Copyright 2002 by Colin Brennan (Delton Wildfire) Cyberstrike2006 COLIN BRENNAN'S SECTION 32 Episode 1.5 White Finale of Hope Mirage glanced upwards to see Charge's shadow against the light coming in from the skylight in the hallway. His life began to flash before his eyes as he watched it all happen in slow motion before him. There she was, falling on him with her pink rapier. A weapon he thought he would never have to face. His childhood flashed past his vision. She was coming closer. There goes his approach to his teen years. The rapier began to glow; it was getting closer to fresh meat in a can. There go his last years of high school. She approached, coming a few feet away from his stomach. Then, pieces of something shattered everywhere. They made the light from the skylight glitter in his vision. The rapier fell at his side, without Charge's hand controlling it. Charge's shadow cringed and fell across from him. Time began to flow back to normal and she fell against a wall with a large crash. She was knocked out cold; someone got her in the back of the head with some object. Nikki, with her long blond hair and stout body ran over to Mirage. He looked dazed, and she was concerned about his health. "Mr. Mirage! Mirage! Get up Mirage, please and help your friends!" she cried as she shook him. Mirage came about, finally seeing reality for what it was, and he looked into her eyes. She took his black- gloved hand and helped him up off the floor. "I owe you my life," he said as he got up from the floor. The roar of the battle came back to his ears. He turned to find his friends in mortal combat with one another. "You, girl, punch out Charge if she stirs. Just hit her face, it's exposed in the suit. He said before rushing off to the battle. Nikki looked over to Charge, and she began to reach over for her rapier. Nikki took one second to understand the situation and kicked Charge in the head, sending her into a more cold state than before. "Bitch," she said under her breath. Justin knew Nikki; she was an old classmate of his, Colin's, and Smink's. But, he wasn't going to say anything that could maybe relate to her that he knew her from somewhere. Almost like he wanted to get down on his knees and thank her, although he never saw her saving his life. Then again, there are other people in the world he'd rather not have save his life. There are much worse people... Strike deflected another blast of Automatic Fury and his arms began to get tired. His sword was moving slower and slower, and some bursts of green energy were beginning to get through and crash into his armor, sending sparks everywhere. He gritted his teeth and licked the blood coming off the side of his mouth and kept his defense up. A cocking sound could be heard and Slash's eyes glanced over to Strike's side. Strike had no clue what she was looking at, but it must have been important. Her hand began to sweep over to his left, and that's when a large bang occurred. A small, bullet like, blast of energy rang out and shot across from behind him and to his left. The small bullet slammed into Slash's pistol and a small explosion ensued with sparks from the gun going everywhere. The pistol flew from her hand, and skittered down the middle of the hall, far from her grasp. "Damn you Mirage!" she shouted, turning to run for her weapon. Her green hair flew back as she turned and ran, and Strike put his sword into an offensive position. "Not this time Slash. Not this time," Mirage said. He moved his sight over and aimed against her back. He pulled the trigger with regret, and his sniper rifle fired again. The bullet of energy shot down the hallway, and slammed into her back. Her armor took the blast and scorched a little bit, and she fell face first onto the marble floor. "I'm sorry Slash!" Strike cried as he ran down the hall. He jumped upwards and turned his sword from the bladed edge to the hilt end. He came down upon her like a bird to its prey, and he smacked her in the back of her head with his hilt. Her head fell to the floor, and she was knocked out. Her green visor flickered, and then went off. "One more person Mirage!" Strike called back to his friend. Mirage nodded and ran up with Strike and together they rushed ShockWave. FireStorm was pinned up against the wall and squirming to get away, but it was like ShockWave had him pinned in on all sides. She held up her spear, the tip sparking with electricity, getting it close to his head. "One more move FireStorm, and we get to have a flash and a bang. And when it's over, you won't have a head anymore," she sadistically laughed. A tap came on her shoulders, and she turned around. Standing behind her were Mirage and Strike, both with their fists drawn back. "Light's out," they both said, and their fists lunged forward with blinding speed. Their shots hit her in the face, caused a major nosebleed, and her head shot back from the blow. She looked at them once more, raised