Mechanos existed in the previous universe as a desolate planet. A scientist explorer arrived on the planet and used microbots to devour poison from a pond, and in a flash, those microbots evolved into dinosaurs overnight. The next day, there were cave-bots, then there were humanoid robots, and then their entire beings evolved into energy. It was believed that robots did everything faster than humans, including evolve, but Mechanos was reborn as a New Planet thanks to Bender's input. It was a paradise to robots and flesh beings who adored or created robots. Manufacturers like Mom or Eggman were treated with especially high status.
Jenny Wakeman was created by a lesser-known scientist called Nora Wakeman, modeled to resemble the common teenage girl. This was meant to help her blend in and empathize with humans, but considering her wide assortment of transformations and weapons, she realized she worked better as a KND operative. Her arm was changed into a hammer as she bashed and smashed the head of an Egg Hammer. "Jenny, watch out! There are more coming!" yelled the Silver Shell.
A swarm of zombie-like robots were dragging their selves up the street. They seemed like they were fresh from the scrap heap, moving under the power of a ghostly white aura. "Has Eggman started recycling or something?" Jenny asked, questioning the threat they posed.
The Scrapbots were magnetically drawn to each other, becoming larger robots as they charged at the operatives. Sheldon wrestled with one, and another slashed a large sword at Jenny, who blocked it with six swords made from her arms. "There's something different about these robots, Jenny!" the Shell said. "I feel a weird power!"
"I don't even feel life readings from them! This is definitely strange… And where did Arale wander off to?! We could seriously use her help!"
…
"Hohohoy! Hohohoy!" Somewhere downtown, Arale was happily throwing her purple-haired head up and down, her expression cheery and pure. She blissfully approached a stand run by a blue, robot bird. Arale screwed her head back on and said, "I'd like a smoothie please!"
"Craw? What kind?"
"Dinosaur oil!"
"Okay." The bird-bot turned around, prepared the smoothie, and gave it to Arale.
The child casually began sipping on the straw. "ROOOOAAAR!" A tremendous, bulky dino-bot stormed around some buildings and spotted the little prey. The beast charged at Arale, the child turning with quizzical eyes. Dimentia dashed in the way of the dino and stopped it with her hand. The dino struggled to push against her, but Leic jumped and sliced his way up its body. Butterflies fluttered out of the machine, leaving it totally lifeless as it collapsed.
"Sylistys is able to control robotic corpses, too?" Plex asked. "Then she isn't just a bonebender…"
"Hi-cha. Who are you?"
Dimentia glanced back at Arale. Because this was a more public area, the Zathurian was wearing a hood to conceal her identity. "Do you live around here, little girl? It's not safe to be outside, you should go hide somewhere."
"You want to go play hide-and-seek?" asked the spectacled robot.
"Tee hee!" Leic giggled. "Sure, we can play hide-and-seek if you want."
"… …Hoyo?" Arale was pondering Dimentia's silence.
"Wait, you're a robot." Dimentia realized. "Heh, sorry Leic, robots can't see spirits."
"But she can see you okay."
"I'm a different kind of spirit."
"Now you know how I feel." Plex remarked. "…Dimentia!"
A giant Mechaworm dove at them, but Dimentia dashed under its mouth, stabbing her dual swords up against the beast and cutting twin perfect lines down its body. Once past it, Dimentia watched as the worm fell dead, its bottom split into three. Arale simply stared at the monster, her mouth an 'o', completely unfazed by the threat. "Hoyo?"
Dimentia narrowed her eyes and faced the puppeteer of these beasts. "So, you're showing yourself early." she said to Sylistys. "Have you finally decided to stop running?"
"My master is tending to an important meeting. She doesn't need you to interrupt her."
"I knew it! There IS another Daemonis here! What are you two planning?!"
"Hey! Stylist!" shouted another voice. Behind the bonebender was Omelette, riding a small hover pod. "That girl is one of the KND operatives! Stomp her!"
Dimentia and Leic leapt to block Arale from her view. "You have a little sidekick of your own now?"
"I'm not her sidekick!" Omelette yelled. "I'm her supervisor! Papa wants me to watch her!"
"It's just one problematic child after another." Plex sighed.
"You're not hurting anyone else, Sy." Dimentia vowed. "We're stopping you for good!"
