The Leagues all stood around the center field. Each wearing their various medals they had won this League Wars. The screens, now fully repaired, hovered around them as the millions of fans cheered and applauded their leagues.
“Ladies and Gentlemen...please...” The announcer calmed the robust audience. “Thank you. We end this, the fifth League Wars, with honor and pride. It has been a strange event this time around, but the heroes only proved their merit by battling a true villain in the midst of this contest. Now, we would like to thank our international sponsors who have made it possible for people of Earth to see this, free of charge.” Images flashed on the screen from the sponsors for a moment, then the screens flickered and an orange haze swept into the stadium. “I’m sorry, but it appears to be some kind of technical difficulty.”
Krystal Fae left her league and rushed to the center stage. “No, not again!”
The cackling voice of Spirit of Halloween boomed out, “Truly amazing, friends. Such a wonderful trick to play on me.” His face first appeared on the screens.
Shinobi groaned, “Not this guy again.”
Fleagle growled.
Starmaster called out, “What do you want this time?”
Suddenly, from the middle of the field, a giant, semi-transparent Spirit of Halloween rose. It filled the arena with its size, and continued to laugh as he rose higher, above the heroes. “Did you really think you could trap me in another dimension? A good trick, but certainly not permanent.”
Chromatic Death yelled, “I’m ready whenever you are!” He strummed his guitar.
“Time for tricks is over!” Spirit said, “you have tricked the trickster, now it is time for the treat. Powered candy, a gift to the heroes who gave me the best Halloween in many years.” He grew in size and rose higher until he was outside the station. Suddenly he exploded and a shower of colored dots rained down across the planet below. Some of the dots landed inside the arena.
Everyone spent a moment looking at each other. Krystal reached down and picked up a piece of this candy. “This is...just candy? No, there is more to this.” She unwrapped and closed her hands over it. Other heroes were picking up pieces, investigating them. With a shot, she opened her eyes and gasped, “morphon enhanced candy. We need to get this before it causes any trouble.”
Starmaster came over holding up his communicator, “I just tried contacting the station. I’m getting the all-clear, but I can’t contact Nova.”
“Must still be fixing things over there.” She ran up to the mic, still at center stage. “Heroes, we have a job to do. Time to gather some candy. Spread out, cover the Earth. Find all this candy.” Heroes rushed away from the arena, having picked it clean of the candy.
Heretic and Dredge came over to Krystal. Dredge begrudgingly said, “Should someone go tell WMD about this? They’ve already left the arena, after that mic-drop moment from Midgardsormr.”
Krystal thought for a moment. “I don’t know. Are they back on Earth yet?”
Heretic snarled, “I don’t know, and I don’t care. They’ll figure it out. And, if they don’t, more for the rest of us.”
“Fine. You guys head off. I’ll join my team and get to work on this.” They left her for their league. She vanished in a flash of purple light.
While the sponsors were still running across the screens, the Arena completely emptied.
“Okay, this is just nuts.” EB kicked a door.
“What?” Chaz asked.
“Nothing will open. I can’t even get this door to open for the access shaft. We have to find Nova.”
Gar came over and punched the button. When it buzzed at him, he suddenly reached back and then laid a fist into the door, broke a hole in it, and ripped it clear from the wall. “There.”
“Whoa, gett’n serious.” EB said.
Gar growled, “I’ve had enough. Find Nova, now.”
“Aye, aye, sir.” EB gave a salute and then blasted down the shaft at his normal, near-light speeds.
Gar walked back to the center of the room. “We have to get the controls working.”
Chaz tapped buttons, but nothing responded. “It’s active, at least it looks active. It’s like looking at a painting of it working.”
“Computer, authorization code Omega Seven Pi Alpha.” Gar called out his clears code, but the computer didn’t respond.
Chaz jumped up. “What about pulling out the plug?”
“What?”
He looked around, “Um, you know, when my TV box is totally screwed up and the remote won’t work, they tell me to unplug it and wait a few seconds and then plug it back in. It causes it to reboot.”
“Computers wear boots?”
Chaz shook his head, “no, it means it will reset it. Maybe it will go back to what it was supposed to be doing before. Do you have any idea where the main power plug is for this place?”
Gar smiled brightly. “Yes! I think I do. Director Nova told me about the main power junction that connects the Operations to the rest of the station. I think he said something about a power connection.”
“Worth a try.”
Gar ran over to a part of the wall near the main monitors. He ignored the bolts required to remove the panel and just tore it free. Inside was a lot of smaller cords, and one giant, red glowing cord. It had hazard warnings all over it.
Chaz joined him, “Looks good. Now, what do we use to disconnect it and not get electrocuted?”
