Legendary Fighters (The OLD Original Version)

Chapter 21: The Search

3rd Person POV
"Yes, Sir!" Everyone shouted and began to run out of the room. Jack ran a separate route and went to search for Paityn. He felt uneasy and very vulnerable without his powers. He ran outside, the atmosphere felt so dangerous and sketchy. The sky was starting to turn a dark crimson color, the streets were filled with terror, and the city was destroyed. Jack hesitantly walked down to the city, frightened that if a sycamen attacked him, he wouldn't be able to do anything. By coincidence, he heard a loud eerie screech behind him, he turned around to see one of the regular sycamens, this one had a bone-like figure and had blood dripping down its large, intimidating, sharp teeth. Jack backed away but tripped on the steep path, the Sycamen roared and lunged at him. Jack watched as he was about to be devoured, but before the sycamen could even get close, a gunshot was heard, piercing the sycamen's head and killed it instantly. Its body landed on Jack and he pushed it off like there was a shark in the water. Jack looked at his right and saw Conner with his smoking revolver,
"Oh yeah, almost forgot!" Conner remembered, digging into his pocket, "you're gonna need these" he stated and tossed Jack something. Jack swiped the air to pick them up. He opened his hand. It was bullets. Jack got up from the ground and placed one in his gun, "Welp, Godspeed Jack" Conner commented before running off. Jack called his name to make him stop, "Hm?" he hummed looking back at him,
"Thank you" Jack thanked, Conner, smiled and pretended to tip a hat, "Your welcome" and resumed running into the city. Jack continued shortly after and reached the city. Once he got there, everything looked like hell. Buildings were smoking and destroyed. People were nowhere to be seen. And sycamen stormed the place. There was no way Jack would've gotten past this, but something was off. None of them approached him. None of them even noticed him. That's when it hit Jack, none of them had eyes. Some of them were even fighting each other. Some plan Dr. Umbra's had. Jack smirked and slowly took a step whenever there was a loud sound that covered him. The scene was so intense. It was so Thrilling! One wrong move and Jack would be Minced meat. Jack looked around the town and saw that people were inside hiding trying not to make a sound. Jack saw a little girl in an alley, shivering from fear. He sighed and made his way towards her thinking, "This is what Ace would do. This is what Ace would do. This is what Ace would do." Once he got there, the girl jumped and yelped, Jack, placed his hand over her mouth and gave her the quiet sign. She nodded and jumped into his arms, Jack held onto her and continued looking for Paityn. He was almost out of the town with almost no signs of Paityn, when suddenly. Vibrate. Vibrate. Vibrate. Vibrate. Jack looked at his pocket and noticed that his phone was in his pocket and had a loud ringtone, Growling was heard from behind Jack and the girl. If you listen closely you could hear the blood dripping from all the sycamens' mouths. Jack slowly turned and saw that all the Sycamen from across the town were either peering from a wall or staring directly at them, even though Sycamen don't have eyes, you can tell that this scene was still very creepy. Jack began to sprint away, still holding the child, as the sycamen screeched like lions and chased them on all fours. The sycamen leaped from building to building, wall to wall, hopping over every obstacle in their path, Jack, on the other hand, was barely managing to survive. The sycamen couldn't pinpoint his exact location and ended up missing him just by a hair, but Jack was forced to dodge, he couldn't use his powers while protecting the little girl, it'd be too much for him to handle, but by some miracle, he was able to pick up his phone and answer, It was Paityn,
"Jack? Hey where are you-" Jack started screaming into the phone, he couldn't calm down in this intense situation,
"Paityn! Help me! I'm reaching the end of the town and I'm about to die! Save me!!" he begged. A sycamen lunged forward and held out its claws in front of it, Jack turned back and instinctively threw the child away from the group. Jack reached for his gun but by the time his hand touched it, one of the claws was right in front of the face. It was as if time had slowed down because Jack could see every event happening, he couldn't move, only watch as the sycamen was ready to pierce his eye.  He was scared.  With death knocking on his door, Jack accepted his fate and opened it.  Only to realize, that.  His eyes weren't gouged out.  Nor was he being eaten alive.  He looked and realized that a portal had appeared in front of him like a shield.  Jack knew who it was. 
