Chapter 1: Elected for the Pride Games
A quick resume from past events
About two decades ago, Belle and her Beast became King and Queen of a land called the United States of Auradon, which united many kingdoms and many worlds so different from one another. Meanwhile, the villains were all banished to the Isle of the Lost, a special island prison keeping all the villains trapped within a magic neutralizing barrier.
To celebrate their victory of finally gaining global peace and the signed treaties on Pride Rock, all the world leaders from the U.N created the Pride Games, a sporting event that took place every four years where international schools would compete in a series of academic, athletic, magical, and other sorts of events between one another while co-habiting with one another. The way it works is that every international school tries to obtain as many records as possible in order to be part of the four final schools that compete in the games. Representatives from the U.N would then randomly pick the names of two schools from the four and have these two compete and cohabit with one another during the Pride Games while the other two faced one another. This year marks the 5th Pride Games.
But the Pride Games would be different this year.
Before becoming king of Auradon last year, Prince Ben passed a royal decree granting a chance for a better life for the descendants of the villains trapped on the Isle, and through everything that happened from Maleficent trying to get Fairy Godmother's wand to Voldemort trying to gain eternal power and invincibility from the Villains Comet by using his own daughter to do his dirty work, King Ben's decree ended up being fulfilled and now all the teen VKs are attending Auradon Prep.
Which is why most of the VKs wished that their school wouldn't end up being chosen to compete the one school in all of Auradon they personally disliked the most. A school for the descendants of antiheroes, the individuals that villains despised more than heroes.
St Luther Rose Academy.
Close to mid-March at Auradon Prep, just as everybody got back from spring break
Martin Fiske stepped out the taxi after giving the driver a tip. The taxi then left, leaving Martin to look at the front of his school, Auradon Prep.
It was so different compared to Dragon Hall. Bigger gardens and sports field full of heroic and villainous offspring walking together and chatting as if they had been friends forever, the new Malevia Village crowded with VKs getting back in their houses from their spring break, birds chirping as they flew into the blue sky, and some pets chasing one another. While he did miss Dragon Hall a bit, for it was the first school he'd ever been because his father Monkey Fist had him tutored in his castle, Auradon Prep was easier to adapt because, unlike most of the VKs, Martin had spent a majority of his life living in England and barely a five months on the Isle of the Lost.
"Hey, Martin!" Ben and Mal, the daughter of Maleficent, approached him.
"Hello, Benjamin," Martin said. He nodded his head at Mal. "Same to you Maleficent."
"I thought we went over this. Just because I'm legally named Maleficent Bertha does not mean I don't prefer to be called Mal." She arched an eyebrow at him.
"I'm British, I call people by their full names. Did you two have a splendid spring break at Arendelle?"
"We sure did." Ben smiled. "The royal ice skating rink was very enjoyable. Although, it's a relief that Jay and Carlos didn't come over. They would have annihilated all the chocolate at the buffet."
"Yes, I heard they're quite obsessed with it." The three teens laughed at the thought of Jay, the son of Jafar, and Carlos, the son of Cruella De Vil, emptying the chocolate reserve of an entire kingdom.
"So, how did it go in England?" Mal switched the subject. Martin's face changed from a smiling face to the one of a pouting puppy that just got kicked out. Ben and Mal began to fear the worst until Martin smirked and pulled out a white envelope, and out of it, a college acceptance letter.
"YOU GOT ACCEPTED INTO OXFORD?" Ben exclaimed as he shook hands with Martin. "Martin, congratulations! You got into the one school you dreamed of entering!"
"Spending days, weeks, and nights ever since I got here to complete a resumé, write a themed essay, get letters of recommendation, governmental legibility documents..."
"Legibility documents? Why did you need those?" Mal asked.
"The Oxford admission office said that they needed governmental validation for my application. My father may have been an alumni at the Oxford archaeology department, but he is a villain. The documents were to reassure the office that I wouldn't commit a crime while I study there." A grimace came from his lips. "After all, let's not forget that, aside from Penna, I'm the only villainous child here who was capable of actual murder, even though it wasn't...intentional."
