Epic showdown. Again.

I woke up, bleary eyed and with a pounding headache, lifting my head from the floor to squint around as the room slowly came into focus. I was in a small, square red stone room, with a security camera in a high corner. I felt a tugging at the sharp pain in my shoulder, and looked round to see a tiny robot pulling desperately at the patch that had been stabbed in there. The robot had slightly blocky limbs and a rectangular body that were still recognisable as having been an iPhone. A piece of the touch screen served as the head, with thin wires flowing from behind hair. On the screen, Hana's face was filled with concentration as she pulled weakly at the power patch with tiny wire fingers, trying to remove it.

'Hana! The transformer modifications work then?!'

'Yeah, and I still have full use of my powers. I've disabled your patch, but there's only so much strength you can put in a phone...'

I glanced up at the camera, focusing hard as I blinked at it. It froze, and I reached for the patch, swearing as I tugged it out of my shoulder. I rolled over, staring up at the ceiling. Eventually, I managed to sit up, feeling my strength returning. 'Thanks Hana. Splitting up before they stole all my tech was a wise decision.'

'Yeah, I've seen what they did to the rest of it. Ouch.'

'Aww, I wanted it back! Damn. Oh well, we'd best be getting on.'

I faced the door. There was no keypad, no lock, nothing. It was just a slab of metal. Right, plan B. I stared at the stone wall next to door and clenched my fist, making a crushing gesture. A door sized area shattered, crumbling to dust. With Hana's on my shoulder, I ran out into the corridor. It seemed like the lower levels of the facility had been carved out of the layers of rock beneath the main building. My room was on its own in the corridor, and we ran off, looking for the others. 'Hana, did you disable everyone else's patches too?'

'Doing it now.'

I found a staircase and hurtled up it. 'How long before they recover?'

'Quicker than you, they're already awake.'

A guard came round a corner. I froze the floor and shot along it, sliding into him and slammed him into the wall. He collapsed, and I started running again. 'Come on guys, where are you?!' I thought as loud as I could. I heard a faint buzzing a regular, dull thud noise from up ahead. Another guard ran out of a doorway and raised his gun, but used it to gesture further down the corridor. 'We're close' he said in a strangely flat tone. 'Left at the junction.' He winced and collapsed. I turned left as he' d instructed, and saw two guards running at me. They had their guns pointed at me before I could blast them, but one suddenly clutched his neck, letting out a cry of pain and collapsing. I saw three wasps flying out from under his collar as he fell. The other guards gasped as a ghostly vision of a young woman flashed into being between him and me. Tildy yelled 'Hurry! They know we're breaking out!' before screaming and rushing at the other guard. He shrieked as she passed through him. Now I could hear music, guiding me onwards.

At the next junction I turned right, following the bright glow and smell of burning metal. I had reached the right corridor. The thuds were explained as a metal fist burst through the wall on my left, and I heard Ragnarok cheering. Healthbar had melted her door, and offered me a drained smile as I approached. 'Woah, that takes some getting used to' she chuckled, looking me up and down. 'that is you right?'

'Yup.' I laughed. The first real proper laugh for a long time. I made my crushing motion again, breaking open doorways for Doolittle, Tingle and Playwrite.

Rag had finished forcing his way out of his room, and did a double take when he saw me. 'Whoah, sorry. Mind giving me a buzz?' I sent a jolt of electricity at him, and his metallic body crackled with the energy.

I ran along the corridor, breaking everyone else out. Doolittle was confused at my yelp of joy and a hug that lifted her off her feet. Once everyone was gathered, we set off for the upper levels.

'Why hasn't HG come and stopped us?' Doolittle asked as we ran.

'FDiffy bought me some time.' I said. 'I hope he's OK.'

'Who's Fdiffy?'

We were approaching the comms centre. There was a troop of guards outside, and they turned as they heard us approach.

'Keep them busy guys, I need to have a word with our host.'

Everyone nodded, and I leapt through the locked door, opening an audio link to HG's grand hall. I studied the monitors showing the room. HG was gloating, but the figure in front of him grinned.

