Table Of Contents

Prologue------------------4

The Battle of Mentitia---------10

Puff's Misadventures---------50

The Planet of Darkness-------59

Return to Pogland-----------70

The Fifth Dimension----------82

The Sacrifice--------------90

The Fatebender------------101
The Army----------------110

The Battle of Pog City-------120

The Prison---------------138

The Escape---------------146

Table of Contents, Continued

[Battle of Sono II]----------------159

Wintry Nights-------------------172

The Fifth Dimension, Part II---------180

Neurons-----------------------199

The Final Battle, Part I-------------206

The Final Battle, Part II-------------226

The Final Battle, Part III------------250

Aftermath---------------------265

Epilogue-----------------------279

                    Prologue

"You're Kick," Rock said, backing away from Roboboy. Everything was spinning around as Muscle caught Rock when he fell, sighing and dragging his body to the meeting room. "You're Kick?" he asked, causing a sigh from Roboboy this time. Many members of the Transcend organisation he knew, and other black-cloaked figures he didn't recognise. One person, sitting on a throne high above the rest and completely covered by a cloak, cleared his throat and boomed across the meeting room "Welcome to the Seven-Hundred-Twenty-Fifth Transcend Assembly!" causing all the other conversations among the Assembly members to die out.

Prologue

"This meeting is going to touch on some very... sensitive subjects around our order, such as our recent betrayal by Ikoko Glipokee, where she blew up our hospital ship and took the life of poor Scrapdrone, our slightly less recent betrayal by Twohead, who tried to kill Snudoo-" "Hate that name," "-and Rock many, many times, and finally-" Rock got up and said "Why are you using the code names? There's no reason to use the code names!" That got everybody fighting. A man in a black cloak sitting next to the man on the throne got up and 

Prologue

cried "The code names are simply for protection!" Muscle roared "Who needs to be protected during a simple Assembly meeting?!" "We can fire you, worthless heavyweight!" "Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try!" "Everybody here is wrong. We should completely do away with the code names!" "What has this meeting evolved into?" "It doesn't matter! All that matters is the code names staying." "NO!" screamed the man on the throne, instantly ending all the fighting. "The code names stay. I think, in fact, that it is time for Rock to have

Prologue

a code name." Rock seethed and got up, preparing to leave the room through the open doorway when the room started rumbling, dropping everyone far, far down. 

"Are you ready?" asked Shapeshift to three Sonobar foot-soldiers, looking around for eavesdroppers. Shapeshift lifted his hands to the sky, waving them around in a complex pattern. "Now you three do the same, starting with you, Blxlx." The Sonobar footsoldier lifted his hands to the sky, waving them around the same way. "Good," 

Prologue

Shapeshift said, waiting for the other two to do it before he got up and prepared to walk away. A golden light flashed across the dark room, igniting the green sand on the ground. "It's over," a voice said, followed by a neck snapping. When Shapeshift finally turned, Blxlx and the other two were sprawled out on the flaming sand, and a shining Stage II figure was floating over them. King Cephaly.

The room finally stopped, much hotter than before the

Prologue

drop. "Is anyone going to tell me what the heck is happening?" asked Rock as the wall faded away, revealing a window that showed the core of the space station. "Wait," Rock said. "How is this the core of a planet if we're on a space station?" "The station is built into a planet," replied Muscle, walking to the window and swiping his hand on it. It faded away again, this time making room for a map of the HG1. "Do you notice something different, Rock?" "No." "Look at where Mentite used to be." Rock's jaw dropped. "Mentite has returned."

           The Battle of Mentitia

"We recently noticed that bright lights were flashing in many different caves around Mentitia, the northern Mentitian mainland. We suspect that Shapeshift, the Sonobar, and Shapeshift's elusive species are working together to take over the galaxy. We will attempt to-" "SHUT UP!" cried Bev, suddenly tackling the man on the throne, who collapsed to the floor in a heap of robes. Bev ripped off his hood and revealed the face of one of Shapeshift's species. "Tell us your name!" cried Bev, slapping the alien in the face. "How did you know I was there?!" the alien cried. Bev slapped his face again, and he squeaked "My name is Gvxvxvii!" before he exploded. 

The Battle of Mentitia

Five black-cloaked figures ran to a panel in the wall frantically pressing buttons as the meeting room flew back up, eventually going out into the light. Then it sped toward the newly recovered planet of Mentite, causing screams from everyone. "Fix the panel, Bronk!" cried one of the black-cloaked figures, causing another scream of "You're the one who's supposed to be the tech whiz, Puff!" Eventually, the ship did stop, but that was because the snowy tundra of Mentitia was in the way. They jumped as everything began to rumble and flip. 

The Battle of Mentitia 

A singular red-cloaked figure emerged from the blizzard, hobbling toward the wreck of their meeting room ship. He waved his hand, as if calling more, and right on cue hundreds of red-cloaked figures poured out of the snowy fog, charging their ship. "Brace yourselves!" the one apparently called Bronk cried, running to another panel with a single red button. He slammed down on it and it exploded, sending sparks flying everywhere as a perfect force field wrapped around the ship. "Thank you, Bronk!" one of the black-cloaked figures cried, walking to the

The Battle of Mentitia

window. "Come on, guys, we should flank! Divide and conquer, people!" Bronk roared, smashing the door down in one kick. A blast of freezing wind and snow slammed into Bronk, sending him flying back. Two red-cloaked figures jumped down from the roof of their ship and ran inside, ducking behind a control panel. Bronk whipped out an axe and slammed it into the panel, breaking it in half and flipping back as red seeped through the cracks in the floor. Bronk looked away and ran back to Rock, who had been surrounded by Muscle, Kick, Winter, Puff, 

The Battle of Mentitia

and three other black-cloaked figures. One pulled back his hood, revealing another mask as he charged the new red-cloaked figures and ran to the left, disappearing in the blizzard. Puff, Bronk, Rock, Winter, Muscle, and Roboboy followed the figure, finally catching him laying on the floor on a snowy hill. Red was quickly seeping into the snow, and the dying figure mouthed Shapeshift, 

eventually collapsing to the floor and making a long, slow breath. "No. Not him. Not Wright II," Roboboy breathed, running to the body. "Leave me here so I can

The Battle of Mentitia

save him. I have to bring him back to the rest. Go on. Find Shapeshift." Then he flung the body over his shoulder and ran back to the shipwreck with it. "Come on," Bronk said, running down the snowy hill and tripping. Puff snickered as Bronk tumbled down the hill, finally collapsing in a heap at the base. Muscle went limp, letting his body roll, flip, twist, and slide down the hill until he landed next to Bronk, groaning and muttering. Winter and Puff grabbed Rock's hands and flung him off the top of the mountain, screaming from behind.

The Battle of Mentitia

When everybody was finally at the bottom of the hill, they slowly got up and ran after the splatters of blood on the sand. "Eventually we're bound to find something in this mess," Bronk mumbled, looking around through his mask. "This way," he added, grabbing Puff and running into the snowy depths. "I'm gonna go back," Rock said, but Muscle grabbed him and Winter, charging after Bronk. They eventually found him, laying on the floor by many red-cloaked figures. "But you took Puff!" Winter cried, looking around for another black-cloaked figure.

The Battle of Mentitia

"They took her," he whispered, his nose crinkling as he looked at his weapon. His sword had Sonoldier blood all over it, but chips were taken out of it, like he had engaged in some intense battles. "They stabbed her and ran away with her body. They sliced up my legs so I couldn't chase after them. We CAN'T split up." Rock grabbed Bronk's body and flung it back to Muscle, calling out "You need to take him back. The two of us will go." And so, Rock and Winter stomped away, into the depths of the snow, prepared for anything. Prepared for death.

The Battle of Mentitia

After hours of walking through the snow, climbing cliffs, sliding down hills, and seeing dead red-cloaked bodies dotted around on the ground, stuck to rock formations, and floating inexplicably in the air, Rock and Winter were still walking when the sun set, falling behind an especially tall mountain. Rock gasped and Winter ran, both of them getting there at the same time. Winter was rubbing her hands down the large metal door at the front, pressing on certain spots and seething when it didn't work. Eventually, Winter grabbed Rock's hand, 

The Battle of Mentitia

lifting it up and pressing it on a slightly darker square-shaped section of the door. Winter pressed another spot, and the door rolled upward, hissing as a row of small lanterns lit to life on the walls. "Come on," hissed Winter, stealthily creeping into the room. Rock simply walked, looking around at the lanterns and sighing. Winter always ran straight into things, not thinking about what would happen. Rock eventually picked up into a run, Winter creeping along the wall right behind him. Eventually, Rock and Winter found a fork in the hall.

The Battle of Mentitia

"We have to split up. You go one way, I go... the other way," Winter said, shoving Rock into one of the shadowy halls. Rock screamed as the floor turned into a descending stairway, sending him tumbling down to the bottom. He slowly got up, and when he looked back up, Winter was gone. He found two red-cloaked guards charging him from a faraway corner of the hall, and he quickly whipped out the Sword for the first time in this adventure, slashing it across the chest of the first one. Rock suddenly heard a scream. Winter's scream.

The Battle of Mentitia

Rock spun around, kicking the second figure in the face as he zoomed away from the room, heading toward the fork. He pivoted and charged down the left hall, looking for the source. Eventually, he barely slowed himself before he plummeted into a pit. He eventually caught up to Winter, who was still falling, and they both shot grapples up. "This path is definitely not the way," Winter said as they finally blasted up into the main path. "I found some Sonoldiers on the right path. It almost feels like they were guarding something." They ran up to the

The Battle of Mentitia 

Sonoldiers, who were mysteriously gone. A trail of blood stretched, dragged along the floor until it disappeared in a fog. They both sped up their pace, eventually going at a full run, going up stairs, ladders, and, surprisingly, scaffolding until they finally reached their destination. Everything got colder. Rock formations, glowing with a purplish tint and sparkling in the sunset surrounded them, and a gleaming fog that seemed to reflect off the walls filled the room. If it even was a room. "Come on," Winter whispered, sliding along the wall and causing

The Battle of Mentitia

chunks of the rock to fall off. "Are you done with your 'stealth mode' yet?" hissed Rock, simply walking through the fog. He suddenly felt the world drop, and something grab his hand. The force grabbing his hand pulled him up, up, up, until he felt the ground underneath him. He heard a voice say "That's why you stay out of the fog." He opened his eyes to see Winter mid-sigh, lifting her head up as if to show something in the distance. Rock turned, seeing many Sonoldiers with guns walking around on a platform, and on a pedestal stood a glimmering orb.

