Operation: NECSUS, Part 14

Chapter 14: Tornadus, the Unlivable Planet

Shooting Star; in space for the buhmillionth time

"Ahhhh feels nice to be in my regular clothes again." Nebula sighed, once again dressed in her black tux.

"You said it." Vweeb agreed.

"Now that that's done, let's start looking for the next fragment as soon as possible. Find any more Nether Rifts, Pollyx?" she asked in her communicator.

"When are you gonna be here with my pizza?! And it better have anchovies!"

"Uhhh… Pollyx?"

"Oh! It's, eh… you guys. Ahem, er, how did it go?"

"Well, it could've gone simpler." She glared at Bender, who was casually laid back in his seat. "Any news on Nether Rifts?"

"Actually, you're gonna like this! They've just opened the new Gravity Aquarium along Theed Harbor in Naboo, Aquaria! A Space Rift is being detected there, too. So while you're looking for that, send me a few photos, why don't you!"

"Well, photography was my 8th hobby." Bender replied. "So I'll be happy to send you some photos! At a cost of 49 dollars and 100 cents each."

"Ohhhh. Better get my credit card."

"A nice little aquarium tour does sound fun." Nebula smiled. "As long as no jerks are drawing faces on the octopuses. Let's go."

"I beLIEVE the correct plural is 'octopi.'" Bender corrected.

Planet Glacia

After following Aurora's direction (even though they didn't know it was her), Sector DR landed on a dark, blizzarding mountain in Planet Glacia. The four kids stepped out with the Shy Guys, who were quickly shuddering from the cold. After the first few steps, a pack of four White Wolfos came out from the snow, snarling with hunger. They lunged all at once.

In a flash, Sugar had them all turned into toys. The kids kept walking. "Any idea why we stopped just then?" Doffy asked.

"Mm-mm." Sugar shrugged.

"Brrr-r-r-r!" Numbuh Sweetie-1 shuddered. "It's so cold! We didn't we bring coats!"

"Doyyyy! I'm dressed nice and warm-daizokun!" Bison noted. "You made of weapons, you have no feelings!"

"THAT is incredibly hurtful!" Sweetie yelled.

"You fat keep you warm." Sugar said to Bison.

"I'm not fat!! I'm big-boned-daizokun!"

"What are we doing out here, anyway? We don't even know if Caesar is on this planet, let alone this particular area." Sweetie noted.

"My dad told me Mom used to have a cabin out here. 'Said if she had something to do with this, we should look here."

They discovered an old log cabin that looked like it's been abandoned for ages. When they were just inches from entering, two worn-out security turrets emerged from either side of the door. "L-Look! …Intruders… at last…" One said as they shivered.

"Cuah-cough… Waiting too long… can't…"

Doflamingo easily sliced them with his strings. With that, they broke open the door's lock and entered the cabin. It was dark, but their presence caused candles to light up. "Beeeep. Beeeep." A small red light above the door began blinking also, making a quiet alarm.

"Oooo we're so terrified." remarked Doffy. The four searched the cabin, finding pictures of Mom with some old, wrinkly scientist, another with a bald, white-mustached scientist (Gerald Robotnik), one where she's slapping her 3 boys, and one where she petted a baby donkey that kicked one of her employees; who grew up to be the donkey that kicks employees out when they get fired.

"No sign of a secret hideaway." Bison mentioned.

Doflamingo found a book on a small table by the couch. "'Ancient Technologies of the Universe'?" He opened the cover. "This book was checked out of the Great Library 42 years ago." He flipped pages before reaching a bookmarked page. "'Iris Supercomputer: The oldest living artificial intelligence, next to the Great Clock.' I never heard of any of these."

"Maybe you can find out if you read more." Sugar suggested, half-sarcastic.

Doffy did so; not that he needed Sugar's suggestion. "'The IRIS Supercomputer is the second-oldest known piece of artificial intelligence, constructed over two million years ago. From its lone asteroid, it observes events across the universe with its hi-def super-zoom-in camera and collects data. Its knowledge is beyond those of mortal beings, obviously because of its years, and is one of the greatest pieces of technology developed by Terachnoids.'"

"Didn't your dad say that Mom bought a Terachnoid company or something?" Sweetie asked.

"(The more you use 'dad' and 'Mom' in those stances, I keep thinking Doffy's dad married Mom.)" Bison noted.

