FusionFall-Chapter 8

FusionFall

Chapter 8


It was a quiet trip on the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. since there was no one but me. The pilot was in the cockpit, of course. The transport flew me directly to a dreary cul-de-sac in a neighborhood near a graveyard. I looked around and almost every tree looked dead or dying.
"Must be a nice place to live." I said to myself.
I could hear an annoying laughter rounding the corner of the backyard and an odd accent saying,
"Blast it, Billy, come back here wit me arm!"
A boy with an abnormally large nose came running from behind the house and tripped over a root of the tree in the front lawn.
"Dah, ow…" the boy said. This I assumed was Billy because the bone arm fell from his hand.
A skeleton in a robe followed him then stopped to catch his breathe. "I, got ya now, ya little pest." he panted.
I was surprised and at the same time wasn't by the sight of him. I picked up the arm and could tell it was real. The boney man came over to me and snatched it out of my hand.
"I'd tank you for dat back." he said and put it back up his empty sleeve. "And you are?"
"Oh, I'm Alex. Dex sent me up here. He said you were having trouble with your infected zone."
"So you're dat kid da professor's been praisin'."
"I suppose so."
"Excuse me rudeness earlier. I was exhausted from chasing that oaf, Billy. I'm Grim."
"The Grim Reaper!" Billy cried gesturing creepily.
"Well, use to be tanks to dis and the oder goblin." Grim said. "Billy and Mandy had tricked me inta bein' deir 'best friend.'"
"Yeah, we got you good." Billy chuckled stupidly.
"Anyway, so Dexter and da professor sent ya to help us? Very well, we've been havin' trouble wit da infected zone at the nuclear plant. We're afraid if dem fusions make it too active, it might blow most of Endsville to oblivion." Grim explained.
"And you want me to go in and take care of it before it's too late? Anyone wanna come with?" I asked. I tried to hold back the solemnness of my voice.
"Ooo! Oooo! I do, I do!" Billy shook his hand in the air like it was going to fall off.
"If he's goin' wit ya den I'll need to come too. He's as much help as a sack of feathers."
"Well then by all means, come along. It'd be nice to have company for once. Though, what is Billy going to use?"
"I gots myself a stick." He replied brandishing a fallen branch.
"I'd look out for him; he might hit you by mi'take." Grim whispered to me.
We set off north for the barricaded nuclear plant. It wasn't much of a walk except for an upward-slope that led directly to the transport. The Dexbot came to life as his motion sensors caught us.
"Please identify yourselves." it said mechanically.
"Alex, Grim, and Billy." I answered.
"Searching list of authorized. Alex. Grim. Billy. Profiles found. Access granted, you may approach teleport." It said warming the platform up. A whooping sound rang and a white light blinded me as we were transferred to the other side of force field. Billy, Grim and I stepped of the teleport and found ourselves behind chain-link fence. All around fusion monsters that looked like small dinosaurs made from vents and gears patrolled beyond looking for anything left to infect. My hand started pulsing green as a new weapon molded my arm. It looked like a normal spawn munching on a cannon barrel while its antenna was attached to my elbow, the spawn also had tendrils that connected to my wrist.
"Woooooow, how'd you do that?!" Billy exclaimed. His shout brought the attention of the fusion monsters inside. In less than a second we were swarmed.
"Darn it, Billy, ya did it again!" Grim yelled back slicing the chain-link fence in half as to make an escape route. "Use dat dang gun, boy, and cover me backside!"
I did what Death told me and fired back at the gears and vent-dinos that pursued us. Billy was surprisingly the fastest, most likely because he was scared out of his wit.
"Do you have any idea where the fusion lair is?" I asked Grim.
"I tink I'm seein' sometin' up dere on da smoke stack." He pointed with his scythe.
"How are we supposed to get up there?"
"Turn left here." He ran around a corner grabbing Billy by his hood. I followed him. We pressed against the wall, Grim holding Billy's mouth as the monsters jolted past where we were hiding. "Good, now let me ju't open a portal." He swung his scythe in midair and a green swirling circle was cut. Another appeared above the fusion's lair.
"Great! Thanks, I'll take it from here." I said putting one foot forward before I was stopped by Grim's boney hand.
"You tink ya goin' in dere alone?" he said.
"I have to while you and Billy can get out. Look there isn't much time to waste. Those fusion monsters will find us. You guys get out of here."
Grim contorted his face into a look of disgust that said "you're right."
"Ju't be careful in dere, dat fusion might try to exp'ode the plant." He said and opened a second portal for him and Billy to escape through. Once it had closed I stepped through mine.
I fell in and through the fusion teleport. Again I found myself in an underground maze, except this looked more technological than the others. The walls were metal and lit up; the halls were much wider, but held more enemies. I fought my way through taking every turn possible. I finally found myself in a main hall like area. A raised platform was at the corner with laser shields surrounding it except for the entrance. Slicing and shooting my way to the ramp I saw something I didn't expect, the professor.
"Professor, what are you doing here?" I asked him before realizing it wasn't actually the professor. His skin was made of a flowing green liquid, much like the fusion copy of Buttercup. He wore the same lab coat, but black, and even had a pipe in his mouth.
The fusion attacked first using the same tactics as Fusion Buttercup. He morphed his hands into any weapon he saw fit to kill me. I dodged and ran away as to use my gun for ranged attacks to weaken him, but he always would try the same. He shot bullets of poisonous fusion matter at me. A couple of times he almost made the ground explode below me. Those were especially hard to get away from. My close range attacks failed mostly too. Had this fusion been able to adapt based on what happened to its former ally?
It didn't matter, when I had let my mind run for a strategy fusion matter burst below me knocking me to the floor. It burned, bad. I was barely able to move. The Fusion Professor stood over me then knelt as his hand formed a blade. He went for the kill, but I was able to mash my cannon into his face first. I had learned that it used my fusion matter, so I thought I would see what happens when I use a lot of it. I charged the bullet and let it fly when I saw it was ready to go. The Fusion Professor's head was blown off, and his body, back a ways. The head was quick to slither back to the torso, but not quick enough. I had the Fusion Blade in hand and stabbed the fusion copy. The fusion was sucked into the blade and soon the rest of the infection. I was overwhelmed again and fell unconscious after the professor clone was gone.
The vision this time was what I wanted. I saw myself in my front yard looking up at the sky as Planet Fusion drew closer and closer using giant tentacles to swallow everything.