Chapter Text
Ghost Investigation Ward headquarters, 3:28 pm
“Wonderful! Wonderful!”
The rainbow glow slowly faded away until it was only dimly lighting the master room. Everybody in there watched in a horrific awe as they see a great figure basking in the light, accompanied by a somber lullaby of ticks, pianos and triangles to herald a God’s arrival.
They now face a monochrome, humanoid figure born from the endless rainbow-tinted, black roots, clad in a stainless chromed white fibrous skin with two large shoulder pads ornate with heterochromed eyes on each side. The right one bore cool colors and the left one has warm colors. His head was composed of white vines with a dark gray beak-like mouth and harbored a black line with four spikes above his skull and flowing vine-line eyebrows. The Ancient’s eyes, arms and tie-shaped crest above his dark gray pectorals were now rainbow.
“You’ve all witnessed my rekindled ascension.” The awakened ghost congratulated, slowly clapping his hands as he slithered closer to everybody, still basking in the rainbow aura he emanated.
“Sorry Undergrowth but it’s time we nip you in the bud.” Danny challenged, emitting his dual ghost-ice powers from his hands.
“Oh please, Halfa. That is but my weakened form’s name. Now that I’m fully restored, call me… Shinra .” The Ancient sadistically requested.
“It was the most commonly used name by those humans who captured me while I was put in eternal slumber. I heard it had something to do with a divine dress which almost eradicated your kind.”
“‘Course you had to fuckin’ name yourself after Shinra-Kokets’, ain’t ya?” Ryūko grunted, recalling her fight against her mother.
“Yes! That’s the one! Such a lovely name to give.” Shinra Undergrowth recalled with a warm smile, thankful for her “kind” action. “I wished I could have seen this dress in action but alas, I was still imprisoned within the Infinite Realms by those Observants alongside my pitiful brothers.”
“Oh no… Don’t tell you inherited the Guys in White’s god complex, too.” The half-ghost sighed at hearing the Ancient babbling about divinity.
“God Complex? I was always a true god. However, nobody remembers this because they hid this from the Universe after they separated me of my true power.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“THE SEVEN!” The ancient ghost roared, letting his endless hatred out, leaving a gust of wind from his breath that almost blew everyone away. “Those traitors think that my divine obsession would create another cataclysm. They ripped my true divinity away from my core in order to prevent me from sculpting the Universe in my image.”
“And I thought I was scary with my anger issues…”
“But now, it’s all history. Whatever those puny ghost hunters did to me restored what I once lost to the Abyss…
My true purpose.”
Undergrowth moved his lanky, dark gray clawed hands with curiosity, feeling the power of the Ecto-Fibers flowing through his core. He observed at the crowd of humans facing him and his newly-found powers began to whisper in his head. Memories of a war within Japan a year ago where humans fought against clothing until the wretched apes won against all odds in the region of Kanto. All happening while the ghost king had begun his new conquest of the Human realm on the other side of the planet.”
“You wouldn’t believe me but the First Plague remembers… everything. How you fought against the would-be champion and his army to seal him back. How you stopped” Undergrowth dangerously slithered closer, looking dead in Ryūko and Danny’s eyes. “… And they especially remember you .”
“What are ya gettin’ at?” Ryūko aimed the scissor blade with the half-moon handle to the Ancient to keep him at bay.
“You two were destined to be their tyrannical overloards, carrying out the legacy of the Cure across the stars of both worlds.” He revealed, backing up from the sukeban with a scolding glare. “But instead, you took the crown, spat on Fate and BETRAYED YOUR OWN CHILDREN! All because you’ve been tainted by… Humanity.”
“Riddle me this, then. If Ragyo really wanted me to be a queen, why did she fuckin’ throw me into the trash when I was a baby, huh? What are the freakin’ Ecto Fibers fused with yer ass sayin’ to ya?” Ryūko rhetorically remarked, her hot stare remained locked.
Shinra Undergrowth briefly called back to the voices in his ears for an appropriate answer. They whispered him the parade of realities and showed all the path Ryūko and Danny could have taken. And for the first time, he was puzzled by the results. No matter where it observed, their fate was an absolute mess to decipher. Too many internal and external parameters to take into account, even for a True God.
“Hmpf. That’s what I thought.” Ryūko grunted at the frowning Ancient, cherishing her small victory. “Get the fuck outta my face, ya fuckin’ undead yarn ball smartass.”
“Geez…” Danny grasped the gravity of her statement, completely speechless and punless.
“Yeah. My family is a freakin’ mess.” Ryūko conceded her sad story. “I’ll tell ya the details once we’re done with Fiberbeak over there.”
“That mess would have never happened if you two didn’t rebel against your TRUE FATE, BASTARD LORDS!”
Shinra Undergrowth raised his left arm and went for a grappling move with his opened, clawed hand. Danny and Ryūko jumped their way out of his attack and fell back to where the rest of their friends were. The Mad Ancient’s fingertips extended into barbed vines and winded up for a second attack. Danny crossed his arms to conjure his mint-green shield and knocked the whips back. Ryūko aided in the effort by spewing Senketsu Seijin’s spikes to force Undergrowth to retract his fingers and pluck them out.
