Last time…
The tome of chaos has been reformed, and with its return, a great dark force known as the Shroud of Chaos was unleashed.
While few went to rescue those of the mage village…
While a dynamic duo took to the skies to stop an approaching army…
Two fighters, Yoshi and Ethan, were pushed to their limits in a fight that they seemed about to lose.
But Ethan soon unleashed his full sealed power and the battle seemed to take a turn for the better.
Meanwhile Yoshi was putting together a plan to defeat Shroud.
But before he could share his plan, Ethan had been taken down.
Before Shroud can finish him off…
Before the pirate could jump in to help…
A burst of light magic shot through the air and struck down the dark force.
"Leave Uncle Ethan alone!"

~ Ch.9: Standing Against Chaos, Part 2.

Yoshi's attention had turned to the newcomer of the battle as he recognized the voice from earlier. "Wendy?! What are you doing here?!" He questioned. He then saw Neko and Nina round the nearby corner. "There you are Wendy. Don't just run off like that." Nina said with relief as she spotted the young mage. Neko looked at the debris around the area with a raised eyebrow. "I take it there's a battle going on." The feline stated to which Yoshi nodded. "Yep, and it's a tough one." Yoshi said before hearing a noise from the nearby hut and running over to it with the others not far behind. He started digging through the rubble and spotted a long white ear sticking out. "Found him!" He said as the others helped dig out the fallen bunny. Ethan let out a groan of pain as he opened his eyes and looked around. "Ugh, anyone get the number on that truck that hit me." He joked. "Was it a truck or a train?" Yoshi joked as he helped him up. Ethan let out a pained chuckle at that. "Might've been both. Where did he go anyway?" The bunny asked looking around. Yoshi pointed at the fallen Shroud a little ways away. "Your little mage blindsided him pretty good a minute ago and he hasn't moved since." He said. "Little ma-? Wendy!" Ethan shouted looking around again until he saw Wendy standing behind Nina. "Wendy you're supposed to be searching the village to heal and evacuate everyone, far away from the battle!" Ethan said trying not to shout. This caught Yoshi's attention and he had to ask what was on his mind. "How do you control it?" The question caught Ethan off guard. "What?" The bunny asked confused. "All your power, I sense it, and that much power is enough to consume anyone when unleashed. How do you control it?" Yoshi asked. Before Ethan could answer, a noise was heard and the group turned to see a slowly rising Shroud. "So… you two were fighting this guy. On a scale of one to ten, how bad is he." Neko asked. "Well, given the fact he's an embodiment of chaos, and probably really pissed off now. I would say thirteen." Ethan said. Neko shuddered. "Unlucky thirteen, this is gonna be fun."

Having just taken down the wall of dark mage clones with their newly discovered scattershot technique, Remmy and Diesel were swiftly approaching the western cliffs. "Scans are detecting the cloning mechanism at the bottom of that cliff." The mech/jet informed. "Yeah, along with a number of rising clones. Let's light em up Diesel!" Remmy said as Diesel spun upward over the cliff and transformed back into his mech form with a backflip and dived straight down. "Ok buddy, no need to showoff cause we've got incoming." Remmy said. "This area is too confined for the egg cannons, we will get caught in the blast." Diesel informed as Remmy was pressing a few buttons on the console. "Way ahead of you, switching over to your swiftest melee form to make swift work of this." Remmy stated. Diesel's armor started sinking inward revealing glowing orange circuitry along his body, arms and legs, while his feet sunk inward making his legs end in a point. One arm became wrapped in a flexible fabric like metal with sharp sturdy claws at the end while the other arm extended a menacing sword with a pumpkin shaped hand guard. And the final form shift was his rockets, which opened up, releasing 3 wings on each side before also sinking inward. "Transformation complete. J-series mode engaged. Mobility status, very high. Armor status, light." Diesel spoke as the transformation finished. "Alright, now let's give them hell!" Remmy said as the approaching dark mages came into view.

