Fight For Power

Synopsis: Continuing from "Search for the Lost Crown", Stygian makes his move on the House of Hedgehog Celeritas. He has captured a being named Fallow and is continuing to use him as host.   

Chapter 1—The Grid 

Seeing that much power in front of him, Stygian rubbed his hosts’ paws together greedily.   Being in a body made the process of tapping into the massive Mobian power grid child’s play.    One by one, Stygian extended his tentacles and hooked in.    The power not only made him grow more massive in size, even to kaiju level, but it also disrupted the space/time continuum.    Left and right, tesseracts populated the skies, ruining their beauty.    What once resembled an idyllic landscape was becoming more dystopian by the second.     

Inside House Ceritas, there were minor vibrations that only those attuned could feel.    

‘Something’s WRONG !’, Amy said, keeping calm even though inwardly, her heart was shaking.   Sonic held her hand even though he knew his wife was exceptionally competent and capable.   Other family members woke, including the hedgehogs, full of vim and vinegar, who wondered what in Mobius was occurring.     When more portals began appearing out of thin air, it was obvious that the disturbance was quantum in its extremes.    

‘We’ve got our work cut out for us now.’, Rotor said, starting to sweat nervously.   It was rare to see the quantum mechanic engineer sweat.   Everyone knew that what was about to happen was most likely the worst event they had ever faced together.    In spite of their mounting terror, they stuck together.  Somehow, they sensed that the tesseracts would bring them the help that they needed, the warriors that they required to take down one seriously deranged kaiju. 

Chapter 2—Warriors Unite 

Anthros from Redwall, Silverwing, New Mars, Ragnarok, Mr. McGregor’s garden and even Toad Hall had appeared, not finding anything unusual in Mobius.   Being among other anthropoid characters felt natural and easy, but some of them had never fought in this sort of skirmish together. 

‘Jaime, I’m telling ya, this is the moment for MEGAS to shine again !’, Coop exclaimed, excitedly.   Jaime could see the multi-tentacled energy kaiju in front of them, bigger than anything they had faced before.    

‘We won’t be able to do this alone.’, Jaime said, his tone, tremulous.    

‘That’s why you’ve got US.’, Deku said, standing among heroes and anti-heroes alike from Invicible’s Earth, the Boys (luckily Homelander was left back on Earth), Peacemaker, Deadpool and wizards Doctor Fate, Zatana and Steven Strange joined this multiverse showdown.    

Characters so obscure such as Sheep in the big city met doppelgängers in Shawn and his flock.  Wallace and Grommit prepared to fight, paired off with Ginger, Rocky, Roddy and Rita.    Familiar faces from Mexico and Canada teamed up and each had their own strengths they wielded.  

‘I don’t know about you, Chavo, but this is really weird.  Probably the weirdest adventure we’ve ever been on.’, Quico quipped.    Chavo nodded and avoided a massive tentacle crashing down on him.  

One by one, once-puppet characters like Jay, Iggy and Gloria, the Fraggles and Avenue Q stars were fully corporeal and ready to lay a smack down on the kaiju that faced them.    

Chapter 3—The Power Goes Out, The Battle Goes On 

'Doesn't matter how many of you there are !', Stygian roared. I will crush the lot of you!’.   Wildly, his tentacles thrashed, equipped with deadly spikes that hit whatever target they affixed on.    All Joestars evaded the attack without sweating or blinking.   Many used their Stands to protect others.   

Children’s mascots like the Backyardigans, Bluey, the Sesame Street gang, Wonderpets and Aquanauts found themselves adapting with assistance from incredibly fly guys like Eaglebones Falconhawk.    Strumming a riff, he struck a pose. 

‘All in a days work’.     But, it wasn’t nearly enough.   The power outage made it challenging for anyone to see, but fortunately, all light-themed and light guided characters illuminated the fighting field and the wild battle continued.   

There was no further power to drain and Stygian found himself at his limit.   Inwardly, Fallow cried, but he could hear the voice of quite a few magical girls and guys coaxing him to fight back. 

‘We’re doing all we can.   You have to let this dark magic know you won’t be pushed around.’, Sakura said.   Another Sakura, that of Naruto fame, proved she wasn’t useless and using her telepathy, was the first to tap into Fallow’s mind and begin to calm him.    She hugged him, patting his back.  

‘I can’t linger.   So many of us are being whipped to near death…Gotta go !    You can fight this !  We believe in you !’, Sakura said before disappearing from Fallow’s mind.     

Fallow heard Stygian laughing. 

‘That ninja lady thought she could get through to you.   She’s not your friend.  She pities you !’, Stygian stated.  

‘If that were true she would’ve left me alone.   You have no idea what friendship is.   I think the people here actually care or they wouldn’t be in this field !   You’re hurting them !  Stop !’, Fallow said, growing more irate.    Stygian guffawed. 

‘You ?  You’re a weakling.   You can’t even do one pull-up at school.   You call those muscles ?   More like pimples or sad deflated balloons !’, Stygian mocked.    Fallow bristled with a newfound confidence.   Seeing through Stygian’s eyes, he could actually hear other’s thoughts, stating such things as hoping that he was doing alright and that he had been unharmed.    

‘I don’t know these people, but what we’re doing is WRONG !’, Fallow said.    Even though Stygian was being knocked back and toppled with some of those hits, nothing much could stop him, even legendary kaiju such as Gojira, Godzilla, King Kong and Mothra.    No amount of plasma flame could quell or cow him !    

Chapter 4—Inner Work 

Super Pig, along with other magical girls, connected with telepathy to check on Fallow.  Pieces of light began to bleed through and the darkness inside him began to dissipate.    It was Pretty Sammy herself along with the Sailor Scouts that cast the spell to literally break the darkness into bits.    

