QuickShot:
"Come on," I say, running as fast as I can. I look up and see JumpStart running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, seemingly without effort. I do my best to keep up with him, but I'm out of breath, and my heart is beating too fast. I have no choice but to stop. JumpStart must have seen me. He stops running and jumps into the air, landing directly in front of me.
"QuickShot. Are you okay?"
I put up my hand and give myself a few minutes to catch my breath before talking.
"I'm fine! Just, not as fast as you."
I try to run, but JumpStart shoots out his hand and stops me.
"You should rest," JumpStart says. "Stay here. I'll go ahead of y--"
"I can't," I say, coughing up those words through my dried throat. "I--I---I have to get there. Justice---and SpeedBlade need help. And I still don't trust that "SharpShot" guy."
"Why not?"
"I can't explain it, but something about him really bothers me. Move!"
Catching my breath, our radio goes off, and we hear SpeedBlade.
"Hello? Hello! QuickShot? JumpStart! Can you hear me? Ms. Justice and I need help! SharpShot was not lying. There is a villain here, and he can make himself into an army. We three are vastly outnumbered."
"We three?" I repeat. "SharpShot."
Taking another deep breath, I grip my bow tightly.
"Let's go," I shout, running past JumpStart.
"QuickShot. You really should--"
"Let's go!"
SpeedBlade:
Number and his army scream as they charge us. They break every window in the manor and run toward us.
Roaring, unleashing my mightiest battle cry, I charge toward them. Swinging my sword, I force a group of them to step back. When they do, I throw my fist and punch three of them. They all fall over, holding their stomachs, but more men jump onto me from behind. They push me down and force me onto my knees. Another one pushes down on my head. My helmet is about to touch the floor, but before it can, the one pushing me down falls. Turning, I see the man falling back as a shield hits him.
"Hold on," Ms. Justice shouts, running toward me. Pushing and jumping her way through the army, she reaches me and kicks away the men who are holding me down.
"SpeedBlade," Ms. Justice says, giving me her hand. "Hurry. Get up."
I nod and push myself up. However, as I get back on my feet, I see more men jumping and grabbing Justice.
"Ms. Justice!"
I rush to help her, but even more of Number's men jump and grab me, too. With all of them holding me, I cannot move.
"Get off me! Get! Off! Me!"
One of the men kicks me in the back of my legs and forces me onto one of my knees again.
"You lose," the leader, the real Number says, shaking as he walks into the manor with an annoying grin. "You all lose, and I, all of me, everyone single one, win. Now, mes. Grab anything valuable."
Number's men, the ones who aren't holding Ms. Justice or me down, quickly start looting the manor. They take the painting off the walls. They steal the silver cutlery. Many of them even reach into some tables to put out gold and silver jewelry.
Number laughs as he watches the many hims steal everything. As he looks around, his smile disappears. Number then turns to Ms. Justice.
"Hmm. That's odd. Where's that old bastard, Mr. Rami?"
"Mr. Rami," Ms. Justice repeats, "Never heard of him."
Number stomps his foot near Ms. Justice's face, almost crushing her.
"Hey," I scream. I try to get up, but more clones jump on me, slamming me back onto the floor. "Leave her alone."
"Again," Number says, "Where is Mr. Rami?"
Ms. Justice shakes her head while still buried in Numbers.
"Mr. Rami? He's safe, far away from here."
Number grinds his teeth. He waves his hands, and his men climb off Ms. Justice. However, two still hold her arms. They bring Ms. Justice up.
"Don't play games with me, girls. There's no way that old fart couldn't have gotten away in time. Besides, I have a score to settle with him. He fired me over a little embezzlement, and to make money, I had to be some crazy scientist's guinea pig. But hey, I guess it wasn't so bad."
Number laughs as he raises his hands into the air.
"After all, the man with the bigger number always wins. Now again. Where is Mr. Rami? Last chance."
As Number says this, he waves his hand, and one of his men walks up with Ms. Justice's shield. Ms. Justice speaks.
"I told you. Mr. Rami is safe. You won't find him anywhere near here."
"Fine then," Number says. He turns to his army. "Search the house. Find him, and bring him to me. Meanwhile, I'll deal with you."
"Ms. Justice!" I scream and try again to get free by shaking Numbers off, but as I do, more and more keep me down. I can only watch as Number raises Ms. Justice's shield into the air. "Ms. Justice! Nooo!"
"Hey, Number," someone shouts. We all stop and turn to look.
SharpShot:
"You forget about me," I say, bouncing a sandwich bag in my hand. Smiling as I catch the bag, I then throw it at Number, the real, original Number.