“Okay, Danny. What’s today’s tactic? You seem to have already fought that ghost.” Senketsu inquired.
“We need to reach Undergrowth’s roots and attack there. The more we harm them, the smaller and weaker he’ll become.” Danny explained, nervously observing the rainbow motifs plastered all over the Ancient. “Let’s hope that Ecto-Fiber power boost he got from the Guys in White won’t make things worse.”
“But we’ve got our new combo to deal with those by now. Plus, everyone can back us up.” Ryūko pointed out.
“Hey!” Danny called out, whistling at the Ghostketsu Crew, Satsuki and the Elite Four. “We need all hands on deck to handle him!”
“Welcome to ghost hunting, guys. Hope you’re ready ‘cause we’ll be dealing with a final boss.” Tucker announced, preparing an electro song from his PDA for morale boosting, activated Charal’s mini-shotguns and cocked his dual crossbows.
“Let’s see if our improved Goku Uniforms can fare off against a ghost.” Houka mumbled, already in a superhero stance.
“Ready?” Satsuki instructed, unsheathing Bakuzan alongside the Elite Four.
“Set?” Valerie materialized her hoverboard and her dual, anti-ghost canons.
“GO!” Mako announced with her signature smile when the music prepared by Tucker dropped the base at the word FIGHT .
Led by Danny and Ryūko, everyone charged at him with the intent of reaching his source roots and stop him. Shinra Undergrowth clenched his fists enveloped in rainbow ectoplasm and slammed the ground. A gargantuan shockwave accompanied by enlarged spikes from the ground vines blitzed at them. The Steamrollers flew out of the attack, and Houka created a digital trampoline platform for everyone else to jump over it.
“That’s for mind-controlling my uniqueness away!” Sam switched her Fenton Smiter into bazooka mode and drowned him in a flurry of plasma bomb of darkness.
“Ha, ha! Pathetic. ” Undergrowth laughed her attacks away by a swoop of his cape to disintegrate them. “You’re nothing without the gift I once bestowed upon you!”
He raised his hands coated in sickly rainbow clouds to form a black tempest on his own and strike them all with vinebolts. Sam hopped through his storm thanks to Houka’s cube platforms and gained momentum to whack Shinra Undergrowth’s skull with the Fenton Smiter. An intrepid move which the Ancient rewarded by opening his beak far and wide to snap her weapon’s cannon with his venus flytrap tongue right as she pulled the trigger. The impact caused a detonation of rainbow light and dark flames which caught Sam off guard and hurled her to the other side.
“SAM!” Danny yelped, too busy fending off the vine thunderbolts to save her.
“Gotcha!” Ryūko blitzed her way to catch Sam in her Shippu form.
“Okay. I gotta admit. You’re really hot.” Sam begrudgingly admitted upon observing her savior’s fine build.
“Oi, I may be lesbian but Mako got first dibs on me. Keep that nosebleed for when we’ll be done, will ya?” Ryūko huffed at the unneeded horny moment.
“I wasn’t talking about that.” Sam poked the fumes of steam surrounding her Fenton Jumpsuit and Senketsu. “Your body is so hot that you are literally cooking my flesh and bones from the inside out.”
“Hey, Val! What if we spin around that ghost superfast and strike it like flies?” Mako suggested after she jumped into one of the ruined lines of sewing machines on the walls. “He’ll be so much distracted by us he won’t see everyone get him.”
“But how are you going to aim at it? Wouldn’t you miss your mark?” Valerie asked, trying to see her plan.
“Aiming? I planned to make it rain like Takarada bucks. Watch!”
Mako opened her Bansho jacket far and wide, revealing a whole catalog of weapons on the inside. She used Miracle Regalia’s huge sleeves to take any weapons she searched and threw hundreds of them at Shinra Undergrowth from above. The Ancient paused at the rain of golden weapon until he’s harmed from the right by Valerie’s volley of lasers. Each time Mako made it rain, Valerie flew in the opposite direction to sting him and hoping to find the weak spot. But the ghost quickly connected the dots and summoned a dome of the black roots to protect himself.
“A plant that doesn’t like the rain? Quite tragic when you think about it.” Danny snarked.
“Wanna cut those roots so that Mako and Val can water it?” Ryūko suggested with a cocky smile after she dropped Sam back to the rest.
“Sure.” He rubbed his hands to charge up his dual fused ice-ghost power. “Let’s go gardening.”
Danny flew to the Ancient’s right and shot lasers at the roots, sapping them of their power. Ryūko went in the opposite direction and span around in her Shippu form to send scorching crescent projectiles from her molten scissor blades at the shield away. Their combined efforts created an array of explosive blast of green and red, withering the layers of black roots which made up Shinra Undergrowth’s dome.
“HOW?!” Shinra Undergrowth demanded, unable to resurrect his roots back to life. “How can you do this to my children?”
“Batshit crazy superpowers, that’s what!” Ryūko flipped the bird from the hand holding the scissor blade with the half-moon handle to flex on him.
“Grrrr… You are the worst weeds I ever had to deal with!” Shinra Undergrowth summoned white cactus-like appendages from his cape to repeatedly whack them with.
“The only weed that needs to be whacked is you, Undergrowth!” Danny barrel rolled around the flurry of cactus punches while freezing his cape with a salvo of stalactites.
