Disclaimer: I don't own the source material I based proper nouns in Nexus off of.
Nexus HWR 24.1 Invasion of the West:
Day 4
Resistance Sector 343: Staging Area
In a pop-up Resistance base established within the past two days, a new General of the Resistance lowered down in a hovership over the command center. The command building sat in the middle of the square walls surrounding the Staging Area in the farthest southwest Sector under Resistance control, which also made it the lowest numerical Sector they still held too. Gray Fullbuster hopped off the side of the hovercraft and onto the outer balcony of the top floor of the command building. The sliding glass doors opened up automatically for him and the other two who hopped off behind him.
"Go gather your squads. We'll have a primary briefing outside at the tent by the north gate in fifteen. Spread the word," Gray requested of the Elite Squad leaders who had just gone to a briefing with him farther to the east before returning to the front lines. There were fears of enemy hackers on their communications relays, and therefore a lot of the most sensitive information had to be given face-to-face.
"Tch- Fine."
"I'll round them up."
Gray nodded at the pair then headed into the command room that had a door in the back of it that led to his own temporary bedroom. He glanced over his shoulder and watched as the woman outside flew away. The man who had jumped off the ship with them just hopped off from the fourth floor balcony to the base's ground level below. Once he was sure they were gone, Gray let out a huge exhale and walked over to his desk. He put his one hand down on the wooden desk and bowed his head, panting exhaustedly for a few seconds and then catching his breath all over again. Alright. So far so good. I think.
Gray shook his head around. Can't let nerves get to you. They're relying on you knowing what you're doing. Can't let them see you losing it. Gray stood back straight up and walked around his desk. He took his bag off his back and placed it down then emptied some of the contents onto his workspace. "Alright," he started, and he moved around some of the folders and opened one up to pull out a map. Have to figure out what I'm going to say to them down there. That's why I really need some time. Can't stutter. Don't hesitate. Have answers to the questions they're going to ask before they ask them. That'll raise their confidence in you!
While Gray worried about his new position of command and how he was going to take on the upcoming briefing where he would be the highest ranked person there, unlike the one he just came back from, the rest of the camp was active with new arrivals meeting each other. The forces of the invasion into the Emperor's territory were coming from around Resistance lands, and many had not worked together before, though some had.
Tiplee spotted someone she knew very well across the compound. She and Captain Rex turned towards the green-skinned woman who shared very similar characteristics to her red twin sister who just arrived. Tiplar nodded farewell to the others she was speaking with then turned and walked towards the two of them. "Sister. I am glad to see you."
"And I you, Tiplar," Tiplee responded.
Tiplar turned to the man who had come with Tiplee from the Hero School where both of them were teachers. Rex grimaced at the understandably hesitant glance Tiplar gave him. Tiplar looked past Rex too and spotted other armored soldiers who shared Rex's face. "You do know of Terminus' recent activity in the west?" Tiplar questioned the man who once fought alongside her, before she was betrayed and shot by one of his fellow clones.
"Our inhibitor chips are all removed," Rex assured her. "Not just deactivated. They can't hack us," he stated. His own expression hardened and even got frustrated at her lack of faith in her own allies, especially as they were about to enter into a battlefield. "You know that already," he reminded the Jedi.
"Rex never joined the Empire, sister," Tiplee scolded Tiplar for bringing up Terminus at all. "He fought much longer than either of us did."
Tiplar hummed and then lifted the corners of her lips and nodded at the Captain. She glanced past him and frowned though at the soldier with yellow lines on the sleeves of his armor who approached their group. "Cody," Tiplar greeted him.
"Lieutenant," Tiplee greeted as well when Cody approached.
"Still feels weird," Rex mentioned to his almost identical comrade other than Cody's head of black hair compared to Rex's bald scalp. "Doesn't feel right," he mentioned to his comrade and former superior.
"It feels right to me, sir," Cody, Rex's Lieutenant, told the Captain. "Considering the side I landed on. Though, I failed at Order 66 too," Cody reminded the two Jedi. "Not that I knew I had," he admitted after a second.
"Master Luke Skywalker," Tiplee referenced with a small smile at her confused sister. "He was apparently trained by Master Kenobi long after Order 66 was given. Meaning Cody here failed."
"Which I couldn't be happier about," Cody assured the Jedi. "It's a shame about Master Skywalker- Master Luke, Skywalker, though. I would have liked to meet him on this world. I wonder how General Kenobi survived my betrayal."
