11
Dark Spire Four~
Sundown in the southeastern district, the same region Sophia lived with her new fairy godmother. A Dark Spire towered high over its spacious lots, looking down upon its region with the loftiness of a black imperial obelisk. Team Turner gazed up at it from the shadows of the alleys surrounding the tower. Despite knowing they were now fully protected from physical harm and wishes alike, the teens still felt anxious. This would be the fourth Spire down if they could manage the server overload again; half of Dimmsdale would be free to use magic again.
"Fifty percent of the city liberated once this tower falls." A.J. murmured as his fingers twitched nervously over the holstered laser pistols at his waist, "Man, that gives me a rush!"
"The more Spires we take out, the greater amount of magic is restored to the city." Timmy agreed and looked over at the group of fairies clustered nearby, "Hey, how much magic is needed to restore the bridge between Fairy World and here completely?"
"At least eighty percent magical influence must be present in an area to support the rainbow bridge connecting the two worlds." Anti-Cosmo answered, looking up at the Dark Spire, "There are eight of these Spires total in the city, correct?"
"Five now. We took out three of them and we're making sure they stay down." Tootie remarked proudly.
"This one will be the fourth." A.J. mused aloud, "That won't be enough to make the bridge function. We'll need to take down two more Spires along with this one in order to complete the connection to Fairy World." Timmy and Tootie both lifted the maps on their arms, commanding them to begin a scan of the area. Chester pulled the detector from his belt and tapped at the keys, watching the screen begin to light up. The fairies and Caleb gathered closer to study the readouts, concerned for their future safety in the field.
Within minutes the displays lit up with various markers and the group began counting quickly, gauging the threat that lay before them that evening.
"Oh, not cool." Chester muttered, "Four fairy traps for every three nullifiers and two destroyers."
"Unit population is estimated at about two thousand?" Timmy reported in alarm, "What the heck is going on? This is a serious jump in numbers! The last Spire only had a little over a thousand units; the one before that had about seven hundred, and so did the one before that, and the first Spire we took out had less than three hundred!" He looked over at the team worriedly. "They're getting tougher. Are you guys sure you can handle this?" he asked.
"We might need to revise the plan." Caleb told the brunet quietly, "There are far too many nullifiers for even Danny Phantom to destroy easily on his own; surely we can't expect Anti-Cosmo to disable them alone." The anti-fairy bristled, but held a wary expression on his face.
"What is this? Exactly how many of these nullifiers are we speaking of anyway?" he demanded and the android lifted his chin, stroking at it with one hand in thought.
"Considering the ratio and the total population... I'd say you'd have to deal with roughly six hundred nullifier units." he returned calmly.
"I'm sorry I asked."
A.J. dug into his pack and brought out his laptop, opening it up on his lap and typing into it quickly. A model of the Spire appeared on the screen and several markers blinked into existence around it.
"This was compiled from the data Trixie stole from Remy's computers early last month when we attacked the third Spire. Based on the projection of the maps from Timmy and Tootie, I believe this model is the one of the Spire before us." he began and motioned to Sanjay, "Sanjay, you're the tactical genius; got any ideas of how to attack the tower when the numbers are stacked way against us?" The Hindu knelt by him and studied the screen intensely, eyes scanning the model and markers.
"The hatch doors are set up in alternating compass points for maximum coverage. Rather intelligent design. The units are all nested within those hatches and will not fully activate unless one of three conditions are met; the Dark Spire is attacked, magic is used within their detection range, or their scanners pick up Cosmo's DNA." he remarked seriously.
"If that's the case, then they'll pick me up as well." Anti-Cosmo muttered irritably and folded his arms up when the group looked up at him, "I share the exact same DNA as Cosmo; we're like twins. How else am I to be his polar opposite if I don't have the genetic coding to match and properly sync with him?" He looked aside at the green-haired fairy whistling absently to himself, then back at the group. "If they are tuned to trace the idiot's DNA, then they'll trace me and..." He blinked and scowled, then turned his head away from them, "Blast it."
"Scared of these things already?" Apollo jeered.
"No. Just vexed at the idea. It brings far too many complications into the forefront."
