AN: This will be a slow moving story as I've got several others I'm running concurrently, but if I don't get it out now I never will. Be warned many will die. Many will face things worse than death. Many of you will likely end up hating me for what is to come. I give you ...
inVASION: Bane of Existence
By THE Xenomorph (aka Xenomorph666)
Disclaimer: I own only Perfection and Wraith.
DigitalMan and K2 are © My close friend.
Everything else is copyrighted to their correct owner.
Universe: Spliced-Verse (Misfit-Verse, Evil Dead, The Mask, TMNT, Captain Planet, Beast Wars, Jurassic Park)
Preparing
"I don't get it..." Lina said as she helped Lifeline patch up Stanley's fourth massive cut that week. It had only been a few days since the Planeteers were evacuated from Hope Island and the teams were now on edge since the Scions had left and taken the babies of the teams with them, strangely Wraith assured everyone that the children of the world would be most secure and that they wouldn't even have to do anything. This was the current topic of discussion.
"They work in ways beyond us." Lifeline said as he finished patching the magical nuisance up. "There now please stay out of the minefields..."
"I can't help it..." Stanley smiled, "I want to play Minesweeper."
"Use a computer." Lina said dryly.
"No way, Arcade's been super-amping up every PC on the base, I don't wanna know what Minesweeper would do on those things." Stanley said with a look of fear. "Besides, my Mask powers keep me alive. For the most part."
"Yes, but you keep activating them at the last second." Lifeline said, "If you aren't careful you're going to end up dead trying to prove yourself a damn hero." Lifeline was obviously upset, but a look from Lina calmed him down. "You know we all care about you."
"I know and I love these powers, but they make all the real risky stuff... boring." Stanley said. "I can't die unless I'm not in mask form and Mask form kicks in to save my life."
"Just remember the Heartless don't kill you." Lina said.
"I know." Stanley sighed as he looked at his watch. "Two more hours then I get to go home for the weekend."
"And that's bad?" Lina asked.
"You still have family, even if it's only one person, who still care about you. Right now my mom's gone from ultra supporter to ultra outcry against mutant influence and my dad, well..." Stanley made it clear his father hadn't changed since the Joes' initial meeting with him. "The only reason I come back at all is because my dad uses me for press conferences and my mom's insisting you guys are a terrible influence. They even tried to get Nick Fury to transfer me to S.H.I.E.L.D.!"
"Wow..." Lina was astonished.
"On the plus side, I get to destroy press conferences, show off the Joes' influence and be a justifiable jerk to the media." Stanley warped to his Mask form. "OH YEAH I CAN FEEEEEL THE ANARCHY!" Then he morphed back.
"Stanley, go get ready." Lifeline smiled. "And tell Todd I need to see him for his check up later."
Stanley merely blew a raspberry as he left.
"Need me for anything else?" Lina asked.
"Could you find Bree for me?" Lifeline asked.
"I think she went to..." Lina stopped herself. "... use the restroom."
"It is addicting isn't it?" Lifeline smiled. "Soon we'll find a way to weaponize it." Both laughed at the joke as Bree walked in.
"Weaponize what?" She asked.
"Roadblock's addictive way of talking." Lina smiled.
"Didn't COBRA try that once?" Bree asked.
"No they tried to turn bad poetry into mind control. They ended up driving poets to suicide." Lifeline shook his head. "Honestly, after Serpentor they really went down hill."
"Really?" Lina asked.
"Oh yeah." Lifeline said. "That was perhaps their best plan, and everything after that was Saturday morning cartoon plots."
Silence filled the room as the three looked around expecting to see Perfection or another of the interLOAFERs pop in with a joke. As it was the silence merely reminded them of the threat on the horizon and it brought a tear to Lina's eyes instantly.
"What's wrong honey?" Bree asked as she hugged the young girl close to comfort her.
"Every time I think about what's happening I think about what happened to Gecko and it scares me because he got really lucky." Lina sniffled. "We might not get even a little lucky if it happens to us."
"It won't. We're fighting to protect our world, our friends and our loved ones and remember what the Scions said; that reason gives us a powerful force of light on our side." Bree reminded the young girl.
"But what if..." Lina was obviously afraid, but a friendly voice, Sora's voice interrupted her.
"No buts." Sora said as he and Riku walked in.
"What?" Lina asked.
"No buts." Sora said again. "Doubt yourself and the heartless will pounce on you faster than a blink. Believe in yourself and your friends, believe in the right of your fight and you wield a power greater than a keyblade. You wield hope and that's a light that can never be extinguished."
"He's right..." Riku said, "It's like a toxin to them, they can't stand it and the nobodies can't either. Just remember to hope."
Lina gave a small smile and a nod.
"Thanks Sora." Bree smiled. "Now how can we help?"
"Actually..." Cloud walked in with a crate followed by another Cloud.
"...It's how we can help you." This Cloud was the one that had visited nearly a year ago.
"Two Clouds?" Lina shook her head. "I've been around Stanley too much."
"Actually, I'm from Hollow Bastion, a world that shares the same universe with Sora's world." The first Cloud who Lina now recognized from the first Kingdom Hearts game, said.
"I'm from my universe, my own world. I was here when Perfection's plans for World Karaoke fell through." Cloud number two said. "I'm just dropping these off to help, I can't stay."
"What's in there?" Lifeline asked.
"Materia." Both the Cloud's said.
