Crystal Ch. 07

And that's when Dark Matter made his move.

The ice completely shattered, surprising everyone. Dark Matter instantly made an explosive shield like before. However, this time, instead of pushing the heroes back, it enveloped them before solidifying and coming to a stop.

*****

It was as if something beckoned them to wake up. Each of them slowly rose and shook the unconsciousness from their heads and looked around them . . . and dropped their jaws.

All around them were multiple planets. Planets of different sizes, colors, and designs were slowly turning and rotating around a large sun. They didn't feel any heat or cold from being in the space like environment and didn't have any problems breathing. What really puzzled them was the fact that they were standing like they would have on any solid surface.

"How are we not dead in space?" Zipper wondered.

"That's because you're not in space," a monotonous voice replied. Turning around, they saw Dark Matter walking towards them. Unlike before, he had a face this time, along with a shirt and a matching pair of pants. In the same monotone voice, he said, "Welcome to my home."

Immediately, the heroes got ready for a fight. Or, at least that's what they wanted to do. For some unfathomable reason, none of the heroes could use their powers, abilities, or skills. It was as if they didn't have any powers at all. Even Dot had lost her feline features.

"What have you done to us?" Cherry demanded.

"Nothing harmful," Dark Matter assured, his voice still monotone. "I just don't want to be attacked in my own mind."

"This isn't your mind," Jasper objected. "This is space."

"No this is my mind," Dark Matter replied, his voice still monotone. He did, however, have a slight, angry expression when he faced Jasper.

"Prove it," Jasper dared.

For a second, nothing happened. Jasper and Dark Matter stared each other down to see which one would blink first. Or, at least that's what Jasper thought they were doing. When that second passed, Jasper was falling fast through the space like environment. Immediately, he started screaming for someone to help him.

The heroes watched him fall, aghast that he was actually falling. As a flyer, he should have been able to raise himself up, but from the way he was flailing his arms around, they could see he didn't have that ability, at least for now.

Beneath him, spikes were suddenly formed and, with the new danger, Jasper's scream began anew. The heroes couldn't look away as they watched with horror at Jasper's impending death. But, just before he was impaled, he vanished and reappeared right above them. Still falling, his screams still filled the place as Dark Matter made him land standing up in the position he had before he fell.

"If there are no more interruptions, I'd like to inform you of something," he began. He waved an arm and an image of the gigantic trees that have been sprouting around the United States appeared. "Have you seen this before?"

"Yes, we've seen images of those before," Osprey answered.

"Have you seen these before as well?" he asked, doing the same act and making an image of the human sized insects appear.

"Yes, we've seen those too," Hyper nodded.

"Have you seen this woman before?" he continued to ask as an image of a young woman appeared before them.

"That's the woman you attacked earlier," Jasper seethed, still embarrassed at what happened to him.

"That is Pollen," Dark Matter said.

"What?!" the Commander exclaimed.

"As if we'd believe that," Jasper scoffed.

Dark Matter stared at him as if he was detecting for a challenge in Jasper's voice. "These are recent images of Pollen within recent days of the trees sprouting," Dark Matter said, ignoring Jasper.

More images appeared showing Pollen standing by her trees, engaging in combat against the military. In each image, she was well guarded, while the trees were swinging its limbs and swatting away the soldiers. Giant insects were also attacking the soldiers, making sure not to harm the females unless the females were too violent.

"I have been tracking her for weeks, destroying any gigantic trees I come across," Dark Matter informed.

"So you're the Night Stranger from Brazil," Ghost realized.

"That's what they called me," Dark Matter replied.

"That was an impressive job you did back there," Hyper complimented.

"Sadly, I haven't been able to do something that . . . impressive lately," Dark Matter told them.

"Why is that?" Commander Shinobay inquired.

"Something is wrong and I don't have an available solution from Max's memories to fix it," Dark Matter answered.

"Max is still alive?!" Crystal asked, astounded. "That's not possible. He shot himself . . . in the head."

Dark Matter watched her for a moment before moving his arm and a memory came up. At first, it was a blurry, but it quickly sharpened into focus and the heroes realized they were looking at the ending of the battle at the villains' underwater lair. No one said a word as they watched Max struggle to break free of Dictator Jones' mental grip over him, but they knew it was in vain. None of them, not even Crystal, flinched when they watched Max shoot himself in the head, incapacitating the Dictator.

"Why are you showing us this?" Crystal demanded.

"Quiet," was the only response.

The memory continued to play and they watched Dr. Genie come and rescue the Dictator and bringing the roof down. For those who were conscious at that time knew what happened: Crystal brought them to the surface safely. However, after the memory showed the slab of rock falling from the ceiling and land between Crystal and Max, they saw that they were on Max's side of the rock. As his body went under water, it was suddenly covered by the blackness and raised above the surface. A platform was raised above its head and the falling chunks of rock were deflected from hitting the body. Then, the platform shifted into a ball around the body and went under water.

"You're the conscious of Max's powers," Commander Shinobay said, eyes widening. "Boy, Dr. Genie is going to have a field day with you."

"So if you're alive, then that means Max is alive too, right?" Crystal asked hopefully. Dark Matter looked at her again, stared a bit, and then nodded his head. "May we see him?"

Again it took him a few seconds to respond. He raised his arms and a cylinder container appeared above them and was slowly lowered to their level. It was a bit smoky in the container, but one touch from Dark Matter made the smoke vanish and they saw Max.

Fortunately, Max had on a pair of boxers but that was the only good news they could see. To their shock, Max looked thinner, weaker, and just about dead. Crystal stepped close and reached out to touch the glass but Dark Matter gently slapped her hand away.

"No touching," he said.

"What's happening to him?" Crystal asked. "Why does he look like that?"

"His conscious is weak," Dark Matter answered.

"You're not feeding him," Dot suddenly said. Dark Matter stared at her as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. "As a conscious of power, you depend on the body to stay alive. If the body doesn't eat, it grows weak. I guess you've been satiating the body by using your powers, but that doesn't help the body, it makes it weaker."

A memory suddenly popped up and showed him rejecting food from the villagers in Brazil.

"I will fix the problem and find proper substance for the body," Dark Matter said, voice still monotonous.

"No you need help," Cherry reprimanded. "If you haven't done it before, then you won't do it, or keep doing it, later."

"I don't need help," Dark Matter objected, an angry expression on his face.

"Look! I am not about to have an argument over what you do or don't need!" Crystal yelled. "It's Max who needs help! And since you are dependent on him, then you need help too! One way or another, you are coming with us. If you want to come with us quietly, then let's go. But if you want to fight, then I will drown you again, drag to the tower, strap you to a table, and force food down your throat! If you want to drop me, go ahead! But we are going to come to a solution!"

Dark Matter was wearing the same shocked expression the rest of the heroes were wearing. They could see the calculations operating in his head and watched him slowly nod his head. Crystal broke out into a grin as tears rolled down her face.

Max was alive!!

*****If you felt like the story was rushed, I was trying to get Max back in the picture as soon as possible. And now that he's back, I'm going to try and merge the history of heroes and everything else together so that it flows as smooth as water. Hopefully, you guys will love this idea more than the last one. I have so much planned for you guys and I left you guys a clue (in my eyes, it's quite obvious what it is) so I hope your imagination runs wild on what you think I have planned for you. So be ready for the unexpected and enjoy the story! And don't forget to comment your thoughts whether you like this story or not!" DM23*****