= - = 42 = - =
|Incursion|
High above Los Angeles, the appearance of the eight jet fighters did not go unnoticed. In the stacked air traffic patterns over the city, the two tight formations of four Magnavore Jet Fighters were a sight to see, anywhere from bemusing to alarming depending on how close the planes involved were.
"Tower, US 618, we just passed some fighter jets." The pilot of one such plane reported as their crew watched the eight fighters slip past them and begin circling downward towards Echo Creek.
"US 618 okay, thank you. Were they off to your left side or right side?" The professionalism of the Air Traffic Controller did not waver.
To their credit, neither did the crew of the plane. "Right side, our altitude and descending, they look like they're going in."
Planes potters and Radio Chatter enthusiasts across the region whose curiosity had been piqued by the strange report out of the blue, soon had a more alarming callout.
"Tower, US 618. Fighter jets are shooting at the ground. We're seeing explosions…"
Sweeping low and fast into the San Gabriel foothills, the first four Magnavore Jet Fighters lined up and took aim at their target: Hillhurst Mansion. Laser cannons slung under their inexplicable wings flared to life, sending bright red beams towards their target. The lasers were powerful, creating tremendous explosions that shattered windows and shook the foundation as they crashed around the house.
Inside, the thunderous blasts sent Flabber spilling from his couch in front of his television, and flat onto his face with an exaggerated splat.
"Hey! What's all that racket?!" He heard Mums yell as he got up on his hands and knees. "I'm trying to rest in peace, here!"
Fangula called out a moment later "I am trying to put on my face here! Do you know how hard that is without a reflection?!"
"Bad enough those brats come in and out to do whatever they want, now they gotta be driving around blowing stuff up?!" Mums yelled.
Flabber shook his head and got up. "Hang on you guys, I'll go see what's what!"
Disappearing into a shower of stars, planets, and squiggly lines, Flabber appeared just outside the door. "Hey, kids? Are you doing live-fire practice in the vineyard…?"
He looked up to see the next flight of four Magnavore Jet Fighters lining up for their run. "Ruh roh!"
Flabber vanished back inside, just as the fighters' salvo of beams walked up to the front of the house but stopped short, leaving a line of smoldering craters on the path leading to it. His back plastered against the door as the rumbling stopped, Flabber peeked out the window to see the damage, and winced when he saw both groups of fighters were coming back around to form up for another run.
Mums stomped out onto the mezzanine overlooking the foyer and glared down at Flabber. "Who the heck is trying to blow us up now?!"
Flabber hummed. "High speed jet fighters, Powerful yet wildly inaccurate fire, complete disregard for life… it's either the Galactic Empire… or the IRS."
"They're not getting a dime from me!" Mums yelled before the next run hit, this time a bracketing attack from both flights of fighters at once, passing on the sides of the house.
The violent rumbling pitched Mums over the railing, and he fell into a heap in the middle of the foyer.
Fangula swept into the foyer from the back, followed by the plodding Frankenbeans. "Flabber, this had better not start happening every week!"
Biting his lower lip and inhaling sharply through his upper teeth, Flabber turned to his vampiric resident. "I've got some bad news…"
The fighters strafed again, the assault missing the house once more but doing enough shaking to send everyone but Frankenbeans to the floor.
In the parking lot, Dipper, Mabel, and Heather all stared up in the sky at the fleeing shape of the Magnavore Jet Fighters in silence, watching them make their turn towards Hillhurst. The twins and Misao shared very unsettled looks, as Heather got out of her car and stood to get as good of a view as she could before they dove out of sight.
"Those were Magnavore Jet Fighters," she said, as she broke into a big smile. She turned to the trio, vibrating with excitement. "That was so cool! They actually built working models of them! How do they even get them to fly?!"
Dipper was glad that he didn't have to offer a difficult explanation to Heather. "Hollywood Supertech is wild, right?"
Heather laughed. "I'll say!"
Mabel had her phone out before it began chiming at high frequency. "Uh oh, phone's blowing up." She turned to Dipper and Misao. "We're needed by the gym."
As she and Misao sprinted off, Dipper turned to Heather. "We'll see you later, um… take care, okay?"
"Yeah, see ya. Enjoy lunch," Heather said before she looked back in the direction the fighters went and saw the smoke and dust. "Oh no! Did one of them crash?"
