(A/N: If you're reading this, please try to review. The same with "Life with Blaze". Reviews are basically, in this sense, the gas that keeps me writing a particular story. Without them, I'd just lose focus, know what I mean? So please, guys, if you're reading this, review. Please. Enjoy the next chapter, it's pretty scary actually... Secret7)

FlameX: Inferno

Secret7

Chapter 9

Brent and Blossom flew through the air.

"Brent...tell me about this jewel, anyway..." Blossom said.

They were soaring over mountains, getting ever closer to their destination: Mount Xan.

"Well, it's called the Jewel of Angels. It contains the power of 1,000 warriors."

"Where do you come up with those lines, anyway?"

"Top of my head, that's pretty much it," Brent laughed.

"Do you see that?" asked Blossom.

"What?"

"Over Townsville...There's this cloud..."

"Oh no...We have to get to Mount Xan! And fast! Before your sisters die! Or maybe worse..."

They took off towards the distant mountain at an enormously high velocity.

"Who are you?" asked Buttercup. "RowdyRuffs? Again?!?"

"No, Alice, much more than that. Much, much more," said the shell that looked like Brick. Buttercup grasped her neck as she floated into the air.

"Welcome to Wonderland, Alice," Pain said.

"Now...what to do with that Professor?" asked Corruption.

"You'll never hurt him!" Bubbles shouted.

"Yeah, if you want him, you'll have to get through us!" Buttercup added.

"Sounds like fun." said 'Brick'.

"But we don't want to fight," added Pain. A stinging wave of power began to emanate from his hand, immediately affecting the family.

Bubbles cringed, but suddenly did something Buttercup would later call unfathomably stupid and resisted. She got up, fire in her eyes.

"Stay away from my family!" she screamed.

"Cute little baby. Isn't she cute, brothers?" Death asked as his brothers nodded.

"Yes, let's kill her," Corruption said.

"Slowly," Pain added.

"NO!" shouted a voice. It was Buttercup. She climbed up off of the floor. "If you want to destroy the world, you have to get through us."

The Three looked surprised at Buttercup's courage, then immediately regained their cool.

"We are immortal. How can you destroy what lies within yourself? Evil dwells within all of your hearts." Corruption sneered. "In fact, just to prove that, I think I'll have a little fun."

The form of Boomer's eyes began to glow red. Bubbles' eyes suddenly flashed red. She looked around quickly, as though shocked.

"Oh my...god...why didn't I see it?" she asked her family, her voice filled with excitement.

"See...what?" asked the Professor, looking worried.

"That we will never win," Bubbles said.

There was a long silence. Bubbles was smiling happily to them.

"You're not Bubbles," Buttercup said finally.

"Isn't it a bit obvious?" asked Death. "She's not Bubbles. She's something more now. My brother's taken the darkness deep within her heart...and multiplied it."

"YOU DAMN ASSHOLES" Buttercup screamed.

The Professor didn't even scold her. This was the purest evil they'd ever seen.

Bubbles giggled. "What's wrong, Professor?"

"Yes, what IS wrong?" Death asked. "You should be HAPPY for your sibling, Buttercup. And Professor, we are the purest darkness. We are the Dark Three, and we cannot be stopped."

Professor Utonium's eyes widened. "Blaze's story...it was all true..."

"Blaze told you?" asked Pain curiously.

"Tell us more," Corruption said. "We shall spare you if you do."

The Professor bowed his head. "Look...he's..."

The Dark Three were all smiling.

"Up your asses!" he shouted with true rage.

"Oh dear," Bubbles said. "Should I discipline him?"

"Do, my child. Please do."

Bubbles prepared a spine-breaking kick, and shot forward.

WHAM

There was a loud yell of shock and a blow, but the Professor remained intact. Buttercup had blocked Bubbles' shot, and there was a large hole in the wall where she'd been knocked through. She leapt back up.

"If you want the Professor, you have to go through me," Buttercup said, simply staring at the cruel imitation of her sister.

"I'm willing to do that," Bubbles said.

And so the sisters began their war.

To be continued...