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Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Another thing I loved about the Ancient Mamodo Arc is how most of the Mamodo were extremely minor and quickly defeated, and yet the author took the time to name all of them. That’s like what Oda did with all the minor Big Mom Pirates! XD
Moonbase
The huge band of teammates engaged in small slumber party games with what little stamina their bandaged bodies had. Jolene, Trella, Lily, and Mali had a tickle fight; Spike, Jason, and Christina slammed pillows into each other before their bones gave in; Veronica and Chuko shared their uncomfortable experience with Laruta, who grew equally furious at the rabbit. Walking by, Mack couldn’t hold in the remark, “Hey, look at the pipsqueak party over here!” This resulted in Veronica turning Mack into a cat to be violently combed and squeezed by the shorties.
“Hey, Ralph, you up for some Uno?” Max asked, raising the card deck. “Fair warning: there are more Special Cards than normal.”
“I don’t think we’ll get to sleep at that rate.”
“Come on, man! If we train against the unexpected, the expected will never expect how prepared we are! Right, Perry?” There was no answer. “…Where’s Perry?”
“He’s joggin’ around base.”
“Seriously? Dude, the game is Uno, not Solo! Come on, let’s go find him.”
The boys walked to the bridge and caught Perry in the midst of his second lap. “Yo, Perry!”
“Hey, Ralph! Max!” He ran to their side. “What’s up?”
“You, apparently. We’re supposed to be chillin’, dude, come play cards with us.”
“I’ll give the first Clown Card for freeeee!” Max cheered.
“I just wanna be ready for tomorrow. I mean, this’ll be our biggest mission since the Mismatch War. And that was more of a drill, but these Mamodo are serious.”
“Yeah, but you’re gonna run yourself dry before it’s time. You’re still pretty scratched up.”
“We’re gonna get more scratched up when we fight them, so I can’t let fatigue get to me.”
“I don’t see anyone else trainin’. Except Shimmy, ’cause that’s what she does.”
“At least nobody’s plaining!” Max joked. “’Cause then we’d be all bored and not doing anything! Except Ralph, ’cause planes are his thing.” Ralph eye-rolled at his dumb joke.
“But I’m the leader.” Perry reasoned. “It’s my job to work harder than everyone else. I can’t just play when we’ve got this mission coming up.”
“Oh, gee.” Ralph eye-rolled again, having seen this conflict in a couple action shows. “Alright, what cheesy lines do we need to tell you otherwise?”
“I’m just saying, Ralph… everyone depends on me. Those Mamodo had the advantage ’cause we weren’t organize. And I wasn’t organized. If we hadn’t split up, you wouldn’t have been injured…”
“Yeah, maybe so, but you got pretty beat up yourself. But now we ARE organized, and we’ll be doing the ambush now. We got each other’s backs this time.”
“I hope so…”
“Dude, quit bein’ mopey and play with us.” Max whined. “No one wants to follow a kid with a horse face!”
“Hahaha! Better than having a, uh…a rooster face!”
“Waaaah?” That’s when Max’s rooster friend, Julie Bean joined the convo. “What’s that mean?”
“It means Perry likes you!” Max said.
“He-he-he wants to kiss a hotdog?”
“Yes, Julie Bean, I love kissin’ hotdogs.”
“And, and, its name is Christina.”
“SO PERRY, come play cards with us?” Ralph yelled, not wanting to get sucked into this.
“Sure thing!” With renewed optimism, Perry rushed to the bedroom with his friends.
“What’re ya playin’? Easter Cards?” Julie asked. “…Hehe, they’re going to kiss Silica.” And the rooster waddled away. “I like tigers…”
The next morning
The operatives awoke to a sweet breakfast courtesy of Mazu Daimon. “Well, our spies just set out.” Frasmine said. “Here’s hoping they can get us some good info.”
“Where are Jason, Chris, and Isabelle?” Laruta asked. “I haven’t seen them either.”
“Those three woke up early, too!” Mazu grinned. “I fried them up a quick meal and they said they were gonna watch the sunrise directly. They’re at South America right now.”
“HUH?!” The gymnast blew up in shock. “They aren’t thinking of starting the attack early, are they?!”
“I think Jason’s adventure urges just acted up.” Ralph replied. “You know how he gets.”
“As long as they don’t do anything reckless.”
Machu Picchu, Peru
Jason wasn’t the type to be cooped up in the same boring place for too long, whether it was a hospital or Moonbase. As the dawn greeted Peru, the sight of it shining over the mountains from the ruins filled the young pirate with adrenaline. “HELLOOOOOO, MOUNTAAAAAIIIIINS!”
“Not so loud, Jason, the enemy will hear us!” Isabelle laughed. “Come on and eat!”
“Haha!” Jason jumped down the ruins’ natural steps and sat at the picnic blanket, gobbling some sunny eggs, sunny-buttered toast, and Sunny D. “Waking up in a new place is the best! We can ’ave ourselves a nice walk before we get bustin’ that base!”
“I wouldn’t mind just charging there right now.” Christina said, munching a spicy tomato sandwich. “We can knock a few of them out.”
“We’ll start with everyone else.” Isabelle reasoned. “We’re still recovering, after all.”
“I mean, I feel great. But I guess we’ll wait so Laruta doesn’t go off on us.”
“She prob’ly already is.” Jason snickered. “So, which mountain should we climb first?”
While contemplating this question, a certain propeller-earred rabbit saw the group during a casual flight through the mountains. “Fehfehfeh…” A concerned Momon thought it best not to fly any closer. Instead, he returned to the palace.
Milordo’s Lair
Leila’s tracking device led Joto and Pochi to a canyon zone. The former used her fly-sized frame to safely scout the canyon passage and signal Pochi that it was safe to keep forward. They located the ruins of a palace built into the canyon, leaves and moss growing around it. The highest building of the palace had an orb on top, and they could faintly see figures walking past the glassless windows.
“You think this is the right secret villain lair?” Joto asked, floating next to Pochi’s ear.
“Not sure. There might be another one through that other passage.”
“Nah, pretty sure I saw some of Riddler’s question marks. So, are you coming in, or you just gonna send one of your toys?”
“I can at least do the same you’ve been doing. You fly to the upper grounds and I’ll stick to the lower.” Pochi withdrew a small antenna robot from his pocket, using a game controller to make it walk toward the entrance. Joto buzzed up to the higher levels of the palace. When Pochi saw that the entrance passage was clear, he snuck in after it. The passage would lead to a wider room where Mamodo lay asleep against the walls, though one was bobbing his head to stay awake. However, Pochi saw a hole in the ceiling above him and could climb some moss up to it. “Ugh…” He cringed over the mess it left on his hands. Pochi could crawl through a narrow space above the ceiling, and holes were open for him to peer into the Mamodo’s room. He attached a Scouter to his only unveiled eye and examined the Mamodo. “Power Levels in the high hundreds, one in the thousands…”
“It’s hard to use this thing while I’m tiny.” Joto responded, examining a room of sleeping Mamodo. “It thinks they’re all giants and multiplies their Level too much. I have to find good places to resize to get the right reading. I’m getting just about the same results.” Joto buzzed through a few more halls. She encountered a couple of flying bugs, but because they were here, Joto figured the Mamodo wouldn’t notice an extra one buzzing around. “Found the plantbenders that attacked—oooohh…”
“Huh? Something wrong?”
“N-Nothing. Just found… the big robot dude that attacked us, too.”
In a particular wide chamber, a colossal Mamodo designed like a white and black robot loomed imposingly. It had a minigun chest, engine arms, clawed feet, and a wolf-like head. Joto had tried to infiltrate the robot during its first attack, but it barely had any interior wiring. There wasn’t much she could do to stop it before it started whaling on Ichigo, forcing Joto to retreat and help them. She couldn’t take the chance and attack it without alerting the palace… and her Scouter couldn’t read any Power Level. This was actually typical with machines, but it was weird to think of it as a thousand-year warrior.
Some Mamodo were boredly loitering—I mean, guarding a room with hanging vine curtains. Pochi sent his bot to scout the best route to follow around the vines, afterwards quietly walking through. He followed a stairwell down into darkness, quietly peeking into—! Pochi swiftly hid. He had just glanced the side of a large, stone throne, occupied by the very mummy they had just fought. He could see the side of Belgim’s eye glow, seeming to gaze at a door to the left. Pochi used the Scouter while he had this chance, but it only brought up question marks. “What? Hmm…” If a Scouter read a Level too high, it would malfunction. Aside from machines and resizing, a Scouter could get confused when reading supernatural, even ghostly forces. Just knowing that would actually be helpful. Pochi wondered why Belgim was watching the other door, but for now decided to backtrack.
Joto cocked a brow, finding Pamoon standing on Tsao-Lon’s back while the latter did push-ups. “Tell me, Pamoon… when you fought that sector, did any operatives catch your eye?”
“Strong ones, you mean? There were two, but I can only speak for the lightbender. He was impressive…”
“That girl from Twoson fought well for a normal civilian. Milordo-Z provided no intel on her, so she couldn’t have been an agent. It’s a shame she didn’t give me much of a fight. I wonder what she meant by…” how her people had done enough fighting.
“Hm?”
“Never mind. I can only hope for stronger foes tomorrow.”
“Tsao-Lon… how do you feel about this, anyway? Still serving the empire, and this strange master, after 1,000 years…”
Joto flew into a hole on the ceiling, resizing within a tight space. She peeked down to scan the two. “What choice is there?” Tsao asked. “We’ll return to stone without their help, and we have no families to go back to. The only thing left for me is to fight. As long as I can get a good fight every now and then, I’m happy.”
“I guess that’s all we can ask for now… anything to make us happy.” Pamoon felt the need to check on Leila. “I’m going on patrol. You should get some sleep soon.” The cyborg stepped off and through the next room. Joto quietly landed on his back, hoping to not be noticed. Tsao’s Power Level was scanned to be 5,000, and Pamoon was roughly 4,800, though she wasn’t sure if the enhancements counted. Pamoon opened a monitor on his wrist and spoke, “Leila. Come in, Leila.” …No response. “Leila… are you there? …” He groaned in concern. “Leila…” He picked up pace and hurried through the castle.
