Time to be arriving at Chicago! But first, a scene with our favorite Teen Titans villain! So, play Darth Vader's Theme from Star Wars!
Chapter 14: Bounty Hunters and Stowaways
Final Brain
The Sahara Desert skies were oddly cloudy over the newly built base. Stormtroopers marched in and out, and villains' ships and vehicles were landing inside. The supreme criminal mastermind, Sith Lord Darth Genious, aka The Brain, waited patiently on an elevator, his gorilla assistant, Monsieur Mallah by his side, along with bounty hunters, Cad Bane and Aurra Sing.
The elevator came to a stop, opening as the devious jarred brain rolled his canister into a room where Professor Chang and Finbarr Calamitous were mixing a large, round chemical pool. The Brain stopped beside the pool as two tiny robotic arms emerged from below his skull face, hauling itself out. The Brain's dome had a small, skinny mechanical body, which stood from the canister and stepped into the chemical bath. He kicked back and relaxed as Chang handed him some tea, which Brain used his tiny arms to poor it into his jar.
"Ah, my glorious leader. So wonderful to have you back." Chang smiled maniacally.
"Indeed. Nothing soothes the irritation of failed minions more than tea in a chemical bath."
"I told you those children were no good." Bane said. "I should have gone after that Firstborn."
"Where are those brats, anyway? Shouldn't they have reported back by now?" Aurra asked.
"Patience is key, my dear Sing. Even with annoying children." Genious replied.
"Bah. Children are more trouble than they are worth." Calamitous said. "Speaking of which, my new master, when will we get to destroying Jimmy Neutron and those other do-gooders?"
"When the time is right." The Brain said. "If the world is to be truly engulfed in Darkness, the heroes of this universe must be disposed of as well. But the last time we attempted to conquer, we suffered a cold defeat. I will make sure that does not happen again. We must get all we can on our side. Evil must prevail."
"All beings can be manipulated somehow." Mallah said. "Much like your greatest victory in manipulating zat Nolan boy, Master."
"Correct. And Nolan has become a most marvelous operative in our ranks. If impatient at some points…"
"Sire: we are getting a call from your Stormtroopers." Chang reported.
"Put them on." Chang did as told and turned on the terminal, showing Gary and Dan's image.
"Uh, Sir. We got ambushed by some kid and his talking wood, and they stole the Firstborn." Gary informed him. "Apparently, Nolan's group ended up in Sahara."
"Then they are very near here." Brain said. "Fly back here and pick them up. We may have lost the spirit, but the Guardian has captured her. Our victory has yet to come."
"Yessir." With that, the transmission ended.
"But with the Firstborn captured, we must now manipulate the Guardian to turn evil."
"It vill not be an easy task, considering her kind nature." Mallah said.
"General Immortus?" At Brain's call, the ancient general stepped in through the slide-open doors.
"Sir: I have been reported this already. I sent some of our Teen Ninjas after them, as well as the Six Gum Gang." Immortus told him.
"Good. There will be no place for the Guardians to hide. We will find them all, and the Firstborn. By the way… Monsieur Mallah."
"Hm?"
"Have you gathered enough of the… special water?" (Stop the music.)
Approaching Chicago, Indiana
The operatives were sound asleep in Father's limo as Father continued to drive. Nigel and Rachel, Bruce and Violet, and other couples were lying their heads on each other. They've been driving for hours without any conflict, so it's natural they would get bored, and sleeping inside the rushing limo was very comfy and relaxing. "Hey, kids, wake up, we're here!" Father called. The gang slowly opened their eyes and yawned, stretching their arms and legs.
"Wh-Whuh…?" Rachel asked, tiredly.
"I said, we're here." Everyone looked ahead of the vehicle to see they were approaching the town of Chicago, Indiana itself, passing a sign that read, Now entering Chicago. Ignore that creepy guy by the library.
Father calmly drove through a downtown street while the kids looked at the scenery. "So, this is Chicago, huh? It's okay, I guess." Wally said.