Dipper really hoped so, as he followed his sister and roommate around to the other side of the school. As soon as they were out of sight of the cafeteria, Jo abruptly appeared in front of them, followed by Drew and Roland. A portal opened and both Star and Janna jumped out of it, joining the group.
"They can summon Magnavore Jet Fighters, now?!" Jo asked as she gestured towards the plume over Hillhurst.
"We really can't waste time freaking out about it," Drew said.
Dipper agreed. "He's right, the only thing there is to do is fight them before they attack more than Hillhurst."
"I am not freaking out, I am expressing frustration that the Magnavores have their Jet Fighters now," Jo more calmly corrected.
Roland nudged her. "Silver lining? We can fight them in our A.V.s"
Jo's brows jumped up, and she smiled. "Consolation accepted."
Dipper turned to Star. "Where's Marco?"
Star pulled them out. "Marco went to Britta's Tacos."
"Is he over there now?" Roland asked.
Mabel held up her phone. "He's there right now-"
Roland disappeared from where he stood, then reappeared with Marco.
"Superspeed must be nice," she finished.
"Huwuh?!" Marco looked around wild-eyed, then turned to Roland. "Let me know when you're going to do that!"
Roland shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry."
"Well now that everyone's here-" Janna said before the sounds of explosions echoed over the hills and rooftops. "How are we getting over there without getting blown up?"
"She's right," Jo said. "The Anti-Teleport Field blocks the scissors, and we don't have time to walk a mile and change."
Drew agreed. "Yeah, if emergency services head over to the house and those fighters are still there…"
"Can't we just use your super speed?" Misao asked Roland.
"I have a limit," Roland said, "And going back and forth to move all you guys would definitely be over it.
Star let out a hum, as an idea came to her. "I have an idea!"
She faced everyone, before raising her hands and giving them a nervous smile. "All right. What I'm about to pitch to you will get us there really quick, but there's a drawback…"
Dipper looked up at the smoke rising over the hills. "We don't really have a choice. If it can get us there fast, let's hear it out."
Star nodded. "All right! Here's my idea…"
In the Vineyard, as the Jet Fighters' strafing runs passed, Noxic popped up from behind some brush near the house, ruefully shaking his head. "What the heck, do I gotta take these guys into the shop when we're done here? They're shooting like chumps!"
Typhus agreed. "Yeah, baby. I've seen Stormtroopers with better aim."
Jara, standing a row behind them, let out a sigh. "You
do know the Stormtroopers were aiming poorly on purpose,
do you not?"
Typhus and Noxic looked at her, though their faces did not emote well, she could see a lack of comprehension written all over both.
She admitted to being no better, given her mask. "The Empire wanted to know where the Rebel Base was, so they needed them alive and to think they escaped. Vader and Tarkin ordered the Stormtroopers to miss, it is an unspoken testament to the Empire's insidious indoctrination and discipline that they followed that order even as they were being killed."
Typhus let out an enlightened grunt. "Wow, it all makes sense."
"You learn new things about that movie every day, you know?" Noxic asked Typhus, who nodded back.
Jara resisted rolling her eyes at the most casual of casuals. "This is the same idea. We cannot destroy the house, Vexor wants to know what's inside. What we can do… is kick up enough dust to bring the Butterfly and the Beetles out right where we want them."
She looked up the road leading to Hillhurst. "They should come running right about now."
Behind her and the other two Magnavores, Saberizer sat in silence, his anticipation betrayed by the faint rattle of his armor. As soon as she spoke those words, his sharp senses came to life, and he tilted his head upward.
"There!" He called and Typhus and Noxic both jumped.
'"There? Where?!" The latter shouted as he looked around, his head going left, right, then performing a full rotation.
Typhus followed Saberizer's line of sight into the sky. "… I don't see 'em, baby."
Noxic followed suit, and using his superior spec specs, zoomed in on a point in the sky and detected movement. "… Whoa… what the hey?!"
He zoomed in further, and saw Star, then Dipper, Marco, Mabel, and Misao fall past his field of view. "They didn't just come runnin' Jara! They're literally droppin' in!"
Two kilometers above Hillhurst, Dipper held onto his lumberjack hat as he fell towards the ground far below. Star's idea was a good one on paper: open a portal to exactly two kilometers above the house, drop straight down, and then she would use a spell to help them land safely. Only now that he was falling did he realize that two kilometers–a relatively short distance to walk for him–was a
long way to fall. Longer still with hostile enemies flying around that were eager to kill him.
