Calabro Conversion Part IV
Episode XXIV: The Second Wish

The foursome of heroes flew from the lookout tower of the Room of Spirit and Time and flew off toward the South, toward the Southbury district. “I sense the energies of a piece in Southbury.” Said Gilday as he felt a portion of his head to exact himself. After hovering over exit 14, Southbury was as busy as ever this day. The plaza near the exit was crowded with many citizens. The party flew over to the large Pier 1 building to hide. The examined the surroundings carefully. “Yup, I sense a piece over around here. What do you think?” said Gilday. Chicky nodded, “I think it is inside Pier 1.” She replied. Well, everyone decided to let Chicky go in and try to fetch it. At least she didn’t have a halo on her head and dressed appropriately for entering without any question from anyone. Well, Chicky flew off to the rear of the large building and landed without anyone seeing her. She moved onward and walked casually into the building. There were a few people searching the many items of furniture and other trinkets to add more appeal to the common housewife. As she moved along to search along the many shelves of items, one thing shined out of the top corner of one shelf in the rear. “Ah, there it is. I can see it.” She whispered to herself. She ran over toward its location and without anyone looking she jumped and grabbed it. But along with the medallion piece, was a price tag. “What? 20 bucks. This isn’t worth 20 bucks.” She shouted under her breath. Well, she knew that Pier 1 didn’t acquire this item, by its franchise. So they wouldn’t miss it. She stuck into her pocket and ran out the door. An alarm went off and she stopped in a tense of nervousness. “Alright, hand over what you stole, you punk.” A large, round man said as he cam from the service desk and up to Chicky. “Err, I don’t know what you mean.” She replied back. “Quit fooling with me. I know you tried to steal something. Hand it over and I may not call the cops.” The man said, his ID tag reading, “Hello, My name is Gary” At first, Chicky didn’t know what to do. Then she got an idea. She stuck her hands out in front of her and spread her fingers and shouted “TAIO-KEN” and the whole building lit up as bright as the heavens itself. While everyone was temporarily occupied by the blindness affect, She ran out and flew off to meet the group.

Next they flew off to the other smaller regions of Southbury, near the Purchase area of the town. A region of houses built very distant from civilization. Many question why would anyone want to live there, because it is so far away from anything. Well after landing in the middle of the farmyard, the four searched the fields and animals for anything that shined out. ‘HEY THERE, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING HERE?” an elderly man said as he waddled over to their position. Everyone was getting nervous, but then Stephanie heard Benedict quack a few times and he pointed his left wing over to the man. It seemed the man had a piece of the medallion around his neck. “Excuse me sir,” Gilday said, sounding intelligent to this obvious hick, “Where did you get that thing around your neck?” The framer grabbed the medallion piece and held it over toward the group. “Ya mean this sonny? I got this from the heavens. I was tending the north pasture when this thing fell from the sky near me. Tis a gift from the gods I say. I should keep it and not a soul shant touch it.” Gilday tried to trick the old man into giving it to him using intellectual words and such he learned from his two years with Calabro. But nothing! “Well…I’ll give you this here shiny thing in exchange for that lovely woman in the miniskirt.” The old man replied with a hardy cackle and a toothless grin. Stephanie blushed and hid behind Chicky. “Well, sir, I don’t think we can do that. See, Stephanie is a friend of ours and we need her for other things then your Earthly pleasures. “Oh, you want to play like that. You don’t get the medallion unless that beautiful girl shows me some skin. I am a horny old man and I need some action in my old age.” Stephanie was incredibly pissed off at the second. To think that this man would even consider himself getting a chance to get his way with her. Well, Stephanie rushed toward him and with a mighty drawback of her arm; she slammed her fist into the farmer. He flipped on his back and passed out. “Oh my god. Did I do that?” Stephanie asked herself as she calmed down and rubbed her wrist, “Is he going to be alright?” she turned to Mike who had been certified in first aid through lifeguard training, “Yup, he should be ok. You messed him up a little nicely, but you didn’t kill him. So, lets grab the medallion piece and let’s go.” She grabbed the piece around his neck and they flew off. “I will NEVER do anything like that again!” she said under her breath.

