Chapter 7 — The Rescue, Part I
Mooch and Hippie have returned to the Home Base from their uninterrupted week of training, stronger and better than when they started out. The two of them knew that most of the Bean Titans were working at the Moon Base. Pouch sensed that the two of them returned, so she told Scorch to explain the new situation to them.
Scorch met them in the Main Hall. "Hey guys." he greeted them.
"Hey, Scorch." Mooch and Hippie responded.
"Listen, I know you two just got back, but how fast can you make it to the forest chain in Arizona?"
"Pretty fast... why?" Hippie interrogated.
"Here's the trouble. Pouch, Christina and I have Slowpoke and Crunch resting in the Healing Room because they went along with Sly, Megan, Fortune and Chipper to stop Scaly from running away to join Wrinkle. Crunch and Slowpoke got cut down by Scurry—Slowpoke's wounds are tons worse than Crunch's. The fact that no one else is hurt means that Scurry is out of commission. Can you two do what you have to, whether it's saving the Titans or fighting the enemy?"
"Of course." Mooch answered.
"I need to get the Reversing Mirror real quick." Hippie said, running to his room and soon returning to the Main Hall with the small mirror in his hand. He also had his "necessary" Shen Gong Wu: the Sword of the Storm, the Blade of the Nebula, and the Crest of the Condor—all wind-based Wu.
Mooch already had his Z Sword, so they were ready to go. He put his arm around Hippie to hold on to him, while the rabbit activated his super-speed, rushing out of the Tower at a blinding speed.
BATTLE 1 (conclusion): Chipper and Fortune vs. Burn and Bruno.
As Mooch and Hippie were on the move, the two-on-two fight was getting down to the wire. Bruno was taken down by Fortune, but before he was ejected from the battle, he managed to fire a Death Beam (not a death-strike) through Fortune, managing to throw her energy reserves out of balance and causing her to black out.
Chipper was nearly out of luck, as she had only her Initial Sharingan and a little amount of energy left, while Burn (mildly exhausted) was still able to fight.
Burn cackled, floating in midair over Chipper. "Give up, half-pint. I can already see that you have nothing left in you—I could take you down with one fist if I wanted to." Burn bragged.
"He's right... I hardly have any chakra left, and it hurts to move my body. Wait...! I still have that move... I just don't know if it'll work." Chipper then ran back towards a tree.
Burn flew in after her. "One punch is all it'll take... and you won't be getting away from it!"
Chipper managed to crack a smile while running to the nearest tree. "Who says I'm running?" she mentally responded, jumping on the side of the tree and flipping off of it. A startled Burn was stopped, as Chipper landed on Burn's neck, choking it with her legs. While she was constricting him, she hammered his head with continuous, downward arc palms, attacking his head with the top of her wrists. Once his mind began to falter from the pain, Chipper launched him off of the ground and sent him into the air. For the finish, Chipper ran up and used the amount of chakra she had left to kick Burn in the back of the head with her Comet Kick—simply an energy-based kick with just enough power to knock Burn out. This entire sequence was called the Half-Beast's Barrage.
After her final move against Burn, she started to crawl in the direction where Sly and Megan went. "I have to... keep... going..." she uttered, before falling unconscious from lack of energy.
BATTLE 2: Megan (Legendary power) vs. Reptilius.
Reptilius quickly gained the upper hand, pushing Megan back every time she tried a direct attack.
She activated her Sharingan and tried a new plan, jumping high over Reptilius. She threw down a windmill shuriken.
"Really?" Reptilius uttered bluntly, prepared to easily dodge the projectile. He did not expect the shuriken to disperse and land as a square around him. Suddenly, the weapon came back together again, containing Reptilius and binding him with thin wires.
"Perfect... I can finish him here and now." Megan thought, still hovering over Reptilius with the leading wire end in her mouth. "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Megan unleashed her most powerful jutsu, channeling a big wave of fire at Reptilius.
