The sound of chirping birds woke up Andrew. He rubbed his eyes, shut his dorm window, and turned off his alarm clock so it wouldn't go off later. He stretched his arms out and opened the daily planner on his nightstand. He couldn't believe it. For the first time in what seemed like forever, he had nothing planned! He could finally spend some quality time with his friends and coach the Defenders directly.
But before all that, he decided to go for a walk.
As he exited Slusher Tower, Andrew couldn't stop thinking of the possibilities. A whole day to do whatever he wanted. Where would he start? His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed an intense heat. He turned around, trying to find out where it was coming from, until he spotted the cause.
Slusher Tower was on fire.
Andrew watched in horror as Blues appeared out of nowhere and kidnapped panicking students, stuffing them into impossibly large burlap sacks. Then, the ground began to rumble and a gargantuan Big Blue rose up from behind Slusher. Big Blue put his ginormous hand on Slusher's roof.
"YOU FAILED, ANDREW!" Big Blue taunted, "IT'S MINE NOW!" Blues poured out of Slusher's windows like waterfalls while Big Blue let out an evil laugh. Andrew backed up. This couldn't be happening. Big Blue's eyes stared into his soul, mocking him. Mocking his failure.
And then he woke up.
Two tired eyes opened themselves to reality: A small clearing in the woods with a small bonfire in the center and a cooked rabbit on a stick being shoved in his face.
"We got lucky with breakfast today," Hang told Andrew, "Want some?" Andrew pushed the rabbit away.
"Not hungry."
"Come on, you can't keep skipping meals like this," Hang said as Andrew got up.
"Don't care," Andrew said bluntly.
"Well," Pedro interjected, confidently strutting in from behind a tree, "I guess that means more for me!"
Andrew glared at him, tore off a rather large piece of the rabbit, and stuffed it into his mouth out of spite.
"There we go, that's the Andrew I know!" Pedro joked.
"Pedro, how can you be so cheerful?" Hang asked.
"SOMEone's got to keep our spirits up, and since all the usual merrymakers aren't here, I guess that's my job now, isn't it?" Pedro declared, putting a friendly arm around Hang. Hang couldn't help but smile with Pedro, but after a few seconds both of their grins faded.
How long had it been? A week? Maybe even two weeks? All that time and they still hadn't recovered a single member. Spirits were low, to say the least. Andrew checked in on Michael to see the grey kid doodling a certain gilded hero's mask in the dirt. Andrew stared at it for a few seconds until Michael looked up at his leader, evidently self-conscious. Andrew took the cue and turned away. Even then, it inspired something in him. He took a deep breath and called out to rally the others.
"What's up, boss?" Pedro asked as he arrived with Hang.
"I've realized that out here, there won't be any heroes to help us," Andrew began. "It's time we take matters back into our hands, because I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick of wandering around this forest and being worried sick about where everyone else is! We're the Slush Defenders! We should be taking action!" He spoke.
"That's nice, but how are we gonna get out of this forest?" Hang asked. "I don't even remember which direction we entered from!"
"Good point. Michael, draw us a map!" Andrew ordered. Michael drew a picture of Slusher on the ground and then drew a bunch of trees not far from it. He drew a line from Slusher to the trees and kept making a path while drawing new trees to represent the forest. After a few seconds, Michael stopped to scratch his head in confusion before giving the others a shrug.
"Worth a shot. I guess we'll just keep walking until we find a way out," Andrew said.
And so they walked. They walked until the sun fell and the stars appeared overhead. Pedro, Hang, and Michael began to tire and they each sat down. Andrew looked back at them, broke off a branch from a tree, and slammed it down in front of them to wake them up. The three jolted in surprise, but stayed on the ground.
"…Why aren't you getting up?" Andrew asked through gritted teeth.
"Andrew, we've been walking all day! We're tired, okay?" Pedro complained. Michael nodded his head in agreement.
"Well too bad, we've had plenty of time to rest already. If we don't get moving, we're never going to make it out of here and we're never going to find the others," Andrew scolded.
