The Nova Chronicles Trilogy

by Kw6sTheater

In this trilogy, Kw6 is forced into an attempt at saving the Tooniverse by banding together a ragtag group of heroes. Misfortune, peril, and plot twists ensue.

1. Volume 1

Prologue— at the Toontown Criminal House

On a cold night in Toontown City, the inhabitants were having a miserable time musing about their bad lives inside the comfort of their prison cells. Among these was Dungy Mungy, a person convicted of calling Mickey a "rabbit," an inappropriate way to speak to the ruler of the Tooniverse. And so, after weeks of his prison time, a group of hooded figures ente the compound. They went by the Griefers of Griefertown, however they did not share this name with the prison guards. Instead, they asked to visit Dungy Mungy in his cell. This was a ploy to free him, which required the knocking out of a guard and a hefty escape from the compound. Since this bunch was rather skilled in escaping with valued things, they were able to pull off both requirements easily. As the Griefers fled with Dungy Mungy— who would later be used as an integral part of their plan to rule over the Tooniverse, while getting rid of the new ruler's greatest nemesis Congelatio (also known by the nickname Kw6)— the escapee yelled, "FLY EAGLES FLY!" Then the Griefers' black helicopter soared into the night sky.

The Kw6 Logs: The Nova Chronicles

You know, back in the olden days, I used to consider Sillyman my greatest enemy. But alas, a new, worse arch nemesis has emerged. He goes by the name of Nova. First he destroyed one of my friend's businesses, which took a lot of rebuilding effort to revert, and then he threatened to wipe my palace to the ground. Between these two events, he had partially regained my trust— but to his own advantage. After the second wave of destruction, instead of backing off, Nova went after me... but as the new ruler of Griefertown, the most feared gang in the Tooniverse.

I got up and out of my bed. The morning air shined through my bedroom's dome, and a light breeze blew through my curtains. Pulling out the cassette player that I'd paid a fortune for and traveled through many dimensions to find, I put in the Boston reel. I pressed the play button and walked around the palace. It was empty, per usual. I got a breakfast ready for myself, a simple meal of oatmeal and toast, to give me an energy boost. Afterwards I typically go for a walk around my house, and when I walked out of the front door, something really was up. I noticed an army on my front lawn, and I stepped up to them. "What are you doing here?" I asked, concerned. Then I took a glance at their helmets. I knew that symbol. It was a part of my past, who I used to be. That army… was the most hated force in my world, the Griefers of Griefertown. A Griefer piped up, "A former friend of yours has come to say sorry, Kw6. He comes in peace." I yelled, "Doesn't seem like peace to me. Who's this 'friend'?" "You'll see," they fired back. "In the meanwhile, get off my front lawn or else!" I hollered out, trying to sound intimidating.

"Hey there, Kw," Red, my worst nemesis, said as he smirked and came in front of me. Furious, I smacked him in the face as hard as I could, only to find two gun barrels right against my skull. They were held by some of his "co-leaders". "I just want to say… I'm sorry," Red told me, letting loose a loud sigh. I knew that was one of Nova's tricks— try and apologize, then backstab you sooner or later. "For being a griefer, you sure break the rule of not showing compassion," I said through closed teeth. "I make the rules, Kw, and I just want to make it up to-" I interrupted Red- "Even my old enemy Jason would be ashamed of you." Red nearly blushed. "And he's even more embarrassed by you," a familiar voice said. One of Red's new head Griefers, Clode, stepped up. "Please, can I just blast you all to smithereens right now?" I sarcastically asked like a young child would. "Anyway, Kw, you're now my captive at the newly renamed Nova Tower, unless you offer to give up your old businesses and this palace here," Nova told me. I spit in his face. Then I started to work out my options. Stalling would get me nowhere at this rate, because those gun barrels were feeling closer and closer to my skull by the minute, and calling for help would get me shot instantly. But wait! I had an idea. Therefore I replied, "Never! I'd rather be a captive in your filthy, stupid tower anyway, but first, can I get my valuables and go? I just need five minutes." Clode shot back, "Three minutes, and then we shoot. Oh, and by the way, while we've had our little talk, the Griefers have rigged this tower to blow if you don't comply. Your timer starts now." Through gritted teeth and with the least sincerity possible, I yelled, "Thanks!" I dashed upstairs to my bedroom, where I picked up the phone and called my older brother, Skales. Him and I had gone on many adventures together back in the day. "Hey, Skales, I don't have much time to tell you this," I huffed. "Hey Kw6! What'sss up?" "Well, um, Sillyman's army, the Griefers, are at my palace and have it rigged to explode in-" I checked the timer I'd secretly set- "Two minutes and three seconds. Get in the DeLorean I left at your place, and use the back garage for access. I need you to help me find the detonator the Griefers set, and disable it. Then, we need to take out the Griefer army, which I have no idea how to do. See you soon pal!" "By-" I put down the phone, gathering my dual pistols and stashing them in my pockets. I threw some beef jerky in my mouth, hastily chewing to gain some energy. I also reached for my shelf, but realized that I'd left my green sapphire sword with Skales. Plus, it'd be a huge giveaway of my real plan, so I figured it was useless. I hurried down the stairs at forty seconds. Bursting through my front door, I screamed, "Made it!"

