Chapter Five

"The Heroic Warriors versus the Great Rebellion"

Flutterina wasn't quite sure how it happened, but she ended up being the one chased now. Stratos was on her tail, his jetpack roaring at nearly full capacity. She glanced back at him and was shocked to see this former ally look so angry.

Twin rockets shot from his launchers, and heading straight for her. Flutterina dove upward, the missiles crashing against two large trees and exploding on impact. Stratos followed her, and the two sped towards the sky. Flutterina quickly began to work out a plan to stop Startos from his deluded lust for destruction.

She shot upwards, her poor wings straining as she pushed forward. Stratos was right below her, and was gaining on her. Flutterina could feel the air beginning to thin and the heat starting to escape. They had long passed the clouds and kept shooting more and more towards the blue . . . that was slowly becoming black.

Flutterina had no idea she could even fly this high, but apparently she could. Behind her, Stratos was coming closer and closer. She could nearly feel his fingers on her toes.

At that moment, Flutterina let go. Her wings stopped and she fell backwards. As she did, she passed by Stratos back - and she yanked on his jetpack. It snapped free from the harness and fell. Stratos yelled out in pain as the harness tore at his wings.

Flutterina held him tight as he struggled in pain. She closed her eyes, her wings attempting to cope with the long fall.

***

Buzz-Off threw his axe through the air, and it barely missed Sweet Bee. The female rolled out of the way, and the axe collided with a tree. Buzz-Off was angry at her, that much was sure, but Sweet Bee honestly had no idea how to take him down. Sudden fears ran through her - a fear that he would take her ship and go to the colony with the Insectiods and conquer her people. He was delusional thinking that the two were part of the same race and that they must all serve him and his queens.

She couldn't allow that.

Buzz-Off shot right for her, but Sweet-Bee was ready. She flew out of the way into the air, right as Buzz-Off touched the ground. He took off into the air as well, but Sweet-Bee made for him fast. It was obvious who was the faster flier. She rammed into Buzz-Off, her sharp finger-tips ramming into his exoskeleton.

He roared in pain and her tossed away. Buzz-Off dove back into the forest, and towards a bundle of trees. Sweet Bee concentrated, and suddenly formed honey in those trees. Buzz-Off fell right into the honey and was stuck. Sweet Bee flew towards him, and studied him for a moment.

"You must stop this madness, Buzz-Off. Our people could have much to learn about each other."

"Well, there's one thing I've already learned . . . and that's that your honey doesn't stick much to us!"

Buzz-Off ripped out of the honey and reached out and grabbed Sweet Bee's neck. His squeezed hard with his pincer-like hands and took her high above the canopy of the Evergreen Forest.

"I'm going to conquer your people, and take your ship and use it spread the true power of the Bees to Etheria! But first . . . I'm going to kill you."

Suddenly, a loud squealing noise was heard. Buzz-Off looked up to see the falling form of Stratos head right for him. Buzz-Off barely released Sweet Bee's neck in time before Stratos slammed right into him, the two crashing down into the forest.

Sweet Bee gasped for air, her wings faltering. Flutterina floated down and helped her land.

***

The smell of the flowers were so intoxicating. Moss Man could barely stand them, they smelled so good and so relaxing. Their order filled his nostrils, and his awareness began to wane.

"No," he whispered.

These were his flowers. His. This was his world. What was this . . . ALIEN . . . doing taking control of HIS plants?

Moss Man ordered the flowers to death, and they turned immediately brown and he was free. Perfuma, who had been helping to contain Extendar, looked over with shock. She raised her hand to raise the grass, but Moss Man acted first.

A vine slapped Perfuma across the face, and another grabbed hold of her ankle. She fell to the ground, more vines moving to her.

"No one takes command of my plants!" he snapped. "NO ONE!"

"Men . . . so dominating . . ." replied Perfuma. She was about to wave her hands towards the trees, but they were suddenly wrapped up in instantly long grass. Moss Man bent down and grabbed her cheeks.

"Not so snappy now, huh?"

Perfuma just smiled and looked behind Moss Man. He saw the direction her eyes were casting and followed her line of sight . . . seven trees uprooted themselves. Before Moss Man could even command them back to the ground, he was swatted with nearly twenty huge branches. Moss Man skidded across the forest floor, the trees coming after him.

