The Curse of the Desert Temple

Chapter 15 - Prevailing Power

"I HAD ENOUGH WITH MERCY."

Sandy stood, frozen. So many things happened. It was as if time had come to a standstill. The giant lamp hurled itself straight towards Gene. Tara shouted a cry of despair, reaching out to Gene. Sprout's sticky note fell and Nani covered her yellow eye in fear.

Sandy stretched a hand to possibly interfere with the lamp's target, but he was too slow, too stunned. The giant lamp slammed on top of Gene's head like before, but this time, black, burning tendrils stemmed from the lamp, covering a good half of Evil Gene's face.

"Stop it!" Sandy cried, watching Gene's face burn from the tendrils. " You're hurting him!"

"Feh, typical. Do you know how it hurts for ME?! I was this close to conquering the universe! Yet, you RUIN ALL MY PLANS!" Evil Gene fumed, his hands flaming with red. His giant lamp whistled, smoke spewing from its orifice like a boiled kettle.

Just then, a shadow of darkness loomed over the entirety of the group. Sandy tilted his head towards the sun. Its glare was obstructed by the inky shade of the moon. Sandy trembled in terror.

The solar eclipse had started.

Evil Gene stared up at the sky, a wicked smile tugging at his lips. "Right on time!" he cackled.

He flew into the air and fished out the cursed book, flipping through its pages until claiming a page with a crooked red finger. He flung the book to the ground and chanted. Crimson, glowing signs carved themselves to the ground, encircling Evil Gene and disintegrating the book. The beams of yellow light that peeked out from the eclipse transformed into lengths of gold, rimmed with scarlet.

The lengths penetrated Evil Gene's shoulders and legs, making his yellow eyes glow brighter. He roared with teeming energy. The black tendrils grew longer, creating a network which crawled across his arms

"This is it," Gene laughed. " I've been waiting for a solar eclipse like this, for so long. These kinds of eclipses can give INFINITE POWERS! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Sandy gulped.

"Welp.... it's not like Gene could get worse, right?" Gale chuckled anxiously, his face paling.

Suddenly, the yellow lengths grew thicker, concentrating their energy on Evil Gene. With each second, Evil Gene grew bigger and taller until he positively loomed over the group.

Sandy shot a glare at Gale, who had vanished from sight. In his place was a jump pad. Sandy facepalmed before swivelling to see Evil Gene. A deep laugh emanated from him as he lifted a great shoe.

Sandy, more scared than sleepy, hardly had any time to register what was happening until Jacky rushed, knocking him away with her elbow.

Sandy dropped onto the ground. "JACKY!" Carl shouted as Gene's giant shoe began to drop, ready to crush Jacky.

"Welp, respawning doesn't sound that bad," Jacky weakly chuckled, spreading her arms out and seemingly accepting her fate--

Just as the shoe hit the floor, a blur of grey passed by, picking up Jack and kicking up a trace of smoke. Evil Gene's shoe stomped onto the floor harmlessly.

"Carl?!" Jacky screamed in shock, alarmed by the sudden pickup.

Sandy turned towards Carl, who stood in his place. If it wasn't him... Then...

The figure stepped out of the smoke, revealing...a smiling ball of happiness.

"TICK?!" The brawlers yelled, surprised that the thrower was here and managed to save Jacky's life. He was comically straining under Jacky's weight, for he was smaller.

"What else? When I saw that big Gene's shoe, I knew I was lucky I brought my Backup Mine!" Tick garbled in glee, listening to Evil Gene's footwear exploding.

"Gah!"Evil Gene yelped, inspecting his damaged shoe. "That was my last one!"

Tick dropped off Jacky, who wiped her oil-covered back clothing before patting Tick's small head with a smirk. Tick giggled happily in response.

Gale walked up behind the group. "I jumped off flyin' to look for the rest of them to help us!"

Sandy hesitated. "Wait, them as in..."

He tilted his head to look behind him and nearly jumped with joy. Behind Gale, all the brawlers had come. Some still donned their summer skins.

A battered and broken, yet still functioning Rico pulled a smoking Mortis to his feet and raised his gun. Both brawlers were back to normal.

Shelly laughed, reloading her shotgun. She pointed a mocking finger at the fuming genie. "This us the guy we're battling?"

Sandy nodded with a grin. "Yup."

As he ran towards the demonic genie, Colt cried,"FIRE AT WILLLL!"

The brawlers shouted and ran headlong towards Evil Gene.

Evil Gene, stunned by the sheer amount of brawlers, swiftly composed himself and cackled crazily. He spun his hands, firing one crackling fireball after another at the charging contingent.

"AT LAST...

A REAL SHOWDOWN!"