Wow, this chapter snuck up on me! The first two big battles I had been planning happened to fall in the same chapter (though I tried to get them not to). Please enjoy!
It was show time. Toby and Zeo put on all black to blend with the shades and even had black hats to hide their hair, which was especially necessary for Toby, whose light hair would stand out in stark contrast to the blackish purple color of a shade. Pulling their gloves on, the two friends headed to the building's front entrance, where a similarly dressed Jack met them. He opened the door with a grin, and the three of them dispersed throughout the area, following the nearest shades.
For a long while, none of them saw anything out of the ordinary. Then the two friends heard Jack's voice speaking through their earpieces. "Yo! My group of shades and I are following a Crimson Flash all right. Status report?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing. Oh wait!" That was Zeo. "Some sort of giant just appeared out of thin air in front of us. It's too dark to make out any features, but the shades and I are hot on its heels!"
Silence reigned for a long while. Then Toby spoke. "There's someone running down the street. It looks like they have a shield of… water? That must be their power!" He raced along with the shades after the runner.
His group soon met up with Zeo and Jack's and milled around. The shades were lunging for the ones they had been chasing, but the Crimson Flash had vanished along with the giant, while the Crimson Flash had vanished along with the giant, while the shades battered at but could not get through the shield-person's defenses. A final group of shades arrived, driven along by surging lava which seemed to be directed by the person running in back of them. The lava crusted and cooled at the command of whoever it was. Toby could see the person make their escape into an abandoned building nearby.
As he made this observation, the ground split beneath them all and they began to fall. Quickly, he jerked himself, Zeo and Jack to a halt and raised them back up to level ground with a few shades he was able to save as well. Just in the nick of time too: the earth shuddered and closed up, causing the multitude of shades to vanish back to the black sun. Toby placed those he had saved back on the ground.
"I don't get it. Shades can fly now?" a clearly female voice spoke from behind the water shield.
"Look closer. Those aren't shades. They must be the people I heard Pluto talking about on the phone a few days ago." This voice came from near the water-shield girl. Jack could just barely make out a smaller figure next to her.
"So you know about us, huh?" Jack smirked. "Too bad the lot of you criminals will have to be apprehended and brought to justice." He turned to Toby and Zeo. "Ready yourselves. Oof!"
Jack went flying backward as a red light flickered in front of him too fast for his eye to track. Zeo pulled a few iron bearings out of his pack and sent them shooting toward the dark figure only a few feet from him with his magnetic powers.
Somehow he missed. In a flash of red, the figure was suddenly yards away, standing by another larger figure, who spoke. "You there, how can you work for the one who destroyed our world?"
Jack spat at the ground, standing up. "Don't think about doing that again," he said, pointedly ignoring the question posed. "Or you'll only injure yourself."
"You dare threaten us?" the smaller figure spoke up, the one who was the Crimson Flash. "We outnumber you five to three."
Sure enough, Zeo noted. The shades Toby had managed to save had already been taken out by the lava guy. The eerie glow of molten metal was all that remained of the abandoned building he had ducked into, and the shades trying to get at him had been crisped back to the black sun.
"It's just the three of us, are you sure we can take them Jack?" asked Toby.
"Don't panic newbies," he replied. "Pluto's choppers have just lifted off and will be here in a few minutes. We only have to hold them off until the reinforcements arrive." The slight light from the few stars left in the sky glinted off Jack's exposed skin. He had called upon his power.
"Quick, you heard them!" the Crimson Flash called to his comrades. In an instant, he was at Jack's side launching a roundhouse kick into his stomach.
Clang! The Crimson Flash howled with pain. "This guy is steel, watch out!"
Water girl started advancing, shields raised, with lava guy and the bigger guy behind her. The short guy suddenly turned into a giant and lumbered forward, raising a foot to crush the three of them. Toby tripped him up with a burst of telekinesis and the giant fell, crushing several buildings on the way down. Zeo fired iron spheres at the girl at high speeds with his powers.
"Ouch!" her shields splashed apart, but the spheres only bruised her slightly. "He cancelled out my power!"
While she and her two companions tried to figure out what had just happened, Zeo imposed his will on the steel building frames of the towers the giant – who had disappeared – had knocked over. The bars bent, twisted, and formed a cage trapping the three of them inside. "Hey!" the girl yelled.
