AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Kingdom Hearts (our focus), Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, 300, Dragonball Z, Johnny Test, Fantasia, Hercules and Tales of the Abyss. In this chapter: Yu-Gi-Oh.
Chapter 8 — A Clean Escape
Upon the New 12's entry into to the secret cave, they immediately found themselves in another realm, almost completely of darkness.
"Dude... where are we, and what are we standing on?"
Lucy took a look with her Byakugan. "There's a gigantic, but very faintly indigo-colored platform we are standing on. And, just as far as I can see, there's this great white door at the edge of this place."
"It has to be our way out." Sly assumed.
Hoppity gasped, sensing multiple heavy power sources nearby. "Getting there isn't gonna be easy..." she said, pointing upward.
Wrinkle descended down towards the Titans, accompanied by the other two Acolytes Christina was bullied by, Ganondorf and Mewtwo. Wrinkle had an odd black aura around him.
"Correct you are." Wrinkle affirmed.
"Where's Ansem?" Felix asked.
"Why, he's here... within me."
"That explains your power and aura. But why are these two with you?" Megan interrogated, crossing her arms.
"Why else? Don't you know your enemies when you see them in plain sight?"
"Trust me, we know our foes. Didn't you say you were "just following orders" earlier, how this wasn't your plan to begin with?" Mooch tested the canine nemesis.
Wrinkle chuckled. "Of course, you guys don't listen very closely. I said I was following orders, at the moment. Until all the pieces were in place, my own plan wouldn't begin. This is now the case—the cooperation of Ansem, assisting Acolytes, and that very door in the distance... Kingdom Hearts. With its limitless capabilities, Kingdom Hearts shall make me truly immortal, with unstoppable power beyond anyone's wildest imagination!"
The New 12 were shocked to hear his plan, and immediately knew that they could not let that happen, now knowing that Wrinkle had "incomplete immortality"—a mutual contract with the Acoyltes.
"Before we thrash on you, we want to know... who plans this stuff out? The Titans X massacre, the espers, Subspace, everything!" Slowpoke shouted.
"Slade." Ganondorf answered.
"Our leader. But it's strange... he's been quiet lately. Ever since this plan began, he hasn't given any other order." Mewtwo added.
"Which means, matters are in our hands now." Wrinkle proclaimed.
"Looks like you guys need a reality check." Ewey said, powering up to Legendary along with the rest of the New 12.
"Right. Titans, go!" Mooch announced, using Flash Step to try and ambush Wrinkle with one of his arms, after morphing it into a blade.
"You just don't get it." Wrinkle said, ten yards away from Mooch, who realized that he hit a mirage. "With Ansem in me, I control the Heartless!"
Suddenly, a great horde of Heartless appeared all around the area (consisting of all breeds from the first Kingdom Hearts game).
"We... are... boned." Bongo presumed, fearing the imminent doom upon he and his team. They were in the presence of countless Heartless, two Acolytes, and Wrinkle himself.
The heroes began to question their survival. Is this where their destiny ends?
"WRONG!" shouted a random voice from behind the New 12.
Everyone in the fight turned to the sound of the voice, but only got blinded by an intense light that grew in intensity. When the light subsided, just about every Heartless disappeared.
"What trickery is this? Ewey? Hoppity? Lucy?" Wrinkle demanded to know.
"No... us." said the same voice, which was realized to be that of Durango's. The mustang was accompanied by the rest of Team Z—Mina, Tina, Thunderbolt, Dep and Fortress.
"Team Z! How'd you guys get in this place?" Ears asked.
"The Oracle Twins (Mina and Tina) sensed that you guys were in trouble, so we came to help, on one condition... you let us handle Ganondorf and Mewtwo." Thunderbolt said.
Without warning, Ganondorf warped to Durango via Sonido and used his Warlock Punch. However, it was blocked by Durango's bare left hand, as if it was nothing. The New 12 were amazed that Durango could stop such a powerful move with ease.
"What makes you think that singling us out will make things easier, huh?" Ganondorf asked.
"We don't think that'll happen... we KNOW that'll happen." Durango responded, looking at the Acolyte while exhibiting most of his new power. It rose above Ganondorf's, which freaked a few people out.
