The large bodies of the two iron golems made loud clang noises through the underground tunnels of Traquo while the two Guardians and the human made their way to their destination. The walls shook slightly with each step of the over sized summoned creatures, and the water build up along the sides splashed off to the ground at faster rates.

Joel looked further ahead with determined eyes, then sighed and said, "I can’t believe Luke is putting Traquo through all of this."

"Y, you know L,luke?" Byron asked Joel. As Joel nodded silently at the man, Byron asked, "Then y, you must be more than a b,bad guy if you knew b,both of them."

"You might say Dirk and Luke discovered him!" Ryan exclaimed.

"Discovered? M, my brother did s, say he uncovered s,something like human." Byron said with a slowly rising voice, "T, there’s so much to unc,cover about you, i,it’s so amazing!"

Ryan nudged Joel and rubbed his head and said, "Hey man, not even this guy knows everything about himself!"

Joel inched away from Ryan and shook his head. He ran his fingers through his long hair and pushed it off to the side and grumbled for a moment.

Ryan perked up suddenly, clenching his fist with a look of excitement, and exclaimed, "What’s amazing is how strong that giant robot was! If the technology here is so advanced already they must have already made a suit that increases the user’s strengths by ten fold!"

Joel shook his head and mumbled, "Please let there not be!" He looked up and said, "They’ve already made teleportation devices and laser guns."

Ryan thrust his fist into the air with another wide grin and said, "And automated vehicles, and space ships, and giant robots, and tanks!"

Joel slumped his shoulders down and hanged his head low, and he waved his left hand up into the air as Ryan chanted his happy tune and added, "…And microwaves, and vacuums, and mechanical pencils…"

Ryan lowered his arm and put his hands to his sides and said, "Only the essentials, man."

The three stopped under a slight glimmer of light from above shining down into the tunnels. Byron waved his hand back to his two golems to command them to stop in their place. Joel put out his flaming light source from his free hand and looked up through the small holes in the manhole. They had reached their destination underneath the prison tower. Already they could hear the earth rumbling from above from the security vehicles and robots moving around on the surface, which was a much greater force than their two golems.

Joel turned his attention to his friends for a moment, and then he dragged one of the two golems directly under the manhole.

"So how are we going to start this?" Joel asked Ryan.

Ryan looked up and put his right finger to his lips as if he were tasting the air around him and thought for a while.

"Well, we could do this one of two ways." Ryan exclaimed. He put his right hand onto the golem that Joel had tugged over and said, "We can either toss up these big guys and have them distract the guards and wreak some havoc while we get around." He took his hand off the golem, "Or." He looked at Byron and extended his hand out to the man and said, "We could toss this guy up in their place!"

Joel and Byron both jumped back in surprise at Ryan’s comment, and Byron cried, "W, what? Not me!"

Joel slumped his shoulders and dropped his head, letting out a sigh and said, "Ignore the crazy man tonight, Byron." He stood up straight and looked up towards the shimmering shallow light and said, "Let’s just get the golems up there and start a diversion so we can get into the building and get to Dirk."

Joel thought for a moment before he made any other moves.  He took hold of the ladder up to the top of the manhole above them and began to climb up to the surface.  He slightly lifted the top up enough to be able to see what was outside around them.  Surely enough, Joel saw a large towering building that was well guarded.  The stone walls around the building, like the old prison, had several laser cannons lined up on each side, scanning for intruders and escapees.  Search lights beamed across the ground and up into the dark, cloudy sky where they faded into the heavens.  In addition to these features there were plenty of Traquo military guards and cyborgs marching around the boundaries of the grounds.

Joel slid down to the tunnel and said, "Well they look like pretty strong guards this time."

"A mixture of everything, huh?" Ryan asked.

Joel nodded and Ryan stepped up next to the golem and looked up the manhole with Joel.

"We'll need a plan!" Joel said, clenching his fist in determination.

Ryan shook his head quietly with a grin, then kneeled down under the golem Joel had pulled under the manhole.  He grabbed the golem around it's legs and heaved it up into the air through the small manhole tunnel opening above them.

