I don't owe fusionfall. be ready for the number of characters that show up. I did my best on this one even if it is a transition chapter.
Chapter 54: Gathering
Dexter exits his laboratory on the lowest level of Dexlabs, walking very hastily to the elevator and presses the button with his purple gloved finger. The door opens instantly and he darts on to it, presses the lobby button. The doors close and the car instantly starts to move to the lobby of the building. It had been a month since Ben and Holden had orchestrated their plan on retrieving the Dexcarrier.
Dexter had to admit that his two closest friends were rather ingenious to have come up with such a plan at all. The subsequent repairs to the engine core, the shield system, weapons, the hull and other important systems had taken much longer than Dexter or even Computress had anticipated and this was cause enough to make the seventeen year old genius anxious and a bit nervous. The elevator doors open to the lobby and Dexter steps off the car.
That is when a sharp voice is heard by the boy genius coming from the floor, "McPherson! What have you done to MY creation! Who gave you authorization to tamper with the Ultramatrix?"
Dexter looks down looking for the source of the voice to discover it belongs to the Galvan scientist Azmuth. Dexter heaves a sigh and knew that this was bound to happen.
"I did what I thought you would do to prevent the Ultramatrix from falling into the wrong hands in the event that Benjamin was killed during the battle with Fuse. The auto self-destruct is synchronized with Ben's brainwave activity in order to stop a false detonation." Dexter answered as he adjusts his glasses to look at the aged alien.
Azmuth strokes his chin and whisker tendrils before replying, "You should have left the destruction fail safe in my technically capable advance hands. I am the smartest being in the three galaxies and thus the one who should be doing the work. You are a child compared to my species' intelligence."
Dexter gives Azmuth a stern look, "I might not be as smart as your people Azmuth, but you don't have to insult me in such a manner. If I remember correctly, neither you nor Albedo could figure out that a future version of Vilgax was causing the Ultramatrix to malfunction. You had to rely on Paradox's help yet again."
The Galvan twitched slightly and this made Dexter smile knowing he had shaken the alien.
Azmuth then smile as he stroked his chin, "You are indeed a worthy opponent McPherson. Next time we meet I'll make sure to best you."
The Galvan then disappears in a column of phased light particles. Dexter takes a deep breath and lets it out. Another few seconds and he would have stomped that arrogant Galvan into the floor. Dexter heaves a sighs and continues through the lobby to the front door, to where his first dodge ball armor that he had created for school is. Standing in front of the armor were a large hamster with glasses, a monkey and a pigmy elephant all in Bean Scout Uniforms.
"Clam, get out of that right now! We'll get in trouble! Lazlo do something." The elephant said in what appeared to be an Indian accent and grabbing the monkey by his collar.
Dexter then noticed the albino rhino in the dodge ball armor messing around with the controls.
"Fun!" the small creature said.
The monkey named Lazlo looks over his shoulder and his eyes widen, "Clam, Raj is right, you best get out of that thing. The owner of Dexlabs is here."
"Trouble!" Clam shouted as he struggled to get out of the armor and accidentally hit's the trigger with his foot.
A dodge ball flies from the cannon that is build into the arm of the armor into the hamster, sending him flying into a Moose with a scout master uniform who had just entered the building with what appeared to be his assistant.
"OH S.M.I.T.S. (Scout Master in the Sky)!" The Hamster said loudly.
"Scout Master Lumpus! Samson! Are you two alright?" Lazlo shouted as he, Clam and Raj ran over to them with looks of worry on their faces.
Slinkman walks over to them quickly and he has a frown on his face, "Boys calm down. They are fine, its not like Samson hasn't been hit by a dodge ball before or Scout Master Lumpus has been hit by a camper in this way."
Slinkman helps Lumpus to his feet; awhile Raj helps Samson up and straightens his glasses.
Lazlo walks up to Dexter with his scout hat in his hand and states in a genuine manner, "I'm sorry Mr. McPherson for causing all this trouble. It won't happen again."
