Destined: 2 Be Continued

40. The Malicious Mosquito, Part 2

"Well, this is going to be a mild problem," Jeremiah muttered quietly.

"HEE HEE HEE! WHO WANTS TO DIE...FIRST?!" Muskrel, the Most Malicious Mosquito, giggled extremely evilly. Alex gulped, but swallowed his staff. Some arm armor formed on his storm cloud body, along with a helmet and breastplate. He had no idea that that would have worked, but it did nonetheless. He appreciated dumb luck; it was his favorite thing. Muskrel raised his arm up, and rockets flew from everywhere on his arm and aimed for the Destined. Alex hummed in peril and ran over to block it. The rockets flew around his body and back at Muskrel, who absorbed the force of the explosions.

"HEE HEE HEE!" Muskrel taunted, throwing the force of the explosions back at the Destined. Alex threw his hands up to block and expanded himself so that the explosion would be absorbed in his body. He successfully protected his teammates, and the fire from the explosions' force became his cloudy body, turning him into a wildfire. Being a storm cloud, as one could see from this example, had its advantages.

"You won't stop us!" Alex shouted, throwing a wild fist of wildfire at his enemy. Muskrel simply absorbed the fire through his needle mouth and spat it at the Destined that weren't made of clouds. Alex heard them scream in pain and floated over to them as quickly as he could, letting rain fall from his cloudy form and dousing his flaming friends.

"Are you guys okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't realize he was that strong," Alex apologized, and Tree Heather nodded. She, clearly wishing she had been in Beast form, had been in the most danger of the fire. Jeremiah, seeing the problem, put his hand on her trunk(the tree kind of trunk, not the--nevermind), and she turned into Beast form. Beast Heather spat fire at Muskrel, who shot it back. Alex and Heather blocked it, as they were the most capable.

"Let's try giving me a boost!" Penny told Jeremiah as it began to rain. Jeremiah, at that time, had a hand on Alex, which gave him enough power to control the weather. Jeremiah dropped Silverhorn, who turned into Belle, who armored up, and touched her on the shoulder. Penny morphed into a lizard woman.

A lizard woman.

"What's that going to do?" Alex asked desperately. Penny stepped to the side so Alex wouldn't get in the way. She sped so much with one step that Alex decided to shut up and not doubt Jeremiah. Penny shot five quarrels of rapid fire poison darts at Muskrel, who couldn't avoid or absorb and shoot back the power of five poison darts in a fast enough time. Muskrel writhed furiously, trying to pull the poison out. 

"The poison takes action immediately as it enters the bloodstream, but I couldn't get the darts to empty quick enough. If he takes out the darts, he might be able to heal--especially if he somehow gets close enough to Heather to steal her Good Morning Breath," Lizard Penny--Pennizard?--explained as she dashed from side to side. Muskrel now had accessed his absolute and insane arsenal of really powerful guns and was now trying to shoot them down. Everyone but Belle--as she was wearing nearly invulnerable armor--hid behind Alex, who deflected the bullets by standing there.

Penny(or Pennizard) continued to fire her poison darts at the malicious mosquito, who couldn't deflect or absorb the poison so he could use it as a weapon. 

Until he did.

"HO HO HO, HEE HEE HEE! YOU CAN NO LONGER POISON ME!" Muskrel taunted. Poison spikes--Alex assumed they were full of poison, as they were the same color as the liquid in Penny(Pennizard)'s poison darts--grew on his arms, legs, chest, and head. He shot tiny needles from every point that spikes grew, and Alex expanded to protect his friends. He was a good person, or storm cloud. 

"I've been hit!" Beast Heather roared, pulling a needle out of her needlessly large arm. It sure was a lucky thing that she was the mistress of life, or else she would have been in some serious trouble, as Penny's darts were fatally toxic. She healed herself and thrust her arms out. Out from her back, mouth, and palms, rose petals flew and formed a ring around their mistress. 

"It's been years since I used this power," Beast Heather laughed, pointing to Muskrel. Muskrel's features drooped, and the rose petals cut him to shreds.

He re-formed. 

"HA HA HA, TO YOU I GLOWER! I NOW HAVE YOUR HEALING POWER!" Muskrel laughed profusely, then shot more needles from his shell. Beast Heather charged as to not be absolutely killed, and the rose petals turned gold, continuing to circle her. Jeremiah charged from behind Alex, and Belle followed. Then, realizing that Jeremiah was hopeless without a weapon, Belle turned into Silverhorn and joined the fight.

"WAIT!" Jeremiah shouted, then called everyone back. Alex formed a dome around them to protect them from the endless needles as Jeremiah talked with Heather, Silverhorn, and Penny(Pennizard). 

"I remember! August warned me that La Armadura had self-destruct bombs inside its chest!" he remembered.

"And where is the chest of La Armadura?" Penny(Pennizard) asked rhetorically.

"On Muskrel!" Heather answered rhetorically. The team disbanded and faced Muskrel. They charged him, on the assumed plan that Jeremiah and Silverhorn would get in and distract him while Penny(Pennizard) and Beast Heather found La Armadura's chest and hit it. Alex would protect them from extremely dangerous projectiles.

Jeremiah pointed Silverhorn towards Muskrel, who made him leap close to him, and jabbed him repeatedly. They aimed for every weak spot as Penny(Pennizard) ran in circles around him and Heather flew in circles around him. Alex turned into a dome again, but this time, it was to stop Muskrel instead of protecting his friends. 

Silverhorn was beginning to really annoy Muskrel, so the malicious mosquito activated the copious amounts of laser blades on him and began to swordfight with Jeremiah and Silverhorn. Their moves sped up, parrying and swiping Muskrel's attacks like a blur of blades. Alex was personally astonished that they could even deflect laser blades. 

Penny(Pennizard) must have found La Armadura's chest, for she shot a flare at it. Beast Heather took note of the flare and punched the spot where it landed.

Commencing absurdly violent explosion, the chest said calmly. Penny(Pennizard) dashed away like a blur, and Robo-August detached from Muskrel and began to flee, sadly weapon-less. Alex floated high in the sky, as that was the most convenient thing to do, and Beast Heather effortlessly carried Jeremiah away as fast as she could.

Muskrel exploded absurdly violently, which destroyed most of the forest within a radius of two miles(or a little more than three kilometers, as they were in Canada). 

The Destined landed once they were sure that the malicious mosquito was gone and transformed back to their original forms. The Archangel's Armory was hovering over what must have been the Mosquito Charm, waiting for Jeremiah. Jeremiah picked up both as Penny and Alex ran over to each other.

"Thanks for protecting us, my little hero," Penny thanked before kissing him.

"I'm not lit--" Alex tried before Penny kissed him.

"I'm sorry, guys. We should have seen that the suits were a trap. That was stupid, and that mistake could have killed all of you guys," August apologized. 

"Hey, it's my fault, too," Jeremiah reminded his Spanish teammate. "none of us could have seen it coming. At least we've got the Mosquito Charm." He held up the golden object that looked like an enlarged mosquito with glowing purple eyes.

"I read up on that," Heather said as the Destined strolled back to Loraine. Jeremiah gave her a look that Alex could tell meant Of course you did. Heather ignored it and continued.

"The Beetle Charm magnifies powers. The Mosquito Charm takes them away, and the Moth Charm swaps them," she explained. 

"How did you read up on this if this information only existed since Locust laid his eggs?" August asked as the Destined climbed into the eating room.

"The Book of Necessity," she answered. "it gives you information that you need either when or after you need it. It's either convenient, or really infuriating."

"Well, all in all, that's two down, and one to go. Moth, you said? Sounds interesting," Alex finished.