Chapter One[]
My name is Jacob. I'm a new student at the Academy.
And.....my siblings have already abandoned me for some other kids. Guess I'll go to class. Being 30 minutes early wouldn't hurt, right?
As I was heading to the classroom, I was stopped by a blonde haired boy with 7 other people with him. "Hey, thou art the new kid, right?" He asked.
"Erm, what?" I replied.
"He asked if you're that new kid." A girl with a soft voice translated.
"O-oh, yes, but I'm not the only new kid." I answered.
"Perfect! Each of us wants to be thy friend. So, shalt thou accept our offer?" The boy asked.
Everything went silent.
I've never had a friend before, so I said.....
"Yes. Yes, I do."
(I slowly began to understand everything the boy was saying.)
The boy cheered. "Yay! Now, each of thou shall introduce thyselves. My name is Bennett Fablegiver, the greatest actor of all time!" Bennett introduced loudly. "Now, it's thy turn to introduce thyself, Lloyd."
Lloyd looked up and did a small wave then looked back down. "Hey..."
I waved. I turned my glance to a girl with white hair. "My name is Anastasia Divinedreamer. You may have heard of me." The girl, or Anastasia, quickly said. "Now, Evelyn, introduce yourself."
"H-hello, I'm E-evelyn..." A girl whispered. She fidgeted with her metal bracelet, clearly not interested in saying anything more. The girl standing next to her smiled. "Diane of the Sea, Diane Waterprism, blah, blah, just call me Diane." She glanced at the boy next to her. "Kaiden, it's your turn now."
"Hey! I'm Kaiden Silvershine!" he waved. He opened his mouth to say more, but Diane shot him a death glare. He closed it.
A person wearing black and white stepped forward. "If everyone else is introducing themselves, then I'm Cloud. Don't mind Ash over in the corner." He gestured towards a wizard leaning against a wall with an extremely judgemental glare towards everyone else, me especially. "He, uh... doesn't exactly trust people at first."
"Ack-!" Diane jumped as Evelyn's bracelet made a snapping noise and practically flew off her arm, cuffing Diane's wrist to the wall. "Elle, the heck was that?" She snapped, trying and failing to un-cuff herself. "S-sorry it's touch sensitive, y-you must have brushed it o-or something." Evelyn stammered. The bracelet clicked and fell off, and Diane's arm was freed. Embarrassed, Evelyn decided to just rush off to the classroom without waiting for her friends. Diane sighed. "We should get to class too."
Ash pushed himself off the wall and left. Cloud did too.
Lloyd shrugged and walked to the group's next class, history, an unenthusiastic Kaiden following behind.
The entire history period for Ash was rhythmic desk tapping and writing in things.
Cloud had to sift through his massive notebook collection for a good 5 minutes.
Halfway through the class, Diane stopped paying attention and decided to watch Bennett flirt with Anastasia. She snapped back to attention when their professor called on Kaiden. Oh god no...
"The Bonfire Colony declared war on on the caverners about 2000 years ago. I guess you could say they had a combustible attitude!" Kaiden replied. A quarter of the class-including Kaiden- laughed, the other 3-quarters buried their faces into their arms. The teacher facepalmed, and Lloyd had an indifferent expression, still writing notes.
Diane facepalmed. "If we weren't in class right now, I would rip out your throat just so you would never do that ever again." She hissed, then went back to her notes. Evelyn shuddered as she imagined the scene.
Lloyd looked up and looked at Diane then went back to his notes.
Ash gave such a piercing look to Kaiden that he could feel his judgement and frustration without making eye contact. Cloud reset his Lens and filtered the existence of Kaiden out of both audio and video settings.
After what felt like ten hours of taking notes, the class finally ended. Cloud had all five of his notebooks filled up, and Diane didn't even do one page.
"Mr. Magiccatcher was acting weird today. Huh. Wonder why." Anastasia said. She was thinking outloud.
"In my opinion, anyone that devotes their life to teaching a bunch of kids about history is always weird." Diane shrugged.
"Let's spy on him so we can find out why he was acting that way!" Kaiden suggested.
"No! That's improper!" Bennett exclaimed.
"Do whatever you like and I'll follow along." Anastasia stated.
Evelyn didn't look so sure. "T-that would be r-rude, especially i-if we're wrong a-and nothing is d-different." She whispered.
Lloyd nodded in agreement.
Diane sighed. "How about some of us go spy on him and some of us stay here?"
Lloyd evidently disagreed but shrugged anyway.
"Jacob, wanna come?" Diane asked. I had stayed quiet for the past couple of minutes, and I was thinking about it. "It'll be really fun, and unlike most students, you'll get to actually do something productive on the first day!"
"I'm not coming. Just tell me what happens." Anastasia muttered.
"Erm....I guess I'll come." I decided.
Cloud deblocked Kaiden from his visor.
Ash seemed interested.
"Ash, are you coming? You look interested." Kaiden asked Ash.
Ash nodded.
"Okay good. Elle, Lloyd, Anastasia, Romeo- I mean, Bennett, do you guys want to join us or will you wait?" Diane asked.
Kaiden led the group to Mr. Magiccatcher's door and everyone peeked through the window.
Mr. Magiccatcher sighed. "Oh well, guess I'll go sort out the dispute between me, Faith, Hope, and Trinity." He dusted off his clothes, and a puff of purple smoke appeared, surrounding his body.
Then, they gasped.
Mr. Magiccatcher...
Had turned into a fairy!
He flew in the direction of the window everyone was watching him through, and they hid behind some conveniently placed bushes. He flew out the window, and everyone watched him fly away.
Diane emerged from behind one of the bushes first. "What. The. Hell. Did. I. Just. See."
Cloud set his visor to IR. Mr. Magiccatcher was now tracked as a yellow, staticky silhouette. Ash was intrigued.
A moment of silence stretched on until Cloud inquired "So, are we gonna follow him or not?".
"I'm fairy sure we should," Kaiden replied. Cloud filtered him out of existence again.
"No. We aren't gonna follow him. But we can go talk to Gale. We can convince him to tell us everything he knows about him! It's a great plan! Ahahaha! Success is guaranteed!" I exclaimed.
Ash shrugged.
Cloud nodded, but didn't bring Magiccatcher off of his IR overlay.
Lloyd heard a buzzing pass by and he looked up, but didn't see anything. He shrugged and went back to reading his book.
That was when Diane and the others came speed-walking down the hall. "GUYS YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT WE JUST SAW-" A teacher poked out of one of the classrooms and and glared at Diane. "Shhhh!" Diane pursed her lips and then nodded. The door closed. "Mr. Magiccatcher is a fairy!!!" She whisper-shrieked.
Lloyd looked up and blinked in surprise.
"Huh? He's a fairy? Cool." Anastasia responded.
Kaiden was evidently disappointed with the waiting group's lack of excitement.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Bennett screamed in shock before Anastasia covered his mouth.
Kaiden jumped. "That was...uncalled for..."
Evelyn flinched at Bennett's sudden reaction.
The same teacher poked their head out the door and shushed the group again. Lloyd facepalmed.
"Let's go talk to Gale so we can get more info about him. Now." I ordered.
Lloyd stood up, putting his book back into his backpack.
Evelyn fidgeted with her bracelet a little, then followed her friends as they strode over to the Great Hall.
The group walked past the pedestals with all the keystones in place and approached Gale.
Diane walked up to Gale. "Tell us everything you know about Mr. Magiccatcher. Now." Gale looked confused. "Why?"
"Because if you don't, we'll all get to see how well you'll survive after I rip out your wings and throw you out of the academy. And considering the fact that we're hundreds of meters in the air, I don't think you can survive." She hissed. Gale's eyes widened.
Kaiden shuddered at the thought.
Lloyd facepalmed. Why am I in this friend group?
Cloud ran a simulation and a couple diagnostics on how that would go. Ash seemed to be 50/50 on the subject's negativity.
Gale sighed. "Fine. Listen, I don't even know a lot about him, but I will tell you what I do know. Mr. Magiccatcher is a fairy who leads a tribe of fairies without magic. He teaches at this school to find.....murder victims. He will kill a wizard and take their magic, and gift it to his tribemates. I would fire him, but he threatens to kill me if I fire him. And that's it."
Kaiden was unusually speechless.
Cloud re-layered the IR to mark Magiccatcher as an enemy.
Ash seemed... disgusted, but unsurprised.
During their 15 minute break, the group sat down, on some seats outside the classrooms, Lloyd between Kaiden and Diane (as Kaiden had just cracked a joke), and everyone else on the other seats.
Diane looked extremely annoyed. "I don't see why Gale couldn't have just killed Magiccatcher. He could've stopped all of this from happening." Evelyn, at the corner of the table, turned a bit paler after Diane's statement.
Lloyd shifted uncomfortably.
