Right! Let's finish this!

31/10/16: The Chaotic Overture

Next to the ubersoldaten, PURITY's Shock Troopers were their most elite soldiers. Clad head-to-toe in black fibreglass armour, with face-concealing gasmasks under their coalscuttle helmets, they were armed with the FG-52 Zerstäuber - a heavily modified paratrooper's rifle that replaced standard ammunition with a concentrated heat ray. When it made contact with an object, the ray would turn it into a vapour of steam. There was, of course, a downside - the end of the rifle was attached by a short nozzle to a pack on the soldiers' backs, which if penetrated had a nasty tendency to explode - but the effectively of the weapon had led such problems to be tolerated.

They caught the guards of the White House totally unprepared as they poured down from the airship into the building. Both lightly-armed Secret Service agents and marines with ceremonial rifles were literally wiped away by the advancing Shock Troopers.

There was clearly not a lot of time to evacuate the building.

Four Secret Service agents had burst into the situation room immediately, securing those inside as they hastily planned a route to the lawn. It took them about ten seconds to work out a path, but it was ten seconds too long.

The door burst open. The agents turned their pistols towards the Shock Troopers entering the room - there was a series of volleys of red light, and all four agents ceased to exist.

"Mr. President, sir."

General Rausseman strode in the door, flanked by two hulking armoured ubersoldaten. The Shock Troopers piled into the room, aiming their weapons at the assembled officials.

"General Rausseman," snarled the President.

"Please forgive the violence of my entry," said Rausseman amicably, "I want only to talk."

"You'll never get out of here alive, you know that?" growled the Vice-President.

"Oh, it's not about surviving, Mr. Vice-President, it's about sending a message," said Rausseman, "First message. Becker?"

One of the ubersoldaten nodded, aiming his machine gun at the Secretary of State. Before he could say anything, the soldier fired, gunning the man down in an instant.

"My God!" exclaimed the Vice-President.

"Dissent will not be tolerated," said Rausseman, "Any time your esteemed President talks back or attempts to be defiant, somebody will be shot. If another person talks back to me, they will be shot. Any questions?"

The ubersoldaten shouldered their guns threateningly.

"No? Then we'll begin."

Steven looked up at the massive airship that had landed on the White House. It was an awful but impressive sight - and it had already attracted attention. Armoured vehicles of the National Guard were already surrounding the building, waiting for the word to attack. None had clearly been given.

"So what do we do?" asked Connie.

"You can't seriously be suggesting we attack that thing?!" exclaimed Peridot, "It's like some kind of air whale! I don't wanna go near that, it might..."

"It's not alive, Peri," replied Amethyst, putting a hand on Peridot's shoulder, "It'll be fine."

"Yes, but it'll be full of guards," mused Pearl, "And with the National Guard out, we can't exactly walk in the front door."

"We need a portal or something," said Lapis, scratching her chin.

"But where do we get that?" demanded Steven, "We don't have Lion with us!"

"Yeah, and it's not exactly like a portal is just going to appear out of nowhere!" snapped Peridot.

All of a sudden, a portal appeared out of nowhere.

Jimmy stepped out, leading his group as he strode confidently up to Garnet with his hands behind his back.

"Greetings, my name is Jimmy Neutron, and I-"

The Gems immediately aimed their respective weapons at his face.

"-AM A FRIEND, A FRIEND!" shouted Jimmy, raising his hands.

"I'll handle this," said Sandy, stepping in front of Jimmy, "Are you fellers the Crystal Gems?"

"Yes, yes we are," nodded Steven.

"Good, because we can help each other," nodded Sandy, "Our friends are being held hostage on that ship, and I'll wager yours are too. We need to get 'em out."

"And save the President," added Soos, somewhat redundantly.

"But if we save one of them, we'll alert all the guards holding the other," mused Pearl.

"Then we'll have to rescue them both at the same time," declared Dipper, "I know it's not usually a good idea, but we're gonna need to split up."

"Indeed," nodded Jimmy, "The way I see it, there will be more guards on the airship, but the ones in the White House will be their best troops. The best idea would be to try to sneak past the White House guards while drawing some of them away with an all-out attack on the airship."

He turned to his friends.

"Alright, Turner, Dani, Dipper and Wendy will come with me aboard the airship," he declared, "Jazz, Spongebob, Sandy, Mabel and Soos will save the President."

