“This is it!” declared the Quad. “Your dimensions are becoming one! Lord Vortech will reign supreme!”
“Not as long as we draw breath!” I countered. The Quad’s response was to swing its sword.
“You are already too late!” it said. “Our work has been done!” It summoned Vortexons and fired ice beams from Robin’s eyes.
“Robin,” pleaded Batman as we fought off the Vortexons, “if you’re still in there, you must stop this!” Unfortunately, Robin couldn’t hear us. The Quad slammed its fists down, trying to crush us.
“We could really use some help!” yelped Cyborg as he was surrounded by Vortexons.
“We need to get into the upper chest!” Wizard pointed out as he slashed with his WizarSwordGun.
“Allow me,” said Raven. Her hands then became shrouded in darkness. “Azarath Metrion Zinthos!” she chanted. She blasted a hole in the Quad’s upper chest.
“Batman, Gandalf, Wyldstyle, Ichigō! With me!” I ordered. “Wizard, get us in there!”
“I’m not letting you go alone!” declared Guard.
“Guard, stay here with everyone else!” I demanded. “I need you to keep the enemy off our backs!”
“But…!” protested Guard.
“That’s an order!” I snapped. Guard hesitated for a bit.
“Be careful in there,” he finally said.
“No promises,” I countered. “Wizard, if you please?” Wizard flipped the levers and a familiar chant played before he cast levitate on us before returning to the fight. We landed in a room that was much bigger than I thought. There, held in an energy cage, was Ichimonji! “Get him down from there!” I shouted.
“Get away from that!” demanded a voice. We turned and Gandalf recognized the figure.
“Caan!” he gasped. Caan was wearing his Dal Driver!
“I have a raging headache,” snarled Caan, “from all the timeline changes going on now! I will only say this once! If you do not allow Vortech to succeed, allowing him at least 3,724 rels to do so, you will be exterminated!”
“It would help if you didn’t use Dalek units of time!” I snapped.
“All right,” hissed Caan, “if you insist on using your inferior measurements of time, roughly 3 hours and 6 minutes. One rel is three seconds.”
“I’m not giving Vortech even ONE second to succeed!” I declared.
“You now have 3.33 rels to reconsider,” warned Caan.
“I don’t require a third of a rel!” I declared.
“Final warning, surrender!” threatened Caan. “Consider the chaos that will follow.”
“I’m going to do what I can to prevent that!” I said.
“Allocated surrender period has expired!” declared Caan as he took out the Pure Dalek can. “Consequence: extermination!” He set the can into the Dal Driver.
“PURE DALEK!” announced the belt. He then turned the crank. “ARE YOU READY?!”
“Henshin!” said Caan. The suit formed.
“THE UNSTOPPABLE KILLER!” announced the belt. “PURE DALEK! EXTERMINATE!” Caan was now Kamen Rider Dal. He leapt onto me and delivered punch after punch to my face.
“You have been interfering for too long!” he said in the Dalek’s usual tone. Batman then grabbed one of his fists.
“I guess manners have been sifted out of the Daleks’ genetic code!” he snarled. “Davros really screwed up on you!”
“UNHAND ME!” screeched Dal as he flung Batman aside. I took that opportunity to drive my knee into his crotch. He didn’t even flinch. He just looked down with curiosity.
“…No way!” I said. Dal then flung me into a wall and punched me in the gut! I was briefly winded. Gandalf then whacked him with his staff. Dal turned to face him.
“I haven’t forgotten you!” he droned. He then held out his left hand.
“DAL GUN!” announced the Dal Driver. His gun then appeared and he fired! We got out of the way and kept our distance.
“Any suggestions?!” I asked my teammates.
“I got one!” declared Batman as he fired his grappled gun. Dal ducked.
“You missed,” he droned.
“Did I?” smirked Batman. The hook had latched onto the railing overhead and Batman tugged hard. The walkway tumbled down onto Dal and some rubble crashed onto the control panel, freeing Ichimonji! Something then tumbled out of a panel in the wall.
“ICHIMONJI’S TYPHOON!” called Ichigō, identifying the device. While Dal tried to get the walkway off of him, Ichigō fastened the Typhoon around Ichimonji’s waist. Ichimonji managed to quickly regain his strength.
“Hongo?” he asked. “Am I glad to see you!”
