“

Let's face it. Saving the Earth is going to take all of us. Together!

”

– Ben, Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall

The Fusion Invasion^[1] is an event in Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall, its fan revivals, and spin-offs. It refers to the offensive that Planet Fusion, under the leadership of Lord Fuse, has launched upon the Earth as a part of its eon-long rampage throughout the universe where it infects, and subsequently consumes, every planet and civilization it encounters.^[2][3][4] Due to the overwhelming, vicious, and unarguable nature of Planet Fusion and its invasion, the only possible hope of survival for the Earth and the rest of the universe was for all of the Earth's heroes and rest of the galaxy's heroes, plus some unlikely allies, to band together against Planet Fusion and its forces.^[5]

Despite the Earth's heroes and villains successfully uniting, the Fusion Invasion would steadily go in Fuse's favor. As a result, the world would face inevitable destruction in the near future. However, an accidental trip to this future by the Avatar would change the course of the war; when the Avatar returned to the past with a message of what awaited the world if Planet Fusion won, they also brought along creations from the future with the power to win the war: Nanos.^[6][7][8] Armed with these creations, the soldiers of the Earth gained the edge to oppose Fuse and his Fusion minions and monsters. Ultimately, the heroes' efforts managed to avert the apocalyptic future for the Earth.^[9] The Academy was as well established to train new soldiers for the war efforts and continue this course of the invasion in spite of the growing strength of Fuse's forces.^[9]

History

FusionFall: Worlds Collide

Before Planet Fusion arrived at the Earth, it was first spotted by Mojo Jojo and his monkey minions, who departed from Mojo's Volcano with the intention of conquering it. Elsewhere, Numbuh Two attempts to contact bases on nearby planets - (e.g. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto), only for no signal to be received from any of them. Next, various "meteors" are shown flying across the sky, which are witnessed by Dexter, Computress, the Eds (Ed, Edd, and Eddy), Ben, as well as Samurai Jack. These "meteors" crash in Foster's Home, Sector V, and Goat's Junk Yard, and are revealed to be bio machines, which are later referred to as "terrafusers". Soon after their impact, fusion spawns erupt from the Sector V and Foster's Home terrafusers, initiating an assault on Mac and Bloo at Foster's Home, as well as Numbuh Two and Numbuh Five at the K.N.D Treehouse. The heroes attempt to fight them off, but get quickly overwhelmed by the fusion monsters. However, Mac and Bloo are saved by Dexter and Ben, while Numbuh Two and Numbuh Five are saved by Blossom and Bubbles. The heroes attempt to destroy the terrafusers as well, but they keep regenerating. Dexter eventually brings together the group at Foster's and Sector V, telling them that brute force won't work, and that they need a plan.^[10]

At City Hall, Dexter and Professor Utonium devise a plan to destroy the terrafusers with the assembled heroes. In their studies, they conclude that the small terrafusers, are all linked to  one central terrafuser. Furthermore, the terrafusers appear to be powering up, but for what Dexter and Professor Utonium are unsure. They come to the conclusion that in order to stop them, they need to destroy the central terrafuser core while the terrafusers are occupied, which would prevent them from regenerating. However, in order to do this they need to assemble the EPC (Electro Pulse Cannon) to attack the central terrafuser's core with. Unfortunately, two parts are necessary in order to get the cannon to work: the Optimized Phase-Pulse-O-Tron (which is only made by Mandark Industries), and the Electro-Beam (which was stolen by Mojo Jojo). To obtain both parts, the heroes are split into two teams; Blossom, Bubbles, Ben, and Numbuh Two are sent to Mojo's Volcano, while Mac, Bloo, Numbuh Five, and Dee Dee are sent to Mandark's Fortress.^[10]

The team at Mojo's Volcano end up completing their mission with relative ease, thanks to Ben —as Upgrade— bypassing Mojo's security systems, and the place being abandoned; however, they are soon attacked by fusion spawns, and are forced to swiftly exit. Meanwhile, the team at Mandark Industries end up confronting Mandark himself, who agrees to give them what they want as long as he can go with them. Seeing no other option, the group returns to Dexter's aircraft, bringing Mandark with them. Begrudgingly, Dexter agrees to work with Mandark to complete the EPC, with Mandark agreeing to help out of both revenge, and because of his fondness for Dee Dee. The group from Mojo's Volcano eventually arrive at Dexter's aircraft as well, but with fusion spawns in tow, whom attack the aircraft. This puts more pressure on Dexter and Mandark to complete the EPC, while Blossom and Bubbles attempt to protect the aircraft.^[10]