"It wasn't a betr-" Rex started to counter his friend. He stopped for a second but then continued firmly, "The Sith brainwashed us, brother. We were all victims. Of one man," Rex glared off towards the setting suns in the west.
"Darth Sidious," Tiplee agreed. "He will be one of our enemies in this fight. We will get justice for what he did to our universe," Tiplee assured her comrades.
"In that, we are all in agreement," Tiplar confirmed.
Now that the unpleasantness seemed out of the way, Tiplee gave her sister an exasperated look and put her hands down on her hips. "What?" Tiplar wondered at the meaning behind that look.
Rex smirked as he already guessed what was coming. Tiplee told her sister in a questioning tone, "I recently had a mission in the Ren Empire. I ran into some, unexpected difficulty, along the way."
"I, may have made a bit of a scene the last time I was in the region…" Tiplar admitted, then grinned at her sister. Tiplee sighed but then just reached out and put a hand on her sister's shoulder.
Tiplee gave Tiplar a serious look in her eyes. "This fight will be different from all others. Against our old foes, once again. A chance for retribution." Tiplee looked to her right and at the clones, "But not revenge."
"That may be the Jedi way," Cody countered the red-skinned Jedi in front of him. His expression hardened and he said darkly, "But I'm fueled by vengeance right now. Palpatine, Sidious, whatever he wants to call himself. He'll find his way to the end of my blaster soon enough."
Rex patted a hand down on Cody's shoulder. "That's what I like to hear. We're taking that bastard down. Once and for all this time!" Rex said assuredly. "Ah!" Rex spotted someone behind Tiplee and Tiplar who the others all spun to at the excited look and exclamation of the highest ranking clone soldier in their ranks. "General Tano!"
"Rex!" Ahsoka called back over as she recognized that voice anywhere.
Tiplee and Tiplar turned and watched the older woman walk towards them. Ahsoka Tano bowed her head in respect to her predecessors though. "Master Tiplee. Master Tiplar. It is good to see you two."
"You as well, Master Tano," Tiplee responded. "It seems all of the Resistance's Jedi have been called upon."
"Anyone from our universe it appears," Ahsoka agreed but with the inclusion of the clones who she looked to as well. "We'll defeat them again, Rex. I know we will."
"Damn right," Rex agreed. He was bald but his beard was short and black, as Rex had been reborn as a younger man on Nexus than the old age he had lived to in comparison to most of his fellow clones. "This time, we finish the Empire for good."
Ahsoka nodded but her smile did lower after a moment. Her lips flattened out and she looked to be deep in thought about something. Tiplee could sense what Ahsoka was thinking about, as she already knew enough from the battles on this world with her before. "We all wish Master Skywalker were here."
Ahsoka lifted her gaze back up and to her comrade who had died at a younger age than her but still was a wise Jedi Master. Ahsoka nodded her head, though she focused on how Tiplee referenced the missing Jedi Master, and did not specify which one. "If Anakin came to this world, I thought I would know. There has been no sign of him since this world began though." Ahsoka paused then continued, "It is Master Luke whose loss we suffered in the Second War of the Gods that I was thinking of, however. He is the one who destroyed the Empire in our time."
"If you don't mind me asking," Cody began. It sounded to him like Ahsoka knew more about it than he did. She looked up and nodded at Cody who she had also fought alongside before on this world, though they only fought at that time; no time for talk. "What happened to him? Which battle of the Second War was it?"
"It was during the time that we were still pushing, actually," Ahsoka informed him. "Before our enemies united into the Cooperative. Or, soon after they began to. Their defenses had just gotten stronger. Anti-air attacks more powerful. Master Luke survived his fighter being shot down, and the Hero Emilia came to his aid on the front lines. We were forced to retreat however, after the two of them had fallen. Morale had broken. It was one battle on one front. One defeat we believed to be a fluke at the time. We did not see it as a sign of the larger counter-offensive that was soon to be staged."
"Hmm," Tiplar hummed. "In hindsight we can look back on our failures in the Second War of the Gods to better prepare for the invasions today. We must take back at least one of the coasts. If we are to survive."
"This is a war of survival," Tiplee agreed with her sister. My position is now as a teacher. However, I could not turn down the request that Fullbuster made. If I can prolong an invasion into the interior by strengthening the Resistance's position, then I am fulfilling my duties as a protector to those children…
Although many soldiers and warriors from the Jedi's universe had gathered at the base, there were many others who were also familiar with intergalactic combat and interplanetary warfare taking part in the mission. Another team who recently attempted to get a label as an "exterior" or "Elite" squad but failed, were also at the base in Sector 343. Wearing their usual heavy armor suits with their helmets still on, a team of soldiers were standing around the Pelican dropship that they had arrived in. It was a ship they were familiar with as its design was from their own universe.
