Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ The Anime Margin: 108 Stars of Destiny ❯ Pillar of the Worlds Story, part 3: The Fall of Acme ( Chapter 30 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer:
This fic uses characters, places, themes from franchises that are the property of others. I do not own these franchises.

Special Thanks to:
Charles Xavier, Fanfiction.net author: For writing an awesome crossover with anime and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Suikosource website: for providing great information that made this fic possible.

The Anime Margin: 108 Stars of Destiny
By: RB3

Pillar of the Worlds Story, part 3: The Fall of Acme

"Naraku, what are you doing here?" asked Inuyasha.

"You're the one who helped us, weren't you?" asked Kagome.

Naraku nodded affirmatively. Sakura returned to the room, surprised to find the demon with the others. "Are you the mole who was talking to Kakashi-sensei the whole time?" asked Sakura.

"Correct," said Naraku.

"Then, do you know how to shut off the barrier to Acme's room?" asked Sakura.

"I'll take care of that," said Naraku. The team followed him in and watched as he changed the locations of the beads. "There, it is done. My job here is done. It's up to the others to take care of Acme. Goodbye..." Naraku transformed into a cloud of poison miasma and flew back to the previous room.

---

Back at the fork in the Pathways, the remaining team heard a buzzing sound emanate from the central pathway. The barrier of iridescent light vanished, allowing them to access to the elevator. "Okay everyone, time to go!" urged Trunks.

The group boarded the elevator, a mere a platform of crystal raised from the ground. Three spectral blue rails formed around the circular platform to bound its elevation shaft and guide the elevator up. At the top, the group emerged in the middle of an idyllic field. The sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly from the sky. Through the blueness of the sky, they could vaguely make out the walls of the crystalline temple complex behind the clouds. Awaiting them was Naraku and an alien being made purely of energy.

"Welcome," greeted the being.

This being's body was made entirely of golden energy. It seemed to fluctuate with every passing second like a television image. It consisted of a pair of vaguely humanoid arms and a featureless torso which rose from the ground. The energy man had a pair of crimson eyes with burned with hatred and rage. He towered over the rest of the team, reaching the heights of an adult tree. When he advanced on the team, he did not make a single sound, and seemed to glide over the land like air.

"Are you Acme?" asked Sakura Avalon tentatively.

"Yes little girl, I'm Adam Acme, your nemesis, in the flesh... or should I say 'energy.'"

"Well then, prepare to face justice, fiend! Amelia, the Champion of Justice, is here to stop you!" proclaimed Amelia.

"I'm a fiend? You anime Toons are the real fiends!" retorted Acme.

"What do you hope to gain from all this?" asked Yolei.

"Easy, I intend to seal off the worlds of the anime toons from the human world forever. It's clear that you are a menace to our world. You came into it and destroyed our homes and killed the people we love. I was one of the people you victimized. You don't know how much I've suffered because of you!" cried Acme.

"What could we have possibly done to you?" asked Trunks incredulously.

"That's rich coming from you, a Saiyan!" said Acme.

---

It was beautiful day in Los Angeles, the City of Angels. The sun shined brightly on the sandy beaches and the crystal blue water of the oceans. Tourists and the denizens of LA alike tanned on the beaches in bathing suits and swam in the salty sea water. A teenaged boy spiked a volleyball into the dirt. One of his opponents dove to the ground to knock it back up, but was a split-second too late. The ball landed on the sand. In the city itself, the people commuted to work, one of them being Adam Acme.

He was the owner of a prop manufacturer known as Acme Incorporated. This company made virtually all of the bizarre gadgets and doodads used by Western Toons in their filming. Its products ranged from hammers hiding spring-loaded boxing gloves within to portable holes. All of these items were wacky, perfect for the slapstick antics of Toons. Acme inspected one of his factories as its workers produced rocket-powered skates on an assembly line. Acme inspected one of the final products. Unlike traditional skates, his rocket-powered version had small, rounded exhaust pipes for the expelled gases.

"Mr. Acme, we can show you a crash test if you'd like?" asked the factory owner.

"Sure, I'd love to see one," replied Acme.

Acme's workers set a testing area for the rocket-power skates. It was essentially an indoor race track paved with asphalt to make it resemble normal roads in city streets. It had high speed cameras positioned at key points around the track. A coyote Toon put on safety gear consisting of a helmet and padding for his joints. They were what a typical skater would wear. The coyote strapped on his skates and turned on the rocket thrusters. He sped down the track right to the first turn. Rather than turn with the course, he barrelled straight ahead, right into a brick wall.

