Villains High: Kory's Heylin Issue

Spring break was finally over and students were going back to school. For most normal students, they were either unexcited or jumping with joy: they were unhappy about leaving their fun activities and going back to boring classes, or they were excited to reunite with their friends and talk for hours about the awesome stuff they did during the holidays.

For the students of Villains High, the infamous high school for the offspring of villains and antiheroes located in Villainapolis, this was pretty much the system, except when it came to talking about their holidays. Whenever those were discussed, they went from enjoyable shopping trips at the Villainapolis Mall to out-of-town family vacations to wreak havoc and spread evil in innocent towns.

"Hey, Kory!" Macy and Haya were about to head to class together until they stumbled upon Kory picking up items from her locker. At first, they didn't see much of her because her locker's door was shielding her, but the moment she poked her head out to look at her friends, the daughters of Macbeth and Haya yelped.

"Great Attila, what happened to you?" Haya pointed at Kory. "How'd you end up with your hair reaching all the way to your feet and wolf fur on your shirt's collar? Did Guggen finally crack and make you go hunting for fur for Criminal Design?"

"No." Kory shook her head. "I went with my dad to the Ragnarok Festival at Jotunheim and had such a blast!" She chuckled nervously at the sight of her giant ponytail. "Then again, I may have had a case of giant's growth. Everytime I go back to my dad's realm, I always grow an area of myself."

"Really?" Macy asked. "Aside from your hair, you look normal. But what's with the wolf fur?"

"Relax, it's fake." Kory pulled out two more books from her locker. "Carmine would kill me if it was real. Oh, wait 'til you see this!" Kory pulled out one last thing from her locker and showed it off to her friends, who had to lean over to get a better look.

"It's...a box," Macy arched an eyebrow at the small, caramel brown wooden box hardly bigger than a Rubik's Cube with peculiar black symmetrical iris patterns. The lid had a red-and-black yin-yang symbol painted right at the core.

Haya was the first to give an agitated reaction. "Great Attila, it's an Asian puzzle box! Where the heck did you find it?"

"It was one of the prices at this stand of throwing mistletoe at the Balder dummy back at the Ragnarok festival. I was going to wait until I showed it to you before opening..."

"DON'T OPEN IT!" Haya yanked the box away from Kory's hands before the latter could open it.

"What's the big deal?" Kory asked. "If you wanted to open it yourself, you could just ask!"

"Kory, you're a demigoddess!" Haya tapped the former's forehead with her knuckles. "Since you know and believe in ancient legends, you have to know that Asian puzzle boxes are always used to trap evil spirits in them. Unlocking one of them could be catastrophic!"

"I thought that was Pandora's Box," Macy said.

"Macy, get real. Greco-Romans aren't the only ones with enchanted boxes." Haya turned back to Kory. "Look, Kory, you have to make sure that this box never gets open!"

"What do you recommend? That I leave it in my locker and wait until lunch break to ask Koutí Epimetheus if she knows anything on how to keep it safe?" Kory took the box back in her hands.

"Yeah, after the incident that happened with Sean breaking into her locker and opening her box of sins, I say cross that idea off." Macy shook her head. "Here's a thought. Kory and I both have Spiritual Villainy during second period. Maybe we could ask the teacher for advice on keeping...Yeah, now that I think about it, what kind of evil spirit do you think is in that box?"

"Probably the ancient kind that is best to remain locked up," Haya said.

"C'mon, we'll be late for class." Kory shoved the box into her backpack and headed for class with her friends, unaware that the box glowed ominously with a silent cackle.

During first period

There were times were Kory really wished that she hadn't made the vow to harm teachers with her Nordic powers and amulets.

Out of all the things Professor Count Olaf could come up with for the first day back from spring break, he had to go with an evil 'Show and Tell'. Apparently, he had come up with the idea of giving his returning Evil Drama Class students the 'pop quiz slash assignment' of showing an item they had collected over the spring break and talking about it in front of the class, lest they wanted to get an A for failing.

