35. Catch Her!

Today's code uses the Atbash Cipher, but the phrase is backwards.

Star Train; The Head

Dr. Nefarious paced back and forth in the control deck, the anger clear on his eternal-scowling face. "Pardon me, Sir," Lawrence approached him with his emotionless frown, "but you've been pacing around the same spot for two days. You've imbedded footprints in the metal." If one looked down, one could see this was true. "Might I ask what is wrong?"

"Just when I think I've got Maddy back in my clutches, she escapes again!" Nefarious spoke with anger. "And not one of my robots has tracked her whereabouts! How hard can it be to chase after a giant space-whale?!"

"With all due respect, Sir, perhaps you are exhausting too much in trying to track this girl. She is one of the Seven Lights, true, but you are becoming obsessed with her."

"Well, of COURSE I'm obsessed with her, Lawrence!" Nefarious faced him, making an arm gesture that emphasized his logic. "Lesser Lord Gnik TOLD us she was the most powerful of the Lights! That's why we've been spying on her all this time, because even GNIK doesn't know what this power is!" He turned away and rubbed his fingers deviously. "Ever since they were eight years old, I've been watching her. I staged that little twerp buying her dumb dog on her birthday so that one day, I could discover what this power is, and TAKE IT for myself!" He punched his palm. "Yet, I've come up with nothing! That's why we must capture that child and FORCE IT OUT OF HER!"

"Dr. Nefarious, Sir-"

"WHAT?!" Nefarious screamed at the robot hologram that just appeared.

"Our scouters have detected Ratchet's Aphelion near the region of Planet Oltana. Subject 'Maddy Murphy' was detected with them. Shall we engage in pursuit?"

"NO! I'm tired of relying on you clowns to capture Maddy. I'm joining in the chase myself! BUCKLE IN, Lawrence, we're detaching the head!"

Meanwhile, in the halls of the train, Lord Vorselon was whistling a merry tune while sweeping the floors of rubble from the earlier battle. The train began shaking all of a sudden, and Vorselon nearly lost his balance when the wall of the door he was about to enter broke away from the hall. Vorselon stood on the edge of the train, watching as the Nefarious-shaped head of the vessel drifted farther away. "I'm stepping out for a while, Lord Vorselon!" Nefarious said through the PA speaker. "Use the back-up controls to pilot the train. Also, I'm cooking some French fries with triple-packed oil, make sure to turn the stove off in 10 minutes!"

Space; some time ago

HELLO, READERS! Welcome, come one, come all, to this exciting tale of goes and bows. Welcome to Jar Jar Blinks' story arc of Seven Lights: The Side Stories: Jar Jar Blinks' Shifty Shenanigans! WEE HEE HEE HEE!

It all starts on Nightmare Land, when I was-a helping Da'ky helpin' Anna get settled in. (A picture was shown of Jar Jar peeping on Anna of Arendelle in the shower, with said girl creeped out.) She was-a pretty upset over her kingdom going ploopy, with her sister deady-weddy, so I-sa say, "It's okaaaaay." (A picture of Jar Jar smooching Anna.) "Jah-Jy's here, and he's-a gonna make it betty," and then Anna says, "OOOOOOO Jah-Jyyyyyyyyy!" (Anna lovingly kissed Jar Jar back.) "Ohsh, but I's am so sadness over my sissy-poo," and then I says, "What cans I do about Anny-do?" Then Da'ky comes to me. He was-a REAL bright and shiny. He says-si:

"Jaaaaar Jaaaaar." (Darkrai was depicted with a white beard and robe, the sun shining behind him over a hill.) "Thou must fly to the galaxy of Solana, and find Ministry Queenmoo, then seek from her the Holy Milk. Only then will Anna feel happy about sissy."

But I knows I cans not do it alone. I-sa needs me old friend, ones I have known for yearsies: Zachary Murphy. He's and I's know each other from 4th birthday of his and Mads, when his Sissy-poo broke her booboo-receiver, so I's feeds her milk from baby bull. (The next picture describes itself.) I's flies everywhere in Solly Gally, but noes Zachy-Wacky. Thens I sees alie-walies drivin' dat dem Apheli-Wheeli, so I says silly: "GIVEE THAT BACK!" I's battles them, and I's takes Aphelion back, but oshi-NOOO! I-sa losin' control, and going for gangbusters' planet! Nows I am here, with Maddy, Zaddy, Raddy, and Draddy, and ours exciting Side Story continues. I wills not give up 'tils I finds the Holy Milky, so thats all sad sissy-poos everywhere shall always-

"JAR JAR, two things," Maddy yelled with anger, "1) This isn't the Side Stories, and 2), even if it was, YOU ARE NOT GETTING A STORY ARC!"

"But my plots is so enticiiiiing." Jar Jar said depressedly. "When you looks at all the subtle clues and foreshadows, none would even suspect my's great-grandsister is Luvita Blinksingling, street-renowned juice thief. Ha!" Jar Jar gasped. "I-sa spoiled it! I-SA SPOILED MY SECRET FAMILY RELATION! NYEEEEEE-!" He flailed his arms like an idiot.

"SHUT IT!" Maddy punched his bomback mouth. "Sigh…" She sighed depressedly. "I can tolerate Zach, but why did YOU have to come?"

"Maddy, did you really drink milk from a bull?" Drake asked.

"NO! ! And he and Zach were never childhood friends, this story's all at the top of his head! That is to say his head isn't a black hole."

"Please, Maddy, your head's rounder than any hole." Zach remarked, using a glider to fly alongside their ship. The airless void chilled his face. "And for the record, I think that situation with the bull stems from the intimacy you never got with your mom as a kid."

Maddy wasn't gonna draw on from that. "Zach, you're in space, your head's gonna pop."

"Hn-hno it won't, Maddy, my head is specially trained to-" The airless void caught on to him, and his head exploded into blood. His lifeless body float there.

"OH MY GOD!" Ratchet panicked.

