Chapter 9
Castle Crashers
At the base of a dark purple, almost black mountain with an old grey castle on the top.
"So we have to climb that mountain? Man I can't climb, I'm all thumbs!" Manaphy whined, pounding the ground with his fingerless arm.
"Who said anything about climbing." Darkrai said to himself and started to float toward the mountain.
"Hold it right there." a tall girl with a rather emotionless voice and long dark-red hair commanded, crossing her arms.
"What was that?" the Pokemon said in a condescending tone, turning around.
"She's right Darkrai, don't be dumb. If you leave on your own you will get killed or worse!" added Enigma.
"There is strength in numbers Darkrai and you know deep down you would not last." Darkrai could hear the seriousness in Ls tone and as much as he would hate to admit it, he knew that the detective was right.
"Very well, but don't expect me to bail you humans out all of the time." the shadow Pokemon muttered.
"Then lets go." said Shadow, who teleported away using Chaos Control.
"Man, I never scaled a mountain before..." mumbled Serena as she grabbed onto a slab of rock and started to pull herself up.
"Hold on tight." said Spyro before flying up high with Manaphy holding on to his tail.
"Oo oo!" exclaimed Diddy, a monkey wearing a red shirt with a matching red baseball cap. A jetpack, which consisted of 2 red barrels, appeared on his back and he rocketed into the air.
"I always wanted to be a dragon!" said Enigma excitedly and turned into a black and white copy of Spyro and flew after him.
"Anyone need a ride?" offered Ratchet, a few propellers suddenly coming out of the metal pack on his back. Said metal pack was actually his robot buddy Clank who had big green eyes, a rectangular body, and small legs and arms. L nodded, walked over to the Lombax, and grabbed on Clanks legs. Ratchet then took off, flying beside Cursed Seal 2 Sasuke who was carrying Jenna, the redhead from before.
"Hehheh, how pathetic." Zim sneered, passing Serena while clambering up the mountain using the spider-like limbs that sprouted from his PAK.
"It sure would be nice to fly." Rukia said, watching most of the gang soaring to the top.
"We don't need flying Rukia." stated her brother Byakuya, a raven haired male who wore a black and white uniform along with some kind of white scarf, he had a stoic voice much like Itachi or Jenifer.
"Summoning Jutsu!" Jacob exclaimed, bringing forth a silver serpentine dragon with 6 yellow wings which left faint multicolored sparkles each time they flapped. "How about a ride?" Jacob offered as Rukia and Byakuya were walking by.
"No thanks." replied Byakuya in a somewhat condescending tone. Kimimaro ran straight past them in his dinosaur-like Curse Seal 2 form and scaled the mountain with little effort, grabbing Serena with his tail as he rushed by her since the Vexian was not even halfway there yet.
"And just how do you two plan on getting there?" a humanoid robot that looked somewhat primitive asked. He had a head that resembled a gladiator helmet and on his left arm he had what looked like a hedge clipper for a hand. Byakuya said nothing and continued walking as did Rukia, but the younger Kuchki looked at the robot with curiosity.
"Seriously? You are going to climb that entire mountain? Fine." the machine said and flew away, the bottoms of his feet functioning as jetpacks.
"Is everybody here?" asked Spyro, looking at everyone who was on the mountains summit.
"There are two more." answered the robot from before as he landed.
"Who?" Jenna asked emotionlessly.
"The two who insisted they wanted no assistance."
"Oh those two, I asked them if they wanted a ride but they said no." Jacob said, still riding on Rainbow Dragon.
"Why? Are they trying to tick us off?" Jenna said through gritted teeth.
"Yes they are. It must be in their pathetic human genes." Zim said, clenching his fists and pacing back and forth.
"Their family has had a long history of annoyances." explained the robot.
"What do ya mean?" asked Manaphy.
"It doesn't matter, lets just go on and they can catch up." Shadow stated and began walking to the castle, Serena and Jenna following him.
"Annoyances huh? And just what makes you think that?" asked Rukia in a serious tone as she and her brother reached the top.
"Thousands of years ago" began the robot, creating a smokescreen with a wave of his hand. "long before you and your brother were ever-"
"And just who do you think you are?" asked Byakuya, stopping the machines tale by drawing his sword.
"I am the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past...from the Future."
"Your name makes zero sense, just like you." stated Rukia with a bored expression.
"Eee! Eee!" Diddy screeched, jumping up and down and pointing up. The others looked up and saw many demonic bat-like creatures flying toward them, barely visible in the dark sky.
"Looks like we got trouble!" exclaimed Enigma and the group got in a fighting position.
"Take this!" Sasuke shouted, flying at the bats and pulling out his sword which he then electrified using Chidori.
"Quite a reckless maneuver Sasuke." L said, observing the bats behavior to form a strategy. Darkrai was doing something similar as well when a purple exclamation mark appeared above his head.
"Here we go!" exclaimed Jacob as Rainbow Dragon took to the skies and started blasting bats with rainbow beams.
"Hey can that dragon spit out ponies, flowers, and lollipops too?" Jenna sneered and shot two huge icicles from her hands.
"Ooo Ooo!" said Diddy as he flew up high with his jetpack and pulling out two stump-like wooden pistols which shot rather powerful rapid-fire peanuts.
"Disappear!" exclaimed Shadow and with a chop of his arm, stabbed multiple bats with green blades of energy.
"Feel my wraith!" shouted Zim and shot at the bats with purple electric projectiles from a ray gun he pulled out.
"Pretty nice gun you have there, but check this out!" Ratchet said and took out what looked like a blue tranquilizer. He charged it, building up a blue orb at the front of the barrel, and fired it. The projectile flew at the bats, zapping 10 of them with bolts of blue electricity at the same time.
"Here we go! Fifth Gen tail glow means plus 3 special!" Manaphy exclaimed, the red orbs on his antenna-like protrusions glowing.
"Its strange, despite their size these bats are being defeated rather easily." L stated, observing the falling and injured dark creatures.
"Who cares." Darkrai replied, throwing large Shadow Balls at the bats and knocking more of them out of the sky.
"Yeah! Take this, HYDRO PUMP!" shouted Manaphy and he fired a gigantic beam of high-pressured water from his arms, literally tearing apart bat after bat.
"Lets do this." said Spyro and he flew at the bats, spitting out green rock-like missiles that exploded into debris on impact.
"Just how many of these things are there?" wondered Sasuke as he slashed the flying mammals throats with his sword.
"I see now, there is an infinite amount of these creatures." L said, figuring out why the bats were so wimpy.
"I've noticed that as well." added Byakuya, watching most of his group uselessly fighting.
"Then what do you suggest we do? If we don't kill them they will overpower us since they keep showing up." asked Kimimaro, still in his dinosaur-like Cursed Seal 2 form.
"Yeah, hide in the castle or something?" added Enigma.
"We don't have much of a choice, we just can't keep fighting forever." stated Serena, although she really didn't care either way.
"Um, guys...?" Rukia said worriedly and pointed at something flying out of the castles roof. L, Kimimaro, Serena, Enigma, and Byakuya turned toward the building and saw some kind of blue UFO-like flying machine. It had 2 fan-like propellers on the sides that lifted it up and 3 jet boosters on the back of it for speed, 2 turrets near the cockpit along with a huge cannon on the front under a closed grey circle, and another much larger grey circle on the bottom of its yellow base.
