Control Revamped
Chapter 6
A Team Assembled, A Leader Lost
The next day, in a flash of Chaos Control, we appeared in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The sixth member of our team waited there. But her parents would be a problem. Right away, with our chaos sensory, we knew were to go, people staring at us form all sides. We weren't really dressed as warm as we should be for a place like this. It was obvious we were outsiders. The fact that we appeared from thin air didn't help either. After about five minutes of walking, we reached the next member's house. We all stepped up to the front door and I knocked, getting a response quite quickly.
It was her father. He was a tall and bulky man, wearing a plumber's shirt and a bit of a beer belly under it. He looked like he had just recently gotten back from work. Clearly, by the look on his face, he could tell we were outsiders. "What do you kids want, huh?"
"We're here to see Ivy. It's important business. And don't worry, we're all friends."
"… Sorry, no outsiders are my daughter's friends." I had a feeling it would take force to get past this one. I looked over to Lauren and nodded, giving her the signal to take drastic measures. She quickly transformed into Liz and Ivy's father freaked out, quickly backing up while we walked in. I could clearly sense where Ivy was exactly, and I was lead over to the computer. From all the commotion, Ivy was already turned around, and her face lit up at the sight of us. Thankfully, Liz transformed back into Lauren before entering the room.
"Drew? Nicky?… Trey, Lauren, Dani?! What are you guys all doing here?!" She was a young girl of thirteen, with a short cut of brown hair, wearing mostly army green. She was also quite tanned for a girl living in such a cold place.
"Well, I'll give you a hint. It's involves seven shiny objects, and the end of the world as we know it." Ivy just stared for a moment, and her eyes widened as she found herself bathing in the lights of the first five Chaos Emeralds. Finally, in the presence of those five, her own awakened, and she summoned the indigo Chaos Emerald from within her.
"So… I'm part of the team? A-And I can become Trozae?"
"That's right Ivy." She quickly looked over to Lauren, and before we could say another word, her father came back in.
"I just called the police on you! They'll be here any minute, and you'll be in jail before you know it!"
"Forget it dad." Ivy's father clearly looked startled, and he gave Ivy a bewildered gaze. "I'm going with them. And you cant stop me."
"But-"
"Everyone, look at the news!" Nicky's call for our attention quickly found results, and we all stared at the TV. And what we saw was a horrifying sight. A blood red liquid creature was stomping through the streets of New York City, roaring at passers-by, and a young Italian girl with black hair and glowing skin cowered in the corner of the street, stuck on a pole, attached to it by liquid chaos restraints. Chaos had found the seventh member. Ashley was in his grasp.
".. Alright team. It's our first mission. Retrieve Ashley at all costs, and then we obliterate Chaos with the Super Form. Got it?" Everyone nodded, and I took my position in front of them as we all rose our Chaos Emeralds above us.
"CHAOS CONTROL!" In a flash, we appeared in the camera's view in New York City, and Chaos quickly turned his head toward us. Everyone who was watching couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"Alright… Ivy, you get him down long enough to get Ashley freed, Me and Dani will round him up for you. Trey, Blitz over and cut her out with an Oni Blade. Nicky and Lauren, provide backup if the plan fails." Everyone nodded behind me, and I quickly became Scion while Dani and Ivy transformed. Ivy became a green porcupine with purple and orange markings on the tips of her quills, wearing white shirts and a purple shirt, and green, purple, and orange sneakers. Once we were transformed, Trey snuck away towards Ashley.
I circled around Chaos at full speed, leaving the beast slightly confused. While I circled it, Chaos began to sling his arms at me, only to hit Dani's forcefield. Finally, I decided to release Ashley a bit faster, and just before Trozae shot a paralytic quill. Dani opened a hole in the forcefield, and Chaos just stretched his body around the quill, dodging it entirely, then slipping out through the hole like a stream of blood. At the last second, I cut through Ashley's restraints, then found myself being struck in the back by Chaos's extended arm, throwing me a few yards away. As I came to a skidding halt, the others ran up to me, including Ashley, who had caught on fast.
"Ok, what's the plan Drew?" A few of them bent over to help me back up. After crashing, I had deformed back into my human self, and so had everyone else.
"Like I said before. Use the Chaos Emeralds to access the Super Form, and obliterate him in one go. Ready?" Everyone nodded again, and we all transformed. Ashley was surrounded in a green chaos aura, and became a black cat with white markings, and long black hair with green streaks. Her outfit was entirely green, including a green loose fit shirt and a long skirt with a cut up the side. Her only unattractive feature was a scar over her left eye hidden by her bangs. Once we were transformed, we attempted to combine the powers of the seven Chaos Emeralds, by holding them as close to each other as we could. But nothing worked. Something was missing. And none of us could tell what it was. Before we had time to think about it, Chaos began to chuckle. His cackling was both terrifying and annoying. We had to put an end to it.
"Chaos… We may not have the Super Form, but we can still beat yo-" before I could finish my sentence, he slung out his arms and grabbed me by the ankle, and Grim by the arm. Neither of us could react in time, we were both slung into the air and toward a skyscraper nearby. At the last second, Grim surrounded himself in an Oni aura as he hit the upper half of the building. But on impact, the aura was released, and the explosion made the building very unstable. Then I was swung through the lower level, shattering the supports. I woke a few seconds after the impact and found that I was pinned down by a piece of ruble, and the building was quickly collapsing around me. I knew that with Chaos Control or a spindash, I could escape, but something stopped me.
An old man stood before me, with eerie and ominous looking eyes, standing there as if nothing was happening. "Tell me boy… do you really think you're any use to this team?…" I thought about it for a moment as I stared into his dark eyes. Maybe he was right. All I had done was make everyone worry, and get repeatedly beaten down. "Why not just lay here? Once the support beams fall, it will be a sudden and peaceful end… you wont even know what happened until it's already over…" He was right. I could just lay there and die. And I would be doing the team a favor. Or, so I thought at the moment. Something about those eyes just… compelled me to listen.
"DREW!" I slowly looked to my left, and saw Crystal standing outside the building, waving for me to hurry over.
"Go on without me! I can't move, so just go, save yourself!"
"No! I'm not leaving you!"
For a moment, I thought to myself… "You already did…" That moment, the support beams fell.
"Wait, grandpa?"
"Yeah kiddo?"
"if the beams fell, shouldn't you be dead?"
"No, thanks to Nicky, I'm alive and well. You see, at the last second, she finally accessed her time powers and got in there to grab me while it was frozen. Then she got out just before time started again, and we both survived. We all did. Now, back to the story…"
"Hold still Drew, I need to check your wounds…" Crystal placed her hands over me, which I had already deformed to my human self. I stayed still as she said, but knew that she would find horrifying results. She gasped and held her hands to her mouth as she returned to her human self, and she teared up a bit.
"What's wrong Nicky?" Lauren stared inquisitively, thinking she had found some sort of wound that was impossible to heal.
"He.. H-he's not hurt at all… he could have gotten out on his own…"
"He what?… but.. That means…" They slowly looked over to me again, and my head was held as low as it could go. I began to tear up a bit myself, and a few soft sobs escaped my lips. Finally, as they all circled around me and held on tight, I began to cry helplessly. I had fallen back into my deepest and darkest state of depression. Even worse than before even. I was willing to break the promise I had made to my friends and family.
The promise I had made to Nicky.