"We'll need to divide the Spire's surrounding defenses among us and destroy the nullifier units in sections." Sanjay finally announced and looked up at the Spire, "Unless we do that, the magic-users will be overwhelmed by the devices and we will ultimately fail the mission." He turned back to the screen and pointed at the markers, "Here are the hatches for the first level of defense; northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast. The second set is over fifty yards from them; north, south, east and west. The Spire is in the center of the compass. Our objective is to destroy all nullifiers, yes?" The Hindu twisted his frames in thought. "Ah, I see. If we position non-magic users around the Spire so that they face the first level defense points and have the magic-users circle the tower to lure nullifiers towards us, we'll be able to destroy them section by section."
"But they'll lock onto you guys anyway; the magitech armor has Cosmo's hair woven in them." Timmy pointed out and traced his finger along the narrow stripe of green that decorated the teen's right shoulder, "As long as you have that, the traps will think you're Cosmo and will hunt you down."
"Then wish 'em off and transfer the hairs to you or Tootie." Chester suggested with a grin, "We'll snipe off the nullifiers you guys drag into our zones!"
"Chester, A.J., Elmer and I shall take the compass points. Miss Popular can run the gauntlet with the rest of you, as she has Apollo to provide cover for her." Sanjay added on with a faintly derisive tone, "The fairies will also circle the Spire, keeping the units distracted while the anti-fairy picks off the nullifiers from the air." He nodded at last. "Yes, that should do. As we are destroying nullifiers when the magic-users lead them into our zones of attack, the server system should overload from the activity. Provided Cosmo does not destroy an entire squadron of them on his own again."
"I thought Timmy wished for fireworks!" Cosmo declared defensively and huffed in irritation, "Don't look at me next time you want to party!"
"Calculating the number of devices that will actually be signaling the server system, the number that signaled the last Spire, and the amount of time it took to overload its servers," A.J. rattled off as he tapped at the keyboard again, "I believe the time limit for this Dark Spire's control system should be at eight minutes. According to the reports, this Spire is slated to have only two thousand units total in its arsenal. More than enough to overload the system if they're all activated and constantly ping the server."
"Okay, so let's get into positions. Cosmo, Wanda, I wish the strands of hair from Chester, A.J., Sanjay and Elmer were taken off and put on Trixie's, Tootie's and my magitech armor." Timmy remarked and the couple waved their wands, transferring the strands of green hair, "Okay, fairies take to the air once everyone's in place. Apollo, stick with Trixie to provide her cover. Trixie, one degree separation wishes only; you can't wish yourself away because of the insignia, but you can still force units away from yourself." A.J. packed away the laptop and adjusted the Fenton Phones he wore.
"Give us a few minutes to get into place. We'll call you when we're ready." he told the brunet and ran out of the alley with the rest of the Others.
They didn't need to wait very long. The sky had barely darkened enough to allow the first bright stars of the night to show when the remainder of Team Turner got the call to follow the Others into the empty lots and lure out units. Apollo hung close to Trixie as she darted out towards the Spire. Caleb launched into the air, choosing to fly rather than run to his starting point.
"All of you be careful, all right?" Wanda told the last few members worriedly as she and Cosmo prepared to fly out with Romi to circle the Spire.
"We'll be fine!" Timmy laughed, "Between my immortality and mana manipulation, and Tootie's training from Vicky, nothing's gonna take us out that easily!"
"Hey! Hurry up! We don't wanna be here all night, y'know! I'm missing Potluck Surprise for this!" Chester griped over the Phones.
"What's the surprise?" Timmy questioned.
"The fact that there's something in the pot to eat! C'mon!"
Tootie giggled behind her hands and shrugged, then ran out of the alley to join the other teens in their positions around the Spire. Timmy raced after her, laughing at the joke as they hurried into place.
"Tootie! Be safe!" Romi wailed as she flew out after the two of them, "Be sure you have Revive cast on you! Wait!"
"I don't suppose that earlier concern extended to me as well?" Anti-Cosmo mused as he fluttered by the fairy couple. Both glared at him and he grinned. "Just making sure you know where your priorities are. So, shall we?" Then they, too, were gone.
