AN: Welsome again to the story of the secret of the cyborg man. As i was in the middle of writing this chapter, i realized that there were some few elements from the previous chapters that perhaps i can fix it up a bit.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave a like, comments or leave a question if you have any for me.
Chapter 6: The Aftermath: The rise of the guardians.
An hour had passed, the night was still young. The police department of Fresno and Clovis received the news that the Pandacons had returned due to Hector's report of the battle. Many of the ambulances bring over the injured/dead victims to the hospital at North west Fresno where the falcons, now at least a quarter of them left, were there waiting for the count.
As many of them were injured, Luz's team were in disbelief to witness two of their friend's dead in the hallway of the hospital. Dipper and Pacifica, sat next to Marco and Star, with their cast on the arm and bandage over their heads. Dipper was deeply hurt by his sister's demise. One day, she was alive, bugging him about his future, and the next she's gone.
"This can't be true," Dipper said, "It had to be a dream. it had…it had…to… ." Pacifica scotched next to him, hugging him as he began to cry.
"I'm sorry about Mabel, Dipper," Pacifica said empathized.
Luz sat across from him, like two feet far between him and her. She looked at Dipper with empathy as she turned to Olivia, who was comforted by Marcy, Sasha, Grime and the planter kids. They were the same distance far from Luz, two feet away. Luz saw their faces, as if they were hurt. It's almost like she had a deja vu long ago. This takes her back mentally when she encounters the late tyrant emperor, nearly died from moss monster and nearly got her friends hurt. Her thoughts were flowing, nothing, but only a river of darkness. She recalls her memories that hurt her and those around her. She was lost in thought, until she was brought back to reality by a simple touch. She looked over to her arm, and saw Amity holding her arm. Amity looks worried at her lover.
"Are you okay, potata?" Amity asked. Luz exhaled before she could speak.
"Everything happened so fast," Luz said, "I didn't mean to lead us to this. I just thought i was-"
"Help, like your father once?" Amity finished the sentence. Amity was aware of her father since the time when she tried to prove her father with. She was told by Camila, her mother-in-law, about Luz's father, Manny Noceda. "I understand, Luz," Amity said.
"Yet, people got hurt because of me," Luz said, "I never want this. And because of me, two lives were gone. If we didn't go there, none of this-"
"Luz, it's not your fault," Amity said, hugging Luz, "You didn't mean for all this, but those guys would've gotten it either way. We all did our best to stop them, but it doesn't mean we can give up." Luz looks at her, giving a smile.
"Thanks, Amity," Luz said. Yet, the doors opened forward, a doctor came through it. His name is Luican. Marcy, Sasha, and their amphibian friends came up to the doctor.
"Are you friends with Anne Boonchuy?" Doctor Luican asked.
"Yes, is she-" Marcy said.
"She'll be alright," Doctor Luican said, "It would seem that she lost her left arm as she mentioned it was numbed. It should take about another 10 minutes as we gave her a medicine for the numbing effect. If she's okay after 10 minutes, we'll discharge her."
"Okay, thank you Doctor," Marcy said, just as Doctor Luican went back inside. Just then, Molly and Libby came through the hallway doors. As they separate to comfort others, Libby goes up to Marcy while Molly goes over to Dipper to comfort him.
"Hey, Dipper," Molly said, "I'm sorry about your sister. It must be hard to lose someone close to you."
"Thanks, Molly," Dipper said, "Have you ever lost someone before?"
"Yeah," Molly said, "my grandma Nim. It was when I was in college. It was hard for me and my family. Yet, we realized that because she's gone, doesn't mean she is in spirit. We hold her in our hearts as we remember her." Dipper took her words in and felt calm as if her statement healed his mind.
"I appreciated it, Molly," Dipper gratefully said, "I'll remember that."
Just as everyone was sitting and chatting, the hallway doors opened, revealing few people. It was both mayors of Fresno and Clovis, Jerry and Gavin. Another was a police chief, Ramos. Lastly, it was the same Commander Hector. They all approached the gang while everyone was standing up.
