A few weeks passed. The Temple roof was fixed, and everyone had time to recover from their wounds. Regal made an announcement one morning. “My spirit is as refined as Okome can lead me to refine it,” she said. “All that I can find at this Temple is a place for strength training, and I can do that anywhere. I feel I need to continue on my own.”
“You can’t go!” Gaita said. “We need you here!”
Okome stepped up. “I agree,” he said, “I cannot lead you any further in the method of training I was taught, and if you feel that you’d be better served pursuing your own path, then I wish you luck.”
Just a week later, Torta made his own announcement. “I’m going to be leaving,” he said. “The long and the short of it is that I need to train on my own, go beyond what Okome has been able to show me. Not that I’m not grateful, Okome; you’ve helped me see how much more there is to my strength. I just want to go even further, and to do that, I need to be somewhere else. I’ll keep refining my spirit, too, so don’t worry.”
“You can’t go, too!” said Svenex. “We’re supposed to be working together to stop the genmajin!”
Okome raised a hand to stop her protest. “A warrior should choose his own path. What you want is valid and admirable. I give you my blessing.”
As Torta left, Svenex turned to Okome. “Why are you letting him leave? Why let both of them leave?”
“They will be ready when the time comes,” said Okome. “We all have to face our trials, in here and out there.” Svenex glared at Okome as he walked away.
With the two of them gone, it was just Svenex, Poboy, and Gaita. Poboy was diligent in training, since his mentor was leading it, but it was clear to Svenex he wasn’t the same kind of martial artist as even she was. Gaita would practice her technique with them, but as a mechanical being, didn’t participate in the other activities. Svenex herself felt both freer, being outside the shadow of her more powerful allies, and less able to move forward without their presence to push her.
Sometimes, Gaita would ask the Grand Elder to remake Porunga. “You could do it, right?” she asked. “If he was around, we could help fix all the damage the genmajin will cause. I mean, the idea that a miracle could happen…the world needs that, I think”
“Can you make him stronger?” Puttee chimed in. “It would be better if he had more uses. If we’re trying to protect lives, then being able to revive the dead at scale is a no-brainer.”
“No, that’s no good,” said Svenex. “Reviving Porunga will only invite the Demon Clan back here, and they could kill us all next time, leaving no one to have this conversation. They’ll definitely come over if we make him stronger. It stands to reason they see Porunga’s powers as a threat, or they wouldn’t have killed him. I do feel bad for the dead, but death is a part of life; making a magic dragon because we anticipate being bad at saving lives is too self-serving. That’s the kind of power you save for a noble quest for justice. No, if the Grand Elder is going to remake Porunga, it has to be after the Demon Clan is put to rest.”
“You are right, child,” said the Grand Elder to Svenex. “The Dragon Balls were always meant to be a beacon of hope, not a bandage for one’s mistakes. And Malacol’s goal in all this…I don’t think she’ll accomplish it easily, but I do believe she’ll chase this goal her whole life. Anyone with a set of Dragon Balls will be hunted down. It’s better Porunga sleeps among the gods.”
Another half a year passed since the battle with Conch. Puttee completed Gaita’s upgrades and spent her time either fiddling with Gaita’s wiring or reading everything Okome had on genetics in anticipation of the confrontation with Dr. Munster. Svenex seemed to be growing rather quickly. Okome suspected this was because of her own decision, but he was troubled by the darkened eyes she cast around the now-emptier Temple.
Svenex and Poboy were sparring one morning. They were trading blows evenly. “I know being a Kami who can protect the Earth is important to you,” Svenex said. “So congrats on getting this far. You’re so much more than you used to be.”
Poboy frowned. “Can you please get serious?”
Smiling, Svenex pulled out the stops and easily overwhelmed Poboy. Sitting down for a rest, she sighed. Okome approached. “You have come a long way, yourself,” he said. “You could now defeat Conch on your own, should she appear before you.”
