Destined: The Six

47. Hide-and-Castle

          Castle was beginning to get infuriated. His loyal monkeys, Otto, Malarkey, and Herman, were on their knees, groveling at his feet. "Please, don't do this, Master!" Otto pleaded in his cheerful voice. 

          "You'll only destroy yourself!" chastised Malarkey, in his gravelly voice.

          "These Destined aren't worth it. They're good people," Herman droned with sadness. Castle reminded himself that next time, he shouldn't make his monkeys have only one specific emotion in their voice. It made it impossible to listen to them. "Get out of my shelter," he rumbled to his loyal monkeys. "You pathetic platinum primates have no foresight. Won't the world be so much better without the Destined to stop me? Get out!" Otto, Malarkey, and Herman, loyal monkeys as they are, obeyed his command and skittered out of the temporary shelter Castle had holed himself in.

          Castle, as one should know, was trying to increase his power. He felt the auras of all seven heroes, Marionette's power being significantly stronger than the others. It stood out like a black fly in chardonnay. To fully increase his power would have unknown consequences, but Castle was willing to deal with that in order to eliminate those meddling kids. That way, TG had said, Castle could rule the world. 

          In order to increase his power, he was drawing essence from all five elements: water, earth, fire, air, and energy. When he had maximized his power, he would go through a chaotic metamorphosis, and only then, he would be able to defeat the Destined. Suddenly, Castle felt a burst of energy. It seemed that he had broken the bounds of his original power. He would fully transform soon.

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          After a quick group hug, and a reality reminder from Heather, the crew of Blessed(That's what Jeremiah decided to call Destined who were blessed. It had a nice ring to it) set out to find Castle. He had to be hiding somewhere, as it was clear that he hadn't left the city. The metal man-creature had, after all, grown so much in power that he could barely spit without creating a hurricane. After a good bit of searching, August said something that probably would have helped a good bit of searching ago. 

          "Does anyone know where you saw him last?" he asked them. Of course, they all immediately knew where they had last seen him. "The tilted building on Smyrna!" The Blessed shouted in unison. Promptly, the team burst off to Smyrna, where they had last seen Castle. Sure enough, when the team drew near to the tilted building, Marionette spoke, "I feel an aura. Even more powerful than mine. That must be Castle." On that note, he combined with Jeremiah, and everyone armed themselves, ready for a fight to the death with their arch nemesis.

          Magnum Aureus, whom Heather had called forth, kicked down the door. He led the way down a few flights of stairs as fear slowly crept into the minds of the Blessed. Sure, they had all their powers, but what would happen if it wasn't enough? Castle would destroy them and the world. Finally, they met themselves with another door, and Magnum kicked that one open, as well.

          Castle was waiting inside. Four strands of some sort of essence flowed to him. Rocks, fire, water, and wind surrounded him. Castle looked up from his meditating position and noticed them. "Well, hello, weak little heroes," he rumbled. "You're just in time." Slowly, he began to unravel.

          The tendrils of twisted metal came off of him, revealing a glowing white humanoid body. The metal tendrils swirled around the body, forming a much bigger, much more different shape than before.

          "Sweet Mercy of Mother Pearl," Jeremiah muttered. Castle was becoming a dragon.