AOE Saga:

Suspicious Kinds

Chapter 4: Sparking Reaction

Matt, Chris, and Silvia moved quickly to a room with a skylight on the ceiling. "Splicer should be in here," said Matt. "But where?" Then without warning Silvia sent an electric blast right towards Matt. Matt quickly ducked and the attack missed him. "Hey! What was that for?" he yelled. "For him," said Silvia pointing. Matt turned around and saw Splicer in a slightly stunned state right behind him. Splicer quickly recovered and said, "I wish you hadn't done that. Now I'm going to have to zap you back." "With what?" asked Silvia. "With this," answered Splicer and the end of Splicer's back tail formed into an electric cannon and fired a bolt of lightning at Silvia.

It slammed her in the chest and threw her to the other side of the room. "Just in case you're wondering how I did that," said Splicer as his back's tail changed back to normal. "My back's tail is made out of a colony of malleable nanobots that can form into anything I want." To prove this, Splicer had the tail turn into 2 pairs of spider legs, a pair of wings, a jetpack, gigantic jaws with fangs, a laser cannon, a sledgehammer, and a giant drill.

"Now before you try to attack me, I've got something to say first. Why are you fighting against me? Can't you see the golden opportunity? If I joined you, you'll be given the power to accomplish whatever you've dreamed about. You could destroy your sworn enemies, defeat Hamsterviel's empire, or even take over that empire. And all you have to do is let me you as a host. Doesn't that sound like a fair bargain? What do you say?" The trio looked at each other, nodded, and each sent a blast at Splicer at the same time. Silvia sent another electric blast, Matt fired a plasma bolt, and Chris shot his gun. The three attacks hit Splicer and vaporized his upper body. The legs fell to the ground. "I don't know about you guys," said Matt. "But I've had enough of Symbiotes to last a lifetime. There is no way I'd ever become a host for one." Chris nodded in agreement and said, "Let's see how the others are doing." But just as they were about to walk out the door, it slammed on them.

"So that's how it's going to be," said a voice behind them. They turned around and saw that Splicer had reformed. "You won't accept my offer willingly. Then I guess my only other option is to use force." The metallic tentacles unwound from around his arms and lashed out towards the trio. They leapt aside at the last second. Splicer proceeded to keep using all of his arms on them, preventing to let them get close. "What do we do?" asked Matt. "We've used every weapon we got." "Not every weapon," said Silvia extending her ion staff. Matt nodded and extended his ion staff. "Chris," said Matt. "You think you can distract him long enough for us to get close?" "Piece of cake," said Chris going into experiment-mode. Chris attacked Splicer with great ferocity. Splicer was forced to turn his attention on Chris. This allowed Matt and Silvia to sneak up behind Splicer.

Splicer finally managed to pin Chris to the wall with all off his tentacles. "Did you really expect to defeat me like that?" said Splicer. "No," said Chris, "this is. Matt, Silvia, now!" Matt and Silvia plunged their ion staffs into Splicer unprotected shoulder, burying them to the center of his torso. They then sent an ionic pulse through the staffs into Splicer. Splicer swelled up with the energy before he exploded upwards through the skylight and into the sky. Matt, Chris, and Silvia looked at themselves and saw they were covered from head to foot in Symbiote slime. "Eeeeww!" they all said at the same time. "Let's get the experiments and get out of here," said Silvia. "I desperately need a bath."

They found the experiments among the remains of Splicer's Symbiotes. Draco took one look at Matt, Chris, and Silvia and yelled, "Oh no! We're too late! They've been Symbiotized!" Chip whacked Draco on the back of the head and said, "They're not Symbiotes. They're just covered in slime." Rick looked at Matt and said, "What happened to you? Did you get into a fight with a slushy machine and lost?" Matt whacked Rick on top of the head. "Now that Splicer's gone, you know what we have to do," said Silvia. "Get the heck out of here?" said Matt. "No," said Silvia. "I'll have to take you all into custody. NegaMorph, get 7-7-7!" NegaMorph looked around hesitantly. "What are you waiting for?" said Silvia. "Get 7-7-7!"

"Who's that?" asked NegaMorph. Silvia slapped her forehead in frustration. Matt thought very quickly and remembered that Lilo's cure was standing right next to him. "Kala," yelled Matt. "Get NegaMorph's DNA!" Kala looked confused for a second but then realized what Matt meant. She jumped at NegaMorph at the same moment NegaMorph remembered that 7-7-7 was Kala's experiment number. He grabbed her the same moment that she grabbed him.

