(20) Light and Darkness...

"Great. I don't believe this." Michael started to complain. "We've gone through numerous battles; destroyed countless enemies; almost got our butt kicked how many times; go through that nightmare of a battle back in our time; try to find a way to get our hands on the Oracle; get it snatched from us not once, but twice; finally get it back; gain the power to manipulate time; come all the way back here in this godforsaken wasteland; and just when we're finally, FINALLY, able to win one," Michael glares at Jay, who is looking extremely embarrassed. "This..." Michael stops and takes a deep breath to calm himself down. "This guy coincidentally gets a powerful ability and ironically starts the whole turn of events that caused the whole bloody evil in the first place! And all I wanted to do was go to the beach with my friends and see Rachel's new..."

"That's enough." Rachel cuts him off. "We didn't know this was going to happen. And Michael," she says looking at him batting her eyelashes, "don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to gawk at my body after this is all over. Right now we've got more important things to worry about."

"Yeah, we weren't able to beat this thing before, and we had everyone on our teams helping each other out." Lara said. "I say we blast the thing before it fully forms."

"DK, Rachel and Lara hold that thing off." Michael says still looking at Jay, but out of curiousity not anger. "I've got to talk with Jay for a moment."

"Who made you boss?" Lara quips. But DK and Rachel figured out what was going on and dragged Lara toward the lake.

"Jay, what was that attack you just used called?" Michael asks after the others were out of earshot.

"I...I don't know. The word 'Ultima' just popped into my head and all of a sudden..."

"'Ultima, huh?" Michael pursed his lips together in thought. "I thought that looked familiar."

"What?"

"Do you think you can use it again?" Michael asked.

"I don't know." Jay repeats. "All I can remember is that when I felt all this hatred toward that creature..."

"...you felt this power surge through you. I know."

"You know?"

"The power of Ultima is triggered through a type of emotional trigger. Yours must be an adrenaline rush of anger. Mine..." Michael smirks as he holds up one of his hands which is giving out a greenish aura. "...is the strength of friendship I have for my friends."

"But why now? Why haven't I been able to use it before?"

"You've never went up against a creature of pure darkness... until now. The presence of darkness must trigger your ability. So if the darkness were finally eradicated, you'd never be able to use it again."

"Uh, Jay, Michael?" Mason interrupts. "Not wanting to spoil this little pow-wow right now, but..." Michael and Jay turn toward the direction of where Mason is pointing. The darkness had finally grown large enough to block what light the sun could filter through the snowy sky. Rachel, DK and Lara were doing their best to keep out of reach of its tentacles.

"Oh, snap," was all that Jay could say.

"The only way we're going to be able to beat this thing is with that stupid Ankh." Michael says. He turns to Rufus. "Rufus, you're the last person who had it. Where is it?"

Rufus, still a little shaky from having his entire body taken over, tried to remember. His eyes widened. "The Ultima Warpgate... I... the Darkness hid it in the void."

"Then let's go back through, and snatch the artifact on our way out," Jay suggested.

"Not a problem." Michael said. "I should be able to open up a backdoor to the warpgate. But, I need the full focus of my powers to do it."

Meanwhile, Rachel, Lara and DK were having a tough time just getting near their opposition.

DK fired shot after shot from his Buster, but kept getting deflected. Rachel and Lara displayed some almost impossible gymnastics - jumping, dodging and parrying their way through the tentacles that were trying to pierce them - slowly making their way to the center.

"You okay back there Rachel?" Lara shouted, nimbly sidestepping an incoming projectile.

"Are you kidding me?" Rachel laughed. "I haven't felt such an adrenaline rush since we got here!"

The girls euphoria was interrupted by a couple of thrown trees that blasted them outside the frenzy and right into DK, who was not expecting a couple of girls to be flung into him. The impact sent all three tumbling to the ground. They quickly got up and braced for more defense.

"We've got to retreat and regroup!" DK said, clutching his side.

Lara and Rachel nodded and headed back to the rest of the group.

"How are we supposed to fight this thing?" Lara shouted with impatience.

"There's only one way." DK said. "Lara and I will enter the Warpgate, find the artifact and return here while Rachel and Michael stay back and see what they can do in the homefront."