Several large trucks. Several large trucks were on my front lawn, with many Griefers inside, in the back of, and on top of them. There were machine guns on the tops of each of them, all aimed at the palace. "Which truck?" I asked. "The one in front of you, idiot," Another Griefer replied, continuing, "Get in, prisoner. You may be famous to the rest of the world, but not to us. You're scum." I noticed his cyan scarf across his helmet. "Nice scarf, man," I told him, trying to be positive and divert his anger. He sneered back at me. As I was slowly walking into the truck, I heard the palace alarms go off. "Sorry! Malfunction. Those happen every once in a while." I yelled, trying to sound like I wasn't lying nor overjoyed. "Alright. Griefers, get in your trucks and lead the fleet. We need to surround Kw's vehicle in the event that he tries to escape us!" Red commanded. "Crap!" I just realized I forgot my cassette player. "WHAT?" Clode roa. "Nothing, nothing, nothing," I replied. Faking a fall, I dropped down onto the grass. "Help me up!" I said, trying to stall for time. "You get up, or we shoot and your palace goes boom-boom," another Griefer said. I pushed my guns deeper into their holsters, hoping none of the Griefers would notice. I got up as slowly as possible, then crawled into my prison cell inside the truck. I took one last glance at my palace, whispering, "See you soon."

I feel like my ride in the truck was made super uncomfortable on purpose. I say this because with every turn I was flung into the metal bars of the cage, with every road bump I hit the ceiling, and with every stop my body struck the iron bars separating me from the Griefers. If I released my fury now, I wouldn't be able to do a whole lot. These bars were protecting me from brutally assaulting the Griefers of this truck… was that good or bad? Ah, whatever. After roughly an hour, I could faintly hear the skidding of brakes behind me. Red's unmistakable voice yelled over the Griefers' walkie-talkies, "Where did the back of our fleet go? DOES ANYONE KNOW?" Suddenly, the Beach Boys blasted through the PR system on the car. I broke out into a wide grin. All the Griefers looked confused, until they all "Got Around" to the reason. I watched the machine gunner at the top tumble to the ground and roll behind me, then quickly, the roof exploded open to reveal the Dimension DeLorean flying above the truck. "Skales!" I screamed with joy. The Griefers hastily pulled out their guns. Hastily two pistols dropped from the side of the car and I picked them up. I quickly shot down the armed Griefers with my dual-pistol wielding expertise. The stupid Griefers had forgotten to chain me down! He threw down a rope, and I grabbed on. However, without a conscious driver, the Griefers' truck slowed down to a stop. Our DeLorean was still speeding ahead, and as Skales slowed down, I soared into the air with the rope. We made an arc like a pendulum gone nuts, looping through the skies at insane speeds— especially considering it was just my will for survival that was holding me on. Some dust went up into my eye, forcing me to spontaneously blink and lose my grip on the rope. I was thrown right against and through the front window of a truck, with Nova, Clode and the other Griefers focused on shooting the DeLorean. The truck groaned under the sudden impact, and I was thrown right into the cyan scarfed Griefer's lap, causing his bone to twist a strange way. I kicked him instinctively. Then, a surge of adrenaline raced through my veins, allowing me to smash through the roof in a massive jump, landing right next to the machine gunner, throwing him off the truck, and sitting on the gunner's perch. I yelled, "RAAAA! TAKE THAT AND THAT AND THAT, YOU STUPID JERKS!" As I shot down several of the trucks in dramatic explosions. I could hear gunshots from below me, so I used the machine gun's final shot to blast the engine. I shoved the gun down, aimed at the front grill, and fired. For the second time in that minute, instinct took over as I attempted an insane jump onto the DeLorean as the truck exploded, the Beach Boys' harmonic rhythm ending in the distance. Unfortunately, this failed and I bounced off the ground, my view tilted sideways as I watched my revenge in the distance. My adrenaline wore off and then I felt very woozy and lightheaded. My vision dimmed and my hearing lessened, and soon I passed out.

I awoke to the soft humming of the DeLorean under me and Skales standing overhead. "You were out for four and a half hoursss," Skales informed me. "I think you overexerted your fighting abilitiesss, sso you need more resssst. Ssssleep and eat thiss." Skales hand-fed me some ambrosia. Suddenly my brain comprehended what I'd just achieved, causing me to jolt up from the couch. My body's aching softened a bit, and what I think had been broken bones began to mend from the healing ambrosia. "Was the palace destroyed?" I nearly yelled. "Good, you're fully awake. We'll jusst have to wait and sssee. Only about a few more minutess to go," replied Skales. Soon, we approached the palace, rigged with explosives. "I could hear a button being presssed when I wass chasssing the Grieferss," Skales told me. "And then, a loud, angry voice. Who wass that new guy?" "My new arch-nemesis, Nova. He's destroyed several of my holdings. is bad news, and seeing how we blew up most of his truck fleet, there's no doubt that he will want serious vengeance. I think we should go investigate whatever he's up to before he kills us all, and I know just the place for that… Discovery World Resort. Also, we need to defuse the palace."