The effect was completely unexpected. An aura of white light surrounded Kala and an aura of black darkness surrounded NegaMorph. Sparks of white and black flew everywhere. They both yelled with pain. The room vibrated with counter-reactive energy. "What's going on?" yelled Matt. Chip had a quick flashback of Draco and Morph in a similar position with black and white sparks. "Kala must have a Soul Shine in her," yelled Chip. "A what?" "It's the polar opposite of a Soul Shine. They're made of pure goodness and light. Soul Shades and Soul Shines counter-react when they touch." Right after Chip said this, the counter-reacting energies separated Kala and NegaMorph and threw them to opposite sides of the room.

The auras and sparks snuffed out instantly. Kala and NegaMorph slowly regained consciousness. But before Silvia could give NegaMorph another order, the entire room started quaking. "Now what?" yelled Chris. "The Symbiotes were the only things keeping this place together," said Chip. "Now that they're gone, the whole thing will collapse!" "NegaMorph, get us out of here!" yelled Silvia. NegaMorph nodded and moved till his shadow was against the wall. For the first time, Matt saw that NegaMorph's shadow had an N-shaped mouth like NegaMorph. The mouth opened and revealed a swirling vortex of blacks and purples. NegaMorph dived through the portal. Silvia looked at Matt and said, "Another day, Traveler," and dove into the portal as well. The shadow's mouth closed and then streaked out of sight.

"So that's how they escaped after Red Moon was defeated," said Matt. "How do we get out of here?" yelled Chris. Matt thought for a few seconds and said, "Rick, can you make us all intangible?" "As long as you're touching me," said Rick. "Draco, can you lift all of us into the air?" "Sure." "Okay then," said Matt. "Everyone but Draco, grab onto Rick." When everyone did, Matt said, "Rick, grab onto Draco." When Rick did, Matt said, "Draco, fly us out here." Rick finally realized what Matt had planned and surrounded himself and everyone with a pale orange glow. When Draco flew into the ceiling, they all went through. They quickly flew through the base as it came down. Finally they flew straight to the surface just as it all collapsed. Draco landed them all on a sand dune nearby.

They all let out a sigh of relief. Then they heard a cry of joy and turned around. Lilo, Stitch, and the other experiments were not too far from them. "Thank goodness you guys made it out all right," said Angel. 625 looked at the slime-covered Matt and Chris and said, "What happened to you two?" "Don't ask," said Chris. "Can we please get me changed back to normal?" said Matt. "This is giving me a heatstroke. I don't know how you guys can stand all of this hair." "That's one reason I'm glad to be a reptile," said Draco. "Sure thing," said TechnoMorph and hopped onto Matt's bottom-right arm. He pressed several buttons on the armband of his top-right arm. Matt felt a quiver throughout his body as his extra arms, spikes, and antennas withdrew. Unfortunately for TechnoMorph, he didn't have enough time to jump off before the arm he was sitting on withdrew. He landed on his back and said, "I think I hurt something." Matt sighed with relief, as the rest of his body became human again.

"Incidentally," said TechnoMorph as he got up. "I've installed a new feature in your armband that will allow you to take on that form whenever you want." "Like I'll ever want that," said Matt. "Now it's my turn," said Lilo. "Pardon?" "Didn't Kala get NegaMorph's DNA?" Kala rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably and said, "Yeah, about that. When I tried to grab NegaMorph, we counter-reacted." "How is that possible?" asked Lilo. "Kala has a Soul Shine," explained Chip. "Oh," said Lilo dejectedly. "So we didn't get anything out of all of this." Then there was the sound of metal grating against each other. Everyone turned around to see an enormous machine with 3 legs rise out of the ruins of Splicer's lair. "It's a T-3!" yelled Chris. "Everyone hit the deck!" The Tripod towered over the group by at least 15 feet. Suddenly the cockpit opened and PlasMorph popped out and said, "Hey guys! Check out my hot new ride!" "Where did you get that?" asked Matt. "I found it." "Don't you push any buttons," said Chip. "Ooh, what's this button do?" asked PlasMorph as he pushed a button. A laser beam shot out of one of the cannons and vaporized EnigMorph's head. "I think it's best if you let me put the safety on that thing," said Chip. Draco turned to Lilo and said, "Don't worry. All we have to do is get a sample of EnigMorph and purify for Kala." "Well at least we've seen the last of that crazy Symbiote," said Stitch.

Meanwhile on a satellite orbiting Jamaikamo, the slime from Splicer's explosion was stuck. Then Splicer's head form on the slime. "I'm not finished yet," said the Symbiote. Then Splicer turned himself into digital data and disappeared into the intergalactic Internet.

To Be Continued…

That's the last chapter for this story. I'll be working on the other fanfictions I promised for a while. But when I get back to the AOE Saga storyline, I'll introduce new characters to the saga.