"Uh-uh." Michael argued. "As much as I don't want to, I think Rachel and Jay should go with DK."

"Why me?" Rachel asked.

"First off, I'd rather not have to worry about you. Second, I think Jay needs a bodyguard. Thirdly, I need Lara's firepower out here."

"Wait, why am I going?" Jay asked.

"Because other than Rufus, you're the only other person here that knows what it looks like."

"Oh." Jay nodded.

"Hey! Quit talking about me like I'm dead," Rufus interjected weakly, "I can go with you guys too."

Mason put a hand on Rufus's shoulder. "Son, you're not going anywhere without me."

Michael nodded. "You guys should go anyway. It's too dangerous here."

"What do you mean you don't want to worry about me? I can take care of myself," Rachel piped in.

"That's enough, Rachel." Lara says. "As much as I don't agree with the arrangement, we're wasting time arguing."

"Alright," DK nods. "Rachel, Jay, Rufus, Mason and I in the Warpgate, Lara and Michael holding off ol' big and ugly."

"Wait!" Everyone turns to Rufus's outburst. "You're not going to be able to breathe in there. There's no air."

"But if there was no air," Jay wondered, "how'd me and Mason go through without suffocating?"

"Maybe, because you're "The Jay", you can survive." Rachel teased, "and Mason told me earlier that his passage was instanteous, so he probably held his breath."

"Either way, it's not best to push our luck," Mason insisted.

"My lungs are half cybernetic, so I'll be okay," DK says, "but, I don't know about the others though."

"Maybe..." Michael begins. "There is a way." The group looked at him warily.

"I can share my oxygen with Rachel, Jay, Rufus, and you, Mason, via Elemental."

"Elemental?" Mason repeats, confused.

"Long story. It's best you don't worry about the details." Michael continues. "Basically, you four will be able to breathe the air that I intake while you're in the Warpgate."

"You can do that?" Jay asks. Michael nods.

"But I'm only doing it if you guys trust me."

"Of course we trust you." Rachel says without hesitating. Michael walks up to Rachel.

"Okay, I need you all to close your eyes." Michael says to Rachel. She complies without hesistation.

Michael leans forward and has his lips meet Rachel's, in a long and passionate kiss. After he breaks off, Rachel opens her eyes and blushes slightly. "Now Rachel's sharing my air."

"Um, you're not going to do that to me, are you?" Jay asked, horrified by the thought.

"Heck, no." Michael said with a smirk. "I've just been wanting to do that for a while." Rachel playfully smacks Michael on the arm, still grinning. Michael waved his hand across Jay's face.

Instantly Jay started to feel a comfortable pressure over his nostrils and lips as if there were an invisible gas mask being placed on his face. "Whoa..."
Michael repeated the wave against Rufus and Mason, who reacted with as much surprise as Jay.

"Done," Michael confirmed, "But we have to go back to the warpgate's exit point. I can utilize any lingering energy to re-open the portal much faster."

Minutes later, the group reached the trampled clearing where the exit point seemed to have been.

"Brace yourselves people!" And with that, Michael focused his energies to tear open the fabric of time and space. A shining portal of light opened out of thin air.

"Okay, before you guys go, keeping the portal open takes a lot of energy; so when you've all passed through, I'm going to close it again. When you need to exit, just tell me. You guys should still be capable of making sound while I'm still connected to you via oxygen line."

"That's assuming we know when to get out," Jay pointed out, "but I have a feeling it won't be an issue."

"Not to be the bearer of bad news, but how are you guys planning on returning?" Mason yelled to overpower the sound of air being sucked into the portal.

Jay shrugged, "I honestly don't know. But, we'll worry about that when the time comes..."
"Guys..." Michael grunted, teeth gritted. He was obviously straining to keep the portal alive.

"Alright, there's no more time to lose. Let's do it!" Rachel shouted.

DK, Jay, Rufus, Mason and Rachel plunged into the unknown abyss, after which Michael swiftly closed the portal behind them, then turned with Lara to face the problem at hand.
A giant black tentacle finally found the duo, but hit the ground under their feet as they flipped backward to dodge.

"Let's shine some light." Michael said with a maniacal look in his eyes.

(19) Disaster...

