Zed squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for his fate. However, it never came. A streak of silver and red flew just inches from Zed's face, knocking Dazer's sword from his hands. Dazer yelled, looking in the direction that the streak had come from, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" The object that had knocked the sword from Dazer's hands slowly turned in midair and flew back to its owner.
Boomerang grinned and laughed as he caught the Sabre Fang, "I don't think so!" Behind him, lying on the floor in a pool of their blue blood, were two of the four Zoa Ziens. Noble Knight was also behind him, pulling her sword from the torso of a Ukoback.
Boomerang leapt forward and swung the Sabre Fang at Dazer while Noble Knight ran to Zed. "Lie still," she told the demon, "I'll see what I can do." Zed lay his head back, now totally oblivious to anything except the pain in his shoulder and chest. Noble Knight placed her hands on the wound on Zed's chest and chanted, her eyes closed, "Healing power, flowing white." A white glow engulfed the wound and it closed up. Most of the pain, however, remained. Noble Knight cursed, helping Zed to his feet, "Damn it...Sorry I couldn't do more, but white magic isn't exactly my specialty--"
She was cut off as something struck her from behind, causing her shoulder to slam hard into the metal wall of the room. "NK!" Zed yelled just as the silver warrior's attacker streaked past him.
It was a Cyclops, a large, dinosaur-like monster that Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia had fought on the New Moon, Malduke three years ago. Noble Knight brought her sword up in front of her while Zed ran as fast as his pain-ridden body would let him across the room toward the Doom Bringer.
Meanwhile, Dazer had recovered his own sword and was fighting Boomerang, the clone doing more damage than he was taking. Suddenly, Dazer slashed at Boomerang, making a long, horizontal gash on the demon's abdomen. Boomerang clutched the wound with one hand, but continued fighting, keeping himself between Dazer and Rudy who was fighting off Dark Knight while Elmina tried to kill the last two Zoa Ziens.
Rudy had to be careful not to do any real damage to Dark Knight, for Noble Knight would also feel it. Dark Knight was about fire her Single Shot ARM at Rudy again, when suddenly there was a shriek of surprise and she was hit from behind by something, causing her to go tumbling head-over-heels into the wall. Dark Knight groaned and looked down at herself to see a cross-eyed Dazer draped over her.
Dazer groaned as he got back to his feet, "Lucky shot..."
Elmina laughed as she pulled her sword from the chest of one of the Zoa Ziens, "Looks like you're starting to live up to your name, eh, Daze?" Dazer glared at her as Rudy finally disposed of the last Zoa Zien with a Hand Cannon bullet to its head.
Dazer growled, "That was a lucky shot. How long will it take you to figure out that we're superior to you three?!"
Zed grinned and laughed, rubbing his still throbbing shoulder, "Superior my ass! I can do something you two can't!" Elmina and Rudy looked at him, confused.
Dark Knight demanded, "And what's that?"
Zed grinned. "I can talk in FONTS!! How about you?" Dazer and Dark Knight looked at him and then at each other. Boomerang, Rudy, and Elmina burst out laughing.
Dark Knight responded, "Uh...like this?"
Boomerang stepped forward and laughed, still clutching the wound on his abdomen, "He said talk in fonts, not sizes!! Go to Hell until you've had some more practice!" Rudy had to hold onto the side of one of the pillars to keep his balance, for he was laughing so hard.
Dazer growled, his grip on the hilt of his sword tightening from frustration, "Enough of this shit! Get ready to die, all of you!!"
Zed's grin only became wider as he stated, "I don't think so! There's something else that I can do, that I'll bet you can't." Dazer and Dark Knight looked at him. "Morph! Monster Z!!"
Suddenly, all of the energy in the room seemed to focus on Zed. Dark Knight took a step backwards as Zed actually started to grow right in front of them. Zed grew at least two feet more, causing him to tower over the clones and the Dream Chasers. He had been about six feet and four inches tall to begin with. Now he was at least eight feet tall.
Zed's eyes abruptly attained a fiery red glow and his teeth elongated into razor-sharp fangs. His chest muscles and biceps started to buldge and his lightweight armor began pressing up against him until it was impossible for him to breathe. Then, his armor shattered, leaving him with only his shirt, boots, and cloth pants to protect him.
As Dark Knight and Dazer looked up at him, their eyes widened and their jaws dropped. Zed laughed and spoke, his voice now deep and intimidating like the Earthling actor James Earl Jones, "Who should get ready to die?"
