Chapter 22
Norrisville Part 4
Back at Randy's house, Molly and her friends tried to think of a way to stop the darkness that was lurking in Norrisville while also trying to figure out the advice that the Nomicon gave them. After all the time Molly and Libby spent fighting the darkness, they had no idea how they would be able to keep a balance of light and darkness.
"In order to achieve victory, we need a balance of light and darkness." Molly repeated, thinking back to what Randy said earlier. "Do you have any idea what it could mean, Randy?"
Randy shook his head. "Sorry, I'm just as lost as you are. The Nomicon never has been clear when it comes to giving me advice."
"I still don't understand why we need a balance. The whole point of the journey was to save the world from the darkness." Libby pointed out.
"Maybe we need balance because you desperately need darkness on your side to survive against the Heartless." Xehanort retorted, crossing his arms.
Molly waved a dismissive hand. "Don't be silly! Everyone knows that light is more powerful than darkness! We're not going to risk getting corrupted by darkness!"
Xehanort was about to argue before Howard suddenly took notice of something outside. He let out a surprised gasp before calling out for Randy.
"Cunningham? It looks like McFist is back."
"Again?" Randy asked, more annoyed than anything else. "What is he up to this time? Another robot attack?"
"About that, you might want to take a look for yourself." Howard pointed out the window.
"Okay, but I really don't see how bad it can- What the juice?!"
As Randy gazed in shock, everyone else looked out the window to see what he was looking at. They were all surprised to see a giant robot reeking havoc throughout the neighborhood. While the robot appeared similar to all of McFist's other robots, this one looked far more sinister. It was dark purple in color with yellow eyes and a giant sword in its robot hand as McFist can be seen in the cockpit at the top of the robot's head.
After getting over their surprise, Molly and her friends rushed outside the house to take a closer look. Upon getting closer, Molly and Libby noticed the Heartless symbol in the center of the robot's chest and quickly realized that this wasn't any ordinary creation of McFist.
"Okay, looks like McFist made some improvements to his robot. Still nothing we can't handle." Randy transformed into the Ninja once more.
"Let's not get overconfident." Libby cautioned. "I don't think this fight would be easy like last time."
"Don't worry, Libby! I know we can win! We can do this as long as we all stick together!" Molly assured.
"Um, actually I think I would stay back here." Howard slowly backed away. "You all look like you got this!"
"Okay, we can do this as long as we all stick together except for Howard!" Molly corrected herself.
Wasting no time, Molly and her friends rushed forward, ready for battle. As they approached the robot, Molly, Libby, and Xehanort summoned their keyblades while Randy drew out his sword.
"Alright, McFist! You got my attention! Don't you think you went a little overboard with the robot's creepy yellow eyes? It isn't Halloween!" Randy joked.
"Joke all you want, Ninja! You may have foiled my plans, but this time will be different now that I have to power of darkness on my side."
Molly took a closer look to see a dark aura surrounding the robot. "McFist, please listen! The darkness is powerful, but it's also really dangerous!"
"Silence!" McFist yelled. "I don't care how dangerous it is! This dangerous power will help me destroy the Ninja!"
"Remember not to get overconfident, sir. Even with its full power, the robot can overheat if used too much." Viceroy reminded his boss.
In response, McFist turned to his assistant in anger. "What?! Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"I did! You were just too focused on destroying the Ninja, you didn't bother listening to a single word I said!" Viceroy argued.
As McFist and Viceroy were arguing with each other, Molly and the others silently tried to think of a plan.
"It appears that those two won't stop bickering." Xehanort noticed. "We can take them by surprise while they are distracted."
"No need to tell me twice!" Randy replied.
At that moment, Molly and the others charged forward to take down the robot. Unfortunately, McFist noticed them before taking control of the robot. Everyone gasped in shock when the giant sword raised into the air and slowly descended onto the ground. Thinking fast, everyone jumped out of the way, but were still send flying back, thanks to the impact of the sword.
They all panted, having barely just escaped from being crushed by the sword.
"That was close!" Randy panted.
