Chapter 30: A New World: Part 3!
As Roger was running through the city using his time slowing down super speed, all time slowed down as he tried to find anyone he knew like Milo, Globgor, or Dan. He may be a sociopath and had a tendency to throw people under the bus so that they can deal with the consequences of his actions and so that he can absolve himself of any responsibility and go on to another random thing that he'll eventually get bored of.
If this current adventure was teaching him anything, it was that it was showing him how much he was taking for granted, friends and family alike. And he needed to rein those incredibly selfish tendencies in before it was too late.
Stopping in the middle of the town square, Roger looked around as the time slowing was still in effect. But when he saw Milo as well as Jasper, Leggy, and many others with him.
"Milo!" Roger shouted as the time slowing ability finally stopped, returning time to it's normal pace.
"Milo!" the boy heard a voice call to him.
As he, Chris, Globgor, Dan, Sigh, (who managed to the city after only a few minutes) and everyone with him look over to right, they saw Roger running up to him.
"Roger, you're alright!" The young Murphy said as he embraced the fugitive alien for a quick hug for a few seconds before letting go.
"You!" Dan said as he immediately grabbed the alien by the shoulders as he pinned him to the nearest wall as he glared into his eyes with a vengeance. "You've got some explaining to do!"
"What?" Roger said in fear. "What are you talking about?"
"Dan, calm down. Let him go!" Chris said as he grabbed Dan by the arm by pushed him back a bit. "Can't you see you're scaring him?"
Dan wanted nothing more than to throttle Roger until he confessed. But luckily, Sara, Globgor, Leggy and Bubbles managed to hold him back from doing so.
"Why should I, Chris?" Dan demanded as he glared at his best friend. "Zing is after us because of him!"
Upon hearing that, Roger's eyes widened in surprise.
"Oooohhhhhhh, CRAP!" Roger said in his head. "Majestic showed them THAT memory."
"We know, Dan." SIGH said, robotically as she stood with Chris to protect Roger from the Mandell man's wrath. "I would strongly advised against assaulting Roger as we have not heard his side of the story."
"Please calm yourself, Mister Dan." Bubbles said, holding the adult back. "Attacking Roger won't help any of us!"
"I say let him pummel him." Jasper said with a smirk wanting to see the beating happen. "It'll amuse me for a bit."
"I second that." Sinbad said, wanting to see Roger pay for essentially screwing all of them over with his selfishness. "That asshole needs a beating."
Dan looked at her, then Leggy, then at the Murphy daughter, then Sigh and Chris, then Sinbad and Jasper, before looking down at the ground as he contemplated on what to do. On one hand, if he did beat up Roger, he could probably kill the semi immortal alien. But on the other hand, Roger could have some useful information on Zing that they can use in order to hopefully try and stop him as soon as possible. If he killed Roger now, they would be robbed of said info.
After thinking on it, Dan let out a sigh to dispel his anger. "Fine."
Seeing him calmed down, the four let go of him.
Mr. Murphy then walked up to Roger. "Now Roger, I suggest you cooperate and tell us your side of your former relationship with Zing."
Wanting not to have the crap beaten out of him by either Dan, Jasper or Sinbad, Roger sighed, knowing he was going to regret saying what happened.
"It all started 1,000 years ago on our home planet known as Oraxus." He began. "I was just a normal resident there when I felt this urge to be into have a relationship with someone of the highest power."
"Zing?" Chris asked.
"Yep." Roger answered.
"Why?" Leggy asked.
Roger tried to think of how to phrase this considering that the Gems there didn't understand certain Earth phrasings. After spending 20 seconds thinking, he answered.
"Do you guys ever have this feelings of wanting to do something for a bit before moving on?" Roger asked.
"Yeah." Dan said.
"No." Jasper, the Rubies, the Zircons said in unison.
Topaz (who was with Sigh when they teleported off the ship) just nodded.
Once everyone gave their answer, the alien continue. "That was what my relationship with Zing was. A fling and nothing more. I'm pretty you guys know what happened afterwards."
"Was it worth it in the end?" Milo asked.
"I guess so." Roger said, no hint of regret for his actions. "After all if I didn't, I never would've been banished to Earth, met the multiple families, (I like to have variety in everything, by the way), met the Smith family..." Tears began to roll down his face as his tone began to get rather solemn and depressed. "Got shot into space again... and met all of you."
After Roger explained himself, the group took some time to process this information. They now know just how selfish the alien can be and how it's come back to bite all of them later on. Despite that, they can understand where he was coming from. Dan, being quite the selfish sociopath himself has had a fling or two that more or less ended on either bad or bittersweet terms.
"Well Roger." Martin began, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I hope you understand that you can't absolve yourself of the responsibility that your actions cause forever. Sooner or later, you have to take responsibility for them. I mean, look at where we are."
