Crystal Ch. 04

"Again, ladies, do you know where your man is?" asked a female voice off screen. "Whether he's your brother, uncle, son, cousin, husband, boyfriend, or if you're just friends, call him. If he picks up, then he's safe. If one of these phones rings, then you better hope he's not the last one remaining."

While she was saying that, phone calls were going off all at once in the background. When one rang, a villain or villainess answered, got confirmation, and removed the hood of the identified male, who was set free.

"Where is this located?" the Commander asked.

"We've been trying to trace the signal, but we haven't come up with anything yet," Olivia informed.

"Heroes, spread out across the country, use your abilities to travel, the portals too if you have too," the Commander instructed. They dispersed until it was just Crystal and the Commander in the meeting room. Seeing she was still there, Commander Shinobay said, "Crystal, it's going to be okay. We'll get them before anything happens to them."

"That's not it, Commander," Crystal said. "What if they have him?"

"They don't," the Commander replied.

"But he's not in the tower and he hasn't returned," Crystal shook. "Maybe I should check besides it wouldn't hurt if I make a call."

With the last two men remaining in the dark room, one of the phones rang and a second later, a male was freed. Crystal dialed Max's phone number and prayed Max picked up. To her shock, and absolute horror, the last phone rang and the female's voice gave a cheerful celebration. The Commander cursed and went to the phone, calling every hero back.

"Welcome to Giggles' Games, please tell me the male's name you are calling for," the female's voice requested.

"M-M-Max," Crystal choked. The voice ordered one of the villains to check the male's ID and they confirmed that it was Max. They removed the hood and a gagged Max was revealed. That broke Crystal and she just about collapsed had Commander Shinobay not caught her.

"Tell me your name please and what your relationship with Max is," the voice requested again.

"M-M-M-My name i-i-is Crystal and I'm Max's g-g-g-girlfriend," Crystal wept through clenched teeth.

"Crystal?! As in the heroine named Crystal?!" the voice asked, incredulously. "Max, you're banging a heroine?! Wow, you don't play in the kiddies' pool do you? You like to swim with on the deep side."

"Where are you?!" Crystal demanded.

"Chill, Crystal. I'll give you a clue," the voice laughed. "Find the ring of dead bodies and you'll find us. You can bring your friends if you want. And whoever wins gets Max."

The call ended and Crystal slowly put the phone down. The temperature in the room dropped significantly to where even Commander Shinobay shivered from the loss of heat.

"Crystal, snap out it!" he ordered. She shook her head and the temperature returned back to its original setting. "What'd they say?"

"I was told to find a ring of dead bodies," she remembered.

"A ring of dead bodies?" the Commander repeated, confused. "Where would we find a ring of dead bodies?"

Just then, the door was wrenched open and Zipper rushed through, soon followed by the rest of the heroes.

"Commander, we couldn't find the villains' location," Zipper panted. "But you won't believe this. The men they set free weren't set 'free'. They were pushed out the windows from the rooms near the roof where they made a ring around the hotel."

"You've got to be kidding me," Crystal shook.

"What's Max doing on screen?" Shell asked, alarmed. The rest of them turned their attention to the screen and realized it was Max that was on screen.

"Long story short, they've captured Max," the Commander said. "Let's go. We're getting Max back."

He led to the top floor where there was a secret door locked by a keypad. Ghost inserted the code and the door slid open, revealing a pitch black room. They walked in and waited until the door closed. Once it did, the room lit up as the electricity powered up the portal. As it got brighter, a machine was revealed in the center of the room.

"Ghost, set the coordinates for the Carson City tower," Commander Shinobay ordered.

It was done and Ghost went to stand with the other heroes. When it reached full power, the machine produced a mist from all sides. Ventilation, which was separate from the rest of the building, pushed the mist around until it seemed like a storm brewing. Suddenly, lightning struck out and struck the heroes, sucking them in the machine, one by one until there was none left. The ventilation then cut off, the mist was sucked back into the machine, and the machine itself shut down.

*****

Of course, it was a love hotel. Of all the places they had to choose, it just had to be a love hotel. The heroes raced to the top floor and checked each room. Strangely, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. At the top floor, they found where the villains were broadcasting live and holding the hostages. However, no one was there and Crystal was anxious to get Max back into her embrace.

They continued on up to the roof and that's where they found them. Every villain and villainess was standing near the edge of the roof while Max was still bound and gagged at the center of the roof.

"Took you long enough," Ruthless sneered. "Your boyfriend was about to wet himself."

Looking back at the villains, Max flattened himself against the roof and attempted to roll himself towards Crystal and the heroes.

And that started the battle for Max.

Zipper rushed forwards to get Max, but Max was suddenly levitated away by Mistress. Asphalt charged at Zipper, but he was tackled by Shell and they started pounding and slamming each other. A shot went off, but it was subconsciously deflected by Commander Shinobay's shield. Tracing the bullet, he fired his lasers at One-Eye. Hyper flew up and chased Mistress, firing beams until she was almost slammed by Pterror from above.

Cherry and C4 immediately targeted each other as they simultaneously pulled out swords and they clashed, each trying to decapitate the other. Osprey and Acrobat were already going at it, trying to force their opponent to lose control and plummet to the ground. Dot was running around the rooftop, seemingly chasing something . . . or someone.

With all that going on, Crystal and Ruthless were once again facing each other off. Instead of the ice wall, this time, Crystal covered herself in thin, but hard, ice suit. They attacked each other, fighting for control until Ruthless grabbed and swung Crystal into the metal bars that encased the roof.

