CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

MISSION UNDERWAY

They got to an abandoned construction site, removed from the rest of the city. It was deserted, save for a few rodents that scurried across the ground when they sensed the group’s presence. The sun hadn’t begun its ascent above the horizon yet and their only source of light was an outstretched Wombat hand.

“I don’t think I’m okay with being relegated to the role of ‘torch boy’” he complained.

They navigated through the musty air of what remained of a medical facility, now a stark reminder of government negligence. Turning corner after corner, they passed hollow rooms and hollow walls, avoiding cobwebs and getting caught in them – mostly Wombat.

After a few minutes, they came across a door that seemed to lead further downwards into the earth but was guarded by a couple of murderbots.

They hid around a corner, staying out of the sight of the robots, who stood guard like sentries.

Daedalus peered around, “Alright, we need to take them out instantly, or else they’ll notify the others, and then we lose our advantage. Dante and I will take out the murderbots while you guys head down.”

Dang, Wombat, and Tiger nodded as Dante and Daedalus dashed off on either side of them, disappearing into the shadows. A second later, both murderbots had been crushed completely.

Dang, Daniel, and Megan caught up with them.

“Nice. Now let’s get going.” Dang said and started down the passageway but stopped when he noticed Daedalus and Dante weren’t following. “What’s wrong?”

Daedalus locked eyes with him while Dante looked around furtively, dreading the upcoming conversation.

“Dang…” was all he managed to say before he was cut off.

Dang raised a hand “Hey, I get it. Any time now, your one chance of getting home is going to appear soon. I’d hate to be the person that kept you from it.”

Tiger and Wombat had gotten a bit further down the stairwell but they paused, turning back with confused expressions. They’d heard conversations and turned to figure out what was happening. It didn’t take them long to figure it out.

“Now?” Tiger asked, “In the middle of the mission?”

“I know it’s not ideal, but those portals are going to open soon, and if we’re not there, that’s it. It’s game over. We’re not getting home for God knows how long” Daedalus argued.

“But…we need you guys here.” Tiger pouted.

Dante chimed in, “Trust me, I wish it were under better circumstances. I know it’s not fair to you guys, but this is it…we might not get another chance. Obviously, there’s a part of me that wants to stay here and help you fight, and forget about home for now…” Anthea’s face flashed in his mind, “but there’s people back home that need me. Need us.”

Wombat spoke then. He didn’t particularly like the fact that two of their strongest fighters were leaving at the moment they were needed most, but he also fully understood where they were coming from. “I guess that means no more Flame Bros…”

Dante gave him a sad smile, “Not for this one, no. You’re going to have to carry the legacy on from your end.”

Wombat nodded and flashed him a thumbs up. “Good luck on your end too. I hope this isn’t the last time we see each other.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Dante laughed, and with that, Wombat turned and began walking deeper, towards the enemy’s hideout.

“He took that surprisingly well,” Daedalus said.

“He was on your side from the beginning.” Dang replied, stepping up to them, “and so was I.” He outstretched his hand. “I’ll let you go on one condition; you promise me that this isn’t the last time that we see each other.”

Daedalus met his gaze, before grabbing his outstretched hand. “I promise.”

“I also promise,” Dante said, punching Dang’s shoulder.

They all turned to Tiger, the outlier, but they were still undecided on how she felt about the whole thing…but at the same time, they’d never been in their position before so it was hard to relate to them.

Maybe they were making a bigger deal out of this than they needed to.

“You guys know I’d rather you stayed here, with us, but I’m not going to stand in the way of what you think is the right thing to do. If you feel like this is it, then I support you 100%” Tiger said.

“Thanks Megan,” Daedalus nodded in her direction and they returned it.

One last round of goodbyes and farewells, and both teams were off; one headed to fight Caden and Kai and one headed to check on the status of their respective homeworlds.

Dang nodded, smiled gently, a little sadly.

The others exchanged their goodbyes and once Dante and Daedalus had left, they continued on their way.

