7
Dark Spire Three~
Sunset.
Once upon a time, Timmy liked sunsets. He would sit on the roof of the Archive building in New York with Cosmo and Wanda and watch the sun set over the city. The skyline looked so beautiful from so high. And it was obviously enjoyed by various other Heroes as well. Cousin Danny would show up from time to time, often with Sam and often in ghost form, and mostly cuddled with his girlfriend until the stars populated the skies and they would teleport away looking eager for something else to do. Rest of the time, he would sit with Timmy and just talk about random topics until they ran out of words and the sunset commanded their full attention and complete silence. Once, Timmy had gone up to watch the end of day ritual and ran across a Heroine that registered familiarity in his mind.
"Wonder Gal?" he had blurted out, recalling the super-hero persona Trixie had taken on during one of his numerous wishes for a fantastic lifestyle. She had turned and given him a faintly withering glare.
"Woman." she corrected, "I should have your parents teach you proper manners in the presence of one."
"I don't have... I mean, I can't go to my parents." Timmy had mumbled, stung, "I died in my hometown and I have to stay here." The woman had softened then and knelt before him, a comforting expression replacing the affronted one.
"Ah, you must be the young Hero Apprentice Caleb had spoken of. My apologies, little one; the pain has not yet eased from your young spirit." she told him and rubbed his head affectionately.
"So you must be Wonder Woman, right? I'm Timmy Turner and these are my fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda." the boy introduced the three of them, "Sorry about that whole 'Gal' thing. Dimmsdale has a comic book super-hero called Wonder Gal, and she looks kinda like you."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintances. Come. Sunset will soon begin." Wonder Woman had invited them and they sat in companionable silence as the golden light played out over New York City, gilding the buildings and making them all look like palaces.
But that was in the past, in days of bittersweet bliss among such grandiose figures as Green Lantern (who kept doodling things in the air with his ring out of boredom so much that Timmy honestly thought that the ring was really an artsy fairy godparent in disguise), and even Superman himself would drop by with a present or two for Timmy, just to cheer him up. He knew their identities, part of his induction into the world of a Hero, and he would wave to them on the streets if he saw them, though he never actually called out to them. Always careful. Don't reveal them and don't reveal yourself.
'Well, that advice has gone bust in Dimmsdale,' Timmy thought to himself as he looked over his team of friends and unlikely allies. Only a few months into his quest to save Dimmsdale and nearly all of his childhood friends and enemies discovered that Timothy Neogene was really Timmy Turner. Tootie, Chester, A.J., Elmer, Sanjay, Trixie, all of them eager to join him when they learned the truth, ready to fight alongside him for the sake of defending the magic of the world, among other personal reasons involving him. Vicky joined him as well, which was still kind of a shock to him, but he figured it was mostly to get revenge on whoever it was that killed him when she still depended on his parents for spending cash than anything else. Still, he had his doubts there, as she kept calling out warnings about their 'toys' whenever she spotted a fairy fluttering around out of disguise. And Chip Skylark, long thought dead as well, joined him when Timmy flat out explained who he was and what had been going on. The singer wanted vengeance as well for him, and considering he would never get peace from Bender and Wendell until Remy was stopped, he had his own personal reasons for fighting as well.
"So, you guys ready?" he asked them and jerked a thumb at the setting sun, "Once the last of the light fades, we're going in. There's still time for you to back out."
"We just finished casting Revive on everyone. We're not going anywhere." Tootie told him with a grin, lavender eyes glittering behind the tinted lenses of her glasses.
"C'mon, little dude. After all we've both been through? I need to do this as much as you do. I can't even look at toothpaste without wondering if its gonna come to life and attack me." Chip returned offhandedly, his tone light but still simmering with a bitterness that hinted at his underlying fury over all that had happened in the past four years.
"Twerp, if you try wishing me home, I'm gonna come back and kick your ass." Vicky growled at the brunet, shaking her fist at him, "I was promised all the expensive crap I can trash and I'm holding you to it! And I wanna piece of the little bastard that murdered you, so I'm hanging around you just long enough to find out who did it so I can tear him limb from limb!" Timmy grinned.
"Yeah, 'cause hanging out with me because you care about me isn't your thing." he remarked and the carrot-top snorted derisively as she fingered the Attack Symbol that hung around her neck, the tiny metal sword glowing faintly as it worked its magic to power up her attacks.