Diane glanced at both of them. "What? You know that it's only fair. No one should be allowed to live after murdering so many wizards." Evelyn poked at her rice, her face only getting paler. "I-I think I-I'm going to l-leave." She whispered, before running out of the cafeteria and heading towards a small laboratory down the hall.
"You know, can't really blame her for that. Days keep getting more homicidal, eh?" Cloud off-handedly waved his fork around, subsequently stabbing it into a STEANK. Ash seemed distant.
Everyone looked at Cloud, disgusted and confused as to where he got the steak from.
"Am I wrong?"
"Please don't say such a thing." I said.
"The next class is approaching! Thou must hurry there, are thou will be late!" Bennett exclaimed, beginning to run off to the next class. Anastasia was the first one to chase after him.
"I'll go get Evelyn," Lloyd said quietly, walking in the direction of the lab.
Diane shrugged and followed Anastasia and Bennett.
Meanwhile in the lab...
Evelyn appeared to be making a... life-size metal tiger?!
She looked distant as she worked on it, and didn't even notice when Lloyd walked in.
"Hey, class is about to start," Lloyd said.
Evelyn jumped. "O-oh okay." She bit her lip then made her way to the door.
Ash and Cloud walked off, Cloud with a dreading grimace of the amount of paper-sifting and hardcover-sorting.
Diane glanced up as Evelyn and Lloyd entered the room. The teacher stared at both of them disappointingly. "You're late." He said dryly, about to start a lecture. Diane's eyes widened. Aaaagh nope nonono not another lecture.
"I think we should get to the lesson already, riiiight guys?" Diane said, glancing at the rest of the class. Most of her classmates nodded. The teacher sighed and picked up his lesson book. "Very well."
Diane then turned to Evelyn and Lloyd. "I saved you two lovebirds, now next time maybe you could kiss after classes are over?" She whispered, then turned back to her notebook to take notes. Evelyn's face turned red as she sat down.
Lloyd did not care to respond to that and sat down.
Anastasia chuckled, and sat down.
Lloyd and Evelyn both looked like they wanted to turn invisible and turned red. The class seemed to stretch out longer for the two. Diane shot death glares at Kaiden every time he opened his mouth, causing him to close it. Cloud pulled out another set of 5 notebooks and scribbled in each and Ash went back to his desk tapping.
The class dragged on. Eventually, it was over, and it was lunch time. Everyone eagerly burst out of class because History is really boring, and they wanted to eat.
As we walked to lunch, I asked Cloud "Are you still tracking Mr. Magiccatcher?"
"Yeah. Reading 3 other head sigs nearby, but he's getting out of effective range. Might need to find some sort of catalyst to charge the signal." The wizard turned away to remove the lens and run a manual diagnostic of the signal, only turning around when he had the visor back on. "Scratch that. Will need."
Kaiden put his virtual reality game on pause, saved it, and removed the batteries from his TEK-Y4 Headphones, and inserted them in Cloud's lens. "It'll get a charge out of that!-Ok that was bad, I'll admit."
"Energy dispersing faster. Now if I can just find a conduit- oh hey, I found something!"
Elsewhere, a massive metal tiger conducted a signal through its chromatic fur-steel. Magiccatcher could now be status-checked, and the other heat signals could be targeted on the layer as well. So he did. "Alright. IR lock on the 3 other signatures- looks like they're fairies as well. Convo that I can't transcript, random fairy text, blah blah blah."
"Ok, that's cool. Can I have the batteries back now? I'm on the last level of my VR game," Kaiden asked.
Everyone put down their lunch and looked at him.
"What?"
Finally, it was the last class of the day, sparring practice.
People started choosing their sparring partners. In Kaiden's case, it was him suddenly attempting to not end up mauled by Diane.
Anastasia chose Bennett. "I will crush you into bits." She said, sort of as a declaration of war. I thought it was rather funny, and I chose Lloyd.
Diane was attacking Kaiden left and right, with hardly any breathing room. "This is for the first pun." An Aqua Spear poked Kaiden in the back. "This is for the millions of puns after that." He was met by a 3x Combo of Downpourtals. "And this is for your headphones." Water swirled around his head before two tentacles formed, flipping the headphones off his head. A Torrent blew into Kaiden chest, sending him flying into the wall. The floor was drenched and Kaiden... Well, you could say that he looked like what a wet mop would, if it was turned into a human.
Meanwhile, Ash and Cloud were having a very, very basic time with a normal elemental battle.
Except for that one moment where they almost created enough heat via lighting and fire to melt down the entire building, had Diane's water rampage not done collateral damage. Oh, and the time where they made an icebomb by perpetuating energy flow in ice by accidentally striking lightning into it.
But it was okay.
Water bubbles hovered around Lloyd, and he calmly looked at Jacob, head slightly tilted to the side, as if he were expecting something.
I made the ground underneath Lloyd spike upwards. He...bounced?
Lloyd landed on the ground next the the spike, unfazed.
One of the water bubbles started spinning and launched itself at Jacob.
Jacob blocked the water bubble with his Earthquake wand. The water bubble reformed and rushed at Jacob again, who met it with an Overgrowth, absorbing the bubbles. Lloyd launched 2 more at Jacob, who used the same vines to absorb the water. Lloyd fired the last two, only for them to also be absorbed. The process repeated for a while. Jacob launched the vines at Lloyd, hoping to entangle him with them. Rather, the vines were seemingly forced to stop halfway to their destination. They exploded as water surged out of them, leaving Jacob with shredded remains of vines and Lloyd with the same water bubbles from earlier.
The sparring teacher declared that Lloyd had won. I sighed. "Good job, Lloyd. I look forward to our next match." I told him before I left the classroom and waited for the others.
Diane looked like she wanted to beat up Kaiden even more, but sparring teacher had already rescued him by saying that Diane was the winner. Kaiden eagerly joined Jacob outside the classroom.
Evelyn was waiting outside, as she had somehow slipped out unnoticed and without battling. She probably left when Diane was beating up Kaiden. Lloyd followed Jacob out of the sparring room.
Cloud and Ash walked out, Ash looking mildly surprised at something.
"What is it?" Kaiden asked.
"You don't need to know. You wouldn't handle knowing," replied Ash.
Cloud seemed on edge as Kaiden inquired.
Kaiden shrugged as the final bell ringed, signaling the end of Academy Classes.
Ash seemed warmed up to the new friend circle addition. "So what now?"
Evelyn let out a short two-note whistle. A soft rumble could be heard and a large tiger burst out of Evelyn's laboratory and prowled down the hall, heading towards her location. Evelyn beamed when the tiger came in sight. "Everyone I'd like you to meet Mint-Tea the robo-tiger!" She said happily.
Cloud moved back a little. "So that's what I amplified my lens power through."
"Mhm!" In one swift move Elle jumped onto the tigers back. "Does anyone want to join me in a test run? It won't explode!" The tiger made a soft purring noise when she jumped on it.
Diane pushed Lloyd to the front. "Lloyd wants to join you!" Diane smirked. Evelyn shrugged. "Okay." The tiger shifted its position so Lloyd could sit on it. "Just hold on tight and you won't die!"
Cloud activated a button on his visor and a red light began blinking underneath where his right eye would be. He did not look away from the tiger or its passengers.
"Erm....no thanks." I said.
"No." Anastasia stated firmly.
"Thou must pass! Thou apologizes." Bennett announced.
Lloyd climbed on, uncertain about this. Then the tiger started bounding down the halls. Lloyd instinctively wrapped his arms around Evelyn's stomach to avoid falling off. Both turned slightly pink.
The tiger then burst out into the courtyard, sending students running for their lives. After two laps around the courtyard, the tiger went back into the academy, slowing down as it neared their friends. Evelyn ignored Diane's face as she saw Lloyd with his arms wrapped around her, and then glanced at the watch on her shoulder. "Oh. Thirty seconds."
Cloud smirked. "Don't move too fast. You might break the overlay. Speaking of, Magiccatcher's got some unnatural movement patterns. Coming relatively close to- wait, is he...? He's not in an area of the island that seems accessible via established pathways or tunnels."
Eveyln turned Mint-Tea off and glanced at Cloud. "Where?"
"Uncharted sector. Seems around the Stonefish Lake. Off-coast, and this area is under the actual forest."
Diane shrugged. "Off-coast isn't a problem. Boats exist for a reason y'know."
Evelyn looked unsure. "But how would we get underground?"
"We could hope for a secret entrance!" Kaiden joked.
Everyone looked at Kaiden. Diane raised a fist, which Jacob pulled down. Kaiden inched away from Diane's reach.
"I've done a scan and there's no cave or tunnel to get there. Unless you want to try the fish."
