Ch. 8: Hopeless

Ace gritted his teeth as Sykes grinned at him. Now he knew what their plan was. They weakened them with that sedative, gave them a little strength back in order to fight, but not quite enough to win. Then, to lessen the odds, they split them up so they wouldn't be able to rely on team work to save them. Then to make the situation even more grim, if that was possible, they added in these stone creatures that Dare undoubtedly cooked up from the piece of the meteor that he had stolen. But why go through the trouble of using the meteor? Ace wondered. Why not just use the igneous rock that was already available on the island? Whatever the reasons may be, leave it to Sykes to coordinate a plan like that. He drew out the Guardian Strike Sword as Sykes and the huge rock thing advanced. Sykes raised his own weapon and began shooting at Ace, who just barely managed to deflect all of the blasts in time. However, the monster was able to fight his way through and grabbed him, lifting him up in the air and dropped him. He landed hard on the floor and moaned as Sykes came forward, preparing to take the sword. Ace, however, rolled to the side and got, clumsily, to his feet, clutching his head.

"I don't t'ink so, Sykes." He said through gritted teeth. His eyes were glowing yellow and he shot a few lazier beams of his own at the monster. They seemed to hit thin air and vanish without even making contact with the stone creature. Sykes laughed manically as he advanced even more, cornering Ace up against the wall, blocking any means of escape.

"Just give me the sword, Ace, and I promise your death will be quick and painless. Same goes for your friends' deaths." Sykes sneered as he raised his blaster once more, aiming right at Ace's face.

Duck and Slam were moving in every direction they could, trying to avoid both Syfer and the huge rock. They were doing pretty well until the rock grabbed Duck before he could quake to a different location and threw him up against one of the stone walls that enclosed their arena. He moaned as he staggered to his feet, putting a hand to the back of his head just to discover that he was bleeding freely. He felt dizzy as his vision blurred around the edges. He saw Syfer turn his direction away from Slam and start coming towards him. He tried running to the side but lost balance and fell hard to the ground. He raised his hand and aimed an energy egg at him, but with his vision fuzzy and his concentration messed up from what he suspected was a nasty concussion; his aim was way off and he almost hit Slam. Slam dogged it easily then raced toward him as well. He shoved Syfer to the side and grabbed Duck, carrying him out of harm's way as the stone creature lifted a huge arm and brought it crashing down, smashing the spot where Duck had laid almost a second before.

"I'm fine Slam, try and take out that rock will you?" Duck said through a slight slur. "I'll take care of the idiot." He then quaked to the other side of the arena and called Syfer, diverting his attention from Slam. Syfer turned around lunging at Duck. Duck raised his hand and punched Syfer as hard as he could in the face. "That," he said through gritted teeth, his eyes glowing orange, "was for calling me an idiot." He leapt up and kicked Syfer backwards onto the ground. "And that," he said as he himself landed on the ground, unable to keep his balance, "was for saying that Slam belonged in a cage." He put out his hand and literally smashed an energy egg on Syfer's face. "And that, was for bating me and my friends." He snarled. The energy egg blasted in Syfer's face and covered it with tar. Syfer whipped it off angrily and picked Duck up by the throat.

"Now you've gone and pissed me off." Syfer said as Duck choked and gasped for air. He slammed Duck up against the wall and Duck felt his powers being transferred over to the man who was slowly suffocating him to death. He felt his eyes roll in his head as his vision became even more blurred. Then he landed on the ground, spluttering, more light headed then he'd ever been in his life. He looked up and saw Slam punching every inch of Syfer he could get his hands on, eyes flashing the deadliest shade of purple Duck had ever seen. The rock creature lay in pieces on the other side of the arena.

Syfer, however, managed to teleport to the back of Slam and put a hand on his shoulder, stealing his powers as well. Now, using the strength of the bear that he still possessed from his little trip to the zoo, he lifted Slam over his head and threw him up against the wall, beside Duck. He advanced slowly on both of them, whipping some blood off the corner of his mouth and glaring evilly at them threw two black eyes.

"You're dead now." He growled menacingly. Duck felt a huge, painful throb on the back of his head, before he closed his eyes and blacked out.