A long fall, but as he took into consideration the staggering events that led to this moment, he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as he thrust his free hand forward, balled up in a fist. It didn't get any stranger than this! "LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Wheeeeee!" Mabel cheered as she fell past them like a bullet. "This is just like skydiving with Mom and Dad!"
"Without a parachute into a combat zone!" Marco shouted as he flailed at terminal velocity. Unlike everyone else, he was having second thoughts way past the point of no-return.
Janna, pulling her hat down tighter so it didn't go flying off, passed close to Marco. "Oh come on, the fall's not so bad."
"Ja! It's the landing that'll kill us!" Misao shouted as she caught up with Mabel and joined hands with her and Janna to form a circle. Star dove headfirst in the gap between them, then opened her arms and legs wide to slow herself down.
"WOOHOO!" She cheered, before she noticed four of the Magnavore Jet Fighters pulling into a climb towards them. "Oh, they've noticed us~!"
Down on the ground, Noxic looked at Typus. "Hey! I bet three crates of beer that they get one of 'em!"
"You're on, baby!" Typhus said.
Jara tightened her grip on her blade.
The fighters, nearly vertical, slowed down to line up on their falling targets, their sensors locking onto each falling teenager and their wing-mounted cannons swiveling to zero in on and correct for their target's movement relative to their own.
"You got a spell for them?!" Dipper asked.
Star laughed in the face of their certain doom. "Yeah! High Explosive Beetle Blast!"
A barrage of beams from above the falling children pummeled the body and wasp-like tail of the fighter. More beams followed, raining onto the other three fighters. Above their falling friends, the three Beetleborgs continue blasting away with their Input Magnums in Crashing Mode, forcing the fighters to break off, all trailing smoke to the surprise of the Magnavores below.
"Man, those kids are crazy!" Noxic yelled.
Typhus almost wanted to cheer them on as they came down, in no small part because of his newly won cases of beer. "Yeah baby, this is nuts!"
Jara tensed up and said nothing.
"Star!" Dipper shouted. "All we gotta do now is stick the landing!"
"One soft landing coming up! Super Summon Cloudy Charm!" Aiming her wand down, Star fired a pink ray that shot down ahead of them and expanded into a large pink cloud.
She hit it first, disappearing into the pink, cotton candy like structure, followed by Mabel, Misao, Dipper, Janna, and finally the flailing and screaming Marco. The Beetleborgs landed one by one in crouches, the ground denting into shallow craters from the force of their impact.
The pink cloud drifted to a gentle stop just above the ground behind them. Emerging from the inside of the cloud, Star smiled down at it. "Thanks, Cloudy."
A cherubic face appeared on the Cloud's front. "Oh, you're welcome, Star!"
Waving her wand, she dispelled the cloud and everyone inside fell to the ground in a heap. The Beetleborgs turned to face the others as they began getting up.
Janna rose first, and was helped to her feet by Drew. "Well, cross skydiving off my bucket list… after putting it on it."
Misao, who landed on Mabel, lifted her head from her chest and looked up at her. "The best moments in life can be the unexpected ones, I think."
Mabel nodded back. "Mmhm!"
"Don't I know it," Janna said while taking her hat off to shake out the dust.
Marco sat up, rubbing his face. "Some unexpected things can be very
bad too, case in point."
He looked down and saw he was straddling Dipper, who was staring at the sky with an unreadable expression. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, please get off," Dipper's eyes widened and he verbally reeled. "Up.
Up. So I can stand."
Marco stood, and he and Star both helped him to his feet.
Dipper rubbed his back. "I'll take a hard landing after a fall of six feet over one of six thousand any day."
Flabber came out onto the porch and brightened when he saw everyone. "Oh hey, kids! Nice of you to-"
"Don't you dare say it!" Jo shouted.
Flabber buttoned up his lip and looked off to his right.
The Red Strikerborg stared at the Phasm.
Flabber opened the corner of his mouth.
"No!" She yelled.
Flabber cast his gaze to the ground with a sad whimper.
Mabel trotted past Jo. "Oh we love
dropping by to see you, Flabber~"
Jo groaned as Flabber lit back up into his incandescent self.
Marco patted her on the shoulder. "You tried."
"Anyway, come on in!" Flabber spun around to the other side of the door, dressed as a fifty's era housewife complete with a bright yellow apron over a similarly gaudy Sunday dress and a beehive hairdo. In his free hand he balanced a large tray with plastic cups, a pitcher of lemonade, and a plate piled with fresh chocolate chip cookies. "I've got cookies and lemonade for your long day of fighting evil~!"
