...Transmission re-established
Up in low orbit, a space-suited astronaut is floating in the void, a tether keeping him attached to the International Space Station while he performs some regular maintenance. The radio in his helmet crackles to life. "Hey Mitch, we're getting some odd readings on the radar here. Could you check and make sure it hasn't been must up by anything?"
"Roger that Dale." the astronaut replied. Before he began spacewalking though, something caught his eye. It almost looked like a bunch of ships leaving the atmosphere...
A scrapped together force of KND and Dexter's craft blew past the astronaut, sending him spinning around the void, the plastic chord keeping him from hurling into deep space. "Houston, we have a problem..."
"Attention all ships, this is Red leader! All wings report in!" ordered Numbah 1 into his radio. In an attempt to bolster their numbers, every kid who had even decent piloting skills had been given a fighter.
"Red 1, standing by!"
"Red 2, standing by!"
"Red 3, standing by!"
"Red 4 standing by!"
"Maroon 5, standing by!"
"Red Fox standing by!"
"Red October standing by!"
"Red lobster standing by!"
"Red Redemption, standing by!"
"Red Robin, standing by!"
"Gold leader, are you ready?" Numbah 1 asked Numbah 2, who's call sign is Gold Leader for now.
"Copy that captain!" the pilot replied. "Me and Gold Squadron will keep you covered while you guys board Mandy's ship. According to my scans, it's that skull shaped one in the middle of the enemy formation."
Numbah 4, who was serving as tail-gunner for Numbah 1, suddenly looked shaky. "You ah... you don't mean the one covered in turrets and swarming with fighters do ye?" he asked nervously.
"That's the one!" Numbah 1 replied undaunted. "All right team, we fight today not only for ourselves, or for our friends or our family, but for childhood as we know it! Everybody, BATTLE-STATIONS!" Numbah 1 shouted, receiving a roar of enthusiasm in response. "LET'S DO THIS!" he shouted as the entire fleet plunged into a massive firefight.
"I hate flyiinnggggg!" Numbah 4 moaned while opening fire on any enemies he could see.
(KND symbol)
On board the Doom-based Hall, Mandy was putting the finishing touches on the intricate ritual that Heinrich Von Marzipan will one day so amateurishly unleash in Guatemala. The intended target for the quality stealing spell?: Kuki Sanban, who was tied to a table at the center of the sugar symbol. She was currently (and futile) struggling against her bonds.
"Why are you doing this Mandy? Why can't you just be happy and loving and nice?" Kuki pleaded.
"I wouldn't expect an airhead like you to understand my destiny." Mandy replied, never deviating for the precise task at hand. "But I want you to know that you are going to help me achieve my goals. Just like your sister has."
Before either could say anything more, a hologram appeared from Mandy's wrist sized projector. "Mandy, the KND are attacking the fleet, but for some reason my warships can't get a lock on them. They must be jamming our targeting computers!" exclaimed the miniature floating blue head of Mandark.
Mandy had been scowling before receiving this news, and became even more cross looking at the sound of this. "Put The Kid on." she ordered, and the hologram of Mandark fizzled out of existence and was replaced by the hot shot pilot known only as Ace. "Ace, I'm putting you in command of the fighter squadrons. Get out there and destroy them ship to ship." Ace gave a brisk salute and hung up.
"Oh, I should have known that that Kid was nothing but trouble!" Kuki exclaimed. "And I used to think he was cute..." she added quietly.
"Wrong again as usual Sanban." Mandy corrected, and the scene changed to a gray-tinted flashback. Ace was working on his fighter when Mandy smashed open the door. "When we first approached The Kid, he wanted nothing to do with us, and even threatened to tell the Kids Next Door what was going on." Mandy and Ace are arguing and threatening each other. The camera pans away until only their shadows are seen. "But we eventually reached an agreement." The flashback ends with the shadow of a Tie leaping forward and attaching itself to the hot-shot's neck, placing him into the mind-controlled state he's been in for the whole story.
"Your sister did a marvelous job genetically engineering the Living Ties that Windsor brought us, as well as testing your family's compatibility with the Scythe's power. It's a shame that genius and ambition don't run in the family." Mandy spoke as she finished the preparations. She then removed a Tie Egg from a jar and walked over to Kuki. "This ritual will drain you of all your positive emotions, and accelerate the growth and power of this Tie." Mandy exclaimed while shattering the egg shell and ripping the still developing Bow Tie out, causing it to squeal in pain. "Then, you'll be ready to re-bond with the scythe," Mandy added while pulling the now-powerless Grim Reaper's Scythe from behind her back. "And serve me as a mind controlled slave with unlimited super-natural power."
Mandy dropped the Tie embryo onto Kuki's neck as it was still slowly beating. She then stepped outside the circle. "Any last free words?"
"Wally. Wally will stop you!" she said in full faith, having full confidence that her teammate would save her.
"I don't think so." Mandy said with a kind of harsh, simple coldness. She then began the process, the sugar glowing bright, and the Tie Embryo growing and morphing in horrible ways. Without any further words, she walked out the door, and activated the room's sound dampeners to block the sound of Kuki's screaming.
(KND symbol)
Outside, the battle is heating up. Dexter's jammers have kept Mandark's ships from being able to target the KND ships, but with the sheer amount of fire coming off the warships, several craft were inevitably caught in the crossfire.
