A/N: For once, there was a reason for the delay; new story! It's something along the lines of a TDI/Mega Man crossover for those who may be interested.

I own nothing that I don't own.

Chapter 21: For Dead

As green plasma collected in the soaked Sadiecannon's hollow cone, Geoff stepped back, holding his hands before him. "Don't do this, Katie. You can break that dude's hold, I know you-"

He screamed as the gun loosed its deadly discharge. Although he dived out of the way, the blast pelted him with sand and gravel. As he tried to rise, something cold as ice gripped his ankle. A hand of bone, covered by a patchwork of rotting flesh, protruded from the earth, keeping the unarmed Chosen One down. Several more hands rose, a forest of skeletal digits, and their bodies soon followed. The scent of decayed flesh permeated the fog coating the island as long-dead bodies rose from the depths.

Wrenching free of the zombie's grip, Geoff just had time to stand before three more grabbed him, skeletal smiles unhinging to snap at him. Two chomped on his armor, but the third got the side of his neck. More swarmed over to him, fresh-spilled blood acting like as a beacon. As the bony mass engulfed him, Geoff felt more half-skeletal hands grip his ankles and pull him down. As he sank into the earth, he caught one glance of Katie charging up Sadie again. He braced himself, hoping she was still following Justin's orders. Oh man, this gonna suck...

It did. The green burst lanced into the skeletal crowd and exploded. He was blown back, his armor bursting into shrapnel. However, it did obliterate every zombie that had been clinging to him. After colliding with and snapping a tree in half, Geoff struggled to his feet, seeing about ten Katies before him. He tried to shake off the dizziness even as more zombies rose, one particular fiend darting straight for him. Noting that it moved much faster than movies would have him believe, Geoff lashed out. His fist took off the zombie's lower jaw and twisted its neck around, but didn't deter it in the slightest. Icy fingers slashed his face while a hand latched onto his three. Geoff had no trouble snapping its hands right off due to their lack of sinew, but another one bit him from behind. Knocking it off with an elbow, he hurried away, fleeing towards the shore.

A scream sounded from the fog, and Geoff's startled jump was all the delay he needed to be grappled by a zombie again. Pulling free of the moist grip, he turned back to find Katie flailing in a mob of revenants. Racing through the forest of rising to grab an ankle, he a ploughed a fist through the masses and found Katie's wrist. "Don't worry, girl, I got ya!"

Katie's bleeding face emerged for a moment. "Geoff! Get back!"

"Huh-guh." A zombie grabbed him from behind and jabbed the back of his neck. His body locked up, muscles entering a state of total paralysis, leaving him helpless against the gluttonous ghoul…and unable to brace himself from the green glow building up in the Sadie-cannon. Oh crap…

The blast went off, exploding right between him and Katie. When he opened his eyes, Geoff found himself staring into the blank night sky, something flowing down his face. Feeling returning to his body, he sat up and wiped off the stream of blood. If any undead had not been obliterated, they were hidden by the fog. Sadie, no longer an energy gun, sat up, rubbing her head. "Ow…where am I? The last thing I remember is…oh my God, Katie, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so," Katie groaned. Having been at the center of the explosion, she'd fared the worst; burn marks adorned her face and one eye looked as though the eyelid had melted shut. "You okay, Geoff?"

Geoff, head ringing, nodded and trudged over to her. "Yeah, don't worry 'bout me. Thanks for the save."

Katie nodded and fell back. "What's going on, though? The last thing I, like, remember was seeing Justin in the cave…"

"He kinda hypnotized both of you and escaped. Then zombies popped out of the ground." He offered each girl a hand. "Come on, we gotta go. At the very least, we need to got off this island before any more-"

A fleshless hand jutted out of the soil to clasp Geoff's ankle, and the party boy screamed and fell back, accidentally taking the limb with him. Shuddering, he tossed the arm to the side while the zombie's flailing did nothing to extricate itself from the earth. "Oh my god, we're gonna die!"

A hand gripped his shoulder and he squawked, turning to see the not-so-rotten face of Sadie, glowing white. "Put your hand on Katie's head! Trust me!"

As Sadie's features disappeared and something began to weigh down on his shoulder, Geoff followed her order. Katie glowed white as well, transforming into a sword. Once the transformations were complete, Geoff checked out his new weaponry and turned to the emerging zombies. "On second thought, maybe we're not totally-"

"Screwed. We're totally screwed. I blame Anti-Me." Noah backed behind Karron and Justin as an army of zombies rose from the ground. In spite of his fear, Justin smirked. "Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say that we're b-"

"Don't even make that horrific pun. My sanity is at its limit already." Noah crouched, feeling the scrolls on his belt and trying to decided which one would be most effective. Karron kept his eyes on the legions as he said, "Ya live here, aye? What do ya do ta survive the night?"

