Chapter 26: The War on Terror
Sancturia...
The confrontation between Dracula's forces and the Aurians had been kept to a tense staredown currently. The monsters surrounding Plagueis were growing tiresome and salivated in hunger.
"Yes yes...do not fret you mindless cretins..." Plagueis hovered his hands across the bottom of his coat and pretended to rub his chin, "In fact be free! Swarm this city to your heart's content! Harvest all that you can for our lord! And leave these interlopers to me!"
At his command the beasts howled and screeched before flooding the skies and ground in all direction besides where the Planetary Aurians stood.
Flooded by their shadows, the group looked skyward with antsy looks on their faces. Jupiter squeezed her knuckles and hunched down towards Saturn.
"Looks like its time to split Cat!"
Saturn threw her left right arm up and proclaimed, "Team, move out!"
"You got it!" Mars responded before splitting to the west at lightning speeds, while Jupiter tagged out to the east. Neither needed any orders beyond that.
Venus stuck by and wandered up to Saturn silently pointing at herself. Saturn glanced aside and bent down with a smile, patting her atop the head.
"Just remember what you learned..." She bolted right up and thrust her fist in the air, "And use it to kick tons of butt!"
Venus threw her fist up with a hop and weak proclamation of "Yeah!" then turned around and ran after Jupiter at a normal youthful pace.
That just left three remaining to confront Plagueis, and while Kairi was eager to squash him into the ground, Gabriel looked at her and remarked calmly, "Leave this one to us."
"What? But I-"
"Are better suited to catch the roaming monsters before they cause any harm." His point rang true in her head with no resistance.
She gave him a brief nod and backed away slowly, telling him to "Be careful" before sprinting South after the beasts.
Gabriel and Saturn then turned their gaze unto their enemy, whom squirmed in excitement.
"So, you are my patients then?" He wiggled his arms down by his sides and lurched his head forward somewhat, "How unfortunate for you. For you face-"
"Dr. Plagueis, the Terror of Pestilence!" Saturn proclaimed with discontent, as she pulled her head back and leered at him.
Plagueis paused and raised his head, "Oh? So my reputation does proceed me."
"You and your crew have been quite the slippery bunch!" Saturn flicked her glasses up into proper lens flaring position and smiled, "Plagueis, the Terror of Pestilence. Grimmley Jaegerjaw, the Terror of War. Ankham'Tur, the Terror of Decay. And Kahnihilator, the Terror of Conquest!"
Saturn whisked a pointer finger right out at the coated man, somehow causing wind to kick up the bottom of her coat, "Your crimes include terrorizing and slaughtering untold numbers of people and planets and spreading famine and disease across their ecosystems."
She crossed her arms super hard against her chest and hollered, "There's no negotiating for the injustices you've caused! The penalty of your crimes is death! And I'm the Grim Reaper of Justice!"
Plagueis merely took his hand under his collar and rubbed it, "So you say I am the ill one? And your cure for me is...justice?"
He swiped his arm down and gurgled a laugh that sounded like a rooster cooing. He then puffed his coat out and twisted his arms down before his waist, "Impudent girl! I am not the common cold! I am all manner of illnesses and disease given form! You couldn't even begin to comprehend what lurks in my shadows!"
"Yeah yeah that's what y'all say!" Saturn replied, "But you're gonna suffer the same fate as the rest of your motley crew!"
"Fufufu, unfortunately for you, two of our Terrors aren't here right now..."
"Oh yeah?" Saturn sounded suspect.
"Well for one..." Plagueis suddenly lurched his whole body forward as the confines of his top side expanded in a huff of rage, "YOU BLEW UP OUR CASTLE WITH KAHNIHILATOR STILL ON IT!"
He then flailed his arms out and sounded more baffled than angry, "What type of lunatic does that?!"
"Sweet! One down, three to go!" Saturn said, boasting a nonchalant smile.
Plagueis slowly rose back up and rested his needles upon his hat, "I see you're already ill in the head as is girl..."
"Then as far as the other Terror goes..." Gabriel rested his hand upon his katana and firmly asked his foe, "They must be responsible for the energy I'm sensing South of here."
