Team Genesis Book 1
Chapter 11: Fight of the Phantom

In one of the corridors of the Axel base, Agents 147 and 259 moved swiftly searching for the intruders.  Stopping at a corner, 147 aimed his gun over the corner.  Leaning over, he found the hallway to be empty.  He steps out for a moment, then instantly falls to the ground as if knocked over.  259 steps out and starts to let out rapid-fires.  However, he realized he wasn’t shooting at anything and ceased fire.  As soon as he did, he felt a tremendous blow in the gut, which knocked him out.  Once the soldier blacked out, Damian phased back in.  “I sure love having camouflage!” Damian commented as he signaled his friends.
“Impressive,” Rocco said.  “We keep this up, we’ll never be found.”
“Ain’t that the truth?!” Damian cockily responded.  “So where do these guys have the emerald”
“Judging by the increased number of guards around here,” Alexis stated.  “I’d say we’re close.”  Quick nods from the boys, and the three pressed on.  But as they pressed on, there we less guards and all the rooms were empty.  The search continued with no luck until Rocco’s katana began to glow.  Puzzled at first, Rocco turned to see that they’ve stopped right next to a very wide door, as if for cars.  Rocco began to believe that his sword was telling him that he should check in that room.  Rocco opened the door and stepped in.  The room lit up, revealing a hangar with several broken vehicles, several stacked containers, and rusted machines.  Nothing indicated that the Chaos Emerald was there.  “Perhaps the sword glowed for some other reason?” Alexis suggested.  But Rocco continued to move inside the hangar.  Damian and Alexis decided it was best not to leave Rocco alone in the room, and followed him.  The moment they stepped in however, the doors behind them slammed shut and an alarm was set off.  “Damn!” Rocco yelled.  “It’s a trap!”  Suddenly, a large machine began to rise from the scraped machines.  The machine appeared to have the shape of a person’s upper body.  Its eyes glowed red.  X04S PHANTOM SYSTEMS ONLINE spoke the machine.  Its attention turned to Rocco just below him.   TARGET SIGHTED.  TERMINATE
Rocco gripped his blade and positioned himself in a defensive stance.  “Okay, we’re in deep trouble.”
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Back at the general’s office, the alarm grabbed the attention of 22 and 21.  Outside the office, soldiers can be seen running somewhere.  “It’s about bloody time too,” 22 stated.  “Too many men were lost.  Now it’s one less problem for us.”
“I’m afraid it’s not over just yet,” 21 remarked.  His hands were shaking.  “If Phantom fails to terminate those kids……….” panic overcame the general, making him silent.
“You can’t be serious 21,” 22 responded.  “You honestly think these kids will survive.  They walked into the mouth of the beast.  And here I believed you trusted this machine much more than maybe even me.”
“No, it’s not that.  These teenagers are done for win or lose; that I do not doubt.”
“Whoa, wait a minute.  What’s that mean?”  22 had a perplexed look on his face.
“The X04S Phantom was designed to destroy its target at any cost.” 21 began to explain.  “If the opponent succeeds in defeating it in combat, Phantom will resort to it’s final resort:  Self-Destruct.”
“WHAT!?” 22 yelled.  “So if that blasted machine loses, it’ll go kamikaze on the runts and destroy our base in the process?”
“Precisely,” 21 nervously sighed.  “The soldier’s must now be evacuating the building.”  22 was about to ask why, but 21 answered before he could.  “I told the soldiers that when the alarm went off, it meant Phantom was online and they could evacuate the building.  I’d have asked them to assist Phantom, but we aren’t sure if Phantom knows if we are it’s allies.  It’s too dangerous for anyone to stay.  We did what we could, but now the fight belongs to Phantom.”
“Not just him,” 22 growled, heading for his desk.  He pulled out a rifle and loaded it.  “This is my district and I won’t let some runts have the chance to destroy this base.”
“22, stop!” 21 shouted as 22 approached the door.  “If you go there, you could be killed.  If not by Phantom, then by those kids.”  22 stood by the door and turned to his partner.  “Then it’s been an honor working by your side 21.”
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Back at the hangar, the gang continued to dodge the constant attacks of the giant robot.  If the guns and rockets weren’t enough, the machine had enough strength to cause the ground to shake with one slam.  Despite their efforts to damage the machine, it didn’t seem to suffer a scratch.  Even Rocco’s Fire waves seem to just brush off of the machine.  The gang retaliated behind some containers.  “Someone know how the hell we beat this bucket of bolts?”  Rocco asked
“No point in trying the Flame Cyclone either,” Alexis stated.  “If we aren’t ready, that robot can barge through the winds and kill us.”
