(I'm in the game room playing Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020. Terra walks in.)
Me: Hey, Terra.
Terra: What's this?
Me: New game. I just got it for Christmas.
Terra: Nice. You got room for one more?
Me: Grab a controller.
(Terra joins in)
Heroes Unite!
Chapter 28: Vortech Appears, Part 2
The heroes of the dimensions sprint towards Vortech. "Almost there!" Ladybug reported.
Vortech raises his staff again. A rift opens and the SHIELD Helicarrier comes out of the rift and blocks the way. "Great. How are we going to get over that!?" Lucy exclaimed.
"Leave that to me," Twilight said as she used her telekinetic powers to lift everyone over the Helicarrier.
Another rift opens and a giant statue of Bowser comes out and is about to land on Sofia and Rarity, but Knuckles uses his fists to smash it to pieces, clearing the way to Vortech. "There's nowhere to run now! Let's settle this once and for all." Anakin challenged Vortech.
"As you wish." Vortech accepts as he raises a blue walled barrier.
"The walls! They're just like the ones in the Gateway room." Krystal deduced.
"So the other villains we fought until now – they were just pawns," Shadow confirmed.
"Right you are, black hedgehog! In fact, I'm the one orchestrating this melody of destruction!" Vortech informed everyone.
"Enough chit-chat! Let's finish this!" Queen Bee challenged.
Lord Vortech waves his staff and summons a shield of ice. Tails fires an energy blast his Wrist Cannon to break it, but it still stands. "We need to melt that shield somehow!"
"Elemental Keystone: Fire!" The Miraculous Team fired a stream of fire at the shield. Sofia and Scarlett follow with a Firaga spell and the Mario Brothers use their Fire Flowers to shoot fireballs at Vortech, but the shield is stronger than it looks.
"There has to be a way to break that shield." Ladybug said.
"Maybe this will help. Locate Keystone!" Sonic opens a rift with the Locate Keystone. The Tornado 2 comes out and hits Vortech and his ice shield.
"Is he…?" Carapace asks if Vortech is down for the count.
Vortech rises from the rubble. "Man, he's tough." Cat Noir commented.
Gru uses his Freeze Ray and hits Vortech with it. Vortech breaks free.
"You think a little ice can harm me?" Vortech said and shot a laser beam at Gru.
"Gru!" Lucy shouts.
"Let's see you handle this!" Anakin used the Force to form a ball of rubble and sends it flying towards Vortech. He leaps out of the way.
"The Force is strong, but not strong enough against my power!" Vortech fires another laser beam at Anakin. He deflects it with his lightsaber.
"Tails, let's do this!" Shadow said.
"I'm with you, Shadow." Tails nodded as he readies his arm cannon.
"Save some action for us!" Luigi said as he and Mario turn into their Ice forms and fire ice balls at Vortech.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow fires his Chaos Spear and Tails fires from his arm cannon.
Vortech deflects the projectile attacks with his staff and fires a laser beam at Cat Noir.
"Cat Noir!" Ladybug gasps.
Vortech charges another laser beam to finish off Cat Noir, but his chance was thwarted when he hears another voice.
"Water Dragon!"
A water barrier appears in front of Cat Noir, absorbing the laser blast. The water forms a girl in a red bodysuit with an image of a black rose with a yellow outlining involving her from her left leg to her chest with the flower holding images that represent lightning, water, and air. Her outfit also consists of a black collar/turtleneck where the Dragon Miraculous is worn, black forearm-length gloves, and black leggings starting at a point in the middle of her lower legs, both with yellow outlining. The back of her head has four red dragon-like horns with yellow tips and black outlining and on her back is a holster for her sword. Her face has a red mask around her eyes with yellow and black outline at the base of the sides. Her eyes are golden.
"It's been a while, Ladybug, Cat Noir. Nice to meet the rest of you. I am Ryuko." Ryuko greeted them.
"What are you doing here, Ryuko?" Ladybug asked.
"I know you said that you can never give me the Dragon Miraculous again since Hawk Moth knows my true identity, but I can never abandon my allies, my friends."
"Then who brought you to us?" Rena Rouge asked. That's when they hear a familiar voice.