"Yes, she did…" Doffy responded (to Sweetie, not Bison). "And the Terachnoids are known to be a very scientific people. It'd be no surprise if Caesar was operating on their planet."

"So how do we find it-daizokun?" Bison asked.

Doflamingo checked back at the front cover. "Perhaps someone who works at the Great Library will be able to tell us. Let's go look for it, shall we?"

"I hope you remember to ask for directions." Sugar stated.

"Yeah, yeah." Doffy frowned, shutting the book. "I'll do it so you- Huh?" He noticed a tiny slip of paper fall out from the book. He picked it up and unfolded, seeing a map. "They're coordinates… for Planet Coruscant. Specifically, Axiom City, the Terachnoid capital. HA HAAA!" He yelled in Sugar's face. "Who's asking for directions NOW!!"

"You're stupid, Brother."

"Yeah, but I got charm!"

They walked out of the cabin as the Shy Guys were throwing snowballs, freezing others in snowmen, or living in igloos as some pretended to be parents while others acted like children, being spoon-fed bowls of snow. "Quit the games and let's ride, you guys!" Doffy demanded. "We're off to save a clown!"

With John Fett and Aurorra; somewhere in space

"What? Are you kiddin' me?" John said into his communicator. "Siiigh. Well, that's just dandy."

"What is it?" Aurorra asked.

"Sector V whooped Daddy's ass and got away from Sargasso."

"Well, what'd you expect, he's only one hunter."

"Yeah, but Dandy was there, too, unless those kids slipped by him somehow. To think he succeeded in nabbing them, too. Sigh, 'guess we gotta look for 'em again."

"We're still supposed to be looking for that Nebula girl. Coulda had her if those pirates woulda butted out."

"Totally; wouldn't even know where to begin tracking her. One minute she's on Legola, then it's Osiris…"

"I heard she actually visited this one planet twice. Some barren planet close to Endor."

"Why would she wanna fly there again?"

"I dunno. Secret hideaway?"

"Wouldn't hurt to check out. Let's go."

Mecha Jungle

The two hunters arrived and landed on the once-barren planet, and were surprised at what they saw, stepping out of the Wolfens. "…The hell are they?" John asked. Roaming the landscape were what appeared to be robotic cavemen, wielding metal clubs and dragging robotic animals to tubs of molten metal, likely to cook them for dinner.

Aurorra pulled out a scanner and reported, "No signs of any lifeforms on this planet."

"Then these're all robots. Wonder who put them here?"

"Don't know. But didn't a report say that dinosaurs were here?"

"So this planet jumped a whole evolutionary stage."

After exploring the jungle for a few minutes, the two wandered into a cave with drawings painted on the walls (which were actually convoluted blueprints for machines). "I don't see why Nebula would wanna come here, though." John said.

"If she was looking for something, she probably already found it. …But what's that?"

They noticed a group of cavemen drawing symbols around a pixelized graffiti art of Bender, and also laying oil cans before it. "Isn't that one of those graffiti things some robot's been leavin' across the galaxy?" John asked.

"Yeah. And didn't Mom say some defective robot started hanging out with Nebula? The same one who left these marks?"

"Just what's he leavin' them for, anyway?…"

Naboo, Aquaria; Gravity Aquarium

The Shooting Star landed outside the aquarium as Neb, Vweeb, and Bender stepped out. "Guys, can we just skip the pre-stage dialogue and get on with it?" Bender asked.

"Well, it's not like we ever have anything important to say." Nebula figured. "Let's go." (Play "Surfshine Harbor" from Paper Mario: Sticker Star.)

Stage 17: Gravity Aquarium

Mission: Find the Nether Rift and acquire a new ability.

The aquarium was bustling with alien citizens, all staring with wonder at many glass domes holding all kinds of fish. However, the domes were not actually glass. Don't forget, it's called a Gravity Aquarium. They were actually bubbles of water floating in place, held together by gravity, some on the floor and some in the air. The door across the first room was closed by yellow tape, and the alternate door on the second-floor walkway was locked. They entered a left door instead, and this room contained a single large bubble where many Cheep Cheep were swimming in several circles, with a key in the center. Nebula dove in the floating water and navigated around the classic fish enemies to grab the key.

They returned to the first room and had to swim up two Gravity Bubbles, where Rip Van Fish tried to attack them when they dove in. The snoozing fish were easy to avoid as they reached the second floor and entered the locked door. There were several columns of water, and a Baby Unagi was sticking its head out one of their holes. The three approached it, but it backed into the hole and came out the top of another column, where they could see a key attached to its tail. Bender reached to try and grab it, but the Unagi quickly swam back into the hole. Each of the top and bottom holes was connected to another at random, so Nebula had to swim through each one before she was able to sneak up on the Unagi and take its key.

