[CHAPTER_07] The Fall Of Egypt

[Flashcharge]

Maria Beckintail took in a deep sigh before a trembling hand turned on the power that brought her LIVE on the air.

Egypt has fallen! Egypt has fallen to Africa's mega-villain Avalanche! Where is the great African super-hero duo, Time Stop and Wind Shade? They never showed! From India came the super-hero Duniya to try to counter-act Avalanche?s powers, but to little avail. Our very own FlashCharge, all the way from the North American continent rushed over to help as soon as he was aware of the situation. By that time, Avalanche had largely obtained his goal. We do not have news footage, but apparently FlashCharge was severely hurt in the attack and both super heroes rushed out of the scene. Egypt is now controlled by the mega-villain Avalanche!

There has been no report from the government of Egypt. There has been no way to get aid the victims of this hideous attack on that country. The Pyramids are ruined, the government is gone, our super heroes have failed. But they are alive, and the country is still there. We will not stop trying to free them until all our sources are used up!?

 

[Flashcharge]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[Flashcharge]

The once elegant government buildings had already been destroyed, were toppled down in a big heap of... well.. they were gone now..because they were now a part of a giant earth-and-rock snake that Avalanche was creating and striking still in the large city while Duniya was trying to counteract his powers, though he wasn't strong enough to completely negate it. Luckily, he didn't have to deal with the Scorpion, Avalanche's sidekick, who had created a gigantic Scorpion that was systematicly destroying the town, she and Avalanche both ignored Duniya, Avalanche only acknowledging him enough to smirk triumphantly. He knew that the younger and less power Super wouldn't hold out long enough.

Spotting Duniya, Flashcharge leaped forwards and half flew, half ran to the other superhero. Landing just besides him, he still panted as he informed about the situation. His eyes darted around the scene, from the villains to the huge scorpion, to the destruction and back to Duniya all the while taking in the information. "What's going on?" His voice was hoarse and he was slightly startled to notice his breathing hadn't returned to regular yet.

Duniya was a skinny man, who didn't wear a super-outfit, but rather his own tradional clothing. He had obviously been doing his best holding this off, but was now panting and soaked in sweat. He glanced over at FlashCharge and spoke in two sharp words, making it immediately obvious that he didn't know English. He pointed to Avalanche, then waved Flashcharge in that direction.  

[Flashcharge]

Flashcharge nodded and pushed off immediatly setting course for Avalanche. Upon his approach, the sandsnake seemed to stop what it was doing to slowly lift its head and look at the approaching super.

Flashcharge stopped in mid-air and taking in the scene he tried to determine where Avalanche was and how big of a threat this snake would be.

The snake tilted its head before its face seemed to split apart into a wide maniacal grin followed by loud laughter.

"FLASSSSSSHCHARRRRRRGEEEEEEE!!!" It roared loudly, and still laughing loudly, it lunged for Flascharge.

Flashcharge instinctively powered up and surrounded himself with energy as the snake's mouth engulfed him and he was surrounded by nothing but sand. Feeling a claustrophobic urge suddenly come up, Flashcharge increased the power of his shield, the resulting power surge caused all of the sand in its vicinity to be blasted away violently, allowing for Flashcharge to escape through a hole in the top of the head.

As he flew higher to get out of the reach of the sand hand, he failed to notice the snake's hard stone tail that came barreling his way. Spotting it from the corner of his eye, he turned, but failed to dodge and it hit him HARD, striking him into the ground and leaving a deep impact hole.

Flashcharge gasped for air as he tried to struggle out from under the tail. He coughed up some blood as a sudden energy burst from his hands blasted the tail away. "H-holy s**t... what is this thing?" he muttered as he coughed up some more blood. He grimaced as he sat up, noticing several of his ribs were broken. If he was lucky...  

[Flashcharge]

Avalanche laughed maniacally as he watched his favorite manifestation beat the crap out of that famed hero. "The great Flashcharge?" he snickered, "So THIS is the one that Solarduct can not beat?" He seemed to be absolutely thrilled, with his eyes lighting up in delight and anticipation.