"What in the heck is that?" Enigma wondered as the vehicle flew right at the bats, scaring them away with its loud whirring motors along with the mini-missiles it was firing from the turrets.
"D-d-d-d-damn!" Jacob exclaimed as the ship faced the group.
"I think they should get on the ground now." said Serena, although it would amuse her to see them attacked.
"They'll pay for their stupidity, let them stay up there." replied Jenna, walking up to Serena and the others. The sides of the ship where the fans were at slowly turned until they were completely vertical and blew every airborne hero down to the ground with powerful gusts of wind.
"Crap, why didn't you guys see that coming?" asked the Cybernetic Ghost.
"At least we were doing something useful!" shouted Sasuke with a popped vein.
"You all wont be doing much for long. I'm about to destroy you all, just be grateful I drove those bats off." announced a teenage sounding male voice from the ship.
"Just you try!" shouted Ratchet.
"Yeah, we will crush YOU! Crush you like a little insect!" Zim shouted, much more loudly.
"You morons are so cocky, for all we know he can kill us with a bomb or something." Jenna stated, having no optimism whatsoever.
"At least have a little spirit, won't ya?" Rukia shouted, angrily looking at Jenna.
"Oh no, she is quite right, I can kill you all with a bomb." the pilot said smugly and flew his ship right above the gang.
"Heh, you're a fool if you think you can hurt us." Shadow said, smug as well.
"We shall see about that." said the pilot and the circle at the bottom of the ship opened up and with a jerk, a blue orb with a yellow stripe in the middle along with a blinking red light on it started falling.
"Chaos Control!" shouted Shadow and he and his group were teleported safely out of the way of the large dome-shaped explosion.
"Looks like I underestimated you, that teleportation is quite handy isn't it?"
"Cut the chatter and tell us who you are!" Manaphy demanded.
"Very well then, my name is Specter and just what are you exactly?"
"I'm Manaphy, a legendary with awesome power and the Prince of the Sea! Who are you?" the Pokemon explained proudly.
"He just told you, you faggot." Jenna sneered.
"Stop arguing you two, like it or not we have to work together." Jacob explained, still riding Rainbow Dragon.
"Oh no, keep at it. Its the first time I've been amused in awhile." Darkrai said, being his usual catalytic self.
"Gee, I expected a fight, very disappointing everyone. Here, how about you deal with my little pals." Specter said, the bottom of the ship opening again and 6 light-blue UFOs flew out of it, making a standard UFO whirring sound.
"HA! Those puny aliens don't stand a chance!" shouted Zim who started firing at the ships wildly with his ray gun.
"HUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Chidori!" Sasuke exclaimed while flying at the alien crafts with an Ominous Chidori, ripping right through two of them.
"Kya!" Rukia cried, blowing up three of them with her red explosive orbs of energy.
"The last one is mine." Spyro claimed and destroyed the last one with his Earth Missiles.
"Come on, we could do this all day!" Enigma gloated, throwing punches.
"But you didn't do anything." objected the Cybernetic Ghost.
"Neither did you." Kimimaro pointed out.
"Man you people are boring, I'm tempted to find some other people to terrorize." Specter complained.
"Then I'll make it more interesting." Byakuya said in his stoic tone and pulled out his sword.
"Tell me you're joking, just what are you going to do with a sword?" Specter wondered as Byakuya held his sword straight up in front of him.
"Scatter." was all he said and the blade of his sword faded into pink flower petals.
"Flowers? Are you kidding me? First rainbows and now this?" Jenna exclaimed, shocked at the rather girly power of someone so serious.
"Just you watch! These 'flowers' can cut your jackass body to ribbons!" Rukia yelled with a popped vein. The petals then flew all around Specters ship and slashed it all over like razors, but despite their power they only left a few scratches.
"Cutting to ribbons huh?" Serena said, completely unimpressed.
"Well at least he tried! Most of you aren't doing squat!"
"Oh then by all means I wouldn't want to disappoint you..." Jenna said sarcastically and then threw huge blobs of lava at Specters ship.
"Hmm, that's quite a power you got." Specter said and his ship flashed a multitude of colors before vanishing in a blue flash of light.
"Damn, the thing teleported." Kimimaro stated, the ship then appearing right behind them.
"I've had about enough of you." Ratchet grumbled and pulled out a weapon with a black and red pulsating cylinder on top of it with a large round barrel. He fired it, sending out a black orb that stopped in mid air by Specters ship and then burst into a huge purple vortex.
"Is that some kind of black hole?" Enigma asked.
"Nope, buts its not exactly harmless."
"What do ya mean?"
"Just watch." stated Ratchet and a yellow eyestalk as well as two huge green octopus tentacles extended out of the vortex and wrapped themselves around the propeller fans of the vehicle, stopping them short.
"What's going on? How can this happen? Those kraken arms should be sliced right off!" shouted Specter, both fearful and shocked.
"Who said it was a kraken? This thing is an eldritch abomination that lives in an alternate dimension and its gonna drag you in!" explained Ratchet.
"NO! I can't let this happen!" Specter yelled as the creature started to slowly drag his ship in with it. The two turrets on the vehicle turned to face each tentacle and blew a stream of fire, but the flames did no damage.
"This is awesome!" Manaphy exclaimed, jumping up and down.
"My ship! It won't teleport at all!" Specter shouted, the right propeller now inside the dimension.
"Looks like you need your fans spinning in order to do it." L observed.
"Gah! I swear I'll get you all for this! Just you wait!" Specter threatened, opened the cockpit to his ship, and flew out on a floating throne. He looked like a Neanderthal with silver fur along with spiky hair and bangs that hung over his right eye.
"You aren't getting away!" Spyro exclaimed, flew at Specter as fast as he could go, and shot fireballs at him at nearly point blank range. However a golden shield materialized around Specter and blocked the projectiles.
"Nice try dragon." he said and 5 red orbs of energy spun around him and smashed into Spyro with explosions of red electricity.
"Nooo!" he shouted as he was falling, luckily he was saved by Rainbow Dragon.
"A dragon saving a dragon." said Jacob.
"So long." Specter said and teleported away, his ship being dragged all the way into the dimension and the portal disappearing.
"Now what?" asked the Cybernetic Ghost, looking at all of the others.
"We could go inside that castle." suggested Sasuke, pointing to the building.
"If I had a death wish then I wouldn't mind going!" Rukia exclaimed.
"I'm afraid we don't have much of a choice." L replied.
"And Ratchet and I will destroy anything we come across!" Manaphy gloated.
"Yeah, whatever you say..." Kimimaro grumbled as they headed towards the castle.
"Darn it, its locked." said the Cybernetic Ghost, looking at the large closed drawbridge.
"What is the point of a drawbridge if there is no moat?" Serena wondered, cocking her head to one side.
"Eh, probably to look more castley or something." speculated Enigma.
"Who gives a fuck? Lets just break in." Jenna replied.
