Episode 11 - For Cosma I
The ride to Lakewood Plaza Turbo and by extension Voxmore was a long one. Aboard their shuttle, Venomous' syndicate reflected on the experience they had thus far, with everyone feeling a certain sense of dread looming as they flew through hyperspace. Cattus' mere presence was enough to bring comfort to the squad. Though even with that much, Venomous himself was uneasy, not only over what was to come but failing to find anything to say to his ex. He felt he had already spoken his peace non-verbally over Cosma's death. So why add to it?
Eventually, as the ship was getting close to exiting the rift, Carol finally broke the silence, both stunned and somewhat flattered.
"Venomous…I had no idea you were doing all this…" She scratched her arm and blushed. "After all you've done and all the things you've said, I thought you'd never go back to being...you know."
That moment, Laserblast shut his eyes and sighed, "I'm sorry, Carol." Opening his eyes revealed to Sparks an incredibly familiar look. But this wasn't of insecurity, but rather sincerity. "You still have every right to hate me. Nothing I do is going to make up for all the things I've done over the years to you, our son, and the rest of our planet. But, don't group Fink or Turbo with me. It's not their fault that I'm a monster."
Venomous stood up from his seat and walked over to the controls where Cattus was admiring the hyperspace tunnel. Boxman sat by listening from his end, smiling over the professor's speech while avoiding shedding a tear. Carol remained speechless, but she knew as much as the king did that the criminal side of her ex was well and truly gone. Or at the very least put aside for the sake of their home.
To her surprise, their exchange made the woman forget her large son was sitting next to her, having heard the whole thing. Instead of commenting on it, he murmured, "Um…Mom, can I ask you something?"
"Totally K…Turbo."
His eyebrows reflected a sorrowful motion. "Does K.O. hate me? The answer's probably no, but…if he really does, I can get why. I was pretty messed up too."
His mother gently placed her hand on his shoulder, smiling back at him. "Of course he doesn't. Truth is, he's disappointed in himself."
"We're the same person."
"Not exactly. You had a much different experience than he did. His darker half took over and he…well…I'm pretty sure you know the details."
Turbo nodded, "Yes."
"Basically, he blames himself for what happened back home, and so does your father." Carol chuckled. "Hate to say it, but your brother and him are more alike than they realize."
"What about me though?"
"I think K.O. hasn't spoken to you because you're content with who you are, whereas he's stressed over being the perfect hero to distance himself from his father and the carnage they caused. I can't say I can forgive Laserblast for what he's done, but he's trying. He's gone out of his way to help all of us and K.O.'s gotta learn to accept it."
Turbo paused, "You said Laserblast…not Venomous."
"That man at the controls isn't Venomous right now. That's your Dad."
When Cattus and Laserblast stepped away from the helm, Nanini acknowledged Fink.
"Hey…I heard everything on the radio. That was so sweet of you sticking up for your stepdad like that."
Fink pat the pilot's shoulder. "It's what I do. Besides, he's the only Dad I've got besides Boxman who isn't gonna leave me in a sewer. Plus, I don't even know my real parents."
"Neither do I. Except for the fact that they were evildoers. I know I like doing some quote-on-quote 'bad stuff,' but not like world-ending things, y'know? I just like the thrill of being a rebel."
"Dude, same," Fink grinned. "Y'know how much I like breaking things? If I'm not doing that, I like to get my hands dirty with some games, racing…"
Nanini leaned closer to Fink, "Wait, you like racing too?!"
"All the time! That's partly why I went to the drive yards. I was gonna grab a rig to play in a high-speed match that needs something with a good frame rate."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner? I could've given you mine. It's at the absolute max setting and never burns out. It's even a legal copy."
"O_O… Um…cause I love the thrill of stealing things…?"
Just behind them, Winnie eavesdropped on their conversation and said, "Now y'know how I felt when I ran for a doggie treat and got caught earlier."
BEEP
"Uh-oh," Sandy mumbled. "Even with this thing refueled, it's gonna be a doozy this time. Better strap in!"
Everyone grouped together in the seats putting on the straps in preparation for exiting hyperspace. A rough exit that when concluded gave them the perfect view of the planet Earth. But there was no observation fleet. Everything looked relatively normal until the ship got closer to the atmosphere, reaching just above Lakewood where areas of the plaza have been converted into a warzone! Flames burned bright from the surface from debris in the streets to fires in buildings being ransacked by heroes and villains attacking each other! P.O.I.N.T.'s robot troops have gone rogue, spinning in circles, attacking nearby structures and people indiscriminately. The heroes, new and old ones, flood the streets battling each other while the supervillains start blowing up incoming Toon Force ships from the skies! And at the heart of it all was the gargantuan P.O.I.N.T. Headquarters floating above the city with clear damages to its exterior. Most likely moved from its original location to handle the outbreak. Sat atop the island's giant pointing hand, however, was the saucer vessel the team had been searching for. But it emitted an aura of various dark hues, from purples to red and black that formed a vortex in the clouds.
