The spaceship was, put shortly, gigantic. Most of the Anti-Skulls piled in, and met Gary, the attorney who had helped them get to where they were now.
"Hello, there. Is everyone here? Ready to visit Namera?" Gary asked, casually.
"Everyone's here but Skips, who wants to work with Techmo to save our friends as soon as possible, and Benson, who has to delay Pops." Jeremy reported.
"Alright, then. We'll be off then." Gary said, before sitting in a chair at the front of the ship. None of the Anti-Skulls understood the control panel, so as Gary was operating it, confusion combined with excitement for Namera made the air tense. The ship slowly began to hover, giving everyone a sense of disorientation, as if they couldn't balance. Margaret fell right into Mordecai's arms. The blue jay helped steady her, before flashing a look at Carson. The tall, brown bird looked away quickly.
"Namera…I wonder how the Skull Crushers are going to be able to help." Rigby said, imagining a group of muscular commandos.
"I don't know. They were the ones that came up with the whole counter-nanochip plan in the first place. Though the plan failed, you have to admit, it nearly destroyed the Skull Master for good." Carson grinned, imagining strategic geniuses, with oversized heads to contain massive brains.
"Or maybe they're just like us…a rag-tag bunch that just wants to see justice served." Mordecai pitched in, imagining a parallel version of the Anti-Skulls.
"I'd bet they're a top-group of special agents that remain secretive and execute plans from their leader." Margaret sighed.
"Or maybe they're all dead." Doug said, bluntly, ruining the moment.
"We have just left the planet, it is too late to turn back without me feeling like this has been a complete waste of time." Gary reported.
"Well, I'll guess we'll find out exactly what the Skull Crushers are like when we meet them." Don said, optimistically.
…
"That ship…it has to be them." GBF Jr. said, darkly, spotting the gigantic hunk of metal. He sat in a chair in a spaceship of his own, operating it.
"You heard the Skull Master. We absolutely can't let them reach Namera!" a feminine voice said.
"I know that, Susan! That's why we're going to destroy their ship and leave them to die!" GBF Jr. growled.
"We'll absolutely dominate those ladies!" Muscle Man laughed.
"I can just see their ship exploding into flames! A perfect romantic backdrop!" Starla grinned.
"Whatever. I just wish the Skull Master sent more people to help. The Anti-Skulls outnumber us." Susan sighed.
"So what? We still outmatch them." GBF Jr. grinned, evilly.
"Can you try and gun 'em down, bro?" Muscle Man asked, approaching the control panel.
"Of course." GBF Jr. laughed, before pressing a series of buttons. Nothing happened.
"Bro, that's so lame!" Muscle Man said, disappointed. GBF Jr. just held up his hand, innocently.
"Just wait…things are about to get interesting." Susan said, exchanging a look with the pilot. It took three tense seconds before the gigantic ship in the distance began to suffer laser after laser.
"How much ammo does this thing have?!" Starla exclaimed, in glee, as a seemingly endless onslaught of lasers battered up the Anti-Skulls ship.
"Infinite. We have an energy core that generates its own energy! The Anti-Skulls should be toast in no time!" GBF Jr. grinned.
"The core of the ship…" a strange voice whispered, quietly enough so that nobody else heard. A ghost, who had hijacked the ship, began to explore within the walls. Where could the core be located? Hi-5 ghost knew that if he disabled the core, he would've disabled the Super Skull ship, which would save his friends. Where was the bloody thing?!
…
"We're taking quite a bit of damage." Gary said, nonchalantly.
"Dude! Don't we have any defense systems?!" Rigby exclaimed, as the ship began to tremble.
"Yes. We have two smaller pods that can launch from the back of our ship that can go out and shoot down the predator. The ship itself doesn't have any defenses. Remember, this is a Namerian Peaceful Immigration ship designed to bring in those seeking permits to access the Namerian system. Why would they add guns and such to an otherwise peaceful ship?" Gary replied.
"Alright, let's get to the back of this thing and access the pods to shoot down…whoever's shooting us!" Don said, making his way backwards.
