by Danny
The Lost City of the Dragons, Peru:
Moments before, Rose of Project Omicron had woken up on a dirt-covered floor, dazed but angry. She stood, groggily at first but slowly regaining her focus. Soon, all her thoughts were focused on one thing: Danny Hearn.
She raised her arms toward the entrance of the hut, not sure whether there was still anyone there, but prepared to fire nonetheless. Only after raising her hands to eye level did she see that her guns weren't there. With a growing sense of rage, she realized that Danny had disarmed her. She was, for the first time in years, unarmed.
It was a disconcerting experience for her.
But it wouldn't last for long. She marched to the back of the hut and threw aside a wooden table, letting it fall sideways with a loud bang against the wall of the hut. Underneath the table was a metal chest, the top of which she threw open. Inside were more guns than she could carry, of various sizes and descriptions. She smiled, armed herself, and headed for the exit to find the rest of her team.
Outside, she noticed something peculiar about the local villagers.
They were running, yelling and screaming, into the woods on the north side of the village. Compared to earlier behavior she had seen from them, this could, indeed, be considered peculiar. She instantly thought that they must have been running away from something. The looks of terror and excited pointing toward the direction from which they came were a dead giveaway.
Using her available deductive reasoning skills, she made a quick assumption and headed into the opposite direction to where everyone else was going. She hoped this was where she would find her team. And, if she was lucky, that other team. Particularly that one with the damn claws and poison injections. Rose really was in a mood to shoot something.
Shortly after, she found what she was after. Spilling out of the ground through a large opening in a stone temple was her team, the rest of Project Omicron. Coming shortly after them were their rivals.
Danny quickly surveyed the scene around him. With him were what remained of his team: Marv Velo, Chance, Tobias Christopher, M'xy, and Drax. The Raptor had flown on ahead, carrying the book, with Johnny Omicron quickly on his heels.
Behind them, there was the village. The locals were apparently running away from the battle, terrified of getting caught in the crossfire. Danny was glad, not wanting anyone to get unnecessarily hurt. To their right was thick forest, the trees stretching off into the distance much farther than Danny could see, even with eagle eyes. The forest ended abruptly and made way for a sandy clearing where they now stood. A line of thick bushes marked the edge of the clearing where it met the forest. To their right was a sheer cliff, descending down toward the water.
And before them, standing their ground in defense of their leader, Johnny Omicron, were the remaining members of Project Omicron: Mimic, Arges, X-Acute, and the Sheik. Danny was pretty sure that there was another one around somewhere, though he couldn't see them. Which, of course, would be a disadvantage.
Out of the corner of his eye, Danny noticed Rose. She was running from the village, then quickly ducked into the cover of the forest.
"Damn it. I thought that poison would knock her out longer..." Danny said.
You fucked up. Too late to cry about it now. Just keep an eye on the rest of your damn team, Hal said.
Cutting their advance abruptly short, Project Omicron stopped in their tracks. Danny assumed that they'd received the order to stay and keep the MBL back so that Johnny could retrieve the book from Edulcore Cicciotto and escape with it. Danny was unsure whether Ed could handle Omicron, but right now he didn't have much choice. These guys weren't about to let Danny through to go help his teammate.
And, to be honest, Danny was less worried about what Johnny would do to Ed as he was about what Ed would do in return. The Raptor -- a name that seemed to Danny more and more appropriate as of late -- was not in the most social of moods when he had departed. And while he appreciated the fact that drastic measures must sometimes be taken in their line of work, Danny knew that killing an opponent over a book was a line that, once crossed, was hard to come back from.
But before he could think too deeply about any of this, X-Acute pivoted, twirled around, raised his two Smith and Wessons, and fired at them.
