Chapter 1 – Twisted Paradise

Another morning rose over the Darklands. Despite being known as the most dangerous place on Earth, there were times when everything seemed peaceful even here, on the frontier, and the moment between dark and dawn on this particular day was one of those times. With no battles, no attacks, nothing disturbing the peace, an unsuspecting eye might not even realize that this island was No Man's Land between the inhabitants of the Earth and an ever-hungry parasitic planet. The silent peace was almost beautiful. However, the people on the island, Earth's brave defenders, didn't know that this was the final peaceful morning they would get.

The morning sun's rays ran over Forsaken Valley, the lush, exotic jungle on the southern edge of the island. The sunlight was spreading everywhere, except the one shadow cast by the massive object floating high up in the sky – the Mandark Industries airship. As the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s started arriving from the mainland, the airship became lively, with people getting ready to go out on missions while shopkeepers and traders brought out their merchandise.

Shala heard dull knocking. He tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but it wasn't working. "Mnnnh, I'm trying to sleep!" – he muttered, but the knocking still didn't seem to stop. At this point Shala knew he was awake anyway, so he gave up and opened his eyes. Samurai Jack was standing in his room's doorway. He was continuously knocking the hilt of his sword against the wall to wake Shala up. Obviously, it worked.

"Oh, hey Jack." – Shala yawned. "Why'd you have to wake me up so early in the morning?"

"It is already noon. You have had more than enough sleep. A mission awaits you." – Jack told him as he stepped inside the room.

He looked around. Besides Shala's bed, there was a small table, a couple chairs and a wardrobe. Bits and pieces of technology were everywhere in the room – assembled and disassembled weapons, their parts, components and details, tools for working on them. Shala also had a laptop on the chair next to his bed. Besides all that, the room was littered with empty soda cans and bottles, bottle caps, chocolate wrappings and half-empty bags of chips. They were everywhere – on the table, the chairs, the floor, sticking out of Shala's clothes, under the bed, in the bed. The clothes were thrown around untidily as well, despite Shala having a wardrobe. There was a book on the table named "The Future's End" with a layer of dust on it. Jack turned to Shala.

"Demongo has a mission for you. I do not trust him. You must complete his mission and then inform me of his activities."

"Aright, fine. I'll do it. Even though I was extremely busy, I'll fit it into my schedule." – Shala answered. "But why me though? Couldn't you have woken someone else up?"

"I'm afraid not. Demongo specifically requested you, and I do not know why. You must leave immediately, you have already wasted enough time. And after you complete the mission, clean up your room. This is no place for a warrior to live in." – Jack told him and left.

Without getting up, Shala raised his leg and pressed a button next to the door with his toe. The door closed automatically. After lying around for a bit longer, enjoying his comfy bed, he got up, put on his favorite jacket and looked for a pair of pants among the mess.

When he was dressed, he stepped out of his room into a dark hallway, illuminated by red glowing circuits. Those were the living quarters – several people who took residence on the ship like Shala lived here. He passed a couple other rooms, but when he reached the bathroom door, he hesitated. Does he have to wash his face and brush his teeth now?

"Nah, maybe later." – Shala thought as he walked to the end of the hallway and climbed a ladder out of the living quarters. He was met with fresh summer air with a hint of the salty ocean down below. The Mandark Industries Airship was as lively as ever, as the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s had arrived hours ago and brought people from the mainland with them. Some were going off on missions. Some were looking to buy or sell items. There were those that were here just to see the sights or for bragging rights – surviving the Darklands is no easy feat. If you ever leave the airship, that is.

Shala ignored the traders' yells as he immediately headed for the food court. The hot summer air was immediately replaced by hot fast-food air. Deep fryers, grills and one particular smell that always came with a Burger Frenzy were indigenous to this part of the ship. Sometimes Shala wondered how it didn't attract hungry Terrordactyls passing by in the sky. He went straight towards the Stick-It stand.

"Morning, Shala. You're up early today." – the guy at the stand remarked sarcastically.

"Sup, Big Dog. I got an extremely important mission from Samurai Jack, you know."

"What, cleaning up the public bathrooms? Cause I had a gang of Monkey Skyway Agents order some Stick-Its with the extra hot chili sauce yesterday, and I don't think that janitor will be able to handle those on his own." – Big Dog told him as he prepared Shala's usual. Hot dog, kebab, burger patty and a single pickle on a stick. Deep fried.

"Eh, Rocky will do fine. Anyway, I've seen those Skyway Agents relieve themselves mid-flight, so the toilets are probably not what they were going for anyway."

