Chapter 5
Race Against Time
The shadow energy is spreading fast. Nic and the others are using any sort of speed power they have. In Nic's case, it's Static Thrusters; Hurricane is using his tornado limbs for a speed boost; Tech Boy and Tech Girl are riding those platforms (Tech Boy reformed his right when the shadow energy started spreading) like they were surfboards; and Earth is the unlucky soul who is on foot.
"Hey, wait up. I can't go as fast as the rest of you," panicks Earth as the shadow energy was on his tail.
Tech Boy sighs and says, "Only because we can't afford to lose somebody else especially with your skill level."
He shot a spot next to Earth making a platform. Earth jumps on it and starts riding it. However, he has no clue how to control it and is going all over the place except towards the shadow energy luckily. Tech Boy turns a knob on the blaster and shoots the platform Earth was on putting it on autopilot. The shadow energy is speeding up.
In the Shadow Energy Core, Jeremiah is about to lock himself in combat with Darkness. He tries forming his Light Sword but it dissipated as soon as it appeared. He tries again with the same result.
"My powers…" mutters Jeremiah in a state of fear.
"Don't worry. Only your light powers are disabled due to the fact that this place is completely made of shadow energy. No light exists here that you can manipulate. So," explains Darkness.
"My light powers are useless because there is nothing to focus. But, that doesn't mean that my other powers won't work on you," finishes Jeremiah as his fist becomes engulfed in flames.
He activates his Citaloanin Sight in order to see his surroundings and make sure Darkness didn't try pulling off a sneak attack. He finds Darkness behind him and tries to Fire Punch him. His attack goes straight through Darkness and he uppercuts Jeremiah hitting him straight in the jawbone. His hand turns back to normal.
"What the heck? My attack went through him," bursts an astonished Jeremiah.
"Oh come on now. You haven't forgotten how my shadow form works, did you?" taunts Darkness.
Jeremiah gulps and realizes, "While you're in your Shadow Form, nothing but light can harm you outside the Shadow Realm. Although I know sunlight is ineffective against you, my light powers were the only method of damaging you during your attacks. That means…this is a trap!"
"It took you that long to figure it out? My, I thought you were supposed to be smarter than that. Basically, I put you in a fight that you cannot win," replies Darkness as he punches Jeremiah in the chest knocking him back a bit.
"Even if victory seems impossible, I will try anyway," states Jeremiah as a bunch of rocks forms around Jeremiah's foot in a boot shape with a really pointy tip.
He tries kicking Darkness with Earth Kick, but that went through him too. Darkness suddenly disappears and reappears behind him. Then, he uses Dark Blast making Jeremiah hit the Boundary that keeps him trapped in there.
In the Medical Wing,
Every nurse and doctor in there is busy with at least 10 patients. It's taking all their staff on hand to keep up with all the injuries people sustained from the all-out warfare. Nic and the rest of them just got there.
"Everyone, listen. We have to evacuate immediately. Shadow energy is coming this way and it'll corrupt anyone it touches," exclaims Nic at the top of his lungs.
He suddenly hears a familiar voice that replies, "Like me?"
He dodges a sudden attack, which was a couple of wall panels flying straight at him. He looks in the direction of the attack and spots Tiffany. Tiffany jumps, flips, and kicks Nic from behind.
"By the way, I never liked you," says Tiffany as Nic fell to the floor.
That statement crushed Nic's heart. He crawls to a corner and starts crying about it.
Tech Boy exclaims, "Really? Is this the time to turn into a snibbling sad sack?"
Nic rocks back and forth in a state of total depression. The shadow energy just entered the Medical Wing.
Back in the Shadow Energy Core,
No matter what attack he tired, it went through Darkness. He tried attacks from Fire Strike (a basic attack power where he makes a fiery whip to hit his opponents) to ST Mega Blast (A power that takes a while to charge because of the fact that Jeremiah has to form a huge sphere right above him and shoot a blast of immeasurable power out of it). And to make matters worse, Darkness has inflicted heavy damage on him. In that environment, Darkness is unbeatable. However, Jeremiah refuses to accept that. He tries turning into his Light Turbo Form but ultimately failed. So, he went into his All-Out Turbo Form which looks like he's got circuits all over his body, gives him really spiky hair, and turns his body into every color of the rainbow. It's a step lower than Light, but it's all he could manage under the circumstances. He spins forming a massive tornado of flames around him. This power is called Fire Tornado. Unfortunately, that attack also went through Darkness. He grabs Jeremiah and pinned him to the boundary.
"Just give up. You have no hope of winning this fight," asserts Darkness.
"I always got hope. And as they say, (Darkness saw something glowing in Jeremiah's hand) where there's a will (Darkness looks at his hand and saw some sort of sphere) there's a way," declares Jeremiah as he rolled the odd sphere at Darkness like a bowling ball as best as he could.
It actually hit Darkness causing him to let go. He fell down a bit.
"But how?" asks an astonished Darkness.
"That's a power called Light Water Sphere. It's a lot lower level than my usual light powers," answers Jeremiah.
"But, why doesn't the Shadow Energy Core block that one too?" questions Darkness.
"Because this one isn't a pure light power. You see this was my first mega power. This was when I was under the assumption that I would only have one mega power like regular Citaloanins. This power has gotten me through many battles before you and it's about time it regained its glory," answers Jeremiah as he formed another one.
Light Water Sphere is a power where Jeremiah forms a sphere of water and infuses his own light energy into it. The external water protects it from the light-canceling effects of the Shadow Energy Core.
"Sayonara, Darkness," says Jeremiah as he rolls it.
At the Medical Wing,
They loaded all the patients on stretchers plus Nic who is still depressed by Tiffany's words. Tech Boy was distracting Tiffany by shooting at her and leading her attacks away from the patients. Tech Boy runs into the hallway behind him using his technopathy to close the automatic doors right when Tiffany attacked with another wall panel and when the shadow energy just reached there. Tech Boy thought that he was safe for a moment. He was wrong because the shadow energy went under the door and continued to spread. Everyone runs to the Ship Bay, the shadow energy gaining on them. When they got into the Ship Bay, Tech Boy closes the door behind him and opens up the launch pad. Everyone crowds into the ships while the shadow energy creeps in. There were so many people; they could barely squeeze them into the ships. Some people even thought about leaving the others behind and saving their own skin. Luckily no one even bothered trying that. The ships began to take off one by one and left. Tech Boy and Tech Girl got in a ship right before the shadow energy touched them. That ship was the last to take off. They look outside the window and saw the Shadow Energy Core. They saw it flash and got a glimpse of Jeremiah fighting Darkness. The last glimpse they got was Jeremiah being knocked out.
Tech Girl starts crying and denying, "No. No. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Tech Boy pats her on the shoulder and soothes, "There, there. It'll be alright."
Tech Girl hugs her brother and let it all out. The Agency was lost.