Chereads / Nextgen Kids: Legend of the Nine Newborn / Chapter 145 - Battle of the Nine Witches

Chapter 145 - Battle of the Nine Witches

Play "It Doesn't Matter" from Sonic Adventure!

Rivalry: Sector Luna Nova

Diana Cavendish began with her signature move, conjuring swords of magic and slashing them at Aurora. The Uno struck them out of the air with Galaxia, swinging at Diana as she cast a fireball. Diana easily negated the fire, and was ready to evade the icicle path Aurora sent along the ground. Aurora froze Galaxia and formed several more ice swords in its shape, charging at Diana to swing them one at a time. The witch countered with Expelliarmus, anticipating which one would be the real sword. Diana whipped up a Protego shield, hoping Aurora would be forced to use the real one to break it. Instead, Aurora froze Diana's shield and used fire to shatter it, and though Diana suffered the burn, she was able to cast another spell erecting spears from the ground. Aurora burst with flame to extinguish the spears, then slashing Galaxia, but Diana zapped it out of her hands with Expelliarmus. However, the sword zapped into thin air, and as Diana would cancel out Aurora's fire/ice punches, the Uno would suddenly respawn the sword and land a successful hit.

Diana Disapparated several feet away, casting illusion spells to make clones of herself to confuse Aurora. The Uno shot ice at each one to disperse it, but Diana had enough time to complete her next complex spell. A tower of magic arose, equipped with cannons as it began to rotate and shoot. Aurora flew up the tower, dodging the shots and slicing the cannons. Destroying each one would dispel the tower, leaving Diana exposed as Aurora swarmed her with Frostfire. Diana later Apparated above Aurora and slashed her with magic swords, warping once more when Aurora retaliated. Diana landed on the ground several feet away, conjuring magic knights to charge at the V-Leader. Aurora reformed her ice swords and tossed them at each knight, dispersing them, while the one she reserved for Diana would only hit an illusion. Diana reappeared behind Aurora and zapped a spell to turn her into a mongoose, but even in her reduced state, she could still wield Galaxia and strike down her swords.

Diana caught Aurora in a magic cage and tried to shrink it and compress her, but Aurora mustered a massive amount of snow to inflate and break the cage apart. She flipped out and dealt a cut to Diana, reverting back to human form. Diana warped away, and as she drew up another complex spell, an eye seemed to open on her forehead. A gigantic idol rose with three eyes of her own, preparing to fire beams at Aurora. The Uno chose to meet the challenge with three powers of her own, combining Ice, Fire, and Galaxia's stars to push the beam back.

Akko and Sheila engaged in a race along the track that was prepared for Field Day. It was obvious to both Akko couldn't beat Sheila in an actual fight, but a race was a different story. Sheila's Mobian speed made her a monster at the art, especially with bursts of lightbending, while Akko transformed into a cheetah with running shoes. It surprised Sheila how well Akko could keep up, the two still neck-in-neck by the time they reached the turning point and backtracked up the track. Sheila managed to get directly ahead of Akko, later glancing back to see the witch had mysteriously vanished. Sheila glanced down and realized a bunny with grasshopper legs was kicking past her, and once in front of Sheila, Akko morphed back into a cheetah and kicked Sheila back with her hind legs. Sheila picked up and pace and spun her raccoon tail, kicking off into a Tail Glide. Sheila flew right over the animal and tumbled along the ground as she crossed the Finish Line. "TWO MORE ROUNDS, SHEILA!"

"YOU'RE ON!"

Haylee Gilligan, piloting the Sunny Day, engaged the Stanship in an airborne naval battle. She targeted Stanship's laser cannons and blew them off with her own, swiftly constructing Lego barriers to protect the side of her ship. Haylee's own cannons were shot down as the Stanship had to rotate and aim its next cannons. However, Haylee crafted a catapult and loaded mounds of explosive M.A.R.B.L.E.s onto it, hauling them to the Stanship's deck to rupture it with the small bombs. The Stanship sailed far away from the stands and transformed into the Grand Charion, a 35-foot robot. Fortunately, the bottom of the Sunny opened, dropping Artie Gilligan in his own sumo-style mech with yellow goggles and a red cap. He charged for the Charion, dodging its missiles with rolling maneuvers, but then used its rubber belly to bounce one of them back.

