Chapter Thirty-Four

Averting his eyes back to Purple Sister, then Ratchet and Clank, Nefarious hissed to them. "What's up with her? She won't give me, Lawrence, or your cyborg friend any space! It's creeping me out!" They only now noticed it too, shrugging.

"Uhh, Nepgear was it? Can you keep your distance a little from the doc, his butler, and Raiden?" Asked Ratchet, catching the CPU Candidate, who was literally hovering over the others, off-guard.

She laughed nervously and landed on her feet. "I'm sorry. I just have a thing for robotics, cyborgs, androids… All that stuff!" All five of them stared at Purple Sister awkwardly.

"… I'm a married man." Raiden stated.

Purple Sister caught on quickly onto what she said after that sudden statement, and start panicking. "Oh! N-n-no! That's not what I meant! I meant that I'm fascinated by how they work, their designs, and I watch lots of shows revolving around them! I'm not used to these more western-type ones, but I like them just as much! And… Aww, this isn't helping at all!"

Death glanced over to Purple Heart, clearing his throat. "Am I correct to assume your sister is… 'The punching bag' amongst others? Or is that too mean?" The goddess couldn't exactly find a way to put it out there nicely, even though she already knew the answer was yes.

Meanwhile Etna was rather bothered by one of the new companions. "What's the big deal? Why do you keep staring at everyone?"

"Simple! I'm going to make you all my peons at one point or another. So I'm identifying their traits and weaknesses… And from what I'm reading into, you're a bit of the 'Sadist' type!" Chou-Chou sneered, before looking at Nefarious. "Bipolar that's weak to 'Natural'…" She then glanced at Bleu. "Graceful who likes 'Masochist' types…" Iota then tugged at her dress.

"I don't think you should invade people's privacy, miss Chou-Chou…"

"Aw c'mon! You never know if one of them could backstab us or something!"

"Kekeke! You're gonna have to worry about something else tonight, baby!" Everyone nearly cringed at the voice, while Sir Daniel withdrew his sword. He recognized that voice, the same one that pissed him off last time…

The green zombie of spring came out, followed by the other three seasonal fiends. "Aha! And you said it wouldn't be useful? This guy… Hyper type, and weak to 'Terse'!"

PaRappa narrowed his eyes at the 'Lord of Summer'. "We meet again, pup! Don't think I forgot about last time… That stupid win of yours was a mistake, one I won't let happen again!" The wintery-wolf followed up, snarling at Toro and Kuro.

"Oh great, people taking pages out of the 'Generic Villain Book 10'." Kuro said. Pyron, Zarok, Cortex, Calypso, and Nefarious glared at the cat while Toro smacked him on the head.

"Kuro! Be respectful, even to what seems to be our enemies!"

P-Man however, stepped in front of PaRappa. "I… I won't be afraid to use my powers any longer. For my friends who had helped me, I will defeat you!" The summer deity let out a chuckle, while the autumn girl hesitated.

"I dunno about this Summecante… We're outnumbered more than before, and three of them are CPUs—"

"MORON!" He shouted at her. "Don't give our names out to them! Now we have no choice but to kill most of them!"

Bleu transformed right there. "Summecante… Oh… I know you four now… You're all from Hanjuku 'Soft-Boiled' Hero… The counterparts of some Square characters…"

Feeling defeated, Summecante laughed. "Alright, fine, you got us, lady! We were sick of being thrown aside for our originals, so we made a deal with the Pierrot, who's working with the one dude you all refer as 'Evil Cole', right?"

Bentley flipped open a laptop, which took quick pictures of the four, as the fight was about to start. "Summecante is the summer-based doppelgänger of a Fire Lord, and the leader! He can use water and heatwave attacks, but does have some weakness to ice! Cole, I suggest you go against him!" Nodding, both Cole and Zeke helped P-Man.

"The wolf's name is Whinazzo. He has a bad forced habit of canine-instincts, making metaphors, and bad puns… He's the winter-based doppelgänger of a Water Lord, who is ironically a turtle like me and Alfred! He's vulnerable to fire, Pyron can go straight for the kill on this one! If not him, then Nikki.

"Sprimiglione is the name of the… Very colorful zombie. He's the 'happy springtime' counterpart of a gloomy Earth Lord who controls the dead. He's also vulnerable to fire, but it might be easier to just cut off one of his tree-branches, maybe make him lose balance! Then, Isaac and Carver can wail it out with a flamethrower!

