We all arrived back at Beacon Academy late the next day. I was tasked with carrying everyone back in my mech. While happy to be back, we were all exhausted and ready for bed. Once I dropped everyone else off at the dormitory, I brought my mech back to the DBX and walked back to the dormitory to see the two other Ninja. Nathan and Lloyd were sitting at a table in the commons sipping tea the two Sensei had made for the three of us as a reward for our victory. Teams RWBY and JNPR had gone to their dorm rooms to get some much-needed shut-eye. "It feels good to be back." Nathan happily sipped his tea as he turned on a TV to help us all relax.
"It does! And now we have these awesome upgraded powers!" I excitedly took the blade hilt off my back and rested it next to my seat. "The Destroyer doesn't stand a chance!"
"Speaking of which, where do you think he's been hiding out the whole time he's been here? Surely, he hasn't been staying in the IS Dimension the whole time." Lloyd pondered.
"I don't know, but wherever he is, we'll find him." Nathan chimed in.
Just then, the show we were watching was interrupted. Breaking News appeared on the screen followed by a woman with short light purple hair. As expected, she had a serious look on her face. "Good evening, everyone. We are interrupting your program with breaking news. There are reports of a large fight at one of the warehouses in the Vale industrial district. Onlookers say a fight between the white fang and three mysterious mech-suited women broke out resulting in large amounts of damage to the surrounding area. The fight destroyed two other warehouses and injured several white fang members. Pictures sent in from the end of the fight show the escape of the assailants from the white fang."
The television screen showed an image of Phantom Task, Cyrus Borg, and a damaged Cryptor jumping through a dimensional portal. Nathan was taking a large sip of his tea, and spit it out onto Lloyd and me. "Oh my gosh!" He shouted pointing at the TV and standing up. Lloyd and I glared annoyingly at him. "Where are they going!? Cryptor survived!?"
"Looks like it." Lloyd stared at the TV, wiping off the tea that was spat on him.
"I know where they went," I said with tea dripping off me. "They went back. Back to the IS dimension. I can sense it."
"Sense it? You sure?" Nathan questioned. I looked at him and nodded. "I don't know what Creator things are happening to you, but if you can sense it, then it's a safe bet the Destroyer is there too. Let's go inform the Sensei." We put our cups down and ran to find Wu and Garmadon.
The two Sensei sat in Ozpin's office sipping tea with him when the three of us burst through the doors. "Father! Uncle! We know where the Destroyer is!" Lloyd.
"He has gone back to the IS dimension, hasn't he?" Wu calmly spoke before taking a sip from his cup of tea.
"Yeah. H-how did you know?" I questioned.
"I have a television in my office." Ozpin smirked pointing his television remote at a TV on his wall and turning it off.
"Huh." I looked at the television for a long moment. "Anyway," I refocused on the situation at hand, "we have to get back there and stop the Destroyer once and for all! He's clearly lost his white fang allies and we've gotten rid of his Nindroid army, so the time to stop him is now!"
Nathan nodded in agreement. "If we attack him before he can regain his Nindroid army, we can win!"
"Our ninja are right, brother." Garmadon stood up from his seat, still holding his cup of tea. "It is time for the Creator to end this once and for all."
The five of us left Ozpin's office, packed our things, and headed to meet Misako, Tatenashi, and Nya at the DBX. As we reached the DBX, we heard shouting from behind us. Lloyd, Nathan, and I turned to see teams RWBY and JNPR running to catch up with us, bags packed. The three of us knew what they wanted, but knew the hard choice we had to make. "Wait up!" Jaune said to us as they reached us.
"You guys don't think you can just leave without us, right?" Yang smirked.
"How'd you guys know we were leaving?" Nathan asked.
"Oh, a little doggy told us." A smiling Yang looked down to her left at a little Zwei wagging his tail happily at us.
"Are you guys sure you want to come with us? This fight isn't a guaranteed win." I asked them.
"Hey, our dimension is at risk too, so of course we are going to fight this guy and his army of toy soldiers." Weiss angrily said.
"Plus, we care about you guys and don't want our new friends to have to do this alone." Ruby smiled softly at us.
This made the three of us ninja smile and gave us a new sense of hope. We had friends that would help us fight anything, even evil incarnate. I even thought that they could hopefully help us get some friends back. If anyone could help us get the IS team back, it'd be these guys. They may not realize it yet, but they have skills that will take them far on the battlefield.
"Well, I think this is settled. Come on you guys, let's go save the universe." Lloyd turned around and headed to the DBX and all of us followed.
Once we arrived, Nya had us all sit back and strap ourselves onto a long bench against the back of the DBX. Misako went around and checked all our safety belts before she strapped herself in next to her son and husband. "All set captain Nya. Ready when you are." Misako gave Nya a thumbs up.
Nya's seat turned around to face everybody in the back of the DBX. "This is your captain, Nya, speaking." She started. "Please keep all hands, feet, and weapons inside the DBX at all times. It is going to be a very bumpy ride." Her seat turned back around to a control panel, and without hesitation, she slammed her foot down on the gas pedal and drove off. She then punched a large red button, and a portal opened in front of us. It was time, we were finally going home. The DBX drove into the portal, where we saw swirling warm colors until another portal opened in front of us. It was the IS dimension! The DBX came crashing out and Nya slammed on the brakes, stopping it on a hill overlooking the IS Academy Island.
We all got off the DBX, a little shaken by Nya's crazy driving. My eyes were the first to look at the Academy and the city on the mainland. "What has the Destroyer done?" I spoke in shock and sorrow.
"He's made it his base of operations." Tatenashi scowled as she answered me. "He took all the students prisoner after you three left." Her scowl turned to a frown. "I've failed them. As student council president, it's my job to protect the student body, but I couldn't. I got captured and became one of the Destroyer's mechanized puppets."
