E Revolution

by Giampi

The end is here.

9. 9th Revolution: Adversity

E. Revolution

-=9th Revolution=-

::Adversity::

Ness had not felt this uneasy in a long time; specifically, not since the first attack on Fourside all those months ago.  Naturally, while he tried to maintain a calm and collected outer expression, his insides were screaming.  The confusion he felt reminded him too much of his home town and the way it had been reduced to ashes.

He and his friends were sitting on a wooden bench in the Sharks' arcade in downtown Onett.  The small, cramped building had been filled with as many people as had been possible, around sixty, and the constant, dronish chatter of the people, which included children, screaming babies, and several older folk, compounded with the rush of memories from his recent past, was slowly gnawing on Ness' patience; the lack of electricity wasn't helping, either.  A quick glance at Jeff, who was staring out through the arcade's front window, and at Tony, who was staring at Jeff, proved to Ness that he wasn't the only one feeling that way.

"There! Done," Orange beamed proudly at the two small rods he had placed on each corner. "With any luck, the configuration of those rods should keep anything too nasty from coming near this building. It should hold for a while, until we figure out what to do."

Frank Fly peered over the scientist's shoulder at the strange rods sticking out of the ground, and then glanced at Apple, who had been trying to contact SANCTUARY with no success for the past several hours.  Finally, he looked to Ness; deciding that the boy was probably the most tolerable of the bunch, he walked over and plopped down next to him.

"So this…thing that attacked…is it an alien or something?"

Ness pursed his lips. "I think so," he replied. "Not sure."

"And what's it doing here?"

Ness shrugged.  The gangster cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Figures."

After a moment of silence Ness spoke without turning to face Frank. "What happened to your gang? Shouldn't they be around here somewhere?"

The gangster leaned back and cushioned his head on his hands. "There's not that many of them. They probably ran away."

"Oh."

More silence.  One of the people in the arcade began coughing, and a baby started to cry.

After a few minutes Kai Poo walked around the corner of the street and ambled inside the arcade.  His clothes were torn in a few spots, and there was a small cut on his cheek, but he looked none the worse for wear as he dragged Apple and Orange to where everyone else was and huddled them together.

"There's more and more bees," he said, his tone calm and icy. "On top of that, there's a big anthill next to it…I think Giygas got to some other animals as well."

"Great," muttered Jeff. "What more could go wrong?"

Apple shrugged. "Conceivably, anything that comes into contact with the pollen from the flowers, directly or indirectly, is at risk. Let's just hope we can hold our own before things get too nasty."

Just then, as if to illustrate his point, a very large ant marched in front of the arcade.  It didn't look that different from a regular ant, except for the fact that its jaws were now huge, disproportionately so, and a row of spines grew out of its back sloppily.  True to Orange's words, the insect walked past, oblivious to the people in the arcade.  That did not, however, stop the children from bursting into tears and several people from fainting.

Tony glanced at his watch. "It's almost dawn," he commented. "Things are going to get a lot worse in a couple of hours."

Nobody said anything.  They were too frightened to acknowledge that statement.

A short woman with an infant in her arms stood up from the middle of the crowd and made her way over to Poo, tugging his sleeve softly. "Excuse me, sir..." she pleaded. "My baby is starving…he needs to eat soon…"

Poo looked at the woman.  Suddenly his eyes grew very wide.

"Your Majesty! The monsters have broken through!"

A man in uniform ran into a large room made of marble and decorated with gold and jade. He fell to his knees in front of a throne carpeted in satin.  Sitting there was a tall, elegant man.

"And the artillery?"

"Gone, sir. The monsters can fly and…they killed our riflemen before we could respond…"

"I see." The man on the throne turned to a small boy standing next to him.  He took the boy in his arms and smiled. "Kai…it is happening…the prophecy is coming to pass. Do you remember what you have to do?"

The boy lunged at his father and dug his face into the man's chest. "But, father…I don't want to go!"

"Be strong, my son. This too is a test of your courage. You must take your mother and sister, and run."