Ben and Mal nodded, understanding what he was talking about. Martin Fiske had received his mark of villainy after reluctantly murdering his mother when the latter tried to turn her bastard child over to the authorities back when he was twelve and he had tried to meet the mother he never knew. And his latest kill, which had been labeled as 'reasonable yet enough to put Martin in the category of VKs needing rehabilitation therapy', had been during the Battle of the Villains Comet, when he had used the illegal seven chakra blocking on Fa Li Lonnie, the daughter of Fa Mulan and Li Shang and the hero of the day, when the latter had been under the demonic possession of the megassence created by the marks of villainy that Penna De Mort (under Voldemort's hidden influence) and her minions had stolen from other VKs.
"The past is in the past," Ben said. He clasped his hands together positively. "You're getting your dream accomplished, especially since you're one of the graduating seniors this years!"
"I know, right?" Martin breathed an excited breath in, which made him unaware of a certain limousine pulling in. "To think that in half a year from now, I'll be back in jolly old England studying archaeology!"
"And that you will be getting squashed in six seconds?" Mal smirked teasingly at him.
Martin frowned. "Squashed in six...WAAAH!"
"CONGRATULATIONS!"
Somebody who had snuck on him from behind with a hug tackled Martin down to the ground. His first guess, much to his dismay, was that it was probably Amelia Hall, the daughter of DNAmy who followed in her mother's footsteps by having an unrequited crush on him as soon as he put a monkey foot on the Isle of the Lost, which made him a victim of her constant attempts to try kissing and cuddling him and a bad memory of when he managed to get a glimpse of her locker and nearly vomit on a passing student when he saw that Amelia had turned it into a love shrine.
Fortunately, today's hugger was not the Sugar Cuddle of Freakness.
"Tough Tigress," he chuckled at Ruby Kyle, the daughter of Catwoman and Batman, as she helped him get up before hugging him again. "Definetly missed you!" He choked as her hug threatened to crack his ribs, making Ben and Mal giggle until she let go.
"Dad told me you got into Oxford!" Ruby clapped her hands in excitement. "You must be so psyched!"
"He already told you?"
"My dad helped finance your application, remember?"
"Yes, I just...thought he would let me surprise you with the news myself." Bruce Wayne, or should we say Batman, had been very grateful for the return of his lost child Ruby and had become her legal guardian now that Catwoman was dead, making Ruby the heiress of Wayne Enterprises. And since he was grateful that her boyfriend Martin and Martin's father Monkey Fist had taken genuine good care of her when they gave her a brief home in their castle back in the Isle, Bruce Wayne had been willing to repay them by offering to finance Martin's application to Oxford.
Mal and Ruby shared a hug. "It's so great to see you. How was spring break at Gotham?" Mal asked. "You definetly look like you're getting used to being a rich kid while not abandoning your VK style." Mal did have a point: while Ruby had been embracing her new life as the daughter of one of the richest people in the world, she didn't abandon her old style, which her father didn't object to. Currently, she was wearing a purple dress shirt under a black leather waistcoat, black pants, and running boots. Her hair had now grown past her shoulders and was groomed in a hairstyle that made her hair look naturally curly. Ruby still went around with the occasional nose and eyebrow rings and cat-themed earrings and her adamantium nails had been arranged by scientist to ensure that they could look like normal nails on a regular basis but retract to their usual form whenever Ruby needed to use them.
"Oh, you know." Ruby shrugged. "Job shadowing my dad so that I can learn to succeed him in running Wayne Enterprises, taking me to the occasional charity event, fund raising parties, basketball games..."
"Basketball?" Martin asked with a frown.
"I know, right? Turns out he and I are into sports as well. Oh, and I got to see the Bat Cave and understand why there were bats trolling me whenever I was in trouble on the Isle. Turns out that since normal bats are so used to Batman and his bat echolocation signals that he uses to have them help him out whenever he needs them, I basically ended up being born with those flying rodents imprinting on me as soon as they see me."
"So you're what? Snow White with bats helping you clean the dishes?"
"Yeah, no." Ruby shook a finger of disagreement. "I don't do that kind of animal abuse. So how's it been lately, other than I heard that you guys went to Arendelle for the spring break?"
"We actually had to cancel three days early," Ben grimaced. "See, we had the... Penna problem."
Martin and Ruby grimaced as well as they both recalled that the reformed daughter of Voldemort was going through a medical nightmare to get the Kraken Acupuncture Needles that Voldemort had hammered on her back to force her undesired mark of villain. So far two had been removed, but fourteen still refused to budge. And the more the attempts failed, the more ill Penna appeared to be.