"Were you all over at CART tonight?" Mayor Jerry asked. Everyone nodded.
"Well, despite the dangers you were all in," said Mayor Gavin, "but you were all brave, attempting to retrieve the item. Our sympathy for your loss."
"Well, we appreciated it," Dipper spoked, "but what had gotten to this city?" Everyone looked at the mayor and comrades, with concerns and demanding stares. The Mayors and the comrades looked at each other before looking back at them.
"Come with us," Mayor Jerry said, "and we'll explain everything to you." Which earned everyone's agreement.
Half-hour passed, the gang and the mayors and comrades made it to Fresno's city hall, where they were in the conference room, with folders stacked and projection screens attached to the wall.
"So, you are the commander of the Falcons, right" Marcy asked.
"Yes, and the name is Hector," Hector said.
"And who were those guys that attacked you and us?" Luz asked.
"Those factions you were fighting against," mayor Jerry said, talking/explaining to Luz's group, "they're called themselves, Pandacons, the terrorists who killed everyone against them, both sides." He tapped the tablet in front of him as the screen began to lift the screen with the title screen: Classified Files. It began to play old footage from years before.
It first showed footages of a news report of a church's purchase of the queer's community theater, Pastor's demise, reports of a panda symbol sightings upon the city, murder dubbed as The Dark Minder, manhunt/capture for The Dark Minder, number of people laid lifeless, court results, people help the Dark Minder out, praises him, Pandacon formed. The footage ended with the symbol.
Everyone was shocked to see more footage involved.
"After all this, we spotted them over at Norwalk and there were a number of people, joining in from at least 100 to a 1000 members," Hector said, "We thought they were gone years ago."
"What makes you think they are gone?" Dipper asked.
"It's because of this," Ramos said as he pushed on the screen. The projector had turned on and showcased reel footage from the past. It showcased a court with the Dark Minder and his members, while police members stood by them, armed. Two scientists stood by the machine, the size of a lamp, only it was a dish with claws up.
"Any last words, Dark Minder?" Judge Olivia asked.
"Yes, I have," The Dark Minder said, "one day, we will return. On the day of exposure, death and secret will come to you, all of you. And I will finish what I started: To eliminate my fate. To Pandacons' ' He formed the panda shape with his hands, with thump and pinky, signed as a symbol to salute. The followers repeated the salute.
It then glitched and cut to the machine activated and shot up the beam to the ceilings, opening a wormhole. It beamed up Dark Minder and his supporters up through the wormhole, vanished. The wormhole then faded as the machine shut down, permanently. The footage ended with the projection stops. Everyone looked at the mayors and comrades.
"He was banished from this world," Hector said, "and so were the others."
"But how?" Marco asked, "and why were they after the extractor?"
"That's what they're after?" Mayor Jerry asked, "that's what the beacon was all about tonight."
"It can't be!" Mayor Gavin said, "those were hard to crack the code. Nobody can-"
"Actually," Marcy interrupted, "I cracked It." Everyone were shocked to hear of this, even the mayors.
"But she had to because the y were gonna hurt us, including my friend," Libby joined in, earning Libby's attention.
"Honestly, I understand the situation," hector said, "How did you solved it?"
"It was an amphibian ancient language," Marcy said, "it wasn-"
"Amphibian?" Mayor Jerry said, "Like from another world? Now, they're here. How did this occurred?"
"Yes?" Luz said, "what do you mean, 'they're here'?"
Meanwhile, in another place on the same night, the nights were quiet with leaves blown and scattered. Branches were twirled. Buildings around it were mostly colored vanilla. It had a name to each building like, Kerman Art school, Business technology, Farming, etc. It even had a symbol of what appeared to be a bulldog with FS initials. It was Fresno State college.
The night were cold and windy as most students were already in been, on or off campus. Just as it was quiet, four vehicles came inside the campus. It was the Pandacons. As they stopped their vehicles in the parking lot, close by the engineering building, they all got out of their vehicles and approached to the building.
As they get to the door, General Ajay noticed a digital door lock, he placed his tablet next to it as it scanned and showed the passcode. He typed in and they got inside. They then walk to the elevator, as they go down to the bottom, where it is revealed to be an underground laboratory.
