Team Genesis Book 1
Chapter 7:  Small Town Chaos

"I just can't believe it!" Damian exclaimed.  "You're trading your father's blade; the legendary Lance Ellot Milton's Crimson Katana for the Chaos Emerald?!  What's the matter with you?!"  Rocco continued to look down at the floor with a gloomy face.  He didn't want to talk about it.

"Knock it off will ya?!" Alexis cried.  "You're making the whole thing worse than it already is."

"I'm asking because I know it's bad," Damian responded.  He turned back to Rocco.  "Rocco, you can't just go trading that sword.  It's the only thing you have of your dad before he passed away.  Don't make the trade; it's not worth it."

"Damian, stop!" Alexis demanded

"I'm only trying to help.  If I didn't know how much that sword means to him, I wouldn't be telling him this."

"If you know so much," Rocco murmured.  "You'd know now is a good time to drop it."

"Huh?  You don't care even a bit that you're trading off your father's memento?" Damian asked.  Rocco stood up and looked at Damian right in the eyes. "Of course I care!" he cried.  "I hate the fact that I'm trading the only thing that my dad left me and that YOU keep bringing it up.  But right now we need the Chaos Emerald, and there isn't any other way in getting it.  So there you have it."  Rocco sat back down.  Alexis sat next to him and tried to comfort him.  "Was he close to you?" she asked.  "Your father?"

Rocco let out a sad smile.  "Close is an understatement," he replied.  "My dad and I did practically everything together.  He took me to the tournaments, taught me to fight, and always encouraged me to do anything I wanted to do."  Tears started to come out of Rocco's eyes.  "I remember that I told my parents when I was little that I wanted to grow up to be a hero.  My mom thought it was childish of course.  But my dad came up to me and said that it would make him the proudest father in the world if that happened.  On his will, he entitled me his sword, a permit for it, and the last words "Make me proud."  Rocco let out a long sigh.  Alexis wrapped her arms around him.  "It'll be alright Rocco." she assured.

"And who knows?" Damian chimed in.  "Maybe we can recover the sword when it's all over."

Rocco looked up at his friends.  "Thanks you guys.  I just hope making this trade won't become in some huge......."  Rocco paused for a moment.  He looked out the window and spotted something suspicious.  There were five men dressed in a black uniform with white triangle chest and a long white stripe going through the arm and leg sleeves.  One was talking on a radio while two others were checking on a computer.  "I think we have a problem." Rocco said.

Damian and Alexis got a look at the five guys.  "You don't suppose," Damian inquired.  "That these guys are from Axel?"

"I don't think we should stick around to find out," Rocco replied as he took off toward the office where they were just at.  Damian and Alexis followed.  They kept searching in the bank for Johnny until they ran into him and a rather large man in a business suit.  He seemed to be the bank's CEO.  Johnny stood behind him with a box containing a cyan Chaos Emerald.  "Are you the son of Lance Milton?" the CEO asked.  The CEO held the sheathed katana in his hand.  "I'm actually quite surprised with the offer you are making me."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," Rocco nervously repeated.  "Listen, give us the emerald and we'll be on our way."

"What's the hurry?" the CEO asked again.  "I think you have no idea what you are doing right now."

"Sir," Rocco argued.  "We really need to get going now.  Just take the sword and give us the emerald."

"Oh no, I couldn't do that." the CEO said.  "I shouldn't be the one to keep the sword of the man who saved my life."

Rocco and the others jumped in shock.  "Hold on, what!?" Rocco said.

"It's was a long time ago." the CEO recalled.  "Almost seven years to be exact.  I was coming out of the bank when a group of thugs tried to assault me.  Your father happened to be in town to be a judge in a local competition.  He saw what was happening and came to my rescue."

"Wow," Rocco was suddenly very excited. "My dad really did that?  I wonder why he never told me?"

