Chapter 25
Cash and Family got into the back of Dave's car, as Iza and Carter slid into the front passenger and driver seats respectively. "We ready to rock?" Carter asked, looking back at the munks. "Like you need to ask?" Alvin said. Carter nodded. "Okay. This is it. Let's do it." Carter put the car in gear and backed out of the drive way. Once he was in the street, he put it into drive and from there, he followed Iza's instructions. Eventually, the chipmunks arrived at a wooded area. 'He's in the woods?" Eleanor asked. 'That's where we sensed him." Katrina said. Jeanette noticed Cash's eyebrows lower, giving him an angry appearance. "Cash? What's wrong?" She asked. "I just realized something and it's ticking me off." He said. "What's that?" Brittany asked. "You don't recognize this forest?" "Not really. If you've seen one forest around here, you've seen them all. They all look alike to me." "Well, I remember it. I remember it very well." 'Well, what is it?" "Deep in this forest, is dad's grave." "Hey, your right. I remember when we went camping here. I remember seeing that tree over there. I remember it cause it was kinda funny looking. Your right, Cash. This is where dad's buried." Alvin said. " And to think that he's doing horrible things to some poor souls, near where dad is buried…" Simon said. "What if he's got dad?!" Theodore shrieked. "That's what makes me mad. Doing something so bad, near the grave of a man so good, just isn't right. On top of that, he might have captured dad too…" All four chipmunk brothers fists clenched tight. " If he has, he's done for." Alvin said. Brittany noticed a claw beginning to extend from Alvin's thumb. "Alvin, your hand." She whispered to him. Alvin looked at his hand. He clenched it again, while trying to calm down. He felt the claw recede back into his hand. "Alright, let's go." He said. "Wait, guys, your weapons." Carter said. The guys walked silently back to the back of the car and retrieved their weapons. The girls went and acquired their weapons as well. Brittany had a large kitchen knife, Jeanette had retrieved a large, metal stirring rod from Simon's lab, Eleanor had a baseball bat, and Katrina had an old mop handle. Carter had brought along one of Dave's golf clubs. He was going to make sure that he didn't dent it in the battle. Finally, Iza had a stun gun, which she always kept for protection. With their weapons firmly in hand, Carter locked up the car and the group headed into the forest. Iza prayed a silent prayer in her head. "Please, Lord. Grant us the strength to win this battle and end this once and for all." She thought. Meanwhile, Carter was silently begging for Tom's aide. "Please, Mister chipmunk, if your out there, watch over your kids." Eventually, the munks reached a strange cave. "Is he in there?" Alvin asked. "I'm sensing some seriously dark power coming from inside, so I'd say yes." Iza said. 'Me too." Katrina said. "Well, that settles it. Let's go." Cash said. He led the group inside. They followed the cave into it's deepest recesses. "Man, this is a big cave." Carter said. Despite the cave's size, they inevitably found Vlad. Nearby were all the spirits Vlad had captured. They were locked behind a powerful looking barrier. Apparently, he had moved them here, intending to start up his work as soon as his enemies were dealt with. "There he is. So, what's the plan? Do we jump him?" Carter asked. "Uncle Vlad!" Iza yelled. "Never mind." Carter groaned. "Ah, Iza. Delightful to see you again. And look, your pesky little friends are still alive. I should've made sure they were dead. I'll correct that now." Vlad charged up a quick blast of dark magic and shot it at the group. "Persona!" Cash yelled. Alex shot forward and punched through the ball. The two halves flew into the walls of the cave, off to the side of the chipmunks. "What the hell?" Vlad asked. "You wanted the spirits power, now your gonna get it." Cash said. "So, you've picked up some new tricks. Interesting. But, if you think they'll be enough to stop me, your dead wrong!" Vlad charged up another shot, but then broke it into two halves, one half in each hand. He then fired both halves at the munks. 'Move!" Cash yelled. And that's exactly what the group did. And so the battle began. The chipmunks attacked from all angles, launching a variety of different attack. Alvin tried throwing his sai, charged with Danny's power. But, Vlad filled his hands with the dark magic power he possessed and shot them down. This left Alvin unarmed, at least on the weapon's front. So, while he ran to pick up his sai, Cash and Brittany charged Vlad, with their sword and knife charged up with persona power. Vlad deflected Brittany's initial strike and shoved her to the ground. As he went to strike her with his own attack however, Cash lunged at him, making him jump away. Iza, who was behind Vlad and happened to be near where he landed, charged her uncle with her stun gun crackling away. However, the crackle of the stun gun's current was too loud. Vlad heard it, spun around, grabbed Iza's arm and performed a judo like hip toss, which threw Iza to the other side of her uncle. She hit the ground hard. "Ugh!" She grunted when she hit the ground. She opened her eyes to see Vlad looking down at her. 