by Danny, T5 and I'm Not Mister Mxypltk
The Lost City of the Dragons, Peru:
"This is not good," Chance said, shifting onto his back foot and taking up a defensive position.
"Really, really not good," Marv Velo agreed, reaching for something in his belt.
The crowd leaped at them, and the team raised their defenses.
"What the hell happened to Danny?!" Chance yelled, grabbing one of the enraged villagers and hurling him to the ground.
"I don't think that was really Danny. I think one of the Omicron is a shapeshifter," Velo answered, ducking a flying spear and deflecting a punch from a burly looking man.
The Raptor pulled Ladnikia from its sheath, looking with intense fury at the attackers surrounding him. He raised it, then felt his arm gripped by something strong.
"No!" Tobias Christopher said, his hand wrapped firmly around Ed's wrist. "We can't hurt them. They think we killed one of them. They're innocent."
Ed looked at him for a moment, then looked back up at his sword. "I know," he finally said, and returned Ladnikia to its sheath. Tobias left his side and quickly covered the area, protecting his teammates from the blows of angry villagers.
"Where is Danny?!" Chance yelled, standing back to back with Velo.
"I don't know. But we have to assume Omicron have him. That is..."
"...if he's still alive," Chance said, finishing Velo's sentence. There came nothing in reply.
Sweeping aside handful of attackers with his paw, Drax approached the rest of the team.
"Onto his back!" Chance yelled, and hoisted himself up onto the dragon. Tobias quickly followed, as did Velo. Chance turned his head to where the rest of this team stood. Where moments before Mick Harrison had been standing with them, there now hovered M'xy.
Sprouting from M'xy's head, through his top hat, there was a crane. The crane quickly spun around and picked up Crasher, throwing her onto Drax's back. The dragon took flight, launching itself into the air above the village. The Raptor followed closely, his feathered wings outstretched.
M'xy was last, hurling himself into the air in the path of the dragon.
"M'XY!" Chance called, from his position on Drax's back.
M'xy appeared at his side, floating alongside Drax in the open air.
"Can you contain them? Without hurting them?" Chance asked. M'xy nodded. Looking down at the ground, M'xy stretched out one arm and pointed at the ground. Following his cue, the ground around the gathered villagers ruptured and threw up four large earth walls around the pack. Howls of rage came from within the dirt prison as the villagers helplessly watched their enemies disappear into the sky, borne away on the back of the creature they had thought to be their savior.
Back in the village, Johnny Omicron and Mimic had discreetly exited from the battle they had initiated. X-Acute walked alongside them, turning his head every few moments to look at the chaos behind them.
"Uh... guys... they trapped the people in a giant dirt... thing," X-Acute said, skipping ahead to walk alongside his teammates. Johnny turned and glanced at the structure.
"Let them," Omicron said, turning his gaze back forward. "It's probably best for us if the villagers are out of the way while we steal their book."
"Speaking of which... where is the damn thing?" X-Acute said, turning to face Mimic. They all stopped walking, awaiting the shapeshifter's reply.
"Apparently, on the far south edge of the village, there's a temple carved from stone. Underneath the temple, a cavern stretches pretty far underground."
"And the book is in there?" Johnny asked, one eyebrow raised.
"So the priest guy said," Mimic replied.
"Right. We get the rest of the team -- except for Rose -- and we head for the book," Johnny said.
"We need the whole team just to fetch a book?" X-Acute asked.
"We don't know what kind of defenses they have. We have to assume there'll be some. It's the most important thing in their civilization. We need the manpower. Just in case," Johnny explained.
"Fair enough," X-Acute replied. "Hey, Mimic, where's the guy you replaced?" X-Acute asked.
"Rose is watching him," Mimic answered, grinning.
On the other side of the village, there sat a fairly unremarkable hut, looking and behaving a lot like most of the other huts surrounding it. Inside, Danny Hearn was bound with rope to a wooden chair, his head bowed and his eyes fixed on the floor.
Standing in front of him, not more than two meters away, was Rose of Project Omicron. She had a raised gun in her right arm, and her view didn't leave Danny for a second.
Danny wasn't even sure that she was blinking.
"You don't talk much, do you?" Danny asked. Rose said nothing in reply.
"Right. Because I've been here a little while now, and you haven't said a thing..."
Still silence.
"Okay, then..." Danny said quietly. Looking back up at Rose, he noticed no reaction. Except for her finger becoming slightly more tense on the trigger. Though that may have been a product of his nervousness.
Danny mumbled a few words under his breath. Rose said nothing, but a suspicious look crossed her face. She stepped closer, keeping her gun trained between Danny's eyes. Danny mumbled something else, and she stepped even closer.
Danny watched her legs as she stepped slowly forward. When he felt she was close enough, he spat.
And a blast of squid ink struck Rose squarely in the eyes.
Across the village, Johnny Omicron stood outside a stone temple that had been erected at the south edge. He looked at the structure, taking it all in, sizing it up, estimating the scale of their defenses. Behind him stood Mimic, X-Acute, Arges, and the Sheik.
Set in the doorway of the temple was a huge stone slab, seeming virtually unmovable. Johnny stepped closer to it and placed a hand on it.
"This may be hard to move," he said. He heard a laugh from behind him and turned to face the voice.
"You're kidding, right?" Arges said, and stepped forward. He brushed Johnny aside with his left hand, and raised his great hammer with his right. He drew his right arm back and thrust it forward violently. A large crack appeared in the center of the stone slab. A second blow, and the crack widened.
With a third and final blow, Arges reduced the giant piece of stone to rubble.
