Chapter Three: Red-cloak, Styx, and Nox
The three followed the banshee and Tristan across Domino all the way down to its park. The banshee soared down into a clearing, gripping Tristan tightly in her arms, while the Pharaoh, Joey, and Téa soared into the shadows of the nearby trees. They watched as the banshee eagerly looked around the clearing.
"What de heck is she waitin' for?" Joey whispered.
Suddenly, another orb of white light appeared near the banshee. The banshee turned towards the light, a look of excitement forming on her face. The white light grew until it became what appeared to be an entrance to another world. After a few moments, a figure appeared from the light. It was wearing a red cloak that covered its entire being, leaving its identity unknown.
"Well?" the figure asked with a deep, masked voice.
"I've brought one to you," the banshee said, placing Tristan at the feet of Red-cloak.
Red-cloak looked down at the limp being. It knelt down beside him and pulled three photographs out of its cloak. Red-cloak picked one of the photographs out, gazed at it for a moment, and then looked back at Tristan. "This is one of them, all right," they nodded. Red-cloak put the photos back, picked up the limp being in its arms, and turned back towards the light-filled opening.
"Wait!" the banshee called out using its loud, shrieking voice. The Pharaoh, Joey, and Téa winced at the scream.
Red-cloak turned back towards her. "Don't scream!" it chastised her. "What is it?"
"My beloved," the banshee said, returning her voice to a normal volume. "You promised you were going to bring his spirit back to me!"
"Yeaaaah, about that…" Red-cloak drawled out. It raised one hand, which started to glow with red, crackling magic. "I lied."
The magic flew out towards the banshee, hitting her directly on her right hip and making her glow with a harsh red light. The banshee shrieked again, but this time, it was in sheer terror. Once more, Pharaoh, Joey, and Téa shut their eyes and plugged their ears, wincing at the banshee's horrifying scream.
When the red magic disappeared, the three of them looked to see the banshee collapse onto the ground, its left hand clutching the injured rip hip. The banshee slowly raised its head up at Red-cloak and whispered, "I…I did all of those horrible things…I robbed all of those innocent men…I brought you one of the four heroes of this world…and you swore that in exchange you'd bring him back to me!"
The cloaked figured shrugged. "I used you. That's what evil people do, you stupid banshee."
The banshee dropped her head back down, moaning in pain.
Red-cloak turned and walked through the portal, clutching Tristan tightly in its arms.
"Tristan!" the Pharaoh cried, dashing out of the shadows. The Pharaoh jumped through the light, with Joey quickly following him. Téa ran out as well, but she tripped on a tree root and tumbled to the ground. She looked up and saw that the light-filled was slowly fading away. Without time to get up, Téa instead zapped up the Guide and managed to toss it into the light right before it vanished.
The Pharaoh and Joey found themselves falling down a long, white tunnel, which appeared to be never-ending.
"Where are we goin', man?" Joey cried.
"I don't know, but be ready for whatever awaits us when we arrive!" the Pharaoh replied.
Finally, the two of them saw a dark hole at the end. Upon soaring through it, they found themselves in a huge, pitch-black room. The two of them gently floated down until their feet finally touched ground.
Almost an instant after they did so, torches suddenly lit up all along the walls of the room, filling it with an eerie glow. The room looked like an ancient chamber, with tan-colored stone statues of snakes holding the torches in their mouths, and the stone walls covered in symbols of what appeared to be some ancient language. Before the wall in front of them was a limp figure, floating in midair. He was locked into four different chains, two around his wrists and two around his ankles.
"Tristan!" the Pharaoh cried in horror.
Tristan slowly stirred. "Huh-wha-what the heck?!" he cried out, pulling at the chains which seemed to be weighted down by an unseen force.
A voice behind the Pharaoh and Joey suddenly said, "Welcome."
The two of them whipped around to find that two mysterious teens had suddenly appeared in the room. One was a black-haired guy wearing a black turtleneck, black jeans, black boots, and a long black overcoat. The other, a girl, could have been his twin sister. She had long black hair and wore a black tube top, black miniskirt, knee-high black boots, and a black leather jacket. Both of them wore dark sunglasses.
"Who de heck are you?!" Joey yelled at the two.
"I am Styx," said the guy.
"And I am Nox," said the girl. "You are the defenders of your world, are you not?"
"What if we are?" Joey said, glaring at the two.
"Let our friend go this instant!" the Pharaoh yelled, pointing back at Tristan.
The two black-clad teens grinned evilly. "We're sorry, but our masters won't let us do that," Styx said.
"We have been given specific orders from them. If you children, the defenders from your world, are able to defeat us in a battle of magical strength, then all of you will be let go," Nox said. She zapped up a metal key on a key ring and mockingly twirling it around her finger. "And that includes your little chained up friend down there. Simple enough, right?" Then she placed the key into a pocket on her leather jacket and held out her hands, letting them glow with a fierce red light. "Now then-let's brawl."
Styx held out his hands as well, which started crackling with red magic.
Angrily, the Pharaoh faced Styx and Joey faced Nox, their outlines glimmering with their respective magic colors. Then, with a loud cry, they soared into the air and commenced battling.