The plan is put into action as the heroes begin the assault on all terrafusers; Ben, Numbuh Two, and Numbuh Five attack the Goat's Junk Yard terrafuser, while Mandark, Dee Dee, Mac, and Bloo attack the Foster's Home terrafuser. Meanwhile, Dexter attempts to fire off the EPC at the Sector V terrafuser, only for it to fail due to a malfunction. Unfortunately, the terrafusers regenerate and finish charging up, causing terrafuser alpha to shoot a laser beam into the sky. The laser blasts through Dexter's aircraft, causing it to fall out of the sky. However, the aircraft is saved by Mandark's robot, who catches and supports it so that it does not hit the ground. After quickly correcting the miscalculations —which were due to Mandark's mistakes— the EPC is able to fire successfully and destroy the central terrafuser. The heroes begin to celebrate, but are soon interrupted by Mojo Jojo and his monkey agents as they crash land around them. Before they can question him, the terrafusers reform, and Planet Fusion arrives, revealing that the blast was a beacon to bring Planet Fusion to the Earth.^[10]

Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall

The Future

Upon arrival, Planet Fusion shot more Terrafusers down to the Earth, spreading Fusion Monsters and steadily deteriorating the land with Fusion Matter. Using this substance's properties and spreading it with Terrafusers, monsters and Gooby Traps, Fuse intended to overtake the planet so that he could eventually absorb it into Planet Fusion itself. As Fusion Matter ate away at the Earth's environment and spread its influence, Dexter created force fields to try and keep the infections contained, which lead to the creation of Infected Zones.

To carry out his plans on the Earth, Lord Fuse created Fusions, evil doppelgängers of the universe's inhabitants. Many of these Fusions were put in place to try and weaken the war effort on the Earth. Though the creation of Nanos was brought about through the use of Fusion Matter in the hopes that they could be the ultimate weapons against Lord Fuse and his minions, their creation seemingly came too late. Eventually, Planet Fusion would leave its mark on the Earth, with many areas of the world ending up being consumed by volatile amounts of Fusion Matter. To make matters worse, as Planet Fusion got closer, it would start sucking up big pieces of the Earth, including the Suburbs.^[11][12][13] Eventually, the Earth and its resistance were hanging on by a thread as Planet Fusion began closing in on the Earth and stood to enter the latter's atmosphere;^[12][14][15] unless the resistance did something soon, Fuse would win the Fusion Invasion.^[16]

By the time the Avatar arrived in the Future due to a time travel experiment prior to the Fusion Invasion having gone awry, Planet Fusion had all but overtaken the Earth completely, with several of the world's heroes being missing in action and the resistance losing more ground with each passing day.^[17] What little resistance remained was fighting a losing battle, with the remaining areas on Earth being in poor conditions, and with the resistance only capable of stalling the invasion. Fortunately, with the help of their remaining resources, the resistance were able to sent the Avatar back in time with the Nano blueprints to be given to Dexter and Mandark in hopes that it would avert this future and give the resistance a proper chance.

The Past

In the Past, shortly after the arrival of Planet Fusion, the heroes of the Earth tried to make a final stand against the Fusion Invasion during a battle dubbed the "Battle of Hero's Hollow". However, Planet Fusion's forces were too strong, and the heroes lost. Dexter attributed the loss of the battle to Cheese, who apparently took down the shield generator by accident.^[18] After the battle, various SACT agents were assigned to the area to look for survivors and recover anything they could. Cheese also remained in the Darklands after the battle, where he would be taken care of by local SACT agents.