"Sorry!" Clam replies, looking guilty.
Dexter chuckles a bit, and soon gives them a stern look and scolds, "I just hope you learned not to mess around in other peoples laboratories."
Lazlo nods, "We have sir. Come on Clam, we don't want to keep the others wait for us over at the science center."
Lazlo and Clam run out of building after their two friends and the scout masters. Dexter places his hand on his forehead and shakes his head.
"I just hope these delays have not made me late." Dexter said out loud to the empty lobby as he exited the building.
As Dexter enters the science center, Computress rolls up to him with her clipboard in hand.
"Project W.A.R.D. has been delivered into the back along with extra imaginary energy ammo packs. Is there anything else you need to me to do, Dexter?"
Dexter shakes his head. Over the last several weeks, Mandark and Dexter had been working with Goo and her over active imagination to create the imaginary energy ammo. Initial tests had indicated that this form of ammo was most effective against fusions.
Dexter snaps out of his thought and replies in an unshakeable manner.
"No Computress, the only things left to do is address everyone, give Holden W.A.R.D., and set up a group to confront Fuse."
Computress nods, "Understood. I shall go wait with the others in the assembly hall."
She backs away, turns around and disappears through the open doors in front of Dexter. Dexter walks down the side corridor to the side entrance that will take him up to the stage.
"This is probably going to be the final speech of the war." Dexter said to himself as he pushes open the door.
He peeks out from behind the red curtain to look at the large crowed that was gathered. Standing up against the wall near the stage were Chad and Maurice (Numbuhs 274 and 9). Next to them stood Numbuh Infinity, who looked as resolute as ever.
In front of the stage is Zak Saturday with his mother, Drew, father, Doc, his Uncle Doyle and three creatures that Dexter could not place. The Saturdays were fine tuning their equipment, while Zak was looking bored and giving furtive glances at the notorious creator of Weird World, V.V. Argost, who was standing feet away from them, rubbing his hands together in a sinister fashion. Dexter made a mental note that after the war he would study the creatures known as Cryptids with the aid of the young Saturday.
Dexter moves his eyes a bit farther to the right and he centers on Ben, who was standing a few feet from his grandpa Max. Ben was avidly talk with Julie and in her arms was Mechomorph, Ship. Along side Ben, stood five young plumbers named Peirce, Helen, Manny, Cooper and Alan. These five teens also happened to part human and part alien for the most. Behind them stood Ben's cousin Gwen and Kevin E. Levin, who had his arms around Gwen's waist.
Dexter had never really talked to them that often during the war and he had warned Levin on one occasion not to absorb fusion matter, but the young Osmosian had refused to listen. In the rows behind Ben and his companions area large brigades of Plumbers, SCAT agents and Forever Knights.
Not too far from where Max stood is Vilgax who is giving everyone in the room a look of disgust. Next to the alien dictator is Albedo, who is sitting at a table eating a basket of chili fries and looking vexed with himself for eating said food. Hex, Charmcaster, Volcanus and Arget and the Vedal brothers were leaning up against the nearby wall, waiting for the meeting to start.
Ben suddenly looks up at the stage and notices Dexter behind the curtain and gives him a cheesy grin that said, "Relax, everything will be fine. You can do this Dex."
Dexter nods, smiles and shifts his gaze to the Eds. Edd stood at attention with a book under his arm look very studious. If it had not been for his effort and the ingenious use of the imaginary friend's tooth paste on the cardboard fortifications around the Cul-de-Sac, fusions would have over ran it at the start of the war.
Edd is also standing shoulder to shoulder with Rolf, Naz, Jimmy, Sarah, Johnny and Plank and several others from the Cul-de-Sac. The Urban Rangers, who were now under Eddy's direct command, stood at attention as Eddy stood in front of them and gave a small rallying speech to keep their spirits up. Ed in the meantime was banging his head on the floor, apparently because he was looking for something important.
Note: Study Ed's physical logical structure after this war is done. It may prove beneficial in the future, Dexter thought as he noticed that the Kanker sisters were trying to sneak up behind each of the Eds to give them each a big hug.
