M.Y.S.T.I.C.
Mallory Yvonne Sampson Trip Iggy Chloe
By: A J
Disclaimer: I don't own W.i.t.c.h. or the Power Rangers. All O.C.'s are mine, as is the plot.
Chapter Eleven
"Training Day"
Part 5, Preparations
"I thought you said K's mom was fun to hang with." Toby whined. The three pre-teens had spent the last hour toting boxes for Hay Lin and Elyon, preparing Caleb's dojo for Chloe's birthday party.
"Yeah, well, just wait. If she helped put this party together, I can promise ya fun's in the house. No matter how old or young the guests." A.J. cast a glance at Martin, perched precariously on his mother's shoulders, taping up one side of the giant banner Hay Lin had printed out while the kids enjoyed a hurried fast-food lunch.
Over sixteen feet long, the banner was pastel pink with 'Happy Birthday, Chloe!' scrawled across it in bright green cursive letters. Strategically drawn leaves made it look like the whole message had been grown, and the 'I' was dotted with a sky-blue flower. (Elyon's idea, and addition.) Hay Lin had placed the banner over the archway between the foyer and the main room of the dojo, and had moved the two potted plants from their usual corners so the banner appeared to have sprouted from them. Elyon, in between trips with the boys to get the various boxed party-ware from her beat-up Volvo wagon, would whisper up to Hay Lin whether she needed to raise the ends or middle of the banner to get it even.
When both artists were satisfied, and all the boxes were inside, Hay Lin got the boys set up to start filling balloons. When everything was ready, including a cargo net she'd borrowed from her hangar to contain the balloons, she proposed an impromptu race. Handing each of the three older boys a different colored balloon supply she said, "All right, guys. The one with the most filled in ten minutes gets to run the games tonight." With a wicked wink at Elyon, she added, "And the guy with the least done is Chloe's slave for the night."
Toby, A.J., and Kyle traded looks of horror as Hay Lin stretched out a balloon of her own and yelled, "Ready? GO!"
Seven minutes later, the trio was huffing and puffing between balloons, taking longer to fill each one. Elyon and Martin paused in tying off the two balloons Toby and Kyle had just handed to them and looked worriedly at Kyle. While ahead of both the other boys, his lead was coming at a definite risk. He was almost blue in the face.
Hay Lin finished with her some-teenth balloon, and leaned over to give her older son a calming buffet on the back. "Breathe, erzi, passing out now would be an automatic lose."
Kyle took a huge breath then let it out, slowly. Grinning he replied, "Thanks, muqin."
Toby's ears pricked up. "Hey, Kyle, did you just call her 'Mougi'?" he asked, reminded of one of his and his dad's favorite old television shows, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".
"Huh? Noooo," Kyle answered, chuckling. "Its pronounced 'mu-cheen'. It means mom in Chinese." The adults both chuckled as well.
"Speaking of mom-ness, I'd better call Cordy and find out what's keeping her away from all this fun." Elyon got her phone out. A fast-aging old flip-style, she checked the battery and signal strength quick, and gave an exaggerated sigh of relief when she saw both were mostly full.
Hay Lin, catching her act, grinned. "Will kept it at her place most of the time, so it'd stay full."
"Remind me to thank… her…" Elyon started to say, her voice trailing off as her phone beeped and a pre-recorded voice said, "We're sorry, but the person you have dialed is out of our calling zone. Please try again later."
"Whoa. I got Cordy one of those satellite phones at a military surplus sale for her thirteenth birthday. There isn't anywhere on Earth those things aren't supposed to reach." Elyon closed her eyes and huffed for a second, then dialed again, only to get the same result.
"Alright, now I'm worried too," Hay Lin spouted. She closed her eyes, trying to telepathically contact Taranee, in hopes the former Fire Guardian could then contact her predecessor, Halinor.
Mystic
After another brief stop-off back in Rootcore, Zander popped through a series of trees around the Pacific Rim, Dee in tow. They finally stepped out of the last tree in a grey fir grove near Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, only to fall over the edge of a newly collapsed gorge.
Zander grabbed wildly for a protruding root with his free hand on their way down, finally catching hold of one fifteen feet below the ridgeline. With a yowl of indignation, Cordelia reinforced her grip on his other arm with both hands and sank her nails into his leather wrist guard. The two dangled there for a couple of minutes, just catching their breath. Then Zander cleared his throat and grinned through the burning pain in his shoulders.
"Hey Cordy. Much as Oi'd luv tou haing around heah with you, we are on a mission. D'ye think you could reach moy Morpher, sou we could get outteh this?"
"All right," came her telepathic reply a minute later, as she started fast-breathing in preparation for her impending exercise. "But I'll warn you now, this is prob'ly gonna hurt."