As the group faced the rising Shroud, Yoshi decided to tell his plan. "Alright everyone, this guy is tough, we are no match in a straight on fight. Our objective is getting that book away from him. Am I clear?" The pirate captain said as everyone nodded. "So, how do we get the tome of chaos though, fight as a distraction till we see an opening?" Ethan questioned. "You got it bunny buddy." Yoshi said with a smirk. "I am not ok with that nickname." Ethan said with a chuckle. A sudden dark energy filled the air as Shroud stood and turned toward the group, eyes glowing with chaotic energy. "Who dares to strike me in the back?" Shroud asked, voice more echoing and distorted than before. Wendy flinched back in fear. Seeing this, Nina stepped forward. "I did, I refuse to let my friends fight alone." She said, taking the blame as she took out her wings. She may not be ready to fly, but she sure as hell could still fight. "My my my, a nightfright. Haven't seen one of your kind in ages. Although, you seem… different from the ones I knew of." Shroud said. Standing tall, Nina gave Shroud a glare. "I am Nina Frightmare, heir to the nightfright kingdom of another realm. I have seen many battles and fought off many who sought to harm my people, and you will be no exception as you have hurt my friends." She said with a bit of anger in her voice. The others in the group stepped forward and matched her glare. "Well then. Enough talk. If you want to challenge me…" Shroud let out a dark chuckle as he lifted the tome of chaos, as well as the black staff he had yet to use in the battle. "Then may the showdown begin!" Shroud said grandly as he let loose several bursts of magic. The group swiftly scattered to dodge them. "You know, that mech friend of yours would be a great help about now." Ethan stated. Yoshi couldn't help but agree, they needed all the firepower they could get with this guy. "Hurry up you guys." He said glancing to the west.

Diesel and Remmy were approaching the target fast. "I am detecting major amounts of dark energy emitting from this area." Diesel said to which Remmy couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Of course, what do you expect from dark mage territory? Definitely not sunshine and rainbows. Now let's just find that cloning mechanism." Remmy said. Diesel turned to where the scanners were picking up energy fluctuations and swiftly flew toward it. What they found was a flattened out area with the floor covered in magic runes leading to a circle of ten towers of machinery. On each tower stood a chanting dark mage. In the center of the circle was a chamber that launched out dark mage clones to the sky where they were gathering. "What is this?" Diesel asked. Looking at the setup, Remmy could not deny that he was impressed. "Looks like some really advanced magi-tech." He said as he took in the sight of the mechanism. "We need to take this thing out fast. It's powerful tech and it's in the wrong hands." Remmy said as he broke from admiring the design of the thing. Diesel readied his sword and claw to strike. "Take out the mages first then we'll blow this thing sky high." Remmy said as he looked from dark mage to dark mage.

In a blink Diesel swiftly took out the closest dark mage before hiding from sight, catching the attention of the others. "What the hell was that?!" "I don't know, how bout ya check it out." "What? No! You check it out!" "How about you both check it out while the rest of us deal with the clones. And do it before I summon thunder on your hides." A couple of the dark mages argued. The two who got the best glimpse of what happened floated away from the cloning mechanism to see what had found them. "Stupid Alex with his empty threats, he knows damn well his big thunder spells need open sky to work. Is there open sky? No, just a bunch of clones for the sake of a prophecy that who knows is real or not." One dark mage ranted. "And you know as well as I do, not to question Grimshades plans and yet you always do." The other said. "He's a loon! Obsessed with that story about that chaos book or whatever! Not to mention this deal he has with that kook of a scientist or whatever he is." While the two bickered, Diesel swiftly moved back to the mechanism. His scans determined these two are the small fries of the dark mages power wise. "Let's hurry and finish this thing, I've been having a bad feeling that something's not right back at the village and it's making me worry." Remmy said. Diesel rose up his sword and removed the pumpkin handguard. "The jack o' jammer. It should disrupt the mechanism and buy us time to take out the clones." The mech suggested, and Remmy got an idea to add to it. "And if we increase the frequency beyond max, it should go boom in about an estimated three and a half minutes. Oooh, this is gonna be a blast."