The group teleported to Firefly Forest, greeted Flora and walked over to Stonefish Beach, where they heard indistinct chattering coming from the mouth of the fish statue. "I knew something was fishy about this!" Kaiden exclaimed. Diane raised a massive ball of ocean water over Kaiden, Downpourtaling it onto him "No need to be salty about it..." Kaiden muttered, shaking the saltwater off of his headphones. "I'll turn YOU into salt," Diane growled.
"Can we just enter the fish's mouth and see what they're doing down there already?" Lloyd muttered quietly.
Cloud shrugged and stepped onto the cliff-like edge of the beach, considering it wasn't really a beach. He turned around, only thing keeping him up? His toes. "We can assume we've got 4 contacts. One confirmed hostile, other three unknown. Keep your voices low and we'll try to find anything we can on them." The wizard tipped backwards and plummeted toward the water, straightening out midway through. He landed on the fish's tongue, causing a little chipping on the stone. Ash seemed to recoil upon watching Cloud tip into the tempest. Something wasn't right. He felt a horrendous deja vu, but couldn't figure out from where. As he shook that feeling away, he, too, jumped into the mouth of the statue.
Diane frowned and jumped in after them. Kaiden followed, then Anastasia and Bennett, and lastly, Evelyn and Lloyd.
We all got spat out by the fish, (it was alive somehow) and we found ourselves in a area where everything was small. I was rather confused. Anastasia cast a quick spell to make us all smaller. Evelyn was shaking in fear. And then, we overheard a conversation between a high-pitched voice and a lower-pitched voice.
"You're annoying! You're annoying!" repeated the high-pitched voice.
"Cool." replied the low-pitched voice.
The high-pitched voice answered with a "grrrrr" and then we heard footsteps.
Coming in our direction.
Evelyn was trembling at this point. Lloyd was taking deep breaths. Bennett was running around and panicking while Anastasia was chasing after him. Diane, Kaiden, Cloud, and Ash were just standing there, thinking, most likely.
A girl with wings and blonde hair in two buns, one being on each side of her head emerged from the forest up ahead. "Why can't I even get a reaction out of her?! UGH!" She complained. She then saw us and screamed. "W-who are you guys?" She stuttered.
"Who are you?" Kaiden asked.
Cloud reached to his visor re-mark the IR layer to recognize... whoever this was as a hostile. He proceeded to scan the area, noting with distaste that there were no nearby exits.
Ash seemed to hold this person in contempt. Trust was fragile for him, but that first impression shattered any chance of it.
"Answer my question before I answer yours." The girl insisted.
"I'm Kaiden, that's Bennett, that's Lloyd, that's Evelyn, she's Anastasia, he's Jacob, and the mean girl over there is Diane," Kaiden replied.
Cloud said his name, and said Ash's for him.
"Alrighty, guess I'll tell you my name now. I'm Faith, a member of The Tribe of Holy Fairies! It is obviously the greatest fairy tribe in existence. Righhhhhhhhhttttttttttt?" Faith asked.
Diane seemed to be unable to speak after Faith introduced herself, and her face was pink.
Kaiden looked at Diane. "Someone's in lo-" Diane cut him off by punching him in the face. An unconscious Kaiden collapsed on the ground. Lloyd and Evelyn winced simultaneously.
Anastasia found it rather funny. "Follow me! I want you to meet my friends!" Faith exclaimed, heading towards the forest.
Cloud tapped a few buttons on his visor, adding a section for fairy tribes underneath his list of 7 different tribes of wizards he took note of, before following Faith.
Everyone followed Faith. I only came cause everyone else was. I didn't trust this fairy at all.
We finally arrived, and we found ourselves at a large clearing with a bar, 4 houses, and a hotel. At the bar was a fairy with orange hair in pigtails. She looked fairly drunk. Outside one of the houses sat a fairy with long black hair sleeping. Then, we recognized someone.
Mr. Magiccatcher was sitting on the grass, reading a book.
Evelyn trembled and stepped away. Diane reached for her weapon.
Faith flew towards the orange-haired fairy. "This is Hope. You might not wanna talk to her all that often, as she can be a little....weird....." Hope waved. Faith flew over to the black-haired fairy. "This is Trinity! She's super weird."
"Shut up." Trinity muttered.
Faith flew over to Mr. Magiccatcher. "And this is our wonderful leader, Maddox!" Mr. Magiccatcher didn't even look up.
Faith flew back over to us. "Now, say hi!" Faith requested.
Lloyd did a small wave and quickly avoided eye contact.
Evelyn was petrified in fear. She couldn't move by herself.
Hope went back to chugging bottle after bottle of alcohol, and Trinity went to sleep.
Lloyd just stared at them.
Cloud began slamming in entry after entry for these new people, and somewhere else, a rupture occurred in the timespace continuum.
A wizard clad in the gear of the future exited.
But no one noticed. Ever.
Back to the matter at hand, Ash didn't seem any less on edge.
"Huh. Where's your wings?" Faith asked after looking at all of us for a while. "You're fairies, right? Then you should have wings."
"I'm fairy sure we are not-wait no I've used that joke before..." said a Kaiden that had recently regained consciousness.
Diane's glare practically pierced through Kaiden. She turned back to Faith. "We aren't fairies, we're... wizards." She said quietly. Maddox wasn't paying attention and didn't appear to hear her.
Faith's eyes widened. She zoomed over to Maddox. "Maddox! Maddox! Maddox! Hey, hey! Maddox! We've got some new victims right in front of us!"
Maddox twitched. He dropped his book. He stood up.
"Hello there, kids."
The group stepped back a little.
Tiny icicle shards started swirling around Lloyd's right hand in the shape of a drill.
Cloud summoned a massive hammer out of nowhere, and Ash's Chill and Char Gladius flared red. The visor of Cloud's Tech Wizard Lens began blinking maroon, and eventually turned full crimson.
Evelyn let out her signal, and Mint-Tea activated. She didn't know if the robotic tiger would get there in time though...
Diane cursed at herself for being such an idiot, and twenty small orbs of water spun around her like tiny bullets. She glowered at Magiccatcher, the orbs spinning faster.
Kaiden whipped out his Eclipse Sky Scythe, and spun it, lightning bolts trailing from it.
Maddox took out his weapon and made himself large. He charged at the wizards, and Faith and Trinity disappeared. Hope was still at the bar, swinging her legs back and forth.
Maddox slashed at Evelyn first, as he was aware she wasn't too strong.
Lloyd deflected the attack with a blast of water, followed by a massive cylindrical block of ice to Maddox’s face.
Maddox grabbed it before it hit him and threw it at Lloyd.
Cloud supercharged his hammer and struck the floor, causing apparitions of alternate timeline ice blocks to appear in the wake of the first one. 1 became 6, and then 20. They redirected to aim at the deflected one.
Evelyn still stood there, paralyzed in fear.
The ice block stopped in front of Lloyd and separated into hundreds of tiny icicle shards, all of which flew at Maddox.
The fairies appeared behind Evelyn, and began to distract her.
And then, Maddox landed a blow on her.
And there was blood.
Everywhere.
And Evelyn's insides were everywhere too.
It was so gross.
Super gross.
The wizards were frozen in terror.
But Diane wasn't.
Chapter 2[]
She stared at the blood in silence. Water started rushing into the area, nearly flooding the place. Waves continuously crashed into the fairies, again and again and again, no room to breathe. Walls of water were starting to form around her and Magiccatcher. He noticed, and tried to flee, but was pulled back by a tentacle.
Diane glared hard at him, then more water rushed towards his head, filling his lungs and blurring his vision.
Meanwhile, above ground:
Flora stared at the half-drained lake in shock. "W-what happened here?!!"
Meanwhile, underground:
Magiccatcher's body fell to the ground, appearing to be dead. However, Diane wasn't impressed with his acting. Her sword stabbed down, piercing through...
Nothing.
Maddox had escaped.
She turned around, the walls falling down, and saw Maddox hovering next to Jacob, who was unconscious and being held by the other three fairies.
Cloud's hammer appeared to be rewinding... something. Water began to lower in level, as a different timeline's wizards drowned.
The water level returned to normal and the wizards slumped down in defeat. Evelyn was dead and Jacob was kidnapped. Even Kaiden didn't seem like his normal, optimistic self.
Cloud seemed annoyed that the water had reset the IR level due to the signal suppression. Ash seemed to be even more on edge than before, as if he was on the last supporting pebble of a cliff. Both were incredibly (and hiddenly) distraught about the death.
Lloyd aggressively drove an icicle shard into a nearby tree in frustration and anger with a resounding thud. Kaiden flinched.
Ash and Cloud leaned against a wall next to each other on the floor. An uncomfortable silence stretched through the air, until Thundercaster decided to speak.