Cordelia took one last deep breath, (and she could hear Zander doing the same above her,) then clenched her abs, swung her legs up, and wrapped them around Zander's knees. Another quick breath, then she tightened her legs' grip, let go with her right hand, and reached around to Zander's other hip and grabbed his Magiphone out of its holster. Flipping it open like she'd seen the Rangers doing the night before, she held it up in front of her. "Now what?"
Realizing he couldn't very well wield the Wand in their present predicament, Zander gritted his teeth for a second while looking around them better.
"Ahah! Okaiy, aim tou our left at that clump of voines, and say 'Earth!' Jest firmly picture ouah friends theah pulling us out, and it's as good as done."
Still conserving her breath for any exertions, Cordy nodded and sent back "Here goes …" She leaned back first to see the vines in question, then in a move that made Zander cry out in agony, she switched hands between his arm and the Mystic Wand lightning fast. "Sorry," she 'pathed, aiming and concentrating on the actions like he'd said to.
"'S'Okaiy," he moaned, his eyes starting to water.
"EARTH!" Cordy exclaimed, putting as much authority as she could behind the command. The Mystic Force Earth Magistaff responded to the unfamiliar voice much as Clare's had the day before. With an unexpected boost of energy, the previously quiescent vines lashed out, seized hold of the dangling pair of holly-hunters, and fairly threw them back up over the cliff.
Their unplanned landing upset a small family of dwarf kangaroos. Watching the two-foot tall marsupials hop away, Zander spat out a mouthful of leaves and directed the habitual Bly Grin at Dee. "Heah ye gou, Princess: Austrailia. No worries." Cordelia just collapsed, laughing at him.
Mystic
Yan Lin and Halinor were lounging in the afternoon sun along with Kadma, Udonna and Leanbow. Just as the elderly Zamballan Ambassador was reaching for the drink Leanbow had brought her, Daggeron and Cassidy came back with a giggling Clare in tow.
"What's so funny?" Yan Lin asked, knowing the kids were eyes-deep in learning their new powers by now. The three new arrivals just traded a look before bursting out in fresh gales of laughter.
When she could finally breath, Cassidy gulped out "Remember this morning's 'natal-day frivolity'? Well, Iggy got roughly the same treatment from Yvonne just now, Yanny. And when he tried to use his heat-aura to dry off quick, he ended up steam-cleaning himself instead. Oh, god, I never thought I'd see the day he'd have a 'fro again …"
Halinor took a second remembering the length Ignatius had grown his Dredlocks out to, (almost a foot,) and then tried to picture the resulting puffball it would have turned into. "Lord, he must look like a lightbulb." The freshly-returned trio could only nod, grinning, and everybody laughed.
Halinor was just getting her breath back, when a telepathic shout from Taranee gave her an instant headache. "Ooooh! Calm down, Kindling, I hear you! What is it?"
"Can you all 'port back?" Halinor could feel Taranee's worry through their shared element. "Emergency meeting, and as Vida just said, Strength in Numbers, Halinor." As Taranee was sending this, Daggeron, Leanbow, and Udonna's Mystic Morphers trilled, at the same time that Cassidy and Clare's cell phones rang. After a cacophonous couple of minutes, it turned out everyone had gotten the same message.
"What is the emergency?" Udonna asked Nick, who'd called her.
"Queen Elyon can't reach her daughter Cordelia by phone or telepathy. After the attack yesterday, she's understandably more than a little worried."
"Didn't Chloe tell anyone?" Udonna's brow furrowed. "Princess Cordelia wanted to help find the ingredients for her potion. She's 'Down Under' with Zander as we speak." The Ice Ranger could hear a hurried spate of questions at Nick's end.
"So then why didn't he answer Vida's call just now?" The Rangers all looked at their World Display, looking for danger signs, and Yan Lin and the other Elder Guardians immediately started worrying, too.
Udonna crossed to the map and, thinking clearly of Zander and Cordelia, tapped it with her snowstaff. Sure enough, a green star twinkled on the northern point of Australia, with a tiny white dot next to it. As they were watching, the star flared brilliantly for a second, telling the three Ranger Mentors that Zander had just used his powers.
"Well, they're alive, so now what?" asked Cassidy. "Back to practice?"
Daggeron, who was standing behind her, leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "You just don't want to miss any more of the show," he muttered, chuckling.
"That's not true!" she countered, smiling all the while. "I want to be there just in case something goes wrong, and they need some help, medically." Her former teammates all beamed at her, knowing how much catch-up the revived Water Guardian had to do to get her nurse-practitioner's certification.