'Did you really think ou could best me? ME?! You fool! I am the greatest Equinox who ever lived!I have beaten you at every turn! Which reminds me, I really must thank you for posting everything you were up to, it was very useful. Your virtual defences were pitiful, I've been reading your blog for months! I've known your every move all the time! You even posted your invasion plan for here! As soon as I read it, I knew exactly where your new team was heading! I've sent a group of guards after each of them! It's over! You've lost!'

A cut and bruised face tilted upwards to stare at him. 'And how'd that work out?'

HG faltered. 'What?'

'Allow me to explain.' I cut in over the comms. 'He's referring to the fact that you must have sent them quite a long time ago. Have you heard from any of them?'

'Who's that?'

'Answer the question.'

'Well, no.'

'Oh dear, that can't be good, can it?'

'Who are you? What are you talking about?'

'I'm talking about nobody being where you think they are.'

'What?!'

'Well, it serves you right for snooping doesn't it? You read something you shouldn't have, and now you're in trouble.'

'What?! WHO ARE YOU?'

'Can't you guess?'

I cut the connection and left the room.there were no guards left to fight, so we made our way to the grand hall. We didn't come across any more guards. Clearly Jingle had his job well.

As we got closer to th hall I could hear rushing water. 'Ah, the ammo stores, excellent. I lined myself up so I had a straight path, and ran through the wall, holding my breath. The room was completely full of water, and in the middle, someone was whirling frantically round and round. Freezing cold emanated from me as I ran through, spreading through the water and turning it to ice. I grabbed Maelstrom and pushed him ahead of the me, phasing him through the wall on the other side, leaving a solid room of ice behind us. 'Well, I'd like to see them reload now! How are you?'

'Dizzy....really dizzy....'

Healthbar placed a hand on his shoulder, and he seemed to feel better.

We had reached a door, and I pushed it open. We were on a metal walkway, looking down on HG. He was staring at a screen showing the remains of the holding area.

'How did they get out?! What have you done!?' He stared at the figure in front of him, and then blinked, confused. 'Wait! Something's wrong! What....no.....No!'

'Yes.' I called, and he whipped round to gaze up at me. He took in the rest of VHS behind me, and a look of panic flickered across his face. 'But you don't have the ability to....and the patches...you couldn't....' his eyes flicked between me and his captive, and what little colour there was drained from his face. 'Nooo!'

'We had to keep you distracted enough to let the passive illusions slip under your radar, but I guess you had to notice sometime.'

The grey face and black cloak of Shade faded from me, and down on the floor below, FDiffy was revealed as his illusion of me vanished.

HG stared at us. 'No! That's not how it went! That's not what you said!' He pointed at FDiffy. 'HE's Shade, not you!'

'Nope. That's just what I put in the post. We know you've been reading it. You KNOW we know. I put that in the blog too.'

I leapt over the railing, landing safely on the floor with a puff of air. I started walking towards him. 'I can't believe you fell for it! Was it the bit about you not knowing about FDiffy? Is that what you got you?' I grinned. 'YOU fool.'

I tried to grab him, but he backed away. 'You still can't stop me! I can stop anything you send at me! You have no idea of my power!'

'Actually, I do. You can 'flip' things. Reversal, switching, whatever you want to call it. My blog's defenses didn't trust you. Flip! They do. You've been treating people's minds like computers. Someone has willpower. Flip! They don't. I'm guessing that's the only way you could catch Healthbar. I assume you flipped the effects of her powers, meaning she healed you when she meant to harm?'

'He did!' She yelled from above.

'It's true, that IS my power.'

He waved a hand, and FDiffy gulped. He gasped, and looked woozy.

'What did you do?'

'I 'flipped' his breathing. Now oxygen goes out, and CO2 goes in. I didn't change which of the two his body needs though.'

'You monster!'
'He will only be the first!'
I could smell burning again, and an angry golden glow was coming from above.
'You have gathered your friends here, now see them die!'

He swept a hand in the direction of the railings, but flinched, his hand seeming to bounce off the air, as if burned.

'No.'