"Oh..." Lifeline said in awe.
"It's magic." Bree said. "But wouldn't our world's magic users be enough and wouldn't those not work here?"
"I think..." Cloud two tossed a strange white materia to Bree. "You'll find our world wants to help."
"Is this holy?" Bree asked.
"Yes, and Aerith herself told me to give to only one person." Cloud two said.
"Who?" Lina asked as both the Clouds stared directly at her.
The second Cloud then took the holy materia from Bree and knelled down to be eye level with Lina as he put the glowing substance in her hand. "You'll know when to use it."
"O-okay..." Lina flushed with fear, shock and astonishment and had to quickly sit down.
"Keep it safe." Cloud One said. "It is vital to fighting the heartless."
"Well gee thanks for putting so little pressure on the girl." Bree snapped.
"She can handl..." Cloud One was cut off by a death glare from the angry nurse. "Would you happen to know where Pyro is?"
"NO." Lifeline said as he realized which magic the pyromaniac would likely end up with. "Give it to Hawk."
"Hawk told us to instruct him on it's use." Cloud Two said. "Besides most people here will have little in the ability to actually use the materia for a while. They have to grow stronger as you do."
"Make sure Althea's around." Lifeline groaned.
"We have our own materia ready for his antics." Cloud One said. "Mute is a powerful weapon to keep the insane from hurting themselves."
"So is not giving the pyromaniac a magical lighter." Lance said as he pushed past the Clouds. "I'm out of pills and he won't leave me alone."
"One minute." Lifeline said with a sigh. "He should be with Psyche-Out."
"Oh good, we can give him the Confuse materia." Cloud two said.
"Do I get anything?" Lance asked and then to the space to his left he added. "No I will not ask them for your stupid 'throw' materia!"
"Sorry Lance." Cloud two said. "But materia doesn't respond to you. Likely because of the experiments..."
"One more thing to blame on you." Lance said to the air over his shoulder. "And stop doing the hula!" Lance sighed as Lifeline handed him a series of pills and a cup of water.
"Right..." The Clouds said in unison only to have the Hollow Bastion Cloud simply leave while dragging the materia case with him. The other Cloud simply shrugged in defeat and followed.
"So what now?" Lance asked as he eyed Lina carefully. She was obviously shaken by simply holding the powerful materia in her hand. That's when the base alarms went off and the Misfits ran to started up the Mass Device.
8888888888888
When the Misfits arrived at their destination they were surprised to see Cyclops, Wolverine, Ice-Man and Nightcrawler were also arriving via the Mass Device's piggy back capabilities that had been added. However, that only held their attention for moment as the destruction that lay before them was immense. What was once a downtown metropolis was now torn asunder with buildings collapsing inside themselves.
"Sentinels?" Cyclops looked around.
"Knuckles?" Avalanche pointed to the red echidna that had come to help along with Sonic.
The groups rushed to the barely conscious echidna and were utterly horrified to see his left arm was missing, having been literally torn out from his shoulder. The greatest shock though came from the body of one Rouge the Bat.
"It..." Knuckles coughed. "It just cut her throat out..." Knuckles stared at the bat's body.
"Don't worry Mr. Knuckles." Dragonfly said as she began to staunch his large wound and many cuts. "We'll get out of here." Then she grabbed hold of the echidna and used the Mass Device to return to the Pit.
"What the hell did this?" Wavedancer asked in shock. "And where's the fox and pink hedgehog?"
As if to answer her first question a golden form came crashing through the remainder of one building and barely glided to a stop. Sonic was using his actual collection of Chaos Emerald and was in his super form.
"Get out of here, he's to strong!" Super Sonic said right as a shining metallic streak smashed him into the ground, then turned to face the teens.
"Metal Sonic..." Shadow came limping from behind a piece of rubble. He was holding a series of heavy cuts and scrapes. "Somehow he got an upgrade."
"Indeed." It spoke. "I am now CyberSonic. The new Sonic. The true Sonic. Soon to be the ONLY Sonic."
"Over my dead body!" Super Sonic released a wave of energy, throwing everyone back.
"This is a little insane..." Toad said as he stood back up.
"And not in the good way." Nightcrawler added.
"If I could get my energy back..." Shadow said as he collapsed to his feet. "I could..."
"You could get yourself killed." Wolverine snapped.
"He's right. Avalanche think you can keep us covered?" Wavedancer asked.
"For what little it'll do, yeah." Avalanche said as he watched the Golden hedgehog repeatedly slam against the metal one with no effect.
"Good." Wavedancer said, "Blob, take Shadow back to the pit to get some TLC, then come back with whoever you can."
"Got ya." Blob said as he picked up Shadow, who for once did not fight the retreat. Of course he was half conscious.
"So how do we handle this?" Cyclops asked.
"Run interference until Maximals are available." Wavedancer said. "He seems to be made of cybertronian tech."
"That could just mean Starscream and MAL upgraded him." Cyclops pointed out.
"At this point it doesn't matter, all we need to concentrate on doing is taking him down." Wavedancer said.
"I'm not arguing that, but if we don't know who upgraded him..." Cyclops was interrupted by several dark portals opening.
"Take them as you wish Heartless, I've no problem with this battle." CyberSonic seemed to laugh as he batted Super Sonic away.
"That answer your question?" Wavedancer said as she used a fire hydrant to push several heartless away before the groups started to fight heavily with the pitch monsters.