"It does not mean you won't enjoy watching the kids in action," Kadma huffed, slowly climbing to her feet. Yan and Halinor both hastened to assist her. "I profess a desire to see my successor's daughter showing off too. Come ladies, let us away from this serene courtyard and see what sport the children are making of our life's work."
Halinor shook her head. "At least one of us needs to reassure Queen Elyon in person. I'll go see to that." She closed her eyes for a few seconds, concentrating. "Yes, thank you, Hay Lin. Now please step over a few feet, and I'll be right there." With those final words, she folded from in front of the group of elders (and Clare) and, a second later, Yan Lin heard telepathically "Oh, Yanni, you're gonna love the party tonight! Your little Hay-hay has outdone herself!" With that mysterious missive, she was gone.
"Much as I'd love to return and watch all the fun, I know I can help out here, Udonna," Clare said, smiling. "No sense letting all my years of potion-brewing go to waste now, is there?" Udonna beamed at her old apprentice.
"And the help will be most welcome, indeed. It's already started, but I've got to go find some hendrake root before sundown, and it still needs stirred every twenty-one minutes. In fact …" Udonna and Clare disappeared back into the tree-tower of Rootcore, already talking over the potion for Chloe. Leanbow shook his head, grinning after his wife and niece.
"Well, those two situations are being handled. Is there any way one of you could follow Zander and the Princess? I'm sure Her Majesty would feel better knowing the poor girl had more than Zander looking out for her."
Kadma was about to voice her agreement, when Yan interrupted. "Don't get me wrong, Leanbow, I'm all for sending at least one extra body after that pair, but it would have to be discreetly, and definitely not for the sole purpose of 'keeping an eye on the Princess'. Young Cordelia can take care of herself. She's learned to, despite the lifestyle of a pampered lady. School alone has given her better survival skills than even we former Guardians can speak of."
Leanbow nodded reluctantly in agreement, then asked "So who do we send?"
Cassidy cleared her throat. "Why not sick Blunk on them?" Yan Lin gave a startled snort, and Kadma rolled her eyes, a slow grin breathing fresh life into her tired features.
"Only you, Cass. Only you," the elderly Earth Guardian uttered. Daggeron looked back and forth between the three women, perplexed.
"Who, or what, is Blunk? This is the second time someone has mentioned it as a solution to a problem, and I still haven't gotten a better description to work with than 'stinkmonkey'." Cassidy broke down in helpless giggles, and Kadma's eyes lit up.
"Oh, that is the best name I've heard for him yet. Irma's work, I presume?" Yan Lin nodded sagely at her oldest teammate. "But how do we find him? Passlings don't exactly keep reliable addresses, Yan."
"Back to the practice field, first. I've a pretty good idea where our favorite scavenger is," Yan answered. "Especially since he was with Caleb last night, but didn't come to Candracar with the rest of them." She opened a portal to the newest site of Hale Investments, and motioned Cassidy, Daggeron, Kadma, and Leanbow through, then closed it behind her as she followed.
Mystic
Winky sat up from her napping spot in Blunk's 'bestest hidey-way'. When the Queen's Court had dispersed into the Infinite City for safety, Elyon had told Winky to "Wait for Blunk somewhere only he can find you." While the 'hidey-way' certainly met that qualification, Winky knew it was a poor second to where she'd wanted to flee. But even her home dimension probably wasn't safe from this new, old threat.
Winky looked down at the curled-up lump that was her daughter, still blissfully asleep in the 'comfy corner' Blunk invariably put in each of his treasure troves. 'My poor Blinky,' the green-skinned female thought, running a gentle hand through her daughter's shock of vibrant maroon hair. The slight touch was still enough to wake the hypersensitive, hyperactive seven-year-old.
Sturdy and sneaky as her goblin mother, already taller and lankier than her passling father, Blink was a lean, green, (mean when she needed to be,) and cunning gobling. "Wha …'YAWN' … ssup, Momma?"
Winky rolled her oversized eyes. Her daughter had definitely spent too much time with the Earth kids, even if she was Princess Cordelia's personal valet. Granted, Her Highness only spent weekends in Meridian during the school year, but apparently even that was exposure enough to the strange culture and customs for some of it to stick.
"Shhhh," she answered, glancing around nervously. "We're still in hiding, waiting for your poppa. I'm not even sure where we are. Blunk only ever brought me here once, and that was almost three turns of the seasons ago. It doesn't look like he's been back since then, either." She slapped the pile of blankets the two had been resting on in emphasis, and a cloud of dust, scentless with age, puffed out.
Blink took a longer look around as she woke up more. Blunk's usual collection of 'previously-owned merchandise' was piled haphazardly around the two she-gobs in ever-rising piles, almost sorted by type. There was the inevitable fallout wherever two large piles strayed too close to each other. The whole collection was housed in a former predator's den, if the large pile of well-gnawed bones in the back was any indication.