We looked up, and I had to shield my eyes. Healthbar was ablaze with golden light, and there was fury in her eyes. She was holding hands with Playwrite and Doolittle. The whole group was holding hands, standing in a line, with the golden light surrounding them like a protective aura.

'No.' Healthbar said again. 'You will not harm us. I will not allow it.'

HG snarled and made a flipping motion with his hand. Healthbar smiled as the cloud of darkness she'd created in front of her was morphed into golden light, which was absorbed into her protective barrier. He tried again, and the same thing happened. FDiffy seemed to recover a little. His body was fighting the swap, HG was having to focus on holding it in place!

'Keep going Healthbar!' I yelled, launching streams of lightning at him. I knew it wouldn't kill him, he'd be able to recover, but I had to take his attention off FDiffy. He was distracted by Healthbar, and gave a cry of pain as the lightning hit, and turned to me. He screamed at me, but kept motioning at Healthbar, who kept making more dark smog.

FDiffy was recovering, his body slowly winning the fight for control of his breathing. HG yelled, flying backwards, and Healthbar let out a 'Ha!' of triumph. While his attention was on me, she'd shone a beam of healing light at HG, who, not realizing, had flipped it, so that what hit him was a glowing black beam of her dark powers, blasting him off his feet. FDiffy seemed to gulp, and breathed in deeply, free at last. He pulled himself up onto his knees, gasping for air, and glared at HG.

'You.....you....I....that was.......you.....you're just....just...'

He was struggling to find the right word, trying to describe exactly what he was feeling.

'You're....you're....'

He was on his feet now, and pointed an accusing finger. 'You're..just....just....STINKY!!'

I don't think I'd really believed it until then. Sure he had the colour scheme, and the ability, but I think there had always been a part of me, deep down, that refused to believe that the Diffy I knew could have become this hardened warrior. But hearing him now, and seeing that familiar look on his face, I knew. I finally saw a shadow of the old Diffy in his eyes.

HG shot something at Diffy, who was hunched over again, breathing heavily. I saw HG shoot, and leapt. 'Diffy, look out!'

I knocked him to the floor, just dodging being shot myself. Diffy was staring at me. 'What?'

'You called me Diffy.'

'Yeah...'

'Without the F'

'Oh, yeah, well...'

Next thing I knew he was hugging me, beaming.

'Tempest! So you don't think I'm a fake anymore?!''

'Fake? The F stood for Future...'

'Oh. I don't care I'm just happy! Thank you for saving me!'

'Uh, you're welcome?'

'Does this mean you forgive me about Precog?'

'No, but I'm not mad at you anymore.'

'I'll take that. I'm sorry I had to lie, but-'

'WHEN YOU TWO HAVE QUITE FINISHED?!'

Healthbar had been blocking us from shots with a cloud of darkness, but seemed to be weakening. She grimaced as another shot hit our cover.

'Sorry!' I got up, and faced HG.'Face it, you've lost!'
'Oh really?'
He smiled, and the back wall slid upwards to reveal a solid mass of monsters, horrific creatures that belonged in nightmares. claws, pincers, bat wings, horn, fangs, hooves, a crazy mish-mash of animal and human, demonic versions of fairytale characters, and golems made of stone.
Me and Diffy shared a look, and sighed. 'When does this guy NOT have an army?'
'As you say Tempest, I can bend the obedience of others to my will. A familiar face, I believe?'
I peered into the swarm, and noticed someone near the front, with glazed eyes, moving her arms like a puppeteer. 'Jorgia?! I thought she died?'
'She can Warp Reality! You really think she would surrender to death so easily?'
The hellish creations charged. Me and Diffy ran for the nearest wall, desperate to limit how many angles we could be attacked from.
We nearly made it. We were only a couple of metres away when the creatures got to us. We found ourselves drowning in a sea of monsters, all jabbing and slashing at us. Diffy grabbed the nearest head, and beams of multicoloured foggy light started to waft from his eyes. HG laughed, and flipped his hand, and the beams began to retreat. Diffy began to scream, and cut off his attack at once. 'He flipped my spooky cloud! I can't do it!'
'Same here!' All my powers were being flipped into nothingness, fading before they did any good. I resorted to punching a vampiric tinkerbell in the face, sending her flying, but a large grey cyclops took her place, reaching for me with it's huge hands.

