Chapter 13

Hmm… Not many hits. Though I suppose going 6 days without an update can do that. Especially in such a small fanfiction niche. Ah well. I suppose I shouldn't complain. Though I haven't received many reviews as of late.

For any of you that read this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story. One reason I can probably attribute the lack of reviews is because of the earlier chapters of my story. Seeing as I haven't done the rewrite yet (cause Act 1 ain't done yet.), It can be a pretty tough read.

As for any confusion, I've set the Chipmunk's birthday to the last day of July. The Chipettes have their birthday the day before thanksgiving. Fun facts.

I'm also in the planning stages of a new story. I won't say much except that I hope it's much more epic than this one. Enjoy chapter 13!

Dave winced as the loud, piercing car horn shook him from his stupor. The light had turned green. The embarrassed man sped away and focused himself on the road ahead. And yet his thoughts still plagued him.

The court date was a week away, the day before the Chipmunks' birthday. Unbelievable. Dave could only describe his life as a series of events spiraling out of control. Was he some kind of puppet to be pulled to and fro by some sadistic-

A car horn knocked reality to the forefront once again. Dave sighed in relief as he barely avoided colliding with a minivan in the opposite lane. This was getting dangerous. Dave pulled over and double parked near a row of shops. He took a few deep breathes to clear his mind and organize his thoughts.

No. He thought. I can't let my boys down. I have to be strong. I'm going to see my lawyer tomorrow and we're going to plan for victory. Ian Hawke will not destroy the lives me and my boys' have worked hard to create. Not while there's still breathe in my body.

Dave nodded to himself in total agreement. He looked to the passenger's seat and eyed the nut shaped cake. He would protect his boys, no matter what. That was a promise.

Percy mused over the past week. It was productive… for the most part. Well, maybe Simon giving him another black eye wasn't productive. But it was progress. Was progress being productive? Did that even make sense?

This is stupid. Let me get back to the point… Percy thought.

Brittany and Alvin had followed him around non stop. The questions had come like a torrential flood. Brittany wanted to know everything her Talent. Alvin wanted to know if he was like some stupid guy from a comic book or something. How was he supposed to know who this Jake Stormy was anyway? And what kind of dude has Strom or whatever as a name and uses fire as a superpower? That was just retarded in his opinion.

Then Percy had to endure the begging and the whining and the pleading. They wanted training. Alvin had a Talent that Percy knew nothing about, at all. Leave it to the Knight to come up with an original Talent. What an ass… developing a stupid fire talent then assuming I could train him.

Though he could train Brittany. And so he did. The girl had learned how to pluck the strings of reality and create a masterpiece. A real fucking masterpiece. Not like those stupid baby ones you hear about on television but are really just dudes autotuning their voices like Talentless idiots.

Brittany had learned quickly, taking simple concepts and expanding upon them in ways even he didn't know were possible. The Chipette was insanely powerful too. In a few years, Percy wagered she could wear him down to a stalemate. That was saying Percy had heard, Alvin had jumped off the roof.

Flashback …

Alvin coughed as smoke filled his lungs once again. The burning sensation was far less… lethal tasting than usual. Black, grimy soot covered the chipmunk's fur. Wide amber eyes darted across the vast suburban landscape with enthusiasm.

He needed no witnesses… yet.

Alvin was excited. Or perhaps that was an understatement. He was going to be the next Johnny Storm. He just knew it!

This entire exercise was going to be proof of that. The first task was to test his powers. Once he mastered flight, Alvin knew he could do anything. The world was a plucky oyster ready to be thrown into the trash. Was that the expression? Yeah, that was it. No way it could ever be anything other than that. Ever.

Alvin calmed himself a bit with a deep breathe but soon regretted it. Another series of fiery hacking filled the air with its painful sound. The smoke didn't sting his eyes anymore. After the first few days of coughing up smoke, they had gotten somewhat used to the sensation.

But now wasn't the time for reminiscing. No. He had a roof to jump. Alvin readied himself for the task ahead. Counting to three mentally, he charged across the tiled roof on all fours. He ran out of ground in moments, tiny clawed legs kicking at the air furiously.

"Flame on!" Nothing happened. Alvin panicked as his body began to descend. The ground sped towards him at speeds the chipmunk didn't even know were possible. "Oh crap!"

