Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.
While the Heroes Are Fighting Pride
"We're going to have to ask you to leave or we're going to take you in."
"Right, we understand… YOU SKINWALKERS!"
"They fought those skin walkers off, but in the end, my parents were murdered by those criminals… and all I could do was just watch as they brutally murdered them in front of me. I'll never forgive them…"
"Hmm!" Tyrian rubbed her chin in thought. "It sounds to me that your parents were the aggressors and the Faunus were acting in self defense and got a little bit carried away."
"That's not how I saw it. What I saw were those guys acting aggressive and my father whacked one with his shovel to make him back off. It's not my father's fault they're dead. The Faunus are responsible for it!"
Clearly, you're not seeing the bigger picture here. That's ironic, coming from a whackadoodle like me! Tyrian thought.
"So tell me, do you specifically just have Faunus in your tome?" Watts asked.
"Actually, I have humans inside the book too." Aria explained. "Though having fellow humans as puppets isn't as fun as Faunus, but hey, if the situation calls for it-"
"Oh, well, glad little miss blondie doesn't discriminate." Donovan said, leaning back on a chair. "Humans, faunus, whatever, she'll just destroy 'em all and cause a zombie apocalypse."
"I think I'll start it off with you if you don't shut your mouth."
"Oooh, I'm so scared!" Donovan mocked as Salem walked into the room.
"Ah, good, Donovan… just the one I've been looking for." Salem said as she approached him. "I've made this for you."
Donovan raised an eyebrow. "A necklace?"
"An amulet, actually." She said as Donovan took it and examined it. He would see that the amulet in question was Remnant's moon and had a Beowolf engraved in it. He sniffed it, as it smelled like death… he let out a toothy grin and put it on him.
"Now why would you give him something so girly?" Aria asked. "…Actually, you know what? It looks better on him."
"It's an amulet that I've enchanted." Salem explained. "Considering what had happened to our men earlier, I decided to make something that would make them loyal no matter what."
"Oh please, like I would bail on you, Lady Salem." Donovan said. "I wasn't planning on leaving anyway."
"Keeping a tight leash on him? Good, you can never trust a hyena." Aria said.
"Well, it also grants the wearer to make any Grimm he wants." Salem added.
"Oh great, so he's probably going to create a hyena army along with a lion and probably do a whole song and dance number while he's at it."
"Oh, thank you for that idea, blondie. Be prepared for that!"
"Uuuuugh, I GOT to stop giving you ideas!"
"Speaking of ideas…" Salem mused. "Aria, there's something I've meant to ask. Are there any weaknesses we should know about your semblance?"
"Oh right, I almost forgot." Aria said. "The beauty of this semblance? There are no drawbacks!"
Salem's eyes widened in surprise. "Come again?"
"I can summon as many puppets as I want and it uses just a small fraction of my aura. Of course, the only way to deactivate my puppetry is basically you have to kill me or you have to force me to deactivate it. But, that's happened like… once or twice? It's a rarity, really. I've got a good track record!" She beamed.
"So much for your perfect record." Donovan snarked.
"I think your face would make a perfect decoration on the wall." Aria snarked back.
"Interesting…" Salem smirked. "So, I was thinking that maybe you should have someone in your repertoire."
"That being?"
"Think of it as his punishment for leaving us. I brought him into this cause and made him believe I could make him stronger after his sister died… and now he's left us."
"You want her to kill Hazel? That's a tall order, considering the man hits like a truck!" Tyrian said.
"Oh no, I'm not talking about Hazel." Salem smirked. "I'm talking about his dead sister… Gretchen Rainart."
"Oh, so this Gretchen is dead, hmm?" Aria had a gleeful look on her face. "I'd be more than happy to make Gretchen a puppet! If you want this Hazel to suffer, then that should do it!"
"Before you go find Gretchen's remains, there's something you ought to do first. You and Donovan."
"Oh?" Donovan wondered.
Watts stood up. "There's something that had caught my attention a few weeks ago, around the time when Cinder was outed." He pressed a button on his glove as it shot a projector into the middle of the room. "There is a portal in the Mushroom Kingdom that sends people into a new dimension. I sent a small Nanobot to guide me to this portal. Once the bot went through, I did a little recon and found something of interest. This computer right here has data for this cult called Organization XIII, and there was one piece of data that intrigued me the most."
