Chapter 14
SixSixSix
"...Any ideas?" Marth asked, staring up at the hulking robot in front of him and the other heroes.
"None at all!" said Enigma, "But there are a whole bunch of us and only ONE of him!"
"But the bunch of us combined wouldn't even reach his middle!" Vampire Lord pointed out.
"Its not the size of your body that matters." Ritsuka said, "Its the size of your will to fight."
"But hes a robot, he doesn't HAVE any will to fight!" Manaphy said.
"Most of us robots don't. We just mind our own damn business." Bender said.
"Well what else are we supposed to do? We can fight this thing, and we can win!" Konan said encouragingly.
"Lets bring this guy down!" Victini exclaimed.
"Its all you," Serena said dully.
"Why?...Oh, right, hes non-living. Looks like Victinis gotta bail you out again!"
"Then go and do it." Serena ordered. Victini flew off her shoulder and at the robot, his crest ablaze, but he crashed into the electric forcefield around its body and he fell, which made Serena smirk.
"Well...that could certainly be a problem." Cybernetic Ghost said, pointing out the obvious.
"If we want to do ANYTHING to that, we need to disable the forcefield." Samantha said.
"Ratchet, doesn't that robot look familiar?" Clank queried.
"Now that ya mention it, it does. Its like the one we, Manaphy, and Zim fought in the castle!" Ratchet replied.
"How did you defeat it?" Gagagigo asked.
"it was I! ZIM! I destroyed that pathetic robot!" Zim boasted.
"He tossed some black hole grenade." Manaphy answered, rolling his eyes.
"It sounds like we need projectile attacks...huge ones." Uryu concluded.
Isa pulled out his Exterminator, "I have that one covered."
"You aren't the only one." Ratchet pulled out the RYNO V.
"Tch." Sasuke scoffed and enveloped himself in a large aura of purple flame, forming what resembled the top-half of a purple skeletal warrior wielding a crossbow and a flaming shield.
"Whoa! What is THAT?!" Billy exclaimed.
"Susano'o." the Uchiha replied plainly, the crossbow aiming at the robot.
"And I have something waiting in reserves." Samantha said.
"Now fire." Gagagigo ordered. Isa fired, sending a large blue ball of electricity from the middle barrel of his weapon, 5 red comet-like fireballs from the smaller barrels surrounding it, and a yellow laser from the barrel on top. Ratchet's weapon fired a beam of light as well as many flaming rockets and hundreds of small rockets in one huge volley. Sasuke's Susano'o fired its crossbow, sending a giant burning arrow at the robot. Lastly, Samantha held out her palms, and after green and yellow particles spun around a white orb for a moment, fired a white beam of gamma ray energy. These powerful attacks pierced and punctured the robot, disabled its electric shield, and made it fall to its knees. It held itself up with its battleaxe, but even knelt down, it was still far larger than the gang.
"The barriers down! Nows our shot!" Ayamae said.
Victini used Searing Shot, Zim tossed a Black Hole grenade, Vampire Lord fired black lightning-bolts from his fingers, Lucario used Aura Sphere, Ayame transformed and threw large shurikens, Rukia fired blue orbs of spiritual energy, Billy hacted and threw bomb shaped like a chick head, Toph sent out spiked boulders, Celebi used Leaf Storm, Shadow fired Chaos Spears, Jenifer used Dragon Cannon, Kimimaro fired his finger-joint bullets, Sasori used his Kazekage puppet and sent out spikes of iron sand, Diddy fired his Peanut Popguns, DK fired his Coconut Gun, Spyro spat fireballs, Darkrai used Dark Pulse, Toothless shot balls of plasma, Uryu fired arrows of spiritual energy, Byakuya created a wave of petals, Gaara sent out Shukaku claws, Manaphy used Hydro Pump, Vroom-Vroom fired his shining projectiles, Kyle fired a full Charge Shot, Jenna fired a ball of lava and ice, Marth created a wave of ice, Ichigo used his signature move, and Ritsuka used Rupture.
This group combination of many attacks proved that there is strength in numbers and, just like how the same tactic took out Crisis long ago, the powerful enemy was defeated, blowing up in an electric explosion, which Rituska canceled out using Resolve.
"Alright, Specter, come on out! We took out your robot and we're ready for YOU!" Ratchet ordered.
"My, my, may, it looks like I underestimated the lot of you." Specter said as he teleported in.
"There's strength in numbers! There is no enemy we can't cut down as a team!" Ichigo told him; also indirectly talking to Naruto, who seemed to understand now.
"You have a point there, which is why I think it would be better off if you're split apart!" Specter surrounded the group in 6 blue orbs and teleported them away in an instant.
OOO
Isa, Sasuke, Enigma, Victini, Zim, Gagagigo, Ratchet, and Clank were standing on a floating light-grey patform high above the grey clouds with a series of other floating platforms in front of them.
"I guess we'll have to hop." Isa said.
"Hopping is for people without wings!" Victini bragged. The Pokemon tried to fly, but he wouldn't take off. "What gives?! I can't fly!"
"And my Charge Boots wont activate, either." Ratchet added.
"Tenebris clearly wants us to traverse this area his own way." Gagagigo said.
"Well what are we waiting for?!" Enigma exclaimed.
"For you pathetic humans!" Zim said as he scuttled along on his 4 spider legs from his PAK. Gagagigo and Sasuke quickly caught up to him by swiftly jumping, and the others followed, albeit slower.
Suddenly, a loud roar came from underneath the clouds and a huge, red, mechanical, serpentine dragon with crystals embedded in its sides flew right up in front of them, breaking through a few platforms. Atop it was a red humanoid devil with huge horns, long claws, a thick tail, and a zig-zagged mouth: Zavok.
"Who are you?" Ratchet asked.
"I am Zavok, leader of a group of Zeti called the Deadly Six that hail from a world called the Lost Hex." he explained.
"But I only count one of you!" Enigma said, pointing out the obvious.
"The others are dealing with your friends."
"They aren't my friends, especially not that blonde-haired loser..." Sasuke muttered.
"That explains why Specter teleported us in 6 groups, at least." Isa stated.
"So why are you working under Tenebris?" Ratchet asked.
"We Zeti gain power from absorbing the life of other planets, but we unfortunately can not do it on our own. Tenebris proposed that if we kill you all, he will allow us to absorb a world of yours. When a planet is absorbed, the life force of everything that inhabits it is absorbed as well, so even if you somehow escape from this dimension, you will instantly perish." Zavok explained.
"Well we aren't going to let that happen!" Ratchet said, pulling out the RYNO V.
With a smirk, Zavok waved his hand, and when Ratchet tried to fire his weapon of destruction; nothing happened.
"What the-?!" Ratchet studied his weapon, confused.
"I'll take a shot at it." Isa said, taking out his Exterminatior, but it wouldn't fire either. "What gives?"
"Its your inferior technology! Irken technology is far superior to your pathetic Earth technology!" Zim boasted. Suddenly, the jetpack on his PAK activated, sending him skyrocketing straight up out of sight. "YYYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" he screamed as his loud voice faded.
"Hmhmhm, actually, it is ALL technology." Zavok began, "We Zeti have the power to manipulate magnetic fields, thus we have command over technology." With another wave of his hand, Clank hopped off of Ratchet's back and went over to Zavok's side.
"Clank! Give my buddy back, you monster!" Ratchet shouted angrily.
"If you want him, you'll have to take him from me!"
"You'll pay for this." Ratchet said, taking out his giant wrench.
"We're going to have to go old-fashoned on this one." Isa said.
"Hn, works for me." Sasuke said, withdrawing his sword and electrifying it with Chidori.
"Me too!" Enigma exclaimed, turning into Sasuke and also withdrawing his sword. "Hey, gay pirate, how do you do that?"
"Don't make me knock you off this platform." the Uchiha said with a popped vein.
Gagagigo suddenly jumped at Zavok, but Clank threw a blue orb that expanded into a blue sphere in the air between the lizard man and the Zeti. The moment Gagagigo passed through the shield, he slowed down greatly.
