Masters of the Elements

Chapter 4: Fear the Dark

"Okay. So with the four lower Elementalists done for, there is only one other spot we have yet to get to. For some reason this reading didn't show up until two minutes ago." Mojo proceeded to show the girls a mark on the map that shows where the last Elementalist is hiding.

"Well then I think I may know who that is." Blossom added; hovering over to get a closer look.

"Who is it? It has to be their leader nonetheless; since it has taken them this long to show themselves." Mojo asked and stated.

"It is their leader Mojo; and his name is Apoco. Short for Apoco Lyps." She informed him.

"Is it really?" He asked.

"No. I just thought it made him sound cooler." Blossom then noticed her two sisters had just arrived. "Oh, there you girls are. What took you so long?" She asked.

"Sidetracked." Bubbles simply said.

"Same here. We met up and the Elementalists' leader ambushed us with a swarm of what he calls: 'darklets'." Buttercup explained.

"They were small. They were just an orb with eyes and wings." Bubbles added.

"But they were annoying to deal with." Buttercup butted back in to say.

"I'm assuming that means you've managed to take care of Hydris and Burntha?" Mojo asked.

"Uh-huh." They both said.

"Well guess what? We just found out where their leader Apoco is hiding. He's hiding above the clouds; in a huge arena that's spreading dark energy into the clouds. I don't know what he plans on doing with all of it; but I can guarantee it isn't good." Blossom explained.

"Well what are we waiting for? We can't just sit here and wait for it to all blow over!" Buttercup said.

"Yeah! We gotta stop him before he does anything else bad!" Bubbles added.

"Right. Hey Mojo, is there a way you'll be able to overlook us as we're fighting?" Blossom asked.

"I'll look into it. Right now you should be leaving and saving our home. Not conversing with me and your sisters, Blossom." Mojo reminded her.

"Right. C'mon girls!" Blossom and her sisters then flew out to the arena in the sky; off to stop the dark Elementalist, Apoco.

The girls made their way to the arena above the sky; and landed on the firm stone ground that was being mysteriously held up by magic. After a minute's worth of investigations, Apoco revealed himself to the girls; along with four different colored souls. "Hello... heroes. I see you've pushed yourself to making it this far? You should know better than to come up against me; for if you had just surrendered peacefully, we wouldn't have to be turning your world into a cesspool of darkness." Apoco explained. "No. Don't say anything. I'm not done monologuing. *Clears throat* Oh wait, that's right; you never used that form of common sense. No matter what happens; even if an unbeatable entity such as myself shows up, you just jet towards the problem with blindfolds covering your eyes, and plugs in your ears." He continued.

"A hero's purpose is to stand up to the challenge of an evil person. Even if their intentions aren't that evil; they must be stopped..." Blossom countered Apoco's explanation with her own.

"Like threatening to destroy the world." Buttercup added.

"Dipping an entire city in complete darkness." Bubbles added.

"Or worse; causing destruction and mayhem, just for the heck of it." Blossom finished. She then added. "And if you couldn't tell; I happen to love the fact I'm gifted with the ability to make this world a better place. As are my sisters." She then stepped back towards her sisters; bringing them closer with her arms.

"Perhaps you are unaware of my real strength..." Apoco then brought forth the souls of his relatives. By shooting his legs into the ground, the souls were pierced by one needle each. This caused the souls to reform into shadows of the four deceased Elementalists. "My dark powers allow me to revive the fallen. That includes my sisters and brothers.

"So what? You're gonna have us fight all five of you at once?" Buttercup asked.

"Not exactly... you'll instead be fighting them separately." Apoco then teleported farther away from the girls. The ground on the arena then formed an uneven rocky terrain; the girls have to fight Rocko's shadow.

"We can handle this. If we've made it this far, we can handle anything!" Bubbles said.

"True. So that's why we won't hold back." Blossom added. "Now let's do this."

