20
Dark Spire Two~
Timantha and Caleb raced onto the lot surrounding the towering black spire, a pair of fairies and a pair of anti-fairies fluttering around them. The night wasn't as dark as it normally was, surrounding blocks of high-class businesses lit up and active for the holiday festivities. It almost made Timantha want to back out; no way could she launch a two-man assault on a Dark Spire with so many people actually awake for it! But then she felt the hard hit of the nullifier field and she staggered, gasping for air with the Blue Crystal Rod weighing heavily against her back in a wished-up harness. Caleb halted abruptly beside her and clutched at his 'heart', groaning in pain, while Cosmo and Wanda wilted in the air before being hoisted up and steadied by their anti-selves.
If just being outside the Spire was doing this to them, then what of Tootie and Romi inside the thing?!
"I... I don't understand." Timantha moaned dizzily, holding her head as she stumbled on broken shoes, "The... the field's not s'posed to 'fect me... with antis around."
"You have us and Cosmo and Wanda; we cancel each other out in regards to you!" Anti-Cosmo realized for her. The two fairies eventually pulled themselves up, magic rippling over them as they employed the old shifting frequencies tactic to survive the field temporarily. He turned to face them, "This rescue can't work if you two are here. It'd be best if you retreated for now."
"No." Cosmo growled just as Wanda opened her mouth to say the same thing. The double-blade of the Stormreaver pressed under the anti-fairy's chin, appearing from seemingly nowhere, as the dapper fairy lifted his head to glare coldly at his other self. "We're staying. We're fighting." he went on, flinching once more before shaking his head as though to clear it.
Timantha struggled to push mana outward, force off the effects of the nullifier field and tune herself to the darkness of the anti-fairies. She needed it, needed their black magic to survive this. But it seemed like she couldn't grasp whatever it was that let her use darkness. What had happened?
"We can't fight like this." Caleb muttered, forcing himself to stand up straight and clutching the fork in both hands tightly, "I'm sorry, but we have to retreat, plan something else..."
"I don't think we've got that choice anymore." Wanda remarked in that semi-panicked tone that she used whenever she was sure a wish was gonna bring hell on their heads. She pointed out at the rest of the lot, directing everyone's attentions to the literal army of anti-magic units swarming out of the Spire and heading towards them. "We've got incoming!"
Okay, so no darkness or black magic to help tonight. Fine. She didn't need it anyway! She was a Hero! Timantha's eyes blazed bright blue in righteous indignation that she would even think of using black magic to rescue Tootie, lifting her arms so that spheres of red and gold blossomed into existence around her.
"Bulla Scintillare!" she declared, throwing her hands forward and sending the mass of fire balls spiraling into the oncoming rush of machines. Explosions of light and heat detonated in their midst, blowing away whole squads of the things and setting thick clouds of oily smoke into the air. "Caleb, you think you can keep it together long enough for us to get into the Spire?"
"Thought I was..." the redhead mumbled, stumbling forward and dropping to one knee, "S-sorry... wanted to help..."
Timantha gave him a fearful look. They hadn't even started yet and already they were falling apart! Maybe they should have called for backup after all. She paused, then shook her head. No, that still would have taken too long.
Determined not to let Tootie and Romi down, Timantha reached out and placed a hand flat against the back of the android's shoulder, focusing her thoughts on what she wanted the mana to do. She felt Caleb twitch at the contact -he always got twitchy when she hugged him or grabbed his hand, even when she was just ten- and then had to rein her thoughts back in to regain focus.
"Cosmo, Wanda, you and the antis buy me some time. Smash up as many of those units as you can. Focus on the nullifiers and capture units." she ordered quickly, building the spell she wanted in her mind, "We're not on a Spire destruction mission. We just need to get in and get our friends out."
She didn't need to hear any responses. She felt the rush of wind as the four of them took off to do just that. Caleb couldn't adjust magic frequencies like Cosmo and Wanda, and he couldn't just power through the field like she could for short bursts of time. Best thing to do would be to put up a barrier around him that the nullification field would have to eat through first in order to get to his crystals again.
"Mana Scield." she murmured, lifting her hand away as a wave of pale pink light rippled outward from where she'd touched him, coating the redhead from head to toe in a translucent shield that skipped the Wonder Fork. Caleb looked up at her in surprise, then raised a hand to look at the effect of her spell.
"I look like someone spat sparkling bubble gum at me." he remarked.
"Hey, I can turn it off if you don't like it." Timantha pouted, folding her arms over her chest.
"No, no! That's fine!" Caleb returned in an alarmed tone, eyes wide and free hand waving at him, "Just so long as it doesn't stick my hair together at the end of the night."