"And 3," Maddy began with disbelief, "2… 1…"

"BAP." Jar Jar's head came off, revealing to be Zach in disguise. "Ta-daaaa! We dropped Jar Jar off on some curtain planet."

"I hope he enjoys himself." Maddy eye-rolled. "Zach, can't you be a little bit serious about this? I'm still angry that we didn't go home with them 'cause we have to find some 'Disbanded' person, based on what Dillon told us Vanellope said out of nowhere. And frankly, I'm not even sure why I believed him, I'm sick of this dump."

"This 'dump' is kind of my home galaxy, Maddy." Ratchet replied, piloting Aphelion with a solemn look.

"I'm just saying that I wanna go home, too. But I'm also worried about this 'Apocalypse' thing, so—I dunno—maybe I'm going along with whatever happens for the sake of something good happening."

"Remind me, again, where this Apocalypse thing came from?" Ratchet requested.

"We honestly have no idea." Drake shook his head. "And we're really sick of the whole thing, already. Totally ruining our summer."

"Aphelion, are you any closer to tracking Clank's radio waves?" the Lombax asked his ship.

"I am sorry, Ratchet, but I cannot detect Clank's antenna waves anywhere within a 10,000 light-year radius. There is a chance that Clank's antenna was severed, his waves are being obstructed by a force, or he is very very far away."

"And how far is 10,000 light-years?" Drake asked.

"Not so much, but pretty far." Ratchet sighed. "But assuming he was captured by Nefarious, he could have taken his antenna off, maybe even reprogrammed him!" He spoke with frustration, "I wanna go back to that train and make Nefarious tell me where he is!"

"Mad-dy? Mad-dy?" Zach was now a 5-year-old, tugging on his big sister's sleeve.

"Not now, Zachary. Ratchet, I'd like to ask Nefarious a few questions too, but we barely escaped that train last time. We'll just have to survive without Clank."

"Mad-dy? Mad-dy?"

"Sigh, I know all that, Maddy. It's just… well, you weren't with us for very long, so you didn't get a chance to see, but Clank's been kind of… sick, lately. Like, every now and again, he kind of shorts out and speaks gibberish, so if he's trapped or by himself somewhere, he's got no way to protect himself. That's why I'm worried."

"Mad-dy?"

"Well, I can't argue with that." Maddy said. "You should see the kind of messes Zach gets into—What the heck is it?!"

"Dat." Zach pointed behind them.

"MAAAAAADDYYYYYYY!" The three panicked: Dr. Nefarious's gigantic space station-size head was chasing them imposingly. "I foooouuund yooooouuuu!"

"Sir, if we're doing this, can you please not talk suggestively?" Lawrence asked.

"AAAAAHHH!" Maddy screamed. "Ratchet, get us away from here!"

"Ratchet, I am detecting Planet Oltana approximately 5 light-years away. Shall we hide there?" Aphelion asked.

"Yes, go for it!" On Ratchet's command, the ship escaped through hyperspace, though the Star Head was still in pursuit. …A small black ship watched and went unseen by them, but it vanished into hyperspace, too.

Planet Oltana

Stage 45: Oltana Valley

Mission: Get away from Dr. Nefarious!

Act 1

Aphelion entered Oltana's atmosphere and landed in an enclosing of a canyon. The planet looked dead and desert-like at first glance, and the surrounding horizon was a sunset orange, while the rest of the sky within was dark. Regardless, the landscape was bright as if it were daytime. Team Ratchet trekked down a slope along the right side of a chasm, the Lombax using his OmniWrench to whack away Tumfoids. They arrived at a dead-end cliff, and Maddy held onto Drake as he used his grappler to swing a Swingshot target. She expected Zach to hold onto Ratchet, but- "Roo-REE-roo!" Zach took the form of a squat, rectangle, spring creature with a shocked face, bouncing across in one swoop. "Look, Zach, this is gonna get old after a while."

"You would know, Mads. Hey'd you want that Gold Bolt over there?" He pointed to the ledge they just swung from: it had a cave below it, with a Gold Bolt inside.

"Whoops. Too late now." Ratchet said.

"No it isn't. Roo-REE-roo!" He Roo-Bounced over to the cave, got the bolt, and returned. With that, the four would begin their venture across a rickety wooden path alongside a canyon wall.

"Maaaaaddyyyyy, where aaaaaare yooooou?" The four gasped and looked up: Dr. Nefarious's head gradually emerged from the dark sky. "Ahhhhh! THERE you are! You must be careful! You wouldn't want to lose your footing and FALL! Ex-TERMINATE them!" (Play "The Precipice" from Rayman 2.)

The ship blasted a laser that destroyed the rocky foothold they were just on, the team was forced to bolt forward. Parts of the wooden walkway were shaking and threatened to fall under the cannonfire. They jumped a gap to a lower walkway, and a red Walking Shell (a missile with legs) was dropped ahead of the path, running toward the group as they had to jump it. When a bombshell exploded under their current bridge, the entire foothold flew off to the right, but the four jumped off and landed on a flat rock balanced atop a stone needle. They jumped a series of balanced rocks, which tilted back-and-forth at their weight, but were in the process of falling due to Nefarious's cannons.

They jumped to a narrow path on the side of a small mountain, crossing a short cave before landing inside a minecart. The cart rolled down a track, up a ramp they had to jump, and a cannon blew off part of this next track as they made the cart jump again. Two Walking Shells ran at them from either side, so they jumped again, quickly jumped a gap that was blown open, then the next chunk of track collapsed as they fell off and rolled down a steep slope. Their cart crashed against a rock, but the four jumped out and ran along another cliffside. Bombshells hit the wall above them, dropping rubble down and forcing the group to stop, so when the rubble finished falling, Ratchet used a grenade to blow it up. They ran further, a large chunk of path was blown off, but a huge flat boulder fell vertically past that gap, so the team quickly Wall Jumped it to get across.