'You know, your being a very naughty girl, Iza. Attacking your own uncle." Iza yelled "Shut up!" And tried to sweep Vlad's feet out from under him. But, he merely had to jump out of the way to avoid it. However, the munks weren't going to let any opening go to waste. Simon and Theodore quickly formulated a plan with Jeanette and Eleanor. The plan was to have Jeanette and Eleanor use Simon's staff and Theodore's tonfa as platforms to jump off of, in order to get as much height as possible before attacking with both their weapons and personas. They made the plan and they quickly enacted it. Vlad managed to hear Jeanette's takeoff and avoided her attack, however, Eleanor's attack struck true. Emily slammed into Vlad's chest and Eleanor caught Vlad in the back of the head with the baseball bat. Vlad was knocked off his feet. Every member of the group quickly rushed in and pointed their weapons at Vlad. "Stay down, if you know what's good for you." Eleanor said in a threatening way. 'It's over." Cash said. "You really think you've beaten me? Well, your wrong. I've just gotten started." As soon as the word 'started' had left his mouth, Vlad released a massive burst of dark magic in the form of a shock wave. This bowled everyone over. However, Carter and Iza managed to get to their feet quickly enough to attack Vlad once more. Carter swung the golf club with all his might at Vlad's head, but Vlad saw the attack coming and ducked it. He then delivered a thunderous uppercut to Carter's jaw, then released a powerful blast of energy into his stomach. This sent him flying into the chipmunks, knocking them over again. Angered by this Iza tried to kick her uncle in the back, but Vlad saw her out of the corner of his eye. He spun around quickly, grabbed her leg and forced it back down to the floor of the cave. Once he'd done that, he grabbed Iza by her collar. "Enough, Iza! I have had enough of you!" Vlad shocked Iza with her own stun gun and then threw Iza to the ground. "Now stay down this time!" He then turned his attention back to the munks and Carter. "And you lot. I've had it with you as well. It's time for you to die!" Vlad shot dark magic energy, in a form that looked like lightning, from his finger tips and shocked the downed fighters. The group writhed in pain for a moment, then stopped, but only because Vlad had stopped. "No. That's not enough. I want to end each and every one of your miserable lives up close and personal. But who to start with?" Vlad noticed Carter stirring. "But of course. The original pain in my backside." Vlad walked over and picked up Carter by his collar. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've been waiting a very long time for this." No sooner had Vlad said the last word of his sentence, than he felt a sharp searing pain shoot across the hand he was hold Carter's collar with. The pain caused Vlad to release Carter, who fell to the ground. "Sorry, but you'll just have to keep on waiting." Vlad heard. Vlad looked up. He saw that Cash was already standing, and the other munks were climbing to their feet. He also saw that Cash had a thin line of blood running down the tip of his sword. It was obvious that Cash had sliced Vlad's hand. "You furry little bastard! Why can't you just die?!" "Got a lot to live for. That's why. And so do you. Or, rather, you did. But you threw it all away. You had a loving family. Or, at least, a niece who, by the sound of it, loved you almost as much as she loved her own father. She even held out hope that you'd changed your ways when she heard that you'd broke out of jail. And how did you repay he faith and her love? He put a spell on her that made her life a living hell and now, you just shocked her with a stun gun. But, I don't think her mind or her body is what hurts the most right now. It's her heart. She doesn't want to fight you, but she doesn't see any other way. She sees it as her duty to try to stop you before you fall any deeper into darkness. That's why she did all of this. That was her only goal. And how are her efforts rewarded? She has to suffer through more physical pain. And yet, I doubt she has any plans to give up. Don't you see? She loves you that much. That no matter how much pain she goes through, she still wants to try to save what's left of the uncle she loves in you. You see? You had the one thing that everyone in this world needs, unconditional love, and you threw it away. And for what? Money, power? All because of greed." "Shut up. You have no idea what I've gone through." "But I do. I may not look it to you, but I'm human. Or at least, I possess a human heart. So I understand human emotions. I understand love, pain, anger. I know it all. So I can understand why you started this. Why you robbed that bank. There were things you wanted right? Things that you in your then current way of life would possibly never have. But you still wanted it. And so, you allowed greed to consume you. And that's when you robbed the bank. And when you got caught, I can imagine you felt scared. Scared because you knew you would be going to prison, and I understand