Tobias watched as X-Acute raised his arms with the two guns. He stepped forward and ducked past Chance, who was standing directly in front of him. X-Acute pulled the triggers, and Tobias rounded past Velo and pushed Danny aside, emerging in front of the team. The bullets exited the barrels, and Tobias ran forward to meet them. Intercepting them in mid-air, he wrapped his hands firmly around the bullets and tossed them harmlessly to the ground. He turned around to make sure his team was all okay, and found them to be adequately so. He noticed Danny and Velo part from the other three and head sideways, toward the forest. Turning back around to keep his eye on his enemies, Tobias found them tightly bunched together, weapons raised.
Danny's worrying about where Rose gone to was cut short when she appeared, diving from the bushes to the left of the rest of her team, guns raised and fingers on the triggers. She fired as she jumped.
As the bullets shot out from the barrels, Tobias smiled. If handguns were all they had to face him, this was going to be fun. The rest of the guys could go home and watch TV; he'd stay here all afternoon and catch bullets.
He grabbed Rose's bullets in mid-air and again tossed them to the ground. He then stopped, grinned, and shrugged at Omicron. He was poised to run at them, when he felt something tugging at him.
Standing behind the rest of his team, the Sheik whispered a quiet word to himself. At that moment, Tobias felt the air around himself thicken. He'd only felt this once before -- the cemetery in Berlin, where it seemed K'tl was in charge and keeping him stationary. Tobias didn't like it then, and he didn't like it now. He couldn't move. He could barely breathe. It felt as if the air surrounding him was solid, a hardened substance encasing him and keeping him still. He tried to yell, and merely managed a squeak. While it was definitely heartfelt, in its way, it lacked the intimidating fury of a good yell.
Danny and Velo were ducking into the thick cover of the trees, trying the same trick as Rose to get the jump on their enemies. They ran forward behind the screen of thick foliage, hoping to gain some ground before they were spotted and attacked.
And they did gain some ground. Really. Not very much at all, but... some.
X-Acute dived into the bushes ahead of them, cutting off their progress. He jumped up suddenly, using a low-hanging tree branch as a springboard and moving in smooth arc through the air above them. He grabbed a branch with his right hand and swung a gun beneath him in his left, firing at the two below him.
As he did so, Danny and Velo dived to the ground, hoping not to be hit, which was a fairly reasonable thing to hope for, as X-Acute was looking upward and reaching for a tree branch as he fired, and really only relying on luck to aim for him. Luck abandoned him, and Danny and Velo made it to the floor of the forest without being given any convenient places to store pens.
Although, admittedly, the forest floor wasn't a hugely appealing place to end up, and they quickly stood up again. Danny cast a glance back at the rest of his team to check on them, and found Drax launching himself into the air. The dragon was an impressive sight, and was made even moreso by the deep bellow that accompanied his take off. A bellow that was, it had to be said, much more intimidating than Tobias' squeak. But, to be fair, Drax had much bigger lungs. Looking back at Velo, Danny noticed Mimic tackling him head on and throwing them both to the ground.
M'xy, meanwhile, was floating over to help Tobias while Chance simply walked forward purposefully, standing his ground.
Drax filled a large part of the sky above the scene of the battle, blotting out much of the sunlight and casting a shadow on the ground below him. He flew upward, reached a suitable height, then turned and hurtled downward.
All of Project Omicron scattered, somewhat frightened by the sight of a huge dragon falling out of the sky toward them. All, that is, except Arges. He stood still, keeping his one eye trained on Drax. He reached for his belt and unclipped his huge axe, and gripped it firmly in his right hand. He took aim and threw it. The axe cut through the air, thrown with as much power and speed as any axe can hope to be thrown with. Arges smiled as he watched its progress, seeing it close in on its target.
The axe struck Drax on the shoulder, causing him to yelp in pain. While a dragon of that size wasn't likely to be completely incapacitated by an axe blow, however well aimed, it was enough to throw him off balance. His perfect landing ruined, Drax struck the ground hard with a resounding thud, tumbling over twice and coming to rest in the forest. Before he came to a complete stop, he managed to crush some trees with his considerable bulk, sending logs and foliage flying. He also had the fortuitous accident to land on Mimic, throwing him off Velo.