After chewing more beef jerky, going to sleep, waking up, and chugging down Vitamin Water, I was ready to investigate Discovery World. "I'll bet he has a base there, so if we blast that, then he'll be gone for good. We need to call in some favors, because there is absolutely no way that we can take on the Griefer Army alone." I made several calls to a few old buddies, including Firey, and told them of our plan while waiting for Skales to get ready. Soon, we were off. The DeLorean ascended into the sky, and manning the controls I blasted us from zero to eighty-eight in no time. We landed in the forests surrounding Discovery World Resort. Then, we rolled out and started trapping the forest around our car. I shoved some bushes over the vehicle to hopefully conceal it within the dense wilderness. We began our hike to the main hotel soon, our backpacks rigged with explosives. Skales and I made a quick stop for some sandwiches, then continued our trip. At night, we arrived at the Americana resort. A sign spread across the door read, "Rented Out," to which Skales responded with, "It'ss for the Griefersss." I was thinking the same thing! We placed our backpacks against the underside of the monorail station. Then, I snapped my fingers as I focused on the hotel lobby, letting us both teleport inside it. We snuck around the corner to find a set of stairs and a door. The door was labeled "STAFF ONLY," so naturally I figured that this was where our target was. However, when we opened the door, there was a set of stairs leading down to the basement. It was a groggy, dim and dirty place— the perfect location for a TOP SECRET MEETING ABOUT DESTROYING SOMETHING! No one was to be found down here, so we returned to the lobby. "Sssplit up," Skales hissed. He took the left corner, while I veered off to the right.

Suddenly I heard a crowd of Griefers marching in my direction— so I ducked into a doorway. Trying another one of my powers, I turned myself invisible and walked straight into a Griefer! Thankfully, they mistakened our collision as just banging their head on the pole. Then I noticed that I was standing in front of the middle of two doors. I looked around the opened cracks to the sight of a massive buffet line, where Griefers were sitting down and casually munching on their food whilst chatting. There was a chocolate fountain where they were dipping some strawberries… yum! But I couldn't be distracted now, or else my whole life would be ruined. I spotted Red sitting in another room, with some other head Griefers. I teleported inside this room and leaned into their conversation. "...need to get to that planet," Clode said. "Agreed," Red replied, continuing, "They know nothing of our reputation and at most we'd raise a few eyebrows. Kw will never find us at the Palace Network. Also, could someone please get me another piece of that chocolate cake? It's very delicious!" My stomach rumbled. "Gosh, who was that?" Clode laughed. "You?" "No," Nova quickly responded. Another Griefer spoke up. "Have we guarded the perimeter? I'm sure Kw6 isn't stupid eno-" "Shut up! You know better than to talk about Kw positively!" Red yelled angrily. My fists tightened up on instinct. If I could just stop this right now— wait, no, there would be about a hundred more Griefers on me, even if I beat up these ones. I wondered how Skales was doing.

Skales' Point of View

After splitting up from my friend, I rounded the corner to find a row of hotel rooms. Surprisingly they were all occupied, but by sleeping Griefers. I slithered silently down the hallway, the moon's shadow casting my tail onto the floor. I'd found a lounge area. Peeking around the corner, I noticed that there were many Griefers here, but most of the rest seemed to be elsewhere. All were talking amongst each other and relaxing, showing off a different side to them. A DJ was pumping music throughout the room. Normally, I'd expect them to be sitting in perfect rows and staying silent, but I suppose that new leader had figured it was time for a change. At least he wasn't as strict as Jason was. But then again, Kw6 had a valid reason for hating this guy. He was a really, really evil Griefer. But why would he let his army have freedoms? I could understand his position, being a ruler of the Hypnobrai, but you shouldn't let your arm— No. Those days were behind me, I realized. I slithered back into the shadows and down the hallway, but suddenly a firm hand grasped my neck.

Kw6's Point of View

From the rest of the conversation, I gathered some things;

The Griefers were planning to use some sort of mega-weapon against me.

They were also going to try and capture my friends to use them to make me walk into a trap.

The Griefers had spies that were watching my every move. Which it just so happened to explain how they were able to sabotage Spurdog and I's trip to Mel's, which was a month ago.

The buffet had delicious desserts.

