Dimensional clash V: The Blood God's Wrath; Act VI: Dawn of War

Sonic

"Awright! One down, one to go!" I said cheerily. I ran toward the remaining mecha and spun into a ball, leaping high into the air. "Hey! Bolts-for-brains!" I shouted, descending toward the robot, "it's raining cats and 'hogs!"

My blow smashed apart one of its laser eyes, and I leapt back just in time as half its face exploded. With only one working eye, the machine became disoriented. I noticed that its rocket shots were getting more erratic. "Guys, protect the elevator!" I shouted, as a rocket streaked toward the shaft. Gru fired at the rocket with his freeze ray. It slowed down considerably, and tapped against the shaft before falling down and shattering. Gru blew steam off of his freeze ray.

The remaining laser eye swept the room, almost frying Jenny, but she retaliated with a heat-seeking missile.

That wasn't a smart idea. It streaked towards the laser instead of the actual robot. When it exploded, it took out a chunk of the tower. I heard an unsettling creak as the tower began to sway. "Whoa, not cool, dudes!" I stammered, wobbling back and forth as the tall structure leaned a bit. I looked out the hole and saw the entirety of Coruscant's highways criscrossing below the tower. "MICKEY! PAINT IT IN!" I cried.

Mickey ran past the erratic rocket blasts fired by the mecha, leaping and ducking as he struggled to get to the hole. He let loose a stream of paint, and a cartoon support shimmered into existence, attaching the tower to a large skyscraper adjacent to it. The tower was now leaning a bit to the side. "This thing could collapse in any second! Let's finish the robot and get up the elevator!" I yelled.

"Knock, knock, GRIMLOCK'S HERE!" Came a thunderous roar as a metallic T-rex came from beneath the elevator, smashing a hole through the floor that Sylux rapidly tried to weld back in place as Grimlock stepped onto the elevator; letting loose a roar as he charged at the King Oni.

The damaged mech fired off it's missiles at Grimlock, but he let loose his firebreath to prematurely detonate them before they could reach the autobot, his snarling metallic teeth clenching in anticipation of biting into yielding metal once again.

The thunderous dinobot moved incredibly swiftly for something with such a massive alternate form, and soon he slammed it into the wall and clamped his jaws into it's neck, biting down as hard as he could, feeling the metal snap beneath his incredible teeth.

Metal groaned and splintered beneath the all consuming pressure, simply unable to survive so much force in so little a time as Grimlock yanked back and tore out a third of the King Oni's neck, leaving the thing to crumple to the ground lifelessly as Grimlock rapidly transformed back into Robot mode.

"Sorry about being late, had to take a detour." Grimlock apologized as he brought out his burning energon sword in anticipation of more bloody and epic combat. Now, he wasn't capable of seeing the future, but he could tell that this was going to be fun.

Gru

The now-slanted elevator took us higher and higher. Easygoing elevator music accompanied us as we patiently waited for the elevator to reach the top.

We soon exited the tower. "This elevator just goes higher and higher," Sonic said, looking out the windows and seeing the antlers extending into the sky. "Not sure if I really want to know who this guy's decorator is."

Soon, the elevator dinged, and we reached a platform high above the sky, perched in between the antlers.

"Welcome, Champions! I'd thought you'd bring more of your ranks here, because, well, you know, no one hunts Champions like me!" boomed a manly man voice.

A figure stepped out of the shadows. He had a burly frame, with black hair tied in a small knot on the back of his head. A red shirt stretched out due to his broad shoulders and protruding pectoral muscles, and he definitely had biceps to spare. The figure tromped toward us in his boots. As he got closer, we could see that he had a shadowy aura about him. His eyes were black voids, with small red dots inside of them. But the most horrifying thing about him was that his massive arms had several gashes on them that poured out purplish-black smoke. A twisted grin smeared his face, before his mouth opened and he inhaled.

"No... one... kills like Gaston!" he sang, as Heartless began to emerge from the shadows as well.
"Crushes wills like Gaston!
"Makes the Champions run for the hills like Gaston!
"For this tower will soon be your RESSSSTING PLAAA-ACE!"

"My what a guy... GASTON!!!!!!!!" sang an unseen chorus.

"Gaston! What happened to you?! You look HORRIBLE!" Mickey cried.

"No one resists the Ing's transformation like Gaston! Sure, they give me enough power to mop the floor with you puny Champions, but I'm not about to ruin my manly frame. I'll make this quick!" Gaston replied.

French Titan

GASTON

"Alright frenchie, time for some head bashing." Grimlock snarled as he twirled his burning energon sword, taking out his tall shield to provide a formadible defense as well as a terrifying offensive capability. "Uh, Grimlock; we need a plan." Sylux precautioned before Grimlock blew him off. "Bah, here's my plan, CHAAARGE!" The dinobot bellowed to the heavens, thundering forward; shield in front and sword in hand as he prepared to bring his weapon down on Gastogne with his incredible strength.

"Team, support Grimlock; Fixer will try to relay our position to the Muunilist 10 and the Argo II, hopefully Fordo, Percy and the others will provide some reinforcements, Scorch you lay down some anti-armor fire; Sev, get to a sniper post and suppress him! Tex, get in close and use your agility to keep him from hitting you in melee while keeping him off balance. Gru, get that freeze ray working on his feet, same with you Sylux, use your ice beam. Pharoah, watch for reinforcements and try to harass them. Mickey, paint up some cover and traps, something to slow him down andany possible enemy reinforcements. Sonic; go in with Tex and keep him distracted. Jenny, keep a look out for enemy reinforcements and try to keep them busy." Boss ordered in a calm fashion, using his deft hands to signal to various locations for the champions to take up.

Boss quickly ran to fixer to give him some cover while they tried to call in reinforcements, all the while; the destroyers outside were being informed of the raid on the center most tower, and were already beginning to try and ascend it, whether through aircraft or through climbing, or through teleportation, or through flying, or through rushing towards the elevator. Already a gaggle of jet pack equipped space pirates were rushing upwards' their rockets powering them into the sky while Ing warrior and hunter forms began to ooze up the sides of the walls.

"Jenny, switch to light based weaponry! Got a frack-ton of ing heading up!" Fixer shouted as he watched his scanner and the others rushed into position. Sylux dashed around Gastogne; firing off ice-based combi-beams and ice missiles at Gastogne's legs to try and hamper his movements, Tex rushed in close; trying to get in some good punches at Gastogne's back before weaving out to try and avoid getting floored by the French Giant; Sev crawled up a nice tall platform and began to fire off sniper blasts to pin Gastogne down, maybe even hurt him, Scorch went in and let loose another of his arcing comet like anti-armor blasts; meant to cause maximum damage although it's range left much to be desired.

But the first of the reinforcements was soon on their way; the Red team was advancing through a series of bridges to try and reach the central tower before the destroyer's numbers could overwhelm them. The Necron Death Pharoah quickly teleported up high to take potshots at enemy fliers through the windows as the Red team's three vehicles thundered down the bridges and alleyways, accompanied by that lively and noisy accordion jig, guns blazing in all directions. "Come on Grif, drive faster I want to blast some destroyer lords!" Sarge ordered as he shotgunned a Covenant Brute in the head, splattering it's cranium like an overripe melon.

"I'm going as fast as possible sir! It's just that these roads are really dangerous!" Grif complained while Simmons swept his gatling gun around, spewing out leaden death in a wide arc in front of the Chupa-thingy. "Lopez, use that ghost thinga-ma-jig and fire us up some plasma!" Sarge commanded as the mongoose let loose a rocket from a back riding Henderson. "Sí su majestad, idiota." Lopez muttered in spanish as he fired off a series of Plasma blasts from his vehicle; only for the spanish speaking robot to briefly notice a white glint.

"Madre de dios!" Lopez gasped as he thought he recognized the shape...but it was gone too quickly. Of course, in battle many things that aren't there can be seen by the untrained...but then again Lopez is a robot. So many mysteries, so little time.

Sonic

Appropriate Listening (2:35)

"Right! On it, Boss!" I said, dashing after Tex. Running towards Gaston, I curled up into a ball and leapt past him. The muscular Frenchman turned his head around, giving Gru a chance to blast him with his freeze ray. Gru laughed in glee when Gaston's feet froze to the floor. The Frenchman flexed his leg muscles in an attempt to break out, but by then I had rebounded off of one of the antlers and was speeding toward him.

"Not good guys, there are Ings coming up the tower trying to get a piece out of us," Jenny called.

"Well, we're just gonna have to give 'em exactly what they deserve, aren't we?!" I replied, spinning to a halt just as Gaston broke out of Gru's freeze trap. He bellowed and flexed his arms high above his head, making him look roughly the size of a barge. The dark purple aura around him grew in size. "That looks like a move that powers him up," I noted. I also saw that the gashes on his biceps grew even larger, exposing the red tendons underneath. "That's disgusting!"

As soon as Gaston pulled out of his flexing pose, the Heartless formed a circle around him. Mickey whipped out his paintbrush and painted in several safes above the tower, attached to toon supports that would release the safes if Mickey thinned them out.

Meanwhile, Jenny rocketed high into the air. "Guys, reinforcements for us are coming. I see several orange planes and copters heading our way. Sami must be organizing her infantry."

"Great!" I called. "Now turn on your lasers, the Ing are coming!"

Just as soon as I said that, a pack of wolves leapt onto the tower, and a false copy of Shen materialized in front of us. I looked up and saw that the Battleship Halberd had entered a portal to this world, and was dropping the shadowy globs upon Coruscant. "Heads up, guys, we've got trouble!" I shouted, before performing my famous Sonic Spin on Shen's dark copy. It let out a gurgling scream as it fell down the tower, knocking an Ing or two off on the way down. I turned around, and Gaston was on me. He knocked me down, and I skidded towards the edge of the platform. He pulled a gun off of his back and aimed at me. "What's wrong?" sneered Gaston, "too kind and gentle to fight back?!" I shut my eyes tight.

A gunshot rang.

I didn't die.

I opened my eyes to see Jenny's metallic back towards me, holding up an energy field that had deflected the bullet off to the side. She shut off the force field and transformed her arms into sentry guns. She planted the guns into the platform and fired away at the wolves. "Clearing a path for you!" she shouted over the rattle of gunfire.

I nodded, and then went into another Sonic Spin. Ducking under Jenny's gunfire, I weaved between the wolves' dead bodies and bounded into the air, homing in on Gaston. His back was turned to me after he tried to get at Tex. I crashed down upon him, and he yelled as I rebounded back, but he recoiled as Sev's sniper fire rained down upon him.

I grinned as I saw the Argo II take off from its perch and steer toward us. The trireme's ornithopters swept through the air as the retro-rockets on its undercarriage flared. Soon, cannons had emerged from the ship's flank and had begun to fire at the tower. "Watch for the friendly fire!" called Jenny. She then cried out. Two Ing-possessed wolves were trying to tear at her. Her gunfire had stopped. Gru froze them both with his freeze ray, and Jenny quickly gyrated her torso as to knock them off.

