~In mal's mind~

Mal was sitting down, both legs and arms crossed with a deep-in-thought look. Bue was in the same pose and the two were back-to-back and were completely silent. Bue was holding her slingshot and mal had his paintball gun. They were looking for D so that they could take him down. Just then bue heard footsteps and instantly got up, alerting mal. "What'd you hear bue?" "I think he's close…but I'm not sure." "Can't you read his mind?" "I can it's just that ...he's stealthy. And by that, I reluctantly mean, he's smarter than us. Normally someone thinks about where they are and what they're gonna do next but this guy's just thinkin' 'bout murder. Not how he's gonna do it, he's just gonna do it, surprising both himself AND us." Bue paused as she heard another footstep, this time louder so mal heard it too. The steps were so slow that bue started getting frustrated, mal saw her turning red but didn't know what to do until all of a sudden…. D pounced out from behind them, mal fell over and bue screamed. D snickered and stole mal's gun after it fell on the ground. He slapped bue across the face just when she was about to tackle him and then pushed her to the ground along with mal. The two looked at each other with shock then looked back up to see D's shadowy figure, they could see his teeth sharpen and his eyes glowed crimson, shining through the shadow. Bue was especially annoyed with how pathetic she looked, as did mal. Both their eyes turned black and the dark circles returned as well and their teeth began to sharpen. Their auras came back and it was then fed to D, the two were shocked and wondered what the hell just happened. D then snapped his fingers and disappeared. "That bastard!" Mal yelled angrily. "That son of a bitch needs to die in a hole!" Bue shouted growing more and more angry by the second just like mal. All they could think of was hate and hate alone. Mal looked at bue and started suggesting ideas of torture for when he's caught as they focused and changed into their soldier uniforms though the war makeup wasn't needed anymore thanks to the dark circles. Bue then snapped her fingers and the scenery had changed completely, it no longer looked anything remotely similar to the subconscious but instead took the form of a REAL battlefield. Mal was able to do this as well like when he played sailor with mike and the scenery looked just like a raging storm. He was surprised at this because bue was basically a 'newborn' and she already had the exact same power as him not to mention her own 'abilities'. But mal didn't care that much as he heard gunfire. The two ducked and ran to their own base which had a barbed wire perimeter, the two leaped over as if they were champion jumpers. and stuck the landing in sync...once again. Bue's slingshot disappeared and she closed her eyes to focus as she summoned her new weapon.. . Grenades. Bue's eyes were becoming more dark and devilish as she began to think of evil deeds. Mal started thinking of how mike would love this, since Soldier was his favorite game. When he thought of this, he was becoming more happy. Tears were now running down his face and he didn't know why until he realized that D was actually controlling him. He was making him and bue angry to give him more power. MAL...the great mal had been manipulated and the thought of not really being in charge just pissed him off greatly but then calmed down as his face returned to normal. He then saw bue with the grenade trigger between her teeth and was about to yank it from the trigger when mal grabbed the hand that was holding the bomb and shook her. She didn't snap out of it so mal reluctantly decided to let himself become a punching bag. "GIRL'S ARE WUSSES….AND...GET BACK IN THE KITCHEN!" He shouted, bue was steaming as she punched him, shooting him into the sky. When he landed, she started to pummel him but...it DID turn her back to normal. Mal healed himself when he focused again. Bue was panting from her 'work out' and then looked at mal with shock, she didn't know he had healing power. He learned he had this power when he was fighting mike. "HA TAKE THAT D, YOU CAN'T CONTROL US ANYMORE!" Mal yelled up at the sky. Bue was so peeved that she had just been controlled that her black aura came back, but her face remained normal and she hugged mal but only to give him her battle strategy. Mal turned to look at bue confused, "is it possible?" Mal questioned, bue sighed thinking that mal would've known something like this. "Of COURSE we can become invisible, if we can change scenery, our clothes and faces, then I'm pretty sure we can turn invisible!" Bue reminded him sarcastically, then bue started to focus again and her body slowly started to disappear, she was giggling at how cool this was until all of a sudden when she reached her head and began focusing on that...it wouldn't disappear so she just looked like a floating head. Mal was laughing increasingly hard at this point until bue's invisible hand grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him closer to her face, she was about to tell him off when they heard another shot, this time it was a cannon. They ducked even though they were in a trench and covered their heads. "I'll get back-up." Mal told her bluntly with a tiny hint of actual fear in his voice. "WHAT?! WE CAN HANDLE THIS ON OUR OWN WE DON'T NEED ANY INTERFERENCE!" Bue yelled, just then mal and bue heard threateningly loud footsteps coming closer as they hesitantly looked in it's direction. "I don't think we have much of a choi-" "I CAN TAKE 'EM!" Bue told him as she jumped up from the trench and leaped over the barbed wire, mal tried to stop her by grabbing what he assumed was her arm instead it was her ankle and she shook him off. But when she stood up, no one was there. She began to run straight forward assuming that D was somewhere near by, her suspicions were correct when she heard cackling coming from behind her and turned around to find nothing behind her but the battleground scene and her and mal's barbed wire trench. Bue became nervous but that was quickly replaced by anger as she spun around to find D right in front of her, just inches from her, now, sweating face. He had a cocky grin on his face. Mal was shocked as he immediately summoned one of the mirrors to reveal mike who was just sitting in his room. The mirror was literally right behind him. Mike felt a presence as his eyes became blank and mal pulled him through the mirror to his side of the brain. Mike's eyes became normal again as he looked around, confused. Mal told him what was happening but rather vaguely, not to give away too much info on D and what he had done to manitoba. He just told him that he was playing another game of soldier only this time, the villain was real and the game was a bit more serious than last time, he nodded and mal put his hand over his face and his body had the exact same war image as him and bue. Just then, mal tried something that he hadn't done before; communicate through telepathy.

