Chapter 28

The Rescue?

“Eureka! It took me five hours but I finally did it! Everyone, I found where Mike is at!” screamed Jeff in absolute joy finally completing his difficult and exhausting task.

“Where is he?” said Tom running down the steps to Ness’s basement, falling down them in the process.

“Wait till everyone else gets here. I’m not repeating this twice.” Once everyone else got down to Ness’s basement, Jeff got to the good news very quickly. “After spectral analysis of Mike’s armor and some satellite hacking, mainly space telescopes, I was able to pinpoint Mike’s location” Jeff said very egotistically.

“Well where is he then?” said Poo.

“He’s in Scarab. More exactly he’s here” Jeff turned around his labtop to show where Mike was at.

“You’re certain of this. Mike’s in the pyramid. How is that possible? Only we were able to get in there last time and I doubt that anyone else knew how to get in there” said Paula with a slight shock on her face.

“No wonder it took you so long, you probably had to use infrared just to get the necessary light huh Jeff?” Tom said.

“Yeah I did. Here’s the odd thing though, look at the picture of the pyramid. What do you see that’s different this time?”

“There’s a barrier constructed around that thing made of pure energy. It seems only pure light can get through that thing” said Dave.

“That’s where light warp will come in. Even though we have been there before, teleport won’t do much good at all. I think light warp is the only way of getting through. Poo, when will you be ready to go” said Jeff.

“Give me five minutes. I’ll be ready by then” said Poo.

“Good. Everyone, take whatever you can because I’m expecting this to be rough got it” said Ness.

It only took everyone about ten minutes to gather all of their equipment and items and wait right outside Ness’s house all ready to go. “Remember, we get Mike and get out as fast as we can. We don’t do anything else and any obstacles in the way are just that, obstacles. Anything in our way, unless human, is completely fair game so don’t hesitate to use your powers. Any objections before we head off” Ness heard none.

“Then it’s settled, no turning back. Psi Light Warp Omega!” They were all gone in a flash. Poo saw the true advantages of Mike’s teleportation technique. They could move at the speed of light because they were now all energy with a conscious. The side-effect of this super high speed travel was that time came to a complete standstill, making any type of infiltration possible because they would never see them coming. They quickly reached Scarab at the outskirts of the pyramid by the Sphinx and saw the massive energy barrier that surrounded the pyramid, about five-hundred feet away from the outside of the pyramid. Not to mention the desertion of Scarab, mot likely from the occupation of a certain group. They were able to pass through the barrier quite easily in their temporary forms and drop out of light warp. “Wow, what a rush!”

“Yeah Poo, I have to agree that was quite the rush. Still, we shouldn’t be celebrating that we got passed the barrier. First off, looks like Twoson and Belle Vernon were the only two places hit as we just saw. Scarab, Summers, and other cities I don’t know the names of have been hit as well. Looks like the four Horsemen of Apocalypse have been busy trying to get our attention, but have been too far away for us to notice” said Paula with a slight negative tone in her voice.

“True, I didn’t think they would move so fast. What the?!” said Tom as he saw some areas under the sand open up like trapdoors. Out came starmen by the hundreds, all deluxe and final classes. “This is bad, very, very, very, very bad.”

“Looks like they’ve been expecting us, and they are quite well prepared. Jeff, what are our odds of getting out of this considering they have psychic power shields and we don’t” said Ness.

“About three million five hundred sixty-six thousand two hundred and forty to one, considering this is all we have to face right now, those odds could increase to our disadvantage if more come out” said Jeff with a slight smile on his face.

“And if we are able to eliminate their shields” said Tom.

“Three to one, in our favor” said Jeff.

“Fine then, if we can just eliminate those energy shields then. Anyone have any ideas?” said Tom with a grim look on his face.

“Going in head on is out of the question, and our powers are useless right now because those shields will deflect anything we throw right back, taking us out before we even get started here. We need a way we can beat their shields” said Poo.

“I think our only choice is use our Fates. I know it’s early and very risky but we don’t have much of a choice right now. Even with my magic class powers I can’t take out over one hundred opponents. Our alignment with the spirits around us might be our only hope” said Dave with a look desperation on his face, getting ready to use his Will of the Hunter.

“Jeff, considering that Fates of you, myself, Ness, Poo; what our odds combine with the abilities Tom and Dave might have” said Paula as the starmen were all getting ready for one simultaneous Psi technique, everyone of them getting ready for the starstorm.

“Oh shit! We don’t have much of a choice now do we! Everyone I know we need to properly align with the proper spirits and such first before we use a Fate or otherwise it will wear us all out very quickly, but we don’t have a choice!” said Ness as he started to raise his left arm with his palm open facing the clouds.