Dipper was first through the door and headed straight for the Organ Room. Janna, on his heels, took the lemonade. "Sweet."
"It's actually a little on the tart side," Flabber corrected.
Misao grabbed the cups. "Danke!"
"Bitte~!" Flabber called back.
Mabel, bringing up the rear, took the whole tray of cookies. "You're the g
host with the most, Flabber!"
Flabber wagged his hand back at Mabel. "Oh you~"
Jo rolled her eyes.
"Come on."
Drew smacked Jo's shoulder. "Don't worry about that for now."
She turned around, and with the others faced down the Magnavores, Saberizer, and their fifty Scabs. The group marched towards the house, Jara at the very front, the red-adorned warrior woman's blade already glowing in anticipation of the fight.
"Speaking of bad jokes," she said.
Marco rolled his shoulders and hopped from one foot to the other, limbering up. "They're going all out."
Roland tightened his fists and got ready. "Good, then so can we."
@@@@@
Inside Hillhurst, as the organ slid open to reveal the way to the Beetle Battle Base, Flabber called over to Dipper and the others. "Hey, there are a ton more of the bad guys out there than ever."
"What?" He went to the window to look out and saw for himself the Magnavores' numbers. "Uh oh."
Mabel peered over his shoulder. "There's even more of them!"
Misao and Janna came to the windows next. The latter regarded the advancing force with prompt dismissal.
"Oh no, more Scabs… the scarred and gnarled guy with the sword's kinda cute, though."
For the most part.
Dipper didn't care much for this development, for what it meant. "They're experimenting with their abilities, seeing what limits they have in summoning."
Misao looked back to see the organ open. "Then let's explore our own limits."
Dipper nodded and called out to the guys skilled or equipped for this kind of thing. "Once the Beetle Base is up we'll roast these guys with the defenses, you guys gonna be okay until then?"
Star spun her wand in her hand, as Marco moved into his karate stance. "We'll take care of it!"
Jara, raised her blade in front of her face, her vision tunneling on Star. "Yes, come… get taken care of!"
She thrust her blade forward and the Scabs charged, waving their weapons above their heads. Looking to one another, Jo cracked her knuckles, and Roland snapped his fingers.
"We got this," they said together, before the Red Strikerborg jumped and the Green Hunterborg vanished. The Scabs looked up and watched as Jo fell onto them, her fist pulled back. Plunging into the middle of their ranks, Jo punched the ground and set off an explosion that scattered the dozens of robot foot soldiers in every direction.
As Jara stopped short of the plume of swirling dust, she heard Star shout from the other side of it. "Bunny Rabbit Blast!"
Star burst through the dust, fire in her eyes and skulls on her cheek as she transformed her wand into a mace. Turning herself around twice for momentum, she let out a yell and swung the wand-turned-bludgeon down on Jara's head. The weapon stopped short, crashing against the flat of Saberizer's falchion.
"My General is not so easily struck in my presence!" Saberizer shouted as he riposted her attack so Jara could extend her energy whip into a rigid blade and lance through Star's heart.
Transforming her wand back, Star dropped out of the path of the beam and landed in front of both of them as Saberizer stepped to her right and allowed Jara to lunge with another stab. She went left, diving past Jara and aiming her wand at Saberizer. "Rainbow Fist Punch!"
Saberizer swung his blade in a parrying slash to deflect the spell, but it connected in spite of the effort, pushing the swordsman back along the ground. As Jara raised her energy blade to bring it down on Star's back, the Green Hunterborg abruptly appeared between them–his Input Magnum pointed in the Mercenary General's face.
"Wh-?!" Roland opened fire before she could finish, the first shot knocking her backward head first, and the second and third shots connecting with her chest and stomach in a shower of sparks.
"You were talking about not getting touched?!" Roland shouted before he turned to see Typhus coming at him like a freight train that never skipped arm day.
His right arm turning fully red, Typhus let out a bellow as he swung, the punch clearing the dust Jo kicked up. Both Roland and Star were nowhere to be found.
"What the?!" The second set of eyes on his whale-like head did not fail him, spotting Star appear in the wake of a green blur just behind him. He swung his whole body around, the second mouth opening to fire a ray at Star, when Roland crashed into him.
