Chapter 3 - The Amnesiac

Samurai Jack was sitting on top of a S.C.A.M.P.E.R.. A fleet of S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s were flying over the ocean. The giant Fusion Monster horde was still on his mind, as well as the green explosion that Jack still couldn't explain. "If Lord Fuse has this many minions under his command… then we all might be doomed" - he quietly said to himself.

Soon, Jack saw land ahead of him. A rocky beach, with a clear silhouette of Monkey Mountain to the east. "We're nearly there" - Jack thought. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s flew over the Monkey Foothills. Jack saw a large amount of monsters there moving south, towards the Forgotten Falls - they were preparing for an attack! This was another warning he now had to give. After that, they flew over the Twisted Forest. The only thing Jack could see now were the treetops, an odd zipline here and there and the KND jungle outpost on Mount Blackhead up ahead. They were nearly there.

The KND S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s landed and Jack jumped onto the ground, with the people inside pouring out, anxious to get to safety. Numbuh Three and Numbuh Four were already running towards them. Other KND "What's going on here?" - Numbuh Four asked. "Who authorized this? Those S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s aren't supposed to arrive this early! Jack? What in bloody hell are you doing here?"

After Jack explained everything that he saw at Forsaken Valley, everyone was silent. "I don't believe it. We can't have lost the Darklands so easily! There must be a way they survived!" - he got a communicator and tried to reach Mandark's airship. "Tetrax! Do you copy? Tetrax! Lt. Steele! Anyone?" - but the communicator only gave off static noise.

"All those poor people! There must be something we can do!" - Numbuh Three said.

"I'm afraid not. Even if anyone survived, we can not help them right now. We can only try to defend what we have left here. Another mass of monsters is congregating on this side of the Forgotten Falls, and I'm afraid we're going to have to defend against them before we can do anything to check up on the Darklands."

"Yeah, the radars picked up those runts and we were in the middle of preparing for a siege." - Numbuh Four responded. He looked at the newly arrived S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s and the mass of people who arrived with them. "At least it's nice to have some reinforcements though" - he added.

"I have my doubts. After what they saw in Forsaken Valley, I do not think they'll be sticking around for a fight."

Truly, most of the crowd was moving towards the exit, or wrestling each other to get in line for the Monkey Skyway Agents to hightail it out of here into Townsville. Jack sighed.

Numbuh four kicked a rock in anger. "Bloody cowards!" - he yelled. "It doesn't matter! We'll save your sorry butts! You'll see!"

"Hey dude. Dude! Wake up!" - the boy heard. After he opened his eyes, he saw a black-haired teenager looking down on him. "Mmmmh… where... where am I? Who are you? What do you want with me?" - the boy muttered. His head was hurting, but he didn't know why.

"Me? What do YOU want with my gun?" - the guy who woke him up asked. The boy realized that he was holding a weird device in his hand. A gun, apparently. "I have no idea" - he muttered. "I don't remember getting it" - he looked around and asked "Why is the sky green?"

"That I haven't figured out myself yet. Right, well, give me my Chill Caster back"

The boy handed him the "Chill Caster" as he called it, but he still had a lot of questions, and more were arising with every second.

"I'm LG Shala by the way, what's your name?" - Shala asked as he held out his hand to help the boy get up.

The pain in the boy's head grew worse. "I… Naver. I think…" - he said.

"Hey, your eyes are purple" - Shala said. "That looks kinda cool. Are they real or, like, contact lenses or something?"

"Really?" - Naver looked for a reflective surface to look at his eyes, but he couldn't find one.

"You didn't know your eyes were purple? Maybe something happened to you. What color were they before?"

"I… I don't remember. I don't remember... anything from before." - Naver muttered.

"Seriously? Nothing? Nothing about the war, or the world?"

"Well, I do remember some things. Like how the world works and all. And I think some people too, but I don't have any of my own memories I can recollect. Wait, wait, a war?" - asked Naver.

"Dude, you're on the most dangerous island on Earth and you have no idea about the war we've been waging against Planet Fusion for the past year?"

"No, I don't think so. I've never heard of Planet Fusion."

Shala pointed at something big in the sky. It was a giant green planet hovering near Earth, and it looked like it had bits and pieces of several planets sticking out of it. It was unsettling, unpleasant, unnatural just to look at, although Naver felt something familiar.