"I brought them here." Everyone looks towards the Helicarrier wreckage and see Scarlett. "It wasn't easy asking her to come, but we needed all the help we can get."
"She's right. And I'm not the only one she called here."
Ryuko's assumption was correct when they hear soothing lyre music. Everyone turns to where the music came from. They see a fair-skinned teenage boy with medium-length black hair that has dyed teal blue tips. He wears a cyan-colored mask around his golden eyes. His black, teal, and cyan suit has a snake texture that resembles a snake's underbelly. The Snake Miraculous is seen on his left wrist and he's holding a lyre with a mint green body and about five light green strings running down the middle. The lyre's body has a diamond pattern on the edges, the diamonds being light green with black edges.
With him are two more teenage boys. One boy is wearing a gold-and-dark brown mask that covers most of his head, save for his grey eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hair. The Monkey Miraculous on his head that divides his single-spike hair and mask has five black squares. His hair is toned red and orange with brown at the roots, resembling a fire. His two-piece suit is light brown at the top with the center covering his stomach and pectorals a light tan color. A golden zipper rests at the base of the top, just below the collar of his suit. His golden bordered black shoulder pads extend down to his upper arms. The gloves extend off of his suit are gold at his fingers, dark brown at his wrists, light brown at the rest, and have tan cuffs. Separating the top from the bottom of the suit is a golden belt with a dark brown buckle and brown spots on either side of his hips. On the back of the belt is a rope attached to a hook with a golden tip that resembles a monkey tail. His pants are all light brown with a dark brown section at the calves with gold borders. His boots have a similar design as his gloves and extend away from the body, with a division between his big toe and the rest of his foot. His soles reach to the top of his foot and are golden with brown highlights and gold cuffs. His weapon of choice is a Ruyi Jingu Bang with gold on either end.
The other boy has light brown hair, styled in multiple braided locks that are tied back. He's garbed in a full-body dark brown suit with a horseshoe on his back. Two spikes on his shoes resemble the wings the helmet Hermes wears. The dark, pince-nez glasses that make the Horse Miraculous have five green lights near the frame. Ladybug recognized them.
"Viperion! Pegasus! King Monkey!"
"Sorry we were late. Traffic was a nightmare." King Monkey joked.
"An impressive entourage, Scarlet Warrior, but you're not the only one who's invited a friend," Vortech said.
He waves his staff and a rift opens. A man walks out of it with a blue keytar. He's garbed in a purple jumpsuit with shoulder pads and parachute pants. He also wears fingerless gloves and white shoes. His thick black hair stands up at the top of his head while the rest is long in the back and a bald spot is seen due to age. He also has a medium-long handlebar mustache. Gru scowls as he recognized him.
"Balthazar Bratt!"
"So nice to see you again, Gru." Bratt smirked.
"Humiliating you back in Hollywood wasn't enough for you?"
"It was the worst day I ever experienced. But then, I met this guy." Bratt motions to Vortech. "He gave me a second chance in my life as a villain. I may not have Clive to back me up anymore, but I still have my tricks!" He plays his keytar and a sonic wave sends Gru crashing into the wall.
"Gru!" Sonic shouts. He retaliates with a homing attack. Viperion and Pegasus throw their weapons at Vortech and Balthazar. King Monkey sees Surly and Andie on top of a nut cart. They ride the nut cart away from the battlefield.
"They're strong, I'll give them that." King Monkey said.
"Too strong. We'll have to retreat!" Scarlett suggests.
"No need to tell us twice!" Lucy agreed as they left through a conveniently opened rift. When Carapace entered the rift last, it closes.
"Yes – you better run! It's a dangerous universe out here!" Vortech laughs. "Now, let's see… where would I build a nut shop?"
All of the heroes return to the Gateway room. "Okay, I'll admit that wasn't the smartest idea." Ladybug admits.
"Not the smartest idea? We just ran from a battle!" Queen Bee argued.
"We had no other choice! Other than the rifts, we knew nothing about the enemy." Ladybug told her.
"Ladybug's right. The one with the staff had powers even I couldn't fathom." Sunset agreed as the Miraculous Superhero team de-transformed. They were introduced to Luka Couffaine, Max Kanté, Kim Chien Le, and Kagami Tsurugi.