"Damn straight!" she agreed, which, translated, meant that she did care about him, but wasn't going to admit it in front of so many witnesses, especially one that was her own little sister.
"Team Turner's all ready to go, but I still think Trixie should stay on the shooting lines if you're gonna take Chip to the front." Chester added in worriedly, "I mean, I trust your magic and all, pal, but without Caleb and Danny Phantom backing us up we could end up with the same disaster as the last Spire! You passed out trying to heal Trixie and nearly ran out of magic!"
"We'll be fine, don't worry." the brunet assured him, "Just follow the plan." They stood in the alley until the last of the golden light vanished behind the skyline of Dimmsdale. Timmy looked towards it wistfully, momentarily yearning for the simple pleasure of annoying the heck out of Wolverine by crawling into his lap to watch the whole sunset because he knew it would provide gossip fodder for the rest of the X-Men and everyone agreed Wolverine was generally in need of a reminder that he was still human, if in the broadest sense of the word. "Here goes." the brunet murmured and darted out of the alley with the team close behind, his deep blue stealth pack with Hanuman's Rod secured between it and him fitted snugly against his back.
The training was definitely paying off. Timmy only heard a few light taps against the concrete and asphalt as the group scampered after him, blending into the shadows with their black magitech armor. All that really gave away their positions was the faintly shimmering silver of the trim and magitech threads, and the blood-red color of the Heart of Dimmsdale Insignia. He turned back to his path, picking out a route that would cover them in darkness. Strange, why were there so many people milling around here?
Security guards, dozens of them, all stood at attention at different points around the Spire's lot, some of them were even on patrol, walking the grounds with flashlights and nightsticks ready. There was no way he could lead the team into battle with all of them in the way! Too many people could get hurt in the attack!
"Cosmo! Wanda!" he called out softly and the fairies poofed out of disguises to float by him. Timmy glanced back at the group and nodded towards the fairies. Trixie and Tootie caught on and nodded.
"Apollo!" the former Popular whispered and a burst of red appeared as her fairy godfather popped into view.
"Romi!" Tootie added and Andromeda spun into the air in a puff of deep blue smoke.
"Get rid of the guards." Timmy ordered softly and turned to his godparents. In one voice, the three godchildren called out their wishes.
"I wish the security guards were someplace else!"
And nothing happened.
"What the crap?" Vicky muttered, arms akimbo as she looked around, "The bozos in suits are still here. Are your toys broken?" Timmy looked puzzled as the fairies shook their limp wands back to obedience and shrugged in united confusion. Team Turner collectively peered out of the shadows and studied the security detail.
"Darn it! Anti-magic suits!" Timmy growled and slammed his fist against the asphalt in frustration, "And the field has gotten stronger! Nullification in this area is already trying to play havoc with me!"
"Same with us." Apollo mumbled, one hand pressed to his temple in pain, "We can't stay here too long."
"Change your magic." Wanda remarked, her eyes closed in concentration. Both she and Cosmo floated before the two younger fairies, only momentarily affected by the nullification field before their color returned to a healthy tone. "It's something Cosmo and I discovered by accident early in our days of trap-hunting. We keep changing magic and we last much longer in the anti-magic zones." She opened her eyes and looked a little puzzled, "Do you understand?" Andromeda and Apollo looked at each other, then at her, then shook their heads.
Timmy watched his godmother fumble for a way of explaining whatever it was they did to survive in the zones. He blinked and puzzled it over himself. How exactly did he himself stay decent in the same areas? There was the mana shield, but he often forgot to bring it up before going in and it took too much concentration to sustain it while he did his thing. There was converting to negative magic, but he didn't want to do that. That was like accepting darkness and that was the last thing he wanted to do. So what did he do? Change magic, like Wanda said? But he never really thought of just changing magic; it was too much a part of him to pin down and focus on. The switch just sort of happened, he guessed, easily and naturally. Kinda like...
