LAST TIME, ON DCA…
The concepts of the end of the show were discussed.
The main protagonists and the main antagonists met.
DARK CHAO ADVENTURES
Season Eight: The Last Journey
Episode Eighty-Three: Six Degrees of Progressive Darkness, DEGREE FOUR: Can't See (C Flat)
[the story resumes in the river of sand that is the bright white light]
[the protagonists are doing stuff, you read the last episode]
Chapter 1: Abstract Continuation Theory
Amfy: So you know what I propose we do?
Shade: What's that?
Amfy: Recruit more backup. We're gonna need all the help we can get, aren't we?
Shadow: Amphis has the right idea, but we can't have too many people with us or else it'll be hard to keep track of everyone.
ShadowF: Don't worry about that. We have the void on our side. We'll keep them there as a sort of.. character storage.
Red: That's a frightening idea, but I say we go for it. Who first?
Shade: You know who I really wish we could get help from? Metal Sonic. That dude rocked.
Dark: That.. that dude did rock.
Shadow: But I killed him, didn't I?
Shade: You did! And that also rocked. Seriously, well done.
Chao: Who do we currently have? Other than the people present, of course.
White: We have, uh. Mecha Knuckles, the Tails Doll, and Mephiles in the void. And Eggman and Levity Nite.
Dark: We could get Zim and GIR. Maybe not GIR, but I mean.. we could get Zim. He has helped us a lot before.
Shadow: We could also get, like.. the rest of our future selves. Future Red was really cool.
Dark: Future me's dead, isn't he?
ShadeF: Yeah…
Shade: There's also Purflee, Luis, the other Purflee, that He guy, and.. Stalh or whatever the fuck his name was.
ShadowF: I'm on it.
[Future Shadow disappears for a few minutes]
Chao: What about the Heroes? Tail, Speedy, Knuckle? And Shade Junior?
Shade: Shit, there are a lot of people we can get. We'll get on that once Future Shadow gets back.
Dark: Mister Prower?
Red: Why would we want our teacher with us?
Dark: He's good at math…
Shadow: I think we'll be fine in the arithmetics department, Dark.
[Future Shadow returns]
ShadowF: Both Purflees, Luis Green Sumatuma, He, and Stalh are now safely stored in the void.
Chao: We also thought of, uh.. Tail, Speedy, Knuckle, and Shade Junior.
ShadowF: On it.
[he disappears again]
Chao: What are we gonna do when we have everyone? How can we defeat a group of characters who are as powerful as our entire group?
Shade: It'll be one hell of a brawl, alright. But I think, if we can get Future Shadow to Echo, he can get us five chaos drives.
Shadow: …so we should be focusing our present efforts on gathering the remaining three.
Shade: Two.
Shadow: Two, right.
Dark: See, we're gonna need Mister Prower, after all! Math!
[Future Shadow returns]
ShadowF: Tail, Speedy, and Knuckle are now safely stored in the void.
Shade: What about my son?
ShadowF: I couldn't find him.
[the chao stare]
Shade: You couldn't.. find him?
ShadowF: I'm afraid not.
Shadow: Okay, so we have two focuses. One: I need to find two chaos drives. Two: We need to find Shade Junior. I have the feeling he'll be important.
Red: What gives you that idea?
Shadow: He was a Beta Avenger once. And a Tour Guide. Both are significantly formidable forces.
Shade: Right, we're gonna need to figure this out. Who'll do what?
Dark: We could have the usual four go for the chaos drives while everyone else looks for Shade Junior.
[majority votes yes]
ShadowF: I'll make sure you get the support you need from Eggman and Levity Nite.
Red: Thank you.
Chapter 2: Friday Investigation/Verification Evaluation
[cut to the void in space and time or wherever it was]
[Shade, Dark, Red, and Shadow walk in]
[Eggman and Levity Nite walk in]
Shadow: Do you guys know--
Egg: Nice outfit.
Shadow: ..thanks. Do you guys know where we can find a chaos drive? We need two.
Nite: There are several in Chao Talk.
Dark: Anywhere else?
Nite: We have detected one in the Camper Festival.
Shadow: …the where?
Egg: I don't think they want that one.
Nite: Good point. …hang on, I think I know who can help us.
[Levity walks out]
Red: What was that Camper Festival thing?
Egg: It was.. it was nothing. Don't worry about it. Just a music festival from Hell.
[Levity walks back in along with a strange presence]
Nite: Protagonists, I have with me a being who knows where you can find a chaos drive.
?: Greetings. You know me by now; I am called the Butterfly Collector.
Shadow: Of course; you're the Veteran behind the prog challenges and the Gatekeepers.
Butterfly: Yes, I'm glad you remember me! You see, I did, at one point, possess the chaos drive you seek. But…
Shade: I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here. Unexpected developments caused you to lose it.
Butterfly: Yes, actually! Exactly that.