"No problem...CHIDORI!" Sasuke exclaimed, ran at the door, and smashed it with his fist. However this only chipped it a little and Sasuke gripped his sore hand.
"Ow. That is some hard wood it has." he stated, making Enigma smirk.
"I'll blow this wood!" Ratchet exclaimed and Enigma giggled.
"OH NO YOU DON'T! You aren't about to outdo ME again alien!" Zim shouted as Ratchet pulled out a metallic squirt gun-looking weapon.
"Control yourself Zim." Clank said.
"SILENCE!"
"Oh what I wouldn't give to destroy all of you." Darkrai murmured.
"Hmmmmm, CHAOS...BLAST!" Shadow shouted and blew the door apart, as well as knocking everyone else besides Darkrai backwards with a huge red burst of energy.
"Are you crazy or something? You could have killed us!" Rukia shouted.
"I have no time to deal with the likes of you. If all you are going to do is shout and argue like little kids then you are going to get killed." Shadow explained sternly, not looking back.
"Well put." commented Serena as the group walked inside.
"Whoa, this place is huge." Spyro said in awe. The floor and walls were made of the same tan bricks used on the outside of the castle. There was a stairway to the left and a large door to the right. There was a red carpet in the middle of the room that led up to a red throne and there were two staircases on the sides of the throne area and a hole with a rope that led down right behind the throne.
"Looks like we are gonna have to split up in five groups of three and one group of two." said L.
"Why six groups if there is only 5 places to go?" Kimimaro asked.
"The group of two will explore this room."
"Fine then, you'll be in my group of two then." Shadow ordered.
"I wanna go with Ratchet!" Manaphy exclaimed.
"Then I shall as well, that alien will not one up me AGAIN!" Zim exclaimed, glaring at the Lombax.
"Um, I'll go with the dragon I guess..." Sasuke mumbled with a bored expression.
"What's up with your eyes?" Spyro asked.
"Erm sorry, I get that from my brother." the ninja replied, blushing a little and sweatdropping.
"Hn, I guess I'll go with the two of you. I'd like to see how Sasuke changed when all that time was wasted to transport his traitor ass!" Kimimaro rambled. pointing at Sasuke with a sharp bone he was holding.
"You and you." was all Jenna said, pointing at Serena then Darkrai.
"If we must." Serena murmured.
"Better the two of you than fools like Zim or Rukia." Darkrai said to himself, crossing his arms.
"Assuming you two will go together, I will join you." the Cybernetic Ghost said, looking right at Byakuya and Rukia.
"Why?" the older Kuchki asked emotionlessly.
"Because...well...because the two of you might waste everyones time again like when you climbed up the mountain!"
"Is that the best you can come up with?"
"Look its either me or them." said the robot. pointing at Jacob, Enigma, and then Diddy.
"I'd rather take the monkey..." Rukia said to herself with a bored expression.
"That's exactly what I knew you were going to say, now follow me through this door." the machine ordered and walked through the door at the lower right of the castle. Byakuya and Rukia looked at one another and blinked.
"Guess we have no choice." she said.
"I say we take this staircase here that goes down." Enigma suggested, pointing at the winding stairs.
"Then I suggest you idiots get moving." Jenna sneered as her group took the passage behind the throne and Spyros took the other staircase beside them.
"Guess that leaves us with this." said Ratchet and his group walked up the staircase near the entrance to the castle. Shadow sighed in relief when everyone had left as L studied the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
"How peculiar..." he said.
"What?" asked Shadow.
"Those chandeliers look like platforms of some sort..." L explained. The chandeliers had flat circles at the top and looked very sturdy.
"We should have a closer look then." Shadow said and teleported both himself and L on top of them.
"A secret passage?" L said, pointing at a crawlspace in the wall right by a very thin ledge.
"You first." Shadow said and L looked back at him "Go, if you end up falling I'll teleport you back up here." The detective nodded, jumped to the ledge which was barely big enough for him to stand on, and he started to climb down from it, holding on to the side only by his hands. L then hoisted himself up and managed to wriggle himself into the crawlspace. Shadow scoffed, teleported to the ledge. and began slowly Spin-dashing through the passage behind the raven haired human.
This black creature reminds me of Edward when I first met him...I wonder if he is even here. L thought. They eventually reached the end of the passage to another ledge right above rushing water. A platform that was moved by spinning gears would move back and forth as a transport from the platform they were standing on to the platform far across.
"Hm, we don't need this." said Shadow.
If you are thinking about using Chaos Control then I suggest you reconsider.
"I assume you heard that voice." L said and Shadow nodded "That must be the voice of whatever being did this to our worlds. I think it would be wise to listen and just use that platform."
"Yeah." Shadow replied, a bit irritated.
If only it were that simple, hmhmhm.
Suddenly out of the ground rose Edward, Kyle, and Donkey Kong, their eyes looking like Devins and the others when they were evil. Edwards hair was black and his clothes were tattered, Kyle had claws and his orange shirt and pants were gray, and Donkey Kong had dark-purple fur.
"Edward...?" L said incredulously, looking into his friends demonic eyes.
L! Shadow! Do not be afraid to attack your friends! If you kill them they will be released from my brothers control and will go back to normal!
"We have no choice it seems." L said and nodded at Shadow. "Do your worst to them, I'll handle Edward here."
Shadow nodded once. snapped his fingers, and Kyle and DK were knocked off the edge by a blue and purple explosion that erupted right next to them. The hedgehog held his guard and he was right to do so as they came right back up, Kyle instantly reappearing with a black beam version of Light Warp, and DK swinging his arms around like a helicopter which surrounded himself in a black twister.
"Hm, I expected as much." Shadow said with a smirk. Edward meanwhile charged at L and shoulder tackled the detective right into the wall, embedding him deep within it. L smirked when his friend grabbed him on the shoulders and opened his mouth to bite him on the neck. The detective swiftly took his pointer and middle fingers and jabbed them right through Edwards eyes. As he staggered backward both in pain and shock, L tackled both Edward and himself into the ravaging waters below. Donkey Kong ran at Shadow and threw a punch at him, but the hedgehog simply backflipped out of the way and shot the ape with a diamond of energy, nearly knocking him off the platform. Kyle rapidly fired projectiles of his own, these being black diamonds. but Shadow spindashed out of the way. He spotted DK in the air with his arms clamped together, ready to crush Shadow with one swing, but Shadow was ready to counter once more. A blue and purple orb of energy erupted around him, knocking the Kong into Kyle. The Vexian easily pushed the simian off and large black spikes suddenly shot out of the ground, turning the area into a death trap. Shadow managed to wall-jump off of the sides of the objects as they rose and fired a few more Chaos Spears at Kyle, but the raven haired boy dodged using Light Warp. Donkey Kong yanked two of the spikes out of the ground and tossed them at Shadow with great speed, too fast for him to dodge and the Ultimate Life Form became embedded in the wall with one maiming him through the stomach. Kyle quickly reached him using Light Warp and encased his fists in black steel that was coated with spikes and slammed Shadow with a left hook.
Looks like I underestimated them. he thought and tried to use Chaos Control, but he was unable to teleport. So the Darkness wasn't kidding...somehow he disabled Chaos Control...but that's impossible. Why would he just disable that and not everything else?