"We'll see about that." Sylistys bent up some metal to encase herself in armor. (Play "Iron Jungle" from Shadow the Hedgehog!)
Stage D-3: Scrap Brain City
Mission: Subdue Sylistys and her accomplice!
Dimentia charged at the bonebender and slashed her Space Swords, Sylistys enduring in her armor as she willed blades to pierce up from the ground. Dimentia ran further away and ran sideways to better evade her attacks. She relinked the bow and shot an arrow, Sy dodging as she brought up and hurled a metal snake. Dimentia grabbed the snake, spun, and swung it into Sy, who sliced it with her bending. Dimentia ran closer and swung the rest of the snake, Sy chopping it lower each time before attempting to shoot blades at Dimentia. The Inviere dodged and shot an arrow—the arrow went through Sy's armor and warped her to the arrow that was loosed earlier. Once disarmed, Leic ambushed her from behind with a stab, Sy clutching the angel in metal claws, but Dimentia leapt to land more sword slashes.
"Whatever, I'll just deal with you myself." Omelette said to Arale. She launched missiles from her pod, but Arale dodged them with ease.
"Are we playing tag? You're it!!" Arale about-faced and zoomed up the street with superhuman speed. Sylistys looked to her and pursued, summoning a motorcycle over with her bending. The woman leapt on the cycle and sped after Arale. Dimentia raced after the creation, but Scrapbots jumped out from behind buildings, one stretching the wire of its arms to grab her. It slammed Dimentia around the ground before Leic sliced her free. Dimentia flipped upright and shot an arrow at a Scrap-Arm, dodging the others' whipping arms as she sniped them all with arrows. She continued running up the street, the road leading to a highway.
She could see the road sloping down and turning left in the distance, and it seemed Sylistys had chased Arale that far, only for the girl to be cornered at a roadblock of Scrapbots. "Get on, Leic, we have to hurry!" Dimentia lifted the boy on her shoulders and raced across the highway with full speed. Sylistys had broken off parts of the road, so Dimentia performed a terrific leap over a gap. Scrap-Cycles tried to intercept her, but she cut them down without halting her pursuit. She leapt the following gap, but some Scrap-Cycles sped ahead and pulled ropes to tug the slanted road back up. Luckily, Leic flapped his wings to pull Dimentia up and land her on the road, the Inviere racing forward to slice the robots that tried to impede her.
Dimentia leapt segmented platforms of the highway while Scrap-Copters tried to cut her down in the air, only to be butter-fied by Leic. Past the platforms, the highway would curve left, and bulldozer Scrapbots would block their way to Arale. Dimentia lured them close together and encased them in a circle of arrows. Trapping them in Nega-Zone, Dimentia forced all the Scrap-Dozers together with a Gravity Field, smashing them all into a perfectly rounded ball. Dimentia took the ball and kicked it directly forward, bashing Sylistys clear in the head.
The Scrap-Ball bounced off as if it were a simple rubber ball, Sylistys' head bending from the impact, but she dropped Arale. Dimentia caught up to the creation and lashed her blades. Sylistys evaded some attacks and suddenly pushed Dimentia away with a metal panel. Leic jumped off her shoulders and sliced down Sy's front, but she kicked him away in quick retaliation. Dimentia charged at her, but Sy quickly yanked up the road to block and envelop the Inviere. She bent that chunk of road into a ball shape and began to crush Dimentia inside it.
Leic attacked Sy to stop her, but she used her left hand to fly metal blades at him, using her right to keep squeezing the ball. Sylistys flipped up 10 blades and sent them from all sides of Leic—the boy suddenly warped and poofed beside the ball. "Huh?!" Confused, the boy looked down: there was a tiny Dimentia at his feet, along with an Arrow Warp. "WAH?! Dimentia, what happened?! You're so cute!"
"I just shrank my dimensions and slipped through a hole in that ball, nothing unusual. Felt easier than trying to push it open." Dimentia stretched back to normal and ran to stab Sylistys, but the latter pulled up two blades from behind Dimentia, stabbing her back. Leic commanded butterflies to pull the blades out of her, then he ran around to cut Sy's hip. She could feel him trying to butter-fy her, so she pushed him away and broke away from Dimentia.