“It’s good to have you back, Ichimonji,” replied Ichigō. “Now that we have you free, the Quad should be less effective.”
“And we have a Foundation Element in our grasp again,” cheered Gandalf.
“You mean, my Typhoon?” quizzed Ichimonji. “With all due respect, you have it all wrong. It’s not my belt, it’s Tachibana’s pipe.”
“WHAT?!” yelped Ichigō. “I thought Mayu had it!”
“From what I’ve heard,” explained Ichimonji, “Shocker Rift attacked her home and stole the pipe away from her.”
“Desecration!” snarled Ichigō.
“Tachibana?” I asked, needing a reminder. I know I heard that name before.
“Tōbei Tachibana was my father figure after my parents’ death,” explained Ichigō. “He had a habit of smoking a pipe and, subsequently, died of lung cancer. His granddaughter, Mayu, kept his pipe as a keepsake.”
“And Shocker Rift stole it from her because it was a Foundation Element,” I guessed, “the one from your world!”
“Correct,” confirmed Ichimonji.
“And, with that,” barked a Dalek’s voice as Dal stood up, “you have permanently twisted the future to YOUR desired end! So, it’s up to me to put it back!” He jumped out of the hole we made in the Quad and joined the fight.
“I’ll help!” Ichimonji declared to us.
“You can’t have recovered that fast!” I protested.
“I’m a Kaizo Ningen,” (modified human, Japanese phrase for cyborgs) smirked Ichimonji. “I HAVE recovered that fast.” He then faced the opening we made, then flung his arms to the side and rotated them until his left fist went upwards and his right fist pointed to his left elbow. “HENSHIN!” he announced before leaping into the fight down below. The shield on his Typhoon opened and his suit formed. His suit was built like Ichigō’s, but the helmet coloration was different. It was a lighter shade of green with a white stripe going between the eyes and going to the back of the head. The mouth-guard was silver as well. Other than that, you could easily confuse him for Ichigō.
“YOU FREED KAMEN RIDER NIGŌ!” cheered Sengoku as he punched a Vortexon.
“That will do you no good!” called the Quad. “We are still in command of all the gateways!”
“Okay, we need to take care of the MetalBeard bit!” I called.
“If I may!” shouted Cyborg as he fired into the right shoulder.
“Thank you!” I replied as my team headed into the shoulder. MetalBeard was in an energy cage like Nigō was.
“Okay, I can see chroma discs,” Wyldstyle pointed out, “and the lock design,” yellow circle, blue right L-shape, purple left L-shape, “but how do we get to them? They’re behind energy shields.”
“Perhaps I can find a solution,” replied Gandalf. He found a loose wall panel in the center of the energy shields and yanked it off with his magic. Behind the panel was a machine with a control panel. The machine had a pointer that indicated which shield should go down.
“I’ll take care of it,” remarked Batman. “Wyldstyle, you better get things started.”
“Chroma Keystone, activate!” called Wyldstyle. “Chroma lock reveal!” Batman then moved the pointer to the shield around the red Chroma Disc. “Chroma! Red! Gandalf!” announced Wyldstyle. Gandalf went into the red paint and jumped into the left L-shape. Batman then moved the pointer to the yellow shield and the shield around that vanished while the shield around red went back up. The yellow disc was on a high ledge. Wyldstyle went up. “Chroma! Yellow! Wyldstyle!” she called as she jumped into the paint, then into the circle. Batman moved the pointer one last time, allowing access to the blue paint and closing off access to the yellow. “Chroma! Blue! Ichigō!” Ichigō jumped into the blue paint, then jumped into Gandalf’s position before landing in the right L-shape. The Chroma lock then activated a lever by MetalBeard’s cage.
“I got it!” I announced as I yanked on the lever. The cage deactivated and MetalBeard was released!
“Arr, ye did it!” cheered MetalBeard. “But, ye gotta free the others! Being trapped in this thing is…arr!” I presume he said that to replace whatever swear went through his mind.
“We already freed Ichimonji,” I revealed. “He’s fighting the enemy down below. Would you like to join or go to safety on Vorton? Your call.”
“After being stuffed in this contraption?!” growled MetalBeard. “Nay, I be joining the fight below!” He charged out of the Quad through the hole we made and started attacking the Vortexons. We followed him and rejoined the battle. The Quad felt its power diminish.
“No!” it protested in all four voices. “We are only a fraction of Lord Vortech’s power! He shall rule over everything!”