"It probably slipped his mind," the CEO said.  "But I haven't forgotten.  Nor have I forgotten that I never did thank him properly for what he did.  But now, even if through his son, I have a chance to repay him."  He handed the katana back to Rocco.  "Keep this sword and take good care of it.  As for the emerald, it's all yours."

The gang was thrilled.  Rocco held the sheathed katana speechless.  "Thank you sir.  You don't know how much...."  At than moment, Alexis turned to see the same five guys approaching them.  Two of them pulled out guns and pointed at them.  Alexis lunged for the guys.  "GET DOWN!"  Rocco managed to bring the CEO down, but Johnny was shot close to the heart.  The case holding the Chaos Emerald fell and shattered.  The noise from the gunshots caused a pandemonium in the bank.  Everyone started to scream and run for the doors.

Damian quickly reacted, grabbed the emerald, and took off.  Two of the soldiers chased after the chameleon.  Rocco grabbed the katana by the hilt and flicked the scabbard toward the others.  The scabbard hit one of the soldiers in the head, which also distracted the other two.  Rocco and Alexis took that moment to approach and knock them out.  Shortly after, Damian came around, still holding the emerald.  "ROCCO!" he yelled as he tossed the emerald at Rocco.  As soon as he grasped it, Rocco felt a surge of energy flow through him.  The emerald shun with an intense light.  The light caused Rocco to wildly swing his blade.  Suddenly, the blade shun with a bright red light and released a wave of fire that knocked out the two soldiers that were chasing Damian.  "Whoa!" Rocco exclaimed.  "How did I do that?"

"It would appear the emerald has given you powers," the CEO said, struggling to get up.  

Alexis helped him up.  "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, thanks you three."  The CEO turned to Rocco again.  "It seems that I have yet another life debt with the Milton family."

Rocco smiled.  "No problem." he answered.  "It's too bad Johnny didn't run that same luck."

The CEO turned to see Johnny.  He was still alive, but in agony.  "He didn't deserve this.  I'll make sure he's taken cared of."

"We better go," Damian said.  "More of them seem to be coming."  The others agreed.  The three took off and headed out of the bank.  Several more soldiers with the same uniform stood outside.  "HALT!" one of them yelled.  The rest of the soldiers started to shoot at them.  Rocco and the others managed to avoid all the bullets.  Unfortunately, those bullets would keep going forward and hit any innocent bystander in the line of fire.  The gang took down any shooter in the way and kept running.  The rest of the soldiers chased after them.  One of them that was holding a grenade tossed it at them.  Damian noticed the grenade and deflected it with a kick.  The grenade crashed into the water tower and caused it to come tumbling down.  Water began to flood the streets in their direction, taking every soldier with them.  Alexis started to take for the skies and reached her hands for the guys.  The guys reacted quickly and grabbed on to her at last moment.  Alexis pulled all of them to safety until the flood passed by.  Once it was clear, Alexis landed the guys and herself.  A few seconds later, several trucks surrounded them with more soldiers.  No matter where they turned, a soldier waited for them.

"Hand the emerald over," one of the soldiers demanded.  "There's no way out and we won't hesitate to shoot."  The gang stood there keeping their guard up and their backs to each other.  Effectively, they saw that there was no way they could run from them or fight them all and live.  Suddenly, Rocco came up with something.  "Damian, I have an idea," he started.  "If we make a tornado around us, I could swing fire out of my sword and expand it."

"You sure that will work?" Damian asked

"We have a Chaos Emerald; anything's possible."

"And if it goes out of control?"

"I've thought of that.  If Alexis could counter the tornado from above, we'd have control of the tornado."

"But I can't fly as fast as Damian can run," Alexis responded.

"If you use the emerald though," Rocco argued.  "It's bound to work."

"Enough chit-chat!" yelled the same soldier from before.  "Give us the fourth emerald before we count to three, or we'll fire."

'Fourth?!' Rocco thought.  'They already have three?'

