Crystal

*****Hi dear readers, it's DM23! I know I'm extremely late and I apologize. Two jobs, college work, and writer's block have kept me from posting this chapter. But I've been impatiently waiting for this story to come to this part (more than you, believe me) because this is just a stepping stone for what I have in store for you guys. I always say that my mind surprises me when I least expect it and this is definitely one of those times. Oh and for those of you who want to know how the hell Pollen controls the insects (since I'd didn't bother explaining it in the last chapter), you'll find out in this chapter. No spoils from me! Thanks for reading this chapter and remember to comment on this story whether you like it or not! I'd love to get a grasp on what my readers are thinking, so post whatever questions, comments, and/or concerns and I'll do my best to answer them in the stories! – DM23*****

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Commander Shinobay - Force fields, Eye vision

Osprey - Bird-like abilities

Ghost - Invisibility, Intangibility

Zipper - Enhanced Speed

Shell - Bulletproof, Enhanced strength

Jasper - Pyrokinetic, Flight

Crystal - Cryokinetic

Hyper - Flight, Hyperbeams

Cherry - Teleporter, Martial artist

Dot - Cat-like abilities

Dr. Walton – Multitasking

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Villain/Villainess

Dr. Genie - Mad scientist specializing in splicing

Ruthless - Enhanced strength, Martial artist

Mistress - Telekinetic, Flight

Giggles - Invisibility

Pollen - Controls plant-like monsters

*****

Deep in Louisiana, a man-sized praying mantis was chasing down another female by the order of Pollen. The mantis warbled for a moment and then leaped high into the air, wings expanding, and landed a few yards away from the girl. She turned immediately and fired at the mantis. Unfortunately for the girl, due to the mantis' size, its exoskeleton was highly durable and the bullets bounced off the mantis. She cursed. The mantis rocked back and forth for a while as the girl stumbled back into a tree.

That's what it was waiting for.

The mantis then lunged forward, its limbs opening up to grab the girl. However, the mantis' limbs closed on empty air as the girl disappeared from the mantis' grasp, but not from its line of sight. Using its bulbously, large eyes, the mantis spotted the girl stumble behind a tree in a desperate attempt to stay hidden. Within seconds, the mantis leaped again in the same direction and landed a few yards from the girl, who fired continuously as she tried to hit the mantis' head. It became apparent to her that for the past hour, she hadn't gotten any leeway at all and that mantis was still advancing towards her. When she was within grabbing distance, the mantis lunged at the girl again but again grabbed empty air.

Cherry leaned against a tree, panting from the excess teleporting she's been doing for hours. The mantis has been consistently tailing her ever since Dr. Walton was snatched by wasps. Had the mantis not been there, she would have definitely brought down those wasps and rescued Dr. Walton. Unfortunately, it was there, and actually had surprised her when it grabbed her and one of its spikes on its arm had cut her leg. Currently, the wound was still bleeding since she hadn't had time to work on it, and kept teleporting, with the mantis chasing her. The unfortunate thing for her was that she was going to faint if she didn't find a way to stop the blood flow, or worse, death.

A deep crash alerted her that the mantis was near again and she limped to another tree to put more space between them. None of the weapons Cherry had was effective against the mantis, or any other insect for that matter, since the exoskeleton was tougher than she expected. She tried shooting its eyes, but the mantis' limbs were in the way for her to do any real damage.

It had gotten closer to her while she rested, doing its creepy rocking back and forth, and lunged for her again, and again it missed. However, this time, Cherry didn't go as far as she liked. Compared to the distance between the previous teleport positions, she had only gone about a third of the distance and was still in the mantis' line of sight. They stared each other down, the mantis being patient and intimidating while Cherry was grimacing and panicking from the realization she wasn't going to make it. She pulled a few small knives from her leg pockets and took a wary stance as the mantis took a step forward, still doing its creepy shake.

Both of them moved at the same time.

The mantis, with its quick speed, was automatically where Cherry formerly was, as she teleported a bit too far and appeared behind the mantis' head. Twisting around, Cherry flung a knife at the mantis' eye, hoping her aim was true. It wasn't. The knife hit the mantis right between its eyes before dropping harmlessly to the ground. The mantis made its move next, dashing forward to move closer and catch its next victim.

