Invited Guests

Silent:

"Be careful," I say to the OutCasts as the five of us approach the doorway to my hidden base.

"Why," QuickShot asks with a scoff. "Is it booby-trapped?"

I stop and turn to face the archer.

"Yes. My front door is booby-trapped with automatic turrets. Unlike you four, I plan to keep people out of my home."

I see the elf crosses his arms but I ignore it.

"Stay back," I order, putting up my hand. "As I said, there are automatic turrets. I'll deactivate them so wait here."

"Okay," Ms. Justice says, rising her arms to stop the knight from approaching. I move forward by myself, deeper into the forgotten tunnel. Coming up to a reinforced set of iron doors, I look at a part of the wall beside the doors. Pushing a hidden button, a keypad flips open and I enter the code.

"Strange," I think as the light on the keypad goes green. "Dr. Cho didn't change the passcode."

I hear the sound of the turrets turning off and see the iron doors split open. I check the inside to make sure there aren't any traps. Once I know the coast is clear, I turn back and wave my hand. One by one, the OutCasts come and enter my base. I follow after them.

"This is your base," the elf asks, looking around. "Wow. You really like tunnels."

Finding ourselves in a dark hallway, I look around a bit for a light switch.

"Find it."

I turn the lights on, revealing a small narrow hallway.

"Yeah," the elf says, "This really isn't any better."

"Shut up," I say, taking the lead. The four pull out their weapons and follow after me as I guide them through. We walk through the hallway for a bit, completely unobstructed.

"This can't be right," I say stopping after a while. "At the very least, Dr. Cho must know I would've come back here, and yet, no defense."

"Maybe she thought we would have arrested you before you could come back here," Ms. Justice answers. "That's why there aren't any defenses."

"If that's true," QuickShot says, "Then we have the element of surprise on our side. We can take down Dr. Cho before she even realizes we're here."

QuickShot tries to take a step past me but I shoot out my arm and stop her.

"Don't be so sure of that," I say. I nudge my head and point up. Looking up, QuickShot and the rest of the OutCasts see a camera with a tiny, blinking red light.

As if on cue, speakers turn on and Dr. Cho's voice echoes throughout the hallway.

"So you survive," Dr. Cho starts, "And it seems you bring guests. Well, all of you will regret ever coming here! My machines will tear you apart!"

"Her machines," Ms. Justice says. A few seconds later, we hear the sound of metal grinding, gears turning, and footsteps. Looking further up the hallway, we see a bunch of scrap metals robot moving toward us. They seem to be made completely from rusted and left parts. Despite this, I can clearly see sharp teeth, dangerous weapon arms, and even a few laser eyes.

"Move, move, move," I yell, dropping to the ground as one of the scrap metal robots fires a laser beam at us. I try to get back up but the archer keeps me down.

"Stay down," she orders, pushing me down. She pulls an arrow from her quiver and loads it into her bow. Pulling the bowstring back, she fires the arrow and destroys the robot with laser vision.

"OutCasts," she yells, "And, uhh, you. Onward!"

Right away, Ms. Justice, SpeedBlade, JumpStart, and even I charge forth. We slam, crush, and destroy the scrap metal robots as fast as we could, but somehow, there seems to be an endless amount of them.

"Get off of me," SpeedBlade yells as one robot jumps and grabs onto his shoulder. Before the scrap metal robot could bite down, he grabs and throws it to the ground. He then slices the robot in two.

"Watch out," I say, pointing as two more scrap metal robots jump and bite down on SpeedBlade's sword.

"Hey! Get off!"

SpeedBlade tries to shake them off but their teeth are practically embedded into the blade. The sudden added weight must have thrown SpeedBlade off balance. As he tries to shake them off, he instead falls to the ground himself.

"My sword," he shouts. His sword is only a few feet from him. He reaches over to try and grabs it but I grab his feet and pull him back. "What are you doing?"

"Saving your shining butt," I answer. I look back at the sword as the two scrap metal robots drag it away. It disappears into the group of oncoming robots. I check the other two and see they're not doing much better.

Like SpeedBlade, Ms. Justice is struggling with robots that have also bitten down on her shield. JumpStart is managing to keep the robots at bay but only barely. He swings his batons at them but every time he pulls back his arms, they advance.

I reach into some pouches I have on my belt and pull out a small handful of pellets.

"You two," I say, pointing at Jumpstart and Ms. Justice. "Get back. Now!"

The two turn and look at me. I show them what I have in my head and immediately, they back away.

Once they're clear, I throw the pellets and watch as they roll for only a few seconds before exploding. Exploding and destroying a bunch of the scrap metal robots, the explosions also force more of them back.

"There's too many," I scream, regrouping with QuickShot. "We can't face them all."

"I know," QuickShot says, loading an arrow and shooting. "Is there another way to Dr. Cho's lab?"

"No, there isn't," Dr. Cho answers over the speaker. "This hallway is the only way to my private lab, and my guards will make sure none of you will ever reach it."

"In that case," Ms. Justice pants as she kicks a small robot off her shield and stomps on it, crushing it. "Let's get out of here! We can regroup and figure out a new plan of attack!"

Ms. Justice runs for the front door but before she can reach it, the iron doors close. Stopping before she could run into them, she tries to pry the doors open but it's no use.

"You're not escaping," Dr. Cho says, "None of you are. I want the last thing for the five of you to see are my machines as they take over everything!"

Once she said that the scrap metal robots all get up and show us their sharp steel teeth. They then run toward us, jumping once close enough and attacking us.