.
"Everyone, call in. Report positions." Timmy called out over the Fenton Phones as he looked up at the Dark Spire.
"Chester, here. I'm taking up the North position. Got Tricks and Toots in my sight!"
"A.J. calling. Taking West side! Trixie and Caleb are in my view!"
"This is Sanjay! I am standing at South position! How delightful! I am able to see Caleb and you, Timmy!"
"Elmer, here. I'm at East sector! Timmy, sir, you and Tootie are in my range!"
"Okay! Here goes!" the brunet declared, "When the units are activated, the timer on my armband will start the countdown! Eight minutes until the server overloads! Let's stay in one piece 'til then!" He lifted his hand towards the hatch doors, "Flagrare Lancea!" The spear of fire shot down from above and slammed into the steel covering, wrenching it open and sending alarms blaring into the night sky.
"I learned this one studying that disc Caleb said I could have! Radiant swords, descend from the heavens! Holy Lance!" Tootie exclaimed. At her end, she held out the dagger her older sister had given her and aimed it at the hatch doors. It glowed a brilliant white as the spell was cast, sending blades of Light mana into the steel and concrete and ripping through it like rice paper.
"May the merciless embrace of frost take thee! Absolute!" Caleb's voice rang out as the spell of Ice and Wind mana shattered the hatch doors before him.
"Apollo! I wish the hatches were open and the units activated!" Trixie called out from where she stood at the northwest end of the compass. She smiled as the doors flew open and the dozens upon dozens of winking red lights from anti-magic units suddenly shone with a steady brightness within the dark underground corridors. "This is gonna be fun! Only eight minutes? That's barely a workout!" she laughed as the machines began pouring out of the ground.
Aerial units took to the skies, their scanners dancing through the air in the search for magical creatures. Waiting for them high above the heads of the teenagers were three fairy godparents and a single anti-fairy. Wanda gripped the war hammer in her hands, glaring at the spherical devices humming through the air.
"Okay! Just like last time, Cosmo, but don't blow anything up! Just have them chase you around to Anti-Cosmo!" she called out.
"Ring around the rosie?"
"Eeeks!" Romi squealed, "I can't stand doing stuff like this! I was trained for defense! I'm not really cut out for actively going after these things!" At her end, the raven-haired fairy was flapping her fans in a panic. Hundreds of silver spheres all aimed their single glowing red eyes at her and Romi's pigtails exploded into frizz. "Eeeks!"
"Move it, people! They're gunning for us!" Timmy cried from down below. The brunet was already racing towards Elmer, a squadron of ground units chasing after him in a frenzy, "Maybe I shouldn't have taken on so much of Cosmo's hair! Elmer! Get ready to shoot these guys off of me!"
Standing at East position, the stocky teen whimpered, bringing up a pair of the laser guns A.J. had built. He'd been told how they worked, was taught how to fire them in the training rooms, but this would be the first time he would actually use the things. He would have preferred just smashing into the nullifiers the way he had done before, but that would mean getting into the fray too soon, and both Timmy and Chester had ordered that he stay within his region. They couldn't afford to have anyone accidentally getting in someone's way as they ran through the compass points. And when an Other got orders from both the Heart of Dimmsdale and the replacement Leader of the Others, they listened; they listened real good.
"Don't shoot wrong. Don't shoot wrong." Elmer whispered to himself as he took aim at the units bearing the small dish arrays on their bodies. Timmy raced by him, yelling furiously as he made his way through the other boy's sector. Elmer fired off several shots almost wildly, panicking at the sight of the brunet streaking by in the black stealth suit while shrieking. The laser bursts punctured several units, halting them dead in their tracks. Blinking in surprise at his achievement, it took a few moments to sink into his mind that he had successfully taken down a few of the nullifiers hounding after Timmy. He broke into a wide smile. "Yeah! I did it! I shot the nullifiers!" he cheered.
"Great! Only five hundred and eighty to go! Don't go easy on 'em, Elmer!" Chester called out with a laugh as the sounds of additional laser fire and magical explosions filled the air. Confidence bolstered, the russet-haired boy lifted the laser guns and readied for the next set of units to come by, the ones chasing Caleb towards him.
