A/N: Last time, the two opposing teams met in a semi-friendly face-off, and the not-so-friendly Cosmos' coach Pete now has a sinister idea to ensure that his team wins the championship. What could it be? Find out, starting right now!
ToonSchool: Power Rebound
Chapter 2: Power Outage and Transfer
Later that night, Pete, now in a black trenchcoat and hat, walked through the docks of ToonTown. He reached the door to a warehouse and knocked on the door. A mechanical eye popped out of the wall and stared at him.
"State your business," an automated voice said.
"I'm here to see the Professor. Name's Pete," Pete said to the eye.
"Ah, yes. Mr. Pete, I've been expecting you," the voice said. The door then opened to reveal Jimmy Neutron's long time enemy, Prof. Finbarr Calamitous.
"So Professor, you got the goods?" Pete asked with a sly grin.
"Do you have the money?" Calamitous asked back. Pete then opened his suitcase to reveal large wads of cash. "Excellent, follow me."
Calamitous led Pete through his warehouse, which was filled with lots of inventions, many unfinished. Finally, they came across a device that looked like a high-tech compact vacuum cleaner.
"This is the Atomic Vacuum," he informed Pete. "It can detect large quantities of radiated atomic energy within seconds. Once aimed at a target with large amounts of atomic energy, it can be used to extract it as quickly and covertly as possible, so the victim won't even know what hit them. It can also be used to lend the energy to others."
Pete's eyes widened with glee as he said, "This is just what I've been looking for." He picked up the device.
"With this, those puny little All-Stars won't stand a chance, and the championship title will finally be mine, all mine," Pete cackled evilly.
The Next Day…
In the ToonSchool gymnasium, the All-Stars and cheerleaders were hard at work practicing for the championship game, with the rest of the gang and other students watched them as usual.
"Come on, Tony, Timmy. Move the ball, move the ball!," Coach Oscar Proud called to the players as they scrimmaged.
"Let's go, Stitch, Buttercup, move your feet," Coach Wizard Kelly called as well. Timmy quickly passed the ball to Jimmy, who quickly found himself guarded by Darrell and Manny. Jimmy tossed it up to Danny (who was in his ghost form, who then passed it to a flying Bubbles, who zipped down for a quick slam dunk.
"Great work, Bubbles!," June said as the rest of the team cheered.
"Very good, but you know, it wouldn't hurt to try and practice without your powers too you know," Coach Proud said.
"Coach is right. If you ask me, we're getting a little too reliant on our powers here," Daryl said. He once again was concerned about the team counting superpowers to win the championship.
"Oh, come on, these powers are the reason we're undefeated!," Ben said.
"Yeah, it's surprising that the athletic board allowed us to use them as long as we didn't harm anyone with them," Blossom said.
"And with them, plus our raw talent–mainly Dennis, Darrell, and Tony–that championship, and our perfect season are in the bag!," Dash Parr said as everyone cheered and then got back to practice.
Unknown to everyone, Pete was hiding under the bleachers with his Atomic Vacuum and was ready to carry out his sinister plan.
"Okay, now who should I start with?," he asked himself. He then set eyes on Danny, who was in ghost form. "The Phantom Boy. Perfect!"
Pete then fired up the Atomic Vacuum and then aimed, locked onto, and fired it at Danny. A plasma energy-like beam shot out, snaked throughout the court unbeknownst to everyone, and intangibly entered Danny's body.
Upon this, Danny started to twitch and jerk around uncontrollably. The beam then exited his body, taking a ball of green energy with it, and causing Danny to return to human form. As the team kept running drills and such he tried to "go ghost" again and found that he couldn't. Some of the team took notice of this.
"Hey Danny, are you okay?," Danielle asked her cousin/template/adopted brother.
"I don't know. For some reason I can't go ghost again," Danny answered. He was worried, as this had never happened to him before.
Meanwhile the beam returned to Pete and transferred the green energy ball into the Vacuum's cylinder.
"It worked, I got his powers!," Pete cackled sinisterly.
A little later on, as Danny went to be evaluated by the school nurse the team continued to run drills and practice. However, Pete took aim at Jake (who was in dragon form) and shot a beam at him, which, like with Danny, entered his body, caused him to twitch and jerk around uncontrollably before exiting his body, taking a ball of red energy with it, and returning him to human form.
