Blue Nexus #46 - Delta Squad

            Kyle managed to get to his knees. His head was pounding and there were still some stars floating around in his vision. His jaw felt somewhat out of place, too, but with a quick shift it fell back to normal. He groaned when he stood up.

            All of his other senses came rushing at him all at once. The smell of smoke and gasoline blowing down from the bridge. The screams of innocent people having to run from their cars. The clearness of the sight around him, where five powerful new foes stood around Yusero, who was standing alone.

            Kyle stumbled forward a step and had to brace himself against a parked car. He rolled back his shoulders, sucked in a deep breath, and then held it for a second as oxygen swelled through his veins again. When he sighed he felt that much better.

            Yusero remained still in the face of all five of his enemies. Kyle recognized the speedster guy and the giant, but there were two other girls and a third person, this one definitely a man in his thirties, that joined their crew. Yusero had his sword drawn and was clearly prepared to fight them. The newest man was speaking with him, and even from a good distance away, Kyle new it was egotistical villain-speak. Great.

            The fight began suddenly. Kyle was almost shocked by its speed. Ice and fire combined on one girl while the other hung back. The speedster let some sparks fire up around him, as if he were charging up. The giant man rushed at Yusero first, who started to move but was stopped by some invisible force. He thrashed around to try and break free and narrowly dodged the giant man’s attack.

            Kyle burst into action. The ice-fire girl noticed and nodded at him. The other girl saw Kyle and her eyes lit up. Kyle’s body locked up, though it felt as if he were still moving. The speedster saw Kyle and laughed at him. Yusero noticed Kyle now as well, but couldn’t keep his eyes off of the giant man for long. Yusero tried jumping in the air but was thrown down, again, by an invisible force.

            Kyle surged power through him and broke free of the hold he was in. He zig-zagged toward the group, punching away the giant man with ease. The big guy went airborne and crashed down, creating a great dent in the ground when he landed. He heard footsteps behind him and punched into nothing. Yusero spun to stand next to him as their enemy reformed their ranks.

            “And here I thought the Blue Nexus had been taken care of,” the leader said, fading back into visibility. He looked over to the speedster who could only shrug.

            “Guess I didn’t hit him hard enough,” the speedster said. “I won’t mess up again.”

            “I guarantee you will,” Kyle said.

            “Fighting now isn’t a good idea,” Yusero whispered. “We should do our best to leave now and maybe get some help.”

            “That guy runs super-fast, he’d catch up to us even if we did leave,” Kyle whispered back. “We can take these guys. How tough can they be?”

            “In less than a minute they forced us to regroup,” Yusero said. “Not even the bounty hunters who crossed us earlier were that good. Though there were fewer of them.”

            “Blue Nexus, all you have to do is step aside,” the ice-fire girl said. “Yusero poses a threat to the continuum of time and has to be brought with us.”
            “Or he can be helped by people that don’t want to punch him,” Kyle said. “You’re not helping your case when you try to attack him.”

            “It’s part of our orders,” the speedster said. “We expected him to resist us, so we were sent out to see that he doesn’t resist that much.”

            “Sent by whom?” asked Kyle.

            “That’s not what matters,” the leader said. “Stand aside or we’ll have to involve and defeat you as well.”

            “I’m already involved, and I’m not going to be beaten,” Kyle said. He let the energy around him swell, the blue light around him glowing even more. Blue energy also filled up around his hands. “Unless you guys are stronger than Alucard was you’re going to have a really hard time.”

            “We don’t need to rely on strength when we have you outnumbered,” the leader said.

            “A fair point, but it still doesn’t help your case in the slightest,” Kyle said.

            The leader nodded, then looked to the ice-fire girl. Her right hand was full of ice and her left was full of flames. She stepped up, pulled back her arms, and launched a stream of both at Kyle and Yusero.

            Almost instantly, it deflected off of a red magical barrier that appeared between all of them. Three purple arrows shot into the ground as well, exploding in front of them. Finally, a wave of blue energy swept the five of the away.

            Brenda, Sandy, and Brian each landed next to Kyle and Yusero. Yusero looked around confused until he saw Brenda, then smiled and waved at her. Brenda did the same for Yusero. Brian strolled up right beside Kyle.

            “I sensed that you were unconscious for a little while and came as fast as I could,” he said. “Kind of embarrassing that one of these guys managed that.”

            “Shut up,” Kyle said.

            The Delta Squad recovered, glowering back up at the new Zanderia arrivals. Brian chuckled under his breath.