Charion defended with its shield, looking up as Artie had leapt for a diving attack. Although the mech swatted him away, it didn't realize Artie had released large RC cars on the ground before jumping, homing on the Charion's feet and exploding against them. Artie flipped a spring from the Sumobot's bottom to bounce back to Charion, knocking the mech over. Charion climbed up on its front and aimed its shield, forming into a drill as it approached Artie. The boy gulped and ran from the incoming weapon.

The Ghost Whisperers, Kirie Beatles and Lotte Jansson, sang a melody to summon their spirits to battle… unfortunately, the spirits couldn't be caught on camera, so the people at home merely thought they were having a singing contest; made stranger by the fact Kirie was mute to mortal ears. In reality, Lotte was guiding a swirling, colorful cloud of spirits in the sky, while Kirie's Rainbow Monkey spirits occupied the ground. The sky spirits would fall as fast as rain to hurt the monkeys, who in turn would shoot rainbow arrows to snipe them down.

Hannah England dressed as a ninja, making Shadow Clones that charged at Dillon—Vanellope von Schweetz, the solid hologram girl with candy-covered black hair, split into her own clones to kick Hannah's down. Vanellope glitched randomly around Hannah and kicked her in the face—Hannah swapped herself with a log and zapped an electric spell at Vanellope. Vanel glitched horrendously, Hannah smirking at her easy victory… but the glitching mess was merely a distraction, an "afterimage" as Vanellope zipped above and dealt Hannah a Lickety-Split Kick. Hannah dressed as a martial artist with purple garb and bandages on her feet, swinging her own kicks at Vanellope. Her legs merely phased through Vanellope's glitched, pixelly body, the Program later zipping around her at random angles. Hannah thought she was able to land a punch, but Vanellope's swelled boot endured it. Afterwards, her head would swell and chomp Hannah's fist, the redhead crying out.

Barbara Parker cast spells at the grass around Dillon, turning them into Piranha Plants that would gnash him, but he used Veil to hide in his shadow and easily evade them. As a shadow, he slithered to Barbara and bent Shade Fists to punch her. She was able to zap him out of his shadow form with light spells, allowing her Piranhas to quickly gnash him. She grew a large, pink plant to spit dust on Dillon, intended to make him sleepy, but with the clouds thankfully blocking the sun, Mario would fly off to borrow Sheila's shadow, rejuvenating and keeping Dillon awake. Furthermore, Sheila's shadow allowed him to use White Shadow, his Shade Fists flying faster to pummel Barbara. The Plant Mage was able to raise Dillon in a bramble trap and strangle him, at the same time Dillon's shadow stretched to catch hers with Shadow Possession.

Similarly, Sucy Manbavaran zapped Haruka with her own spells, forcing mushrooms to grow from the doctor. Haruka bent most of the shrooms off her with poisonbending, but Haruka took particular notice of a white mushroom with pink spots. She used her bending to filter out a pink substance from the mushroom, filtering it from the poisonous part. She drank the substance and greatly heightened her focus. She then consumed Sleep Pills and mixed its poison into her bending, dodging her way up to Sucy and shooting white Gas Bombs. Sucy managed to toss a Shrink Potion into Haruka, but the doctor swallowed a pill made from Skypian Growth Apple, negating the shrinkage. Haruka belched a cloud of white Sleep Gas, Sucy drinking All-Night Potion to negate it. Her eyes stretched wide and red as a side effect, so Haruka a Tearjerk Pill and spread blue gas to Sucy, blurring her vision with a constant waterfall of tears.

Harry Gilligan and Amanda O'Neill once fought together in the Pirate War, working well in a music duet, but against each other, they weren't fairly matched. So, Amanda dressed like a "man in black" with sunglasses, holding her wand like a gun, and Harry readied his Disc Gun (shoots homing, sharp CDs). Both engaged in a shootout, Harry burned by her fire bullets and Amanda sliced by his discs. Amanda did matrix maneuvers and was able to shoot Harry's gun out of his hand. He then dropped a mechanical box on the ground as it formed into a DJ booth. Not only was it mobile, but by playing it, Harry could shoot soundwaves from the booth's stereos, stunning Amanda in place as Harry would then ram her.