“Then what?” Damian asked.  “So we just keep running around and hope its battery runs out?  As much as I love running, it would only get us killed.”  Rocco scanned around the area, hoping he could find an answer.  His eyes then fixed on a bunch of steel barrels on the wall.  They had a “flammable” label on them.  “Damian,” Rocco said, grabbing Damian’s attention and turning it to the same barrels.  “Think you can move those under the robot?”
Damian let out a large smirk.  “I think you forget who you have here.”  Damian sprinted and took the barrels one by one and placed them under the robot.  When the machine realized one of its targets was moving, it attempted to smash it.  But the chameleon was far too swift for it.  And before it could realize it, all the barrels were under the machine.    Rocco had already charged his sword and released a fire wave at the barrels.  The moment the flames touched the barrels, it ignited and exploded under the machine, bringing it down.  The robot seemed to lay motionless on the floor.
“It worked!” Rocco shouted in glee.  A proud feeling came over him and his friends.  But it was short lived, as a mysterious man holding a rifle appeared in the upper platform and aimed for Rocco.  Alexis saw the man and pushed Rocco out of the way just in time.
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“Damn,” 22 said to himself.  He continued to aim for the teens, but they now knew that he was there and began to run.  They were really fast targets for him and he couldn’t land a single shot on them.  But he believed that by pressuring the teens, they would mess up and give him a chance.  Eventually, the winged bobcat girl tripped and made herself an easy target.  “I have you now,” 22 said.  But before he could pull the trigger, Phantom reactivated and let out a loud noise.  The noise paralyzed everyone in the room.  NEW TARGET IN THE VICINETY. it said.
“It’s still alive!” 22 heard the chameleon say.  Before 22 had a chance to open fire again on the girl, Phantom launched up and grabbed the general.  “WAIT!”  22 hollered.  “STOP!  I’M ON YOUR SIDE YOU STUPID MACHINE!”  Ignoring what he said, Phantom tossed the general toward the wall in the opposite side of the hangar.  Before 22 could hit the ground, he had died.
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The gang panicked.  The barrels weren’t enough to defeat the robot.  On top of that, the robot eliminated someone that was supposedly on its side.  “What do we do now Rocco?” Alexis whimpered.
“Hope that machine doesn’t treat us like its allies.”  Damian commented.  “I mean did you see that fall?”
Fall.  The word echoed through Rocco’s head.  “Fall……… THAT’S IT!  That’s how we’ll finish it off.”
“What do you mean?” Alexis asked.
Rocco smirked.  “Let’s just say what goes up….”
“Must come down!” Damian finished with a grin.  “I’ll distract him.”  Damian took off and ran up the wall at high speed.  The robot noticed the chameleon and pulled out a machine gun.  But even it wasn’t fast enough to take down the chameleon running around the room.  In the mean time, Alexis approached Rocco and picked him up.  She flew right behind the robot and got close enough to it.  “Alright Alexis,” Rocco said.  “Throw me at it.”
“I sure hope you know what you’re doing,” Alexis replied as she lobbed Rocco toward the machine.  Rocco pulled out his katana.  “The bigger they are,” he cried as his katana began to glow red.  He held the katana over his head as he came near the robot.  “The harder they fall!!”  Rocco pierced through the robot’s main thrusters, causing them to short circuit.  The force of the other thruster’s diminished as well.  Before long, the thrusters gave out and the robot began to fall.  Rocco pulled his sword out and jumped off the robot just before the robot crashed on the ground.  The impact shook the room and left the robot split into various parts.  Damian and Alexis landed next to Rocco and stared at the destroyed robot.  Their shock slowly turned into glee.  “WE DID IT!” they shouted in unison.  Rocco and Damian gave each other a quick high-five and Alexis hugged them both.  But their happiness was short lived, as the robot reactivated and opened its chest, revealing a time bomb for 20 seconds.
“It had a bomb this whole time?” Alexis shrieked.
15 seconds
“We better find some cover,” Rocco suggested.
10 seconds
Suddenly, Damian noticed something above the timer.  “Is that…..”
8 seconds
“A CHAOS EMERALD!” Damian shouted, bolting toward the machine.
6 seconds
“Damian, no!” Alexis cried.
4 seconds
Damian grasped the emerald and tugged on it.
3 seconds
“Damian, get back!” Rocco shouted
2 seconds
The emerald in the robot glowed.
1 second
“DAMIAN!!”
Damian pulled the emerald out of the robot.  The emerald emitted an intense glow.
0.1 second