Sylistys about-faced… Arale had disappeared. There was large pounding in the distance, and they saw the child in question casually bouncing the Scrap-Ball Dimentia had just used, going further uptown. "Man, do I gotta do everything?!" Omelette soared by on a miniature warplane, grabbing Sylistys in a claw and flying after Arale. Dimentia lifted Leic and leapt off the highway, landing and leaping across rooftops. They arrived at some taller buildings, in which Dimentia made a Grav-Path going up the side of one.
They stepped off on a walkway, where a Gearmo (maid robot) was angrily trying to sweep large Scrap-Bugs off the building. Leic happily helped by turning the bots' chi into butterflies, allowing the Gearmo to sweep them off the edge for good. "Yeah! Take that, you wretched constructions of vermin!"
"You're welcome!" Leic cheered, even though she couldn't see him. The two leapt some platforms to the walkway of another building, but since it would only lead to a door, they used a Grav-Path to go along the side of a windowed building. There was a short, human-looking man in blue attire called Fix-It Felix, hammering a nail into the side of a windowsill. Sadly, Scrap-Printers burst out of random windows, using spider legs to cling on. A printer burst out of Felix's window, sending him falling and screaming.
"Kickball-CHA!" From directly below, Arale kicked the Scrap-Ball skyward, striking Felix as he went blasting to the sky. "Hoyo?" She gazed intently as the ball seemed to leave the atmosphere. "Oh! I'll catch it!" And she kept running.
Dimentia made another Nega-Zone, catching all the Scrap-Printers inside and flattening them to a two-dimensional disc. Dimentia carried the disc and walked around the broken windows. From the edge of the building, they were in view of Egg Quarters, the dome-shaped structure of Eggman's likeness. "Leic, get on." She ordered, the angel climbing on the disc. She stuck an Arrow Warp inside it and threw with terrific force, then she stuck herself with another arrow to warp on it as well.
"Wheeeee!" cheered Leic, the two whirling rapidly on the flying disc, until it landed them perfectly on a walkway on the outside of the building. Scrap-Eggrobos flew out on faulty jetpacks, shooting lasers that Dimentia evaded. They also evaded her arrows before going down after a failed dodge, and Leic leapt to grab one's legs and butter-fy its chi, then swung to another to repeat the tactic.
"Dimentia," Plex began, "when I observed Sylistys a moment ago, I felt an extra layer of chi over her bonebending. I think this metalbending comes from an outside source."
"Could it be another of Pyronem's marbles?"
"There's a chance. A metal-controlling ability would adapt well with a bonebender, since they're both sub-elements of Earth."
The two climbed a ladder to an upper floor, seeing Arale racing ahead while Omelette dropped Sylistys down to chase her. Scrap-Swats, the junk remains of Eggman's police robots, ran to engage Dimentia with lightsabers. She held back two of the Swatbots with either of her swords, but when one struck from behind, she ducked, tricking it into stabbing another. She then sliced down the other two Swatbots, and Leic was already nimbly evading the remaining Swatbots and butter-fying the chi possessing them. They hurried up the path as it turned left, leading into an inlet of the Egg Quarters.
This narrow path led to a wider area, guarded by a gigantic Guerra-Hard robot. Though the robot seemed strong and sturdy, it was still lifeless and under Sylistys' control. It slammed a fist down at the two, splitting them up, and it attempted to squash Leic like a fly. "Wait, I thought robots couldn't see me!"
"It must be sensing you thanks to Sy's influence!" Dimentia deduced.
"But that just isn't fair!"
Dimentia attempted to stab the robot's boots, but left no scratch as it kicked her away. Leic ran up its arm when it punched, trying to cut along, but struggled to butter-fy the chi through the sturdy armor. When Leic made it to the head, he noticed a small hole in the side of it, but Guerra-Hard swat him off, the angel crashing painfully against the wall. Dimentia caught him as he fell, dodging Guerra-Hard's follow-up attack. "Dimentia, I saw a hole in his head. Maybe you can get little and beat him from inside."
"You aren't hurt, are you?"
"Oh, me? Haha, I may be full of butter, but I'm not a softy!"
"Eh, if you say so!" Dimentia set him on his feet, and as they dodged Guerra-Hard's next attack, she minimized herself again. Leic swiftly grabbed her off the floor and tossed her onto the fist before it rose back up. She zoomed along the arm and found the hole in question, going inside. There were strings of white chi linking the wires, so she sliced each and every one. Dimentia would feel the giant robot collapsing out of commission. She climbed out and resized, and there was nothing to stop them from Grav-Walking up the wall to a higher floor.