Joel's eyes opened up wide in shock and he cried, "Wait!  What about a plan?"

As they watched the golem force it's way through the small opening towards the surface, leaving an outline of it's figure along the way, Byron stepped up and exclaimed, "B,but if it goes up l,like that it'll become w,wild and out of..."

Ryan grinned even more slyly and crossed his arms together over his chest and interrupted Byron by saying, "Good!"  He turned around to the other golem and looked up at it and said, "That means you don't have to go through the trouble of ordering it around, man!"

Joel looked at Ryan, then at the golem, which seemed to be sweating in unsureness as if it had a conscience of its own.  Already they could hear mass battle cries from the forces above as they tried to take on the golem, and Byron's golem let out a loud and monsterous cry as it started to move about on its own.

Ryan stepped up to the second golem and pulled it under the hole to the surface, and it appeared to try resisting in fear.  However, Ryan's strength alone was enough to counteract the tamed monster and soon found itself in the air flying towards the surface to meet its battle partner.

"Wow!  I feel so cruel!"  Ryan exclaimed, scratching his head as he looked up at the second golem.

"You really think this is going to work, Ryan?" Joel asked as he reached out for the ladder again.

Byron looked in excitement between the two Guardians, waiting for what next to come.

"Of course, man.  I'm the Guardian of the Mind after all!  When have I been wrong?" Ryan chuckled as he lifted himself off the ground in levitation.

Joel paused himself for a moment against the ladder and asked, "How long do I have to think?"

"No time, dude." Ryan said.  He looked down at Byron, who was inching towards the ladder and exclaimed, "No time for talk.  You should stay here and hide.  We'll do it all, or your money and golems back!"

Byron stopped in his tracks and slumped back and stuttered, "R,really?"  He paused for a moment, thinking about his golems, then said, "Hey!"

Ryan shrugged his shoulders and flew up to the surface, and Joel climbed up after him. Up on the surface there was much to be heard as bullets flew through the air, clanging and ricocheting back and forth off of each golem as the monsters pummeled through the human defenses. The robotic soldiers ran in for melee combat through the gunfire from the humans, emotionlessly and unwillingly swinging their mechanical body parts at the larger monsters only to have each hit deflected back by the golems’ hard bodies. This did not stop the robots, though, and they repositioned themselves after each swing and tried again.

Joel and Ryan made their way through the top of the manhole just as a laser shot out of one of the surrounding cannons of the barrier walls. Joel clung tightly to the side of the hole with one arm and patted his head and hair with his other arm to insure himself that he wasn’t hit. Ryan shot quickly up and out of the hole and backed up close to the side of the building in the middle of the grounds. Joel sighed in assurance and jumped up next to Ryan against the wall. The two looked around to the sides, making sure they were unnoticed in the shadows of the darkness in the commotion, and Ryan waved for Joel to move to the right along the walls to the front doors to the building. The search lights had all been diverted onto the scene of the action where the golems were rampaging about so the Traquo soldiers would have an easier time targeting the magical creatures.

A swing from one of the two golems' arms sent several cyborg troopers flying back into the air. Their metallic armor began to dent and fold along their bodies as they received repeated smashing blows. The Traquo forces cried and panicked as the large metal bits flew back towards them and ceased their firing temporarily to move out of the way. After making close escapes from flinging shrapnel from the golems the soldiers regained their footing and continued their fire. The laser cannons along the walls began to fully focus on the golems, shooting their high temperature rays at the raging beasts. The attacks were of as little use as the bullet fire from the humans against the stone and steel bodies of the golems, mostly getting deflected and absorbed with mere sparks.

Joel stopped at the corner of the building behind Ryan, just before turning to the front gate. He looked back at the humans and thought about the situation for a moment. Suddenly he felt two small feet land on his right shoulder. He looked to his side and saw a tiny version of himself standing next to him beside his ear, whispering words into his head.

"Joel, don't you think it's best to stop the fighting and end things peacefully?" the character asked.

"Ryan?" Joel asked, "Is that you doing that?"

The figure shook its little head and said, "No, Joel, I am the good side of your conscience."

