Welcome, everybody, to the final chapter of the Freedom Saga! THIS is the part where EVERYTHING happens…! Hehe, be prepared! ;D
Chapter 55: The Master Returns
G.U.N. H.Q.
Mika Corella calmly rested on the ground outside the base, hands folded behind her head as she stared up at the sky, the sun shining higher over the land as it was a later point in the day, and the gloomy clouds had gone. The Quads and Noah sat by each other along the base's railing above a stairway, arms wrapped around each other. "You know, guys, I think we've finally achieved a real accomplishment in this whole quest." Buddy said.
"Don't say it now, Ruburd! You might jinx it!" Morgan shouted. "A waterwheel might suddenly come and run us over!"
"Seriously, Morgan?" Athena asked.
"Sirius is having tea with The Chronicler!" Mika yelled to them.
"Who? ?"
"Aw, come on, guys." Buddy spoke again. "We got GUN on our side finally, Boba's stopped hunting us, we found 4 of the 8 Firstborn, which means we're only halfway done… e-yep. For the first time in our life, things are starting to look up."
"Which is just what Aladdin said." Sophie replied. "Before 3… 2… 1…"
Right away, alarms started blaring throughout the base as squadrons of GUN soldiers and robots stormed out. "Told ya." Sophie said as Gunkan and Boba ran out.
"What's going on?" Morgan asked.
"A catastrophe!" Gunkan exclaimed. "Swarms of thousands of enemy monsters are burning a trail of rubble through the States, and they're on a cross to Chicago! They'll have the place surrounded in minutes!"
"What? What are they after?"
"Nothing good, I bet." Noah replied. Everyone hurried onto some kind of aircraft and started to lift up, taking off for the aforementioned city.
Planet Vaporia, below the surface
"Ugh! Hey! Let me go!" Virginia demanded, shaking about as Dedede and Escargoon carried her by the arms into some kind of deep underground cave. They threw her face-first on the floor, the goth standing up and seeing Mandy beside her. She gasped horribly at the sight of a gargantuan cloud of black smog with a face before her, encased in some kind of crystal as its eyes were sealed.
The Sector K operative looked behind her as the distorted soul of the Dark Master approached with Ganondorf. "The time has come at last! This creature will be the final key to my freedom! Isn't that right, Ganondorf?"
"Yes, Lord Gnaa. Within the confines of this crystal rests the most frightening Nightmare ever created. This incarnation of Yellow Fear was the death of millions, and it will be the one that will bring that wretched city of mortals to its knees."
"Heheha HA! Excellent! Now go and handle things with your army down on Earth, Ganon. I will handle things here."
"As you command, My Lord." Ganon bowed, walking toward the cave's exit, but first sparing one last hateful glance toward his 'Master'.
"And now… to begin our ritual." And with that, Mandy faced the crystallized incarnation and erupted a deafening Fear Scream. At the same time, Dedede and Escargoon muttered the same incantation from before, Virginia unable to control her own limbs as her eyes and mouth glowed, releasing some kind of white energy at the crystal. The transfers of energy made the monster's eyes blink open in seconds, as the crystal casing slowly cracked. The crack grew bigger and wider, until finally, the entire prison shattered.
The horrifying cloud of darkness was released as the energy transfers stopped, moving slowly forward as it faced the Dark Master, its mouth wide-open with a bright yellow glow inside as it spoke. "The Screams of Fear with the Soul of Nightmare-born have awakened me. I see before me now a powerful body, fueled with the powers of fear and elements of darkness creation."
Gnaa's soul aimed a finger toward the demon and replied, "Parallax… the ultimate creation of Fear. The time has come for you to rain the ultimate dose of fear upon the humans. Finish what you were assigned to do, and my freedom will be largely at hand."
"As you command, O Master of Darkness. The evil inside of you is unparalled. I offer myself as your temporary vessel. I promise you won't be needing me for long. So many innocent souls I hear down below. Crying… pleading for mercy. Let us go down and spread fear and misery to all." And with that, the beast's mouth opened wide, allowing the disinterred soul inside.
Above the surface of Vaporia, the ground started to crumble as the Vaporian citizens panicked, the massive cloud of fear rising from the depths, flying to the sky with the only other sound heard being the laugh of the Dark Master. "Hehehehehehahahahaheha!"
Chicago, Indiana
Black clouds of smoke rose miles in the sky as the thousands of enemy monsters laid siege upon the city of Chicago. The whole city was completely surrounded. Koopas and robots to the north, ordered by King Bowser and Dr. Eggman as they waved flags of Bowser's and Eggman's mugs. Bokoblin to the west, waving flags of demonic symbols as Ganondorf and Ghirahim led the way. Kremlings to the east as K. Rool Kommanded them all, waving flags that read "K. Rool's the King" and also had the Kremlings' Jolly Roger. Witches on broomsticks swooping down from the skies as Rumpel Stiltskin, on his pet goose, sent them down, flying beside a magical onion carriage, rode by Yuki Crystal and Lucinda Talzin, and driven by a handsome man in tights with a shirt that read 'Kyle'. And finally, Stormtroopers and metahuman criminals charging from the south as the Brotherhood leaders watched from a massive metal tank. General Immortus worked the cockpit, Madame Rouge and Monsieur Mallah sat in stations below a stairway. And up that stairway, at the very peak of the tank, Nolan York sat beside Darth Genious.
"Behold. Feast your eyes, Nolan." Brain said to his apprentice. "Watch from the perfect seat as the first city meets its ultimate catastrophe. This destruction will mark a turning point in the war. When this town falls, our mighty Master will rise from below the depths. He will plunge everything into darkness… and our victories will be at hand."
Nolan faced the burning city before them, gulping worriedly at the destruction taking place.
Entering from between the demons and Stormtroopers were Gaul and his vicious Demon Apes, the buff baboon raising a scepter sky-high as his apes waved flags with purple arrows pointing downward. "DARK ARMIES: ATTACK!" The apes gave ear-splitting battle cries as they and all the armies charged into the city, wreaking havoc everywhere.
Lehcar and Scarlet stood beside Ganondorf, smirking as he pointed toward the city, the girls charging straight ahead with the other demons right behind. Lehcar charged lightning in her hands and fired it to all the highest parts on buildings, creating massive explosions. Scarlet dashed alongside blue Bokoblin, all wielding swords as they ran by and sliced random citizens, while she gracefully did the same with her long metal claws.
The GUN soldiers charged into the area just in time, dropping into the city as they shot all the invading monsters they could. The Quads, Star Wolf, and every other hero from the GUN fortress landed in the city, too, and Mika immediately used her psychic to push back a pack of charging Bullbos. "They're destroying everything!" Athena exclaimed.
"How are we going to fight them all?" Emily shouted.
"Just do everything you can." Morgan told 'em. "Put out any fires, help anyone in trouble, watch OUT for falling shards or buildings, and take out any monster you see. Let's go!" (Play the "Dragon City" theme from Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon!)
Stage 49: City Catastrophe
Mission: Hold back the invading troops and save the city! !
Act 1
The lot of them ran different directions as The Quads drew their sabers and ran toward a pack of Demon Apes breaking some cars, but part of a building suddenly toppled over and blocked their path, bursting into flames as Purge Troopers stepped out. The psychics ran to start slicing the armored men, but they wrapped arms around them and grabbed them, but were saved when Emily overshadowed the one holding Morgan and used his body to shoot the others.
Mika, Rainier, and Lucario went over the fallen building and headed for the vicious apes, Lucario already starting to beat them away, but was quickly tackled by a pack. Mika and Rainier stood back-to-back, fighting away any ape that jumped at them. Not too far away, Solid Snake was surrounded by Bokoblin, all glaring and wielding huge knives. Two of them ran at him from behind, but he punched back, then grabbed one charging from the front and threw it into others, but a bunch of them quickly pounced on him. Snake shook them off, then grabbed one around the neck with his chain, beginning to strangle it. He heard an explosion and looked up, then pushed the demon away as he quickly rolled away, dodging another falling building.