Then four things happened at once.
There was a yell from above, and Healthbar led the charge over the railing, dropping onto the monsters below.
A series of bangs rang out as doors slammed open. The rest of my new team had arrived from their various missions of sabotage.
The main doors blew off their hinges, crumpled and broken, and Dragon stormed in, livid. 'STOP! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO HARM THESE NOBLE SOULS! THEY ARE UNDER MY PROTECTION!'
The wall off to my right exploded, clouds of brick dust swept over us, and, coughing, I looked up to see a very short, oddly shaped silhouette.
Diffy beamed. 'I told you! Secret weapon!'
'What?'
'I told you someone was working up a attack. When you arrived in the future, who was free?'
'...Oh.....No way....'
the shape looked rather like a rather spiky lion, about the size of a dog, being ridden by something like a very large egg, wearing a sailors hat and holding up something pointy.
The dust began to clear, and there he was. Sitting on blue and black spiky cat creature, weilding a dagger like a sword, his red hat emblazened with it's signature smiley face.
'DIFFY!'
'Oi! Stinky! You has my frends. Now you in BIIIIIG trubble.'
He turned to call behind him 'Code Cheescake! Code Cheesecake! Go Go Go!'
Figures ran in past him. I saw Cleone, Freezeframe, Evan, the guy we rescued who can turn things to dust, and so many more. Diffy had gone and found anyone and everyone he could that we had helped over the past few years. True, he only seemed to have about 7 people, but it was impressive. Dust guy was pushing into the creatures, reducing them to dust. Across the room, Tingle was having a similar effect. Diffy had clambered off his mount, and it had let out a small roar and leapt into the fray, crackling with energy. 'Teempeeest!' Diffy was running over to me in the cute, waddling way I'd missed so much.
'Tempest! You's ALIVE! Also, I has an ouchy, look.'
He held out a yellow paw with a small cut on it. Beaming, I got out a plaster, and stuck it on, wrapping him in a hug. I felt how solid he seemed, and thought back to what else Future Diffy had said to me. Something about his power that I'd missed, something about Paris.....
I felt Diffy hug me, and then pull away. 'Tempest! I is liking the hug, and all the happy, but I needs to go. I has peeple saving to do.'
'Of course, but promise me something?'
'What?'
'Never let anything change you. I know we might get annoyed sometimes, but we all love you, and we're proud of you. Look at what you did! Thank you. Thank you for coming and saving us. You are awesome, and you must never let anyone or anything change that. Just keep being you. Promise?'
'Of corse! Hehe, you being all soppy!'
'Ha! Yeah. Now go. Save the world.'
Diffy beamed, and turned away, running at the monsters. He lashed out with his blade, jabbing at ankles, shins and tails.
'Stabby! Stabby Stabbity stabbity stab stab! You all in biiiiig trouble! 1 for you, 1 for you, ooh, you has 4 legs, you gets 2! Jab! Take dat! and dis! Raaar!'
He vanished from sight, but his progress was marked by the wiggly line of creatures crying out in pain and falling to the floor.
I turned to look at Future Diffy. 'I know he hasn't gone all dark yet, but you were never very innocent were you?'
'Nah, I'm pretty twisted inside.'
I saw that dust guy bad become a whirling vortex of dust, surging through the creatures, writhing wildly, as if he was losing control.
Future Diffy grinned and leapt to his feet. He looked over at HG, who was looking advancing on Dragon. 'He looks suitably distracted, let's try this again.'
He spun slowly on the spot, and coloured light whirled round him, turning him into...
'Woah. And I thought Shade fighting for us sounded fun.'
'EX-TER-MIN-ATE!!'
He'd become a Dalek. He whirred off, blasting at foes as he went.
'Huh....the beams....they're....working? OH.'
My train of thought was derailed by a Squid faced pirate swiping at me. He was electrocuted and burst into nothingness. I started making my way over to intercept HG, who was still after Dragon. Dragon had reached Jorgia, and held a hand up to her head. 'Sleep now, little one. You have been used and mistreated, and must stop this while you still can.'
His hand glowed, and she looked like she'd been struck between the eyes. She collapsed, and her army faded from sight.