"We... need to figure out how to find Magiccatcher. We've seen what he did with Gale, firsthand saw what happened to Evelyn. I'm not losing another person today." He stood up and turned to the hallway where the fairies and Jacob had last been seen, pulling up another scan. "Suspicious activity located, somewhere down in... what in the french hell- it's under the academy? Wha- I can't. Who would even make a lair this elaborate, I- god *** it." Cloud proceeded to collapse like a folding chair onto Ash, who propped him up again on the wall. This did nothing to Cloud's exasperation-driven tiredness, slumping over onto the fire wizard's jacket. Ash himself was looking at the floor in thought.
"C'mon. Let's go to the Academy." Anastasia stated.
Anastasia looked at Bennett, curled up in a ball. He hadn't fought at all because he was afraid. "You too, Romeo."
Bennett sighed and began to follow Anastasia. Everyone ran after them and caught up. When they got to the Academy, they saw Hope walking (more like wobbling) around. "O-oh, *hic* hey there...." Hope said, waving.
"Let's try to get some info out of that intoxicated fairy!" Bennett suggested, trying to be quiet so Hope wouldn't hear.
Lloyd nodded.
Cloud remarked Hope on the IR layer, not that much movement would happen from the door to- well, the Archive stairs, 5 feet in front of it.
The group approached Hope cautiously, where Anastasia began to question her.
"Where's Jacob?" Anastasia asked.
"The *hic* Astral Tower." Hope answered, continuing to wobble around.
The group nodded and walked in front of the Astral Tower's entrance. Cloud scanned it and detected 3 life forms-2 with wings- behind the door. "They're in there," he said plainly.
Diane kicked the door down and yelled, "HEY, YOU LITTLE TWERPS! GIVE JA-"
Then she noticed the fairies were busy tickling me.
Lloyd lowered his weapon in confusion.
Cloud looked like he was going to say something, but the extent of his words were "What the [REDACTED]." Ash decided he wasn't getting enough sanity back from this endeavor, so he decided to set 2 thirds of the room on fire, leaving only the middle section not in flames. "So you gonna get him out or you gonna burn alive? Because I'm so god *** done with you and your creepy bull[REDACTED]. Release the new kid. You've only got about 70 seconds."
Everyone but Cloud looked at Ash as if he were insane.
Faith began to scurry around me, trying to free me. Trinity was playing with the fire for some reason. Diane shook her head in disbelief as she saw Trinity almost burn her flesh. What an idiot.
Ash slightly turned up the heat. The flames enclosed further.
Finally, Faith managed to free Jacob. Three tentacles pulled Jacob, Trinity and Faith out of the tower, and then Diane set out the fires by pouring water over them. She turned to Ash.
"Next time, could you try to not to burn everything down?"
"Considering my name? No. No promises." Cloud began to source gold from a specific Bounty Hunter's vault.
Elsewhere, a dark-haired Black Fang Guard began to wonder why his money was draining so quickly when he bought a style change.
Diane rolled her eyes and stared at the mess of tower. "Wait... where's Magiccatcher?!" She asked, turning to the fairies.
"Teeheehee.....if you want to find out, you'll have to fight us!" Faith declared. Trinity glared at Faith. It was clear she didn't want to fight.
Cloud's visor turned the shade of red again and his hammer cycled to a time of 12:00.
"Oh, you are going down." Diane said, two water bubbles forming in her hands.
Lightning sparks flew between Kaiden's fingers.
Lloyd had his hands in the pockets of his Snow Shredder outfit as water bubbles rose up behind him and quickly reformed into icicle shards that were pointing at the fairies.
Ash was on the verge of setting the room on fire again.
The water bubbles flew towards Faith and Trinity, drenching them and their wings. "Ack!" Faith frowned trying to shake the water off, but the damage had already been done. Faith turned to Diane, and pulled out... A deck of cards?!
The Chrono Crusher began to pull a fragment of the timeline where the room was on fire from the past into the present. Multiple alarms blared in Cloud's eyes. Ash swapped to Ice.
"Blinding Light!" Faith yelled out as she pulled a card with a drawing of a ray of sunlight on it. Everyone went blind for a minute, and Trinity attacked Diane and Ash.
The wizard were now aggressively rubbing their eyes. They heard sharp grunts, followed by some cursing that sounded like it came from Diane. When they looked up, they saw Diane and Ash on the ground, twitching and groaning in pain. Diane had a new cut on her left cheek while Ash had a gash in his left arm.
Ash got up, clutching at his arm and wincing. Cloud, obviously not appreciating this development, overclocked his hammer with lightning.
In an instant, a rift in time opened and Cloud ran through, reappearing behind Trinity. During his timejump, he was rapidly picking up rotational speed by, and without any irony, spinning like a Beyblade. He was now rotating fast enough to create ripples in steel like water. Moments before he was about to make contact, he muttered something unintelligible under his breath.
"I wonder what Tsukinoken thinks of this." Trinity muttered before she slashed at Cloud, causing him to bounce back.
Momentum reversed and Cloud walljumped to slam the Chrono Crusher onto anything in the nearby vicinity. Splash damage. Fun.
"Woah. Cool." Trinity simply said.
"C'mon! Fight, you idiot! Fight too, Bichi!" Faith yelled at Trinity and Hope.
Diane winced and rubbed her bleeding cheek. Suddenly, a metal tiger bounded into the tower, growling at Faith. Mint-Tea then pounced on Faith, pinning her against the ground.
"Hey! Hey! Hope! HELP MEEEEEEE!" Faith begged. Hope just.......hugged the tiger. "We're best buds." Hope stated proudly.
Kaiden chuckled. "What a crushing defeat!" Trinity facepalmed.
Diane and Lloyd sent water swirling around Trinity, before turning into a perfect cube, which Lloyd froze. The ice was a bit red, most likely because of Diane's really bloody left cheek. She didn't care though.
The group walked around the massive tiger lying on top of Faith, sleeping, with Hope also on top of Mint-Tea, sleeping. Faith cursed as she attempted (and failed) to scramble out from underneath Mint-Tea and Hope.
Cloud decided to run a signal through Mint-Tea that gave a single command:
"TIGR_GRVTAT"
The metal construct seemed to double up in weight.
Dear god.
Ash wiped away some more of the blood, but it wasn't a good sign that he was starting to lose feeling in his left arm.
Trinity looked like she was enjoying the ice. Weirdo.
Hope eventually let go of the tiger because it was becoming so heavy. Faith managed to scramble out of the tiger's grasp at the last second.
The wizards stared at the incapacitated fairies around them. Trinity was frozen, Hope was trying to figure out how to make Mint-Tea lighter, and Faith had propped herself up against the wall in exhaustion and discomfort from Mint-Tea resting on top of her for a long period of time.
Diane glared at Faith. "We've defeated you. Tell us where Magiccatcher is. Now."
"Pulling up a scan... ah, dammit. And our friend Maddox is gone. S***," Cloud stated. He proceeded to appearify a bandage roll via time shenanigans, and tightly wrapped part of it around Ash's shoulder. "Don't wait to stop the blood. You don't want to bleed out instantly... can't have you lost, like the rest." Ash looked away. Cloud smiled. "Don't sweat it. Past is past."
Hope finally came to her senses and broke the ice with magic. Trinity looked irritated. "Maddox..? I....dunno where he is....." Faith answered quietly.
"Lies." Diane glared, pinning Faith to a wall, crushing her throat. "Where is he, I know you know."
Faith waved her arms and legs around. "I swear.....I don't know where he is!"
Diane frowned. "Yet you said that we had to fight you to know where he is."
Anastasia glanced at the fairy, and then turned to Diane. "I think she's telling the truth, Diane. She doesn't know where he is." Diane bit her lip, and then let go of Faith's throat. She dropped down to the floor, gasping for air.
"That fight was just for fun." Faith panted.
"Just for fun?! You three idiots wasted our time so you could play around and almost kill us?!" Diane hissed, reaching for her sword.
Lloyd put his hand on Diane's shoulder, shaking his head.
"Yeah! Heeheehee! You should know better!" Faith chuckled.
Ash pulled out a canister of gasoline and splashed it onto the floor and walls, covering everywhere. "Someone restrain these winged cucks."
Jacob nodded, and vines curled around the fairies. Diane glared at each of them before shoving them into a broom closet. "You'll never find Maddox-" Faith started to yell, but the door slammed shut, smacking Faith in the face.
"Alright, everyone out." As everyone complied, he set the room on fire, but more. Hell yeah goes the gasoline trap.
"Honestly, they deserved that." Diane shrugged. Lloyd looked slightly traumatized.
"Even if they do survive, their respiratory systems aren't gonna be the greatest," Cloud said.
"You're not helping..." Lloyd muttered quietly.
"Well their plan went up in flames..." Kaiden said.
Diane looked like she was about to throw Kaiden into the burning room with the fairies.
"We'll make it out someway! Right, Trinity???" Faith yelled before the group left.
"Yeah...." Trinity replied.
"So how much are you going to owe in repairs?" Cloud asked.
