Chapter 18: The Final Showdown
The Sugar Rush racers, Cinndon, Candace, Toxika, Big Hero 6, the Nicktoons, Dani, Wanda, Cosmo, Rosalina, Charlie, and Juliet headed into the warehouse, and they fell into step behind Vanellope.
"So what are you thinking, Vanellope?" Wasabi asked.
"Nothing really. We just need to find Akari and the Syndicate. There's five of them, and thirty three of us." Vanellope replied.
"Yeah, but they don't have to have smaller numbers then us to do very little damage." GoGo reminded them bitterly.
"True enough." Vanellope admitted dispassionately. She then said "But we've gotten into worst situations in the past. We'll be fine.".
"So no plan for when we fight them, then?" Wasabi asked as they moved through the musty darkness.
"None whatsoever. We'll just have to see what exactly we're dealing with." Vanellope replied with a sad smile.
"Well, hopefully, we'll live to see another day." Sticky said.
"But that's if there is going to be another day for us after today." Tak added.
Meanwhile, in the main section of the warehouse, Akari, Calamitous, Crocker, Plankton, Vlad, and the still brainwashed Neptune and Amphitrite were standing in front of the Doomsday Machine, which was now complete.
"At last! We can go through with our plan! Prepare yourselves, gentlemen!" Akari announced.
Calamitous, Crocker, Plankton, and Vlad grinned menacingly, while Neptune and Amphitrite remained motionless. Akari approached the Doomsday Machine and attempted to start the timer that would activate it. But before she could press the activation button, a voice spoke up.
"Don't do it, Akari!" the new voice ordered.
Alari, Calamitous, Crocker, Plankton, Vlad, Neptune, and Amphitrite turned around just in time to see the Sugar Rush racers, Cinndon, Candace, Toxika, Big Hero 6, the Nicktoons, Dani, Wanda, Cosmo, Rosalina, Charlie, and Juliet appear in the room.
"Why do you keep trying when you know it's over?" Hiro asked.
Akari let out a long and bitter laugh, not looking at them as she spoke.
"Because this is all I have left. You wouldn't understand." Akari replied.
"You can't do this, Akari. This is wrong, and you know it." Candi said.
Akari scowled and growled angrily.
"I've had enough with all of you trying to order me around. You will not interfere any longer." Akari snarled. She then turned to Calamitous, Crocker, Plankton, and Vlad, and ordered "Evil Syndicate... destroy them.".
Calamitous, Crocker, Plankton, and Vlad grinned and charged at the Sugar Rush racers, Cinndon, Candace, Toxika, Big Hero 6, the Nicktoons, Dani, Wanda, Cosmo, Rosalina, but Charlie and Juliet stayed to the side, since they couldn't really help with the fight, and Wanda and Cosmo disappeared in a poof so they could help Timmy. As the Syndicate charged, Neptune and Amphitrite tried to attack as well, but Akari held up a hand.
"Wait a minute, you two. You stay here with me, and I'll send you out only if I have to." Akari said.
Neptune and Amphitrite just nodded, and they stepped back. Meanwhile, the Syndicate attacked the Sugar Rush racers, Cinndon, Candace, Toxika, Big Hero 6, the Nicktoons, Dani, and Rosalina.
Vlad faced Swizzle, Citrusella, Toxika, Danny, and Fred. Vlad charged up ectorays and shot beams at the five of them. Quickly, Danny created a shield to protect them, and the ecto rays deflected off of the shield. Fred them super jumped and breathed fire at Vlad, but Vlad created a mirror shield that deflected the fire. Vlad then concentrated his ecto energy within his fist and used an energy strike on Fred, which sent him flying across the room and crashing into a wall. Danny then flew at Vlad, but Vlad teleported in a cloud of green mist, reappeared behind Danny, grabbed him by his back, and threw him to the ground before blasting him with a ghost ray. Swizzle shot an energy blast at Vlad, but Vlad teleported in a cloud of pink mist. Swizzle looked around in confusion, but as he turned around, Vlad reappeared and used his Form Duplication ability to create four duplicates of himself. Before Swizzle could react, the Vlad duplicates blasted him with multiple ghost rays, sending him crashing into a wall, and then the Vlad duplicates disappeared, revealing the real Vlad. Toxika then sent roots and vines that wrapped around Vlad's body and started squeezing him. Vlad grunted and teleported out of the roots and vines, reappeared behind Toxika, and before she could turn around and attack him again, he released a ghost tornado that picked up Toxika and sent her flying into the ceiling before she fell to the ground. Vlad then faced Citrusella and tried to use a Ghost Stinger on her. However, because Citrusella had electrical abilities, the Ghost Stinger didn't affect her. Vlad gasped.