And Jasminka Antonenko… felt kind of left out because she had no one to fight. Everyone else was quickly wrapping up. Aurora and Diana knocked each other down with their attacks. Sheila beat Akko in a 2-to-1 victory. Haruka put Sucy into a deep sleep. The Grand Charion destroyed Artie's Sumobot and was about to thrash Haylee's ship—before the pilot quickly called a forfeit. Dillon easily crushed Barbara with Shadow Strangle, but Vanellope's data took too much damage from Hannah, the Program retreating to Dillon's H.E.A.D.S.E.T.. Amanda was too strong to go down to Harry's DJ Bomber, tanking his soundwaves and beating the rapstar. Kirie's Rainbow Monkeys performed a Sun Dance and made Lotte's spirit cloud retreat, and afterwards Kirie punched her with chi-blocks. "What's the score so far?!"

"I counted a tie!" Cheren said. "Both teams had even victories…wait! That girl's still standing!"

"YO, JASMINKA!" Amanda cheered for her bestie. "Your opponent didn't show, that means you win by default!"

"I AIN'T ACCEPTING THAT!" Sheila shouted. "MADDY! Get over here and fill in for us!"

"Hold on, isn't Maddy insanely strong?!" Akko questioned. "That's cheating!"

"How about I fill in instead?" Francis asked. "Should be better than fighting this duck…?"

Another familiar ship with clock designs had shown up in the sky. "Sector IC?" Cheren gasped. "What're they doing here?"

Five figures leapt off the ship. Cheren wondered if the 5th was either Terry or Suki… no, it was someone else! "MASON!!" The V-Team screamed.

Mason Dimalanta landed softly on the surface with a release of gas. He had a hard time seeing from far away, but… did Sheila have tears in her eyes? "Uh, hey, guys…ahem, what's the situation?"

"THE SITUATION IS WE NEED ANOTHER PLAYER!" Sheila screamed. "Get over there and fight Jasminka right now!"

"W-what?! Wait, I thought… Ch-Cheren and Mickey…"

"Didn't you all promise a rematch with us when we improved ourselves?" Diana asked. "What a shame you were late."

"Ha ha…" Mason didn't expect this rematch to happen now of all times, but…

"This won't take long!" Jasminka proclaimed with her cute, fluffy voice as she stuffed several cakes and chips down her throat. "I'm chockfull of food! I'm stronger than ever!" They could feel small quakes in the earth as the pudgy pigtailed witch charged at him.

"We'll see about that!" Mason decided to go all-out and drink a can of Gold Flurp. His blood rushing with an intense sugar rush, Mason dashed at Jas like a madman and met her headfirst. Their weight seemed even with each other, but Mason's faster speed caused him to slip out and pass his foe. He redirected and belched a string of Gas Bombs, Jasminka tanking them as she drew up spells with her Spatula Wand. A giant cake formed above Mason and crushed him, followed by shooting giant, burning French fries when Mason inevitably ate his way out. Sadly, the magic-made food had no real nutrients and only basic flavor. But, Mason came ready with his own leftover fries he heated in the microwave, eating them to enhance his gaseousness and belching a cloud of gas to intoxicate Jasminka.

"EW, that's the creepy boy that likes to smell and look at Sheila!" Pigtails panicked. "Why is she still talking to that kinky weirdo?! He's awful!"

"Wot in blazes is she talking about?" Sheila asked. "Of course Mason smells and looks at me. Ain't that what people do? When they hang out?"

"That pink-haired witch is disgusting!" a woman scoffed. "She'll encourage obesity like that!"

"That boy has an extremely poor diet!"

"H-HEY! THAT GIRL HAS A SCYTHE!"

"MIYUKI?!" Cheren gasped as Sector IC's Timekeeper ran for the stands, her scythe, Memory Meister, raised.

"Do you guys like judging other people for their quirks and secrets? Just what kind of secrets are YOU hiding?!" She stabbed the ground just before Pigtails and flipped herself to the 20-year-old brat. Grabbing her, Miyuki saw into Pigtails' history. "Ah…you support quite a lot of dirty ships~"

"EEEEEEEEEK!" Her secrets exposed, Pigtails ran for the hills.

Miyuki grabbed the Gerudo woman. "You detest Jinta for liking tough girls, and you seem pretty hot for scrawny guys."