Joel scratched his head and said, "Oh, so you're here to tell me right from wrong?"

"Yes, now stop being a brainless klutz and do something for them!" The gleaming soul told Joel.

A blacker figure appeared on his left side and tugged hard on Joel's ear and yelled, "Don't do that! Those dimwits get what they deserve!"

Joel rubbed his left ear and shook his head, then said, "Are you my black conscience?"

The figure nodded with a twisted look on his face and said, "Yeah, where have you been in the last thousand years?"

"You're asking the wrong person, I think." Joel told it.

Joel's good half fluttered over to Joel's left shoulder next to his evil counterpart and smacked its head with its staff and yelled with its tiny voice, "Oh no you don't! We're not turning this into another cliché!"

"A cliché? What do you mean? All stupid people need to die, just like this whole city!" Joel's evil side declared.

The two began glaring hateful looks at each other and growled quietly when they felt Joel's shoulders weigh down slightly more. They both stopped what they were doing and looked over to Joel's right shoulder again and noticed a stubby and fat version of Joel whispering into Joel's right ear.

"I'm hungry, aren't you?" the fatty figure mumbled into Joel's head.

Joel crossed his arms over his belly and thought for a moment, then said, "It is about breakfast time, isn't it?"

Joel's evil side flapped its devilish wings and floated over to Joel's right side and said, "Hey, who do you think you are?"

"I'm hungry, can't you tell?" the soul told the dark one.

The dark side leaped up into the air, revealing a small scythe, and said, "C'mere! I'll give you hungry!"

As it swung it's small weapon, it was stopped in mid-air after being stopped by a fourth small hand by a figure wearing glasses and reading a book.

"Judging by your acute techniques and poor aim, it is more than easy to block and evade that attack, evil side. You should have known better." the fourth figure said, putting away the book in its hands and adjusting its glasses.

"Coordination, wraah!" Evil side cried, its face beginning to fluster red.

Good side floated back to Joel's right side where the three others were standing and said, "Hey, who invited all of you guys along anyway?"

By this time Joel's right side was being weighed down completely, and he was having a hard time keeping himself at a level standing position as he watched the four converse between each other.

"Cliché or not, I do believe the author of this adventure is trying to show otherwise and get far away from it all and be fairly original!" Coordination exclaimed.

"Author? Who?" Joel asked the small souls in curiosity.

They all came to a silent pause as they heard a loud drooling sound from the left side and felt the right side lifting up as if Joel's shoulders were leveling out again. There was another small version of Joel laying on the edge of Joel's left side, drooling as it slept and snored through the argument.

The four turned blue in their faces and the good and evil sides of Joel moaned, "Not stupid side!"

"It appears that Joel's stupid side out weighs us all!" Coordination said.

"Lucky us." Good and Evil mumbled together.

Ryan peered around the corner of the building and reached out for Joel's arm. He pulled Joel quickly around the corner and towards the entrance again, throwing all of Joel's subconscious off into the air.

"Come on, man, this isn't time to space out!" Ryan told Joel.

A small figure of Ryan appeared out of no where next to his head, floating along side of them, and said with a small voice, "And the sooner we're done here, the sooner we can get to world domination and conquest!"

Ryan let out a small childish giggle and a slight grin and then swapped his own mini subconscious away as he reached the door of the building. The two Guardians peered inside the glass doors. Inside the entrance they saw a small entry room with a desk and several sensors for security detection. There were four guards standing around the desk and two accountants at the center typing at their computers and taking phone calls. Ryan pushed Joel back and stood against the wall with a look of excitement over his face.

Joel nudged Ryan’s side and asked, "Now what’s gotten into you all of the sudden, Ryan?"

"Oh, nothing, man." Ryan told Joel, "Just thinking about how cool it’d be to dress up in trench coats and run in with a suit full of fire arms and shooting all the guards to death on our way in."

Joel gave a deep sigh and shook his head, then said, "I know we’ve been acting weird and goofily energetic these last few moments, but we really have to get this mission over and done with before it’s too late!"