"But…"

The man silenced Kai by placing a finger over his lips. Slowly he rose and reached for the elegant jade sheath that hung from his belt.  Without as much as a word he unbuckled the sword and placed it in the boy's arms. It was almost as long as the boy was tall, and he had to hug it with both arms to keep from dropping it.

"The Jun Zhu Tan…"

The man placed his hand on his son's shoulder. "As long as you have this sword, our kingdom will not die…promise me that you will take this sword in your hands only to defend the weak."

Tears fell from the boy's eyes. He nodded, and then turned to his mother, a short woman who held his infant sister in her arms.

"Poo? Poo! Hello, earth to Agent Poo!"

The agent shook his head abruptly and pulled his gaze away from the woman to face Ness, who was now standing.

"What?"

Ness frowned, surprised at the agent's lack of attentiveness. "I said we're going to go get some food. Frank knows a supermarket a few blocks from here."

Poo cocked an eyebrow. "No way. You stay here, I'll go."

Jeff shook his head and forced Poo to sit on the bench where he was before. "You just came back from patrol. This won't take long, and we'll be back before daybreak, alright?"

"You expect me to stay here while you four go out and risk your lives? I don't think so."

Tony smiled that plastic smile of his. "Listen, we still need someone to stay here, just in case. You can protect everyone until we return. Think of it as rest."

Before Poo could answer Ness, Jeff, Tony, and Frank walked out of the arcade and ran off.

"You know, I don't get you people," said Frank as he led the others to the location of the supermarket they were planning to raid. "You say you want to help us, but then only six of you show up? What's wrong with you people?"

Ness rounded a corner and caught a glimpse of a building overrun by vines.  Every building on that block had been destroyed. "We don't really know, either," he replied. "You'll have to take it up with Tony's commander."

"Commander Labs knows very well what he's doing," retorted Tony, somewhat indignantly. "I'm sure he has already thought of a way to get us out of this mess."

"Your beloved 'Commander' is full of crap," said Jeff. "He sent us here as cannon fodder, and you know it!"

Tony looked hurt, but did not reply.  Instead he let Frank lead the group to the supermarket he had spoken of.  It, like almost everything in Onett, had been decimated by Giygas, and now stood as a testament to its destructive power.  Ness climbed in through one of the windows in the front, and then helped the others inside.  Wordlessly they split up so as to cover more ground, grabbing several plastic bags from a counter nearby.

Ten minutes later the group reconvened with their bags full of supplies.  Jeff had stopped by the hardware section of the market, and he held several useful tools in his hand, such as rope and a knife.  Once more without speaking the group headed towards the window and prepared to leave when Ness' pupils dilated. 

"Wait!" Ness hissed mere seconds before Frank reached the window.  The gangster turned to the youth and looked at him quizzically before Jeff pulled him down.  A large, monstrous bee chose that moment to fly past the exact spot where Frank was.

"Great, now what do we do?"

"We can't let them spot all of us," whispered Tony.  He handed the two plastic bags in his hands to Ness and prepared to rise. "I'll get its attention, and you three can run back to the arcade in the meantime."

"That's crazy!" Jeff hissed at Tony. "You're suicidal!"

Tony glared at the blonde. "Do we have much of a choice? It's the only way we can get these supplies back safely!"

Before anyone could answer to that Tony leaped out the window, dead-set on carrying out his plan, and began waving his arms frantically while yelling at the top of his lungs.  Needless to say, he succeeded in getting the drone-Giygas' attention.

"That idiot!" Jeff's hands balled into fists. "He's going to get himself killed!"

"In that case, let's make sure he doesn't die in vain!" Frank grabbed his two current companions and hauled them out into the street.  Unfortunately for him, Ness stopped him mid-flee and faced Tony.