"Organization XIII? What, is it a band of emos or something?" Aria snarked.
"Probably a bunch of idiots who has nothing better to do." Donovan said.
"I was going to extract this data but unfortunately, this happened." Watts showed the video where they would see Ienzo dusting off the computer, unknowingly picking up the Nanobot as he would shake the dust off of the duster and knocked the Nanobot to the ground, and then Ienzo would pick up a clipboard and walked off, stepping on the Nanobot and destroying it instantly.
"Looks like our dear doctor got stepped on~! Ahahahahaha!" Tyrian cackled.
"We will have to do it manually." Watts said. "Luckily, I've made a map to the exact location so it should be a piece of cake. However, the Phazon poisoning might be a bit of a hassle, as I have seen headlines that the Phazon is spreading acrossing Remnant as we speak. That said, I'm sure we can manage."
"So you want us to accompany him?" Aria asked.
"Indeed. Think of it as a bonding exercise between you and Donovan." Salem responded. "Perhaps you two might find common ground."
"Pffft, good one." Donovan chuckled. "But whatever, let's go pay this Mushroom Kingdom a visit."
"We'll be off now." Watts said as he walked off with Aria and Donovan.
"You do realize that those two are like oil and water, right?" Tyrian pointed out. "Those two will never get along."
"Oh, I'm well aware of that." Salem said. "But perhaps they can work together as teammates… if they can't do that, then it's no big deal."
Later, in Toad Town…
BGM: Corrupted Dragon (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)
Watts would look down from a Nevermore and see the Phazon had spread all over town. What was once giant blobs of Phazon had turned into a gigantic pool. Phazon was rising up on buildings, into the streams and corrupting anything inside of it. Peach's Castle was completely covered in the poison. "Hmm, they weren't kidding…"
"Man, it's so eerie… it's so quiet too." Aria said, glancing over at the Mushroom Hospital as it was slowly being overrun by Phazon. A window shattered as the Phazon dripped its way in.
"No doubt in my mind the people have evacuated." Watts said. "They would have to be fools in order to stick around… and I have a good feeling Mushroom City is the next one to go."
"What could have caused such chaos?" Aria wondered as Donovan looked down to see Heartless and Grimm running around on things that weren't already covered by Phazon.
"I'll give you a few guesses." Donovan said. "The first two don't count."
"I've a feeling they're making their way toward Beacon Academy." Watts said. "And then beyond that… because I'm sure it's spreading to Vacuo, Atlas and even Mistral. Maybe even all of Vale is getting hit with it."
"What about the Land of Darkness?" Aria asked.
"It may spread over there… but hopefully we will be done with our experiment after we take the data." Watts said as the Nevermore came to a stop at the HQ, where the trio hopped off where they would see the portal, which was nothing more than a teleporter.
"There it is." Watts said.
"You think the Phazon would spread into the portal?" Aria asked.
"There's no doubt in my mind that will happen." Watts said. "I must say, this is more potent than that so-called Blorb pandemic."
"What Blorb pandemic?" Aria raised an eyebrow while tilting her head.
"Exactly." Watts chuckled. "It lasted for about several hours, a cure was made and everyone acts like it never happened." He said. "This, on the other hand, this seems to be lasting for quite a while."
"Never heard of it. I was too busy graverobbing to care."
"Imagine my shock!" Donovan snarked, as Aria glared daggers at him as they went through the portal.
End BGM
Meanwhile, just outside of Radiant Castle…
"You think this will be enough?" Ienzo asked, after everyone in Toad Town had evacuated.
"There's no doubt in my mind that the Phazon will break through the portal." Ansem said. "We will have to find a way to get out of this world soon."
"I'll send a distress signal." Ienzo said.
"Do we have any notable residents that live in Toad Town here?" Ansem asked.
"Willow Schnee, her butler, the Belladonnas, Toadsworth, the Future Foundation and most of Class of 77-B." Even responded. "Sora's friends as well, but they made sure everyone got in before they hopped into the portal last."
