Destined: 2 Be Continued

13. URSA MAGNUS

Jeremiah turned his scarred forearms into Spectral Onyx. He had a feeling he was going to be needing the extra power. Locust hissed loudly and dropped his wooden objects that he was tinkering with. He stepped slowly towards Jeremiah, who sneaked a glance at Heather. She looked exhausted and hungry, sitting there tied to a pole, but she nodded. She was telling him that she'd be okay.

Since Jeremiah had had a talk with Alex about trust, he decided not to be a hypocrite and take Heather's unspoken word for it. He turned to Locust, who was now barely five feet away. "Get out," Locust rasped, his head vibrating every few seconds. Jeremiah simply said, "No," and leaped toward the over-sized insect. He jabbed a Spectral Onyx claw into Locust's abdomen, but Locust did something unique: Instead of dying, he turned into a swarm of locusts.

The swarm flew away from Jeremiah and re-formed into Locust, now fifteen feet away. Locust quickly raised his hands up, and two large trees sprouted from the ground, encasing Jeremiah in their branches. The trees tossed Jeremiah up in the air, then tossed him back down onto the earth. Jeremiah groaned in pain, but got back up. He might have opened a wound in his back, but that wasn't the current problem. He could bleed later.

Locust flailed an arm like he was tossing a Frisbee, and another tree sprouted at super-speed from the ground, this time aimed like a punch. Jeremiah turned to shadow, and the tree went right through him, taking a chunk of his energy. Jeremiah stepped to the side and turned physical again, then charge Locust. Once he made contact with Locust, his enemy turned into a swarm and re-formed somewhere else. This continued, Jeremiah trying to jab Locust and Locust dodging, before Jeremiah realized something was apparent.

If I want to do anything to this being, I'm going to need some help, Jeremiah thought. As Locust was flying towards him, spiky arms outstretched and ready to furiously impale him, Jeremiah knelt down and cleared his throat. Then, he sang, in his best voice possible:

"MARIONETTE, I NEED YOU!"

Jeremiah glanced at Heather. A spiky plant was quickly growing, shearing off the ropes on her arms and torso. She gave him a confused look. He responded with a look that said, Trust me, this is normal. Locust reached Jeremiah, and Jeremiah bought time by blocking the jab. Locust took that as a challenge and proceeded to do many rapid jabs to exhaust Jeremiah and eventually get him off guard. Jeremiah caught a few stings and knew they would come back as welts, but he was able to block most of them.

Marionette, loyal shadow person that he was, fell through the roof of the barn. Jeremiah jabbed for Locust to turn him into a swarm and ran over to his greatest companion. "I heard you sing," Marionette stated. "You were on key this time." Jeremiah grinned at the remark and shook Marionette's hand. The two used to combine by linking both hands in a Kumbaya style, but now, they shook hands and walked right into each other. Jeremiah thought it was way cooler when they did that.

Shadow Jeremiah, resulting from the shadow handshake, stood and faced Locust, who was now re-formed. "You shall lose!" S.J. declared, turning his arms into Spectral Onyx and impaling Locust with them. Locust cried out in pain, and locusts flew from all directions to Locust's injury. They healed him right up, astonishing Shadow Jeremiah. Clearly, S.J. thought, we've got to take this to level three.

S.J., powered by a lot of shadow magic, was extremely powerful, and had adapted both the powers of Marionette and Jeremiah. One of these powers was the ability to transform. S.J. did just that. He transformed into a shadow polar bear. Locust looked onto the shadow bear with disgust.

"Who do you think you are...some kind of..."Bearemiah?" he rasped, his head shaking with each pause. Bearemiah snorted. "Actually, I like that name," he rumbled. "Let's do that." He took another look at Heather. Her arms and torso were now free, but her legs were still bound, and she was still gagged. She grunted loudly, clearly having an idea.

Bearemiah tackled Locust. He punched once, twice, three times, but with each punch, Locust would call the locusts to heal him. Locust eventually pushed back with greater force than Bearemiah expected, and he ended up on top. Bearemiah tried to fight him off, but he was too strong. Bearemiah, however, was able to kick Locust into the air, and that was when he heard "Ursa Aureus!" coming from Heather's position. A golden bear came flying out of nowhere and tackled Locust. The golden bear and the giant pest went into the barn wall. Bearemiah stood up and followed them.

The two bears began punching Locust. Bearemiah and Ursa Aureus exchanged glances of pure respect, then shook giant paws. They walked right into each other and became the ultimate bear.

"What...is going on?" the new bear, one that was gold and shadow, asked. Heather knew what was going on. "The ultimate bear! I'll call you...Ursa Magnus!" Ursa Magnus liked that name! He turned towards Locust and grabbed the six-foot insect by the feet. He threw him over to the other side of the barn and jumped on him. He punched again, again, and again. He decided to add some bites, crunching Locust's exoskeleton to tiny pieces. Ursa Magnus raised his head again for another crunch when he saw something in the left corner of his eye.

He turned to the left. August, in his power armor, Belle in her samurai armor, Alex and Penny were sitting there, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. "Good afternoon," Ursa Magnus growled. Alex waved uncertainly. August spoke for the team.

"Yeah...we were going to help you, but you kind of...were handling it, so..." he explained.

"Oh, no, you're fine," Ursa Magnus forgave, then went back to crunching Locust's face. With one more cry of pain, and no locusts to save him, the creature hissed, "Just...one more...thing...to say." Ursa Magnus raised his giant paw threateningly, but let him speak.

"I'M A FAKE," Locust rasped, then faded into a swarm of locusts, which fled away into the sky. Ursa Magnus cursed loudly, then defused, and defused again.

Jeremiah, plain as could be, fell into a coma.