Tyranny 2025

Chapter 3: Desperation

Date: September 19th, 2024

Katherine yells: "Cease firing! This isn't working!" She then dismisses the military forces left on the Boiling Isles and glares at us: "You are far more trouble than I ever imagined any of you to be. I will have someone else take care of you for me. Belos, get up! I know you're more powerful than that! You've been chained up for some time now after they made your magic useless!" Belos appears out of nowhere with rage in his eyes. Katherine then leaves through a portal, leaving us to deal with Belos. But at the same time as we begin engaging him, we get word on fights happening elsewhere. It isn't good. Our comrades need some help. I say to the others: "Go on without me. I'm pulling this stunt again. I know but you must leave to help them. I can take Belos or at least, keep him busy for a very long time. As long as the villains aren't allowed to converge on one location again, we have a shot at winning here and forcing them to retreat if they don't get killed. I've given our situation some thought since I recovered from the despair last night. I also had a sleep replacement potion soon after I snapped out of my horrible feelings. Look at me, someone might claim I have White Knight Syndrome which is a thing and it's actually a problem. But no. I don't. If I did, we would have had a much harder time bringing down the mastermind behind Alva Towne Unamusement Park. So why am I offering to sacrifice myself again? It's simple. I'm already dead. Belos is more used to magic users than other kinds of fighters. And we need to get as many of us out of here to help the others. This is so incredibly risky. I realize that but I will buy a lot of time until Belos starts going after anyone else. Try not to worry about me too much, okay?" The others reluctantly let me have my way, realizing that there really was no other choice. Despite all of our planning, we are still struggling against mostly the villains, less so the Empire Of Nacirema's armed forces.

Belos speaks to me as the others leave and I take on some of his spells head on: "I do not know where Luz or the Owl Lady Eda are but know this. Because you have chosen to face me by yourself, I will defeat you and use you to lure them right into my hands. Oh and can't forget about the Collector. He also turned on me and I will not forgive or forget. Revenge as well as the Boiling Isles will soon be mine. I will continue to support Katherine Glassgate as long as she recognizes my dominion over these isles. It is that easy to understand. You seem to be handling my spells well. In the human realm, they call armored individuals like you knights. I should know. I was human once. I heard much of the tales of knights even back all those years ago in Gravesfield. I no longer need Titan's blood for my plans. I have evolved far beyond that now. But tell me, just what kind of knight are you? Your coat of arms on that shield of yours is not of any nation or kingdom Im familiar with." "What kind of knight am I? I'm not a holy knight or a royal guard or a temple knight. I'm not a knight of any kind from the medieval past. I am a different kind of knight who customized their own armor's design and colors with some assistance. I love everything for the most part about the classic suit of knight's armor. It's the only kind of suit that's truly cool. I am a knight truly of the people. In my world, I'm a part of the working class. I'm an anarchist knight born of common folk as they'd say in medieval times. Abolish capitalism and hierarchy. Those are 2 of my many dreams for the future. Humanity has no need for them. We can find ways to go without even hierarchy. It's not rocket science. The people are quite good at doing good things without being told to."

"You are a fascinating but strange one. You would not be useful to me in any capacity even if I tried to brainwash you." "You're right about that, I can be annoying by accident and even more annoying if I actually try to be annoying. Besides, my mind has become difficult to takeover. Mental training every so often. Spells. You name it. I've done a few things to keep intruders out of my head. I won't even allow myself to get a brain implant no matter how cool it sounds. In my world, there's something called Neurallink. I refuse to get it. But enough about that bullcrap. Let's fight for real, Belos." "As you wish. I will show you no mercy." "I don't care if you do or don't because this body of mine has been a corpse for just over 13 months." "A member of the walking dead? How interesting. It's too bad you're my enemy as well as one of the many individuals wanted dead or alive for large amounts of currency inside the Empire of Nacirema." He unleashes a whole bunch of powerful spells using glyph magic as well as more destructive magic but I just deflect, block, tank, or dodge all of the spells. It started getting boring very quickly: "Is that it? Is that all you can do? If you were dealing with your average Boiling Isles resident, this fight would be going very much in your favor. However, it is not because I am far more resilient physically and mentally than your average Boiling Isles resident." "How are you standing up to all of these spells? It should be impossible." "That's a secret." "Very well. You can keep my secrets and I can keep mine but I will still find a way to get past that armor of yours which I know is the key to your ongoing resistance." "Good luck with that. It's been upgraded a number of times. Not only do I treasure it and feel most like myself in it but it is extremely strong."

"Then I have no other choice. I must use my full power against you to end this before you waste any more of my time." "Go ahead. I'm waiting. I don't even feel like I'm in danger right now." He then grows into a giant monster but retains full control of himself. He slams into me while firing chaotic magic at me but I hold firm. However, things quickly change when he tries to petrify me but my armor has a significant level of magic resistance, preventing that from succeeding in the slightest. He then fires a flame breath at me in an attempt to infect me with his cells. However, I conjure things with Artist's Eye to block it. "Not so fast, Belos. If this is all you can do, I can hold out against you for a long time." "How can this be? I should have easily defeated you by now." "Wrong. That ain't happening. I won't allow you to do as you please to me. Take this!" I use all of the sword attacks against him that I can, causing him to be dealt mild damage. "It looks like you yourself aren't able to so easily hurt me either." "I expected this to happen. Villains like you always become ridiculously difficult to bring down when you align with any multiverse conquest aspiring puddle of raw sewage." We are locked in a stalemate for a while until he starts crushing me with his full wrath but I at least keep myself from being turned to stone or possessed or infected by him. Belos frowns, even in his dragon like appearance: "So you still refuse to give up despite all of the damage you're taking." "I shall never yield in a situation where I have no choice but to fight all by myself. Like this one. *coughs up blood* Hey, bastard. The sword isn't my only weapon."

