by The Eurostar, LLance and T5
The Mastiffs of War, the huge, metallic, robotic wolves of the Mandelovian Army, were entrapped in the cave just like the heroes, and they attacked.
Tobias Christopher, somehow, had lost his powers. He was not able to vibrate through solid objects. "I feel dizzy," he whispered, while Lance Lorenzo, holding his hand, turned him intangible to keep the laser rays from one of the wolves from hitting him.
"Retreat! Retreat!" shouted Marv Velo. "We are not enough in force to combat. We need rest and food!"
The heroes gathered near Velo. "Everybody, hit the cave walls!" he ordered, and suddenly all kinds of powerful blasts made part of the ceiling of the cave collapse, separating the robotic hordes from the metahumans.
"Phew!" whistled Velo. "Well done, ladies and gentlemen... and demon."
"Yeah, well done," muttered Sonja. "Now we are cut away from the surface by miles of rock!"
"The surface is full of soldiers and robots. We must escape underground. It's our only hope. And we must find Sam, don't forget."
"I... I still feel the darkness!" said Naecken.
From the other side of the tunnel came a strange growling, and on the wall, the large shadow of a feline appeared.
"Get ready!" said a tired Velo, but the beast that appeared was none other than Li'l Jo, Tobias' cat, which had been missing since the team returned from the future.
"Li'l Jo, come here!" shouted Tobias, smiling for the first time in many days. The speedster held the tabby, and everybody laughed.
Only Naecken looked at the animal, puzzled. "I still feel... the darkness."
The heroes followed the path until they came upon a huge cavern. Tobias made a search using superspeed and found three different exits out of the cavern. "One passageway has a subtle, but distinct breeze blowing into the cavern," he reported.
"That path must lead to the surface!" Velo said, a thought on everyone's mind.
"I could hear what sounded like water thundering in the distance in another passageway," Tobias continued. "I could hear the faint snarling of our robot wolves coming from the third passageway, and it was getting closer!"
"Let's get our butts up that third passageway!" Sonja concluded aloud.
"What about Sam?" Lance asked. "We can't leave him down here!"
"We're not!" Velo said sternly. "If we go topside again this close to where we did before, we'll surely run into more troops!"
Everybody looked at the ground. Velo continued speaking. "I suggest we ambush and destroy those robotic wolves in this cavern and then find Sam!"
Mick spoke up then. "The sound of water suggests an underground river. We might be able to make rafts and cover a lot more ground faster after we find Sam."
"It might even take us to the surface!" Sonja added excitedly.
"First things first," Velo said. "Lay our ambush first and get the metal wolves out of our hair."
"I can't help but feel there's something else down here, something very, very dangerous... and dark!" Naecken suddenly looked at them with glazed eyes and touched his temples. "The darkness... familiar..." he said, and fainted, keeling over.
Lance sighed. "So much for being big and strong."