Chapter 22: Death Strikes at Midnight

September 26th, 2006 12:01am

Retroville Safezone

On the edge of the war torn city, thousands upon thousands of refugees are left with nothing to do but comfort those that are injured and loved ones as well as look out to the battle in the distance. While the Chicken Ships are blown out of the sky, the enemy's still raging on. In the distance Sheen runs toward the bunker holding both Jimmy and Cindy over his shoulders. As he arrived, the officers showed them in, to where they both can rest with a doctor checking up on them.

"Will they both make it?" Sheen couldn't help but ask after a couple minutes.

Dr. Davis responded with a sad smile. "They are incredibly injured. Most of James' injuries are to his arm, so he will make it. Cindy on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure. While the wound didn't hit her vitals, she's losing a lot of blood, so while I patched her up, her heart rate's slow."

Sheen put his fist to the wall. "I wish I was fast enough to save them... thanks doc." As he was about to exit, someone grabbed his arm. He turned to see Jimmy, who was barely awake, using his remaining arm.

"Take... this... there's... still... a way." Jimmy grabbed the hyper cube in his pocket and handed it to Sheen. "Find... April..."

"I won't let you down!" Sheen nodded. To which, Jimmy sadly grinned and faded into unconsciousness.

He then walked back to the exit where he saw the refugees. Some looked at him with glares on their faces. A few made remarks on how he was a friend of Neutron's and how this was his doing. Between all the emotions running through his head, he then proceeded to run back out into the city to attack any enemy he could until he could find her.

"Lock on target men!" General Abercrombe ordered his troops as they all proceeded to surround Gortox with soldiers, tanks and copters. He merely smirked the entire time as they did this. "Ready?!" All their weapons were loaded and aimed at the levitating lizard. "Fire!" First, the soldiers opened fire. Ten seconds in, the vehicles then fired too. All the weapons at their disposal were shot at Gortox for fifteen whole seconds, not taking any chances. He then held his hand to signal everyone to stop firing. Once the smoke cleared, they saw no sign of damage to Gortox or even the ammunition they fired.

"Our weapons were useless," one soldier remarked in shock.

"You shouldn't have. This is too generous. In fact..." Gortox smiled. "You can have it back." He then opened his hand, aimed at the squad and used the power of the Matrix generator to fire some of the ammunition previously fired at him, back at every soldier on the scene.

"Fall back everyone! Retrea-" General Abercrombie ordered in vain as he and every soldier involved was wiped out in a matter of seconds. Once no survivors were seen, Gortox couldn't help but laugh maliciously.

"With all this power, who can even come close to what I have?!"

Meanwhile in the ruins of the city, April woke up and noticed a few fallen skyscrapers, some parts on the street in flames and hardly any people. She attempted to run, but ended up limping due to exhaustion. Every now and then, a Yolkian showed up and attempted to attack her. She used whatever strength she had to fend for herself. For… my people.

Nick was also getting a little exhausted from trying to find more survivors. Mostly he only saw corpses or Yolkians. He then noticed a saucer the size of a frisbee floating above him. "You guys too?" He muttered as recognized the nanobots. In turn they fired a few beams which Nick dodged with his teleportation.

"You shall be deleted!" N-1 spoke with fury

"I don't think so!" He then dodged one more blast and managed to reach the saucer and grab it. Once he landed, he opened the top and threw the nanobots out.

"Not again!" N-2 said with disappointment.

"Now to make sure this doesn't happen ever again," Nick crushed the two nanobots before they could say anything. He lamented for a minute and then teleported to the safe zone to bring back any survivors that got deleted. Maybe this could make for a good weapon. Then he teleported back to the city before anyone could fully look at him. As he was looking around for more survivors, he saw Sheen speed pass him. "Sheen!" Nick called out.

He then sped back to Nick. "What's up?"

"Glad to see you're alright."

"Same." Sheen blankly responded.

"What is it?" Nick wondered.

"Jimmy and Cindy are…" he couldn't say anymore as a dozen Yolkians surrounded them. Nick assumed the worst and immediately kicked a Yolkian which dropped their spear. He picked it up and used this alongside the saucer using it Captain America style. Once he and Sheen took them all out, Sheen asked, "Have you seen April?"

"Who?"