They opened another door on their right, leading to a room with a very wide column that seemed to stretch up several floors. The three swam up (except Vweeb, who hid in Nebula's mouth), having to avoid Bloopers and Boss Bass, which were big-mouthed Cheep Cheep that tried to eat their prey. A gate was blocking the exit at the top with bars that were horizontal and vertical, so even Bender wouldn't be able to leave enough room if he bent them. Which was odd, 'cause he was so great. They swam back and found a lever on one of the sides, but when Nebula flipped it, it was pulled back by a Mini Frogoon's tongue. She kept trying to pull it, but the Frogoon kept it in place, until Bender decided to punch and knock it out.

They finally flipped the lever and opened the gate, so they swam to the top and resurfaced. They headed into a door on the left, leading to a wide room where several vertical and horizontal columns moved in and out of holes in the wall or ceiling, and were all above a lower floor which essentially didn't have anything of value. They were on a ledge overlooking this, and next to them was another column from the lower floor, which they would use to get back up if they fell. They saw bubble currents sucking into the holes, and when the columns were fully extracted, the very ends were free of current.

They jumped to the first one's end and had to do so with the other ones, careful not to fall in the currents. When they reached two columns hanging from the ceiling, they had no choice but to get in the currents, but had to come out the sides and fall to a lower point of the other to keep from sucking up. They waited for the next horizontal column to extract all the way so they could jump to its end. From there, they reached a small platform with the next door (wait, are people actually expected to swim these courses just to get around the aquarium??).

They entered a dark room that was alit by columns of colorful jellyfish, with a different colored group in each column. There were 3 of them scattered around a maze, in which the walls were only a foot high, but the columns couldn't be lifted of course, only pushed around. There was a purple spot, an orange spot, and a green spot around the maze, each meant for the different colors to be placed. And of course, only Bender had the strength to push these columns, so he took the liberty of navigating them around the maze. Once all were placed in their rightful spot, the wall on the left of the room slid open to reveal a watery tunnel.

They dove in and began another exciting swim-through, having to evade exploding Puftups. Ahead was a row of currents sucking into holes on the ground, but a Space Light was in the middle hole. However, Nebula couldn't make Space Blocks while in the water, but near the right wall was an air bubble where Nebula could stand on the ground and breathe. Since she was technically on land, she could make the Space Block appear over the middle current, allowing them to swim across. The tunnel slowly led downward and snaked left, and giant eels called Gringills emerged from holes to try and snack on them.

At the tunnel's end, a Puftup was clogging a pipe, and it was much too thick to push through. There was a water mine by a pile of boulders, and another boulder up the slope that could be used to push into the mines. But instead, Nebula shoved Bender against the mines and blew them up like that, revealing another air bubble under the ruined pile. She got on the land spot and used Space Shrink to minimize the Puftup, causing it to suck into the pipe's current. With that, they swam into the pipe as well, pouring out into a small room where the water flowed down a barred drain.

They went in the next door, which led to another wide-open room, where they stood on a ledge on the highest point, and the next door was at the bottom on the parallel side. All this room had was a great long electrical eel inside a floating wormlike tunnel of water, which took up its whole body. It wore a goofy smile as it waited for prey to fall in, so it could zap them to death. The trio couldn't just drop to the bottom, 'cause around the door was a pool of electric eels. There was a path around the larger eel's bubble, which they were able to walk on thanks to a Gravity Path. The path was zigzaggy as usual, so they had to be careful not to slip and fall.

After they reached the door, they entered a fairly small room that had three columns on the right side, and a small watery dome on a stand on the left. The 3 columns each contained a classic Zelda boss, only scaled down, who were Morpha, Gyorg, and Morpheel. And the small dome on the opposite side contained a single Chinese fighting fish, who looked really happy to have company. The plaque on the front read, Here is author Gamewizard's prized Chinese fighting fish, which he's simply named Fish. The latest and the best of his series of fighting fishes, as he's remained alive for more than a year. If he bites you, it's just his way of being friendly. And don't forget to drop him some turkey!