Danny and Velo were completely startled to have a giant dragon appear on the forest floor in front of them. The two looked at each other, and decided with a simple look that this was a strange enough turn of events for them to risk running out into the open area to face battle again and leave the comfort and scenic surroundings of the forest.
The Sheik floated above the heads of all below him, crossing the battlefield and coming to rest on the roof of the stone temple they had recently exited from. He needed a peaceful spot if he was to be truly effective.
Rose headed to the edge of the clearing, where it met the forest. She intended to find Danny and Velo, knowing that they had recently headed into there.
Pneuma watched.
X-Acute descended from the tree, crashing through the bushes below him but managing a perfect landing. Gun raised, he jumped back out from the bushes, intending to meet danger head on, take it to the limit, live life on the edge, and generally act out other tough-sounding slogans he'd seen on bumper stickers and T-shirts. A figure met him as soon as he stepped out from his bushy hiding spot, and he raised his gun to the figure's face.
He lowered it again in confusion as he found himself face to face with Rose. A rustling noise caught their attention, and they quickly turned to face the source of it. Clambering out from the bushes, back to back and seemingly hoping for a better reception than the one they found, were Danny and Velo. X-Acute and Rose held their guns out towards the two men, fingers tensing on the triggers at point blank range.
"Well... damn," Velo said.
Meanwhile, M'xy had been tending to Tobias. Finding him completely immobile, M'xy thought that this was a strange situation for the speedster to be in. He'd hardly ever been immobile. He was usually quite... mobile. M'xy found there to be quite a powerful spell surrounding his teammate, which left him frustrated. M'xy was the one to handle the powerful spells around here, not some weird-robed sheik-man.
The Sheik looked down from his perch, annoyed that M'xy was apparently challenging his spell. He concentrated on keeping the speedster still.
M'xy pushed as hard as he could against the Sheik's spell. He thought really hard about really fast things, like cars and light and the orbit of the earth around the sun. With a burst of fifth-dimensional energy, he let Tobias free.
The Sheik scowled.
Tobias ran. He ran for the first thing he saw. Which, at this moment, was the distressing image of Danny and Velo at the mercy of Rose and X-Acute. Covering the area before any triggers could be pulled, Tobias disarmed them, grabbing their guns from them and hurling them into the bushes. He grabbed them both by the hair and ran, trailing them behind him.
Pneuma watched all this, from his hiding point halfway up a tree. And one figure in particular had caught his attention:
Kristofer Schanz. Chance. Where his teammates had run and fought and generally been impressive, if not effective, Chance had walked silently toward Arges while Arges was busy trying to slow down Drax. And now he had reached his target. Standing before the huge Cyclops, arms crossed and head cocked, Chance addressed him.
"You know, he may be big and furry and altogether dragonlike, but that's my friend you just threw an axe at," Chance said to Arges. Arges just laughed in reply, then readied his axe once more. He looked down at Chance and pulled his right arm back to prepare the blow. As the axe was pulled backward, however, the head flew off the handle and landed, clattering, on the ground behind him.
"What the...?" Arges said, and looked down at Chance.
"I've always been lucky that way," Chance said.
Arges pulled back his right hand to ready a punch and found himself pounced upon by a giant furry dragon. An event that, in other situations, would be strange.
Drax roared at him and clamped his right paw down over Arges' chest. The cyclops grunted and reached for his hammer, his axe currently nothing more than a relatively useless stick. With both hands, one clenched and holding his hammer, he pushed upward on Drax's paw. When he managed a push of a few inches, he rolled himself out from under the paw and quickly stood up. Drax attacked Arges with his other paw, but the cyclops ducked and ran under the huge limb, finding himself on the other side of the dragon and grabbing a huge chunk of fur.
With a mighty heave, Arges flung himself upward and onto the back of the dragon. Drax roared, bucked wildly, and took off.
Pneuma, still just watching, was fascinated by Chance. He didn't outwardly appear to have any great metapowers, but here he was, going toe to toe with Arges. Curiosity overwhelmed the invisible man.
