"Come home now." That's the message Zack got from Paulina during his meeting at the Station. Usually, Paulina always ends her calls by calling him a pet name, but not this time.
Something was up.
The apartment was empty, but there was a cup of hot cocoa on the counter. It was still hot, so it was freshly made. But Paulina wasn't around to drink it.
She never leaves hot cocoa lying around.
"PAULINA! SWEET GEM?! I'M HERE!!"
No response.
Paulina always responds when he calls her that.
Now something was really up.
Zack looked in every room in her apartment, but she was nowhere to be found. That's when he started hearing slurping.
Paulina never slurps.
"Who is..." But Zack stopped in his tracks at what he saw. Right in her living room, there she was:
His girlfriend, sitting in a chair. Or more accurately, tied to the chair with strange rope and a strange rag in her mouth.
"Hot cocoa? It's wa~rm! Your girl makes a mean cup of the stuff!" Paulina's captor said, slurping the cocoa like a child while giving Zack a sadistic look behind his four-eyed mask.
It was none other than Mr. E, the Danger Squad's most dangerous villain—someone partly responsible for their deaths and wholly responsible for Captain Rocket's death.
But Zack had no time to worry about that. His girlfriend was in danger, and he needed to step up.
So why didn't he?
Zack stood there and looked on for what seemed like an eternity. He was too scared to move.
He didn't stand a chance against Ace, so what was he going to do against Mr. E?!
Yet he wanted to save Paulina.
"Sooooo, this is awkward! You going to move or what, Expander?"
Zack was about to deny his super identity but couldn't bring himself to do it. At this point, lying was no use.
But why did Mr. E attack him?
Or did he know about Paulina's identity as Diamond Light, the last Danger Squad member other than Hawk Knight?
Zack still didn't move. His body was shaking all over, but he didn't take a step. He wanted to take a step, run towards the bastard, and punch him clean across the jaw.
If only he wasn't such a coward.
Maybe Paulina was right. He wasn't right for this superhero work.
"Wow, I assumed you'd be fun to talk to, but you haven't said a word! Man, you're boring! Or is it that you don't give a damn about this girl?!" Mr. E said, grabbing Paulina by her hair and bringing her in close.
Infuriated, Zack tried to shout in rage, but he lost his voice.
If only he wasn't such a coward.
"You knooooow, these ropes are actually made of alligator skin! I'm sure you know I have the ability to use the power nature has to offer, and it comes with the neat trick of making copies of parts of myself! And I gotta say, it's pretty fun!" Mr. E said, as he moved his alligator ropes around Paulina's body.
And under her skirt.
"LET GO OF HER, YOU MONSTROUS BASTARD!!" Zack finally screamed in rage and lunged at Mr. E, expanding his arms to giant proportions to give a strong blow.
But giant tentacles covered in alligator scales popped off the ground and tied him up as well.
"Ah, there it is! I love the spirit! So young! So much instinct! Don't worry, in a few moments, this love you think you feel will be gone, and all that remains is pure wild instinct."
"W...why are you here? What do you want from us?" Zack said, choking in a mixture of rage at himself for putting himself and his girlfriend at the mercy of this psychopath.
"Oh, well, you and your little team caused a little bit of trouble for me, and it got me thinking. If I let you guys go scot-free, you could ruin all my plans! Sooooo, I have to uproot the weed before it grows," Mr. E said as he covered Zack's mouth with a tentacle and began to open up the ground like it was a pool of water.
"Now enough talk, I've got a Danger Squad to hunt."
And just like that, they all disappeared from the apartment.
"Ah! Gotcha, you son of a bitch!"
"Who do you got, friend Austin?" Stacya asked with a curious look in her eye as she entered his wooden lab. With Jake on his little date, she was alone and managing the store, something that was extremely boring on her own.
Plus, she missed having Jake to talk to.
"The location of that asshole Mr. E's base! Oh, I'm so close to vengeance, I can feel it!" Austin said with glee in his voice, which slightly startled Stacya.
"Are you sure this is only for vengeance, friend Austin?" Stacya asked.
"What the hell do you mean?" Austin said, going from gleeful to pissed off in a matter of seconds.
And this startled Stacya even more.
"I...I mean, Captain Rocket taught Zack and I about revenge and said how it can destroy you."
"And your point is?"
"My point is I hope revenge isn't the only reason you're chasing Mr. E."
"I'm going to level with you, kid. Yes. Yes, it is, and I'm proud of it. If you think I would've given a damn about Mr. E if he didn't kill Buford, then you're wrong. I want to avenge Buford. That's the only reason I'm donning this horrible mask once more!" Austin said, pointing at the Hawk symbol on his chest.
"But friend Austin, that shouldn't be the case. That symbol shouldn't be worn out of vengeance, but..."
SLAM!
Austin slammed her to the wall and pinned her down, holding down her arm and threatening to break it the longer she kept talking.