"Forreal? Not while they were carrying you, right?"

"No, thank god, no. But it's a thing they do. They fly around over the jungle and, uh… aim at various monsters. You know, Triceraclopses, Frilled Killers, Fossil Crawlers."

"How the hell do you know this stuff?" – Big Dog asked him while leaning on the counter with his elbows.

"I was on my way back from the Fireswamps once and saw a couple of them up in the air. At first, I thought they were flying someone to the ship, right? But then I see something falling from them. Next thing I know, a Triceraclops is going berserk, charging right at me, with something brown all over its head."

"Aw, that's sick, dude. How are you even talking about this stuff when you're about to eat?"

"Well, you're the one that brought it up in the first place." – Shala remarked. "Anyway, this should be a golden business opportunity for you and your Stick-Its. You can attract the chimp crowd with the spicy hot sauce of yours. You know, for the extra boom when they see a stray Frilled Killer. But the payday is when they're flying around in groups. That's when they have their competitions." – Shala kept on talking. "Two categories – number one, and number two. And especially during that second one, you have to make sure that they know you have the spiciest sauce in this joint."

"Okay. One, those guys are gonna scare all of my other customers away, so I'm not sure that's a good idea. And two, you know way more about this than you should. What, you take part in the competitions too?"

"No, they wouldn't let me anymore because I'm a human or whatever but… just between us, it's totally because my aim was kicking their asses." – Shala told with a smirk.

"Okay, now you're definitely pulling my leg."

Shala broke out laughing, and Big Dog did too. "That'll be 11 Taros." – Big Dog told him as he handed Shala his Stick It. Shala held out his wrist and got his NanoCom scanned to pay.

"Okay, but the rest of it was true, though." – Shala told him as he took a bite off the burger patty. "This one time, one of the chimps, who is either the stupidest or the bravest idiot of them all, tried to go for a damn Terrordactyl flying below them."

"No way. What happened next?" – Big Dog asked.

"What do you think? That Terrordactyl got so pissed off by being pissed on, that it chased those apes faster than a damn, uh… faster than Jet Ray. You just had to hear their noises as they dispersed in panic and flew towards the airship. It was pure gold, man! – Shala laughed while chewing. "Well, I gotta go, but you should definitely look into that idea!" – he said as he left.

"No way am I encouraging that!" – Big Dog yelled after him.

After that healthy and nutritious breakfast, Shala got to the vending machines and got two cans of Radicola.

"Finally. Sweet, cold Radicola…" – Shala muttered as headed over towards right wing of the ship, towards the Bazaar. The "Bazaar" was what everyone called the shopkeepers' areas. Dexbots, Mandroids, SACT Agents, KND members, Plumbers, an E.G.G.E.R., and even Candy Pirates all had their own stalls where they bought and sold everything from armor to weapons to vehicles to NanoCom supplies. Between them there was a crowd of "independent agents", mostly Dexlabs Academy Recruits, looking to buy, sell or trade. Maybe one out of every ten people actually needed something, and it was even less likely they'd find what they were looking for at a reasonable price. Most of them were just trying to resell for a profit. And all of them were both yelling out loud and spamming the NanoCom's proximity chat with their offers, so unless you found a guy selling earplugs as well, your ears would start ringing from the noise.

"Selling the Buttercup Dynamo set for 20k!"

"Looking for a Sun Dragon Blade!"

"Grenades! Come get your grenades! Apples of Discord, Frisboids, Stinkbombs, Tin Mines, Energy Grenades!"

"Does anyone have Cannonbolt Pants?"

"Very nice weather we are having."

"Selling Ben 10 Jacket for 250k taros!"

"Shut up!"

"Please, I really need the Cannonbolt Pants!"

"Kevin's Hot Rod Rentals! Get your advanced alien vehicle rentals right here! Techadonian hoverboards! Tetramand hovercars! Galalunean jetbikes! We've got them all!"

"ALL ABOARD!"

"Trading a Diskotech 45 RPM for a Triple Threat Ice Boost!"

"For the love of god, does no one here have the Cannonbolt Pants?!"

A brief snippet of what went on for hours, every day. Shala wasn't exactly too keen on this crowd, most of the time going in was more trouble than what it was worth. Today, however, he wanted to be done with the mission as quickly as possible, so he made his way through the mass, trying not to get his Radicola spilled, and sought out the Dexbot selling vehicles.

"Greetings." – the Dexbot told him.

"And Shalutations." – Shala answered. "Let's see the catalogue."