"Pearl, Lapis," ordered Garnet, "You'll come with me. Amethyst, Peridot, Steven and Connie will go with the...square man to the White House."

"I'm Spongebob," said Spongebob helpfully.

"Right," nodded Garnet.

"Then it's settled," nodded Jimmy, "Spongebob, give me your recaller. I'll set it to drop you off in the Executive Building, should be less guards there..."

"This is a complete shambles."

Fury tried not to tell the Army general he was speaking to how much of an understatement that was.

"I'm short of everything here," said the general, his holographic image gesturing in frustration, "And even if Wilder and the Joint Chiefs would let the troops in Alaska go, it'll take 'em days to get here! You've gotta have something in reserve, Fury, we can't bring down an airship with rifle bullets and cannon shells!"

"Lucky for you, general, that I'm always prepared," said Fury, crossing his arms, "I left a reserve team. They're on their way now."

"Well I hope they're enough," nodded the general, "I'll keep pressuring the Pentagon - they've got to have something to spare here. Good luck, Director."

The hologram vanished. Fury looked over to a technician, who entered something into his console. A new holographic figure appeared before the director.

"Coulson, are they ready?" asked Fury.

Phil Coulson nodded.

"They're in - we dug up an old tunnel the SSR built between the Capitol Building and the White House. PURITY shouldn't know it exists."

"Then let's hope this works," growled Fury.

"They'll do it, sir."

Fury grunted as Coulson's hologram vanished.

"Isn't that tunnel about two feet high?" asked Hill.

"Yes," nodded Fury, "Yes it is."

"Private, check the vent. I heard something."

"It's probably just a rat, sir."

"We're up against abnormals, Private. Check. The vent."

"Alright, fine, jeez."

The PURITY trooper walked away from the rest of his section, who were guarding the office of the First Lady in the East Wing. Drawing his pistol, he climbed onto a chair and stuck his head into the vent, aiming his pistol into the darkness.

"Nah, nothing here, sarge," he replied, "Seriously, man, it's a rat."

"I'm not 'man', I'm your sergeant," snapped the sergeant, "Now get back down here."

Had he bothered to look a little closer, the PURITY trooper may have seen the faintest hint of red and blue inside the vent. He might also have noticed the tiny speck that had climbed onto the barrel of his pistol.

The sergeant put a finger up to his ear.

"Alright, gentlemen, we're shifting," he said, "Command wants us in the Oval Office. They're upping the garrison there..."

Stan rapped his fingers on the bars of his cell, looking across the hallway of the prison complex. It was an odd feeling, being on an airship - almost like being on a ship, but subtlety different. Across from him, Ford stared miserably at the floor.

"It's all my fault, Stanley," he sighed, "I shouldn't have talked."

"Hey, Ford, don't beat yourself up," replied Stan, "It's Wilkus' fault - he's the one who started all this, not you."

"But I got everybody here captured!" exclaimed Ford, "I got Harlan Jarvis tortured! All because-"

"At the risk of interrupting a family moment," Vlad Masters sighed from up the hall, "Can you please stop lamenting? It's been going on for days and it's giving me a migraine."

There was a long silence. Quite suddenly, they heard series of shouts and gunshots from outside the door. There was a cry of pain and the door burst open.

A PURITY sentry was flung down the hall, smashing into the wall at the other end. Garnet strode into the hallway, casually punching off the locks to the cells.

"Saved!" exclaimed Stan, "Thank you, you beautiful purple woman!"

"Not quite," said Vlad, pointing to a metal anklet on his ankle, "As long as these are active, no captive can use their powers. If you want to free everybody on this ship, you'll need to shut them off. Otherwise, we would simply be jumping off an airship at great height, and that wouldn't end well."

"Plus you need to establish a way off for people without powers," nodded Ford.

"Then come with me," said Garnet, "We'll go to the bridge. Once we're there, we'll shut down the anklets and activate the escape pods."

"Sounds like a plan," said Stan.

"Then if you don't mind, I'll head to the pods," said Vlad, "Not much I can do without...well, I'm sure you can understand."

"Good idea, lead the prisoners there," said Garnet.

"Sure, sure...I guess,' shrugged Vlad, "You go on."

Garnet let Stan and Ford out of the dungeon. Vlad sighed heavily.

"Well, you heard the woman!" he called out, "Follow me!"