While Naver was staring at it, Shala started walking back and forth. "This is great. First this weird phantom Fusion horde attacks, then something blasts the airship and knocks me off. Now the giant airship that's been hovering on the same damn spot for the last year is gone, communications are down, and I've got no vehicle, no Healing Nano, this…" - he looked at Naver, "this civilian with amnesia on my hands and now it's starting to get dark! This... is officially the worst day ever, and that doesn't even include all the things I had to go through in the afternoon!" - Shala yelled in frustration. "I should head to the Fireswamps camp. That's probably the closest base around here, Alice will help me figure things out, with the airship, and also with him" - he looked at Naver again, who was still staring at Planet Fusion. "Hey dude, snap out of it. It gives me the heeby-jeebies too but if we don't move we're gonna end up Fusion food. Come on!"

"Right" - Naver answered, still confused as ever, and followed Shala into the woods.

"So what's the deal with this planet? And what are these… Fusions, you called them?" - Naver asked Shala while running.

"It's sort of like a hive mind of green goop. We call if Fusion Matter. It creates monsters, and it's all controlled by this guy, Lord Fuse. He's been conquering planet after planet and, well now, he's after ours" - Shala answered without looking back.

"So you're saying there are wild monsters running around the place? That's who you're fighting?"

"Yeah, mostly. But then there are also the Fusions - they're like these evil Fusion Matter clones of some people. Superheroes and stuff, the ones helping out in the war" - Shala answered.

"Fusions, Fusion Monsters, Fusion Matter, Planet Fusion, Lord Fuse… Is there anything else with "Fusion" in the name?

"I'm not the one who came up with it, kid, take it up to Dexter or something"

"Dexter. The boy genius kid?" - asked Naver.

"Oh, so him you do remember!"

"I told you, I can remember some people. Like superheroes. The people that anyone would know" - answered Naver.

"Right, well, that's a start. What else do you remember about Dexter?"

"Dexter. Age 19, height 5'6, blood type 0-"

"Hold on" - Shala interrupted. "You barely remember your own name but you know Dexter's blood type and all that other really specific stuff?"

"I…" - Naver paused. His mind was a blank, but this information had to come from somewhere. He tried to think about it very hard, but that only worsened his headache. "I can't explain it." - he finally said.

"Right. Of course you can't." - Shala answered, not in disbelief, but rather, in disappointment.

Shala started panting and slowing down. "Alright, alright, we should stop" - he said. "All this running and talking is pretty tiring, you know"

"Really? I don't feel that tired. So now who's the civilian he-"

"Oh, shut up" - Shala interrupted again. "If you must know, I..." - but then he stopped mid-sentence. "Hold on... I think I heard something over there"

Shala got his gun ready and pointed it towards where he thought the sound came from. Naver stood behind Shala, grabbing his shoulder. "Don't you think I should also get a weapon to defend myself, you know, in case it's a monster or something?" - he whispered. "Right. Here, have my Aerial Slicer. Try not to chop any limbs off of me, alright?" - Shala got his sword and handed it to Naver behind him. Naver looked at it. The sword didn't really look like any sword he knew, but then again, he did wake up half an hour ago with no memories, so this must be some sort of new invention of a sword. It did look hi-tech, but Naver didn't have the time to examine it, as Shala started moving towards the direction from where the sound came from. "Hey? Why are we moving towards the monster?" - Naver whispered, but Shala ignored him. Not wanting to be left alone in a jungle with monsters, Naver followed him. Now he could hear the noises too. He was walking slowly, every step was made more reluctantly than the other. Naver started thinking about turning back, but then Shala stopped and leaned up against a tree.

Behind that tree was a small clearing. Naver saw something moving there, so he stood behind the nearest tree as well. There was a weird noise, definitely some sort of monster, but there was something else too, Naver thought it sounded like a laser, but he couldn't be sure. He could see Shala, leaning up against a tree near his, but didn't dare look behind the tree to see what was going on. Shala held out his palm towards him, and Naver realized he wanted him to stay there. He nodded, and Shala turned around and ran into the clearing. Naver could now hear blasts coming from Shala's gun as well. Now he really wanted to see what was going on, so he leaned to the right. He saw Shala and some other person, fighting monsters.

