Episode XV: Enter Apokari
"YOU!" I yelled at him. "You're the one who burned the town down, aren't you?!?
You'll pay for the worth of everyone you've hurt!" I ran at him, but his Shoyru
separated us by a wall of fire.
"Without a Neopet, I don't suggest taking me on... but your girlfriend here
seems to have one." Alamin's expression showed no emotion, good or evil.
"How dare you take on someone inexperienced? Leave the Neopets out of this,
I'll take you on right now!" I took Kage's dagger out of my pocket, in case
things got ugly. I was determined to take him out. The carnage would end here.
"As tempting as that sounds, I'm afraid I can't do it. However, there is a
way we can both benefit from this."
"And what would that be?" Dracosis said obnoxiously.
"Excuse me, I was talking to the blonde-headed boy, not the empty-headed dragon."
Dracosis let out a growl from between her teeth. "Anyway Brad, all you have
to do is strike me with that dagger. You go free, and I have an excuse for not
getting you."
"Alamin, no... we can't just keep making up excuses. I say we just quit Malum's
forces. We won't have to hurt any more people." Alamin just ignored DemiDragon's
remarks. And I was anything but understanding this.
"You want me to... attack you?"
"That's right." He was perfectly calm about it. He then looked back at the
burning village. "So many wasted lives... Brad, hold that thought." DemiDragon
looked at him with hope in his eyes. "You're right, Demi. We must run away from
Malum. No longer will I continue to harm the innocent." And without a second
thought, he turned his back and started walking away. Then he stopped and turned
to me one last time.
"Here's one of the gems you seek." He tossed me another gem. "The third one
is in a dimensional warp to the east. The warp should lead to the World of Pendulum."
Laura, Dracosis, and I said, "World of Pendulum?" at the same time.
"It's the world where time flows at a radical rate. A second here can take
a year there, or a week here takes a minute there. You never know what rate
of time it will be at next." He then turned back around and walked off.
"Sounds like a cool place to go," Laura said.
"You have no idea what you're talking about!" I yelled. "If the time there
starts going too fast, it might be too late by the time we find the gem! A year
could pass in a second!"
"We have to go anyway," said Dracosis. "No use wondering about what-ifs."
***
"Kage's doing worse, guys," said Sakari solemnly. They all looked over with
compassion in their eyes.
"I'll... be... fine!" Kage yelled. Just then, we heard a violent cough from
someone else in the group. They all turned to see SnowOhki couging violently,
color drained from her.
"SnowOhki, what's wrong?" Ryo asked.
"That's strange... unless she had been using the powers of the World of Apocaly
before, there's no reason that she should be sick because of it."
There's no reason to keep this up anymore; I have them right where I want
them... SnowOhki thought to herself. Just as her thought ended, she started
radiating a black light from herself.
"SnowOhki... what's wrong with you?!?" Ryo yelled out. SnowOhki was englufed
with the black energy, and when it cleared, SnowOhki was not the one standing
there. From a black hole hovering a few feet above the ground, half a body could
be seen. The body was a light shade of black. Its arms were very long, about
six feet or so, with long, grey nails. It wore a silver metal helmet shaped
like a bird's beak, leaving the small lower half of its face visible. The helmet
also had a barcode under the left eye. From the back of the helmet was a small
bush of silver hair.
"SNOWOHKI!" Ryo yelled out. "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?" The beast then spoke.
"The master of my Pandemonium sent me after you. I am not SnowOhki. You destroyed
SnowOhki yourself long ago." Ryo then thought back to Malum's Dungeon where
he had to destroy the fake SnowOhki. "Do you remember now? The one you defeated
was the real one, possessed by me. I was the one you thought was real. The one
that has been walking around with you was the true fake." They all looked at
the beast with a mix of despair and fury. All except Ryo. He had broken down
into tears.
"So... all this time.. SnowOhki's been... I'll... I'LL GET YOU, MONSTER!"
Ryo brought himself to his feet, still tears running down his face, but revenge
in his heart. "JUST WHO ARE YOU!?"
"I am Apokari, Grand Darkness Beast." They all gasped and yelled out, "APOKARI!?"
"But," Willie muttered, trying to comprehend the situation, "Apokari is from
the legend Valens told us!"
The beast roared, "Do not mention that name in my presensce!" The black hole
got bigger, and started shooting out sparks of dark energy. "You will pay for
your insults! Apo-Fire!" Apokari shot out a massive blaze of fire from his hands,
but the Neopets took every blow. It was almost enough to take them all out.
Which was very unfortunate, seeing as he was just getting started.
"Was that too much for you? How sad, because that wasn't near the extent of
my power! Apo-Holy!" A ball of white light appeared in front of Apokari, which
he manipulated to shoot blasts of destructive holy energy at the Neopets. Apokari's
attack showed no signs of stopping...
Episode XVI: Sakari Unleashed!
"You will pay for your deceitfulness!" Willie yelled out. He had emotions
showing that none of them had seen before. It was one of his rare serious moments.
"We all loved SnowOhki... and you fooled us into believing you were her! I will
dedicate the rest of my life to destroying you and Malum!"
"No you won't Willie. We all will," said Sakari. They were all ready to fight.
Except Ryo. All he could do was helplessly watch at the sidelines.
"They really are my friends. They're not just fighting for the sake of the
world anymore, they're fighting for my revenge. Guys, don't hold back! This
IS the final battle!" They all nodded back at him.
"You're going down," Kage said as he drew his dagger. "You can't beat me AND
the Neopets! ATTACK HIM!" All the Neopets weaponized and got ready to attack.
Ritsuzen, Kage's silver gryphon, pushed Kage onto his back so they could fight
together.
"ETHER BOMB!" Kage yelled out as a blast of Ether hit Apokari. All the other
Neopets were relentlessly using their weapons, but Apokari barely had a scratch
on him.