The Dexbot projected a hologram list of all the available vehicles, along with their parameters and prices. Shala, not really caring about anything but how quickly he'd get the job done, picked the one with the highest top speed, which happened to fall on the expensive side of the catalogue.

"Alright, renting it for one day only, which is… 10,500 Taros. Wow. Hmm…"

Shala stood there, considering, as someone yelled "Looking for an Overclocked Sabre Cannon!" right behind him. Would the job even pay enough to cover it? Probably not. But he really didn't care about the money either, he just wanted Jack out of his hair, so he just went for it.

"Dexlabs would like to remind you that the late fee constitutes of 150% of the daily rate. Thank you for your purchase." – the Dexbot thanked him and did a friendly wave.

After getting his hovercar, Shala thought what else could he do before he had to go. "Let's see. Breakfast, Check. Transport, expensive check. Bladder?" he shook his can of Radicola around gently in his hand to see how much was left. "Good for another 30 minutes. Now, Nanos."

Shala remembered he had been meaning to reorganize his Nanos. "Best do it before going on a mission." – he thought and looked over at where the Nano Station stood. "But on the other hand, it's a whole chore. Nah, I'll do it later." Shala didn't want to leave just yet, but he wanted to plan out a new Nano lineup even less, so he chose the former. "Better do it quicky, too, before Jack realizes I haven't left yet."

After finishing his first can of Radicola, Shala got to the very edge of the airship and, dramatically spreading his arms, leaned forward and started falling. "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!" – he yelled as he felt the rush of the air current all around his body, his jacket flailing like a cape, his mouth getting filled with air and his eyes drying up as he got closer to the jungle down below. Before he got too close to the impact point, Shala pressed a button on his NanoCom and summoned the hovercar. Instead of crashing down at near-terminal velocity, the car hovered several inches above the ground, then headed north at full speed.

"Alright, now for a relaxing drive while I get to Huntor's Crest." – Shala said as he turned the autopilot on, leaned back and put his legs on the steering wheel. As the hovercar drove through Forsaken Valley and then Dinosaur Pass, Shala didn't even look around. And why should he, when the Horrordactyls were flying high up in the sky, Triceraclaws wouldn't be fast enough to catch up with the hovercar and Frilled Fiends… well, he'd worry about them if they attacked. But until they did, Shala was busy messing around on his NanoCom.

Soon, the trees made themselves scarce as the ground beneath them gradually transitioned from fertile soil to charred rocks. The landscape ahead was now clear and Shala was driving through the Fireswamps. Jets of fire shooting out from the ground and rivers of lava were everywhere. Shala, meanwhile, was watching videos on TubeTube while drinking his second Radicola.

The hovercar drove by the Providence outpost. Tall, white walls were surrounding the camp, filled to the brim with Agents. Several of them were keeping guard on the walls. "Should I drop by?" – Shala thought. "I've been meaning to, but…" He was even about to slow down his car, but ultimately decided against it. "Nah. I'd rather not have to deal with Providence's "hospitality" right now. I'll drop by later. After the mission, maybe. Or some other time?" – he thought, as he left the outpost behind.

Soon after, Shala reached the border between the Fireswamps and the Firepits. There turned the hovercar left, towards the elevation to the west. A mountain range ran through the middle of the island and divided it into two, and the only way to get to Huntor's Crest (besides flying) was the mountain pass starting from where the Fireswamps and Firepits meet. The autopilot drove him through the narrow road easily while Shala enjoyed the view down below.

At last, he had crossed into Huntor's Crest. He kept on heading towards the west. Soon, he'd be halfway done with the mission. The autopilot was still on while Shala was nose deep into his NanoCom. Suddenly, something rammed the car from the side with tremendous force. The entire car shook. Shala fell out of the seat and rolled on the ground and hit a tree, dropping his Radicola, which spilled everywhere. "Woah!" was all he managed to say as he quickly got up to look at what attacked him.

It was an enormous Wooly Behemoth. The hovercar was still stuck on its tusks. It lifted the car up into the air, shaking its head and trying to get it off with one of its legs, but it wasn't working.

"Come on, do you realize how much I gotta pay for it now?" – Shala yelled. "And you spilled my soda too." – he said as he picked up the half-empty, half-fizzed out can and threw it at the Wooly Behemoth. The Behemoth noticed Shala, gave out a roar through its trunk and charged right at him, with each step shaking the ground. Shala waited for the Wooly Behemoth to come close, close enough so that he could jump on the wrecked hovercar and from there, on the monster's head. He grabbed his Chill Caster that he had in the car and shot at the monster's neck several times. The Wooly Behemoth stopped running abruptly in hopes of knocking Shala off of its head. "Woah!" – Shala yelled again. He almost fell off but managed to hang on to the monster's fur with one hand. Now, he was hanging right in front of its head, right between the eyes. Shala tried to climb on back on the top of the head, but wasn't strong enough to pull himself up. The Wooly Behemoth trumpeted again, but before it was able to do anything, Shala swapped weapons, summoning his Aerial Slicer and shoved it right through the monster's eye before letting go and falling into his car.