            “I recognize these guys,” he said. “They’re the goons that have been chasing Phoenix and Riko around lately, the same ones that Phoenix pissed off.”

            “I’m surprised they came around to us so soon,” Kyle said.

            “Don’t be,” the leader said. “And even with an even number of allies you’re still no match for our superior teamwork.”

            “I doubt that,” Kyle said. He held his hand out and his lance appeared. He pointed it’s blue tip straight at the leader. “What gods and demons have you guys stared down and beaten that we haven’t? We’re not just super-heroes. We’re the best damn fighters you’re ever going to meet. Get ready to lose.”

            The speedster’s sparks flared around him even more. “Won’t you just shut up?”

            He burst away from the group, despite the leader’s bark for him to stop. Kyle moved out of the five first. He couldn’t see the speedster clearly, but could see the path he was headed on. Kyle got in his way almost as fast as the speedster moved, holding out his lance. The speedster hit it and bounced back. Kyle lurched at him, punching him away and off of the sloping bridge.

            The speedster recovered and bounced off of the cars. Kyle pursued, stealing a look back at Yusero. The two nodded at each other.

            Kyle dodged another of the speedster’s fast punches. Kyle stabbed the lance into the ground and swung around using it to ground him. The speedster swirled around it and met the wrong end of Kyle’s boots. The speedster tumbled back, and his momentum still carried forward into Kyle.

            His hood blew back but he caught it just in time to keep himself covered up. The speedster got to his feet, rubbing his face. Kyle laughed.

            “Glass cannon?” asked Kyle.

            The speedster answered with an attack. Kyle mentally shook his head, since he didn’t have the time to actually do that. Instead he stepped to the side and moved behind the speedster. The speedster slid to a halt but burst right back at Kyle, still on a straight trajectory.

            Kyle moved out of the way but jumped up as his second move. The speedster, predictable, obviously went for where he thought Kyle would be. Kyle pulled back his fist and blasted the ground with an energy blast, forcing the speedster away. Kyle remained airborne.

            Booming, destruction, and metal-on-metal erupted around him. He stole a look over his shoulder. Brenda was mindlessly taking care of her opponents while Yusero was being far more cautious. Brian seemed to be toying with his enemy and Sandy was trying out brand new tricks. This was hardly a challenge.

            The speedster started to run in a circle around Kyle. He felt the air tighten around him. Kyle sucked in a deep breath, then spun around on his own, letting out two waves of energy when he did. The tornado stopped and the speedster flew away.

            Kyle soared after him, scooping him up and throwing him toward Yusero. He hit the leader in the side, knocking him over. The other members of the DELTA Squad all piled up there as well.

            The four Zanderia and Yusero reunited in front of them again. The leader crawled away from his friends, glaring up at Yusero and Kyle.

            “You really think this will stop anything?” asked the leader.

            “No, but I hope it showed you a nice lesson in respect,” Kyle said. He flicked the leader in the forehead. “Aplin sent you, didn’t he?”

            “Yeah, but you’ll never reach him,” the leader said. “We’ll never talk and you’ll never torture us.”

            Kyle smiled. “That’s what telepaths are for.”

            “It’s unethical.”

            “I never said they would read your mind. Just find out where Aplin is right now so we can pay him a visit.” Kyle picked the leader up and held him in the air with one hand. “But Aplin wasn’t working alone. What do you know about Yusero being sent into the past?”

            “Only that I had some help in bringing him here,” a cackly old man said, though Kyle barely heard it. He noticed a small headpiece stuck on the leader’s face.

            Kyle snatched the headpiece away and dropped the leader. Kyle replaced it on his own face. “Alright Aplin, just talk now and we won’t have to come storming your labs.”

            “Don’t lie to me, you’ll just end up doing that sooner rather than later if I don’t talk,” Aplin said. “Besides I would rather talk to the man of the hour instead. He may recognize more of what I’m saying.”

            “I’ll summarize for him,” Kyle said.

            “Then tell him Ygon is on his way, and he’s not very happy,” Aplin said.

            Kyle covered up the earpiece and turned around. He opened his mouth to speak but a deafening screech wracked his brain. He dropped to his knees, ripping away the earpiece. He felt blood starting to stream down from his ears.

            His teammates huddled around him but were blown away by a concussive blast. Kyle, dazed, looked up and watched as a glider just barely larger than Yusero’s swooped in and robbed the future boy away. Kyle tried to follow but his head ached too much. He crushed the earpiece in his hand.