Saturn nudged her glasses and remarked, "Ah, where that dastard Mew and his prisoners live!"
"Ah, so you know those poor souls..." Plagueis said with an air of confidence to him.
"Poor souls?" Gabriel murmured.
"Never mind that slobbering mutt," Plagueis lurched his head back and wiggled his needles before his face, "Our master will see to it that they offer him a fine feast of fear...Whether they like it or not."
"...Master?" Saturn inquired with a perk of her brows.
"Consider yourselves fortunate to never know the truth," Plagueis wiggled his arms in a floaty manner beside his body, "For I shall leave your pale bodies writhing in types of pain you never knew were possible."
Gabriel's katana clicked and Saturn gave her glasses one last nudge of preparation, settling into a relaxed look of confidence.
Meanwhile, the scattered warriors took to tackling the monster horde. Mars was the first to engage the wolves before they could infiltrate the nearest houses.
"Get out of there!" He dashed up to one, grabbed and wrenched it out by the tail, then threw it onto its back.
Two closer wolves leaped at him. He backed away in the blink of an eye and after the two smashed snouts together he whipped his nunchucks around them and brought them down to the ground.
"Sorry about this..." He grit his teeth and clutched his nunchucks together in his hand, using them to add the extra force in his punch necessary to break the beasts' skulls.
The wind stirred at his back, pressed upon the claws of a diving bat monster. He turned quick as a whip and the claw passed before his chest. He then flipped his nunchucks around and obliterated the monster's chest with a shotgun blast.
Taking a few quick breaths as blood dripping down his face, Mars grit his teeth and muttered, "That's this area clear..."
As he sprinted off elsewhere the residents of the house he saved wandered out and got a shock to their hearts upon seeing the corpses on the ground.
And they weren't the first to stir awake. It was hard to keep the noise down with all the bone-cracking, punch-pounding action going on throughout the city.
Right now Kairi was in heavy pursuit of a large swarm of bat monsters, whose shrieks purposefully awoke the fears of the sleeping Aurians. Even the ones who didn't get out of bed would be tossing and turning, plagued by nightmares.
And the stench of fear attracted the other beasts to the hunt.
"Got to take care of these flying freaks first!" She slapped down her Beast Tamer Drive and summoned a falcon made of aura, thrusting her hand up at the sky, "GO!"
The bird flew up at blistering speeds and spiraled around, puncturing through one monster's wing and then rounding back to hit another. As its brethren were dropped out of the sky one of the monsters turned around and dove down at their assailant.
Kairi looked up right as the monster grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed its shrieking, slime-ridden face up close to hers.
"AAAAH!" Kairi pressed her hands up against her ears as the vibrations threatened to make them bleed.
Kairi tried to force one eye up, and it looked pissed off. She smashed her head against the monster's and screamed, "SHUT UP!"
After its nose was broken the creature didn't really have much choice in the matter. Kairi then uppercut the monster in the jaw with her staff, where it died upon landing on its head.
She then caught her breath, noticing the rest of the flying swarm had gotten away, while the ones she grounded were looking to her for revenge.
But with a snap of her fingers she turned her flying falcon into a giant elephant and crushed those bat monsters under foot. She then rushed ahead over the corpses and returned to having a falcon at her side.
A small horde of wolves darted over the bodies and were catching up quicker than Kairi'd be able to turn around in time.
Kairi was blown a couple steps ahead as a big bubble of raw power smashed the wolves into bloody paste on the ground. By the time she got steady and started pulling back she rubbed up against a firm, packed set of back muscles.
"Big sis' got your back!" Proclaimed Jupiter with her rambunctious attitude.
Kairi looked ahead and saw a few wolves dashing through the streets being pursued by Mars, leading her to wonder, "Just how many of them are there?"
"There shouldn't be a lot after we blew up their castle...Maybe a thousand? Two thousand?" The amazon responded optimistically.
Kairi stood there, thought about it not for very long, and remarked, "Then...I should probably keep moving."