Roger, knowing he had a similar conversation to this with Stan once or twice before, well you know, sighed knowing that he was right, no matter how much he wanted to deny taking responsibility for his selfish endeavors. "You're right, Martin. I really need to start taking responsibility for the things I do and really need to start thinking things through." He said with such a sincere feeling that people rarely see from him.
Just then, a tear in the air manifested as a portal a few feet in front of everyone as the four Loud sisters, Elise, Peridot, Clyde, Ronnie Anne, the still unconscious Dr. Doof, Hekapoo, Melissa, and Steve screaming as they flew out of it.
"What the..." The emperor said in disbelief at to what he was seeing.
"Oh, I know that kind of dimensional tear." Globgor thought to himself as a silent anger began to manifest inside of him as he saw one of his enemies began to get up.
"Melissa?" Milo asked in disbelief as he ran up to her.
"Milo?" Melissa said in disbelief as she looked at him.
Seconds later, Milo embraced her as she did the same as tears of joy streamed down their faces.
"I'm so glad that you're alright!" Melissa said in relief.
"Likewise!" Milo said, with equal relief.
The two friends held on for a minute before letting go.
"Where's Zack?" The Murphy asked.
Hearing that caused Melissa to turn away from her friend. "He's... missing."
"Oh." Milo said, sadly. "I hope he's alright."
"Me too." Melissa before picking up the knocked out Dr. D before gesturing to the people currently with the two. "We wouldn't have got here if it wasn't for him and some new friends of ours."
Steve was rubbing his head when his eyes met with Roger's.
"Roger, is that you?" He said as he quickly got up.
"Steve..." Roger hissed as he clenched his fists before beginning to stomp towards him.
Steve, quickly noticing this, cautiously began to back away.
"N-Now, now, Roger, Roger, I understand you must be really pissed off but-" The nerd began to say before the alien let out a yell before charging towards him.
"Wait, Roger! Stop!" Steve began as he began to run away from the angered alien.
"Well, if it isn't the tiny traitor." Jasper said, making the green gem look up at her.
"Jasper." Peridot said with disdain at her former partner. "I'm surprised you haven't been shattered yet."
"Same to you, you worthless technician." The quartz said, with equal disdain as she glared at the short technician. "I can't believe that Yellow Diamond made me work with you."
"Likewise, revenge seeker." Peridot said. "I can't believed you treated me and Lapis the way you did during that mission."
"Well you should, as far as I was concerned, you two were just getting in my way." Jasper said as she stared down at the ground. "And I have a few choice words for that Lapis when I see her again."
Hekapoo looked around before finding Globgor marching right up to her with a righteous fury in his eyes.
"Wait, Globgor!" Hekapoo began, wanting to bring out her scissors but didn't want to as she didn't want to fight the king of monsters. "I-"
"I don't want to hear anything from you!" Globgor said before breaking out into a sprint. "Prepare for some payback!"
"Stop! Please! AHH!" Hekapoo screamed before running away from the normally, pacifistic but in this case enraged monster king.
"Elise?" Chris said in shock as tears began to roll down his face. "Is that really you?"
"Chris?" Elise said in equal shock as she looked at him before embracing him. "YOU'RE OKAY!"
Despite feeling happy to see his wife again, remembering what she did not just Dan but him as well cause him to back away from her, much to her surprise.
"Chris?" Elise said in confusion.
Before he could say anything in response, he heard Dan yell.
"YOU!" The sociopath yelled, marching up to her and forming his hands into a hammer for the left hand and for the right hand a shotgun respectively. "I'm gonna give you what you've been needing to get for a while now, you hypocritical broad! But I can't decide if should either to blow your piece one shot at a time or just bash the mess out of you!" He then stopped in front of the two before finishing. "So, I'm gonna do both!"
"Dan, wait! You shouldn't-" Chris began but Dan didn't want to hear it as his friend let out a enraged yell before he attacked.
Elise ducked under Dan's hammer before she instinctively jumped to the side to avoid a oncoming shotgun blast.
Elise held up her hands in defense. "Dan, wait! I don't want to fight!" She said as she jumped back, avoiding three more shotgun blasts.
"Well, too bad!" Dan said as he jumped towards and brought the hammer down forcing his spy "friend" to jump back once more. "I'm angry and you're gonna pay for it!"
As this was happening, as Milo and his family was telling Melissa everything that's been happening, his eyes caught something or rather someone out of the corner of them.
Someone strange yet familiar looking.
Looking over, he saw four girls. Something felt strange about them.
"Hold on..." Milo thought to himself as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the photo that Lincoln gave to him.
The four girls looked exactly like the ones in the picture.
Leggy walked over to Milo as he noticed the look in his eyes. Melissa noticed it too.
"Uh, Milo?" Melissa asked confused. "You okay, buddy?"
