Running through the flatlands of the Rufty Mountains, the group ran as the lightning flashed and the thunder roared. Rain showered and poured from the sky violently, and the lightning lit up the entire sky in a flash. Wind howled loudly, blowing down trees and almost pushing mountains with its powerful force.
Everyone was sprinting, bolting across the flat lands of the Rufty Mountains, running as fast as they could like a whole beast was chasing them. The rain drenched their clothes and bodies, and Mason screamed in anger as they ran across the land. "I KNEW SOMETHING WAS UP! DARK DON WOULD ACTUALLY BETRAY US!" Mason yelled as his voice pierced through the lightning and thunder louder than ever. Everybody else followed him, then Sophia cried while jerking her head to face from behind, "DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHERE CELESTIA IS?!"
Everybody ran past her as Angel shouted, still sprinting with the others, "I COULDN'T USE MY PORTALS! THEY'RE NOT ALLOWED IN THE PROPHECY!" Lightning flashed again and struck the top of a mountain, brightening the heavens from above. As lightning struck again, William moved right next to Sophia yelling through the thunderous noises, "ALRIGHT WE BETTER MAKE THIS QUICK OR ELSE WE MIGHT DIE IN THE-" (BOOM!) went the thunder once again cutting off William. "STORM!" "ALRIGHT EVERYONE WATCH OUT FOR LIGHTNING! HOW ARE WE GONNA GET TO CELESTIA?!" Jocabed cried through the rain. Then everyone stopped on their tracks as they saw a huge blue river that stretched across the entire area that went to the Unknown Sea. The ocean of Avangard that nobody talks about and it doesn't even have a name. Angel looked at it, though it was hard because his glasses were getting wet from the storm. his hair drenched, and then lightning and thunder boomed again. Angel quickly looked up at the sky, then he shot his head back at the river.
He shook his head roaring, "I'VE GOT AN IDEA!" He quickly bolted towards a large log and he picked it up with no effort, then he placed the log on the river. He looked at a jagged edged rock that was pointing outward, and there were countless wooden logs piled up on top of each other. Angel smiled as he looked at them, then Javier used his Control powers to levitate the logs and throw them into the river. "WE'LL USE THEM AS A RAFT!" Angel hollered as thunder grunted once again.
Then that was until a bloodcurdling roar was heard from afar, it was a very low squeal but acted much like a dinosaur's roar. Everybody froze. Then the ear piercing roar happened once again which caused everybody to quickly back away. They stared into the abyss, nothing... All there was was the stars of the glistening night sky and the rain pouring down on them, but there was just blackness.
They weren't able to see the mountains nor anything, it was dark. Too dark. The lightning flashed, and then in a strike of light, a silhouette of a gigantic monster was standing from afar. Everybody just stared, they're eyes looking empty as they froze in ice as they looked. Angel shook his head and he quickly hopped onto the raft, "Alright no wasting time WE GOTTA GO!"
He wrapped his arms around the log, and he started to kick his feet back. Jocabed face palmed, "As for someone as smart as you, do you think we're really going to get to Celestia on that?!" Then another devastating roar was heard from far behind. Everyone quickly turned around like hawks, and then the lightning flashed as another silhouette of the same beast was shown, then it disappeared. Everyone looked around hectically, confused about what was going on. But one thing they were sure of, was to find a way to escape. They could've used the portals Eldritch had in his domain, but they didn't. It was too late to go back now because one beast was already behind them, and another was in front. But as the lightning flashed once again, another silhouette of a beast was shone in the middle, standing right in front of them between the two beasts.
Sophia clicked a pink button on the side of her headphones, and then she recorded the same roar that happened a few minutes ago.
Then she whispered coldly, "Everybody—don't move..." Everybody stayed frozen, and they stayed like that.
Then what slowly emerged from the shadows, was a Griorgriffon. A Griorgriffon is a type of beast that resides in the flat lands of the Rufty Mountains. THey are bipedal animals that have brown or dark green skin or maybe even stone colored skin. The skin is made up of rock solid stone and rocks, and their heads are shaped like a parallelogram.
They're heads have rough and tough scales that have rocky and jagged spikes emerging from the corner of their head. Usually it's four or five like a dragon's, and they have small arms with two claws, resembling a t-rex's arms.