Alvin steeled himself as his body dropped like a rock. This was going to hurt. Not like in the movies hurt. This was going to be real hurt. Hurt that was strong enough to kill him.

But it never came. What Alvin felt, or didn't feel as was the case, was the total numbness in his lower body. Instead of finding bloody, broken limbs, Alvin could only see ash cast upon the ground.

Brittany followed the screaming to the poor idiot and promptly began helping him reform the rest of his body. Not Alvin's greatest moment at any rate.

Then there was Jeanette and Simon; an ungodly pair if he ever saw one.

Jeanette had the same Talent as Vex. That meant Percy could teach her the basics. What Jeanette did was similar to Brittany's power, in that they both affected reality. Well… affecting reality wasn't really what Jeanette could do.

She created an illusion of reality. Smoke and mirrors were the staples of such a Talent. Everything she did was a lie masked as the truth while he and Brittany actually created the truth. Percy wondered if he was biased, then realized that he was far too awesome to even think of something like that. Hell, he could change reality with his mind. Physics? A toy to be tossed around and played with. Common sense? Mere putty in his hands.

But to get back to the point. Jeanette had learned quick, as was expected. Simon on the other hand had proved to be much more difficult to work with. Nothing short of utter contempt was shown for Percy's attempts at good will.

I mean jumping out of bathroom closets while you used the bathroom was a bit creepy. But it was for a good cause! Percy didn't want the guy to die a horrible death by his own Talent. The Rook deserved better after all.

Why all the chess analogies? Percy didn't know. His visions came and went, leaving him filled with knowledge on some subjects and completely oblivious in others. Everything, in time, would come to him. Percy had already seen it.

In the end, Percy was put in a familiar position with him curled on the floor, clutching his swelling eye, while Simon stood there in all his angst. This was getting ridiculous. But Percy resolved to take things a bit slower. The Rook would require more than fear or… chipmunks jumping out of closets. No. He would wait for a revelation, a vision of enlightenment to tell him what to do.

Perhaps stealing the boy's A.I. would be enough. The omniscient chipmunk mulled over that particular revelation. That A.I. was needed to operate the conduit. Without it, the machine would only be half as efficient. Could reality-tearing machines perform at half their normal capacity? Stupid omniscience. Always coming up with this vague bullshit.

Percy decided to think about the last pair of chipmunks. Now they were the true cornerstones of his future plans. How? Well the avatars of Conquest and Destruction were important no matter what. They held great power. Power from both Heaven, and the depths of Hell as well. A recent revelation had relayed the story of the war between Heaven and Hell. God and Satan watched their vanguards battle each other across dimensions, unaffected from time. Massive armies and extremely powerful warriors nearly tore the universe apart until God and Satan both intervened and stopped the armies.

Satan forced one of his mightiest generals, Destruction, into exile as a primal force. God did the same with Conquest who became a conscious force. Through Conquest came Destruction, and through Destruction came Conquest. They developed into universal constants and retained their divinity not through the continual offering of prayer or through direct belief, but through the actions of mortal man.

The two survived, and eventually thrived. They created avatars to further their goals in the mortal world. As creatures untouched by time and its laws, they needed some form of connection that was. These avatars plotted wars, started conflicts, and drowned the world in sorrow. And now the youngest of the Chipmunks and Chipettes were chosen to be Destruction and Conquest's avatars respectively. How… unfortunate for them.

As tools, they served an agenda far above their own wants and needs. Eleanor and Theodore would forever remain as pawns; puppets to be paraded about at the whims of others. The irony of the situation was that they would also remain ignorant of this until it was too late.

Their Talents easily identified them as the embodiment of their prospective universal entities. They would eventually serve some purpose for their masters, but for now they served Percy's purposes. Truthfully, Percy had no idea what those purposes were. But there was always time to find out. For now, he could help them only on how to call out their Talents and no more. The two would have to find out how to use their Talents on their own. That could be a problem in the future. Maybe...

But Percy had even bigger problems. The Seville family would soon suffer a tremendous financial blow. Ian Hawke had a legion of lawyers and legal advisors securing him one heck of a payday. The question begged an answer; How could some reject with barely any money to his name pay for all the legal expenses? Someone was helping the greasy little jerk.