"And that's not the worst of it, Ninja!" McFist laughed before pushing a button on the robot.
This summoned countless ninja Heartless around the group of friends. Just like that, their troubles got worse as they not only had to deal with the robot, but the Heartless as well. As the robot stomped its way towards them, Molly and her friends desperately tried to defeat the never ending wave of Heartless.
This didn't do any good as more Heartless took the place of their fallen comrades. As McFist's robot got closer, Randy knew that he had to do something fast if he wanted to defeat McFist. He soon came up with an idea before bringing his attention to his friends.
"Hey, you three keep the Heartless busy! I think I know how to stop McFist!" Randy explained.
"But what are you going to do?" Molly asked, barely dodging one of the Heartless' shurikens.
"Just trust me!" Randy said as he ran towards the robot.
Once he noticed Randy running towards the robot, McFist gave a menacing grin. "So, the Ninja wants to be the first to be destroyed! I'll grant him his wish!"
The robot raised its sword once more, but Randy was ready for it this time. Right before the robot could smash the sword on the ground, Randy leaped in the air and landed on the sword before running against it, straight towards the cockpit of the robot. That was when McFist started to panic. He desperately tried to shake Randy off the sword, but he kept on going. Right when he was close enough, Randy got ready to swing his sword.
"Ninja robot slash!" Randy yelled, slashing his sword across the cockpit.
In response, McFist closed his eyes, bracing himself for the worst. Instead, he was surprised to hear a simple tap on the glass. He opened his eyes to see that Randy was having trouble with even making a dent in the glass.
"What the juice? What is this thing made of?" Randy asked, continuing to slash against the glass.
"Nice try, Ninja!" Viceroy stepped forward. "I created this robot to be impenetrable to powerful attacks, especially your sword attacks!"
"Ha! Nice try, Ninja! Your puny sword attacks can't pierce my robot and-" McFist paused. "Wait, where did he go?"
McFist only looked away for a second before Randy suddenly disappeared. It wasn't long before he noticed Randy running towards the fingers of the robot that held the sword. One by one, he pried open the fingers until the sword fell to the ground with a loud crash.
With a growl, McFist moved the robot's hand towards the sword to pick it up. However, no matter how hard he tried, the robot couldn't grab onto the handle of the sword.
"Why isn't it grabbing the sword?" McFist yelled, slamming the controls in anger.
"Because the robot wasn't designed to pick things up." Viceroy explained. "The sword was installed into the robot, but the Ninja was able to detach it."
"Ha! What are you going to do without your weapon now, McFist!" Randy taunted, only to get punched back by the robot's massive fist. This caused Randy to fly back against a wall as he looked up, dazed and confused. "Oh, that's what!"
Molly and Libby gasped upon seeing the weakened state Randy was in. They rushed over to help him, only for them both to get kicked back by the robot's massive feet. Even without the sword, the robot was still more than powerful to take on Molly and the others. Being the only one who wasn't weakened from the fight, Xehanort stood his ground.
Despite the odds against him, Xehanort still had one more trick left. Instead of attacking the robot with his keyblade, he raised his hand as a dark aura emanated from it. His dark powers suddenly caused the robot to stop in its tracks.
"Uh, what's going on? I'm telling the robot to move forward, but it's not moving forward!" McFist yelled.
"This isn't good!" Viceroy gazed at the status of the robot. "This robot wasn't meant to absorb this much darkness! It's overheating!"
After recovering from the attack, Molly and Libby slowly stood up, both of them surprised to see Xehanort holding the robot back with his powers of darkness.
"Xehanort?!" Molly and Libby said in unison.
Xehanort then brought his attention to Molly and Libby. "Molly! Libby! Now is your chance to finish this!"
It was at that moment when McFist started to panic as he desperately tried to take back control of the robot. "I can't control it! Viceroy, do something!"
Seeing that McFist lost control, Molly and Libby shared a couple of silent nods with each other before attacking the robot with spells of their own. They fired orbs of light from their keyblades, piercing through the robot's defenses. No matter how hard McFist tried to control the robot, it only continued to get hit by a barrage of light and darkness attacks.