her hand up and felt the blood pouring from her nose, and then fell to the ground in a delayed reaction to the punches. "Man, she has a hard head," Strike said, undoing his fist and shaking his hand around a bit. "You OK Storm?" he asked him. "Yeah, fine. It's just, well, you punched out my girlfriend man," Storm said, going to her side. "Well, she ain't your girlfriend now. That is some sadistic bitch that tried to kill you, not your girlfriend," Mirage commented, crossing his arms. "OK, well, what are we going to do about Eve and her little legion of minions running around the school? And what are we going to do about our friends?" Storm said. A cough came from behind them, and they turned around to find Nikki standing in the middle of the hallway. "Oh, um, she saved me. If anyone cares," Mirage said, pointing to Nikki. Strike looked to Storm, and then back to Mirage, who looked to the other two. "Well, um, good work ma'am," Strike said, bringing about a bit of applause. "I'm not here for your dumb comments. I want to know what's going on!" she demanded of them. She walked forwards and looked Strike in the eye as she reached him. "Well, we don't really know either. Some Eve woman is running around and taking control of all the females in this school. It would be bad if she got.... Outside.... Shit!" Strike called. The three looked at one another in shock and ran to the steps. "Wait! I overheard Eve's plan, if that is everything that's going on here!" Nikki called to them. The three stopped and then turned back around to Nikki. "You heard her plan? And by the way, why aren't you infected, I just realized that!" Storm said. "It's a long story..." Nikki began. <><><><><> I faked the sickness in order to find out why all the girls were going nuts. I fell in with their ranks by using my makeup kit and faking the rings around their eyes and their paleness. I found Eve, and, I fell into her ranks. It wasn't a hard plan. Eve said to us that she knew where Section 32's base was. I wanted to gasp and punch her out, but I'm not strong enough for that. I went along with looking around the school, because she was convinced that it was somewhere here. I guess your friends told out that information after they were infected. But, after a while, she began to suspect me... "You, what is it I sense about you?" Eve said as she approached Nikki. The girls were down on the first floor hallway, looking around all the rooms for secret switches, and checking all the nooks and crannies in the high school. Nikki was checking out the trophy case as Eve came over. "I think it is nothing, my mistress..." Nikki replied to her, trying to act as brain dead as the other girls. Eve leaned over and began to sniff Nicole over. And then, she stopped. Nikki took a couple steps back in fear, and began to run away, figuring that she was found out. Eve swiped her hand forwards and it stretched to the perfect length to grab Nikki and pull her back. "What do I have here, in my grasp? A pathetic spy? Humph. No one can escape my disease once they have been tainted," she said. Then, Eve politely coughed on Nikki, right in her face. Some of her black spit hit her in the face, and she tried not to breathe in the disease. But, she figured that she did, because she couldn't keep holding her breath forever. "Mistress! Section 32 is here somewhere! What should we do?" a girl said, running down from the steps and into the first floor hallway. Eve dropped Nikki down and looked at her. "We'll be meeting again, and this time, you'll be under my control," Eve threatened. She turned, and walked up the steps, her dress flowing behind her. Nikki turned and ran up the opposite steps... I was scared that I would become one of them, so I hid up in the study hall for a while. I heard the fight, and saw you guys losing. So, I grabbed a chair, and did what I could to help Mirage... <><><><><> "OK, now I understand. But, shouldn't you actually be under her control by now? That crap spreads like wildfire," Storm said to her in a serious voice. "I know, but I'm still not sick. I don't know why. This is all so confusing!" she said, falling to her knees. A tear fell from her cheek and she looked back up to the men. "I feel so alone, and so neglected. I almost feel like an outsider. It's been hard lately, I've been having dreams," Nikki began. "What sort of dreams?" Strike interrupted her, coming closer and kneeling down next to her. "Um... Well... There's like a mall, and I'm in it. And then, there's this huge bang, and an explosion, and this shadowy monster. And then, everything goes white, and I find myself ripping out its heart, and there's blood everywhere... It's so scary... And then, the blood vanishes, and I'm in a hospital, and grown up. And, I'm a doctor, who helps people, and that's the good part. And then, everything goes black again, and I see this fire, this eternal fire, and another shadowy figure. And there are