"Breathing." Timmy suddenly said and everyone looked at him in confusion, oblivious to his thoughts and only hearing him just blurt that out for no reason. "It's like breathing. Using magic for us is natural, so we can't just over analyze it. It doesn't work. If you breathe one way, you use air one way. But if you change how you breathe, you still use the same air, but it flows through you in a different rhythm." he explained to the fairies, "Nullifiers are kinda like little factories putting out junk that pollutes the air, so we get sick if we breathe it all in like that. When you start feeling the effects of the field, change the way you breathe so you don't suck in so much bad air with the good air. You'll still get sick eventually, but it'll take longer for that to happen than if you just breathe the same way all the time." Romi and Apollo both lit up in understanding.
"Of course! Rhythm!" Apollo exclaimed, slapping his hand against his forehead, "Why didn't I think of that?" He and the raven-haired fairy beside him both closed their eyes and took deep breaths, exhaling slowly as they floated falteringly in the air. After a moment, both began looking better and their wings beat faster than before, bringing them to a stronger, more confident hover as a faint ripple of pink magical energy flowed over them. The two fairies opened their eyes and smiled at the brunet.
"It worked!" Romi exclaimed happily and bowed to Timmy, "Thank you very much for helping us!"
"For a human, you've got a pretty good understanding of fairies and fairy magic. Almost like an instinct to it." Apollo remarked in an impressed tone, "Thanks for the head's up." Wanda and Cosmo both looked up at their godchild in surprise and Timmy only blinked at them.
"What? That's how it is, isn't it?" he asked in confusion, looking even more baffled as Wanda plastered on a weak smile.
"Yes, you're right. It's exactly like you said." she replied softly.
"Well, we fixed the fairies and Timmy, too. But, that still leaves us with the guards to deal with." A.J. commented dryly, arms folded over his chest, "And I don't think we can make them go away just by breathing funny on them." He looked up in surprise as the brunet got up from his crouched position and held out a hand.
"If we can't use magic and wishes to get rid of them, then black magic will have to do the trick!" he declared and conjured up a small mirror before his hand, "Anti-Wanda! I need your help!" With that, he swept his hand aside, mentally using the mana in the mirror to shatter it into pieces that dropped out of existence. A burst of pale blue smoke appeared before him and the anti-fairy appeared, fluttering before him with her eternally dopey smile.
"Howdy, Sugarsnack! What'cha need? Got some hankering fer a bad luck party and invitin' the gang ta join in?" she greeted and laughed happily as the fairies collectively cringed away from her. Timmy motioned to the security guards walking the lot.
"Yeah, them. Anti-Wanda, can you get some of the anti-fairies to give those guys some bad luck and scare them out of here? I can't attack the Spire if they're here; they'll get hurt!" he explained in exasperation. Anti-Wanda looked over her shoulder at the guards and the smile grew wider.
"Shore thing, Sugarsnack!" she declared and flew high into the air. There was the sound of a shrill whistle and dozens of anti-fairies poofed into view above them. At first, they just gathered there in a cloud, then they all shot down towards the security guards, descending upon them in a storm of bat's wings and black star wands. Pandemonium broke out as guards scattered in screams, the sounds of glass breaking, cats yowling and evil laughter filling the air. Team Turner huddled together, warily watching the chaos in hopes that they would be overlooked for the reason of being Timmy's allies. Wanda glanced aside at her husband, but Cosmo only returned it with a neutral expression, neither stupid-looking nor angry, just some strangely impassive look that felt cold and distant. Not at all like the Cosmo she loved and married. She turned to look at her godchild and Timmy was now just standing there, grinning at the havoc playing out before him. She flinched as his magical signature briefly tuned itself to the dark side, black magic tainting him.
Not good. He insisted he was purely light, but the fact that he was enjoying unleashing anti-fairies on an unsuspecting group of guards proved otherwise to her. He was human, she had to remember that, and being human meant he had darkness in his heart. Timmy just refused to acknowledge it even as he used it.
"Dude, I don't know whether to say 'Cool' or not about all this." Chester remarked slowly, giving the brunet a suspicious look.
"Those people are going to need a lot of therapy later." Sanjay agreed, wincing as Anti-Wanda drained the negative energy from one guard before sending him scurrying away in terror.
"The Timmy Turner I remember was nicer to people." Elmer mumbled, fingers pressing together humbly.
