02x22: Nightmare Chase

The ASG head to Florida, the final location in Austin's hit list.

NIGHTMARE CHASE

 

     “Janella…”

     A faint light shone through her eyes but soon disappeared again.

     “Janella!!!”

     She felt a defibrillator work on her but everything wasn’t clear yet.

     “JANELLA!!!”

     She could hear a girl’s voice calling her name but very faintly. She seemed to be calling her at the top of her lungs though.

 

Janella was in the female ward, being looked over by Nurse Jen, Monica, Justin, Danie, Queennie, Rica and Berna. Nurse Jen was trying the defibrillator but it wasn’t working.

     Since Janella’s biochemistry was different than the regular human, she didn’t flat line but she was still unconscious.

     Berna headed out of the ward. The guys were sitting around the long table in the base. They were just quiet.

     Kyle was checking the Identifier. Austin was nowhere to be found.

     “So, how is she?” Joel asked.

     “I think she’s in a coma…” Berna said weakly.

     Berna went over to Kyle and sat beside him. She rested her head on his shoulder as Kyle put his arm over her shoulder.

     “She’ll push through, Berna. I know she will,” Kyle said.

     “Guys,” John started. “I just thought of something. Since the radiation affected her biochemistry, maybe we have to use a special kind of defibrillator!”

     “Maybe, but can we risk it?” Kyle asked.

     “Well, only two things will happen: She wakes up or she stays in the coma.”

     “What do plan to do?”

     “Put the defibrillator in the Dome. Infuse the pyrokinetic spoke and then try to revive her. It won’t add any more dangerous stress on her circulatory system and we have a 50/50 chance of reviving her.”

     “What do you think?” Kyle asked Berna.

     “Makes sense to me.”

     “Ok, let’s try it!”

     John barged in the female ward and went out with the defibrillators. The other stared at him in shock.

     “Did you just barge in the female ward?” Patrick asked.

     “Yeah. I’m the tech specialist, I have access to this whole base. Why?”

     “Oh. Nothing.”

     John put the defibrillators in the Dome of Power ad set the spoke to pyrokinesis. He twisted the opening to maximum and hit the button. The green light surged out of the opening and engulfed the defibrillators. When the green light subsided after a minute, John went in and retrieved the defibrillators.

     “Now, I’m not going to name this anymore, I’m going to try it right away.”

     John went in the female ward and gave Janella a “shock” using the defibrillators. It did nothing. He tried again to no avail.

     “Third time’s the charm…”

     John gripped the metal tightly and gave Janella one last “shock”. Her chest sprang upwards and as it gravity pulled it back towards the bed, her eyes opened.

     “Ladies and gentlemen, we have success,” John said as he looked around, noticing that he was surrounded by ladies.

     The Patola members swarmed around Janella as Nurse Jen tried to control them. John stepped out of the ward.

     “It worked! She’s awake!”

     Berna sprang up and went in.

     “John, you have to put that fire at bay,” Kyle said.

    “What fire?”

     “The fire Janella absorbed from Makati! It’s causing all this!”

     “I’m almost done with that serum. Give me a few minutes.”

     John went in the section of the base with John’s little chemistry set.

    

Berna’s face immediately lit up when she saw Janella conscious.

     “Berna!” Janella said happily.

     “Hey, Janella. You feel okay now?”

     “Yeah. I just have a little headache.”

     “Now you believe in what Kyle said?”

     “What?”

     “That we should control that heat you absorbed or just get rid of it altogether.”

     “Maybe you just agree because Kyle said it,” Janella said teasingly.

     “Janella, I’m serious.”

     Janella stayed quiet for a while.

     Soon, John came barging in the female ward again holding a sort of high tech syringe.

     “Here’s the serum! It’ll control that heat you absorbed,” John said to Janella.

     “No! Get that away from me.”

     “Janella, we have to fix you now!” Berna said.

     John approached Janella with the syringe but she looked at him with a look that said “get the hell away from me” as the room heated up.

     “Eh… I’m not supposed to be here anyway. Here, Nurse Jen, you do it!”

     John retreated out of the room.

     “Okay, dear, we have to cure you now,” Nurse Jen said.

     “But I’m not sick.”

     “Janella, just relax,” Justin said.

     “Hold still,” Nurse Jen said, putting the syringe closer to Janella’s left arm.

     “I SAID NO!” Janella said, flames erupting from her body. The bed she was resting on burst into flames as she hovered into the air.