"Come on, just let us sleep for a few hours," Pedro protested, laying his head on the dirt. While Pedro did that, Hang looked up and saw the stars sparkle in the sky. They looked so clear, so close. It reminded him of the time he snuck out with Thomas and Kyle to see the witches.
Kyle… Thomas… It had been so long since he had seen either of them. Hang looked down at the ground as troubling thoughts clouded his mind. When would be the next time he'd see them? Of course, that was assuming he would ever see them again…
Hang stood up and walked over to Andrew.
"Hang, what? Aren't your legs killing you?" Pedro asked, lifting his head off the ground.
"They are, but Andrew's right. I want to find my friends. After all, we don't know what Big Blue could've done to them…" Hang trailed off. Andrew's face momentarily became awash with fear before he regained his composure. A few more seconds passed before Michael stretched his arms out and stood up, prompting Pedro to get up as well.
"You know, we still don't have a plan or any idea where to go," Pedro said.
"That hasn't escaped me," Andrew replied, "Which is why you can go scout out the surrounding area for any signs of civilization."
"Had to open my big mouth, huh?" Pedro lightheartedly chuckled. "Alright, I'll see what I can do with what fuel I've got left." With that, Pedro sped off. A few minutes of waiting later, the remaining three heard rustling through the underbrush. Andrew stood out before the other two and put up his fists, ready to deal with whatever came through. To his surprise, an exhausted Pedro emerged instead. Andrew rushed up to Pedro and caught him as he fell over. The yellow man was wheezing and gasping for breath.
"Just take it easy, Pedro. Did you find anything?" Andrew asked. Pedro weakly nodded and pointed behind himself.
"That way…" Pedro wheezed, "…saw some buildings…" Andrew nodded and hoisted Pedro over his shoulder.
"You get some rest," Andrew told Pedro before looking back at Hang and Michael. "Come on you two, this way!" He shouted. The group rushed off in the direction Pedro specified. They stopped multiple times to catch their breath, but kept going all through the night. By the time the sun rose, all of them were worn out.
"Pedro, are you sure you saw buildings this way?" Hang asked. Pedro's snoring was his only response.
"Look, I know we've been going for a while, but I'm sure we're getting close-" Andrew was immediately cut off when he ran into a chain fence and fell over. After rubbing his head, Andrew looked up to see what a fence was doing in the middle of a forest, only to realize that it wasn't in the middle of the forest at all. They had finally arrived at the forest's edge, and the fence was the only thing separating them from the town on the other side.
"Hey, this is it, we made it!" Hang cheered. Andrew said nothing and climbed the fence with Pedro still sleeping over his shoulder. Mike and Hang followed, but stopped when they saw what was on the other side. The city was in ruins. Windows were smashed, graffiti and paint stains were everywhere, not a single person was around, and parts of the area even seemed to be burned.
"Oh my god… what happened here?" Hang wondered aloud.
"Do you have to ask?" Andrew replied, pointing at a piece of graffiti. Written in blue paint were the words "ALL HAIL BIG BLUE". In fact, all of the paint in the area was blue. Blue. Blue.
"…How long have we been gone?!" Hang shouted.
At the outburst, a shopkeeper poked their head out of the door of a damaged store. The group didn't say anything and just watched, waiting for the stranger to do something.
"What are you doing out there?" The keeper whispered in an urgent tone, "Get in, quick!" The gang looked at each other, but decided to heed the shopkeeper's advice and follow him inside. Once there, the shopkeeper locked the door and they could see that they weren't alone. There was a whole crowd of miserable-looking people inside, a crowd that immediately began talking among themselves when the new arrivals showed their faces.
"Aren't those the Slush Defenders?" Someone asked while Andrew put Pedro's resting body on a chair.
"No way, they don't have a red member!" Another rebutted.
"Actually… we are the Slush Defenders," Andrew confessed. "Or, at least we were the Slush Defenders."
Out of nowhere, a large, angry man jumped out of the crowd and punched Andrew in the face. Hang and Michael threw themselves between the assailant and Andrew, looking more like they were protecting the man from Andrew rather than the other way around.
"WHERE IN THE WORLD HAVE YOU BEEN?!" The man screamed in anger. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THE BLUES HAVE DONE?!"