They turned leftward between a trench, then continued their run across another rickety bridge, suspended over a chasm by weak supports. Under the bombshells' explosions, the parts of the bridge were toppling over, the four heroes ran as fast as they could with disrupted balance. They swung a Swingshot target part of the way, then the path took them between close trench walls. The cannons were blasting the walls and sending rubble everywhere, the friends had to keep an eye out for boulders falling to their path. Among the rubble was an old man with a white beard and scarecrow hat, crying "VNRG HRS TMRGHZD HVS!" The team turned left across a series of platforms they had to jump, and they made it to a longer path that stretched along a cliffside.

"Psst! This way!" They looked left, briefly spotting a shadowed person thst zipped around a corner turn.

"Wha- Who's that?" Ratchet stuttered.

"I'm going deaf anyway, so I'll risk it." Drake ran that person's direction, the others followed, it was a tight narrow passage within a trench. The shadowed person drew further away, the four stayed on their tail. "Maddyyyyy, where'd you gooooooo?" (End song.)

They watched the person jump into a hole, so the four heroes followed. The sound of explosions and gunfire was stopped, but they heard the engines of Nefarious's ship in the sky. Regardless, they were glad to rest their ears and legs. "We dunno who you are, but thanks for helping us." Ratchet said.

"My pleasure." The figure with black shiny armor turned to them with her glowing violet eyes.

"WAIT A SECOND!" Maddy screamed, pointing accusingly. "You're that… Shade girl! One of the Teen Ninjas!"

"Maddy, you know her?" Ratchet asked.

"Yes, and she's a bad guy!"

"No I'm not!" Shade stated. "Sigh… time for me to explain." She pushed the left breast of her armor, and her B.R.A. retracted, revealing the black jumpsuit underneath. She had light-purple eyes and light-red hair, curved backward in several large spikes. She had a little black, animal-like nose.

Maddy stared for a moment. "You're a… hedgehog?"

"I'm an echidna." Shade said with disbelief. "Well, a Mobian echidna, actually. And I'm not really your enemy, I've been posing as a Teen Ninja for the past few years so that I could spy on you."

"I have had it up to here with people 'spying' on me." Maddy held her hand above her head. "If you're not my enemy, why did you kidnap me to have me shrunken down?"

"If you recall, I also knocked Nya out for you so you could get back to normal." Shade argued. "Besides, I helped them with that whole thing because I wanted to see if it was true. …You have Conqueror's-"

"Maaaaaaaddyyyyyyy. Come oooooouuu-uuuuut."

"If we stay here, they're going to find us. Come with me." Shade pulled a ninja mask over her mouth and hurried forward. Maddy contemplated following her, but when they looked at Nefarious's vessel above the hole, they decided to. (Play "Volcano Force Point Temple" from Star Fox Adventures.)

Act 2

They hurried after the echidna as she ran through a series of maze-like caves. "How exactly do you know the way again?" Maddy asked.

"I don't in particular, but he's starting to send robots inside, I can see where they are with my Observation Haki."

"Haki? Why does that sound familiar…"

"Duh, Maddy, Mr. York had it!" Zach said brightly. "He was playing Hockey with Caesar! I even kept the trophy." He held up a golden trophy of Sandman sliding a puck with a hockey stick.

"Um… no." Shade replied. "It's a kind of martial art that heightens the senses. Armament Haki-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, maybe you wanna tell me why you're suddenly a good guy?" Maddy requested.

"Oh, right. Would you believe me if I said I was 4,000 years old?"

"NO." They all chorused.

"I'm not." Shade said humorously. "I'm actually 23. But that is how old our prophecy is. I'm not just an average Mobian, I'm from the Netherverse. Our tribe of Mobians have very wise prophets, and they saw the end of the world happening near this date. According to history, a man called Acnologia came to our universe to hide a gem called the Octogan. From it, the ancient prophets harnessed power, and saw the future. Because of what they saw, they feared the Octogan, so they sent it back to this universe. They kept the power that they took from it, because the prophecy was real regardless.

"According to that prophecy, when a man who claimed to be the 'King of Space' came to our universe, it was a sign that the Apocalypse was coming. That man, Dimentio, appeared in our world 20 years ago, so the time to fulfill their part of the prophecy was then. 18 years ago, when I was five, the prophets used the harnessed power of the Octogan to give me the knowledge of this prophecy, then they banished me to this universe, so that I could help Maddy."

"There's still a couple of holes in that story." Ratchet noted. "Like, why are you helping Maddy, and why didn't they send an adult?"

"The Mobians used Space Magic, which came in short supply, to send myself and two other children, Vendra and Neftin, to this universe when Dimentio was taking over. It was convenient on their end because of my exceptional combat skills, that's why I was chosen. And I was ordered to help Maddy because they knew she was one of the Seven Lights."

"My brain officially hurts." Zach remarked.

"So what's why Nefarious is after me? And you, are you… the Disbanded?" Maddy asked.

"That's probably why Nefarious is after you, and no. The 'Disbanded,' actually, is someone who ended up in this universe 20 years ago, following Arceus's explosion. He's actually a denizen of one of the Original Worlds. I don't know how you know about him, but you need to find him so he can train you."

They arrived at a tall cliff that Shade climbed up effortlessly. She saw a stalactite on the ceiling, jumped to pull it down, then stuck it in the cliff partway down. She did the same with two more, making a stairway of sorts for the others to follow her. "They're watching from outside. Don't stand in the holes." This tunnel had large holes in the sides, where Chuck Planktonbots viewed inside with searchlight eyes. The group stepped up some natural stairs to a narrow ledge above a hole, sidling across. Rather than drop down on the other side, they used their grapplers to latch above the next hole, while Shade climbed across the wall.

They dropped down after the second hole, but kept out of the diagonal sunrays of corner holes. They came to an area filled with gaps in the ground, with the only crossable paths blocked by searchlights. "Maaaaaddyyyyyy. I can detect your body temperatuuuuuure!"