"What?" Vlad asked in shock.
Citrusella smirked.
"You made a big mistake, Plasmius. I have electricity powers, so I just absorbed the Ghost Stinger." Citrusella replied.
Citrusella then shot an electric blast from her palm that shocked Vlad and knocked him unconscious. Citrusella grinned and went to tend to Swizzle, Toxika, Danny, and Fred.
Meanwhile, Plankton faced Jubileena, Minty, Baymax, Honey Lemon, and SpongeBob. Plankton transformed into his Plank-Ton form and charged at the five of them. SpongeBob quickly transformed into Invincibubble and tried to attack him, but Plankton grabbed him and threw him away. Jubileena generated two cherry bombs and threw them at Plankton, but Plankton jumped out of the way and kicked Jubileena into a wall. Honey Lemon trapped Plankton to the ground with a chem-ball, but Plankton easily broke out and swatted Honey Lemon away. Baymax launched a rocket fist at Plankton, but Plankton simply grabbed it with his bare hands and threw it back at Baymax, who got knocked back. Plankton then stomped over to Minty and tried to punch her, but Minty grabbed his fist and effortlessly tossed him over her shoulder and onto the ground. She then slammed him around before throwing him into a wall.
Crocker faced Taffyta, Timmy, Dani, and Wasabi. He shot magic blasts from his war suit, but Dani created a shield that blocked the magic blasts. Wasabi then charged at Crocker, who kept firing magic blasts at him, but he used his plasma blades to slice them. He reached Crocker and sliced the arms off of the suit before kicking Crocker to the ground.
And Calamitous faced the rest of the heroes while he controlled the Calamibot. Calamitous immediately tried to attack Jimmy, but he was distracted when GoGo threw one of her maglev discs at his head. Calamitous went after her, and GoGo skated away from him. She led him around the room before throwing another mag-lev at his head. Calamitous became angry, pointed one of his wrist mounted flamethrowers in her direction, and fired a blast of fire. GoGo gasped and dived out of the way before she could get burned. Calamitous attempted to fire another blast of fire at GoGo, but before he could, Sticky trapped the legs of the Calamibot in marshmallow goo. Candlehead then hardened the marshmallow goo with a torrent of fire. Tak then jumped up to the head of the Calamibot and attempted to hit it with his staff, but before he could, Calamitous had the Calamibot raise it's hands into the air and activate it's Electrified Glove Units. Tak noticed that but couldn't stop himself, and he ended up getting electrocuted. Calamitous then grabbed Tak and threw him away, and then he used the flamethrowers to burn through the marshmallow trap before facing everyone again.
"You cannot defeat Akari and the Syndicate! We are too powerful!" Calamitous boasted.
Nougetsia frowned.
"We'll see about that." Nougetsia said.
Nougetsia then fired a blast of ice that started to freeze the Calamibot. Calamitous gasped.
"NO!" Calamitous yelled.
The Calamibot froze completely, along with Calamitous.
Everyone regrouped, and they turned to face Akari. Akari groaned and turned to face Neptune and Amphitrite.
"Neptune, Amphitrite, destroy them!" Akari ordered.
Neptune and Amphitrite nodded and had their tridents glow with energy. Snowanna gasped and took out her guitar, and before Neptune and Amphitrite could attack them, Snowanna released two sound waves that shot at Neptune and Amphitire. They were thrown back into a wall, and in the process, their bucket helmets broke apart.
"No!" Akari yelled.
Neptune and Amphitrite gasped upon realizing that they were free.
"We're free!" Neptune said. He then turned to the Sugar Rush racers, Cinndon, Candace, Toxika, Big Hero 6, the Nicktoons, Dani, Wanda, Cosmo, and Rosalina and said "Thank you, everyone.".
Rosalina smiled.
"No problem, Neptune." Rosalina said.
SpongeBob nodded.
"Yeah, but you and Amphitrite should probably head back to Bikini Bottom while we finish up here." SpongeBob said.
