Lightkeepers, Episode 20: Our Time To Fly - Season Finale, Part 2
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following story is a work of fiction. Some elements are based off of my personal past experience, and the rest is creative license. The main intention of this story series is a homage to coming of age and Saturday morning cartoon adventures. Heart, restack and subscribe if you enjoyed this story. I also have paid subscriptions enabled if you wish to tip a hardworking independent writer for five dollars a month and help keep stories like this happening.
Click here and here for a refresher on the main characters, if you need it.
Twelve-year-old Kenny Paulsen screamed bloody terror from the depths of his rocketing heart. He and his family and friends had been on a simple trip downtown to have a picnic dinner near the docks. The weather was mild. The grass was lit up by bright golden beams of sunlight. Everything was great until the large shadow arrived. Out on the lake, a literal giant was walking through the deep water, and was only up to his torso. The giant had a skeletal face and his skin was deep purple. As soon as the giant arrived on shore he sent a blast of powerful energy at Kenny’s picnic table, and everyone he loved scurried off in different directions.
Kenny, who had apricot white skin and wavy ash blond hair, was on the run for his life. He had headed up to the downtown in a panic and wasn’t looking back. High up ahead, the giant was quaking the land with his steps, crumbling buildings and unleashing his strange dark shadow minions on a collection of children in the town square. Kenny sobbed and screeched as he ran, his heart spinning like a motor. As an Autistic child, he knew all too well that all of this overwhelming chaos was fizzling all of his nerves and siphoning his breath away from him.
“Kenny!” a familiar voice called out. He stopped and spun around until he laid eyes on the source of the voice. It was Miguel, his adopted brother. Miguel, who had light brown skin and wavy black hair, rushed up to Kenny and let his brother collapse into his waiting arms.
“Miguel!” Kenny wept, “Where’s…. Mom! We gotta get out of here!”
“I got you, Kenny,” Miguel stammered as he took Kenny’s face into his hands and looked him right in the eye, “Just… breathe, okay? I’m gonna get you through this, okay? We’re gonna survive together!”
One of Midnight Billy’s Dionarant minions approached them. It hissed and narrowed its beady red eyes. Kenny let out scream after bloodcurdling scream, while Miguel tried to get him to run.
“Come, on Kenny!”
But standing in Miguel’s path was a gigantic foot larger than a house, which knocked them to the ground as it stamped down with a thunderous boom. Miguel recovered Kenny and they both looked up in horror at the evil giant that was Midnight Billy.
“It’s gotta be Mister Cooke with an E!” Miguel gasped.
“No! This is worse than him!” Kenny sobbed, “Much worse!”
Midnight Billy let out a gruff laugh as he began aiming a blast of dark energy at the two brothers. Miguel hugged Kenny tightly and closed his eyes.
“I love you, hermano,” he whispered to Kenny.
Way up above the clouds, a sonic blast echoed out that shook the land. It felt entirely different than Midnight Billy’s gigantic presence, so Miguel and Kenny opened their eyes. A figure ascended up from the blindingly bright sun like a flaming angel, and then began hurtling towards them in a comet-like flame of bluish gold energy. Brighter than the sun, faster than you could dream and stronger than any darkness, the Lightkeeper soared over North Laketown with his two arms full throttle ahead.
“It’s a bird!” Miguel exclaimed.
“Or is it a plane?” Kenny shook his head, “No, it’s Super… no. Not him. He’s not real.”
“I…. am…. Lightkeeeper!” screamed Tyler. Fully costumed in his Columbia blue super suit with the blue and orange goggle mask wrapped across his eyes, he felt his stomach flatten as his velocity picked up. Midnight Billy froze in confused panic, only able to watch as Tyler came down and smacked right into him with such a force that the giant villain tumbled into the air and fell flat down on his back along the nearby empty street. Everything shook with a quake so strong that Miguel and Kenny had to cling to a telephone pole for dear life.
After the impact subsided, Kenny and Miguel stood up and looked on at Tyler in utter astonishment.
“Who the hell are you?” Kenny asked.
“Who the hell are you?” Tyler asked back, glaring at him.
“Easy, guys!” Miguel pleaded, “Kenny… I think this is Amiah’s kid. Remember that lady who helped us beat Mister Cooke last fall?”
“Oh, yeah,” Kenny gasped.
“You guys knew my mama?” Tyler was stunned.