The ground suddenly started shaking as a tree grew to a colossus size. Its branches morphed into multiple arms as swung trying to grab the heroes. Jasper immediately flew up and threw fireballs at the arms. Zipper helped by trying to break off whichever arm was badly damaged. Whoever Dot was chasing ran up in the tree and she followed, persistent to catching her prey.

Osprey was finally able to catch hold of Acrobat's wing and used his weight to force his adversary to the ground. But while he was detaching the flight pack off Acrobat's back, he was blindsided by a tree branch, sending him three blocks away.

On the other side of the roof, Asphalt kneed Shell in the abdomen. He pushed Shell against the metal bars and attempted to throw him off, but Shell sidestepped him and performed a spinning kick straight to his face. As Asphalt stumbled back, Shell grabbed him and slammed him into the metal bars. A crack appeared on his head and Shell immediately started targeting that area.

Unfortunately, he was too immersed in beating Asphalt that he didn't see Pterror coming for him until it was too late and he was plucked away. He struggled with all his might, but Pterror had him in an excruciating grip. The monster flew straight up for a brief moment, before diving down and landing on top of Shell, cracking his bulletproof skin. The pain was unimaginable as he was picked back up and slammed down, this time being knocked unconscious as his bulletproof skin shattered.

Hyper flew in at that moment and scooped Shell up before Pterror could eat him. Roaring, the beast flew up at her, but Hyper was much faster. She hid Shell in one of the buildings before flying back to take down Pterror. But the moment she got close, Acrobat landed on her back and sent her crashing in the windows of the hotel.

Dot took her place, landing on top of Pterror and dug her claws into his back. He spun around as he tried to pull her off but he couldn't catch her. Leaping off, she snarled at him as his back dripped blood from the gashes she inflicted upon him. The loss of blood forced the monster to lose consciousness and revert back to his human form.

"Here kitty," she heard as Asphalt snuck up on her.

Dot leaped at him but she was caught by her throat and slammed into the ground. She flailed her arms, trying to scratch him, but her claws couldn't dig into the concrete-like skin. All the while, he repeatedly bashed her against the ground and the metal bars until she couldn't move anymore.

While he laughed, a burnt branch fell on the crack in his head and he fell harder than a sack of potatoes. Jasper cheered and went back to roasting the tree. It swiped at him in a vain attempted and he flew out of its reach, nearing a few other buildings in the city.

"Jasper, stay away from the city!" the Commander demanded.

A second later, a shot rang out and the Commander grabbed his shoulder and hit the ground. Cherry immediately rushed to the Commander's side. C4 tried to hold her back but she kicked and punched him away and started tending to Commander Shinobay's wounds. Another shot went off, but she suddenly teleported right next to One-Eye and kicked him off the roof before he could turn intangible. She teleported back quickly and was just in time to stop C4 from stabbing the Commander through the heart.

A moment later, Crystal fell against her as Ruthless threw her in their direction. Realizing they need a change of style, they did a cross attack against the villains: Crystal shooting C4 with ice shards and Cherry teleporting a drop kick to Ruthless' face.

Ruthless was able to duck out the way but C4 wasn't fast enough and was hit and frozen to the ground. The moment Crystal turned around, a shot rang out again and Jasper fell from the air, clutching his leg. He tried flying back up, but he only managed to crash into Cherry. Mistress returned and broke the ice off of C4, who already had explosives ready.

"We've lost!" Ghost suddenly said. "We need to retreat and come up with a better plan."

"I'm not leaving without Max!" Crystal declared. Ruthless tackled her but Crystal used the momentum to send her flying into C4. "You can leave but I'm going to get Max!"

"You won't get Max if we don't come up with a better plan!" Ghost replied as he went intangible with Cherry to through the roof. Coming back up, he ordered, "Get everybody to the room under us. We need to restrategize."

Zipper immediately started sending everybody to the same room Hyper was in, but on his last trip, he crashed into the invisible person Dot was chasing. The person turned visible revealing a young girl . . . with a hunting knife in each hand.

"Watch where you're going," she giggled.

She leaped at him but he rolled out the way. Quickly, he raced back to Ghost. Just as he was about reach his comrade, an explosion knocked him to the ground and the girl landed on him.

"Smile for me, pretty please?" she asked. Terrified, Zipper forced a smile to appear in hopes she'll let him go. "Now die."

Before she could bring down the knife, Ghost slid right next to them, grabbed a hold of his shoulder, and turned intangible. They went through the roof as a laser beam from Commander Shinobay hit the girl square in the chest. Crystal had finally pinned Ruthless to the ground via ice when she was levitated by Mistress and flung back into the Commander. She levitated the rest of the villains to a different building then forced the love hotel to collapse.

"Time for you to meet Daddy," the girl giggled at Max.

*****To all my non-plot readers, there is no sex in the next chapter. For all my plot readers, I hope you are satisfied with the way the story's been going because I'm finishing up with the plot of the whole story. Like I said, I have at least two more ideas ready to go, so be rest assured that plenty more chapters are on their way. I'm sorry for the lack of detail in some parts, but I believe my work should be criticized based on what I've done, and not what others think I should input. Last but not least, I want my readers to know that I appreciate them for taking time to read my stories, so, if you want, please place your ideal monster in the comments, list what it can do, and you monster might be chosen to go up against the heroes!! Again, whether you like it or not, comment! I want to know what you think! -DM23*****