Diffy cheered, and ran over to Healthbar, hugging her leg tightly. 'Healthy! I did good!'
'Yes you did! Well done Diffy!'
Future Diffy became himself again, and walked over to them. 'Oh, Diffy, I wonder if you could help me with something.'
Diffy narrowed his eyes, suspicious. 'Who's you?'
'I'm..a new friend of Tempest's. A new, old friend. I can do what you can do, and I was hoping you could help me with something.'
'I'z listening...'
'Well, the stinker with the hood is currently distracte trying to get near Dragon, but he's holding him off. Now, I want to nightmare cloud him to pay him to give him some idea of the hell we've all been through, but I can't do it on my own. Do you think we could do it together?'
Diffy looked surprised. 'You...you WANTS me to spooky face him? Help yoo do one?'
Future Diffy bowed low. 'It would be an Honour to work with you.'
Diffy looked up at Healthbar, and then at me. Everyone was nodding.
Diffy glared at HG. 'Let's spooky!'
He and his future self ran At HG, wisps of colourful light streaming from their eyes. The combined force was too much for HG to stop, and he reeled, screaming as a cloud of flickering light surrounded his head. I ran over to the others, and was relieved to see that Doolittle had survived this time. Dust guy hadn't made it though. He'd forced his power into overdrive, become that tornado, and lost control. It looked like he hadn't managed to change back, fading and scattering. I wish we could have done something to help him. There had been too many deaths around HG. He had to be stopped.
The building groaned and rumbled, and cracks appeared on some of the walls. I heard a explosion somewhere far off.
'Ah, that's my bad.' Doom winced. 'I thought we'd be out by now.'
Blackmage had a go at fusing some of the cracks closed, but the building shook, knocking us all off our feet.
The Diffys yelled, slammed to the floor by the quake, and HG took his chance, dispelling the cloud and swooping down on them. He face was locked in a grimace of hatred, and dark energy was burning round him like an Aura. A beam of it shot at Diffy, who grabbed by Future Diffy, rolling out of the way.
'Oh come on! You can shoot energy beams?! How does that even work?!'
The Diffys were in a corner, they had nowhere to go. We were all charging at HG, trying to stop him, block the beam anything-
Dragon got there first. He flew towards HG with a roar, and HG turned to face him, his beam of dark energy striking him squarely in the chest. Dragon stopped, frozen in midair, and let out a yell. He began to glow with red and orange energy, which became an Aura to rival HG's. the beam that linked the two of them burst into flames, and HG snarled.
They both seemed frozen now, eyes locked on each other as their power struggle raged. At the centre of the beam, a ball of energy was growing, crackling and flickering between orangey gold and deepest. The ball of energy kept letting loose small shot, blasts firing off in all directions. The walls wer crumbling, chunks of ceiling were falling around us, and several small fires had started. I hauled Future Diffy to his feet, and he ran to the others, hugging Diffy close to his chest. We all gathered in a terrified huddle, watching Dragon and HG as they leant towards each other, throwing everything they had into the fight. Dragon started to shake, and vibrate, starting to blur. HG's cloak was aflame, fire consuming him, but all his focus was on the beam. Dragon grimaced, coming back into focus, but his whole body was glowing orange, and he was becoming transparent. He closed his eyes for a second, brow furrowed, and burst into flames, his robes ablaze. He turned to us, with tears in his eyes. 'Fly you fools!' and exploded in a ball of fire.
I scooped us all up in a forcefield and shot us out of the door, landing on the road outside with a thump. We all turned back to see the building come crashing down, a raging inferno reducing the entire complex to rubble.
There was another explosion, huge this time, destroying everything that remained. I put up a forcefield against flying chunks of burning rubble, and shared a look with the rest of the team. We'd done it. We'd beaten HG and survived. Well, most of us.
Dragon.
Thank you Dragon. Thank you for watching over us, for helping us. For saving our lives. You will be missed.
Thank you for everything.