Chapter Twenty-Nine
"I was trying my best to entertain myself with you all. But now it's becoming a bore truly. Especially when six of you are weakened thanks to the potions Zarok made for me." Gigadis grinned over them, seeing some of the All-Stars battered and bruised. "Make another move, and my puppet will snap Black Heart's neck in two."
They couldn't believe it, but Gigadis would really do it with a signal. "Dart! Wait! This isn't you! Snap out of his control!" Abe broke through the crowd, yelling out to his rival. "I knew you before this tournament! Those fiends did something to you!" With his grip loosening, Dart looked down to the fighters.
He blinked. Eyes changing to a normal color. "Abe…?" Gigadis frowned along with his allies. "Abe! You guys! Listen, someone held some of my friends hostage to make me surrender! I didn't know I would be under control by- Agh!" Everyone cringed at the sight of Dart's hold on Noire becoming stronger, unable to gain conscious back.
"Dart?! Dart!" The mudokon yelled out to him, but his rival was gone. Back to his controlled self. "… I surrender! But only if you let Dart go! I can't stand to see anyone being used as a slave anymore! Not since I was a worker!" Abe turned away from Gigadis.
The others were unsure of the decision. Mr. Grimm refused to give in, but the others were having trouble. Sweet Tooth, Nathan Drake, Pupuru, Evil Cole, Zeus, and Jak were all down for the count.
Emmett and Isaac lowered their weapons on Calypso. Ratchet and Clank gave up to stop seeing their rival in pain. Kratos eventually could no longer control himself, directing his next words to Gigadis. "Let go of not only Noire and Dart, but…"
PaRappa let go of his microphone, Sir Daniel dropped his sword, and Spike threw his net. "Return our friends back to normal! They are like family to us!" Sackboy was holding up a white flag, his sad expression changing to one of slight happiness from what Kratos said.
Nodding silently, Gigadis averted his eyes to everyone. "Passed out from taking a hit?" Walking past the crowd and kneeling next to Pupul, they watched his every move. "My dearest… I will do what they say, return you to normal! That way, you can become the next Queen of Hell-" The Hell Prince was hit by a bullet, knocking him back a little. Looking to the direction it came from, Radec was the only there.
"You won't. That is not part of the deal. We want Noire and Dart back, as long as we don't attack further. It had nothing to do with your stupid marriage plans."
"Then the deal is broken… We'll kill Noire at Lyla's Ruins, and keep the stupid dragoon to ourselves." Calypso smirked, followed by Zarok smacking against his head. "Wha?! What was that for?!"
"Idiot! Don't tell them where the hideaway is!" The wizard whispered. "Ahem! Anyway, such a pity. But what of Noire's sister?"
"Leave her for now. She has no use to us. If we kill them both at the same time without power transfer, Lastation loses balance!… And you. This isn't over." Gigadis lifted his palms to the sky. "I'm going to make one last offer to you."
Everyone listened carefully. "A storm will come. Not one that you all can control, heavy rainfall. When it ends before you can change your mind or find us, Black Heart will be killed. And a new God of Lastation will be born! Understood?" They all nodded slowly.
Ground shaking, the arena began to be swallowed by a fissure. Audience members cried out names to those falling down. Gigadis, Zarok, Calypso warped away. Dart flew away with Noire in his arms.
Rain began pouring...
"Kratos… Kratos… Hey!" The God of War trembled, opening his eyes. PaRappa was relieved along with Sackboy. "You're alright! Thank goodness!" Observing the surroundings, he saw Toro attempting to wake Scorpion. "A majority of us got separated since Gigadis made that stupid deal! What are we going to do?"
Finally coming around, Scorpion jolted up to hold the white cat in his arms. "The kitty is okay! Thank god!" He looked around, only seeing the other three All-Stars. "Ah, Kratos is safe… Where's Kat? Or Pupuru? My rival?" Sackboy and Toro shrugged, PaRappa just shook his head.
Kat carefully lifted the white creature into her arms. "Kuu? Where's Pupuru?!" The small animal whimpered slightly. "Nariko! I found Kuu at least! Did you manage to detect anyone else over there?" The female warrior held a small boy.
"I… Think I found Kane." Fiery head, face-painted like a clown. Sweet Tooth began waking up, noticing instantly that he was being held by someone usually smaller than himself.
He wanted to shout, but Kat did it for him. "Eeeeeee! Sweet Tooth is that you?! What happened?! You became cuuuuute! Oh Nariko! Can I hold him?! Did this happen with anyone else?" She instantly dropped Kuu, who landed on Dusty. Touching his face then body, Sweet Tooth was able to know right away that his mask wasn't near him at all.
Now he was even more worried.
"Aww. Well look what happened to the treasure hunter!" Sly began pulling his rival's cheek. "He's short-stuff now! Who's calling who adorable now Drake?" Nate growled at the raccoon's taunts. Ratchet and Clank didn't see Doctor Nefarious anywhere. It bothered them a little.
