So, just so you know: this story is part of a series, but every fanfiction in the series is not linked with the others, as the only thing they share is the theme. They are based off different fandoms and they do not share the same universe. Thus, you do not need to read the previous stories to understand this one.
WAR
4
"The Righteousness of a Genius"
This is not good!
Dexter had more than one reason not to be happy at the moment. An example was the red, two-thousand-kelvin laser that was trying to cut his head off. The boy dodged to the side once again, his speed notably increased by his personalized exoskeleton. Thank goodness he had not abandoned the project since he was younger, or by now he would be dogmeat.
"HA-HAHA! HA-HAHA-HAHA!" Mandark laughed, the mad scientist already tasting an easy victory. Fifteen years had passed since Mandark had first made its entry into Dexter's life, and the guy had not changed of a single inch since that moment.
Not that was a good thing, like the current situation was example of.
Dexter tried to charge up his own laser zapper, but his attempt was stopped for the umpteenth time by the reaction of his counterpart, who stormed him with a series of gunshots coming from a heavy machine gun. Or, to be more precise, the robot he was remote controlling did.
"Face it, Dexter! This time you're going down!" Mandark bellowed. He was once again distracting himself with his gloating, and that was just exactly what Dexter needed.
The advanced robot continued to let a rain of lead fall over the young scientist, but Dexter had already a plan in his mind. Showing inhuman dexterity he avoided every burst, zigzagging continuously in order to confuse the robot.
The metal thing tried to keep its virtual sight on him, but its turret was simply too slow to follow the path left by the approaching exoskeleton.
"Uh?" Mandark uttered, already feeling something was off. He would have activated the missiles, but it was too late: Dexter was already at the robot's base, and with one, powerful punch he literally fractured one of its legs. The robot made a crumbling noise as he fell downwards, fracturing in every possible piece it could separate itself into.
Dexter scoffed at the dust made by the defeated machine. Pwah. Low-end materials… Typical of Mandark. Thinking about him…
…why am I not hearing him shout his distaste out? Or how next time he'll manage to destroy me?
After waiting some additional seconds by making sure the robot was no more a threat, Dexter circled the remains around and moved in the direction of where Mandark was previously located. And the evil genius was still there, indeed, even though he wasn't doing any of the possibilities Dexter had mentally listed.
He had slumped to the ground and had his eyes closed with a look of utter defeat. No angry face though… it seemed like the only emotion he was currently feeling was sadness.
Weird, Dexter thought. Raising an eyebrow, Dexter he didn't really gave much importance to the view. He decided to try for the umpteenth time to put some sense into his arch-nemesis head: "Mandark, Mandark, Mandark… When will you remember that you cannot possibly destroy my lab or actually beat me in any science field?"
Mandark remained silent, much to Dexter's surprise this time. He never ignored insults, be they as nonsensical as his.
"Mandark?"
Finally, Mandark stood up, but his eyes continued to remain away from Dexter's sight. He watched the opposite way as he began to speak, "I'm sick of you, Dexter…"
"Huh?"
"Don't play the fool one with me. I am sick of you. Sick of your face, sick of your presence, sick of your oh so annoying existence!"
Dexter unconsciously made a step back as Mandark materialized a remote in one of his hands.
"Know this Dexter: the next time will be the last time we will encounter each other… no matter what will happen, I will finally be free of you!"
Dexter remained motionless, visibly perturbed by the teen's words. That way Mandark was able to escape easily from his laboratory thanks to the hovercar that had responded to its call, but he didn't laugh out loud for his succeeding escape, nor did he watch back to give a final glare to his rival. Soon, the red haired boy genius found himself alone.
Has he completely lost his mind?
Dexter might still have been a little bit cocky, but he was no more a little boy for sure. He was wise enough to understand that something inside Mandark had changed. And he knew what he had to do.
"Computer! Began a new project program called, 'Villain Control Module', scan every gadget and machine in the entire able that can be used in monitoring, spying and communication, and every resource that can be used to build anything related to those functions."