Whatever he might have imagined, this was definitely different. The monsters looked like dinosaurs, although parts of their bodies were covered in metal. Shala and the other guy had their backs towards Naver and were shooting the monsters, but the blasts weren't good enough because the dinosaur things kept coming closer. Naver felt that he had to do something to help, and this feeling was stronger than his fear. He tightened his grip around Shala's sword and found the courage within himself to start running. The sensation he felt was like diving into ice cold water - once you were in, you had to keep going no matter what, only Naver had experienced this feeling before. He ran towards Shala and the other guy. Without realizing what he was doing, he jumped over them, did a flip and sliced the middle monster clean in half. "This guy's actually good!" - Shala thought to himself as he focused on the left one, which started to move slower, but the other guy's blasts weren't as effective on the monster on the right. Naver quickly stabbed it in the side of its abdomen, and it fell down. Meanwhile, Shala finished off the final one. All three monsters dissolved into green goop one after another, and Shala and the other guy held out their watches, which absorbed the goop. Naver looked at his own wrist, but he didn't have a watch like that.

"Nice shooting" - Shala told the guy, but he shook his head and said "Yeah, but not nice enough. If it wasn't for his slicing, we'd all be dead" and jerked his head towards Naver. "I'm Lars. Lars Heckwood" - he added. He held his hand out, but Naver was still in an adrenaline rush and was staring at the ground where the monsters were. "LG Shala" - Shala quickly shook Lars' hand. They both looked at Naver. "Wh-" - he flinched. "I'm Naver" - he said quickly.

"Is there something wrong, dude?" - Lars asked.

"I… I don't know, it's just…"

"I found him less than an hour in the bushes with amnesia, he didn't even know anything about the war." - Shala told Lars.

"Really? Amnesia? Maybe he was some sort of ninja or something, I've never seen anyone slice up Frilled Fiends like that."

"I don't really know. Guess it's a possibility" - said Naver. "You want your sword back?" - Naver held it out to Shala. "Nah, you keep it. You're probably better with it than I am anyway, and it looks like you're gonna need it again real soon." - Shala answered.

"Guys, it's nightfall, we should get back to the airship while there's still sunlight" - Lars stated, but Shala shook his head. "The ship's gone"

"Gone? What do you mean gone?"

"Gone! Poof. It's not there anymore. I was looking for it myself. I was hoping you might have seen it, if it went up north." - said Shala, disappointed.

"There's a ship?" - asked Naver.

"It's sort like a base of operations around this area, a hub. Most people who wanna pretend they're hot stuff, fighting the war in the Darklands but won't go into the deeper parts of the island, they just hang around on the airship" - explained Lars. "I have no idea where it went though, I was tracking a flock of migrating Horrordactyls all day. I was gazing at the sky the whole time, so I'd have seen the airship if it had flown over anywhere near me. I was just heading back when I got attacked by several of those Frilled Fiends, and then the two of you saved my skin. Thanks for that, again" - said Lars.

"Yeah, anytime. But yeah, something weird is happening today. There was an attack by an unholy amount of Fusion Monsters today, the sight of them scared the hell out of everyone on the ship. We really thought it was the end, but as soon as they got close, the monsters disappeared. You haven't seen a horde like that moving through Dinosaur Pass today, have you?" - asked Shala.

"Nope" - Lars answered.

"So after it disappeared there was a giant flash of green light, an explosion or something, and I fell over from the ship. Next thing I know, I wake up on a treetop, a Triceraclops is trying to run me over and the entire damn airship is gone" - finished Shala.

Naver felt a pain in his head again. "Yeah, I think I remember a blast of green light" - he said.

"So. It really was you. I saw someone standing on the edge right before the explosion, and I thought it might be you. Maybe that's what caused your amnesia?" - Shala asked, hoping Naver would remember something new.

"Yeah, I really have no idea. A brick could have hit me in the head, for all I know. Well, guess this is who I am now, right?"

"So, you probably fell over the edge, like me. That's when I found you. You don't remember finding my gun, so you must have blacked out. Can you try to remember anything else? Did you see where the blast came from?" - Shala asked.

"I'll try" - said Naver, closed his eyes and put his hand on his forehead, and strained his mind as hard as he could. "AAH, no, it's too painful just thinking about that" - he said.

"Right. You remember Dexter's blood type, but can't remember what happened a couple hours ago. Well, that's just fantastic." - said Shala, frustrated.

"Dexter's blood type?" - Lars was confused.

"0-" - said Naver before Shala managed to say something. "I really have no idea how" - he added.

"Perhaps you worked at Dexlabs before" - said Lars. "But that doesn't explain your proficiency with that sword, though."