.
Overhead, the three fairies spun wildly around the Spire, dodging nets and nullifiers alike in their mad dash to shake their pursuers. Picking off units one by one, Anti-Cosmo kept busy with conjuring mirrors for the nullifiers to crash into. Each one shattered allowed him a chance at triggering some bad luck for the machines. Everything from a sudden power lag to a random internal kernel error struck down the nullifiers that didn't avoid the mirrors in time. Spheres dropped from the sky like giant silver raindrops, causing several voices from below to yell up at him to watch what he was doing.
"I doing the best I can, blast it! This isn't exactly what an anti-fairy's magic was meant for, you know!" he snapped back down in retaliation, "How about you come up here and toss mirrors willy-nilly at these ungodly contraptions yourself?"
"How about doing it more than one at a time? Caleb's griping about nearly short-circuiting something down here and I don't want to have any fairy casualties up there!" Timmy yelled back through the Phones. The anti-fairy made a face and only resumed conjuring the mirrors in the paths of the nullifiers. He did, however, watch where he sent them crashing afterwards a bit more carefully.
"Ten, eleven, twelve..." he counted out as he waved his wand almost frantically, "Thirteen... If only we had thought to do this on our most hallowed day, these confounded creations wouldn't be a problem!" He glared down at the black star that topped his wand. "If only..." he muttered.
.
Sanjay whistled cheerfully as he peered through the targeting sight of the laser rifle A.J. put together for him. Moving targets were fairly easy to hit, and the nullifiers with their goofy appearances due to the dishes on their bodies made for incredibly simple targets. Sniping off several in seconds, he grinned as Trixie made her run by him, Apollo flying close by for support. Too easy.
"I had thought these Spires would prove more of a challenge for us, but I suppose that nothing can truly defeat the Heart of Dimmsdale." he remarked to himself brightly, "Not even Death!" He fired a few more shots as Tootie passed through, then touched fingers to the Fenton Phones. "How are we doing?" he asked.
"The detector says that we got rid of eighty nullifiers!" Chester called out an update.
"Time is at seven minutes! Keep it up! Once the nullifiers are gone, we can use magic to keep everyone defended while the server gets bombarded!" Timmy reported between puffs for air, "Anti-Cosmo! Can't you hit any more than just one unit at a time?"
"If you bother me with that once more, I'll send the next nullifier down on your doltish head!" the anti-fairy shot back.
"I believe we can do better than just eighty nullifiers in one minute." Sanjay murmured with a smile, lifting the rifle once again. This was a battlefield and it was home to him. A gun in his hands and a target to aim for; this was what made him happy and he had the Heart of Dimmsdale to thank for it.
.
Tootie huffed as she raced through Chester's range, her eyes glancing down at the display of anti-magic units surrounding the tower to be sure things were going as planned. It wasn't that much of a start for all the attention they were getting. The Spire in the display was supposed to start flashing as the signals from the units started bombarding the servers with data. So far, it barely even blinked at her.
"It might take a little longer than A.J. thought." she muttered to herself and flailed her arms as she nearly tripped over rubble from falling devices.
"Watch yourself, Toots! I got your back, but keep your eyes open for everything else!" Chester called over the sounds of laser fire spraying over the units dogging her, "Don't burn out too fast; we still have about six minutes to go!" Tootie nodded automatically in response, steadying herself once again as she continued running. How far behind her were those units she woke up anyway? She glanced over her shoulder and yelped.
A whole mini-army of the things chased after her, a motley squadron of ground units and aerial ones, with the flying spheres shooting towards her faster than she could run. With a cry, she threw herself forward and covered her head to avoid the nets from the fairy traps.
"Romi! I wish the aerial units were chasing something other than me!" she cried out.
"I'm sorry, Tootie! There are too many nullifiers! I can't grant it!" the fairy called out in a pained voice, "Help! They're gaining on me!" Scrambling back to her feet, the young Goth dashed onwards, calling out for help on behalf of her fairy godmother. The Spire on her map continued to remain unlit.