     Everyone shielded themselves from the roaring embers buzzing around them. When they looked back, they saw a horrifying sight. Janella was hovering over them, and her pupils were gone.

     The whites of her eyes were engulfed in a flaming orange. In fact, her entire body was slowly being covered with flames more and more.

     “Janella, calm down,” Berna said.

     John barged in again saying, “What the hell is going on here?!”

     Janella turned her head to face John. She then faced the ceiling and burst through.

     Berna took the syringe from Nurse Jen and threw it to John.

     “John, make this fire-proof! We’ll buy you some time.”

     “I didn’t sign up for this!” John said as he went back to the main room of the base.

 

Berna and the others went out and Janella was there. She was floating above the base creating a cloud of fire.

     “I’m going to make hell rain down on you guys!”

     “No, Janella. Not while we’re here,” Berna said as she flew up and fired psychic orbs at Janella. She manipulated the fire cloud to vaporize the psychic orbs. Berna can’t even get near enough. The cloud thickened enough to completely obscure Janella from sight.

     Berna retreated back downwards but on her way back, Janella charged straight for her and charged her to the ground. She started pummeling her face with fireballs.

     “HELP ME!” she yelled.

     Justin charged to pull Janella away but Janella fired a fireball straight at her. Justin’s increased reflexes kicked in as she dodged the fireballs Matrix-style.

     “I GOT THE SERUM!” John shouted out loud. Janella heard this and hovered back onto the air, did a 180, and charged for John. John dropped the syringe and threw metal at her from inside the base.

     “D****t, John, you’re wasting the furniture,” Patrick said.

     “Look you little dick, there are a lot of things more important in life than one guy’s opinion, okay? TRY TO UNDERSTAND THAT I AM UNDER ATTACK! Now stop doing nothing, AND START DOING SOMETHING!”

     Patrick got the syringe and threw it to Berna. Kyle went out of the base, sliding past the conflict in the entrance, and tried to hold Janella.

     “Come on Kyle, concentrate!” Berna said to herself quietly.

     Soon, Janella stopped moving.

     “BERNA! YOU HAVE A CLEAN SHOT!” Kyle shouted.

     Berna contained the syringe in a psychic field and fired it a Janella. It charged towards her but before it could, she broke Kyle’s hold and fired a fireball at the syringe. The psychic field was destroyed but the syringe kept on going, hitting her on the right part of her chest. John’s syringe design automatically pushed the plunger in the barrel. Janella cooled down, her fireproof suit cooling down as well. Her pupils returned as she went back to normal.

     “Huh? What happened?”

     “Janella, I think you should stay here until Austin’s back to normal,” Kyle said, checking the Identifier. Austin was still nowhere to be found.

     “Why?”

     “Austin’s targeting you. Unless you calm you mind, you’re staying here. Understand?”

     “But,”

     “Janella, just think, if you go with us, you might die, we might lose you and die ourselves, Austin will make it here, everyone dies! We need you here. In case he does come for you, in case you ARE his target, we want you to stay here.”

     “So you want me to stay here for my protection and as bait?”

     “Well…, for the most part for your protection. I’m still not sure if you’re his target but if you are, you have to finish him off. It will be better for everyone, you understand?”

     “Yes, Kyle.”

     “We’re proud of you. Thanks for understanding.”

     “Yeah, I do feel a bit tired from what happened… whatever it was.”

     “You’re cured now, that’s all that matters.’

    Right there, the Identifier started beeping. Kyle took a look and saw Austin in Tallahassee, Florida.

     “ASG! This is it. The final round. They say ‘third time’s the charm’, I say, ‘third time’s our last chance’. Make it count! Our destination is Tallahassee, Florida.”

     Kyle took out his Telegun and concentrated on Austin. It showed “Downtown Tallahassee” on the monitor. Kyle opened the doors of the base and fired the gun. The portal formed and eighteen members went in. Before Kyle entered, he turned around and faced Joel.

      “Joel, take good care of Janella. You owe that much to Austin.”

     “Yeah, I will.”

     Kyle went in and the portal disappeared.

 

There they were in the bustling streets of Downtown Tallahassee. Kyle looked around and noticed a small but familiar toy store around the block.

     “Hey, guys. I’ll be right back. Stay on guard.”

     Kyle went in the said store.

     “Welcome to Simon Juguete’s Toy Sto�" Kyle Gomez, is that you?!” the thirty-something year-old man at the counter said.