He cracked the wall as he pancaked into it spread eagle, prompting Acme to laugh his head off. "Ha ha ha! What a gasser!" Acme went away with his inspection team while the R&D workers used spatulas to peel the coyote out of the wall.

When his inspection was complete, Acme boarded his limo to return home. Elsewhere in Los Angeles, an event was about to unfold that would change the course of anime relationships forever. A Saiyan with spiky black hair and clad in combat armour descended onto the streets from the sky. He had landed in the middle of a busy intersection, forcing cars to skid to the a stop to accommodate his presence. The angry drivers beeped at him relentlessly to make him to clear the intersection. The Saiyan, Yam, coldly raised his hand. A beam of ki stream out, exploding cars as he torqued his body left to right.

Now panicking before his immense power, the people fled for their lives. Yam merely smiled at the destruction he was causing. He smashed his way into a mattress store where he acquired several pillow cases. He proceeded to do the same to a jewellery store and shoved all of the golden trinkets and gems into the pillow case. Yam sauntered out of the store with his sacks of loot. He spotted a nearby bank and decided to make a withdrawal. No one was around, having fled, so it was easy to smash his way into the vault and bag the cash.

"Oh yeah, come to papa!" muttered Yam as he shovelled in wads of bills.

In another part of the city, another gang of hoodlums began their own pillaging of the city. "Ha ha ha!" laughed the gang as they tormented an old man.

One of the gang members telekinetically held the old man in the air. The man was screaming in terror as the gangster shook him around. The gangster hurled the old man away and laughed as he spilled onto the ground. "Hey, check out this chick!" said another gangster.

Another gangster held a gorgeous teenaged brunette in the air with telekinesis. He slowly began to tug on the girl's shirt until it ripped off. "Oh this one has a nice rack, doesn't she?" commented the gangster.

"I want to see her tits! Take it off!" said another gangster.

In the middle of the chaos, Acme's limo sped through the city streets. He saw a trio of leering vampires attacking a mother and her children on the street. The one of the vampires bit into the mother's neck and began swallow the juices of her life. When he had drained her dry, the vampire threw the dried husk away like garbage. In another part of the streets, Acme saw one of the psychic gangsters. He forced himself on top of the brunette and began to undo his pants zipper. The limo drove into another neighbourhood and came under fire by automatic weapons.

The bullets shattered glass windows on the limo, scattering all of the ground. "Hurry!" cried Acme as he dove onto the seat. However, little did Acme know that he was about to witness an event which would change his life forever.

His bags now filled with loot from the shops, Yam soared over the sky searching for more targets. He spotted a large mansion in the suburbs of LA. "Now that's a nice place. That guy must be loaded!" muttered Yam.

Yam descended on the mansion and smashed a hole through the roof. The brick and cement tumbled down the building into the den. The mother, her son, and her daughter examined the loud commotion. Yam landed in the den, beaming a sinister smile at the three. "Run!" cried the mother.

The mother forced her kids out to the front doorway. Yam followed behind, not in any hurry to chase them down. The three made it into the front garden just as Acme's limo pulled into the front gate. "Honey, over here!" cried Acme. Yam emerged from the front door. Apparently tired of the chase, he fired a bolt of ki right through the back of Acme's wife. The ki seared straight through, burning a gaping hole through her body. "AMY!"

Yam fired three more bolts, one after the other. The first struck his son in the head, burning a hole through it. The second seared its way through his daughter's back, just like it did with his wife. The final one seared through Acme's body just underneath his left shoulder. All three collapsed onto the ground, one after the other. To Acme everything became blurred, but he could make out Yam gloating over the bodies of his family. Yam reached for Ms. Acme's bracelets and shoved them into a pillow case. He removed her necklace and admired it.

"Real pearls... Just too sweet!" Yam kissed the necklace and tossed it into his sack.

At that moment, Acme blacked out. An unknown amount of time passed before the authorities could arrive on the scene. When they arrived, all they found were Acme's family and the ruins of their home. Paramedics loaded the severely injured Acme onto an ambulance with a stretcher. His family, his wife and children, were all pronounced dead on the scene. The authorities wrapped his family in body bags and zipped them up in a single stroke. The ambulance's siren blared as it sped away to the hospital.

---

Eddie, having heard this story over an open radio line on Amelia's person, couldn't help but comment. "You did all this just because some crazy Toon killed your family?"