"No Melissa, I think I'm about to get..." Milo began as purple energy began to leak out of his back, luckily he managed to maintain control and dispel it before he ended doing some serious damage to the area and those around him. "Really mad!" He shouted, making Melissa, his family and Leggy take a step back.
"Why?" Leggy asked. Milo didn't say anything as he handed her the photo in response. "What's this?"
"It's a picture, Leggy. Lincoln gave it to me before we separated." Milo simply said as then pointed to those four girls who were simply confused as to where they were and why were these strange people chasing people that they just met. "See those four girls? I think those are some of Lincoln's sisters."
"What?" The reluctant soldier said in shock as she looked at the picture again before looking at the sisters once more. "So these are some of the sisters who..."
"Shot their brother into space? I believe so." Milo said, a silent anger beginning to rise in him.
"WHAT?!" Melissa asked in shock at what she just heard.
Upon hearing this, smoke began to form at the Gem's feet as she began to get angry herself.
"The sisters that..." The soldier continued.
"Done nothing but disrespect him the whole time that has been on Earth? Looks like them." Milo said, his anger beginning to rise, though it was taking all of his willpower to not use his powers.
"So... they're the reason..." Leggy began as she stood up as tears of anger streamed down her eyes. "THEY'RE THE REASON MY LINCOLN IS NOW MISSING?!"
Upon hearing that, it caused everyone to briefly and look on as Leggy began to march straight to Leni, Lana, Lucy and Luan, with the look that just screamed "You are all types of dead when I get my hands on you" in her eyes. The heat rising with each step she took, her footprints literally burning smoldering holes in the ground.
"Leggy, wait!" Milo said urgently as he ran up the small fighter and quickly grabbed onto her as she was within five steps from the Loud sisters. "I get that you're angry, I am too, but you have got to calm down!"
"Let me go!" Leggy said as it was clear as day that she wasn't having it as she stomped on his foot a bit hard but not too hard as she didn't want to break the kid's foot, causing him to scream in pain as he was forced to let go as he was then grabbed by the shoulders, lifted over her head and thrown into a protective Clyde and Ronnie Anne with such force that it knocked the two kids to ground.
Leni instantly jumped in front of her younger siblings so that she could protect them from the little soldier's wrath.
"Wait, before you pulverize us, just pulverize me I think I deserve it the most." Leni said, choosing to accept the beatdown on her sisters' behalf.
Luan immediately stepped to her air headed sister's left side. "No you don't, Leni. If you're going to get beaten, then we'll get beaten with you."
"She's right, Leni." Lana said as she stood to her older sister's right.
Lucy stood with her dirt loving sister and simply nodded.
However, before things could escalate further...
"ENOUGH, ALL OF YOU!" a new voice boomed. "TERRIFIED FREEZE!"
Suddenly, Globgor, Dan, Roger and Leggy and the people they were attacking all were frozen in place in some kind of mysterious purple aura.
"What the..." Dan said, trying to wrap his head around what was currently happening.
"Why can't we move?" Roger said as he struggled to move even an inch but magic was preventing him from doing so.
"It's cause I am preventing you from doing so." that same voice spoke.
Everyone looked over to see Eclipsa, who has finally woke up and she had a look that spoke of anger and frustration.
"Eclipsa, you're awake!" Globgor said in surprised.
"Can someone please tell me what is going on here?" The dark queen asked as she held up her parasol, which was glowing with purple magic before she looked towards her monster husband and the one he was attacking. "Hekapoo?!"
"Hiiiii..." The scissors forger said awkwardly as she waved her hand.
Clyde and Ronnie helped Milo up as he spoke. "Well, if you don't know..." Milo began as he glared at the ones that Leggy, Globgor, Roger and Dan were either attacking or were just about to attack. "Some of these guys are from Earth and as you can clearly see, they're the ones responsible for getting us into this whole mess."
"Really?" She asked.
"He speaks the truth, Eclipsa." S.I.G.H said.
"Now that you're caught up, you'd mind letting us go so that we can kick the crap out of these guys?" Roger asked, wanting to really hurt Steve.
"You should release them it'll make this enjoyable." Jasper said, summoning her helmet and feeling ready to pound some faces into the dirt.
Just then, Ronnie Anne spoke up seeing that Clyde is scared and curled up into a ball on the ground.
"Okay, all of you just stop for a second!" She yelled, gaining everyone's attention. "I understand that you guys are angry at what these guys did." She cast a glare at Leni and her sisters before continuing. "I am too, but I think you should give them and us a chance to explain ourselves before you decide to attack us out of nowhere."
"The kid's right." Doof said, having regained consciousness and heard what the tomboy said. "You should at least hear us out."
"And why should we do that?" Roger asked, distrustful of hearing what Steve and these guys with him have to say.
