White Diamond stands on the roof of the library, firing her light rays into the streets as what appears to be an army of ant-like alien soldiers marches along, incinerating students and faculty unlucky enough to be out of doors. She can hardly believe her eyes. Is this a real alien invasion? Subterranean predators? Then, the answer. Behind the ant army, the same B-movie giant lizard as the team fought marches in step with the ants. The lizard creature created by the mysterious mad scientist known as Professor Sampson.
An instant later, Rick, Cazmonster and Angela appear next to White Diamond, ready for action. "Thanks for holding it down, Diamond!" Rick says, opening a portal in the street into which several ants drop. It is not obvious where it lets out. "The others are flying in from Langley."
"Good, we're going to need everyone!" White Diamond shouts, firing another powerful burst of light into the street. From here, the sunlight reaches her optimally, making her entire body a living laser cannon.
"We're gonna need more than that!" Cazmonster shouts, moving to the back edge of the library roof. "We're gonna need a plan!" With that, the cyborg werewolf sprints across the roof and leaps toward the street. "Cannonball!"
Ant soldiers begin flying every direction from Cazmonster's landing site. Angela grows a pair of claws and long vampire fangs and approaches Rick. He's startled; this is the first time anyone has seen her this way except for Emily.
"Get me down there!" Angela growls. "I'm not as tough as Cazmonster, but I can do some damage to those this!" Rick oblidges by opening a portal to the street. White Diamond keeps firing.
From out of the sun, a titanium sphere flies down into the ants, destroying several of them. Behind it from Wrecking Ball, Dragonfly, and Palisade. Palisade lands next to Angela. "Need some help?"
"I'm doing my job, Spike-man, you do yours!" she says, slashing into yet another ant soldier while their laser weapons lash out at her.
Dragonfly continues his areal assault, swooping down on the invaders, or dropping humming bombs into the thick of them. When he and Wrecking Ball aren't fighting the creatures directly, they're pulling innocent bystanders out of the line of fire and depositing them away from the edge of the battle.
Fat lot of good that will do, Wrecking Ball thought, putting down an aging female professor in the quad. If we don't find Sampson soon, the whole school will be overrun. And we're not going to do that by fighting.
"Dragonfly," Wrecking Ball said, calling on his cell phone. "We need to approach this a different way! Sampson's going to keep throwing stuff at us until he kills us!"
Hovering above the battle, Dragonfly dropped another humming bomb into a trouble area before answering. "I agree Tim, but I'm not sure what to do about it!" Suddenly, Dragonfly felt something solid hit him from below, and he flew spinning out of control toward the roof of the library. Slamming into a power relay, and felt a jolt."
The next thing Dragonfly knew, White Diamond was tapping him gently, a look of concern on her face, while the lizard monster was ripping into the side of the library facing the street. Aaron vaguely noticed the creature shimmer momentarily, as Sampson's holo-creatures do when attacked, but there was no one near the creature.
"Aaron, you're alive!" she shouted, giving him a gentle hug and kiss. Aaron's shirt had been burned away from the power discharge, and he was sure he had a concussion and several fractures, but yes, he WAS alive.
"Adept!" Dragonfly shouted. "We need to get off this roof. Gojira there is gonna rip the whole building down!"
Rick came running over. "I think you're right." Opening a door, he gestured casually, "Step right in."
Aaron barely pulled himself off the roof, and White Diamond helped him through the portal. They found themselves on top of Schuster Hall, several blocks away.
Tim steadied himself. "I need to get back to the battle," said White Diamond anxiously.
"I'll take you!" Aaron said, then stumbled slightly.
"You need to sit out for a while," said Adept. "I'll port Diamond and I back, you join use when you can."
A portal opened, and White Diamond had just stepped through, when Aaron shouted "Wait!" Rick looked back at him, holding the portal open.
"Rick! The power!" Aaron shouted excitedly. Rick looked at him, befuddled.
"Yes, he's drawing power to make these things, but we have no idea from where or to where. We've looked!" Rick noted.
"From HERE, right NOW!" Aaron said. He explained to Rick the effect he'd seen when his fall destroyed the power relay on top of the library. "Sampson's drawing energy from right here! If we can track where it's going, we can find him."
"Oh, we can track it," Rick said. Pulling out his cell, he placed a call. "Caz, that crawler program you placed on CIU's power system. Can you activate it and receive the data remotely?"
After a moment, and several growls and loud crunching sounds, Cazmonster answered. "Program wouldn't be much use if I couldn't! You want me to turn it on?"
Rick smiled. "Oh, yes, turn it on. When you get a destination, let me know."
Rick had closed his portal, and was preparing to re-open it. Dragonfly grabbed his arm. "This time, let me give YOU a ride!" Without warning, Dragonfly grabbed the Adept under the arms and swooped off the building.
"Wooooo!" Rick shouted, nervous and exhilarated all at once. The duo landed on a building nearer the battle. In the street below, Wrecking Ball had used his telepathy to erect a barricade from destroyed sections of road. Palisade, like his namesake, posed a spiky barrier to anyone wishing to cross. Out in the field, Angela and Cazmonster were fighting creature after creature. They'd taken some laser burns, and were looking worn. White Diamond stood on the roof opposite them, firing into the street.
A few minutes later, as Dragonfly swooped back into battle and Rick had begun opening portals from the CIU quad to safer areas of Stevenson, Cazmonster jumped up to the roof.
"Got 'im!" Cazmonster growled to The Adept. "Open your phone!"
Rick complied. On his GPS app, a new location appeared. The caption on it read "Professor Sampson".
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