“Thanks,” she said, absent-mindedly.
Okome smiled. “You know, Torta would approve of your plans for the future.”
Svenex smiled a bit, but not enough to shake off the gloom. Torta didn’t have parents to take him away from the dojo this time.
Puttee came out of her workshop carrying books and approached Joma. “Hey, any word on Munster and what he’s been up to?” she asked the seer.
“The man always feels like he’s near a breakthrough,” said Joma. “It’s hard to tell when he actually is. He’s been at this so long already, but I couldn’t tell you how long to incubate clones of a demon god.”
Puttee scratched her head. She had heard some things about him growing up, since he briefly worked in Silico, but not too much more. All she knew was that Dr. Munster was a geneticist who was shuffled from place to place because of political and military upheaval, and one day he dropped off the face of the map. Puttee brought her books to Okome. “Any more books on genetics here? I gotta brush up more.”
Okome chuckled. “You’ve asked before, and you’ve already read everything on genetics I have here twice.”
Joma gazed into her crystal ball. “What do you actually see in there?” Puttee asked. “Okome is Kami, so he can see anything on Earth. What do you see?”
“Portents of the future, my dear,” said Joma. “No one can know exactly how events will unfold, but I can see which ways the river of time bends and babbles. The storm clouds have been gathering for a long time. They could burst any minute now.” She and Okome traded glances.
On a small island state east of Silico, a man was listening to the radio. “Ever since the Android assault,” said the radio reporter, “Silico has been weighed down under heavy political, economic, and military scrutiny by the other nations of the world. The king and his council are suspected of continuing to plan a ‘rebirth,’ but public opinion in the country, especially after the alien invasion, is turning against such an approach. Indeed, the entire world is wondering what we will do if anything of the sort happens again.”
The man nodded, half-listening to this report, as he stared off at the rocky, uninhabited island that lied a dozen miles off the coast. It was the epicenter of the earthquake a few years back, when the sky first turned dark. He remembered it well, and still believed that he saw something giant and grotesque climb out of the rocks for a moment. No one else believed him, but he was sure of what he saw.
The ground started to shake. It started small, and then grew in intensity. The man looked around to confirm everyone else was experiencing it. Explosions from downtown blasted across him, so he turned to look. Smoke rose from the ground, and buildings were rocked till they tilted. Emerging from the smoke were three horrible figures, each hundreds of feet tall. One was the shape of a horrible moth, another a cross between an alligator and an ankylosaur, and the third a terrible lobster. Their mouths released long, yellow tendrils as they cried out to the sky.
The man panicked. It was just like the day the sky went dark. His mobile TV turned on by itself, and on it he saw the old, scarred face of a scientist. “Good Morning, cruel world!” the man said in greeting. “My name is Dr. Munster, the most brilliant geneticist in history! My whole life, all I ever wanted was to save the world with my work. Instead, I was bounced around the world, from lab to lab, in Knuckle and in Silico, always limited by the scope of lesser minds. Worse still, I was forced to watch as my work to treat illness was used to make weapons of war! In a fairer world, I could have ended cancer and helped people worried about passing genetic disease to their children! Instead, since none of you deserve it, have a taste of my monsters! The moth, Empyron! The lobster, Ocearon! And the dinosaur, Terrestron! They are my vengeance on you petty humans!” The screen went dead, and the man looked to the monsters and froze in terror.
Okome was shocked, as was Joma. “What’s happening?” Svenex asked.
“Munster has released his monsters,” Okome said gravely. “He said it was in vengeance for the way his work was perverted for the war effort on both sides.”
Puttee grabbed her backpack. “C’mon, Gaita!” she called. “Munster is finally at it!”
Gaita came running in. “We have to hurry!” she said. “Is everyone ready?”
“Indeed,” said Poboy.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” said Svenex.