"SHUT UP! You're even lucky to get a warning. Usually, I would've broken your body to pieces, but since you saved my life earlier, this is your first and last mercy. You don't know nothing about me, so stop acting like I'm some student!"
"Y...yes, I d...do know noth...nothing about you, f...friend Austin, but I do kn...know what it means to seek revenge on someone w...who took something from you. I assume you, this path is not the right one!" Stacya shouted, clinging onto dear life while resisting his grasp.
Or at least trying to.
Austin stared into her eyes in silence for what seemed like an eternity and saw something in them.
Something he hadn't seen since Kaya, the original Blur.
Austin let her go, only for her to spring back up and laugh off the attack like nothing happened.
"You truly are a weird one. I wonder where Austin keeps finding you guys. First you, then that annoying nerd and that arrogant upstart. He really has a knack for picking up weirdos."
"Yes, but that is exactly why he picked us up. For our quirks. And that's why he chose to mold us into heroes before his passing. But friend Austin, do you think he would have liked this little vendetta of yours?"
Austin couldn't even attack her at that point.
The answer was a strong no. Vengeance was never Captain Rocket's thing. In fact, he strongly hated it.
So was it right to seek revenge for him?
"WHO CARES WHAT HE THINKS!"
A mysterious voice filled the room, leaving the two confused.
"W...what the hell?!" Austin shouted in shock as he reopened his security system through his wooden supercomputer.
"INTRUDER ALERT!" The whole base shouted as it initiated a lockdown of the entire base.
"I... I do not believe locking us in here is a good idea, friend Austin!" Stacya said as a cold sweat trickled down her cheeks, now grey once she removed her scuba gear which temporarily turned her human.
"Oh, and why do you think that, girl?" Austin said as he used his hawk eyes to look around but to no avail.
"BECAUSE YOU'RE STUCK IN HERE WITH ME!"
"MR. EEEEE!!!"
Austin activated his full armor and charged at Mr. E, who was loitering next to the wall behind the two. Austin had no idea how he found his base or how he managed to get in, but one thing was certain:
This f*cker dies today!
Or at least what Austin wanted, as Mr. E disappeared into the wall the moment Austin got close enough for a hit, leaving the exchange in only three seconds.
"Austin!"
Austin heard Stacya's voice and turned to see if Mr. E attacked her, but once he saw she was fine, he realized her eyes were fixed on something.
Mr. E dropped a few gifts before he disappeared.
BOOOM!!!
Austin woke up in a pile of rubble.
His base was gone.
His memories...
Kaya's suit...
Kaya...
Austin freed himself from the load of the rubble and noticed Stacya wasn't around. Just when he thought she was dead, he saw her unconscious under some rubble.
He hurried to rescue the poor girl, but before he could even touch her, he heard that damn voice again.
"OH COME ON! DON'T SAVE HER!! I THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THAN THAT!"
Austin turned to Mr. E and saw the four-eyed masked scumbag sitting on some rubble.
First he destroys our home.
Then you destroy my family.
"I won't let you destroy!!"
Austin instantly lunged at Mr. E, but his tentacles revealed themselves quickly from the ground and grabbed him.
Now held in place, Mr. E approached him and grabbed him by the throat.
"Damn! I appreciate the revenge story, but can you do that after I finish my plans?"
"H...how did you find me?" Austin asked.
"Oh, that day I took your buddy from you, I thought he was the only one capable of stopping me, but it turns out he was assembling a team of you fools to take me down. This I did the only rational thing and shot a piece of myself at you once you escaped.
Then, once you met your little team, the piece broke to pieces and and followed you to your respective lives.
Your boring lives.
But soon, those lives will cease to exist! Soon your new lives will begin! Soon your new world will..."
SLASH!
With a swift and decisive motion, Austin slashed Mr. E's head clean off.
It was over.
Austin had won.
So why was he still standing?
And holding him by the throat like he was nothing?
Suddenly, his head grew back like Austin's special move was never even made!
"Damn! You sure are a determined motherf*cker! But I like that! I love that instinct in you!"
But Austin barely paid attention to his words. He was more focused on finding something in the large piles of rubble that could get him out of this.
That's when he noticed a pile starting to melt.
"Oh! You saw it too! And I thought I was crazy for a second there!" Mr. E said as his fingers became large white spikes and headed towards the pile of melted rubble.
BOOM!
The rubble was ground to dust by the overgrown quills, but no one was there.
"Huh, I could've sworn your little fish friend was under there! Well, no matter! One of my clones will find her soon! But as for you and me, Austin, I have someone you'd really want to meet!" Mr. E said to a silent Austin as he sank into the broken ground.
While Stacya watched from a far-off corner behind them.
And swam away to find Jake.
So she could do what her master couldn't:
Stop Mr. E once and for all!
To be continued...