Up and away the foursome went as they flew out of the Purchase area of Southbury and back at the school. “Why are we going back here?” Chicky asked. “Well, the other pieces are already found and gathered here. We should find them and get them before ours are taken.” Mike said. They flew over toward the football field, where they were hailed by a youth of 18 years old. They landed and they saw Richard, Calabro, and a 3^rd figure…it was Mike. “What goes on everyone? I don’t know if you understand out predicament, but we have to search for the….” Richard pause, “Two Mike’s? What the hell!”

The group stepped away from the two Mikes, carefully examining them. One wore Mike’s trademark costume and was armed with his weapons, while the other wore a plain white shirt and black pants and was unarmed. “I’m the real one.” Remarked the costumed figure.” “Shut up whore! You stole my clothes and killed Bastedo.” “That is false, you committed the act of homicide, killing my compatriot. Now you seek to disrupt the infrastructure of the Calabro crew through espionage.” Calabro frowned, which was the real one. He hadn’t spoken with Gilday in almost a year, after sophomore year came to a close. Richard slashed at the costumed Mike, who vanished, leaving a pile of weapons and clothing. “No way Mike could ever move that fast.” “Hey!” Mike objected, and then proceeded to dress himself. Mike began to explain the story of the ultra-strong Mike clone that killed both he and Bastedo, and of Lord Kaio’s grant to Mike of a second chance.

After everyone composed themselves, Stephanie began explaining the current situation with the medallion, “We ran into Zuk and gave us the low down of the scenario. We got two pieces here from the Southbury region. We need three more.” Replied Stephanie. “You don’t have to. We have the three already. We each split up and found a piece in Middlebury.” Stephanie smiled, “OK, lets put them together and see what happens.” They each slapped a fragment of the golden medallion into its proper place and placed it around Mike’s neck. “OK, make a wish.” Said Calabro. “I wish to live again!” He shouted. Lightning sparked around the medallion and the Dragon swam out of the medallion and wrapped around Mike, “YOUR SECOND WISH SHALL BE GRANTED!” it shouted. The dragon’s eyes glowed a blood red and all of a sudden Mike’s halo disappeared. He quickly came crashing down. “NOW, FAREWELL MORTALS, FOR I SLEEP UNTIL MY NEXT SUMMON, IN THE NEXT STANDARD MONTH.” the dragon reentered the medallion and it glowed again and it split into its five pieces and flew each to a different spot of the Southbury/Middlebury area. Everyone’s mouth dropped, “Why didn’t you wish Sean back?” asked Richard. Mike replied, “I have important issues to attend to and besides I can’t wish more then 2 people alive in one wish, it is best that I am resurrected first.” Richard was skeptical. “Wow, incredible.” “Many questions arise from this, like how are the medallion pieces separated so much for this second wish. I thought they should be together when it happens. Or could someone have moved them?” Calabro questioned. The others were still clueless of the fact of what will happen. All eyes turned to Mike, “I’m leaving. There are some things I need to take care of…alone.” He activated his jet boots and flew off into the horizon, before anyone could say anything.

“Hmmm... interesting, I sense darkness from within him. I wonder if he’s who he says he is…that vanishing act could’ve been a trick to confuse us…what are we going to do while we wait for Joe’s return?” Asked Richard “Well, first off we might as well return back to normal for a bit. He may be a day or two, so just keep an eye out for him. I also doubt that the aliens have captured everyone. I believe that they only frightened the people into hiding. But by tomorrow everything will be back to normal. Besides, you juniors got that Ring Dance tomorrow anyways. I am going to chaperone that and I hope you can go, I sense that there might be some party crashers there.” Replied Calabro. Richard added, “Since I’m legally an adult I’ll be chaperoning as well.”

