I'm not in the best of moods at the moment, so I don't have much to say about this chapter. Enjoy or die.

Chapter 16: Worst Case Scenario

Canadian slammed into the hard rock wall as the Nakmachine prepared a second grenade, and the rabbit slid to the floor with a pained grunt. He hardly had time to awkwardly roll out of the way as the spiderlike machine let fly again, and the ensuing blast all but flipped him head over heels. While the Nakmachine reloaded a third time, he put his own weapon to use, sending a cavalcade of rapid blaster shots at his aggressor. The bullets didn’t seem to do much to the Nakmachine, save for angering it even further.
Acid ferociously swung his rocket launcher like a massive red club, and the three turtles he caught in the face were sent flying a short distance. He quickly checked the integrity of the powerful missile within, that he had intended to set loose upon Devan’s ‘Mech before he was attacked by a mob of reptiles. Satisfied with what he saw, he wasted no time in dispatching a few more in the same fashion as before.
Spaz ducked under Devan’s giant, swinging gun, and jumped straight up, right in front of the bespectacled turtle. One foot landed squarely on Devan’s face, and Spaz snickered as he heard a loud, aggravated yelp. The rabbit was about to leap off of Devan’s face when a scaly hand suddenly snared his ankle. The oversized sock on his foot slipped off easily, but Spaz still flipped ungracefully over the back of the ‘Mech, landing hard on his behind.
As Devan turned around, Spaz sprang again. Despite the turtle’s valiant attempt to smash him against one of the ‘Mech’s guns, he skilfully vaulted off of the rollcage in which Devan sat, and caught its “shoulder”, somersaulting over the top of the machine and grabbing hold of its back in a maneuver similar, if not identical, to that which Coppertop had used on him while he was under the effects of Turbulence. Kicking his other sock off, he immediately started wreaking havoc on the electronic component of the war machine, tearing away with his hands, feet, and teeth at any exposed wires he could see.
Devan’s frustrated screaming stopped the other turtles dead in their tracks, and Acid took the opportunity to send one more turtle careening into its partners with a powerful smash from the back end of the rocket launcher. Instantly making an exit out of the wake of the fallen reptile, his only words were “Bombs away!” as he set his devastating RaCO missile loose on the horde. Fortunately for him, he was able to escape the rapidly expanding blast from the rocket this time, as the turtles were all but vaporized.
The Nakmachine’s entire back end, where it had been storing its seemingly endless supply of grenades, erupted into a ball of flame as the shockwave from Acid’s rocket collided with it. It quickly turned around to try to find whatever had caused the explosion, arming the only functional weaponry it had left, which was a single laser based between its eyes. Needing only a moment to consider, Canadian leapt onto its back, and grabbed its head in both hands, holding on tightly as it started to buck like an angered bull. The laser flared once, carving a deep trench into the rock ceiling above, before the Nakmachine finally dislodged the rabbit, throwing him to the hard floor. It turned around quickly as Canadian fell to the floor with a loud thud, and its laser was rapidly charging to fire upon the interloping rabbit. Canadian’s life was only saved by the heavy slab of stone, dislodged by the laser, that fell from the ceiling to crush the Nakmachine under its weight just moments before it fired.
A similar sizable boulder crashed to the ground directly behind Devan, throwing his ‘Mech off balance. It toppled forward, almost in slow motion, taking Spaz with it as it fell. The young Jackrabbit put a generous distance between himself and the ‘Mech as fast as he could by way of a long double jump, and the deadly machine had hardly hit the ground before a third falling rock destroyed its legs, leaving it immobile.
Devan struggled with the non-functional legs of his disabled ‘Mech for a few moments, before looking up to see the barrels of Canadian’s and Spaz’s respective blasters pointed directly at his head, with Acid standing a short distance away, leaning nonchalantly on his rocket launcher. The turtle tried to get his arms and legs free, then smiled weakly at the rabbits. “D’you think, maybe, we could, y’know, talk this over, or something?”
“Oh, and only now he wants to talk it over,” Canadian muttered, to nobody in particular. He scowled at Devan. “How’s about you have a nice, in-depth conversation with the end of my gun?”
“Wait! Wait wait wait!” Devan shrieked, just before Canadian pulled the trigger. “Don’t kill me! There’s something I need to tell you!”