Master Control Spire~
The alarm rang out as Crocker lifted his head from his latest project. Welding torch in one hand, motherboard card in the other, he studied the monitor and its split-screen watch of the five Spires. One of the divided screens swelled to override the others, flashing red as units scattered around the model in a chaotic swirl that circled counterclockwise with the Spire in the dead center. He smiled and set the tools down, heading for the monitor to watch the madness. The new Timmy had struck, just as Remy had thought he would. And just as Crocker predicted, the control units tagging along with each squadron of units were taking the brunt of the overwhelming signals. The servers within the Dark Spire remained fairly oblivious to the chaos and continued perfecting the nullifier program.
Was that other fairy with him? The one with the DNA in his files? He checked the status of the signals, ordered the Dark Spire to bypass the control unit for one squadron to request that data, then returned command to the units to allow himself leisure time to study the results. Yes, that fairy was there, and doing that multiple trick again. Crocker sighed happily and sat back in his seat, watching the monitor relay a scale model visual of what was happening at the site of Spire Four. He'd tell Remy about it in a little while; he just wanted to have a little fun first.
Residential District, Upper Middle-Class~
"Pick up? You want a pick up?" Victoria grumbled into the phone. A late night call was not one of her favorite things to deal with, especially since leaving meant she wouldn't be around to harass Tootie when she finally got back from wherever it is she would randomly run off to for hours at a time when the sun set. Wherever she went, it probably had something to do with the twerp, as she often came downstairs in the morning with a supremely pleased expression on her face, not unlike a cat at all.
"The parents came in really late from a meeting at work and I told them you'd be around for pick up. Please, please, please, can you pick me up, Vicky? It's dark and weird things happen sometimes when it's dark!" the girl at the other end wailed, "If I hear Chip Skylark singing from the sewers one more time, I'm gonna go crazy! I just put flowers at his grave-marker last week!"
"Fine, fine. But you're gettin' a deduction in pay for this! And my name is Victoria! Got it?" Victoria growled, "Where are ya?" Jotting down the address, she hung up and reached for the keys to her car. Pick ups had to be done in the company van, which was parked in the garage at the office building where the babysitter service was housed. Muttering irritably to herself, she headed out to get to the office.
Dark Spire Four~
"We're down to about five minutes! How are we in the nullifier count?" Timmy called out, waving towards Chester as he raced through the blonde's zone of attack. He'd just passed through Elmer's zone again and the teen was getting much better with his shots, taking out several more nullifiers within the few seconds he had to pick off targets.
"Doing a hell of a lot better." Chester returned between shots, "We started out with six hundred units even, and now we're down to about four-fifty."
"Yeah, no thanks to the anti-fairy upstairs." Apollo added dryly.
"I heard that! Come Friday the Thirteenth, I'm sending the Anti-Apollo after your ungrateful ass!"
A pulse of anti-magic suddenly blossomed out from the Spire seconds after that report, sending the magic-users sprawling to the concrete. Tumbling across asphalt and concrete alike, the brunet yelped painfully. Picking himself up, he rubbed his head, trying to ignore the throbbing headache, then called out once more.
"What was that? It felt like a super-nullifier or something!" he yelled and held out his hands, summoning up the Light orb. The mana flickered before his fingers, then died out. "It's drained out too much mana from the air! I can't even bring up the Light orb!" he cried in alarm.
"The Spire Server System must have completed another enhancement on the nullification formula! It refreshed its systems and that's probably what sent out the new pulse!" A.J. returned in surprise, "I don't get it! You guys are making the units go crazy chasing you; why is the server system focusing on the program and not the signals from the units?"
"Well, maybe we're not signaling them enough! Cosmo, Wanda, Anti-Cosmo! How are you doing from that wave?" Timmy called out, sliding the Thunder Scepter from his back and jumping into the squadron of units that had been following him.
"Ow... The ground is very hard." Wanda returned tiredly, "Ugh. I'm still in one piece, but our hit was probably harder than what you got, Sport. We were closer to the source of that mega-nullifier."
"My head really hurts now." Cosmo complained.
"Wave? What wave?" Anti-Cosmo asked dumbly, "Why'd everybody flop out of the sky?"