"The Timmy Turner you remember is dead." Timmy mocked and laughed at the quickly vanishing guards, "Way to go, antis!" The anti-fairies flocked back towards him, work done, as he looked back at Elmer with a faintly evil grin. "If you don't like me as I am now, go home. I'll erase your memories and you can sit in your bed and fondle my hat all you like." he added. Elmer flinched and Chester immediately stepped between them, scowling.
"Either you say you're sorry about that, or I'm knocking those buck teeth of yours onto the asphalt." the blonde threatened.
"Try it and every anti-fairy here will haunt you for life." Anti-Cupid snarled at him, a broken heart arrow nocked in his black bow and aimed directly at Chester, "And I'll personally ensure you never know love!" The brunet held up a hand and Anti-Cupid obediently set the weapon down, relaxing the bowstring.
"I've got this covered. Anti-fairies, head back to the Ivory Tower and pass on the energy you've collected! You did well tonight." Timmy commanded and the flock of antis burst out of view in a multitude of smoke puffs. Once they were gone, he winced and rubbed his head, looking sheepish. "Okay, so maybe that was a bit over the top, but you guys keep bringing up things about how I used to be and all. It's really annoying." he told the group and looked towards Elmer, "Sorry about that. Really. I'm not gonna do anything to you, but for the sake of not getting on my nerves, could all of you just lay off on the whole 'the Timmy Turner of the past' thing?"
The team glanced at each other in silent deliberation before finally nodding slowly. They didn't like it that much, their memories of Timmy's childhood had been all that had kept them going for so long, but if clinging to that memory was hurting the Timmy that existed now...
"I don't see why that should matter..." Trixie began in a puzzled tone but Chester cut her off with a quick motion of his hand.
"Fine, whatever. We'll do it your way, man. You're the Heart of Dimmsdale, after all." the blonde interrupted curtly. Timmy lifted an eyebrow questioningly at him.
"Thanks. I think." he murmured.
Wanda breathed a soft sigh of relief as the aura she could sense around Timmy faded back to light, the faintest wisps of darkness hovering around its edges. She didn't like him hanging around antis for that very reason. The more he exposed himself to them, the easier it was for him to be influenced by their magic. If she wasn't careful, if she wasn't vigilant, he would truly become Anti-Wanda's sunu and there was no telling what Anti-Cosmo -if he ever awoke- would do with him then.
A brief blur of green and white zipped past her to him and suddenly there was Cosmo, rapping Timmy on the head repeatedly with the star of his wand to get his attention.
"Hello? Hellooooo?" the fairy godfather called down at him sternly, "We haven't got all night! Are we gonna do this or not? I'm missing valuable Not-Study game time for this!" Timmy yelped in pain and rubbed his head, glaring up at Cosmo as the fairy just grinned back at him.
"This doesn't give me good feelings about tonight." Tootie muttered, looking up at the nearby Spire, "Security guards? Are the traps even here if there were guards stationed here?" The group began passing her by, closing in on their target and she sighed in exasperation, shaking her head. "And once again, no one listens to the Goth." she grumbled. Romi pat her shoulder comfortingly.
"I'm sure things will be all right. We might not be able to grant wishes until the nullifiers around the base of the Spire are gone, but we should be fine as long as we keep changing rhythms." the fairy remarked cheerfully, "Now, let's help Timothy bring down this dreadful tower so we can go home and do something safer... like your homework."
Not two minutes before the outbreak of anti-fairies at Spire Three, Remy was on the phone with the head of security at the tower, checking up on condition of the building.
"Everything's running smoothly, Young Master Buxaplenty." the guard returned briskly, "There's been no sign of the hoodlums you described."
"Yes, but I'm after a very specific ruffian. If you see him, try to detain him and contact me immediately!" Remy ordered sharply, "He goes by the name of Timothy Neogene, with brown hair, blue eyes, and a rankling tendency to destroy things with his bare hands."
"Bare hands?"
"Never mind. Just watch out for that one. Remember, brown hair and blue eyes." the boy millionaire pointed out flatly.
"Sounds a bit like the Heart."
"I quite assure you, Mr. Ortecha, that this mongrel is no endearing little Heart!" Remy growled out in a slow, dangerous tone through his teeth, "Your precious Timmy Turner is dead and I am slated to replace him as the Heart of Dimmsdale. I pay you to stand watch over the keys to my rise in power, not think about idle fantasies!"