Canadian growled, and lifted the gun away from Devan’s face slowly, his eyes glinting dangerously. “Like what, dirtbag?”
Devan tried once more to pull an arm out of its impromptu trap; failing that, he could only gesture with his head. “Turn around!”
However, Canadian just burst out laughing. Devan was apparently surprised by his reaction, judging by the expression on his face; Spaz and Acid appeared equally nonplussed.
Canadian snickered. “Do you honestly believe we’re going to fall for that trick? Turn our backs on you so you can escape, or shoot us, or something? Ha!”
The façade of amusal quickly fell, revealing the dark leer brought on by throwing one’s victory in one’s enemy’s face. His voice was low, laden with venom, when he spoke. “We’re not simpletons, you scum. Some of us are a little weird, I’ll give you that, but we’re not stupid. It’s unfortunate for you that you didn’t get that beaten into your head before you started trying to destroy Carrotus. And now, at long last, you’re going to die for your mistakes.”
“Though,” Acid interjected, “it is sort of ironic that the great Devan Shell, turtle mastermind, conqueror of two dozen worlds, abductor of Princess Earlong, leader of the greatest army ever to attack Carrotus, et cetera, et cetera, couldn’t think of a better distraction than ‘turn around.’ I would have expected something better.”
Spaz giggled, and nodded enthusiastically.
Devan’s expression of abject fear suddenly disappeared, instantly being replaced by his trademark evil sneer. “Fine, then. Don’t turn around. It’s your funeral.”
Canadian raised an eyebrow skeptically, and turned around just as the deafening roar of the crimson D.A.E.M.O.N. missile igniting, deep inside the tank-like Turbulence Machine, less than a dozen steps away from the rabbit trio, filled the cavern.
Canadian found himself unable to move, as he watched the red missile tear out of the Turbulence Machine in what felt to him like slow motion. It was only Acid’s quick-thinking tackle that pulled him out of the deadly rocket’s trajectory. Time seemed to resume its normal pace as he hit the ground jarringly, but his eyes remained glued to the missile as it continued forward unabated, its outer shell disintegrating and loosing the dark essence within.
Devan hardly had time to gasp in surprise as the black cloud struck him in the face.
The three rabbits stared in something of a state of disbelief as the rollcage of the ‘Mech exploded outward from the glassy black bubble quickly taking hold of Devan, who was curled into a fetal position, teeth clenched tightly, just like all those before himself had when they had been infused with the powerful essence of Turbulence. In this, the turtle was no different than any of his predecessors.
Tokivi, who had been the one to set up the Turbulence Machine behind the rabbit trio in the first place, was similarly compelled to watch the transformation of his superior, and he couldn’t help his jaw hanging loosely in awe at the sight of Devan screaming inaudibly, muted by the bubble surrounding him, in what looked to be immense pain. His glasses slid off of his face, and were immediately ripped apart as soon as they fell away from his head. A few seconds later, he flung his limbs outward, floating helplessly within his spherical prison. Thick bolts of black lightning coursed around, into, and through him, causing him to spasm unpredictably. A spray of blood was ejected from his mouth as his head snapped backward, and evaporated on contact with the inner surface of the bubble.
Suddenly, without warning, the sphere shattered into black shards, and Devan hit the ground as the first of the shards crashed upon the stone floor. All four of the onlookers’ breath was lost as they saw just how much the maniacal turtle had been mutated.
Devan’s scales had turned bone-white, and there were silver and red skewer-like spikes growing at crazy angles out of his arms, which had doubled in quantity. His four hands were twice their original size, fitted with metallic knuckles and lethal claws. His shell had cracked open along the front of his waist, revealing the pale scales underneath, and the back of his shell looked more like a silver, black, and red sea urchin than a carapace of any kind, with dozens upon dozens of two-foot-long spikes jutting out of it. Beneath his soulless, empty eye sockets, his fiendish grin was now comprised of rows of long, sharp teeth, that looked more likely to befit a shark than a turtle. A pair of warped, demonic horns had grown out of his head, not matching each other in their curves and twists.
“Playtime’s over, rabbits,” Devan snarled, his voice a guttural growl, and his frightening sneer only moving a little to admit his words. “You’d best start praying to whatever gods you hold most dear, because you’re on your way to meet them.”