Ryan quickly shook his head, shaking his brains back into place, and said, "Right! No more goofing around!" He began tightening his gloves and let out another slight grin and said, "It’s time to get serious then. Watch this!"

"Those golems won't stand forever. They'll eventually be taken down." Joel cautioned Ryan.

Ryan nodded and acknowledged Joel's comment and said, "I'm thinking, already!" He crossed his arms and turned around towards the building and put his head to it to listen through the walls, and after several moments of inspecting the building Ryan said, "There's no doubt this building is really defended, and there's a lot of soldiers in there." Joel looked at the building and put his head onto the wall as Ryan spoke, "No matter what we do we'll some how be rushed by an outstanding number of guards from all directions." Ryan placed his hands down to his sides and continued, "Not even pure agility like we've shown in the last day or your heat shield could save us for long." He drew his sword from his sheath and added, "Not unless we disable a majority of them some how."

Joel removed his head from the wall and noticed Ryan's sword gleaming in the darkness, slightly illuminating the blade and said, "I'm not going to take killing as an option just yet. If we replace their leader everything will be fine."

Ryan nodded with a grin and held his Masamura in front of his face and said, "I know. That wasn't my first intention now." Joel gave Ryan a paranoid, curious look as his friend waved his hand about, casting a spell, and then called out, "Enhancement!"

A highly energetic aura surrounded Ryan as he cast his spell over himself. He lifted himself slightly up into the air with levitation and turned towards the door. He looked slightly back to Joel with his sword down and waved at him with his other hand.

"The fun begins, man. I only have thirty minutes of super powers to help us get through the line of fire." Ryan told him.

Joel nodded at Ryan and said, "I think I remember it from when Zareon had control over me. Let's do this!"

Ryan leaned back and slid into view through the large glass doors of the building's entry.  The guards immediately saw Ryan and clicked up their weapons, and the receptionists began to shake in their seats with their phones.  Ryan flew into the building, bursting through the glass doors.  He quickly removed his blue mantle and cape and threw it across the room over two of the guards on the left side, covering them in darkness and knocking them over with the weight of the mantle.  Ryan sped blindingly through the room and stopped right in front of the other two guards still standing on the left side of the room. He twirled his Masamura about between them as if he were threatening to kill them as the blade went from side to side in circles as well as over and into the air. Ryan paused his action while holding his sword in the air in pure grace and then he twirled it around once more and brought it down over the left guard. He halted his action right over the guard and let out his big grin.

"Boo." Ryan greeted with a sly tone as he stared them down.

The guards on the right side watched in fear and grief as Ryan stood in front of their comrades.  They shook and shivered with uncertainty, not wanting to fire their weapons while their friends were standing in the line of fire.  The two receptionists threw their phones up into the air and ducked under their desks to hide from the monster invading their home.  Of the two guards on the left side of the room still standing, the right guard began to twitch a bit, looking between Ryan and his gun.  He made up his mind and quickly shoved the gun towards Ryan's gut and reached for the trigger.

Ryan looked down at the guard's sudden movement and swatted the weapon out of the way, causing it to go off towards the center of the room over the receptionists' desk.  At that point it seemed as time began moving slow for the offending guard as he looked back up at Ryan, only catching glimpse of his fist charging down into his chest.  The impact felt as if it were an explosion across his body, and the human fell back with wide open eyes, but slowly fell unconscious.

"A few scrapes and scars won’t hurt. Don’t worry, man." Ryan told the beaten soul.

Joel slipped in through the broken doors during the commotion and stood quietly behind the four soldiers on the right side. The remaining guard standing around Ryan’s side quickly took note of Joel and began to irk and cry, pointing his finger over at Joel. Joel looked at the man and waved back at him with a friendly look on his face. The four guards in front of Joel took note of his motion and slowly turned around, quietly whimpering, noticing the second tall, blonde monster on their kill list. Joel gave them a quick hint of a smile before beginning his own attacks. The guards began to stumble back, trying to get away from Joel, but Joel rushed his left knee up into the left guard’s side, causing him to curl up into a fetal position and cough. Joel hopped to the right, switched feet and shot a kick towards the third guard to the right, hitting the man’s head and knocking him down. He continued his movement as to not lose his balance and fall and lowered himself down into a sweep with his right leg. Joel caught the second man on the left of the four guards with his leg and tripped him to the ground. He completed his motion with a spin up to his feet where he flipped back onto the man’s chest, causing him to lose enough blood flow to temporarily black out.

