LAST TIME ON DIMENSION HEROES:

The former Dimensional Guardians meet Gubaru, the commander of the original Dimensional Guardians and member of the Brotherhood of Dimensional Order. He tells them that their dimension is on a collision course with Creturia, and the only way to save both worlds is for the kids to go to Creturia and recover the five cybaspheres, mysterious orbs that can be used in conjunction with their Guardian bands to stop the dimensional rip from growing. After much discussion, the five kids accept their dangerous mission and head out.

Book 15

A Rocky Start

The Guardians stood at the edge of the forest clearing, Clonar's fortress looming over them. They had seen it once before, but even with its owner permanently “vacated”, knowing what their new mission was made the stronghold seem scarier than ever. “Well, here we are: Clonar's fortress,” said Tami matter-of-factly.

Brittany repressed a shiver. “I can't believe we actually have to explore inside that thing to get to Creturia.”

“Oh, the fun we're going to have,” Chip moaned, less than thrilled at the prospect.

“Now we just have to explore every nook and cranny until we find something that we believe looks remotely like a transporter,” said Wyn, his arms crossed, as they often were.

Rob snickered. “Aw, you make it sound so easy.” Out of the five of them, he was the most excited. If all went according to plan, he'd soon be exploring a brand new world, one fraught with danger and peril at every turn. He wouldn't have an adventure any other way.

Brittany scanned the area cautiously. “It doesn't look like there are any military forces around or anything. We should probably still keep our guard up, though.”

“Very true,” Chip agreed.

The Guardians slowly and stealthily crept across the clearing to the fortress doors. Rob pressed his hand against one of the massive doors softly, and with a loud moan, the door lurched open, causing all of the Guardians to jump back in fear. It couldn't be that easy. Could it?

After stepping foot inside, they paused for a moment to gaze around at the otherworldly building once home to Clonar, the most powerful force the Dimensional Guardians had ever gone up against. The interior looked just about as Rob would've pictured it: dimly lit so as to incite fear and terror into unsuspecting visitors, unsure of what awaited them nestled in areas the small circles of light didn't reach. Wide, open spaces gave the larger of Clonar's servants ample room to move about. The decorum littered throughout was just as twisted as the corridors they resided in. The Guardians' footsteps echoed as they slowly tiptoed around.

Rob's voice echoed through the corridor. “Not the cheeriest fortress I've ever been in.”

“How drab,” added Brittany. “A little blue would brighten things up tremendously.”

Chip's wide-open eyes darted around the area. “As would a little light and a little less fear of death in the air.”

Tami put her hands on her hips. “Now how exactly are we going to find that transporter?”

Suddenly, all five of their Guardian bands beeped. As if on cue, the holographic image of Gubaru appeared on each of their bands. “Hey there,” Gubaru said. “I suppose you're wondering how exactly you're going to find the transporter, huh?”

Chip forced a chuckle. “Now that you mention it...”

“We can pinpoint the transporter's energy signature with our equipment here,” Gubaru continued. “I'll help guide you to it.”

The Guardians made their way through the dank, dark fortress with surprising ease and virtually no resistance. Eventually, they found their way to the door they were looking for.

“The transporter should be in this room,” Gubaru said.

They entered the room, quickly noticing a suspicious circular platform nestled in the upper right corner with an inactive computer console sitting beside it.

“Looks like a transporter to me,” said Chip.

“Very good,” said Gubaru. “Now, I'll need you to turn it on, type in an activation code, and set the co-ordinates.”

Rob turned to Chip. “Chip, you'd better do it. You're the tech whiz here.”

“Sure, I can do it.” Chip walked up to the console and studied its vast array of buttons. “Just walk me through it, Gubaru.”

Brittany glanced back at the door. “We made our way through the fortress without a hitch. I'm surprised how smoothly everything went.”

The atmosphere in the room instantly changed as a fire and electric blast shot through the doorway and crashed in front of Brittany's feet.

“I knew something like that was going to happen!” Tami exclaimed.

An electric and fire blast attack consecutively only meant one thing: someone was in the fortress with them, and as much as they hated the thought, they all knew just who that someone was. Or to be more precise, who those somebodies were.

“Going somewhere?” asked Troy as he and his brother Trey waltzed into the room.

Wyn sighed. “Don't you imbeciles ever learn your lesson?”