Still, the KND had the upper hand. Once again, Dexter's genius saved the day. His knowledge of Mandark's technology gave him the insight to craft ammunition capable of damaging the enemy ships.
A rocket shaped craft had just pulled out of a bombing run against an enemy cruiser when the radio crackled to life. "Look out Gold 7, you've got hostile fighters incoming!"
"Roger that!" replied Jimmy Neutron, the child prodigy of Retroville, as he made note of the three red blips on his radar. He took several evasive actions against his pursuer, but couldn't seem to shake them. "This guys good." the genius thought to himself while looking over his control board for a button that would shake his opponent.
He finall selected a square blue button, and a few seconds after pressing it, a glowing blue cube dropped from the back of the rocket. It floated gently through space, then emitted a glowing blue light which was quickly sucked back inside, along with the three ships. Or so the genius thought.
"Heh heh, infinite space charges get 'em every time." Jimmy chuckled quietly, until he noticed the same blip from before was now directly on top of him! "How did he...? Of course! He must have killed his engines just as I launched the cube, keeping him from being sucked in. Shutting off all his systems would have also keep my scopes from detecting him, making it look like he went down with his buddies. Then he rode the EMP wave and..." any further enlightenment was cut off by the shaking and alarms that indicated the ship had been hit.
Inside Ace's fighter (for who else could have pulled off the extremely complicated maneuver described above?) the pilot lined up his cross-hairs on Jimmy's damaged craft. Had he not been rendered emotionless by the mind-control, now would have been the time for him to speak a smug "I have you now."
Before Ace could pull the trigger though, a sudden laser burst clipped his wing, skewing his aim and altering his flight path. Inside Jimmy's ship, the boy genius breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close."
"YE-HA!" came Numbah 2's cheer over the comm. "Don't worry about billiard boy, I'll handle him!" the pilot ordered. "Go cover Numbah 1! He and Red Squadron are going to try and board Mandy's ship soon!"
"Copy that!" Jimmy said before changing course.
"Alright Kid, let's settle this once and for all!" Numbah 2 declared as he and Ace squared off.
(KND symbol)
Meanwhile, Numbah 1 and Red Squadron were on a collision course with the Doom-based Hall. "Alright team, our target is the large hanger under the right eye. We only get one shot, so if you can't get in on the first pass, break off and help the others, LET'S DO THIS!"
"Uh, Numbah 1-sir. There are enemy fighters headed our way." spoke Sonya. Since Tommy had been unable to join the KND, she had become Sector W's pilot, and was surprisingly good at it.
"Not cool." added Lee from the gunner's seat.
The mechanical pilots fired with inhuman synchronization, but human intuition gave the KND pilots the edge needed avoid and retaliate. Thing still looked bleak however, as more and more fighters poured from the skull-shaped HQ.
Suddenly, there was a massive blast that destroyed at least 80% of the bogies. Jimmy Neutron had fired the rocket, and a few seconds later, he fired another one. This one was aimed for the hanger bay that kept launching the vessels however, and the resulting detonation cleared the entire deck of enemy fighters and their mechanical pilots.
"Alright guys, with all the fighters out of the way, you should have no problem boarding the ship." Jimmy spoke over the comm while changing course to assist others. "Gotta blast!"
"Just one problem genius." spoke up Stan. He and Kyle had been picked up by the KND in Washington D.C., where they had successfully defeated Cartman's army of Drunken Civil War Re-enactors. Stan is the better pilot, so he's flying while Kyle serves as gunner. "The hanger we need to land in is guarded by twelve feet of solid steel!"
The boy in a red poof-ball hat was indeed correct, as the hanger bay door was sealed up tight. "Not to worry!" replied Dexter. "I can hack into Mandark's computers with my eyes closed! It will be open in a moment!" he declared.
"You heard him team, keep on course!" Numbah 1 declared, and the figthers stayed on their collison course with the hanger bay door.
"Don't you think we should at least slow down?" asked Johny Test.
"Negative. Unless we keep up our current speed, those turrets will pick us off." answered Numbah 5.
"Thirty seconds to impact." spoke the navigation computer installed in everyone's fighter.
"Dexter, hurry up!" exclaimed Numbah 1
"I'm almost there..."
"Twenty seconds."
"Just a little longer..."
"Ten seconds..."
"Almost..."
"Fiver, four..."
"Just..."
"Three"
"OPEN THE DOORS ALREADY!"
"DONE!" the boy genius shouted as the doors slid open. A split second later and the entire squadron would have splattered all over the hull.
The child heroes landed their ships and cut the engines. They exited the cockpits, removed any flight helmets, drew their weapons, and descended into the heart of darkness.
Transmission interrupted...
Author's notes: I apologise if the inclusion of Jimmy Neutron or the other South Park boys seems sudden. For Jimmy, there aren't any child villains from that series I know of to include. As for the South Park boys, the entire "heard but not scene" sub-plot about Cartman leading an army of Drunken Civil War Re-enactors to attack the government was lifted directly from an existing South Park episode.
The exchange between Mandy and Kuki will make no sense unless you've seen Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure. If you haven't seen it, look up the plot, then come back and read this chapter again.
And yes. I lifted the entire "All wings report in" joke from Family Guy. I'm a bad, bad person.