I just had to be born from the god of mischief, Kory mentally grumbled as she watched her classmates coming to the stage of their amphitheater classroom and showing the little items they brought. Much to her relief, hardly anyone brought their items, resulting in several A-s. Those who managed to get pictures of their items on their phones or actually brought them with them (which frankly, they were just gift shop worthy trinkets) got graded in the C area.

Now what? I got nothing from my spring break except... A bad idea hit Kory's brain and she quickly looked through her bag. Her puzzle box was still cuddled between her books and pouch of charms. Haya told me to never open it. I guess as long as I show it, there's no harm.

"Next up in line!" Professor Olaf announced as he sat dramatically on his desk. "Kory? Anything you'd like to show us about your spring break?"

"I might." Kory sighed and grabbed the box, holding it close to her as she walked down the steps and up on the stage, facing the other dozen of students who formed her Evil Drama class. She took a deep breath and revealed her box. Professor Olaf was the first to react by screaming and jumping on his desk in fright.

"AN ASIAN PUZZLE BOX?" He yelped. "Kory Lokisia, where on earth did you find this priceless artifact of doom?"

"At the Ragnarok Fest back in Jotunheim," Kory said uneasily.

"Looks like one of those cheap thrift shop students," Hannah South scoffed. Kory found herself giving a spiteful look at Hannah while the other students rolled their eyes in mutual annoyance. Daughter of Prince Hans from the Southern Isle, Hannah took every liberty to act like the spoiled, bratty princess she was whose desires for attention and ego made her want to brag that she was far better than anyone else. That princess was a mere mortal with no real talent other than being an alpha bitch that managed to annoy everyone that Penna De Mort herself had to cover her ears with headphones playing the sweet melody of people screaming in agony rather than hear Hannah rant on.

"Be careful what you say, Hannah!" The teacher spoke sternly as he stood up from his hiding spot and walked towards Kory and held out his hand. "I'm sorry, Kory, but the puzzle box must be confiscated. It's too dangerous."

"But I was planning on showing it to my Spiritual Villainy teacher to ask him what I should do with it since Haya told me that I should never open it or I'll end up releasing the entrapped spirit!" Kory protested.

"And she's not wrong." The professor agreed. "But nevertheless..."

"Oh, please!" Hannah rolled her eyes and got off her seat to head towards the stage. "How do you even know it's an actual spiritual prison and not some sort of deceiving junk that a slippery peasant just swindled you with? Wouldn't opening it justly confirm whether it's real or not?"

"Didn't you listen to Professor Olaf and Kory?" Karlos Python spun his fingers near his temples to make the cuckoo gesture. "If you end up opening the box and it does end up being real, you'd be unleashing a spirit who could do gods know what to Villainapolis!"

"Oh, rubbish! If my dad can handle talking snowmen and ice queens, I can handle one non-existing spirit!" Hannah rudely snatched the box from Kory and against the latter's and the teacher's begging, she opened the box and shook it upside down.

Nothing.

"See?" She snorted. "It's just a..."

The box suddenly ejected itself out of Hannah's grasp by erupting a giant blast of green smoke. It sent the box flying to the nearest wall mask, crushing both the mask and the box in the process. Once the wooden shards hit the ground, the green smoke started to move and shift into a smoky human skeleton. As the green muscles started to appear, the 'thing' let out a silent hissing that turned into a maniac's cackle until the 'thing' finally grew clothes and hair. The green flames that came from the creature's body evaporated, leaving a teenager boy in a purple ancient swing coat with mystical tentacle motifs, cyan mini harem pants, purple Chinese slippers, and purple fingerless gloves. He just stood there, his head dangling down and his blood red hair hung messily over his face until he used his hand to flip his hair and bring up his head, revealing his overall shoulder length red hair with curled ends, tanned skin, green eyes, and black facial markings that made him look like he was crying black tears with rectangular ends.

"Ha!" He exclaimed in dramatic victory.

