Chapter 7: The Battle of Foster's.
A cloud of gloom hangs over Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, dark gray masses threatening to spill water as if poised to cry over the fate of the innocent. In the distance, the echoing noise of the Walker's titanic legs smashing into the Earth beat like massive war drums, as if to summon Death himself to take away the enemies of their child tyrant, whose voice also echoes across the gray sign.
"Live, obey, fight!"
"Long live super awesome King Cartman!"
"They ask for mercy, and we shall give them fire!"
The drumming and propaganda slowly got closer and closer, until the Walkers could be seen on the horizon. Suddenly, the first barrage went flying! As part of their upgrades, the textbook canons had been replaced with high powered lasers.
The KND have tricks of their own, however, as an energy barrier rises to protect the Foster Home turned fortress. Undaunted, Cartman orders his forces to advance, as scanners indicate that the shield only stops energy, and his troops should be able pass through unabated.
As soon as the Cartmanbots passed through the protective barrier, they were greeted with a withering barrage of fire. Automatic weapons were posted at almost every window, reducing warbots to scrap. For everyone they destroyed, however, two more took its place.
Eventually, sheer numbers overwhelmed the defenses, and the Cartmanbots breached the door, behind which another trap waited. The bomb could only hold them back for so long, and soon, the Cartmanbots were in the house.
Elsewhere, Frankie was ushering friends through a hole hidden behind a painting of Madame Foster. "OK, grandma's out, just gotta go back for Mister Harriman." she states while heading away.
Back in the main hall, KND troopers, lead by Numbah 60, were holding the Cartmanbots back with all their firepower. Suddenly, Numbah 60 hears a report over his comm. "Just a little bit longer. Evacuation is almost complete! Hold out just a little bit longer!" he orders while firing a mustard blast onto a robot's eyestalk, causing to to crash into two other robots and explode.
Elsewhere, a grappling hook smashes through a window and hooks onto a bunk bed. Up the line climbs Eddy, Heinreich, and several uniformed children climb through.
"Alright boys, there's gotta be plenty of loot in this joint!" Eddy muses greedily. It is then that he notices a giant green egg laying in the corner. "Jackpot! Easter came early this ye..." his speech is abruptly cut off when he pops open the egg, only to find a lit cartoon bomb inside. "What a rip..." is all he manages to say before being blown out the window.
Frankie enters Mister Harriman's office to find him sitting calmly at his desk, filling out papers. "Mister Harriman, it's time for you to evacuate..."
"Miss Francis, I have been the administrator of this house since your Grandmother founded it, and I will remain its administrator until it is closed!" The Imaginary rabbit cut her off saying. "Now I insist you evacuate with the others while I finish my paperwork!"
Interpreting this as a sign he indented to evacuate last, Frankie left the room to help the others.
In the main hall, Numbah 60 hears another message over his radio. "Alright men, time to fall back!" he yelled while blasting another robot with a M.U.S.K.E.T. "Give us some cover!"
Hearing the order, another operative heaves a rocket launcher onto his shoulder and fires into the center of the enemy formation. The fire and smoke this creates give the operative time to retreat.
Elsewhere, a grappling hook smashes through another window, and Eddy and his group climb through. This time, they get several feat before a freaked out Eduardo, bits and pieces of scrap metal stuck in his fur. The rampaging friend knocks them clear through the wall.
Meanwhile, Numbah 60 and his squad marched down a hallway, heading for the evacuation tunnels. Suddenly, they find themselves across the hall from a Cartmanbot. Their training taking over, the KND operatives aimed their weapons and fired, but only recived hollow clicking noises. Everyone was out of ammo.
"Take the long way. I'll handle this." Numbah 60 orders grimly while casting aside his weapon and removing a pair of ice axes from his backpack. His solider scurry around the corner as the robot begins firing. Patton flips out of the way, sinking an ax into the wall, spinning on it, sticking his other ax into the wall above him, and repeating to climb to the ceiling, before jumping to a light, a single ax in hand. Patton then jumps onto the head of the Cartmanbot, hopping down behind it before sinking the ax into the cold metal, then heaving it out to tear away a chunk of metal and electronics.
The robot abruptly whirls around, hitting Patton in the head with its grasping arm, knocking him to the ground and the ice ax from his hand. The war machine loomed over him, ready to strike...
Back in Mister Harriman's office, a grappling hook breaks through the third window today. With great difficulty, Eddy pulls himself up. "OK gang, third times the..." he suddenly stops when he sees Harrimen standing over him.
"Get out of my office!" The rabbit exclaims in a cross tone, before knocking Eddy across the head, causing him to fall from the ledge, taking the grappling hook and his teammates down with him.
Harriman adjusts his waistcoat and returns to his desk, all while muttering, "Ruffians. It will take take at least a week to fix that," and resumes his paperwork.
The Cartmanbot looms overhead, ready to fire, when it suddenly sizzles and sparks with electricity before shutting down. Numbah 60 gets up and looks behind the junked robot, and sees Mac standing behind it, holding a pop gun with two blue lightning bolts running down the side. "Are you okay?" The imaginative boy asks.