Kyle and DK decided it was time to finish the hedgehog off, thus the ape grabbed another spike and aimed it right for Shadows eyes, but he was knocked back by something nearly invisible.
"It seems you require assistance Shadow." L said, standing by Edward who was back to normal. The sparkly human then freed his ally by pulling out the spike that was imprisoning him.
"So any idea on how we kill them?" Edward asked.
"I suggest the two of you take that moving platform." Shadow said as a red aura slowly enveloped him. The duo did so as DK grabbed two more spikes and Kyle fully built up a Charge Shot.
"Say goodbye...CHAOS...BLAST!" the black hedgehog shouted and freed Kyle and DK from the control of the Darkness with a close range burst of red energy. In two pillars of light, DK and Kyle stood up, back to their normal selves.
"Lets go." Shadow said and hopped on the moving platform. DK and Kyle looked at one another and shrugged, but nonetheless got on the platform on its second time around.
The scene changed to Ratchets group.
"Not bad so far." the Lombax stated as the trio continued walking on the stairs by a large winding glass window.
"That's just what they want you to think! Then some kind of trap activates and we're DOOMED!" Zim shouted.
"I dunno, look at that thing." Manaphy said, now at an open room with some kind of wooden pole sticking out of the ground up to the ceiling.
"It looks like some kind of mechanism, maybe there's a button or something in this castle that can activate it..." Ratchet explained, eyeing the peculiar object.
"Then what do you suggest we do now?" asked Clank.
"We could ride this thing!" Manaphy exclaimed, pointing to a circular platform held up by chains.
"Or. OR we could just fly down to that place below!" Zim retorted.
"I think that's the safest option." said Ratchet.
"But I cant fly!" Manaphy whined.
"Oh, well then you can take the platform of doom." Zim replied with a smirk.
"You suck!"
"And you blow!"
"Enough you guys, lets just go down there." said Ratchet, trying to stop their argument.
"Shall we?" said Clank and Ratchet safely reached the bottom room using the robots propellers. Zim narrowed his eyes at Manaphy and then quickly flew to Ratchets location using his PAK as a kind of speed booster rather than a jetpack. Finally the Pokemon hopped on the platform which safely lowered to the location of the others.
"Platform of doom huh? Idiot." was all he said.
"Guys look." Ratchet said and pointed to a large wooden double door right across the empty room they were in.
"Are those slides?" Manaphy exclaimed, pointing to a slick white ramp nearby.
"Yeah, why don't you go down them while we DO SOMETHING!" Zim shouted, his eyes wide with anger.
"You haven't done anything but argue with him you know, at least Manaphy discovered the platform of doom." Ratchet pointed out.
"Fine then, to prove that I am clearly the superior alien, I shall go forth through those doors without you." the Irken said and headed for them, but jumped back when something huge fell from the ceiling. It looked like a gigantic knight and it was thrice the size of a human.
"Whoooooa." Manaphy uttered in awe as he used Tail Glow.
"I TOLD you there were traps! I TOL-" Zim was stopped short when the knight kicked him into a wall.
"Alright, time to take this guy down." said Ratchet and he pulled out what looked like an over the top missile launcher.
"Overdoing it a little are we?" Clank teased.
"Eh, it gets the job done." the Lombax replied and locked on to the knight with an aiming laser.
"NOT AGAIN! NO WAY! NO WAY!" Zim yelled in rage and tossed a purple grenade-like object right under the knight.
"What? Come on Zim! Now isn't the time for fooling around!" Manaphy exclaimed in exasperation.
"Wait for it...wait for it...WAIT FOR IT...NOW!" the Irken screamed and the orb suddenly exploded into a black hole that slowly spaghettified the knight and ended in a blue explosion.
"Nice one, that was pretty cool." Ratchet said.
"Heh, can any of your weapons do THAT!"
"Actually I do have a gun that can shoot out black holes."
"GAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Lets go through that door already." Manaphy interjected and the gang pushed open the large doors, revealing a small room with a long ladder.
"Guess the only way is up." Ratchet said.
"Have fun climbing that puny ladder you fools!" Zim sneered, rapidly climbing up the walls using his spider legs his PAK could produce.
"What a dick." Manaphy said as the green alien laughed manically, the voice slowly fading as he scrambled higher and higher and Ratchet was already quite high up as he wasted no time climbing the ladder. The water Pokemon slammed his hands on the ground and began his climb as well.
The scene changed to Spyros group.
The room he, Sasuke, and Kimimaro were in was only lit by torches and had a long and wide ramp that wrapped around a stone pillar.
"The only thing to do is to walk up this." Spyro stated, the other two members nodded in agreement.
"So go first Sasuke." Kimimaro said, poking the Uchiha forcefully in the back with a bone.
"What? Why me?" he exclaimed, turning toward the other ninja.
"Because coming this way was your idea, because you're small and insignificant, and because I'll pummel you if you don't!" Kimimaro said sternly, getting in Sasukes face more and more for every reason explained.
"Why again?" the raven haired boy asked sheepishly.
"Now! Sasuke!" the albino shouted.
"Guys I can just fly up there and see if the coast is clear." Spyro stated.
"No, I want to show this bonehead what for." Sasuke said and began walking up the ramp.
"Bonehead? Yeah real original Uchiha! I hear that from Tayuya all the ti-" Kimimaro stopped when he saw Sasuke tumble down the ramp and land flat on his face.
"What happened?" Spyro asked as Kimimaro snickered.
"There are huge barrels that will smash into you when you...try and climb it. It sure would be useful to have Sakura around to smash them..." Sasuke uttered, being in great pain.
"Nice going Uchiha." Kimimaro said sarcastically.
"You shut up! Why don't you and your steel hard bones go then!" Sasuke yelled, sitting up instantly with a popped vein.
"Why don't you go die?"
"Quit it, I'll go first and you two follow behind me. I'll have no trouble busting those barrels." Spyro said, walking up the ramp and the two ninjas quickly followed him. After a few feet a large barrel was bouncing and rolling wildly toward them. The dragon made short work of it by dashing quickly in midair right through it. surrounded in an orb of fire and leaving a trail like a comet.
"And you can keep that up the whole way?" Sasuke asked.
"Don't worry, this attack is childs play compared to the others I have in store."
"I don't like being outdone by a purple dragon." Kimimaro said to himself and turned into his Curse Seal 2 form. He then ran right past the duo and broke barrels in his way with bones sticking out around his right arm. forming a drill shape. Sasuke growled and turned into his Curse Seal 2 form as well and destroyed barrel after barrel using Ominous Chidori.
"So much for helping then..." Spyro said to himself and shook his head. It didn't take long for the group to reach the top of the ramp and all there was up there was a door.
"That's strange...there has to be a trap waiting for us..." Kimimaro said incredulously and looked all around the small space.
"How's that for a trap?" Sasuke exclaimed, pointing a finger at 3 puddles of darkness.