The sandwich bag, filled with my last few rounds, cooking oil, and a piece of paper lit on fire inside another sandwich bag, lands near Number.
"What the---" Number says, looking at the sandwich bag as it heats up. The burning piece of paper ignites the cooking oil, setting it on fire. The two flames combine into one big flame, which heats my non-lethal rounds. Number looks at the ballooning sandwich bag as my rounds start jumping up and down.
"Move!"
He yells and turns to run, but it's too late. My sandwich bag bomb goes off, beanbag rounds flying everywhere. They kick the original Number, along with a bunch of his copies, to the floor. Finally, seeing an opening, I jump out from behind the counter and run over to SpeedBlade, grabbing his hand and pulling him up.
"I hope you still have a little bit of that speed left," I say, raising an empty blaster in one hand and a frying pan in the other. "Because I'm out of rounds."
SpeedBlade and I watch as Number and his endless copies push themselves up. As SpeedBlade brings up his sword, and we prepare for another round, I hear something whooshing past me.
"Huh?"
I see an arrow sticking in the floor. The arrow explodes, throwing this green slime everywhere. The slime gets all over a bunch of copies, gluing them together. They scream as they try to charge at SpeedBlade and me, but they're glued to the floor, so all they can really do is scream.
Turning, I see a woman with long blonde hair in a brown, leather pilot uniform with a bow, and beside her, a young teenage boy with long black and white hair in a long ponytail, a black jumpsuit, and one baton in each hand.
"Finally! No offense or anything, but you two are slow."
JumpStart:
"Oohhh, man," I say, twirling my batons in my hands. "That is a lot of people. I mean, a lot. Uhh, QuickShot?"
"Yes," QuickShot says, pulling another arrow from her quiver. "I can see. That is a lot of people, but wait. Where is Ms. Justice?"
I look around, trying to find Ms. Justice, but with all the people in the house, it's impossible.
"I have no idea. We'll have to clear out some of these people to find her."
"Fine. Get ready to run in there."
QuickShot then pulls back her bowstring. As she does, I see her eyes turning red. I rub my eyes, and when I look again, QuickShot's eyes are normal. Shaking my head, I prepare myself for a fight. Firing her arrow, it bursts mid-flight and turns into a large steel net.
QuickShot's net captures a bunch of humans, trapping them. They struggle to get the net off. Running in, I jump and flip over some humans who lunge at me. Landing on my feet, I hit the metal net with my lightning baton, shocking and knocking out all the copies.
"So sorry about the late arrival," I say, standing back up and looking at SharpShot and SpeedBlade. "Now, quickly. Where is Ms. Justice?"
"Ms. Justice?" SharpShot and SpeedBlade turn and look around.
"Where is she?" SpeedBlade asks.
"I don't know," SharpShot says, "I don't see her anywhere."
"You lost Ms. Justice," I scream. "How?"
"We were a little busy," SharpShot answers, "But that's no excuse."
Turning around, SharpShot raises his hands. He punches the palm of one of his hands with his fist.
"We'll find her, no matter what. The three of us will fight them in here. Meanwhile, QuickShot will cover us from a distance. Does anyone have a problem with that?"
Somehow sensing that SharpShot isn't asking SpeedBlade or me directly, the lightning gemstone on my communicator flashes nonstop. I grab and push open the cover.
"Hello--:
"Fine," QuickShot says, screaming so loudly I have to cover my elf ears. "I'll cover you, SpeedBlade, and JumpStart."
"Ouch," I say, rubbing my eyes while putting my communicator away. "You don't have to yell. We, especially I, can hear just fine."
When I can hear again, the first thing I hear is the sound of hundreds of footsteps. We turn to see a small army of Number's soldiers, all looking the same, walking towards us. They grab whatever they can use as weapons and charge toward us.
Looking at SharpShot, he flips his weapons around, with the handles facing outward.
"Don't worry," SharpShot says. "With you, SpeedBlade, and QuickShot here, this just got a whole lot easier. After all, it's quality, not quantity."
Roaring as he charges, SharpShot raises his weapons before swinging them down. He hits one of the humans with his weapon, knocking him to the floor. Another human grabs SharpShot's hand, but SharpShot hits this human in the face before knocking him to the floor, too.
"JumpStart," SpeedBlade shouts, holding out his sword. "To battle!"
He joins SharpShot in the fight. Also running in, SpeedBlade throws himself into the air. He hits and punches a bunch of the humans, knocking them down before fighting even more.
"Yaayyy," I yell, joining in. Raising my lightning batons, I counter and parry dozens of humans, one after the other, stunning and knocking them down. One of the humans, armed with a broken table leg, sneaks up on me from behind. He yells and tries to attack me, but an arrow hits him in the head, knocking him out. I turn and wave at QuickShot.