Tobias covered the clearing in a moment, hurtling Rose and X-Acute into the stone wall of the temple. X-Acute managed to tuck and roll, avoiding any major damage. Rose was less lucky, and dislocated her shoulder as she was hurled into the stone.
The Sheik was furious by this time, taking M'xy's challenge to him as an insult of the highest order. Summoning up all the power he could, the Sheik once more cast his freezing spell on Tobias. The magician knew that he only had seconds before M'xy freed the speedster once more, and he hoped that X-Acute would play his part.
He did. X-Acute got up and ran, heading for the bushes where Tobias had deposited their guns. It only took him a couple of seconds, but it was already giving M'xy a chance to free Tobias once more.
Sifting through the bushes, X-Acute found what he was looking for -- Betsy and Frieda, his two handguns, still loaded. He turned, ran, and fired.
Tobias squeaked in immense pain as bullets ripped through his legs.
M'xy eeped loudly. "EEP!"
M'xy turned and faced X-Acute. "You stinky gun-shootie man! You'll be in a bubble now!"
X-Acute was rather surprised to find himself trapped inside a large bubble. He guessed that it was bulletproof, but elected not to test that out, as any ricochets may become tricky to dodge.
"FUCK!" he yelled loudly, although no one else could hear him.
Across the forest, up a hill, around a fork in the road, and just near that big tree -- you know, the one -- there stood Grimm, Dirk Bell, Tayden, Priest, and the Spirit of Vengeance. An off-road vehicle and a motorbike lay on their side on the hill, thrown off balance by the sudden change of locale.
"What the hell...?" Grimm said.
"What was that? Some sort of teleportation? Where the fuck are we?!" Dirk yelled.
"So that was... odd," Tayden added.
"You're damn right it was odd," Dirk said.
"What was that? M'xy?" Grimm asked.
"If it was, I'm going to be handing out some serious ass-kicking. Fifth dimensional or not, you don't start yanking guys halfway around the world without their say-so. It's just not done," Dirk said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a loaded shotgun. Vengeance said nothing, just looking around in confusion.
"Wait! Does anyone else hear that?" Tayden said, holding up a hand in an attempt to silence his companions.
"Gunshots. Screams. Sounds of battle..." Grimm said.
"Probably why we're here, then. Let's go shoot things," Dirk replied. "Can you watch Priest? He still doesn't look too well," Dirk added, addressing Vengeance. Dirk received a nod in reply.
"Right. Let's go," Grimm said, and he and Dirk ran toward the source of the sounds.
On a cliff face overlooking the village, the Raptor stood with his sword raised, facing Johnny Omicron.
"That book is mine. Give it to me now, and you might not die," Johnny said. Edulcore Cicciotto said nothing in response, electing rather to charge at Omicron with Ladnikia raised. Which, in the circumstances, was probably an understandable tactical decision.
Johnny pivoted on his back foot, dodging the thrust and parrying Ed's sword with his own. With a mild concussive blast, Johnny threw Ed to the ground.
"Is that all you have to offer? Disappointing, really," Johnny said, standing over Ed.
Ed raised his legs and rammed both his boots into Johnny's chest, pushing Omicron backward. He jumped to his feet and once more raised his sword with a deafening battle-cry. As Johnny tried to regain his balance, Ed used Ladnikia to push Johnny's sword from his hand. Ed swung his own blade in a huge arc, bringing it down on Johnny's right-hand gauntlet. Sparks flew, and a shocked look crossed Johnny's face. He quickly regained his composure.
"Never mind. Got two," Johnny said, and threw Ed back down to the ground with a concussive blast from his left gauntlet. He grabbed the book, ignited his boot jets, and took flight.
Ed spread his wings and followed.
Rose stood over Tobias, who writhed on the ground and held his hands over his bleeding kneecaps. She was trying to pop her shoulder back into place, and managed to do so. A grimace of pain crossed her face, but still no sound escaped her lips.
All of a sudden, she found herself in a bubble. Looking through it, she found Mimic and X-Acute in nearby bubbles. She punched the bubble from the inside, hard.