Like Danny, Jake found himself unable to transform or use any of his powers, which stunned the team and everyone else again.
"What's up with you, Jake," Tony asked.
"I don't get it, yo! This ain't never happened before!," Jake replied in dismay.
"I think we need to call Grampa and Fu Dog about this," Jake's sister Haley suggested.
"For once I agree with you, Haley," Jake said as he and Haley left the gym. The rest of the ToonSchool gang then joined the others on the court.
"Man, first Danny and now Jake. Something fishy's going on here," Mac said.
"I know, but what?," Dennis asked. Unknown to them, Pete, having retrieved Jake's powers, snickered evilly.
"That's two down, a whole lot more to go!," he cackled.
Next, Pete struck the PowerPuff Girls, stealing their powers just as they were about to do a special combo play they had come up with. The girls were thus left unable to fly or do anything super, while Pete collected their powers (in the forms of pink, blue, and soft green energy balls) in the Atomic Vacuum.
Then, Pete hit June and stole her powers just as was attempting a layup. As a result, June was left with no longer had her magic connection or her superhuman strength, agility, etc. and Pete collected them (in the form of a violet energy ball).
Next, Pete targeted Danielle, stealing her ghost powers as she tried to make a steal from Darrell, and turning her back to human form. She was left unable to transform or use anything while Pete collected her powers (in the form of a regular green energy ball).
Following this, Pete went after Ben, draining the energy from his Omnitrix while he was in Diamondhead form, causing him to return to human form and the watch to go dead. While Ben tried in vain to get the watch working again, Pete collected it's power (in the form of a green and black energy ball).
Later, Pete targeted Dash Parr, stealing his super-speed powers as he zipped up the court to make a superfast slam dunk, causing him to trip and fall. As Dash tried and failed to use his powers Pete collected them powers (in the form of a red and yellow energy ball) into the Vacuum.
Then, as Manny, in El Tigre form, tried to make a fastbreak layup, Pete fired up the vacuum again, and drained the power from his El Tigre belt, turning him back to normal. Pete collected the power, in the form of a dark energy ball, as Manny tried to figure out what was wrong with his belt.
Figuring there were no more super-powered students, Pete then turned his attentions to the cheerleader squad. He saw Dash's sister Violet, using her force field powers to catapult the cheerleaders as part of a routine. Seeing his chance, he fired up the Vacuum and zapped her, causing her powers to fail just as Angelica jumped, which resulted in her falling on top of Violet. Pete then snickered as he collected her powers (in the form of a red and black energy ball) into the Vacuum's cylinder.
Pete then wandered outside where he saw Kick Buttowski skateboarding for a small crowd. Deciding that he could use Kick's super agility and endurance, Pete fired up the Vacuum and zapped him, causing Kick to suddenly lose control and fall flat on his face. As the crowd gathered around Kick and his wingman Gunther tried to see if he was okay, Pete collected his abilities (in the form of a red and white energy ball) into the Vacuum's cylinder.
Finally, Pete noticed Mas Y Menos super-speeding nearby the scene, and decided to quickly zap them, stopping them in their tracks and collecting their powers in the form of a two linked white energy balls.
"Finally, I did it! And now for phase two of my sneaky little scheme!," Pete snickered.
Later on that night, Pete had called an emergency team meeting at Lunar Pacific Academy's schoolyard, and within minutes, the whole team was there.
"What's up, Coach?," Bobby asked.
"I called you all here because I have the answer to help you all win that championship next Saturday!," Pete said.
"Hey, if it's steroids, we're not doing that. We know what those drugs can do to you," Joanna said.
"Oh, it's not drugs, Joanna…it's power…All-Star power that is!," Pete said as he unveiled the Atomic Vacuum cylinder with all the stolen superpowers inside.
"What are those glowing orbs?," Navid asked.
"Those were the super-powers of the ToonSchool All-Stars-plus one of their cheerleaders and a few other students. But tonight, they're gonna be your powers! And with them, the championship will be mi-ours!"
"You stole their powers?!," Emil gasped as the rest of the team reacted in shock.
"You can't seriously think we'd take their powers and use them against them in the championship game?!," A.J. said. He then turned to his teammates. "Right guys."
"Yeah, A.J.'s right, Pete, I dunno about all this," Maylene said.