A few feet from the Eds, sat Mrs. Bagg with her Styr in her lap and Courage lying down beside her, receiving a good ear scratching. Mr. Bagg was standing next to them with his trusty mallet in hand and he was conversing with Father, Princess, The Common Cold, Mr. Boss, Mr. Wink, Mr. Fibb, and Count Spankulot to learn all sorts of new methods on how to humiliate that stupid dog.
Grandma Stuffum was chatting with Nightbrace, the Senior Citizen Squad and Toiletnator about the poor eating habits of a certain Candy Pirate. Stickybeard walks over to argue, but a few members of his crew, Cree and Henrich Van Marzipan run over and pull on his arm to stop him from causing a scene.
He laughs for a moment at how stupid he was and walks back to join the rest of his men. On the other side of the Candy Pirates, Lizzie was talking with Mushi and The Tommie about rainbow Monkey Island. Several feet away, Numhuh 86 is yelling at Numbuhs 2 and 4, who happen to have looks of pain on their faces because they were stupid and forgot to bring extra gumballs.
Numbuhs 3 and 5 are silently giggling as they watched the two boys squirm. Numbuh 1 shakes his head at the actions of his teammates as he and Numbuh 362 were whispering to each others before they kissed. Nigel and Lizzie had broken up sometime ago, because both felt that they were better of as friends.
Nigel and Rachel deserved to be together. Behind the small crowed of KND operatives that are behind Numbuh 362, sat Juniper Lee, with her brother Ray-ray, the dog Monroe and her grandmother. All three humans are eating ramen with chopsticks and Monroe is telling a story of a past adventure as they ate. Dexter again starts to scan the crowd for familiar faces.
After a few moments, Dexter finally finds Deedee in the center of the room, with the nano of herself in her arms. Mandark was trying yet again in another vain attempt to try to get Deedee to fall in love with him.
Olga, who was standing next to Deedee, has a look of loathing on her face and she garbs Mandark's cape and drags him away towards Mojo, who was conversing with Him, Sedusa, Femme Fatal, Fuzzy and Coach Roach.
Apparently, they were all talking about ways to deal with the Powerpuff Girls after the war was over, expect for Coach Roach, who was more interested in making things harder for them in gym class. Averting his gaze to the left, Dexter spots the demon, Mr. Green sitting next to Oceanbird and Windbear, who were playing a relax melody on a guitar.
Also sitting next to them are Sandra and Carl Tennyson, who were here to support Ben. Dexter's own parents were sitting with the Tennysons as well, talking about nothing more then their children. Dexter disengages from looking in that direction and continued to scan the room.
He soon spots a table that had nine skulls on it. Protecting the table is Spurge, Mindy, Pudding, General Scar and Principle Goodvibes. Grim had assigned them to find the skulls before Fuse could use them against everyone. As Dexter continued to gaze in that direction, Grim appears in a puff of black smoke with Billy, Hoss, Mandy and Runty in tow.
Dexter had discovered that Runty was the product of Billy's imagination and thus had a large amount of imaginary energy stored with in. Dexter shakes his as he exits his thoughts and finds himself looking at the group from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
Mac, Wilt, Eduardo, Bloo and Madam Foster and Goo were talking with Frankie, who had a large medical kit in hand, about their role as the support team. Mr. Harriman in the meantime is telling off Terrence and Duchess for causing some kind of problem over the Foster's house earlier that morning. Both of said trouble makers looked and tried to argue to get out of it, but Harriman wouldn't have it.
Dexter just rolls his eyes and looks around some more. He spots in a corner that has food service cart, Coop, along with Kiva and Jamie. Coop was stuffing his face while Kiva scolded him and Jamie is laughing hysterically at the mess that is being created in front of them.
Nearby, Ilana and Lance are giving Coop dirty looks for his lack of manners and Octus is running around at high speeds cleaning up the mess as quick as Coop makes it. Dexter tries to follow Octus' movements, but eventually loses track of the robot in front of Rex, Bobo and Noah.