The main way into the highest building was a stairwell over a deep chasm. Leila stood fearfully a few steps down from the top, her communicator buzzing. “Now’s not the time for phone calls, Leila.” Milordo-Z hissed, his amphibian minion behind him. “Now, darling… why would you be plotting behind my back?”
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“HARRR.” Milordo flicked his left hand, rupturing an explosion in midair. “Leila, do you know how much convincing it took to get the Irkens to find you all, to free you? Do you know how loose your freedom is right now? If you’re not worth the effort it took to find you,” he stepped down, Leila walking backwards in fear, “you’re going right back to that stone, and you’ll be buried so deep underground, no one will ever find you!”
“No, no, no!” She tripped on a step, falling halfway down.
Milordo flew just a step above her, casting a shadow. “Oh, look. You’re already changing back. We oughta bring you upstairs and restore you…” He picked Leila up by the scruff and dragged her to the edge of the chasm, “or I can drop you down there where your tablet will rest forever!”
“No, no, no! Please don’t, please don’t, I don’t wanna…sniff.” Leila felt more helpless and desperate than she’d ever been, wanting to cry as many tears as possible to remind herself she was still flesh. She felt stiff in her toes, for the petrification was starting there.
“Then be a useful warrior. If those KND found this place because of you, you’d better fight them. You’d better serve your people and destroy them. Will you?!”
“Yes, yes! I will, I will, please don’t let me turn back, huff…”
“Leila!” Both faced the entrance, where Pamoon stood troubled. “Milordo… what’s going on?”
“We were just talking about tomorrow’s plans. Wanna tell him what we’re gonna do, Leila?”
“W-W-We’re gonna lure the KND here… and destroy ’em all tomorrow. Sniff…”
Joto couldn’t see them from Pamoon’s back, but was too cautious to fly out. Not only was Milordo here, but so was their supposed ally. They were gonna lure the KND here? Was Leila using their trust against them? …But it sounded like she was sobbing.
“Why are you holding her that way?” Pamoon asked, his eyes a glare. Joto grew more curious. Byonko crawled downstairs.
“She stumbled and nearly fell off is all. We’d better get upstairs for a little recharge, right, Leila?”
“Y-Yes…” She obediently followed her master upward, passing Byonko. The frog looked once more at Pamoon, shirking at his glare. …Joto had flown out when she heard them going up, but she hadn’t expected a large frog to be there. “!” Nor did she expect to wind up on its giant tongue and yanked right down its throat. “Huh?” Pamoon gasped.
“Saw one of those tasty bugs-gero.” Byonko blushed. “That’s the best part of living here.”
“Hm…Come to think of it, why are we based here, anyway?”
“We sort of read about these ruins and—HULP!” Byonko gagged. “HACK! ULK…” It looked like his body was being pushed in different directions.
“Eh?” Milordo looked down. “Byonko, what’s wrong?”
“KUH…KUH…KAH!” He spat a glob of slime down to the base of the stairs. Joto wound up practically drowning in the slime, so her only hope was to instinctively click the resize button. She blew up wide enough so the slime covered her partly. “…Uh-oh.”
“INTRUDER!” Milordo screeched. A volley of stars threatened to bombard Joto, but with fast thinking, she shrunk back down and out of the slime. She zipped around the massive stars, but the side of one bumped and sent her falling into the abyss. “Quick! Signal the troops now, there could be more!”
The Mamodo Pochi was spying on suddenly woke, the boy ducking in a dark crevice as they bypassed him. When the coast seemed clear, he called, “Joto, they’re getting active. Is something happening? …Joto? Hey!”
“Ugh…yeah, I’m here.” Joto answered with a grunt. “I got spotted. Sorry.”
“Are you being chased?!”
Joto managed to regain herself and float in the chasm, but Pamoon was descending. The Tiny Devil flew lower. “I’ll be alright, but you need to hide. They’re looking for others. Let’s call the ship and tell ’em what we learned, they might need to leave.”
“Yeah…” Pochi remembered a stone tile that he could open up and crawl under just around the corner. He tucked himself against the crevice when the Nimbi Mamodo flew by, afterwards taking the chance to hurry out. No Mamodo were around the turn, so he quickly opened the tile, squeezed in the narrow space, and pulled it shut, though a tiny gap was left for his fingers to fit. A black hole opened as Gorm peeked out, looking around before receding. “Phew…Joto, do you think this’ll complicate the mission?”
“Pochi, I think Milordo is already on to us.” Joto flew through a passage under the chasm. “He was talking to that Leila girl, and…urgh, let’s just send the report. I took a hit and I feel too tired to make it back. We’ll have to lay low until our friends get here.”
“I’m definitely gonna feel stiff after this…”
Byonko hopped to an outside area, skimming the grounds for any strangers. “Feh! Feeeeeh!”
“Momon?!” The flying rabbit returned from the mountains.
“Fehfeh! Feh!”
“You saw some kids camping in the ruins across the mountains-gero?”
“Feh fehfeh!”
“We just found some intruders; I wonder if more of them are camped out there? I’ll send some soldiers immediately-gero!”
11:45a.m.
The ships soared over an area in the mountains as the band of kids dropped out on parachutes, landing a few miles from the palace. “This is Laruta to Jason. Where are you three? We’re about to land with the invasion force.”
“Hi, Laru!” Jason answered. “We’re exploring Machu Picchu!”
“WHY are you exploring Machu Picchu at a time like this?!”
“I can’t get excited for a battle without an adventure! Besides, I thought the battle wasn’t ’til noon.”
“Our spies were spotted, so we’re starting a little early. It’ll be noon when we get there, anyway.”
“Orright, we’ll be there in a jiffy. It’s in the same mountain range, right?”
“Jason, it’s way farther than here! Let’s get back to the ship first.” Isabelle suggested.
“Good idea! …Eh, which way’s the ship?”
“JASON! Hoooohh!” Laruta fumed. “Please just hurry!”
“I mean, it isn’t the biggest drawback.” Mika figured. “We have plenty with us and plenty on standby. Overall, I like our odds.”
“Speakin’ of odd, who the heck made those giant paper planes?” Snap pointed.
A small fleet of said planes soared their direction, flowers lodged atop them. “Hey, those planes are metallic!” Mack yelled. “And REALLY sharp!”
Mika used a barrier to block their progression while Mack tried to bend the strange projectiles. He failed to control them, the planes using a drill maneuver to cut through the barrier. Mika willed the operatives to maneuver away as they all shot projectiles, taking the planes down. “You kids picked the wrong place to skydive!” An orange-haired Mamodo soared on a winged skateboard, sending air slices to cut the parachute strings.
“YOU AGAIN!” Ralph screamed, taking the plunge.
“Hey, fatty, how you been!” Hyde smirked. “I don’t see that little sword boy anywhere. Was he too chicken to come~?”
“I dunno about chicken, but I’m about to go hawk on your butt!” Ralph pulled a string and extracted a pair of glider wings, swirling before curving upward. He summoned his G.En.I.E., Joaquin to give himself altitude, shooting bullets from his wings and damaging Hyde. “Guys, leave this jerk to me! He’s gonna pay for hurting my pal!”
“He’s all yours, Ralphy!” Laruta cheered. “Guys, fallbreak!”
“Hup!” Mika caught some with psychic, Aria and Veronica used magic, and Robi grabbed his own teammates to slow their fall. They landed in the forest with relative ease, but it was then the trees and roots began to violently stir around, knocking the kids about and scattering them. Roses grew from the earth to snare them in thorns.
“Like falling into a Venus flytrap.” A Mamodo with green, wide, and curly hair boasted. She wore a yellow dress with long, curled frills. “Want to crush them, Pokkerio?” she asked a bark-skinned Mamodo.
“You got this one, Kalura.”
However, Trella had danced in evasion, evading her thorns as she sang for Jungle Dancer Monkey to land and stab Kalura with a rainbow spear. As she fended off the Mamodo, Lily used Razor Leaves to slice everyone free. She grabbed some roots and stretched them up to whip Pokkerio, who grew confused until he saw the inch-tall girl between Trella’s rocks. “Trella, I can’t bend brambles, but I can hold back the wood guy’s attacks!”
Then leave the green girl to me! Trella swept her cousin off the ground. Her evasive dancing also helped to guide Lily’s bending, making it difficult for Pokkerio to focus control on the roots.
“Do your best, you two!” Aria thumbed up, the operatives racing onward.
“Um, are you sure we shouldn’t help?” Robi asked.
“Everyone gets one, Robi!” Laruta reminded with a smile. “But speaking of, do you think you can fly to where Jason is and check if they’re alright? I’d hate for them to be late.”
“Okay!” The Nimbi returned to the air and flew across the mountains.
A certain guideline the KND had been taught to uphold is “Everyone Gets a Turn.” It was courtesy that each member of a team be given a chance to battle and contribute to a mission. When faced with villain groups, each teammate would pick one to fight and be entitled to a victory, provided the numbers were willing.
Nearing the canyon that would lead to the base, a horde of Mamodo stood guard. To intimidate them further, the giant, wolf-headed robot came stomping around the canyon, quaking the earth. “Gero-gero-gero-gero-gero!” Byonko laughed, hopping one foot at a time from atop the bot. “Is this the best you could bring, Kids Next Door?! We knew you were coming all along! We were prepared for your arrival!”
“Wow!! It’s a talking wolf-frog-bot!” Nora exclaimed.
“I only thought it professional to formally announce your utter doom! I’m Byonko, Milordo-Z’s trusted adviser and the General Instructor of the Mamodo Army!”
“General Instructor?” Chuko gasped. “Adviser?!”
“Just a fancy-schmancy way of sayin’ he’s a low-level minion.” Konsai retorted.
“HEY! Don’t underestimate me, you snotty brat!”
“Even Laruta has more snot than you, froggy!” Mack snapped, earning a growl from the shorty. “Get down here if you think you’re tough!”
