Crystal Ch. 10

*****

"Please, give me a good reason why you haven't burned Pollen's tree at all," Max said as he walked up to Jasper.

"I can't take my eyes off them for a moment," Jasper replied. A girl fired from behind a tree and he sent a fireball in her direction. "See, they're everywhere."

"Well, now that I'm here, you can burn the tree," Max said, making a shield that covered both of them.

Facing the tree, Jasper made a huge fireball and threw it at the giant tree. The fireball blew up upon impact and, unlike before, continued to burn. Minutes later, Pollen came out the tree to see why the flames weren't extinguished.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," she screamed as she saw an unconscious Crystal in Max's arms. "My plan was perfect! Now you ruined it!"

"Duh! Did you think we came here to help you?" Jasper taunted.

Screaming again, she fell to the ground as her powers came back. Raising her hands, she turned the trees into man-trees and made them attack the heroes. However, Max and Jasper quickly dealt with them like they were breaking twigs. That turned out to be a distraction as Pollen turned to the giant tree and raised her arms at it.

Suddenly, the ground started shaking as the roots uprooted themselves. The trunk split in two, making legs, the branches coiled around each other, making thick, tough arms all over the tree, totaling over ten pairs of arms. The bark grew a face and roared as it spied the heroes.

"Do you ever get tired of the sheer dumbness, stupidity, and idiotic stuff that comes out of your mouth?" Max asked, shaking his head.

Still on fire, the giant man-tree stepped at them, but the heroes flew off before they were crushed. Max had Crystal in one arm so he could still manipulate his powers into a shield. Jasper flew ahead of Max, throwing fireballs down at the man-tree chasing him. Suddenly, he was shot, again, and crashed to the ground. Rolling his eyes, Max followed him to provide him a shield so he could extract the bullet safely.

"And here I thought you'd learn from the first time you were shot," Max sighed.

"You have something to say?" Jasper challenged, taking a sip of the RRM from his bottle.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Max said. "Hurry up! I don't know if you forgot, but we're being chased by a gigantic tree."

"It's not my fault someone shot me," Jasper snarled.

Without warning, a female jumped between them, kicking both of them in the chest as they were taken by surprise. Max fell on his back with Crystal on top so that she wouldn't get hurt.

"You?!" Jasper yelled as he rose from the ground. Taking a look, Max saw that it was Shelby that was standing in between them. He also took note of the gun she had in her hand. Still shocked, Jasper yelled, "You shot me?!"

"Jasper, she's mind controlled," Max reminded him. That didn't stop Jasper in the slightest. Enraged, he sent a blast of fire at Shelby. Letting Crystal go, Max made a shield around Shelby to protect her from the flames. "Are you crazy? I just told you she's mind controlled! She's not acting on her own free will!"

"Do you think I care?" Jasper growled.

Shelby raised her arm to fire again and Jasper sent another jet of fire in her direction. Max made the shield again, then morphed it into a fist and made it strike Jasper. While he was stumbling, Max made a tranquilizer inject into Shelby's shoulder and she fell as she went unconscious. Picking Crystal up, Max went and grabbed Shelby. He placed both girls in a sphere and followed Jasper back to the military as the burning, gigantic man-tree closed in.

*****

"We can't stay here, Commander," General Miller said as he and the Commander discussed their next course of action.

"I know, I know," Commander Shinobay said. "I just don't want to leave these girls."

"Commander, even right now, some of the girls are starting to wake up from the tranquilizers," the General informed.

"Commander, General, there are girls coming out the forest," a soldier interjected before running back to the front lines.

The Commander and General followed him to the front lines to see what was happening. As the soldier said, there were girls running out the forest. Most were by themselves, but there were some that came out in pairs. They barely took a few steps out the forest when they were shot with tranquilizers by the soldiers. Zipper ran and retrieved each girl that was tranquilized.

"This isn't an attack, is it Commander?" General Miller inquired. "It's very disorganized if it is."

"No, it's not an attack. They'd be shooting at us if they were," Commander Shinobay responded. Looking closely, he said, "They're frightened, which means something big is our way. It's most likely dangerous as well."

As he said that, the heroes and military saw fire taking over the forest. All the heroes groaned as they knew who was responsible. Commander Shinobay ordered them to bring out the females, tranquilized or not. No sooner had he said that that the ground started shaking. Minutes later, Jasper flew out the forest, pointed at them, then flew back in throwing fireballs. Seconds later, they saw Max roll a large dark ball, full of females that he caught and tranquilized.