"I have a feeling its about to get ugly." Spyro said, and he was right. Out of the puddles rose yet another group of heroes under control of the Darkness, the 3 victims being Marth, Bender, and Uryu. Marth has a black cape, dark purple armor, and his sword was dark red, Bender had more rectangular parts rather than rounded, and Uryus glasses were tinted black and his outfit was grey.
"That robot doesn't look tough at all." Kimimaro said smugly and jabbed at Bender with his bone drill, but the robot simply grabbed it and bent Kimimaros arm nearly 180 degrees. Sasuke laughed a little at his expense but hung his head in shame comically when Marth sliced off the spikes on his hair.
"Come on guys we need to get serious and kick their collective butts!" Spyro said and shot icicles rapidly at Uryu, but the Quince destroyed them all with an arrow of purple energy that Spyro was barely able to roll out of the way from.
"Fine then, but now I kind of look like Itachi..." Sasuke mumbled to himself and clashed his sword with Marths. The blue haired swordsman had much more experience than the ninja however and managed to knock the sword right out of Sasukes hands with an upwards swing followed by a thrust.
"I don't need my sword to beat you! Take this!" he said and shot a few fireballs at Marth, but they were extinguished by a white blade of ice that slid across the ground. The blade froze the Uchiha solid and Marth went for the finishing blow, but Sasuke escaped with a breath of fire from his mouth. The swordsman made a horizontal swing, but the ninja jumped up and threw some kunai which Marth easily blocked with his sword. Sasuke smirked and activated his Sharingan which seemed to have surprised Marth ever so slightly. The blue haired warrior then slammed his sword into the ground, causing large icicles to shoot up from the ground and Sasuke avoided every one of them due to the increased perception thanks to his Sharingan.
"Too slow!" he exclaimed and shot out a giant fireball that melted the ice instantly and completely enveloped Marth. To the raven haired boys surprise he was still standing, using his sword to hold himself up.
"Time to finish you off!" Sasuke said and kicked Marth off the platform swiftly. He then jumped and grabbed Marth as they fell all the way to the bottom of the room, but transformed and let go right before they crashed into the ground.
"FALCON DROP!" he shouted as Marth slammed into the stone floor, the force of Sasukes move creating a small crater.
"Ya mind giving me a ride back?" Marth asked with a bored expression, back to his normal self.
Meanwhile, Spyro encased himself in a spiked boulder and it started to spin in place, Uryu shot another black arrow at him, but it merely cracked. The stone then sped at the Quince quickly and knocked him off of his feet and Spyro hopped out of his ball. The dragon wasn't finished yet and charged at the blue haired boy, his sharp horns facing forward. Uryu however managed to jump right up and shot Spyro at point blank range with an arrow which would have killed him had Kimimaro not smacked the dragon away with his dinosaur tail.
"Go for the robot, I can handle him." he said.
"Right." Spyro nodded and flew towards Bender. The robot outstretched his arms to bend Spyro right in half but started to shake erratically when Spyro surrounded himself in a midair orb of electricity and started shooting bolts and shockwaves every which way. Benders eyes fell straight out of his head and Spyro brought him back to normal with his Comet Dash right through the chest cavity.
"So what the hell are we doing now?" he asked and pulled out a cigar.
"Kimimaro is fighting Uryu in order to bring him back to normal." Spyro explained.
"Welp as long as I don't have to get involved, its all good." Bender replied. Uryu started to rapidly fire more arrows at the dinosaur-looking albino, but Kimimaro was able to dodge them with his speed.
"Braken Dance." he whispered and slammed his hands on the ground. Giant spiked bones shot out of the ground and headed straight toward the spectacle wearing boy. Uryu tried shooting at the spikes with arrows, but they were no use. The Quince soon became skewered by quite a few bones that sunk into the ground as he too turned back into his normal self as well as Kimimaro.
"Well, I suppose we should go though that door." Uryu stated. The gang swung it open and walked out to the top of the castle where it led.
The scene changed to Serenas group.
They were walking through a long hallway that resembled a dungeon. Empty cells were on the left side and a deep stream was on the right.
"Any idea where to start looking? We could start at all those cells or there might be something in that stream." Serena wondered, looking to her left then to her right.
"Tch, I'll check the stream, you check the hallway, and he can check the cells." Jenna said and dove underwater, not waiting for any objections.
"As much as I despise being ordered around, it makes the most sense..." Darkrai said and sunk into the ground.
"Alright..." Serena said to herself and slowly continued through the hallway, scanning the ceilings and walls. However she saw nothing out of the ordinary and soon reached a dead end. It looked like it was recently created, being nothing but a huge wall of hardened dirt.
"Times like this make me wish I had some other power besides killing and healing people with a touch..." the Vexian mumbled to herself, making her arms glow black. She touched the wall and felt shaking, like something was burrowing through it toward her, and it was fast. The blue haired girl backed away just in time to dodge something that burst right through. Standing before her was Shukaku Gaara, his armor was ash colored, his tail covered in more spines than usual and his claws were three times bigger.
"And other times I am glad I have these powers." she said and walked over to Gaara casually, her arms glowing black of course. The ninja wasn't about to let her win so easily and smacked her backward with his tail.
"What the...?" Serena noticed there was a couple spines embedded in her right arm and tried to pull one out, but they all dissolved into the ash-colored sand and went right into the wounds.
That can't be good. she thought. Gaara extended his right arm and grabbed the girl by the neck, but Serena only smirked at his action.
"You idiot." she said and grabbed him, but to her shock nothing happened. Gaara then threw her down the hallway and followed by shooting sand shuriken at the Vexian. Serena managed to dodge the projectiles by rolling, but was still in bad shape.
I don't get it...why didn't my power work on him? Oh great...maybe those spines negate powers... she thought. Gaara extended his left arm, pinned Serena to a wall by her neck, and started choking her.
I guess its time to wait for...the sweet...embrace of...death.
"NOT COOL! Killing someone by strangulation, and a GIRL none the less? You make me sick!" a hyperactive voice yelled. Serena couldn't tell who it belonged to, but it caught Gaaras attention as he dropped her and turned around.
"Yeah buddy, bring it on!" a small yellowish anthropomorphic rabbit-like creature with big eyes and 2 pointed orange ears that were shaped like a V, Victini, boasted. The ninja did just that and smashed Victini into the wall nearby Serena with a swipe of his thick tail.
"That's some big talk from something so cutesy." Serena stated, rolling her eyes.
"Judge me by mah size do ya?" Victini snapped. "Well I'll show you!" he said and charged at Gaara headfirst, the V-shaped crest on his head coated in fire, and sent him soaring into the wall behind him.
"Booya! How you like that V-Create?" the Pokemon boasted, flashing the V-sign. As Gaara pulled himself out of the wall, Victini got ready for another attack, this time building up a red ball of energy in his hands.
"Watch out guy." Serena warned emotionlessly as Gaara flung more Sand Shuriken.
"Whoa!" Victini exclaimed and ducked, still charging his attack while Serena rolled out of the way again.
"All your powers will be disabled if he hits you with those." Serena explained.
"Got it lady!" replied Victini and threw the Focus Blast he was charging up. Gaara inhaled deeply, and blew a stream of ash from his mouth, obscuring the view for Serena and Victini and he managed to tank the projectile with little problem.