The sight of it caught even Cattus off guard. His eyes widened and his ears flickered up seeing the scale of the situation.
"So it has begun…"
Laserblast agreed, "It's even worse than I imagined."
"Does this mean we're too late," Winnie asked him.
"No, we're still in the game so long as the bomb doesn't go off. If it does, this riot will turn into an all-out war that could last almost as long as the Toon Wars… Maybe longer."
Suddenly, K.O.'s phone rang in Carol's pocket, which she answered, only to be met by the sound of explosions coming from outside a room.
It was Dendy, who shouted, "K.O!"
Carol replied, "Dendy?! K.O. dropped his phone. What's happening? Where are you?"
"In the basement of the bodega with Koala Princess. All the hero's have begun attacking each other! Us both along with Mr. Gar are the only three who haven't been corrupted."
"Where's Eugene now?"
"At P.O.I.N.T. Headquarters. He responded to a call from your allies about dealing with Black Hat, but he hasn't reported back."
"Stay where you are. Help is on the way!"
Venomous gave the order, "Set everyone down to the surface, Nanini. It's time we got our hands dirty."
The pilot gave a thumbs up, "Your funeral!"
From a safe distance, or as safe as it can be, the shuttle touched down on the roof of a nearby shop. The moment Laserblast stepped out, a shot was fired in his direction. He put on his helmet and equipped Cosma's Magisword to deflect some of the bolts from flying superheroes bearing the turbonic theme of spiked cuffs, long dark hair, and flaming purple auras. Out from the middle, Demon Queenie touched down striking the ground with her sword, attempting to slice the Professor in two when he hopped out the way. A swift whirlwind from Nyando sent her flying off the roof when two more of the corrupted, Drupe and a newbie with flame-based powers, took to attacking Fink and Turbo with obvious ferocity. One punch from the living strawberry landed on Turbo's cheek, but him grabbing her by the leaf and tossing her into the other hero to aid the mouse quickly turned the tide. Before everyone could even assess where to go, massive hellfire from above bombarded their surroundings! P.O.I.N.T. Headquarters' defense system took to firing in random directions as even the onboard AI was infected by the glorb radiation.
"Urgh, those lasers're tearing us apart," Nanini growled. "I'll go take care of 'em!"
"By yourself," Fink asked.
She's not alone!
In the red cloudy skies, both Danny Phantom and Jenny Wakeman rocketed through the raining lasers and began to dismantle any opposition that came their way. Rogue ships that were once Toon Force-owned now swarm them as they try to breach the defenses of the base. Luckily, the two Nicktoons brought backup in the form of another Irken dropship carrying Gumball, Darwin, and some of their mother's clones.
Seeing the chaos above him, Venomous turned to Winnie. "Be their extra gun, Winnie. I know you prefer slashing things, but we can't have Nanini kick the bucket on us."
"That's exactly what I was hopin' you'd say," she smirked as she hopped in the shuttle with Boxman and Mikayla beside her.
"Good luck, Venny," said Boxman. "And make sure your girlfriend treats'ya right this time!"
Carol stuttered, "Wait what…?!"
"Boxman, she's married to…," Laserblast sighed, Ugh… While they're busy with the island's turret grid, we need to quell as much of the action as possible. Cattus, I need you, your son, and Sandy to team with the Toon Force and help them out. We'll do what we can till those turrets are dealt with."
"Understood," Cattus nodded.
While Cattus, Nyando, and Sandy left for the battle ahead, the rest stayed behind and were forced to immediately defend themselves as another wave of heroes and villains descended from the skies above! Carol hesitated seeing some familiar faces, including Red Action, Dogmun, and Dynamite Watkins; the latter who hits her with her mic turned into a spiked mace. They gang up on her, but Laserblast and Turbo protect her by blasting all three simultaneously. It isn't until two more heroes, Goldheart and a supervillain from the board of shareholders, brought their fight to the surface causing the building the team stood on to collapse! It seemed the floor they stood on would come apart and bury them in rubble when they realized it was perfectly secured as if held from underneath them. When it was sat down, Fink immediately kicked Goldheart in the neck while Turbo headbutt the spikey evildoer he was facing once they got close. And looking behind them, K.O. stood stunned at what he's seeing in front of him.
"Dad…?"
"K.O," Laserblast answered right before Fink shouted, "Where've you been?! We're trying to clean up YOUR mess!"
"Wherever you were, I'm glad you're here," said K.O's father. "Listen, it's a warzone and we don't have much time. I need you, Fink, and Turbo to work together to knock the daylights out of all these monsters while the Toon Force makes a way to the island. Can you do that?"
K.O. nodded, "Yes."
