Crystal Ch. 05

With the kids in danger, Max blocked the attack and made the mist swirl around and form a sword as long as the goblin's body. The makeshift sword struck at Nocturnal, but he parried and stabbed at the kids. When that failed, he leaped astonishingly high into the air and dived at the young Max. Max quickly made a shield over himself and the kids, but at the speed Nocturnal was falling, he shattered the shield and knocked Max to the ground.

"I saw you looking at that girl in the back," Nocturnal growled. "I'm going to make sure to eat her first."

Now furious, Max made the mist envelope Nocturnal and sent him flying to the ceiling. Suddenly, Max went down as Dictator Jones invaded his mind. The mist contorted and dissipated, making Nocturnal freefall until he turned into a large bat and landed safely. As for Max, he was rolling on the floor, writhing in pain as Dictator Jones made his brain scramble young Max's nerves. Then, while Max was focused on the pain, Dictator Jones took the recent memories of young Max and darkened them, effectively making Max forget everything that has happened after he and the rest of the orphaned kids were kidnapped.

The memory suddenly cut there and transported him to the next memory. Along the way, the wisps started fading even though Max strengthened his resolve to keep them around.

When he arrived at the next memory, the young Max was strapped down on a metal platform, with a helmet connected to multiple wires on his head. He was unconscious, but that was in a physical sense. While the younger Max's body was unconscious, and weak for some reason, Max saw a ghostly image of his younger self rise out of the body. 'I remember now,' older Max thought. 'This was my first out of body experience.' Shocked, the younger Max floated and went around the room, which looked like a laboratory of some sort, exploring his surroundings before returning his body's side.

The door to the room opened without warning and Dr. Genie and a few scientists rushed in. A few went straight to the computers and immediately started typing commands on the screen. A machine behind Max turned on as it received the power it needed. Dr. Genie went over and pulled out a vial marked 'RRM2' and threw it in a nearby trashcan. She then place a vial marked 'RRM1' in the machine and it closed. 'I wonder what RRM stood for,' the older Max thought. His eyes widened as he remembered what Dr. Genie was famous for. 'That's the Rapid Recovery Medicine!' Max realized. 'Then what does RRM2 stand for?'

"Dr. Genie, thanks to RRM1, Subject: 22 is going to live," one of the scientists reported.

"Well this was a failure," Dr. Genie pouted. "If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn't have given it to the other kids." As they were discussing the previous failed tests, another scientist came running in the room.

"The heroes are here! We have to flee!" he yelled. There was a second long pause and then the scientists started panicking. They shut the power off in the room and started grabbing files and important documents the messenger scientist urged them to hurry up.

"It's always when I'm on the brink of success that Solarium arrives," Dr. Genie grumbled. As she thought about it, an explosion went off. Frowning, she said, "Madam Dynamite is going to kill herself one day."

"Let's go, Dr. Genie! We have to leave!" the scientists ordered.

"I'm not leaving," Dr. Genie decided as another explosion went off.

"You are going to risk freedom for an experiment?!" they asked, eyes wide.

"What is life without a few risks?" she laughed, her mind already becoming detached from reality as she cut the power back on.

"You're nuts!" the scientists exclaimed. Not looking back, the scientists fled the room and went to the escape tunnels.

"You're right about that," Dr. Genie whispered, pulling a case of lip gloss out of her pocket. Opening the case, it turned out not to be lip gloss, but a case of bomb switches. Gleefully, she flipped one marked 'TUNNEL' and laughed wickedly as an explosion in the tunnels rocked the entire mountain. "I'll go get them later."

Suddenly, the mountain shook and the walls cracked. The lab split in half with a loud screech and the equipment holding the young Max's body was ripped away from the rest of the machines as the ground beneath the equipment gave way and plummeted to deep into the mountain.

"No! I was so close!" she cried. Putting two and two together, she yelled out in fury, "ASPHALT!!!!!"

The memory cut there and Max found himself back in the present. The wisps were there with him now and he was standing in the midst of the villains, minus Dr. Genie. Smirking, he flexed his power and knocked the villains back.

"You can still join us," the Dictator said.

"As if I'll ever join you guys," Max glared.

"That wasn't an offer," Dictator Jones smiled.

