Chapter 4: A Rupturing Earthquake

“HAHAHA! Why look at what we have here. Ran out of fishes to protect your worthless Eden Orb, Staff?” Faker laughed hysterically.

“Y-You?!” Staff!404 stuttered as he backed away.

“Ah, good to see I left an imprint on you. Now, how about I leave an imprint on your Eden Orb by tearing it to the ground!” he shouted as his eyes shifted to Exalted who seemed unimpressed.

“What are you supposed to be? A giraffe?” Exalted scoffed as he looked at his hand and fingers.

“I am the one-eyed god! And you will all be crushed under my heel” Faker said as he was then hit by Thor's hammer, Surtur.

Faker stumbled back as he held his head, looking towards Thor. “Ah the Traitor, Que told me about you”

“Of course they did.” Thor said as he flipped his hammer, catching it.

“ENOUGH OF THIS POINTLESS BANTER! It’s time I rocked this Eden Orb with an EARTHQUAKE” Faker shouted laughing as he opened his arms summoning a portal to the Eden Orb HE had taken over as an 100 soon came out of the portal.

“Welp, if you wanna use that amazing power you like to talk about...now would be the time” KOB said, staring at Exalted as the rest prepared for an intense battle.

Faker had begun to fuse with the creature known as 100, the pained cries and screams of the poor thing shaking the universe. Blood red DT grafting outward from Fakers mouth and poured down onto his hands like infected pus. The bones of his body cracked and reshaped, he would become taller and more muscular.

As the fusion was completed, Earthquake roared which caused the area of the planet they were on to split open because of the massive vibrations. Thor raised his hammer, Surtur, to the sky which struck lightning onto the hammer, enveloping Thor in an electrifying cloak as his hammer cracked like the sound of a thunderbolt.

Earthquake ran forward as Thor fired a beam of highly concentrated lightning from his hammer at Earthquake which only seemed to slow him down as the others got ready.

Exalted had summoned his Shadow Casters and fired it onto the beast which erupted the field along with Earthquake in a glittering spiral of lights. Earthquake was simply pushed back several inches before it began dashing towards the group.

As Earthquake got closer he was greeted by a god-ray that had made a direct impact with his left ankle, sending him tumbling across the ground.

Earthquake would smile as it stood up and looked at our heroes readying their next attack

“My turn!” he snarled as his hands began to glow before sending out a force that engulfed half the planet in corrupted determination that would completely disintegrate anything in its way.

"Shit-" Staff mumbled as he looked towards the giant wave of bright red death. He'd quickly look towards everyone else hoping someone- or Something...had a way out of this.

Earthquake turned its head to a figure that floated into the battleground as its red pupil looked at everyone, analyzing the situation.

“Am I missing the fun?” Staff!Loading said.

"I- Loading?!" Exalted said in disbelief, surprised that some other version of him could also make the mainframes slave their ally.

“YOUR TOO LATE, I'LL SEND YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL!!!” Earthquake screamed as the red wave nearly made its way over to the group. Loading looked at it almost displeased with the current course of events.

He held out his hand, as a distortion began to rip through the fabric of space and time creating a gigantic wormhole that completely sucked in the wave of death.

Loading turned his head to Staff!404 with a disappointed expression. “This is the only time I’ll help you, Thief.”

“Not like you had much of a choice I assume.” Staff!404 said, a mass of sweat dripping down his skull from almost imminent death.

"Whatever. I had it handled." Exalted scoffed refusing to ever lead on that he was even slightly worried.

“Alright Black boy… Let us see what you got!” Earthquake rushed forward as Loading flicked his head up which made Earthquake go flying backward, hitting a couple of trees on his way.

As Earthquake got up he once again rushed forward, crushing every tree and stone that was in his way until Staff!404 and Exalted summoned a dozen Dark Blasters and Shadow casters of which they both fired at Earthquake who retaliated by summoning a cloud of shadows, which created a shadow like entity that blocked the blasts from the blasters.

Staff!Loading then put his hands in front of the target in his jacket as it fired off a powerful blast that cut through the shadow entity and pierced right through Earthquake's arm, leaving a hole in it though it soon regenerated at a fast rate.

KOB summoned a chicken sword he dubbed, Chickex-calibur. He pointed the sword at Earthquake, which sent him flying towards the sword, along with any sharp stone nearby. As Earthquake was stabbed into the sword, the sharp stones pierced Earthquake's back, however, this did barely anything, and as he tried to slash KOB Staff!Loading had blasted Earthquake away with another beam.

Thor called his hammer, Surtur, and took to the skies. As he hovered the clouds above turned gray as it filled with light and rain. Thor then struck Earthquake with hundreds of lightning bolts, stunning him in place.

“Close call, remind me to buy ya' a drink” KOB said as he got no response from Loading.

Staff!404 and Exalted got together as they both summoned their respective blasters and fired them at Earthquake who dodged the blasts. Earthquake then used the Shadows to summon a shadow version of both Staff!404 and Exalted.

As Earthquake cackled loudly, KOB had held both his hands into the air. He whistled over to both Thor and Loading. The two immediately looked at him confused by his actions.

"PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" KOB shouted to which Thor & Loading followed suit.

Within a mere nano second a large energy sphere somewhat like a spirit bomb but purple in color with a black spiral at the center of it hovered above the atmosphere. It was double the size of the nearest moon and was continuing to grow in size.

Staff!Loading had fired his beam toward the Shadow!Staff!404 and Shadow Exalted!William which made them slip back into the shadows.

Once KOB had finished charging his attack he prepared to launch it at Earthquake.

Staff looked at KOB's attack giving a small smirk as he had an idea before looking towards Exalted.

"Mind hurling me at the blood red giraffe of death?" Staff asked, and without a moment's hesitation Exalted did just what was asked of him.

