Chapter 29

“So, at last you have arrived…excellent…since you have made it this far, I’ll have to reward you. Especially you, Joshua. How would you like to meet an old friend? Well…I’m giving you the opportunity to see your beloved Eiko again.” Aharon laughed.

“Joshua! You mean…Eiko’s dead?!” Seb yelled

“…”

“Joshua…I could’ve…stayed…only if you had given me…” Eiko’s voice said.

Eiko stood in front of them, her wings which were once white, were now black as the darkest night. It swallowed all the light around them.

“Why didn’t you give me The Video Crystals? That could have saved me…Give them to me…”

Joshua grew angry at Aharon’s trick and drew his swords. Seb and Mr Dower seemed to have disappeared, but they walked forwards, a red glow in their eyes.

“So, you’re trying to make me fight my friends? This is nothing but illusions! All of it! I will not fall victim to your tricks!”

Joshua raced towards the image of Eiko and slashed the illusion into nothingness before it could interfere. Fire surrounded him, becoming a large wall, but Joshua walked right through it, unscathed. He raced towards the illusions of Mr Dower and Seb and threw his swords towards them. A brief, inhuman screech filled the air and the illusions disappeared into nothingness, from where they came.

29 b

“So, you choose to accept the inventible…you never learn, do you Joshua. Then come. The darkness…the power which I now wield will destroy you…there is still a chance to run. Go now, or forfeit your lives.” Aharon laughed heartlessly.

Finally, Veneno, Toxic, David and Aisha arrived into the room. All seven of them were now reunited. Joshua yelled out loudly:

“We’ve come this far Aharon. All seven of us. We came to defeat you, Dakoda and my father. We will succeed or die trying. I will not fall. Not now. None of us will lose to the evil.” Joshua said.

Silence entered the room while Aharon was thinking. Joshua put away his swords and stood, awaiting the door in front to open. It did, but then closed.

“Very well. You may fight on for your pathetic planet, but you must face us alone. One by one. You will leave the Video Crystals behind. If you do not agree to these conditions, we will destroy the rest of the ship in which you now stand.”

“…Let me take Veneno and Toxic with me. I don’t have any chance of winning without them…” Joshua lied.

There was no way Joshua wanted to fight by himself. He knew that he would have Veneno and Toxic with him in case something went wrong.

“Fine. Step forward.”

The three heroes stepped forward into the elevator and were taken up to the next part of the ship. While they were travelling, Aharon smiled.

>Fools…Do you think I would let the others live? They can't honestly believe that I would allow them to interfere? Bah. It will make them suffer more. I will trigger the destruction of the lower half of the base. We'll proceed with Phase 2...<

29 C

The long ascent was taking forever. Joshua was beginning to worry that this was a trick. Veneno was keeping silent and calm, but kept his left hand near his newly obtained plasma gun. Toxic was too busy thinking of so many possibilities of the battle ahead, he decided to try and calm himself down and have a laugh. Tripping Veneno over, he fell to the ground.

"You little..." Veneno growled, angry at Toxic.

"Settle down. This is no time to argue. Veneno. Let me have a look at that wound..." Joshua said.

Joshua looked at the bruised leg. It seemed weak and didn't seem it would support him much longer. Ordering Veneno to stand still, he thrust a small, hard to see dagger into the leg. There was a yell of anger and swearing, but Joshua motioned to the image floating above him. It was quite easy to see the damage that was there. All of his muscle was dead. It gave out as soon as Toxic tripped Veneno up.

"Not good. You won't be able to walk...unless...STOP MOVING! YOU'LL CAUSE THE DAMAGE TO GET WORSE!" Joshua snapped angrily.

Veneno went silent and still. With a click of his fingers, the dagger returned to his hand, and he placed it into his Nintendo DS. Pressing the Touch Screen, he saw a sample of the DNA he had just obtained. Manipulating it would be too dangerous. Joshua decided to leave out his origins, but he simply asked:

"Do you know who your parents are?"

"...Only my father. I...I can't remember my mother...Why?"

Joshua kept silent and grabbed his sword; Veneno flinched as he saw him raise the sword above his leg. He started to curse loudly, but saw the sword go right through his leg, and another screen came up.

"Okay...this should work...just a few tweaks here and there...and make an adjustment there...Done. Stand up." Joshua ordered.

Veneno did, but almost fell over. He didn't understand, his leg was working?!

"What did you..."

Joshua smiled.

"I only restored it back to what it was before. I couldn't erase all of the damage, even if I wanted to. That is for someone else. But, keep the cane. I adjusted it only so you could walk only if necessary without it. Most of the leg will remain dead until you get it healed..." Joshua explained.

"Anything you want to talk about Toxic? Friends? Family? This might take some time getting to the top." Joshua offered.

"...Yeah...What's this...'Video Game Dimension' you keep speaking about? Is it where all of the video game characters are real? Or maybe it's some dream you thought up! Video Dimension...Heh...Good one, Joshua." Toxic laughed.

"It's no joke. When this is over, I'm going there to get something of mine, and you two are coming with me. There is something that you will both need to see, obtain and meet...The rest of Gaming Force."

>And Eiko...I will see you there...soon...< Joshua thought

Meanwhile...

"So...We come all the way here, and for what?! No action at all! No fun at all!" David angrily yelled.

Seb sat down on the remains of a robot and started to think. Why would Aharon let Veneno and Toxic go instead of the others? Something was amiss. Usually, Aharon was overconfident and would battle them all, but this was unexpected...

Aharon's voice entered the room.

"Hey, Seb. Is everyone there?" Aharon asked.

"Yeah."

Aharon laughed and let out a cry of glee.

"Well, tell them that I said goodbye!" Aharon laughed, as he pushed a button.

"What?!" everyone yelled.

There was a small rumbling, but it grew louder and louder. Smoke flowed down the corridor and flame was everywhere. Explosions erupted all around them as Seb finally realised this was a trick...they were going to die. Grabbing his DS, he started a recording as he made their way to the ship. Before any of them could, the explosions cut off their escape, and out of the fire walked Assassin Aharon.

"Trying something?"

Then, their worlds went black...