Dimentia and Leic took down some Scrap-Cycles on their way up some stairs. The stairs ended at a narrow path that curved slightly leftward, with Eggrobos flying up from either end to shoot them. Once the Scrapbots were shot down, the duo hurried to the end of the path, leading to a building entrance where Sylistys was trying to squeeze Arale. "Don't take another step!" Omelette yelled, shooting missiles from her pod. "This is Dad's office and you can't enter without a-"
Dimentia warped her further back via Arrow Warp. She leapt forth to stab Sylistys, but halted herself when the woman spun to use Arale as a shield. Dimentia simply attached the bow again and used another Arrow Warp, leaving nothing to interfere as she started dicing Sy again. Sy bent up the metal from the floor to cut Dimentia's arms, but she kicked up against the bonebender's chin, followed by a spin attack with 20 cuts against Sy's chest. Sylistys sharpened her boney fingers and sliced up Dimentia's clothes—a flock of butterflies flew out of them and covered Sy.
"I call this trick, 'Buttery Arrows'!" Leic declared, willing those butterflies to morph back into Space Arrows that all pierced Sylistys. The creation knelt in weakness, and then Dimentia did a flip to stomp her head against the floor. Leic leapt on her and pelted her with quick, precise, gentle punches, blocking Sy's chi. A silver marble rolled out of her as a result. (End song.)
Dimentia could sense all remaining Scrapbots in the town collapsing. "That's the end of your metalbending." she declared. "You're virtually powerless on this planet now."
"Huff…curse you…" Sylistys rasped.
"Hey, Dimentia? I've been wondering something about this lady." Leic said.
"Yeah, what?"
"Well, she's a bonebender. I just thought it funny because one of my friends is a bonebender. Her name's Aluben. I kinda mentioned her earlier, sorta."
"A…Aluben?…" Sylistys panted hoarsely.
"That is kind of funny." Dimentia agreed. "Still, this is a Daemonis creation, not…"
"Dimentia… hold on." Plex said. "Aluben… Isn't that 'Nebula' spelled backwards?"
"Nebula? …Leic, are you from the Negaverse?"
"Yeah, did I not mention that?"
"Aluben… then her mom's name would be Aitnemid… Has Aluben ever told you about her mom?"
"She said that her mom was really mean, so she killed her."
"How could you say that so casually?!" Plex shouted. "Wait… but, that would mean…"
"Was that… the same time I died?" Dimentia asked quietly. "…Sy…" She stared down at the woman. "Is…is your name… Aitnemid?"
"Ait…nemid?" Her breathing calmed down. "I…I don't know that name… Aitnemid…Ait…nem…"
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
Dimentia gasped back to attention when a dangerous aura stepped out of the building door. Varcrutis was smirking and clapping sarcastically. "Bravo, genius. It took you this long to figure it out?"
"Hoyo?" Arale cocked her head at the new stranger.
"You got it right~" Varcrutis pulled Sy upright and pinched both cheeks. "This little lady used to be your Negative, Aitnemid! The Coincidence Factor dictates that fate works for both sides, right?"
"Varcrutis!" Dimentia drew her swords. "It really was you! What're you doing back here?!"
"Is she a friend of yours?" Leic asked.
"Hardly. She hurt my daughter's friends a few years back."
"I was only playing around! As for what I'm doing here, I thought it was time to set up shop again in this universe. After all, it's not like the Phoenios should be the only ones reaping its riches. That's why we saved this poor soul from Limbo and Veneniutis rebuilt her as this. Not that her past matters all that much, all that matters is her future. Still, we hoped she would be able to hide out a little longer, being a denizen of this universe."
"You're not setting up shop anywhere! We're not letting you use this universe for your own selfish gain!"
"Oh, and the Phoenios are allowed to? The only reason we're so fixed on this place is because the Phoenios wanted it. And that's why, a something-million years ago," Var projected an illusion in the air, "did your matriarch, Alumenosus and her children arrive here." The illusion displayed Arceus's silhouette and seven smaller, humanoid silhouettes before him. "Alumenosus was like, 'Can we please be friends, Arceus?' And Arceus was like, 'Sure, why not?' And every century or so, they'd come over for tea parties or goddess games or whatever it is you do. The Phoenios warned him about the Daemonis, they promised not to invade each other's universe, nor would they interfere with each other's events, and found a mutual understanding, yada-yada."