"I wonder if this place has any Rainbow Monkey stores!" Kuki said happily.
"I wonder where we can start looking for my cousin?" Nigel wondered aloud.
"Hm. Place hasn't changed much, has it?" Jagar said to himself.
Rachel suddenly thought of something, and turned to the time spirit. "So, Jagar. You said you had to go back 5 years and help the others fight Lord Gnaa."
"Yes?"
"Doesn't that mean Lord Gnaa just appeared recently?"
"Well, sort of. Lord Gnaa is actually about 113 years old, but he performed his first dark act 5 years ago."
"What did he do? Sink the city of Atlantis?" Wally asked.
"Actually, Numbuh 4, there is no Atlantis. The undersea kingdom was Oceana, remember?" Kade corrected.
"Where did they come up with Atlantis, anyway?" Eva asked.
"Well, that's not what happened." Jagar said. "What happened was-"
"HEEELP!" Father stopped the limo when a crazy man in a green jacket ran around his car and stopped by his window. "There's a huge fight going on at the park!"
"Hmm, sounds like a good place to start." Nigel figured.
"It is, but, why are you telling us?" Rachel asked the man.
"Isn't this a police car?" he asked.
"Uh, no. Police cars are the ones with the bright red and blue lights, and they make the annoying ALARM sound." Father told him.
"Oh, thank you! Ahem: HEELP." With that, the man ran off.
As he did so, the gang noticed a newspaper fly out from his jacket. Nigel decided to reach out his window and grab it, reading it as Father kept driving. "'Metafreaks Run Amuck. Numerous sightings of inhuman freakshows throughout our world, bringing havoc and chaos.'" They saw a picture of Lehcar and Scarlet, running from a burning building with devious grins. "'Thankfully, our fair city is kept safe by Commander Gunkan, whose GUN Troops are selflessly ridding the world of these pests. Family of psycho-freak siblings still running loose in Chicago, but Gunkan has hired bounty hunter Boba Fett on the case.' Boba Fett?"
"Ugh. Not him again." Fanny groaned.
"Something tells me we better get to that park. Let's go, Father!" With that, the shadow man sped them faster down the street.
Chicago Park
Meanwhile, Buddy sat beside Noah on the park bench, watching the blonde girl throw food crumbs at the ground for pigeons. "Aren't you a little worried of being out in the open?" Noah asked.
"Aren't you a little worried of being seen next to a wanted fugitive?" he smirked.
"Hm hm hm!" she giggled. "Please. These cops couldn't catch a wild goose. Let alone that-" Suddenly, a light-blue electric net fired and wrapped around the girl, screaming as Boba Fett reeled her in.
"HM mm mm." The bounty hunter held up Noah's net. "Poor little lady shouldn't be hangin' around these psycho freaks."
"Let her go, Boba!" Buddy yelled, running to attack him, but Boba switched on his jetpack and took off, hovering above him.
"You're gonn' have to be growin' some wings and fly, pretty boy. But I've been chasin' you guys long enough to know your moves. And you ain't very good with your powers, ain't ya? You or your siblings."
Buddy suddenly remembered he had a lightsaber, feeling for it in his pocket. He looked up at Boba and said, "I may not be a Jedi, but I can do THIS!" With that, he whipped out his red saber and tossed it at the net, slicing it and making Noah drop."
"Ow! Careful with that thing…" Noah said.
"Hehe. Sorry."
"OHH. Gosh, dang it." Boba whined, landing on the ground a few feet away from the two, drawing out his lightsabers. "Ah well. Ah'll just take you out the old fashioned way. You see this blue lightsaber?" He held up the blue one. "Scored this baby off a psychicbender I ousted when Ah was a kid." He held up the red one. "This red one just popped up outta nowhere, but I figured, I'll take it! Time to take you little kiddies out. Get ready for your trip to the Land of the Dead, assholes!" With that, they readied for battle. (Play the "Silver Boss" Theme from Sonic Generations!)