'Probably vanquished by some daring knight on a noble quest,' Blink thought. Standing and stretching, she told her mother she was heading for the privy.
"Don't wander too far, Blink. The Light only knows what else lives in these caves."
"Yes, Momma," the gobling answered, rolling her own eyes as she turned away. Knowing her father, Blink dug around in the pile of 'softies' he had left in this den, and soon came up with a mostly-used-up roll of industrial tissue. 'Well, better than nothing; thanks, Poppa.' She headed off to a secluded corner near the pile of bones to take care of her business.
She was trying to crouch down in a useful low spot when the layer of 'cave-crud' gave out under her feet. With a wild cry, Blink found herself sliding toes-first into a small tunnel that quickly devolved to a moss-slicked slide. The passage carried her almost a hundred lengths (Meridian's version of a meter, and equal to the average height of a passling, coincidentally) and spat her out into a crystal-lit, fern-filled grotto.
Staring around dazedly at the alien beauty of subterranean overgrowth, Blink worked on getting her breathing back to normal. As she clambered to her feet, she could hear her mother faintly, crying her name. Moving back to the mouth of the tunnel, Blink noticed the stains on her new dress, as well as the source of them, namely moss and mold, and the organic detritus they had been growing in. Apparently, she wasn't the first being to think that low spot made a convenient toilet.
"Great, now I smell like Poppa," she muttered. "Momma! Momma! Stop yelling! I can hear you, okay?" When Winky's cries just became shriller, Blink braced herself, and in a fair imitation of Aunt Hay-hay, cupped her hands and bellowed fair to bring the roof of the cave down. "MOMMA!"
Silence reigned for several seconds, then: "Blinky-poo? Where are you?" A certain seven-year-old gobling gritted her teeth, silently cursing the day she'd met her passling grandmother. She would never live that one down.
"Down here, Momma! The hole next to the …" Blink stopped abruptly. Her mother wasn't the most dexterous person, and she really didn't want both of them stuck in this hole, no matter how stunning the scenery. "I'll be right up!" she yelled instead.
After another brief glance at the beautiful yet bizarre growths surrounding her, she looked more closely at the tunnel. If she could get herself out of here without her mother panicking worse … then she noticed the hand-holds fastened to the passage's ceiling. From the looks of the mismatched materials, Poppa had made them himself. Blink grinned, reached for the first handle, and started the slow climb up.
Mystic
"Why are we headed into town?" Cordelia asked.
"Well, Oi figured, whoy beat aour brains out and aour bodies up troying te foind woild holly? Me da's second cousin still lives roight heah in Darwin, and hie lives next door tou a shiela who manages a grieenhouse. Jest in and out, easy-pieasy." Cordelia started laughing. "What?"
Unable to reign in her giggles right away, she sent her answer back telepathically. "Aunt Will says that all the time!"
"Noice tou siee Oi'll fit roight in with you lot," Zander chuckled back and, almost as if it were an afterthought, he waved his Mystic Wand over his outfit, turning it back into his 'civvies' before they stepped into the Darwin suburb from the bush.
Mystic
Despite her intentions to go find Blunk right away, Yan couldn't help but stay and watch the six teens for several minutes. M.y.s.t.i.c. had gone back to aerial target practice. But where the parents had been throwing the targets up in the air before, the kids were all carrying handfuls of clay pigeons now, and throwing them at each other in a chaotic flying free-for-all. Each Guardian was doing his or her level best to blast the others' missiles to shrapnel, while still trying to get a few 'tags' in themselves.
"How do they tell who gets in the most hits?" Cassidy asked Vida. She noticed that the Wind Ranger had unfocussed her eyes. Cass tried it too, and found she was able to watch more of the action that way, instead of trying to follow any one of the young flyers at a time.
"Poster paint," Vida responded. Cassidy had to give her head a shake to bring her attention back to the conversation she'd started.
"Hwa ..?" the former Water Guardian uttered. V smiled.
"Irma's idea. We got some poster paint in each kid's primary color, rolled a bunch of clay pigeons in 'em for all six, and those are the ones the kids're throwing right now. When they all run out, we count up all the spots on everybody, and see how they did. It was originally just gonna be to see who could get hit the least, but … natural competitiveness won that argument." The two women went back to watching the final frenetic minutes of the 'fight', then jogged forward to help count spots when all the teens landed.