Once everyone was ready, Svenex, Poboy, Gaita, and Puttee put on new talismans and approached the gateway. Svenex gulped hard, feeling underprepared without Torta and Regal at her side. They all went through.
The four heroes found themselves in the middle of a destroyed island city, the three monsters busy entangling people with their mouth-tendrils and sucking away their lives. Gaita saw the paled faces of Svenex and Poboy. “What are you feeling?” she asked.
“The chi of these monsters, it’s pure hunger and malice!” said Poboy. “They’re all far stronger than Conch, too. It’s a portrait of hell.”
Swallowing hard, Svenex prepared to take charge. “Puttee,” she ordered, “search for Munster’s base. Check near the hole the monsters emerged from. Me, Gaita, and Poboy will be fighting the monsters. Poboy, remember to stay away from the mouth tendrils.”
The three fighters took flight while Puttee hugged the buildings as she looked for a way underground. As rubble fell, she started to sweat. “I should really make myself some kind of armor for this exact situation later,” she promised herself.
Svenex expected that she would need to get the creatures’ attention, but instead they turned straight for her and Poboy, presumably smelling food. As Svenex was nearly ensnared by Empyron’s tendrils, Gaita flew in, grabbing ahold of a few harmlessly. She ripped at them, but the tendrils simply regrew. Unfortunately, there would be no easy way to weaken the monsters and save lives at once. The first task, then, was to get the monsters away from people and each other, to handle them one at a time. Svenex tackled Empyron high above the buildings, relieved that the creature didn’t turn into smoke. She then tore into it with a powerful assault, concentrating her attacks on a single point on the thorax. Seeing a tendril lash her way, Svenex flew back and out of harm’s way. Empyron seemed more annoyed than hurt.
On the surface, Poboy and Gaita were having similar issues. Poboy tried to attack the joints in Ocearon’s exoskeleton, but even those were tougher than diamond. Gaita, making the most of her immunity, tried a direct assault, closing her eyes hard as she flew into Terrestron’s mouth. Before she could get to the esophagus, the throat muscles closed up reflexively and bounced her out.
After a few minutes, the monsters suddenly stopped and looked towards the west. They began to snarl and squeal at each other, and afterwards, Empyron and Ocearon headed off the island. Gaita went to fly after them, but Svenex stopped her. “Don’t worry,” Svenex said. “I think I can feel the same energy those monsters are responding to.”
“Yes, I feel it, too,” said Poboy. He looked to Svenex, and they smiled.
Puttee ran through the ruins of the city center, doing her best to avoid falling rubble and other pitfalls. She carried a sonar device to help her locate hollow areas in the ground that would indicate a secret passage. While she ran, she thought about what she would do once she found Munster. Unlike with the Silico Android attack, Puttee saw these monsters and felt something unexpected: Impressed. These were clearly the work of a genius the world could benefit from, a genius she did not possess herself, and she felt as if she had to honor that.
Just as the monsters turned to the west, Puttee got a hit, a strange stairway below an office building without a basement level. She ran to it and located the door, finding a long stairway leading down hundreds of feet. She descended with a flashlight.
Ocearon came ashore in the northern part of Silico, at the base of the Thunder Mountains. It quickly began scaling these mountains and crawling west, its stomach churning in anticipation of the massive energy in the distance. After crossing into Zoolia, Ocearon was kicked off the mountainside by Regal, who had been flaring her chi to attract the monster. The lobster landed without a scratch. “I’ll have to get serious to crack this shellfish,” Regal scoffed.
Empyron flew across the continent, grabbing and absorbing people as it went. Up ahead, it felt a massive source of energy, and it was ravenous for such a large morsel of food. Over the Silico-Knuckle border, Empyron was tackled by Torta from above, having successfully lured in the beast. He drove the moth into the earth. “This is my battle, this time,” Torta said. “I won’t blow it.”
