The Battle of Ebulon (28 page)

Star Power was about to
use his powers to light up the sun when Black Cat stopped him.
“Wait,” She said. “I think this is a trick question.”

“Why?” Star Power asked,
“The sun always shines brighter than either the stars or the
moon.”

“Yes, but think about it,”
Black Cat said. “What is the sun?”

“A ball of gas?” Asantra
asked.

“Well, yes…” Black Cat
answered, “But what else is it?”

“My powers come from
starlight but are often most effective in the daytime,” Star Power
said thinking he figured it out.

“Exactly,” Black Cat said.
“And how is that possible.”

“Because the sun is also a
star,” Star Power replied.

“Right.” Black Cat praised
him, “Which means…”

“I need to light up the
star!” Star Power exclaimed. This is exactly what Star Power did
next. As his light shone on the star the wall began to fade and
eventually disappeared completely. The heroes stepped past where
the wall was and as they did, they entered Ebulon. As soon as
everyone had gone through the wall suddenly reappeared, but now
that they knew what to do, this wasn’t going to be a
problem.

Upon entering Ebulon, the
first thing they noticed was how cold it was. Black Cat observed
that it must have snowed recently. Luckily besides fur, the animals
were all in their superhero costumes so they were warm enough. The
humans were a little cold but aside from Spy Girl, all of them
could turn into some kind of animal. Spy Girl’s costume was weather
adaptable so she quickly changed it into a winter suit. The witches
and Sampson all had the ability to magically head themselves
internally so they didn’t feel the cold either. Trillman and
Screetche were the only two that would remain a little cold, but
they weren’t freezing so they were okay with it. Besides they were
here to help Ebulon and nothing was going to stop them from doing
this.

After the weather the next
thing they noticed was that they were in a market area. For a
moment Wonder Horse wondered if anyone was selling apples, but was
quickly reminded by Wonder Wolf that they were here to fight if
needed. But what were they here to fight?

The question was answered
when a large creature was seen approaching. As it came closer they
noticed that besides being large, it was well muscled, had green
skin, red eyes, mustard yellow armor, and was carrying large and
sharp looking weapons in each hand.

“It’s an Orc!” Sampson
exclaimed gleefully.

Immediately, the heroes
got ready to fight. DWW quickly set up a medical area using her
magic, where she would be if anyone needed her. To make it blend in
with the other structures she saw in the area, she made it out of
stone.

Chihuahua growled a
warning at the approaching Orc, but as he did so he backed up.
Black Cat unsheathed her claws and waited for it in the hunters
crouch as if awaiting prey. Next to her, Cosmo did the same. Wonder
Wolf mounted Wonder Horse and prepared to signal him into action.
Grizzly Girl changed into her Grizzly Bear form, Trixie and Asantra
changed into wolves, Star Power prepared his star, Miles and
Screetche awaited their humans signals, Spy Girl drew a sword from
her utility belt, and Sampson just stood coolly waiting for the
enemy to arrive.

As the Orc got nearer,
Black Cat began commanding her team, “Wonder Wolf and Wonder Horse,
you two are the most indestructible of the team. You will lead the
battle from the ground. Fly if you need to. I will lead an air
attack with Chihuahua. Asantra you will be in charge of orders for
your team! The rest of you, follow me and Chihuahua!”

Considering her team was
just her and Sampson, Trillman was going to help DWW, and Sampson
was not about to let himself be ordered around, knowing this
Asantra simply said, “Sampson, fight!”

“I can do that!” Sampson
said eagerly. He was impatient for the fight to begin. Although she
wouldn’t admit it, Asantra was also impatient for the fight to
start.

Black Cat observed the Orc
as it moved towards them. Being a superhero she wasn’t about to
lead her team into a fight until the enemy threatened them first.
To her surprise the Orc walked right past the heroes and into the
marketplace, where it immediately began smashing things.

“I don’t think we were
supposed to let it past us!” Spy Girl said.