*Powerpuff Girls! V.S. Fallen Shadows!*

The battle started as Rocko's shadow immediately transformed into it's spirit beast. It dug underground; and stealthily made its way to the girls' location. They flew up to avoid damage; the Shadow Mole leapt out of the ground from its spot, and hit it on its way back down. The girls fired their lasers all at once; causing the mole's body to disintegrate and the soul to disappear back by Apoco's side. Hydris was up next; and like Rocko's soul, wasted no time into transforming into the spirit beast. The massive urchin was rolling around the arena at a fast rate; while the Shadow Nautilus floated away from the girls. The girls split up, and Bubbles and Buttercup dealt with the Shadow Nautilus, while Blossom attempted to freeze the urchin in place. She was successful, and her sisters had no trouble in dealing with the spirit beast. The soul of Hydris disappeared back to Apoco's side. Burntha was up next; who, once again, immediately transformed into her spirit beast. Blossom told her sisters to 'leave this one to me' as she flew up and breathed out a blizzard of ice breath, causing the Shadow Komodo to harden up completely. She shattered it with one punch, and Burntha's soul returned to Apoco's other side. Voltor was now being dealt with, the spirit beast already arrived. Buttercup removed her arm and turned it into the lightning rod from chapter 2. Only this time, she was the one to direct the Shadow Eagle's attention. It dove at her, screeching; then once it hit the rod, electric bolts struck the arena, and the Shadow Eagle dissipated. Voltor's soul turned itself over to Apoco's side. "I'm impressed that you've managed to defeat all the spirit beast's shadows. But can you take on me?" Apoco threatened the girls by shooting out his darkened wings from behind his back, unveiling his claws, and snapping at the girls with his creepy snake-headed feet. "My turn now!"

*Powerpuff Girls! V.S. Apoco!*

He wasted no time in attacking, as he swooped down at the girls with his wings spread out. Explosions blasted out of the ground in random locations. "This isn't going well if they can fly past all of my attacks... I'll have to increase the gravity on them." He raised his hands with the palms facing down. Then smashed them onto the ground; causing the girls to fall out of the sky, who are now stuck on the ground. "No chance of escaping now, my prey..." He swooped down again; missing the girls. But the explosions that followed after shot them straight up in the air. He teleported to each one and smacked them down successfully. "Some heroes you three are! If you can't even beat me, it actually makes me wonder how you even beat HIM in the first place! Did you use your teamwork and come out on top?" Apoco asked rhetorically. "You know what? Don't bother answering; it'll all be over before you know it anyways." He fired three orbs of dark energy at the girls. They jittered in place as their energy was being drained. "Now there's nothing that can save them." Unfortunately, he was dead wrong. For a dark figure had just showed up, and removed all the darkness immediately. It was Matter; followed by Bunny, who seems a lot better than before.

(A/N: Matter's text will always be in bold print) "So? You think you can torture our friends, and take over this city? You really should think about the consequences of your actions." Matter explained.

"Oh my gosh! Girls; are you alright!?" Bunny flew over to her sisters; hoping they aren't hurt too much.

"*Cough* Bunny? *Gasp* Bunny it is you!" Bubbles hugged onto her sister; feeling better over the fact that her conditions improved. "Wait. Is that an X-hancing ring? You have one too?" She noticed the grey ring with a purple circle in the center.

"Yeah! Dad told the Professor that I've recovered. So the Professor gave me my form of the ring he gave to you three; it works perfectly too!" Bunny explained.

"Well I'm just glad to see you're back and fighting fit." Blossom recovered by this time and flew over to join her sisters. Buttercup hopped back over as well.

"Now what's this? Five on one isn't a fair match. So why don't we make it look more fair?" Apoco unsheathed the four sibling's souls and started to absorb them into his very being. His body was then engulfed in a rainbow of colors. *A bright white light appeared and everyone shields their faces* When the bright light faded, Apoco was completely transformed into the ultimate Elementalist. The cloak was teal, and separated into two portions; a bottom half which held only its pointed arrow-shaped legs; and an upper half, which had four differently shaped arms, a head with three deep red eyes, four torches protruding from the sides of the head with purple fire, a crystal at the top of the head, and on the cloak's frontal part by the face were two fake eyes that could fire lasers. (A/N: So will Elementross'; with the addition of CAPS) "*Threatening laugh* FOOLISH HEROES. BY DEFEATING MY SIBLINGS, YOU'VE ALLOWED ME TO ABSORB THEIR SOULS! WHICH BY DOING SO; I'VE BEEN REBORN! AS ELEMENTROSS!" The enormous villain flew overhead; shooting off millions of projectiles into the sky, and having it rain hellfire on our heroes.

"Watch out!" Buttercup alerted her sisters and ally. They really had no chance of escaping; so they had to brace themselves. Matter used his dark magic to create an impenetrable barrier. "Hoo... thanks for the support Matter." Buttercup said out of breath

"No problem. Now, I'll share with you four some of my energy again. It'll surely help you." Matter said to her.

"Hey speaking of. Hey girls! Ready to get dynamic?" Buttercup asked her sisters.

"You know it!" Bubbles shouted.

"Then let's fuse girls!" By pressing the buttons on their rings, the girls (except Bunny) came together and did their transition into a fusion. Dynamo struck the ground; causing all enemy projectiles to disappear immediately.

