Gabby landed against the wall in a pile of rubble, and coughed out dirt as she rolled to her knees. It was almost impossible to see, but she heard growling and a slimy sound, like a giant bowl of angry macaroni and cheese.
“Wesley? Wesley! What’s going on?” she yelled.
As the smoke cleared, she came face-to-face with six giant armoured leeches. They were shiny black, covered with rough metal plates and had red eyes glowing behind spiky masks.
They were moving towards her carefully, and she could see their sharp teeth glistening.
“Um, Wesley? Anybody? Help please?”
She looked around for some place to run, but the only way out was past the monsters. She grabbed a broken table leg from the floor and held it up like a baseball bat, ready to fight. There were six of them and only one of her, and they were pretty darn big. She gulped nervously.
The closest leech charged at her, and Gabby barely dodged it before it whooshed past! It crunched into the brick wall and gurgled an angry scream, then started to turn to chase her again.
She took the table leg and slammed it into the leech’s head, but the leg broke in two and threw bits of wood everywhere. The leech didn’t look hurt. It looked mad.
The leech raced at her again, and she had nowhere to escape. She jumped up over its mask (narrowly avoiding the spikes) and tried to run along its back, but it was so slippery that she lost her balance and fell to the ground.
The leech spun around and lifted itself up to pounce, and Gabby knew she was toast!
“Hey ugly,” said a voice from the darkness, “munch on this.”
And then a blue laser blast tore through the room and knocked the leech back against the wall, where it squealed angrily.
Gabby and the other leeches turned to the darkness, and out of the smoke walked TorrentBoy, his blaster ready for action!
“You all right?” he asked Gabby, keeping his blaster aimed at the first leech.
“Just a little dizzy,” she said, getting to her feet.
“Hold tight. I’ve got to teach these guys some table manners.”
The other five leeches gave up on Gabby and started to circle TorrentBoy, who watched them all carefully. They sniffed the air, inched closer to him.
“How about you guys go back underground?” TorrentBoy smirked, powering up his blaster again. “That way, nobody gets hurt.”
The closest leech growled loudly and then leapt forward, teeth chomping madly. TorrentBoy ducked, using his arm braces to shove the leech over him and onto the ground, where it landed with a crunch.
Before he could celebrate, two more leeches attacked him from the sides, each one grabbing an arm. Their teeth latched into his armour and started sucking, and he could hear a low whine as the power to his suit started oozing away.
He grunted under the strain, trying to break free. He couldn’t aim his blaster, and he knew he was running out of time.
Just then, two more leeches started charging towards his head! He kicked out with both feet and smacked them back, but that only made them crankier … he was a sitting duck!
“Rezzit!” he grunted, “Any ideas?”
“Try not to taste good.”
“Thanks.”
The leeches were coming for a second attack … he had only seconds left. With all his might, he pushed his right arm until he could point his blaster at the two leeches. The blaster was nearly out of power itself. He only had one shot at this.
“Hey guys,” he called, “say cheese!”
He shot a blast at the closest leech, knocking it onto another one. The two of them slammed into the one holding TorrentBoy’s left arm, and in a flash he had made a fist, glowing bright with orange electricity, which he punched straight into the fourth leech’s face.
The leeches all reeled, weak and angry. They were hurt, but not ready to quit. They didn’t just want to suck energy anymore: they wanted to destroy TorrentBoy for good!
His suit made noises like it was powering down, and he checked the Tracker Watch only to discover he was completely drained!
“Rezzit! I need some help here! Get me some more power! Fast!”
“Give me a minute…”
“I think we’ve got a lot less than a minute!”
The leeches charged again, taking turns smacking him with their scaly tails, and he hit the ground hard as they formed a circle around him. The one he’d blasted came so close he could smell its breath — like mouldy vinegar.
“Ready!” shouted Rezzit, “Go! Go! Go!”
TorrentBoy checked the Tracker Watch quickly: not enough power to blast this many leeches away … but he had another idea…
“Gabby!” he shouted, “Take cover!”
He quickly put his hand to the Tracker Watch, and called out:
“Torrent Flash! Now!”
Suddenly, a bright lightning bolt flew from the sky, straight through the building, and when it hit the Tracker Watch, it exploded outwards, showering the room with glowing hot lasers, like flaming glass out of a broken mirror.
The leeches screamed with pain and lurched back into their holes, tunnelling furiously. Finally, their screams echoed into silence. They were gone.
“That was fun. Let’s do it again sometime,” said Rezzit.
“Let’s not,” grunted TorrentBoy, getting to his feet. “Gabby! Are you hurt?”
Gabby came out from behind a flaming table and stretched her legs creakily.
“I’m okay,” she said, “thanks for saving me.”
“No problem. Kicking leech butt is what I do best.”
“It’s pretty much all you do.”
“Well, either way,” smiled Gabby, “it was great that you were here to…”
But before she could finish her sentence, the room started shaking violently, knocking TorrentBoy and Gabby to the ground again!
“What’s going on?” Gabby shouted, “Are they coming back?”
TorrentBoy scanned the ground with his Digital Zoom, and his mouth dropped open in shock.
“Much worse!” he yelled over the noise, “I think the machine in the crater is about the explode!”