Gar smiled, “can’t electrocute stone.” He leaned in, wrapped his arms around the cord, and pulled hard.
EB raced into the security area, “NOVA! BUDDY!” He jumped over and around fallen robots. “Man, it’s dark.” He created a glowing egg and paused in the middle of the hall. “NOVA!”
“DOWN HERE!” Nova yelled.
EB smiled, “Oh, that way.” He ran a few feet, jumped over a robot, but hit its arm as it was now moving. He tumbled across the floor and landed on his face, the glowing egg rolling away.
“Intruder! Intruder!” The robot stated and rose to its feet, taking aim with its gun.
EB was about to say his access code, when the robot shot. He jumped and bounced off walls to avoid being lasered in the face, “HEY, WATCH IT!”
“Intruder!” Another robot stated and stood up, then another joined it. All those robots he had jumped over, and some he had yet to pass, became active.
“YIPES!” He had to jump all over the place to avoid the dozen lasers being fired his direction.
“Intruder, halt...halt...intruder.” The robots spoke in jagged speech, and their movements were worthy of a bad zombie movie.
EB formed an exploding egg and threw it as he flew through the air. It exploded on contact and blew the head off of a robot. “What’s going on?”
“EB, HELP!” Nova called out.
“BUDDY!” He threw another egg, this one exploding with a lot of sticky taffy that stuck two robots together. With an opening formed, he raced down the hallway.
Rounding the last corner, he slid to a stop at the sight of the robots pointing their guns at Nova, who was inside Skelanimal’s cell.
“LEAVE MY BUDDY ALONE!” EB formed several eggs and threw them one after the other. Heads, arms, and legs were all destroyed by his onslaught. In a matter of moments, the robots guarding these cells were piles of smoking, sparking debris.
Nova rolled his one eye, “That’s gonna cost us.”
“You okay?” EB jumped up and pressed the open button. The field didn’t come down.
Nova said, “I’m fine. But our friend is gone and has left us with these nasty surprises.”
EB hopped up several times, tapping the button over and over and over. “Stupid thing. It’s like this down in Operations. Nothing’s working.”
“intru...in...truder...intruder...” The robot guards came from around every corner. New ones were activating and joining this army.
EB turned, pressing his back against the wall. “Crap, crap, crap. This is bad.” he formed eggs in each paw.
“Get away, they can’t hurt me and...” Just then the lights went off, the robots all went silent, and all electronic sounds buzzed off.
EB asked, “what...just happened?”
“I don’t know.” Nova answered.
The lights all came back on and the robots remained still as the lights on their heads flickered.
“What’s that?” EB asked.
Nova frowned, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say they are resetting.”
Gar’s voice came over the comm, “Director, we have reset the station. Systems are coming back to normal.”
EB hopped up and slapped the control again. This time the field came down. “IT WORKS!”
Nova stepped out, “Good work. I need an internal scan. Skelanimal is loose.”
Gar said, “Sorry, systems are still re-shoeing...” Chaz said something, “Oh, um, they are rebooting. Sensors aren’t working yet.”
“Get me those sensors. Lock down every access port on this station. Make sure the escape pods are sealed and locked.”
“Um… okay.”
“Do your best. I have to find Skelanimal.” Nova flicked off the comm.
“Do you think he’s still here? Wouldn’t he have gone a long time ago?” EB asked.
“The shuttles and pods were all accounted for after the Spirit event. There is no other way off the station for him. And I know Skelanimal cannot teleport.”
“Where would he go to hide?” EB asked.
“He would try to get off. Hopefully, we can trap him in a pod if he...tries to...oh no.” Nova started running.
“WHAT?” EB followed.
“I have to check on something. You go back and get Dr. Henderson to medical.”
“Right-o sir.” EB raced back to the cell.
Nova ran through the station as fast as he could muster. Most of the systems were back online, but some remained in rebooting. He shoved two doors open and launched himself through the food court and toward the same door he had returned to this station days ago.
Sliding to a stop, he pressed a code in and the docking doors opened. His face drained of color and he let out a soft sigh. He stood before an open hatch with force fields keeping space from pulling him out of the station. What he should be looking at was the inside of the small shuttle he had arrived on. It was gone.
Slapping his comm he said, “Gar, do you see a shuttle outside?”
Gar said, “No. We don’t have sensors yet. But we have visual. No shuttles.”
“Sir, are you there?” Suddenly Dr. Henderson’s voice came through his comm. She sounded muffled, like a person fresh from the dentist's office.
“Doctor, are you okay?”
“I’ve been better. But we have a situation down here.”
“What now?”
“It’s Strange Quark….he’s missing.”
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