The mission went on.

***

“I think that’s the entrance.” Tiger pointed towards a giant hole in the ground.

They had just gotten to the bottom of the steps leading underground and were faced with a pit of darkness.

A sinkhole.

“That’s way too deep,” Wombat said, inspecting it.

“What? You scared?” Dang smirked at Wombat as he took a step into the hole, and fell…

They were now in the cave system. The three of them moved through a stretch of paved rock held up by evenly spaced wooden pillars, but the cave had been there for a long time and those pillars were very close to collapsing. A strange feeling crept up Dang’s neck that this night would end with someone getting trapped underneath the cave.

Dang led the way with the scanner and Wombat followed, lighting up the path. Tiger followed closely behind.

The scanner beeped rapidly and they all stopped.

“What? What is it?” Wombat slammed into Dang’s back and Tiger into his, “Why’d we stop?”

“It’s saying we’re here.”

They looked ahead and saw nothing but more path in front of them.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah…” Dang tucked the scanner into his back pocket and stared ahead. To the eye, it looked like just more road ahead but there was something else…something in the air. It tugged at his powers, begging him to use them.

He raised his hand to feel but wasn’t sure what he was meant to feel. His hand moved through the air, searching, feeling, and then it caught on something.

“Resonate.”

At once, the barrier gave way, revealing what had to be the most murderbots they’d ever seen. Where they’d stood was at the edge of the entrance into a much larger cave, filled to the brim with murderbots of all sizes, from the regular human-sized ones to much much bigger.

“Holy shit, they’re preparing for a full-scale invasion.”

***

The cave was vast, with a ceiling high above that looked as though it were holding up the sky itself. Stalactites hung down, all dripping with water that sparkled in the dim light. The walls of the cave were rough and uneven, shaped by the passage of time, and covered in a web of cables and pipes that glowed softly with a blue light.

Dang grabbed Tiger and Wombat by the collar and ducked into one of the many crevices that littered the cave. They couldn’t risk being spotted so soon after arriving. He peered over to scope the situation.

In the center of the cave, there was a sphere, shiny and metal like a giant marble. It hovered above the ground, surrounded by a swarm of murderbots. The murderbots were working on the sphere, using tools and gadgets to assemble its parts. The floor around them was littered with wires, scraps of metal, and pieces of machinery like a giant puzzle being put together.

None of the murderbots had noticed that their barrier was no longer operational, giving them time to think of a better plan than ‘rushing in and punching things.’

Dang signaled to Wombat. “Hey, I need you both to go and find the twins.”

“Got it.” Wombat replied, “What will you do?”

“Me?” Dang smirked. “I’m going to make as much noise as possible to draw that bastard out. And use it as a diversion so guys can find the twins and get them out of here.”

Wombat nodded understandingly. He shared a look with Tiger and scurried off, careful enough to stick to the shadows of the cave to avoid getting spotted by the murderbots.

Tiger looked back and gave Dang a nod too before hurrying after him.

Dang took a deep breath.

“Alright, let’s get to work.” He sighed to himself before standing upright and cracking his knuckles. He’d used resonate on Wombat before he’d left, and he intended to make full use of his powers.

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Afterall, what better power to cause havoc than the power of flames.

Dang focused the energy around his feet, jets of fire shooting out of them. He propelled himself into the air and took a deep breath.

“Hey!” He shouted, drawing the attention of every single murderbot in the cave, which was a lot. “Are you guys going to keep staring at me, or are you going to try—and fail — to take me down?”

All the murderbots immediately dropped what they were doing and flocked to him. Even the supposedly deactivated ones that had been lined up by the cave walls came online and began taking to the air.

“Damn…” he muttered to himself as he watched thousands of murderbots blur together and create a sea of silver. Some took the skies, deploying the jet thrusters attached to their backs while others crawled over each other, dragging themselves across the ground to get to him.

He lit a flame in one arm.

