9
Dark Spire Three~
"Ten, nine, eight..." A.J. counted to himself as he continued firing the laser rifle to keep the units off of him and the laptop. Just a few more seconds now, and his program would launch the signals. He glanced aside at the screen to check it, then went back to firing. "Come on! Hurry!" A beep sounded and A.J. set the gun aside in favor of tapping at the laptop, "Bingo! Signal sent!" His fingers flew over the keys, entering false IDs and 'convincing' each controller that the six signals querying them were nullifiers obeying the order to defend it.
"It's working! I can shoot down the nullifiers protecting the controllers and they're not calling new ones!" Elmer exclaimed.
"I need someone to keep me covered! I can't bounce back and forth between suppressive fire and this! I have to keep my attention on the signals!" A.J. called back, "Vicky! Can you cover me?"
"Yeah, yeah! Hang on; I'll be right there!" the redhead groused. A.J. snatched up the rifle, squeezed a few more shots off at a small squadron of units bearing down on him, then turned his attentions back to the compiled list of generated IDs. Bit by bit, he was bringing down the control units' defenses. A little longer and they'd all be destroyed, tipping the battle back to their favor. The teen genius could only hope the rest of the team could pull through on their own skirmishes.
Trixie was definitely scratching this girl off of her Friend list, ducking and dodging Veronica's attacks with little difficulty. The blonde cartwheeled aside from her sweeping kicks and did backflips and overhead jumps to evade her punches. This was the first time the Asian found herself breaking a serious sweat in a confrontation; who knew Veronica could actually give her a run for her money?
At the same time, though, she was still sharp enough to spin and bend around the attempted slashes of the cheerleader's killer pom-poms, lashing out to block with the mythril gauntlets if she couldn't escape in time and thankful that the ribbon steel wasn't enough to cut into them. Too bad she couldn't say the same about her hair. The ends were completely uneven and her hairband had long since become a casualty. It would probably be easier if she could get Apollo close enough to grant her a wish or two, but the trail of units that had followed him wasn't letting up and he was too busy dealing with them to offer much support.
"God, can't you just give up and go home already?" Trixie snapped, throwing another punch that the insane girl dodged by falling into a perfect split.
"Not until you're gone! I totally know that you doing this is, like, hurting Timmy's feelings!" Veronica retorted, lifting herself with her hands and twisting her body so that her split would trip over the Asian. She barely kept her balance by performing a sideways flip that carried her over both leg sweeps. The blonde spiralled onto her feet again and shook her pom-poms indignantly. "Like, all you ever cared about is your own totally stupid selfish self!" Veronica accused, "And it's all your fault that Timmy had to, like, go away and totally abandon us and stuff!"
"That's not true! He said it wasn't my fault!" Trixie shot back unsteadily, breathing hard as she tried to recover some energy from the brief respite the crazy girl's rambling gave her. Veronica shook her head, eyes flashing furiously.
"You're always, like, trying to avoid the blame and stuff, but it's totally not gonna help you now!" the young valley girl declared, "And when you're, like, dead and all, I'm gonna be the new Trixie and Timmy will totally fall in love with me and be mine!" She grinned hugely, the mad light shining in her blue eyes even brighter. "Now I'm gonna kick it up!"
With that, Veronica spread her arms out and the pom-poms in her hands suddenly began to spin, humming as centrifugal force threw the ribbon-cut steel strands out to form deadly sharp blades. Trixie uttered a cry of alarm and leaped back as her former best friend shot forward, swiping at her with the transformed weapons. Not good! Maybe Veronica's instability was making her unaware of the physical toll the fight was taking on her, but Trixie was feeling it just fine. And this head-to-head duel was wearing her out; she couldn't last much longer at this intensity!
"Veronica! Have you totally lost it?" she screamed back, lashing out with her arms to block the blades and praying that the mythril wouldn't fail to protect her, "I told you already! Timmy said it's not my fault!" The other girl was swinging wildly now, giggles falling through her toothy grin in rapid fire sequence. There was an opening and Trixie took it, spinning on one heel to kick away one of the spinning pom-poms. Veronica tumbled backwards and held the remaining one forward, still smiling.
"And you just keep lying and lying and lying!" she giggled. Trixie shook her head furiously.
"You don't get it, do you? Timmy was murdered! It's all a set-up to make Dimmsdale turn out like this!" the Asian snapped and bit her lip almost immediately after. Maybe she shouldn't have said that?
Veronica's eyes widened, her smile stretching just a little further, her teeth clenching together just a little harder. Her giggles burst forth even more rapidly, filling the air with their hyena-like sound. She hugged herself, twisting back and forth in place as she finally erupted in full out laughter, all the while watching the startled teen standing just a few yards away.
"Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er! Mur-der-er!" the blonde sang almost gaily, "Beautiful, beautiful! Now I totally have a better reason to kill you, Trixie! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" And she launched into the air again with a spin, shrieking in maddened joy as Trixie raced to avoid the attack.
Yeah, she was better off not having said anything at all.
Apollo was having a heck of a time shaking the traps and destroyers that flew after him in a frenzy, thankful that Wanda was flying alongside and smashing into them with her hammer. She continued glancing away often, though, biting her lip in a nervous attempt to ward off panic. Whatever ability she had to detect when Timmy was in danger was probably ringing off in her head like mad and she was doing all she could to ignore it for the moment to help out the fairy swordsman. After all, the orders were for her to go to him the moment she could get free, but with Apollo still tailed by so many fairy traps, the chances of her being able to get to him were rapidly disappearing.
"Just go to him already and let me handle this!" he yelled out through the Fenton Phones, "I'll drag these things down towards the snipers!"
"Are you sure? I don't want to find out that you got captured or killed!" Wanda cried in concern, "My Timmy Sense is blaring, but we can't afford to lose a fairy godparent again!"
"I'll be fine! Just get going!" the fairy swordsman snapped and Wanda nodded quickly before rushing away in a blur of pink. Apollo watched her zip away out of the corner of his eye before sighing in relief and taking to the higher levels of the battlefield. "Okay, okay. I can do this." he whispered to himself, "I'm the best they had in the corps for this. Jorgen said so. If Cosmo can do it, so can I. I just have to gather enough magic for it." He lifted his wand and focused intently on it, releasing a ribbon of red magic from the golden star and swirling it around himself to form the familiar corkscrew from so many weeks ago. Just like for Cosmo, the anti-magic devices soared up after him, attracted by the spiralling band of magic that he was generating.
Apollo began to slow his ascent, letting them all gather around and surround him in a silver cloud. Then, muttering a quick prayer that it would perform like he hoped it would, the fairy swordsman lashed out with the wand, slicing through the cloud with the ribbon of magic. An expression of shock and disbelief quickly followed by joy and relief flashed across his face as the ribbon tore into the devices and destroyed them as easily as Cosmo had done back at Spire Four.
"I did it! I did it!" he exclaimed in jubilation, then suddenly shuddered as a wave of exhaustion rushed through his body, "Whoa... whoa... What's... happening?" Apollo shook his head, turning pale as his vision began darkening, "No... no! My magic...!"
That attack... Cosmo's Doom Ribbon used up a massive amount of magical energy! But if that was true, then how could Cosmo have used it in range of a Dark Spire and still have the strength to keep fighting when he, a top-ranking member of the Fairy Marines, used it only once in the same conditions and was now about to pass out at 800 feet above street level?
The rumor must have been true; Cosmo's magic level, the amount of power he had... no wonder...
"That's why..." Apollo mumbled as he staggered drunkenly from the sky on barely fluttering wings towards Trixie, "That's why they called him that... in the military... The ultimate weapon..." He curled up on himself and retched, then fell, shuddering, from the aerial battlefield.
Apollo wasn't the only one suffering from a sudden drop in magical energy. Timmy faced his own crisis, having been caught in one of Remy's traps just minutes ago and already feeling the effects of the crystalline object's draining ability. He didn't have much strength left, just enough to keep his eyes somewhat open and focused on the glass bubble filling up with his personal mana supply. The rest of his limbs felt heavy and numb, so his hazy mind considered it a good thing that the metal tendrils were holding him up and supporting them. Part of him thought it would also be a good thing if he just let go of consciousness and sleep the rest of the fight away, but part of him still managed to scream in a faint and furious voice that he should fight back, struggle, do something besides just stand there and let Remy steal away all his mana and use it for some stupid thing.
A little longer, and he wouldn't have the strength to even hear that voice. He had to get Wanda's attention, get some help breaking out of this thing; he just didn't have enough energy to do it himself. The only way he could think of was fast and easy, but would open up a whole can of worms he didn't want to waste energy worrying about.
Timmy winced as he felt a new wave of exhaustion pass over him; Remy hadn't been kidding when he said this thing would sedate him heavily. Speaking of Remy... He lifted his gaze to focus on the blonde more closely and noted with some interest that Juandissimo wasn't with him, at least not in plain view. Had the fairy gone elsewhere to help scatter his team and destroy their plans? Probably found Wanda and was trying to sweet talk to her again.
