Chapter 3: A Living Lightning Storm

QuickShot:

“I don't think we can eat this,” I say. I poke at one of JumpStart's homemade meatballs with the tip of my arrow. As I do, the tip breaks off.

“What did you do,” Ms. Justice asks, looking at one of the meatballs. Actually picking one of them up, she stares at it, Justice slams the meatballs onto the table. Justice and I couldn't believe our eyes when we see a little part of the table breaks off.

“Maybe we should take JumpStart off the dinner routine,” I say, using another arrow to pierce through the meatball’s outer shell.

“Oh yes,” JumpStart yells, raising his arms. “Yes. Please. I don’t belong in the kitchen. I belong in a place where I can build things. After all, I am a...What did you call me again?”

JumpStart looks at Justice.

“A mechanical elf," Justice answers.

“Yeah, I am a mechanical elf.”

JumpStart then turns his head. He shows off his large pointed elf ears.

“I mean, come on. I build most of the things here. Believe me, the wiring for the lights was not easy."

“We know,” SpeedBlade starts, walking over to the dinner table with us. “But what you need to know is it wasn’t easy for us to find everything you need. So don’t think your work is any more important than ours.”

“I wasn’t,” JumpStart says. “I was saying unless it’s a campfire, I can't cook. Wait, let me rephrase that. Even with a campfire, I still can't cook.”

“Too bad we don’t cook with campfire anymore,” Justice says, laughing as she reaches over for her cup. Taking a sip, she almost spills when the alarms in the OutPost go off. All the lightbulbs change from yellow to flashing red, and there’s ringing echoing throughout.

Wiping her mouth, she puts the cup down and looks at JumpStart. JumpStart nods his head and gets up. He runs over to the makeshift computer he built. Meanwhile, the rest of us gather behind him.

“What’s going on,” Ms. Justice asks.

“There’s trouble in the city,” JumpStart answers, turning back to face her. “Seriously, you don’t know? Ever since I built this two years ago, the alarms have gone off at least a few hundred times.”

Justice stares at JumpStart. He stares back at her before laughing

“I’m sorry,” JumpStart says. “I know what you meant. I just wanted to mess with you.”

While Justice lightly taps JumpStart on his arm, I punch him on his other arm.

“Ouch.”

While rubbing his arm, JumpStart returns to the computer.

“Let’s see what’s going on. Hmm, according to this, there seems to be another attack at IronWall Prison?”

“Again,” I say, looking at the computer’s screen. JumpStart is right. The OutPost computer’s screen shows a map of IronWall Prison, with the whole building highlighted in red.

“What’s going on,” I ask. “Can you bring up the surveillance feed?”

“Of course, I can,” JumpStart smiles, typing away at the computer. “I did it when Unstoppable broke it.”

We all stand around JumpStart and the computer and wait.

“That’s odd,” he says after a few minutes. “There must be something wrong with the cameras. I can’t access them.”

“That only means we won’t know what is going on until we get to the prison,” SpeedBlade says. Using his super-speed, SpeedBlade runs to his room before running to the OutPost’s exit, his sword in his hand.

“Come on,” he says, waving his arm. “Let’s go. Before the prison is destroyed.”

“Should we,” Ms. Justice asks, looking at me. “I mean, if we go now, it means we’ll be going in blind.”

I look at the computer screen first before turning to the impatient knight, his foot rapidly tapping against the floor.

“Come on,” he says again, “Come on. Come on!”

“We’re going to IronWall,” I say, “Justice. JumpStart. Grab your things.”

We separate to grab our things. I grab my bow and quiver, Justice grabs her shield, and JumpStart grabs his stun batons. Once ready, we leave and travel through the sewer to get back to Iron Wall.

Living Lightning:

A steak of lightning traveling throughout my arm, I focus and watch as the lightning gathers in one spot. Once it does, I shoot out a bolt of lightning. The bolt hits the ground and explodes, pieces of stone flying everywhere.

The prison guards are stupid enough to stay and fight. They get up and start shooting me again.

Ducking behind the wall, I smile when the guards’ blasters start to click.

“Empty,” I say, “My time to strike.”

Jumping out, I spread out both my arms. Steaks of lighting travel throughout my arms and body, eventually shooting out, destroying everything, and striking the guards.

The ground, the wall, and even part of the prison are destroyed. The guards that stood their ground are hit. They drop their weapons and fall to the ground, moaning and groaning.

“Lightning strikes more than two times when I'm around,” I say, walking past the fallen guards and into the prison. "Thanks for the warm-up, guys."

Luckily for me, there wasn't enough time to fix the hole where Unstoppable had broken through. Strolling in, I’m about halfway through to where I need to be before someone tackles me from behind and I drop to the floor.