"I think it would be beneficial if we're given a chance to speak. It's rather important." Peridot said.
"As much as I am just as confused as the rest of you are. I think we should give them a chance to explain themselves." Topaz said her piece.
The area grew silent as the Exiles pondered on what they should. For all they knew, most of these were untrustworthy. But Ronnie Anne, Dr. D, Peridot and Topaz had good arguments.
Finally, after what seemed like minutes, Sinbad spoke. "Fine, I guess we should hear them out."
"They should at least say their piece before we decide what's next." The Emperor said.
Soon after more gestures and words of agreement were said and done. Until only Leggy, Roger and Globgor were left.
"Ah, to hell with it, I'll hear them out." Roger said, deciding why not right?
"Fine, I might as well." Jasper said, crossing her arms.
Leggy was still debating on whether he should hear these guys out. Clyde noticing this, got up from his rock pose. "Look inside yourself Leggy. If you love Lincoln like you claim to, then ask yourself what he would want you to do."
That got through to her as tears began to leak from her eyes.
"Alright, I'll hear them out!" She said, as she closed her eyes, tears streamed down her face a little as a small smile appeared. "It's what Lincoln would do."
Seeing Leggy finally listen to reason made Eclipsa deactivate her spell seeing that no one would start a potential fight.
"Now that, that's out of the way." The Emperor began, gaining everyone's attention. "Whoever shot anyone of these citizens into space, please stand over there." He pointed to the left before pointing to the right. "For those who didn't, please stand over there."
Confused, Melissa, Doof, Peridot, Clyde, Ronnie Anne went to the right as Elise, Hekapoo, Steve, Leni, Luan, Lana and Lucy went to the left.
"Okay, now then..." The Emperor began as he snapped his fingers. "Guards! Surround the ones on the left!"
Without a moment's hesitation, several guards surrounded the crew on the left, raising different types of weapons to them. From fourteen barreled laser blasters to wrist mounted, extendable maces.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Clyde asked in worry.
"No one worries, young one, this is. how you say, a precaution." The emperor informed him as he turned to Leni and her friends. "Okay, whoever you people are, you have the floor."
"Um, thanks?" Elise said, confused as she didn't know how to respond to this.
"Thank you." Leni said as she stepped forward. "Well if you can't tell, most of us are from Earth, the same planet that some of you guys are from."
"Yeah, we can clearly see that." Jasper said, rolling her eyes that this human was trying to make small talk in this situation. "But that doesn't explain something. How or more importantly why are you all, a bunch of unneeded people here?"
"Well, I used my magic scissors to help rally us and the people over there together." Hekapoo explained. "And Mr. Science over there created a machine to help find your rocket."
"As for why, I think it's pretty obvious." Steve said. "We want to bring you guys home."
"And hopefully gain your forgiveness to any one of you who we sent here." Lana said as tears formed into her eyes. "Especially who me and my sisters sent up here."
"Okay, another question." Dan began. "Was it just you guys and those guys over there or were there more with you?"
"Well, aside from the people over there there are more." Steve explained. "Like my mom, my sister Hayley and my brother in law Jeff."
"My brother, Bobby..." Ronnie Anne spoke as tears pricked into her eyes but she managed to blink them away.
"Bismuth and Amethyst were with me when we came here." Peridot revealed.
"And Zack and Perry the Platypus was with me and Melissa when we arrived here." Dr. D explained.
"Why don't you guys explain what happened when you all managed to get here?" Topaz asked kindly.
None of them spoke up, until Elise did.
"Well, after we arrived here, we found ourselves in this weird desert-like area where corrosive acid were the puddles..."
"Oh, you must mean "The Melting Desert"!" One of the armed guards said in surprise as he didn't expect these outsiders to survive in one of their planet's most dangerous locations. "Sorry for interrupting, but no one ever lasts long there."
"It's cool..." The Earth secret agent said. "Anyway, we got attacked by this giant crocodile, porcupine looking monster. After we managed to take it down, that's when things took a turn for the worst."
"What happened?" Chris asked, not liking where this is going.
"This guy named Zing showed up in front of us, riding on top this even bigger alien." Steve said. "I think it was called a Xenomorph?"
"It was, Steve." Peridot said, reminding him of her and Bismuth saying that before the separation.
The group let out a collective gasp of shock as they began to digest this information. Not only did Zing managed to survive the crash but now Roger's ex has the Xenomorph Queen, the foe that they've barely managed to beat, had not only also survived the crash, but it's now under his control too. And with Lincoln still out, Zing would have no problem finding and most likely kill him. It won't matter how much he'll regenerate, he can still die. Finding him was one of their top priorities.
Noticing the distressed looks one their faces, Leni spoke up. "Is Lincoln here?"
"Huh?" Jasper said, not hearing what the human said. "Speak up, blondie!"
