LADIES & GENTS! HERE IS THE BATTLE: PART 1! This is going to be one crazy chapter, I assure you; so please hold on to your capes and hold on tight! ;D
By the way, this chapter and the next one will be MUCH longer than my chapters usually are ;) Happy early birthdays, my friends Haha :) Anyway, to The Battle!
Chapter 38: The Battle Part 1
In the back of the Incrediplane, Phantom paced non-stop as they flew to the center of the city. Elastigirl was driving, keeping a moderate height so as to not seem too suspicious, but she knew they were more than likely going to be spotted anyway.
The Incredibles' and Phantom's teams were both on board along with Frozone, each person a little antsy to get going. Bolt watched the sidewalks go by down below; he could see the robotic army shooting freely, causing glass to shatter, cars' alarms to honk and ultimately, citizens to start screaming. The city government had told people to hunker down in buildings for safety, but that didn't mean they would be safe there.
Unable to watch anymore, Bolt turned and walked to Elastigirl in the cockpit, "How much longer?"
"Three minutes; we're almost there, don't worry. I'm just as eager to get down there as you are." Elastigirl replied, chewing on the inside of her cheek.
Bolt turned with a small sigh and watched Phantom for a few minutes. He kept clenching his fists in an effort to stay focused and calm, but he looked a lot more than ready to get going as well. He wasn't the only one who looked nervous; nobody here besides the Incredibles and Frozone had really fought any battles this dangerous before. And even they looked nervous.
Mr. Incredible finally stood from his chair near his wife and spoke, "Phantom, what's your plan?"
His future son-in-law furrowed his brows, "Stop Magnum?"
"Well yes; what do you plan on doing once you get down there?"
Phantom slowly exhaled, looking out the window in thought, taking notice of Robinson Industries a few blocks away. After nearly a minute, he replied, "Honestly I don't know." After a few seconds silence, he added, "We have to keep him away from large power sources. If he gets stronger…" he trailed off.
"You can do this. You have just as much power as he does." Invisigirl reasoned from a few feet behind him.
Before Phantom could reply, something caught his eye on the road below. "Elastigirl, slow down!" he ordered, trying to see better. She obeyed, slowing the plane just enough for him to see what had grasped his attention. A few others ran to the window and looked down with him to see as well.
Phantom tensed, "There he is."
"Honey, take us down." Mr. Incredible ordered. Elastigirl immediately drove a block further and started to land as he gave a few more orders, "Alright guys, this is it. Magnum is Phantom's; everyone else, keep an eye out for the other two villains and help Phantom get to his target. Alright?" Everyone nodded in agreement.
Elastigirl landed the plane smoothly and lowered the hatch. She got up and ran out with the others, pushing a button on her homing device as soon as her feet hit the asphalt; the aircraft immediately took off and flew away on auto-pilot as soon as the last person was unloaded.
Phantom looked ahead of him, seeing Magnum about two hundred yards away; he was walking at a leisurely pace with a calm but sinister smile on his face. Clearly he thought he was going to win this.
Bolt stood beside his friend, also watching the enemy, but asked, "Do we move forward?"
Phantom was about to answer when a string of bullets were shot from a crossroad to their right. Everyone immediately hit the deck, phased through or blocked the bullets with a force field. They quickly rebounded and started shooting fireballs, ice pellets and beams of electricity at the robots bearing upon them.
The supers ran into the madness before them, taking out as many robots as they could. Mr. Incredible hefted robots by threes over his shoulder and threw them into others, causing a long chain reaction in which many robots were sent tumbling to the ground. Their heavy armor prevented much damage however, so they quickly stood up and continued firing.
Elastigirl, Speedo and Frozone each did their own particular maneuvers on the robots quickly surrounding them, but had no initial problems taking the machinery out. Even Phantom's team members weren't having much problem. But Phantom was.
The second the robots saw Phantom, alarms went off in their systems, alerting them to kill him at once. No matter how many the other supers took out, more and more robots seemed to appear on the street, some climbing out of and around buildings, out of alleyways, and down the street. All while this was taking place, Magnum was still drawing closer and closer to Phantom's direct line of fire.
Phantom blasted off the head of one robot when he took notice of exactly how close Magnum was getting. He phased through the robots bearing down on him while Bolt and Cynder took them out, preventing them from following him. He stopped at the edge of the fight to face his enemy, now standing a mere hundred yards away.
