Chapter 14: One Last Stand Part 3
The battle raged on. Across the palace court yard countless golem guards, undead soldiers, robots, and rebellion soldiers were being slaughtered by each other. Countless dead. Countless still fighting. Occasionally a girl with auburn hair would appear using the Golden Tiger Claws to transport wounded rebels out of the city; a boy with black wings was carrying the dead body of his friend away; a gang of girls on motorcycles decorated to look like vipers were rampaging, taking out what they could with their chains; two giants, one with a single eye and another made of objects brought to life, obliterated anything that got in their way. There had been few casualties on the side of the Sins. The Sin of Greed lie unconscious in the battle fields but the others still fought bravely. The Sin of Gluttony had lost control, crushing anything he saw and not caring what or who it was; the Sin of Wrath was firing guns like a mad man but never missing his target; the Sin of Sloth was ordering his robots around; and the Sin of Lust was cutting down any rebel that fell in her line of sight.
Hannibal Bean watched all of this through a cloud of magic hovering in front of him. Since losing the Moby Morpher he'd taken to his armor again, so he drummed his iron fingers on the side of his throne. He glanced away from the battle for a moment to take in his surroundings. The Yin-Yang World hadn't changed at all since he'd hidden in it to heal… it never did. "Time for a change of scenery…" he mumbled. "… Time for me to choose a side. Yingy!"
The Yin-Yang bird fluttered down from the darkness of the Yin-Yang World and landed on its master's shoulder. "Take me to Beijing." Hannibal ordered. The gray and black bird with the blood red crest squawked and flapped its wings, lifting its master's armored body easily into the air and passing through a portal which appeared before them.
LUSTS PALACE
Wrath laughed insanely as he fired off round after round seemingly randomly into the crowd of rebels and Sin soldiers, though in reality he was carefully aiming and only hitting the rebels. "Oh, what fun, what fun!" Wrath cackled. "I haven't slaughtered like this since the last time I played Grand Theft Auto!"
"Hey!"
Wrath stopped and whirled around, aiming his guns but not firing right away. He found one of the monks standing a few yards away cracking his knuckles. He vaguely recognized him, but couldn't quite figure it out. This monk wore a cowboy hat and spoke with a southern accent. "Carl?" Wrath questioned.
"That's Clay." Clay growled.
They glared at each other for a moment, time seeming to freeze around them like a stand off in an old Clint Eastwood western. You could see it in their eyes: Clay was itching to crack Wrath's skull wide open and Wrath just had that insane look in his eye that meant he belonged in a mental hospital.
Without warning Wrath opened fire. Bullets went flying straight at Clay, but amazingly the bullets either stopped in mid air and dropped right before hitting him or ricocheted off of him. "I'm the Dragon of the Earth." Clay explained. "Most bullets are made of lead, which comes from the earth. In other words, you can't touch me."
Wrath growled, but then smirked when he remembered. "Oh, I wouldn't say that." he snickered before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a magazine of bullets. "Pride told me something like this might happen, so he wiped up a secret weapon for me… bullets made of pure magic." He pulled out the current magazine and replaced it with the new one and quickly took aim. But before he could shoot…
Something crashed down in between them, leaving a small crater in its wake. It was a suit of armor; metal black as the night sky, horns and spikes of gold, and red glowing eyes inside of the helmet. "Peek-a-boo." Hannibal chuckled darkly before standing and glancing between Clay and Wrath.
"Oh boy, another target! And me without armor piercing rounds." Wrath joked.
"What're you doing here, Hannibal?" Clay demanded.
"Regretting what I'm about to do." Hannibal said before turning to Wrath. "Say hello to Satan for me."
ELSEWHERE
"Think we can take him?"
"Gluttony? He's a brute but he's an idiot. As long as we have Mala Mala Jong and Cyclops fighting with us he'll be easy.
"Unlike you."
"Hey, we haven't been dating that long."
"It's been over six months!"
"Would you two get your heads out of the toilet?" Mimi demanded, screaming at the two girls standing next to her. Jewel and Elena just giggled and released each others hands. "Seriously," Mimi continued. "We're in the middle of a battle field and you're talking about your relationship! What's wrong with you?"
Elena and Jewel nodded in agreement and turned back to Gluttony. For a few minutes now they'd been watching the Sin rampage from on top of the palace wall, trying to decide if they could take him or not. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but with two giants of their own they figured they at least had a shot.
"All right. Let's do this." Julia said before standing up and jumping off the wall, followed quickly by Elena and Mimi.
When they landed Julia and Mimi darted for Gluttony while Elena remained behind for a moment to pull on the Emperor Scorpion and shout its name. Mala Mala Jong instantly became alert and, at Elena's command, rushed at Gluttony. Cyclops followed after him for reasons his tiny brain couldn't even comprehend. The two giants leapt at and tackled Gluttony to the ground, catching him by surprise. Gluttony roared, easily got back to his feet and threw them off of his back.