"What is THAT?!" Victini asked.
"Thats a Time Bomb. Inside that ball, time slows down." Ratchet explained.
"That sounds like trouble, we'll have to take that robot down." Sasuke said as the electricity around his sword intensified.
"Dont you even think about it!" Ratchet shouted at him.
"He's right, Sasuke, its not the same as Tenebris having control over him. He's just kind of brainwashed and if we get rid of Zavok, we'll free Clank. Anyway, does the Time Bomb have any weaknesses?" Isa asked.
"Well, it only lasts for a little bit and only one Time Bomb can be activated at a time."
"Then all we gotta do is attack from another direction!" Victini pointed out.
"I've got that covered." Sasuke started spitting dragon head-shaped fireballs into the sky above Zavok.
"You trying to show off, gay pirate?" Enigma said, a tad annoyed.
"Pay attention to the sky." he said through gritted teeth, and above the Zeti, a swirling storm cloud was forming.
"Whats up with THAT?" Victini asked.
"Its Kirin." Sasuke said with an evil glint in his eyes.
During this time, the Time Bomb timed out and Gagagigo swung his tail at Zavok, but he held his arms in a defensive stance and blocked it. Gagagigo kicked off of him and backflipped, landing on the snout of the dragon.
"We may have similar physique, but what about POWER?!" Zavok threw 3 huge fireballs that Gagagigo jumped up to avoid, but the moment he did, Clank threw a Time Bomb far enough to capture Gagagigo near the edge of it, pseudo-freezing the reptile on the spot.
"Predictable." Zavok said as the first fireball hit the lizard, "And I didn't forget about the rest of you." he said as Clank threw a Time Bomb that expanded above the Zeti. The now normal-speed Gagagigo flew backward and landed on a platform near the rest of the group.
"Hehhehhehheh, that isn't going to help you!" Sasuke said with an expression of psychotic glee.
"I think we better rescue the robot." Enigma said.
"Already did." Victini said proudly, holding Clank above him using Psychic. "He was paying so much attention to Sceptile that I was able to nab him!"
"Again, I didn't forget about the rest of you. I am aware you took back the robot, but he is still under my command and is useless to you."
"Thats about to change!" Sasuke exclaimed, his left eye twitching, "KIRIN!"
The Uchiha swung his sword down and a huge lightning-bolt with the head of a tiger blasted out of the miniature storm he created. Due to the speed of light, it was barely affected by the Time Bomb, and crashed into Zavok, causing a pillar of lightning to erupt and blowing the dragon to pieces.
"AHAHAHAHA! ITS THE END OF YOU!" Sasuke shouted with sadistic pleasure.
"Yeah, so you can let Clank go, Victini. Besides, Zim is probably going to come crashing down and you, only out of heroism and not because he contributes, have to stop him with your psychic powers." Ratchet told the Pokemon.
"No." Gagagigo said, holding out his hand in a 'stop' motion. The others looked at him in surprise.
"Why not?" Isa asked.
"Wobbufett." Victini said with a smirk.
"There is a possibility he is still ali-"
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Sasuke shouted defensively, cutting Gagagigo off.
"Hahaha, then pepare to open your eyes!" Zavok said as another dragon of his rose up and opened its mouth, revealing the Zeti who jumped atop its head.
"HOW?! NOBODY COULD SURVIVE THAT ATTACK UNLESS THEY HAD AN UNBEATABLE DEFENSIVE MOVE! THERE HAS TO-"
"Snap out of it, Sasuke!" Isa shouted; backhanding the ninja twice across the face.
"Th-thanks for that, whoever you are..." the Uchiha mumbled, blushing a little in embarassment, then looked at Zavok. "How did you survive?"
"Allow me to explain for you all. Like I told you twice before, I did not forget about you. The instant I saw your attack about to strike, I deattached the body of my dragon from the head, creating a falling platform and allowing gravity to carry me out of the radius of your attack."
"And I assume you can summon those things all willy-nilly, right?" Enigma asked.
"Correct."
The group then looked up as they heard the screaming of Zim fade in, and, right before he collided with the platform, Victini caught him with Psychic.
"Zim? What the heck are you doing here? I figured you would be flying like a spaceship still!" the Pokemon said.
"I no longer have use for your technology or YOU!" Zavok's dragon roared, sending out sonic shockwaves that destroyed all the platforms and caused the group to plummet to their doom.
"Damn! I can't transform!" Sasuke said.
"And I STILL can't use anything that would let me fly!" Ratchet said.
"And I can't fly, PERIOD!" Victini exclaimed.
OOO
Vampire Lord, Lucario, Ayame, Rukia, Billy, L, and Toph were standing on a floating round platform of grey grass with a thin, winding trail going off of it to a rounded platform with a spinning fan in it. Also, behind them was a huge blackberry, held back by a rope in front of it.
"Whoa! Is the ground supposed to be like some weird snake?" Toph asked.
"It looks like one of those ball maze things." Vampire Lord stated.
"That is EXACTLY what it is." L stated.
"Whattya mean?" Ayame asked the detective.
"See that fruit behind you? I assume we have to guide that fruit to that fan on the other side."
"What good will THAT do?" Toph asked.
"I do not know, but L's plan seems to fit the puzzle perfectly." Lucario told her.
"Well its worth a shot." Rukia said with a shrug.
"So how do we get a giant blackberry from here..." Vampire Lord began, pointing at the fruit, "To THERE?" he asked, pointing to the other side.
"Leave that one to me, guys!" Billy said confidently. The chicken boy then took out an orange egg with yellow feathers on it and hatched it, attaching to his back a pair of stiff, small, white wings with 3 red protrusions on them. He jumped up; then jumped again in mid-air using the wings, performing a flip whilst doing so, and landed atop the blackberry.
"Alright, guys, cut the rope and then look out!" he told them excitedly.
"As you wish." Vampire Lord said a bit sarcastically, then cut the rope with a claw.
Billy began running on the blackberry, rolling it along the thin path with relative ease as the group followed behind him. Right before he reached the fan, Billy backflipped off the fruit and the momentum carried it into the blades, causing a huge winding turrent of black fruit juice to spray out continuously.
"So do we have to go IN that water? Because from the sounds of it, its probably gonna tear us a new one." Toph assumed.
"Its not water, its fruit juice. And yeah, I don't see any other options." Rukia told her.
"Well, here we go..." Ayame said uneasily, and the group jumped in. The fruit juice carried them along its path; its high speed twisting and turning them like a crazy roller coaster.
"Is this thing almost over?!" Toph exclaimed.
"I don't know! I'll let you know WHEN I CAN TELL MY FEET FROM MY FACE!" Vampire Lord yelled.
After a few moments of torrential terror, they landed on a sphere of grey grass.
"Well this is just great! We're trapped on a ball!" Toph shouted.
"Geez! We keep falling into these traps!" Vampire Lord exclaimed.
"There MUST be something around here, though." Rukia said, rubbing her chin in thought.
"Someone is coming from above!" Lucario warned, sensing the aura of a foe. A brown cane suddenly came from the sky like a spear and embedded itself in the ground. Them a small, light-blue, old-man demon landed on top of it: Zik.
"Whats with the old midget?" Vampire Lord wondered, pointing at him.
"'Old midget'?! Young man, you need to learn some respect!" Zik, with surprising swiftness (not 'impressive speed'!), knocked Vampire Lord down with a low sweep using his cane.
"'Young man'?! Old midget, I'm a vampire; I've been alive since before you were old!" the humiliated immortal retorted angrily as he floated to his feet.
"Is that so? How many centuries have you been through, then?" Zik haughtily asked.
"Um...Well..." the vampire uttered in embarassment, this guy definietly had him beat!
"If you're finished..." Rukia said to him with a bored expression. "Now who are you?!" she asked seriously, pointing at Zik.
"Don't you know its rude to point, little missy?" Zik sneered, "I am a member of a group of Zeti known as the Deadly Six. Our goal is to absorb the life force of worlds to increase our strength. However, we can not perform this by ourselves, we requite an outside source, such as a machine or Tenebris." Zik explained.