"Stay in my hut and read. So I guess we fight our way back to the top of the cliff. Now listen, these monsters aren't the lovable green things you see in movies."

Justin whipped around, scandalized. "Lovable! They maim faces! I couldn't live with-"

"Yes, yes, scarring faces is a much worse sin than eating brains, I know. Anyways, not only will they try to eat you, they can paralyze with a touch and will try to grab you from below and pull you under." A pair of hands grabbed his ankles and Noah facepalmed. "Like so. Now, I have the only key to my hut, so one of you might wanna-"

Karron sliced the hands and Noah kicked them away. "Thanks. Now listen. Justin, you lead. Old guy, you take the rear."

"Or," Justin said, heading back towards the shore, "instead of dying trying to get through these ugly things, we can just sail away. Or, at least, I can. Laters."

"Seismic Shift." Noah's scroll pulled the ground Justin was standing backwards. "If you wanna get killed while making preparations, you can do it after you give us the orb. Now, mush."

"I'm not a sled dog-"

"Mush!" Justin took an uncertain step forward, and the zombies, who had been standing still, took that as the signal to advance. As the wall of putrid beings came forward, Justin yelped and tried to hide behind Noah. "Dude, this isn't cool! Why do I have to be first?"

"Because while I have my scrolls and oldie has his oar…axe…thing, all you have is mind control. And I'm sure that would work wonders on half-decayed brains. You're the meat shield."

A hand pushed Justin ahead and he stumbled into the swarm of zombies. As he fell into their arms, he froze up; not from their touch but rather the knowledge that his face would soon be ruined forever. A bright flash exploded in the center of the congregation, scalding him but blasting the zombies into pieces. As he snapped out of fear's paralytic grip, a condescending voice berated him from behind. "Good job. Running unarmed into a group of hungry revenants is a display of tactical brilliance not even Sun Tzu could match."

"You pushed me!" Justin rose and turned to snap at Noah. "You shoved from behind right into those things!"

Noah raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Justin, I managed to push you from behind despite standing in front of you."

"That'd be me, coward." Karron stepped between the teens, hacking apart a zombie. "Now listen, both'a ya. Stop fightin' right now, or we'll never survive this. Got it?"

Noah exchanged annoyed looks with Justin and sighed. "Sure. I suppose. Follow me."

"Blessure!" Trent gasped as Bridgette's spell wiped away his bite marks. Gripping the moist guitar, he strummed a few chords, letting the sonic waves blow the zombies back. Back to back with Bridgette, he said, "This isn't gonna work. My guitar isn't exactly meant for bludgeoning skeletons."

"It's gonna have to do." It was all Bridgette could do to fend off the zombies with her overpriced stick. The cost to her jacket was great, but at least she hadn't succumbed to the droves yet. "We just have to hang on and hope either Geoff or Noah find us."

Trent hacked at a ghoul, crushing its ribs and blowing it to the side. "And if they don't?"

Bridgette didn't have an answer for him. A zombie got past her frantic whacking frenzy and she focused on keeping herself healed until Trent could take it down…except she felt numb. As her muscles locked up and the shattered branch fell from her hands, she tried to call out to the guitarist, but her jaw refused to move. The breath of the dead washed over her face as the zombie moved in for the kill…

Something exploded, and she was face-down in the dirt, the paralysis gone. She groaned, shook of the daze and looked up. Various bits of animated corpses littered the ground. Rushing to her aid was Geoff, armed with a saber and shoulder-mounted cannon. "Geoff…? Where'd you…"

He leaned down next to her for a hug. "You alright, babe?"

She nodded. "Yeah…I think so."

A zombie popped in right between them and Geoff wound up hugging the undead monster rather than his considerably warmer girlfriend. He shrieked and stepped back, cutting it in two with the blade. Behind him, Noah gave a slow clap. "Beautiful display of affection there, Geoff. Okay, we've got to get to the top of the cliff before we become zombie food. Now, where are the Wonder Twins?"

Geoff brandished his sword and tapped the cannon on his shoulder. "Got 'em."

