Meal 21
"He ate Van," cried Drag frightfully. "And he's going to eat all of us too! How are we supposed to beat him now?"
"I know it's scary," choked Yure. "But could you please calm down. You're crushing me."
"Sorry," apologized Drag.
"But he does make a valid point," admitted Wolfcub. "How are we supposed to be something we couldn't beat at our best and has only gotten stronger?"
"You don't," Remgat cackled. "All you can do is decide on the order. Van was the bread. Who wants to be the soup?" None of them spoke, but shuddered at the thought of being his next victim. Finally, Morris stepped forward. He remained quiet, but glared strongly at Remgat and made eye contact. "A volunteer. Now isn't it nice to just give in when you know you will only increase your pain in suffering, though that is the part I do enjoy the most about my work."
"The only thing that I'm volunteering to do is defeat you," retorted Morris as his eyes glowed red and his fur began ruffled to match his rage.
"Are you doing what I think you are," replied Remgat with a grin. "Calling out your dark side to counter me? Kind of counterproductive if you ask me after all we'd be like kindred spirits."
"Not if I resist the darkness," he explained as he grew larger and more sinister-looking while his voice became gruffer. "I should have enough time and power to make you a bloody mess on my soles."
"And if you should succumb to the darkness and out of some impossibility kill me," snickered Remgat more delighted than worried. "What will you do then? You'd just be like me and you'd be back to square one again."
"Should that happen then I'd just take my own life," he answered. "Better we kill each other than let all worlds suffer under your darkness."
"I hate to see such dark powers so pitifully wasted," sighed Remgat. "But I will put it to good use once you are devoured."
"We'll see who gets devoured," snapped Morris growing more hostile by the second. He turned to Drag and the others. They shuddered with fright, not sure if he was suddenly going to attack them instead. "There is no telling when I will lose control and even before then this place will be no more durable than Styrofoam. It would be best if you'd get out of here while you still can."
"Don't be crazy," cried Wolfcub. "You just talked about fighting along and killing yourself afterward. We cannot just leave you to die!"
"I said RUN!" snarled the dark panda, his voice like thunder.
"No time to argue," cried Thomas, grabbing Wolfcub's arm and leading her away. "Hurry up and bring Yure with you, Drag!"
"Why did this have to happen to us?" whimpered Drag waddling as fast as he could with Yure in his arms. The poor, blue kitten appeared even more overwhelmed by the situation than everyone else as he hugged tight against Drag and soaked his chest with tears.
"Such a warm and cuddly friendship you have there," chuckled Remgat mockingly. "Hits you right there doesn't-" He didn't get the chance to finish as a powerful attack from Morris sent him hurtling through the castle wall, several of them.
"I just didn't want to share the fun of ripping you apart, pulling out your guts, stuffing you with cotton, putting you back together and placing your body in my foyer as a conversation piece," hissed Morris. "I've always wanted to take up taxidermy."
"What a coincidence," snickered Remgat getting back up with ease. "I was thinking taking up that very practice myself." He charged at Morris and slammed him through the wall of the castle with as just as much force as Morris had done to him.
"You think that Morris will really be able to win?" asked Wolfcub. "Remgat is just so ridiculously big, overpowered, and overwhelming."
"Indeed they are," agreed Thomas staring at her cleavage and clearly referring to something different than what she was, her massive bouncing rack.
"Don't we have something more important to worry about right now?" cried Wolfcub doing her best to cover over her massive chest. "Can you believe him, Drag? Some guys have no sense how to treat a lady."
"Uh, yeah," answered Drag, though he was also staring at her massive breasts. "What are we talking about?"
"Never mind," she sighed. The battle between the two dark beings continued to echo through the halls and shake the ground as violently as an earthquake. "At least we are making some distance from the battle. We should be much safer now."
Remgat suddenly burst through the wall backwards after receiving another devastating blow from Morris. He hurtled dangerously close to crushing Wolfcub and the others only to narrowly miss them.
"Did I kick your ass enough or are your cheeks ready for another pummeling?" asked Morris tauntingly.
"Was that you trying to kill me," replied Remgat in a similar manner. "I thought you were massaging my buns to beg for forgiveness."
"They had made a mess of half the castle and don't even look the least bit tired," cried Thomas. "At this rate they'll annihilate everything else well before a winner can be decided."
"And I take it we are part of everything else," added Wolfcub.
"Yeah," agreed Drag hugging Yure close to keep him safe. "Who'd have thought they'd be so evenly matched."
"What was that?" snapped Remgat and Morris in simultaneous rage. "Me as strong as him? I don't think so!"