that. Prison's a scary place. Everyone's heard the stories about what goes on in prison. So, it was only natural to be scared. And I'll bet you grew angry too, didn't you? Because you were stuck behind those cold walls, and you weren't going anywhere for a long time. Your life was ripped out of your hands, and that angered you, didn't it? Then, you found that book, and you let greed consume you again. And we all know what happened after that. I understand all of that, but it doesn't make it right. You had a choice, no, you had a lot of choices and you chose the wrong ones. You let greed guide you, and true, in the end, it brought you power. But it also succeeded in alienating just about everyone that gave adman about you. Because of your greed, you lost the most valuable thing in the world. The love of your family. Only Iza held on. Well, I say she's held on long enough. So here's your last chance. Surrender now or I will take you down." "Never." "Then you leave me no choice." Cash slid into battle position. 'Your going down." " 'Grrr' Shut up!" Vlad fired a huge blast of concentrated dark energy at Cash. "Persona!" Alex appeared and blocked the attack. But he was having trouble. "I can't hold it!" Alex yelled. "Persona!' Alex heard. The other seven sprits appeared to stop the spell. The other munks walked up. "Let's end this.' Alvin said. The other munks nodded. "Alright then. Pour it on, guys!" Cash yelled. The chipmunks concentrated and the spirits absorbed the energy and began to push. "Keep going!" Alex called. The chipmunks concentrated harder. The spirits absorbed more energy and pushed harder. The spell moved farther back. "We can do this! Keep going!" Simon yelled. 'I will destroy you all!" Vlad yelled. The blast intensified. "This is it, guys! It's all or nothing, so give it everything you've got!" Theodore yelled. The chipmunks concentrated even harder. They concentrated so hard that their faces started to turn beet red. The spirits gained yet another burst of strength and pushed the blast back towards Vlad. "No! I will not loose!" "Oh, yes you will!" Cash yelled. "Altogether guys! Per-so-na!" With last ditch effort, the munks gave the spirits all they had and they pushed the spell back with all their might. They succeeded in reaching Vlad and, when they noticed the spell beginning to act like the spell from before, they gave the spell one last mighty push, pushed it into Vlad's face and then leaped out of the way. The spell exploded and sent Vlad flying. He slammed into the ground, head first. As soon as the dust settled, Carter and Iza could see the aftermath. The chipmunks were laying on he ground, breathing heavily. The spirits were rising up from the ground. And Vlad was out cold on the ground. Iza, who had now recovered from her stun gun exposure, rushed to the side of the chipmunks. "Are you alright?" "We're fine. Just really tired.' Alvin wheezed. Iza smiled. She then walked over to her uncle. "It's over." She said. Carter came up to Iza. "I'll take him to the car.' "Make sure to lock it if you decide to come back." "Right." Carter picked up Vlad and headed out of the cave. Iza walked over to where Vlad kept his book. "This thing. It shouldn't even exist. For what little good it can do, it should be destroyed. That's it. I'm gonna burn it. But before that…" Iza picked up the book and quickly scanned through it. She found a spell to release the barrier spell. She muttered the words and the barrier lifted. 'Go on, no. Your free." The spirits shot out of the cave, while shouting calls of thanks. Carter, who had returned to assist the munks to the car, witnessed the site of the spirits erupting out of the cave and taking off in all directions. 'That's one of those once in a lifetime moments for sure." He said to himself. He then ran back inside. 'Iza!" He yelled. "The book… did you use it to release the spirits?" Iza nodded. "Then it's finally over. Thank God." Iza threw a hug on Carter. 'Uh, Iza.." Iza's head shot up towards Carter's and she kissed him on the lips. When she pulled away. 'Thank you so much, Carter. I couldn't have done it with out you." "Uh, Iza, I.." Iza put finger to Carter's lips. 'I know. I can read minds remember? I feel the same way about you." "You do?" "After all you've been through, just for me, how couldn't I? But if you don't believe me, then let me say it flat out. Carter, I love you." "I knew it!" They heard Brittany cry. Carter And Iza quickly realized that the munks were still laying on the ground still. "Oh, sorry. I got carried away. I didn't mean to ignore you!" Iza said. 'It's okay. That was kinda cute." Brittany said. "Yeah, it's all good." Alvin said. 'But, we could use some help here. We kinda can't get up." "right." As soon as the munks were stable on their feet, Simon asked Iza if she was really going to burn the book. 'Yes, I am. It's the right thing to do." "Hey, before you do, Could you check to see if there's a spell to bring folks like us back to life?" Danny asked. Iza flipped to section of the book on spirits and read through it. 'Sorry, guys. Nothing." "Oh well. We've been on this earth long enough. I'd say it's time for us to go." Alex said.