Their teeth were jagged and almost out of place because they were connected to their heads, and they're eyes were usually dark brown or black. Their tails were long and jagged, the same color as their skin as well. While their underbellies were a dark shade of green.
They all stared at the crew, and some of their eyes started to glow in a bright green color.
Everybody knew what to do around Griorgriffons. Do. Not. Make. Eye. Contact. Nor. Speak. Don't. Even. Move. As. Well. They all stood there frozen, doing all of these safety rules, making sure they didn't get killed. One of the Griorgriffons sniffed the air, and then it slowly lowered its head peering down at them with beady eyes. It quietly snarled, the other two followed.
They approached them slowly and cautiously, then they started to sniff them around in circles. The beasts were circling them, taking glances and smelling the group as they stood there. One even slapped its tail onto William's face. He tried to not do anything about it, and was about to do something, but Lonnie stopped him by giving him the look with her eye. As the beasts slowly circled, they stopped, lifting their heads up. Then they looked down at everybody, and turned around to walk away from the group, their tail's swaying at every move. Just as everybody thought they were safe, Keyler let out the loudest, "AHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOO!!!" "CURSE YOU SPIDERMAN!" Sophia snapped while turning to him quickly. They instantly turned as one of the creatures started to sprint towards them, roaring with its mouth wide open, filled with hungry saliva.
The others followed the first one's lead, and everybody already had their Elements charged and ready to fight. Mason yelled at Keyler, "YOU OWE ME A LOT OF DOUGHNUTS FOR THIS!"
They all transformed into their beast forms, and they charged. Jocabed head-rammed the first brute to the side, sending the first one flying all the way towards a large rocky mountain that it crashed through, sending debris flying into the air.
Then Emely, from above in her Ice Bird form, fired an ice beam at it which completely froze its body, causing it to jump and shatter into pieces.
Then that was it until the other fiend quickly bit Jocabed's neck with its sharp teeth and slammed her down onto the ground with such immense force that blood flew into the sky. Kwa'asja, in her armadillo form, quickly rushed in to ram her body onto the brute, but instead, the beast quickly grabbed her with its jaws and spun around to swing her across the battlefield.
Then Keyler slammed the monster down onto the ground in her spider form, trying to bite the creature with his teeth, until it quickly twirled over and violently kicked Keyler away like a ball. Then it got up twirling around at violent speeds, ready to tail-whip Jocabed until William flew past him at a rapid speed, completely hitting him with his pterodactyl beak. Then he repeated the action again and again and again as he went past the behemoth in many different directions, causing blood to fly into the air like crazy.
Then William finally pierced his beak through the creature's body in a flash like lightning, causing the brute to finally collapse onto the ground. The third one leaped into the air to try and catch William flying around, until Sophia bit its neck and held onto it by pouncing up towards it and spun her head around quickly to smash its body onto the ground, causing blood to squirt into the air like water leaking.
She spun around rapidly and slammed the third fiend against a rock, causing more blood to fly out, and the creature crashed through it while rolling on its side. It got up, shaking its head around and around after the attack. Red scars and bloody scratches were all around its body, and of course, its neck was bloodied.
Then Fedjina started to dive towards the monster while spiraling at high speeds with her sharp golden beak pointed right at it.
Flames started to burn as she twirled even more, and then the beast quickly snatched her with its jaw and threw her at Sophia, only so then Mason could appear out of nowhere in his Doughnut Bear form to quickly wrap his arms around the creature's head and slam it onto the ground, sending drops of blood into the air.
The brute moved and jerked its head around violently like a monster until Lonnie Mae drop kicked it on the side with all four of her legs in her Forest Fawn form.
The Griorgriffon roared in pain as it tumbled violently across the ground on its side until Javier fired his blue hedgehog quills at it as fast as bullets, and they stabbed through the brute's body with no problem.