"None. I have... assurances... that the guy who runs TEK-Y4 will be paying for it." Ash replied.
Elsewhere, a robot began to panic over the speed overloads running through his products and the incoming safety hazards.
The group started walking away, except for Diane, who decided to try follow through on her idea, carrying Kaiden, in a headlock towards the burning room. Ash doubled back, Chill Char Gladius swapping over to the ice element, and froze Diane and Kaiden, levitating them back towards the group.
After they left, Faith burst out of the closet. "I'M FREE!!!" Faith yelled.
"Free us too, Goldilocks." Trinity ordered.
Faith sighed. "Fineeeeeee." She freed the two of them.
After they were a safe distance away from the fire, Ash melted the ice. Diane glared at Ash, but she didn't throw him out the window. Yet.
Diane groaned. "Where the heck would that idiot be now??" She muttered.
"He could be teaching." Bennett suggested.
Cloud put his finger up and opened his mouth to say something, but no words could come out and he put it back down. "That's... very likely."
The group walked down the halls, and they heard Magiccatcher's voice, and quietly peeked through the window of his classroom.
Diane, lacking any more patience, fired a massive torrent of water at the door. The door began to crack, and imploded, releasing a shower of wooden splinters inside the room. To the group's dismay, in the wake of the shattered door, hovered several battle-ready fairies, including Faith and Trinity. Hope was there too, but she was drunk again.
The fairies charged at the wizards, forcing them to take several steps back.
The wizards successfully blocked flurries of slashes, but the fairies kept forcing them back. Eventually, the fairies had cornered the wizards and started slashing harder and faster. The wizards' energy was quickly drained as the fairies kept on. The fairies' repeated offense started to penetrate the wizards' defense, successfully drawing blood. Lloyd surrounded the wizards in ice, temporarily defending the wizards from any more attacks. Cloud quickly whipped out his map, unintentionally ripping it in two, but he didn't care. He only needed the left half anyway. He smacked his palm onto the Crystal Caverns picture, teleporting them there, where the injured wizards limped over to a waystone.
"God *** it..." Cloud sighed. Ash, when he hobbled over (on two feet, very impressive) faceplanted into the platform and refused to move or breathe until the healing took place. 5 seconds later, rejuvenation.
"H-hey.....Trinity....you're *hic* looking hot on the market....." Hope said shakily, very drunk.
"Shut up." Trinity ordered.
"DAMN IT! The wizards aren't dead! ATTACK!!!" Faith yelled.
The fairies didn't move a inch.
"I SAID ATTACK!!!" Faith yelled....again.
The fairies still didn't move.
"WHY IS NOBODY LISTENING TO ME!!!" Faith complained.
The fairies floated aside to reveal an empty, bloodstained ice dome.
With no wizards inside.
"AGH!! THEY ESCAPED!" Faith screamed in anger. "Can we go look for them, Magiccatcher?"
Magiccatcher briefly nodded, and continued to grade tests.
Bennett was the last one to step off the platform. "What do we do now?" Kaiden asked. "We definitely can't go back to the Academy."
"We plan the fairies demise." Diane declared, pausing after.
"W-well, maybe we'll spare Faith..." She continued quietly.
Kaiden pointed his index finger in the air, opening his mouth, but closed it with a "clop" sound and putting his finger down after Diane shot him a death glare, clenching her fist.
"First we need to find the fairies, then separate them, and then we'll split up into teams to kill them. Hope can just be dragged away using a bottle of whisky or whatever, Faith and Trinity are easy to separate if we could just get them fighting- also easy to do- and Maddox is probably alone in his classroom.
"Hope is drunk and easy to kill, someone can just stab her in the stomach or something and done. Not me though, I don't kill weak people. Maddox, Trinity and... Faith are way harder to kill, compared to her, so be careful. I'll go after Faith alone, Lloyd, Cloud, and Ash can go after Maddox- Cloud, Ash, you probably should let Lloyd strike the final blow since... y'know.
"Bennett is weak and Hope apparently loves Mint-Tea so you two will go after Hope, and Kaiden and Anastasia will go after Trinity.
"Assuming that the fairies are still in the Academy, we can find them pretty easily, since we should know the area more then they do. After we heal up, we'll go straight there and execute my plan.
"Any questions?"
"HEY! I am not weak! I...just don't like fighting...." Bennett insisted.
"Mhm, whatever you say, Romeo." Diane smirked.
"This sounds.....exciting. I'll make sure I absolutely destroy Trinity." Anastasia muttered happily.
"How many times have I told you to not call me Romeo?" Bennett asked, annoyed.
I laughed. "What about me, Diane?"
"Um... I'm not sure where to put you hmm... You could go with Kaiden and Ana I guess." Diane said.
Ice started to swirl around Lloyd's hands at the thought of facing Magiccatcher.
"This'll be fun." I stated, pulling out my hammer.
Cloud sent the IR overlay to Kaiden's visor. All of the fairies were in the academy, evidently in different rooms, coincidentally, except Magiccatcher, who was back in the "belly" of the fish statue. Kaiden projected the image on a wall of rocks inside the cavern. "Everyone know where they're going?" Diane asked. Everyone nodded. "Alright, let's get this dealt with."
"C'mon, Kaiden and Jacob. We gotta go kick some fairy butt." Anastasia said. Kaiden told me and Anastasia to line up and he took us to Trinity.
Bennett trembled as he walked to Hope's location.
Lloyd pulled out his map, and tapped Firefly Forest, where he, Ash, and Cloud teleported there. They walked over to the fish statue and entered.
"Welcome to the pits of hell, coincidentally placed directly in the mouth of a sentient statue." Cloud whispered. Ash swapped to fire. The IR was beginning to display statistics- they were C L O S E.
Meanwhile...
Diane sighed as everyone left, and then teleported to the Academy. She walked through the halls, her footsteps echoing eerily. Was it just her or did the Academy become... emptier? She shook her head as she saw the door leading to the room where Faith was. She was probably just not used to walking around in the Academy this late.
I can't kill her, I don't even want to kill her!
But I... I can't keep her alive either.
She inhaled and exhaled, trying to soothe the warring parts of her mind. Diane slowly opened the door, and found herself staring right into Faith's eyes.
"Hello, Diane."
Faith had a grin on her face. "Where's all your friends?" She asked.
Diane did her best to hide the pink in her face. "They're not here."
Faith conjured a dagger and twirled it in her hand. "So you've come here to fight me alone?" she chuckled. "That's a mistake." She quickly lunged at Diane, dagger outstretched. Diane stepped to the side as Faith grazed her right arm.
Faith slashed again, this time, Diane parried the blow with her Energy Staff. Faith released a flurry of slashes, all of which Diane successfully blocked. Faith flew above Diane and summoned 10 more daggers that instantaneously fired at Diane. Diane fired a Torrent at the daggers, successfully making them avoid impaling her, but they simply returned to Faith for another round. She fired them again, and again, and again. Diane's Energy Staff was now chipped in several areas, and Diane herself now had another cut on her cheek, two cuts on her left thigh, and 2 more cuts on her right arm, one almost reaching the muscle. Diane fired another Torrent at Faith, this one larger. Faith winced as the Torrent quickly blasted towards her, and had her eyes closed for a short period of time, expecting a burst of pain. But it never came. Faith opened her eyes and saw that the Torrent hadn't touched her, but her weapons were on the ground, drenched. That was when she realized something. The girl had never made contact with her the entire time. But why? She floated down to the ground, and approached Diane, who was losing the ability to hide the pink spreading across her face.
"What's wrong?" Faith asked.
"I- nothing is wrong I-i just..." Diane trailed off, her face turning red.
"Liar." Faith said, leaning in close. She sniffed the air and flew to the middle of the room. "Waittttttt, why's your face red? Are you embarrassed about something? Are you blushing?" Faith asked, forming a smirk on her face.
"I'm not blushing I-i'm just..." She sighed and looked away. "I came here to kill you, but I can't. That's all I need to say and now you can figure out the rest."
"Haha, caught you blushing in 4K." Faith teased. She paused and looked deep in thought. "Wait, do you have a crush on me? GASP!! SOMEBODY HAS A CRUSH ON ME!! WOAHHHHHHH!" Faith suddenly asked, flying around the room in shock.
"Hey, how 'bout I go into hiding, so your friends think I'm dead?" Faith quickly suggested.
Diane nodded. "That might just work."
"Okay! Off I go! See you at some point in the future maybe, Diane!!" Faith exclaimed, flying out of the room and out of the Academy.
Kaiden lead the wizards to the archives. "Well, Trinity appears to have booked a flight here," Kaiden joked, going down the stairs into a maze of bookshelves.
"Wow...so funny." Anastasia muttered sarcastically.
Kaiden shrugged, going to the location of the red dot and stopped. "Wait what? It says we should be surrounding her right now, and there are several of her-" Kaiden looked up, and saw Trinity smirking at them from above as more fairies joined her. "Crap."