"WHAT?!" yelled her Hylian bestie.

"No! It's a lie! She's lying!"

Miyuki grabbed the Dryan man next. "You don't think Morgiana represents Fanalis very well? I guess you would know, judging by all those lewd Fanalis pictures."

"BLASPHEMYYYYYYYY!" He ran for the deserts.

"ELMO, what're you doing?!" Big Bird shouted as his red-furred cameraman followed Miyuki. "Don't let her broadcast those peoples' secrets!"

"Sigh…you guys…" Terry Stork saw Miyuki's actions on the news at home. How could they all still be so motivated after everything that happened? It was unbelievable… almost invigorating…

Jasminka countered by casting spells to trap Mason in clouds of smoke, which smelled of fresh bakery dough. The scent was euphoric as Mason eased up in his wild state, allowing Jasminka to sock him in the stomach and blow him back. Jasminka inflated and was about to roll at him, so Mason chugged down two 2-liter bottles of soda. He spat them out with the force of a fire hose to hold Jasminka at bay. Jasminka eventually slowed down, soaked in soda, but it was then Mason willed the soda to freeze. This was especially hampering on the pudgy glutton. Mason belched several more Gas Bombs at Jasminka before ramming her with a Gas Rocket, rolling her to bowl down some of her teammates before Amanda stopped her with her foot. (End song.)

"Owwww…s-sorry, Amanda. We lost because of me."

"Don't be like that, Jassy. It was a tie as far as I'm concerned."

"I'll say." Harry smiled, offering a hand. "You gave us one heck of a workout."

"Indeed, you have." Diana offered a hand to Aurora. With that, both teams shook hands with their respective opponents. As for Artie and Haylee… they were approached by a single Stanbot. Its chest opened, revealing a green screen with Constanze's face. "Constanze?!"

"No. I'm an A.I. designed by Constanze to help speak for her. I was also designed to help fulfill her tasks in case she were unavailable. As you can guess… that job is full-time now."

"I see…" Haylee said somberly. "Heh…well, you're a pretty impressive A.I.."

"Constanze really put her soul into you." Artie smiled.

"Hehe! Maybe she did!" Akko grinned.

"INCREDIBLE!" Big Bird exclaimed. "What a way to kick off this Field Day! The two Top Sectors from Earth and Avalar stand as equals! What fantastic sportsmanship!"

"QUACK! Don't praise them, you idiot!" Donald shouted.

"Hey… Sheila?" The raccoon captain turned to her nervous first mate. "Um…this probably isn't the best place to tell you, but since everyone knows now, anyway… the truth is, I…I have lots of dreams about you. You're always on my mind…" the other ops walked away to give them a little privacy, "and sometimes, my mind just… goes to weird places. So, if you ever hear about what's posted about me, just know that I-"

"Orright, orright, Oi get where this is goin'. You want us ta be even closer, don't ya?"

"Um…er, I-"

"Then how close is this?!" Sheila moved right up against his front, raising an arm. "Ah'm not too smelly, am I? Hehehehehe!"

"Ha ha…" Yes, she was pretty smelly… did she remember to bathe last night? She could be pretty inconsiderate and improper like that… but maybe then she would be accepting of his quirks.

A slow clap drew their attention to Mickey Mouse. "That's very romantic-hoho. You gave us quite a show, but I don't remember asking that friend of yours to assault my audience!"

"Okay, Miyuki, that's enough now!" Cheren called. "I think we've made our point!"

"Yeah, so let's get outta here!" MaKayla yelled peppily. "Unless you guys got other business to take care of?"

"Nah, I think we're good. Evan, wanna join us for lunch at GKND?"

"Orright!" the cat Faunus perked up.

"HEY, save room for the superstars!" Pearl requested, making a hipster pose.

"NOW, HOLD ON A SECOND!" Mickey shouted. "These people paid good money to watch you compete. You can't walk out on them, least of all without a public apology for your rude behavior-hoho!"

"Piss off." Cheren scoffed. "We've got nothing to prove. And by the way, these setups are trash. The first Field Day was way better."

"You'll be cleaning trash in prison after all that you did today! PRINCESSES!"