"Congratulations, South!" Kory punched Hannah on the arm, causing the princess to yelp in pain. "Here's your non-existing spirit!"

Hannah gulped and chuckled nervously while Kory, the teacher, and the rest of the class gave her murderous glares. "Oops?"

"Scored one point for classic mortal stupidity and temptation!" The boy floated away to the nearest evil. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have actual evil to spread!" He kicked the window, turning the glass into sand, and flew away cackling into the thundering morning. As his laughter disappeared into the distance, Professor Olaf looked at both Kory and Hannah angrily.

"Since you two brought the puzzle box and unleashed the spirit, prepare to face certain expulsion if you don't catch him and lock him up!"

Later, at the library

"I can't believe that you released the spirit!" Haya kept scolding Kory. After the incident, Kory had instantly texted her friends, the other members of the Dark Rulers band, and dragged Hannah angrily by the arm towards the library where the former instantly pulled out any book she could find related to ancient spirits while the latter indifferently filed her nails until the others came.

"Hey, I was merely showing it so that I wouldn't get a bad grade until Miss Better-At-Mouthing-Off made me prove it was real by opening it herself!" Kory snapped as she flicked through the books.

"Way to go, Hannah!" Macy glared at her fellow princess. "Thanks to your ego, a spirit's out there doing gods know what!"

"So what?" The brat shrugged. "We deal with evil things all the time...AAH!" She yelped when Kory grabbed her by the dress and forced her to stare at her green eyes glowing with anger.

"Listen...carefully, you posh freak! If we, including you, don't undo what you have created, then you can start counting the days until Villains High, Villainapolis, and everything else disappears, and soon enough you'll be the one forced to chew on her own nails and drink your own saliva and sleep in rags because that's all you'll have left!"

Hannah gulped in fear at the idea of living like a poor peasant. She threw away her nail file and put her gloves back on. "OK! Let's find info!"

"Yay ahead of you ladies!" Xaos Sethson, Kory's beloved boyfriend and son of Seth, held out an old manuscript. "Behold the Guide to Mystical Containers Throughout History, and guess what, they have a chapter for all enchanted boxes built since ancient times, including Asian puzzle boxes."

"Sounds handy if you want to store your jewelry," Macy commented. Xaos put the manuscript onto the table and opened it to the chapter of ancient boxes, where he flipped through the context organized in alphabetical order until he reached 'puzzle box'.

"OK, the puzzle box was caramel brown, had black iris symbols on the sides, and a red-and-black yin-yang symbol on the lid," Kory told Xaos. "Can you find that?"

"Anything for you, angel." He said with a flirtatious smirk, making her blush a bush, Macy giggle, and Hannah and Haya gag. "Found it... and we're in big trouble."

"Why? What does it say?" Hannah asked.

"Well it says that while it's true puzzle boxes contain evil spirits, they are mainly used to trap and seal dangerously powerful creatures called 'Heylin Witches'," Xaos explained as he read through the pages. "If the book is correct, the puzzle box that Kory had was concealing Hanlin Wuya..."

"Oh boy," Haya freaked out. "I heard the stories of him in my clan. He's the son of Wuya, the most dangerous Heylin Witch to have existed because of her godly powers. They say he can easily transform himself from human to ghost and vice versa, manipulate the environment around him, give sentience to the insentient, and create so many evils that he can bring ten thousand years of darkness upon the world!"

"That's a lot of darkness." Kory bit her lip.

"Hang on. If this Hanlin freak is all powerful, then how did he get sucked into the box in the first place?" Hannah asked.

"The text say that after his mom lost a battle to a powerful ancient warrior and got trapped in another puzzle box, the warrior hunted down Hanlin because he feared Hanlin would follow in his mother's footsteps, and gave him the same fate as Wuya." Xaos quickly checked the manuscript's publishing date. "This thing was published during the Spanish Inquisition, which I'm guessing means that Hanlin must have been stuck in that box way longer."

"Fifteen hundred years, actually." Haya pointed out.