The next moment a shape solidified itself out of the sand next to Flashcharge. A shape in the form of Avalanche. "Well, well. Mister great hero. How is this, huh?" the shape smirked as its leg shot forward to kick Flashcharge.

Flashcharge growled. "Not as nice as THIS." Again, the sand shape was blasted into oblivion before Flashcharge jumped up, holding back a groan and trying to locate Avalanche.

What Avalanche didn't realize with all this was that Duniya had stopped hising his poweres long enough just enough to rejuvenate himself, and, of course, to catch Avalanche off guard and make him think that he was going to go after Scorpion. That was the logical thing to do, right? Duniya had a different type of logic. Even if he couldn't convey it to anyone, he had an idea of what to do.

And as Avalanche's gigantic snake began to began to disassemble from the continuous blasts of Flascharge, Duniya jumped on the chance. Pulling energy as well as he could, he fought to stop the next creation Avalanche began to conjure up. And had far better success at it than he was with the gigantic thing. The snake came up, lashed out toward Flashcharge again from the back, but fell apart into a mound of sand and stone. Avalanche was laid bare now was the weak time to strike.  

[Flashcharge]

"Oh bumbly sticks!" Avalanche swung his fist and pretended to pout. "Now this won't do. This won't do at all."

Leaving the remains of his larger snake to attack Flashcharge, Avalanche created several more counterparts, albeit smaller. Feeling a slight strain, he stopped when he reached three more, with two of them going for Flascharge from either side, and with the other one heading for Duniya.

Duniya hadn't held out for this long on his own for no reason. His powers were the same as Avalanche's, the rather common earth-manipulation ability. They weren't nearly as strong as the great Villain, but he had a trick Avalanche and most evolveds didn't. He and his clothes turned into sand and funneled down, just in time to be missed by the snake.

The problem with doing that was that he really didn't have any control of what happened to him then. He was swept around by the moving snake. He was aware enough to keep a hold on Avalanche, though weaker, and aware enough to know where each piece of him was... That was useful because wind and swishing rock-monsters quickly blew him around to somewhere safe. Or strategic.

Duniya reformed behind Avalanche, close enough that if he got the chance and the Villain didn't see him he could sneak up and attack physically. Yeah, Duniya was a scrawny chicken of a man, but he thought that...maybe if he could touch the villain...he'd have more power over him. Probably not. But he was almost give out. It was worth the try.

Avalanche didn't seem to notice Duniya as his eyes were still transfixed on Flashcharge. He was laughing maniacally and obviously having fun doing so.

Flasharge fired blast after blast at the first snake. He smirked satisfied as he saw how it fell apart into a shadow of its previous form but cursed as two more snakes attacked from two sides.

Jumping up quickly, he barely dodged the first, but wasn't so lucky when it came to the second snake. He managed to half turn in mid-air so that it was only his side that was exposed to the snake.

With a loud CRACK as well as an accompanying cry from Flashcharge, the snake hit him head on and sunk its long stone teeth deep into Flashcharge's arm. Having a firm grip on the injured super the snake continued its arch-like movement and continued to speed towards the ground. It was only moments later that it hi the ground head-on with the unfortunate Flashcharge still trapped between its teeth.

Upon hitting the ground, the snake disintegrated into what it orginally had been, leaving only a large heap of rubble and sand and no sign of Flashcharge.  

[Flashcharge]

Avalanche was currently doubled over with laughter. "Yes! Yes! YES! Take THAT Solarduct! WHO DEFEATED FLASHCHARGE?!" He continued to laugh loudly and gleefully, outwardly appearing to be the happiest man alive. "Oh yes, yes, yes, this may actually lead to ME leading the Dark Alliance." He started laughing manically once more.