After they were done sightseeing, they entered the next room, which had another large dome with a T-rex at the top, unable to swim and struggling to float in place. There was a clam in the middle of the ground, opening and closing for brief seconds, and when it opened, they could see a Bender Marking. Nebula snapped the picture before walking around the dome, seeing they were behind the door that was closed off at the beginning. But as it would happen, the Nether Rift appeared over this door, so Nebula jumped inside to do the trial.

Netherverse (Play "Clank in the Netherverse." You should know what game, so try to keep up.)

She was in yet another eerie cave, which had many floating ghostly green bubbles. She jumped and swam across the bubbles to cross the first chasm, then fell over a wall to dive in some water, swimming into a tunnel of alien jellyfish. It was pitch-dark, alit only by the jellyfish, in which Nebula had to stay near them when Underhands were reaching out to try and take her in the darkness. She also had to swim with schools of tiny glowing fish, who bore creepy frowny expressions and one eyeball.

She resurfaced on a ledge before a deep chasm, which had several mechanical platforms floating over it, too scattered to jump to. Instead, she followed a stairway on the right that led to a higher walkway, leading over the chasm before she was dropped off on the other side. She then had to drop down a series of holes, one after another, and each had a pool of water below it with a big jellyfish inside. The 4th hole finally led her to the cave's end, where she picked up a glowing sphere that contained another power.

Nebula learned Space Lightning! The power to shock things is now in her hands. Literally! With this, she can charge electrical generators or stun enemies for a short time! Of course, it has a limit in power for combat…

Of course, her first test was to use her power to get out of the cave. In the water hole where a jellyfish waited, Nebula zapped lightning inside to make it shake with energy and come to the top. She was able to bounce on its head to get up out of the hole. (Cue the "Netherverse Chase" theme.) As always, when she was beginning to escape, the Nether woke up to chase her. "GRAGRAHGRAGRAH- cough, cough, why do I have to keep making these silly sounds? I mean GRAGRAHGRAGRAHGRAGRAH-"

Nebula made her way back up the holes, having to shock the jellyfish to use them as bounce pads. When she reached the open chasm, she couldn't jump back to the higher path, so she had to shock a generator to activate the moving platforms, then had to wait 'til the platforms moved close enough to each other to jump them, and also had to jump to avoid the Nether's gnashes. After making it across, and before diving in the tunnel of water, she zapped the water and caused the many jellyfish inside to light it up completely.

All she had to do was navigate around other hazards and keep swimming straight to escape the Nether, and also had to get through fast before the jellyfishes' charge wore off. When she reached the surface, she had to bounce the jellyfish at the end to get above the wall, and from there swim through the floating bubbles to reach the end. (End song.)

Back at the aquarium

Nebula succeeded in yet another escape and allowed the Nether to explode in its attempt to follow, blowing that wall of the aquarium down so they can reach the entrance faster. "I'm not gonna help you pay for that." Vweeb stated.

"You'll do it for the sake of the whole GKND." Nebula kidded. "Anyway, I got my lightning power back."

"Cool! That means you can attack people yourself now! Soon, you might be able to take down Tachyon!"

Meanwhile, Bender connected a cord to his camera and his head, allowing him to download the data snapped from these graffiti markings. His eyes and mouth sizzled like static, and his brain made a DING! when he was finished. "Hey, guys, I just remembered somethin'! When I was leavin' graffiti markings, I found one of those little pyramid things on some tornado planet! I was goin' ta market it, but it got swept away. Damn, lousy tornados…"

"A tornado planet?" Nebula asked. "Was it Tornadus?"

"Well, the name seems to fit based on the things I encountered, so yeah."

"Ohhhh nonononono!" Vweeb yelled. "No WAY am I going to THAT wasteland! Tornadus is freaking unlivable! Every Kateenian explorer that's ever gone there was never heard from again! No one knows if they're dead, or flying endlessly in the eye of one of the millions of tornados, living off whatever dead meat happens to get swept up!"

"Well, if Bender says he remembers seeing an artifact there, it's the best clue we got." Nebula stated. "If the planet is uninhabitable, at least we won't have to worry about Drophyds or space-pirates there. Let's see what it's got." With that, the crew began to leave the aquarium.

"Aaaaand will you be paying?" the manager asked Bender.

The robot easily socked him and took his wallet. "Hehehehehehehe!"

Caesar's Lab

Caesar carefully dipped a grabber into a tub of chemicals and pulled out a Devil Fruit, dropping it inside a bag. "There, I've perfected my first series of Zoan Fruits. Now ALL your slimy soldiers can have the powers of beasts." He grabbed the bags of fruits and tossed each to a Drophyd soldier in a line. "Lion Fruit for you, Turtle Fruit for you, Cow Fruit for you, and who could forget Mr. Platypus."