In perfect synch, the two of them charged up their dark magic to tremendous levels. The castle quaked as did the rest of the world against their incredible might. Both formed a ball of dark energy in their hands as they prepared for a Dragonball Z standoff.
"It's a Dragonball Z standoff!" cried Thomas frightful as the two stared one another down. "And we're right in the middle of it all."
"Eep!" cried Drag. "We have to run!" With all the might they could put into their legs they ran. Remgat and Morris unleashed their attacks at one another and they converged in the middle, creating a dome of evil energy that quickly expanded. Neither side was willing the accept defeat.
"Quite the faceoff!" laughed Remgat. "Two beings more powerful than any other locked in endless combat. Immortal! Eternal! We spit in the face of God because he can do nothing to stop us!"
"Like any being could match our evil might," agreed Morris. "Though my might is greater than yours by far."
"And if there really is a God I dare him to strike us down right now," taunted Remgat. "I double dare him."
No sooner had Remgat uttered those words, a colossal beam of energy was fired down at the castle, obliterating it and everything inside in a blinding light of cataclysmic destruction. As the light faded, only a smoldering crater remained.
"You feel that rumbling," said Dillon looking out from their cavernous hideout. "Guess that means it is time to make my move."
"Go right ahead," replied Snow. "I will stay here and enjoy the pizza."
"Ok, but save some for our guests," stated Dillon.
"We're on a pizza volcano," argued Snow. "With veins of pizza sauce, molten cheese, and mines of stuffed crust and toppings not even I can eat this entire thing. Well, not one this size anyway."
"Fine, but still try and hold back," added Dillon. "Don't hog all the fun for yourself."
"Oh, I won't," promised Snow as he waved bye to Dillon. Once the dillo was out of sight he snickered devilishly, his fingers crossed behind his back.
"It's finally over," panted Zane collapsing to his knees exhausted. "Obamon is no more."
"Assuming a bit much, aren't you Zane?" asked Obamon, stepping out of the smoke, stepping on her broken glasses as she did. Her body was not very damaged, though her apron was torn to shreds. Beneath her apron the book she used to send everyone away had been concealed. "But I must thank you. You were an even better accomplice than I could have ever hoped for."
"Accomplice?" asked Zane. "What are you talking about?"
"There was a threat I had to take care of and thanks to you I didn't even have to dirty my hands," she explained. "Again I have to thank you. Now there is nothing that can interfere with me."
"Are you so quick to forget that I can still stop you?" retorted Zane building up another aura sphere. The blue energy formed in his palm, but it formed into a tiny ball and then dropped to the ground and made a tiny pop.
"I never forgot," she told him. "It is just you haven't the energy left to do anything. Now you can do nothing, save for wet my appetite." Stepping forward with the same hungry grin on her face, Obamon reached to pick up Zane. The weakened Lucario attempted to fight back, but he couldn't even find the strength to stand. Watching in horror as Obamon's second mouth opened wide, he was pulled inside. Everything went dark as the jaws shut behind him and he was swallowed to join up with everyone else Obamon had already devoured. "Such a succulent morsel. Too bad he was already out of fight. I would have loved to feel him punching and kicking all the way to his demise, but I guess things have just become way too easy. Now I should check to see how that dark dragotaur is doing." Opening the book she read through it. She had to squint without her glasses to read the text, but she managed and with an inquisitive smile on her face that only grew bigger as she went from one page to the next. "Hit its mark perfectly. Now I can finally focus and spend time with my little ones. Wait a minutes. What do we have here?" Rereading a part of the book, he smile grew even more devilish than before.
In the rubble of the ruined castle, it appeared that everything had truly been obliterated. Then some of the debris started to shift and Drag emerged scales scratched and dirtied from the attack on top of a throbbing headache, but he was alive nonetheless.
"Is anyone else still alive?" Drag called out, his voice echoing. He saw some more debris shaking nearby and hobbled over to check it out. "Hang on I'm coming." He tossed aside the rubble and quickly discovered the recognizable body of Wolfcub, but she was motionless. As he continued to dig her out, Thomas suddenly emerged out from under her. "Thomas you're alive!"
"Barely," he coughed. "At the last second Wolfcub leapt on top of me and shield me with her body. I might not have made it if she hadn't done that. Is she alright?"
"She looks a bit banged up like the rest of us, but she should pull through," replied Drag.
"And what happened to Yure?" asked Thomas not seeing him anywhere.
"In a panic I put him in the safest place I could think to put him," explained Drag. Drag then turned around and after a series of coughing and gagging he coughed up Yure. "Poor kitty is still stunned from all this. It was bad enough that Remgat and Morris were fighting, but then that weird light thing happened."