Then Mason uppercutted it into the air with his large fists while Kayson aerial-slammed him back onto the ground with his arms. The beast was shooting from the sky to the ground like a meteor at high speeds, flames heating up around it burning its body up like a microwave. Then Mason jumps in his human form to quickly front flip and slam the beast right down into the portal beneath it that Angel created. Mason finally collapsed to the ground, exhausted. "Angel, where does that portal go?" "To a lava pit at Scarletsville, it's a great thing that these can be used for battle," he said nonchalantly. After the battle, Ryan was laying on the ground sitting against a rock with bandages on his chest after the encounter with Scourge Don. He clutched his chest as pain started inflicting upon him, "Alright, how are we going to get to Celestia-ARGH!"
"How... are we going to get there if Angel can't just teleport us?" It looked like everybody had lost hope. Jocabed was severely injured after being attacked on the neck two times, the snowy white Arctic Fox lay there on the ground with a bloody cervical spine. She groaned in pain, but it wasn't that much pain. Keyler morphed back into his original form as the spider butt shrunk and his legs formed on the back.
He sighed as he looked at Jocabed, then he turned to Lonnie.
"Can you heal her too?"
Lonnie shook her head with a disappointed look, "Sorry, I can't. I can heal more than that, but the fight has already taken away my energy for now." "So for now, these green vines with thorns will only be used to fight if I can get enough energy." Kwa'asja was on her side, sitting on the ground in her Armadillo form. She was alright. The attack the second beast inflicted upon her was strong but not strong enough to at least injure her. She had minor injuries. Fedjina, after being chucked towards Sophia, has an almost broken beak and her wings are torn up from the bite. Sophia had cuts and scars on her face, but she was alright. Keyler was on his back. He was able to recover from the throw quickly, and he was lucky that he hadn't been bitten either. The rest were fine, except for Jocabed. She was injured the most due to the fact of her trying to fight the first Griorgriffon. She was strong, but the neck attack from the other Griorgriffon did weaken her. She was lucky that she didn't lose consciousness because she could've died from those repeated attacks.`Sophia shrugged and facepalmed as she turned to the end of the Grolian Forest where the Forgotten Wizard's Domain resides. She stopped for a second, and she smirked, "Common sense everybody, we just go in through one of the portals in the cave..."
Duke and Starla stood face to face against each other, Duke was still holding onto his arm, still injured from the battle. Starla crossed her arms, then Duke darkly said, "I don't know Starla, " he loaded his cannon as neon green energy started to glow and pulse in the cannon. He trudged towards Starla, his cybernetic suit basically slowly moving and flapping making clanging noises as he walked. His wings were a bit loose, so was the body armor. Then it all fell off. It fell into the ground creating a loud metallic clang noise. Black and green neon energy quickly erupted from Duke's body. Duke smirked, pleased, "You're one of the kids I've met today that makes me smile... but now, that smile has got to fade away from that face of yours." "You don't know what danger I am, you don't know what's coming for you, you don't know anything about me..." He clenched his fists, more energy swirled around him like flames.
Starla backed up, sweating, but keeping her determined look. "Still brave huh, it's okay, I can change that for you," Duke said coldly, his voice dripping with malice. He slowly aimed his cannon right at Starla, his eyes glistening with evil through the mask. Neon green energy pulsed and charged in the cannon, and Starla leaped toward him with her fists charged up with Astral energy.
Then Duke fires an energy blast right at Starla's chest in an instant, and she gets flung back as a radiant green explosion erupted from her body destroying a couple of buildings nearby. The buildings collapsed, and they went from towered to shattered as parts of them started to fall and crumble. Starla was on the ground, in a small crater with flames flickering and crackling around her. Duke smirked again as he aimed his cannon right at her, "Oh this is too easy..." Then a loud booming sound was heard across the night sky, and Duke jerked his head to the air to face the sound.
It was a silhouette of a figure in the air, diving down towards Duke at excellent speeds. It charged up and dark violet energy intensified, the nearby Blushinites looked at the sky looking at the shooting star flying down towards Duke. Duke quickly aimed his cannon at the figure, but the figure landed onto Duke which slammed him down creating a huge blinding white and dark violet energy explosion across the Land of Hearts.Mountains shook as tall buildings and towers crumbled and staggered, falling down into the ground crashing onto it while many large and little fragments scattered into the sky.