Mickey: Realize something.

Wait.

Gaston is a toon like me.

I have this brush that sprays paint and thinner... A-HA! I've got a plan! "Cover me, guys, I'm coming in close!" I ordered, before taking my brush and running towards Gaston. It was total chaos. Cannon shells arced over my head, Greek fire streaked across the sky like flaming green meteors, and bodies that weren't exactly ready flew into the air. "GASTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" I screamed, holding my brush out in front of me and spraying Thinner toward his general direction.

To my surprise, the thinner splattered all over his chest as if it were water on an oiled surface. However, the thinner that hit his arms caused his Toon skin to dissolve, revealing thick red muscle underneath. "That's... beyond gross," I said. The purple smoke that had vented from the gashes in his biceps was now pouring out as if Gaston's arms were twin smokestacks. The Heartless around him created a tighter circle to protect him, as if I had exposed a weak point or something. "I've got an idea! Shoot the red parts of his arms!" I called out.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Gaston roared back, aiming his gun at me. He fired, but his gunshots went askew because Sonic had rammed into his forearm, souring his aim. He waggled his finger at Gaston before going into another Sonic Spin and homing in on his arms. Gaston reeled back in pain, and the muscle on his arm began to throb, the dark purple smoke emitted by the tendons wavering as if somebody was turning a faucet on and off rapidly.

Grimlock came in for a massive shield punch towards Gaston's face, throwing his massive strength and mass behind the blow as he charged forward; trying to both hurt and stun his foe before coming in around for a hooking swing with his blazing energon sword aimed at the left thigh of Gaston to damage his mobility. A feral snarl came forth from the Dinobot as he relentlessly pressed forward, Sylux continuing to bombard Gaston with his ice beam and ice missiles to try and keep him pinned.

KRAK! Went Sev's sniper as he took another shot, aiming for the frenchman's eye while Tex charged in to hit Gaston in the back and attempt to hurl him forward; directly into the path of another shield strike from Grimlock; this time coming in at the sharpened edges of the shield to cause further injuries. Gears whirred and motors spun as the colossal frame of the Dinobot worked overtime to bring the sword of Grimlock in forward for a massive thrusting stab towards Gaston's chest to try and run him through.

The Pharaoh and Boss in the mean time kept up their deadly barrage out the windows to try and keep away destroyer reinforcements from their areas, hoping to slow down or with luck; actually stop the tide of evil swarming towards the tower. Green gauss blasts and a storm of blue-white particle bolts streaked out of the building at any destroyers that got too close, bringing them down in large numbers as they fought frantically to keep the enemy at bay.

But soon Fixer's gamble to gather reinforcements succeeded; as the Argo II came crashing into the structure and let loose with it's deadly array of weapons. And not long after that, a LAAT/i Gunship carrying the muunilist 10 streaked in and laid down the law with a thunderous cascade of laser beams, blaster bolts, and missiles from it's numerous gun mounts as Fordo and his group quickly rapelled down; firing off a stunning volley of blue blaster bolts from their weapons at Gaston and any incoming destroyer reinforcements.

"Take him down!" Fordo commanded as he took aim with his twin heavy blaster pistols and let loose a rapid fire barrage. But with more destroyers pouring in every minute, no one could be certain that this effort; as massive and worthy as it was; could be enough. But from the distance, something big was approaching the building. Something big, green, reptillian, and radioactive, something that had a large portion of the destroyers bearing down on it only to be repeatedly swatted aside like insects.

To write is to create, and upon the creation, you are the creator. This fact is undeniable upon any means; this is creationism at its very core. For if you are to create a living, breathing being through your very words and the etchings that meet at the end of your pen, you are a god. Life, in its very nature, lies all within the imagination of man or whoever you may be. Legacy would have it, however, that there’d be life that extends that beyond any etching, or so we may think, that have the ability to bring out their creations and grant them a life outside of their own world. What would it be like to be plucked from the small expanse of the world, which has all along been a projection of your mind since the beginning, by your very creator and to walk amongst the gods of different dimensions? This is what we are, the Storytellers. Creation through words and means of expression. Many of my kind live their immortal lives naïve to any concept of dimensional stability and the fragility of reality. To bring their creations into our realm expecting no ill side effects that would threaten the existence of the world outside of our pocket dimensions, until we would finally be driven mad in solitude. Here we are… creators of our own worlds as well as your own and many others, putting it all at stake in the name of amusement. But in this, I say, our power is no more divine than your own, as we merely draw out our creations from the page, but produce life as well as any sentient being capable of imagining and expressing their own heartfelt thoughts on paper.

“Then wherefore thou tell me? Dost thou claim not higher wisdom than those around thyself? Dare I ask, art thou as naïve as you proclaim the serfs after thyself? Do the questions I ask be crafted by thy hand before I speak? In sooth, thou must know both the questions I have, and the answers I seek. Fie upon it, my God! Ho, answers anon!”

For good expression to imprint upon your character – the mind is as fragile as glass, dependent on how it is heated and tempered. Add energy to reduce energy, slow cooling, it makes the strongest glass. It is healthy to be skeptical. To doubt that in which you are unaware. I begin with your pattern of speech, then approaching that in how you react. Sophistication isn’t without level-headedness, and with this idea in mind, you are calm as an evening bay, orange rays of the setting suns glimmering on the motionless glass sheet of water broken by another’s boat, the wake leaving prints in your mind, but yet recovered. Calm and stoic like the water, resilient to the wake. A hole is in that boat and the water in the bay that is bejeweled by that evening sun dominates the challenger to your right. Calm and stoic like the water, resilient to the wake and overpowering of an invader, where the boat becomes part of the bay.

“For good expression upon mine character, marry, what is my character? Pray tell thy own expression, for my initial question remains.”

I’ve no such depravity that I’m incapable of acknowledging my own hypocrisy. But there would come a day that the power of Storytellers alone cannot overcome the dawn that is to come. I would grant to a character the ability that only Storytellers alone can muster in but their own individual abodes. But before such a task, there remains the matter of your creation.

“Marry!”

You are ink and paper. You are the epitome of the language, expression, and creation. Upon you are the etchings of your creation, your feelings and history and all of which that you are. As ill fortune would have it you are alone; alone in your monotone, little world in which is empty.

“I am alone.”

How little it must matter to you.

“Not ere your meddling.”

How little!

“All hence on thy part.”

And you are ink and paper – a man in every right and in shape, but a man who has become his own thoughts and ideals. Who has become his own feelings and everything that he is, expressed through words, and through words, you are creation.

“So in sooth, I am a creation of myself. But nay, here thou hast claimed thyself the creator, for the creation of mineself cannot be with the occurrence of creation by thy hand.”

You are your own creation through and through; you are words and ink and paper, you are a written mind and through the written words of emotion, thoughts, history and moral integrity, you are born. You not biological in the sense of the definition, you are not a man, and yet you are here. I have written a personality, and a personality is born. But in words, a personality is but expressed through words and through words, thus is creation. You are a personality, as is any living, breathing man, and you have created yourself.

“With but help.”

A simple push in the right direction.

“A push how divine.”

Just as divine as you and any sentient mortal is. Here you are in the world of creation, words, and expression as limitless as your creativity. Here you are now, deserving of the power of creation as any other. But how and in what way? Magic. This world is one of magic, limitless in the aspect of creation, a massive canvas. And with any canvas, you paint with a brush. Wielding a brush soaked with ink grants flexibility. Wielding your brush, you paint your imagination. Symbols, a simple a start as any, are shapes with meaning attached to them. Such symbolism is not predefined and anything can mean what you think it does. As such, you can draw a star and derive anything from light to fire dependent on what that symbol means to you. Air, space, time and the very world is your canvas, and any stray marks means whatever it does to you.

“I fain would accept the life granted by thy mercy if I but a clue who I was.”

Who you are is the overarching factor of your existence, as meaning is attached to a word. Without the word, the meaning is lost and forgotten. You are a man of ink and paper, the epitome of language, expression, and creation. In this respect, you are Vox, for you are expression, voice, and speech.

“I am Vox.”

And you are alive.

The Storyteller’s pencil was set aside and the book closed shut as the end page was filled. The creation of Vox was done with every good intention towards the balance of the Storyteller’s dimension and the protection of its inhabitants. While his abstract concepts were lost to many of the young Storytellers around, all of his knowledge and understanding of reality, creation, and underlying being has been passed on to his creation where he would be able to utilize it to its greatest extent. While he was unsure of how far Vox’s ability would extend outside of his own story, his power should stick with him wherever he goes and hopefully that would be enough to make a difference.

Lieo’s pocket dimension was a massive expanse, and consisted of appeared to be an endless library, all while covered in bees. Steady lines of robotic, metronomic hymns buzzing through the hallways in organized unison, along with random clumps of bees and the occasional swarm heading from one end to another. The library is active with life like a big city. The collection of books consisted much of his own stories, and even more, a recorded history of many of the published books written by other Storytellers throughout the years; each story readable. The books in the library, the ones that have been made by different authors, are unable to be manipulated unless the story is found within that particular teller’s pocket dimension. Having had an eternity, Lieo has had quite a bit of time reading various books written by other Storyteller’s and several upon several bookshelves that make up a whole portion of the library consists of his own works.

He had set down the book that held the knowledge of Vox’s creation onto a beautiful red wood desk placed in the center of a large circular plaza esque room with a stained glass dome ceiling above head that hangs down a crystalline chandelier lamp. Setting the palm of his hand upon the cover of the book Lieo concentrated his mind and made a tugging, almost beckoning motion with his hands. From within the book, Vox has been beckoned, his hand phasing through the book. With gentle firmness, Lieo reached out to hold his hand and progressively pulled the creation through the book and into his own world. At first, the paper man seemed to express a degree of surprise and fascination before regaining his poise.

“I bid thee greetings, my lord.” Vox said, bowing his head graciously.

Lieo dismissed his humbleness with a wave of his hand. “I am neither lord, nor your god as we are equal in our creation.” Lieo assured.

“Mark the extravagance! Whence ere have I come that has been so dull, that thou were to bring me to a place so alive?”

“It does not matter where you have come from, but that you are now here. We may yet join the company of others of my kind so that you may understand where you now are.”

“I dost imagine it is of rare occasion for thee, sooth?”

“Rare indeed.”

“Marry? Let us be off then. I’ll fain hark to thou, a wise man. Hence, we go!”