Cherry teleported again and came underneath the mantis' abdomen. As the mantis tried to reach her, Cherry came up with another tactic and tried thrusting the knife into the mantis' abdomen. It couldn't get through, but Cherry got the feeling she could rip it open if she got a few more stabs in. However, the mantis leaped back and rushed Cherry again, hitting her with its legs and watching her roll across the ground.

By now, Cherry had no more energy left and the kick practically knocked her out. Futilely, she raised the knife to protect herself as the mantis stepped closer, only to faint as it reached out and grabbed her.

*****

Cole was literally stomping down the halls as he fumed over the embarrassment and humiliation he suffered at the hands of Crystal and Max yesterday evening. For some reason, the more he tried not to think about it, the more his brain brought it up. It seemed like that was all it could remember, as if there was a secret that Cole had missed.

Well, now Cole knew what he had missed. He had trusted the wrong person, and the wrong person had given him the wrong information, and now he was going to give that person a piece of his mind. Cole arrived at the person's door and banged his fist against the door.

"Come in," a voice announced.

Cole literally kicked the door open as he marched in the room. He wasn't surprised as he was the last time he came in when he needed advice on why Crystal wasn't responding as he had hoped. Scantily clad women were walking and sitting all over the room, large muscled men were standing at doors where sexual noises were emitting from, speakers were oddly playing relaxing music, and at the center of the of the room itself sat the vile, disgusting king of it all: Jasper.

"Cole!" he exclaimed. "Would you like a seat? What can I get you? Water? Juice? Beer? Champagne? Wine? I got it all. All you have to do is ask."

"Tell me why you lied to me!" Cole hollered.

"I lie to a lot of people," Jasper shrugged. "You're going to have to be more specific."

"You lied about Crystal," Cole glared.

"Are you sure?" Jasper replied. "I don't remember all of my lies that well, but I do remember what I told you."

"You said that Crystal didn't have a boyfriend and that she was in a dating mood," Cole reminded him. "You said that Crystal liked me."

There were a few snickers from everyone except Jasper as everyone tried to not to laugh at Cole. As for Jasper, he was remembering what he said to Cole and, when he remembered all that he said, he stood up.

"No Cole, I didn't say that," Jasper replied. "I said, 'Don't pester Crystal too much. She just lost her boyfriend not too long ago and needs to mourn. However, if you play your cards right, you might put her back in a dating mood. She might even like you.'"

"Still you lied!" Cole yelled. "She did have a boyfriend, she wasn't in a dating mood, and she doesn't like me!"

There were plenty more snickers as Cole struggled to keep himself together. Even Jasper was now finding it hard to keep the smile off his face. In the end, he settled for his usual smirk.

"Cole, I'm going to be honest with you, something I rarely do with people like you," Jasper said. "When I sent you to get Crystal in a 'dating mood', I was really using you to butter her up so all I had to do was just snatch her away when I felt like she was ready."

Cole was dumbstruck at Jasper's blatant disregard for him. All that he was working for, even if it had been successful, was for nothing. Cole's life was spiraling out of control as everything he thought he knew was ripping itself apart, exposing the raw truth behind it. Anger coursed through him and Cole raced forward to shove his fist down Jasper's throat. Of course, the muscled men stopped him with ease, forcing Cole's arms behind his back.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," Jasper sighed. "We're not savages. Let him go."

The muscled men slowly released Cole and stepped back, not too close but not too far either.

"Now Cole, I do have a proposition to make in exchange for your failure of making Crystal your girlfriend," Jasper began.

"I don't want anything to do with you," Cole spat.

"Listen here, you piece of trash," Jasper growled, surprising Cole by grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. There was pure rage in his eyes as Cole felt the heat coming from Jasper's hands. "I don't give an ass' ass about what you want. I'm trying to be nice and it's getting real hard by the second. Do you really know how pissed off I am right now? Let me give you a hint. My plan to bring Crystal to me has FAILED, largely on your part. MAX has returned, thanks to you. Crystal and Max are now together, ALL because of you. So here's what I thought. My first thought was to let my boys beat you black and blue until you can't tell up from down. But that's too messy and it'll attract attention. My second thought was to let one of my girls tell a little white lie that you raped her because you were rejected by Crystal. Of course, that'll get Crystal's attention, but she'll probably retrace the lie back to me after she kills you and I don't want that. My third thought was to fry you on the outside and slow roast you inside and send you to a good friend of mine who likes his meals more human than beast. But, like I said, I'm trying to be nice. So here is what's going to happen. You're going to go back outside while I'm going to go sit down. If you're still there ten minutes later, you can knock, I'll let you in and we can talk like gentlemen. And if you kick my door again, I'll make sure you'll be crawling on the stumps of your elbows and knees for the rest of your life."