"You're kidding me," Lavernius Tucker exclaimed in disbelief. "Now? Of all times, now is when they decide to send Master Chief away? What gives?!"
"We don't need 'im," Mongol grunted. The deep voice of the former freelancer Agent Maine sounded too confident for Tucker, or Sangheili as was his codename in the group. Tucker stared skeptically at Mongol who growled at him, "What? You scared?"
"Of the objectively evil space wizards who conquered their entire universe? Yeah," Tucker replied without hesitation right back at the scary man in a suit of white armor. "I'm not afraid to admit it either. The Sith are creepy as hell!"
"Are any of our enemies not creepy?" Viken wondered. Formerly Agent Washington, Viken shrugged his shoulders up when Tucker turned towards him. He told the younger man in teal armor, "I mean between the Sith, the Nobodies, the Black Witch, the demons-"
"Alright alright! Don't remind me," Tucker snapped back at him. "Still wish we had the Chief though."
"I heard the Arbiter of the Covenant is still around apparently," Carolina mentioned.
Church, the name of the AI system in Carolina's armor, popped out as a holographic little armored person hovering over her left shoulder. "It was thought that the Covenant had disbanded after the Prophets were killed and their forces wiped out. Turns out, the rest of them just headed to the other side of the world. Master Chief's trying to convince his old buddy to come join us out here. Though, I just saw a new report that says the whole Covenant fleet over on Awul got wiped out again a few months back. They're still rebuilding."
"Guess we can kiss getting their help anytime soon goodbye," Viken said and sighed again. "Could have really used a nice pincer move on the Emperor here. Maybe Chief will pull through at the last second. Seems like the kind of thing he'd do."
"We can always hope," Cleo, the leader of the team, mentioned. The former Agent Texas did not sound too optimistic about it, but she admitted it would be a nice surprise to have Chief drop in unexpectedly. The space marine in black armor looked towards the central building as she spotted someone coming out the front doors who she had been on the lookout for. "Alright guys, on me. Time to meet this Fullbuster character."
"Men, form up. Let's do this," Rex lifted up his helmet and put it on his head. The helmet had similar blue highlights that the rest of his armor had, and that the armor of two others had as well. Fives and Echo lifted their helmets up and put them on as well as they followed after Rex and Cody who walked up to his friend's side. Echo and Fives shared the shoulder pads and thicker breastplate armor as their Captain, though Echo had a dark handprint painted on the right side of his chest. Both of them had blue stripes going up from their visor over the top of their helmet rather than a highlight around the visor like Rex had, but all three were in similar armor. Cody's was different because of the yellow highlights he had instead of blue, a few others had red patterns on their helmets that indicated their loyalty to General Tano, while many others who followed along just had white armor without any different colors.
A few other clones who followed had darker gray armor than the rest though. Wrecker elbowed into Tech's side as they walked, still with their helmets off unlike the rest of the clones who put them on to show how they were getting serious. Tech stumbled on the hit and glared at the big man who was just getting his attention but forgot about his enormous strength for a second. "Look at our 'boss' over there. Guy's as scrawny as you are."
"Keep that to yourself, Wrecker," Hunter ordered his teammates behind him. The leader of the Bad Batch, Clone Force 99, glared sideways and back at Wrecker who grunted but closed his mouth. Hunter turned back forward himself and then lost the scolding glare as he also gave a skeptical look towards their one-armed General who was supposed to be leading this invasion. Hunter had the same dark gray armor with red highlights on it that his comrades wore, though he also wore a red bandanna with a skull on it around his forehead below the bangs of his long hair. This is the man they want to take down the Empire?
"SscCREEeeeaAaccck!" A screech in the air above made Gray lift his gaze and cup a hand to his forehead as he had to look into the suns for a second. A surprised look formed on his face and then quickly changed as his lips curved into a wide smile.
Gray jogged towards the huge gray Pokemon that landed down in the camp ahead of him. The ancient flying and rock type bowed its head and bent its knees after landing. "Return, Aerodactyl!" A voice Gray felt so relieved to hear called out. Red light shot out the pokeball that the dark-skinned man held up towards his comrade, and the Pokémon returned to his red and white ball. The spiky-haired man then turned towards the mage who jogged towards him and stopped only a few feet away. "Gray," the muscular gym leader greeted.