And considering the fact that few lawyers would want to face the Chipmunks in a legal battle was another sign that the sleazeball was getting help. Only one group came to mind. The Institute for Human Affairs was an enemy to all non-humans. They had wiped out the sentient rat population decades back. They helped fuel the not-so-legal human experiments over the course of the twentieth-century. Hell, they probably kicked puppies and drowned kittens too. They were going to be a fearsome enemy. That was for sure.

Percy was already losing this 6-year war, however. The Institute had no idea who they were facing until recently, when some tool named John came on the scene with some solid info. Percy still kicked himself for letting a Canadian proxy run his mouth off to a bunch of Institute supporters. Until then, his human proxies(1) had been the target of the Institute's attacks.

Now they were slowly being exterminated. But Institute couldn't try anything in his citadel of L.A.

No. He had the largest and most advanced commune in the entire world situated here. But apparently they were trying less direct means of attack. This legal battle was no doubt a way to draw him out into the open, or at least put down the Chipmunks and Chipettes. Percy wouldn't stand for it. Not in his house.

And yet, he couldn't play into the Institute's hand. Supporting the Seville family with the right lawyers would no doubt attract suspicion. Dave barely had any money left in his accounts, what with all the charity events. Honestly, Dave had to be the worst financial planner in the history of…

Whatever. This probably paled in comparison to the fact that HE DIDN"T KNOW WHERE THE CONDUIT WAS!

All of his plans relied on that magnificent machine. All of the plans. All of them. But he didn't have it, didn't know what it looked like, and didn't know where or when he was supposed to get it. Yet more fanciful prophetic bullshit to mount on his wall. He was supposed to get a vision or something to help him make or find this machine. Still, nothing came.

Percy turned his thoughts back to the two fluffy yet crucial parts of his grand scheme. Eleanor was a bit more vibrant than usual. Her frilly little girl laughs were actually a bit more elegant now. Perhaps a side effect from her birthright? Theodore was more aggressive and irritable now. And if he was hungry, oh boy…

Flashback…

Heavy banging could be heard coming from the kitchen. Pots and pans cluttered and clanged about, drawing Percy through his curiosity. Did a raccoon or something get in? Maybe a really hungry stray. Either way, something's ass was going to be kicked.

The chipmunk crept across the hallway to the other end. He poked his head around the corner, then promptly ducked. A pot came careening through the air and landed just inches behind him.

"Well that isn't very nice…" He joked quietly. Percy took another peek and found Eleanor propped up on yet another discarded pot. He dashed across the floor and leapt to join her.

"Eleanor, what the hell is going on? Who's trashing the kitchen?"

"Who else? Its Teddy. I told him we ran out of food and he just went crazy. I've been watching him ever since." She replied simply. He deadpanned.

"Your joking… There's no way- Ooof"

A larger than normal Theodore collided with Percy. The two ended up in a heap at the other end of the counter with Theodore sitting on top of him. The green-clad chipmunk happily snacked on a cheeseball before offering Percy one.

"No… you… porkball! Get off!" He tried between labored breathes. Theodore waited nearly a full minute before deciding to join Eleanor on the pot. The two looked at the destroyed kitchen with bored looks. The sink was cracked and leaking water. The cabinets showed various signs of damage. Some were knocked cleanly off their hinges. The fridge was leaning dangerous on one side with a strange yellow substance leaking out.

Theodore and Eleanor gave each other a look and nodded. Then they turned to Percy, waiting expectantly for him. Percy could only groan in displeasure. He was no doubt going to have to fix all of this.

Percy remembered how sick he felt after expending all that energy fixing the damages. Changing reality was much more difficult than anyone thought. The more ridiculous the notion, the more stressing it was to the body. So, yes, the flying spaghetti monster was completely out of the question.

Bringing the dead back to life was almost as hard. One could lose their own lives attempting to restore another's. Individually, the damage would have been easy to fix. But the sheer extent of the repairs needed drained the chipmunk more than what he would've liked.

But to summarize it, Percy hated this. All of this. This sucked so hard no one even knew. The fact that he had to act like a maid, cleaning up everyone else's fuck ups, was detestable. And they still didn't trust him. Well… he hadn't done anything in particular to earn that trust. But he was doing all of this work! That was at least worth something in the way of trust. Right?

