QuickShot:
Screaming as the black sand forces me off my feet and onto the floor, I do my best to dig through it. I attack the sand with my hands, but no matter how hard I hit, the black sand reforms itself. It covers and buries me, and before I know it, I can't breathe.
"Mmmm," I mutter, hitting the black sand on my mouth and nose. Already feel like I'm going to explode, the situation only gets worse when I see a small light within all this black sand. A second later, a bright red metal hand bursts through the light.
The red hand grabs me and pulls me up. Back on my feet, I see SpeedBlade ripping the black sand from my nose and mouth. As soon as they're gone, I open my mouth and breathe.
"QuickShot," SpeedBlade yells, holding me. "Are you okay?"
Coughing at first, I take a few more deep breaths before looking up at SpeedBlade.
"I'm okay," I say, "I'm okay! What was that?"
"I don't know," SpeedBlade answers, looking around. "But it's still here!"
Pushing me back, SpeedBlade raises his sword and slashes the rising black sand behind me. Stumbling to the side, I watch as, despite SpeedBlade cutting it and the upper half falling off, it quickly regrows.
"That's...new," I say, running to SpeedBlade's side.
"Is it magic," SpeedBlade asks. He and I step back as the black sand turns itself into a large arm and moves toward us. Pulling back my bowstring, I fire a rubber goo arrow. My arrow explodes and covers part of the arm in goo but the arm quickly drops that part off before growing it back.
"I don't know," I answer, lowering my bow. "Whether it is magic or it's some new technology, I do know this. We're going to need help!"
Pulling itself back, the black arm throws itself toward us. Preparing our weapons, something shoots out from the side and cuts off the tip of it.
Looking at the something as it hits the wall and falls onto the floor, I realize it's a shield.
Smiling, I turn and see Ms. Justice and JumpStart running out of a hallway. The two of them skidding to a stop, turn and see the moving black sand.
"Uhh," JumpStart says, pointing at the black sand. "What is that!"
"We have no idea," SpeedBlade answers, raising his sword. "But it appeared to be that black sand from before."
"The black sand," Ms. Justice repeats. "You mean that weird sand we found when we first entered. It can...move?"
"It can move," I say, loading another arrow into my bow. "It can takes shapes. It can even attack us. Unfortunately, none of our attacks seem to work against it."
"Oh boy," Ms. Justice says.
The four of us watch as the tip of the arm quickly reforms itself. All the sand that Ms. Justice cut off with her shield practically run back to the arm. It climbs up and makes its way back to the tip.
"Wait," SpeedBlade shouts, "What's going on!"
As the tip reforms itself, more black sand climbs up from the body. It joins the moving sand at the tip, and within a few seconds, the tip turns into a giant fist, its shadow looming over all of us.
Ms. Justice:
"Incoming," I yell, pushing everyone out of the way as the massive, sand-made fist shoots itself toward us. Barely having time to get out of the way myself, the fist hits the ground instead of us. It hits the ground and explodes, black sand flying everywhere. It rains for only a few seconds, before gathering up and turning into something else.
While the sand twists and turns into whatever it wants, I eye my shield across the room. The sand is still reforming itself, so while it reforms, I run to my shield.
As I run to retrieve shield, the sand somehow sees me and shoots out a little bit of sand. About to hit me, SpeedBlade runs out from the side and cuts the sand. Once again, the sand breaks and scatters.
"Thanks," I say, shooting SpeedBlade a quick thumb-up before jumping into the air. Jumping and rolling onto the floor, I pick up my shield along the way and turn around. By now, the sand had finished reforming itself. It transform itself into a whole body!
I see a head, a body, two arms, and two legs. The only difference between the 'sand' body and me is the fact that I have eyes and a mouth. That, and also the 'sand' body is tall!
Growing almost 10 feet, the 'sand' body easily stand above me. Pulling back both its arms, the sand then slams it down. I raise my shield in time but the sand hits me with so much force, I scream as I'm forced onto one of my knees.
"Justice," QuickShot shouts. She fires a bunch of arrows at the sand but most of them go right through the body. Even when she used her explosive arrows, the parts that were hurt would fall off before growing back.
"Hold on," SpeedBlade shouts, running toward me. Raising and swinging his sword, SpeedBlade slices both hands off.
The sand turns to SpeedBlade after he sliced its hands off. Winding up his leg, he kicks SpeedBlade. I watch as SpeedBlade flies across the room, stopping when he hits the wall and falls.
"Ahh," SpeedBlade moans as he pushes himself up. I look back up at the sand but the sand doesn't seem interested in me anymore. When it sees SpeedBlade on the floor, the sand turns from me and starts walking toward him.
"Big mistake," I say. With its back to me, I swing my shield, hitting the sand's leg. The leg shatters, and with one leg gone, the sand falls to the side.
When the sand hits the ground, it breaks apart, and sand spreads everywhere.
Breathing in and out, trying to catch my breath, I prepare for when the sand would reform itself.
"Who knows what it will turn into this time," I think. "I have to be ready for anything."
I pull back my shield, waiting for the black sand to move. I wait and wait and wait, but for some reason, the sand isn't moving anymore. It's staying still.
"What's going on," I ask after a few minutes of staring at black sand. I lower my shield and kick the black sand. A little bits fly into the air, but that's only because I kicked it. Otherwise, the sand stays still.
Looking around, I smile when I see QuickShot helping SpeedBlade to his feet.
"Wait! Where's JumpStart!"
I take another look around and see JumpStart standing by himself. He's standing in the black sand, looking down at the walkie-talkie. Putting the walkie-talkie near his long, pointed ear, JumpStart then starts slamming it against his hand.
"JumpStart," I yell, walking up to the elf. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to fix my long-frequency communicator," JumpStart answers. "For some reason, the thing started breaking, and I don't know why."
"The whole time we were getting beaten up," SpeedBlade growls while walking with QuickShot. "You were playing with your stupid toy!"
"I wasn't playing with it," JumpStart yells back. "I'm trying to fix it. Something is wrong with it."
"Yeah, well something is wrong with you too! Again, we were getting beaten up by a pile of black sand! Did it ever occur to you to help us?"
"Hey," I say, getting in front of SpeedBlade. "There's no need for that."
I turn to JumpStart.
"JumpStart, everything is fine."
I hear SpeedBlade makes a sound. He's about to say something, but I turn and look at him. Whatever he was going to say, he forget it. Instead, SpeedBlade walks over to the black sand. Poking at the sand with his sword, SpeedBlade turns back to us.
"Okay. Seriously. What is this? Justice, do you know?"
"I have no idea," I answer. I join SpeedBlade and drop to my knee. Reaching for the black sand, I feel a hand pulls me back.
"Careful," QuickShot says, her hand on my shoulder. "We don't know what that is. It could be dangerous to touch."
"I don't think so," JumpStart says. He walks over to QuickShot and brushes some black sand from her jacket. He collects the sand in his hand and looks at it. "Whatever this is, it is harmless."
"Harmless," SpeedBlade repeats.
"I mean, right now. It's harmless when it's like this, but when it's moving and shaping, then it's dangerous. The question is, how was it doing that?"
JumpStart brings up the bag QuickShot gave him earlier. He pours in the sand in his hand into the bag already with the sand before pocketing it.
"I want to do look at this sand so more," JumpStart says. "Let's get back to the OutPost."
Despite wearing a knight helmet, I can still see SpeedBlade rolling his eyes.
"How is looking at black sand supposed to help with anything," he asks.
Robert:
"Impossible," I say. I have to stop and regain my footing. "What was that? Something is interfering with my connection."
Shaking my head, I re-establish connections with the little bits of me.