As the starmen were counting down from three slowly to launch their attack in there usual style, everyone was still trying to prepare their best Fate for the situation they were currently in “Oh my God!” screamed Paula as she saw the starmen who were surrounding them launch their starstorm Omega straight at everyone. A bright flash of destruction started to envelope the entire area. “I guess this is it then. I’m sorry everyone but we failed” Paula thought to herself as she felt the power of the light coming at everyone.

Inside the bright flash of light, Paula thought she saw an archangel with eight wings on his body hold her. “This must be Heaven” Paula said to herself.

“Unless you declare your boyfriend holding you like this Heaven, we aren’t there just yet Paula” said Ness. She saw what Ness had just become as the bright white light started to dim enough for her to see Ness. Ness was the image she had just saw, and he did have the eight wings on his back, very large ones at that. Along with the other archangels surrounding everyone, they seemed to hold back the massive onslaught that was just launched at them.

“Ness, you’re an angel, an archangel at that!” screamed Paula as Ness slowly set her down, feet first of course. Everyone else had the same reaction as they looked at Ness. They were amazed that Ness looked like what he did. The aura he had was massive and could be seen by the naked eye. Ness had also grown to a full six feet tall, much taller than his usual five feet four inches. He had his gusty bat in hand and was actually in mid-air flying perfectly. His red cap grew to fit him perfectly only now with a strange marking on its back.

“My good God!” screamed Dave.

“Ness, what happened to you?!” said a shaking Jeff in absolute awe of Ness’s appearance.

“What in the name of God did you just tap into Ness?! Is that the true power of the sound stone?!” screamed Tom in a state of shock.

“I guess so Dave” said a trembling Poo. No one had ever seen Ness do this before. Even all of the starmen were stepping back in pure fear of what they were seeing. Not only was Ness the stunning image of an archangel, but he was also accompanied by about ten other archangels descended from the heavens with sword and shield in hand.

“This is the true power of my Fate that I obtained from the sound stone and the powers of the earth. Only Mike has ever seen this technique in action and it’s called Saint, and that was only a stick of dynamite compared to the nuclear bomb I am now. Sorry Mike and I left that part of our battle out guys, but I told him telepathically while we were fighting not to reveal what I had used to force him to use his ultimate technique. Now to show these four Horsemen of Apocalypse a show of true power and courage”! Ness landed to the ground and stepped forward wielding his gusty bat in hand. He quickly came to the Starman Deluxe closest to him. Ness swung his bat extremely hard and fast, like at the speed Mike could swing his sword and fight. The hit caused a tremendous thunder clap upon impact on the starman completely obliterating it. The hit was so hard that a forward shockwave soon took out about another thirty starmen right behind the one Ness had just hit. All the starmen took a step back in absolute shock at what they had just seen. Only had Ness just obliterated thirty starmen without leaving a trace, but the archangels he had summoned stopped several hundred starstorm Omega psychic attacks like they were nothing.

“Boys, let ‘em have it!” screamed Ness as he commanded the archangels to crush any opposition in their way. The starmen tried to fight back but everything ended in a mere thirty second with starmen parts strewn all over the area around the pyramid. Ness and the archangels had just beaten hundreds of starmen with amazing speed and minimal effort as it seemed. The jaws of Paula, Jeff, Poo, Dave, and Tom all dropped about one foot as they witnessed the pure destruction of a force that normally could have destroyed all of them. No blood was spilled, since starmen are robots, but Ness had tears in his eyes still, even though the starmen were sent to destroy them. Ness still drew tears, “All of this was completely useless Giygas! You just sacrificed so many for nothing! Nothing can condone what I just did to all of them! I’m just as bad as those who murder for pleasure!” said Ness as he descended to ground with his angel going back to Heaven with tears gushing from his eyes disgusted with what he had just done.

“Ness, no your not!” screamed Paula as she slapped Ness while he was still in his archangel form as hard as she could right across the face. “Look Ness, those things were programmed to destroy us and just us. Just think about all the lives those things would have taken if we were destroyed and you hadn’t did what you did. That took true courage to do what you did, even though you hate doing stuff like that…” Paula told Ness encouragingly and then kissing Ness for the first time ever. “I love you Ness because you have the courage to do things like that without a second thought for the good of everyone. Never feel pain because you destroyed a destroyer. You can stop yourself. They can’t.”

“Thank you Paula,” said Ness wiping the tears from his eyes while his form reverted to that of a human again. Once the transformation to his original form was complete, Ness felt like he had been hit by a truck.

“Ness, that was absolutely amazing. I didn’t even think that level of power could be achieved by anyone. Here, let me help you up man” said Poo as he and Jeff extended their hands to get Ness off his knees so he could at least stand again, even if they had to support him.

“Ness, thank you” said Jeff.

“Yeah man, that was truly amazing. Anytime you want to spar, you have a partner” said Dave with a stunned look on his face.

“How much of that did you actually use Ness? The sound stone’s power I mean” said Tom.

