A/N: Yes, I'm still alive! The delay was partly due to me catching up on a few series (including me more-or-less reading the entire Negima! manga), and partly due to me being distracting by a certain other crossover fighting game (which I'm highly considering starting a fic parodying the story of that game as well.)
Anyway, enjoy this (mostly filled with original content) chapter.
Chapter 15: Heroes United
"And just where do you think you're taking my ship!?" Seto Kaiba bellowed from across the room.
Kaiba and Huey Freeman had just gotten back to the Kaiba Craft's bridge after the battle with Sakon, and the KaibaCorp president was none too pleased at Sasuke piloting his aircraft.
"Well someone had to pilot your ship and make sure it didn't crash while you two rushed off fighting," Sasuke explained in an irritated tone. "As for where we're going, I left behind a few people before I bumped into you. I'm going to pick them up before we begin our offensive. Actually, you should be very well acquainted with one of them, Kaiba."
"Oh, let me guess, Yugi Muto?" Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to hear about his bull about friendship and destiny, and since I'm the captain of this ship, I say we ditch those friends of yours!"
"Don't lump me with the rest of those lofty guys," Sasuke retaliated. "I severed my bonds a long time ago. To me, they're nothing but means to an end. After all, if these invaders succeed in destroying the world, I won't be able to achieve my revenge."
"My Duel Monsters and I are the only help you're going to need! Or do I have to remind you that when those overgrown ninja twins showed up, it was my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon alone that was able to defeat them!" Kaiba straight-up bullshitted.
"Funny. That's not how I remember it," Huey jumped in.
"What did you say, kid?" Kaiba asked in a threatening tone.
"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking that if someone was REALLY conceded in this situation, they would actually allow the other heroes on board just to show them all how insignificant they really are," Huey replied in a sarcastic tone.
Kaiba places his hand on his chin, thinking about Huey's words for a few seconds. "That's it! If Yugi and his new geek squad were here, it would be the perfect opportunity to show the world and to Yugi that I'M the No.1 Duelist when I defeat all these jokers and their 'Shadow Realm' nonsense myself!" Kaiba agreed. "Glad I thought of it!"
Huey can do nothing but shake his head at the ignorance around him.
Back at Goku's and Ichigo's newly formed group, the heroes gaze upon the huge purple orb that had just consumed the floating island in the distance.
"Whoa, what was that!?" Luffy exclaimed.
"OH NO! The floating island has just been sent to the Shadow Realm, but the resulting detonate was much bigger than usual!" Yami stated the obvious.
"Hey, everyone! Look over there!" Negi pointed to an approaching aircraft. "It's Kaiba's airship!"
"So, did Kaiba succeed in retaking his ship, or are they turning around to finish us off?" Inuyasha pondered out loud, gripping the hilt of the Tetsusaiga to be on the safe side.
"Well, I don't sense anymore of those Mass things onboard," Goku informed them all.
"HA! I knew Sasuke wouldn't go down that easily!" Naruto bragged.
The Kaiba Craft 3 hovers above them all and makes a landing right in front of them.
"Goku!" Chi-Chi called as she steps out of the Kaiba Craft.
"Chi-Chi! You're okay!" Goku answered as she rushes to him before embracing.
"Well, this is a first. It looks I won't have to keep my promise this time," Naruto grinned at the reunited couple.
"Naruto?" said Sakura, now back to her normal self.
Relieved as seeing her teammate, Sakura runs over to Naruto and stops beside him while catching her breath. "Sakura, huh?" they both heard a voice coming from the Kaiba Craft. Sakura's eyes widen as she slowly turns her head around and finds Sasuke standing on top of the ship.
"Sa…su…ke," Sakura quietly mouthed.
"SASUKE!" Naruto yelled.
Sasuke turns his attention to Goku. "So you're here, too. You know, you could've just flown over to the ship and helped us."
"Yeah, but I don't want all of you to rely on me all the time," Goku replied while scratching the back of his head.
"HEY! Don't ignore us, Sasuke!" Naruto demanded.
Ryo-Ohki is the next to exit the ship, and she immediately leaps into Chi-Chi's arms. Spike and Faye follow the cabbit outside.