Why was this happening anyway? More than just the usual 'Why me' whining he often thought whenever similar situations popped up for him in these Spire battles, this was an honestly baffling idea. Why was Remy trying to get him sedated by draining out his mana, his 'magical power', when beforehand he'd been trying every trick in the book to get rid of him in more permanent ways? Or at least as permanent as could be done to a mortal human; those tricks didn't quite work out on an immortal.
"Almost full now. Then it'll all be over." Remy mused aloud. Timmy half-listened to him, now puzzling over his earlier words. He said something about his benefactors; that meant that someone was helping Remy and this trap thing must have been given to him by those helpers. The brunet's mind spun trying to make sense of things, then was jolted out of those thoughts by the sounds of gunfire. "What the bloody hell is going on now?" Remy shrieked in response and Timmy managed to turn his head to see what was happening.
Sanjay was racing onto the scene, holding his laser rifle with one arm and aiming a small firearm at them in his free hand. There was a furious expression on his face that seemed far out of place for the little Hindu. Timmy blinked owlishly at the gun in Sanjay's hand. He didn't remember A.J. issuing out weapons like that for the team; they didn't even look like the usual design that the teen genius was known for. In fact, that looked like a real gun. Why would Sanjay have a real gun? And where'd he get it?
"Get away from him at once, you very cruel person, you!" Sanjay yelled and Remy jumped back in alarm, face paling in momentary realization of what he was facing.
"Good God, are those actual bullets you're firing at me? Are you bloody mad, you wretched foreign urchin?" he yelled in horror. Sanjay growled in response and waved the gun at the collection of crystals.
"What is this thing? Tell me quickly! What is it doing to Timothy?" he demanded to know. Timmy blinked again and struggled to call out.
"H-help!" he croaked weakly, "D-drain!" The Hindu's eyes flashed dangerously at Remy once those words reached him.
"What does that mean? Why does he sound like that?" Sanjay snapped new questions and the blonde held his hands up in a helpless gesture, eyes still locked on the small handgun that remained pointed at him.
"I don't really know! Honest! It just pulls his magic out and stores it away!" he babbled.
"Then I shall remedy this and set my comrade free!" Sanjay retorted and turned on the crystalline device, firing on each facet until it shattered, freeing one limb after another. Remy shrieked in outrage and dismay.
"What are you doing? Stop firing, you dolt!" he cried and ran for the crystal trap. Timmy pulled himself free of the broken trap, staggering as Sanjay fired off a few rounds at the facets holding his legs in place. Frantic to salvage part of the device, the blonde snatched away the glass bubble of pink mana and hugged it close to his body. "Fine! Take your wretched mongrel back! I'll get him eventually!" Remy declared in a huff, "I've already gotten what I wanted out of him for now!"
The Hindu glared at him as he moved carefully over to Timmy's side, standing guard as he silently dared Remy to try anything to harm them. The brunet had collapsed into a limp little heap on the ground once he lost all support of the crystalline trap, which now lay in pieces around and underneath him. He groaned softly, still feeling mostly detached from the rest of his body. Wanda flew in from the air and cried out in alarm, dropping down to check on him as Sanjay motioned at the blonde with the firearm.
"That thing you are holding; that belongs to Timothy! Drop it this very moment!" he ordered. Remy snorted in disdain, clutching the bubble closer.
"As if! I worked plenty hard to earn this!" he shot back, "I'm not giving it up!" Wanda joined Sanjay in giving the blonde vicious glares.
"That's Timothy's mana! It's what fuels his magic and keeps him alive! You have to give that back!" she blurted out. Remy looked affronted by that, tilting his chin up in defiance.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't care one whit about this 'mana' nonsense; I only aimed to steal the mongrel's magic and now I have it!" he declared, "He can't do a single little magic trick without it!" Timmy managed to sit up, glaring weakly up at the blonde.
"Hate to admit it... but he's right..." he rasped and both Wanda and Sanjay shot him startled looks, "I didn't have much mana because of the nullifiers I kept jumping past earlier, so this just seemed to have clinched it." He flinched, wrapping his arms around his stomach as though trying to hold himself together. "I barely have enough in me to keep me from turning to dust, let alone cast a single spell." he murmured at last.
"Hah! So I do have your power!" Remy crowed in victory, "And none of you can do a thing to me or I'll shatter it and he'll lose his magic for good!"
"Would that really happen?" Sanjay asked Timmy worriedly.
"Nah, don't think so. But it would be a wicked setback on our part." the brunet whispered, "If I could just get my hands on that bubble, I can reabsorb the mana he stole and get back to normal." He glanced up at the Hindu. "Keep him busy. I have a plan." Sanjay grinned at him, a mischievous look on his face.
