Last time our heroes raced to the 4th moon of Eraklyon to rescue Bloom and Sky from the mad clutches of Diaspro. The lunatic was ready for the rescuers, but her defenses were below average when compared to Max and The Ramblers. But will they reach Bloom and Sky before it is too late? On with the show!

Chapter 10: All or Nothing

"Impossible!!!" raged Diaspro, "How could they have defeated my mercenaries so quickly!?!!!"

"You underestimated Max and his team again, Diaspro," said Bloom, "People like them are hard to kill."

"That maybe so," said Diaspro, "But I assure you, Bloom, your freakish Earth friends won't see you alive again."

Back outside Virgil was hard at work isolating the energy frequency of the field that was disrupting the girls' powers. "Just give me another minute," he said, typing madly away at his laptop, "And I'll have your powers back to normal… Oh sh$t!!"

"What?" asked Musa.

"The nullification field is on a rotating frequency," said Tecna as she checked her PDA, "Every time we get close to isolating it, it changes. I'm afraid the only way we'll be able to use our powers here is to deactivate the field generator at its source."

"And Diaspro is in control of the source," said Elise, "Or my name is Francine, and it's not."

"Jill," said Violet into her com-link, "We can't deactivate the energy field. Looks like you're on our own for now."

"Not surprising," said Jill into her com-link. She then informed the others of the situation back on top.

"I should have known it wouldn't have been that easy," said Andrew.

"Wait a minute," said Tyler, "My armor."

"What about it?" asked Riven.

"My battle-suit projects a force-shield," said Tyler, "If Virgil can match the rotation speed of the nullification field, I can send a feedback pulse, overloading the source."

"Did you hear that, Virgil?" asked Max into his com-link.

"Loud and clear," said Virgil, "Just wait right there, I'll be down there as soon as I can."

Max, Brandon and the others waited for Virgil and the others back up to as precious minutes ticked by. Eventually Virgil, Tecna and the others caught up.

"How long is this going to take?" asked Stella anxiously.

"As long as has to," said Elise in a slightly annoyed tone, "So just shut up and let us brains do our work."

"Better work fast," said Laura in a grave tone, "I've just had this feeling that Bloom is in mortal danger, even worse than before."

"Then work faster!" said Carmen, "With my full powers, I can sense where Bloom is."

"In that case," said Tecna, she made a few quick adjustments to Tyler's battle-suit vest, "All done."

"She's good," said an impressed Shawn.

"Stand back," said Tyler as he activated his suit, the white armor unfolding from his vest, "I'm about to initiate the pulse." There was a growing whine of energy from the suit, followed by a bright flash.

"It worked!!" exclaimed Stella as she, Flora, Musa, Layla and Tecna transformed into their Winx outfits.

"Of course it worked," said Morgan. She sighed in satisfaction as her powers recharged.

"I can sense where Bloom is!" said Carmen, "She's 200 meters in that direction!!" she pointed towards the left-hand wall of the corridor they were in.

"Stand back!" said Ryoga, "I'll have us through that wall in no time!"

"Uh, Ryoga," said Brandon, "It's the other wall."

"Oh," said Ryoga, "My bad." He stood in front of the correct wall, his left index finger aiming at the walls' weak spot, "Baksuai Tenketsu!!!" He jabbed his finger at the wall, shattering a 20-foot wide hole in it.

"Oh great!" said Riven, "Another hallway."

"Then I'll bust through this one as well!" said Ryoga, "And the next one, and the next one, until we reach Bloom. Baksuai Tenketsu!!!"

"Hang on a second," said Virgil, "I'm picking up something. I've locked in on the location of the source of the nullification field. In fact, it's the central point for the whole complex. Everything is tied into this one room."

"I'll bet that's where Diaspro is," said Riven.

"Which way?" asked Sally-Ann.

"Just go down this corridor," said Tecna as she checked her scanners, "The central control room is 380 meters away."

"Leave Diaspro to me," said Sally-Ann, "I'll catch her, it's what I do best." She then hurried down the corridor, while Ryoga blasted a hole into the next hallway.

Meanwhile Bloom had no idea that her powers were restored. She was so intent on whatever mad scheme Diaspro had planned for her and Sky.

Just then a door appeared in the room she was in, and there was Sky, looking more than a little worse for wear, but there he was.

"Bloom!!" he shouted. He ran towards her, and she towards him. Yet before they could embrace each other, something separated them, something made of glass.

"Well look at this!" said the mocking voice of Diaspro, "Our brave hero has reached his one true love, only to be separated at the last second. So close, yet so far away."

"What is this, Diaspro!!?!!" exclaimed Sky as he felt along the transparent barrier between him and Bloom, "What trickery is are you up to now?!!"

"The final move in my little game," said Diaspro, "I did say that you'd watch your beloved Bloom die, so now watch."

Just then more lights came on in the room, revealing that Bloom was trapped in a large, glass enclosure in the shape of cube. The glass was at least 4 inches thick. Metal grates were on the floor inside the cube. Both Bloom and Sky watched in horror as water began filling the cube from the floor.