"So you're in line with Tenebris? Thats all we need to know!" Ayame said with a smirk, transforming into her powered-up form.
"You're looking for a fight, are you? Very well then." Zik surrounded himself in 2 horizontal rings of small fruit that rotated around him.
"What the heck? Is this geezer for real?!" Vampire Lord thought to himself.
"Fruit loops?!" Ayame exclaimed in confusion, then started throwing shurikens at Zik. For each shuriken that made contact, exactly 1 piece of fruit popped.
"All we have to do is attack him enough until they're all gone!" Billy said. He pulled out a white egg with yellow and light-green circles on it and hatched it, revealing a tiny baby cheetah.
"Whats THAT going to do?" Vampire Lord asked as he shot black bolts from his fingers at the fruit.
"Just watch." Billy told him. The tiny feline floated in the air for a second, and then released a discharge of lightning that destroyed all of Zik's fruit, then dissapeared in a puff of smoke.
"Wow, just what WAS that?" Ayame asked.
"Normal animals I hatch from eggs work more like power-ups; the cheetah gets rid of the enemies stuff!"
"Now's our shot!" Rukia shouted, firing blue balls of spirit energy. Toph sent out huge spiked boulders, Vampire Lord continued shooting lightning bolts, Lucario threw Aura Spheres, and Ayame threw shurikens.
"Did you really think it would be that simple?" Zik said with a sneer, then a dome of water exploded from around him, repelling the attacks.
"Hold on! How did you stop my lightning?!" Vampire Lord exclaimed.
"Yes, Electric is super-effective against Water." Lucario added.
"Young man, your electricity can not travel with my water. Perhaps you should brush up on your skills!" Zik said smugly.
"Oh yeah?!" Vampire Lord teleported in a black bolt of lightning and appeared right behind Zik, who quickly jumped very high into the air before the vampire could slash him with his claws. A burst of water then exploded from underneath him, throwing him forward and landing face-first.
"That was reckless..." L muttered.
"Shut the L up!" Vampire Lord shouted. Toph blew a raspberry and stuck her thumb down at the bad pun.
Zik then dove down, holding his cane downward to jab it into Vampire Lord's head, but Lucario sensed his aura before he even appeared and knocked him out of the way with a Force Palm.
"You have quite the reflexes, dog-man." Zik said, impressed.
"My name is Lucario, and its not just reflexes. I sensed your aura before I even saw you; it is impossible to sneak up while I'm around."
"Hmm, I see." Zik looked in thought for a second, then shot many orbs of energy the same color as his skin at the group.
"You gotta be kidding me..." Rukia scoffed, countering his blue orbs with her own.
"Well them how about THIS?" Zik slammed his cane on the ground, causing 7 giant oranges to fall from the sky that began rolling around and chasing the group.
"This is stupid! I'm stopping this!" Vampire Lord turned around to face the fruit, running backwards. Then he crossed his arms and threw open his cape, releasing a huge flock of bats that speedily devoured all the fruit and flew away.
"Fruit bats?" Ayame said.
"Fruit bats."
"Munch on THIS." Zik performed the same maneuver as before, only this time sending down 7 giant pineapples that hopped around, sending out a thin white shockwave every time they touched down.
"Okaaaay, you stopped my bats. Its still fruit, I can slice and dice it..." Vampire Lord said with a bored expression. He jumped up and slashed at a pineapple, but all that happened was his hand getting jabbed by its spines. "GAAAH!"
"You're not the kind to think things through, are you?" L said to him.
"HEY! I don't think you realize how strong vampires are! I can slice through things like brambles and steel, so I should be able to split apart a damn fruit!"
"You remind me of my partner, both of you are temperamental and rush into things." L said with a little smirk.
"OH HELL NO!" Vampire Lord grabbed L by the neck, "You DO NOT compare me to that...that...gay wannabee! We are NOTHING alike!"
"Well then why don't you guys just shut up and fight?" Toph said.
Vampire Lord dropped the detective, "Yeah, L, come on!" he sneered, knowing the detective can't fight.
Meanwhile, Ayame sliced some of the pineapples into pieces with a flurry of giant shurikens, Rukia blew them to bits with exploding red balls of spirit energy, and Billy took an orange-red egg with red slashes on it, hatched it into a white eagle with dark-red tips on its wings, Glarin, and pointed forward for him to attack. Glarin soared forward, leaving an orange trail as he sliced through a pineapple and destroyed it with an exploding fireworks display around him. After a few more rounds of this attack, Glarin disapeared in a puff of smoke.
"Hey, what happened to your eagle?" Ayame asked.
"He disapeared. I can only order my animal partners to attack a couple times, then they are desummoned." Billy explained.
With all the fruit gone, Lucario rushed at Zik, preparing to take him on one-on-one.
"The lot of you fell right into my trap." Zik slammed his cane on the ground one last time, and a torrent of pineapple juice burst out of the ground underneath each hero, carrying them up into a huge dome of juice that all fo the torrents were flowing into, pushing them all right into the middle of it.
"I hope you all can hold your breath." Zik said with a smug look as the torrents stopped flowing, leaving the group to drown in the middle of a floating planet of water.
OOO
Jacob, Celebi, Shadow, Naruto, Jenifer, Kimimaro, and Sasori were in a large square pit of light-grey sand with thick dark-grey walls of stone stretching to the sky further than the eye could see.
"Dang, anybody have any ideas how to get out of here?" Jacob asked.
"Tch." with a scoff, Jenifer spawned her jetpack and tried to take off, but the thrusters wouldn't activate.
"Can't go over it." Celebi said with a sigh, unable to fly higher than a few feet off the ground.
"Stand back." Naruto ordered, building up a Rasengan. "RASENGAN!" he slammed the swirling ball of chakra into the wall, but it didn't even crack.
"Tch." with a scoff, Shadow charged up a powerful Chaos Spear and fired, but the wall remained unscathed.
"Can't go through it." Celebi said.
"Can't go around it..." Sasori said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and purposely stating the obvious.
"We'll have to go under it." Kimimaro said to himself.
"By...digging...?" Jacob said to him a little slowly, unsure how they would do that quick enough.
"That wont work at all. We can't blast the sand out with attacks because it will just fill back up, and we have no tools to dig with." Sasori said.
"We could use our arms, maybe?" Celebi suggested.
"Yeah, I bet you can dig a grave in 5 minutes flat, right, stringbean?"
"We...we would need...Gaara..." Naruto said quietly, flinching at the mention of his name due to still being haunted by the memory of him.
"I wouldn't have said that if I didn't have a plan." Kimimaro said a tad loudly.
"Then tell us!" Shadow ordered him.
"How about I show you instead?" Kimimaro said condescendingly. The albino then transformed into his Cursed Seal 2 form and created 2 bone drills around his arms, held out his arms, and merged the two drills into a bigger drill.
"Heh, bone drill." Sasori said with a smirk.
"Follow me closely." Kimimaro ordered. He managed to get himself spinning and dove into the sand, creating a tunnel and spreading out the softened sand for the rest of the group using his tail. The others, a bit reluctant, followed him.
"I better not get any sand in my joints!" Sasori grumbled.
"Just keep going." Jenifer ordered, feeling a bit ridiculous crawling around a sand pit.
After a few moments of traveling, Kimimaro's drill clanged against a sandstone wall.
"It looks like we'll have to ascend now." he said lowly, trying to figure out how the others will travel without being buried.
"How are we supposed to go up without getting crushed?" Celebi wondered.
"That is exactly what I am trying to figure out." the ninja said a little irritably.
"I'm just spitballing here, but maybe we could link arms as you climb up?" Jacob suggested.
"I think you're on the right track with that." Celebi said.
"That isn't going to work. It doesn't matter if we link up; the hole will still cave in. We need a way to hold it together." Shadow explained.
"I think I have an idea." Naruto said, speaking up, "Kimimaro, as you dig up, I'll create a chain of Shadow Clones that will both hold onto your tail and support the hole. Celebi and Sasori, you help with your psychic power and metal tail, and Shadow, you warn us if you sense a cave-in."