"Never mind! Keep casting on the aerial units! I'll pick up what I can from here!" the brunet called, slamming the head of the staff into units around him, "Remember, guys! Only destroy the nullifiers! We need the other units to bombard the servers!"
.
A.J. fired off several more shots of the laser pistols, biting down on his lip as he tried his best to avoid hitting Timmy as he darted about among the units himself. Why it was that he was attacking the squadron head-on himself was unknown, but maybe it had something to do with the sudden lack of magic on his end. He scanned the area quickly and spotted the red-haired android staggering into his zone of attack.
"That's weird. What's his deal?" he muttered and quickly brought out a pair of binoculars, focusing them on the incoming android. He could see the units still chasing after the green-clad angel, but what worried him more was the shower of sparks jumping from Caleb. "Oh, man! That pulse must've damaged some serious circuits in that guy!" He grabbed for the lasers again and opened fire on the nullifiers trailing him.
"Th-there's a p-p-p-problem." the android managed to say over the communication channels, "I've c-c-calculated the totalsss of units. The n-n-numberrrs don't add up!"
"What? What do you mean?" A.J. exclaimed in alarm.
"T-t-two hunnndred units... unac-c-c-ounted forrrr..." Caleb fought his damage for the words, then collapsed in a heap. A buzz filled the silence for a moment, then clicked off.
"Hey, guys! We got a magic-user down!" A.J. yelled out, firing furiously on the nullifier units as the squadron raced past the motionless android to lock onto the nearest magic-user, Timmy.
"Lemme guess. Caleb? Crud! All of his units are coming after me now!" Timmy exclaimed, "A.J.! You're the closest we have to a technician! See if you can get Caleb online again! Password is 'Good morning, Caleb'!" With that, the brunet leaped out from among the swarm of ground units and raced off for another turn around the Spire. A.J. gulped and ran for the fallen android, scrabbling for tools at his belt.
According to the angel himself, Caleb was built using magitechnology and no human could understand the workings of magitechnology unless he was there to aid in it. So how was he, a fourteen-year-old super-genius in modern technology, supposed to figure out and fix a sentient robot built with a mix of magic and ancient technology? A.J. groaned at the idea of it as he started searching for a hidden panel of some kind on the android to begin patching the systems.
"Two hundred units unaccounted for. Those were his last words." he murmured to himself, "What does that mean? There are nullifiers, destroyers and capture units. We're destroying nullifiers and leaving destroyers and fairy traps alone. The ratio hasn't changed, right? So why would there be two hundred devices missing?"
.
Romi moaned softly as she picked herself up from the concrete, the sound of her godchild crying for help still ringing in her ears. She fluttered her wings weakly and gasped. That's right! Tootie's wish to send the units towards another target hadn't been granted yet! She scrabbled for her wand, held it out and waved it. The golden light flickered erratically from the star, then died. Still too many nullifiers in activation. She hugged herself tightly, gasping as the magic from her wand and herself began leeching away.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Tootie. I wanted to grant your wish." Romi murmured sorrowfully, "I wanted to be a good fairy godmother, but this is too much for me. These things... I can't last much longer." She doubled over, touching her forehead to the ground as she shuddered. Too much, it was all too much. Fairy godparent training didn't cover things like this, just told her that it was best to avoid confrontations with anti-magical devices entirely. Here she was, stupid little fairy, hunting them down with her fans and godchild, doing the exact opposite of her training. She was putting her godchild in danger!
If anything happened to Tootie because she couldn't or didn't follow Da Rules, she could wind up just like Cosmo and Wanda, or worse. But the way things were turning out, she might not have to worry about that much longer.
"Help..." Romi whimpered, feeling lightheaded as her magic drifted away into nothingness.
And then the feeling faded, a surge of fresh magical energy pouring into her, reviving her senses and strength. Startled, the fairy sat up and blinked at the green-haired godfather kneeling before her with his own wand aimed at her head. He opened his eyes, blinked at her, then grinned.
"Magic boost. Cool, huh?" he asked cheerfully and pointed skyward, "Let's go. The wave is stabilizing so we should be okay for now. Just don't do any magic tricks too soon." With that, he flew up, caught the attentions of several aerial units and vanished around the tower in the mad dash for chaos again. Romi stared up after him, then touched fingers to the Fenton Phones.