Back at the battle with Terrestron, Svenex, Poboy, and Gaita felt relatively confident they could come out on top. Their combined strength, plus a smart strategy taking advantage of Gaita’s immunity to their strength-sapping powers, gave them an undeniable edge, and they saw signs of success in the broken spines along Terrestron’s back.
Svenex landed on a building to catch her breath before going back in. Joma appeared at her side, much to her surprise. She looked like she saw a ghost. “What’s going on?” Svenex asked.
Joma pointed at the mountainous island offshore. “Something far worse is about to appear!” The rocky island in the distance shook, and the whole area began to quake. Entire peaks fell like boulders. Soon, the island erupted in a burst of smoke, rubble, and energy. Standing in the middle was a massive, saurian creature with a wedge-shaped head and several rows of spiny dorsal plates.
“What’s that thing?!” Svenex asked Joma. “What’s going on?!”
“That’s the genmajin we had sealed away!” Joma said. “It attacked this planet centuries ago, and we thought it was successfully resealed after the wish first unsealed it. But it looks like the beast remained awake and molted into a more powerful form. If it can break the seal on its own, who knows how powerful it will be!”
The genmajin observed the world around it and roared a bell-like roar. The energy that poured off of it was unimaginable and overwhelmingly evil. The original genmajin made a beeline for the city center, rapidly swimming through the ocean. Gaita, Poboy, and even Terrestron turned to face it, unsure of what to do. Svenex at first wanted to drive Terrestron away from the city center, to keep the two from teaming up, but it was the only part of the island that had been evacuated.
Much to the heroes’ surprise, once the genmajin made landfall, Terrestron actually attacked it, charging headlong for the creature’s throat. However, the Genmajin evaporated into mist and slipped right past Terrestron, completely uninterested. The cloned monster made several more attempts at its genetic template, but all failed. The genmajin headed for the pit from which its clones emerged.
Gaita watched all this unfold and wasn’t sure what the right thing to do would be. However, looking at Terrestron continue to attack people in the city, she knew what only she could do. “I’ll keep the original genmajin busy!” Gaita said, turning to her allies. “You two, defeat Terrestron and then join me!”
“You can’t do it alone!” said Poboy, moving to join her.
Svenex stopped him. “She’s right,” Svenex said. “This is Gaita’s place in the fight, and someone has to keep that thing busy. Good luck, Gaita.”
“Thanks,” Gaita said. She flew off after the original genmajin.
Regal continued to hammer at Ocearon, but the battle was slow-going. She did manage to put cracks in Ocearon’s shell, but the engineered freak would heal up the major damage by absorbing people. Regal also had to keep her distance more often than she liked to avoid getting her own life force sucked away. And of course, it would simply eat her chi blasts, limiting her to physical assaults. The entire situation was designed to frustrate and enrage her.
Torta faced a similarly difficult battle. Empyron’s exoskeleton proved more flexible and durable than it appeared, and its scales dispersed force. Torta tried attacking the wings to reduce its aerial maneuverability, but they were never still long enough to punch through. He took solace in his relative success keeping Empyron away from the surface and thus away from people, and worried what trouble Svenex, Poboy, and Gaita were having against the third of these he felt, far to the east.
Puttee came to a doorway at the bottom of the stairs and opened it to find a vast industrial complex dominated by three massive tanks filled with culture fluid. On an elevated platform, she saw Dr. Munster, the now-infamous geneticist. He was hard at work, sweat dripping down his brown, heavily wrinkled skin. He ran a hand through the long, unkept hair growing off the back of his balding head. Upon hearing Puttee’s approach, he looked to her with shock. “Why is a top-level Silico scientist bothering me here?!” he demanded.
She approached the platform. “Please, Munster,” Puttee implored him. “Put an end to all this! I feel for you and how you were abused by the system. My dad used my inventions to make weapons, too. But you’re a brilliant doctor; you can still save lives!”
Munster scoffed. “You are too young to understand. People aren’t worth saving. I won’t let you sabotage my greatest achievement to date.” He drew a gun on Puttee.