Victini snapped his finger in disappointment "Shoot! I coulda swore he was a Rock type!"
"Any other brilliant ideas?" Serena asked, covering her nose and mouth with her shirt.
"I think."
"You think?"
"Yep, and when I think, things get ugly!" the Pokemon said as his V-shaped crest began to glow pink. He gathered up all of the ash in the area and formed it into a tight ball, but lost concentration when Serena yelped. Victini swung around, scattering the ash around, and saw Gaara had a firm grip on her body with a large Shukaku claw.
"Quit going after the lady!" Victini yelled, running full speed at Gaara. The ninja just glanced at the Fire/Psychic Pokemon and smirked, knocking him into a wall with a swift swing of his tail.
"If only Devin were here, he could free us." the Vexian said to herself, feeling Gaaras grip getting tighter and tighter.
Oh geez! I cant let her down! I'm the embodiment of victory for Arceus' sake! thought Victini as he slowly got off the ground.
"Here...we...GO." he muttered, a swirling, ever increasing. ball of fire building up between his V-shaped crest.
I...can't... Serena thought, trying to stay alive despite hearing the cracking of her bones.
"HEY BUDDY!" Victini shouted, but got no response. Serena spotted, from the corner of her eye, the Pokemon having a fireball the size of a large car tire atop his head. "Have a sample of my SEARING SHOOOOOOOT!" and Victini grabbed and threw the fireball. Gaara, having no time to try and dodge, put his arms in front of himself to defend, dropping Serena. The Searing Shot knocked him against the wall, but then he noticed something inside of the ball of flame. It was Victini, and his crest was ablaze. The ninja was finished off by a V-create right in the face, sending a V-shaped pillar of flame shooting out of the large dent in the wall.
"Y-you did it." Serena said weakly with a cough. "You beat him." and the Vexian flashed her arms black a couple of times, showing that her powers have returned.
"Kyeah! I knew I would do it! I'm the spirit of victory!" Victini gloated, flashing the V-sign. "But you...uhh, not so much."
"I have it covered." Serena replied and touched her heart while her hands glow white, this Touch of Life healed her fully and she did the same to Victini.
"Damn that's a handy power you got there lady!" he exclaimed, hopping up and down.
"Look." Serena said, pointing towards Gaara. The ninja pulled himself out of the rubble, back to his normal form.
"Okay dude, its time for round two!" Victini shouted, but Serena picked him up before he could start another fight. "Hey lady, put me down!"
"He's back to normal you idiot. He's no longer a crazy monster that is hell bent on killing us with the power to spray ash and throwing weapons to negate powers, leaving his foes at his mercy."
"Yeah, yeah, I got it lady." Victini said, not interested in her long and dark explanations. "OH! but you forgot his stretchy arms and extendo fingers that can choke you and smack you around!" he piped up, suddenly excited.
"And that huge spined tail that can break your bones and slam you into walls."
"And his hard armor that you can crack your skull open on!"
"His green, purely demonic, and soul piercing eyes are certainly something as well."
"Really just his overall image and persona is downright-"
"Are you two finished?" Gaara asked, annoyed at the duos back-and-forthing. Serena looked at him and blinked, temporarily having forgotten the sand ninja. "Oh, right, yeah. I cant quite think of any other dark things to say about you."
"Neither can I." Victini added, shaking his head.
"Then what do we do now?" Gaara asked.
"We could try that hole!" Victini suggested, pointing to the place where Gaara first shown up.
"Fine." said the ninja, and started walking without them.
"I already want to kill him." Serena noted, glaring at Gaara behind his back and dropping Victini.
"Just give him a chance lady. Sure his first impression was a horrible one and he tried to kill us before, but lets be optimistic here!" advised Victini, the duo following Gaara but not in any hurry to catch up.
"Devin has all the optimism."
The scene changed to Darkrai.
"That is the 6th cell, and still nothing worthwhile..." the shadow Pokemon grumbled, sinking into the shadows and sliding though the bars before rising out of the ground once more. After checking two more cells, he finally came across one that had something interesting in it, a square red button.
"Hmmm..." Darkrai said to himself and pressed the button, it suddenly changing blue, but it went back to red the moment he lifted his hand.
Pressure activated I see. he thought, and ripped a decent sized chunk of dirt off of the cell wall and dropped it on the button, turning it blue once again.
"Doesn't appear to do anything..." he mumbled, and right when he was about to sink into the ground to leave, he heard cracking noises underneath him. This didn't bother the Pokemon in the slightest however, and he crossed his arms and started thinking. Then he was blasted by some kind of projectile that came right through the wall behind him. This distracted the Dark-type out of his thoughts and knocked him hard into the cell bars, creating a large dent in them.
What is going on? the Pokemon thought as he saw Toph climb out of the ground and Isa through the wall. Tophs hair nearly covered her face now and Isas hair was very spiky.
Those eyes. Darkrai silently noted and sent Isa and Toph through black portals using Dark Void. He didn't expect them to fall asleep however, instead he used this window of opportunity to plot against them. Then, as if on cue, they fell out of the portals and a purple exclamation point appeared above Darkrais head. He tried knocking them back using Dark Pulse, but Toph blocked it with a large slab of earth and Isa with a shield of black electricity. Darkrai quickly sunk into the shadows, predicting a counterattack, and Toph flung the slab forward along with Isa turning his shield into a projectile and throwing it. The combined power of the moves demolished the bars to bits. Darkrai slithered to the wall and only put his hands out of the shadows, then fired a couple Dark Pulses. Isa pulled out a large weapon that fired a trio of orange beams and Toph gathered the pieces of the cell bars and flung them like javelins, but both of them were still hit by the Pokemons attacks. Isas attack blew up a huge chunk of the wall, exposing Darkrai, while Tophs attack skewered him against it.
Damn! Since I am stuck to these poles, I cant move my body against the surface of the wall and sink into the shadows. I cant move my arms to use my attacks either! Darkrai exclaimed mentally, and just glared at his opponents as Toph gathered up the rubble around him into a large ball and Isa pulled out another weapon, a 7 barreled rocket launcher. As they fired their attacks at him, he still glared, not batting an eye at the face of his own demise.
The scene changed to Jenna swimming through the long river.
Fuck this, maybe there is something underwater... she thought and dove underwater. There she found an underwater passage with a gate that had slid up, she smirked, finally finding something after swimming for what seemed like hours. She swam up to the surface, took a deep breath, and dove underwater again, swimming as fast as she could through the passage and along the long underwater hallway.
Damnit! she exclaimed mentally, losing her breath, but she pushed on and could finally see the surface. The redhead caught her breath the moment she reached the surface, barely making it without drowning.
"That...was...hell." she said inbetween breaths. Jenna climbed out of the water and started walking along the hallway ahead of her. She then heard some scratching noises followed by scraping, Jenna darted her eyes to the left, then the right, and then turned around, but she didn't see anything.