Suddenly, another Griefer burst into the room, panting. They announced, "We've found the snake, who was sneaking around the building. Kw6 can't be far behind." My heart rate doubled, and I said a bit too loudly, "Oh, super crap." "YES!" Nova excitedly yelled, ignoring that a voice went against him. He charged into the buffet area. "We've got Skales!" He loudly chee. The Griefers inside broke into a massive applause. "Now, let's kill him! Hurray!" Clode cheered. I then teleported out into the hallway right before Griefers flooded it, trying to keep calm so my invisibility wouldn't falter. I saw my brother Skales, but a Griefer that I'd only heard stories of up to this point— The Ripper— had a chokehold grasp on him. Skales was trying to scream, but he had barely any air in him. The Ripper had a knife at the ready, but then Red calmly commanded, "Stop. Not yet. First, we need a musician. Can the DJ please provide a dramatic instrumental as we finish off Kw's friend?" A Griefer replied, "Let me go get the DJ. It'll be one minute, Nova." They ran off and I chased after said Griefer. When they rounded the corner, I spotted a lounge. The Ripper was coming from this area, so I assumed Skales was caught near here. However, it was empty, making for a creepy feel. The DJ stood on his perch and watched as the Griefer came up to him and asked, "Do you know any musicians who can play a dramatic song?" Feeling an amazing one-liner coming on, I yelled, "I think I know a guy!" And I hastily punched both of them in the head, knocking them out together. I could feel my invisibility wearing off. I ran to the DJ's stand and started scrolling through the song list furiously, looking for a dramatic song that I liked. Finally, I found Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin, hitting PLAY. I rushed at the Griefer army, speeding down the hallway and screaming the opening verse with the music. I wasn't trying to be funny, instead I was aiming at the intimidating factor; as it would be my best friend, until I could save Skales from dying.

Many things sped through my head, including "Are you insane? This could get you both murdered!", "What if Skales is killed now?!", and "Will I survive long enough to eat a chocolate cove strawberry?" (The latter was mostly a joke.) Anyway, I charged and jumped, landing down and cartwheeling on top of several Griefers, then touching the ground and leaping again. I accidentally (Not that it was a bad thing) smacked a Griefer out the window and straight into a tree, then leaped on top of another Griefer, stealing their gun, and blasted several others into the walls. The Ripper dropped Skales to the ground and rushed at me, allowing Skales to breathe. With the butt of my gun I slapped a Griefer in the face, then ran into the janitor's closes for a quick count of my gun. I tallied up my remaining bullets (none) and figured that I'd have to use my gun as a melee weapon, instead of a long range one. Speeding out I grabbed Skales' hand, dragging him down a hallway of the Americana Resort with a hundred Griefers chasing after us. Skales muttered, "Ttthankkk yooouu," and then passed out for a minute. I ran to the lobby and slammed the hallway doors shut, locked them, and threw a chair against one of them- hoping it would slow down the raging army. "Thank you for your stay at the Americana Resort," the exit door told me. I pointed my gun upwards and blasted the audio device, causing sparks to fly everywhere and a small fire starting on the carpet. "I did, have a great day!" I sarcastically yelled back, and picked up my backpack. I fumbled around its pockets for one of our five minute C4 bombs, found two, started the countdown, and then chucked them both onto the roof. Skales started muttering nonsense, which was a good sign— he was waking up. I tried to tell him, "We need to leave, buddy, or we're gonna die." His eyes opened faintly. "O-ok," Skales said. I heaved him onto my back and we trudged into the forest.

I put Skales down onto the backseat, climbed into the driver's spot, and turned the DeLorean to hover mode. We started to lift off the ground, and growing worried I launched us upwards and turned around. I shifted us into reverse and sped a good distance away from the Americana Resort. Suddenly the building lit up, and everything was still for a few seconds. As expected, it imploded, and we heard a massive BOOM that also shook the DeLorean. Skales leaned up from the loud noise. A piece of debris, probably what used to be a table, flew next to our car. A large wave of brown- wait, chocolate dip- cove the windshield and I blasted off, causing it to flow down. I took us to eighty-eight miles per hour within a few seconds, launching back into the Toontown planet.

Revenge is Sweet, but what's even sweeter? A Chocolate Covered Windshield.

With a loud thump, our car lost height and plummeted towards the ground. This time reminded me of when Skales and I landed in Ancient Rome and met a powerful group of modern day agents called the Recentīī, except with only the crash landing. Our car hit my front lawn in a flash, then it flipped over in midair and we landed on the ground. It crashed into a shrub, causing glass and metal to fly everywhere. I hoped that Skales was still awake, because he was hunched in the backseat. Then suddenly a missile went over the car, blowing up a tree. A figure that I couldn't make out hastily jumped on top of the DeLorean and began hitting the roof. The metal shook, and suddenly wires and metal crashed down on me. "Are you ok?" Something asked from above. I got my gun ready to fire, but then put it down once I realized who the figure was: Firey! "You got my call, Firey! Get me up to speed." I said triumphantly, and climbed out of the wreckage. "Yea, um Kw6, Nova sent some of his army to go and hit up your palace, but we're holding them down. WereBoy, this brewer guy Quarter enlisted to help, is splashing toxins on to the Griefers from the dome and Quarter is blasting them with his… red stuff? We won't be able to hold them off for much longer!" As Firey finished speaking, a massive beam shot over the DeLorean and took out a row of Griefers. Then a bottle hit the grass and started paralyzing Griefers, causing them to shake and writhe on the ground. Firey threw me two pistols— even though I had a pair already— and I began to shoot down Griefers. Another bottle hit the driveway as Griefer trucks rolled in, causing the liquid to seep down into the truck's mechanics and made several trucks ram into others, with them spinning and colliding with each other. I released a few shots at the trucks, blowing out windows and pinning Griefers to their seats. They returned fire and formed cracks in the palace walls. I prepared for a ballistic assault, but alas there were only two bullets left. I aimed both at incoming trucks, shattering the window of one and— yet then, I stopped to think for a minute. A missile was fired at me, from the machine gun mounted on a truck.