Back at the village, the air was pulsing with energy as the ground shook from explosions of magic. The unnatural wind in the air had kicked up the flames of the surrounding forest enough to completely engulf the shield around the village. It looked like the fires of hell itself were rising around the village border. Yoshi and Neko struggled to get close enough to land any hits on Shroud while Nina threw energy wave after energy wave from her wings at him. Ethan used his cane as a staff to channel his magic into spells that he fired and Wendy made sure to keep a distance from the battle, only approaching to heal anyone who was hit. Neither side was giving an inch as the surrounding area became rubble. Dust and magic energy saturated the air creating a light haze that glowed with the light of the surrounding fire outside the villages shield.

"And… that should do it!" Remmy said as he adjusted the frequency of the jack o' jammer. The device started to let out a static hum as Diesel took it and gave it a swiftly aimed toss. The jammer went through and got lodged in a small gap of exposed circuitry of the cloning mechanism. By a quick scan and calculation from Diesel, that was the weakest point in the mechanism. "Alright then. Now let's take these guys out!" Remmy shouted as Diesel readied his sword and claw before swiftly moving in and taking out a dark mage. "Wha- what the hell is that?!" One dark mage shouted as they fumbled with preparing a spell. "Doesn't matter, just take it out!" Another dark mage ordered as they readied an electric spell and launched it at Diesel. The mech took the spell head on and sparks coursed through him. His face moved in a way that slightly resembled a smirk. "That actually tingled a bit." He said. "I would say more than a bit for me." Remmy said as his eyes swirled and he jittered a bit from the shock. "Oops, sorry." Diesel said as he avoided another spell that flew by. Remmy shook his head to get refocused. "Alright, let's get this over with. The clocks ticking!" He said. One of the dark mages let out a growl and looked at the gathered clones above them. "Don't just float there! Get that mech!" They ordered. All eyes turned to Diesel. "Uh-oh. This isn't good." Remmy said going a bit wide eyed. "Rocket retreat?" Diesel asked sounding a bit worried as well. "Yep!" Remmy shouted as he hit several buttons. As the clone army approached with readied spells, Diesel's form shifted once more. Red and green armor plating rose up and flipped around covering his feet, legs, chestplate, lower arms and hands. His wings sunk inward and from his back emerged a powerful floating rocket. "Skip the system check and jump into flying drill mode now!" Remmy shouted as the dark mages all opened fire at once. Diesel went through his usual transformation into flight mode, but this time the rocket floated to the backside of the cockpit and attached with a magnetic spark. Once his legs flipped inward and was replaced by the giant drill, he wasted no time revving it up to max spin and flying off through the massive army. "Don't let that thing get aw-" One of the dark mages was about to order, but a growing hum drew his attention. He turned and floated toward the mechanism to inspect it. "Something wrong Alex?" Another mage asked. Alex ignored them and approached the source of the hum. He saw a heavily sparking device lodged in the circuitry and went wide eyed.

Pushing their way through the army of clones, Diesel and Remmy hear a sudden series of explosions. "Welp, that went well." Remmy said. "We're not safe yet. Extreme heat source rising toward us." Diesel informed "Are you kidding me!" Remmy shouted bringing up the scanner screens. "Looks like that explosion was more effective than we thought it would be!" He said as he observed the heat source on the scanners… and disappearing life signatures the moment they touch it. Remmy gulped in fear. "We won't stand a chance if that thing catches u- what?" The lights of the control console flickered and dimmed. The rockets gave a sudden burst of power. "Diverting all excess power to rockets. We will make it." Diesel said. In a few tense moments, the explosion seemed to be catching up. Once the scanners showed they were back to the surface level, Diesel pulled a hard turn and leveled out as the explosion passed by, barely grazing the tip of Diesels rockets. "Whoohoo! That was an absolute blast! But let's never do that again!" Remmy cheered short of breath. A sudden alarm cut him off. "What's going on now?" The zurg shifted the scanner screen to long range and was shocked at the energy signature that was being picked up. "Diesel!" Remmy started. "Already on it." The mech said as he set course for the mage village. "Please be ok everybody." Remmy said in worry.