At first Styx tried zapping at the Pharaoh with thousands of beams of red magic, but the Pharaoh quickly placed up a force field which absorbed every magical blast. Outraged at his failure to make even a mark, Styx soared towards the Pharaoh, fists outstretched and glowing red-only to rebound off of another force field and go flying towards the wall.
Meanwhile, Joey and Nox were zapping furiously at each other with green and red magic, each one trying hard to avoid the other's beams. Finally, Nox managed to get a small beam to hit Joey's shoulder. The temporary distraction gave her a chance to soar up to him and wrap one hand around his neck. Joey gasped and tried pulling her hand off, but it held fast.
"Surprisingly strong, hmm?" she said, grinning.
"Yeah," Joey glared, his eyes turning green, "but I bet I can be stronger!"
Joey focused his shape-shifting power on his arms. They quivered and started to grow large muscles which nearly burst out of his jacket. He then yanked Nox's hand off of his throat with ease and with one punch, sent her soaring into the wall.
"Yes," the Pharaoh grinned; "OH YEAH!" Joey cried, his arms returning to normal.
However, at the moment the two black-clad teens hit the wall, a horrifying yell of pain came from below. The Pharaoh and Joey looked down and saw to their horror that the chains which bound Tristan had begun glowing with a fierce red light. The two on his wrists were yanking upwards into the air, while the two around his ankles yanked down towards the ground. "Oops-I forgot to mention one little thing…" Nox said, grinning evilly. "Every time you injure one of us, the little chains bound to your friend will yank up or down, and he'll be in pain as well. Nice way to even things out a bit, huh?"
With the Pharaoh and Joey's attention on their tortured friend, Styx and Nox had an opportunity to send rays of red magic towards them. The Pharaoh and Joey each took the blasts in the stomach and went slamming into each other's backs. The two fell down to the ground, landing with a loud THUD.
Once the two sat up, Pharaoh put up a force field around them as Styx and Nox sent more blasts their way. "This is impossible," he said. "We can't defeat them and let Tristan go through so much pain all at once."
"We've gotta get him outta dere somehow," Joey agreed.
"But look at how those chains are glowing," the Pharaoh said. "They've probably been enhanced with Styx and Nox's magic. I doubt we could simply zap or pull them off, and Nox is the only one with a key…"
Just then, something which wasn't a ray of magic landed on top of the force field and slid down it to the ground. The Pharaoh and Joey realized with a shock that it was the Guide, face down and open to a particular page.
Joey quickly shoved his hand out of the force field, grabbed the book, and pulled it inside. He looked at the page the book had opened to, then showed it to the Pharaoh and asked, "Ya think dis might be tryin' ta tell us someting?"
The Pharaoh looked. "Hmm…it's a spell for transferring the powers of everyday objects into human beings."
Joey blinked. "The powers of everyday objects?" he repeated. "What kinda powers would ordinary stuff have ta give?"
"Well, for instance, one could transfer the power of an oven into a human and give them the ability to conjure up flames; or, one could transfer the ability of a light bulb and give a human the power to glow; or-"
He stopped, a sudden dawn of realization coming to his eyes. "Joey, think of something that's extremely elastic!" the Pharaoh cried.
Joey looked at the Pharaoh as though he'd lost his mind. "Uh, I dunno…a rubber band, maybe?"
"Perfect!" The Pharaoh sent out a spark of blue magic which transformed into a simple, tan rubber band. He placed the rubber band into his palm, took a glance at the book, and stood up.
Turning towards Tristan, he opened his palm and started chanting in a strange language. The rubber band floated a little bit off of his palm and glowed with a strange white light; then, the glow became thousands of small white sparks which soared towards Tristan and entered his body one by one.
The rubber band dropped back into the Pharaoh's palm, then with a snap of his fingers, it vanished. He then looked up at Styx and Nox, who had been staring at the Pharaoh and what appeared to be an act of insanity on his part, and fired two blue beams at them.
When the beams hit their marks, once again the chains stretched out towards the ceiling and ground…and kept stretching…and kept stretching…until finally the top chains hit the ceiling of the chamber and the bottom ones slammed into the ground.
Tristan stared in shock at his stretched-out form. "What the-" he stammered.
"HEY! THAT'S NO FAIR!" Nox screamed, and she soared towards one of chains on Tristan's wrist.
However, before she could reach it, Tristan let his fist stretch out towards her and pounded her right in the nose. As she screamed and covered it with her hand, Tristan let his stretched hand reach into her jacket pocket, and he pulled out the metal key. He pulled his hand back and, using his newfound special ability, unlocked the four chains from around his wrists and ankles.
Free of the chains, Tristan soared out and over towards his friends. The Pharaoh released the force field from around him and Joey, who said, "Nice ta have ya back, man."
"Good to be back," Tristan grinned, letting his outline glow with an orange light.
Suddenly, a shower of red sparks soared through the walls of the chamber and transformed into a human shape. The Pharaoh, Joey, and Tristan looked up to see that it was Red-cloak.
Red cloak looked down at the three of them, then angrily turned to Styx and Nox and yelled, "Where's the fourth one?!"
Both Styx and Nox fearfully stared at Red-cloak. "What do you mean, master?" Styx said, trying to sound calm.
"There's supposed to be four of these defenders here! Where's the last one?!"
"Only three have come through the portal, master," Nox said, shivering with fright.
"Go get the fourth one, NOW!"