Chapter 11

Remember how it was just mentioned that Absence and Meer are nowhere to be seen? Apparently, they've been driving off Blackheart as much as possible whilst looking for the Chaos Emeralds to help them. They were somewhere on the magical grounds of Angel Island, a landmass of variable environment, complete with lush jungle bushes and vines, tropical trees and crowns, temples of ancient ruins and tall icy mountains.

This was where the Chaos Duo stood, as they described themselves. The ice caves were harsh from the tundra of the mountains, slippery than it seems. This was where the seventh Chaos Emerald was to be found. Absence and Meer spent hours hiking up the mountain, avoiding the causes of an avalanche with almost awakening the guardian of the Island. "Are you sure this is the place we're supposed to be?" Meer asked in worry that they'd stepped inside to witness the reign of Gaia, where it slept with the Scepter of Darkness now destroyed.

Back at the fight of Metropolis, Radkon managed to steal the key to unlock the second half of recreating Solaris. He managed to escape for a few seconds until Zay and Shadow cut him off. Rookie was busy fighting off Blackheart to keep him away but the illusions caused by the Phantom Ruby was an unexpected flank to everyone. More than about 80% of the forces were defeated but the Resistance fought on strong.

However, Radkon accidentally dropped the Scepter of Darkness, which zapped Blackheart to send Aloy Morningstar 15 years into the future. As the scepter broke, a mysterious trail of shadow flew around the air and disturbingly devoured the shadow of Blackheart, therefore giving Gaia a new body to escape to the world in. Terrified by the mistake, Blackheart showed no regret at warping into the space-time continuum but drove off Gaia, forcing him to escape to Angel Island.

And that's where they stand now Gaia had the same appearance like Blackheart but the rib cage marks were a bright red and his eyes were completely green of a cat's eye. Now, he searched for the seven Chaos Emeralds, but was unaware that Meer and Absence held the mystic relics in hand. "This is it," Absence said as they arrived at a door with a handprint, just big enough for Absence's hand to fit. A scanner detected the print and granted access to the two as the large, stone door strained open. Inside of the room, furniture carefully carved of ice surrounded the room as embers lit up in the icy torches.

Statues of unknown spirits, including Gaia and Iblis, were placed in front of pillars that lined upon a huge ice throne for a monster king or so. That's when a voice rang out upon them. "What are you doing here!?" It scolded, when the ice environment crumbled and the blue light suddenly turned orange. The ice beneath the Chaos Duo melted to a molten rock platform where underneath it was lava, flowing down the cave like a river.

The cold from all of it evaporated, and the warmth of the lava took over. That's when a swirl of dark purple smoke, like how Gaia broke out of the Scepter of Darkness, appeared until a head like Blackheart's appeared in a crystalline form; the deadlocks were more bushy and were finished by a white tip, as Gaia appeared in a purplish mist that was like he had no legs at all. He still had the iconic mask but had red sclera and lighter green irises. The gloves of Blackheart were also crystalline and ended with white, sharp claws.

"Foolish adventurers! The world sends me these children who fill themselves with despair on finding the Chaos Emerald." Gaia growled, releasing an energy surge that knocked back Meer and Absence. They collapsed onto the platform, cracking from the damage of Gaia's attack. That's when he held the last Chaos Emerald in hand, giving Absence an idea. He turned invisible as Gaia began to say a scripture; "As the Gaia Manuscripts is to foretell, I summon thy the eternal spirit sealed inside the planetary core of Earth to release my wrath of darkness as an absolute answer to the light. Let the flames circle around thy and spread Its word to thee, that Gaia has awakened!"

Flames began to twirl around Gaia not long before he was knocked down by Absence, sneaking behind him to snatch the Chaos Emerald. The flames stopped circling and Gaia went back to its second phase as Blackheart. Absence appeared back to Meer and the Chaos Emeralds circled around them. "Finally, all the Chaos Emeralds have been retrieved. We are the Chaos Duo and we bring justice to you, Gaia!" The gems circled more and sooner or later, there stood Meer and Absence in a Super transformation.

"W-what do you think you're doing with them?!" Gaia demanded as the duo shot all around the room and knocked him back. "Your power will not be enough to face me! Now, where are you, little rats?!" He screeched. Meer threw pillars of rock to Gaia, which he dodged and chased down the duo in their Super transformation out of the cave. The ice mountains were warming up and a life-threatening avalanche roared behind them. Gaia tried catching up but warped out of the snow catching up to him.

"Sooner or later, Blackheart will have a fun time tag-teaming with three great villains of your Resistance and..." Gaia yelled before the snow blocked out his voice. Absence and Meer flew away and turned around to see the mountains collapsing and lava gushing out. They each exploded on the island and the nature there was threatened. The lava and molten rock impacted everything, and in the matter of minutes, Angel Island had become nothing but a blazeland.

