In Undertown, Cerise woke up with a groan. She tried to move but the pain stinging through her body forced her to lie back down. She opened her eyes and saw a pair of green hands hovering over her chest, they shimmered with a blue glow.
"Don't move." It was Wicca. She was using her magic to heal Cerise. "You took a nasty fall. I had to fish you out of a pile of rubble."
Cerise noticed a crowd of strange looking creatures staring at her. "W-What is this place?"
"It's some kind of underground city." said Wicca. "Once I landed somewhere after Princess Birdbrain's spell backfired..." She rolled her eyes. "I hopped on my broom and went to find everyone. When I found this huge hole in the ground I knew someone must have landed here." Her hands stopped glowing. "That should do it."
Cerise staggered up, feeling much better. "Okay, what's the plan?"
"What else? Stop the Evil Queen." Wicca and Cerise were ready to leave when a blur of blue and black rushed in front of them. When the dust cleared, they gasped seeing a strange lizard like creature with wheels for feet.
It was Ben as XLR8.
"Guys! It's me, Ben!"
"Ben?!" Cerise quickly adjusted her hood. "Is that you?!"
"Yep." XLR8 lifted up his visor. "I came to pick everyone up. We've got a queen to stop and I have all the time I need." He changed back to himself and smiled. "I feel pretty good about stopping her now."
Just then, a loud pig-like squeal was heard. Cerise reacted fast and grabbed Wicca and Ben, jumping away in time to dodge a burst of dragon fire.
"THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDERPIG!" Thunderpig and his dragon landed before them. "I have found you, Ben Tennyson!" He took out his energy flail.
"Oh, great. It's the warthog wonder himself." Ben droned.
Thunderpig jumped off his dragon and charged at Ben, swinging his flail madly. "I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD AND BE REWARDED BY THE GREAT AND POWERFUL QUEEN-"
Cerise jumped right in the pig's path.
"CERISE! NO!" Ben was about to jump in and save her when suddenly...Thunderpig stopped, dropping his weapon.
As he stared at Cerise, Thunderpig's body trembled and became drenched in sweat. And his eyes, they were impossibly wide and filled with absolute dread.
Cerise's eyes flashed and she let out a growl, a growl that made the hair on Ben's neck stood on end.
Thunderpig let out an ear-splitting squeal. He kept squeaking as he turned around and tried to run, but Wicca zipped in front of him on her broom. She swung her magically charged broom and whacked Thunderpig across the face, knocking him out cold.
"Nice one, Cerise." said Wicca. She looked at the dark dragon Thunderpig was rising and arched a brow. Knowing he was outmatched, th dragon took off flying.
Ben gaped in astonishment. "H-How did you do that?!"
Cerise shifted uncomfortably. "Umm..."
"Just tell him, Cerise. Ben can keep a secret..." Wicca said before grabbing Ben's arm. "Can you?" Her eyes flashed.
"Of course I can. So...spill." Ben said.
Cerise hesitated. But she knew she could trust Ben. Her hands slowly went for her hood...
"LOOK OUT!" Ben became XLR8 again and grabbed Cerise just in time to dodge a blast of dragon fire. Liam and Psyphon arrived on the scene.
"Oh, come on! You're butting in now?!" XLR8 said, exasperated.
"That cute girl in the purple scared away our dragons!" said Liam. "But since we're here, we might as well take you down!"
"ATTACK!" roared Psyphon.
The dragons attacked, shooting fire. Wicca countered it with a blast of magic. "Cerise! Get Ben out of here!"
"On it!" Cerise ran quite fast and scooped up XLR8.
"Oh, no you don't!" Liam ordered his dragon to fire, but Wicca cast a water spell and shot out a huge stream of water, extinguishing the flames.
"Back off, Chicken nugget!" Wicca snapped. She cast another water spell and fired away.
Far away from the skirmish, outside of Undertown and back in Bellwood, Cerise dropped Ben on the cement pavement.
"Whoa! You moved as fast as..." XLR8 paused when he saw Cerise. "...me..."
Cerise had her hood down. But Ben was staring at her ears.
They weren't human ears. They were hairy and pointed, like they belonged to an animal. Ben remembers seeing a girl from Ever After High with the exact same ears. Ramona Badwolf, the daughter of the Big Bad Wolf, who teaches General Villainy at the school.
"C-Cerise..." Ben pointed to the ears. "your ears-"
"I know, I know, they're wolf ears." said Cerise. She sighed. "Look, this may sound crazy but...my mom, Little Red Hood, married the Big Bad Wolf."
"W-Wait, WHAT?!" Ben was absolutely stunned. "W-What do you mean 'married'?! You mean married as in together?! As in husband and wife?! But...WHY?!"
"No time to explain. Ben! You have to find Raven and stop the Evil Queen! The Evil Queen's magic is very powerful. Only someone from the queen's family has the magic power to match hers. If you and Raven join forces, you can beat her for sure!"
"But what about you guys?!" Ben replied. "I can't just leave you-"
"BEN!" Cerise's eyes flashed, she growled and bared her teeth. Ben actually got the chills! Who knew a cute girl like Cerise could be so scary?
"Stop worrying about us! We can take care of ourselves! You need to focus! Read the situation! These goons are just gonna get in our way and stop us from getting to the queen! Not gonna happen!"
"But I-"
"BEN! If you don't get a move on..." Cerise took a few steps back. "I'm gonna huff, and puff, AND BLOOOOW YA OUTTA HERE!" She inhaled a huge breath and blew out a strong gust of wind.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Ben wailed as the wind pushed him away from Cerise. Ben was blown two miles away from where he was until he tumbled into a light post.
"Ohhhh..." Ben staggered up and looked at his reflection in a building window. His hair was swept up like he was spun in a dryer. "I'm never talking back to her again."
Putting his faith in his friends, Ben became XLR8 one more time and went to find Raven.
