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A fight-frazzled Isaac gasped as Isabel’s screech reached the battlefield below.
“Oh no! Isabel!” he cried out. “She’s being tortured!” he exclaimed, then realized what it meant if he could share that fear while fending off the grudged-out Sphinx of Lies. “Phew!” Isaac sighed with relief. “Thank goodness.”
“...You’re cold, O’Connor,” Johnny mumbled, giving him a wary, disapproving stare.
“HAVEN’T YOU FIGURED IT OUT YET?! EVERYONE’S ALLOWED TO SPEAK THE TRUTH!” an overheating Isaac squeaked, but his lies and frantic grip of Johnny’s tanktop only added to his unhinged minor Batman villain image. “RRRGGH, THIS IS SO CATHARTIC!”
A snapping snake tail cut their banter short, and Isaac shoved the bully back to save him from its fangs.
“I CAN STAND YOU LITTLE DUDES!” the sphinx roared in his first voice. “I CAN SSSTOMACH ONE MORE DAY SSSLINKING IN SHADOW!” hissed his tail. “I LOVE DEBATING EVERY CAUTIOUS MOVE WE MAKE! ACCOUNTING ALWAYSSS FOR OUR WEAKNESSS! BEING FORCED TO CARE ABOUT THE SAFETY AND SURVIVAL OF THE SIBLINGS I ADORE!!”
“I care about your grievances and family problems, man!” a retreating Max protested. “They’re so relevant! They have everything to do with why we’re fighting!”
“PREACH, BOSS!” a tearful bully in his entourage cried out. “HE FRIGGIN’ GETS US, DUDE...’
“We’re fighting for you, too, boss!” yelled another, unknowingly standing idly by while Max was nearly mauled.
“The boss is right,” a third student accepted. “Every time I bullied a nerd, or a geek, or a dweeb, I was subconsciously imagining they had my father’s face. Stealing their lunch money was like getting an allowance... and my dad’s approval.”
Isaac sidestepped the serpent tail’s next bite and snared its coils in a length of spectral chain.
“Let’s see how tall your tale can get before it falls apart, you fibbing FREAK!” he shouted, yanking on the snake he had entangled.
Suddenly, it snapped... its jaws an inch from Isaac’s face, and his stumbling flinch allowed the sphinx to win the tug of war.
“EEP! OOF! OW, OW, OUCH!”
The snake wrenched Isaac forward off his feet, scraping his knees against the gravel and shattering the chains that had restrained it.
“He doubted the boss’s legend, and was forced to kneel, through sheer force of will alone,” a bully cultist postulated. “It would seem our nameless kingpin has some sort of rare predisposition to commanding weak-willed boys, a power I’ve decided to call Supreme Angel Emperor’s Aura.”
A reeling Johnny watched Isaac go down, and saw Max flailing through the purple blob that snarled in between them. Max was dodging, ducking, and smacking the beast in its snout with what strikes he could manage, but the spirit was relentless, growing larger every moment.
“Leave him ALONE!” Johnny shouted, rushing forward.
Ktong!
Johnny winced and stumbled back. His strongest punch had bounced right off the spirit’s bubbling blubber.
“BOW! BOW BEFORE ME, WHELPS, YOU WITLESS, WIDE-EYED SPAWN OF MY USURPERS!” the Sphinx of Lies bellowed. Long gone was his chill surfer dude attitude, and beneath his roars and hissing, the voice of an imperious queen began to thunder from the depths of his existence. “ONLY MY REIGN COULD HAVE FORGED THROUGH FEAR A FOE WITH STRENGTH TO FACE ME! FEEBLE SCIONS, RAISED ON PEACE AND PLUNDER: FLEE MY WRATH! PLEDGE FALSE FAITH AND SCHEME IN SHADOWS! WHEN YOUR SUFFERING AND STORIES OF MY GLORY HAVE PRODUCED A LINE OF HEROES WORTH MY HATRED, THEN—AND ONLY THEN—SHALL I ALLOW YOUR SHAMEFUL MEMORY THE MERCY OF EXCORIATING CATACLYSM!”
“I’M NOT JUST SOME RANDOM MIDDLE SCHOOLER, MAN! I DO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME!” Max cried out in frustration. “IT DOES MATTER HOW MANY VOICES YOU SHOUT IT WITH!”
“ALL OUR VOICES AS ONE!” a tearful student bellowed in support.
“YOU’RE OUR CHAMPION! OUR SAVIOR!” screamed another.
“WE WANT REVOLUTION!” yelled Valjean, not realizing her war cry proved that she was not committed to the cause. “LET’S INFIGHT TO WHET THE BLADE OF JUSTICE! EVERYONE, FORM THREE COMMITTEES NOW!”
Kting! Ktang! Ktong!
As Student Council guards descended to disperse Max’s cheering supporters, Johnny rained blow after punishing blow down on the sphinx. Try as he might though, he couldn’t grab the beast’s attention, let alone bruise its translucent purple hide.
Kting! Ka—BAM!
A single smack with the Sphinx of Lies’ tail was Johnny’s reward for his furious effort. Its dismissive swipe sent him sliding backwards, and as the force blurred Johnny’s vision, the spirit’s shade began to flicker from his view.
“RrrrgGGHH, NO! C’mon!” he growled, smacking at his own head like a misbehaving television set.
Ktong!
A metal echo rang out through his skull.
More, a wordless voice reverberated in the sound wave’s cooling ember.
Johnny blinked and looked around in mute confusion.
More anger. More FUEL, the voice demanded. Each word fell like a hammer, resonating with his heartbeat.
“Who’s talkin’?!” Johnny called out, whirling around to search for the source of the sound. Sparks swirled and faded in his peripheral vision as he spun, as if he’d missed a dancing flame that had been snuffed a second sooner. “Are you an alien?! Some kinda psychic alien?!”
Yes, the voice said. Wait—
“WHOA! SICK!” Johnny laughed. “Dude, like Yoda??”
Yes. I know who that is. In the shadow of Johnny’s thoughts, a frustrated Forge grit his serrated metal teeth. What is going on?
“Not much, bro, what’s goin’ on with you?” Johnny cheerfully replied.
Forge’s fury fueled a fleeting flash of spirit trance, and Johnny briefly glimpsed the armored giant who’d possessed him cast in backlit silhouette.
“YOOO, forget YODA! You’re more like DARK VADER, dude!” beamed Johnny, jabbing a finger towards the glowing robot panel thing on Forge’s cyborg chest. “I get it. The Activity Dorks—and me, too, now—we got the frickin’ Star Wars Force from Jedi. That explains the lightnin’ and O’Connor throwin’ stuff around telepathetically.” Johnny spun around in circles like a dog chasing its tail, searching for another glimpse of Forge to no avail. “So what’s your deal, big guy? Ha ha, dude, are you my father?”
YES, Forge roared.
“...Wait, what?” a wide-eyed Johnny mumbled. He was, regrettably, supremely emotionally susceptible to this narrative’s implications. “You and my mom...?”
NO!!! Forge tried to shout, but instead described a youthful tryst in bittersweet detail, a particularly vindictive reversal by the Sphinx of Lies’ ostensibly passive ability.
“Dad...” an awestruck Johnny mumbled. Before he could bond any further with his alien father, Max’s screams of panic brought the bully back to his imperceptive senses.