02x34: Things Fall Apart

A Chapter by RA Fernandez

With Janella and Patrick unconscious, the Mastermind's subordinates loose on the island, Austin out of control, and him all alone, things take a turn for the worse.

THINGS FALL APART

“Austin?”

Kyle had lost it. He knew he was gone but he was still…

“Austin.”

Desperation fueled his actions.

“Austin. Everything’s okay.”

He didn’t move a muscle.

Janella and Patrick were unconscious around him. Spike and Landers were gone. Joel was in a trance inside. Kyle dragged Austin inside.

Kyle tried to undo the trance that Joel was in. It was difficult but not impossible. Soon, he broke free.

“Joel, can you hear me?”

“Yes,” he said weakly.

“I need your help. You must go to the hotel and call the ASG. Tell them, Austin’s gone again. Tell them, we have to fix him again.”

“Oh, s**t.”

This snapped Joel out of his semi-trance.

“I have to stay here. Get Nurse Jen here as soon as possible. Patrick and Janella won’t recover in these conditions. Remember to take the back exit.”

“Yes.”

“GO! NOW!”

Joel dashed away as Kyle stood up. He turned around. Austin was gone.

He went out and lifted Patrick and Janella up. He took them to the Library and laid them down on two tables.

“I’ll come back for you guys.”

He flew out and started the search all over again.

He saw Spike and Landers running towards the front gate. Kyle formed a force field in front of the gate where they were headed. Then it hit him, what was he thinking? It would take Joel a bit above an hour to get to the hotel.

He had a few more minutes before the two broke the barrier. He went to the back entrance and met up with Joel.

“Joel, screw the plan. Go to the library, stand guard.”

“Just great!” he said sarcastically.

“GO THERE RIGHT NOW! I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO ARGUE!”

Joel went the other way and Kyle zipped to the hotel.

He went to Berna’s suite and knocked on there first.

“Kyle, what are you doing up this late?”

“I need your help. Get the rest of the ASG. Tell Cedric to bring everyone to the front gate of Seton. I need everyone there in no more than seven minutes.”

“Ok. What’s happening anyway?”

“You won’t believe it. Spike’s alive. Landers is with him. They broke Austin’s band. He’s gone.”

Only now that he had to summarize the events did Kyle notice that the s**t just hit the fan.

“Double time, I gotta go!”

Kyle flew back out and went to the nineteenth floor, to Nurse Jen’s suite.

“Nurse Jen!”

She got up and went to the balcony.

“What’s going on? It’s late.”

“There are two students in the library. They’re in pain. High School Library. They need you right away!”

“Okay,” she said as she walked away. She put on a jacket and grabbed her first aid kit and rushed to the portals downstairs.

Kyle was in a panic. What else did he need to do? He decided to go to the front gate of the school already.

On the way there, however, when Kyle was flying over the base, Austin appeared out of nowhere and hit him across the face.

“Hey, Kyle. Miss me?”

“Austin, screw you, the s**t has hit the fan, I need you to behave and come quietly,” Kyle said without stopping.

“Straightforward much?”

“D****T!”

Kyle went inside the base and went to the BB Gun area. To his horror, all the BB Guns were gone.

“Kyle, I don’t want to go back. I destroyed all of them.”

Kyle was having a bad dream right now. He just wanted to wake up but he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“Kyle. Why don’t we just let me have fun?”

“I’ll deal with you later! There are more important things right now!”

Kyle’s head was filling up with information that was unnecessary and it was clouding his judgment.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to pay attention to me right now.”

“GAH!” Kyle shouted as he blasted past Austin and headed for the front gate.

He arrived and Berna assembled everyone there, like he said. Spike and Landers were not there.

“Okay, where are those two�"“

This was all going on too fast and Kyle just wanted everything to stop for a moment. He signaled everyone to the back gate and he zipped towards there. When he arrived, just like he predicted, Spike and Landers were there in the Motorpool.

“Stop now!”

“Wait, Spike?!” Lanz exclaimed. “Isn’t he dead?”

“Who’s the other guy?” Ernst asked.

“In this strange alignment of planets, I agree with Ernst. Who is that other guy?” Michael asked.

“I don’t have time to explain, just stop them!”

Just to make matters worse, Austin descended from the sky.

“Hey, buddies. How’s life?”

“Oh, not again,” Ernst said.

“WHY ARE WE AGREEING ALL OF A SUDDEN?” Michael asked Ernst to which he shrugged.

“Johan, Joseph, guard Spike and Landers.”

“Kyle, I don’t like being snubbed. I was going to say that I am your utmost concern because I have planted a bomb somewhere on this island. Let me give you a clue. TNL Hotel. Haha. And to make matters worse, There’s no way you can stop the bomb. You’ll have to watch the place crumble and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“John, I need you to make more BB Guns. He destroyed all of them,”

“John, go ahead. I’ll just destroy them again.”