"Give me good news, Max," Commander Shinobay said as Max rolled the girls to safety.

"Um, I have all the girls that were still in the forest," Max said as the ground shook again.

"And the tremors?" Commander Shinobay asked.

Before Max could answer, the burning, gigantic man-tree burst out the forest, roaring and swiping at Jasper. He was desperately trying to destroy it on his own, but the multiple arms that kept reaching for him prevented him from doing any actual damage.

"Don't just stand there," he called down when nobody moved when he was grabbed by the tree. "Help me!"

"General, we'll finish things off here," Commander Shinobay said the General. To the heroes, he said, "Bring that tree down!"

Max released the girls from the ball and ran with the heroes to defeat the man-tree. Shell went for the legs, working on breaking the legs that were weakened from the flames. Zipper went and got grenades, pulling out the pins and throwing them at the man-tree. Ghost was right next to him, firing the rocket launcher. There were explosions all over the man-tree's face, but it didn't go down. It even kicked Shell back.

Osprey and Max flew in next. Max cut the arms that came at them while Osprey pulled Jasper out of the grip of the arm that had him. With them safe, Max made a giant, spiked mace and slammed it against the man-tree's face. It stumbled back, but was still standing upright.

"Kill them all! Kill them all!" they heard Pollen yell from inside the man-tree.

It waved its arm and giant twigs came flying off, sailing at the heroes. They easily dodged the projectiles and retaliated with their own attacks. However, the giant twigs were not thrown just to be thrown. The twigs morphed into smaller man-trees and immediately ran towards at the military. They fired back and, with the aid of the Commander, were able to destroy all of them.

"General, more girls are starting to wake up!" a soldier reported.

"What do we do, Commander?" General Miller asked. "We don't have enough tranquilizers for each and every girl here."

"Hold that thought," Commander Shinobay said. "I just remembered something."

He raced over to Dr. Walton and dug in her pockets. In the inside chest pocket of the lab coat was a vial marked: EXTREME EMERGENCY. Twisting it open, he poured a little bit of the liquid into Dr. Walton's mouth. But instead of her swallowing it, the liquid dripped out her mouth. Frustrated as time was running out, Commander Shinobay kissed Dr. Walton full on the lips until she woke up. Still mind controlled, she groggily reached for the Commander but he moved faster than she did. Quickly, he opened her mouth and made her swallow the entire vial of liquid, not taking any chances.

"Commander?" she said, her mind free from being controlled.

"There's no time for romance right now," Commander Shinobay said sternly. "Pollen has a giant monster of fire and the heroes are dealing with it. There are also the girls that still have their minds controlled by Pollen."

"Dr. Genie," Dr. Walton corrected. "Pollen used Dr. Genie's mind controlled serum to take control of the females."

"Alright, what do we need?" Commander Shinobay asked.

"Salt water," Dr. Walton answered quickly.

"ZIPPER, PUT DOWN THOSE GRENADES AND GET SOME SALT AND WATER, ASAP!" Commander Shinobay ordered.

Zipper threw the grenades quickly and dashed off to get a lot of salt water. Two minutes later, he had an arm full of water and salt. Not staying to say anything, he ran back to the man-tree. Dr. Walton proceeded to mix the water and salt together, then passed it over to the Commander and some helping soldiers, who made the heroines drink it first, then the other females, except the unconscious villainesses.

"Commander, what are our orders?" Cherry asked as her mind cleared up.

"Take a good look behind you," Commander Shinobay said. Seeing the burning, giant man-tree, the heroines immediately went into action, providing assistance the best way they knew how. However, Commander Shinobay stopped Crystal before she could go as well. "Crystal, deal with that forest fire first."

"Yes sir," she said, running towards the river.

With the extra help, the heroes were beginning to beat back the giant-man-tree. Shell was still attacking its legs while Dot raced up inside the tree to fight with Pollen herself. Cherry had taken over Ghost's job of firing the rocket launchers at the man-tree's face. Ghost busied himself though by setting mines on the trees legs. He then pushed against the mine, turning intangible, watched at the mines blew off large chunks of bark.

