Chapter Four: When the Captain Commands

There were many other places where terror had struck; however, there were not only Gargoyles but actual villains.

High above the skyscrapers of Midtown, we find the preacher Jebidiah running for his life with a young girl next to him. "Keep moving, Nepgear!" Jebidiah exclaimed as he ran. "Don't stop until you are sure we've lost him!"

Behind them, the creature known simply as Black came marching towards them, blasting a laser ray. Though every shot made him miss, he continued to move on until he reached his victims. "EXTERMINATE!" he exclaimed. "EXTERMINATE!"

Every time Nepgear looked back, she saw that Black was catching up to her very quickly. She suddenly stopped once she reached a dead end. "Now that it seems like I'm caught…" she thought silently, "…it's my turn to strike back!"

As Black was getting closer, Nepgear quickly transformed to her goddess form of Purple Sister (the sister of Neptune, also known as Purple Heart). Black was suddenly shocked by the transformation, but he planned to keep on fighting.

Jebidiah was paying no attention to what was going on anymore. "Lord protect me from this evil…" he muttered in exhaustion.

Nepgear fought her way to push Black off the edge of the building, but the rest was done by someone else. Suddenly, Jak came and blasted Black right off that rooftop and watched him fall all the way down to the street below. But hearing his scream as he fell meant that it was not over; not until the biggest source of this attack was destroyed completely.

"That's strange," Jak spoke up to Nepgear. "I've never seen you before."

"But I'm starting to get a strange feeling," Nepgear replied. "I seem to be remembering something…important. I'm thinking of… Somehow, the figure of a girl is coming to my mind. Her name is being cleared for me now… Yes! Now I remember! Pupuru! She needs me! I must go find her! But first I must find my sister for assistance."

Meanwhile, at the snowy roads of Black Rock Ridge, Spike and PaRappa had fought their many Gargoyles and cleared the area. In the process, they had captured the villain known as Specter and the mighty fighter Heihachi Mishima. And it was all thanks to Spike's powerful monkey-catching nets; they were strong enough even to catch a human being.

"Well that takes care of it," Spike said as he looked around to check for any more Gargoyles. "But I have a strange feeling about this attack."

"Me too, Spike," PaRappa replied. "I seem to have that strange feeling as well. But the problem is: where can it be?"

"I'm not waiting around to find out. We've got to know who's behind EVERYTHING before this invasion gets worse!"

At the horrid land of Transylvania, we find grim and foreboding the castle of the diabolical Count Dracula. Nariko and Cole MacGrath fought the vampire himself, as well as his creation known as SweetToothimus Prime.

(Note from the author: SweetToothimus Prime is the Sweet Tooth ice cream truck transformed into what is called a "Sweet Bot".)

"Don't try to come at me, MacGrath!" SweetToothimus Prime exclaimed as he fired a laser from his hand-held cannon. "One blast is all it will take to destroy you forever!"

But Cole was faster than Prime had thought; he possessed powers beyond imagination. And so it was easy for him to destroy Prime and turn him into a pile of broken metal.

"You may have destroyed my machine!" Dracula taunted at Nariko and Cole. "But you cannot defeat me! My powers are flawless and beyond anyone's imagination!"

"Don't underestimate my sword!" Nariko replied. "I use it to fight for right and freedom!"

(Note from the author: Because I am making the dialogue so dull, I'm just going to cut the fight short right here.)

Dracula's lair may have been destroyed by such great power from Cole and Nariko, but the vampire himself managed to escape. "You have not seen the last of me!" Dracula exclaimed as he transformed into a bat and flied away.

"I hope we HAVE seen the last of him," Cole said as he watched Dracula fly out of the scene. "And yet, something strange is in the air."

"I already know that the Polygon Man is behind it," Nariko replied. "But there is something ELSE with him; he is combining his power with someone else's."

"But if the Polygon Man is not behind the WHOLE thing, then who IS? That's what I want to know."

Later, at Los Angeles, Nepgear desperately ran for the League of Heroes' mansion in search of her sister Neptune. She knew for a fact that Pupuru had to do with the entire danger that the Polygon Man and Mr. Grimm were causing.

But right when Nepgear arrived, she found that Neptune was already there with Dart Feld.

(Note from the author: Dart Feld is the main protagonist from the Red Eye Dragoon franchise. I used him in the cancelled series, but a request from my partner Needle Kirby told me to bring him back for this story.)

"Have you found Pupuru yet?" Nepgear asked as she approached them. She transformed back to her normal form.

"No," Neptune replied. "We just got here ourselves. We don't know if Pupuru is here for sure."

"Why are we just wasting time?" Dart came in. "Let's see who's home."

Neptune softly knocked on the mansion's door, and someone immediately opened it to answer. Captain Qwark had come to the door to answer Neptune's call. "Excuse me?" he spoke up. "Do I know you?"

"Maybe you have, and maybe you haven't," Dart replied. "We're here to see a young girl…"

"Of course!" Qwark interrupted. "You want to see Pupuru. But you can't see her right now because she's on a very important mission with Ratchet."

In the living room, Clank heard what Qwark said, in which it set his mind to where Ratchet had taken Pupuru to. "I really wish Ratchet would have taken me with him," he thought silently to himself. "He really means a lot to me."

Once Nepgear and the others walked in, she suddenly saw Clank sitting right there on the couch. She smiled really big and quickly ran towards him. "I never thought I would actually see Secret Agent Clank in real life!" she exclaimed happily. "I've got so many questions to ask you!"

"Well, you're in the wrong place," Clank whimpered in reply. "I prefer you hug Dr. Nefarious over there."

"I don't think so, cute little Clank! You're stuck with me!"

Meanwhile, Neptune and Qwark had argued about what would happen in the next few minutes. "Don't say I didn't warn you if Ratchet keeps you away!" Qwark exclaimed at Neptune. "But it's your choice if you want violate his orders."

"We're going for Pupuru anyway," Neptune replied. "We know she has the key to stop this invasion."

"Then go on, you idiots! Like I said, don't say I didn't warn you!"

ARE THINGS GOING TO QUICK FOR YOU? I'M JUST TRYING TO HURRY THIS THING UP SO WE CAN GET TO THE GOOD STUFF. UNTIL THEN, SEE YOU SOON!