That's when something suddenly happened. Meer rushed back there and with a mysterious force, managed to reverse the event of the incident. The lava was rushing back up the mountain and the pieces were placed back and the avalanche never happened. This means they still took the Chaos Emerald and Gaia never appeared to attack them. "D-did you just reverse time?!" Absence asked in excitement and surprise of Meer's actions. "It's for the best of this island. They don't deserve to be in that kind of nature. Nobody does."

Meer replied and therefore they rushed home somewhere to Cream Soda, outside of the Chemical Plant Ruins. The Chemical Plant was still surrounded by the pink chemical oceans and the factory was puffing smoke from exhaust pipes at the top. Some of the buildings had collapsed from Blackheart attempting to attack Aloy Morningstar during her time there and ended up destroying the storage warehouse like dominoes.

The neatly stacked crates of weapons and machinery had been taken out for use by the Redemption Force upon order of Freezie. "Can't Radkon just build a backup power supply?" Meer asked to Absence, exiting his Super transformation. "You know he can. He has all the smarts and hundreds of soldiers at his disposal to do it!" Absence replied and looked outside of their shelter underground where the Chemical Plant was busy at work.

The duo wondered if they would get to join the Resistance if applications for rookies opened. But their thoughts were interrupted when a loud banging came from the vault door that sealed shut for the shelter.

"Uh oh." Meer whispered underneath his breath, just enough for Absence to hear. The Redemption Force realized they'd been hiding there now and were attempting to hold them captive as prisoners. "This is Ember Squad. I demand you open up immediately!"

The dark commander demanded as the soldiers outside were ramming in the vault door before using a blowtorch to get inside. Meer and Absence had to think of a plan to escape, and however they were going to, they needed to think of it quickly. "It's useless! The metal's ridiculously thick! Blackheart, make them wish they'd never settled here." The commander said in frustration to Blackheart, as he used the Phantom Ruby to forcefully grab the vault door and begin bending and crushing it in the matter of minutes. "It's no use!"

Meer called to Absence, struggling to open the Emergency Hideout trap door. "I don't know what kind of lock you put on here," he continued. That's when he used his psychokinesis and forcefully pulled the lock and the handle from the trap door with more might than he expected. Absence stared at what he just did, but Meer distracted him and told him there wasn't much time.

Blackheart was just about ready to get inside, as the vault door blew off the hinges and slid across the shelter, destroying all the property in its way. "What the-?" Radkon exclaimed to see that the Chaos Emeralds and the two they were looking for were gone. That's when Absence snuck up behind in his invisibility to attack Blackheart, but he sensed him closely and broke his power.

"There you are!" Radkon turned around and caught Absence attempting to escape. That's when Meer attempted to throw whoever led the squad into a wall when Blackheart knocked him back. Now the two were captured just as they planned. "Do it, Blackheart!" The commander ordered his creation, as an unknown force emitted from the Phantom Ruby. Absence and Meer tried to resist until their eyes closed for a few seconds. When they reopened, they both changed to blood red snake-like eyes. "All hail Radkon. Our mission: destroy the Resistance."

With Meer and Absence held as new soldiers of the Redemption Force, Radkon planned one last brawl with the Resistance, as they gathered outside for another assault on their capital, hoping to end the war they've been stuck with for months. But when a villain falls, some heroes see themselves die as one or become the villain themselves...

There stood the one place Radkon had been hiding at for all these years with Ice Warriors and Pirates: Redemption Empire Fortress. The high tech fortification in the barren gray metal wasteland with canyons of missiles, guns and rockets and staircase type levels and high walls surrounding this fort in the middle of what appeared to be a giant crater. The Resistance air fleet soared above the light grey skies, engaging in the attack against the Freezie Fleet. But something was odd.

32op or Vivala were nowhere to be seen at all. But it didn't matter. What the Resistance figured out after Radkon learned from his mistakes to build a second power source for the Phantom Ruby here in the secret base near Summit. The mountains blocked the fortress view, so the Resistance never knew Radkon hid there until a Resistance air fleet mission.

This was some of the greatest news that DCP could possibly hear, and now it was time to end Radkon's wrath for good. Zay and Shadow stood in the frontline as everyone was prepared with their swords and shields. They looked at each other and gave a simple nod, and raised their fists as a command. "Alright, let's go everyone! Charge!!" Zay called as the troops charged on towards the enemy lines of Pirates, Ice Warriors and Redemption Force. Replicas of their leaders all appeared from the energy source of three Phantom Ruby prototypes, working as a power source for the finalized version of the deadly gem.