"If that were true, this place would be crumbling under cannonfire." Shade assured. She crawled up the wall of this cave to the ceiling, punching stalactites as they fell to stick on small platforms below. They could use the taller footholds to bounce across the chasm and under the searchlights. They jumped to a space on a path between two searchlights, then had to drop down the opposite ledge to climb across a grabable area. They went under the searchlight and climbed onto the foothold again. Two searchlights skimmed up-and-down between this foothold and the next, so the group waited for an opening and flew across with their grapplers.

"Hold on, Shade, does the Disbanded live here?" Drake asked as they journeyed another straightforward cave.

"No, he's on Planet Pokitaru. But you guys retreated here, so I had to follow you. And before you ask how I even got here, I flew on my ship; I've been wandering around this galaxy ever since your leader announced the Apocalypse."

"If you knew about the Apocalypse all along, how come you never told anyone?" Maddy asked.

"The World Government knew about it, and they let the Kids Next Door be because they didn't know. I didn't exactly know when you would find out either, but it took the Government by surprise. They're a little disorganized trying to schedule legal attacks on your organization. All they can do is try to stop the Twenty Keys from doing what they do. At least, that's based from my job as a Teen Ninja—I wasn't given ALL of the prophecy. …Maddy, lemme ask you something: do you remember, I dunno, anything weird you might've done that you couldn't explain? I mean—besides that whole screaming fiasco during the shrink ray incident?"

Maddy raised a brow, both at the question and at the example. "I remember when we were escaping Nefarious's ship," Ratchet explained, "she said she saw Qwark's aura outside. Not that Qwark is easy to miss, but through the wall and all…"

"Hm… interesting." Shade said. "Let's talk about that after we escape. We'll have to get outside someplace where Nefarious won't spot us, then I can summon my ship."

"We're getting my ship back too, right?" Ratchet asked.

"I won't make promises, we may have to come back later."

They entered a wider tunnel of Sleepytime robots, and (much to their disgust) bones laying about the ground. "Can you do this?" Shade asked, nimbly leaping the short stalagmites that made a path between the Sleepytimes.

"If KND teaches them Ninjutsu, probably." Ratchet remarked.

"I'm glad you asked!" Zach made swift hand signals. "Substitution Jutsu: Swap bones with:" He planted his hand against the floor, "GRAHAM CRACKERS!" In a puff of smoke, all of the bones turned into graham crackers.

"THIS DOESN'T HELP US!!" Maddy screamed. But just then, the Sleepytime robots startled awake. "Oopsie."

The Sleepytimes looked at the graham cracker floor around them. The robots became very frantic, their tongues popping out excitedly as they began digging into the treats. "Well, that works." Drake shrugged as they stepped around the robots, crunching the crackers beneath their shoes. They met with Shade at a long, wide chasm, in which the ninja Wall Jumped between either wall, across the pit—and they noted how far the walls were apart. "…Any ideas?" asked Drake.

"Well, you and me can hold onto these two and take turns with our-" As Ratchet explained, he absentmindedly moved his arms, hitting Zach in the face when he walked by eating a cracker. The boy flew up in the air, landed on his back, and farted out a Golden Gate Bridge. "…Or that." They crossed the bridge with many questions waiting to be asked.

"Maddy, will you JUST get your ass back into my room so that I can harvest your body for POWER already!"

"Sir, please stop talking." Lawrence pleaded.

There was a large opening in the ceiling ahead, and they saw Nefarious's head-ship slowly looming over. Shade jumped in the water. "It's deep enough to swim under. We can hide this way."

Maddy clutched Drake's arm nervously. "Sheee, eh, has a phobia."

"Oh, right." Shade remembered. "Does Zachary have any ideas?"

Zach searched his pockets. "Candy that inflates into a submarine when dipped in water: go!" He threw the little yellow candy into the water. Bloop. Tiny splash.

"…Sigh, just hold onto me." Ratchet said impatiently, taking Maddy's arm as they dove under the surface. Shade guided them through an underwater tunnel, and Maddy had her eyes and mouth shut the whole way. She normally wasn't one to trust an alien with her life, especially underwater, but here they were trusting Shade to bring them to safety, and Ratchet's been helping them the whole time. Things sure change quickly, Maddy realized. Maybe someday, she could put this water phobia aside completely.

They resurfaced and stepped onto solid ground. They followed a narrow, quiet tunnel, hearing the wind blowing from outside. They saw orange sky in the distance, peeking out of the tunnel exit. Nefarious's ship was several miles back, steadily flying right from their perspective. "Sigh. Okay, now's our chance." Shade tapped buttons on her wristwatch. "As soon as my ship's here, we're jumping on and getting off this planet. It'll be a miracle if we can lose him before-" (End song.)

"So sorry, dears." The group jumped when Lawrence suddenly appeared from thin air. "But my master has been yelling my hearing sensors off ever since Maddy escaped, so it would be easier for everyone if you agree to let him experiment on you."

"Easier, my forehead. Where did you come from, anyway?" Maddy retorted.

"Dr. Nefarious programmed me with teleportation, and it comes in handy so very much." Lawrence thought back on Nefarious's many tantrums. "Unfortunately, I need 5 minutes for a recharge every time, so… RAAOO RAAOO-!" His head became an alarm, he began blaring—Zach glomped around his head in the form of a Minion from Despicable Me.

"EEEEEAAAA. Bippity-boop-dah! Dippity-doo!" He shouted in a Minion's voice. "91 minutes of my life wasted! GAAAAAAAH!"

"Run for it!" Ratchet bashed Lawrence away with his wrench, pulling Zach back into their group as they bolted.

"THERE you are! You're not escaping me THIS TIME!" Nefarious's ship about-faced and chased them again, firing round after round of bombshells. The group raced across a valley of stalagmites, the cannons blew up their bases, the 'mites flew up in the air and threatened to stab the group, forcing them to watch out and dodge. Shade was the first to Wall Jump the strips of parallel walls ahead, and the walls were close enough for them to do the same. The cannons blew up chunks of the walls, so they were careful to kick off the right areas lest they fall in the pit.