     The place was bustling with customers, which was surprising since it wasn’t that big a store. There was a room at the back with a glass sliding door. In it was a lot more toys. The room Kyle was in had some shelves with some cool little trinkets on them.

     “Hey, Simon. Long time, no see.”

     “Long time? If five years is a long time, I wonder what a short time is. Come over here!”

     Kyle went behind the counter and gave Simon a good old hug.

     “Where have you been? I missed you kiddo!”

     “I’ve just been around. Look, Simon, I’m gonna need your help.”

     “Sure, anything.”

     “You know that school I study in?”

     “The same one when you were in third grade?”

     “Yeah. Have you heard about the incident there?”

     “No, not really. What happened?”

     “Let’s go somewhere private.”

     “Okay. HEY! FITZ! MIND THE COUNTER FOR A WHILE!”

     Another employee lazily walked over to the counter. Simon and Kyle went to the stock room.

     “What happened there?”

     “Well, there was this ‘earthquake’. It wasn’t really an earthquake but rather a release of energy that was stored in there for millions, even billions of years.”

     “And…”

     “Well, we got hit by said energy and we got knocked out. When we woke up, well…”

     “What? You what?”

     “We all had superpowers.”

     Simon shut up for a while. Then he scoffed and it eventually evolved into laughter.

     “Kyle, d****t, you should write a book. Your imagination is amazing.”

     “I’m not making this up, Simon. I’m telling you because I trust you.”

     “You’re gonna need more proof than that,” Simon said while laughing.

     “What’s that behind your ear?” Kyle said.

     “What?” Simon said as he looked behind him just to meet this floating snow globe. “WHAT THE HELL?!”

     “Need more proof?”

     “Put that down, Kyle. It’s freaking me out.”

     Simon’s laughter had turned into nervous wheezes.

     “Okay. Now I need your help. One of us went rather out of control. I need an extra lookout.”

     “I bet you have, like, a strike team of fifty outside, what do you need me for?”

     “Well, it’s a search team of eighteen but they’re all familiar to this guy’s eyes. I need a resident. Just look for a guy with no pupils. He’s probably wearing sunglasses or two eyepatches or covering his eyes in some manner.”

     The look of disbelief on Simon’s face was clearly evident.

     “Okay, you wait in the back room and I’ll signal you if he comes in. I need a glass of water.”

     They went out of the stock room and Kyle went to the back room.

     This was obviously the main section of the toy store. It was divided into the boys’ side, girls’ side, and adult side, in that order from left to right. He went over to the adults' side and saw some figures of movie characters that Austin might like.

 

Simon went back in the store after getting a glass of water from next door and went back to the counter. Then a man went in the store wearing shades. Simon was alert this whole time.

     “Hello, do you have any figures of movie characters?” the man asked.

     “Oh yes, sir. Right at the back room,” Simon answered.

     “Thank you.”

     The man approached the back room and went in.

     “I think that was the guy Kyle was talking about,” Simon thought to himself as he looked at the man entering the back room. He heard another customer stop at the counter and as he turned to face him, he felt a stabbing pain in his abdomen.

     “Oh my G�"“

     “Shh… Don’t blaspheme at your time of death. Repent.”

     “It’s you.”

     He was staring into a teenager with pure, white eyes. He looked down and saw his arm, phased through the counter, and transformed into a sharp, steel blade.

     “Goodbye, Simon.”

     Austin made an illusion sphere in his free, left hand and fired it at Simon, creating an illusion of Simon standing there. He violently pulled his blade-hand away from Simon’s abdomen as he fell to the ground.

 

Kyle was busy solving an open Rubik’s Cube in the adults section.

     “Come on, I have to beat Austin’s record.”

     “Well, that’s damn near impossible, Kyle.”

     Kyle dropped the Rubik’s Cube and turned around.

     “It ends here, Austin.”

     Austin just closed his eyes. His head was slowly surrounded by a faint, purple aura. Kyle looked around and saw the dolls in the girls section close their eyes.

     “Austin? What are you doing?”

     “I sure hope you’re ready, Kyle.”

     The dolls opened their eyes and what seemed like veins were popping out around the eyelids.

     “Austin, you’re powerful, I get it. You have to stop this.”

     The dolls started to smile, the ends reaching the level of the eyes.

     “Kyle, everything has been leading�"“

     The dolls stood up and stepped out of their boxes.

     “�"to this.”

