Reign of Darkness Part 6: THE LACKIES! DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE LACKIES! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Okay, corny title for such a serious series. But, I need to liven the mood up a little, right? The only other name I could think of is "It contiues" and that was too weak. The title comes from a phrase Frag uses, "And could you imagine all the super-villians in hell? 'So, you lost too? Let me guess, the lackies didn't help?' Oh, yeah, THE LACKIES, DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE LACKIES! THOSE SCREW UPS ARE WHY I AM HERE!" ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ray looked down to the crater in front of him. "Yet another wasted life. Cordran, why must you send these fools to their death and not face me yourself? I will defeat all of your warriors if I must, because you must be stopped!" Petratine stepped before Cordran, "Do not worry master, he is a man, and no man other you than you can withstand my appeals." With an evil grin the mistress of the night left to face their foe. Ray continued down the corridors of Cordran's fortress. He didn't know exactly how he knew where to go, but he did. Cordran's prescense was all around him, yet he knew that his foe would not be in the center of the castle, but below it. Ray shook his head as he continued. "Cordran is toying with me and I know it. He knows it as well. He is merely trying to guage my power, he must be suprised at how much more powerful I am since we fought the first time," Ray thought to himself, "Thanks to Frag's constant ranting on trying to use my own power instead of the Vortex, I am more powerful. But that's what worries me, he is more powerful than I am. Where is this power of his comming from?" His thoughts continued to wander while he walked. As he got deeper into the base, the creepier it became. Suddenly, he walked into a room that was well lit and decorated extravagantly. "What on earth?" Ray searched the room all over wonder where it came from, the he saw a gorgeous woman sitting at a bar. She waved him over, and he felt compelled to go over. Ray felt this strange senstation overcome him as he sat beside her. "Hi there, you look tired. Would like something to drink? Maybe a snack as well?" Ray merely nodded his head and tried to pull his tounge back in his mouth. Little did he realize that his toes were turning to stone.... "Kouesi, have you got a lock on Ray yet?" Kouesi's human form stood beside Abbie and sighed, "Not yet, I can't find him, he is able to block us out if he tries." Abbie was close to tears. She knew Ray was fighting someone without her, and knew that if he left without telling her it was serious. What was he doing, what foe could be so strong that he would dought his ability to protect her? Before her thoughts could continue further, Kouesi jumped and gasped out, "I found him!" "Kouesi, jump there now!" Ray continued to stare at the woman and smiled. She was so beautiful that he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Petratine smiled back, knowing he fell into her trap hook, line and sinker. "Wait, he's not totally mine." She thought as she delved into his soul, "There is another here, and her prescence is growing in his mind, how?" Ray's smile became concern as he felt Abbie grow closer to him. What was going on? Why did he feel this unnatural love for this woman he didn't even know the name of? "WHAT IS GOING ON?!!!!!?!?!?!??!" Nothing was able to be answered before a giant wooden ship materialized in the room and Abbie stormed out guns blazing screaming, "HOUSEBREAKER!" But none of her weapons was able to touch Petratine. "Nince try girly, but your man is mine now and forever. He will soon be turned to stone, never able to be turned back. AHAHAHAHAH!" "Think again B!tch." When she turned, Petratine found a three-bladed sword in her face. "What? how can you be free?" Ray smiled, "Easy, that 'girly' over there is my wife, whom I love dearly. Our love is strong enough to give us the power of the other. So, why would a woman fall for you?" Abbie powered up, "And since it works both ways, I have a super-human form: LOVE-ANGEL!" Abbie's hair grew longer and became pinkish. She gained a pink armor that looked similar to Ultimate Chosen One's, but smaller and less dynamic, adding a tiara that spiked up at her eyebrows, merging with them. A small set of wings made from her armor finished the transformation. "So, you have broken my spell, and you have become more powerful, nevertheless, I will defeat you. Mindstorm, come to my aid!" Mindstorm appeared and nodded. Ray was puzzled, "How many of you are there? And who the hell are you?" "We are Cordran's six, you have defeated two of ours. They have failed, but we will not. Even if we do, you have yet to see the most powerful of us. You won't make it to fight Cordran," Mindstorm answered. "Now, prepare to face the master of Illusion!" Mindstorm dissapeared and the room became a giant maze. "If this is an illusion, than these walls really aren't here." Ray walked up to one of the walls and was hit by a massive bolt of power. "Oh, by the way. I'm not your average illusionary villian, my illusions become real. If you want to find me, work your way through the maze. If you're able to. There are traps in every room and each one is deadly, but avoidable. Good luck." "Ray, what are we going to do?" Ray turned to Abbie and Kouesi. "First, Kouesi, Jurai Merge with Abbie. In super-human with the merger you should be strong enough to deal with whatever is ahead." Kouesi's ship for became energy and fused with Love-Angel. "Now, let's see if I can't make this a little easier for all of us." Ray placed his fists at his temples, "With THE CLARITY OF SIGHT!" The crystal on Ray's forehead flared and he transformed. But, even with his enchanced mental powers, he couldn't break through Mindstorm's illusion. "Uh, oh. This guy is good." "What do you mean he's good?" "I mean I can't break this illusion. He's got strong illusionary powers. Hopefully, that means we can defeat him physically with little trouble. But, we might as well play along with his little