Chapter 11 — Homeward Bound Disasters, Part 1
The Bean Titans moved on, traveling to both the Antarctic Base and the Tower out in the Hudson Bay. At the Antarctic Base, Sweet's sons noticed that it looked like the Antarctic Base from the Kids Next Door, their favorite cartoon show. At the Hudson Bay Base, Rocket, Jabber, and the Puffin Twins thought back to when they first met in the Hudson Bay... it made them want to get engaged early!
After everything was done at those two bases, the Titans moved on to the New York Base, which setted outside the southern part of Manhattan, in between the latter and Brooklyn and next to the bridge, with Liberty Island on the other side of it.
When the Titans got inside the base, they noticed that the sky looked very ominous: it was a mixed, yet deep combination of red colors, and thunder and lightning raged all around. Fancy was distraught, as NYC was her home.
"No..." she murmured.
"Why is the sky so red?" Mac questioned.
Mystic sensed an explosion from the Brooklyn side. "What's going on over there?" she wondered.
Fancy had suddenly vanished from the rest of the Titans, using Lightning Dash through the window.
Canyon saw her outside, heading over to Brooklyn from the bridge. "I'll go after her." he said, immediately jumping out to follow his wife.
"Umm... is someone gonna fix that window?" Floppity asked the Titans.
Mystic sighed. "I'll get the glass."
When Fancy arrived at her area of Brooklyn, she noticed that a group of thugs were running around in a panic. She ignored them, going to see if her parents were fine. They were not, as they were beaten and bruised very badly, unable to move at all. Fancy tried to move their bodies, but neither of them responded; they passed away before she touched them. She became very upset, going over to blame the thugs about what happened to her parents.
"Hey!" Fancy yelled at them angrily, suddenly halting their movements. She pointed at her parents. "Did any of you touch those two cats?"
One of the thugs moved closer to the blue-haired cat. "Naw... but I could touch up on you." he said, trying to flirt with her.
Fancy narrowed her eyes and shrouded herself in white electricity. "Bad idea."
"Okay... I got ya." the man said, moving away from her.
"Why are you all running around like maniacs?" she asked them, calming down.
"Because of that!" another thug mentioned, pointing at a tall, imp-like woman attached to a metal horse.
Upon the sight of her, Fancy had to contact Dotty. She told her that it was the soul esper: Shemhazai, the Whisperer... and that her zodiac relation was Sagittarius the Archer. Dotty also mentioned that she was similar to Zalera, in that she slowly takes the life out of her opponents away; Shemhazai exhibited this with its Soul Steal ability, killing all of the thugs.
"Thunder Fist!" Canyon (Primal Mode) yelled out, appearing from the air. Shemhazai moved. "All right, try and get away from this one..." Canyon said, preparing dual Chidoris (2,000 Birds). He ran up to the scion with both lightning orbs... but was countered with Spirit Storm—a light show of a thousand small laser arrows, all directed at Canyon. Many of the lights hit, paralyzing him.
However, while Canyon was attempting to hit Shemhazai, Fancy managed to secretly halt her movements with Thunder Wave. Fancy walked slowly towards the scion, increasing her power level with every step.
"So it was you who murdered my parents..." Fancy uttered, with her blue hair beginning to stand like a Super Saiyan. She was powering up to her new Ascended Legendary form, Feral Mode. "Well now, witness what happens when you go too far! Maelstrom Storm!" Fancy unleashed an intensified version of her Maelstrom Bolt, defeating Shemhazai.
Before disappearing, its amethyst crest forced its way into Fancy's body, causing her (and the morning sky) to return back to normal. Afterwards, she went to Canyon. He was alright, able to move again.
All of a sudden, the two of them were warped again...
"What now?" Fancy asked, noticing that she and Canyon were reunited with the rest of the Titans. They were all in the San Franciso Base.
"There's trouble here too." Sweet answered.
Dotty was using the Watcher program, monitoring events in their area and her home in Los Angeles. "Guys..." she called for the Legendary 12, who came to her at her call. "There's a meteor coming down here... and green mist covering Los Angeles. And get this: Burn is here with an esper and Bruno is in L.A. with another."
"That's not good... what about the Aeons?" Fleece asked.
"Two more Acolytes are there... and one of them is Shockmutt."