The room was big as a football stadium, only it was hooked with multiple connections to other rooms, colored with red and black like a secret base. Many people either guard the place and work in communication. Not just humans, but there were also robotic droids, who appeared like they're mechanical humans but had the head of a vicious Panda with a mouth full of metal teeths like a wolf, portaling within the facility. In the center, there was a machine under construction by engineers. Size of a four story level building, only shaped like a pyramid, with a structure with four supports of long beam with wires inside and each had a long claw toe on each connects to the center pole serving as a base. The top two stories contained the control center pole, which was a cone-like, made in metal with wires and energy fuel within, like a battery. The machine looks like it is nearly complete, only the top part had a closed beacon with four claws closed in. The Dark Minder stared at it like he was proud.
"Marvelous, isn't it?" The Dark minder said, talking to his generals and captain James. They hold the extractor as they hand it to the Dark Minder as they go to the control panel to the machine. The Dark Minder tapped the panel as the center core opened. Inside it had an unfinished structure of a mini machine, like Hask, only it had wires to its side, needing to connect. The Dark Minder connected the extractor on top of the hask and locked it and connected the wires to the device, functioning.
"Wonderful," The Dark minder said as he heard technical humming from the extractor. He then turned to his generals. "Any report?" The Dark Minder asked.
"So far," General Ajay said, "This tells us the next clue." He tapped the blue button on the extractor, as the control panel showed a projectile of a map of Fresno. It then showed a road heading down south to a city named Fullerton. It then showed a place within Fullerton, at a campus of CSU Fullerton, over at the science department. It then showed the numbers.
1-3-20-9-22-1-20-5 20-8-5 13-5-20-1-12 3-21-2-5 23-9-20-8 19-9-13-16-12-5 16-8-18-1-19-5, "16-18-9-13-5"
Back to the conference, comrades and mayors showed them that they have witness some other interdimensional activities, such as an owl Beast sighting at another town out of state, Earth and Mewni merged with monsters and humans co-existed as residents, flying castle/battle at L.A., a small town of unexplainable weirdness, Paranormal ghosts sighted near a small town, strange miniature bots in a town near the ocean and multiple individuals fighting a teenager with a big red T-rex in a big apple city.
"We monitored every unusual activity around the world," Hector said, "since the project incident, we assumed that they were connected to Zapper. We were wrong, because since Mewni became part of earth, we have had a lot of weird events, like this. Iit just shown us your activity, which some of you were involved in the LA's frogvasion."
Anne saw the image of what appears to be her in her teenage self, fighting a giant mech that Andrias wore in the big fight. She was happy and embarrassed to see herself.
"Yep, that's including me," Anne said like she tried to hide herself, "but how do we-"
"Nice try, Boonchuy," Mayor Jerry said, "Although all of this must have happened years later."
"And you didn't want to alert everyone because-" Luz said as she was just interrupted.
"Because everyone would be able to question, sending them with panic and fear, and even attempting to take them out of this world," Hector said.
"Oh, that explains a lot," Molly said.
"Right up until this moment," Ramos said, "we're trying to monitor any activity, regarding the Pandacons. With all of the portals, wormholes and such, we assumed it was them."
"Wow," Marcy and Marco said.
"So, why did you guys take a while to get over there?" Dipper asked.
Back at the secret laboratory, The Dark Minder stands in front of the control panel as the projector begins to projectile a figure in front of him.
"Awaken, oh trust advisor," The Dark Minder called out. The figure begins to form properly like the connection is strong. The figure appears to be a man in his fifties, wearing a suit, only it had a long scarf hanging down to the bottom of the suit. He had glasses that allowed him to see better. He had gray hair, blended with black color. His name was Fallen Ortiz.
"DM, Have you begun the quest?" Fallen asked.
"We have accomplished one of the items, Fallen," Dark minder said, "the extractor is locked within the machine functioning as he would say. Those Falcons had followed the wrong direction as they assumed the extractor was hidden in San Francisco by our trick."