Of course they had every intention of going, and going to is what they had in mind. What the two of them did not anticipate, of course, was a rip – a rip in the very pocket dimension in which Lieo was all powerful in, but yet a rip even he could not seal up. An empty, swirling vortex of a vacuum threatened to consume all and everything within the realm until its endless body was satisfied. Out of self-preservation, Lieo dispersed his body into a fleeing swarm, buzzing away from the miniature black hole of a rip. Vox, however, was not so lucky as to possess such a skill, and as he endlessly fell into wormhole, slowly being ripped to shreds the rift sealed itself, stealing away the Storyteller’s own creation and only hope.

Wherever the rip had taken the young creation, who has only recently been birthed from a world with no color, the unfortunate Vox knew not. How sad must it be to be introduced into a colorful, live world before being grasped by an invisible hand and taken away? The paper man was spat out onto a cold, hard, metal floor that shone red. An insatiable ache rocked his body. How could that be? With a body with no nerves or skin, Vox couldn’t feel; neither pain nor warmth – was that pain in all its infamy?

He spent no time observing his surroundings, only concentrating to form his body back together. From what he could identify, his legs were five feet off, and random, tattered scraps of paper littered the ground around him. An easy fix. The paper risen into the air and plastered themselves onto the places of which they once were, and the leg molded neatly at the calf. Only then had Vox took note of his new environment, and it was then he wished he hadn’t. For it was then he learned that colors did not only bring light to life’s beauty, but as well as the hideous, atrocious evil that comes with it. The dark, steel grey floor glow a crimson red from the tainted sky, also reflecting off massive guns on what he could only decipher as acro-vehicular, an air ship of sorts. An air ship given a face like he, and it wore an esoteric mask. The whole ship appeared to be a massive battlefield, two small armies clashing together, projectiles being passes back and forth, whether it is small metal balls or big blue streaks of heat. Mass confusion.

The only thing that manages to drag Vox back into reality, the “him being in the middle of a battlefield” part, is a shadow bug that jumps onto his back, causing the paper man to struggle to throw it off. The perpetrator’s grip proves to be reliable, but when Vox grabs its wrist, he manages to fling the creature off of him. The shadow bug, predictably, lands neatly on its feet like a cat before throwing itself at Vox once more. He was prepared this time. A paintbrush appears from thin air and a black streak ribbons through the air as Vox spins about to avoid the blow, and gracefully paints a streak around the shadow bug’s neck. The brush disappeared, and with another spin, Vox tugs on the end of the streak causing the under end, the circle around the creature’s neck, to tighten. The paper man swings the creature over his head near the edge of the ship, and brings the end of the streak that he is holding to the edge of the ship where it stays, where it is followed by a sickening crack of the shadow bug’s neck.

Vox leaves the scene, leaving the creature hanged off the side of a ship with a painted noose, in hopes of figuring out where he now dwells. There is a war being waged, and he needs to figure out which side he’s fighting on.

LOCATION: Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris

Frollo

"And he shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!" I snarled, towering over the hunchback as he protected the gypsy vermin. He cowered in fear as I raised the sword I held in hand high above my head.

Unfortunately, that was all that the gargoyle I was standing on could take.

The hideous stone head cracked, causing me to lose my balance. I tripped, grabbing onto the bottom of the gargoyle. I hung on for dear life.

For a split second, I thought I saw the gargoyle's eyes glow, and its teeth bare, as if to tell me I was to be damned forever in Hell.

The gargoyle completely came off of the cathedral's wall. I cried out, and the gargoyle and I tumbled down toward the molten copper that had filled the streets of Paris.

As I fell, I prayed silently to God, for I had felt a twinge of remorse for all the sin I had committed. I had succumbed to the deathly act of lust, and I pleaded to God for a second chance.

"If there is any way I can bring myself back into favor, if there is a way to cleanse myself of sin, show me, God, Father, who art in Heaven!" I begged silently. My sword slipped out of my hand, and it fell into the molten copper, disintegrating as it fell.

A flash.

LOCATION: Gaston's Tower, Coruscant

Mickey Mouse

Through a portal, I saw fire. Flames licked through the tear in dimensions, and I saw a man tumble through the burning red ribbons.

At the same time, a man made of newspaper materialized and repaired himself, before whipping out a paint brush. "HEY! That's my job!" I cried out, pulling my own paintbrush out.

It only caused me minute annoyance, and I put my paintbrush away. I turned around and saw the man weeping. Upon a closer look, I saw that it was Claude Frollo! I pulled my brush out and pointed it at him.

He was muttering something under his breath. I leaned in for a closer look.

"...And I thank you, Lord, for granting me another chance to erase my sin. I swear upon my very soul that my unholy heart shall be cleansed of the dark feeling of lust, and shall become holy once again..."

He looked up at me, and murmured one word.

"Amen."

Frollo stood up. "I am here to atone for my sin," he said.

Gru

When Mickey and Sonic damaged Gaston's weak points, he became vulnerable to attack. When the sheer tidal wave of projectiles all crashed down upon the Frenchman, we totally thought he was done for.

"Knocked OVARRRR!" I whooped, laughing and pointing at where Gaston had stood.

But then, I was knocked back. I felt a pain in my gut. "Oooog!" I groaned, gripping my stomach and hopping around.

Gaston towered over me. Blue mist began to engulf the exposed sinews of his muscles, covering them back up with skin.

I could see the effects that the storm of projectiles had on Gaston's body. Parts of his skin were charred, with more gashes in his flesh exposed through his now-tattered clothing, especially on his hamstrings. One of his teeth were missing. "Really? That's all we did?!" I cried out. "Come ON!"

At least Mickey knew what to do, but Gaston was making it hard. The Frenchman took his gun and began to fire with abandon. Then he ran up for an uppercut to Grimlock, before landing in front of Sonic and beginning a flurry of punches so fast that even the blue blur had trouble dodging them all. "Come on! Step it up!" Sonic taunted, panting all the while.

But then, things took a turn for the worse.

The ship hanging above us, the Halberd, it opened fire.

Laser bolts began to rain down upon us, making the arena high above the tower even more perilous. The massive ship turned to the side, a large cannon mounted in front of a tower training both of its guns towards us. I saw the bottom barrel open up, revealing a laser beam that swept the field attempting to fry us.

Gaston took this opportunity to fight back again. He trained his gun on Captain Fordo and shot wildly, aiming with deadly accuracy. Then he turned around and slung a bow and arrow, releasing the shot towards Mickey. Mickey thinned the arrow out and its shadow passed harmlessly through him. Mickey shot paint thinner towards Gaston, but the Frenchman was too fast. He jumped out of the way. "No one catches on like Gaston!" he boasted, puffing up his chest with pride and closing his eyes.

This brief moment of hubris was all that Mickey needed. The cartoon mouse sprayed another jet of thinner on Gaston's arms right as the Frenchman had begun to flex his biceps. When Gaston opened his eyes again, he saw Sonic heading right toward him.

KA-BONG!

Gaston became vulnerable again. I pulled out my death ball ray. "NOW, PEOPLE! ATTAAAAACK!" I yelled, firing the death ball ray at Gaston.

LOCATION: Battleship Halberd Interior

Toad

"Geez, M.K., why'd you make this ship so hard to navigate?" I grumbled, trudging back after hitting another dead end.

"Well, there are multiple needs that we need to fulfill. There are many maintenance rooms, cooling rooms, saun--- er, well, heating rooms, communications rooms... "

I ignored him and saw a crack in the ceiling. "Heavy, gimme a boost, will you?"

"Da," the Russian man said, twisting his yarn form until he became a ladder. "Quick. This is a little bit full of pain. Mind you, I LIKE pain. But only if I serve it!"

I climbed up Heavy's ladder and pushed up on the lit crack. It was a floor panel. I slid it out of the way and pulled myself out of it.

Magolor followed suit. "How are you not flying off the ship?" I asked. "You're floating a foot off the ground!"

"Inertia," Magolor said simply.

I looked at the expansive deck that was strewn before us. Magolor and I stood next to a large orange cannon, and it was ACTIVE.

Meta Knight jumped out of the hole in the floor as well. He walked up to the cannon. "Ah, Combo Cannon," he sighed. "A beautiful ton of metal that can annihilate most things. One of the two prize cannons on the ship.

When the cannon turned around to fire a laser beam, Meta Knight quickly got onto the cannon's platform and took a panel off. "I've only got a few seconds to do this," he said, typing something into the cannon's panel.

However, a metal claw grabbed Meta Knight and hoisted him high into the air. "AUGH!" I cried, jumping back as the claw flailed about, swinging Meta Knight to and fro. It spun in the air before tossing the knight onto the deck of the ship. He skidded clear across the deck of the ship before coming to a halt.

Main Cannon #2
COMBO CANNON

"We have to deactivate that thing, don't we?" I called out to Meta Knight.

"Yes! Try to get onto the platform when the cannon turns to fire at the tower!" Meta Knight replied.

I nodded and ran towards the cannon. The claw saw me. A blur of metal streaked toward me, threatening to crush me in a vice. I leaped over the claw and landed on the arm itself. Running up the arm, I turned my head to see that it was doubling back over itself to chase me. I yelped and ran a bit faster, before finally landing on the turntable that the main cannon was on. The claw just caught up with me, but I jumped as if I were hitting a ? block and the claw was paralyzed.

"Fight off the claw until I can get over there and punch in the code!" Meta Knight called, spreading his wings and flying toward the cannon.

Sylux rolled to the side out of the way of Gaston's latest barrage, switching to the light beam as he took aim at the darkling infested shadow-man. Firing off his barrage of blasts, he circle-strafed around Gaston, trying to get some distance for a leap into the fray; charged by the speed-booster so as to allow him to deal maximum damage.

Fordo on the other hand, was not so lucky; his force powers managing to lower some of the force inherent in the incoming shot, but not enough to prevent him from going flying as the slug impacted his shoulder and sent him spiraling ass over teakettle. "Captain's hit! We need some damn back up!" One of the blue trimmed lieutenants shouted as he fired off his gatling blaster at Gaston.

A storm of a hundred blue bolts every second streamed out of the gatling weapon, a virtual avalanche of bright blue light that was added to by the devastating barrage thrown up by the other clone troopers, including one of the other heavy weapon users who had four HMG equivalents strapped onto his chest. But even with this added fire support, and the amount of damage poured out by the LAAT/i Gunship, this simply wasn't enough to finish the job.

Grimlock spun around in a circle, slashing his sword in a way that would hopefully bring it across Gaston's neck, followed by Tex rolling to the side; grabbing a flamethrower and letting loose a burning stream of napalm at the vile shadowling, but it still wasn't enough. Sylux charged up his light beam, preparing to unleash the sunburst. He poured thirty units of shots into the light beam, then added five missiles to the concoction.

With a shrieking whine, followed by the hiss of igniting air, a tongue of fire curled right out of the opening of his bladed arm-cannon. The orange fireball gave way to a burning white sphere of light energy, it's corona trimmed with the colours of the rainbow as flares of plasma licked out of it's sides. It was a miniature sun let loose from the Youth's arm cannon, and it was soon joined by eight more such suns fired out of Samuel's spider legs.

