KidsWBYungsta's Battle for the Animation Multiverse — Chapter 02: Everybody Meets Everybody
KidsWBYungsta's Battle for the Animation Multiverse — Chapter 02: "Everybody Meets Everybody"
A/N: Welcome back to the Battle for the Animation Multiverse, ladies and gentlemen! After defeating the various robots that have entered their respective worlds, the Toon Heroes find themselves in a dystopian future, where they find clues that imply that this place was once their home and that the villains have a tight grip on Dubba City and the greater Animation Multiverse. Upon being captured by the villains, the heroes become aware of the situation at hand and how this adventure is going to be bigger than anything they could ever imagine…
Chapter Summary: After disposing the mysterious robot threats in their respective homeworlds, the superteam of heroic Toons find themselves in the dystopian Animation Multiverse where they survey the damage and try to figure out what happened to the hustle and bustle of Dubba City. However, while they check out the damage, they end up getting caught up by Aku and sent to the villains' mysterious hangout, which eventually leads to him becoming better acquainted with each other and a better understanding of the impending mission. While at the home of the League of Extraordinary Villains, they get their first glimpse of the mysterious black cat, who is being accompanied by a future version of an old friend…
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the cartoon and anime characters who appear in this story. The cartoon and anime characters who do appear are under the ownership of their respective companies.
Dedication: A tip of the hat to the talented cast and crew behind OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.
Future: The Destroyed Central Park and the Remains of Warner Bros. Boardwalk — The Dubba City Dystopia, Animation Multiverse
Upon a madcap encounter involving a rogue robot doppelganger and meeting up with a certain teenage shapeshifting superhero, Bugs thought that things couldn't get any weirder… or, at the very least, any more ridiculous than his usual days. However, he was going to be proven wrong once he realized what type of adventure he has about to go on…
After popping out of the mysterious portal that appeared in Looney Tune Land following the defeat of his robo-doppelganger, Bugs found that the vibrant colors of Looney Tune Land were replaced by a rather desolate atmosphere that involved the ruins of a particular city. Bugs came to realize that he was far from home, though not having a clear understanding as to where he was at the moment.
Upon shaking his head and cleaning the dust off of his body, Bugs decided to do some investigating as to where he had landed and what happened to that teenage shapeshifter that happened to show up in Looney Tune Land. As he proceeded to take a look at the surroundings, he found that much of the destroyed remains looked similar to the Warner Bros. Boardwalk from Looney Tune Land, but he was surprised as to why it was here in this ghost town instead of Looney Tune Land.
Soon, Bugs stepped on a sign that said "Dubba City: Home of the World's Greatest Cartoon Characters", which piqued the rabbit's interest as he took a closer look and said, "'Dubba City'? What the—is this what this mass dystopia once was? I wonder what happened to this place that made it into such a…"
Just as Bugs was pondering what occurred in this location that turned it into a dystopian ghost town, he was interrupted by a blast flying over his head. Bugs ducked at the nick of time to avoid getting his head blasted off, but he was shocked to see that he had to deal with even more of those "mechanical maroons" as he would say.
Bugs turned to see a group of Ultrabots that happened to know of his presence, one of them performed an analysis on the iconic cartoon rabbit and said in a threatening tone, "Sorry, rabbit, but you must be destroyed."
Instead of trembling in fear or reacting in shock as they would've expected, Bugs could only react the best way he knew how: confidently stepping up to the lead Ultrabot and saying, "Eh, listen, doc, I'd hate to bust your bubble, but I think it would be best for you mechanical maroons to know that I'm not one to be trifled with!"
Despite how confident he was in thinking he could easily outsmart these robots, Bugs quickly realized that these robots were deadly serious, nothing like the bumbling ones he would encounter in the classic Looney Tunes cartoons. The lead Ultrabot responded to Bugs' overconfident bluster by producing a pair of flamethrowers and aimed them at the rabbit, but Bugs thought fast by disguising himself as a fireman and quickly doused the flamethrowers once they were thrown.
The other Ultrabots were dumbfounded by the fact that anyone, let alone a talking cartoon bunny, was able to pull a fast one on one of their signature attacks as Bugs just smirked and said, "Like I said, doc, never underestimate a rabbit."
The Ultrabots could only stare at the rabbit in complete silence until they overheard Aku's voice yelling, "What are you waiting for, a victory dance?! Stop standing around like a bunch of fools and get that rabbit!"
"Yes, master," The Ultrabots said in a synchronized, monotonous tone as they proceeded to go after the rabbit, who decided to give chase by giving them a taste of his signature Looney Tunes trickery.
Three of the Ultrabots followed Bugs to one destroyed location, the KND Treehouse, which gave Bugs an idea of how to dispose of the three. By luring the Gatling Ultrabot towards one of the trees that was next to the Treehouse, Bugs taunted the Gatling Ultrabot by making a goofy face, angering the Ultrabot as it proceeded to fie tons of projectiles near the tree, though Bugs had moved out of the way quickly as the projectiles tore through the tree. Soon, the Ultrabot stopped firing projectiles as it realized that the rabbit had moved out of the way and the tree quickly crash landed on top of the robot, putting it out of commission.
Two of the other Ultrabots, the Buzzsaw Ultrabot and the Chain-Claw Ultrabot, decided to avenge their comrade by going after the rabbit themselves, but Bugs was already one step ahead as he rushed up to the Buzzsaw Ultrabot and whispered, "Hey, doc, I just heard from that bot with that Chain-Claw that you were practically the most-worthless being of all the Ultrabots in Aku's goon patrol."
The Buzzsaw Ultrabot just stopped in shock as it glared at the Chain-Claw Ultrabot and said in a menacing tone, "Oh, is that so?"
Just before the Chain-Claw Ultrabot could become aware of what was going on, Bugs had whispered to the robot, "Y'know, doc, if someone was questioning my worth to this Aku character, I'd give him a taste of his own medicine by giving him the most-brutal beatdown I could only imagine!"
"With pleasure," the Chain-Claw Ultrabot said as it fired one of its claws at the Buzzsaw Ultrabot, who responded by usigin one of its buzzsaws to slice one of the Chain-Claw's… well, claws, putting both Ultrabots in a state of war that would ultimately end with one or both destroyed beyond belief.
Upon seeing the two Ultrabots duke it out, Bugs turned his attention to finishing off the remaining Ultrabots, starting with the Flamethrower Ultrabot. However, just as he was about to heckle the Flamethrower Ultrabot, he was stopped by the sudden presence of the Wire Ultrabot, who fired wire segments from its stomach at Bugs, but the rabbit quickly ran off and ducked out of harm's way, then he found himself coming face-to-face with the Shuriken Ultrabot, who was firing the projectiles as lightning-fast speeds, though Bugs managed to get out of harm's way with ease.
Quickly coming with a game plan upon encountering both the Wire and Shuriken Ultrabots, Bugs dug underground and got behind the Wire Ultrabot, turning it towards the Shuriken Ultrabot that was still firing projectiles, causing the Wire Ultrabot to be destroyed in the process while the Shuriken Ultrabot was ultimately taken down by the wire fired from the Wire Ultrabot. Upon becoming aware of Bugs taking down their comrades with ease, the last two, and most-dangerous, Ultrabots, Gauntlet and Katana, both arrived at the nick of time to destroy the rabbit, but Bugs quickly made lightwork of the Katana Ultrabot with ease by using the Flamethrowers from the Flamethrower Ultrabot (after he destroyed it with a classic ACME anvil) and fired them at the Katana Ultrabot, burning the robot to smithereens as it said in an annoyed tone, "Unbelievable… literally outsmarted by a rabbit…"
Finally, Bugs set his sights on the Gauntlet Ultrabot, who happened to disappear after Bugs destroyed the Flamethrower and Gauntlet Ultrabots. However, much to the rabbit's surprise, the Gauntlet Ultrabot was not destroyed nor did it run off in fear of being outsmarted by Bugs Bunny. Instead, the Gauntlet Ultrabot happened to use camouflage to its advantage as it raised its hands up to destroy Bugs, but the rabbit ducked out of the way at the right time. Just as Bugs gave way to another chase, the Gauntlet Ultrabot followed suit as it continued to slam its fists down on the ground in pursuit of the rabbit. Eventually, the Gauntlet Ultrabot found that Bugs had seemingly disappeared, but it turns out that the rabbit was on its head the whole time, which became clear when Bugs whistled and said, "Hey, gruesome! Lookin' for a certain wascally wabbit?"
Giving a slow burning growl in annoyance, the Gauntlet Ultrabot quickly raised its hands up to drop the thunder on Bugs, but the rabbit jumped off of its head at the right possible moment, leading to the Ultrabot's demise as its hands slammed on its head so hard that it proceeded to malfunction until it ultimately powered down, thereby leading to its defeat.
Bugs wiped some sweat from his forehead after his surprising victory over the Ultrabots, saying to himself, "Hopefully, the next person who ends up beamed into this place doesn't have to deal with those maroons. Now, maybe I can figure out what the heck happened to this—What the?!"
Suddenly, Bugs found himself getting caught in another mysterious beam of light, though unlike the previous portals of light, this one was going to give Bugs a clear answer as to who were the ones that caused the destruction of Dubba City, as well as who were the ones that sent that rogue robot into Looney Tune Land.
Present Day: Aku's Mysterious Lair: Home of the League of Extraordinary Villains — ACME Space Station, The Reaches of Outer Space, Animation Multiverse
Soon, Bugs found himself caught inside a glass capsule that was hosted in a mysterious lair, which only confused him as he looked around and said, "Oh, brother, don't tell me Marvin the Martian is on another one of his old 'taking over the Earth' plots again…"
However, his initial confusion as to what was going on quickly turned into an attitude that had a mix of "no surprises there" and "I've seen it all before" when he saw the villains that were gathered in the lair. Bugs took a look at each of the villains, particularly glaring at Swackhammer, as he said, "Well, what do we have here? An all-star class reunion of the supervillains who have failed to achieve their ultimate goal in their own continuities?"
Before any of the villains could respond to the wiseacre of the smart-aleck rabbit, a mysterious, booming voice beat them to the punch as the voice said, "Well, I see that you still got jokes for a foolish rabbit that got caught in such a precarious situation…"
Before Bugs could ask for the source of the voice, the source in question finally revealed himself as Aku, who walked up to the rabbit and said, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the one and only Bugs Bunny. You may not be as powerful or as skilled as that accursed samurai, but your tricks and quick wits are superpowered enough that I bet you think you could outsmart each and every one of us in here if this was such a simple Looney Tunes cartoon, huh?"
"Well, it might be a challenge, but I know that I could win against all of you in one go," Bugs said in a confident tone. "Besides, if I am able to hold my own against Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Gossamer, The Crusher, Marvin the Martian, the Tasmanian Devil and Witch Hazel, not to mention teaming up with Michael Jordan to lead the Looney Tunes to victory over those treacherous Monstars, then you can best believe that I—"
"Enough with the Space Jam talk, long ears!" Swackhammer bellowed as he walked up to Bugs, then he sported a menacing grin as he said, "You can keep that tough talk up if you wanna, but after we reclaim our victory over you and all of our mortal enemies, you and the rest of those pathetic Looney Tunes'll be wishing that you had Michael Jordan by your side again."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone there, Swackhammer!" Icy said as she walked up to Swackhammer and Bugs, then she looked at the Moron Mountain owner incredulously as she added, "You mean to tell me that this buck-toothed, carrot-chomping, overbite-challenged rabbit actually got in contact with this Michael Jordan? What's the big deal?"