Then the girls came out of nowhere, Mimi jumping into the air and slamming the Hitsuji Hammer right into the Sin's stone mask while Jewel and Elena simultaneously flipped through the air, slammed their heels into Gluttony's rock hard abs and kicked him to the ground. The hammer actually seemed to do some damage as the stone mask was now cracked slightly. But again this only made Gluttony angrier as he roared again and jumped to his feet, swinging his club like a mad man and knocking random rebels and soldiers of the Sins to the ground, more than likely killing them. Gluttony was about to turn on his true attackers, but before he could spot them Jong captured him with the Lasso Boa Boa, binding his arms to his sides. Julia then pulled the Thorn of Thunderbolts out and blasted the titan with it. This caused the crack in his mask to spread and break completely. The mask split and fell off in two halves, revealing the face underneath.
Gluttony had a monstrous face to go with his monstrous body. With the mask on it looked mostly normal, other than being oversized, but without it you could tell why he wore it. He had no hair, including eyebrows, and he obviously hadn't for years. His entire head was horribly burned, scars and slightly charred skin covering his head from the nose up. Bits and pieces of burned flesh hung off in places and in one small spot his skull could even bee seen. The crazed look in his eye was also answered: either the burns had burned his eyes open permanently or they'd been burned off. He looked like he was in so much pain. He was hideous…
But the girls still felt sorry for him… even if he was evil.
Julia and Elena instinctively grabbed each others hands and Mimi hid behind Cyclops leg. Now they'd made Gluttony mad… and they knew it.
INSIDE THE PALACE
The bomb was set. Jack, Omi, Saya, Panda Bubba, Jermaine, Guan, Tubbimura, Katnappe, and Panda Bubba's two goons were high tailing it as fast as they could out of the palace. They didn't know the exact way they came in, but it didn't really matter. This place was about to go to hell, so what did knocking down a few walls matter?
"How long do we have?" Omi asked Jack as Panda Bubba punched through a wall with the fist of Tebigong.
"It's not a time bomb. It's remote controlled." Jack explained as he pulled a small black remote out of his pocket. "I have to punch in the correct code before the bomb can go off. So, unless something goes horribly wrong, we'll all be able to escape with no problems."
"And if something does go horribly wrong?" Omi questioned.
"We all die in a fiery explosion."
"Ah… good to know."
"Not really." Jermaine growled.
The group was now in a hallway that they suspected stretched from one end of the castle to the other, considering that it stretched so far that they could barely see the farther end. They began racing for the closer end which was still pretty far away. But they had barely made it half way when walls of green fire appeared on either side of them and Wuya appeared on the other side of the front one, laughing devilishly as she stepped through and glared at them.
"Well, well, well… look what we have here? I'm guessing this isn't a panty raid since the Dragon of Lightning and the crazy cat girl are here." Wuya spat.
"Get out of our way!" Guan shouted as he, Tubbimura and Katnappe jumped in front of the others. "We know we are loosing this battle and we are on our way to give the order to retreat."
"And what, might I ask, are you doing in my palace?" Wuya demanded.
"No sense going to war without leaving a mark." Jermaine said cockily, pointing his thumb to the hole in the wall behind them.
Wuya growled and clenched her fists. "You'll have to pay for that… I'm afraid I don't take money, however… blood will work though." The witch snapped her fingers and nine golem guards shot out of the walls, grabbing onto everyone except Omi and Wuya and fusing back into the walls, trapping them there. "You're first." Wuya said, looking at Omi.
Wuya dashed at Omi, ready to tear him apart and scatter his shattered body around the hall, but before she could someone dropped down from the ceiling, crashed onto her back and pinned her to the ground. The person, once he was sure she was pinned down, grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head back just enough so that she could see his face out of the corner of her eye. "Never threaten my students." Fung growled.
"Master Fung!" Omi shouted in excitement.
"Now is not the time, Omi!" Fung shouted as Wuya vanished from beneath him and reappeared behind Omi. "Free the others and get out of here! I will deal with her."
"But Master…"
"Go!" Fung ordered. Omi didn't dare argue any further and, with a few powerful kicks to the wall, freed Jack, Panda Bubba, Saya and the others and the took off, crashing through the wall and jumping down to the battle field below.
"I should've known you were the rodent." Wuya said. "But now I'll have the pleasure of killing you for real… something the second Envy was too much of a pussy to do."
"Before we do this, tell me…" Fung clenched his fist and glared at her, not bothering to hide the tears running down his cheeks. "Who has replaced the second Envy?" He knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it from her.
Wuya giggled and grinned. "Now, now, let's not rush into things."
PALACE COURT YARD
Raphael and Vlad roared as they unloaded shot after shot from their guns, taking down any undead soldier, robot, or golem guard that came their way. The two Russians were trapped between a wall of the Sin's soldiers and a wall and they'd decided that if they were going to die they were going to die fighting.
Raphael cocked his shot gun one more time and blasted an oncoming robot, causing it to hurl backwards and knock over a few undead soldiers. That was his last shot and he didn't have any spare ammunition left. He was sure that Vlad, though still able to shoot, was running low on ammo as well. The elderly man was about to drop his gun completely and rush into the crowd head on when he heard something from above.