There were viruses that were running rampant.   The youths from Kadic knew exactly how to squish them before they caused more harm. 

‘Ooh !  Did you see that Eddy ?   I got one with my slingshot !’, Big Ed said blowing on his slingshot like it was a gun. 

‘Pretty fancy shooting, there, Tex.’, Bart Simpson agreed.    Stewie was  taking out arachnid creatures and even the Homestuck trolls were utilizing their speciibi to alchemize weaponry based on Stygian’s attacks.     Little by little, resistance was being made and the attacks chipped away at Stygian’s strength.    

‘How about this ?   I know you better than anyone here !   Let’s continue taking over Mobius and ruling it as a team ?   We’ll do whatever we want once everyone in charge is dead and gone !  We can remake this world in MY, um, I mean OUR image.’, Stygian stated.     Fallow laughed. 

‘I never should’ve believed you.   I’m through listening to your drivel.   Leave. Me. ALONE !’, Fallow screeched.    With this final bellow, Stygian began to feel attacks poking holes through him, piercing his heart and at last, destroying him to his core.    All that was left was a wisp that Fallow took in his hand and clutched until it wriggled and expelled its final breath.    With one last thrash, Stygian fell to the ground in Fallow’s mind and blew away in the wind.      

Chapter 5—Why Am I In a Field ? 

When Fallow awoke, he found he was in a gargantuan field surrounded by thousands of warriors from other realms he had only read about in school.    He had always perceived these to be fictional, but now he realized they were all true, actual and staring him directly in the face.    

Fallow apologized for his actions but Jules rested a hand upon his shoulder. 

‘You weren’t yourself.   You were awfully brave back there.   Why don’t you come to Crystal Palace and we can all celebrate together ?   This is a brand new chapter for you !’, he said, triumphantly.   Of course, he realized he would have to explain everything to his ‘followers’ who were immensely confused.     The cult had fallen away and begun listening to their own edicts.    There were a few that had remained that believed in him from the beginning and they decided that they would become Fallow’s friends.     

Chapter 6—Restoring Power, A Way Home 

Cecil, Rotor and the engineers realized they had a massive undertaking ahead of them, but with other scientists, engineers and mechanics alongside them, finding the issue with the grid and getting portals to return everyone back to their home worlds would, at the most, take a span of two days at best.    

Getting power back to the grid was a bit harder.   The Echindas had to barter with the crystals to convince them they weren’t about to get drained of their power.   The crystals themselves were much like the Mobians in the fact they were sentient and worked along with the planet and Mobians symbolically.    Thus it had been for centuries and Stygian had upset the balance.    Of course, the grid would have its occasional ‘hiccups’, but this was rare.      With the help of the Echidnas and wizards at hand, the crystals began to glow.    Slowly, but surely, the grid began to hum back to life.   

Wolf, Snake, Shark, Webbs, and Pirhanna felt horribly out of place here.   They hadn’t had time to steal anything, let alone have objects of value to purloin.   It was what they did and how they survived.   Since they had arrived there, they had been literal fish out of water.    At least the Forger family was making the most of the experience.   The students of Tokyo Jujutsu High found nothing bizarre.   After all, they had a talking panda as one of their members.   He had made fast friends with the insidious Monokuma, who oddly, had helped all of them defeat the ultra dimensional fiend known as Stygian.   With Sessomaru’s void and a thousand miku and priest sealing spells, it wasn’t likely that Stygian would ever return. 

Chapter 7—We May Need You

Seeing that they had quite the force in their favor from all kinds of genres in different universes, Sonic made a pact with his new allies then and there.    Each of them would have an obsidian crystal that Cecil had developed to link them, even transdimensionally, back to the Crystal Castle in order to be brought back to Mobius if a massive battle broke out.

‘Pretty righteous if you ask me.’ Jay said.   He and his buddy Silent Bob were still geeking out from being in the presence of nostalgia, but they would have to return to being menaces to society in the Askewniverse.     

it was a veritable feast catered by Mobian ‘fast’ food outfits, but no one seemed to be complaining.   Certainly the food wasn’t the best nutrition wise, but they were all celebrating their victory over the tentacles of madness.    Before long, all the champions were sent back to their respective worlds and live resumed its usual thrum and rhythm.   

                                                                 Epilogue 

At long last the young hedgehogs could savor a pascal holiday, much like the equivalent of Easter or Ostara back on Earth.    It made Cecil quite merry to participate in something that was so familiar.   He hadn’t even questioned it, since he considered himself Mobian.   Still, having something so archaic and unusual was quite comforting even if it was unique in the way it was done.   

It had been a late evening.   Singing a pascal song, Sonic and Amy made their rounds, making certain everyone was drifting easily to dream land. 

Rain fall, pitter patter so softly 

From the rainfall, the flowers will grow 

Towards the sky, brave and bold 

So tall, so strong 

Bigger and better 

We’ll be by your side, little flowers 

As you take root  

Flourishing, flourishing 

Easily, each family member snoozed soundlessly under their covers.  Most of them cuddled together.  Since the air was still a bit crisp, they could conserve their body heat this way.     Amy wrapped her arm around Sonic’s waste and kissed his cheek. 

‘There’s no one I’d rather fight with than you, my King.’, she said, lovingly.    Sonic kissed her passionately on the lips and held her for a moment.

‘Likewise.   Let’s turn in, we have a lot a head of us.’, the King said, wisely.   Looping his arm around her’s, the two bedded for the night, illuminated by a promise of a new crescent moon in the horizon.  

To Be Continued…