“Look out!” Miguel screamed. Midnight Billy was beginning to get to his feet, but before he could the entire Lake Squad arrived, their magical bikes vanishing after they each touched down. Austen conjured up a stampede of angry unicorns and sent them charging at their enemy. While Midnight Billy groaned and growled as he struggled to dodge them, Rory saw an unoccupied motorcycle, which he grabbed the back of with his hands and spun it around in a circle. With a loud groan through gritted teeth, he tossed the cycle right up at Midnight Billy’s head.
The villain stepped back a bit, but then charged toward him. Channeling his inner Captain Freehawk, Rory got out his shield and thrust it in front of his face. Midnight Billy’s life sized fist slammed into it and Captain Freehawk pushed forward with all his might. Freehawk cried as the immense weight went right to his knees.
“Rory!” Jake rushed over to him to give an assist. On top of his head, the crown of the Nova Witch formed in a series of fiery purple flames which also replaced Jake’s clothes with his witch robes. With large purple fireballs burning up in each hand, and in each of his eyes, Jake Lewis was ready to rock. He hurtled blasts of magic at Midnight Billy to force him further back, keeping him busy while Tyler conjured up a portal behind the villain’s back. As soon as Midnight Billy fell through after losing his balance, Tyler quickly closed it up.
“I sent him to Antarctica,” Tyler sighed tiredly, “But he’ll be back probably in five minutes or so.”
“Holy… shit!” Kenny and Miguel exclaimed in unison as they took in this whole scene.
“Kenny!” Jake and Rory hurried over to him, “Are you okay?”
“You know him?” Tyler gasped.
“I… I can’t find my mom,” Kenny shivered, “But.. you guys are amazing!”
“We can put you someplace safe,” Jake said to Kenny, “Until we’re sure the good guys have won.”
“What about our mom!” Kenny protested, “And Maddie, and her little brother Sammy, Timmy, Jack, Bree…”
“I promise that we’ll send them along as soon as we find them,” Rory replied.
Tyler created the portal to Blue Haven, and after Kenny and Miguel stepped through, Jake also had Riley the dog join them in the pocket realm. Rory looked to the Tiger Star caucus of the team and had a hard thought.
“TJ, you guys should go with them. Everyone without powers should!”
“What! No way!” TJ shook his head, “You said we were Lake Squad! We’re a part of this, Freehawk!”
“Yeah!” Jesse agreed, “There’s no way you’re fighting my dad without me.”
“We may not be able to fly or lift cars,” Adam added, “But we want to help.”
“And there’s plenty of stuff we are talented at,” said Leila as she began to warm up her karate fists.
“Rory, you better not be telling me to go hide,” said Eddie with a smirk.
Looking around at them, Rory admired their courage and heart. But it was the danger that scared him.
“Oh, alright,” he sighed, “Teej, Adam, Jesse, Leila and Eddie, you guys can be crowd control. Help get people to safety and try to keep the Dionarant things away from kids.”
“What about me?” asked Amber as she floated by in a light teal bubble. She landed by Tyler, whose jaw was dropped.
“And don’t forget us,” said Jordan as she arrived in her new red hover chair with Emmy by her side.”
“Out of the question, Jordie,” Rory replied, “Too dangerous!”
“It’s too dangerous for you, too,” Tyler said to Amber.
“Why? Just because we’re little?” Jordan scoffed.
“I got powers just like you,” Amber pleaded to her brother, “Let me help!”
“The girls are right!” said Bob the dragon as he swooped down and landed on the street, “We could use their special talents.”
“Listen to the dragon,” said Elmira as she and Mrs. Lewis popped in via a portal.
“Mom!” Jake rushed into Mrs. Lewis’s arms.
“Tiá!” Tyler cried as he hugged Elmira, “Your ship….”
“It’s okay, baby,” she whispered, “I needed to leave that old thing behind anyway.
“Alright…. Jordan, Amber and Emmy, you hang out with Eddie,” Rory decided, “Eddie, keep them safe and maybe you guys can work on getting those kids in the town square someplace safe.”
“You got it,” Eddie nodded.
“Jake, Jonah, Mai and Austen,” Rory continued, “It’s on you guys and me to take the fight to Midnight Billy. And Bob, Elmira and Jake’s mom… we could use your help, too.”
“Don’t forget us,” said Rory’s dad as he came up behind him along with Tory.
“Dad!” Rory and Jordan cried.
“Tory and I can help my daughter, Emmy and Amber,” Mr. Taylor announced, “Eddie, you stay with your friends, son.”
“You’re kinda ruining my thing here, Dad,” Rory whined.
