Guess who's back, baby?! Yeah, I have no excuse for this taking so long; I simply ran out of inspiration. But Fusionfall is back with avengence. I promise the next chapter won't take nearly as long. I even doubled my usual length to compensate. Anyway, enjoy ^_^
Kira hated the smell of fire. Especially when it was mixed with the various smells of burning buildings. The mere smell took her places she didn't want to go. Dark places where the screaming never stopped. It took everything Kira had to block out the bad memories and focus on the site of the destruction. The outer wall now sported a very large hole, as well as a trail of fire and destruction that weaved through the rubble of three buildings and several ruined vehicles. Kira, Jack and Ed stopped at the edge of the carnage to search through the smoke for any threats. And they found one, walking out of the smoke like it was taking a morning stroll. Kira and Ed's blood froze as the figure came closer. Besides its slimy, glowing green skin and right red orbs in place of its eyes, it was the spitting image of Ed. "Fusion Ed," Kira muttered.
"One of the most powerful fusion generals," Jack chimed in, readying his sword.
Fusion Ed chuckled in that condescending way one would chuckle at their dog wagging its tail. "Well well," he said, his voice cool, even, inhuman. "Is this coincidence or providence? Who can say?" he gestured to Ed. "Not just my double-" his hand moved to Kira and Jack. "-but two of his little friends too. Tell me, are the other two eds here with you?"
"Shut up!" Screamed Ed as he launched himself at his fusion counterpart. His drawn back fist bulged and engorged to almost twice its original size. This was Ed's power: transference of body mass. "10 ton fist!" was Ed's battlecry as he brought the fist down on fusion ed's head. Or, he would've, if the fusion general hadn't caught the fist inches away from its impact without budging a centimeter.
"Still as petulant as ever, I see," sneered Fusion Ed as he threw his human double like a ragdoll to the side. Ed bounced along the ground twice before landing on his feet and regaining his composure.
"Why are you here?" asked Kira.
"You bombed and built a facility on my territory, and you expected me to just sit idly by?" Fusion ed asked with a cocked eyebrow (or at least the closest it had to an eyebrow) "Besides, I couldn't resist seeing my favorite people again."
Ed rejoined the other two, still fuming with rage. "Ed," Kira said. "You need to cool your friggin jets. He's just trying to mess with you."
Ed looked to Kira. After a few seconds, he nodded and took a breath to calm himself. "Very impressive," said Fusion Ed, giving Kira a golf clap. "I'm so glad to see my double has found a woman who ISN'T immediately repulsed by his appearance…or his stench, for that matter." Fusion ed then ducked his head out of the way of one of Kira's arrows, which impacted, and exploded, a rock behind him. Fusion Ed retaliated by firing beams of red plasma from his eyes, which the three were just barely able to dodge. "You sly pup, you caught me monologing!" Fusion Ed let out a guffaw of maniacal laughter.
Kira stumbled back to her feet after landing away from the blast zone. Kira was in a cold sweat as she stared down the monster before her. If they ran, he'd just help himself to the fleeing ships. If they stayed, they'd probably die.
A part of her wanted to run, but another part of her spoke up. This guy is one of the highest fusion generals there are, said the voice. Taking him out would monkey wrench Fuse's plans like nothing else! Kira smirked and stood up. The answer was obvious. "Ed! Jack!" she cried out, getting the two's attention. Kira pointed at the fusion double of her best friend and growled. "Take him!"
Kira drew her sniper rifle, while Ed and Jack charged Fusion Ed. Jack drew his sword while Ed increased the mass on his fists. Fusion Ed effortlessly dodged the slashes and punches from his two opponents, failing to notice his third opponent drawing a bead on him. "Eat it, goop head," Kira growled as she pulled the trigger. The rifle screeched as blue energy erupted from the barrel, traveling at light speeds to fusion Ed's head. Fusion Ed had no time to react, the spear of plasma thrice as hot as napalm cleaved through his gooey head and continued off into the distance.