"Forget the years! How do we capture him?" Hannah exclaimed. "If he doesn't get his leash on soon, Lokisia and I will be expelled!"

"Gee, the priorities you have when the end is near." Macy rolled her eyes.

"Wait a minute. A fifteen hundred year old Heylin witch's son?" Kory turned to Haya. "Isn't Safír Dragon around that age?"

"Yeah, and he's the son of the Sapphire Dragon!" Haya snapped her fingers. "Excellent idea! We can ask him to use his fire to turn Hanlin into sapphire until we can figure up how to seal him again!"

"But..." Hannah hesitated.

"We'd better hurry." Xaos stashed the book back with the others. "Last I heard, Safír's playing hookie with Kit Bogan at the Villainapolis Mall. Ten golden blights say Hanlin will went to spread evil there first."

"Then let's go!" Kory and her friends started to make a run for it.

"Wait! You don't even know if..." Hannah continued to protest.

"The last time you protested, you cost me one puzzle box and an ancient wiz boy to escape!" Kory viciously told her. "I'm not going to repeat that same mistake!" And so they left, leaving the upset princess ignored.

Around eleven

No broken mirrors. No debris. No cars running at the sight of a black cat.

Translation: the Villainapolis Mall still looked in one piece when Kory and her friends managed to reach it after about an hour of being stuck in traffic. Haya was still ticked that they had to wait until the public circulator bus finally got them where they wanted to be after going in circles throughout Villainapolis. She still complained about how it would have been easier if Xaos and Kory used one of their amulets to teleport them all the way to the mall, but the amulets are unpredictable. The last time the demigods misused them, they ended up in Salem instead of gym class and almost got stuck in a bonfire.

"Let's hope we can find Safír before it's too late," Kory decided when they reached the front doors. "Here's the plan. We split in teams of two, one mortal and one demigod. Xaos, you go with Macy to find Safír. Haya and I will try to track down Hanlin and keep him isolated until he's gone to Sapphire Ville."

They nodded their heads. While Xaos and Macy headed for the 2nd floor of the mall, where they knew they'd find Safír coming out of the movies with Kit, Kory and Haya started their research on the first floor. The entire place was full of people ages twenty to sixty shopping in all the most insane shops imaginable, relaxing in the massage seats under the artificial palm hanging trees, or attacking the nearest ice cream shop with cash.

"This would have been much easier if I had something physical of his to use for tracking," Haya grumbled. "How do we find an ancient Heylin Witch craving world domination and human slavery in a mall?"

"He was pretty dramatic when he got released." Kory pondered. "Hanlin must be one to crave for attention. I bet if I wanted to be recognized after fifteen hundred years of imprisonment, I'd cover myself with flamboyance..."

A sound of breaking glass, screeching sirens, and dogs barking echoed from the other side of the mall. People screamed 'Fire! Fire!' at the sight of the green smoke trailing its way above them. The girls quickly nodded at each other and ran at the direction of the smoke, tracing its path until they saw it pouring out a black marble store. Petrified dogs and guards were positioned at the entrance and literally looked... petrified in terror.

"Oh gods..." Kory gasped.

"Hanlin's broken into the Tamatoa Jewel Imperium!" Haya ran in first with Kory following. They walked through the displays of encased statues made of pure jewelry, tiaras and necklaces made of authentic gemstones, really pure crystal balls, and extremely rich diamond wedding rings that would make your grandmother go broke for her money. Whoever was in charge of the store must have abandoned his shift and run out in fright. Otherwise, the place was intact on the inside

"I don't get it." Kory frowned. "Why is the place still clean if Hanlin attacked it?"

"I agree. He must be looking for..." Haya gasped. "He must be looking for a..."

"A Shen Gong Wu."

The girls turned and saw their friends coming in with Safír Dragon and Kit. "One just activated somewhere in the mall. The Crown of Solomon," Safír said. "Whoever uses it can make any of his wishes granted. My guess is that Hanlin will go after it so that he can wish to have his full powers back and permanently become solid."