"Icy, I think the better question you should be asking is how Bugs managed to get Michael Jordan on speed dial at that time," Darcy quipped.
"The big deal? What's the big deal?! The big deal is that this rabbit and those blasted Looney Tunes managed to get Michael Jordan to lead their goofy little basketball team to victory over my superpowered and super-talented Monstars—" Swackhammer said until Bugs interjected by adding, "who happened to steal their talent from the NBA players."
Swackhammer was fuming with so much pent-up anger and aggression that he was ready to pull the rabbit out of his capsule and give him such a hardcore thrashing until he found himself being restrained by Thrax and Sailor Galaxia, screaming, "Let me at 'im! Let me get one shot at that no-good, smart-aleck rabbit! I need to enact my ultimate revenge from all those years ago!"
"Sheesh, Swackhammer, that basketball game was literally over 20 years ago," Sailor Galaxia said, straining herself trying to hold Swackhammer back. "Don't you think that this impending victory would be more important than some silly basketball game?"
Swackhammer calmed down for a moment, then thought about the possibility of finally eradicating not only Bugs Bunny, but also the Looney Tunes for good and replacing them with robotic counterparts. Eventually, he finally calmed down and smiled deviously as he lit up a cigar and said, "Y'know somethin', Galaxia? You got a point there. Besides, we actually got the upper hand on those fools now. Hey, Aku, when do you think the other heroes are gonna show up?"
Aku took a look at the monitor in the lair and saw that Ben Tennyson had made his way into Dubba City, moments after Bugs had encountered Aku's rogue Ultrabots, and he was doing some investigating around the dystopian Dubba City himself. Aku thought about instantly beaming him into their lair, but he decided to utilize the element of surprise on him.
Future: Downtown District at Dubba City *Destroyed* — The Dubba City Dystopia, Animation Multiverse
Speaking of Ben Tennyson, the teenage shapeshifter was busy taking a look around this mysterious location, hoping to find some clues as to where he was or to find Bugs and see if he knew about what was going on at the moment. While walking, Ben had noticed the Dubba City sign that Bugs had seen earlier before he had encountered the Ultrabots, but he also noticed a piece of paper that had flown on top of the sign. Ben knelt down and saw that the paper contained a warning that said, "To Whom It May Concern, We Must Evacuate All Citizens to Prevent Massive Villainous Takeover! Signed, R.R., Dictated But Not Read"
"'R.R.'? I wonder if that is who I think that is…" Ben said, rubbing his chin.
Just as Ben was putting the pieces together, he overheard the sound of three girls screaming as they landed into Dubba City, which piqued Ben's interest as he turned on his Omnitrix and said, "Well, it looks like this adventure is far from over. Let's see if I got the right alien for the job…"
Future: Remnants of The Park — The Dubba City Dystopia, Animation Multiverse
Bloom, Flora and Juniper had crash landed in one area of Dubba City, still in their classic Winx forms. Bloom was the first to regain consciousness as she looked around and said, "Wow, what a bump. Hey, where are we? Where are the girls?"
"I don't even know, Bloom, but it looks like we ended up in some sort of alternate universe," Juniper said, rubbing her head as she looked around where she and the two Winx girls had landed.
As Bloom surveyed her new surroundings, she rushed to awaken Flora from her slumber, the latter mumbling, "I know one thing… Lonely hearts won't break…"
"Flora, wake up! Wake up, you have to see this!" Bloom said as she nudged her friend awake from her slumber.
Flora woke up with a stir as she rubbed her head and looked up at Bloom, saying, "Huh? Wha? Come on, Bloom, just 5 more minutes. A girl needs her b—wait a minute, I'm starting to sound like Stella."
Flora then looked around for a moment as she said, "Bloom, where are we?"
"I don't know, Flora, but one thing's for certain: we're not in Alfea anymore," Bloom said.
Just as Bloom, Flora and Juniper had walked around to investigate where they had landed, June had noticed a destroyed house from afar as she exclaimed as she rushed up to the house, "Girls, come on! We have to get a closer look at this!"
At June's beck and call, Bloom and Flora ran to where June was standing and saw the dilapidated house that she was referring to. Just before any of them could go any further to know more about the house, Bloom stopped when she felt a mysterious hand poking her shoulder, which caused her to turn quickly and get ready to spur into action until the being said in defense, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold the fire! You know I come in peace, right?"
"Wha—huh?" Bloom said as she took a look at the alien in question, doing a double take out of confusion as she said, "Wait, who are you?"
"Well, as far as the alien goes, I go by XLR8, but you can call me… Ben 10," XLR8 said in a subtle suave tone.
"Ben… Ten?" Bloom said, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
Bloom turned to Flora to see if she knew of Ben 10, but her friend just shrugged her shoulders in response. However, the mention of Ben's name seemed to ring in Juniper's head as she walked up to XLR8 and said, "Ben 10? Wow, it's been some time since we've seen each other."
"Juniper Lee, is that you?" XLR8 said in a surprised tone. "I haven't seen you since that Lord Fuse Invasion all those years ago! How did you end up in this place?"
"Well, actually… you know, I'm just as confused about this as you are, Ben," Juniper said. "First thing I remember, I was busy dealing with a rogue robot in Orchid Bay, then I found myself beamed into the Realm of Magix, meeting these two girls here, and now, here we are at this mysterious place that has this dilapidated house."
Juniper's mention of The Realm of Magix seemed to pique Ben's interest as he said, "'The Realm of Magix'? Is that another dimension or universe?"
"It's more than likely another world, but that's where I met these two girls," Juniper said, motioning towards Bloom and Flora.
Bloom then walked up to XLR8 and said, "Yeah, that's pretty much how it went. Oh, by the way, I'm Bloom and this is my friend, Flora. We're the… well, two parts of the Winx Club. The other girls are back at Alfea. Who knows how the others are going to react once they realize that we're gone?"
"The Winx Club? A group of fairies?" XLR8 said, rubbing his chin, then he added, "Man, and I thought meeting Bugs Bunny was going to be the only interesting thing that happened today."
"Wait a minute, Bugs Bunny? Ben, where did you meet Bugs?" Juniper asked, raising an eyebrow.
Suddenly, XLR8 turned back to Ben's actual form and he responded, "Well, after clearing out two robot goons that happened to pop up in Bellwood, I somehow ended up in Looney Tune Land and Bugs mentioned that he also had to deal with a robot doppelganger, not to mention that an old enemy of his and the Tunes, Swackhammer, had come into contact with Vilgax and Aku that gave him the opportunity to create a robot of that ilk."
"Interesting…" Juniper said.
Bloom was still left in surprise upon hearing Ben's explanation of what had occurred, especially his note of how Bugs Bunny happened to get dragged into the plot. Now, someone like a Ben Tennyson or a Juniper Lee getting roped into this adventure, it made a lot of sense, but someone like Bugs Bunny, a cartoon character whose universe ran on laws of physics and other such rules that differed from their worlds? It sounds like the villains had more of a sinister motive up their sleeves.
Before Bloom could ask Ben for any more information about what had occurred, Flora noticed a broken picture frame on the ground that likely came from the house they were looking at, allowing her to get a closer look at the picture in question. While she was looking at the photo, Ben, Bloom and Juniper walked up to the Fairy of Nature as the latter asked, "Hey, Flora, what are you looking at?"
Flora turned to look at Ben, Bloom and Juniper as she said, "Um… guys, I think you might want to take a look at this…"
As Flora showed them the photograph, the other three teens were surprised to see that the photo consisted of the crew that worked at the location they were currently in, which included a tall bluejay, a brown racoon, an anthropomorphic gumball machine, a yeti, a man with a lollipop-shaped head, an overweight green male and a ghost. Upon looking at the photograph of this quirky crew, Ben could only look on in shock as he said quietly, "Oh, no… they didn't… there's no way this could've happened…"
Ben's reaction caused a mix of confusion and concern between the three girls as Bloom said, "Hey, Ben, are you alright? What's wrong?"
Before Ben could respond, a mysterious beam of light appeared underneath the four teens, taking them to the lair where the League of Extraordinary Villains were gathered.
Present Day: Aku's Mysterious Lair: Home of the League of Extraordinary Villains — ACME Space Station, The Reaches of Outer Space, Animation Multiverse
Soon, Ben, Bloom, Flora and Juniper found themselves caught in separate capsules, finally realizing where Bugs had found himself after he himself had landed in this dystopian, dilapidated environment. As the four heroes looked around, Ben said in a confused tone, "What just happened? Where are we?"
Ben then turned to Bugs and asked, "Bugs, do you know what's going on?"
Bugs could only shrug his shoulders in response to the teenage shapeshifter as he said, "Eh, beats me, doc. Trust me, I'm just as confused as you guys are."
Bloom and Flora were rather starstruck upon seeing Bugs Bunny in real life, as was Juniper, though her reaction was more subdued as she said, "Wait, that's really Bugs Bunny?"
Bugs then took a bite from his carrot as he said, "Eh… what's up, doc?"
"Never in my life did I think I'd ever see a living, breathing cartoon character in real life, but here we are now," Bloom said to herself, then she turned to Flora and said, "Flora, do you have any clue about what these villains have in store?"
"I wish I could say I did, but, outside of what Ben told us earlier and some hints from what I saw at that house, I have nothing more to go on," Flora said, giving a sad sigh.
Soon, Bloom and Flora were interrupted by Icy walking up to their capsules, saying in a mocking tone, "Oh, please, I wouldn't worry too much about our plot because once we engage in our ultimate multiversal takeover, you pathetic pixies won't be able to stop us!"
Icy was soon joined by Darcy and Stormy at her side as she said, "Well, well, well, Bloom and Flora… surprised to see us?"
Flora could only look at the Trix in a mix of surprise and dumbfounded astonishment, but Bloom gave Icy a knowing smirk as she said, "The Trix? I thought you girls were sent back to Lightrock Monastery after that failed team-up with Valtor."
"Oh, isn't that cute of you, Bloom? Trying to act so confident, even though you and Flora caught in this predicament," Icy said in a mocking tone, then she gave an enchanted laugh as she added, "For your information, fairy, we were stuck at that insufferable place, but let's just say that a certain shapeshifter broke us out and allowed us to take part in his plans for this ultimate multiverrsal takeover."
Upon hearing this explanation from Icy, Flora gave a knowing look to Bloom as she looked at Icy and said in a playful tone, "Oh? Well, who? Who was this supposed mysterious shapeshifter that came and freed you three from Lightrock Monastery?"
Flora's response incited some giggling between the two Winx girls, but their giggling was quickly interrupted by Aku's voice saying, "Who dares mock the almighty Aku?"