The Suns shot from the leg cannons spiraled towards the central orb, swirling into one star that barelled towards Gaston with the fury of a supernova in waiting. Powerful rays of light licked out of the miniature sun; now as wide as a tank is long; striking out towards gaston while the shining ball of radiance seemed to for a brief while; dispel the depressing darkness that swirled around coruscant.

And upon impact, this miniature star would go Supernova with ungodly amounts of force. "Eat it sucker!" Sylux shouted over the raging din of war and battle as the roars of weapons and the shrieks of the dying and the moans of the wounded swirled all around him. But having fought for so long; it was easy to shut it all out. It was easy to just focus on this one, massive, fucking, shot.

Sonic: Join in on the festivities.

As Sylux blasted him with light-beam bolts, Gaston put up his guard and tried to deflect the blasts, hissing as the Ing inside of him winced at the bursts of light. He used his blunderbuss as a baseball bat, but only managed to block a few shots until a blast knocked the gun out of his hand. I saw Fordo flying through the air, head-over-heels. "Gah! Fordo!" I cried, blasting off towards the falling captain and catching him in my arms before rolling down to dodge the incoming hail of blaster bolts.

Grimlock had to reach way down to try and get Gaston, but he managed to cut a gash straight through the Frenchman's stomach. While Tex's flamethrower ate at him, Sylux had begun to play chef with his weapons. If I had the Chaos Emeralds, I'd show the Destroyers who was boss, but for now, I just gotta let Sylux do his thing.

Suddenly, a searing shot of pure plasma arced through the air, jumping from particle to particle as the force of three Suns shrieked towards the Frenchman. Gaston turned and hissed, his form beginning to burn.

"COVER YOUR EYES!!!" Mickey cried. Everybody on the field simultaneously shielded their faces from the blast.

VA-POOM!

When I opened my eyes back up, every single Ing-possessed goonie on the platform was gone. I noticed that the antlers were gone as well. I heard a groan, and the entire platform shook. "Uh-oh! SO not cool!" I yelped, stumbling as the platform creaked and swayed, the magnetic links holding it in between the stubs of the antlers wavering and disappearing. The entire thing tilted hard to the left, causing a flurry of vehicles, dead bodies, fallen weapons, and rubble to race towards me. "Grab on! We're doing this Sonic-style!" I shouted, grabbing Gru, Mickey, and that old guy while Jenny activated her jets and blasted into the air.

I ran up the platform, dodging debris that fell towards me. A massive wall of tanks was careening down the slope, but a conveniently-placed pile of scrap allowed me to leap atop it and over the wall, my passengers in tow. "Grab on tight, guys, it's one bumpy ride!" I shouted.

"How are you even carrying us?!" Gru cried.

"Don't question it, you'll jinx me!"

As soon as I said that, an arch made of rubble swept right over my head. "That was a close one!" I shouted over the whistling of wind in my ears. "Hold on! We're speeding up!"

I poured on the speed, and a sonicboom crashed across the platform, destroying most of the obstacles in my path. I soon hit the edge of the platform, and leapt across the city skyline. "WHOAAAAAA!" I shouted.

I dove toward the top of a building and crashed through the roof. I went down three floors before finally coming to a stop.

Mickey rubbed his head. "Didja have to do that?" he groaned.

"Sorta. I'm hoping those other guys made it out," I replied.

Suddenly, a dark purple shape crashed through the window and slammed into me, knocking me into a column. "Ow! That was uncalled for!" I cried.

"NO ONE... HURGLE... ROAAAGH!" snarled an inhuman, but vaguely familiar, voice. I saw the purple shape materializing in front of the four of us. It coalesced into a human form, but only for a few seconds. As blue mist began to swirl around it, the muscle mass of its arms bulked up significantly. Its giant arms continually grew, tore, then grew again, as veins popped on its forearms and biceps. The figure's back hunched over as its shoulders exploded, with black spikes tearing through the cartoon flesh. Giant hands sharpened into cruel claws as the figure's face materialized into existence, only for its lower jaw to explode off of it and reveal dark purple sparks coming from its throat. One of the foul creature's eyes were blue, and the other was blood red, throbbing with anger. Three long, black tentacles grew from the creature's ponytailed hair, curling towards us like thin, nasty snakes. All of the changes thus far happened in the upper body; it was the lower body's turn to transform. As the beast stood upright, one could see its already bulky abdomen extending as spikes exploded from its backbone. Meanwhile, its hefty hamstrings were ripping apart and forming back together at the same intervals as the creature's biceps, gaining mass through each recombination of its muscle mass. How the monster's boots managed to stay on is beyond me.

"I can't believe that was Gaston," Mickey said, gaping at the monster before us. It was now the size of a truck.

I heard the old guy behind us mumbling again. "Is this my eternal punishment? The pain I will suffer endlessly in the Devil's inferno?"

"Come on, guys, we can take this guy down!" I shouted. "I'd come up with a witty little insult for this guy, but all my ideas involve swear words, so let's just cut to the chase!"

Sonic

(Appropriate Listening: Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance; Le Sanctuaire

The Gaston beast barreled toward me. "C'mon, step it---OOF!" I crashed into a wall as he swiped his enormous hand into my body. I rubbed my head. "Alright. I was planning to go easy this time, but the kid gloves are comin' off!"

I looked at my gloved hands. "Well, figuratively. HAH!" I went into a Sonic Spin, then performed a homing attack on Gaston's arms. "Um, it's not working!" I shouted, before Gaston grabbed me and hurled me onto the floor. Gaston roared.

"Geez, and HE wanted to kill the beast," Mickey muttered, before aiming his paintbrush at Gaston and firing a stream of paint thinner. Black steam poured off of Gaston's bulky body as the monster within screeched. Jenny then opened fire with a laser pistol embedded in her forearm. She zapped Gaston and he staggered backward. I then went into another homing attack, and bashed Gaston upside his head as soon as Mickey had dissolved it.

I bounced off, and I caught a glimpse of Gaston's exposed head. Where his eyes should be were two glowing red orbs that shimmered as if they were flames inside of his eye sockets. "Disgusting," I remarked, after spinning to a halt next to Mickey.

Gru aimed his freeze ray at the ground at Gaston's feet, and the beast was stuck in place. "It'll only work for a few seconds! Call for backup!" he shouted.

Jenny called. "Hey, Sylux, how fast can you haul your guys over here? Gaston's turned into a giant freak, and we don't think we can hold him off--- AHH!"

Gaston had broken free and headbutted Jenny. She fell down a staircase and crashed into an elevator door. I could hear that her radio had gone dead; static emitted from the stairwell that she had fallen into.

"Alright, playtime's over!" I shouted, jumping into another Sonic Spin and bashing into Gaston's chest. The best I could do was knock him back a little, as his skin had reappeared. "Geez, this guy turned his skin into armor. He's, like, invincible!"

Mickey shot another stream of thinner at Gaston, and his skin had begun to dissolve again, revealing the smoky dark purple flesh. Gaston rolled into a ball and began to spin until he was a purplish-black blur. "Hey! I copyrighted that move!" I yelled, before going into my own trademark spin. We crashed against each other; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't match my speed. Slowly, I began to push him back. Meanwhile, Gru had taken out his death ball ray and was charging it up. "Now, Gru!" I called, letting go and watching Gaston smash into a wall. Gru fired, and an explosion rocked the building. "Wh-whoa!" I cried.

The building groaned. I could hear support beams creaking and snapping. Electrical cables whipped out and sparked, before going dead. The lights flickered, and the only illumination came from the lights of Gru's weapon and the dimly lit orbs in Gaston's skull. The skyscraper was tipping over.

I ran down to grab Jenny. I shook her. "Wake up!" I cried.

She didn't answer, so I grabbed one of the exposed power cords and jammed it into her face. Electricity surged through her and a small explosion knocked me into the staircase. Jenny's eyes shot open, glowing an electrical blue, before they died down. She lumbered towards me. "Sonic?" she mumbled.

"Jenny, the building's gonna collapse. We've gotta blow this joint!"

Suddenly, I heard a crash.

We were 45 degrees tipped over.

"Gaston's still up there with Mickey and Gru!" I realized, grabbing Jenny and dashing up the staircase.

Sure enough, Gaston had Mickey and Gru cornered. "Hey! Ugly!" I yelled. Gaston turned around.

I waggled my index finger. "Y'know, they don't appreciate it when you do that."

Gaston roared and charged. "You're too slow!" I taunted, stepping out of the way as Gaston crashed into the floor behind me. "Wanna try again?"

Gaston slipped and tripped on a table before crashing into the wall I was standing on. "Thought so," I jeered.

But then Gaston swiped his arm at me and knocked me into a wall. I groaned. My vision was dimming. "Didn't see that coming..." I mumbled....

((Does Jester plan on posting soon?))

((...No clue.))

((I'll wait on him until Friday, mkay?))

((Oooh I got an idea for more villains, ever heard of the Reapers?))

((Nope.))

LOCATION: Mushroom Kingdom

Rosalina

Wiggler wrestled with his shadowy doppelganger while Magnus clashed steel with his evil clone. "Switch opponents!" he yelled.

"Why?!" I cried.

"Just do it! Rotate to the left!" Magnus ordered.

We shifted opponents counterclockwise. I was now facing Magnus's clone. "Oh, EXCELLENT idea, Magnus," I grumbled as the shadowy clone lifted its sword to smite me.

Wiggler came to my rescue and thwacked Shadow Magnus on the head with a baseball bat, allowing me to repel the doppelganger with a shock of dark energy, before warping the gravity around it and hurling it far away. As the clone flew, it dissipated into Shadow Bugs.

Magnus was easily able to cleave Shadow Wiggler in two, but Wiggler's rush to aid me gave shadow me an opening and my clone warped gravity around us. A distorted cackle echoed from my clone. I lifted my arm and warped dark matter above it. All of a sudden, we dropped to the ground and my clone found itself flying though the air. I released my grip on the dark matter, and Wiggler spat on the ground, hefting his bat. The large yellow caterpillar wound up, and as the clone fell, he swung.

I heard a horrible crunching noise. I cringed, and then I looked up to see a dissipating figure hurtling through the air. I wiped the sweat from my brow. Wiggler and Magnus fist-bumped each other. I did not know it was possible for a caterpillar and a mercenary to be "bros."

I thought our troubles were about over and we could proceed to Gaol's stronghold, but fate had else in store for our band.

The sky began to glow pink as runes circled through the air. Light flashed, and an explosion rocked the earth beneath where we stood. A chasm was opening beneath my feet. I stepped back just as a jet of flame erupted from the crack. Fire spewed into the air, and trees began to catch fire. We formed a circle and eyed the sky warily.

