Part 1
WOOSH
I unleash the Whirling Blade, cutting half a dozen of the white monsters invading the School’s lawn in half with the Sword of Kings.
SKLURCH
Marley is in pinball form, impaling the monsters, but not doing much damage to them. They probably don’t have any organs under the slime.
My sword isn’t doing much damage either. Both halves of the ones I cut regenerate two more. We’ve quickly run into the Hydra problem.
Cut off one head, two more take its place.
They’re swarming all over me, Marley and Shadow, and we’re fighting desperately to keep them away until backup arrives.
Fortunately, the crowd that had gathered has vanished entirely. So there aren’t any innocent bystanders we have to protect.
WHAM
Shadow punches one of the monsters away, but then they scream in pain, clutching their fist.
“Gaaah!”
I can see the Klyntar biomass on their fist dissolving away, exposing Kirk’s hand.
“Okay, hurting these things hurts US too!”
SLASH
“Niv thinks these things were spawned from Michelle’s Klyntar! What did Pax call it? Anti-Venom? I think these things have got some kind of anti-Klyntar properties, so assume that Anti-Venom does too!”
“We can’t fight them like THIS! We can’t hurt them without hurting ourselves! Every blow we take burns our biomass away!”
“Switch to long range! Use those energy spears!”
“Oh, right!”
VOOM
I can see ChaotiX members portalling and blipping in to join the fight.
Now we’ve evened the odds.
Cal, if these things were spawned from a KLYNTAR, they might have the WEAKNESSES of Klyntar too!
You need to follow your own advice here.
I know. Let’s see how these fuckers like it when I crank the heat up.
I sheathe my sword, wreathing myself in flames.
FWOOSH
“New plan: if you can’t beat ‘em, burn ‘em! Guys, I hope you’re all loaded for Klyntar!”
Inside, in the rec room, Pierre, Deston and Victor help Leo and his hippies through a trio of portals, made by the new and improved portal guns.
Three of those portal guns are on the Trinity’s hips, with a sleek silver design, the portal fluid tank now on the inside.
The portals appear to lead to Blueberry’s Forest, Tommy’s cabin visible on the other side.
Leo hesitates to go through one of the portals, Pierre pointedly poking his back.
“Hold on, man! What about Stephen?”
Stephen’s next to Tom, watching the hippies leave.
“Yu nu gutta woh-wee abowt Stee-fen. Wet Stee-fen wowwy abowt Stee-fen. Yu knu we can take cawe of ouw-sewfs.”
“Well, alright. Good luck, little dude.”
“Fanks.”
Leo jumps through the portal, and the last few hippies make their exit, the portals closing behind them.
Now it’s just the Trinity of Terra and the symbiotic fluffies in the rec room. Every other team member who was present, including the squad, is either out fighting or preparing to do so.
Victor gives the Faucheuse brothers a meaningful look.
“Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’, boys?”
Pierre nods.
“Oui. Pax should prepare for gore galore, because this Trinity’s going to war.”
Deston nods too, on exactly the same wavelength as his big brother and best friend.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this again. But yes, it’s time for the Trinity of Terra to return!”
Victor grins like a little boy who just found out that his family is going on vacation to Disneyland.
“Where’d I put my old bazooka?”
I fly above the lawn with Marley, both of us flamed on and flinging fireballs at monsters.
FWOOSH
FWOOSH
Drake, Diablo and Dexter are following our lead, and I can see that Lou, Tony and Yoshi have eaten a few fireblooms.
Burning these monsters seems to be the best bet here.
But we need to keep them here. I don’t know what Pax is going to use these things for after the School is rubble, and we can’t afford to find out.
MIKA, is Val ready?
Madam Valerie is deploying drones as we speak.
At Faucheuse Tower, the Nerd Squad works to identify the creatures attacking the School, the battle taking priority over any other projects.
Jeff and Electra have blipped here from the School, and they’re standing awkwardly in one corner, watching everyone work.
Valerie walks over to them.
“Alright, drones are deployed.”
Jeff raises an eyebrow.
“And… what exactly are those drones going to do?”