The Hunter Claw secured around his neck, Roland slammed Typhus headfirst into the ground and dragged him through the dirt and rock, digging a long trench with his body. Reaching the end of the vineyard he swung him up over his head and drove him down into the ground with enough force to make a small crater.
"Thank you!" Star shouted to Roland, before she turned and used her wand to block Saberizer's sword. Jumping back to avoid two more strikes of the falchion, she unleashed another spell with a swing of her wand. "Hard Bass Sword Rave!"
In a flash of light, five swords–a claymore, a rapier, a katana, a scimitar, and a cutlass–materialized and shot at Saberizer. With expertise he deflected each blade, only for the thrown aside weapons to right themselves in midair and attack again, putting him on the defensive.
Satisfied to see Saberizer preoccupied, Star turned her attention back to the Scabs, raising her wand and firing another explosive spell that carved through the mooks before they could gang up on her.
In front of the house, Marco, Jo, and Drew's battle with the Scabs was a wild melee. Multiple blades came down on Marco from all sides, only to miss or have their trajectories knocked off course by his quick hands. When one stabbed at his front, he used his sidestep to side kick a Scab in the head. A second blow, vertical chop, was evaded and punished by a spinning backfist that connected with the dead center of the Scab's face.
Jumping onto the back of a Scab that attempted to spear tackle him into the ground, Marco leaped and flew a kick into the forehead of a third Scab. The rebound from the blow sent him into a spin, and he landed hard on his feet to face another Scab coming at him head on. A second Scab, scrambling to corner him, came at Marco's exposed back.
An Input Magnum beam holed the head of the Scab attacking Marco's back, and the one running at his front just disappeared, replaced by Jo finishing the motion of the punch that she plowed into it. Marco looked to his right, as he heard what sounded like a cannonball ricochet on the hill at the end of the vineyard opposite the house and saw a puff of dust and dirt the Scab-projectile left behind on the hill's lip.
The Blue Stingerborg's Input Magnum shots hammered two more Scabs, as Drew moved to cover Marco's back. "Just keep beating the crap out of these guys, we won't let them get close to you."
He made good on that reassurance immediately, imposing himself between Marco and Noxic, the latter's electric attack crashing against his armored body. "Hngh!"
Even as bolts of plasma arced up and down his arms, Drew raised his Input Magnum and fired at Noxic, who ducked and rolled out of the way. "You can take a hit and keep standin' now?!"
He spun in place and drew his umbrella. "I'm just gonna have to hit ya twice as hard!"
Drew fired back at him, forcing Noxic to deflect the shots with his umbrella. "You'll need to hit even harder than that!"
Before Noxic could even try, Star broke free of her own melee and attacked. "Sunny Ocean Sandblast!"
Noxic turned his umbrella towards Star and stopped the swirling stream of ocean water, sand, starfish, crabs, and clams that shot from Star's wand. "You're lucky I don't rust, or I'd be really mad-!" He looked up to see Jo looming over him to punch him square in the face. "Aw nuts."
In that same moment, Typhus's monstrous claw grabbed Roland and the much stronger Magnavore hauled him up as he rose to his feet. Spotting Noxic's situation, he rectified it in the most expedient fashion possible–pitching Roland like a fastball into Jo and sending them both tumbling end over end.
"Haha, nice one!" Noxic congratulated before a torrent of flame from Drew's Input Magnum in Flame Mode engulfed him. "AH! HOT! HOT! HOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!"
"Are you guys okay?!" Star shouted before the Katana from the Hard House Sword Rave Spell hit the ground at her feet from her left and dissolved. Looking the way it came from, she found Saberizer bearing down at her.
"Clever tricks, witch!" He yelled as he swung.
"Witch?!" She leaned back to limbo underneath Saberizer's falchion. Rising, she twirled clear of a wide diagonal slash that would've otherwise split her in two. "I'm a Magical Princess! Dagger Crystal Heart Attack!"
Wand aimed at Saberizer, she unleashed a torrent of razor-sharp crystal hearts, and Saberizer twirled his blade in circles from one side to the other, deflecting each projectile away from him. "Try again, sorceress!"
Star swung her wand back and forth. "That's better, but still wrong! Shooting Star Explosion!"
A trio of spinning stars fired at Saberizer next, and he hesitated not in cleaving through each–creating an explosion that enveloped him. "Grah!"
Star used the explosions to backpedal and open the distance. It was a wise move, as Jara erupted from the spell's smoke and lashed out at her wildly with her beam whip.
