The Fantastic Five, chapter 4

Chapter 4: The League of Ultimate Evil

As I went to bed, my head was full of thoughts. Although The Fantastic Five had to return home at some point, we could join our forces as long as they stayed here.
My dreams were filled with images of the Super-Simpsons fighting for justice alongside The Fantastic Five. I saw masses of villains, thieves, robbers, corrupted lawyers and other lawbreakers running away from us, but eventually being caught, beaten up and put into prison by us.

"There's no evil in any world that would be match for ten of us", I said to my mother in my dream, looking gladly at a prison full of criminals we had caught.

"Sure there isn't, honey", mom said, standing besides me.

"We should come up with a team name for ourselves!" Bart said.

"You're right!" I said. "What would you think of...?"

But then suddenly, I heard a voice that echoed within my head.

"The Superheroes of Springfield", the low voice echoed. "Your time has come to an end. Come to the Town Square to face your doom! Your era of protecting this town shall end... TODAY!"

The last word was so loud that it woke me up with a start.

What had that voice been? Had it just been a part of my dream? Or had that voice really come to my head from the outside? And if it had, where had it come from? And had the others heard it too? I quickly jumped out of my bed and ran at the door.

As I came out of my room, I saw Bart, mom and dad coming out of their rooms too.

"Did you hear it too?" I asked as we ran down the stairs.

"Yeah", Bart said and nodded. "I was having a nice dream, when suddenly this echoing voice came and woke me up. Very odd."

As we came downstairs, we noticed that The Fantastic Five had waken up too.

"What was that voice all about?" Spider-Bart asked.

"Good question", I said. "But I think we'd better go to the Town Square, the answer is most likely there."

As soon my family had put our super-suits on, we started dashing through the morning streets of Springfield towards the Town Square.

Once we arrived to the Town Square, we all started for the sight we met: the whole square was filled with what looked like an army of humanoid robots.

"What in the name of almighty God is going on here?" Spider-Bart asked.

Then the same voice which had echoed in my dream, echoed in my head again.

"Thank you for coming, Superheroes of Springfield", the voice said. "Now that you're here, we can introduce ourselves, so you shall know who brought you to your knees."

From the top of the City Hall, a rocket-powered platform took off, and hovered over the square. Standing on the platform, were four figures, all of whom we recognized right away.

"It's Sideshow Bob!" dad said, pointing his finger at Bob.

"And his brother Cecil!" I said.

"Accompanied by Doctor Colossus!" mom said.

"And Snakeskin!" Bart pointed.

In case you don't know, Snakeskin, alias Snake Jailbird, is one of our previous enemies. He has the power to shed his skin and create perfect duplicates. He was the first criminal Maggie ever managed to catch after joining our team.

"Allow me to introduce ourselves", Bob said. "We're the League of Ultimate Evil."

"What was that dream message about?" Margerine asked.

"I'll take the credit of that", Colossus said proudly. "It was my telepathic message system. It can send messages to other people's minds via telepathy."

"And what's that League thing about?" I asked.

"We are evildoers, united by one thing: hatred towards you", Bob said. "I and Cecil came up the idea when we were at the prison, and after a quick phone call to Colossus, it was no trouble for him for getting us out of there. And as Snakeskin was in the cell next to us, it wasn't too hard to convince him to come with us."

"How did you get out of this time?" Bart asked.

"Colossus used his underground mechanical mole drill to get under the prison, and then it was piece of cake for him getting us out", Cecil said.

"Wait a minute", Spider-Bart said. "Why aren't you surprised to see TEN of us here?"

"Oh, that's because we knew what Frink's inter-dimensional transport system's explosion had resulted", Bob said. "I and Cecil talked to him, disguised as reporters, and found out that how he had a few days after the explosion found out about the machine's connection with another similar device in another dimension. Frink was also able to tell us how his instruments had recorded five human beings entering this dimension. After that is wasn't too hard to connect that fact with the fact that there was a group of new superheroes in Springfield, leaving number five on every crime scene the visit."

"We're The Fantastic Five", Margerine said, "and we have always protected the town of Springfield. This Springfield way not be the same we lived in, but we'll still protect it!"

"Touching", Cecil said. "But the main thing is that we have now formed the League of Ultimate Evil, and we are here to take you out once and for all with these special suits developed by Colossus."

"Suits?" Bart asked, being just as surprised as I. "Are there someones inside of all of these? Surely you don't have this many members?"

"Now you're missing something", Bob said. "You're forgetting that one of our members is Snakeskin."

"Of course!" I said, slapping myself to the forehead. "These are all filled by Snakeskin's duplicates, aren't they?"

"Bingo, dudes", Snakeskin said.

I grinned. "Haven't you learned anything from the past?" I said. "Don't you remember what we told you the previous time we met, Bob? 'Evil never wins'."

"But I and Cecil aren't alone this time", Bob said calmly. "Now we're with the League of Ultimate Evil."

"Well, if you're the League of Ultimate Evil", I said, "then we are..."

