QuickShot:
"We're here," I say, slamming the buttons. As soon as the door is open, JumpStart and I rush into the OutPost.
"Hold on you two," I say, carrying Ms. Justice inside while JumpStart drags SpeedBlade. "Here. Put them here."
Dropping the two onto the chairs in our little living room, JumpStart and I then take a few minutes to catch our breath. Once we do, I run over to our kitchen. Opening a cabinet, I reach in and pull out our first aid kit. Running back, I open the kit and pull out a large roll of bandages.
"Come on," I say, wrapping some bandages around Ms. Justice's arm. "Come on. Please. Open your eyes."
As I wrapped some more of Justice's wounds, her eyes start to open.
"What happened," she moans while blinking. "Are we back at the OutPost? Where are JumpStart and SpeedBlade? Are they okay?"
Justice tries to get up but she falls back down almost immediately. Screaming as she falls, she pinches her eyes.
"Sorry," I say, helping lower her back down into the chair. "Sorry. Sorry. Normally, you're the team's medic. I can't say I have much experience with treating injuries."
"It's fine," Justice chuckles. "For a beginner, you're not too bad."
I chuckle alongside her and treat her wound as best as I can before running over to help SpeedBlade. Like Justice, he wakes up as soon as I wrap up most of his injuries. Also, like Justice, SpeedBlade groans as he wakes up.
"What happened," he says, looking left and right. "Where is Lightning Storm?"
Pushing himself up and actually walking, SpeedBlade starts to cry over and over.
"Ouch. Ouch. Ouch!"
"Okay," I say, "That's enough."
Barely taking a full step, I grab SpeedBlade and slam him back into the chairs.
"Ouch!"
"Sit," I growl, "Or you'll be getting some new injuries."
SpeedBlade stares at me but I stare back.
"Don't test me," my eyes say, "You may be hurt, but that does not mean I won't hit you."
I shake my fist in front of him. SpeedBlade gets the message and stays sitting down.
"Scary," JumpStart says, offering me a cup of water. I gladly take the water. I give the water to Justice and SpeedBlade and they slowly accept it.
Raising his helmet to take a sip, SpeedBlade places the cup down.
"What happened to Lightning Storm," he asks. "Did he gets away?"
"It's more like we got away," JumpStart answers. "Just barely."
"What?"
"Lightning Storm got away," I say, "It was after both you and Justice were knocked out."
As I think back to the fight, I remember something important.
"Why did you just charge in like that," I ask.
"What," SpeedBlade asks. "What are you talking about?"
"You just charged toward Lightning Storm," I start, "Without a plan. Without telling us anything. You just charged toward Lightning Storm, and ran into the explosive arrows I shot."
"I didn't know you fired any arrows," SpeedBlade says.
"If you had waited, or at least talked to us, then you would have known. Instead, you single-handedly charged like a fool and got blown up."
"Hey easy there," Justice says. "No need for name-calling."
"Apologizes for that," I say, turning to Ms. Justice, "But I am right. You charged in without knowing what was about to happen, and that is why we lost the fight."
"So it's my fault we lost," SpeedBlade says, slamming his hands down on the chair's armrests. As he does, he screams and rubs his hands.
"It's not your fault," Justice says, "We're a team."
"It is his fault," I correct, "And we are a team."
I stare at SpeedBlade.
"We are a team," I repeat, "And where I'm from, that means having your team's back. We watch out for each other. We form plans and execute them together. We do not watch as one, only one of us, just swing a sword and hope for the best."
SpeedBlade turning his head, I snap my fingers in front of him.
"Hey," I say, "I'm over here."
Snapping my fingers over and over, SpeedBlade turns back and grabs my hand.
"Stop that," he says.
"I will stop when you say it."
"Say what?"
"Say you are a part of the team. Say you are a part of the OutCasts."
SpeedBlade stays silent. Once more, he turns his head away.
"Oh really," JumpStart says, all of us now turning to him. "Is that what this is about? What, you don't feel like you're a part of the team?"
Hearing SpeedBlade sigh through his helmet, he lowers his head.
"It's not that I don't feel like I'm a part of the team," SpeedBlade starts, "It's that I don't feel like I do much."
"What," we all say, looking at each other.
"You and Ms. Justice defeated Unstoppable almost entirely without JumpStart or my help," SpeedBlade says. "We basically didn't do anything. Other than being tossed around."
"So what," Ms. Justice says. "Just because QuickShot and I managed to take down Unstoppable without your or JumpStart's help doesn't mean anything. Also, it wasn't without your or JumpStart's help. You two did help."