The Wooly Behemoth gave out one final roar as it fell down, with the hovercar (and Shala in it) crashing onto the ground. It then dissolved into Fusion Matter, which got absorbed into Shala's NanoCom. The battle was over.

Shala climbed out of his car, fell over and stumbled back up. He then started kicking the ground and jumping up and down where the Wooly Behemoth just was. "What the hell am I supposed to do now? I'm gonna be paying off Dexlabs for weeks! Oh yeah, I'm sure Dexter will love this when he finds out it was me!" – he yelled while breathing heavily. He then looked at the hovercar again.

"I'll just have to tell him his autopilot system malfunctioned. Yeah, that's it. He's the one who wrote it, too, so he won't have anyone else to blame about it!" – he decided and smiled mischeviously. Then he checked the map, seeing how much was left till he arrived at the camp, sighed and continued on foot, leaving the wreckage behind.

"Where were you? I demanded your presence hours ago!" – Demongo asked him in his high-pitched, almost squealing voice.

"Car trouble?" – Shala shrugged while smiling awkwardly.

Demongo squinted his eyes.

"Okay, okay, it doesn't matter, I'm here now, so do you want the mission done or no?" - answered Shala.

"You will not speak to me that way, mortal. You mu-"

"Listen, the sooner you tell me what I need to do, the sooner it'll happen, so you wanna tell me, or do we stand around here talking all day?"

Demongo squinted his eyes even harder. There was a moment of silence. "You will go to the coordinates I'm about to send you. There, you will find Fusion Mandark's lair. You will retrieve a piece of technology from him. It should not be allowed to remain with a Fusion." – Demongo explained.

"Well, what is it?"

"You wouldn't know what it is called." – Demongo answered with a smile.

"Try me." – Shala demanded.

Demongo squinted his eyes again. His smile had a sense of superiority all over that was recognizable even on a demon's face. "An overrider cortex." – Demongo answered.

Shala had no idea what that was, but he still said "All right. I'll get you your cortex, no problem." and took off. He heard a demonic cackle behind him. "It's a radiating ball of energy." – Demongo told him. "Guess he didn't believe me. Eh, whatever." – Shala thought.

Shala went to this outpost's vehicle vendor, which was a SACT mechanic. Considering he was now in Dexlabs debt, he went for the cheaper option and rented a hoverboard. It was considerably slower, but at least it was cheap. He then left the camp and headed towards the south-east, to the coordinates Demongo had sent him.

This time, he was paying attention to his surroundings. Every time he heard loud thuds or high-pitched buzzing, he got off his hoverboard and hid behind a tree. The monsters would usually pass by without noticing Shala. Besides the Wooly Behemoths, there were Fusionflies flying around all over, as well as Skull Bashers patrolling the area. Engaging in battle wouldn't be too hard, but too much of a time waster for Shala, who wanted to be done with this awful mission as soon as possible.

Finally, Shala got back to the mountain range east of Huntor's Crest. The foot traffic wasn't exactly heavy there besides at the mountain pass, so Shala supposed it would be the perfect place for a secret lair.

At the exact coordinates, Shala found a cave entrance. He didn't even have to go around looking for it! Soon, the mission would be over, he'd be back to relaxing on the airship, and hopefully the Darklands would have one less Fusion too. Shala jumped off the hoverboard as it vanished into his NanoCom and entered the cave, with his Chill Caster ready to shoot.

There was no light source inside. Not even an eerie green glow, which was always there when Fusion Matter was present, so Shala pressed a button on his NanoCom and a flashlight in it lit up. As Shala looked around, he noticed that the cave didn't look anything like a Fusion Lair. There were no Fusion monsters, no Terrafusers, probably not Fusion Mandark either. In fact, there were no signs of Fusion infection there at all!

Shala kept going until the cave abruptly ended with a metal wall with a door in it. There was a keypad next to the door, so naturally Shala assumed it was locked. "Weird." – he thought. "I've never seen anything like this in a Fusion lair before." He shone the light on the keypad. Upon close inspection, Shala noticed that several numbers – 2, 7, 9 and 0 were slightly worn out. It was obvious they made up the password.