Bloom and Flora quickly stopped their giggling as they both looked up to see that the one and only Aku was standing in front of them, tall and dominant. The Trix could only give smug smiles in response as Aku looked down at Bloom and Flora, then looked at the Trix and said, "So, these are the powerful Winx girls you were talking about? Where's the rest of their team? Why did you only get two of 'em?!"
"I guess the other girls were busy with something else and these two fell for our trap, hook, line and sinker," Darcy said, shrugging her shoulders. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Aku, these two are the most powerful of those fairies, so their abilities should be enough to power our robot army."
"A trap?" Bloom and Flora said in shock.
However, Darcy's mention of a robot army seemed to hit Flora more than anything as she said, "Wait a minute, Darcy, just what did you mean by a 'robot army'?"
The Trix could only respond by giving innocent looks as if they did not know what Flora was talking about, then Aku leaned towards the two Winx girls and said, "Oh, you naïve little fairies, I believe that our robot army should mean nothing to you two. What you should be worried about is how are you and the others are going to protect your friends when you're all the way out here!"
Bloom and Flora both exchanged looks of concern as Bloom said, "I don't know about you, Flora, but I've got a bad feeling about this…"
Future: The Schlesinger Gym *Destroyed* — The Dubba City Dystopia, Animation Multiverse
Back at the destroyed Dubba City, Huey and Riley happened to find themselves inside the destroyed Schlesinger Gym, of all places, after their encounter with one of the robots at Woodcrest. Huey was the first of the two brothers to become aware of his new surroundings as he looked around and thought to himself, "Looks like the Monstars finally snapped and decided to get their revenge on the Looney Tunes… Who am I kidding? That sounds like something Riley would've said."
Before Huey could wake his brother up, Riley woke himself up as he looked up and said, "Yo, Huey, what's going on here? Did the apocalypse hit around Woodcrest or something?"
"Riley, I don't think we're in Woodcrest anymore," Huey said as he and Riley left the disheveled Schlesinger Gym, leading into the outer destroyed Dubba City as he added, "It looks like we found ourselves in the midst of a dystopian wasteland."
"A dystopian wasteland? What you think this is, Huey: Mad Max?" Riley asked in a surprised tone. "This isn't just one of your old conspiracy theories that came to life, is it?"
"Riley, if I had come up with a conspiracy theory like this, it probably wouldn't have been as bad as this is," Huey explained.
"Maybe so, but it still falls in line with what you were implying years ago," Riley said. "You think the war finally broke out in this town?"
Before Huey could give an answer, he was interrupted by overhearing one of Vilgax's robot minions preparing to fire a laser at Huey and Riley, but was stopped by a mysterious blast of static electricity that blew the robot to pieces. Huey and Riley stood there in surprise, motionless for a few moments until Riley finally spoke and said, "Damn, Huey… you must have some cat-like reflexes or something, but I never knew that your electric glove had that much power."
Huey just shot a confused look at Riley as he raised an eyebrow and said, "Uh, Riley, this might sound crazy, but… that wasn't me."
"Well, if it wasn't you, then who was it then?" Riley asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
Suddenly, the Freeman brothers would find their answer as they saw Static landing his Static Saucer and walking up to the two, saying, "Sorry about that, fellas, am I late to the party?"
Riley was starstruck for a moment, standing there with his mouth agape as Huey looked up and said, "Not really, but thanks. I didn't think that—"
"Yo, Huey, do you know who that is? That's Static Shock!" Riley said, pointing up to the static superhero. "Oh, man, forget what anyone says: you're literally the greatest superhero in all of the DCU!"
Static was a bit surprised by how Riley was acting, then he knelt down to Huey and said, "Hey, is he normally like this or is this just a special occasion?"
Huey could only look at Riley for a moment, then he looked up at Static and said, "Nah, I wouldn't worry too much. He's usually more… confrontational than that."
"'Confrontational'? Who you callin' confrontational, Huey?" Riley said in a faux-offended tone, then he nudged his older brother as he said, "C'mon, Huey, you know that I only get confrontational with these fools when they try to start somethin' with me! Remember how I held my own against Lamilton Taeshawn?"
"Riley, that was just one isolated incident," Huey said. "What about the time you went up against Butch Magnus?"
Riley thought back to his encounter with Butch Magnus, then realized that he had barely survived his showdown against him in order to reclaim his Lethal Injection chain. However, Riley just brushed that off as he said, "Yeah-yeah-yeah, I know that, but think about it: I had that fat fool scared for his life! He was all, 'Oh, please, Young Reezy, don't hurt me! I didn't mean to steal your chain!', then I was all like, 'Uh-uh, don't start apologizing now, chump! Young Reezy gon' give you the throwdown'…"
Before either Static or Huey could comment on Riley's antics, not to mention how he was clearly lying about what had occurred between him and Butch Magnus, the mysterious beam of light had appeared underneath them to send them to Aku's lair, where they would also meet some of the other heroes who had been caught by the villains.
Present Day: Aku's Mysterious Lair: Home of the League of Extraordinary Villains — ACME Space Station, The Reaches of Outer Space, Animation Multiverse
Soon, Huey, Riley and Static found themselves caught in separate capsules in Aku's lair: Static caught in one capsule, while Huey and Riley were caught in one capsule at the same time. Static, Huey and Riley surveyed the other capsules and noticed that the villains had caught some of the other heroes, including Bugs, Ben, Juniper, Bloom and Flora. Riley was feeling perplexed by Bugs Bunny's presence as he looked up at Huey and said, "Yo, what's Bugs Bunny doing up here? How'd he get roped into this multidimensional—whatever you wanna call it, whatever plot these fools are settin' up?"
Huey could only shrug his shoulders in response to his rambunctious younger brother's question, but Static looked at the villains who were present and gave his own answer, saying, "I have a feeling that whatever they have in store, it's gonna be bigger than anything I've seen through all of my adventures."
Icy took note of Huey and Riley's presence and said in a slightly-annoyed tone, "Okay, I could understand why you wanted to capture Bugs Bunny, but why did we also have to pick up the Freeman brothers as well?"
"Whose idea was it to send robots to their universe? They don't seem like the type of heroes who have any sort of battling prowess," Darcy said, scratching her head.
Before Riley could give Darcy a verbal lashing, Stormy quickly cut into the conversation and said, "I wouldn't be too quick to count them out, Darcy. I mean, honestly, Riley is someone that's practically all talk and no bite, but Huey is known for having a wide range of kung-fu skills and deep knowledge of the martial arts."
Huey and Riley were surprised by Stormy's analysis as Riley said, "Man, how did that frizzy-haired chick know all of that stuff about us? Has she been stalking us or something?"
"I'd doubt it," Huey said. "Clearly, some nefarious methods had to be at hand."
"Hey, y'all are busy worrying about the Freeman brothers, but look at this fella right here," Thrax said, getting everyone's attention as he took a look at Static. "We literally got one of the strongest heroes in all of the DC Universe."
"Thrax? I thought you had dissolved after that battle with Osmosis Jones," Static said in a subtly-surprised tone. "How did you survive that?"
Thrax could only laugh coolly in response, then he added, "Well, let's just say… it works to have friends in high places, if ya know what I mean."
Static could only glance at Aku, then he glared at Thrax and said, "Yeah… I can definitely see that…"
Aku took a moment to investigate Huey and Riley, then he said, "Pathetic. You mean to tell me that there weren't any real heroes in your world that we had to settle for some little kids?"
"Little?!" Riley said in shock as he tried to find his way out of the capsule to beat up Aku. "Yo, who did you think you are, man? Just wait until I get out of this stupid thing! I'll show you what a real Freeman man is made of!"
However, Riley found himself being restrained by his older brother, who tried to reason with Riley as he said, "Riley, calm down! You don't want to risk your life by just fighting with the Master of Darkness!"
Riley stopped as he looked down at his brother and said, "Master of Darkness? You mean to tell me that this guy, lookin' like he would be the perfect exhibit of a modern art museum, is a so-called 'Master of Darkness'?"
"Riley, trust me," Huey said with a sigh. "I had a vision about this guy once."
"Yes, 'Riley', I figure that it would be wise for you to listen to your older brother before you risk the livelihood of yourself and the other heroes in here, young fool," Aku said in a mocking tone to the younger Freeman brother, sporting a smug, devious smile on his face as his tone increasingly rose in amusement.
Riley just gave an annoyed look at Aku, then he sighed as he calmed down and figured it would be pointless to fight with the Master of Darkness.
Future: Entrance to Dubba City *Destroyed* — The Dubba City Dystopia, Animation Multiverse
Back in the destroyed Dubba City, Jenny was the next of the many heroes who would be caught up in Aku and his team's devious scheme. The last thing she remembered before she beamed into this universe, she found herself in the midst of a strange encounter involving some of Marvin the Martian's Instant Martians, which ended with her having to knock them out one-by-one. Although she was aware that it had to be the work of Vexus, she knew that the random encounter was part of a bigger threat.
"Never in my life did I think that I would find myself in a pseudo-Looney Tunes cartoon in lieu of an actual battle," Jenny said, then her eyes popped up in surprise when she realized that she was no longer in Tremorton. "Huh? Where am I? Why is this city looking so destroyed?"
As Jenny walked up to investigate the damage, she noticed a sign that said "Welcome to Dubba City: Home of the best toons in all the Animation Multiverse!". As she looked at the sign, she raised an eyebrow in confusion as she said to herself, "'Dubba City'? 'Animation Multiverse'? Wow, I never knew of this place before. Is this some sort of universe where—wha? What was that?"
Hearing some rather strange sounds, Jenny quickly got into her battle stance, her arm rocket ready to blast, thinking that it was another one of Vexus' robots that was going to do damage to her. However, instead of any threatening robots, she was surprised to notice that it was only a random cardboard box that was moving around a bit. Jenny raised an eyebrow at this phenomena as she felt it was rather strange for a cardboard box to be moving without any rhyme or reason. Wanting to investigate, Jenny walked up to the cardboard box and quickly stopped its little trip.
"Listen, I don't know who you are, but nothing gets past me!" Jenny said as she knelt down at the cardboard box, her arm rocket locked, loaded and ready to go. "Reveal yourself and nobody is going to get hurt."
Right at her command, the individual revealed itself from underneath the cardboard box. Much to Jenny's surprise, it turned out that the one who was moving under the cardboard box wasn't any minor villain or even an army of ants. It turned out to be Courage the Cowardly Dog, who happened to beam into this futuristic Dubba City after his encounter with one of the rogue robots. Apparently, he had also run into another evil robot when he beamed in and, upon disposing of the other robot as well, had to hide under the box to avoid being noticed, though he had also planned on trying to find out more about this mysterious place and what had happened to all of the citizens that once inhabited this environment.
Courage and Jenny found themselves staring at each other for what felt like a long period of time, but just as Jenny reached her hand out to pet Courage's head, he quickly snuck back under the cardboard box, shivering in fear as he thought that Jenny was one of the robots that was sent to destroy any hero that came into this place.