Perfuma stood up, free from the bounds thanks to Netossa. "Do you need my help?" asked the trap-artist.

She shook her head. "No, I got it. Just work on getting that robot-guy netted." The dark-skinned female nodded, and Perfuma ran to where the trees were handling Moss Man.

"I shall not allow this . . ." he breathed as Perfuma arrived. He went to outstretch his hand, but Perfuma beat him to it. She pointed the trees to pummel Moss Man. They went to it, branches slamming into him.

"NO!" thundered Moss Man then. He went to work immediately. Trees from all around him moved and swayed, smashing and bashing into the freestanding ones. The freestanding ones collapsed, nothing but battered wood and leafs.

Disappointment filled Perfuma's face. "Fine," she said, the light-and-fluffy sound going missing from his voice.

Trees around the ones that allied themselves with Moss Man began to sway and move at her command now. Loud creaking noises filled the area, as if a great wind had filled this portion of the Evergreen Forest. Perfuma had assumed control of a very large number of trees and were using them to fight the ones that had become Moss Man's allies.

Moss Man retaliated, taking control of his own massive numbers of trees. Soon, trees began to shape and shift, branches colliding with each other. Moss Man had never assumed so much control. It felt good . . . it felt great!

He stared off at Perfuma, for whom beads of sweat were appearing on her face. The stress that it took to do this. To master all of these trees, it was so hard on her. Moss Man felt no sympathy for her.

As trees began to snap and tumble and fall, Perfuma's eyes grew wide and Moss Man was shocked to see small tears budding.

"No . . . no!" she cried out, her hands grabbing hold of her hat in desperation. "STOP THIS! STOP THIS, MOSS MAN! WE'RE KILLING THEM!"

"Sacrifice," Moss Man returned with a smile.

"STOP IT!" she screamed once more as even more trees fell in this war.

"No."

"FINE! THEN I'LL STOP YOU!"

Perfuma outstretched her hand. She had never even thought about trying this before. While she controlled plants, it was obvious that she couldn't control humans. Moss Man was both. Her power reached and touched him and she sought to grasp hold of that part of Moss Man that was not human. She did so.

"What . . . ? No!" yelped Moss Man. All of a sudden, his body went completely rigid. He could feel his control of the trees wane . . . and then stop completely. The trees stopped moving in battle and returned to peace. Perfuma, though, retained her grasp on Moss Man. He could feel her presence within him, causing him to . . . sleep.

Moss Man slammed to the ground, unconscious. Perfuma fell to her knees, exhausted. And crying.

***

Kowl chased Mekaneck far. Together, Kowl hunted Mekaneck head passed strangely swaying trees until Mekaneck reached his limits. Unexpected, he recalled his head to his body and his neck responded in kind. As soon as it snapped back to his body, Mekaneck grabbed his club. Kowl darted right to him - and Mekaneck let the club set sail. It smashed into Kowl, throwing him into the air and against a tree.

"Deary My!"

He then turned Madame Razz, who was just now coming around to realizing what happened. Mekaneck pulled out a laser pistol and stunned the old woman.

"Deary My now, you stupid old croon."

Mekaneck shook his head at Rotar and Man-E-Faces, disappointed with both.

***

Sorrowful struggled against Clamp Chap's clamp and finally managed to throw his neck up high enough to pull Clamp Champ up with him. He then swung his head side-to-side and around and around Clamp Champ flew off. He smashed into the ground, going unconscious.

Sorrowful was about to leap with excitement, when a gale force wind slammed into him. The young dragon looked ahead and saw that both Sy-Klone and Spinnerella were still at it. This time, they were face-to-face, hands outstretched, the look of strain on both faces. Two winds were striking against each other - one from the north and one from the south. Small tornadoes and twisters kept forming between the two.

The young dragon could easily that neither one was going to win this one. So, he picked up Clamp Champ and threw the detective in the air, aiming for Sy-Klone. Clamp Champ's unconscious body soared through the air and struck right into - Spinnerella.

"Oops!" yelped Sorrowful.

Sy-Klone smiled as the winds calmed around him. He turned to Sorrowful and nodded. "Thanks. Your turn."

Sorrowful was suddenly swept in a huge tornado, spinning and spinning under Sy-Klone's control.