That should do it. I need to keep an eye on him… for real this time.
"Program initialized, Dexter. A starting report with everything you've requested should be ready by the end of the next hour."
"Very good," Dexter acknowledged, satisfied by Computer's response. He gave a look around the lab where the battle had taken place and thought about where he had to start to clean the mess…
...he might have been wrong to be honest. To him Mandark had never been exactly one you could call serene or ordinary. This might have been another one of his schemes, to make him start to underestimate his foe.
But he was Dexter, Boy Genius, and he wasn't going to fall for that.
"DeeDee… for the last time… GET. OUT. OF MY LABORATORY!"
"Oh Dex! Why won't you forget about your science stuff and spend a little time with your sister for once? C'mon, I've not returned just to have you shoo me away again!"
"In fact, you'll stay for a full week so you'll have plenty of time to socialize with myself. That will not happen now, so let me return to my work!"
DeeDee rolled her eyes to his brothers' antics, who had more or less remained the same from his early days owning his laboratory. She was a pretty young woman by now, who only sometimes returned home from college to visit her parents and his brother, who she had begun to respect a bit more. Well, at least she wasn't destroying his lab on a daily basis anymore.
Thus, she went away by herself without further arguing, disappearing behind the secret entrance of the lab to Dexter's room.
Oh my, finally… how she still manages to get in every time, I have no clue. I'll have to question her sooner or later about that.
He turned back with the intent to resume his job with his latest invention when the electronic voice of Computer buzzed in the entire lab.
"Dexter."
"Not now, Computer, I need to focus on this one. Deal with it yourself, you have more than enough advanced programming to do so."
"I'm afraid that wouldn't be wise, Dexter."
Dexter, beginning to get annoyed, turned towards one of the numerous screens that let him and Computer interface with each other and demanded, "All right, all right, let me see what it is then. I hope this is not a waste of my ti-"
Dexter's sentence remained without proper conclusion as Computer began to feed in images from a distant place over the globe.
The real deal wasn't the location itself… it was what was happening there.
After some seconds, Computer became able to feed in sounds as well to the video. A mixture of explosions, detonations, shots and screams filled the laboratory, adding to the effect of it.
He needed five seconds to shook his head and refocus.
"Wait, wait, wait, Computer. Let me think! Cut the feed, NOW!"
As ordered, the video was stopped, and the silence returned to the laboratory.
Dexter began to mentally list what could have been the cause of what Computer had just showed him, then he discarded the various hypothesises one after the other. In the end, only one was left.
"How much time from the first alarm, Computer?"
"Three minutes at most, Dexter, I've sent you the earliest I've detected."
"I suppose the public isn't aware of this?"
"No, it isn't, but I calculate they will in two hours at most."
"No further information about why, who, when?"
"Apart from what you saw, nothing else. There are multiple sources adding up to the list, Dexter. It's growing as we speak."
Darn. DARN!
This was not good. Not good. Not good at all!
There was one question left. One that he dared not to answer by mentioning it directly.
"Computer, you know what I need to know right now. Go on…"
"There is no signal from Mandark's laboratory, Dexter. It's been pretty much identical to itself for the last month or so, from the last time he had tried to sneak into the laboratory. He hasn't moved from there, the data from the Villain Control Module is incompatible with a possible escape of him."
"But we know that can't be true… unless we missed something…"
"Dexter, I'm receiving a new feed right now, I'm trying to locate exactly the source's coordinates but judging by the features of it's from the United States."
Dexter gritted his teeth. Everything was happening so fast… yet, it was terribly simple to describe.
Multiple battles, fights and confrontations happening all around the globe. And every single one of them with weapons and vehicles of one, single design Dexter could not mistake for anyone else's.
Mandark.
"MANDARK!"
