We don't have time for this! Come on!" I could hear more beetle drones headed our way, and with the portal so close, we had a chance of escaping together. That's when Jack sheathed his sword, and I thought we were going to finally leave this nightmarish world, but then he knelt in front of me and pushed something into my hand.
"No matter how far apart we are," He said urgently, "Just hold onto that charm, and think of me."
"This isn't the time! We're not gonna make it, we have to go through the portal!"
"You will go alone." Jack placed his hands on my shoulders. "You have to be strong now."
Tears filled my eyes as his hands moved to cup my face and I was left without words as he pressed his lips to my forehead before he pushed me backwards through the portal, and the last I ever saw of him was the gleam of his sword as he drew it once more for battle.
"JACK!"
"Today, children," Said the teacher as she seemed to float across the room in her floral-print Yukata. "We will be having a very special lesson to commemorate International Friendship Day!" Some of the students groaned, and some grinned at their friends and did little secret handshakes under the table or hugged each other. Miss Yamano looked happy to see the latter, but her worries rested with one of the students up the back near the window, who looked a little far away. She gave out the activities to her students, but stopped at that particular student's table. "Elizabeth? Are you with us?"
Elizabeth, a lithe, yet bony thing of eleven with brown hair and wide, blue eyes, looked up at Miss Yamano and nodded. "Sorry, Miss Yamano. I was just thinking..."
"About what, dear?"
"About my best friend." Miss Yamano was surprised. As far as anyone knew, the closest thing Elizabeth had to a friend was her brother, Daiki, who was her kendo sensei, but even though they had a mutual respect for each other, Yamano knew it couldn't be him.
"Well, where is your friend, dear?" She asked carefully. "Maybe they're in a different class?"
"He's very far away right now," Elizabeth said sadly. "We haven't seen each other in three years, but he said we'd always be connected as long as I had this..." She took out something from her pocket and showed it to Miss Yamano. It was an old O-Mamoru charm, but it still retained much of its beautiful colours despite its age, and it looked to be carefully hand-crafted. Yamano was touched by this. Whoever this person was, he must have been close for him to give such a beautiful gift.
"Well, how about you tell us a story about your friend when I start asking the students to read out their work?" She asked. Elizabeth nodded and tucked the charm back into her pocket.
The task was to tell a story about you and your friend, be it how you met, something fun you two had done together, or a time where you two weren't so close and had to patch up your friendship. When the students were called up to read out their work, two boys talked about a time they went fishing together and caught lots of fish, a pair of girls talked about how they were having a sleepover and there was a blackout, and one girl talked about how scared she was until her friend decided to stay up all night to make sure she wasn't scared. Then, Miss Yamano called up Elizabeth, who was a bit nervous, but either way, she got up and read out her story. "Now, Elizabeth's best friend is very far away right now and couldn't be here, but I want you all to listen to her story, okay?" She nodded to Elizabeth to tell her to start, and she cleared her throat before reading out the title: "Jack and Me."
"I could tell you many stories about Jack. I never knew his real name, but he was a good man, and I looked up to him like he was my big brother. He taught me lots of important stuff, like to be kind and considerate to others, and to live honourably, like a warrior should." She went on to tell them all how he would tell her stories and would sometimes take her on his travels. Then, Elizabeth told them how they had to be seperated, and showed them the O-Mamoru charm. "Jack told me that, as long as I had this, we'd always be connected." A few students almost cried at this, but one boy, one of the usual trouble-makers, laughed.
"Sounds like he finally got sick of you! No wonder he gave you such a lame gift!"
Elizabeth glared at him. "Take that back! Jack was a good man! The greatest I've ever known!"
"Sounds like you made him up!" The boy, Travis, teased back.
"No, I didn't!"
"Travis, enough!" Yamano stood up and crossed her arms. "Apologise!"
But Elizabeth had already run out of the room in tears.
"So, when can I expect the shipment?" Hoagie asked the girl sitting across from him.
Claire smirked and handed him a folded-up blueprint. "It's coming in after school. You're lucky you got your order in early, Gilligan. I've got half the aerial forces singin' for one of these babies."
Hoagie looked over the blueprint and gave a low whistle. "Can't blame 'em. She's a work of art." He handed the plans back to Claire, who tucked them away in her messenger bag. "So, ever think about getting back in the air?" He asked. They'd been friends back during their days training in the KND's air force program until Claire suddenly forked over her wings to command and went into weapons and supply distribution.