A wolf leaped right into Jupiter's fist and got his chest crushed for his troubles, "Yep! Especially if we're gonna keep the casualties at zero!"
Kairi gave a nod and ran off. Jupiter looked over her shoulder while casually uppercutting a wolf in the jaw, "Oh! But we've spotted a few uniquer looking..."
The target of her warning had already rounded the corner, "Aaaaand she's gone..."
She smiled and resumed combating the onslaught of monsters. She gripped her fist and gave it a hard crack in sync with gritting her teeth like a tiger. The wolves' hind legs sank into the ground and one let out a whimper.
"Alright you dogs! Come at me!" She gave them one second before charging forward and turning a wolf inside out with her fist. Then she spun around with her feet dragged along the ground to throw her remaining enemies up into a whirlwind of pain.
She hopped up using each wolf as a stepping stone, then used the bat monster that happened to fly overhead as a projectile to drag the wolves down to their deaths.
She then did a flip to spice up her landing and thrust her fist up into the sky in celebration, "Whew! Still got it!"
She poked her head around and noticed a few Aurians were peeking out of their houses. Some were scared, others, the younger ones in particular, had their eyes lit up in awe.
"Y-You're...!" One of the kids walked out in their Pjs and strained their neck looking up at Jupiter like she was a stone idol made real, "One of...the Planetary Aurians!"
The kid looked around themselves for something but for whatever reason, decided to instead raise their arm and sheepishly ask, "C-Can I have your autograph?"
Jupiter lit up with smiles and mild embarrassment in her cheeks, "Aw aren't you sweet? I'd love to but..."
A bat monster dove down shrieking wildly in rage. Jupiter forced their face into their skull with a casual backhanded slap, all while continuing to brighten the child's day with a smile.
"You really ought to get inside with your parents where its safe."
The kid's eyes widened but the bravery Jupiter's smile inspired made them heed her advice, and they scurried right along, mouthing "Good luck" before their parents pulled them in.
"Heh..." She swiped a finger under her nose. The ground became disturbed by several impacts around her from descending gargoyles, which drew a stone trident for battle.
"Pffft! You here to fight or grill some hot dogs?" Jupiter locked eyes with the gargoyle in front of her and flared her aura, "Cause if you got the dogs then I'm bringing the HEAT!"
She charged forward and laid the gargoyle out flat with one punch, while two of the others cut her shoulders with their tridents. Big mistake.
Drawing blood from Jupiter kicked her adrenaline into overdrive and the next thing the gargoyles were left wondering why their heads were rolling around hundreds of feet away from their bodies. She then whipped back and dragged another gargoyle's head to the ground with the side of her foot.
The rest were cleaned up in seconds flat, and she barely broke a sweat.
But while she caught her breath a wolf jumped at her from behind. She began to turn and punch it when Mars came speeding in and clocked the side of its face with his clutched nunchucks.
He then swiped some sweat off his brow and huffed out a "Whew!"
Him and Jupiter saw eye-to-eye and he slowly waved his hand at her. She scrunched her nose and turned away with a firm "Hmph!".
"Haaaa..." Mars sighed and turned around as more monsters surrounded them, "Didn't think we'd be working together again like this."
Jupiter put up her fists and responded, "You're working with Cat. I'm working with Cat."
She glanced back and point at him then her, "We...are NOT working together."
She then socked a bat monster into its comrades, sending them all high into the sky. Mars whipped his nunchucks around to disperse the crowd charging at him, then blasted the sole assailant in the face with a shotgun blast.
"You can't keep this up Noel. We got to talk about that someday."
Jupiter grabbed two wolves by their faces and piledrived them into the ground, "There's nothing to talk about."
Mars nonchalantly looked over his shoulder and groaned, "Noel..."
She was busy clobbering another gargoyle's head off, after which the monsters seemed content to just stand back and wait for a moment. She then let out a sharp "Tsk!" and looked back at him with a fiery look in her eyes.
"Fine, if that's what you want..." She hunched down with her fists by her chest and turned the beast's fighting spirits back on by beaming them with aggressive eyes, "Then you'll just have to beat more monsters than me!"