“About eighty percent, if you would want to put a number on it. But I can’t really be sure though” said Ness while gasping for air out of pure exhaustion.

“Only eighty! Okay, now I’m afraid. If you can do that at only eighty percent, I’m afraid to see one hundred” said Tom still in pure shock.

“Well, we better go inside. The door is open. Look, if that was just a piece of what we have to face here, you guys better have your Fates ready as well because if we go up against those numbers again. We will need them” said Paula as she walked into the pyramid with confidence. Jeff and Poo supporting Ness while he walked followed Dave and Tom who were right behind Paula. The rescue had begun.

Chapter 29

The Rescue Part II

“Ness, you have to admit that was pretty cool earlier” said Jeff as he was walking down the steps holding Ness’s right side while Poo held up the left.

“I don’t want to talk about it Jeff. I just don’t like doing anything like that and I’m pretty worn out right now” said Ness.

“Ness, did you just see the hieroglyphs on the wall there move?” said Dave with a slightly freaked out voice.

“Yeah, this place is haunted no doubt about it. We’ve been here before when we needed to get the Hawk Eye for something earlier. We’ve faced those things and their nothing now so they just watch us” said Ness in a calm voice.

“Good, what do we have to worry about then?” said Tom.

“Traps and anything or one that the four Horsemen of Apocalypse could have put down here, it’s obvious they know we’re here” said Paula with some concern in her voice.

“Why the concern Paula?” said Poo.

“I just feel something very evil here. Not one of the four horsemen but something else very evil. It doesn’t have a soul or conscious. That’s all I know” said Paula as she reached the bottom of the steps.

“Where do we go from here?” said Jeff.

“Not a clue, this place is still a maze like last time. Not to mention Mike’s not conscious so I can’t sense him anywhere” said Paula.

“I have an idea but you’re not going to like it. First, Ness, can you stand on your own right now?” said Tom.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, alright, I’m gonna play decoy and try to lure every single thing towards me and Poo.”

“Hey, since when am I involved in all of this?!” Poo screamed.

“You’ll see why in a moment. I’m going to do something that will make them notice me and run for it with Poo. Poo, I need you because of that Shadow movement technique. Since you know it, you can out run anyone or thing very easily and that’s what I want. I want them to chase us so everyone else can search this place top to bottom if they have to. You understand and agreeing with me on this Poo. I won’t do this if you don’t agree with it” said Tom.

“At least it’s a plan, I’ll go along with it but it better work” said Poo.

“Alright, here’s goes nothing” said Tom as he set down something weird looking on the ground. “Find a place to hide and now! This thing let’s off an energy surge that be felt and picked up by sensors very easily! You need to be out of sight for this to work!” said Tom as everyone but he and Poo hid behind a small hole in the wall in another room.

“Tom, you better know what you’re doing here or we’re both dead” said Poo.

“If we die, everyone’s dead” said Tom just as the device let off an energy surge. What sounded like alarms went off soon after and Poo and Tom made a run for it.

“I hope they have some luck staying alive there” said Dave about five minutes later after the commotion left the area.

“Same here, now let’s go” said Ness as he started to walk off. After about ten minutes, since Ness knew which rooms he didn’t use last time went he was in the pyramid, he found a much more modern area of the pyramid. “Okay, this seems like the right area for where they have Mike.”

They walked through what seemed like an endless maze of nothing but tunnels. They did encounter a few enemies along the way, but it was nothing they couldn’t beat with ease. “You, if they know we are here I would think it strange to send out stuff that we can beat up on easily” said Jeff with a slightly concerned look on his face. “Looks like another wall, I’m wondering if we will ever find Mike.”

“I know what you mean. This is the tenth time that we have run into something like this, had to turn around, and find that we are completely lost because the maze looks completely different if we try to backtrack” said Dave. At that moment a nuclear powered robot just happened to come into view and started to come towards Ness and the others.

“Dave, level it” said Ness as Dave already started to pull out his Magicant bow shot it five times really quick. “Now run” said Ness as he started to runaway as fast as he could along with Paula, Jeff and in that order.

“Why run?” the robot exploded and blew Dave away a couple of feet. “Okay, I guess that’s why. I think this place meant so we couldn’t find Mike. This place just gives me the creeps to, like something consistently watching us” said Dave with a look of despair on his face.

“This labyrinth seems to be completely impossible and ever-changing. I think it was meant to wear us out so we would never find him” said Paula.

“Then we need to figure out someway of finding Mike in this place without reaching old age first” said Ness.

<You know, if any of you bothered to contact me I could tell you why that maze seems to be shifting, that’s because it is changing with your every step!> said a voice telepathically. Paula seemed to turn her head in a certain direction as to know what exact direction that message came from. <Also the reason you guys haven’t been seeing much action is because Tom and Poo are doing their job of distracting everyone. They’re causing absolute chaos and I’m loving it because now you guys have a shot.>

<Okay, I didn’t think you were awake, Mike, so I didn’t contact you. I feel that you’re very close. Where are you?> said Paula telepathically.