The team was stunned to hear Eddie's voice over the radio system, but not Acme. "Ah, Eddie Valiant, I presume. Knowing your past, I was surprised to find out that you were leading these monsters against me. Why the change of heart? You hated Toons. They killed your brother. You of all people should know what it feels like to lose someone you love because of a Toon."

"Hey, I didn't go around killing and stealing just to pay back the Toons, like you did," retorted Eddie.

"Yeah, you became a drunk, a washed up has-been!" Acme shot back. "Unlike you, I went out and did something about it. If anime Toons can't live with humans in peace, I will make sure they never hurt anyone again. I will seal their worlds off from the human world forever. I will control the anime worlds and ensure that that they never try to enter the human world again. I found many, many people who were all to willing to help. Your little detective friend, Ross Syllabus, busted several of them. He probably didn't check the records, but if he did, he'd know everything I said was true."

In the Pathway of Science, the team watched Acme's confession on the monitors. "Ross, is everything he said true?" asked Mayl.

"I don't doubt it. I remember seeing something about relatives being killed in the LA Massacre on one of the launderers' background checks," admitted Ross.

Back at Acme's chamber, Acme continued his confession. "Of course, in order to seal away the anime worlds, I needed power and lots of it. I had to become a god and the Pillar system was exactly what I needed. After that, it was only a matter of gaining the powers of your miserable worlds and expanding my control over all anime worlds."

"You're going to destroy the anime worlds if keep this up, and maybe the human world as well!" cried Sakura.

"I won' let the human world be destroyed. I will use my power to see to that. The anime worlds, on the other hand, don't matter to me. To hell with them! Who cares about them?"

"Oh god, open your damn eyes!" cried Eddie incredulously. "Why do you think everyone is here? It's because they do care! They came all the way out here just to stop you. Some Toons even came to help us and others revolted against your crappy dictatorship in the Tooniverse!"

"Bah, I've wasted enough time babbling with you. Naraku, kill them!"

"I'm afraid not," replied the demon lord.

"What? That was a direct order!" said Acme.

"...And I refuse to follow. This is not my fight Acme. I'm not risking life just for you. Find someone else to do your dirty work!"

Naraku suddenly collapsed onto the ground as though he had been deflated like a balloon. Acme telekinetically moved the baboon pelt out of the way. Underneath the furry pelt was nothing more that a wooden puppet. In a rage, Acme hurled the baboon pelt away. "Naraku, you traitor! Damn you! Fine! If you won't help me, I'll do this myself!"

Acme immediately began his attack on the Valiance heroes. He fired a bolt of yellow energy akin to the ki blasts Saiyans and other similar martial artists could project. The team scattered and began their attack. Trunks retaliated with a ki blast, catching Acme right in the chest. The beam of energy exploded violently, but Acme was unfazed. He banked aside when Acme lunged forward in a punch. Trunks shot forward, catching Acme with a kick to the head. Acme stumbled back, but was otherwise unharmed.

Sakura and Shaoran combined powers to summon the Firey Card. The flaming angel sped into Acme and began flying circles around his body. Firey's flames rose higher and higher until they could reach Acme's face. In agony, Acme flailed his arms around to put out the fires. Koichi, in the form of Pazuzumon, flew up to Acme's side and fired several beams of negative energy. Upon striking Acme, he felt his strength leak from his body. Acme regained focus and backhanded Pazuzumon out of the sky. He hit the ground with a thud and kicked up a cloud of dust.

As Amelia rushed to heal him, Yoh advanced with Morty right behind. His Furyoku focused tightly into a blade, Yoh began hacking away at Acme's base. Morty thumped the ground with his hammer. A wall of flame billowed across the ground until it slammed into Acme. Acme turned his gaze to Yoh and threw a punch down at him. In the nick of time, Yoh rolled out of the way. Acme then noticed Morty pounding on his base and threw a second punch to flatten him. Although Morty got away from the fist, he was a split-second off and the shockwaves hurled him into the ground.

"This guy's strong," remarked Morty as he picked himself off of the ground.

"Hang on," said Yoh. "He may be tough, but we can take him."

"Yeah, let's trust in our friends to help us," said Sakura.

Acme let loose a flurry of hand signs as part of his performance of a jutsu. All of a sudden, a dozen copies of Acme magically appeared on the battlefield. "He's using the Shadow Clone Jutsu," warned Kakashi, familiar with the jutsu. "He made copies of himself."