Everyone had a “WTF is happening?!” look on their faces at this point.

“John, just go! And hurry!”

John went off and they were alone now.

“Cedric, evacuate the Hotel. ASAP.”

“I can help,” Roey said.

“Me too,” Rico said.

“I’ll go with them,” Ricardo answered.

“JUST EVACUATE THE HOTEL!”

“I’m going with,” Lanz said.

“GOOO!!!”

They rushed away.

“Looks like I screwed up another perfect night, didn’t I?”

“Yes, Austin. You did.”

“Well, adieu.”

Austin began to fly away. Kyle gave chase.

“I will not waste another month of my life on you!”

“Oh, this chasing game again. Let’s hope you don’t fall for any cheap tricks this time, huh?”

This was technically the first face-to-face encounter of the ASG with Spike and Landers.

“Well, kids. Since there’s no more ham stealing our show, I guess I can be in the spotlight this time?” Landers said.

“You’re going down,” Ivan said.

“Ahh. Ivan. The Mastermind told me about your mind. Turns out he can read yours. He knew of how much you admired that water girl when Austin sent the rogue wave for the island.”

Ivan started to blush but his face still showed anger.

“Jack. Pot.”

Landers transformed in front of everybody. Ivan was now unable to attack. He had transformed into Marella.

“Well? Hit me!” he said in her voice.

Joel had entered the area along with the other two.

“They’re okay!”

“What happened?” Janella asked.

“Austin went crazy!” Berna said.

“What’s Marella doing here?”

“That’s not Marella.”

Landers turned around and turned his body into water. Janella countered with Ice.

“Damn!”

Landers transformed into Dave and charged towards Janella.

Cedric contained Lanz, Roey, Rico, and Ricardo in force fields and flew to the hotel.

“Okay, Lanz, you evacuate Floors 1-4. Roey, you do 5-8, Rico, 9-12, Ricardo, 13-16, I’ll do the higher levels.”

They all agreed and went in the hotel.

When Lanz reached the third floor and picked up Marella, she offered to help. Lanz was happy, of course, since he only had to evacuate one half of a floor.

When Roey got to the 7^th floor, Rica volunteered to help.

No one else volunteered much. Eventually, everyone was on the ground outside the hotel.

Austin led Kyle to the base. They had arrived before John. They fought inside but Austin clearly had the upper hand. He threw Kyle in the elevator that leads to the training area and they both went down.

They continued the battle inside the elevator and when they arrived, they continued firing at each other.

Austin changed the area into a post-apocalyptic wasteland and continued the battle.

“Soon, Kyle, you’ll be living in this shithole. Mm-mm, what a delicious sight.”

Kyle continued to fire psychic orbs at Austin in vain.

“Let’s make it a reality soon, eh?”

Kyle was desperate now. He just wanted everything back to normal.

“Janella, Ivan, Michael, Johan, Jericho, Pocholo, Joel, take care of Landers. We’ll take care of Spike,” Berna said.

“Sure!” Janella said as she dodged Landers’ attack.

“Stupid little b�"“

Joel tapped him on the back and he dropped to the floor unconscious.

“Now, you see why I didn’t want to join the ASG, Ernst?” Joel yelled across the motorpool.

“What is your power exactly?” Janella asked.

“I can put someone in a coma by touching them.”

“Can you put Spike in a coma?!”

Michael angrily yelled as Spike pulverized the other half of the ASG.

“No, he’s metal, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t do that.”

Janella aimed a fireball at Spike. It hit him and he was sent to the ground.

“Terrific aim!” Patrick said.

“Thanks.”

Spike staggered back up. He was off-balance.

“Let me try,” Patrick said as he aimed a fireball at Spike. It hit him and he was sent to the ground again.

“Nice shot,” Janella said.

“Thanks.”

“Alright, let’s finish this,” Janella said.

She walked over to Spike and charged her hand with fire. She clenched it into a fist and aimed it at his face.

She slapped him awake using her free hand.

“Why are you here, what do you want?”

Spike kept quiet.

“If you don’t answer, I’m going to melt your face and sculpt the remains into a trophy. Now answer me!”

“Answer her, come on.” Joel insisted.

“We’re just here to destroy the band.”

“Then why were you dragging me unconscious into the library?!” Joel asked.

“Landers over there was going to impersonate you, get to Austin and destroy the band. I was there just in case.”

“How long has he been impersonating Joel?” Berna asked.

“Since the beginning of the year. When Austin picked him as his friend, the Mastermind picked him as his decoy.”

“Holy crap,” Berna said. “So Joel was technically the inside man. He had no choice.”

“Joel, Joseph, Jericho, Pocholo, watch this area,” Janella said. “Berna, let’s help out at the hotel.”