"You're going to drown me!?" asked Bloom as the water reached above her ankles, "That's your master plan?!"

"Ingenious, isn't it?" mocked Diaspro as the water reached Bloom's knees, "Your beloved prince is going to watch you die, and there's nothing he can do to stop it."

"That'll be the day!!" exclaimed Sky. He began pounding the glass cube with his fists, then ramming it with his shoulder. He didn't even leave a scratch on the glass.

"Go ahead and waste your energy," said Diaspro, "That glass has a spell on it, making it indestructible."

"NO!!" shouted Sky as he kept pounding the glass, "I won't give up!!" he kept hitting at the cube, yet nothing happened. The water was above Bloom's waist now and nearly to her neck.

"Let her go!!" demanded Sky, "I'll do whatever you want, Diaspro! Just let Bloom go!!"

"It's too late for bargaining," said Diaspro, "You had your chance with me and you blew it. Now you shall experience the ultimate in suffering; you're going to watch your one true love die!" She laughed her mad cackle yet again as the water reached above Bloom's head, completely covering her.

Bloom had managed to get a large lungful of air before the cube was completely filled with water, but her lungs were already beginning to burn for more oxygen. Still Sky kept pounding at the glass.

Eventually Bloom could no longer hold her breath, expelling the used air from her body. Water began filling her lungs.

"Let her go!!" shouted Sky again, "Kill me instead!!"

"Oh you're going to die eventually," said Diaspro, "But not before she does."

Suddenly there was a loud noise form outside the room, like part of a wall had collapsed. The noise sounded again, closer this time. Then it sounded again, only first punctuated by the words "Baksuai Tenketsu!!!"

The wall of the room collapsed, revealing Max, Stella, Brandon and the others. "Oh no!!" exclaimed Stella as she took in the scene, "We're too late!!"

"The hell we are!!!" shouted Max. He rushed forward to the glass cube. Summoning up all his Meta-Human strength, he pulled back his left arm and punched through the glass, shattering one whole side of the cube. Water gushed out of the tank, carrying Bloom with it.

Max checked her vitals signs as the water cleared. "She's not breathing!!" he shouted, "I can't feel her pulse!!"

Aaron rushed forward to administer CPR, but Shampoo got to Bloom first.

"Bloom no die on Shampoo!!" shouted the purple haired Amazon as she started compressing Bloom's chest in order to force her heart to start beating again, "Shampoo no let honored friend die!!" She then forced a lungful of air, then another into Bloom's lungs in order to get Bloom to start breathing.

The next 56 seconds seemed to pass very slowly as Shampoo tried to save Bloom. Suddenly, when it seemed hopeless, Bloom started coughing up water. Shampoo rolled Bloom onto her stomach so Bloom could get all the water out of her lungs.

"Honored friend okay?" asked Shampoo once Bloom stopped coughing.

"I am now," said Bloom weakly, "I guess this makes us even."

"BLOOM!!" shouted Sky. He rushed forwarded and embraced her, "Bloom, I thought I'd lost you for good."

"You'll never lose me," said Bloom, "I knew you'd find me, I never gave up hope, not even for a second."

"Oh just kiss already!" exclaimed Steve, "We all know you want to."

"For once, Steve, you're actually making sense," said Virgil, while Bloom and Sky kissed. The tender minute didn't last long.

"Max!!" exclaimed Flora, "Your arm!!" Indeed Max's left arm from his fingers to his elbow was covered in cuts and had small bits of glass stuck in it. Yet there was very little bleeding.

"Oh, that," said Max as he looked at his arm, "I didn't noticed, I was so hyped up on saving Bloom."

"Time to go to work," said Aaron. He began removing the glass pieces from Max's arm and cleaned the cuts. Before he was done cleaning the cuts, they were already beginning to heal.

"Amazing!" said Timmy, "I did not know he could heal this quickly. It must be his Meta-Human genes."

"Gee," said Morgan, "It must be obvious day at Camp Stupid!"

Elise, meanwhile, was looking at Max with a mixture of awe and fear. "This may sound a little weird, Max Kildare," she said, "But you wouldn't happen to have a falcon shaped birthmark anywhere on your body, would you?"

"A birthmark?" asked Max, "None that I know of."

"Oh he hasn't any birthmarks," said Aaron as he cleaned the last cut, right before it healed on it's own, "I should know, I've examined him enough times to be sure. Nobody on the team has any such birthmarks."

"Why do you want to know?" asked Tecna.

"It's not important," said Elise. She then whispered to Tecna, "I'll explain later."

Just then Sally-Ann's voice came over the com-link, "I've reached the control room. There are holographic displays of the whole complex, but no sign of Diaspro."

"Spread out," said Max, "Search the whole place. We can't allow that psychopath to escape."

Flora, Helia, Layla, Timmy, Tecna, Ryoga, with Shawn, Tyler, Aaron and Virgil, escorted Bloom and Sky back to the surface, while Max, Andrew, Stella, Brandon and the others continued search for Diaspro.

The end of chapter 10. Next chapter somebody catches up with Diaspro. Who will it be? Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!