Zeo ignored her and turned to face the remaining one. The Crimson Flash appeared to have recovered from kicking Jack and was now dodging and weaving the former Starbreaker member's attacks with all the ease that his superspeed granted him. Still, he couldn't attack and risk disabling himself for good this time. "Aguma!" he shouted. "Lend a hand, would you?"
Toby and Zeo froze. Aguma. One of the Legendary Bladers.
"Melt the bars, Dashan! Bao needs me," one of the three in the cage, who was obviously Aguma, roared. He clearly had superstrength, as he was deforming the steel bars with his bare hands, but it wasn't enough to grant the three trapped inside an escape route.
So Zeo had been right. The Chinese team was here, but with Bao and Aguma as well.
The first of Pluto's helicopters chose that moment to show up. "Raise your arms and surrender," a magnified voice came down as its light shone on Dashan, Mei-Mei, Aguma and Bao. Before anyone could answer, giant Chi-yun showed up and grabbed the helicopter in one fist, tossing it to the ground like it was a play toy before shrinking back to normal size.
Dashan glared at the three facing him as the cage he, Mei-Mei and Aguma had been stuck in still glowed red-hot behind him. "So they sent the former Starbreaker team after us," he said. "Zeo, Toby, I thought you fought at the side of the Legendary Bladers! What happened?"
Jack laughed. "The Legendary Bladers are done for. They lost. The path to freedom lies in embracing the new world order."
"I find it interesting that you answered a question not meant for you, Jack," Bao said. "Zeo and Toby can speak for themselves."
"Yeah yeah," Jack kept talking. "Whatever. You guys aren't that strong."
The earth opened up under him. "Toby, quick!" he gasped out, clinging to one side of the cliff he now hung over.
Toby made no move to save Jack, though. "It's not like we wanted Nemesis to take over. We were simply living our lives normally until Herschel took us in and taught us about our powers. We chose what was best for us at the time; going with the flow."
Aguma nodded, closing the earth around Jack, trapping him.
"Hah! You won't be able to crush me! My whole body is steel!" the former Befall blader cackled madly. "Toby, Zeo, help me out and together we can turn these five into a great work of art! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Zeo frowned. "Our time working with Nemesis is at an end," he told Jack. Then he turned to Aguma. "Quickly, we need to leave before the rest of Pluto's helicopters get here."
Mei-Mei gasped. "Chao Xin! He's still back at the house!"
"I can collect him," Bao offered. "Where should we meet up?"
"The northeast side of town," Dashan decided. "I have a plan for where we will go."
Bao left in his usual flash of light. "Come on," Chi-yun told Toby and Zeo. "I'll lead the way. Are you coming Aguma and Dashan?"
"Finish him off, Dashan. He may be steel, but even steel melts under extreme heat," Aguma told the leader of Wang Hu Zhong.
Jack blanched. "What!? No! You can't kill meeeeee!"
"No," Dashan stated firmly. "Let's hurry to the rendezvous point. I will not kill a helpless enemy."
"Helpless? We'll see who's helpless once Damian gets here!" Jack spat as Aguma and Dashan jogged off with Toby and Zeo to catch up to Mei-Mei and Chi-yun.
"Is Damian really coming?" Dashan asked.
"Nope. He's still back in the US," Toby replied with certainty.
"And so is Masamune," Zeo said. "Toby, what have we done?" He had, after all, strictly warned Masamune to stay in line. And if he had disregarded his own advice, how much more would their friend?
"Chill Zeo. I'm sure Masamune is doing just fine, probably chatting with King as we speak," Toby reassured him.
"I sure hope you're right," Zeo replied as the sky behind them lit up with choppers which had come just a few minutes too late.
xXxXx
It was a clear day, great weather for flying, Julian mused, putting the plane on autopilot so he could sit in the comfy seats in the middle of the plane with Sophie, Wales and Klaus. He brought out his personal laptop dedicated to Project Galahad and hooked up a small black box with a USB cable to it.
"The project is almost complete, I take it," Wales said, looking over.
"Indeed," Julian replied. "I should be able to initiate it after our retrieval of King. It would be a great opportunity to share our success with the other bladers with powers around the world. I have a feeling the endgame will be coming soon."
Having said that, the former Excalibur members settled in for the long ride to Boston, Massachusetts.
xXx
"So he just talked to you, that's it?" Masamune had been certain King was about to be viciously attacked by Damian and told to join Nemesis again or die.
