Showdown! The Best of the Best

Chapter Fifteen

The sun rose over the forest as an unusually cold day dawned on the stranded heroes. Fur bristled on her back as Aela stood, hunched in wolf form, at the edge of the clearing where the heroes had made camp the night before. All of the heroes were gathered nearby, ready to execute their escape with peak efficiency. Danny came up alongside the hulking beast, giving her a cautious once-over, his breath steaming in the crisp air.

"Are you sure you can follow the blood?" He inquired bravely. 

Aela's blazing golden eyes locked on him, a low growl rumbling in the back of her throat.

"Duly noted," Danny coughed. 

Starfire and Bob approached from behind, coming to stand by Danny's flank. The ghost kid noted with a slight chuckle that they were deliberately avoiding the werewolf. In fairness, if what Danny had heard about Bob and Aela was true, he couldn't blame them. Mr. Incredible approached him.

"Starfire is gonna join you in the air while you follow behind Aela," he announced. Craning his neck to gaze at the lupine warrior, he raised his eyebrows. "Assuming you don't have a problem with that?"

Aela huffed through her nostrils as a symbol of begrudging compliance.

"What of the event that the Kriegbots discover us snooping about?" Starfire suggested.

"Everyone will be following at a safe distance if we need backup," Danny reminded her. "We can beat a quick retreat if need be. But our priority right now is finding a way out of this jungle. As long as we're stuck in here, there's no figuring out how to get home."

Starfire nodded in understanding. Walking to the edge of the clearing, Mr. Incredible turned to the other heroes as they gathered near. They all seemed to be looking to him, he realized. Was that the role he was supposed to play here? Some kind of leader? He could name several candidates in his immediate vicinity better for the job.

Whatever the case, they seemed to be expecting him to speak, so he did.

"Alright, listen up!" He thundered authoritatively. "By following Blackfire's blood trail, Aela might be able to find us a way out of this forest. Only holdup is, we don't know what's on the other side. Hopefully we can get out of here without much trouble. But if we need to fight our way out of here, if that's what it takes to get us back to our homes...then that's exactly what we'll do."

Every warrior present gave some signal of their understanding:  Toph spat into the dirt vigorously, Genji clasped his hands together and bowed his head, and Deku nodded, his blazing green eyes alight with determination. 

"Is everyone ready? For anything?" Mr. Incredible demanded.

Again, there came signals of acknowledgment from everyone. Turning, Bob bumped Danny gently, signaling him to take off. Both him and the super powered Tamaranean launched into the sky, while Aela took off at a brisk canter, tearing up dirt in her wake. Mr. Incredible turned back to the other heroes as the werewolf vanished into the darkness of the trees.

"We'll wait a couple of minutes before we follow behind," he reminded them. "Toph, you can lead us by sensing their movements, correct?"

"Like I said earlier," she shrugged impetuously. 

Bob rolled his eyes, turning back to the spot where Aela had vanished moments earlier.

"Kids," he groaned.

Aela ran, following the scent of the alien warrior that still resonated even after almost a day had passed since her blood was spilled. The forest ahead of her was so vast, so impenetrable, that the Companion realized she had never seen anything like it before. Not even the lush, verdant evergreen forests of Skyrim, her home, could draw comparison. These forests were closer to those of Valenwood or even Black Marsh, though she had only heard of these places in stories. She had never set foot there herself.

Their expedition continued uneventfully for several hours, at least. The blood trail seemed to stretch on infinitely, and, in the back of Aela's mind, twisted with the savagery of her wolf shape, she pondered how someone who had lost so much blood could have flown so far. Even the noblest of her brothers in the Companions would have fallen dead by now, had they bled this much. She was sure of it. In her lifetime, Aela had only ever encountered one warrior who could lose this amount of blood and continue forward.

The savior of Skyrim. 

Her thoughts were pulled away when her keen wolf senses detected that, up ahead, there was movement. Aela's enhanced senses were enough for her to deduce that, miraculously, the forest broke up ahead, maybe a mile or so. Even so, the blood trail continued ever further, and she inferred that it probably led out past the treeline. As Aela's pace quickened slightly, Danny and Starfire landed in front of her, intercepting the werewolf.

"We flew ahead," Starfire announced, her voice tinged with grim anticipation.

Aela cocked her head and gave a low, but curious, growl.

"It's really bad," Danny affirmed. "If we hadn't stopped you...you would have run right into an army of them. There's dozens of bots...maybe hundreds. All gathered in front of some kind of fortress."

Aela huffed and, looking within herself, concentrated on her human self. Her muscles and bones twisted and contorted as she shifted into human shape, slowly and painfully. Danny turned away, his face a shade of green not unlike his ecto-bolts. As the final stages of Aela's shifting concluded, the other heroes ran up beside them, all with the same grim looks on their faces.

"Something is out there, isn't it?" Toph hissed. "I felt it."

"An army," Aela panted, winded from her transformation. "Hundreds of Kriegbots, all ready to strike. Probably being led by the four villains we fought before."

Silence fell over the heroes.

"What do they even want?" Deku demanded. "Why are they coming after us?"

"Vlad mentioned they were meant to bring us back alive," Danny remembered, standing closer to the eight other warriors. "Maybe this Kringle guy isn't trying to kill us...maybe he needs us for something else."

"Could've fooled me," Mr. Incredible groaned.

"Regardless of why they seek us," Genji interjected, moving to the front of the group, "an army gathers at our doorstep. We must have a plan. There is no telling when we will have to face them."

"We are hopelessly outnumbered," Starfire pointed out. "An ideal plan would be to flee into the jungle. There, even if they pursue us, we can hide until they go back to their base."

"Not only is that plan asinine, but it's reckless," Killua rebutted ruthlessly. "This place is likely Kringle's domain. Why else would he establish his dominion here? We've barely managed to find our way around as is. Gallivanting into the woods would only make us sitting ducks. "

"Well, I don't here you suggesting any plans!" Starfire barked.

Killua marched forward boldly, and Starfire actually moved to intercept him, when Genji stepped between them. 

"Enough," he thundered. "Killua, have some respect for your elders. Starfire, learn to pick your battles."

The situation diffused slowly as the two irate warriors took their scoldings on the chin.

"His manners may need work, but Killua is still right," Deku pointed out. "We don't know this land. Kringle does. Running around like headless chickens might only make his job easier."

"Then our only option is to stand and fight," Danny murmured.

Toph's eyes widened at these words, a sense of familiarity flooding her. She had heard them before, also on a fateful day, and also soon before a battle. Clenching her fists and stepping forward boldly, she spoke.

"We make our stand, then," she insisted. "We retreat back and draw them to us. Then we fight. No running. If we face them together, and give them everything we've got, we can do it."

Mr. Incredible nodded. "We're still exhausted from yesterday's battle, so we'd better retreat now, while there's still time to gather our energy."

With that, the warriors retreated back into the deep forest as one.