He pushed Cole away, who took timid steps back to the door. The whole way back to the door, he never took his eyes off of Jasper, and bumped into the door frame and slipped out the room.

"Did you really tell Cole that if he played his cards right, then Crystal might like him?" one of the females asked.

"No," Jasper smirked. His anger wasn't gone, but it was dwindling. "Everything he said that I said was true. I wanted him to doubt himself so that he'll trust me even more."

True to Jasper's threat, Cole knocked on the door, softly this time, and waited for a response.

"Come in," Jasper called. Cole walked in, more timidly this time. "Cole! Would you like a seat? What can I get you? Water? Juice? Beer? Champagne? Wine? I got it all. All you have to do is ask."

Cole shook his head and took a seat.

"Alright then, let's get down to business," Jasper said. "I know you couldn't make Crystal your own woman, I have eyes and ears all over this place. But I'm not upset about that, especially since I realize I've put too much faith in what I told you to do." They both knew it was a lie, as Max had gotten her in less than a day, but they both knew Cole wasn't in a position to do anything about it. Jasper snapped his fingers and the girls that were in the room, minus the ones sitting next to him, stopped what they were doing and walked over to Cole, rubbing him all over. "From what I've heard, you also suffered humiliation and embarrassment because of yesterday's confrontation. So, as reparation, I'll let you have as many girls that you think you can handle. If you only want one, you can have one. If you want all, then I expect you to satisfy all of them at least once. Deal?"

Cole was gaping at him like a fish out of water, chest heaving from the women's hands running all over him as he listened to what Jasper said. Crystal was suddenly nonexistent to him as he furiously nodded his head in agreement. Jasper smiled, knowingly, and gestured for him to choose his pick of women. After a lot of internal debating, Cole settled on a girl that could beat all the other ladies in a run for Miss Universe.

"Are you sure, Cole?" Jasper asked, thinking that Cole didn't have the stamina for the large task he gave himself.

Cole nodded, still not trusting himself to speak, and Jasper led him to a room and told him to wait there. Then, he went back to the group of females Cole chose and took out a small vial containing red liquid from his pocket and put it in the girl's hands.

"I don't think I can trust that buffoon to do even the simplest task so I want you to do it," Jasper frowned. "Make sure he drinks this. If he doesn't, then I'm holding you responsible. Understand?"

The girl nodded and Jasper let her go in the room with Cole, still thinking Cole didn't have the stamina for the insatiable woman he chose. Glancing at his watch, he realized he could start on the next activity he planned for the night.

"Alright, now that that's been taken care of, I'm going on a date," Jasper announced before leaving the room.

*****

It was hard for Cherry to move as she groggily woke up. For a moment, she was completely bewildered why she was still alive, but that was quickly overcome by gratitude that she was still alive. And then the gratitude was overcome by absolute shock. The only way Cherry could describe it was like a vertical hollowed log, one end in the ground and the other end in the air, which had branches coming near the top. Monstrous bugs were climbing up and down the walls, stopping every once in a while to do something Cherry couldn't discern.

Trying not to draw attention to herself, she attempted to teleport somewhere else, but she was unable to go anywhere. After a few more tries, Cherry realized why she couldn't go anywhere: sap had been applied to her back, making her firmly stuck to a large root on the ground, as if she was on a table or something. Her ears soon came into focus and she could hear plenty of girls' screams coming from all over the log's walls, only to be muffled as soon as an individual insect went over to them. Her curiosity over what they were doing was answered when she saw a few insects wrap those girls in cocoons.

Immediately, Cherry redoubled her efforts to escape, but she still wasn't able to go anywhere.

As a matter of fact, not only did she go anywhere, she also caught the attention of one of the monstrous bugs and it started coming towards her. Like the other insects, this insect wrapped her in a transparent cocoon, then picked her up with its forelegs and carried her to the center of the hollowed logs, where multiple bugs placed the girls they carried.