Steven and Connie crept down the hallway, ducking and weaving behind furniture to avoid getting seen by the PURITY guards. So far it had been going well - and they hadn't heard any problems from any of the other infiltrators in the White House.

This didn't last.

They were just sneaking past the door to the Oval Office when they heard a loud crash from the other end of the corridor.

"Soos!"

"Aw, sorry dude! Aw man, that looked expensive, too!"

"Contact!"

PURITY troops burst out of the Oval Office, pointing their guns at Steven and Connie. Down the hallway, Mabel and Soos began to run towards them.

"Dudes, get out of here!" yelled Soos.

"Stop him!" bellowed one of the guards.

A PURITY soldier drew his pistol and aimed at Soos' head.

Suddenly, as if he had expanded from microscopic size, a man was standing on the gun. The PURITY soldier cried out and fired his bullet into the floor as his arm was painfully brought down under the man's weight.

"Aw, dude, are you Ant-Man!" exclaimed Soos, "I've heard of you, you're awesome!"

"Aw, thanks man!" replied Ant-Man, offering his hand, "Scott Lang."

"Kill them!"

"Uh, maybe this can wait," said Scott.

"Yeah, probably, dude."

Soos threw himself at one of the guards, slamming him against a wall, as Scott charged into the rest of the guards. Steven, Connie and Mabel fled down the hallway.

They were just turning a corner when they saw two more patrols advancing from either end of the corridor. Thinking quickly, Steven pushed open the door to a supply cupboard and dragged Connie and Mabel inside.

The Captain of the PURITY airship stood at the bridge, his brow furrowed as he listened to the alarm sirens. They were such an annoyance - surely his crew would deal with the boarders. They were, after all, trained professionals.

"I told you, I won't give up my son!"

And why did the interrogators have to do this on his bridge?

He turned around, watching the two officers leaning over Greg Universe, one brandishing a knife.

"Well then, Mr. Universe," sneered one of the officers, "We warned you. Lieutenant?"

The officer with the knife pressed his knife to Greg's arm.

"Peel it," he ordered.

"Yes s-"

The hatch to the bridge burst open.

Pearl back-flipped down from the hatch, firing a bolt from her spear. The knife-wielding officer was knocked off his feet and thrown into the wall. The other drew his pistol and pointed at her, but a volley of yellow stars hit him in the face and knocked him out cold.

A squad of guards raced into the bridge from the back of the gondola as the airship team jumped down the hatch. Garnet charged them, flooring two of them in one swing. Behind her, Dani fired an ectobeam at one and Jimmy at another, while Wendy struck the last on with the blunt end of her axe.

The Captain now stood alone on the bridge. He crossed his arms.

"You can take my ship from my cold, dead ha-"

A fist of water burst through the window, slamming into the Captain and pushing him right out the window. He landed, unconscious, on the White House roof.

Lapis shrugged.

"There was a fountain on the lawn," she said.

"Aw geez, I didn't get to do anything," muttered Dipper.

"It's for the best," said Ford, climbing down the hatch with Stan, "These people have guns, Dipper - I'd rather you didn't get shot."

"Oh, come on, getting shot is a learning experience," said Stan, "Don't be wet blanket, Ford!"

Ford shook his head.

"Right, we have the controls," he said, "Let's make life as difficult for these Nazis as humanly possible."

The PURITY sergeant was smugly convinced that he had these kids cornered in the supply closet, thank you very much.

His men were gathered on the door, all guns pointed inside. He sneered as he checked his weapon one last time before addressing his troops.

"All right, gentlemen, we're flushing them out," he declared.

"You sure it'll be easy, sir?" asked one of his men, "It's been a pretty weird day."

"It'll be fine, Private," grunted the sergeant, "On three! One...two...th-"

The door was flung open.

There were no longer three kids in the closet. There was one kid, and one far larger individual who was currently swinging the blunt of a massive sword into his men.

Stevonnie swung their sword into the mass of PURITY troopers, knocking out most of their front rank. The rest opened fire, but they caught the bullets on their shield before throwing it towards the men still standing. To finish off, they roundhouse kicked the sergeant in the face, knocking him into the wall.

"Okay," they said, "They're gone."

"Wow!" said Mabel, "Did you just become a giant woman?"

"Sorta," shrugged Stevonnie, "Anyway, we've got to find the President. Come on!"

"Sure thing, Conneven!"

"...Stevonnie."

"Right."