Shortly … "So let's see, that's three kids with a positive number, and three that actually got hit more than they managed to deal out." Vida looked around at her fellow counters. "Okay, these kids definitely will need to practice more …"
"Just not today," Caleb countered, all too aware his adopted sister was currently wreaking havoc at his place of business with his wife's best friend, all for his daughter's birthday. He turned to the newest Earth Guardian. "Sorry, honeysuckle. Better luck next time, though." Chloe shrugged back. She was too busy wondering what had happened to Cordelia, since she'd heard the Princess hadn't answered her phone.
"Our winner, with most hits dealt, after returns were counted in, is Mallory, with seventeen," Vida stated.
"Sixteen," Irma countered. She lifted her hat off to show the bright pink fist-sized spot on top of her head where one of the new Quintessence Mistress' clay pigeons had walloped her. Will had to duck out of the crowd before her laughter got too loud.
"Sixteen, which ties her with Yvie," Vida continued without batting an eye. "Who wins our original objective, of least hits taken, with nine." She gave her niece a round of applause, complete with phantom fanfare. Trip leaned Mallory over in an old-fashioned Hollywood kiss, thoroughly smearing both their splotches. It earned them a round of wolf-whistles again.
"I knew you'd win," he told her breathlessly after they both stood up. "But I had to wait 'til they were done counting to do that."
Yan gave the two winners each a congratulatory hug, (using a micro-layer of Air to stay paint-free herself,) then turned to face the nearest pair of Rangers, Nick and Maddie. "Could I get one of you to help me?" she asked. Maddie looked away from where she was panning across the paint-splattered kids, paused the camera, and joined Nick beside her.
"What is it, Grand-Yan?" Maddison asked, and the elderly Chinese woman smiled. Kyle had been the last holdout of the four younger kids when the parents had all come down to her room in Candracar last night, and he'd taken great pains to introduce everyone to his 'Grand-Yan' personally. Nick grinned at the reminder as well before Yan answered.
"I'd ask Vida for the helping hand for this, but she keeps saying her magic's not up to snuff. Which is unfortunate, because finding spells are mostly the province of Air. I need to find Blunk, and fast."
"You're not alone, Grand-Yan," the newest Earth Guardian said from behind her. Chloe had just stepped through the magical equivalent of a car wash to get all the paint splotches off. Her floral friends were still waving ecstatically from the excess water Irma and Cassidy had poured over her.
"What else do we need short, green, and stinky for?" Taranee asked. She was standing at the end of the 'Guardian wash', holding a stack of warmed towels and presenting one to each teen. She held one out to Chloe, but the golden-haired girl just shook her head with a resigned grin.
Pointing to her flowers, she said "Too late, Aunt T'ree."
"So what about Blunk?" Taranee asked again.
"I wanted to send him to follow Cordelia, in case she and Zander run into more trouble than they should. She's apparently lost her phone between here and Australia already, and …" Yan lowered her voice so only the four near her, Air-enhanced gifts aside, could hear the next bit. "Let's just say the older Rangers don't have as much faith in Zander as they could."
"Pivvlefrits," Chloe muttered. She certainly didn't want to be worrying about her BFF in the midst of everything else, but how were they going to send Blunk to help Cordy and look for her dad's hair?
"Piv … whats?" Maddie asked, while Yan and Taranee both chuckled.
"Huh? Oh!" Chloe giggled. "It's PIVvlefrits," she repeated, enunciating. "It's something Dee's dad used to say when he was mad at one of us kids. I think it's from Basiliade, his home dimension. He never would tell us what it meant."
"Let's find Blunk, first, and then figure out which job for him is more urgent," Yan said. She turned back to Maddie and Nick. "Can either of you manage a finding spell?"
"After fifteen years running a motorcycle shop, chasing after runaway nuts and bolts? You better believe it," Nick said. He drew his Mystic Morpher out, and flipped it open to wand mode. "Galwyn Mysto Locutor, Blunk!" he chanted. Like Will the night before, he hovered upward several inches, and spun until he was facing downtown Heatherfield. In his mystic mind's eye, he saw a vision of an alleyway, with two dumpsters and a grease bin, telling him he was looking at the back of a restaurant. Then the vision flew up, until he was looking down on the same alley. Doing his best to remember landmarks from that aerial snapshot, Nick shook himself out of the semi-trance, and turned back to the gathered women.
"I don't know how much this is gonna help," he started to say, even as he found he had everyone's attention. 'Ahem.' "Blunk is in an alley behind a restaurant downtown. All I've got to go on is an overhead view though, so … What's so funny?" Nick stalled as the older Guardians and their kids all started laughing.
"Oh, we know exactly where he is," Taranee told Nick telepathically, not trusting her voice.
"I really must tell Chen they've gotten the ultimate product endorsement," Yan Lin finally managed to say between laughs. "You know your cooking is good when the best scavenger in the cosmos keeps coming back for your mu shu pork."