She leaped straight on into the fray and Mars swung his hand back, proclaiming in abject disbelief, "Noel...! Ah, come on..."
He had to turn back quickly before the wolves pinned him down. He whipped his nunchucks across their lower jaws, keeping them suspended until he slipped underneath them. Once behind he backflipped and kicked them all in the spine.
Him and Jupiter then went their separate ways to combat the seemingly ceaseless horde...
Mew's house
"Human spirit?" Grimmley slashed his knife-filled claws at the air, "I discarded that worthless anchor long ago!"
Mew arched his brows as the wolf vanished and reappeared behind him, driving his knives towards his back. Mew gripped his katana and then flushed light into the blade to eject the sheathe into the wolf's gut.
While he was stunned Mew turned around and tried to cut him, only to be deflected by his knives. The two of them then hopped back and reset their confrontation.
Mew looked at his blade and then at his enclosed surroundings, "Can't go too crazy this time..."
He blinked once slowly and twirled his sword around, "This'll have to do."
Grimmley threw two knives his way and started running. Mew chose to swerve right to dodge the knives and then sliced his katana up to force the wolf back.
He then moved ahead and sliced down, the wolf backing off a bit more. Mew widened his eyes and was shocked when a knife was suddenly inches from his pupil.
He pulled his whole body back for a flip and kicked Grimmley twice under the jaw. The wolf rubbed there with the bottom of his claw and guffawed.
Mew floated to the ground and the moment he landed he sheathed his blade and dashed ahead. Grimmley's eyes flared up and he performed two quick, heavy slashes with all his knives.
Mew barreled between the blood red slashes and elbowed Grimmley's head into the ground. The wolf took his knives into the ground to rip out a chunk slightly bigger than he, then turned and flung it at Mew.
Mew threw his arm up and used hard light as a shield, but the impact still kicked him back a few feet and threw dusty dirt in his eyes and mouth.
"Cghh cghhh!" He hastily looked around and found he couldn't sense the wolf's movements, "He's masking his power."
He released a brief flash from his body and caught the shine off his foe's knives as they were slashing down towards his head. Mew grabbed him by his wrists, pulled his arms apart, and headbutted his snout as he let go.
Grimmley bounced back twice and had a smear of blood on his nose. Mew then felt something wet trickling down his nose. His own blood, drawn from his forehead.
"..." He quietly rubbed the wound, the werewolf chuckling.
"That's not bone under there. Its...metal?" He gleamed Grimmley in his bloodthirsty pupils and noticed a faded glint of red light underneath, "You're...a cyborg werewolf?"
"Hehehe...!" Grimmley raised his head in pride, "On my world we had discarded guns, missiles and tanks. Wars were being fought with cybernetic enhancements."
He flipped his claws upside-down and spread his many knives out like a murderous bouquet, "I was the first in a new line of soldiers...The perfect fusion of machine, man and beast!"
He grinned his fangs wide in a sneer, "But when I was reborn, I killed every last one of them in a glorious bloodbath! You should have seen their bodies...! The intoxicating fountains of crimson that spewed from their chests was a sight to behold!"
Mew narrowed his eyes in scorn and softly remarked, "And that lured your master to you."
"Exactly," Grimmley chuckled quietly, "I don't care about his harvests or hunger...As long as he points me at worlds to ravage I will gladly do his bidding!"
"Ah, so you like it when he throws the frisbee?" Mew bent down and clapped his knees, "Whose a good boy? Whose a good widdle boy?"
Grimmley snarled, "I've slaughtered many jokers like you before. You think you're any different?"
Mew stood up and shrugged as a way of saying "Duh!" then pointed his sword out and told him outright, "Cause I don't die!"
"A first time for everything...!" Grimmley bolted forward and Mew blocked his knives with the width of his katana. Only the left ones though. The right set slipped under the blade and tried to go for his chest.
Mew hopped away and got cut through his armor, blood drawn onto the tip of the knives. He then sheathed his blade and ran ahead at the wolf, who tried to slice both sets of knives down in a violent crimson streak.