"Brock!" Gray stepped forward and outstretched his one good hand.
Brock stuck out his right hand too and grabbed Gray's, then he pulled his older friend in and patted his curled fist twice on Gray's back. "We all thought you were dead," Brock told him while pulling back. Gray guiltily nodded his head back at Brock for letting them think that for so long. Brock just smiled at him though and added, "I'm glad you're not."
"And I'm glad you came," Gray responded. "Trying to grow a beard?" Gray wondered while motioning down with his eyes to Brock's chin and the stubble on it he was surprised to see his teenage friend with.
Brock chuckled and scratched his chin a few times. "A beard's not the only thing new I have," he responded while patting down on a couple of pokeballs at his side. Then he glanced down at Gray's waistband. He did not mention anything about Gray's missing left arm, but he did frown at something else he noticed missing. "Still haven't caught any Pokemon yourself?" Brock wondered.
"That's not true," Gray countered. "I actually caught one of the Legendaries that you told me about. I tracked down Articuno and captured it."
"Really?!" Brock exclaimed. "That's amazing-"
"Though, I haven't trained it in warfare," Gray continued on, holding up a palm telling Brock not to celebrate to soon.
Brock frowned back at him though. He glanced down at the belt of pokeballs he had around his waist. He clenched his teeth for a second behind pursed lips. None of us want to do it, but we need to! "I wish you had," Brock simply said. "Articuno would have been a great asset in this fight."
"I know. And I will train it, but there's no time now," Gray said. Brock nodded in agreement that there was no point in dwelling on it now.
Gray seemed to be ending their talk there. Brock noticed the other people who had gathered around them, and he backed up a few steps to give Gray room. Gray looked all around and noticed that he did not have to call for everyone to form up on him. They were all coming over on their own. He curled his right hand into a fist then bent down and punched it into the floor between his feet. "Ice Make: Soap-Box."
A two-foot tall rectangle of ice pushed out of the ground and lifted Gray off the floor. Brock lifted his eyebrows over his thin eyes, giving Gray a strange look at the seemingly unnecessary use of magic just to stand a little taller. Gray was encircled by his allies though and could not see past the taller ones closest to him. He nodded now that he was able to see everyone and made sure that they could all see him too. "Everyone gather over here," Gray called out, as there were some stragglers who had yet to join the rest of the group.
Kappa Squad, Gray looked towards the tall and thin man who was one of the two he had arrived back at the base with not long ago. His cropped green tee left his midriff exposed, showing off his muscular abs that proved the tall man was more lean than lanky. He had a vertical scar down the left side of his face from under his long black bangs, over his eye, down to his chin. Jakku Za Rippa. I haven't worked with him before. I've worked with his type though. Difficult, but I can handle it. He's strong enough that it cancels out any uncooperativeness.
Gray looked to the man's left and spotted one of the most important members of his force who was walking just ahead of his squad leader. Knov. Jakku isn't happy about his role, but I need him to guard our best teleporter for the mission. Knov's combat skills are lacking, but he tells me he's improved his portals better than when I last saw him before poofing to Awul. Jakku will protect him.
Gray turned more and looked past the squad of space marines who he wished had another member with them too. Master Chief's off on Awul. Hopefully that'll bring results, but we could have used him here. Gray looked over the heads of the team of marines in various colors of Spartan-class armor. There are our two tanks: Kappa's strongest, and the leader of Iota Squad. Teruki Hanazawa and Blizzard of Hell, Fubuki. The two espers standing behind the space marines were talking with one another and showed familiarity that proved to Gray the intel he had was correct. Kappa and Iota's records show they've worked together on a lot of missions. I'm hoping that's one of our greatest strengths in this.
Baddo glared at the back of his squad leader while Fubuki strolled towards the rest of the group to join in. The soldier with a pompadour sticking out past the front of his head grumbled to himself but pushed off the wall of the barracks to strut over himself, hands shoved down into his pockets. The man who was more known by his alias, Metal Bat, muttered profanity under his breath on his way to the rest of their forces. "S Class, mumble mumble… following B class, grumble mutter… how'd I get stuck with… stupid." The hero who on their own world was ranked much higher than Fubuki in the Hero Rankings closed his mouth but glared away anyway when he noticed her dart a look in his direction out the corners of her eyes, showing she could hear what he was saying.