            “No!” he shouted, though to him it was more like a whisper. Dirt billowed around him some more. Kyle leapt back up and swept his arm to blow it all away. Even the Delta Squad managed to get out, probably with the help of that speedster.

            “We fell straight into their plan,” Brian said. He walked up next to Kyle. “That Delta Squad was there to detain and then whoever that was had the job of capturing him.”

            “It didn’t even matter that we were here,” Kyle said. He looked over to Brenda, who was already reaching behind her back for the Zanderia communicator. “We need to find and track them now before they can get anywhere further.”

            “Or jump through time?” asked Sandy.         

            “Even worse,” Kyle said.

            “I’m not getting anything with the communicator,” Brenda said. “It’s just static.”

            “Then he had an EMP on him,” Brian said. “And were prepared for us.”

            “Fine,” Kyle said. He touched his fingers to his head and closed his eyes. “Eclipse, I need your help. Can you hear me?”

            Loud and clear, Blue Nexus, Eclipse responded, almost immediately. His voice was refreshing in this tidal wave of bad. I suspect you wish to know where Phoenix and Riko?

            “Phoenix and Riko? No, I didn’t know something was up with them.”

            They met with a particular alien, one that I’m not even aware of, and suddenly vanished. I thought you’d be looking for them?

            Kyle grimaced, placing a hand on his hip. “Can you sense anything weird about this alien? Like maybe that he’s from the future?”
            The possibility never crossed my mind.

            Kyle swung his arm in the air. Ygon. He was the one who sent the bounty hunters and who was probably behind sending the Delta Squad. But how did he know Aplin? More importantly, how did he know Yusero? Had they crossed paths before, recently even?

            “Any chance of tracking the alien down?”

            I’m afraid not. Was that your primary use for me right now?

            “Hate to sound like a jerk, but yes.”

            Then how about I tell you where the DELTA base is?

            Kyle’s head perked up. He looked at the others, who watched him intently, and nodded. They scooted closer to him.

            Eclipse told him where it was, almost down to the very coordinate. Kyle thanked his ally and then told the others. He wasn’t sure exactly where it was, but hoped they would know. The look on Brian’s face told him he would have the general idea of it.

            The three, with Brenda creating a platform for Sandy to ride on, almost took off when sirens wailed around them. The police swerved up from the south at the destroyed road and bridge. People got out of their cars to look at them.

            “We’ll deal with this later,” Brian said. “We’re running out of time. If we’re fast enough we might catch them, Kyle.”

            “A bit dangerous on Earth, though, isn’t it?”

            Brian shrugged. “I’ll try it.”

            In a blur of blue light and heat he was gone, shooting through the sky. Kyle and Brenda took off together standing next to each other. Kyle pulled ahead a little, not daring to look back at the newly arrived police, because he didn’t have to concentrate on carrying Sandy with him.

            The two flew at a fast enough speed to keep up with some of the airplanes overhead, soaring through the American Midwest with ease. Kyle wasn’t sure where the state of Utah started and stopped, but Eclipse’s description of the building told him it would stand out a little.

            According to Eclipse, the main DELTA base was posing as a power plant just outside of Salt Lake City. The majority of it was underground, but from an overhead view Eclipse claimed that Kyle could see veins, of a kind, jutting out of the ground as the base’s central power path.

            The position of the Sun only rose as they moved further west. The three ducked down lower through a fog that hung over much of Kansas. Kyle put on his aura brighter so that Brenda had someone to follow. Behind him he sensed that Sandy was taking full advantage of the flight time, getting in some magical meditation. He smiled, glad that someone could take advantage of the time.

            For most of the flight, which was little over four hours, Kyle thought about how screwed he was going to be at school as well as how the hell he was supposed to get Yusero back to the future now. The only people that could possibly help him were the ones that attacked the Zanderia and that actively stood against their continued existence. Stealing their technology just seemed wrong, but perhaps borrowing some schematics for Boomer to share around with his friends wouldn’t be that bad?

            Not for their purposes, but perhaps for the space-time continuum. If everyone had access to time-travel it would either lead to the end of all reality or a very twisted episode of the Twilight Zone. Kyle would have gone for the end of reality in that situation.

            Brenda sped up a little more and Kyle did the same. She must’ve grown bored of looking down at wide green pastures with occasional metropolitan complexes. He had to admit…it was a bit grating. He was used to flying much faster but was okay with it this time as Sandy was tagging along, and the extra man-power would be helpful.