"What must it take for you aggravating brats to give up and DIE?!" She yelled while her overpowered swings tore chunks out of the old vineyard and the ground beneath it.
Star turned her backpedaling into a graceful dance, leaping from one leg to the other, twirling and spinning around Jara's attacks and the debris they kicked up for no less than five of the devastating strikes. Landing on both feet, she swung her wand down and fired a spell at the ground. "Smoke Bomb Blast!"
As the smoke swirled around her, Jara yelled and lashed out with her whip, clearing the cloud around her from the waist up. Marco sprang up from her left, spun, and kicked her in the back of her head. "Surprise!"
The blow threw Jara into the ground on her face, and she slid to a stop, very still. "I hate them. All of them."
Star came up behind him, and both turned around one another to catch each other's hand as Star kicked a Scab in the head, decapitating it, while Marco punched a second Scab in the chest with such force that mechanical wasps sprayed out its back. They let each other go, turned towards the remaining Scabs, and Marco placed his hand over Star's holding the wand as she aimed it at another large group of them.
"SUPER MEGA NARWHAL BLAST!" She yelled, and the barrage of Narwhals tore through the robot warriors, leaving few left.
"You okay?" He asked, turning to her as the last mechanical wasp fell to the ground and dissolved.
She glanced back at him in turn. "We just gotta last a little longer!"
"You ain't even got a second left!" Typhus yelled as he came down on both of them with a hammer blow. His fists came down on their skulls, both of them dead to rights in his sights.
Just centimeters away from his fists connecting, millimeters, Typhus ground to a halt. Star, Marco, the entire world for everyone but Roland was near perfectly still. Jogging over to his unarmored friends, Roland picked them both up and carried them over to the front of Hillhurst. He then jogged back over to pick up Jara, who was in the middle of getting back up to her feet and carried her over to where Star and Marco had previously been.
Dusting his hands off, Roland took a few more steps back, entered Crashing Mode in his Input Magnum and aimed it at Typhus as he slowed down.
Typhus's fists crashed down on Jara's back, driving her into the ground.
"Take that, baby!" He shouted before the dust cleared to reveal Jara face down in the hole she made in the dirt shaped like her body. "Uhh… wait-"
Roland's Crashing Mode rounds hammered into Typhus, driving him backward. Seeing Roland appear and open fire, Drew joined in with beam mode shots–the more powerful semi-automatic beams shoving him back faster along the stream of fire Roland pushed him with.
Noxic, still trying to put himself out, heard Typhus' wails. "Hang on, buddy! I'm comin'!"
"Let me help you get there!" Jo yelled as she grabbed Noxic by the arm and ran at Typhus. "THROW PEOPLE AT ME WILL YOU, MOTHERFUCKER?!"
She swung Noxic around and threw the burning android at his monster man best bud. There was an explosion, and Typhus slammed into the ground at the far end of the Vineyard, unconscious. A broken and malfunctioning Noxic landed on his back, his uncontrollable short-circuiting shocking Typhus over and over.
Star and Marco looked over towards the Beetleborgs. Marco rubbed the side of his head, as he realized what must've happened for them to be several meters away from where they'd been. "Okay, Hunterborg. You get a free pass for that one."
"That was awesome, Strikerborg!" Star said. "Awesome enough to make me forget most of the crappy stuff you said! Get 'im, girl!"
Jo let out a laugh as she turned to face Saberizer, who recovered from the Shooting Star Explosion. "It feels so good to be actually wailing on these punks, now!"
Roland flickered to appear beside her. "Yeah. We may not be good fighters, but we definitely know how to use these powers!"
Drew watched the two of them swagger out towards Saberizer and couldn't help but feel a little envious of the two of them and their powers. Marco rubbed the sweat from his brow, as Star gripped her wand, ready to jump in.
Jara pulled her head out of the dirt with a pained groan. "What… what is even
happening?!"
Saberizer stared at the Green Hunterborg and the Red Strikerborg, and rested his falchion on his right shoulder, tapping the flat of the blade against his helmet. "Is it really something to be so proud of? Your ignorance?"
"What we're proud of… is that as new as we are at this, we're still able to beat you!" Jo shouted as she charged at him.
His left hand reaching behind his back, he brought around to his hip the scabbard of his falchion, his right hand bringing the blade to sheath it. When Marco heard the clack of the blade locking into the scabbard and saw Saberizer's stance widen and lower, he lunged forward with alarm.