Mew threw his wing out covered in hard light but the attack broke right through it and shredded part of his feathers off.
"Ghhh...!" He backed away and reached for his katana. Grimmley leaped off the ground and transformed into a whirling torpedo of knives coming right at him.
Mew closed his eyes and concentrated light into his breath, taking a deep breath in and letting it out slow. And like his pace, time seemed to slow down a bit.
He then widened his eyes and started slashing rapidly at the tip of Grimmley's assault, each cut slowing the beast's momentum. He dug his feet into the ground, which was torn up as he was being dragged back.
100 cuts and twelve seconds later, Mew had gotten the wolf slowed down enough that he felt confident pulling his katana back for a harder attack. Not too hard though, had to keep the place relatively undamaged.
One swift diagonal slash threw Grimmley into the mountainside, where a few large rocks fell on top of him. Of COURSE that wasn't going to keep him down long though.
The wolf leaped out and cast the rocks aside as he crashed onto the ground with a big smile across his snout. He also now had a cut on his nose that revealed the metallic plating underneath.
"Hehehe...! I take back what I said!" The wolf threw his arms down and reared his head back to howl, "NO ONE HAS LASTED MORE THAN A MINUTE AGAINST ME BEFORE!"
Mew arched his brows and took the beast's boast seriously for once, "He's tougher than I expected. And if he's this strong..."
Mew glanced aside at Dracula perched in the air as a spectator in this wonderful bloodbath, "How powerful can he be?"
Meanwhile Lunis and Joe Dark continued to combat the wolves. Joe Dark's arms were starting to limp and the beasts clawed him more than they should have been.
His tenacity for survival proved unrelenting throughout. For every wolf that clawed him, four fell to his power. He was standing on a mountain of corpses that would make Atilla the Hun take pause. Yet still the beasts continued to climb and fall.
"There's no end to these things...!" He finally grunted in frustration and swung back towards Lunis, slicing a wolf through the gut in the process.
"Are you doing your part or what?!" Was probably a stupid question to ask, as she had plenty of bodies laid out on the ground, equaling if not surpassing what Joe Dark had accomplished.
But in contrast to Joe Dark's blood splattered frame, Lunis' body still shined beautifully despite all the crimson covering her. But none of that was her blood. And she didn't have a scratch on her.
She spun in place to cut the necks of five wolves and grit her teeth, showing a bit of sweat over her face, "I'm trying I'm trying! There shouldn't be this many left after I put up the barrier!"
She raised a point that Joe Dark hadn't considered. The numbers were ridiculous. Impossibly so. And once he realized that, the answer was obvious as to why.
He let a wolf jump and claw at him. It hurt, but didn't leave a scar.
"...Mannequin!" He swung his head to the left and scowled at Alura, whose eyes were lit with a pale gleam, "You won't wear me down with these pathetic illusions...!"
Dracula turned his head aside and murmured, "It seems your pet's requesting a greater demonstration of what you can do."
"Mmhmm..." Alura bobbed her head and with one blink, many of the wolves that Lunis and Joe Dark had spent the last few minutes wasting disappeared. She then floated forward like a doll suspended by strings, waving her hand out beside her dress.
Joe Dark gripped his dagger and grit his teeth with a snarl of disappointment, "So you chose to be a monster after all..."
"No, Joe Dark..." Alura shook her head and remained stoic, though with a hint of scorn buried deep within, "I won't be deceived again."
"What?" Joe Dark spat in confusion.
"You said all those strange things to distract me while you ran away," Alura's body began to glow with a rose-tinted aura and her eyes glistened under the pale moonlight, "You're no different than any other human..."
"Tsk...!" Joe Dark winced. For such a dull spirit, Alura's words proved sharper than most swords, "Its not like I had a choice in the matter...!"
He glared at Mew briefly, then turned to Alura and told her angrily, "I meant what I was saying!"
"Then why did you leave without me?" Again, came the piercing blow to his heart.
"B-Because...!" He fought with himself to answer, but anger won out in the end, "Augh! You wouldn't believe me if I told you!"
Alura slanted her brows and suddenly became surrounded with glass-looking rose colored lances twisted towards the tip.