"Something seems fishy here. Why would Red send only some his army and not the full force?"

Then, both things hit me. I was violently thrown backwards through the air, until I collided with Quarter. The beam that he was firing suddenly blew a hole in the palace wall. "He's going after that mega-weapon!" I hollered. Skales was still in the DeLorean! "Anyway, um, hi Quarter! Nice to see you again old buddy!" I hastily greeted my old friend, charging towards the DeLorean. Then, I pounced on some Griefers trying to drag Skales out of the car. I threw one through the front window of the DeLorean, and another out of the roof. I grabbed Skales, unconscious for the second time that night, and dragged him into the palace. I set him down before running to the restroom, grabbed a cup of water, drank it down, filled the same cup again, ran back to Skales, and finally threw it over his face. No dice. I rushed into another hallway, finding an unconscious Griefer's missile launcher, and hurried back outside. Firey, WereBoy and Quarter were surrounded! Guns were aimed at them from the roof, driveway, and even above! I set up the missile launcher and aimed my first rocket at the helicopter surrounding the palace. I engaged it, and almost instantaneously shot a second missile at the Griefer crowd. The second blast collided first, immediately knocking Griefers against the walls of my palace and the driveway. The original missile hit afterwards, causing the helicopter to spiral out of control and lodge itself in the dome. Griefers scattered back into their vehicles as we took many out, and the few that survived drove off in terror. Quarter had a black eye and WereBoy was limping, but we were mostly fine. "Good defense," Quarter huffed. "Yeah, we did amazingly well considering how outnumber we were," I replied. "However there is no time to waste. I fear the rest of Red's army is," -I gulped- "fetching a mega-weapon to kill us all. The palace has to wait."

Chapter 9

Skales slithered out of the palace, his jaw agape. "Explain to Skales what happened, Firey has a DeLorean to fix!" I yelled and hurried to the garage with Firey. I scavenged for the blueprints, and fifty minutes later, I found them. I gave them to Firey. Then I raided my beef jerky supply and threw some down my throat. Then, Firey rebuilt the DeLorean, one piece at a time.

Hours later a worried Firey ran into my bedroom, where I was trying to relax after the fight. "Shouldn't we be going after Nova and his Griefer dudes now?" I shrugged, and said, "You have a good point, Firey. I'll round up the crew." As stupid as it sounds I really had just been focusing on calming down before this huge fight. Soon, I climbed into the DeLorean, did one last quick systems check, and drove it into the front lawn. "Get your stuff everyone, the Mega Weapon Taking train is leaving in five minutes!" I yelled. The name was a work in progress. First came Quarter, with two sets of identical clothes and some spellbooks. "Put it in the back," I told him. We opened up the trunk together and stored his books atop the clothes. Next came Firey, bringing an extra set of clothes. Last came Skales, bringing his staff and a Fang Kwon Do manual. I stole some beef jerky from inside the house and offered some to our group. No one else wanted it, so then we were off! We blasted into the air, leaving Toontown's orbit. "Get ready!" I yelled. And then I quickly floored the DeLorean into the Tooniverse.