Duke was on the ground, laying on his back with the figure standing on him. He was bloodied, and his cannon was facing Starla who was right next to him. He squinted a little, and then he opened his eyes as he looked at the figure. It was Don, Scourge Don. His hero suit was cleaned, but his mask still looked crooked and messy. His clawed gloves were also crooked but sharp as well. "You leave her alone, now," Scourge Don said in a deep cold voice as he stared into Duke's soul. Duke chuckled, unfazed, "So who are you meant to be? A hero that's still experiencing puberty?" Scourge Don stood on him firmly, causing Duke to cough out blood, "I'm not seen as a hero, nor I am a hero... But I don't know if I'm a villain or anti-hero. But tell me, what makes you think you can just go to the Land of Hearts to attack her all of a sudden?"
See, the thing about Scourge Don is that he actually has a thing for Starla, but wouldn't admit it. He's kept it a secret ever since she met her, and he realizes that Starla is the only person to him that he could trust. The sounds of wing beats were being heard as Scorch, the red and black Flamenite guardian dragon, flew across the air and safely landed right next to Starla. He turned to Duke, and he snapped at him with his sharp and menacing teeth. Starla slowly got up, breathing for every second. Duke looked at the three while still on the ground, then he sighed. "You guys are so naive, but those Power Gems will be mine in a few seconds..." He quickly gets up and dashes right behind Don to deliver an instant neon overhand punch to the back as Don turns around to block the punch with his hand creating a huge neon shockwave burst from their hands across the environment. "Pathetic, is that all you could do? I could do better than that," Scourge Don scoffed. He charged his fists with celestial energy on the other arm and then he overhand punched Duke with his fists to the face.
Duke staggered from the pain, then Don started to throw in a devastating combo which was a left hook right hook following up with an overhand and then a celestial spinning side kick to finish it off with the 20-20-20 Celestial Dropkick to the gut. Duke was sent flying through the air, smashing and crashing through several towers demolishing them through the night sky. As the towers tilted, they collapsed and shattered into the pieces as they slammed onto the ground. Duke skidded back, and then neon energy flashed in his eyes, "Alright then, COME AND GET THIS!" They both launched and charged at each other, then both of their fists collided as they cried. This created an air splitting and a wind whipping neon and celestial shockwave that ripped across the atmosphere and it shattered the windows of towers and destroyed that with such force shaking the environment around them.
Starla gets on Scorch's back, still injured, and then they fly away to a safer zone in the Land of Hearts, which was the mountain cave Don went into. Duke uppercuts Don to the air with neon energy swirling around him like fire as Don gets launched up into the sky like a bullet. He launches to the night sky where the stars collided, and Don was above him flying as well with his wings at high speeds. They lashed in the air like neon and celestial stars having a quick aerial battle.
Don front flipped violently right in front of him as the movement shifted into an instant celestial axe kick that launched Duke down as his body and Don's legs collided. As Duke gets sent down, he spins around and launches himself into the air like a rocket with neon energy trails following him.
Then he flash kicks Don's chin causing Don to face the air from above and then he swipes Don's head to grab him and dart all the way back down to the ground.
Don was trying to escape from the head hold, flailing his arms around like crazy through the piercing wind mid-air. Duke smiles as he watches Don trying to escape, "Isn't this nice?! I know right!"
Like a meteor, he lands onto the ground creating a huge air whipping shockwave once again sending animals scurrying and debris flying into the air. Green flames were flickering, and then Duke held Don up into the air by the neck. Both of them looked like black silhouettes in the middle of the night with the silver glowing moon and the shimmering light of the stars scattered across the sky. Scourge Don held onto Duke's arms tight, gritting his teeth so then Duke could let go of the hold. Duke reels back his other arm with neon energy flaring and charging up, "I thought the Chosen One of the prophecy was supposed to handle a fight like this. Heh, guess not." He strikes Don's face with an earth wrecking punch and then he drops Don only so then he can feel his other fists and throw in a devastating gut-punch which launches Don into the air like crazy, flipping around like a literal water bottle.
