AN: References so far: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (mainly), Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Nintendo, Final Fantasy XII, Code Geass, Naruto, Pokémon, Dragonball Z, Spy Kids 2, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Xiaolin Showdown, Codename: Kids Next Door, Sonic Adventure, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and Bleach. In this chapter (besides the previous listed): nothing new.
Chapter 21 — Total Climax
After a few minutes, the cannon that showed itself from the massive sphere of darkness began to generate a devastating amount of energy. Wrinkle and Sceptilius stood on a platform on the colossal cannon, seemingly in control of it.
"This shot will end the New 12 and all those who came to aid them. Fire." Wrinkle proclaimed.
The cannon fired a huge purple blast, and it was aimed at the precise spot where the heroes stood. On impact, an explosion that is the exact same as a Subspace Bomb took place. To the two of them, their adversaries were no more and things went all according to plan... that was, until Wrinkle spotted the Halberd in the distance.
"What is it?" Sceptilius asked.
"Strange. It appears that the Halberd is flying on its own towards us. That's funny, really—now that we have a second traitor amongst us. I see no further use in it anymore... fire the turrets." Wrinkle commanded, causing many turrets that were built into the cannon to fire countless shots at the rogue battleship.
Although evading some of the shots, the Halberd did not retaliate with its own fire as it usually would. It was acting as if the gigantic cannon was non-existent. That mindset immediately changed, as soon as one of the turrets' shots pierced directly through the center of the entire Halberd. No ship could survive that kind of hit, and it was validated when the Halberd exploded, still far away from the cannon.
"That puts an end to that!" Sceptilius boasted.
"Hmm." sounded Wrinkle, before he was alerted yet again, but this time, the amount of disturbance he sensed was far greater than just the fallen Halberd. "This can't be...!" he murmured, seeing four smaller aircrafts zoom out of the explosion. They were coated in silver and blue.
"Impossible!" shouted Sceptilius, frustrated that the heroes were still alive.
"ALL CANNONS, FIRE!" ordered Wrinkle, as every object that could fire something began to unleash hell on the enemy.
"This is it, bros. Let's do this!" Slowpoke said via intercom.
"ALL OUT BLITZ!" all four of them called out. It was the title for swarming the enemy in their Air Raiders.
On their invasion, they faced a heavy amount of turret fire and lasers - not to mention that the main cannon was beginning to charge up again, but at a drastically slower rate. Despite the heavy onslaught, the four brothers managed to fly around without being damaged for almost five striaght minutes. They were just that good at manuvering the Air Raiders.
"Hoppity, let's go!" Bongo signaled her via walkie-talkie.
"Right." she said, closing her eyes to contact the Xiaolin Rabbits telepathically. "Take it down, guys." she told them.
"You heard her. Let's do it!" said Ears, to his siblings.
"Wudai Dragoon, Strike!" cried the four of them.
Wrinkle and Sceptilius were preoccupied with the four Air Raiders and did not realize their biggest threat until the last second. The Wudai Dragoon, from above, suddenly dropped down at the speed of light, slicing the oversized cannon in half, causing it to start imploding.
Hippie chuckled. "This Wu is badass, man."
"Arrrrrrrragh!" Sceptilius uproared, overly upset that the plan was thwarted.
Wrinkle held his underling back. "No, Sceptilius. We stand down, for now. Besides, the core of Subspace will give a degree of punishment that has yet to be administered upon them."
The reptile was resistant at first, but he followed Wrinkle inside of the dark mass behind them.
After they entered, the Air Raiders, the Wudai Dragoon and the B-Airship (from underwater) flew into the mass as well. The cannon was as good as terminated, so that was one less thing the heroes had to worry about.
The true face of Subspace was a realm devoid of any worldly landmarks, with a stormy atmosphere and midnight blue to purple land. It had proved the expectations of the heroes wrong, as they all exited their aerial transports and regrouped on a ghastly cliff, streamlined with pale blue creases.
"And here I thought we'd wither away into dust before we even crashed this place." Ewey generalized.
"This is the true Subspace." Darkrai said with certainty.
Felix looked onward. "A huge path is ahead of us. If we get past it, we'll probably find Wrinkle or something just as bad."
"From the looks of this place... I'd say something more at terrifying." Christina added.
"Only one way to find out. Let's go everyone." Hoppity issued, seeing a huge amount of the Subspace Army ahead, and the number is constantly growing.
The entire group rushed in, but Vivian held Derby back for a second.
"Whoa! What is it, Vivian? This isn't the best time right now..." he said.
"I know." she replied, looking off a little.
"Well?"
She couldn't find any words to say, so she acted on impulse and kissed Derby's cheek.
Derby was startled, but happy at the same time. "And... that was for?" he asked her, turning a little red.
"I thought I wasn't gonna be able to do that, until I tried. It's a thank you for believing me when I said I was supposed to be irresistably beautiful back on the Halberd."
"How can you doubt that? You're gorgeous right now." he told her.
"Um, I think we should keep up with our friends... but I'll describe the real me on the move, okay?"
They both started running after the rest of the group while defending themselves and chatting at the same time.
"Come on, Viv. I'll like you no matter what you look like." Derby claimed.
She exhaled. "Okay... well, first my hat isn't this droopy—it has less of a curve. My hair is almost the same as it is now, but my eyes are just about invisible to everyone else, and the color of this dress is really the color of my ghost skin. I can burn things with just a single tap of my hands. And if that doesn't bother you, my legs are gone—replaced with a single thin tail that touches the ground. On the bright side, I can disappear into the ground or do the opposite and just extend my bottom from the ground into the air. Having said that, I'm a bit of a freak." she called herself.