The roof of the complex shook much more violently than before. The two looked up. “I haven’t called any of my creations back,” Munster wondered aloud. The roof was ripped open, and peeking through was the saurian face of the genmajin. “Nucleron!” Munster cried out. “It’s evolved!” Gaita followed soon after, hitting Nucleron on the chin to drive it up.
Puttee quickly got a handle on the situation: The original genmajin, now named Nucleron, was attracted to whatever signal Munster used to control his creations. Gaita turned to see Munster’s gun and blasted it apart in his hand before continuing her battle.
Rubble fell onto Munster, trapping him. Puttee rushed over to try and help him, but the beam and concrete were too heavy for her. Munster pushed her away, not wanting her pity. Since it didn’t appear he was going to die from these injuries, Puttee turned to the computer bank to start working. Looking through the programs, Puttee quickly determined how to shut off the control signal, but held off, not wanting to release Nucleron on the surface so soon. Instead, she looked for files on the anatomy and physiology of the monsters. There had to be some sort of edge she could give her friends.
Up above, Svenex and Poboy struggled to contain Terrestron. Though their combined power seemed to be a match for it, they were still unable to make significant headway while also trying to avoid the energy-stealing tendrils from its mouth. Every strike it got in on them was devastating and brutal.
Gaita had a lot of trouble handling Nucleron. It was far stronger than its clones, and its ability to turn to mist limited her to ineffectually attacking it when it was attacking her. At the same time, she had to protect Puttee and Munster, which kept her eyes on the surrounding infrastructure as much as anything else. She had to use a combination of her forcefield and making it turn to mist at opportune times to contain the damage it caused.
Eventually, Puttee found a tantalizing bit of information, a genetic defect that Munster couldn’t eliminate but thought no one would be able to exploit. She got on the radio to Joma. “Hey, old witch?” she said. “Connect me to the team telepathically so I can talk to them!”
“Hey, team!” Puttee called out, through Joma. “I’m just going to assume you’re getting this. I’m looking at Munster’s files, and turns out the clones can turn to mist, but they don’t do it during any old attack. They only turn to mist when they’re attacked while eating, which panics them. But because they were mixed with animal DNA, only parts of them will turn to mist, basically ripping them apart all over. Try that, and it should make this a lot easier for you!”
With this out of the way, Puttee got to work on her true mission, pulling out several hard drives from her bag. “You vile girl!” Munster cursed. “Once again, a Silico scientist destroys my life work because she can’t see what I’m doing!”
Puttee ignored him and focused on downloading as much from the computer banks as possible.
On the surface, Svenex and Poboy were relieved to hear from Puttee. They were starting to falter, and still Terrestron looked ready to take on all challengers. Svenex and Poboy traded glances, knowing they would have to act fast.
Poboy charged up a chi blast and flew at Terrestron, allowing himself to be caught. He tried throwing the chi sphere after being caught, but his energy was drained away too quickly. Svenex quickly jumped in, crashing into Terrestron’s head while grabbing a tendril. Terrestron squealed in pain as its body began to break down and mutate. Svenex could feel that her chi was no longer being absorbed. She charged up a large blast and threw it into center mass. “Fizzy Bomber!” she screamed. With a great thunder, Terrestron exploded.
Far away in Zoolia, Regal was pleased to get this information from Puttee, but continued with her battle as normal. She was convinced she could defeat Ocearon on her own. However, after Ocearon snipped one of her arms off, Regal scowled and decided to end it the easy way.
Regal grunted and regenerated her arm. She threw out a massive storm of chi spheres into the air around her. She then allowed Ocearon to ensnare her, draining her energy. Though her strength was draining fast, she was able to command the chi spheres to launch into Ocearon with the call “Cherub Shower!” The first few blasts activated the defect, causing Ocearon’s body to warp and crack, while the rest tore through its organs and tissues with ease until it exploded.