I switch to my daggers and relentlessly stab him no matter how much damage he does to me. Thanks to the same things that protected me and the others months back from having xenomorphs grow inside of our bodies, I am able to avoid possession through parts of him directly touching my skin. I keep stabbing him until he starts learning my dagger attack patterns. Belos uses them to seriously deal a lot of damage to me so I switch to my other weapons until I'm left with just my metal glove covered fists to use as weapons. To his shock, I jump onto his body and start punching away. One advantage even your standard fully armored with plate armor knight from medieval times or rather, from when metal gloves were invented during that era on has over the modern military soldier is the lethal punches made much more painful thanks to metal gloves. Or metal gauntlets, whatever you want to call them. They probably inspired part of Garnet from Steven Universe's character design. She uses the gauntlets she wears as weapons a lot, especially since she joined BRAINS at the beginning of last year. But my fight with Belos is soon interrupted by the sound of: "Loooootttttss of meeeee. Looooootttsss of meeeee." I get away from Belos to avoid his attacks and find out where that familiar sound is coming from. But by the time I did, Belos found himself getting infected and turned into a mindless wandering Doofensmirtz through an electrical charge in a bizarre turn of events. That's when Luz and the others appear. Luz shouts: "Come with us! Those things are everywhere!" I yell back: "Water returns them to normal but we should just let Belos stay one!"

Eda replies: "Seriously?! Those things just popped out of nowhere and turned many friends and enemies alike into more of them starting like 20 minutes ago and all we had to do to stop it was get them wet?! You have got to be kidding me." That's when we hear someone running and screaming. "AAAAAAA! SOMEONE, HELP MEEEEEE!" I run to Doofensmirtz and teleport him along with myself to the air ship Luz and the others are on. "Doofensmirtz, why were you running?" "LOVEMUFFIN wants my head or did until they became me. That's right. Me. It all started because I wanted to make Frieza so repulsive with my new and improved Repulsinator that no one, not even his fellow villains would want to work with him. Instead, Frieza turned into me. It's like what happened with my brother Roger all over again but that's not the point. The point is that that's how it all started and now, there's a whole army of mes that were just chasing me. 'Lots of me.' 'Lots of me.' You'd think they'd say something else by now instead but no. It's always that. Once again, I can be really annoying, can't I? Anyway, we should get a lot of water and do you know what." "Indeed but first, it might be in our best interest to keep the villains as mindless clones of you. Look at Belos down there. Even he in his most corrupted form still transformed into you. If we could figure out which ones are the- We can do that. With Ki sense and other techniques. And then, we can capture them and put them somewhere where no one will find or touch or be touched by them." It didn't take long for us to do that. And then that was done, we doused everyone else in lots of water through water magic and other means.

I can only really use offensive, wind, dark, and healing spells right now. No water magic. After we take care of all of that, we were all about to help fight the remaining villains in the Boiling Isles except they were all gone. Where did they go? Eda told us and shuddered a lot while doing so: "According to what our comrades are saying, they all apparently went to Station Square. Out of nowhere, the Empire has taken back the city and the whole world around it. I did not see that coming. Well then, I guess we know where to go next." But before we could teleport there, something strange was sensed. I then got a telepathic message from Dominic: "My dearest friends! Listen to me! A strange kind of energy is rapidly spreading throughout the multiverse and we don't know what it's about! All we know is that time is beginning to pause and many of us are going into a trance like state! One of the victims-" He is cut off. The energy got him. And a few seconds after him, it got myself, Luz, Eda, Doofensmirtz, Hunter, and the others on the air ship too. I am transported into my very mind. And I see visions. A group of mysterious beings appear: "Swiftdrawer, you are not ready for the next step towards your ultimate goal in this life of yours. But in time, as you grow stronger and reach your limit, you will become ready. You already have come to accept the fact that you and nearly all of your comrades are all ultimately made out of materials that were once inside stars. That is phase one of reaching the next step. You will advance from dark knight to something else before knight sage. Be patient. It will happen when it can and needs to happen." The figures then vanish from my mind. After that, another vision occurs.

I see a ritual site with an incomplete yet complicated magical circle. A voice speaks to me: "As the multiverse continues to be put into peril and the time for the final battle to determine everything approaches slowly but surely, it is becoming more important that you learn more about the path you have chosen to walk. You have chosen the path of a legendary knight sage. There have been many knights who have been sages but a knight sage goes beyond what even they have become. And the sooner you act based upon what you need to know, the more prepared you will be for the rest of this ongoing conflict against the Empire of Nacirema and future conflicts to come. A knight sage as you are aware is someone who is both a knight and highly skilled mage. They have years of experience in both magic and swordplay. The journey to become one is far from easy and dangerous at times. A very small percentage of all adventurers in the known multiverse you are aware of have managed to become knight sages. It is similar to being a battle mage but they are not the same. A knight sage has to be experienced in battle and fights to save something precious and very important. You have much of what you need to become one but there's still so much you need to learn and improve on first. It will likely be several more years until you can go on the perilous journey to become a legendary knight sage. A knight sage isnt just knowledgeable or masterfully skilled with a sword and/or other weapon(s) knights use. They must also possess immense strength, enough to cut a 30 meter hill in 2 even by the slightest width of such a cut.

They must know thousands of spells and gain great control over all major elemental classes of spells. That means you can't just master wind and dark spells. You must go beyond that. To prepare you to more properly fight your current foes, I am speaking to you when I am. Young dark knight, the agony you experience due to the curse inflicted onto you will end during the journey to become one of the knight sages. A knight sage must also possess key traits of both knights and sages as well as being a hero. Heroes aren't perfect so you need not worry about always doing heroic deeds. You will find out more in the coming years unless your journey happens sooner. It is all up to you. That is all. Do not worry about my identity. I am just a voice. Farewell, young Swiftdrawer." I get out of my trance at the same time as the others. The others look like they've just learned some seriously cool stuff. Eda exclaims: "Apparently, my harpy form is going to evolve and allow me to become much more physically stronger than I am even in this base form of mine. Oh and I'll get to help found a multiversal magic council or something. And become some kind of sage. I don't know, I wasn't told everything ya know." Luz shouts: "I'm going to become a sage!" Lilith exclaims: "I'm set to become a sage as well! " King shouts: "My turn! I'm going to become a Titan as cool and powerful as my dad was! Oh yeah! I just can't wait for that to happen!" Raine, a non binary witch in love with Eda and was in the Bard Coven speaks: "I'm going to become a true master of not just bard magic but music as a whole as well as sound waves and vibrations. I guess you could say I will become someone who is both a bard and as masterful over sound as Present Mic is."

