Cody

I ducked down behind the rocky terrain, the sounds of the all too familiar purple magic attacks filled the air, along with several Atlantean guards fighting for their life. I wish I could join them, but in the heat of battle, I had taken too many hits. My arm was all bruised up and Professor refused to let me back out there. At least he was with them. I could always rely on that and it helped the whole, "Shout orders from safety" thing. Though I hated it, I had to comply. My death wasn't going to help anyone.

Nearby the hospital, the Tide Changers were launching an attack. Though I suspected they were going for the hospital itself, nobody knew for sure. KrakenKid had brought a large portion of his men with him, and wasn't giving up. As for the villain himself, he stayed out of sight. Sure, he'd pop up and shoot every once in awhile, but parallel to where I was, he hid as well. This only made me more uneasy. This was unusual behavior for him, he was always out in the fight unless... He was planning something, no doubt about it.

KrakenKid might have been planning something, but luck was on our side. Professor Pikalus was starting to get the hang of his Hulk form, practicing constantly and now that it was time to put it in action, I was impressed to say the least. He might need anger to control it, but dang! He was a force to be reckoned with! The only reason we hadn't won yet was because more and more Illithids kept popping up. How many did Kraken bring?

"Cody."

"AAAAA!"

I spun around, only to be revealed to find Professor standing there, his hulk form starting to fade. "Don't scare me like that man!" I scolded him, starting to lightly clutch some of my wounds on my arms.

"Sorry but Cody," He sighed, looking back at the battlefield. The body count was starting to pile up which only made my heart sink. "We need a new strategy. KrakenKid, I don't know what he's doing, but we need to stop it. I'm starting to lose control over Hulk Mode and unless you want me to go on a rampage, we need a plan and we need it now." His voice was grave and I had never seen him more serious.

I let out a huff, taking a glance at the two sides fighting, trying to form an idea in my head. "W-well... Ummm..." I racked my brain for new ideas, but all of the adrenaline flow was starting to mess up my logic. For some reason, throwing a bomb in the mix seemed somewhat logical, but whatever reason left in me was the only thing blocking the order from coming out. There had to be another way, there always is! There has to be someway to end it quickly... If only we knew how KrakenKid was giving orders to his troops so quickly... Wait... OF COURSE!

"That's it!" I clapped my hands together, startling the scientist. "Professor, Illithids aren't too smart are they?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "No, not at all. In fact, they practically rely on their Generals to give them orders most of the ti- ohhhhh!" Pikalus grinned suddenly, understanding what I was getting at. "You want to take out the brain! If we separate KrakenKid from his troops-"

"-Then we'll win the fight. In fact," My thoughts sped through, now the once paralyzing adrenaline was working in my favor, allowing me to work up a plan, one that just might solve a problem we've been struggling with for a long time. "Why don't we take it one step further! KrakenKid leads the Tide Changers, but he's the only one of his Generals here, which means his crab friend isn't here to protect him. If we want to stop all of this fighting, why don't we just take him? The Tide Changers will be lost without their leader!"

Professor Pikalus laughed. "Sounds perfect! How do we do it?"

I smirked. "I already have a plan, one that just might work. I just need you to do me a favor, if you're up for it."

Though my body screamed at me to stop moving, I went against it, fighting through the pain and clutched my spear in one hand. I knew I'd have to do it soon or I'd doom Professor. Counting down from three, I mentally prepared myself, then once at zero, I shot out from my hiding place and raised my spear. Some Illithids noticed me, but I didn't care. I could feel the almost electric power from the Nexus surge through me.

And I let it all out.

Literal sparks flew causing everyone to duck as I let out a long battle cry, releasing all energy I had built up onto the battlefield. The Illithid's all watched and not a second later, bolted, all trying to escape the huge wave of energy I was giving off. Those who got hit dropped to the ground immediately. For a while, I didn't want to stop, but seeing the place mostly cleared of alive enemies, I shut myself off from the Nexus's pull and it all stopped. The glow from my spear slowly faded and my energy with it.