"Why isn't he moving?" Phantom thought to himself.
A snobby voice suddenly entered his head, dropping him a hint, "Look around, genius. You said yourself that you need to keep him away from high energy sources."
Psych. Phantom rolled his eyes, hating that she could read his mind. As he started to work up a charge in his hand, what she said actually clicked. "High energy sources…" he whispered and took in his surroundings.
There, standing tall between him and his enemy was Robinson Industries. Phantom's eyes widened and his head snapped back to Magnum, whose evil grin was easily discernible even through the mayhem. Phantom knew what he had to do, and thankfully the person that could help him was inside.
Phantom turned and sprinted as fast as he could to his father's company. Robots continued shooting at him, sending bullets flying toward him a mile a minute. He phased through them as best he could, but one did knick him in the arm pretty good. He ignored the pain searing through his bicep and ran harder, halfway to the door.
Magnum growled into his microphone, "Get him!"
Bolt and the others also took note, Mr. Incredible screaming, "Block him! Block him!"
A few robots leaped from the rooftops and landed in Phantom's way, distracting him momentarily. He kept running and suddenly heard Cynder yell, "Keep going!"
Phantom slid on his back through one of the robot's legs, phasing through the asphalt and using his laser vision to slice it in half on the way through. Just before he phased through the wall of R.I., he heard Cynder and Titan take out the remaining two robots.
Gasps of shock and cries of exclamation took over the lobby when he appeared, panting hard and fast. But he couldn't stop. He stood and jogged through the crowd, yelling, "Cornelius! Cornelius Robinson!"
Finally, his father yelled back, "Yes!" The blonde came running through the crowd, Franny on his heels in fear. The crowd moved out of the way for both parties immediately.
Phantom ordered, "We have to turn off all the power sources here. If Magnum gets a hold of it-"
Cornelius didn't wait for more, turning and jogging to his colleagues, "Turn off the main boosters! Now!"
A few scientists all ran as fast as they could down a hallway, Cornelius being left with a walkie-talkie to communicate. As soon as they left, Phantom could hear the ringing in his ears begin and his eyes began to glow; Magnum was starting to draw out the power!
"Tell them to hurry up!" Phantom cried, running to the nearest window. He gingerly peeked out, but barely moved back in time in order to miss getting his head blown off. A massive fireball smashed through the glass and landed in front of the people, eliciting screams.
"Get back!" Phantom screamed above the terror as he formed a fireball of his own. Moving in front of the hole, he launched it out to a pack of robots advancing toward the door. He turned away in time to hear them explode to bits and ran back to a frazzled Cornelius.
Before he could ask questions, the lights began flickering above them. Phantom looked up with a worried expression, demanding, "Turn that thing off!"
"I'm trying!" Cornelius shouted. "Get it turned off NOW!"
The man with the walkie-talkie on the other end suddenly exclaimed, "Sir, we've found some rubber gloves to try and pull the switch, but with the high voltage-"
Phantom snatched the device and yelled, "DO IT NOW!"
Desperate scrambling could be heard on the other end and Phantom watched the lights flicker violently above their heads. A high voltage ring was suddenly heard and Phantom knew from experience what was going to happen next.
"Get down!" He yelled just before the light fixtures all blew out, sending sparks everywhere. People hit the deck left and right, but not before a massive purple force field appeared above them, shielding them all from the debris and high voltage. Just as Phantom shot a small smile at his fiancée, the power shut completely off, leaving them in darkness.
Phantom stood and grasped Cornelius's arm, "Get everyone farther into this building; these walls and glass windows are too thin for you to be here in the lobby."
Before Cornelius could argue, Invisigirl joined them, "He's right; I know you want to be nearby to watch, but this is serious. You have to go with everyone farther in."
Cornelius sighed and nodded. Suddenly he remembered the security cameras outside. He smiled, "We'll watch from the cameras."
"I prefer you didn't." Phantom muttered, taking a glance at the silhouetted explosions outside.
Invisigirl smiled and turned to the door, "It'll be fine; let's go."
"Wait!" Franny suddenly appeared and wrapped a cloth tightly around Phantom's upper arm where the bullet had hit him.
"Oh ma'am, you don't have to do that." Phantom shook his head in regret.