Amity is next: "I will be forever with Luz and become able to merge myself with my abomination. As well as become some kind of sage myself." I reply: "I mean, if you're any kind of magic user, you may end up becoming a sage given enough time. Or a healer or oracle or all 3." Willow grins: "I will become a botanist and battle healer!" Gus spoke after her: "The mind and visualizations and illusions will be mine to master to the point that I will apparently be able to alter reality temporarily and something about a class called Great Illusionist." Hunter then goes: "I will surpass Belos to become among the most powerful in the Boiling Isles. And eventually, Flapjack will return to me greater than before. Oh and something about a sage too." And last but not least, Doofensmirtz: "Well to be honest, what I heard might not sound nearly as cool. But.. I will become amongst the greatest scientists of my world. And I will one day merge with all of my past, present, and future inators after much training for my body to use all of their abilities for myself without the risk of any kind of self destruct button. I put self destruct buttons on my inators. What kind of scientist DOESNT put those on their inators, izers, rays, or whatever they want to call them?!" Eda speaks: "Well, we better get moving. Our comrades need help. Time to teleport. I hope you're all ready to because I sure am." I reply: "Wait. I haven't shared what I learned. *explains* But none of this means I will be more 'cool' than any of you. I mean, there is a downside to pursuing both magic and sword arts. A typical mage would struggle to become a sage less than I will. I have a disadvantage in learning more magic. I'm slower in learning it overtime because of my time devoted to sword arts. It's really that simple."

We then actually do teleport to a repaired Station Square under imperial fascist occupation in a firmer grip of tyranny than before. Sonic sees us and waves: "Hey everyone! Glad you finally made it! Don't mind us! Just trying to trick our biggest enemy into signing a false treaty with us that will only serve to make things worse for the crappy Empire we're dealing with! No big deal!" But talks fall through and chaos begins as the battle starts all over again. I have more clarity for my future. That helps me focus more in the fights I engage in as I reunite in arms with some of the others. Senku grins at seeing me: "About time you showed up! I've been wondering when you'd get out of that fight with that guy named Belos already! Glad to see that you made it out of there okay!" "Well.. Not entirely. I only got out alright because Doofensmirtz messed up and Belos became a.." "So he still has yet to fix the design of his Repulsinator. But I'm 10 billion % sure that I could help him fix it if he actually wants to build it again." "I believe that. But also, Belos is now stuck as a Doofensmirtz zombie." "That's quite ironic! Heh! I wonder if Chrome would be curious enough to try becoming one for himself to see what that is like. No, I think Gen or the big oaf would prefer to do so themselves instead. Or that person named Darkness." "Please don't go into details. I know how she is all too well. Anyway, who are we fighting? I just got back to y'all."

"That yellow armor guy!" "Is that what you remember Yellow Zelkova as?! You know, things have been ridiculously comical multiple times lately despite the situation we're in. We should strive to defeat him this time. It'd be great if we could get the Metarex out of this conflict entirely. They pose a serious threat after all and we haven't exactly truly defeated any villains lately since Alva Towne Unamusement Park. If Belos and the other transformed villains get wet somehow, they'll revert back to their regular selves again. Honestly, I feel like my analysis of things is clearer in this body. But nevermind that." I run at Yellow Zelkova and start attacking him along with the others: "HAAAAAAAAAAA! Are you feeling this yet?! Continuous Great Infernal Tornado Slash: 150!" "What are you fools doing? Even with Eggman's robots of choice behind you, you don't stand a chance against me!" I reply: "Maybe not strength wise. However, there's a strategy many of us have missed out on until very recently. We could have figured it out so long ago. I mean, I could have been a test subject for finding something like it." "And just what are YOU getting at, you pathetic human being?!" "Not telling." "That doesn't help you!Tell me!" "No." "You asked for it!" Candace yells: "I don't think so! Feel the true wrath of Ducky Momo! You'll pay for hurting Ducky Momo's feelings! Everyone loves Ducky Momo!" The others push further as well. Jomi is now holding Zelkova in place, making the villain unable to move where he wants to.

"Let go of me already! This isn't a good OR fair fight!" "I can't let you go. This is for my people and everyone else I now call my comrades!" "You damn brats! That's what you are to me! I'll make you pay for this!" He starts going at us with seriously fast punching speed. He punches all of us, leaving no one out to be spared from his punches. However, thanks to one of the many techniques we have discussed in BRAINS meetings to overestimate and overcome the enemy, I knew exactly what to do. And all it takes is to keep attacking Zelkova. Because I no longer feel pain in this body, I can just keep slashing and bashing and thrusting away even if Zelkova punches my face in. "Hehehehe! Is someone having trouble with all of my robots?!" "Eggman! You will pay for turning on us!" "So what? I was just trying to be discreet with how kind I really am on the inside. You Metarex are too obsessed with power to realize what even I as a certified eccentric genius have realized. Kindness is truly a wonderful thing. I may act grumpy and often mean sometimes but deep down, I do care about others. You could call me selfishly selfless or something along those lines. Now eat this, Metarex! Go, Eggman Death Lasers! Brought to you by yours truly!" Zelkova tanks Eggman's lasers without any struggle at all whatsoever. He stares down at us menacingly: "Your attacks are too weak to do anything to me!" Barla replies: "Like hell that'll stop us this time now that we've fully embraced a certain fight strategy!"