“I guess not,” Trey replied. “We happened to listen in on your little transmission the other day, and thought we'd stop by to wish you off.”

“And by 'wish you off', he means we're gonna destroy you.” Troy nodded his head, pleased at his contribution to the conversation.

“...yes, Troy. Thanks for clearing it up for them.” Trey sneered at the Guardians. “And you call us imbeciles. This has been our base of operations since Clonar first showed up in this world. You'd have to be pretty stupid to snoop around our fortress and not expect us to be nearby. And we don't take kindly to uninvited guests.”

Rob crossed his arms. He and his friends had taken those two down every time they'd fought, and even after they destroyed the duo's former master, they still had the gall to challenge them. “What makes you think you have any more of a chance of beating us now than you have any other time we've fought?”

Flames circled around Troy's hands. “Because this time, you have more to worry about protecting that just yourselves!” As he spoke, he launched a fire blast at the transporter console.

Wyn was quick to transform into his Guardian armor with a call of, “Dimensional Guardians, power up!” Without time to launch a counterattack, he jumped in the way of the blast, the force of which knocked him into the console.

Chip jumped, seemingly more concerned about the state of the console than the state of his friend. “Hey, careful!”

Pressed against the console, Wyn tilted his head towards Chip and snapped, “Well, excuse me!”

The other Guardians transformed, as well. Brittany jumped in front of the console and volunteered to help Wyn protect it as Rob and Tami fought off Trey and Troy.

Chip peered back at the battle going on behind him, and Gubaru pulled his attention back to the business at hand. “Okay, Chip, let's do this quickly.”

“Right.” Despite the otherworldly technology he was dealing with, Chip was an expert with all types of technology and had little problem finding the “on” switch. “How exactly do you know the activation code?” he asked Gubaru as the machine clicked and whirred to life.

“We're experts in dimensional travel with the most sophisticated equipment in the multiverse,” said Gubaru with a hint of pride in his voice. “Trust me, we can figure it out.”

Within a few moments, the machine was fully active. Chip strained to hear Gubaru's voice over the sound of the fighting:“The activation code is 1-5-4-2-6-8-3.”

Chip typed in the numbers as fast as his fingers could fly across the keyboard.

“Now the machine is asking for co-ordinates,” he said.

“You'll have to bear with me, this is a long one...input 3-8-5-5...”

Gubaru rattled off what seemed to be an endless line of numbers. Chip entered them one after another, one hundred ten percent of his concentration focused on his work. A stray fire blast striking the wall above him knocked his concentration down a good seventy-five percent. “Are we anywhere near done?? It's getting hairy in here!” he said.

“Almost, just listen carefully.” Gubaru paused for a moment, frazzled at having lost his place. “Now, what are the last few numbers we entered again?”

Chip smacked his forehead, then told him. About ten numbers later, Gubaru announced: “All right, that should do it! Go ahead and activate it!”

Chip pressed a big button on the console. Instantly, a giant beam of blue light shot out from the circular platform. “It's on!” he said. “...I think.

Gubaru waved him on. “Then hurry and go!”

Chip turned to his battle-weary teammates. “Guys, it's working! Let's go for it!”

Rob sent Troy flying with a laser blast as Tami kicked Trey into a wall. Tami dashed towards the transporter, but Rob stood there a moment longer. “It's been fun, guys,” he said, “but we have places to go.” Then he briskly ran for the transporter as his teammates disappeared into a swirling blue warp.

“You're not leaving this world alive!” Without thinking, as per usual, Troy launched a powerful fire blast at the fleeing Guardian. Before the attack could hit him, Rob dove into the blue light and disappeared in a flash just as the fire blast rocked the machine, sending sparks flying and the machine offline with a hiss.

“What?? No!!” Trey yelled.

After effectively destroying their only chance to take down the Dimensional Guardians, now in another world completely out of their reach, all Troy could mutter was, “Oops. Sorry.”

Trey stared at the smoking machine as the thought of never settling the score with the other Guardians festered in his mind. They had a lot to pay for. And he knew that somehow, someway, he was going to make them pay. Somehow...

Safe and sound in a dimension parallel to their own, the Dimensional Guardians slowly raised their heads out of the lush Creturian soil they were pressed into.

Rob looked around as his vision slowly adjusted. “Did...did we make it?”