Following the start of the Fusion Invasion, everyone on the Earth was affected in some way. Some were displaced by Fuse's assault, such as Flapjack, whom got separated from Captain K'nuckles and Bubbie when leaving Stormalong Harbor, which is rumored to have been destroyed. Others tried to align themselves with Fuse, such as Him, but was rejected. As such, the majority of the Earth's population opposes the Fusion Invasion. However, while many try to fight the force directly, others have their own personal agendas. Also, some people do little to directly partake in the war, while others assist the heroes while furthering their own personal projects.

After acquiring the Nano technology, the Great Machine, a station used for Nano creation and Nano diagnostics, would be stationed at City Hall. This machine is a major target for Fuse's monsters, and was briefly damaged by Fusion Numbuh One. This led to Fusion corruption in the Nanos as well, which was stopped thanks to the efforts of the Avatar, Mandark, and Dexter.

Amidst the invasion, Ben, Dexter, Mojo Jojo, and Edd in particular had their own series of undertakings; Ben sought to keep the Plumbers' technology out of Fuse's hands; Dexter was involved with the recovery efforts to find heroes that went missing when the invasion started; Mojo Jojo worked to improve his army and assist other villains to better fight Fuse; and Edd was out to find hidden candy treasures that Fuse sought to use for his own needs.

Over the course of the Fusion Invasion, Lord Fuse put multiple plans into action to ensure his conquest, which are the subjects of most Missions. Some of these projects involved preventing the inhabitants from going off world by infecting the Skypad Space Port and studying life on the Earth, such as Imaginary Friends. However, the Fusion Invasion was most strongly felt in the Darklands.^[19] One particular phenomenon on the Earth that Fuse took significant interest in was Imaginary Energy, a strange force produced by Imaginary Friends and individuals when they use their imagination, which proved to be the greatest weakness of Fuse and his minions. Since Imaginary Energy could be a major issue for Planet Fusion, Fuse put plans in place to study Imaginary Energy and how to counteract it. Some of these plans involved trying to observe imaginary friends and/or capture them.^[20] Other plans involved trying to get a hold of Imagination Energy itself, which could be absorbed, stored, and transported to Fuse's facilities.^[21] In the meantime, Planet Fusion would continue a steady descend towards the Earth.^[22]

During the Fusion Invasion, the Avatar took part in many side adventures. Once, when Fusion monsters invaded Chowder's mouth and attacked the Puckerberry Overlords that lived in there, the Avatar would enter Chowder's mouth and destroy the monsters and Fusions inside Chowder's orifices and deal with the infection they were creating. Another time, they helped Ben and his friends repair the Omnitrix, which had not been functioning properly since the invasion began.^[23] When it was revealed that it was Vilgax who had been messing with the Omnitrix (which the Avatar ironically helped him do) and trapped many of Ben's alien forms on his ship, the Avatar assisted Ben's team in freeing some of the trapped alien forms. On another occasion, where Ice King had been continued his princess capturing antics and trapped both Princess and Candy Wife in his palace, Finn, Jake, and Princess Bubblegum would work with the Avatar to enter the palace and free the two princesses from Ice King's prison. The Avatar would later investigate Ice King's missing penguins and obtain an Ice King Nano from facing off with the perpetrator, Fusion Gunter.

Eventually, the Nano enhancement project was put in place by DexLabs and Mandark Industries to improve the production of current Nanos, and develop new ones. As part of this project, the Avatar visited various people to get their items so that their Nanos could be produced and/or improved.

After Marie Kanker gave the Book of Prophecy, a magic book she had gotten from a graveyard, to May Kanker, May tried to use it to get Ed to love her. The Avatar and Gwen eventually stopped her, and got her to give them the book. After deciphering the book, Gwen had the Avatar reactivate various totems around the Earth, which ended up imbuing the Avatar with the Powers of Destiny. While there were some complications, the Avatar ended up activating them all and bringing the defense system online, which revealed the location of Fusion Gwen. Fusion Gwen attempted to deactivate the network, but failed, and got destroyed by the Avatar.

Sometime into the invasion, a piece of Planet Fusion, dubbed "Planetoid Fusion" broke off and started hurtling towards the Earth. Dexter and Mandark attempted to stop it, but their plans were sabotaged by Vilgax, who wanted to obtain the planetoid remains for his own research. The planetoid was eventually destroyed thanks to Courage, which led to the Avatar discovering and defeating Fusion Juniper, along with Vilgax who wanted revenge on the Avatar for foiling his plan.