The bee swooped down and craned its stinger forward, its bulging eyes fixed on Tony.  The latter dived to the side, but not before the stinger grazed his side, drawing blood.  The cadet tumbled clumsily to the floor while the bee flew up and prepared for another strike.  Tony, who was badly injured and could barely stand, laid there, half-conscious, while the insect swooped down a second time.  This time, though, its attempts at killing its prey were thwarted by a flash of bright light that illuminated the area momentarily and stunned it.  The drone crashed to the floor before taking flight once more and fixing its sight on the new attacker, a boy in a red cap a short distance away.  It disregarded Tony for the moment and rushed to attack its new prey, but before it could even come close it was stopped by an invisible wall.

Ness held the bee at bay with a wave of telekinesis while he jerked his head to Frank and Jeff.  The two ran around to the bee's back unflinchingly and used the knives in their hands to stab at the creature's stinger frantically.  With some effort they managed to pry the huge spike out of the monsters body, dragging half of its entrails along with it.  When Ness let it go, the bee spiraled around in pain, dripping green ooze all over the street before finally landing on its back, twitching slightly.  Within seconds it was dead.

Tony grunted as Jeff lifted him up and draped his arm around his shoulder. "I thought I told you that psychic powers were prohibited," he wheezed while clutching his side.

Jeff glared at him. "Yeah, like we'd listen to you," he retorted.

Tony managed to smile. "In any case, I'm glad that you did," he said.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt the moment, but we got company!" Frank pointed at a spot in the distance.

Tony craned his head around and spotted the two ants that were fast approaching from behind.  While the others weren't looking he reached into a pocket in his pants and produced a small, metallic pistol.  He dipped his thumb into the wound in his side, and then placed it on a small, circular plate on the side of the hilt.  Instantly the gun came to life, and he pointed it at the two approaching insects.  After pulling the trigger, he and Jeff were almost knocked back by the recoil of two streaking bolts of lightning that fired from the muzzle and penetrated the mutated monsters, killing them almost instantly.

Jeff stared at the smoking muzzle of Tony's gun. "What is that thing?"

Tony smiled. "It fire electromagnetic rounds, but it can only fired if the hilt comes into contact with the gun's owner's blood," he explained.

"You mean you have to be wounded for it to work? Why?"

"At DREAMERS, we've sworn to eliminate Giygas or die trying," said Tony. "Emphasis on 'die'."

Ness joined Jeff and took Tony's other arm. "We don't have time for this," he said sternly. "Let's get back to the arcade before that thing's friends get here."

Frank took the rest of the shopping bags in his hands while the trio of Ness, Jeff, and Tony hobbled along.  They were still six blocks away from safety.

Back at the arcade, Apple had finally managed to break through and contact his superiors.  The tiny LCD screen on his console glowed white with the images of Professor Andonuts and Maxwell Labs.  Apple was quick to explain the situation to them, and predictably enough they did not react well.

"How many casualties are there? I want a body count now," yelled Labs. 

"We don't know," answered Apple. "We haven't seen anyone in the street, but we're not ruling anything out yet. What do we have to do?"

"Stay there!" barked Labs. "DREAMERS will handle this. We're sending a battalion to deal with the situation…they will more than make up for your continued incompetence."

Apple grimaced.  He knew very well that Labs had set them up against impossible odds and expected them to fail from the very beginning. "So…we just head back to our transport then?"

"What transport? I recalled it back to base using the navigational computers hours ago."

Apple grabbed his console and shook it vigorously. "What?! Do you want us to die?!"

Maxwell Labs looked away, nonplussed.  Andonuts stepped in front of him and addressed Apple directly. "Stay strong, Apple. SANCTUARY will send a new transport as soon as possible.  Try to save as many as you can in the meantime. Who's there with you?"

"Orange, and Poo," said Apple. "Although…Poo's been acting kind of funny…"

As he said this he turned to glance at the agent, who was still sitting in the same spot, eyes glassy and distant.

"Mother! This way!"

Kai dragged his mother through the burning streets of Dalaam, the Jun Zhu Tan tied to his back.  He tried very hard not to look at the charred, mangled corpses that littered the road, but his eyes kept wandering to them, and he couldn't help but feel that perhaps his father would meet a similar end.