Chapter 10

Cruising through space to find the aforementioned Palace Network wasn't easy, but thankfully we had some ongoing discussion that felt to quicken the search time. "Sso, how did you meet Kw6, Quarter?" Skales hissed. "Well... a long, long time ago, my mother and sisters were prosecuted for dabbing in the magic arts. I was their lab rat sometimes, but no serious harm was done to me. This was on another planet. In all my rage of losing my family I nearly died, but instead of dying the magic that was sto inside me turned me into the Quarterbrine, a being of pure rage and evil. I ran into the forest and terrorized every village I found, saving other people who used magic from being prosecuted like my family was. We all escaped into the woods, and as they built a settlement to live in I guarded them day and night. However, I went for a walk deep into the forest about a few months later, and there I watched Kw6, an old Griefer friend. At the time he was going camping, but after trying to kill him he displayed extraordinary powers similar to my own. This intrigued me and I tried to reach contact with him in a dream, only to be locked out. After he left I returned back to my settlement, only to find that it was burned down by the inhabitants of some nearby village. I lost all of the magic users in a fire and so I sulked, wandering the forest alone. Then I turned into a subhuman— not a ghost, but an individual that cannot walk in the real world. Sometimes I would set villages ablaze, terrorize people's dreams or even inhabit people in my rage. This one kid called Avery learned about me from the tall tales of villagers, and summoned me back into the real world. I decided to drop my act of malice and instead sook out Kw6. It took me many moons to find him, but at a restaurant halfway across the galaxy I spotted him at a nearby table. He was with you, Skales. Then I-" I interrupted him. Man, I need to stop doing that these days! "You were trying to get my attention in some very awkward ways, mate," I reminisced. "Standing on top of your table, yelling my name, trying to be my waiter... that was just STRANGE!" "Yeah, um, I was desperate. But finally as you were paying the check, I got your attention and we talked about our lives after the Griefers. Then you invited me over to your palace for a demonstration, and I invited you to my planet and settlement in the woods," Quarter explained. "Then we teamed up, did some crap that we really, and left. The end." I ended it for Quarter. Even hours after that conversation we still had no luck. With the DeLorean on low fuel and everyone exhausted, we actually ended up finding the Palace Network. Everything here seemed to be overly cheery— normally I'd have some quip to say about that but I was too tired to do it. We wandered the main street and found ourselves in a city. Many buildings were separated by roads, and contained things like schools, really small and pitiful amusement parks, or just houses. Eventually we stopped at a restaurant made of white wood. It had no name but when we stepped inside we were kindly greeted. "Hey, and welcome to my restaurant!" A person wearing a Mickey Mouse outfit said. "Thanks mate. What do you have to offer here?" I asked. "Well, come and take a seat right here-" the person gestu to two cafe tables- "And I'll gladly get you a menu." All four of us sat down and were handed menus. "This menu is so basic," I whispered to Skales. "And expensssive!" He hissed back. The person went back to the counter, opened a door and grabbed some water bottles, then came back to us and gave each individual a glass. "Ready to order?" They asked. "Sure," said Firey. "I'll take a baked potato, please," I said. "I'll get the same as Kw6," Quarter said. "One ssteak for me," Skales demanded. "Is a pork chop good?" Firey asked. "To answer your question, Firey, they are made very well here. Your meal should be out in a few minutes." The Mickey Mouse suit (I'll just call them that now) replied, and hurried off to the kitchen. "So, what's our first thoughts on Palace Network?" I asked my fellow dimension travelers. "Weird, everyone's so nice here but their buildings are so bad," Firey said. "Keep it down!" I hissed. "Don't let them hear that, we don't know how conceited these people are!" "I mean, it'ss kind of relaxing, like we could ssspend awhile here," Skales hissed. "After this, let's go search for some sleeping arrangements- I saw a load of hotels around here- and crash for the night." I suggested. "Very creepy, even when it's coming from me," Quarter said, and almost shive. "It just feels so... fake." "I don't really see your point there, Quarter, but okay," replied Firey. Suddenly the waiter stormed to our table, a strange grin on their face. "Your food is ready!" Mickey suit boomed. Then they placed each of our meals in front of us. After eating, we gave the Mickey suit their money and hustled out. "That was almost freaky! The way that guy stormed to our table, it was like he was HEARING us the whole time!" Firey whispe. "And he didn't give an odd look to Skales at all!" I continued. "Normally, everyone assumes that Skales is either my pet or some vermin." "Stinks to be you, Skales," sympathized Firey. Skales patted Firey's back. "Ssso, sshould we all look for sssomewhere to ssleep?" suggested Skales. "Yeah, I mean, anything would be great right now," I yawned. "Do you want me to be on guard, Kw6?" Quarter asked. I responded with a quizzical look. "You deserve rest too, you know."

Chapter 11

We found a small, ghetto hotel next to another bad amusement park. Throughout the night I felt some sort of tingling sensation constantly, and once I peeked out the room window at that bad amusement park. The castle seemed to be glowing with an unnatural vibrance, which freaked me out. I wasn't able to get much sleep, but luckily my comrades were. At around 6:00 the next morning, I heard sounds of thumping feet outside my window. I looked out to see a bunch of hooded figures in one straight line, which I just shrugged off as the weird nature of this planet. groaning. "What is that light?" He mutte. "You too?" I whispered. "You can see the light too?" "Of course I can!" Quarter said, but I quickly covered up his mouth to not wake Firey or Skales. However something that caught my eye was the fact that they were heading towards the glowing castle. It had a giant D made of diamonds in the center and lack of detail throughout. I suddenly heard shaking from behind me as Quarter tumbled out of his top bunk and hit the floor, "So if only us two can see the light but no one else can, maybe because…" "We've been up all night?" guessed Quarter. "If it was from sleep deprivation, how would only us two notice?" I asked. "I suppose we could check it out." Quarter said, and I agreed. At least it'd give us something to do while our two buddies slept. I wrote a quick note for Skales on a napkin and put it on top of the hotel room's chest. Then we both crept out, and onto the street. We hugged the perimeter of the hotel, sticking to the shadows to not get noticed. Soon we reached the entry to this bad amusement park, called Dungyland. The hooded figures were ahead of us, already at the entry to the castle. I decided to climb up a building to watch from above. They dispersed into a crowd. Then the castle doors opened up, to reveal… a football player costume? "Hello." The voice greeted the crowd. Suddenly, a figure moved forward and dropped down their hood. "It's Red!" I hissed, then covered my mouth and ducked. None other than my worst enemy, Nova, was standing right in front of the costume. And then I realized that this was the "current plan" that I'd been hearing very little about, at Discovery World Resort.