Danny, Chance, and Velo ran to Tobias. M'xy stood under the bubbles, looking at them proudly.
"Enjoy your pride while you can, imp," the Sheik said, and whispered a brief spell. The bubbles popped, the members of Project Omicron fell to the ground, and M'xy found himself feeling remarkably like... Mick Harrison.
He eeped softly. "Eep..."
Over the water that stretched out from the nearby cliff face, Arges was riding Drax. Despite the dragon's best efforts to dislodge its jockey, the cyclops remained on his back. Drax flew sideways, then quickly did a mid-air barrel roll in an effort to shake his rider. He dipped and flew sharply downward, but it was to no avail. He turned and headed back for the cliff, as Arges raised his hammer. As Drax neared the cliff edge, Arges brought his hammer down in a swift blow to the back of Drax's neck. Arges jumped, just managing to make it to a small ledge on the side of the cliff. He looked upward, then tried to hoist himself up.
Drax crashed into the cliff face and tumbled into the water. A splash echoed around the forest, and a fountain of water erupted from the surface as the dragon disappeared beneath it.
Where seconds earlier Danny, Velo, Chance, Tobias, and M'xy had found themselves in control of the situation and surrounded by harmless bubbles, they now found themselves surrounded by Rose, X-Acute, and Mimic. The Sheik surveyed the scene from atop the temple, using all the power at his disposal to keep M'xy under control. X-Acute had tossed Rose her two guns, since retrieved from the bushes.
"Wings!" Danny said, and a moment later had eagle wings fully oustretched. He launched himself upward, trying to take flight. Rose raised her two handguns and fired, one aimed at his wings and one aimed at his heart.
She felt her left arm waver slightly as she fired, and missed Danny's heart. She assumed the wavering arm was a result of the recent dislocation. Her right hand gun, however, found its target, and a bullet ripped clean through one of Danny's wings.
He felt it tear at muscle and feather. A trail of blood following him, Danny tumbled to the ground and landed in a heap.
Velo ran at Mimic and tackled him. The two men hit the ground hard and tumbled over a couple of times. Mimic emerged on top and punched Velo hard across the face. Velo threw his opponent off his chest by using his leg, and Mimic tumbled into the bushes at the edge of the clearing. The shapeshifter stood and ran off into the forest, pushing aside branches as he went. Velo followed.
"Chance! Get Tobias to safety!" Danny yelled, standing up and retracting his wings.
"But you'll be--"
"Do it!"
Rose shot a look towards X-Acute. It was a look that seemed to say, "This one's mine. Go and follow Mimic into the forest and get that other one. The bleeding guy and the harmless guy will be okay for now." Which, of course, was a lot for a look to say, but when you had as much practice as Rose did, you could say a lot with looks.
X-Acute charged off into the forest.
"So... just you and me again," Danny said. Rose raised her gun.
"Exoskeleton," Danny said. Rose fired. As her finger squeezed the trigger, every molecule of Danny's DNA was responding to a command from Hal. In the second that it took for her to realize he was saying something threatening and pull the trigger, a sleek black exoskeleton covered Danny's body from head to toe.
The bullet struck him in the chest and bounced off, falling to the ground. Rose fired again, impatiently. The second bullet, not surprisingly, repeated the action of the first. Danny lunged at her and grabbed her around the throat.
Suddenly, he felt something immensely hard and painful strike him in the back. It cracked his exoskeleton and sent him crumpling to the ground with a yell of pain. He looked around and noticed Arges' hammer clatter to the ground beside him.
In the forest, Velo was in pursuit of Mimic. And X-Acute was in pursuit of Velo.
X-Acute caught up to Velo before Velo caught up to Mimic.
Grabbing a branch as a handhold and hurling himself forward, X-Acute found himself halfway up a tree, looking down directly at Velo. He jumped across to the next tree and grabbed a branch with one hand, using his other arm to reach downward and grab a nearby vine. He slid down it, and landed on the ground in front of Velo.