That led Percy to more inquisitive, and pleasing, thoughts. Sam was left in charge of the commune in his absence. The techie was an able administrator, but a terrible leader. He could do the basic running of the place but when it came down to it Sam was a spineless slug with the charisma of protoplasm. That was the reason Hex was there. She'd keep everyone on a short leash as long as necessary. That much was certain.

Still… Percy was curious. How were his people doing?

Meanwhile…

Looks like everyone's here. Vex thought as she double checked to make sure. Yeah, everybody made it.

Sam sat at his miniature computer console, frustrated with the machine as usual. Rick was checking himself in the mirror on the far side of the room. Sam would occasional look back to see Hex giving him that "oh so detestable grin". Vex didn't like his prospects.

Then there was Dr. Williams who had a few of his apprentices run the clinic in his absence. He was looking out at the city from Percy's penthouse view. There were a couple new faces around as well. They were Alik and Mircea. Alik was tall, lanky and an overall nice guy. Mircea was a short, round faced chipmunk that always seemed to have a chip on his shoulder. Seriously, everything bugged that guy out.

The two were playing with the miniaturized Xbox with one of Percy's many flat screen televisions. Every once in a while Mircea would yell and curse about how much of a cheater Alik was while the tall chipmunk tried to appease him by offering to lose on purpose. That would anger Mircea even more. It got so bad that Rick went over there to calm them down. The result earned Rick a one-way ticket to the ground floor by way of the windows.

Finally, they managed to calm down Mircea and drag Rick's bloody body up to the penthouse. Rick was lucky that he was so hard to kill.

"Now that everyone's done channeling their insanity… We have business to discuss. I came out of my shock induced coma about a week ago. But I've been busy during that time. See, I've come to a conclusion. One that me and my sister share."

"Its time we began the next phase. Alik, Mircea, are you two ready with the final design?" Hex asked the eccentric duo. With the press of a button, the image on the flat screen turned to that of a schematic. The rough sketch of the image was a pod of strange design. It featured sleek, rounded corners and flat sides.

Sam looked completely skeptical of the pod's model. "Are you sure that is going to work? It looks… well that is to say…"

"Hey ass. Shut it! I'll bet this thing could withstand the fuckin' apocalypse." Mircea shot back. The chipmunk looked like he'd start foaming at the mouth soon if he didn't calm down.

"Well… its supposed to… How many of these are we supposed to make anyway?"

"Eight." Hex replied quickly. Sam was completely shocked. Only eight?

"Eight? The dimensions there can barely fit a single chipmunk! How are we supposed to-"

"We're not." Vex told him. Sam understood the message quickly. "Now if there are any more questions…" Dr. Williams stepped forward this time. "Yes doctor?"

"I have all of the genetic material. I'm still waiting for the communes in China to send me theirs and we've heard nothing from Russia. The small communes in Europe, Africa, and Australia have already sent theirs. I assume we won't be building the pods for the children."

Vex shook her head slowly, as if contemplating the idea despite knowing it wouldn't be possible. "I'm sorry Dr. Williams. We simply don't have enough material to create that many pods. The meteors we collected only provided enough alloy for eight pods. While there is enough material to create one more, anyone who tried to use it would have a fifty-fifty shot at best."

The doctor nodded sadly and turned back to the view of the city. He thought it best not to let them see him cry. We can't even save the goddamn children… God bless their souls.

"According to the specs… I'd say I can have these done in about a year." Sam replied slowly, going over the numbers in his head. "My teams have been refining the ore for a few months now. We should have the first pod done in about a month."

"A year? What are you doing? Holding a tea party? Its fucking space metal. How hard can it be to refine it?" Mircea yelled angrily. Sam pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Its not like roasting marshmallows, ok? The ore requires massive amounts of heat at a constant temperature for very long periods of time. Then we have to run hundreds of volts of electricity into-"

"Save us the technical mumbo-jumbo, nerd. Just get it done. We don't have much time." Hex told him. Sam looked insulted. He should be. It was kind of the point.

Hex looked at the team gathered. They knew their jobs. No one could afford to screw up. Not now. Not when Percy had his pieces in play.

Jesus. Finally done.

Sorry its so late. Though the good news is I'm almost done with my summer homework. Hahhaha! Though I'll probably fuck this up and end up procrastinating, forcing me to delay my writing in favor of doing the work I was supposed to already have done.

Whatever.