All Notes & Disclaimers are established at the bottom.
(Please leave a comment and enjoy!)
Ch3
Back to reality, about twenty minutes ago, inside Garrett's spaceship, CR and Sunset Shimmer were still fighting X7, the adapting robot. Sunset was still in her "Rainbow Uniform", blasting lasers at the enemy, and C also used his suit to make his hands bigger and punch X7. But with every attack, X7 laughed and turned his arms into swords and shields.
"Is that all you got?!" He chanted, and tried striking at them back. But the two dodged as fast as they could, and tried making sure he wouldn't touch Garrett as he was still frozen with the Black Mercy.
Then Sunset yelled, "You think you can just come here and hurt our friend?!" She shot another laser, trying to make one single blast.
X7 tried shielding himself again while approaching her slowly, saying, "Hurt? Oh, that's the thing, young one. I'm not hurting him!" He finally grabbed her by the hands. "I just stopped him from getting in the way." Then threw her into the wall again.
CR finally gave him a few punches and said, "Getting in the way of what?" He punched him repeatedly again. "Your plans of taking over for Credo?!"
X7 jumped away. "Credo? Not a chance. I meant it when I said I quit the Black Naval Empire. I only desire to make my own empire and it is Garrett who stands in my way."
"Then why are you still here?"
"Because when I heard visitors were coming, I thought I'd first spend my free time playing my favorite sport: beat to death."
"You're out of your mind." Sunset commented.
"Says the two heroes that think they can stop me."
"Then you don't know who you're dealing with. AH!" Sunset and CR both yelled and charged at X7 again, ready to continue to fight. Though he delivered more bruises, punches and attempted to slash them while they struck back too.
The two still tried to punch, kick, and fire at X7, who didn't give up. The two continued dragging him into a big brawl. Until X7 turned into a rocket, and crashed into the two, forcing them through the floor and into the lower level. Garrett's garage, and weapons vault.
No one spoke, but still they kept moving. CR and Sunset both had their limbs bruised so much. Sunset crawled on the floor and grabbed a laser gun. She took a firm grip.
Then X7 growled, "Ha. You never learn, do you, pretty pony? If your silly magic of friendship can't phase me then what makes you think-?"
"You talk too much." She quickly fired from the laser gun, and the beam was so powerful that it melted his left arm and side of his cheek into nothing.
"AAHH!" He screamed in pain for once. Then grew his limb back as he yelled, "Grr! Alright, never thought I'd say this, but that did it!" He tried charging at her like a rhino, before CR jumped him, made a lasso appear from his suit to restrain him.
Sunset fired at him again with her powers. "How do we remove that thing from Garrett?" She demanded.
"You can't." X7 struggled as they nearly subdued him. "At least not yourselves."
CR struggled, "Grr! I'm afraid he's not wrong. That thing on Garrett's chest is a parasitic plant that puts people into a trance that simulates everything they desire in a life."
"I say it again, you are a clever kid. Shame you both didn't realize that sooner, and one other detail you forgot to mention is this: The only way to get it off is to let Garrett fight his trance. Something that I doubt even he'll be strong enough to do."
"We'll see about that!" Sunset said and jumped, before punching X7 again. She kept going, and picked up every weapon in the room to fight back. Before sticking him to the wall with an ooze gun. CR planned to keep helping, but then she jumped and stopped him by grabbing his hands, and said, "Wait! You help Garrett. I know he said only he could fight it, but just in case he still needs a friend to give him a hand."
"You sure? This guy is too big of a powerhouse for you to fight alone."
"I know. But I have enough faith to keep going. And I know you do too. Help Garrett." Then she flew, charging at their foe.
CR ran away and jumped above the hole in the ceiling, and approached Garrett. He grabbed the Black Mercy and said, "Come on. Come on, G-Man. Wake up!" Then the room shook. "You hear that? Sunset is fighting for you. We're both fighting for you. Now you need to fight. Fight this plant. You can do it! Come back to us, Garrett! Come back!"
While Garrett was still dreaming, the plant on his chest was beginning to lose its grip. C noticed and helped pull it saying, "Yes! That's it! Fight it, Garrett! You have to fight it!"
