Chapter 2 - The Beginning of the End
"Fusion War Journal, entry 694. May, 11th. Currently tracking the the chronoton particle. The signal is leading me towards the SACT camp on Huntor's Crest, but the particle isn't there anymore, and I can't pick up on where it went. Something's blocking it. Either some sort of advanced tech, or magic. Demongo's a possibility. Gonna investigate further when I get to the camp."
After delivering the "overrider cortex" to Demongo ("Only 2000 taros? That's what I spent all day on? It doesn't even cover a fifth of what I have to pay for the hovercar that got wrecked!"), Shala hired a Monkey Skyway Agent to take him to Mandark's airship at Forsaken Valley.
"You keep your gun ready, I don' wanna be attacked by no Fusionflies" - the monkey told him. Luckily, the journey went by without trouble. Shala went to find Samurai Jack to tell him about Demongo's mission.
"Demongo had me break into Fusion Mandark's lair and get an overrider cortex, that was it, Jack."
"An overrider cortex? I do not know what that is. Could you explain what it is used for?" - asked Jack.
"Well, uh, actually, I have no idea myself." - answered Shala.
"What? You just handed an unknown piece of technology to Aku's most faithful and loyal servant? Do you realize how bad of a mistake you could have just made?"
"Relax, Jack, I'm pretty sure it's just something stupid that Fusion Mandark shouldn't have gotten his hands on. Okay, if it's bothering you that much, I'll go ask Tetrax, he'll probably know what that thing was."
And so, Shala went to find Tetrax. Tetrax Shard was a crystal-like alien stranded on Earth when Fuse's invasion began, so he decided to help the war by joining the fight at the front lines - the Darklands. Because of his proficiency in spacecrafts and weapons, and to show up Dexter with the fact that his ship has an alien commander, Mandark let him be in charge of the airship over Forsaken Valley. So, Tetrax spent most of his time on the bridge. The airship was usually stationary, hovering in one place, but Tetrax was always monitoring all sorts of scanners and radars for potential threats. Shala knew he'd find Tetrax there.
"Hey, hey, hey, Tetrax! How's my favorite Petrosapien doing?"
Tetrax was staring at a screen. Or at least, Shala thought he was, because Tetrax had his helmet-visor up and Shala couldn't see his face.
"Busy" - responded Tetrax without looking up
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna take a lot of your time. I just wanted help with your, uh, expertise with technology" - said Shala.
Tetrax's helmet went into his armor, and now Shala could see his diamond head. He looked up from the monitors and turned around towards Shala.
"Did I hear that right? Shala is asking someone else for help? What did I do to deserve this great honor?" – answered Tetrax. His face was usually stiff, but Shala could see a smirk.
"Come on, Tetrax. I just need to know what an overrider cortex is, to get Jack off my back. You know how it is when it comes to Demongo."
"A what?"
"An overrider cortex."
"I have no idea what an overrider cortex is. Now let me get back to my work." - Tetrax turned back to the screen.
"Seriously? It's like this small white energy ball, radiating blue energy" - said Shala.
"A lot of objects fit that description. That name sounds made-up though. Did you say Demo-"
Suddenly, there was a scream outside. Soon, they could hear numerous other people screaming. "Strange, the sensors aren't picking up anything out of the ordinary." - Tetrax looked at his screens again. "Go check out what that is" - he told Shala.
Shala ran outside. Everyone was running towards the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s, trying to leave the Darklands. The flights towards the mainland weren't scheduled for another hour, but the KND pilots were forced to give in. Soon, the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s started filling up. "What's going on?" - Shala was shouting. Someone who was running by him told him "Look over the edge, dude!" as he was running. Shala tried to move against the mass of people, and soon he reached the edge of the airship.
"Holy..." - he muttered.
The biggest horde of Fusion Monsters Shala had ever seen was in Forsaken Valley, moving towards the ship. There were thousands of monsters, from all over the Darklands. Fossil Crawlers, Triceraclopses, Frilled Killers, Tar Titans, Magma Hulks, Creeposauruses, Lizard Queens and Kings, Eyebulbs, Eyebores, Skullsmashers, Wooly Behemoths and pretty much any other monster you could find anywhere in the Darklands was moving on the ground. There were also several gigantic Don Dooms who were big enough to reach the ship, even though it was high in the air. An even bigger swarm of monsters moving towards them in the air. The sky was partially obstructed by a huge swarm of Fusionflies, Dark Fusionflies, Terrordactyls and Slag Cephalopods, which was getting closer and closer to the ship. This was it. This was Fuse's assault to take down the Mandark indusries airship that has been a nuisance to him for all this time.