Manitoba was sitting down in the hall half asleep when all of a sudden, Manitoba! Manitoba! He shot up and had his arms raised in the position to fight. "Wh-who's there?!" It's me, mal...listen I need your hel- "MAL?! HOW DID YOU GET IN MY HEAD...AND GET OUT!" Manitoba threatened. My god you're stupid, anyway just listen to me for a second...I need your help, URGENTLY! "What for?" Manitoba asked, already starting to get used to this second voice. Just…, I need you to free svetlana and vito. "Why only them?" Because...THERE'S NO TIME I JUST NEED YOU TO DO THIS FOR ME! "Why should I?" Because if you don't…..,look down at your chest. Manitoba did so and saw a floating knife hovering by his heart, he jumped and looked around wondering how mal was able to see him. Don't bother looking...JUST GET THEM!...there...the door's open now. HURRY! Manitoba obeyed his command, gulped, and started running down the hall to where the others were trapped.

"GUYS!" "MANNY!" Everyone yelled for joy, manitoba ignored their cheer as he began to free svetlana and vito. "Aye 'ya whippersnapper what about me?!" Chester grunted, manitoba felt bad for this but he knew he just had to obey mal's command. Mal noticed that he got vito and svetlana and summoned mirrors for them to jump through to meet him here. He told manitoba to pull them through and he would take care of the rest as he grabbed him and yanked him in with them. Mal explained to them what was going on as he changed their images as well. None of them wanted to help mal in any way shape or form until he threatened them with multiple ways to violently die. They said yes after that and mal smiled kindly like bue after she got her way. "MAL, LOOK. BUE'S IN TROUBLE!" Bue was being strangled while lifted in the air and her body had became visible once again. Mal jumped up from the trench and over their barbed wire and summoned a rounded shield as he was about to charge D, bue grabbed the arm that was holding her neck and used it to flip him over, he landed with a heavy impact. She was still holding on to his arm, then took the other one and began spinning. D was in the air now while bue kept on spinning until she used all her strength and threw him far away into the sky, he glimmered like a star for a second then disappeared. The dust cloud that had covered their fight moved out of the way to show bue wiping sweat off her brow and then dusting herself off. She looked to the others with a sly and cocky grin that looked almost sadistic, scaring the others. Mal didn't show any sign of fear as he walked up to bue and began to argue, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO CHARGE HIM!" "AND I TOLD YOU WE DIDN'T NEED ANY RECRUITERS!" "YOU NEARLY DIED!" "BUT I ALSO KICKED HIS ASS! SO WHAT'S WRONG?!" "...Oh forget it…" Mal began to walk away. "You're only leavin' 'cause 'ya don't have a comeback!" Mal turned around with a scowl and an annoyed look as he began to walk back toward her. She got into a fighting stance as did mal. Everyone was holding each other, shaking already predicting what was about to go down. "I won't take it easy on you just 'cause you're a girl." "Me neither."