"Alright, 4 numbers can be positioned in 24 different ways. Hm, unless one of them is used twice. Assuming it's not, there are 24 possible combinations, so let's start with 0279…" – he muttered as he typed it in.

Each number gave out a distinctive beep when pressed. Shala waited to see what would happen after he entered all 4. "Maybe there really are more than 4 digits…" – he thought, but then two panels opened up from the top of the wall and automated turrets came out of it. He had entered the wrong code.

Shala realized what was about to happen so he rolled to the right and stuck to the wall as closely as possible, hoping the turrets, which started firing lasers, wouldn't reach him. "Since when do Fusions use automated security?!" - Shala yelled as he summoned the Aerial Slicer from his NanoCom and threw it at the turret to the left before it reached him, slicing it in half. It crashed down and deactivated. The other turret was directly above Shala, so he started shooting at the thin base of the turret which connected it to the wall. Fortunately, the laser turret couldn't aim directly below itself, so Shala shot it down with his Chill Caster with no problem. Unfortunately, though, it landed right on Shala's head and knocked him down too.

Shala stood up, leaning against the wall. His head was spinning, but at least both turrets were now disabled. "I'm gonna get that Fusion for this…" – he said to himself. Before getting back to the keypad, he decided to check the turrets. He examined the one that got sliced in half as he picked up his sword, lying nearby.

"How does this thing work?" – he asked himself. He got a tiny screwdriver and pliers out of his chest pocket and started disassembling it. "Where did this even come from? This doesn't look like any Earth turret I've ever seen. Not even built on the same principles!" – he muttered. Then he checked the other one. "But principles or not, any turret would need a power source. And since this one got deactivated when it got detached, I'm willing to bet the power is coming from…" – he looked at the still open panels in the ceiling. He climbed up and looked into the one on the right. "Bingo!" – he found the power source. It looked like a blue glowing cylinder. He tore it out of the wall and put it in his pocket.

"Definitely not this "overrider cortex"… but this is pretty interesting." – he said to himself as he got back to the keypad. Now, unless there were more turrets around, he was free to enter as many incorrect combinations as he wanted. On the 9th attempt, he got it right.

"2709. Easy." – Shala said, satisfied, as the door slid sideways into the wall. He went in. "What the hell? This looks nothing like a Fusion lair!" – he protested. He was in a small room lined with metal walls just like the one outside. There were no other doors besides the one he came through. No Fusions, no monsters, not even a patch of Fusion Matter on the floor. There were, however, several crates.

"Alright, now for the overrider cortex." – Shala said as he opened one of them. It didn't contain any energy balls – it was full with what looked like horns and teeth, each one placed neatly inside a glass cube. He examined them closely. "Hunting trophies, I guess?" – he supposed. None of them belonged to an animal he could identify, though.

Shala then opened another crate. This one was full of skins and furs. Shala picked one up. Orange, extremely hairy, with red stripes on its back. "This one kinda looks like that Ben 10 alien. Wildmutt." – he muttered. He turned around and looked at its fleshy inside. "Wooh, gross. Really hoping that's not the case here." – he said as he dropped the skin back into the crate. The next crate contained more turrets. "Spares." – Shala said. It would be nice to take them with him to have a good look at, but Shala couldn't carry them all the way back to the airship. Not without a hovercar, at least.

Now, the fourth crate contained exactly what Shala needed. A small white ball, radiating with blue energy.

"Bingo. I have what I need. Now it's time to skidaddle until more turrets activate." – he said as he got out of the cave.

"So does this place even have anything to do with Fusion Mandark?" – Shala thought. "Maybe Demongo got it wrong. Well, it doesn't really matter as long as the job is done. Now I can finally be over with this stupid mission. At least I got this alien power source thingy, so the day wasn't a total waste." – he thought on his way back. "Maybe I'll come back later to get the turrets. Yeah. Maybe…"

A figure entered the cave. It looked at the destroyed turrets and the open door. "Dammit. Someone's been here. I'm too late." – the person muttered. He ran into the room and checked crate after crate. After making sure that the ball of energy was gone, the person kicked one of the crates in anger. He stood there for a moment, then spoke into his wrist.

"Fusion War Journal, entry 693. May 11th. After tracking the tachyon signal for days, I finally located the chronoton particle, only to find out that someone found it before me. However, I might still be able to track it if I hurry. I'll chase the chronoton particle all over the Darklands if I have to. I'm not letting anybody mess with the timeline to tip the scales against Earth's favor."

End of Chapter 1.