"We should get moving" - Shala said. "We're gonna have to reach the Fireswamps as soon as possible, it's the nearest camp around here"

"Actually, there's a small SACT outpost in the Pass, it's a lot closer" - said Lars.

"Really? I've never heard of it" - said Shala.

"Yeah, it's near the-" Lars was about to explain, but got interrupted by a roar. Several robotic-looking Triceratops-like monsters entered the clearing.

"TRICERACLAWS! RUN!" - Lars shouted, and all three of them started running.

Naver could feel that the "Triceraclaws", as Lars called them, were faster than them and catching up. So did the others, they turned around and started shooting. It wasn't working. Naver saw Shala press a button on his watch. A small figure appeared in the air, something brown, with a tail. It moved towards the monster and did something to it, and as a result the Triceraclaw fell down and got left behind, but there were still three left running. One of them ran faster than the others, it almost trampled all of them so they jumped and rolled to the side - Shala and Lars to the left and Naver to the right. Now the Triceraclaw was between them. It was about to hit Shala and Lars, but Naver jumped on its back (with a neat-looking flip, too), quickly found a weak spot in its shell and stabbed it with the Slicer. When the monster started dissolving he jumped off and kept running.

"Nice moves you got there!" - shouted Lars as he was blasting one of the remaining two monsters.

Shala was running ahead. Naver heard him shout "THE CLIFF IS UP AHEAD! I'M GONNA RUN TO THE LEFT! YOU GUYS FOLLOW ME!"

Naver and Lars turned around and looked ahead. There was a cliff several feet in front of them. Before they could run to the left to follow Shala, Naver felt something hit him on his back. The Triceraclaw caught up with them and rammed him and Lars. It kept running and the three of them - Naver, Lars and the monster fell off the cliff.

It was a painful fall. Naver heard water splashes, and realized that they fell into a river. He tried to get up, but his leg was hurting. "Did I... break anything?" - he thought. He also started blacking out. The last thing Naver saw was Lars getting up to try to fight the Triceraclaw, which still hadn't lost its fighting spirit. Lars was shooting, but the blasts from his gun were ineffective. The monster ran towards him to trample Lars. A fear rushed through Naver. A fear that he'd lose his friend and would be left all alone. "NO!" - he shouted. He felt a surge of power in his head, and something invisible pushed the monster. It got knocked against the cliff. Lars got the Aerial Slicer that Naver had and ran towards the monster. Now, Naver couldn't see anything, he only heard water splashing from Lars' steps. The monster roared in pain... Then Naver passed out.

A girl in Providence armor was running in the Fireswamps. She only had one thing in mind: to reach the Providence outpost and warn them of the incoming attack. There were several Lizard Kings chasing her. She was injured and unarmed. The only thing she could think about was surviving long enough to reach the outpost. She kept repeating in her mind: "I will reach the camp. I will reach the camp" to reassure herself but her determination was weakening. She shouted into her NanoCom: "Alice! Noah! Doyle! Does anyone read me? Anyone?" but the comms were dead. The Lizard Kings kept getting closer and closer. The girl was losing hope with every step. She was tired. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the monsters had nearly reached her. A thought of giving up flashed through her mind. "No! I need to warn them!" - she thought, but she wasn't sure if she could do it. Suddenly, she saw a wall of barricades in front of her. "Real? Or just a mirage? Did I finally get to the camp?" - she thought, but it didn't really matter to her anymore. The only thing she could think about was reaching it. The goal, whether real or not, gave her strength to keep running.

Several Providence agents jumped down from behind the barricades as soon as they saw her and started shooting at the Lizard Kings. The girl, exhausted, fell down on her knees. Two of the agents helped her up and took her into the camp. "Alice!" - she muttered. "Need to see… Alice…"

One of the agents went to find Alice, while the other one helped her get to the medic's tent. Soon, Alice and Noah ran into the tent. "Cindy! Oh my god! What happened?" - she asked.

"I was on a mission in the Firepits to find Agent Haha. There was a system of underground tunnels under the Infected Zone, maybe... under this whole area. Instead of Bobo... one of the tunnels led me to Fusion Courage's lair, and overheard that the Fusions are planning to execute an all-out attack on the outpost."

"You're sure of that?" - asked Noah.

Cindy nodded feebly. "Prepare for the assault. Hundreds of monsters…" and then she lost consciousness.

End of Chapter 3.