-Chapter Eighteen-
Invincible

As the robot reached the building, it swung one of its arms outward and swept away the first floor. John quickly flipped forward off of the crumbling structure, landed solidly on the machine's head, and began hacking at it with as much strength as he could muster.

It's not doing anything! This 'skin' it has isn't even affected by my blade!

The thing began shaking its head like a bronco, trying to throw him off. As a last ditch attempt, John plunged his blade into one of its mechanical eyes, being met with a gratifying explosion, then was thrown off and hit the ground. Rolling quickly to the side, he narrowly avoided being punted like an oversized football.

Using his wings to propel himself from the ground, into a back flip, and onto his feet, John dodged a downward thrust from one of the things arms, then thrust his sword at the arm as it was pulled back for another attack. Although the damage wasn't sufficient to do anything serious, he had felt the point of the blade pierce the skin, and grinned with the pleasure of winning a hit. Unfortunately, taking the time to grin, he failed to avoid a second attempt of the robot to use him as a football and found himself winded, in pain, and flying through the air. The third part of that was soon negated by the side of a building.

As he slid down onto the ground, he pulled his energy back to the point of usability and began healing himself again.

This isn't working.

Having been thrown another several blocks, John looked up to find the robot charging again. Thinking through the powers he knew to be at his disposal, he started working up a suitable reception. When the mechanized monstrosity was within about twenty feet, John released a beam of negative light.

The robot stopped dead in its tracks. There was a grinding squeal, and several loud pops, then the entire creature started twisting like water going down a drain in slow motion, as if there were a powerful force crushing it into its center, which probably wasn't too far from the truth. As the thing condensed on itself more and more the squealing and popping increased while the speed of compression decreased. When it had reached the place where it was no more than a yard in any direction, the condensation ceased completely.

With a sound like that of a string being snapped, the robot returned to its natural size and shape, completely unaffected. It then swung its one of its arms in a massive uppercut, slamming John up into, and through, the same spot on the wall where he had hit before.

It… it didn't work? Why- didn't- it- work?

John, utterly stunned by his failure, simply lay sprawled out where he had fallen. The robot looked through the hole, found that he wasn't moving, and started destroying another building, apparently interpreting the threat as being eliminated.

"Wow! John, that was amazing! Now what… what are you doing?"

It was a moment before John snapped out of his thoughts and realized that the inquiry was aimed at him. "What exactly was so amazing, Bob? I couldn't even faze it."

"You took off half its head and one of its fists."

John jolted upright, then bent over double in pain. After healing himself again, he looked down at the ground and found Bob's head popping out of the T-watch that had, apparently, reverted back to its original form when separated from him. "I did WHAT?"

"You took off half of its head and one of its fists. Did you not notice this? Now pick up the T-watch, its normally run off of biological energy, without that energy it's down to very short lived batteries."

Picking up the watchband, John reattached the T-watch to his wrist, wincing slightly as the needles re-injected themselves. He then walked over to the hole he had made when flying through the wall and looked out at the hulking mechanical beast that was currently smashing down another building, with one arm.

John stared in surprise at the other arm, the one that he had punctured with his sword, and found that the tip of it, the fist, had melted into some sort of greenish slime that was slowly working its way up the things arm. "What is that, Bob? It looks like…" Pressing the button to transform the T-watch, John watched as it once again became a sword, and then as it began to glow green.

With a small popping noise, Bob's head appeared out of what had looked like a spherical stone set in the swords pommel.

"Bob, why is my sword glowing?"

"It's part of the way it was designed, I actually cheated a little, and stole an idea from the invincible. It actually has the ability to absorb, and reproduce some types of energy or weaponry. If it's glowing, that probably just means that you used it to absorb something that glows!"

John pulled the 'Toxic Sludge' card from his pocket, kissed it lightly, then grimaced.

I never thought I'd be glad to have run into that Toxarin.

"John…" Bob's head was staring wide-eyed at the card that John was holding. "John, where did you get that?"

"I made it. Why do you ask?"

Bob sighed, blowing upward into his hair. "That's the same type of card as my trans-dimensional machine created. If you- if you have the power to make those cards on your own then maybe, just maybe, you might also be able to do the reverse."

"You mean, actually bring back the item that was transported to the other dimension, instead of just a facsimile? Actually bring back your body or…" John stopped, an odd smile playing across his lips. "Bob, I think I know how to beat that thing."

"Wait, you figured out how to beat Invincible?!"

Well... not quite up to once a week yet, I hope ya'll will forgive, I just moved into a new apartment, and I have no internet. SHOULD be able to do at least twice a month, though, through borrowed use of a friend's connection.

SOoooo... thanks, ya'll, and expect more soon! (And expect to see Rachel again by the end of chapter twenty! Though she doesn't have a line 'til the one after...)