An earth-shattering shockwave knocked the creature sideways, into a small mound of snow and mud. Looking upward, he saw the source of the energy weapon that had just struck him: a female humanoid, enhanced with cybernetics and a steaming arm cannon.

"Rachel, I don't think he, err... it, is dead yet."

"Get outta here, guys!" As Rachel yelled this to Mason and Jay, both men broke into a sprint in the opposite direction. She turned to face the creature, weapons drawn. "Lara, I think we can take him."

The Darkness yanked itself upright with some outstreched tentacles.

"Don't be so sure," the Darkness hissed, eyeing both women with disgust.
The Jay isn't far... I can deal with him momentarily.

Acting by sheer instinct, the Darkness shot out several well-placed tentacles at both women.

They reacted instantaneously.

Firing a bolt of energy from her arm cannon again, Lara watched with dissapointment as the tentacles she disentigrated were replaced with twice as many as before. She dodged right, then left, then right again. "Rachel, attack!"

"Eat this...Fury of the Ancients!" Rachel finished, launching her twin swords into a vertical spin that emulated the motion of a chainsaw. The Darkness screamed in surprise as chunks of dark matter sprayed in every direction, the remnants of relentless swarms of tentacles chopped to bits by Rachel's technique.

But before she could actually get her blades into its torso, the Darkness swung a massively muscular dark matter fist into Rachel's stomach, sending her a couple hundred feet backwards into a thicket of leaves and snow.

Shaking away what she thought was the sound of ribs cracking, Lara took aim and unleashed a more powerful attack. "Obsidian Blade!"

The Darkness attempted to dodge but winced as Lara landed a massive blade of energy on its shoulder. It recovered quickly and, in an attempt to avoid more damage, it countered her move with a flurry of hardened tentacles. Twisting its extremeties around her arms, the Darkness tightened its grip as much as Lara's tough exterior would allow. Before Lara could do or say anything, the Darkness unraveled itself in the opposite direction with a superhuman amount of force. At that moment, the Darkness released its grip, sending the female fighter spiraling backwards into a tree. She slumped downward in a shocked state of exhaustion.

No time to plague these wretches with their worst fears, the Darkness decided, though that will be quite pleasurable, AFTER I take care of the Jay.

The creature of darkness dove forward into a full on sprint, then fell down into an animalistic four-legged gallop. It spotted the fleeing duo a couple thousand feet away, swiftly making their way around the perimeter of Winter Lake. Inhaling the frozen air, the Darkness felt a certain strength within itself, seemingly fueled by the cold temperatures of this place. It neared Jay within the minute, catching up with him rapidly.

"Dear God! It's behind us!" the other man shrieked, looking back. "Jay, don't stop!"

Seconds later, the older man tripped on a snow-covered tree stump and skidded to halt in the mud. Jay heard the crash, but continued running - he knew Mason would've killed him had he stopped to aid the man. He was after all the key to this whole thing, even though he still didn't really understand it.

Glancing back, Jay saw the Darkness leap over Mason's shuddering form without stopping.
"Good. Mason is safe..." Jay's voice trailed off as he saw a shadow overtake his own.

He hit the ground with an agonizing crunch, and was almost certain that the Darkness had broken at least one bone in his body. A multitude of hand-shaped extremeties siezed his waist and flipped him 180 degrees. Facing the ugliest creature he'd ever seen, Jay tried not to dwell on his impending death. Instead, he closed his eyes and focused on the sound of the water in the lake, which was less than twenty feet away.

"Your mind games will not prevent me from enjoying this-"
The creature's voice cut off as a loud clang echoed above Jay's head. The creature grunted.
Opening his eyes, Jay saw with awkward relief that the creature had backed away, and was now focusing on Mason, who'd apparently recovered in time to knock the creature upside the head with a large, steel pipe.
Mason grinned mischeviously, though it was apparent that he was about to wet his pants.

The Darkness took a step toward him, as if preparing to strike, then stopped suddenly, its head shaking.
Jay squinted, confused. "What the...?"

"Dad?" the creature suddenly blurted out. Mason stared ahead, eyes wide. "Son?"
Jay nearly collapsed as he witnessed the creature's dark head fade away to reveal a human head.
The sweat-mopped face was easily recognizable.