The illusion vanished. "But slowly but surely, they were hoping to take from this universe. Sadly, in the large gap where Arceus was incapacitated, they decided not to visit at all because they knew trying to take anything during that time would send a bad message if Arceus ever woke up. But now that worry has been lifted off their shoulders. If they could turn you into an Inviere, the one whose body was adept to a Firstborn's chi, what's to stop them from making the other Firstborn Guardians into Inviere? Or the former Seven Lights, or any one of those superhuman brats?"
"We do not turn people into Inviere so casually!" Plex shouted, Dimentia carrying on his words.
"You sound like you were trained to say that." Var remarked. "My point is, we want our fair share from this place, and that's exactly why we took Aitnemid."
"Is that the connection we share?" Sylistys asked. "We're… a Positive and Negative? Who was I before…?"
"Didn't I tell you your past doesn't matter? Either way, I'm a little disappointed you didn't hold your ground against these two. You could've seriously embarrassed me in front of Dr. Eggman. You couldn't even take out that little angel boy? It's as easy as doing this~"
With a sudden motion, Var scraped her foot against the floor, distorting and stretching it like rubber as Leic was yanked over to her. "AAAH!" the boy cried as she grabbed his robe and stretched it fully over his frail frame, wrapping it up like a sack.
"LEIC!" Dimentia leapt to attack, but Var passed the child to Sy and quickly blocked the Space Swords with her hands.
"Like a worm in a cocoon. She can snack on him while I deal with you." Varcrutis swung a kick to blast Dimentia across the walkway, the Inviere tumbling down several layers of the Egg Quarters.
"Hoyo!" Arale grew ever more curious as Varcrutis raced after Dimentia. The robot child spread her arms like a plane and ran to see, with Sy merely watching her, confused by her carefree reaction.
Dimentia quickly raced up as Var showed herself on a higher layer of the base. "Between that Cherry Boy and your transformation, too many inconvenient things happened on the Noah. I came back to this universe because I was hoping to make up for our mistakes. Even though it was Certae's fault. And I'll start by clipping those pretty feathers of yours!" (Play "Counterattack" from Xenoblade 2!)
Varcrutis leapt down and swiped her claws rapidly, Dimentia maneuvering her blades with equal speed. Var willed the air around Dimentia's hands to become as heavy as steel, allowing the demon to punch her face repeatedly. Dimentia warped behind Var and grabbed her, warping above the planet's atmosphere. "No reason to hold back with you!" Dimentia conjured gravity fields around Var in attempt to rip her apart, but Var willed those fields to become balloons, poking holes as they blew around the space. Dimentia struck with a storm of Starbursts, Var enduring them as she willed the space around Dimentia to smash her from both sides.
Dimentia warped away and kicked Var in the back, then abruptly pulled her back via a Gravity Field in her palm. The palm became a vortex and tried to compress and flush Var inside, but she released a goopy chi in order to "clog" the vortex. Afterward, she forced herself out and stamped Dimentia's stomach, making it twist into a cramp. "Ya know, you'd move a lot faster if you show your wings!" Var ripped the space around Dimentia, attempting to split her.
"That's what you want, isn't it?! You're up to something!" Dimentia snapped the space back together and dodged her claw stab. She rapidly warped her swords into random parts of Var's body, until the demon willed springs to jut out of two parts and blow the swords away. However, Dimentia suddenly stretched a spear made of solid Space Chi, scraping Var's left hip, and then Dimentia morphed it into a sword to swing against her. "What were you doing with Dr. Eggman?!"
"Just tryin' to make friends is all! And friends do favors for each other, so he needs me to bust up some kids!" Varcrutis morphed the sword into a banana shape and took a bite of the top, afterwards spitting the mushed Space Chi at Dimentia's face.
"The operatives on Mechanos?!" Dimentia caught Var in a portal and warped her swords back to herself, flying to slash the demon.
"That was Sy's assignment, and frankly, I expected more from her." Var flipped free and grabbed the portal like a "disc," flying away to toss it at Dimentia, who dodged. "It was only a few bratty robots and all her machines couldn't crush them? Plus, she took her precious time with that purple-haired brat, maybe Veneniutis needs to tweak her programming."