"One...."

Rocco looked back at both of his partners.  They knew that that move was their only hope.

"Two......."

"THREE!"  The gang yelled.  Rocco tossed the emerald to Alexis, who started to fly up.  Damian began to spin around Rocco to create a strong tornado around him.  Alexis absorbed some of the emerald's energy and started to fly in the opposite direction, closing the tornado from above.  Axel soldiers began to fire, but the tornado's winds were so strong that the bullets were deflected in random directions.  Rocco concentrated and tried to give power back to his katana.  Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.  He turned around to see the silouette of a person.

'Make me proud son,' a voice echoed

"Dad?"  Rocco asked.  But the silouette of the man disappeared and the katana began to glow.  Rocco knew that it was time to put his move to the test.  "Let's do it." he said.  "FLAME CYCLONE!"  He swung his blade 360° and expelled fire from the blade.  The fire pushed the tornado's base outwards toward the soldiers.  The force of the wind gave an added strength to the fire.  Those two forces together destroyed Axel's entire line of defense.  The winds died down shortly after.  Alexis fell from the sky into Rocco's arms.  Damian then tripped and went flying into a wall, crashing through it.  "Damian!" Rocco yelled.  He set Alexis down and ran toward his friend.  Damian layed on the floor agonizing.  "My leg," he said.  "It hurts.  I think I broke it."

"Let me see."  Rocco inspected the leg.  He let out a sigh of reassurance.  "Don't worry.  It's just a sprain.  Can you get up though?"  Rocco helped Damian up, but the chameleon wasn't capable of standing upon his damaged leg.  "I guess we'll need another way to travel for a while," Damian joked.  Rocco chucked, feeling better knowing that a sprained leg didn't get rid of his friend's sense of humor.  The guys went back to Alexis, who started to wake up.  "Did it work?"

"See for yourself," Rocco answered.  The entire Axel group were knocked out or killed by the tornado.  The surrounding buildings were left intact, save a few broken windows.  "It couldn't have woked better."

The gang drove away from Moonlake in a military jeep.  Damian rested in the back seats with his leg on the chair.  Alexis looked back at the town worried.  "I feel really sorry for the people," she said.  "Think they can forgive up for the havoc we caused."

"Wasn't our fault those Axel guys came in guns blazing," Damian answered.

"True.  But I can't help but think that there would have been less trouble if we weren't there for the emerald."

"I highly doubt that."  Rocco answered.  "I'm pretty sure they'll forgive us once we've taken care of those assholes."

"Well we better do it soon," Damian mentioned.  "Now that they know we're looking for the emerald, our search has become a lot harder."

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Back at Moonlake, two Axel generals arrived to debrief the surviving soldiers.  "So let me get this straight,"  inquired the first general.  "Three teenagers arrived and managed to defeat nearly a hundred of our highly trained soldiers?  Is that what I'm hearing?"

"I'm sorry General 22," answered one of the soldiers.  "They used the emerald's power.  We couldn't beat them."

"That is no excuse soldier!" 22 responded in rage. "You were sent here to retrieve that same emerald and you failed. And to lose to three teenagers is more than unacceptable. Next time, I expect better from all of you. Dismissed." The soldiers left. The other general, Agent 21, sighed and looked around. "Perhaps Boss was right," he mentioned. "This search will not be as easy as he had hoped."

"Bah!" 22 responded.  "These kids were lucky, but it's a minor setback.  The problem now is that we need to recover that emerald.

21 smiled.  "That shouldn't be a problem.  More thank likely it will come to us."

"What?"  22 questioned.  "Mind explaining yourself."

"Think about it 22.  If they took the emerald.  Chances are that they are looking for the other emeralds.  Therefore, they'll looks for nearby emeralds, which of course...." 21 let out a sinister grin.  22 finally caught on an let out an equally large grin.  "It means that they'll look for the only nearby emerald in this sector......ours!"