“Seal the invading force in, of course.”
“Oh yeah, I think I see what you mean. I’ve, uh, seen it before. So should we just sit tight and wait for all of this to be over?”
“Cuz we nu can du much tu hewp.”
“No powers, no weapons, not much in the way of gadgets.”
Valerie smiles smugly as she pulls a capsule case out of her lab coat pocket.
“Yes, and your Dehak Busters are nowhere near ready. But if you want to assist us, Jeff, we have other options.”
Jeff looks down at Electra.
“Well… I’m never gonna feel like a real ChaotiX member if I’m always running and hiding from fights like this.”
He looks back up at Valerie.
“Whaddya got for me?”
I watch as a force field spreads over the School grounds, creating a big dome.
You remember that, right? The drones Val deployed have force field emitters.
They’re emitting our specialized anti-Klyntar force field. Nothing with Klyntar DNA can pass through ‘em.
And if these monsters were created from the Klyntar, they can’t get through.
blip
Suddenly, Duwen appears next to me and Marley.
“Konba requested my aid, and Scha and Merlom send their regards. The Kelmu Force are on their way too. What is… happening right now, Calvin?”
I turn to him.
“Pax. Pax is happening right now. He summoned these things to destroy the School. Duwen, you don’t have fire powers, do you?”
He shakes his turbaned head.
“Unfortunately not.”
“Then you won’t make much progress against those things. They’ve got the same weaknesses as Klyntar: fire and sonics.”
Duwen looks down at the battle below our feet, seeing Jack zipping around the battlefield, handing out palm-mounted flamethrowers and sonic cannons to humanoid team members, and the Unseen Union, running around and casting Ambus on anyone who doesn’t already have flame resistance.
“Ah, I understand. And where is Pax now?”
“Ran away like a bitch.”
“But he wiww be back. Ee-vent-tyoo-awwy.”
In the white void, Pax sits in his white armchair, watching the battle on the white televisions.
He looks particularly disgusted as he sees Calvin and Marley talking to Duwen on one screen.
“Ugh, a Tennebite. I forgot that Calvin somehow did the impossible with those darkness-loving wretches.”
Anti-Venom is still spawning Antibodies, which Pax is sending to the School.
“I’ve never really met Tennebites before.”
Pax turns to her.
“Be glad you haven’t met them, Michelle. They’re slated for extermination too, just like the Klyntar, the vampires, the draaks, and all other foul creatures whom dwell in darkness.”
He smiles.
“And I know where the surviving Tennebites live. They’ll wish they had joined their brethren in the Devourer, you mark my words.”
“Oh yeah, you said their planet was eaten.”
“Yes, but not even that can sate the slob’s hunger. They wish to consume entire universes. It’s why I do what I do. Every world I enlighten is a world forever spared from the Devourer’s maw. That is the reason there can be no compromise between us. If I were to stop enlightening worlds, the Devourer will consume them all. There’s no happy medium.”
Pax narrows his eyes.
“And then there’s that Dehak fellow. This world’s Dehak may prove to be more troublesome than any other Dehak I’ve met. He has that in common with Calvin.”
“Who the fuck is Dehak?”
“Ah, that’s a very good question. One with many answers.”
“…So which one am I getting?”
WHAM
The School’s front doors are kicked open, and Pierre, Deston and Victor stride out.
Or rather, Reaper, Magus and Fenrir Houndstooth do so, having pulled their old Trinity outfits out of mothballs.
Fenrir is wielding the bazooka he used during the Trinity’s assault on the Stahlberg-Eierkopf Einrichtung in the Wetterstein Mountains, back during the Second World War.
The one with “MY DICK” written on it.
“CHESTNUTS ROASTING, I’M GONNA OPEN FIRE!!!”
BOOM
He blows a dozen Antibodies to kingdom come.
“Don’t wanna hog all the fun!”
As Fenrir reloads, Reaper and Magus leap into the fray, blasting fire at the Antibodies with arm cannons and magic.
FWOOSH
Bellikose and Mania run into the rec room, both missing a lot of biomass.