“Why do that when I can make my minions do it? This big boy here is Baltro! He may be the weakest of the Elite 10, but he’s more than a match for you! All yours!” Byonko leapt away as the giant robot unloaded his minigun chest, but Mack managed to catch the bullets in bending, flinging them at the surrounding Mamodo. They dodged, but were swarmed by some operatives while others hurried past. Baltro stormed toward Mack and tried to kick him with his clawed toes. The scientist dodged, at the same time trying to grab the mech in his bending, but failed to take hold.
“I can’t bend this metal either! Is it chi-blocked?” Mack ran before the giant could stomp him. “No matter! My own tech is better!” He bent a metal backpack from his Infi-Cube, and said device extracted two long plasma turrets on his sides. Nora engaged the revived sea snake, Gelios; Suna engaged a block-like Mamodo called Giriko, who had a spinning saw collar; Konsai battled a mummy-faced Mamodo called Zami, who could shoot wrapped balls; Koda Ramsey launched fireworks at a bulky, bomb-throwing Mamodo called Dalmos; Jolene used her Clay Whale to ram Goramu, a giant stone Mamodo with a blank face.
“Heads up, gang, I’m seeing a familiar face.” Spike pointed skyward.
A black hole loomed in the air above the canyon, Gorm’s torso sticking out. The buglike Mamodo threw black balls, which were countered by Mika’s Psy-Spheres, cancelling them with explosions. “You’re going to be a big problem.” Gabriel remarked, warping up to Gorm’s level and bombarding him with Starbursts. As the Mamodo retreated into his portal, Gabriel failed to keep it open with his spacebending. He was certain Gorm was a spacebender with an off-color, black chi, but he seemed to have enough control to keep it out of another’s hands.
Gorm reappeared behind the band of operatives and fired a greater black sphere. Mika saw the attack coming just in time to fly and block the energy with a barrier, but it only held back for a second before penetrating. The kids hurriedly ducked to the sides while Mika teleported, all dodging the blackness. “Mali-chan, you okay?”
“Y-yeah, Laru-chan. AAAH!” However, the giant was immediately seized by Gorm and pulled into his vortex.
“HEY!” Mika telekinetically grabbed the giant’s leg, but a black ball was shot toward the psychic, knocking Mika against the wall and breaking her control.
…
“WAAAH!” Gorm casually discarded Mali in the middle of a desert before going back. “W-w-w…where am I?!” It was still nighttime, wherever this was. “Brrrr…I’m c-cold. W-where is everyone…” There seemed to be no sign of life for miles. The little giant was all alone in the sands. “Sniff, sniff…Laru-chan… someone…”
…
“HEY! WHAT’D YOU DO TO MALI-CHAN?!” Shimmy yelled upon Gorm’s return.
“Maybe she’s trapped in that thing’s subspace!” Gabriel assumed. “I’ll get her out!” He warped directly above Gorm’s portal, but the monster leapt out, sealing the portal and chucking a sphere that Gabriel dodged. Gorm began to glide around, but seeing a storm of Psy-Spheres, Gorm conjured a giant barrier, designed like a black target, and perfectly blocked the psychic. Gorm glid into a portal, but Gabriel suddenly landed on his back and flew in with him.
The inside of Gorm’s subspace was monochrome with black, blurry mist. The monster frantically tried to swat Gabriel, who dodged and damaged him with Starbursts. “I don’t see Mali…” He wondered if the child was dropped somewhere bad. “Hm…you can’t use your bending in here, can you? This place is meant for allies, not enemies.”
Gorm growled. “Go, go-go-go, go-go, gor! (Big deal! I’ll take ya someplace with NO allies!)” Gorm opened an exit and flew through, landing them in a different desert by a paved road. Gorm knew this spacebender could probably warp back to the battle site, so he just needed to deal with him real quick.
“Hey, Mika,” Rudy began, “that was one of the Elites, wasn’t it? You think Gabriel and Mali can handle him?”
“We don’t have a way to follow them! Sigh…let’s keep going. We’ll just have to hope they hold out.”
“I knew we should’ve let Mali stay home!” Laruta shouted. “Poor thing… I feel awful.”
“If ya have time to cry, ya have time to beat up more Mons!” Spike retorted.
With what remained of their numbers, the KND tanked through several more Mamodo along the canyon, with Spike and Kent negating the rockslides set by Earth Mamodo. “We’re almost there, everyone!” Victoream announced. “The Devolo Ruins are just around the bend!”
“Then it’s full steam ahead!” Aria smirked. “No time to look… back…”
“. . . . . .” Time seemed to slow for everyone as they processed who just spoke. “…WHAT’RE YOU DOING HERE?!”
“Moi?!” the W-bot exclaimed. “I’m here to lead my friends to victory! …Wait, don’t tell me I shoWed up on the Wrong side. Why are my W’s in caps?! HEY!” He realized his smaller ‘v’ was stitched to his side. “Who did this?! I’m a misshapen ‘W’! Why, that little… HURRY, TO THE RUINS!” And he continued dashing.
“I could’ve sworn that was Max running with us!” Laruta exclaimed. “Ugh, he never takes a situation seriously!”
Victoream was no liar as the enemy ruins soon came into view. Only Tsao-Lon waited in the center of the pavilion, but other Mamodo were stationed at higher levels of the mountain palace, including Leila and Pamoon at the highest building. Tsao-Lon greeted the team with a swing of his extended staff, but Karma’s foot served to block it. Aria dashed to the Mamodo and threw a Cyclone Fist, Tsao merely jumping in evasion. Karma charged the martial artist to welcome his landing with a kick, blowing Tsao into the cliff. “Hey, Spiky Hair! You wouldn’t happen to know a girl named Kagura, would you?”
“Heh…” Tsao pushed out of the cliff, rubbing the dirt off his chin. “She wouldn’t be part of the Groker front-end, would she?”
“Heh…” His eyes brimming with bloodlust, Karma cracked his knuckles. “You’re gonna be begging for mercy when we get done.”
“Yeah.” Aria joined. “You’ll pay for hurting a citizen of Onett!”
The remaining operatives began their charge into the palace. “They’re… coming in.” Leila said drolly.
“And there’ll be more of them.” Pamoon faced the sky. “They’re here now…”
“Heeeeeeey!”
Leila whipped up in a gasp. A trio of operatives were falling in a skydive. “Leilaaaaa! Is that yoooooouuu?”
No doubt that was Perry. He was too far to make out well, but Leila could almost see the radiance on him. “Sorry my friends decided to barge in! We’re taking this castle, and we’re taking that Moon Stone away from Milordo! You’re all gonna be free!”
“F-Free…”
“Leila, we have our orders.” Pamoon said. “If we hold back… Milordo won’t forgive us.”
“Nnn…” Leila grit her teeth in guilt and aimed her wand. A flurry of moons and stars flew up, the diving trio maneuvering.
“HEY!” Perry threw open his sail and his cousins parachutes. “Leila, stop! It’s okay, we’re gonna win this! You can help!”
“We can’t gamble everything on you!” Pamoon yelled. “Victoream, let’s use our combo attack!” The duo conjured a stationary swarm of their celestials.
“Got it! Preparing Celestial M-Storm!” Max declared, mustering his chi.
“HUUUUUH?!” Both’s eyes popped out. “YOU’RE NOT VICTOREAM!”
“Uh-oh! No wonder I MisaiMed this!”
“AAAAAAAHHHH!” A shower of M’s rained upon the two from their own celestials.
“Nice one, Max!” Perry made himself fall faster. “Leila, don’t worry, he means no harm!”
Scrambling to stand, Leila only grew fearful as Perry neared. The purple child rushed into the nearby doorway. “Hurrrrr!” Glaring spitefully at Perry, Pamoon flew skyward to throw a star-glazed fist, which Perry blocked with the Hylian Shield. “Sorry, friend! The Hylian Shield is top Hyrule craftsmanship, second to the Mirror Shield.” He threw a quick slice at Pamoon before sliding off and landing carefully on the ground, leaving his cousins to distract the cyborg.
The entrance led to the stairwell suspended over the dark chasm. Perry saw Leila just as she made it to the top. “Leila, where’re you going? What’s wrong?”
Leila stopped and faced down, her violet eyes dim. “What’s wrong? W-what are you… stupid? I told Milordo-Z you were coming… We were ready for your ambush all along. Did you really think… I would join your side?”
“Leila…”
“Go away. You can’t beat the Mamodo. I don’t wanna turn back to stone… I don’t…”
“We will beat them, Leila. All our best operatives have recovered, they’re ready! Besides, your allies haven’t killed a single one. Deep down, they all feel the same. They want us to win, too!”
“What’s that now?” a voice hissed. “Not a single one… died? That wasn’t what I was told.”
Leila spun with a start. A purple-cloaked figure in a metal mask walked out from the chamber behind. “Are…are you Milordo-Z?” Perry asked, growing tense. He was already prepared to face the mastermind, but he still knew nothing of his powers.
“Leila… I could’ve sworn you at least destroyed a few of those Sector W brats… but I guess even THAT was a lie.”
“I-I-I’m sorry… b-but we still have plenty of soldiers, we can win, I’m sure!”
“Then you’d better start! Get down there and kill that boy.”
“Nnnn…” A trembling Leila twisted back to Perry, wand clutched in hesitation. “I-I…”
Perry glared. Her true feelings were more than obvious… and the malice brewing from that man was poisonous. “Hey… Leila. Is that guy bullying you?”
“W…what?”
His sword was drawn. “’Cause if he is…” The Supreme Leader heroically rushed up the stairs. “I’ll carve him to pieces!”
“If that’s what you want, boy.” Milordo flew downstairs on his own. His white-skinned hand was open, Perry raising his shield against whatever he had planned. As soon as the hand slapped the shield, there was an explosion: the shield protected Perry from damage, but he was blown downstairs from the force. “!!” Energy spheres flew down, rupturing in multiple explosions as Perry kept his shield handy. Through the smoke, Milordo lashed an energy whip, Perry barely dodging before the ground was punctured. The whip exploded the base of the stairs, blowing Perry into the pit, but he shot his Hookshot against a vine molding in one spot. He pulled himself to the vine, but was fearful under Milordo’s grin. “Huh?!” The lord was hit with rounds of icicles, seeing Frasmine at the entrance.