“WHACK THIS, THEN!”
Hundreds of eyes sprouted from the black swirls around his skin and blew a cloud of putrefied spores from their pupils. Their unstable composition melted anything they touched into nothing but colored tar for the roots to feed on. Houka had to retract his cubic platforms after one of them was assaulted by the spores and provoked the near shutdown and complete loss of his recently-discovered ability. The Ghostketsu Crew and Elite Four’s salvation came in the form of Danny releasing his Ghostly Wail onto the spores and pushed them back to the Mad Ancient.
“Holy shit! My man can outblow a whole cloud away with only his scream!” Uzu awed at Danny’s frankly busted powers.
“I swear, I’m gonna whack his undead copycat ass if he learned this after Bites-a-Lot told him of our fight!” Nonon blasted her propellers’ twin sound cannon out of jealous.
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAAAAM!
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAAAAM!
“You insolent, puny insects!” Shinra Undergrowth pestered at his own spores seeking shelter back into the eyes. “You will regret disturbing my children’s growth!”
A sick, rainbow glow enveloped the roots on the ground at where the eyes used to be. They inflated into putrefied bulbs, which exploded from the overload of energy their spores had devoured. A whole horde of bloated corpses held on by the same rainbow-tinted black roots and chrome-white skin Shinra Undergrowth now bore.
“Booming Saplings. DEVOUR THEM!”
“My god! They look terrible.” Senketsu remarked, feeling shivers down his fibers when faced with the Ancient’s army. “How are we going to save them?”
“Guess Maiko was right. We have no choice but to stop him to end their misery.”
The unfathomable army smelled the taste of human flesh and charged at Danny and Ryūko, who fended them off by alternating between glacier walls and volcanic blast from above. But even with this, the Booming Saplings’ sheer number passed through the thermal defense and were meters away from reaching the Ghostketsu Crew.
“BAITED!”
The horde of Ecto-Fiber corpses stepped into a tiny red landmine, which detonated into a huge net of pure Life Fibers to ensnare them. Jazz plugged her integrated Jack-o-Tails into the flying Life Fiber landmine to stun the Booming Saplings desperately gnawing at the net.
“Sam! Tucker! It’s your cue.” Jazz ordered in the midst of the electrocution.
“Drown them ‘till they die from water overdose!” Maiko added, adding layers of Life Fibers nets to delay Shinra Undergrowth’s horde from breaking their shackles.
“Ready to have the green thumb?” Sam challenged, switching her Fenton Smiter into its rocket launcher mode.
“You have no idea how hyped I am from mowing bad veggie!” Tucker cheered.
They shot entire charges of dark lasers and orange bolts at the horde, who screeched in pain from the relentless onslaught, keeping them trapped into the net. The sum of the Crackers’ ingenious would trigger an unwanted outcome in the form of all Booming Saplings’ insides glowing into a sickly rainbow hue the more pain they were inflicted.
“Stop, Sam! They’re about to explode!” Tucker stammered after his glasses warned him of an incoming chemical reaction. “We’re not gonna make it!”
“Leave it to us. We have the appropriate method to remove weed.” Houka instructed, leading the Elite Four into the melee.
Ira summoned his whips and constricted the horde trapped within Jazz and Maiko’s electrifying net. He dragged them away akin to a lasso and once the monsters are on the verge of exploding, sent them back at Shinra Undergrowth. Houka, Uzu and Nonon combined their attacks into a sonic, wind laser attack condensed in a cone of blue web and shot at the shackled monsters, creating a stadium-sized explosion that covers the ghost.
“AAAAAAAARRGH!” Shinra Undergrowth belched from getting smacked by his own kamikaze creations hurled into his face by the Elite Four. “YOU DARE STRIKE ME WITH MY OWN CHILDREN?!”
“Ryūko! Down there!” Danny alarmed her, waving to the great hole in the Ancient’s feet leading up to brighter, rainbow roots. “That’s where we need to strike!”
“Gotcha, space boy!” She noted with a thumbs up.
Both dived into the dug up tunnel before Undergrowth could regenerate and ambushed his larger roots. Danny drowned them in his ghost-ice lasers and ecto-snowballs while Ryūko trimmed them away with her molten scissor blade to make way to the core from inside the ghost.
“Holy shit! How much power Fiberbeak has?” She grunted, thinking they weren’t making progress.
“Aw great. General Alpha had to drug him with those Life Fibers so hard it feels like we’re not getting to the end of the-ARGH!”
“DANNY?! Where you’re a-OW!”
Both were ambushed by a dual ambush of Shinra Undergrowth’s vinebolts, impaling them one by one to the master room’s ceiling. Ryūko responded by shifting into Seijin in an attempt to easily trim the white branch that had impaled her stomach. Danny tried his best to freeze the roots away with his mint-green eye lasers despite his limb pinned onto the wall. The white roots were keeping them shackled by planting smaller roots in their bodies to keep them at bay.
“Did you think I did not see you two make your way to my roots?” Shinra Undergrowth remarked, fusing with the dual white, rainbow-stripped to form another head.