people all around me, with tools, and they are like, working on me, and there's all this pain and torment. Then I wake up," "I wonder. Nicole, I have an idea," Strike said. "How did you know my name?" "Never mind that, just trust me on this one, will you?" "OK, I'll have hope," "Trust me, I think you have hope. A hope that you never thought you ever had," Strike said in an enigmatic tone. Nicole looked at him weirdly, and she sat there, placid, waiting for Strike to instruct her. "Strike, what are you doing man?" Mirage asked in a panic. "It will be OK, trust me. We might have the edge now," Strike shot back. Mirage backed off and waited, watching Strike. Strike raised his hand up into the air and put it in front of Nicole's face. "Search and connect," Strike said. His suit beeped, and a green wave of energy projected from his hand and flowed around Nikki like a force field. She didn't move, and she just watched him. "Connection found," his suit displayed on his monocle. "Connect at port 121. Call command.com," "Calling... Please wait... Connected. Input command?" his suit replied on his monocle. "Execute boot up sequence," he said. His suit beeped, and the green wave stopped, and Nikki was left sitting there. "Now Nicole, say the first thing that comes to your mind," Strike said. "White light... All around me... Holy light..." she murmured, delirious. She began to breathe heavy and she looked all around in a panic. "Yes, I can do it. I CAN DO IT! HOPE FUSE!!" she shouted. Strike got up and ran backwards as Nicole rose from the ground and looked to the sky. "No way!" Mirage and Storm said as white energy began to shoot down the hall. White energy curled around her body and lifted her from the ground, her head back and her hair going everywhere. Slowly, the energy began to take the form of armor, and she attempted to struggle a bit, and she screamed in pain of what was happening. "Strike, is she all right!" Storm asked. "She's fine. The crystal is awakening, and that's the reason she's in pain. She's never felt it before. We accepted our crystals because we saw them coming at us to fuse with us; she didn't know what she carried. She'll become immune to the heat and power of the white energy, as we all have after the first time we transformed," Strike said, continually watching. Nikki's crystal could be visibly seen inside her chest, because it was glowing with such an intense light that it penetrated her skin. The white metal of her armor ran up her arms and legs, forming into her suit. From her back, two great white metal wings exploded outwards and folded back mechanically to her back. The energy formed her chest plate, and it wove around her head to create her heads up display. The energy shot down her throat last, and she screamed at this for as long as she could, because she never exactly felt energy go into her body before. Her hair grew in length visibly and turned golden, and radiated a golden light. Her eyes turned to a bright silver color, and also radiated light. Soon the energy died down and she came back down to the ground slowly. Her white boots touched the marble floor, and she settled down comfortably and stood before her friends. Her suit was made from a bright white metal and had a silver trim color for the Kevlar under-suit. Her gloves were black, like the others, and her white boots were a bit smaller than the men's and she had metal hi-heeled boots. Across her white chest plate, there was a bright red cross, like a doctor's station would have. Her mechanical white wings flexed a bit before coming to a rest in a stored position on her back. She put her hand out instinctively and a beam of sunlight concentrated down through the skylight. It concentrated into a huge staff of sunlight, and then formed into a smaller golden metal staff, with a silver cross atop of it. She held the staff in her right hand, and she let it touch the floor with a metallic clink. She stood in front of the men, standing proudly and magnificently. "Whoa," all three of them commented at once as they looked at her. Then, she faltered, and began to fall forward from exhaustion. Strike leaped forwards and caught her, preventing her from falling. "Thank you Strike, I'm just so tired," she said to him. "What happened to me? Why am I like you?" she asked. "After you told me your dream, I knew you had to possess a crystal of the elements. The question was, which one did you have? Since you have deterred the disease of Eve, it could only be one element, because only one can withstand disease. That would be the Crystal of Hope, and you carry that crystal within your chest, believe it or not. It is fused with your body, and it added on codes to your DNA, mutating it a bit. It gave you this suit of metal. What else it does, we don't really know, but it is the source of our powers. You're one of us Nicole," Strike said. The other two came forwards and helped her to her feet. "One of us, one