Note: This story is set in between the events of Episode 4 and Episode 5 of Season 2.
"Steam Star Grapplog, begone!" yelled Allie. But nothing happened!
Grapplog gurgled and squirmed around for a few seconds, then let his starfish limbs droop. Allie groaned. At 2 AM, when the rest of the house had long since fallen asleep, she had locked herself in her room to practice the banishing spell. Her door was shut firmly. She did not wanting someone to barge in and see her, like say Ray (who didn't like knocking), or her father. It was 3:30 by now and the spell hadn't even worked once.
The starfish started squirming around again and making more noises.
"What's the matter, Steamy? You tired too?"
Steamy straightened out his arms and cried in agreement.
"Sorry, Steamy. I know I can always send you back through the Veil, considering I summoned you, but if someone like cranky old Nigel decides to troll us again by leaving his creatures lying around haphazardly, I don't know what we'd do. Ray isn't that great at spells, and Gabe never has any time to practice anymore. But I guess we should both take a rest now," she said, as she lifted her glove to send Steamy back home.
As soon as she turned off the light and got into bed, though, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. She was anxious to master the spell, and it played on her mind as she tossed around. Finally she got up, turned on the light again, and grabbed her gauntlet, thinking Hey, maybe it'll work on someone smaller.
"Skull Cutter!"
Skull Cutter leapt through the darkness symbol in the portal and then looked up at Allie, awaiting her orders.
"Alright, Skull Cutter. I need practice with a banishing spell. Sorry, but I'm going to try out on you."
The dread mask nodded to give her the okay to proceed.
"Skull Cutter, begone!"
Shadows reached up from the ground the wrap up the skeleton and pull it down, back into the creature realm. Allie's eyes lit up and she felt herself beginning to smile. "I did it!" she shouted, a little loudly for nighttime. She then re-summoned Skull Cutter to thank it before sending it home, turning off the light, and curling up in bed to sleep soundly.
"What's up, Master Choten?" Fingers asked, somewhat nervous at having been summoned by his boss.
"Ah, Fingers. It seems we have a little… problem. My security cameras caught one of my minions sneaking off with one of my caged beasts to show it off to his friends. However, he was too incompetent with his gauntlet to control the weapon and allowed it to escape into the woods surrounding San Campion. I need you to retrieve the creature for me while Heller tends to other matters," the Choten said, while retrieving a picture of the creature from his pocket and holding it up.
"Alright, boss. And how do I capture it?"
"Just send it back to the Nature Realm and I'll pick it up with my portal."
"Awesome! Impalicus and I have been itching for a chance to show you just what we can do! I can't wait to eviscerate something!"
"A warning though, Fingers. I might need more humans to experiment on to see if I can convert them into creatures like I did with Saguru. Unless you want to join the minion in becoming one of my test subjects, I suggest you not disappoint me."
Fingers gulped, immediately dropping his enthusiasm, and stood still in fear while the Choten continued.
"One last thing, make it quick to avoid the Duel Masters finding out about this matter. I don't want any complications."
"Man, I hate being the interim Master of Light," said Gabriel while looking at Panopter. "I really wanted to sleep in this Saturday morning, but nooooo, I had to wake up at 5 AM to ask my parents to drive me here just so I could 'act on my responsibilities' and get nagged by Master Jaha for being late."
He turned around to keep an eye on the screens surrounding Panopter, suddenly spotting something odd on one of them. It looked like a scorpion, but it was immense and stingerless. Its forelimbs lacked pincers and looked like its other limb. It also lacked a tail. Colored light aqua blue, the creature had a ring of red eyes on its head, surrounding its ferocious, toothy mouth. Since it was around 8 feet long, Gabe knew it had to be from the creature realm.
"Gabe, did you really have you call me to tell me to walk into the middle of nowhere at six in the morning?" Allie said, rubbing her eyes, under which were bags from lack of sleep.
"The masters said this was a task we must take on as adepts. Besides, don't even complain for a second, Allie. Just try being a Master for one day- Oh! That's right, you can't! Do you have any idea at what time I had to wake up?"
"Whatever. I'll have you know, I was up late last night watching TV, so I bet I got less sleep than you…"
"Oh, really. I'll have you know there was a Change-O-Bots marathon last night, so I was up late watching TV too, probably even later than you!"
"I can vouch for Gabe on that one, but anyway guys, stop bickering," Ray interjected. "Nobody wants to be here, so the best we can do is work together and send this creature back home as soon as possible. Then we can go back home. What are we looking for anyway?"
"According to the tablets, it's called Red-Eye Scorpion. It looks like a member of Solifugae- that is, a camel spider- and it apparently hunts in packs deep in the Nature realm. Therefore, analytically speaking, a single Red-Eye Scorpion shouldn't be much of a problem."
"Alright, let's go!"
"Except you're forgetting that as a nature creature, it's pretty much in its element in the woods," added Allie.
