FusionFall: Invasion

Chapter Ten: Return to Sector V

I groaned and stretched, popping my back. I looked up to see another Newspaper Ninja rushing me. I sighed and swung my sword around in circles. The Ninja thrusted its massive shruiken into the ground where I was a second ago, but I was no longer there. I was beside the Ninja, stabbing my own blade into its' soft skin, the paper outside crinkling and crunching.

It collapsed with a gurgle. I withdrew my sword with a disgusted look on my face. I glanced around to see everyone else similarly dispatching monsters. Closest to me was Niko. I had no doubt he'd survive. Like I had said before, he was a guns nut. But he was hardy. Physically built like a tank, I was sure he could barrel right through a Tech Tunneler and hardly get hurt.

Still though, it was his mental power that was most impressive to me. Niko was...sort of antisocial. But he was a loyal friend. I knew that if I ever got into some trouble, I could rely on his help. He was a little crazy like me, too.

Speaking of crazy, I realized with a jolt my voices had been quiet since this whole war had started. Hello? I tried.

Finally! A Scottish accent yelled in my head. While ye've been screwin' 'round out there, bangin' heads together, we've all been cooped up in here, lad. 'Bout time ya give us some attention! Mister Prissy-pants in here is givin' me the worst headache...

Prissy-pants?! A British one yelled back. Why, I am simply trying to keep YOU in line!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, settle down guys. I said. I could feel the other voices and personalities pushing on me. Physically, I had stopped behind a nearby building and was gripping my skull with both hands. STOP! I shouted.

I probed around until I hit the wall. The wall...was needed. I had spent years cultivating this defense. If it ever broke...I would be wasted. I would literally tear the skin from my body. The darkness beyond constantly pushed, pulled, and searched for the tiniest crack, the smallest flaw. I could feel them now. I reached a mental arm through the wall and felt the thoughts and memories to make sure they were all there...

The images of the toilet pipes flashed before my eyes and elementary bullies shoved my face under the slightly murky water. My arms flailed to no avail. I could hear the kids laughing and sneering, "Aw, little shrimp doesn't like that? Let's try something else then." I felt them grip my underwear and yank them up and my vision flashed white as the pain overwhelmed me.

Paranoia that I would fail. That someone would leave me. I'd do something wrong and everything would fall apart. The future would not go as I planned, and I'd be alone on the streets, or as some nobody working at a gas station or something.

One of my darkest feeling descended upon the arm through the wall. A broken soldier. You're not good enough. For anyone. There's no reason you should have these people as friends. They laugh at you, not with you. They think you're stupid. You're a broken soldier toy. Stop trying. Give up. Everyone will be so much better off without you. Give up. You have a sword. A gun too. Use them on the real monster. You're not worth the struggle. Give into the darkness...to death. Everyone, everything, will be better off. Trust us.

Even you.

I could feel my body shakily reaching for my Lightning Sword belted to my waist. I yanked myself from the darkness in time to stop myself from unclipping my weapon. I was shaking, and cold, even though it was still in the middle of summer. I heard someone calling my name. I took a deep breath and tried to hide my shaking body as best I could and slapped myself, literally. I donned a smile and swung off the wall and around the corner and padded out from the shadows between houses.

Ali breathed a sigh of relief. "When we could find you..." She said.

"I'm fine." I stated quickly, looking around. "Where is everyone?"

"They moved on to the Pavilion in the park...what's that mark on your cheek?" She asked, pointing.

I looked at her for a second, then realized what she was talking about. "Oh. That. It's nothing. I just had a scuffle with another Neighborhood Ninja. It managed to get me with it's hand, but nothing else." I grinned at her. "Don't worry, I got it."

She smiled back. "I'm sure you did." She hooked her arm through mine and we walked off towards the park.

I breathed in deeply as I stared over the slightly smoking remains of  Sector V. It was a relief to see the KND treehouse headquarters still standing - er, floating, rather. Looked like the gravitational pull of Planet Fusion had grabbed hold of it. A giant plot of land attached to it, it was held to the ground by massive chains. Each link at least thrice as thick as my upper arm, and taller than at least two of us, one on the other's shoulders. We know because we tried. Haha. Blake and I ended up sprawled on the grass, everyone laughing, including us.

Jump pads launched us up to the bit of land. The treehouse was growing out of a house. KND operative Numbuh One's I remembered. Tons of people were everywhere. I could see Blossom, the Powerpuff Girl. And Numbuh Two of Sector V's KND. There was a green monkey in a techified suit. I recognized it as one of Mojo Jojo's henchmen.

"Glad to see the bad guys are helping our side in this." I commented. Blossom heard me and floated over.

"You bet! Besides, my sisters and I would have convinced him otherwise, if he hadn't agreed." She said with a smile, then the smile faltered. "Well...sister rather." I looked at her in pity. I had heard of the battle between the Powerpuffs and Mojo. He had knocked Buttercup somewhere. I still haven't heard if she had been found...

Blossom shook us out of it. "Anyway! There's no reason to be sad. We have armor and weapons vendors here too!" She pointed at two other KND members handing out weapons exchanged for Taros, the glowing bits used for currency.

Numbuh Two walked over, the pudgy boy smiling. Chris started bouncing up and down in excitement. "Numbuh Two!" He said and hurried up to him. "I have a bunch of ideas! Plus, names for the monsters! I'm a huge fan of your stuff. Did I mention I'm a huge fan?" Two laughed. "We'll talk in a bit alright...?"

"Chris." Chris replied, grinning from ear to ear. I laughed.

Luke stepped forward. "What news has come in about new developments? Anything new from the planet?"

Two's smile faded a little at this. "Well...we're not sure how bad it may be, but some sort of Fusion pod is stuck in orbit. Our moon base has been...destroyed. The whole moon is gone, in fact. We've tried to shoot it down from Earth's surface with little luck. We'll get it though. Don't worry."

At that moment, a rumble shook the ground. We all lost our footing, except Blossom, who could fly. Of course. Numbuh Two lifted a 2x4 walkie-talkie to his ear.

"What? Giant...Nothing? Well what can we do? Alright. Understood Numbuh Five." Numbuh Two clipped it back onto his suspenders and shouted, "Everyone up! A new, giant Fusion Monster just made contact with the surface! So far nothing we've done has been able to damage it...But You can! I know it!"

No one heard him continue on. The rumbles grew louder, causing the floating island to slowly drift form side to side, held in place by the massive chains, luckily. Everyone there looked into the distance to see a massive crab-looking thing. It's underside glowed red. We couldn't tell much else from where we were.

What we could tell, was that it was big, menacing, and that many here may not walk away alive.