Finally, there's Falliccia, sometimes called 'Falli' by others. She's the autumn-centric doppelgänger of a Wind Lord… I feel kinda bad for her, she seems to be kicked around by the leader and in quite an amount of despair over the situation. However, it seems like she doesn't have a regular weakness. Sly! You, Kat, Ratchet, and Gex could maybe do something to stop her from spinning around!"

Sly then smirked. "Thanks for the advice Bentley!"

Nikki had to constantly dodge the wolf lunging at them, his fur was constantly scorched by any attacks they released. "That ridiculous table on his back is in the way!" The sorceress grunted. "Is there a way to remove that?… Come on, you stupid alien! Help us out!"

Glaring, Pyron huffed. "Ignorant mortal earthlings… Fine!" Rolling over to their enemy in a giant ball of flame, the alien tore off the tablecloth on Whinazzo before removing the entire thing. "If I still had a majority of my power I would… Hm?" An icy crystal was on the beast's back, exposed to any form of harm.

The sorceress launched all her moves onto the weak-point. Pyron merely stepped back, trying to activate the infamous giant fireball toss… Instead, merely a few sparks spewed out.

"Wha?! No! Come on! This isn't fair!" He whined, while Zarok scoffed at him. Approaching Whinazzo, who was more focused on the duo, the wizard struck the crystal with his trident. A loud shattering sound echoed, with shards spreading all over the ground.

Standing completely still for a few seconds, Whinazzo found himself dripping… His entire form, in fact, was turning into droplets of water, fur and all. "You… Damn you! I wish for you all to be torn apart by a mere kennel!"

As she looked upon her fallen partner, Falliccia gasped. "Th-this isn't good!" All the autumn deity had been doing was avoiding those trying to come anywhere close. Such ended upon being distracted, feeling a swift kick to the head from Kat and Raven.

Whether or not she was going to stop was not for Sly to risk, as he used his cane to fling her out of 'tornado mode', follow by Gex smacking Falliccia in the face. "Shouldn't we take it easy on her, or…?" Ratchet mumbled to Clank.

Alfred pushed up his glasses. "Hold her down at least so she's not a threat." Murray nodded in agreement, and flopped over, prompting the others to get out of the way. "… Not really what I was suggesting, but that works."

Much to the surprise of Sir Daniel, his opponent was putting up a much better fight than last time. Playing defensively and able to strike from any direction almost, it seemed impossible for anyone to scratch him.

"I expected either his branches or stupid cape to burn!" Joel grunted, tossing flaming bottles at the spring-time zombie. "This is not the kind of infected I'm used to…"

"Uhh, I don't think he's infected with anything. I think it's one of those 'brought to life by magic' things." Iota replied.

"What kind of conjured up mutated abomination has trees growing on his back?!"

Sneering, Chou-Chou suddenly changed her form. "Like I said, he's got liking to 'Terse'… This is easy for the undisputed god." She then gained light-lavender hair, a gothic hairband and lolita dress, a piercing gaze, along with holding a rabbit doll. "Hum… What's this all about? Who's this ugly toad?" He stopped at the sudden insult, losing focus and becoming excited.

A cackle came from his throat. "Ahaa! So cuuuuute!~ How did you know I absolutely adoooore dark girls like you?~ If only I was as lucky as my original, to have one too!~"

"Ugh… Disgusting. Go croak, toad. I can't stand looking at a fruit-basket like you."

But Spring merely laughed more. "Yes girl!~ Keep insulting me!~ I want it, I desire it, baby! I mean to say, I want you to talk to me like the lowly being I am!~" Drooling, the zombie-creature hovered over Terse-Chou-Chou.

Isaac torched his cape off, followed by both Scissor Man and Kutaro snapping off one of the branches. Losing balance, Sprimiglione fell over. "Gaaaha!… Oh, well I suppose this is expected~… Now what? Perhaps I'll—" He couldn't even finish that sentence, as Sir Daniel made sure no stupid music number started by bashing the zombie's neck with a hammer.

Nearly everyone except Scissor Man cringed in disgust. "C-c-captain Fortesque! W-w-was that really necessary?!"