Snake looked up at the top of what was left of the chopped building, seeing Scarlet smirking down at him. "Thanks for getting those cuffs off." She taunted, rubbing her wrists. "Oof!" She was caught by surprise when Violet climbed to where she was and tackled her, the two falling to the shard-littered ground below. "YOU!" Scarlet grit her teeth.
"Nice to see you too, Cuz." Violet glared.
"Too bad I can't say the same. 'Course, now that you're here, I can finally take pleasure in ridding your disgusting face from the face of the planet." And with that, the girls immediately started swinging claws at each other. They wrestled each other to the ground and rolled along. Violet jumped up and scratched Scarlet's left cheek, the Italian catgirl growling in anger as she got a bloody mark. Scarlet jumped behind and forced her to the ground, holding her down as she bashed Violet's face against the dozens of glass shards on the ground.
Bowser's Castle
The Toxic Four and the many shrunken captives watched the invasion from the prison room via mini TVs, the camera closing up on Scarlet and Violet's battle. "Violet…" Bruce watched with worry and fear.
"Look at those idiots. There's no way that city's gonna survive after this." Matt said smugly.
"Wow, Scarlet hits hard." Leo commented.
"That's why you should help them, Matt." Yin told him.
"Or at least let us outta here so we can help them." Kami said. "C'mon, Jeremiah."
"Kami, we care about you guys too much to let you get destroyed out there. Plain and simple." Jeremiah told her.
"And besides… even if they can hold off the troops," Elijah stated, "they can never be prepared for what happens next."
"Whut? Whut's gonna happen? Tell me, Elijah!" Marine shouted.
"I know this isn't the right time… but even though I don't like those two, watching them fight is really hot." Kweeb commented, eyes fixated on the brawling cat girls.
"When the fate of the world is at stake, you'd sacrifice everything to see a catfight, huh?" Kami replied, disbelievingly.
"The city's gonna fall." Matt said once more. "You all are the lucky ones. Anyone entering that scene, won't come out okay."
Luna held Bruce's hand in comfort, the two watching worriedly as Scarlet smashed Violet through some broken windows, continuing to beat her mercilessly.
Back at Chicago
The Quads used their psychic to pick up the fallen building and crush a squad of apes. However, another pack of apes was slowly crawling their way, snarling in hunger. They suddenly heard a train whistle and looked to their right, seeing the Demon Train speeding out of a portal, the apes' eyes widening in horror when the massive train ran right over, squishing their hips flat.
"Wa-ha-hey!" Grandfather exclaimed as he and Cole fell out of the train doors, holding up beer bottles. "We're hittin' everything today, aren't we?"
"I say, we seem to be hitting everywhere but rock bottom. WAH HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Cole cackled. "Eh, no, we pretty much hit there, too."
"AHH!" Rachel battle-cried, jumping out of the train with Sector W, starting to slice away at Bokoblin.
A squad of Ice Cream Men surrounded Sector W as they ran out, so Sonya quickly used her powers to try and give them all headaches. The Ice Cream Men exchanged confused glances, so Sonya then stopped when she realized her powers had no effect. "What? Shouldn't your heads be hurting by now?"
"We're Ice Cream Men. We've developed an immunity-" one of them responded before they were suddenly knocked out by dodgeballs to the head.
The operatives looked to the side and saw the Junior Prospectors, wearing battle-ready expressions as Joey bounced a dodgeball in his hand. "Prithee, Junior Prospectors: showeth these foul creatures no mercy and sendeth them straight to the Underwhere."
"YEA!" The children yelled before running to battle a squad of Koopa Strikers, the soccer turtles unable to kick their shells in time before the kids ran and kicked them back. Sector W found a trio of Egg Hammers stomping toward them, but Angie threw her arms up and made a rock wall pop up, pushing the robots away.
"YIPE!" Angie squeaked when another Egg Hammer suddenly came down beside them and grabbed the team in its arms. However, the kids dropped free when a large, sharp rock shot up from the ground and pierced the robot. Angie looked over and smiled at King Bumi, the muscular elder popping up more earth walls and sending them to crush more robots.
Boba Fett and Khryssa stood back-to-back with their sabers as they were surrounded by Kremlings, but lasers shot down from the heavens and blew the crocs away, the two looking up and spotting Sector V's C.O.O.L.-B.U.S.. "Alright, team, let's land, start shooting, and wipe these freaks from the face of the city." Numbuh 1 ordered to the many people aboard the ship. "Kids Next Door, battle stations!"
"Ooh-OO-ooh!" Donkey Kong cried as the Kongs flew out of the ship's windows, successfully bouncing over a row of Kremlings. Tiny Kong landed in the middle of a circle of Fire Tikis, quickly flipping and dodging as they sent blue flames at the chimp. One of the Tikis drew out a bow and started launching quick arrows at her, but Tiny switched out her Feather Bow and launched her own feather arrows back, the sharp feathers bouncing away the arrows and sticking into the Tiki's eyes. The blue-flamed Tikis then spat fire at Dixie Kong, but the blonde-haired swiftly flipped behind them and started waving her ponytail, making enough wind to blow out the fire, allowing Chunky to come and smash the Tikis.
Citizens dashed out of a restaurant as chairs and tables came flying out the windows. Within the restaurant, a lone blue Bokoblin glanced around the outside, eyes wide with madness as the demon wielded a machete, cackling as he ran wildly outside. "Hehe! Hehe! I gotta sword!" he repeated as he ran about and stabbed random citizens. "Look-a-me, look-a-me, I gotta sword! Don't try and catch me now 'cause I gotta sword! I'm gonna come over and cut you 'cause I gotta sword! Haha! Ha- AHH!" the monster screamed when Rachel jumped in his way and sliced him, the demon running the opposite way as Rachel gave chase. "Haha! Haha! You ain't gonna catch me! Ain't gonna catch me 'cause I gotta sword! Come on, look at my sword, 'cause it's so- AHH!" he screamed once more when Master Piandao landed in his path, afterwards looking back to see Rachel run over, who knocked the demon on his back and proceeded to stab him rapidly. "AHH-AHH-AAHHHH!"
"Shut UP already." Rachel panted.
"Excellent work." Piandao told her. "Let us take care of the rest."
Sonic and Blaze boosted through swarms of robots until some earth chunks suddenly came up and bound the two speedsters. Surrounding them was a group of men in dark-green robes, earthbenders called Dai Li Agents. The two gasped when Princess Azula landed in front of them, closing their eyes as the firebending witch charged lightning in her fingers, preparing to zap them. "Chaos SPEAR!" The princess jumped back as Chaos Spears nearly exploded on her.
Shadow the Hedgehog landed and started punching at the princess, Azula flying far backward with her rocket shoes. Rouge came down and sliced the stones holding Blaze and Sonic with her sharp boots. The two hedgehogs exchanged glances and nodded before running side-by-side and taking out robots using Home Attack.
Meanwhile, the workers at Mushroom Dooper and Blockblister ran out of their shops as they were being destroyed, gathering in the middle of the street. "Boy, Daddy. These people really are grumpy today." The girl from Mushroom Dooper said.
"They should probably have one of our mushrooms. They're good! MMMM!" her dad replied.
"Mm, Papa, this reminds me of one of our movies, The… Darkest Hour, no?" Biscotti asked.
"Nu nu nu nu. You think of The Darkest FLOUR!" Blini corrected.
"Oh, yes!" Gnocchi smiled. "It is better!"
"MUCH BETTER!" they all exclaimed.