Then finally, Garrett was waking up, the dreaming began to fade…and the black mercy pounced off of him.
"YES!" CR yelled with excitement, seeing his friend was finally free. But before he could move, the plant quickly attached to him next. CR was frozen and stuck in his own trance.
As for Garrett, he took a moment and began moving his fingers and eyes, officially remembering what happened.
Then out of nowhere, he heard X7 yell, "Okay, that's it! I'm done with this sport!" Garrett turned and saw Sunset flying out of the hole, injured. Garrett leaped and caught her.
"Are you alright?" He asked. Sunset was in his arms and only made a small moan. Garrett scowled after gently putting her down.
X7 jumped from the hole, expecting to fight more saying, "Now I'm gonna play-AAH!" But was cut off when Garrett gave him the next punch. Making him fall back in the garage.
Next, Garrett jumped and attacked him rapidly. "Do you have any idea what you did to me?" He asked in anger, and attempted to hit him again. But X7 blocked it and stood up, saying with confidence, "I gave you a world you couldn't escape from without sacrificing your heart's desire." He grabbed his face and bashed it against the floor. "It must've been like tearing off your own arm."
Back with Sunset, still she felt her body almost broken. But she opened her eyes and tried crawling away from the hole. Only to see her other friend stuck too. "Oh no." She mumbled.
X7 popped his knuckles and delivered more punches. Only for Garrett to deliver just as many. Before his neck was grabbed, and X7 said, "Happy Gang-iversary, Ese. I give you…oblivion."
"Grr!" Garrett struggled. "And I give you…this!" He activated the nanotech from his suit, making his hands release fire and place them on X7's arms.
"AAHH!" He yelled in pain again.
Sunset approached CR and tried pulling on the Black Mercy like he did earlier. Even in her rainbow form it was tough. So she yelled, "CR! C! TY! TY!" She kept yelling, unaware of what C was seeing.
In C's mind, he was in a large area with lights on and a whole crowd of people cheering his name while he was on a stage. "C! C! C!" So he walked to the edge and waved to the crowd.
Then turned to see another man, the announcer, appear and cry out, "And now the award for the Most Creative Writer of the Year goes to: Ty Parker, CR!" He handed CR a small but good looking trophy. So he kindly took it and waved again, feeling totally proud, and saw himself without his high-tech suit, but in a normal suit and a normal face.
So he teared a little and said, "Thank you! Thank you, everyone! Really, it means a lot. You know, in many cases, earning a trophy is never the real reward of competition. It's being able to acknowledge all the work you did that led to a moment like this. Which is why I want to thank all my friends who helped me get this far." The spotlight came onto his friends, who were in the crowd. Where he saw Garrett, Sunset, and other faces he recognized. Making the audience cheer for them too.
CR felt happy, and saw Sunset smiling back at him. She wore a beautiful red and black dress, and stared at him in a flirting manner, giving him air-kisses. Which made him blush.
"TY! Wake up! TY!" Her voice echoed. C heard her and suddenly felt confused, seeing it didn't come out of her mouth. Then he noticed blue fire coming from the nosebleed section of the room. "What the?" He felt scared but the audience acted like they didn't even notice.
"TY!" Sunset's voice echoed again.
"Hey!" CR tried screaming out. "HEY! FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!" Then the fire suddenly rained down on the audience. "Oh no. Not again." He was remembering what it was. So he attempted to jump off the stage and reach out, in order to save Sunset. Only to look up and see the fire rain down on him and everyone.
CR opened his eyes and the black mercy was off of him. "Sunset!" He yelled and saw the real Sunset struggling, making sure the plant wouldn't get her too.
Garrett and X7 continued their brawl. Still giving each other the best attack, and both hoped it would bring one of them down.
But X7 soon grabbed his right arm and repeatedly bashed him against the wall like a baseball bat. Before throwing him across the room. "You should've stayed in whatever happy fantasy the black mercy granted you." He said and charged him next.
Garrett was down but felt so angry that he speedily dashed at him by his stomach, and ran at him so fast, the two flashed through the wall. Ripping a hole through the metal and flying in the air before landing in the snowy grounds outside. Parts of the wall, the rest of the ship, weapons, and stuff went flying out with them.