Without warning, Max was flung back to the wall as Mistress rose from the ground. In response, Max sent the wisps at her and they whacked her across the room as she tried to stop them. 'Time to tuck tail and run,' Max thought. As he ran back towards the entrance of the lair, a shot rang out, a sharp pain erupted in his shoulder, and his whole body suddenly went limp. As he struggled to stay conscious, One-Eye and Dictator Jones walked up to him.

"So what was your plan?" the Dictator asked. "Drown yourself as you tried to swim to the surface?"

"What an idiot," One-Eye smirked. Picking him up, he followed Dictator Jones as he dragged Max back to the lair.

*****

The Recovery Wing was overloaded with work. Every hero was injured in some way, none had walked away unscathed. Even Ghost, who had went intangible to save the heroes from the collapsed building, was in a comatose state since he had overexerted himself.

Dr. Walton has been working on the triple since she saw the heroes defeat, making sure beds were ready to be occupied, and having medicinal supplied ready for them when they arrived. Of course, now that Commander was down for the count, again, someone else had to be placed in charge, but she had so much on her plate that she couldn't take another bite.

Without a leader, at the moment, the tower was deserted. Whatever agents were around was a very small fraction of the number of agents they really had. She was actually grateful that the doctors and nurses were trained for this and knew what to do rather than puke like the agents who were only there for show.

She did her checkups on each of them, rushing from one room to the next and not staying long in that room at that too. For days, she monitored their vitals herself, only asking for assistance when she needed supplies outside her reach. It came to a point that even she, Dr. Walton, was depriving herself of rest to make sure the heroes were taken care of. Knowing now what Commander Shinobay felt, she had no choice but to assign her most qualified doctors and nurses to watch after the heroes until she was able to get back on her feet.

Two days later, Zipper was the first hero to wake up. After Dr. Walton did a quick check to make sure it wasn't premature, Zipper was released from the Recovery Wing, albeit with nurses monitoring his progress. Hours later, Hyper woke up in the air, as her body had started floating as her mind shook itself of its haziness. Like Zipper, Dr. Walton checked over her intensely to make sure she was fully recovered.

After her, the next heroes to wake were Shell, Crystal, and Osprey and Dr. Walton was now running from room to room, checking their vitals and any bodily symptoms they possibly might have. Satisfied that they were fine, she released them and sent nurses to monitor their progress as well. She had just sat down in her chair when Jasper hobbled out of his room, his wounded leg wrapped up in a bandage.

"Hey Dr. Walton," he smiled.

"Get back in your room, Jasper," she ordered.

"But I'm fine," Jasper said. "I don't need to walk since I can fly, so I'm just going to get out of your hair."

"Get back in your room!" Dr. Walton demanded, her other two faces and extra pairs of hands coming out as she hysterically yelled at him. "We have order in this room and I won't let you tear it down!"

Jasper's eyes widened in fright and he rushed back to his room as fast as his crutches could take him. Panting, she went to Cherry's room next and, seeing that she was awake, she checked her for any extensive damage before letting her leave the Recovery Wing. Then, she went over to Jasper's room and checked on his leg. Earlier, she had to his leg open since the bullet in his leg was lodged deeper than she thought. Now, the scar from the operation was barely visible and she let him go without the crutches. She also left him a warning to never leave the Recovery Wing, much less the room for the wounded, without confirmation first.

Growling alerted her of Dot waking up. Quickly, Dr. Walton rushed to her room and ordered the room to be cleared of all other personnel. It wasn't because she was the only one that knew how to treat Dot; the rest of the doctors and nurses knew what to do. It was that Dot trusted her the most as well for the safety of the other doctors and nurses.

"Dr. Walton," a nurse called, popping her head in. "Ghost just turned tangible. He's gasping, twisting, and starting to sweat."

"Thanks, I'll be there in a moment," Dr. Walton replied. Turning to Dot, she said, "Now don't take on stronger enemies. Your body is still maturing and it still needs to toughen up."

"He attacked me," Dot huffed. "I can't just ignore someone who's slamming me into the ground."

"No, you jumped him first," Dr. Walton responded. "I saw the news."

Dot didn't have a response for that and she was released to from the Recovery Wing. The moment she left, Dr. Walton rushed to Ghost's room to see how he was doing. Like the nurse said, Ghost's breathing was coming out in short gasps, sweating immensely, eyes shut tight, and turning on the bed sheets as if he was having a nightmare. Hurriedly, she retrieved a portable X-ray scanner and held it over his body. The scan showed that part of his bones and organs were flickering like lights with every beat of his heart.

