We left off before with Titan Academy breaking down in chaos as the Mecharobots began destroying sections of the school, Ryan/Aether taking the young child Crystal/Wither into their secret hideout under the school, Takar/Volt and Liv/Oblivion standing ready to fight off the invaders, and Hiro stuck in an out of control mech. *takes a breath* Are you ready to jump back in?
Volt and Oblivion stand together in the hallway of the school, facing down someone they watched chasing Crystal. As he comes closer, they realize that it’s a somewhat familiar face . . . a face they had seen hanging in a portrait somewhere in the school’s halls. It’s Infrared, and he’s shaking his head in disappointment.
“You kids have no idea what’s going on here. I suggest you stay out of the way, before someone gets hurt,” Infrared says, his hands starting to glow slightly.
“I suggest you back off,” Liv answers. “Or you’re right, someone will get hurt.” There is tense silence for a moment, as the kids face off with a revered alumni of their school, when suddenly the lights go out. Volt tries to bring the lights back up, and manages to provide light, but the darkness is . . . still surrounding them. Before they can pinpoint what created the mysterious shadow around them, a bolt of heat pours out of the dark and pounds Volt in the stomach, knocking him back and heating him painfully. Liv strikes out into the shadow to throw Infrared off from his attack, but in the darkness she isn’t able to do much.
Volt begins to charge then, pulling power into himself and getting ready to take out their attackers – and decided to use his Moment of Truth! For the Nova player, that means he becomes his power, and there is nothing that can stop him. Volt’s entire body became lighting, and he fired through both of their attackers, throwing them through several walls of the school.
Meanwhile, outside in the mecharobot arena, Hiro hacked his way out of this mech (hacking as in breaking through the controls that had been taken over and powering down) and hurried over to the mech that Hopper was in, prying his way into her mech as well. But rather than a grateful welcome, Hopper begins yelling at him, and pushing him away.
“No, no you’re ruining it! No one is going to get hurt! We need to finish the objective!”
Hiro freezes for a moment, a look of horror and disappointment on his face, as he realizes Hopper has been working with the enemy! He still pulls her from the mech, and carries her to safety, but abandons her there, and hurries off in search of his real friends.
Below the school, in the bunker hideout, rather than phasing into the familiar metal gray walls and musty smell, instead Ryan and Crystal find themselves by a beautiful lake, with a small cabin beside them. Crystal thinks it’s amazing, but Ryan recognizes it right away as an old favorite vacation home of his family’s, back when his mother was still with them.
Crystal goes running into the cabin, and Ryan hurries after her to find both his father and mother sitting at the table.
“What is all this?” Ryan says, angry at whoever is pulling this prank. “Why are you doing this?”
“I thought it would be less jarring for you this way,” the person masquerading as his father says. “Come have a seat, relax.”
“No, this stops now.” Ryan makes sure Crystal is safe beside him. “I don’t want your illusions.”
The cabin and lake melt away to reveal the bunker, and a rather eccentric character, a colorfully suited character, with brown rabbit ears popping from his garish top hat. He explains that he is part of Catalyst, a group that has been trying to find Crystal in order to keep her out of Chimera’s hands. But they are running out of time. Chimera is coming, they know about the bunker under the school, and they will not play as nicely as Catalyst has been. As he talks Liv and Hiro arrive, and starts to listen to the plea of this March Hare. Liv knows that the Lost Boys have also been taken in by Catalyst, and are being very well cared for, much better off than when they had been left on the street.
“Why didn’t you just explain to us who you were, rather than sneaking in and trying to fight us?” Hiro demans, still stinging from his recent betrayal.
“We weren’t sure if you could be trusted. Chimera has a wide reach,” the March Hare explains. “Hurry, we’re running out of time. Let me take her now.” The team decides to allow Crystal to go along with Catalyst. As the team emerges from their hideout, they see Volt fighting alongside Omega, tearing through a crowd of Chimera agents and black helicopters. Chaos is everwhere, and a large part of the sports complex and Titan Academy itself is in ruins. Just as they make it out of the school building, their hideout explodes, taking the library with it. They try to sneak past the press gathered outside the school, but Aether is too recognizable, and they are caught on camera in somewhat shady position. Volt, however, is now a darling of Halcyon City, and is considered Omega’s new sidekick.
Join us again next week for more adventures of Titan Academy.
The Geekery 