“This one’s a Wombat special, so you guys should be grateful.”

He hurled the flame at the murderbots and watched it grow steadily, gathering more wind and more force, becoming bigger and bigger, until it was generating enough pressure to snatch the airborne murderbots off their trajectory.

A full-blown flame tornado was manifesting now, in the cave, gathering dust and metal and sweeping up murderbots of all sizes with it.

Then Dang hurled another fireball at it.

The tornado, somehow, caught fire and exploded, spreading flames to every corner of the cave and bursting through the cave ceiling. Rocks and debris fell, crushing the murderbots lucky enough to escape the wrath of the inferno.

“Maybe I went overboard with that one,” Dang muttered, from his haven in the air, protected from all the destruction.

He heard the sound of propulsion behind him and turned just in time to see one of the bigger murderbots flying into him. He barely had enough time to react and stop the robot from shoving him and taking him downwards. Dang turned his head to see that a crowd of murderbots had gathered below them and that he was being driven right into them.

“That’s your plan?” Dang scoffed, “To drag me down?”

Dang forced his fist into the murderbots’ skull and deployed Wombat’s power. He poured as much heat as possible into the robot’s head and watched as the metal boiled from the inside, and the robot shut down. He punched through the robot’s chest and felt for the bot’s power source.

He set fire to it, maneuvered his fall, twisting midair, and hurled the metal body at the murderbots waiting for him below.

“Idiots.”

Dang snapped his fingers and the body exploded outwards. They almost made it too easy.

More murderbots came at him, but they were scattered, out of sync due to his flame tornado from before, so it was easier to pick them off and deal with them. He didn’t spend longer than he needed to on any one bot; he always finished them off with one hit.

Sometimes, one would get lucky and dodge the first hit but none were lucky enough to dodge the second.

They came relentlessly and Dang tore through them but it felt like he wasn’t even making a dent in their numbers. He thought about another flame tornado but decided against it. The problem was that he wasn’t taking enough of them out at once.

He grabbed the head of the nearest murderbot to him – still midair – and flew into the ground, kicking up dust and generating shockwaves that sent the murderbots flying. He tossed the crushed skull of the robot he was holding to the side.

“I’m just getting warmed up.” A smile spread on his face. He raised his fists and they caught fire. “Who’s next?”

They went at him, and him at them, and he dealt with them. He threw punches of fire and swept them away with arcs of flame. He mowed them down relentlessly, his vision crowded with pieces of the bots being shattered but he didn’t need to see. They were all around him. As long as he could swing his fist, he was sure to hit something.

Dang punched and kicked and incinerated robots with a wave of his hand but it wasn’t enough. He pushed himself off the ground and propelled into the air, and sure enough, the murderbots followed. More and more of them took to the air, hunting him down, but he didn’t intend to make it easy for them.

He dodged and weaved with expert skill, a culmination of all the training he and his teammates had gone through together. Most of the bots were airborne now, and an idea popped into his mind.

Dang stopped midair and curled up into a ball. He let the heat spread throughout his body and concentrated it, letting it gather in him. The jets of flame keeping him airborne went out, as he redirected that heat inwards, charging up his attack.

The heat continued to build up inside him and flames were sparking to life on his skin and clothes. He drew a deep breath…and pushed the heat outwards.

All of it.

The bots closest to him were instantly vaporized and the ones that came after had tried to avoid the attack but it was too late.

In a dazzling flash of orange, the flames spread outwards from him, emanating enough heat to melt all the metal in his immediate vicinity.

When it was over, he landed, using the flames as a cushion, and scanned the area.

He’d done damage, of course, and had managed to take out a huge portion of the murderbots – and the ground – but there was still a lot more of them. At this rate, it’d take hours to dwindle their numbers completely.

But they were acting strange.

They surrounded him, forming a ring of silver around him, but were keeping their distance.

“What?” He taunted. “You guys scared?”

“They don’t get scared.” A voice from somewhere in the air said.