"Oh, God," Trip gasped, catching on. "He's behind the Silver Dragon?"
"Yep!" Chloe and Mallory both chirped. The latter leaned into his still-soaked shoulder, and everybody around the pair backed up a foot hastily as the duo emitted a burst of static sparks.
"Whoa," Yvonne uttered, grabbing her just-discarded towel back up and vigorously redrying every inch of her overabundant frame better. "Note to self," Sam could just hear her saying from under the scrubbing cotton. "Water and electricity do not mix."
"How many people can we safely teleport to this Silver Dragon without raising suspicion?" Leanbow asked, curious to see this Blunk creature after having met everyone else. His granddaughter Yvie had given him the quick who's who while he helped the parents count paintspots.
Yan 'hmmmm'd for a moment. "Our usual limit is five," she said, grinning over at Will, Irma, Taranee, and Cornelia. "Since we've both got missions for Blunk, I think it behooves us to have Cornelia and myself along. Anyone besides that is welcome, of course."
"I want to bring Daggeron to meet him," Cassidy piped up. "And take him to lunch, too," she added, giving her long-lost beau a winning smile. Trip and the other Rangers' teens led the next round of wolf-whistles as their Knight Mentor leaned down to kiss the former Water Guardian.
"I'm not sure who needs the chaperone more," Irma quipped to the flustered Nick and Matt. "Those two, or our younger couple." Both men gulped.
"That's four then," Yan chuckled, while Cassidy blushed so hard her freckles shone as lighter spots across her cheeks. "Anyone else?"
"I'll go along as far as the restaurant, Yan, but after that, I really have to get back to Zamballa," Kadma said, stepping forward slowly. "I've enjoyed seeing all this youthful exuberance again, but I find I've long since used mine up." She got a chorus of 'Awwww's with that, and smiled. "Now, now, I'm not going to bow out completely for the day. But if I'm going to be in any shape for the party tonight, I'm off for a quick nap first. I'm sure the lovebirds can come collect me after their late luncheon." Kadma gave Cassidy and Daggeron a significant nod, and the two returned it.
"Think you can chance a look in the dojo and make sure our artists haven't totaled the place?" Caleb asked Cornelia.
"As if!" she countered. "Besides, Halinor already told Yan it looks spectacular, and I don't want to ruin the surprise those two have no doubt whipped up."
"Going now …" Cassidy sing-songed from behind Cornelia. The former Earth Guardian gave her husband a parting kiss and her daughter a good-luck wave before stepping with the others into the fold Yan opened up.
"Alright, that's flight training, target practice, and sparring; what's next?" Nick asked Caleb and Irma, and the teens all groaned and turned back for more practice.
Mystic
Yan, Cornelia, Cassidy, Daggeron, and Kadma stepped out of the fold to the back alley of the Silver Dragon downtown. With simultaneous sniffs, Yan and Cornelia both gave a sigh and said, "Good memories." Cassidy and Kadma both grinned, and the elderly Zamballan ambassador turned to her two former teammates.
"I'll see you two later tonight, Cass, Yan." She turned and opened up her own fold back to Zamballa, then looked back over her shoulder. "Oh, and MacLean?" Cassidy looked up from where she was weaving her fingers into Daggeron's. "Happy birthday," Kadma said with a wicked wink, and disappeared through her fold at the same time a splatter of refuse from the nearer dumpster cascaded over her Water-powered friend.
Cassidy wiped egg fu yung out of her eyes and spat out a bean sprout that had slid in while she screamed. "Oh, it's on," she muttered, while Cornelia and Yan laughed. Daggeron stood dumbfounded, just looking back and forth between the three women.
"I … 'heehee' … think we better clean you up before lunch," Cornelia eventually managed. She lifted the majority of the solid waste back off Cassidy and sent it back where it came from. With a sigh, Cass raised the humidity around herself until she was dew-covered, then used the water to scrub off the liquid bits. When she was done, Yan Lin called up a warm breeze to dry her up.
All this didn't go as unnoticed as the three former Guardians could have wished. Fortunately, the observer was the very person they'd come in search of. "Pretty red Guardian done with shower? Blunk find lunch!" the passling said from inside the second dumpster. The four whirled around in surprise, Cornelia with a long-suffering groan, to see the diminutive green scavenger hip-deep in the receptacle the Lins normally used for non-food waste. Cassidy giggled.
"What?" Cornelia asked, wondering what was that funny.
"He looks like Oscar the Grouch traded up!" Cassidy mumbled to her. Cornelia snickered as well for a second, then stepped forward.
