Chapter 15: Botanic Laboratory

As the Great Hurricane was on its way to the next destination, Jin and Sesshomaru were in the dueling room trading blows with their swords as Shion and Kagome watched.

"You fight like a true samurai," Jin commented as they took a breather.

"I never met a human who could fight like a lord," Sesshomaru complimented, "Perhaps you humans aren't as weak as I once thought."

Jin shrugged, "Shall we continue?"

"Indeed," Sesshomaru replied as he raised the Tokijin again.

"Wow, it seems both Jin and Sesshomaru are both evenly matched." Shion commented.

"Yeah, though I wish he and Inuyasha would get along." Kagome added.

Then the intercom came on. "Attention mates. We have arrived at our destination. We are about to land." Marine's voice said.

"Looks like we arrive at our destination." Shion said.

Guerrero, Mexico...

The Great Hurricane landed near an building. It was an abandoned lab with some vines and leaves growing all over it.

"Wow..." Zoey blinked.

"This lab must have been abandoned for years," Chick commented.

"Maybe we can find something we're looking for in there," Tetsuro suggested.

"Problem is…" Uranus pointed out. "There's plants covering the doorway."

"Allow me to handle this… with fire!" Jakken yelled as he readied his staff.

"W-Wait! Don't do it!" Shin yelled as he stood in front of the vines.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Shin's one of them plant lovers, right?" Sonic asked Hayate. He nodded.

"Wha?! What is it boy?!" Jakken demanded.

"Trees have feelings! Here, I'll open the way." Shin concentrated and the plants moved out of the way.

"Well that was easy." Knuckles commented as he used his super strength to open the door with Akiwo's help.

The Mercenaries entered the abandoned lab, it was a huge hallway covered in plants and vines. As soon as they when closer, they were greeted by Surveillance Eyes and Glovers.

"So the Baron's forces are here this time," Himeno said. She was now in her Sound Pretear form.

"Let's get them out of the way! Destiny Coin! Heads!" Yukari shouted as she threw a yen coin to the ground. It landed on heads and the Phantaroids vanished in a flash of light.

"Nice, Yukari! Let's go!" Ririka smiled.

They made their way through the laboratory and encounter Prowlers, Slash Solders and Strikeans. They made short work out of them. As they reached a lobby, they found Gunslingers, Strafes and Sideliners.

"I got this one! Rain Blade!" Shion shouted as she send a rain of energy down on the Gunslingers.

"Take this!" Evangeline shouted as she fired a dark blizzard on the remaining Phantaroids. They froze and exploded.

"This is almost too easy!" Fu smiled.

"Still, THEY could be here too," Yue shivered.

"Yes, let's watch out," Fuu nodded.

The Mercenaries climbed the stairs as they were bombarded by Magnum Loaders. Kagome managed to shoot them down. As they jumped off the stairs, they began to run across the large vines and fought against more Magnum Loaders. They came to another vine covered hallway and found Sideliners riding on the walls and right for them. Naruto and Sakura to slice them good.

The continued their way up to the top of the lab, when they were met by more Prowlers and Strikeans. "Let me handle this!" Ririka said as she glowed with pink energy, "Angel Aid Lighting Flash!" she let loose a powerful wave of energy. It looked like a weaker version of Chaos Blast but just as effective.

They were about continue on when some monster-looking plants came out of no where. "What the?!" Sonic gasped.

"What! Stop!" Shin pleaded as he tried to control them. The plants hissed and tried to lung, but Himeno swooped in and caught him in time. "What's wrong? Why won't they listen to me?" Shin cried.

"They must be mutated plants," Hikaru said as she brought up her sword. "I'm sorry Shin, but we have to cut them down."

"I guess there's no way past it," Shin nodded sadly.

Everyone cut and burned through the plants to keep going. For the plants that were not mutated, Shin and Ruby used them to help get across. As the reached another area, they jumped down to and office room that was flooded with green water. The water was right up to their ankles.

"Hey! This water isn't draining my power!" Moka noticed as she glided her hand through, "It must be mixed with some plant herbs."

"So you mix water with herbs to keep it from hurting you?" Daisy asked.

"Yeah, I- wha?!" Moka suddenly froze as she heard the sound of crawling bugs. "It's that noise again!"

"Oh no!" Venus screamed as she saw the Terror Bites crawling out of the vents.

"Get down!" Jr shouted as he fired his pistols at the bugs. The gunslingers and fire users added to the assault as the TB MK I crawled on the walls and the TB MK III flew in the air. Soon, mutant mantises came flying out of the vent.