The Acme copies immediately advanced against different members of the Valiance party. One lunged at Sonic, but was too slow to hit such a fast moving prey. Sonic managed to slip behind the clone and kick him in the back of the head. The clone staggered forward momentarily unaware of his situation. Sonic landed on the clone's back and proceeded to rain hundreds of punches onto his back. The clone convulsed violently with each hit, unable to do anything to stop this onslaught. Stepping off of the clone Acme's back, Sonic leapt into the air and landed on the ground as the clone vanished.

Silphymon banked away from a clone's energy blast and kicked it in the face. As the clone staggered backwards and vanished, another came at her by surprise. Shaoran called upon the Arrow Card to send forth an arrow of glowing blue light. It impaled the sneaky clone in the face, causing it to vanish before it could launch an attack. "Thanks Shaoran!" said Silphymon.

As the clones preoccupied the team, the real Acme was busy chanting words to a spell. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the flow of time... "

"Watch out! He's casting Dragon Slave!" cried Amelia.

"I pledge myself to darkness. Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power we possess! Dragon Slave!"

Upon utterance of the final words of power, Acme cupped his hands to aim the spell. A beam of darkly crimson energy burst out of his hands. Upon striking the ground, the beam exploded with the power of a nuclear detonation. The sheer force hurled Trunks, Pazuzumon, and Silphymon through the air. The others managed to take refuge behind magical barriers erected by Amelia, Sakura, and Shaoran. Acme's blast had also destroyed all of his clones. When the explosion subsided, the three magicians slumped to the ground.

Shielding such an immensely powerful spell was extremely taxing. "That was one powerful Dragon Slave," remarked Amelia, breathing heavily. "Not even Lina can cast Dragon Slaves that powerful. I don't know how many more I can take."

"We have to be more careful," said Shaoran, still panting. "We can't let him get those spells off."

As Acme advanced on the Clow Magicians and Amelia, Kakashi leapt away and prepared a powerful jutsu. His hand glowed blue as powerful lightning arced chaotically from it. He uncovered his Sharingan in preparation for this moment. Kakashi charged at Acme at top speed and plunged his hand into Acme's back. "GAAAAAH!" screamed Acme, clearly not expecting this move. "Die bastard!"

Acme smashed his fist into Kakashi, sending him flying across the chamber. Kakashi landed on the ground several metres away from Acme. "Uggggh..." groaned Kakashi.

---

In the Pathway of Ki, Sakura continued to fiddle with the altar. There were sixteen beads locked into slots on the altar. Finding a combination that worked was time consuming as there were many combinations where the beads could be on and off. Sakura continued to randomly set up different combinations until she found one that worked. A spectral image appeared above the altar. The ki team watched the battle with Acme through it, right to the point where Kakashi had been hit. "Kakashi-sensei!" blurted Sakura.

"I shouldn't be here!" decried Naruto. "I should be out there fighting the big boss!"

"Sensei trusted us enough to complete this mission. Let's not disappoint him," admonished Sasuke. "Sakura, keep trying different combinations. We're bound to find the one which will shut off Acme's ki powers."

"Okay," replied Sakura, before returning to work. After several more failed combinations, she found one that did something. A distant sound, like machinery shutting off, echoed from elsewhere in the Pathway of Ki. "This one did something..."

"I'll go check," volunteered Kagome. After a few minutes, she returned. "Good news! The power in the coffin room went off!"

"Oh yeah!" cheered Naruto. "Mission accomplished!"

Back at the battle, Acme hurled a Fireball spell at the Valiance heroes. Amelia raised a shield to weather this onslaught. Trunks snuck behind and kicked Acme in the back of the head. Acme staggered forward momentarily before turning to face Trunks. He unleashed a flurry of lightning from his eyes, which caught the half-Saiyan. The electricity shocked Trunks and staggered him backwards. Acme followed by throwing a second Fireball spell, hitting Trunks directly in the chest. Trunks went crashing into the ground.

Acme fired off a flurry of hand signs, attempting the Shadow Clone Jutsu once again. However, nothing happened, to Acme's surprise. He was certain he had performed the hand signs correctly. Suddenly, Trunks' ki beam slammed into his back. It hit Acme with such force that it knocked him into a hunched position over the ground. Amelia hurled a fireball spell of her own, while the others joined the attack. Their combined energy blasts produced a devastating explosion which knocked Acme flat on his face.

"Damn, they took out my ki node!" muttered Acme as he got up.

Faust summoned several skeletons and sicced them upon the recovering Acme. The bony army pummelled Acme and leapt on to his body to continue the onslaught. Acme bowled them over with a single backhand and tossed off the rest. The skeletons shattered into pieces and bones went flying everywhere. Acme picked himself off of the ground and threw the Flame Arrow spell at Sakura and Sharon. Sakura raised the Shield Card to protect the both of them. Someone hit Acme in the back, diverting his attention onto them. The Clow Magicians ran away to avoid any future counterattacks.