“HEY! THE FUCK ARE YOU DOIN’ ?!” Ryūko roared, baring her fangs at the pain provoked by the white vine inside her stomach. “STOP RAPIN’ US WITH YOUR FUCKIN’ PLANTS!”
“That’s a vulgar way to speak about how I will remove you from my garden.”
“Dude, that’s disgusting! Especially for someone who claims to be a good dad!” Danny called out, gritting at the vines planting something near his heart. “I won’t become one of your kids!”
“But are not my children. You are the bastard lords I need to remove first.”
Shinra Undergrowth grappled the two with his smaller vines and slowly dragged them to him. Danny and Ryūko tried to set themselves free through the same methods but the roots planted within them were steadily sapping their energies away. Even Senketsu was paralyzed by the Ecto-Fibers’ influence and reverted to his base synchronized form.
SLASH!
“What the?!”
But right as he was about to feast upon them, a crescent dark blue slash tore through the white roots. Shinra Undergrowth screeched from the sharp cold pain and backed away to mend the biting frostbite. Thanks to their savior, Danny and Ryūko escaped the Ancient and ripped the withered roots’ remains off their bodies unseen.
“Mark my words, Primordial Ecto-Fiber. I won’t let you submit my sister and her second-best friend to your will! Nor anyone else for that matter! That is the promise I, Satsuki Kiryūin swore the moment I discovered the threat you represent to our planet!” Satsuki announced, aiming the tip of Bakuzan at him.
“What a big mouth you have to say of this in front of a True God.” He cackled back at Satsuki’s defiance. “How about I teach the consequences of defying my rightful purpose?”
Shinra Undergrowth channeled his rainbow plasma and tried to slap Satsuki with the back of his hands akin to a scythe reaping hay in a corn field. Satsuki gracefully dodged the combo of rainbow spectral scythe limbs through backflips. Each one was accompanied by a wave of crescent, dark blue attacks aimed at the Ancient’s head. All of them reached their mark but Undergrowth countered the Fenton-patched Bakuzan’s ranged attacks by discarding his withered, decapitated head into the abyss. Then, three white vines sprouted out of the stump and blossomed into his pair of eyes, connected to his viscous and bloated black brain, waiting to be covered by a whole swarm of vines.
“Nice try.” Shinra Undergrowth quickly grew his head and wide grin back into shape despite the biting cold of the Fenton-patched Bakuzan’s ranged attacks. “With my limitless regeneration and my restored divinity, you can’t do ANYTHING! I’M FUCKING INVINCIB-WHACK! OUCH!”
“Sorry, but we need to cut you like the Gardening Club of Honnouji Academy does it.” Mako interrupted with yet another volley of golden weapons.
“A little trimming to your leaves isn’t gonna hurt you. You’re invincible after all.” Valerie mockingly added.
“You two… YOU ARE JUST AS WORST AS THE BASTARD LORDS!” Shinra Undergrowth howled back as he lashed his cape whips at them.
“Wait, everyone! Remember that huge, combined attack against Rainbow Hedorah?” Maiko suddenly realized, coming back to Team Phantom. “We need to redo that again.”
“But we don’t have our parent’s car to achieve it. What’s your plan?” Jazz reminded her.
“By crossing all of our attacks at where his ghost core was. We may not have the Fenton truck but we have them.” The Trap club president explained, pointing to Satsuki and the Elite Four. “I’m sure they will bring enough power to reveal his heart so that Ryūko and Mister Creeper can finish them off.”
“What is your plan, Ogure?” Satsuki asked.
“Come closer. We don’t want Plant God to hear us.”
Using the distraction provided by Valerie and Mako’s fly tactic, Maiko reunited Team Phantom, Satsuki and the Elite to properly plan out their combined efforts.
“Oh god…” Danny panted, using his ghost-ice powers to sap and remove the vine away from his abdomen and let his improved ghost healing mend the wounds. “That’s really disgusting. Why did you have to do this to me?”
“Motherfucker! That freakin’ hurts.” Ryūko growled, making the red parts of Senketsu become hot enough and gripped the vine attached to her stomach and violently ripped it off.
Meanwhile, Danny and Ryūko regained their senses from the pin, taking long breaths as they stood up. Yet, the vine was rooted to them, and they ripped if off before something dire would trigger from letting it too long inside.
“Ew…” He reeked at the sukeban spilling an unorthodox amount of blood akin to a pressurized hose from her stomach. “How much blood do you have?”
“Enough to make a whole ocean outta it.” She nervously shrugged off, remaining still to let her fibers stop the blood loss. “Don’t try to find a freakin’ answer. It’s best to call it demi-life fiber bullshit.”
“Do you think you could fix blood diseases by donating your blood to all labs working on cures?” Danny wondered while he hovered above the red pool to clean his silver boots with a coat of ice.
“Bro, I don’t even freakin’ know if I’m viable ‘cuz of the Life Fibers within me. I might even cause worse shit.” Ryūko gritted her answers.
“Good thing you weren’t there when she ripped Junketsu off. She became a tidal wave!” Senketsu remarked, still marked by this day.
“At least, Tucker didn’t see it.” Danny positively noted, giving a quick glance at Team Phantom to make sure the techie wasn’t looking in his direction. “He would have fainted from this.”