"That must be the series two!" Blaze alerted. "Careful! They're immune to heat!"

"Eat this you slime!" Kagome shouted as she fired her arrow at one. As soon as it hit, the Terror Bite separated into three smaller forms.

"What!?" Filia gasped.

"I've had enough! My dress is already drenched! Total Impact!" Rozalin yelled as she fired her guns everywhere. All the Terror Bites were shot down.

"Just what in the world was that?!" Jakken stammered. "They weren't anything like Naraku's bugs!"

"Those were biological weapons called Terror Bites," Renee said, "They were created by the military."

"You mean humans created those monstrosities!?"

"Interesting," Sesshomaru smirked, "Something so small yet highly deadly. You humans continue to fascinate me."

The Mercenaries continued their way through the flooded area as they fought off more Phantaroids. They climbed a few more flights up to the areas that were all flooded. Finally, they reached the flooded penthouse lab.

"I wonder what can we find here," Prier wondered as she looked around.

"These equipment seem a bit outdated," Bridget said as she checked some of the gear.

"But still..." Mercury said as she searched. Suddenly, something bounced on her head, making her gasp in surprise. Everyone turned and found a square headed monkey wearing a sombrero and carried a maraca in each hand. He was squealing in panic.

"Amigo!" Billy gasped.

"I think he's trying to tell us something," Rolly guessed.

Amigo continued to squeal until he saw something over them. He jumped out of the way as two eyeballs covered in digital codes, one red and the other blue, landed in front of them.

"Computer viruses!" Jupiter gasped.

"I bet Manfred brought them here!" Zoey frowned. "Let's delete them!"

DOUBLE SOUL VIRUS (Theme: Blue Falcon from Shadow the Hedgehog)

"Egg Bomb!" Billy yelled as he threw his attack at the Red Eye, giving it damage, the Blue Eye fired a blue ray at the Mercenaries, but they dodged it. "Wind Scar!" Inuyasha yelled his attack as it hit the Blue Eye. The Red and Blue Eyes combined to emit a giant laser beam, the Mercenaries had to fly and jump out of the way, "Heart Arrow!" Corina yelled her attack as it struck the Red Eye for medium damage. The Red Eye fired fire balls at Lina, Gourry blocked it with his sword. The Blue Eye fire cyber missiles at Amy. "Hammer Whirlwind!" she shouted as she launched a whirlwind on the Blue Eye to make the attack cancel. "Flame Circle!" Hikaru launch her fire attack at the Red Eye for massive damage. "Eat this!" Sakuya fired a bazooka at the Blue Eye for massive damage also. "Adrenaline Rush!" Sonic rams the two Eyes into each other. "Windy!" Sakura use Windy to give the two Eyes massive amounts of hurt. "Hiraikotsu!" Sango launched her boomerang at the Blue Eye. The two Eyes begin their combo attack again, but like before the Mercenaries dodged it. "Thunder Lance!" Etna launched her attack at the Two Eyes for massive damage. Laharl and Mao with Raspberyl Blade slashed the two Eyes The eyes did another combo attack only now they went back to back and fired lasers all around, making it harder to avoid. Hayate use Wind Leafe to give them double damage with Satomi's robot arms to double it. Himeno used a Sonic Arrow attack to complete the combo. The Double Soul Virus were being to lose power. "We'll finish this! Rose Bell, full power!" "X Buster!" Zoey and KOS-MOS combine their attacks to hit the Eyes, the Eyes vanished in defeat.

"Whew!" Yukari smiled.

Amgio came out of his hiding place and went up to Sonic. "What were doing here? It's dangerous now, you know," Sonic told him.

Amgio pulled out an old looking battery pack and gave it to him. "Hey, that looks like something we could use," Silver commented.

"So you wanted to go get it before the Phantaroids did. Good job!" Sonic smiled.

Suddenly, the master computer activated, alerting them. "Huh?" Ako wondered.

The Indian Feather from Shion's backpack reacted and floated to computer and protected an image of the world map. Then it zoomed into, Europe, then into England, and then into...

"Avalon," Sonic blinked.

"Look's like we're headed for Avalon now," Lily said.

"Hey, thanks for finding the treasure for us, Amgio!" Bantam smiled as he picked the monkey up. Amgio squealed happily in response.

"If you find something useful. Be sure to let us know, ok?" Sonic smiled. Amgio squealed happily as he ran out of the lab and journeid home.

Amigo has helped our heroes, next stop, Avalon!

TBC

Next time: Knight of the Wind