Reptilius took the damage head-on, shaving off about a quarter of his health. "I'm still here..." he mentally said, before sensing that Megan had disappeared from the air. "What?"
"I'm not done yet!" Megan told him, kicking him up into the air. She planned on following up with her Lions Barrage, using Dancing Leaf Shadow to appear under Reptilius in midair. "Take this!" She tried to kick the side of his body, but Reptilius faded away into a green miasma. He reformed himself under her, as if he were using her own Dancing Leaf Shadow against her. She turned around to see her foe, and that was the worst mistake of the battle.
"Serum Gaze." Reptilius murmured, penetrating her mind with a toxic boom, causing her to nearly black out in an instant. The squirrel fell to the ground, but slowly tried to pull her self up despite her dismantled senses. Reptilius showed no mercy, as he knocked her unconscious with his tail to the back of her head. He actually aimed to kill her, preparing to fire an Acid Blast on her. That was until...
"Deflection." Mooch said, suddenly appearing between Megan's body and Reptilius, throwing the Acid Blast off with the sheath of the Z Sword. "That's enough." Mooch told him.
Reptilius sensed Hippie also, who set Chipper and Fortune down nearby, yet completely safe from the reptile's clutches. Hippie did the same for Megan, after Reptilius distanced himself from Mooch.
"Ya think we can beat him?" Hippie whispered to Mooch.
Mooch unsheathed the Z Sword. "One way to find out."
The two-on-one fight begins.
BATTLE 3 (Stage 1 of 5): Sly vs. Scaly.
Sly, still standing on the lake, used his Shadow Clone Jutsu for four clones. The five of them ran up the rock that Scaly stood on—each wielding an Energy Pole, in an effort to make the first big offensive on the komodo dragon.
"Bring it." Scaly uttered, seeing the five Slys in the air.
He expected them to attack with the poles. Instead, they threw them straight up, over Scaly's position. The poles bounced off of each other and slowly began to form a pentagon in the spaces between them; the ends of the poles are the pentagon's corners. Following this, the five Slys used their Fire Fox technique—shrouding themselves in a flaming aura—and converged within the empty pentagon. They pulled the poles together while enflamed, then the clones disappeared, while the real Sly called out "Burning Emblem" to command a powerful blast of fire to descend from the pentagon to Scaly. At the last second, Scaly used Flash Step to avoid the blast and appear on the lake.
"Hey!" Sly called, fifty meters away from Scaly, on the lake as well.
Scaly looked over to see Sly, who was swirling chakra into a ball in his hands—the Rasengan. "Two can play at that game..." Scaly mentioned, generating an Acid Sphere in his hand.
The two of them ran up to each other and clashed with both orbs of energy. The collision of both balls made powerful pressure waves in the air, pushing the water below them and forcing great gales of wind in all directions. Sly and Scaly were eventually forced away from each other after the clash.
Scaly hissed. "I guess I'm gonna have to get serious." Scaly thought, ascending to Legendary Power. Sly matched him, still worried about seriously hurting Scaly. The komodo dragon did not care, using his Serum Volley (a barrage of acid blasts) on Sly.
The fox evaded the blasts, but was tricked into an immediate physical assault from Scaly. As he was getting inflicted with pain, Sly could not find it in him to go beyond his Legendary strength to overpower Scaly. However, he finally realized how careless that Scaly was becoming with his own well-being—not just with others. While being held in a chokehold by Scaly (who was prepared to plunge an Acid Sphere through Sly), Sly acted on the opportunity to slowly use his "other" chakra; it was a burnt orange color and the source of this energy came from the special mark on his stomach. This energy began to form an aura around the fox.
Scaly witnessed this, feeling Sly's power gradually growing. He pushed his Acid Sphere through Sly's chest, and it seemed that Sly's energy immediately disappeared. "It's too late, Sly... it's over." Scaly uttered.
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