Dang whirled to face the source of the voice and saw two figures, standing in what appeared to be a force field. One was tall and sported black clothes and the other was much shorter.

“So, you’re the one that hurt Anna,” Dang said, unable to hide the rage that had suddenly filled his voice. He put his guard up and fire exploded from his fists – a little more force than he intended to use.

“I’ve been watching you.” The taller one, supposedly Caden, said. The force field began to descend, “Your flame control is impressive but sadly, I’ve seen impressive before. I wonder, how much more can you do?”

Dang didn’t bother responding. Instead, he shot up to meet the force field in a trail of bright orange flames and delivered a strike so powerful that it sent the spherical-shaped enclosure flying across the cave and crashing into the wall.

The shorter one of them, Kai, chuckled. “That was a good punch I’ll be honest. I genuinely didn’t expect it…but your attacks are way too weak to pierce my shield.”

Dang didn’t relent. He immediately went after the shield again, slamming his blazing fist straight into it and forcing it further through the wall. The surface of the shield was tough and Dang was reminded of trying to punch through concrete with his bare hands.

But the pain he felt, was little, compared to the anger inside him.

Jets of flame exploded from the soles of his feet, propelling him forward as he slammed yet another fist into the shield.

Then another, and another.

He unloaded blow after blow into the hard shield, clawing away at its integrity. One weak spot was all he needed, and if he didn’t find one, he was going to make on himself.

Fire spread from his fist all over his entire arm.

“Resonate. Blazing Justice Punch.” Dang muttered. Somewhere further into the cave, Wombat sneezed.

He thrust his fist into the shield with all the force he could muster.

Kai laughed again. “I already told you, you can’t pierce my-”

CRACKKKK

Dang’s fist collided with Kai’s jaw before he could finish his sentence, and sent them hurtling straight through the wall, into a different cave room. Caden had somehow been thrown to the far side of the room, likely due to the pressure from Dang’s punch. Kai had shot straight into the ground while Dang hovered in the air, supported by the flames that emanated from his feet.

Kai rose, a mischievous grin on his face, “That was…unexpected. If I hadn’t deployed my shield around my face at the last second, you’d probably have gotten a good hit. Maybe even knocked me out.”

“I’m not too worried about that. Knocking you out would be light work.” Dang retorted.

Kai snarled and outstretched his arm to Dang, readying his power but Caden spoke up then, interrupting the pair.

“Kai, you might want to step back a bit.”

Dang’s attention went to Caden. Was he about to launch an attack of his own? If so, he had to be ready. Wombat and Tiger had told him all about Kai’s abilities but had said nothing about Caden’s. He didn’t know what kind of power was hidden underneath the goth-boy ensemble.

“Are you going to come at me now?” Dang asked.

Caden cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow, “What? No, of course not. Why would I bother getting my hands dirty with you?”

The ground cracked and burst open, and out came the silhouette of what was a truly terrifying creature. It was huge, with muscles that seemed to glow from within. Sharp spikes stuck out of its back, shining in the dim lights installed in the cave’s ceiling. Its skin looked rough, like scales, and twisted, making it look almost like a reptile.

The monster's head was terrifying. It had two glowing eyes that looked like fiery orbs, set in a twisted face with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Its ragged breath made the air smell bad, making Dang feel sick.

As the monster emerged, it let out a loud, scary roar that shook the whole room. Each step it took seemed full of danger, sending a shiver down Dang's back. This was no ordinary enemy; it was a creature from nightmares, the embodiment of fear itself.

Kai had followed his master’s orders and retreated several paces, now standing at his side. Caden called out.

“Say hi to Grimm. You like?”

Grimm roared again, seemingly reacting to the sound of its name. It sprang upwards at Dang, who was still suspended mid-air, but Dang reacted quickly, ducking out of its reach and pushing himself away.

“You cowards!” Dang called out, “How about you face me yourselves and stop running away?”