"Hmph… well done." Mom replied smugly. "Let's hope they do a better half-ass job than those OTHER troopers." Her communicator rang. "Speaking of half-ass jobs:" she answered to her son, Walt. "WHAT IS IT, you bastards?"

"Mother, somebody triggered the alarm in your private getaway cabin. The security turrets' cameras barely caught the glimpse of a pink-feathered being before they were destroyed. It could be your business rival, Doflamingo."

"DOFFY-SAMA?!" Caesar exclaimed with tears flowing down his wide-smiling face. "Is Doffy coming to save me?!"

"NO ONE'S coming to save your ass, you talking SPONGE!" Mom smacked him.

"Ow!"

"At least not on my watch! Place Killbots around every corner of the city in case those snots try a sneak attack! Whether Nebula comes here or that Flamingo bastard, I want 'em BLASTED straight to Hell, understand me?!"

"Yes, Mother, we called and opened several reserved spots in Hell. The dates are expiring soon, so we intend to hurry."

"Good. Now SLAP yourselves and let me get on with my business."

"Yes Mother. OW- OW- Ow!" The three smacked their selves before transmission ended.

Tornadus atmosphere

The Shooting Star was approaching a purplish-blue planet where spiraling clouds could easily be seen from the atmosphere. When they entered the planet, they were immediately caught in the current of the endless storm of tornados, swerving uncontrollably as they searched for a place to land. "Does this planet even HAVE any real land?!" Nebula screamed.

"Too bad we didn't bring a basement!" Bender yelled.

They eventually landed on a lone, flat asteroid hovering in midair. The wind was extremely rough as they stepped out. The planet appeared to be nothing but tornados, as far as the eye could see. …Which wasn't very far in all this chaos.

"Whooooooooaaa!" Vweeb was immediately blown away by the powerful winds, but Bender stretched up and grabbed the little guy, pulling him back down.

"No doubt, this is the LAST place anyone would look for an artifact." Nebula knew. "You sure it was around this area, Bender?"

"As sure as I've been about a lot of other things."

"Anyway, keep Vweeb in your compartment until we're done; this is no paradise for little people."

"Okay. But you better not steal my secret stash!" the robot told Vweeb as he stashed him in his stomach. "Boy, people must've been building a lot of trailers here to have this many tornados."

"Hm hm, that is the tornados' ultimate purpose. That's why I take space over air any day…" (Play "Isle of Songs" from Zelda: Skyward Sword.)

Stage 18: Tornado Valley

Mission: Find the Zathurian Artifact.

A large gap divided them and the next pathway, but other rock platforms were floating up with the wind, and Nebula and Bender used them as footholds to jump across, before they were sucked in the tornados. They reached a thin stairway that went up and around a tornado, and was also hovering thanks to the tornado's wind. They had to avoid some debris shooting over from the right and into the cyclone, but they soon reached the top of the stairs to find another set of floating platforms. Nebula hovered to the platforms while Bender stretched across. The platforms listed forward and backward, so they had to wait 'til they were close enough to jump to them.

They soon reached another stairway that led downward, with another tornado on their right. It was connected to a levitated ruin, in which the two followed a path through some ruined structures until a tornado spun by and destroyed the continuing path. A set of Space Lights led to the next platform, but when Nebula formed the blocks, the tornado brushed by again and wiped them out. Nebula formed the blocks again, but the two had to jump them quickly before the tornado returned. They made it to a wider path where many smaller tornados roamed, but still notably larger than them.

When one of the whirlwinds was coming at them, Nebula tried tossing grenades at it, but this proved fruitless as the two were swept inside. "Ay-ye-ye- WHOOAAAH-HAAAAH!" screamed Bender as they were sent blowing back to the start of this road. They noticed some stone handles embedded in the ground, so when they approached the first tornado, they grabbed the first handle and held tight as the whirlwind tried to suck them, eventually disappearing when it failed. There was a pile of boulders near the next tornado, so Nebula fired a V.I.S.S.I.L.E. and blew them up to reveal another handle. Before the whirlwind came at them, they grabbed the handle to avoid its windy suction.