Jenny took note of Courage's timid nature, thinking to herself, "Huh, I guess this dog's not an enemy after all. He seems to be just as confused as I am about this current situation. Maybe I could see if he knows anything about what's been going on… let alone, knowing what is this place…"
Jenny proceeded to pull the cardboard box up from Courage, who was still shivering until he looked up in shock upon seeing that Jenny had moved the box off of him, taking away his hiding spot for the time being. His eyes bugged out in fear as he shrieked and was about to run away from the teenage robot, but Jenny managed to stop him at the right time, saying, "Wait! Stop! Don't worry, little dog, I'm not going to hurt you. Trust me, I'm not like any of those other robots who you have probably encountered in your life."
Despite Jenny's reassurance, Courage was still unsure of her motives as he still was thinking that she was a deadly robot assassin who was sent to destroy him and send him to her masters as a trophy of sorts. However, Jenny knew one way to assure Courage that she was an ally, not associated with the villains who were behind this plot. Something of a friend, nothing like an enemy.
As Jenny reached her hand out once again, Courage covered his eyes and shivered in fear as he expected the worst to occur. However, when he opened one of his eyes, he was surprised to see that Jenny only reached her hand out to pet his head, which left him stunned for a moment, but that stunned feeling eventually turned into warmth and safety as he warmly smiled at the robot, giving a contented sigh.
"Awww, see? Now, you're feeling a lot better," Jenny said as she proceeded to pick Courage up and give him a hug. "Hey, what's your name, little dog?"
Courage just looked at Jenny for a moment, not knowing how to respond at the moment, which caused the robot to raise an eyebrow as she asked, "You can talk, can you?"
Courage nodded his head as he cleared his throat and said, "My name is Courage."
"'Courage'… wow, that's a really sweet name," Jenny said, giving a sweet smile. "So, Courage… do you happen to know where we are right now? Why did we end up in this weirdo place?"
Courage could only shrug in response as he said, "Honestly, I'm just as confused as you are. Just a few minutes ago, I literally had to dispose a robot that beamed into the Middle of Nowhere, then I ended up here in this dystopian future. It's strange… I know that I tend to attract some strange characters to the Middle of Nowhere, but this one just showed up out of the blue… it's as if it wanted me as a personal trophy or something…"
Courage's explanation seemed to pique Jenny's interest, leaving her wondering about how the army of Instant Martians were really a cover for the rogue robot that was sent to destroy her before it was destroyed by Static. However, before she could voice this concern to Courage, the two overheard two voices from afar that crash-landed into another location of this dystopian city. This mysterious appearance led to Jenny wanting to investigate, but Courage was concerned that it could've been another evil robot. Just as Jenny was going to fly over to the source of the voices, Courage quickly grabbed her leg and gave a worried look.
Luckily, Jenny knew how to put Courage's fears at bay as she said, "Don't worry, Courage, I'm sure they're probably another pair of heroes who happened to crash land here. Besides, even if they were a pair of bloodthirsty robots, I'd definitely know how to handle them."
Jenny then placed Courage on her back as she flew to find out who were the two heroes that landed in this dilapidated city. However, Courage then turned to the audience as he said, "I just know something weird is about to happen or my name is Generalissimo Francisco Franco… and it's not."
Future: DexLabs *Destroyed* — Genius Grove, Dubba City Dystopia, Animation Multiverse
One place that anyone would expect to either be beamed into or crash land at was Dexter's Laboratory, the famed laboratory that was always kept a secret from pretty much everyone… well, everyone except for Dexter's sister, Dee Dee, who always seemed to find a way into his lab, no matter how hard he tried to keep her out.
Anyway, two of the heroes ended up landing in this mysterious laboratory, but there was no sign of Dexter, Dee Dee or even Mandark. Heck, not even Dexter's Computer seemed to be working; in fact, everything in this laboratory was dilapidated, a thought that was voiced by the blonde-haired girl of the duo:
"I don't know about you, Marco, but I never would've expected to see a laboratory with so much dead space."
The Hispanic teenage male of the group, now known as Marco, rubbed his head as he surveyed his surroundings and said, "No kidding. You would think that you would see a scientist or two, but—wait a minute, Star, I didn't think you'd point out a laboratory being empty. I thought you were interested in something that would be more exciting or… you know…"
"If this were any other situation, Marco, I probably wouldn't have pointed this out, but this one, it's just… well, don't you think this lab looks familiar to you?" Star said, raising an eyebrow as she and Marco walked around this mysterious lab.
Marco could only raise an eyebrow at his friend's declaration, but as they were surveying the lab, he noticed a note that was left on the keyboard for the lab's master computer. Upon reading the note, Marco looked on in shock as he ran up to Star and said, "Star, you've got to see this!"
"Huh? What is it, Marco?" Star said, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
As Marco walked up to her with the note, Star proceeded to read it, but as she got to the end of the letter, she slowly read the line, "Best wishes… Dexter…".
Upon reading Dexter's name on the note, Star could only rear back in shock as she said, "Oh, boy, it sounds like there was another casualty in this universe."
"'Another casualty'?" Marco said. "I thought that the note was warning of an apocalypse that was set to affect this universe, I didn't think that—"
Marco then stopped when he and Star heard the sound of a rocket landing in the laboratory. As the two got into their battle stances, just in case it happened to be a rogue robot or even an Ultrabot, they slowly started to relax when they saw that it was Jenny and Courage who decided to find the two heroes that crash landed in this place. Upon landing, Courage hopped off of Jenny's back as he said, "Wow, look at this lab! It's got just as much space as the Bagges' farm back home."
"I know…" Jenny said in a similar tone of amazement. "A master computer? Conveyor belts? A robot mecha? Just like home!"
Although the presence of a talking dog in Courage didn't seem to faze either Star or Marco, the presence of a robot that had the personality and attitude of a teenage girl in Jenny seemed to surprise them more, considering that they hadn't seen anything like that before. Hoping to figure out what was going on, Star and Marco walked up to both Jenny and Courage, hoping to start a conversation and to get some information about what was going on.
However, before anything of that sort could happen, the four heroes were caught in a mysterious beam of light that would send them to outer space.
Present Day: Aku's Mysterious Lair: Home of the League of Extraordinary Villains — ACME Space Station, The Reaches of Outer Space, Animation Multiverse
Jenny, Courage, Star and Marco all found themselves in separate capsules in the lair, though Star and Marco, just like Huey and Riley, shared the same capsule. Courage took a look at the other heroes who were captured prior to them, but he especially took notice of Bugs, Ben, Juniper and Static as he said to himself, "Wait, Bugs got caught too? I could understand why Ben and June were caught, but why did these villains capture Bugs as well? Oh, and Static? How did they manage to get him? I guess they were looking for some more star power outside of Bugs…"
Star also took notice of the other heroes who were present, but she was just as surprised as the others upon seeing that the villains actually caught Bugs as part of their plan, saying, "Wait, hold the phone! Is that really Bugs Bunny down there?"
Bugs heard Star's voice from afar, then he said to the young Mewnian princess as he took a bite from a carrot, "Eh, who did ya expect, doc? Roger Rabbit?"
Star was left a bit perplexed by Bugs' response, but Marco looked up at his friend and said, "Huh, who knew that, even in such a dire situation as this, Bugs could still come up with a witty line or two?"
"Yeah… kinda shows his resilience, don't ya think?" Star said as she gave a knowing smile.
Jenny took notice of the other heroes that were caught, but, aside from Static and Ben Tennyson, there were some that she hadn't even met before—okay, most she hadn't even met before—particularly Bugs, Bloom, Flora, Juniper, Huey and Riley. Jenny could only think to herself, "Wow, so many heroes from so many dimensions? Y'know, this would be a lot more awesome if we weren't stuck in these capsules, but this is still pretty cool!"
Queen Vexus walked up to Jenny and said, "Well, well, Jennifer, it looks like I finally captured you …" Vexus then took a look at Courage in the other capsule, then added, "…and your little dog, too!"
"Vexus? What are you doing here? How did you get linked up with all of these other bad guys?" Jenny asked, taking note of the various villains who were present in the lair, then she raised an eyebrow and dryly quipped, "Did you sign a deal with the devil or something?"
Vexus could only laugh evilly as she said, "Oh, XJ-9, I think the real question you should be asking is what are you doing here?"
Before Jenny could answer her question, she was interrupted by Thrax stepping in and saying, "Yo, Vexus, baby, hold that thought for a moment. Looks like my main man Jones has finally found his way into that futuristic Dubba City."
Thrax then looked up at Aku and shouted, "Hey, Aku! Jones is here! You ready to bring him in?"
"With pleasure, Thrax," Aku said as he pressed a button that produced a portal that got Osmosis Jones into their mysterious lair.
Once Osmosis Jones found himself in the mysterious lair, he could only give a look of annoyance as he sarcastically said, "Man, you guys were having a high school reunion up here and didn't wanna invite a brother?"
"Fool, what are you talkin' about?" Thrax said as he glared at his long-time nemesis. "There's no high-school reunion going on up here, but we are celebrating a little somethin'-somethin': celebrating your downfall at the hands of the League of Extraordinary Villains!"
Osmosis Jones was shocked at seeing his old nemesis in the flesh—not to mention, alive and well—as he said, "Wait, what the h—Thrax, is that you? What are you doing here? I thought I did away with you after that showdown on Frank's body!"
Thrax responded to Jones with a smooth, evil laugh, shaking his head as he pointed up to Aku and said, "Well, let's just say that a certain shapeshifter… no, scratch that, a certain Master of Darkness brought me back from the dead, so to speak… at one point, I was just a distant memory, but now, I'm back, bigger and better than ever, baby!"
Juniper then said to Huey, "Apparently, even bigger of a ham than usual."
Huey just wordlessly nodded his head in response while Riley just snickered, much to The Red Death's annoyance.
"Wait a minute, a Master of Darkness literally brought you back from the dead, Thrax? How is that even possible?" Jones said as he raised an eyebrow.
Aku leaned into Osmosis Jones' face and sported a devious smirk as he said, "I have such mystical powers of rejuvenation that you can't even imagine, foolish blood cell."
"Yo, who you callin' a 'foolish blood cell'?" Osmosis Jones said as he proceeded to pull out his laser gun and added, "I may look like a reckless cop, but I could easily bust out of this thing and open a can of—"
"Oh, cut that tough talk, Jones!" Thrax said, stopping Ozzy's quick tirade. "You're just all talk and no bite. You and that pill barely had the resolve to come back and defeat me when I almost destroyed Frank's body."
"Yeah, but we still managed to pull it off and save the City of Frank while you failed at even getting your name in the medical books, like you claimed you were gonna do throughout the whole time," Ozzy said. "Shoot, not even your discount cousin Scarlet Fever could pull off the job, and that was just for one episode!"
Thrax was slowly losing his cool with Ozzy's bravado as he glared at the white blood cell and said,
Aku quickly stopped the bickering blood cell and pathogen as he said, "Please, fellas, save your energy to the impending battle. Mr. Jones, you may have all of that confidence now, but you won't be as tough when you realize that what you saw out there earlier is going to be the true future!"
"True future?" Ozzy said in a surprised tone. "Wait, you mean to tell me that—"
However, just before Jones could respond to Aku about that quip regarding the 'true future', he was interrupted by Sailor Galaxia saying, "Master Aku, I see that Generator Rex had landed in the destroyed Dubba City! Should I beam him in?"