Shinra Undergrowth tried to catch the Red Huntress and her Fight Club President sidekick who kept irritating him with their mosquito approach. Rows of cactus-like black spears rose out of his arms and traversed the air, which kicked Valerie off her hoverboard and fall to one of the endless pits of screeching roots. Mako flew to the rescue by flopping into Valerie’s hoverboard head first and snatched her back with her Bansho jacket’s sleeves while still lying down like she was sleeping for a strange reason. Another row of Booming Saplings rose from the depths to grab them but Valerie blew a chunk off the floor with her railgun to drop the Templar Cross mincemeat onto them.
“Let’s roll.” Tucker connected his Fenton jumpsuit to Sam’s and Jazz and ramp up their power output and make his Spectral bolters into one, human-sized balista.
“Ooooo! I like that.” Sam complimented, seeing her Fenton Smiter gaining her colors and becoming a bigger rocket launcher with purple ectoplasm spewing from the canon.
“Please, don’t blow in front of me. Don't blow in front of me.” Jazz internally prayed, seeing the Jack-o-Tails becoming a taser-looking railgun.
“Get ready. We’re about to burn down the biggest evil forest for our pleasure.” Maiko seductively warned, turning her dark green suitcase into a sniper and inserted a piercing, golden bullet ending in Life Fibers inside the reservoir.
“The data is clear. Our combined efforts should be able to pierce the Primordial Ecto-Fiber and letting lasting damages and enough time for Danny and Ryūko to neutralize.” Houka explained, connecting Probe Regalia to the other Goku uniforms and execute the same command as Tucker.
“Let’s hope Hentai Plant won’t die before the finale of our concert.” Nonon smugly added, letting her thrusters grow bigger and flute-shaped missiles came out of them. “It would be a shame if that were the case.”
“Or y’know, a relief. Dying because of your musical tastes would be such a lame death, though.” Uzu mocking mumbled while his shinai glowed brighter and emanated stronger gust of winds, earning the short pink-haired girl’s glare.
“Focus! This is our only chance to stop the Primordial Ecto-Fiber once and for all.” Ira reminded the snake and the monkey, his chest and abs glowing until it’s forming a bigger and fiery version of his own head.
“On my mark. Ready… Set…” Satsuki ordered, raising Bakuzan high into the sky, slowing counting down until it’s time to let it all out. “FIRE!”
At Satsuki’s command, everybody loaded all of their strongest attacks and carefully aimed at Shinra Undergrowth, who’s still warding off Mako and Valerie but to no avail. Danny and Ryūko were fully healed when they saw the combined efforts of their friends with a smile, ready to lend a hand to end it all.
“With this, we shall aim for the heart of Evil and pave way for a better world. That is, OUR ambitions! That is HUMANITY’s true power, Primordial Ecto-Fiber! THIS IS HEARTSEEKER!”
Her military plead was in perfect sync with all the attacks unleashed in a cacophony of ghost and life fiber attacks. Led by Satsuki’s vertical slash, Team Phantom’s combined force created a dark, electrical bolt that whistled at the speed of Maiko’s bullet. The Elite Four created a huge, flowing sonic boom with Ira’s face screaming his force, amplified by Houka’s overclocking.
“Let’s move, Mako. We’re done with the trimming.” Valerie said, seeing the projectile coming at the Ancient’s way.
“Get back here, you flying flesh dweller!” Shinra Undergrowth angrily demanded.
His stubbornness to catch Mako and Valerie lowered his guard and before he could react, his chest was bombarded at the combined efforts of ghost powers and life fibers. The impact blasted his entire skin in a white explosion, letting a rain of withered ecto-fibers skin falling down the entire place.
“There! That’s his core!” Senketsu instructed, seeing the clearly exposed, ghost core from earlier, now imbued in a rainbow light and partially cover by barbed, black branches.
“Ready to finally cut off the shittiest weed after they’re done?” Ryūko asked her partner, letting her scissor blade become molten again.
“Let’s remove his fucking garden.” Danny smirked, slamming his fists to let his dual ghost-ice powers out.
With the Ghostketsu Crew and the Elite Four reverting their powers to a reasonable degree, they saw a mint and a scarlet star flying once again, making a U-turn to finally end Undergrowth. And they all waited for the coup de grâce that will save Humanity.
“Ghastly Edges: Postfrozen Beheading Mode!”
“Scissor Blades: Afterburn Decapitation Mode!”
Shinra Undergrowth was baffled to see that a bunch of humans were about to slay him after he barely came out of his slumber and transcedance. Not to mention Danny and Ryūko were far too dangerous to be let alive. These too knows how to counter his new power.
But he realized he had a backup plan all along. One he managed to implement when he almost had them on the ceiling, making the Ancient smile at his master plan.
“ Vekiĝu, miaj infanoj ”
*Thump*
*Thump*
“What the…” Danny abruptly muttered, losing consciousness midair, his powers leaving him against his wishes.
“DANNY?!” Team Phantom yelled at the halfa reverting to his human form, falling down the rooted ground, laying unconscious.
“You…” Ryūko growled, sending her into a wrathful fit at the Ancient’s move. “I’LL SLICE YOUR GODLIKE ASS IF I NEED-”
*Thump*
*Thump*
“Ryūko? What’s happening?” Senketsu stressfully asked, sensing her heartbeat abruptly slowed down until it almost stopped.