Penelope was currently flying over the city at this time, looking over the incredible destruction, and her eyes widened at the sight of Blini and the daughter of Mushroom Dooper. "TWO AMANDAS! Two Amandas, please! But what's this?" She noticed a series of bombs raining down around the area where the workers stood, said workers shielding their faces with their arms as the ground exploded around them. "HOLD ON! Cue slow-motion, please!" Penelope immediately shot downward in slow-motion, holding the DNA Revitalizer ready. "I'll… save… yooooouuu…" Penelope quickly passed over the two families and fired the ray at the two Amanda personas, catching them safely inside and flying back up, letting the rest of the families be blown to smithereens by the bombs. "Aha! That is TWO for one! Fare thee well, city! Enjoy gettin' BLOWN up! …Please."
After the fleet of witches landed, Yuki and Talzin stepped off the carriage as the icebender started freezing every screaming citizen in sight. A fireball punched him from behind, and he looked back and gritted his teeth at Nigel Uno. Both boys lit up their fists with their respective elements and started throwing punches. Both jumped away from the other as Yuki froze a ruined streetlight beside Nigel, the ice cracking and toppling over, making the frozen pole hold the Brit down. Yuki smirked and stepped closer, proceeding to freeze the rest of his body, starting from the feet to his head. But before he could finish the head, he was forced to jump away at another blast of fire, and Nigel looked up and smiled at Jeong-Jeong, using rocket shoes to hover over them. The fire master threw more flames at Nigel and unfroze him, letting the boy stand up as Jeong-Jeong landed beside him, both shooting glares at Yuki. Yuki only conjured a squad of Chilfos and ran off, leaving the firebenders to deal with them.
Inside one of the buildings, the Hispanic maid Consuela was calmly vacuuming the floors in an office and listening to some Mexican music via headphones. The high-pitched sound of an incoming cannonball could be heard in the distance, and said cannonball burst through the windows and bounced all over the place, totally ruining the office. Consuela paused in her vacuuming and stood there a few seconds. "Nno. Nnooo."
"Hahahahahaha!" Bowser Jr. danced and laughed aboard the flag Koopa airship. "Burn this city to rubble, come on, come on, let's go! Whoooa!" The Koopa Prince nearly fell over when their ship suddenly quaked upon impact of cannonballs from another one of their own. The Koopa child looked up and glared at Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi, riding the stolen airship driven by Toad. Junior whined and ordered more cannonballs to be shot at them, the Mario Bros. throwing on Tanuki Suits and floating over to his, bouncing off some larger cannonballs before reaching his deck and starting to whip him with their Tanuki Tails.
While dozens of other citizens were screaming and running by, Lucinda was happily casting spells and turning them all into small, harmless animals. "That should make things a bit better for them- OOF." The witch was pelted from behind by another magic blast.
"Lady, you have GOT to get yo' self a pair of glasses." Facilier told her.
Lucinda's handsome carriage driver, Kyle then stepped off his seat, twirling his whip around as he gave a sparkling grin at Facilier. The witch-doctor stared confusedly at him before simply casting a spell that stunned the driver, making him topple over. He afterwards started throwing spells at Lucinda, but the witch protected herself in a green barrier as she launched green lightning from her hands, missing the witch-doctor by a few inches as he flipped over her shots. The Ice Climbers landed behind Talzin and quickly froze the ground, making the old hag slip and fall on her back for the two kids to bash her with their hammers.
During all of this destruction, Cleveland Brown was just happily taking a bath inside a hotel, nodding his head and singing to some music in his headphones while he put shampoo on. "Boy, this is the easiest time I ever had taken a bath lately. I guess since those Kids Next Door already came through this city, I got nothin' to worry about." However, the mustached man turned and looked out his window, frowning at the sight of a massive blimp with Eggman's symbol passing by, firing and blowing up several floors on buildings. "Oh, sh**." At that instant, the blimp fired and destroyed his floor, not giving his bathtub any time to slide off and fell right away.
The man screamed louder than he had the previous times as he was about to fall in a massive fire, but was thankfully rescued when Buddy grabbed him with his psychic. While the male Quad held him up, a huge wave of water passed by and dissolved the flames into smoke. When the smoke cleared, they could see Eva, Kade, and Master Pakku on the other side. "Sorry we're late." Eva called.
"Took you long enough!" Nigel shouted as he and Jeong-Jeong just melted the head off a Chilfos.
"Kade wanted to stop for a burrito."
"Like you didn't want those French fries?" Kade asked sarcastically.
"Do not worry about it." Jeong-Jeong told them. "The whole of the White Lotus is nearly here. We must continue to fend off these creatures."
"Just what IS the White Lotus?" Nigel asked.
"The time for questions will come soon."
Dr. Eggman was now flying by the blimp that destroyed Cleveland's room, in which the other side of the aircraft had a "DC" label. "WHOA HO HO HO HO! Finally! Now that my specialized ordered DC Comics blimp is here, let's get into some real action!" With that, he pressed a remote and had the blimp drop tons of Voldemort, Palpatine, and Sentinel Clones. The scientist gave a sniffle as he wiped a tear from his eye. "I really did miss these guys."
"Oh, give me a break." Buddy retorted, still holding Cleveland. The Quad was instantly blown away by the impact of one of the Sentinels' gunfire to the ground, taking Cleveland with him as he flew and bumped Fanny in the head, knocking the Irish over while Cleveland was thrown at Rouge, the bat gasping and kicking the man at an Egg Hammer just in time.
"NNYAH!" Fanny yelled, pushing Buddy off of her. "If ya want to still have that choppy brain of yours, ya better watch where you're landin'!"
"And if you don't want a bat bitch-slap, you better watch where you're throwing!" Rouge shouted at Buddy. The two girls then went to beat up more robots while Patton went over beside Buddy.
"Gee, sorry about that. Women, huh?" Patton asked him.
"Tell me about it." The male Quad replied, rubbing his head.
"Yo, Buddy, get over here!" Morgan shouted as his 3 sisters were engaging more clones. He ran to join them as they started slicing clones to pieces. They looked up behind them as the Sentinels stomped forward, feeling outsized and outmatched. They tried to grab one of them, but another one just shot and blew them away, and the rest of the clones took aim and were about to hit. However, the front Sentinel's head was blown off by a plasma shot, and they all faced to the sky to see Death's Head, flying beside Meta Knight and Dimentia.
"Spread out and destroy them!" Meta Knight ordered, shooting down to the city and starting to cut away Stormtroopers as he scampered through.
"'Twas the plan from the start, duh?" Death's Head replied, flying down to shoot more Sentinel Clones.
"I'll handle it from the rooftops. Let's go, Jirachi." Dimentia ordered, releasing Jirachi from his Spirit Ball as they flew to the rooftops.
From Darth Genious' main tank, General Immortus viewed around with a telescope and spotted the Zathurian with Jirachi starting to zap Stormtroopers off the tops of buildings, aiding GUN Troopers. "Sir! I've spotted Jirachi. Should we go after him?"
"Indeed. Send the villains up there. Team Brotherhood, get me that Firstborn."
April and Danika immediately jumped up to where Nolan was as Danika grabbed both of them, using Shadow Glide to fly toward Dimentia while several Brotherhood villains took off in their ships. They landed on the building where Dimentia was, and April quickly blew her back with a psionic blast while Danika slid behind and grabbed her. Nolan fired his net around Jirachi, but the star child teleported before he could shock. Dimentia then shocked Danika off of her before shocking Nolan with Space Lightning.
