Chapter 11 - Smack Down in the ol' Town

CHAPTER 11
The vehicle crumpled like a soda can under Jake’s back. For a moment his head spun and he couldn’t figure out why he and that large piece of metal were colliding so violently. Then, looking as his tail, he saw a pair of hands holding it. Then it all came rushing back to him; he was trying not to die!
He rolled to the left to avoid the girl’s powerful fist. Still feeling a little dizzy, he fell off the heap of metal and machinery onto the road. He crawled to his feet and happily saw that the girl had, with that last punch, wedged her fist into the vehicle. He took this opportunity to turn to Betty.
“Yo! I could use some back up over here! Where are those other guys?”
Betty scanned the sky in the direction of the ship. The crowd that had initially gathered had already dispersed when they saw this was a little more than just a street fight, but Betty was getting concerned. She didn’t want this fight to go on much longer. Then she saw what she was looking for; a little black speck whizzing towards the through the sky.
“Hang on! I think I see them!” she turned back to Jake, “Jake! Look out!” The girl Jake was fighting had (instead of pulling her hand out of the vehicle) pulled the engine block out and was welding it like a club. She swung the block, smacking Jake aside like a doll. Instinctively, Betty reached for her wrist. She put her finger on the trigger of the Fenton Wrist Ray. Before June had a chance to react, a small green beam shot from Betty’s wrist and struck her with surprising power, sending her flying into a nearby building.
“I guess it is good for something other than ghosts.” Betty commented. She knew, however that the girl was far too tough to let a brick wall stop her. She ran over to the spot Jake landed. He returned to his human form and was slowly regaining consciousness.
“Jake, are you alright?” She helped him up to his feet. It seemed remarkable he was still able to move.
“Yo girl, I’m fine, I’m cool, I’m icey-chill.” Suddenly a strange look came across his face as he asked, “Who lit Jenny on fire?”
For a moment Betty worried that Jake has had one too many hits to the head, until she heard the sound of approaching rockets, meaning that Jenny was landing. Looking towards Jenny she realized that Jenny didn’t quite look like Jenny. Many of the dents and scrapes in her armor were gone and, most shockingly, her blue paint (which had been peeling and fading) was replaced be red and orange hot-rod flames.
“Jenny?” Betty asked, not fully believing what she was seeing. “You look . . . different.”
“Ye-ah!” Jake groggily shouted, “You lookin’ smokin’, Girl! Holla!”
Jenny blushed a little, “It was Phantom’s idea. He really is good with machines, you know.”
“Speaking of Phantom, where is he?” Betty asked.
“He’s right behind-” Jenny looked back the way she came and a confused look came on her face, “Well, he was right behind me. I’m sure he’ll show up soon, besides, he got most of the bugs out of me and gave me some upgrades as well. I’m sure I can handle this. So where is the problem?”
“We blasted her into that wall over there and I don’t think that will hold her for long.” Betty responded.
“Her? It’s a girl?”
“Yeah, with super-strength and a bad attitude.” Jake added.
“That’s never a good combo.” Jenny observed.
A sudden noise from the pile of rubble attracted the three hero’s attention. Juniper had recovered from the blast and the look on her face effectively conveyed what she said, “Alright, NOW I’M MAD!”
With one powerful leap, June propelled herself into the air, landing with a few yards distance between her and the others. She quickly closed that distance and swung a fist at Betty’s face. To everyone’s shock, however, the fist stopped. June tried to force her fist forward but it wouldn’t budge. Then an eerie voice came out of nowhere.
“This is what you needed backup for?” A white glove appeared around June’s fist, quickly followed as the rest of Phantom’s body appeared, hovering a little above the ground.
“This is your backup?” June replied proudly and with a strategic twist of her wrist she broke Phantom’s grip and grabbed his arm. Phantom had no time to react as June flipped him face first into the ground. He skidded a little before coming to a stop and falling limp
“Next!” June said calmly. Jenny jumped in as her hands transformed into a giant pair of buzz saws.
“You know,” Jenny said, “Phantom’s going to be really ticked off when his face grows back.”