A blond kid and his older purple-haired partner in crime-fighting leaned away from their squadmate when Metal Bat stomped up close to them. Jo glanced down to her right at Kid Cosmic who glanced back up at her then covered his mouth and started laughing behind it which made Jo anxiously dart a look back at Metal Bat. The man her own age at 19 grit his teeth angrily and fumed but kept his eyes locked straight ahead towards Gray who was actually looking at the teenage girl at Baddo's side now.
Jo's not as used to war, Gray thought while gazing on the teenager hesitantly. She kept staring at Metal Bat's face for a few seconds too long in a way that made Gray think of a certain blunette himself. The thought of her nearly distracted him from his important task at the moment. Focus. Jo will be fine. She's been acting as a hero in the interior with that Kid Cosmic, and apparently both had been doing the same on their own world. They'll be fine. The Sith's shield technology is too powerful. We'll need both her and Knov for this.
Another member of Iota scratched his long grayish brown beard with the one hand he did not have on his wooden staff. Radagast the Brown wore a raggedy brown cloak and fur hat with ears sticking off of its sides. He hummed to himself then nodded with a smile of confidence lifting on his face at the look of this young General.
Most others surrounding Gray did not share the same looks as Radagast. They stared up with uncertain expressions at the one-armed unimposing mage standing on his ice box. Hanazawa, or Teru, looked back to his side at Fubuki who hummed herself but crossed her arms over her chest and humphed in an unimpressed way at how Gray looked up there. Teru agreed with the sentiment. Whether it was just Gray's stature, or the feeling coming off of him, he did not inspire a load of confidence which they really needed considering the weight of the task before them.
This is Gray Fullbuster, Ahsoka thought. She looked the man up and down herself. He supposedly killed Darth Bane. I wonder if that's where he lost his arm, she examined his left shoulder where Gray's cape did not protrude, showing that there was no arm beneath it. Anyone who can defeat Darth Bane is surely impressive, but this invasion is a lot more than one bout of single combat. I wonder if he is up to the challenge?
The Jedi did not pass harsh judgement against the young man, but each did feel a sense of trepidation heavier than most around them. Tiplee and Tiplar each recalled what it was like to fight the armies of the Sith. The twins glanced at one another while imagining battles they had been in during the Clone Wars. The tricky tactics in which the Sith's forces fought, the overall strategy that no Jedi saw coming, and their ability to raise massive armies and technologically superior ones too… it left a strong feeling of caution in them about any half-measure they could take against the same enemies.
Gray was younger than most everyone there. He appreciated Brock's presence, as well as Teru's and a few other young warriors, but the majority of his army were soldiers he picked specifically for their extensive amounts of experience, specifically in war. Battle hardened soldiers stood all around him and gave him expressions of varying levels of disapproval, and it was the first time he could remember being looked to like this as the officer in command of this many people. Gray cleared his throat and then coughed once before opening his mouth to start trying to rally these troops. He stopped though and shifted his gaze towards the north side of the base and out the open gates into the wilderness past it where he spotted something coming their way.
Others in the middle of this Resistance post on the front lines with the Emperor's territory turned and narrowed their gazes instantly on that cloud of dust getting larger as it made its way towards their base. Gray looked up towards his command tower and spotted his communications' officer who held a thumbs-up to him which most of the others spotted too after seeing where their General was looking.
"Friendlies," Cleo said, reaching a hand over and putting it on Carolina's left shoulder.
The redhead in cyan armor shrugged Allison's hand off her suit but did relax her hand on the sidearm she instinctively grabbed at the sight of something approaching that fast.
The dust cloud got to the north side of the pop-up base and continued onto the flattened grass pushed down by all the foot traffic on it since the base had been sprung. The cloud of dust had looked bigger from a distance, but as it got closer they saw it was not very tall and did not have any vehicles inside of it which was surprising since it had been picking up so much dust.
"Reporting for duty, sir!"
"We're here to help."
"We've been called it for assistance, General."
Gray rubbed his eyes and looked around in front of him for a few more seconds as did most of his forces who were struggling to see the people who these voices belonged to. They had high-pitched tones and were loud enough to hear, but the people who they belonged to were so small that it was difficult to spot them. Gray's lips curled up as he realized who was speaking to him, and he finally spotted the little people lined up in front of him in rows of fifteen that went back at least forty rows deep.
"You guys," Gray said while looking back through the ranks of armed tiny people.
