Enjoy!:

Twenty Six: A National Crisis

Dipper stared at the decorated officer. "What? You can't throw a nuke into that portal!"

"Son, I know exactly what I'm doing," the decorated officer said. "If I didn't, then they wouldn't call me Lieutenant Norom!"

"But do you really know what'll happen if you throw the nuke into that portal?" Dipper asked.

Lieutenant Norom crossed his arms. "Well, obviously, we'll be able to obliterate everything inside, the portal will collapse and everyone else can go back to their happy little lives."

"Do you really want to risk wiping out the entire western seaboard?" Candy asked.

Lieutenant Norom scowled and pointed to the expanding portal. "That thing has caused a National Crisis! And my orders were to get rid of it. And based on the initial scans NASA took of that portal, the only thing that has a chance of stopping it is a nuclear bomb!"

"But—"

"FIRE!" Lieutenant Norom shouted.

The catapult behind the tank launched a large bomb towards the portal.

The nuke sailed through the air and into the portal.

Everyone held their breath after the bomb disappeared. Then, the portal stopped expanding.

Lieutenant Norom smiled smugly. "See, I told you it'd work. Now all we have to do is wait for—"

Suddenly, the nuke flew out of the portal in an ar. Once it reached its maximum height of 150 feet, it began to fall to the ground.

Lieutenant Norom paled. "Oh no. We're gonna DIE!"

"Not on my watch!" Dipper looked at Candy. "Do you think you could use your air powers to keep the nuke form hitting the ground?"

"I can try!" Candy flew towards the nuke.

Lieutenant Norom stared at her in shock. "What in the world…? How can she do that?"

Robbie smirked. "If he's that shocked that Candy's air powers allow her to fly, then I wonder how he'd react if he found out what I can do."

Candy positioned herself a good distance under the falling nuke and stuck her hands out.

The bomb slowed down and eventually stopped a few feet from her outstretched fingers. She then used her wind powers to fling the nuke up into the air. After a few seconds, it disappeared into space.

Candy flew back to Dipper and stood next to him. "That should be the last we see of the nuke."

Dipper frowned. "Hopefully, it doesn't fall back down to Earth. I'd hate to be the unlucky country that gets hit by a random nuke form the sky."

All this time, Lieutenant Norom's mouth hung open. "Do you all have powers?"

Dipper, Gideon, Brittany, Wendy, Robbie, Wendy and Candy all nodded.

"What do you guys do with your powers?"

"Well, right now, we're gonna try to use them to close the portal," Dipper replied.

Lieutenant Norom stepped to the side. "Be my guest."

Dipper led his sister, Brittany, Gideon, Robbie, Wendy, and Candy past the police cars blocking the street. After they did so, the seven of them stopped and faced the portal, which was still stationary.

Dipper looked at Gideon. "I think it's time."

Gideon held out his left hand. "Then let's do this."

Dipper grabbed Gideon's left hand with his right hand the two of them stuck out their free hands and performed the black and white to grey energy combo shot.

The grey beam of energy burst into the portal.

Everyone who watched, from Mabel to Norom to the pedestrians held their breath.

After a few seconds, the portal continued to expand.

Dipper and Gideon stopped the combo and let go of each other.

"I don't get it!" Gideon snapped. "I thought that was supposed to work."

"I didn't think the combo shot would be enough to close the portal," Dipper admitted.

Gideon was now furious. "Then why did we waste our time with the combo shot?"

"Because I still hoped that it would work."

"Well, what do we do now?" Mabel asked.

Dipper looked at Brittany. "When you said you spied on The Ghoul, you said that he and three other beings created this portal, right?"

Brittany nodded. "Yeah, why?"

Dipper bit his lip. "Well, I know that in order to defeat The Ghoul, we need to combine light and dark."

"I think we all know that!" Gideon snapped.

"But when Brittany told me about the new portal, she said that three extra beings helped him create it," Dipper continued. "And I feared that light and dark on its own would not be enough to defeat The Ghoul plus three. Especially with the portal they created. That's why I brought along Candy, Mabel, Wendy and Robbie: the benders of all four elements."

"So somehow, we're all supposed to link up and perform some mega combo shot?" Robbie asked.

"Yes, but not here," Dipper replied.

Mabel raised her eyebrows. "Why not?"

"Have you all ever heard the phrase 'destroy from within'?"

The others nodded.

"Well, I think that's exactly what we're gonna have to do," Dipper said. "Since the portal has the ability to expand, it feeds off of energy from the outside, so if we did our mega combo shot out here, it would only make the portal expand faster."

Wendy frowned. "I don't get it. What are you saying?"

Dipper took a deep breath. "I'm saying that we're gonna have to go inside the portal."

~Jameer14