Sweet analyzed the situation and took action. "All right, Titans. Time is short now. Angels, do your thing here. Congo and Nibbler, you two have seen Dotty handling the information right?"
They responded affirmatively.
"You two are gonna have to do that now. Titans, once they're done, go to the Amazon Base. Legendary 12, we're gonna have to split up. Guys, we'll deal with the meteor; girls, you have the mist in L.A."
"Hold on," Dotty interrupted, "let me identify the espers first. Both are scions. The old one here is Exodus, the Judge-Sal—in relation to Libra the Balance... and the other one is Cúchulainn, the Impure—related to Scorpio the Scorpion."
"All right, let's go." Sweet said.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
BATTLE 1: The L12 Males vs. Burn and Exodus. Where: the Golden Gate Bridge.
"So where's your crest?" Hippity asked Burn.
He held a burnt orange crest. "Right here."
Mac looked up at the meteor. "We can't let that hit the city or the ocean."
"Why not the ocean?" Sweet asked.
"Picture a glass of water... ice goes in it, and the water rises, right? Imagine what would happen to San Fran if a huge chunk of rock were to land in any of the water." Mac explained.
"I see your point now."
Canyon went to Spunky and whispered "Operation Diversion" in his ear. Upon that, Spunky started firing spikes at Exodus, leading it back into the city.
"Hey, Exodus! Where are you going?" Burn called out, trying to get his esper's attention. Canyon Flash Stepped in front of him.
"How's about a little one-on-one? Thunder Fist!" Canyon punched Burn towards the other end of the bridge.
"Canyon and Spunky can handle themselves. Let's deal with the meteor." Sweet suggested.
Aurora acted first, using Icy Wind to cool the meteor off and slow it down. Mac then grabbed Hippity and warped him to the bottom of the gigantic rock, so that Hippity would push it hard enough to fly back into space and not break it. Then, Mac warped after it, to disintegrate it with his maxed out Final Flash.
"Now, let's help—" Sweet uttered, seeing Canyon fly fast towards their end of the bridge, "...Canyon?"
The four of them looked back to Burn, whose power increased suddenly.
"Now, this is where the fun really begins..." Burn said, commencing the battle with the five Titans.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
BATTLE 2: The L12 Females vs. Bruno and Cúchulainn.
Before the women found their foes, Fleece generated a Nimbus Tornado while Floppity used her most powerful air spell with it—Hurrigale. The effect transformed the tornado into a hurricane, blowing across Los Angeles to wither away all of the poisonous green mist.
This signaled Bruno to find the six female Titans and use his pale yellow crest to teleport Cúchulainn to his position.
"That's new..." Floppity murmured.
"You like?" Bruno asked.
"Nope."
"Figures."
"Kuku," Dotty whispered, "cast Decoy on me. I don't want fatty around my hometown, so I'll deal with him."
Kuku casted the distraction spell, causing Cúchulainn to follow Dotty into the countryside near Los Angeles.
"Hey, what are you doing? Get back here!" Bruno shouted.
The other five Titans stood in his way.
"Sorry, but you're gonna have to get through us to get to your esper." Fleece said.
"By the way, why'd you and Burn hold back earlier, when you had Ultima and Chaos?" Floppity asked.
"Wrinkle's intentions, of which you cannot hear. Now shut up and fight!" Bruno growled, exhibiting his full strength.
/\/\/\/\/\
BATTLE CONVERGENCE
Spunky and Dotty had the same plan: leading the espers to the top of the highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada—Mt. Whitney.
Spunky was first to get there, holding his own against Exodus. Luckily, Spunky was a Time Mage, so he casted Haste on himself to speed his actions to where he was able to easily evade Exodus's attacks and spells. Spunky eventually bumped his back with Dotty's, who was luring Cúchulainn to her; Spunky's Haste effect wore off.
"Same idea, huh?" Spunky said quietly.
"Yep."
"You think we can pull this off?"
"Most likely. Besides... there's just one more esper after this, so let's take these two."
Exodus and Cúchulainn were about to use their special attacks (Scathe and Malaise) since both the dogs were in between them. Spunky and Dotty jumped up and over both the espers' heads.