Franny tied it tightly and smiled, "I know; but after what you're about to do, you can't be laden down with minor stuff."
Phantom smiled a little, "Alright, thanks Franny." He turned and walked quickly with Invisigirl to the window with a small sigh; he almost slipped and said mom. Turning back to the people, he said, "Alright, everybody get out of here; this is going to get a lot more hectic." People nodded, Robinsons included, and they all quickly left the lobby.
Invisigirl went invisible and looked out the window, "You ready?"
"To find out how you got in here? Yes." Phantom smiled.
Invisigirl showed herself and smiled at him, "I have my ways. Now seriously, come on; we've got to stop him."
Phantom nodded, wrapped an arm around her waist and phased her with him through the wall. When they got outside, they could tell Magnum was quite angered at losing his main power source. All the supers were dispersed across the street, still fighting the robots fiercely. Overall, the battle didn't seem in anyone's favor just yet.
Before Phantom could say anything to Invisigirl, he suddenly felt cold and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He gasped and reflexively tackled Invisigirl to the ground just as Magnum's bolt flew over their heads.
Invisigirl disappeared and stood with him; Magnum was eyeing Phantom hungrily, already balling up his fists in a fury of sparks. They were now standing about thirty feet apart; not very far for the speed in which Magnum could send his beams.
Magnum suddenly jerked his hand forward, sending a massive beam straight at Phantom. Phantom wanted to dodge it with every ounce of his being, but he threw both his arms forward and caught it in an orb.
The orb quickly grew, but as Magnum added more power to it, it became harder to control. Phantom gritted his teeth and shoved it right toward Magnum. It flew toward the villain, but he easily dodged it and threw another beam.
This one Phantom dodged, but he knew he couldn't keep dodging. He had to do this.
He flicked his hands down, engulfing them in tongues of fire. Letting them grow, he looked at the car that was near Magnum; if he could hit the gas tank, it would surely throw him off. Just as he was about to send a basketball sized orb toward the car, four robots suddenly bore down on him.
Phantom jumped out of their way and chucked his two orbs at them, half of them blowing halfway across the street on impact. The other two he dodged, slicing one in half with his laser vision and ripping the last one's functioning cords out of its operation pack on its back.
As the robot fell, Phantom suddenly heard a torrent of electricity behind him and realized his error; he had no time to move and phasing was out. Magnum's beam hit him right on his back and he flew forward; he managed to phase through the asphalt and through the debris, but he immediately doubled over in pain.
Hissing at the all too familiar burns on his back, he stood and faced Magnum again. He was surprised to see him actually having a calm conversation with Jumper; he was too far away to hear anything though.
"I could take you to another building with large energy sources." Jumper was saying.
Magnum paused, looking around but keeping an eye on Phantom. Then his eye caught something and he smirked evilly, "No. I'll be just fine."
Phantom watched in confusion as Magnum directed a beam right at Bolt. It hit the ground in front of the super, so he tumbled to the ground; popping back up, he stared at the villain in confusion. But he faced him proudly when Magnum launched a massive beam straight at him.
Bolt caught the beam in his hands, feeling the intense heat from the high voltage. Phantom watched on, not sure what was happening. Bolt tried to form an electric orb with the combined powers, but was suddenly realizing how weak he was feeling.
Looking down at his hands, he saw them shaking as he tried to control the White Lightning. He soon realized what was happening and he slowly glared up at Magnum.
Titan and a few others ran up to Phantom and watched in shock at the exchange, unsure what was happening. But as Bolt started looking paler and started panting, it finally clicked what was going on.
"Magnum's sucking out his energy!" Phantom exclaimed, sprinting forward.
Titan, Frozone and Mr. Incredible bounded toward Magnum instantly. Phantom tackled his friend to the ground, Magnum's combined energy beam blasting behind them and into a nearby building.
Bolt cried out in pain, holding his chest and panting. "Bolt, talk to me!" Phantom cried, leaning over his friend.
Bolt gasped for air and Phantom slowly realized what Magnum had done. He had practically sucked the life out of his friend. Fury slowly bubbled within him, but he didn't want to leave Bolt.
Multiplicity suddenly appeared next to him, "The guys are distracting him; you have to take Magnum out now!"