Neptune and Amphitrite nodded, and Neptune created a portal to Bikini Bottom with his trident. He and Amphitrite then said goodbye to everyone and went through the portal before it disappeared. Once they were gone, the Sugar Rush racers, Cinndon, Candace, Toxika, Big Hero 6, the Nicktoons, Dani, Wanda, Cosmo, and Rosalina turned to Akari. Akari groaned angrily and had her mask return.
"Must I really do everything myself?" Akari asked angrily.
Hiro sighed and tried to reason with his sister.
"Look, I'm sorry about what happened to you, Akari. I really am. But none of this will make anything better. Please... just let it go." Hiro pleaded.
Akari sighed heavily and approached the Doomsday Machine.
"I've come to far for my plans to come to ruin. I won't let you brats stand in my way." Akari said harshly.
Akari turned her head and glared at everyone. And without looking back at the Doomsday Machine, Akari slammed the activation button that would activate the Doomsday Machine. A timer started, and it started counting down from 5:00.
"This ends now!" Akari snarled.
Akari then summoned the microbots and shot a microbot stream at everyone. They dove out of the way and split up to attack Akari.
GoGo came at Akari to attack, and Akari immediately took several strategic jabs at places that she knew GoGo was injured from the previous fights. GoGo went down easily, but not before delivering a jab of her own to Akari's shoulder. Akari snarled in pain, but she was satisfied when GoGo did not rise.
Hiro gasped upon seeing GoGo go down and he turned to Baymax.
"Baymax, go help GoGo." Hiro ordered.
Baymax nodded and began to go help GoGo. Meanwhile, SpongeBob attempted to use a spin attack against Akari, but she shot a plasma ball from her gauntlet before he could hit her, and SpongeBob flew back and crashed into a wall. Meanwhile, the Doomsday Machine's timer reached 4:00.
Wasabi activated his plasma blades and ran towards Akari. Akari put her arms in front of her face as Wasabi swung at her with his blades. They didn't cut through.
"What? How did..." Wasabi started to ask.
Akari frowned underneath her mask.
"Really, Wasabi? You thought your plasma could cut through anything? What do you think the gauntlets holding them in place are made of? I just coated mine in the same material." Akari asked.
Akari grabbed Wasabi's arm and sound blasted him across the room. She then looked up and saw Danny and Dani flying down at her. The two of them shot ectoblasts at her, but Akari disappeared in a puff of black smoke. Danny and Dani looked around for Akari, but as they did, Akari reappeared on top of a catwalk and then jumped off and tackled Danny. Danny fell to the ground, but Akari had the microbots catch her before she could fall. Dani gasped and flew at Akari, firing two ghost ray disks as she did. However, Akari just sound blasted one of the ghost ray disks and then used the microbots to grab the other and throw it back at Dani, knocking her out of the air.
Snowanna shot sound waves at Akari, but Akari used sound blasts to protect herself. Akari then shot a sound blast that shattered another sound wave that Snowanna sent out, and the sound blast hit Snowanna and threw her across the room.
Toxika sent out roots and vines that wrapped around Akari, and she had spikes appear on the roots and vines, which cut Akari's skin in the process. Akari grunted in pain and teleported out of the roots and vines, and she reappeared behind Toxika. Before Toxika could attack her again, Akari formed a microbot cage around her. Meanwhile, the Doomsday Machine's timer reached 3:00.
Honey Lemon generated three acid chem-balls, which she used only in emergencies, and threw them at Akari. Akari gasped and had the microbots form a shield around her. The acid chem-balls made contact with the microbots and a few of them burned off, but Akari still had plenty to injure everyone and protect herself. Meanwhile, Toxika used a root to smash a hole through the microbot cage and then ran out.
Minty charged at Akari and punched her in the chest, and Akari was thrown into a wall before she fell to the ground. She got up and had the microbots grab Minty and restrain her. However, Minty easily broke out of the microbots grip, and Akari was surprised because she had never seen anyone who was capable of breaking out of the microbots with just their bare hands.
"Well, now I know not to use the microbots against her anymore." Akari thought.
Minty charged at Akari again. But before she could reach Akari, Minty was thrown back by a sound blast that Akari shot. Meanwhile, the Doomsday Machine's timer reached 2:00.
SpongeBob got up and noticed the Doomsday Machine's timer. He gasped and tried to run over to it, but Akari got in his way while on top of the microbots. Akari glared at SpongeBob and shot a microbot stream at him, but before SpongeBob got hit, Candace jumped in his way and shot a torrent of fire that burned the microbot stream. Candace then pushed SpongeBob away and turned to face Akari. With Akari distracted by Candace, SpongeBob was able to make it to the Doomsday Machine, and Gloyd and Adorabeezle joined him. SpongeBob remembered what happened when he, Jimmy, Timmy, and Danny had fought the Syndicate during Nicktoons Unite, and he turned to Gloyd and Adorabeezle.