Chip brushed some dirt from his forehead. “More importantly, did we make it in one piece?”

The vast, sprawling world spread out before them was all the proof they needed. The dank, dark walls of Clonar's fortress had been replaced by thick, lush jungles, a wide variety of exotic flora different than any on Earth, and clear blue sky that cascaded endlessly past the horizon.

Wyn, who wasn't impressed by much, said, “whoa.”

Brittany was unsure of what to think of the optical overload she was witnessing. “Is this Creturia?” she asked.

“It ain't Kansas,” said Tami, getting up off the ground wearily.

Chip turned around and gasped. “Whoa, take a look at that!”

Everyone turned and immediately looked straight upward in awe at the giant mountain range that towered before them.

“Angel Mountain, I presume?” said Rob.

“I'd say it's fairly likely,” said Wyn.

Once again, Gubaru's image flashed onto their Guardian bands.”Hey kids, I'm reading your energy signatures in Creturia!” he said. “Did you make it okay?”

Tami clutched her abdomen tightly. “I think I left my stomach back on Earth.”

“We're fine,” said Wyn. “Now what should we do?”

“Well, I have good news and bad news.” Gubaru paused for a moment. “The good news is we've detected three cybaspheres somewhere on this mountain range.”

“That's convenient,” said Chip.

Gubaru continued. “The bad news is that they're not exactly close by. You'll have a lot of climbing and searching to do.”

“Hmph, and here I forgot my grappling hook,” Wyn muttered.

“I took the liberty of uploading a map of the mountain range into Chip's Guardian band,” Gubaru added. “If you follow it, you should have no problem locating the cybaspheres.” He flicked his gaze at each of the Guardians. “Are you sure you're up to this?”

Deep down, none of them were completely sure, but they nodded anyway. “Even if we weren't,” Rob said, “there's really no turning back now. We'll do the best we can.”

“Good to hear. Be on the lookout for wild Creturians, though,” Gubaru advised. “You're bound to run into a lot more here than on Earth. Hopefully they won't be as savage as the ones you've encountered, but it's always good to be on guard.”

“No problem,” said Wyn, confident as ever. “No Creturian can whoop me.”

“Okay. If you need to reach me, you know how to. There's not much else to say, except for 'good luck.'”

“Thanks, Gubaru,” said Brittany.

Gubaru nodded as his image once again fizzled out.

Chip sighed. “I guess that's it, then.”

“Yup,” said Rob calmly. “Time to go a-climbin'.”

In a dark, undisclosed area, three shadowy beings communicated to one another via hologram.

“It's been a while since we've spoken together, my fellow Dark Lords,” said one of the figures, the hiss of his sinister voice crackling over the communication line.

“Indeed it has, Ludevinar,” said another, her soft, soothing voice a stark contrast to his. “I assume Clonar is the reason for our meeting together?”

“Yes,” boomed the third figure. “Our link with Clonar has been severed. That can only mean one thing.”

“Clonar has fallen?” suggested Ludevinar, almost excited to be able to make that statement. “Feh, it was only a matter of time. A weak, prideful fool such as him was just asking to be destroyed.”

“No kidding,” said the female. “I knew his arrogance would eventually lead to his downfall. The question is, who did it?”

“Certainly you feel the energy signature, do you not, Scortana?” asked the third figure.

Scortana paused for a moment to feel out the energy. “Yes...it's a power I haven't felt for quite a while...the Dimensional Guardians.”

“Clonar's defeat and the appearance of the Dimensional Guardian powers in this world are too close together to be construed as mere coincidence,” said Ludevinar. “Wouldn't you agree, Grislace?”

The third figure nodded. “Agreed. No doubt there is a connection between the two. And we must find out what.”

Ludevinar smiled sinisterly in the blackness. “Allow me to be the one to take up that task. The Guardian powers are closest to my location. I shall send several of my servants on reconnaissance to see just what exactly we're up against.”

“Very good,” said Scortana. “Be sure to report back to us when you receive your results.”

“Of course. Rest assured that whatever force may try to combat the Dark Lords, it will be dealt with swiftly and without mercy.”

Tami trudged up the steep mountain pathway slowly. Each consecutive step caused her legs to ache a bit more, but she did her best to keep up with the others. “Are we there yet?” she moaned.