Only Daxter came back, with someone on his shoulder. "Speaking of tiny, check this out!" Ratchet and the others took a good look at what was in front of them…
Jak was now nearly minion sized.
Cole took a long moment to stare at his counterpart, as did Raiden and Fat Princess. "I don't understand it at all. How did the other you turn into this again?" Plump asked. Evil shuddered, panting and nearly unable to move at all.
Gasping out words, he tried to cover his face to them. "D… Doppel… P… Pier…Pierrot."
"Doppel?" Raiden's attention was grabbed even more.
"Pierrot?" Fat Princess began wondering. "Isn't that like a french clown or something?"
"I… Need her… Please, help me…" No one could understand it, but no one had ever seen Evil Cole say 'please', 'help', or even ask for anything. He always did things himself and took what was believed to be his.
Heihachi Mishima and Donte were trying their best to hold back laughter. "Stop being amused, mortals! I will end you!" A voice yelled to them, but it didn't do much at all to prevent them from bursting out.
Like Jak, Zeus had been turned into a small version of himself. "What are you going to do big guy?" Donte mocked the tiny god. "Zap us? With static electricity?" The King of Gods grew tired of their meddling, attempting to shoot them with a bolt of lightning.
… All that came out was a tiny spark, humoring the two further.
"Nngh… Ah…!" Getting up slowly, Radec approached the voice, much to his poor luck, it was Pupul. "W-where is everyone…? Kuu-chan?" She whimpered, eyes watering as they looked up to see Mael. "Radec…" Up onto her knees, the sorceress tried to reach out for Mael.
Sighing, he pulled her out of the rubble. "Well miss dungeon explorer. I suppose you would know where we are right now?" There wasn't an answer, just more heavy breathing from the girl. "Right. Of course, Gigadis threw that unusual drug at you. I suppose whatever effect it had on you is taking toll."
Radec carefully lifted her, knowing that she would not have the energy to walk.
Spike managed to find all the body parts of Sir Daniel lying around. The knight was able to reassemble himself once a majority of them were brought together. With his thanks and a chuckle, Fortesque and the boy made their way through the cavern.
Only seconds in did they see the space captain run right to their direction. "Blasto?!" He stopped, making sure he didn't ram into Daniel and Spike. "What are you doing here? You're done recovering?" Fortesque questioned. Blasto pulled out his communicator and typing what he wished to say.
"You came down here just to find most of us and see if we were alright?" Spike was surprised to see that this was Captain Blasto's intention, as he was one of the few All-Stars not sucked down into such a dangerous area.
Either way, Spike was not stuck with two characters that had speaking troubles.
Isaac reached for the small girl covered in dirt and scratches. "I found the kid, but where's Bubbles?" Emmett checked to see if he was under any of the collapsed grounds from the arena. Little Sister began opening her eyes to the two men, shaking when she saw Big Daddy was not close. "It's okay miss, we're looking for Mr. B." Clarke attempted to reassure her.
"No sign of him in here." Emmett grunted from trying to move around the boulders. "We gotta look elsewhere for him. If he's even still ali-" He stopped, seeing Little Sister nearly weep. "I mean… We'll find Mr. B soon kiddo. And until we find him, we'll protect you the same way he does. Alright?"
Usually both Isaac and Emmett wouldn't be up for defending or caring for zombie-like creature, but Little Sister was presumably just a kid. Plus Big Daddy would have their throat if they didn't make sure she was safe.
"Dart…" Abe grunted, pulling himself up to see who was around him. Only Doctor Nefarious and Mr. Grimm, which was not really the best crowd to be near in his eyes. "Uhh, good to see you two are safe?…" He stammered, the two only glancing at him for a moment before turning to their thoughts.
Nefarious was trying to use one of his communicators. "Lawrence? Lawrence! LAAAAAWREEEEENCE!" He screamed, before Grimm slapped him on the dome. "Ow! Stupid… No bars here! Wonderful, just wonderful! I'm stuck with a soft-reaper and some weird alien I've never even heard of! How can this get any worse?!"
Quick footsteps approached the three. "Grimmy!" Mr. Grimm turned around swiftly, Nefarious following up with a groan of annoyance. Neptune was stuck in human form, instantly jumped toward the dark-collector and holding onto him. "I found you! What a relief, I didn't even think you would still be in existence down here!" After a long embrace, the reaper placed her onto the ground.
"Neptune? You should be recovering with Compa! Did she heal your body early? You can't brush off that deep injury Dart gave y-"
"T'was a flesh wound, all patched up and stitched together for now! I heard that you all got sent to a pit, and I couldn't keep myself away despite Compa's protests." Nepnep looked at Abe and Nefarious. "Whoops! Sorry for making a scene! But yeah, I'll be fine as long as I'm near you and the others!" Trying to laugh it off, she stopped, clutching her chest from slight pain.
It was going to be a long way through this cave, if others only entered and were unable to find the way they came.
((Not really any comments I can make on this chapter… Uh…
Other than Kratos finally being less of a jerk compared to how he was earlier on in the story, there's nothing to say. :T ))