Lexi was shooting brain blast after brain blast, trying to dismantle her giant stone monster while at the same time knock out Weather Vein. She was also trying to keep an ear out for the others. She heard cries and shouts from Ace, Rev, Tech and Slam, but she couldn't hear Duck. That wasn't good. She knew that Duck would've been the one who would've been shooting his mouth off more than the others. The fact that she couldn't hear him wasn't a good sign. She gritted her teeth as Weather Vein advanced, aiming lightning bolts and twisters at her. She had conjured a fog to try and make it harder for Lexi to find her, but forgetting that Lexi could go by sound almost as precisely as sight. Lexi, who was trying to concentrate on both her battle and the other's however, didn't register the stone creature come up behind her. It lifted her in the air and held her tightly as Weather Vein came towards her, ready for the kill.

Rev was bleeding. His contact with the stone wall had put a large gash on his forehead. He whipped the blood out of his eyes and flew up to the top, trying to escape back up to the surface, but smashed head first into the ceiling as it slid across the opening. He fell and landed hard on his arm. He heard a loud, nasty, CRACK and a shrill cry of pain escaped him. He clutched his broken arm as Massive walked slowly up to him, closely followed by a stone monster with lava trickling over it's cracks. Rev gritted his teeth in pain as he got to his feet and started running around the arena, trying to build up enough speed so that he could slam Massive up against a wall and finish him for good. But Massive had other plans. He turned his powers, not on Rev, but on the stone creature and lifted it into the air. He then smashed it into a thousand pieces of every size on the ground. Rev was slightly confused but knew he hadn't done it to make the battle any easier on him. Sure enough Massive lifted a few of the biggest pieces and aimed them at Rev who dogged most of them. One of them however connected with his leg and tripped him up. He felt another one land on top of him and he again let out another cry of pain. Massive brought the bolder up off him again, laughing at the joyous sight of Rev's now broken leg.

"Thought you were hot stuff, didn't you birdy?" he cackled madly. Rev gritted his teeth, his eyes glowing an even brighter shade of red now. He was going to kill Massive it was the last thing he ever did. Careful what you wish for. A voice told him, but he just shook his head. Nonsense, he wasn't going to die, he was going win, he had to. He had promised the others that he was going to get him the next time around, now was his chance to fulfill that promise. Holding his arm to his chest and leaning up against the wall for support, keeping his leg off the ground, he stood up, glaring at Massive, showing that he wasn't so easily kept down. Massive just raised his hand in response and grabbed Rev with his gravitational pull. He slammed him down on the ground again, making him land on his broken arm, and relishing the sound of agony that came from the road runner. He lifted him in the air and began tossing him around all over the arena; crashing him into the ceiling, the floor, the walls, and back to the floor again.

Tech coughed up more blood as he tried to shield himself from Mastermind's advances. She was using a molecular energy blaster and had managed to hit him on more than one aim. He was really at a disadvantage, battling two separate battles at once. As he tried to keep Mastermind and the stone monster at bay, he had to also, simultaneously, try and keep his body from being destroyed from the inside out. The green light of his regeneration powers were starting to appear more and more frequently until it was barely a minute between each flash.

"What's the matter, mutt?" Mastermind asked cheeringly. "Getting tired?"

"Keep dreaming fat head." He shot back at her as he used his free arm to wipe the blood off of his muzzle. He stuck out his hand and grabbed her weapon with his magnetic powers. Pointing it at the stone creature which was coming up behind him, he mentally pulled the trigger and shot a huge beam at it. To his furry, the beam bounced off and shot at him.

"What the hell?" he cried.

"Oh, Dare was very clever with what he used to make these precious little pets." She told him gleefully.

"Of course, the meteor." He snarled. "But the meteor shouldn't have that kind of immunity to a molecular energy blast."

"This one does. It has an immunity to your powers, and your magnetic abilities are simply molecular energy beams with reverse polarities." She cackled.

"But, it shouldn't, the meteor was just a normal space rock, it's radiation wave that it imitated when it crashed was what gave us our powers. The rock shouldn't be immune to anything." Tech said confused.

"Aw, but this rock isn't just another space rock. This rock was also effected from the radiation wave. It was coded with the same kind of energy waves that an EMP emits. Now, any molecular energy aimed at it is either stopped in its tracks, or is rebounded upon contact depending on the energy level of the blast." She explained, beyond enjoying the look of horror on Tech's face. She pulled out another gun. "I'm afraid all of your powers have some level of molecular energy to them, with the exception of the devil's and road runner's that is, so all of you are powerless to destroy them." She let out a cackle as she began shooting at him again.

Well...me thinks this scene looks grim...but there's still more to read so hit that little 'next' button there at the bottom of your screne and see if they manage to get out of this one after all.