The operatives were alert as a band of who seemed to be Disney Princesses charged onto the field, their expressions fierce. "Princesses?" Vanellope cocked a brow. "Whoa, whoa! Are these the actual princesses?!"

"Nuh-uh!" Cheren glared. "No way that's Merida!"

"We're cosplayers, ya dumb shite!" 'Merida' stated, her Scottish accent strong, raising a bow-and-arrow. "King Mickey picked out all the best fangirls who fit the bill!"

"We will not let you defile our land!" declared 'Pocahontas,' the Indian's hair flowing in the wind.

"FOR DISNEY!" Mulan declared, leaping at Maddy, who used hardened arms to defend herself.

"You know, I had a dream once where my mom turned into you." Maddy said. "Also, you're not really a princess!"

"Anybody can be a princess if they just believe!" Cinderella drove a large pumpkin car and tried to run Vanellope over, the Program glitching evasively and landing kicks against her.

"Vanellope!" Anna cried, controlling Olaf robots to chase and blow up on the Program. "You don't belong with them! Disney owns the company who made your game! You can be one of us!"

"Sorry, sweetheart, but I'm already the KND's princess!" Vanellope dodged the Olafs and kicked Anna in stomach. She flew toward MaKayla King, who smashed her to the ground with her Chrono Staff.

"AAAAH! SHE HURT PRINCESS ANNA!" a little girl cried.

"She isn't the real Anna!" Kayla shouted. "The real one's working on Nightmare Land!"

"Oi, don't even pay them any mind!" Sheila easily knocked out the waterbender playing Moana. "These wannabe royals oughta take on a REAL king!"

"I COULDN'T AGREE MORE!" A thundering, beastly voice bellowed. (Play "Bowser Battle" from Mario Galaxy!)

"?!" The sun was shaded by an ominous airship, a huge, spiked figure plummeting to the planet. "BLAAAAAAAH!" The Koopa King shook the kingdom with his howl.

"WOOK, it's Bowsew! Bowsew!" cheered a little boy who was a fan of Mario.

"Bowser?!" Cheren exclaimed.

"What are YOU doing here?!" Mickey asked. "You're not thinking of settling this early, are you?"

"I was waitin' to roast you at the end, but you went too far takin' my Peach from me! I'll deal with you in a minute… but first." Bowser stomped toward the KND. "Seein' those two teams settle their rivalry reminded me of somethin'. I was planning to challenge the winner of the Pirate War for their crown. I was hoping that would be K. Rool… but guess what, Sunny Fist?! YOU'RE my lucky prey! GET READY!"

The king leapt, his fists hardened to smash Sheila. The Pirate King punched Light Fists at his left while Maddy leapt up against his right: the action felt the same as catching falling heavy boxes; they had enough strength to briefly break its fall, but the weight would catch on as they were forced to the ground. Bowser burned violet flames at either of them, but Sheila kicked on lightspeed and pulled Maddy to safety. Maddy charged at Bowser afterward for a punch to the knee, but when the king swung his tail, Maddy grabbed it in both arms. Her weight held him for a moment, but Bowser was able to keep spinning and fling her to the air. Bowser took a breath and coughed a condensed fireball: Maddy fell in time to dodge it, but they watched as the fireball flew all the way to Butterfly Castle. The whole structure seemed to combust into flame.

"THAT WAS A CHEAP BLOW!" Sheila yelled, pummeling the Koopa with Light Fists, Cheren with his sword, and Miyuki her scythe. Bowser retreated to his shell and spun against his foes, lit aflame as he blew them back. The king quickly extracted and spat bursts of flame at the audience, but Aurora, MaKayla, Lola, and Amanda were quick to thwart some of them. The king looked up in shock as the Grand Charion swung a kick at the Koopa, Bowser grabbing its leg and twisting it. The Charion burrowed its drill against Bowser's head, but his Haki mixed with fire smashed the drill. Bowser then leapt to ram its chest with his horns, toppling the mech over.

"THIS WAY! HURRY!" Goofy yelled as Mickey's friends worked to guide the audience away from the grounds.

"Cheren, what's the plan?!" Evan asked, running close to Bowser to strike at his feet, all while using Observation to dodge his stomps and claw swipes. "Should we defeat him?!"

"Last I heard, Bowser's Power Level is 50,000! It's twice as high as K. Rool!"