The two remaining guards standing in the room started to edge away from the two Guardians, making their way for the exit. When their backs met together they began whispering between each other about what to do next. Ryan picked up his heavy mantle from over the two guards it hit and put it back over his shoulders and kicked the two on the ground to make sure they were not doing anything. He then turned back towards the two last guards and waved good bye to them as he started to use his powers to lift the downed guards in the room. The floating bodies were sent flying through the room towards the last two men outside the building, and as the pile of guards began to skid out on the surface outside Ryan brought his hands up into the air and triggered a catapult effect on the humans. The eight men launched into the air and fell a great distance away from the tower. As they began to wake with dizzy heads and a pain here and there they found themselves landing in the city lake in the far ends of Traquo.

Ryan fisted up his hands and hit them together and exclaimed, "Death count zero!"

Joel slumped his shoulders and dropped his head, letting out a sigh of relief. He shortly looked to the side and noticed one of the two receptionists slowly glancing up over their desk, wearing a tin foil hat over their head. Joel began making advancements upon the man, but stopped when he saw three figures running down the hall from the stairs.

He looked back and forth between the desks and the incoming guards, hesitating because he became uncertain of what was more important, and finally said, "More guards are incoming!"

Ryan’s attention drew away from the room and down the hall to the incoming guards that were approaching to inspect the room. As the receptionist saw Ryan turning away he reached up and slammed his fist over the alarm button. Joel froze in anxiety of the situation, knowing that taking one action would lead to the other either way regardless of what he did. The room and halls began to flash with dark red lights and loud sirens sounded off. The three advancing guards started to rush down the hall towards the main room as they were alerted and brought up their walky talkies to inform their commander of their position. Through out the building the soldiers stopped what they were doing, from eating to playing card games with each other, and began to organize themselves for the coming fights. Some guards tried to shrug off the situation and did not think that the intruding monsters on the bottom floor could make it up passed many waves before tiring out and being laid to waste.

Joel shook his head violently and positioned himself in a defensive stance and exclaimed, "Crap! Here they come! It was bound to happen eventually."

Ryan looked back at the desks where the two receptionists were hiding, and with an unaffected look on his face called out, "Thanks for starting the party for us, man."

Joel ran up ahead of Ryan and began to make his way towards the three coming guards. Behind those three a flood of more human guards came rushing down like berserker warriors. They stopped with a roaring command by their commanders and the front line began firing their automated weaponry at Joel. The Guardian slid along the surface and skid into a halt as the guns started firing his way. He spread his arms out along his sides as if he were blocking something behind him. The swarm of bullets rushed into Joel’s atmosphere and quickly melted through his heat shield.

Ryan walked in behind Joel and stood off to the side. He put his hands out in front of his chest as if he were going to pass a ball to someone and then threw them out towards the flood of guards. A loud rumble sounded off as an invisible force like a shockwave flew through the room. The force hit the swarm of guards and soldiers across the hall and knocked them back. The mass flow of bullets began going up towards the ceiling, blowing holes through the upper floors and breaking lights until the humans released their weapons and stopped shooting. The few soldiers who were able to recover quickly and get back onto their feet began to reload their weapons for another charge, but Ryan hopped forward and made a rush through Joel’s heat field and used his Masamura to cut through and destroy the guns before they could be used again. He let out a small chuckle and pushed those guards away and began walking through the halls. Ryan lifted himself into the air with his levitation abilities and flew over the big piles that were too hard to step over.