"Shit," Velo said. A moment later, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned and ran.
X-Acute leaped forward, pushing himself off a tree trunk with his right leg. He landed on a low-hanging branch of another tree, then reached out and grabbed another with his arms. He swung himself from the branch, flipped in mid-air, and landed on Velo's shoulders, bringing him to the ground.
"That was the most pitiful attempt at running away I've ever seen," X-Acute said.
"Well, it distracted you long enough," Velo replied.
"Long enough for what?"
"Long enough for my large, axe-wielding, skull-faced friend to knock you unconscious from behind, of course."
X-Acute didn't even get a chance to turn around before Grimm knocked him out cold.
Atop the stone temple, the Sheik watched with great interest as Arges and Rose stood over the body of Danny. Danny was currently writhing in pain on the ground before them, nursing a crack in his exoskeleton. A crack that had been worsened when a swift kick from Arges followed the hammer blow. Danny retracted his exoskeleton and looked up at the faces before him.
He was a little worried that he was about to die.
Pneuma watched this from the doorway of the stone temple, although nobody actually knew he was there. He'd saved Danny's life earlier, when he knocked Rose's arm off its aim when she tried to shoot him before, but he didn't think he could do it now without giving himself away. Danny may have to become an acceptable loss on this one.
"I'd better go check on those other two," Arges said, referring to Tobias and Chance. Rose nodded, confident that she could now handle Danny.
The Sheik was busy concentrating on M'xy. A trick he wasn't sure he could pull of much longer, but he had more power on his side than anyone realized. Power which is wasted when you use it all concentrating on one opponent.
A bullet struck him in the back, and the Sheik yelled in pain. He slumped forward. Roughly one hundred and fifty feet away, on the roof of one of the neighbouring structures, Dirk Bell looked through his cross-hairs at the slumped-over figure of the Sheik. It was a good shot, even if he did say so himself.
He hopped down from his post and went to finish the job.
M'xy snapped back to full power as the Sheik's concentration was broken.
Rose pulled the trigger on the gun pointed at Danny, also as the Sheik's concentration was broken. In mid-air, the bullet turned into a butterfly. Danny smiled a thankful smile at M'xy, and M'xy just grinned back.
Dirk climbed onto the roof of the stone temple and inspected the wound he had just given the Sheik.
"You'll live," Dirk said, and knocked the Sheik unconscious with a blow to the face. "Although I have no idea why."
Pneuma disappeared inside the temple.
Meanwhile, Arges had caught up with Chance. He'd been helping Tobias back into the village to find somewhere and someone to tend to his wounds. They'd found no one, and Chance was about to deposite Tobias in a nearby hut.
"YOU! Go no further!" Arges yelled, his hammer pointed. Chance turned around and faced him.
"Me?" Chance asked innocently.
"You people! You irritating people!" Arges yelled, marching toward Chance with his hammer raised.
"None of you should be able to beat me! I'M THE STRONGEST PERSON I KNOW!"
"I'm sure you are," Chance replied, grinning.
"And now you'll all know it!" Arges said, and raised his hammer. He pulled it back to prepare for the blow, then brought it down on Chance's head. Arges put all the strength he could into it. It was a mighty blow, a powerful blow. A blow that recalled the power of the gods and seemed to prove that yes, Arges was indeed the strongest person he knew.
Chance stood his ground, and the hammer bounced harmlessly off his head. Arges screamed in pain and was thrown backward with all the power he could muster. He came to a halt only when he smacked hard against a stone slab.
Shortly after, the team was gathered back in the clearing. Arges, X-Acute, Rose, and the Sheik were all trapped in M'xy's bubbles, floating a few feet above the ground. Danny, Chance, Tobias, M'xy, and Velo stood beneath them. They had just been joined by Grimm and Dirk.
"Introductions later," Danny said, nodding at the new arrival. "But now, is Tayden with you guys?"
At that moment, Tayden arrived, out of breath, running through the forest. Vengeance came shortly after him, Priest draped over his shoulder.