“Ohhh! The pasty-faced kid’s gonna mad! Soo scary!” Jenny brought one of her saws down on June. June caught the saw with both hands, stopping it from spinning. The robot then swung the other saw towards her. June leapt over the saw and, still holding the saw, landed behind Jenny. With expert skill June gabbed both of Jenny’s arms art the wrists, holding them so the buzz saws wouldn’t hurt her. June then placed her foot on Jenny’s back and began to push. Jenny tried not to scream as the joints in her arms strained at the force. Just as it seemed Jenny’s arms were about to snap off June was blasted away by another green ray. Phantom stood in the air with his hand extended and giving off green smoke. His face clearly had been damaged. It was covered with green oozing gashes, and one of his eyes had been moved to the wrong place on his face. Quickly the wounds healed and the eye slithered back to its proper place.
“Alright,” Phantom said. “Now I’m mad.”
“Bring it on, freak show! I’ve got nine different kinds butt whoop for you!”
Phantom flew for June as she put up her fists. He came at her faster and faster. The moment he was in range June swung a fist. She was more than a little surprised when nothing connected with it. Even more so when she realized Phantom had vanished.
“Where did you go?” she asked as she looked around. Suddenly an odd ripple went all through her body. Then, without wanting to, she doubled over, as if about to vomit. Then she became stiff as a board. It was as if she had no control over her body. Finally she figured out what was happening. She forced herself down to her knees and began slamming her face into the pavement, creating a small crater.
“GET . . . OUT . . . OF . . . MY . . . HEAD!” she shouted between slams. She was forced to quit this when her body levitated and began flying backwards. Suddenly she shot straight up and then after ascending about fifty feet in the air she was flipped head down and bulleted down to the ground like a torpedo. She hit the ground like a bag of rocks and fell limp face down. For a while, she didn’t move. Jenny, Betty, and Jake surrounded her, not knowing really what just happened or what to expect. Slowly, June started to get up, but something wasn’t right, Betty thought. The way she was moving just seemed off. But when Betty saw her eyes were now green and glowing she was able to figure it out.
“Phantom? You . . . possessed her?” Betty said lowering her wrist ray.
“Technically,” Phantom said out of June’s mouth, “it’s called ‘overshadowing’ but, yeah, pretty much.”
“So, uh,” Jake said “what do we do now?”
“That’s a good question.” Betty replied. “Phantom, how long do you think you can keep her in control?”
“Not much longer. She’s really starting to fight back, maybe just a few minutes at the most. But usually after I possess people they’re pretty out of it for a while.”
“Any way you can get some information out of her? Maybe we can make a deal.”
“A deal?!” Jake Shouted, “She just tried to make me a street pancake and you want to make a deal?! What makes you think she’d ever agree?”
“Maybe because she’s from Earth, too.” Phantom said plainly.
“Say What?” Jake blurted out.
“Yeah,” Phantom replied, “She’s from a place called Orchid Bay. Her name is Juniper Lee, but her friends call her June. Wait- there’s something really important about her.” June’s face became confused looking as Phantom tried to make sense of the thoughts in her head. “Do the words Te Xuan Ze mean anything to you guys?”
“What?” Jake nearly fell over in shock, “Te Xuan Ze? The Te Xuan Ze? Seriously?”
“What, you know what that means?” Betty asked.
“Well, yeah, but, no . . . Couldn’t be, unless-“
“What Jake?” Jenny asked, slightly impatiently.
“The Te Xuan Ze is- or was supposed to be this super powered guardian who protected the barrier between the Magical World and the Human World.”
“So she’s, like, a good guy or something?” Jenny asked.
“If what I’m getting from her head is right,” Phantom answered, “than yeah, she’s a good guy- er- girl. But can we just decide what to do with her fast? She’s fighting back real hard now.”
“Alright then,” Betty said, “let her go, Phantom.”
“All right.” Phantom agreed, “Just keep on your guard.”
With that Phantom phased out of her. June, as soon as she was free of Phantom’s control she put up her fists, ready for another round. “All right, freaks, who’s next?” And then she got light-headed and toppled over. “Whoa, okay everyone just . . . stop spinning.”