     The dolls opened their mouths to reveal their sharp teeth and flew about in the store. Kyle tried to stop them. He walked out to the main room of the store and tried to evacuate the people out of there but the doors were locked. He tried to blast it with psychic orbs but nothing happened. He saw Simon standing there.

     “Simon, the keys.”

     Of course, the illusion did not reply.

     “SIMON! NOW!”

     The dolls bit the customers in the store. Kyle even saw one bite a chunk of flesh off a man in the end of the room.

     “SIMON!”

     Kyle went over the counter and found two Simons, one standing behind the counter and one on the floor, surrounded by a pool of blood.

     “S**t. Wait, the telegun.”

     Kyle got the Telegun and focused on outside the store. Austin hit him in the back with a dark sphere and Kyle fell to the ground. He reached for the Telegun but Austin psychically retrieved it.

     “This Telegun has been annoying me ever since, Kyle.”

     Austin crushed it in his hand.

     “But not anymore.”

     Kyle tried to send a message to Berna but Austin probably thought of that beforehand. Kyle took out his BB Gun and armed it. He stood up and fought Austin in combat.

     “THIS ENDS NOW!”

     Kyle fired Psychic orbs at Austin non-stop. It barely scratched him.

     “My turn.”

     Austin fired a dark orb at Kyle’s stomach and blasted him to the doors but he bounced off them in a surreal sort of way.

     “S**t, I’m locked in here.”

 

Outside, the rest of the ASG couldn’t see what’s going on since from the outside, the inside looked perfectly normal.

     “Kyle’s taking too long,” Berna said.

     “He told us to stay guard,” John replied.

     “You guys stay guard, I’m going in.”

     Berna ran to the store and tried to go in but the door shocked Berna unconscious.

     “BERNA!” Lanz yelled. “Cedric, something’s happening in there.”

     Lanz and Cedric went over there and Cedric reached for the door.

    “Don’t touch it!” Lanz said.

     Lanz prepared for a really big clap. When he finally put his hands together, the shielding mechanism of the store broke but the doors remained shut. They could now see everything happening inside.”

     “S**t!”

     The other ASG members and the civilians passing by saw what was happening and gathered around the store.

     “Everyone, FIRE!” Lanz yelled.

     The ASG opened fire on the store as the civilians stepped back. The police soon found their way to the scene.

     “Stop this! Make way!”

     The police saw the unnatural stuff going on and just did nothing.

     “What are you guys waiting for? Blast the doors!” Cedric yelled.

     The police just followed orders and opened fire at the doors. Nothing happened.

 

Back on the island, Janella and Joel were just talking.

     “And then he put Sr. Edmond and Sr. Leo in a force field and moved them away.”

     “What happened to me?”

     “You… stood in between Austin and me.”

     “Why would I do that?”

     “You saw that it wasn’t him. You knew he wouldn’t do it.”

     “Then?”

     “He stabbed you and threw you in the river.”

     “Well, now I know not to stand in front of him when he’s having a bad day.”

     The two just laughed.

     “Wait, how did they beat the force field again?”

     “Jericho, he went colossal.”

     “Don’t you think you should’ve told them that?”

     “Why? Would Austin be�"“

     Joel stood up and turned on the TV and switched to the news.

     “Oh s**t!” Janella said.

     “And now in front of Simon Juguete’s Toy Store, a bloody carnage is ongoing inside and these superpowered humans are… You know Jake, I don’t even know if what I’m seeing here is real or not, I don’t even know how to describe it.”

     “I have to tell them!”

     “NO, Janella. I promised Kyle I’d take care of you. It’s like promising Austin that I won’t let him hurt you. You stay here.”

 

The ASG weren’t making any progress at all. They ceased fire.

     “We have to try a smarter tactic than random blasting,” John said.

     “What about random smashin’?” Michael suggested.

     “What do you mean?”

     “Jericho, show Austin what you’ve got!”

     Jericho grew to twice the size of the toy store and smashed the roof down. The place was covered in rubble. As the dust cleared out, twelve dolls rushed out and started attacking the people.

     “Get all these people to the hospital!” one of the police officers said.

     “Officers, you handle the civilians. What you will find in there is way beyond your power,” John said.

     “Okay,” the officer said, not knowing how to react anymore. “I’m leaving whatever’s in there to you, kid.”

     John armed his BB Gun and rushed in the rubble. Behind him, the dolls had already spread to the city. He walked to the back and saw Austin strangling Kyle on the floor. John attracted a metal pole on the ground and zipped it towards Austin. He was knocked off Kyle and fell to the ground beside him. John went to Kyle.