“Perry, didn’t we tell you not to go too far on your own?”
While Milordo tried to turn his attacks on Frasmine, he found himself latched by Perry’s Hookshot, the leader pulling up to slash the villain. He dealt a cut to Milordo’s hip before having to dodge a burst. “Not my fault you were slow!”
“Leila! Don’t just stand there, you fool! Attack them or else!”
“Nnn!” Fueled by anxiety, Leila fired a Lunar Beam straight down at Frasmine, forcing him back outside. A furious Perry slashed at Milordo, but was blocked by a harmless explosion that was meant to shield his foe.
Outside
Mack aimed his shots at the exposed gray segments of Baltro’s arms and legs, believing those to be the weak points. It became difficult when Baltro caught on to his strategy, the robot moving fast for his size as he kept trying to stomp Mack. The scientist dropped M.A.R.B.L.E.s beneath the soles to blow up against them with each dodge. “’Guess my mom’s training is paying off…” Mack mumbled in spite. “WHOA!” Baltro suddenly bent down and punched Mack in the backpack, breaking his dual turrets. “Well, that ain’t playing fair!” Mack got up and ran, but a swarm of metal, pointed planes came down. Mack withdrew a bazooka that would launch soda bottle missiles, packing enough force to knock the planes off course. Baltro sprung himself to the air and hammered his fists toward Mack, the boy bouncing from the impact. Mack shot a soda at Baltro’s face, drenching it with soda and blinding him.
Baltro aimlessly swiped the ground, hoping to strike Mack, who ran to keep his distance. “AGH!” He tripped on something in the grass: one of Baltro’s fallen planes. Baltro uncovered his face and planted himself on all fours, extracting wheels on his heels and wrists. His arm engines launched himself at Mack, who reactively bent the plane up to stab into Baltro’s mouth. The robot munched the plane and smacked Mack away as planned. “MACK!” His leader, Erin came running in the most coordinated manner she could. “That looked pretty painful. Let me heal you!”
“I’m fine…” Mack stretched up. “Hold on… I couldn’t bend those planes before. How…” Baltro aimed his minigun chest and unloaded another round, Mack catching them for himself and Erin’s sake. The other planes returned, Mack flicking the bullets at them, but with Baltro closing in, the boy threw on a jetpack, grabbed Erin, and flew away. The storming giant tried to swat them down like flies, Mack dodging and bending out six, oval-shaped metal beads. The beads made a hexagon and formed a barrier to block one of Baltro’s punches. The planes returned and tried to cut them out of the sky, but as Mack evaded, he took note of the flowers lodged in them. “Sorry, Erin!” He swung his friend at an angle that kicked one of the flowers, watching as the plane dropped into a crash.
“AH-HA!” Mack flew toward Baltro’s legs and bent the beads to make a barrier around the right leg, tugging it and causing the giant to stumble and fall on his hands. Mack released Erin on the ground and flew up, quickly searching the robot’s back. “!” A flower was blooming from Baltro’s butt. Mack shot down and stomped the flower, grinding it to pieces. “Bet you can’t get up now!” Mack ran up the fallen bot’s back. And grabbed the neck. “Huuuurrrr!” He was able to twist it with his bending, unscrewing and popping it off. Underneath was… a smaller head. Baltro was a white-furred, dog-like creature with a green scarf. “So, you can control metal objects with those flowers and render them unbendable for anyone else. You have to be pretty dumb to think I wouldn’t notice such a—AAACK!”
Baltro strangled Mack in his clawed hands. “Mack!” Erin ran to his rescue, but Baltro threw Mack into her. The Mamodo grew several pink flowers and threw them into the fallen planes, the robot’s body, and one in the head. The robot pushed up on its feet as Baltro sent the head to munch the kids. Mack used the Bari-Beads to block the teeth, the kids dodging a stomp from the giant afterward. Mack leapt onto one of the planes that swooped down, ripping out its flower, but willing it to keep flying. Baltro tried to CLAP Mack out of the air, but little did he know Mack had dropped a Spring Pad for Erin to use. Once she had gotten behind Baltro, she jumped on and propelled herself up, sending her into vertigo for a moment. Mack stayed close enough so Baltro wouldn’t wander from her, watching as Erin was able to flick a Water Shuriken to cut the flower.
Baltro was in the midst of raising his fist at that time, so after Erin cut the flower, Mack took hold of the fist in his own bending, using his other hand to keep the plane elevated. Baltro was confused for a moment, but as Mack made the motion of hitting himself, the giant fist pounded Baltro’s cockpit. The area dented as Baltro grew bruised and beaten. The robot fell to its knees before the rest of it followed, bouncing Baltro out of the cockpit. However, the impish dog awoke and tried to take control of the flying head, sending it to bite Erin. …However, it suddenly twisted around, and Baltro realized too late that Mack was controlling it. The head flew to munch its own master. The decaying of the planes’ flowers signaled Baltro’s defeat.
“Ha ha ha! The weakest of the Elite 10 was no match for the smartest!”
“It takes a loser to beat a loser.” Silica retorted.
“Shouldn’t you be with your gorilla girlfriend, Pig Nose?”
“Keep talking like that and she’ll track you down in no time!”
“HEY! You crushed Boss Baltro!” They saw a small, block-shaped, antenna robot racing up on tank tread shoes. “I will avenge him! Koral Q, to the resc-”
The mecha Mamodo was run over by a race kart. “Hope we aren’t late to the party!” said Marty Gilligan.
“Nope!” followed Jennu, using gravitybending to bring her allies to a safe landing. “I think we’re just in time!”
“The GKND are here!” Erin exclaimed.
“We sure are!” Nyoro smiled. “And the others are already headed for the ruins!”
“Hehe, let’s hope Perry isn’t too far ahead of them.”
Ruins
Milordo retreated from an enraged Perry atop the stairs, stopping confidently as Leila used a crescent shield to protect her master. “Leila! You don’t have to work for-”
Milordo slapped an explosion through the shield, blowing Perry downstairs. “Leila is a good and faithful servant.” He stroked the child’s chin. “She knows what’s best for both of us, doesn’t she?”
“Screw you!” Perry rushed back up.
“Perry, don’t go up on your own!” Jasmine shouted, she and Fras blocked at the entrance by Pamoon’s Star Shield.
“They never learn.” Milordo touched the ground and channeled a large sum of chi, causing the stairs to burst at the base.
“WAAAAH!” Perry kicked off the crumbling pieces beneath him, but could only grab the edge of the top with his right fingers. “Leila…”
“Zifififi!” Milordo laughed. “Fool… These warriors have slept for a thousand years with nothing but hatred for the KND. They will never join you… You are no match for the mighty empire!” He bent, ready to touch Perry’s hand and seal his fate. “Remember this as you take your eternal-”
Perry swiftly swung his left hand and severed Milordo’s with the Gilded Sword. “AAAAAHH!” The leader pulled himself up and dodged a blast from Milordo’s left, while the right fell into the chasm with spilling blood. “YOU BASTARD! YOU CUT OFF MY HAND! SON OF A-”
A swift slice up cleanly cut Milordo’s mask in two. The iron split open, dropping down along with his cape. Milordo had a white face with purple lips, thick red strips beneath the slit, wide-pupil eyes, and curly orange hair. He wore a large white hat with a purple rim, matching the shoulders of his otherwise white robe with a thick red central rim. Before either could land another blow, Leila shot a beam from her wand, pushing Perry down into the abyss. “Good riddance… now…”
Milordo flew to the lower platform of the non-existent stairs, where Byonko and Pamoon had the Drilovsky Twins brought to their knees. “Pamoon! What’s that I heard about none of the operatives dying?!”
“The operatives we faced took severe beatings. There was no reason to-”
“Your orders were to KILL THEM! What are you, Saturday morning cartoon villains?! No matter how injured they were, this operation was riding on their complete demise! You’re warriors made to serve the empire, now do your job and kill those two!”
However, Pamoon received a transmission, viewing his arm monitor. “Hey, Pamoon! So, uh, we found those kids camping in the mountains, and…uh, they’re a little too strong. Two of them are that tailed boy and the firebending girl from before! D-Do ya think you could… come help?”
Pamoon looked up expectantly… so, the lightbender was here, was he? “Looks like I’m needed elsewhere. Be right back, My Lord.” The cyborg took flight across the valley.
“PAMOON! Ugh!” Milordo flew back to the upper room. “Demolt would do better than any of you combined! The rest of you had better pull your weight…”
…
Perry had fallen through a tube and dropped into a dark room, the tube sealing above him. “OW!!” cried a snotty, girlish yelp upon landing.
“What the…” Perry was sitting atop a red-suited girl. “Joto?!”
“Perry?” She rolled him off before standing. “Don’t tell me you tripped and fell!”
“I fought Milordo-Z and I fell. I knew it was risky, but he…he really pissed me off.”
“…” Joto remembered the bloody hand that just fell down. “Dude… did you do that?”
“Er…yeah. So, where’s the way out?”
“I’ve sorta been stuck down here. That tunnel only opens from above, and I haven’t found a way out.”
“There has to be some way…” Perry walked to the wall and began to whack various parts with his sword. “Oh?” One part made a weird sound. “Joto, try to hit this wall.”
Joto tossed up a baseball, whacked it with great force, and broke the wall open. “Huh…should’ve treated this place like my room.”
The two followed a passage leading to what seemed like a platforming obstacle course. “Well, I was bound to wind up in one of these eventually.”
Part 4: Invasion on Devolo
Moonbase
The huge band of teammates engaged in small slumber party games with what little stamina their bandaged bodies had. Jolene, Trella, Lily, and Mali had a tickle fight; Spike, Jason, and Christina slammed pillows into each other before their bones gave in; Veronica and Chuko shared their uncomfortable experience with Laruta, who grew equally furious at the rabbit. Walking by, Mack couldn’t hold in the remark, “Hey, look at the pipsqueak party over here!” This resulted in Veronica turning Mack into a cat to be violently combed and squeezed by the shorties.
“Hey, Ralph, you up for some Uno?” Max asked, raising the card deck. “Fair warning: there are more Special Cards than normal.”