Down below, Mika and Lucario were just finished using psychic to topple over an Imperial Walker, letting Rainier crawl inside to take out the soldiers within. By that time, the two psychics were pretty worn out, but Lucario grabbed Mika and quickly jumped before a bigger ray hit them. They looked up as Cad Bane and Aurra were flying over in their Wolfens, targeting the psychics as Bane said, "So long, Jedi." The ships came to a sudden stop just then, and they looked ahead as Mewtwo was using psychic to hold them. The hunters gritted their teeth and jumped out of the ships before Mewtwo tossed them, Bane activating his rocket shoes and grabbing Aurra before flying away. Mewtwo glanced down at Mika and nodded to her while she smiled and nodded back, the two proceeding to throw Psycho Spheres all around.
Back with Nigel and Jeong-Jeong's fight with Yuki, the two ducked as the ice child swung the ice ball-n-chain at them, afterwards flying away by launching ice rays from his hands. After he landed and smirked at them, he was kicked to the ground from behind by Jagar King, seeing the three timebenders before they all used Stop to freeze him in time. Mother Talzin saw this several feet away, but was still being beaten down by the Ice Climbers. Facilier smirked and was about to cast a stun spell at her, but his cane was swat away by Rumpel's Expelliarmus spell. The elf stunned the Ice Climbers afterwards, allowing Lucinda to stand up and cast a spell at Yuki, making him mobile again so he could throw more ice at the timebenders. However, he was instantly frozen again when Clockwork came into the scene, smiling down at Jagar.
"Master, it seems ve are having some problems." Monsieur Mallah said to Brain. "Ze White Lotus men are all here. With the exclusion of Monsieur Dodds and zere leader."
The Brain looked up to where Team Brotherhood was fighting Dimentia, seeing Commander Gunkan coming their way on his aircraft. "He should be here pretty soon. Carry me to my apprentice, Mallah. General Immortus, activate the battle towers." And with that, Mallah grabbed his master and switched on his mini helicopter, flying away while Immortus pushed a button at his station. (Play "Defending the Ramparts 2" from Dawn of the Dragon!)
Act 2
Several tanks around the area instantly grew into colossal battle towers, lined all up with cannons as they began firing upon the city, explosions appearing all over the place. Gunkan glanced over at the towers and ordered, "Men! Focus all fire on those towers! Don't let 'em get too close!"
"Leon, Panther, Jake, let's get them." Wolf ordered his team as they flew toward the towers and started to shoot them, blowing up the cannons.
"Come on!" Morgan yelled to her siblings, slicing a few more heads off clones before they headed up one of the buildings. Rachel looked up and spotted GUN soldiers stepping off of aircrafts and onto buildings, using her Hookshots to quickly make her way upward. Lucario, Rainier, and Mika exchanged glances and nodded before Lucario wrapped his arms around them both, quickly jumping up some buildings just before the ground beneath them exploded.
Sonic and Shadow just finished piercing through a Sentinel's heart before spotting the towers, speeding toward them as fast as the wind would allow, jumping all explosions, and leaping their way over. Sonic made it to the first tower and Spin Dashed into the tank, knocking out all the Stormtroopers before shooting up the tower, causing several explosions along it before destroying it completely, the hedgehog flying out. Shadow used Chaos Control to warp into another tank, kicking out a Stormtrooper and taking his gun, using it to shoot all the others. The hedgehog then glowed with a red aura as he yelled, "Chaos… BLAST!" creating a massive explosion that wiped out the tower.
Back with Team Brotherhood, Nolan kept firing his grappling hook at Jirachi, but the Firstborn warped each time. It was then that April finally stunned him with a psionic ray and allowed Nolan to catch him in his net, shocking the star child before he could warp. The net was suddenly shot open by Numbuh Infinity, the diplomat blowing out the smoke on his ray gun before shooting the shadow that was Danika, who was holding down Dimentia. The GUN Commander's aircraft landed on their rooftop, gesturing for Dimentia and Infinity to leave. They did so as Dimentia returned the unconscious Jirachi to his Spirit Ball, warping herself and Infinity off. Brett switched on his darksabers and ran to slice Danika, but the goth held up her daggers in defense while Midna flew behind and grabbed his leg, swinging and bashing him along the floor before releasing him.
"My, Brett, isn't this a charming reunion." Midna retreated to Danika's shadow, and the Commander shot his head up at the sound of the robotic voice.
"REVAN!" he yelled, standing up.
"You know him?" Nolan asked Brain.
"Brett and I had a minor complication in the past. It shouldn't interest you. Why don't you three assist the fight down below? I can deal with this long worn-out commander." The three villains exchanged confused glances and quickly made their way downstairs.
"I haven't forgotten you, Sidious." Gunkan said to Brain, aiming his sabers. "You were the biggest traitor we've ever had. You turned me into that monster."
"Must we continue holding on to the past, Brett? I'd much rather think about our future, where I rule and your life's ended." Gunkan tried to strike Genious, but the Sith's eyes and dome alit as a barrier formed around, protecting from all of Gunkan's strikes. The Commander was electrocuted when he struck the electric shield that just formed around Brain, and the Sith used his psychic to pick up several pieces of scrap around the area, Brett quickly flipping and dodging as the pieces hurled his way.
A gang of Brotherhood villains were wreaking havoc inside an office building and making citizens run about in fear. Mammoth spotted Rachel come in and attempted to throw a desk at her, but Rachel sliced it and threw her Hylian Shield at the buff villain's chin, knocking him out as the shield came back. She rose it up in defense as Mumbo casted spells at her, then rolled away before Gizmo flew overhead and fired bullets down, tossing her boomerang at the child's backpack and making him fly out of control, breaking through a window and going outside.
Everyone on that floor shook when the Helmaroc King rammed his head right into the building. Lehcar and Ghirahim, who were riding the massive bird, took their swords and sliced several support beams on that side before flying off. The villains quickly retreated when that floor began tilting downward, but Rachel slipped and stabbed her sword in the floor to keep from sliding down. She looked up, eyes widened at a bunch of desks sliding toward her, bumping and forcing the leader to slide off and fall out the window. Both Nigel and Fanny took some time from their enemy-fighting to notice her, quickly kicking on their rocket shoes and flying straight up, grabbing their leader by the arms and flying her safely to a building top.
Rachel nodded in thanks and waved them off, then went to go attack a squad of Stalfos attacking a GUN soldier by a cannon. She cut the bones off of them and kicked their heads off the building to a flame below. "Thank you." The soldier said before jumping back in his cannon seat, turning and taking aim at one of the battle towers. "Get ready to fire!" He pushed a button and launched a large cannonball, coming in contact and successfully destroying the tower.
Afterwards, the cannon was destroyed in an instant by lightning, blowing the soldier away. Rachel blew away the smoke and looked up at Lehcar on the Helmaroc King's head. The Negative kicked on her rockets and flew over, landing where Rachel was and starting to clash with her sword, while Rachel had to duck some fire kicks. After kicking Lehcar back, Rachel grabbed and shoved her over the edge, the two quickly sticking their swords in the building's side and starting to scrape down beside each other.
Rachel swung up and dodged some flames Lehcar kicked at her, flipping onto her sword and drawing out her bow, trying to hit Lehcar with arrows while the Negative flipped up and charged lightning onto her sword. However, the part of the building on Lehcar's side was broken the rest of the way down, so the Negative fell. But Rachel fired her Hookshot and stuck it at the top of the broken part, then grabbed her sword before swinging and grabbing her Negative before she fell into the flames. Rachel landed them a few inches away from the fire as her Hookshot retracted, but Lehcar just kicked her away and ran off.
At the top of another building, Team Psychic (aka Mika, Rainier, and Lucario) arrived to see some Teen Ninjas stalking closer to a GUN Trooper, whom had a darksaber raised. "Stay back!" he yelled at them.
One of the ninjas fired a grappler and took the saber, about to strike the man before Mika jumped in his way, holding her saber up in defense. "Well, this is kind of ironic." She commented.
