Blind leading the blind, someone shakes, squish toad, doomed pride

“Good thing Andy was smart enough to keep the wings from being able to harm you,” said Adin as he was walked with Adrian next to him who did not say anything.

Mikey said, “Where is Jake?” He had converted back into his human form. Having shorts that were made of Anflux made it easier for his conversion so that no one would see him unclothed. Even though Liz had wanted that for a while he was not up to sharing all his goods with the world or her. He has flirted with her but had no intention to further the flirtation into something more. The very thought was almost revolting.

“He is a lost cause,” said Adin. “I don’t think we should waste our time with lost causes.” He looked straight ahead was he was walking with determination.

A body fell from the trees and landed right in front of Adin who was about to stomp down when Mikey ran up and put his hand on his chest to stop him.

“Don’t be that stupid,” said Mikey.

Adin looked down and saw the purple elf woman lying on the ground and said, “It’s just Kelly.”

“Just Kelly,” said Mikey as if he could not believe how apathetic Adin was sounding. “She’s one of us. Care for her safety is something you should have and not so much of this distances and distain.” Mikey checked her pulse and said, “She’s still alive. Bruised and battered but still alive.”

“Fine,” said Adin. “Cary her if you must.” He stepped over the two and continued walking through the forest pushing treelings out of his way with brute force.

Adrian followed silently. His leg was a bit sore from his wing missiles hitting him because of Josh’s redirecting them but he felt fine. He looked at his hands and noticed they were changing color. They looked a bit blue in tint but he thought it was the darkness that was playing tricks on him. His stomach rumbled. He realized he had not eaten in a while.

Mikey had Kelly slung over his shoulder as he caught up with Adrian and Adin. He said, “Where are we headed? You forgot to mention that to me.”

“No I didn’t,” said Adin. “Where we are going doesn’t really concern you. But we are running behind. We have to pick up the pace to get to where we are going on time.”

Under the illusion that his best interest were at heart Mikey followed Adin and Adrian.

Marc’s color was returning as he was still sprawled out on the dirt ground. He had stopped convulsing moments earlier. Ali and Matthew were looking him over and he seemed to be alright as far as they could tell. Him having rocky skin made it a bit difficult to be totally sure. But one thing was sure was that he was oranger than he was when he had demanded their attention.

“Pecular,” said Ali. “He seems healthier than he was before.” Ali stood up and looked around. “He said we were being watched. They know we are here.”

“Yeah,” said Matthew. “I think it is a good idea that we turn around and leave.”

“No,” said Ali.

“We can take Marc back to Relationship City and help him recover,” said Matthew. “I’ll even covert to steel and lift him up and bare the weight all the way back.” He did just that and lifted Marc up. He the reached out his hand and said, “Come on Ali we don’t have to face off against Cathy today. Please.”

A high pitch whine was heard. Ali looked around to see if she could catch sight of what it was that would give off such an annoying noise but saw nothing.

“What is that,” Matthew asked.

Then he was hit but what seemed to be a meteor and knocked him into the ground. Marc flew out of his hands and skipped across the ground until he rested a few yards away. He did not move but was most likely alright. Ali ran over to Matthew who got up. He dusted himself off a bit and pointed to what had hit him.

Ali and Matthew approached the body that was smoldering a bit. The body had created a crater. Ali squinted and realized she noticed how it was.

She ran up to the body that was scrunched up in a fetal position and said, “Jake.” As she approached him he started to convulse.

“Something fell out of the sky,” said Haxot. “It hit Matthew. I cannot get a good camera angle on what it is.” She was hitting buttons switching camera angles.

Cathy sighed and then rubbed the bridge of her nose. She said, “Whatever I don’t care what it was as long as they stay outside. They can even take Marc and go without me fighting them. He too is worthless at the moment. “

Haxot was confused, “So who is worth something to you?”

“At the moment you are,” said Cathy as she got up out of her seat and started to walk back and forth. Her robotic leg echoed in the room.

“And later,” said Haxot.

“We’ll have to see,” said Cathy. “We just have to wait a bit and then we’ll be ready and hopefully Ali is smart enough not to stick around that long.”

“We are the only ones here,” said Haxot. She turned around in her chair and then said, “Who are we waiting for?”

“You are not that privileged,” said Cathy as she swirled around towards the door. Her red dress spun out making her almost look like an angel.

Joel pushed himself up off the floor. He straightened his cloak and fixed it back on his head. He dusted it off and looked around. He saw that Kayla who was groaning. He walked towards her and she all the sudden lifted up off the ground and slammed into him. He stumbled backwards a bit. She moaned.