Venom and the spawn of Carnage are both in Klyntar mode too, and Venom looks up at their fellow hosts.
“Wut happund tu YU too?”
“Those things have anti-Klyntar properties.”
Mania smiles embarrassedly.
“Yeah, so there’s not a whole lot we can do to them.”
Shadow runs into the room next, in just as bad shape as Bellikose and Mania.
“Fire works on them, that we know. But our energy spears AREN’T working.”
“Don’t you have those black and red flames?”
“Yeah, but LOOK at us. We’re not looking much better than you. Cal says we need to find out where those things are coming from, so we can cut them off at the source.”
Shadow looks down at Venom.
“Which is probably your former owner. Those monsters were born from her Anti-Venom Klyntar. We need to eliminate her to end the assault.”
Venom nods resolutely.
“We haf bin meen-in tu du a wunch date wif Mish-ew aneeway.”
Mania puts one of their six hands to their chin.
“The question is, where IS she? If she’s spawning all of those things, Pax probably doesn’t have her on the frontline.”
“She’s probably in that white void. But don’t forget that we have ANOTHER problem: Carnage is still out there.”
“Relax, he couldn’t get in even if the force field WASN’T up. He’s one of the few fluffies who doesn’t have an invitation by default.”
“An Packs wan HIM gon tuu.”
Carnage arrives at the School’s parking lot, seeing the grounds sealed away under the force field dome, the battle raging on.
He heard Calvin’s broadcast too, from the sewers, and he had a hunch that shit was about to hit the fan.
Carnage can’t see Venom or any of the other Klyntar affiliated with the ChaotiX in the bedlam, but he can sense that they’re in the School.
He can sense that the white monsters have some connection to the Klyntar too.
And he remembers what those force fields do. The ChaotiX used one like that to corral Carnage’s forces, during the attack on San Francisco.
If he tries to break through, his Klyntar biomass will be stripped away, leaving his fluffy body vulnerable.
“Psst!”
Carnage turns, seeing Darksyde Gladys hiding behind the Mothership, gesturing at him in a “come here” way.
Leo’s school bus has been moved to Faucheuse Tower’s lab, where Miles plans to repair it later, assuming the ChaotiX wins.
Carnage scurries over to her.
“Yu again? Wut du yu wan DIS time?”
“I’m here to get you past that force field. Your targets are on the other side, and they are vulnerable right now.”
“Wai am yu hewp-in Cawnage?”
“Because you are a fellow child of darkness, and helping you will help us.”
Darksyde Gladys kneels down, picking Carnage up.
“Let’s see where you can do the most damage.”
In the rec room, a portal opens, Alex stepping through, the Faucheuse tower lab behind him.
“Carnage just moved again! He’s here! Inside the School! According to our tracking system, he’s below the building!”
“Did you tell Cal?”
“Yes, but he’s a little busy! And he’s guessed why Carnage is here…”
Alex points at Venom and… the other symbiotic fluffy.
“He’s here for you two! Bellikose, Mania, Shadow, you three are better off staying with these two and going downstairs to find Carnage. You’ll do better against him.”
He pulls a capsule case out.
“Especially with these.”
Me and Marley fly above the grounds, still flinging fireballs at monsters.
We’ve been informed that Carnage has joined the fray, lurking beneath the School, but right now, we’ll leave him for Venom and our other Klyntar members.
They’ll be more useful doing that than they would be out here, fighting enemies that were apparently created specifically for killing Klyntar.
And we’ve already found out that touching those things hurts ME. I took the wheel for like a minute, tried to grab one with my tendrils, immediately regretted it and promptly gave the wheel back to Cal.
That makes sense, Niv. You’re empowered by a Klyntar codex, at least partially.
Which means I gotta spend this one sitting on the bench.
Sorry, buddy. But we can assume you won’t be very effective against Anti-Venom either.
As we’ve already guessed, her own Klyntar probably has those same properties. Which, again, makes sense. She’s meant to be Pax’s own weapon against the Klyntar.
If we could get our hands on some of that white slime, we might be able to make anti-Klyntar weapons with it, but I don’t trust Pax not to hijack that technology and turn it against us.