Rainier and Lucario then used chi-blocks on the Teen Ninjas to make them numb and fall over, while Mika just used psychic and kicked the one she was fending off the building. Their building was immediately being pelted with cannonballs from the battle towers, so the soldier jumped in his cannon and took aim at the closest one. "Quick, you kids get those cannonballs and help me reload." Mika and Lucario did so and grabbed several cannonballs from the pile with their psychic, stuffing them in the cannon and allowing the soldier to fire straight at the tower, blowing it up as well.
The Quads fought their way up onto another building just in time to watch a soldier in another cannon fire at another tower, blowing it up in an instant. A pack of Demon Apes climbed to where he was and started tearing the cannon apart, attacking the trooper as well. Buddy jumped and used a Psycho Shockwave to stun all of the apes, allowing The Quads to pick them up and throw them toward the towers, but it had no real effect. Athena spotted one of Bowser's airships firing Missile Bills at them, but she simply grabbed the homing projectiles and flung them back, destroying the back of the airship and making it crash down to one of the towers, blowing it up upon impact.
A squad of Kop Kremlings then flew over to them on helicopters, jumping to where they were as they wielded electrical rods. Two of them quickly zapped and stunned Morgan while Buddy tried to strike one, only to get zapped himself. Before the Kops could go for the others, they were suddenly levitated upwards by a psychic force, The Quads smiling at Mewtwo. The cloned spirit tossed the Kremlings away before they all faced the last battle tower. Morgan simply charged a Psycho Sphere in her hands and tossed it straight away, the tower erupting into flames.
"That's the last of 'em!" she exclaimed.
"Don't party just yet." General Immortus smirked, pressing another button. The general's tank rose into an even bigger tower, lined up with tons of cannons that fired missiles, blowing up the sides of several buildings.
"Great. What now?" Jagar asked.
"We will handle this." Clockwork responded. "Members of the White Lotus: go forth." With that, each of the White Lotus men left their respective apprentices and dashed toward the final tower. Pakku splashed and froze water along his path for him and Piandao to ski down, with the sword master slicing the weapons of several Stormtroopers. Bumi just burrowed beneath ground and dug his way below the tower, piercing sharp rocks up from below to try and get it stuck.
Pakku made an ice path going up and around the tower, skiing along as he blew ice and froze parts of the armor while Jeong-Jeong flew up via rocket shoes and tossed flames at the frozen armor, breaking parts of it off. Piandao skied toward the front windshield and swiftly flipped in, starting to cut away any Stormtroopers that tried to shoot him. Immortus put his tank on autopilot and got up from his seat, starting to clash against Piandao's sword with his own. Mewtwo and Clockwork hovered in front of the tower's cannons, the psychic master easily grabbing missiles and sending them back, doing damage.
With most of the armor weakened, Clockwork charged power from his staff and sucked in a huge breath through his nose. "RAAAAAAHHHHH! !" he erupted a powerful, quaking roar from his lungs, his Roar of Time shaking the tower enough so that the rest of its armor came off, exposing its vulnerable insides. "The core is exposed. Now's your chance, Iroh."
Watching the siege from miles away, the White Lotus leader Iroh stood on a hill, calmly drinking his cup of tea. "Can't a man just drink his Jasmine Tea without some disturbances for a change? Okay. Stand back." The old man gently placed his cup on the ground and charged a great, bright lightning in his hands. The man took steady aim at the tower with his fingertips and fired away. The lightning came in contact with the tower in seconds, causing it to erupt into flames.
"Hm. So he is here after all." Mallah noticed as he and Brain watched the tower explode.
"I expected him not to miss this-" While they were distracted, Gunkan dashed and kicked The Brain right off his canister, Mallah gasping as the dome flung off and rolled away.
"Master, no!" the gorilla screamed, trying to grab him, but failed and looked horribly as the disembodied Sith Lord rolled over the building's edge, falling the hundred feet to the ground below.
Nolan looked up and gasped, seeing his leader falling fast, quickly rolling over and successfully catching The Brain in his lap. Both he and Mallah breathed a sigh of relief, but Nolan and Team Brotherhood were soon surrounded by a squad of GUN Troopers. But to their relief, a bus drove by and ran some over, Madame Rouge jumping out of it afterwards and shielding the children from the soldiers' gunfire. "Get going."
The three nodded and left her to deal with the troops, but Nolan stopped for a moment and spared a suspicious glance to the aforementioned bus, which already seemed to have some dried blood on the front of it.
As the final tower was collapsing, Immortus looked around hesitantly before finally jumping off, while Piandao did the same and skied his way back to the city. The other White Lotus members headed back as well, leaving the tower to collapse and explode into nothingness. (End song.)
Bowser's Castle
The many trapped prisoners watched with joy as the final tower burst into flames. "Look! They're retreating!" Knuckles exclaimed, noticing the outside armies backing away.
"Ha HA! Our friends aren't getting destroyed after all! Eat THAT, Jeremiah!" Kami shouted cockily, jabbing her finger toward him.
The burn-covered boy just turned and smiled at his miniaturized crush. "Oh, Kami. You always looked cute when you gloat after you think you've won. That was only the beginning."
"What? You mean it's not over?" Yin asked.
"It HAS to be over!" Marine yelled. "They got their giant tower thingies destroyed and they already blew up several buildings! What else could they possible 'ave left?"
Elijah just smirked and pointed at the screen, showing a massive yellow cloud spiraling around the sky. "A Cloud of Fear…" Matt calmly responded.
Katie just gave a wide gasp, recognizing such a color from anywhere. "No!"
Chicago, Indiana
The townspeople looked up with fright at the yellow spiraling cloud. Bright and deafening lightning lit up the sky as the center of the cloud opened, creating an eerie wind as the rest of the sky grew darker and darker, with the only light coming from the opening in the cloud. It wasn't the kind of light that filled peoples' hearts with warm feelings and hope, though, oh no. It was quite the opposite. An evil, dim kind of light. That only forecast doom and destruction.
Several blackish-brown tentacles slithered out of the opening, the fear rising in the hearts of the citizens even more as some strange entity was coming in. Finally, the face of the massive cloud entity was shown, parts of his body glowing with that dim yellow light as his mouth opened wide, giving an enormous roar. The citizens all screamed and ran around uncontrollably, the demon using telekinesis to lift some of them up and hold them close to his face.
"So many voices… all screaming for mercy. Praying… for death."
"A shame we are only here to further their suffering." The Dark Master said. The entity opened his mouth, and the citizens screamed as it sucked the energy right out of them, leaving their bodies as shriveled up corpses as they were dropped to the ground.
"Ahh. So… delicioussss…"
"What is that thing?!" Rachel shouted.
Fi popped out to answer her question. "Master, subject identified as Parallax. It is a gargantuan entity of Yellow Fear created eons ago by the original Nightmare King. It is the being responsible for making Planet Vaporia into its monstrous state."
"Care to expand? ?" Rachel asked impatiently.
"It feeds off of the fear inside people. The yellow energy being absorbed from their bodies is the aura of all the fear within their hearts. Parallax sucks the people dry of their fear until their bodies are shriveled into nothing."
"In other words, we are f&^king screwed."
"It is weak against sources of light. Perhaps your Light Arrows and Skyward Strike can work to some effect."
"Okay, but let's get close enough first."
From the top of their building, The Quads heard a scream. They looked over and spotted Gaul climbing the side of a far-off building, his left arm wrapped around their mother. "Mom!" Morgan exclaimed.
"I'm usually not one for this whole 'King Kong' thing, but things are gonna turn up a little different." Gaul smirked, pausing in his climbing and turning to Parallax. "HEY! BIG BOY!" He caught the demon's attention. "Got a NIIICE fresh one right here! Hhha ha ha ha!" He continued to climb as Parallax flew his way.