"And they can't drive me insane from that state. Perfect. Okay, everyone stay close. We're gonna travel in a diamond formation. Bridgette, keep us healed and stay in the middle. Trent, stay beside her and protect her. Geoff, you're the most heavily armed, so take the rear. Justin, you're the meat shield, so you take the fore. Old guy and I will take the sides. Now…Beacon. Mind Meld."

After Noah unraveled two scrolls in quick succession, Geoff watched a bright yellow ball of light form and rise, hovering just above the cliffside hut. And all of a sudden, he could feel the intents and emotions of six others; he sensed where Bridgette planned to step next, Justin's displeasure at being at the front of the party, Noah's satisfaction at the varying states of wonder, even Katie's and Sadie's perpetual excitement. Concentrating on Bridgette's…signal, for lack of a better word, he his mind was flooded by half-words in her voice. He turned to Noah. "Dude…what is this?"

Noah's mouth didn't move; instead, Geoff heard his message in his mind. Mind Meld. Your minds are now connected, and so we will be able to help anyone who gets grabbed by an unseen ghoul or something. If you concentrate hard enough, you can almost hear each others' thoughts. And no, Geoff, you simpletons can't even begin to comprehend how to use telepathy. Don't even try. Geoff snapped his fingers. "Darn."

Now, we'd better move right. The rest of the party towards the cliff at the same time as Noah. That beacon's our only light, but…the zombies are kinda attracted to light. We might wanna move.

Following Noah's mental prodding, Justin lead the group to small rocky ramp at the mountain's base. Crawling with zombies, of course. Two shots from Geoff cleared them, although it attracted several more. Geoff readied the Katiesaber, prepared to hold the slope, but the ghouls stopped a few meters away, mouths clicking. The clicking sound resonated all over the base of the mountain. Noah frowned. Well, looks like they overcome individual weakness in some other way besides sheer numbers.

Though still displaying a façade of confidence, everyone could tell that Trent was shaken a bit by Noah's 'words'. "Uh, what? They're just, like…I don't know, what are they doing?"

Through whatever unholy bastardization of necromancy created these things, they seem to be cognitive enough to not just speak, but understand the concept of strategy. In short, they might be smarter than Justin.

"Okay, dude, that wasn't funny the first time, it isn't funny now." After getting over his indignation, Justin grasped what Noah had just said. "Wait, you're saying that undead can think? Their brains have rotted! Everyone knows that zombies can't think."

Which means they're not your typical Hollywood zombies, genius. They could be liches, but I doubt that; those typically know how to use magic. And don't tend to be out en masse. Therefore...

"They're skeletons!" Trent's proclamation earned him odd looks from everyone, including the undead. "What? Most of them don't have much flesh. It's not perfect, but…"

"That makes no sense, lad." A zombie popped up next to Karron and the old man grabbed it by the head and shoved it in front of Trent. The beacon's light illuminated the beast's face, a mix of rotten flesh and barren bone. "It has flesh. It's no skeleton."

Trent jabbed at the boney sections of its face. "But look, it's still decomposing! It should be a full skeleton in a few weeks. The rest are probably the same way."

As the discussion continued, Justin nudged Noah. "Hey, am I really stupider than that?"

…Sorry, I was busy failing a saving throw for my faith in humanity, so I kinda tuned you out. Okay, you two, stop arguing about your toy—which, by the way, is somewhere between a zombie and a ghoul. Get rid of the ghoul so we can climb this thing."

After rolling his eyes, Karron shoved the monster off the edge. Down below, the clicking grew louder, angrier. Sensing Bridgette's worry, Noah patted her shoulder. Don't worry, we'll be fine.

They continued up the spiraling path, rising out of the fog and fending off constant ghoul attacks until they reached a narrow pass cutting straight through the heart of the mountain. Noah halted them with a mental command. Alright, Geoff, see the two cliffs above us?

"Yeah."

The one on the left has the mountain's peak, as well as the skull face thing. The right one is where my hut is. Shoot the very top of the left cliff. And since I can tell that you're gonna question me, I'll go ahead and say 'just do it' And don't hit the bridge, unless you don't want to reach my hut..

Geoff shrugged. "Kay…"

The plasma blast exploded, dropping sediments and sand nearly a hundred feet down into the pass. And with the debris came dozens of destroyed undead. Several more slipped down into the ravine and scrambled towards the party. Geoff and Karron both surged ahead to battle them, but Noah's telepathy stopped them. Wait. It's a trap; there are hundreds underground, more on the other cliff and a bunch coming in behind us. Karron, fight the ones behind us. Geoff, take out the other cliff and then help Karron. Bridgette and Trent, stand by.