The Battle of Mentitia

"I think that's valuable," Rock whispered, shooting his grapple at a rock formation by the Sonoldiers. That alerted the Sonoldiers, who started pouring out bullets. But Rock was too fast. He zipped around in the foggy sky, dodging every single shot, until he managed to land on the top of the rock formation. The Sonoldiers, obviously trained in battle, unsheathed seven shiny swords. Rock groaned, igniting his Sword and swinging it at the first Sonoldier. The other six got their guns back out and started shooting at Winter, who was now zipping around

The Battle of Mentitia

overhead. Rock laughed and threw a throwing star at one of the trained Sonoldiers, who blocked it, but subsequently tripped on it and toppled off the edge. Rock looked around at his precarious situation, seeing nothing but fog on all sides of them, and the Sonobar HQ in the distance, where they were a few minutes ago. Rock sliced down on the Sonoldier, but he blocked it, and the other five were chasing Winter around on the northern side of the platform. Rock eventually brought another one down with throwing stars, but not before 

The Battle of Mentitia

both Rock and Winter were pinned down by Sonobar members. "Stupid traitor Owen," one muttered. "I bet he's the one training these 'Transcend' to fight us." "Who's Owen?" Winter had to ask. "I'll tell you," said the Sonoldier with two swords, who appeared to be the leader. "Owen was one of our most loyal, strongest, and overall best soldiers. He was loyal to all of our leaders, especially Shapeshift and the (-. He-" "Who are the (-?" asked Rock. "Shapeshift's species. If you romanised that name, it would be Xxcxcxbxxx." Rock groaned. "Anyway,

The Battle of Mentitia

Owen was the best. We won many battles because of him. He never got to fight you, though. Said you weren't worth the hassle. He did fight Wright once, though. Said it was a draw. He came back with a missing hand and he said he managed to cut open Wright's chest. Somehow I find that hard to believe, seeing as how the entire battle happened in a half minute." Winter snickered. "ANYWAY," roared the Sonoldier leader, "one day we went to have a party with him for our newest victory, when we came across a pile of pillows left as a decoy Owen. We knew 

The Battle of Mentitia

what had happened, chased him down the halls, and finally cornered him on this very platform." He pointed to dried blood scattered on a rock formation in the distance. "He killed three of my squadrons before we beat him. He grabbed a grapple from one of the bodies, saluted, and let his body fall off the cliff." Rock and Winter both gasped. "What?! It's not that crazy." "No," breathed Winter. The last four Sonoldiers gasped this time. The leader turned, but a blur of black cloak was already on them, killing all four instantly. The leader 

The Battle of Mentitia

also gasped, but the man had flipped back his hood, revealing gleaming blue eyes and long, light brown hair. "Owen," the leader practically growled, charging him. The leader seemed to make a sighing sound when he came in contact with Owen, and his upper half collapsed to the ground, disappearing in the fog as Owen shot his grapple into the air, snagging it on a rock formation and zooming away. Rock's jaw dropped as Owen's glimmering form disappeared beyond the horizon. They looked down, seeing the fog part as thousands of robots

The Battle of Mentitia

emerged from the depths, locking on Rock and Winter and opening fire. Rock jumped to the side, slamming against the stone floor of the platform as Winter ducked, spun, and dodged every laser emitted from the robots. Eventually, Winter jumped off the platform as Rock screamed, landing on one of the robots and slamming into its face. The robot made a groaning sound, collapsing to the ground as all the other robots attacked Winter. Then the fog connected again. Rock roared and let himself fall off the edge, landing on three robots,

The Battle of Mentitia

who all died. Rock ran through the crowd of robots, finally making it to another cliff where there was a splash of fresh blood on the floor. There was only one person here with blood, other than Rock. Rock jumped off another cliff, shooting his grapple at a stalagmite and swinging down. He saw Winter, holding onto a robot's decapitated body on the floor. Blood was everywhere. "I saw Puff," she whispered. "Puff. In the distance." Winter pointed to another mountain far off along the horizon. Rock sighed. "When are we gonna get off this island?!"

The Battle of Mentitia

"When we find our friends," she snapped, teleporting away with one flick of her Teleportorb. Rock looked out in the distance, at where Puff was, and grabbed his communicomm. "Hey Roboboy? Go west, crest seventeen hills, turn left, walk a hundred steps, then turn right and bolt. Eventually you'll make it to this mountain. Bring Muscle, so he can bust down the door, then just follow the path, looking for a fork in the road. Turn right, run all the way down the path, then go up the stairs, walk through the fog room, grapple to the platform, 

The Battle of Mentitia

jump off the edge at approximately 144° clockwise, walk north through the robots, jump off the next cliff, then look for the tallest mountain in the distance. That's where they're keeping Puff." Rock heard furious scribbling through his communicomm, then Roboboy's simple "Okay. Got it. Now, can you repeat that?"

Bronk, Roboboy, Muscle, and three other black-cloaked figures were in the meeting ship, propping Bronk's body up on the corner of the ship. Many black-cloaked figures

The Battle of Mentitia

were dashing around the room, pressing buttons and cutting wires. "Where are we?" groaned Bronk, sliding down his makeshift bed. "We're at the ship," said Muscle, crossing his arms and looking angrily at Bronk, as if blaming him for sending Muscle back. "Not my fault," Bronk mumbled, looking down at his legs, which were part metal now. "How are you so fast with that?" Bronk asked. "We never share our secrets." 

After Rock repeated the instructions seventeen times,

The Battle of Mentitia

much to Bronk's enjoyment, Roboboy finally rendezvoused with Muscle, Bronk, Winter, Owen, and one other black-cloaked figure at the base of a rock formation halfway to the mountain. "Come-" Winter started to hiss, but Rock cried "SHUT UP WITH THE 'COME ON'S!" and stormed off into the rocky hills. The area that the group were in was at the threshold where the cold, mountainous Normal Side Mentitia met the barren, sweeping deserts of the Other Side Mentitia. "Are we going to go? I feel like we've been here for way too 

The Battle of Mentitia

long. Let's just barge in, kill the guards, scream 'PUFF! SCREAM BACK IF YOU CAN HEAR US!' and teleport away to the battle!" Roboboy cried. "Battle?!" Rock cried, looking at Roboboy and sighing. "Yes, battle. A horde of crazy robots invaded, but our Assembly are fighting strong and mighty. A few minutes ago, a tribe of Mentitian natives attacked us, and we had to... take a few prisoners. Many natives, robots, and Assembly members fell, but none of our close friends, none of the people you personally know, have died. It's all under control." 

The Battle of Mentitia

Rock seethed and charged. He ran until he was only a few yards from the door, the two guards half asleep at the gate. Rock threw a throwing star, which slammed into the neck of the guard. The guards barely had armor, and their neck and face were showing. The guard made a groaning sound and slid down the side of the wall, leaving a trail of blood on the stones. The other guard looked over, bolting awake and slamming into Rock. Rock fell backwards and collapsed on the floor, his head rolling over. He shook himself awake, and, as the rest of his 

The Battle of Mentitia

team came, he kicked the second guard into the door. The door splintered into bits, and as lanterns flickered on, Rock squinted and saw the limp body of the guard plummet down some sort of hole, disappearing from sight. Rock, Winter, and Owen prepared to jump down the hole, Muscle and Roboboy acting as the guards and defending the hole from the outside. Winter and Owen jumped down, screaming as wind flew everywhere and they disappeared. Rock decided to just go limp, flipping and twisting as he fell. Eventually, he simply passed out.

The Battle of Mentitia

At the battlefield, three Assembly members swung their swords at a large robot, which kicked the first one in the torso. He flew up like a bird, gracefully breaking his spinal column on a rock formation. The other two roared in fury, slashing their blades at the hulking robot. The robot's weak metal finally tore open, and they slashed again, vertically this time. A perfect square was cut in the metal, and the robot started to fall apart. The robot exploded, and when the last Assembly member finally woke up, he saw his friend's shoulder blade stuck deep

The Battle of Mentitia

in his friend's mouth. The last Assembly member roared in fury, charging at the next robots. CRACK! SNAP! CRRK! 

The Assembly member's dead body, separated into many pieces, was laying in the snow. More Assembly members saw this and casually walked back into the safety of the meeting room. 

"WAAAAAH!" Rock heard faint screams, but was too weak to care. "WaAaAaH!" Rock eventually slammed onto something, jolting awake to see Winter and Owen 

The Battle of Mentitia

twitching on the mattress-like thing they had landed on. Rock couldn't move anything, but still felt electricity flowing under them and shocking them. Suddenly, a tiny voice started squeaking from somewhere above him, and a large squirrel fell from the sky and smacked Rock in the face. Immediately lightning scurried up Rock's body, smashing into the squirrel, which stuck its tongue out dramatically and collapsed on the mattress, still surging with electricity. Rock tried to move his hand to touch the squirrel, but nothing moved. Rock roared in 

The Battle of Mentitia

fury, which was more a soft squeak, and pounded his fists, which was a slightly more visible twitch. He groaned in his mind, right before the mattress ripped in half, sending flaming bolts of lightning scattering everywhere. Rock could finally talk and move again. "Winter!" cried Rock, looking around. It turns out they were already on the next floor down. A faint light glowed from the far wall, lighting up the room. There was one doorway, leading way to a slide downwards into a dark room. Winter stood at the doorway, looking down into the door.

The Battle of Mentitia

"Owen just dropped down." Then she jumped into the doorway and fell.

"Puff?" Owen was walking through the hall, going towards the light far in the distance. He thought he saw a flicker of that stupid Pog. "I hate Pogs," he hissed, running faster and getting to the chair where Puff was chained up. Owen shook Puff awake, and she finally whispered "He's back." "I know," Owen said, "but do you really?" Owen lifted a knife right above Puff's chair. 

The Battle of Mentitia

"You're gonna cut my ropes?!" "Far from it." Puff's eyes bulged as Owen's knife lifted again, preparing to slice downwards and kill Puff. "It's over." Suddenly, a clipped scream of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" echoed through the air.

The robots had surrounded the stranded Assembly members, who were swinging weapons around to stop the robots' advance. "Do we have help from Rock yet?"
"No, his entire squad hasn't been heard from in hours!" 

The Battle of Mentitia

Their weapons and bullets bounced off the robots as they retreated farther into the safety of the meeting room ship. "Come in, Rock!" one of the members screamed into a communicomm. "Something's... very wrong in this castle..." he responded, clicking off. "Wait! WAIT!" the Assembly member screamed into the communicomm, throwing it onto the floor when no response came.

"Don't!" Rock was chasing after Winter, who was a blur 

The Battle of Mentitia

of light headed for Owen. He dropped his knife, running as fast as he could away from Winter. "DoN't KiLl Me!?!?!" he screamed, lunging for the only door out of the room, huge and wooden. "I didn't notice that before," Winter mumbled, seemingly going even faster as she tackled Owen into the door. Rock ran over to them just as the giant door splintered, raining chunks of wood down onto Winter and Owen. Then, he looked up and saw the cracks spreading across the stone above. Two unconscious figures, laying right under the broken walls.

The Battle of Mentitia

THREE HOURS LATER

Rock got up on his feet, blood splattered everywhere on the floor, if you could even call it a floor. Two feet of gravel and rocks were covering the ground, making it near impossible to walk. He hobbled over to Winter and Owen, hoping to find them alive, but when he came over to check, only Winter was there. "Figures," Rock mumbled, watching a ship fly away. "He was never on our side. He was a double agent. And he tried to kill- WAIT! PUFF!" Rock pivoted and charged for the chair, 

The Battle of Mentitia

screaming on sight of what he saw. Red was everywhere, dripping from the chair, pooling on the ground, on a figure so discolored it took Rock a second to identify that it wasn't part of the debris. "Puff?" "I thought you wouldn't wake up... I was... watching..." she coughed, looking down at her feet- Rock gasped as he noticed Puff had no feet. Or legs, or hands. The only limb left was two arm stumps and a head, completely lacking its past beauty. Her dusty hair streamed down on all sides, pieces torn off and bent upwards. "It's... the end for me.

The Battle of Mentitia

Take Winter... and go... far... away... from... here..." she sighed, looking back up. Then farther up. Then farther up until her eyes were only white. Her eyes shivered, then her body thudded to the ground.

      Puff's Misadventures 

"Come on! We have to get out of here!" Winter screamed from ahead as they made their way up the winding steps leading to the pedestal where Owen killed the Sonoldiers and fled earlier on. "Are we almost there?" Rock called. "NO!" Winter called back, but by then she was already on the pedestal. "Lies," Rock said as he made the final jump to get onto the pedestal, looking at the dead bodies. Five Sonoldiers, and one hooded figure. "Uh..." Winter said, pulling the hood off of the figure, revealing Owen's face. A sword was thrust straight through his chest, and his eyes were wide with terror. "Who could've- Rock?" Winter

Puff's Misadventures 

asked, turning to look at him. "Where's Puff?"

The battle back at the meeting room was still on as techie Assembly members played around with the wires, trying to figure out how to get the ship up and running. "Come on, people," Roboboy sighed, pacing around the room. "Rock, Puff, and Winter are waiting for us at the castle." "We're trying our best!" "Well, be better!" 