of us..." Mirage chanted in a monotone tone as a joke. Nikki laughed at it and she stood upwards. "I feel a bit better now. I guess I'm recovering from the shock. Who are you all anyway?" she asked. "You already know us," Mirage began, "It's me, Justin. Strike over there is Colin, and Smink is Storm," he said with a smile. "You guys? You guys are Section 32? What about the women?" Nikki asked in shock, putting one of her hands up to her mouth. "Slash is Kristen, Charge is Lauren, Shock is Bridget," Strike finished for Mirage. "You mean, all of us, being old classmates, are Section 32?" Nikki said. "It seems so, doesn't it? Dunno why, but that's how it is," Storm commented. "Now what are we going to do about the girls?" Mirage said, putting a hand to his head in wonderment. They all turned to look at the KO'ed girls and they all wondered a bit as they looked at their wounds and the blood on their faces. "I think I have an idea, I don't know how I know this, but I do," Nikki said. She walked over to Charge, and she put her hands on Charge's suit. Her hands began to glow a bright white color, and a shock of white energy pulsed into Charge's suit. It rolled across her like a wave, and then disappeared as it covered everything. Slowly, Charge's bruises vanished and her face became normal again. She was no longer pale and she no longer had fangs. Nikki raised her head up from the floor, and put her up against the wall. "Charge, get up..." Nikki said softly. "Ugh... What happened?" Charge said as she slowly opened her pink eyes and looked around. "She's all right!" Mirage said happily. "Who are you?" Charge said as she looked at Nikki. "I guess you can call me Medic. I'm the new girl on the team," Medic said as she held out her hand and shook Charge's hand. "It's just Nikki, Lauren. Nothing special," Storm commented with a chuckle. "Nikki? You have a crystal too! That's awesome! I remember now! We suspect Jessica is behind this! Now we kick Jessica's butt!" Charge said. She got up excitedly and grabbed her rapier. She sheathed it in the sheath on her left side and she looked to everyone else. "Well, this one might take a bit to explain," Storm said, putting his hand on the back of his head in a form of embarrassment. A few minutes later... ShockWave and CyberSlash were back on their feet and no longer infected, thanks to Medic's quick fingers. The gang was huddled in the middle of the hall, trying to flesh out a plan to use against Eve. "So, Eve is Jessica being controlled by a virus, and she used that virus to control us to attack you guys? Why don't I remember this?" Shock asked. "Well, I'm guessing because the disease had such an adverse affect on your mind. We must take into account that it was able to harness the different aspects of your brain in order to control you, of course. That when it finally was healed out that..." Priest began to ramble. "OK, OK, she lost her memory, that's great, what are we gonna do?" Mirage said, pushing for action. "I have a plan people. And it should, by theory, work. OK, here's what I want. Nikki, Kristen, Lauren, and Bridget," Strike said as he pointed at Medic, CyberSlash, PowerCharge, and ShockWave respectfully, "go to the Band Room in a team. I want you girls to get..." Meanwhile, out in the courtyard: "I fall asleep for two seconds in Bakenbrager's class, and this is what I get?" Fred proclaimed. "Well, at least they haven't hung us over a burning bonfire yet. It could always get worse," Mike replied. The two members of Section 32 were hanging from one of the trees in the courtyard by a thick, slimy, disgusting black rope that went around their midsection and restrained their hands. Below them, part of Eve's legion were parading around them in some sort of a tribal dance, all hooting and hollering around their capture. "I'm trying to reach my watch, but I can't get my hand around to hit the button to set it to communications mode," Mike whispered as he struggled. Fred sighed and looked around. He really could think of millions of other places he would rather be, which included: (but weren't limited to) sitting in the city dump with no clothing on, trying to fit into a telephone booth with fifteen other men, or being forced to attend a Stevie Wonder concert. Just as he got to the hundredth place he would rather be (Which was a Pokémon convention, by the way) the hooting and hollering below him stopped and he looked down as Mike continued to fidget. All the girls had gotten down on the ground in a prayer motion and were simultaneously bowing to the side door, where Eve had just emerged. In her hands was a large man, also restrained by the same black rope our heroes were. He had gray hair on the sides of his head, and he was balding up top. Very muscular, tall, and obviously strong, he was kicking and trying to get out of Eve's powerful grasp with all of his might. But, sadly, he was not successful. Eve threw Mr. Larsen, one of