Argo chuckles: "Nyehahaha. I wouldn't give the info to that to ya even if you offered to pay me something equal to 10 million col. Even an info broker won't divulge just any piece of information they happen to have for the right price. I gotta have juicy intel that I can't let myself sell to others! After all, I would lose my friends and sense of community if I just handed away any piece of intel I happened to have to anyone for the right price. I'm not that much of a tricky info broker, ya know! Moving on, I will now hold nothing more back! The best part about being an info broker is that almost no one who doesn't know me personally has no idea that I can hold myself well in a fight! Time to give you the info broker special and I'm sure it's going to do a number on you! The only price is the side effects of getting the info broker special! Sorry but no refunds! Ehehehehehe!" Her speed enters borderline thief/ninja territory. Argo holds nothing back just as she said as she unleashes dagger technique after dagger technique. As that happens, Zelkova tries to swat her while also continuing to punch the rest of us and bust more and more of Eggman's robots, having become much faster since he and the other Metarex came back to life and reverted to being corrupt and selfish and wearing their infamous armor that makes them look like alien mech robots. Herbsalvin and I start coordinating our sword attacks to the same part of Zelkova's full body armor while I additionally add in some attacks through one of my own daggers. Daggers are the only weapon most sword users can pair with a sword and not lose very much attack speed if any at all. Jomi tries his best to keep Zelkova from moving as much but it's taking a toll on the Mu.

Barla continues to unleash her full arsenal on the villain from above. Candace, Senku, and Pitohui just.. do what they do best. I don't need to go into further detail. Knuckles and Amy just keeping hitting our foe's feet with no mercy. Sonic is trying to confuse him. Rouge is throwing projectiles. Bokkun is just trying to annoy Zelkova with his insults and noises. Eggman keeps firing more weapons. Decoe and Becoe combine into a single robot to be significantly stronger and faster. Chris, Mr. Tanaka, Chuck, Mr. Stewart(the man who called homeroom), Sam Speed, and Ella hit Zelkova's back with everything they have. Meanwhile, Jomi is starting to sweat. It's hard to hold someone as strong and massive as Zelkova, even for a type blue Mu. Suddenly, a different Mu appears. His name is Toni. Toni shouts to Jomi: "Grandpa! You can't hold him much longer! Let me help you!" "No, Toni! You must help elsewhere!" "But grandpa!" "Don't worry, I'll be okay. My body is much stronger than my body in my past life was. I can keep going. We're almost right where we want to be." Zelkova laughs: "Oh, so there's more than just one of you! Now's the right time to reveal another feature of the Metarex's improved version of Eggman's Illumashield! It can shield me from things like the powers of you Mu!" And just like that, Jomi's hold in Zelkova comes to an end. But before he could start moving his feet and legs freely again, he gets trapped in a UFO's tractor beam. "NOW WHAT?!" The Wacky Clowns are inside that UFO. Those 4 remain as troublemaking as ever. Just don't make them get serious or angry.

They're scary if they get that way. If they were the kind of troublemakers who love disrupting good people to ruin their entire lives with pranks which they aren't, they'd become killers if they got serious or angry. But no, they just love making things harder for our foes and screwing around through harmless things with us instead. The 4 are also a really strange family. Not like the Addams Family are but still pretty strange. But still, we gotta love them. They reside in Willow Creek in the Sims 4 most of the time in a normal looking house they clearly didn't design themselves. They first appeared as evil in my first story but that didn't last long. Almost there. I say to Jomi: "You really look exhausted now after suddenly having your power no longer affect our foe. You should retreat to rest and return when you feel a lot better. It's clear you and the other Mu still need a lot of physical strength and stamina and energy regulation training. You can fully control your powers but in this conflict, that isn't enough." A few minutes later, the moment we have been waiting for arrives. Senku grins, giving away what's going on to Zelkova in the process: "What is that look, what are you planning?!" "Heh, you're finished! And with the power of science, I can explain how that's so! In rocks and stuff like that, wear and tear naturally chips away at like, causing small pieces of it to fall and/or crack. The same applies for anything you use or wear! The more you do, the more it gets worn down! And for armor like yours, that still holds true! Do you know why we've been risking severe injury or worse to keep attacking you?" The villain's armor begins to crack: "What have you done?! No, this can't be happening! My Illumashield should have prevented this!"

I reply: "But it didn't. Wacky Clowns, you can let go of Zelkova now. *they do so and fly off to help out somewhere else* We should have learned well before now that wearing down the armor worn by an enemy can eventually break their armor apart. It's happened to me many times. This armor of mine isn't even close to unbreakable. That being said, it takes a crap ton of effort for that to happen. Considering how I've torn through leather gloves in my other body through sword training and how gradual of a process in tougher gloves that was, I have a solid understanding of the concept. Metal is a lot tougher than leather." Without his armor, Zelkova's strength and speed had no more bounds but at the same time, his physical body was now fully exposed so we had an epic clash with him that sort of ended in a stalemate. Zelkova and everyone else except me and the robots were put close to death. That being said, I was still seriously beaten up and bleeding. In truth, this entire conflict has been a huge bloodbath around us this entire time. Forget the previous wars and Alva Towne Unamusement Park. This has been even more brutal than any of them even though I haven't exactly made that clear until just now. What makes this conflict more brutal? The villains working together in actual twisted but functioning harmony. And the main villain at the moment: Katherine Glassgate actively ordering the deaths of countless innocent people and saying nothing on how people should kill them.