"Bonsai!"
Panda Bubba, Jack, Omi, Saya, Tubbimura, Katnappe, Jermaine, Guan, and Panda Bubba's two lackeys just fell from the sky and started fighting their way through the crowd, completely destroying robots, demolishing golem guards, and sending the undead soldiers back to their graves. Panda Bubba remained behind for a moment and turned to Raphael. "Give the order to everyone. We retreat now and get as far away from the city as possible." he ordered before rushing odd to join the fight.
Raphael reached into his pocket and pulled out another gun, a flare gun. He quickly aimed directly into the air and pulled the trigger, sending a blinding red light hurling into the sky. As soon as it was high enough the rebels ran for it, running for the nearest exit or making their own, but making sure they were on their way to safety. Raphael and Vlad only remained behind long enough to make sure those remaining behind were dead or not on their side before taking off themselves.
LATER OUTSIDE OF THE CITY
The rebel army was retreating, running for their lives and not bothering to stop and drag a small group of stragglers with them Jack, Panda Bubba and Raphael stood on a hill top, looking down to the city, focusing on the palace and the damage they'd done to it. It was time to finish the job, but they still had to wait a bit longer.
Finally Nina appeared with the Golden Tiger Claws. "That's all of the injured and the able bodies are all out of the city as far as I can tell. The dead, as much as it pains me to say, I had to leave behind. Too much extra cargo." The red head explained.
Jack nodded and pulled the remote out of his pocket. "All right. Here goes nothing.
Before he could push the button Kimiko pulled up on her Black Viper bike with Rai sitting behind her. Mala Mala Jong and Cyclops came running after them, Jong holding Julia and Elena on its shoulders while Cyclops had Mimi and Clay on its. After them Omi, Saya, Guan and Jermaine rushed up. All came to watch the end of this, but some had another reason. "No!" Omi shouted. "Master Fung is still in there!"
"What're you talking about?" Clay demanded. "We have no idea where Master Fung is!"
"He was Hamster the whole time." Saya explained. "And he's still down there fighting Wuya. We have to save him!"
Guan grabbed the siblings by their shoulders and pulled them back a bit. "If anyone can survive it is your master." He reassured them. "You need not worry." Omi tried to protest, but knew that Guan was right and decided to drop it.
"Ok, it there are no more arguments I'm blowing this damn thing up." Jack said. With no further hesitation he punched in the code and hit the trigger button.
Nothing happened.
Jack, confused, pressed it again. Still nothing. He hit the button repeatedly but each click was followed by more nothing. "Damn!" Jack shouted. "Something's wrong, it wont detonate!" he clicked it one last time before throwing the remote to the ground and stomping it into pieces. "Damn it! Now we'll have to give up or someone will have to detonate it manually!"
Everyone went silent, not even daring to breath. They'd come so close to accomplishing their goal… but now it almost wasn't worth it. Manually? But that meant…
"Are you sure there isn't any way to fix it from here?" Kimiko asked.
Jack shook his head. "It's too complex. Some one has to go back there and punch in the code if we want this to go through… but there's no way they'll be able to make it back."
"We've come too far to give up now!" Panda Bubba insisted. "I'll do it myself if I have too!"
Again Jack disagreed. "I'm the only one who knows the code… I have to do it."
"Jack, no!" Nina pleaded, grabbing her boyfriends arm. "I won't let you!"
"I have to do this Nina!" Jack snapped, pulling away from her. "If we give up now the Sins may rule the entire world forever… or until they decide to end it."
"Jack, please…" Nina sobbed, tears running down her cheek now. "I love you so much… don't leave me alone…"
"And I love you too much… to let you live a life of misery and hiding." Jack said. His mind was set. Nina was in too much shock to resist when he took the Golden Tiger Claws from her. He turned around and faced the city. "Good bye." He said.
But just as he was about to slash the claws through the air Raphael turned him around by grabbing and pulling his shoulder and then punched him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. "Fool." Raphael said. "You have something to live for." The elderly Russian then took the Golden Tiger Claws from him and reached into his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. "No attention span… idiot had to write down the code." He turned back to Nina and the others. "Tell Katnappe I thanked her for the tip." With that he slashed the claws through the air and jumped through the portal, throwing the claws back before it closed.
Everyone waited and watched. It only took a few seconds before a massive explosion erupted from Lust's palace. They were hit with the wave of resulting shock wave and a fiery mushroom cloud was there when the light of the explosion died down. Their job was done.
"Let us go." Panda Bubba said. "We have heroes to honor."
End Part 2: The Rebellion
(a/n) I have to say, I am very pleased with how this turned out. sure, most of the battles were open ended but that was only to save space (and I wanted to get this done as fast as possible). still a very fitting ending to this part and part 3 will start soon. one more thing though, I neither confirm or deneigh whether Master Fung is dead or not. Rapheal is definatly dead, however. caught in the middle of the explosion, hes gone. just wanted to clear that up.