Rob turned around, an exasperated look plastered on his face. “Good grief, Tami, we just started climbing. Can’t we walk for five minutes without you complaining?”

“I can't be the only one here who thinks hiking up a steep mountain path is strenuous, can I?” Tami looked around at her teammates, hoping to garner the slightest bit of support.

“No, I'm sure we all do,” said Wyn, eyes still focused on the path ahead of him. “We just choose to keep it to ourselves instead of annoying those around us.”

Tami stayed quiet for several moments, then spoke up again. “...so does anyone have any food?”

“Tami!”

“What??”

Perched precariously on a rocky crag above them, two identical rock-like Creturians watched the Guardians plod down the path with their beady, square yellow eyes.

“Look, Lapidar, there's some humans!” pointed out the first creature, as if his partner didn't have the mental capacity to see for himself.

The other one nodded. “You're right, Lapidar. Let's 'rock' their world!”

The first Lapidar, who from this point on will be known as “Lapidar 1” for simplicity's sake, chuckled.“Your puns are always amusing, brother.”

Below, Tami continued her tirade of whining. “I'm just saying a cheeseburger would really hit the spot right about now.”

“Then go find yourself a cow and quit complaining!” Wyn snapped.

Brittany paused and perked up her ears to hear a rumbling sound growing progressively louder. “Hey, do you guys hear something?”

“Yes...and I don't like what I'm hearing,” said Chip nervously.

The Guardians froze in their tracks as a rain of massive boulders poured down in front of them, tumbling off the path and crashing to the ground below.

They all stayed silent for a few moments after the rumblings stopped. Chip finally spoke up. “Did I mention how much I hate this place?”

“Almost as much as Tami has,” Rob muttered.

“This part of the mountain appears to be pretty unstable,” Wyn said. “We'd better move fast before another rock slide hits.”

The two Lapidars made their way to the edge of the cliff above them. “It might happen sooner than you think,” Lapidar 1 called down to them.

“Our first encounter with Creturians on their home turf,” Wyn grumbled to himself, looking at the strange humanoid rock creatures. “How exciting.”

“Are you the guys who caused that rock slide?” Rob asked them.

“No duh,” replied Lapidar 2. “I'm Lapidar, and this is my brother Lapidar. And together, we're...”

They spoke in unison, striking cheesy poses that made their captive audience wince. “The Lapidar Brothers!”

The Guardians simply stared at them.

“...okay,” said Rob, unable to think of any other way to respond to what he just saw.

“We happen to know you humans aren't from around here,” said Lapidar 1 in an accusing tone. “What business do you think you have on our mountain?”

“That's on a need to know basis, buddy,” Wyn shot off.

Lapidar 2 snickered. “How's this, then: you tell us, or we flatten you?”

“Here's a better idea,” Rob countered, “we don't tell you, and we grind you to pebbles.” Anxious to fight, he reached over to activate his Guardian band. “Dimensional Guardians, power up!”

Rob was horrified to realize that he wasn't transforming. He pressed the button several more times. “Uh, hello?”

“Our powers must be drained from the last fight!” Brittany exclaimed.

Rob turned to her, eyes wide. “You gotta be kidding me!”

Lapidar 1's smile grew even wider. “Good. Then it'll be a lot more amusing watching you try to dodge our attacks. Ready, brother?”

“You bet, brother,” said Lapidar 2 with glee, raising his hand into the air. “Let's start off small.”

The duo yelled out their poorly-named attack: “Pebble Pummel!” What seemed to be millions of tiny pebbles whirled around them and flew at the Guardians at high speed. They weren't life threatening, of course, but they did hurt considerably. Cries of “Ow! Ow!”, “That hurts!”, and “Stop it!” emitted from the Guardians as they shielded their faces with their arms.

“You like our attack name?” Lapidar 1 asked as he kept up the barrage. “We came up with it ourselves.”

Chip struggled to turn towards his comrades as the rain of pebbles continued assaulting them. “Standing around here taking abuse from them isn't going to get us anywhere. Let's get out of here!”

The Guardians were more than happy to take off. All of them, that is, except Wyn, who continued to withstand the onslaught. “They're throwing pebbles at us! There's no way in the world I'm going to--”

“C'mon, Mr. Invincible,” interrupted Tami, grabbing his arm and carrying him off against his will. She woefully noted that it had apparently become her job to save the stubborn boy from himself.