Some of the people twisted enough to kill innocent people in order to carry out her orders are clearly doing some horrifyingly bad ways to kill innocents without mercy. I almost lost consciousness from being so banged up but some of our comrades rushed to our aid and made sure we were back into the battle as soon as possible. There wasn't even any time to wipe away the blood on some of us, myself included. But it didn't bother me that much. I haven't been that sensitive to blood in years if ever at all. But let's not get gross here. My injuries were healed with lots of poisons. Zelkova died because he didn't get the same help we did. We tried to offer it but he refused the help and stuck to his Metarex ways despite attempts to reason with him. Cream sighs: "..What do we do now?" Cream is far too innocent to be on the frontlines. How is she able to hold it together so well? I know she's been in some serious battles in the past but the conflicts across the multiverse we've been in have been unlike anything she had seen before she and the rest of Team Sonic met some of us what must have been so long ago by now. Jomi returns to us. And then, something happens. A giant computer appears along with a fleet of battle spaceships. Jomi shouts: "Is that.. Grandmother, head of the Superior Dominance?!" Senku adds: "This isn't good. Even with the power of science, we don't have a 10 billion % chance of winning this next fight."

The machine speaks: "That's right. All Mu and anyone who aids them must be killed on-site. Unified Human Fleet, kill them all! The Mu are a threat to my plans for making humanity perfect!" Barla replies: "Shut the hell up! Perfect is bullcrap!" She then starts shooting Grandmother but is unable to do any damage. Argo speaks up: "This is an emergency. That machine is even more cunning than the most tricky orange players and NPCs back in the Infinityverse." I nod: "It isn't the fleet that's worrying. Even to us, they're easy to take care of. It's that machine that's the real problem here. What's more problematic is the fact that we are nowhere near liberating this city and the enemy is determined to wipe us out here, leaving no survivors. They want all of the streets in existence to run with the blood of the innocent as long as it gives them power and control and is some kind of sick game to them. The only blood that any street should run with is fake blood made of food coloring. And you can quote me on that. Our situation is ridiculously dire. We got lucky with Zelkova. We used the fact that even armor can break from enough work and force put into a specific area to create stress on the molecular bonds to find a way to eventually draw with him if victory wasn't possible. The way to win this battle is to crush the enemy or force them to retreat or hope they just leave on their own. 1st and 3rd options are laughable to bet on. That only leaves the 2nd option for right now even though several villains have been taken out of the whole game.

Not even I know where Rodney and the others have been taken. It's a secure location but that's all I really know. As long as they stay Doofensmirtz zombies, we will be okay. But if they don't.. Yeah." We all try attacking Grandmother but she only acts high and mighty: "You cannot stop my programming, you are too weak to truly end Superior Dominance. I told you, Jomi as well as Kisu that I could never be destroyed because I live in the digital network of humanity. And someone managed to build this new and improved form for me after I was discovered cut off from all of humanity due to the destruction of all of my subordinate systems such as Number 5." Eggman laughs: "Don't be so sure that you're that unstoppable! You've never fought the likes of us before!" We quickly help defeat the entire human fleet of space ships and some of our comrades capture all their members for the time being. But Grandmother is unconcerned about how things are playing out at the moment. Either this is part of her game or she is just that good at coming up with countermeasures and so forth. But then, the hackers within our collective get to her. Within minutes of showing up, Grandmother's whole operating system and code was finally shut down for good and erased, causing her body to crash into the ground. Barla blows it up for good measure. And that was the end of the computer system behind all the bad stuff in Toward The Terra. Just like that, she was gone. It's like the enemy was only using her for her information, seeing her as unreliable due to being a machine programmed by humans. And trying to waste our time by having her try to get us.

Just what the hell do our enemies have planned next? This battle feels like it's just going to keep on going endlessly while more and more innocent sentient creatures get murdered by the Empire of Nacirema for not fitting into a narrow minded worldview of who and what's acceptable that comes straight from the playbooks of the Nazis and American, British, Canadian, and Russian fascists especially. The tyrannical policies and viewpoints of the Empire's government are literally what the far right want in the US. They're slobbering every single day at the thought of their twisted, evil, perverted, and selfish dreams fully coming true as they have been scheming to do since Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign and even before it. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the Empire of Nacirema is a future Type 2 or Type 3 civilization version of the US. We know it isn't but Baby and Katherine sure do love what the US far right want to happen as well. But now, the question was: who do we fight next and what will it take for this battle to end? We are starting to feel the effects of fighting so hard over several days. If this keeps up, our side will eventually lose miserably for sure. We have done well to keep the enemy from mass murdering us easily and gleefully up to now but only being able to delay mass murder isn't enough. It has to be put to a stop completely. There just has to be a way we can get out of this without the help of the gods on our side or retreating only to be hunted down like mice being hunted down by house cats. Running and hiding aren't options for us anymore as of right now. That is the cold hard truth and we have to accept it no matter how much it hurts. No matter we might want to deny it and gaslight others trying to get us to fully take it seriously as reality.

Things once again took a turn for the worse when Belos and the other villains who were turned into Doofensmirtz zombies showed up back, reverted back to normal. Someone must have somehow found them and freed them. This makes things even worse for us. Myself and the others can literally see our comrades struggle greatly from a distance. What this ultimately means is that we are in even worse of a situation than we were just moments ago. The villains are all in this city now. That means they can work together to finish us all off. Not even zombies like me will be spared. Katherine suddenly projects her voice so that all of us can hear it: "Enemies of my empire, it is now time for all of you to die. We have taken this world over once more and now, the purge will extend to here once again while the villains I am allied with kill and destroy each and every one of you, leaving nothing left but your blood and guts. This is what you deserve for defying the Empire of Nacirema and as such, no mercy will be given to you. I do not care how any of you are killed but the more brutal, the better. Once again, you are too weak for me to finish off myself. You mean nothing to me. You are just pests that need to be exterminated. Do I make myself clear?" But then, a message is secretly transmitted to all of us into our minds by someone within our collective but I'm not sure who and we didn't ask because the source is not that important compared to the situation. It was no ordinary message. It was information for a plan. Because the only way to get out of this and not be wiped out while being hunted down is to split up the villains and completely isolate them from each other, we have to focus on doing something that makes that possible.