Sasori scoffed, "And why should-"
"Just shut up and go with the plan." Jenifer said, not wanting hear anyones superiority complex, despite possessing one.
As Kimimaro drilled upward, Naruto created a steady stream of Shadow Clones that linked arms and put their feet against the walls of the hole, forming a kind of human ladder. Celebi and Shadow closed their eyes in concentration, both for different purposes, and Sasori trailed his metal tail along the wall in a kind of spiral formation. The group then proceeded upwards, the two psychics still concentrating as they climbed, and Sasori slowly retracted his tail.
Eventually, they all made it and the hole collapsed as predicted. They were now in a kind of bowl-shaped arena of black sand that flowed to a singular point in the center, slowly pulling whatever was in it like an ant lions trap.
"I really hope we don't have to fight that sand worm thing again!" Sasori groaned, remembering Molgera.
Suddenly, something landed in front of them with a loud thud that shook the ground a bit. It was a yellow humanoid devil with flat feet, a round belly, and big hands: Zomom.
"Whoa, who are YOU?" Celebi asked.
"I'm Zomom, one of the Deadly Six, which is a bunch of Zetis and I'm one of them!"
"Yeah, that stands to reason..." Jenifer murmured.
"We get bigger and stronger by gobbling up the energy of other places! Weirdly, we need help with that, but that dark power guy promised us we could eat one of your guys' worlds if we squash you!"
"And without a world to return to, anyone who is part of that world will perish, correct?" Kimimaro assumed.
"Uhhh...I think so!"
"Well we're not about to let that happen!" Naruto shouted.
"I've dealt with aliens trying to suck out the life energy of my world, and you Zeti don't look to be HALF the challenge THEY were!" Shadow bragged.
"What?! Hey! Why aren't you blue?! How do you change colors like that?!" Zomom exclaimed, scratching his head in confusion.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"And you grew chest hair? Wow, I can't believe its been that long!"
"Hold on! Are you talking about Sonic?!"
"Yeah, thats YOU!"
"Tch, you're obviously not as bright as your skin is. My name is Shadow; and I assure you I am not my rival."
"Oh...Well it doesn't matter, all of you are going to be my dinner! Or lunch! I don't know which, it is always so dark here that I lose track of time!" Zomom rambled, "Except for you! I'll just squash you since you look pretty bony." he added, pointing at Kimimaro.
"Eating people is MY thing." Jacob said.
"...Seriously?" Celebi said with a look of confusion.
"Nah, its a joke."
"Now is NOT the time for joking!" Jenifer scolded him, not being much of a fan of jokes. The Vexian then held out her hands and used Dragon Cannon on Zomom, but the Zeti burrowed into the ground with surprising swiftness.
"How can someone THAT big go underground THAT fast?!" Sasori exclaimed.
"I don't know, but I am going after him." Kimimaro said as he formed his bone drill and then dug through the sand.
"Where is the world IS he...?" Kimimaro thought to himself as he tunneled along, unable to locate the Zeti.
"Keep your eyes on the ground, everyone, he is probably going to try and strike from underneath." Naruto told them.
After a moment of the group listening for rumbling and looking for disturbed ground, Shadow's eyes widened slightly, "Above!" he said a little loudly before dashing away using his rocket skates.
The others looked to see Zomom falling to belly-flop them and quickly prepared their defenses. Jenifer surrounded herself with a diamond shield, Jacob summoned a large green turtle with a blue shell that quickly grabbed him with its mouth and retracted itself into the shell, Naruto quickly tapped into his demons chakra and dove out of harms way with his increased speed, Sasori extended the wing-like protrusions on his back and glided out of rage, as did Celebi.
"Ouch!" Zomom exclaimed, flopping right onto the sharp diamond and hard shell. He then jumped backward to the other end of the arena with the same quickness as he dug.
"How-?!" Sasori was still speechless at Zomom's speed.
"I'll get him back here!" Naruto turned into his one-tailed form, stuck both of his arms out in front of him, and extended his chakra arms; both of them melding into one huge arm that grabbed the Zeti around the middle and yanked him back toward them.
"Get him while he's restrained!" Naruto said to the others.
"Leaf Storm!" Celebi surrounded the Zeti in a twister of leaves.
"Huah!" Shadow swung his arm and impaled the Zeti with green Chaos Spears that surrounded him.
"Go, Topaz!" Jacob summoned a white sabre-toothed cat that roared and charged at Zomom.
"You aren't the only one who is going to get a close shot at him." Jenifer said, extended knives from her knuckles, and hopped on top of the charging tiger. The feline sunk its teeth into Zomom's neck, and Jenifer sunk her fist into Zomom's face.
"I'll skewer you as well!" Sasori fired 2 wooden cylinders from his hands that opened up, sending out a flurry of poisoned needles that turned Zomom into a pincushion.
"This is backward! I'm supposed to eat YOU!" Zomom managed to twist and wriggle his body enough to create a tornado of sand around him, freeing him from Naruto's grasp, knocking back Jenifer and Topaz Tiger, and sending Sasori's needles flying.
"Backfire!" Sasori said with wide eyes as he was punctured by his own attack; immune to the poison due to being a puppet.
Like a top, Zomom spun toward them; his tornado serving as a shield, "Time to blend you!"
"We have to attack from above." Shadow said.
"Not a problem!" Kimimaro said as he burst out of the ground near Zomom, breaching like a dolphin and driving his drill into his head, which stopped him from spinning and his twister.
"And I thought you were just digging around like a dummy!" Celebi said excitedly.
"Get outta my head!" Zomom grabbed the upper parts of Kimimaro's arms, pulled him out, and, much to the ninjas surprise, pulled his arms apart and breaking the bone drill clean in half.
"What?!" Kimimaro exclaimed, "How could you break my bones?! That would require a force stronger than steel!"
"I'm strong, thats why!"
"Alright, I'm starting to get why he is so fast now." Sasori said to himself.
"Now I can do THIS!" Zomom hopped to the center of the arena and started spinning, sending out a tall shockwave of sand outward and threw Kimimaro, who reverted to his base form, right into it.
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto, now in his normal form, created bunches of clones that piled on one another that the group used to ascend over the wall of sand and jump to the other side. Celebi grabbed Kimimaro using Psychic and set him down behind the group and a few Shadow Clones stood in front of the albino to protect him.
"Your dig guy is knocked out! NOW how will you save yourselves?" Zomom taunted, then burrowed underground again.
"That guys a coward." Jacob said, "Go Scopen and go Radion!" Two monsters then appeared, the first was a microscope-like robot; the second was a portable radio-like robot.
"How are THOSE going to help?" Jenifer said with a scoff.
"Just watch. Now I'll tune Scopen and Radion together to create..." Jacob began; Radion and Scopen turning into green balls of light that started spinning around in the air above him. "Power Tool Dragon!"
In a flash of light, a large, bipedal, mechanical, golden dragon appeared. It had round magenta eyes, flat rectangular wings, a blue backhoe shovel for a right hand, and a huge green screwdriver on the wrist of its left hand.
"Any particular reason you waited until NOW to do that...?" Sasori asked with a bored expression.
"Hey, man, its a long process that leaves me wide open." Jacob said with a shrug.
Power Tool Dragon then started excavating the arena using its backhoe arm, doing it in rapid succession. Its eyes lit up for a moment when it sensed Zomom and then lunged its other arm straight down, piercing the Zeti right through his belly and pulling him out of the sand.
"Well THAT was pretty cool." Celebi said.
"I! AM NOT! A SHISKEBAAAAAAB!" Zomom yelled. He clapped once loudly, causing the arena to collapse on itself, burying everyone alive in tough sand before they could even react. Power Tool Dragon was completely immobilized and disapeared, so Zomom dug his way out of the ground.
"Lets see you dig your way outta THAT!" he boasted.