"Everything is falling apart! Ant-Man and a hairless gopher are tearing up our patrols, two defenceless kids turned into one un-defenceless woman, there is a squirrel beating up everyone - we need backup! Please!"

The PURITY officer bellowed into his radio from his position outside the Situation Room. He gritted his teeth as the airship's bridge failed to answer him.

"Ah, Jesus...all units, this is Major Phillips, we need reinforcements at..."

He trailed off as a vent cover flew off the roof in front of him.

"...oh crap."

A tiny woman jumped down from the vent, suddenly glowing and enlarging to regular size as she landed. Her fist expanded to massive size as she swung it into the officer's face, flooring him in one punch.

Kamala Khan turned towards the situation room door. She found a anthropomorphic squirrel, a sponge, two short women who were green and purple respectively, a teenager with a gem in the place of their bellybutton and a small girl in a sweater.

Part of her told her that she really shouldn't consider this as normal as she did.

"What's up?" she asked, waving.

"Not much," shrugged the purple woman, "You breakin' in too?"

"Yep."

"Cool."

"Mr. President, you and I have the same goals."

Rausseman paced in front of the President, the ubersoldaten still aiming their guns at him.

"You want to end infighting in your society," he said, "And so do I. But what you don't seem to understand is that to unite society, you need an Other. An enemy. When the Germans fought the Jews and the Communists, they were united. When America fought the Soviet Union, they were united. But what unites us now?"

He chuckled to himself.

"You can't fight concepts, Mr. President," he sniffed, "Be they terror or poverty or drugs or whatever it is this week. But you can fight the mutant. You can fight the Inhuman. You can fight the alien."

He leaned over the President, grinning.

"If we were to unite, Mr. President, we could create a human utopia," he said, "And all it would take is the death of a few thousand freaks. They're not even human, Mr. President, they don't fall under the protection of human rights. So tell me, Mr. President, don't you want a united human race?"

"Not on your terms," snapped the President, "Never on your terms."

"Agreeing to me is your only chance for survival, Mr. President," snarled Rausseman.

"Immediate surrender is your only chance for survival, General Rausseman," replied the President.

"I don't mind being made a martyr, Mr. President," snapped Rausseman.

"Then I guess that makes two of us."

Rausseman nodded, drawing his pistol and pointing it at the President's head.

"Very well, Mr. President," he said, "Perhaps your successor will be more malleable."

The door burst open.

The two ubersoldaten and the Shock Troopers turned immediately. A whip was flung out towards them, lassoing most of the Shock Troopers and flinging them out the door. The remaining two suddenly found their largely metal rifles magnetised to the roof, pulling them upwards - they were then flung back down, knocking them out.

Sandy leapt towards one of the ubersoldaten, chopping him in the face and causing him to recoil. This allowed Stevonnie to charge forward, slashing his armoured form with their sword and knocking him down. The second of the ubersoldaten aimed his machine gun at them, but Kamala knocked him across the room with an enlarged fist.

There was a crashing sound from up the hall, and a squad of National Guardsman appeared at the door, aiming their guns at Rausseman.

"Well, you got here quickly," said Peridot sarcastically.

"Joint Chiefs only just approved an assault, ma'am," said the squad leader.

Rausseman sniffed.

"You've changed nothing," he declared, "Even if you clear the White House, our airship-"

"You mean that airship?" asked the Vice-President, pointing out the window.

The burning form of the PURITY airship lay on its side on the White House lawn. As crowds of captives stumbled away from it, the airship team could be seen standing in front of the flames. Garnet gave them a thumbs up - Stevonnie returned it.

"Oh, the humanity," said General Abercrombie, wincing.

"Well, it's as I said," snapped Rausseman, "I'm not afraid to become a martyr."

He pointed his gun at the President again. Quickly, the President grabbed his arm, twisting it and seizing the gun. He turned it around and pointed it at the General's face.

"That's not going to happen, Rausseman," he snapped.

Rausseman stared down the barrel of his own gun.

Then he began to laugh.

"Oh, Mr. President, do you think it ends here?" he demanded, "Do you think you can kill PURITY with me? PURITY isn't me, or that airship, or my base! It's an idea, a concept. And you can't wage war on concepts."

"Who said anything about killing you?" demanded the President.

He glanced at the National Guardsmen.

"Take him away."

The guardsmen quickly grabbed Rausseman, securing his hands behind his back and dragging him away.

