Chapter 20: Island Time

You've all arrived at the staging ground. There will be no turning back now.

You head to Machine Head's island, and no one comes home until this is over.

Not my idea of an island vacation.

On the perimeter, Machine Head has a legion of Magmanites.

There's so many of them!

And that's just the beginning. Good luck out there.

Great job everyone. That wasn't easy, and it's only going to get harder.

I have burns everywhere.

Rub some sand on those burns. You don't have time to be in pain. Machine Head still has those biological weapons!

You made it past the Magmanites. You're getting too close. Could you give me a little more time so I can figure out how to make enough of this biological weapon?

We've got him on his heels! Keep moving towards his compound.

Alright, fine. Maybe you can at least help with these Reanimen. I can't control them at all, so I'll just throw them all at you and maybe you can figure them out.

I never want to fight a Reaniman ever again.

I hate those things.

I'm not happy about you making it closer to my compound... But I do appreciate you getting rid of some Reanimen. Giant pain in the ass, if you ask me.

What's next, Cecil?

Flaxans. And by my count, it looks like he cloned all of them.

Cecil, please tell us we're almost there.

You're close. But not close enough.

Next up are clones of all of Machine Head's goons. Kursk, Magmaniac, Isotope, Tether Tyrant, Titan, and even clones of Battle Beast.

How are we supposed to get through all of them?

We have to. The world is depending on us.

Okay, change of heart... Can't our clones just take over for us? I don't know if I can keep going.

You're almost there! Keep pushing!

I've just about finished creating enough bioweapons to wipe out everyone on the planet. Leave now, or I'll unleash them!

And there will be no way of stopping me.

Unless of course... Did you happen to bring me billions and trillions of dollars? No? Well, then...

There'll be no way of stopping me!

Just give up already, man! Nothing you throw at us is going to be able to stop us!

Really? What about yourselves?

It's clones of you guys. More than I've ever seen. There's Omni-Men, Immortals...

We get it Cecil. It's going to suck.

Let's just get to work and kick our asses.

It's over, Machine Head! We made it to you. We fought through everything you threw at us, and here we are.

Ha ha ha!

What's he laughing about? What's so funny? I don't like his laughing.

You think that was everything I had?! I'm on a remote island with a cloning facility and nothing else to do! I've always got more!

Good God. He's throwing everything at us! Magmanites, Reanimen, Flaxans, clones of his goons, and more clones of you!

It has been the greatest honor of my long life to fight alongside you Heroes.

We're making it out of this alive. Even if we die trying.

That doesn't make sense. But, still, inspiring.

You've got this, everyone. Now, time to stop Machine Head for good.

We made it through the Magmanites!

I wish I'd brought more aloe. These burns are killing me!

Watch out, Machine Head has one last batch of Reanimen!

I thought I said I never wanted to fight these abominations again!

Everyone make it out of that one okay?

Physically I can keep moving, but I'm going to be having Reanimen nightmares for a long time.

We've got Flaxans incoming!

Come on guys, we have to keep giving this everything we've got.

I feel as though I've just bathed in Flaxan blood.

There's gonna be plenty more blood baths before you reach Machine Head. Keep moving.

You've got Machine Head's finest coming for you next. Titan, Tether Tyrant, Kursk, Isotope and Magmaniac.

Good. I was hoping we'd get to knock those guys out one last time.

I'm exhausted and everything hurts, but I do so love kicking the crap out of those guys.

I must agree. I find it pleasurable, as well.

We've got clones. And there's some familiar faces in there, kid...

Yeah, I see it. Two of me. Two of Allen. One of... my dad. We'll stop them, Cecil.

We made it past them. How are you holding up, Invincible?

Let's just keep moving.

Hello Heroes!

Five Maulers?! Two was bad enough!

The Maulers have been put down.

Good. It's their cloning tech we have to thank for this nightmare, after all.

Here comes a blast from our pasts. It's a cloned Teen Team, with an added dose of Invincible.

Hopefully these clones are as inexperienced as we were back then.

That was tough. You guys used to make a pretty good team.

Yeah, we did. That was the past, though. Come on, we have to keep moving.

I was hoping we wouldn't have to do this again.

Sorry, Immortal. Looks like we're about to face clones of the original Guardians of Globe again. Hopefully for the last time.

We did it. I don't know how. But we did it. How are you Immortal?

Happy to move on and never talk about this ever again.

Now here's a team-up I never expected.

Two "me"s and three Battle Beasts?!

This fight is really gonna hurt.

That was rough. Am I glad you're on our side, Monster Girl.

Yeah, me too.

Look sharp Guardians, you've got a cloned version of your team coming right at you.

Who's that with them? Bulletproof? This should be interesting.

I'll say this - I'm impressed with how well our cloned versions fight.

Not well enough, thankfully.

This is it! You just have to get through these last clones and you're at Machine Head.

How the hell did you manage to get through all of those clones?!

Doesn't matter. These final five are my personal bodyguards. They're the best of the best. There's no way you're getting through them.

We've got this. This isn't going to be easy, but we've come this far! We can't lose now.

No!! I was just about to launch the bio weapon!

It's over, Machine Head. We've defeated every single thing on this island. And there's nowhere for you to go, except with us.

But how could this have happened?! I was a god! There was nothing I couldn't do!

Except beat us.

Yes... But you needed clones to stop me. To defeat me, you needed to become me. Good luck putting this genie back in its bottle.

Your world will never be the same.

That's what you think, Machine Head.

No more clones. With his gone, ours are gone too. Right, Cecil?

...

Of course.

Cecil, my scanners have located the Australian Prime Minister and the President.

Finally. Let's bring them home. Great work today, everyone. See you all soon. Cecil out.

As for you, yeah you. How are you holding up? You did a good job keeping the team in order and getting them out into the fight.

You should be proud. You helped save the world today. You can't say that everyday! Actually, working here, you kind of can...

What does tomorrow bring? You should be asking what'll happen in the next twenty minutes. There's always another world-ending threat looming on the horizon.

So rest up. Take a catnap. We'll need to be ready to tackle whatever it is that comes next.