"We got to find a power plug that will deactivate the Doomsday Machine before it reaches zero! Search it!" SpongeBob ordered.
Gloyd and Adorabeezle nodded, and the three of them quickly began searching everywhere on the Doomsday Machine for something that could prove to be useful. However, another minute passed and the Doomsday Machine's timer reached 1:00.
"Come on! We're losing time, and fast!" SpongeBob urged.
Gloyd shrugged, having searched the entire Doomsday Machine for a power plug with no success, and Adorabeezle looked downcast. SpongeBob realized that the Syndicate had finally learned from it's mistakes. But before the three of them could do anything else, Akari finally managed to trap Candace to the wall with the microbots restraining her, and she turned her attention to Gloyd, Adorabeezle, and SpongeBob. She grabbed them with three microbot streams before they could attack her and dragged them over to her before throwing them over her body and into a wall. However, after Akari dragged Gloyd, Adorabeezle, and SpongeBob away, Candlehead peered out from behind the Doomsday Machine before looking at it. If they couldn't disable it, then she would herself. She quickly managed to find the hidden power plug that Moon and Akari had installed and tried reaching for it. However, as her hand reached out for it, there was a surge, and Candlehead felt her hand getting shocked, and the pixels in her arm glitched blue for a few seconds before returning to normal. Candlehead hissed at the pain in her arm, grabbing it with her other hand. She looked back at the power plug and noticed that the power plug was sparking with electricity.
"Oh, if only Citrusella was here." Candlehead thought.
She then looked back at the timer and saw that it was at 0:10. She scowled and turned back to the power plug.
"But there's not enough time for her to disable this. I'll just have to do it myself." Candlehead thought.
Candlehead then shot a fireball at the power plug as the timer reached 0:05. The fireball made contact with the power plug, and the power plug fried and started sparking hysterically. And right as the timer reached 0:01, the power plug exploded and the timer turned off.
Meanwhile, Akari was fighting Citrusella. Citrusella fired electric blasts at Akari, but Akari teleported out of the way each time. After doing that for five times, Akari used the microbots to strike Citrusella in her leg. Citrusella screamed and fell to the floor, and Akari grinned menacingly underneath her mask.
"I've got you now." Akari sneered.
Akari then formed a microbot spike and sent it at Citrusella. Citrusella tried to get up, but then she saw the microbot spike approaching her and she realized that she couldn't escape in time. She heard Jubileena screaming her name, but Jubileena couldn't do anything because she was trapped in a microbot sphere that the cherry bombs were useless against. However, just as Citrusella was about to get stabbed by the microbot spear, the Doomsday Machine exploded. Akari gasped and turned around in shock.
"What?" Akari asked.
With her distracted, Swizzle smirked and quickly flew up, giving Akari a hard punch that knocked her into a wall. Swizzle then fired an energy blast that freed Jubileena, and then the two of them went to help Citrusella.
Akari weakly got up, and just as she did, Wasabi ran at her again. Akari knew that Wasabi's plasma blades could decimate any weapon that she could bring against him (except the gauntlet), so she led him in a circle around the room, keeping him distracted with small streams of microbots.
"I don't want to hurt you, Akari. Don't make me." Wasabi warned.
Akari saw the opportunity that she was looking for. She leaped and flipped over Wasabi's head, and before he realized what had happened, Akari spun around and shot a small plasma ball into the housing on Wasabi's left arm, instantly shorting out the plasma blade. In nearly the same motion, Akari shot a big plasma ball across Wasabi's side, sending him to his knees with a cry of pain. It didn't take much for her to destroy the other plasma housing.
With the plasma blades neutralized, Akari easily pinned Wasabi to the wall with a swarm of microbots. The others tried to help Wasabi, but Akari quickly formed a microbot wall between her and Wasabi, and the others.
"Get out of this if you can." Akari challenged.
"Akari, stop!" Hiro suddenly ordered.
Akari turned around and saw Hiro standing on top of a pile of twisted metal.
"Leave them alone. I'm the one you want." Hiro ordered.
"Hiro, no! Don't..." Wasabi started to order.
However, Wasabi was soon interrupted when the microbots covered his mouth.