"Wasn't he solid already?" Kory raised a finger.

"Not quite. You see, when Dashi created the puzzle boxes to trap in Wuya and her son, he enchanted them so that in case they were ever released, they'd be nothing but harmless ghosts who'll need others' physical hands to find them a way to turn from ghostly to solid.

"However they only turn into ghosts when they are willingly released or the box is opened. If the box gets severed or destroyed while they are still in it, the effects will accidently damage the. Because his box was destroyed before he could morph into a ghost, Hanlin is an on-and-off part-ghost, part solid Heylin Witch with decreased powers."

"So he's not fully super powered?" Kit asked.

"I'd say right now he's on the 'beyond-average' level of magic like most of the sorcerers at Villains High." Safír shrugged. "But if he gets his hands on the Crown of Solomon..." He looked around the jewelry shop. "Wow. He's not as messy as we expected."

"Do you think you can turn Hanlin into a sapphire statue?" Xaos admired one of the ruby samurai statues. "I bet they'd sell him here for a good price."

"Sorry, but he'd have to be fully solid for me to transform him, and if I did, my Shen Gong Wu genetics would make me increase the need for power and turn whoever I run into as sapphire people. Why do you think I got cuffed with this soot bracelet to control my powers when I first came here?" He poked at the black cuff bracelet he wore on his right arm.

"If that won't work, then maybe the first thing we should do is make sure he doesn't get his hands first on the Crown of Solomon." Kory got out of the store and back in the mall. "If Hanlin knows that it's in the mall, he'll go reckless the closer he gets to it."

"Like my brothers when they lose something in their room!" Macy giggled. Just then, more explosions came out throughout the mall. Like a domino effect, they were followed by the sounds of glass breaking, walls crushing, people screaming, the speakers ordering everyone to evacuate, and somebody car honking viciously before a crash and a scream 'MY ICE CREAM!' were followed.

Kit quickly jumped and used her frog-like fingers and toes to climb up the walls. After two minutes of observing, she came back down. "He's busted into almost every single shop in the 1st and second floor. The third floor's still good and I don't think he went through the food court."

"Let's go." They dodged their way through the crowds of screaming people and briefly gasped when saw that some of them were turned to stone. It was like going through a Gorgon's garden until they reached the food court. The restaurants were all void of employees, some reeking with the stench of overcooked burning meat. Flies made their way to the abandoned food trays that relaxed on the tables. The only things that looked undamaged were the artificial palm hanging trees and the black fountain with, ironically, the Weird Sisters' apparitions' statues. The oil that spilled from the fountain was the only sound emitted throughout the place.

Safír held out his nose and sniffed. "It's here. The Crown of Solomon, I can smell it."

"Is it that crown?" Macy suddenly pointed at one of the fountain statues, particularly at the one of the seven-headed king. One of middle heads bared a crown brighter and cleaner than the others, with obsidian irises and crimson rubies.

"The Crown of Solomon!" Safír gasped.

A booming sound came from the hallways and in came Hanlin Wuya, standing on a cloud of green smoke. He cackled at the group below him. "Thanks for the spoiler, losers!"

"Quick, we can't let him reach the Crown of Solomon!" Safír shouted.

Haya stepped up first by throwing a dozen of her throwing knives at Hanlin. Normally it would have worked if she wanted to pin somebody on a wall, but because Hanlin could phase himself as he pleased, his body was a mass of air that let the knives go right through his guts and landed on a nearby tree. "Next?"

An idea struck Macy and her eyes darted around the food court until she found a foamless fire extinguisher. She kicked on its glass case and grabbed the heavy trinket. When Hanlin started to float his way towards the fountain, she sprayed at him. He yelled when water hit him and screamed as if he had been hit with boiling tar instead. "Guys, water weakens him!" Macy shouted.

"Only in ghost form!" Hanlin's body glowed and stopped being see through. Now physical, he waved his hands and formed a water ball from the blast, sending it right back at Macy. The princess had little time to scream before his ball hit her and petrified her in ice.