The body of the fusion general stood still for a second before falling on its back. Kira walked up to the prone body, keeping her gun trained on the fusion general. "Just need another shot…" She said, lining up a point blank shot at the fusion. However, before she could fire, Ed picked her up bridal style and took off as fast as he could in the other direction, Jack close behind. "Ed! What the hell are you doing?!" she yelled, trying to force herself out of Ed's arms.
"I'm saving your life!" Ed replied.
"But we had him! We could've finally taken down one of the fusion generals!"
"Trust me Kira," said Jack. "At worst, you just made him angry. We need to regroup with Trevelyan and the others, provided the evac ship haven't been shot down yet."
Kira growled, still struggling to be let out of Ed's grasp. "If I just had one more shot, we could've turned this whole war around!"
Ed resorted to using his powers to keep her restrained in his arms. "Kira, calm down and think!" he said, internally reeling from the fact that he was the one begging for reason.
"Don't you…you…"Kira stiffened like a board as she looked up into the sky. Ed and Jack turned their heads to see Fusion Ed floating in the sky above them.
"Well that wasn't very nice, my dear," he said, flashing a twisted smirk.
Ed and Jack picked up their pace, Ed adding mass to his legs to give himself more push, while Jack drew from his inner reserves to push himself to his limit. But it wasn't enough, as Fusion Ed effortlessly kept up with them in the sky.
"You disappoint me, double," he said, holding his right hand above his head. A bright green orb of energy gathered in his open palm. The orb grew in size for several seconds, until the orb, surging with green electricity, was ten times its creator's size. "But then, that was never in doubt." Fusion Ed threw down the blast straight at the three. While the orb didn't hit the three directly, its impact shook the ground apart. Geysers of fusion matter sprung up around them as they outran the crumbling earth right behind them. Their luck ran out, however, when the orb finally exploded.
Ed curled up into a fetal position, protecting Kira from the worst of the blast that sent the three hurtling down into a pit of crumbling earth. Before Ed lost consciousness, he got one look at their fate; a pool of fusion matter at the bottom of the ravine.
As Jack fell alongside his companions, he decided that now was as good a time as any. I just need 30 seconds, he thought to himself as he pushed his body to its furthest limit. As his body bulked up, his chest throbbed from the strain on his heart. Jack ignored the pain and steered his fall to a stone that was falling next to him. Placing his feet on the stone, he focused on his two objectives: his friends, and a cave in the side of the ravine. Putting everything he had into his feet, he launched off of the rock, grabbed Ed and Kira, and flew into the cave right as the tremors caused the entrance to collapse behind them.
Meanwhile…
Fusion Ed looked down from his perch in the sky at the mile long crater that came from his blast. The fusion chastised himself internally for being so reckless. An entire acre of fusion matter evaporated. "I doubt this will go over well with-"
"No, no it will not," a voice from behind finished for him. Fusion Ed turned around to see a large green eye with tentacle floating in front of him.
Fusion Ed immediately bowed before the eye. "Master Fuse!" he said.
"There had best be a good explanation for why you reduced an entire acre of fusion matter to ash and rubble," said the eye. The voice coming from the creature was not its own, for such a small, lowly creature couldn't hope to produce such a voice of its own accord. This creature was known as a Fusion Emissary. Their sole purpose was to give Lord Fuse a means of interacting with his minions from Planet Fusion.
"The humans were searching for something," said Fusion Ed. "My…double, was among them. I became overzealous in destroying him, my lord."
"I see," said Fuse. "And you are certain he is dead?"
"I am certain he is at least wounded," said Fusion Ed. "Sadly my double is notoriously stubborn."
"Leave nothing to chance," Fuse ordered. "Have your fusions patrol the crater and look for any caves that he may have fled to."
"At once, my lord," Fusion Ed replied.
"And when you find him, please, do not reduce the entire darklands to waste simply to sate your own primal rage." With that, the Fusion Emissary took to the sky and flew off into the horizon.