"Thank you."
QuickShot nods before firing more arrows, each arrow taking out one human or even a whole group of them.
Number:
"Nooo," I moan, stepping back as I see more and more of my army fall. Despite the number, despite my advantage, the OutCasts are easily taking them down. My copies are either punched, shocked, or hit by an arrow and stuck to the ground by some disgusting green slime. Before I realize it, I only have about a dozen of me left.
"Come on," I say, looking at the wires in my hand. "Come on. Come on!"
I try to siphon more electricity from the wires, but there's barely a spark left.
"No, no, no, nnooo! This can't be. This can't be! You cannot beat me. I am Number! I always have the higher number! I am a one-man army! I am--"
"Hey, Number," someone shouts.
I turn around and see the young girl with the shield standing behind me.
"Looks like your number's up."
Spinning and winding up, Ms. Justice throws her shield at me.
"Nooo!"
I throw the dead wire to the floor and try to run, but Ms. Justice's shield hits me. Everything turns black, and the last thing I see is the floor.
Ms. Justice:
The moment Number, the real Number, is knocked out, all of his copies stop moving. They drop whatever they're holding: lamps, chairs, even some books, and fall to the floor. A second later, they all turn back into electricity and disappear underneath the ground.
"Justice," SpeedBlade, JumpStart, and even SharpShot scream.
"Ms. Justice," QuickShot screams, bursting through one of the broken windows and stopping when she sees me. Snapping out of her trance, she runs right up to me and hugs me.
I feel QuickShot's warm body as she tightens the hug. Smiling a little as QuickShot hugs me, I raise my arms and hug her back. We pull apart a few seconds later and look at each other.
"I'm really glad you're okay," QuickShot says. Slowly, QuickShot turns to SharpShot. "Uhh, thank you for helping us. I'm sorry about everything that happened before. I would really appreciate it if you changed your name, but--"
"The name stays," SharpShot says, cutting QuickShot. "And don't worry about it. I actually owe the four of you a lot."
"You owe us?" I repeat. I look at QuickShot, SpeedBlade, and JumpStart, but they only look back at me, with the same bold question marks I imagine is also over my head. "What are you talking about?"
Before SharpShot can answer, we hear screaming and shouting.
"Let me out," Mr. Rami yells. "Let me out of here! Oh, you, all of you, will regret tonight! You have no idea what I am capable of!"
"Okay," SharpShot says, "I think it would be best if the four of you leave now. Believe me when I say this. That man is not going to take any of this lightly."
"But we saved him," JumpStart says.
"That's not how he's going to see it. Come on. Go! All of you. I'll stay here and let him out."
SharpShot pushes us out of the house. He thanks us as he pushes us off the property and onto the street before closing the iron gate. Watching as ShaprShot turns and walks back to the house, we turn and run toward the closest manhole cover.
"So I guess we have a new friend now," JumpStart says while we walk through the sewer tunnel.
"I believe so," SpeedBlade adds.
"I would still like it if he changed his name," QuickShot sighs. "SharpShot? Really? We need a second 'shot' in the city."
QuickShot shakes her head as she goes on for a bit longer, but I'm not really paying attention. Instead, I turn and look back down the tunnel.
"Come on," I say, running ahead of everyone, "There's somewhere I need to go."
Johnny Rami:
"Ahh..."
Letting out a silent groan as I rotate my bruised shoulder, I look up at the small hospital's television. On it, I see Number in police custody, surrounded by officers, and with his hands inside rubber gloves. I couldn't help but smile a little.
"I guess Number won't be having the 'higher number' for a while."
I keep watching the news until a tall man with long grey hair and a white lab coat approaches me.
"Hello, Mr. John Rami," Dr. Boxman says, lowering the clipboard in his hands.
"You can just call me Johnny," I say, standing up. "No need to be formal. Besides, Mr. Rami is more my father than I am. Speaking of my father, how is he?
"He's fine," Dr. Boxman answers. "A little bruised, but--"
"Angry?" I ask.
Dr. Boxman looks at me. He looks right and left, making sure we're alone before nodding.
"He'll be dispatched in a few hours."
"Thank you."
Dr. Boxwood leaves. As soon as he's gone, I see someone running through the hospital's hallway. It's someone I haven't seen in a long time. The person stops the second she sees me.
She's wearing a baggy, grey jacket and long pants. Her blond hair is still short and wavy, but compared to before, it looks a bit messier.
"Johnny," she says.
"Tichi," I say. "You're here?"