"Yes, sir, Young Master Buxaplenty, sir. I'll... what? What the hell? What the hell is that?" the phone was suddenly filled with the faint sounds of panicked screams as the head of security began ranting hysterically. Remy pulled the phone away from himself and stared at it with an utterly baffled look. What was going on over there? "Oh God! They're everywhere! Bat things!"
There was the sound of something breaking, then maniacal laughter, and then the tone of a line gone dead as communications with the security force was cut off. Remy glanced over at Juandissimo, still pondering over the sounds. The fairy was watching him strangely, almost suspiciously, his hand in mid-stroke of brushing out his raven-black hair.
"Que paso?" he questioned and it took Remy a moment to understand the Spanish terms.
"I don't quite have the foggiest notion of what has happened." he returned slowly. His eyes began closing up as understanding of some kind began to come together in his mind.
The security guards had been attacked. By something with bat wings. Anti-fairies. Why would anti-fairies attack the Dark Spire?
Because Timothy was there, and Anti-Cosmo had once threatened to give Remy bad luck by helping his rival somehow so this must be what he had meant. But the anti-fairy leader was out of commission, the anti-fairies said so themselves.
And they also said they had a second-in-command giving them orders. Another boss. And chances were that this second boss called the shot that scattered the security detail, giving Timothy full access to the Dark Spire.
A clear path to destroying it.
"Undead bastard!" Remy shrieked in a fury, slamming the receiver onto the floor with enough force to shatter it and sending Juandissimo shooting towards the ceiling in alarm, "He's attacking the Dark Spire already! Good Lord, can't that mongrel even give me the decency to prepare for an attack?"
"All is fair in love and war, mi amigo, and since neither you nor Timothy have any love for one another..." Juandissimo put in dazedly, hands pushing against the ceiling as he pulled his head out of the hole he just created, eyes rolling about dizzily.
"Well, if it's war Neogene wants, then it's war he'll get!" Remy raged, shaking his fist at the air, "Juandissimo! I wish Veronica, Francis, Bender, Wendell, the remaining toothpaste minions and I were all at the closest point to Dark Spire Three without falling in the nullification field! And I wish that everyone but Francis had copies of the Aces High armor!"
"Francis doesn't get armor?" the fairy questioned in confusion. Remy nodded grimly.
"He's getting too close to discovering the truth. If Fate has not yet completely deserted me, his lack of protection may condemn him to following Turner. Then there will be only one loose end to tie up and no one will ever know." he growled darkly, "No evidence, no witnesses... his death will forever be nothing more than an accident."
Juandissimo gave him another suspicious look, but waved his wand anyway, sending all the players Remy requested to the site of the latest attack.
A blast of smoke later, Bender and Wendell were standing on the street in confusion, clad in white armor bearing the ace of spades on their chests, their last few toothpaste monsters gathered behind them and awaiting instructions. This was new to them, but with the minions milling about and knowing they had somehow been created and given to them by Remy, they really shouldn't have been all that surprised. The father and son glanced at each other and shrugged, then looked to the other 'members' of their group.
Veronica giggled deliriously nearby, clutching a pair of pom-poms in her hands as she stood in the same armored outfit as the dentist pair. Hair pulled back in the usual blonde ponytail, she looked like a combat cheerleader. She ruffled the pom-poms, making them tinkle like bells as her smile grew.
"Mine, mine, mine...!" she sang softly to the melody of the pom-poms, "When Trixie's gone, I'll be the new Trixie, and Timmy Turner will be mine forever!"
Francis appeared by them, dressed only in his normal clothing, a tattered white lab coat wrapping him and looking as if it had never seen the interior of a washing machine. He took in his surroundings, then snorted in disinterest.
"Another hallucination. Fascinating." he muttered dully.
Remy appeared at the forefront, clad in the Aces High armor that the dentists and cheerleader were dressed in. Juandissimo floated by him, studying himself in the mirror. Despite all that was going on around and within him, his intentions remained locked on one sure thing; Cosmo lived and still had Wanda by his side, and Juandissimo was going to do his damnedest to change all that. If it meant having to go one on one again with the idiot fairy and that weird scythe-thing, then so be it. He would be the nobler man and fight bravely with his own skills for the hand of fair Wanda, who truly didn't deserve her fate.
And he meant that.