<Would believe me if I told you that you were going around in circles the entire time?> said Mike telepathically.

<How’s that possible?!> said Ness telepathically in shock to know that they have been going in circles for the last two hours.

<The Mani-Mani statue is here, this entire maze you are in is a complete illusion. Pokey spit the info out in this room to one of his subordinates and didn’t realize I was awake. I have…to go…now. My energy has been…sucked…dry…because…> Mike’s connection stopped.

<Mike! Can you hear me?! Mike! Please answer, why can’t you stay on any longer!> Ness screamed telepathically.

“Ness, he’s lost consciousness again and it’s seems he’s injured or something like that. We need to find him and now!” said Jeff with a tremendous look of concern on his face punching the wall, but his hand when through it instead.

“I think you just found a route to go through, Jeff. Let’s go!” said Dave as he ran through the imaginary wall into a different looking place than everywhere they had been before. Everyone else followed suit and found they were now in a completely different area than before.

“I guess we are on the right trail. We need to move though. Who knows how much longer Tom and Poo will be able to last!” said Ness as he started to run full speed ahead trying to find out where to go next. The area seemed to be more distinct and have definite routes, but the illusionary walls were still around, as they ran into a few of them head on. “Damn Mani-Mani statue! I wish we could get a definite path so we could find him faster! Psi Rockin’ Zeta!” said Ness as he put his palm to his forehead and then put it forward.

“Ness don’t! This place might be lined with psychic shielding all over the place!” but it was too late for Paula to say anything as Ness launched he new level of Rockin’ he had learned in Saturn Valley at full blast. It revealed where some of the hidden walls were, but the energy was coming straight back at them!

“Oh crap!” screamed Dave as he ducked for cover.

“Psi Shield Sigma!” screamed Paula as she used her psychic shield to neutralize the deflection of Ness’s attack.

“Why couldn’t do something like that before Paula?!” screamed Dave with a weird look on his face wondering why Paula didn’t use that to stop all the starstorms before.

“Because it can only stop three attacks before it disappears, not thousands” said Paula right back with a sharp tone in her voice.

“Oh” replied Dave. As everyone ran down the halls they saw what the consequences of Ness’s attack were, the result were devastating enough to show where the invisible walls were and where the real path lied. Everyone was running as fast as they could until they came to a dead end.

“Just great, all of that for nothing” said Jeff as he just finally collapsed from the pure exhaustion of running down the halls and finding a dead end.

“Let’s just see if we can just knock down this wall then, P----S----I Roc---kin’---Ze---“ Ness started to scream as he was preparing to blast down the wall but Paula grabbed him very quickly stopping the attack.

“Ness don’t you dare, that wall is the only one undamaged by your previous attack since this wall was straight down the hall, it might be the one with the shield on it” Paula said quickly trying to lower Ness’s right hand.

“How do you suggest we bring it down then because it might be the one Mike’s behind?” said Ness with a slight look of confusion on his face.

“Psychic attacks and Fates aren’t the only answers to our problems Ness. At times brute force is the only thing that will work!” Jeff screamed as he pulled out his heavy bazooka.

“You’re crazy! You aren’t going to fire that thing here are you?!” said Dave as he started to step back a little bit.

“I would suggest you move everyone. If this thing can block psychic attacks, then it shouldn’t be able to block this then” said Jeff as everyone dropped back about a hundred feet as Jeff fired his bazooka and hit the wall dead on. After the smoke cleared, the wall didn’t have a scratch on it. “Darn, I’m guessing Mike is probably behind this thing if it could withstand that” said Jeff with a slight look of shock on his face that anything could withstand that without scratch.

“I don’t think we can open it by brute force either. We should try opening it manually” said Paula as she tried to open the door by trying to find something manual to use or something they could push apart or open up but to no avail.

<You…guys…are right…next to…the…room I’m…in. I…can hear you…thank…God…but it’s…> Mike said telepathically sounding very exhausted and in serious pain.

“It’s what Mike, it’s what?!” screamed Paula right at the door.

<For…get it…use this…Ness> said Mike as he telepathically sent Ness a very large amount of information at once telepathically.

“Move, Mike just taught me his dragon technique. He wants me to use to try and weaken the wall at the exact point where Jeff hit it” said Ness trying to power up Mike’s Psi dragon technique.

“That won’t work! It will just be deflected!” screamed Paula but it was no use. Mike had seemingly taught Ness all forms of dragon in a very short amount of time. It was like Ness had always known the technique because Jeff had been the ony one to see the Omega form, and it was what Ness was using.