Fusion Ed watched the retreating emissary with a snarl on his lips. "As you command…master."
Meanwhile…
Kira awoke with a sharp gasp, shooting upwards. Ed caught her before she made too many sudden movements. "Easy there," he said, holding her by the shoulders.
Kira turned to Ed. "Ed?" she asked, out of breath. "Where-where are we?"
"A cave," Ed replied with a shrug.
Kira's face went deadpan. "Very specific," she said. Kira, with Ed's help, got to her feet. "Where's Jack?"
"Present," said Jack from behind the two. Kira and Ed turned to see Jack leaning against a stalagmite, gripping his chest.
"Jack," Kira said, summoning strength enough to walk over to the samurai. "Are you okay?"
Jack let out a breathless chuckle. "Let's just say I'm nowhere near as young as I used to be." Jack extended his foot to take a step, but ended up stumbling. Ed caught the old man before he hit the ground.
"We need to get out of here and find you a doctor," said Ed.
"And what makes you think we'll get very far out there?" asked Kira. "You stopped me from finishing off Fusion Ed. He probably knows we're not dead and will have search parties come looking for us."
"Kira, you must believe us," said Jack. "If we thought you really could defeat Fusion Ed as you are now, we would have let you."
"I had him dead to rights," Kira growled.
"No matter how many times you shot him, we remain in the darklands. Fusion Ed has an unlimited supply of fusion matter here. There is no wound he wouldn't heal from."
Kira growled and turned away from her friends, crossing her arms. She couldn't help but loosen when Ed's hand landed on her shoulder as gently as he could. "Kira," he said. "You think it was him, don't you?"
Kira went from crossing her arms to holding her upper arms in her hands. "I…I don't know, okay? It could've been him, there's no proof to say he didn't."
"What are you talking about?" asked Jack.
Kira perked up when she remembered the third member of this conversation. She turned to Jack, mouth opened to explain, when another tremor shook the cave. The force of the shaking was enough to send the three to the ground.
"The entire thing must be collapsing in on itself!" Jack yelled over the sound of the quake.
"We have to get out of here!" Ed said.
Kira looked around for any kind of exit. Then, more rumbling, closer to where she was. Kira looked behind to see another cave caused by the quakes. "There!" she yelled. The three ran as fast as they could through the exit.
Only for their feet to land on nothing.
All three looked down at the yawning pit of blackness beneath them with eyes the size of dinner plates. "Well, we all saw that coming," Kira said with a shrug. Ed and Jack nodded in agreement. Then, as cartoon law dictates, the three fell. Luckily, there were some nice soft rocky slopes to slow their descent into the cavern.
Ed landed first, then Kira on top of him, then Jack on top of them. Jack immediately rolled off and stumbled to his feet, clutching his throbbing head.
"Worst. Treasure hunt. Ever…" Kira said, her voice being muffled by Ed's shirt. Kira looked up, her exasperated gaze meeting Ed's wide eyes and blushing face. Kira then looked back down, seeing their current position. Her face went slightly red, but she was far too tired to be embarrassed, so she simply rolled off of Ed's chest and breathed out a "Sorry".
"S'okay," said Ed, who stood up and offered Kira his hand to help her to her feet. Kira took the hand and got to her feet.
"Getting really tired of this cave," she grumbled, clutching her throbbing head. When Ed refused to respond, she looked up at her friend. Ed was silent and staring past her in silent awe. Kira turned to Jack to find him in much the same way. Kira finally turned to see what they were looking at, and joined them in their slack jawed veneration.
Standing before them, a mere half mile away, in the middle of the gigantic cavern, was a great metal pyramid. Four stories tall, the tip halfway to the ceiling of the cave, and covered in dust and dirt, yet it appeared no worse for wear.
Kira was the first to break her trance with words. "I think we found it," she said. "This must be it…The Orion's Hammer."