The mention of Generator Rex seemed to incite some sadistic glee between Aku and Vilgax, while Ben and, surprisingly, Jenny were looking rather uneasy at their friend being caught up in this plot as well. However, their fears were ignored by Aku shouting, "Excellent! Beam him in here!"
With a knowing nod of her head, Sailor Galaxia pressed the button on the controls that beamed Generator Rex into the lair and into his own capsule next to Star and Marco. Upon seeing Ben and Jenny, Rex looked over at the teenage shapeshifter, "Ben, is that you? How did you end up here?"
"Hey, I think you should ask Vilgax and that Aku dude," Ben said, pointing to the two villains in question. "I have a feeling they might divulge on their motives more than I could."
As Rex mulled over the possibilities of what the villains had in store, he noticed Jenny in one of the capsules, giving a friendly wave as Jenny blushed and waved back as she said in a slightly-nervous tone, "Oh, h-hi, Rex, f-f-fancy meeting y-y-you here…"
Jenny's reaction upon seeing Generator Rex was not lost on some of the other heroes who were present, particularly Bugs, who turned to the audience and whispered in a sotto aside, "Well, what do ya know, folks? Looks like the robot girl's got a case of the classic crush."
Aku took a closer look at Generator Rex and said, "So, you're Generator Rex, huh? Apparently, I see that you got some connections with Ben Tennyson and that robot girl, who seems to have an unrequited crush on you, but I'm wondering: when will we finally get that accursed samurai? I want to see the look on his face when he sees what we have in store…"
Generator Rex just smirked at Aku as he looked up at the shapeshifting Master of Darkness and said, "Listen, shapeshifter dude, you might wanna think twice about that one. Whoever this samurai is, I'm pretty sure he's too crafty for the likes of you."
Aku was thrown off by Rex's response, causing him to look down at the EVO hero as he said, "Oh, that's what you think, huh, foolish EVO? Well, if he's so crafty as you claim, how come he was never able to find his way back home to the past after all this time?"
Courage seemed to take note of the discussion as he thought to himself, "I thought Jack eventually found his way back home. Am I just misremembering things again?"
Before Rex could give an answer, he was interrupted by Sailor Galaxia calling Aku, saying, "Hey, Aku! Speak of the devil: it looks like that samurai has arrived with that Sailor Moon and… the Outer Guardians?"
"Outer Guardians?" Aku said in surprise as he walked over to where Sailor Galaxia was, looking up at the screen to see that Jack had been transported to the destroyed Dubba City for some time now, finding himself battling another round of Ultrabots and some of Vilgax's robot minions alngside Sailor Moon and the Outer Guardians. "Wait a minute, I thought you said that the Guardians were some kind of magical girl superteam, Galaxia?"
Sailor Galaxia looked on in surprise when she noticed that the Outer Guardians had joined Sailor Moon instead of the Inner Guardians, then she just shrugged her shoulders as she said, "Well, they are, but I have a feeling that the Inner Guardians were either too busy or the Outer Guardians were battling some robots themselves and Sailor Moon just swooped into action when she saw what was going on…"
Aku just rubbed his chin for a moment on whether or not the Outer Guardians would be worthy for their robot army, but an idea came into his head as he said to Sailor Galaxia, "Actually, this is perfect! If those Outer Guardians are more powerful than the Inner Guardians, and if Sailor Moon and the other Inner Guardians had already reached their final forms, that would give our robot army even more power than they could possibly imagine!"
Sailor Galaxia was stunned by Aku's exclamation as deep down, despite her being a part of the villains, she didn't want to see her fellow Sailor Guardians hurt by Aku, Vilgax or any of the other villains. However, this is her one shot at achieving her ultimate goal that she was unable to accomplish, so she knew she'd have to take one for the team, so to speak. Giving a beleaguered sigh, Sailor Galaxia looked up at Aku and said, "Alright, Aku, do you want to beam them up here?"
"Of course! The more, the merrier, I always say!" Aku said in a proud and confident tone.
Upon rolling her eyes and sighing again in response, Sailor Galaxia pressed the button on the controls that beamed the samurai and the four Sailor Guardians up into their lair.
Soon, Samurai Jack and the Sailor Guardians ended up in separate capsules, though Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune ended up in the same capsule together. Aku came face-to-face with Jack, sporting a devious smile as he said, "Well, well, well, it has been far too long, Samurai Jack. Far, far too long, but I bet you're probably saying to yourself: 'Why, why now, for our sudden reunion'?"
Jack gave an annoyed look in response as he said, "I see you're still trying to take over the Multiverse, Aku."
Aku gave a playful smirk as he said, "Leave it to Samurai Jack to state the obvious."
Meanwhile, Sailor Galaxia was busy getting herself reacquainted with Sailor Moon and the Outer Guardians, but before Galaxia could say a word in response, Sailor Moon was shocked as she said, "Sailor Galaxia?! Why, I mean… how did you end up entangled in such a devious plot?"
"Sailor Moon, it wasn't my intention," Sailor Galaxia said in a sad tone. "You see, I—"
"Oh, cut the small talk, Sailor Galaxia," Sailor Uranus said. "Don't act like that shapeshifting dragon there forced you into this thing. You probably willingly took part in this plot, so you could finally destroy us like you did the Sailor AnimaMates! Is that what this is all about?"
Sailor Galaxia was taken aback by Sailor Uranus' brutal accusation, but if she did feel offended by how Sailor Uranus reacted to her, she hid it pretty well when she responded, "Sailor Uranus, trust me: I didn't want to take part in this. I didn't even intend to do this, but Chaos came back and threatened our world again, but no matter what I did, it just wouldn't leave us be. Eventually, after trying every method I could… well…"
"Well, what?" Sailor Neptune said, curious as to where Sailor Galaxia was going with her explanation.
Sailor Galaxia then gave a sad sigh and said, "Well, I think you know the rest…"
"Listen, Sailor Galaxia, you don't have to do this," Sailor Pluto said. "I know that Chaos is still inside of you for the time being, but there's gotta be a way for you to get out of this mess and eradicate Chaos from your body. Think of the other heroes present here, do you think they deserve this? What about the other Sailor Guardians? What about the Sailor AnimaMates?
Sailor Galaxia stopped for a moment once Sailor Pluto made reference to the other Sailor Guardians and the Sailor AnimaMates, thinking about what will happen if Aku's plan to take over the Animation Multiverse did come to fruition, most of the Toon Heroes were eradicated from Dubba City and the entire Multiverse, and all of them were replaced with evil robot doppelgangers. While she was thinking about this, her train of thought was interrupted by Thrax, who swaggered up right beside her and said, "Hey, c'mon, Galaxia, baby, who cares about those weakling Guardians? By the time we take over the Multiverse, you'll have a loyal army of Sailor Guardians who will be subservient and loyal to your every command."
Sailor Galaxia thought about the possibilities, then she looked back at her fellow Guardians, as well as some of the other heroes who were curious as to what exactly she and the Sailor Guardians were even talking about. Before she could make her decision, Aku quickly stopped her as he said, "Um, Galaxia, need I remind you that when you consumed Chaos into your mind, body and soul, you made the call to join the League of Extraordinary Villains to help us do away with all of these heroic nuisances, so if you want to jump ship and join their side, be my guest… but, if you do, then…"
Aku then mimed the possibility of Sailor Galaxia being destroyed by one of his Ultrabots or deadly assassins (the name Scaramouche quickly came to mind), which not only shocked Sailor Galaxia, but the other heroes as Riley surprisingly said, "Man, that's low… that's really low, even for you, Aku."
Just before Sailor Galaxia made her decision, Aku quickly raised the stakes by saying, "Oh, better yet, I could easily use my arsenal of powers to wipe Sailor Moon off the face of the Earth, thereby getting rid of one of the main pillars to those Sailor Guardians! Heck, I could easily destroy one of these heroes here; I'm pretty sure we don't even need that stupid dog for our army! I bet you that dog's as scared of monsters as he is his own shadow!"
The villains present all shared a devious laugh upon Aku's declaration, but Courage just growled in anger in response, something that surprised Jenny because she didn't think that Courage could get that angry.
Trying to hurt the Sailor Guardians was a low blow in and of itself, but trying to cause actual harm to one of the heroes even before they got to the takeover? Harm that could possibly lead to something even worse than what the villains had in mind?
Understanding the risks involved, Sailor Galaxia could only sigh in defeat as she turned to the Sailor Guardians and said, tears welling in her eyes, "I'm sorry, girls, but… I must do what I have to do…"
Future: Central Park: All Vacancies, All the Time — The Dubba City Dystopia, Animation Multiverse
Back at the destroyed Dubba City, Ami and Yumi crash landed into a vacant Central Park, which was once heralded at an integral hotspot for the Looney Tunes at one point in time. Once the two girls regained consciousness, they were surprised to see that they had ended up in a distant wasteland that contained empty stores, parks and an all-around… unnerving atmosphere. Ami was the first of the two to speak up, saying, "Aiya, I never thought we would end up in a dystopian future like this… on the night of a big concert, no less!"
Yumi dusted herself off as she got back up and looked around the dystopian wasteland, adding, "Yeah, usually, it would take a few minutes before we find ourselves in the midst of some wacky adventure."
"I don't think that this is going to be like one of our usual adventures, Yumi," Ami said, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I think that this is something more dire and serious."
"Really? Hmm, I just thought that it would be normal for this time of year," Yumi said, shrugging her shoulders. "Besides, how often do a bunch of cartoon characters get together to take a break from their own lives and interact with other Toons?"
Before Ami could give an answer, they were startled by the sound of a voice, saying, "Whoa, look at all this stuff!"
Another voice said, "Eddy, don't mess with that! You don't know where that stuff has been!"
A third, goofier voice said in response, "Oh, don't worry, Double D, this stuff is just like the time we reenacted the Robot Rebel Ranch movie in the junkyard back at the cul-de-sac!"
The two girls looked around to see where the three voices were coming from, with Ami asking as she raised an eyebrow, "Huh? Yumi, did you hear that? Where did those voices come from?"
Yumi just shrugged her shoulders as she said, "Beats me. I thought this place was pretty quiet when we first landed here."
Ami and Yumi proceeded to search for the source of those voices as Ami said, "Well, let's hope that, whomever those voices came from, they know exactly what's going on here."
Future: ACME Lots O' Junk Junkyard — The Dubba City Dystopia, Animation Multiverse
Meanwhile, at another part of Dubba City, the Eds had been transported to an area of Dubba City that was similar to a regular location in their homeworld: the Junkyard. Although the Eds would usually improvise when it came to their previous scams, Eddy just couldn't help but look for materials they could use for their next big scam when they got back home. As usual, Ed was right by his side, helping him with the search, while Double D was rather perturbed about being in such an unfamiliar environment.
"Um, Eddy, do you think that it's appropriate for you to salvage this stuff to get an idea for your next scam?" Double D asked.
"Come on, Double D, you know this junk would be perfect for some new scam ideas when we find a way to get back home," Eddy said as he continued to search through the Junkyard. "All we need to do is find a radiator and some spark plugs to construct some go-karts."