"Jack, in times like this you should say it's an emergency..." Paityn sighed making the portal disappear and standing proud in his hero outfit.  The sycamen army all stepped back in fear as they watched one of their fellow Comrade get sucked up into a portal that leads to who knows where.  "Alrighty then" he spoke, turning his attention to the group of sycamen who were all on their guard and constantly hissing at him.  Paityn calmly walked forward and got some specters ready in his hands, the sycamen all charged at him and he just threw down his two specters, one unleashing Leviathan, and the other unleashing a woman with short white hair levitating up, revealing her other eye and sending a powerful red lightning shockwave from the ground. The Leviathan wiggled its body from out of the ground and devoured a lot of the sycamen that were sent flying into the air. Paityn, on the other hand, was using his portal specters to move around and kill all the Sycamen in different ways. Like snapping their necks, decapitating their heads by closing the portals around their neck, all that stuff. Paityn was very agile but kept an eye out for any signs of adaption, in which case, there was. So every so often, he changed his route and would maneuver his way to the kill in the fastest way possible. Jack watched in amazement at how well Paityn was doing, when he suddenly heard a scream from behind him. He forgot about the girl, he turned around and started sprinting towards her, a large sycamen was getting ready to eat her, but Jack threw a shockwave punch at it, knocking it away.
"Thanks, Conner" Jack thought, picking up the girl and hiding her in a building,
"Stay here, ok, we'll come back as soon as we can" Jack reassured, the girl nodded and Jack ran out to help Paityn. Only to find out that he had finished his task,
"That was crazy" Paityn panted, "OoO! I think I'm finally getting older!" he joked, feeling his side starting to hurt. Jack laughed as he went over to his aid, "What are you? 80?" Jack laughed, Paityn laughed, "I'm 29" and playfully socked him.  Paityn made the two remaining specters disappear and continued laughing. But that didn't last long because Jack remembered what he was supposed to do, "Wait." Jack snapped, making Paityn stop laughing with him,
"What is it?" Paityn asked,
"I just remembered" Jack replied, Paityn looked at him, completely confused and concerned, "Is something wrong?"
"No, It's just that I need your help." Jack remembered, "Just say the word" Paityn smiled,
"I need portals to go to Three locations, Virtual Falls, Crimson Creek, and Blossom Village" Jack explained, Paityn made two of each of those specters, three appearing in each hand, "You got it!" Paityn replied, Jack, thanked him and called over the rest of the team.  Ace and Richard were the first to show, the rest appeared at the same time after them.  Jack insisted that Paityn explain what they have to do with the specters, "Ok, I made 2 of each of the specters Jack told me to make.  One going to the location, and one coming out, Don't drop this by accident, you drop it.  And you just used your specter, capeesh?" the group nodded, and grabbed two random specters, except Jack.  Jack looked around, no sign of any interruptions.  It was too quiet.  Jack turned his attention back to the group, they had already thrown down the portals and half of them already went in.  All that's left were Conner and Zachary, Jack stopped them, "Hey... I don't like this.  Wouldn't something, or someone try to stop us right now?" Conner was furious and headbutt Jack,
"Look!  I've had enough of your Bitching!  Just die for all I care!" Conner snapped, Jack whimpered and rubbed his head, Zachary placed a hand on Conner's shoulder and looked at Jack with a calm expression, "Now. Now.  Now's not the time to argue.  Listen, Jack, if you're that worried, then how about you and Specter stay here and make sure the city's safe while we're gone." Zachary winked, Jack nodded and Zachary smiled at him, "Welp, Come on Conner, let's get going." and tossed him through the portal, "Hey, if anything goes wrong, call us, we'll come in a blink of an eye" he reassured and walked through the portal, making it close.  All the portals had closed and Paityn looked at Jack, "you good?" he asked, Jack looked at him,
"Honestly, I'm terrified" Jack answered cautiously looking around from time to time,
"No one said the hero's job was to not be scared, It's perfectly fine being scared..." Paityn comforted, Jack sat down with dread, "What if I can't do this, I mean, most of my powers were taken away which was how I gained my confidence, but now what?  I'm just stuck here as a nobody" Jack mumbled, Paityn squatted down next to him,
"Listen, being a hero is not about knowing things you can't do, It's about doing the things you know others can't do" Paityn quoted and stood up, Jack looked up at him,
"That makes no sense" this made Paityn laugh,
"Look, when I first got my powers, I could barely save Eri from kidnappers" Paityn smiled,
"Wait what happened now?" Jack asked, hearing that last part and was astonished at what he heard. 