"How bad is it?" Ruby asked as the four of them went inside Auradon Prep.
"Bad," Mal admitted. "They tried using an experimental machine to see if they could insert a mechanical syringe to pull out by force one of the Kraken Needles, but...something made Penna go berserk. For a moment, it was if she was...her old evil self again."
"The shock she inadvertently created killed the doctor operating the machine," Ben added. "Merlin and his associates are believing that the evil channeled within Penna, the evil that Voldemort had worked so hard to create, is rebelling and refusing to have the Needles removed. So they had to place a special bracelet that nullifies magic on her left arm, and I'm afraid that it's not pleasant at all for Penna, who grew up used to using magic 24/7."
"Do tell," Martin muttered.
'Attention, everyone!' the speakers spoke. Leidi Du Wifi, the daughter of Lady Wifi and Auradon Prep's newest announcement speaker, was giving the morning announcement. 'Please proceed to the auditorium. The news will be showing the results for the Pride Games.'
A few minutes later at the auditorium
The auditorium had been enlarged lately due to the new mass of students. Everyone was sitting down, eager to see the live news on the auditorium screen.
"Oooh, the Pride Games are going to be here! And Auradon Prep is among the four finalists!" Audrey clapped her hands in excitement. "I've been waiting for this my whole life!"
"You've been waiting to compete with strangers from a school you never dealt with before?" Hannah South, the daughter of Prince Hans, asked her from the seat she was sitting in front of Audrey.
"That's the whole point of the Pride Games, Hannah," Eleanor Malcolm, the daughter of King Malcolm and Hannah South's newest best friend, explained as the two girls sat together. "You get your name randomly picked with another school and you cohabit with one another while competing at the same time. It's the whole point of celebrating the alliance of multiple governments."
"So, who did Auradon Prep have to face in the past?"
"Let's see. So far this is the 5th Pride Games and Auradon Prep has managed to be in each of them." Eleanor listed with her fingers. "We had Sherwood High during the 2nd and 3rd Pride Games, and... Audrey, remind me in which Games our school met the Neverland Institute."
"That was the 1st Pride Game," Audrey answered thoughtfully. "And in the fourth it was against Camelot Academy. This year, the four schools in the roster are Auradon Prep, Sherwood High, Camelot Academy, and St Luther Rose Academy."
"Ugh!" Hannah groaned as she slouched on her seat and crossed her legs. "I'll lose my stomach if it turns out I have to compete against a bunch of reformees... Hang on, how do we know in which events which students are competing?"
Before anyone could answer her, an annoying dinging sound was heard. Everyone stopped and shut up to pay attention to the Headmistress waving a small bell in her hands and Ben, who stood next to her.
"My friends," Ben said. "This year marks the 5th anniversary of the Pride Games in which we will commemorate not only the friendship between several nations but the union between heroes and villains!" Everyone applauded at him. "Now, in just a few seconds, we'll be watching the news to figure out which school we will be competing against. As we are among the two schools in the roster with the most points, Auradon Prep will be hosting our competitors right here on campus during the length of the games. Please make a note, especially to the newcomers, that during this time, you will be expected to get acquainted with the friendly enemy, so no killing or severe fighting! We don't want to get another accident like when we faced Camelot Academy!"
"Did somebody get killed?" Haya shouted from the seats.
"No, we got sued because King Arthur's son came back from the games with a broken spine." ben grimaced. He and Fairy Godmother got off the stage in order to sit next to Mal, Carlos De Vil, and F.G's daughter Jane in the front row while the lights turned off and the screen turned on with the World Live! theme music playing and Andrew and Andrea, the famous newsman and newswoman satin their usual discussion counter while Rafiki and Friar Tuck, this year's U.N representatives, sat next to them. A glass bowl with only four pieces of paper stood at the center of the table.
'Another great day for Auradon and the world!' Andrew said with a big smile at an invisible clapping audience. 'I'm Andrew and this is my colleague, Andrea.'
'Thanks, Andrew. Today's the big day when the names of the schools drawn randomly will know who they are facing. This year, we got our usual undefeated Auradon Prep and St Luther Rose Academy and the occasionally elected Sherwood High and Camelot Academy! And since Auradon Prep and St Luther's are currently the schools with the most points out of the four, they will have to host whichever school they compete!'