"I wonder if those two kids escaped from the blast in time," Faye wondered aloud as she looked at the huge sphere in the sky.
"Heh, I wouldn't worry about them," Spike calmly replied with a cigarette in his mouth and both hands in his pockets.
Finally, Huey and Kaiba emerge from the air vessel. Kaiba stands in the doorway with his arms crossed.
"Alright, losers! I don't like to repeat myself, so I'm only going to say this once!" Kaiba barked.
However, Kaiba's next words are drowned out by the sound of a plane coming there way.
"Don't worry, guys! It's just me and a few friends, ha ha!" Speed Racer yelled over to the group as he lands the plane next to the Kaiba Craft.
"Hi, guys!" Al waved over to Spike and Faye from atop of the plane.
Spike responds with a smirk towards the two teenage brothers. "See? I told you that you shouldn't be worried about them," Spike muttered to Faye.
"Dark Magician! You are safe!" Yami exclaimed happily at his favorite Duel Monster.
The Dark Magician leaps off the airplane and lands in front of the King of Games. "As are you, pharaoh," the Duel Monster answered.
"So, it looks like the gang's all here then," said Yusuke.
"Not everyone," Shinji corrected him somberly. "We still haven't found Amuro."
"Nor Krillin," Goku added. "But with all of us working together, I'm sure we'll rescue them with no trouble at all".
As he says this, Ryo-Ohki leaps out of Chi-Chi's arms and hisses intensely at the SD Gundam.
"Man, it seems like Ryo-Ohki really doesn't like you. By the way, who are you?" asked Goku.
"He's…" Sailor Moon began, but the SD Gundam raises his hand, indicating her to stop.
"No, it's okay. I'll tell them," he says to her. He then turns to address the other heroes. "The truth is that all of this is my fault. I'm the one who led this invasion up until now. In other words, I'm the Mysterious Minister."
"WHAT!?" everyone other than the ones SD Gundam met earlier exclaimed.
"You've got some nerve showing your face here!" Ichigo snapped, pointing his zanpakuto at the mobile suit threateningly.
"You sent an entire stadium full of innocent people to the Shadow Realm!" Kenshin shouted.
"You stole my ship!" Kaiba spat.
"And OUR ship got wrecked because of you!" Spike added.
"You stole my Egyptian God Cards!" Yami growled.
"It's YOUR fault Amuro got captured!" Shinji yelled.
"This invasion led to some of my students getting hurt!" Negi shook his fist, desperately holding back his desire to punch SD Gundam in the face.
"Yes, I know you have every right to be pissed off at me, but I can explain." the SD Gundam pleaded.
"Oh, you can?!" Chi-Chi asked sarcastically. "Well let's hear it then, mister!"
"Kira forced him to do everything," Al interjected.
This earned loud gasps from the rest of the uninformed group.
"There's a little bit more to it than that, but yes, it's true," SD Gundam confessed. "Perhaps it's best if I start from the beginning. For many generations, my fellow super-deformed mobile suits and I lived in peace and tranquility on the Island of the Ancients. I was the leader of this civilization, where I was known as the Master Robot to my brethren. We lived in isolation with the world from below for many years, very rarely getting any outside visitors. There was this one young man, however, who I believe was named Koji Yokoi, who once visited our island, and, once he returned to the land below, produced an absolute slag-load of merchandise based in our likeness, including many toys, manga, anime, and video games. I was thinking about suing him, but…"
"I think we're getting a little off-topic here," Huey pointed out.
"Oh, sorry," SD Gundam apologized. "In spite of that, we all still lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked."
"…HUH!?" said everyone else in unison.
"Whoops, wrong reference! Well, we actually did get attacked, but by Frieza's henchmen, working together with the Rare Hunters."
"Frieza!" Goku muttered between clenched teeth.
"At least Marik has already been dealt with," Yami sighed in relief.
"And, as Al mentioned before, Kira is also aligned with them. But that's not the worst of it, I'm afraid. They all claimed that the reason why they were attacking us was because Haruhi herself ordered them to!"