Upon noticing his friends weakening the robot, Randy saw this as his chance to finally defeat McFist. He leaped onto the robot once again until he made it to the cockpit and raised his sword. Seeing this caused McFist and Viceroy to scream as they hugged each other in fear. With the robot now weakened, Randy shattered the glass of the robot and threw a shuriken at the control panel.
This caused the robot to deactivate before it slowly fell to the ground with a loud crash. As the robot was destroyed, the darkness surrounding it disappeared, along with the rest of the Heartless. Both, McFist and Viceroy crawled out of the wreckage of the robot before McFist let out a yell of rage.
"We were so close! I would have won if you made a better robot, Viceroy! Next time we get a powerful dark force, make sure you build a robot that would actually work!"
"Yeah, yeah!" Viceroy sighed before dragging McFist by his leg back to McFist Industries as McFist continued to throw a tantrum.
Once McFist and Viceroy left, Randy cheered in victory.
"Guys, those attacks of yours were so bruce!" Randy exclaimed. "McFist had no idea what hit him!"
As Randy celebrated the victory, Libby took a moment to ponder what happened, "In order to achieve victory, we need a balance between light and darkness."
"What was that, Libby?" Molly asked.
"Molly, don't you see? The Nomicon was right! We wouldn't have defeated McFist if we hadn't combined our light with Xehanort's darkness!" Libby explained.
Thinking back to the Nomicon, Molly realized what it meant all along. "You're right! Thank you, Xehanort! I never thought I'd say this, but you're darkness really saved us in the end!"
Surprised by what he heard, Xehanort replied, "Um, thank you, Molly. I appreciate you saying so."
"Let's not get too carried away!" Howard suddenly stepped in. "Clearly, I helped out the most in the fight! I was cheering you on from the sidelines after all!"
Even though Howard didn't help in the least, Randy rolled his eyes with a smile as he let Howard have this one. "Sure, Howard! We couldn't have done it without you!"
Everyone soon shared a laugh with each other as Norrisville was now safe from the darkness. With the Heartless finally gone, Randy took off the Ninja mask, reverting back to his casual attire.
"Well, now that McFist is defeated, what do you say we all hang out some more? There is this really cool arcade that you just have to see!" Randy exclaimed.
"Sorry, Randy. We'd love to check it out, but we have to be on our way and protect others from the Heartless." Libby explained.
"Aw. You know, Cunningham and I were really starting to enjoy hanging out you two. What about you, Xehanort? Want to go to the arcade with us?" Howard asked.
Xehanort shook his head. "Sorry. I should be on my way too."
"Hey, it's cool! You guys have to protect the ones you care about, just like I have to protect Norrisville as the Ninja! Just make sure you don't forget about us, alright?"
"Are you kidding? We'll never forget you guys! We'll see you later, Randy! You too, Howard!" Molly smiled before she and Randy shared a fist bump with each other.
After saying goodbye to their new friends, Randy and Howard decided to head to the arcade to play video games. This left Molly and Libby alone with Xehanort as they all took a breather from their fight with McFist.
"So, the darkness attack of yours really helped us out, Xehanort!" Molly spoke up. "Listen, I'm sorry about earlier. I was kind of a jerk to you before. Maybe darkness isn't all that bad after all."
Xehanort managed a slight smile in response. "Well, I suppose your spells of light were pretty effective as well. It's amazing what we can accomplish with a proper balance of light and darkness!"
"I'm just glad that we all finally made up now!" Libby said. "You know, Xehanort you can still come with us on our adventure if you like!"
Xehanort pondered Libby's offer for a moment before he replied. "Very well! I suppose I can join you on your adventure for now."
"Yay!" Molly cheered in joy. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's head on over to our next world! You are going to love our gummiship, Xehanort! It is so wonderful and amazing!"
It was at that moment when Molly and Libby led Xehanort to their gummiship. Once everyone was on board, Molly and Libby flew the gummiship into the sky once more. Things have really started to look up for Molly and Libby now since they have now gained a new ally and friend.