the history teachers, up into the tree to hang with the two restrained members of Section 32. "How you guys doing?" he asked casually, looking at his two students. "You said something derogative about females again, didn't you Mr. Larsen?" Mike asked in a monotone expression. "Yeah, and the black rat over there got me!" he yelled over to Eve. He spat at her feet to draw her attention away from one of her captains. "Oh Mr. Larsen, if you wanted to challenge me to a spitting contest, you could have just asked!" Eve exclaimed, turning her attention to the teacher. She turned her head and spat on one of the flowerbeds in the courtyard, which quickly began to smoke and die from the toxins in her spit. She smiled, baring her fangs at Larsen in an evil grin. "Never make fun of a woman Mr. Larsen, you don't know what sort of powers they contain," she said with a wink. "That's it, I want to ring her neck out," Larsen groaned aloud to Fred and Mike. The three men continued to hang from the tree, and they fell into silence. They lost all interest in talking about their predicament, and anything else they could think of. "Well, I have two male chauvinist pigs, and their swine leader. That's good enough for me. I think it's time we made some bacon girls! Hah hah ha!" Eve laughed aloud after a couple minutes. All the girls in Eve's Legion began to laugh with her as they closed around the tree where the three were strung. "I believe it to be lights out guys. It was nice knowing you, and always remember what Custard said at his Last Stand," Mr. Larsen said as he looked upon his doom. "What was that?" Fred asked. "Holy shit, where did all these Indians come from?" Larsen replied. A synthesizer riff rocked through the courtyard, forcing all the girls to put their hands over their ears and hiss from the frequency of the noise. Eve turned around, unaffected, and looked up atop the school, and her look of happiness spiraled down into a look of horror. "How the hell..." Eve spoke, her black lips trembling as she looked. Standing atop the school were CyberSlash, PowerCharge, CyberStrike, Medic, and ShockWave. CyberSlash let another synthesizer riff blast off, and Medic stepped up to the edge of the roof and took a deep breath of air before putting the microphone connected to her metal headband down to her mouth. "Here I go... Here I go... Here I go..." she chanted. The area around them began to turn dark, and the members of Section 32 lit up like beacons with their patron colors around them in brilliant auras. Pink for PowerCharge, neon green for Strike and Slash, and yellow for ShockWave. They were all drawing in energy from the space around them, and channeling it towards Medic, who was radiating out with a bright white light. CyberStrike began to hit the hi-hat to his left on the drum set to count time, and the song began as the members raised up their instruments, a clarinet for Shock, a flute for Charge, Slash and her wrist synthesizer, and Strike on the drums. "Ooooooh yeah!!!!" Medic shouted. Strike inserted a drum fill using the drum set he had grabbed from the band room with the aid of his friends and dragged to the roof. The girls looked up in fear and awe, and Eve stood down there, also in a trance, but slowly curling her hand in anger of watching her plans fall apart. "What!! What kind of magic is this!! Who... What!!!" she screamed. The girls snapped from their trance and began to rush at Section 32 to protect their leader, who was on top of the three-story school. And, in response, Medic sang and let her white energy radiate out upon the area. "Hush just stop. There's nothing you can do or say. Baby... I've had enough. I'm not your property I hate to say. Baby... You, might, think that I won't make it...on my own. But now I'm stronger than yesterday! Now is nothin' but a mile away! My loneliness ain't killin' me no more! I...I... Stronger!!" she sung. Britney Spears probably would have a heart attack at hearing her song sung by someone else, but its effect was plenty noticeable. As Medic sung Stronger, the legion of girls began to slowly halt their charge. The white energy wove around them, and slowly, their gaunt appearance began to fade. Then, they stopped charging all together, and just stood in a huge mass in the courtyard, all dumbfounded. Then one girl's leg began to twitch. Another began to raise her hand and snap her fingers to the beat. Slowly but surely, to Eve's horror, Medic's healing tune was shattering her disease control over them. Soon, the girls were back to their normal selves, and all wondering why they were in the courtyard listening to Section 32. "Run, run away from Eve quickly!!" Slash shouted over the music. One of the girls turned her head, pointed her finger at Eve, and the rest of them got the picture. The stampede ran out of the box shaped courtyard, and down the driveway that curved around the eastern edge of the U shaped school. Eve stood there, pissed