"Extractor?" Fallen said surprisingly, "the master will be pleased to hear of this fantastic news."
"Yet, we have a major problem," Dark minder said, "small groups of brats interfered with our hunt. And they're not ordinary brats. There are more."
"Tell me then," Fallen said, "how so?"
"One of them had a calamity power," Dark Minder said, "the same power that the master had fought before."
"Show me," Fallen demanded gently, as Ajay pulled his tablet from his hand bag as he tapped it. It played footage of Anne fighting their soldiers before she vanished. It then played when Anne attempted to hurt The Dark Minder before being grabbed by him. It freezed before the extraction begins. Fallen looked closer to Anne. Upon staring at her, he turned to Dark Minder.
"And what of their status?" Fallen asked.
"We beat the shit out of them," Dark Minder replied, "and they're in the hospital. They won't bother us for few weeks."
"You have let them live?!" Fallen said with a hint of anger, "You FOOL!" The voice echoed the room like earthquakes, as everyone were shocked, even The Dark Minder himself. "They are the ones the Master foreseen our doom! You have led them to us?!"
"No, sir, nearly 5/7 stars," The Dark Minder said with a hin of mercy, "We were attempting to take them off until the falcons came by and their allies as well. Police were on their way and-"
"SILENCE!" Fallen shouted as it echoed through the laboratory, "The Master will have your head if you fail to terminate his prophecy, like your fellow brothers. Bunch of failures!"
"I'M NOT A FAILURE!" The Dark Minder pleaded mercifully, "It wasn't my fault! They barely fulfilled their purpose and their mission! I'm the only one who fulfilled my master-"
"ENOUGH!" Fallen demeaned, "Master will mostly be displeased to hear of this."
"Wait," General Ajay objected, "Perhaps we can correct our error, Fallen. If they're coming for us, then we shall take off this world." Fallen pondered as he thought of Ajay's plan.
"Hm, fine," Fallen said, "Find the other devices, complete the mission, and kill anyone who interferes, even those stars. Should you fail again and the master will dismantle you."
"I will not fail our master, Fallen," The Dark Minder said, "Not like those Mewnians, those creatures of weirdness, not amphibians, and even these little crawler bots as well. Mark my words, trusted adviser. The Plan will success as the master expected."
"For the Pandacons," Fallen said as the projection began to close out. For a brief moment of silence, The Dark Minder stared at where the projection was.
"For the Pandacons," The Dark Minder said as he stared cold-heart looks at where the projectile of Fallen was..
Back at the conference room, everyone was watching more footage from Alfred, coming from the black box.
"Okay," Alfred said, in his white suit and goggles over his eyes, "Extractor, Test #13; subject an apple." He goes over to his extractor on the table, taps it with his tablet, wirelessly connects to the extractor. The device then began to hum as it just tapped to the ceiling, forming a wormhole. Then, not one apple came out, but a few apples appeared through the wormhole and fell to the ground. Alfred tapped his tablet, shutting down the extractor. He began to write. "Holy shit," Alfred said, "it worked! Yes! Test results; fifteen apples pulled out than my previous expectations. Now to get back-" the footage ended.
"This is what they attempted to rebuild then," Hector said. "Looks like another Zapper."
"Why do they want to rebuild that disaster project?" Mayor Gavin asked, "it's too risky!"
"Did something happen with this zapper?" Luz asked.
"And what is Zapper?" Molly asked. The Mayors, Officer and the commander looked at each other before the gang.
"It's a machine," Jerry said, "designed as a teleportation through another universe, just as Alfred built it."
"Like the multiverse?" Anne asked.
"Yes Anne," Ramos said, "that's what he stated before the incident."
"What incident?" Amity, Hop-pop, Libby asked together.
"This incident. The Dark day," Hector said, as he tapped the box as it played the next footage.
It revealed a news report of a CART incident like it was played years ago. It showed many attendees gathered as they took a seat. News reporter, Giovanna, speaks over the reel.
(play "The Machine" piece from "9" motion picture soundtrack for the reel sequence.)