But she didn’t answer. Instead, her body completely shutdown, her scissor blade reverted to their standard crimson metallic red and desynchronized. Ryūko fell next to the half-ghost into the rooted ground and the Rending Scissors fell inches away with audible clanks.
“RYŪKO?!” Maiko and the Elite Four shouted along.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THEM?!” Satsuki furiously demanded
“They fell for my latest baby… My sleeping fetus.”
“I have successfully put these two into an eternal coma, unable to do anything while my children will feast on their bodies and souls from the inside out.” He sneered, letting his roots rise from the ground to snatch Danny and Ryūko and absorb them. “And now, I can get rid of these two once and for all…”
The black vines riddled with tortured souls blitzed at the two paralyzed teens, watering at the rare taste of a half-ghost and a demi-life fiber. But their meals were abruptly interrupted when a blur of red, black, golden and white took them away.
“Who DARES?” Shinra Undergrowth ordered, only to be answered with the sound of engines getting louder.
“Our besties may be super licking good but that’s not a reason to eat them!” Mako’s voice answered, pouting at Undergrowth for putting her friends to sleep.
Facing the completed Ancient were Valerie and Mako, who saved their soulmates from their demise at the last minute. The Red Huntress drove her trusty black hoverboard to glare at the ghost, her railgun already summoned to make the Ancient scream. Mako remained behind her on the hoverboard, tightly holding the two limp bodies of Danny and Ryūko with the huge Bansho sleeves of Miracle Regalia. The scissor blades had reverted to their pocket-size and were tucked above the three stars on Mako’s hat.
“Touch them again and you’ll be kissing that newfound power goodbye.” Valerie dared.
“Then it’s settled.” Shinra Undergrowth conceded with a wicked, wide smile, slowly waving with his index and middle crooked fingers, imbued in a sickly, rainbow aura. “You’ll be their APPETIZERS!”
He silently ordered his roots to ambush Valerie and Mako from behind and above. The screaming vines rammed at them and right when they were almost close, all of them were swiftly cut by a powerful and clean, blue swipe, sending a small cold wave on its way out.
“No wonder those aforementioned Seven had to strip that power away from you. You are but the embodiment of the worst of both ghost and life fibers. No… The worst a god can be.” Satsuki scolded from afar, her disgust at the divine leaking out.
“WORST?! I’ll make you regret saying this in front of the one who shall unify this Universe, insolent human!”
Shinra Undergrowth extended his hand, fuming with the same rainbow-tinted plasma before it shot into the ground. A batch of twenty eldritch vines sprouted from the spot and charged at Satsuki, who dealt with them with one, horizontal strike of the Fenton-patched Bakuzan. Irritated by her intervention, Undergrowth howled and a whole circle of horrific plants lunged at her. Satsuki tried to hold her ground as she slashed the growing wave of vegetal-looking necrotic entities with Bakuzan, but they were too many and started to overwhelm her.
“Not on our watch, Primordial Ecto-Fiber.” Houka retorted, using a blue web in a cone attack to hold off some of the vegetal horrors of Ecto-Fibers.
“As long as we are still standing, we won’t let you lay a hand on Lady Satsuki or planet Earth! THAT IS THE CREED OF THE ELITE FOUR!” Ira bellowed, constricting a wave of venus fly trap-headed horrors with his barbed whips that he hurled around the walls before pinning them to the soil.
“Everyone?! What are you doing?” Satsuki wondered, shocked but glad the Elite Four came to her aid.
“Isn’t that oblivious? We’re making sure that weird ghost doesn’t eat you.” Nonon replied, blasting one of Undergrowth’s spawns away with pink lasers that looks like the music sheet for Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 11 .
“MEN! DOU! KO! TE! MEN! DOU! KO! TE!”
Uzu spun around and launched green whirlwinds at the fungal-shaped horrors through his pierce attacks, throwing them back at the roots. Nonon blasted the semi-humanoid amalgamations with energy bombs that dropped more of Mozart’s musical repertoire upon reaching the ground. Houka turned invisible and struck the monsters getting too close to Satsuki with carefully planned out attacks to stun them while gathering additional data about their foes for precaution. Ira whipped the Ecto-Fibers away and even struck the ground to make them fall back into whence they came.
“Everyone! Can you all hear me? ” The voice of Aikuro Mikisugi finally reached the Fenton Phones.
“Ten out of ten, you naked guys! What’s the stitch?” Tucker confirmed.
“We have extracted every Life Fibers seeds and that plaque Alpha had in his office from the bunker! Get out of there before that ghost clothing monster absorb you. We’re waiting by that portal.” Aikuro alarmed.
“HEY, EVERYONE! Jingle Bells told us to get out now!” Sam yelled her order to the rest.
“You better keep these two like you mean it, Mako. We’re gonna go fast!” Valerie warned, tapping on the side of her hoverboard to start a fast launch.
“Trust me, Val! I’ll keep Ryūko and Danny like the chewing gums inside the school’s desk!” Mako assured her, tightly holding the Red Huntress’s waist before the hoverboard launched itself at mach speed. “Weeeeeee-”
“Fall back! We have everything we need!” Satsuki loudly acknowledged by sheathing Bakuzan, looking one more time at her foe before turning tail and running at Nonon, who quickly got the memo and took her with Symphony Finale before the roots can catch them.