“Kayla wake up,” said Joel. “Turn off.”

Kayla opened her eyes and saw how close Joel was and screamed.

“Turn that off too,” yelled Joel.

Kayla closed her mouth and then slid off of Joel’s metallic body and took a few steps backward. She held her head. Her green hair cascaded around her arm.

Joel moved up to her and lifted her chin. He looked down and said in a menacing tone, “Will is probably going to have major head damage considering how many times within the last few hours he’s been smacked in the head. I want you to check on him. I’m going out the front door and I’m going to stop those idiots from going anywhere because I’m powerful enough to do that and you are nothing but a herald to do my will.”

Kayla swallowed hard and said, “Yes sir.”

Joel walked down the hall leaving Kayla behind. He came upon the rest of the girls that were tied up and said, “Someone will rescue you from the ties that bind but it won’t be me. I have more pressing matters to attend to. Enjoy your togetherness it looks lovely.”

He continued on to the front door. He opened the front door and dirt and dust blew into his face. He held up his arm to block it from hitting him in the face. Bright lights were moving back and forth as if there was some sort of searching going on. He squinted to see what was going on.

Mike licked Mat’s face over and over again like a dog to an owner. He was trying to wake him up.

Mat opened his eyes and pushed Mike off of him and said, “Don’t lick me I don’t know where that tongue has been.”

Mike grunted and threw his arms in the air pointing off into the distances.

“Yes I know they left,” said Mat who touched his eye and winced. He was going to have a black eye. JJ was a stupid bastard. “Our best bet is to go back to GLB City and back to our bridge and stay out of the way. There’s going to be a war between who wants to be in charge and we don’t want to be a part of that.”

Mat hopped up onto his legs and squatted. He started to hop off towards GLB when a bright light hit him in the face and he looked up to see a ship that was hovering over them. “Now what,” he said.

Mike grunted and growled as he clawed at the air.

The ship started to land and wind circled around as if it were a helicopter. Dust and debris swirled around. Mat and Mike covered their face. The ship landed a few yards in front of them blocking them off. The door opened and a few figures stepped out.

A woman with purple hair flipped off the ramp and continued to flip until she landed upright in front of Mat and Mike. She smiled and then before it disappeared thrust her hand forward. Out of her fist formed a surge of pink energy that formed into a blade shape. The pink blade entered Mike’s head and his eyes rolled into the back of his head and fell to the ground.

Mat was about to protest and put up a fight but she quickly did the same to him with her other fist. Mat wanted to scream out in pain because his brain instantly brought back the worst moments in his life and cause him to feel massive amount of pain. He was unaware that such pain was possible. His brain could not take it and blacked him out. He fell to the ground next to Mike.

She stood up straight and was then side by side her colleges.

“Nice work Lindsey,” said Kurt. He took a deep breath and looked at the figure that was standing at the door.

“You are to go no further,” said Joel as he stood with his hand outstretched in front of him.

“We are here to see Jeff,” said Kurt as he stepped forward. “We have reason to believe he’s in danger.”

“Don’t step closer,” said Joel. “We’ve had enough visitors today.”

Aron said, “Look at those robots.” He pointed at the Glooms. “Are they not supposed to be guarding the front door?”

Joel stepped forward to look and said, “Yes but they were taken out by JJ’s team I would assume. But that is of no concern of yours. This is all under control. Thank you for your care but you are not needed here.” His hand was still outstretched and it crackled with energy.

Nate said, “Check on Jeff.”

Joel pulled his other hand close to his mouth and said to his wrist, “This is Joel to Jeff. Joel to Jeff.”

What came back was static.

Joel said it again.

Nothing.

“See,” said Kurt. “Let us help you like we planned on doing. There is no need to make this a confrontation.”

“Why did you attack Mat and Mike then,” said Joel untrustingly.

“I read their minds,” said Lindsey. “They were here to attack Jeff to make him sleep before his intended time. They were sent by Cathy.”

“No more visitors,” said Joel. “I cannot let you pass. Please go away.”

“You can’t possibly think you can stop us,” said Kurt. “We don’t want to start an all out war but our concern is warranted and it is vital that Jeff is alright. No one could run SCN as well as him.”

“This is Andy,” said Andy over the communication system that was located on Joel’s wrist.

Joel lifted up and said, “Where is Jeff. His other hand was still out stretched keeping The Cult at bay.

“He is now in his hibernation chamber,” said Andy. “It took a bit of work to do that but he’s there now.”

