Thanks, Gaz. And sorry, I guess, Underseen.
Suffered a disappointment (which I don't care to discuss) but, hopefully, it won't suck any energy out of this chapter.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Queen of Mean
Gaz, screeching her chiropteran screeches, led the way, while Parker and Blaze followed her lead down the corridor. Blaze felt a little envious at Gaz for being able to stretch her wings to their full span. His wings were aching to be opened, and he was itching to fly. Little did he realize that he would be given ample opportunity soon.
Soon enough, they arrived in the cavernous expanse that the Queen XB had chosen for her lair. Blaze immediately, and without thinking, stretched his wings to their maximum span as the trio saw the scene before them. A bull elephant lay crumpled on its side -- quickly shrinking down into a familiar Andalite form. Cloak was thrown in midair, but managed to twist his body in such a way that he eventually landed daintily on his feet. Being a cat has its advantages.
"Cloak," Gaz shouted, back in human mode, "we're here!"
"And there goes the element of surprise," Parker remarked.
"Oh, they'd see us eventually," Blaze remarked, fluttering in the air.
"Whatever, Birdman," Parker shot back with mock antagonism.
Blaze whacked Parker smartly on his helmet with his sword, and replied, "You might want to consider all the vile things I could drop on you from up here."
Parker began to respond, but Gaz erupted, "GUYS! Is this the place for that kind of bickering?! FOCUS HERE!!"
Blaze flew up high, to attempt to attack the Queen, quite forgetting that these XBs can scale walls, not unlike Spider-Man. But he began to cut through them, dropping the smoking, slightly-acidic, gooey blood onto the floor's surface, which was already none too clean to begin with. Of course, Parker had some land on him.
"HEY!" he shouted. Blaze chuckled, as Parker then proceeded to yell at Tyr for something that no one else could hear over the guttural roar of the Queen and the shrieking snarls of her progeny. Parker had since given up on his other weapons, and now relied on his dual fusion cannons. But, when this didn't do enough damage to the XBs as he wanted, he activated his Ride Armor Matrix. Specifically the Chimera Armor.
Gaz used her vampiric power of self-sublimation -- that is to say, her ability to transition herself into a mist-like state and back again -- to evade attacks, and punched and kicked for offensive abilities -- with little success with that. Although, when she was in bat mode, her sonar seemed to irritate the XBs, so she stuck with that as an offensive maneuver.
Cloak kept reusing the metal shards -- because he deduced that fire would only have a minute if limited effect on their tough exoskeletal exterior. Water would have little effect, as he would need a torrent required for a tsunami to have much of an effect. There was no wood or earth to use, so those weren't available options. Air could work, but it couldn't selectively kill his foes without harming his RAFian friends and allies. So, Metal was the best element to use, although he could have probably used his energy to battle them, he didn't think of it at the time.
Noelle was regaining her Andalite form quickly, and wondering if she had the energy to more anything else. When she decided she didn't, she went into battle as an Andalite. No one accused RAFians of lacking courage -- well, except for a few Banned and Malice.
But Cloak wasn't really satisfied -- there were so many. At this rate, they'd never get to the Queen. They needed a contingency plan.
"Yarin," Cloak said, via his communicator, in a momentary pause in battle. "Come in. Yarin!"
"Yes, Cloak, I'm here!"
"I need you to get the RAFian Lanterns and Helen."
"What?"
"JUST DO IT!"
Cloak just really hoped that this contingency plan that he concocted wouldn't be necessary. . . . But they could not risk an outbreak of these parasites upon an unsuspecting galaxy. . . .