Figures began to fall from the sky. I saw several soldiers clad in Orange Star uniforms, bag-headed undead monsters, and a Dalek fall out of the glowing ring. All of them had glowing pink eyes, and breathed out smoke. Their bodies seemed to be rotting; the Dalek's armor was corroded and it was missing its whisk-shaped cannon. The bag-headed monsters landed on the ground with a splat and re-formed, lurching toward us. The Orange Star soldiers also began to lumber toward us. Each of them wore a fearsome mask with jagged teeth and stitches running up and down their cheeks. The soulless pink glow emanated from the masks' eye sockets. The Dalek's eye stalk also glowed pink instead of the usual blue. The soldiers trained their guns and the Dalek let out a gurgling moan: "AAARRRRGHHH... EX---EX---EX-TER-MI--...ARRRGH!"

Meanwhile, a human figure leapt out of the portal and slashed through a line of Orange Star soldiers with a sword. The figure wore a mask with several slits hiding its eyes, and it had dark blue hair. A blue cape trailed from its collar, and the sword it wielded had a large hole at the base of the blade. The person ran toward the undead monsters and cleaved off their heads, before turning to face an Orange Star mech unit. The mech unit fired a bazooka shell at the person; the shell was deflected, and the Orange Star soldier was lifeless on the ground.

The Dalek slowly inched toward our little triangle. "Stay calm," I urged, seeing the tense look on Wiggler's face. Wiggler nodded and brandished his bat. When a soldier rushed up to us with a gun in his hand, Wiggler clubbed him and trampled the body. A final noxious cloud of purple gas oozed from the monster's mouth before it dissolved into a dark mist.

I turned to face the Dalek while Magnus, Wiggler, and the mysterious third person were fighting off the Orange Star lookalikes. The Dalek emitted the same purple fumes from its vents. It lurched toward me with its plunger arm flailing about. I raised my arm and threw its gravity out of whack by forming an orbiting system of small dark matter bodies next to the Dalek. It began to tip over, and the mysterious person rushed it with the sword. The person slashed, and the Dalek tipped completely over. Normally, the Dalek would have been invincible to these blows, but apparently, the corrosion also damaged the internal mechanisms of its armor, disabling the force field and weakening the armor. Magnus, with one swift smash from his large blade, penetrated the Dalek's armor and it let out a screeching, un-Dalek-like hiss. The armor belched out the purple gas from the tear that Magnus created.

We noted that there was no longer any threat. The pink runes had disappeared from the sky. I turned to face the person. "Who are you?" I asked. "Where did you come from?"

"You may call me Marth," the person said. "As for where I hail from, I cannot say."

"Why not?" Magnus asked gruffly.

Marth looked away. "It's difficult to understand. My world was ravaged by these creatures. They are called the Risen."

"Because they rose from the dead?" Magnus inquired.

"Yes," Marth replied. "But above all was a terrible creature, a monstrous earth dragon--"

"Dragons. Why is it always dragons?" Magnus grumbled.

"Magnus, let him speak," I chided.

Marth nodded. "The dragon is who destroyed my world. I have come to prevent that fate from happening."

"You realize that time is not exactly linear. I would explain, but your head will probably explode. Continue," I interrupted.

"As such," Marth continued, "I know all that will happen up to this point. I don't know how, but my time and this spacial anomaly are connected. I can see events before they happen."

"You see the future," Magnus said. "Huh. What're the lottery numbers---"

Marth turned his head. I assumed he was glaring.

"One of your friends, one of the Champions of this spacial flux... they are set to betray you."

"Wait, how do we know that you're not just telling this to create infighting within our faction?" Magnus interrogated. "For all we know, you could be one of Gaol's---"

"If I were one of the Destroyers," Marth said, "then I would have killed you long ago, and would have told the larger group of the traitor."

"How can we trust you?" I asked.

"You have my word. I shan't betray you, but somebody else will. However, whoever it is, he or she is not in this small group."

All three of us breathed a sigh of relief.

"If you truly are on our side, then---"

I turned and Marth was gone.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How do we know we can trust that guy?" Magnus asked. "We just met him."

Wiggler shrugged.

We sat around a campfire, sitting on burned tree stumps. "Whoever Marth is, we can be sure that he'll be back. The question is whether those Risen will return as well," I said. Wiggler had a sour face. "I know, they are not the best guests to an interdimensional tournament that could potentially destroy the space-time continuum and plunge the Omniverse into complete chaos. Unfortunately, we will have to deal with them. I bet that there are more Risen than those that accompanied Marth through the portal in the sky."

We sat in silence.

"So," Magnus said, breaking the silence. "Who's hungry?"

Wiggler placed a hand on one of his stomachs and whimpered.

I looked around and sighed. Most of the trees were dead. The fire we had was made of whatever wood had not burned in the fire. "Hungry for leaf flambe?" Magnus joked.

Wiggler sighed, sticking his large nose in the air and sniffing. He hung his head in disappointment.

"Try this," I said, handing Wiggler a glowing, spiked crystalline object.

Wiggler hungrily stuffed it into his mouth and chewed. It made crumbling, crunching noises as Wiggler crushed the hard crystal with his teeth. His eyes lit up. "It's called a Star Bit. They taste a little bit like honey," I said to him. The caterpillar beamed. Meanwhile, Magnus was chewing away at a chunk of meat. "Magnus, where did you get that?" I asked. Everything in this forest probably burned to death, and even then, Koopas were not exactly Mushroom Kingdom delicacies.

"I keep spare stores just in case I'm on a long job," he replied.

"How do you carry around that entire... never mind," I replied, popping a Star Bit into my mouth. It brought back comforting memories of a home in the stars, the home I shared with a small star child long ago. A tear ran down my cheek.

"You cryin'?" Magnus asked.

I wiped the tear. "Just a shadow of the past," I replied, before continuing to eat in silence.

(Short but I need to start writing shortish posts if I want to be able to give people room to act)

"We need more extreme measures, like...way more extreme!" Sylux shouted as he fired off a three shot burst of his combi-beam. "Oh like what? Talk him to death?" Fordo growled. fingers clicking away at his pistol's triggers with dizzying speed. "Wait..." Grimlock said, rubbing his chin.

"Oh no, I know what you're thinking and it's stupid." Tex said, immediately scowling in anticipation of the idea. "Heh, it's not stupid, it's just...extreme." Grimlock beamed as he thought about it. He then sent an IM to the rest of the team. "Get ready to pull back, I'm sending a high pitched screech to Godzilla." the message declared as Grimlock rushed forward to bring down a burning overhead sweep onto Gaston before withdrawing.

Then grimlock's audio casters began letting out an ungodly noise only audible to those with hearing ranges similar to birds. Some distance away, the colossal head of Godzilla swiveled towards the noise, a scowl forming on his face as he began to advance towards the source of the unpleasantry.

"Alright everyone, pull back." Grimlock commanded as he looked to the wall and started cutting an escape route, slicing a rectangle out of the wall and then cutting it open, a cloud of Necron scarabs forming an impropatou staircase down. "Come on, go, go, go! You don't want to be here when the big G flips out!" Grimlock ordered, rushing down the scarab cloud as Godzilla's roar became audible.

Angry and furious, Godzilla set his sights on the tower, fully intending to level it now that it had received the signal to attack from Grimlock. The destroyers always angered Godzilla, but this signal said that this was an especially evil Destroyer in need of vaporization.

His spines began to glow as energy flowed into them as he brought the tower into his sights. A burning inferno built up in his mouth as orange power swirled within. He opened up his jaw, reared back ever so slightly, then threw his head forward to let the fiery lance of nuclear fury cast itself forward.

Gru

Gaston knocked out Sonic. Things were looking pretty bad.

"Plan B, I'll grab the hedgehog and we'll ditch," I said to Mickey.

"What about Frollo?" the mouse asked. "He's busy mopin' in the corner while Gaston's rampaging!"

"RROOOOAAAARRRR!" Gaston roared.

I fired a freeze ray bolt at Gaston. "Freeze ray!" I yelled.

Gaston countered with a beer-powered fire breath. "What? Since when could he do that?" I asked.

"Try announcing your weapons AFTER you fire them," Mickey replied.

Jenny looked out the window. "Um, guys, hate to pressure you, but Godzilla just FIRED HIS ATOMIC BREATH AT THE BUILDING."

"Gee, talk about overkill," Mickey said.

"DUCK AND COVER!" I yelled, diving on the ground. A column of pure plasma ripped straight through the building's walls, one out the other.

Gaston was badly burned, his Toon skin seared. The monster writhed in agony.

"Ha! That's what you--- oh," I started, before the building collapsed.

"NOT AGAAAAAAAAIN!" I cried.

The building fell.

One of the rocks hit Sonic in the head and he sat up. "Huh? Whazzat? OH MY GOSH THE BUILDING IS FALLING APART! This calls for Super Sonic speed!" He quickly scooped Mickey and me up and leapt from debris chunk to debris chunk. Jenny picked up Frollo and rocketed after us.

We fell for a long time.

CRASH!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toad



The claw arced toward me again. I grabbed onto the segmented arm and started rodeoing on it. "Yeehaw! Yippie-ki-yi-ay!" The claw whipped about, attempting to knock me off, but I kept bashing on the claw. It arced backward and grabbed me by the pants. I was hurled into the Halberd's deck. "You asked for it!" I reached into my spore case and whipped out a mushroom hammer. "This thing's always a hit!"

I ran to the grabber claw and swung upward. The claw whipped backward and snaked around to try to get at me. I always smashed the hammer in front of the claw, making it turn around in the other direction.

The claw was getting fed up. It threw a bomb at me and I knocked it over the edge with my hammer. The sizzling of the bomb's fuse got quieter as it fell to the ground of Coruscant.

I heard a dull explosion and a few screams. "Oh, oops," I said. I leaned over the edge. "SORRY!" I yelled.

That gave the claw an opening. It picked me up by the pants and flailed around. I dropped my hammer and it fell over the edge. "Oh, !?%#@!" I swore. The claw then tossed me over the edge. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed.

"I'll save you, Toad!" Magolor yelled, dashing off the Halberd and grabbing me in his floating arms. He sprinted to keep up with the Halberd, and the thing was moving FAST.

"Tiny baby mushroom man and floating alien need saving!" Heavy yelled, turning his yarn arms into whips and lashing us together. He yanked. "EEEYAAAAAHHHHHHH!" the Russian man roared.

Mario came out and pulled on Heavy. Together, they tried to save us as quickly as they could. Every time the cannon would get close, Mario would pelt it with a fireball. Heavy tugged as hard as he could, and Magolor raced quickly back to the deck of the Halberd. We were making big progress. Magolor grabbed the Halberd's bat wing and clawed his way across the tarpaulin stretched between the frame of the wing.