"Oh, that's okay, Blunk. We already ate. But I'm sure the Lins won't mind if you help yourself." The former Earth Guardian was turning to introduce the passling to Daggeron, when Blunk grabbed her shoulder.
"Princess safe? Queen safe?" The poor green guy's face was scrunched up in worry.
"Yes, Blunk, they're both fine," Cornelia answered.
His eyebrows had just leveled out in relief, when Yan said "Actually, that's why we've come to see you. We're not sure about Princess Cordelia. She lost her phone. Again."
"Where Princess?" Blunk cried, worried all over again.
"Uh, Australia, apparently," Cassidy answered. She stepped forward to calm him as well, and immediately regretted it. Setting one hand over her nose and the other on Cornelia's wrist, she sent "Faugh! How do you stand the smell?!" telepathically.
"Years of repeated exposure," Cornelia returned with a sigh and a smirk. "Blunk, we need you to find out whether Cordelia's okay, without letting her know you're there. We don't want her to know we're worried about her."
"Want Blunk be sneaky with Princess?" Blunk asked uncertainly. "Princess not trust Blunk?"
"NO! No, she does trust Blunk, er … you, it's just that …" Cornelia faltered, her brain temporarily screwed up again with trying not to talk passling.
"We don't want the Princess to think we don't trust her," Yan concluded for her. Cornelia looked at her in thanks. "We also have another quest for you, noble Sir Blunk," she added. "We need to find some hair of Caleb's from many years ago, before the children were born. Do you think you could help with that, as well?"
"Princess first, of course," Cassidy said, knowing that there was a much more lenient timetable for the potion ingredients. "We've got until tomorrow night to find the hair." She stepped back a few spaces until she could breathe clearer again, to find that Daggeron had come forward when she did, and they collided with matching 'Oooof!'s.
"Blunk can do both!" the passling said valiantly, giving the former Guardians a Meridian salute, bowing with a fist clenched over his heart. He drew out the old Tonga tooth from one of his patchwork vest's many pockets, and gave the women and Daggeron a huge smile. "Just wait here!" he added, drawing the tooth across the air next to him in the dumpster, generating a fold. He leaped through with a wave like Kadma had.
"Why am I not reassured by his antics?" Daggeron asked. Cassidy giggled again.
"Oh, he's as reliable as they come," Cornelia responded. "If Blunk says he can find something – or someone – then they're as good as found. It's the 'discreet' part I'm never sure he'll manage. Against the average unobservant modern-day Earth person, or beat down peasant, he's stealthy all right. Up against someone who knows what to watch for, or someone like Cordy and her senses, well …" She shrugged. "I'd say his chances are pretty even."
Cassidy grinned at the other two women, and grabbed Daggeron's hand. "Come on, let's go grab lunch while we're waiting, and I'll introduce you to more of the extended family." She led him around to the front of the restaurant, while Cornelia telekinetically summoned a pair of leftover crates for herself and Yan to sit on. Yan said a tired "Thanks," as she settled herself to wait for Blunk.
Mystic
Blink had emerged from the cave of wondrous beauty, and she and her mother had foraged some grubs and edible mushrooms around the 'hidey-way'. Blink was all set to start looking for another exit, when Blunk folded into the middle of the room. He immediately started to tear through a pile of discarded trinkets, mumbling under his breath. Blink and Winky's sharp ears both caught him muttering about "Princess Dee" and "hair".
"What's wrong, Poppa?" Blink asked. Blunk looked up at the two she-gobs in wonder, as if he hadn't remembered they were there. Then his face split wide in a smile, and he dove back into the trinket pile, to emerge seconds later with a plain steel ring, which he threw to Blink. She just barely caught it, and looked at it, puzzled. Blunk meanwhile kept searching through the shifting knick-knacks until he emerged again with an old locket. He held it up, crowing.
"Everything found!" he cheered over and over, dancing around his daughter and waving the locket. He stopped eventually, out of breath, and sat down happily. "Now just have to send you to help Princess in … in … Ostreliya!" he stammered. "She losted her Earth phone," he added. Then he took the ring back from Blink, crammed it on her largest finger, (where it still dangled loosely,) and said, "Think of Princess and you go to her! Then give her ring and tell her think of Queen!"
"This will take me to Princess Dee, Poppa?" Blink inquired dubiously, giving the ring a twirl around her finger.
"Yes! Yes! And she need your help!" he said proudly. She straightened up at that tone, and smile back shyly. One of her biggest fears had always been that she was only working as the Princess' valet because her father was friends with the Queen, and that Cordelia would never really need her for any true duties. Now, she was going to be able to do something nobody else could for Princess Dee.