"Ah, this shall be most enjoyable! I will do my very best for you!" he returned and straightened, aiming the little gun at Remy's feet, "If you wish to prove your superiority, then see if you can avoid these!" And with that he began firing shots to make the blonde dance about in a panic.
"Juandissimo! Help!" Remy shrieked aloud.
Juandissimo had spent the majority of his 'duel' with Cosmo dodging the blades of air that the other fairy used as weapons. Now panting as he hid behind a nearby light post, the Latino used the brief respite to rethink his plan of attack. Or rather, his lack of one. He hadn't been doing much attacking at all.
"I don't have time to seek you out, Magnifico. Either you emerge from your location of shelter and face me for a quick defeat, or I will have to rain upon this area to flush you out for a much slower one." Cosmo's voice finally sounded out, icy-cold and deadly dark. This was not the way Cosmo normally talked; Cosmo didn't use big words or threatened people with harm. And he didn't call him by his last name! Cosmo's name for Juandissimo was that horribly unsexy 'Muscles McGoo'. What was he doing calling him 'Magnifico'?
"This is muy mal. Whatever it is that's going on is making him more dangerous than when he is his usual stupid self." Juandissimo muttered to himself and peered around the light post, looking up to see the green-haired fairy hovering high overhead, searching the area for him. The scythe was still in his grip, so there was a good chance that Cosmo wasn't kidding when he said he would unleash more air blades to chase him out of hiding.
"I am tired of this! Reveal yourself and face judgment for violation of the first prerogative!" the fairy godfather snapped, then spun around with a gasp of alarm, "What the-?" Juandissimo blinked as Cosmo shook his head and yelped in fright, "Timmy!"
His voice was normal now. What had happened?
Well, Juandissimo wasn't going to bother with that right now. Cosmo was distracted by his concerns with his godchild, so this was his only chance to end the battle so that he could win Wanda over to his side. Shooting up from the light post, he yelled out in anticipated triumph, turning his rapier to bring the hilt forward. Cosmo spun around in shock just in time for Juandissimo to slam the sword hilt into his stomach. The dapper fairy grunted softly in pain, then went slack, slumping over and letting the black scythe drop out of his grip. Just as he began to fall from the air, the Latino zipped underneath, slinging the limp figure onto one shoulder.
"That was far easier than I thought, though I must thank whatever lucky star had chosen this moment to distract him with his godchild." Juandissimo mused and looked around, puzzled, "However, the undead muchachito is not here. So why would he choose now to worry about him?" He gave a half-shrug, then blinked as he heard the faint yells of his own godchild ringing in his ears. Oh, that's right; fairy godparents had the ability to hear their name being called by their designated godchild. This let them just call out and the godparent would poof in beside them, ready to grant a wish. That must have been what distracted Cosmo.
"Ah, si, si. Coming already, my little amigo. Just let me deal with this..." Juandissimo grumbled, searching around the area for anti-magic traps before shooting down to shove Cosmo against the base of the light post. Whipping out his own wand in place of the rapier, he waved it to summon a length of rope that quickly wrapped around both the post and the unconscious fairy, tying them together. Another wave, this time in the direction of the fallen Windcutter Scythe, and Cosmo's non-magical weapon was quickly destroyed.
"I will return and deal with you once I have tended to Remy." Juandissimo pointed out dryly to the other fairy. He poofed in a mirror and gazed at himself in it, grinning as he preened before it. "And I know that whenever Remy calls for me, your little godchild calls Wanda to come and see me. So! I will be at my most sexy for her and carry her away with me!" he declared as he struck a pose that immediately ripped his shirt to pieces and then was replaced. His name was yelled once again and he rolled his eyes before poofing away, mirror and all.
With Vicky finally at his side defending him with her twin katanas, A.J. put all his attention on the laptop, jumping to each control unit and pinging it with multiple false nullifier signals to force them into dropping their defenses enough to let Elmer pick them off. They hadn't heard much on the Fenton Phones beyond Chip, Tootie, and Andromeda's yells of fury as they battled toothpaste monsters and the insane dentist duo, Sanjay's laughter over some odd thing, and Chester demanding that Veronica stop whatever it was she was doing. Apollo hadn't made contact since declaring he had too many units tailing him to help Trixie and Cosmo was probably still too distracted by his shiny metal targets to bother calling in. At least Timmy wasn't screaming over the frequency anymore.
"How much longer before this stupid Spire falls?" Vicky shrieked in frustration.