Time was up. Out of the large dark archway opened in the clouds came Midnight Billy, just as large and twice as angry. Everyone began going off in their separate directions. Rory, brandishing his Captain Freehawk shield, huddled Tyler, Jake, Austen, Mai, Jonah and Eddie together in a circle. Jesse also chose to join them.
“Crowd control is boring,” she mused.
“You and I both could use some weapons or something,” Eddie gulped as Midnight Billy drew nearer. Jake conjured up two objects that would help. To Jesse he gave a shiny green metal baseball bat, and to Eddie, he gave a silver sword that had a golden handle with rainbow colored jewels affixed to it.
“Whoa!” Eddie exclaimed as he waved it around. It hummed with a mysterious magical energy.
“Cool!” Jesse exclaimed as she was able to crack the asphalt under her feet with a whack of her bat.
Midnight Billy landed on the ground with a loud thump that shook the entire block.
“Look at all of you,” he laughed, “You’re a colorful bunch of rugrats. I shall enjoy killing you.”
“Today is a good day to die!” Jake chortled.
“Jake, no Klingon stuff right now!” Rory whined as he held up his shield, readying for a long grueling fight that seemed impossible to win.
Downtown North Laketown was turning into the scene of a Godzilla movie, as Bob the omnidragon was colliding with the gigantic Midnight Billy in an epic brawl. Bob groaned through gritted teeth as he traded painful blow after blow with the villain, causing the two of them to crash up against a hotel building.
“I already killed you once! I’ll kill you again!” Midnight Billy warned.
“Strike me down and I’ll only be reborn into something even more powerful!” Bob growled.
As pieces of rubble tumbled to the ground, an older lady was in the crosshairs. She cried and began straining herself in a mad run as chunks of building three times her size headed right for her. Tyler swooped in and carried her out of harm’s way just as the rubble hit.
“Here. You’ll be safe here,” he told her as he ushered her through a portal to Blue Haven.
“Thank… thank you, young man!” She called after him.
Tyler shot off into the air and aimed right for Midnight Billy’s chest, where the Radiant Star was. He aimed a glowing fist and tried to smash the star, but its power sent him spiraling backwards. Jake saw him plummeting for the ground and screeched with panic.
“Tyyy!” He yelled out as he hovered into the air. By the time he’d caught Tyler in his arms, Jake had unknowingly lifted himself at least fifteen feet off the ground.
“Whoa!” He panicked. Trying desperately to think of a way to get down safely, he thought of a bubble and created a magical one around the two of them. Seconds later, they landed safely on the ground.
“You gotta be more careful,” Jake told Tyler, “Don’t aim right for the power source!”
“Yeah, let’s try his legs instead,” called out Rory.
Mai whipped up her yo yo and lassoed its glowing string around one of Midnight Billy’s legs and yanked hard. Though the love for her brother that powered her yo yo was strong, Mai wailed as all of her muscles burned. Eddie, brandishing his new sword dashed over to the other leg and jabbed it. Midnight Billy groaned and began to lose his balance, but shook his foot and knocked Eddie and his sword away with a rough snap.
“Eddie!” Mai cried as she let go of her yo-yo and rushed to his side.
Rory grabbed hold of a slender black lamp post and tore it off of the pavement. With a loud ground, he wielded it like a large bat, smacking Midnight Billy around with it.
“I’m… shedding… some… light on your bullshit!”
Needing a quick way to bounce back, Midnight Billy saw Jonah and managed to grab him. He squeezed the boy hard while laughing at his friends.
“Witness the end of your friend!”
“Noooo!” Austen shrieked.
Though he was pinned down for the most part, Jonah still had his sling shot in hand. Remembering that it could morph into whatever tool or weapon he needed, he imagined up a laser sword and let it cut into Midnight Billy’s hand. The villain howled in pain and thrust Jonah away. Austen erupted into an inferno of anguished rage. As her heart cracked, ferocious swirls of pink and blue magical energy spun up around her. This wave of energy reached up and grabbed Jonah before he smacked into a building, and carried him safely down to the ground.
“Hey! I’m okay!” Jonah coughed.
The rage in Austen grew and she funneled it into a blast of magical energy at Midnight Billy that was so potent that she captured his entire colossal body and froze him in place. He writhed around and tried to break free, but it was no use. Austen’s radiant storm of love was only growing.
“How is she doing this!” Jesse gasped as she and the others looked on in disbelief.
“Love! And Trans power!” Austen cried as she forced Midnight Billy onto his knees. He began to shrink. Second by second, he ceased to be a giant and returned to his normal size. Austen let him go and he dropped to the ground. Dizzy and over exhausted, she collapsed into Jonah’s arms.