"Rufus?" Jay swallowed hard. The creature remained focused on Mason. "FATHER, HELP ME!"

Mason stifled a welling up of tears. "Son... wha- what happened to you?"
The dark Rufus remained silent, then began to vibrate intensely, as if having a siezure.
When the spasms finally ended, the darkness fell away from Rufus and reshaped into a seperate humanoid form, about the size and stature of a gorilla. The Darkness cackled as Rufus slumped down onto the ground, collapsing from extreme physical and emotional exhaustion. "Pathetic..."

Jay felt an anger boiling up inside himself. The Darkness had used Rufus as a transport, and now was laughing at him because he was weak. It was a terrible thing to do, and now Jay felt the utmost hatred for this creature.

It has to be dealt with, Jay realized, and now's my chance.
Unsure what he was actually going to do, Jay stood up to face the Darkness. As if on cue, the Darkness turned around, glaring at Jay.

"The Jay!" the creature hissed, "it is time to end your wretched existence."

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" Jay responded without missing a beat. He cracked his knuckles.

The Darkness flexed its massive arms, then reshaped its humanoid hands. Now brandishing razor-sharp, porcupine-needle shaped claws on each of its palms, the creature lunged forward without remorse.

As Jay's life flashed before his eyes, a single word entered his thoughts.

ULTIMA.

At that very instant, Jay shot his hands forward involuntarily, which were now glowing an ethereal white.
In front of him, a comet-shaped matrix of white energy materialized out of thin air, and slammed full force into the creature of darkness, sending it careening to the right - straight into the icy cold depths of Winter Lake. The nearly motionless waters began to gurgle intensely as the creature faded into its depths.

Having arrived just in time to see this happen, Michael and Delta Knight landed softly next to Jay, remaining speechless for what seemed like eternity. DK tried to speak, "Jay... wha- did you- I...?"

Michael, lost in thought, said nothing.
There cannot be darkness without light... Michael reminded himself, and Jay must be the light.

In the distance, the group saw Rachel and Lara painfully trudging through the snow towards them. Though both still awestruck, Michael and DK quickly soared off to aid the women.

Jay sighed a great sigh of relief as he saw Rufus sit up next to Mason, who hugged his weak form with sincere concern. "Sorry about all of this, son."

They both looked over at Jay. "You alright?"
Jay nodded. "I'm tired, but I think I'll manage."

"You sure?" Mason reiterated, obviously concerned after having seen Jay's massive offense against the creature of darkness.

"Yeah." Jay responded, lying back down for a second. A few moments later, Michael and DK walked back up to him. "In case you were wondering, the girls are okay," Michael affirmed, "although bruised up a bit."

"But... I wouldn't get too comfortable," DK asserted.

"Huh?" Jay sat up quickly.

"I don't know how you did what you just did," DK admitted, "but you couldn't have had a worse aim."

"What?" Jay blinked in disbelief, "I hit that creature dead-on!"

"And it landed in the lake," Michael finished, "which is just what we were trying to prevent."

"Wait... what?!" Jay was now genuinely confused, "you mean it-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the ground began to shake. A few hundred feet away, some trees uprooted and toppled over, sending plumes of snow and dirt into the air. Then the lake began to gurgle. Or rather the entire lake began to gurgle, all at once.

The whole group stood up and watched in horror as Winter Lake began to darken.

(18) A Fight to the Finish...

Across the lake...

Michael charged up his blade and cycloned through the darkness with a Whirling Blade Attack, until he was face to face with his other self.

"Heya jerk." Michael growled and smacked his elbow alongside the skull of his twin. He responded in turn with a knee to the gut, knocking the wind out of Michael. Without warning, Michael was flung back into the darkness fray.

"Come on, Michael! You're making this too easy!"

"Mike!" DK shouted between energy blasts. "How'd you defeat this guy last time?"

"We..." Michael grunted as he swung a boot into another creature. "We didn't."

DK did not need to hear that. "What do you mean you didn't?"

"He means," the evil one cackled, "that if it weren't for our so-called father, I would've finished him and all his friends. Face it, Michael. You couldn't destroy me with those three party members of yours. What makes you think you'll have any better luck with just this loser?"