"Today is truly an extraordinary day," Giovanna said through voice over as the reel goes, " as today is the annual student showcase here at CART high school as students are presenting their class work projects to the public, as a group and individually." It then goes to live footage of students presenting their projects as attendees walk by and watch. It cuts to Alfred in the main stage outside of the school, behind. Most of the attendees were packed. "As many enjoyed every student's work, one of them had a bigger fish for us to witness."
"Good evening, everyone," Alfred said behind the standing desk, "I'm Alfred Gonzalez. Today, I am honored to present my greatest achievement. What if I told you that we can travel through another world? Well, That can happen today. I present to you Project Zapper." He goes over to the control panel, next to the desk as he activates the machine. The top piece spins like a gravitron ride as it shoots out electricity lightning bolts, hits to the ground as it creates a wormhole, human-size. Everyone was thrilled and surprised. "My machine can help us to discover outside of our world, exploring the outer system, the entrance to the multiverse for all humanity," Alfred said.
Then, the newspaper appears to showcase an explosion at the school, captioned "CART project blew the school!." It then showed images as the machine''s electrical system goes out, zapping each place, but sparks fire. Everyone, attendees and students run away from the machine. Next image showed Alfred being burned alive with fire, damaging his cyborg eye as electricity bolts zapped the eye. Many attendees and students attempted to recover those who barely escaped while others pulled over lifeless bodies, burned like a roasted chicken.
The newspaper rolled in days after, captioned, "COURT ORDER ZAPPER TO THE TRASH!" With an image of judge Francine, who slammed her gavel and Alfred, who hung his face down, looked ashamed. His right side face is now repaired with metal cyborg eye seemed to be fixed. "I hereby place your Project Zapper away in the shelves effectively immediately for the safety of our resident, Doctor Alfred,'' Francine said as a reel news voice over. Another image shows a group of protestors, standing by the court with their signs saying, 'kill the murderer!' With Alfred's face. There were also counter-protesters, showing epiphany towards Alfred. Another image shows Alfred walked out of the courthouse, protected by police and security officers as protesters unleashed their frustration towards the deformed student. Another image shows the families and friends of victims crying over their graves, expressing their sadness. Another image showed the aftermath of CART as it was, only the machine was damaged, broken down like a melted building being torn apart. "As the results came through, many residents came out in support and against Alfred Gonzalez. Meanwhile, the people, who lost their loved ones in the CART incident, showed their respects and grief during the dark times," Giovanna said voice over, "our sympathy to those were taken by that very dark day. God help us to overcome. This is Giovanna, signing out." The reel ended.
Luz's friends were shocked to see this.
"That's sad," Libby said, "many lives gone. I feel bad for them."
"Can't believe he built this machine that killed people," Marco said, "but why did he build this?"
"He didn't mean for the outcome," Jerry said, "he managed to have everyone to be evaluated. He also did managed to save some people before he got hurt. After weeks of surgery, he testified on his behalf of his machine and ask the judge to correct his work's technical difficulties."
"Yet, he was denied by Judge Francine," Gavin added in, "for the sake of every citizen's safety."
"That's awful," Libby said, "That must have been tough on Alfred. What happened afterwards?"
"Last thing with Alfred," Ramos said, "He died just when the Dark Minder terrorized this city."
"Before he died however," Hector said, "Alfred made a small request to depart his mini side projects from the machine for safe keeping."
"So, he's split them away," Amity said, "is that why he created-"
"This box?" Ramos said, "yah, he's so genius like he built them ahead of time. He even used some of these codes to hide his items."
"But now, these Pandacons have the extractor," Luz said, "they might find the other items, but what are they?"
"Wait," Libby said, "there was a map from the extractor when Marcy have it before."
"That's right," Marcy said, "It showed me a map from here to out of town at Fullerton. Over at CSU Fullerton. It had a X over there."
"Did it said what the item is?" Dipper asked.
"Hm, i think i got an idea," Marcy said as she grabbed the metal box, "Prime." Just as she said it, the metal box begin to shake as it projected footage of Alfred before the incident.
