Struggling Aftermath
Okay...I got a new review...so now I'm going to commence in putting on chapter 5 here...and here Joey is placed in danger as a new villain appeared at the end of last chapter and is going to instill more damage on the now-injured teen, who finds himself brought to Elk Mountains in Colorado.
Meanwhile, Something unexpected is going to happen at Center City, which will add more pressures to its citizens, including especially Psy and Lina…
With that said…HEROMAN…ATTACK!
Previously…
As he moved around, he was still disoriented yet he kept on going, and slowly notices that he is at an uphill forest and tries to carefully navigate himself so he won't fall, and shouts around to see if he could get help, but there were no responses, and he realized that he is alone and he had to move and try to find a way back to a city, not knowing that he is in Colorado, particularly at Elk Mountains, and as he slowly walked down, he noticed the birds are flying away, which made him wonder what is happening.
"The birds are flying away...? Why...? And where is this place...?"
As Joey wondered what is going on, he noticed that something is coming, and when he turned around, he is taken by surprise when an individual charged towards him, ramming him by his right ribcage and the impact is enough to send him rolling down the hills, and though Joey managed to grab a grass and halted his fall, he is grimacing in pain as he felt his ribcage throbbing in extreme pain.
It would soon show, in an x-ray scene, that his right ribcage has been fractured, and the scene shifts to the attacker, where he appeared to be human-looking but is clad in a battle armor where he resembled a humanoid gorilla, and there he slowly approached the injured Joey and grabbed him by his shirt and began to speak in a robotic, yet rather childish manner.
"Hello, Joey Jones...nice to bump in to you..."
"Arrghh...wh-who are...y-you...?"
"I come to beat you up."
"Eh?"
"Orders are orders..."
"N-no..."
"I am Zeroid...of the Cybernoid Five..."
"What...?"
"And I'll be the first to break you apart!"
The mechanical being, calling himself "Zeroid", began to punch Joey on his injured ribcage before throwing him further down the hills before the boy collided with a tree, and this further injured him as Zeroid carefully navigates his way down, intending to cause more harm to Joey as it is slowly revealed that he is a new creation of Dr. Minami, and Veronica is there to see it, informing Minami that Zeroid is now currently attacking Joey.
Now…
As Zeroid is slowly navigating the slopes, Joey mustered the willpower to fight off the pain on his ribs and slowly gets up and tries to walk down the slopes to get away from his attacker, holding onto the grasses to balance himself while clutching his right ribcage, feeling the pain worsening and yet he had no choice but to bear it lest he get caught and get further beating from his mysterious attacker.
"C-can't...let him...get me...got to...bear the pain...get away from him...and get help..."
However, Zeroid leaped onto Joey and began to throttle him senseless, and because he is a mechanical being, his metallic fists pounding Joey's body further aggravated his injuries and both rolled down the slopes and yet Zeroid managed to grab a tree and halted his fall, but the teen rolled down further and feel onto an open road, though he is still on a higher part of the mountain, and he landed badly on his right ribcage side, injuring him further.
"AAAARRRGGGGHHH!"
Luckily, Zeroid was unable to tell which direction Joey fell, and so he had to navigate his way down the slope but went to a different direction, missing a few centimeters which would give Joey the chance to slip away from his attacker unseen.
"Joey Jones...you can't get away...'coz I won't let you get away...or else I'll get in your way...as I'll do things my way...and tonight's my lucky day..."
-x-
Back at Center City, both Psy and Lina are feeling worried, and concerned, as a month and a half have passed since Joey disappeared, Vera Collins sadly told them that Joey is now in danger of being "dropped" and will be forced to repeat the school year unless he shows up this month, and other than that, there is nothing more they can do, and as the teacher left, the two teen friends glanced at each other and are wondering what they should do in order to find Joey and save him from getting "flunked".
"Joey..."
"He'll be forced to repeat the school year if he isn't found..."
"What should we do now, Psy? Up until now Joey hasn't been found yet...!"
"We pray...that's all we can do for now, Lina..."
"Joey..."
"I sure wish we get some good news...we can't let this happen to Joey...I have a strong feeling that the ones who attacked Joey may be the ones behind his disappearance..."
"But why would they...?"
"Jealousy...or maybe because it's the bullies who...well, let's try going to Professor Danton;s lab...maybe he could cook up with something that would help in this matter..."
"Yeah...I guess that's all we can do for now..."
The two teens then decided to leave school and head for Professor Danton's lab to see if the professor could offer any suggestions that would help them give clues as to figure out where Joey could be found so they can get a lead and start finding him once they figured it out, unaware of their friend already in a precarious, and dangerous, life-and-death situation. As they are on the road, Psy's cellphone rang and the teen answered it, and the caller is Professor Danton himself, and the tone of the professor's voice was that of being concerned, and panicking.
"Hello...?"
"Psy! it's me!"
"Professor...? Why with that tome? You sounded like you got a heart attack or something..."
"It's Joey...!"
"Has Joey been found..."
"Yes...but not in the way we expected...he's on the news right now...and in a bad light!"
"What do you mean?"
"Head to my lab...and there you'll see what I mean!"
Psy was quite bewildered after hearing this and tells Lina that they should head to the lab so that they could get more info from the teacher and to know whether what he just heard is true or not, with a visibly confused Lina coming along.
-x-
Still at Elk Mountains, Joey stayed under a ledge of a thick rock that is affixed above of a mountain wall, and as the hour passed, he felt that Zeroid may have missed him and is gone, so he slowly went out of his hiding place and slowly walked the road and after a thorough observation, he deduced that the road going down would lead him to an open road where vehicles passed, and he slowly took that path in hopes of getting help.