Although not attacking her
team, it was threatening innocent people. For this reason Black Cat
said, “Team, attack! Don’t let it do any more damage!”

Sampson used his magic to
make his hands flame. He began creating a large
fireball.

Black Cat, took to the sky
and aimed her attacks at the Orcs head. The rest of her aerial
comrades did the same. The more grounded members of her team went
for the Orcs heels. Together Black Cat and her team managed to
surprise the Orc with their strength. It had not expected them to
be much of a threat. The Orc aimed some strikes at the members of
Heroes United with its weapons, but they were able to stay behind
him, which made it harder for him to hit and easier for the heroes
to dodge the attacks at themselves. Together Heroes United, and
Asantra, managed to get the Orc on the run. Not paying attention
the Orc ran towards Sampson, who looked up just in time, from
creating his fireball, for the Orc to run right into him. To his
surprise and delight the Orc caught fire and began to
burn.

When the Orc was dead,
Sampson looked at it proudly. “I just killed my first Orc,” He
bragged. Sampson caught a look from DWW as he said this. “What?” He
asked defensively, “He ran into me! Besides magic can’t be used to
kill anyone directly, only hurt them. What I was doing wouldn’t
have killed him if he hadn’t been dumb enough to run into my
fireball.” This was true, magic only worked to kill if the killing
was indirect or unintentional.

DWW didn’t answer him.
Although she didn’t like killing, this wasn’t her problem with
Sampson, it was his attitude to killing that bugged her. It was
hard for her to believe that she had ever liked this guy and had
been friends with him. Rather than argue with him, DWW looked
away.

“So, that’s it? We won?”
Spy Girl asked.

“It can’t be,” Asantra
replied.

“Why not?” Grizzly Girl
asked.

“First, that battle was
too short,” Asantra said, “And second…” Asantra noticed something
in the distance. The rest of the heroes looked at what Asantra saw.
More Orcs were on their way. “Orcs never come alone,” Asantra
finished.

“Everyone get ready!”
Black Cat called, “And this time, let’s keep them away from the
market! On my signal we attack!”

The approaching Orcs
looked much like the lone Orc that had attacked the group. Only the
color of their skin and armor varied. All of the Orcs were large,
repulsive looking, carried large and sharp looking weapons, and
were wearing very aggressive expressions.

The heroes looked upon the
Orc army with equally aggressive expressions. Sampson’s expression
was just a little different than the rest. His was aggression like
the rest, only it was mixed with excited anticipation.

When she felt the army was
close enough, Black Cat launched herself into battle signaling with
her tail for the other heroes to follow. Not far into it Black Cat
realized that the heroes appeared to be fighting a losing battle,
at least with the way they were fighting. Every hero had gone after
a different Orc, and most were barely making progress against the
army. There were too many Orcs attacking at once. The heroes would
need to come up with a strategy to greatly reduce the enemies
numbers.

“Spy Girl!” Black Cat
called out, “Do you have any gadgets that could attack multiple
enemies at once to at least give us some fighting room!”

“I think so!” Spy Girl
called back after defeating her Orc. Spy Girl stopped fighting Orcs
for the moment to look in her small, but mysteriously deeply
pocketed utility belt. As she did another Orc began approaching
from behind her. Chihuahua, who happened to get thrown in Spy
Girl’s direction by the Orc he had been fighting, noticed
this.

Regaining control of his
flight ability, Chihuahua flew a circle around the Orc, distracting
him for a few seconds. Spy Girl began pulling something long and
green out of her belt and began doing something to. To Chihuahua
who only saw quick glimpses, as he flew around the Orc, it looked
as if she was unwrapping or peeling whatever it was.

Another Orc appeared while
Chihuahua was busy with the first and raised his ax like weapon,
which may have been an ax, Chihuahua wasn’t sure. Just before the
weapon hit Spy Girl, Chihuahua rushed towards it and grabbed the
handle in his jaws. Because Chihuahua had super strength, among his
other abilities, upon having a hold on the Orcs weapon, the little
dog was able to hold on tightly and pull the Orc in a different
direction by twisting around in the air, though what he really
wanted to do was get the weapon away from the enemy. As he was
struggling to do this, the other Orc attacked Chihuahua.