My knees hit the ground as I attempted to steady myself. The slight current in the water suddenly seemed much stronger than I remembered and I swayed to it, eyes blinking rapidly. Never had I ever used that much power before, not even when I froze time. The world around me went blurry, but a voice brought me back to my senses.

"Uh, Cody? You alright?" I nodded, trying to focus in on it. A darker figure approached, but I could guess who it was.

"Y-yeah. Yeah I'm fine." I nodded sloppily, but even I could tell I wasn't being convincing. I raised my head, trying to find where he was. It was hard to tell with seeing three of him. "Say, Professor, mind lending me a hand? I'm tripping out here."

Pikalus chuckled, allowing me to finally pinpoint where he was standing. He was off to the side, his clothes a little torn and ripped in some places and a burn in his side, but looked to be in good shape. Though no longer blue, his muscle hadn't faded quite yet. "I would but," At that moment, I finally noticed something that would have been so obvious before. A body in his arms. A purple one. "I got my arms full. Your plan worked."

Slowly, I grinned, eyes flickering down to who could only be KrakenKid. It took a moment, but something was very wrong. Though he had scrapes and bruises, his head was in a worse shape than normal. "I knocked him out and I have him here now, but there was a... Complication to it."

"You knocked him out with your Hulk Hammer, didn't you? In Hulk form?" He nodded. I winced, just looking at it made me feel bad. "Dang, that's quite the wound... He's alive right?"

Professor stifled a laugh. "Of course! Sheesh, who do you think I am? His breathing is fine. We should probably get a doctor to make sure, but Cody. We did it. You did it."

For the first time in a long time, I had a victory. Too many times he had won, like the battle in the airport in the Overworld, but now we might be able to end this and start anew! We might be able to set up a new city in the Overworld without any problems, something we were all worried about before.

All of this, because of a simple battle.

The hospital being right nearby, it was easy to get all of the injured there and treated in an instant. My arms and waist were wrapped with bandages and Professor was not only exhausted but had some burn ointment for his side.

The plan had worked, almost perfectly. I had successfully not only caused a distraction but took out Illithids and drove them away. Professor was to sneak around and knock out KrakenKid while I was doing so. The only thing that didn't make it perfect was the fact that Professor had to fight to get him to sleep. In fact, his burn was from his gun. Speaking of his gun, now that we had him, we had it as well! We can finally figure out what the heck is in it.

The two of us were in the recovery room, currently being examined by some nurses. It wasn't longer before they gave us the thumbs up. "You should be good, just don't work too hard and open the wound back up again, okay?" Professor and I nodded simultaneously and they left. As they did, a different doctor came in.

"Ah, Cody. We are done with KrakenKid's check up. Huh... Never though I'd ever say that sentence but here we are. Life is strange, isn't it? Moving on, KrakenKid will be fine though Professor, you did cause quite the amount of damage to his head. You caused a lot of bleeding to his head and damaged his occipital lobe. We aren't sure of when he'll wake up or what exactly you did to it. We haven't worked on a kraken in years, so we will only be able to tell when he wakes up. We will try to do more."

Professor and I exchanged a look. Though hard to follow with him talking a little fast, we both got one thing: This couldn't be good.

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Ah yes! FINALLY! Man, this honestly should have come out a while ago but then stuff came up, I wanted it to be as good as I could make it and I just got really excited with things in other books I nearly forgot to keep updating this one! But, I did make the deadline sooooooo, I'll count it.

First AU! You might be wondering how I changed it, but ohhhh boy. Next chapter, everything will make sense. Or at least a lot of things. Next chapter is prepped, I just need to edit it so it should come out tomorrow!

I hope you liked this! Be sure to comment your thoughts so far! It's going to get interesting pretty fast so, yeahhhhh.....

Bye!

--JustAnAtlantisWriter