Trinity slashed at Kaiden, and the other fairies attacked Anastasia and me. Anastasia kicked and punched them. I fended them off with my hammer and temporarily restrained others with vines.
Kaiden rapidly ducked and dodged slashes from Trinity. What seemed like abnormal agility for a wizard was the everyday event of evading Diane's ruthless attacks on Kaiden during sparring lessons.
Trinity was exhausted from repeatedly missing her target. 3 fairies were currently restrained by Jacob's vines and Anastasia had incapacitated 2 others. the remaining 3, like Trinity, were exhausted from not being able to land a hit on their targets.
Trinity sighed. "Break time. Then, we can fight."
Kaiden shrugged and went to a different virtual reality game.
The fairies that weren't currently restrained by Jacob's vines collapsed on the floor in exhaustion.
Lloyd, Cloud, and Ash landed on the ground after going through the fish. They looked around and didn't see Magiccatcher anywhere.
Magiccatcher appeared behind them and simply said, "Boo." The wizards jumped back in surprise.
The wizards scrambled to their feet and were prepared for battle as elemental magic appeared behind them. Ash readied several fireballs, electricity appeared behind Cloud, and ice swirled behind Lloyd.
Cloud's visor turned crimson and Magiccatcher was now on an adapted IR layer Cloud named Autotarget.
Lloyd quickly made the first move, firing a massive ice block at Magiccatcher, who easily shattered it, only for his left cheek to get scarred by rapidly flying icicle shards fired after the block.
Cloud rebounded a bolt between the icicle shards and Ash recombined what remained of the original icicle, creating an effective icebomb. Cloud snapped his fingers and the bomb exploded.
Lloyd summoned several balls of water, all of which Cloud fired bolts of electricity into them followed by Ash quickly freezing the outside of each, creating charged icebombs.
Cloud reduxed the energy flow of the lightning on a hadron collision.
In short, an icesplosion with the magic energy of an Ancient Elemental Reset occurred. The Stonefish seemed to show signs of permanent damage, ice spikes coating the ceiling and floor. Any internal systems were instantly turned to a fine, grainy sand- the only reason the wizards lived was because of a perfectly timed reverse redux- (reredux?) A shockwave erupted from the fish's mouth, knocking back everything in a 50 meter radius.
Magiccatcher transformed into a fairy so they lost sight of him. He flew off, having his weapon manifest in his hand. He flew back over to the wizards and slashed at Cloud's cheek with his miniature staff (using the pointy side of it).
Now the wizards were swatting at Magiccatcher with their weapons like he was a bug.
"God *** it- feels like some crappy papercut," Cloud commented. He ripped open a portal in time using a supercharged Chrono Crusher slam and BONK'd at the small red fuzz that was the IR-marked Magiccatcher in the general direction of said portal.
Lloyd fired a stream of water through the portal, hitting Magiccatcher. The lopsided fairy went flying into the portal pointlessly flapping his soggy wings.
Cloud's portal collapsed.
"So that's going to cycle him through every single past in the timeline until we find one where he's either dead or unconscious on the groun- and there he is."
As Cloud said this, Magiccatcher vortexed into existence at their feet, unconscious.
"Yeah that's... that's gonna do something to my hammer, isn't i- and there it is."
Cloud's hammer instantly uncharged and the lights went dim.
Bennett walked over to the Great Hall, with Mint-Tea trailing behind.
Bennett shivered. "I-I don't know if I can do it...."
A voice recorder on Mint-Tea's back turned on and started recording everything Bennett was saying.
Hope approached Bennett, waddling like a penguin. "Heyyyyyyy! Whas up?" Hope asked. "Oh, nothing." Bennett replied. "I came to give you a gift." Hope gasped. "Wow, really?!?!?! Nobody has ever given lil' ol meeeeeee a present."
Bennett patted Mint-Tea on the back. "Spit the freaking bottle out, Kimba the White Lion rip-off." Bennett whispered into Mint-Tea's ear.
A bottle of expensive whiskey immediately rolled onto the floor. Bennett picked it up, and handed it to Hope. "Here you go! I hope thou likes this gift." Hope's eyes glittered, and she eagerly uncapped it. She chugged it down in about 10 seconds. She tossed the bottle onto the floor, and it shattered.
After a few minutes passed, Hope fell onto the ground. "Ughhhhh......I feel sickkkk." She complained.
Bennett rubbed his hands together evily.
After 10 minutes passed, Hope was dead as a doornail. Bennett began to rush back to the wizards' rendezvous point.
He finally arrived after a bit of running, and he saw Diane. Once he saw her, he thought "CRAPPPPPPPPPP." Once Bennett stopped running, Mint-Tea turned to Diane and played a recording of Bennett at the Academy.
Diane smirked as the recording played. "Guess you aren't as Romeo as I thought you were." She laughed. Bennett's face turned red.
Meanwhile, Lloyd, Cloud, and Ash were once again battling Magiccatcher, who had regained consciousness.
Kaiden and Anastasia were battling the swarms of fairies and Jacob was going head-to-head with Trinity.
The hammer was 50% recharged, but still usable as a caster- just not a time manipulator or amplifier. Cloud had hypercharged the area around his hands, meaning when he used his hammer it would charge faster- and he could also just use his hands as the caster.
Lloyd fired more Icicle Shards at Maddox, before resorting to close combat, encasing the tip of his Diveodile Sea Staff with a sharpened end of ice, jabbing at Magiccatcher as well as parrying Magiccatcher's attacks.
Cloud started resorting to melee attacks after being unable to focus the thunder properly via fatigue. At least the general area-of-lightning around his fists remained, so every blow had an electric delivery. Each attack was timed and from a place where Maddox couldn't hit or block both Lloyd and Cloud at the same time. Ash enclosed all exit points in an inferno and tightened his grip on his Gladius. Energies of fire and ice began to separate- something was being prepared...
Lloyd formed a battering ram out of ice and repeatedly flung it at Magiccatcher, pushing him to the center of the field.
Meanwhile, Anastasia took her turn battling Trinity, who had requested at least 12 breaks by now.
Ash's gladius snapped in two, reforming into blades of fire and ice sharper than steel. He walljumped off the side and tore through the area in a gleaming blade dance of fury.
The separate energies of fire and ice spiraled down toward Magiccatcher with incredible force, fully capable of decapacitating him with initial contact.
Too bad it was all for nothing.
Magiccatcher pulled out a white cards. One of Faith's. Immediately, a barrier formed around him, dispersing the energy of the attack in a shockwave that threw the wizards back. As the dust cleared, Magiccatcher stood in a crater, unscathed from the attack. Lloyd encased his Diveodile Sea Staff in ice, turning it into an ice spear and charged at Magiccatcher. Magiccatcher twisted to the side, grabbed the spear, and swung it over his head, sending Lloyd into a tree trunk with a sickening thud. Then Magiccatcher threw the spear.
Lloyd twitched, then collapsed on the ground and went limp, an expanding pool of blood expanding from his stomach.
Funnily enough, the sheer cold of the spear managed to mitigate the blood flow- though, in turn, that only accelerated algor mortis. You could probably make popsicles for a vampire out of the extremely cold blood pooling on the floor. Another set of glazed eyes, halted breathing, and unmoving facial features. Of course, with the blood and spilling vitals, but... still.
Meanwhile, Kaiden fired lightning bolts a fairies, temporarily paralyzing them. Anastasia fended off Trinity's relentless slashes. "Jacob, can I borrow your wand for a bit?" Anastasia asked. "Um, sure?" was the reply. He tossed his Earthquake wand over to Anastasia, who grabbed it, smashing it against Trinity's sword, deflecting the attack and shattering it. Trinity was so shocked, she didn't even see the next attack coming. Anastasia drove the wand into her chest with a sickening crunch, sending a bloodied Trinity into the wall. Trinity made a feeble attempt to stand up, before letting out a pained croak and succumbing to death, blood dribbling out of the corner of her mouth. The other fairies, seeing the death of their party's leader, quickly flew away in fear. Anastasia twirled the wand and handed it back to a stunned Jacob. The group later arrived at the Great Hall of the academy, where they met up with a snickering Diane and a red-faced Bennett.
"Hey....guys...." Bennett greeted unenthusiastically. Cloud and Ash teleported to the academy besides the other wizards. Cloud's visor was displaying various 404 errors and eventually bluescreened with a massive white x, and Ash's gladius was chipped. What everyone noticed was the fact that both were slightly stained by blood and Lloyd was not with them.
"Wh-where's Lloyd...?" Kaiden asked the two.
"Dead. Stabbed. Maddox was able to get away." The words emitted from Cloud's visor in Text to Speech over the droning noise of a computer crash. Ash nodded, then wheeled around and walked out the front door. Cloud didn't seem to notice- it was as if he was frozen like his Tech Wizard Lens.