"Almost there!" Magolor grunted, leaping off the wing and continuing to float to the ship.

He grabbed a turret and set me down. I lost my balance and almost fell over the edge again. Magolor caught me. "NEVER AGAIN," he said indignantly.

We'd come just in time. The claw reached over to pluck Mario by the cape. Mario untied the cape and ripped it from the claw's grasp, before leaping in front of it and waving it like a matador.

The laser fired at him, and Mario jumped out of the way.

I heard an electrical zap. "BE CAREFUL WITH THAT!" I heard Meta Knight yell from across the deck.

"Destroyer down, repeat destroyer down." Someone broadcasted into the encrypted channel as news of other forts falling to champion forces began to spread. "Alright we've made an opening, now to send an all clear signal to the fleet to begin the liberation of coruscant." Fordo said to the group over the comms as he was carried away by a gunship.

"Roger that, broadcasting all clear signal from captured forts..." An American soldier's voice responded as the mast of one of the captured forts began to rise, deploying panels and antennae as it began to broadcast a superluminal signal deep into space. In the distant void of space, the signal hit countless ships waiting in secret some distance away from the coruscant system, and the Tau admiral in command of the liberation fleet soon sprung to attention as he prepared to message his troops.



"Fellow warriors of our cause, today we strike a blow against this deep rooted infestation in this universe. For over two years we have fought and stood beside one another as brothers and sisters in arms. For years we have been fighting defensively over this universe, but no more. Now we strike back. For over a year we have heard the cries of the destroyers. But now let us show them our roars." Shas'O'Ra'Lai, commander of the fleet broadcasted.

"We come from so many corners of the Omniverse. With so many differing ideaologies and beliefs. But we stand united in the face of the threat the Emperor Ing and his minions pose. We stand as one against the forces of Chaos. We stood as one against the villainy of Nemesis Prime. We were as one when we brought Dark Samus to her defeat. We fought as one against the Void. And now I ask that you once again show this unity." He went on, his stirring voice weaving a dramatic web to the battle readied troopers.

"Our foe is merciless. Our foe has bounced back from seeming destruction at least three times. The destroyers, united by their dreams of tyranny and oblivion, have rallied to oppress all realities. Even now our homes and families languish under the Ing's yoke. But now, we shall strike against this yoke. Now we will show them why our mercy and compassion does not make us weak, that it makes us stronger. We are not fighting for loot or glory, we are fighting for freedom and survival. And that is why we shall win." Ra'lai assured his troops as their cheers of approval reached a fervor pitch, the Tau having long gotten used to the others under the banner of the coalition.

"Each of you brings something to our alliance. You all have your skills and weaknesses. But through the power of cooperation we have formed a seamless body. On our own, we were great, but together, we are unbeatable. Remember this warriors of all that is good. Remember that which lies at stake. Be strong brave soldiers, be as one and victory will come! It must come! For as long as any of us draw breath we shall fight! We shall fight and we shall win! Onward brave soldiers! To war against the darkness!" He concluded, the cheering becoming overwhelming as the ships began to depart into superluminal space.

The very fabric of hyperspace stretched and strained as thousands of holes were punched into it by countless ships jumping into superluminal speeds. A ripple distortion of a thousand thousand capital ships spread outwards across hyperspace, the very fabric of the dimension being compressed by the sheer mass of objects moving through it.

"Fleets en route, good work Beta group." A congratulatory message went out from Grimlock as the distortions began to scrunch more and more up as the fleet got closer and closer. "Alright, once the fleet arrives, we make our course for the Jedi temple and the Senate. The Temple will contain all sorts of research projects you need to deep six, the Senate building has old xykon himself. Those of you in the halberd, support the fleet as it arrives. You all get what I'm saying?" Grimlock growled into his comms as he looked skywards.



And then finally, validation! The dark sky exploded into a beautiful constellation of countless ships exiting superluminal dimensions. Pulses of countless colors strobed as these ships decelerated to sublight speeds, green, blues, whites, purples, oranges. Some of the lights were small, while some of the supernova like bursts in the heavens were like new suns being born.

For thirty seconds the popcorn like pulses of lights kept on going at hundreds per second before the full liberation fleet had finally arrived. Ships of all sizes, from tiny X-wings to the fearsome Trypticon drifted into their positions. Tyranid hive ships, Darkbringer vessels, Champion craft all swarmed the heavens above coruscant as the Destroyer armada began to turn in reaction to the sudden arrival of this colossal fleet.

"I hope we didn't miss the party." Crackled in Shas'O'Ra'Lai from his Commlinks, messaging the champions and darkbringers below from the bridge of his Or'es El'leath Battleship. "I've patched in a new ability into your comms. You can now call in orbital artillery from the ships above, this should prove most useful in dealing with heavier opponents. Oh, and those reinforcements you requested? Take a look up." The Tau fire caste commander reported as drop pods, shuttles, and teleporters in their multitudes started spamming troops downwards.

The skies choked with aircraft as they sweeped through the air above coruscant, engaged in a furious war for the heavens with the destroyer's flying elements while soldiers, vehicles, and superheavies thundered across the ground. "Heheh, Ra'lai you magnificent bastard." Grimlock chortled over the commlinks as Cybran, CORE, and UEF commanders began to touch down, the massive command units starting to lay the foundations of unit factories that were already beginning to churn out massive machines of war.

Tau firewarriors dropped forth from an Orca dropship in front of Supersonic as they took positions. "Greetings commanders, the eleventh combined army is at your disposal." The White helmeted Crisis suit mounted commander reported with a somewhat stiff salute as more reinforcements began to rain down. "Your orders?" They asked as Fordo and co were dropped off.

Sonic

Fordo approached me. I cocked my head. "Uhhh... I guess we should go around and wipe out the bad guys in the city and try to free the planet," I said. "Awright... I'm heading toward the Jedi Temple, so... Keep up!"

I revved up and sped off.

(Appropriate Listening: Sonic Generations: Crisis City (Modern) )

I wall-kicked off of the buildings' walls and sped across roofs. Several Destroyer gunships turned their turrets dramatically and began to fire. Skyscrapers began to crumble around me. I jumped on the debris, checking back to make sure the Champion fleet was following. I then rolled into a Sonic Spin and shot through an air vent. I popped out inside of an apartment building and proceeded to shoot through the hallways. I heard the wall crumble behind me, and a Destroyer truck began to chase after me in the middle of the hallway. I jumped down the stairs, hoping the truck would crash out the window.

It did. I laughed to myself before speeding up again.

GUESS WHAT. THE TRUCK HAD ROCKET JETS. IT CRASHED THROUGH THE WALL IN FRONT OF ME.

The truck stopped, so I had no choice but to jump on top of it. I let the truck pass underfoot before jumping out the window. I ran down the wall and leaped off an awning. Three missiles streaked toward me, threatening to blow me up. I smirked and jumped on them, running along their sleek metal hides. I then spun and performed Homing Attacks on a series of heat-seeking missiles.

Several of the Underworld creatures began to chase me. A bunch of floating eyeballs streaked at me from all sides. I just went into a spin and they dispersed.

A huge jet of flame arced past me. "It's Pyroblaster time!" it boomed.

Pyrrhon appeared and blasted a huge jet of fire at a fleet of incoming Destroyers. But then, he was tackled by a bunch of flying acorns. I spin-dashed through the air, but I was interrupted by a thunderbolt.

I fell like a stone toward the ground. I tried to regain balance and dove headfirst toward the ground.

Below me, Phosphora appeared and began to throw lightning at me. "Yo! Tryin' to liberate a planet here!" I yelled.

I careened through the sky, dodging the thunderbolts before leaning toward a wall and continuing to run. I sped down the wall and caught up with Kate, who was flying around in the flying car. I landed on the hood, and the car honked with indignation. Phosphora began to chase us, while Pyrrhon began to chase her, shooting flames toward her. The car took a nosedive and a bolt of lightning arced over us. The car barrel-rolled to the left and a column of flame that had missed Phosphora streaked past us.

However, it didn't take long for the Destroyers to start shooting at all four of us. Phosphora and Pyrrhon each shot their respective element at the fleet. "Here's the fare," I told Kate, giving her a Ring. Then I jumped off the car and landed on the ground. I turned left and right. "Looks all clear to me," I said.

I shot off and met up with the mole in the train. "Yo! Max!" I said. "Gotta speed up if we wanna free the planet faster!" I shoved on the train's rear car, before spinning my legs, while Max fired up the diesel engine. The train's engines flared, and suddenly we were off. I gave the train a final push before leaping into the minecart.

The train skidded across the ground of Coruscant as civilian speeders crashed to the ground, their occupants screaming after landing with parachutes. We drilled through the earth. The Mole Train's murky gas lamps lit and it careened through the tunnel we were making. Dirt got all over my face, so I slunk into the mine cart.

The train burst out of the ground like a dolphin, sending soil and gravel everywhere. The train ran up an arch. I leapt out and held onto the cart to keep the train stable. As we hit the arch's apex, I caught a glimpse of the enormous Jedi Temple. It was shrouded in purple clouds. "That's always a bad sign. Full steam ahead, Max!" I yelled, leaping back into the cart as the train reached a ledge that connected to the arch.

[S]Volkov: Lead the Combined army unto glory!



Lighting his pipe, the Cyborg field marshall of the Soviet Union looked out to the battlefield, his faithful cyborg dog Chitzkoi loyally at his side. "You heard Sonic comrades, let us take this temple." He said with a smirk, cybernetics whirring beneath his skin as his personal Red Guard's army was dropped off onto the streets of coruscant. "Forward comrades! Unto battle!" Volkov commanded, hopping into the hatch of his personal apocalypse tank and driving it forward through the streets of coruscant to follow Sonic and his train.

The thundrous roar of advancing Soviet, GDI, Chinese, Ork, Allied, UEF, American, and Imperial tanks , the skittering of Cybran, Protectorate, Tyranid, Brotherhood of steel, Prospitan, NCR, Flood, and Zerg legs, and the humming of the anti-gravity engines of the Tau, Republic, Cybertronians, Galactic Federation, CIS, Necron, Sangheili and Eldar filled the streets while in the skies above, strike craft and jet pack equipped troopers took to the skies to engage in a deadly duel for aerial supremacy.

Before them was a destroyer force, dug in, determined to fight to the bitter end, and reinforced with some of the newest armies that pledged themselves to the Emperor Ing such as the Forerunners and their sentinels and prometheans, the Helghan, Reaper Husks, Battle Los Angeles aliens, Chitauri, and the Hierarchy. Volkov had his cyborg eyes focus on the enemies to see what forces they had more clearly.

