Author's Note: The final chapter of the fanfic. I hope you have enjoyed this story. If you loved this one, then you will enjoy my next two Ace Lightning stories: The First Annual Ace Lightning Awards and Ace Lightning: The Wrath of the Master Programmer and the Ultimate Villain Showdown.
Chapter 8: Fight the Fear
The nightmare that was Lord Fear, stood before the Lightning Knights, unleashed an ear-piercing, glass-shattering screech. The mighty cry rang inside Ace's head like a giant fire bell. The force of the noise made Lady Illusion and Sparx collapse to the ground with agony, followed by Pigface, who was squealing madly.
Fear then ceased his cry and grinned down at the ant-sized heroes below. Random angrily growled at Lord Fear.
"We've got to stop that crazy skeleton!" shouted Random.
"Your right, Random" said Ace "I bet if we get the Amulet, he will revert back to his normal form!".
"That is easier said than done" said Sparx, standing up.
"I will assist you" came the voice of Lady Illusion and she stood up firmly and looked over to Pigface, Anvil and Dirty Rat with such a terrifying glare, that they immediately nodded.
"And so will us!" shouted another voice.
The group and Fear looked up into the cloudy sky and saw a fleet of battleships fly into view. They were ocean blue in colour, each with long wings lancing out the sides. Large laser cannons were piled on the top and sides of the ships. The battleships flew by rocket power. In the leading ship, a hatch was open where two figures stood. A humanoid yellow slug with large black eyes, a green fish tail and a metal foot. The other was a tall slim man dressed in black armour, a pair of shades covering his face. Ace immediately recognised the small figure.
"Thunderfoot!"
Thunderfoot saluted to Ace and then turned to the man, who looked down at him.
"Ready, Commander Blackout?" asked Thunderfoot.
"Roger!" replied Blackout.
"Roger? I'm Thunderfoot!" said Thunderfoot.
Blackout rolled his eyes and spoke something into a transceiver. The laser cannons mounded on top of each ship started to generate powerful absorptions of energy. Each one then launched a massive beam of lightning and energy at Fear. Each blast struck him and his roars echoed across the battlefield. Smoke covered the place where the haunted house once stood. Ace smiled and was about to advance, when Fear ripped through the cloud of smoke and fired a giant beam from his mouth at the fleet of battleships. The blast missed Thunderfoot's shipped, but erased at least fifty ships from existence. Thunderfoot sweatdropped.
"Oh crud!" he said.
"You said it…" replied Blackout.
Fire fell from the sky liked rain, brining destruction with it. The fragments of flaming metal tumbled to the ground, crushing carnival booths, destroying fences and lamps. A piece landed smack on Dirty Rat and the rodent groaned, his body dissolved into dust and he returned to the Sixth Dimension.
"Ooh. I hate this part of the job!" said Dirty Rat as he vanished.
Thunderfoot's ship suddenly flew down and landed beside the Lightning Knights, and Thunderfoot, Blackout and a small cluster of Lightning Knights in armour wielding machine guns leapt off the ship.
"Hey Ace" greeted Thunderfoot.
"Late as usual?" said Ace, mimicking the same sentence Thunderfoot had said when they first arrived in the carnival.
"Very funny" said Thunderfoot sarcastically.
"I thought you had become a spider" said Sparx.
"I did, only I managed to get back to the Thunder Tower before I became evil and the scientists managed to heal me" explained Thunderfoot. "Only the wound is eternal".
The Lightning Knights started firing bullets at Lord Fear. Fear laughed at the attacks the Lightning Federation was pulling out.
"How pathetic!" said Fear.
His right claw opened up and a giant green flame appeared out of no where. He threw it at the Lightning Fleet. Within moments, ten to fifteen battleships came falling to earth. In the commotion, Fear seized Pigface and Anvil and disposed of them by breathing green flames all over them. The two vanished and returned to the datastream. Ace decided he had had enough of waiting around, so he charged up his wrist cannons and fired lightning bolts at Lord Fear. The attack hit home and Fear groaned as the enemy attack damaged his side.
Sparx and Thunderfoot helped out by firing their own lightning bolts to affect the wound. Within moments, Fear's chest exploded to pieces and revealed the whereabouts of the Amulet.
"Bingo!" said Ace and he took off into the sky.
He flew in the direction of the Amulet, but Fear cackled and several spikes on his back suddenly flew off as projectiles. Ace dodged and blasted the spikes, but he did get clobbered by one, a great pain popped up in his shoulder. Ace tumbled to the ground. Sparx flew up on the Lightning Flash and blasted lightning bolts at the Amulet, trying to shatter it. She missed and Fear swatted her out of the sky with a swish from his long scaly tail. Ace leapt up again and punched Fear in the head, while on of the airships took out Fear's right arm.