Andrew leaned forward with a furious growl as one of his fists began to shake. "For your information, we've been running for our lives!" He practically yelled. Andrew then noticed the barrier his teammates had made in front of him and forced himself to take some deep breaths. "Look, I'm not any happier about us running than you are, but we were outnumbered and outmatched," he explained. "I'd much rather have four of us escape to fight another day than all of us get captured… or worse."
"Wait, what HAVE the Blues done?" Hang asked as he and Michael saw the angry man away. Someone else came forward with a few ragged newspapers. Andrew took them and the three awake Defenders looked at the headlines together.
"Blues Invade 'Uninvadable' Slusher Tower!" One of them read. "Blue Uprising Continues!" Another displayed, accompanied with a picture of Blues fighting against police forces. "Who Is Big Blue?" A third headline said with a blurry photo of Big Blue holding a paint can.
"This- This isn't real, right?" Hang asked, "We're just dreaming, right? There's no way it got this out of control, right?" Hang desperately pleaded. The crowd just looked at him silently. Michael closed his eyes in thought before whispering something into Andrew's ear. Andrew's eyebrows raised and he cleared his throat.
"We didn't see any Blues out there, so why is everyone hiding?" Andrew asked. Michael nodded his head.
"It's not the Blues we're hiding from, they left a long time ago," the shopkeeper explained. "We're hiding from what they left behind to deal with everyone in the area that didn't want to be turned into part of Big Blue's army."
"And what would that be?" Andrew probed.
"The Toaster," the shopkeeper told him in a fearfully hushed voice.
"…The Toaster? That doesn't sound very threatening," Hang remarked.
"I know how it sounds, but-" A rumbling sound came from outside. "…Looks like you'll see for yourself."
Andrew, Hang, and Michael looked out the windows and watched in shock as a four-wheeled tank with a teal and silver color scheme rolled down the street, crushing a cop car as it drove over it with a horrific metal crunch. Curiously, its gun was pointed up to the sky. Meanwhile, all the noise the Toaster was making had woken up Pedro, who was groggily staring at the shop crowd.
"…Who are you people?" Pedro mumbled.
Andrew looked at Hang and Michael. "I think we all know what we have to do," he told them.
"You're not seriously suggesting we go up against that thing, are you?" Hang replied.
"Yes, yes I am. Absence or not, we're still defenders, and that means defending people whether there's a Slusher or not. Besides…" Andrew looked away, "We can't shirk all responsibility for this disaster."
Michael absentmindedly yawned, stopping himself once he realized he was doing it.
"We'll get some sleep afterward, I promise," Andrew told them. "Now, are you two with me?" Andrew asked as he held his hand out. Hang gulped and put his hand on Andrew's along with Michael.
"Alright, Defenders," Andrew said and pulled his hand back. "…Let's go clean up this mess." All three of them rushed out the door while Pedro stayed behind and nodded back off.
Once outside, Andrew started issuing orders. "Michael, you distract the tank. Hang and I will find a way in," he commanded. Michael whipped his pen out and ran in front of the Toaster while Andrew and Hang went for its side. As Andrew jumped onto the Toaster and helped Hang up, Michael made his pen glow and waved it around, creating bright green lines in the air that vanished as quickly as they appeared. The Toaster stopped before it hit Michael. It had seen him. Michael stopped, waiting to see what the tank would do next.
Then an explosion of green flame erupted from the Toaster's upwards barrel. Andrew had to duck his head down due to the excruciating heat. Then the Toaster's gun moved and pointed itself squarely at Michael. Seconds before it fired again, Michael jumped out of the way and ran for his life. The Toaster started moving to chase after Michael, forcing Andrew and Hang to tighten their grips just to stay on.
"Okay, so the turret moves!" Andrew said over the Toaster's mechanical whirring. He cleared his throat and raised his voice. "MICHAEL!" Andrew yelled, grabbing Michael's attention while he panted for breath. "RUN ALL THE WAY AROUND THE TANK!"
