The Astounding Squad: Part Three

     Just then, the backside door to the capsule opened, and with Michelle leaning against it for support, she fell into the pod. It closed in a split second before either could do anything about it.

     "Or rather," a voice boomed through the whole room, "something bad is going to happen." The voice paused. "At least, for you."

     That's when the so-called, "master" revealed himself. As he stepped out of the shadows of the metallic room, Electro-boy was finally able to take a look at him. He was wearing a long, dark black cloak with red velvet lining on the inside. The collar of the cloak was pulled up, completely stiff, especially in the back. Three thick hairs where sticking straight up from the top of his head, and they were the same color as his skin. His skin was a pale green.

     "Sloth," said Electro-boy, gritting his teeth.

     It all started two years ago, when Caleb had been walking around Neopia Central. He saw a sign posted on the notice board. It really stood out, not because it was big and decorative, but because it was so plain and small. That small strip of white paper got him curious. It had read:

     Are you interested in being more than what you are now? Please arrive at 355254 Wishing Well Drive, Neopia Central precisely at 5:00pm NST.

     Caleb wanted to be more than what he was. He did odd jobs to get enough money to get by, but not much else. This could be something good for him.

     Doing exactly what the notice told him, the Grarrl arrived at the house at five o'clock pm. He saw a group of other pets who were waiting in a line. They each stepped into the house, one by one, and most of them came out. One thing that Caleb noticed was that when a Grarrl went in, he didn't come back out. He hoped that was a good thing, since he was a Grarrl as well.

     The line slowly began to move forward and the Grarrl couldn't wait for his turn inside. A somewhat depressed blue Shoyru slumped out of the house and Caleb almost knocked him over as he dashed inside. He found himself in complete darkness and heard some voices.

     "He's big, that's good."

     "I agree. Doesn't seem to smart though."

     "Shouldn't matter, the dumber the better."

     With that, Caleb felt a smashing against his head and a cloth stuffed in his mouth. The last thing he heard was, "Next!"

     The Grarrl awoke to see three other Grarrls staring at him.

     "Are you okay?" one of them asked. He was the orange Grarrl and he offered his hand to help him up.

     Caleb took the hand and got on his feet. The cloth was now out of his mouth but he had a terrible headache. "Did you guys-" he wanted to continue his question but he lost his balance and fell to his left. Luckily the biggest of the three Grarrls caught him; he was the same one that had offered him help up.

     "Yes," answered one of the Grarrls, he was the one that was farther away from the group. "We all were gagged and brought here."

     A gold painted Grarrl looked over at Caleb. "Well, hi. I'm Marc." He pointed to the purple Grarrl that had just spoken. "He's Theo."

     "And I'm Brock," replied the orange Grarrl.

     "Well, I'm Caleb," he answered, now regaining his balance, "and I guess it is kind of nice to meet you guys but do you-"

     Caleb then felt a cloth go back in his mouth and felt the same smashing he felt earlier. "We've got them, master Sloth."

     The next thing Caleb remembered was that he was abandoned on Kreludor along with the three other Grarrls he was with earlier. The only difference was that Caleb had lost his blue scaly skin, it was now green. The same effect had happened to the other three. Once they reached an Orange Grundo civilization, the four headed back to Neopia and continued along with their lives. It wasn't until later until they were made aware of their powers and eventually regrouped to form the Astounding Squad.

     That was history now. Electro-boy knew that Sloth was behind it all; he-along with his teammates-needed to stop this madman. Many of their first missions they had team up with the Defenders of Neopia, but they soon found themselves straying away from that group of heroes. Instead, they did their jobs in space, making them lesser known to the Neopian population.

     As time went on, they started to fight off small attacks and raids on Kreludor and at Virtupets. They never had to face anything as big as that whole mutant army like earlier that day.

     Michelle began to pound against the glass of the capsule which snapped Electro-boy out of his memories. Sloth started laughing malevolently and he pressed a little button on his armchair and a nauseating brown and green mist started to fill the containment device.

     Electro-boy took one last look at Michelle as her paw slid down the glass and she disappeared behind the mist. With fire burning in his eyes, Caleb charged at Sloth, who stopped his laughing and was somewhat taken back by the Grarrl's attack. Electro-boy let out a yell of rage and zapped the villain in the chest with a jolt of flowing, yellow electricity.

     Sloth was knocked out of him armchair, now on the floor crawling, he headed towards a control panel in the back of the room. Electro-boy jumped into the air and landed right between Sloth and the panel. "I'll blow it up," said the Grarrl blandly.

     Sloth smiled, still on the ground. "You wouldn't."