"Right… I might have overlooked that in my analysis."
"No problem, Gabe. I'll just have Bob cook him into bug-barbecue."
"Because starting a magical forest fire is totally the way to keep Kaijudo a secret from Muggles."
"Fine, Allie, then what do you suggest?"
Allie's expression changed to one of uncertainty. "I don't really know, to be honest. I guess you can still use Bob, just make sure he doesn't take the heat too far. Plus, Squeaky can paralyze him with cuteness while Bob wails on him. Gabe, got anyone who can help?"
"Well, I don't think Gargle will like this place too much, and he's not really built for battle, so I guess I'll just go with Blinder Beetle."
"Alright then. Hey, what's that?"
The trio turned in the direction of a series of rustles deeper in the woods.
"It's probably the creature. It might be a good idea to summon our own creatures now."
The trio summoned their creatures and, while Squeaky hugged Allie, Tatsurion greeted Ray by asking who was getting a beating. He seemed disappointed at the thought of only getting to crush a lone insect.
They walked onward. Suddenly, they spotted Fingers dueling with the creature while standing on the trunk of one of many knocked-over trees. Impalicus had apparently tried to level the terrain.
"Ray? You're not supposed to be here! But oh well, I don't really care. You're right on time to see Impalicus banish that Scorpion over there. Can't stop me now, it's too late!"
Impalicus lunged forward toward the Scorpion and bit it ferociously, tearing off one of its legs before headbutting it and sending it flying backward into a tree. After dropping to the ground, the creature struggled to get up.
"Ray, the Choten must have pickup stationed in the Nature realm!" shouted Gabe. "You can't let him banish the creature!"
"Well, aren't you the smart one?" Fingers snapped back at him swiftly. "Too bad it ain't gonna help you. Impalicus, deeeeeestroy him!"
Impalicus leapt forward at Gabe, who deflected the pounce with his mana shield. The monster began attacking the shield until Blinder Beetle leapt in between him and Gabe. The Beetle blasted a series of electromagnetic pulses at the creature which induced apparent pain, but failed to knock him back. Impalicus replied by slashing at Blinder Beetle with his four foremost limbs until the Light creature vanished back into the Creature Realm.
"Looks like you're screwed now, kid," taunted Fingers, while commanding Impalicus to lift up an arm to stab Gabriel with.
Suddenly, Tatsurion's chains wrapped around the Darkness creature and sent him flying backward. While Impalicus was still on the ground, Squeaky blasted him with a sonic wave attack.
"Not quite, Fingers," Ray taunted back. He turned his head to look at Squeaky and pointed "By the way, nice teamwork, Allie."
Before she could reply, Gabe screamed and everyone's head turned to face him.
"I didn't know it could do that!" He said fearfully, pointing at the Red Eye Scorpion. Near it stood another, slightly smaller Scorpion, which the first Scorpion called to its side. The smaller Scorpion snapped at it, tearing off one of its legs and throwing it on the nearby floor. This leg soon regenerated into another small Scorpion. This Scorpion, too, began tearing at another's legs.
"Well then," Fingers said, his focus drawn back to his mission. "Impalicus, get that leg before it finishes growing!"
"Stop him, Bob!"
Impalicus sidestepped to dodge Bob's chain whip while running toward the leg, which was commencing regeneration. Under Allie's command, Squeaky fired a pack of fear bats at the ghoul, but Impalicus resisted and stabbed the now nearly fully-formed new Scorpion, banishing it.
"No!" screamed Ray.
"Well, that's my cue," said Fingers. "Mission complete. What the boss doesn't know won't hurt him." He pointed at the other Scorpions. "I'd get you too, kid, but Impalicus is too damaged to take you on. Later!" He sprinted away and disappeared into the deeper forest. Ray stared with anger.
"Forget him," piped Allie, putting her hand on Ray's right shoulder. Right now, we have bigger problems to deal with. Ray turned around and Allie pointed at a group of twelve scorpions before them.
"Right," Ray replied. "So… how exactly are we going to deal with them?"
"Well, since Fingers has already accomplished his goal, there aren't really any drawbacks to banishing them," replied Gabe.
"Understood," said Ray. "Get'em, Bob!"
Tatsurion cracked his knuckles. The prospect of more opponents to destroy delighted him. He used his whip to knock three smaller scorpions into the trees standing nearby, but a group of five leapt onto him and began gashing at him with their legs and jaws. Tatsurion tore one off and slammed it into the ground, banishing it, but soon collapsed under the repeated attacks of the other four and was sent across the Veil in a flash of light. The four bugs then turned their attention to Ray, while on the side, Allie was using her mana shield to block a gang of two Scorpions which had already mobbed and defeated Squeaky, losing two members to a sonic blast in the process.
"Oh no!" shouted Gabe, pointing at the large original scorpion, who was crawling away into the deeper forest. "It's getting away! We can't let anyone see it!"