"There are too many control units for me to talk to each one, so I'm putting together a virus to infiltrate the units and cause a loopback error in them! Maybe it'll be enough to make them think they have control of whatever nullifiers they're trying to signal!" the teen genius called back, tapping furiously at the keys.
"Well, hurry it up! I'm not letting some walking pile of blue goo trash my sister while the twerp's sittin' around and twiddlin' his thumbs!" the babysitter snapped.
"Give me another five minutes of coverage!" A.J. cried out and covered his head as a pair of destroyers flew past him, gashes cut into their silvery casing as they sparked and bounced across the concrete. He looked up at the flashing pink eyes of Icky Vicky glaring down at him, and gulped.
"You get two, Nerd Boy. Make 'em count." she growled dangerously and A.J. nodded quickly, turning back to his work and praying that he was fast enough to complete the virus in that time frame.
Trixie flipped back from another lunge made by Veronica and her spinning pom-pom blades, coming to a halt with arms lifted protectively. The blonde had reclaimed the lost blade soon after intensifying her attacks and now twirled about with them erratically. Trixie was now running short of breath and out of energy. The longer this went on, the chances of her coming out of the battle unscathed dwindled. Why wasn't anyone coming to help her? Didn't Timmy say that he would come to help? Why had he screamed earlier, then stopped? Had something happened to keep him from coming to her rescue?
"Oohhh, I'm so tired..." she moaned softly. Was this it? Was she going to die tonight, at this Spire? She had Revive cast on her, but the two magic-users who could cast it again if she got hurt that bad were already in trouble of their own, so if she got killed, and Veronica got another hit in, then...
"Get away from her, you crazy, wrong-bathroom-using girl!"
Trixie blinked in surprise as Chester McBadbat raced in and slammed into the blonde cheerleader, sending them both tumbling across pavement. He jumped free and took up a fighting stance, glaring down at Veronica as she giggled from her prone position.
"I knew it! I totally knew it!" she laughed and got to her feet, the blades no longer spinning in her hands. She turned to stare at Trixie, wide smile stretching her face into a manic expression. "You never loved Timmy; you liked this loser!" Veronica exclaimed, "You took away my Timmy, so I'm gonna take away this guy from you! Then I'll be the new Trixie and Timmy will love only me forever!"
"Chester! Look out!" the Asian screamed out as Veronica snapped the pom-poms to her side, transforming the ribbons once more, this time from blades to ribbon cut streamers that she lashed as whips in the boy's direction. Chester stood his ground, lifting both arms up to let the streamers catch them and wrap themselves a few times. Veronica giggled rapidly and yanked on the handles of her makeshift whips, probably expecting them to slice through the armor and destroy the muscle tissue in his forearms.
Chester didn't budge.
He grinned instead and jerked back on the streamers, snapping them out of her grips and far out of reach. Veronica shrieked in rage and shot forward, hands outstretched as though to rip into him bare-handed. Trixie intercepted the charge and lifted her leg in a powerful kick that sent the cheerleader flying backwards. She landed in a crumpled heap, giggling away until she finally went silent. Trixie huffed breathlessly, dropping to one knee as she stared at her unmoving form while Chester untangled himself from the streamers and tossed them away.
"Is... is she dead?" the Asian whispered in shock.
"Nah, you just knocked her out, is all." Chester replied calmly and walked up to her, holding out his hands to help her up. "Man, you look like hell!" he added in faint surprise, looking her over for the first time since arriving to the rescue, "I didn't think she'd give you that much trouble!"
"She's hopped up on insanity and Starbucks coffee. She'd give you trouble if you had to fight her." Trixie returned dryly, accepting the hand up and leaning heavily against him, "Thanks for coming to help me, but wasn't Timmy saying that he would also help?"
"Something happened with him. C'mon, let's go check on our team leader." the Leader of the Others sighed with what sounded vaguely like exasperation but Trixie chalked it off as fatigue. They turned to make their way back to the battlefield... and stopped abruptly as they came face to face with Francis.
"So you two are also part of this." the former bully remarked flatly, hands shoved into his coat pockets. Both teens glared at him, teeth bared in vicious snarls.
"You...!" Chester hissed in barely kept fury.
"You pushed Timmy off the jungle gym!" Trixie snapped, free hand tightening into a fist around the little iron bar in her gauntlet, "You killed the Heart of Dimmsdale!" Francis only lifted an eyebrow at them.
"Did I? The jungle gym spun somehow; I don't think me pushing him could have made it spin. Something else did it." he countered calmly.
"Something made it spin, all right!" the blonde redneck growled, "That stupid little machine buried in the playground! You must have made that thing to kill Timmy!"