Noble Knight shrieked and dodged as the Cyclops swung at her again with its massive, clawed arm. She had been running from the monster since it had attacked her, for none of her attacks seemed to do any damage to it. The Cyclops swung at her again, this time catching her off guard and slicing her left arm. Noble Knight managed to choke back a cry of pain as she clapped a hand over the wound.
Noble Knight yelled, a blue glow forming in her left hand, "Freeze...ARROW!!!!" An arrow of ice appeared in her hand which she threw at the Cyclops despite the pain in her arm. The arrow of ice streaked through the air and embedded itself in the Cyclops' neck. The monster roared in pain and swung its tail at Noble Knight, knocking her clear across the room and into a the wall. Noble Knight groaned and tried to get back to her feet, but her body would not respond anymore.
The Cyclops stood over the female warrior and opened its mouth, revealing its long, sharp, yellowed fangs. Noble Knight's vision started to haze over from weakness. Suddenly, there was a flash of silver to her left, a streak in front of her, right across the Cyclops' throat, and a then a flash to her right.
"WHAT THE?!" Noble Knight shrieked. The Cyclops' head suddenly slumped and it went limp, collapsing right in front of the warrior. Noble Knight struggled to see what had happened, and was slightly surprised to see that the monster's head had almost been separated from its neck by something. Something that was obviously incredibly sharp.
Noble Knight looked around the room as it became harder and harder for her to see through the haze. Then, she saw him. Even through the haze she could recognize him. Standing in the entryway behind her stood the clone Chakrum. He was holding one of his disks in one hand and was gripping onto his crutch with the other. His disk had the Cyclops' blood all over it and dripping off of it.
Chakrum looked down at Noble Knight. The female warrior began to get a strange lump in the back of her throat. Was he going to finish the job? However, instead of throwing his disk at her, Chakrum merely strapped it back onto his belt and limped out of the room.
Noble Knight asked before he left, weakly, "W-Why?"
Chakrum stopped and answered in a calm, quiet voice, "I...don't know..." With that, he disappeared into the corridors.
Noble Knight tried to get back to her feet again, but was stopped when her vision completely blurred. She looked down at the wound on her arm that the Cyclops had made. She groaned when she realized that she had lost almost too much of her blood from that one, deep wound. She then suddenly slumped and blacked out.
Rudy and Elmina laughed like maniacs as they ripped wiring and circuitry out of every computer they could find in the control room of the Filmsphere. Boomerang had separated from them to find Noble Knight who had disappeared. Zed was still in the room that they had left him in, keeping Dazer and Dark Knight at bay, which was not a problem in his Monster Z form.
Suddenly, the room started to rock around and there was an explosion in the background. Rudy spoke, "Uh...you think we should get out of here?"
Elmina answered, pulling her sword from the console of one computer, "Um...it would probably be a good idea!" The two of them then ran as fast as their feet could carry them back to the battle between the two clones and Zed.
Boomerang was fairly surprised to find himself following a scarlet trail of blood through the corridors of the Filmsphere. Somewhere, deep within himself, he found that he was hoping that the blood did not belong to Noble Knight. Boomerang's mind was a hurricane of questions as he followed the blood trail. Why did he feel so strange around her? Why did she act so strange around him?!
Boomerang abruptly grabbed his head with both of his hands, stopping in his tracks. His head was throbbing and he had a strange lump in both his stomach and the back of his throat. What was happening to him? He recognized the lump in his throat to be worry, but what was he worried about? There were certainly no majorly troublesome monsters, except for the fact that they could be a major annoyance. Zed was in his Monster Z form, so he could take care of himself. Afterall, as Boomerang himself had once told Lucied, the Monster Z form was almost as strong as his own Boomerang Flash form.
Boomerang shook his head and started walking again. He turned into a room and gasped, a new feeling rising in his gut. Lying motionless on the floor of the room in a pool of a dead Cyclops' and her own blood was Noble Knight. Boomerang found himself running to her and kneeling beside her.
"N-Noble Knight?" he whispered, gathering her limp body in his arms. He desperately took her wrist and felt for a pulse. Breathing a sigh of relief when he found one, Boomerang gently picked her up and hurried out of the room, trying to find Zed and the others.
Zed laughed, as if he was pleased with the groan of pain that he recieved from Dazer after hitting him with his only spell, Gaia Crash. Zed was overwhelmingly pleased with the fact that, for some reason, he could not feel the blows that he inflicted onto Dazer, but he was not being so wreckless with Dark Knight, for he did not know if he would be so lucky with her.