“I don’t think we’ll get to sleep at that rate.”
“Come on, man! If we train against the unexpected, the expected will never expect how prepared we are! Right, Perry?” There was no answer. “…Where’s Perry?”
“He’s joggin’ around base.”
“Seriously? Dude, the game is Uno, not Solo! Come on, let’s go find him.”
The boys walked to the bridge and caught Perry in the midst of his second lap. “Yo, Perry!”
“Hey, Ralph! Max!” He ran to their side. “What’s up?”
“You, apparently. We’re supposed to be chillin’, dude, come play cards with us.”
“I’ll give the first Clown Card for freeeee!” Max cheered.
“I just wanna be ready for tomorrow. I mean, this’ll be our biggest mission since the Mismatch War. And that was more of a drill, but these Mamodo are serious.”
“Yeah, but you’re gonna run yourself dry before it’s time. You’re still pretty scratched up.”
“We’re gonna get more scratched up when we fight them, so I can’t let fatigue get to me.”
“I don’t see anyone else trainin’. Except Shimmy, ’cause that’s what she does.”
“At least nobody’s plaining!” Max joked. “’Cause then we’d be all bored and not doing anything! Except Ralph, ’cause planes are his thing.” Ralph eye-rolled at his dumb joke.
“But I’m the leader.” Perry reasoned. “It’s my job to work harder than everyone else. I can’t just play when we’ve got this mission coming up.”
“Oh, gee.” Ralph eye-rolled again, having seen this conflict in a couple action shows. “Alright, what cheesy lines do we need to tell you otherwise?”
“I’m just saying, Ralph… everyone depends on me. Those Mamodo had the advantage ’cause we weren’t organize. And I wasn’t organized. If we hadn’t split up, you wouldn’t have been injured…”
“Yeah, maybe so, but you got pretty beat up yourself. But now we ARE organized, and we’ll be doing the ambush now. We got each other’s backs this time.”
“I hope so…”
“Dude, quit bein’ mopey and play with us.” Max whined. “No one wants to follow a kid with a horse face!”
“Hahaha! Better than having a, uh…a rooster face!”
“Waaaah?” That’s when Max’s rooster friend, Julie Bean joined the convo. “What’s that mean?”
“It means Perry likes you!” Max said.
“He-he-he wants to kiss a hotdog?”
“Yes, Julie Bean, I love kissin’ hotdogs.”
“And, and, its name is Christina.”
“SO PERRY, come play cards with us?” Ralph yelled, not wanting to get sucked into this.
“Sure thing!” With renewed optimism, Perry rushed to the bedroom with his friends.
“What’re ya playin’? Easter Cards?” Julie asked. “…Hehe, they’re going to kiss Silica.” And the rooster waddled away. “I like tigers…”
The next morning
The operatives awoke to a sweet breakfast courtesy of Mazu Daimon. “Well, our spies just set out.” Frasmine said. “Here’s hoping they can get us some good info.”
“Where are Jason, Chris, and Isabelle?” Laruta asked. “I haven’t seen them either.”
“Those three woke up early, too!” Mazu grinned. “I fried them up a quick meal and they said they were gonna watch the sunrise directly. They’re at South America right now.”
“HUH?!” The gymnast blew up in shock. “They aren’t thinking of starting the attack early, are they?!”
“I think Jason’s adventure urges just acted up.” Ralph replied. “You know how he gets.”
“As long as they don’t do anything reckless.”
Machu Picchu, Peru
Jason wasn’t the type to be cooped up in the same boring place for too long, whether it was a hospital or Moonbase. As the dawn greeted Peru, the sight of it shining over the mountains from the ruins filled the young pirate with adrenaline. “HELLOOOOOO, MOUNTAAAAAIIIIINS!”
“Not so loud, Jason, the enemy will hear us!” Isabelle laughed. “Come on and eat!”
“Haha!” Jason jumped down the ruins’ natural steps and sat at the picnic blanket, gobbling some sunny eggs, sunny-buttered toast, and Sunny D. “Waking up in a new place is the best! We can ’ave ourselves a nice walk before we get bustin’ that base!”
“I wouldn’t mind just charging there right now.” Christina said, munching a spicy tomato sandwich. “We can knock a few of them out.”
“We’ll start with everyone else.” Isabelle reasoned. “We’re still recovering, after all.”
“I mean, I feel great. But I guess we’ll wait so Laruta doesn’t go off on us.”
“She prob’ly already is.” Jason snickered. “So, which mountain should we climb first?”
While contemplating this question, a certain propeller-earred rabbit saw the group during a casual flight through the mountains. “Fehfehfeh…” A concerned Momon thought it best not to fly any closer. Instead, he returned to the palace.
Milordo’s Lair
Leila’s tracking device led Joto and Pochi to a canyon zone. The former used her fly-sized frame to safely scout the canyon passage and signal Pochi that it was safe to keep forward. They located the ruins of a palace built into the canyon, leaves and moss growing around it. The highest building of the palace had an orb on top, and they could faintly see figures walking past the glassless windows.
“You think this is the right secret villain lair?” Joto asked, floating next to Pochi’s ear.
“Not sure. There might be another one through that other passage.”
“Nah, pretty sure I saw some of Riddler’s question marks. So, are you coming in, or you just gonna send one of your toys?”
“I can at least do the same you’ve been doing. You fly to the upper grounds and I’ll stick to the lower.” Pochi withdrew a small antenna robot from his pocket, using a game controller to make it walk toward the entrance. Joto buzzed up to the higher levels of the palace. When Pochi saw that the entrance passage was clear, he snuck in after it. The passage would lead to a wider room where Mamodo lay asleep against the walls, though one was bobbing his head to stay awake. However, Pochi saw a hole in the ceiling above him and could climb some moss up to it. “Ugh…” He cringed over the mess it left on his hands. Pochi could crawl through a narrow space above the ceiling, and holes were open for him to peer into the Mamodo’s room. He attached a Scouter to his only unveiled eye and examined the Mamodo. “Power Levels in the high hundreds, one in the thousands…”
“It’s hard to use this thing while I’m tiny.” Joto responded, examining a room of sleeping Mamodo. “It thinks they’re all giants and multiplies their Level too much. I have to find good places to resize to get the right reading. I’m getting just about the same results.” Joto buzzed through a few more halls. She encountered a couple of flying bugs, but because they were here, Joto figured the Mamodo wouldn’t notice an extra one buzzing around. “Found the plantbenders that attacked—oooohh…”
“Huh? Something wrong?”
“N-Nothing. Just found… the big robot dude that attacked us, too.”
In a particular wide chamber, a colossal Mamodo designed like a white and black robot loomed imposingly. It had a minigun chest, engine arms, clawed feet, and a wolf-like head. Joto had tried to infiltrate the robot during its first attack, but it barely had any interior wiring. There wasn’t much she could do to stop it before it started whaling on Ichigo, forcing Joto to retreat and help them. She couldn’t take the chance and attack it without alerting the palace… and her Scouter couldn’t read any Power Level. This was actually typical with machines, but it was weird to think of it as a thousand-year warrior.
Some Mamodo were boredly loitering—I mean, guarding a room with hanging vine curtains. Pochi sent his bot to scout the best route to follow around the vines, afterwards quietly walking through. He followed a stairwell down into darkness, quietly peeking into—! Pochi swiftly hid. He had just glanced the side of a large, stone throne, occupied by the very mummy they had just fought. He could see the side of Belgim’s eye glow, seeming to gaze at a door to the left. Pochi used the Scouter while he had this chance, but it only brought up question marks. “What? Hmm…” If a Scouter read a Level too high, it would malfunction. Aside from machines and resizing, a Scouter could get confused when reading supernatural, even ghostly forces. Just knowing that would actually be helpful. Pochi wondered why Belgim was watching the other door, but for now decided to backtrack.
Joto cocked a brow, finding Pamoon standing on Tsao-Lon’s back while the latter did push-ups. “Tell me, Pamoon… when you fought that sector, did any operatives catch your eye?”
“Strong ones, you mean? There were two, but I can only speak for the lightbender. He was impressive…”
“That girl from Twoson fought well for a normal civilian. Milordo-Z provided no intel on her, so she couldn’t have been an agent. It’s a shame she didn’t give me much of a fight. I wonder what she meant by…” how her people had done enough fighting.
“Hm?”
“Never mind. I can only hope for stronger foes tomorrow.”
“Tsao-Lon… how do you feel about this, anyway? Still serving the empire, and this strange master, after 1,000 years…”
Joto flew into a hole on the ceiling, resizing within a tight space. She peeked down to scan the two. “What choice is there?” Tsao asked. “We’ll return to stone without their help, and we have no families to go back to. The only thing left for me is to fight. As long as I can get a good fight every now and then, I’m happy.”
“I guess that’s all we can ask for now… anything to make us happy.” Pamoon felt the need to check on Leila. “I’m going on patrol. You should get some sleep soon.” The cyborg stepped off and through the next room. Joto quietly landed on his back, hoping to not be noticed. Tsao’s Power Level was scanned to be 5,000, and Pamoon was roughly 4,800, though she wasn’t sure if the enhancements counted. Pamoon opened a monitor on his wrist and spoke, “Leila. Come in, Leila.” …No response. “Leila… are you there? …” He groaned in concern. “Leila…” He picked up pace and hurried through the castle.
The main way into the highest building was a stairwell over a deep chasm. Leila stood fearfully a few steps down from the top, her communicator buzzing. “Now’s not the time for phone calls, Leila.” Milordo-Z hissed, his amphibian minion behind him. “Now, darling… why would you be plotting behind my back?”
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“HARRR.” Milordo flicked his left hand, rupturing an explosion in midair. “Leila, do you know how much convincing it took to get the Irkens to find you all, to free you? Do you know how loose your freedom is right now? If you’re not worth the effort it took to find you,” he stepped down, Leila walking backwards in fear, “you’re going right back to that stone, and you’ll be buried so deep underground, no one will ever find you!”
“No, no, no!” She tripped on a step, falling halfway down.
Milordo flew just a step above her, casting a shadow. “Oh, look. You’re already changing back. We oughta bring you upstairs and restore you…” He picked Leila up by the scruff and dragged her to the edge of the chasm, “or I can drop you down there where your tablet will rest forever!”