Torta had been focusing on a new strategy for a while, attacking Empyron from behind to knock off the scales. Already, he had severely weakened its armor, with a concentrated point on its thorax left bare of the reflective scales.
With a final push, he charged in, avoiding its energy-eating tendrils and flying directly into the bare spot. He kept pushing and charging as much as he could, until eventually he felt the exoskeleton give way, and he was covered in viscera. Before he drowned in hemolymph, Torta activated a massive, full-body Steak Bomb, blowing Empyron apart.
“Awesome!” Torta cheered, shaking off the goo. He then got word from Puttee about the genetic defect, and he deflated some. If he had known, he could have saved himself a lot of mess.
Gaita was slammed across the laboratory complex. All over, she could feel damage to her base supports; even with her defensive strategy and an enclosed space to limit Nucleron’s movements, she knew she would lose out. She looked over at Puttee, marveling at the data that passed over the screen, and gritted her teeth.
Seeing that all the signals from Munster’s clones were gone, Puttee shut off the control signal, causing Nucleron to look around in bewilderment. Munster wept, knowing that his vengeance on the world would go unfulfilled. “You stupid, despicable girl…” he muttered.
Puttee turned to the aging scientist. “I’m trying to help!” she said. “I’m taking all your genetic research and giving it to the universities of the world, so they can use it to make medicine and stuff. Maybe that can help make up for what you’ve wasted all this on. I mean…” Puttee sighed. “You disappoint me. I couldn’t save my father, either.”
Munster was taken aback, but there was no turning back now, after everything he’d done. “The world doesn’t deserve such a boon,” he said.
“The world isn’t the problem here,” said Puttee. “You were done wrong, but no one made you choose this. You just wanted to be known as the man capable of curing cancer; if you really cared about it, you could have done that from this lab.”
“You just don’t understand…” Munster muttered.
Without the signal keeping it occupied, Nucleron looked to the surface and smelled food. It began to climb up the pit towards the abundant life energies above. Gaita was going to follow it, but then turned to retrieve Puttee and Munster. “We’re good,” Puttee said, putting the drives in her backpack. “I have all the data.”
“Wonderful!” said Gaita. She picked the two up and flew out through the stairwell.
On the surface, a weakened Svenex and Poboy watched as Nucleron spewed flames and crawled back to its feet on the streets. Gaita appeared at their side, dropping Puttee and Munster far away before returning to her allies. “This thing is far stronger than its clones,” Gaita said.
“Agreed,” Svenex sighed, pulling herself to her feet. “All we can do is try.”
The three warriors fired a blast into Nucleron’s back. It turned their way, noting the heightened energy of the powered up Svenex and Poboy. It charged in at them. “Only attack when it’s attacking,” Gaita advised.
“We should probably take turns being bait,” said Poboy.
Svenex nodded, grimly awaiting the slog.
Before it could arrive at them, it turned to smoke. Looking around, Svenex spotted Regal, having returned victorious. Svenex, Gaita, and Poboy cheered Regal’s return. “Silence!” Regal said. “We have to focus on that thing.”
Banding together, the four heroes employed a simple but potentially effective strategy. They each took turns provoking Nucleron into attacking them, while the other three attacked it, focusing on the eyes and other weak points. For a while, it seemed like this strategy was effective at annoying Nucleron, at the very least. After a while, though, it became clear that none of them had enough power to cause the beast any real damage. It also kept them at bay with the energy tendrils it kept in its very long tail, which proved a much more troublesome location for the tendrils than a mouth.
“It’s no use,” said Poboy. “We can fight it, but none of us have enough power to deal it any damage.”
“What we need is some kind of edge,” said Svenex. “Something we don’t have now.”
“How about me?” asked Torta, as he flew in from behind. The group turned and were relieved to see him.