"Your weakness sickens me! Allow me to show you true power! Nova burner!"
A small star, about twenty feet in each direction, started glowing and exploded,
damaging all in it's wake. All the Neopets were limp on the ground.
"Ugh... this guy's strong..." Cubix blurted out.
"Gee, ya think?" Kyoutan sarcastically replied.
"Hahaha! Your lack of strength is comical to me! But alas, this battle cannot
rage on here, in this endless world. Instead of doing this all at once, I will
take each of you out one by one!" He started playing games in his head, pointing
to a Neopet and then moving on. And then, he stopped. Kyoutan.
"NO!" Sakari yelled. She almost ran up to him, but Kage held her back.
"And guess who's our lucky winner... the Zafara. Apo-Jolt!" A ball of thunder
appeared in the sky, and shot a massive blast of electricity at Kyoutan.
"KYOUTAN!" Sakari yelled out. In her current state of rage, even Kage couldn't
hold her back. She ran to Kyoutan, now in his standard form. "He's... not breathing..."
Sakari got up and walked forward to Apokari. "Kage, look after Kyoutan... I'm
going to show this guy what I'm made of." They were all puzzled at what Sakari
meant. Not for long, though...
"I can feel it; Kisei's dark power... it still resides in my body, deep inside
of me. All I need to do is summon it." They all gasped.
"NO! YOU CAN'T!" Ryo yelled. "IT'S YOUR GREATEST FEAR! YOU COULD ANNIHILATE
YOURSELF!"
"I know that... but I have to. There's no other chance.. Apokari will destroy
the world if I don't do this. Sakari Mitsukai!!!"
The transformation was more brilliant than last time. Her clothes did not
go black, but white. Her angel wings were longer than the first time. The rod
had no blade at the end this time. Instead, it had long ribbons with bells on
them. It was like the holy form of Mitsukai.
"Hey, not too shabby," Sakari said, admiring her new Mitsukai form. "Now THIS
is more like an angel."
"Wha?" Willie said, more confused than ever.
"Mitsukai means angel!" she yelled as she floated above Apokari, flapping
her wings. "Megami Kusari!" she yelled, as a chain of light was released from
her rod and was wrapped around Apokari.
"What is this!? A human with such power?"
"That's right, buddy!" Sakari said, mockingly. "Isn't it embarrassing to be
beaten by a lil' thing like me? Take this! Amatsu Toukai!" A small gathering
of clouds formed above Apokari as he was held in place by the holy chain. The
clouds then seperated slightly, letting in sunlight that seemed to be searing
Apokari's skin.
"You are strong indeed, especially for a human. But I will not be destroyed
without a fight!"
Sakari glared slyly at him. "I wouldn't want it any other way..."
"A fighter, are you? Well, then you'll enjoy this! Anti-Creation!" A red beam
was shot from Apokari's mouth, and the second it touched the chain, it started
vanishing. Sakari released the chains before it got her too.
"Impressive... not good enough, though! Giga Sendo!" The tip of Sakari's rod
started to glow.
"Not so fast! Lunar Beams!" The sky in the already dark world went completly
black as a moon could be seen behind some grey clouds. Some silver beams of
light shot out from the moon right at Sakari... and she dodged every one of
them.
"You're not so tough now, are ya?" Sakari held out her rod, and released a
massive blaze of green-colored energy, hitting Apokari dead on. It slowly started
going through him, disintegrating anything it touched. Pretty soon, he wasn't
even there anymore. Sakari lowered herself to the ground, and changed back to
her regular self.
"Nice work..." Kage tried to keep talking, but was interrupted by a barrage
of coughs. Ryo was just sitting in the distance, weeping. Sakari slowly walked
over to him.
"I can't believe she's been gone such a long time," Ryo said as he wiped tears
from his eyes. "I know I had no choice... but still... she's gone, and it's
my fault." Sakari put her hand on his shoulder.
"We all miss her... but life goes on Ryo. Sometimes, one must do things in
order to survive, even if it means losing a friend. As much as I hate to say
it, it's survival of the fitte-" Sakari's sentence was cut off by an evil laughter.
They all turned to see Apokari come out of the black hole that the first one
had come out of. They all just stared in disbelief.
"No applause? No matter. I'm suprised you're so happy that you defeated Apokari...
considering that was only made from one single cell of Apokari's true body.
"You're joking!" Ryo yelled as he slammed his fist against the ground. "You
mean all that time... we were only fighting an extremely small fraction of your
true power!?"
"You mean APOKARI'S true power. I am not Apokari." They all stared at him
as if to say, "What?"
"So are you just another genetic clone?" Willie asked.
"In a way, yes. There were about 250 000 of Apokari's cells in the Horror
Shell's area. That may seem like a large number, but for cells, it's only a
few. I was made up of the remaining cells that weren't used to create that pathetic
beast you just fought. And I wouldn't try looking for the real Apokari."
"Why shouldn't we?!?" Kage yelled out, quickly coughing after yelling.
"Because Apokari is gone, and has been for hundreds of years. And before you
even ASK why that fake acted like he was the real Apokari, it was because of
Apokari's unique cells. His memories were stored in each tiny cell."
"So... if you're not a clone, but not the real Apokari—" Kage was broken
off by coughing again. It passed, and he continued. "just who are you?"
"I'm a soul that has been bestowed with this body from Malum. If he only knew
what I was planning... but besides that, I was the one that brought you here.
I cannot stay here and humor you longer, though. I must now go, as I have certain
matters to attend to with your friends, Laura and Brad." Apokari then lowered
himself into the black hole and vanished.
"Who knows what he is going to do to Brad?!? And whoever this Laura is..."
said Ryo.
To be continued... | 