off to all hell. She wasn't affected by the music in anyway, because she was making sure to not only tune it out, but it couldn't heal the disease that was smart enough to take over a person's body. "You still haven't won Section 32! I still have three men as hostages! What are you going to do about that!" she yelled up to them. Section 32 stopped their music and they all began to laugh. "Look behind you, Mistress of Disease," Medic mocked. Eve spun around and she screamed at the sight she saw. Mr. Larsen, Mike, and Fred were running into the school through the other doors on the other side of the "U" shape of the school with Mirage and FireStorm behind them. It seemed that Storm had cut them out with one of his crystal tipped arrows, which he left behind in the tree as a present for Eve. Before Mirage fully ducked inside the doors, he made sure to turn around and flip Eve off and laugh at her. Eve looked back up to Section 32. "I'm not finished yet! You still cannot stop me! I am the Mistress of Disease! The controller of the Crystal of Transformation! I cannot lose!" she screamed in a fit. A pair of black, rotting, bat wings burst forth from her back in her anger. She snarled and leapt upwards at the group, aiming for Medic. She flapped her black wings in anger, propelling herself at top speed at the newest member. Medic took a step backwards, not expecting Eve to find some way to get up to the roof that easily and quickly. She didn't have a backup plan, but Slash did. CyberSlash put her hand out and pointed it at Eve, and in response her pistol flew to her hand and charged up a quick shot as she aimed at the black demon flying at her friend. *BANG*! She fired a quick green bolt at the monster. The energy blast flew through the air at Eve, but Eve was quicker. In a flash of black, she moved one of her hands in the way of the blast and deflected the energy bullet. The blast went careening off in another direction, and exploded in the sky in a brilliant green wave. Eve landed on the roof and curled two of her fingers around Medic's metal collar that was protecting her throat. Medic began to choke as Eve lifted her up off the ground so she could look eye to eye with her adversary. "You ruined me and my plans. Now I will ruin you, pathetic human," Eve snarled at Medic. Medic struggled, and tried to beat Eve off with her staff, but Eve wasn't responding to the weak blows. A flash of silver and a green slash flew across Eve's arm. CyberStrike stopped a little ways away from Eve, and sheathed his sword. As he sheathed it, red blood began to pour from the gash he left across the back of her hand and part of her black arm. Eve screamed and dropped Medic by accident. She landed on her feet and backflipped away from the demon of disease. She put her staff out in a defensive stance, and looked onwards to the battle. "Strike, don't kill her! Remember whose body it is!" Slash yelled at her partner. Strike cringed. To him, this just got a lot harder. He wasn't good at keeping people alive. "I want to get her," Medic said, stepping up across from Eve. "Medic, what the heck are you doing?" Slash yelled at her. "Don't be a hero!" Charge yelled, drawing up her rapier and putting her flute in her belt holder. FireStorm and Mirage opened the door to the roof and peeked out to see the battle and what was going on. Behind them were two other guys. One had flat blue hair that stuck out over his metal headband. He had a see-through blue energy visor over his blue eyes and his suit was a brilliant silver color with a neon blue Kevlar suit underneath. Across his back was the sheath for a huge lance that he used in combat. On his chest plate was a glowing replica of a clock with its hands pointing to midnight. On his left shoulder, as held true with Strike, Slash, Charge, Wave, Storm, and Mirage, he had the golden Section 32 badge fused into the metal. Mike strutted out as ChronoTwist onto the rooftop and stood next to Strike. Behind him followed another guy with a silvery brown suit with a deep orange trim color for his undersuit. He was a very strong man, carrying a wooden spear with metal reinforced areas and an orange crystal tip. His short brown hair was matted down to his head and sorted of made his brownish silver headband blend in. He had a jagged brown energy monocle over his right eye that he occasionally glanced over to. His brown metal boots were larger than the other's suits, for the reason that he needed the extra balance when dealing with earth. Fred strutted over to the group as EarthQuake, with his spear ready to do battle with Eve. Behind Quake followed Storm and Mirage. The alliance of Section 32 stood a bit behind Medic, who had now pointed her golden staff at the dark monster Eve. Eve growled a little as she breathed in and out in deep breaths, trying to regain her composure to continue with the fight as best she could. She stared into Medic's silver eyes with her