18 Danger Down Under

An hour and a half. That is how long it took to bring the fight to a stalemate. Devin was ready and willing to continue, but Sue was struggling to keep up. The goblin looking things had backed off into a circle around them and were now cautious of them now that quite a few of their number were either unconscious due to Sue or dead by Devin's hand. Devin knew that Sue was definitely not happy about him killing the creepy little fucks, but she had at least enough awareness to know that now wasn't the time for an argument. As Devin kept an eye on the horde they still faced, he took a quick glance at their situation and what kind of condition Sue was in. There was still at least a few dozen of the enemies present and maybe four to six joining every few minutes. Sue looked a little ruffled but otherwise okay, but when he checked again he noticed that she had a small stream of blood coming from her nose. Devin summarized that she was beginning to over strain her powers. He needed to do something to take the strain off of her.

He still had an AR in his inventory, but that would still take time to mow down all of these bastards and he had limited ammo. Devin could pull out his sword and try to channel magic through it, but there was two draw backs as he didn't know how or to what effect.

'Alice, I need a quick and effective way to eliminate the majority of these guys if not all of them.' Devin thought as he kept surveying his surroundings for any signs of aggression.

'Master, might I suggest you purchase a single-use magic item from the shop. You have accumulated just enough for the purchase of a AOE single-use magic item.'

Devin had forgotten that there was attack items in the game that could be used to activate different magic attacks.

'Alice are these items complicated? I kinda don't have time to learn how to use something complicated right now.' Devin thought as a few of the braver enemies took a small step forward.

'No master, once you aquire the magical races bloodlines then you will have to learn how to use the actual spells, but simply throw the item into the air and it will activate on it's own and as these creatures are used to living underground, might I suggest either Dancing Ray or Gushing Magma magic items?'

Devin filed away a mental note to check out the bloodlines later, but with nothing to lose but some points Devin figured it might be worth the try.

'Alice, lets go with Gushing Magma since I get a small boost to fire magics from the Red Dragoon Spirit.' Devin said with a grin.

'Warning: though you won't be affected by your magic or by heat thanks to the spirit, your partners will be.' Alice warned as a ding noise sounded.

'Alice, I'm supposed to be taking pressure off of her not putting more on her!' Devin mentally shouted.

"Sue I might have a way out of this, but it depends on if you can sustain a shield to protect yourself." Devin whispered over his shoulder.

"That depends, is this gonna be a massive explosion or something more long term?" Sue replied as she looked over her shoulder. Thinking of what he remembered from the game Devin distinctly remembered that the spell wasn't explosive as that was the feature of the second level spell for the red dragoon.

"No, I think it is more of a long term burn." Devin said as he switched out his dagger for what looked like a glass orb with a band of gold encircling it, a red glow emanating from the center. Devin tossed the item straight up as Sue created a pale blue, semi-transparent force field around them. Just as it activated Devin covered Sue with his body in an attempt to help block some of the heat. Soon several columns of blazing energy erupted from around them. Each one growing in intensity until all of the goblin things in the near vicinity were reduced to ash from the intensity of the heat.

Sweat was pouring from Sue as the little bits of her that wasn't covered by her suit or Devin soon turned red from the radiating temperatures. Eventually the heat dissipated and and Sue looked around. The ground and walls were glowing from the temperatures that had been unleashed and in some spots she could see chunks of what looked like charcoal, but were in fact pieces of burned corpse slowly disintegrating. As she turned to look at Devin, she saw a sight that was horrifying and awe inspiring at the same time. There standing next to her was Devin, but waves of steam and smoke were wafting off of his shoulders and back. The part that startled her was the change his eyes had gone through, they had changed from his bluish-grey to a burning red with his pupils narrowed to reptilian slits.

*Giant Hole, New York*

Ben was checking the last few preps before they entered the giant hole that that monstrosity had dived back into. He would occasionally glance at the other two to check on them. Johnny was agitated to the point where he was bouncing his leg and tapping his arm. Reed was going through the calculations for the millionth time. Ben decided that they had waited long enough.

"Alright guys lets get in there and get Suzie and that buddy of Johnny's out of there." Ben said as he hopped into his cockpit.

"Finally!" Johnny exclaimed as he lit up and hovered next to the jet. Reed hopped in and closed the domes as the turbines fired up. Soon the Fantasticar was soaring down the tunnel following Johnny as their main source of light. Ben decided to ask a question to break the silence.

"Hey Stretch, just wonderin' but what do we do if'n we run into that giant mook that started this whole thing? Now I'm not saying that I can handle him m'self, but 'e wasn't too impressed when we faced him the first time." Ben said as he flew them down.

"Well Ben I'm not sure, but I am confident that we might be able to trap him in an underground area if we find the right opportunity. Our biggest concern is to find Sue and Devin first and get them out of there." Reed replied as he manned the scanners for signs of where the duo could have gone. A few more minutes and the trio found that there were dozens of tunnels lining the main cavity.

"Reed, can you tell which one of these tunnels sis and Devin could have fallen down?" Johnny asked as he flew from one tunnel to the next.

"That isn't possible with how much time has gone by but with some time I could locate them, it would take quite a few hours though." Reed replied as he tapped away at a tablet.

"Is there another way Stretch?" Ben asked while watching Johnny zip around them.

"Well we could turn on our electronic tracers and explore each of the tunnels to map out where each one goes, but this possibly could take just as long as the former." Reed said.

"Well it's better than just sitting here." Johnny said as he flew up next to Reeds cockpit.

"Alright, lets split up. We'll leave the empty cars here as a base point and map out the tunnels and hopefully we'll find them in the process." Reed said as he typed in a couple commands before hitting a red button and both Ben's and Reed's cars separating.

"Good luck!" Johnny yelled as he zoomed down a tunnel on the opposite side of the main tunnel. As Reed shot down another Ben had one last thought.

'Don't worry Suzie, we're comin'.'

*SHIELD Helicarrier*

"Sir, we've just received word from Mr. Richards. We have the formula for the cure to the mutagen that was dispersed." an agent spoke out as the helicarrier sat in the sky near the detonation site of the rocket.

"Good, get the scientists started on manufacturing it so that we can begin dispersing it." Fury commanded from his station.

"Sir, it has already been sent to the labs, but they have reported a complication." the same agent said as she looked nervously at her C.O.

"What now? After all we pay them you'd think they'd actually accomplish something. What is the complication?" Fury demanded.

"The scientists say they need a sample of the source to actually begin manufacturing the cure." the agent said as she shriveled under the one-eyed glare of Fury.

"Then get on the comms to Mr. Richards and see if they can find us a sample while they are looking for their missing member!" Fury commanded, causing the agent to jump and hurriedly begin typing.

Turning back to the bay windows of the command center Fury couldn't help contemplate replacing a few employees at the moment.