"So, what?!" Sheila asked, throwing more Light Spheres while Maddy returned for the direct offensive. "All of us together has to equal that, right?!"

"Fightin' all of you IS pretty annoying!" Bowser stated. "Better call in some extra help. Get ready to meet the newest division of the Eggman Empire!"

"Reinforcements!" Diana gasped as several glowing figures dropped from the airship.

The operatives half-expected to deal with robots… but the troops in question were much more diverse, even human-like in nature. There was a girl with monochrome hair and firecracker horns; a short girl with a snowflake-colored dress and hair, ghostly feet, and lily-of-the-valley in her hair; a green bird girl, and several others. The main things they had in common were the crystals in their chests and red eyes glowing with Eggman's symbol. "These are Eggman's robots?" Artie wondered. "Props to him for getting creative."

"URSULA?!" Miyuki exclaimed.

"Huh? Professor Ursula is here?!" Akko questioned.

"Who?" Lola asked. "OH, HER!" She recognized the snowy-looking girl.

"Ursula?!" Terry knew her very well: Ursula was a Xenoblade from Planet Mira, a soft-voiced musicbender who made friends with Suki during the Cooking Festival. Terry spent a little time with them. Her relaxing music was very easing to his stressed heart. Ursula even came to Earth to assist them after the Great Reduction; she took care of the families shrunk by the curse, singing Terry to sleep with her heavenly melodies. …But what was she doing here? Why was she working for Bowser?!

"I remember that one, too!" Kayla saw the fireworks girl, Crossette. "She was with Kodama at the festival! Does that mean these are all Xenoblades?!" (NOTE: I don't expect anyone to know these Blades or look them up.)

"These are Dr. Eggman's new Egg Blades!" Bowser declared. "With them, conquering the rest of you will be a sinch!"

MaKayla and Miyuki were ambushed blue, twin-looking Blades called Praxis and Theory. Praxis molded bubbles with her waterbending and cast them at Kayla, who used Rewind Deflect to return them. Praxis dodged them with nimble acrobatics, flipping her way to Kayla with enough grace to evade her timebending grasps. Praxis whacked Kayla with her lance, but realized she hit a Paradox Clone, while the real Kayla whacked Praxis off her feet, allowing the clone to bash Praxis' head. Theory skied gracefully with icebending and evaded Miyuki's timebending. Miyuki spun her scythe to deflect Theory's icicles, clashing it with Theory's sword when the Blade engaged her directly.

Akko's attempts to cast spells at Kasandra ended in failure, from either tripping clumsily or dropping her wand, allowing Kasandra to bash Akko with her Shield-Hammer. "Akko, get a grip on yourself!" Diana scolded as she pierced Kasandra with magic swords. One of the swords missed, so she redirected it, only to miss again as it flew to cut Amanda.

"OW! DIANA!"

"S-Sorry!"

However, this was merely the result of Kasandra's Bad Luck Chi.

Maddy and Cheren recycled their Unison Attack from before: both grabbed the Master Sword and imbued it with Iron and Gold Haki in a spiral design. They charged at Bowser, but the Koopa hardened his whole body like metal and met the blade with his fist. The force was straining against the two, feeling they made little progress no matter how much they pushed. "AAAH!" Finally, a quick flame blast decided the outcome as Cheren and Maddy blew back, the leader dropping his weapons. He scrambled to pick up the Master Sword and bow, but something zipped by and swiped the Mirror Shield off the ground. "HUH?!"

"I DID IT! I got the Mirror Shield!" Goofy danced merrily, swinging the sacred shield around.

"That doesn't belong to you!" Maddy charged at Goofy and swung her golden fist. The impact with the Mirror Shield didn't send Goofy flying this time… rather, she felt her knuckles compress as though the force of her punch rebounded against her. Donald then cast a Weight Spell on Maddy to double her weight, leaving Goofy to thrust her back. The Inklings unloaded ink at Bowser's head while King Evan tried to slash Goofy, but Mickey flew in to block his sword with his Keyblade.

Sheila spun two huge Light Fists and charged at Bowser once more. The Koopa King leapt above her, prompting Sheila to dash away as the shockwave blew her down, cancelling her fists. Bowser blew fire at her, Aurora jumping in the way to negate it with Frostfire. "Gah…" Cheren knew attempting to finish this battle would be too tasking, even with the amount of allies available now. "ALL TROOPS, BACK TO THE SHIPS!"