"No, I'm pretty sure that I was still very stupid back then. I wouldn't know to design something like a machine to spin a jungle gym. Especially since we were all just kids back then." Francis mused aloud. Trixie shook her head fervently.
"You can't pull that one on us, buster!" she yelled, "A kid could have designed that spinning machine! I saw a kid's drawing that looked just like it once!" Francis seemed to perk in interest.
"Really? Did you now? Can you tell me where? It may prove useful in my simulation." the former bully enthused, pulling his hands free to rub them together excitedly, "Think now, girl! Where did you see a drawing of that machine?" Trixie snorted and threw her hand up in dismissal.
"That's a dumb question. I found it in the Black Hound files at..." She stopped, eyes widening as all color drained from her face, "Oh, God!" Chester looked at her worriedly, grabbing her arms as she stared into the distance.
"Tricks? Trixie! What's wrong?" he cried in alarm, "Where did you see that drawing?" He shook her in a panic as she continued to be unresponsive, staring at him with vacant eyes as her pretty face took on a horrified expression. Shaking at the sight, Chester carefully set her on the ground, then glared over at the former bully. "What the hell did you do to her?" he demanded.
"I did nothing. She's just another hallucination that refuses to leave me properly." Francis returned flatly. The blonde raced at him, fist lifted to strike against him in a rage.
"Does this feel like a hallucination?" he shrieked and threw his fist forward, only to have it blocked by Francis closing his own massive hand around it. Startled, Chester blinked at his hand, then up at the larger teen.
"I wouldn't know. You seem to have triggered something. My body doesn't respond to me any longer." Francis remarked and brought his knee up to slam into the other boy before throwing him aside. Chester rolled for a few feet, gasping from both pain and the shock of suddenly being hit like that. The armor had deadened the blow, but it was still powerful enough to knock the wind out of him.
"Wha-? What the hell was that for?" the blonde yelled at the approaching bully.
"Who knows? It might have something to do with that other hallucination I had earlier." Francis remarked idly as he kicked at the smaller teen, sending him sprawling once more. Chester scrambled to his feet, hand coming up to wipe away the bleeding at his mouth. "That one little rich kid... you know him? He showed up with a little flying Mexican, rambled on about things and then vanished." the gray-skinned teen continued as he walked after Chester again.
"Remy? Did he make some kind of wish?" he demanded, dodging a series of punches until he fell for a feint and doubled over as the boy's larger fist slammed into his stomach. He staggered back, wheezing and coughing.
"I do recall him saying something about a wish. He wanted me to fight you, though I told him I wasn't going to be doing anything like that out of memory of the Heart of Dimmsdale." Francis told him, sidestepping a tiger's-paw punch and grabbing Chester by the throat. The blonde clawed at his grip, gasping as he was lifted off the ground and his feet kicked in a futile effort to touch land again.
"Then stop!" Chester choked out weakly, "Stop!"
"And what do you suppose I've been trying to do all this time? I'm not exactly enjoying strangling a figment of my imagination." Francis replied in a faintly irritated tone, "I kind of need those to help me visualize the events of that day." Chester gasped once again, then let his hands drop to his sides and went still. Francis lifted an eyebrow at the action, then released him, watching the blonde collapse before him and remain motionless. "Hmm. That's rather unfortunate." he murmured and lifted a hand to study it objectively, "But it released control of my body to me. Well, I've had enough of this hallucination. I'll be heading home now."
And with that, Francis turned and headed for home, whistling tunelessly as he left behind two crumpled members of Team Turner lying on the pavement.
"Running out of time, Nerd Boy!" Vicky yelled out as A.J. tapped out the last few lines of code and watched the program compile itself for sending. He breathed a sigh of relief and began opening the ports to grab onto the various Wi-Fi signals.
"I've got it! Here goes!" he exclaimed and sent the virus off into the network. He reached up to tap the Fenton Phones, "Elmer! Let me know if things get easier for you!"
"Right! Okay, the controllers aren't calling anymore nullifiers to act as shields, and there's more of them that are unprotected!" the stocky sniper called back, "I think we can focus on destroying the controllers now!"
"You do that! I'm going after my sister!" Vicky snapped, "She's screaming and I didn't cause it, so I'm gonna have to kick somebody's ass for that!" She twirled one of her katanas into the air, caught it and raced off, screaming into the air like some enraged dragon who just got a cell phone bill it didn't agree with. A.J. blinked as she ran off, then yelped and snatched up his laser gun, firing at the controllers as they spiralled around the Spire with their 'bodyguards' in search of fairies. The majority of them were beginning to cluster to one side, indicating a clump of 'fairies' over there.