As they rounded a corner his mother tripped on a piece of debris and tumbled to the floor.  Her arms were clutching her infant child protectively.  So silent was her fall and so deep was Kai's concentration that he didn't even notice it until he realized that his mother's hand was no longer there.  He whirled around frantically and found his mother in a heap on the floor…and something very dark and sinister closing in on her…

"Mother! No!"

Poo grunted and placed his hand to his forehead, wiping the sweat from his brow.  He noticed Apple chattering with the Professor on the console and immediately rushed over, shoving the pudgy scientist out of the way as he did so.

"Professor…"

"Ah…Kai, how good of you to join us," said Andonuts. "I need a status report."

Poo nodded. "Fortunately our early warning got out in time, and most people are hiding in their homes. There have been casualties, but not that many. We're holed up in a local arcade waiting for a rescue transport to arrive."

Maxwell Labs interjected again. "You don't deserve a transport! You failed and you have to deal with the consequences!"

Before the agent could answer to that Frank burst in the front door, carrying several plastic bags, which he unloaded onto Orange's unwilling arms.  He was out of breath; apparently he had run for several blocks with that heavy load.

"What happened to you?" Orange set the bags on the floor while Apple began handing out the contents.

Frank huffed and puffed wearily before answering. "There's a….huge swarm…Ness said to…run here…get help…they're injured…"

Poo's eyes narrowed.  He focused his attention back on the console. "Professor…"

"Don't worry. DREAMERS may be hesitant, but I hold no such compunctions. I will send a Sky Runner for you immediately."

The agent shook his head. "That's not it. There's something I need you to do for me."

"What is it?"

"I think you know."

Andonuts' face darkened. "…'It'?"

"I need for someone to put it in the Sky Runner. It's urgent."

The researcher's look did not change. "Please tell me you're not going to do what I think you're going to do."

"I don't have a choice."

"There's always a choice," said Andonuts. "You know that. Don't let your past make you do things you'll regret later."

Poo's piercing gaze became even more so, reflecting his newly-hardened resolve. "Just do it…please."

Andonuts finally gave up and shook his head. "Very well," he sighed. "I will place 'it' in the Sky Runner for you. Keep this console on so that the Runner can zero in on your position, understood?"

"Understood. Kai Poo, out."

Agent Kai Poo walked into the plush, classically-decorated office in SANTUARY HQ's administrative branch and sat down in one of the comfortable-looking leather chairs that were placed before Professor Andonuts' large, wooden desk.  The Professor himself was looking out the hemispherical window at the water that fell in front of it, making the landscape blurry.

"How did it go?"

"It was…a disaster," said Poo. "We weren't able to get there in time. It was our mole…I'm certain of it."

"And the boy?"

"He has psychic abilities…I decided to bring him here because he seems very powerful."

"I understand. I will talk to him later on."

Poo rose and prepared to leave when he had a thought. "Professor, if I may…"

"Please do."

"Maybe we should send a team to Fourside…just in case we can still save someone."

"Absolutely not. It pains me to say it, but Fourside is lost to us. We'd be beating a dead horse."

"But…"

There was a pause before Andonuts spoke once more. "You can't save Dalaam, Kai. Not anymore. Please understand that."

The agent's penetrating gaze faltered. "I know."

"Do you?" The Professor rose and hobbled over to his protégé.  He placed his gnarled, bony hand on his shoulders. "Do you remember what you said to me the first time you were brought here, after Dalaam was destroyed?"

Poo nodded. "I said I would join you if I could help destroy Giygas."

The Professor nodded. "You also said that you would destroy them the first chance you got. I know you have grown much stronger, but there is no way you can stand up to a force that powerful by yourself. Now please, promise me that you will never let your vendetta get in the way of your rational judgment."

Poo looked into Andonuts' eyes.

Ness was knocked into a trash can roughly by a particularly large bee that slammed into him from behind.  He managed to roll away before the insect could deal the finishing blow, but he knew this was a fight he was losing, and fast.  Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of bees and ants were closing in on him and his friends, and with one injured escape was practically impossible.  Jeff and Tony were holding their own, but Tony only had one electromagnetic pistol, and it could only fire so many bullets at a time.