"I'll do it!" Margaret yelled, determined to prove herself.
"And I'll do it too!" Carson and Mordecai shouted, at the exact same time.
"Thanks, Mordecai." Margaret blushed, as if she hadn't even heard Carson. The blue jay and the red bird climbed into the pods, while the tall, brown bird sulked in a corner.
"Launching pods in 3. 2. 1." Gary sighed, as if bored. He pressed a button, and Mordecai and Margaret were lost to the stars.
…
"Cease fire." GBF Jr. stated.
"What—bro?! WHY!?" Muscle Man squealed, nervous.
"We can only aim at one target at a time. Two unknown…things are approaching us." GBF Jr. growled.
"Muscle Man, how about you make yourself useful and sit down." Susan snapped. Muscle Man sat down.
"Why's he gotta sit?" GBF Jr. asked, confused. Susan dropped her voice to a whisper so that Muscle Man and Starla couldn't hear:
"I'm planning to turn him into an obedient Susan."
"Marvelous. Have I mentioned how useful you are?" GBF Jr. laughed, hearing the plan.
"So…are these two things any threat?" Susan asked.
"Doesn't hurt to play it safe." GBF Jr. grinned, aiming at one of the rapidly speeding pods.
"They're going to collide into us if they don't slow down." Susan said.
"Whatever." GBF Jr. sighed, before turning the lasers on again. They all hit one of the pods, and it exploded in a flurry of purple light.
…
"MARGARET!" Mordecai cried out, watching his friend's pod explode. There were no traces that the red bird had even been there a moment before. The blue jay felt an uncontrollable rage pulse through his body; no sadness, no grief. Just pure anger. The Skull Master was to blame for this. The Skull Master had abused her, had made her feel things that nobody should ever feel. The Skull Master was the reason that she volunteered for this-and he was the reason she was gone. No more. The blue jay, as if he had no will to live, pressed the self-destruct button on the pod. He then hurtled straight towards the Super Skull's ship.
…
"Ready to vaporize another?" Starla cackled in delight.
"Yup. Let me just aim and lock onto the target…" GBF Jr. grinned. But in the time it took to aim, Mordecai's pod had already collided with the Super Skull ship. The blue jay heard a computerized voice read out numbers; a countdown sequence. 3. 2. 1. A purple explosion tore into the side of the Super Skull's ship, damaging it severely.
"ARGH!" Muscle Man squealed, as he slid across the ship's floor. The Super Skull ship began to spin uncontrollably, before reentering Earth's atmosphere and hurtling towards the ground. Muscle Man felt himself being grabbed by something…before the ship literally passed right through him. Muscle Man realized he was floating, and the ship was now below him somehow. How'd he get out of the ship? Why wasn't he falling?
"You're welcome." A ghostly voice stated.
"Hi-5 ghost?" Muscle Man squealed.
"And Mordecai." A different voice said. The ghost set the two down on top of a skyscraper.
"You'll pay for messing up the Skull Master's plans!" Muscle Man squealed, before Mordecai promptly knocked him out.
"Sorry that…you know…" Hi-5 ghost sighed.
"I know. Margaret." The blue jay said, before producing an inhuman noise. Mordecai fell to his knees, and began weeping. Tears flowed, and an aura of sadness surrounded the blue bird.
"Let's go back to the park. Maybe Skips can revive her or something." Hi-5 ghost said, placing his hand on Mordecai's shoulder.
"Skips can't do anything. He couldn't stop the Skull Master from coming back. At the very beginning of this, Skull Master was literally just a chip. But poor Skips just watched Techmo get corrupted and vanish. If Skips had done something…" Mordecai began saying, trying to find out who to blame.
"You weren't there. You don't know how it happened, perhaps there was no way of stopping it." Hi-5 ghost sighed.
"Let's just go to the park. And if Skips can't save her…" Mordecai sighed, before shaking his head. The blue jay's eyes showed wildness.