“Guys! We found a shortcut.” Maiko instructed from the back of Gamagoori, sending the path she and Tucker have found to Houka.
“Mmm… Practical.” Houka realized, examining the path leading to what looked like an emergency exit within the third floor of the bunker. “Follow our lead and we’ll be getting out of here in one piece.”
The Ghostketsu Crew and the Elite Four blitzed out of Project God Threads’ master room. Shinra Undergrowth channeled his powers at maximum and all the roots inside the entire headquarters rose to life again. Valerie flew through the corridors emptied of Guys in White, using the pathfinder feature of her nano powersuit to reach the surface. Rows of black vein-looking roots and vines with the unfathomable faces sprouted out of the walls in a frantic succession to catch them. The Red Huntress dodged them through surf tricks, which were accompanied by Mako’s joyful yells of adrenaline, thinking she was in the best roller coaster of her life.
“I WON’T LET YOU ALL GET AWAY THIS TIME!”
“My god! They’re everywhere!” Senketsu frantically remarked, petrified by the endless waves of branches.
“Don’t look at the walls, little guy! We’ll find a solution to fight that bastard one way or another!” The Red Huntress instructed, focusing on her objective without looking behind.
“Huh?! Can you hear me?” Senketsu stammered at Valerie hearing him.
“Somehow but that’s not the point.” She confirmed and figured she could start looking at what caused Danny and Ryūko’s sudden coma. “Since you can tell what’s wrong by sucking her blood, any idea what that ghost did to them?”
“That’s the thing! I can’t drink it because it became toxic after he put her to sleep.” Senketsu rambled in panic, spitting out the infected blood. “The only thing I can confirm is that he did not just sent Ryūko and Danny into a coma!”
“Then we must hurry.” Valerie pushed another button on her hoverboard with her foot.
Her backpack opened and released three, chromed cubes with one face equipped with red, triangle canons. They aimed behind Valerie and shot tiny, concentrated beams onto the scattered, white barrels filled with green chemicals to the brink.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
“AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHH!”
-briefly stopping Shinra Undergrowth’s pursuit, allowing her to activate her intangibility and phase out of the third floor with Mako, Senketsu and the comatose bodies of Danny and Ryuko.
A few rooms away, the rest of the Ghostketsu Crew and the Elite Four followed the path discovered by Maiko and Tucker. Despite Satsuki cutting the way with Bakuzan from the back of Nonon, the forsaken roots kept coming back, and they had to reach their salvation before Shinra Undergrowth blocked them.
“Found it!” Houka noticed a vaultdoor in a hallway strangely devoid of the Ancient’s roots, highlighted by his Goku Uniform’s ability to materialize pinpoints for all to see.
“Let me handle it.” Ira volunteered, taking the two doorknob with his hand to open the vaultdoor with sheer force. “Over here!”
They entered a dimly lit room full of emergency exits signs. While Ira closed the door and slammed it shut, Uzu found the light switch and activated it. It revealed an entire avenue of glassy transportation tubes only found in science-fiction movies, rising high into the ceiling.
“Are you sure Miss Jigsaw and Turkey didn’t confuse the exit with… that?” Nonon wondered, not convinced by the place.
“Unfortunately, we are in the emergency exit.” Maiko explained, wishing this wasn’t the case despite the data Tucker stole from the Guys in White telling otherwise.
“What are we waiting for?” Sam told them, leaving Gamagoori’s back to open the glassy door and enter the tube.
“Sam! Don’t go there yet. We have no idea where those tubes lead to.” Jazz ordered.
“But it’s either that or we become Undergrowth’s first dinner since he woke up.” She retorted, closing the glassy door on her.
“The only problem is how are we gonna get out?” Tucker noticed, tapping to a pictogram on the wall that explains how the Emergency exit works.“It says right here we need someone to manually activate that lever and I don’t think anybody wants to stay here”
“I may have a solution to resolve that problem.”
Houka frantically typed on the greenish-blue bands of his Goku Uniform and a blue, polyhedron copy of him made of rough 3D shapes materialized next to him. Team Phantom was impressed by his action and the Elite Four nodded at yet another showcase of his brain.
“Once we will be in the emergency exits, my copy of Probe Regalia will activate the mechanism for us.” He flawlessly explained.
“But ain’t those holograms? It’s going to phase through that lever when it will reach it.” Uzu pointed out.
“Not anymore. Iori has improved on the formula and thus, I can switch the intangibility of anything I materialize at will. That’s how we were able to stand on those platforms in the master room of Project God Threads.”
“Quick question…” Tucker asked, pointing to Ira who was far larger than anyone in the room. “How is he gonna enter into the tube?”
“Don’t worry about the Toad. He likes tight spaces the same way he likes spanking others. Why do you think he called his Goku Uniform Shackle Regalia?” Nonon snorted her answer.
“What the… Jakuzure?! Don’t say that!” Ira stammered at her taunt.
“No time for witty banter.” Satsuki ordered, hearing the dreaded lullaby coming closer. “We need to evacuate at once!”