Pushing myself up, I look around for what happened. I turn around and come face-to-face with the OutCasts.

SpeedBlade:

“You,” I say, pointing at him with my sword. “I believe your name is Lightning Storm, right? I wouldn’t think about going any further."

“Oh yeah,” JumpStart yells, doing a flip and landing beside me. He takes out his batons and spins them around before crossing them.

“Let’s bring this guy down,” Ms. Justice screams, running to JumpStart’s side.

“OutCasts,” QuickShot shouts, preparing her bow. “On--”

"Ahhh," I shout as I run around QuickShot and toward Lightning Storm.

Jumping once I’m close enough, I slam my sword down. However, Lightning Storm jumps back and I miss, my sword hitting the floor. As he lands, Storm brings up his arm. I watch as lights move from his body to his arm. The lights gather in one spot before shooting out. It hits and knocks me back.

QuickShot:

Watching as SpeedBlade hits the floor, JumpStart and I try our hardest to dodge the barrages of lightning bolts shooting out from Lightning Storm. Ms. Justice on the other hand drops to her knee and raises her shield.

“Miss me,” JumpStart says, as he leaps over a lightning bolt. “Dodge it. Too slow. Haha!”

Jumping and dodging over a few more bolts, JumpStart gets close enough to hit Lightning with one of his stun batons. Storm screams and steps back. As Storm steps back, he stops firing, and all the bolts around him disappear.

“Justice,” I yell, looking at her and pointing at Storm’s head.

Nodding her head, Ms. Justice takes a running start before throwing her shield. Her shield hit Storm in the head and knocks him down.

"My turn," I think, pulling explosive arrows from my quiver. Firing them in front of Lightning Storm, I wait for them to go on.

"JumpStart," I say, "Get back. Now!"

Nodding his head, JumpStart runs from Lightning Storm.

"This should knock him right out."

As the beeping on my arrows gets faster with every second, I jump when SpeedBlade runs past me and toward Storm

"Wait, no!"

SpeedBlade:

I roar as I charge toward Lightning Storm, my sword in my hand.

Running right up to the villain, I shove him back and prepare to strike him with my sword. However, as I am swinging my sword, I see out of the corner of my helmet three arrows directly in front of me.

"Oh no," I say, seeing a tiny, blinking red light on them. It's too late. Even with my speed, I still can't get away in time. The arrows all explode. I scream once more as I'm knocked back, my sword falling out of my hand while I drop to the floor.

JumpStart:

"SpeedBlade," I scream, running over to help my friend. I'm about to reach him, but before I can, something hits me in the chest and sent me flying through the air. Hitting a wall before falling flat onto the floor, I look up while holding my chest.

Lightning Storm had regained his bearing and now is shooting wildly. Bolts of lightning shoot out from both his arms and body, hitting everything.

"I'm going to bring this whole place down," he shouts.

A bolt of lightning heading for me, Ms. Justice drops in front of me and blocks it with her shield.

"Stay behind me," she says as more bolts keep on hitting us. The bolts push Justice back, her feet skidding against the floor as she tries to keep her shield up.

A bolt hits the wall and erupts. I look up to now see a part of the wall falling toward us.

"Watch out," I yell, Ms. Justice also looking up. Wasting no time, she uses one hand to hold up the shield and her other hand to push me out of the way.

"Justice," I scream, watching as the part of the wall drops right onto Justice.

QuickShot:

"Justice," JumpStart screams.

I turn my head to see an entire section of the wall falls right onto Justice. JumpStart running to help her, he doesn't see that Lightning is aiming at him.

"Don't even think about it," I say, firing a slime arrow.

My arrow bursts into a wad of green slime. It hits Storm and stops him from shooting. Screaming and trying to get it off, I run over to where JumpStart and Justice are.

When I reach them, I see JumpStart trying desperately to lift a piece of the wall off of Justice.

"Is she okay?"

I bend down to check Justice's pulse. It's weak but steady.

"I don't know," JumpStart replies, still trying to lift the piece of wall, "Here. Help me with this."

Nodding my head, I join him and together, we lift the wall off of her.

"Time for a tactical retreat," I say, throwing an unconscious Justice onto my back. "Get SpeedBlade, I got us covered."

JumpStart running off, I look at Storm as he wipes the slime off.

"You're going to regret that," he says, pointing at me. As more bolts gather in his arms, Storm's is getting ready to fire but before he can, I reach for smoke arrows from my quiver. However, I don't put them into my bow. Instead, I break off the tip and throw them against the ground. The hallway is quickly filled with black smoke.

With his targets gone, Storm won't fire.

"Come on, come on, come on," I shout, running through the new hole in the wall. I look back and see JumpStart carrying SpeedBlade out of the smoke. Together, we retreat.