Ed then popped up out of nowhere during Eddy's search and asked, "Go-karts? We're gonna get to ride some go-karts, Eddy?"
Eddy just stared at his dimwitted friend in complete dumbfounded astonishment for a moment, then he just smirked as he said in complete sarcasm, "Sure, Ed, and you'll serve as the resident checkered flag at the start of each race."
Not surprisingly, Eddy's sarcasm just flew over the dim Ed-boy's head as Ed just hopped around excitedly while thinking about the prospect of serving as a checkered flag for Eddy's go-kart scam when they get back to the cul-de-sac, while Double D caught up with his two friends and said, "I'm serious! If we end up running into the wrong person around here, our animated lives will prove to be all for naught."
"Who cares, Double D? It's not like anyone from the cul-de-sac is going to—" Eddy began to say, then he stopped quickly as he said, "Wait a minute, where was I about to go with that? Anyway, why are you so worried, Double D? There's no one else around here! Besides, if there were any deadly robot assassins or something like that, I'm sure that whoever came here before us wiped the floor with those guys!"
Unbeknownst to the Eds, Ami and Yumi were watching them from afar as Yumi looked at Ami, saying, "Well, I can see that these three have no idea about this universe. Who are these guys anyway?"
"I don't know, but…" Ami said, then hearts appeared in her eyes as she sighed lovingly and said, "That boy in the ski hat is kinda cute."
Yumi could only roll her eyes at her friend's infatuation for Double D, palming her face as she said, "Oh, brother… Ami, can we get back on track, please? We need to get to those guys and figure out if they know a thing or two about this place."
Ami snapped back to normal as she cleared her throat and said, "Huh? Oh, uh, right, uh, of course!"
Yumi gave an annoyed look in response as she and Ami began to trek through the Junkyard to talk to the Eds. However, no sooner had they taken three steps that they found themselves being caught in a mysterious portal that would send them to Aku's mysterious lair. The Eds heard the sound of two girls shrieking as they looked over where Ami and Yumi were, but noticed that they had vanished into thin air.
"Did you guys hear that?" Eddy said to his friends, giving a look of confusion.
"It sounded like two girls getting themselves caught in a mysterious portal, Eddy," Double D said. "I wonder if that was the same portal that transported us here in the first place."
"I doubt it," Eddy said. "Besides, if that was the case, how is it that there were two girls that were over there one minute, but vanished the next?"
"It is simple, Eddy," Ed said, standing with a blank stare for a moment, then added, "The two girls entered a mysterious wormhole that would spew them into an alternate universe!"
Double D and Eddy just gave a blank stare at their friend's explanation, but Ed still stood confident in his belief as he pointed to himself and said, "Simple."
"You're simple, burr-head," Eddy said, holding back a little of his laughter as he led his friends out of the Junkyard and into another area of the destroyed Dubba City. "Listen, boys, I know a thing or two about weird happenings, and I can only assume that there is nothing random abo—"
However, just as Eddy was getting into his explanation, he and the other two Eds found themselves caught in the same mysterious portal that Ami and Yumi ran into.
Present Day: Aku's Mysterious Lair: Home of the League of Extraordinary Villains — ACME Space Station, The Reaches of Outer Space, Animation Multiverse
Once Ed, Edd and Eddy had been placed in the last capsule, the villains and some of the heroes were surprised by the presence of the Ed Boys. Queen Vexus was especially perplexed by the presence of the Eds as she looked at the other villains and said, "Who are these three?"
Thrax walked up to the Eds to get a closer look at them, then he said, "I don't know, but they seem pretty harmless."
"I have to agree with Thrax here," Vilgax added as he took a look at the Eds. "No powers, no Omnitrix, no magic sword, no magic bracelet… no combat abilities whatsoever! They're just an ordinary trio of neighborhood kids!"
"With the intellectual capacity of fleas or any other lower lifeforms," Icy added, cutting into the conversation.
"Whaddya mean, 'no combat abilities'? We're known for being wrestling champions back in our neighborhood!" Eddy protested.
"We are?" Ed asked quizzically.
Ed's question seemed to incite an annoyed response from Eddy, who quickly bonked him on the head as he said, "Shut up, you idiot!"
The antics of the Eds caught the attention of the other captured heroes as Sailor Neptune whispered to Sailor Uranus, "Who knew we'd have the Three Stooges joining our team, huh?"
Sailor Uranus and Sailor Moon giggled in response as Aku surveyed the Eds and rubbed his chin as he said, "Hmmm… well, they're not exactly the super-powered heroes who would be the perfect template for our robot army, but the more, the merrier."
"We could get some extra leverage if we manage to conquer their homeworld," Vexus said with a smirk. "With our level of technology, it should take five minutes."
"Still, whose idea was it to get the Eds in the first place?" Swackhammer asked, causing the other villains to look over at the Trix.
However, while everyone was looking at the Trix, Icy and Darcy were busy looking at Stormy, who just slinked away in embarrassment while whistling to herself. When she was unable to take away the pressure, she responded by saying, "Alright, alright, it was me! What? I felt that we needed some comic relief around here!"
"Comic relief?" Eddy asked.
"Could I be the clown?" Ed asked with a smile.
Double D then cleared his throat, hoping to get things back on track as he said, "I think the most-important question we should be asking is: where are we and who are you
"Well, it looks like the inquisitive one is curious about our goals," Aku said. "Wouldn't you like to know as you three, that teenage alien shapeshifter and that accursed samurai thwarted our plans the last time?!"
"Last time? What the heck did we do?" Eddy asked in an annoyed tone.
Vilgax rushed up to the capsule and pointed at Eddy, saying, "Oh, now, you're trying to play dumb, aren't ya, kid? The last time Aku and I set up the villainous superteam, you guys caused us to lose sight of our mission when you had Mojo Jojo and Mandark deflect to your side and betray us!"
"But, not to worry, seeing as how I have recruited some of the most-notorious villains in all of the Animation Multiverse, this takeover is going to go off without a hitch!" Aku said as he evilly laughed. "We had already captured some of the most-iconic cartoon characters throughout the entire multiverse and caught them in these Master Models, but we are getting one step closer to the bad future that you foolish heroes have seen earlier! Being that you all are the ones who are considerably the most-crafty and super-intelligent heroes of our respective universes—minus those three Eds—I figure it would be best to give you all one last fighting chance to save the future before we take over the Multiverse with a iron fist!"
The heroes reacted in shock to Aku's statement as Jack said in a confident tone, "You'll never get away with this, Aku! We've defeated you before, and we'll defeat you again!"
"Yeah, and the same goes for you, Vilgax!" Ben added. "All those years of you trying to steal the Omnitrix, you have failed countless times, so what makes you think that going back to the drawing board and planning a multiversal takeover is going to work this time?"
Vilgax glared at the 16-year-old shapeshifter for a moment, then he darkly said, "Oh, really? Well, we'll just see about that, Tennyson."
As the League of Extraordinary Villains took a look at the lineup of heroes that they have captured, Aku gave a celebratory evil laugh as he said, "Excellent! It looks like Phase One of our plan is complete: capture the strongest and most-powerful heroes of the Animation Multiverse!"
"Now, it looks like we'll be moving onto Phase Two, right?" Thrax said, holding up two fingers.
"Of course! We'll be needing those Master Models to power up our robot army and to make sure they heed to our commands and our commands only," Aku said. "Besides, with no heroes around to stop us, we will be able to move on to Phase Three without any problems!"
Swackhammer rubbed his hands greedily as he smiled and said, "Perfect, my dreams of finally having an iron grip over Looney Tune Land will finally be realized! No more having to challenge those fools to countless basketball games to risk their livelihood. I should've had a plan like this years ago!"
"Of course, because your state of insanity didn't snap you back to reality once, eh, Swacky?" Bugs said, rolling his eyes at the overdramatic amusement park owner.
Before Swackhammer could respond to Bugs' wisecrack, Aku proceeded to lead the older villains and the Trix out of the room as they prepared to put the second phase of their takeover plan into motion. Just as Sailor Galaxia was about to catch up with the other villains, she took a look at the heroes and said, "Y'know, I think it would be a great idea if we created more robots that—"
However, she was quickly interrupted by Aku saying, "Sorry, Galaxia, but I believe we have enough robots for now, though we are somehow missing a few robots that seem to be misplaced in other worlds."
"Gee, I wonder who could've done that?" Icy said sarcastically as she glared at Stormy, who could only whistle innocently while giving a sheepish smile to take away the suspicion.
"However, if you want to make yourself useful, Galaxia, why don't you try and get to locating the other robot servants who have been sent to the other worlds?" Vexus said before adding, "Also, don't forget to set some guards at the door. We can't risk letting the heroes escape under our watch."
Once the other villains left, Sailor Galaxia was left initially annoyed, then the feelings of annoyance turned to disappointment and sadness as she said to herself, "Well, what a 'great deal' this was supposed to be. A chance of taking over the Animation Multiverse and I get treated like a second-class villain? Don't they know that, unlike most of the others outside of Aku, Thrax and the Trix, I was actually closer to accomplishing my goals than the other villains here? I am literally moments away of betraying my friends, my fellow Guardians, just for the sake of some stupid mission?!"
Before finishing her statement, Sailor Galaxia could only give a sad sigh as she added, "What was the point of betraying my friends for some false sense of power? Now, I'm starting to realize how Mojo Jojo feels."
As soon as she left the room where the heroes were being held, Sailor Galaxia ordered some of the robots to guard the door while she tracked down the other robot servants.
Present Day: Aku's Mysterious Lair: Home of the League of Extraordinary Villains — ACME Space Station, The Reaches of Outer Space, Animation Multiverse
Sailor Galaxia's internal conflict and personal monologue was not lost on the heroes, with Bugs being the first to voice his opinions on the matter by saying, "Wow, who knew that Sailor Galaxia girl would be such a conflicted character? One minute, she was actually rolling with the bad guys, now she's contemplating if it's even worth it?"
Sailor Moon was sympathetic to Galaxia's plight as she said, "Oh, poor Galaxia."
"Don't start feeling bad for Galaxia now, Sailor Moon!" Sailor Uranus said in an annoyed tone. "It's because of her little trick that we ended up in this mess in the first place!"
Sailor Moon was taken aback by Sailor Uranus' rather aggressive statement, but Sailor Neptune interjected as she added in a cool-and-collected fashion, "I would've put it a different way, but Sailor Uranus is right. Sailor Galaxia decided to double-cross us and brought us up here to… to, uh… well, what are they planning on doing?"
The other two Outer Guardians both shrugged their shoulders as Sailor Moon said, "That's what I was trying to figure out the whole time."
Their conversation seemed to incite interest among the other heroes as Ben looked at Bugs, Bloom and Flora, asking, "Say, do any of you guys know what the villains are planning?"
Bugs just shrugged his shoulders as he said, "Don't look at me, doc, I'm just as baffled as you are."
"Usually, the Trix would have some rhyme or reason behind their madness, but even I can't figure it out," Bloom said.
"I believe the truth is that this is all very strange," Samurai Jack said, rubbing his chin while taking notice of the various heroes who had been captured by the villains. "I mean, kidnapping defenseless children is very low, even for Aku."