"Well, stop him, Gabe!" shouted Allie. "Ray and I sort of have our hands full right now."
"Alright, I-I'll try," said Gabe. He cried out for Thunder Guardian Shaw K'Naw and ran into the forest in pursuit of the Scorpion."
Ray ran to Allie's side and kicked one of the attacking Scorpions in the face, causing it to screech in pain. The two Scorpions then turned their attention to Ray, while the three from before were still in pursuit of him. He ran away, leaping on and over the logs Impalicus had felled and considering himself lucky that the Scorpions were rather slow. Once he'd gotten a fairly safe distance away, he stopped to catch his breath in gasps.
"Hey Ray!" Allie yelled at him. "Check this out. Red-Eye Scorpion, begone!"
The scorpion nearest Ray was stopped in its tracks by shadowy threads, which pulled it into the ground, banishing it.
"Aaaaalright!" Allie excited shoutedly, a twinkle in her eye and a ridiculous grin on her face.
"Awesome, Allie! That was amazing! How'd you do it!?" Her grin didn't get any smaller at his compliments.
"Well, you know, I guess I'm just great at spells." She wasn't about to tell him about the long hours she'd spent practicing. That wasn't impressive in her eyes.
"That's really cool, Allie. Think you can do it with more than one at a time?"
The thought of it unnerved her a bit. "I'll try," she said. At her incantation, dark threads coiled around two scorpions that were getting rather close to Ray, stopping them, but after some struggling, they broke free. Ray stepped back.
"Sorry Ray," she said with concern on her face. "I just don't have enough mana to see it through."
"It's okay Allie. I gotcha covered." He ran away from the scorpions in a U-turn maneuver to head back toward her, then gripped her hand tightly. "There. Now we can pool our mana together."
"Alright," said Allie, looking into his eyes and nearly wanting to step back a bit in shyness. "On the count of three. Three, two one…"
"Red-Eye Scorpion, begone!" They shouted in unison, banishing two of the marauders.
"Ray, this is great and all, but they're approaching too quickly and we still only have enough mana to banish two at a time!"
"That's true, but we also only have enough mana to summon two more creatures and even if we try that, they'll just get steamrolled. What do we do, Allie?" He stared into her eyes with fear.
The fear reached into Allie as well, jolting her into fast thought.
"Well, maybe if you got shocked it would boost your mana production…"
"Allie. I've been to the Fire Realm, fought and beaten an evil psychopath several times, seen that my city is run by a corrupt bully, and found my dead father only to have him betray me like six-thousand times! What's gonna shock me?"
Allie grabbed him and kissed him in a blur.
Just a quick peck, thought Allie. He can't think it's anything more than necessary, or anything more than a stupid shock. She wanted more, but she let go.
An insane rush of emotion coursed through Allison, her glove glowing white in reaction, loudly whirring in an overflow of mana. The shock had apparently worked, as Ray's glove was reacting in the same way. Ray was paralyzed with surprise, so Allie quickly grabbed his hand and chanted. A circle of shadow spawned in the gap between their legs and shot forward, branching into an elegant dark tree that fleetly consumed all the remaining scorpions. Allie, drained of mana, fell forward to the ground, stopping the fall with her hands. Ray, who hadn't said the incantation, had slightly more mana left, but not much. Allie got up slowly and weakly said "Dude, you shouldn't have asked that question."
Ray replied with exhaustion in his voice "What was that, Allie?"
"Just-" she fell down again. Still woozy, she continued, a tremble in her voice.
"Just a shock Ray. Just a shock, that's all."
"You kissed me!"
"I had to th… I had to think fast… Besides, it worked, didn't… didn't it?"
"Yes." He looked at her small figure on the ground, struggling to stand once more, and his expression softened as she raised her head to meet his eyes with hers. He didn't really know what he felt. It was warm. "Good job, Allie. Nice thinking there, then." He held out his hand to pull her up and let her rest on his shoulder. "Just promise me you won't mention this eveeer again."
"Sure thing, pal. I don't even want to think about it," she said, sticking out her tongue in fake disgust. The pair giggled together frailly. Then, they turned their heads to the side, from where they had heard a sudden rustling. Gabe stepped out and faced them.
"Guys, I did it! I beat the big Scorpion! I can't believe it! It was a bit of a struggle for Shaw K'naw, but we pulled through."
Shaw K'naw chirped proudly.
"Good job, Gabe. I knew you'd do great, Mister Light Master" said Allie, still smiling. "Now then, let's get home and get some well deserved rest. She let her head droop onto Ray's shoulder again.
Tucked in, Allie couldn't sleep again. The feel of her lips meeting his was burning strongly in her mind. Meanwhile, in another room in the same house, Ray was in deep slumber, dreaming about cuddling with Allie in the shade of a tall, dark tree. He was under her spell.