Shala was astonished, to the point where he couldn't even move. Soon he realized that he had to do something, started backing up slowly, then turned around and ran as fast as he could towards the bridge. Tetrax was already outside, trying to maintain order in the crowd. "How big is the horde?" - he shouted when he saw Shala. "It's bigger than anything we've seen before! You'd better see for yourself!" - shouted Shala. Tetrax ran up to the edge and Shala followed him. Samurai Jack was already there.
"This is it." - Tetrax muttered. "We're all dead."
"Not all is lost!" - said Jack. "We can still save a part of the people if the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s leave in time!"
"Then you should go with them. Warn Dexter and the others of this horde. The people here are panicking, who knows what they'll say. You tell them exactly what happened. The ones that are left here will try and hold them off somehow so that the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s may leave." - said Tetrax.
"No! I will not abandon all of you here!"
"Jack, go! You are too valuable in this war to lose! Plus, the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s are gonna need your help if they run into trouble over the sea!" - Shala tried to convince him.
Jack considered it for a second.
"Just go! There's no time to waste!" - Tetrax yelled.
"Alright." - Jack ran towards the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s, but they were all already full. People were trying to get in but nobody would fit anymore and the pilots were forced to close the doors. "It doesn't matter, I can sit on the roof", said Jack and climbed on top of one. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s couldn't leave because people were crowded around them, still trying to get in even though there was no room. Tetrax ran towards there to try to break up the crowd.
Shala stayed at the edge of the ship, looking into the face of death. "I've had a good run" - he thought. "Time to help save the world, one last time. Well, what a way to go, right?" - he tried to convince himself. Some of the Fusionflies and Horrordactyls were already getting close to the ship. He readied the Chill Caster in his hand. Soon, he heard S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s take off and fly towards the mainland. A sigh of relief came over him - "At least some of the people will make it", but he knew that it was still early for him to let loose. He turned around to take a final look at the ship before the fight, but he noticed someone standing on the far left corner of the airship platform. Shala turned to the left. He shouted at him "HEY! YOU! WHAT-"
Suddenly, the entire horde disappeared. Every single monster vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed.
Shala stood there, dumbfounded.
There was a huge flash of green light. A deafening explosion. The whole ship shook in the air. Shala couldn't keep his balance and fell off the edge.
THUD.
"Come on, Jack, just five more minutes!"
THUD.
"I'll clean up the room later!"
THUD.
Shala finally woke up. Instead of his room, he found himself on a tree, stuck on several branches. He realized that his back was hurt. "What happened to-"
THUD.
The tree shook. Shala looked down. There was a Triceraclops ramming the tree, trying to knock Shala off. Shala tried to get his Chill Caster, but it wasn't strapped on his back anymore. "Well, the Aerial Slicer it is then" - he thought. He got the blade out, jumped off of the tree, landed on the Triceraclops' back and struck. The sword did not penetrate the monster's armor. Shala thought "shit" as he raised the sword again but then the Triceraclops shook its back and knocked Shala off.
"Alright. This is gonna be a bit harder without my gun. So, what's your weak spot?" - thought Shala. He knew that a Triceraclops' armor was made out of any metal items it could find and wreck, mostly old communication antennas from the invasion's early days. "Armor made out of a random pile of junk isn't exactly gonna protect every part of its body. There's gotta be gaps. Holes. Wish my back wasn't hurting right now, but damn, I don't have a Heal Nano with me." – he thought. The Triceraclops charged at him again. Shala jumped to the right, but he did manage to notice a gap in the metal near its neck before he rolled on the ground. "Weak spot located. Now I've got to keep it still long enough to strike. " - he thought as he got up.