“Not as long as we exist!” argued Touché as she swapped i.d. tags.
“Wyldstyle steel!” announced her belt. She then built a massive cannon out of debris and fired it into the lower chest.
“Get going!” called Touché. My team and I jumped into the chest and we found ourselves in a room where Frodo Baggins was being held!
“This calls for the Scale Keystone,” reported Ichigō as he pointed to a vent.
“It’s broken, though!” I pointed out. “Where are the patches?!”
“Someone call?” asked Batman as he brought them down from the ceiling.
“Batman, you’re a life-saver!” I cheered.
“It’s what I do,” responded Batman.
“Scale Keystone, activate!” announced Ichigō. “Enlarge scale of Ichigō!” He grew and attached the patches, then held up a dangling bit. “Enlarge scale of Gandalf!” Gandalf grew and held up another dangling bit. “Lessen scale of Royal!” I shrank and traveled through the vent, messing with the electronics along the way until I heard the crackle of an energy cage deactivating. I got out of the vent to see Frodo picking himself up! “Normalize scale of all!” announced Ichigō as we all returned to normal size. Gandalf rushed over to Frodo to check on him.
“Frodo, my boy!” he called. “Are you all right?”
“A little dizzy,” muttered Frodo, “but I shall be fine, Gandalf.”
“Good to know,” said Gandalf. He then turned to me. “See if Vorton can get him home,” he asked me.
“No!” countered Frodo. He then revealed Sting! “I have a bone to pick with Vortech! Defeating his troops should help me get the message across!”
“…Are you quite sure?” quizzed Gandalf.
“I’ve never been more sure in my life!” affirmed Frodo. He went through the hole we made and jumped down into the fight, Sting flashing in the moonlight. “FOR THE SHIRE!” he called.
“Our power will not be diminished!” called the Quad as we leapt out of it.
“It looks like it IS!” I replied as we fought the Vortexons.
“You cannot!” rebuked the Quad. “You cannot free them from our bonds!”
“I’d say,” countered Wizard as he hefted a large stone, “we just did!” He tossed the stone into the Quad’s lower chest and made one last hole.
“Hold on, Robin!” called Batman as we leapt in. There was a ledge that was on fire when we got inside and something that required electricity.
“Elemental Keystone, activate!” announced Gandalf. “Element of fire, Wyldstyle!” Wyldstyle was surrounded in a red aura and leapt onto the ledge, deactivating part of the cage. “Element of lightning, Royal!” I fired a stream of lightning into a coil that powered a switch. Gandalf set it to the off position and the cage faded, releasing Robin. Batman went to check on his son.
“Robin, speak to me!” he called as he shook his young ward.
“STOP SHAKING ME!” shouted Robin. Batman stopped as he realized what he was doing. “Sheesh, Batman,” commented Robin, “I didn’t know you cared!”
“Well, he’s your dad,” I responded, “of course he does.” Robin stared at me until he remembered something.
“That’s right, you’re from a universe where we’re fiction and our lives are lain bare,” he remarked. Just then, an alarm sounded and our exit was blocked.
“Uh oh!” I yelped. I then called Vorton. “Guys, we need an immediate evac! Lock onto to us and our allies! Get us to Vorton!”
“Got you!” responded Elphaba’s voice. “I got your allies here, but you five are the only ones we can’t get a lock on! There’s a clear area deeper in the Quad! See if you can get there!” We did as she asked, dodging rubble along the way. We got to the clear area to see the blob Vortech had used to make the Quad.
“Yeah, that looks like a bit of Vortech to me!” called Wyldstyle.
“I can almost taste the malevolence emanating from it!” hissed Gandalf.
“Well, IT’S about to taste some justice!” snarled Batman as he pulled out a batarang.
“Holy clichés, Batman,” remarked Robin. I then stared at Robin. He guessed what I was saying in my head. “I was being purposefully ironic!” he protested.
“Uh huh, sure,” I replied. Batman tossed the batarang and it hit the blob. Just then, the place started to shake and things were being pulled into it!
“It’s collapsing in on itself!” yelped Wyldstyle.
“I hadn’t noticed!” I roared, sarcasm not even bothering to be disguised.
“I hope Vorton provides us with a means of escape soon!” called Gandalf.
“They better have!” shouted Batman. Unfortunately, things went awry!