Boss fight: Boba Fett
The galactic bounty hunter charged toward the psychicbender, swinging his two sabers, but Buddy clashed back with his own. He tried slashing Boba's legs, but he jumped and flew back via jetpack. He hovered above the ground and did an aerial roll into Buddy, swinging his swords, but Buddy rolled under him as Boba landed. Once behind him, Buddy slashed the jetpack, making Boba bounce back.
"Bah. Boba don't be likin' that. Lessee if this long-range missile does any—Yes it does!" With that, Buddy started dodging as Boba launched missiles at him. Boba bent down as seven missiles emerged from his armor, aiming directly at Buddy, but they instead launched straight upwards. Buddy looked up and dodged the seven missiles as they landed straight down.
Boba stood back up and switched on his jetpack. "Takin' to the sky, psychonaut." He said, hovering several feet above the ground, flying around and shooting at Buddy. Buddy used his psychic to grab a park bench and throw it to him, but Boba quickly dodged to the side. He then lifted a tree, aimed the top part at Boba, and flew it to him, but using his swords, Boba sliced off the top section, middle section, and kicked the last part away.
Boba flew behind Buddy, landing and charging for a spin attack. Buddy ran as the bounty hunter spun rapidly, hovering a few inches with his jetpack as he chased Buddy, and stopped when he tired out, dizzy. Buddy decided to walk behind him, grab a bench, and throw it at his jetpack, pushing him away.
Boba recovered and switched on his jetpack, rapidly flying around the Utsukushii boy. He stopped and landed in front of him, slashing rapid swings with his two swords that Buddy narrowly flipped and dodged. Buddy dodged one last double-horizontal slice before Boba stopped and flew off.
Buddy looked and saw the bounty hunter charging his jetpack, running as Boba did a propeller spin toward him, landing back on the ground stylishly, only for Buddy to throw a trashcan at his jetpack. Boba took off and landed several feet away again, bending down, holding his swords out, and charging his jetpack. Boba dashed, the jetpack giving him more speed, and attempted to slice Buddy, but he avoided. Boba turned around and repeated this, but missed again.
Buddy had an idea and went to stand in front of a tree. When Boba performed the attack again, Buddy dodged and allowed the bounty hunter to ram his head in the tree, making him dizzy. The male Quad took this time to grab a trashcan with psychic and throw it at his jetpack. Boba recovered and flew off again.
"Aw, that's it. 't's time Boba gave you a li'l ol' dirt nap." With that, Boba crouched down again as a sort of circle formed itself atop his back, which became a laser cannon. The weapon glowed to life before launching a massive energy ray, Buddy running around to avoid the blast. Buddy's face turned to horror when he tripped, shielding his eyes from the laser's impact, but Noah quietly crawled underneath Boba, and kicked him in the crotch. The laser stopped as Boba yelped and bounced around.
Buddy smirked as he went to pick up the severed tree parts with his psychic. One at a time, he tossed the fallen parts at his jetpack, the last one causing it to malfunction. "Yuh-oh. WAAAHHH!" Boba started flying around the area uncontrollably. His jetpack finally stopped, and Boba found himself five stories above the ground. He waved his arms and legs frantically and finally landed on his head with a thud. His body was upside-down, with his legs aiming upward, but his body fell down after seconds. "Ooooohhh… ugh." He rose his head up in dizziness, but finally fainted, and Buddy and Noah high-fived. (Stop the music.)
The two kids looked at the fallen bounty hunter and slowly approached him. When they were inches away from his head, Boba flipped back and fired two metal ropes, wrapping the two and making them fall over. He smirked cockily behind his helmet, pacing around them. "So, thought old Boba was gonna bite that easily, eh? Mm mm mm. Kids today never learn."
Boba rolled Buddy beside Noah on his back and put his foot on him.
"You thought you freaks were clever with yo' psychic. Well, listen up, psycho. There ain't no place for freaks in this world." He leaned his head closer to him. "'specially you heartless psychics. Hey, what the- WHOA!" Boba suddenly jumped back when a fire blast came at him.