"Or maybe she just wasn't strong enough." Dimentia linked her bow and flew above, raining arrows down as Var dodged most of them. "After all, evil adults like you two are the KND's forte."
"Don't make me laugh!" Varcrutis casually swiped stars from the sky as if they were up close, throwing them like tiny shurikens. "I nearly trounced those kids on the Noah, and I'll do the same to those other brats! After all, if you can't even beat me, they don't stand a chance!"
"'Nearly' is what I heard there." Dimentia smirked. "It sounded like Cheren was too much for you to handle."
Var's eye twitched, willing the remaining stars to suddenly fall and cut Dimentia. While the remaining space appeared to blacken, the real stars would slowly return to dot the sky. "I was just a little tired is all! It wasn't easy breaching a dimensional tunnel that strong!"
"Sure, if that's what you believe. Either way, it's just the universe's way of saying you aren't welcome~"
"Bullshit!" Varcrutis flew to bite Dimentia's nose, stretching it in a cartoony fashion as she wrapped Dimentia's neck with it. Dimentia forced her off and dimensionally shrank her nose back. "I could go and kill them right now if I wanted! Your friends would never stop me in time, and this universe's gods sure wouldn't do jack! They're so obsessed with the 'power of mortals' that they devolved into a lazy bunch!"
"With everything that's happened since then, they're surely more than capable of stopping you."
"Don't be ridiculous! Gods or demons, mortals are inferior to us! That's just reality, sweetheart; I don't even need to bend it for it to be true! And if you still don't believe me, I'll show you! Eggman won't mind if I dispose of these bots real quick~" Varcrutis reached down and grabbed the "rim" of Mechanos' horizon as if it were within arm's reach. She pulled up, and they were both suddenly floating above Scrap Brain City. Var glanced down, seeing the duo of Jenny and Silver Shell running to reunite with Arale. With a smirk, she swooped down to them, but Dimentia tackled and forced her to the ground. "What's wrong?! Don't think they can beat me?!"
"Whether they can or not, it's still not your place to bother them!"
Varcrutis shoved Dimentia off. "It must suck, doesn't it, Dimentia? Knowing you can't help your friends, can't interfere with this world, all because of what the Phoenios did to you? You're just an outsider now, unwanted by this world! And it's only thanks to US that you can come back here, to protect these kids you love so much! You WANT us to attack this universe so you can still be a hero here!"
"A hero? Me?" Dimentia seemed to scoff at the idea.
"Yes, you always tried to make yourself look like a hero. Just like when you ran the GKND; I certainly know that much about you. In the end, you're still just a selfish woman, Dimentia!"
"-aaaaaaaaahhhhh!"
Frowning, Varcrutis looked up in curiosity. The giant Scrap-Ball Dimentia had formed, and that Arale had kicked to the sky, was finally returning to the surface, and Fix-It Felix was still stuck on it. What's more, it was falling directly to Arale's trajectory, just as the latter intended. "Hoyo! Time for volleyball!" the child cheered. "Super Fist of Shōnen Jump!" She performed a great leap. "Serving the Ball!" With amazing strength, she punched it: the ball flew with bullet speed, BASHING Var clear in the head.
"WAAAAAAH…" Felix was flung off the ball and back to the sky, whilst the ball bounced elsewhere.
"…" Dimentia could only stare baffled at that sudden, bizarre occurrence. Had Arale been planning to attack like that since the beginning?
Var, however, after bending her head back straight, faced the child with pure malice. "Hoyo?" Arale only stared at her cluelessly.
"Oh, you're gonna pay for that, brat." And so, she charged the robot like a raging predator, claws ready to reduce Arale's head into scrap.
Arale's eyes sharpened, brimming with determination. "HOH!" She assumed a karate pose. "PLANET CHOPPU!" And she forced her fingers into the metal earth.
The entire planet completely split into a crescent trench. Dimentia's mouth totally dropped at the dramatic display of power. Varcrutis gasped as well, flailing her legs in the air, for she was merely feet away from the edge of the trench where Arale stood. "You know I can fly, right?" she smirked, merely sitting cross-legged in the air. (Play "Nopon's Life" from Xenoblade.)
"WAAAAH-!" Felix came falling again. Var looked up eyes wide, too late to dodge him. "Save me, My Queen!" He grabbed onto Var's chest, pushing her down under his weight.