"Dude... we're gonna have to make a new scouter for these power levels." Slowpoke uttered.
"We'll accept your condition. That leaves us to Wrinkle." Mooch said.
"He's getting away!" Christina alerted the group, seeing the foe run towards Kingdom Hearts.
"Not for long he isn't!" Felix shouted, taking the initiative and chasing after Wrinkle by Lightning Dash.
"New 12, support Felix. If any more Heartless show up, you know what to do." Mooch commanded, before he took his move. For some reason, however, he could not move from the spot he stood on.
Megan was the only one that noticed this. "Mooch, what's wrong?" she asked.
"I don't know. It's like I'm glued to this spot..." he replied, looking down at the ground to find the problem. The only thing he saw that was different was some silver spot of light on the ground.
"What's that?" Megan wondered.
For some strange reason, Mooch's spiritual pressure was responding to the light as he looked at it. "What? Why is my spirit energy acting up? Wait a minute..." Mooch thought, beginning to remember that his zanpakutō flew into this dimension as well. He put his hand on the light, and found that his hand passed through the ground.
Megan watched as Mooch slowly pulled out his blade from underneath the nearly black ground. "Your sword... but how?" she inquired.
"I don't know. I always seem to find it when I really need it... which means the end of this madness is upon us."
(Music starts: "Desperate Struggle" — Final Fantasy XIII.)
/\/\/\/\/\/\
BATTLE 1: Team Z vs. Ganondorf and Mewtwo.
"We've been looking for you two." Dep began the conversation.
"Why's that?" Mewtwo asked.
"It's pretty simple to answer, really. But the better question is: do you really want to know why Slade's been AWOL lately?" Fortress proposed.
"He's probably just busy planning our next step in our master plan. What else do we need to know?" Ganondorf stated.
"That he's dead." Thunderbolt announced.
"WHAT?" Ganondorf outbursted, attacking only to have to Warlock Punch denied again, but by Thunderbolt this time.
"Yeah, that doesn't work on me either."
"Who could've done such a thing?" Mewtwo questioned in a bit of vengeance.
"You're looking at them." Tina answered.
"No..." Ganondorf murmured, slowly backing away from the heroes.
"It's true." Mina began. "You see, the reason why we requested to fight you two was because of one reason only: you're the only two Acolytes left. You heard me right—every other member of the self-proclaimed "elusive" band of masterminds are gone."
"In the big picture, it was really a sign of revenge, for the mass murder of almost all of Titans X, almost ten years ago. I still don't know why you all did it, but you need to realize that mess with one member of a family, you mess with everyone in it too. My mom never did anything to you guys, and you still chased her, even after she left Ireland. *sigh* You can forget trying to kill us, because this madness ends now. This fight is one-sided; it's already over. And by the way, we know all about your little contract you made with Wrinkle and his syndicate. We're here to finish the job, by taking you two out!" Durango said.
"How can you sound so sure?" Mewtwo and Ganondorf both asked bluntly, charging in towards Team Z, full force. Ganondorf had transformed into his beast form while Mewtwo surrounded himself in a blue aura, both increasing their power levels.
All six heroes each extended one of their hands out towards the two charging Acolytes.
"Because we are." Durango replied.
"Psionic Blast!" shouted the six members of Team Z, each firing an overly powerful blast of light (each colored to their skin colors, with the exception of Fortress, which was shown as the color of her lavender hair). It was their mock Cero.
At that instant, both Acolytes were vanquished, on the spot. Team Z proved their point and completed their quest: to act as a separate, powerful division of the Bean Titans, and ultimately, defeat all of the Acolytes. Mission accomplished.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
BATTLE 2: The New 12 vs. Wrinkle (chase battle).
Since Ewey was the main source of light in the nearly pitch black realm, the spawning Heartless were drawn towards her.
"Got you now!" Felix said, attacking Wrinkle with a Chidori.
Wrinkle laughed evilly, as his voice was heard ten yards ahead of Felix. "Too slow! Try again." Wrinkle taunted him.
"Viper Bolts!" Felix shouted in a bit of anger, firing swift bolts of lightning at Wrinkle.