OOO
Diddy, DK, Spyro, Darkrai, Bender, Samantha, Toothless, and Uryu were standing on a floating platform of black snow with a winding path of grey ice in front of them made of straight angles and with a dark-grey metal platform at the end.
"Anyone know how to ice skate...?" Uryu said, a little deadpan.
"I'm pretty good at it. I played ice hockey and cat hockey a couple times." Spyro said.
"Cat hockey? That sounds hilarious." Bender said, smoking a cigar.
"Ice skating is for those who can't fly. Alien Invasion!" Samantha shouted, but no UFOs appeared.
"Ha!"
"Just shut up, we can always ride on that dragon." Samantha grumbled. Toothless nodded and started flapping his wings, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get off the ground.
"Tenebris is clearly smart enough to negate our powers of alternate travel." Darkrai pointed out.
"Well, ice skating it is, then!" Spyro jumped onto the ice and spread out his legs, moving them back and forth as he maneuvered along the path with only a little trouble.
With a scoff, Darkrai simply hovered along the path, never touching the ground.
DK put his hands and feet down flat and stretched them out, and Diddy hopped onto his back. They slowly slid across the ice to the metal platform; Diddy using his long tail as a rudder whenever they had to turn.
"Diddy has the right idea." Uryu said, then looked at Toothless. "Toothless, do you mind?"
The Night Fury jerked his head a little, letting them know they could hop on. Uryu and Samantha climbed onto his back, but Bender just stood there.
"What are you doing? Get on!" Samantha said.
"Nah." the robot replied, "I'll just stay here. You guys go and fall into another trap or whatever."
"You're willing to seclude yourself on this floating island in an evil dimension?" Uryu asked, a little annoyed at Bender's stubbornness.
"Exactly. I'll be away from all of YOU! You guys are always running into trouble, and its getting pretty annoying."
Toothless growled a little and grabbed Bender with his long tail. He then used his claws to scrape across the ice slowly and carefully without traction, but it was accompanied by a horrible screeching like nails on a chalkboard.
"That noise! It makes me wish for the maddening silence of space!" Samantha said, covering her ears. One of the lenses on Uryu's glasses cracked and one of Bender's eyeballs fell out from the volume.
"Damn it!" the robot exclaimed.
At last they joined the others on the metal platform, and as soon as they did, the platform shot into the sky from high-pressured steam being expelled from the vent underneath it. It carried them to a large bowl-shaped floating island made of light-grey snow, and its gravity pulled them down into the center of it as the metal platform fell back to its original spot.
"A snowbowl, huh?" Spyro said, half-joking.
"I take it we have to battle someone?" Samantha guessed.
"I think shes up there." Uryu pointed to the top of the bowl and there stood a green, humanoid, female devil with a single small horn, long green hair with bangs that hung over one of her eyes, and a curled chameleon-like tail: Zeena.
"Ooo Ooo?" Diddy said, scratching his cap in confusion.
"Yeah, shes just standing there. Does she even know we're here?" Spyro wondered.
"We could either sneak up on her...or fall for her trap." Darkrai said.
"I'll settle for the first one." Uryu said, materializing his bow and firing an arrow of spirit energy. Zeena noticed it just in time and ducked to avoid it.
"What the-?! Oh, aren't you the rude one?" she said with a scoff, then jumped down to face the group.
"You were seriously oblivious enough to not spot us...?" Darkrai said.
"Oh, no, I knew you were there the whole time. I just didn't care."
"I like that attitude." Bender said.
"What were you even doing up there?" Samantha asked.
"Just looking at this dimension. Its so UGLY! Why does it have to be ALL greyscale?! Its not edgy, Tenebris, its hideous!" Zeena complained.
"Your priorities need to be shifted. Besides, this dimensions color scheme is perfect." Darkrai said.
"Darkrai is right...for the first part. Why do you care about the looks of this place? Who are you, anyway?" Spyro asked.
"Zeena. I'm part of a group of Zeti called the Deadly Six or whatever. We're from a world called the Lost Hex and we take the energy from other worlds, making them lifeless and ugly while making us stronger. We need help with this, which is, like, weird, but whatever. Tenebris will let us do that to your worlds if we kill you or something." she explained, sounding like she didn't really care all that much.
"While I somewhat admire your intrest in the layout of this dimension, I'm going to have to kill you." Samantha told her.
"Whatever you say, blondie. By the way, baggy sweatpants? Are you serious? If you're gonna wear those at least buy ones that are the right size."
"How about you try THIS on for size, instead?" Samantha waved her hand in a circle and a black hole appeared behind Zeena. The Zeti quickly pointed at the gravitational rift and encased it in a thick block of ice. Zeena dashed out of the way, as the black holes pull was focused on the ice surrounding it. She threw her hands out and two huge snowballs instantly appeared in front of her, connected to her palms by green ropes of light, allowing her to manipulate them like a ball and chain.
DK jumped forward with his fist winding up to punch one of the snowballs to pieces, but it just knocked him on his back.
"Ouch. Well lets try fire, then!" Spyro spat fireballs at the other snowball, but it remained the same size and knocked him backward as well.
"Wanna try something else useless?" Zeena taunted, pulling back the snowballs and then shooting them forward again.
"Don't worry about the snowballs, focus on HER." Uryu told the others, drawing back an arrow and looking for an opening.
"Ooo! Ooo!" Diddy took to the skies on his jetpack for an aerial attack and fired a barrage of peanuts from his Peanut Popguns at Zeena. The edible ammunition knocked her onto her back, but she swung her arm up and slammed a snowball into Diddy, then carried him along the arc it made and smashing him into the ground underneath it. DK pounded his chest at the sight of this and slammed his hands hard on the ground, creating a shockwave that headed toward Zeena, but she used her snowballs as supports and jumped up, being held up by her ropes of light.
"Trying to protect your friend, huh? If you only worried about yourself, you wouldn't suffer THIS!" Zeena caused a huge spike of ice to shoot up from underneath DK, impaling him.
"No!" Uryu fired his bow, shattering the spike, then fired another arrow at Zeena. The Zeti breathed out a frosty wind, causing the arrow to freeze and fall to the ground.
"You still want to fight? Fine, I guess I'll get my hands dirty a little more." Zeena said as she touched down and held up her hands, retracting the snowballs. That instant, despite being injured, DK ran up to Diddy, picked him up, and backed off while glaring and baring his teeth at Zeena before collapsing on his back.
"I think I can save him." Samantha walked over to the ape, tore off a section of the lower part of her pants, gathered some snow, chipped off a part of one of Diddy's popguns, pulled a loose thread from her shirt, and started sewing a makeshift patch onto the open wound.
"Will that work?" Spyro asked.
"I don't know, but its the best solution we have."
"Look at you, wasting your time helping someone else instead of helping yourself by fighting me. Not to mention you ruined your already ugly outfit." Zeena said to the Vexian.
"I wouldn't expect a hedonist like you or my ex-partner to understand." Darkrai said quietly to her, remembering Giratina.
"He really DOES care." Spyro said, semi-sarcastically.
Meanwhile, Toothless silently sneaked up to the Zeti and fired a ball of plasma that knocked her on her face and broke the ropes of light that held her snowballs.
"Get her!" Bender ordered.
Darkrai used Dark Pulse, Spyro spat out fireballs, Toothless shot plasma balls, and Uryu fired arrows. Zeena quickly made her snowballs melt and surrounded herself in a diamond of ice that blocked the attacks.
"How is ICE that strong?!" Spyro exclaimed.
"How is FIRE that weak?" Zeena retorted.
Suddenly, DK dropped down from the sky with jetpacked Diddy on his back. He had both of his hands clamped together and swung downward, shattering the barrier. He then grabbed Zeena, wound up a punch, and smashed her right in the face with his fist; sending her backward and crashing into the side of the bowl-shaped arena.
"Wow, your first-aid actually worked, Samantha." Uryu said to the Vexian.
"It didn't. It was Lumiere."
"What took her?" Bender wondered, although he didn't really care all that much.
I apologize. I had to make the healing appear subtle as to not alarm my brother.
"And now he knows." Darkrai said.