…
"They did it." Rigby grinned, watching the Super Skull ship plummet back into Earth's atmosphere.
"Yeah. But Margaret..." Carson began, before looking solemnly at Rigby.
"She died." Don said, casually, as if she'd been dead for hundreds of years.
"I should've went instead of Mordecai. Maybe I could've…" Carson began saying, before Gary interrupted him.
"The Namerian wormhole is in sight, we should be near the Namerian system soon." The pilot said.
"Thanks for doing this." Don said, walking towards Gary. Doug just stared in shock.
"I can't believe such a little pod could do that much damage…" the mongoose sighed.
"I think that Mordecai must've hit like…an energy core or something, triggering the massive explosion." Carson theorized.
"Yeah. Margaret's pod didn't cause that big of an explosion when it got destroyed—you're probably right." Rigby said, quietly.
"Maybe Margaret could've lived." Don sighed, shrugging.
"For all we know, Mordecai's also dead. Did you see the size of that explosion?!" Carson said.
"Mordecai's not dead. We've been through worse." Rigby laughed, flash-backing at all the supernatural weirdness that happened at the park.
"I wish we could all share your optimism, kid." Doug sighed. Carson was about to speak again, before the ship went through the Namerian wormhole, causing everyone to scream.
…
Techmo read the notes that Skips had made on restoring the Super Skulls to their normal selves.
"Yeah, you got close a few times—but here's what I think. If we used a T-Mega-6 Cable, we could possibly hook up the chip to a computer, and run a deactivation program on the computer." The technomancer sighed.
"I'm so glad you're back with the good guys." The yeti laughed happily.
"And soon, Eileen and Chad will also be back." Techmo grinned.
"HAIL THE SKULL MASTER!" Chad yelled, in response. The yeti and the technomancer shared a laugh.
"Skips! Emergency!" Hi-5 ghost stated, before dropping Muscle Man and Mordecai.
"What happened? Where are the others?" the yeti inquired, his good mood dissipating.
"On their way to Namera. But the Skull Master tried to take down the ship that the Anti Skulls were in! Mordecai and Margaret used pods to stop him, but Margaret…was destroyed. Mordecai was able to steer his pod into an energy core and trigger an explosion that took the ship down, but now he's…lost his will to live." Hi-5 ghost reported.
"Margaret…" the blue jay moaned, as if waiting for a cue.
"Can we save her?" Hi-5 ghost asked.
"What happened to the Skull Master's ship?" Skips asked.
"It went down and exploded in a field close to a city…there were almost no casualties." Hi-5 ghost said.
"Alright. And Muscle Man?" Techmo asked, approaching.
"He's still a Super Skull, but I saved him." Hi-5 ghost sighed.
"We'll cure him with the rest." Techmo laughed, warmly, melting Hi-5's worries and concerns away.
"So, you want me to save Margaret, right?" Skips asked, getting back on track. Hi-5 ghost nodded.
"Well, I've been meaning to get in touch with Death for a while now. I fear that the Skull Master may have captured him…this seems like a good time to save him. If anyone can revive Margaret, it's Death." Skips stated.
"I'm going with you." Mordecai said, feeling determination once more.
"Thanks. Let's go." Skips said.
"I'll work on the cure with Hi-5 ghost." Techmo grinned. And with that, they split up.
…
"GBF Jr., Starla, and Susan were all killed when their ship went down." The Skull Master reported to his followers.
"Booooo!" the crowd yelled.
"The Anti Skulls will be arriving on Namera soon! With Death still in our captivity, we can go back for them, but time is running out. The new plan is to let the Anti-Skulls reach Namera…but to create a scenario whereas they cannot come back to Earth. Any ideas on how to make this a reality?" the Skull Master announced. The crowd burst into suggestion upon suggestion. The Skull Master grinned. This was going to be easy as pie.
…
The Anti-Skulls went through the final steps of the legalization process, and were granted access to Namera and all of its services. Gary agreed to become their guide temporarily for the strange planet of Namera itself.