"Sanjay! How are things with Timmy?" he called out.
"Not very good! Remy has stolen his magic and I am distracting him while Timothy creates a plan to retrieve it!" the Hindu returned. The teen genius took on a startled expression. Timmy's magic, stolen? Was that even possible?
"Chester! Can you hurry up with Trixie and get back to shooting units? We need cover fire for Timmy!" he switched his attentions now to the Leader of the Others. No answer. "Chester! Come in! Do you read me?" A.J. strained to hear something, then tapped the Phones again, "Trixie? How about you?"
"...Black Hound..." the Asian whispered weakly. A.J. cocked his head in confusion, then fired off a few more bursts of laser charges before calling her again. This time, she made no response.
'Not good; we're losing contact with too many members!' he thought in growing panic and tapped again, "Apollo! Check on Trixie! Apollo! Come in!" Another tap. "Wanda! I can't get through to Apollo! What was going on? You were with him last!"
"He said he was taking the units tailing him down to you snipers! Didn't he show up?"
"No! I never saw him, and now he's not answering me! Chester and Trixie aren't responding either!"
"Call Cosmo! Tell him to take a look!"
A.J. tapped the Phones once more and called out for the green-haired fairy. Just like the others, there was no response. He tried to get through to Chip, Tootie and Romi, but their Phones were picking up only screams and the guffawing of the toothpaste monsters; whatever was going on there, it was overwhelming to the little group, and Vicky had yet to arrive.
The Spire had taken more than half of Team Turner down as casualties.
In sudden fury, A.J. threw down his laser gun and turned back to his laptop, typing at the keyboard. Remy's group had completely turned what was supposed to have been a simple attack on Spire Three into a costly affair. The Heart of Dimmsdale, magic-less and weakened; the Leader of the Others, unresponsive; the former Popular, whispering nonsense in a trance before fading; the fairy swordsman, MIA; one of the Banished Fairies, also MIA; Chip, Tootie, Andromeda, all held back by one last wave of creatures commanded by Dr. Bender and Wendell; that was two-thirds of Team Turner!
"If you want to get us that bad, Remy, then be prepared to fight my genius!" A.J. hissed, bringing up his virus draft and reworking its code, "We cut off access of this Spire from the rest of your network, but we didn't cut it off from the controllers yet!" A list of new ID signals scrolled onto his screen and he grinned viciously, picking out several and incorporating them into his virus. "No more playing nice with you tonight, Buxaplenty!" he declared with a mad laugh as the virus recompiled and prepared for upload, "Let's see if your precious Dark Spire can handle an assault from the inside out!" And the virus was launched, disguising itself as controller unit signals to gain access to the Spire's control center.
"Juandissimo, get out here and grant me a wish, dammit!" Remy shrieked and glared as the fairy finally appeared in a burst of violet smoke, posing before a mirror and snapping several shirts again, "Will you pay attention to me for once?"
"Have no fear! The most sexy fairy in the universe is here!" Juandissimo declared and blew himself a kiss before turning to his godchild. "So, what sexy wishes do you have for me to grant, mi amigo?" he asked and froze, staring at the bubble of pink that Remy held in his arms as the blonde continued dancing maniacally. He pointed at it shakily. "Remy? Amigo? Where did you get that orb?" Juandissimo asked in a frightened voice, face paling at the sight of it.
"This is the magic that the crystal trap drained from the little mongrel before that blasted Hindu shot it. Which reminds me... I wish that kid ran out of bullets!" Remy yelled, pointing at Sanjay. The fairy waved his wand and Sanjay blinked at his gun, hearing the click of an empty chamber.
"Ah well. It was fun while it lasted." the Hindu sighed wistfully while Timmy tapped at his Fenton Phones, frowning in mild confusion. Remy pointed at the bubble in his arms.
"Next, I wish I had some way of using this thing! How the heck do I use that pesky immortal's magic myself?" he added and Juandissimo gulped fearfully. He examined the bubble and shot Timmy a puzzled expression.
"Ah, well. Let's try..." he murmured and waved his wand again, transforming some of the broken remnants of aionis into a scepter that attached itself to the bubble of glass. Remy held it in his hands, grinning as Sanjay stepped back warily. Wanda glared up at the new staff, then carefully tucked her wand into Timmy's belt, touching the glowing star against his back. She held her Hammer in full view, keeping it free for the sake of protection against the strangely inactive units now buzzing around confusedly.