Fear watched helplessly as his right arm crashed to the floor. He tried to pick it and attached it to his shoulder, using his left arm, but quickly discovered that his left arm had fallen off to. Ace and Sparx then flew in together and combined their powers, which was aimed at the Amulet. The blast fired and a stream of crackling pink and blue electricity shot across the sky towards the Amulet. Fear was clever than he looked and he quickly grabbed his tail and blocked the attack. Unfortunately, the beam destroyed Fear's tail and it fell to pieces. Sparx fired another lightning bolt and it struck the Amulet. Fear roared with pain as the Amulet was his "heart" and if it was shattered, he would be reverted back to his normal self. The lightning from Sparx's sword began to make the Amulet splutter and shake dangerously. Ace cracked his knuckles and then prepared to launch his most powerful attack of lightning he could possibly summon up. But instead of blue electricity flying out of his wrist cannons, the cannons glowed bright orange and flames out of the weapons instead in the form of rings and slammed into the Amulet. A bright light sparked out of the Amulet and it shattered, the seven pieces flying from Fear's body over to Thunderfoot's hand.
"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The giant shrill caught everyone's attention. Lord Fear's body slowly dissolved away, a foaming blast of green energy melted out of his mouth and ripped through his bony head. Within in minutes, the dragon was destroyed and figure tumbled down into the rubble. Ace, Sparx, Random, Lady Illusion, Thunderfoot and Blackout ran over to the figure that lay on the ground. It was Lord Fear, badly bruised and his clothes ripped. Staff Head lay beside Lord Fear, his glass orb smashed. Lord Fear slowly groaned and crouched on his knees. His jaw was hanging loosely from his face.
"How could I have lost to you…Ace Lightning?" asked Lord Fear in dismay.
"Because Lord Fear, too much power can lead to your downfall…and speaking of downfall…you've got about an eternity to spend in oblivion!" said Ace and turned to Thunderfoot who stepped up.
He had just managed to fix the Amulet and now it was as good as new.
Everyone stepped back as Ace used the power of the Amulet. A mighty blue beam shot out of the centre of the Amulet and struck Lord Fear. A wormhole opened up underneath Fear and he and Staff Head tumbled into it. Lord Fear managed to extend his neck out before he was pulled completely in vortex.
"This is not the end, Lightning!" said Lord Fear. "Next time you won't be lucky, as I will have summoned an army which you couldn't possibly think of beating!".
And with that, Lord Fear vanished into the vortex, his evil cackling echoing across the carnival. The wormhole closed up and Blackout was the first to speak up.
"Lady Illusion, you're under arrest for helping evil!" said Blackout and walked towards Lady Illusion, handcuffs in his grip.
"No! Lady Illusion betrayed Lord Fear, so leave her alone!" said Ace, defending Lady Illusion.
"Besides, what would you mother say if she discovered you were messing around with a gun?" asked Thunderfoot, looking at the large rifle strapped to Blackout's back.
"Mother?" cried Blackout in terror, his eyes bulging out behind his shades. He dashed to the landed ship, Random following and Thunderfoot quickly after, taking the Amulet with him.
Sparx leapt onto the Lightning Flash and she flew off into the sky along with the rest of the Lightning Fleet.
Ace and Lady Illusion were alone together. They spent their time together hugging and dancing and then they eventually plucked up the courage to kiss eachother. The kiss went on for ages. Lady Illusion then looked up at Ace and smiled.
"Something tells me, we'll meet again…" she said and she then morphed out.
Ace smiled and nodded. He then flew up into the sky and was gone.
"Until then my lady" said Ace.
Meanwhile, deep in the darkest depths of Dimension X, in the Fortress of Solitude, a dark figure awoke, its red eyes gleaming brightly in the darkness.
"The game is not over. Muhahahahahaha!" it said and it laughed out loud, but no one could here it, for in Dimension X, the only being who lived there, was the Master Programmer.
THE END… OR IS IT?
Special Thanks and Credits
Special thanks to Scarab Dynasty, Hyperpsychomaniac, LightningFlash and Sarah Frost for their reviews, criticism and their love for Ace Lightning.
This story was based on the Ace Lightning video game.
All characters, items, places and some speech is copyright to Ace Lightning which is copyright to BBC, which is copyright to whoever invented BBC, who is copyright to their parents, who are copyright to their parents, etc.