Earthquake stared at the attack in the sky, "GOOD LUCK HITTING ME DIPSHIT" he screamed his voice cutting through the atmosphere as he prepared to teleport away from the attack.

He suddenly felt something slam into him to which he immediately grabbed onto, his DT covered claws burrowing into and burning Staff's body.

"Just who I was waiting to get my little mitts on" Earthquake grinned.

Staff narrowed his eyes, getting his arm free and firing a godray into Earthquakes face. This loosened the grip around him allowing him to slip under Earthquakes feet. He then grabbed onto Earthquake and attempted to lift him into the air.

"Come on you fat fuck!" Staff yelled, gritting his teeth before finally managing to hurl Earthquake straight into the trajectory of KOB's attack.

"Please don't destroy everything-" KOB nervously grinned as he sent it spiraling towards Earthquake.

Earthquake's eyes widened as he became engulfed by the sphere of energy immediately it exploded, in a flurry of golden flashes that lit up the entire solar system.

Staff watched on as it seemed Earthquake was truly dead and gone, so he took a moment to catch his breath thinking they achieved victory

Kob gently landed onto the ground with a soft pat on the back from Thor and a look of acknowledgment from Exalted.

Loading was analyzing the area he wanted to be sure the monster was dead.

Exalted walked over to Staff, his gaze a tinge softer than usual. As he held out his hand, "You-...you did good" he mumbled.

"What? Say that louder? Couldn't hear ya?" Staff said whilst laughing his ass off.

"SHUT UP!!!" Exalted screeched in annoyance and embarrassment.

Staff!Loading quickly turned to the group “GET AWAY FROM EACH OTHER” He shouted as everyone looked confused and distraught at his yelling. They were all suddenly frozen and couldn't move.

A mass of shadows began to pile and form together in front of them all as Earthquake emerged, reborn from near death laughing maniacally.

“You fools! HAHA, you honestly believe you could destroy me!” Earthquake chuckled as everyone was lifted due to the Twisted mastery. Earthquake stomped over to Exalted. Sharp tendrils came from Earthquake's fingers as they embedded deep into Exalted’s Skull, ciphering his DNA.

The process pushed every little skeleton in the closet out into the open for Earthquake to see whilst Exalted was experiencing an effect similar to seeing his life flash before his eyes. From the moment he lost his world to every dirty little lie he used to cover his tracks.

Exalted screamed, from the unbearable pain and attempted to struggle.

Earthquake frowned in annoyance as he slammed Exalted deep into the ground.

"STOP MOVING!!!!" He screeched, continuing to cipher Exalted's DNA.

Exalted's face became distorted, beginning to bulge as a horn ripped and formed through his skull. The right side of his face morphs to resemble the red devil himself.

A light enveloped Exalted's arm as he defied reality and broke free of the twisted mastery. He gripped Faker by the neck, on the verge of losing himself to the madness locked within him.

"GEt. oFf. Of. mE." Exalted said in a demonic voice.

"I can see why those failures were so interested in you," Earthquake said, finishing the collection of Exalted's DNA before he quickly punched Exalted so hard through the planet's crust that he emerged on the complete other side of it.

As Earthquake stopped his twisted mastery, everyone fell to the ground. Earthquake soon walked away but turned his back to look at his fallen enemies.

“I’ll be back for your pathetic Eden Orb…Staff.” He said as he soon vanished leaving everyone tired and depleted.

“It seems he was after what Cyberware couldn't get….Exalted” Staff!Loading Stated

“It was obvious. Before Havoc, Salazar, Regal, and Cyberware left we were all briefed on how the plan was supposed to go. The Reality Core of this Eden Orb was to be taken and brought to Que. The same goes for your friends DNA.” Thor said as he placed his hammer onto the ground.

“So that's it? They got the two components they need to be above Eden?” Staff!404 asked.

“It can't be that simple, there's gotta be more to it than that right bruh?” Kob replied.

“He is correct. Attaining the power to be above Eden seems impossible, especially with only two items like a core and DNA.” Staff!Loading said

“That's what I thought too. They’re crazy but Que believes that these things could make them all-powerful. I don't understand it whatsoever” Thor explained.

Everyone looked at one another.

“With what we know now,  with Faker or rather Earthquake being on their side. It's more dangerous than we realize.” Staff!Loading said as the reality once again shook, setting everyone onto their asses.

Staff!Loading looked to space as he saw the reality closer to fully collapsing. Loading closed his eyes as he focused and released some power which rebuilt some of the reality. Loading then slowly floated to the ground before picking himself back up.

“What did you do?” Staff!404 asked, looking up into the distance and seeing that the reality has been somewhat rebuilt once again.

“I used the last remaining remnants of the Reality Core I stored within my body. You will have thirty-eight hours before the entirety of the reality collapses.” Loading said

“You won't be coming? We could use that power of yours” Thor replied, picking up his hammer, making it disappear.

“I must stay behind for the other five Cores. I need to protect them in case someone wishes to take them for their own needs. Sound familiar?” Staff!Loading said as he turned his back to the group and disappeared

“What do we do now?” KOB asked as Thor got ready to summon a portal

“We’ll head to the headquarters where us fusions are stationed until Que sends us out.” Thor explained

“Wait wait wait. You want us to head there?! To where Earthquake just left to?!” Staff!404 exclaimed

“You heard your loading, we have 38 hours to save your reality, we can't exactly waste a lot of time.” Thor said

Thor made the portal, they all almost left Staffverse before being stopped as KOB began to speak.

"...are we just not gonna go see if Exalted's okay or not?" He said looking at the hole that was made when Earthquake punched Exalted through the entirety of the planet.

They all looked down the hole, "I guess you're right…" Thor stammered.