"Is Lincoln here?!" Leni shouted desperately as tears began to stream down her face. "Please. TELL US THAT OUR BROTHER IS HERE SOMEWHERE, I BEG YOU!"
Leni's outburst shocked everyone as they saw the blonde girl begin to cry silently as Lana, Lucy and Luan attempted to comfort her. Even Dan and Jasper were a little heartbroken at her despair... though just a tiny bit.
"Well, he's here. I'm sure of it. We just haven't found him yet." Eclipsa said trying to be as gentle as possible. "Don't cry, dearie. You'll have to be strong if you want to find him."
Through her tears, Leni nodded as she began to wipe them away, beginning to calm down.
"Okay, but answer us this..." Dan began, still angry but he decided to tone it down a little. "Why should we believe any of you? How do we know that what you guys are saying aren't just a bunch of lies?" He then pointed at Leni, Luan, Lucy and Lana in particular as he raised his voice a bit. "Especially the four of you! Lincoln told us basically everything you did to him, including the fact that you and the rest of your so called "family" shot him into space!"
"Yeah, I agree." Leggy said, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, I'm kinda with Dan and Leggy on that. Though I would have been rather gentle explaining it." Martin said, also a little angry but more so disappointed. "In the rest your guy's case, it's basically your fault that we're here in the first place."
The group surrounded didn't say anything in response. As far as they knew, this distrustful behavior from the Exiles was rather warranted. They brought up some rather good points. Why exactly should they trust them even after everything they were forced to go through because of their paranoia and xenophobia?
So unless they truly want to make it up to them. Even Leni's tears felt like crocodile tears... at least in Dan's case as he's had his fair share of people using tactics to try and one up him.
"What is wrong with you guys?!" Steve shouted, appalled at the opposing group's apparent lack of empathy. "After everything that we've gone through just to get here, Leni is crying her heart out clearly wanting to make things right as the rest of us do and you guys have the nerve to say "I don't care!" have the three weeks turn off your sense of morality?!"
"Oh it's still there, Steve." Roger answered, distrust clearly in his tone. "We just don't trust you a-holes. It's also the believing factor that is the issue."
Before anyone could say anything, no one could be prepared for what happened next...
A unknown spaceship descended from the sky a bit before it shot out a large beam of red light that rained down about 30 feet away from the Emperor's castle. Immediately, everyone got in fight or flight stances, in case this beam was deadly.
A few seconds later, the began to materialize something within the neurons of it.
After a bit of time, the crowd saw what it was, and they all either screamed in shock, backed away a bit, or gritted their teeth in anger.
It was holographic projection of Zing, if they thought that was the only thing, they're wrong, as he on top of the head of the Xenomorph Queen and apparently, there was red skinned alien with him.
"Oh my God, it is him..." Roger said, shaking a bit as he backed away before looking at Steve. "Sorry for not believing you, Steve."
"Same here, Elise." Chris said.
"Sorry, Hekapoo." Globgor said in guilt.
After everyone finished apologizing and those accepting them, they all looked up at the massive hologram.
"Inhabitants of the planet Zeenu." The alien began, his voice booming, possibly so much that the entire planet could hear him. "I apologize for disrupting your day, but what me and my partner in crime have to is very important. So I suggest you all listen, and listen well." Zing then stepped to the side and displayed a holographic picture of his sworn enemies for all to see before continuing. "These are the Exiles, a group of remarkable individuals who were banished from their homes due to rather personal reasons. Reasons that I refuse to go into as that's their business and irrelevant right now." He then began to list off their names, one after another. "Dan Mandell, Chris Pearson, Milo Murphy and the rest of his family, Eclipsa, Globgor and their kid Meteora, Jasper,"
He stopped for a moment as he felt anger rising up in him, but he refused to let it control him, especially in public because of what happened last time. So he took a deep breath to calm himself before he continued. "Roger, and last but least, their apparent superior and tactician, Lincoln Loud." He then made the picture vanish before continuing. "This group ruined everything for me, so I figured 'Hey, why not return the favor?"
The picture of the Exiles then disappeared and turned into a recording of what happened on Zing's original ship. The rebelling prisoners fighting off the guards, what happened in the throne room, the Coliseum fights, etc.
As the videos were playing, the gray alien continued. "As I have just captured some friends of theirs. Now despite my my blatant animosity towards the group as a whole, I only wish to capture Roger and Lincoln as they both ruined my life, the rest while powerful in their own right, they haven't done as much to me as those two did so they're not on my list. So if you see either of them, I suggest you hand them over to us. If you do, neither you or your planet will be harmed."
This brought some relief to the citizens of the planet... but that was quickly dashed when...
"Of course if you refuse well..." Zing stopped as he turned to Drek. "Drek, why don't you do the honors?"