"Must be some stupid rats or whatever..." she said to herself and continued on her way. Not long after, she heard the noises again, this time louder than before. The redhead just scoffed and ignored them and headed for what looked like a wall of water at the very end of the hall. Little did she know, there was something, someone, right above her. She got closer and closer to the water wall, not in any rush at all, and was suddenly hit right in the back of the head by something strong, strong enough to knock her to the ground and leave a huge bruise. Jenna gritted her teeth as she looked back and spotted Gagagigo, who was under the control of the Darkness and had a more crocodile-like appearance.
Jenna stood up and glared at the Duel Monster. "Alright reptile, you got your one and only shot in!" She ran at him, fists clenched and swung at him with her leg, but Gagagigo grabbed it, headbutted her in the face, and smacked her away with his tail once again. Jenna caught her balance and slammed her hands on the ground, bringing out a flaming snake-like beast with a human skull head.
"Lets see which reptile is better." she said, jumping on her summons head. Gagagigo wall-jumped rapidly toward the human, but Jennas summon torched him with a stream of fire that was unavoidable due to the small size of the hallway. As the flames fizzled out, Jenna was sure she had won, but Gagagigo was there on his hands and knees, badly hurt, but conscious.
"Another one of those and you should be down for the cou-" Jenna stopped short, something had gone right through her lower chest-area, some kind of metallic pole that was a sickly color due to the purple poison oozing from it combined with her blood. For a moment, everything was quiet as if time stood still, then the pole quickly retracted. Jenna glanced over her shoulder and saw Sasori, who was also under the Darkness' power and looked like a creepy dummy rather than a human. She clenched her wound, feeling the effects of the poison spread, but she wasn't about to give up just yet. She stood up and pointed at Gagagigo, her summon blasting the lizard with a stream of lava. She slowly turned around to face Sasori, who launched two black cylinders from his hands that opened up to fire tons of black needles. Jenna waved her hand in a circular motion, creating a tiny light-blue portal that absorbed all of the needles, then dissipated.
"They're mine now." she said and gave Sasori a taste of his own medicine, but what she didn't realize was that Sasori was a puppet and thus couldn't be poisoned. The ninja shot his scorpion tail right at her, the same thing he used to poison her before. Jenna barely managed to dodge it, her reflexes weakening due to the poison, and the rod became embedded in the ceiling. Jenna used this opportunity to counterattack and ordered her summon to swing its tail, which broke Sasoris in two. This didn't bother him though, and not only because he was under the Darkness' influence. He retracted it and there were some grinding noises in the compartment on his belly region where he stored his tail, and he shot it back out again, fully repaired.
"Damn it!" she cursed, knowing she couldn't dodge it yet again, but it stopped right in front of her face. She glanced to her right and saw Gagagigo, holding himself against the wall using her summon, gripping Sasoris tail. The redheaded ninja tried to pull it back, but Gagagigo was too strong. He landed on the ground and pulled Sasori toward him with one big yank, and smacked him back where he was with a swing of his mighty tail.
"Finish him off, quickly." he said to Jenna. She knew just what to do, her summon turned toward Sasori as he regained his composure, and torched him with a stream of fire just like it did to Gagagigo. This time however, it was much more effective as Sasori was made of wood, ultra-strong wood, but wood nonetheless. Jenna called back her summon and she and Gagagigo slowly walked over to Sasori, Jenna hardly conscious by that time.
"Looks like you could use some healing." Sasori said to her, pulling a small wooden jar out of his pocket.
"What's that?" she uttered, still not quite trusting him as he took out a small gray tablet.
"Just swallow this." he ordered, "It will heal you up just fine."
Despite the fact that he was back to normal, Jenna still wasn't convinced. "If you really thi-" Sasori took this opportunity to shove the tablet in her mouth while she was talking, knowing she didn't have much time left and was already tired of her stubbornness. Slowly but surely, Jenna could feel the effects of the poison fading and, aside from the wound, she felt fully healed.
"Well, lets go see what's beyond that waterfall." she said, but the force of the water made it impossible for her to pass through. "Damn it!"
"So what do we do now?" Sasori asked.
"I do not know, but there MUST be a way past this waterfall, otherwise it would make this hallway pointless." replied Gagagigo as he stared at the rushing water, trying to come up with a way to get through.
"Well we are in a huge-ass castle, so maybe one of those groups of losers will find a button or whatever..." Jenna said.
"If that's the case, then there is not much we can do but wait."
"Damn, so what do we do in the meantime?" Sasori groaned.
Jenna clenched her fists, "Kick one anothers asses."
Gagagigo nodded, "Training sounds like an excellent idea."
The scene changed to Byakuya, Rukia, and the Cybernetic Ghost.
The trio arrived in a large room with lots of gears and cylinders along with a red button embedded in the wall, a flow of water sliding along a motionless water wheel, and there was a small grate at the top of a ramp.
"Looks like some kind of operating room." Byakuya stated, observing the gears and pipes.
"Well the only thing to do here is press that button." Rukia stated and started walking up the ramp toward it.
"Stop." Byakuya ordered and Rukia looked back at him, "It is most likely a trap. Specter wouldn't make it that easy."
"Then what do we do, strike it from afar?"
"Yes."
Rukia held out her hands to fire a blast of energy, "Okay, here it goes!"
"I wouldn't do that." the Cybernetic Ghost interjected.
"Ugh, why not?" Rukia exclaimed, looking back at the robot with a popped vein.
"I'll tell you." the Cybernetic Ghost said and waved his hand, creating a cloud of smoke. "It was thousands of years ago, in the future. Specter had turned this castle into a high-tech unbreachable fortress, and would kill anyone who got near it. Needless to say, it sucked for all bystandards who were just passing by. Then one day, a Kuchki descendant had enough, and swiftly destroyed the robots patrolling it and blasted the alien force guarding it from the skies. With the laser gates disarmed, she broke in and-"
Rukia interrupted his story, not believing it at all. "Hang on, you never said anything about her disarming the laser gates." she pointed out with a bored expression.
"Oh, well um, she did."
"And I thought this fortress was unbreachable."
"It is unbreachable."
"Then how did the Kuchki break in?"
Byakuya sighed, tired of this nonsense. "None of this has to do with any trap here, does it?"
"It does." the Cybernetic Ghost replied, "Like I was saying, it was thousands of years ago-"
"Will you just cut to the chase?" Rukia shouted with a comical pissed off expression.
"Oh, I was getting to that."
"Just ignore him Rukia, he is useless to us. Now then, scatter Senbonzakura." her older brother said and his sword dissipated into flower petals. The petals then slashed the button, pushing it in and changing it from red to blue, before forming back into Byakuyas sword. The gears and cylinders began to spin and the grate ahead of them raised and the waterfall Jenna and the others were at suddenly stopped.
"I told you, there was no trap." the Cybernetic Ghost said.
"What?" Rukia shouted, "You were telling a pointless story about how there WAS a-" the Kuchki stopped as she saw Ayame, Billy, and Sheelah rise out of the ground, the Darkness having them in his grasp. Ayame was wearing a more traditional black ninja outfit, Billy was in a crow suit, and Sheelah was dark-red with large claws.