"Macy!" Kory shouted.

Hanlin exploited her distraction by kicking her in the back and using her as a trampoline to make his jump for the Crown of Solomon. It seemed like it would be the end of the world when his hands reached out for it...

Until another hand grabbed the artifact at the same time as him.

"H...Hannah?" Kory gasped. Her friends were as shocked as her when they saw the princess who had started it all while Hanlin looked angry as ever.

"Hanlin Wuya, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!" She pulled out a brown comb out of her dress. "I wager the Tangled Web Comb!"

"What in Osiris is she doing?" Xaos asked Safír.

"She's challenging him in a showdown. If she wins, she wins the Crown of Solomon and the Shen Gong Wu wagered. Loser gets nothing."

"Fine!" Hanlin searched through his own clothes and pulled out a spider-like gun. "I wager my Silk Spitter!"

"The game is Honest Tyrant," Hannah declared. "Last one standing wins!"

"LET'S GO!" The two contestants shouted. "XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN!"

The ground suddenly and the tiled floor started to break itself apart while the fountain started to grow in size.

"What's happening?" Kit shouted as a bright light came and blinded them.

"It's a Xiaolin Showdown! This stuff happens!" Safír shouted back.

The bright light disappeared and the teens, excluding Safír, dropped their jaws. The food court and the mall itself had completely disappeared, leaving them standing in dispersed black and white tiles that floated in the middle of a blue ethereal atmosphere. While the group was standing in one tile, they saw that Hannah and Hanlin were both standing in separate tiles among a group of hovering tiles that circulated a giant Buddha made out of the fountain's statues, where the Crown of Solomon stood. Each tile was labeled 'TRUE' on the white side and 'FALSE' on the black side.

"Well, you don't see that every day," Xaos said.

"Wow. Hannah is challenging Hanlin in a truth or lie contest!" Safír whistled. "Can't wait to see what happens!"

"GONG YI TEMPAI!" The contestants shouted.

"Tangled Web Comb!" Hannah held out her Shen Gong Wu. The comb's teeth turned into long ropes that extended upward and reached for the first tile above her, swinging herself upward. Just when she landed on the tile, Hanlin shouted "Silk Spitter!" Spider webs were sent right at Hannah's feet, gluing her to the tile.

"Hannah South, you have little friends because you crave for superiority. True or false?" He questioned.

"Of course I want to be superior, and I don't need people for it! True!" The silk on Hannah's feet dissolved and she got up the same way her tile started rising three feet up.

"I get it now!" Kory grinned. "If your opponent traps you on a tile, you have to answer whatever question you end up with, and if you're correct, your tile rises! Way to go, Hannah!"

"But what if you lie?" Haya questioned. Right on cue, a ticked Hanlin tried jumping his way up through the tiles that constantly moved until Hannah used the Tangled Web Comb to make him trip and miss, leaving him to hang on a tile with the possibility of falling to his doom.

"Hanlin Wuya, is true that you seek world domination because you think people judge you for being weaker than your mother?" Hannah shouted.

"Keep dreaming! False!" The tile did not agree with him and spun, making Hanlin look like a hamster tripping in its rolling wheel. He got lucky to land on the tile beneath him, but since the previous one disintegrated, he had to find another way to get up.

"I guess that answers it." Haya shrugged. They continued to watch as the two opponents used their Shen Gong Wu to either bring themselves up to the higher tiles or make the other trip onto a tile so that they'd be forced to answer a question. Each question was thrown as an attempt to push their buttons. So far, Hannah was the one on a role, which kind of impressed the others. They had never seen the snooty princess so daring to admit her own flaws. Hanlin, on the other hand, turned out to have a bigger ego that refused to let him accept defeat. He finally cracked.

"Silk Spitter! Heylin Power!" His weapon glowed with green and spit the silk all over the remaining tiles floating above him and Hannah. The moment they all got stuck in one green spider web, it caused a chain of explosions, destroying all the tiles except for one. One more stand on it and they could reach the Crown of Solomon.

