(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.