The Order of Nightmare: Universal Heroes (Part 10)

The Order of Nightmare
Universal Heroes
Part 10

Subshock Realm – Mindy’s Castle
“Well, this is a familiar sight, heroes.” Mindy snickered. “Welcome back to your second home.”
The villains tossed each of the heroes and allies into cells. Similar to the previous time, they were thrown in according to worlds, with each hero and ally being separated from the others. Theo only exceptions were the Earth heroes, where Eric, Natalie, Celeste, and Zoey were given separate cells. The cells were all arranged in a circle, so the villains stood in the center of the prison.
“Let us go.” Growled Armagon.
“We’ll just escape like last time.” Blackash shouted.
Mindy aimed her Dark Cannon at them and fired. The heroes shielded their eyes, but found that the blast did not hit them. The bars had reflected the shot.
“Unlike last time.” Mindy spoke menacingly, “These prison bars are indestructible. Nothing will tear them down. Nothing gets in…and nothing gets out.”
“Well, if nothing get’s in, how’d we get in?” smirked Gallium.
Mindy ignored him. “With no more heroes to get in our way, we’ll continue on our way to domination. And afterwards, we will release you back into your worlds, where you can try and feebly stop us, but it will be too late. We’ll give the universe a false sense of hope. ‘Oh, the heroes are back!’ ‘Oh, they’ll save us!’ Wrong!”
“You’re days of saving us are over.” Stygia growled.
Klader dragged Stellarlite out of the room. “We’ll see how long he can survive my little ‘experimenting’. Hehehe.”
Mindy whistled. Three huge Hunters entered the room. One sported gatling guns and a missile silo for arms. One had a spear and a sword, and one had massive, spiked iron fists. They all stood in the center of the room and remained idle.
“Should any of you escape,” Crystal snickered. “Not that you would, but for some reason, if there were an emergency prison breakout, you will all be subjected to a slow and painful death by these Hunter units.”
Alpha and Omega installed television monitors on the ceilings. “Now you can see what will become of your worlds when we demolish them.”
“See you all later.” Mindy and the villains exited the room. Lustrous and Luminous sat in their cell, trying to think of a plan.
“Well, this is a total fuck-up.” Haunted Doom snarled. “We’re trapped once again, and there are those massive robots trying to kill us.”
“There must be some way out.” Persuadere grabbed her sword and began slashing at the bars. Boom began punching the cell bars as hard as he could. The Gladiator Devils were taking turns slashing at the bars. Eric robots blasted away at the walls.
“Save your energy.” Temporalia sat against the cell wall and began smoking a pipe. “We’re not getting out for a while.”
“How would you know unless you tried?” asked Phoebe.
“Because I’ve tried before.” Temporalia answered. “This happened in the future. The villains do some damage, throw fear into the faces of the civilians, and cause some major chaos everywhere. Then we have to go save them, but it’ll be too late. Klader gets too powerful, Mindy’s forces become too influential, and the Hunters become too prominent. We’ve already lost again.”
“Well, we’re all together again.” Essence commented. “We should be able to do it this time.”
“Yeah.” Outrage added. “We’re not fighting anymore.”
“So what?” Temporalia puffed some smoke out into the Hunters. “I thought that if I fixed the problems at the source, we’d be able to change the future…and I find out after all that hard work, we’re still in the same place we are 50 years from now…”
No-name turned to her cell. “There’s still time. We can still make a difference.”
“You didn’t see the future.” Temporalia growled. “Don’t waste your time on the inevitable.”
“What should we be doing then?” asked Xepian.
Temporalia tipped her hat and continued to smoke her pipe. “We should just think of a place to hide once they free us so we don’t get killed.”
“I don’t know about you guys.” Axis drew his swords. “But I don’t intend on dying here…or ever. If Klader and Dark No-name are truly expert swordfighters, than they are two more opponents I shall be facing before defeat.”
“You talk about sword-fighting so much,” sighed Natalie. “Is that really what you would die for?”
Axis nodded. “Sword-fighting is my life. I accompanied the Elite Scorp Militia in their endeavors to defeat Scorpain. But my true passion is to become the universe’s greatest swordfighter. I will defeat you, No-name.” He pointed his swords at him. “Count on that.”
No-name smiled. “I await our next match.”
Axis growled. “But until then, I simply refuse to die until that condition is met.” He raised his sword into the air. “For honor.”
Gallium raised his cards into the air. “For skill.”
Turbo raised his sword and shield into the air. “For glory.”
Ryne flared his wings. “For justice.”
Necria waved her hands. “For zombies!”
Axis used his swords and began climbing the walls of his cell. He crawled onto the roof of the cell. Voltage and the other Elite Scorps watched as he carved a hole into the top of the cell and crawled inside.
“None of you others can do that?” asked Sierra.
“That takes a lot of energy.” Voltage explained. “We can’t cling to walls or carve an opening into the wall.”
“I could cling to the walls.” Venom suggested, “But neither me, Rose, or Ranger can break through the ceiling.”
“My robots can blast through the ceiling,” Eric commented.
“But we can’t reach the opening.” Torture Droid lowered his head.