"It's okay, Wasabi. It's okay." Hiro said, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Akari.
Akari began to circle Hiro, and Hiro watched her as she moved. And without breaking that contact, Hiro slowly removed his helmet, letting it drop to the floor.
"Your making this too easy, Hiro." Akari warned.
Hiro frowned.
"We'll see about that." Hiro said.
Without further ado, Akari sprang at her target, forming a microbot spear and ready to run him through. Hiro was ready for her, though. Whenever Akari moved to take a stab at him with the microbots or tried to use her gauntlet, Hiro moved out of the way.
"Coward! Fight back!" Akari snarled after several minutes of that.
"I'm not going to fight you, Akari. Your my younger sister." Hiro said calmly.
"Then that's your mistake! I will kill you!" Akari snarled.
"I'm pretty sure you will." Hiro said, still strangely calm.
Akari shot a plasma ball at Hiro, but Hiro suddenly leaped clear and then rolled away, climbing to his feet several yards away.
"In fact, I'm afraid that might be the only way to bring you to your senses." Hiro said.
"Then your even crazier then I am." Akari shouted, turning wildly about in order to get her sights on her older brother.
"Akari... if it's what you want... go ahead and run me through. I won't run. I won't try to stop you." Hiro invited, his arms held in an open gesture.
Hiro had a theory. If Akari was still a good person and if there was still a small speck of sibling love somewhere in her heart, then maybe... just maybe... there was a way to show Akari that what she was doing was wrong.
For a moment, Akari just stood staring at her intended target, prepared to strike whenever she made the move to do so. But then that moment devolved into minutes, and Hiro wondered what she was going to do.
"Akari?" Hiro asked in confusion.
Akari glared at Hiro.
"Don't look at me like that." Akari snapped.
Akari then had the microbots form into a microbot spear and shot it at Hiro. A moment was all it took. Hiro didn't scream. Instead, he only gasped quietly. He didn't exactly feel pain as the cold metal pierced him. In fact, he felt a strange sort of detachment as the microbots slid through his body. Upon piercing his suit, the tiny robots first punctured his skin and then passed through the layers of fat and muscle beneath that before exiting out his back, completely impaling him. He didn't know how long he just stared at the microbots that protruded from his body before slowly following it up to the face of it's owner.
"A-Akari." Hiro whispered, trying to reach up to touch his sister's masked face but unable to bring his hand more then halfway up.
At first, Akari was happy and relieved because she finally was getting rid of Hiro, the biggest threat to her master plan. But then she saw Hiro's face, wincing slightly in pain, before an easy smile spread across his face. Only when Hiro couldn't raise his hand did Akari look down and see the microbots that had impaled him... the microbots that she was still controlling. As she looked, something awoke inside of Akari. When she made eye contact with her brother and looked into those bright brown irises, she began to feel again for the first time since she had gotten released from the Hall of the Scrapped. She realized that what she was doing was wrong and that there was no need in trying to get rid of Hiro and everyone else.
"Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh! Oh, gosh!" Akari cried out.
Akari then attempted to remove the microbots from Hiro's body. But before she could, a voice spoke.
"DON'T PULL THE MICROBOTS OUT!" the voice ordered.
Too shocked to do much more then stand there, Akari didn't see Swizzle, Baymax, and Dani making their way across the room. She just saw blood seeping out around the microbots, slowly staining the floor red.
"Akari, it's all right." Hiro whispered, resting his gloved hand on Akari's hand.
Akari got a pained expression on her face and had her mask separate and retract into her trench coat.
"NOOOO!" Akari shrieked in horror as she tore the microbots from Hiro's body.
Akari started screaming, and she screamed until her throat was raw and she had no voice. As she did, she was barely aware of Dani lowering Hiro to the ground. Akari slowly collapsed to her knees and then had the microbots raise above her head. She wasn't going to suffer what was called life one moment longer. However, as her gaze traveled along the length of the weapon that had been used to kill so many, another hand wrapped around her's, smaller but with more strength and conviction then she could ever dream of.
"Don't you dare hurt anyone else with those nanobots... including yourself." GoGo hissed in her ear as she knelt beside Akari.
Akari had no idea how long they knelt like that, but in the end, she had the microbots fall to the ground. GoGo slowly pulled Akari into her arms, and Akari buried her face in GoGo's chest and sobbed. She wept until she was completely empty and then slept, clinging to GoGo like she was the last solid thing in the world.