Knuckles saw something moving. He touches it and it falls apart. "Uh… oh boy."
"Knuckles, did you break the only thing that can get us out of here?" Shadow asked.
"Uh… well…" Knuckles stammered until Slippy spoke up.
"I don't think he did. The portal's still working."
"Then what could those be for?" Shadow asked about the parts.
"Hmm…" Tails studied the parts. "I think they could be for some kind of robot."
"Can you put it back together?" Sofia asks.
"It's a bit tricky compared to my plane, but I'll see what I can do." Tails said as he got started on rebuilding the robot. He was able to finish and the robot turned out to be X-PO.
"Whew – thank you so much. You don't know how hard it is putting yourself together without having your arms attached in the first place." X-PO said.
"So this robot can talk. How strange." Knuckles pondered.
"This coming from an echidna that lives on a floating island. I was worried that you all hadn't seen my SOS signal." X-PO said. "But I digress. My name's X-PO. Short for Experimental Portal Operator. And I'm the voice that's been guiding you to the Keystones. It's very nice to meet you in person. I should thank you, Tails, for fixing me."
"Hold on, how do you know my name?"
"I have been studying your universes for five millennia. I know that's a really long time, but I think the knowledge you earn in those years is worth it. But enough about me. Here's the deal: Now that you have gathered the five Keystones and integrated them into the Gateway device, you must gather the Foundation Elements immediately before Lord Vortech gets them first."
"Lord Vortech?" Lucy thought. "Isn't he the one we saw in Oakton?"
"That's him. And I can wager when he took the Foundation Elements from your worlds, he also took your friends who possessed them. They're likely on Foundation Prime as we speak."
"That's the place I escaped from!" Alya remembered.
"Wait, you were on Foundation Prime!?" Scarlett asked.
"Yeah. Before I escaped, I promised that I'd come back for the others this Vortech captured." Alya said before facing X-PO. "Can you open a rift to Foundation Prime?"
"I could if Foundation Prime's location wasn't wiped from my memory," X-PO admitted. "But with enough Foundation Elements, I may be able to recalculate it. And as a bonus - getting all of the Foundation Elements will stop Lord Vortech's plan to collapse all your dimensions into one."
"So the collapsing dimensions part – that's bad, right?" Adrien asked.
"Very bad. Like "blow up the Earth" bad. As to what the Foundation Elements are - they're important, unique objects found only in specific dimensions."
"The Master Emerald…" Knuckles said.
"Amber's fan…" Sofia said.
"Alya's cellphone…" Marinette said.
"Krystal's staff…" Fox said.
"The Power Star…" Mario said.
"The Holocron…" Obi-Wan said.
"Lord Vortech desires them with all of his heart. When it comes to ruling the entire universe, the guy can be a bit of a hoarder."
"Alright, we're in." Scarlett nods.
"Great, great. And it looks like you've got two already." X-PO said as he spots Soul Edge in a corner of the room. "I can see Soul Edge over there in the corner, and you, Officer Hopps, have Soul Calibur around your waist."
Judy looks at Soul Calibur around her waist. "So the swords are Foundation Elements, too?"
"Yep. Don't know how they ended up in Zootopia, though."
"So what are we looking for this time?" Sonic asks.
"Look, I can only be so helpful. But I can get you started. For I know the next Element is in a place even I couldn't comprehend. This Element is so rare, so amazing to us AI some consider it a myth, but I am certain of its existence."
"And what would it be?" Nino asks.
"A cake. A delicious and moist cake." X-PO laughs, earning confused looks from most of the heroes. "Okay, that came out weird. Alright, let's get a rift open for you." X-PO opens a rift to their next destination.
(Terra beats me in the 110m Hurdles event)
Me: Not bad, Terra.
Terra: I learn pretty fast watching you.
Me: I'm sure you do. We better get going. Deema and Aqua are waiting for us at the movie theater.
Terra: Got a movie on your mind?
Me: Well, I enjoy watching Detective Pikachu, so maybe I could see it again.
Terra: Good idea.
Me: Thanks. Let's go. Please review. Excelsior!