"Crap," Dr. Walton glared.

"Doctor, what are your instructions?" a nurse asked.

"I need him on his stomach and his arms and legs tied down, now," Dr. Walton ordered. They followed her instructions right away as the doctor filled a syringe with neuropathic medicine. "Ghost's nerves are going haywire, making his intangibility act out of control. Right now, his bones and organs are switching on and off and causing him immense pain."

Swiftly, she administered the medicine at the base of the back of his neck. Minutes later, Ghost went limp as his breathing returned to normal. They removed the straps from over his arms and legs, then turned him back onto his back.

"If anything else happens, let me know," Dr. Walton told the nurses, leaving to go check on the last hero.

She went to the Commander's room, which was the same room from before, and entered the room.

"Kelly, will I have to be in here longer than I have to . . . again?" Commander Shinobay asked moving his arm.

"Oh hush, Richard," Dr. Walton smirked. "You know you love being in this room."

"Yeah and that's because of a specific person," the Commander replied.

"Remember what we agreed on?" Dr. Walton reminded him.

"I know, I know, find a successor, then retire," the Commander answered. "The problem is that I thought I did find one when I met Max. But now, he's . . . well you saw what happened."

"Are you going to restart your search for someone else?" Dr. Walton asked.

"After I learn what Max discovered about the villains' escape plan and bring Max back, yeah," the Commander told her.

"Well, I'll let you get on that right away," the doctor said, helping him out of the bed.

"Is my arm good?" Commander Shinobay asked, warily looking at his arm.

"Yeah, the bullet only grazed you, nothing I couldn't patch up," the doctor smiled, leaving to go back and check up on Ghost.

*****

"I presume everyone here has been approved by Dr. Walton to return to combat, correct?" Commander Shinobay asked. Looking at Ghost, he inquired, "Have you been approved for combat, Ghost?"

"Yes sir," Ghost answered, pulling out a slip from the doctor.

Taking a look at, the Commander said, "Fine, but you're on the rescue mission, not combat. Understand?"

Ghost nodded.

"Alright, listen up. After Vibes attacked the bank, Max had brought it to my attention that villains were coming back faster than normal," Commander Shinobay started. "From what he's told me, there wasn't a report on why the villains have been returning at such a pace and believes that the agents watching over the villains are being killed."

"That would explain why more agents are turning up missing," Cherry said.

"If they kill Max, I'll smash their faces with my hammers," Crystal frowned.

"I don't think they'd kidnap him just to kill him, not when he's so close to Crystal," Commander Shinobay objected.

"I got it!" Ghost suddenly jumped. "They're experimenting on him!"

"What made you think of that idea?" Osprey asked.

"I figured with a person like Dr. Genie on their side, she'd want to try different mutations," Ghost said.

"Then we have to get a move on," Crystal said, hopping out of her seat.

"And what about the other agents?" Jasper asked, getting everyone's attention.

"We'll get them too," Crystal confirmed.

"When?" came Jasper's next question. "When are we going to get them? After we rescue Max?"

Noticing the tone in his voice, Crystal turned to face him. "What are you trying to say?"

"It just appears to me that you're more concerned about Max than the agents or why they're missing," Jasper answered, crossing his arms.

"And that's a problem?" Crystal asked, clenching her fist.

"I'm surprised you have to ask that question," Jasper said. "We have a problem where agents that we're already low on are turning up missing every time the villains are being taken to the Isolated Islands and you're only thinking about Max, who we believe is being experimented on and most likely turning in another freaking monster."

"The Commander said the agents are most likely being killed," Crystal reiterated. "We can stop Dr. Genie from experimenting on Max if we hurry up and get there."

"The key words are 'most likely'," Jasper emphasized. "That means there's a good chance they are being used for another purpose. If you think about it, they might be mind controlled by Dictator Jones to serve the villains and could be the reason the villains keep returning at the rate they are, which could also be the reason why there are no reports of the villains escaping."

The heroes chewed on what Jasper said, realizing that it was a perfect answer to their situation. A though suddenly came to Commander Shinobay and he turned the table on. Frantically, he searched for the Maps app on the table and selected it. Once pulled up, he zoomed in onto the Isolated Islands, which was located in the Bermuda Triangle. As the Isolated Islands came closer, a dark spot also showed up, not too far from the Islands. The Commander then started zooming on the dark spot until it couldn't zoom any longer.