Ness saw an ant closing in on Jeff from behind and launched a wave of psychokinetic energy to kill it.  Then he ran up to his friends and fire off a psycholuminescent blast that took out over half of the monsters in the area.  That last attack made his head swim, and he dropped to his knees.

"We can't go on like this!" Jeff helped Ness to his feet. "We're going to be overpowered soon!"

Tony pulled the trigger on his pistol and groaned when it would not fire. "I'm out of ammunition!"

The three youths backed up slowly against the wall of a building and pressed themselves against it, hoping against hope that the reinforced concrete would give way and let them through to where they could be safe.  Tony's grip on Jeff's shoulder tightened, and he latched on to his shirt protectively.  They knew as they gazed at the horde of monsters closing in on them that they were going to die.

Then, in a flash, the insects began dropping, one by one, as if something were slicing them apart.  The ants on the ground started waving their antennae around frantically in an effort to find this new threat, but they weren't quick enough to notice a figure dashing back and forth, killing them one by one.  After over a dozen monsters had dropped to the ground a bare-chested figure in white pants, his head completely bald except for a ponytail in the back, landed gracefully in front of the injured humans. 

"You kids okay?"

"We've been better," wheezed Ness. "We're glad you're here."

Poo stood in front of Ness and his friends.  An ornate, jade scabbard was clipped to his belt, and the blade it belonged to rested in his hand; the brilliantly-forged blade had several inscriptions along it, and a red bauble hung from the hilt.  The Jun Zhu Tan glowed with an almost tangible power, and it hummed with a metallic ring just by being brandished.

An ant marched forth and tried to catch Poo between its mandibles, but the agent stopped the beast with his blade, and with a quick swing he slashed its head in two, killing it.  A bee tried to swoop down on him, but Poo's movements were so quick that it and two other bees behind it fell before they had a chance to figure out what was going on.

"I want you to get in that alley behind me and hide," instructed Poo to his charges. "You should be safe there until this is over."

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to end this."

Ness and Jeff glanced at each other, and then hoisted themselves back up.  They hid in the alley as they had been instructed; a bee or two tried to follow them, but Poo's sword punished them for that mistake swiftly. 

Once Poo had been freed from having to cover someone else's back he walked forward, quickly silencing anything that got in his way with a slash from the Jun Zhu Tan.  As he advanced he began picking up speed, until he was practically running through the army of insects, a white blur carving a path of death and destruction along the devastated streets of Onett.  Innumerable amounts of monsters fell in his wake as he made his way towards the giant beehive in the distance, intent on killing every single last insect that crossed him. 

Eventually a wall of ants formed in front of him, barring the agent access to the beehive and the anthill that stood beside it.  Not one to give up so easily, Poo took his sword in both hands and made a tremendous vertical slash downwards, and channeled his psychic energy through it.  The resulting shockwave knocked the ants down as if they were bowling pins, and hit several more behind them.  The entire thing had only lasted a few seconds, and Poo's offensive had only lasted for less than half an hour, but in that time the agent had managed to reduce the insect force by almost half.

But that much strain on Poo's system did not go unpunished; by the time he reached the beehive he was almost out of breath and had trouble standing.  His movements were becoming sloppy and, although under normal circumstances by this point he would have been completely out of commission, he was pushing himself to keep going.  He grabbed the Jun Zhu Tan in both hands again, focusing as much psychic energy into the mystical blade as he could, then slashed, releasing four humongous star-shaped discs of energy that flew into the beehive and chopped it into pieces.

An army of ants closed in on Poo, and he somersaulted out of the way, running towards the anthill now.  A particularly large ant made its way towards him, but Poo used it as a stepping stone to vault into the air and over the anthill's side.  Another explosion of psychic energy invaded his blade, and when he thrust it into the ground the resulting explosion decimated the gigantic mound or dirt.  It also threw Poo into the air and caused him to crash down a great distance away.

The agent barely staggered to his feet; his vision was blurry and his entire body ached.  The strain from the explosion had dislocated his left shoulder, leaving it useless.  He had just gotten to his feet when he dropped to his knees again.  Hundreds of insects began closing in on him.