Their targets fleeing, the Lapidar brothers ceased their attack. “Wow, would you look at that?” said Lapidar 1. “They couldn't even withstand an attack we just made up.”

“The boss doesn't even need to waste his time dealing with these guys,” said Lapidar 2. “How about we handle them ourselves?”

“That's just what I was thinking.”

After they were certain they were far enough away that it would take a while for the Lapidar Brothers to catch up to them, the Guardians rested on rocks in front of a waterfall, the roar of which would hopefully keep them from being heard by any enemies. Wyn angrily kicked at a wayward pebble that had tumbled out of his freakishly large hair. “Talk about an all-time low: running from enemies who attack with pebbles. Bah. I knew working with you cowards was a bad idea.”

“Well, it's better than getting pelted, isn't it?” Brittany asked, trying to make her words sound as nice as possible. Wyn responded with a huff.

“This world is bad for my health,” Chip said. “No matter where we go, it seems there's always someone out to kill us.”

“Hey, you mind?” came a muffled voice that Chip assumed emitted from beneath the rock he was sitting on. He leaped up in surprise as the rock shuddered and shook. It stood up on two scrawny legs and looked at the Guardians with it's piercing yellow eyes.

“W-What are you supposed to be??” Chip asked.

“I'm Dornik, a rock Creturian,” the monster replied, “and not the kind of rock that appreciates being sat on when he's trying to take a nap.” With nothing else to say, Dornik waddled off in a huff.

“I hate this place!” Chip yelled yet again.

Brittany couldn't help but chuckle. “Poor, poor Chip.”

“Every which way we turn, there's talking rock monsters,” Chip said, “and they all have bad attitudes. Who knows what other kind of freaky things we'll encounter up here?”

“We can worry about that later,” said Tami. “Right now, our utmost concern should be laying low and giving our Guardian powers time to charge. There's no telling when we may need them.”

“Tami's right,” Rob said. “We should rest up while we can, especially since there appears to be some force out gunning for us.”

Elsewhere, a group of about fifty Lapidars made their way up the mountain, a hulking, burly figure leading them. “We've been at this for hours,” the figure grumbled. “Where could they possibly be?”

His communicator beeped, indicating an incoming call. He answered quickly and with a short tone. “Yeah?”

“It's been several hours since I sent you out,” the sinister voice said through crackled static. “Have you found anything yet?”

Surprised at who was at the other end of the communication, the figure's tone of voice immediately changed to one of nervous reverence. “N-No sir, we've searched all over the mountain range, but no one has reported seeing any Dimensional Guardians, yet.”

“Well, double your efforts, then. I want a report from you as soon as possible. Do you understand me?”

“Y-Yes sir, of course. I won't let you down.” The big lug turned off the communicator and composed himself, not wanting to look weak in front of his soldiers. “You heard the master!” he said in his toughest voice. “Get out there and search harder! Leave no stone unturned! ...uh, so to speak.”

The Lapidar Brothers made their way around the mountain when their communicators went off. They recognized the voice of their leader immediately: “Attention, all Lapidars! The master has requested that we double our efforts in finding the Dimensional Guardians!” The line was silent for a moment, as if the boss was searching for just the right words to conclude the call. “So, y'know, do it.”

“The other Lapidars can search all they want,” Lapidar 1 said to his brother. “If we report that we destroyed the Dimensional Guardians ourselves, there's no telling what kind of reward we'll get.”

Lapidar 2's bright eyes grew even brighter. “I like the sound of that. Let's 'rock.'”

“Ha ha! That one never gets old.”

Rob leaned forward on his rock. “Well, I think we've rested long enough. Ready to keep going?”

The other Guardians stood up. “I guess we might as well,” said Brittany.

“You'd better get going pretty fast,” came Lapidar 1's voice from several feet away from them. The Guardians sighed in exasperation.

“At least they gave us a little bit of a chance to rest,” said Chip, hard-pressed to find something to say that wasn't a complaint.

“Yeah, we thought it was so fun to pelt you with pebbles that we'd take it up a notch,” said Lapidar 2. He and his brother put their hands in the air again, but instead of millions of tiny pebbles whipping around them, a perfectly-formed boulder tore out of the rock wall and landed in front of them. The Guardians' muscles tensed, none of them sure of—or really wanting to know—what the two monsters planned to do with said boulder as they leaped on top of it.