Many of them held lances, while the one in front held a thin rapier in hand. The leader of these little people wore a green hat with three points and had a skull and crossbones on the front. Leo saluted the man in front of them while the regular-sized soldiers in the circle around Gray moved to the sides a bit so that there was space between Gray and all of them. He stepped down from his ice soap box and moved closer to the army of dwarves before him. "The Tontatta Kingdom stands with the Resistance!" Leo called out.
"HAAAA!" A chorus of agreement roared out behind Leo as all those little figures punched their weapons into the air.
Kabu stood out front of the left side of the first line behind Leo, as did many of the other officers in Leo's ranks. Kabu was a chubbier Tontatta dwarf with yellow horns sticking off the top of his head in the shape of a Kabuto beetle's. The grouping behind him all had similarly yellow outfits on as they were part of the Yellow Kabu Squad under Kabu as their leader.
Directly behind Leo were two older dwarves. Though the bald muscular Bomba and wise stern-faced Rampo were the vice chiefs of the Tontatta tribe, Leo was the leader of the Tonta Corps and stood at the front of their army. Bomba and Rampo each turned inwards and bowed their heads, as did the entire force of tiny people as a figure walked forward in the midst of their ranks. Leo only turned his own head sideways and then stepped to the side as she walked forward.
Wicca shivered nervously as she fully got into the mindset that they were about to go to war. She then cast a glance up while everyone else around her still had their heads bowed. The blue-haired dwarf with a bright blue tail sticking out behind her wore a red and navy blue top hat that matched her dark blue dress. Wicca smiled brightly and with tears in her eyes as she watched the blonde-haired dwarf princess step forward until she was next to Leo.
"Princess," Leo began but did not tell her to go back when he saw her look.
She looked to him and appeared nervous, but she gulped then looked forward and up at Gray in a serious way. "I, heard you saved my city and, and my people. We are here to help you!" Mansherry called out.
Gray looked at the small person in some confusion as he did not remember her from their stop in Dressrosa. "Princess Mansherry is Chief Gancho's daughter!" Leo called out at Gray who he could see was confused.
"Mansherry?" Brock wondered in surprise. He stepped back out of the line of interested Resistance soldiers watching this in amusement.
Gray looked to Brock who appeared shocked as he stared at the tiny princess. His eyes bulged too after a few seconds, and he whispered, "Lake Town." Brock nodded his head in amazement too while Mansherry looked back and forth between the two of them then dropped her jaw in shock as well.
"Ahhhh! You!" Mansherry pointed her hands at the two men who she recognized.
"What are the odds?" Gray muttered under his breath and with a shake of his head. He thought back on the town that Zoro had died in, that he had turned into a shinigami in, and he remembered the dwarf with healing powers who had arrived not long before that town fell. It was the same town he had met Brock in so long ago. "You're here to help us with your healing powers, Mansh- Princess Mansherry?" Gray corrected himself when he noticed some of the sterner-looking Tontatta dwarves narrowing their gazes at him for speaking so naturally to their royalty.
"I am," Mansherry responded.
"We all are," Leo agreed. "Even if you had not saved Dressrosa, the Resistance saved the Princess from slavery in the Ren Empire. We owe you everything and more," Leo declared. Every single Tontatta member behind him sounded off in complete agreement with that statement.
Tiplee smiled and glanced to Rex who shook his head in amazement at their students back at the Hero School. Ojiro and Hagakure have no idea how much their actions are already helping the movement, Rex thought. You kids are saving our butts.
"The chief and Kyros are still guarding your ship back in Dressrosa," Leo continued. "We will never forget how you and your friends saved us from Doflamingo. You are the saviors of Dressrosa, and we will help you fight so that we can defeat the Emperor and free the city for good! Dressrosa is technically accepting Sith control, but so far we've kept the Donquixote family imprisoned against the wishes of the Sith who want to reinstate them as rulers of the city. Allow us to help you push them back, so that we may all defeat our enemies together!" Leo requested in a voice sounding less like a request and more a statement that Gray was not going to refuse.
Someone set this up on our behalf. Resistance Command must have been in contact with them after saving Mansherry. This development has to have been very recent though for them to spring it on me like this. Gray nodded his head back at Leo who smiled wide to see that. I can incorporate them into my strategy just fine.
"I've seen your people fight, Princess," Gray told Mansherry. "They're all very powerful fighters. I appreciate you joining us."
"My people told me how hard you all fought to save them. You and your friends are the heroes of Dressrosa, and the Tontatta Kingdom," Mansherry responded. She curled a little hand into a fist and took a deep breath, then she punched it into the air and called out, "So in the name of my father, the Tontatta people are joining the Resistance!"