"Good. Now all we have to do is calm the residents down."
At the Smash Mansion…
"Master Hand." Meta Knight approached. "We have the entirety of the Smash Mansion evacuated into the Halberd, Great Fox, and the Falcon Flyer. Sonic and his friends are on their way to bring the Blue Typhoon to Remnant to help evacuate everyone else into deep space. We are also doing that as we speak."
"Excellent."
"Will you come with us?"
"No." Master Hand turned around. "My brother and I have some atoning to do for our complacency."
Meta Knight nodded. "Understood. It has been an honor." He said as he flew off to the Halberd, where Master Hand looked at the Phazon slowly approaching.
"What have we done…" He mumbled somberly.
"Certainly not one of our brightest moments." Crazy Hand said. "So… shall we go down with the ship then?"
"Yes." Master Hand readied himself against the army of Phazon enemies approaching. "Be on your ready!"
"If we survive this, we are pulling those two out of the roster, yes?"
"Brother… for once, we are in agreement." Master Hand said, his fingers lighting up. "Have at thee, Phazon fools!"
Back with the trio…
"It seems empty, but I have my doubts." Watts said. "Keep an eye out, you two."
"Right!" Aria nodded and took off with Donovan as Watts would type into the computer, but a program stopped him from doing so.
"Hmm? Someone is stopping me?" Watts wondered. "Hmm, I am not sure what this "Tron" program is, but…" Watts would inject a hard drive into the computer.
"Tron program deleted"
"There we go." Watts cracked his knuckles. "Let's see where I can find this data…" He smirked, while the two were at the doorway.
"I hear footsteps." Donovan said. "Heavy and lighter ones. Two of 'em."
Aria brought out her tome. "Well, let's see if we can't knock them down." She smirked as the footsteps emerged as Aeleus and Dilan approached, and then Aria and Donovan cut them off.
"Stragglers?" Dilan wondered.
"Excuse us, we're lost." Aria said. "Can you help us find a way through this castle?"
Aeleus narrowed his eyes suspiciously. A low growl escaped his lips. "Your eyes. They do not have sincerety in them. Who are you?"
"Just a few passers-by escaping from the Phazon. Care to lead us through to safety?"
Dilan scowled. "You two are up to something."
"Yeah, can you believe it? This girl's acting is boring me to tears!" Donovan said, and then swiftly lunged at Dilan, striking his claws into his chest while Aria swung her shovel at Aeleus, but the latter swiftly grabbed it and then yanked it away. He then brought out his weapon and swung it down hard enough to make the ground shatter on impact as ground spikes rose up and nearly impaled Aria.
"Wah!" She yelped, falling on her butt as Aeleus glared at Aria.
"I will not ask you again." He said as Dilan pried Donovan off of him and summoned his lances as a wind aura surrounded him.
"Oh, alright, you want to know who I am?" Aria sprung up.
BGM: The 13th Dilemma (Kingdom Hearts II)
"I'M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!" Aria yelled, having a crazy look in her eyes, pulling out her tome and summoned a Faunus soldier, dressed as a knight with a broadsword lunged at Aeleus.
Aeleus calmly blocked the attack as he parried the Faunus effortlessly and swung his weapon, striking him in the gut to send him flying.
"Tch, alright..." Aria snarled, summoning another puppet.
"Where's the fun in this?" Dilan would swing his lances where Donovan would dodge these attacks, only to get blown away by an Aeroga as Dilan would throw a lance to him, but Donovan weaved his head to let it go past him as he grabbed a hold of it.
"Thank you!" Donovan rushed ahead and swung the lance, but Dilan effortlessly blocked it as the two would clash with their weapons.
Aeleus lunged at a few puppets, one of them being a judge as he ran ahead and hammered Aeleus, but he grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the ground. He would then get shot at by a few soldiers but Aeleus put up a rock wall to protect himself, before he swung his weapon at the wall, sending projectiles at the soldiers, one of them almost hitting Aria.
"Hmhmhmhm..." Watts hummed as he was busy typing away while the data extraction was downloading. "Ansem Reports? Hmm, that's some reading material for later." He said, making a mental note to add that in.