This revelation earned more than a few gasps and surprised looks from the other anime characters. In the Anime World of Trophies, Haruhi Suzumiya was known and worshipped by all of its denizens as the god who created their world.
"But this doesn't add up," said Kenshin, racking his brain. "It's true that Haruhi is a little eccentric, ruthless, and shows a disregard on how her behavior and actions affect others, but this doesn't sound like something she would do at all. Haruhi would never willfully wish for someone's death, let alone engineer an invasion upon an entire world, that she wouldn't."
"There's also the fact that Haruhi shouldn't even know about her powers, at least that's what the scriptures say," Negi added.
"So, are guys saying that the villains are lying?" Ichigo asked.
"Maybe. But either way, there's something more going on here," Huey theorized.
"In any case, the Zakus and I were no match for their combined forces. They held my loyal subjects hostage, and they gave me a choice: swear allegiance to the Shadow Realm Army, or watch the genocide of my people. As you can see, I had no choice but to comply with their demands. And so, with our advanced technology, my fellow mobile suits and I were subjected to creating weapons for the invasion, including the Shadow Realm Bombs and the Dark Cannons. It was also around this time when I was ordered to capture the cabbit over there."
SD Gundam points to Ryo-Ohki, who was still agitated by the former minister's presence.
Naruto scratches his head, perplexed. "But I don't get it. Why target Ryo-Ohki specifically?"
"Yeah, I'm kinda lost too," Luffy seconded.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot that I was talking to a bunch of shonen protagonists, meaning that I have to exposition EVERYTHING! Anyway, Ryo-Ohki is comprised of both alien life-forms known as Masses and Washu's egg cells. Because of this, I was tasked to capture her, extract some of the Masses inside her, mass-produce those Masses, and condition them all to be completely loyal to the Shadow Realm Army. That way, they would have a near-infinite supply of powerful and loyal soldiers at their disposal," SD Gundam explained.
"So that's why Ryo-Ohki isn't very happy to see you," Chi-Chi reasoned.
"The first order of business for the newly created Mass Monsters was to steal KaibaCorp's Kaiba Craft 3. Afterwards, it was my job to work on countermeasures for specific heroes who might try to oppose us."
"You mean like creating a false Philosopher's Stone and leading Al and I into a trap?" Ed concluded.
"Or stealing my brooch?" Sailor Moon added.
"And using me as a power source?" asked the Dark Magician.
The SD Gundam nods in acknowledgement. "For the terrible crimes I committed against this world, as well as for being unable to save my comrades, I disguised myself as the Mysterious Minister in shame. In spite of my cooperation, however, Kira still betrayed me. He reprogrammed all of the Zakus and made them detonate all of the Shadow Realm Bombs we had left, leading to the destruction of my people, my home, and my entire culture. And that's how I'm with you all here now."
The others remain silent for awhile. They were too shocked, saddened, and angered by the story they just heard. Even Ryo-Ohki stopped hissing.
Finally, Goku approaches the gundam and places a hand on his shoulder for comfort.
"You may have done a lot of bad things in the past, but now I see that it wasn't your fault."
SD Gundam widens his eyes in disbelief.
"Yeah, you had to do what you did to save your friends. You're not a bad guy," Chihiro chimed in.
"I believe in second chances, so how about it, guys?" Sailor Moon inquired to the rest of the group.
The other characters give out cheers and nods, showing their approval, although a few were more reluctant than others.
"T…Thank you, guys," said SD Gundam, fighting tears.
"Well, now that that's settled, what do we do now?" asked Asuna.
"I say we take the fight to them, and make them PAY for what they've done!" Goku exclaimed, shaking a fist in anger. He then turns to Kaiba. "However, we'll need this airship of yours for transportation. I hate to ask, but do you mind helping us?"
Kaiba gives a big sigh. "Whatever," he muttered. Kaiba knows that it isn't wise to argue with a Saiyan.
"Alright, then. Here's what we're going to do," he started as the whole group gathers into a huddle.
A/N: Join us in the next chapter, when the heroes begin their assault on the Shadow Realm Army.