With an extra strong
twist, using all his strength and his full body to achieve his
goal, Chihuahua finally twisted the weapon free from the Orcs hand.
Chihuahua then turned, or rather, straightened himself out just in
time to avoid having his head removed by the weapon of the second
Orc. Instead of losing his head, the Orcs weapon landed a clean hit
and cut right through Chihuahua’s long tail.

Fighting a yelp that would
make him lose his grip on his confiscated weapon, the now angry
little dog swung the weapon at both Orcs, who at this time were
standing very close together. The Orcs were lined up just right and
Chihuahua put just enough force in his swing to remove something
very important to both of them.

“I got it!” Spy Girl
exclaimed suddenly. She was holding something long and
yellow.

Chihuahua heard her but
didn’t respond. He was distractedly sniffing at something long,
brown, and furry on the ground. With a whimper, Chihuahua realized
that the thing used to be his tail. Chihuahua wanted to pick it up
and make DWW reattach it, but he looked in the direction in which
the majority of Orcs and heroes were fighting and once again he
felt very angry. With a growl, Chihuahua decided that his tail
could wait. Right now there was a battle to be won!

Spy Girl threw her gadget
towards the center of the enemy army.

“Was that an ear of corn?”
Asantra asked.

“Sort of,” Spy Girl
replied. She then explained, “It is corn in the sense that it
looks, feels, and is grown like corn, but it acts very different
and you wouldn’t want to eat it.”

“Why’s that?” Wonder Horse
asked curiously.

“What it does is highly
destructive,” Spy Girl answered then offered no further explanation
knowing that the heroes would find out what the corn does very
shortly. Spy Girl watched where she had threw the corn and waited
patiently until she saw a bright flash of light. The flash was a
signal that Spy Girl knew meant the corn was ready to activate. As
soon as she saw this, Spy Girl urgently said, “All heroes fall back
now!”

Everyone did as Spy Girl
said and the kernels of the corn began popping in all directions.
As kernels hit something they exploded. This went on for several
seconds, and maybe even as long as a minute passed before all was
quiet, at least quiet as far as the exploding corn was concerned.
Sadly, the results were not what had been expected. Only minimal
damage had been done to the Orcs closest.

“It wasn’t powerful
enough!” Black Cat said.

“Well, it was designed for
humans and human sized enemies,” Spy Girl explained feeling
disappointed.

Suddenly Sampson had an
idea. “Do you have another one?” He asked Spy Girl.

“One, why?” She asked
suspiciously.

“I have a good idea,” He
replied smiling mysteriously and somewhat evilly at the same time.
“This time, though, make sure it lands directly in the center of
the Orc army!”

“How?” Spy Girl
asked.

“Use the birds,” Sampson
replied simply.

The birds, Miles and
Screetche, soon found themselves flying over the Orcs with an ear
of corn in their talons. Upon finding direct center they dropped it
into the army which for some reason had stopped attacking and was
only beginning to attack the heroes.

As it fell, Sampson used
his magic to make the ear of corn as large as possible until it
exploded. By the time the kernels began popping each kernel was
almost as big as an Orc. This time, for most of the Orcs, as they
got hit by a kernel, it meant instant death. For the remaining
Orcs, which were around ten rather than two hundred as before, they
were either injured, stunned from the bright light caused by the
corn activating and the explosions from each kernel, or both. As
soon as this opportunity presented itself, the heroes were upon the
enemy quickly eliminating all remaining Orcs.

Upon winning the battle,
all of the heroes except Chihuahua, wanted to celebrate. Chihuahua
unhappily returned to his tail and picked it up. And for the first
time, since it got cut off, Chihuahua felt the pain of losing his
tail in more ways than one.