Everyone watched 3 burst through the doors to the exit.
"Guysguysguysguys-"
"WHAT?!" Simon screamed in response.
"I got to learn a new trick earlier!" 3 giggled, undoing the bandages on her hands and the small one on her face.
"What, you finally learned how to determine which cockroaches fly?" L teased.
"No, nono, I gotta show it to you!" She insisted, dragging everyone to the training room.
Simon gave 3 the classic "dead inside" look as she instructed him on what to do.
"Okay, just sit right there." She began, "Then hit me as predictably as you can."
Simon blinked, formulating what to do, and 3's fist made first contact with his face.
"Thanks!"
Simon scowled.
"What was that for?!"
"Here, put that on." 3 handed Simon some headgear.
"What's THAT for?!"
3 began to quietly whisper things to herself. Something about range and placement and face contact.
Simon blanched when he realized what was happening.
3 bent down and reared back her fist. A strange glow resonated from her hand. Then she swung and hit Simon's face in a devastating uppercut.
Simon went completely limp.
"What in the heck was THAT?" The captain asked, stroking his chin.
"That was a Star Punch! Ah, don't worry! Simon should live from that. Should."
Simon's limp body twitched.
Luigi exhaled and got up.
"I'll go get the defib unit."
3 looked at the others.
"Anyone else wanna try?"
Amber raised her hand.
"Do you mean do you want US to try or do you want to try?"
"I want to try it on you. Who's next?"
Nobody stirred.
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The prison guard slowly paced the room.
Marco stood, catching his gaze.
With no words said, Marco raised her hand, tapped the glass with her finger, and watched it shatter promptly.
The guard's eyes flew wide. "WH-"
Marco grabbed the guard by the neck.
Not far from there..
"Security breach! Lockdown mode!"
A familiar masked man stormed through the halls.
"You mean to tell me my hard work to hurt this man didn't pay off?!" He raged as he brawled his way down the halls. "I won't have this!"
Shallows stopped when he and Marco locked eyes at the end of the corridor.
"YOU." Marco growled.
Shallows sighed. I hate you.
Marco stormed down the hall.
Shallows slowly walked in her general direction.
"Why are YOU here?!" Marco hissed, "Don't you have a life?!"
"That depends," Shallows replied, calmly, "it mostly depends on how many times we run into each other senselessly and you insult me."
"I'm looking for the masked fool… excuse me, the OTHER masked fool." Marco directed, attempting to shove Shallows out of the way.
Shallows grabbed Marco's hand and shoved her back.
"I'm here for the same masked fool. He's mine. You stay your punchable face right out of my way." He demanded, ready to draw his sword in a moment's notice.
"Not gonna happen. I've already showcased putting little effort into battle. Do you really want me to try and fight?"
Shallows chuckled.
"Guess what, sister, I don't give a shit about your godmode." Shallows snarked, "Get out of my way or suffer the consequences."
"You asked for it." Both of them huffed, in unison.
Marco materialized a HUGE battleaxe. Her weapon? It's obviously made of some sorta mythical diamond… Shallows concluded, before drawing his blade.
That sword wasn't for him to hold. And it isn't going to remain in his grasp for long. Marco thought, examining Shallows' blade.
3 stood at the end of the third corridor.
"Stop right there!" She called.
"Oh, not this guy again…" Marco mumbled to herself.
"What, is this wimp too powerful for ya?" Shallows teased, "I'm embarrassed on your behalf."
"Shut up." Marco growled, before turning to 3. "You need to leave right now, before you get killed."
"Punk, I'm not doing crap." 3 resisted, with a smirk. "You two are coming with me, right now."
Shallows stifled laughter.
"Y-you?! HHHHHHHHAAAAAAAA-" Shallows began to roll on the floor in hysterics.
Marco stepped forward.
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
3 rushed forward, delivering a stern bum-rush to Marco.
Marco, in retaliation, swung the axe. Before the axe hit 3, 3 delivered a very painful jab to Marco's face.
Shallows stood from his hysterics and ran up to 3. 3 launched him across the room with a 1-star punch.
Marco, unmoved, began to swing wildly. Every time she nearly hit 3, 3 intercepted the attack with a face or a gut punch.
Marco blinked and a three-star punch took the first-class train to her face.
Marco flew through the air, before landing flat on her back. Shallows got up and darted forward. He hit the floor as a surprise attack from Amber connected to his side.
"Thanks."
Amber put away her blade.
"No problem."
3 and Amber slowly progressed to Alpha's room.
Amber slid across the floor to Alpha. He slowly crawled toward his chair.
"Amber. I hate to give you this task… but I need you to escort the escapees to a remote location. It's far away. VERY far away. I know a shortcut."
Amber sighed.
"Michael, you need rest. Send me the maps and get some sleep."
The next day…
"He wants us to go all the way out to a remote pocket dimension controlled by MVPs and dump the prisoners there. That would be a far away trip that might take days." The captain began, watching the map, "Alpha might as well be sentencing us to a death wish… but we'll take the trip… everyone get ready. We're going to be gone from here for at least a day or two."