"Yes." King was puzzled too. "Should I go along willingly? It sounds like I would end up no worse than you and him: glorified bodyguards for him and his siblings."
"Only you can make that call King," Masamune told him. "Let's talk about something else. This is depressing."
"Yeah! Remember when you introduced me to Team Dungeon?" King asked. "Those were the days…"
"Of course!" Masamune grinned. "You learned that being super strong isn't bad when you have tough opponents to battle. Like me! The world's best number one bla-"
EEERRR! EEERRR! What in the world? Why was that alarm going off?
xXx
Julian guided the private jet down in a field on the outskirts of Boston. Sophie's intel pinpointed King being held directly inside Cycnus' headquarters, which inconveniently for them were located in the middle of the city. The plan was simple: Sophie, Wales and Klaus would go in, fight off anyone guarding King, and spirit him back to the jet, which Julian would then fly them all away in. There would be plenty of material for the three to put to good use with their powers within the city. Still, Julian would be on call if necessary.
The former leader of Excalibur punched the buttons on the consul to program the takeoff of the plane. If Sophie, Wales or Klaus needed to fly the plane, they could now do so. Julian took a seat back in the main passenger hold and set upon finishing up Project Galahad.
Meanwhile, the other three former Excalibur members snuck through the city, as stealthy as possible. An attack in broad daylight would mean few shades if any would be lurking, but it gave Cycnus' men a more visible target, that was for sure. Still, as a group it had been decided that daylight would be better. Then they could see better too.
"That must be it." Wales pointed to a fancy-looking building that had guards stationed around its perimeter.
"It looks like the place I saw in my investigations online," reported Sophie.
"What are we waiting for? Let's break in!" Klaus leapt from their hiding place, grabbing a steel beam from a pile of rubble at their feet and rushed at the guards with a yell.
Sophie and Wales shared an exasperated look, but ran after Klaus. They couldn't leave him out there all alone, after all. The guards jumped to attention and yelled "Let it rip!" At least twenty beys swarmed toward Klaus. He swept his steel beam across the ground, knocking the beys away and continuing on toward the guards themselves. The guards fell before Klaus' superstrength, opening the way to the front door of the building.
"Go in!" Klaus roared as he continued to battle the guards. "I can handle these chumps."
Sophie and Wales didn't need to be told twice. They raced in the door and down the steps in front of them. A dungeon would be in the basement, one would think. As they reached a door at the bottom, an alarm sounded, but only twice. Why only twice? There was no time to question it. The Cetus duo opened the door, which wasn't even locked, and saw Masamune standing with his hands over his ears and a similarly positioned King inside a glass box, which was like a room inside a room.
"Aah! Excalibur!" Masamune started running circles around the room at impossibly fast speeds.
"King! Is Masamune trying to get you out?" Sophie asked. Perhaps the former Gan Gan Galaxy member had triggered an alarm.
"No." King looked confused. "Masamune is guarding me." He looked at the panicking teen. "And doing a great job," he added drily.
"We don't have time for this nonsense. Sophie?" Wales raised an arm. Sophie copied. Water flowed from the sinks in the other room down the stairs and onto the floor. The two then froze it so Masamune slipped.
"Ow," he complained.
"Listen up. We're breaking King out, and if you get in our way you're going down," barked Wales.
Masamune stood up. "Okay. How do we break him out?"
Well that was easier than expected, thought Sophie. "Try kicking the glass at superspeed. King, try to bust out from the inside at the same spot. The two nodded. "On three," King said, sword and shield of Ares in hand. "One, two, three!" He banged the electrified shield into the glass at the same time Masamune side-kicked it. The glass cracked, spider-webbing, but did not shatter.
"I'll take it from here." Sophie directed some water into the cracks and froze it, shattering the glass. King gingerly stepped out of the box, free at last. "Now who triggered that alarm if it wasn't Masamune? And why did it only go off twice?"
"One of the guards must have set it off. You must have attacked them to break in here, right?" Masamune asked. He then continued. "That's the big alarm. I know it because it's the same one Herschel told us he would set off if he ever needed me, Zeo and Toby." He suddenly blanched. "This is not good at all. We should hurry out the back exit right now. I'll lead the way."
"No. Klaus is up there keeping the guards off our tails. We've got to go out the front. We can handle the extra guards that alarm called in," Wales insisted. Sophie nodded in agreement.
"Guard," Masamune corrected.
"Only one?" Sophie was confused.