"Mmm… No. I was going to bash his skull in, but thought that would be overdoing it. He's already kinda dead though, isn't he?" They all merely stared at him in shock. "Look, I just don't want to hear another word out of this guy! Is it such a crime?… Let's all just focus on the last target then!" And that's exactly what was done.

Little did they notice, the puddle of water that was once Whinazzo, sliding over to the crushed zombie…

All of that was going on, as Lastation's basilicom remained quiet. Morrigan huffed, looking bored. "Honestly… I didn't think it was possible, but I'm worried about Pyron a little. None of his powers have come back to him by much. And I don't want him to be killed because I've found him entertaining now, when he isn't trying to threaten the planet."

"I don't blame you… I'm still worried about Neptune going off without me. Even if she's surrounded by a large group." Grimm sighed, tapping his bony fingers on a table. "I suppose I should stop moping though and be productive… I'm going back to Planeptune. I merely checked in to see how all of you were holding up—" The doors flung open so suddenly, that everyone dropped what they were doing.

Fargus clumsily stumbled inside, carrying Plutia over his shoulder while Sid growled. "Of all da dames we had ta be in charge of, it had ta be dis one!"

"Plutia?!… Sid, what happened to Neptune and her sister?!" Mr. Grimm instantly asked in fear.

"Don't be a worry-wart, bonehead! Dose two along with da blue-gal are fine. If anythin' she was protectin' us from dis monster of a little lady!" The jester placed her on the couch, not being careful at all.

Lifting her head up from a book, Etanya huffed. "Protecting characters that aren't even hers and she sent that little deformed one after? Huh… I know that part was Cliora's idea, but still. I wonder what Noire make of this?" As he came into the room, Cobar saw the unconscious goddess laying there.

"Mistress Iris?!" He ran over to the body, touching Plutia's forehead. "Who did this to her?! I demand to know!"

Appalled, Mr. Grimm averted his gaze away from the colonel. "According to Sid, Bleu was responsible for doing that, out of protecting the others from harm…"

"Correct. Unfortunately, no one here can protect you."

Standing at the door there was now the other Grimm. "You again?!" Sweet Tooth growled. "Are you for real?"

"Yes, despite what your imagination thinks… We'll make this quick." The doppelgänger looked over to the others. "We will leave you all alone, if you let us get rid of Sweet Tooth and Mr. Grimm… And we get our Dollface back. No strings attached."

Everyone was silent. It wasn't even that they were actually thinking the deal through, nearly all of them had the same thoughts, barring Cobar. "Are you stupid? Do you know how depressed Nep would be if you 'replaced' our Grimm?! Planeptune is already falling apart, and you'd only make it worse!" Daxter exclaimed, Jak and Keira agreeing with him.

Nathan then followed up. "That, and Sweet Tooth is the face of Twisted Metal… Why would you want to get rid of him?! Isn't your friend the counterpart of Minion? Unless you know well enough that you wouldn't stand a chance against that sort of guy?"

Groaning, Sweet Tooth took out his machete slowly. "Listen here Drake, he's not the counterpart of Minion! He's—"

Unable to be patient anymore, the other Grimm lunged at the original reaper. Morrigan quickly tried to fight off the copy, while Marcus removed the blood-soaked bull's head that was covering his face…

A messy haired, bearded man covered in red and sweat was underneath. "You… You ruined my life! You lied to me, and said everything would be fine… But then you took control of my body, and killed my family! Just like you did during childhood!"

"Wha…" Jak took a moment to process those words. "Sweet Tooth, he's your counterpart?!"

"Heh… In a way. I really thought I killed him, so that I could live… Yes, he's Marcus Kane, my original form." The clown almost sounded depressed. "It's in my blood to become a psychotic killer, ain't it? But this guy and his dad fought so hard to repress me like a bad memory. I had to be a free bird, y'know! Can't have things like family holding me back, that along with my thirst for blood growing…

"… So… Even though you all claim that I killed my own wife and children… Well, you could say it was actually his. Funny thing was, I was doing the same thing he was with me— Suppressing him away. But goddamn, seems like he got out of my head along with my other little nightmares."

Jak and Nathan looked at each other… The fake Grimm's deal seemed stupid, but now… They were left with a decision along with the rest.

Should they fight off Marcus, and keep things the way they are with Sweet Tooth?…

Or get rid of the clown, out of pity for the regular man that went doppelgänger?…

((Quite the choice indeed…))