---

Back in the Pathway of Magic, the magic team pondered the strange set up with the Destiny Stone and the magic circle underneath it. "How are we going to move this thing?" asked Al.

Ed picked up a gold coin and hurled it into the magic circle. The coin triggered an invisible barrier which zapped it with electricity. "Ouch!" remarked Ed. "I wouldn't want to step into there."

"An invisible barrier..." muttered Fuu. "If we want to get the Destiny Stone, we'll have to shut it down."

"How will we do that?" asked Hikaru.

"Let me try something," suggested Madison. She summoned the Erase Card, which brought forth a nimbus of magical energy. She directed this nimbus to the magic circle and the barrier it generated around the Destiny Stone. Upon contact, the nimbus caused the barrier to appear and crackle as though the energy was being disrupted.

"I'll help you," said Meilin, who summoned the Erase Card as well. With both nimbuses working on the field, the crackling became even more intense.

"No good," remarked Madison.

"We're not strong enough!" said Meilin.

"What were you trying to do?" asked Ed.

"We were trying to dispel the magic that powered the barrier," replied Madison. "The barrier should go down if we could break up the symbol on the ground."

"You mean if we were to use alchemy to mess up the ground, we could break the symbol?" asked Al.

"Yeah," replied Madison.

"Then count us in," said Ed.

The brothers Elric focused their alchemic powers upon the ground around the magic circle. They shook the ground, causing parts of it to rise and sink like the targets of a whack-a-mole game. The Clow magicians refocused the Erase Card on the circle, trying to dissipate and disrupt the magic that maintained it. Not wanting to stand around, the Magic Knights cast several attack spells onto the barrier in the form of Ruby Lightning, Water Dragon, and Green Tornado. Under the brunt of their combined powers, the magic circle gave out.

"Yeah! We did it!" cheered Hikaru.

"Now, for the hard part. How do we move that thing?" asked Umi.

Suddenly, a tremor rippled through the temple complex. "Whoa! What was that?" wondered Hikaru.

The tremor spread not only through the temple, but into outer space and other worlds as well. The Crimson Egg braced itself for the turbulence which passed quickly. Once it did, Eddie began to receive reports from the other ships and the Valiance home world. "Eddie," addressed Tails of the Blue Typhoon. "We just felt a shockwave in our ship."

"Yeah, we felt it too," said Eddie. The communications officer put up a message from Clow Reed elsewhere in the Crimson Egg.

"Eddie, Acme has started to spread the Pillar system to other anime worlds," informed Reed. "That shockwave was the result of the Outlaw Frontier being placed under the Pillar system."

Back at the battle between Acme and Valiance, the heroes felt the same tremor ripple through the world. "What is going on?" asked Sakura trying to keep her balance.

"It looks like it's already started," said Acme. "The Outlaw Frontier is under my control. It is only the beginning. More worlds will follow until each and every anime world is under my control."

"Not if we have anything to say about it!" decried Trunks.

The half-Saiyan activated his Super Saiyan form. His eyes became like emeralds and his hair glowed with golden light as it stood on end. Now, his ki could be seen around his body as a fiery aura of golden light. Trunks charged up a powerful blast of ki. When he let it loose, the golden beam blazed through the sky and slammed into Acme. The would-be Pillar of the Worlds went crashing into the ground face first, blowing up a large cloud of dust and dirt. Though it visibly hurt Acme, it was still not enough to put him down.

"Grr... That hurt!" growled Acme as he picked himself off of the ground. "I'm going to finish this!"

Acme created copies of himself. The copies fanned out and pursued each of the heroes of Valiance. Pazuzumon evaded his copy's attack and retaliated with Nanna's Gazer. The beams of crimson negative energy spewed out of his multiple eyes. Upon striking the fake Acme, the impostor vanished. "They're illusions!" warned Pazuzumon. "Ignore them! Find the real Acme!"

Kakashi analyzed each of the clones of Acme with Sharingan. Under the vision of this eye, each of the illusory clones appeared spectral and glowed with a faint white aura. Only one did not exhibit such an aura. Kakashi concluded that this had to be the real Acme. The real Acme gestured while he chanted the words to the Dragon Slave spell. "The real Acme is in the middle! Watch out he's casting a spell!"