"Oh no! We have to stop him!" Athena yelled. Right away, the psychicbenders jumped off the building and flew straight toward the building where the massive demon was headed.
Gaul soon reached a balcony of the building, holding Natsume high above him as Parallax was gaining closer. "Yesss… any time now, Master… you will be free…"
"Not so fast!" Buddy exclaimed when The Quads arrived and landed just in time.
"Ah, what perfect timing." Gaul smirked, deciding to toss the woman onto the floor. "Enjoy your lunchtime, kiddies." With that, the Ape King jumped over the railing, The Quads stepping back in fright as the entity of fear just arrived as well, staring with his mouth open as he spoke.
"Such foolish children believing they can resist the inevitable. Do they really believe they stand a chance against me? I will destroy them all, along with this waste of a planet."
"That's what you think." Morgan refuted as they switched out their lightsabers. "We'll show him what these children can do. Come on, team." (Play "Attack of the Golem 2" from Dawn of the Dragon!)
Boss fight: Parallax
The unholy cloud gave a deafening roar as it readied for battle. It first raised one of its arms and crushed down on Sophie, but she rolled and dodged and struck its arm with her saber. Parallax raised his other fist and tried to crush Athena, who dodged and tried to strike back, but Parallax pulled away before she could. The four conjured Psycho Spheres and hurled them at the monster's head, damaging it a little, but were suddenly lifted against their own will, their arms forcibly wrapped behind them as Parallax was about to suck their fear. Thankfully, The Quads were saved when a couple missiles zoomed by and struck the side of the Nightmare's head.
"Hey-hey! Looks like these long-range missiles really DO do somethin'!" Boba exclaimed, flying several feet away from them.
Parallax turned and attempted to suck him, but was immediately pelted with Psycho Spheres to the head by The Quads. The demon growled at them and rose its tentacles, easily wrapping around the four and swinging them around. The four were saved once more when Star Wolf shot by, slicing the tentacles with their ships' wings and catching one of the Quads on each of their ships. Parallax turned and angrily hissed at them again, erupting a deafening Fear Scream that forced them to shield their ears. The Wolfens also malfunctioned from the scream and eventually exploded, causing the siblings to fall back to the balcony.
"Star Wolf!" Boba yelled. A tentacle then came and swatted the hunter, sending him flying away as well. "Waaahhhh!"
Just when the demon was going to suck them again, an Aura Sphere hit him in the head, so he looked down at Team Psychic. Parallax hissed and flew downward, Lucario grabbing onto Mika and Rainier and running as the demon chased quickly. The three passed by a street, which Parallax looked down and spotted dozens of frightened citizens. Ignoring the psychics for now, the demon soared along the street, the townspeople trying to run, but ended up caught within his cloud, sucking their bodies dry in mere seconds upon contact of the darkness. "O-kay, not our best idea…" Mika said sheepishly.
"Whoops." Lucario blushed.
"Maybe we can-" Rainier's suggestion was cut short when a gold crown suddenly shot over and caught Mika's Spirit Ball, pulling it away.
"Hey, give that back!" Mika demanded when the crown flew back over to K. Rool, catching the Spirit Ball in his hand. He left the Kremling Kops to deal with the three psychics while he carried the ball away.
As Fanny and Patton fought off some Ice Cream Men, the adults turned tail and ran suddenly, the two looking confused before turning and gasping at the approaching Parallax. The two held each other and screamed at the top of their lungs as the demon was about to suck their fear. But before he could get started, Rachel quickly landed on a broken building beside them and pulled out a Light Arrow, taking aim and shooting the demon's eye. Parallax looked up and faced her, and Rachel jumped to the ground and started running, swiftly dodging his attacking tentacles. She looked up as its mouth widened, about to try and suck her dry, too. Right when she had the moment, she pulled out another Light Arrow and fired straight in its mouth, causing the demon to choke a little bit before light exploded from its head.
The left side of its head was blown up, the monster falling to the ground unconscious for a bit as an Evil Crystal was exposed in that spot. "It's powered by Evil Crystals!" Patton exclaimed.
"Time to destroy it." Rachel said, raising her sword up and charging a Skyward Strike. The Supreme Leader swung her blade and sent an airwave at the crystal, shattering it in an instant. The demon screamed from the intense pain and roared, swinging his arm and swatting the three of them away. Afterwards, he continued along the path for more souls to devour.
Behind the broken walls of one of the buildings, Scarlet and Violet were still in their violent brawl as both of them gained several cuts and bruises. Violet, having seemingly endured the most beatings, could barely stand up, so Scarlet was able to easily grab and shove her through another cracked window. "Huh. You make this too easy." Scar smirked, holding her heavily-injured cousin up by the shirt collar and touching one of her metal claws to her neck. "And now the moment we've all been waiting for…"
Before she could do anything, she stopped and noticed Parallax coming around the corner. The Italian werecat couldn't help but scream in terror, causing Parallax to lift and start to suck out her fear. "Ohh… huh?" Violet recovered just in time to see this. "Scar!" She quickly tossed her shurikens at the demon's face and injured it, making it cease in sucking Scarlet's fear and dropping her. Violet hurriedly ran and caught her in her arms. "Scar! Are you okay?"
"Ohhh…" Scarlet appeared barely conscious.
"Hold on. We're getting you out of here." Violet lifted Scar's arm around her neck and carried her off.
Parallax ignored them and turned down a street to devour more souls. Team Psychic ran in his way again as Mika and Lucario fired more Aura Spheres, sending him back a little. They quickly retreated when Parallax recovered, but Sector V jumped in his way and fired their weapons at his face, keeping him back a little more. Parallax hissed in anger and unleashed another deafening Fear Scream, forcing the children to cover their ears, and for their weapons to break. He levitated them via telekinesis and prepared to suck out their fear, but had to drop them when ecto shots zapped him from an unknown source.
Emily Matthews appeared by his face and smirked and waved before turning invisible again, Parallax trying to track her as she flew around his head, pelting him with more Ecto Rays. While he was distracted, Chad was speeding straight toward him in his flying teen bike, quickly jumping out and letting the bike ram and explode in his face. Parallax angrily waved the smoke away, but soon got pelted with a swarm of Chaos Spears. Shadow the Hedgehog appeared in front of him, spinning into a pinball as Parallax opened his mouth to suck him. Shadow simply shot into the demon's mouth, glowing with red aura again as he yelled, "Chaos… BLAST!"
Parallax screamed as the explosion blew off a chunk on the other side of his head, exposing the Evil Crystal within. "Sonic, take this!" Blaze shouted, tossing the blue and red Chaos Emeralds to the hedgehog. Sonic caught them in both hands as he began to glow, spinning into a pinball and firing straight at the crystal, shattering it upon impact. (End song.)
Weakened, the hideous Nightmare fell to the ground, panting heavily as the heroes stood around him, waiting for him to strike. After a while, the kids noticed a dark energy coming from the inside of his head, seeming to fuel the demon enough as he faced straight up and roared to the heavens. Parallax rose from the ground and back into the massive hole in the clouds, sending tentacles of Yellow Fear around the city to suck in more souls.
Snake looked and noticed Boba's discarded Wolfen, dodging a tentacle as he dashed over and jumped in the cockpit. "Get on!" he yelled to The Quads, the siblings hurrying and jumping onto the wings as the ship lifted and flew off to the glowing hole of fear. As Rachel and her friends watched them, they heard a bird's cry in the distance, seeing the Crimson Loftwing flying toward them. "WHOA!" Patton exclaimed when Rachel flipped onto the Loftwing and flew toward the hole as well
The five kids flew straight up into the spiraling cloud, with their only light coming from the Yellow Fear and the evil lightning as they dodged more of Parallax's yellow tentacles. Parallax sent Fear Spheres, the size of vans, homing in on them, but the two aircraft were able to fly around them. A sphere was coming toward Rachel, but the leader shot and destroyed it with a Light Arrow. Several yellow tentacles were blocking their path forward, so Rachel charged up a Skyward Strike and sent the airwave to slice the tentacles, letting them proceed forward.