Ness quickly used the technique and fired the hundreds of rings of fire at the wall but they were deflected as predicted but didn’t have the predicted effect. Ness was absorbing the rings of fire causing flames to surround and envelope his entire body. “I get it. The rings being deflected to Ness are just being absorbed by his body since the technique uses the body as a weapon after the rings of fire. So any fire that comes in contact with Ness will only intensify the flames than Ness will charge that thing at!” said Jeff noticing Mike’s absolute brilliance. He didn’t know if it would work but another brute force assault using long term exposure to fire might weaken the wall enough to be broken with more attacks later on. As Ness charge the wall full speed ahead they could see parts of the wall started to become red hot where Ness had charged it shoulder first trying to apply tremendous pressure and direct heat to the wall. Once Ness drew back and finish his attack and the wall cooled, parts of it had cracked from a basic law of physics, when thing expand to super high heats then cool they weaken and if done repeatedly will crack or break.

“Well at least we know where to apply the pressure now!” said Jeff as he reloaded his bazooka for a second shot. He was about to fired until he felt a tremendous strong wind with everyone else and notice a blur punch the wall and hard. Whatever it was came in at extremely high speed and was pummeling the wall extremely hard, which would explain the extreme gust of wind everyone just felt right there. Everyone soon heard someone else running down the hall at a much slower speed, it was Tom.

“Sorry we took so long. Once you guys started using your powers and sensed it we figured we might as well come and help out. We saw you trying to knock down that wall so Poo’s still in Shadow Movement trying to knock that thing down” said Tom while walking towards the door.

“What about all the forces who would have been chasing you?” said Jeff.

“They were not even to keep up with us. There are two uses of the Shadow Movement technique: one is to beat the living Hell out of your opponent before he even blinks, the second is for when you need to runaway from something you can do it without hesitation. This shouldn’t be taking Poo much longer. That crack you put in the wall should help reduce the time it will take him to bring down that wall” said Tom calmly as he watch Poo finish making a big hole in the wall with the wall seeming to be able to fall down with the slightest move.

“Done”, said Poo rubbing his now sore knuckles, “sorry it took so long but that thing is tougher than I thought, but it couldn’t take that type of pummeling for long” as Poo finished his sentence he quickly collapsed to the ground.

“Poo! Are you going to be alright?!” said Paula with a look of concern on her face.

“Once I get some rest and something to eat. I’m just exhausted from doing all of that that’s all. I don’t feel the pain anyways so I’m fine besides that. Knock down that door and see if Mike is there” said Poo as he laid back to rest for a moment.

As Ness knocked down what part of the door Poo had torn up earlier, a lot of smoke and dust came up showing the effort Poo and the others had used to get through that final barrier. Once it cleared it was the first time they saw Mike in about three days. Dave fainted the second he saw Mike because of the poor condition he was in. Jeff got down on one knee holding his gut trying not to vomit from just looking at Mike’s condition. Everyone else was tearing up as they saw Mike, and what condition he was in.

Mike had looked like he had been through tremendous torture. Since Mike couldn’t see, he never saw the extent of his injuries. Paula at that moment was wondering how he even contacted her in his condition. Mike’s hair was completely charred to a midnight black from its usual auburn red. His skin was burned almost one hundred percent on about one half of his body. He didn’t have his glasses on and his face was completely charred black. His clothes, or what was left of them, were covered in blood some of which looked rather fresh, and other parts that had been dried red and started to smell. He was twitching as if something had happened to his nervous system like a tremendous electrical shock. His arms were both dislocated and his right leg was almost torn to shreds. Blood also seemed to have come from his mouth recently and it still looked like some was coming out.

“My good Lord, what did they do to him? Is what mentality of the enemy we face?” Paula stated in complete shock that Mike looked the way he did and someone was cruel enough to put him in that condition, let along Mike living through it.

“Paula, I don’t know. We just have to get him down from that wall off of those shackles and get that collar off now. I have a feeling that collar is the reason why we had to try as hard as we did to find him” said Tom turning away from Mike trying not to look at his disfigured form.

“What surprises me is that even one part of that armor is still on his body. Look, his left leg is completely unharmed. That armor must be quite resilient” said Jeff looking through the stuff he brought for something to cut that collar and get him off those shackles on the wall.

As Jeff started to cut Mike’s shackles with a laser cutter and once Mike was off and Jeff gently set him on the ground, Paula got that look in her eyes again. “What’s wrong Paula” said Tom.

“The presence I felt before, it’s back” said Paula with a tremendous look of fear in her eyes.

“You’re kidding me right Paula. Wake Dave up now then, I need a second set of hands to help with this collar” said Jeff panically looking through his stuff to try and find something to cut off Mike’s collar.

All of a sudden Mike started to rise, “It’s…a trap…they…wanted…you…here. I read…Godan’s…mind. He…was…planning…on this” said Mike while gasping for air.