Shadow: Veteran's Committee, I'm gonna pose a question to you, and I want you to disclose as much information as possible, okay?
Egg: Ask away, dear boy!
Shadow: What are these developments you have been referring to throughout the last season?
[Levity and Eggman look at each other]
Egg: It's. Hard to explain.
Nite: The developments have been the.. the…
Egg: The eights and the fives, mostly. The IT substance. It's been growing impatient.
Nite: It's been infecting characters, bringing the end closer and closer.
Egg: It turned Shawn into this new MILKMAN, Cham into this new JOE, and Echo into this.. creature.
Nite: In Chao Talk, the developments have done all kinds of new things.
Egg: To put it in simple terms, um.. the unexpected developments are. DJay.
Nite: He has been setting up the.. chess pieces, so to speak. Preparing everything for the last adventure.
Shadow: Okay. That sums up a lot. So Butterfly Collector.
Butterfly: Hello!
Shadow: Yes, hi. Where is this chaos drive you no longer have?
Butterfly: At the end of "Lost Perfection."
[Dark's eyes widen]
Dark: We're entering Between the Buried and Me territory? Oh boy, this isn't gonna be easy.
Shadow: I take it Between the Buried and Me is some kind of band and that "Lost Perfection" is a prog piece.
Dark: BtBaM are a crazy band, man. Their lyrics are pretty much undecipherable most of the time, even with the lyric book right in front of you. But "Lost Perfection" was clear: Clowns, fire, and the apocalypse.
Chapter 3: End Now, Drink Sprite
[cut to Mecha Knuckles and the Tails Doll, waiting in the void]
MK: Man, this void's boring as hell.
TD: You said it.
MK: Whaddya say we blow this popsicle joint?
TD: What if the protagonists need us?
MK: Eh, they'll figure it out.
[they begin wandering]
[cut to the Dark Garden]
[Chao, White, Amphis, Future Shade, and Future Shadow walk in]
ShadowF: This is, from what I understand, the last place Shade Junior was seen.
ShadeF: What was the last thing said about him? What was his last episode?
ShadowF: Hoo, that was a way back. Episode 53, a good thirty episodes ago. He tried to overthrow Shade for title of Dark Lord, and was bested in a guitar duel on Rock Band.
ShadeF: Didn't DJay say Shade Junior, like.. stayed cooped up in his corner, playing the game?
Chao: I've been the ruler of the Dark Garden for a very long time, and I don't recall ever seeing Shade Junior here.
ShadowF: There are actually a number of peculiar things about Episode 53. Like the ominous phrasing of the ending.
Amfy: Read it to us.
ShadowF: "And so it seems we've come to the end of our episode. Finally, I can rest knowing that DCA is finished. For good."
Chao: …o___o
ShadowF: There's more. "I mean… not finished. It'll never be finished. Not while….. HE… is still alive."
ShadeF: ..damn. What was he alluding to? His dad? Himself?
Chao: Shade? The MILKMAN?
ShadowF: It's a mystery that has been left unsolved to this very day.
[as they wonder on this, a figure enters the garden]
?: What are you guys doing here?
[cut to the Station Square Prison]
[much panic is going around; a dangerous prisoner had escaped a while back but recently returned]
[no one is sure why an escaped convict would return to prison, but there have been a string of murders of guards, so that kinda answers it]
[one guard is walking through Cell Block 5, watching every move around him]
[his gun and his flashlight are both always at the ready]
[for dramatic suspense, the reader is shown, behind him, Echo quietly land and begin moving towards him]
[the guard does not see the murder coming]
[cut to a dark corridor, an impossibly long dark corridor]
[at the end of the corridor is a well-lit door]
[the door opens, and out walks a cloaked figure]
[its movement is more akin to gliding along the floor]
[its height fluctuates, seeming to become impossibly tall and shorter than the cloak allows all at the same time]
[the corridor fluctuates along with it]
[the figure is both halfway down the corridor and just barely beginning its walk towards the camera]
[at times, the figure appears to disappear entirely]
[…abruptly cut to an absurdly large indoor concert venue]
[the crowd are all seated, staring blankly at the stage, almost comatose]
[on the stage are the members of Dream Theater, performing some complex progressive piece]
[they look exhausted and afraid]
[the camera focuses on a poster saying "THE CAMPER FESTIVAL, ALL NIGHT, EVERY NIGHT! Coming soon to the Camper Festival: Up-and-coming act RUBBER GOOSE!"]
[Dream Theater finishes their piece, and then singer James LaBrie begins to introduce the next piece]
LaBrie: Thank you, you're a lovely….. um. This next.. this next piece, our finale for the night, is off of our eighth album.
[the camera returns to Mecha Knuckles and the Tails Doll exploring the void as LaBrie's voice provides a voice-over]
LaBrie: It's the.. it's the eighth track, the eighth song. It has five movements, and I'm sure you'll all enjoy it.