“Even still.” Tombstone shrugged. “Where is Axis gonna go? It doesn’t look like there are any air ducts up there.”
“Well, whatever.” Millennium pulled out a deck of cards, and he and Gallium began playing Spades. “Might as well wait until either the Hunters bring him back or he returns on his own.”
Boom sat down and began drinking some whiskey. “Amen to that.”
Torture Droid did a quick scan of the bars. “Master Eric. These bars are made of the same material that the Hunters are made out of.”
“What does that mean?” asked Miss Mischief.
“It means that the bars will adapt to any attack or status we inflict upon it.” Torture Droid explained. “It adapts to fit the environment.”
“What kind of material is this?” asked Spear.
“It was an experiment.” Eric replied. “I used a bit of this material for Project Warrior, but that didn’t work out too well.”
“What’s Project Warrior?” asked Espionage.
“It was this super robot I made as an ultimate weapon, but for defensive purposes only. Crystal hacked into it and unleashed it onto San Diego.”
The screens turned on overhead, and the heroes watched as the Subshock Army and its affiliates began marching through some incredibly massive city.
“Where are they?” asked Maria.
“That’s the capitol of Nightmare World, Shadow City.” Luminous spoke.
“What are they going to do?” asked Ketamine.
“Who knows?” Lustrous lowered his head. “But with the HQ in ruins and the heroes missing, there’s not much stopping them at this point…”
Persuadere glanced at them. “Are you giving up?”
“We’re accepting the reality of the situation.” Sighed Luminous.
“You can’t give up!” Persuadere cried. “I won’t allow it.” She began slashing furiously at the cell walls. “We cannot die in here!”
“Ah, save your energy.” Melancholy grumbled. “The robot already said we can’t get out.”
“There must be another way.” Persuadere cried. She smashed her shield into the bars. “We cannot die here.”
The three Hunters outsides suddenly fell to the floor and began convulsing on the floor. An army of tiny humanoid alien females surrounded the base. Four ravishing women landed before the heroes. Another woman in a gray dress walked in. She wore black earrings and had silver hair. Finally, Axis walked in, slashing the Hunters apart with his swords.
“Axis!” Voltage shouted. “You’re alive.”
Axis nodded. “I ran into some help along the way.” He turned to the silver dress woman. “She claims to be affiliated with Gallium. I assume she meant our Gallium.”
“Platinum!” Gallium shouted. “Damn, you’re alive?”
“What does that mean?” Platinum smirked. “Of course I’m alive, you idiot.”
Gallium sighed heavily. “Well, that’s certainly good news.”
Axis smirked, and then turned to the other four women. “These four say they’re here to save their king: A&O.”
“King?” asked Necria.
“I’m the king of the Souleers.” A&O spoke.
“White Queen, Red Queen, Silver Queen, and Black Queen reporting for duty.” They ran over to A&O’s cage. “Oh, King A&O. We haven’t forgotten about you. We’re here to save you,”
“How did you know he was here?” asked Persuadere.
“I saved them, along with that Platinum girl.” Axis muttered. “They all told me who they were looking for, and then I told them about us, and so they followed me here and helped me out.”
“Well, that’s good.” Replied Haunted Doom. “Now get us the fuck outta here!”
“Not necessary.” Terra Techno landed down from above and crushed several Souleers. Dark No-name emerged from the shadows and pinned down the four queens. Klader warped in and began attacking the Souleers. Pyra began creating massive fires, trapping the Souleers inside the room. Black Pepper struck Platinum across the face with her trident and knocked her to the ground. Stygia lashed out her sword at Axis, but he dodged the attack. Meanwhile, Malicia began rounding up all the Souleers.
“Nice going, villains.” Mindy walked in. She lifted Axis into the air using her Subshock powers. She then smashed him into the ground and knocked him unconscious. “Couldn’t even free yourselves this time…what is this? So, you’re rescue involves an army of alien women, four crazed queens, a casino worker and a swordfighter? Looks like T.O.O.N. recruit quality has gone downhill.”
Crystal walked in and glanced at the destroyed Hunters. “Hmm, I suppose I’ll have to replace those ones.”
“No need, my dear.” Mindy smirked. “We’ll have plenty more at the ceremony.”
“What ceremony?” asked Blazette.
“In due time, ghosty.” Mindy’s hand flashed, and many Armored Citrids entered the area. They quickly began escorting all of them into the Daybreaker. As soon as the last hero was loaded in, the ship rose off the ground and began heading towards Nightmare World. The Hell Bringer, the WNTC Cruisers, the Night Charger, and various Exectuors, FE Battleships, and Subshock Stormships followed them.
“What’s going on here?” growled Lustrous.
“You’re in for a lot of pain if you don’t tell us where we’re going.” Luminous shouted.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Mindy ignited her red Beamsword and aimed it at them. “You two have a hell of a nerve talking back to the new leader of the universe.”
“Leader?”
Mindy nodded. “It will all be explained at the main event in Shadow City.”
“When are you gonna give up?” Boom growled. “You know we’re going to win. It’s inevitable.”
“And now we’re getting crap from the alcoholic property damager?” Mindy blasted lightning out of her hands and blasted Boom with it. “Sit down, shut up, and watch.”