"Not sure what that was about, but it seemed kind of familiar," Thomas commented. "But it looks like it took out both of them in the process. Terrible we lost them both, but it doesn't look like we were going to be able to do anything about it. Let's just get away from here and rest before moving on. I've never felt this exhausted before in my life."
"Me too," agreed Drag as he held Yure in one hand and helped Thomas move Wolfcub with his other hand till they reached a patch of grass a short distance from the wreckage. With them placed on the ground comfortably, Thomas and Drag collapsed on the ground to join them. They hoped to take the time to rest for a while, but they then felt some rumbling back at the castle and saw more debris shifting.
"It can't be," whimpered Thomas. "Nobody could have survived that. Well we all did so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise, but we couldn't even get five minutes to take a break."
The two dark beings burst out of the wrecked castles, hurt, but far from dead though they seemed perplexed. "Maybe that comment was a tad out of line," Remgat admitted. "But I never expected to get a reply."
"Well I hope you aren't going to use that as an excuse to why you are going to lose," stated Morris.
"It will take more than that blast to defeat me," argued Remgat. "But I could use some food to recover. You look like you'd do just nicely."
"Too bad I'm going to be the one eating you," snickered Morris, swinging a powerful punch across Remgat's face. Spitting some blood out of his mouth, Remgat returned a punch right back and the two quickly returned to their brawl exchanging one blow with another. Drag and Thomas watched in the distance, the sound of their battle like a fierce thunderstorm that caused them to cringe in fear. Each attack was stronger than the last forcing them to off the ground and to tumble about. They would then get back to their feet and fight back even harder. Despite the brutal beating, both of them were clearing showing fatigue as their panting grew heavy and their movements more and more sluggish. With each attack it seemed quite possible they might not have the power to get back up again.
Finally, both of them appeared to be at the very end of their strength, a single blow separating them the victory and defeat. They both charged at once another, pulling back their arms to strike with all their might. The ground shook as they ran. When they finally came within striking distance they both attacked. Remgat and Morris were desperate to beat the other to making contact first, but only one was able to be the victor and delivering a deadly strike to the jaw, the victor was Remgat. Morris was knocked off the ground and quickly crashed back onto it. Panting after the near defeat and letting out a roar of victory, Remgat approached his fallen adversary and didn't waste a moment devouring him, the victory meal all the more delicious on account of what he had to do to earn it. Devouring the meal had quite results on his body as injuries healed and strength returned to him. He was far from back to full strength, but it was enough to bring a grin back to his face.
"Well that was interesting," stated Remgat. "Beat the crap out of a bunch of weaklings. Survived a castle being destroyed. Least it didn't belong to me. Got some lunch and I feel pretty much unstoppable now. All in all, not a bad day, though seems like I have a few more loose ends to tie up." He looked straight at Drag and Thomas and step by step moved closer to them.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Thomas. "We still don't have the strength to fight him and we can't carry the others away and get away from him."
"There might be a way," replied Drag. "I think I have a bit of an idea where that attack came from earlier. If that's the case, then you might be able to defeat him. You get ready while I keep him busy."
"By yourself?" asked Thomas. "But do you even have the strength to do that?"
"Not really," admitted Drag. "Out of water, our strength, and my leg feel like jelly, but Morris was willing to face his inner demons so I should be able to do the same."
"Not you too," cried Thomas, but Drag was already hobbling towards Remgat leaving Thomas to figure out what Drag had been getting at about that attack from earlier.
"So you are next, Drag," snickered Remgat. "Did you volunteer or lose at rock paper scissors or maybe you think you stand a chance against me now."
"You were just so cocky that it was grating on my nerves," retorted Drag. "Thought I might come over and shut you up." Drag held up his fists showing he was ready to fight. Remgat just looked at Drag for a moment then lifted up his front foot and brought it down hard on top of Drag and rubbed it against the ground for good measure.
"Well that was something," admitted Remgat. "Not very smart, but something."
"Not Drag too," cried Thomas running over to Remgat angrily. "How could you do that to him and everyone else?" Desperately, he tried to lift up Remgat's foot, but he couldn't even get it to budge. As his anger boiled over he started to kick and punch and bite at him with all his might all just as futile as the last. "Why won't you just go do? Why? Why? Why!!!"
"Because you don't have the power to beat me," answered Remgat. "And if you miss Drag so much I can send you six feet under to join him."
Lifting his other front foot up he prepared stomp Thomas next. His face grinned with sadistic delight, but then changed to slight confusion as the foot crushing Drag suddenly starting getting lifted up on its own accord.
"What's going on now?" asked Remgat, lifting up his foot to see and beneath was Drag still alive and his blue scales replaced with pitch black ones.