Phantom sighed, looking over his shoulder at the fight. Rejuvenated off Bolt's power, Magnum was clearly winning, but the supers weren't giving up easily. Bolt suddenly grabbed his suit and pulled him down closer, wheezing, "Do…what you came here… to do."
Phantom gritted his teeth and bit back the emotion threatening to take over. He quickly nodded and Bolt sighed in pain, resting his head back on the ground panting. Multiplicity duplicated herself many times and they slowly picked him up to move him to a safer place. "Go Phantom. Let's do this." She smiled, and the girls took Bolt away as fast as they could. Phantom could hear Bolt muttering his refusal to leave.
Phantom stood and watched for a moment before turning back to Magnum. The villain struck his fist forward, slamming Titan in the chest and making him fly twenty feet back; he hit the ground painfully, but slowly stood up. Phantom realized Mr. Incredible and Frozone, along with many of the other supers down the street, were starting to get weighed down with the robots and villains. Psych and Jumper were both fighting Cynder and Invisigirl at the moment, the female villain attacking his fiancée with fervor.
Phantom focused back on Magnum as Mr. Incredible was also thrust away with a blast of electricity. An idea suddenly came to him; he turned and sprinted to Speedo a few yards away.
Speedo saw him coming just as he took out a robot, "Hi there!"
Phantom stopped in front of him panting, "I need a diversion. I need you and a few others to distract Magnum and the others, if you can."
"What did you have in mind?" Speedo smirked. Phantom smiled for the first time since the battle started and turned him toward Techno (A/N: Bethany from training; technopath. Just in case you all don't remember *wink*).
"Ahhh! I think I gotcha." Speedo grinned and immediately zipped toward the female super, not paying attention to where Phantom was going.
"Techno!"
The super turned around, "What?"
"Phantom wants us to make a diversion; come on!" Speedo relayed and then zipped away. Techno nodded and quickly followed. They ran into an alley and started talking about what they could do, all the while scanning the area to look for ideas.
After a minute of silence between the two, Techno sighed, "I don't know, I'm not seeing anything."
An idea suddenly dawned on Speedo, "Wait…" Turning to her, he asked, "You can control technology. Could you reroute the robots' actions to help us out, rather than attack us?"
She thought about it for a moment, "I don't know. But it's worth a shot." Suddenly an idea came to her and she smiled. "Perfect."
Elastigirl, Cynder and Invisigirl were fighting robots fiercely, trying to push them farther and farther away from Phantom's direction. Invisigirl glanced around, realizing she hadn't seen him in almost five minutes. Where had he gone?
A few more robots ran forward to attack them, so the three women poised to attack again. Suddenly, the robots stopped as if confused, then they turned around and ran toward the robots attacking some other supers. Metal clanged against metal as the robots full out attacked each other, sprawling on the ground and pounding on each others' metal suits. The supers all stood there, panting in their confusion. Elastigirl looked around and saw Techno by a building across the street, her eyes closed firmly.
"It's Techno; she's controlling them."
"Great!" Cynder smiled. Looking around, their next question was, "Where's Phantom?"
Magnum was looking at the remaining fifty robots on the street in confusion, not understanding why they were fighting each other. He realized another super must be messing with them, but he never got a chance to figure out who.
A massive blue fireball hit him in the space between his left shoulder and his neck. The impact knocked him down and he cried out in pain. Holding the space, he pulled his hand back down to realize he was bleeding. He didn't know if anything serious was damaged near the artery in his neck; he assumed not or there would probably be more blood.
He looked around, searching madly for Phantom, but the super was nowhere to be seen. Another blue orb zoomed out of nowhere, so Magnum jumped out of the way, barely being missed by it.
He randomly looked up at a rooftop near him and saw Phantom peering down at him, preparing another fireball. But that isn't what caught him off guard. It was Jumper standing beside him.
Xxx
After Speedo had left him, Phantom had turned and full-out sprinted toward the fight between Psych, Jumper and the female supers. Running up behind Psych, he gave her a rough shove; she tumbled to the ground and yelled at him, but he kept running and tackled Jumper into the asphalt, taking the villain through.
Underground, Jumper didn't know what was going on; he couldn't breathe, he could barely think, and he wasn't able to jump. He felt himself moving, being held by something, but he didn't really understand what was going on.