Once the soldiers got close, they began swinging their swords and weapons, bashing each other with their shields. The battle raged on and at that very moment, swung in Katie, Africa and Cece. They zoomed in and battled against replicas of Freezie, Blackheart and Andrew24. Zay and Shadow were rushing the defenses in order to make it inside of the fortress to destroy the Phantom Ruby power source. "Keep fighting on as you wish," Radkon said, flying around in his aerial fleet ship.

"Your forces will not be able to stop me. In just a few moments soon, I'll drop the sun on this entire planet. Boom. The end!" He continued. Blackheart had created a virtual sun that looked so realistic and tricked everyone into thinking it was bound to crash upon the Earth and destroy the Resistance and all of DCP for good.

The Rookie suddenly remembered he had a prototype of the Phantom Ruby in hand. Before then, he realized that all the courage he held inside of him triggered it with his own DNA. So he dashed on into the Imperial Tower of the fortress, as Zay called out to Blackheart. "Missed me? I hope so!" Blackheart turned to see Zay and Shadow stand upon them. "Yes, but this is the end for you and your pathetic friends. Now-" He was interrupted by laser shots that were fired at him but missed. Who fired the shots was none other than Doritotron10x, who was presumed destroyed. "This is Doritotron10x. New mission targeted to Blackheart. Task: Eliminate them all."

He whirred his arms around in a robotic voice, attempting to express emotion. "Doritotron, you're here!" Marie exclaimed in surprise at the sight. Back to the Rookie, he was swinging around the Imperial Tower, attempting to find his way inside. The Resistance air fleet ships that were shot down spun without control and crashed upon it. Fireballs like the one from Summit being invaded came from the sky as well. The Rookie jumped from wall to wall while avoiding enemies that guarded the tower.

It was only minutes before the sun was to fall upon them as the Rookie ran around, avoiding a deadly laser from the sun and reached the top so he could jump towards the sun with the prototype of the Phantom Ruby. "Now, let our doomsday plan commence! In three, two one...zero!" Radkon counted down as the sun suddenly disappeared from existence from the nighttime sky, as the moonlight shone so bright, it was almost like it was during the day.

"The sun! It's gone!" Rah exclaimed after seeing what happened. The resistance cheered, and Shadow gave a simple smirk as a red laser exposing the Rookie's location fell from the illusion. "Impossible! What is it now!?" Radkon said, and boosted up into the sky to the Rookie's position. He grappled over to a platform and tripped, breaking the Phantom Ruby prototype. As it dissolved, Radkon flew over to him and was angry over what happened.

"Impossible! The Phantom Ruby prototypes were destroyed!" That's when Mustapha came around and told him, "That's why I always double check myself. Wouldn't wanna be the one being a wreck. Like Rapunzel being asked to let down her hair, just like you letting down your friends - if you got around to having any!" He joked. Somewhere near the battlefield, 32op and Vivala came in; they were actually the Redemption Rogues and betrayed DCP for them. "What have you done?" Shadow growled, clenching his fists along with Zay.

"Don't worry, we've saved the best inventions for last," 32 smirked as pressed a few buttons on his wristband communicator and called in two mecha suits of grey. But they weren't ordinary robots. They were both robotic creations of Zay and Shadow, ultimately designed to be faster than them. But they were invented long before Shadow was created as the "Ultimate Life Form" so they weren't expected to be faster than him.

32op and Vivala entered the suits and powered up. Their voices were now behind voice synthesizers and they both boosted away from Zay and Shadow, who followed behind. "What would you like your epitaph to say on your grave? Gonna help a lot when there lies the buffony hero." 32op mocked. It was either Blackheart using the Phantom Ruby as another trick again or it was reality. Zay and Shadow boosted close up behind and performed a Homing Attack on both of them.

They caused a few scratches on the armor, but that was to change soon. That's when Blackheart in the background continuously made dangerous pillars of energy cubes, that corrupted one's vision if they were harmed by it. Zay and Shadow simply dodged them and continued boosting forward. The two turned around only to be striked by our heroes once again. This caused Metal Zay and Metal Shadow to change their attacking patterns. This time, they started charging towards Zay and Shadow just like how Freezie used to.

But Zay managed to attack Metal Zay with a Homing Attack when he charged, knocking him back, Shadow doing the same. As time went by, they were then suddenly rushing through the battlefield, damaged from all the attacks they took from the soldiers as they tried to rush away. Zay did one more Homing Attack to the two of them. That's when Shadow told Zay, "You never spoke when you were questioned, fakers. Now forever be silenced!" They both performed a double boost directly into Metal Zay and Shadow, knocking them so hard that they fell apart mid-air, bolts and screws and metallic parts flying everywhere, but in the explosion was another cryptic aura from the Phantom Ruby.

"Another fake?" Zay exclaimed in shock by what he saw. Still, the metal suits were real. "At least we had a real fight for once." Shadow replied back.