Joel soon followed Ryan down the hall through the human forces. He looked down at each of them deep into their eyes as he passed them and held his hand out at them, ready to shoot if necessary. The men all let out loud moans of displeasure as if they had each been given a large hit to the chest, and it sounded like a pack of singing sirens to Ryan. Joel followed Ryan to the elevator, and they pressed the button to advance to the top. However, the machine was long since turned off and would not function for the Guardians. Joel pressed the button again and waited for the doors to open and again repeatedly. Ryan turned around and looked for the stairs instead of joining Joel in his curious activity. He opened the door labeled "stairs" and looked up through the winding stairs. Several guards peered back down at him and then ran away when they noticed their enemy.

Joel tried pressing the elevator button harder a few more times before Ryan walked over behind him and started to drag him towards the stairs by his collar, saying, "Come on, man. We’re going up the normal way."

Joel turned around and began following Ryan through the door to the stair well and said, "Stupid machine!" His voice echoed as he peered up to the top of the towering seven story building and asked, "So where do you think they’re holding Dirk?"

Ryan looked away from Joel and up to the top level of the building and said, "Obviously, judging by just about every video game out there on the commercial market, the captive is always on the very top level." His eyes lit up with a flame of glee and said, "And that’s where we settle the score with the real enemy in a huge dramatic fight to the end where we become victorious!"

Ryan let out another grin and began flying up towards the top and Joel began his long run around in the spiral to the top, thinking, "These video games must be the know-all of the world. I’ll have to check those out some time!"

For Ryan the journey up to the top was a breeze, but for Joel it was a long and tedious task to run up an inclined surface. The uneasiness of moving slowly up through the building near places where large numbers of guards could easily jump out tingled through his mind. He began to take slight leaps up the stairs so that he would not get easily taken alone with his friend up above. As Joel reached the middle of the path up he thought he heard a door creak open and stopped to look around, but he could not find anything in the dim tower. He took one more step up to continue his path and realized how loud each banging touch of his foot to the steps was.

Ryan looked down from the top and called out, "Hey, what are you waiting for, slow poke?"

Joel shook his head with unease and said, "I’m coming! Don’t worry."

Joel finished his run to the top of the stairs and kneeled down to rest his tired and sore legs from his constant up and down jerks. He held his hair up from over his face with one hand and wiped his face off with his other, and then he relaxed his body and released a big sigh of relief. Joel stood up slowly and stretched as he peered over the rails down to the bottom.

Ryan smacked Joel across his back, bumping him up a few steps closer to the railing, and said, "So how does it feel, champ?"

Joel stepped away from the railing and turned away and asked, "Is that really necessary to ask?"

Ryan let out a grin and said, "Yeah, man. You know you probably could have jumped all the way up here without flying. If not that, you could have jumped half the way, and then jumped the rest of the way!"

"Erm…!" Joel blurted out suddenly as the words passed through his head. He paused for several moments in silence as he thought about it, and then pointed up ahead to the top floor door and said, "Hey, let’s find out what’s behind this door!"

His friend crossed his arms and began walking up towards the door and said, "Now you’re talking!" Ryan reached out for the door handle and said, "This is the top floor, Dirk captive, so prepare for the worst of it!"

Ryan grabbed the door with a tight grip and swung the door open. A quick gust of air shot out from the room and a bright light shimmered from within. The two advanced into the room and looked around. It appeared to be nothing more than a completely empty office room with small cubicles and desks with computers on them. They could hear nothing or any physical life moving about the top floor. Their ears popped with the empty flow of air running coolly through the space around them. Ryan lifted his hands up in a big shrug as he looked around for signs of motion, and Joel began slowly edging his way around the corners of each cubicle. He could still see nothing behind the small walls of interest.

To the far back corner of the room there was one other door that would lead to another room. It was the two Guardian’s only option to go search the next room for signs of their target. They moved over to the door and opened it with caution, but they were only introduced to another empty and silent office room. This room did not have as many cubicles to it as the one before, and it instead had many food and drink supplies as well as entertainment sets and cooking appliances. Ryan pulled up a chair and sat down and let out a big huff of a sigh.

"Well this bites, man." Ryan exclaimed, "We’ve come all this way and there’s nothing here!"

Joel scratched the top of his head and said, "But I wonder why this place is so empty."