"So, now the extractor is complete," Alfred said cleaned his cyborg eye with tissue wipes, "I can now begin to program my code. A simple circuit board to hold my coding. I named it, Primus, aka The code key." He holds up a circuit board, size of a plate with green colored. He pulled over his gray dell laptop as he connects the board to the laptop with cable. "Now, let's see here," Alfred said as the footage glitched and it showed another footage of him looked exhausted. "Well, i did it. It took me a while to calculate the energy harness of the crystal." He holds a circuit board, shaped like a key size of a remote control, as he place it down. "And now, I need my crystal to program my code." The footage ends.
"Okay, the code key is over at Fullerton then," Hector said.
"Then let's get them," Dipper said, gained the attention of everyone.
"Are you sure, Dipper?" Pacifica asked, "We just-"
"That cyborg man killed my sister and that salamander," Dipper said, "And I'm gonna end him once we retrieve the items."
"Out of the questions," Hector said, "he'll kill you and others."
"I don't need someone who couldn't be able to save anyone," Dipper said, earned a hard anger stare from Hector.
"But he's right," Anne said, "that dude is powerful, with my power. He's gonna kill all of us."
"But The Dark Minder warned us not to-" Star said before she was interrupted.
"We can't just let him-" Molly said.
As everyone begin to argue in chaotic terms, Luz was in deep thought on her mind. She knew that it was her mess that got some of her new friends killed. And because of this, she had the dark killer gone out to rebuild the project, which could hurt a lot of people. "When can we begin?," Luz said, earning stunned attention from everyone.
"Luz-" Hector said, before he was interrupted.
"We know what the items are and where they're located," Luz said, "We can go there before the Pandacons get their hands. If we acquire the key and the crystal, we'll confront the Dark Minder to interrogate and demand an answer before we kill him. I won't let anyone get hurt again and I'm sure you don't want that, do you? My dad got hurted years ago, defending this city before he died. So please, let us help you." Hector, the mayors and Ramos looked at each other, pondering for a moment. They all looked at Luz.
"That could be possibly work," Ramos said, "but it would be risky."
"Then it's a risky we're willing to take," Dipper said, "I'll join in."
"Same with me," Anne said.
"You're gonna need some assistance for cracking codes," Marcy said, "You're jointing Libby?"
"DO I?" Libby said excitedly but embarrassed, "I mean yeah, I will."
"And I'll be with you, Libby!" Molly joined in.
"You're gonna need some muscles," Amity, Pacifica, Sasha and Grime said together.
"We'll join with you," Marco and Star said.
"Any objections?" Luz asked Hector, the mayors and Ramos, whom looked at the gang, and realized that perhaps she was right.
"Well, we can't let the Pandacons finish the hunt," Jerry said.
"But perhaps she made a good point," Ramos said.
"Very well, then," Hector said as he faced Luz's team, "Alright then, Luz. You win. Looks like you're with me, welcome aboard. We'll leave for Fullerton at ten." Luz's team were so proud, even Luz, that they strike the dramatic hero pose with full team.
AN: This gave me few ideas, taking few inspirations from few medias, such as Zack Snyder's Justice League, etc. It took me a while to write as i was writing this. Yet, I want to make it as an homage, but also tried to write as much as i can with this story.
I also want to start this grief path for Dipper while Luz's internal conflict had begin as she felt guilty for Mabel and Yunnan's demise. Yet, I have plan for those two to overcome their challenges throughout this story.
I also want to give those side by side story with our protagonists and the Pandacons. The talk between the dark Minder and the advisor Fallen felt like it was one of those sequence that was hidden some facts. I felt it was like talking between the pulp and the mentor. It was a bit of challenge to establish their part of this story, yet also I did mangage to find an inspiration for thos two. It was fun to mess around.
The DM's banished was inspired by Ninjago season 4: elemental tournament. I Want to give my readers and our protagonist to understand the stakes with history and for the hunt. The newspaper reel sequence was actually an homage/tribute to the underrated animated film, 9, from 2009. The music, which i highlighted and bolded to gave a note there, was interested as I heard a piece from it and I thought that the tone might fit here as it was dark moment here.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time.