"This thing is huge." Doug gasped, noticing how urban and futuristic the planet seemed to be.
"No kidding, this whole planet is like one giant city!" Don grinned, in awe.
"How are we supposed to find the Skull Crushers in a place like this?!" Rigby cried out, noticing the downsides of the situation.
"Why don't we just ask around and see what we can find?" Carson asked, before approaching somebody appearing to be in 'the know'. He had a black vest upon his shirtless torso, and his pants seemed to be too big, sagging to just below his wasteline.
"Whatcha want, silly bird?" the strange man taunted.
"I'm looking for a group of people that call themselves the Skull Crushers. Know what I'm talking about?" Carson inquired.
"The Skull Crushers were all annexed into the Namera's Police System. Their team was so good at stopping superpowered villains, they went from vigilante's to official peacekeepers once the Skull Master was killed." The man grinned, showing his few yellowed teeth.
"Skull Master? Killed?" Carson asked, confused.
"Yeah, they had reports that the counter-nanochip's code had left…meaning that the code went to the Skull Master's nanochip and killed him." The man cackled.
"You don't get it. He's back now…the code left the nanochip because the Skull Master deactivated it!" Don explained, as he approached.
"Impossible! The Skull Crushers would've known about that! And there's no way Yulon would've been so close to Skull Master long enough for the Skull Master to deactivate the chip!" the man growled.
"Yulon's dead." Gary said, bluntly.
"Aw, you crazies. Leave me alone." The man scowled, walking away.
"This isn't good. How are we supposed to contact the Skull Crushers if they're so high in authority?" Rigby asked.
"I've got this." Gary stated, pulling out a cell phone.
"He knows people." Don surmised, exchanging a look with Carson.
…
"Geez, the Skull Master's lair. But, we don't have Doug to fool the voice recognition system." Mordecai said, as he stepped out of the portal.
"Techmo knows this place pretty well and gave us some scramblers. Any tech the lair has will be rendered useless." Skips said.
"Wow." Was all that the blue jay could utter.
"It's apparent that if the Skull Master has Death, then Death'll probably be in his lair." Skips said, as the two walked into Z-0.
"Use the scrambler." Mordecai said. Skips did so.
"COMPUTER! Transport to Z-1!" the muscular yeti yelled. The transport capsule opened and the two climbed in.
…
"You sure that you know where they're holding Death?" Techmo asked, as he gently set Chad on the ground for the MedBots to attend to.
"I explored every nook and cranny of the Skull Master's lair, of course I do!" Hi-5 ghost grinned.
"And you couldn't free him because-?" Techmo asked.
"Because they're using energy beams to hold him…even I can't phase through those!" Hi-5 sighed.
"Energy beams? I'm going to guess they repel supernatural energies." Techmo said, watching as the MedBots continued to work tirelessly.
"Yeah, but your scramblers should take it down. I'm excited to have Death back in the Anti Skulls. He was who started the Anti Skulls in the first place!" Hi-5's grinned. The two exchanged a high five before leaving to free Eileen and Muscle Man.
…
"I can't get us to the Skull Crushers. They're treated as royalty for destroying the Skull Master alone." Gary sighed.
"Even if their plan had worked and Yulon DID kill the Skull Master, we had to be there to help him tirelessly! Seriously, the guy couldn't do squat on his own!" Rigby said, upset.
"So…how do we get in contact with Namera's top-notch force of justice?" Carson asked.
"Easy. We become top-notch criminals." Doug grinned.
(SIDE NOTE: And that wraps up the chapter! What's going to happen with Skips and Mordecai going on a mission to save Death?! Can Margaret be saved?! Will the Skull Crushers be reached?! Some of these questions will be answered next chapter, if there is a next chapter. Also, there has been a small rumor that I'm reviewing my own fic. No, no I'm not. I think the guest/anon reviews are all one person, but it's not me. But, I WILL ask for reviews because they mean a lot to me…though I ask for reviews pretty much at the end of every chapter. So..um…reviews = guaranteed chapters!)