     With that remark, Electro-boy placed his finger on a big red button, and sent a tiny bolt of electricity through the machine. The panel began to hiss and buzz, and in a few seconds it exploded into nothing but pieces of metal. Sloth began to laugh.

     All of the capsules against the wall in the room began to slowly open and an array of different pets began to step out. "Get him!" shouted Sloth. All of the pets turned towards Caleb and charged.

     In anger, Electro-boy grabbed Sloth and accidentally sent a small charge through his body. Sloth completely froze. Astounded, he did it again, and Sloth seemingly awoke and began to squirm. Electro-boy could paralyze. Unfortunately, Caleb couldn't do it again because a mutant Scorchio punched him in the face.

     Electro-boy turned to face the Scorchio but only saw a puddle of a navy blue liquid. The puddle began to vibrate and the Scorchio arose from it, and delivered Electro-boy another punch.

     Like he did to Sloth, Electro-boy paralyzed the Scorchio before he could return to puddle form by touching him and sending a small electric shock. He tossed the Scorchio aside and then saw a mutant Tonu charging at him. Every step the Tonu took, he grew in mass. "Fyora," muttered Caleb nervously under his breath, "they all have super powers."

     Jumping into the air, the Grarrl landed on the Tonu's spiked back and froze him, too, only to have a mutant Ruki grab him by the shoulders and lift him into the air. Caleb struggled to get loose from the grasp and then felt an immense heat coming from above him. The Ruki's claws were creating fire! With all of the energy he seemed to have, Electro-boy sent a paralyzing shock through his whole body, and when it hit the Ruki, he froze, falling straight to the ground.

     The Ruki plowed into the ground and Electro-boy managed to land on his feet. As soon as he regained his balance, a hideous mutant Lenny started to peck at Caleb. Dodging his enemy's beak, Electro-boy reached his hand out to paralyze the Lenny, but the Lenny screeched an unbearably high sound in defense and the Grarrl quickly retracted his hands to guard his ears. Luckily for Electro-boy, the Lenny's noise began to knock some of the other mutant pets unconscious, and once the Lenny stopped to take a breath, Electro-boy touched her and sent the body freezing vibe through the bird.

     Looking around at the fallen mutants, he realized they would awake soon, and the Grarrl began to go to each limp body and paralyzed them. Once he though he was finished, Electro-boy felt himself getting lifted into the air he twisted his head around to see three mutant Grarrls and a mutant Kougra.

     "Michelle!" exclaimed Caleb, "Marc! Brock! Theo!"

     Electro-boy's calls didn't faze the four. The now mutant teammates of Electro-boy prepared to attack. Captain Astounding jumped into the air with the Wall who was being held by his shoulders, preparing to let out a devastating punch. There was nothing Caleb could do. In a last hope to save his life, Electro-boy let the paralyzing shock flow through his whole body, like he did with the Ruki. When Brock's punch hit Caleb, he was instantly frozen. The electricity continued to flow right through the Wall's body, and Captain Astounding was paralyzed was well.

     The two paralyzed mutants fell on top of the Incredible Grarrl and his psychic grasp on Caleb was broken. Electro-boy fell to the ground and with his remaining energy he rushed up to Theo and touched the back of his neck, paralyzing him.

     And that left Michelle. The Kougra was sizing up Caleb, slowly circling him. She let out a growl and jumped into the air and lunged at Electro-boy. While it midair, Michelle blew a surprising strong gust of wind from her mouth, knocking Caleb to the ground. Scrambling up, the Grarrl sprung himself at Michelle and touched her with his paralyzing vibe of electricity.

     Completely exhausted, Electro-boy fell asleep on the ground.

     ***

     Blinking at first, Caleb awoke and stood up. Everything was the way it was when he drifted off to sleep. The pets he had paralyzed began to stir as the paralysis was beginning to wear off. They were also beginning to turn back to normal. The Lenny he had faced earlier was now rainbow colored, the Tonu was speckled, the Ruki was starry, and the Scorchio was a beautiful faerie color. Michelle was now a striped Kougra, and Marc, Brock, and Theo were back to being green.

     Electro-boy looked around for Sloth. He saw the same black cloak that the villain was wearing earlier. The Grarrl dashed over to it and lifted it up off of the metallic floor. He had disappeared.

     Sloth had tried to destroy the Astounding Squad, but in the process, he had given Electro-boy his secret weapons, an array of super powered pets. This was far from over, in fact, it was just beginning.

The End

Author's Notes: *cue cliché superhero music* Well, my first series is now finished; I hope that you enjoyed it!