            Kyle leaned up a little when they reached the Rocky Mountains and also slowed up, careful not to send them through a cloud and through the mountainside. It wouldn’t kill them, not with the power they had, but it would cut their precious time down significantly.

            Hood Nexus appeared once they got through the mountain range, which took significantly longer than Kyle suspected. They sped up once they saw him and he led them on a bit of a curved path toward their destination. Once they reached it, Kyle recognized it immediately.

            Indeed there were large tubes that Kyle could see lumping out of the ground, almost pulsing it seemed. A shiver ran down his spine seeing them pulse. Hood Nexus took a dive and smiled.

            “Let’s show ourselves in, shall we?” he shouted.

            He launched his hand forward and an energy ball shot at the ground, rupturing it. Dust and debris came at them just as fast. Kyle spun around so he was feet first and dove straight through it. He had his aura up and it was doing great work at clearing away the dust around him.

            He slammed onto the ground just fine, though. He accidentally dented the metal flooring, though. Brian landed next to him, and finally Brenda and Sandy joined them. The four of them all stood straight, examining their surroundings. They were in one of the power tubes, which was short-circuited now.

            “Might’ve broken something,” Sandy said.

            Kyle’s left arm twinged. Before anyone else reacted, he was around Brenda with his hands raised and an energy ball in his hand, ready to fire back at the pulse that was coming right for them.

            “Go!” he shouted.

            He met the wave head on, the two forces colliding with incredible momentum. Kyle dug his feet into the ground and kept his energy up, trying to stop the massive force from advancing and crushing his friends. The others took his order to heart and shot forward through the next wall. Kyle looked above him at the gaping hole in the ceiling.

            With all his strength he pulled his energy up and the same happened with the pulse. It soared into the sky and dissipated. Kyle sighed, but felt something coming at him again. This time he had a better sense of what to do, and dove out of the way into the main room. The pulse ran right by, though some of it was caught up above in the hole.

            Aplin’s voice, over the sound system, cackled with terrible glee. “Terrific work, Blue Nexus. Now, come and face your next challenge. It should seem quite familiar.”

            The lights in the hallway shut off except for the ones that led to the hallway on the right. Kyle wasted no time and sprinted, following the lights. In each succeeding hallway the lights shifted, giving him new directions to head in.

            It led him straight into a tall, open room. He didn’t even realize he’d been going down levels, he was just focused on following the fight path of lights. The room itself wasn’t lit at all except for himself.

            “And now that I have you all separated, I feel it’s time for the main attraction,” Aplin said.

            The lights flicked on, revealing what Kyle had been chasing the whole time. Yusero hung over his next opponent by his hands from the top of the ceiling, just above a glass window. In front of him, though, was a towering mech. It had four metal arms, a golden helmet, and sharp robotic legs and feet. It was slick, shining under the bright lights. Kyle recognized the pilot through the glass where the brain would be.

            “Our technology is far beyond your primitive methods of fighting,” Ygon said. “Punch away at this beast all you like. The only thing that can defeat this mech is technology thousands of years before any human even conceives it.”

            “Everything had a weak spot,” Kyle said. He held out his hand and his lance formed instantly. “I’ll find yours.”

            “You’d better,” Ygon said. “You see Yusero, up above me? I’ll be keeping him as my prize for now. When we reopen the time hole that got us here, I’ll let my guild mates each get a good shot on him for what he’s done to us in the past…or, in your case, future. Then, with our technology, you can probably assume what we’ll do next.”

            “So you’re just like all the others?”

            “No. The others never have friends.”

            Something buzzed overhead, and it wasn’t the lights. Five of the wall panels turned about, revealing five figures in armor that looked similar in color and design to Ygon’s mech.

            “I wouldn’t count the Delta Squad as friends,” Kyle said.

            “We have a single common enemy right now. You. And when we’re done with you, we’ll lead the others here one by one, like rats through a maze.”

            Kyle pointed his lance forward. “Try it, future boy.”

            The Delta Squad, now advanced as Kyle could tell by their reformed speed, leapt off the walls at him. The mech’s right mechanical hand opened up, revealing a large cannon that had light slowly forming in it.

            “I will,” Ygon said.

Next time: Kyle is backed into a corner squaring off against future tech when he gets a little more help! Meanwhile the others find that they may be too late to stop the portal from opening and from saving Yusero. Check it out in "Blue Nexus #47 - Counterattack from the Past"!