"How," SpeedBlade asks. "What did we do? How exactly did we do to help? JumpStart and I. We did nothing. Nothing at all. Where I'm from, we knights are taught to be fearless and noble. To be brave in the face of danger. Not to be thrown around and humiliated."
"You weren't humiliated back then," I say, "But you are humiliating yourself now."
"QuickShot is right," JumpStart says.
"Agree," Ms. Justice adds, nodding her head. "Though, a little harsh, I still agree with her."
I shake my head left and right.
"What are you talking about?"
"My point is, we are a team."
"Yeah," JumpStart interrupts, "Remember? We did that hand-over-hand bonding thing Ms. Justice told us about. So you were the last one to put your hand down. That doesn't mean anything. At least, I don't think it means anything. Does it mean anything? No, right? It doesn't mean anything. Being the last one to do it. Yeah. No"
"Thank you JumpStart," I say, clearing my throat. "As I said before, we are a team. Whether a soldier or a knight or an elf or a regular person, one thing is clear. Teammates have to watch out for one another and help each other out. Charging in like that, that wasn't a really knight-like thing to do. Was it?"
SpeedBlade slowly raises his head, he looks back at us.
"No," he says, "No it wasn't. I am a fool."
"You're not a fool," Ms. Justice says. "You're just trying to do too much."
"Trying to do too much," JumpStart repeats. "What does that even mean?"
Ms. Justice shoots out her hand and hits JumpStart.
"Ouch."
All of a sudden, the lights in the OutPost change from yellow to red again. The alarms go off and we all look at each other. JumpStart running to the computer, he makes quick work.
"IronWall," I ask, walking behind him.
"No," he replies. "This is coming from inside the city. Hold on. I think I can get access to their radios."
A few minutes later, the computer's screen turns black with a single line on it.
"Requesting immediate backup," someone yells, the line going up and down. "Requesting immediate backup now. Lightning Storm and Unstoppable are here. We need help."
The transmitter is cut off by the sound of an explosive.
As the transmitter comes to an end, we all look at each other.
"We have to go," Ms. Justice says, pushing herself up. "They need our help."
"We can't," I say, "You two are still hurt, and there's no way JumpStart and I can take on Unstoppable and Lightning Storm by ourselves."
"So don't go by yourself," SpeedBlade says, grunting as he too pushes himself up. "You said it yourself. We're a team, and as a team, we have to watch out for one another and help each other. So please help us grab our stuff and let's go defeat those two."
Lightning Storm: “Get out of our way,” I yell, shooting off more bolts of lightning. “Move it! Make way! We're coming through!” My bolts destroy everything in our way. The blockade the police officers put up is reduced to nothing but a flaming wreckage. “Open fire,” the captain orders. “Everyone, open fire now.” The captain and his officers all line up. While half stand and the other half drop to their knees, they all start shooting at us. Unstoppable grabs a nearby burning car and places it in front of us. The burning car acted as a shield. “Careful,” I yell, watching as some of the blaster fires get a little too close to hitting the containment cell. “The boss won’t be too happy if that thing is hit.” Unstoppable grunts at me before he slams the containment cell onto the street. With the containment cell safety behind the car, Unstoppable then charges toward the officers. With the blaster fires deflecting off of Unstoppable’s armor, he reaches them in no time and starts knocki
Ms. Justice:"So wait," SpeedBlade starts, looking at the cards in his hand. "How do I do this again?""I'm not sure," JumpStart says looking at the cards in his own hands. "Wait. When do I pull a card from the deck?""Draw," Ms. Justice says, "You draw a card when I say go fish.""Sssooo do I draw a card now?""No. Not yet. First thing first, you need to ask one of us if we have a card."Still confused, JumpStart looks at QuickShot."Do you, uh, have this card?"JumpStarts takes out a card and show it to QuickShot."No," QuickShot answers. "Go fish. Also, that's called the Seven of Clubs, and you don't have to show it to me.""Okay," JumpStart says. He puts the card back in my hand and draws a new card from the deck. "Now what?""Now it's SpeedBlade's turn," I say. I point to SpeedBlade. "SpeedBlade. Ask away.""May I go back to sleep," SpeedBlade asks."No," I cry. "Come on, you already slept five hours today. How can you still be tired?""I do a lot of running," SpeedBlade answers.