Chapter 12

Sitting next to me, Quarter almost tensed up. "Do you remember that Dungy guy from New Horizons City? The one that made us laugh so hard when you told me about him?" He whispered to me. "Now I do," I hissed back. "We have come to give you all of the power you need to fulfill both of our wishes, Dungy," Nova boomed. "All five ores of power have been collected by us Griefers. We shall bring them to you now." "Ok," Dungy said. The first ore, coal, was passed up to him. He took it and stashed it in his invisible backpack. Then the second was given, iron. The third came soon after, and the fourth wasn't long after that. Finally, the fifth ore came, and with it Dungy boomed, "The tooniverse be bent, and when I'm done, it will be part of THE PALACE NETWORK!" A few Griefers chee but most stayed silent; was confused. "What? I thought we were going to use it to destroy Kw6 and everyone else that I hate." "No," replied Dungy. "I bend him from Palace, and when merges, he be dead." "Oh, okay, sure," Clode moved in front of the crowd. "But if you don't do what you promised, we are gonna destroy y'all. You were the only dang one dumb enough to sign that waiver-" Red cut off Clode- "Sorry, we apologize for the backtalk." Dungy still didn't even flinch. I pulled out my dual pistols and aimed them at Dungy. "Get ready for a fight, Quarter," I whispered. "I don't understand what any of those ores of power things do, but it sounds like we will have an easy victory." "Me neither," Quarter hissed back. "Get your beams ready and aim for the crowd, I'll focus on taking down Dungy and you can try and get Nova." "Sounds like a good plan," I hissed to Quarter. "With all five ores of power, Dungy, you may activate the merging. Proceed when you are ready." said Red. "I'm ready," Dungy responded. The ores began to glow, and I knew that this was when we could roll into action. Quarter fired his beams at Dungy, confusing him for a second, and then I rushed into battle. I blasted my dual pistols into the crowd, smacking Griefers' heads with the butts of my guns. I shot two more bullets, causing massive groans and then yells of rage. Suddenly, I could feel pain in all sorts of places. The ground was shaking and I tried my best to push through the crowd. Bullets shot at me were stopped by the bulletproof jacket, but when it began to tear I jumped above the crowd and faced The Ripper. I fired another two shots aimed for his head, but they were stopped by his massive, callused hands. Then, I learned why the Ripper earned his name- he picked me up, and began spinning me around. I tried to nudge free of his iron grasp but only seemed to tighten up even more. Then, like a spring being released, I was thrown violently into the air and hit a spire of the castle with a large thud. Trying to gain back control of my numb limbs, I slid down and landed on the D. I rolled from side to side, which meant that I had some control, but many bullets were shot at me from several different angles. After nearly being shot in the head I was able to regain control over my hands, which I used to fire off bullets that hit a few unaware Griefers. At last I gained my leg functions back and used this to climb back up the castle to a good peeking spot. I settled under an arrow slit and remembered something- I forgot where I left the DeLorean! Cracks appeared on the wall and bullet holes began increasing. I popped my head up to scan the battlefield, where Quarter was being assaulted by nearly the entire crowd. His magic red beams were blasting many of the attackers into unsuspecting Griefers, but he seemed to be slowing down in pace. Dungy charged at Quarter, and surprisingly began to grow in size. He was nearly twice the size of Quarter, whereas before he was shorter. The lapis ore glowed as a wave of enchantment symbols slammed into Quarter, causing him to lose his balance and crash into one of the buildings. Many Griefers began swarming my best friend like flies to some trash, and I used this distraction to slide down the castle and onto the ground. Only Nova noticed me, but he charged and began shooting. I used a burst of uncontrolled adrenaline to throw Red onto the road. Then, I heard lots of gunshots and groans of pain from where Quarter was thrown into. Suddenly, a dark force spread across the park, turning the early daylight into pitch black midnight. Riding a skeletal horse, Quarter began jousting many of the Griefers with a bonelike sword. The horse bucked a Griefer that was approaching, and I climbed on it. The horse wasn't very comfortable, but at least it was a ride back to the hotel. With crazy agility and blazing speed, our skeletal steed launched onto the road and began speeding past the Griefers that were chasing us. Gunshots rang out but were penetrated by a purple shield that encapsulated our ride. I noticed that Quarter was incredibly exhausted, with huge bags under his now-bloodshot eyes. "Where is the Dimension DeLorean?" I whispered to him. Surprisingly, the skeletal horse neighed and changed directions. With every turn it made, I was nearly thrown off and held onto Quarter for balance. Quickly we arrived at the Dimension DeLorean, exactly where we left it. I thanked the horse, who vanished into thin air as soon as an asleep Quarter fell off of it. Taking a moment to breathe, I climbed inside the DeLorean and carried Quarter into the backseat. Then, I started up the engine and began to search for the hotel.