[Mecha and the Doll stop in their tracks and stare off in the distance at something very odd]
LaBrie: This song is called…
[the camera shows that Mecha and the Doll have found the Camper Festival]
LaBrie: "Octavarium."
Chapter 4: New Octavarium Weapon
[cut to the protagonists in the void]
[no sound is audible other than Dream Theater's tired performance of "Octavarium" over a dead silent crowd]
[Levity Nite snaps his fingers]
[the chao fade into their newest destination: the Station Square Prison]
[Shade grips his crowbar close, Shadow grips his guitar controller close]
[Red points at a dead prison guard nearby]
[most of the cells are empty]
[as the main "Octavarium" motif enters, the chao discover writing on a cell wall]
["EIGHT AND FIVE, TONIGHT CATCH RUBBER GOOSE LIVE"]
[the first movement plays as the chao check out more of this twisted empty prison and see more 8s and 5s etched on walls and dead prison guards]
[spliced among this are clips of the cloaked figure obfuscating down the hallway]
[the movement ends as the chao find someone]
[cut to the other protagonists for the second movement]
[the figure who had entered the garden was Shade Junior]
[Shade Junior is leading these protagonists to a strange sight: all the Freelancer chao dead behind the Neutral Garden waterfall]
[etched on their bodies are thousands of 8s and 5s, as well as on the cave walls]
[cut back to the Camper Festival; Dream Theater is still performing, but they're glancing more at the two new crowd members]
[Mecha and the Dolls are slowly walking down the aisles, looking both at the band and at this strange, almost-comatose audience]
[as the second movement ends, one crowd member grabs Mecha's leg]
[KEYBOARD SOLO]
[the nearby crowd members all stand up as one and begin attacking Mecha and the Doll, who fight back]
[FIGHT SCENE TO THE KEYBOARD SOLO, WHOO]
[as the third movement begins, we're back in the prison]
[Dark mouths "Isn't this where we came in?"]
[the characters are looking at a dying Dalek]
[they pull the Dalek out of the prison, or at least attempt to before they spy a new hallway appear literally out of nowhere-- the door just manifests abruptly, all nearby shadows seeming to flee from it]
[the Dalek gestures for them to go without it, so they enter the hallway and the door behind them disappears]
[as they head down the hallway, Dream Theater hits a progressive instrumental section]
[the camera keeps cutting between dead bodies covered in 8s and 5s, the protagonists heading down the hallway where the figure was, Mecha and the Doll fighting off the crowd, and Dream Theater performing]
[EXCITING SCENES TO THE EXCITING PROGGASM]
[eventually, it all comes to a climactic build-up for the fourth movement as the chao reach the end of the hallway, manifesting in the Camper Festival]
[the chao help Mecha and the Doll fight off the crowd]
[every crowd member mouths "Root," "Second," "Third," "Fourth," "Fifth," "Sixth," "Seventh," and "Octave" as they come up in the music]
[finally, everything climaxes as the crowd members are accompanied by string-like tentacles and James LaBrie shouts "Trapped inside this Octavarium"]
[the protagonists are surrounded by an exponentially large amount of crowd members and odd strings, even some coming out of the crowd's mouths]
[the fifth movement slowly plays as the protagonists realize the futility of fighting]
["This story ends where it begins."]
[the band abruptly stops performing the song, causing the crowd's heads to snap towards the stage]
Crowd: KEEP PLAYING.
[keyboardist Jordan Rudess speaks up]
Rudess: No. We've been playing for months now. We can't keep going.
Crowd: KEEP. PLAYING.
[drummer Mike Mangini speaks up]
Mangini: You need to expand your horizons. There's more to life than just music.
Crowd: KEEP PLAYING, OR ELSE.
LaBrie: We're done. No more music.
Crowd: KEEP PLAYING. OR. ELSE.
[bassist John Myung speaks up]
Myung: If this is what it takes to save their lives, we're stopping.
Crowd: THEY ARE EXPENDABLE. KEEP PLAYING.
[guitarist John Petrucci speaks up]
Petrucci: That is ENOUGH. We will not play for you anymore, Camper Festival. Dream Theater has left the building.
Chapter 5
[the crowd is enraged and begins heading to the stage]
[Dream Theater looks at each other and nods]
[they play one last time, this time improvising a heavy jam in 5/8, fighting off the crowd with their instruments]
[the protagonists watch in awe and terror; they've never seen nor heard anything like it]
[the band is literally torn apart]
[the last thing heard is Jordan Rudess performing the "Octavarium" motif]
[the protagonists look at each other in fear]
[..and then Eggman and Levity Nite run in and usher the protagonists back into the void]
Shadow: They'll be after us; we need to get the hell out of here.
Egg: We're on it, don't worry.
Nite: For now, we have even bigger matters to worry about.
Shadow: Even bigger matters?!
Egg+Nite: Chao Talk has been introduced to Fears.
TO BE CONTINUED!
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