"Where's Puff?" she repeated, staring Rock down. "Tell

Puff's Misadventures 

me now!" she screamed, shoving Rock to the floor. He slid along the pedestal, finally screeching to a halt just before he fell off. He got up and sighed, "Puff's dead," just as Winter charged him. "YOU LET HER DIE?!?!?!?" she cried, pulling out a sword and swinging it at his face. He took out his own sword and blocked the attack, seething at Winter. Winter gasped when she saw the meeting room ship beginning to float in the distance, slicing her sword downwards towards Rock's knees. He jumped back, dropping his sword.

Puff's Misadventures 

Winter laughed and thrust her sword towards Rock, who screamed and shoved her away. By now he was at the very edge of the pedestal. Winter looped around the pedestal and sheathed her sword, grabbing Rock by the shirt and spinning him around a few times, before chucking him off the edge, into the fog.

"Go! Go! Go!" Bronk pulled the ship around, doing a one-eighty towards the pedestals. His smile faded when he saw only one figure standing on the foggy platform. 

Puff's Misadventures 

"Winter?" he said, landing the ship down on a nearby pedestal and looking over. "They're dead," Winter said, sobbing. Bronk ran over and looked at the blood splattered on the pedestal's edge. "Sonoldiers were everywhere in ships. Puff died when the room exploded. Rock was taken out by the ships. He smashed his head on the pedestal's edge." Bronk raised his eyebrow, but turned back. Then Winter screamed. 

Bronk turned to Winter just as Rock's body lifted into the 

Puff's Misadventures 

sky, pure black eyes shining at Winter. "The Void Sprite is not dead." Winter gasped, smashing into the floor when Rock lifted his hand. "But he has become something stronger." A dark figure began to hobble through the fog. "Shapeshift?" Bronk asked. Then he slammed into the pedestal, sliding off and falling by the figure. Muscle charged out of the ship and looked at Winter, and at the floating body. Muscle lunged over the pedestal, slamming into Rock and knocking him out of his trance. Winter screamed again as Rock and Muscle tumbled over

Puff's Misadventures 

the edge towards the dark figure. 

Muscle hit the ground with a thud, groaning and looking around. He saw Rock's silhouette, but could barely see anything past that. "The fog is so dense," he sighed, hobbling towards Rock. "And you're alive?" he cried. Rock was leaning against a rock formation, bloody and unconscious, with ripped-out hair and broken limbs. "Winter," he coughed. Muscle looked up through the fog. "Winter."

Puff's Misadventures 

A dark shape loomed over a faraway planet, reaching its tendrils of shadow out and latching onto the continents. Then it pulled. People were screaming as earthquakes ruptured the land. Entire cities collapsed and exploded as people jumped in cars and drove away. Skyscrapers pancaked and waves became tsunamis. An echoing, omnipresent laugh rippled through the planet as it ripped in half, exploding. The tendrils of shadow caught the screaming people and threw them out into space. "I... HAVE... RETURNED..."

Puff's Misadventures 

"This is the final battle," Winter said to Bronk, who had escaped the fog when Winter let him on the ship, Roboboy, and the rest of the Assembly members as the meeting ship left Mentitia to head back to Seim'la'Koikk, the birthplace of Pokoll Okllk. "We need to get ready. Shapeshift is on us. Whatever form of the Void Sprite retained... is on us. Get whatever weapons you have. Because I have a lead." 

   The Planet of Darkness

"Are you sure this is where the Void Sprite lives?" "The Twilight Incinerator," Winter interrupted. "This isn't Stranger Things," Bronk sighed. "You don't get to just go around naming things based on what they do-" "What's a Stranger Things?" Winter asked. "It's some show. They were talking about it on the Eearth channel." "Oh, I've heard of that! Didn't they have a character named after a number?" "Eleven or twelve or something." Winter walked over to the window, looking out at the void. "Are we close? Because I'm getting spacesick." "It says it is five trillion miles away." "Okay, do we have lightspeed?" 

The Planet of Darkness

"No, but I can-" Winter pulled her gun out, set it to Stun, and shot Bronk directly in the face. "There's no time to lose," she muttered. "We must get this ship, and everyone on it, to the planet, and fast. In time for the sacrifice." Her eyes flashed black as the ship began to accelerate, bursting into lightspeed.

"She tried to kill you?" "Yes. And then, in the fog. I saw a figure. Hobbling around on the floor. Black eyes. Shapeshift. He was about to collapse. Whatever this 

The Planet of Darkness

shadow beast is, it's using Shapeshift as a vessel. Shapeshift can't control this. But I wonder how long this has been the case... when we were in Pogland..." Muscle sighed, turning to the bodies dotting the floor. "Everywhere in a hundred mile radius from here has a body laying on the floor." Rock laughed, his body slumping even farther down. "What is wrong with Winter?" "It took her." "You think so?" Muscle laughed. "I know so. If she's not trying to smooch you, she's obviously been taken over by a shadow demon."

The Planet of Darkness

Winter blasted the ship into the atmosphere of the darkness planet as Bronk laid on the floor, blood dripping from his forehead. "He's not dead," Winter said. Roboboy turned a corner and saw Winter preparing to chuck Bronk out of the window. Winter saw Roboboy gasp and pulled out a gun, setting it to Kill and firing. Roboboy caught the bullet with his robotic hand, letting it tear through his palm. "Invincible, robotic, bulletproof, blah, blah, blah," he chuckled. "Now you die." Roboboy lifted his hands out and watched them open, lasers

The Planet of Darkness

pouring out and slamming into Winter. She screamed as beams of pure fire spread across her body and threw her backwards into the control panel. Then it dropped a few hundred feet, slamming into the darkness. Winter flew upwards, crashing into Roboboy, who was falling. Winter screamed and grabbed Roboboy's head, attempting to twist it and kill him. Roboboy let it spin around, but nothing happened. The ship was slowly getting consumed by darkness, and at that moment, the cockpit broke off from the main ship, and hundreds of black-

The Planet of Darkness

cloaked figures poured out of the break in the ship, slamming into the ground and getting consumed by the shadows. Winter laughed as the ship started to sink into the ground, darkness swirling around them. Winter lifted into the air, eyes filling up with black, and aimed her hand down at Roboboy. A laser quickly fired, slamming into Winter's swirl of darkness. It exploded instantly, pinning Roboboy to the floor. "I..." he said with gritted teeth, "am not going to die today!" He thrust both hands out, sending a long, straight beam of fire into Winter's 

The Planet of Darkness

face. She recoiled in the air, screaming, and when she turned back to look at Roboboy, her eyes were on fire. Blood streaming down her face. Roboboy screamed. She collapsed, falling, falling, falling, dead. The darkness spreading. Consuming. Incinerating. The twilight. The monster. Roboboy looked up. It was here. 

Muscle carried Rock's limp body through the fog, going up and down hills as they went. "We'll get to a ship eventually," Muscle sighed, grunting as he walked up

The Planet of Darkness

an especially steep hill. "We'll find a-" His sentence was cut short by static from Rock's communicomm. Rock moved his hand towards his belt, wincing with the effort, and grabbed his communicomm. "I'm here, over," he breathed, waiting for a response. "It's me. It's Roboboy. I'm hiding in some sort of void planet where everything is shadows trying to consume me. I'm on a rock formation, also black, looking down at the darkness eating my ship. A monster is floating in the air, right above me, and it's getting closer. And Winter's dead."

The Planet of Darkness

Rock slid out of Muscle's grip and started to scream. The memories. Rock rolled down the hill, leaving a small trail of blood behind him. Tears dripped from his eyes as Muscle yelled something from the top of the hill. Rock blah blah blah blah mourning blah blah blah kill you! Rock laid on the ground, looking up at the fog. "Winter." 

THREE TRILLION YEARS EARLIER
The Twilight Incinerator hovered over Mentite. "Open."

The Planet of Darkness

A tendril of shadow flew at the speed of dark and smashed into a small island. "Open... the Darkroom..." It backed up slowly, whispering ancient rituals as the tendril twisted and spun, going deeper into the small island. "Open... the fifth... dimension..." A pedestal began to form over the Darkroom's opening, closing off the gate and tearing the tendril off from its body. The Twilight Incinerator heard a piercing scream from the Darkroom, as the entire planet rumbled. "Be... free... Void Sprite..." Then two tendrils twisted and collided, opening

The Planet of Darkness

a gate to the fifth dimension. "Goodbye... I will... see you... soon..." Then he dematerialised, turning into cubes the size of continents, and closed off the fifth dimension's gate. 

        Return to Pogland

"We have to meet up with the gang. I had a vision." Muscle laughed. "You're delusional, Rock. She's dead." "No! They were able to save her before! With a... with a... some sort of sensory deprivation tank! But... I think she was in a tank of blood... We just have to go now!" At this point, they'd cleared the fog, and were coming up on a shipyard. "We can take a boat to Pogland! We can communicomm Bronk and Roboboy and-" "Bronk's dead. Winter is dead. The Twilight Incinerator, as Roboboy insisted we call it, took over her mind, causing her to kill everybody on the ship, including herself. ROBOBOY was

Return to Pogland

the only survivor, and HE'S not even going to last much longer." "YOU'RE WRONG! I won't stop looking until I find her. She's gone. You have lost. You struggled to stop the Void Sprite. I can infinitely reproduce and create more. I WIN!  "ROCK!" Rock jolted up, gasping for air. A small black tendril rippled out of his mouth as he exhaled. "Muscle, it's over. If we destroy this shadow beast, if we sever our ties to the fifth dimension, we can win this war. We. Can. Win. This. War." Muscle looked up at the sky, watching a dark tendril blot out the sun's light.

Return to Pogland

"He keeps growing," Muscle breathed, grabbing a rocket launcher draped around his back. Muscle screamed, spinning around and shooting it at the Twilight Incinerator. Muscle laughed as the rocket zoomed up, slamming into the shadows and tearing the tendril ever so slightly. "We know how to kill him now. Rockets. We just have to get an army. A huge army." 

Roboboy screamed, jumping backwards as black spikes shot out of the ground, the rock formation he was sitting

Return to Pogland 

on crumbling. Winter's body lifted into the air and exploded, tendrils of shadow tearing her apart. "I can't believe she betrayed us like this. Nobody's gonna make it out alive," he muttered. He gulped, looking out at the endless plain of shadow. "Rock," he said into his communicomm, closing his eyes and turning his head to the sky when no response came. "ROCK!" Roboboy screamed. He waited. And waited. And waited. Static. He slammed the communicomm on the broken rock formation, beginning to cry when it broke and fell into 

Return to Pogland

the shadows, disappearing as if it fell into water. Roboboy jumped off his rock formation, hoping to just fall into the darkness and die. But right before his body fell into the shadow-murk, he stopped, frozen in place, like a force was keeping him there. You. Stay. Alive. I can't have my favorite puppet killing himself, now can I? Roboboy's hand flew out, forcing him to grip a piece of shadow that flew by. Let me... take you... Roboboy let go, letting the shadow fly away. LET ME TAKE YOU!  Roboboy screamed again, waving his 

Return to Pogland

fists in the air. He screamed one last time, kicking at the air, then the Twilight Incinerator let him fall, and with a PLOP, Roboboy's body twitched, floating on shadows, then it tore in half and sank into the depths. 

Muscle and Rock jumped onto the nearest ship and sent it straight up into the sky. They did a few flips, spent a half hour upside down, and might have even been going down for a second. But despite the hardships, they managed to make it into space, looking out over Mentite.

