Far Away – Chapter Five

"Let me out! Let me out!"

Chris' fists struck uselessly against the shield as he sobbed, "Let-me-out!"

The shield only fizzled slightly. Another cry worked free from Chris' throat as he thumped his fist again. "Please… please!"

Outside the protective bubble, the clubhouse was a mess. The computers flickered, furniture upended, and the analyzer still beeping away. The door hand been ripped completely off it's hinges by the worms that had eaten Danny-

No! Chris mentally screamed at himself. Took Danny. Not eaten. He had to save Danny. The fiery pain in his busted leg took a distant spot compared to Danny. It didn't even register as he staggered to his feet again and tried to morph.

"MBC Pow… MBC Power…" He fell back to his knees as another sob escaped. A tendril squished under his brace, and furiously Chris grabbed it and threw it against the shield. "Give him back!"

"Chris!" Sam called, jumping over an upturned table to get to the shield.

"Give who back?" Cathy asked as she stretched and stepped over the same table.

Chris jumped to his feet, stumbling a second as his leg gave out. "Danny! We have to save Danny!"

"Chris, what-" Sam's eyes roamed from him trapped inside the shield they used to capture and hold aliens to the mess of the clubhouse. Chris smacked his hand on the shield to get her attention.

"The worms! They took Danny!" he yelled, unable to keep the frantic edge from his voice.

"Wha-" Sam's eyes widened.

"They TOOK him!" Chris squeezed his eyes shut. "He threw the shield to save me, and they got him!"

"We'll get him back." Sam's firm voice left for no other outcomes. She found Danny's fallen shield generator and deactivated it. "How long ago did they kidnap him?"

"I don't know." Chris could hear the hysteria in his own voice. But it was Danny, so upbeat and bright he was practically Chris' sun.

Some small part of Chris' brain, staggering about in complete shock of the events, acknowledged that before Chris would immediately squash such thoughts. It was the same part of the brain that noticed the initial squealing had stopped. And the analyzer's beeping still hadn't stopped.

"We have to save him," Chris heard himself babbling.

"Of course Chris," Sam retorted, an unspoken 'duh' in her tone. "We need to figure out where they went."

Chris lunged for the computer before he remembered it was broken – as was his foot. It completely gave out on him and he collapsed, the sheer pain telling him it was far more than sprained now.

His eyes scanned the mess around him, reeling in the hopelessness striking in the hollow of his chest. They could never track the Zerellian worms without their equipment. He spotted the tissue analyzer amid the mess, and moved towards it, dragging his leg. "Chris?"

"Cathy, use this thing on me," he ordered. She stared at him blankly for a moment. "I have to find Danny," he said through gritted teeth. "I can't do that with a broken leg."

"But you said you didn't wan-"

"Danny let you practice on him for me, right? And it worked, didn't it?"

"…mostly," Cathy shrugged and picked up the analyzer. As she checked to make sure it hadn't been broken in the fight, Chris dragged himself to the analyzer's computer to reset it to his data, hoping that'd help.

But he saw the results from the gel and stopped. "Wait, that slime those worms made supports life?" he asked. He sat himself down in the chair as Sam and Cathy came up behind him.

"It says they use it to make the nest, so I guess it has to so it can help all the little Zerellian worm babies," Cathy responded.

"The babies that are going to eat our town, remember?" Sam asked sarcastically. Chris cleared the computer, which threatened to disconnect at any moment. "We're going to need new equipment." Sam whirled around to the door and ran out as she called, "I'm telling Mr. Smith what's happened!"

"Ready?" Cathy asked as the analyzer opened.

Chris didn't even hesitate, removing his brace and letting it clamp around his broken leg. It burned for a second, but not as badly as he remembered, and he could feel the bones shift ever so slightly.

"It worked!" Cathy cheered as the light turned green and the analyzer opened again.

"What, you mean it didn't on Danny?" Chris asked, his mind wincing at the thought of Danny.

"Well, we got around to fixing the problems we caused," she said helpfully. But Chris didn't pay attention to her as he got to his feet, carefully testing to see if his leg would hold. There wasn't even a wince of pain.

"MBC Power up!"

As his buster armor morphed around him, he ran for the portal to the shuttles. Sam came in, followed by Mr. Smith, and made him stop in his tracks by asking, "Chris! Where are you going?"

"I have to find Danny," he made out through gritted teeth. Danny's expression just before the worm swallowed him came back to Chris' mind.

"But with all the systems offline, you're going to be flying blind!"

"That's right Chris. You'll waste time without knowing where you're going. To acquire replacement equipment, I am contacting the galatic-"

"We don't have TIME!" Chris snapped over top of Mr. Smith. "We've already wasted-"

"Chris, calm down! Getting angry won't help Danny at all-"

"Shut up Sam! I'm not angry!"

"Chris, stop it!" Cathy wrapped her hands around his arm. "We'll save Danny! Remember we can track him through his comm if we can get the system back!"

Chris' fists were balled tightly as he forced himself to inhale and exhale slowly. They were right. Charging off without a plan wouldn't help Danny at all. Chris let out a little panic-fed chuckle as he realized that he was playing Danny's usual role.

"Okay then." He turned to the mess of the clubhouse. "But we have to hurry!"

As Mr. Smith went off to speak to his contacts about getting some emergency equipment immediately and the three of them started to go through the wreck and see what they could salvage, Chris tried to shove Danny from his mind and failed.

Don't worry Danny, I'll find you. I promise.

Cause I don't know what I'd do without you...

To Be Continued...

A/N: Yaaaay boring chapters behind me now. There's a few storyline choices coming up that I still haven't decided if I wanna do them or not... hm. Anyone wanna express their opinion and what they'd LIKE to see happen?