“No, no, no! Please don’t, please don’t, I don’t wanna…sniff.” Leila felt more helpless and desperate than she’d ever been, wanting to cry as many tears as possible to remind herself she was still flesh. She felt stiff in her toes, for the petrification was starting there.
“Then be a useful warrior. If those KND found this place because of you, you’d better fight them. You’d better serve your people and destroy them. Will you?!”
“Yes, yes! I will, I will, please don’t let me turn back, huff…”
“Leila!” Both faced the entrance, where Pamoon stood troubled. “Milordo… what’s going on?”
“We were just talking about tomorrow’s plans. Wanna tell him what we’re gonna do, Leila?”
“W-W-We’re gonna lure the KND here… and destroy ’em all tomorrow. Sniff…”
Joto couldn’t see them from Pamoon’s back, but was too cautious to fly out. Not only was Milordo here, but so was their supposed ally. They were gonna lure the KND here? Was Leila using their trust against them? …But it sounded like she was sobbing.
“Why are you holding her that way?” Pamoon asked, his eyes a glare. Joto grew more curious. Byonko crawled downstairs.
“She stumbled and nearly fell off is all. We’d better get upstairs for a little recharge, right, Leila?”
“Y-Yes…” She obediently followed her master upward, passing Byonko. The frog looked once more at Pamoon, shirking at his glare. …Joto had flown out when she heard them going up, but she hadn’t expected a large frog to be there. “!” Nor did she expect to wind up on its giant tongue and yanked right down its throat. “Huh?” Pamoon gasped.
“Saw one of those tasty bugs-gero.” Byonko blushed. “That’s the best part of living here.”
“Hm…Come to think of it, why are we based here, anyway?”
“We sort of read about these ruins and—HULP!” Byonko gagged. “HACK! ULK…” It looked like his body was being pushed in different directions.
“Eh?” Milordo looked down. “Byonko, what’s wrong?”
“KUH…KUH…KAH!” He spat a glob of slime down to the base of the stairs. Joto wound up practically drowning in the slime, so her only hope was to instinctively click the resize button. She blew up wide enough so the slime covered her partly. “…Uh-oh.”
“INTRUDER!” Milordo screeched. A volley of stars threatened to bombard Joto, but with fast thinking, she shrunk back down and out of the slime. She zipped around the massive stars, but the side of one bumped and sent her falling into the abyss. “Quick! Signal the troops now, there could be more!”
The Mamodo Pochi was spying on suddenly woke, the boy ducking in a dark crevice as they bypassed him. When the coast seemed clear, he called, “Joto, they’re getting active. Is something happening? …Joto? Hey!”
“Ugh…yeah, I’m here.” Joto answered with a grunt. “I got spotted. Sorry.”
“Are you being chased?!”
Joto managed to regain herself and float in the chasm, but Pamoon was descending. The Tiny Devil flew lower. “I’ll be alright, but you need to hide. They’re looking for others. Let’s call the ship and tell ’em what we learned, they might need to leave.”
“Yeah…” Pochi remembered a stone tile that he could open up and crawl under just around the corner. He tucked himself against the crevice when the Nimbi Mamodo flew by, afterwards taking the chance to hurry out. No Mamodo were around the turn, so he quickly opened the tile, squeezed in the narrow space, and pulled it shut, though a tiny gap was left for his fingers to fit. A black hole opened as Gorm peeked out, looking around before receding. “Phew…Joto, do you think this’ll complicate the mission?”
“Pochi, I think Milordo is already on to us.” Joto flew through a passage under the chasm. “He was talking to that Leila girl, and…urgh, let’s just send the report. I took a hit and I feel too tired to make it back. We’ll have to lay low until our friends get here.”
“I’m definitely gonna feel stiff after this…”
Byonko hopped to an outside area, skimming the grounds for any strangers. “Feh! Feeeeeh!”
“Momon?!” The flying rabbit returned from the mountains.
“Fehfeh! Feh!”
“You saw some kids camping in the ruins across the mountains-gero?”
“Feh fehfeh!”
“We just found some intruders; I wonder if more of them are camped out there? I’ll send some soldiers immediately-gero!”
11:45a.m.
The ships soared over an area in the mountains as the band of kids dropped out on parachutes, landing a few miles from the palace. “This is Laruta to Jason. Where are you three? We’re about to land with the invasion force.”
“Hi, Laru!” Jason answered. “We’re exploring Machu Picchu!”
“WHY are you exploring Machu Picchu at a time like this?!”
“I can’t get excited for a battle without an adventure! Besides, I thought the battle wasn’t ’til noon.”
“Our spies were spotted, so we’re starting a little early. It’ll be noon when we get there, anyway.”
“Orright, we’ll be there in a jiffy. It’s in the same mountain range, right?”
“Jason, it’s way farther than here! Let’s get back to the ship first.” Isabelle suggested.
“Good idea! …Eh, which way’s the ship?”
“JASON! Hoooohh!” Laruta fumed. “Please just hurry!”
“I mean, it isn’t the biggest drawback.” Mika figured. “We have plenty with us and plenty on standby. Overall, I like our odds.”
“Speakin’ of odd, who the heck made those giant paper planes?” Snap pointed.
A small fleet of said planes soared their direction, flowers lodged atop them. “Hey, those planes are metallic!” Mack yelled. “And REALLY sharp!”
Mika used a barrier to block their progression while Mack tried to bend the strange projectiles. He failed to control them, the planes using a drill maneuver to cut through the barrier. Mika willed the operatives to maneuver away as they all shot projectiles, taking the planes down. “You kids picked the wrong place to skydive!” An orange-haired Mamodo soared on a winged skateboard, sending air slices to cut the parachute strings.
“YOU AGAIN!” Ralph screamed, taking the plunge.
“Hey, fatty, how you been!” Hyde smirked. “I don’t see that little sword boy anywhere. Was he too chicken to come~?”
“I dunno about chicken, but I’m about to go hawk on your butt!” Ralph pulled a string and extracted a pair of glider wings, swirling before curving upward. He summoned his G.En.I.E., Joaquin to give himself altitude, shooting bullets from his wings and damaging Hyde. “Guys, leave this jerk to me! He’s gonna pay for hurting my pal!”
“He’s all yours, Ralphy!” Laruta cheered. “Guys, fallbreak!”
“Hup!” Mika caught some with psychic, Aria and Veronica used magic, and Robi grabbed his own teammates to slow their fall. They landed in the forest with relative ease, but it was then the trees and roots began to violently stir around, knocking the kids about and scattering them. Roses grew from the earth to snare them in thorns.
“Like falling into a Venus flytrap.” A Mamodo with green, wide, and curly hair boasted. She wore a yellow dress with long, curled frills. “Want to crush them, Pokkerio?” she asked a bark-skinned Mamodo.
“You got this one, Kalura.”
However, Trella had danced in evasion, evading her thorns as she sang for Jungle Dancer Monkey to land and stab Kalura with a rainbow spear. As she fended off the Mamodo, Lily used Razor Leaves to slice everyone free. She grabbed some roots and stretched them up to whip Pokkerio, who grew confused until he saw the inch-tall girl between Trella’s rocks. “Trella, I can’t bend brambles, but I can hold back the wood guy’s attacks!”
Then leave the green girl to me! Trella swept her cousin off the ground. Her evasive dancing also helped to guide Lily’s bending, making it difficult for Pokkerio to focus control on the roots.
“Do your best, you two!” Aria thumbed up, the operatives racing onward.
“Um, are you sure we shouldn’t help?” Robi asked.
“Everyone gets one, Robi!” Laruta reminded with a smile. “But speaking of, do you think you can fly to where Jason is and check if they’re alright? I’d hate for them to be late.”
“Okay!” The Nimbi returned to the air and flew across the mountains.
A certain guideline the KND had been taught to uphold is “Everyone Gets a Turn.” It was courtesy that each member of a team be given a chance to battle and contribute to a mission. When faced with villain groups, each teammate would pick one to fight and be entitled to a victory, provided the numbers were willing.
Nearing the canyon that would lead to the base, a horde of Mamodo stood guard. To intimidate them further, the giant, wolf-headed robot came stomping around the canyon, quaking the earth. “Gero-gero-gero-gero-gero!” Byonko laughed, hopping one foot at a time from atop the bot. “Is this the best you could bring, Kids Next Door?! We knew you were coming all along! We were prepared for your arrival!”
“Wow!! It’s a talking wolf-frog-bot!” Nora exclaimed.
“I only thought it professional to formally announce your utter doom! I’m Byonko, Milordo-Z’s trusted adviser and the General Instructor of the Mamodo Army!”
“General Instructor?” Chuko gasped. “Adviser?!”
“Just a fancy-schmancy way of sayin’ he’s a low-level minion.” Konsai retorted.
“HEY! Don’t underestimate me, you snotty brat!”
“Even Laruta has more snot than you, froggy!” Mack snapped, earning a growl from the shorty. “Get down here if you think you’re tough!”
“Why do that when I can make my minions do it? This big boy here is Baltro! He may be the weakest of the Elite 10, but he’s more than a match for you! All yours!” Byonko leapt away as the giant robot unloaded his minigun chest, but Mack managed to catch the bullets in bending, flinging them at the surrounding Mamodo. They dodged, but were swarmed by some operatives while others hurried past. Baltro stormed toward Mack and tried to kick him with his clawed toes. The scientist dodged, at the same time trying to grab the mech in his bending, but failed to take hold.
“I can’t bend this metal either! Is it chi-blocked?” Mack ran before the giant could stomp him. “No matter! My own tech is better!” He bent a metal backpack from his Infi-Cube, and said device extracted two long plasma turrets on his sides. Nora engaged the revived sea snake, Gelios; Suna engaged a block-like Mamodo called Giriko, who had a spinning saw collar; Konsai battled a mummy-faced Mamodo called Zami, who could shoot wrapped balls; Koda Ramsey launched fireworks at a bulky, bomb-throwing Mamodo called Dalmos; Jolene used her Clay Whale to ram Goramu, a giant stone Mamodo with a blank face.