Dexter's main battle mech stormed into the giant installation that was his rival's laboratory. "MANDARK!" Dexter shouted again, his voice amplified by the mech itself. He moved a lever forward and the robot followed suit, with ground-shattering steps. No defender bots coming towards him, no battle mech similar to his one and ready to duel with him. He was apparently alone.
But he wasn't alone… and he knew it.
"MANDARK! SHOW YOURSELF!"
"As you wish, Dexter!"
And here he was, on one of the highest platforms of the facility. Mandark was in his usual villain suit and he wore the same, usual grinning expression. In normal circumstances Dexter would have thrown some type of verbal jab at him, but these were no normal circumstances at all.
"Mandark, explain yourself! What is going on?" Dexter asked, the robot mech pointing an accusing finger towards him. As the platform began to descend, Mandark laughed maniacally.
"Dexter, Dexter, Dexter, I thought you were the boy genius? Isn't it obvious? As it was obvious to me after I realized what was needed to be done?"
"Needed? Mandark, there are battles taking place all over the world! The pandemonium is expanding every minute and every one of the factions out there is using weapons of your design! How this was needed, Mandark? What are you trying to achieve?"
"Mhhh, really Dexter, you disappoint-"
"Cut the comedy and answer me! There are people dying under the power of your creations right NOW!"
Mandark frowned at the sudden interruption, but he continued nonetheless as the platform stopped and hidden machines began to move and do their work around them, "Mhh… You make me sick, Dexter. Your ego, your person… all of it. We have been fighting all this time, these years, as I tried to prevail… but one month ago, I realized what I did wrong. No, Dexter… fighting you was an error!"
Slowly, battle drones started circle around Dexter's robot suit. The redhead stood as stoic as ever, monitoring every data the screens around him displayed about his surroundings, but the main face of the mech was still looking directly at Mandark.
"In fact, there was no actual need to do so… Your laboratory? Puah! That hole in the ground has no meaning to me anymore… There was only one way to prove my superiority over you, Dexter… a riddle of sorts, a problem not even YOU, who you call yourself 'boy genius', could solve alone!"
As Dexter continued to combine the puzzle pieces Mandark was throwing at him, his scowl got larger. "And that's it, Dexter. Battles, you say? No, these are no urban riots, or skirmishes in some god forsaken lands… These are wars we're talking about. I spent the last month plotting, communicating, supplying, selling, corrupting, and there was no angle in the world that was left alone. Working day and night, unbeknownst to everyone, you included!"
Dexter's attempts to control what Mandark was doing had been useless. I cannot believe it… he did all of this while remaining safe and sound in his sanctum here, while I thought only about the way he could destroy my laboratory or meddle in my research… He's… he's…
"Surprised, Dexter? Let me explain it in a few words. I have myself caused the wars that are taking place right now around the globe. The level of my influence in every state is so deep there is no way even one country will be left unscathed… The entire humanity will fight or die fighting!"
Now it was Mandark who pointed at him with his hand: "This is the riddle, Dexter! You love to be considered a genius. You loved to play the hero numerous times in the past. Well, here you have it! Try to stop humanity from destroying itself!"
And after that last sentence, the silence in Mandark's laboratory was absolute, the only actual noise coming from the light buzzing of the various drones which occupied every possible cover around Dexter's mech location, waiting for a possible attack. Mandark folded his hands and waited for his rival to understand the extent of his brilliant plan. Maybe he was going to realize it was impossible, even for him? Maybe he was going to surrender now and admit his-
"What have you done, Mandark?"
The simple question momentarily dazed the villainous boy… for only a second, mind you. "What are you talking about, Dexter? I've just-"
"What have you DONE?!"
Dexter's tone was far from his usual, firm and somewhat ironic one. He was infuriated, all right, but there was something else in it… desperation?
"Do you realize what you've just done, Mandark? Do you realize what you've just started?!"
"The beginning of your end, Dexter!"
"The end of this planet ITSELF! Mandark, how can you not see it? If these… wars are not stopped, everything we know, everything, will be destroyed, vaporized to ashes!"