The two enemies stood up slowly, but Garrett took the chance first. He made fire from his hands again and pressed against X7's face. Making him scream again as Garrett yelled, "HAPPY?!" Then as he went deep enough, he saw his metal skull. Realizing he was finally vulnerable, he punched him again saying, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE LOST?! What I've-?" Before he finished, he looked next to him, and saw a broken picture…of his parents. Causing Garrett to freeze. And giving X7 the chance to kick him away.
He made his move and Garrett was on the ground again. There, he saw X7 turn his arms into swords again. "You know, for a moment there, I almost believed you were gonna kill me. How stupid of you to hesitate like that. Not a mistake I'll make. I can assure you." He was ready to strike, ready to fight until his foe was dead.
"Excuse me." Then he heard a voice, and looked to Sunset and CR in front of him, both holding the black mercy. Sunset said with a stern look, "I believe this is yours?" Then the two threw it right at his face.
"NO!" The robot struggled, trying to remove it, until he soon stopped squirming, and fell face forward. Being locked under the black mercy's power. And the two ran over to Garrett, helping him up as he felt too exhausted.
CR patted his shoulder asking, "You okay?"
Garrett rubbed his face and replied, "I…" Then picked up the picture of his folks. "I think I will be."
"Hm. I know how that feels." CR thought.
Sunset looked around at the metal and debris that was around, and saw the box she was holding earlier. "Oh no." She said, seeing it almost looked smashed. But handed it to Garrett. She said, "Garrett…this was supposed to be your present for the occasion. Something that I really thought you would appreciate." Garrett opened the box, and saw it was a painting. Done by her and it resembled the very same one from his dream. It showed all of his friends and family together, including his entire team.
Sunset said, "We hoped it would make this anniversary great but…"
"Don't worry." Garrett smiled. "I love it. Thanks, you guys."
"You're welcome." Sunset also smiled feeling relieved and heard CR say to Garrett, "You're the reason why we're here. Each of us thought we would send some kind of thanks for that. I'm just sorry that this wasn't the day you were expecting."
Garrett, "Well, from the way I see it, it doesn't appear to be over yet."
Sunset, "Yeah. Maybe if we take this jerk away we can still make it to the party later."
CR, "Sounds good to me." Then he looked at X7 still on the ground. "Do you wonder what he's even seeing?"
Garrett, "Hm. No. Whatever it is…I think it's too good for him."
X7 was still lying down, twitching, and C and Sunset grabbed his legs while dragging him back to the ship. Garrett stayed for a moment, and took a good look at his present. "I promise you. I'll never forget. I love you all." He said in his mind. Then walked with his friends, in the hopes of making the rest of his day and the rest of his life better. With his team.
The End.
Notes & Disclaimers:
• This short story is marked in the DC category because it's based on the episode of Justice League Unlimited: "For The Man Who Has Everything." Which is based on the comic that, I believe, has the same name.
• MLP is Hasbro IP.
• The Gang Stories/Secrets is my IP.
• Some of the characters are based on real people.
• "Not again": What this version of me was dreaming about was based on some experience he had of his past. Something that I have not fully established, but maybe I will for another story.
And that's the end. For this at least. What did you think of that?
Garrett Ese, like many superheroes, goes through a point where he wishes his life could be different. But despite what challenges he has been through, we learned again to love and appreciate what he has. Including the good friends he has to help him. Friends and family are some of the best things about life. And so is sharing your ideas with friends.
Now back to my talkative side. As I previously said, some of the new stories I planned to write and publish will eventually be part of "C's Summary Collection." Hopefully I can also do that on FFN. In fact, if I do make them into full stories after that, then you'll be noticing tons of spoilers if you read the summaries first.
Also, even though "Rio Restart" and "Life of Love" haven't changed since their "under maintenance" status, I have still been trying to edit other stories. Specifically the ones on DeviantArt.
I'll try to finish my goal of editing everything else, and in the meantime, hopefully you guys will like what else I have to share.
Thanks for reading, for your comments on my stories, something to which I will try to respond to in my next publication on FFN, and you all have a fantastic time with your friends and family. Including during the holiday season. Happy Halloween (in advance)!