“Heads up, gang, I’m seeing a familiar face.” Spike pointed skyward.
A black hole loomed in the air above the canyon, Gorm’s torso sticking out. The buglike Mamodo threw black balls, which were countered by Mika’s Psy-Spheres, cancelling them with explosions. “You’re going to be a big problem.” Gabriel remarked, warping up to Gorm’s level and bombarding him with Starbursts. As the Mamodo retreated into his portal, Gabriel failed to keep it open with his spacebending. He was certain Gorm was a spacebender with an off-color, black chi, but he seemed to have enough control to keep it out of another’s hands.
Gorm reappeared behind the band of operatives and fired a greater black sphere. Mika saw the attack coming just in time to fly and block the energy with a barrier, but it only held back for a second before penetrating. The kids hurriedly ducked to the sides while Mika teleported, all dodging the blackness. “Mali-chan, you okay?”
“Y-yeah, Laru-chan. AAAH!” However, the giant was immediately seized by Gorm and pulled into his vortex.
“HEY!” Mika telekinetically grabbed the giant’s leg, but a black ball was shot toward the psychic, knocking Mika against the wall and breaking her control.
…
“WAAAH!” Gorm casually discarded Mali in the middle of a desert before going back. “W-w-w…where am I?!” It was still nighttime, wherever this was. “Brrrr…I’m c-cold. W-where is everyone…” There seemed to be no sign of life for miles. The little giant was all alone in the sands. “Sniff, sniff…Laru-chan… someone…”
…
“HEY! WHAT’D YOU DO TO MALI-CHAN?!” Shimmy yelled upon Gorm’s return.
“Maybe she’s trapped in that thing’s subspace!” Gabriel assumed. “I’ll get her out!” He warped directly above Gorm’s portal, but the monster leapt out, sealing the portal and chucking a sphere that Gabriel dodged. Gorm began to glide around, but seeing a storm of Psy-Spheres, Gorm conjured a giant barrier, designed like a black target, and perfectly blocked the psychic. Gorm glid into a portal, but Gabriel suddenly landed on his back and flew in with him.
The inside of Gorm’s subspace was monochrome with black, blurry mist. The monster frantically tried to swat Gabriel, who dodged and damaged him with Starbursts. “I don’t see Mali…” He wondered if the child was dropped somewhere bad. “Hm…you can’t use your bending in here, can you? This place is meant for allies, not enemies.”
Gorm growled. “Go, go-go-go, go-go, gor! (Big deal! I’ll take ya someplace with NO allies!)” Gorm opened an exit and flew through, landing them in a different desert by a paved road. Gorm knew this spacebender could probably warp back to the battle site, so he just needed to deal with him real quick.
“Hey, Mika,” Rudy began, “that was one of the Elites, wasn’t it? You think Gabriel and Mali can handle him?”
“We don’t have a way to follow them! Sigh…let’s keep going. We’ll just have to hope they hold out.”
“I knew we should’ve let Mali stay home!” Laruta shouted. “Poor thing… I feel awful.”
“If ya have time to cry, ya have time to beat up more Mons!” Spike retorted.
With what remained of their numbers, the KND tanked through several more Mamodo along the canyon, with Spike and Kent negating the rockslides set by Earth Mamodo. “We’re almost there, everyone!” Victoream announced. “The Devolo Ruins are just around the bend!”
“Then it’s full steam ahead!” Aria smirked. “No time to look… back…”
“. . . . . .” Time seemed to slow for everyone as they processed who just spoke. “…WHAT’RE YOU DOING HERE?!”
“Moi?!” the W-bot exclaimed. “I’m here to lead my friends to victory! …Wait, don’t tell me I shoWed up on the Wrong side. Why are my W’s in caps?! HEY!” He realized his smaller ‘v’ was stitched to his side. “Who did this?! I’m a misshapen ‘W’! Why, that little… HURRY, TO THE RUINS!” And he continued dashing.
“I could’ve sworn that was Max running with us!” Laruta exclaimed. “Ugh, he never takes a situation seriously!”
Victoream was no liar as the enemy ruins soon came into view. Only Tsao-Lon waited in the center of the pavilion, but other Mamodo were stationed at higher levels of the mountain palace, including Leila and Pamoon at the highest building. Tsao-Lon greeted the team with a swing of his extended staff, but Karma’s foot served to block it. Aria dashed to the Mamodo and threw a Cyclone Fist, Tsao merely jumping in evasion. Karma charged the martial artist to welcome his landing with a kick, blowing Tsao into the cliff. “Hey, Spiky Hair! You wouldn’t happen to know a girl named Kagura, would you?”
“Heh…” Tsao pushed out of the cliff, rubbing the dirt off his chin. “She wouldn’t be part of the Groker front-end, would she?”
“Heh…” His eyes brimming with bloodlust, Karma cracked his knuckles. “You’re gonna be begging for mercy when we get done.”
“Yeah.” Aria joined. “You’ll pay for hurting a citizen of Onett!”
The remaining operatives began their charge into the palace. “They’re… coming in.” Leila said drolly.
“And there’ll be more of them.” Pamoon faced the sky. “They’re here now…”
“Heeeeeeey!”
Leila whipped up in a gasp. A trio of operatives were falling in a skydive. “Leilaaaaa! Is that yoooooouuu?”
No doubt that was Perry. He was too far to make out well, but Leila could almost see the radiance on him. “Sorry my friends decided to barge in! We’re taking this castle, and we’re taking that Moon Stone away from Milordo! You’re all gonna be free!”
“F-Free…”
“Leila, we have our orders.” Pamoon said. “If we hold back… Milordo won’t forgive us.”
“Nnn…” Leila grit her teeth in guilt and aimed her wand. A flurry of moons and stars flew up, the diving trio maneuvering.
“HEY!” Perry threw open his sail and his cousins parachutes. “Leila, stop! It’s okay, we’re gonna win this! You can help!”
“We can’t gamble everything on you!” Pamoon yelled. “Victoream, let’s use our combo attack!” The duo conjured a stationary swarm of their celestials.
“Got it! Preparing Celestial M-Storm!” Max declared, mustering his chi.
“HUUUUUH?!” Both’s eyes popped out. “YOU’RE NOT VICTOREAM!”
“Uh-oh! No wonder I MisaiMed this!”
“AAAAAAAHHHH!” A shower of M’s rained upon the two from their own celestials.
“Nice one, Max!” Perry made himself fall faster. “Leila, don’t worry, he means no harm!”
Scrambling to stand, Leila only grew fearful as Perry neared. The purple child rushed into the nearby doorway. “Hurrrrr!” Glaring spitefully at Perry, Pamoon flew skyward to throw a star-glazed fist, which Perry blocked with the Hylian Shield. “Sorry, friend! The Hylian Shield is top Hyrule craftsmanship, second to the Mirror Shield.” He threw a quick slice at Pamoon before sliding off and landing carefully on the ground, leaving his cousins to distract the cyborg.
The entrance led to the stairwell suspended over the dark chasm. Perry saw Leila just as she made it to the top. “Leila, where’re you going? What’s wrong?”
Leila stopped and faced down, her violet eyes dim. “What’s wrong? W-what are you… stupid? I told Milordo-Z you were coming… We were ready for your ambush all along. Did you really think… I would join your side?”
“Leila…”
“Go away. You can’t beat the Mamodo. I don’t wanna turn back to stone… I don’t…”
“We will beat them, Leila. All our best operatives have recovered, they’re ready! Besides, your allies haven’t killed a single one. Deep down, they all feel the same. They want us to win, too!”
“What’s that now?” a voice hissed. “Not a single one… died? That wasn’t what I was told.”
Leila spun with a start. A purple-cloaked figure in a metal mask walked out from the chamber behind. “Are…are you Milordo-Z?” Perry asked, growing tense. He was already prepared to face the mastermind, but he still knew nothing of his powers.
“Leila… I could’ve sworn you at least destroyed a few of those Sector W brats… but I guess even THAT was a lie.”
“I-I-I’m sorry… b-but we still have plenty of soldiers, we can win, I’m sure!”
“Then you’d better start! Get down there and kill that boy.”
“Nnnn…” A trembling Leila twisted back to Perry, wand clutched in hesitation. “I-I…”
Perry glared. Her true feelings were more than obvious… and the malice brewing from that man was poisonous. “Hey… Leila. Is that guy bullying you?”
“W…what?”
His sword was drawn. “’Cause if he is…” The Supreme Leader heroically rushed up the stairs. “I’ll carve him to pieces!”
“If that’s what you want, boy.” Milordo flew downstairs on his own. His white-skinned hand was open, Perry raising his shield against whatever he had planned. As soon as the hand slapped the shield, there was an explosion: the shield protected Perry from damage, but he was blown downstairs from the force. “!!” Energy spheres flew down, rupturing in multiple explosions as Perry kept his shield handy. Through the smoke, Milordo lashed an energy whip, Perry barely dodging before the ground was punctured. The whip exploded the base of the stairs, blowing Perry into the pit, but he shot his Hookshot against a vine molding in one spot. He pulled himself to the vine, but was fearful under Milordo’s grin. “Huh?!” The lord was hit with rounds of icicles, seeing Frasmine at the entrance.
“Perry, didn’t we tell you not to go too far on your own?”
While Milordo tried to turn his attacks on Frasmine, he found himself latched by Perry’s Hookshot, the leader pulling up to slash the villain. He dealt a cut to Milordo’s hip before having to dodge a burst. “Not my fault you were slow!”
“Leila! Don’t just stand there, you fool! Attack them or else!”
“Nnn!” Fueled by anxiety, Leila fired a Lunar Beam straight down at Frasmine, forcing him back outside. A furious Perry slashed at Milordo, but was blocked by a harmless explosion that was meant to shield his foe.