"I warned you that there was a trap, why didn't you list-"
"SHUT UP!" Rukia yelled and fired 3 blasts of energy, one at each foe. Sheelah managed to kick each one back at the girl though, leaping right in front of each attack quickly. Rukia was very surprised when the Cybernetic Ghost dashed right in front of her and tanked the force of the blasts with ease. Byakuya scattered his flower petals again and they slashed Sheelah and Billy from every angle, but Ayame somehow managed to dodge many of them and countered with tons of shurkiens. The Cybernetic Ghost took the blows of these projectiles as well, protecting Byakuya. Billy though, took out a black egg and hatched it into a large black crow with bladed wings and in one swift move, it flew right at the sides of the Kuchkis and the robot. While it just left a large scratch on the Cybernetic ghost, Rukia and Byakuya had large gashes on their stomachs and they were bleeding heavily.
"I've already had enough of this." Byakuya said quietly, closed his eyes, and released his Bankai. He stabbed the ground with his sword straight down and in an instant, thousands of pink swords appeared around the area. With a wave of his hand, these swords pierced his three opponents from almost every angle, assuring they would never survive. After a moment of silence, the blades dissipated into petals and Sheelah, Billy, and Ayame stood up, back to their normal selves.
"Oh man, what's going on here?" Billy asked.
"Yeah, where in the world are those other fellas?" Sheelah wondered, looking around.
Ayame examined Rukia, Byakuya, and the Cybernetic Ghost closely, "And who are you guys?"
"We are the ones who freed you from the Darkness' control." Rukia answered with a hint of irritation in her voice.
"Ah, well thank you very much for that." Sheelah said.
"Come on, lets go through that grate." Byakuya ordered, the others followed behind him. On the other side was two ledges with a moving platform between them over rushing water.
The scene changed to Jacob, Enigma, and Diddy.
They were at the top of a large metal slide that led to a small room with some guillotines and another slide that led down to the bottom of the room. At the bottom of the room was a large empty space with a big door on the other side.
"What's with the slides?" Enigma wondered.
"Maybe that's how they transport their bound and gagged victims to the guillotine room so they can get beheaded." Jacob theorized.
"Ooo ooo!" Diddy screeched and slid down to said room.
"Lets follow the monkey." said Enigma and he and Jacob slid down. They all turned around when every guillotine suddenly activated and behind them were Ritsuka, Vampire Lord, Samantha, Celebi, and Vroom-Vroom, the Darkness controling them all. Ritsuka looked more feral in appearance, Vampire Lords hair was black and his fangs were much larger, Samanthas hair was dark purple and she had black triangular markings on her face and arms, Celebi was a dark green with horns and demon wings instead of antenna and fairy ones, and Vroom-Vroom was grey with spiked wheels and a missile launcher instead of a dump truck bucket.
"Aw crap." Jacob said.
"Might as well slide down to that open area that is defiantly not a trap." Enigma suggested and the trio did so, but the 5 corrupted heroes were right behind them.
Enigma looked at each of their opponents "This is NOT going to be easy. Five against three is not the kind of odds I'm good with."
"Make that four." Jacob said and summoned Rainbow Dragon. Suddenly however, what looked like a long spiked rod shot out from the shadows and pierced Diddy right through the heart, killing the monkey in an instant.
"Diddy!" Jacob and Enigma exclaimed, horrified and shocked at what just happened.
"Now you're back down to three." a female voice said, presumably belonging to whoever killed Diddy.
"Why you-" Enigma had no time to finish his sentence as two more rods were shot out and killed him and Jacob in the same way. Due to his summoner being killed, Rainbow Dragon faded away into rainbow mist that slowly dissipated.
"My mistake, make that zero." she said and stepped out of the shadows, she wore a rather revealing long dark-red dress as well as long dark red gloves, she had long black hair as well as sharp claws, claws that were coated in blood.
Everyone had gathered at the top of the castle, which was surprisingly large and open.
"Wait, so going through that castle was pointless since all we had to do was just get up on the roof?" Marth exclaimed, his right eye twitching in irritation.
"Not quite." Specter replied, floating down to them on his throne. "I equipped my castle with a magic electric forcefield, had you tried to fly to the top you would have gotten quite a nasty shock. However when you reactivated the gears in the operating room, you disabled the field as well as the waterfall, allowing some of your friends to use the metal ladder behind it."
"Don't call them my friends." Jenna warned.
"So what the hell was the point of coming up here anyway?" asked Bender.
"I have a secret chamber up here, but it will only appear if you can defeat all of your buddies that the Darkness has control over." Specter explained.
"Then that means we have to go back down there and look for them!" Manaphy whined.
"Oh don't worry, I guarantee that they will find you on their own." Specter replied and, as if on cue, every single corrupted hero they encountered rose out of the ground, including Jenifer, who wore all grey over a black shirt as well as having black markings on her forehead, and Lucario, who had dark-blue fur and large spikes on his hands. Darkrai, Jacob, Enigma, and Diddy also arose, Darkrais band around his neck was dark red, Jacobs hair was spiked and he had large hands, Enigma was completely black all over, and Diddy was three times his original size and had dark purple fur.
"I would say you all have your work cut out for you, farewell." Specter said and teleported away.
"Aww dont worry guys, we greatly outnumber those chumps!" Victini gloated, jumping up and down on Serenas shoulder.
"You seem to have forgotten that the Darkness has them at his mercy, so they are bound to be hard to kill and I bet they have some newfound powers to use against us, and when did I let you stand on me?" Serena said, looking at the Pokemon and frowning.
"You got a point there lady, because Gaara certainly wiped the floor with you!"
Serena turned her hands black at that remark. "I would keep that little mouth of yours closed, lest you want to die and join that army over there."
"Enough chatter, lets go and kick their asses already!" Sasuke exclaimed, charging up a Chidori.
At a dark realm.
"Hmhmhm, we shall see how many of your pawns fall before mine." the Darkness said.
"Don't get so overconfident, the heroes will prevail, I just know it. There is strength in numbers after all." the girl in the crystal replied.
"You should know that is not true sister. A thousand lowly moths can go up against a single spider, but no matter how hard they try, the moths will lose."
"But these moths know the power of teamwork and are armed with many abilities. The fight may not be easy, but they WILL come out on top."
"Then let us see which one of us is right."
OOO
Oh. My. Gosh. I UPDATED! Holy crap it has been what, six months? Geez, now I know what its like for the creator of Supah Nario Bros! (he hasn't updated in over a year.) Man, I cant believe it. I read over the chapter again and the early parts feel so alien to me! Big apologies about the wait fellas, I mean it. Looks like things are going to get crazy for our heroes though. I might as well tell you this, remember when I said everyone from The New ISPT would be coming back? That was a lie. There are a few that will not be returning, but it is for the best I assure you. A handful of them are OCs as I bet you guys would rather see characters you actually KNOW rather than more of those strangers. I am still taking character requests by the way and I am pretty excited to start the next chapter, I've been brainstorming some pretty neat stuff for it. Jenna is a long lost friend of mine who I have not heard from in over 6 years. Kimimaro and Sasukes first argument when they are in the room with the barrels is an Ice Age reference and Victini mentioning Gaaras 'stretchy arms and extendo fingers' is a My Life as a Teenage Robot reference. Diddys appearance when he is under the Darkness' is a reference to the Subspace Emissary from Brawl.