“Good God Mike, don’t even speak. Here, this should help” said Tom as he injected something into Mike’s body. “I know it isn’t the proper combination to help with your tremendous injuries but it should help.”

“Thank you Tom. I feel slightly better…now” said Mike as some of his injuries started to go away. “Look, they set…this up to take all of us out in one blow. Wake Poo up now, we need to light warp out of here to a…safer location. Or else, you will have to face them.”

“Who?” said Ness with a curious look on his eyes with Dave stirring awake now.

“A new class of starmen, it has both organic and mechanical structures. It makes it extremely powerful and about squared the power of a deluxe class. It’s called the Omega Starman” said Mike finally able to fully breathe again, but he had to say it in a whisper since he couldn’t speak fully yet.

“Did you just say squared?” said Jeff. Mike shook his head in a yes motion.

“Paula, do whatever you can to get Poo awake so we can get out of here. Dave, you and I are going to help out Jeff and see if we can get that collar off. Tom, if they come stall by any means necessary! We need everything we got right now and we shouldn’t waste time!” Ness ordered as everyone got to work on their jobs. Jeff had found a more precise laser cutter and got to work on Mike’s collar while Ness and Dave quickly took guard at that moment. Tom also stood guard as Paula tried desperately to wake up Poo. She used every Psi attack she had with the exception of thunder at that point, which kept missing and almost hitting someone else at one point or another in the process.

“Alright Poo, you’re going to hate me for this” said Paula as she put her hand on Poo’s left arm. She then did a thunder at point blank range that woke up Poo in an instant.

“Yeow! Alright, what’s going on that I had to be woken up” said Poo as Paula quickly gave Poo the situation. “I see. First off, Mike, I can do more to those wounds than Tom’s elixirs right now so let me have a crack later. Second, how long until you can cut that collar off him” said Poo.

“This might take a while because I have to use such a lower powered cutter. It might take me an hour” said Jeff as Paula looked down the hall.

“They’ll be here in about a minute” said Paula with a look of concern on her face as she went for her Holy Fry Pan.

“Guys, stall them as long as you can so I cut this thing off Mike. Dave, stay here though just in case I need something” said Jeff as he took the power of his cutter up to maximum.

Ten seconds later three strange looking beings phased into the room. Ness stepped back as he felt their tremendous power. They had the classic starman black stripe across the eyes and spikes all over the body representing class. These ones oddly enough had a human skin color over their bodies which showed they were definitely a different class of starman.

Poo quickly made the first charge with his sword of kings and all other items equipped but it quickly proved futile as the middle of the starmen grabbed Poo by the throat and threw him across the room effortlessly. “You are *whirr* no match for us. We were designed *whirr* especially to destroy you” said the one on the left.

“You know it’s funny, really it is. Every time one of these four Horsemen of Apocalypse send something to stop or destroy us we always overcome it, and it will be the same with you!” said Tom as he charge with sword in hand tying to hit the Omega Starman on the left but it completely failed. It was extremely fast and made Mike’s top speeds look like a joke. “Using your teleportation abilities to dodge my slashes, very nice” said Tom as he thought the speed came from the teleportation every starman has. He was dead wrong as he saw the one run up to him and crushed him with just a few punches and a blast of energy.

“Tom!” said Paula in shock seeing the two best pure fighters in the group getting the daylight kicked out of themselves by the Omega Starmen.

The one in the middle just seemed to look at Ness and Paula like he was going to destroy them after they were done with Tom and Poo. “I’m not done yet, Psi Starstorm Omega!” screamed Poo as he launch his ultimate attack right at the Omega Starmen. The attack didn’t seem to scratch them. “That’s impossible! I didn’t see any shields when I fired that,” said Poo in absolute shock, “Well, try eating a second one!” Poo used a second Starstorm Omega but it was again ineffective.

“Poo, don’t fire anymore of those. We need different approach to this” said Tom as one of the starmen started to raise his arm.

“What in the world is that?!” said Ness as he was still in shock that something could be unaffected by a starstorm.

“It’s a shield breaker. It’s meant to break any shields that have been put on anyone so psychic or physical attack can have their full effect. I would suggest you stop them before they use one of those” said Jeff using his ever useful analytical mind to see what in the heck was going on.

“I thought you were cutting the collar” said Ness.

“I have Dave working on it right now. You’ll need me to help out if you want to make it through this battle” said Jeff as the Omega Starman use his shield breaker, or at least tried. Ness had hit back the ball of energy like a baseball at the starmen like it was nothing.

“Thanks for the upgrade Jeff. How long will it take you to find a weakness in these things” said Ness as he was charging up his Psi Flash Omega.

“Give me a while” said Jeff as he got to work on using his mind to figure out their weakness.

