A/N: I fixed the brief error in this chapter as well as the formatting. Hopefully, it looks better now.
Chapter 3: Powerless
The army of grotesque creatures slowly made their way closer to the Keepers. The kids all formed fighting stances as they prepared to attack.
"What do we do now?" asked Charlene, looking at her fellow Keepers.
Willa glanced behind them at the other side of the construction zone. The area they were standing on overlooked a large, flat piece of Earth.
"Looks like there's plenty of room down there."
"Let's do it, guys!" said Finn. He back-flipped over the caution tape, shouting a karate yell as he did so. Seconds later, he was on his feet on the chosen battlefield.
The other Keepers followed suit, with the dead souls hot on their tails.
The Keepers stood back to back as the army surrounded them. As one, they attacked their foe.
Two of the souls rushed toward Maybeck from either side. He waited until they were almost on top of him, then quickly leaped upward into the air. The souls smashed into each other.
Amanda picked up a nearby two-by-four and began sparring with another soul. They were pretty evenly matched until she quickly stepped to the side and the soul fell face first on the ground.
Philby was cornered up against the construction wall by three of the souls. Thinking fast, he grabbed a huge wooden spool and shoved it towards the foul creatures. The three of them fell down as if they were bowling pins.
Meanwhile, Willa had been knocked off of her feet by one soul. Charlene was trapped in a bear hug by another. She elbowed it in the chest and it released her at once.
The Keepers regrouped in front of the attraction. The army kept coming.
"Man, these things don't quit, do they?" panted Maybeck.
"Are you guys ready?" asked Finn.
The others nodded and assumed the position.
"IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!"
"Black DHI power!" said Willa, holding her morpher to the sky. Her black Keeper uniform instantly appeared on her body. The helmet was trimmed in gold, as were the arms and legs of her suit. The center of her chest donned a bright amber emblem of Rapunzel.
"Pink DHI power!" Charlene's pink uniform also materialized around her. The gold emblem on her chest featured the face of Buzz Lightyear.
"Blue DHI power!" Philby's gold symbol on his dark blue uniform showed Prince Naveen.
"Yellow DHI power!" Maybeck was now wearing his signature yellow suit with Br'er Rabbit's picture etched on the gold plate on his chest.
"Red DHI power!" Amanda's blood red Keeper uniform formed around her body, complete with a gold symbol that featured a picture of Princess Jasmine.
"White DHI power!" Finally, Finn's white uniform materialized around him. He felt the warmth of his powers flow through his entire being as he morphed into his Keeper form. A gold emblem of Mickey Mouse appeared on his chest.
"KINGDOM KEEPER POWER!"
The souls scurried away to the other side of the construction yard fearfully.
Without hesitation, the Keepers followed them.
Back at Escher's Keep, the trouble had just begun.
"Jess! My sensors tell me that the Keepers were too late! Hades is on his way here!"
"Don't worry, Wayne!" Jess replied. "No one can enter Escher's Keep without a power coin!"
Suddenly, the emergency lights started flashing!
Jess and Wayne looked on in fear as a thick blue substance oozed its way through the cracks of the steel door.
"Well, almost nobody!" the young girl whimpered.
The ooze slithered and gurgled its way across the floor. Once again, Hades rose up. He took a moment to look around the huge control panels and computers.
"Gee…pretty fancy-shmancy. I guess if you invest your money well over six decades you can buy yourself something nice."
Jess aimed a powerful roundhouse kick at Hades. He fired a bolt of blue electricity right back at her. Her entire body shook as the lightning passed through her. She fell to the floor, unconscious but still breathing.
"You haven't changed, Hades," said Wayne, "You're still picking on creatures smaller than yourself."
Hades chuckled as he approached Wayne's cylinder.
"Put a cork in it, Old Man! Ten minutes out of the egg, and I'm already listening to one of your lectures." He exploded furiously.
"You robbed me of my PRIME! I was the Supreme Ruler of the most foul Empire of the universe. I was the King of Calamity. The Duke of Destruction. The big man on campus!"
He paused for a moment before continuing. "And then, you came along! You locked me into your stuffy little hyper-lock chamber and tossed me into the depths like yesterday's trash!"
"It worked for almost sixty years."
"Don't remind me." Hades spat. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be cooped up in a rotten egg for six decades? It's BORING! Not to mention I've had a Charlie horse since the fifties! But now the tables have turned!"
Hades raised one hand up in the air. A small flute instantly appeared in it.
"Now it's time to pay the piper!"
He played a few notes on the flute, then pointed it at one of the control panels. A bolt of lightning shot out of the end of the instrument, instantly blasting the panel into smithereens.
"Oh, the things I have missed. The West Nile Virus!"
Another panel was destroyed.
"The Vietnam War!"
The pillars of light around the room toppled over like a set of dominos.
"Harry Potter Mania!"
The panel to his right exploded.
"And now, finally, I have the strength to destroy your pathetic powers forever!"
"You won't get away with this, Hades!"
"I already have!"
Blue lightning crashed all around the room as the walls echoed with Hades' laughter…
"Let's teach these creeps some manners!" said Finn.
"Activating Power Beam!" exclaimed Maybeck.
A yellow beam of light appeared on his helmet. He guided the rest of the Keepers through the darkness of the newly constructed cue line for the attraction.
Charlene looked around with apprehension. "Everybody stay alert."
Finn was beginning to feel uneasy. "Anybody see them?"
"Activating Power Scope!" announced Amanda.
A vision scope materialized on her helmet. Through it, she could see the heat signatures of her fellow Keepers as well as the objects surrounding them in the attraction lobby.
All of a sudden, Amanda sensed movement to her left.
"There they are!"
The dead souls leaped down on top of the Keepers. The kids responded with sucker punches, kicks, and spinback roundhouses.
One of the dead souls tackled Finn to the ground. Both of them tumbled down a twenty foot drop. Finn ended up on top of the soul as they landed on a pile of scaffolding.
The soul vanished upon impact.
"Guys! If you hit the souls hard enough, they disappear! Try using your weapons on them!"
The other Keepers nodded and summoned their Keeper Swords.
"FIRE!"
Multi-colored laser blasts shot out of the ends of their swords. They collided with the creatures who then exploded into bits of blue ooze.
"We did it!" Willa squealed.
"Yes, we did," Finn agreed, "Now, let's get back to-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence.
At that moment, a huge surge of electrical energy surrounded the Keepers. Their eyes grew wide and jaws dropped as their Keeper uniforms dematerialized.
"What's going on?" asked Charlene, nervously.
Philby tried his wrist communicator.
"Jess. Wayne. Come in."
No answer.
"Wayne! Jess! This is Philby, please come in!"
Still no answer. Not even static.
"Let's get back to Escher's Keep." Finn suggested.
But when the Keepers tried to teleport, nothing happened.
"Something's wrong! We need to get back now!" said Willa.
Without another word, the six teens ran out of the construction zone and headed for Cinderella's Castle.
Finn just hoped they weren't too late.