He’s the one who empowered Michelle, it’s likely that he has control over her Klyntar, not her. Any control she has was permitted, and Pax will revoke that permission if Michelle turns on him. Oh yeah, I know his type. Only helping people when it benefits them.
And it’s easy to guess how he created Anti-Venom. He probably stole those bits of Venom that went missing at Oracle Park, and turned them into another extension of the Light of Peace.
Just like Pax himself, or anyone else who has been “enlightened”, or Vincal after his lingering will faded away.
These monsters may very well be more extensions of the Light, and incorporating their mass into our technology may be exactly what the Light expects us to do with them.
So we can’t let one of them live. Not one scrap of slime can be allowed to survive.
Fortunately, our existing anti-Klyntar weaponry seems to be serviceable for this job, and we’re gaining the upper hand, but the School’s taking a lot of damage.
Yeah, but we can fix that later.
Assuming we make it through this.
Cetteville has been invaded plenty of times, but this is the first time that the School itself has been under attack.
Fortunately, Doc always prepared for this possibility, and planned for it.
Duwen’s down there, assisting our Saingan friends.
We’ve got all of them equipped with those palm flamethrowers.
And I can see Eddy and Erdrick, flying on golden dragon wings and spewing fire.
The problem is, these things won’t stop coming. The ones we’re taking down are quickly being replaced.
I know where they’re coming from: Michelle, or Anti-Venom.
And she’s probably with Pax, in that white void, so we have no way of getting to her.
I don’t know if our portal tech can get us into that void.
So we have no way to cut the invasion force off at the source.
Pax is doing the same old stunt we’ve seen so many times: trying to wear us down with a seemingly infinite army. I expected better from a guy who claims to have killed thousands of Cals.
I would wager that the Light of Peace has never faced this much resistance before. Pax himself said as much.
Ending this attack will not be the end of the story. If we win, Pax will most likely retreat.
Yeah, I have a feeling that he’s going to make sure he’s NEVER in the same room as Cal again. Because he KNOWS there’s nothing holding you back from killing him NOW, Cal. Not with everyone knowing what he REALLY is.
We still have a lot of questions to answer for the public, and questions that we need answered too.
But this right here? This is a turning point.
The ChaotiX’s war against the Octovirate of Darkness has just become a three-way one, with the addition of the Peacemakers.
And all we can hope for is that Dehak and Pax don’t form an alliance against us.
Either we have to fight them separately, or we have to fight them together. Either way, that’s one HELL of an uphill battle.
For now, we do the job that’s in front of us.
In the New Order’s magical workshop, as Dehak and his cronies watch the battle in the cauldron, Darksyde Gladys emerges from a dark corner.
“Carnage is in position.”
Darksyde Doyle turns to her.
“And did you convince him to…?”
Darksyde Gladys reaches into a pocket of her robe, pulling something out.
It looks like a handful of red, blood-like slime.
“I did. Welcome to the New Temple of Darkness, Carnage.”
She walks over to a shelf, taking an empty glass jar from it.
“We’ll just… keep you in here for now.”
Dehak grins.
“My compliments to your quick thinking, both of you. I’m sure Carnage will have a place with the New Order. We’ll… have to provide him with raw materials. And his main body is still in the boy’s School, yes?”
Darksyde Gladys walks over, holding the piece of Carnage in the jar.
“With this, my Lord, you may be able to scry on his true body. But be warned, the ChaotiX has technology that can locate every piece of him. They may be able to track him here. I do not know the maximum range of that technology, Lord Dehak.”
Dehak takes the jar, chuckling sinisterly.
“By the time they know he’s here, it’ll be too late. All we need is Umbra, and our hunt for the real goal can begin.”
The Rider realizes something.
“Ah, damnit. I should have grabbed some of Umbra’s fluff when I went to bust him out.”
Dehak grins.
“But we already know where he’ll be for the foreseeable future. All we need is to break the spell that binds him. There has to be a way.”
He pulls the Philosopher’s Stone out, marveling at how it sparkles.
“And our recent acquisition may also help with that. But for now… let’s just enjoy the show.”