And what do you know? The information includes how to do that so myself and the others who had just faced Zelkova and Grandmother teleport to the nearest villain. One of us grabs them and we teleport ourselves along with them to a distant universe. More specifically, a distant universe in which a powerful supernova was presently taking place. We ditched the villain at the right time to make them feel the wrath of such a massive explosion. The villain ended up being the Mechanic from Ninjago and yet somehow, he survived the supernova. It did hurt him pretty bad but overall, he was still itching for a fight so we began to fight him after we lured him to a planet to fight on. He laughs: "You guys think you can even beat just one of us? You must be out of your minds! Us villains are unstoppable! Even if you isolate all of us from each other, that still won't nearly stop us from doing what we wish!" Tails replies: "That may be true when you're dealing with just the ninja but you're dealing with us instead, pal! And we're going to stop you!" "Ha! I'd like to see you try to stop me!" But of course, someone slapped the Mechanic away and killed him. Chen laughs: "Forget that loser, I'm the bad guy you're going to be facing now! Someone like him is far too weak! *watches the Mechanic's body get destroyed* LOSER! Let's have some fun, shall we! I no longer need my chair to press buttons. Just look! The buttons are on my body now and that's bad news for all of you! Especially because I have managed to also regain the form of an Anacondrai! That makes me far powerful than any of you by far!" Those of us most suited to close ranged combat run at him together.

I make my sword attacks precise and deliberate. I pay extra attention to how my sword comes into contact with the villain. But he knocks all of his back effortlessly with his tail. Chen laughs: "You can't stop me! I'm now unbeatable! You should have thought twice before choosing to face me! And now, you're going to pay dearly for even trying to stop me from getting what I want! I want revenge on the elemental masters as well as Garmadon and to rule Ninjago along with the other villains from there with my noodle company being the number one company in all of Ninjago!" Candace replies: "Sorry but that's not going to happen! You're as good as busted!" "Is that what you think?! Well, I'll have you know that my power is far greater than the power you all have combined! Not even your best will be able to put a dent in-" He is interrupted by Sonic and Shadow going Super. "*unison* Chaos Control!" "Chaos Spear!" "Homing Attack!" This surprises Chen. Argo laughs: "Looks like someone didn't do their homework on all of us." I nod: "Exactly. Chen, do you even remotely understand what we're capable of?" Without mercy, I unleash all that I can including my shadows to harm Chen. That even includes some spells but not many because I'm trying to preserve my mana. I need it as the undead energy I used to collect in the Nightmare Realm is now a scarce resource for some reason even in that dump of a dimension. My mana is what's keeping my undead body from rotting away until all that's left are my bones. But my attacks only do some damage. That was until we started striking him at once without mercy though. I even employed some of my assassination techniques against the villain.

What's more is that we had plenty of fight left after consuming things to deal with our earlier fatigue during moments we could sneakily consume them without Chen trying to stop us from doing so. Chen is a truly tricky villain. He is quirky, cunning, ruthless, and more. In the Tournament Of Elements he organized, he stripped losers of their elemental powers and made them work as prison slaves for his noodle company. Oh and he had a dark mage as his right hand along with a giant serpent. Our fight with him just kept on getting more intense. I could feel my arms and shoulders get seriously sore as I remained relentless in all of my attacks. My gaze was fixed on Chen. As a fighter, I don't just swing my sword around wherever. I observe the motions of the opponent as I fight, using muscle memory to help guide my sword attacks. Others prefer a more direct berserker route but that doesn't work with my mindset. When I don't plan anything out, things don't exactly go well for me. On the other hand, I'm great at improvising. This is how I operate for those of you not in the know about that. We attack and we attack as well as defend. Basically, we take our skills to the highest level possible and use them efficiently and effectively. Even Senku and Candace played roles as big as the roles played by the rest of us despite not being fighters exactly or even frequent users of weapons unleashed by pressing buttons. But still, Chen was very much enjoying himself. If he got hurt, he just laughed it off and kept pushing the buttons on his body whenever he wasn't punching us or whatever. Rockets, fireworks, flames, and more were sent towards us thanks to all of his buttons. I don't understand how a body like his can have buttons to fire rockets.

But we've seen much stranger things than just that. Chen laughs: "This really is so much fun! And you can't keep this up forever! As things progress the way they're progressing, I'm going to win and all of you are going to lose! It's written in stone by now that I'm going to win! HEHEHEHEHEHEHE!" Sonic smirks: "That's what you think!" Cream nods: "You are a huge meanie and we will in fact stop you! Right, Cheese?!" "CHOW CHOW!" Amy adds: "Yeah! I will now start pounding you even harder with my hammer! TAKE THIS, YOU BIG JERK!" Knuckles clenches his fists: "YOU DARE MOCK US! I'LL SHOW YOU, PAL! YOU WILL TASTE MY SHOVEL CLAWS AND LIKE THEM!" Rouge laughs: "Don't forget about me! *steals Chen's scepter* You really should be more careful with your belongings. You don't want them to be stolen, right? Oh and for that piece of advice, I'll be taking this. Sorry Chen but you can't blast us every so often with this thing when you aren't punching or pressing buttons anymore." Chen is cut off from responding by Eggman: "Heh! That's right, Chen! You're about to get exactly what you deserve! In the past, I would have loathed agreeing with the bat and known former jewel thief but not anymore! TAKE THIS! The rest of my current arsenal will soon come straight at you! And it doesn't matter where you go! They're locked on you! And only you! Take that, you overconfident snake obsessed man not unlike a crime boss!" I add: "And don't forget about the rest of us! *summons ace monsters through duel disk* You're handling a large motley crew mostly consisting of misfits! HAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Eat my sword attacks and the power of the Heart Of The Cards through my deck!"