At that moment a silver, flying saucer whizzed by and landed a few feet from him.  Ness emerged from it and created a wave of psycholuminescent energy that killed everything in the area while Jeff and Frank grabbed Poo's limp body and practically threw it into the Sky Runner.  Before anything else could be done the craft took off and flew away.

"Looks like the cavalry's here." Orange pointed to several, larger Sky Runners that could be seen through the small windows of the Sky Runner. "Better late than never, I guess."

Despite his injuries, Tony twisted his lips into a smile, a little more sincere than usual. "I told you Commander Labs would come," he said, relieved.

"He's still gonna be pretty mad once he finds out that you didn't complete your mission, though," said Jeff. "Speaking of which…what happened? In the end it almost seemed like you were on our side."

Tony smiled at Jeff. "Let's just say I had a change of heart," he said.  A bang of brown hair fell over his face, but he made no attempt at pushing it aside, probably because his body was too weak to do so on its own.

"Hey, hey…what's going on over there?" Frank Fly tapped his finger against one of the windows; the large Sky Runners were dropping several large, black canisters on the ground below.

"They're pulse bombs," answered Orange. "They emit a pulse that takes out anything Giygas-related within a hundred kilometer radius. Don't worry about the people, they'll be fine, it won't affect them."

Frank quieted down after that, unsatisfied with that answer.

"You failed," snarled Maxwell Labs at Tony, who was sitting in a bed in the infirmary a few hours later. "You were supposed to make sure they were eliminated…you were supposed to make sure that SANCTUARY failed."

"I'm sorry, Sir," replied Tony. "I did what I could. I will accept any punishment you decide to give me."

"You're damn straight you will!" Labs almost lunged at Tony at this point, but restrained himself given the fact that the cadet was injured and he was in a hospital room under heavy surveillance. "Because of your failure SANCTUARY has never looked better! I only wish we had that kind of publicity!"

"With all due respect, Sir…I didn't realize our objective was obtaining publicity."

Maxwell Labs snarled quietly at Tony before leaving the room.

That night, Ness and Paula headed out of the SANCTUARY base and to a small hill just outside of the Silent Garden.  The hill overlooked the valley they were in, and was probably the most private place in all of SANCTUARY HQ.  Granted, Ness took a lot of guff from Jeff for taking Paula somewhere so private, but after the ordeal they had lived in Onett the blonde couldn't say he wouldn't have done anything different.

"You must be exhausted after so much," commented Paula, who sat beside Ness. "Are you sure you don't want to go to bed?"

Ness shook his head reassuringly. "I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, really."

"Why? Is there something on your mind?"

"I guess you could say that." Ness' gaze turned skyward, as if he was looking for something there. "It's just…I wonder how Poo is?"

"I don't think he's that badly injured," commented Paula blankly.

"That's not it. Back in Onett he seemed…different, somehow. Something troubled him…"

Paula smiled.  She had finally figured out what Ness was getting at.

"You want to know what Poo is thinking."

"Yeah…"

"Take this! And that! I, Prince Kai Poo of Dalaam will protect our country from evil!"

A little boy stood triumphantly over a slipshod dummy made of cloth and stuffed with straw. The stuffing had been knocked out at a few points.  The boy held up a stick as he proclaimed his victory.  Watching from afar was an elegantly-dressed man, his equally elegant wife, and the small baby she carried in her arms.

"I feel safe knowing our country is in your hands, brave warrior!" Kai's father smiled at him, his hand resting on the hilt of the Jun Zhu Tan.  His mother remained silent, but her warm, comforting smile told Kai that she was proud of him, without the need for words.

Kai posed with his wooden stick, trying to imitate his father as well as possible. "I'll protect everyone! Even my parents!"

Kai's mother chuckled. "Is that a promise?"

A lone tear made its way down agent Poo's cheek.  Oddly enough, sitting in the darkness of his room, he was smiling.

"Yes! I'll protect you…I promise!"