Nitro: “Go to sleep,” I say, firing my gas gun and unleashing a cloud of purple smoke. As the smoke spreads, it knocks out all the employees and they drop to the floor within seconds. Stepping over their unconscious bodies, I wipe the lens of my gas mask as I look around the 16th floor. “Server room," I say. "Server room. Where is that stinking server room?" I look around for the server room but stop when I hear someone yelling. “Stop right there,” a security guard says, running onto the floor. However, as soon as he enters, he breathes in my knockout gas and falls to the floor. Now stepping over the unconscious security guard, I check all the doors. It takes a while but after the fifth or sixth door, I find one that is locked. "This must be it," I say, stepping back. Opening my trench coat, I unscrew the canister of knockout gas and switch it with a canister of acid gas. I load the acid gas into my gun and then fire. A dark green smoke cloud hits the locked door. I only have
SpeedBlade: With the strange gas getting closer, I pull out my sword. “Move,” I say, pushing Ms. Justice back. Once she is far away enough, I rise my sword before thrusting it down. My sword going through the ground, I use my speed and run. Dragging my sword behind me as I run, I make a circle in the ground. “This way,” I yell. Stomping my foot in the circle, it drops out and opens a pathway for us. I waste no time and drop through before helping the other down. “We’re not out of trouble yet,” Justice says. She takes my hand as she drops down. Looking up, we see the gas cloud still after us. "Go, go, go," I say. I push the others and the four of us run down the corridor. The next few moments are filled with nothing but confusion as we run through a maze of dark corridors. We turned left, right, and went straight. We kept on running until finally, JumpStart screams and stops us. “Guys,” he yells, slowing down and letting his hands fall onto his knees. "Buys!" "What," QuickShot
QuickShot: With my bow in my hand and an arrow in my other hand, I place the end of the arrow on the bowstring. I close one eye and line up the shot. "Gotcha," I say, looking down my arrow at the target at the other end of my room. With the big, red, circle right in front of me, I release the bowstring and watch as my arrow soars through the air. I nod my head when my arrow hits the target. "These seem to be working fine," I think, looking at the set of newly crafted arrows. All evenly lined up and placed neatly next to one another, I reach down to grab another arrow. I repeat the process, loading my bow and pulling back the bowstring. The target once more in my sight, I count down. "One. Two. Three." Releasing the string, I couldn't believe it when Ms. Justice walks in. Without realizing it, she had accidentally walked in between my arrow and the target. "Watch out," I yell, using my telekinesis power to grab Justice and throw her out of the way. Screaming as she hits the wa
Hot Ice:“Where are they,” I think, flipping my left hand and forming a fireball. Throwing the fireball, I set a shopping cart on fire. As the people run, some accidentally step onto the ice and slide around. A man screams as he slides right into the cashier’s counter.“They’re coming,” the boss replies, speaking through the earpiece he gave me. “Be ready, and remember the plan. To retrieve the flash drive Nitro lost.”“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I say, flipping my right hand and forming an ice ball. Throwing the ice ball, it hits and breaks a t.v screen.Shooting out my hands, I unleash streams of both fire and ice. While fire rains down on one half of the store, it starts to snow on the other half. On the verge of melting some more t.v and freezing some people, something hits and knocks me to the floor.“What in the world,” I yell, holding the back of my head as I push myself up. Looking around, I see a girl with yellow hair and google on them. She’s wearing a sleeves-less white shirt with
Ms. Justice: I run and leap into the air, slamming my shield down onto Fire-Ice Man. He screams as he stumbles back. Hitting an empty shelf, he looks back at me and raises his right hand. Ice shooting out, I bring up my shield and block it. However, ice starts to cover my shield, and even more, it starts to push me away. Stomping my foot against the floor, I push back. JumpStart: Landing on some snow, I slam my body against the shelf and push it. "Come on," I say. "Come on. Wow, you're heavy!" Hearing something coming from behind me, I turn around to see SpeedBlade running toward me at super speed. Jumping into the air, he also slams his own body onto the shelf, the whole thing tipping over. Ms. Justice: "Timber," I yell, smiling as I watch the shelf tip over. Fire-Ice Man still trying to freeze me doesn't notice the falling shelf until it's too late. When he does, he shoots out his other hand and burns the shelf. "Noo," he screams as now, a burning t.v shelf falls on him. He
QuickShot: "How are things," I ask, handing JumpStart a cup of water. "Did you find out anything about that person in the stolen cell?" "I'm afraid not," JumpStart replies, taking the cup with one hand while typing with his other hand. "And believe me, I've tried. Whoever was in the cell Unstoppable walked off with must have been very important and dangerous. The people at IronWall were making sure the person's records stay sealed." "Keep trying," I say, tapping JumpStart on his back. "We need to know who we're up against." With a nod of his head and three gulps of water, JumpStart returns to the OutPost's computer. With his eyes on the screen, he hands me the empty cup and I place it in the kitchen sink. It had been a little over a week since the break-in, and ever since then, the four of us have been working non-stop to do whatever we can to even the odds. When JumpStart isn't trying to hack into IronWall's records, he, Ms. Justice, and I have been trying to install the OutPos