"Tayden! I need you to find Ed. Now. He needs to be calmed the hell down before he does something we'll all regret," Danny said.
"Um... okay... how do I find him?" Tayden asked.
"M'xy. Take Tayden to Ed. We'll keep an eye on these guys. You understand?" Danny said.
"Aye-aye, Cap'n!" M'xy said. He took Tayden and suddenly disappeared into his own top hat.
At that moment, when they thought they'd finally earned some rest, Mimic came barging out of the forest, a small child in his arms, and ran for the edge of the cliff. Mimic ran hard, kicking up dust as he went. When he reached the edge, he turned and stood, clutching the child firmly around the neck.
"What the hell...?" Danny said.
"You all take me to the book now. Or I jump off this cliff and take the kid with me!" Mimic yelled. Velo swore.
"Jump, then! See if we care!" Danny yelled back.
"Danny! What the hell are you doing?" Velo said.
"I smell something," Danny replied. Velo looked at him and found he currently had a wolf's nose.
Mimic paused, and there was silence. He seemed to be thinking something over in his mind.
"Bloody hell... if he won't jump off, will somebody please shoot him off?" Danny said. Dirk raised his gun and smiled. Seeing this, Mimic grabbed the boy tightly, stepped back to the edge of the cliff, and fell off. He disappeared over the edge with a scream.
A second later, he reappeared, held by his trench coat, dangling from the mouth of Drax. The boy was riding the dragon's back, clinging to his fur and smiling. Drax landed on the ground before his team and let the boy down. He held onto Mimic.
"Nicely done," Danny said to the dragon.
Meanwhile, the Raptor was chasing Johnny Omicron through the sky above the forest. Johnny had the Liber Vitae tucked under his arm and was trying hard to lose Ed. His right gauntlet was destroyed, but he kept firing energy blasts behind him with his left. He had to keep his eyes forward, however, and his aim was off. Ed dodged the energy blasts with ease.
Johnny quickly turned upward and around, flying in a giant arc. The effect was that he did a full loop and ended up approaching the Raptor from behind, attempting to knock him to the ground. Johnny raised his left arm for a final energy blast, but Ed twirled around as he did so and swung Ladnikia at him. The sword connected with Johnny's gauntlet, destroying the second one. The book fell from his grip, tumbling into the thick jungle below them. Johnny panicked for a second, then flew down to retrieve it. The Raptor followed.
He found Johnny on the forest floor, trying to find where the book had landed. The Raptor quickly caught up with him and landed on him from above. He sent Johnny crashing to the ground and sat on top of him with his knee in Johnny's back. Johnny tried to push himself upward and throw Ed off, an act to which Ed replied with a swift swing of the blade to the shoulder. Johnny screamed as Ladnikia pierced the kevlar and his flesh, drawing blood. Ed stood up, and Johnny rolled over.
Bringing Ladnikia down with all the force he could, Ed stabbed Johnny through the kidney. Johnny screamed once more, and clasped his hand over the wound.
The Raptor screamed at Johnny, a look of fury in his face.
A doorway opened nearby in the forest. Tayden and M'xy came tumbling out. To keep the doorway open for the way back, M'xy found a book lying on the ground and propped the door open with it.
Tayden ran at Ed. "NO!" the angel yelled.
Ed held Ladnikia above his head, clasping the end of it with both hands. He screamed once more, spat on Johnny Omicron's face, and brought the sword down for one final blow.
The tip of the blade pierced the kevlar as easily as if it were paper. The sword was thrust down through Johnny's chest, into his heart. A pained expression came onto Johnny's face, and stayed there.
Tayden ran, his heart pounding. Then he stopped. He knew the damage was done. There was nothing here he could help. Nothing he could fix. He was too late.
The Raptor stood above his prey, energized by the kill, the sword still pushed down through Johnny's chest. Ed knelt down beside the body to inspect the damage. But there was no doubt in his mind. It was obvious from the moment of the final sword blow.
Johnny Omicron was dead.