“We'll give you a five second head start,” said Lapidar 1. “After that, we start rolling after you.”

Without even thinking about it, Chip began sprinting farther down the path. “Sounds fair to me!” The other Guardians quickly followed. In a massive panic, they pressed buttons wildly on their Guardian bands in an attempt to activate their Guardian powers, but to no avail. “Of all the times for our Guardian powers to still be drained!” Rob yelled.

Things went from bad to worse as the brothers began rolling after them.

PART 2

Lapidar 2 laughed as he and his brother rolled along the pathway. “Ha ha! Look at this, brother! We're totally on a 'roll!'”

“They sure are 'boulder' than we are!” said Rob, never one to pass up an opportunity to spout off a bad pun.

“That didn't even make sense!” said Tami.

“Don't encourage them, you idiot!” Wyn added.

“It's a shame your adventure has to end on such a 'flat' note,” Lapidar 1 put in.

“Hey, look!” Rob pointed to the hazy outline of something over the bridge in front of them. “There's a cave over that bridge! We're home free!”

“If we can make it,” said Brittany.

“We have to. Let's haul haunch!”

“No way you're going to make it!” said Lapidar 1. “Boulder Barrage!” The Lapidars raised their hands again, delicately balancing themselves on the rolling rock as they summoned several more giant boulders out of the nearby cliff face and chucked them at the bridge. The boulders crashed through the bridge, leaving several gaping holes for the Guardians to leap over, which they managed to do with only minor difficulty.

The brothers and their “ride” made their way onto the bridge. “We got 'em now,” said Lapidar 2. “Boulder-- Gaack!” They had failed to factor in their mass as they crossed the bridge; the near end of the bridge shuddered under the weight as the ropes snapped, sending the entire bridge sailing vertically towards the cliff side. Along with their boulder, the Lapidar Brothers crashed into the river below, sending a plume of water upwards that splashed at the Guardians' feet. They, however, were more concerned with not plunging into the river themselves; as the bridge continued to slant, they scrambled to grab onto whatever they could.

“It's the end!” Chip cried. “I knew we wouldn't make it!”

“Calm down and grab onto something!” Rob said. “Hurry!”

Chip grabbed the side of one of the planks as the bridge smashed against the cliff face. The four Guardians clung to one another for dear life, forming a chain with Chip as the top link.

“Somebody do something!” Brittany screamed in terror. “I don't wanna die!”

“No one's going to die, Brit.” Rob looked up at Chip. “Chip! You're the only one who can do anything! Pull us up!” Both Chip and Brittany had the power to fly, but they were both too scared to even attempt to even take one hand off of their lifelines.

Chip strained as he tried to keep a firm grip on the plank. “Sure, no problem!” he called back sarcastically. “Then I'll go down there and beat up those Lapidars with my bare hands!”

“This is no time for sarcasm, Chip!” said Tami, clinging tighter to Rob's ankle.

Chip struggled with all his might to pull them up, but didn't have the upper body strength to do so. A myriad of thoughts raced through his panicked mind, his promise to himself to become stronger at the forefront. Obviously he couldn't do so if he and his friends were dead.

Well, perhaps his strong will could make up for his lack of physical strength. Gathering all the willpower he could muster, he once again strained with all his might to pull him and his friends upward.

...and quickly jerked back down as he realized his will wasn't particularly strong either. “Darn it, I just can't!” he said.

“Get a hold of yourself, Chip,” said Rob, trying to keep the panic out of his voice and failing. “Just whatever you do, don't--” His voice raised four octaves as Chip lost his grip and they all plummeted towards the raging water below, screaming. “--let gooooooooo!”

“No!” Chip yelled. “It can't end like this! Dimensional Guardians, power up!” Having not activated his Guardian band earlier in the fight with Trey and Troy, his armor was quick to form around him. Brittany, being the only other one with the power of flight, tried activating her band again, and to her relief it started up without a problem. They wasted no time as they raced down and grabbed Rob and Wyn's hands.

Unfortunately, there weren't quite enough hands for everyone, and Tami continued plummeting. “What about meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee--” her voice trailed off as fell into the haze below.

“No! Tami!!” Rob's yell echoed throughout the cliffs.