"The League of Ultimate Good?" Bart suggested hopefully.

"Not quite", I said. "I was thinking about... The Springfield Protectors United!"

"Not bad", Spider-Bart said, nodding.

"Not too shabby at all, man", The Jazzler said.

"I like it", mom said.

"So do I", Margerine said.

"Me like it too", The Incompetent Homer grunted.

I turned at Bob. "Watch out, League of Ultimate Evil!" I called. "We're the united protectors of Springfield, and no evil threatening this town is getting past of us!"

"We'll see about that", Bob said. Then he raised his hand in front of himself. "Now it is time to attack!"

"Hey!" Snakeskin interrupted. "Those dudes are part of me! We only attack when we feel so!"

"Do you feel like attacking now?" Bob asked.

"Sure, why not", Snakeskin said, shrugging. "Okay, dudes", he called while turning towards the battle suits, "it's time to kill those guys!"

All of the battle suits started charging towards us. We took our fighting stances.
"Remember, there are no real humans inside, just duplicates", I told. "Destroy them anyway you want."

"Suits for me", Spider-Bart said.

"OK, The Springfield Protectors United, CHARGE!!" I roared.

We charged. I immediately took one suit as my target, run at it head-first, and headbutted it right in its chest with great force, sending it flying and smashing against another one, shattering both of them and their Snakeskin duplicate pilots into pieces. Then another suit grabbed my shoulders from behind, but as another suit came closing in from in front, I grabbed the the first suit from its wrists, swung it over my head, smashing both it and the second suit into smithereens.

As I grabbed one suit from its wrist and swung it against another one, I looked how the others were doing. I saw The Jazzler being surrounded by a group of suits. But when they were closing in, she started to play her saxophone. And when she did so, a dazzling stream of fog-like turquoise light came out of it, and it surrounded the suits. As that happened, the suits stopped dead, and their pilots started holding their heads and staggering around, clearly having the music ringing in their ears and the light dazzling their eyes.

While jumping and delivering a Brogue Kick to a suit's head, which flew right off, I saw Bart. He was being surrounded by a group of suits. The suits aimed their palms at him, and they started to glow brightly. But just before they were able to fire their energy rays, Bart changed his lower body into the shape of a spring and sprung high into the air, and the rays only blasted a hole to the ground. A few seconds later, still spring-shaped Bart landed on the top of a suit, smashing it down and shattering it.

Next I saw Spider-Bart. He was launching his webs on the suits' eyes, blinding them. Then he launched a web thread around a suit's waist. With amazing strength, he grabbed the thread, and started spinning the suit in a big circle, smashing it and any nearby suit to pieces. Finally he let go, sending the suit's remainders flying into the air and crashing down at the edge of the square.

Then I saw dad. Like Spider-Bart, he was trying to blind the suits, but he did by throwing pies at their faces. When one of the suits aimed its energy blaster at dad, he raised an empty pie plate, which reflected the energy blast, blowing up the suits head. Next he threw the pie plate, which now sliced off a suit's arm. If I hadn't known the suits' pilots were not real humans, I would have been disgusted by that sight.

Next I spotted The Incompetent Homer. He was yelling madly, running, pummeling and smashing suits into pieces. The suits tried to fire their energy blasts at him, but they only seemed to make him even madder. Especially noisy was when he grabbed two suits at once and with a big roar, smashed them together, shattering them into smithereens.

When I swept my leg, tripping a suit, I saw mom. Her hair grabbed a suit after another, smashing them either on the ground or at another suits. Some suits she also crushed with her hair's incredible crushing power. I was really pleased to see how she once took three suits into one grip, raised them into the air, and smashed them against a group of suits.

Next I looked up for Margerine. It took a while for me to notice her, for she was moving so quickly that I hardly managed to catch a glimpse on her. She was bouncing off the suits and slashing them into slices with an amazing speed. Then she finally stopped for a split second. As a suit came closing in, she dashed forward again, and so quickly that I could only hear the noise of her claws slashing and see a flash of metal shining, she had already passed the suit, which didn't start falling into pieces until about one and a half seconds later, when she was already leaping through the air and roaring like some sort of wild cat beast towards another suit.

Maggie was also moving quickly. She was bouncing from a suit to another like in some sort of weird pinball game, knocking suits out off balance, down to the ground, or against each other. When she bounced from the statue of Jebediah Springfield, one suit aimed an energy blast at her, but missed with several seconds, only blowing the statue's head off. Although I didn't like this sight, I liked how the head then landed onto another suit and crushed it down to the ground.

BrainBaby, on the other hand, barely moved. She was levitating slowly forward, and as suits tried to approach her, odd things happened to them: some just oddly petrified and fell down, stiff as boards, and others started attacking and destroying other suits, as though they were seeing them as enemies. I realized that the suits' pilots were being infected by BrainBaby's telepathic, illusion-creating powers.

As I continued smashing suits, I couldn't help smiling. It was true indeed, I thought. Working as a team is fun. And now that there were two teams operating together, it was twice as fun.