"I got it!" - he stepped sideways and stood in front of a tree. "Come at me!" - he shouted at the monster. The Triceraclops charged at him again, Shala dodged one more time as it hit the tree. While it was stunned, Shala used the opportunity, Stabbed the monster right in the weak spot and chopped its head clean off. Most of the monster turned back into Fusion Matter and got absorbed into Shala's NanoCom, but there were several pieces of scrap metal and a tiny satellite dish that looked still intact from the armor that was left. Shala started thinking about what to do, walking back and forth and muttering under his breath.
"Alright, alright. Now that that's dealt with, I've gotta figure out what happened. So the horde disappeared and something happened to the ship. Looked like a blast, with a flash of green light. And I fell off. I guess I fell into a tree and got knocked out. So. The ship?" He stopped and looked up. The air was tinted green, which was unusual, but there was no airship in sight. Shala started walking and thinking again.
"Alright, no ship. It couldn't have been destroyed; the wreckage would be everywhere. Heh, maybe then the Triceraclops would have a better shell. So, if the ship was not destroyed, I can try to contact it."
He stopped again and looked at his NanoCom. He tried sending a message to Tetrax, but there was no signal. "Something's wrong. There should be a signal. I can't be out of range, can I? Maybe the entire ship flew offshore, south towards the mainland. I need something to boost my signal so they don't leave me here." He looked at the remains of the Triceraclops.
"Perfect."
After Shala managed to connect the tiny satellite dish to his NanoCom, he realized that he still needed a power source.
"Dammit!" - he shouted, but then realized something. "Oh shit! I actually have just what I need!" - he reached into his pocket and got the alien power source he found in the lair he was earlier today. "Please work" - he muttered while connecting the wires to the power source. He managed to successfully connect it, without zapping himself too, but he still couldn't contact Tetrax.
"Then, something else is wrong" - assumed Shala. He tried connecting to the Providence outpost at the Firepits instead. He recorded a message. "Alice, it's me, Shala. Something's wrong. Mandark's airship is gone and I can't communicate with it. Communications might be down over at your end too. I hope you're hearing this and I hope everything's okay over there, Fuse is definitely up to something malicious."
After sending the message, Shala started looking for his missing Chill Caster. "Okay, I was holding it when I got knocked off the ship, so I probably dropped it somewhere around here."
After several minutes of looking, he noticed something big in some bushes. It didn't look like a gun but Shala thought he should check it out. After getting to those bushes, he realized that it wasn't a gun at all - it was a boy. He looked 15 or 14, with black, very pale skin. It looked like he was unconscious, and he was also holding Shala's Chill Caster in his hand.
The pair of SACT agents guarding the Huntor's Crest camp entrance saw a figure approaching the barricades. They got their weapons ready, but it was just a guy. He had blonde, messy hair, gray eyes and was holding a weapon in his hand.
SACT Agent Cody leaned over to Agent Larry and whispered - "This guy looks like he's been sleeping in the jungle for the past 2 weeks".
"Yeah, well he also looks like he wants to bite someone's head off right now, so keep cool with him" - Agent Larry whispered back.
"Hehey, What's up, man?" - Agent Cody greeted the new guy as he approached.
"I'm looking for a guy. Did anyone come by here lately?" - asked the guy.
"There was this one dude a couple hours ago. Tall, dark hair, with the red hoodie. What was his name again, Larry?"
"I think it was somethin' like Shala. Yeah, LG Shala." - answered Larry. "Why ya askin', guy?" - he turned back to the new guy.
"What was he here for?" - he ignored Agent Larry's question.
"He was doin' a mission for that demon guy that flies around in there" - Agent Larry answered and pointed over his shoulder, at the camp.
"So, Demongo..." - he muttered and took a step to go inside the camp, but Cody stopped him.
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on, we have to know your name before we let you in" - Cody said.
The guy stopped for a second.
"Jay Zoomringer" - and entered without another word.
"Since when do we keep a list of who enters?" - whispered Larry after Jay went in.
"I just wanted to know his name, that's all" - answered Cody.
"Yeah, well, the guy almost 'sploded ya head off just staring at ya".
Cody shrugged. "Relax, nobody would pick a fight with others in here. There's a jungle full of Fusions for that. But at least I'm not that Shala guy. That dude must be in some serious trouble if this Jay is after him."
End of Chapter 2.