However, Kakashi's warning came too late. Acme had finished the chant and cupped his hands to release the magical energy. However, nothing happened. Acme was puzzled. Pazuzumon and Silphymon fired upon his exposed back, knocking him to the ground. Acme hit the ground with a thud but still managed to get up despite falling victim to such a powerful attack. "What does it take to keep this guy down?" asked Yolei.

"Listen to the same advice Piccolo once told me. When cutting down a really big tree, sometimes it takes more than one swing," said Trunks.

"Yeah, well we should put out enough power on him to cut down hundreds of trees by now, and yet, he's still here," said Yolei.

---

At the Pathway of Psionics, the Psi team probed through the great brain's memories. A flood of knowledge and information went through the mind of Miho as she looked up various subjects. The great brain was essentially a massive living supercomputer, database, and scrying tool. Miho went through the information until she found an entry on the node's link to Acme's psionic powers. Though the great brain was a powerful artefact, it wasn't Acme's link to his psionic powers. There was another brain exactly like this one in a similar room hidden above.

"There's another brain like this one upstairs," said Miho. She used the brain to summon a spectral stairway to that room. "We can use this staircase to get up there."

Another tremor ripped through the Temple of the Pillar. "Whoa, another one!" remarked Shayla.

Miho consulted the great brain. "Acme has just put several more worlds under the Pillar system. One of them is ours!"

"What's going on over there?" asked Robin.

"It's a mess. The weather's going crazy. There's a snowstorm in the Sahara and a heat wave going through Greenland," reported Miho. "Acme just created several armed men out of thin air in our city. They're carrying out a hunt against witches and killing anyone who gets in their way."

"We have to hurry," said Amon.

The group climbed up to the next floor, which held the psionics brain in a jar filled with briny liquid. This was the brain that supplied Acme with his psionic powers. Without it, he would lose all of these powers. "How do we cut off his power?" asked Afura.

"Easy, all we need to do is destroy the brain," said Miho.

The STNJ and the priestesses of Mount Muldoon let loose on the helpless brain. As the first of the attack hit it, the brain let a mind-shattering, shrill ping which resonated in their minds. The STNJ members fired orbo onto the brain to silence the headache-inducing noise. As they continued to pelt the brain, the priestesses hammered the glass with blasts of flame, water, and wind. After a concerted attack, the glass began to crack. After several more seconds of fire, the glass finally ruptured. The preserving fluid gushed out and splashed all over the ground. Robin ignited the psionic brain and burned it to ash.

Back at the battle, Acme hurled bolts of devastating lightning at the team. Yolei and the shaman fled behind Amelia, Sakura, and Shaoran's barriers for protection. The others merely flew or ran away to avoid the attack. Acme ended the attack and ignited a fire around them instead. The barriers held up once again, but the flames were putting immense pressure on their creators. Pazuzumon attempted to close in but Acme noticed his approach. He bashed him away, sending the Warrior of Darkness crashing several metres away.

Acme rubbed his temples and emitted a mind-shattering psychic screech. The sound was so shrill that it was nearly impossible for the listeners to concentrate on anything else. Just when it seemed like their heads were going to explode, the screeching went silent. Kakashi uncovered his ears and prepared a Chidori for Acme. The master ninja's hand glowed violently from all the electricity that arced out of it. The crackling was like a thousand birds chirping simultaneously. When he gathered the necessary power, Kakashi plunged his hand into Acme's base.

The powerful lightning coursed through the Pillar's body painfully. Suddenly, a tremor ripped through the temple. It broke Kakashi out of his jutsu, forcing him to back away. After the tremor came a brief moment of silence. Then, all of a sudden, yet another tremor shook the ground, nearly causing the entire team to fall down. "Yes! Oh yes!" cheered Acme. "More worlds under my control. Soon, all of them will be mine! Once I've dealt with you meddling pests, I can celebrate."

Pazuzumon slowly rose to his feet from having suffered such a powerful blow. "We'll never give up! Execute, Unified Spirit Evolution!"

Pazuzumon's armour vanished into the darkness leaving Koichi behind. An aura of darkness surrounded him as he fell down a tunnel of shifting Fractal Code. Pieces of black armour melded to his body, changing him into the form of a beast. This creature had the body of a lion but the head and wings of an eagle. Its body was covered in black armour which made it look almost mechanical. The creature let out a shrill cry as it fired a gout of inky black darkness. The creature fanned it wings to display its glory.

"Hierocosphinxmon!"

"Yeah, that's right Koichi! Time to bring out the big guns now!" said Yolei.