Claire chuckled. "You're asking me this again?"
"Word is, you're doing some work for a boy genius who said he'd get you a pair of wings." Hoagie leaned in a bit and lowered his voice. "I got a bet with Numbuh four. He said you quit because you chickened out."
"Of course he'd say that." Claire just sighed. "Look, Hoagie...after what happened to Seventy-seven, I couldn't live with myself knowing I was the pilot of that plane. He was under my command and I should have known better."
"You can't blame yourself for it, though," Hoagie told her. "Danny wouldn't have wanted you to give up your wings. You two were two of the best the KND ever had. He wouldn't want you to just stop flying."
"I know. Which is why I'm doing some work for DexLabs." Claire looked around. "It's very hush-hush. Orders from all the way up, and if they're saying it's a good idea, who the heck am I to complain?"
"Better than working with Three-point-one-four?"
"Definitely!" The two raised their milk cartons and drank from them.
"Well, I gotta go check in with Numbuh One about something." Hoagie got up and got his bag. "See you in the skies, Ninety-three."
Claire watched him walk away and sighed as she took a bite of her apple. "Yeah...see you there..."
There was a time where Claire Russel, or Kids Next Door operative Numbuh Ninety-three, had taken those words, a typical phrase among pilots like her, to heart. She'd always wanted to be a pilot, and when working for the KND made it all possible, she was beside herself with joy. Her talents had landed her as the second-in-command of her former unit leader at their base in Nevada. Recently, she had moved to Virginia with her mother, and it was here that she did her business in supply distribution. She no longer lived in a big treehouse where she would spend her free weekends and after-school hours and any days during the summer that she could manage, but in a two-story house perhaps a few blocks from Sector V's treehouse base. One day, she'd promised herself, she'd get back up there in the great big blue. One day, she'd fly again, but today was not that day. Hopefully it would come soon. Her birthday was coming up next year, and that meant being decomissioned, and she still wasn't ready to give up being a KND operative just yet...
Skye always liked coming to the music room when no one was there. It was quiet, and she could enjoy herself in peace. She set down her bag and crossed over to the piano, letting her fingers trail over the black, varnished wood and the spotless ivory keys. Then, setting the sheet music on the stand, she let her fingers rest upon the keys before they started to dance, playing a simple tune she always played as a warm-up. After a while of this, she began playing the song she'd brought the sheet music for, losing herself in its gentle rhythm. So lost was she in the music, she didn't notice she had an audience. A young man stood outside the door, listening to her play, smiling. He had an envelope in his hand that he'd been tempted to leave under the door since he'd written it last night. Of course, he didn't think it would make a difference whether or not she read it- as long as he could hear her playing, that was all that mattered, and he would have stayed longer today had he not just gotten a call from Computress. So, today Dexter MacPherson slipped the envelope under the door and left.
Skye, however, did not notice. She was busy thinking. Her Journey of Englightenment was going well, and it was the same for her brother, Rubin, but her concerns rested with their kingdom. Of course they knew that their parents could protect their homeland, but Skye often worried. She had forseen a great darkness for this realm in the coming days, and both she and Rubin had already made the decision to fight should they be allowed. This was why she loved music; it made her feel as if everything was so far away, like there was nothing to worry about or fear. When she finished practicing for the day, she tried her best to leave everything as she'd found it, but as she knelt by her bag to put her things away, she noticed an envelope under the door with her name on it, and when she opened it, she found a letter to her that said, "When I listen to you play, everything makes sense. You're amazing." Skye blushed and giggled. She had received several of these letters, all from the same person, during her time here at this school ever since she had started playing piano. She was happy that she could be of some help to someone, even if they never signed their name, but that preserved the mystery of it all, and she wasn't too keen to spoil it just yet.
Daiki Yamada found his sister's wayward student up a tree in the playground. Of course, it had to be up a tree. What was with this kid and high places?
"How's the view up there?" He asked her, but the only reply he got was a look that said 'something happened in class again'. "Come down from there, and we'll talk." Obediently, Elizabeth climbed down and followed her sensei back to the makeshift dojo they had on-campus, where he tossed her a prop sword made of wood she liked to practice with and instructed her to go through her usual routine while telling him what the problem was. Daiki could tell that sometimes kids needed to physically vent their frustration, and if that meant letting them throw punches at a punching-bag for a while until they felt better, then fine. It was better than them starting fights and hurting each other, after all. So while Elizabeth practiced, she told Daiki all about what had happened in class.