"WAIT! DON'T GET TOO CLOSE!"
Once more everything slowed to a stop, with Jo in place pulling her punch in confusion from Marco's shouting, Marco himself frozen mid-shout, while Star was caught between acting and wondering what he was shouting about.
Roland stepped up to Saberizer's side and rested the Input Magnum against the unarmored left side of his head. "Nah, bruh."
Before he could pull the trigger, Saberizer unsheathed his blade, striking both Roland and Jo in the same motion and scattering them away from him in different directions. The two froze in the air, sprawled out as sparks began to leap from their damaged armor.
"Your ignorance is the mistaken belief that power can overcome skill."
Pulling his blade back, then flicking it back out to his side, he brought the sword and scabbard together again and sheathed the blade–stopping just short of locking the hilt.
"Consider yourselves enlightened."
He locked the hilt, and the world resumed its normal speed, explosions ripping off the green and red armor as their wearers fell to the ground.
As the violent reversal played out, Jara nodded. "Yes, this is how it is supposed to be going."
Saberizer turned to her. "General, we need to discuss the quality of the company you keep, and the detriment it is causing your skill."
Marco landed in front of Saberizer with enough force to crack the ground beneath his feet. In an instant Saberizer drew his sword to cleave through him and missed wide as Marco leaped directly above him to swing a kick down into the top of Saberizer's head.
Dauntless of Marco's maneuver, Saberizer raised his falchion to run him through. "Not quick enough, boy!"
The very tip of the blade began to cut through the front of his hoodie–when another blade crashed into his with enough force to dislodge it from Saberizer's hand. Flipping end over end, the falchion struck the ground at Jara's feet, and she took a step back in surprise.
Marco landed to the side of Saberizer and looked back to see the afternoon sun gleaming off the monomolecular edge of the Stinger Blade. Drew stood in front of Saberizer, the blade raised between the two, panting heavily from the mad dash he made to save his friend from being countered.
Saberizer stared at the expressionless helmet of the Blue Stingerborg, then glanced at his hand, then out the corner of his eye at Jara and his sword. For the briefest moment, he wondered what had happened.
The Blue one… I did not even see him move. He thought, before he
did notice Star holding up an alarmingly glowing wand.
"SUPER GEYSER WINDSTORM!" She yelled, and Saberizer crossed his arms to guard against the torrent of water that threw him back and just past Jara.
Jara turned towards Star, but only saw power and fury radiating from the girl, her cheek marks glowing, as she turned the spell from water to electricity.
"ROLLING THUNDER LIGHTNING BLAST!"
Alarmed, Jara ignited her energy blade and swung it down into the beam of lightning Star fired at her, the blade cleaving the attack in twain and scattering it away from Saberizer, Typhus and Noxic behind her. Feeling the stray bolts course through her, leaving blinding agony in their wake, Jara clenched her jaw tight to endure the attack with a desperate growl through her teeth.
The scattering bolts of lightning devastated the vineyard, ripping the rows asunder and carving deep, scorched cuts up the path from Hillhurst and into the hills surrounding it. For ten whole seconds it surged and split against Jara's blade, until it finally dissipated, leaving dense clouds of ionized smoke and dust hanging over the vineyard.
"Haa… haa… haa… haa…" Slumping forward, her blade nearly slipping out of her hands, Jara looked into the electricity-filled haze.
She could see two heart-shaped points of light–then two more points just above and between them in the shape of glowing, angry eyes as Star's silhouette slowly distinguished itself from the smoke.
The ground began to shake, and Jara looked higher to see the Beetle Battle Base emerge above Hillhurst Mansion. Her pained breathing became weak chuckling that grew stronger into triumphant laughter. She looked back down at Star, and despite every instinct telling her to run, she gestured out to her.
"Well, then… I suppose now that it's out? This…?" The droning whine of the Magnavore Jet Fighters diving in towards the Beetle Battle Base filled the air. "Is checkmate."
Closing in, the fighters' tails swung under their bodies, until their ends were pointed at the newly risen structure.
Seeing them, Drew realized what they were going to do. "Their missiles!"
Marco looked at him. "What about them?"
"We can't let those things fire, they will destroy the base and Hillhurst with it!"
Star looked around and smiled. "They won't get the chance."