They flew to the hotel but everyone was safe.

“Hey, guys. We were fast, see?” Cedric bragged.

“Did you double check each room?” Berna asked.

“I did.”

“I did,” Roey said.

“Same here,” Rico answered.

“Yup, I think.” Ricardo said.

“Oh, s**t,” Lanz said.

“I double checked the fourth floor,” Marella answered as Ivan dropped into a dreamy trance.

“We got three floors to check, Ivan, help them.”

“Sure.”

Lanz, Marella, and Ivan went in the hotel.

“Where’s Kyle?” Janella asked Berna.

“He was chasing Austin.”

Berna closed her eyes and searched for Kyle.

“He’s in the base.”

“I think we should offer our assistance.”

Janella and Berna flew towards the base.

“Well, nothing to do with this shitstorm of a situation,” Michael said.

“Chua, language,” Ms. Ruby said.

“We’re not even in school,” Ernst replied.

“De Vera, insubordination!”

“**** this s**t, I’m going to the motorpool,” Michael said. He went to the basement of the hotel.

When he got to the portal roundhouse, there it was a floating, translucent, black orb.

“GUYS!” Michael yelled. Ernst, Roey, Patrick, and Cedric followed.

“Is that the bomb?” Ernst asked.

“Yes, I think.”

“I don’t sense any fire in it so it’s not the same kind as the ones in Glorietta. In fact, I don’t sense anything in it, I feel empty standing beside it,” Patrick said.

“What is it then?” Michael said again.

“Couldn’t it be an anti-matter bomb?” Ernst asked.

“What do you mean? What made you think that?” Michael said.

“Well, Roey, try using your absorb card.”

Roey too out Absorb from his deck and threw it at the bomb, The card was vaporized.

“See? Absorb could absorb anything. This bomb contains nothing.”

“How did you find out?”

“Well, it’s black.”

“Nice reasoning, Einstein.”

“Next, Patrick didn’t feel anything in it. Any of you, can you feel anything near it?”

They shook their heads.

“That means it is nothing. It’s the opposite of something or anything, as a matter of fact. I therefore conclude�"“

“That you are a nerd, a deus ex machina, and an idiotic genius at the same time.”

“Thank you, Michael.”

“What do you suggest we do about it, Dr. Strangelove?” Patrick asked.

“Well, I suggest we get everyone away from the bomb.”

The black sphere then started to crack.

“OH S**T! CEDRIC, GET EVERYONE AWAY!”

Cedric engulfed everyone in the basement with a force field and flew out. He engulfed everyone into one giant force field and lifted them up. Cedric was starting to look constipated at the weight of this but he eventually got everyone to Seton, which was obviously very far away from there.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Ernst said.

“Wait, What about Lanz, Marella, and Ivan?”

“Oh, crap.”

Berna and Janella arrived in the base, only to find John there alone.

“John, where did Kyle and Austin go?”

“I don’t know. I saw them go in but�"“

John, Janella, and Berna looked at each other and eventually came the conclusion. They went to the elevator at the back and frantically pushed the buttons. The doors opened and they went down. John stayed behind and resumed work on the BB Guns.

The doors opened and they found themselves in a landscape that seemed straight out of The Phantom Menace. It was a dome underwater. Kyle and Austin were battling on the other side.

Berna and Janella both charged in hoping to help. Austin was not getting hurt at all and it seemed like he was just having too much fun.

In the hotel, there was actually no one left. They were on the fourth floor.

“Well, that’s the second floor. Let’s go back,” Lanz said.

“Floors 13-16 clear,” Marella said.

CRACK!

The bomb below had gone off but instead of antimatter engulfing everything; it just sent antimatter beams in different areas, tearing apart the hotel, including the floor beneath them.

During their escape, Marella tripped and fell and her arm was pinned on the ground by debris. Ivan had fallen to the bottom floor. He saw Marella in trouble and stood right back up. He used his super speed to jump from falling debris to falling debris until he reached her.

“I’m getting you out of here.”

He ran to the opposite end of the hallway and ran straight towards the piece of debris that pinned her down. It was dislodged from the force and they got out.

“Where’s Lanz?” Marella asked.

“He’s downstairs.”

They got out of the crumbling mess.

They all went where the people were at and watched as their home crumbled to the ground.

“I can’t believe it. It’s all gone,” Marella said.

“Well, at least there’s still something left so Austin can put things back together. I mean, that explosion was anti-climactic!” Ernst said.

“Ernst, shut up,” Michael said. “Where’s Kyle and Austin.”

“Berna mentioned something about them being in the base,” Bam said.

“ASG, to the base!” Patrick said.

“Who made you the boss?” Michael said.

“Austin, I’m his best friend.”

“Screw that crap. ASG TO THE BASE!” Michael said.