     “Kyle, it’s gonna be okay. Let’s go.”

     He helped Kyle out of the wreck. Kyle separated himself from John’s assistance and said, “ASG, you have to get those dolls and destroy them.”

     The ASG went off and chased the dolls.

     “I almost got him, John.”

     Austin appeared right in front of them and punched Kyle in the face.

     “Keyword being ‘almost’ “

    John turned his body into steel and started punching at Austin. He dodged every blow and this gave him time to talk.

     “Impressive, John. You never unleashed this before.”

     “I didn’t have to.”

     Kyle stood up and charged for Austin. He fired Psychic orbs at him.

     “You know all your attempts are useless, Kyle.”

     Austin flew up in the air and his hands were enclosed in a purple aura. When Kyle followed him in the air, Austin clenched his fist and pulled something across the air. Then, the top of one of the buildings got completely rearranged into a giant spike, as if it were painted on a rubber canvass and stretched. It hit Kyle and sent him flying. The shock of this made John go back to normal.

     “Did he just?” Kyle asked John in disbelief.

     “He reorganized space and time!” John said.

     Austin aimed at where Kyle was. Kyle noticed this and flew away immediately. The reorganized spike nearly impaled him.

     “Very good dodging skills, Kyle. Can you last a few more minutes in the ring?” Austin said.

     Kyle fired a psychic orb straight at Austin’s face. It hit him square and that undoubtedly pissed him off. Kyle flew off and Austin, taking the bait, followed.

     They were now flying through the streets of Tallahassee. Austin making spikes fly out of random places, Kyle nearly getting impaled every time.

     “You can’t do this forever, Kyle!”

     Austin tried once more and Kyle got hit in the leg. He went spiraling down and hit the ground.

     Kyle turned to face Austin and kept firing at him.

     “Bring it on, Austin!”

     Austin calmly approached him and set his feet on the ground. He took every psychic orb like a man and when he finally reached Kyle, held him by the neck and lifted him up.

     “I’m not very familiar with the streets of Tallahassee, Kyle. Let’s go somewhere more familiar like, hmm…, I don’t know, New York?”

     Austin used his free left hand and made a giant portal in the middle of the street. It was like a black hole, slowly eating everything up. Austin shot up into the air and went straight into the portal, taking Kyle with him.

 

The rest of the ASG were flying through the city, chasing and being chased by the killer dolls.

     “Lanz, I’m gonna open your force field a little, clap through the opening, you got it?” Cedric said.

     “Sure, LET’S DO THIS!”

     Cedric opened up a little hole in Lanz’s force field as he continued to bring the non flyers around the city.

     “How do you focus on ten force fields at the same time?” Patrick asked Cedric.

     “After a while, being in a world of total s**t, you know, you just get used to it.”

     Lanz hit a doll through the opening.

     “I got one! Haha! One down, eleven to go,” Lanz said excitedly. He kept quiet for a while and after a moment of thought, he said, “Oh s**t, eleven to go!”

     “Guys, look out!” Berna said.

     They took a left turn and saw the giant portal Austin made.

     “I think they went in there!” Ernst said.

     “I’m glad you’re here to tell us these things!” Michael said sarcastically.

     “Cedric, take them in!” Berna said.

     Cedric brought in his cargo as Berna, Patrick, Ivan, Roey, and JB followed.

     “WAIT!” John yelled from behind.

     Berna stopped and looked back.

     “John, what is it?”

     “Austin’s manipulating the space-time continuum. He really doesn’t want to be fixed. If this goes on, the universe will be ripped in two. I’ll fly back to the island real quick and create a stabilizer, you have to keep this portal here.”

     “How do I do that?”

     “Ask someone to keep on flying back and forth through the portal. I recommend someone with a strong stomach.”

     “Ok, hurry up!”

     John shot metal orbs around him. They rotated around him creating a magnetic field and flew back towards the island.

     “John, how do you do that?”

     “Magnetic field. I think this is how the spiked man got around.”

     “Oh, ok then. Hurry up!”

     “Tell Kyle to hold on. I won’t be long.”

     John zipped back to the island. Berna faced the portal and went through. It seemed like she went through a tunnel shaped training room. It was black with white lines flowing in a grid-like pattern. After a few seconds, she was thrown out right in the middle of Central Park. Perhaps Austin intended the cliché she was about to be a part of.