Azuria had Ataris stand in a circle she’d painted on floor of her office.
“I’m going to read an incantation now, after I’m done you should be able to turn back to your normal form.” she explained.
Ataris nodded and stood where he’d been told to as Azuria began to read from a large book.
The circle surrounding Ataris began to glow brightly and enveloped him in light for a moment. Once the light had faded and his vision returned to normal he saw that he was indeed back in his normal form.
“Bless you Azuria.” he said as he hugged his grandmother tightly.
“You’re quite welcome my dear.” she said. “Now, you must go to your teammates aid.” she explained.
“Who needs help?” he asked.
Azuria wore a grim expression. “All of them.” she said.
“Who do I help first?” he asked.
“Sue Radiance and Premiere are defenseless at the moment. If you don’t get them to safety quickly, they might be killed.” she told him.
“What about the others, are they going to be ok?” he asked her.
“I cannot say, but this will be the darkest hour for your team.” she said. Azuria went to a large chest near her desk and retrieved a large battle axe similar to the one Ataris had left on the boat. “This is the twin to the axe I gave you years ago.” she explained as she handed him the weapon.
Ataris nodded. “Thank you grandmother, I won’t let you down.” he said and left to help Sue and Premiere.
“I know you won’t Ataris, I know you won’t.” Azuria said with a smile.
<center>****************</center>
Ataris went to the base to get Knight to teleport them to Sue and Darius and found his team leader in the middle of a torture session with Keyword.
“Knight, what the hell is going on here?” Ataris asked.
“This man is a fake, he works for Malta and arranged for us to walk into that trap.” Knight explained.
“Well, Azuria has told me that the others are in danger as well, we have to get Sue and Premiere back here quickly.
Knight nodded he turned to his captive and put his hand over the man’s mouth and nose and summoned dark energy into the palm of his hand. The Malta spy struggled to escape from the suffocating cloud of energy, but quickly succumbed to the power and passed away.
“Now we can go.” Knight said with a terrifying look of satisfaction on his face.
Knight teleported himself and Sue back to the base and then Ataris and Premiere with him in the next trip. The pair setup the comatose heroes in the medical ward and left them to rest as the monitoring equipment kept them up to date on their condition.
Knight noticed that Sue had a healed gunshot wound in her stomach and Premiere had a similar one on his shoulder. “What happened to you guys?” he asked the unconscious pair.
“Who else needs help?” Knight asked Ataris as he came out of the infirmary.
As Ataris started to answer Hannah came in carrying a badly wounded Elysa. The emerald haired woman broke down into fresh sobs as Knight took Elysa from her and to the infirmary and Ataris carried her to the bed next to her sister.
“It’s no good, she’s gone.” Hannah said in between sobs.
“Remind me never to hire you as my doctor.” Knight said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“Elysa isn’t dead, she’s close, but she’s still alive.” he said and rushed to get the necessary equipment needed to treat the injured girl.
Hannah began to cry again and knelt beside her sister’s bed holding her hand in her own. “Hang on ‘Lysa.” she pleaded to the unconscious girl.
To Be Continued…
<center>Part II: The March Of War
Chapter V: The Crushing Darkness</center>
Flower Child and Electro-Cute walked through the rickety wooden door covering the entrance to the Malta cave on the shore of Platinum Lake in Steel Canyon.
“You feeling like this isn’t right too Hanako?” Samantha asked her teammate as they made their way down into the depths of the cave.
Hanako nodded. “I do not like confined spaces.” she said.
“Not thrilled about them myself.” Samantha said.
The duo trudged onward deeper into the cavern and finally came to a fork in the road.
“Which way?” Hanako asked.
Samantha shrugged. “Nobody said anything about a fork in the road.” she said.
Hanako sighed and looked down each darkened path before walking down the left path.
“How do you know that’s the right way?” Samantha asked.
“The plants in this cave are telling me that their are bad men this way.” she said without looking back.
“Great, we walk into a trap because the plants told you which way to go.” Samantha said with a scoff.
As they neared the end of the tunnel, they could hear voices and see the light of a fire ahead. Hanako turned to Samantha and gave her a knowing smile before preparing to enter the area and fight whatever was ahead.
Samantha moved into the lead and charged the palm of her hand with electricity as the neared the entrance to the next area. Samantha took a deep breath and leapt into the next section of the cave. Several arcs of electricity left her hand and bounced off of the empty walls of the cave.
Ceasing her attacks Samantha looked around the cave for any enemies. “What the hell is going on? There’s nobody here.” she said.
Hanako went to the fire and retrieved a tape recorder that was sitting on a nearby rock playing the voices that the pair had heard earlier.
“I don’t like this.” Hanako said as she shut off the tape recorder.
“Me neither, let’s get out of here and find out what’s going on.” Samantha said as she turned to head back the way they came.
As the pair neared the fork in the cave path the area began to shake violently. The roof of the cave began to crumble and several large chunks of rock fell down around the two heroes.
Samantha and Hanako ran for the exit, debris falling all around them as they neared the cave entrance.
“Now!” a voice shouted, and several loud pops were heard as nets were shot from Malta rifles and entangled around the two heroes as they fell backward into the cave.