Back on ground, Death's Head and Meta Knight were busy cutting away tentacles and rescuing citizens. "Things got much more complicated, yes?" the robot asked.
"It should not last for long. Any moment, the children should-" the knight's statement was cut short when an air slash struck and sent him flying. He quickly recovered and viewed his attacker. "Galacta Knight!"
The cursed Star Warrior waved his sword as Death's Head charged over to swing his ax at him, but the knight defended easily with his sword. Galacta Knight flew away and sent lightning rays from his sword, blowing more buildings to smithereens. He stopped and noticed the two heroes flying toward him, quickly retreating the city in the opposite direction. The two stopped for a moment and glanced back at the hole where Parallax was. They exchanged one last hesitant glance and figured the others had it covered, continuing to fly after Galacta Knight.
Back in the Tornado of Fear, Rachel and The Quads finally fought their way through until they reached the gargantuan cloud at the end, Parallax's face clearly visible as he opened his mouth to begin sucking Rachel and the Loftwing in. The red bird tried to fly them away, but Parallax's force appeared too powerful, but they were saved when Snake launched a bomb from the Wolfen into his mouth, ceasing the sucking and damaging him, allowing Rachel to get away.
"Master, I can feel a powerful presence coming from the inside." Fi reported. "It is likely the Evil Crystal lodged within his brain."
"I guess we'll handle that." Morgan decided. "Come on, Snake. We're going in." With that, she and the psychics conjured a protective barrier around their Wolfen as Snake flew them straight into the cloud. They successfully pierced through the darkness before arriving at the colossal inside, a stormy wasteland of several asteroids, in which pathways of Yellow Fear flowed into a tornado, connected to a black and yellow brain up above.
The kids flew closer to the brain and noticed the dark energy glowing around it, littered with many dark crystals sticking out. The psychics drew out their sabers and started slashing at the brain, slowly cutting parts off. They gasped terrified when a bunch of Parallax faces appeared around them, spitting out Yellow Fear Spheres that homed in as The Quads quickly swat them away.
"'Guess we should help out, too." Rachel decided. She kicked her Loftwing as it screeched and flew straight below the demon's mouth. Rachel quickly fired Light Arrows to cut their path open as they flew through the cloud. They were able to arrive at the center as well, seeing the Parallax heads spit spheres at The Quads and sending Light Arrows to destroy them.
Morgan continued to strike at the brain a bit more until it was finally destroyed, exposing the sharp, jagged Evil Crystal underneath, much bigger than the others as it pumped like a heart. "There's the core!" Buddy exclaimed.
"Okay! Time to end this!" Rachel declared as the Loftwing flew them closer and allowed her to slice parts of the gem off. "Whoa!" she yelped when they heard Parallax screaming, making the tornado below rise higher and protect the Evil Crystal. The Quads combined their psychic to create a barrier below the crystal, keeping the tornado lower so that Rachel could continue striking at it. The psychics' strength quickly decreased and were forced to drop the barrier, letting the tornado come up to protect the crystal again.
Rachel looked to the pathways of Yellow Fear and flew down, charging Skyward Strikes and quickly slicing them all in half. As she did so, the tornado seemed to get smaller and weaker, but the pathways were regenerating and making it bigger. After The Quads caught their breath, and Rachel cut enough pathways, the four were able to hold the tornado down some more. Before the tornado expanded and overpowered them again, Rachel hurriedly flew back up and struck more at the dark gem, eventually cutting enough of it to expose its center. With one last charge of the sword, Rachel sent the Skyward Strike and completely shattered the Evil Crystal.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH! !" Parallax's screaming echoed throughout the realm as the entire inside began to quake and go out of control. The kids hurried and flew straight to where the open mouth appeared, flying straight out of the demon as parts of Parallax rained down after them, the kids barely dodging as they were headed back to the town.
The children were able to make it out of the spiraling cloud, Rachel flying back down to Fanny and Patton and jumping off her Loftwing while Snake carried The Quads back to their mother, who had been led down the building safely by Father. Everyone looked up and watched as the fallen Parallax came out of the cloud and fell straight to the ground. The entity burst into a great explosion as the spiraling clouds finally came to a halt. (End song.)
Squadrons of GUN Troops gathered around the spot where the demon crashed. Smoke rose from the ashes, and in the center of the gaping crater, a dark-purple aura glowed from within a puff of smoke. The soldiers kept their weapons raised and slowly approached the evil glow. (Play "His World" by Crush 40!)
The pitch-black Phantom Gnaa rose from the ground before the smoke. He smirked and cackled as he stepped aside, the smoke clearing away and exposing them to who was underneath. A bald-headed boy in a pitch-black shirt, yellow pants, and black shoes stepped out as his eyes and the arrow on his head glowed a bright purple. Already, the soldiers shook in fear, feeling the dark sense around him.
One of the men hurled a knife from behind, but Gnaa simply caught it with psychic and sent it back, piercing the man's forehead. Others tried to shoot him, but Gnaa caught the bullets and sent them back. Others rose their darksabers and attempted to strike him, but Gnaa swiftly dodged and jumped, covering them in poisonous gas. He swiftly danced his way past other soldiers before finally hovering and flying over the rest of them at high speed. The Dark Master flew all around the city, protected by a dark barrier as he pierced through buildings, making them crumble to pieces in seconds.
Lord Gnaa landed in front of a swarm of other soldiers, who all aimed weapons and unleashed endless bullets, but Gnaa kept his smirk as his dark barrier shielded him from all attacks. The Negatar folded his arms as his barrier expanded in an explosion and blew the soldiers away, as well as anything else around him. He smirked at more troopers behind him, teleporting above them and barfing out toxic waste, making them burn in pain.
As Brain and Team Brotherhood watched the display of their Master, they were quickly surrounded by other GUN Troops. But Gnaa teleported above Nolan and used his psychic to lift all the soldiers off the ground, unleashing Force Lightning from his fingertips and stunning them. He looked several feet away as Facilier and Lucinda were both in their shadow forms, having a brawl below the ground via Shadow Veil. Gnaa used Shadow Veil as well and slithered over to them, tackling Facilier and forcing him back above ground, drawing out his Keyblade and preparing to strangle the witch-doctor with it. Lucinda smiled as Gnaa dropped the man, allowing the witch to cast a spell and stun him.
Gnaa flew over to Rumpel Stiltskin and Yuki Crystal, being frozen in time by the timebenders. Gnaa unleashed dark lasers and blew the spirits away. Jagar unleashed a Time Ray at the Dark Master, but Gnaa still countered with his dark laser and struck straight at Jagar's chest, just like in the past. Gnaa's arms were suddenly binded by a long chain wrapping around him, looking back and seeing Buddy holding him with psychic. "Now, guys!"
Ahead of him, Sonic and Shadow charged their Spin Dash and shot straight at the Negatar, but Gnaa countered by unleashing a Fear Scream, making the hedgehogs stop immediately and quake in pain on the ground. Afterwards, Gnaa expanded a psychic barrier and pushed the chain off, grabbing it himself with telekinesis and sending it at Sonic and Shadow, wrapping around their necks and starting to choke them.
Team Psychic and the Kong Klan jumped in K. Rool's way, about to take back their Firstborn, but Gnaa got in their way and spewed out Shadow Breath, blocking the heroes' vision and allowing Kroctus to get away. Back on Bowser Jr.'s airship, the Koopa Prince was being beat by Mario and Luigi, but Gnaa arrived and used his psychic to blow the plumbers to the ground. He then noticed the airship controlled by Toad and sent a Psycho Sphere to blow it up and make Toad fall as well.
