"This is torture," muttered Kimiko. Behind her, Jack was whimpering in fear about being trapped in the dark. Chase was striving to remain his usual remote, calm self despite his growing frustration. "Jack, don't you have a flashlight?" she cried after what seemed like an eternity of walking.
"Um… no… my robots have lights, but you broke them." Jack's voice was sulky.
Chase shook his head. "Do you never think, Spicer?"
"No," said Kimiko dryly. Jack glared at her.
"Hey! They don't call me an evil genius for nothing, you know."
"You call yourself an evil genius," Kimiko pointed out. "Which proves nothing. This is pointless, anyway. We need to concentrate on getting out of here and finding the others."
She dug in her purse as she walked, slowing a little. There had to be something in there that lit up… there typically was…
Suddenly she heard a hurried whisper in front of her. "Moby Morpher!"
"Was that Hannibal?" she said, frowning, and then called out, "Hello? Anyone out there?"
"Nah, it was just me," came Chase's voice in response. "Nicked it from him when he wasn't looking. You know, the darkness does have its advantages! I hadn't thought of that!"
"Wait…" Kimiko continued digging in her purse. "Ah! There it is!"
As she took out her cellphone, she heard Chase again, his voice dangerously quiet. "Spicer, what are you doing?"
Kimiko flipped the phone open, and the backlit screen shed a dim glow around them. The girl was distracted, however, by the highly unusual scene before her. Chase Young was standing erect on one side of the tunnel, glaring at a cringing someone who also appeared to be Chase.
Catching sight of the Moby Morpher held by the cringing Chase's arms, she groaned and shook her head. "Come on, you two, we don't have time for this!"
"I don't remember telling you that you could assume my shape like this," Chase muttered as she walked past him.
The other Chase – or Jack, to use his real identity – gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, well, I figured…"
"This is so weird," muttered Kimiko, raising one eyebrow. The sound of Chase actually whining was possibly the strangest thing she'd been subjected to yet. "Jack, take that off!"
"But I bet I can do all kinds of cool things now… like this!" She turned around to see that Jack had assumed Chase's reptilian form. "I am Godzilla! Man, Chase, this is awesome!"
The real Chase appeared to be attempting to control his anger, but finally snapped. He reached out and caught Jack by the throat, and to all appearances had trapped himself in a headlock. "Shut up and stop that right now before I snap your sorry neck!" he spat, throwing the redhead to the ground. Jack cringed.
"Right, I'll do that," he said. "Moby Morpher!"
Nothing happened.
---
Clay squinted into the darkness. Wuya had conjured a fireball which hovered above them, shedding a dim green light around the three. "Rai, is that you?"
"Yeah. Hold on, stay where you are."
A minute later Raimundo walked toward them, followed by a slightly bedraggled Katnappe. "She fell in an underground spring," he muttered, grinning slightly.
"Any sign of the others?" Clay asked.
"Nope. Well, except for the fact that the Emperor Scorpion's missing…"
"This is a sticky situation…" Clay scratched his head thoughtfully.
"What?"
"I was hoping that the Third-Arm Sash was the only one… this means…"
"We've got a big problem on our hands."
A/N - I don't like this part, really, I think my writing quality is lower on this fic... besides the fact that I've sort of run out of plot now, so I'm making it up as I go along... Heheh, oh well - I'm just trying to have fun. So if you hate it, I don't really care, go read one of my more serious 'fics. XD (Another angsty Chase-centered fic is coming soon, probably.)