"Never mind," Sheen was about to run off but then turned back to say, "Stay safe,"

"Likewise." They parted ways to scout the area.

Meanwhile, Libby, Betty and Carl fought Meldar. Betty attacked first with her blades, but Meldar blocked them. Carl unleashed another burp, which knocked Meldar back a bit with Libby putting a force field over Meldar. He then used his generators to break the shield which in turn gave Libby a headache.

Carl was about to unleash another belch but nothing came out. "What…?"

Libby attempted to use another force field but couldn't. "We're outta juice…"

Meldar smirked as he was about to fire an energy blast. Nick then saw the fight go on as he was about to jump in.

Sheen elsewhere, found April fighting horde after horde. Holy smokes, I forgot how strong she was. He then ran in and kicked a Yolkian on the glass which pushed him back.

"Sheen?" April asked.

"Jimmy had me come find you." He extended his hand. "Let's go get you somewhere safe."

Normally she would've protested, but she was aware this was dire. Sheen then ran back to the shelter.

"Oh no you dont!" Nick then jumped out and threw a spear at Meldar.

"I don't believe I met you," he said as he dodged. Nick angrily then teleported behind Meldar. "What the-?"

Nick then threw the saucer at Meldar which hit and bounced back. He caught it and kept dishing at Meldar melee style. He was about to finish him off, until he looked at Betty, Carl and Libby who were worried about him. His expression softened slightly. "I'm not in a mood to negotiate, so give me the generator to save my friends and maybe I'll let you go."

"Hehehe, you're not in a position to demand anything you pincushion." Meldar smirked as he fired at Nick who dodged it. He tried this a couple more times, but dodged it almost effortlessly as he teleported. Melder was annoyed by this but had an idea. He then fired at Libby. Nick didn't attempt to save her at first since he thought she could fire up a force field. Then once the blast got closer to her, he noticed her not using her power. In a split second decision, he teleported in front of Libby and put his shield up to block. Sadly, he overestimated the durability and the blast went right through it and shot him in the heart. Nick then stood for a few more seconds until his body gave out and finally collapsed.

"NICK!" Betty cried out as she ran to him. Libby caught him as he fell and was in tears. Carl was petrified at what he saw. His mind screamed at him to run, but his body stayed in place.

"Take this… and get outta here." Nick spoke quietly on the ground as he motioned to his teleportation bracelets.

"I'm not leaving without you!" Betty demanded. "You can still make it!" She wanted to believe that anyway, but he was fading fast.

"You can… my… time… is… up. Go… Save who I… couldn't." Nick then passed on.

Betty then fell in tears. Libby then grabbed his bracelets and grabbed Carl's arm.

"Heh, you jelly bags stood together to stop me before. And now…" Meldar aimed for all of them, smiling, "You all will die together."

"NO!" As Meldar was about to fire, Sheen jumped off a nearby building and landed a heavy punch on Meldar who in turn dropped one of the matrix generators on the ground. Sheen snagged them and ran to Libby and teleported away with them.

Meldar then yelled in defeat that they got away.

Back at the safe zone, all of them arrived with Nick on the floor. First thing they did, was to see a doctor at the faintest hope of him surviving.

"We couldn't save him…" Betty said to herself.

"What if we use the Matrix Generators to bring him back?" Sheen wondered. He tried to use it, but it only healed his wounds. In other words, there was only a body left. "Come on! Why isn't this working?!" He then broke down, dropping the generators. "Even with my speed, I… I couldn't save my friends."

"Where's Cindy and Jimmy?" Libby asked. Sheen sadly pointed a few beds down which lay both of them unconscious.

Libby ran to Cindy and fell by her bed. "What happened to you?"

Carl on the other hand, was too overwhelmed with what was going on. One thought went, Nick's dead and those two might be… Another, For all I know, Elke's gone too…and my parents…

"Attention everyone!" The PA system spoke. "Evacuation craft are underway. You all will be safe soon-" an explosion nearby was strong enough to cut communication. Sheen instinctually ran out and back in a second.

"It's Gortox. He's here!" Sheen spoke with a sense of dread.

"Who's he?" Betty asked.

"If I'm right, the one responsible for all this," as he motioned Jimmy and Cindy followed by the room.