Caden put his hand on his chin, pretending to think. “Hmmmmm…no.”

Grimm landed, imposing his full body weight onto the ground. The entire cave shook and visions of the old wooden structures that were holding up the tunnel he’d passed on his way here flashed through Dang’s mind. There was no way they’d hold strong the entire night.

The sound of digging drew his attention behind him and he saw the source; the murderbots were digging their way through the cave walls, from the other room into this one.

Relentless.

“I guess it’s going to be a busy night.” Dang sighed.

***

General Warhawk’s sharp eyes swept over the crumbling front of the abandoned building on the outskirts of California. Now, it stood as a sad reminder of neglect, with broken windows and walls covered in creeping vines. He clenched his jaw, a flicker of irritation crossing his face.

“Sir, the unit’s ready,” Major Thompson reported, snapping a quick salute.

Warhawk nodded, still staring at the building. “Move out,” he ordered, his voice firm and commanding.

As his unit spread out, checking the area and securing entry points, Warhawk took a moment to think. He was a soldier, trained for real battles, not for chasing rumors. Being a man of the military meant that he had a lot of rules, or convictions as he liked to call them.

One of them was to not believe in the supernatural.

If a crime was committed, then it was done by a real person, not some ghosts or demons.

The orders had come from high up, telling him to investigate strange activity here. He didn’t like being sent to check out ghost stories, especially when there were real threats that needed his attention.

“Well, at least it’s out of town. Civilian casualties are minimized, thankfully.” Another person emerged from the vehicle that he had come from. He was scrawnier than most of the others in the army but his tech knowledge had gotten him a place in the field, and his knowledge about ghosts. Talk about ‘smart’ privilege.

“Specs, what am I looking at?”

Specs adjusted his oversized glasses - hence, the nickname - and began scrolling on a tablet he’d pulled out of his backpack. “Looks like it was going to be a hospital, but then it was abandoned because they discovered a sinkhole that was too deep to cover up.”

“An abandoned hospital,” he muttered, shaking his head. “What a waste of time.”

His thoughts drifted back to the briefing, just a few hours earlier. There had been whispers of ghostly metallic apparitions, strange noises, and sightings of shadowy figures. Normally, such tales would be ignored, but lately, the rumors had grown louder, along with reports of people going missing in the area. It was enough to raise concern, but Warhawk remained skeptical.

He had seen enough in his career to know the difference between real threats and ghost stories. Real threats were tangible – enemies with guns and bombs, with a clear intent to harm. Ghosts and shadows didn’t fit into his straightforward view of the world.

“General, we’ve secured the perimeter,” Major Thompson's voice crackled over the radio.

“Good. Proceed with caution. I want this place checked from top to bottom,” Warhawk commanded, his resolve firm.

As they moved into the hospital, the air grew colder and darker. Warhawk led the way, his steps steady and sure. Each room they entered told a story of abandonment – rusted beds, overturned chairs, and scattered medical equipment, remnants of a forgotten time.

Despite his initial disdain for the mission, Warhawk’s instincts remained sharp. He knew better than to completely dismiss the unknown, even if he didn’t believe in it.

“Woah.” Specs was staring at his tablet screen. He’d followed them into the building, scanning for threats and abnormalities on his device. “Uhhh…sir?”

“What is it?”

“I think there’s an….earthquake?”

At that moment, the ground shook violently and General Warhawk latched onto the wall beside him. “What the hell’s going on?” he shouted, trying to let his voice be heard over the noise.

BOOM

The sound of the explosion came from outside, where they’d left a couple of men to guard the vehicles that they’d arrived in. Warhawk wasted no time, drawing his firearm and sprinting outside to see the cause of the commotion…

…but all his years of being in the military couldn’t have prepared him for what he saw.

A vortex of flame had erupted from the ground beneath their feet and blazed upwards into the sky.

The General’s expression hardened. Ghost stories or not, something weird was going on.

“Stay alert!” he shouted to his men, “We’re not alone.”