The second cliff collapsed, crushing ghouls underneath and Noah unraveled another scroll, murmuring something. Dust, rocks and undead swirled through the air as a giant whirlwind formed, eroding a crater into the pass and obliterating all zombies in the area. Behind him, the creatures ambushing from behind were decimated in short order by Karron's oar and the Katiesaber. The few surviving undead in the crater charged and were as successful as their brethren. Noah smirked. And then rolled his eyes, saying, "Oh, right. Using another spell cancels Mind Meld. Hold on."

Another scroll was torn, and the party felt connected once more. Three zombie attacks later, they found themselves at the mountain's peak. Across the ravine was a simple brick hut. Noah headed down towards the bridge. And that's why I never leave my hut. Thirty minutes is way too long to…oh crap.

Beth sighed as she slipped out of the kitchen, hoping that Izzy's madness would keep Heather busy for at least another few minutes. Cursing the slave-driving totalitarian queen, she entered the empty cannon room. Empty except for one person. A certain blond beauty asked, "Beth? What are you doing here?"

Beth sighed; she couldn't lie to her best friend. "I'm leaving, Linds. We're down to four hours to sleep, and when we're awake, all we're allowed to do is work on the cannon. I can't take it anymore."

"But…" Lindsay scratched her head. "But Heather's changed! She's not as mean anymore, and besides she has a good cause! Maybe if you talked about it over a pedicure…"

As she trailed off, the sounds of Heather's frenzied shouts echoed from the other room, while Izzy answered her angered queries with prim logic. Beth wondered who was really the insane one in that room. "Sorry, Linds, but I don't think talking's going to help at this point. She's so bossy now, and only pretending to care for us. I mean, did you hear what she was saying to that guy who accidentally bumped into her? He's still terrified, and that was three days ago! She says she's trying to save the world here, but…I don't see how a so-called 'savior' could be so evil! I'm sorry, but I'm done here. I…guess you're going to try to stop me, right?"

Instead, Lindsay smiled and gave her a hug. "Aww, I couldn't go against my bestie. Don't worry, I won't tell Heather."

Shocked for a second, Beth returned the embrace. "Thanks. I…guess I'll see you later, then."

Giving a small, sad wave, Lindsay didn't say anything as Beth trudged over to the main gate and opened it with the press of a button. A metal ramp extended from the castle down to mainland Discordia. Beth disappeared from her view, and she sat still for several minutes. Well after the ramp had retracted and the door had shut, Heather stormed in, hair frizzy, eyes bloodshot, breath hissing, hands cut from her fingernails being dug in. Taking apparent offense to Lindsay's presence, she glared at her servant. "What are you doing here? And where's Beth? I could have sworn you two were joined at the hip or something."

Lindsay cowered away from the furious monarch. "I-I-I don't know. I haven't seen Beth in a while."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter; she's not exactly important, you know. All that matters is that crazy girl's stupid cannon works. Get to bed, construction's gonna start extra early tomorrow."

A gathering of zombies, looking to number in the hundreds, encircled Noah's shack, transfixed by the bright yellow beacon. Until Justin stepped on a branch, cracking it, at which point they turned their collective hungry gaze upon the party. Noah slapped his forehead. Great. Just great, Anti-Me. You know what, this your fault, you deal with it.

Justin's smirk did not console Noah, nor did the sudden treacherous thoughts budding in the model's mind. "Sure…Ant-Me."

Before either Geoff or Karron could strike him down, he gave the zombies a flashy grin. Their charge slowed and ceased as they gaped at him. With a triumphant laugh, Justin turned to the stunned party. "Heh. Who's the stupid one now? Thanks for telling me that these things could think; couldn't have done it without you."

Noah snarled. "Your intelligence is still utterly dwarfed by everyone with a thousand kilometers and simply charming the undead is hardly enough to stop the Chosen One. I might enjoy this. Oh, and the term is Anti-Me, you ignoramus!"

Chuckling, Justin looked over his shoulder to his new army. "Zombies? Please eat the smart one. I don't care what happens to the others. Later."

Hungry undead surged forward and Justin entered their midst. He smirked, wondering what the next step should be…

He got his answer a moment later as a massive figure rose up behind the beacon. Skeletal wings stretched out, thirty meters from tip to tip, and the beast shoved its skeletal face right in front of the model. It unleashed a banshee shriek, blowing down everyone on the mountaintop, including most of the ghouls.

The Pearl Goose had returned to reclaim its island.