Suddenly he was lifted up into a building's first floor and tossed onto the ground. He started hacking and coughing to fill his lungs with air; his face started turning red a little bit as well, but he looked up at his attacker. Seeing Phantom standing there, he growled and stood up.
"Wait!" Phantom said, but Jumper sped toward him and knocked him backwards, transporting him through a wall or two; how many he really didn't know.
Jumper held him against a wall by his suit, his face portraying the anger he was withholding. Phantom gritted his teeth, "Can we just talk for a second?"
Jumper scoffed, "We never could talk. We always fought."
"I want to see if I can change that." Phantom replied in a soft tone and held his hands up by his shoulders calmly to show he wasn't attacking. "All I'm asking for is two minutes."
Jumper visibly relaxed a tad, "Is this a trap?"
Phantom shook his head, "Just you and me."
After nearly a minute of internal arguments, Jumper let Phantom go and stepped back. "What?" he gruffly asked.
Phantom relaxed and glanced at the window, "Look outside. What do you see?"
Jumper rolled his eyes and Phantom interrupted, "I'm serious. Take a look."
Jumper sighed and complied. After a moment, he shrugged, "I see a dream trying to blossom into reality for one man in particular."
Phantom nodded, "That's a great way to put it. One man. Trying to do what he wants and at all costs." Jumper looked back at him and he added, "He'll stop at nothing, Jumper."
Jumper laughed a tad and walked around a bit, "What are you saying? Do you seriously think you can persuade me to change sides? I've got a lot coming for me working for him; there's nothing more I could ask for."
Phantom shook his head and gestured outside, "Look around you! Do you really think that he's going to follow through with all his promises to people, you and Psych in particular? I'd bet that the first thing he would do after winning would be to kill you two. And I mean that in a very caring way."
Jumper looked at him, concern revealed in his eyes. Phantom continued in a softer tone, "He'll stop at nothing. Nothing means anything to him except taking over, and it's very possible that he'll do it. He will kill you just as easily, quickly and unemotionally as he'd kill me or the five year old girl hiding in the daycare down the street."
Jumper let the thoughts sink in, really weighing his options. Phantom added, "I need you. I have to stop him and I can't do it on my own. You know his weaknesses more than anyone else. I need your help."
After another minute of silence, Jumper looked up at him with a bargaining, but uneasy expression, "What's in it for me?"
Phantom sighed, "That's the hard part because I can't promise anything about that. You've done some bad stuff and you have to pay consequences for that; but if you help stop Magnum, I'm sure they'll waiver some of that."
"But no guarantees." Jumper muttered.
"It's better than dying." Phantom held his hands out with a small smile.
Jumper nodded a bit, "True…"
Phantom thought for a minute, then said, "I'll visit you in jail if they still make you go."
Jumper scoffed, "Yeah right-"
"No, really. I don't want to fight anymore. We both fought on immature levels back in high school; I never wanted it to continue at higher levels in our twenties. It's time to reconcile and let it go. What do you say?" Phantom stuck a hand out toward the villain.
Jumper eyed his hand uneasily, waiting to see a spark of fire appear. But looking up at his childhood enemy's eyes, he saw kindness and a forgiving smile. Phantom almost gasped when Jumper took his hand and shook it.
After letting go, Jumper awkwardly looked around, "So… w-what do you want me to do?"
Phantom smirked, "I need some height."
Whoo! The tide has turned in many ways in this chapter, and next chapter, The Battle: Part 2 is going to be even more hectic than this one; at least that's my goal Lol Please let me know if this was hectic enough for you; if it wasn't, please let me know and I'll work on it ;D Put some more blood in there or somethin Lol
Oh! Before I forget, a reviewer by the name of "Anonymous" asked me a question yesterday! It was "Can Phantom phase through Invisigirl's force fields?" Well I'm very glad you asked! I was going to add that in as another special thing he could do, and originally left you a nice "Yes" in this note; but I remembered that in Wilbur's final training thing he took a good face plant into one of her force fields. So, in answer to your question, no he cannot. It would've been cool though! :D So there ya go; A tribute to Mr./Miss. Anonymous! ;D *ahem* Get an account! *COUGH* lol
Alrighty, leave me a fabulous message in the box below and let me know what you think! I'm gonna try working on this story more than I have been, so hopefully Part 2 will be up soon :) Until then!
~EmK/EmmerzK