“They’re subdued, turn up the seismic generator.” a Malta soldier ordered.
The cave shook harder and began to collapse around the two incapacitated heroes. As the dust finally began to settle and the shaking stopped, both heroes were completely buried under a large pile of debris. The pairs screams ceased a few moments afterward.
“Electro-Cute and Flower Child are down sir.” the cowboy dressed Malta soldier said into his earpiece.
“Excellent work Delta Black, return to base for further instructions.” the man in the office said into the radio.
“Understood sir.” Delta Black said and gathered his men up and headed for the waiting helicopter.
Hannah stood outside the infirmary and watched as the robotic medical equipment worked on her sister inside.
Knight came up to the emerald haired hero and handed her a cup of coffee.
“Thanks.” she said with a weak smile.
“No problem.” he replied and looked in on Elysa. “You know that we have the finest medical equipment in the western hemisphere right inside that room, if anything can save her it’s those machines.” Knight said.
Hannah nodded. “What happened to your armor?” she asked without looking away from Elysa.
“Ataris and I were ambushed on the ship we went to investigate. The Malta soldiers wanted my armor for something. Ataris saved me and destroyed the machine, and my armor in the process.” he explained.
“I thought that you died if your armor was removed.” Hannah said with a puzzled expression.
Knight shrugged. “Guess I got lucky.” he said with a smile.
Hannah turned and hugged him tightly. “I like you better this way.” she said as she buried her face into his chest and began to cry.
Knight stroked the back of her head gently and wrapped his arms around her. “She’ll be ok Hannah, I promise you.” he said.
“It’s just so hard to see her that way, just completely beaten. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her.” she said between sobs.
“Maybe you should try and get some rest. Elysa will be in surgery for a few more hours at least. I’ll wake you up if anything changes.” Knight said.
Hannah broke their embrace and nodded. “You’re probably right. I’ll be in my room.” she said and turned to leave. “Thanks Nate.” she said with a smile.
Knight returned her smile. “You’re welcome Han.” he said. After Hannah had disappeared from view Knight took her post outside the infirmary and watched in on Elysa.
<center>****************</center>
Hanako breathed shallowly under the weight of the rocks that were piled on top of her. She struggled to free herself from the net around her, but found no way out. “Samantha?” she managed to whisper.
Samantha groaned. “Can you get free?” she choked out.
“Not on my own, but I might be able to get some roots in here to push the rocks off of us.” Hanako said.
Hanako focused her thoughts on the roots running below the cave and pushed them up through the ground and had them pick up the boulders and debris on top of them and move them away. After several minutes of work the two heroes were uncovered. Hanako used a knife in her pocket to cut the net away and did the same for Samantha.
“I think my arm and leg are broken.” Samantha said.
Hanako got up slowly and limped over to help Samantha up. She examined her partner’s injuries and saw a bone sticking through Samantha’s blood soaked pant leg. “Yeah, your leg is definitely broken.” the Asian hero said as she tried to keep from vomiting.
Samantha put an arm around Hanako and let her lead them out of the cave as she hobbled along. “I think I’m gonna pass out.” she said, her face stark white.
Hanako helped her friend back down to the ground. “Stay here, I’ll go get someone to help you get back to the base.” Hanako said.
Samantha nodded slowly and spat as she tried to fight the urge to throw up from the pain.
Hanako leapt into the air, covering hundreds of yards in one jump. The young hero howled in pain when she landed, and collapsed to the ground. She held her hip tightly and bit back her tears. “Samantha needs me to be strong.” she said to herself as she slowly got back up and jumped again, each time a blinding flash of pain bringing her to the ground after she landed.
<center>****************</center>
Knight checked on Sue and Darius while he waited for Elysa to get out of surgery. Both of the comatose heroes conditions hadn’t changed in the few hours since they’d got back from the field.
Hanako limped into the base and called out for anyone that may be back from their mission. “Hello! Anyone here?” she shouted.
Knight came running around the corner to find out what was going on and rushed to catch Hanako before she collapsed from the pain of her injuries. “Hanako, what happened? Where’s Samantha?” Knight asked as he carried her to the infirmary.
Hanako looked up at him, her consciousness fading. “We were attacked, Samantha’s hurt pretty bad, she’s at the cave on the outskirts of Steel Canyon.” the young hero said before succumbing to the crushing darkness that her body was forcing upon her.
Knight carried the unconscious hero to the infirmary and grimaced at how full it was getting. Setting the young hero on a free bed he began to set up some monitoring equipment for her and started the machine that would begin examining her injuries and fixing them.
Leaving the infirmary, Knight teleported out to the cave where Samantha and Hanako had been and brought the unconscious Samantha back to the base and set her up in the same way he had Hanako.
“What happened to them?” Ataris asked as he entered the infirmary.
Knight shook his head. “Not a hundred percent sure, but I know that they were hit by Malta just like the rest of us.” he said.
Ataris looked at all his injured teammates. “If Malta hits us again, we might not survive.” he said grimly.
Knight nodded. “We need to find the others before something else happens, if it hasn’t already.” Knight said.