As the day progressed, much to Calabro’s prediction, life returned to normal. The remains of the alien battles and clones alike were gone from sight. Many people wondered if they dreamed that scenario or if something really happened. But one thing was sure; at that moment the junior class of Pomperaug High School was enjoying themselves at their Ring Dance. A celebration where they are given their class rings in a semi-formal dance. The Calabro crew donned their sport coats and some decorated in dresses. They were ready for a night of fun, rather then fighting. The absences of Mike and Joe were very strongly felt. But Philibuster was here, after his disappearance from the recent attack. But as the dance began, seniors appeared distributing the rings to the juniors, each handing them out at their seats and watching as they admired their newest piece of remembrance of their years at PHS. But two rings were set aside, carelessly thrown off to the side. No one really paid much attention to the removal of those rings by a senior, but not many were too sure if they knew him or not. But no one really cared much for they got their ring and that was the number one focus on their minds.

Then as soon as the music started to blare out loud…as loud as possible, a crash was heard from the outside. Cars were flipped in the evening sky from the parking lot of the Continental Room, where the juniors resided. Flames burst from the cars and then a horde of Cerebrate and Berserker troops crashed though a wall of glass, which was connected to the same room the juniors were in. Out of town friend to the Joe’s, Shannon was there at the event and was escorted by Dom. Having seen the alien menace for the first time, she could only wonder what has happened and what could have started this. The aliens searched with their keen vision and sense of smell for their victims, their mission…to pursue, capture, clone and kill all members of the junior class and some faculty members. The alien soldiers themselves were expendable. Most of the creatures were not armed with weapons, but instead with their brute strength.

Then, Mr. Calabro dashed from his post at the corner of the room and commanded everyone to move as far to the rear of the room as possible. Philibuster, Stephanie, Richard, and Calabro stepped forward to do battle. Caitlin on the other hand, was hiding in with the rest of the juniors in the back. Calabro removed his sport coat, and the boys followed suit. Stephanie stepped back slightly and took a battle stance as well. Shannon took crowd control and held the civilians together and hurried out to get everyone out the back entrance and to safety.

The hellish horde leapt, two taking on each member and duking him or her out in a powerful fistfight. But of course, a few slugs from Calabro’s incredible fists made the aliens think twice about getting too close. The troops were easily torn down. But of course, the leader, Joe the Powerful, had returned for vengeance. As the crew prepared for the worse, several shots were heard, fired from what seemed to them, the roof. From a ventilation shaft opening above them, Mike appeared in his dark outfit, trench coat, and Matrix-styled sunglasses. Armed with his shotgun and a lust for blood, he decided it was best for him to fight outside and not risk others getting hurt, because the majority of students weren’t strong enough to take on what they had before them.

Mike had locked and loaded and rammed full force into the Joe clone and began to duke it out with him in a small fist fight, until the clone smacked him nicely upside the head and sent him flying off to the DJ counter. Mike shook himself up and fired two shots from his shotgun. The clone took one hit and vanished before being hit by the other one. Mike wondered what he had gotten himself into, Joe had a hard time taking this guy on, and Mike was not exactly a bright star in the constellation of strength. Mike decided that perhaps the use of his shotgun for close range smacking was in order. He held the barrel in a sword fashion and dashed off to clash with his opponent. Mike fought bravely, leaping up and around trying to get clean shots in with his shotgun. But the opponent was far greater in speed than any Mike had ever locked in hand-to-hand combat with. The evil Joe slammed his right leg into Mike's rib cage and sent him flying into the floor headfirst. Mike got up and held his sides and was ready to give. But out of nowhere, a figure flew from the shattered glass wall and slashed his fist into the duplicate's face, knocking it back. The figure landed in his purple Namek-jin Gi and faced his opponent. Absent was the cape this round. It seemed he only wore a thick collar around his neck, made of the same fine and sturdy material of his cape. And his spiky brown hair stood up and curled forward like daggers to his victim. "Joe…. you're finally here...took you long…enough." replied an exhausted Mike as he passed out. "So, you are messing with my buddies. Well, let's see what I can do to mess you up." Replied the Scholar. He clenched his fists in a fit of rage and he commanded his "chi" to surge around his body in the unique flame, he felt himself being lifted a few feet off the ground. His head tilted toward the heavens, he spread his arms and legs toward his back, curled his arms and shouted. In a burst of anger, a golden flame of energy clothed itself around our hero as his hair burst in a familiar gold and his eyes, a majestic emerald. His muscles expanded slightly in size and he fell to the ground in his powered state. "As you can see, I have retaken my position as the strongest.” He began his story.