They landed on a snaky path within a very close trench, boulders toppling down because of the ship's cannons, and they watched as Shade leaped up and punched every one coming for her comrades. "We have to get somewhere safe where I can call my ship again!"

"Dude, what's with the herculean strength?" Drake asked as they ran.

"Echidnas are super strong, don't worry about it." After they passed the trench, they ended up tumbling down a steep rocky hill, in which Maddy, Ratchet, and Drake balanced on Zach, who rolled downhill like a barrel. They evasively maneuvered around the boulders that rolled down at them, and Zach was back on his feet after they arrived at the bottom. They raced across a somewhat-flat field, avoiding oncoming cannonfire, until a storm of robots appeared before them.

"I have had it up to HERE with this game of Cat and Mouse, Maddy! …Since you can't see me, my arm is stretched to the ceiling. 'Cause, it extends and all. Ahem, anyway, if you don't surrender now, I'll see that your silly friends NEVER see the light of-" Lasers rained down all over the robots, destroying every one. "WHAT?!"

"I'm afraid we can't authorize that." Jerome Winkiebottom's Jamaican accent echoed. A fleet of armored Wisps and GKND ships appeared from the sky.

"THE GALACTIC KIDS NEXT DOOR!" Maddy cheered, for the first time in her life.

"Are you KIDDING ME?! WHERE DID they all come from?!"

"You're welcome." A white-skinned boy in a purple shirt peeped out of Jerome's ship. "What's up, Mads?" George King greeted coolly.

"Who-… George?" Maddy barely remembered the boy. "When did all of you get here?"

"George sensed you coming here with his Future Sight." Jerome replied. "It has proven to be a very helpful power. The Earth KND is very lucky to have someone like you." He smiled.

"Heheh. To tell the truth, my Future Sight's been getting really active lately. It couldn't even tell me when pop quizzes were coming before."

"NOOOO YOU DON'T!" Nefarious thundered from his giant head. "I am NOT losing Maddy again! She's coming with me, and ALL of you will BE MY SLAVES!" The mouth of the head opened, unveiling a huge cannon. The cannon locked on the swarm of Wisps, charging a fiery yellow-red beam. The cannon fired, and the Wisps unleashed their squeaky screams before their colorful bodies turned metal and robotic.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!" Maddy screamed.

"It's Nefarious's Biobliterator!" Ratchet exclaimed. "It turns any flesh being into robots! I coulda sworn me and Clank destroyed it a few years back…"

"Correct, Ratchet!" Nefarious spoke deviously. "Unfortunately, this Biobliterator is on a lower scale. The energy is limited and wears off after a while. But I'll keep YOU Roboticized long enough to FINALLY do you in!"

The cannon was beginning to charge again. Its sights locked on all of the operatives. "We may not be able to get away in time!" Shade yelled.

"Zach, if there was a time to do something crazy, NOW would be it!" Maddy stated.

"PERFECT!" Zach expressed his readiness in an animated fashion. "I brought my EMERGENCY RAFT!!" He raised the inflatable yellow boat in the air.

He threw it on the ground, hopped in, and- "Huff huff huff huff huff huff huff huff huff huff!" Began to row hurriedly. …He was going nowhere fast.

"You're a nutcase, Zach."

"Sigh, alright." George jumped off the ship and shoved Maddy and Ratchet aside. "I've got an idea that might work, but it's gonna be a little intense. All of you should step back a few meters."

With mixed looks of worry and curiosity, Maddy's group ran far away (except Zach, trying to get away on his raft). George looked up at Nefarious's ship with a grave stare.

"Ahhhh. A volunteer, I see." Nefarious smirked. "Want to take the full blast, do you? Perhaps the effect will last longer on you! I'll be happy to make you my servant!"

George gripped his purple headband tight. Nefarious's cannon locked closely on him, the robots staring with interest. George yanked his headband off.

"OOOOOOOWWWWWW!" 3-year-old George was in so much pain. His head throbbed, even with the headband wrapped around him. "D-Dad! It…It huuuurrrrrrts!"

"Jagar, this whole thing is insane! We can't risk our own son's life for this…this thing!" Misty stated.

"Misty, neither me, Clockwork, Dialga, or any timebender can see the Octogan in any point in history. But if we had one of them, we'd be able to work around that rule. But the Octogan needs to adapt to a young timebender, and once George gets older, he'll have more control."

"And you expect that headband to stay on with no one noticing?!"

"It has chi-blocks all around the inside. It'll hold back a lot of the unstable power while still having enough for himself. But George, you have to promise you won't show it to anyone, and don't use it for anything unless I say otherwise. Okay?"

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" The child was in no position to answer.

88888888888

"AAAAHHH!" The screen in Nefarious's ship blacked out, his own vision sensors hurt.

The operatives stared agape at George when the canyon began trembling. An "8" was inscribed on George's head, and incredible power burned from it. "Wh-Wh-What's going on?!" Maddy trembled.

"I-Is that the… Octogan?!" Shade stared wide.

George's eyes glowed, he felt unbelievable power surging through him. He inhaled a terrific breath of air, filling his lungs with Time's very particles. When it was all ready to let loose: BONG. . . . . His Roar of Time was so loud, it sounded like the toll of a church bell. A white laser that blinded everything else struck through Nefarious's ship. "EEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Long after the gigantic head exploded, the energy was still burning uncontrollably. All of the Wisps were being blown away, along with Jerome's rescue ship. "Guys! We have to get away!" Ratchet cried.

"ZACH! Get your butt over here!" Maddy screamed.

George desperately tried to get his headband off the ground, but the pain in his head was forceful, it wouldn't let him. "Aaaaaaahhhhhh. . ." A bright white circle expanded from him and encased Maddy's group. They felt their selves uplift into the air… Then they were all gone. The GKND operatives searched the canyon, but found neither hide nor hair of the humans, echidna, or Lombax.