Derby sighed. "I know I'm just a preteen and you're just a little older than me... but I know that back on my planet, we aren't exactly the normal "life-forms" either. People call us humanimals because we look like animals, but act and age just about the same as humans do. We humanimals, in plain sight, have all these powers that humans wished they had. That doesn't mean we don't get along with humans. To tell the truth, we protect them and they respect us. You see our big mission. And Vivian, real or not, don't call yourself a freak." he pleaded.
Vivian stopped fighting and immediately hugged Derby. "Thank you, Derby."
Derby closed his arms around her back as well. "Look out!" he then said, seeing three Giant Primids attempting to crush the both of them. Before they even touched them, they withered away into shadow bugs, courtesy of one of Hoppity's Wizardry spells.
"Don't fall behind, you two. The baddies here are tougher than before, and they're pretty much endless." she told them.
The two young allies got back with the group.
Meanwhile...
"Urrrrgh! I can't believe they're still alive. All our plans, foiled!" Sceptilius complained.
"Patience, Sceptilius." Wrinkle said to assure him.
"Patience is a mistake. Whenever I bide my time, things go wrong. That's how I made Sly crumble! I wasted only a weak amount of time! That's how you..."
The reptile stopped speaking and fell unconscious when Wrinkle silently struck the back of his head hard.
"I won't tolerate ignorance. We'll talk about that later." Wrinkle uttered, shoving his subordinate aside.
Having done that, Wrinkle stood on the edge of the cliff he stood on and spread his arms. This was actually a call to someone. Answering this, a pair of hands descended down towards him. Coincidentally, they were the same two hands that Felix encountered before.
"Master Hand... Crazy Hand..." Wrinkle called them, "my apologies, but our guests have penetrated this Subspace, and destroyed the cannon."
There was no answer from them. Both of them made a weak groan, and Wrinkle was alarmed to see this.
"What's the matter?" he asked them, before noticing golden chains of light on both of the hands' backs.
Wrinkle followed them up with his eyes, and witnessed that they led to a figure in light blue, almost data-like. He was surrounded by an ominous rift of sorts.
"So... I finally get to meet the rats who are really the toys of my world, face-to-face." said the blue presence.
"YOUR world? Just who are you to say that? The last time I checked, Master Hand was in control..." Wrinkle responded bluntly.
"I am Tabuu, and you, my canine nuisance, have no idea whatsoever of the things I am capable of. I am the true controller of Subspace, even before your 'Acolytes' set foot into this place. I said I would cooperate with them ONLY if I were in full control of my own world... and yet, you all have defiled that deal. My only option was to regain my control by immediate force, and that did not take too much effort on my part."
"You fiend..." Wrinkle growled.
"As you may not have figured out, I was even in control of both Master Hand and Crazy Hand, long before you made your little deal with them. It was all apart of MY master plan. Every one of those Subspace Bombs that you all activated are all my power sources. As big as the outside Subspace is, I have power that exceeds all that you could ever imagine. There's nothing you or anyone can do to stop me."
Wrinkle grasped his full power and super-jumped towards Tabuu. "DON'T GIVE ME THAT NONSENSE!" he yelled, preparing his Galick Gun as he rose.
"Know your place!" Tabuu uttered, suddenly knocking Wrinkle unconscious by simply emitting a sudden burst of energy.
The bulldog fell lifelessly, colliding with both hands before hitting the ground. The chains broke off, leaving the hands with blood-like scars. Angered, they both floated up and attempted to hurt Tabuu by attacking in fists. Even though their combined force was stronger than Wrinkle's Galick Gun, they could not phase Tabuu, who then retaliated by using an even stronger energy burst. Master Hand and Crazy Hand, too, were defeated.
After the three of them fell, the Bean Titans and their company found them.
"Wrinkle... he's unconscious." Ewey reported.
Bongo went to look as well. "Who did this to him...?"
Hoppity saw Tabuu in the air, hoving high above them. She quickly retraced events in this realm, and saw the answer. "Him." she declared, with an unhappy look on her face.
Tabuu looked back to see the motley crew gazing at him. He was angered. "Oh... so you all are the uninvited guests that the canine spoke of."
"We didn't need to be invited. I know that you're the big boss around here, so on behalf of my allies, I'm only gonna tell you once... leave our world alone." Hoppity said.
Tabuu was unmoved. "Sorry, but I don't take requests..." he replied, before he began to exhibit his devastating power, in which big butterfly-like wings appeared on his back. "And I most certainly don't take orders!"
The heroes tried to prepare themselves against Tabuu, who seemed tired of talking to strangers. It was hopeless, as Tabuu was quickly charging his ultimate attack, Off Waves—it was a dramatically powerful outburst of three intense pulses of energy that could only be exerted if Tabuu has enough power stored every ten to fifteen minutes. Whether the heroes were ready or not, every one of them were rendered weak compared to this attack, as they all fell unconscious. Tabuu had just too much power for them to handle; even altogether, they could not hope to defeat him.
After disposing of his "nuisances", Tabuu drew in spheres of light that contained the places in Subspace that the heroes have ever visited, all consumed by the dark matter of a Subspace Bomb. They were, as he said, his reservoirs of power.
All that was left were the 33 unconscious souls and a stairway of light, leading to the "cocoon" of Tabuu.
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And that's the high point in this story.
BUT, it's not over yet.