Ing, Dersites, Forerunners, Covenant loyalists, Husks, BLAAs, Chitauri, Space Pirates, Galactic Empire, Yuuzhan Vong, Aeon, Hierarchy, Seraphim, Yuri, Drudge, Chaos, Malgus and Primaris Decepticons, some remnants of the dead xenoverse cybertronians, ARM, the undead, Skaven, Hrud, Slaugth, Rak'Gol, Helghan, Heartless, Nazis, Nod, the Japanese, the GLA, the Scrin, the Enclave, Caesar's Legion, X-parasites, Dark splinter echoes, Shen's wolves, Dersites, Underlings, Alternians, Doom Demons, Strogg, Bugs, Primids, why just about everything really!

Their numbers were probably virtually limitless, they had time to dig in, they had all sorts of vile and blasphemous powers, this was terrible terrain for an armored assault, and many of them were veterans of aeons of constant war. In other words, they were absolutely and utterly fucked now that Volkov was going to grind them into ash beneath the fury of the people's armies. "Gunner, Chaos Predator tank thirty six degrees to your left, Destructor pattern. Fire two NEAT* rounds." Volkov commanded.

*Nuclear explosive anti-tank.

"Da comrade marshall!" The gunner enthusiastically replied before two small nuclear blasts followed up by the magnetic fields of a rail gun propelled two nuclear explosive tipped warheads as heavy as a man out of the twin barrels of Volkov's command tank. The explosives surrounded a special rod that let the explosions project a molten stream of metal and a powerful laser upon impact without causing enough collateral damage to flatten the entire area.

Before the Predator could even fire off it's autocannons and heavy bolters, it's turret was ripped clean off by the nuclear shell while the second speared right through it's frontal armor plate and reduced it's crew into boiling atoms. "Helldrake at five o'clock, fire tusk missiles!" Volkov commanded as he saw one of the aptly named daemon possessed dragon shaped machines swoop down from the skies, letting loose withering barrages from it's four automatic 90mm cannons and firing off a goust of warp flame from it's mouth.

Many of the foot slogging soldiers accompanying the armored push were instantly fried by the warp fire, while a Leman Russ tank behind Volkov exploded in a fireball as the autocannon rounds punched through it, but a series of missiles from Volkov's tank streaked out and slammed into the wings of the Drake, sending it spiraling into the ground before exploding in a multicoloured goust of warp fire. When an entire wing of helldrakes attempted to repeat this trick, a series of MiGs flew over head, popped out a barrage of missiles, and pulled to the side; ripping apart the mechanical dragons and sending them all plummeting back down to earth.

"Ing possessed troopers in the building to the left, torch it!" He ordered, and no sooner had he said it did the entire building leap up in flames as imperial flame throwers consumed it, the ing inside dying screaming as they were exposed to the bright light of the flames while the heat incinerated their hosts. "Obelisks, get some artillery on them!" Volkov commanded as his Tank simply ran over and crushed a japanese Tsunami tank beneath it's tracks while he shot off the head of a decepticon with his arm cannon.

A series of shells and rockets slammed into the area in front of him, the whistling and roaring of their descent following the cataclysmic noise of their impact, reducing the entire area in front of him into nothing but ash and rubble, his tanks and vehicles continued to push forward even as the surviving destroyers popped out once the initial thirty second bombardment was finished. A series of hell hound flamethrower tanks rolled forward and gleefully doused the destroyers in burning promethium that flushed down into their hiding holes and forced them out of their cover.

"Infantry, finish them!" He ordered as his tank smashed through a barricade and violently exploded a Helghan missile tank with another volley of nuclear shells. And as soon as he gave the order, infantry disembarked from their transports or leaped off the sides of their tanks, or if they were fast and hardy enough, simply moved up from their positions besides the vehicles.

"Darkness for the dark emperor!" A possessed traitor guardsmen gurgled out, firing DASERS out from his dasgun rapidly, cutting down two soviet conscripts before a third shot him up with his Ak-47 and then jammed his bayonet into the hideously mutated darkling's throat. "For mother Russia!" The conscript retorted before blowing off the darkling's neck with a single bullet.

A Chitauri leapt down from it's sky chariot transport, only for a disembarking Space Marine to grab it by the throat and break it in half over his knee as the two and a half meter tall power armor clad giant placed four bolt shells cleanly into the chest of a covenant brute major, rupturing his shields and power armor before turning his body into a fine mist. A carefully lobbed frag grenade then rewarded him with the severed body parts of about a half dozen hrud.

A series of blaster bolts from an advancing clone trooper platoon laid into a mass of Helghan troopers, ripping away at their armor and blasting holes into them before sending their steaming bodies hurtling to the ground as they charged forth, one trooper smacking down a BLAA with the butt of his rifle before stomping on it's chest to kill it.

A blockade of drudge drones letting loose with their strike rifles attempted to stop the advance, but the wall they trusted to hide them from flanking assaults gave way to reveal Volkov's command tank whose well over a hundred ton body soon crushed the drones into a gorey orange paste with a very satisfying "splat!" while a brace of tusk missiles arced out from it's revolver launchers, followed by shotgun blasts of flechettes from it's ARENA anti-missile systems that mulched the bodies of a dozen Hierarchy lost ones while the missiles reduced a score of shale imps into nothing but grist.

"The temple is ahead! Press forward soldiers!' Volkov ordered as his Tank rotated it's turret, firing off it's many machine guns and autocannons before the deafening roar of his twin nuclear cannons sounded once again, putting holes into an incoming Dark Eldar reaver which was so thinly armored the shells didn't even get to detonate, instead passing through to hit an AT-AT's legs and vaporize right through them, sending the walker falling to the ground as the reaver spun out of control and crashed right into a building with a sickening crunch.

Chitzkoi leaped out of the tank and onto the top of a Chaos warhound titan, scratching and clawing at it's adamantium armor before ripping it's way inside and finding some very surprised corrupted Princeps and Moderati. Though the screams from within the warhound titan probably meant that their surprise was short lived before Chitzkoi tore it's way out of the twenty meter walker and into the middle of some space pirates, letting the machine explode into a brilliant mushroom cloud that incinerated more of the light sensitive ing behind it.

The Flood that came with the Champions raced with the ing and the undead to possess or corrupt dead bodies or infect the living to turn them into combat forms while it's pure forms advanced with their larger Tyranid and Zerg bretheren, Tyranid controlled metroids flying through the air to stop Nurglite Zombies and the also lethal X-parasites from infecting the champion forces, ensuring that no corpse went to waste while the protectorate, supreme commander factions, and CORE recycled the nonliving.

Driving his tank and gutting an incoming Nazi helicopter with a blast from his arm cannon, Volkov brought himself within visual range of the temple, letting a wing of chinese bombers fly forward and let loose their payload of white napalm bombs to consume the area immediately in front of him in burning fuel, letting millions of destroyers rush out from the flaming area in agony, pushing past them as soon as the fires died down, deciding not to waste bullets on the already burning.

A spearhead of Soviet tanks smashed their way through now unoccupied barricades, firing their shells into the Jedi temple while Black Hole and Xylvanian troops wheeled around to plug in the gaps left behind by their now extra crispy companions. "Send in the Tesla tanks" Volkov ordered, allowing the electricity based vehicles to move closer to the front line, using their massive coils like bug zappers that arced out and reduced the destroyers before them into ash while making them do an entertaining dance and scream routine.

Destroyers who fired at the coalition army from the safety of their buildings were then met with thermobaric warheads fired out of Buratino vehicles, the large missiles slamming right through the walls of their buildings, spreading volatile airborne chemicals inside, and then exploding with burning force that not only set the building on fire and flattened it with their powerful concussive waves, but also sucked out all the air inside them, creating a vacuum effect that made the buildings implode just after it exploded.

Katyushas and Myeches let loose a thundering storm of rockets from their MMLs, making the dark sky briefly disappear beneath a cloud of white exhaust, yellow thruster flames, and silvery projectiles that arced up into the sky and crashed back down, showering the area with shrapnel, fire, and explosions. MSTA's raised their dual 152mm autocannons into the sky and let a storm of artillery shells rain down from the heavens in a constant rain of destruction that were joined in by V4 missiles from the eponymous launchers and the reloaded Buratinos.

Centurion walkers and Sentinel tanks shook the earth with the booming of their battleship caliber guns while more rocket launchers pounded the area with their lighter munitions, showing the world the terrifying power of soviet artillery. Mortars were quickly set up and further added to the relentless indirect pounding while a wave of frogfoots flew in overhead, strafing the area with storms of anti-tank rockets, thermobaric bombs, and their powerful double barelled autocannons, reserving special attention to enemy tanks and bunkers.

Siege choppers landed on the ground and unfurled their own artillery guns to further add to the unforgiving pounding the enemy was receiving, artillery falling on them like rain drops while Kirov bomber blimps hanged over head and let loose their devastating shower of massive bombs, joined in by black jack, bear, badger, and backfire strategic bombers that dropped yet more bombs and cruise missiles from the heavens.

The Destroyers by now raised up a shield around the jedi temple while attempting relatively anemic counter battery fire, but Tundran Artillery and Battlestations joined in the chorus of fire provided by their soviet brothers, added to by the thunder of the also quite Russian Blue Moon artillery and rockets. When the other coalition forces started to add their own artillery and bombing, the entirety of the shield rapidly collapsed, no longer able to take it and rendering the troopers who once thought they were safe wide open for a thirty second artillery barrage that flattened the entire area around the temple and slaughtered anyone who didn't find cover.

"Alright, now, shall we move in?" Volkov grinned as his army advanced towards the Temple.

Toad



Oh, sure, they get to have all the fun while we wrestle with a freaking cannon above the skies of Coruscant.

The Halberd's cannon swiveled around to take fire at me. Good thing it fires giant cannonballs in an arc. They passed right over. "Try not to break the cannon!" Meta Knight reminded us. "We still need it!" Magolor waved around in the air, taunting the cannon's laser. He waved his arms around, flailing about, shaking his rear as the cannon shot past him. Magolor picked me up and began to jitterbug with me, and the cannon shot right between us.

The claw reached out to grab us, but I spun in the air and kicked it back. It careened backward and smacked into the ground. The claw picked itself up, curling like a snake before striking.

Magolor and I were barely out of reach. The claw stretched, trying to take a snap at us, but we were just a hair too far away. I stuck my tongue out at the thing and slapped my behind.

As the claw snapped again, Heavy wrapped his yarn arms around the claw and began to do some unspeakable, inappropriate things to it that I had no idea yarn could do. The cannon stopped firing, and we just stared in shock.

"Tell me I did not just see that," Meta Knight said, flying up to the cannon before punching in the manual override code that Alpha Wheelie had given him.

"Yeah, I would, but then I'd be lying," I replied.

Heavy unwrapped himself from the claw and put his pants back on. "Dude. You've got problems," Magolor said to him. Heavy shrugged.