'But say, Andrea. What if these two schools end up facing one another?'
'Puh-lease! They've been in the Pride Games since the games first started and they never end up competing against one another! I'm sure they'll be like the previous times!'
"They'd better!" Someone in the VK crowd shouted until the others shushed him. Eyes were staring in anxiety and excitement as Representative Rafiki pulled out the first paper.
'The first chosen school is Auradon Prep!" Rafiki announced in the live news. All the students exploded in applause and cheer. They then silenced down to watch the screen as Representative Friar Tuck put an aging hand in the bowl and let his trembling hands search until they finally picked a paper.
Who would Auradon Prep face this year? Sherwood Forest High? Or maybe Camelot Academy?
"Please be Sherwood," some were begging in the VK crowd, or "Please be Camelot."
'Oh my...' Friar Tuck gasped as his eyes saw the paper.
'What is it, Friar?' Andrea asked.
'Au... Auradon Prep will be facing...S...S' Friar Tuck stammered.
'Sherwood High? That wouldn't be a first,' Rafiki said.
'No. Auradon Prep...' Friar Tuck took a deep sigh before blurting out the words. '...will be facing St Luther Rose Academy.'
Gasps were heard, both from the unseen audience and the entire audience in the Auradon Prep auditorium. The villainous descendants were by far more shocked than their heroic classmates. Facing a school full of children from antiheroes, or 'reformees' as dubbed in evil language, the group of individuals that villains loathed more than heroes for centuries. This had to be a mistake, it couldn't be.
'Amazing, folks!' Andrew said while a screen behind their counter displayed an animation of a silver V.S followed by two school crests: Auradon's blue and white crest with Beast's golden head at the center, and the one of St Luther Rose Academy, a roadrunner bursting out of the crest as if escaping an explosion while holding a rose in its beak. 'For the first time in history, after 4 periods of never facing one another, Auradon Prep and St Luther Rose Academy will finally be facing one another in the Pride Games! Andrea, this is bound to be a Pride Game no one will refuse to attend. I bet Sherwood High and Camelot Academy won't be getting an audience on this one!'
Andrea agreed. 'And since King Ben of Auradon has had all the teenagers from the Isle of the Lost relocated into the school and we all know from what we've seen and heard that villains and antiheroes just loathe one another, these games will be intense!'
'But do not forget that these games are also about cohabitation, understanding, and friendship," Representative Rafiki pointed out. 'Since St Luther Rose Academy was drawn out as second, Auradon Prep will have to host them, which means that the villains' children will have to learn how to compromise.'
'You heard them folks! So if you're in the audience watching this, get into ticket buying, because the Pride Games are ON!' The screen turned off, the lights went back on, and soon all the VKs were beginning a protesting riot.
"I'd rather be shipped back to the Isle than have to face the reformees! My cousin who arrested me is among them!" Noir Du Feu exclaimed.
"This is an outrage!" David Lapieuvre shouted. "The U.N expect us to compete against the reformees? 90% of them are born from our parents arch-foes!"
"Guys..." Ben tried to reason with the angry students, with no luck.
"They're pure snobs! We had to watch reality shows about their pampered lives almost everyday!" Jay said.
"I refuse to even participate in a race with these losers, seriously!" Edina Lipsky agreed.
"SHUUUUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUUUP!"
Ears had to be covered from the loud scream that shattered every window in the auditorium. It soon stopped and they all saw who had just screamed to make them shut up.
"I barely take my pills and I hear you whining like five year olds!" Penna De Mort muttered loudly as she marched down the steps and towards the front row. She was in quite a mess: loose strands of hair sticking out of her ponytail, wrinkled jacket, and black tired marks around her eyes, and a nervous energy of someone who drank too much caffeine. "These reformees are not so different from any of us. What do you got to complain about?"
"They're our enemies!" Hannah said as the other VKs agreed.