"We just can't go anywhere without running into you, can we?" Nigel said with flames in his hands, the others standing by him. Eva ran up and used Water Slice to cut Buddy and Noah free.
"I was hopin' to run into ya." Fanny said, aiming her M.U.S.K.E.T..
"Wah-hey! If it ain't Godzilla! Irish version! Boy, ol' Boba woulda had ya if it hadn't been for yo' little bratty brothers."
"Grrr." Paddy grit his teeth.
"Anyway…" Boba said, starting his jetpack, "I'd love to stay and play with you kids, but Boba's got somewhere to be right now. Catch ya on the flipside, heh heh!" With that, the cocky hunter winked to them before flying away, backwards.
Yin and Yang proceeded to help the two kids up. "Are you okay?" Yin asked.
"Y…Yeah…" Buddy said weakly.
"You kids okay over here?" Father asked, walking over to them.
"Whoa, who's that?" Buddy asked, surprised by his shadowy appearance.
"Ahem: this is my uncle, Father." Nigel said. "He drove us all here to find my cousin, and his daughter. …No rhyme intended."
"Say, young man, do you know a woman named Natsume?" Father asked.
"Natsume? That's… my mom's name."
"Your mom?" Nigel was baffled.
"Yeah. I'm actually a Quadruplet child. My sisters are at home."
"Um.. we were told Father only had a daughter." Nigel said. "Didn't you?..."
"I was certain I did. It is strange..." Father replied, lost in thought.
"This is a matter worth looking into. Can you take us to your house?" Nigel asked.
"Sure. My name's Buddy. This is my friend, Noah." The blonde girl waved.
"Hi, Noah! I like your shirt!" Kuki exclaimed, noticing Noah also had long sleeves.
"Thanks!"
"That's enough greetings, everyone." Rachel interrupted. "We have to see what's up with this whole… thing. Everyone in the limo." They all nodded and got back in Father's limo, including Buddy and Noah. They drove off as Buddy pointed them the direction of his house.
Kremling Fleet
The Kremling Navy fleet sailed under cloudy skies as soldiers were still stacking boxes of bananas. The sun was rising in their region, alighting the bottoms of the dark clouds. The seas were very calm and peaceful, and the brushing waves and calm breeze made the Kremlings feel relaxed as they did their work. "Hoo! I think that's finally all of 'em!" one Kremling sighed in relief after bringing the last box.
"Hey, I hear there's a disco party on the Kremlicht!" another said. "Wanna hit the sake?"
"Croc yeah!" the Kremlings cheered as they hurried down to the boats.
On one ship in particular, Kami and Ava were peeking from behind two crates with Kweeb in between them, who was peeking through the tiny crack in the middle. They went back behind and Kami asked, "When are we going to do something? We've been hiding here since Chapter 7."
"There are tons of Kremlings on this ship." Ava said. "It's not easy making a move without getting caught."
"Good thing I never have to worry about getting caught!" Kweeb said, cockily. Kami simply, as usual, flicked him into a wall.
"What is this ship, anyway?" she asked.
Ava turned and read the red label on one of the crates. "'SS Kremlicht'? I guess that's the name of this ship…"
They heard the doors open and kept quiet once more as the pirates stacked a few more crates of bananas, brushing their hands off afterwards. "Well-p, that's the last of 'em." One of them said.
"Hey, what are we gonna do with these bananas, anyway?"
"K. Rool says it's for an important project. They did research on it down in the Oceanic Base." This caught the operatives' attention. "I forget what it was…" The Kremling scratched his head. "I think he said it was for a… Tetris or something?"
"So, he just wants an iPhone game?"
"Aaaahh I dunno. I'll ask 'im later."
"Well, I'm not sure what they plan to do with bananas. Oh well. Let's go down in the disco room and get funky!"
"Aw yeah!" With that, they hurried out excitedly.
Once they were gone, the three kids came out from hiding. "Did you hear that?" Ava asked.