Duniya gritted his teeth in anger, then jumped forward to attack Avalanche, pulling with him an army of boulders. He didn't waste time and energy forming them into anything, but allowed them to attack Avalanche on all sides, shaking the ground under the Villain with a furry, and making sure plenty hit at the front of Avalanche's face. Disorientation. Inability to see. Attack the senses. Anything to keep Avalanche from being *able* to attack. Anything to give the other Super a helping hand. To save the people.

But Duniya was tired, less powerful, and less experienced than Avalanche. He was faster physically, and that was his only advantage. It had kept him alive thus far. It'd probably keep him alive a little longer.

As the boulders engulfed Avalanche an arm suddenly extended out of them, grabbed Duniya by the throat and forced him down onto his knees.

Avalanche calmly stepped forwards, still smirking, as the boulders exploded with little puffs into sand as if it was nothing. He didn't seem to be affected one bit.

Avalanche grinned down at Duniya, still having a vice-like grip on the poor super's throat. "So. Did you actually think that was going to work?" He raised an eyebrow and chuckled evilly again. (He tried to practice that particular chuckle as often as possible).

"But, you are lucky. Because I have just killed Flascharge." At this he burst out into laughter once more and his shoulders shook slightly in excitement, "And thus, I am going to let YOU go. Aren't you the lucky one? Come back some day to fight me again so I can kill you, okay? Bring some friends," he winked, eyes shining with mad delight.

He shoved the super away from him and turned around to watch the raging scorpion take down the last few remaining buildings. Sparing no glance for the fallen superhero, well, the sand beneath him pretty much lifted him up higher and higher until it was like a tower of sand which then took on the shape of a giant snake with Avalanche standing on top of it. As it has been stretching out and taking on its shape, it had already been moving towards the scorpion creature.

Duniya gasped for air on the ground where he was. He'd been too surprised by Avalanche's sudden grasp that all he'd been able to do was stare in shock as he talked. He was surprised to have been left where he was, and then left alone to gasp for air and gather his senses around him. When he finally looked up, he understood. Avalanche was simply leaving. Was that it? He didn't know, could only guess. He hadn't understood Avalanche's words.

But he did feel the ground beneath him, and everything Avalanche was doing was moving away from them. Whether he would be back or not, that would give him and the other super to regather. If the other super hadn't been crushed. Duniya closed his eyes, looking for all the world defeated where he was. But he was doing what he DID know best, what he could probably do better than any earth evolved. He was listening to the ground. And he felt, through it's feelings, Flashcharge. Though Duniya didn't move, the rocks around Flashcharge began to carefully move. Carefully so as not to hurt the man, but some harm couldn't be helped. He was in bad shape.

When what was moved best was moved, Duniya opened his eyes and stood to walk over to the other man, wincing at what he saw. There were more people to save, but this one was the one that would stop more people from needing that, and so he was the better one to concentrate on. Duniya reached down and took the watch from Flashcharge's wrist. It was beeping a brilliant red. Despite not having any such thing himself, Duniya had obviously had some contact with it before and wasted no time flipping it on and rapidly explaining that Flashcharge needed medical help immediately, Avalanche would have to wait. If lucky, someone on the other side would be able to find out what he was saying. If not, Duniya would have to find a way to help the hero now.

And Duniya wasted no time in doing that, first lifting all the grit off of Flashcharge's wounds, and then off of his own shirt so he could tear it to pieces and do what he could to stop what blood flow there was.

Duniya had blinked confusedly at the string of words on the other side of the communicator - words Flascharge wouuld have recognized as a stressed, cursing Charles - but continued to do what he could for Flashcharge. The next string of words were Hindi - his own language, and Duniya snatched it up to listen.

He blinked. Well, it was Hindi, but what were these words? Transporter? Athens, Greece? Hospital he did understand, and with some more confused explanations, he understood what the transporter was, and Athens was a safe place to go. So he was willing to work with the unusual machine. And transport Flashcharge safely to a hospital in Athens. There they would both get medical attention until Flashcharge was picked up.