"Yeah, this is cheating at it's worst," Harold added. "I will not have any part in it!"
"Me neither!," Francis added.
"Us too," Virgil and Virgo said in unison.
Pete frowned at this for a moment, before he said with a smirk, "Okay, very well, if that's your decision. But it would be a shame that you couldn't bring a championship home for your poor, late grandfather, twins."
"How do you know about that?," Virgil asked.
"I know all of your reasons for wanting to win this game: I know, you, Bobby, wants to get a jump on your professional dreams as an NBA player. And Michael, A.D., and Amy. You're all driven to be the best and winners by your folks and yourselves. Emil, you wants to bring a championship home and end the school's 17-year drought. Yancy, you wants to bring home first place gold, instead of second place silver for a change. Joanna, you wants to show girls and boys can play and win on the same team, Francis and Maylene you want to show your folks that you could have superstar futures with basketball. Ricky, you want to show Yo-Yo Boy who's boss once and for all! Harold, you want respect for being an athletic nerd, and Navid, you want to impress you family, who is coming down from your home country to see you play."
Upon hearing Pete remind them of their reasons for winning, the rest of the team started to consider his plan to win…all that is except one.
"No way!," A.J. said to his friends. "Look guys, I want to win just as much as you do, but is this the way? The right way? The honorable way?"
"Sorry, A.J. But Pete might have a point. I'll do it," Bobby said as he stepped forward.
"But Bobby-," A.J. started to say. Just then Michael stepped up as well.
"I'm in too," he said. One by one, the rest of the team followed, except A.J.
"Guys..?"
"What about you, A.J.? Are you in or not?," A.D. asked. A.J. looked with dismay at his teammates, stunned that they would agree to cheat like this. He then frowned with anger as he told them, "NOT!"
"Fine then, forget about him. Nothing's worse than a disloyal teammate," Pete said as he made the rest of the team gather around. He then attached an orb-like device to the hose of the Atomic Vacuum, and had all the Cosmos, sans A.J. place a hand on it.
Pete then put the vacuum in reverse, and zapped each one of the Cosmos with one orb of super-powered energy.
The players then twitched and jerked around as the powers' energy coursed through their bodies. Then suddenly, Bobby and A.D. started to glow green and their skin turned pale and their hair white.
Michael's skin suddenly became reddish and scaly, and his hands became claw-like, and he started to breathe fire.
Joanna became immersed in purple electric power, and a white streak formed in her hair.
Francis suddenly and quickly morphed between multiple alien forms until stopping on a FourArms-like form.
Navid suddenly morphed into the appearance of a humanoid black jaguar.
Harold suddenly went from invisible to visible, on-and-off again multiple times, and rapidly put up and dropped force fields.
Emil started jumping and zipping around and crashing into stuff, but remaining unharmed.
Yancy and the Largo twins started super-speeding around all over the schoolyard.
And Maylene, Amy, and Ricky took off into the sky flying around in streaks of pink, blue, and green lights respectively.
Soon the team had calmed down and everyone began to observe the changes their bodies had gone through, as Pete and A.J. watched.
"What a rush!," Bobby said.
"Are you guys okay," A.J. asked, concerned for his friends.
"Better than whatever you think," Amy replied.
"Good. Then you have no objections to mastering your new powers, and crushing those All-Stars in the championship next Saturday!," Pete sneered.
"No problem at all coach," Bobby said, with the rest of the team agreeing, except A.J.
"No, guys, this isn't right!," A.J. objected.
"Hey, look Yorke, we've got a lot riding on this championship and you are not gonna mess it up with your bellyaching! Got it?!," Ricky bellowed. He wasn't going to let A.J.'s conscience ruin their goals. The rest of the team then glared at A.J., who could do nothing but back off. "Didn't think so."
"So then, see you all tomorrow for a very, very special practice!," Pete said. "And uh, don't tell your folks about this, eh?"
"Yes, coach!," the rest of the team, sans A.J. said. They all then left the schoolyard for home, leaving A.J. behind with his thoughts.
"My God, what have we done?," he said, disappointed with his teammates' choice to cheat.
A/N: Oh, boy. Not only have the All-Stars lost their powers, but the Cosmos have gained them, courtesy of Pete! How will this affect both teams? Find out, on Chapter 3, coming soon!