"You haven't heard the end of this, any of you!" he bellowed, "There are worse things coming! When the revolution happens, you-"

"And that's enough of that," said the Vice-President, closing the door behind them.

"Well," said Spongebob, grinning, "Looks like we did it!"

"What're you talking about, you didn't do anything!" said Peridot.

"He provided moral support," retorted Sandy.

"And his recaller got us in," added Mabel.

"And he's kind of adorable," added Kamala.

"Hey, I'm not adorable!" exclaimed Spongebob, crossing his arms, "I'm cool!"

"No, you are pretty adorable," said the President, "Sorry."

The press had wasted no time in swarming the front of the White House at the very first opportunity. The President had walked up to the gates to address them (the Secret Service were not opening the gates until they were sure the PURITY threat had passed) - meanwhile, the small group that had saved him sat on the lawn, enjoying the peace that had finally broken out.

"So, you reckon we're gonna get a reward for this?" asked Connie, looking up at the clouds.

"Who knows?" shrugged Greg, "I don't really know if I want one, to be honest - a ceremony would be a bit too pretentious for me."

"What did Rausseman mean by 'the revolution?'" asked Sandy.

"It's probably bluster," said Jimmy, "He wants leverage so he doesn't spend the rest of his life in Fort Leavenworth or something."

"I dunno," said Kamala, "PURITY reminds me of HYDRA - and we can never get rid of those guys..."

"PURITY were just a bunch of sad, scared Nazis living on an island reliving the glory days," grunted Ford, "They don't have the staying power to be a major threat."

"Well," said Kamala, "I hope you're right..."

She looked up at the fine late afternoon sky, and for some reason, it struck her that it was not raining.

Late that night, it did in fact rain - not in Washington, but at the Department of Defence's prison at Fort Leavenworth.

The armoured van arrived outside the entrance to the prison - two soldiers quickly opened it up and dragged General Rausseman out of the back.

"Easy, gentlemen, easy! He's a guest."

The two soldiers let go of their charge and snapped to attention. Rausseman looked at the three figures standing at the door to the building. He smirked.

"I knew your actions weren't simply incompetence," he said.

General William Wilder offered Rausseman a salute. The PURITY leader returned it.

"There are a lot of people in the Pentagon and the government, General, who are very sympathetic to your views on the damn freaks," he said, "We need a war to unite the country, and if we get to wipe out real threats while doing it, well, so be it."

"And who are you compatriots, General?" asked Rausseman.

"You might recognise General Abercrombie," replied Wilder, pointing to the air force general.

"Nice job getting rid of the Secretary of State," said Abercrombie, "I never liked him. Too weak."

Wilder nodded.

"And my other friend can introduce himself," he finished.

The last officer nodded.

"My name is Admiral Eugene Massinger," he said, "And I am the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. We're interested in seeing PURITY revived."

"Does the President know?" asked Rausseman.

Admiral Massinger sneered.

"What the President doesn't know won't hurt him."

"Woo! Cliffhanger!"

I got up from my chair, grinning.

"Well, that's us done for another year, and is great to be back into the swing of things," I said, "As you can tell, this isn't a one-off, and we'll be back next year. I'd just like to thank everybody for reading and reviewing this story. You've been a real motivator, and I'm glad I somehow kept your attention. For everybody following City on the Hill, I swear, I'll get back to it now."

I walked over to a CD player next to the desk.

"Now, if everybody will excuse me, it's time for my Halloween jam! Have a good one!"

ALL: We didn't start October,
It's some science thing,
And we don't have degrees,
We didn't start October,
But one thing can be told,
Because it's all E3's fault.

ALL: We didn't start October,
It's some science thing,
And we don't have degrees,
We didn't start October,
But one thing can be told,
Because it's all E3's fault.

The End

FINAL STATISTICS

31 Chapters.

145 Pages.

1,185 Hits.

3 Faves.

3 Alerts.

44,391 Words.

214,235 Characters (without spaces).

Approx. 100 Hours of Work.

One Exhausted Author - back for more.

"Insano, it's been eight hours, you're not gonna reach it."

"No, no, I've got it!"

It was late at night, and Dr. Insano was still reaching his arm down the dimensional sinkhole, trying to grab the Fiddley Thing.

"Come on, it's nearly midnight, go home! I've gotta get some sleep!"

"Just one more hour, I nearly have it! ...ooh, I think that's a quarter!"