"PRINCESS! HAAA! HAAA! HAAA!" The Tontatta roared out and punched their weapons back into the air again and again in agreement.
Mansherry glanced nervously over her shoulder once and then back forward in a more confident way with her hands down on her hips. Leo rolled his eyes at the girl next to him who pouted with her lips pursed together when she saw Leo give her that look, only to smile when Leo punched his sword back up over his head too.
Gray looked up and down the forces of Tontatta warriors who had joined him. He turned to his left and saw Brock nod at him with a confident look seeming more ready now that they had Mansherry there whose healing powers Brock was familiar with. Gray looked the other way and saw steadier expressions on others in his forces. He stood on equal level with everyone now, but he looked around at them from that equal ground and made eye contact with his forces again who had started to gain faith in him after seeing that pledge of loyalty.
One of Son Goku's allies.
He was already in the Resistance. He brought Goku back here.
A Fairy Tail mage just like Natsu Dragneel.
Dressrosa, the Dread Fort, Pyraxas…
They defeated Astaroth too.
Cleo leaned back and crossed her arms, "Hmph." She grunted and nodded in an approving way. Other space marines around her noticed their leader's approval and looked to one another in more prepared ways as well that were less skeptical of this young mage.
The Jedi had calm looks and some with small smiles on their faces when Gray looked to them. Even the Elite Squads' members appeared fine with him being their leader now. Gray saw their respect and felt grateful for the Thousand Sunny's landing in Dressrosa more than ever at the moment. I needed that reminder too, he thought. His men were not the only ones doubting him a minute ago, and he knew that the doubt he felt in himself must have been working against him and making the others only doubt him more too.
The young general just given legitimacy in the eyes of his soldiers called out, "There you have it. We're getting all the way to the coast if we're connecting Resistance territory to Dressrosa. You fine with that?!" Gray shouted. He looked to some different soldiers while asking the rhetorical question, and he saw some nods and just went on as he did not need any audible answer. "This invasion is a push into the Emperor's territory, but that push can very quickly become a rout if we make it into one. The Sith won't know what hit them."
Gray looked confident. He reminded himself of all they had done since landing in Aebrith. He recalled the feeling he had when the Commanders bequeathed the rank of General on him and ordered him to set up this invasion. We can do this. I know we can. "Prepare yourselves, men. We start the invasion the day after tomorrow. We initiate the advance at 0600 hours. And we will take back the coast."
"The Resistance has the momentum. It's on us to keep it up. We'll take back territory and destroy the Sith. Take a coastline and build back up our lost strength." Gray curled his right fist and swung it out to the side with his cape flapping behind him when he did, "And in doing so, we pave the path to Resistance victory in this war."
A/N Thanks for reading! Gray Invasion Arc begins! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of it. Gray gets ready with his forces who gain some faith in him at the end of this part as the Tontatta arrive and swear allegiance to the Resistance. They remind everyone of how Gray and his friends have been crushing Cooperative powers across the continent since they showed up, and they reminded Gray of that too. A lot of characters were introduced this chapter for the upcoming war. Let me know what you think about it, questions, or predictions for the chapter ahead too! I'll put a list below of characters and then review responses:
Kid Cosmic: Kid Cosmic, Jo
One Punch Man: Fubuki, Metal Bat
Mob Psycho 100: Teru (Hanazawa)
Black Clover: Jakku Za Ripper
Hunter x Hunter: Knov
Pokémon: Brock, Aerodactyl, Articuno
Fairy Tail: Gray, Natsu
Star Wars: Sith, Sidious, Tiplee, Tiplar, Rex, Cody, Wrecker, Tech, Hunter, Echo, Fives, Ahsoka, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin, Darth Bane
Devil is a Part Timer: Hero Emilia
One Piece: Kyros, Chief Gancho, Thousand Sunny, Donquixote Doflamingo, Leo, Mansherry, Kabu, Bomba, Rampo, Wicca, Tontatta, Zoro
Red vs Blue: Allison/Cleo (Agent Texas), Tucker (Sangheili), Viken (Agent Washington), Mongol (Agent Maine), Carolina, Church
Halo: Master Chief, Arbiter, Prophets, Covenant, (the Covenant fleet I mentioned that got destroyed happened back in Battle of Metropolis when Sora summoned Arceus, and the story about the Prophets being killed and the rest of the Covenant leaving for Awul is something that Trunks and Tetsuo took care of a long time ago)
The Hobbit: Radagast the Brown
My Hero Academia: Ojiro, Hagakure
Magi: Ren Empire
-If I missed anyone who you want to know where they originate from, let me know in a comment below!