“Just throwing another body at it isn’t going to change things,” said Regal. “I can’t get past its skin.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Torta sighed. “That thing feels like a nightmare on steroids. But I didn’t come here empty-handed. Gaita, I’ll need your help.”
“Always!” said Gaita.
Torta didn’t expect her level of excitement, and it flustered him. “Well, yeah. Regal, Svenex, Poboy. Let down your guards, let your chi flow freely into the world.”
The three warriors nodded and allowed their energies to mingle in the air. Torta had been working on a new technique for a while, but hadn’t had a chance to test it out until this moment. He held out his hands in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he circled them in the air, gathering up the chi from his friends. Speeding up his movements, he brought his hands together, as if clapping vertically, but instead stopped them a few inches apart. “Dagwood!” he yelled. Torta’s power skyrocketed, much to everyone’s surprise.
“My chi…” Regal said, looking across her body with wonder.
“It feels like it’s far away,” Poboy agreed.
Torta flew in at Nucleron and zipped past its head a few times, goading it. Nucleron swiped a claw at him, and so he took his chance to punch it on its jaw, knocking it back and causing visible pain. The heroes were shocked.
“What happened?” Gaita asked.
“He found a way to take our chi and fight with it,” said Svenex. “He’s fighting with all of our strength in his one body. Maybe we can’t hurt it alone, but all together on one spot is a different story.”
Gaita rushed over to Torta. “I’ll take lead provoking it,” Gaita said. “You concentrate on offense.”
“Thanks,” grunted Torta, who was clearly struggling to hold onto three other people’s chi.
Working together, Torta and Gaita managed to drive Nucleron back. With Gaita drawing its ire and Torta able to hit it with the entire team’s concentrated strength, they were finally dealing real damage to the genmajin. With hit after hit, Torta opened up major wounds across its body. The Dagwood was taking a major toll on him, however. In time, Torta saw that he was getting to the end of his rope. “It’s time for the final attack!” he told Gaita. She nodded, and flew in, buzzing around its head until Nucleron moved to swat her. In that moment, Torta cloaked himself in a field of chi and flew through a wound and into Nucleron’s heart. On the other side, he charged up an energy bomb, as did Gaita. The two threw their blasts at the weakened monster, blowing it up.
Torta fell to the ground, releasing his friends’ chi and aching all over. Gaita, Svenex, Regal, and Poboy rushed to his side. Svenex hugged him, overjoyed that he returned. “Nice work on that technique,” Regal said. “Really an innovative concept.”
“Thanks,” Torta groaned. “But don’t think I’ll need it to beat you.” Regal poked one of his broken ribs, causing him to wince in pain.
“We should get you back to the Temple,” said Poboy. “We can treat our wounds there.”
“HEY!” the group heard being shouted distantly, from a rooftop a safe distance away. Puttee was waving like crazy, an indignant look on her face. “DON’T LEAVE ME HERE WHILE YOU CELEBRATE!”
Munster scoffed. “You call that a victory?”
“Oh, boohoo for your failed revenge plan. You’re the one who summoned that thing and ruined it all.”
“You have no idea what your friends just fought. Ah, if only I could have gotten a sample from an adult…”
Puttee gulped. “You implying that Nucleron was a baby?”
“Their species matures in unusual ways, but it did appear…incomplete. I’m sure a real demon would have far greater power.”
Gaita arrived to them. “Come on, we’ll all go to the Temple together!” she said. “What will you do with him?”
Puttee stared at Munster for a while. “I’m sure he’ll get arrested if we leave him here, tied up,” Puttee said. “He did confess on an international broadcast. Maybe I’ll visit him in jail. Somehow, I feel like we have something in common.”
Gaita grabbed Puttee around her waist for flight. “That’s, uh, not as funny as what I thought you’d say.”
A week passed. Everyone relaxed and rested up from their traumas. Okome celebrated their great success with a feast. At the feast, Torta said, “Thank you, Gaita, for once again being the person able to keep us above water. Seriously, if you weren’t there, we would never have been able to pull that off.”
