I'm so sorry it took me so long to put this out, but I had a bad case of writers block, but hopefully this will make up for the long delay. I promise the next one will be longer.
"What were you thinking you were going to do, Joseph?" Jack growled as he began circling left, Joseph mirroring him. Joseph didn't reply, but kept circling. Suddenly, he darted forward and tried to punch Jack, only for the Guardian to dodge him. "I didn't catch that," Jack said sarcastically. "Could you repeat that for me?!" He shouted as he threw a punch of his own, only for Joseph to grab it and use the momentum to throw the Guardian over his shoulder.
'I said, try to anticipate your opponent's next move before it happens,' Joseph thought as he charged forward. As soon as he landed, Jack tried to kick Joseph in the gut, only for the corrupted Guardian to grab his foot and shove it back toward him, causing him to lose his footing for a moment. That was long enough for the corrupted Guardian to launch a kick of his own, knocking Jack to the ground. 'You done yet?' Joseph wondered as he walked forward.
Jack slowly rose to his feet, chuckling softly. "You've just been outmaneuvered, my friend," he said as his suit began glowing a bright blue. "I've got something special for you. SUPER DRAIN!" He shouted as his suit glowed even brighter, and Joseph's suit grew dim. It appeared as though purple energy was flowing from Joseph to Jack.
Ash and Ish were shocked. 'Is this the contingency plan that my mom mentioned?' Ish wondered as he saw the energy draining from Joseph.
Suddenly, Jack's suit began radiating purplish sparks. "Jack, shut it down!" Ash shouted. "Your suit can't handle that much power! Besides, that could kill Joseph, and that's the last thing we want!"
Jack shook his head, grimacing behind the helmet. "You think I care about that?! The last thing we need is for Wild Card to-" He never finished his statement, as his suit overloaded and exploded, blanketing the room in smoke. Suddenly, there was the sound of a flight-app activating, and Ash and Ish could only watch as Joseph flew away. 'We shall meet again, I'm certain of it,' the corrupted Guardian thought as he made his escape. 'The duels determine superiority, but only for a moment. Battles will continue, so long as the light still shines in the eyes of the defeated.'
Unaware to the battle that had just transpired at the HOK, the remaining rookie Guardians could be found just wrapping up a battle with the last of Wild Card's Blitz Botz that had attacked the 'Safe Zone.'
"That's the last of them." Jessica said as she removed the remains of a Blitz Bot from her hard-light sword.
"Good, let's get back to the HOK." Dean ordered, which got head nods of agreements from his teammates. They where about to activate their flight-app and take flight when their NFL-R's started beeping with in incoming message.
"Guardians, the Hall Of Knowledge has been badly damaged, Ish, Ash and Jack are all injured." RZ informed them all.
"We are on our way, ETA fifteen minutes." Dean informed his leader.
"Be aware that Joseph escaped and might be headed in that direction–" RZ never got to finish due to the communication line going dead as a very familiar purple and black armored Guardian made a very shaky landing in front of them, and staggered for a few moments before taking up a combat stance.
"Your outnumbered Joseph, you might as well surrender!" Kristie snarled as she and her fellow Guardians all took up combat stances, but to their surprise, Joseph dropped to both of his knees suddenly.
"Is it me or does he seem–" Aaron was cut off by Layla speaking up.
"Weak?" Layla finished as she pulled up a reading on her HUD inside her armors helmet and began analyzing her enemy, and what she saw honestly surprised her. "Guys, his energy levels are not off the charts anymore, he seems almost... normal." Layla said as the others rushed forward and formed a circle around Joseph.
"Don't let your guard down guys, remember a venomous snake can still bite you." Kristie said wisely as she walked up to Joseph and put his hands behind his back, activated her hard-light lasso, and tied up his hands.
"Your coming back to the HOK with us." Dean hissed as he and Aaron grabbed Joseph's arms and took flight, the others following behind them.
Edited by Darkest Nightmare's Dread