"Ok. Let's get out there," said his brother.
Laserblast stopped, "And K.O…"
Both men turned around at the same time asking, "Yeah?"
"The shorter one."
"Sorry, yes," he responded.
"…Don't let my mistakes hold you back."
His son froze before taking off, "Ok."
While the three left, Laserblast was left side by side with Carol anticipating a heavy fight as more of the corrupted surrounded them both. Together, they fought side by side. Laserblast with his helmet and Ball of Yarn Magisword lassoing people to bring closer to shoot, and Carol throwing huge punches and even tossing fireballs causing massive explosions. K.O., Turbo, and Fink all banded together near a fountain at the town square where even more of the infected arrived. Some of them included heroes from Black Hat's world like Bicep and Omega, while others included those from Lakewood such as Brandon, Neil, Rex, and Shy Ninja. All of them ganged up on the three before they unleashed a wave of purple energy from bursting all their power at once! While Fink clearly relished in the fight, going in for several consecutive blows on Omega and Rex respectively, K.O. hesitated the more people showed up and Turbo was holding back so as to not accidentally kill anyone.
Turbo remarked, "I've never seen Lakewood look this bad!"
After knocking out Punching Trudy, K.O. said, "Aw, I should've stayed here! I had no idea there was gonna be an invasion!"
"Would'a, should'a, didn't," Fink replied as she headbutted someone. "I don't care so long as I get to throw hands on some heroes with zero repercussions!"
Realizing something, Turbo faced his brother, "If you weren't here when this happened, then where's Enid and…"
GET DOWN!
Some of the Nicole clones scurried behind cover as multiple explosions went off in a narrow path towards the trio. Several of the infected were blown away by this, but Turbo shielded his partners, taking the brunt of the damage. He turned around - his back scorched and teeth clenched when he saw Radicles and Enid floating above them with the same turbonic look as all the others: a fiery, aggressive gothic style and a feisty temper.
"Rad…?"
"This is just like that tournament we had," Fink commented. "Except I'm not the one giving them glorbs."
The two of them engaged the group, targeting K.O. first with a few swings from Radicles. Enid took on Turbo and Fink at the same time. She kicked Fink in the stomach and grabbed Turbo's fist, but he threw her into Rad who caught her and helped deliver a huge laser into the titan's face! T.K.O. flew across the ground before K.O. could intervene, trying to keep up with all the attacks coming his way.
"Enid, Rad, you're being manipulated," K.O. said avoiding the punches. "Whatever those glorbs in the air are making you think isn't true!"
"You're not telling us what we're thinking anymore, K.O," Enid smirked. "We've always had to save you and now you get to see the kinda person we've had to keep you from turning into for years!"
Radicles further added, "Not helped when your literal polar opposite's standing next to ya. Like it or not, you're still just some fanboy scrub who got lucky after trying to kill us over his daddy issues!"
"Is that really what you…?"
Turbo interrupted his brother's thoughts, "Forget it, K.O. You know Black Hat's able to bend people's thoughts like that. Don't let it get to you!"
"He's right," said Enid. "You'll go out with a clearer conscience that way!"
In the skies, Danny pointed his thumb at the base as he flew and looked back at Jenny, "Let's help Nanini take out those guns on that island."
"On it," said the robot.
While the two flew around the floating island, Nanini brought her ship close for Boxman and Winnie to aim the turrets along the sides and shoot. The cannons along the hangar space exploded from shots from the shuttle and Jenny, and Danny went intangible, breezing through areas of the base to nuke the defenses from the inside!
SMASH!
Cattus and Punching Judy's fists met each other's faces before the King grabbed his sword and blocked another punch. He spun and sent the enlarged corrupted one flying into the sky and swerved back to guard against a mime-looking supervillain with long tentacle arms. He was grappled onto, held in place for Gregg to rapidly peck away at his face before he flexed his arms out to blow everyone back from him! Just when someone else was ready to strike him down from behind, Nyando's Whirlwind rocketed the corrupted into a statue!
"Didja call V an' P for help already?"
"Indeed," Cattus answered before blocking an eye beam from Ernesto. Another villain, Big Bull Demon, came stomping towards him to run him into a wall. But the legendary warrior grabbed his head and wrapped his arm around the cyborg's neck.
"We need only wait for the defenses of P.O.I.N.T. to shut down."
In the air, things were going semi-smoothly until Danny grabbed his stomach and felt his hair flowing. His eyes got darker as if he wore eyeliner, and his teeth started to get sharper the more he shot at the guns.
"Ugh…! What's happening?!"
"I can feel my body transforming," Jenny said as her blue colors began to turn black. "Must be that glorb radiation Venomous warned us about!"