Michael looked up at him with tired eyes, but tried anyway. The Toaster tried to turn itself around to follow Michael, but it stopped as Michael reached the back, instead opting to move its gun again. Andrew and Hang observed the gun tilting back up and then down in the other direction. Michael forced his heavy eyelids open to see the Toaster charging another blast, one he wouldn't be able to evade in time. Quickly, Michael drew a shield and held it against the blast of green fire. It just barely held up, melting away as the blast subsided. Michael immediately stumbled away once it was over.
"Alright, Hang, listen up!" Andrew shouted. "That thing can only move on one axis, so the hatch to the inside can't be on the front, back, or top! It's got to be somewhere on the sides!" He explained. "I'll look here, you look on the other side! And hurry, I don't know how much longer Michael can keep it up!" He barked as Michael teetered around like a drunken fly. Hang himself was having trouble staying awake. He couldn't imagine how tired Michael must have been running around like that. The Toaster continued to move, turning itself so its gun faced Michael again. Hang, seeing this, scoured his mind for a plan. Seconds later, he had one.
"Andrew, why don't you check both sides?" Hang suggested as he climbed up the Toaster.
"HANG, THERE'S NO TIME!" Andrew shouted, looking at the barrel focusing itself on Michael.
"I'll make time!" Hang replied and climbed up to the Toaster's gun. He shimmied down the barrel and put his hand in front of it just as the Toaster began to fire on Michael. Hang waved his hand around, dispersing the green fire as it came out. The tank gun started moving back and forth, trying to shake Hang off.
Andrew hurried to cross the Toaster, hindered by the rapidly moving gun barrel. He waited for a good opening before jumping to the other side. He narrowly missed getting swatted. Andrew grabbed onto a ladder rung and found the hatch just above him. He planted his feet on another rung, pulled himself up, and tugged on the hatch with all his might. It wouldn't budge no matter how hard he tried.
"ANDREW, CAN YOU HURRY IT UP?" Hang shouted as the gun lurched him from side to side. He could feel his strength waning and his grip slipping.
"I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN!" Andrew angrily shouted back. He didn't notice the hatch starting to move, but Hang did.
"YEAH, WELL IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH! TRY HARDER!" Hang yelled, deliberately trying to sound like Andrew at his worst.
"DON'T YOU TALK BACK TO ME, HANG!"
"I WOULDN'T HAVE TO IF YOU'D JUST DO IT RIGHT ALREADY!"
"WHY YOU LITTLE-" Before Andrew could finish his thought, the hatch flew open. Immediately after, the Toaster finally succeeded in shaking Hang off and flung him on the ground. Andrew wasted no time in getting inside the tank. Inside, he found three Blues controlling the Toaster. One steering it, one operating the gun, and one watching a large glass cylinder in the middle of the room. They all turned to look at their new arrival. Andrew menacingly slammed his fist into his palm.
"Payback time."
On the ground, Hang crawled over to a now-sleeping Michael and tried to slap him awake.
"Wake up, wake UP!" Hang begged as the Toaster moved closer. Hang looked back and saw one of the wheels about to crush his foot. He closed his eyes, waiting to be run over when he heard the Toaster making all sorts of noises instead. Hang opened his eyes and indeed the Toaster was going crazy, steering in every which way and waving its gun rapidly. Eventually, it stopped completely and Andrew poked his head out of the hatch, which was now facing Hang.
"You two okay?" Andrew asked tiredly. Hang nodded his head. "Good. Look, get in here if you can, there's something you're gonna want to see."
Hang groaned and staggered to his feet. He climbed up the Toaster and dropped down through the hatch. The three Blues had all been knocked out, with one of them resting on a now-broken control panel. More importantly, the glass case in the center had been shattered, revealing what was inside. Hang couldn't believe his eyes.
"Hey Hang…" Kyle feebly said, tubes sticking out of multiple parts of his body. "…Could you give me a hand?"
After freeing Kyle, he and Hang shared a hug while Andrew went outside to tend to Michael. Andrew sighed when he saw Michael sleeping on the road and picked him up.
A few minutes later, the four of them regrouped inside the shop. They were greeted by cheers and praise, as well as Pedro sipping a cup of coffee to try and regain his lost energy.