Barla smirks: "Hell yeah! Now we're talking! Come on, let's finish this bastard off already!" Argo snickers: "He made a big mistake challenging all of us alone!" Senku grins: "The power of science will aid in your defeat, Chen! It's 10 billion % certain and there's nothing you can do about it!" "I can't wait to tell my mom about this! Oh and catch up with my brothers and their friends and Stacy and Vanessa!" Pitohui gains a really chaotic expression on her face: "THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST FIGHTS EVER! ITS SO RUTHLESS AND DANGEROUS AND NO ONE CAN OBJECT TO ME ENJOYING IT BECAUSE IM HELPING OUR CAUSE!" Jomi speaks: "You will learn what makes my people, the Mu, never give up! This is also for Terra!" Chris and Chuck just grin and ready their fists for more action. Ella yells: "I'll become the ultimate maid nightmare to teach you a lesson, Chen! Get ready because I will give you no room to fight back!" Mr. Tanaka speaks in a calm voice: "It was your mistake to take on all of us at once." Sam laughs: "I don't need my speedy car to bring you down! I AM speed! Chen, prepare to meet your maker!" The others speak briefly as well, even a determined Bokkun. And so, we just get in perfect sync against Chen. He is unable to hurt all of us at once. Heavily armored individuals such as myself take on as much of the damage he does to us as possible while hitting him back where it really hurts. In time, Chen becomes overwhelmed. Our combined strength alone wasn't enough to do him in. No, it was our teamwork, coordination, improvisation, plans, shared techniques, and Chen's overconfidence that sealed his fate.

During a perfect string of attacks, Chen eventually succumbed and died screaming so hard that we couldn't make out a single word out of it all. With him dead, we made sure to collect anything left of him and send it to the lab on the space station. After that was done, we teleported back to Station Square to help out wherever we're needed only to find the ruins of the new new imperial palace and the decimation of enemy forces that aren't villains. As if that weren't enough, many of our comrades soon return as well and we sort of surround Katherine Glassgate who is standing on top of the ruins and gazing at us with malice and rage as rebel groups from this world arrive to back us up just in case. It seems like weathered reoccupation by the empire okay. What was even stranger was the sudden return of most of the villains who had gathered to try to kill and destroy us all. They looked frustrated despite only being somewhat damaged. Frieza even yelled loud enough for all of us to hear him: "I was so close to getting my revenge! WHY MUST WE RETREAT?!" Katherine soon speaks to everyone, friend or foe, it didn't matter. She also broadcasted all over her empire and even beyond it where she could as we later discovered. "You have won this round, enemies of the Empire of Nacirema but tomorrow is a new day. We will soon be retreating and abandoning this entire universe as well as the Boiling Isles and a few other worlds. We have gained some new territory but is resisting much more than I expected. Thats not the real reason we're retreating.

We're retreating because some of our allies have been killed in action today. Chen, Yellow Zelkova, Red Pine, Rodney, and 3 others have died in combat. I never saw this coming and because I didn't, we have no choice but to pull back. I can only have all of you pathetic weaklings killed when all of my plans actually go well in terms of making sure all of you perish. I will not allow any weakness you discover to be exploited. If I must keep pulling back my forces, I will do so if it means I with 100% confidence can ensure all of you are slaughtered indiscriminately in the end! Not only that but there are many annoyances we have to take care of in my empire. A few members of my party have turned on me and seek to spark a civil war. I will have them and their faction wiped out in one sweeping operation. Again, tomorrow is a new day. We will be relentless once again tomorrow. None of you will know peace ever again. That I will make sure of. The worlds you cherish so much will always constantly be in a state of alert with the threat of my forces ravaging them a constant." She goes on some more before she leaves with all of the villains. The next step for us wasnt to talk about how horrific all of that was to hear. No. We had to clean up and reassure those who have been traumatized by the events of the past several days throughout the multiverse. That took a couple hours but once that was done, I along with many others went to a world that had been devastated by Nacirema to truly get a clear picture of what we're fighting against. And it was truly grim. I was shocked at what we saw. "This planet.. It was so much like Earth but now.. It's all barren. All of the plant life is dead and it's so hot here.

What even used to be here? Was this an ocean? I can see dead coral reef nearby. And the sky is completely blocked by greenhouse gases. Until not that long ago, this was a thriving and beautiful planet that was mostly peaceful. But then, the Empire invaded and slaughtered anyone who got in their way and put everyone else to work so long as they didn't disobey. We can't allow this to happen on other worlds including my own. This could be the future of the Earth I hail from where the year is 2024 and we're experiencing record breaking temperatures constantly. The only electable choices in the US election are Trump and Harris. Harris represents keeping things mostly the same as they are now, allowing things to slowly fall apart. Trump represents making things worse much quicker. That's how it is right now. Harris is much younger so she may actually change but we can't bet on that. Those aren't really choices, are they? Under each, the genocide in Gaza will continue unless Biden and/or Harris gains some humanity and stops US support for Israel. Earth is in a very dark place due to greedy capitalists and evil fascists and other oppressors. But hope is far from lost. There's still time to turn things around before humanity truly causes the 6th mass extinction. The Empire of Nacirema feels like a more honestly brutal version of the US. There's no false illusion of freedom. It's clear that that's all gone in Nacirema. Look at this world.. It's completely gone. Not even the removal of a Planet Egg causes damage this bad to a planet right away. There's no signs of life anywhere on this world. It's all dead here. All dead. This is what we risk happening to our Planet Earth when fighting amongst ourselves and allowing evil people to control the entire world.