"Not the knowledge of your failure, Dexter, as I-"
"CUT THE CRAP OUT!"
Another sudden interruption, but the choice of words once again startled Mandark.
"Have you lost it? Do you care only about seeing my defeat? Mandark, these are wars we're talking about. Not games. They are going to kill each other until not a single enemy is left alive, they will level every settlement, they are not going to stop, not now that the conflict is global! You've doomed us all!"
Mandark thought about it for some time. After all, Dexter had a point… too bad he had already thought about it.
"I don't care."
"You don't care about seeing everything annihilated around yourself?!"
"I don't care, Dexter. Go, boy genius, go and try save the world this time. If you lose, the Earth will become a wasteland, but I will bask in victory after seeing your failure and nothing else will matter."
…
…
He's insane.
He's out of his mind… He was enough smart to realize what he was going to do would have caused. But he doesn't care… He's insane.
Have I caused this?
Have I inadvertently caused my arch-enemy to become this monster?
This was not going according to the plan. This was not expected. In reality, Dexter never thought about this possibility in the first place. For the first time, he had not underestimated Mandark… he had overrated him. He had thought that while being himself, Mandark was still a human being… Yet, he was no more. He had just began doomsday itself only for his own interest.
The problem was gigantic, and the solution was as much as complicated, yet from a point of view, simple. He needed to be at one hundred places at once, to do diplomacy as Cavour, Charles V and Caesar couldn't do even if added together, he had to stop the insanity before it reached the level after which there was nothing to foresee in the future but death.
Dexter had always been a stubborn, somewhat egoistic genius, with more than one bad habit. Even so, he had usually been able to make the decisions best not only for him but the people around him as well… at least he got better as the years passed and he grew up. Therefore, the prospect of seeing everything he knew about his world being demolished snapped something inside him. He remembered about Dee-Dee, being her usual self just half an hour before. He remembered about his dad and his mom. He remembered about the various allies he had met and the enemies he had fought during the years. Everything he had worked for.
He could do this. He could save the world even this time. He did not have to think about the possible outcome of a failure, of a victory of Mandark. In a way, it was not different to all his previous disputes with his arch-enemy.
He just needed to stick to the plan, and everything would be all right.
His mind sealed, Dexter had one only one thing left to do.
"Mandark."
"Finaly, Dexter, I thought you had passed out inside that tin can you call-"
"Shut. Up. You are not going to win, not even this time. I will go and stop the wars, these wars, because it's the right action, and I won't stop until I succeed."
"Good, it will be amusing to see your pitiful attempts while-"
Dexter continued, acting like he wasn't even hearing Mandark's speech, "but know this. When all of this will end, whether the world will be saved or not… You will pay for this. I'm going to come here, Mandark, and do what I should have done in the first place."
Mandark might have become crazy… but he was still bright enough to understand what his nemesis implied. It would have been somewhat right… if he won, he would be delighted to see Dexter's anger and sadness with his own eyes as his last wish. If he lost, there would be no point in continuing with his activities anyway... this was his last attempt. He clapped his hands before saying, "I'll be waiting for you!"
Without waving back, Dexter's mech took off for the sky as the mind of the boy genius was already full of ideas, courses of actions, calls to be made, and so on. Mandark observed it from the distance until it disappeared beyond the horizon.
We shall see each other again, Dexter, soon enough… and one way or another, I will be free of you…
END
Author's Note: And, with this story, I've finally completed the initial idea of the WAR series. These four stories were more or less imagined by myself together (more time was needed for this one due to my low familiarity with the series it's based on compared to the other ones and difficulty in finding a theme not already touched by the previous three stories... I'm still not completely convinced by the end result), and I personally think that they constitute together an interesting take on the shows and the theme I tried to examine. As I've previously stated, this series of fanfics is not supposed to have a real end, as all the stories are independent… I may add new ones, I may not. It only depends on whether or not new ideas come to my mind, which at the moment is unlikely. For now, if you are interested in it, you can consider the series concluded.