"And then, he says I'm just making stuff up," She concluded, thrusting the wooden sword into the gut of some imaginary enemy before sheathing it as if she had been practicing with the sword her whole life. "And I ran off." She took a seat in front of Daiki, sitting neatly with her hands on her knees.
"Well, I know for a fact that you don't lie," Said Daiki. "Travis has a big mouth on him. He likes causing trouble for the sake of looking like a big-shot. By now, my sister will have dealt with him."
Elizabeth looked confused. "That sounds a little creepy, Sensei."
"You have a wild imagination," He laughed. "Shiori'll just lecture him for being rude again."
"I'm just thankful you let me come to the dojo to blow off some steam." Elizabeth bowed to her sensei. "It's good to be doing something to distract myself."
"You obviously enjoy martial arts..." Daiki would have said more had the ground not started to shake violently as something struck the ground. The two hurried outside to find that, no, it was not an earthquake, but what looked like a flood of monsters made out of a sickly-looking, green, mucous-like substance and whatever they had formed around, like rock and scrap-metal, rushed at people in all directions. Daiki and Elizabeth both ran, but with the world crashing down at every corner of peripheral vision, it wasn't long until they were buried under the rubble.
And just like that, Fuse had invaded Earth.
Two weeks later...
The war had begun. Lord Fuse's forces had invaded Earth, determined to take it for themselves. But instead of human adults being the soldiers, Dexter had convinced the world leaders to allow him to lead the fight against Fuse, his argument being that, should Fuse ever get his paws on nuclear weaponry, the results would he catastrophic. So, the Kids Next Door, the intergalactic police known as the Plumbers, the government organisation known as Providence, the Powerpuff Girls, and even old enemies such as Mojo Jojo, Mandark and the alien warlord, Vilgax, took up arms alongside the other children who had made the decision to band together against the menace. During the early days of the war, Dexter created a weapon capable of delivering a devastating blow to Fuse and his armies. In order to guard it, he asked for three volunteers to use his time machine to take the weapon into the future and guard it, not knowing just what would have become of the war by whatever time they would be sent to. These three soldiers happened to be only two- Elizabeth Connors and Skye Heartrider, and it was no secret that Dexter did have his reservations on the matter, but Skye was so determined to do whatever Dexter would ask of her for the sake of helping the planet. How could he just say no? Feelings got in the way too much in wartime, but Dexter truly did not want to risk her life. Also, Elizabeth was still just a child, though her martial arts skills were exceptional for her age, and she was as determined as Skye was. Claire was unavailable, seeing as she was still in charge of shipping out supplies to the soldiers. So, that afternoon in his laboratory, the girls were given the all clear.
However, no achievement is without a setback.
Just as Dexter was preparing to punch in a date and coordinates, his sister, DeeDee, in her infinite naïveté, caught sight of the big, red, shiny button that was the lab's emergency shutdown, and felt the overwhelming urge to press it with her time-old quote, "Ooh, what does this button do?" Dexter was already too late to stop her when the whole lab started to malfunction due to the sudden cutoff of power, and he had no time to even stop the time machine before it disappeared, hurtling through the time stream with its two occupants still inside, to a destination still unknown.
The chamber of the time machine rumbled and rattled, as if all this shaking would tear the whole machine apart. Skye looked to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth to Skye. They were both starting to get scared, and the elder of the two held Elizabeth's hand, if only for her own reassurance that they weren't going to die. There was suddenly a loud boom, and the vortex cleared away to reveal what both the girls recognised to be Tech Square, but not as they remembered it. It lay in ruins, most of it overrun by fusion matter, and they were both shocked to see that the number of those protecting Earth had been dangerously depleted, the tiny beings below quite easy to identify next to the green creatures below. One of the fusions, a tall, four-legged beast known as a Don Doom (Though this one was much bigger than what the girls had fought!) caught sight of the pod crashing from the sky and lashed out to strike at it with one of its long legs, managing to knock the pod away from the sickly fusion matter that now filled the crevasses between what was left of the ruined earth, and they hit the ground hard, the pod shattering into bits and flinging the girls forward. Skye was the luckier of the two, managing to stop herself from hitting the rock face, but Elizabeth had gone straight at it and was clutching her shoulder, whimpering in pain. Skye hurried over to the younger girl as best she could while still dizzy and tried to stay calm for the both of them.