THUD!
SMASH!
"Mmm..." Watts looked annoyed. "How can two kids possibly make so much noise?"
"Wear the face of despair!" Dilan exclaimed as he was on his homemade Lance dragon and blew Donovan away, sending him flying into a wall.
"Return to the earth!" Aeleus yelled, swinging down on a shield wielding puppet that had destroyed the shield as Aeleus slammed his weapon down, the shockwave was enough to knock Aria on her back.
"Nnngh!" Aria grunted. "Alright, you asked for it!" She said, summoning another puppet to take care of Aeleus and glanced over at Donovan. "Ugh, must I do everything!" She complained as she summoned a Hawk Faunus as he flew around and flanked Dilan, dive bombing him and kicking him in the face, disrupting Dilan as Donovan shook it off and grabbed a lance, throwing it at him and pinned Dilan to a wall, the lance embedded into his shoulder.
"Rrrrgh!" Dilan grunted as Aeleus found himself outnumbered by three Faunus and Aria.
Aeleus closed his eyes before letting out a loud yell as a dark red aura surrounded the man. He took a step as the ground beneath him caved, enough to unnerve Donovan.
"Damn, this guy's power level must be off the charts!" Donovan said a bit nervously.
"Let's just hope it's not in the ten thousands!" Aria hoped as Aeleus swung his weapon down, hard enough to make a massive shockwave to send the two flying as Aeleus jumped over and slammed his weapon into Aria and Donovan, their auras shattering upon impact as the two slid into a railing.
Aeleus menacingly approached the two, ready to finish them off as he raised his weapon into the air... until something was shot into his neck, where it was a tranquilizer dart. Aeleus would fall on his knees and face planted, inches away from pulverizing the duo.
End BGM
"We have what we need. Now let's go." Watts said. "You're welcome, by the way."
Donovan stood up, shaking it off and reached his hand to Aria. "You alright?"
"I'll... live, I suppose..." Aria said, reaching for his hand but he pulled it away, where she fell on the floor. "Ooof!"
"Too slow."
Aria slowly raised her hand, painfully flipping him off. "You suck..." She grumbled as she picked herself up as the two of them walked off with Watts, hopping on their Nevermore and flew off.
Back at the Land of Darkness...
"Welcome back!" Tyrian said. "Did you find what you needed?"
"I have." Watts pulled up the data from his glove, showing off the figure. "His name is Vanitas. Once I rebuild him from the data I hacked into, he will be on our side."
"Ooooh! Can we dunk him into a Grimm Pool?" Tyrian excitedly asked.
Watts chuckled. "I suppose we can." He said as he turned to see Aria and Donovan having ice packs on their heads.
"Rough mission?" Tyrian asked.
"I suppose you can say that. By the way, where's Salem?"
"Well, she went to check on the Apathy Grimm. I'm sure she's feeding them we-"
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Forget what I just said!" Tyrian said as Salem stormed into the room, looking incredibly livid.
"What happened this time?" Watts asked.
"Someone came in and took all of the Apathy! Whoever is responsible for this, I will have their heads!"
Meanwhile, in Haunty Halls Galaxy...
"Hmm, I suppose all those Apathy Grimm were a waste." Dimentio mused. "Buuuut I did have one girl despairing, so it wasn't a total loss, ahahahahaha..."
He would look up to see a few ships coming in and carpet bombing the galaxy with Phazon, then the ships disappeared. "Hmmm..." He mused as he made a clone of himself as it flew over to the Phazon and touched it, where it would become corrupted.
"Interesting, corruption by touch..." He mused, snapping his fingers to destroy the clone as his mind was deep in thought, closing his eyes. "Hmm, if this Phazon does indeed corrupt... it sort of reminds me of how the Chaos Heart corrupted my Ru-"
He opened his eyes, a sadistic gleefulness appeared on his face. "By the Dark Prognosticus, I think I just figured out how to turn this dimension's Ruby into Chaos Ruby!"
Shout out to Log for coming up with this Gaiden!
Ibuki: Ah geez, Ibuki hopes her friends made it out... and Dimentio, she swears, if you lay a finger on Ruby-chan...
Hell to pay.