Return to Pogland

"We need to get an army first. We're going to head to Pogland, seize the army there, and-" "We are not going to seize anything," Muscle said, grabbing Rock by the shirt. "We are going to tell them what is happening, and hope that they will want to save the world with us again!" Rock sighed. "Winter can't be dead. She can't be." Muscle lifted Rock into the air, still grabbing his shirt, and seethed. "That is not the reason why we are going to Pogland. We are going to get an army. Not see if she's alive. She betrayed you. She tried to kill you. She-" Rock 

Return to Pogland

punched Muscle in the face, sending him flying backwards into the wall of the ship. Rock ran to the controls, which were smashed from Muscle's muscles slamming into them, and pressed the Emergency Autopilot button. Muscle groaned and got up. "She was controlled by the... the... the Twilight Idoogydooby! She didn't mean to!" Muscle charged Rock, grabbing him and throwing him into the window. As it shattered, the ship turned downwards, the autopilot chirping "Arriving at Pogland in: One minute, thirty seconds." Rock laughed, 

Return to Pogland

grabbing a parachute from the wall and jumping out of the shattered window. Muscle gasped, grabbing his own parachute as Rock plummeted towards Pogland. "Let's see if we can beat the ship!" Rock called, opening his parachute a few hundred feet above the ground. It turned out, they were in a beautiful Poglandic field, with white flowers growing in patches on the hills. Just then, as Muscle and Rock landed, their ship collided with the ground, exploding and sending flaming chunks of metal flying through the air. Muscle laughed, staring at the

Return to Pogland

explosion, but Rock heard a scream from behind them. He turned around and saw an old man, standing in front of his cottage, frozen in fear. A few sand dollars lay on the ground by his feet, and he had dropped everything in his hands. He spluttered, pointing at the explosion, then at Rock and Muscle, then at the field. "You destroyed my property! I'm calling 9111!" The Pog then ran into his house, slamming the door. "Wait! Wait up! Wait!" Rock and Muscle called, banging on the man's door. "What do you want?" he asked, opening the door. "We need your  

Return to Pogland

help." "With what?" the man asked, clearly suspicious of Rock and Muscle. "The queen is dead." "Cloud? It's about time." "How... how old are you?" "200-something," the man replied. "Oh. Well, do we have a story for you!" 

Roboboy panicked, waving his arms around and popping out at the top of the shadowy sea. He saw small snake-like shadowforms clamp around his ankles, pulling him in. He gasped, looking at some sort of weird stringy bubble below him. He let the shadowforms take him 

Return to Pogland

down, down, down, and into the bubble. Roboboy looked around, in awe, as the bubble shook and popped, sending him flying down through the ground. He heard something snap, saw a flashing grid, and fell onto solid ground. I thought I got ripped in half, he thought. He looked down and saw black vines wrapped around his waist. Fine. At least I'm alive. He looked up, jumping back and tripping when he saw what was in front of him. A huge city, skyscrapers stretching above the clouds. And the Twilight Incinerator. And So. Many. Gates.  

 The Fifth Dimension

Roboboy's eyes opened wide as he fully took in what he saw. Thousands of tendrils of the Twilight Incinerator's shadowform were tearing holes in the space-time and creating gates to the third dimension. "He was behind everything," Roboboy whispered, noticing the air. It was oxygen, for sure, since he wasn't suffocating, but huge chunks of shadow flew through the air and latched onto walls, withered trees, or weird small animals with rows upon rows of teeth. They were the size of rats, but Roboboy was afraid of rats, so he avoided them. He decided to go up to the city, knocking on the front door.

The Fifth Dimension

You came to me. Roboboy closed his eyes, hiding behind a wall. The Twilight Incinerator opened the door with a tendril of shadowform, grabbing Roboboy and pulling him to the front gate. Is this a sacrifice?  "No," Roboboy said, grabbing a knife from his belt. "This is your end." You can't always be the hero, Kick. "How did you know my-" Roboboy started, but a huge tendril suddenly rushed at him through the open door, slamming into his chest. Roboboy was lifted slightly into the air, his eyes rolling back, as the tendril passed 

The Fifth Dimension

through his body. It finally looped around and flew back through the door, causing Roboboy to collapse to the ground, unconscious. Okay...?  the Twilight Incinerator said quizzically, using shadowform to lift Roboboy's body up. Unless his little friends can save him, he'll die in this city. Oh, he will regret ever threatening my life.

"So this Winter," the old man said, "was the queen, but she died. And she wasn't reigning directly after Cloud, but there was some Daisy person as the queen? Oh. 

The Fifth Dimension

Wait. I remember Daisy. Wasn't she a baby just five years ago?" "No, she's dead too." "WAIT!" Rock screamed, turning to Muscle. "Bev. The Paxolotl. She can reign as queen until we find Winter-" "One," Muscle said, clenching his fists, "Winter is dead. Two. When she smashed the ship into the scary darkness planet, she killed Bev. Bev was on the ship with her. Everybody died. That's why we're relying on an army. Every. Single. Person on our team is dead." Rock looked around, hoping to find something to distract him from the truth.

The Fifth Dimension

Winter was dead. And at this point, there was nothing they could do about it. 

Roboboy woke up in a small room. The air was much cleaner and it smelt like burning meat. He walked over to what appeared to be bars in the darkness, looking out of  the window and seeing the city from a new angle. It was a circle of buildings, surrounding a giant arena in the center. "Wow," he breathed, peeking his head through the bar. "Wait. This cell is built for something nonhuman, 

The Fifth Dimension

and I can..." Roboboy slipped through the bars, grabbing a bar and standing on a tiny ledge. He looked down, still holding the bar for support, and saw that he was a few hundred floors up. He screamed, accidentally slipping off his ledge as it crumbled. His eyes opened wide, and he started to sweat. His palms got wet and slippery, and he slid off the bars, screaming as he plummeted towards the ground. He pulled out his communicomm, screaming "ROCK! ROCK! ROOOOOOCK!" He sighed, accepting his death, when he heard a click come through his comm.

The Fifth Dimension

"Wait," Rock said to Muscle, listening to the sound. "I'm getting communicommed." He pulled out his comm and ran out of the house. "Kick?!" "It's me. I found the Twilight Incinerator. I'm in the... the fifth dimension. Everything is darkness. I... am falling off of a building right now. But I know what to do. Go to the darkness planet and jump into the shadowform. Let it take you down, and look for a bubble. Once you get there, go through. You'll be in the fifth dimension. Goodbye, Rock. I had a good run." 

The Fifth Dimension

Roboboy closed his eyes, searching for Winter through the seventh dimension, the plane of consciousness. He saw Winter, huddled in a corner, covered in blood. She's alive. Roboboy let his body go limp, lifting into the air and resting his hands at his sides. Then his mouth opened, beginning to spew a bright beam of light. His soul. It flew through the air, dousing Winter in light. She opened her eyes, staring at Roboboy's body transcending into nothingness. She looked down, preparing to get up, when Roboboy exploded.

       The Sacrifice

DROWNING!  Winter opened her eyes, seeing nothing but currents of shadow flowing around her. Tendrils of darkness reached for her ankles, trying to pull her down, but she flew up in a burst of strength, popping out at the top. She saw something burning in the distance, on an island. The flames were black. It looked like her. She turned away, searching for the ship she crashed. It was nowhere to be found. She saw something stuck into the ground next to her, and pulled it out. The Sword. "How..." she breathed, swinging the Sword at a withered tree.

The Sacrifice

The tree was sliced cleanly in half as the Sword went back to Winter. Suddenly, a huge bolt of shadowform flew at her face. She ducked and sliced it with the sword. She saw the shadowform vaporize, fizzling away in the air. She laughed, fighting off sentient pieces of shadowform and eating them when they died for food, until she heard a SNAP! in the air and looked up. A grid flashed in her eyes and a gate to the fifth dimension opened. "The Darkroom was a gate," she whispered. "The Void Sprite was a part of this shadow monster."

The Sacrifice

She spun the Sword around in her hand, preparing for battle. Then the tendril rushed at her. She dodged the attack, slicing the tendril in half. It started to repair as Winter stomped the severed shadowform. The tendril diverged and wrapped around Winter's throat, slowly spreading in all directions. Winter's eyes went white as she twitched and lifted slightly into the air, hovering over the ground. Then she sliced the tendril again. She collapsed to the ground, the shadowform disappearing from her body. It slithered away, down into the depths of

The Sacrifice

the shadowform sea. You are strong.  Winter seethed and jumped on the tendril of shadowform, demanding it take her to the fifth dimension. The Twilight Incinerator laughed and closed the gate, cutting the massive tendril off from the main body. Winter screamed as the shadowform rushed into the atmosphere with her on it, and into the Trooper Zone, then dropped her. She laid down on a current of air, letting herself fall, until she saw a ship right below her. She grabbed the Sword, turned it into a grappling hook, 

The Sacrifice

and shot it at the man in the cockpit. He collapsed onto his chair, dying, as Winter zoomed into the ship and set it for Pogland. "I'm going home." 

Rock grabbed Muscle and dragged him out of the old man's house. "We go now. Winter's alive. We can get to the darkness planet and go with her to the gate. We can bring the army, just like you said!" Muscle tilted his head, thinking. "Let's go." They saw a bus stopping down the street, running towards it and getting on. They gave the 

The Sacrifice

bus driver three sand dollars (Poglandic mopopos) and told him to head for Pog City. "First off, wow. And are you sure? It's very, very dangerous." "Go." The bus driver turned, starting his path towards Pog City.

Winter flipped a switch on her ship, turning it to head for Mentite. She could still see traces of shadowform in her veins, a reminder of her betrayal. "Who all was in the ship?" she asked to herself. "Bev, Bronk, Roboboy, but I swear I saw Roboboy when I woke up- How did I wake 

The Sacrifice 

up?" She pulled a lever on the far side of the cockpit and watched as the ship sped up, shifting into lightspeed. The speed pinned her against her chair, finally stopping in the atmosphere of Mentite. She could see the mass of Pogland in front of her, and she zoomed into lightspeed again, setting off the emergency stop right above a deserted street in the outskirts of Pog City. "I'll wait here," she said. She landed the ship in some grass, getting out and spotting a bus stop. She ran across the sandy road, sitting down at the bench, waiting for a bus. 

The Sacrifice

Rock and Muscle zoomed by stop after stop on the bus, until Pog City loomed in the distance. Rock saw one person sitting on the bus stop ahead. "Maybe she knows about Winter?" Rock said, telling the driver to stop. "Fine. At least you gave me three thousand mopopos." "What?!" "A huge deflation crisis happened in Pogland, and one of those sand dollars you gave me could buy a house now." "Oh. Cool. Now stop the bus." He stopped the bus, sending Rock and Muscle flying to the front. They got off, and Rock screamed when he saw who was 

The Sacrifice

sitting on the bench. She'd fallen asleep there, waiting for them to arrive. "We didn't even plan this," Rock said, shaking her awake. "We're here."

The Twilight Incinerator twisted its tendrils into the city, exploding buildings and crumbling hotels. She escaped. He is dead. One saved the other. At least I have his consciousness. Roboboy's consciousness, a small wisp of light, floated and flipped around in a cage. "Let me out!" he screamed. Whenever someone dies in my 

The Sacrifice

dimension, their consciousness lays there when they die. Perk of the fifth dimension. I would have gotten your soul too, but you used it to save the Pog. I wouldn't have done that, personally. The Twilight Incinerator sighed, letting thousands of tendrils loose. They floated in place, slowly forming into humanoid shapes. "Voidsoldiers," Roboboy's consciousness breathed. They looked up, their shadowy forms twisting in the darkness. They dropped to the floor, hissing as the Twilight Incinerator opened a gate to the third 

The Sacrifice

dimension below them. Go. Play your part. Once you arrive, I will bring reinforcements. Goodbye, Voidsoldiers. Then they faded away, as Roboboy slammed his consciousness against the bars of his cage, as Winter, Rock, and Muscle ran through the arched entrance to Pog City, not knowing what would come. But they were coming, and they were coming strong.

             The Fatebender

Winter, Muscle, and Rock walked into a restaurant in Pog City, getting their Poglandic mopopos ready to spend. "This is the most expensive restaurant in central Pog City," Winter said. "I've been here before." Rock rolled his eyes as Muscle slammed five sand dollars down. "Filet mign-Pog," he said with a smile. The waiter raised his eyebrows, going back into the kitchen to tell the chef. "Muscle, you know you just paid for a house, right?" Rock said. "Remember? You probably just gave him the biggest tip of his life." "We can't be here long," Rock said, turning to Winter. "We have to get an army, and equip them with rocket launchers." "You can also use the 

The Fatebender

Sword of Avengeance," she replied, grabbing the Sword she took from the fifth dimension and swinging it around. "How'd you get that?" Rock asked, pulling out his two swords and sitting down with Winter at a table. "There are three now?" "I don't know, I found it." Just then, Muscle came back with his filet mign-Pog and set it down on the table, grabbing it with his teeth. "Yummy," he said, munching on the steak. "So... yummy..."  Winter laughed, falling back against the booth. "Do we get food?" Rock asked, making Winter laugh even harder.