"But, of course." The business alien said with a rather calm yet sinister tone of voice as he made the vids disappear.
Another video popped up, showing a random green planet with a single ship in it's orbit. Speaking which, that ship looked like it had a a big explosive device attached to the bottom of it. "Please watch the demonstration..."
"No, he wouldn't do what I think he's going to do, would he?" Bridget asked in disbelief.
The pilot released the explosive towards the the planet's surface...
"He would." Jasper said, knowing what it was like to demolish a planet whether it be directly engaging the enemy on the planet's surface or from the view of a ship given her time as Yellow Diamond's soldier.
As soon as the explosive touched a city's center, it detonated instantly. Much to the horror of everyone that was watching, they heard the confusion and screams of anguish and horror as they were incinerated, some of them from across the planet even holding members of their family close as it was happening as to try and shield them from the blast. Sadly, this proved to be in vain as they were engulfed in the blast.
As Bridget was watching this, she felt a sudden pain in her head which caused her to begin to scream in pain as she held her head in her hands before falling to her knees as tears began to appear in her eyes.
"Mom!" Milo and Sara yelled in shock as they ran to their mother's side.
Martin crouched down to his mother's side and spoke to her. "Honey, what's wrong?"
"I... don't know!" Bridget shouted through the pain. "I can suddenly feel... the emotions of the citizens of that planet! So much... confusion and... fear... and distress! Aaahhh!"
Suddenly, the pain Bridget was feeling suddenly disappeared, bringing her own psychic level pain to an end as she began to breathe heavily, relieved that it was finally over.
Back at the hologram, the planet was now nothing but complete and utter space dust as a result of this one weapon.
"My goodness." was all that the Emperor could as he covered his mouth in shock.
Some of the citizens backed away in absolute horror as Zing spoke again. "You all have until the end of the week to bring those two inferior beings to us, which is three days from now. Of course my associate's soldiers will also search for them as well but the deadline still remains. Refuse and what happen to that planet..." He made the video of the destroyed planet to a very familiar planet. "Will happen to this one."
The planet Earth...
"Oh, no." Ronnie Anne said in shock as she felt the urge to vomit right then then and there.
"Blossom, Buttercup, Professor, Townsville." Bubbles said as she covered her mouth at what she was seeing as she was on the urge of rushing home but used a lot of willpower to not do so.
"As much as I despise that planet, even I know that this is going too far." Jasper said to herself. "That's my rival's planet! So if that inferior creature is going to blow it up, he'll have a war on his head."
Upon seeing this, Clyde instantly dug into his pocket to reach for his paper bag to breathe into it in order to avoid passing out right then and there.
"Phineas, Ferb, Elliot, Amanda..." Milo said in terror as Sara held his hand to comfort him.
"My parents!" Melissa said in shock. "All of the people of Danville!"
Most of the former Emperor's former prisoners gritted their teeth in anger at this threat, some of them even grabbing their weapons, though wanting to attack the extraterrestrial duo at the moment.
"The Earth." Chris said, embracing Elise immediately after seeing their home threatened. "I knew the guy was hurting but I didn't think he would go this far."
"Same here, Chris." Roger said, on the verge of having a panic attack.
"Mom, Dad..." Leni began to say.
"Our friends!" Lana shouted in terror.
"Royal Woods itself!' Luan said in shouted.
"The rest of our sisters." Lucy said, covering her mouth in surprise.
"Oh yeah! Earth's going to get it!" Zing said, referencing some sort of meme that he didn't know he was referencing as it must've went over his big head. "So, Roger, Lincoln. If you want to be "heroes" and save your world, I suggest you turn yourselves in before the deadline is up. Remember Zeenu, 3 days or Earth goes bye-bye." He made a waving motion with his hand. "See you then."
The hologram then cut off after that, causing the area to go silent. It stay like that for a bit before everyone started talking all at once. Whether it was the citizens freaking out at the prospect of Zing and Drek targeting Zeenu once they were done with Earth. Some of the prisoners beginning to panic over the idea of having face some of Drek's soldiers, or some people trying to calm the citizens down with little success.
Suddenly, all of that was stopped when Bubbles let out a scream that was so loud that not only did it cause everyone to quickly cover their ears but the soundwave caused the ground to crack apart and even some windows to shatter from the sheer force of the Powerpuff Girl's vocal cords.
She did this for a few more seconds before stopping, a look of determination having set root on her face.
"Okay, everyone, listen up." The young heroine began. "Now is not the time to be panicking. We need to come up with a plan and fast."
"Bubbles is right." Sara said in agreement. "I suggest we split up. Some of us will stay here and arm ourselves and fortify the city just in case some of Drek's soldiers show up looking for a fight."
"While some of us will go out looking for Lincoln." Clyde said.