Everyone ran to their rooms.
Shortly after everyone finished packing, Alpha waved them off as they set out for the remote storing location.
01000111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01111001 00101110 00101110 00101110
I think it was log number 3? Maybe 4… well, it's 3 now. How long has it been anymore? We're still stuck out here. Alpha cut off our food supply. We suspect there might be a ship coming our way. Alpha really did ditch us… we need to stop him. First thing in the morning-... first thing after we wake up, We need to get out of here.
-·· - -· ·-· - ··· - ·-· · ··· ··· ·· - -··- ·- · ·-· ·-·· ·-·· · ··· -·-· ·- ·-· · · ···- · -· - ··- ·- ·-·· ·-·· -·-
A portal opened. A portal. Something our character hadn't seen for a long time.
A spark of hope aligned in his soul. And then it withered into a spark of hate as an MVP ship flew out.
...MVPs. Not on my watch.
Inside the ship…
"Running scans… huh…" Alph squinted at his screen. "There's a life signal nearby. I think it's bugged."
"We ARE flying through an empty void." 3 began, "And I'm sure that our gadgets aren't suited to- WHAT IN THE SWEET NAME OF COD IS THAT?!"
On a nearby piece of rubble floating nearby, a figure with strange glowing green goggles and a purple and green vest stood tall, giving the ship a nasty scowl.
"...that's a Gamma vest. Who…" Simon started thinking.
The captain sped up.
"We're not gonna get ambushed here. Not out here. Especially when we can't reach any help? NOPE. Strap in, we're oH NO!"
The figure jumped from the rubble and disappeared.
"Captain, go. GO. We gotta go hell for leather right NOW!" Amber demanded.
A thud on top of the ship.
"We're SO toast." Simon muttered as he drew his blade.
After a while of slowly drifting through space, the ship slowly began to pull out again.
"Okay… we're gonna get to this station, alright?" The captain reassured everyone.
Shortly after picking up speed, they reached a base. One ship sat parked in the dock.
Marco sighed.
"...Travis." She breathed.
As their ship parked, another thud resonated from the roof. And they continued like footsteps, until one finally landed right outside the exit.
Nobody stirred for a few seconds, before 3 strolled to the exit.
"Come on guys! You know, it's probably nothing we can't fight!" She sang, opening the exit.
3 slowly progressed out. Nothing yet.
As soon as any thought of safety entered her mind, a noise from above crushed them.
3 whirled around and looked up. Right above the exit.
Whatever it was, it lunged for 3 and missed, rolling down the exit ramp and giving her direct eye contact.
"...TRAVIS?!" 3 cried in disbelief.
Travis stood up straight, not able to hold himself still without twitching every couple of seconds.
"...Aria..? No… No way!"
"Ew! What's wrong with you?!"
Travis began to move forward.
"Oh, only the trauma of being stuck in an empty void with NOTHING for a year! You wanna know how THAT felt?! NOT GOOD!"
His tentacles were in a mess. He looked worse than before.
"Travis?!" Amber called, equally incredulous.
"You fools are the cause of this! I've been stuck! RIGHT THERE, for a year! But now you're here! Think about how much I can do to you… I've had nothing but horrible fevers since I arrived here and they all left with some new psi mess. Like THIS!" Travis pointed his finger and everyone froze in place. Except for Alph, who just pretended to be paralyzed.
Travis slowly paced throughout the ship.
"My, my, the team has grown! Amber? I never thought I'd see you again. Never wanted to see your face again. But here you are. On MY turf. You play by MY rules now. You all get to play MY game!"
After that, everyone began to fight the urge to fall asleep. To no avail, as they all conked out eventually.
01101000 01100101 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100010 01100001 01100011 01101011 00100001 00100000 01001110 01001001 01000011 01000101 00100001
Alpha pulled up his phone and called a certain number.
A snarky voice yelled at him.
"You'd best not be calling me if those MVPs aren't dead!"
"They're on their way." Alpha replied, "I sent them through the secret filled with debris and took away their gas tank. No way they're making it back. They're practically dead."
"...huh… I didn't think you would actually… huh…" The voice stuttered over their words, "Okay.. I need to see you. When are you available?"
"I need to see you today. You're up for today. You'd better not be lying to me."
The voice sighed.
"Today… FINE. I'll give you the signal once I'm ready."
Alpha shut off the call and sighed.
"It's better this way.." He repeated for a moment.
Alpha turned around and caught his assistant about to leave the room.
No. Not on my watch.
Alpha slammed the lock button and slowly rolled to his assistant.
"How much of that did you hear?"
"The part where you betrayed us."
Alpha frowned.
"You aren't scared? I can make it seem like you never existed!"
The assistant scowled back.
"The prisoners told me what you did."
Alpha sighed and stood from his seat.
"Then I won't be needing this chair anymore." He sighed.
Alpha slowly drew a gun on the assistant.
"It's actually VERY disappointing to have to do this. A leader can only take so much before he has to do what is necessary."
"Go to hell." The assistant spat.
·- ·- -· -·· -··
A figure with a cape slowly walked up to an open ship in a dock.
