"Wait, stop!" said Brain. "Not yet!"
But it was too late. Although Brain tried to warn them, they already entered the portal. Alarms went off and red lights flashed as the portal sent bursts of electricity everywhere.
"Brain! Zort! What's happening?!"
"The containment field is too weak to support their weight all at once! The portal is spinning out of control!"
The portal sent bigger and more powerful bursts of electricity and caused everything in the room to defy gravity and float in the air.
"Hold on, Pinky!" said Brain.
They screamed as the portal sent out one last burst of energy that was so powerful it sucked in Pinky and the Brain, and possibly some other very important characters...
Far across the reaches of space, the former stronghold of an apocalyptic threat lay in ruin. Slabs of stone and floating plateaus marked out what used to be the domain of the monster known as Cursa, a Dark creature that had threatened many planets. Thanks to the actions of brave heroes, Cursa had been felled a while ago. However, she'd left something behind in her massive shadow.
She had created minions. Creatures forged from the small rabbit-like people called Rabbids, intended to be able to hunt down a particular hybrid breed of star. She'd combined Rabbids with wind, rock, and plant matter to make her monsters, her legion of Spark Hunters. She'd made them a leader; the leader had defected. She'd made them a second leader and that one had also defected, so she gave up on the task, deciding to command the elemental trio herself. The problem was that she had designed them to only be able to follow a leader. Without one, they were aimless. Meaning that once Cursa had been put to rest, her Spark Hunters had lost their purpose in life.
They spent most of their days at the abandoned stronghold, grieving their lost master.
"Cursaaaaaaaaa!" This melodramatic bawling came from a ghostly Rabbid, the one who had been fused with a bitter North wind. She was blue and delicate, with flowing hair and skirts, and she traveled exclusively by levitation. This one was called Midnite. She dabbed at her eyes with a diaphanous blue handkerchief. "What are we supposed to do without youuuuu?"
"Shut up, will ya?" This came from Daphne, the rabbid who'd been fused with plants and given mastery over them. Her blue bangs covered her eyes, her loose pink tunic was reminiscent of petals, and even then, vines curled out from the skin on her back, clenching to reflect her grumpy mood. "Things are bad enough without yer bawlin'!"
"WAAAAAAAAH!" This just made Midnite feel worse, and she made that loudly clear.
"Why, I oughta…" Two vines rose from behind Daphne, opening into flowers with hollow blooms. Cannons, ready to shoot acidic projectiles.
Instantly, their third stood between them. Bedrock was tall and square, a bulky Rabbid made of pink granite. She put out one hand to push Daphne to the right and another to push Midnite to the left. She then glowered at both of them.
"She's right." Midnite dabbed at her eyes again, trying honestly this time to stem the tide of tears. "This is no time to be fighting. We have to figure out some kind of plan!"
"We've been going over plans upon plans ever since Cursa was defeated, and none of them work," Daphne grumbled. "What we need is a new leader."
"If Edge hadn't left…" Midnite sniffled.
"Oh, Edge, Edge, Edge!" Daphne spat. "Give it a rest already with her. She decided she was too good for us, so she might as well get thrown to the black holes!" However, everyone saw she had tears pouring down her face, as, despite her insistence of the contrary, she too missed Edge.
Midnite tensed up, before hugging Daphne. "It'll all be okay, Daphne, it'll be okay, Edge'll come back, I hope she will."
Bedrock nodded. She missed their former pack leader too.
Just then, a portal opened beneath them, and the trio fell in.
Nadohs and the O5 Council, along with Nadohs' Abyss Council, were speaking about strange events that had been happening in the past few months.
"We've had bizarre cases of important figures that have been suddenly confessing to criminal or even villainous activity," Taurus noted.
Gemini looked at the report.
"Yeah. First the Vice-Minister of Finance in Japan confesses to document tampering during an important Diet sessions QA. Then we have three Sapporo Central councilmen confessing to bribery and promptly resigning. And then we have a prominent author announcing that he's retiring from writing, returning all of his books' awards, and even calling his work garbage."
"Even stranger," Trifa added, "There's that newscaster who suddenly got down on one knee to confess his love for his female co-anchor. He proposed and was promptly shot down."
Every council member winced at that embarrassing thought.
"There's more," Aquarius said, "We have instances of tourists in Okinawa being inexplicably attacked by demonic beasts in the dead of night. And finally, the Director-General of Criminal Affairs suddenly stripped off all his clothes and ran around HQ. He was ultimately detained by Grape Juice, who was there on work study."
Polaris couldn't help but laugh at this last one, several other council members chuckling or giggling as well. Nadohs finally stopped laughing and cleared his throat.
"Regardless of the horror or humor in each case, the point stands that each of these events is marked by a sudden shift in personality. A change of heart if you will, and not a natural one since none of them had any psychological issues. There have been hundreds of such cases across seven different regions in Japan, likely caused by an Altered World Event."
"There's more," Scorpio added, "In five of the six mentioned events, the individual affected was apparently involved in research regarding Chicago Spirit founder Richard David Chappell. In particular, the author had been tracking Chappell's movements following the Federal Reserve heist centuries ago."
"The incident from Case File No.638?," Tauros asked, "Our predecessors during that time were able to piece together how the heist was carried out, but Chappell and the gold he had stolen via the Pulaski Crew was never found."
"Someone may be trying to find Chappell's stash," Libra noted, "And burying their search under an invoked AWE. But how?"