“That’s good to hear. That means we’ll be able to tear up these things in a few minutes. I’ll stall for time Jeff” said Tom as he made another charge at the Omega starmen but the attack once again failed with the starman showing his superior speed. This time when he hit Tom it didn’t have as much effect and this time seemed to bounce back a little scratching the starman. “What the, that shouldn’t have happened” said Tom with a slight look of confusion on his face. He still felt some pain but it felt like the strength of the starman was cut right in half.

“Paula’s not the only one with the Psi Shield ability. I have it too only mine affects physical damage and not energy damage. I used my shield beta on you so you would have some protection along with myself” Poo explained.

The three starmen quickly split up to attack three sides at once. One concentrated on Ness, Paula, and Jeff. Another concentrated on Poo and Tom. The other quickly warped over to where Mike and Dave were. Dave was almost done cutting the collar when the third Omega Starman came over to fight. He picked up his bow and shot right at it but the arrow just hit the starman and dropped to the ground. Dave couldn’t believe that the thing just took a thirty pound arrow like it was a piece of paper. “Come on you dumb collar come off! I won’t leave here without Mike. I still have a debt to pay. Come off!” Dave thought to himself struggling to get the collar off of Mike. He started to try and pull it apart because the laser wasn’t moving fast enough. At that moment the starman started to strike at Mike with an energy beam but Mike’s body absorbed it as usual. The power of Mike’s aura combining with Dave’s strength finally got the collar to break apart allowing Dave to quickly take it off of Mike.

“It’s off!” said Jeff as he just saw what had happened.

“Eat this!” Dave screamed as he was lining up another arrow this time using his full power. When Dave shot the arrow it almost scratched the starman but it once again fell straight to the ground. Dave tried charging the starman but it quickly dodged and when straight for Mike. It tried a physical attack this time but it couldn’t even touch Mike’s body. The classic REM Attack aura had surrounded Mike once again blocking the attack. Mike just shook his head in a no motion right at the starman since he still couldn’t speak yet.

“Psi Paralysis Omega!” screamed Ness as he tried to use his paralysis attack to stop the movements of the starmen but it did not work as usual with the other classes of starmen. “Darn, what is it going to take to beat these things? We’ve been going at it for a while now and still not even a scratch!” said Ness while dodging a few energy beams.

“I don’t know Ness. It seems their bodies are coated with some type of metal that will negate most psychic attacks. I need time to figure out what they are vulnerable to” said Jeff while bringing out his Gaia Beam to at least buy some more time.

“Psi Freeze Gamma!” Poo screamed trying to use Freeze on one of the starmen but it didn’t work. “Jeff you better hurry up before we get killed!”

“I know but I can think right now while trying to fight these things!” said Jeff while taking a few shots at the Omega Starmen but those attacks were like all others, no effect.

“Alright then, I don’t know how much this will work but here’s something new for you guys! The new Omega level of my favorite technique! Psi Rockin’ Omega!” screamed Ness using his ultimate attack. It was completely different this time. Instead of four forms of energy coming in then exploding on contact, this one produced a seal on each of the three starmen and Ness concentrated heavily on the targets he just marked. The ensuing explosion erupted straight from the marking Ness had put on them. This time an attack had some effect as all three starmen were at least scratched now and slightly stunned that someone had finally done something to them. It also gave Jeff time to finish his analysis of the Omega starmen.

“Guys, they’re vulnerable to anything fire class magic or psychic techniques. Anyone has them I would suggest using them now. Their organic forms make them extremely weak to those techniques!” screamed Jeff happy to see that these starmen actually had a weakness.

“They want fire. They got fire! Psi Fire Omega!” Paula screamed as she shut her eyes to concentrate on making some serious flames. She couldn’t hit her targets no matter how much she tried. They were just too fast for her to lock on to.

“Paula, let me try something faster! Psi Dragon Omega!” Ness screamed as he started to use the technique Mike had just taught him. He tried firing the rings of fire and hitting the starmen with the final dragon punch but he couldn’t even hit them. “This isn’t good, they’re too fast to hit!” said Ness he saw the starmen just moving at blinding speeds and hitting everyone constantly now. Dave tried using his fire magic but to no avail as well.

“Well, if we can’t him them with fire then let speed fight speed! Fate, Samurai Slice” screamed Tom as he went straight for the closest starman at that moment at full speed but it just grabbed Tom’s sword and threw Tom across the room.

“My God, they just blocked something that fast! I don’t know if we can make it out of here alive!” Paula thought to herself and she started to quickly step back in fear running into Mike in the process. “His collar is off. Too bad he can’t move right now or he could certainly help us with his speed” Paula thought to herself as she saw Mike looking slightly better as Tom’s serum had taken full effect but it only healed a small portion of Mike’s body. Paula all of a sudden felt a hand touch her back.