"It's Damian. If he's up there, Klaus will need all the help he can get." Masamune followed the Cetus pair up the stairs, telling them what he knew. "I've seen him summon up a three-headed dog that he calls Cerberus with only a gesture. And Herschel told us he repaired the Empire State Building after it got shot up. He's super powerful!"
"Well, maybe Klaus got him with a beam," Wales said hopefully. The group charged into daylight and found Klaus unconscious on the ground with what looked like claw marks all over him.
"We're too late," Masamune groaned. "But we can still save ourselves. Follow my lead."
"Not so fast Masamune Kadoya." For someone so short, Damian sure casts a long shadow, the former Striker blader thought. Oh wait, that was because he was standing on a balcony above them all.
If he's really that powerful, we should call in Julian for backup, thought Sophie. She reached in her pocket and tapped a button on her phone, speed dialing their leader that there was an emergency.
"Go get Klaus, we'll hold him off as long as we can," King told Sophie and Wales. He charged Damian with a battle cry, sword of Ares raised in front of him.
The former Starbreaker member merely smirked. "You're not worth my time, even if you were a Legendary Blader."
Ten guards stormed out the front door of the building, armed not with beys but guns. "Masamune! Get behind me!" King stopped the bullets with Ares' shield, protecting Masamune, the Cetus pair and the unconscious Klaus as well. While they were safe behind King, Sophie and Wales made small motions with their hands and poured water out of the earth and plumbing systems, washing away the guards and rendering their weapons useless.
Damian saw it coming and raised a hand, creating a wall of fire and evaporating the part of the wave coming for him. "Hmm… It seems Argo doesn't really care if he gets you back dead or alive if those guys were using guns," Damian told King. Then he shrugged. "Or maybe Cycnus isn't flying by the rules."
The Cetus pair recovered from their shock. Since they only fought shades, whom their powers worked against one hundred percent of the time, having their water diverted was a surprise. Still, Masamune had warned them, and Julian would be there soon. They each took one of Klaus' arms over their shoulders and half-dragged him down the street.
"Where do you think you're going?" Damian drawled, waving a hand and walking down stairs of flames until he was at the same level as them all. "I cannot simply allow you to escape, even if I don't think much of you." He let out a long sigh and waved one hand. His favorite pet, Cerberus, appeared crouched and growling before the two former Excalibur members.
Sophie and Wales dropped Klaus and tossed up a wall of water to defend themselves from the three-headed dog's fiery breath. The two powers cancelled each other out in a cloud of steam.
"King! I'll go after Damian directly, you take on that fire dog!" Masamune yelled.
King leapt for Cerberus, blocking its claws with his shield and drawing a long gash down its leg with his charged sword. Cerberus' three heads bombarded him with flames, and he crouched behind his shield, sweating. The attack didn't stop though. It just kept coming. What was Masamune doing?
King glanced over, keeping a tight grip on his shield, and saw his friend was in trouble. Damian had created himself a fiery bow that shot flaming arrows, and it took all of Masamune's superspeed to dodge both them and the jets of lava that shot up randomly from the ground all around Damian.
Thankfully, the Cetus pair made their move, swamping Cerberus with water and freeing King to attack again. Unfortunately, Cerberus just used the same strategy, trapping King yet again. This time, Sophie and Wales were busy helping Masamune by covering the ground with a thin layer of water to stop the lava jets. Damian simply raised a hand and a slight pedestal rose beneath him, keeping his feet dry. His bow and arrows vanished and he spread his arms wide, sending flames to dry the water and stepping off his platform with a laugh.
With another gesture, three more three-headed dogs appeared. "Now there's one for each of you. Three times the fun!"
Sophie, Wales and Masamune grit their teeth as the former two put up a thick wall of water to protect them. As the steam grew thicker, they grew more desperate. "We need a plan now!" Wales hissed.
Masamune looked around with wide eyes. King was still sheltering behind his shield and the three of them were trapped. "I knew he was strong, but this is too much! We need to leave now! Can you keep the water up and move Klaus at the same time?"
"Yes. The wall requires motion to set up, but once in place we can hold it with our minds," Sophie said.
"Okay. Let's do this." Masamune zipped over to Klaus and tried to pull him up. Wales helped him and together they began tottering away. Sophie washed over the Cerberus King was fighting and dragged him upright, telling him to run. Then, everything went wrong.