"Tootie? Are you okay?" she called out, "Do you still want that wish granted?"
"Romi! You're okay! I was so worried when everyone started falling from the sky!" the young Goth exclaimed in relief, "I'm fine for now. Sanjay's covering for me for a bit so the units aren't so bad, and Wanda just flew past me and all the aerial units went after her."
"So you're feeling all right?" Romi questioned as she took to the air and rejoined the other fairies in their circling of the Spire.
"Yeah. Why?"
"Nothing. Just making sure you were okay." the fairy godmother returned and looked puzzled. For some reason, that answer didn't make her feel any better.
.
"One, two, three..." Anti-Cosmo counted between puffs of air. This was more tiring than he thought it would be. But then, he didn't have the other anti-fairies taking up the brunt of the duties for him. He sighed, wiped at his face with a handkerchief and went back to waving his wand at units, conjuring up mirrors. None of the other bad luck triggers would work at this altitude.
He felt a shiver run down his back and paused, a look of confusion passing over him. Strange, he hadn't ever felt something like that before. Looking over his shoulder to see if something had perhaps run along the space between his wings, he blinked in surprise at a spherical unit hovering there, red light shining like some demonic eye and a butterfly net in position to swing over him.
"What the hell is this?" the anti-fairy exclaimed in alarm, "Not me, you fool! I'm an anti-fairy! Not a fairy! Not a fairy!" He waved his arms in a panic as the unit flew straight for him, then suddenly split apart as something rippled through the air and passed across the device.
"Stay out of range!" Cosmo's voice called out and the anti-fairy looked over at his light-hearted double, "If they don't get a chance to scan you, they won't chase you! Stay out of range!"
"Who are you to tell me what to do, you nitwit?" Anti-Cosmo shot back in irritation.
"Someone who's been at this way longer than you!" Another rush of air flew past him and the anti-fairy watched a second unit split apart and drop from the sky, "Now get out of the way!" Beating a hasty retreat, Anti-Cosmo flew further from the Spire before turning back around to conjure more mirrors.
"One, two, three..." he counted again and looked down at his wand with a scowl, "I appreciate the ability to have clear, concise and coherent thoughts, but would it be too much to ask to have even a small sampling of my idiot doppleganger's power?" He went back to waving it again, pushing the complaint out of mind and focusing on the destruction of the aerial nullifiers. This would make Remy miserable and that was good for him; yes, vengeance of any kind was delicious.
Master Control Spire~
The nullifier units were winking out at a much faster rate. Spire Four was beginning to activate the production rooms to build replacements. Crocker watched the proceedings with mild disappointment. He had hoped that the new Timmy would catch onto what was going on much sooner, but apparently he wasn't as intelligent as he had hoped. Well, that was to be expected. Crocker himself had said that he wasn't very bright, but he was creative. And although the plan that the teen and his fairy allies were using to attempt another server overload was rather 'out there', it wasn't creative enough and had too much tactical knowledge to be from him.
It was possible that someone else crafted the plan in his stead.
The retired teacher puzzled over the thought. If the new Timmy didn't create that plan, then who did? There was the knowledge that the brunet had come in contact with Timmy Turner's old friends, so perhaps one of them had contrived the plot to circle the Spire. Not Chester, the boy was as much an idiot as Timmy had been. Not A.J., he was more scientifically-minded and the idea of destroying technology went against his grain. That left the two 'backup' friends the Turner boy had held in reserve, Sanjay and Elmer. Of the two of them, Sanjay came from a military family, and this plan was worthy of an Army assault on a fortress.
So young Sanjay had crafted the plan to overload the servers. Crocker smiled and tapped his fingertips together. Perhaps he should have the Spires learn from his tactics as well. He reached out and tapped at the console. In minutes the other Spires' servers connected together on a higher bandwidth and linked with Spire Four, feeding from the information it was receiving and sending out. He watched the models a little longer, then decided it was about time to let Remy know another Spire would soon be falling.
The night was still young, and he wanted to experience the rich boy's fit of disbelief and outrage before anything especially good happened on the battlefield.