"I guess we're goners then… aren't we?" Carl darkly muttered.

"When I get my hands on this Gortox…" Libby put a fist to the ground.

"We gotta do something," Betty said. "But what?"

"There's an idea Jimmy told me," April stepped in with a crutch.

"April?" Carl said.

"April!" Sheen looked at her. "That's right! I was gonna talk to you!"

"What're you doing here?" Libby asked.

"Long story for another time." April dismissed as she limped closer. "Before he attacked us, Jimmy came up with a plan." Sheen pulled out the hyper cube and in it was a small Chrono-Arch and a shrink ray. "He turned a time machine into a portal to traverse space. If we can take the matrix generators from him and send him across space, Earth will be safe from him for quite a while."

"Aren't these the generators?" Sheen held up. April took a closer look.

"They look like them, but these are fakes."

"How so? I was able to use them."

"They look the same, but they are less powerful than the real deal. Probably were made from that."

"There's another problem." Libby sadly said. "We're out of power to use against these bad guys."

"I think I have an idea." Sheen ran up and handed Libby one of the generators. "I didn't realize it at the time, but I was able to use my speed when I held this. So you should be able to use your power too."

Libby then was able to activate a shield in the same way she did before. Betty activated her blades and put on the teleportation devices. "Let's get this loser!"

"For our friends and family!" Betty shouted as the three of them ran off. April tried to go but the pain and exhaustion caused her to fall with Carl catching her at the last minute.

Gortox was onlooking the shelter on the outskirts of the ruined city as a few evac helicopters came to land. "Seems they think they can escape unscathed…" He said sadly. "A fool's hope." He then extended his index finger's claw. With the power of the generators, the claw turned into a projectile aimed for the aircraft. A mere second later, all of them exploded. "There is no escape from your actions, Neutron. I will finish off this city's population and then conquer the rest of this world."

"Not if I can help it!" Sheen said in the distance running towards him. Gortox then fired multiple blasts his way, only for him to dodge them one by one. Betty and Libby teleported closer to Gortox. With his attention on Sheen, Libby turned invisible and ran towards him to snatch the generators only for him to catch it at the last minute and throw Libby aside. Betty then jumped towards Gortox and got close to slicing his arm, only for him to catch one of her blades. "Nice knife," he remarked. Sheen managed to run one punch at his side and another on the other side. "Gonna be harder to fight us without a crutch like this." Sheen smirked.

"Speak for yourself," Gortox chuckled. "I am a conqueror with or without this power!" He extended his claws and did a clean scratch across Betty's leg to which she screamed in pain.

Sheen grabbed Betty and ran back to shelter to drop her and the matrix generators off, followed by grabbing the hyper cube. In the meantime, Libby was able to deflect some of what Gortox threw at her.

"Y'all must be crazy to think such children can take on an emperor!" Gortox laughed. "I took out your friends in an instant. What makes you think I won't do the same to you!"

"Because now you're alone," Libby said as Sheen ran back near them. They both nodded. Sheen threw the Chrono-Arch at her and she caught it and put it in front of her. He then pulled out the shrink ray. Right when Gortox figured out what they were up to, it was too late. Sheen switched it to "grow" and fired at the arch. Libby then used her power to keep him in place. The arch turned on and Sheen ran up to Gortox to unleash one strong kick to his torso which sent him through the portal.

"Is that it?" Sheen asked as he landed.

"I sure hope so." Libby took a breath.

"Oh I may have lost this round," Gortox partially reached out through the portal. "But the war has just begun!" He then clawed at the Chrono-Arch before disappearing. Before they realized what he did the Chrono-Arch cracked and exploded, destroying the area.

Libby instinctually reacted by using both hands to block the blast with her power, but it wouldn't be enough to save her since the fake generator was running out of power soon.

"LIBBY!" Sheen ran towards her.

Libby then turned her head and used one of her hands to keep Sheen from proceeding. Both expressed tears in silence. Libby looked sad but determined. I love you Sheen.

Sheen looked shocked and angry with no way through to save her. I love you Libby… Please don't go too.

She then smiled as a tear went down. Right as the power on the generator went out, she used all that was left to push Sheen as far away as possible. The explosion engulfed the area in flames with Sheen briefly blinded by the blast.

To Be Concluded…