"…" Dimentia blinked. Standing on the edge of the trench, she could only watch. Too many questions were circling her mind.
Varcrutis tried to shove Felix off, but his grip and weight were unmatched. "What the hell are you?! You weigh a ton!"
"Sorry, precious. When I was flying, I accidentally swallowed my hammer."
"THAT RAISES FURTHER QUESTIONS!" she shouted. "OW!" They crashed through a brick wall, "OW!" and another one, and there were more to come.
"Mmm, you're comfy." Felix said, snuggling with her. "Do you wanna get married?"
"Grrrr!" Var snapped her fingers, turning the next brick wall into a trampoline. Their speed and weight pressed the trampoline far down, blasting them back up with terrific force. In a second, they were soaring above the planet's surface again.
"Phew, you saved us." Felix climbed up to Var's head with a smile. "You know, you're one dynamite gal~"
Var pulled him off and KICKED him in the crotch. The force sent Felix flying and shot the hammer out of him. "And the answer's 'no'!" she responded.
However, not watching where she was falling, the Daemonis splashed into a spring of clear water. She resurfaced, looking around in confusion. This spring was located in the middle of a beautiful forest. "This can't be on Mechanos! Where did we end up…"
"Chronicler-san, you jump first!" Arale instructed.
"Of course, my dear." The ancient dragon was wearing swim trunks as he dove with hands folded into the spring. The splash washed over Var's head. "Ahhh, isn't the water amazing today, Varcrutis?" Chronicler asked.
"Next, Ignitus!" Arale instructed as a Fire Dragon dove in. "Next, Terrador." A green Earth Dragon dove in. Varcrutis merely let herself float in the middle of them, questioning everything that was happening. "Now, Volteer!" The Lightning Dragon stepped up next.
"NO! NOT VOLTEER!" the dragons screamed.
Alas, this didn't stop the Electro-Dragon from diving in. "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!" The spring flashed with blinding electricity, Varcrutis lighting up alongside the dragons.
When the electricity faded, the dragons floated dead in the pool. "Huff…huff…" Varcrutis struggled to pull herself onto land. "What…what the hell is that girl…ow!" Felix's hammer bonked her head. "Damn you…AAH!" Then she was immediately squashed under Wreck-It Ralph.
"So, where's this lady you told me about, Felix?" Ralph asked, wearing a tuxedo as he carried his friend.
"Oh, she's probably jumping in a trench or something. She's a wild gal, that one." Felix replied, carrying a bouquet.
"Yooooouuu…" Varcrutis slowly rose behind them, fuming. "GO FIND SOMEONE ELSE!" And she sent both men flying away with a kick. (End song.)
Panting in exhaust, Var turned to Arale. The "spring" turned back into the city. "Wait a minute…" Var finally understood. "You're one of those 'Bo-bobo' brats, aren't you? The kind that gets by with all that dumb nonsense… There's no point trying to kill you."
"Ha ha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha ha!"
Her blood boiling, Varcrutis turned to Dimentia, who was laughing joyously. "Ha ha ha ha! Saying they don't stand a chance, because I can't beat you? Don't compare me to the KND, sweetheart. My kids have always been stronger than me, and their friends are no different. All I was was a selfish adult clinging to a pointless dream."
"Just because that clown is too stubborn to die, it changes nothing for everyone else! Both of us, we're above the omniverse!"
"Hah." Dimentia said simply. "If that's true, why work for Eggman? Why not just do whatever you want? It's because mortals run this universe. You can't do anything without their support. Without their acknowledgement."
"I'm just playing along with this world's rules because it's fun. Otherwise, I'd go to town on this place! After all, this isn't even my final form!" Var flashed with a blue aura, transforming into an orca-like humanoid with a tail, black and white skin, and blue plates of sharp armor. She spun and whacked her tail at Dimentia, then gnashed her teeth while the Inviere blocked them with a sword. She bit and broke the sword, punching Dimentia several yards away. She ran to grab her by the neck and threw her to the sky. Seeing the Egg Quarters in the distance, Var repeated her past technique, grabbed the fortress, and pulled it closer for Dimentia to land in a round, open area.
Dimentia struggled to push herself up. "AAAAAHHH!" Five pillars had risen up and electrocuted her in an energy field.