game for now." Taking to the air, Ray and Abbie flew through the maze, hoping to find the right way." After getting lost a few times, the two entered the next room in the dungeon. There was writing on the wall, but neither could read it. "Translate." It reads "You're halfway there, so don't stop now. Unless of course, you start to drown." Abbie looked puzzled, "Drown, there's no water here?" Just then tiny pinholes opened up and water poured in. "Dear, remind me to give the lesson on jinxing yourself. But, in the mean time, mind freezing this water?" Ray powered up and pushed the water against the walls, then Abbie yelled "HEART OF ICE!" and fired thousands of tiny hearts that froze the water solid. "Now that that is done, there are three doors. Two will most likely let in more water or some other trap, and the third will let us out. But, we don't have time to guess, so let's get them all at once." Standing in the middle of the room with his hands facing two of the doors and his face toward the third, Ray became the Chosen One and let loose all of his power at once, destroying all three. The two with water behind them flooded the room in an instant, but the third opened up and drained the water, and the two, in the next room. Ray and Abbie sat down after opening the door to the next room. "I'm getting tired of this." Ray held her in his arms, "I know, but we've got to do this." Abbie looked up at him, "Ray, who is Cordran?" He looked down and frowned, "A guy I killed before I met you. He is evil itself, the ultimate foe. Cordran, he is my one true enemy. He is the dark to my light. He is Cordran: the Chosen One of Evil. He and I are the same, and opposite. I defeated him seven years ago, or I thought I did. Now he's came back, somehow." "Chosen One, you are stronger than I could ever have imagined, yet, how sad, you are still no match for me. Mindstorm and Petratine will fall shortly, then Casings and Death will follow thereafter. Those fools actually believed me when I told them they could defeat you. They don't know the power of the gods, power both of us posses. Till we meet Chosen One, enjoy these easy tasks. I will liven up the party in due time." Cordran leaned back in his chair and stroked the white cat in his lap. Ray looked at the final door to the maze, or at least what he thought was the door. Every inch of the room was covered in doors. "Well, I believe it's safe to say that only one door is the way out, and the others are deadly traps. So, which one is it?" Ray frowned on the inside, "Actually," he thought, "chances are that every door is a deadly trap. And I can survive all at once no dought, but, Abbie i'm not so sure about. Even with Kouesi merged with her, I don't think she could take a whole lot of abuse, at least not this much." Abbie searched up and down every wall. "Ray, look at this." "Look at what? It's hopeless." Sitting down in the center of the room, Ray stared at the ceiling. "Fine, give up. Your the one that's hopeless!" She pushed on the symbol she saw and that door opened into a large chamber. Ray's jaw merely hit the floor. "The symbol on the door was identical to the design that was on Mindstorm's earings. It was the only symbol that matched any of his wardrobe." Winking, she walked through the door. "God I love you, girl." "MINDSTORM! WE COMPLETED YOUR MAZE, NOW FIGHT US!" A voice appeared to them, "As you wish, you will die now." Behind Abbie a knife appeared. Ray watched in horror as the knife plunged through her heart, before he could move. She looked up at him in pain, and mouthed "I love you." He cought her as she fell, and watched her eyes close as her life drained slowly out of her. "NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ray looked up and saw Mindstorm and Petratine smiling down at him from a platform. Words would not come to him, nothing would. His rage coursed through his body like hot blood. He transformed to Chosen One, then Ultimate Chosen One without effort. The two's smiles turned to fear as they realized what beast they had unleashed. As Ray's rage continued to grow, his eyes began to glow, and raw energy flowed out of them. As he held his wife's lifeless body in his arms, a glowing cross appeared on his forehead. His armor became flowing robes, and his hair turned energy blue as it shortened. "You have done what no person has the right to do. You have taken the one most dear to me away. You have no right. YOU HAVE YOU RIGHT!!!!!!! NOW YOU HAVE UNLEASHED: NEO WARRIOR OF THE CROSS!" Warrior of the Cross moved his hand over Abbie's wound, and it healed instantly. He placed a hand on her heart and it began to beat again. When he was certain she was alive and well, he turned to the two. "Can you feel it? Can you? The raw power arcing across my body. You have allowed me to unleash the power of the gods. In return, I would normally give you a swift death. But you killed my wife. It is that which I cannot allow." Warrior of the Cross stood and lifted his hands to the sky, "Oh, Heaven, eternal home of God. Give me your light, that I might purify this darkness." When he had that light, he smiled, "Thank you. Now, for you two! LIGHT OF THE HEAVENS!" His body began to glow with the brightness of Heaven. Mindstorm and Petratine looked in awe at it's beauty. But the darkness in their hearts began to churn and bubble. Their eyes were not pure enough to look at this sight, and were instantly destroyed. Then, the evil in their hearts boiled in the purity of Heaven, exploding inside the two destroying them. "Abbie!" Ray changed back to normal and kneeled beside her. Thankfully, her eyes opened and she got up. "What happened to me?" Ray smiled and lied, "You were overwelled and passed out, nothing serious. I took care of them while you were out." She got up and slapped him, "QUIT TREATING ME LIKE A LITTLE GIRL!" She then smiled and hugged him. "Thank you for your concern though." Ray just hugged her back and wondered how he was so lucky to have this person in his life. ------------------------------------------------------------------- OKay folks, sorry for the wait on this one. More should be on the way shortly.