Hyper was flying with Jasper, both firing at any unguarded cracks they could find. Osprey and Max were tag teaming again, this time attacking the tree limbs, cutting them down so that the man-tree had less arms to attack with. And from their combined effort, the man-tree roared one last time before crumbling to ashes. The military and even the freed females cheered as Shell went and retrieved Dot and Pollen from the ashes, then walked with the other heroes and heroines as they brought the villainess before the Commander.

"You did it again, Commander," General Miller said. "Congratulations."

"I barely did anything," the Commander scoffed. Gesturing towards the heroes, he said, "These fine gentlemen did all the hard work. They went up against that giant man-tree, they fought their girlfriends, and they fought the villainesses. They deserve all the real credit."

"You did something Commander," Osprey said. "There were moments when you fired your laser at a critical time, when we really needed an extra bit of help. You deserve some credit too."

"You deserve to be in an asylum," Pollen spat.

"And why is that?" Commander Shinobay asked.

"Why? Why?" Pollen yelled, struggling against Shell's immense hold on her. "Thousands of girls are being used and abused. That's why. Thousands of girls are being forced as slaves. That's why. Thousands girls fear men. That's why. And the government is doing nothing about it."

"Maybe not from your perspective, but they are," Commander Shinobay informed. "I even have some of my agents working on it even as we speak. It's not just humans, but animals too in case you want to know. Things like this aren't solved in a day. It takes time to locate and deal with this. But, thanks to your concerns, we'll strengthen our forces in those areas. You, however, will be the first to test out our new prison."

"Why? All I was trying to do was help," Pollen said.

"And what were you going to do with thousands of kidnapped, mind controlled girls, giant bugs, and monstrous trees?" Commander Shinobay asked.

"I was going to kill eighty to ninety percent of the male population," Pollen said with a straight face. Then, she started laughing uncontrollably. "And you know what? You're too LATE! I've already had Crystal send frozen poison into the water. When it melts, the water will be toxic to every male alive."

"You mean this?" Crystal asked as she came up behind them. Above her head was a huge blob of water with a greenish tint to it. "I saw this down the river after I put out the forest fire. I figured you might be interested in it, Commander."

"Thank you, Crystal," Commander Shinobay said. "You don't have to keep holding that. Go ahead and dump it on the ground."

"No!" Pollen yelled as Crystal threw the water behind her. It hit the ground, splashing everywhere and being soaked up by the earth.

Pollen struggled against Shell more intensely, but Ghost injected her with a tranquilizer and handed her over to the military. With the villainesses under their watch, the military called in helicopters for themselves and the freed girls so that they could leave the area.

"And now, we celebrate!" Crystal cheered. She jumped on Max's back, giving him kisses on his cheeks. The other heroines, even Dr. Walton and Olivia, went to their respective partners and kissed them as well. "You kicked ass today, baby."

"How would you know?" Max asked, spinning her around. "You were mind controlled."

"Yeah, but it was like how you were with Dictator Jones," Crystal informed. "We could still think, but were powerless to control our own bodies."

"So you remember everything?" Max asked.

"Yeah, I remember you apologizing for beating my ass," Crystal laughed. "That was sweet."

"Osprey, I remember that night when we first met," Cherry smiled. "Honestly, I developed a crush on you after we fought."

"I'm so sorry, Shell," Dot cried. "I don't ever want to hurt my lover again."

"I DO!" everyone heard Shelby yell.

Marching up to Jasper, she slapped him, back and forth, until Cherry pulled her back. Jasper rushed at her to get his revenge, but Shell stepped in the way, blocking his way.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell happened?" Commander Shinobay asked.

"Tell them, Jasper," Shelby crossed her arms. He glared at her in silence.

"Max, you were there, right?" the Commander asked. "Did you see what happened?"

"Yeah," Max nodded. "Jasper attacked her with fire."

"You did what?!" Commander Shinobay yelled.

"Twice!" Shelby added.

"Twice?!" Commander Shinobay repeated.

"And I already told him she was mind controlled," Max finished. "His exact words were, "Do you think I care?"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" the Commander bellowed. "You knew the girls here were not accountable for their actions. It's why we weren't killing anyone. It's why we were using tranquilizers. The military were even using them. Not only that, they were shooting the girls below the shoulders so that they didn't critically injure the girls. I told you this before we left the Heroes' Tower."

"She shot me," Jasper pointed.