"Ah, Timmy? Now would be a good time to act on that plan of yours, yes?" Sanjay remarked shakily, "Before he does something to hurt us! I do not think our armors are designed to withstand damage created by your own magic!" The brunet slipped a flash grenade from a pouch on his belt, eyes darting between the Latino fairy, who continued staring at him in disbelief, and Remy, who now wielded his mana and was probably going to try practicing his new 'magic' on them at any moment.
"When I give the signal, run!" he murmured and hurled the grenade at Juandissimo's mirror, "Anti-Wanda! I need your help!"
Remy cried out in astonishment as the mirror shattered, startling Juandissimo and sending him fluttering back to avoid the shards. A blast of pale blue smoke signalled the arrival of the anti-fairy and she giggled as she waved her hand at him.
"Hi, sunu!" Anti-Wanda exclaimed in her usual airheaded cheerfulness, "What'cha need, Sugarsnack? More bad luck yummyness?"
"What the hell? An anti-fairy?" Remy cried in alarm.
"Sunu?" Juandissimo echoed in shock, "But why?"
"Anti-Wanda, gather up as many of the anti-fairies as you can that aren't gathering energy for Anti-Cosmo! I want a bad luck bash right here!" Timmy yelled out and turned to Sanjay, who seemed distracted by something being said over the Fenton Phones, "Run!"
"What? Now?" Sanjay asked in surprise and yelped as the brunet grabbed Wanda and tossed her into his arms.
"Yes! Now! Wanda, keep an eye on him for me! The two of you get out of here!" he ordered as he got to his feet, "I think I've siphoned some mana out of the air or something; I've got enough now to cover me so you can go and find out what's going on with the Spire attack!" Wanda flew up and rapped her knuckles on Sanjay's head.
"You heard him! Let's go!" she declared and the Hindu nodded, racing off to get back to his sniping. She turned back to her godchild before giving chase. "When you're done here, run! Get away from the Spire!" she told him and took off before he could even ask what she meant. Anti-Wanda put her fingers to her teeth and whistled shrilly, summoning up a large squad of anti-fairies, all grinning and eagerly awaiting orders. Juandissimo glanced at them, looked towards Wanda, then at Anti-Wanda, then at Timmy before gulping and shooting past the anti-fairies to reach the pink-haired fairy winging away from the group.
"Juandissimo! Get back here!" Remy snapped, then clutched the scepter more firmly, "Bah! No matter! I have your magic, Neogene, and you will not have victory tonight!"
"Anti-fairies, the worst bad luck that can happen to Remy is for this battle to be known to the people!" Timmy yelled out, "This is my order! Bring police and cameramen here! Bring witnesses to see what is happening!" The anti-fairies cackled gleefully and rushed away as Remy watched them all fly off in disbelief.
"What? You're the one who commands the anti-fairies?" he shrieked, pointing the scepter at the brunet. Anti-Wanda laughed and clapped her hands as she fluttered back to sit on Timmy's shoulder.
"He shore is, Mr. Rich Boy!" she gushed excitedly, "My sweet Anti-Cozzie declared that our little sunu here was our second boss, so what he says goes!" Remy ground his teeth together, glaring at the brunet standing before him.
"How much more power do you possess? You were completely on the verge of passing out only moments ago; now you have control of anti-fairies and you've regained your strength!" he snarled and held the scepter threateningly.
"More than you can imagine, Remy." Timmy returned with a dark grin, holding out his hands as black spheres of fire bloomed into existence, "And thanks to Anti-Wanda, I'll be borrowing a little bit of black magic to deal with this mess, and leave you to take the blame when the authorities get here!" The sounds of sirens began filling the air and the brunet's grin widened. "Maybe I don't have to; my anti-fairies work quite fast when it comes to making you miserable." Remy scowled and twisted the scepter in his hands.
"Fine! You think you've won tonight, but I assure you that I won't be defeated so easily!" the blonde declared and raced away from him, "I'll gather my troops and come back stronger! Mark my words, mongrel! I will get you!" Timmy watched him run off, then snuffed out the black spheres, glaring down at his hands as Anti-Wanda laughed happily.
"You shore showed him who's boss!" she crowed and lifted her wand, "Now to get that lovely black stuff to make Anti-Cozzie all better!" She flew off after Remy in excitement.
"I don't like using black magic. I'm not dark." Timmy muttered, "I refuse to be dark; I'm a Hero!" He listened to the sounds of the sirens a little longer, judged that they would arrive to see the battlefield in just a few minutes, then turned to race back to the Spire and recollect his friends. The tower hadn't fallen so he may as well call it a draw for now and try again some other...
The explosion from the Spire's upper levels took him by surprise, enough to have him trip and land roughly on the pavement. The sirens growing louder behind him were all that he would remember that night before everything went dark.