They lunged at each other with such great speed that you could hardly see their feet move. They jumped up about 20 feet in the air and they had imagined a bright sun in the background, blinding the audience of personalities but were still able to see their pitch black silhouettes as they began to fight in the air. It started with kicks going at lightning speed and as they fell they began to punch. When they fully landed, a huge dust cloud surrounded them, blocking the view of the fight but the others were still able to see their moving shadows clearly and with great ease because of the newly imagined sun. They all were shuddering at how the battle became more and more frighteningly gruesome. Even vito was scared at how brutal the fight was, he knew mal was strong, strong enough to put his father in the E.R. and he had just witnessed first-hand at bue's strength while battling D. This would be a close fight, manitoba knew this better than anybody considering the thrashing, pummeling, and beating he took. He thought about this, rubbing some of his injuries. Then the dust cloud finally fully cleared to reveal the two KO'd. They pulled the 'slam both heads' routine, unfortunately they were so strong and equal in this category that this move knocked them both out. Their faces were badly bruised, nose bleeds, scratch marks (from each others nails), and some bite marks. Everyone walked up and each with a different reaction, manitoba was laughing because finally MAL got beat up for a change, mike kicked his other shin and he fell to the ground, vito was shocked but not as shocked as he could be since he's see this kinda stuff before, svetlana was sick to her stomach with worry for the both of them.

Mike sat down next to a sleeping mal and tried to wake him up, shaking him awake would just hurt him more instead...he poked the parts of his face that weren't bruised, which was rather difficult to find. Svetlana tried tugging on bue's hair a little, that always woke HER up at least…,no luck. Just then a huge and powerful gust of wind threw everyone back at least 30 feet or so. A very small dust cloud appeared as everyone slowly struggled to get back up. The sun was no more as mike and manitoba caught a glimpse of a moving shadowy figure. Mike tried to run back to mal again, afraid of the incoming figure when another flow of harsh wind came through, throwing all the personalities back in the trench. A forcefield then surrounded them, mike banged on the walls as the shadow was starting to come to light, it showed...deadly crimson eyes. Manitoba and mike were getting desperate and afraid for the two helpless victims as they started banging as hard as they could and yelled at the top of their lungs. D's horrifying face had now come to light and ignored the two boys as he checked bue and mal's pulses. They were fine just unconscious, "YOU STAY AWAY FROM THEM, YOU SLIME!" Mike yelled. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THEM OR YOU'RE DEAD!" Manitoba screamed furiously now kicking the forcefield with all his might. D didn't even bother with them as he picked up bue and mal and threw them over his shoulder and walked away back into the darkness to where they were no longer visible, the darkness seemed to just be a place where light never reached but it was more than that...MUCH more. Mike had never been so afraid for someone else. Without mal, he had focused so much on what HE was afraid of, no one he knew was ever afraid or at least, he never saw them scared. But this time...even when the person didn't show it, he was really afraid FOR them as if they couldn't be scared or show it. Mike had to save mal at all costs even at his very own LIFE and for some reason...he just knew that manitoba would do the same. "MAL! BUE! I PROMISE I'LL SAVE YOU GUYS DON'T YOU WORRY!"