"GWAH HA HA! Like I'm just gonna let you do that!" Bowser smirked. "KOOPAS! OPEN FIRE ON THEIR SHIPS!"

The Koopa flagship took aim at the KND ships parked in the air. But, just before it could begin firing, cannonfire rained down from higher above, pausing the act. "OH!!" The ground troops were agape in relief and gratitude. GKND ships descended and bombarded the Koopa craft. "CHEREEEEEN!" High Supreme Leader Nebula dove down on her personal craft, the Shooting Star. "I'm about tired of you pulling these reckless stunts!"

"Hah! Nebula!" Cheren beamed.

"And I brought a friend! Maybe he can help even the odds."

"AHOY, MATIES!" Captain Skaios the Free Born soared down like a windy comet.

"SKAIOS?!" Bowser gawked. The former Pirate Emperor landed beside Sheila and Aurora, his single eye glaring at Bowser fiercely.

"If they use Skaios against anyone," Kael said, "I'll have to bring one of them out to even the odds…"

"'ey, Pirate King, Ay think you're still me Guardian. What do you wanna do about this cretin?"

Sheila thought for a moment, glancing at her divided and tired teammates. "Skaios… grab all me mates, operatives, Inklings, and drop them on any one of those ships! Then fly us all back to GKND! Sound right with you, Cheren?"

"Yeah." Cheren affirmed. "Mickey can deal with Bowser himself."

"AYE!" With his great speed, Skaios swept all the KND off the ground and dropped them onto their ships. Nebula quickly parked her Shooting Star on Cheren's vessel. Repeating what he did for the Free Kingdom, Skaios encased all the ships in air bubbles and carried them out of the atmosphere.

"HEY! THAT'S A COWARDLY RETREAT!" Bowser bellowed. "Get back here and FINISH THIS!"

"YOU oughta get out of here yourself!" Mickey shot raining Light Beams at the Koopa. When Bowser tried to Ground Pound him, Mickey cast "Stopza!" with his magic, freezing Bowser in time just long enough to dodge his smash. The Disney Princesses ran to engage the Egg Blades. (End song.)

"Cheren, what about your shield?!" Aurora asked as they soared through space.

"I'll get it back someday. We couldn't stay to fight a battle like that. Besides, the whole reason you were there was to rescue me. It wouldn't have been right to let you all get battered around."

"That's the smartest thing you said all day!" Nebula agreed. "Ha ha! But, all the same, I think it was worth it in the end. I've got a little surprise for you on H.Q.."

"Really?"

"Hey, isn't anyone gonna thank Marina?!" Pearl shouted, her Octoling partner shirking in embarrassment. "She hacked our own cameras with the news team's so we could broadcast our support!"

"Yeah, she's right." Squam agreed. "When those guys were interviewing the audience, there were lots of positive supporters. But I noticed those people weren't being broadcasted. I think Mickey was purposely only showing the negative comments!"

"I had a feeling they would do something like that." Marina said. "So, I had hacking measures in place, ready to use when we were ready to speak out! Haha." She blushed at her own crafty idea.

"Quit flushing and take the credit, you clever little octo you!" Pearl sprung up and pulled her taller partner's head down in a hug.

"I really didn't expect to see Bowser there." Callie frowned. "What was his deal?"

"Hmm…I suppose you guys have a right to know what's happening." Cheren said. "To begin with, there's this powerful god called Kael."

Evan's mind seemed to flash. "KAEL?!"

"Y-Yeah… you know him?"

Evan slapped a hand to his forehead. "I…I shouldn't know him, but just now, I 'remembered' something. A legend where several kings engage in war between their united armies… battling for the Throne of the Universe."

"It's a legend that all monarchs and rulers have deep in their conscience." Skaios explained.

"They… do?" Cheren asked.

"Aye. It's only awoken by the mention or sight of Kael. They become aware of the Game. Dependin' on their stance, it'll force people to pick a side, or do all they can to resist."

"The Throne…" Diana repeated to herself. Is that why Mickey didn't want that knowledge leaked?