Even with Felix's speed, Wrinkle kept dodging like it was nothing. Lucy watched closely with her Byakugan.
"Those are actually pretty fast... but it's still no use against me. Just give up, kid."
"Oh no, he said the "k" word." Bonnie murmured.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Felix yelled, unleashing a massive Discharge (area thundershock) out of frustration.
Wrinkle (barely) dodged again. "Whoa... how can someone that young exhibit that much sudden power? I better watch what I say." he thought.
"He's using the darkness around him to warp everywhere." Lucy figured out. "All he has to do is just look out to anywhere in this place, and he'll be spotless."
"All right guys. New plan. I'll handle the Heartless with my clones—the rest of you stop Wrinkle." Sly planned.
"But there's so many of them..." Christina said.
"I won't be alone. Look." he replied, pointing out to Team Z, who was quickly eliminating some of the Heartless with what they called their "beginner" light attacks. They already defeated the last two Acolytes.
"Okay, be careful."
"Believe it. Titans, GO!" Sly shouted. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
"Ah, crap." Wrinkle muttered, looking back to see nine members of the New 12 charging for him. Even though he could manage dodging them, it would be a pain having to do it.
He first sidestepped Bongo's Flame Wheel, Ears's Tornami Twister, and Slowpoke's Tunneling Fang. Wrinkle then warped away from a pair of Chidoris, from Felix and Bonnie. Using Sonido speed, he escaped Megan's ninja projectiles, Lucy's Psi-Knives, Hoppity's Psybeam Barrage, and even Ewey's Scatterstorm (from the Heavenbow). Not one of the Bean Titans could hit him even once.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Ewey exclaimed, watching Wrinkle continue on to the great white doors.
"Ha ha ha ha! With Ansem's power, there's no way any of you can stop me. Kingdom Hearts is close, and so is my perfect immortality! None of you stand a chance!"
"Sword of Revealing Light!" Mooch shouted so that Wrinkle could hear. (Music shifts: "Number One" — Bleach.)
Suddenly, a curtain of light swords dropped around Wrinkle's position, causing him to halt as long as the swords were present.
"What's this?" acclaimed Wrinkle.
"What were you saying just now?" Mooch inquired, holding his blade in his right hand. A key chain hung from the handle of the blade, holding a key of sorts.
"Damn you..."
"Much obliged." Mooch replied sarcastically. "Just so you know, my zanpakutō rarely runs off on its own, away from me, to find something it deems as "dire importance" to something ahead of time. When I find it again, the battle is already over—you can count on that."
"Grrrr... do your worst!" Wrinkle growled.
"I will, but I'm not aiming for you." Mooch said, while pointing his blade right at Wrinkle's chest.
"What?"
"Kingdom Light!" Mooch announced, causing a bright light to generate at the edge of his sword and burst forth a beam of light, which flew straight through Wrinkle's body. The outcome: the Swords of Revealing Light vanished, and Wrinkle was completely unharmed... however, his dark aura disappeared.
"What the...? Ansem? Ansem! Where are you?" Wrinkle yelled out.
"I banished him from this realm of darkness, and not just out of your body. That was all I needed to do, to prevent him from getting any more powerful and to prevent you for gaining your full immortality. It's over, Wrinkle." Mooch explained, sheathing Zen no Kyoudoutai.
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I needed to attain my immortality for a reason!"
Mooch looked back to Wrinkle, as the rest of the New 12 and Team Z accompanied him, while Kingdom Hearts opened. "And that's how you want your destiny to be? Maybe you should quiz yourself next time."
Wrinkle bowed his head.
"Hey." Sly called.
Wrinkle looked at him.
"Unless you want to spend the rest of your life in this place, I suggest you follow us out of here. We may be your enemies, but we aren't heartless." Sly told him.
"Fine." Wrinkle murmured, bursting through the light from the door first, followed by the heroes.
/-/
Thanks to Team Z, the Acolytes have now been silenced for good, leaving Wrinkle's Syndicate at a loss. Their lives are not safe from time.
With Wrinkle in more of a sense defeat than ever, how much of a time limit does he have until his "contract" ends? What will he do until that time comes?
There's still more to come around.