The north pole

A soldier stepped into the room. "tonraq, your sister elsa has come back from her mission just arrived."

"welcome back ."

"the mess I see it would appear that things have gotten rather out of hand in my absence. As of now, I am personally taking command. We will get rid of the rebels. All available Central forces, it's time to fight."

elsa clenched her fist. "He's back. King Bradley."

Over at the main gate, tonraq frowned. "That bastard's still alive?!"

lin pointed out over the battlements. "There he is."

They all looked down, and could see Bradley approaching the main entrance with numerous reinforcements backing him up.

lin swallowed. "Damn. Just when things were going so well."

tonraq looked at him fiercely. "Don't give up. We still control most of Central republic city, and they won't be expecting us to be backed up by your forces. We just have to hold both gates, and nothing will stop us."

At that moment, something that sounded like an explosion emanated from the center of the republic city.

Armstrong looked in the direction of the explosion warily. "What was that?"

A panicked soldier shouted over the radio. "Lin, it came out of nowhere! It's…it's the…"

His voice was cut off and a sharp spike of static noise emitted from the radio.

lin and several of her police dashed out of the room and down the hall, trying to find the source of the chaos.

Armstrong turned a corner and froze, horrified by what she saw.

Blood, bodies, and the uniforms of both central and briggs soldiers were scattered around the hall, smearing the walls, ceiling, and floor as if they had been tossed all over the place at high speed. And standing in the middle of the hall...

Sloth absently scratched his head. "I made it inside. Now, let's see, what were my orders again? Oh yeah."

He glanced at her. "Kill tonraq and queen elsa."

He began to lumber forward, then paused. "Wait, there was something else, wasn't there."

He bowed his head, then looked back up again. "Oh, I remember. Kill anyone who gets in my way."

Blood dripped from his fingers, and elsa morph's into her ranger form grip on her snow staff tightened.

A homunculus outside and a homunculus inside. This is not good.tonraq said.

Inside the command center,

lin had rallied her troops against Sloth.

"Fire!"

Her soldiers fired a volley of gunfire into Sloth's flank.

From the ceiling, ultra ninja morphed his arm into a blade then it was covered in deadly snake venom. He stretched he arms out and stabbed Sloth repeatedly, carefully retreating whenever he noticed him.

Sloth was able to kill many of the soldiers, but the ones who survived stood strong and kept at it.

lin used her wrist blades then darted in and put several deep gashes in Sloth's legs, then leaped away before he could retaliate.

She looked at the homunculus carefully. He's durable, but sluggish. We might still have a chance.

Sloth groaned, and clutched his head. "Pain is a pain. Dying is a pain. Coming back is a pain."

He crouched. "And fighting all out is the worst pain of all."

lin tensed, and braced herself.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Sloth was gone, she felt a sharp pain in her left arm, and the soldiers on her left vanished.

She stumbled away, gasping in pain, and saw in horror that the soldiers who had been standing next to her had been killed, and Sloth was imbedded in a nearby wall.

ultra ninja looked at the homunculus warily. "How the hell did he do that?"

tonraq grimaced. "I only saw a blur, but I think he..."

Sloth slowly turned around. "Yes. I am the fastest homunculus of them all."

Olivier smiled bitterly. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

Sloth crouched again, but before he could charge at her, several large rocks flew into the room and smacked into him, sending him flying.

"You may be fast, but you're still no match for water bending techniques that have been passed down for generations!"tonraq said.

Sloth moaned, but got right back up.

elsa looked at her brother with something close to gratitude, before returning her gaze to Sloth.

I hope the others can hold the gates for us.

ultra ninja,tonraq,elsa and lin panted heavily, and looked at Sloth warily. The other remaining soldiers also looked exhausted.

They had been fighting for some time, and many of their men had been killed. tonraq had a broken arm, while lin had acquired several more minor injuries. Ultra ninja had avoided injury due to her superhuman abilities, but she was wearing out too.

They'd thrown everything they had at Sloth, but no matter how many times they killed the homunculus, he always came back, and they couldn't last much longer.

Sloth groaned and lifted his head out of the rubble. "Must kill her. Once I kill her I can sleep forever."

He crouched and prepared to rush forward again. But before he could, the remaining soldiers had gathered several strong cables into a makeshift net, and used it to restrain the enormous homunculus.

Sloth slowly kept moving forward, and the soldiers strained against him in a grim tug of war.

"Dig into it men!"

ultra ninja remained on the ceiling, and continued to stretch his arm out to stab him, though hw was visibly annoyed that his attacks didn't seem to have any lasting effect.

A soldier stepped up next to the other three heroes. "Both of you, run now, while you can!"

lin looked at him sharply. "What?"

The soldiers pleaded with them to retreat, knowing that their comrades could only restrain Sloth for so long.

"This way! Please, quickly!"

"queen elsa! Go, now!"

tonraq bowed his head. "You would have me run away from this? The mere thought of fleeing, of leaving the battlefield a disgrace...I swear on my life such a thing will never happen again!"

He stood his ground, and glared at Sloth, several beads of sweat dripping down his face.

Sloth pulled, and the cables broke, sending the soldiers flying back. No longer restrained, Sloth rushed forward to finish the three heros off.

But before he could, a giant stone fist came through the wall and smashed into him.

lin,elsa and tonraq looked at the fist, stunned. A moment later, someone emerged out of the fist.

eda stepped in front of the three. "You refuse to run. That's impressive. You're a fine man. But then I've already got a someone a hundred times finer than you."

She cracked her knuckles.

eda your here?" tonraq said.

"hey tonraq. I'm the one who dug the tunnel for your men into center of republic city. I had been about to leave, but I could hear the vibrations all the way underground, so I decided to come back and help."eda said.

Sloth staggeringly got back up. "Such a pain!"

He rushed at eda, but she cleverly avoided him, and used the force of his weight to throw him across the room.

She called out. "Raine, coming at ya!"

"Right!"raine said.

Rainw was waiting, and when Sloth came into range they blew a sonic whistle at Sloth and sent him flying.

tonraq looked at him, dumbstruck. "Extraordinary. Who is they?"

eda smiled. "He's my partner."

Lin used a stone fist and raine used a sonic blast to Sloth sending him into the ceiling, where he was momentarily suspended before falling back down and then Elsa stabbed sloth in the chest with her snow staff and used her ice magic to freeze sloth inside out having ice spikes come out of his body.

Then Sloth groaned, and slowly trying to get up.

lin sighed in exasperation. "Will that monster never stay down?"

Sloth squeezed his hand, but his hand shattered like glass. The rest of his body began to follow.

The remaining soldiers visibly relaxed, and Sloth the fell back down.

"Am I dying now? For real? What is dying like? Such a pain to think about it. But such a pain living too."he spoke his last words as he shattered into pieces of ice but in the middle of those pieces of ice.

Elsa walked over and kneeled down next to it. His true form looked like a cross between a mouse and a sloth. Its fur was soft and sleek, and its chest was slowly moving up and down, as if it was fast asleep.

Elsa gently picked it up. "Sloth the Indolent. Hmm. Perhaps now he can get the rest he so desperately wanted."

With the fight over, tonraq and lin both collapsed to their knees with a groan of pain. The soldiers gathered around the two.

"commander"

"cheif!"

lin shook her head. "We can worry about our injuries later. Now that that's taken care of, we need to get moving. Once we verify that the gates are still secure, we head Boiling isles."