The entire room sank into silence.
"At least they're together now." Anastasia sobbed, breaking the silence.
The visor was on reboot now.
Diane stared at the floor, then decided to break the silence. "We need to kill that [BLEEP]. He's taken too much from us. Cloud, how exactly did Maddox escape?"
The TTS activated again. "variable underscore teleport signify goal designate ASTRUM underscore CHAMBER designate ASTRAL underscore TOWER execute command variable MARK underscore TRACKER execute anti underscore error 496 execute REBOOT SEQUENCE PRIORITY BRAIN FUNCTION SHUT DOWN"
Diane blinked. "Um...? Cloud are you alright? What, do I need to get your boyfriend in here to wake you up?"
"REBOOT INITIATED processing 42 58 60 78 83 90 96 100 UPLOADING ELLIPSIS"
A moment of silence stretched on until the text to speech voice stated "REBOOT COMPLETE. RETURNING CONTROL TO HOST."
Cloud proceeded to lose the motionless tendency and staggered. Incoherent words and sentences fell out of his mouth- the only real things people could understand were "Left. Astral Tower. Spear. Relic. Shadow. It's all connected. I failed again. I failed again. I failed again. Retcon wormhole active reset loop zero set tick 2 IT'S DOOMED AGAIN."
"Cloud?" Kaiden asked, "You okay?"
Cloud proceeded to legitimately scramble himself with lightning and dashed past the pedestals, slamming straight through the central tower. In the span of 5 seconds, he tossed every single one of the wizards (including Ash, who he hoisted through a busted window) into the massive hole in the door. "failedfailedfailedfailedfailedCAN'TLOSEAGAINfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedRECOVERABLE" kept emitting in the Text to Speech voice in the lens.
Anastasia was the first one to stand up when they landed. "We have two options: 1. Help Cloud. 2. Go find Magiccaster and slaughter him. Which one do we pick? I personally think we should help Cloud." Anastasia asked. Bennett nodded in agreement, still red in the face.
An incomprehensible mess of warnings and executed commands rang out in a droning, overlaying text to speech voice. The most interesting thing that came out of the jumble were the words "ARCRIDER DETECTED WORMHOLE OPENING T-MINUS 600" and "RETCON REQUIRED ACTIVATING REDUX 1654". Suddenly, literally every single window in the academy disappeared and strange devices appeared in place of them. Canisters of something.
"But how exactly...?" Kaiden inquired.
"Shut." Anastasia simply ordered, looking at Kaiden. "Well, I-I think we should h-help Cloud!" I exclaimed.
Diane stared at a wall, thinking about everything that was happening to Cloud. She then sighed, and turned around to face the group. "I think we should help Cloud too- and I never thought I'd say this, but Kaiden is right, we don't know how to help him... Wait, Ash, you know Cloud the best, do you know about what's happening to him?"
"Most likely another malfunction. There's not much I can do... at this point, it's up to that machine's whim. Usually these phases don't last too long, but... something's differe- wait, how long has it been since he said 'wormhole opening'?" As if exactly on cue, a massive cyan hole in spacetime burst open like some sort of universal cyst. Cloud immediately activated something on his visor, and something shot through the portal, who or what he dashed over to meet.
A drone?
Didn't explain that it was 500 years ahead of the times and was currently tearing open more portals.
"And one here, and one here, and one here- and then link them to the dataflow- oh, you took less than 50 minutes!" said the drone in an overly cheery voice.
Someone else emerged from the portal. A complete stranger- except for the fact that the visor he was wearing had the exact same info as Cloud's.
"Alright. So. Here to close the loop, blah blah blah. So it turns out the only reason we kept failing- though you don't know too much about that- is that... I sent me- you? Us, back through this portal. If we just left you here the shadow wouldn't have manifested, because the energy source for the thunder fragment was there- ah, mistakes are mistakes, even if they were supposed to happen 5 seconds ago." said the stranger.
Cloud nodded and what everyone assumed to be a future Cloud sent a dropbox file through. In it, the programming for the AI in the drone and the order form for components necessary to build the chassis. "Without Curio, you're not going to be able to activate a failsafe if this goes bad, which means I never existed and the timeline is doomed. No pressure. Well, my job here is done."
As everyone but Cloud stared in shock, the person spoke once more.
"Remember the name Raid."
The drone and the wizard jumped back through the portals, which closed behind them.
Diane stared at where the portal used to be, then at Cloud. "I-I don't understand any of this..." She whispered, almost sounding exactly like her deceased friend, Evelyn.
"Let's reflect. Have you ever seen me without the visor? In all the time you guys have known me?" Cloud responded, the frantic state gone. Ash glanced sideways. "Well, besides Ash, but..." continued Thundercaster.
"Now that I think about it...no," Kaiden replied.
"Well, if we end up winning against Evil-teacher McGee and i'm not dead by the end of it, i'll do a little explaining. On another note. The windowsills are now rigged with toxic gas canisters. We have two options- trap Magiccaster in here via gas or shove him out with the fumes. And then Ash will make it a little more... explosive." Apparently the deathgas was flammable and the dual wizard was in on it, because the Gladius had been on fire mode the entire discussion.
"Let's trap Magiccatcher in the gas." Me and Anastasia said in unison. "Urm....shove him out?" Bennett said, replying to Cloud.
Cloud nodded, and turned to literally everybody else who hadn't voted.
"Trap him," Kaiden decided.
Diane groaned slightly. "How many times are you going to make me agree with Kaiden??"
"Haha you think I'm rig-" Kaiden was cut off by yet another unexpected punch to the face by Diane that sent him to the floor. "Ow..."
"Well, that's majority. We're using the Astral Tower as a safety chamber." Cloud decided. Ash nodded. "So. The air is going to be set on fire by yours truly everywhere there isn't this safety room. Let's stay inside, hm?"
"Hut how aw we hoing hoo het him here?" Kaiden said, covering his bloody nose.
Magiccaster vooped in the Astral Tower behind the wizards, startling them and causing them to jump back.
He adjusted his glasses. "Hello there. Could you please move? I need to get to my classroom."
The wizards quickly stepped away from the door, allowing Magiccatcher to pass.
Magiccatcher passed them, and headed to his classroom to grade more papers.
The wizards quickly shut the doors then turned to Cloud and Ash. "Ho how hoo we het hee has off rom in hewe?" Kaiden asked.
Cloud summoned a hovering screen and pressed a few digital buttons while making a swiping motion. Immediately after, the wizards heard a hissing noise outside the tower. Ash's gladius flared up.
Ash teleported a fireball through the Astral Tower door. Outside, the gas burst into flames almost instantaneously, briefly turning the area into a reality of entirely flames followed by a massive explosion that shook the entire Academy and leaving an impression on the door. The wizards stepped out of the room and Diane extinguished every flame. "Wew wow wan'dt dat a hurs huff heshitement?" Kaiden joked. As the smoke cleared, the wizards saw a shattered windows, burnt Academy banners on the ground, and blackened walls and floor. Surprisingly, the Academy pedestals were still intact. Then the group saw something that made Diane's hands (evidently reaching for Kaiden's throat) to stop. Magiccaster was alive and staring at the wizards with an abnormally calm expression.
"Well ****." x2 TEAMUP WIZARDS COMBO!
15000 TRICK POINTS
20000 DUAL BONUS
30000 SYNCHRONIZATION BONUS
35650 NO TOOL ASSIST BONUS
TOTAL 70650
RATING: OH S+++
"Ahahaha. Good job. But you can't kill me so easily. I was the leader of the tribe for a reason, y'know." Magiccatcher said, clapping his hands slowly.
"And that's because you're oh so powerful?" Cloud inquired, sarcasm dripping from his voice like a rusted pipe. Ash swapped to ice, and the cold filling the room was nearly enough to drown the smell of burning property.
Magiccatcher ignored Cloud.
All the wizards (and Magiccatcher) were shivering.....except Ash. The sound of chattering teeth filled the room.
"Hey, uh, Ash, couldst thou make it a bit warmer?" Bennett asked.
The temperature dropped further. Ash fixed his gaze on the leader of the fairies, sheer animosity in his glare.
"Do you feel that? The blizzard's chill. I create this responsibility, this cold. And yet you force the responsibility of vengeance onto us with dead bodies and hearts even colder than what I can muster."
The gladius shined, coated in subzero ice.
"Well, makes sense we have to unload it back onto its creator. Final verdict: Guilty. Sentence:
GELUS CALAMITAS."
A massive aura of unbearable, freezing temperatures flooded the area. It was cold enough to cause Cloud's visor to have its coolant frozen- not that it would need it- and to negate any fire magic in the vicinity. Ash swung the ice-mode gladius once towards Magiccatcher, and thousands of hailstones, snowflakes, icicles, any ice formation, really, were flying at the teacher. Some of the wizards had doubled onto the floor shivering.