When she realized she was set down, Cherry waited a few seconds for the insects to leave and cut herself out with the hidden knife she wielded. Without sparring a moment, Cherry moved to the cocoon next to her and started cutting the girl free. Unfortunately, before she was halfway through, a giant wasp landed in her face. Reflexively, she teleported to the entrance of the tree and watched as the wasp came at her.

The moment the wasp landed in front of her again, she teleported and landed on its back. Immediately, the wasp flew high as if it was trying to throw her off. A few seconds later, Cherry realized it wasn't trying to toss her off, it was deliberately flying higher. As they reached the branches, Cherry could see a windowless tree house perfectly structured, so that it wouldn't fall. The wasp landed and Cherry suddenly didn't want to go inside the tree house. She was about to teleport when the door opened and Dr. Walton stepped out.

"Dr. Walton?!" Cherry exclaimed.

"Cherry, how are you doing today?" Dr. Walton calmly asked as if there was nothing weird about being in a tree house in a hollowed log where multiple girls were held captive against their will and wrapped in cocoons by man-sized bugs.

Yeah, this was totally the time to be calm.

"Dr. Walton, we need to get out of here," Cherry hissed. "Commander Shinobay is most likely worried about us, so we need to get out of here and come back with reinforcements."

"There's no need for that," Dr. Walton replied. "He called earlier and I let him know we ran into some trouble and that you were critically injured."

"Did you let him know we're in a rotten log with hundreds of girls?" Cherry asked.

"No," came the answer.

"Why not?!"

"It's not his business to know what our location is," Dr. Walton frowned.

Cherry slowly stepped back as she replayed Dr. Walton's answer in her head. Cherry's eyes widened as she put the pieces together: Dr. Walton has been compromised. A second later, she teleported, falling through the air as flying insects flew up to catch her. She teleported again, appearing under the bugs and closer to the ground. She hit the ground with a thud and saw stars. However, she forced herself to get up and move, stumbling every so often as she fought to stay upright.

A large beetle came rushing at her from the side but Cherry teleported a second later, appearing in front of the entrance to the tree. Just as she took her first step outside, a vine wrapped itself around her and pulled her back into the tree. Not only did it take her back inside, the vine also took her back to the tree house where Dr. Walton was still standing.

The moment her feet touched the ground, the vine immediately tied itself around Cherry in such a way so that she wouldn't be able to grab her weapons or escape by any methods. Against her will, Cherry was led into the tree house and was immediately assaulted by what seemed like pheromones or perfume.

"Cherry, it's so nice of you to visit!" a female voice exclaimed. "I was hoping I could see you again."

Cherry looked up, although she didn't have to since she already knew who that voice belonged to. Pollen, the plant manipulator, was standing before her with a smirk on her face. She was in a dark green sports bra and matching leggings underneath a large cloak, also the same color. Her hands were pale green, no doubt full of poison from various insects.

"What do you want, witch?" Cherry demanded.

"Do you have nothing nice to say?" Pollen asked. "I just wanted to know how my favorite assassin is doing."

"I don't do that anymore," Cherry replied.

"I know, ever since you became a 'hero', you've been a good little girl," Pollen chuckled.

"What do you want with me?" Cherry asked again.

"I need your services," Pollen answered. She went to a corner where a shelf was located and pulled out a handful of syringes filled with green liquid.

"Like that'll ever happen," Cherry muttered, eyeing the syringes warily. From what Cherry knew, nothing good came out of a villain or villainess holding syringes. "Why do you need my services in the first place?"

"Because, I'm going to take over the world," Pollen replied, as if Cherry should've already known that.

"Ha! You should step in line behind Dictator Jones then," Cherry laughed.

"I've already taken cared of Dictator Jones," Pollen glared. She motioned her hand and Dr. Genie stepped in Cherry's line of sight. Dr. Genie was holding more syringes and vials, all full with the same green liquid. Cherry couldn't take her eyes off Dr. Genie though. She knew that Dr. Genie and Dictator Jones were the most feared duo that never worked alone. Usually, if a person saw Dr. Genie, then Dictator Jones wouldn't have been far behind and vice versa. What was she doing with Pollen?