Giving her father her best Meridian salute, Blink clenched her tiny fist tightly around the ring so it wouldn't fall off. Then she closed her eyes and pictured Princess Cordelia as clearly as she could: upturned nose, pointed ears, bright blue eyes, pale blonde hair, and attitude.
Feeling herself start to shimmer through a teletransport, Blink said to her parents, "T T F N, Ta-ta for now …"
Blunk turned to his pale wife. "She make us proud, Winky. Come, go to Heatherfield, have lunch!" he popped back to his feet, put the locket in a pocket, and took the Tonga tooth back out. Then he grabbed Winky's hand, opened another fold, and pulled her with him back to the alley behind the Silver Dragon.
Mystic
"G'day, Patricia. Thainks again foah the help, luv," Zander said to the friendly brunette who had greeted them at the greenhouse. She'd helped the pair find not only the holly berries they needed, but a live dahlia plant large enough they could harvest the required amount of root from it (without harming the plant) for Chloe's potion as well. Zander was chivalrously carrying the large pot while Cordelia held the door, the holly, and his Morpher. They thought it had rung a few minutes ago, but they'd been in the middle of an intersection surrounded by other people with cell phones, and couldn't be sure. So the Princess had agreed to keep it in hand while he haggled - there was no other word for it - with Patricia for the two plants.
As they were coming out of the greenhouse, Cordy caught a familiar scent coming from around the corner of the building, leading back to where they had entered Darwin. "Uh, Zander? Wait here a second, okay?" She flitted to the corner of the greenhouse, and peeked around the side to see what she couldn't through the pair of steamed-up windows.
"No worries," he grunted, sliding the large pot down on the convenient bus bench in front of him.
Blink caught sight of the Princess at the same time Cordelia spotted her. "Dee! Dee!" she cried happily, sprinting the rest of the way up the side of the strange glass building that smelled like a garden. Wrapping her skinny arms around the Princess' legs, she almost wept in relief. "I showed up in a tree and almost fell off a cliff and I found your phone but it was broken and I followed you all the way here and it was a really, really long walk and …"
Cordy laughed. Only Blink could make one simple tracking sound like a grand adventure worthy of their parents. "So why are you here?" she asked the sniffling gobling.
"Poppa said the Queen was worried," she said into Cordy's hip. Holding up a strangely flattened satellite phone, the Princess could see why.
"Aw, man, my mom's gonna kill me …" Dee moaned, taking the destroyed device from Blink.
"Everythin' alroight?" Zander asked from the bench.
"Oh, just some technical difficulties," Cordelia responded. "C'mon," she said to her valet, leading the gobling over to Zander. "Zander, meet my handmaiden, Blink. She's Blunk's daughter. Blink, this is Zander, the Earth Wizard."
Zander gave a surreptitious look around to make sure no one else had heard that last bit. The residents of Briarwood may have accepted the reality of magic after a year of attacks by the Master years ago, but the world at large still had no real clue. Reassured, he knelt down to Blink's eye level. "G'day, missiy. Oi can siee whoy they named ye Blink. You've got gorgeous eyes."
Blink mumbled a shy "Thank you," eyes averted, and blushed. Cordy laughed.
"You're incorrigible, aren't you?" she accused Zander, to which he just gave her back the Bly grin.
"Let's get back tou Heathehfield, Yer Hoighness. Oi gather yer royal mum's gonna bie spaire with us bieing incommunicadou this long." He hefted the dahlia plant again and started to lead the way back to their original tree of entrance.
"Ooooh! I almost forgot!" Blink surged forward, getting back in front of the pair. "Poppa gave me this ring, Princess Dee, and said it will take you to your momma." She held up her hand, and the two could see the loose ring glinting as it spun around her finger. She flipped in off and handed it to Cordelia.
"Well, if it'll save us another half-hour of tree-travel, I'm all for it," Cordy said, trying the ring on several fingers until it fit just right on her left middle digit. She looked at the other two expectantly, and Zander did his best to motion with his occupied hands.
"Boy aull mieans, Princess, lead on," he clarified his gesture.
"How does it work, Blink?"
"It's a teletransporter," the gobling said, and wrapped a hand each around Cordy and Zander's nearest wrists. "Just think of the Queen, and we'll be right there."
"Then how did you end up where we arrived, instead of in the greenhouse with us?" Cordelia asked.
"Poppa mentioned you lost your feletone, and I got distracted …" Blink muttered, scraping one toe in a circle. Dee and Zander both just smiled. Having just had their own tree-porting mishap, they were forgiving in the extreme.
"Let's not kieep the Queen waiting," Zander said. Cordy nodded, and concentrated on her mother. With a green shimmer, they disappeared from the side of the greenhouse, with only a curious brunette left inside to wonder what had happened to the friendly man and his American niece with such odd taste in plants.