gray ones, radiating all the hatred and fury that she could muster at Medic, trying to make her doubt that she should take on Eve one on one. Medic didn't blink, she stood there, staring back with all the hatred she could muster. The two stood deadlocked in a dramatic staring contest, waiting for the other to make the first move on top of the old school. "We won't interfere Medic. We know you can do it. You have the powers that will do the job properly without accidentally killing Jessica. We have faith in you, just make it quick," Slash said to her in a kind tone. She put her gun back to her hip, and it magnetically attached. Strike sheathed his sword, and the other warriors began to do the same with their weapons, showing respect to their newest member. "You don't have faith in me. You have hope in me," Medic said, smiling a smile at Eve and continuing to stare forward. "Do it Medic, do it," ShockWave said to her. PowerCharge smiled and began to stomp her hi-heeled metal boot twice and then clap. The other girls began to do the same with their hi-heeled boots and black-gloved hands. And then the men began to do the same. The background tune to "We Will Rock You" made all other sounds go away. Medic smiled, knowing her friends were behind her all the way. Medic dashed forwards, using her wings to propel herself faster than before. She caught Eve off guard and plowed into her and spiraled upwards. Medic swung her golden staff this way in that, hitting Eve as the two flew straight up into the air, locked into a one sided aerial combat. Then, making her first move of the battle, Eve blocked one of Medic's blows to her face and reacted with a punch to Medic's gut. Some spit flew from Medic's mouth from the pain, and the shock of being caught off guard. Eve continued in her pummel with her claws, trying to claw at the Kevlar and exposed parts of Medic. The eight remaining members that were standing on the rooftop watched the battle in awe. They could see the power radiating off of the two through their colored monocles and visors, and they couldn't do or say anything but stare at the spectacle in the great blue cloudless sky. "Why should humans deserve to live on this planet? They are nothing but a menace to everything around them!" Eve commented as the two threw punches and slashes and blocks and dodges. "And give me a reason viruses should live on this planet. Humans have proven themselves to learn from their mistakes numerous times. I have never seen a virus learn from their mistakes. Tell me Eve, what have you learned? What have you learned from taking a human's body and becoming what you hate the most? Tell me!" Medic asked in fury. Eve stood dumbfounded. She thought about the question that was presented to her in a passion that she never thought of before. She had calculated this plan all out so well, and one human had stopped her. What had she learned? Why had she become her own enemy? She looked at her hands in shock; she was what she hated. "That's what I thought," Medic said. She took her staff back into an overhead motion, and she slammed it downwards with all her might. Golden energy radiated off in a great shockwave from that single blow as the golden cross made contact with Eve's head, and the dark monster propelled downwards towards the empty school. Medic held her staff outward and concentrated. Golden energy began to draw in all around her for everyone in the world to see. Time itself seemed to stop as she drew in this mystical energy, not knowing what she was about to do, but knowing it would end the horror Jessica was feeling. Section 32 looked onwards, was this the final blow? Medic brought her staff upwards and pointed it to the sky with both of her hands. Her long golden hair flew about her in the rage of wind that was twisting and tossing around her from the energy. The cross glowed so brightly that it hurt the eyes of those who viewed it. Eve looked up, one last time, and knew what was about to befall her. This was her greatest fear. This was the special attack of the Crystal of Hope. "Darkness Destruction!!!!" Medic screamed. She brought her staff downwards and pointed it at Eve, still falling to the roof. From the blue sky, a great beam of white light began to gather around Eve. It encased her, and her shadow could be seen inside the white light. Energy shockwaved outwards from her limp body, and a final, piercing, horrible scream could be heard. A black soul flew out from the great white light, screaming towards Medic in fury. But, it dissipated in the air, turning into black energy that exploded outwards in multiple black sparks and one last ring of black energy. The light began to fade. The black and pale body of Parasite Eve, the Mistress of Disease, fell to the roof slowly. It was over. The game was won. Medic began to fall. She was tired. She looked upwards as everything spun around her. The sky. The black roof of the school... Her friends screaming... It was all fading to black... Then, she stopped... And as she felt that feeling of security, everything went totally black and silent. 