This pattern repeated a few more times until they reached a lone tornado at the end, which caught and blew them straight upwards, landing them on a path of solid clouds. It was a little foggy, but when they walked forward, another storm of tornados lay in their wake. They followed another long, floating, thin stairway that snaked around a few tornados. Debris also spun around the cyclones and swept over the path, so they had to avoid again. Among that debris were mooing cows, mailboxes, and some fat guy with a big nose and black hair (who they remembered as Billy's Dad from Billy and Mandy).

A few meters to their right was a tornado that was carrying a farm, looping around it over and over. On the side of that barn was a large Bender Marking, so when it looped around again, Nebula quickly took the picture. "Hehehehehehe!" The stairs soon led them onto a small, floating ruin that had some kind of lightning rod device, seated on a ledge overlooking an empty chasm. Nebula shocked the device with Space Lightning, making it shoot lightning up to the heavens for a row of tornados to come down. The tornados moved to either side, making two parallel rows as rock platforms began to rise from the ground, floating straight up. Nebula and Bender simply jumped across the platforms, having to float/stretch to each one.

At the end of the platforms was a floating capsule containing a Rocket Wisp. "ROCKET!" Nebula absorbed and began soaring across the windy lands while Bender rode her. Debris was coming at them from the left, so Nebula had to shift up or down depending on their altitude. They flew into another tornado, which spiraled them around and redirected them leftward. More debris appeared and floated in their path, at different altitudes so they had to move up or down, but the debris were closer together, so it was harder to avoid. They still made it and spun in another tornado, flying right again as barns rose from below, or sunk from above. Yeah, the Rocket Wisp patterns don't really change up much. They had to squeeze between two barns before finally taking land on a platform.

They jumped their way down another set of platforms, approaching what seemed like a small, floating castle, and behind it, the largest tornado they've ever seen. The wind grew even stronger, drowning out any other sound. They walked up the castle's short stairway, and found the Zathurian Artifact before the doorway. (End song.)

"Ahh, here it is!" Bender exclaimed, picking it up. "Told you it was near!"

Nebula looked around curiously. "What a strange castle. I can't imagine who would wanna live here."

"Well, these are ruins, after all." Vweeb reminded from Bender's stomach. "Maybe there used to be civilization here, before the tornados came."

"More history to look in to… Anyway, let's see this artifact." She took the pyramid from Bender and let it scan her eyes. Another message appeared in the foreign language Nebula was accustomed to.

"'You, who is descended from the Clan of Space, blah blah blah,' that's actually what it says, 'seek the 6 pieces that will make our invention whole. The next of the Dimensional Fragments lies within the mines of Galaxia's Sun. However, know the unbearable scorching temperatures will have you evaporated in seconds, without special fermion-barrier heat-exclusion spray, a product of the Terachnoids. Good luck, and beware the darkness and all that repetitive crap.'"

"Fermion Spray?" asked Pollyx. "Oh, I know that stuff! How could I not? We Terachnoids are very sensible to sunlight, you see, so we use Fermion Spray, a special sunscreen that protects from any rising temperature!"

"So is your race naturally nocturnal, or did that just happen?" Bender asked. "Ahhhh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Ohhhh!" Pollyx grumbled. "Unfortunately, I left my supply of Fermion Spray in my lab on Coruscant. Eh, I could send Sector V over there to retrieve it real quick."

"How can you contact them?" Nebula asked.

"Why, they're here with Jerome, of course! The Star Haven was preoccupied by Drophyds, so there was no WAY they could stay THERE."

"Well, that's good, I guess. Tell them the location of your lab and have 'em get the spray. Then tell them to fly back there so we can get it."

"You got it. But if those runts touch my diary while they're there, I'm docking pay outta you!"

As the group began their dangerous journey back to their ship, Pollyx still spoke to them. "Still, amazing how you navigated Tornadus with barely a scratch. I heard the only way you can possibly live on Tornadus, is if you were a Logia airbender."

Nebula scoffed, "Pfft, I can't think of ANY airbender who would find a storm like THIS pleasant…"

Inside the castle

Within the blackness of the castle (which was essentially just one big room), a shadowed being sat alone on a throne, facing an open hole in the wall just inches from the colossal tornado. The being opened a single, glaring red eye, seeing a tiny newspaper zooming around in the cyclone. When it zipped by him, the man grabbed the paper and began to read, seeing a picture of Emperor Tachyon standing high on his throne, holding his scepter.

"Hmmm… well, it's not the worst thing to happen in the universe. I guess I should head back to Earth soon. … …"