"Over there! Move out to the Spire and defend it! Go after the ones I told you to cancel out!" Remy ordered the group, "Bender, Wendell, Chip Skylark will most definitely be there, so do something about him! Do whatever you like, just keep him out of battle! Francis, you are to attack that McBadbat loser at once when you see him! Don't fail me!" He clenched a hand into a fist with a fierce grin, "Just leave Timothy Neogene to me! I have a personal score to settle with that mongrel!" He threw hand out to the tower in the distance and yelled again. "Go!"
And the group raced after him towards the Dark Spire.
Dark Spire Three~
"Is everyone in position?" Timmy called out over the Fenton Phones, glaring up at the obelisk that sat disconnected from its brethren.
"Yup! We're ready when you magic-users are! Good luck, Trixie, and take it easy, 'kay?" Chester replied.
"Oh, get a room already!" Tootie declared in exasperation.
"Mind your own business, you Goth freak!" Trixie snapped back, "I could say the same about you and Timmy, but you know he likes me and would never give you the time of day!"
"Like I really care that much what he thinks of me!"
"Will you two stop fighting over me?" Timmy yelled in irritation, "Where the heck was all this when I was trying to get somebody's attention as a kid?" Silence, then...
"You still can't have him..." Trixie muttered.
"Focus! We have to hurry and finish this!" Cosmo suddenly snapped down, then in a lighter tone, added, "I wanna go eat pizza! Yay! Pizza!"
"Here goes!" Tootie cried and, on her end, a circle of light shone at her feet as she held her dagger out to the hatch doors, the Laser Blade in her other hand and waiting to strike. "There's still enough mana to use spells, Timmy! Go for it!" she declared, "Strike with heaven's wrath! Thunder Arrow!" A flurry of powerful lightning strikes hurled down onto the hatches, blowing them open and thoroughly destroying a large group of devices racing out to meet her head-on.
"My turn!" Chip cheered and smiled hugely at his own set of hatch doors, the shining blue-white light of his 'Teeth Fu' laser blasting them open. Dozens of anti-magic traps scuttled out, closing in on him with jaws snapping, dishes swiveling about and nets flailing in the wake of their speeds. With a laugh, the singer waved to them, then darted aside, running for the closest of the snipers waiting to pick off the nullifiers and control units.
"I wish the doors would open!" Trixie announced and Apollo shook his head as he floated by her.
"Too much interference. I can't grant wishes until the nullifiers are dead." he told her, "Just get us close to the hatch doors, Trixie! They should pick up the hair on your armor and start chasing you! I'll cover you with the scimitar!" The Asian nodded in agreement and scampered for the hatch doors, pounding on each one with her fists.
"Fairy! Fairy! I've got a fairy!" she screamed at them and the metal panels slid open in a flash, the beaming red eyes of hundreds of traps all locked on her and Apollo. The fairy godfather waved his arms in a panic.
"Not like that, Trixie! Run!" he cried and the two raced away, searching for a member of Team Turner to weed out the group.
Clouds of silver filled the air as literally thousands of automated traps and nullifiers took to the land and sky, red eyes beaming as they sought out the sources of the attack. Battalions of destroyers, Smasher-class units, loped along the concrete on short legs, powerful jaws clanking together in predatory anticipation of sinking metallic teeth into the teens racing around the building. Scattered among them were the Four-Eyes units, ground nullifiers that tromped along with their radio dishes swiveling about wildly as they sent out the signals that jammed fairy magic and helped to extend the range of the mega-nullifier on the top floors of the Dark Spire. Flanking them were the Flip-Top fairy trap units, butterfly nets built into the main body of the devices set on springs. When they got close to a weakened fairy, the unit would pop open the net and clap it over the fairy, much like a piranha plant.
These were the units that threatened the land-bound members of Team Turner most. The fairies had to worry about the aerial units, destroyers like the Mayhem-class with their assorted blades and maces, the Satellite-class nullifiers that bobbed about erratically and clung closely to the Sweeper-class fairy traps whose nets were always open and hungry for any fairy they could corner.
And flying about in the chaos were the new Squadron Control Units, hovering spheres whose sole purpose was to govern the actions of the other units and prevent the overload of information and data that would quickly short out the server system within the Dark Spire. It was these units that had to be destroyed above all others, for if even one of them remained active, Team Turner would never be able to destroy the tower that ruled one of the remaining regions of the magic-deprived Dimmsdale.