"Thanks to Jasper, we have found the villains hideout. Or at least, the approximate location of their hideout," the Commander reported.

"We did?!" Cherry asked, shocked. "How?"

"Jasper said the agents could be mind controlled into serving the villains," the Commander explained. "I did some thinking and figured the villains would need a mode of transport that we wouldn't suspect. I eliminated planes immediately because they could be blown before they reach their destination."

"So that's a ship?" Osprey guessed.

"To be honest, I don't know what that is," the Commander replied. "It could be a ship, their hideout, or another of Dr. Genie's monsters. What I do know is that their hideout is somewhere between Florida and the Isolated Islands. As for that, we'll just have to see what it is when we get there."

"Then let's find out," Crystal said, standing up. "We don't have time to waste. For all we know that could be Max."

"Again with Max," Jasper sighed, throwing his hands up.

"What is your problem?!" Crystal yelled.

"It's you!" Jasper replied. "Ever since Max was taken, he's all you ever talked about."

"I have the right to do that," Crystal stared him down. "I love him."

"You don't love him," Jasper laughed.

"Jasper!" Commander Shinobay yelled.

"You want to say that again?" Crystal glared, frost spreading from where she stood.

"Yes. I. Do," Jasper said, standing up. "You. Don't. Love. Him."

"Jasper!" The Commander repeated.

"No! It's about time someone spoke the truth," Jasper spat.

"And that's you?" Crystal scoffed. "You, of all people, are going to tell me I don't love Max?"

"Yeah, since no one else will," Jasper shrugged. "The only thing you two do is have sex." Everyone, even the Commander was quiet now. They realized that Jasper was, from a certain viewpoint, speaking the truth. Kind of. "Every time you two see each other, you have sex. Wherever you do it, I don't know, but sex is not love. Love is doing things for each other, giving things like presents to each other, and going out on dates."

"He gave me presents," Crystal snapped.

"HE gave YOU presents," Jasper said. "I can see how he loves you. I can't see how YOU love HIM! The only thing you do is use him for your pleasure." She saw his point and looked away, knowing her actions proved him right. "You yell, scream, holler, and go through all the motions, but you don't love him. To be honest, I'd call you a derogatory term that'll ruin your public image, but I'll be nice and say the two of you are sex friends."

"Jasper! Now you've gone too far!" Commander Shinobay told him.

"That's weird," Crystal replied, a smirk forming on her face. "You see, none of the agents living next to Max has ever reported a problem about us because the walls are soundproof. Even the door is practically soundproof. I'm not saying I don't make noise, I do, but you wouldn't be able to hear anything unless you actually put your ear against the door, even with the noise I've been making. So how do you know I've been yelling, screaming, and hollering? And don't even get me started on how you know how I've been going through all the motions." Jasper's eyes widened when he realized his mistake and Crystal maliciously grinned at him." To be honest, I'd call you a sex offender and ruin your public image, but I'll be nice and call you a pervert."

Every hero slowly turned their head to look at Jasper for his response. Shockingly, he stuttered a mumble that no one could understand and looked away.

"That's enough!" the Commander yelled. "Here's what we're going to do: We're going to find out what's happening to our missing agents, stop it, and bring them back. We're going to find out how the villains are escaping and stop them. And we're going to get Max back."

"And the dark spot?" Zipper asked.

"Like I said, we'll just have to see what it is when we get there," the Commander said. He pushed a different button on the table and Dr. Walton's image came up. "Dr. Walton, we're going to need your medical expertise on this mission."

"Let me assign a temporary leader and I'll be right over," Dr. Walton said.

*****

They found out what the dark spot was.

Or actually, Osprey found out what the dark spot was. He was flying high enough that, when he glanced down to check on his partners, he noticed a gigantic shape beneath the surface of the water and warned Crystal and the other heroes who wasn't able to adequately travel over water that they were treading in dangerous water. Of course, since they were closer to the water, they weren't able to see what he was talking about, but that was beside the point. From the depths of the seas, and scientific speculation, came a muffled-like roar from the only creature that could strike fear into every sea captain's heart: the Kraken, Dr. Genie's first successful monstrous creation.