Rachel, Fanny, and Patton encountered Lehcar, but once again, Gnaa stood in their way and let out toxic gas, making the three choke and blind their vision while Lehcar smirked. Gnaa then teleported back to the city, immediately surrounded by Sectors V, W, Eva, Kade, and Dimentia, all aiming weapons or powers. Gnaa focused his attention on Harvey and reached an arm toward him. Harvey suddenly felt himself shaking, then let out a scream when darkness emerged from his chest and flowed back into Gnaa through his eyes and mouth.
"At last, my powers have returned." The Dark Master spoke.
"That doesn't mean you'll be getting away anytime soon!" Nigel exclaimed. The Dark Master was quickly surrounded by each of the members of the White Lotus, each having their elements ready.
"There is no chance of escaping." Clockwork told him.
"This is your end." Mewtwo followed.
Gnaa kept his evil smile and looked up to the sky. (End song.)
Cauldron Keep
"Ancient evil, hear my pray! May all Light fall and Darkness… RULE THE DAY! !" And with that, Gruntilda slammed her finger onto the button, unleashing a gargantuan purple laser from the Big-O-Blaster, the planet quaking as the ultimate power was released and the bodiless witch cackled away.
Chicago, Indiana
The laser pierced through the clouds from the heavens and zapped the legions of GUN soldiers. The military men screamed in horrendous pain as their hearts flowed out of their body and their bodies faded to nothingness. Once the laser stopped, the hearts landed and disappeared into puffs of darkness. And from that darkness, thousands of creatures of many shapes and sizes appeared. Some were pure dark shadows, some took the forms of plants, others took the shape of chimps or other animals, while many others were giant, armored beasts. However, every one of them bared that same insignia of a black heart, with red outline around it, and a red X through the middle.
"Behold…" the Dark Master spoke. "These are the Heartless. And they will be the ultimate cause… of your doom…"
The members of the White Lotus decided to ignore the Dark Master and ran to attack the Heartless as the legions of dark monsters started to attack random citizens. Rachel began slicing away the Heartless as well, and for each one they destroyed, a heart seemed to flow out of their bodies and disappear into darkness.
"What do we do now?" Jessica asked as the Junior Prospectors looked afraid.
"How 'bout you… SURRENDER!" At this, they jumped around as Bowser Jr. stood with a bucket of Minish Dust.
"Shaunie, watcheth out!" Luvbi shouted, using airbending to blow the Irish lad away. Junior grabbed a handful of dust and threw it over the Juniors, shrinking them down.
"Guys!" Shaunie yelled. Junior grabbed them all in his hands and dumped them in a hamster cage before jumping back in his mini Koopa Clown and flying away beside his dad.
"Gwah hah hah hah hah." The Koopa King laughed in the distance.
As Sonic and Blaze stood around, wondering what to do, Bokkun flew down to them with another bucket of Minish Dust. "I have an idea, let's play a game! A game of CATCH!" With that, the child robot threw the dust over and minimized them as well, catching them inside a jar.
Rachel, Fanny, and Patton panted after destroying another squad of Heartless, and the three were pretty worn out now. "Man… I don't know how much more I can take." Rachel gasped.
"Awe, are the wittle weaders tiwed of fighting?" somebody taunted at them, the three turning and spotting Eeballaw Seltaeb.
"Well, haven't seen you in a while." Rachel said.
"Still a shorty, I see." Fanny remarked.
"We'll see who's a shorty after you get a load of THIS!" From behind them, Lehcar pulled out a bucket of Minish Dust and scooped some in her hand, throwing it over the three commanders and miniaturizing them. Before they could do anything, Yllaw ran and cupped a jar right over them. "NOW tell me who the shorty is!"
Lehcar then bent over to get a closer look at the tiny Rachel. "Aw, what better choice for a pet than someone who looks just like me?" Rachel only looked up and grit her teeth in anger.
At the same time, a squad of Teen Ninjas ambushed Emily, Chad, and Zuri, throwing an ecto collar over Emily's neck and cancelling her ghost powers as Cree scooped up her own Minish Dust and threw it over them, shrinking and catching them in a jar. "That's two teen traitors for the price of one."
"Zuri!"
"Oh, and a little bat thing, too."
The three Time Spirits looked around worriedly, unsure as well of their next move, when Rumpel ambushed them and yelled, "REDUCIO!", casting a spell that shrunk them down as well, allowing Yuki to grab them and drop them in a jar.
"Are you okay, Harvey?" Sonya asked, standing over their leader.
"Yeah… I'm fine." Harvey panted.
"Come on. We have to get out of here and-" Nigel tried to say as they were about to run off.
"Going somewhere?" Nolan asked, getting in their way beside April and Danika, with Brain still in his lap.
"Out of our way, you traitor!" Nigel ordered.
"I'm afraid the only way here is the King's way." Darth Genious told them.
"And your way ends here." April followed, scooping Minish Dust in her hands. "Bottoms up." With that, she tossed the dust and got them covered as well, shrinking them to Minish size. Afterwards, Nolan pressed a button and extracted two metal claws from his chair, holding a mini broom and dust pan which he used to sweep them up and dump them in a jar held by Danika.
"HEY! Let us outta here, you big bunch of freaks!" Wally shouted in his tiny voice.
"I can only imagine how dumb you are now with an even smaller brain." Danika retorted, placing the jar into her jacket pocket.
"Who you calling dumb?! Let me outta here! !"
"Oh no! They've captured almost everyone!" Buddy exclaimed.
"What do we do, Morgan?" Athena asked.
Morgan just stood there in thought, until they suddenly spotted the Dark Master appear several feet away. The Negatar smirked at the girl, flying straight at her and becoming a shadow, phasing through her body as visions appeared in Morgan's head.
A 3-year-old Gnaa stood in the middle of a playground, unable to get away as bullies gathered around and pushed him about. It switched to a vision of 6-year-old Gnaa, meeting with his loyal shadow phantom. Afterwards, it switched to many years later, close to their current time. Gnaa discovered a doll-sized Bowser and used psychic to restore him to full height. He then found Dr. Eggman drifting through space and helped him to find his way back. He stumbled upon the remains of the old Brotherhood Base, unfreezing The Brain and all of his villains from their frosty prison. Afterwards, he made his way to the Negaverse Prison, breaking Ganondorf free, the half-demon then bowing to his knees as he gave a maniacal grin. The last vision shown was Gnaa murdering a gang of bullies, which Morgan recognized as her own when she was five.
"W-Wait!" Morgan called as the Dark Master flew away from her. Lord Gnaa flew straight at a magic mirror held by Ape King Gaul, the image of Mt. Gnaa appearing in the mirror as Gnaa flew in.
"Morgan, wait!" Buddy called as Morgan jumped in the portal after him. Gaul was the last to jump in before the other three siblings followed, the portal vanishing in an instant.
"Oh no… they're all gone." Eva said with worry in her voice as she stood with Kade and Dimentia after most of their other friends were either kidnapped or simply left.
"Well, this has been the most splendiferous day ever." Kade remarked sarcastically.
"Well, we can't just stand here." Dimentia replied. "What's our next move?"
"Let's get back with the White Lotus Masters." Eva suggested. "Hopefully, they'll know what to do next…"
ARRGH, and this took me days to finish. So yes, folks, this officially ends the Freedom Saga. Now we can get on to my FAVORITE part, the Climax Saga! In which we will begin to end the characters' storylines and they will finally face off with their respective antagonists! The villains will fall in order from: King Bowser, Dr. Eggman, King K. Rool, Lucinda Talzin, Darth Genious, and Ganondorf Dragmire! And you should probably know which characters will be facing them, of course. :P