<Paula look, I can see these things move perfectly but I won’t be able to help you right now, so don’t get any ideas. I can help indirectly though. You seem to possess all classes of Psi elemental techniques with the exception of earth. I think I can help you defeat these things if you let me ascend one of your powers. Psi Fire is usually too weak and slow for fighters of this class but I’ve seen the higher form of the technique, the fully mastered form. Shadow Kasume showed me the technique but I could never use it. Go into my mind once again and watch how he does this technique> Mike said telepathically to Paula while having his hand on her back to do it. <That is called Psi Flare. I hope you saw enough of it to see how to do use it> Mike fainted right after finishing that phrase. It was still too much for him to do much of anything.

Paula was hoping she did see enough of that attack to use it. Meanwhile the starmen were starting to surround Ness and the others quite easily. “Ness, if you have any trump cards I would suggest using them now” said Tom with a look of fear on his face that no one wants to make.

“I don’t unfortunately. I guess this is it” said Ness as he started to see a red mark appear on each of the Omega Starmen.

“Guys, I would suggest taking some cover because this might get messy” said Paula as she closed her eyes shut concentrating with everything she had.

“Messy, I don’t think that will be the appropriate term to use if she’s doing what I think she’s going to do. My question is: how did she learn it in such a short amount of time?” Tom thought to him while taking a slight beating from the starmen noticing the red mark on each of the starmen as well.

“P…S…I…Flare O…me…ga!” screamed Paula very slowly to put an even greater focus on the attack she was about to use. A red light started to surround each of the starmen and they stooped because they had no clue as to what was going on. A few second later they erupted into flames burning as fiercely as a star taking their lives with it.

“Holy crap! How did you do that Paula?!” screamed Ness and Poo at the same time wondering how she just learned a new psychic technique at the Omega level and used it to absolute perfection.

“Well, ummm….” Said Paula wondering how she was going to explain this.

“I’m wondering that as well Paula. That technique is one of my master’s noted Psi techniques. That just happens to be the Psi Fire technique on a higher level” said Tom sheathing his seeing that the Omega Starmen were definitely not coming back for more.

“Hold it, did you just say that’s one of Shadow Kasume’s technique’s?” said Poo with a confused look on his face.

“Yeah it is Poo,” said Paula with a stern but exhausted look on her face. “Mike taught me the technique using bodily contact to communicate telepathically. He then allowed me to peer into his mind again this time he showed me what Shadow had shown him once before, the Psi Flare technique. I hoped it would work and it did, better than I thought actually.”

“Well, that’s obvious since it’s the most powerful fire technique known” said Tom sarcastically.

“Guys, we shouldn’t be talking about this right now. We have an opening and Poo’s awake right now so why don’t we just light warp out of here and get to ‘higher ground’” said Jeff breathing heavily still recovering from the latest battle.

“You’re right Jeff but where to? I mean its obvious this was a trap from the get go and I’m guessing they’ll be trying to hunt us down if we try to escape. It will get innocent people involve if they find us in a populated area. Not to mention none of us are at full strength and we saw what Gorin did to Dave and another one of them did to Mike after Gorin beat him. So, anyone got any suggestions” said Ness.

Tom quickly came up with an answer, “Belle Vernon might be our only hope. It’s isolated from a lot of areas, and like I told you guys before in Saturn Valley it’s been completely leveled except for a few homes. Those few homes could provide shelter and food while we recover. Not to mention a good hiding spot since they would expect us to go there since it has been leveled.”

“I want to avoid being in areas like that right now. They have conquered those areas so we want to stay away from those areas since they might have subordinates in those areas watching for any type of resistance. You’re right though Tom. We have to get out of here and fast. Who knows what they might send to stop us next?” Ness answered.

Everyone thought for about another minute or two but most areas were too populated, or if they were attacked the area was populated. Leaving out Tenda Village as Paula tried to bring up but that was shot down as the perfect target for the four Horsmen of Apocalypse to strike because of the Tendas and the Lost Underworld because the behemoths that lived there might cause problems for their weakened states. Most of the other areas they saw that had been leveled already were near populated areas, making those unsuitable. “Tom, how far away is the nearest populated area to Belle Vernon?” said Ness out of curiosity.

“There many places around Belle Vernon, but most have been evacuated since they won’t stay around for a long time. Besides three surrounding towns which are probably empty anyhow, it’s mostly a rural area” Tom confirmed to Ness.

“Poo, we’re going to Belle Vernon. Tom, you better be right and they won’t find us” said Ness.

“Alright Ness” said Poo getting ready with everyone else as fast as they could to avoid the next potential oncoming threat. “There is also another reason why he decided to go there Tom. Casie, Nolan, and Ryan are there as well and Ness knows it because he’s heard my conversations with her. You don’t need to know that until we unite with them, hopefully under better circumstances” Poo thought to himself as he checked to see if everybody was ready, and then went off to Belle Vernon.