Then, after Zed had attacked Dazer with his favorite attack, Garyu Ichimongiri, Dazer's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell limply to the floor. Dark Knight's eyes widened as her shocked gaze switched rapidly from Zed, then to Dazer's motionless body, and back, again. For the first time in her almost two-week-long life, she was afraid.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the entire Filmsphere just as Rudy and Elmina bolted down the stairs, heading for the entrance to the Photosphere. Rudy yelled to Zed as he ran by, "Zed! Let's get out of here!! Back to the Gull Wing!!!!"
Zed looked at Rudy with his glowing, fiery-red eyes, and then back at Dark Knight who was backed into a corner of the room, actually shivering with fear. Zed grinned sinisterly and said, "Demorph." He abruptly shrank back to his original height of six feet and four inches. His muscles, eyes, and teeth returned to normal. As he transformed back, a mask of pure pain was painted onto his face. Demorphing hurt ten times worse than morphing ever could...
After finishing his transformation, Zed let out a shuddering sigh, looked up at Dark Knight, and then followed Elmina and Rudy. As the three of them ran out of the Filmsphere, they literally ran into Jack, Cecilia, Jane, Seph, and Lucied.
Rudy yelled, picking himself up off of the ground, "What the?! How the hell did you guys get here?! I didn't think you'd make it for another day!!"
Cecilia responded quickly, "Something that Bartholomew made makes the boat go faster. He calls it a motor. Now, c'mon! Well, take the Sweet Candy back to Adlehyde!" Flames were spewing out of the Filmsphere. It was quite obvious that Rudy and Elmina had ripped out something vital to the Filmsphere when they had gone on their destroying spree.
Zed asked, pointing toward the forest to the southeast where they had left the Gull Wing, "What about the airship?"
Elmina shrugged and answered, "It's hidden very well by the trees. Zeik and the others shouldn't be able to find it--"
She was cut off as Seph demanded, "Where is Noble Knight?!" Lucied barked, as if asking where Boomerang was.
Rudy answered, "We all got separated. Don't worry. They know where the Gull Wing is. They can get in it and escape."
Jack and Jane asked in unison just as the Dream Chasers and the Guardian began running in the direction of the Sweet Candy, "But do they know how to fly it?!"
Zed replied, "Boomer's a fast learner. He'll figure it out."
However, as they ran, not one of the Dream Chasers noticed a figure carrying something run out of the Filmsphere, enter the forest, and leap into the Gull Wing...
"WHOA SHIT!!" Boomerang cried, steering the Gull Wing just a few inches from a large tree. "Oh, god...it's a good thing I'm a fast learner...that was WAY too close!!" he muttered to himself, his breathing labored. Though his attention had mostly been focused on the clouds, Boomerang had watched Rudy fly the Gull Wing and had quickly learned what the joystick was for and what all of the dials and buttons were for. It was not as hard to fly the Gull Wing as it had looked after all.
As the Gull Wing finally exited the forest and soared over the ocean, clouds flying by, Boomerang looked over his shoulder and at Noble Knight's still motionless form in one of the passenger seats.
He muttered, "Don't worry, Noble Knight...I'll...I'll find you some help...somewhere..." He let out a heavy sigh and turned his attention back to the sky. With nothing happening, and nothing else to do, Boomerang let his thoughts drift to what was happening inside himself.
Everytime he looked at Noble Knight, a strange lump rose in his stomach. Everytime she spoke to him, an uncomfortable, yet soothing, chill ran down his spine. Sometimes he found himself staring at her, and he also had troubles speaking to her directly, as if he was afraid that he would say the wrong thing to her. Before he had been framed in Adlehyde, Boomerang had actually found himself worrying about Noble Knight as she left. He quickly discovered that he had been worrying about her while he was in the Filmsphere following the trail of blood.
"Wh-What's...happening to me?" he whispered to himself.
Snapping back to the present, Boomerang abruptly found himself just flying the airship in a big circle. He righted the Gull Wing and looked down at the ocean. He was fairly surprised to see the Sweet Candy under him.
Apparently the Dream Chasers noticed him, for Zed suddenly started jumping up and down and waving at Boomerang. Lucied leaped onto the railing and started howling. Boomerang burst into laughter when Seph leapt up onto the railing, but accidenly ended up falling completely off of the boat.
Boomerang muttered to himself, gently touching his throbbing stomach where Dazer had stabbed him, "I'll bet they're heading toward Adlehyde, but that's probably too far for Noble Knight to make." He looked over his shoulder at Noble Knight again. "The closest town is Rosetta...I'd better get Noble Knight there...she won't last much longer unless her wounds are taken care of." With that, Boomerang gently pulled the stick to his left and soared in the direction of Rosetta.