***

Teela ignored the strong winds and the strange way the trees were moving and just worked on heaving the branch off her back. Bow lurched not far away, but she wasn't sure quite where. She turned to Fisto, whose hand was held against the ground like it weighed 10 tons. Castaspella stood above him, satisfied with her spell.

Teela reached for the Sword of the Ancients, the only thing that she knew could be capable of shattering the spell beam. She mustered all of her strength and pushed up, the branch pulling coming off her bare back.

"Fisto!" she yelled then.

Bow was moving, readying his arrow . . .

Teela leapt into the air, the Sword of the Ancients aiming right from the spell beam. It shot from her hand and right into the spell beam, shattering it in a burst of green light. Castaspella screamed in agony, magic drifting from her hands like smoke from a smoldering fire.

Fisto lifted his hand, now free. He turned to Castaspella, but ran back towards Teela. He pushed her down right as an arrow struck the ground. Bow leapt out from the darkness and the trees, arrows firing. Teela blocked them with a shield and went to retrieve the Sword of the Ancients.

She picked it up, glancing slightly at Castaspella who was in some sort of shock. Teela then made for Fisto. Teela threw her staff at Bow's bow. The head shattered the bow, sending its pieces and the arrows to the ground.

Fisto slammed his fist into Bow's gut. Then across the face. Teeth were knocked out of Bow's mouth. He punched his head once more, and then the chest. Blood sputtered from his mouth, and he was gasping in pain. Fisto pulled back for one much punch to the head -

When Bow pulled out an explosive arrow and smacked it across Fisto's left. A burst of smoke and fire exploded and Fisto flew back, screaming agony. Bow went limp, barely even able to keep himself on his feet.

The blade of the Sword of the Ancients arrived at his neck. Teela stood above him, fuming as Fisto shrieked behind her. "Time to die, Bow."

"NEVER!" yelled out Castaspella.

Teela was lifted up from the ground, power streams running around her waist from Castaspella's hands. "THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH!"

Teela nodded. "Indeed."

The Captain of the Royal Guard sent the Sword of the Ancients running through the power streams. Green light splashed and sputtered and Teela landed safely, Castaspella reeling backwards. Leaving the injured Fisto behind, Teela ran.

***

Sunder gasped for air as Snout Spout's nose tightened around his abdomen. He grunted and fumbled with something on his belt. "I'm . . . sorry . . ." he struggled.

"What are you talking about?!" demanded Snout Spout, his nose outstretched.

"For . . . this."

Sunder pulled out a small computer pad. He pressed a button on it. Snout Spout suddenly screamed in agony. He threw his hands to his gigantic head; his nose going limp. "WHAT IS THIS?!" he yelled out.

Sunder took in deep breaths. "Neural chip. Hordak installed it. I stole the control unit when you escaped. I didn't want to use it, but I didn't have a choice."

He pressed another button and Snout Spout suddenly lost consciousness. Sunder gasped, and then looked over and saw that poor Glimmer was having a hard time standing against Rio Blast's barrage. Sunder ran behind Rio Blast.

Rio Blast suddenly felt to large hands fall upon his head, pulling his entire body back. "What in tarnation?!" yelped the cybernetic cowboy.

Glimmer took advantage of his confusion and blasted him. Rio Blast's body crumbled to the ground.

"Nice job," Glimmer thanked.

Sunder didn't answer. He just stared over at Snout Spout and shook his head remorsefully.

***

Frosta was just coming conscious, and heard the sounds of Angella and Man-At-Arms battling it out. And there was another sound. Breaking ice. Just as Frosta stood up, the ice block that was holding Ram-Man bursted open. He jumped forward, smashing right into Frosta's back.

"Frosta!" yelled Angella.

"Pay attention!" Man-At-Arms cut, his club up against her sword.

Angella leapt back, her wings spreading. She soared away from Man-At-Arms and snatched up Frosta. She then turned around took a blast at Ram-Man. Ram-Man shrugged it off. Angella fired another one, and this one got through. Ram-Man collapsed.

Angella was about to completely leave the site with Frosta, when a beam of energy struck her and she fell to the ground. Man-At-Arms blew the smoke from the tip of his laser cannon, not remembering if it was on stun or not.

He didn't much care, of course.

Man-At-Arms ran, then, for Castle Grayskull - knowing just what was playing out before it's gate. The twins were at it.