They swung their way to the final tile. Kory could taste herself biting her nails as the two confronted each other on the ultimate questioning.

"Hannah South, you purposely ignored your teacher and Kory Lokisia's warnings and inadvertently released me out of jealousy. True or false?"

They watched Hannah South bite her lips and feared that she would decide to lie to hide her pride, but she risked humiliation and said sourly. "Yes."

The tile didn't budge. "And what about you, Hanlin? Were you mainly looking to escape the puzzle box because you thought that without your mother around, you could be whoever you wanted to be?"

This caused Hanlin to hesitate. "I... I... I GIVE UP!" Hanlin let go of the tile, which lifted Hannah up to the Crown of Solomon for her to grab it while Hanlin fell into the abyss. Reality warped back to the normal food court and mall and Hannah landed with the Tangled Web Comb, Silk Spitter, and Crown of Solomon in her hands.

"Nice job, Hannah." Kory dared to congratulate the princess. Hanlin, in the meantime, was standing on his knees and looking like a broken puppy.

"I guess you're gonna wish me back into the puzzle box?" He asked, broken.

Hannah pouted in thought. After a few quick glances at the others, she smirked. "I think I have a better punishment for you. Crown of Solomon!"

Later in the afternoon, back in Villains High

A month of detention and helping the janitor mop the floors after school. It was better than being expelled, but it was quite a punishment for Kory and Hannah to mop the floors of the entire school.

"Look at me, I'm a flying witch!" Hanlin laughed as he surfed onto the floor with his mop like a broomstick. Speciosus Narissa chased him in their little game of 'mop surf'.

"So let me get this straight," Gilliard Moss asked Kory and Hannah. "You wished the magic crown to give Hanlin the punishment he deserves, and it came up with turning him into full flesh, leave him with only a quarter of his powers, and force him to go to school?"

"After living under the shadow of his mother, he just wanted to be himself," Hannah shrugged. "Isn't that the point of VH? Being who you want to be?"

"I thought you wanted to be an evil ruler just like your dad," Kory said as she mopped the hallway leading to the lockers.

"I do and..." Hannah sighed. "It's just not easy. Hans is an evil ruler who manages to get whatever he wants with charisma and everyone still loves him, but when I try to be manipulative, everyone hates me." She looked at Kory. "That's why I'm... jealous of you. You don't have everything that you want and you don't try to be a villain like your father Loki, and yet everyone loves you."

"Gosh." Kory said. "I didn't know that's how you felt..." She then turned into a casual tone. "But since you got me into such a mess, I'd prefer to stay clear away from the friend zone."

"So we're good?" Hannah said. "Back to hating each other?"

"Yep."

"Phew! What a relief!"

"Seriously?" They caught Hanlin sitting on top of the lockers and gagging at the sight as if he were watching a gross sitcom. "This is what high school's like? Enemies sentimentally making up?"

"Well, there is one way for a high school girl to tell a guy that she's mad he destroyed her favorite mall." Kory picked up her bucket full of soap and water and threw it at Hanlin, soaking him to the bone. "A good old bath to get rid of fifteen hundred years of bad stench!"

The others giggled at the scene, even Hannah. She actually enjoyed the drama with her enemies. Then came a small wind that caught her attention. She caught sight of a feminine silhouette standing by the stairs. You owe me, it hissed before spitting smoke out of its nose and disappeared by the time the smoke cleared away like creepy lizards.

*End of Episode*

*Characters Introduced:

Karlos Python, son of Kaa from THE JUNGLE BOOK

Hanlin Wuya, son of Wuya from XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN

Safír Dragon, son of the Sapphire Dragon from XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN

Kit Bogan, daughter of Junk and Stuff from STRANGE MAGIC

To view the characters, go to VILLAINSHIGHROCKS on Deviantart*

*Next Episode: Night of The Living Otterflies*