"You make a fine doorman, Arges," Johnny said, stepping around him and entering the temple. Darkness surrounded him, the sunlight that spilled in from the now-open doorway disappearing after the first few feet. Johnny raised a hand and pressed a button on the side of his visor, switching it to infrared mode. He pressed another button, throwing a strong beam of light onto the floor and allowing his teammates to see. He swept it across the room.
On the other side of room, a priest sat huddled in the corner, his arms raised to shield his eyes from the light.
"Well. This man can tell us where the book is. We have ourselves a guide, people," Johnny said. As he did so, the priest stood up and ran to the back wall. He pressed a stone with his palm, screaming something in his native language. The stone of the back wall began to shift, and an opening appeared.
"Well that's not fair," X-Acute said, stepping in and standing beside Johnny.
The priest dived into the opening, terrified. As he made what he thought what his last stab at freedom, he felt a hand gripping him firmly on the shoulder. Another gripped the back of his head. He was pushed back roughly into the room from which he had just come. Johnny saw him re-enter the room, clutching desperately at his shoulder.
The members of Project Omicron saw nothing save a priest stumbling into a room, a look of terror on his face. Johnny, however, saw a red blob behind the priest through his infrared visor.
"Nicely done, Pneuma," Johnny said.
"How did he know that passageway was there?" X-Acute asked, referring to Pneuma.
"Not sure. It still freaks me out when he does stuff like that," Johnny said. X-Acute nodded his agreement.
Johnny stepped forward to the priest, grabbing his arm and pulling him roughly from the grip of his invisible teammate. The rest of Omicron filed in through the door, filling the relatively small room.
"Now..." Johnny said, turning to them. "We get that book."
In the small hut on the other side of the village, Rose had just been hit by a blast of squid ink. Her left arm shot up to her face, and her right arm pulled the trigger in the handgun it still held. A single shot was fired at the spot where she had, seconds before, seen Danny sitting.
As Danny spat the ink at her face, he had thrown all his weight to the left, causing the chair to topple. He began to fall sideways toward the floor, and he heard the bullet whiz by his right ear. The chair fell to the floor with a crash, and broke into several wooden pieces. With his thumbs, currently taking the form of tiger claws, he cut through the rope binding his hands together.
Rose wiped some of the ink from her face, managing to regain some vision. She saw the figure of Danny lunging at her, and let off a shot at the same time as he tackled her to the ground.
Danny had dived at her the second he had his hands free, as she fired her second shot, and it disappeared through the roof. He struck her hard in the midsection, sending them both tumbling to the ground. He grabbed her right wrist and held it to the ground, keeping her from firing at him. A third shot fired uselessly into the wooden wall of the hut.
With a small spur on his right wrist, Danny stabbed Rose in the shoulder. Her eyes widened for a second, and a look of confusion crossed her face. Danny withdrew his hand from her, and stood up. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she slumped to the floor, unconscious.
You got a plan now, cowboy? Hal asked.
"Sure. A great plan," Danny replied.
I remain to be convinced.
"The plan is... I find the rest of our team. We go kick Omicron's arse. We find that book. It's a flawless plan. I like the plan. I'm calling it Plan A."
Well... let's go, then.
Crasher watched the others and wondered what they were thinking. Should she take the initative and launch an attack with Ameristar's armor? She still wasn't used to its movements or weapons systems. She was just about to ask, when suddenly the armor jerked and became stiff.
Chance almost got knocked off Drax's back when the armor decided, as if having a will of its own, to launch.
The team saw the armor, with Crasher in it, fly the opposite way and disappear in the clouds, with great speed.
"Hey! You can't just leave now. We need you!" Velo yelled with fury in his voice. If it was one thing he didn't like, it was loose cannons acting without consulting the others first.
He asked M'xy, "Can you bring her back, M'xy?"
The otherdimensinal being looked confused for awhile and then replied, "I would if I knew where she was. The clouds are in the way. I can't see her." And with that, he conjured a huge fan with helicopter engines to keep it aloft and in one place.
The clouds were dispersed, but of Crasher there was no sight.
"Damn it!" Velo swore. "It was better in the old days when the team acted as a team... no members trying to outshine the others. If I get my hands on her..."
"Uhhh... guys?" Drax said. "It seems we are being followed."
Crasher was desperate. What the hell was happening? She had lost all control of the armor, and according to its instruments, she was heading away from mainland South America at top speed toward... She calculated the flight path. No! She was headed toward Scotland?
"I don't see anyone following us, Drax," Velo said, looking at the darkness behind them just as the rest of the team was.
"I can," Drax replied. "Something is flying toward us at great speed. It may be the dragon chick."
"It's too small to be the dragon," Raptor said.
"You can see it, too?" Chance asked. "How soon will it reach us?"
"Very soon," Raptor said, looking at the darkness and grabbing his sword.
"I advise that you don't attack him yet," Velo said. "It may be..."
At that moment, the thing reached them and, in less than a second, the Raptor drew his sword and threw himself at it. Moments before Ladnika reached its victim, something jumped on Raptor's back and made him stop.
"What?!" Raptor looked back and saw Tobias hanging from his wings. "Tobias?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
"ED! LOOK WHO YOU ARE ATTACKING!" Tobias yelled.
As Tobias ran from his back to Drax's, Edulcore looked, and saw Danny's face in front of him. Danny seemed shocked.
"I..." Edulcore said. "Danny, I didn't... I'm..."
Then, his grip tightened in Ladnika's handle, and his expression changed.
"I don't regret doing that," the Raptor said. "It was foolish of you to approach us like that. Next time, be more careful, or you'll end up dead."
"Wha--?" Danny said, more shocked than before, as Raptor turned and gave his back to him.