Let's look at the term "Octogan" for a second.

"Octo" means "eight", "gan" means "eye". It is an "8 Eye".

Many average creatures in the universe have two eyes. There are two Octogan.

One of them had many owners. One of them had few. Such is the law of opposites.

Few creatures know where they originate from. Those who do fear to speak his name.

So I will not speak his name, either.

King Household

Jagar gasped, falling to his knees and gripping his head. He panted heavily, sweating. "No… George! Where's George!" He clutched the Chrono Staff and saw his son in the past, tracing his chrono signature forward. "No… George, no!" 8888888888 The flashing "8" was all that he saw. "Damn it, George… Why did you take it off?! Who saw?" He walked over beside the window, planting his hand against it with his head down. "Why… I thought if it was with him, I could observe it easier, I could control it easier. But I'm not any close." A blue flash blinked in the sky. "And now… augh, what if somebody—"

A Psycho Sphere blew through the front door of his house like a comet: the entire two-story building burst into flames. As Jagar choked, fighting his way through the smoke, he began to panic inside. He had never been the victim of a sneak attack, but since he just viewed the Octogan in his mind, his Sight was disrupted. To think in just so short a time… he gasped, "Cheren!" Jagar fought through the flames with his bending and got into the basement. The boy's time-frozen statue had fallen over. "Cheren!" He picked him up.

BOING! "Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!" A Cheshire Cat head popped out where Cheren's head should be, swaying left and right with that creepy laugh. As Jagar stared baffled, the Cheren dummy bent his leg back, and- "OOOF!" kicked Jagar in the crotch. "Ow!"

Sunni Chariton flew miles away from the home, setting the frozen Cheren on the ground. She took a chi-blocker out of a box, sticking it over his forehead before pulling off. "Waaah!" Cheren was just walking, so suddenly finding himself on the ground put him in a shock. "S-Sunni! Where the crap am I?!"

"Since I've been, er, 'touching' you a lot lately, I've picked up your aura signature, and you've been at Mr. King's house an awfully long time. He froze you in time and locked you in his basement."

"What?!" Cheren said with anger in his voice.

"What did you go there for, anyway?"

Cheren recounted their talk to the best of his memory (even though it was only a few minutes ago to him). "All I can make of it is Jagar is afraid of what will happen when we find the Twenty Keys, so he's trying to stop me from finding 'em. Just like… the World Government would."

"But do you think he's really The King?"

"I don't know. Sigh, but now I need to go up to Moonbase to warn everyone about him; at the risk of making Sector IC look bad. Speaking of Sector IC, I have to go back to Gravity Falls to check on that portal situation, too."

"What portal situation? Maybe I can go there after taking you to Moonbase."

"It might be easier just for us to go together. Sigh…" Cheren put his hand on his forehead in exhaustion. "This is starting to become like the old days all over again. We can't trust any adults and people who seem like allies are bad guys. I was almost sure we grew past all this."

"Awwwww, don't be so frowny." Sunni poked his cheek. "You still trust me, don't you?"

"Hehe. You're one of my closest operatives, Sunni, I trust you guys more than anything."

"Hehe, me too!" Sunni grinned. "So're you ready to go back to Moonbase?"

"Yup. Warp us up, Sun." With that, Sunni teleported the two of them.

Cyberspace; Land of Quartz and Melody

Vanellope was splorped to another strange land under a black sky with violet rainbowy strips. The whole surface was made of quartz crystals, blue and purple, that towered like mountains. "Ugh. These snow levels are getting way too common." Vanellope said.

"'Tis not snow. It is quartz. This land is rich with mystic energy. Like all others, it is broken. XANA has sent his helper to fix it."

At the note of his 'helper', Vanellope looked a short distance ahead. Light-green spherical robots, with four crab-like legs, walked around, shooting cracked areas of the quartz using cannons. Those cracks repaired their selves in the robots' sparkling goo, good as new. Vanellope saw a tall, slim being with green skin, and the back of their yellow head was shaped like… from Vanellope's view, a Dorito.

Four fingers on Peridot's right hand floated away and formed a square, displaying a midair holographic computer screen. She tapped the screen using her thumb. "Sector 34 of Area 'LOQAM' is 95% repaired. Reparation of entire planet is currently 55%. Patience with nagging computer-headed guy: 2%." She narrowed her eyes. "Personal confusion about this entire mission: 80%. But it'll all be worth it once I-" She turned around, and spotted Vanellope a few inches away.

The candy-haired girl and the green-skinned robot stared confusedly. They were both peculiar creatures from the other's eyes. "What the heck are you." Vanellope said, folding her arms.

"I think that question is reserved for me to use." Peridot remarked.

"Are you some kind of Dorito person?"

"A what?" Peridot cocked a brow. "A Dorito?"

"Yeah, but you're on top of a Mountain Dew bottle, that's why you look weird."

"I am not a Dorito, NOR a 'Mountain Dew' bottle!" she said hotly. "I am a Type 10 Maintenance Program specifically designed to repair broken Cybersites, sent here by 'Master X.A.N.A.' to fix the broken domains of this quartz planet, using my Flask Robonoids."

"Be whatever you want, you still look like a Dorito."

"I AM NOT A DORITO!! Besides, look at yourself, you look like some child's doll." Peridot began scanning her with her holographic computer. "Just what are…!" She gasped at the image that appeared. "Wait! You're the 'Vanellope'! The one XANA wanted me to—AAAH!"

Vanellope pounced on and began munching Peridot's head. "Bleck, this is the worst Dorito ever!"

"GET OFF ME!" Peridot threw her off, and her right fingers connected like a windmill around her thumb, which aimed and blasted a laser at Vanel.

"WHOA!" Vanellope jumped back. Peridot pointed her finger forward, sending the Robonoids to chase and shoot their glittery goo at Vanel.