“What happened,” Joel asked.

“Cathy happened,” said Andy. “But it’s under control and I was left in charge.”

Joel tilted his head in confusion and said, “Is that what Jeff said?”

“Before he went to sleep because of a spell,” said Andy, “yes.”

Joel lowered his wrist.

“He’s lying,” said Lindsey. “Jeff would never leave someone who is not a Vice President in command of all SCN.”

They moved slowly towards the door.

Joel said, “Stop or you’ll be forced by me.”

“Can’t you see,” said Kurt, “we are here to help. Cathy will be here to take over as she planed on doing and who is here to stop her? You?”

“There are others,” said Joel. He noticed that Usul was there. He remembered reading up on Usul since his return. They were reports that Abby had sent to Jeff. They were impressive considering his power before was like the Brain Trust. Joel fired an electric charge and hit Usul right in the head knocking him out of the game. He collapsed on the ground.

“Guess you wanna fight,” said Kurt.

“What give you that idea,” said Joel as he fired another blast at Abby making her fly back and hit the ship.

“Thanks Thomas,” said Dub_ as he moved about. Thomas had healed him of the Adrian’s wings evil.

“No problem,” said Thomas with a smile.

They were further away from Jeff’s. The forest surrounds them, of course, and they had stopped to rest.

“Resting is for wimps,” said Dustin. “Why don’t Dub_ create some sort of flying machine that doesn’t attack us but gets us from here to there.”

“From here to were,” said Wade. “We don’t even know where we are going.”

“We could have just took the transporter back to the other transporter,” said Dub_.

“Oh so we could look at the rubble of what was again,” said Dustin. “Boring.”

Kimmy had pulled JJ aside to talk to him. She said, “I think I owe you an apology.”

“What,” said JJ, “for giving away our secrets to Will? For telling him more about us than he needed to know?”

“Yes,” said Kimmy. She held her stomach and closed her eyes then she said, “I made a mistake like Dub_ did.”

“Except,” said JJ, “Dub_ was blackmailed and you did this on your own free will.”

Kimmy sighed and placed her hand on a tree to help her keep her balance and said, “True. But I’ve learned a great deal while being held up in Jeff’s and decided that what I was doing was entirely stupid and I wish for it to just be in the past.”

“Kimmy,” said JJ, “I understand wanting to do what is right and when people, like Will and Jeff, muddy the waters it gets very difficult. But we cannot have people on this team if they are going to have second thoughts about what it is they want to do.” JJ then looked at her and said, “I think you should take time and think about what it is you want to do. Are you alright?”

“No,” said Kimmy. “I feel a bit sick. I think it has everything to do with me having a baby. Joy. I understand and I’ll give it some thought. And before you ask I don’t know whose it is.”

“How can you not know,” JJ asked.

“Seriously?” Kimmy asked glaring at him.

“Whore,” said JJ.

“If I could move without puking I’d jab you where your ovaries would be if you were a woman,” said Kimmy with a slight grin. “Sara knows. No one else knows. Don’t say a word.”

“Promise,” said JJ.

“Good,” said Kimmy. Then she puked.

“Pretty,” said JJ.

“Flirt,” said Kimmy wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

JJ then said to the entire group, “Okay some of us are going to go back to Jeff’s to ensure that Josh’s group gets out okay and to check where Kel and Kenny are. The rest are going to have to head to Comic Book City and take up safe haven. I’m sending Dub_, Chris, James and Kimmy. The bruising Kimmy took was too much she is not feeling totally well and James is powerless. Chris and Dub_ will be enough protection. Everyone else will be needed.”

“I hope you have things to do in that Comic Book City,” said James. “I don’t mean reading I mean doing. I need to relieve stress.”

“Hands on works,” said Bat.

“Can we skip the sex ed talk,” said Sara. “I rather not know the what boys do to entertain themselves while I’m not there to help.”

“Dirty,” said Dustin.

“Oh you have no idea,” she said with a giggle.

Kori requested that he too go back to Comic Book City because he was sick of being around so many people and he need to recharge and relax. Everyone said good bye to them and Kimmy, Chris, Dub_, James and Kori headed out.

“Okay,” said JJ, “let’s bring everyone back.”

“They’re not dead,” said Dustin.

“Not yet,” said Gray.

“Where are we,” Mikey said as Adin led them towards a compound from the back entrance.

The door opened up and there stood a woman in a red dress. Her metallic leg pushed forward showing the entire leg through a slit. “Hello boys,” said Cathy. “Welcome to the tribe.”