“Hey… that was amazing,” he kissed her, “Was that… for me?”
“Yeah,” she replied, “I love you.”
“I love you,” he hugged her tightly.
Now that Midnight Billy was back to the size of a regular person, Jesse headed right for him, waving her new baseball bat around. Eddie and Rory were by her side. The former was holding up his magical sword, and the latter had his shield ready to fight.
“Time to pay, Dad,” Jesse quipped.
She came swinging, but he pushed each swing back with blasts of dark energy. With a frustrated groan, she came flying in harder and harder, but to no avail.
“You’re pathetic,” he taunted her, “It’s why you failed as a popular girl. And it’s why you won’t win at… whatever this is.”
“Don’t listen to him!” Eddie yelled as he tried to get some blows in against Midnight Billy with his sword.
“Yeah! You’re with… us now,” Rory stammered as he clashed his shield with Midnight Billy’s powerful fists.
“Yeah. I’m Lake Squad now!” Jesse smiled.
While she and Rory distracted Midnight Billy from the front, Eddie snuck around back and tried to stab him. It was supposed to be a technique he used loads of times back in elementary school to play jokes on Jake. Rory would distract him while Eddie came up from behind and spilled water on him or something. But right now, the something would be to take a life, and Eddie was shaking too nervously to do it. He managed to slice a large scar into the villain’s back, but could not bring himself to kill. Midnight Billy groaned in pain and sent Eddie tumbling off his feet by way of a blast of dark energy. Midnight Billy hissed and took off into the air, letting his legions of Dionorants dance around him.
“Looks like… it’s an air fight now,” Eddie groaned as he sat up, “Rory! I’m sorry! I… I can’t kill.”
“It’s okay,” Rory said as he rushed to Eddie’s side, “I don’t think I could either. But it’s on the air crew now. They got it.”
“Leaving all the hard work to me, huh?” Tyler joked as he sprang up off the ground.
“I… hate this!” Jake gagged as he began hovering up in a purple bubble of magic.
He saw a gigantic hawk soaring his way and nearly popped his bubble out of fright. The hawk was white with teal and red streaks going down its wings.
“Wait… Austen?” Jake gasped.
“Yeah, here we go again,” Austen sighed, “First I was a unicorn. Now I’m a bird!”
“She’s so awesome!” Jonah gazed on with amazement from the ground.
Meanwhile, Elmira and Mrs. Lewis were caught up in a vicious battle with the wicked Beverly Pembrooke. Though the frosty villainess did not have powers, as a secret agent, she was highly trained in a variety of martial arts that made her tough to beat.
“You two old hens should go out to pasture!” She taunted Elmira and Mrs. Lewis.
“I trusted you with Tyler!” Mrs. Lewis cried as she smashed a magic fireball on Beverly’s shoulder, “He spent hours and hours with you in class each day! How can you want to hurt him?”
“Easy,” Beverly smirked, “I already killed his parents!”
“What!” Elmira gasped.
“Cade Biederbeck is mostly the show piece,” Beverly replied as they continued their duel, “He wore that dark mask and paraded around on the flying bicycle when we attacked Amiah and David Gomez’s ship. But I was the one who led the strike team. I watched David bleed to death helplessly after I shot him. And I got in a shot to Amiah just before she escaped in a life raft with the kids. Then, each night, I tried to nab them up in that lighthouse. But that giant dragon thing kept stopping me!”
Her mockery of their pain inflamed Elmira’s grieving rage.
“You… bitch!” Elmira slammed a star-shaped construct around Beverly’s arms to keep her from moving, and smacked her face with a fist full of months of unending pain.
“It’s only a matter of time before Tyler and Amber come with me,” Beverly laughed as she spit up blood, “I’ll never stop coming for them!”
Agonizing over the fear of losing her two new adopted children, Mrs. Lewis knew there was only one thing to do. She placed her hands on top of Beverly’s head and began spinning her mind around. Beverly wailed with panic as she could no longer make sense of her memories. Mrs. Lewis tore deep, making it hurt as she scavenged around for any trace of Tyler, Amber, Jake or anything to do with Lightkeeper or the Lake Squad. One by one, those memories vanished from Beverly’s mind.
Soon, there was only one of these particular memories left, and Beverly clung to it with a death grip. It was her knowledge of Tyler and Amber’s names and their alter egos as Lightkeeper. Mrs. Lewis sobbed and grunted as she used every fiber of her being to try and tear that away. To keep her babies safe. Once she was sure she’d gotten it, Mrs. Lewis let Beverly go. Beverly tumbled to the ground, laughing maniacally and babbling like an infant.