Patton leaps to his feet with a smile on his face. "Never better, solider! No let's get outta here before this whole place goes to heck!" After several minutes of running, they finally reach the escape tunnel. A few KND soliders, Frankie and Mister Harriman stood by the tunnel. "Alright, that's everyone. Let's go!" Frankie spoke as the two boys joined their compatriets in the tunnel.
"You first, miss Francis." Harriman insisted. Frankie complied. As soon as she was through, Harriman quickly placed the portrait back over the secret tunel. "Give my apologies to Madame Foster," he requests sadly while hopping away. Shocked screams and pounding could be heard from behind behind the portait, but it did no budge.
Outside, Cartman stands on the Bridge of the lead Bus Walker, smirking triumphantly. Victory is at hand, when suddenly the sound of static cuts through the gloom, the home's PA system activating one last time. Rain has begun pouring down. Then, the final address of Mister Harriman begins.
"It is with great saddness that I announce my resignation as administrator of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends," he began, a type of passion entering his voice that few of the home's residents had ever heard. Not anger, but instead... defiance.
"Although I have proudly served as the sole voice of reason in this home since its conception," he continued with a twinge of dry sarcasam, "I find it neccasary to abdicate from my position, as the action I am soon to commit would be most unbecoming of the chief administrator."
"I would like to thank Madame Foster, Madame Frankie, and Master Mac for all their service to the House and its occupants, and would like to request that Master Blooreguard keep himself out of trouble." His next words were spoken with a fiery passion. "And to the one who has dared to oppress these innocents, to drive them from their homes and deprive them of their freedoms, know that you will never have another moments peace! Nothing unifies people more then an unrepentent monster such as you. The ghosts of the innocent whose blood stains your hands will haunt you until you dying day! You will be fought in the air, and you will be fought in the sea. You will be fought on the beaches, fought in the hills, in the fields, in the streets! We will never surrender, because we posses that which you can never steal from us or break, madman, and that is our spirit!" The fire and passion then leave his voice, replaced with steel determination. "And I for one am content to make my contribution to that fight."
He presses the button. "Goodbye Madame Foster."
All is silent for a second. Only a second. Then, pillars of fire erupt from the windows as a thunderous boom tears through the sky and the earth shakes. The hundreds of Cartmanbots that had flooded into the building were instantly destroyed. Shards of shrpanel tear through the sky, badly damaging Bus Walkers. Then, less then a minute after it had begun, the explosions stop and the shockwaves end. The fires are quickly extingushed by the weeping sky.
All that is heard is the quiet tapping of the rain.
(KND symbol)
Meanwhile, on the Moonbase, two shapers of the future awaken from their slumber.
Dib in the medical wing, Nergal Jr. in an interrigation room. One resting on a cot, the other tied to a chair.
Doctors and nurses rush to Dib's side, as a pair of interrigators slowly walk towards Jr.
"Ugh... where am I?" they ask simultaniously.
"In the Moonbase hospital." a doctor answears. "Can you tell us what happened? We found you passed out in a alley."
"In a whole heap of trouble." the interrigator replies. "We found you laying near some shattered Rainbow Monkey... thing. Why don't you tell us why'd you do it?"
"I have such a headache... wait, I remember! I had Zim cornered, when Numbah Infinity came along! He must have tried to erase my memory, but thankfully, my glasses are built to block such mindwipes." Dib explained, while retriving the glasses from a nearby stand.
"All I remember are... images. And a pounding headache." Nergal Jr. spoke. "I felt something... inside me, clawing at my insides, burning like fire. There were... images. The Rainbow Rod, a house full of bizzare creatures, a city under the ocean. But it didn't make sense!"
"Thankfully, I planted a tracker on his shoe before I passed out. I can still catch him!" Dib exclaimed. The doctors looked at eachother, uncertain the boy had fully recovered.
"And then, there were these piercing firery green eyes! They stared into my... my... AGGGHHH!" With an angiushed cry, Nergal Jr. suddenly became unresponsive, falling into a coma like state.
While all this drama unfolded in the skies, suspense loomed on the high seas.
"Lord Mandark." a robot sailor reported, "We have located the enemy. As your great intellect predicted, they are currently harbored in Bikini Atoll."
Mandark's only response was maniacal laughter.
A/N: Man, things are starting to get tense! In case you didn't catch it, I based Harriman's last address on a famous speech by Winston Churchill. Seeing as they're both British, it made sense considering who they are fighting.
Just in case it wasn't clear, Nergal Jr. was under demonic possesion/influence of whatever is behind the Time Lock, which is gaining more power over the regular world. I feel I've dropped enough hints for you to figure a good chunk of it out by now. Feel free to comment on any ideas!
And don't worry, the cast will diversify in the next couple chapters. We still have two big battles to go, and people will be coming out of the wood works to fight in them.
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