"Yup. They're definitely doing something with these bananas." Kami replied.
"Where should we go now?"
"I say we check out this Oceanic Base." Kweeb said. "This ship has to have a few subs around here somewhere."
"With all the guards around, it won't be easy." Ava said.
"Oh well." Kami followed. "Time to kick some reptile tail!" (Play the "Opening/Menu of Metroid" from Super Smash Bros. Brawl!)
Stage 11: S.S. Kremlicht
Mission: Sneak through the ship and find the submarine!
The three operatives walked out of the room into a dark hallway with plenty more crates, guarded by Kops, Kremlings in white outfits with flashlights. Kami snuck up behind the first Kop and punched him backside of the head, knocking him out. They hid behind the crates as another Kop came to check on him. Ava snuck around the crates and took out the other Kop. They kept going and found the door guarded by two Klumps. The Klumps noticed them and started throwing Orange Grenades, but Kami caught the bombs and threw them back, knocking the fat Kremlings out. She walked over and dug around in their pouches, taking some Orange Grenades and stuffing them in her pockets. "I feel like we're gonna need these."
And right she was, as they entered the next room, protected by Robo-Kritters and Robo-Zingers. They hid behind crates while Kami tossed a grenade and destroyed a robot. The other ones saw and ran for them while Kweeb grabbed onto one's leg and squeezed in an opening, dismantling the insides. When he hopped out of the robot, he shot at other ones, damaging them slightly. The Robo-Zingers started dropping bombs on them, but Ava grabbed Kweeb and tossed him onto one, allowing him to crawl inside and hack into it, taking control and dropping bombs on the other Zinger and Kritter robots. Afterwards, they proceeded to the next room.
They found even taller stackings of banana crates, quietly sneaking around the corners. They peeked around a corner to the center of the room at a gang of Kasplats, blue Kremlings with black jackets and sunglasses, sitting at a table and drinking… swamp water.
"2 kajillion crates of bananas on the boat! 2 kajillion crates of 'nanas!" they sang. "Take one down, from another ape crowd, 2 kajillion and 1 crates of bananas on the boat!" They were interrupted when Kami tossed a grenade and blew up their table.
They recovered and spotted the two girls (and not Kweeb), running to attack them. Two of them got Kami by the arms, but she kicked the one on her left in the nose, then flipped behind the other and kicked it to some crates. Another one wrapped its arms around Ava, but Kweeb got behind his glasses and poked his eyes, Ava shaking free and knocking him out. The last one slammed the floor, creating a shockwave, but they jumped and Kami ran up to him, punching him a few times before he knocked out.
"Man. How big is this ship, anyway?" Ava asked as they continued down another hall.
"For a bunch of crocs, they have some advanced technology." Kami said.
Kweeb gasped, "Yuh-oh! Here comes some more!" At this, they saw that another gang of Kops were approaching with flashlights.
Kami saw an air duct to the side and said, "In here." tearing it open and crawling in, followed by Kweeb who jumped in and simply walked. Ava was the last one, closing the vent as the Kops walked by.
"One of the benefits to being small is not having to crouch into tight areas." Kweeb bragged. Kami stopped crawling for a sec and kicked him to the side.
"It also means you get kicked easier when you brag."
Kweeb recovered and said, "You just love doing that."
Kami stopped over another vent and said, "Let's drop down here." She tore open the vent and dropped down. Ava grabbed Kweeb and dropped after her. "Since we're on the bottom, we should be close to the place where they have all the submarines." (Stop the music.)
After a little walk, they stopped and stared at the room before them. "Uh… this is odd." Ava said. (Play the "Disco Star" Theme from the Spongebob Movie game!)
Before them was none other than a disco room, various Kremlings in fancy, colorful outfits, and fancy hair, dancing on the blinking square floor. The large room seemed to have different levels of disco floors. On one side of the room was Vector the Crocodile, working the DJ, while Espio and Charmy danced on the floor.
"Who knew a naval ship would have this?" Kami said.