Smlluffy67 chapter 152 . 14h ago
Welp so much information let's see fist off MCU LOKI LETS GOOOOO This still doesn't help me figure out when in the mcu did the characters get taken to Nexus from next we finally see rukia and it looks like she is doing alright stil dont know who the new captain commander is. also disney castle was brought to Nexus wonder if we'll see chip and Dale and pluto maybe even jiminy cricket also I bet the reason that the castle must stay hidden is because of the cornerstone of light that's probably a very important item.
Yea! Loki's here! I actually mentioned him once before. In Nexus HWR 9.0 Zeppelin, Goku had found himself on a Sky Island where Pagaya, Conis, and Captain McKinley and his White Berets (all characters from the One Piece Sky Island arc), were holding an election. Pagaya was chosen to be the Governor of Skypiea since apparently he and his daughter brought Son Goku to them... I didn't show what happened there. XD Goku showed up on the island and I suddenly skipped 2 days ahead to when Goku had apparently freed the island from Loki's rule. That's why Loki of Asgard at the Tower of Babel is talking to the other Loki about how Goku got one over on him and is gambling against Goku with the female Loki from Danmachi. Anyway! Yeah, this is the first time we actually saw that Loki, though we know he's been up to mischief on this world from that reference earlier in the story. I haven't made it clear where/when the Marvel characters arrived from, though I think we saw both Rhodey and Steve Rogers, and maybe Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, over in Rhodar during chapters after the Battle of Metropolis or- haha, in the same HWR 9.0 chapter where Loki is mentioned, I actually had Ichigo's zeppelin get boarded by a Sith only for Rhodey to pop out and surround the Sith's vehicles with his robot forces and intimidated the Emperor's forces to back down. Anyway! Glad you're excited to see more MCU characters pop up. We saw Ant-Man back in that mission referenced this chapter that freed Mansherry too, and now she's going to help Gray's invasion and brought a lot of her forces to help out too. We'll see more about Rukia and the Disney Castle in later chapters, and we'll see if any of those characters show up at the castle when/if we see it, but no spoilers! XD Good prediction about the cornerstone of light! Won't say if it's true or not. :P But nice guess! Thanks for reviewing!
Limit-Breaking chapter 152 . 6h ago
Wow, a lot of info dropped that's for sure, Yamamoto death and the replacements just dying after him has just gotta suck lol. It's sad cause they were so confident in that meeting and then they died like God damn they didn't even stand a chance.
Truncating the review as I often do. Haha thanks for another long one! Great guess about the next arc. You were so close, though you did put your money down on Kirito's group. The thing is, I had Kirito and Ben both heading after Dash after they each had their own little arcs. Kirito's small training arc, and Ben's arc in Zodd. I'm trying to at least get some chronology out of these chapters (despite most of them occurring at the same time as each other), which is why this Gray Invasion arc starts with planning 2 days before the invasion, and the invasion should take place on Day 6 (considering I wrote it's Day 4 at the start of this one). Since Sora just called out at his friends in Orario last chapter how they'd meet again in 24 days, like it's Day 6 there, it tells us that the Sylar battle and travel to the Tower of Babel for Natsu's group, and all of Sora's chapters, happened before Gray is actually starting his invasion. It's tough to chronology everything. I thought Gray's arc would work best to be the next one because of when it starts compared to the other arcs going on. It's not like Kirito and Ben and Dash aren't currently involved in their own arc, and they might already be in it by the time Gray starts his invasion, but it just worked best like this. Anyway! Great guess. I'm glad the Gray arc was your preference anyway lol, so hope you're ready for the war arc! Let me know any predictions you have for what's going to happen! Glad you remembered Satan trying to possess Meruem... though that line Sora had about being grateful that they were now going to wait before invading Hell and all do it together... unfortunately, Sora might not know it, but a couple of his friends are already on their way towards a Hell gate without him 0_O. Haha Rin and Luffy (and Kuro) left Resistance HQ to go save Yukio, so we'll see how their arc goes later without the knowledge that Sora has. XD Thanks again for reviewing, and I hope you enjoyed the start of the new arc!
-Thanks everyone for reading the chapter, faving, following, and reviewing to the story! 'Til next time!