Everybody entered the emergency tube, making sure their door were closed shut. The polyhedron copy of Houka checked on every tube to guarantee they followed the procedure to the letter and safely escape the Guys in White bunker. Then, it finally ran to the black lever and pulled it downwards in a swift move, signaling Houka to deconstruct his copy without worries.
“The Emergency Protocol is about to be initiated. Please remain still until you have been properly evacuated out of the facility.”
“I don’t like where this is going…” Jazz swallowed, hearing steam being depressurized below her feet.
“Hold on tight, Charal! We’re about to go on a riiiiiiii-”
One by one, they were flung by the hydraulic system backed up by liters of air blowing below them, vertically traversing the secret bunker. Satsuki and the Elite Four kept their serious during the launch but Team Phantom screamed from the adrenaline given by the unorthodox emergency exit. However, their adrenaline didn’t drop as the tubes actually sent them not only to the surface and out of the Ghost Investigation Ward headquarters by also far into the sky.
“Good thing it’s not the first time.” Sam remarked midair, using her Fenton grappling hook to catch Tucker.
“I’m starting to like being thrown into the sky like this. Maybe we can skydive together since Danny is with Val now.” Tucker suggested with a sly smile.
“Over my dead body.” She bluntly declined, taking Jazz with the Fenton grappling hook.
“Oh my god! What’s happening down there?” Jazz shouted, looking below her and saw the Guys in White headquarters becoming covered by Undergrowth’s incomprehensible roots.
“Holy Mac’n’Cheese! That ghost is pissing rainbows everywhere!” Maiko loudly joined along after she reached Jazz with Hunter Regalia’s rope, gagging at the rainbow slime being spewed out to the entire military base, molding into the dreaded black vines they’ve been avoiding all this time.
“Yoohoo! Over here, everyone!” The familiar voice of Suyuko called out from a microphone from a large distance, catching the Ghostketsu Crew’s attention.
“You’re the only ones missing!” Bazaro told them from the same microphone, waving his arms holding Fenton glowsticks next to the great, swirling green portal.
“Get in there, champs!” Mataro shouted above the Axion Labs beacon with Guts barking along.
“That’s Mako’s family! We need to go there!” Jazz realized.
“Guys! We’re gonna fall back into the bunker if we’re not pushed or anything!” Tucker called out, using the laser pointer at where the Mankanshoku were, accidentally blinding Mataro who fell from the beacon.
“Nonon. Can you do me a favor and give a little push for everyone to reach the evacuation point?” Satsuki asked Nonon after overhearing Tucker’s alarming situation.
“Anything for you, Lady Satsuki.” Nonon purred at her requested.
Nonon activated her engine and with Satsuki standing above her, flew behind everyone who began falling down from the emergency exit. She charged the front side of her canon engine from her Goku uniform with pinkish energy, ready to boom into the sky, carefully aiming in a way she’ll get the Elite Four and the Ghostketsu Crew in one go.
“Hope you’re ready for my latest concert! I call this one… Grave Push!” Nonon shouted.
“What does she mean by-”
BAMF!
THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!” Sam yelled along Team Phantom and Maiko while pushed forward midair into Vlad’s ghost portal.
“What are you-”
BAMF!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Ira bellowed at her canons booming into an invisible sonic gust of wind.
“If you break my glasses with that attack, you are-”
BAMF!
DEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!” Houka threatened her, his warning muffled by the music.
“You didn’t have to push me this-”
BAMF!
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!” Uzu screamed at Nonon as he’s hurled into the evacuation point by her classical soundwave push.
“Heh.” Nonon snorted, witnessing Uzu hit the tree next to the portal. “ That’s for using my plushies as dummies for the Athletic clubs, Monkey.”
“Weeeeeeeeeee!”
From the main entrance of the GIW headquarters, Valerie and Mako blitzed out of the area and flew high into the sky, still holding the comatose body of Danny and Ryūko. Satsuki was appeased to see them alive despite the two taking a radically different path from them. But her worries would come back as the earth shook again and the Ancient’s gargled screeches resonated from the cracks, leaving a sickly rainbow glow coming out with the dreaded song.
“Valerie!” Satsuki ordered, using the light of Bakuzan’s neon cutting edge to give off her position with Nonon’s Goku Uniform. “Follow my lead!”
“Gotcha!” Valerie acknowledged, signaling her approval by making her powersuit glow.
“YOU WON’T GET AWAY FOR ME! I AM EVERYWHEEEEEERE!” Shinra Undergrowth roared, tracking down the black hoverboard with his thousands vines ornate with disfigured faces of those he had devoured.
“NOPE! NOPE! NOPE!” Nonon repeatedly screamed at the charging ghost god, launching her engines at full power to avoid being grappled by the black, rainbow-tinted vines. “I know exactly where this is going!”
Valerie followed Nonon to the evacuation point by focusing on Bakuzan’s reflection and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons blasting through Symphony Regalia’s amp thrusters as her marks. Right before they entered the shrinking portal, Mako managed to catch the Axion Labs beacon without falling off the hoverboard nor losing her besties. The Mankanshoku frantically entered the portal, which barely closed in time before Shinra Undergrowth could catch them, ending Operation Rending Fate.