"I with you Yolei!" said Silphymon. "Silphymon, Mega Digivolve to..."

Silphymon's feathers turned a saintly colour of white. The attire of a warrior formed over his body, providing the saintly Digimon with a sword, a crossbow, and a quiver of bolts. A silvery bracer formed on his right forearm while similar armour formed on his chest to provide protection. A golden, diamond-shaped buckler formed on his left arm. Straps of brilliant, silvery leather wrapped themselves around Silphymon's legs and formed sandals. The new Digimon fired an electrified bolt from his crossbow.

"Valkyriemon!"

"Am I supposed to be scared?" asked Acme.

"You should be," said Hierocosphinxmon. "You're going down!"

Hierocosphinxmon opened a massive pit of inky darkness underneath Acme. From this pit came a horde consisting of hundreds of spectral violet demons. They piled on Acme, punching, kicking, and grabbing him randomly. The demons held the Pillar of the Worlds while Valkyriemon set up his attack. He charged the most powerful electrified arrow he could muster. It crackled dangerously like countless insects flapping their wings in rapid randomness. When he let it loose, it soared across the sky like a bolt of lightning.

Upon impaling into Acme, he yelped in pain. "ARGGGGH!"

Taking advantage of Acme's momentary lapse of attention the team fired on him. Faust summoned an army of skeletons to join Hierocosphinxmon's demons in mobbing Acme while Kakashi summoned clones. Trunks unleashed the most powerful ki blast he could muster. Amelia chanted the words to the Ra Tilt spell, the most powerful spell of the Shamanistic Spirit school of magic. The Clow magicians summoned the Windy and the Storm Card to unleash torrential devastation upon Acme. Yoh and Morty aimed Celestial Slash and a wall of fire at Acme.

This flurry of attacks flattened Acme instantly. "Did we win?" asked Sakura.

Acme's prone body stirred and he forced himself to get up. "I'm not beaten yet."

Acme spewed beams of energy everywhere with every last ounce of power he could muster. Amelia and the Clow Magicians formed barriers while the others dodged the blasts. One came at Hierocosphinxmon and blasted him out of the sky. He crashed to the ground with a loud thud that blew up a puff of dust. Sonic darted away from blast to blast. They grew in number until he could not keep track of them. One exploded to his side, hurling him to the ground. The blasts smashed Super Saiyan Trunks into the ground and flattened the others.

However, that last attack had taken its toll on Acme. "ARRRRRGGGGH!" he groaned, bracing his right arm from a burning pain. "No, not when I'm so close! Not now!"

---

The Sci team watched the events through the monitors of Ymir. Acme's arm had begun to melt like wax under a candle flame. The effects of Paradox had finally caught up to him. Despite all of the hi-tech equipment, the rare supernatural artefacts, and the painstaking research, he still could not hold Paradox at bay indefinitely. Folken rushed back to check on the Fate Alteration Device. As the battle had played out in the central node, the needle on the metre had risen from green level all the way up to the red, or danger, level.

The Fate Alteration Device was beginning to show signs of wear from attempting hold back Paradox. It was boiling hot and beginning to smoke. The room flashed red as an alarm klaxon blared deafeningly in the air. Folken ran back to the Ymir room. "Everyone, the needle just shot up to the red level! Can't you do anything to shut it down?" asked Folken.

"No, the system's gone totally bananas. There are errors everywhere and they're cascading throughout the system. Everything's crashing! I can't stop it!" said Skuld.

"We'd better get the hell out of here!" said Folken, who reached for radio to warn the others. At the battle with Acme, the Pillar of the Worlds began to exhibit even more signs of Paradox lashing out at him. More of his body had begun to melt. Acme floundered around desperately trying to control his decaying body, which was wracked by explosions. "Everybody, Acme's gonna blow! Get out of there! Move it!"

"Okay," replied Trunks. "You heard him. Let's get out before he takes us down with him."

As the team escaped, Acme continued to flounder around uncontrollably. The Paradox gathered vast amounts of contradictory energy of all kinds, from magical energy to ki and psychic energy. He glowed brighter and brighter until the energy he had gathered lit him up like the sun itself. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Acme.

Acme exploded in a brilliant burst of light. The heroes came out of the mountain just in time to see Acme go off like a bomb. The blast was so bright that they couldn't look at it directly and had to avert their eyes. The crystalline walls of the temple blew apart and shattered into pieces. The walls went flying in random directions such that the Valiance army had to take shelter from the blast. In space, the blast sent shockwaves rippling through the void. The Crimson Egg shuddered as the crew braced themselves for the impact.