His heart pounding and with no certainty of success, Chip raced into the haze with Wyn in tow. He spotted Tami's dim outline through the mist and closed the distance between them. Without a moment to spare, he maneuvered Wyn above her, and he quickly grabbed her hand just as her feet splashed against the water. “Hold on, I got you!” Wyn said.

Tami took in a couple of lungfulls of air, her other hand on her chest trying to ease her racing heartbeat. “I think my heart just stopped.”

With a great deal of difficulty, Chip slowly but surely made his way upwards back to his waiting friends. Rob and Brittany breathed a collective sigh of relief as their friends emerged from the murky depths. “Hoo boy, that was a close one!” Rob said.

Chip may not had been trying to pull up four people as he had earlier, but two was still quite a challenge for him. In fact, he wasn't sure if he could make it all the way...or how to tell them that. “Uh, guys...really heavy...”

Wyn's eyes grew wide. “Chip...no!”

Once again, Chip lost his grip, and Wyn and Tami plummeted once more.

This time, however, Tami was ready; she transformed and, using her ice power, froze her hand against the cliffside. She and Wyn dangled helplessly, but at least they weren't falling any further.

“Chip, you idiot!” Wyn called upwards. “Can't you do anything right?!”

Chip was silent. He had two opportunities to save his friends' lives—or rather three, counting his fear and unwillingness to fight off the Lapidar Brothers when he was the only one who had a working Guardian power, and he botched them all.

One after another, Rob, Wyn, and Tami were pulled to the top of the cliff by Brittany and an obviously-troubled Chip.

Rob let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. “That was an even closer one!”

“No kidding. I didn't think we'd make it out of that one.” Wyn turned to Chip, his steely gaze meeting Chip's shaken one. “Did you, Chip?”

“Lay off him, Wyn,” Rob scolded. “We're all okay, so let's just get moving, huh?”

Chip stared off into space for a moment as the other Guardians pressed on past him. After collecting his thoughts, he ran to catch up.

At the bottom of the cliff, the Lapidar Brothers pulled themselves out of the river and gasped for air. It wasn't exactly easy for rock Creturians like them to make it out of a situation like that. Thankfully they had regenerative powers, so if anything vital was lost—which thankfully there wasn't—it could easily be replaced.

“I guess we didn't plan that out very well, did we, brother?” said Lapidar 1.

“It looks like we'll have to leave this up to the boss after all,” said Lapidar 2, struggling to reach his communicator and silently hoping it still worked. “I'll call him.”

The leader of the Lapidars continued making his way around the mountain with his flunkies following close behind when his communicator went off. He didn't expect the boss to call again, so he answered in his usual carefree tone: “What ya got for me?”

Lapidar 2's voice came over the speaker. “Sir, we've found the Dimensional Guardians! They just made their way across Really Long Bridge, location G1-08.”

The leader's eyes widened. “G1-O8? We just passed there a short while ago! How could we miss them?” Without saying another word to his servant he closed communication and barked orders to his lackeys: “Turn around, you worthless troops, we're going back the other way!”

Finally safe in the nearby cave, the Guardians rested once again. “We've gone a fairly long distance so far,” said Rob. “Chip, Gubaru entrusted you with the map; can you check it and see where the nearest cybasphere is from here?”

They gazed up at the holographic map of Angel Mountain in front of them, it's soft, blue light filling the cave. Chip studied the map, trying to get an idea of how things were laid out and what the various symbols meant. “Talk about convenient! It would appear there's a cybasphere just a short distance from here!”

Wyn cocked his head. “Really? Cool.”

“Unfortunately, it looks like we're up a little too far. To retrieve the cybasphere, we're going to have to find a way to go down.”

“Down?” said Tami.

“Not far down, but down.” Chip ran his finger around the map. “In fact, it would appear that there are a series of caves that travel all throughout Angel Mountain, kind of like blood vessels. A number of paths intersect with one another.”

Brittany shuffled on the rock she was sitting on. “Like a maze?”

“Kind of, yeah. Thankfully, we have this map, so it shouldn't be too difficult to navigate our way through the caves.”

“And best of all, we'll hopefully be able to keep those rock-heads off our trail,” Tami added. “I say we go for it.”

“Well well, my master was right,” came a voice from the mouth of the cave. “There are Dimensional Guardians runnin' about in Creturia.”The Guardians turned to see a huge, shadowed figure, the sun shining brightly behind him.