After we cleaned off the cannon, it was ready for use. Meta Knight even installed a complete antivirus, antimalware, and antispyware kit on it, plus created maximum security measures to the point that if it was tampered with, it would shut down until Meta Knight activated manual override with a series of completely random numbers as well as different firewalls and three more types of antivirus software. "In this day and age, Norton just doesn't cover it anymore," Meta Knight said.



Magolor

Okay, now the cannon's on our side. We entered the Halberd's main control tower. "Alright, where we headed?" I asked.

"Straight for the top. We are going to teach that Troll a lesson," Meta Knight replied.

We trekked all the way up, fighting Meta Knight's own security measures that were turned against him, before finally reaching a very long corridor.

"Something's fishy about this place," Toad said.

"No duh, pal. Bad stuff always happens in the long corridors," I replied.

And sure enough. A huge silver robot dropped from the ceiling behind us. "They created another Heavy Lobster?!" Meta Knight cried.

We ran for our lives. We hurdled over crates, inactive turrets, pipes, and yet the Heavy Lobster still gave pursuit. "Geez, where's Kirby when ya need him?!" I cried.

Kirby

Kirby jumped up from the Lor Starcutter when he heard screams. He immediately leaped out of the galleon and barged into the control tower.

It didn't take him very long to find the Heavy Lobster. The large silver robot was just like the brass version that had fallen out of the Halberd back in Act II. Only this time, the robot was not loyal to Meta Knight, but to the Destroyers. It turned around and extended a silver claw toward Kirby, attempting to crush him. Meta Knight took this opportunity to slash at the Heavy Lobster's rear end, cutting a gash in the metal hide. The lobster robot turned around again and opened its left claw. Meta Knight smelled gas and rolled to the side just as a jet of flame burst from the robot's claw. As the Heavy Lobster clanked around to take a shot at Kirby with a Mini-Lobster, Kirby kick-slid right in between the Lobster's legs. The robot jumped high in the air and turned around, before slamming its belly into the ground and activating rocket thrusters embedded in its wings. White steam jetted from its exhaust as the robot careened past Kirby and friends.

Meanwhile, Mario was shooting dozens of fireballs at the charging robot. When Heavy Lobster turned around, it got a mouthful of fire. Magolor rushed in close and speared the robot with a pink energy spear from the ground. The lobster smashed his face in with a slam from the claw, and Magolor was flattened on the metal floor. Toad slid under the robot and peeled Magolor off the floor. He opened Magolor's scarf and blew as hard as he could, inflating the Halcandran back to his original shape. Magolor turned around, just in in time to see Heavy Lobster about to smash Mario in the head. Mario rolled to the side. He disappeared in a puff of smoke and left a Mario statue in its place. Heavy Lobster knocked the statue into the wall, but nothing happened. Mario wasn't even fazed. While the Lobster was distracted by Mario's statue, Kirby sucked up a vital gear from the Lobster. The cog wheel peeled straight through the lobster's behind from the gash Meta Knight cut earlier. Once it was in his mouth, Kirby spat it right back out at the machine's exposed workings, and a small explosion ensued.

Oil began to leak from the Heavy Lobster, but this was no ordinary oil. The lobster appeared to run on... Paint? Kirby knew exactly what it was. A cadmium red blob of living paint. Kirby inhaled it (the cadmium didnt't faze him) and became Paint Kirby. A purple cap appeared on his head, and Kirby whipped out a paint bucket and brush.

Heavy Lobster turned to face him, and Kirby struck. He dashed onto Heavy Lobster and painted its eyes over. Then Kirby splashed paint into the robot's inner workings. The gears began to muck up with pigment, and soon small explosions had begun to occur in the robot. Heavy Lobster's carapace split in two with an explosion of red paint, and the corridor was bisected by a long, red line. Nobody was painted over, however... except Heavy Lobster, whose optics were covered in paint. The robot began to behave erratically, shooting jets of flame everywhere, jumping to and fro, until smoke began to billow from various engines in the framework of the robot. The mechanical chassis exploded, and one of the leg joints went limp. The Heavy Lobster was now just dragging around dead weight.

Kirby joined the others in watching the Heavy Lobster make a fool of itself. It smacked itself in the head with its claw, and shot a Mini-Lobster at the ceiling. Magolor had a bucket of popcorn. Kirby hungrily stared at it before clamping his mouth onto the bucket and swallowing it whole. Magolor reached for the bucket and found that it was no longer in front of him. He looked around in confusion, while Kirby innocently chewed up the popcorn and swallowed.

Finally, Heavy Lobster decided to explode. Gears, cogs, rods, pistons, and other mechanical parts scattered everywhere.

"Well, that's over with," Toad said. "Shall we go on?"

"Lord Sindri, this battle goes poorly, the enemy besieges the temple and our attempt to take over the halberd has failed." An Epsilon initiate reported as the building shook from the fury of another barrage of artillery rounds. "And do remind me of why this matters. The down fall of this world is to be expected. It holds such sentimental value to the natives that the champions would be ill inclined to ignore it. Adding more destroyer lords here to lure them just sweetens the bait." Sindri replied with his silken voice.

"But sir, the Emperor Ing would be most disple-" The initiate began, being cut off by a sudden force assailing his mind with unimaginable fury, sending lancing waves of pain through him. "The Emperor Ing has already been placated, do not presume to think me a fool, initiate." Sindri hissed cooly.

"Make sure to draw out the assault, let the torrent of emotions and feelings flow." Sindri calmly ordered before his hologram flickered out. From the world of Tatooine he was now overlooking a dig site. "Soon, we shall claim the true artefact of power here." He calmly said to himself, Eliphas the inheritor standing by his side, clutching his daemon blade.

"And the Dark Reaper?" The Black legion chaos space marine asked with a snarl. "Oh that? We'll let Droog and Megatron believe it is of importance. But what is it in the end, but a glorified mechanical metroid?" Sindri pointed out, turning his gaze towards the digging operations as they started boring to the core of the planet, having to break many a light side of the force barrier set up by those who wanted to keep the Maledictum out of the wrong hands.

"And of Xykon?" Eliphas questioned, briefly stroking his chin. "Such loose ends will be resolved in due time, Eliphas." Sindri assured the Chaos Lord.

Heavy

We kept walking through the corridors. My yarn body flapped because of the cold air that the vents blew through the hallway. I shivered. "Brrr. It is cold in here," I complained.

"Heavy, I really have no control over the climate right now," Meta Knight replied. "First of all, that would attract attention, which is the last thing we want."

I nodded. "But it is still cold. And plus they already noticed us. Why would they send robot if they did not?"

"Hmmm. Good point. But I have no access to a thermostat. It's in the main control tower. I kind of regret that element of the design," Meta Knight replied.

"Hey, you guys see a light?" Toad asked.

"Hmm. We are getting closer to top?" I asked.

"Yes. I think that we are getting close to the main control tower, which means we'll---"

"TROLOLOLOLO LOLOLO LOLOLO...."

"Is Russian music. Very popular," I said.

But everybody looked afraid. "What? Why are you shaking in boots like tiny baby men? Come on!" I yelled.

"The problem is," Meta Knight said, "that he has the key."

All of a sudden, an enormous white face jumped out in front of us. "Eee hee heee! What have we here? A little band of Champions, huddled in fear!"

"Since when did you start talking in rhyme?" asked Toad.

"Ehhh, what? You think I'm talking in rhyme? FAK U LOLOLOLOLOL DESU DESU!" screeched the giant white face.

"He is very annoying," I commented.

"Ya think?! He's the Internet Troll!" Toad replied. "Hey! Wrinkles! Obvious troll is obvious!"

"HURR!" the Troll roared. All of a sudden, tendrils whipped out from his head! "I WHIP MY HAIR BACK AND FORTH, B*TCH!"

I threw both my arms forward and they twisted into yarn strips that held the tentacles steady. "Somebody fire my gun!"

Nobody moved. "Come on! It is one time I let others touch Sasha!"

Finally, Daisy picked up the gun. "I did not know tiny orange baby lady can hold big gun---"

"Pal, she ripped a lead pipe out of a colossal robot. I think she can handle your Sasha," Toad replied.

"Okay. To rev gun, just pull on back, and to fire, pull on trigg---"

The rattle of Sasha fire echoed through the corridor. The Troll was held fast while the minigun penetrated his body. "HOW!" wailed the Troll.

"Without the Internet, you're powerless," Meta Knight said.

The Troll grinned. "Haven't you heard of... 3G?!"

And all of a sudden, the Troll began to grow in size. Blue energy pulsed around it as each pulse expanded the Troll until it was bigger than our entire party.

"NOW. FACE THE FURY OF A THOUSAND YOUTUBE POOPS!" roared the Troll.

"That sounded SO stupid," Toad grumbled.




I let go of the Troll's tendrils, as they were getting too wide for me to grasp. I swiped my gun away from Daisy and gave it a rev. "NOW IS COWARD KILLING TIME!" I roared, pouring 200 custom-tooled cartridges into the Troll's ugly mug. "YOU! YES YOU! YOU ARE DEAD!"

But then, the Troll opened his mouth and turned black, gaining red lips and wide eyes. "That is SO politically incorrect!" Magolor cried.

"I'M-A FIRIN' MAH LAZOR!!!!!1!!1!" roared the Troll. A blue ball of light began to charge in the Troll's gaping red-lipped mouth.

"DUCK AND COVER!!!" Peach cried, opening her parasol just as the lazor fired. It arced around her parasol and seared the walls.

"Drat. I'm going to have to pay for that," Meta Knight grumbled.

All of a sudden, I heard the yells of a thousand kings! "MAH BOI!" is what they shouted, over and over again, blasting in our ears, driving us insane. "YAAAAAH!!!!" I screamed, swinging my gun in a circle.

The noise cut out.

I looked around. Everybody was fine.

"Dude. You're lucky that thing's got a friendly fire setting," Toad said.

The Troll then turned to me and the world began to warp. Suddenly, time sped up, slowed down, space twisted, changed colors, blurred, pixellated... Everything became as messed up as a YouTube Poop. It was as if somebody had taken the universe into Adobe AfterEffects and slapped on all the effects as if they were drunk on vodka.

Suddenly, the torrent of effects stopped. I saw Daisy behind the Troll, holding a lead pipe. "That's how it's done!" she gloated.

I walked up to the Troll, surprised at how quickly he was knocked out. I pointed my minigun at his face and fired mercilessly. "EEEEYAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" Pixels flew everywhere, crackling and making electrical noises before disappearing. I kept firing; as the Troll re-formed, my bullets tore him apart again.

I found that I was shooting the floor. The bullets were pinging off of the metal. "Heavy, you can stop now," Meta Knight said."

I just gave one more shot to be sure, and then stopped. Sasha's barrel slowed to a stop.

"Und DIS! Is how you do it in Mother Russia!" I sneered.

I picked up the elevator key that the Troll dropped when I shot him into oblivion.

Moral is: MORE GUN.