The Fatebender

"The Twilight Incinerator whining was funny, but this is on another level!" Winter cried, slamming against the table and laughing. Rock shook his head, sneaking a piece of filet mign-Pog from Muscle's plate. He glared at Rock, slamming his fist down at the table. SNAP! At this point Winter was dying laughing, about to fall on the floor. She started to fall, but Rock caught her. "Careful!" he chuckled, stealing another piece of steak.

You won't make it back. Roboboy's consciousness slid 

The Fatebender

through the bars, flying out of the castle. A tendril of shadow passed through him as he screamed, going limp in the current. The Twilight Incinerator threw him back, laughing as he struggled to balance and eventually slid back into the bars. Then, the Twilight Incinerator used shadows to block off the rest of the open space, locking Roboboy in. Just then, he heard a snap.

Winter, Rock, and Muscle popped into the fifth dimension, checking out the area. "We leave, then we get

The Fatebender

the Pog army together," Rock whispered, slowly crawling along the ground. "He's not going to hear us," Winter said. They were all equipped with one of the Swords, the best weapon to use against the Twilight Incinerator, according to Winter. They crawled, ran, and slid along the ground until they entered the city and spotted a huge building with liquid, solid, gas, and plasma shadows surrounding it. "What...?" Rock whispered, throwing his Sword into the shadow. He heard a bang, a few blows landing, and a scream. Then the Sword came back. 

The Fatebender

"What is this?" Rock asked, climbing the final steps to the building. He opened a door and saw the wisp of Roboboy's consciousness laying in the cage, and the Twilight Incinerator looming over it, filling it with shadow. Rock ran in screaming, thrusting his sword deep into the shadowy mass. He heard a loud, dark scream, as liquid shadow pooled in the wound. Rock let the sword slide down, watching as shadowform poured from the gaping hole in his body. Just then, Muscle and Winter sliced their Swords cleanly through the base of two 

The Fatebender

tendrils, laughing as they fell off and fizzled away, turning into cubes. The monster roared, throwing Rock and his Sword off of it as it flung Muscle into the wall. But Winter was prepared. She jumped over a swinging tendril, landing on another one and slicing it off. Another dark, hollow scream. Winter looked over at Rock and Muscle, twitching on the floor, and swung the sword across the face of the Twilight Incinerator. He started to spin around, his tendrils slowly regrowing, and slapped Winter at high speeds with one. She flew up into the air,

The Fatebender

landing on one of the last remaining tendrils. She dove into it, swimming in the shadows, and sliced in front of her. She fell as the shadow current stopped, dropping her and the dying tendril down to the floor. He grabbed the ceiling with his two remaining tendrils, attempting to escape. But Winter lifted her hand, her eyes shivering, as the Twilight Incinerator clutched its chest with its tendrils. A huge white hole was opening in his body. His eyes began to shiver too, finally rolling back as the light consumed him. Then he fell to the ground and exploded.

The Fatebender

Winter was flung backwards into Rock, who coughed blood when Winter slammed into him. "Rock?" Winter asked, shaking him. "Rock?" She turned back and saw the Twilight Incinerator, its tendril stumps spewing darkness, getting up and opening one last gate. He dropped his last two tendrils to the floor, creating thousands of Voidsoldiers. Then he took his body, tendril-less and dying, and dropped it through the gate, closing it behind him. 

          The Army

Rock and Muscle laid in their hospital beds, hoping to get out of bed rest, walk out of the hospital, head over to the barracks, and get the Poglandic army. They'd seen firsthand what the Twilight Incinerator was doing. He could infinitely regrow his tendrils, so he used them to multiply, creating huge armies of Voidsoldiers. And they could be anywhere. "I always wondered where those huge piles of Voidsoldiers always came from," Rock coughed to Muscle. "Wright fought the Void Sprite, then we came along, and he told us about the Void Sprite and his legendary battle, but then I always wondered 'If he

The Army

destroyed the sprite, why did the Voidsoldiers keep. Coming. Back?'" Muscle nodded his head. "I know. But I saw it too. The gate. The tendrils. The soldiers. And he has to know where we are. Their army is coming for us. So we might not even be able to make it to the fifth dimension. Send Winter to every continent. Get soldiers. We fight the Voidsoldiers in Pog Pog Field, then we leave for the fifth dimension." Rock looked around, thinking about it. "Good idea. Winter!" Winter rushed into the room, carrying two guns with her Sword strapped to her

The Army

back. "What do you need?" she said. "I'm training." "We have an idea about the battle."

Winter rushed out of the hospital, looking for a rooftop shipyard. She finally spotted a ship at the top of a huge building, running in and punching the elevator until it opened. She got in and strapped herself to the wall as it flew upwards. The Pogs were master architects, so some of their buildings stretched out miles into the air. And their elevators were fast. Winter watched the Eearth 

The Army

channel daily, and once watched an episode about "Disniiland". They had cool rides like the 'Tower of Terror' and 'Space Mountain'. And the elevators in Pog City reminded her of those rides. The elevator suddenly stopped, jolting Winter into the air. But the strap held her tightly to the wall. She unstrapped it, walking out of the elevator to the shipyard. It was small, with only two or three ships on it. She got in the nearest one, preparing to start it, when the air suddenly got heavier and wet, the sky becoming dark. She turned to the back of the ship 

The Army

and saw Shapeshift, sweaty, weak, and malnourished, laying on the floor after vomiting shadow. His eyes were pure black, like Rock's, and he was unconscious. "Shapeshift?" she whispered. Then a shadowvine wrapped around his ankle, pulling him back, as the hologram fizzled into cubes. "SHAPESHIFT!" She began to type 'Darkness' into her autopilot, but deleted it and typed 'Seim'la'Neodi, Mentite'. She nodded her head, letting the ship begin to take off. "Shapeshift can die," she said, buckling her seat-belt as the ship blasted away.

The Army

She watched as Pogland disappeared, getting replaced with endless ocean, small islands dotting the empty void. Then she finally saw Mount Seim's peak, twenty or so houses lined up on a street by the shore. "Oh. I forgot about that. Well... I can just get whoever's here, promise them houses in Pog City, and tell them to get weapons! It doesn't look like they're going to leave this place otherwise, so...?" She landed on the peak, jumping out of her ship and sliding down the snowy hill until she landed next to a house. She knocked on the door, waiting until a 

The Army

man came out, skinny and dying like Shapeshift. "Do you want a house, a lifetime supply of food, and all your friends get to come? Then grab weapons, armor, and your friends, and come back to my ship." 

Muscle and Rock grunted as they sat up in their beds. "What even happened?" Rock asked, looking out of the window at the sheer drop. "Another skyscraper," he sighed. "And how did we get that injured just from getting thrown at a wall? We've come out of so much 

The Army

more completely unscathed. That thing must weaken us when it touches us or something, 'cause when anything else threw us backwards, that amount of torture never ensued." "I know," Muscle said, resting in the hospital bed. Then, the ground shook and shadows appeared in the air. Shadowform and shadowvines spread across the floor and walls, and Muscle was gone. Shapeshift crawled across the floor, leaving a trail of void-stained blood behind him. "Spare... me..." You are weak. You are a puppet, Shapeshift. Just like Kick was. And he is 

The Army

dead. Can't you see? Your destiny is to slowly die. All who oppose me are killed. Winter survived by a miracle. But, under my control, she took the lives of so many. Do you want me to list them, Shapeshift? 

"PLEASE!" Shapeshift screamed, trying to crawl even faster. His legs had been torn off, and his robe was dripping with blood. Bronk. Bev. She assisted in the death of Kick. And Puff.  Rock gasped. Yes, Rock. I took you to this place to hear what I have to say. And to see him die. Shapeshift gasped, turning around to find

The Army

himself face-to-face with a tendril slamming into his face. He screamed, flailing his arms and leg stumps around, lifting into the air with his eyes shivering. "I just want to return to my love!" he screamed through the shadowy current. "To... Winter..." And, to be totally honest, Rock enjoyed watching the show as Shapeshift's head bent back, shadowvines creeping along his neck, choking him, eating away at his life-force, until Rock heard a SNAP, jolting him up, up, up, and back to reality as Shapeshift's body was enveloped in shadow.

     The Battle of Pog City

As Winter, Rock, and Muscle met up at Pog Pog Field, thousands of battleships landing and streaming out people from different regions of Mentite, Rock ran over to Winter and told her "It wasn't the Twilight Incinerator." Winter looked at him like he was crazy. "What do you mean?" she asked. "The thing you fought and beat yesterday." "Oh, Rock, that wasn't yesterday. That was a few days ago. You were asleep for about ninety hours. I was afraid you wouldn't wake up. And WHAT?" Rock nodded his head. "I don't know where his full body is, but that wasn't his full form. He's hiding multiple versions of 

TBOPC

himself around the fifth dimension, and you just happened to kill the main one. But they're all connected, by huge tendrils, and they are still one solid shape. You just killed a branched-off piece." "So I did kill it?" she asked. "Yes. And it's not happy about it." 

The first Voidsoldiers began to pop out of the ground only a few seconds after the last Poglandic soldier arrived on the scene. "NOW!" Winter screamed, laughing as the tens of thousands of soldiers shot their rocket 

TBOPC

launchers at once. "GO! GO! GO!" Winter cried, grabbing her Sword and preparing to fight. "Hold your fire," Rock said over the roar of the battle. "HOLD YOUR FIRE!" The barrage of rocket launchers stopped, giving Rock a chance to see what was actually happening. The soldiers had managed to kill thousands of Voidsoldiers in about twenty seconds, but they had only grazed the tip of the army. Millions of Voidsoldiers covered the opposite end of the field, slowly hobbling towards Rock and Winter. And above them, the full form of the Twilight Incinerator.

TBOPC

"It looks like a fractal or something," Winter said. And she wasn't wrong. It was a huge ball of swirling shadows with eight tendrils branching off of it. Each tendril had eight more branching off of themselves, and each of those had eight more. Eventually, once the tendrils were about the size of a human, they stopped branching. So the main ball of shadow was about the size of a small moon. Rock grabbed his Sword, set it to jetpack, and grabbed a rocket launcher from one of the soldiers. He shot downwards, grabbing more ammo from his pocket, 

TBOPC

laughing as holes appeared in the solid mass of Voidsoldiers. It's over. Now that I am here, I will never leave. Rock gasped as two huge tendrils out of the main eight latched onto the planet, flying out of sight. The ground shook. Cracks appeared in the field. Shadowlava bubbled underneath them. Rock seethed. "I'm not losing this planet again." He dropped down to the battlefield, swinging his Sword at the Voidsoldiers. They groaned, fizzling away. The Twilight Incinerator dropped a tendril to the floor. The one that we cut the tip off of. He saw a 

TBOPC

clean slice at the tip of the tendril. "Winter, you did that." But Winter didn't respond. Rock turned around and saw Winter in the air, her eyes pure black. Muscle was floating next to her. The floating Sonoldiers. Their muscles relaxed as they hung there, hovering over the field just like the Sonoldiers in Mentitia. "WINTER!" The soldiers were floating there too. Now you get to see them die.   "No." Rock lifted into the air on his jetpack, soaring towards one of the tendrils stuck into Mentite. You really think that will work-?  Just as the Twilight Incinerator 

TBOPC

began taunting Rock, he flew straight into the tendril and sliced. He flew out, laughing as the tendril flopped through the atmosphere, even taking out an airplane, then fizzled into cubes and disappeared. The Twilight Incinerator screeched, thousands of moderately-sized tendrils attacking Rock. He sliced his way through thousands of tendrils, dropping them to the ground. Shadowform poured from the wounds as the Twilight Incinerator dropped the army, Winter, and Muscle. "HA! I distracted you!" Rock flew even higher up, looking down 

TBOPC

to see the Voidsoldiers exploding on the ground. The army was back in action. "It's over, Twilight Incinerator," Rock said, staring down the main ball of shadows. Not yet.  A shadowvine erupted from the Twilight Incinerator's main head, slamming into Rock and twisting him up. The jetpack faded away, leaving a normal Sword. Rock swung around with the Sword, trying to get himself free. He looked down, one last time, at Winter flying up to get him on the jetpack. A tendril grabbed her and threw her towards the Pog Pog Sea. 

