Sorry about that, Ninja. I did put a mention of him, but I forgot the name! Agh! Oh well...next time, I suppose...

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Chapter 11: Taste of Defeat. (L)

The remaining heroes gathered around the conference table in the center of the base. All had sustained bad injuries, as well as failing to stop Devan. Worse of all, no sign of Joshua could be found. Even though the girls protested to search the ocean, Joshuwa disagreed. If he had landed somewhere in the sea, he'd already be at the bottom by now. All of them were holding back thier tears, before Jazz slammed his fist against the table.

"Snap out of it! Joshua wasn't expecting Devan to be so powerful. He suffered as a result. We all underestimated our foe. We lost because of it. All of us...Have to go on...and be strong. Joshua would have wanted it. Crying isn't going to bring him back." Jazz commented with some anger.

Joshuwa looked out at the hanger. The J-Wing was still out there...but it didn't have the requirments to go too far underwater. An upgrade would be needed...and the only parts were on thier own planet in the Video Dimension. An idea came into his mind. He kept it to himself and waited.

"But...He can't be gone...I refuse to belive that he's dead!" Sugar yelled.

She got to her feet to lunge at Joshuwa, but was restrained by the other girls.

"We all know how you feel, Sugar. Something will happen...there's got to be a way we can find him!" Adis yelled.

Joshuwa thought for a second, remembering the battle between Devan that nearly killed all three of them.

"Joshua...Took some pretty bad wounds. When we saw him, he seemed to be barely able to hold himself together....I fear he may have died from the landing..." Joshuwa sighed.

Silence. All sat there, mixed emotions flowing through them. Hatred. Sadness. Sympathy...

Meanwhile...

"Nothing but the sight of blue...it seems so vast...makes me feel kinda small...I guess drifting out here won't be so bad..." Joshua sighed to himself.

A sharp sting went through his body as the salty water lapped against his partially torn torso. Most of the flesh had been ripped off, leaving nothing but some crushed bones, dying muscles and the large amount of blood trickling into the ocean. A series of teeth-marks were lined up from his waist to his shoulder, apart from the small mass missing from around his waist, the upper half of his body seemed intact. Probably a few scratches though...

"Dang it...I had to ditch my armor...but it still might not have been enough...these marks are quite deep..." Joshua groaned.

There was no sign of life in any direction. What to do...He could barely keep himself above the salty water, so swimming was out of the question...signalling for the J-Wing could prove to be dangerous...Only left with the choice to stay where he was and wait, he did so. Night slowly began to fall, the water around him began to get colder. Touching his exposed skin, he shuddered from the cold. Even if he couldn't move...the occasional wave sent him back towards the city...he hoped.

"I thought I was done for that time...heh...Devan's stronger...but he was holding back on his full power...Why? Did he wish to use it if I managed to beat him? If that was the case, I wouldn't be alive...The Gameboy Jewels are supposed to be helping me...I just don't see how..." Joshua laughed bitterly.

Night had come. Hunger and fatigue had taken thier toll. Unable to stay awake any longer, Joshua sank under the waves, unconcious during his descent to the ocean floor. Bubbles of air gently brushed past him, causing him to stir slightly in his slumber. Something approached. Glancing down at the wounded hero, it poked him with a small spear, making Joshua slowly open his eyes, still tired. When he saw that he was under-water, his eyes sprang open in horror. He couldn't breathe!

His body flaied around wildly, only to realise that he was back on the sandy shore. Embarrased between belief, he decided to rest here...for the night.

Back at HQ...

"Fine...Fine. We'll look in the morning then. It's way too late to search for him now..." Joshuwa sighed as he gave in to the others.

This meant he'd be up all night, adjusting the J-Wing's systems so they'd be able to search for Joshua's corpse and at least give it a proper burial. Sugar was barely able to keep herself from crying, while Jazz tried to release some of his anger for what happened today by blasting a few targets in the Training Room. Joshuwa had already left to fix the J-Wing, Norn was asleep in her room, gently crying herself to sleep...

"It never works out the way you want things to...I thought it'd be easy with Joshua here to fight...but now that he's gone...I don't feel so safe anymore..." Angel Dinah sobbed quietly.

Adis simply stared out the window, looking at the stars in the dark night sky. No shooting stars...nothing to make a wish or prayer on...but...she knew that Joshua couldn't die so easily like that...If he'd managed to pull out of a fight with The Dark One, he'd be back in no time...