"The battle is not going well, Pedrito." Jack Merlin's face quickly went from a triumphant smile to a frown as he watched a light blink out on one of his computer screens.
"Hmm?" The Albino mused as he looked up at his leader.
"Hero," he said, half turned to the boy. "is dead. Several other agents have been captured. It is only a matter of time before the remaining soldiers are defeated or surrender."
Merlin pressed a button on the side of his chair. "Prepare a disk. Release Amuck. Tell him the Vanguards await him."
Merlin leaned back in his chair and smiled again.
*********************
Shock continued sending wave after wave of force at Priest and Smith. Priest absorbed as much as he could with a grimace.
"You ok?" Phil asked, genuinely concerned for the man.
"No. . .but I will be when we finish this guy." Priest lied.
"Yeah, sure." Phil could sense his teammate was holding something back from him, but decided not to press the issue. They had more immediate concerns. Phil rummaged around in his bag, filled with items he'd scavenged on the battlefield. He found what he was looking for. A flash grenade. "Sweet. Shield your eyes." He pulled the pin and tossed it towards the massive Strikeforce member.
The grenade seemed to float weightlessly, effortlessly, stopping in mid air inches from Shock's face. "Whu-?" he said, more than a little surprised. "Bang." Phil said as the grenade burst in a flash, blinding Shock.
Shock roared in pain and anger, unleashing more waves of force. "Not quite the reaction I was expecting!" Phil said, as he used his telekinesis to attempt to hold Priest and himself steady.
"Releasing. . .now!" Priest fired back all of the stored energy he'd absorbed from Shock in one massive burst. Priest dropped to one knee, panting. His hands shook, uncontrollably.
"Hey, are you sure you're ok?" Phil said, placing a hand on the man's shoulder.
"I'll. . .I'm fine." Priest replied, tight-lipped. "Did we get 'im?"
"Take a look for yourself." Phil pointed at the large meta still raging in his blindness.
"How. . .?!" was Priest's astonished reply.
"I dunno. . .immune to his own abilities? I'm about out of explanations at this point, man."
A large shadow swooped overhead, briefly draping the two Vanguardians in darkness. A huge blast of pink lightning struck Shock with powerful force, finally knocking him to the ground.
"Drax!" the men replied simultaneously. The large, white dragon swooped around and turned, his eyes spotting something else.
"Where's he going?" Phil asked.
"Beats. . .me." Priest responded, still on one knee.
*****************
The Stormloader began descending to the ground as Brianna and Fang struggled inside.
"You'll kill us!" The large tiger screamed at the girl. Yeah, well, I could probably fix it if you weren't trying to smother me, you jerk. Brianna thought to herself.
Suddenly the craft stopped. Gently, it touched down on the ground. A large eye looked inside the cockpit window. Fang hissed loudly at the dragon.
***********************
"This is ridiculous," Ozzy murmured as he pulled a leather Strikeforce boot onto his leg. "Hey, you could wait up a bit you know!" He yelled at Grimm, walking ahead of him.
"We don't have time!" Grimm yelled back, still walking.
Ozzy started to run ahead when something sparked off his chest.
"Wha-?" Another spark. And another. Several now. Something shot past Ozzy and grabbed him by the arm, jerking him off his feet.
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed as he was pulled along by the crazed speedster called Amuck. "WhrzzTbisCrstfrrrr??" Amuck snarled at the hapless Vanguardian.
"What?!" Ozzy responded, having absolutely no idea what the man was talking about. Ozzy felt himself violently jerked to the right, slamming into a fallen War Mastiff.
"WhrzzTbisCrstfrrrr??!" the question came again, louder, angrier. "W-what are you. . .I don't-" Ozzy was jerked to the left, colliding with the corner of an old brick building. "Dammit! Stop that!" Ozzy yelled.
Amuck sped through the streets of Mandelovia, repeating his question, slamming Ozzy into various different hard objects.
"OnnnnneemorrreetimewhereezTobiasssChristoopheerrrrrr?????" the speedster asked, slightly slowing down his speech. "I don't know who the fuck you're talking about!" Ozzy screamed back at the man. Amuck threw the man directly into Grimm, knocking him off his feet and into the side of a building.
"What the hell. . ." Grimm started. "Beats me." Ozzy answered. The two men heard a loud SNAP! quickly followed by BOOM!!!!!!! as the building they were in front of us began to collapse on top of them. Oh, not again. Grimm thought to himself.