"I'm sorry, I don't know where the others are," Kyle told the group, answering a previously asked question, "I just woke up in that thing one day and, well, they put me to work."
"I am so so sorry we couldn't free you sooner," Hang apologized, looking down.
"Nah, it's fine, I'm just happy that you guys made it," Kyle replied. "Where'd you come from anyway?"
"We fled through the forest," Andrew explained, "None of us have any idea how long we stayed there. Most of our time was spent trying to find a way out."
"Wait, the forest?" Kyle froze up. "Did you see Mallory?"
"No, Kyle, we didn't see her," Andrew said, blinking to stay awake.
"Then we have to go back! Mallory's probably been worried sick about me!"
"Oh no, we are NOT going back!" Andrew said, standing up, "We JUST got out of there, and there's still eleven of us left to find!"
Kyle stopped to think for a moment when he got an idea. "Andrew, we're going to need all the help that we can get now that there's so few of us, right?"
"…Where is this going?" Andrew asked. In another corner, Hang propped up Michael in a chair while he slept.
"Where this is going is that Mallory's a witch! She can use magic! If we can get her on our side, there's no telling how much help she could be to us!" Kyle said. "Plus, the forest is right here, and I can lead you guys to her!"
"…Fine." Andrew cleared his throat and turned to the people in the shop. "Ladies, gentlemen, thank you for your hospitality, but we have to leave now."
"Are you sure? They don't look like they're going anywhere," the shopkeeper said, pointing to the other three Defenders. All of them were asleep. Hang had dozed off against a wall and Pedro was slumped over in his chair with his coffee spilling on the floor. Watching them, Andrew finally began to realize just how exhausted he was as well.
"Actually, y'know what?…" Andrew yawned and sat down on the floor. "Maybe we'll go… tomorrow…"
And like that, he was out.
A few weeks ago, shortly after the invasion, Big Blue was hard at work in his base plotting out what he would do next after his grand success. The remaining Defenders that hadn't already been relocated were strewn about the base, a few of them laying around in the lab itself. Blue Uno was there by his side, talking to him.
"Boss, sorry if I'm being intrusive but, don't you think we should keep at least a few of them?" Uno suggested, "I mean, how common are super powered kids?"
"Common enough to fill a college with them," Big Blue replied dismissively, "But you do make a good point." Big Blue got up from his desk and looked around the Defenders in the room before picking three. "I'll take the sword master, the sniper, and superman," he said, pointing at Omar, Eric, and Thomas respectively.
"Excellent choices!" Uno cheered.
"Really, do you expect anything less?" Big Blue grinned. Just then, another Blue entered holding an unconscious James.
"Sir, I got the grey one like you asked!" The Blue reported. Big Blue turned to look and grimaced.
"No, no, you idiot!" Big Blue scolded, "I didn't want the dark grey one, I wanted the regular grey one with a five o'clock shadow!" He said, rubbing his own chin to underline the point.
"I see, I'm sorry sir," the Blue said and left.
"Yeah, you better be!" Big Blue angrily shouted after him. He sat back down with a tired slump. "Geez, it's like some of these guys are brain-dead! Hey, Uno!" Big Blue snapped his fingers, getting Uno's attention, "What do you think of this idea?"
Uno walked over to Big Blue's desk and saw a blueprint for a weird-looking tank with the name "Toaster" written in the top left corner.
"See, what's gonna happen is that we're gonna stick the orange guy-"
"Wait wait," Uno interrupted. Big Blue gave him a death glare but let Uno continue anyway. "...How are we going to build this? Moreover, how are we gonna build all your other stuff?" Uno asked, motioning towards a pile of blueprints.
"Simple," Big Blue answered as another Blue entered, this time carrying Waqas. Big Blue turned his chair around and pointed to the floor. The Blue dropped Waqas and left. "See this man, Uno?" Big Blue asked while getting up and slowly walking over to Waqas, "This man right here is the answer to all our technological worries."
"Him? But he's not gonna want to work for us after all we did for Slusher, is he?"
Big Blue chuckled. "Of course he's not!" he said in an oddly happy tone… while picking up a bucket of blue paint.
"...Good thing that won't be a problem."
SPLASH!