SURROUNDED BY CROWS.
1774, NOVEMBER 27th SUNDAY 5:25 pm.
Thousands of crows took flight – the sky became a blanket of writhing black. Countless birds moved like one entity; fluid like the ocean. Their caws and flapping wings deafened the world of almost all sound. They swarmed the auditorium like a living tornado of darkness.
Noche raised her hand and prismatic energy moved within her body, but she could not make light.
Create failed her.
True darkness had come.
The stench of blood filled the air as rancid breath touched the back of her neck. Noche turned around, but in the pitch black and silence, all she found was nothingness. Lights came back on in the auditorium, the blonde ran inside as the room's projector activated on its own accord. On the lowered screen a man with an elongated, rubbery face was visible.
"Helloooooo everyone!" Edward said.
Noche gazed at this person with the vague impression of familiarity, yet she did not know why.
"My name is Edward Death. President of DeathTech!" He said — Noche's eyes widened. "You may be asking yourself, who is this person? What does he want? How many licks does it take to get to the center of the mystery of how he's broadcasting this video live to every television in the world?!"
Edward chuckled and straightened his hat.
"Long ago, long before Cross was established, there was an apocalypse war — That glorious world-war that ended when Create was discovered." Edward grinned. "The opponent of that war... WAS ME! I'm still alive! The dark god had made me immortal! And now... I. Have. Returned."
Edward's laughter filled every phone, every TV, every screen across the world.
"That brings us to question twoooooo. What I want — is simple," his unnatural grin stretched even wider. "I'm declaring a new world war."
Silence filled the room as the camera switched from Edward to a new sight. A massive underground bunker full of nuclear missiles that went on for miles and miles.
"Bumba kla..." Mary muttered.
The Grave brothers smiled and both took a sip of wine.
"Buuuuut tell you what," Edward said, "I'll put a phone number on this screen here. If Cross calls us within the next ten seconds, then we'll only attack them — instead of everyone."
The camera switched back to Edward as a phone number flashed before his face. Under it, a timer began tocking down from ten to nine.
Medusa's phone snapped open and she dialed the number. Other members of Cross tried to leave the auditorium, but the tornado of crows kept them trapped inside. Create was used against the birds, but for every one killed, two more took its place. Noche stared at the number — it seemed familiar.
The timer went down to seven, the phone began to ring as it reached six. Ring, five, ring, four, ring, three, ring, two — someone picked up.
"Honeyville pizzeria!"
Medusa turned to the boxes on the table — the cardboard's large numbers matched the TV.
"Zero," Edward said.
Millions of missiles were launched into the air, turning the sky red with their flight.
"MOM!" Mary shouted.
"Hmmm, not a singleeeee call," Edward shrugged. "Guess Cross is more selfish than I thought."
Edward's cackle filled the room as Medusa's phone snapped in her hand.
"ALL GENERALS, GO NOW!" Medusa yelled.
All across the world, missiles filled the air. They flew over Noche's old childhood home on the burnt fishing island, over the old man's clock tower, over the window of Timmy Timebomb's jail cell, over the children's hospital in MoveCity, over the wooden graves outside the NeverAfter forest... And over the monster Creeps as it ate a half mutilated child.
Planetary defense sirens blared all across the world as the Generals broke free of the crow-nado. General Salt's face turned red as he scowled. The stone under his feet cracked and the dirt caved in — he jumped beyond the clouds, beyond the exosphere, and entered outer space.
His body became translucent, he glowed neon white as his form doubled in size. It multiplied again and again, Salt grew exponentially larger in the vacuum of space. People in MoveCity screamed and ran as General Salt's eye, now as big as the moon, stared down upon them.
When he had finished growing, the planet was comparable to the size of a basketball between his hands — he had transformed into a being of pure Drive energy.
Raptorman dashed out of his castle as Salt's god-like form filled the sky. Missiles flew towards the city as massive hands fell towards the ocean like a meteor.
"MILKMAN! We have a city to protect!"
"Rodger sir!"
Raptorman and Milkman both jumped into the sky — above the clouds thousands of missiles loomed towards their city. Prismatic energy shimmered next to Raptorman, a sword made of various metal arrows appeared. Space and time distorted around the blade — intense gravity sucked in nearby clouds.
Like a red laser, Raptorman dashed towards the nearest missile, he rode it like a surfboard and swung his arrow-blade at the missiles. Hundreds of nukes exploded, their fires and radiation absorbed into the intense gravity of his sword. Taking a sharp turn towards the ocean, the world spin as his missile spiraled out of control.