TBOPC

Rock flailed and twisted, stretched and kicked, but it was no match for the shadow beast's strength. Rock held his breath, strapped his Sword to his belt, and went limp as the Twilight Incinerator pulled him in. 

CAN'T BREATHE!  Winter swam up and burst out at the surface of Pog Pog Sea. She couldn't see any land, so she grabbed her sword and set it to jetpack mode. She flew up for ages until she passed through the clouds. She looked all around, taking in the view. "Wow," she

TBOPC

breathed, looking down at the tiny ripples in the ocean below. "So this is what it feels like to be an airplane," she said as the jet stream caught her and she soared away, turning off her jetpack and floating in the current.

Rock opened his eyes, staring at the shadowform around him. Pieces of shadow floated in the air, grabbing more shadow and twisting into shadowrope, an incredibly solid, hard shape. It wrapped around Rock's neck, lifting him into the air. As his face began to turn blue, he sliced

TBOPC

the shadowrope in half, watching it screech and fall into the swirling, sharp ball. Rock flew around on his newly formed jetpack, swinging his sword full-force into the ball. The Sword exploded on contact, shattering into a million pieces, as thousands of other Swords poured from the ceiling. Rock grabbed one, watching the others fade away. "What-?" Rock started to ask, but something came out of the darkness. This is the last time you stand in the way of my plans. Winter is riding the jet stream. She's coming up on us now. If I throw her in 

TBOPC

here with you, you'll slam and smash around until you kill each other.  Just then, Winter popped through the bubble and fell to the bottom, shadows pulling at her as she rolled along the floor. "It's like a hamster wheel," Rock said, turning off his jetpack. He fell, landing softly on the shadows. He could tell that the Twilight Incinerator was controlling separate beings with separate minds, because he could feel the shadowform grabbing at his arms and legs but being whisked away before it could pull him in. "Winter!" Rock whispered, 

TBOPC

flying up into the air and slamming into the top of the shadowform ball. "What-" she started, the word turning into a scream as the ball of shadows sped up. Rock heard a whoosh echo around the ball, then saw a flash of light as the ball tore open. Muscle. Rock laughed as something fell into the ball, hissing like a fuse. "Grenade," they both said, laying flat on the ground as the shadowform ball exploded.

Rock flew upwards into the air, screaming as he reached 

TBOPC

the Trooper Zone. He flew up so fast he saw the explosion, gasping for air and clawing at his throat. "Winter," he gasped, looking down at two figures falling towards the ground. One was bigger, grenades streaming from their backpack and falling on the remaining Voidsoldiers. Rock got his jetpack on, flying down and letting the jetpack stop. Rock began to fall, grabbing a Jjikki Jjikki that was floating in the air, covered in blood. "Winter's," he said, opening it and floating down like a parachute. He landed, managing to catch 

TBOPC

Winter just before Muscle hit the ground. SNAP! He splattered on the ground, his skin tearing, as he gasped for air. Blood began to drip from his mouth, pouring from the hole in his body. "Can't... survive..." Winter opened her eyes, turning to look at Muscle. "We're going to get out of here," Rock said, grabbing Muscle by the hand and dragging him across Pog Pog Field, carrying Winter and watching the soldiers clear a path. "Thank you," he said, finding a ship and setting Winter down on one of the seats. "There isn't much time," she whispered,

TBOPC

pointing to herself and Muscle. "I know," Rock sighed, getting into the cockpit and taking off. He raised up to a few hundred feet, looking out over Pog Pog Field, then went higher. "Where are we going?" Winter asked, just as the ship veered to the left, sending her flying onto the wall. Her head lolled around as the ship spun faster and faster. BOOM! "They're coming. Shapeshift's species. They're coming." Then the ship dipped down at supersonic speeds, jolting up just as it slid along a runway and set on fire, breaking in half as it crashed.

TBOPC

THREE MONTHS EARLIER 

Lucas got up, rubbing his long, bruised head. "Another day, another battle with two green aliens that ends in Zxcxbxyclxyn's cell." "Shapeshift's?" said the Pog next to him in the cell. "Yes. Shapeshift. Unless you know how to speak their language, then xyx xyvylnxx Zxcxbxyclxyn." Just then, one of the guards burst into the room, shooting the Pog in the neck with a crossbow and shooting Lucas's hand, then his other hand. He flew back against the wall, pinned to it, struggling to get up.  

TBOPC

Reaping time. Every seventeen days, they killed half the prisoners to 'weed out the weak'. Lucas hated it, and just hoped that he could escape one day to avoid it. But it was his time. "Zxcxbxyclxyn is dead. You can be free, long-headed brat. But don't pick a fight with the Xyxy. You won't make it out alive." As the Pog died on the floor next to him, blood seeping from his wounded neck, Lucas saw an opportunity in the open door. An opportunity to escape. To get back to his brother. 

         The Prison 

Lucas stabbed the guard in the face with his own arrow, watching him fall as he ran through the halls, freeing the prisoners. "The traitor guard!" a guard cried, pulling a lever. The door started to close as Lucas slammed into him and snapped his neck, sliding under the closing door and watching the guards snap in half trying to get to him. Lucas laughed, looking around for a ship. But it wasn't that easy to escape. He couldn't see a fence, but he could see the sprawling hills of green sand. He was on Shapeshift's planet. He grabbed a knife from his belt, the one he stole from a guard a few days before. He grabbed

The Prison

a handful of the sand and examined it. He jumped backwards as it flew up, floating in the air. "Whaaa?" Lucas asked, watching as the fleeing prisoners lifted into the air too. Lucas gasped, watching as their eyes shivered and their bodies exploded, drenching the ground with guts. Lucas got up and ran over the hill, seeing a fence in the distance. Two green guards were standing at the fence gate, laughing and talking about something. Lucas threw his knife, clenching his fists, sweat dripping down his face, sighing in relief when the 

The Prison

knife sunk into the first alien's face. He grunted, falling backwards as Lucas dropped to the floor. The alien looked around, trying to spot his friend's killer. Lucas pulled a second knife out of his pocket. "I only have one left after this," he whispered to himself. "I can't miss." He threw it at the second soldier, and just as he turned and noticed Lucas and the knife, it slid across his throat and left him clawing at his gaping neck, gasping for air. He howled in pain, clutching his neck and managing to stop the blood from coming out. He grabbed a comm and 

The Prison

coughed "Long-headed prisoner-" COUGH! "Killed my friend and-" COUGH! "is heading for-" COUGH! "the fence!" Then he collapsed to the ground, twitching and shaking, finally dying on the sand. Lucas slid down the hill, running for a few minutes until he reached the fence gates. "Idiots," Lucas muttered, opening the gate and walking out. "At least make an electric fence or something if you're not gonna search your prisoners. I snuck five knives into this place, and got another one from a guard. It just doesn't make sense." Then he closed

The Prison

the gate behind him, waiting a few seconds. The prison started to rumble, and as Lucas watched in the distance, the front door crumbled. FSSSSSBOOOOM! Lucas cheered, doing a victory dance as the left wing of the prison exploded, sending flaming chunks of stone crashing down on the main hall, which eventually set on fire and exploded. The fire spread to the right wing, finally enveloping the rest of the prison in flames. "They also forget to check you for grenades and Koikerosene." Then he turned around, slamming into an alien. "Sorry!" 

The Prison

he squeaked, punching the guard in the face. "Your species might be smart, but you're far from strong," the alien said, snapping Lucas's arm with one twist. Lucas screamed, his feet throbbing, and collapsed to the ground, looking at the alien. His last knife. His free hand went down into his pocket, pulling out the knife and threw it at the alien above him. He saw the knife stick into the alien's neck, dropping it as his consciousness drifted away. "Bye, alien," Lucas chuckled, laying on the ground and falling unconscious.

The Prison

"Where... am I?" Lucas said, getting up. "I put you in a coma for soooooo long to fix your arm," someone said. Bev the Paxolotl. "You survived Winter's betrayal?" Lucas said, gasping. "How do you know about that?" "It's all over HG1News!" "They're fake. If they said we died, that is. We're all fine. And we forgive Winter. Me, Bronk, and the rest of them. Sadly, Puff and Roboboy are really gone, buuut, un-sadly, I'm alive! Bronk is too! And we're going to go to Pog Pog Field tonight and help Rock, Winter, and Muscle! If they're not dead yet," she added, 

The Prison

telling Bronk to dip down. "We're almost here, actually. Waaaay ahead of schedule!" She laughed, slapping Lucas in the arm. The bad one. "wwwWAAAAAAHH!" Lucas screamed, punching the Paxolotl in the face. She grunted, blood pouring from her nose. Lucas's communicomm buzzed, and when he pulled it up with his good arm, he heard something from Rock. "Get here. Now. Our ship just crashed a few minutes ago, and we're surrounded by Shapeshift's species, AND they're allying with Ikoko!" "Ikoko," Lucas breathed. "She's not real. 

The Prison

She's a legend." Rock sighed. "She's real. And Winter's over there, taunting her with her Sword. We don't have much time. They're about to- wait, what!" Lucas heard Bev yell "We're here!" and land. SNAP! CRUNCH! BOOM! Lucas jumped out of his bed and through the window, landing on an alien's dead body. His arm wiggled around, still broken, and he got up, groaning. "Hello, Viknian. It is I, the legend herself, Ikoko Glipokee." Rock charged her, slamming her into the ground as her knife flew out at Lucas. He stuck his bad arm out in front of the

The Prison

knife, flinching when it sunk in. Rock punched Ikoko's face, watching her roll along on the ground. Then the Voidsoldiers came.

        The Escape

Rock, Lucas, Muscle, and Winter retreated to the darkest corner of the airport's wall, watching as the runway began to erupt in flames, consuming Ikoko and the remaning aliens. "I've been on this rollercoaster of insanity for a long time now," Winter whispered. "And if there's one thing I know, that fire didn't kill Ikoko." Lucas sighed, walking into the flames. "NO!" Rock screamed, but then Lucas turned around, inhaling and putting his finger out. The symbol for 'wait'. Then he exhaled, fire pouring from his mouth. "It's cool, right?!" Lucas said, 

The Escape

followed by a scream. Ikoko was pulling him deeper into the flames. "WAAAAH!" Lucas screamed, kicking and punching at Ikoko. The fire was healing him. Healing his wounds. His metal scrapper leg began to harden into bone as skin draped over it. "Fire heals me, Ikoko. Do your research before you drag me in." Ikoko screamed then, flying backwards as Lucas punched her face. BOOM! The runway continued exploding and spreading the inferno, eating away at Ikoko. Her skin was melting, flaky and charred, and she screamed again. "I never die!"

The Escape

"Yes! You! Do!" Lucas screamed, tearing a metal rod off the crashed ship and smashing it down on Ikoko's face. "YEEEEEEEOOOOW!" she screamed, covering her broken, bleeding face and kicking Lucas's leg. "It's too late," Lucas cooed, slamming the metal rod into Ikoko's chest. SNAP! Her ribs broke in half, blood beginning to pour from her mouth. "Please," she coughed, kicking at the ground. "No." Lucas stomped both his feet against the ground, grabbing the crashed ship and lifting it into the air with ease. He inhaled, feeling the air flow around him.