"A-a-ash, c-c-coul-ld-d y-you s-s-stop t-trying t-t-to f-f-free-eeze u-us p-p-please?" Kaiden shivered, too cold to make a pun about it.
Magiccatcher turned into his fairy form and easily dodged the ice formations. He brought out his staff, flew across the room, and plunged it into Ash's right hand.
"Y-y-yes, p-please....." Anastasia begged.
As soon as it started, the cold vanished, replaced by a slow transition into warmer-than-normal room temperature. Ash clutched his right wrist, making a half-fruited attempt to take out the staff and get a grip on his own magic.
He didn't really have to make the effort.
A blinding cyan light zipped between place to place, making rapid changes wherever it went. These changes were:
- Took the staff out of Ash's hand
- Tossed it all the way across the room
- Caused multiple pieces of metal to float
- Turned on a computer, which instantly downloaded something onto a USB drive
- Stabbed the USB into the jumble of floating metal
- Dashed towards Magiccaster at an alarmingly fast rate
It was only when the light stopped blurring into itself that everyone realized it was just an extremely irate Cloud Thundercaster. That and the fact it opted to kick Magiccatcher in the face hard enough to send him flying- well, without his control. Cloud began to blur again, using the speed boost to keep beating down on a soaring Magiccatcher with every limb possible. Looked almost anime-ish. Weird.
The other wizards (not including Ash) gawked at Cloud with shaky jaws.
Snippets of speech were made out from the cracking static and lightning, including...
"don't" "mine" "do this again and i'll" "won't be able to tell the tale" "suffer suffer SUFFER" "what he's gone through" "nothing to what i'm going to do" "rip your wings off and make them a cape". Most of it was masked by the chaotic crackling cacophony of Cloud's choleric crackdown.
Magiccatcher had not planned for this, which was surprising, since he usually planned everything. After being shocked by the electricity, he fell to the floor and fainted. The shivering wizards' hair were now sticking in different directions, likely due to the extremely static air around them.
Cloud grabbed a fainted Magiccatcher by the collar and lifted him into the air. He proceeded to discharge the rest of the electricity into a specific part of the wall, in which he smashed the fairy against. He let go and recollected any residual storm energy into the visor.
Of course, launching approximately 164 punches and an unknown amount of kicks into a single target would take a toll. He slumped over and knocked out next to Ash, who picked up the unconcious wizard.
"...Well I haven't seen that before."
Every other person in the room gave him a "NO SH** SHERLOCK" kind of look.
Magiccatcher woke up. And then, he said the following:
"I surrender."
Some blonde girl walked in at that exact moment, then she left when she saw what was going on.
Ash's stare narrowed at Magiccatcher.
"...I'm not chancing that."
Ash proceeded to enclose the fairy in 6 magic layers, an alternating type every wall.
"It's true. I mean it. I really don't want to die, so I'm surrendering." Magiccatcher admitted.
The walls of the elemental box began to close, about to scorch, crush, freeze, drown, and electrocute Magiccaster simultaneously. From inside the box, Magiccaster let out a whimper of fear.
Then the walls stopped. Cloud dropped his hand and the elemental magic dispersed, inadvertently warming up the room. Magiccaster stood there, uncertain about what just happened.
"Thank you." He said. "Thank you....so much."
Ash tilted his head at Magiccatcher.
"So. What are you going to do with yourself now that you're in this situation?"
"Probably go into hiding and never interact with anyone ever again." Magiccatcher answered.
Diane flinched. Wasn't that similar to what Faith had said? Going into hiding?
Ash conjured what resembled an icy tick with a glowing red abdomen and tossed it into Magiccatcher's arm. It immediately embedded itself and seemed completely stuck.
"Just a tracker slash killswitch. Don't bother ripping it off, it explodes with the force of 30 Combustions. Activates if it detects suspicious activity. So... maybe don't do anything stupid."
Ash proceeded to walk towards the jumble of floating metal, which reformed into a circular drone identical to that of "Raid". He picked it up and stuck it into Cloud's jacket pocket, and the wizard in question woke up on cue.
"wha... what happened?"
Ash explained everything as Cloud began to get out of the half-sleep state, thus proceeding to jump onto the floor and straighten his visor. He reached into his pocket and turned on the drone, which began to float and scan the area.
Kaiden simply took a step back from Magiccaster and the device. "So...we're finally done?"
Cloud straighteed his visor and nodded. "Presumably. Well, we've got promises to fulfill and funerals to deal with. And Harmony swear i'm not taking my visor off here." Cloud motioned to the drone and walked towards the door, machine following behind him.
Diane blinked. "Did you just say that you were going to take off your visor?!"
Anastasia stared at Cloud. "Wait...you're gonna take your visor off?"
"I...can't believe it..." I gasped. Bennett patted my back. "Neither can I. But thou should be happy, relieved, or, just anything postive, really."
"Oh and Ana, Mint-Tea has something for you!" Diane chirped. The tiger walked up to Anastasia and played the recording. Bennett's face turned red.
After Anastasia heard the recording, she burst into laughter. Bennett hid in a corner, very embarrassed.
"Well that didn't play out well for Bennett!" Kaiden laughed.
Cloud smirked and then stepped into the Archives. Ash followed.
"Hey Cloud, Ash, wait up! The rooms randomly shuffle at random times!" Kaiden yelled, running after Cloud and Ash.
"Look for room A4 without a pedestal!" responded Cloud, not turning back.
Anastasia left the group to search for room a4 herself. "Should we follow her?" I asked.
Diane nodded. "We should."
Kaiden ran down the doorway in front of him, as the rooms shuffled behind him
The next few minutes were filled with rapid footsteps from the split-up wizards, until they finally arrived at room A4, which coincidentally had 4 entrances, all of which, at least one wizard came out of.
Anastasia was already there when they entered. "You guys are slow." She remarked.
Cloud stepped into the middle of the room. "So by doing this I may or may not be exposing my central nervous system during this current state, but then again it's entirely made of... you know what never mind. Brace!"
And he took the visor off.
Behind the visor, a rapidly flashing series of images where his eyes should have been, along with massive networks of wires directly in front. The images ranged from pictures of organs to strands of binary code, even some thoughts. Every picture was... artfully glowing blue?
"Do you have questions?"
Kaiden raised his hand. "So...you're a Robo-Wizard?"
"Not by technicality- no pun intended, I SEE you getting excited. Basically the visor brutally tore out my actual eyes and replaced them with most of its machinery to optimize usage. I'm not sure where they are now, but there's still a bloodstain on my carpet and I have nightmares about it." Cloud shrugged. Ash grimaced.
Kaiden gaped in horror and slight amazement-at the technological eyes, not the fact that Cloud's real eyes got ripped out.
Diane looked horrified. "You didn't have a chance to choose to keep your eyes, did you?" She asked quietly.
"Uh... no. It just kind of spiked them out the moment I put it on..." Cloud responded. The background images transferred to an image of blood vessels.
The group shuddered at the background.
A few minutes later, the wizards found the portal out of the archives and ended back up at the Academy's entrance. The majority of them were still slightly disturbed by the fact that Cloud's eyes got ripped out.
"Today, we remember Evelyn Softtalon and Lloyd Goldensword, two brave wizards who faced up against malicious fairies. Their bravery, kindness, and thoughtful...ness will be cherished forever. But, we should be happy that they are in a better place now. Now, a moment of silence." The priest announced. When the moment of silence began, sobbing could be heard.
Cloud sat, cross-armed, visor once again obscuring his eyes(?). Ash sat next to him, looking as if reliving some memory he didn't want to.
Anastasia awkwardly asked Ash "You good?"
Ash didn't respond. Cloud's visor turned a shade of gray.
It was pure silence for about 20 minutes. Then, Diane broke the silence by asking "So....can we go now?"
"Of course not! That's absurd, Diane!" Anastasia shouted in reply. Kaiden raised a single eyebrow at Diane, then went back to staring blankly ahead.
Cloud's visor flickered from light red to grey. Ash tensed.
Diane shrugged. "Don't get me wrong- I miss Elle and Lloyd as much as you guys. But missing them doesn't do anything at all. And I'd rather be doing something productive than sitting here, mourning people that are never going to come back ever."
Cloud's visor flickered faster before completely shutting off. Ash seemed to relax a little, but still was on edge. For what memory, no one really knew.
Anastasia sat, silent, thinking after hearing what Diane have to say. "Thou agrees!" Bennett replied.
Kaiden nodded. "Alright, so what should we do?"
"I guess we'll leave, and continue our lives normally, as we put the good things first." I suggested.
The rest of the group agreed and stood up. As the group walked away, a question from Kaiden could be heard. "Wait do we have a test tomorrow? I forgot to study."