"You defied father...So this is to be your fate, Joe Dark."
"Grrrr...!" He swung his arm out and exclaimed, "You're a real pain in the ass Alura!"
He was fighting the pale-faced girl. Mew was dragging his fight with Grimmley towards the mountainside. That left Dracula wide-open, and Lunis saw her chance to strike.
"Now!" She clutched her knives and darted straight at him.
Dracula budged his eyes ever slightly and curled the side of his lips, "It is your time...fledgling sun."
A red comet came streaking down out of the sky, its intense glow giving Lunis pause. She hesitated hopping away, and that left her getting knocked back when the comet stopped mid-air and exploded into flames.
Immediately locking blades with Grimmley, Mew looked back with shock in his eyes as the flames settled, "Oh...that explains a lot."
Lunis shook at the knees and murmured "No" softly as Solaris threw the flames around with a swing of his sword and glared at her with an insane, sleepless look in his eyes.
"Hello...dear sister."
"Brother...why?" Lunis lowered her knives and tensely bit her lower lip, staring at him with watery eyes.
Sancturia...
A few Aurians crawled out of their beds and had headed outside. The heavy commotion drew their attention towards the sky, where Kairi was chasing and clobbering bat monsters with ease.
"Whoa..." One of the guys remarked.
"Isn't she that girl who got the Neo Drive or something...?"
"Yeah, its actually kinda hot when she fights like that?" Two of the other guys stared at him and he flung his hands around while claiming, "T-That was just a bit of sleep-talk I swear!"
"Dude you're totally awake." Another of them bluntly remarked.
"Shut up." He smacked them on the shoulder and they all had a laugh.
"Mmmmmmrrrr..." An inhumane groan like creaking metal passed through the air. The three Aurians turned to the left and froze up.
"W-What was that?" They tried to see through the dark streets but only saw a seven-foot tall figure with broad shoulders, waist and hips wrapped in dirty, black and copper bandages standing in place.
"Oh, its just a mummy..." One sighed, while the other two gasped. Then, after a slight pause, the third of them gasped louder than they had.
"A MUMMY?!" They all screamed.
Red, faded eyes came to life under the mummy's wraps as they raised their giant hands forward, and sent a slow-moving cloud of purple miasma through the streets.
One of the Aurians drew a sword and grit his teeth, "Ha! I don't know what's going on but I bet if we take this loser down we'll be hailed as heroes!"
"Wait!" One of his friends tried to get him to stop from running but it was too late.
"TERIYAH!" The brave but foolish warrior screamed as he ran at the miasma and the mummy that lied beyond it.
But the moment his feet touched the cloud he felt incredibly weak and stopped completely. He looked down in horror as his shoes turned to dust, followed by his socks. Then, his feet grew age spots and wrinkles.
"AAAAH! AAAAAH!" He screamed as his skin started to become pale and brittle.
"Hold on!" His friends gripped him under the arms and started to pull him away, but his feet were already turning to dust.
"Oh my god!"
"What the hell is this?!"
"My feet! I can't feel my feet!"
They had gotten their friend to safety before the decay had truly set in. But this displeased the mummy. His eyes glint and he raised his other hand. The miasma gathered together to be fired upon the three Aurians as a fast moving projectile.
The Aurians could only stand there and scream as their fates seemed decided. Suddenly a wall dropped between the miasma and them, forcing it back.
It wasn't a traditional wall. This one was made of solid gas.
"Huh? W-We're...saved?" As one of the Aurians counted their blessings, the sound of tiny footsteps drew their attention to the presence of a young red-haired girl walking up to the wall and splitting it in two with a wave of her hand.
The miasma gathered back towards the mummy, who stirred with a creaking groan.
The little girl grabbed the sides of her skirt and pulled them out as she bowed her head towards the mummy.
"Hello mister," The gas that made up the walls turned into a pair of hands. One cupped over the fist shape of the other and pretended to crack knuckles. The girl lifted her head up with a sunny smile and asked, "I'm going to be your opponent, is that alright?"
Next Time: Curse of Ages