The Escape

The crashed ship began to levitate on its own, and Lucas let go. Then he stomped his feet again, and the powers left him. He laughed and tumbled out of the way as the crashed ship fell down on Ikoko. 

Lucas and Rock were sitting in a Poglandic house, drinking Pogpogdoberry tea, and talking about the battle with Ikoko and Lucas's adventure with Shapeshift. "So he tackled me out of the window, and put an oxygen tank on me, swimming through space with me. He 

The Escape

caught some sort of current and whisked me away. The oxygen was poisoned. Sleeping gas. He'd knocked me out. And I woke up a few days later in a prison. I'd been there for a few months. But when Shapeshift died, I finally broke out. There was this traitor guard. And he feared nothing. Except for Shapeshift. And he always worried that if he freed me, Shapeshift would come to kill him when he came back. They said he got 'captured in war' and would be back once he won the battles. But it was a takeover from something much stronger than us." 

The Escape

"Wow," Rock said, finishing his Pogpogdoberry tea. "That's a lot. I've just been preparing to battle the Twilight Incinerator. And I'm tired of villains from our past appearing to fight us, just to instantly lose." Lucas nodded. "So many... dead..." His eyes shivered as he dropped his tea, letting it shatter on the table. Rock gasped as a tendril of shadow came in through the vent, passing through Lucas and dropping him to the floor. "LUCAS!" Rock screamed, followed by a door slamming behind them. Rock turned around and saw Winter,  

The Escape

frozen in the doorway. "He... he did... he did the thing. The Twilight Incinerator thing. It took him." Rock dropped down and felt for breathing. "He's alive. Barely." Rock grabbed Lucas and lifted him over his shoulder, carrying him to his bedroom. Four bedrooms. One for each of them. Muscle. Lucas. Rock. Winter. I wouldn't dare ask Winter... that's why I didn't get one with three. Rock slapped himself in the face, refusing to think about that. The world is ending and you're thinking about that?  Rock shook his head, clearing his mind and 

The Escape

dropping Lucas on his bed. "He'll be fine," Winter said, walking into the room and looking down at Lucas. "He's not going to die or anything." "I don't know, Winter, he seems pretty... shady..." "Don't make jokes about death!" she cried, shoving Rock into the wall. He laughed, gasping when he remembered. Muscle was in the next room. Just then, another door slam. Muscle charged in, grabbing Rock and lifting him into the air by his neck. "You wanna know how that fire started on the runway?" Rock coughed, squeezing Muscle's arm. "My hands." Fire

The Escape

erupted from his hands and climbed up Muscle's arm, finally stopping inches before it hit his face. "Don't try to fight me," Rock said, now laying on the floor. Muscle had dropped him. He sighed, crawling back to the farthest corner of the room. Muscle collapsed onto the floor, screaming and burning. Rock got up and left the room, getting stopped by Muscle, who grabbed his pressure points and threw him into the hallway. SHEEEK! Winter stabbed Muscle's side, dropping him to the floor. "Sleeeeepy gaaaaassss...." she said, showing Rock her 

The Escape

knife, which had a weird brown substance dripping from it. "Knocks out even the strongest of soldiers," she said, tossing her hair and walking past Rock, through the doorway. Muscle was dripping blood, unconscious on the floor. "Okay... He's not gonna die. It's fine. It's all fine," he said, ripping the blanket off of Lucas's bed and tying it around Muscle's body. He suddenly screamed, startling Rock and making him jump back. "HeEeEe'S cOmInG!" Muscle screeched, his hand lifting into the air as shadowvines slithered up his arm. "He's coming." Then 

The Escape

his eyes opened, pure black again, and the ceiling began to rumble. "Bring me strength," he boomed, waving his hands and cracking the walls and ceiling. Rock remembered. Gibbs. "Bring me power." Muscle's eyes began to shiver as shadowform squirted out of them. "Bring me... my... destiny!" Winter grabbed Rock and pulled him back, out of the room, as Muscle's other arm lifted, and the ceiling crumbled, raining down on Muscle and Lucas as rubble covered the door.

        [Battle of Sono II]

Rock and Kick jumped out of the ship, throwing their parachutes on. "Are you ready?" Kick screamed, grabbing his gun and let his parachute poof out. "Let's go!" They were leading an invasion, and Rock and Kick were eighteen and nineteen, respectively. Rock and Kick had heard the legends of Pokoll Okllk and Wright, the people who saved the world multiple times. People from the era of Mentite. But it was gone. They were both born on XXS43, raised there as soldiers. "Haven't you seen the black vines draped across random walls recently?" Kick asked. Rock turned to look at him as they fell farther.

[Battle of Sono II]

"No," Rock replied. "They're there. Everywhere. You ready, Zek?!" Kick called, looking up at Zek, Gibbs, and a few others following them. "The gift of immortality. Gibbs, you're a legend." "It's wearing off," Gibbs said. "It doesn't matter how strong the effect is, it wears off eventually. But we're gonna win this one, Kick. We're gonna win this one." Kick raised his eyebrow. "You think you're gonna die?" Gibbs nodded, grabbing his huge sword and swinging it around in the air. "Definitely. And I'll complete my story. There are two cities. The main city,

[Battle of Sono II]

with the headquarters and skyscrapers. Then there's the second one. So. Many. Houses. So we blow it to bits. They will be guarding the major city, with armies at the gates. But at the small town with the neighborhoods, they won't have anybody to fight us. Maybe some." Kick finally landed, and Rock screamed, pulling his parachute out as it jolted him up two inches above the ground. Gibbs, Zek, and the other two soldiers did the same. "WAAAH!" Kick screamed, shooting at the first house he saw. BOOM! It exploded, sending bodies flying. "YEEAAAAAH!" 

[Battle of Sono II]

"Why'd they let you into the army?" Gibbs asked, watching as grenades rolled down main street. "Because I LOVE BLOWING THINGS UP!" Kick cried, grabbing a rocket launcher from Rock's back and aiming it at a five-story building. He saw the Sonoldiers swarming in there. A military base. Just as he fired the shot, Zek tackled him and snapped the rocket launcher with his hands. "Thank you," Rock sighed from a few feet away. "He was gonna blow this city to bits." "That's what I want," Gibbs said, staring at Kick. "They're a threat. They want to kill us. 

[Battle of Sono II]

And when we finally get to meet Wright, we can stop them together. But remember, this battle needs to end soon, because tomorrow is Koikkoween. We need to get back to XXS43 before it happens, or else everyone in the neighborhood would be sooo mad and kill us! But I'm not gonna be there." "Stop talking like that," Zek said, slapping him in the back. SNAP! Gibbs collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. "Weakling," Zek added as he got up, wheezing. "Gadoodoo," he said, shadowvines pouring from his eyes as they shivered. Then they came. 

[Battle of Sono II]

Sonoldiers poured from a second base, which Kick quickly exploded, killing a few Sonoldiers but keeping most alive. One hissed, throwing a knife at the squad. They dodged it, but decided to drop to the ground when it started raining knives. Every so often a squishy, slimy, metallic sound could be heard, followed by a grunt, scream, or groan. Finally, it seemed they ran out of knives, but Gibbs wouldn't get up with the rest. "Gadoodoo," he said again, lifting his hand up. "Bring me strength." Rock's eyes widened. "What is happening?"  

[Battle of Sono II]

Then his body lifted into the air, faint screams coming from his eyes. Blood. Streaming down his face like tears. "Bring me power." His hands flew out, and Rock swore he could see a huge tendril of shadow flickering in and out above the planet. Hello, Rock. This isn't the last time we will meet. Rock gasped. The legends. The Darkroom. It was all real. This was the planet destroyer. The shadow beast. Rock ran to Kick and Zek, but they, and the rest of the squad, were floating. Just floating, their eyes shivering. I could kill them. But I don't want to.

[Battle of Sono II]

Rock grabbed Zek and punched his face. He fell, groaning and twitching. Then he punched Kick. Shoulda kicked him. His name IS Kick, the monster joked, laughing as weird black chunks appeared in the air, then disappeared. Gibbs was screaming and rolling on the floor, his bones snapping and melting into goo. "Goodbye, Rock," he said, the shadowvines withering away. "I couldn't save... myself..." The shadowvines slithered, inflating and bursting on Gibbs' eyes. They were gone. Everything. Consumed. "Bring me... my... 

[Battle of Sono II]

destiny!" Gibbs lifted into the air, the road around him cracking and crumbling, revealing liquid shadowform underneath. Then his body flew backwards, submerged in the shadow. Then he screamed. Sonoldiers collapsed. There it was again. The flickering tendril. Bye bye, Gibbs, it said. Bye bye, Gibbs. The body. He slammed against a wall, splattering in a burst of shadow. The tendril slammed against the ground, and just like that, everything was back to normal. Except for Gibbs. He'd just... disappeared. Rock sighed, going back to Kick and 

[Battle of Sono II]

Zek. "Where's Gibbs?" Zek asked, looking around. "And where's the rest of the squad?" Rock shook his head. "I don't know." Zek rolled his eyes. "We randomly froze in place, and we saw you, your eyes shivering, standing there flickering in and out of consciousness for a few hours. So we know something's wrong." "Fine, some sort of shadow-beast killed Gibbs. I don't know what happened to the other two. I think he killed them when I wasn't looking." "This is YOUR fault!" Zek screamed, shoving Rock to the floor. "You were so worried about 

[Battle of Sono II]

that old man you didn't save our friends!" Rock grabbed a grenade from Kick's backpack and chucked it into a group of Sonobarese men talking at a bar. BOOM! They flew into the air, Kopplobeer bottles shattering, their faces frozen in laughs. "YES!" Kick cried. "EMBRACE THE EXPLOSIONS!" Rock ran backwards, laughing as a mob began to break free. "Let's continue the battle!"

"That was a loooong day," Rock said, getting into the ship. Kick and Zek were waiting. "Koikkoween is tonight!

[Battle of Sono II]

We need to get ready!" Kick rolled his eyes, looking up at the sky. "What are you thinking about?" Zek asked as Rock got in the cockpit and the ship took off. "It's just... that last princess of Pogland... before the place exploded... she was kinda... nice..." "Where are you going with this?" Rock asked from the cockpit. "Well... if the space-time is broken, maybe we could go back to the 2500s and..." Rock laughed, setting the ship to fly to XXS43. "We're going to get there soon. Wright said to meet us there. And I'm pretty sure Winter's there too." 

[Battle of Sono II]

"Ooh! This is going to be the best day of my life! Except for that one time I was scrapping in Skaep Edinayc and found a diamond..." "Confirmed," Rock said. "Winter's there." "Oh my god! SHE'STHEBEST!" Kick screamed, jumping up and down like he consumed a Koikkoffee. "WAAAAH!" He slammed against the ground, rolling on the floor. "We're here. At XXS43," Rock said. "Let's go to the costume store. Zek, go play with your friends, we're going to get Velko."

    Wintry Nights

"Oh. My. God." Winter and Rock were standing in the rubble of the house, cringing at the sight of cracks spreading across the neighborhood, shadowform bubbling around them. Lucas was laying in the rubble, his hand sticking out, and Muscle was gone. Black was seeping through the cracks in the rubble, and Muscle's head was laying there, unmoved. Shadowvines were slithering over his head and body, streaming from his eyes, squirming around in his mouth, and sticking out of his ears. "What a sight," Winter cried, running over to 

Wintry Nights

Muscle's body. "They're all gone," Rock whispered, thinking of Kick. He survived so much. And now his consciousness was in the Twilight Incinerator's sanctum. "Wait," Rock said to Winter. "Muscle's consciousness. It should be there. In the sanctum. In the lair." Winter turned to look, shaking her head. "We're not ready," she replied, grabbing one of the shadowvines and shoving it in her pocket. "We need to contact the army that was fighting Voidsoldiers in Pog Pog Field, get more, and then we can go to the fifth dimension." "I already 

Wintry Nights

contacted people from hundreds of planets. They're going to be flying to the darkness planet and going through the gates in exactly seventy-two hours. And we need to be ready too, Winter. This is the end. We're going to free the dead. Because I know something about the fifth dimension that you don't. Everybody who dies, ever, is stored underneath his sanctum."