"Well damn! We did it!" cheered Inuyasha as he looked back on the ruined temple.

However, Inuyasha's moment of jubilation was a bit premature. Another tremor rocked the world, followed by several more. A fissure opened underneath the feet of Madison. As she clung to the ledge for dear life, Kagome pulled her out. "What's going on?" asked Kagome.

More fissures rocked Cephiro and every other world in the anime and Toon worlds. The effects of Paradox cascaded throughout the anime worlds. Storms wracked the worlds and tremors rocked the worlds down to their very foundation. People, both human and not, fled in terror. A fissure opened underneath a vacationing newly wed couple, swallowing them whole. Nowhere was safe from the consequences of Acme's meddling. Ironically, the very thing that destroyed him was now about to usher apocalypse into the worlds.

As the heroes fled into their drop ships. Meilin explained what was happening. "No, we hoped that this wouldn't happen, but it is."

A ripple in the fabric of reality caused the ship to shudder. The people inside nearly fell out of their seats. "What's happening?" asked Sango.

"The Paradox," replied Meilin. "Acme built up too much of it from spreading his Pillar system and fighting us. Every world is going to collapse!"

"No!" said Shippo.

"Dammit! We were so close!" said Inuyasha. "We beat Acme, but everything's going to be destroyed anyways? What kind of victory is that?"

"Stars of Destiny, do not lose hope," Clow Reed's voice resounded in the minds of the Stars of Destiny. "There is a way to avert catastrophe. Pray to your inner Star. Pray to it for salvation."

Clow Reed's students complied. "I don't think praying will help us, not now..." said Miroku.

As Meilin and Madison prayed, their bodies lit up in the purest white light. A glowing star left escaped their bodies and flew out into the world. They had released the power of the Star of Justice and the Star of Music. The two Stars radiated a wholesome, assuring warmth and light. Inuyasha's team began to pray like Madison and Meilin. In turn, they released the Stars of Destiny belonging to them. Each of the heroes began to pray, releasing all of the 108 Stars of Destiny from their beings. One by one, the Stars escaped the bodies of their holders.

Clow Reed's Silent Star, Faust VIII's Dark Star, Rei Ayanami's Axis Star; all left the bodies of their representative and flew out into space. It drew Acme's Star, the Star of Idleness from the Temple of the Pillar ruins. Eddie prayed on the Crimson Egg and released the Chief Star of Heaven. As the greatest star of all, it glowed more brightly and fiercely than the others. All of the other 107 Stars gathered into the Chief Star of Heaven. They combined to form a star as large as the sun itself. It unleashed a vibrant brilliance upon the worlds, restoring all as it once was.

As quickly as they came, the storms wracking the worlds abated. The tremors ceased immediately and the fissures in the ground closed. All that had been destroyed by Paradox was reborn anew. When the light of the Stars had renewed the worlds, it faded away. One by one, each name on the Tablets of the Stars vanished. Since the Stars of Destiny had fulfilled their duty, the Tablets went dormant until the next time they would arise. The epic battle against Omnipotence and Acme was finally over.

"Well damn, we really did it after all!" cheered Inuyasha.

"Yeah, it's so wonderful," said Kagome. "It's so sad too. We made so many friends like Morty and now we have to leave them."

Back at the Crimson Egg, Folken went to the bridge to see Eddie. "Welcome back Folken. Mission accomplished, I presume?"

"Yes sir!" replied Folken. "Now that the war is over, we need to decide what to do."

"I've already made my decision. I'm disbanding Valiance. There's no need for us anymore. Everyone will be going home. Of course, we'll see to it that our assets are distributed among our supporters," declared Eddie.

"What about you and Dolores?" asked Folken. "We may have stopped Acme, but if someone like him could exist, they will be others."

"We'll go back to the afterlife," said Eddie.

"I meant your robotic bodies," said Folken.

"I'll take care of it at my home," assured Roger.

"Are you sure we can trust you?" asked Folken.

"Of course! Cross my heart and hope to die!" said Roger.

"You better believe it buster!" said Jessica.

"Well, I guess it's okay. I can't think of anyone better than my old pal Roger," said Eddie, who grabbed the rabbit and planted a big wet kiss on him. Everybody broke up in laughter.

END OF STORY

New Stars of Heaven/Heavenly Leaders:
#4 Tenkan, The Star of Idleness: Adam Acme
#11 Tenfu, The Star of Wealth: Naraku (Inuyasha)

New Stars of Earth/Earthly Warriors:
None