"Is that so? Then don't hang out with Gitane! Her dad's an antihero and none of you have any problem attending her gypsy dance and music classes! Or don't bother being friends with Ruby, who busted her ass trying to fix things because she thought what happened to you during the mark of villainy attacks was her fault! Stop adoring Lonnie, who nearly got killed when she saved all of your lives from my father when he took over me! And just murder the reformees from St Luther's who actually bothered to help you during the Battle of the Villains Comet and get my halves back together even though they could have just gone back home after my minions kidnapped them!"
The VKs paused their bickering and began to bow their heads in guilt, seeing that the reformed witch who used to bully them and their parents for almost twenty years on the island prison was right.
"Personally, I'd side with you on not participating. Not because I don't like them but because I still consider myself as a living hazard to everyone even though Voldemort's gone." Penna bit her lips at the memory of her father manipulating her into the monster she had been to the point of daring to use her for his reincarnation. "And I still have to participate because the U.N authorities insisted that I compete as part of my personal rehabilitation therapy even though I don't want any part in it."
"Is that true, Ben?" Mal asked.
"It's the decision of allied nations," her boyfriend said. "I just rule one kingdom. Who am I to contradict the authority of at least ten other allied kingdoms?"
"So, we don't have a choice?"
"Well it's either that or we go back to everyone thinking we're our parents." Penna shrugged.
Everyone, VKs and Auradonians together, made noises of agreement. Soon enough, they had to accept the fact that they'd still compete in the games. After some cheering up from Ben and the Headmistress, who informed them that their competitors were arriving in a couple of days and that there were still chances of Auradon Prep winning the Pride Games. This motivated everyone and soon the auditorium was oiling with students leaving to get to class.
"Thanks, Penna." Ben nodded gratefully at Penna. She gave a small smile and just stood where she was, watching as everyone left the auditorium, leaving her alone.
"Surprising pep rally, for someone who tried to tear us apart a few months ago."
Not exactly alone: Martin Fiske was still in his seat, sitting crossed legs and arms as if he was trying to meditate on a chair rather than sit properly. His shadowy grey eyes stared bitterly at her bluish ones.
"You still haven't moved on for someone who just got accepted into Oxford." Penna scowled. "I've made mistakes and I'm repaying for them."
Martin scoffed. "You think redemption is that easy? I've done crimes before getting arrested that are not as easy to fix as a deflated car tire that you can simply refill with gas. Have you ever committed matricide, De Mort? Because I have the mark of villainy on my chest to prove it."
"I've done things worst than you because I was born from a villain who managed to terrorize everyone before and after I was born! You were born from a villain whose only amazing stroke of power is a form of simian magic held in idols that he stole from temples!" Penna could feel her anger boiling. "So don't start bubbling your ego on me!"
"Am I?" he asked it so calmly that it began to bother Penna. He hopped off the chair and landed in front of her in a perfect martial arts form. "Maybe I am, but I'm not the one who messed up my life by getting two descendants of Yves in it. The first one shattered my emotions and my reputation...and the second one you ruined her life, making it impossible for me to spend time with her after we started dating. And then you killed her. And now I'm stuck in a situation in which I'm going to have to deal with a past ghost I wanted to erase out of my mind forever and a present flame I'm afraid of burning out.
"You may have resuscitated Ruby, but I will never forgive you."
It almost seemed like his eyes were blaring with flames. It terrified Penna.
"Maybe if you hadn't been so easily influenced by your father, then maybe you would understand what it's like to worry about a person you love." He made his way up the stairs and out of the auditorium. "Then again, you don't because you never had true love!"
He shut the door, officially leaving Penna alone. She sighed, letting Martin's words sink into her.
Then again, you don't because you never had true love.
She felt something rubbing her leg and looked down to see her precious Naga rubbing her snake head. "Why do I bother, Naga?" Penna asked as she rubbed the snake's head. "Even if I finally reform, nobody's going to want me. I'll be empty-hearted for the rest of my life..."
A tear fell down her face, hitting Naga like rippling water.
Penna: Empty-hearted,
Nowhere near where I started.
Will I ever meet an angel from above
Whom I could fall in love?
I've known just loneliness
And now I only want so much.
But can there be any chance in Fate
For me to find a possible soulmate?
I've just desired for someone to care me as this.
Someone who'd give me true love's kiss.
A kindhearted soul who'd take me into the setting sun
And make me feel like my heart has won.
But I'm empty-hearted,
Nowhere near where I started.
Will I ever meet an angel from above
Whom I could fall in love?