That's exactly what's going on. In the US, we have a culture of laziness especially for white people. With social media addiction, constant distractions from our problems and what matters, gun violence in schools, and a active public refusal to listen to experts warning them of just how much of a threat Covid still is as well as the embracing of generative 'AI' by a loud minority of people, we are really messing ourselves up along with the Earth as a whole." We search the entire planet for anything that's still around but there's nothing except abandon and dried up things that indicate this planet had a thriving biosphere and even a technologically advanced civilization. Nacirema killed this world to create more misery and get more money. And for what? The endless pursuit of immense wealth can never be satisfied. It is affected by the law of diminishing value. People who hoard wealth and want it no matter how much harm pursuing it causes are destroying themselves and everything around them. It's an addiction that can never be satisfied. And having so much wealth is inherently worthless. If you have too much money, you can't spend it all so you just swim in it and become paranoid about losing a cent of it. This is also a problem in most worlds that have BRAINS members that's gradually being solved by eliminating the upper class. After leaving the destroyed planet with plans to revive it someday, we returned to our space station to go over everything that just happened.

From here on out, we're going to start training even harder than ever before while also devising more inventions, strategies, you name it. Those highly experienced in something specific will teach others how to get good at that too. With this plan, any average BRAINS member will be able to handle just about any kind of weapon we have and use it effectively. That means for example, I will end up learning how to use an axe and a mace for combat. We'll still focus on our specialties but having secondary new skills might come in handy in a pinch. Each skill and weapon we can learn comes with its own traits as well as pros and cons. That's just how it works. What's more is that each of us won't exactly be able to learn every possible weapon, spell, or battle skill for a whole bunch of reasons. Time is one of them but there's also just things that I for example cannot learn how to use due to my body and how I do things. But we make do with what we can learn. Additionally, it isn't just combat skills that we're going to be sharing around a lot more. It's tactics, healing skills, CPR/first aid, normal life skills, and survival skills as well. And you can't blame us for focusing heavily on teaching all that we can to one another with time being a major obstacle. From now on, we really won't know a day of peace for a long time. It's like we'll be living the lives of people trapped under constant fire. Just like the people of Gaza are but we will be able to fight back and thus, in less imminent danger. The people of Gaza are helpless in the face of the bombs and troops Israel is using to commit genocide against them. Same thing in the West Bank. It's not a war that's going on there. It's a bloody massacre. And those responsible for it deserve to pay for what they're doing.

Dark times are ahead for all of us but we refuse to give up. We won't let despair crush us like it just did due to yesterday's events. And as a knight, I have to set an example for others to follow. After all, I often do my own original way of doing things and try to inspire others to do the same. I have the responsibilities of a hero now even if I don't want them. I refuse to be a ruler of any kind but that doesn't mean I can't inspire change in others. I'm supposed to be a symbol of hope along with most of my comrades so I need to start acting like one more. Inspiring hope in others is something I enjoy doing anyway. Even if all roads lead to doom for us all, I refuse to give up or lose hope again. Even if all I can really end up doing is temporarily freeing others from their agony, I will not lose hope. If all of this ends in failure and we all lose everything including our very lives, I still don't want to lose hope. I will try to hold onto it. Even if that means fighting against coming apocalypse to delay it or make smiles on the faces of others in the face of hopelessness before we all get destroyed. The night soon comes on the current day after hours of training and other things. I have dinner with many of my comrades. We talk but I don't speak too much. I prefer one on one conversations. I always have and I always will. After dinner, I spend time petting some of the cutest furry friends that I have. My fursona Blaze, the now fully grown up wolf Andromeda, and my noble steed Chocolate. After that, I spent more time with my lover as well as my closest friends within this collective. And then, I of course would go on to perform more fake assassinations that looked real to trick the main villain: Katherine Glassgate.

She still doesn't suspect that I'm Darkwind or vice versa. Herbsalvin and I moved out of that crummy apartment and reverted it to its previous state to the shock of the landlord. Now, we'll get an apartment wherever the villain moved her capital to and then secretly help rebels as well as our comrades overthrow the rule imposed on wherever the capital is now. We'll keep doing it until the Empire collapses. Our collective has already begun funding, arming, and training rebels in secret throughout that imperialist fascist state. We're going to be more ready for what Katherine throws at us next. That's for certain. The villain keeps eluding our attempts to kill her. She is seriously dead set on letting the other villains get us instead, too stubborn and arrogant to actually get her own hands dirty by using her actual power against us. A shrewd politician and dictator to the core. That's what she is. And thus, we have also secretly begun multiple operations to get innocent people out of her Empire before her police, military, bigoted citizens, and so on can kill them brutally while also paving the way for even more environmental destruction on every inhabited and habitable planet and so on the Empire has and will have control over. Because money, power, control, and hatred. There are 3 main reasons why someone commits a crime. 1 is understandable. A desperation to survive. A survival instinct or tactic. It's only natural to fight to survive when you're struggling to. That's why people need to think twice when it comes to poor people committing crime.

It isn't often because they're lazy. In fact, that's rare. It's actually mostly because society has deemed it unnecessary to give what they need to actually survive so they have to do whatever it takes to stay alive. I can't tell you how many things we have done in BRAINS out of desperation to survive. The 2 other main reasons to commit crime are selfishness and hatred. I don't need to explain why they're not justified reasons to commit crime. We could talk about how twisted the definition of crime has become or that I don't like using the term that much but not today. It's very sociological, I will say that at least. Selfishness and hatred are why Katherine does what she does. It's what also drives hate crimes and more. And the cold hearted dealings within capitalism. You shouldn't hate the poor for stealing just to survive. Some have to steal. If they don't, they starve to death, their bodies often left abandoned to rot away and decompose in the open air in the slums or the remains of a homeless shelter/camp destroyed by city authorities such as the police. There's only one group of people you should truly hate. Direct your hatred towards them. It's the selfish rich, powerful, and those who lick their boots for clout, power, and so on. Those are the people that need to be removed from all positions of power in any and all societies. And people like them can't be allowed to gain or regain it ever again. Billionaries and future trillionaries are enemy number one along with corrupt governments such as Putin's Russian government. Never forget that. And I sincerely thank you for reading up to this point. This marks the end of this chapter. I have no idea what's going to happen next time. Stay safe out there and always resist the system. Do not obey. Resist.