9 Departure Back Home

Andrew and Newton knocked on the glass, getting Aaron's attention.

Aaron looked at the glass, then waved to Andrew.

"Ready to blow this place up?" said Andrew, holding the detonator.

Aaron would then give a thumbs up to Andrew, nodding his head, preparing to get the heck out.

Andrew pushed a button on the detonator, and started the countdown from 2 minutes.

"You've got 2 minutes, get out of there as soon as possible," said Andrew.

"Got it!" Aaron immediately began running to the exit, while the Crusaders followed on the roof.

"Austin, we got 2 minutes on the clock before this thing goes bye-bye. We are leaving!" said Aaron, helping Austin up.

"Oh, alright! I never want to see this place again anyway…" Austin dashed with Aaron through the halls.

However, Austin didn't think to use his shadow dodge abilities immediately, and so, one of the traps fired an arrow at Aaron, and it hit Aaron's already-injured right side of his face.

"Ngh-" Aaron held his face as he ran. There wasn't any time to examine. There was only 1 minute and 21 seconds on the clock.

Aaron felt blood dripping from his face. Yes, it was injured twice. Kinda strange how only the right side of his face got injured.

But, no time to question. They had to escape before the time ran out.

"Wait! I know a faster way!" said Austin.

"Huh? What is it!?" said Aaron in a panic.

"I utilize the mega setting on my plasma pistols to blast ourselves far to the entrance. You got it?" said Austin, tossing Aaron a plasma pistol set to mega. "Also, don't fuckin shoot yourself."

"Got it! Also, I wasn't planning on it!" Aaron caught the pistol, turned around, and pointed it in front of him. He was following Austin's lead.

Aaron and Austin then pulled the trigger, and got sent flying in the opposite direction to the end of the hall. In the window of time that they had, they turned around to face the exit. Once they were about to touch the ground, however, they slid to not only gain more momentum, but keep it as well.

The exit was just up ahead, if they could travel just a bit farther, they would make it. Aaron and Austin's momentum slowed down and eventually came to a stop.

The timer read: 50 seconds left. Austin and Aaron could still make it out alive if they really moved quickly.

"Haste, haste! This precious time, we mustn't waste!" said Aaron, pointing to the timer.

They had to depart with haste if they wanted to survive and make it out alive.

And that's what they did. They boosted again using the plasma pistols, and just barely avoided a trap that they could potentially trip over and lose about 6 seconds of vital time to.

Aaron and Austin are almost to the exit with 44 seconds left. They could do this. Using the power of speed and a little perception, they leaped out towards the exit, rolling on their way out and into space where the Crusaders were, just outside the temple.

Finally, they were free. Aaron pulled the arrow out of his head and examined it. It took a bit of force, but he managed to get it out. It was bloodstained, and it may have even had a chemical in there that could've been fatal. Luckily, Aaron didn't notice anything too different aside from the fact that he was in immense pain.

"Ugh...eww...blood…." said Aaron, visibly creeped out.

"Back up. Andrew's about to do something," said Newton. The Crusaders then got a safe distance away from the temple. Just out of an explosion's range.

"Come on, mates. Let me show you how old mate Meep did it back in the day!" said Andrew, clicking the detonator once more.

Some beeping could be heard from a distance, and then…

Explosions scattered all around the outside of the temple. A whole lot of them. Until…

BOOOM! The temple was blown up in a very stylistic fashion, sending debris everywhere in every direction.

The Crusaders dodged all the debris, every fraction of it. Except for Aaron. He got cut on the right side of his face. Very strange.

"That. Was. AMAZING!" said Andrew, with an amazed look on his face. He couldn't believe what he saw. He felt so satisfied, and he doesn't even feel satisfied when things explode half the time!

However, once it was all settled, and the deed was certified as done and completed, Austin set his plasma pistols to a secret setting called "Rift" and used Aaron's mechanical hand to forge a plasma rift that would take them back home.

That look of satisfaction that Andrew had quickly faded. "Okay, I'm bored now."

"Ready to head out after this grueling task?" said Austin.

"Yes," they all unanimously agreed, floating to the portal.

Austin quickly followed. He then snapped his fingers, and the rift closed behind them.

They almost did it. They almost defeated Charles, but he had to do something that severely halted the process of The Crusaders.

However, that wasn't going to stop them. They went inside their lab to brainstorm another idea. While doing so, Newton commentated a little on the new appearance of Aaron.

"Aaron...what happened to your face? It's sustained several injuries that could potentially be fatal," said Newton.

"Oh yeah, that...Funny story. It's a long one...but to shorten it: I sustained an injury during the battle with me and Charles, an arrow hitting me while Austin and I were escaping, and one of the chunks of debris cutting my face during the explosion," Aaron explained.

"We need to get you a face repair. I think you would look cool as a part-mech!" Andrew commentated.

"Really? Sure, I can take the repair!" said Aaron.

"Nice. We'll get to work on it," said Newton.

"Thanks, mate. Really appreciate it," Aaron replied. "In the meantime, however…" Aaron applied a medical bandage to the right side of his face.