"What is it?" She asked. "Did you break something?"
"No," Elizabeth growled out through gritted teeth. "It hurts!" Skye took a closer look for herself, trying to tell if it was just a dislocated bone, or if it was just a bad landing, but at this point, it was hard to tell past the scratches and cuts. There was too much chaos to make sense of any of this at this point in time. So, helping her young friend to her feet, Skye began to help her away from the crash site and up the slope of a nearby hill, until they ran into a group of fusion spawns. Elizabeth's sword arm was injured, so Skye pulled the sword from her friend's back and held it out in defense, seeing as her weapon had been lost in the crash, along with the device Dexter had asked them to guard. The fusion spawns were unafraid of this, though, and came lunging at the two...
...When they were suddenly knocked away by a blast of cold, purple energy, and help came to them in the form of Numbuh 5 and Ben Tennyson. While they were fighting off the fusion spawns, Skye took off her cow-neck sweater, leaving a singlet-top beneath, and cut it up to make a sling for her friend's arm.
"But you love that sweater!" Elizabeth protested.
"It doesn't matter to me," Skye reassured her, tying the makeshift sling together. By then, Numbuh 5 and Ben were done with the fusion spawns, and they came over to make sure they were both alright.
"What happened to your friend?" Ben asked.
"More importantly," Added Numbuh 5, "Where the heck did you two even come from, anyways?" Skye began explaining what had happened as best she could with some help from Elizabeth. Ben and Numbuh 5 seemed to believe them, and Ben offered to take Elizabeth to get her arm seen to, and when she protested, Ben told her otherwise, saying that the crash would have done more damage than it looked.
"You can't risk these cuts being infected with Fusion matter," Ben told her. "The stuff's toxic, and trust me when I say you do not want to get fusion toxicity poisoning."
"How did it even get this bad?" Asked Skye. "When we left, the war had only started two weeks ago."
Numbuh Five thought for a minute. "Wait a minute- that's right... you two are those kids Dexter told us about."
"Yeah, we were sent here to protect a device Dexter made to turn the tide of the war," Elizabeth explained. "But it's smashed to bits now."
"Lord knows we needed it," Sighed Ben. "Things are bad. Really bad."
Skye gulped. "How bad?"
"The terrafuser constructs that shot down from space have infected most of the planet by now," Explained Numbuh 5. "We're losing ground and the war- and fast."
Elizabeth and Skye looked to each other, and their expressions both held the umistakable look of guilt. That device could have changed everything, and with the state the planet was in, it was more than likely that the world was doomed. "We'll help in any way we can," Skye said firmly. "It may not be much, but as long as we're here, we'd better help out..."
"Skye's right," Said Elizabeth, getting herself out of Ben's grip without further injuring her arm. "We can't afford to stand by and do nothing."
Numbuh Five nodded. "If you can fight, fight. But not your lil' friend over there."
Ben took hold of Elizabeth again. "You're getting yourself seen to."
"I said I'm fine!" But by the way she winced when she tried to struggle, Ben could tell otherwise.
"No you're not. I'm getting you to a medic."
"I don't need one!"
"Elizabeth, just do as you're told!" Skye snapped at her. "You're no help to anyone when you're injured." Elizabeth was quiet for a few moments before she sighed and gave a growled-out 'fine'. It wasn't her arm that was bothering her, anyway- she just really didn't like doctors (not that she would ever admit it). So, while Ben took her away to get her arm looked at, Numbuh 5 sent Skye to go and find Numbuh 2 and give him a hand.
After retrieving an engine part from an Oil Ogre, Skye received a message from Dexter to tell her to meet him in Fusion Buttercup's lair to help him destroy said Fusion. Skye was nervous. She was aware that a Fusion was nay but an evil clone, but if it was that of the Powerpuff Girl Buttercup, she was bound to worry. This one wouldn't be so sporting in a fight, this coming from her previous experience fighting off one when Fuse invaded, though this is keeping in mind she was fighting them off with what was left of a piano leg and not her friend's sword and a KND S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. She could only hope, as she ran for the teleporter, that she was not too late to save Dexter.