"It's okay Tatenashi." I put my hands on her shoulders. "We'll save them all, and stop the Destroyer. I promise you that."
Tatenashi smiled. "You better stop him, you windbag." She quickly took a jab at my arm, and we laughed. "I know someone though who can help give us an edge on the Destroyer."
"I think I know who too, but how do we get a hold of her?"
"It seems she already knows." Wu stroked his beard as he and Garmadon glared at the top of the hill behind us, where, standing proudly, stood Tabane Shinonono.
"Hi hi, hi-de-ho. It's Tabane Shinonono, everybody's favorite superstar!"
Nathan stepped up angrily. "Our favorite superstar!? Look around you Tabane. If you're a so-called superstar, you could have stopped the Destroyer from doing this and taking over the city!"
"Oh, silly Nathan." Tabane giggled. "He hasn't just taken over this city, his Nindroid army has taken over the whole world already!"
"You still could have done something! The whole world counted on you long before we ever arrived!" Nathan retorted.
"She couldn't have done anything," Garmadon spoke up to defend her. "Even she knows that she isn't nearly strong enough to stop the Destroyer.
"It's true." Tabane frowned, showing a rare glimpse of sadness. "Long before the Destroyer returned, I knew he was somewhere in the school's system. I tried to wipe him out, but his tech was much stronger than mine, and he blocked me out. I thought I could still beat him. I was wrong. I'm sorry."
"We accept your apology, Tabane." Lloyd told her. "But you didn't come all this way to apologize to us."
"My my my, you were the one that was always getting the better grades out of you three." Tabane pinched Lloyd's cheeks. "Follow me, and I'll explain everything when we get to my lab!" She pulled out a tiny remote shaped like a little bunny and pressed a button on it. A door opened on the grassy hill behind her, and she waved for us to follow her in.
We did as she asked and began to follow her in. "How long has this place been here?" Tatenashi asked her looking around the dimly lit long hallway.
"Oh, I've had this here ever since Houki started school here. I'll come here to work whenever I start to miss my little sister." She answered, brushing a large cobweb out of her way. Nathan, Lloyd, and I looked at one another concerningly. "We should be coming up on my second laboratory very soon here." And that we did. As Tabane entered the room, the lights began to slowly turn on and light up the room. There were screens wall to wall with cobwebs all over them. Most of us were unsure if they even worked. In the center of the room sat a large cylinder chamber.
Tabane stepped up to one of the computers, with a chair in front of it, brushed off all the cobwebs, and sat down. Without hesitation, all the screens activated, and a robotic voice came on, welcoming the "superstar genius, Ms. Tabane Shinonono." She began to type away at her keyboard, entering who knows what into her computer.
"The Destroyer has been beating you guys for far too long. I think it's time to turn the tables on him." She smiled, still typing away on her keyboard.
"How are we gonna do that?" Lloyd asked her.
Tabane stopped typing and turned her chair around. She pointed her finger at my elemental techno blade. "With that! You three ninja can use it to stop his army, but everyone else here can't do anything against them. I'm gonna use your weapons to help give a power boost to your new friends here."
"You mean, we can actually help them?" Blake questioned.
"Exactly. This room scanned your weapons as soon as you entered, and it seems you all use a type of powder as your ammunition. I plan on using these cuties' new weapons to help coat your weapons in this powder and use it as ammunition for the gun parts of them."
I laughed. "You truly are a genius, Tabane."
"I know." She cheekily smiled, turning her chair back around and beginning to type again. "Hunter, if you could put your sword in that test chamber in the middle, I can begin extracting some elemental power from it and get to work." I pulled my sword off my back and activated the blades. Holding the weapon out in front of me, I walked over to the chamber and stuck it inside. The weapon began to float in the chamber, and I could see little orange particles begin to come off the weapon and float up into two tubes above the chamber.
"How long will this take?" Wu asked Tabane.
"With the limited amount of power, I'm able to use without alerting the Destroyer… roughly 48 hours."
"48 hours!? We don't have that kind of time!" I told her. "The Destroyer is weakened right now without a full army! We have to strike at him now!"
"Perhaps we can." Sensei Wu began. "We can prevent his Nindroid army from growing if we sneak into the academy, and shut down his factory."
"It would take him days to be able to repair the factory, even with him using Dr. Borg." Garmadon chimed in. "Ninja, prepare to leave for the academy."
I went to go to the chamber to grab my weapon. Wu reached out his hand and stopped me from opening the chamber. "I'm sorry, Hunter, but you cannot join us."
"What? Why not?" Why could I not go? I'm the one that is supposed to beat the Destroyer!
"We can't endanger you yet. You are too vital in stopping the Destroyer! If something happens to you now, there may be no one who can stop the Destroyer." He responded.
"Fine. I'll stay here with teams RWBY, JNPR, and Tatenashi. We'll help Tabane however we can to get these weapons ready."
"I'm not staying here," Tatenashi spoke up. "I'm going with them too. I've got to save the students."
"Alright, then we'll do this." Lloyd began to plan. "The Sensei and you will go free the academy's students, while Nathan and I head to the factory in the basement to destroy it so that the Nindroid army can't be rebuilt. Sound good?"
We all nodded, and the three of us put our hands in the middle of us. "NINJA GO!" We shouted. The Sensei, Tatenashi, Nathan, and Lloyd ran out of the laboratory and began to make their way to the academy.
Nya and Misako walked up and stood next to me. They could see the worry in my face, knowing full well what kind of warzone those five were headed in. "It'll be alright." Misako consoled me. "My family and your brother are strong, they'll do what they need to do, and be back here before you know it."
"I've just got a bad feeling about all of this." I told her. Little did we all know, what was about to happen….