Above the waters he raised his sword — countless missiles were sucked against their jet propulsion. Pulled towards Raptorman with blackhole-like force. Faster than light, Raptorman ran from missile to missile, slicing each one; the sword's mega-gravity absorbed each explosion.
In the desert, a spire of ice grew and grew. Explosions decorated the ice mountain like lights of a tree — before they too were pushed into space.
A long pillar of ice speckled in explosions grew past Salt — making the planet look like a large sewing pin. The frost detached from the world and was shot into space like a javelin. Salt didn't waste time on it, his attention was on the oceans below.
His fingers drew close and the atmosphere began to heat up. The extreme temperature changes caused lightning and storms to form. As his cosmic fingers penetrated the clouds, motes of starlight gathered at the tips.
Thousands of lasers shot from Salt's digits — thousands of nukes exploded above the water. The lasers came alive, they moved like snakes towards the missiles that escaped, and struck. The nuclear explosions were absorbed into the starlight before they had a chance to expand.
The entire MoveCity desert filled with ice as countless missiles were frozen and flung into space. Opposite of the desert, Dharma stood on the mountain range east of MoveCity. She might not have been as fast as most generals, but she was still as strong as Milkman. Both arms came up, prismatic energy filled the air, and telekinesis halted hundreds of missiles.
There was no reason to be fancy — there was a job to do and she would get it done. The missiles were all thrown into space with pure Drive energy. Why use Create when simple telekinesis is cost-effective.
Dreg moved like a beam of light and stood in the human world. Missiles were fast approaching the United Government — Dreg approached faster. Time came close to a stop as he moved, darting from missile to missile as he bent their wings. One by one, thousands flew into the sky in the span of a second.
Rust waited above the atmosphere for the missiles Dreg sent up. The old general punched each nuke he found — taking the explosion point-blank and emerging unscathed each time. Hundreds of missiles were destroyed in an instant as his fist ran through each one.
Trio's grin grew ear to ear as she floated opposite to Salt in outer space. A nebulous cloud of prismatic energy covered half of the world before her. Trillions of pitch-black cubes were created, giving the entire planet a wavering aura of violet energy. Her anti-matter destroyed more of the nukes than the other three generals combined — annihilating them into non-existence.
Arriving at the asylum, Red and Blue smiled as twinkling dots of red made their way towards them. They pressed the button at the asylum's top, the siren echoed across the oceans, and the tides grew still. Hundreds of titanous snakes rose from below the ocean, they lashed out at the nukes. Their giant maws ate dozens of missiles — the nuclear explosions no bigger than a single tooth in their shark-like mouths.
The Planet Lance Cult and United Government were a wasp-hive of activity. Anti-aircraft cannons shot missiles down from miles away. Jet planes chased after lone nukes and used sent long-range ballistics to destroy them over open waters. Every great power was set to defcon one as defense systems across the globe were engaged.
Every force on the planet. Dreg, Rust, Salt, Trio, Medusa, The Grave brothers, Raptorman, Milkman, Dharma, the PLC, and the UG were all active in engaging the missiles. Explosion after explosion rocked the world for ten minutes — silence followed. Dreg flew next to Rust and Trio in the middle of the ocean.
On the screen, Edward rubbed the bald head under his hat.
"That's it? That's all the missiles I had?" He frowned. "Wow... You destroyed every single one."
Edward shrugged and adjusted his hat.
"I used a million nukes," his grimace became a grin. "When I only needed seven."
That exact number of nuclear explosions occurred all across the world. Dreg turned as a flaming mushroom cloud forced the world to be silent for two full seconds – the shockwave slammed into his body. Boats, trees, chunks of buildings, and cars skipped across the ocean as the nearby city was destroyed.
Without Augment, skin boiled and melted on the distant humans at the beach. Skeletons were exposed and incinerated in a matter of seconds. A mother and child were launched into the sky and impaled on a flag pole. A man dropped mid-run before bursting into a ball of flame.
Timmy's old man in the clocktower closed his eyes as the shockwave neared – the tall building launched each brick like a shotgun pellet into the nearby crowd. People were torn apart, bits of muscle and bone splattered everywhere as blood ignited into fire. The clock circlet fell for the second and final time.
Salt's hands retracted into outer space, his cosmic eyes widening, as seven mushroom clouds expanded on the blue orb in front of him. Red clouds reflected in Dreg's glasses as he and the other two generals stared – the fire and smoke of the explosions took the shape of Edward's grinning face.
Edward's laughter filled the world.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"