"Yo, samurai, I wouldn't really go that far," Osmosis Jones said to the samurai. "I mean, if you look at some these kids here, they've managed to defeat those same robots that were sent to capture us on their own ingenuity."
"Well, to add to the white blood cell's point, we ended up encountering an actual giant robot who went by the name of 'Armagedroid'," Double D said sheepishly.
"Our one-shot of impressing the neighborhood kids and bringing some excitement to the cul-de-sac again, but he turned evil on us at the drop of a dime! Like he couldn't understand human emotions or something like that," Eddy said in an annoyed tone, capped off by a heated sigh.
"Still, we managed to defeat him before he could cause any more problems," Double D said, then a thought came into his mind as he added, "Still, I wonder how a robot like that could end up in our world? I never thought we'd have to deal with something like that again since the Dynamo incident."
The mention of Armagedroid seem to ring in Jenny's mind as she thought to herself in surprise, "Wait, these three managed to defeat Armagedroid… on their first try?!"
Ozzy seemed impressed by the Eds managing to defeat the aforementioned giant robot as he said to Jack, "See that? What'd I tell ya? Besides, it was probably an accident that those three ended up getting caught like this."
Star took a look at the various heroes who were present in the capsules and said with a smile, "Hey, uh, just wanting to break the ice here, but… who are you guys, anyway?"
"The name's Bugs Bunny, doc," Bugs said with a smile as he took another bite from a carrot. "The de facto leader of the Looney Tunes and world-renowned cartoon icon."
"My name is Ben Tennyson, but you can call me Ben 10 if you want," Ben said with a smile.
"I'm Bloom, the Fairy of the Dragon's Flame and leader of the Winx Club," Bloom said, giving a smile.
"Hello, everyone, my name is Flora, the Fairy of Nature and one of the Winx," Flora said.
"Hey, guys, my name's Juniper Lee and I'm the current Te Xuan Ze of Orchid Bay," Juniper said with a smile.
"I'm Virgil Hawkins, also known as the supercharged superhero Static," Static said, giving a snap of his fingers that produced a burst of static electricity. "I regularly defend Dakota from the threat of the Big Bang Babies."
"I'm Huey Freeman, hailing from Woodcrest and I hope to be a revolutionary like the late, great Malcolm X," Huey said in a confident tone.
"Way to go out and not mention your young bro, man, but I'll do the honors," Riley said in an initially-annoyed tone, but switched to his usual braggadocious and bombastic tone as he added, "The name's Riley Freeman, but you all can call me Young Reezy, HR Paperstacks, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Louis Rich—"
As Riley was listing off his many nicknames, Ben interjected by adding, "Like the turkey bacon?"
"Yeah, like the—what?" Riley said, then gave a look of confusion at Ben while raising an eyebrow.
Ben snickered to himself while some of the other heroes giggled for a bit as Jenny cleared her throat and said, "Hi, everyone, I'm XJ9, but I usually go by Jenny Wakeman and I am a teenage robot. I defend the Earth from alien invaders and other forces of evil who threaten the citizens of Tremorton."
"Impressive," Double D thought to himself.
"A teenage robot superhero? That's amazing," Yumi thought to herself before adding, "Why does she sound so much like Ami?"
"Hi, my name is Courage," Courage said with a smile. "I live in the Middle of Nowhere with my two owners, Muriel and Eustace Bagge. I regularly defend the Bagges from the many evils we encounter during our adventures. The things I do for love…"
"I'm Osmosis Jones, a white blood cell who protects the human body from various antibodies, pathogens and other regular threats," Ozzy said.
"Hi, everybody! My name is Star Butterfly, Marco's bestest friend evil, and a magical princess from another dimension," Star said with a smile as she made a mini-rainbow behind herself, which ignited into flames, but were quickly extinguished due to the liquid from the capsules.
"Well, getting back on track, my name's Marco Diaz, I know karate and, as Star mentioned, we are… uh, best friends… through a chance madcap meeting," Marco said, waving to the other heroes.
"Name's Rex Salazar, but the folks back home call me Generator Rex," Rex said with a smile.
"I'm Samurai Jack, a warrior displaced in time by Aku," Samurai Jack said.
"Hey, guys, my name is Usagi Tsukino, but I am also the world-renowned magical girl hero Sailor Moon," Sailor Moon said as she spoke up for the Outer Guardians, "I'm usually accompanied by my fellow Inner Guardians, but these three ladies here are also our closest friends and fellow Guardians: Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Pluto, the Outer Guardians."
"Thanks for the introduction, S.M., but we didn't mind introducing ourselves," Sailor Neptune said.
Sailor Moon blushed a bit as she said while giving a sheepish smile, "Oops! Sorry about that, girls, I guess I got a little too excited introducing us to the other heroes."
"No worries, Sailor Moon," Sailor Uranus said with a smile.
"Yo, the name's Yumi," Yumi said with a cool demeanor.
"I'm Ami, and we're both part of the Puffy AmiYumi rock band!" Ami said with a smile and a cheerful tone.
"Hello, everyone, I'm Edd, but you can call me Double D if you want," Double D said with a smile. "From what I have seen so far, I can safely say that none of those villains we met are our enemies."
"I'm Eddy, the leader of the Amazing Eds, and there's no way we're gonna let those guys destroy our homes and replace us with a bunch of robots!" Eddy said in a confident tone.
Eddy's confident bluster aroused some amused reactions from some of the heroes, particularly Ben, Bloom, Juniper and Jenny, the latter saying to herself, "'The Amazing Eds'? That's a pretty confident way of introducing yourself and your friends."
"Hey, everybody, I am Ed and I like buttered toast!" Ed said with a smile as he waved to the others.
"Eh, now that we've got that out of the way, does anyone know how to get out of these capsules?" Bugs asked.
Samurai Jack smiled with confidence as he pulled out his signature sword and said in a confident tone, "Allow me, Mr. Bunny, I think I have an idea."
Jack proceeded to use his sword to slice his way out of the capsule as he proceeded to defend himself from the incoming robots who overheard the commotion. As soon as Jack started battling the robots, Ben followed suit by using his Omnitrix to change into Rath, breaking out of his capsule as he proceeded to charge at the robots and knock them out while saying, "Let me tell ya something, brother! You mechanical pinheads can't handle the reign of Rath!"
Jack and Ben continued to destroy the robots with ease, but there will still others who were charging at them. Luckily, they had some extra backup in the form of other superpowered heroes. Static proceeded to use his static electricity powers to break out of his capsule and send a signature shock to the system to one of the robo-baddies, saying, "How's that for a shock to the system? Man, it feels so good to say that again!"
"Hey, save some of those robots for me, guys!" Jenny said as she turned her hand into a laser cannon and destroyed her capsule, then flew to where Ben, Jack and Virgil were battling the others. "I've been looking for a real challenge instead of those Instant Martians!"
Jenny proceeded to use an arsenal of missiles to destroy the robots while Rex produced his giant robot fists to bust out of his capsule and join in the battle. The Sailor Guardians would follow suit by using their powers to help the other heroes in defeating the remaining robots. Sailor Moon looked at the other heroes who were still in their capsules and said in a reassuring tone, "Don't worry, everyone, we'll get you all out of there when we're done with the robots!"
"Don't worry, doctress, I've got a little something up my sleeves," Bugs said as he pulled out an ACME Glass Cutter, cutting out a hole in his shape as he proceeded to pop out of the capsule with ease.
"Pretty clever, Bugs, but I prefer a more direct approach," Ozzy said as he pulled out his laser gun. "Check this out!"
With a blast of his laser gun, Ozzy was able to bust out of his capsule and find himself back on the outside, saying, "Whoo, baby, it's good to be back on the outside again!"
While Bloom and Flora managed to break out of their capsule, still in their Winx forms, the two girls proceeded to use their magic to rescue Juniper Lee and Courage with ease, causing the dog to jump into Flora's arms and give her a warm hug. Flora responded in kind by giving an enchanted laugh while reciprocating Courage's hug.
Pulling out her Royal Magic Wand, Star proceeded to change the wand into a mace as she used it to break her and Marco out of their capsule, then she jumped into battle as she defeated two of the robots while Marco put his martial arts skills to good use as he lulled the robots into a false sense of security as Star pulled off the finishing moves.
Huey pulled out the Electric Glove and broke himself and Riley out of their capsules, allowing the two to join the other heroes in the battle against the robot minions. Huey was able to wipe the floor with them with his natural martial arts instincts and Riley, while having a little trouble at first due to his usual "fists first, think later" strategy, managed to hold his own against whatever the robots threw at him, even capacitating a few of them off of his determination alone.
While the heroes were still in their battle, Ben had already changed into another one of his signature aliens, Echo Echo, then he turned to look at the heroes and said, "Alright, everyone, you might wanna cover your ears for this one!"
Bugs responded by putting on a pair of earmuffs as he said, "Already ahead of ya, doc."
Echo Echo proceeded to duplicate himself and used his supersonic scream to subdue the remaining robots, much to the amazement of the other heroes. While the heroes celebrated their victory against the first set of robots, Eddy decided to remind them that the Eds and Puffy AmiYumi were still stuck in their capsules as he called out, "Hey, I'd hate to interrupt this little victory against the robots, but could anyone please… get us out of here?!"
"No problem, guys," Ozzy said as he pulled out his laser gun and powered it up as he added, "Just three shots of my laser gun and—"
However, Jenny and Bloom quickly stopped the white blood cell as they flew to the respective capsules and Jenny said, "No worries, Ozzy, we got this!"
As Jenny used her transformed circular saw to free Ami and Yumi, and Bloom used the Dragon's Flame to free Ed, Edd and Eddy, Osmosis Jones could only roll his eyes as he said, "Nice effort, but I still think my laser gun would've gotten the job done quicker. You girls are just tryin' to show off."
Once the girls got the remaining heroes out of their capsules, Bugs proceeded to lead the heroes to the door as he said, "Alright, so now we know who we are, we know who the villains are, but that still leaves one burning question: why did they bring us up here?"
"I think the bigger question is: why are they all working together?" Static said as he and the other heroes rushed to the door to escape. "I mean, I could understand Vilgax, Aku and even Thrax, but what did the others have to do with this?"
"I could tell that Sailor Galaxia's state of mind made it feel like she didn't even want to be a part of this and she's already regretting the fact of even going through with this," Sailor Moon said, then she added, "But what about that Queen Vexus? What would she have to gain from this?"
"Well, Vexus is known for having other robots do her bidding," Jenny explained. "That's how she was when she ruled over Cluster Prime, so she has that link with Vilgax and Aku on that part."
"Still, that doesn't even explain why those witches are involved in this," Riley said. "Shoot, I don't even think anything could explain that Swackhammer fool."
"Well, the Trix were pretty ruthless at one point, even before they had met up with Valtor," Bloom explained. "They had literally taken over the Realm of Magix with an iron fist, stole my power of the Dragon's Flame, and almost took over the three schools!"