"How are we gonna sneak past all these guys?" Ava asked.
"I can do that easy!" Kweeb gloated.
"Yeah, if you wanna get yourself stomped." Ava replied.
Kami noticed a door on a higher level with a sign that read 'Submarine Docking Bay'. "There it is, guys. They seem pretty distracted, so let's just walk by 'em." With that, they proceeded to walk out and dance their way past the Kremlings.
As Ava did so, she accidentally bumped into Espio. "Oh, sorry."
"No worries. Huh?" the chameleon watched confusedly as they danced by casually. Charmy flew beside him and watched as well. The two exchanged glances and headed over to Vector.
"Hey, Vector, get a load of this." Charmy said, indicating the two children (still not noticing Kweeb).
"Whuh? Who are they?"
"Spies sent here to investigate, perhaps?" Espio thought.
"Then they're on our side?" Charmy asked.
"Maybe. But if we let 'em run around, K. Rool will suspect something." Vector said. "This oughta make them dance." With that, he pressed a red button, making the square tiles blink red rapidly.
Ava stepped on a red tile and yelped, "Ow!", when the disco shot a laser at her.
"Whoa!" Kami yelped as a laser almost hit her.
"Must be their defense system." Kweeb guessed.
"Well, what do we do?" Ava asked as they only danced randomly.
Kami noticed they were dancing on green tiles, then noticed a blinking green tile path. "Follow me." she told them, quickly jumping the green tiles before they switched to red. Ava and Kweeb mimicked her and jumped on their own green tiles.
They hurried up a staircase to the next floor, seeing the green tiles blinking diagonally down a red floor. They hopped on and ran to stay on the fast-moving tiles, jumping to a green tile on the next floor. The green path kept warping, so they got on and hurriedly jumped to wherever it appeared next.
They reached the next staircase and headed up to the last floor, in which the Chaotix hopped onto it and started making random dance movements along the changing tiles. "I guess we have to do what they do." Ava said, so they each got onto some tiles and mimicked their movements. Kami followed Vector, Ava followed Espio, and Kweeb did Charmy.
Kami followed as Vector made weird Egyptian movements left and right, and slowly moved the two closer to each other. Espio was making a bunch of karate poses that Ava copied. Charmy just did moonwalks, which Kweeb mimicked. When Kami and Vector started Egyptian walking closer to each other, Kami spin-kicked him on the side of the head, knocking him out. Ava and Espio did spins closer to each other as Ava kicked and knocked him out. Finally, Charmy and Kweeb moonwalked to each other, turned around, and Kweeb set his gun to 'Stun', fired, and made the bee freeze stiff.
Once they were out, the tiles all turned green. Ava and Kami high-fived, Ava grabbed Kweeb, and they headed into the submarine room. (Stop the music.)
As soon as they left, the three Chaotix recovered, rubbing their heads in pain. "Ugh… I think they made it." Vector groaned.
"What should we do now?" Espio asked.
"Hmm… we can't make K. Rool think we let them slide on purpose. So let's call and tell 'em what happened. Then he can send other troops after them."
"Oh… this whole spy thing really bites." Charmy groaned, still stunned.
Oceanic Base
At this time, the three K. Rools were in the Oceanic Base, squashing bananas into some old Tikis, making them spark back to life. "Hmm, my, whoever would have thought Evil Tikis could be revived by simply giving them bananas?" Baron asked.
"These Tikis will help us with our ultimate plan. They are what we need to ensure our goals."
"D'arrr, you mean finding the Sea Prince?" Kruckers asked.
"No, not the Prince, you fool. We've already learned what we needed to know, on this disk." He held up a small disk, then stashed it back in a computer. "We are after another Firstborn. One whom will be a key factor in our quest. And once that Firstborn is in our possession, the Kongs' days will be numbered. MWEH HEH HEH HAH HAR!"
Next time, the gang will meet The Quads for real. Until then, guess what Firstborn (Pokémon) Kroctus is looking for. See you later.