Normally Chip would've been in a panic, but he'd gone through so many heart-stopping situations today, he was about numb to anything. “Hurray, another enemy. It's nice to be so popular.”

The figure revealed itself as it stepped out of the blinding light; he was a rock creature, much like the Lapidars they had encountered earlier, but much bigger...and more muscular. A frown stretched from one end of his rectangular head to the other. “The name is Burlok,” he said. “I command this legion of Lapidars. I guess you've done a good job fleein' from my troops in fear. But there's nowhere to run now.”

“If you think a puny squad of your little rock monsters is enough to stop us, you're deluding yourself,” Wyn said.

Burlok snickered. “A puny squad, perhaps, but let's see how well ya fare against a hundred of 'em.” On cue, a group of one hundred Lapidars poured into the cave.

“Okay, that might be a little more of a problem,” said Tami, eying the sea of monsters that stood ready to attack on Burlok's command.

Rob stood up. “Feh, they got nothin' on us. Let's take 'em down.”Both he and Wyn transformed as Brittany, Tami, and Chip, who were still transformed from earlier, led the attack against the massive army of rock creatures.

“Guardian Punch!”

“Pummel Hammer!”

“Ice Sting!”

“Cyber Spiral!”

The Guardians slowly but surely began taking out the legions of Lapidars. The stone monsters had the superior numbers and combat experience, but their rock-based attacks were no match for the energy attacks the Guardians had at their disposal. As Rob plowed through the last group of Lapidars attacking him, he gazed over at Burlok, who was doing little more than standing around watching. He leaped in front of him. “You're just going to stand there and watch, big guy? Why don't you get in on the action?”

“I wanted my followers to at least have some fun wit' ya before I pounded ya flat,” Burlok said.

As smug as Rob acted, he didn't much care for his enemies acting the same way. “Oh, you think you're pretty hot stuff, huh? How about you let me be the judge of that?”

“Okay, little man,” said Burlok, firm in his stance with no apparent desire to move, “but no whinin' when you're six feet underground.”

Rob fired at Burlok at near point-blank range, but all he did was put out his hand, his feet planted firmly in place. The blast burst against his gargantuan hand harmlessly.

Rob was more than a little surprised.

Burlok crossed his arms, a bored expression on his stone face. “Why don't ya go back home and cry to your mommy, kid? I don't like wastin' my time fightin' little boys who get too big for their britches.”

Instead of spouting off a retort, Rob studied his opponent carefully. If there was one thing he had learned from watching anime over the years, it's that the big guys often had superior strength to make up for their lack of speed. I'll have to hit him hard and fast, he decided. With a burst of speed, he ran behind the massive monster and unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks on him, which proved ineffective against Burlok's solid stone hide. “Yeah, you like this?” he said in a mocking tone. “Yeah, try and hit me if you can. I dare you.”

With a flick of his wrist, Burlok sent Rob sailing to the ground. “Okay, I'll give you that one.”

“You really are an idiot, kid,” Burlok said. “I'm made of rock. Your little sissy punches and kicks can't hurt me any more than your little toy gun can.”

“I'm a Dimensional Guardian,” Rob stated proudly between gasps for breath, “and I'm not about to surrender to the likes of you!” He ran at Burlok again, but Burlok swept him up and held him in his mighty grip. “Hey, no fair! Put me down!”

“You want down?” Burlok said. “I'll put ya down, all right.” He finally broke his stance and began spinning Rob around in circles like a discus, then flung him into a giant, inconveniently-placed hole at the far corner of the cave. “Little punk,” he grumbled as Rob's scream slowly faded away. “Not so tough now, are ya? Lapidars, fall back!”

The remaining fifty or so Lapidars immediately quit fighting and rushed over to Burlok's side, causing the other Guardians to look at each other in confusion. “I think we got the info we need,” he said to his servants. “We'll let the boss determine how to deal wit' these guys.”

“Hey, what happened to Rob?” asked Brittany, prompting the other Guardians to look around for their missing friend.
“Oh, that guy?” Burlok pointed to the hole behind them with a wide grin. “Let's just say he's heading for a fall.”

Will Rob survive his perilous fall? How will the Guardians deal with this new threat? And what evil forces are mounting against our heroes? The answers will steadily be revealed in the next exciting episode of Dimension Heroes!

TO BE CONTINUED...