Sinbad placed a hand on the young boy's shoulder, causing him to look up at him. "I think you mean all of us will look for him."
"For real?" Bridgette asked in surprise as everyone else was.
"Yeah, the little guy did so much for us. It's time that we all return the favor." Zoe said as the other aliens nodded or said words of agreement.
"He took Zing's test to get our... private areas back." The muscular blue alien said, gesturing to the large sack he had, causing everyone to cringe a bit. "Yes, this large sack has what you're thinking."
"He fought Jasper and won!" Zoe said with a proud smile on her face. "And saved us while doing so."
The rest of the citizens began to say other things that Lincoln and the rest of his crew by extension did for them. Some of these things that Leni and the others were being told, they honestly wouldn't believe, but seeing the smiles on these various aliens, they must've been true.
Lincoln, a hero? Back on Earth, he was essentially a twig who could barely fight for himself.
Jasper, respecting someone who she used to consider inferior to her superior self?
Eclipsa, actually caring for others alongside her family? Maybe getting unfrozen caused her to start taking responsibility for her position.
Roger, actually wanting to change his ways? Usually, he would be faking it as he has done so many times before when he was on Earth.
Milo, a kind if oblivious boy actually killed someone? Granted it was by accident but still, it was shocking. Maybe Elliott was right about Milo after all.
Dan, actually being no so revenge hungry as he usually is? Okay, granted if must've been because Chris was there to hold him back, but still it was quite the surprise.
The various stories of this ragtag bunch of misfits were... just impressive given their surprised reactions.
After a few minutes of digesting this information, the Emperor spoke up, breaking the silence.
Looks like we got a lot of work to do." The alien said. "If you want, I can have some search and rescue teams get assembled to assist you in finding this "Lincoln" fellow."
"That would be a great help, thank you." Clyde said. "But the question is who's going to stay behind?" He then turned to the rest of the prisoners. "No to offend all of you, but if we all went, the city would be left defenseless and we're going to need a place to return to once we find my best friend."
"Kid's got a point." Phil said before turning to as he flew up before stopping once he was high enough. "Okay, all those who want to find Lincoln, raise your left hand."
Lana, Leni, Luan, Lucy, Milo, Chris, Ronnie Anne, Leggy, Clyde, Roger, Holly Blue, Emerald, Sinbad and Zoe all raised their left hands with Phil himself raising his left hand too.
"Alright then, Emperor, how long does it take for you to get you search parties together?" The one eyed, flying alien said.
"About 5 to 10 minutes, give or take." The Zeenuian ruler responded.
"Okay, the rest of you should stay here and get ready cause I can tell that things are going to get real." Phil instructed before turning to the ones who raised their hands. "As for you guys, you should get ready too, we're searching into 5 to 10 minutes."
"If you guys are going to go out, you should at least arm yourselves." The Emperor said, gesturing them to follow him. "Please follow me, I'll take you to the armory."
As the group volunteering to go find Lincoln went with the Emperor to get weapons, unbeknownst to them, Jasper was staring up at the sky with a look of determination on her face...
In the Armory...
Upon reaching the armory, Lana's jaw dropped to the floor in a comedic fashion. "Whoa! So. Many. Weapons!"
"You can say that again." Clyde said, also in shock at the many armaments that was presented on the walls and various shelves."
Lana was about to run in when Leni and Luan grabbed her and prevented her from doing so.
"Easy, Lana. You can geek out at these weapons later, right now we need get ready." Luan said. "Lincoln's still out there and he needs us."
Upon hearing that, the tomboy instantly stopped. She knew that her comedic sister was right, Her older brother was out there, possibly lost, scared and god knows what else due his sister's ignorant selfishness and finding him might be the only chance to redeem themselves.
"Okay, everyone. Pick a weapon that fits you best and take it with you." The emperor said before walking away. "I'll go assemble the the teams, be ready in 10 minutes."
After spending a minute taking a look around, the group went there separate ways to pick out a weapon to to defend themselves with should need call for it.
Sindbad took a pair of green, energized daggers. Zoe, although she could shapeshift, took a pair of rifle that fired rubber bullets that had a tiger motif, Leni took... two spray cans of pepper sprays.
"Really, Leni? Pepper spray?" Luan said, deadpanned.
"Hmm, hold a sec." Leni said as she approached a practice dummy that was in the room and sprayed the face to it... which was actually acidic that instantly melted the face until it nothing but a metallic and steal skull. "OM Gosh!"
"Uh..." Lana and Luan said in utter shock.
"Let's not question it and move on." Lucy said as Leni put the acidic spray in her dress, deciding to take anymore chances with it.
Leggy looked at a sling and felt drawn to it, so she picked it up, not only that, but she also picked up a pair or brass knuckles that had spikes on them.