The insult had been delivered and the gauntlet was thrown. DK tightened his jaw, then activated his arm cannon special mode: a massive energy saber. As his built-in sword reached full-power, DK's body radiated with fury.

"What did you call me, you..." he roared, followed by some future curse words that don't exist in the English language yet.

Michael, not one to let a friend of his get disrespected, charged up his own blade. Together they flew above the fray and soared where their target was waiting.

DK reached him first, letting out a berserk series of hacks and slashes. Unfortunately, the monstrosity was ready and easily parried every attack that came its way. For every one attack, it was able to attack back eight of its own. Without any real effort, its elbow rammed into DK with a sickening crack, sending DK plummeting toward the darkness.

Michael seeing DK fall knew it was his turn to attack. He channeled his energy into the blade that spurt out beams of flaming white-hot light. He cocked back his blade and swung his sword, letting out the biggest sonic boom that he was capable of. Most of the creatures of darkness were unable to stand the recoil from the energy backflash and dissolved into oblivion from whence they came.

DK shielded his eyes from the light which grew more intense, until...

As soon as the light faded, he saw Michael on his knees, sword arm hanging limply by his side. And the evil creature was still standing. DK used his more superior than average intelligence to react without a second to lose. He knew what he had to do.

Before Michael could raise his sword, the doppleganger had his own sword tip aimed at Michael's throat. "Any last words?"

Michael grinned. "'Ninja Assassin', say hello to fellow tribe warrior 'Kickin' Crotch.'" The evil one had a split second before DK, who had been able to sneak behind, rammed his fist upward into "where the sun don't shine."

Michael let out a warrior's cry, and swung his sword in an arc and pierced the heart of the shadow.

"But...but that was a cheap shot..." his shadow self complained weakly.

"There was an advantage and he took it." Michael said in a heroic voice. "'Cause that's what heroes do."

Michael withdrew his sword from the being. DK and Michael backflipped on opposite sides of the creature and charged up their weapons. Then with uncanny accuracy, maximum agility, and ultimate strength, they performed their Team Attack: "Omega Justice."

Unable to withstand the combined force of both warriors energies, the shadow was ripped apart into the void.
Michael and DK both fell onto one knee, using their weapons to keep them steady. "Go back into oblivion where you came from, monster." DK huffed.

The other darkness entities faded back into the shadows from whence they came, until Michael and DK were left alone.

"Nice shot." Michael commented.

"Hey, it's not every day I get to crack you in the family jewels."

"Ha ha. Very funny." Michael looked out toward the horizon. "I hope the others are okay."

Giving themselves a few moments to recover from their finishing attack, DK and Michael levitated into the air and sped off toward their friends, hoping that they weren't in any trouble themselves. Seconds after they left the rickety old building, it collapsed on itself, leaving it into a pile of rubble.

Michael and DK glanced back toward the ruins of the building.

"Think they had insurance?" DK asked.

Michael let out a snort of disbelief. "It's a secret government facility. If no one knew about it, it never existed."
...

Meanwhile, Rachel, Lara, Mason and Jay were sprinting as fast as possible. Actually, it was more like Rachel and Lara were running with Mason and Jay on their backs.

"Why are we carrying you two again?" Lara huffed.

"Mason's too heavy to carry and you can run faster than we can." Jay explained.

"Uh-uh." Rachel and Lara stopped and unceremoniously dumped their two pieces of baggage. "We are not chauffeurs. You two start running on your own."

"Do you guys feel that?" Lara spoke suddenly.

"Feel what?" They stood absolutely still, wondering what was going on.

Everything seemed quiet enough. But there was an uneasiness in the air. It was as if something was waiting for the right moment to pounce. Lara and Rachel had their weapons at the ready, straining their ears for even the slightest motion. Mason was shuddering as if he knew it was coming. Jay almost forgot to breathe; he was trying to keep as still as possible and didn't want to disturb their guardian's concentration.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lara and Rachel lowered their weapons slightly. Seeing this, Jay let out a sigh of relief.

Big mistake.

A creature of darkness burst out of the snowy landscape, its tentacles targeting Jay.

"The Jay!" it screamed in a primal howl of hostility.