“I won’t say I liked that you damaged her brain,” Elmira sighed, “But… is it done?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Lewis replied, “I doubt she’ll even remember what two plus two is ever again. But I feel terrible.”
“Looks like the kids need us up in the sky,” Elmira pointed up to the clouds, where a much smaller Midnight Billy was beginning to duel with Tyler, Jake and Austen.
Near the town square, Jordan and Emmy were mortified at the chaos they found. People were screaming and running every which way. The Dionorant shadow demons were coming down from the sky by the thousands, snatching at every child they could find.
“Watch out!” Jordan’s dad shouted as he used his super strong fist to knock one of the Dionorants away before it could infect a young girl. She had shoulder length frizzy brown hair, deep brown skin and a terrified glance on her face.
“What’s your name?” Jordan asked.
“M… Maddie,” she replied, “Maddie Danvers! I… I was helping my boyfriend’s mom! She’s right over there with my little brother!”
Maddie pointed to a tall woman with white skin and a small boy with deep brown skin who were backed up against a silver SUV. Dionorants were clustering around them, threatening to infect the boy. Remembering the SECRET WEAPON button on her hover chair, Jordan tapped it and launched fiery blasts right at the creatures. One by one, she was able to knock them away, all to her father’s disbelief.
“Eat this!” Jordan laughed as she kept firing.
“How exactly did you get this chair again?” He wondered.
They headed right over to the SUV, and the small boy jumped into Maddie’s arms.
“Sammy!” She cried, “You’re okay!”
“Thanks! Whatever… it is you did,” gasped the woman, “Have… have you seen my boy Kenny?”
“We did,” Emmy replied, “He’s some place safe.”
“You can go there, too!” Amber said as she and Tory caught up with the others.
Amber opened up a portal to Blue Haven and quickly ushered Maddie, Sammy and Kenny’s mother through before closing it. The Dionorants began to close in again, and Emmy looked around for some kind of weapon.
“What kind of hero could I be if I can’t save myself!” She exclaimed while dodging one of the Dionorants.
While Mr. Taylor, Jordan and Amber gave her cover, she glanced around and found a long umbrella laying on the concrete. She picked it up and pushed it open. With a scream, she swatted an oncoming Dionorant away while Tory thwarted a few others using a tree branch.
“We may not have powers,” he said to her, “But we can be quite creative!”
“Hmm. I like that,” Emmy smiled as she kept on fighting with her new umbrella.
Numerous children had already been taken over by the Dionorants. Most of them were the preteen and teenage Midnight Claws. The very kids that Midnight Billy had duped into joining his faux fight club. Now, he was draining all he could from them before he took full control. The town square was full of growling, sniveling kids who crawled around like mindless gremlins while Midnight Billy drained their life out of them from afar.
“I can’t believe we’ve failed to save so many of them!” cried TJ as he, Adam and Leila continued directing panicking people to take refuge inside the nearest structures, like the drugstore or the library. While most of the grown ups were inside, their kids were out on the street, possessed by soul sucking monsters. From each of them trailed a flowing stream of darkness, leading up to a large thick tunnel of despair up in the dark gray sky. This was the battery of power that Midnight Billy was building.
“Mai told me about a crazy trip she and the others took to this place called Ecstasia,” Leila said while she tried to roundhouse kick a Dionorant away from them, “Midnight Billy had kidnapped a bunch of kids to there, and they got possessed by these same things!”
“But now it’s those Claw kids,” TJ sighed, “Some of them are our old friends. Teammates!”
“There’s gotta be a way to reverse this,” Adam said as he slowly approached a girl who was possessed by a Dionorant, “We gotta stand up and say something!”
Though the girl scratched and snarled at him, Adam cast his fears aside and rested his hands on her shoulders.
“You’re not a monster,” he said, looking into her eyes, “There’s a good kid in there! You’ve gotta fight this, girl! I know you can hear me! Think about your mom or dad! Remember all the good times!”
The girl stopped attacking him and her face began to soften. The Dionorant tried to hang on, as evidenced by the constant switch between calm and snarling on her face.
“Keep fighting it!” Adam pleaded.
“Way to go, Adam!” TJ exclaimed, “Leila, come on! We can reach them and stop this madness!”