“Back in the Room of Spirit and Time, I battled through many Ma-jins and former villains I vanquished before. But my last villain…was the other Joe. I fought an awesome battle that even the magical room couldn't handle in power. But I was defeated. I lay there, with clothes torn and stripped naked of my pride. The Joe walked toward me and changed into his Super Scholar form, he pointed his finger at me, as if to kill me within a single shot. I was so enraged and frightened. Had I been gifted with my power of the Super Scholar, I could have beat him, he seemed to mock me with his power, a power I once felt, that I lost. I forced my anger to rise dramatically, and anger turned to vengeance. I found memories of the past flooding my mind with grief and sadness. I gave into the flow and I accepted my rise back into the Super Scholar form in a blast that distorted the whole room and destroyed the Joe Clone. I had become more powerful then ever imagined. As you can also see, I do not look at all like the 15-year-old freshman that you last encountered before. I stayed in the Room for two standard days and exited, adding two years to my life and therefore I matured to what I was before this incident. But now…I am here to finish you off." He stated very slowly as he took his fighting stance.

He dashed head onto his opponent and the clone took crossed his arms in hope of blocking his attack. Well, the two then connected, and they began to clash into a mighty fistfight. Zanzokening out and in of reality itself, each time they reappeared, they clashed for a brief moment. Purple lightning sizzled across Joe’s crossed arm defense or the clone’s blocks. They disappeared again. Again and again this happened. Until Joe sent a flurry of punches to his opponent, leaving his frazzled. Then with a quick sweep quick, he caught him down on the floor. But the clone flipped up and tried to hit him back. But Joe did some mighty quick footwork and blocked all his attacks with several kicks; finally, taking a leap, straight into the air he did a mighty forward kick that sent his duplicate flying into the wall. He crashed so hard, that he came through the wall. But of course, the clone wasn’t ready to raise the white flag. He dashed right back to Joe with arms spread up high, ready for a few slashes. Joe took a proper defense stance with his arms up high and squatting slightly. But as soon as the clone leapt toward him for the strike, Joe stuck out his hand in an open palm and it collided with the clone and sent him flying again. Joe leapt to follow him and smashed him hard onto the ground. The clone back flipped into the air, cupping his hands and beginning to shout, “KA…ME…” But of course, Joe leapt as high into the air with him and in mid air stood face to face for a second, until Joe elbowed him into the chest, leaving his Kamehameha to fizzle out and the clone fell to the ground, appearing to have been defeated. But Joe wasn’t done yet; he too cupped his hands and recited his familiar words to summon one of strongest attacks. “KA..ME…HA…ME…HA!” And with that he fired the large blue beam of energy and it trailed to its target and connected heavily. Then, after the dust settled, nothing remained. Joe floated to the floor, cracked his knuckles.

“I’m fed up of these clones…and what’s wrong with Mike, he seemed to have disappeared?” asked Joe. No one noticed Mike’s disappearance; they had been too busy watching Joe’s fight. Many questions came up, most questioning Mike’s allegiance. They decided it was all is in the mind, after all Mike had noblely fought a foe he stood no chance of defeating…again. He had nearly died to save his friends and classmates…yet why did he flea? Joe finally declared, “Those alien creeps are going down, no more waiting. I sense that they are going to make a final move and attack the Earth with their mighty warships from space. Now…all we need is a plan to take me out.”

Tune in next time where Joe and the others make an interesting discovery about Mike and the planned assault on the alien warship, the Nelffaggar. All this and more, next time in episode XXV: The Attack!