Clyde found a laser blaster that had four barrels of ammunition, while he was tempted to pick it up, he figured it would be too heavy for him, going to the next weapon, he saw six non lethally grenades with one having a different function, not only that it had a pistol that fired rubber bullets so he choose those two specifically.
As for Ronnie Anne, she was looking at a wall of weapons before stopping, she saw a laser pistol, but not just any laser pistol. It was a laser pistol that had the capability of turning into a dual welding one, and had the ability of turning from laser minigun to a flamethrower with its two different minimum barrels on the left and right sides.
"Oh yes! Flamethrower and minigun laser. I'm soooo picking this." The tomboy said, gleefully picking it up and making it go into the dual wielding function.
Roger had to choose something, but with so many weapons and so little time, he needed to be quick about. Finding a axe and a guandao clumped together, he decided to go with that.
Milo looked around and saw rather big in appearance but light as a feather war hammer with a hole in the handle and lines running up from the hammer's tilt to the harmful head of the weapon, forming an X shape from all sides.
"Hmm, don't know why the holes are there but I'm pretty sure that I'll find out sooner or later." Milo said as he picked up the hammer.
While Chris could turn into a bear and parts of himself into a animal, he still felt like he needed a weapon. After looking a bit, he found a alien version of a musket that looked rather old looking but seemed quite good for him to use.
"Might as well just in case my powers fail me." The Pearson man said as he picked up the weapon.
Luan was helping Lana find a weapon, as they looked around, they found one. It was a pair of wrist gauntlets with lasers on them.
"Now Lana, if you pick this, I want you to be careful. These aren't toys." Luan said, a little concerned with how Lana was all starry eyed at them.
Rolling her eyes, she answered. "Don't worry sis, I promise to be careful." She then armed herself with the weapons of her admiration.
Looking around herself, Luan found a pair of nun-chucks that were red in color with the chain yellow in color. "Eh, what the heck. I'll give all who stands between me and my bro a chunking good time."
Lucy was searching as Leni supervised her, after a few seconds, she saw a sniper rifle looking weapon only alien in nature, quiet in firing sound and had two sets of tubes on the left and right sides of it. Not only that, there was also a weird type of weapon that made Lucy pause.
It was an umbrella, a metallic one. Weird, but hey, weird stuff was Lucy's thing so she picked it up.
Emerald picked up a laser rifle as Holly didn't need a weapon as she has her whip.
Within 5 minutes, everyone was ready.
As they began to walk to the exit, Leggy stopped the Loud sisters.
"Why don't you all go ahead, I need to talk to these four in private."
No one questioned it so they began to run back outside.
With the five now alone, Leggy began. "Okay, I don't want to waste too much time so I'll get straight to the point. So I suggest you listen carefully."
"Oh, geez. You'll going to give us one of those ultimate tomato thingies, aren't you?" Leni asked in concern.
Leggy, a bit confused, raised her eyebrow.
Luan clarified. "It's ultimatum, Leni."
"Uh, yeah, that." Leggy said before she cleared her throat before giving the four an intensive glare. "Look, I know you guys are obviously remorseful for what you did to Lincoln, but I'm still skeptical on trusting you four, same goes for the others that the Exiles hate and with good reason."
Lana was about to tell her to get to the point, but the soldier's glare caused her to keep her mouth shut like glue was put on it.
"So let me just tell you all this right now! Any of you make one step backward, one slip-up, if I even see a hint of an ulterior motive coming from any of you that'll involve hurting Lincoln again be it whatever form that's considerable or any of my new friends, and you don't have to worry about seeing Lincoln cause you won't live to see him cause I'll be personally sending you four back to Earth in body casts only keeping you alive for your trial." She then brought a brass knuckled fist to them in threatening manner, spooking them a bit as she then asked. "Are we clear?!"
"Yeah, yeah!" Lana exclaimed in fear.
"Of course!" Luan said, embracing Lana.
"We are totes clear!" Leni said, backing up and wanting to acid spray her but resisted the urge to do so.
"We understand, Leggy. No need to get violent." Lucy said, putting her hands up defensively.
"Good." Leggy put her fist down. "Glad we understand each other."
With that threat established, Leggy marched her way out of the armory. Leni didn't know that someone so tiny could be so threatening.
Well... aside from Lola maybe.
Now not only do they have to gain the strange of their brother's new friends, but also find him and protect him from Zing and Drek's forces.
All they could think of was... how exactly can they do that than just finding their exiled brother?
However, as the people of Zeenu were getting ready for war and rescue, what they didn't know, was that in Zing's announcement, they weren't the only ones who heard it.
To be continued...
And so, the announcement of ultimatum has been declared, three days before all hell breaks loose. And in that time frame, a LOT can happen in three days.
Can the Exiles save the Earth from utter destruction?
What's up with Jasper?
Will Lincoln be found in time?
Find out next time on "The Exiles"?