"Not to mention, Swackhammer may be a sleazy businessman, but he's even more ruthless than he would like you all to believe," Bugs said. "Just ask the Monstars. Y'know, it's a good thing they didn't ask Marvin the Martian or Wile E. Coyote to be a part of this group. I know that Wile E. obsessively goes after the Road Runner and hopes that he'll finally catch him, but even a genius coyote has a line that he'll never cross…"
Eddy seemed to be interested about the genius coyote part as he looked at Ed and Double D with a smirk, whispering to his two friends, "If we ever get out of here, I'm sure we could use a genius coyote!"
"Eddy, I don't think that coyote Bugs is talking about would be particularly friendly," Double D said as he, Eddy and Ed caught up with the other heroes.
The heroes tried to find a way to open the door, but struggled to find a way out as Huey said while straining, "Man, this door is locked up tight!"
"No kidding, you'd think there would've been an easily-exploitable way to get out of here, but I can't find a thing!" Riley said.
Rex stepped up and produced his giant robot fists to burst through the door as he said, "Pretty easy when you have giant fists like these."
Present Day: Aku's Mysterious Lair: Home of the League of Extraordinary Villains — ACME Space Station, The Reaches of Outer Space, Animation Multiverse
Bugs walked up to Rex and said, "Eh, thanks for the help, doc, but it looks like we may have our work cut—"
However, when they were expecting to swarmed by an army of robots, they were surprised to see that the robot guards had already been taken care of as Bugs just finished off his sentence with a simple "—out."
As the Eds and Puffy AmiYumi were catching up with the other heroes, Ed noticed that three dog-like cartoon characters had beamed up into the space lair, the tall one of the group saying, "Whoa, sibs, just look at this place!"
The medium-sized one of the group, sporting a red baseball cap, said, "You know, I don't think this is Codename: Kids Next Door…"
"Still, it's just as mesmerizing, though," the female of the group quipped.
The presence of these three cartoon characters was not lost on Ed, who said, "Hey, guys… where did the three dogs come from?"
Double D and Eddy could only raise an eyebrow in confusion at their friend as Eddy grabbed his friend by the collar and said, "Your mind is going to the dogs, burr-head! C'mon, let's get a move on!"
Upon seeing the Eds leave the lair to catch up with the other heroes, the three siblings realized that their own encounter with the rogue robots was not an isolated incident: it was one part of a interplanetary multiversal takeover that was going to encompass the entire Animation Multiverse! Although the middle one of the trio had wanted to make their presence known, the older one stopped him as he said, "Whoa, hold on, Wakko! Not so fast!"
"But, Yakko, we need to tell Bugs about this!" Wakko said in protest. "Apparently, we weren't the only ones that had to deal with a robot encounter."
"Yeah, but maybe we weren't the type of heroes they were looking for," the female of the group, Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the Third… or, put simply, Dot, said. "Still, I find it rather strange that those robots just popped out of nowhere… what do you think that was all about, Yakko?"
"Hmm… hard to say, sibs, but I have a feeling that this adventure is only the beginning…" Yakko said, rubbing his chin.
Present Day: Aku's Mysterious Lair: Level 2 (Robot Construction Zone / Escape Route) — ACME Space Station, The Reaches of Outer Space, Animation Multiverse
Meanwhile, the Eds had caught up with the rest of the heroes, assuming that they had to fight off even more robots, but it turns out that the robot guards were already taken care of as they were all sliced to ribbons and destroyed beyond belief. As they surveyed the damage with the other heroes, Eddy could only look on in amazement as he thought about the possible money-making opportunities that could come from these robo-parts.
"Whoa, I've heard of 'taking care of business', but that went quicker than I thought," Eddy said in amazement as he surveyed the damage. "C'mon, let's hurry and see if we can use these parts for—"
However, Eddy was quickly cut off by Sailor Moon pulling him back as she said, "I wouldn't mess with that, Eddy. You don't know how these robots were made."
"What are you talkin' about? I know that they were made by those villain guys," Eddy said while shrugging his shoulders. "What would be the big deal with these?"
"Maybe these robots were constructed by the dark energy that would be used to take us out of commission and have them serve as our evil robot doppelgangers for the villains," Star explained, leaving Eddy confused as she added, "Okay, maybe not exactly like that, but I'm sure something like that would be possible."
Eddy was about to respond to the quirkiness of the Mewnian princess, but he was quickly interrupted when he overheard Ed saying, "Oh, too cool!"
Ed was excitedly looking over the robots as he said, "Wow, cool, these robots look like the ones I saw in my favorite movie: Rise of the Robot Bounty Hunters 2000! Oh, boy, oh, boy, this is my lucky day, huh, guys?"
The other heroes just stood there in complete silence upon seeing Ed's interest in the robots as Yumi looked at Double D and Eddy, and said, "Uh, is he okay?"
"I wouldn't worry about Ed too much, Yumi," Double D said in a reassuring tone. "He can be worrisome at times, but he just gets that way when he gets too deep into the lore and backstories of his favorite monster movies, comics and the like."
As Double D and Eddy walked away to catch up with their friend, Ami had hearts in her eyes upon hearing Double D speak, sighing lovingly as she said, "Wow… he just sounds sooo articulate!"
"Ami, would you give it a rest already?" Yumi said as she snapped her friend out of her stupor, so they could catch up with the heroes. "Besides, he's probably not even interested in romance."
"Well, a girl can dream, can't she?" Ami said in a slightly-annoyed tone.
While the heroes surveyed the defeated robot guards, Double D was very inquisitive about how the robots managed to be defeated before they had a chance with them, saying, "Strange, who do you suppose would be crafty enough to wipe out one of our main obstacles before we could have a chance to interact with them?"
Samurai Jack pondered the same question as he rubbed his chin and said, "An interesting conundrum, indeed, young Eddward."
While the heroes were looking for a sign or even a clue that would give them the identity of who defeated the guards, they would find their answer in the form of a mysterious black cat who came down at them with his trusty sword by his side, saying, "Hey, best to cut to the chase and avoid having you guys deal with those robo-chumps again!"
The group turned to come face-to-face with the mysterious black cat in question, but their initial surprise turned to shock when they saw Ed jump into the fray and rush up to the black cat, saying, "Aww, look at that kitty! Pet the kitten, pet the kitten, pet the kitten!"
"Ed, you idiot! That's no ordinary cat! Did you not see his sword?!" Eddy shouted in an annoyed tone as he quickly pulled Ed off of the black cat.
"But, Eddy, the kitty!" Ed whined, much to the annoyance of Eddy and Double D.
The black cat just dusted himself off as he cleared his throat and said, "Thanks for the help, kid, but my sword has a name: her name is 'Geraldine'."
"'Geraldine'? I'm sorry, but who in their right mind would name their sword 'Geraldine'?" Eddy said, trying to hold back his laughter.
"Who in their ri—listen, kid, I will have you know that Geraldine has been my trusty sword for years!" The black cat said in a confident tone. "She has never failed me once in my life!"
"'She'?" Eddy said as he and Ed engaged in uproarious laughter, much to the annoyance of the other heroes, even up to and including Double D.
Bugs decided to cut to the chase as he walked up to the black cat and said, "Well, before we get too sidetracked, first of all, thanks for clearing those robot guards out for us, and second, who are you and where did you come from?"
"The name's Mao Mao, and I'm the resident sheriff of Pure Heart Valley," Mao Mao said in a proud tone. "I had actually been stuck in this dystopian wasteland for a few months now, trying to find my way back home. Y'see, those villainous goons you guys were talking to in that room? They were the ones who turned this place into the mess you saw out there earlier."
"If you don't mind me asking, doc, could you tell me what was this place?" Bugs asked.
Mao Mao could only give a sad sigh as he said, "This place is… well, was once your old home… Dubba City, the main city of the Animation Multiverse."
The heroes gasped in shock as Bugs said, "Wait, our old home?"
"Dubba City?" Ami and Yumi said in simultaneous shock.
"The Animation Multiverse?" Marco said in a surprised tone.
Jenny quickly walked up to where Bugs and Mao Mao were as she asked, "Wait a minute, our old home? Mao Mao, what happened? What did the villains do that caused it to become such a dystopian wasteland in the future?"
Just before Mao Mao could give an answer, he was interrupted by a mysterious figure saying in a booming voice, "Wait a minute, Mao Mao! Don't answer that question! They're not ready to handle the truth just yet…"
The heroes looked around for the source of the voice, but before any question could be asked, they were summarily answered by a mysterious figure in a black cloak walking up to the heroes with his scythe in hand. The presence of anyone carrying a scythe just casually could arise fear or suspicion in any type of hero, but the fact that this was basically the Messenger of Death in the living flesh was just… intense, to say the least.
Mao Mao walked up to the mysterious figure and said, "Come on, Grim, these heroes have to be up to speed on what's going on. How are they going to know what they're up against if I can't give them the rundown?"
"Mao Mao, I think it would be best if they got the information…" the mysterious figure said as he raised his head up to reveal that he was actually a familiar figure who some of the heroes are acquainted. "…from me."
Upon this dramatic revelation, Bugs walked up to the mysterious figure and said, "Eh… listen, doc, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but who are you?"
"Mr. Bunny, I think I would be pretty much stating the obvious when I say that…" the mysterious figure said, then stopped for dramatic effect as he then added, "I am the Grim Reaper, mon! More specifically, I am the Grim Reaper from the distant future!"
Wow, another Sunday with an all-new chapter? Looks like things are finally looking up for the new version of the Battle for the Animation Multiverse. Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far as it is really an experiment in writing a more story-driven fanfic, but maintaining a healthy mix of action, comedy, drama and character interactions with the occasional fourth wall break (thank you, Bugs Bunny).
Anyway, it seems that our heroes are slowly getting some information and clues as to what the villains have in store and how it affects the Dubba City they saw in the future, but if there's one thing about our heroes: they will never back down from a fight to save the world! Now that the heroes have become better-acquainted with each other, they will begin to find out more about the villains' plans and how the robot takeover will go down, thanks to the help of the mysterious Mao Mao and the Grim Reaper from the bad future.
Also, compared to the original chapter, I expanded on some of the character interactions and action sequences that were included in this chapter, compared to how short and quick they were in the original version. I also went back and added Star and Marco from Star vs. the Forces of Evil to the Toon Heroes; hopefully, they'll add to the story with their own character interactions (I have some ideas of some interactions between Star and Jenny for later chapters). Oh, and Virgil will be exclusively appearing in his 'Static' form (the one that came in during the later seasons of Static Shock), though there will be a point where he will also switch into his civilian clothes, depending on what happens.
Also, note some of the character interactions included in this chapter: I hope to expand on some of these as the story goes on and the characters travel to different worlds, leading to some very interesting team-ups. Plus, "Stay Tooned" for a bonus Animaniacs one-shot coming soon that will involve the Warners running afoul of one of Aku's robots, who happened to team up with Pinky and the Brain… well, maybe not in the traditional sense. That also explains the surprise appearance of the Warners as the heroes escape from the lair, but the wacky trio will not be encountering the heroes just yet… that will be a surprise in the near future…
What does Mao Mao have in store for the heroes? What does Grim know about the villains' takeover and eventual destruction of Dubba City? How will the heroes handle this unprecedented news? "Stay Tooned" for the next chapter to find out, folks!