Chapter 13

Flying above the roads of the Palace Network, I spotted lots of citizens milling around. No one seemed to notice that a car was flying above them. Soon I found the hotel, but it was being destroyed by the Griefers. I landed on top of the Dungyland castle and looked out from there. There were no signs of Firey or Skales anywhere. Quarter woke up, causing a loud noise as his head hit the top of the DeLorean. "WHAT HAPPENED?" He yelled. "Quiet," I hissed. "We got away from the Griefers, but can't find Skales or Firey. Where is that hotel?" I flew straight, then circled around the perimeter. After my third lap I finally found the hotel, but it was being scoured by the Griefers. Many stood in front, blocking all sides of entry. Neither Firey nor Skales were visible, but the hotel owner was rounded up front and surrounded by gun-wielding Griefers. After the nearly empty of gas car made a loud, unexpected sputter, Griefers began to look up and some yelled. "Kw6!" One hollered. Then Red peeked up, with a large grin on his face. "We've got him, now Dungy, please get your wish ready. I want to see him and all his petty little friends die from the merge." Suddenly, grappling hooks shot up and were pinned to the bottom of the DeLorean. I thought I saw our car from outside, but it was probably a reflection of the windshield. They yanked at them, pulling my DeLorean down. I had no options but to let them pull us down. I didn't want to waste the gas I had, in case I needed it for a quick escape. "Get up!" I yelled at Quarter. I pulled out my dual pistols quickly and reloaded them, my body aching from being awake for so long. Sadly, the DeLorean hit the ground with a large thump, and Griefers broke open the windows. They held me at gunpoint, then yanked off the car doors and dragged Quarter outside. They put Quarter and I next to each other, and Clode snatched my dual pistols from me and held them against my head. "Stupid snake, did you think you could outwit us?" He rasped. Nova came forth. "Kw, all I want is for us to be friends. The times when we weren't fighting, those are why I want to be your friend." I muttered a Latin swear, "Cucurbita." "Huh?" Clode asked, then laughed. "He's already goin' loony, y'all better get your guns ready in case he attacks you." "I can't wait to see all of you die," I yelled. More guns were drawn out and pointed at my head. "Spurdog made the right choice by abandoning his horrible life as one of you idiots," I yelled louder. Many Griefers growled at his mention. "Don't fire," Red instructed. "Let him die by the merge." "How will this merge kill me exactly? You know I'm not mortal, right?" I asked. "We don't know, but we do know that you are indeed a sub mortal like your sleepy friend Quarter should be," the Ripper bellowed. The Griefers shared a collective laugh at his pathetic joke. "Dungy?" Clode called, and soon Dungy waddled from the back side of the destroyed hotel. "Yes," he said. "I ready." Suddenly, five guards bursted through a hotel window. "We've got the other two," one said. Firey kept trying to kick the guards, his legs flailing about meaninglessly, but his shrimpy size was in this case his downfall. Skales' mouth was secured shut by another Griefer, and another pinned his tail down. Both of them were thrown onto the grass and beaten mercilessly into exhaustion. "Prepare to die, Kw…" my worst nemesis, Red, laughed. "You said I didn't have what you did, Kw, but now you won't even have that either. This merge will allow the Griefers to rule over the entire universe, so even that pathetic rat Mickey will have to bow down to us!" The Griefers cheered. "Dungy, initiate the merge now," Red then commanded. "Ok," replied Dungy, but it took him a minute to register the command. I didn't want to speak anything because I'd likely be beaten down like my friends were. A guard slapped Quarter, then before hitting me I body slammed him onto the ground. Gunshots fired, hitting my bulletproof jacket, but a Griefer tore the ripped thing off with little effort.

The entire universe dissolved into madness as Dungy, with a clap of his hands, merged it all with the Palace Network. "Ha ha, NOT get unbanned!" He yelled to me, kicking me in the chest and causing all of my friends and I to be flung upwards, riding the now-expanding purple barrier. As I tried to slide into the DeLorean, that too was thrown into the air. The only sound that came from Skales was a massive "OOMPH!" As the pain of being thrown through the air at hundreds of miles per hour hit him. The contents of my pockets soared out of my pocket and reached for the sky; meanwhile I struggled to keep my pants on down below. Quarter was the only one besides me that was still conscious; I yelled to him, "WHAT'S OUR PLAN NOW?" Against the blaring sound of the wind pushing us, he responded with a firm "WHAT?!" Then, we began sliding downwards. At a nearly fatal rate we fell from the sky; and we landed onto solid, gray and cracked ground. I hit the ground, being knocked out instantly.