"HO HO HO ho ho ho!" Eggman laughed, controlling the machine from a chamber. "So, this is the 'Space Phoenix,' Var? Not quite what I expected, but this should squeeze those feathers out of her."
"Aaaaaahh…!" Dimentia could barely move in the grasp of the painful device. Somehow, she thinks this machine was designed to capture Super Sonic in the past, and it was clearly efficient. "AAAAH!" A pair of pink wings sprouted out of her.
"Excellent!" Eggman rubbed his gloved hands deviously. "Now we'll give it a few more seconds for her to pass out."
"Cuckoo-coo-coo!" Scratch laughed. "I can make a neat fur coat with those feathers!"
"Master!" Sylistys called, walking into the area, carrying the sack in which Leic was still struggling. "Do you want me to eat Dimentia after he's finished with her?"
"Well, we-…!" Her eyes widened. "You still didn't eat that boy?!"
"Huh? Oh, sorry, I just wanted to watch you. I'll eat him now." She was about to bite through the bag—
A huge pair of wings split through the bag and bumped her. The bag fully tore open and Leic rose out: the boy's nudity was hidden under a layer of butterfly-like skin with a complex design, and his wings were extravagant while his eyes were a dark, buggish blue. "When I was in there, it made me think this was how a caterpillar feels when it's about to grow into a beautiful butterfly! And then I just had the most amazing idea! I stopped struggling and focused my chi, imagining myself becoming one with the butterflies. And now, I have a whole new ability! I can change into this form if I'm locked in a tight space like that!"
"You just gained that ability on a whim?!" Var exclaimed. "But what good is a butterfly to an orca?!" She flew up and tried to slash Leic, but he swiftly dodged and burst a cloud of pollen from his body. Var choked in the cloud for a moment and flew out. Sylistys stretched a boney hand and grabbed Leic's neck, but his buttery skin slipped from her grasp. He conjured a swarm of butterflies to latch both monsters; thousands of the bugs cluttered and weighed them down. Var mustered the strength to rip them off her, and she flew to stab Leic, but he stabbed his own sword up her mouth and willed hundreds of cocoons to grow inside. The next moment, Var was vomiting butterflies.
Eggman's half-robotic eyes could only barely sense the angel. "Seems we have a bug problem. But it looks like the phoenix is finally passed out." He disabled the machine as Dimentia's unconscious body fell. "Scratch, Grounder, get down there and clip her feathers!"
"Yes, Your Egginess!" The robots each held a pair of clippers and climbed down to the machine. "Cuckoo! This would make a cool Halloween costume!"
"I kind of wanna keep it as a pet. You think Dr. Robotnik would let me?" Grounder asked.
"I don't know. Go ask him!"
"But I'm scared!"
"Well, I ain't gonna ask him for ya! Just clip these feathers and—" Dimentia suddenly flipped up to her feet. "CUCKOOOOOO!"
Dimentia's eyes seemed to shine blue: she materialized a swarm of swords and had them zoom around Varcrutis and Sylistys' bodies, severely dicing them. "Leic, let's get out of here!" she spoke with a double-voice that was half-feminine and half-masculine. "We have to recover our energy!"
"Are ya sure it's okay to just leave these guys?"
"We'll face them again later. Just hurry!"
Var ripped two of the swords out and turned them into whips, catching Leic by the neck, but he slipped free again and clung to Dimentia. "I'll take your word for it! Bye!" He lifted and carried Dimentia away quickly, Ascending them to the Spirit World.
"Hmph…" Var's orca features slowly morphed back into her human-like form and clothes.
"Master… I'm feeling a bit hungry." Sylistys said. "I need to return to the Underworld for a quick snack."
Var whipped around and slapped the creation. "If you had just eaten the angel when you were supposed to, they wouldn't have gotten away! Do we have to fix your brain? Is that what the problem is?"
"N-No… I'm sorry, I…I'll act more quickly next time…" Somehow, the very act of apologizing made Sy sick to her stomach.
"Ugh, and now they're going to call backup. I guess we'd better go hide either way. Doctor, we're going to lay low for a bit, but we'll head to Etheria soon. Don't worry, you'll have your weapon~" She opened a rift and pulled Sylistys inside.
"Hoh ho ho…finding good help these days is rare." Eggman calmly stepped onto the inactive machine. He bent down and picked up a tiny bud of a feather. "Yet they bring marvelous wonders to my egg~"