"That dagger lodged in its head..." Dotty thought in midair, "maybe I can throw him off balance and finish him." Dotty then grabbed the top (handle) of the dagger and flung Cúchulainn forward; he was on one foot, trying to regain his balance. "Gotcha. Dimension Wave!"
Dotty fired her blast, ripping a hole through Cúchulainn. He vanished, and the light yellow summon crest merged into Dotty. However, when she touched the dagger, it gave her a poison effect called Sap, slowly taking away her health; it was shown by Dotty on the floor flashing purple.
Spunky saw this, looking to come to her aid as soon as possible, which meant that he had to finish Exodus with his Death Purge ability. It worked, as the burnt orange crest found its way into Spunky's body after Exodus faded.
Getting to Dotty, Spunky used a Remedy to cure the Sap status.
"Thanks..." she sighed.
Spunky looked up. "Don't relax just yet... we aren't done."
He was right, as the rest of the Legendary 12 landed at their position, at the hands of Burn and Bruno—better known as the Dynamic Duo. When they are together, they are very formidable when given the opportunity to be.
"One of you is gonna get hurt very badly... guaranteed." Burn proclaimed.
"That's what you think. Titans, go!" Sweet responded, as he, Fleece, Aurora, Dotty, Spunky, Kuku and Fancy made the first charge at the Dynamic Duo.
Their efforts are futile, as both of the brutes knocked them all down, unconscious. Mac attempted to fight next, starting with his Blindside Blitz... but somehow, he was hit every time he teleported around the Duo. Canyon tried next, with his Electroclasm... but when the two orbs of electricity collided, the Duo kicked it back to Canyon with "reverse polarity", causing Canyon and the others to take serious damage. Canyon was unconscious, Hippity and Mystic had an Immobilize effect on them (making them unable to move from their current spot), and Floppity was unscathed as she turned ghastly, causing the electricity to go right through her without harm.
"I'm ending this..." Floppity said, preparing to use all of her best spells (fifth level, no suffix)—Ardor (fire), Whelmen (water), Levin (thunder), Winterkill (ice), Hurrigale (air), and Gaia (earth).
Her use of these six elements wore Burn and Bruno down a lot, but not enough, since both of them caught her off guard and beat her down in under a minute. They finished their assault by punching her hard in the middle of her lower sternum, and throwing her against a nearby boulder.
Hippity could not stand to see Floppity get hurt like that, and his energy pressure suddenly skyrocketed.
"Hippity...?" Mystic sensed, shocked with open eyes.
"So what if you power up? You can't get out from being immobilized." Burn stated.
"You both just crossed the line!" Hippity yelled in a raging red and white aura, breaking from Immobilize. He zoomed out to the Duo, first knocking Burn out of the battle instantly with his Meteor Crush punch.
Bruno tried to get Hippity while he was busy, but the green bunny used a Flash Step to get further up into the air. While up there, Hippity quickly forged a gigantic, meteor-sized rock made up of other rocks and sent it down to annihilate Bruno.
Strangely, Bruno laughed maniacally. "I've been waiting so long to use this. Reflective Wave!" Somehow, Bruno used a technique that caused the giant rock to reverse its motion, going back [twice as fast] to hit Hippity.
"No, Hippity! Move!" Mystic shrieked.
It was too late, as Hippity took the full force of his own attack, falling after the impact. Following up on the opportunity, Bruno boosted upward with the speed of a comet and kicked Hippity uber hard at the middle of his back, almost breaking his spine. He then threw him to where Floppity was.
"Eleven down, one to go. Come here, Mystic..." Bruno said. But within an instant, Bruno was hit and defeated by a Giant Fireball, courtesy of Sweet (who regained his consciousness due to the Wolverine Regen effect he had).
Mystic looked back to him, after Immobilze wore off. "Sweet?"
"I win." he quietly uttered.
Mystic helped him up. "Hippity and Floppity got hurt pretty bad."
"Ooh... I guess those dogs weren't lying." Sweet said.
"What now?" Mystic asked.
"Well... since those two are hurt, we're gonna have to run by the home base so they can heal, and because we need to check the status of the Aeons."
After getting everyone up and moving, the Legendary 12 warped to the main base. Hippity and Floppity were placed in the Healing Room, to mend their injuries. Dotty came back with a status report.