"And it's driving everyone insane besides you two," Jimmy said over communications. "Your digital nature's working as an antivirus of sorts. And you, Danny. Your ghost form could be serving as an antibody. "
"But I still have the urge to go back and level my city for treating me like trash back in the day," Jenny grunted.
Danny chuckled, "Yeah same…" He shook his head, "Wait, no! That's the glorbs talking! We've gotta get in that saucer before…"
BOOM!
A huge flash of light along with a burst of energy from the patrol ship above P.O.I.N.T. had sent Danny and Jenny fumbling out of the sky! They fell thousands of feet to the surface where they crashed hard among a horde of more infected heroes giving off an eerie purple haze.
As the action got more intense for Sparks and Laserblast, they knew they wouldn't last long. Carol held her own against one of POINT's robots, but she was struck in the back by a beam from Pastel using a blaster. Laserblast shot the infected away. But all it did was call for more to arrive, ganging up on the two. That was until Venomous took the yarn of his Magisword and wrapped it around a few of the heroes, and having Carol swing them like a wrecking ball into more incoming foes!
She snarked, "The fact that you know how to use these things won't stop being weird to me."
"We gotta get up there," he said to himself. "Nanini…"
"Sorry boss," the pilot replied over his channel. "I'm caught between a rock and a hard place here!"
"Then I guess it's up to me…"
Nearby, while Cattus still fought the metal demon with Nyando's assistance, he called out, "Professor, take this!"
With some wind generated already, he sent his Whirlwind Magisword across the field to the Professor. He grasped it firmly and looked up to the island.
"Wait, you're not actually going up there, right," Carol asked him.
Laserblast turned to her, "It's gotta be done, Carol. All this started because of me. I need to finish this."
"I mean, yeah, but the radiation, Black Hat, the infected, and…"
That moment, her world fell silent. For the moment, Silver Spark got close and embraced with a long kiss then let go as she stood motionless in absolute silence.
"See ya Sparks."
As the superhero made a sprint to the side of the building, Vambre and Prohyas arrived with an Irken scout ship of their own, piloted by Familiar. Instead of waiting on the Professor to arrive, they along with Witchy Simone and Professor MaBarnacle joining them get out and instantly combined into one being. An enormous anthro with parts of each of its components along with the fabled Combiner Magisword in hand. Soon Cattus came along and merged with but a touch, becoming the fusion's face and scarf. Together, Centurion motioned for Venomous to hop on their palm so they can fly him up to P.O.I.N.T. Headquarters thanks to the Whirlwind in his hand. But before they could act, a stray shot from a turbonic G-Lo and an explosive round from Bomber Fan EXPLODED the combiner's arm! They spun around and got on one knee, catching Laserblast back in their right hand from behind!
"Hold onto that sword, lad," the Professor in the mass told Laserblast before she rocketed him like a football into the sky! His ascent slowed down as he got close to the upper levels of the academy then whirled himself through one of the open windows to the halls of P.O.I.N.T.
"I'm in P.O.I.N.T. everyone," Laserblast announced. "I'll head up the tower and get to the bottom of this."
"Hurry Dad," Turbo answered. "Even with bro and step-sis, this horde's not letting up!"
Turbo briefly fought against the Mimic posing as K.O. - The real one still struggling to juggle between Enid and Radicles. Even with the creature's powers, before he got close, Fink grabbed him by the neck, nearly flipping him upside down to send her foot into his jaw! Mimic fell out of his disguise and collapsed next to an incoming Biki, whose huge muscular arms easily dwarfed Fink's blows. The rat was forced to laser the bird directly in the beak with her eyes knocking her out. But she too was sent flying when Black Strategy shot her from behind! The rest of the Hue Troop arrived, striking a pose as they all go turbonic with Red Action front and center.
"I called 'em to join the fun," Enid explained. "Comes in handy."
The largest one on the team charged for Turbo directly, then another went for K.O. who shielded himself with the hood of a car next to him. But this did little to nothing as the punch aimed at his face made the intent collide with his skin. Before she could grab him by the head, Fink threw herself into the armored one, grabbing her leg and snapping it with an elbow to the side of the knee! Quickly, Radicles stepped in by launching a rocket pointer finger at the rat! It sent her crashing through a tree and dazed her long enough for Enid to gain the upper hand against TKO by kicking him in the neck when he's focused on his step-sibling! Only his head budged before he was struck in the back by Radicles coming up behind him!
"Oh no you don't," K.O. shouted launching all the Hue Troops back when he powered up. He ran for his two friends, grabbing them both simultaneously to drag them between an alley, practically grinding them against the brick walls along the way! Yet all it did was make the two turbos even angrier. They both shoved their fists into his gut so hard that for a second he coughed red! Rad knocked him back further and K.O. was pushed against a tipped-over truck. He slowly rose up, barely steadying himself and preparing for another wave of attack with one eye shut.
"I'm not quitting on you guys…." he said. "That's a promise…!"