"Whoa..." Bunny was amazed. "Dad? Is that the new power you told me they had?" Bunny asked as Dynamo looked back; smiling. (A/N: Whoever is speaking for Dynamo depends on the color of the eyes mentioned)

"As a matter of fact. Yes." He answered. No one got the joke.

(Pink eyes) "I can handle this easily. Keep Bunny out of harm's way; we don't wanna lose her again." Dynamo dashed towards Elementross at hyper speed; and unleashed a fury of rapid punches. Her punches were so fast her arms didn't even look like they were moving!

"GAAH! WHAT IS THIS POWER YOU POSSESS!?" Elementross asked in pain.

(Green eyes) "It's called teamwork. And thanks to these rings; we've never been closer as a team." She showed off the golden X-hancing ring on her left arm; it had three topaz circles in it. She then flew up to the sky and started charging the self-starburst ray. Using her other arm she created an energy forcefield. (Blue eyes) "Keep trying to stop us; it won't work!" After about forty seconds worth of a charge-up, she fired the self-starburst ray. It was strong enough to hold back Elementross, but not enough to bring him down. He then shot his legs into the ground and out arose two mini volcanoes; which both fired a lava ball towards Dynamo. But she couldn't stop now; she was too concentrated on the battle at hand. Matter had noticed this and set up a barrier. Bunny then flew up and started providing extra fire. (Pink eyes) "I see you're getting in on the action too huh? You're a great hero Bunny."

"I'll help as much as I can." She tapped the X-hancing ring's button and started chucking multiple homing flares at the face of Elementross. Matter joined in the fray, and shot a huge laser into a portal he spawned in. This portal carried the laser through a dimension with no ends or beginnings; until another portal came in. The laser exited through and struck Elementross in the backside. With enough force the laser pierced through his chest and mixed in with the starburst ray. This eventually caused Elementross to disappear into dust over time.

"NOOOOOO! I CANNOT DIE YET! MY JOB Must be completed!" His voice was fading; and so was his body; until he turned back into a set of five souls. Each soul exploded and the remnants collided and completely vanished.

(Pink eyes) "It's over..." Dynamo then unfused. (Blue eyes) "You may wanna step back. The unfusing process causes an explosion." Which it very much did. The girls, fully separated, landed on the ground in one piece.

"Nice job all of you. Though I may need to explain something..." Matter started.

"What is it?" Bubbles and Bunny asked curiously.

"If those five managed to make their way into this world. Then I have a feeling HIM isn't as gone as we thought." Matter continued.

"What are you implying?" Blossom asked.

"I'm implying that HIM's Heart of Darkness still lives on; his soul lives inside of that thing. It's the very culmination of all the evil energy in this world; when destruction is being caused, the feedback is sent to it. It's what gave HIM near-immortality. If you were to go back and destroy the heart, then all of this possibly wouldn't be occurring." Matter explained. "In short; he's still alive."

"Well... he did say he'd always return." Blossom mentioned.

"Oh yeah; he did. But don't you think he was trying to do it to scare us?" Bunny asked.

"It's a good idea to think that. But you shouldn't just assume things. It goes against common sense to assume." She told her.

"Well I'd love to stay and talk about the subject. But at this time I think it'd be wise for me to find that Heart of Darkness, and contain it." Matter said. "Bunny..." He beckoned.

"Oh right! Bye girls!" Bunny flew back over to Matter, and then the two of them teleported back to (their) home.

"Well. At least this evil has been stopped for the time being..." Bubbles said with a smile.

"Yeah. Hey, you girls head back home. I'm just wait here for a while." Blossom said.

"Okay. C'mon Bubbles." Said Buttercup.

"Okay." *Flies off* "Hey do you think-" Her voice faded out of ear range.

Blossom sat down in a meditative position; and tried to connect with herself. She started glowing in a bright pink light; and her 'zen mode' activated. This allowed Blossom to keep her position while she was in control of a white ghost cloud with her features. It flew around as it attempted searching for the Heart of Darkness. Eventually; it felt a vibe that told her it was nearby; the heart was sealed in a volcanic area. But she had no possible way of getting to HIM's realm. The ghost cloud disappeared and Blossom regained control of her actual body again. "There's no way I'll be able to locate it. It's location is in a completely different area." She felt defeated. But now was not the time to give up; so she flew back home. Leaving it in the back of her mind for now.

And so once again, the day... was saved! Thanks to... the Powerpuff Girls! These battles just keep getting more extravagant each day... wowee! (The End)

(End of Story)