"Every base has now been protected and coded into the worldwide database. The only thing left is getting it all to the Moon Base; I'll manage that later. Sadly, we can't waste another teleport... so we'll have to take the B-Jet over to the Amazon to catch up with the rest of the Titans."
"Understoood." Sweet replied.
Fleece placed a gold feather on the healing beacon in the Healing Room.
"What's that for?" Dotty asked.
"This feather can greatly speed up the healing process." Fleece explained. Dotty checked on the bunnies' health, and saw that she was right.
"Where'd you get that?"
"At the Sky Base; I opened my hand at one point and it was there. There's even a golden 'tattoo' of it in the middle of my chest."
"Is it the heavens, or nature, that's trying to tell you something?" Sweet interrogated, remembering that Fleece could speak with those universal "masses".
"Probably... I just don't know what it is, though."
Canyon jumped up randomly. "Oh snap!" he exclaimed.
"What's your problem?" Mac asked.
"The Aeons are still fighting here!" Canyon told the team.
"Oh yeah, that's right." Sweet said. "All right, Titans. We'll have to split up. Canyon, you take Spunky and Fancy with you to the roof... that's where I sense the Aeons' and the Acolytes' energies. Dotty, stay here and monitor their (the bunnies) health. The rest of you, follow me to the B-Jet for the Amazon."
Upon his command, the Legendary 12 diverged for their respective jobs.
Getting to the roof of the Tower, Canyon, Spunky and Fancy saw the three Acolytes (in order of strength): Shockmutt (3rd seat), Sylvester (6th seat) and Psychomech (10th seat). Yojimbo, Anima and the Magus Sisters were nowhere in sight; they were assumed to have fallen at the hands of the Acolytes.
"Well, well... we have more visitors." Shockmutt said, referring to the three Titans.
"Yeah, how's about you stop what you're doing?" Spunky suggested to the Acolytes.
"Improbable." Psychomech answered, destroying Valefor and Ixion simultaneously with his Dual Cero.
"Why are you doing this?" Fancy asked demandingly.
Sylvester turned to Shockmutt, his superior. "Sufferin' succotash... shall I explain it to them, since it's not our primary objective?"
"Go ahead. I could care less about what you say to them... they won't stop us." Shockmutt said, immediately leaving the scene.
"It's quite simple. We Acolytes bestowed Wrinkle and his group with the scions to send a clear message to you Bean Titans... your Aeons are obsolete, and that they no longer have any meaning of existence. Psychomech is making it very clear to you."
The robot destroyed Ifrit and Shiva next. With Bahamut being the only one left, Psychomech let him have the first strike. Of course, it had to be its most powerful (and well-known) attack—Mega Flare. Psychomech counteracted against the blast with another Cero.
"Come on, Bahamut..." Canyon murmured, hoping that the Aeon would survive.
"Quit hoping. It's no use; besides, Psychomech is only showing less than half of his power. He's just toying with your Aeon, waiting so he can end it in a heartbeat." Sylvester told the Titans.
Psychomech's core (in the middle of his torso) glowed maroon, darker than the Cero he had already fired. He unleashed a stronger one from the core against Bahamut's Mega Flare—it was his Gamma Ray Cero. It cancelled out Bahamut's attack, destroying him in the process as well. All ten of the Aeons were gone.
Canyon, Spunky and Fancy had seen enough, assuming their Legendary powers and rushing in to attack Psychomech. Unfortunately, they were quickly stopped by Sylvester, who was a lot faster than they were. He had the Mangekyo Sharingan on his eyes.
"Amaterasu." he spoke, as he enflamed the three Titans in black flames, quickly putting them out of commission. Sylvester showed mercy on them a little, as he commanded the flames to stop burning the three of them after a moment. They would be at the brink of death, if the flames kept on.
"Damn it..." Canyon muttered.
"If you know what's good for you, I suggest you not try and continue fighting us." Sylvester said. "Oh, and just so you do know, we are after Durango and Tina... we just won't tell you exactly what our plans are. So stay out of our way."
After saying that, both Acolytes followed Shockmutt, leaving Titans Tower. Fancy secretly used a Megalixir, fully healing herself, Spunky and Canyon.
"Guys, let's not worry about them. It's clear that we're out of their league, so let's just catch up with the rest of the Titans." Fancy said.
"Agreed." the other two said.
/-/
The battle is almost over. One more esper to go.