"You think a pup like you can take on the likes of me!?!? ME, THE MISTRESS OF ALL EVIL!!!!" Maleficent raised her staff and arms as the sky above them was engulfed with seven gigantic bursts of fiery lighting and rock-cracking thunder. A few more electrical bolts and leaders actually touched and split the castle walls and the balcony upon which they stood. Another horrendous thunderclap shook the entire ground and castle foundations as Maleficent lowered her staff with a frustrated, wide-eyed stare at Jim who was not shaken or surprised in the least.
"Watch Me."
In the blink of an eye, he snatched the staff out of Maleficent's right hand and drove the butt end right into her abdomen. As she doubled over in agonizing pain, Jim swiftly swung again and clubbed her in the head with the globe end. As he struck again, the eight guards dashed out yelling. At the same time, Beth braced herself and jumped—right smack down into the group. Four were knocked out cold while two went sideways and the last pair recovered quickly. But before they could apprehend their mysterious attacker, Beth charged and skewered one with the sword in her left hand; the other got his throat slashed by the gladius in her right. "Jim", Beth called out as she tossed a sword which he caught single-handedly. But the transfer of weapon gave Maleficent time to recover and draw back her arm to hurl a bolt of lightning from her hand. Jim ducked the energy just in time and impaled her right through the ribcage. The burst hit one of the two guards assaulting Beth and knocked him back into the wall. Beth and the other were blinded by the brief but intense light and stumbled back from each other. Jim left Maleficent wounded on the ground and came over to help Beth up. "Come on, Quick!" he urged she got up and they both ran for all they were worth as Morph followed nervously.
They sped through the hallway, out onto the throne floor and into another passageway before the surprised partying-henchmen could react. On and on they went as the guard's voices and exclamations echoed behind them. They turned down an adjoining hall and followed it to a staircase. "Is this how we escape, Jim?", Beth asked breathlessly. "No," Jim answered, "It's probably going to dead end. But that's how we lose them!" "WHAT?!?!?!", Beth squeaked utterly aghast. "Just trust me," Jim called back.
But Jim was wrong; the stairs ended inside a tower landing with two opposite archways. The landing was, in fact, part of a walkway that led to the inner rampart of the castle walls. Jim, Beth and Morph followed it but crouched down behind the battlements to avoid being seen. They reached another tower and Jim pressed his back against the circular wall so that he was out of sight and Beth followed suit. "Let me see if we're being followed," he explained. While he snuck a peek out the way they'd just come, Beth slowly peered through a slit window in the wall.
"Jim," she called. He turned around and came to her side. "Look down there, under the cover of that wagon." He put his eye to the hole and looked as Morph perched on his head to do as well. Right against the wall of the keep, there was a two-wheeled, wood ox-wagon with a flat, narrow piece of wood protruding from under the cloth cover of the cart bed. "Yeah it is!! Let's get down there," and Jim led Beth by the hand as they sped on following the upper battlements.
But as they ran at a crouch, they both heard yells and noises as the creatures came storming out of the keep and onto the walls. Jim couldn't see any stairs that led to the ground anywhere and they were running out of time. So he stopped along the side of another tower and bent down.
Beth, I need you to grab onto my back," he ordered. "Why?", she asked perplexed. "Just trust me! You won't get hurt, I promise," he urged somewhat impatiently. She sighed heavily and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his torso. When she was secure, Jim stood up, bent his legs and jump-flipped right over the edge. Beth let out a terrified scream that got the searcher's attentions. But Jim, in accordance with his training, landed perfectly in a crouch that only sent a quick shock through his legs. He straightened and ran over to the cart with the 5'6" redhead still clinging in a death clutch to his bod. "Uh, Beth...you can let go now. It's safe, we're on the ground." She slid off slowly as he pulled back the tarpaulin and discovered the guns and packs along with the board. With a muffled "Alright", Jim once again donned his gear, checked and reloaded the weapons and put on his board. "Let's get out of here", he said as his board powered up and off the ground. Beth hesitantly climbed on and leaned back into Jim as he raised the sail and Morph "roped" himself to the bar. And just as a group of guards came running up from behind, Jim fired the engine to life and sped up, up and away.
While this had all been taking place, a dark, unseen shape stole silently out of a wide rift in the outer walls. It, too, had heard but not seen the verbal exchange between the boy and infernal spirit. Strangely, it had anticipated the lad's actions and thus had moved on to avoid detection in the scuffle. Now it dropped in a human crouch to the ultra-steep, rocky slope below. It waited a few seconds—listening, smelling...and waiting. Finally, it moved off.
With a final grunt and push up with her staff's help, the still-healing Maleficent reached the pinnacle of her highest tower. She straightened up and craned her neck just in time to observe the boy and girl zoom over the walls and down just above the treacherous landscape. She ground her teeth together in rage and pain, although that was subsiding. She whirled her staff round and round and chanted:
Now let all hell fire and Hades brimstone rise forth from the dead,
Scorching and merciless that his wretched corpse may burn blood-red;
Come forth upon my will and suffer with thy pain,
Go strong after them that flee and let their strength be even in vain!
And with that, Maleficent thrust out her hand and shot forth a blazing orange-green beam of dark energy that flew straight as a plumb line for the escaping fugitives. The powerful force slammed quarter-side into Jim with a searing, blinding push that tore him away from the surfer and Beth and into a sharp-edged black rock. The surprise "assault" rocked the still-flying machine erratically and nearly took Beth too but for her death-like grip on the sail bar. But she looked back and saw Jim strike the rock in his fall and slide onto the ground.
"JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!", she screamed out of pure terror. Morph popped his eyes up to watch in horror as well. Beth tried desperately to turn around but the board was losing altitude for a lack of pressure on the ignition pedal. Thus, the craft only sped farther away as Beth frantically attempted to get the craft under control.
But alas for Jim! The blast was as scorching as a red star and had set fire to his shirt—the only protection for his upper body. While the fall into rock and gravel had squelched the flames, Jim's head and right shoulder had severely impacted the rock at 35 kilometers per hour. Now, he lay unconscious, bleeding heavily, bones bruised and snapped apart.
After ten minutes, his eyelids began to flutter and gradually lift. But as his sense began to return, the extreme, burning pain seared blazingly through his head and shoulders. Jim closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying to will the overpowering discomfort to pass. After a few minutes, he attempted a sliver of movement with his head and immediately the shock assaulted his mental capacity enough to cause him to black out again. When he awoke once more, he could slowly move his eyelids open. But his head and back were still screaming with no shred of relief. It felt as if he were lying in a river of molten lava. So Jim just lay there with only one thought: Please start to feel better...please.
Another two minutes past, Jim began to sense something coming. He opened his eyes and very, very slowly...turned his head to his right. Just above the landscape of broken solidified magma rocks, he spotted a pair of long black horns rising above a long, thin black-framed, pale face. The apparition came closer and grew taller until he could make out the rest of the black & purple-robed sorceress with her long golden staff. At last, she was standing right next to him as he lay skewed and helpless on the ground. Maleficent just stared straight down at him with a dastardly look of evil triumph and glee. Jim, although his still-tender eyes didn't betray it, was blown away: he'd left her stabbed through and lying on rock herself...and yet...here she stood, without any sign or expression of injury—not even a drip of blood!
"Now you see, foolish boy," she purred eerily, "You can Never outwit or overtake me. And, if I may be so bold as to boast of it, there is no manner or way in which I may be slain...or defeated physically." With that, she let forth a self-satisfied and cruel laugh that made Jim's body shiver with revulsion. His suffering had, by now, abated sufficiently enough for him to move his arms and slightly raise his head. "I...I'm......not...giving...up.", he rasped gratingly. But Maleficent smiled even more amusedly and bent forward. "I must say that I'm quite surprised at your resilience. But, I see nothing terribly wrong with such stubbornness. It's rather—how would you say...appealing, and very, very attractive," she said in an oily tone of voice.
Then, she reached out her left pointer finger and swiped Jim's blood off his forehead. She held her now-smeared finger to her face and, with a evil chuckle, stuck it in her mouth. "Mmmmmmm," Maleficent purred again, "Most gratifying. I can just imagine what a fine trophy you'll make in her stead." Jim had shuddered when her cold, lifeless finger traced across his head, but now his whole body turned cold and started to shake in fear. But Maleficent only took greater pleasure in this. "Oh come now—don't be so timid! You obviously are quite the warrior: cunning, brave and very strong...exactly," and she bent her face closer to his, "as I like my...suitors." Jim's heart was beating out of his ribcage and his breathing came faster. "I...I....am not...your...toy." "Toy?", Maleficent taunted him with his own word before letting out another laugh of amusement. "Oh dear me...what a charm you possess." And she put her left hand upon Jim's face to study his features. "Ahhh, what a marvelous and rather tempting countenance you possess!" Then, to his utmost revulsion and fright, she traced her hand down from his neck and onto his chest as she fondled his heaving muscles. "And such great build too! I've only imagined what a boy like yourself could be like." Jim so wanted to jump up and knock her away but his legs couldn't get any command from his still-battered mind. Maleficent now moved her hand down to his torso and felt all over his thighs. "Yes," her tongue slithered wistfully, "Power and grace are your attributes...and they do you credit—for me."
Having confirmed her lustful desires, she stood up smiling even more cruelly and intently. "Come now, dear warrior, do you truly suppose I'd be so eagerly disposed to your complete destruction?" She waited for a reply that never came before continuing. "So many years have I spent reigning and controlling alone—power that only I can possess...and no one to share my chambers or affections with. Ahhh, but that is all about to change...for as you can see, I have taken your strength and abilities...all with one blow." She paused to chuckle and fold her hands before her. "Thus if you would desire them back, this is what you must accept: give up your foolish "rescue-of-the-princess" endeavor; give up all hope of return or rescue for yourself; come with me—be my friend and....my lover...and you shall have your body again, eh?"
Jim breathed heavily for several moments with half-opened eyes. Then he rasped out again, "I'm...not...yours!" "HA!!", Maleficent scoffed with unfazed desire, "But that is a frail and feeble hope that you so weakly hold to! There is no other way and there never will be! You" and she leaned over to pick Jim up by his arm, "Are now...MINE!!!"
All of a sudden, an enormous, shiny piece of metal slammed into Maleficent's head from the left. The horrific impact sent her sprawling lifelessly a few feet away. Just as suddenly, a shadowy figure jumped down from a nearby boulder and stood over Jim with a clenched fist and a giant knife in the other hand. Then, a voice yelled out in a manner that Jim still remembered.
"Keep Your bloody Hands off of MY SON!!!"