10 A New Foe

"Wow...that duel me and Charles had was quite something, huh?" Aaron said, feeling his partially destroyed face.

"It was more than just something...You nearly died." said Austin, sitting down in a nearby chair.

"Well, I mean...yeah, sure...BUT I LIVED!" said Aaron victoriously and standing up tall and proud.

"Yeah, you did! We are actually pretty proud of you!" said Andrew, clapping.

Everyone started clapping after that.

"Task failed successfully, am I right?" said Austin to himself.

"Oh yeah, um...that bombastic bastard Charles decided to make like a banana and split on you. It was indeed a scenario where the task failed successfully. You put actual effort into that fight, but Charles decided to chicken out. For some unknown reason, probably to recover and harass you more. Who knows? Maybe, over the course of...7...Charles will grow stronger and stronger and then come out and face you again! Though, just the possibility," Andrew explained.

"You could be right, probably not. We'll see over the course of time," said Aaron.

Aaron took a seat with the others.

"That duel was quite the pain. Seriously. It took so long, and I tried so hard, but in the end, it didn't even matter!" said Aaron, facepalming.

"Yeah…sorry about that. That wasn't supposed to happen. Believe me, he's been known to do shit like that," said Austin.

"Huh. So it seems that way…Well, we have to get back-back at him again at some point, right?" said Andrew.

"Indeed we do, Andrew. But, it will have to take a while before such a thing happens," said Newton.

"We ought to train in that timeframe, so we can even stand a chance against Charles!" said Aaron.

"Yeah, sure. We have to get better at this, after all!" said Newton.

"And I get to become better and better at rolling those explosives!" said Andrew, bomb in hand.

"Nice!" said Aaron.

The radar made a BEEP noise, to alert the Crusaders of something that it tracked.

Curious, the Crusaders walked up to the radar and examined it, checking the notification.

It was another discovery. This time, it wasn't the same person. It was a familiar mechanical figure that had jetpacks, mechanical boosters, and a mechanical appearance.

Could it have really been him? Was he really after the Crusaders?

"...Zachary? What?" said Aaron, puzzled.

"Him? …of all people, he is the one targeting us?" said Andrew, scratching behind his head.

"13 days, it says…Does that indicate the amount of time we have left before we die?" said Newton.

"Well, at least until he arrives to kill us," said Austin.

"If he's going to harm us, then we must do everything in our power to make sure he will get eliminated," said Aaron.

"I'd believe so as well. He better stop his plans unless he wants to get his ass handed to him," said Austin, pulling out a plasma pistol.

"C'mon. We have to train to get better. Zachary has been known to kick our ass several times." said Newton, pulling out a lost tape. And no, it's not that lost tape. Like the ones you see in a box at the 99 cent store that are rumored to hold demons. Instead, it was another tape.

"Uh, Newton, I don't think you wanna-" Aaron got cut off.

"Nonsense. This is just proof of him beating our ass," Newton said, putting the tape in the radar.

The screen then cuts to footage of Aaron, Austin, Andrew, and even Newton in their initial form, easily getting beaten in a pre-planned fight they had made for kicks.

Aaron quickly turned it off, visibly ashamed and embarrassed. "Y-yeah…we get it…."

"But do you see? We must train to not have that scenario happen again," said Newton.

"We gotta improve our firing range, and get some upgrades!" said Andrew.

"Yes. That we must do in order to survive," said Austin.

"We should get moving. We must get some upgrades, as we don't have much time, only 13 days."

"Yes, we should," said Newton.

"Where do we start exactly?" said Aaron, holding his head.

"First of all, your face," said Austin, pointing to it. "It needs some upgrades."

"Sure," said Aaron.

"Well, we ought to get to work now, shall we?" said Andrew.

"Yes! The 4 Of Us united will survive this!" said Aaron, bravely.