At the Kids Next Door treehouse, Numbah 1, Gumball, Dexter, and Jack each had many questions. The most pressing question was: What on Earth spewed out the portals earlier? Why did it come from Jack and Finn's worlds, and what else could they have done to stop them? Jack then began to tell the tale of what happened from his perspective. While he did not know where the entity came from, he knew what it could do and how it affected his galaxy. The Samurai had come from the distant past, when the ancient demon named Aku returned from his seal created by Jack's father. Jack attempted to slay the creature but was thrown into the future where Aku's evil was law. For years, he had made many allies but lost his sword when, for a time, he lost himself once every exit back to the past was destroyed. Ashi, one of many assassins from a cult of worshippers of the demon, realized her father's wrongs and brought Jack back to the light. But when Jack finally recovered his sword, a somehow far darker force in the cosmos arrived from nowhere and absorbed Aku.
It seemed like Jack, Aku's spirit was reinvigorated when this entity consumed him. As a result, the world was quickly plunged into darkness. Those who allied themselves with Jack got to work evacuating those they would go to wherever was safe. Jack, on the other hand, would confront the anomaly, hoping to reverse the ill effects with the light of his sword. Under normal means, the blade would have slain the ancient demon. And somewhere within the entity's data, it probably has. But as he discovered, he alone wouldn't be enough to defeat it. It then began opening up portals to other worlds, including this unique one he now stands upon, giving Jack a window to follow the tendrils back here.
It certainly was a lot to take in for everyone present. Gumball even began eating popcorn with Dexter while listening to the Samurai. It was disheartening for Jack since he couldn't go back in time. But thanks to Ashi and their friends, he wasn't nearly as upset as he would be if things went the other way. Not to mention, as Dexter told him from experience, changing the past would drastically change the future. If Jack succeeded, chances are Ashi wouldn't exist in this form; maybe in general. Her new power she gained from Aku's blood was perhaps the only thing keeping her end of things intact as well. She and Scotsman's family were led by a familiar white wolf to a village Jack saved just weeks earlier from a horde of beetle drones, and the people there used their antennae to project current happenings outside their world. They were safe for now and would be evacuated to CN City shortly. However, the same couldn't be said for every other world in the CN universe, as everyone would soon discover.
While cartoons like Mighty Magiswords would take an epoch for the plague to reach, Teen Titans Go and Steven Universe were axed almost immediately. The last thing Steven could do was give Connie a warm embrace before they were both erased at the beach. The last of the show, Spinel, was eventually picked up by Dexter from the garden when he went to monitor the entity up close. It got on his nerves when he learned that she and his sister ran on the same wavelength, but he was content seeing them happy together.
K.O.'s world was in a state of chaos, with heroes and villains alike trying their own ways of handling the situation. The reason working together wasn't on the cards was because the heroes suspected Boxman to have abducted K.O., not knowing what actually happened to him. Every method they had failed, from the heroes combining their powers to Boxman constructing a laser that he thought would push back the virus before he, too, was consumed. However, everyone went radio silent when they saw Cosma fall from the sky in her gigantic form, splashing into the ocean and telling everyone to knock it off. She wasn't thrilled about working with the "good guys." But during her travels through space, she knew they would have to, seeing how powerful this monstrosity really was. Every world she planned on consuming was erased almost instantly, and it took every bit of strength she had to get to Earth. She knew not where K.O. was either, but she suspected it had to do with the spread. For the boy's sake, Mr. Gar, Venomous, Cosma, and Carol would lead the evacuation effort once Dexter opened a portal to CN City.
Elmore, on the other hand, barely had anything left to return to. However, unlike the other cartoons, the look of the aftermath of the viral attack resembled TV static rather than total blackness. This was obviously the Void, having expanded to the rest of town. Luckily, most of its residents were still alive, albeit glitched out, constantly repeating their actions from before the attack. The only two who weren't affected were Penny and Carrie, though just barely. Once Gumball returned, he teamed up with them to grab whoever they could and bring them back to the city, starting with Gumball's family, Bobert, Mr. Small, Rob, and Yuki, who was visiting Nicole for a fight. However, while Rob immediately set aside his differences with Gumball, seeing how terrible things were going, bringing him with the team wasn't a good idea. Because when he went through the portal to safety, whatever code he had left that held his already distorted figure together was vaporized. Because everyone from Elmore wasn't in Small's van or wearing tin foil hats, they glitched out too. But not nearly as much as Bobert, who began short-circuiting from the trip. Darwin and Anais figured that because he was a robot, it was much easier for him to get corrupted than everyone else. So, while they would recover and mourn the loss of Rob, Dexter and Anais would work to repair Bobert.
Across the multiverse in the Astrocar, Jimmy began to explain the full extent of his plan to Turner. When the Toybots and Morphoids attacked years ago, they met a member of an alien race known as the Irkens. Some of their technology was what Calamitous used to build his robot army, while Zim and his rival, Dib, worked with Jimmy to stop Globulous. While doing so, Jimmy learned about the Irken race from the two and even stayed in contact with Dib over Zim's activities. He last told him that the armada capital ship, The Massive, was sucked into an anomaly called the Florpus Hole. However, the cruiser that was swallowed up for all eternity was not the one that the Tallest used to own. The original, created by the endangered Vort engineers, was discarded and docked near the Irken world, Devastis, just in case their newest ship was destroyed or didn't have enough snack space as advertised. Not that the Tallest actually remembered its existence after making the switch.
Jimmy planned to use his Matter Duplicator on a larger scale, directly duplicating The Massive and returning it to Retroville. There, they'd modify the ship in record time to accommodate entire populations before copying it again more than enough times. These would then be used to evacuate as many worlds as they can before they're destroyed by the swarm. Luckily, because the Tallests had practically vanished, the Vort began an uprising against the Irken race and used the original Massive as a base of operations. As it turns out, they were already modifying the vessel after hearing about the swarm, and some would offer their services to Jimmy to help expedite the process. Zim wasn't unaware of this, and Dib didn't like working with his rival again. But when it came down to his father, Professor Membrane, discovering the anomaly through satellites, he knew he had to concede. Dib had to mince words about the Vort's involvement and their efforts to rebel against the Irken race. Instead, he told him if they didn't work together, Earth would be destroyed, and the Tallests would be so disappointed he lost another valuable planet, even though, in reality, the Tallests were gone. Good deal.
Everything was going smoothly for the upgrades to the Massive. But while they were making the necessary adjustments, the virus began looming over Retroville sooner than expected. Jimmy still wanted to make the upgrade happen here since he needed to gather the equipment from his lab to his Hypercube before returning to the newly dubbed "Neutron Lift Rafts." These 4 duplicate Massives were prepped and ready for launch. And with the coordinates set for Amity Park, Bikini Bottom, Tremorton, Pupununu, and anywhere else they can go, they rocketed out of Retroville just seconds away from the cartoon's complete consumption.