Eventually, ancient warrior spirits caused multiple Fusion monsters to go berserk and start causing trouble, catching the eye of many people. Said people enlisted the help of the Avatar to deal with these monsters and defeat them, which ended up forming a different weapon every single time. Upon further investigation with the likes of Demongo and Samurai Jack, the nature of the weapons and the legend associated with them were discovered. After all of the weapons were obtained, Jack had the Avatar destroy them, which acted as trading the physical power of the weapons with the spiritual power of the warrior spirits. This led to the Avatar themselves absorbing this power and becoming the Master Weapon, which gave them the strength to take down the Fusion Eds in Green Maw.

Kevin eventually had the Avatar gather Fusion Matter for him so that he could absorb its power in hopes of becoming strong enough to take on Lord Fuse. However, this plan backfired and allowed Lord Fuse to take control of Kevin instead. Kevin then tricked the Avatar into attaching a device to Foster's Home that allowed Fuse to siphon Imaginary Energy to the Darklands so it could be studied. Dexter took notice of this plan however, and had the Avatar place another device on Foster's so that they could diminish how much energy got transferred to Fuse without risking major harm to the imaginary friends. Kevin (still under Fuse's control) tried to intervene, but the Avatar defeated him and turned him back to normal.

During a later mission in the Darklands, Tetrax had the Avatar obtain an uplink that would send false data through Fuse's communication network. Taking advantage of this new development, the Avatar and several heroes assaulted Fuse's Fusion Control Centers so that they could reach Lord Fuse before his body manifested on the Earth. The first three control centers were taken down successfully, but the fourth one was left standing due to Billy showing up instead of Eduardo and ruining Demongo's plan to use Imaginary Energy to destroy the fourth center. While this snafu did cost the heroes the destruction of the center, the Avatar was able to defeat Fusion Herriman. Demongo then informed the player that Fusion Kevin had appeared, and that was not too late to destroy him. The Avatar confronted Fusion Kevin in the Green Maw, who was growing in power, preparing fot Fuse's formation, and was protected by a shield. In the lair they once again meet Billy, who gave them his Runty as a way to apologize for ruining the previous mission. This allowed the player to break down the shield and defeat Fusion Kevin, albeit at the cost of Runty's life. Following that, the player entered Fuse's Labyrinth in hopes that they could disable Fuse's defenses before he completely materialized. Thanks to the assistance of one of Coco's Eggs, the Avatar was able to use their imagination to destroy the shield protecting Fuse, which weakened Fuse, but did not stop him from physically forming.

Not long after, the player entered Fuse's Throne with Samurai Jack, but Jack ended up getting injured by monsters in the area. This left the Avatar to face Fuse alone, which, after a difficult battle, ended with Fuse's form being destroyed. This caused Fuse to lose his physical form and his energies to return to Planet Fusion, dealing a huge blow to Fuse's army and Lord Fuse himself.   

Eventually, the efforts of the forces on the Earth paid off; thanks to the Avatar and the Nanos, the future where Planet Fusion was about to win the Fusion Invasion was averted.^[9] This would result in history essentially branching off into a new timeline. In order to continue the fight against the Fusion Invasion, new soldiers were trained to aid the resistance on the Earth. To do so, the Academy was established with the help of various individuals and organizations. These recruits were put through training in different facilities, where Fusion Monsters had been captured. Upon completing their training, the soldiers would be sent to Mt. Neverest for graduation before being sent out into the field.

Some time after Nano development began, DexLabs created the Unstable Nano, a Nano designed to change form instead of be exclusively based on one person. These temporary forms would be used to test out new Nanos before their mass-production.

FusionFall Heroes

During Planet Fusion's invasion of the Earth, while legions of kids fought to defend the world, the world's greatest heroes and villains joined small, co-op fireteams to assault the Fusion Monsters' spawning grounds. By succeeding in these missions, they would strike a huge blow against Lord Fuse and his evil army. To aid them, these individuals used a rare element known as Dextronium to empower themselves for battle against the Fusion Monsters in order to take the Earth back.^[24]

References