"Yeah... It's a long story, anyways, After that, I tried to use my signature move and accidentally time-traveled to the medieval times!  Can you believe it?" Paityn chuckled,
"Can't say I do" Jack admitted,
"I never knew how to get back, I felt like I was in the belly of a whale... But, I never gave up, I met a girl named Cora and an old dude name Jensen, Jensen trained me with my combat and Cora helped me become better at using my powers" Paityn smiled,
"And did you ever get back?" Jack asked, instantly regretting the moment he said that, but Paityn, being the kind-hearted man he is, ignored it,
"Yep, I was able to learn how to time travel back and finish my fight to save Eri from a villain who was trying to extract her powers" Jack started to feel a little bit better,
"You see?  I used to be just like you, weak and broken, but look at me now!" he continued.  He stopped for a moment to take a breath, "You can't live without suffering, You need to suffer in order to live, that's apart of being human" Paityn concluded, Jack felt very motivated now and stood up,
"Thank you, I needed that, really" Jack admired and embraced Paityn.  Jack's phone suddenly started vibrating, Jack broke the hug and grabbed it out of his pocket, "Ace The roommate who ate your yogurt" "That was fast." Jack thought and answered the phone, "Hello?" small footsteps were heard coming towards them, Paityn looked over and saw the little girl, only this time she had purple gas secreting from her hands and feet,
"Mhm, yeah, I'm sorry what?" Jack spoke,
"Jack we've checked every inch of the city, there's no sign of any villains, I called Zachary and them but they said they're experiencing the same thing, I think you were right, we'll come back as soon as we can" Ace explained, Paityn tugged on Jack's clothing, but Jack pushed it away. The girl got closer with her malicious smile on her face, hearing little giggles every now and then. Paityn looked around and saw a tall, lanky man on a roof, Paityn knew exactly what was happening. It was an attack. They outsmarted Zachary and instead were gonna take down every city, one by one. The man jumped down and Paityn tackled Jack, "JACK MOVE!" he shouted as Jack dropped his phone and as the man landed, it created a powerful shockwave, colliding and mixing with the purple gas. Paityn got up and threw down a specter that summoned a bonfire, stopping the gas from reaching them and exploded it into erupting flames. The man ran over and used his shockwave powers to shield themselves, After, Paityn heard some explosion sounds coming towards them.  Loud like a roaring lion.  Paityn turned to the side and saw an average but lean man wearing a cherry blossom shirt explode towards them, Paityn quickly made himself and Jack duck to avoid the attack.  Then Paityn used his portal specter to transport the man over to the other two, quickly closing it after.  Jack looked over at the three, intimidated.  Paityn, on the other hand, was trying to figure out what was coming next, Suddenly, his mask started receiving error signs and wasn't working properly.  His vision was being blocked, so he threw it off and stepped on it, returning it back to its specter form.  Paityn growled as another man, this one is a bit on the fat side but was extremely strong, walked beside the man with explosions.  Then, they all moved the opposite way, introducing Dr. Umbra walking towards the center.  Jack was scared to the bone. 
"Ah yes, The legendary Specter!  Or should I call you Paityn Arrowood?"  Dr. Umbra declared with hands behind his back, Paityn felt a little bit shocked at that last part, but he knew now wasn't the time to feel shocked.  He stepped forward, "Shut it!  Who are you people?" he asked, Dr. Umbra looked at the others beside him and told them to introduce themselves.  The little girl stepped forward, "Me llama Purple Violet" then the tall lanky man stepped forward,
"I'm shockwave"
"Point Blank" the cherry blossom man introduced,
"And I am Killfeed" the strongman declared with a little pizzazz.  Paityn knew he couldn't take down all of them by himself, he turned to Jack, "Hey, call your friends" he commanded, Jack quickly went down to start calling Zachary but the phone was shot out of his hand by a white exploding laser, They both looked at Point Blank, he looked amused,
"Nah. Ah. Ah.  Can't have you two ruin our plan now can we?" he recalled.  Paityn grumbled something under his breath and threw down his leviathan specter.  The creature roared and charged at them, but Dr. Umbra held out his hand and used a black hole to eat it.  Returning the creature back to its specter form. 
"Now then, I think that was enough playtime for now.  I think it's about time for us to attack now" Dr. Umbra declared as they all walked forward,
"It's Our Turn."