“Here, here!” seconded Svenex. Regal nodded in approval.
“Well, I mean…” Gaita initially demurred. Then she held her head proud. “Someone’s gotta do it!”
Everyone laughed. “You finally sound like your sister!” Torta said. Puttee slapped Gaita’s back.
Puttee made copies of the data she collected from Munster, keeping one set for herself and sending the rest to universities around the world. She hoped that it would eventually lead to all the good Munster had hoped his life would achieve. On the news, she saw that Munster himself was arrested and convicted for his terrorist activities, and would spend the rest of his life in jail. At his trial, his last statement was, “The world took everything from me. I had to take something back for myself.” Puttee looked at Gaita and wondered how much would have to be taken from her before she did something like that. She and Munster were far from the only gifted people her father and others took from.
“So, how did you get that strong?” Svenex asked Torta. They were walking to the grand hall, where everyone else was gathered. “You and Regal both, you always seem to be so far ahead of me.”
“I mean…” Torta said, scratching his head. “I don’t really have a good answer. I just worked really hard, and kept up that spirit training Okome had us do. This time, I think it helped that I had a fight of my own to win. But I guess I always do.” He chuckled. “I always want to be better than I was yesterday.”
Svenex smiled as they arrived in the grand hall. “Yeah, and I just want the world to be at peace. I guess that means fighting isn’t my way, all the time, for all my talent at it.” Svenex waved to get everyone’s attention. “Listen, I have an announcement I’d like to make. I’m going to retire from martial arts for a bit so I can focus on a political career. There’s a lot of talk about the world’s countries coming together, with a new international organization, to deal with shared issues like the Demon Clan attack and this business with Munster. I want to be a part of it. I think it’ll go a lot longer towards ending wars and suffering.”
Torta, Regal, Puttee, and Gaita were surprised to hear this. “That’s a wonderful idea,” said Gaita after a moment. “I guess I just didn’t expect you’d stop fighting.”
“Well, the Earth’s safe, for now. You’ll all be here in the future, too. There’s some good that can’t be done with fists, and I need to put all my time there. I’ll try to stay in shape, at least.”
The Grand Elder put a hand on her back. “You are making a wise choice,” she told Svenex. “I can feel that you have something important in you that the world needs as it comes together.”
Svenex looked up at the Grand Elder. “I’m sure I do. Maybe you’ll get to see it one day.” She turned back to her friends, and a still shocked Torta. “Hey, I promise this isn’t goodbye. I’m just walking a different path for a bit. We’ll always be friends, right?”
Torta regained his composure. “Always.”
Puttee unexpectedly hugged Svenex from behind. “Always!”
“Always!” said Gaita.
“Yes,” said Regal. Everyone laughed.
Everyone continued to talk for a while. Now that the fighters had healed up, they were going to leave. Okome smiled at his students. “I’m proud of what you all have accomplished,” he said. “How much you’ve grown. And how much more I still expect from you, as time goes on. It’s knowing that people like you call this planet home that make me want to keep doing this job. From the bottom of my heart, for saving this planet when I was unable to, I thank you.” Okome bowed deeply. “You are dismissed. Go home! Live your lives!”
Svenex took the doorway back to Zoolia, where a lot of political organization was going on. She waved one last time at her friends, taking nothing but her dreams and a duffle bag.
The Grand Elder and Regal took the doorway to the forests in central Knuckle for a while. Before they went through the doorway, Puttee shoved cellphones into each of their hands, tired of having to go through so much trouble to find them all the time.
Torta, Puttee, and Gaita returned home for the first time in a year and a half. The island was a beautiful site. Puttee rushed to check on the vane and see how big her scrap pile had gotten. Torta went to the backyard to tell his parents what all had been happening. Gaita sat on the roof and smiled at the clear skies.
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Life in the Gutters 