The two moved further into the room and inspected it even further, and Ryan said, "Maybe they were predicting our movement?" He looked back to the door and said, "Or maybe the time it took for us to get up the stairs gave them time to prepare for us again."

Ryan’s ears twitched for a moment and looked up, and Joel asked, "Do you hear something, Ryan?"

"Yeah. Machines moving in the building." Ryan said with a nod, "We should get out of here before something goes bad. They have us in a good corner here."

Joel looked at the windows surrounding the room along the outer three walls and said, "We could just jump through one of these and glide our way out, couldn’t we?"

"Only if you like being shot down from the sky. We’d be even easier to pick from then, man." Ryan told Joel. He waved at Joel to come to the door and said, "Come on, let’s find the real Dirk."

Joel began walking towards the door with his head slightly down and his hands tucked behind his back looking like a guilty puppy and said, "Oh, alright."

Ryan stood at his position and waited for Joel to catch up with him again, and when Joel made his way to the door he opened it and stepped into the first room. The two looked around as they closed the door and jolted back slightly as they found themselves surrounded by what seemed to be a completely different room. Several cubicle walls had been pushed away and mini sensor turrets had been placed along the floor. Along the ceiling there were small robotic spider-like drones crawling about, waiting for the intruders to come around. Ryan could also sense several beings covered down behind some of the cubicle walls that still stood.

"Sometimes…" Ryan said, trailing off, "I hate it when I’m right."

Several of the spiders began to function and turned towards the two Guardians and shot darts out at them, which flew by them and hit the wall behind their targets. The two let out a gasp of excitement and bounced into a defensive position. With their sudden jerk of motion the turrets on the ground began to activate and started to fire tiny pellets at the Guardians’ feet. They began to perform odd dances with hot feet as the guns shot for them. Joel began to get a curious and uneasy feeling, though, as nothing that was being thrown at them was being destroyed or melted by Joel’s heat shield.

"Hey man, try something like shoot a Fire Bolt at them to destroy them!" Ryan urged Joel.

Joel nodded at Ryan and said, "I’ll try!"

He bounced up slightly into the air and with one hand aimed down at one mini turret and fired a small shot and pointed his other hand up towards the ceiling at a spider and shot another small shot. To their dismay both shots were both absorbed and slightly deflected into nothingness as they hit their targets. Joel let out a gasp of fright as he witnessed this and fell back to the ground, pressing against the wall.

"What? No!" Joel cried, "Why didn’t it work? Why didn’t it blow up?"

Ryan looked back at Joel quickly, and then snapped his head back towards the front and said, "Crap! This isn’t good at all! It’s my turn!"

He then leaped back up into the air and let his hands out by his sides. They began to glow slightly, and Ryan’s suit began to flair up with rapid currents of disturbed air from his powers. But before Ryan was able to complete his motion of attack and even fire it off, the guards from behind the cubicle walls emerged with large cans in their hands and began throwing them at the two intruders. Those cans began to quickly emit large discolored clouds of gas into the far side of the room, and the machines around them began to deactivate. Ryan’s energy began to slowly fade as he was covered with the gas, and he dropped to the ground, kneeling as if he was losing strength rapidly.

"Hey… What the… hell…" Ryan said with sudden sounds of gasping and choking. He looked up with wide and enraged eyes and shouted, "What are you… what have you done… to me…?" As Ryan’s voice faded off into a dozing unconsciousness, Joel dropped down next to him and tried to pick him up, but Ryan tried hard to resist and mumbled, "No… fool… run… not how… it…"

Joel let go of Ryan and stood up, leaning back and asked, "Ryan?" He looked up towards the guards, noticing that they had put up black masks of some sort over their faces, and said, "Don’t hurt… us…"

His voice began to trail off the same way Ryan’s did. Joel felt his body turning off and disabling from the currents of gas entering into his system. Before blacking out he could only make out the humans walking out from behind the small walls and picking up the machines around them to put away. One of the humans approached him quickly and swiftly kicked Joel in his body while he could still feel the pain. Everything had become dark, black, and unclear for Joel as he and Ryan lay there.

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