"According to the detector, we've got about three hundred controllers out there and about six hundred nullifiers. Man! That's gonna take all night to blow away!" Chester complained over the sounds of laser-fire and crashing units, "Well, at first count, considering we're shooting 'em down right now but still! Man!" The blonde held the device in one hand, his other holding up the laser blaster and firing rapidly at any of the floating nullifiers that were lured into his range by the dashing decoys. He glanced between the screen of the detector and the cross-hairs of the gun often, both to keep track of the numbers as well as to identify the proper targets. Chip raced by in laughter, sparing just enough time and distance to pull off a few dance moves as the ground and air units chased after him.
"This is way cool fun, little dude! Although, I'm still pretty sure these earrings won't go over well with the public." the singer remarked brightly.
"Chip, for the last time, they're not earrings!" Timmy sighed in exasperation, "They're communicators! Danny Phantom lent them to me!"
"So he's into New Age stuff? I don't work with anyone who walks that way..."
"Not one more word out of you about him or, so help me, there won't be enough pillows in this city to cover what remains of your teeth when I get done with them." the brunet snarled out, "Focus! We don't want to get taken out when we're so close to winning!"
"I'd listen to him when he's in this state of mind." A.J. remarked bluntly as he peered through the sight scope of his own laser rifle, sniping down nullifiers as they passed into his region, "We can handle Timmy just fine when he's not in battle. Combat Timmy gets really testy, really fast."
Sanjay, being the best marksman of the group, was relegated to shooting down units that chased the fairies. Each of the godparents would dive down close to him with several dozen traps and nullifiers on their trail, and the Hindu teen would quickly pick out a number of targets as they rushed by. Vicky stuck close to him as a bodyguard, darting out to destroy anything that got too near Sanjay for comfort. Her wide smile as she sank her twin swords into the units was exactly the same evil grin she so often displayed when tormenting Timmy and his friends; now it was a sign of her delight in helping them by doing what she did best, destroying other people's property.
"What a blast! And I get to do this to all the other towers, right?" she called out and laughed evilly, "I love this gig! You should've brought me into this sooner, twerp! I would've brought the heavy artillery from my personal collection!"
A good start to the assault but, as they had been expecting, the advantage of confusion and systematic destruction didn't last very long. Very soon, Elmer was yelling out into the Phones about the new trouble.
He'd been sniping off controllers and nullifiers as they passed into his section of the battlefield. Suddenly, one of the control units turned to face its blinking red eye at him. Elmer lifted the blaster to shoot it down and was stunned to find that a small group of aerial nullifiers immediately shielded the unit from his view. The russet-haired boy set the gun down, startled. That was definitely new; was this what they were looking for in the way of new defenses the Spires would learn from their attack strategies? His hand flew up to the Fenton Phones.
"Timmy, sir! Chester, sir! The control units! They're acting weird!" he blurted out in shock, "This one got shielded by nullifiers! It's like it told them to protect it or something!"
"And now the new craziness starts. Okay, let me try and figure out what to do about this!" Timmy called back.
"Keep shooting at them, Elmer! Even if you don't hit 'em, it might help Timmy find a weakness or somethin'! You know that's his specialty!" Chester ordered.
Elmer sighed heavily but lifted the laser blaster again. This was going to be one of those battles.
The message was relayed across the Fenton Phones to all members of Team Turner; the control units were manipulating other units into becoming shields. A.J. dropped to one knee, one hand raised with a laser blaster firing at the slew of nullifiers that chased after Trixie as she ran by, his free hand tapping rapidly at the keys of his laptop, searching his files for something, anything, to help plan what to do next.
'It was expected; this was expected.' he thought to himself as he alternated his focus between the targets and his data, 'So why is it that I still feel frustrated over this? Timmy, please, please, let us know you can pull off some kind of miracle for this one, too!'
And the brunet was soon running by, occasionally leaping into the air and twisting around to get a view of the units swarming around him, then landing roughly and scrambling to keep going. He was searching for a weakness, that much A.J. could see, but his waning grace was evidence that his search was costing him dearly. If he didn't find something soon...