"Do not let it touch, or you will be fixed!" The Zoni chorused, so Vanellope glitched about and dodged their shots. With her lightspeed, she zipped to and kicked the robots away, breaking them. "UWAAAH!" Vanellope gasped when Peridot shot the Zoni, binding them in green energy rings.

"Not cool, man!" Vanellope spin-glitched and shot at Peridot, kicking her in the chest as she flipped back. Peridot landed on her fingers and scuttled away like an insect, grinning crazily.

"Hnn!" Peridot flipped right-side-up and used her right fingers to fly like a helicopter. Her left fingers separated and surrounded her body, encasing her in a green bubble shield. "Try to get me in here, you candy-haired clod!"

"I can't imagine why XANA would wanna hire someone so annoying." Vanellope shook her head. (Play "Sinister Shadows" from Kingdom Hearts II.)

Boss fight: Peridot

More Flask Robonoids were sent after Vanellope, she dodged their shots and kicked them senseless, chasing Peridot as the Program floated away in her protective bubble. Vanellope glitched after her, trying to get around the bubble, and when Peridot floated around a quartz mount, Vanellope zipped around the other way and dealt lightspeed kicks against her bubble. "Tough break, Candy Clod! No one breaks through MY shield!" Vanellope continued chasing while observing the bubble, and realizing the five fingers surrounding it, Vanellope glitched to and kicked one of them to the ground. "AAAH!" Peridot panicked when her barrier shattered. The robot flew higher, and the other four fingers aligned in various forms to shoot lasers or energy balls at Vanel.

Vanellope dodge-glitched and kicked another finger into submission, then the other three spun in a triangle alignment and tried to slice the girl in the form of a Frisbee. She glitched midair, downward, the Frisbee-triangle stayed on her tail as Peridot cackled. Vanellope smirked, glitching underneath, glitching just below, then glitching in front of the Program, sparing a sarcastic wave before zipping away. "AAAH- HEY!" Her own Light Disc sawed through and chopped her arm and legs apart. She used her right arm to crawl around and recollect her limbs, but Vanellope kicked the side of her head, upside the chin, then sent her backward with a chest kick.

Peridot growled and shot green energy ropes from her fingers, pulling her limbs back to her and reattaching them. As Vanellope ran at her, Peridot connected the fingers of each hand with energy, spinning them around her body at rapid speed, in the form of whirring green lights. Vanellope glitched around and tried to find an opening, the height of the fingers changed to match Vanel's altitude. Vanellope zipped up-and-down repeatedly, noting the slightest delay in the fingers, so she glitched up really high, then quickly glitched down to zip underneath and kick Peridot in the face. Peridot bounced on her arm-stubs and back to her feet. When Vanellope ran at her, Peridot jumped, shifted horizontal with her legs clamped together, and her boots aimed at Vanellope before shooting off her legs and stamping the girl's face.

The rocket boots sent Vanellope several meters backward, but after coming to, she watched the boots fly around a quartz mount. Vanellope zipped to that direction to ambush Peridot, but- "HNN HNN HNN!" a bunch of grinning, flying Peridots surrounded her, but each were a brighter tone and staticky like holograms. They closed in on Vanel, she examined each one closely. "NYAAA!" Vanel immediately zipped leftward when the real Peridot furiously blasted laser-bullets, and the girl was scratched in her back by one. She glared at Peridot, who laughed snarkily and landed back on her feet. She spun both propeller-fingers and cut a circle in the quartz ground around her, using those fingers to lift that chunk of ground and chuck it at Vanellope, who dodged.

Peridot flinched when her earpiece rang loudly. "I SAW THAT, you stupid lime! I repaired you to FIX this world, NOT TEAR IT UP!"

"OKAY, okay! It was just a-"

"YAAAH!" Vanellope zipped up and KICKED Peridot in the face, breaking her visor. Her back hit against the quartz mount, then Vanellope zipped up to stomp a storm of kicks against her body. Vanellope glitched to the side, then shot up for a more forceful kick across her head, knocking Peridot away. "Heh! Who's a clod now, you Dorito Clod?"

"ENOUGH of this!" Peridot got back up. "You think you're hot stuff, 'Vanellope', but this is just the beginning!" She locked her windmill-fingers at her, charging a laser. Vanellope readied herself to dodge, staying focused. "…Of my ESCAPE!" Her laser died down, she raised her arm upward and flew away like a helicopter.

"HEY!" Vanellope tried to chase, but Peridot was already too high. The Program dropped more seedlings that hatched into Robonoids, which Vanellope proceeded to destroy. She watched with aggravation as Peridot escaped. "You're really just a coward, aren't you?"

"You must chase her!" The Zoni had recovered.

"What? Why?"

"You must fix, before she does. Chase her, and stop her."

"Fine. But I really can't stand her voice. So whiny and nasally and… blech." (Play "Dance of Swords" from Steven Universe.)

Stage 46: Land of Quartz and Melody

Mission: Chase Peridot!

Peridot dropped Flask Robonoids in her wake as Vanellope chased her, with the girl either dodging around or kicking them senseless. Peridot turned left around a quartz mount, and Vanellope stopped before nearly running off a cliff over lava. There were midair lava blocks, and Blarggs jumped out of each one, forcing Vanellope to spin-jump across them as they came. Some Blarggs were high and required forceful jumps, some were low or close and required weak jumps, lest she miss the chance to bounce the Blargg. Peridot turned rightward as this route took them between a trench area. When Vanel landed on a safe platform, she immediately had to jump when three Robonoids tried to shoot her together, kicking the robots into the lava afterward. However, seeing the next lava river route, she kept a Robonoid, jumped over the next ledge, and kicked the Robonoid up to hit a switch, which redirected a line path for a platform to come down and catch Vanel.

