New Beginnings : Rise of the Darkness

Analysis (Evolution Pt. 15)

Fang POV
"We'll see about that," Hydro countered as she formed a giant ice dome around Victoria. It took significantly longer, but Victoria still burst through the shield with a blast of Everblaze.

"Give up now, and hand over your Kyras," she warned. "Or I'll pick them off your lifeless bodies."

"Yeah, if you could actually hit us!" Moonshot shot back, slamming a giant sphere of black everywhere. As Victoria flailed to keep her balance, I seized control of the spinning Fulmination Bolts and shouted, "We'll defeat you with your own weapons, fool, and we'll free you from Lodestar and Vikana!"

Victoria laughed, a chilly cackle, as she said, "You'll never defeat me, I'm too powerful for you to even injure."

"Then take this!" Pyral yelled, blasting the ground with flames of Everblaze. The villain shrieked and stumbled back, too distracted to stop us from leaping onto Golden Dragon.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked everyone as we glanced down at Victoria, who had recovered from the shock and started firing barrages of shots at us.

"Well...it does seem like she has a giant range of powers," Hydro admitted as she sealed a water bubble around us, only to have it disappear a second later with one snap of Victoria's fingers. "But I know we can do this with our secret weapon!"

"Teamwork?" Aerial asked jokingly.

Hydro laughed and looked at me as she said, "The other weapon, guys."

"Oh," I understood what she meant. "Well then, Creation, Lucky Charm!"

"What in the..." I murmured as an odd-looking grenade dropped into my hands. "What is this for? To blow her up?"

"Exactly!" Aerial grinned. "We just have to figure out how to sneak it—WATCH OUT!"

Edgar POV
A purple stream whisked past my ear, missing me narrowly as I flailed to one side. But a yell told me it had hit a target.

"No!" I gasped. Astro had been hit, eyes rolled back as he was sucked into Victoria's fist. She laughed a deep, throaty laugh as she declared, "Looks like I 100% will win this match!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I was you!" Pyral shouted, raising the Everblaze even higher. But with a series of snaps, Victoria almost completely extinguished the fire.

"You people are too predictable," Victoria dismissed as she hurled what seemed like a thousand Fulmination Bolts at us, letting them fly everywhere. Hydro formed a shield to keep out the blows, but soon it would give in—and without Astro's Lucky Charm, it would be hard to succeed.

"Sorry, guys...I...I just can't..." Hydro whimpered as the shield gave in. Two seconds later, the purple ether had consumed her too. And one by one, my companions all followed. And I was the only one left standing.

"Well, well, well!" Victoria chirped as she stalked closer. "Looks like I was right! I have won this battle!"

With what remained of my strength, I glowered at her and panted, "You may have won this battle. But you will never win the war."

I leaped aside, casting as many beams I could at her. Victoria just conjured them away and raised a dozen shuriken as she said, "Fool, do you really think you can beat me?"

"No," I agreed. "But I don't need to beat you to win."

"Whatever you're trying, you will pay for it!" Victoria warned. "And you won't succeed. I can analyse your every move, and predict it easily!"

"Analyse this!" I roared. "Oblivion!"

My desperation, anger and hate morphed into one furiously pulsing sphere of energy, and I hurled it with all my might at Victoria. She raised her eyes and caught it with one hand and said, "A ball? Seriously? What's that gonna do, make me lose an—AHH, WHAT'S HAPPENING?"

The ground shook as the energy flared so bright, it burned with the ferocity of a thousand suns. And finally, when it faded away, my friends had all been freed.