They were keeping an eye on Biowulf, Skalamander and Breach. Van Kleiss was standing in front of them, with Circe by his side, giving orders to The Pack to cooperate with Providence. Watching Van Kleiss like a hawk from another part of the room is Captain Callan, Six, Dr. Holiday and battalion of Providence troops.
Holiday has an unusually large smile on her face and turned red as she stood next to Six. Dexter notices that she and Six were holding hands and trying their best to hide it. As Dexter shifts his gaze, he finds that guarding the door to the convention hall is Samurai Jack, the Scotsman and the demon Deimongo.
Jack and the Scotsman have looks of suspicion written on their faces as they give glances at the demon. Dexter continues to glance up and down the crowed and spots in a corner, Bubbles and Boomer talking rapidly with one another before Boomer embraces Bubbles and holds her in his arms.
At that moment, Brick, Butch and Tessa enter the room through the guarded doors. Butch leaves the group and glides over to Mandy and they start talking. Tessa was looking around and her eyes narrow. Dexter didn't even have follow her gaze to know what she was looking at, but he follows it just the same to find the remaining members of the Utonium family.
Buttercup was leaning up near a wall in her Belladonna make up looking out a window. Dexter had yet to inform the Professor that Buttercup's disappearance over two years ago was the work of Fuse. There was ample evidence of left over fusion matter in the weapon that Mojo had used that day.
All of a sudden, Ace comes up next to Buttercup and gives her a quick peck on the check. She turns red, but soon regains her composer as she kisses him back. Ace had gotten permission to hold a concert in the sunken mall after this meeting was finished so that everyone could relax and have one last night of freedom before everything hit the fan.
Dexter moves away from the two rock stars and his vision centers on Professor Utonium who is chatting lively with the Mayor, Ms. Bellum, Ms. Keane, Blossom, Holden and one of their old friend, Robin Snyder. They starting laughing about something and it brought smiles to all their faces.
They must have been reminiscing about when the girls and Holden were younger. Dexter closes the curtain and decides now is the time to address everyone.
Dexter walks out onto the stage and taps the microphone. "I'm glad you could all make it here. I know there are a few people missing from our gathering, but they had many things to take care of. Tomorrow, is an important day for all of us for since this last battle of the war is being taken to Fuse himself in the Darklands. I know most of you are tired since we've all been fighting for over a year. Many of us have lost friends and loved ones because of this conflict. Fuse and his minions have time and time again tried to break our spirits, but we've pushed back and persevered in this time of hardship. We will show Fuse just how strong Earth has become in the past six months. We will show him the power of hope, our courage and our resolve."
A thunderous round of applause and cheers came from the crowd.
After a few moments the noise died down and Dexter was able to continue, "I now ask one more thing of all you. Those who wish to volunteer to fight Fuse with me and Ben tomorrow please step forward now."
Zak Saturday starts to step forward, but Drew grabs his arm, "You're not going into fight Fuse Zak. We need you on the outside controlling the Cryptids."
"Aww come on mom." Zak complained.
"Listen to your mother Zak. You're needed outside more than inside fighting Fuse." Doc said placing his hand on Zak's shoulder.
"You're mom is right mini man. We need you outside."
Zak sighs and responds in a defeated tone, "Fine Doyle. I'll do what you guys want."
Holden and Blossom give each other a small nod and walk to the front and onto the stage.
"Please go to the back room you two. I'll be joining you soon I expect."
Both of them nod and exit past the curtain. Ben walks up onto the stage and is followed soon after by Rex and Samurai Jack. After they pass through the curtain, no one else follows.
"If there is no one else, please make last preparations and spend this last night relaxing and spending time with your loved ones." Dexter replied.
As he is turning off the microphone Dexter notices that the Professor is talking with Bubbles and Buttercup and they nod and quickly leave.