She kept holding the Robonoid as the platform carried her over the river via its line path. Fuzzies came at her along the line, requiring Vanellope to jump, but when she saw parts of the line were broken, she squeezed the Robonoid to squirt its healing spit, fixing those parts. The line was about to lead into the lava, Vanellope kicked the Robonoid to hit a switch within the wall, redirecting the path straight so the platform could keep moving. Chainsaws started to buzz along the line from ahead and behind, and Vanellope had to spin-jump to become immune to their sharpness, while avoiding floating Munchers and staying over the platform. She landed on the platform just when the line sloped down just over the lava, and Vanel jumped a Blargg with great timing before the platform sloped up. But during so, she kicked the Robonoid to hit a floating switch, allowing the platform to direct up to a safe ground.

Vanellope chased Peridot across a vast quartz field where blue-shoed Koopas kicked shells off from platforms, the shells sliding and bouncing everywhere as Vanellope zipped around and dodged, also having to watch out for platforms with Robonoids. Peridot was flying above a midair obstacle course, but to chase her, Vanellope would need one more Zoni. She braved the onslaught of shells and found a "Zoni." on a platform, and with it, Vanellope performed four glitchwarps up to the course's start. She had to glitch her way up a vertical shaft of Munchers, and more Koopas kicked blue shells out from their enclosings. Vanellope had to maneuver her warps to bounce on the shells, bouncing each following one with great precision, until she could glitch through a zigzag route onto a tiny safe block within the Munchers.

A Baseball Chuck was chucking, well, baseballs at Vanellope from his safe spot. Vanellope had to wait for an opening between the balls, then she glitched through the tight zigzag Muncher path to grab a Power Star. She sparkled with invincibility, quickly jumped up the Muncher stairs, then ran across a long Muncher path while jumping Muncher pillars. "Seriously, where does XANA find so many of these things?" Her star was about to wear off, so she used four glitchwarps across the rest of the Munchers to land on the solid quartz ground. She chased Peridot into a maze of stacks of music blocks. "Give up, Candy Clod, you can't chase me forever!" Peridot hovered in place above, since Vanellope could bounce on the music blocks, she attempted to fly up and grab the Program's legs, but the hologram dispersed.

Vanellope glitched up into a tunnel of music blocks, and by this time was getting annoyed by their sounds every time she bounced. Flask Robonoids were also bouncing around, constantly flipping as they shot their healing goo. Vanellope had to stay clear of the goop spots, needing to glitchwarp to bare areas with good precision on her way through the tunnel. She made it to an outside area, miles over the ground, with a great view of the violet rainbow sky. The music blocks were very far apart, it took more precise glitching to land on the tiny bounce pads, while XANA Hornets tried to shoot her from the sides. Vanellope glitchwarped across a larger gap, but didn't make it to the cliff—thankfully, a Bullet Bill popped out of nowhere, bounced her upward, and she made it. She chased the Mountain Dew-colored Program across another quartz valley. (End song.)

Peridot landed on the ground and retreated behind a mount, leaning against it to catch her breath. "I expected the 'Vanellope' to be some kind of virus, but this brat's beyond annoying. And those little things that float with her… What kind of Cybersite-" Vanellope glomped her left leg. "WHAT?! Get the heck off me, you stupid-!" She shook her leg and punched the child's head.

"No!" Vanel withstood the punches. "I wanna know why you're working for XANA. You don't look like one of his robots, so…"

"That's none of your business, you pesky glitch! Now get your snotty doll-hands off me!" Peridot aimed her finger laser and blasted, but Vanellope dodged back in time. She spun her helicopter and balled up, taking flight into the violet sky. "Next time you mess with my job, I'll tear up your pixels worse than numerous resizes on Photoshop. Good-bye, Candy Clod!"

Vanellope watched as the green dot shrunk into the violet sky. "First I'm going after green spirits, now green Teenage Robots. What am I even doing again?"

"You must follow!" the Zoni stated. "Her fixing must be yours!"

"Okay, but for the record, I don't get many chapters in this story, and I don't wanna spend them chasing some weirdo. I mean, how can XANA even stand a girl like her? She sounds like her nose is congested, and all her gloating gives me a headache, using cheap tricks to fight me, and making fun of my hair, XANA has the worst taste in…" The Zoni stared at Vanellope in disbelief as she drew on. …She later caught up to her words, reflecting on herself. "Wow, I just hurt my own feelings. …So, uh, where's she going?"

After Peridot left that Cybersite's atmosphere, she flew into a dark ship. She caught her breath once more, bending over as she planted her hands against her yellow kneecaps. "Well, that was slapdash, C+ work if anything." XANA told her reprovingly. "I didn't expect you to beat Vanellope, but was that the best you had to offer?"

"For your information, I almost had her before you decided to go RINGING in my ear!" Peridot argued.

"And I went ringing in your ear because you broke part of the SITE!"

"WHAT THE HECK'S WRONG with this place, anyway?! The cracks in the ground are one thing, but there's junk all over the place! What'd you do to this world?"

"Lesser Lord Ragaj ordered me to fix this dump of a Cyberspace, but my means of doing so are quote-on-quote 'sloppy', and he needs this place fixed. You see, Peridot, this isn't any average Cyberspace: this entire dimension exists within the mainframe of the Great Clock's computer, the source of all time in the universe. Everything in this world is recorded memory of what exists of the First Dimension. But based on Lord Gnik's information, this space is also connected with that First Dimension, that's why he wants it fixed! And I hereby order you to fulfill your duty!"

"I WILL fulfill it, you square-headed dork! As long as you keep YOUR end of the deal! I fix this space for you, and YOU take me to see Yellow Diamond! You said you knew where she was!"

"Patience, girl. You'll get to see your Diamond again. As long as you cooperate, you have Master X.A.N.A.'s word."

"Sigh… Okay." Peridot sighed calmly, internally believing he would keep true to his word.

"Now then… despite your performance with Vanellope, your repair skills are exceptional thus far. It's time for your next test." XANA opened a compartment in the wall, rifling through junk. "One of my cohorts brought this to me. It happens to be the leader of those Zoni creatures you saw fluttering around Vanellope. He's suffered some damages, so I need you to mend him to our control. Now… get to work!" He threw Clank's unmoving body on the floor.