6:27 PM, Pottsville Area High School: the rooftop Medic slowly opened up her eyes to see who was nudging her. Her silver eyes viewed a black outline of a tall woman over her. "Hey, hey... Are you all right Medic? Guys, she's awake!!" the outline yelled. Medic opened her eyes more fully to see who was calling. Eve was standing over her body that was laid out across the roof. She seemed worried about her condition, and her normally cold gray eyes actually had worry and pity in them. Eve pushed back some of her black air from her face with her large black clawed black hands, and Medic could hear footsteps rushing towards her. "Oh thank God you're awake!" Slash said as she looked at her. The nine of them stood around Medic, all saying their relief sayings and generally being overall happy. Eve helped Medic up, and Nikki leaned on her staff for some more support. "You, I thought... I thought you were dead?" Medic said to Eve. Eve shook her head in response. "Eve's dead Medic. I'm alive. I'm Jessica, the person Eve took over. I'm so sorry for all the trouble my body has caused... And this dress is horrible, by the way, it's so revealing!" Jessica said with a small and polite laugh. Medic smiled. "I'm glad I can help. I'm guessing that you're gonna join up with us then if you have these powers," Medic stated. "Because, I think you could get along will all of us quite well." "Huh? Why?" Jessica asked. Strike looked at Slash, who looked at Charge, who looked at Storm, who looked at Quake, who looked at Mirage, who looked at Wave, who looked to Twist, who looked to Medic, who looked to Strike again. "Well, we might as well show her, she's gonna join with us if she likes it or not," Strike said, shrugging his metal shoulders. They all went down to their wrists, and hit the special buttons on their watches. Their patron energies poured over them, and then vanished, leaving them as normal and without their suits. "Colin? Kristen? Lauren? Smink? Fred? Mike? Bridget? Justin? NIKKI'S MEDIC???" Jessica said, putting her clawed hand to her head in confusion. "You guys and gals are Section 32?" "Yeah, we know. Good, aren't we? So, are you going to join up?" Kristen asked as she extended her hand. "Wait, I have to get this transformation thing down. I think I know how Eve did it, but for some... reason... I can't get to any other form other than this one... She said that I could transform into anything she wanted..." Jessica said as she struggled to change to something else for a test run. "I wonder if this is Eve's legacy? What if you can't even change back to your normal self?" Fred wondered aloud. Jessica concentrated one more time, and the dress began to disappear, her skin began to change back to a normal color, her arms shrank back up to what they should have been, her hands looked like they were deflating. She shifted back to her normal size, and her normal clothing. She opened her blue eyes and smiled. "Well, I can get back to my normal form. Count me in, I wanna have fun with these powers!" Jessica said, shaking Kristen's hand. The others extended their hands in response, and she went around, shaking the hands of her old time friends. "Thirteen members now Colin, can you believe how many we have picked up since the beginning?" Smink said. "Well all I can say to that is Jessica and Nikki, welcome to Section 32." As the sun sets on our heroes, they have accomplished their first major mission, and picked up two new and very useful allies. But what awaits them now in the getting stranger City of Pottsville? What vile evil is lurking its head around the corner? What is Commander Darkblade cooking up back at Area 51 to reclaim his war suits? Find out in the next episode of Section 32. Episode 2: Playing With Half a Deck Hey guys, it's me, Smink! He he he he he! Well, in the next session of episode 2, Colin, Jessica, Nikki and I are going on an adventure to Sharp Mountain with the Pottsville Police! Sharp Mountain is one of the larger hills of Pottsville that's so long that it extends down the entire west side of the city! And up there, some nasty stuff has happened, and that's not even getting into the subsidences that occur from the old mine shafts up there. All those huge craters! The mountain is a magnet for supernatural stories, wild animals, and booze parties, of course. Now, why are we going up there again? I forgot actually... Colin told me about this trip during lunch, but I can't remember. Sorry... But hey, find out in our next session, it's really Shmoo-The-Cat-alicious! Smink, you really need to drop those really strange sayings that no one understands... Be quiet Colin! You can have your turn to talk in: Episode 2.1: Caught in the Act Oh, I just can't wait for it. It's so fantastically amazing. Look at my happiness. Yay.