As the Professor walks onto the stage Dexter inquires, "What was that about Professor?" The Professor chuckles, "I told them to get their personal Dynamo armors ready for tomorrow. I want them to have all the protection that is available."
With that said Professor Utonium strolls into the backroom so he unveil the project that they had been working so hard on for months.
Dexter and the Professor enter the backroom to find the mood very somber.
"I thank all of you for doing this. It was a very hard and courageous decision you made." Dexter said as he stood in front of his companions.
Ben gives him a goofy grin, "Dex, you know we got your back. Fuse won't stand a chance with us."
"Once he sees my BFS he'll go crying back to Planet Fusion and leave Earth for good." Rex crowd.
"Fuse will be a very tough opponent. We should not underestimate him." Jack replied in a stoic tone.
Blossom nods, "Fuse has already thrown a lot of curve balls at us, so we need to be ready for anything. None of us are going to let our guards down."
Rex leans over to Ben and whispers, "She's kind of bossy. How the heck does Holden put up with her?"
Ben smirks and whispers back, "Trust me, I wish I knew the answer to that question."
Blossom turns around to yell at them, but Holden puts his hand on her shoulder and she relaxes.
Dexter rolls his eyes, "There is another reason, why I called you here. The Professor wanted to show you all what he has been developing for the past few months with mine, Max's, Mandark's, Mojo's and Dr. Holiday's assistance."
Dexter takes from his pocket, a controller and presses the button. A long cylindrical container rolls into the room and the opaque door to it swings open to reveal a indigo colored armor.
"It looks like a Dynamo armor!" Blossom said in surprise.
"This is the W.A.R.D. armor that has been constructed for Holden. It would have been done sooner, but we ran into numerous delays. I designed the basics of it off the armor you girls use, but I added a engine that runs off imaginary energy power cells. Mandark provided the stabilizers and the thrusters that are in the boots for limited flight capabilities. Dexter incorporated into the arm and leg segments muscle stimulators to give increased running speed and strength, unfortunately there wasn't enough time to fine tune them so they won't be working at full power. Dr. Holiday helped with the helmet and installed a special voice command system to access functions of the armor that you can't physically use. You also have a air supply increase you get stuck underwater or heave for bid, in space. And last, Max was able to acquire a Plumbers rifle and modify to use the new imaginary energy ammo. Also, the KND provided the acronym for it and a small cooling system in the back." The Professor said as he pointed to each area of the armor.
Holden slowly approaches the armor and touches the breast plate with the palm of his hand.
"Why did you call it W.A.R.D., Professor." Holden said in a low voice.
"Well, you are my ward aren't you? You've been my son for the last twelve years, so I thought that the armor I made for you should be my small way to protect the son I love."
Holden closes his eyes and smiles, "It's an appropriate name Professor. I'm happy that you call it that." He hugs the Professor for a brief moment before letting go.
Dexter clears his throat, "The Dexcarrier will leave Dexlabs at eleven tonight with all our supplies. Megas and other the other robots are already waiting with Mandark's Science Carrier out in Dinosaur Pass."
Professor Utonium then looks at Blossom, "Bubbles and Buttercup are going to be delivering the Dynamo armors to the Dexcarrier so that you can use them for tomorrow. You'll need every advantage you can get."
Blossom smiles and nods, "We'll make good use of them. Don't worry about a thing." The Professor smiles.
"The Professor and I shall not keep any of you here any longer. Please enjoy yourselves tonight awhile you still can." Dexter said while messing with the wrench in his pocket and then leaving the room with the Professor.
Ben, Rex and Jack exit after them leaving Blossom and Holden.
"Holden, I want to spend someplace romantic with you tonight before we head back to the Dexcarrier." Blossom said in a rushed voice.
Holden chuckles, "Let's go to our spot on the beach. We can watch the stars for awhile."
Blossom nods happily and she grabs his hand and pulls him out the door.
*pant* geez this was a long chapter. If anyone was counting characters well it was close to 140. Well WARD is now in use and all is set for the final battle. I hope you liked this chapter.