The wall of water collapsed under the sheer force of Damian's fire attack. The three Cerberuses bounded after their prey, followed by the fourth as it shook water from its fur. One pinned Sophie to the ground with a single paw.
"Give up or she dies!" Damian waved a hand and the other three giant dogs vanished.
"No! Sophie!" cried Wales. King and Masamune stood in shock.
"Black Excalibur!" A giant blade pierced Cerberus straight through and it roared as it disintegrated.
"What?!" Damian could hardly believe it. "Oh, you have backup. Good. This will make our fight more interesting." He spread his arms to summon his favorite pet and some more fire, only to be suddenly stuck in place.
"Julian!" Sophie and Wales shouted.
"You two get Klaus back to the jet. I have it preprogrammed to take off and fly us back to my villa. I'll hold him off." Julian had a red aura around him. "King, attack him while I hold him in place with the Eyes of Medusa!"
Kind didn't need to be told twice. He ran at Damian, sword of Ares held high.
"No!" Damian shrieked, frozen as King approached. Then his usual smirk reappeared. "Just kidding."
A solid wall shot up from the ground in front of King. The Greek never saw it coming and smashed right into it with a solid thud.
"King!" Masamune sprinted over, shaking his friend, but King was out cold.
The wall slowly sunk back into the ground. "You fools! Freezing me in place will do nothing. My power lies solely in my imagination, and you can never freeze that!"
Julian's red aura dissipated. "Masamune, take King to the jet. I'll slowly back my way there. Then I need you to run circles around Damian and catch the plane right before it takes off, you got that?"
"Yes sir!" Masamune flung King over one shoulder, thanking the stars that Herschel's special training had made him more physically fit than ever before, and ran as fast as he could to the jet, getting there at the same time as the Excalibur three.
He told them the plan, and as they watched, sure enough, Julian appeared on the horizon, cleaving into the skeletal warriors that Damian had created with his Black Excalibur sword.
The former member of Starbreaker laughed as he steadily advanced. It was good fortune that he had not heard the plan Julian told quietly to Masamune earlier. "You're retreating. What? Are you scared to fight me? You know you can't defeat me."
Julian didn't bother to reply. He simply parried and thrusted, his heavenly sword ripping through the enemies like a hot knife through butter. Damian simply replaced those fallen with more. No, if they were going to win, they somehow, impossibly needed to get through Damian's defenses. However, they did not need to win. Julian only needed to come a little further; the plane was now in sight.
Cerberus suddenly appeared underneath Damian. "Finish him!" the teen called out from his seat on the dog's back. This was the greatest battle he'd fought to date!
Julian leapt out of the way of the three heads' snarling attack, but got caught in the inferno they sent after him the second he dodged. He lunged to the side so that the fire only scorched his legs, but the wounds were terrible. He collapsed to the ground. Wales and Sophie rushed over, having delivered Klaus to a seat on the plane. "Julian!"
Masamune rushed in and tried to run at Damian to super-punch him, but every angle he tried, he kept getting blocked by walls. Damian continued to stand in place and laugh as the former Striker blader tried to get at him.
Meanwhile, Sophie and Wales lay Julian safely inside the plane. "Window," he gasped to them. They sat him by a window and he looked out, glowing red once again.
"Come on Masamune!" Wales yelled, leaning out the door of the now moving jet. It was picking up speed.
Masamune poured on the speed, catching up to the jet. Damian howled and continued to block his path with walls, but now that he was so far away and unable to move, his powers were not as effective, and Masamune dodged all the roadblocks. He caught Wales' hand just as the jet lifted off and was flung inside as Wales slammed the door behind him.
"Whew, that was a close one." Masamune glanced over at Julian, whose red glow slowly faded as he relaxed his grip on Damian and let out a shuddering breath.
"Sophie, Wales," he whispered. The two leaned in to hear what their injured leader had to say. "Project Galahad is… complete. But it must not… be activated."
"What? But how else are we to find the rest of the strong former bladers and band them together to fight Nemesis?" asked Sophie. She knew how many long hours Julian had put into the project as well as anyone.
"As long as there are… former bladers like Damian," Julian gasped out through the pain, "we cannot… risk it. If the heavens… want us to fight Nemesis… they will have to give us a sign."
With that, Julian Konzern allowed himself to succumb to the darkness awaiting him as the jet flew off, back to his villa in Italy.
Stay tuned to find out what happens next! Chapter 11 features Kyoya and Nile's progress in training Gingka, Tsubasa and the others.