“Juniper Lee?” Betty asked cautiously.
“How’d you-whoa, real spinney now.”
“Juniper, I’m Atomic Betty of the Galactic Guardians, and we are on a mission to find and bring to justice the people who destroyed our home planet, Earth.”
“Whoop-dee-doo for you.”
“I’m telling you this because we want you to come with us. You definitely have the skills and power to take on the invaders. We can’t let what happened to Earth happen somewhere else.”
“So pretty much,” June said, the dizziness wearing off now, “You want me to do some serious butt-kicking, right?”
“If you want to put it like that.”
“Just one question; why do you need me?”
“I told you, you have skills and power to-”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” June said as she started stretching her back. “What I mean is you have a war-ship, a full-on dragon, a human war machine and the Phantom Menace over there,” She waved her hand at the others. “Why do you need me?”
“Because, you held the full-on dragon, human war machine and Phantom Menace at bay for nearly three hours single handedly.”
“Good reason.” June had completely recovered by now. “I guess I can hang out with you guys for a while, on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“You keep Casper there from doing that possession thing again.” June pointed to Phantom.
“Oh yeah,” Phantom said, rolling his eyes, “Like I want to get in more people’s heads. If this is all over I’m going back to the ship.” Then he faded away until he had disappeared.
“He’s kinda-” June said.
“Creepy?” Betty said taking off the Fenton Wrist Ray and hoping Phantom was long gone by now. “Yeah, he kinda is. Here,” She handed June the ray, “It works against ghosts like Phantom, and we have more stuff like it back at the ship.”
“Cool. So, you probably told me before, but what brings you to a backwoods planet like this? ”
“Really we just needed to resupply.”
Just then a small hovercraft zoomed over to the young heroes, being ridden by a very angry little man.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? “ Mr. Spacely yelled, looking like he was about to have a heart attack. “I TOLD YOU TO GET THESE PEOPLE OFF MY PLANET!!!”
“Oh no, Mr. Spacely,” June responded in her most disgustingly sweet voice, “I can’t do that, they’re just here to resupply.”
“RE-SUPLY! I WANT YOU TO KICK . . . THEIR . . . ugh!” June’s hand struck out like a snake and grabbed Mr. Spacely by the collar.
“Oh, but Mr. Spacely, there’s nothing wrong with resupplying, is there Mr. Spacely. I mean it doesn’t hurt anyone, does it Mr. Spacely? It’s not like rolling some small person into a ball, tying them to a pole and playing tether ball with them, is it Mr. Spacely? ” June said, still in the sweet tone.
“Bu-but,” Mr. Spacely tried to reason, “We had a contract!” he instantly produced a somewhat thick stack of papers from his suit coat. June calmly set him down on the ground and took the contract, flipping through it casually. She quietly straightened the papers.
“What contract?” June said as ripped the papers in half, then did it again, and again, and again. Mr. Spacely got paler with every rip.
“Uh- y-yes, let’s get you f-friends out fitted so they can b-be on their way.” Mr. Spacely began walking towards the nearest supply shop.
“Oh, and Mr. Spacely? It sure is nice of you give them all of it for free.”
That word. That loathsome word made Mr. Spacely stop dead in his tracks. Free? Free means no money, it means losing money. Free is a four letter word.
“FREE!!!” Mr. Spacely cursed and spun around, “YOU JUST CROSSED A LINE!!!”
June simple giggled and stopped down to Mr. Spacely’s level, putting on hand on Spacely’s bald spot and another on a large rock. “Oh Mr. Spacely, you are just so funny!” June squeezed both hands and crushed the rock, while only giving enough pressure to Spacely’s head to help him think about the word ‘free’.
Spacely reconsidered, “Oh, yeah, f-funny. A j-joke, he-heh. I’ll go get some supplies ready, so you can get it for f-f-f-f-frrrrrrrreeeeeeeee.” Just saying it made him want to cry.
Spacely walked off looking very much like a confused, lost, balding child.
“Well, I guess that takes care of that.” June said, turning back to the others, “Now, where too after this?”

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