"N-not...good...it'll take me the whole month to get to a city by foot...especially when I'm injured like this..."
Joey was not feeling good, as his injured ribcage prevented him from walking fast, and prayed that Zeroid wouldn't notice his presence, and he walked slowly on the path, and the walk took almost two hours, and while walking, he recalled that he has the controller disc that he used when Heroman was alive and when he reached his secret pocket, he was relieved that it was still there, and thanked mentally that the kidnappers didn't figured it out, and now he may have the chance to defend himself.
"Thank goodness it's still here...the kidnappers didn't noticed it...wait...maybe..."
Recalling that using the controller would give him "super speed", Joey is pondering of using it, but then he saw a passing van and he waved, which caught the driver's attention, and the van stopped, where the driver peered out of the window and a conversation took place.
"H-hey...!"
"Huh? What are you doing out here this late...?"
"N-need ride...to the city...need...talk...to sheriff..."
"Are you hurt or something, kid?"
"Y-yeah...came from Center City...was taken here by force..."
"Wait...Center City...? Wait a minute...I know you..you're that Joey Jones...the kid who saved the world!"
"Yes...that's me...but can you tell me where I am...?"
"You're in Colorado..."
"What...I'm in Colorado?"
"Yeah...and this is Elk Mountains...huh?"
By then the van's radio blared where the news stated that the U.S. President was "murdered by Joey Jones and Heroman" about an hour ago and is currently at the U.S. Senate and killed several politicians there, and yet the driver is baffled that he is facing Joey in the heart of Elk Mountains in Colorado, and even Joey himself is surprised to hear this.
"What the...?"
"How...I'm here and yet..."
"So you're...wait...if that really happened...why are you here and..."
"I see...I was taken here..."
"Eh?"
"I'm...being...framed..."
"Hey! Are you hurt?"
"Y-yes..."
By then, Joey's body began to show signs of his injuries getting worse, and when the driver checked the teen's body, he saw the boy's right ribcage swelling further, and sensed that something is amiss, as the Joey Jones who is terrorizing Center City, is not what it appeared to be and decided to offer Joey a ride to the main city of Colorado and there he can offer to take him to the sheriff there so as to clear out the matter, which Joey agreed with, wanting to clear his name.
However, Zeroid appeared, and blocked the path with Joey surprised to see that the enemy is still around, and the driver sensed that Joey is in danger and attempted to protect the boy.
"Hey...hold it...I want the boy...he's my toy...!"
"What the hell...?"
"T-that thing...he did this to me...!"
"Seriously?"
"Hand him over...and we can settle this matter..."
"I don't know what's going on...but if you want this kid...sorry...he's coming with me!"
"Really...too bad...but I won't be sad...'coz I'm going to keep the lad...and seeing you take him out of here would make me mad..."
"Eh...?"
Zeroid then aimed his right hand at the van, where his fingers showed that it has stored "finger-missiles", and fired, hitting the van which it exploded, and the driver was instantaneously killed, while the impact of the blast and explosion sent Joey falling off the road and down the slope further, and shrapnel wounds struck his upper body, causing flesh wounds to appear and blood is seen staining his striped shirt.
"AAAAIIIEEE!"
As Zeroid is laughing at his "victory", he soon came to realize that he is supposed to keep the boy from leaving Colorado so he slides down the slope and attempts to go after the boy and see if he can keep him out of passing civilians' eyes.
-x-
Back at Center City, the scene shifts to Danton's lab, and the time is 5 pm, and there the professor, along with Lina and Psy, watched the TV where a live news is being broadcasted, and the trio are in a state of disbelief at what they are seeing, as Keisha Jackson is reporting live where the U.S. President was murdered in cold blood and was shown how he was killed, and the footage showed Joey Jones using the "controller gauntlet" to fire a laser blast which decapitated the president and then fired another laser blast that struck the "Presidential Family", killing the First Lady and her two children before fleeing the scene, and additional footage showed that he is fighting off the President's security forces, and is using the gauntlet's "forcefield" to shield himself and flee from the scene.
"No way...!"
"It...it can't be...Joey wouldn't..."
"That was my initial reaction...but after seeing him summon his gauntlet...and seeing him using it to get away from the presidential Security Force...I feel like wanting to believe it was Joey...but the other part of me doesn't want to believe Joey would do this..."
"I have a feeling that the one we see isn't Joey...he went missing only to show up doing this..."
"Psy...What do we..."
"Wait...another newsflash is about to be aired..."
"Huh?"
"What the..."
"No way..."
The next news footage shows that Joey Jones appeared at the U.S. Senate House 30 minutes later and there he did the same, killing a vast majority of the senators, governors and congressmen, leaving the US political party in a disarray and this would soon cause a chain reaction that would put the United States of America in a state of emergency, and there the Pentagon announced that Joey Jones is a wanted person and will be treated as a "terrorist", which they are going to stop him, dead or alive.
To Be Continued...
Okay...quite a shocker. While Joey is having problems of his own while stuck in Colorado, another Joey Jones shows up in Center City and murdered the U.S. President and his family inside the White House, and just killed a majority of politicians at the senate house, and is now a wanted felon which would involve the U.S. Army in stopping Joey. What gives?
This is certainly a cliffhanger and would add a lot of mystery to this situation.
Preview:
Joey tries to survive his latest ordeal while Psy and Lina are being approached by Hughes and tells them that Joey has "gone mad" which would put the two teens in a state of "doubt" as they still believe that Joey can still be reasoned with...