"Twice," Shelby added. "You were shot twice by me. One on your way to Pollen's headquarters, and one on your way back."

"Then I'm happy I retaliated," Jasper spat as he pushed against Shell. "I just wish Max wasn't there so I could toast your ass."

"Jasper, in case you forgot, I specifically said that we were fighting the heroines and villainesses," Commander Shinobay reminded him. "The military was supposed to deal with the mind controlled females."

"Well don't just get mad at me," Jasper replied. "Max used his powers on the girls as well."

"Max had the girls tranquilized and rolled them to safety," the Commander declared. "I'm sick of your disobedience. You always put people in danger, you always make situations worse, and I know you started that forest fire. You always have an excuse to justify your actions, but not this time. Heroes never, ever, intentionally attack a mind controlled civilian. So, until you change your personality from the rotten one it is, I am temporarily suspending your heroic activities."

"You can't do that!" Jasper yelled. "You can't do that!"

He turned to fly away, but the Commander hit him with his lasers and he fell immediately. The Commander then placed the shield on him so that he couldn't move and took out a wristband and attached it to Jasper's wrist.

"That is a power locker," Commander Shinobay informed. "It's something new that we're testing on villains and villainesses to stop them from using their powers while they're serving time in prison. Whenever you try to use your powers, it'll shock you good. It'll also send a little notice to my computer so that I'll know whenever you try. And as of right now, I am the only one who can take it off." Turning to Shelby, Commander Shinobay said, "I apologize for Jasper's actions."

"Well, disregarding Jasper's predicament," Hyper said, "everything's good right? Can we party?"

"Yeah, we'll party," Commander Shinobay said. "And then I'll deal with you, Dot, and Olivia for your disobedience as well. Now let's go."

"Hold on, I think we're forgetting something," Osprey said. Everyone looked at him expectantly, wondering what the holdup was this time. "We stopped Pollen and her mind controlled captives, including the heroines, Giggles, Ruthless, and Mistress. Where - where - where's Dr. Genie?"

"Damn it," Commander Shinobay said as he realized Osprey was right.

*****

It was way in the early when the villainess arrived in Tampa, Florida after driving for ten hours straight on nothing but coffee. She parked her car at Philippe Park, then got out her car. A bit chilly, she tightened her jacket around her and walked into the park, looking both ways to make sure no one was watching her. Though she didn't care if they did; they'd end up as an experiment. But, no one was around and she walked into the park.

It was a nice stroll despite the chilly air, but Dr. Genie didn't have time to waste right now. She went straight to the Philippe Point and pulled out her notebook. Following the directions, she stooped low and dug a remote out from under the ground and pushed the button on it. Nothing happened, but if science ever taught Dr. Genie anything, it was patience.

She was rewarded when a platform was raised above the water and she walked on it until she came to a trap door at the end of the platform. She opened it and went inside. It was a mechanic cylinder that was hooked up to the platform as she was lowered beneath the water. About ten minutes later, the cylinder opened around the side, and Dr. Genie stepped out into a hallway. She followed the hallway until she came to the lab where different beings were held in cubes made of unbreakable glass.

"Which one should I release next?" she asked herself.

In the first cube was her favorite, Pterror. He glared down at her, clearly wanting to be let out again, but Dr. Genie had put him in timeout since he ate another one of her scientists and wounded two others. In the second cube was a genderless humanoid that Dr. Genie didn't know what to call it. It jumped at her and hit the glass, causing the doctor to smile and raise a brow. It wasn't too bright, but it was learning. From her notes, she read that it didn't have any discernable eyes, nose, or ears. It did have them though, despite its appearance.

The humanoid had evolved in complete darkness to the point where its skin was sensitive to feel the slightest vibrations in its surroundings, its skin was sensitive smell so that it could smell the faintest scents, and its skin was could "see" despite its lack of eyes. Maybe she should call it Skinny. It did need to eat. But hunger was its punishment for trying to attack her when she had went to capture it.

In the third cube was an unconscious young woman in cuffs. The nameplate that identified the woman read: The Widow. From she knew, there was nothing special about her that Dr. Genie could remember, other than the fact that she was considered the best assassin in the underworld. The only reason she was in a cube in the first place was because Pollen had sent her in to kill Dictator Jones. She would have succeeded to if wasn't for the giant, metallic sphere sleeping in the fourth cube next to her.