The laptop was going to take time to locate any useful information right away. The android assistants back in New York had just about flooded the Archives' computers with data concerning the reverse-engineered units, including the controllers, but it would take time to download it and find something of use immediately. Time that Timmy didn't have in abundance, thanks to nullifiers ripping shreds of mana from him each time he launched himself among them in search of a clue to defeat them.
"Dammit, this isn't good." the technician muttered under his breath, returning his attention to the battle and squeezing off several more shots, "C'mon, Timmy, don't let us down!"
Overhead, with the fairies spiralling around the massive tower, Wanda kept a steady grip on her hammer, watching the units buzzing close to her with a wary glare. The sickening feeling of nullification passed over her and she swerved aside, shrieking in a fury as she let the aerial nullifier have it with the full force of the Heartache Hammer. Its massive head smashed into shining metal and the unit was sent hurtling away, one more broken piece of machinery to join the others raining down from above.
Cosmo flew by her, intent on his personal mission of destroying the nullifiers before they came any closer to her. Zipping from squadron to squadron, he spun and twisted much like Timmy did below him, lashing out with the Windcutter to split a number of units in two. Where once the vacant, dopey expression had dominated his face, now there was only a cold, detached visage. The face of a soldier.
And following quickly after him, his own face bright with awe and the beginnings of some strange form of hero-worship, came Apollo, scimitar held tight in his hand as he tried to mimic the fluid twists and spins of the older fairy and destroy several more units. Though he was focusing on trying to get to the control units, as his smaller size enabled him a better chance of getting around the shields the devices brought up, he still hounded down his fair share of nullifiers. The only reason why he was up there and not flanking Trixie was she had wished for him to join the other fairies in the aerial combat, feeling confident enough in her own skills to keep herself defended against the ground units below them.
"Oh, why can't this be over quickly? Doing this goes against everything we're taught as fairy godparents!" Andromeda cried even as her Razoredge Fans sliced through a number of units and nets that threatened to overcome the group. Her dress fluttered in the wind, a slit torn into it as usual to allow her greater ease of movement as she 'danced' through the battle. "We're putting children in danger! I'm putting my godchild in danger!" she went on, "Why did that awful Remy boy even do all this to begin with? Why couldn't he just be happy with the wishes granted to him by that Juandissimo fellow?"
'Why, indeed.' Wanda thought to herself, then sighed and gazed down at the concrete battlefield below her, watching her own godchild darting fluidly across the ground and lashing out with his staff at points to sweep away the shields of units to get to a controller, only to be driven back by a flood of nullifiers. There was the reason why Remy couldn't be happy, clad in black and suffering the fate of a Hero.
And all she could do to comfort him was stand by him as his fairy godmother.
Tootie focused on the mana around her, hoping there was enough for a spell, hoping she was sufficiently far away from nullifiers to cast it. This situation wasn't good; not for them and especially not for Timmy. She had glimpsed him searching the units for a new weakness, a new flaw to exploit. There was a strange, unnatural grace to the brunet that she had seen, that all of the Others had seen; a grace that was a far cry from the clumsy and slow movements that had been Timmy's trademark as a fifth-grader. Once he was so uncoordinated that he could easily trip over an insect; now it seemed as though gravity barely had control of his body. As though if it ever slipped, just slightly, on holding him to the ground, the boy would simply abandon earth and fly as freely as the fairies that raced above them.
But with each leap into the air to overlook the units, each escape from the dirty concrete he made to find a better vantage, he came down to earth less gracefully. A slight stumble at first, then more and more haphazardly as he continued his pursuit.
He was weakening. And there was enough mana to help him.
"Agents of mana! Bestow upon us thine soothing touch!" she exclaimed, dagger aimed at Timmy as he came rushing closer to her side of the Spire, "Nurse!" In brilliant flashes of light, a pair of nymph-like creatures appeared in nurse's uniforms, running for her and Timmy both, sporting tiny, cherub-like wings on their backs and carrying spheres of swirling iridescent energy... mana... in their hands. Not the strongest healing spell in her arsenal, but one that guaranteed delivery of the life-boosting energy to Timmy no matter where he ran.
And the smile on his face that was directed towards her as he dashed by her, the nurse still hot on his heels to deliver the mana, was all the reward she desired.
For the moment.