Before the fighters could do anything with their new arrangement, the air was filled with the louder, deeper pulses as almost a dozen large dome-shaped laser cannons situated around the house and the Beetle Battle Base opened fire–clearing the smoke around them. Their bright pink beams surged skyward, slashing through the Magnavore Jet Fighter formations and blasting all eight of them out of the sky in seconds.
"See?" Star said as the smoke cleared, revealing Marco, Drew, Roland, and Jo standing with her. The Princess pointed her wand at Jara, her hearts turned into skulls again. "Time's up. You lose!"
Jara reaffirmed her grip on her weapon and took a step back. "We must withdraw."
She stood and crossed her arms to teleport, when she remembered just that one unfortunate detail and froze in place.
Damn it! I forgot we cannot teleport here!
The cannons that ravaged the Magnavore Jet Fighters traversed and depressed their lenses, bringing them down to aim at her and her downed friends. From the Beetle Battle Base itself, Dipper's voice spoke.
"You can either give up now, or get blasted into stray particles, what's it going to be?!"
Jara clenched her teeth. "I will not yield to you brats!"
"Stray atoms it is," Dipper said as the cannons began to charge.
Before they could fire, a familiar, booming voice echoed.
"ENOUGH."
The ground warped beneath Jara, before a massive hand ripped through the ground and grabbed her, before yanking her under the ground. A second hand rose and snatched Noxic, Typhus, and Saberizer away. What remaining Scabs left behind, regardless of functionality, quickly began to dissolve.
"What the…?" Dipper asked.
The guys on the ground were no less disbelieving.
"That… that was Vexor's hand!" Jo shouted.
Roland looked at the others, then back at the house. "What the heck, man! I thought the Anti-Teleport Field could keep them out!"
When Dipper spoke again, they could hear all sorts of alarms going on in the background. "There was a massive breach of time and space just now! I… I think Vexor just brute-forced his way through the field to drag his people out!"
"Ja, confirmed! The exact location where the events just happened, the barrier's in the red!" Misao reported.
They heard Mabel next. "Holy cow! And pig! And goat! How much power did it take to do that?!!"
"I… I don't know," Drew said. "But… I think we won."
Star jumped up and cheered. "We won~!"
She turned and hugged Marco. "We won! And you're not hurt!"
She pulled back and looked at him. "Are you hurt?"
Marco smiled back at Star and lifted up his shirt to reveal the blade hadn't touched him. "I'm fine, not a scratch on me."
She laughed and rested her forehead against his, as she rubbed his back. "I'm glad."
Jo shook her head. "Geez… Roland, did you catch what he hit us with?"
"I think he pulled like some Kenshin, Zatoichi crap on us," Roland replied–before adding. "It was rad as heck, though. Not as rad as you throwing Noxic at Typhus."
Jo laughed and raised both arms, pumping them. "They got their free passes to the gun show~!"
Star, full energy all the way, ducked under one of Jo's raised arms and joined Drew's side to pat his armored chest. "Did you see what Stingerborg did?!"
"Yeah, he disarmed that Saber dude and saved my neck," Marco added.
Roland turned towards Drew. "Yo, get out of here! I can't believe I missed that!"
Star bounced up and down in excitement. "I saw the whole thing, he was like 'swoosh' and Saberizer went 'what?!' and then I blasted him with my Super Geyser Windstorm!"
Marco, who was even closer, nodded. "I didn't even see you move, man. How'd you get there so fast?"
Drew was given pause and looked down at the Stinger Blade. "Actually? I don't know, I saw that saber guy trying to stab you and I just didn't even think then."
Jo folded her arms and gave her brother an approving nod. "And to think you didn't even need any special power to do it. Very nice, bro."
"Yeah, to think…" Underneath the helmet, Drew frowned as he continued staring at the Stinger Blade.
Flabber came back to the door. "Hey guys, I bet you worked up an appetite saving the day. There's more snacks and drinks inside!"
Star lit up. "Mabel, you better have saved me some cookies~!"
Marco followed. "Let's head in, so Flabber can clean this place up."
Roland followed. "I hope the base recorded the fight. I need to see you throwing Noxic at Typhus."
Jo agreed. "Right?"
Drew quietly brought up the rear, still looking at his Stinger Blade all the way to the porch.
As everyone went inside, the Beetle Battle Base retracted into the ground, and Flabber got to work cleaning up the mess, none paid any attention to the now no-longer hostile skies.
"Tower, US 618. We've got eyes on what the unidentified fighter jets were shooting at…"
= - = 42 = - =
Uh oh.
See you then.