No. When Tenebris and I communicate with you all, its through telepathy, and we can not read each others thoughts.
"Quit talking to the sky!" Zeena yelled, storming back in front of the group.
"Whoa, that monkey really kicked your ass!" Bender said with a laugh, pointing at Zeena's bloody and bruised face.
"You're all gonna pay for ruining my beautiful face!" she fumed.
"Whatever you say..." Darkrai called her bluff.
"Actually, I'll do you all a personal favor and preserve your beauty!" Zeena jumped up high and clapped once loudly. The entire bowl was then frozen in ice in an instant, immobilizing the group inside.
"...Or lack of it." she added, looking down on the frozen heroes from atop the floating isle.
OOO
Byakuya, Gaara, Serena, Sheelah, Edward, Vroom-Vroom, and Manaphy were on a floating platform of grey grass with another grassy platform with a huge spring on it on the other side, and huge windmills between them in two rows of five; one row having platforms on the ends of the propellers like a ferris wheel; one row blowing powerful gusts of wind from its propellers.
"Well...THIS is one helluva problem!" Vroom-Vroom exclaimed.
"How? All we have to do is jump from windmill to windmill without getting blown off, which you can prevent by hanging on!" Edward told him.
"I can't jump and I don't have hands, jackass!"
"Thats not my problem! Besides, what good is a talking toy dump truck with a turrent for, anyway?!"
"Harsh." a deadpan Serena said.
"A hothead like you ain't so fun, either! Just be nice! And one of us can carry you, Vroom-Vroom." Manaphy told them.
"You're lucky the water blob spoke up, otherwise I would have TORN! YOU! APART!" Vrooom-Vroom threatened.
"Shall we go then?" Sheelah said, not wanting any more drama.
"Yes." Byakuya replied with the slightest eagerness, feeling the same way.
"Wait." Gaara said to Sheelah, who bent her knees to prepare her jump.
"What?" Serena asked, deadpan again.
"You all clearly can't say more than one word at a time..." Vroom-Vroom murmured.
"I have a feeling this is not as simple as Edward thinks." Gaara stretched out a Shukaku claw; the hardened sand was too heavy to be blown away, and tried grabbing onto one of the thin propellers, but it was like there was an invisible barrier around them, as well as along the bottom of the platforms so they couldn't be grabbed onto either.
"Just as I thought." he began, retracting the claw. "There's some kind of invisible barrier around the platforms and propellers."
"What do ya mean?" Manaphy asked.
"I mean that it is impossible to grab onto something, the only way to stay on is by anchoring yourself somehow."
"Oh no! Thats a problem! I'm almost completely made of water; I'm super light!"
"Its a problem for everyone. I don't think anybody has a way to keep themselves from being blown off to their demise." Serena said.
"I can hold you all down with Shukaku claws." Gaara said.
"Like weighted tethers made of sand, correct?" Sheelah asked.
"Yes."
"And how are we supposed to jump?" Edward asked.
"I'll make the sand light and flexible enough to allow you to jump. Now then, I'll go first."
The sand ninja turned into his Mini-Shukaku form from the legs down and hopped onto a platform on the spinning windmill. The pseudo-cement shoes prevented the gusts from even budging him. He then created 3 Shukaku claws that were big enough to grip the middles of Serena, Edward, and Byakuya, 2 smaller claws that gripped Sheela's middle and Vroom-Vroom's bucket, and 1 small claw that split off into 2 even smaller claws that held tightly on the ends of Manaphy's antennae.
"That kinda hurts." the Pokemon complained.
"You said you were mostly composed of water, the red orbs on your antennae appear to be the only graspable parts of you." Gaara explained to him.
As the wheel turned, Byakuya, Serena, Sheelah, and Edward hopped on their individual platforms.
"Alright, time to wing this..." Vroom-Vroom said to himself and drove right off the edge of the platform, and Gaara retracted his claw, pulling Vroom-Vroom up next to him.
"Welp, now its my turn." Manaphy hesitated for a moment and then jumped, fluttering his arms to try and stay aloft, but, as he did with Vroom-Vroom, Gaara slowly and carefully retracted his claws.
"Well, THAT worked out surprisngly well. I thought this plan was going to fail." Serena stated. The group continued this a few more times until they reached the last windmill.
"I assume we now jump on that spring over there?" Sheelah guessed.
"Yes. Jump one at a time; I'll release you the instant you touch the spring." Gaara explained. Like before, Serena, Sheelah, Edward, and Byakuya did so with ease.
"Its going to be harder for the two of you." Gaara said.
"Well, figure something out then!" Vroom-Vroom shouted.
"...Alright, Manaphy, I need you to fall from this windmill."
'What?! Are you crazy?!" he exclaimed.
"I used to be. Now fall from this windmill, I'll increase the length of my claws on you, and you swing back and forth until you get close enough that I can release you."
"I got no other options, I guess." Manaphy closed his eyes and fell forward. He opened them back up when he felt the jerk of the claws reaching their desired length and started swinging his arms back and forth, slowly gaining more speed and coverage.
"You know, this is kinda fun in a scary kind of way." he said. When Gaara saw that the Pokemon could almost touch the spring, he gently released and Manaphy sprang up.
"What about me?" Vroom-Vroom asked.
"You're easy." Gaara swung the claw Vroom-Vroom was being held by behind him, and then threw it forward, tossing the dump truck with great velocity.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH! YOU SON OF A-" the toy smacked into the top of the spring and skyrocketed, cutting off his words.
After a moment, Gaara cloaked his arms in Shukaku's sand and extended them forward, gripping the sides of the platform the spring was on. Then he retracted the sand around his legs and swiftly pulled himself forward, retracting all of his demons sand the instant he touched the spring.
The Kazekage shot into the sky and was suddenly turned upside-down by the gravitational pull of a huge waffle-shaped isle of grey grass where his teammates arrived.
"Now what do we do?" Manaphy asked.
"I'm sure some monster or whatever is going to show up any second..." Serena guessed.
She was right. Suddenly, a lanky, magenta, humanoid demon with a punk rock appearance and huge teeth and claws landed in the middle of the arena: Zazz.
"Are you trying to pull off the dark appearance? Because you aren't getting the job done..." Serena told him.
"And by 'dark' she means 'attention-seeking emo'!" Vroom-Vroom rudely added.
"Who are you?" Gaara asked, bringing up something actually relevant.
"The one who is going to KILL you all!" Zazz exclaimed.
"...No, but seriously, who are you?" a deadpan Edward asked with a bored expression.
"Its Zazz! I'm part of a race of Zeti called the Deadly Six, and I put the 'deadly' in that name!"
"Whats so deadly about YOU...? If anyone around here is deadly, its ME." Serena said with her arms glowing black.
"You REALLY want me to demonstrate by messing you up?!"
"Whats messed up is how twitchy you are. Did you drink too much coffee?" Manaphy asked, partly joking.
"I'll boil you and watch you suffer, little water blob!"
"I used to be exactly like you." Gaara told the Zeti, "Bloodthirsty and insane, but then I had a change of heart. I don't expect it to happen for you, but why don't you tell us what you're doing here?"
"Heh, alright then. When I kill you all, Tenebris will let me absorb one of your worlds, killing everything in it! This includes YOU if you get lucky and escape! Absorbing worlds makes a Zeti stronger, but we can't VOLUNTARILY DO IT!" Zazz exclaimed, yelling in frustration at the last part.
"If you can't do it, how do you know it makes you stronger in the first place?" Sheelah asked.
"It happened in the past, and the two responsible for controlling us and then stopping us STILL NEED TO DIE!" Zazz shouted, remembering the two targets of his groups revenge.
"Alright, this guy is annoying me now." Edward said through gritted teeth. He then rushed at Zazz to roundhouse kick him, but, despite his blinding speed, the Zeti reacted quickly, grabbing Edward by the leg and throwing him to the side.
"Oh NOW you've all done it!" Zazz said angrily. A floating, yellow, moon-like ball with an angry sharp-toothed face came down from the sky and he jumped on it. The ball began floating around swiftly as it spat large star-shaped projectiles from its mouth at the group.