Duke launches himself into the air like a super villain, flying towards him through the white but empty clouds. He gets right in front of Don only so then he can punch him once, strike him twice while teleporitng behind him, and Don is flying through the sky taking hits from Duke like a volleyball. Duke teleports right in front of Duke ton uppercut him, only so then he can teleport right above Don to slam him down, and so then he can teleport right behind Don to snatch his body like a hawk flying at high speeds. He boosts all the way to the mountain he has been sitting on, and then he smashes the top or tip of the mountain by slamming Don on it creating a huge neon explosion and shockwave across the mountain. Cracks started to instantly form on the mountain's body, and then he stood on the top as he held Down into the air again with the choke hold. He lit his fists in neon flames, while Don was there in the air looking blooded and battered. He taunted Don with a smile as he reeled his fists back, "This might be it, this might be over, prophecy member... You might be done for now I guess, that's too bad..."
He throws in the punch and Don blocks it with his other arm. The mountain shakes, and one of Don's eyes pierces through the holes of his mask. They lit up in celestial energy, crackling and flaring in the inside. He glared at Duke menacingly, "You think... Can all of that beat me? Nice try." He aerial kicks Duke into the air, escaping from the choke hold. Duke is sent ascending into the air at supersonic speeds, while Don blasts himself off the mountain towards Duke leaving in destruction. He dashes right in front of him in a flash and he celestially punches him once, but he teleports to a different location in Eclitsic to punch him through the snowy blizzard in the air twice which was a left hook and a right hook. He starts to teleport Duke into different places of Avangard with him, flying around and beating him up around in the air like a rag doll.
He struck him with one gut punch in Scarletsville, another uppercut in Thunderstark, an axe kick over the Gadian Sea in the gray clouds, and then a final strike to the gut which darted Duke all the way straight down to the ground. He smashes and crashes through the ground causing layers of rocks under the land of earth to crack into cube like shapes and fly out of the ground violently. Don teleports right in front of Duke in the huge and wide crater Scourge Don formed after destroying him. He grabs Duke's weapon, his eyes filled with anti-hero-like evil. He looked at the silver cannon with a glare, and then he held the cannon up into the air, also holding Duke into the air as well. With such force and immense strength, he crushes it, sending out green and black energy and neon sparks flying out of the weapon.
He rips it off of Duke's arm, seeing cords stretching out and electricity sparking. He throws the weapon onto the ground without saying a word. Duke suddenly drops a Power Gem from his hand. It was the silver Power Gem. As soon as Don is just about to pick it up, he hears the shouts of his friends calling out for him. Don slowly, and hesitant, turns around only so then he could see the 6 of his friends: Olsen, Prince, Demaurion, Archie, Ella and Eli. Olsen sighed, his voice deep and steady, though firm, "Don, you have a choice... You could come with us, or you could be alone. Look, we need those Power Gems so then we can stop Duke, Incarceration, or Dark Don from utilizing them. Maybe even Dreadixz." "Even though you don't seem trustworthy right now, I'm your best friend, your very first friend back when we were still young... Just choose..."
Don stared at them, stared into their souls without a word. Don has no free will, no friends, and he's not even a hero himself. What's the point? There's no point of changing at all, even if these are his best friends who never thought of him like how the others thought of him. Now the real Don inside of him is thinking: Should he just give up already? Should he just stop trying to get out of his Scourge Don form and just let it be. Of course he's already let it happen a few times ago, but is he gonna be like this permanently? He doesn't know.... He turns around and walks away slowly, his ripped cape swaying from side to side as the wind howled. "Really, there's no point," he sighed. Then as he walked past Duke, Duke got up and then he turned to his crew. "You guys again! Oh I love it when you show up..."
The thing that Don didn't notice, was that the Power Gems that fell from behind from his cape as he walked away. Duke instantly turned, and he teleported right in front of the Power Gems, sitting on the rugged dirt despite the destruction. The cyan one, the pink one, and the black one too. He picks all of them up, and then he hides them in his wings from his jets. Now he has four Power Gems, while the team on the other side had 1. Back in the cave, Starla also had three Power Gems. She could help the crew, but was too tired and beaten in order to do so. She sat on the edge of the cave sky high, facing down towards the fight ready to happen. She places the Power Gems right beside him and sighs as Scorch watches by her. Don walked into the dim lit cave on the mountain, and Starla watched him as he walked. She looked down at the others whispering, "Do you think he'll be alright Scorch?" Scorch, mute, only shook his head, meaning an "I don't know..."