The three former Tiger Stars went around encouraging each of the affected kids until they began winning the war against their Dionorant captors. Where Midnight Billy’s forces used hate and isolation, Adam and his friends used love and compassion. The thick tunnel of despair that Midnight Billy was using to suck the life out of the children began to lighten and weaken.
“We’re doing it!” TJ laughed, “But now it’s on Ty to finish it off!”
High up in the air over North Laketown’s harbor in a murky gray sky, Tyler burst around like a flaming meteor as he faced off against Midnight Billy. Time was running out. Even though Midnight Billy’s power drain of the town’s children via the Dionorants was weakening thanks to the efforts of TJ and his friends, a series of titanic archways had already opened in the sky. On the other sides of these dark portals were legions of warships both large and small. The timer ones were oblong silver chassis with curved wings, which sped around by the thousands in contrast with a dozen armored oval giant ships that loomed like giant asteroids. All of this was soon to arrive through the portals. All of it was the army of Zordra.
Tyler saw the enigmatic dark lord standing atop on elf the larger warships. Zordra was at least eight feet tall and was clad in spiky bronze armor from head to toe, including a gilded crown that had numerous claw-like horns spewing out of it.
“My master’s invasion is at hand!” Midnight Billy chortled as he smacked Tyler back several feet, “You silly little boy! You think you can stop me?”
“We’ll stop you together!” roared Bob as he flew by and whacked Midnight Billy with his tail.
While Midnight Billy was scrambling his way back up, Tyler shivered as he felt Zordra peering into his mind. With him so close, it felt ten times stronger than ever before. He winced and cried as Zordra’s cruel violence overwhelmed his thoughts.
Tyyyler, Zordra called to him, I’m pleased to meet you, my boy. You see what I’ve had to do to escape the terrible prison your mother put me in? I found this pawn on your side of existence. Cade Biederbeck. He’s a fool and easily beatable. Kill him and you can take his place at my side.
“Noooo!” Tyler screamed, “Get outta my head!”
He began to fall down towards the water. Jake rushed after him in his magic bubble and feverishly fought to aim just right so he could catch him.
“I’m no good at this!” Jake wailed as he dove and caught his little brother. He held Tyler in his arms as they rose back up towards Midnight Billy.
“He… he wants me to kill!” Tyler sobbed, “Zordra wants me to kill Midnight Billy!”
“Well, you’re not a killer,” Jake reminded, “Don’t listen to him, okay?”
“But… he’s in my head!” Tyler cried.
Tyyler, Zordra called out again.
“Aaaah!” Tyler groaned, “Make him stoop!”
Meanwhile, Elmira, Mrs. Lewis and Austen were circling around Midnight Billy, trying to formulate a plan of attack.
“We gotta get that Radiant Star from him!” Elmira shouted as she sent a hot pink crystal star hammering at Midnight Billy’s face.
“Only Tyler would be powerful enough to handle it!” said Mrs. Lewis as she chucked magic fireballs that Midnight Billy swarmed around to dodge.
“We need to buy him some time!” Austen said as she imagined up a swarm of killer bees and sent them right for Midnight Billy. He howled and groaned as he tried and failed to evade their stingers.
Down on the docks, Rory and Jonah were stuck in the middle of their own epic battle, as their worst enemies had returned once more. Winter, the psychotic man who had murdered Rory’s big brother Henry, and Carlos, Jonah’s homicidal biological father, were slowly inching towards them, forcing the boys closer to the edge of the dock.
“Hello, poppets!” Winter laughed.
“Isn’t this one heck of a party!” Carlos grinned.
Rory cracked his knuckles and raised his Captain Freehawk shield up high, while Jonah readied his trusty sling shot.
“I’m real tired of these creeps coming after us, how about you, man?” Rory asked.
“Same here,” Jonah nodded, angry determination etched on his face, “Let’s take them down!”
“You can try,” Winter chuckled as he and Carlos both held up long switchblades, “But you’re all alone.”
“No, they’re not!” exclaimed Jesse.
Rory gasped with joy when he saw not just Jesse standing behind the two bad guys, but also Eddie, Mai, TJ, Leila and Adam.
“No one in the Lake Squad is ever alone,” Eddie cheered.
“Need some help, Rory?” TJ smirked.
“Might be nice,” Rory shot back while rolling his eyes.
With TJ and company advancing from one side, and Rory and Jonah on the other, Winter and Carlos suddenly found themselves boxed in.
“En garde!” Rory cried as he led the charge into battle. From all sides, the villains were boxing the Lake Squad in. But as long as they had heart, they had a fighting chance.