Streets of Dimmsdale~
Dimmsdale's nightlife still had a ways to go before it could actually be considered a 'nightlife'. Very few people were out on the streets and not many shops and clubs were open. Though the city was regaining some amount of hope and cheerfulness, much of Dimmsdale still wallowed in gloom and doom. Victoria grudgingly admitted that what Timmy said may be true after all; without magic in the city, kids couldn't keep their special quality that made them happy and passed on their happiness to other people around them, cheering up the whole city and keeping it moving smoothly. It was still going to take a while to get Dimmsdale back to normal, but not if they continued to cling to and mourn the Heart of the city.
Subconsciously, Victoria touched fingers to the little red heart-shaped pin on her lapel. She had dressed in her green business outfit for a meeting with a bank manager to open accounts for the babysitter service and store the income from various donations and fundraisers the girls insisted on holding for the service. The pin was something she had bought and put on at the last minute, partially for the leverage it gave her in getting a free account, but mostly out of a sentiment she wouldn't admit to anyone. It was going to be hard to try convincing anyone in Dimmsdale to let go of Timmy Turner's memory; they would fight that to the death if need be.
"We're all idiots." Victoria sighed and glanced out the window at the city skyline. Several tall and dark shapes dotted the scene; the Dark Spires that, Timmy often growled out under his breath, were the cause of the loss of magic in the city. "Just give me ten minutes with a wrecking ball, twerp. None of those things will be standing after that." she remarked with a grin. A glance at her watch and another sigh; another few turns and she'd be at the office building to get the van for the pick up.
Victoria hoped that another of those Spires would fall soon. She wanted something to gloat over the next day, even if she had no part in what happened.
Dark Spire Four~
Chester studied the detector between shots at the nullifiers. The numbers were dropping more quickly now, especially since Sanjay went from a rifle to a large pair of laser blasters, firing off shots twice as often and fast as before. The chaos from earlier was dying down since Caleb fell from the anti-magic wave that passed over the group. Not good. If there wasn't enough activity keeping the units interested, the server system wasn't going to be overwhelmed enough to shut down.
"Yo, Timmy! How's the countdown?" he called out.
"Huh? Uh, we're at three and a half minutes. The server should be running hot by now." the brunet returned.
"Not at this rate, Timmy!" Tootie's voice interrupted, "I've been keeping an eye on the signal rates between the Spire and the units! The Dark Spire isn't even batting an eye at all the chasing around!"
"What? That's not possible!"
"We're taking out nullifiers left and right, but the other units are starting to head for targets that they really want." Chester reported and fired off several shots at the nullifier units chasing Trixie as she passed through his zone, "Keep it up, Tricks! You're doing great!"
"We've still got a lot more aerial nullifiers flying around!" Timmy called back in irritation, "Anti-Cosmo! Stop playing around and just destroy them already!"
"I'm not playing!" the anti-fairy shrieked in frustration, "I'm doing the best I can!"
"It's not enough! You're the leader of the anti-fairies! Do something about all those units!"
Chester counted the units on the screen of the detector again, frowning after a moment of rolling numbers in his head. Stupid as he was when it came to math, even this was so obviously wrong it came to his attention. Something wasn't on the level. The count was all wrong.
"Nullifier count is down to about two hundred and thirty. The other counts are the same, sort of. Lost a couple of fairy traps here and there." Chester muttered to himself and started adding up the original set of numbers. He blinked. "Hey, there's two hundred of 'em missing! Timmy! We're missing two hundred units!" he exclaimed.
"They're probably the Mars units; those came from another Spire and that other Spire might be this one." Timmy returned in exasperation, "Anti-Cosmo! I know you like destroying stuff and you are holding back on it! Do you really want to help or not? We've only got about three minutes left!"
"Leave me alone!" the anti-fairy snapped, "You focus on your blasted little tin cans down on the ground and let me do this my way up here!"
"We're missing units." Chester repeated to himself with a thoughtful frown, "Why are we missing units? Why aren't the signals reaching the server system? Why isn't this Spire going crazy like the last one?" He looked up at the tower in suspicion. "What are we doing wrong?"