Hay Lin was enjoying this; Taranee looked like she'd fallen into a pit of spiders.. And they needed to get downstairs. Fast. "You guys ever been on a water slide?"

"OH I LOVE THOSE!" Irma grinned; not at Hay Lin's shout, but she was sure she'd heard the quiet, good, honest, clever African-American mumbling a rather rude and explicit retort. The girl had better watch out; Will's methods were rubbing off on her faster than Irma'd thought possible, and Irma found herself feeling slightly less irresponsible about her idea.

"How about a really steep, scary one!" Considering the only person that could be considered as a type of authority - Taranee - was apparently deciding to be insane, Irma decided that it was probably the least of Will and Caleb's problems; especially considering their warped relationship issues and deranged literal 'love-hate' thing, as she created a gigantic tube of water, with a lot of effort and strain.. It was hard work not letting Cornelia get all the light, though she knew for a fact that Cornelia worked harder than she let on.. They all did.

Irma made sure to hold the spinning vortex open, as Hay Lin happily dived in, and Taranee muttered something along the lines of "Oh no..", but once the dark fire guardian had dived after Hay Lin, Irma watched the guards plunge in spears, but steam rose and the spears seemed to manage to burn despite the water, so she relaxed as she slid easily after to meet Hay Lin's chuffed whooping, "That was great!"

"Go ahead!" Taranee still looked nervous, so Irma decided it was time to take charge. Will could thank her later; Irma had already offered (and by offered she meant begged) for control, but Will had been set on Taranee. Look how that had turned out.. Irma knew it wasn't Taranee's fault, but Will was favoritizing.. She knew, because Irma had been Caleb's choice kid, and Irma hated that he was letting 'Mom' call the shots, just because he wanted to tap that. "I'll hold them off, and catch up with you later!"

They left then, and Irma knew Taranee hadn't wanted to leave Will and Caleb's sides in the first place, so she took no offense and simply turned, dispatching the water tunnel to wash back any guards that attempted to come down the stairs.

...

Cornelia sighed, as Blunk continued sniffing, yawning as she and Will walked on. She knew Will was looking back at Caleb every chance she got, and Cornelia wasn't dense. Will was too nice, and probably felt a need to make up for Cornelia's perfectly practiced hostility. This blonde knew how to get rid of stumbling drunks and drooling losers alike. And she was doing Will a favor - if this redhead knew what was in his head.. Will didn't even seem like the type to have talked to boys before Heatherfield.. "HERE! HERE! BROWNS HERE!"

Blunk started jumping up and down, and Cornelia rolled her eyes as Caleb stepped forward to scale the sides of the cell with his hands: what was he going to do? Lift it up? Probably.. She'd never really taken the time until now, to realize that Caleb was boring. He was serious, and he yelled, and his stupid 'forgiveness flower' story was just a line.. That was it.. He'd been feeding her lines for months, and he was going after Will because it hadn't worked. Cornelia was not a floozy, and nor was Will.. But Will wasn't used to attention, she was sure..[0] "Oh, just get out the way!"

Cornelia smirked, as she let the wall start moving before Caleb had taken his hand from it, because the idiot had jumped back about three feet. Jeeze, what a hero.. Even Blunk wasn't afraid; the toadish creature had scuttled under the wall as she lifted it, but she frowned as his voice echoed out. "Smell like Browns - no Browns!"

"Mr and Mrs Brown." Will's words had been stuttered and stunned, and Cornelia whirled to see where Will had spotted two smiling, Meridian-green creatures, and Cornelia wondered how Will saw it; these two looked totally out of it, but they looked pretty much like Aldarn to her. They were all rocks and greens and.. Well, that was it. They weren't scary, and she didn't mean offense, but it was like looking at dogs; you can't really tell the difference between two black pugs until they do something.. And these guys were just.. Sitting. Did Will even know the Browns? She'd hardly known Elyon.. "We really have to go. Right now."

"Go?" It was Mrs Brown after all. The voice was the same, and the smile seemed familiar as she stood to clasp one of Will's hands and wave a hand which seemed to be showing off the prison, "But my dear.. It's so beautiful here!"

Something smashed, and Cornelia turned in time to see Blunk sniffing at the broken shards of bowl, and Caleb strode over to Mrs Brown and pushed her lightly away from Will, who let him step between them. "Phobos put something in their food.."

"Guys!" Cornelia rolled her eyes as Taranee and Hay Lin, and- Not Irma, flew down to them. So much for distracting. "Trouble!"

"We're 800 feet underground, in a prison guarded by man-eating cockroaches." And men who behaved like cockroaches. "How could there possibly be trouble?"

The sarcasm was lost on Hay Lin, who only pointed where she'd come from. "Cedric's here, with about a gazillion men!"

"Where's Irma?" Will's eyes had darted over the girls, and Caleb's demeanor changed with startled realization. Jeeze, next it would be Irma. Well, no, she doubted that, or hoped, because Irma seemed to have somehow created a 'guy-love' connection with this one; Irma's only skill.. Being masculine.[1]

"Holding them off.. Y-You found them?"

Cornelia rolled her eyes as Taranee beamed unwittingly at the Browns, but of course Caleb couldn't not step in and ruin the moment of the girl being uplifted. "They don't even know they're here! There was a hypno-something in their food!"


[0] Wow, so much of this. In case we don't recall, Cornelia did try to kiss Caleb. Caleb doesn't really ever speak to Cornelia. The flower was real, and he made up because he knew Will was mad he'd been rude. And Will has Matt and Drake. ;)

[1] Also, she obv doesn't mean it - she's just mad because Caleb likes everyone else, but her... Becaaauuuse she's mad... :L :L