"HEY. Nile! We found someone!" He called, excitedly.
He darted over to the sleeping team and bent over.
"MVPs… Finally! Some backup! But… they're asleep?"
A noise behind him caused the man to draw his mace.
He sighed as only a hooded MVP stood behind him.
"Don't sneak up on me like that. Nile, these are the newbies Alpha dumped us for. Wonder what they're doing out here…"
Nile shrugged. Shortly after, he jumped into a defensive stance and yanked the first agent's head to the side.
A light flickered faintly in the dark facility.
The first agent gave Nile a glance, then yanked on his comms.
"4, gimme a status check!"
A hushed voice replied relatively quickly.
"All MVP personnel are tied up in this back room. In a separate room, the adversary has a few tied up by their lonesome. Your location is safe for now."
"Keep a sharp eye on that adversary. I've gotta deal with these guys." The agent replied and slammed off the comms.
Nile kneeled down to L, the closest sleeping agent, and sat a jar near him.
Nile opened said jar and let the small flying being out. It landed on L's hood and he began to wake up.
L looked up at the MVPs staring back at him and flinched.
"WHOA! W-who are you?!"
"Hey, calm down." The first guy assured, slowly approaching L. "We're MVPs as well."
L slowly got to his feet.
"Where'd the green guy go? He took away one of our members and put the rest of us to sleep!"
Nile pointed down the hall.
"Excuse us, we're in kind of a mess right now. Codename's Captain R." The first agent introduced, "And that's Agent N."
L gave N(ile) a stern glance.
"I thought we weren't supposed to hire heroes? You hired THE Link?"
R stepped in front of Nile.
"That's something I'll have to explain later. He's technically not a Main Hero, because of a complicated incident with time that left him dead in the void where I resuscitated him and he joined my team."
"Yeah," L sighed, "I'm going to have to hear the full story later. We have to wake the others-"
N came back after waking everyone else up.
Simon stood first.
"Thanks, comrade…" He grunted, "Knew backup was around these parts somewhere."
Both R and N exchanged glances.
"We thought YOU were the backup!"
The captain jumped to his feet.
"Russel? I thought you died! Everyone thought you died!"
R gave a side glance.
"Death is only temporary. That's not true. But to me it counts."
"The prisoners are gone." Alph noticed.
"You guys were carrying prisoners?" R whirled to the halls. "That explains a lot. We have NO time to lose! By now, he could be anywhere!"
"We ARE talking about the same "he," right? Homicidal inkling, kinda short, sort of an emerald color?" L questioned.
"Yes. We were stranded in space for what seemed like years. It was actually a week. We were just being melodramatic. We met HIM. Once we landed in the dock, he left and cut the power. Then he used that same sleep mess on us. We were lucky enough to wake up shortly after." R monolugued.
"How does that help in finding the captured personnel?" The captain cut in.
"I don't know." R sighed. "But I do know that they went THAT way." He pointed to the same hall with the lights flickering.
"Then we can't waste any time!" The captain announced, drawing his weapon. "Let's find them in this-"
N pulled up a map of the facility and the captain's face drooped.
"We may have to split up." He realized, gawking at the immense size of the facility. "This is excessive."
R turned on comms.
"4, status check!"
4 replied rather quickly.
"I found the escaped prisoners. They're with our guy. And they're planning something I can't quite hear. The prisoners are in a separate room. I'll try to save them."
"Copy that. Keep it quiet. We'll be there soon."
·-··-· · ·· -· ···· - ·-··-·
Alpha slowly approached the leather-jacketed man he'd so dearly wanted a talk with.
Billy, the leather-jacketed man, cracked a small smirk.
"So, MVP leader, nice to meet you, face to face and all that," He greeted, "your little… lap dogs… are dead, right?"
"Dead as can be." Alpha lied.
Billy's smile slowly diminished.
"Oh, is that so?" He chortled, "Because I have literal trackers on your team and it still says they're still kicking. How, I ask, is that possible?"
"Trust me, they can't last much longer. I know what's in that place… and you might as well not want to."
Billy turned to face the sky.
"Listen. If I see anything about them being alive and making it out of this mess…" He jabbed a metal finger into Alpha's chest. "You will be sorry."
Alpha smirked.
"And if you try anything after they inevitably die, you'll be wishing you'd have shot me here. This alliance is only temporary."
"Heh… we're practically the same person. Just can't keep a functioning team together without having to kill them. Pleasure doing business with you." Billy mumbled, just loud enough for Alpha to hear.
Shortly before he left, Alpha shook off a twinge of remorse. His mind began to ask him, did they deserve this?
·- ·-·· ·-· ···· ·- -··· · - ·-· ·- -·- · -·· ··- ···
Things are taking a dark turn. And. We're in the last 3 chapters of the season. WOW. There are 23. You've just finished 19.
Can the team escape the newly-returned and definitely revamped Travis? What's this NEW team? And what's this about Alpha and Billy teaming up?
I'll see you in the 20th chapter... where things finally go uphill.
Note also, I might take some suggestions. If I don't like the idea or it ends up clashing with my plans, I might not end up using it.