Pokoll's consciousness floated in the tiny cage. "He's going to free us," he assured Trevor, Rubybug, Ikoko, and

Wintry Nights

Scrapdrone. "And when he does, we rain hell on the Twilight Incinerator. We take him out from the inside. And we flank him. We have the army from the front. Us from below. He won't expect it. I've been speaking to him. When the Twilight Incinerator meets Rock by snapping the space-time, I can hear him. He can hear me. Like a voice in the back of his head. He's coming. In seventy-one hours."

Winter and Rock brought their swords out, piling into a 

Wintry Nights

ship with Lucas and a few hundred Pog soldiers. Thousands of other ships. "We only have seventy-one hours to get to the fifth dimension for the battle. Then everybody will start arriving, and we can free the consciousnesses. That's stage one. Then they attack the Twilight Incinerator from below. Then we split up, attacking all eight branches. The ones at the end of the main tendrils. That's stage two. While it's recovering from the attacks, we all meet up at the main ball. I fear that what Winter and I were trapped in at Pog Pog Field isn't 

Wintry Nights

even its biggest piece. It could be the size of galaxies, for all we know. But the consciousnesses could weaken him, so our Swords could kill him. So let's go!"

The consciousnesses. Lined up, ready to attack. "They should be coming soon," Pokoll's consciousness said. "Fifteen hours. Rock is flying. Getting closer. Bringing a fleet of battleships lightyears wide." The consciousnesses cheered, slamming on their cages and bending the bars.

The tendril of shadow. It was coming. Consciousnesses 

Wintry Nights

melting. Burning. Then it faded away. "We break out soon. Then we can attack."

Winter and Rock arrived at the planet, thousands of Pogs landing behind them. "The gate is in the shadowform liquid," Winter said, diving in. Rock dived in next, then Lucas and the Pog generals. Slowly, one by one, they arrived. "Fifteen hours early," one of the Pogs said, jumping in. One Voidsoldier popped out of the ground but was stomped into the ground by the soldiers. 

Wintry Nights

"Let's go," Winter said upon arriving in the fifth dimension. Rock dropped in right after, looking out at the city. "Now we're ready. Ready to begin our battle."

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

Black fire looped around Winter and Rock as Lucas and the Pogs slowly dribbled in, collapsing into the fire. But it was cold. They shivered as the fire spread, the city ahead rumbling. Rock turned around, looking at the black desert in the distance. A faint blue glow pulsated in the sand, and the shadowform around it withered and died. "What is that?" Rock asked Winter, looking out at the blue glow. "I don't know," she said, "but whatever it is, it's destroying the shadowform in the vicinity. We could use this to kill the Twilight Incinerator." "We could!" Rock agreed, winking at Winter as he set his Sword to jetpack 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

mode, lifted into the air, and rocketed towards the blue glow.

TWO MONTHS EARLIER

"King Cephaly," Shapeshift said, lifting his hand out and grabbing the spirit's hand. "So nice to meet you. I was just training my friends in the art of spells. Power. Do you understand how important those people were? And how powerful my people are?" "I could," King Cephaly said, his eyes glowing with a stronger golden hue. "But I am 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

stronger." He twisted his wrist three times, and Shapeshift lifted into the air, choking. "Don't... kill me..." he coughed, kicking the air. King Cephaly crossed his eyes, and Shapeshift collapsed onto the sand, his leg twisting. King Cephaly laughed. "I want to free you, Shapeshift. Something has been controlling you. I can tell. Wow, King. Seems like you have finally caught on.  A shadowy tendril appeared in the air as Shapeshift screamed. His eyes turned black, a vine suddenly popping out of one with a squirting sound. "Ooh," King 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

Cephaly breathed, snapping his fingers as a bag of popcorn appeared in his hands. "This is gonna be soooo fun." Shapeshift screamed again as he was lifted into the air again, shadowvines wrapping around his legs. I'm going to take these first. Shapeshift screamed a third time, finally collapsing to the ground. Then Voidsoldiers began to pop out of the ground. They grabbed Shapeshift and began to drag him through the green sand. He slowly dragged, screaming and fighting them off, as King Cephaly waved his hands around, suddenly 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

disappearing as Shapeshift looked around for help. "SOMEBODY! THIS IS MY PLANET! MY PEOPLE! SAVE ME!" Then the Voidsoldiers disappeared, turning into cubes and taking Shapeshift with them.

SEVEN WEEKS LATER

Shapeshift groaned, getting up on his feet. He saw light blue wisps of consciousness floating in cells. "Whaaa?" he gasped, looking up at slimy black layer of shadowform covering a hole in the ceiling. "What is that

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

thing?!" Shapeshift screamed, grabbing a grappling hook from his belt and shooting it through the shadowform coating. It squished as it burst through the coating, popping it like a balloon. Two identical tendrils of shadow reached out and grabbed Shapeshift by the neck, choking him. Shapeshift grabbed a small knife from his pocket and stabbed it into the left tendril. Shapeshift screamed as the tendril burst, shadowy liquid dripping from it. "The shadowform," he said, chopping the other tendril. CRRRRK! The ground began to crack. 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

The tendrils slithered, retreating into the cracks. "Whaa?" Shapeshift cried, running to the cracks and attempting to pry them open. "Why did so many baaaad things have to happen to meeee?!" he sobbed. "First I was betraaayed by Winter, then I was chased around the entire galaxy by her little friends, then they tied me to a wall and burned the room down, THEN as soon as I was safe, some yellow, glowing spirit man fed me to a shadowy octopus! Just let me open this! It could be freedom!" CRRRRK! It cracked more, and a tiny hole opened next to him. He 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

punched the area around it, and everything finally exploded. And oh, what a sight it was. No horizon. Clear vision. Hundreds of thousands of kilometers of tendrils. Neurons. Controlling their hosts. Unending. And in the center, a tiny, concave platform stood, made to hold some sort of gem. And Shapeshift wasn't falling. "I need to get ahold of Rock and Winter. This isn't gonna be good," he whispered. "Or maybe... the gem is the key." Neurons wrapped around his legs, snapping them instantly as they fell off. Shapeshift's eyes shivered and 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

began to turn blue, but just as a neuron slid over to them, Shapeshift fell. Faster than normal. "Let's hope there isn't a bottom!" Shapeshift screamed, his leg stumps wiggling. He stuck his tongue out, laughing as wings appeared. Wings. He dipped down, looking closer at the neurons. Along the way, small platforms were everywhere. He even saw a series of neurons and platforms creating what almost looked like a city. And person-shaped shadowforms were hitting people to the ground. Shapeshift's species. Shapeshift dropped from 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

the sky, landing on the head of the shadowfigure, who was connected to the neuron next to it by five tiny tendrils in its head. He saw someone's face in it. "Blxlx?" Shapeshift asked, sobbing. "BLXLX?!?!" Blxlx looked down, grabbing Shapeshift and chucking him off the platform. Just as he began to fall, he grabbed onto the ledge, flipping back up. "Worthy," Blxlx whispered, and two tendrils of shadowform snapped into place on his leg stumps. "You must fight me, you must kill me, and if you win, you can be free. You can be saved." It's true. 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

"I don't want to fight you, Blxlx," Shapeshift sobbed, shaking his head. "I couldn't." Blxlx tackled him, laughing as they both slammed into the platform. The edge began to wobble, and Blxlx laughed again. "You have to fight, or it will be for nothing. We both will die." Shapeshift thought about it, finally deciding to punch Blxlx in the face. He flew backwards, slamming into the neuron he was connected to. And with a SNAP, like a fragile tree, the neuron broke in half. Purple light and purple sparks flew everywhere, and the platform started to creak. Blxlx

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

turned around, hoping to stop the explosion. It was the only thing keeping him alive. Shapeshift's makeshift legs fizzled away, and as Blxlx lunged towards the broken neuron and his body rocketed backwards, off the edge of the platform, Shapeshift gasped. A crack was spreading across the base of the platform. "This is what happens when two hive-mind brain twigs hold you and a slab of stone five thousand feet in the air," Shapeshift whispered, reaching into his pocket. Winter's visitor-mirror. Shapeshift held it up, and watched as it lifted into 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

the air. Shapeshift looked at his leg stumps, which were now infected with the shadow, starting to bleed. He gulped, hit the floor, and vomited shadows. Shapeshift collasped to the ground, looking up as the visitor-mirror opened, revealing Winter, getting into a ship. She turned back and saw Shapeshift. Their eyes met. Shapeshift reached for her. She said something indistinctly and turned her head back as the visitor mirror shattered. "If the relationship between two people is ruined, the visitor-mirror can't work," Shapeshift cried, crawling to 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

the edge of the platform and rolling off, opening his wings. "I'm gonna get to the bottom of this place and die." He dipped down one last time, swerving to avoid tendrils and neurons, but still hitting a few. He finally slammed face-first into a shadowy mass, flying back up as his left wing caught on a neuron. He screamed as he pulled the wing out of the neuron's reach, tearing it in half. He flapped them aimlessly, snapping his right wing on a platform. He screamed again, dropping straight down, down, down, for too much time to even count. 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

Shapeshift, at long last, crashed into what seemed to be a ground after ages of falling. A neuron wobbled and crashed next to him, and the beast appeared, tendrils looming. Shapeshift crawled towards it, prepared to fight (like he could even fight at this point). The shadow beast waved a tendril, somehow opening another path through space-time for Winter to see Shapeshift. But it wasn't Winter, it was Rock. And whatever room he was in was covered in black vines. "Spare... me..." Shapeshift groaned, looking at the shadow-beast. You are weak. 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

You are a puppet, Shapeshift. Just like Kick was. And he is dead. Can't you see? Your destiny is to slowly die. All who oppose me are killed. Winter survived by a miracle. But, under my control, she took the lives of so many. Do you want me to list them, Shapeshift? 

"PLEASE!" Shapeshift screamed, pulling himself across the shadowy sand. Bronk. Bev. She assisted in the death of Kick. And Puff. Shapeshift heard Rock gasp through the vision. Yes, Rock. I took you to this place to hear what I have to say. And to see him die. 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

Shapeshift gasped, stretching and flipping onto his back, screaming as a tendril slammed into his face. He screamed, flailing his arms and leg stumps around, lifting into the air with his eyes shivering. "I just want to return to my love!" he screamed through the shadowy current. "To... Winter..." He looked around, still flailing, as his head began to bend. Backwards, pops and cracks, blood from Shapeshift's mouth, his last scream echoing through the neuron-y mess as his neck snapped, his body flooding with shadows.

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

Rock landed at the sight of the glow, gasping when he saw the black sand, falling into a huge cavern. Rock slid in, landing in a pool of water. Not liquid shadowform. Actual water. Rock cupped some with his hands and drank it. "It's really water," he breathed. He shook his head. "That's not what we're here for." He waded through the water until he got to the pedestal that the blue glow was coming from. It had a lid covering it. "Is it food?" Rock asked, confused. He opened it, his jaw dropping as he grabbed it. It was a gem. A huge one. And the gem 

The Fifth Dimension, Part II

had something written on it. "Put me in the Darkest of Rooms to unlock your fate and destroy the Twilight Incinerator." Rock gasped. "The Darkest of Rooms?" "It's what they call the Neuron Room," somebody said from behind Rock. "But you're not gonna make it there."

                Neurons

Rock turned around and punched the person in the face, watching as they collapsed to the ground, starting to sink. Quicksand. Rock laughed as he struggled to get up, shooting his grappling hook out of the cavern and catching it on a shadowy root. He flew out, looking over at the army of Pogs in the distance. But that wasn't it. "I don't know how long I've been gone, but wow." He was surrounded completely by armies, and hundreds of gates had been broken into the fifth dimension's space-time borders. "It's over!" Rock called. Your armies are worthless. You don't know my secret. "The neurons?"