"I thought you wanted to see me all dark and malicious," hissed Drag as he jumped at Remgat's leg and held on tight to absorb Remgat's dark energy and gain strength. Sections of his black scales began changing to red the longer Drag held on. Remgat kicked and flailed trying to get Drag off, but his efforts didn't work and his efforts only became weaker and weaker.
"What is going on?" he snapped angrily. "Why is it getting to hard to move?"
"You're losing control," replied a voice inside Remgat's head. It was Tagmer. "And I am finally reclaiming my body."
"You shouldn't be able to come back!" shouted Remgat full of rage. "That fat gecko could not possibly absorb enough of my essence to allow you to gain even control of my pinkie."
"You're right," agreed Tagmer. "None of us alone could defeat you, but we all chipped away at you piece by piece and it added up."
"Don't give me that teamwork bull crap. The only good thing they are good for is a three course meal. All their attempts were ineffective."
"Not all of them," answered Van. "Cutting you to pieces didn't do anything, but in here you might have taken my strength, but we can give our support to Tagmer to help him regain control."
"'We?' So Morris is also helping?" hissed Remgat finding even moving in the slightest a challenge.
"Relying on my dark power may have been desperate, but it did help wear you down and I'm still fighting you even while you're trying to digest me."
"And that light from the sky," added Tagmer. "I don't know how or why, but I can tell that it was Zane who did that. It was unexpected, but if it wasn't for that we wouldn't have been able to get this far."
"At least I know who to go after once I'm done here," replied Remgat starting to regain control little by little despite Drag's best attempts, though he was finding it difficult to continue to absorb the dark energy and keep his body and mind in a stable state. "Because if you think that I am just going to be defeated now then you obviously don't know me very well. You all got close, but who is going to deliver the finishing blow? Do you think the sky will rain down another miracle?"
"One miracle was enough," explained Van. "Because it didn't just weaken you severally, it also gave Thomas the finishing blow and it looks like he just realized it."
"Drag, I don't know about this," cried Thomas nervously. "With such power there probably wouldn't be anything left of either or you and that includes everyone inside of Remgat."
"It doesn't matter," growled Drag resisting with all his might. "Every one of us worked together to create this chance. We cannot forsake everyone's sacrifice now."
"Why did this have to happen?" he sobbed. "Why must I be the one to end everyone's life?"
"I don't know why things ended up the way they did, but none of us blame you," explained Drag. "But it is time this fight comes to an end. We can all relax easier knowing that in the end we defeated Remgat."
"No!" growled Remgat madly and with all his might. "You wouldn't dare. Can you seriously kill Tagmer? With or without that weakling I will find some way to return, but he'll be gone for certain. The same goes for them all? Can you bear these sins on your shoulders forever?"
"Don't listen to him!" shouted Tagmer, speaking for the first time with his own mouth. "We trust you. All of us. I wish we could have talked under better conditions, but this will have to do. Please, bring this all to a close."
Thomas remained silent and prepared his attack. He created an aura sphere just like Zane's that matched it in shape and power. Focusing the energy, he fired it at Remgat and Drag and both were swallowed up in the light.
"Obamon, you were the one behind this weren't you?" thought Remgat. "I can smell your handiwork in this. You put this together to defeat us all at once and by our friends nonetheless. I can already sense you are laughing that you have played us all for fools. Well don't get used to it. This story is not over yet and every story that I am apart of ends with me laughing with wicked triumph. Never forget that."
When the light faded, Thomas found himself on the ground, exhausted beyond belief. Despite this, he forced himself to his feet to look around. Whatever remained of the castle was gone. The only thing remaining in the crater was a big red lump he excitedly when to check.
"You made it," Thomas cried in delight. "Tagmer you made it and you are back to normal." His excitement only lasted a short time as he didn't see anyone else save for the unconscious Dragotaur. "But Drag and the others didn't make it by the looks of things. I wish you were awake. What do I do now?"
"You are coming with me for a pizza party," answered Dillon from the edge of the crater.
"Where did you come from?" cried Thomas. "Why are you here now of all times?"
"Seems like I arrived late to the fight, but it just means I can take all the spoils for myself," he told Thomas. "Now come along nice and easy and this will be easy for us all." Ignoring his enemy's instructions, Thomas hobbled back to Wolfcub and Yure. Seeing the desperate attempt, Dillon watched to humor him.
"All that for this to happen now?" cried Thomas. "And Wolfcub is still asleep. The only thing I can do is try my best to get away. Yure is the only one light enough for me to carry. Sorry everyone else. That victory was worthless in the end after all." Approaching the patch of grass, Thomas looked for Yure, but he was nowhere to be seen. Dillon was already approaching Thomas, the speed he could move at proving that running from him was not going to work, but that was on the back of Thomas's mind now. "Yure? Where are you?"