Outside
Mack aimed his shots at the exposed gray segments of Baltro’s arms and legs, believing those to be the weak points. It became difficult when Baltro caught on to his strategy, the robot moving fast for his size as he kept trying to stomp Mack. The scientist dropped M.A.R.B.L.E.s beneath the soles to blow up against them with each dodge. “’Guess my mom’s training is paying off…” Mack mumbled in spite. “WHOA!” Baltro suddenly bent down and punched Mack in the backpack, breaking his dual turrets. “Well, that ain’t playing fair!” Mack got up and ran, but a swarm of metal, pointed planes came down. Mack withdrew a bazooka that would launch soda bottle missiles, packing enough force to knock the planes off course. Baltro sprung himself to the air and hammered his fists toward Mack, the boy bouncing from the impact. Mack shot a soda at Baltro’s face, drenching it with soda and blinding him.
Baltro aimlessly swiped the ground, hoping to strike Mack, who ran to keep his distance. “AGH!” He tripped on something in the grass: one of Baltro’s fallen planes. Baltro uncovered his face and planted himself on all fours, extracting wheels on his heels and wrists. His arm engines launched himself at Mack, who reactively bent the plane up to stab into Baltro’s mouth. The robot munched the plane and smacked Mack away as planned. “MACK!” His leader, Erin came running in the most coordinated manner she could. “That looked pretty painful. Let me heal you!”
“I’m fine…” Mack stretched up. “Hold on… I couldn’t bend those planes before. How…” Baltro aimed his minigun chest and unloaded another round, Mack catching them for himself and Erin’s sake. The other planes returned, Mack flicking the bullets at them, but with Baltro closing in, the boy threw on a jetpack, grabbed Erin, and flew away. The storming giant tried to swat them down like flies, Mack dodging and bending out six, oval-shaped metal beads. The beads made a hexagon and formed a barrier to block one of Baltro’s punches. The planes returned and tried to cut them out of the sky, but as Mack evaded, he took note of the flowers lodged in them. “Sorry, Erin!” He swung his friend at an angle that kicked one of the flowers, watching as the plane dropped into a crash.
“AH-HA!” Mack flew toward Baltro’s legs and bent the beads to make a barrier around the right leg, tugging it and causing the giant to stumble and fall on his hands. Mack released Erin on the ground and flew up, quickly searching the robot’s back. “!” A flower was blooming from Baltro’s butt. Mack shot down and stomped the flower, grinding it to pieces. “Bet you can’t get up now!” Mack ran up the fallen bot’s back. And grabbed the neck. “Huuuurrrr!” He was able to twist it with his bending, unscrewing and popping it off. Underneath was… a smaller head. Baltro was a white-furred, dog-like creature with a green scarf. “So, you can control metal objects with those flowers and render them unbendable for anyone else. You have to be pretty dumb to think I wouldn’t notice such a—AAACK!”
Baltro strangled Mack in his clawed hands. “Mack!” Erin ran to his rescue, but Baltro threw Mack into her. The Mamodo grew several pink flowers and threw them into the fallen planes, the robot’s body, and one in the head. The robot pushed up on its feet as Baltro sent the head to munch the kids. Mack used the Bari-Beads to block the teeth, the kids dodging a stomp from the giant afterward. Mack leapt onto one of the planes that swooped down, ripping out its flower, but willing it to keep flying. Baltro tried to CLAP Mack out of the air, but little did he know Mack had dropped a Spring Pad for Erin to use. Once she had gotten behind Baltro, she jumped on and propelled herself up, sending her into vertigo for a moment. Mack stayed close enough so Baltro wouldn’t wander from her, watching as Erin was able to flick a Water Shuriken to cut the flower.
Baltro was in the midst of raising his fist at that time, so after Erin cut the flower, Mack took hold of the fist in his own bending, using his other hand to keep the plane elevated. Baltro was confused for a moment, but as Mack made the motion of hitting himself, the giant fist pounded Baltro’s cockpit. The area dented as Baltro grew bruised and beaten. The robot fell to its knees before the rest of it followed, bouncing Baltro out of the cockpit. However, the impish dog awoke and tried to take control of the flying head, sending it to bite Erin. …However, it suddenly twisted around, and Baltro realized too late that Mack was controlling it. The head flew to munch its own master. The decaying of the planes’ flowers signaled Baltro’s defeat.
“Ha ha ha! The weakest of the Elite 10 was no match for the smartest!”
“It takes a loser to beat a loser.” Silica retorted.
“Shouldn’t you be with your gorilla girlfriend, Pig Nose?”
“Keep talking like that and she’ll track you down in no time!”
“HEY! You crushed Boss Baltro!” They saw a small, block-shaped, antenna robot racing up on tank tread shoes. “I will avenge him! Koral Q, to the resc-”
The mecha Mamodo was run over by a race kart. “Hope we aren’t late to the party!” said Marty Gilligan.
“Nope!” followed Jennu, using gravitybending to bring her allies to a safe landing. “I think we’re just in time!”
“The GKND are here!” Erin exclaimed.
“We sure are!” Nyoro smiled. “And the others are already headed for the ruins!”
“Hehe, let’s hope Perry isn’t too far ahead of them.”
Ruins
Milordo retreated from an enraged Perry atop the stairs, stopping confidently as Leila used a crescent shield to protect her master. “Leila! You don’t have to work for-”
Milordo slapped an explosion through the shield, blowing Perry downstairs. “Leila is a good and faithful servant.” He stroked the child’s chin. “She knows what’s best for both of us, doesn’t she?”
“Screw you!” Perry rushed back up.
“Perry, don’t go up on your own!” Jasmine shouted, she and Fras blocked at the entrance by Pamoon’s Star Shield.
“They never learn.” Milordo touched the ground and channeled a large sum of chi, causing the stairs to burst at the base.
“WAAAAH!” Perry kicked off the crumbling pieces beneath him, but could only grab the edge of the top with his right fingers. “Leila…”
“Zifififi!” Milordo laughed. “Fool… These warriors have slept for a thousand years with nothing but hatred for the KND. They will never join you… You are no match for the mighty empire!” He bent, ready to touch Perry’s hand and seal his fate. “Remember this as you take your eternal-”
Perry swiftly swung his left hand and severed Milordo’s with the Gilded Sword. “AAAAAHH!” The leader pulled himself up and dodged a blast from Milordo’s left, while the right fell into the chasm with spilling blood. “YOU BASTARD! YOU CUT OFF MY HAND! SON OF A-”
A swift slice up cleanly cut Milordo’s mask in two. The iron split open, dropping down along with his cape. Milordo had a white face with purple lips, thick red strips beneath the slit, wide-pupil eyes, and curly orange hair. He wore a large white hat with a purple rim, matching the shoulders of his otherwise white robe with a thick red central rim. Before either could land another blow, Leila shot a beam from her wand, pushing Perry down into the abyss. “Good riddance… now…”
Milordo flew to the lower platform of the non-existent stairs, where Byonko and Pamoon had the Drilovsky Twins brought to their knees. “Pamoon! What’s that I heard about none of the operatives dying?!”
“The operatives we faced took severe beatings. There was no reason to-”
“Your orders were to KILL THEM! What are you, Saturday morning cartoon villains?! No matter how injured they were, this operation was riding on their complete demise! You’re warriors made to serve the empire, now do your job and kill those two!”
However, Pamoon received a transmission, viewing his arm monitor. “Hey, Pamoon! So, uh, we found those kids camping in the mountains, and…uh, they’re a little too strong. Two of them are that tailed boy and the firebending girl from before! D-Do ya think you could… come help?”
Pamoon looked up expectantly… so, the lightbender was here, was he? “Looks like I’m needed elsewhere. Be right back, My Lord.” The cyborg took flight across the valley.
“PAMOON! Ugh!” Milordo flew back to the upper room. “Demolt would do better than any of you combined! The rest of you had better pull your weight…”
…
Perry had fallen through a tube and dropped into a dark room, the tube sealing above him. “OW!!” cried a snotty, girlish yelp upon landing.
“What the…” Perry was sitting atop a red-suited girl. “Joto?!”
“Perry?” She rolled him off before standing. “Don’t tell me you tripped and fell!”
“I fought Milordo-Z and I fell. I knew it was risky, but he…he really pissed me off.”
“…” Joto remembered the bloody hand that just fell down. “Dude… did you do that?”
“Er…yeah. So, where’s the way out?”
“I’ve sorta been stuck down here. That tunnel only opens from above, and I haven’t found a way out.”
“There has to be some way…” Perry walked to the wall and began to whack various parts with his sword. “Oh?” One part made a weird sound. “Joto, try to hit this wall.”
Joto tossed up a baseball, whacked it with great force, and broke the wall open. “Huh…should’ve treated this place like my room.”
The two followed a passage leading to what seemed like a platforming obstacle course. “Well, I was bound to wind up in one of these eventually.”
![[Commission] Captain Caveman Samurai Jack](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/e3996a62-0c9d-42b6-b715-0b1fb85b5788/dgye8bg-eee274a1-7394-4ea8-8d2d-a7ca56d0b17f.jpg/v1/fit/w_300,h_900,q_70,strp/_commission__captain_caveman_samurai_jack_by_admiraldt8_dgye8bg-300w.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTA0MyIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2UzOTk2YTYyLTBjOWQtNDJiNi1iNzE1LTBiMWZiODViNTc4OFwvZGd5ZThiZy1lZWUyNzRhMS03Mzk0LTRlYTgtOGQyZC1hN2NhNTZkMGIxN2YuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEwMjQifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.7Rld-IjYDrGzLe-gRDe__1bTnEg4now8N82MqR0DZYc)
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Dang, really wanted to see more of Sector IC and SG, since we don't really get much screen time for them, the latter even only debuting last chapter. Ah well, better wait for their own Sector chapters! XP
Poor Leila, getting such a horrible arm-twisting from Milordo-Z, but its a good thing that Perry lopped a hand off! Still, I guess this would be a good setup if he does end up offing him, much like what Cheren did to Viridi, though she didn't suffer a permanent death so this would have a darker tone. Still, I'd expect that Pamoon would've whooped him good, stone prison or not!
You know, thinking on it now I suppose the Mamodo also have a reasonable chance of recognising Gabriel's monochrome hair as much as they would with Star. Eh, maybe it wouldn't be as clear in the heat of battle, plus its only their hair so its not like they'd instantly make the connection, Jerome would probably be a clearer option in that regard.