Byakuya sent forward a thick tendril of petals that countered incoming stars, Gaara surrounded himself in a sphere of sand for defense that Serena hid behind, Manaphy rode in Vroom-Vroom's bucket and he was fast enough to avoid stars, Edward was swift enough to dodge stars, and Sheelah hopped up high whenever a star was about to hit her.
"Heh, what kind of moron do you think I am?!" Zazz said to himself. He threw his hands up and huge spiked thorns shot up from the ground underneath each hero, having enough force to pierce right through Gaara's tough sand and impaling them all.
"Hehhehheh, who needs BAMBOO to grow through people?!" Zazzs' moon-like orb fired huge stars at the heroes, destroying the thorns and knocking them to the ground. The organics of the group lay in pools of their own blood, while Vroom-Vroom and Manaphy were unable to move at all; the dump truck having been stabbed right through the head and the Pokemon being weak to Grass.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
As Zazz laughed sadistically, a huge explosion of sand erupted from Gaara and Shukaku was standing in his place.
"AHAHAHAHAHA! GAARA may not be like you, but I am!" Shukaku exclaimed.
"So one of you is still alive? Well, slaying a giant should be fun!"
"WRONG! I'm not only the ultimate attack, I'm also the ultimate defense! I plugged their wounds with hardened sand! I don't know if that will help the truck or the water blob, but I'm better at blocking than healing!"
"They wont last long!"
"If it was up to me, you'd probably be right! But I'm a teammate to Gaara and I'll follow through with his ideals!...For the most part! Thats why I no longer kill everything in sight like YOU do! But this time, I'm willing to make an exception!"
"Bring it OOOOONNN!"
"Wind Style: Air Bullets!" Shukaku fired huge balls of wind at Zazz, but his orb floated up, it opened its mouth, and "ate" the attacks. The demon swatted at the orb with his huge claws and managed to knock Zazz off of it.
"Now you're dead!" Shukaku swung his tail downward and smashed Zazz right through a section of the island. The One-Tail had a feeling that the Zeti wasn't actually dead as his eyes darted back and forth, looking for him or his orb. Suddenly, he felt the ground beneath him give way and he began falling. As he fell, he noticed Zazz standing on his orb, waving at him while grinning evily, and he realized Zazz was responsible.
"Shukaku! Give me control!" Gaara ordered his demon through his subconcious.
"Gaara?! How the hell are you alive?!"
"Lumiere healed us, now hurry, or else I won't be alive much longer!"
Shukaku reluctantly returned control to Gaara, who quickly extended many sand tendrils that grabbed onto the island, slowed down his fall, and then pulled himself back to safety.
At this time, Zazz floated up to them on his orb. "What the-?! I thought I killed you all!"
"Like I told Shukaku, Lumiere healed us." Gaara explained.
"GRRR! Fine then, it just means I get to kill you all again!" Zazz threw his hands up to pierce the group with thorns again, but was blasted off of his orb by a torrent of water from Manaphy. Said orb was then blown up by a flurry of shinning silver rockets from Vroom-Vroom.
"THATS for trying to kill us, you bastard!" the truck shouted.
Zazz threw rapid punches in every direction, sending out a flurry of round magenta projectiles wherever he swung. Byakuya shook his head and sent out thick tendrils of petals that dissipated the projectiles and closed in on Zazz.
"I guess HIS pink attack is stronger than YOUR pink attack." Serena said.
Zazz jumped up high and created a tall huge flower right underneath him that he landed on. The petals closed around him, forming a surprisingly powerful shield that Byakuya's petals couldn't cut through.
"I guess HIS pink flower is stronger than YOUR pink flower." Serena said.
"Well I don't know about the stem, though." Sheelah said, delivering a strong kick to the base of Zazzs' defense that caused it to topple.
"TIIIIMBERRRRR!" Manaphy shouted.
Edward quickly ran up to the felled flower and peeled the petals back, expecting to see Zazz, but nobody was there. "What the-?! Where did he go?!"
"Be on your guard, he's likely planning a sneak attack from below." Gaara said, creating a sand cloud that he got on. The group waited in silence for a few moments, paying close attention to the ground beneath them, but Zazz didn't strike.
"Where IS he?!" Edward exclaimed, getting impatient. Just then, huge venus flytraps with round, lettuce-like heads and sharp teeth rose up from each of the 9 holes in the isle with Zazz riding on the one in the middle.
"Did you pay a visit to the Little Shop of Horrors while you were gone or something?!" Vroom-Vroom sneered.
"'Horrors' doesn't BEGIN to describe the pain you're all about to feel!" Zazz exclaimed.
With the swiftness of a snake, the other venus flytraps lunged at the group, catching them all in their razor-sharp teeth and swallowing them whole.
"This is stupid..." Serena said from within one with her hands glowing black. She touched the plant's tongue, killing it and causing it to wilt. Her unconcious body slid out of the venus flytrap's...right into a pit of brambles that wrapped her up.
"HAHAHA! Right into my trap!" Zazz said.
Meanwhile, petals exploded from around Byakuya and the plant spat him out, getting cut up everywhere from the inside, and the Kuchki was also caught in the bramble trap. Gaara created a huge Shukaku claw that pryed open the plant's mouth and he stepped out onto a cloud of sand, only to find it surrounded in a dome of brambles that quickly contracted and trapping him. Sheelah delivered a powerful kick to the plant's teeth, knocking a couple out. The kangaroo inspected the area below it and noticed the brambles, but the still functioning flytrap spat her out into them.
"Watch out, everyone! He set a trap!" she warned.
"Don't bother! They can't hear you, and most of you have fallen for it already!" Zazz told her.
"HUAAAAH!" With a yell, Edward charged through his flytraps mouth, but brambles wrapped around his legs and dragged him down. "Damn it! WHOEVER IS STILL EATEN, DON'T COME OUT!"
"I hate to tell ya, but they can't hear you!" Sheelah said.
Vroom-Vroom spun his tires quickly while keeping on the breaks along the flytrap's tongue, causing it to stick its tonge out and the truck slid right off and into the bramble trap.
"What the hell?! WHY DIDN'T YOU BASTARDS WARN ME?!" he exclaimed.
"I TRIED TO! SHEELAH SAID YOU COULDN'T HEAR US!" Edward exclaimed back.
"YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE I COULDN'T HEAR YOUR LOUD MOUTH?!"
"YES I DO!"
"The two of you are making me wish I hadn't regained conciousness..." Serena groaned.
"Hold on, where is Manaphy?" Gaara wondered.
"HAHAHA! Looks like he's been absorbed! THATS ONE OF YOU DOWN, AND THE REST OF YOU ARE ABOUT TO JOIN HIM!" Zazz shouted with sadistic glee as the brambles started to slowly tighten more and more.
OOO
The Cybernetic Ghost, Kyle, Jenna, Marth, Ichigo, Konan, and Ritsuka were on a long pill-shaped isle with the ends covered in dark-grey weedy grass, the grass on the other side having a huge black flower bud cannon, and the middle covered in a pit of black mud. Across that mud pit were thin grey rails, some of them had missing segments and others had white blocking signs on them.
"Oh geez! This is bad!" Konan exclaimed.
"Yeah, we got seperated from everyone else." Marth said.
"I wouldn't consider that a BAD thing, personally..." Kyle muttered.
"N-no! Not that! The mud! Muck makes me useless!" Konan panicked, shaking.
"Come on, Konan, just don't fall in, dang..." Ichigo told her with a bored expression.
"Ichigo, I'm pretty worried about falling off of those thin rails!"
"Aren't you supposed to be the ADULT here...?" Jenna sneered.
"Her and Pain tend to act like kids sometimes..." Ichigo told her with blue lines on his forehead.
"Well I think things are more complicated than walking across, I think we have to grind." Ritsuka said.
"Like...like a skateboarder?" Marth asked.
"Similarly, yes."