"So, if other world leaders hear about it…"

"It could make it more complicated to gain allies." Nebula said. "Then again, I wouldn't wanna be dishonest with anyone."

"I guess that means you know now, Evan. Whose side will you pick?"

"Well… the KND's side, of course. But I have to properly talk with my kingdom about this." Tani nodded in agreement.

"I don't know what's goin' on, but the KND still has MY support!" Squitaba grinned. "They brought me back to life, after all!"

"That's great." Cheren smiled. "Still… I wonder how Mickey's allies feel? Somehow, I think Bowser would confide this in his direct allies, but what about Mickey's kingdoms?"

"That is a good question." Nebula agreed. "But let's worry about that after our reunion."

The ships returned to GKND. Nebula led everyone up to the cafeteria, where an even larger group waited. "Oh!" Cheren was awed once more. Many of his best sectors were gathered… Sector JP, including Jinta, Sector SA with Nagisa, Sector Q with Quill. Sector M's Miguel seemed to be with W7, Kalluto and Kazumi were with Q, Killua with SA.

"I locked myself in my room for a while." Nagisa said. "But after the girls told me what you were doing on TV… well, it got me motivated. And we…" he looked to his girlfriend with embarrassment.

"We talked things out, didn't we?" Morgiana held his hand.

"I always had a feeling he was into that." Killua smirked, earning a glare from the couple.

"Hmhmhm!" Ururu snuggled up to Jinta, both blushing, and implying the same notion. Indeed, she had confided one of her own intimate secrets with him. Their teammates rolled their eyes.

"But, um…" Miguel spoke up sheepishly. "My other friends decided to side with Mickey. And I…I was about to go with them, but… I couldn't stand to make Aisa upset." He smiled at his girlfriend.

"Hehehehehe!" Aisa hugged him with both arms and legs.

"So, I guess I'm in Sector W7 now."

"WE FINALLY GOT A BOYYYYY!" Chimney screamed.

"Hibiki and Sapphire bailed on us, too." Ruby huffed. "And so did Lars' team." She stood with the BC boy.

"Disney-loving geeks…" Lars mumbled in anger.

"And even though Eddy's a grouch who can't get over things," Quill said, earning a glare from his 'best friend,' "I'm gonna stick with my team all the way."

"I'm glad…" Cheren smiled. He should've known not to lose hope in his teams, not after all they've been through. At last, he could foresee a hopeful future in this war.

"SO, who's all ready for lunch?!" Vweeb bounced. "And since we're being open with each other, I'm happy to lend my support to any ladies who-" Arianna swat him beneath her hand.

"I'll fire up the grills right away!" Yuzu cheered.

The friends were all retreated to a refreshing lunch… actually, for many of them, it was breakfast. The sign of a great morning and a great start to their next big mission. It would be difficult, they feared who they would lose on the way… but they would do as they always have and win.

"Ahem, everyone!" Jerome, Nebula's brother and vice-leader, alerted the mess hall. "I hate to ruin the moment, but it looks like Galactic Council is on fire today."

He brought up the broadcast on the large screen. "Those children were ill-behaved and monstrous!" Queen Angella of Etheria shouted. "We must shut down their organization at once!"

"Stooping to Tachyon's level now, are you?!" Lord Business argued.

"They've been given too much freedom!" the Pumparian leader stated. "It was bad enough they let two Emperors and several of those pirates off the hook!"

"BLEH HEH HEH!" laughed Count Bleck, Zathura's representative. "Let's not fall off topic! We were here to discuss if Chancellor Yorkshire should keep her place here, are we not?"

Sector MG gasped: Mobian Chancellor Cheadle Yorkshire occupied a seat before Galactic Chancellor Phyronix. The green-haired dog-woman's head was bowed in frustration and shame. "WHAT'RE THEY DOING TO DOGMOM?!" Maria cried.

"She's been… suspected of questionable relations with the Kremlings." Jerome answered. "And for abandoning her post while Mobius was invaded by them."

"NO! NO, NO, NO, I won't stand for this! KIDS NEXT DOOR, we have our next assignment!" The furious little Mushroomian jumped to Jerome's level and pointed at the screen. "WE'RE INVADING GALACTIC COUNCIL!"

"W-WHAT?!?" The breakfast-lunch ended with a ton of gaping faces.