"I expect Kyle will accel at this since he IS a skateboarder." the Cybernetic Ghost began.
"What?" the Vexian looked at him in confusion.
"Thousands of years ago, your brother was a master skateboarder, constantly topping tournaments, but when he suffered a fatal accident and perished, you, never one to partake in the sport, decided to become one yourself to carry on his legacy."
"NO! You are COMPLETELY WRONG!" Kyle shouted at the rambling robot, feeling like his brother was being mocked.
"Don't listen to him; he's full of it." Marth told the Vexian.
"Shut the hell up and lets get across." Jenna told them.
"You know how to grind?" Marth challenged her.
"Tch, I don't need to grind." Jenna slammed her hand on the ground and her Skull Snake summon appeared in a puff of smoke. The redhead hopped on her summon and it slithered along the top of a rail, going right over the gaps and putting her on the other side.
"Ya think you could give us a ri-" Marth's eye twitched with anger when the girl desummoned her creature before he could finish. "Fine, I'll give this a shot..." The swordsman put his sword down horizontally on a rail and jumped on it, using it as a makeshift skateboard. He jumped over a gap and barely managed to make it and finally reached the other side.
"Thats pretty effective." Ichigo said and did the same thing, only with a lot less trouble due to his weapon being bigger.
"Our turn next. Silver Spines!" Kyle threw his hands in the air and large silver spikes shot out of the muck from various angles. The Vexian swiftly hopped from one to the other until he reached the other side. He looked at the others and motioned them to follow his lead. Ritsuka followed suit, as did the Cybernetic Ghost via a form of grinding and jumping from one spine to the other. The only one left was Konan, and she wasn't moving an inch.
"Come on, Konan!" Ichigo exclaimed.
"I...I'm trying!" the ninja said, "This is one of my worst fears!"
"Oh brother..." the swordsman said, sweatdropping with a bored expression.
"You called her 'Konan'?" Ritsuka asked him.
"Yeah, why?"
"Name Control: Konan!" Ritsuka said to himself and Konan began leaping from spike to spike.
"Wh-whats happening to me?!" the ninja exclaimed in confusion.
"Its a spell called Name Control. It allows me to gain total control over my opponent from the neck down, but only if I know their name." Ritsuka explained as Konan joined him and the others. "I'll release you now."
"I'm glad I'm over the mud, but that was really messed up." Konan commented.
"Not as messed up as you suddenly becoming a wimp..." Ichigo muttered.
"What did you say?" Konan said to him through gritted teeth.
"He said we should use that flower cannon." Marth said, bringing things back on track.
One by one, each member was shot out of the cannon and landed on a large floating isle in the shape of a ring of large dark-grey weeds.
"Now that we're here, who do we have to fight?" Kyle wondered, clenching his fists in confidence.
"Why are you so eager to get beat up?" a monotone voice asked. A black silhouette appeared in the middle of the ring that faded into a scrawny, white, humanoid devil with purple lipstick and purple hair that hung over one of his eyes: Zor.
"What the-?! Who ARE you?" Marth asked, a bit weirded out by Zor's appearance.
"Zor. I am a Zeti and part of the Deadly Six. Our world is the Lost Hex and we get stronger by taking the life from other worlds, speeding up the inevitable, really. Not that it matters, since we can't play Death personally. The bad news is that we can play Death with you all. In other words, if we kill all of you; we kill your world."
"Tch, you're absolutely pathetic." Jenna scoffed, then created a ball of lava and a ball of ice in her hands and fired them at Zor.
"Whatever..." he said, turning into a shadow and Jenna's projectiles went right through him. Zor then split off into 7 shadows, each facing a different member of the group.
"Flatten." Ritsuka said, causing his Zor shadow to implode instantly.
"What was THAT?!" Marth exclaimed as he fired a blast of ice from the tip of his sword at his Zor shadow, destroying it.
"Flatten. It is a spell that instantly defeats a weak opponent."
Kyle began charging up a Charge Shot, going from a small yellow projectile to a white comet-shaped projectile, which wasn't even the moves full power, but was enough to destroy his Zor shadow.
"These things are so damn weak..." Ichigo said, destroying his Zor shadow with a slash of spiritual energy.
"Almost TOO weak..." Konan said with suspicions as she tossed a stack of small paper bombs as if she was dealing cards at her Zor shadow, destroying it in a flurry of small explosions.
"Thats true. I mean, even THAT GUY can beat them..." Ichigo said to her, pointing to the Cybernetic Ghost who destroyed his Zor shadow with a couple laser shots from his eyes.
"He's pathetic." Jenna said, her elemental attack working this time.
"YOU GUYS are the ones who are pathetic." Zor said, appearing in the spot he was before in a puff of black smoke.
"How so?" Marth asked.
"I'm not stupid. I sent those clones to distract you, and it worked, so now you're all doomed." Zor snapped his fingers, causing black voids to appear under the feet of the heroes and black hands to rise out of the voids and grab them by the legs, necks, and chests.
"Resolve." Ritsuka's eyes widened a little when the spell didn't work.
"What was that?" Marth asked him.
"Resolve. It is a spell that cancels out attacks, but it isn't working."
"I have dark powers that the other Zeti wouldn't bother using, so your light spells aren't going to do any good, just like light itself. Now you all are going to be slowly strangled."
"There is just one problem with that..." a voice said from behind Zor on the other side of the ring.
"Huh?" Zor spun around, "How did you escape the clutches of death?"
"Because..." began the Cybernetic Ghost, who had spoken up before, "Robots don't die." He then quickly shot out his hedge clipper-like arm, which had tripled in size, using a hidden accordian extender. He grabbed Zor by the sides of his neck and squeezed it. This assault caused the black hands to retract and the voids to close.
"Wow. That robot can actually be pretty amazing at times." Kyle admitted.
"Attack Zor while we've got the chance!" Konan ordered, throwing paper kunai with long paper bombs wrapped around the handles.
"Tear." Ritsuka fired slashes of light energy. Kyle charged up and fired a full Charge Shot, Ichigo sent out energy slashes, Marth shot sharp icicles from the tip of his sword, and Jenna fired her large orbs of lava and ice.
All of these attacks scored a direct hit on Zor. The Cybernetic Ghost released his grip and the Zeti fell through the dark clouds and out of sight.
"Everyone, I wouldn't be surprised if he has another trick in store." Konan warned.
"No shit. He's not going to fool me a second time." Jenna scoffed.
Suddenly, everything turned pitch black and many magenta Zor shadows appeared a bit far from the group, surrounding the isle.
"Man, you all are a pain." Zor said, his voice resonating all around the group. "Just accept the cold embrace of death like I have."
"Well if you're so eager to die, then we can fufill that wish!" Ichigo threatened.
"No, you can't. Because you're about to die as well. I don't know how you haven't noticed it yet."
"Notice what?" Marth asked.
"Noticed WE'RE ALL SINKING IN POISONOUS GOO!" Konan screamed, looking down at her submerged feet.
"Damn, it looks like all of us are stuck in this." Kyle pointed out, and they were sinking fast.
"And even if you get out, you still have to deal with the poison. Its pointless to struggle, just like living, so really, I'm doing you all a favor." Zor said.
OOO
Okay, I could go on and say shit about how its been over a year since I last updated this damn thing, but I'm gonna take the high road and not do that. I don't really blame some of my readers for abandoning ship, though.
Anyway, at first, I didn't want to put the Deadly Six in this story, but after playing Lost World...Wow, let me just say that it was wasted character potential like I've never seen! They have no backstory, no real motives for their actions, and cliche personalities. Not to mention that their fate was very ambiguous and anticlimactic. Hell, we don't even know what the fuck a Zeti even IS! So since its highly unlikely that SEGA will ever bring them back, I decided that I might and well unleash SOME of the potential these guys had!
I realize I forgot their electroic controlling powers after Zavok's scene, and when I remembered, I was finishing up Zeena's scene and I didn't want to go back and rewrite them, so I just let it out. I'll bring it up in their next appearance, though...if I remember. Also, I kind of gave some of them elemental powers...