The force of will to hold herself steady wasn't going to last long. Timantha knew she'd eventually fall to the nullifier field herself and when she fell so would the barrier keeping Caleb in one piece, so getting this mission done fast was top priority. They raced side by side towards the numerous land and air based units that hadn't yet been destroyed by the raging fairies. Destroyers, capture units, nullifiers and control units alike blanketed the lot, and Cosmo kept raining down destruction from above, spinning in place with the Stormreaver and firing wave after wave of deadly air pressure blades.
Timantha nearly stumbled again, growing aggravated by her party attire ruining any momentum she was building. She halted in place, let Caleb run on ahead of her, and glared down at her own body. Okay, that's it. Her time as a girl was done. "Cosmo, Wanda! I wish I was a boy again!" she called out and waited. No change. Hadn't they heard her wish? "I said I wish I was a boy again!" she yelled louder. Still nothing. Why weren't they granting her-?
Oh. Nullifier field. Right.
There was barely enough magic in the air for them to stay alive, let alone grant a wish. Timantha smacked herself in the forehead, then paused as she looked at her own hand. Maybe... maybe she could change herself back? Undo her own wish? She had a spell for reverting things after all, and if it worked on changing Danny Phantom back to Herodom after that whole 'turning evil' thing, then it should also work on turning her back into the boy she had been before. Right?
One way to find out...
She took a deep breath and formed the image of herself as she was now in her mind. A tingling feeling ran over her while she lifted her hands to place onto her own shoulders, crossing them over her chest as she set her stance to brace for the change. The image of who she was before, her body as Timmy Turner, as Timothy Neogene, formed next. A familiar heat began to grow in her head, burning her from the inside out as she forced that image over the female one she had created first. 'That's who I am. I am a boy; I am Timmy Turner. Change me back so I can move without stumbling over myself!' she demanded of her own magic.
"Mana Revertere!" she yelled in command and screamed as the burning engulfed her. Dimly, she heard Wanda scream her name, and then the world turned blinding white.
Moments after, the first thing the young immortal did was do a quick body check, chest first, then throat, then... south. Timmy gave a little yelp of surprise -first that something was actually there now, and then because that was awful indecent to do in public- and then laughed in relief as he pumped both fists into the air.
"I'm a boy!" he whooped.
"Congratulations!" Caleb yelled back over the battlefield, "Now get out of that dress and help me get through these things!"
Oh, right. That spell didn't work on clothes unless they were part of the original form; learned something new tonight, didn't he? Timmy felt a bit bad that the Gucci was gonna have to go, but the fabric was what he really needed. Once again, he pressed his hands against the torn and burnt dress, concentrating as he transformed the silk and silver into his usual stealth outfit, pouring in a little of his own mana to make up the difference in fabrics. There. Much better.
Timmy swept the rod from his back and charged into battle, yelling furiously as he swung it around to bat anti-magic units out of the air. For his part, Caleb was doing well in the 'cause as much damage to these things while getting past them' department. His wings were unfolded and he flew close to the ground, the giant fork held forward lengthwise to create a battering ram. Timmy ran after him in the cleared path, smashing the head of the Blue Crystal Rod into anything that tried to scurry in after either one of them. Wanda and Anti-Wanda both flew down to stay close to him, the fairy staring at him with wide eyes.
"You... you undid the wish!" Wanda whispered in shock. For a moment, Timmy thought he heard fear in her voice, but the rush of battling and getting through the units that kept trying to converge on them after Caleb cleared them made that seem like a trick of his ears.
"Kinda had to, Wanda!" he returned, grunting softly as he lashed the rod out and beat back another hovering nullifier unit, "I don't fight as well when I'm a girl! My body's too light and I can't focus on anything for long. If I'd done some training while a girl, maybe it would have been easier!"
But he hadn't trained, just assumed what he knew as a boy would carry over into the girl body and spent his time going over the original plan of rescue in his head, making sure Michael played his role and Timantha stayed out of sight and the party preparations were going right. He did everything but train and look what that got him in the study just an hour or so ago.
"Do I still have blood on my face?" he demanded suddenly.
"Timothy! Keep moving!" Caleb snapped back, "We'll be overwhelmed unless we reach the Spire interior!" The android had stopped flying, running instead while ducking units diving at him and the blades of air pressure Cosmo sent out in every direction. The pink barrier protecting him was growing thin; Timmy could see more of the green and red than pink now.
He darted after the redhead, the two Wandas trailing after him protectively. Swarms of silver rushed after him and Timmy gathered up what mana he could spare, throwing it out in a rush of wind. "Gail Fortia!" Ground and aerial units were sent flying about and away from him. The loading dock doors were in sight now, shiny metal contrasting against the glossy black of the Spire walls. "We're getting close! Caleb! Get ready to go all out on my signal!" the brunet yelled and turned his focus on the metal gate blocking their way. It was farther away from him than the poker had been in Remy's study, but Timmy was pretty sure that he just needed to 'see' the mana in the thing and being close by was just a luxury. He knew what metal felt like, knew what that gate was like because it was just like the one Danny flew him through back near the beginning of all this.
"Ofer Hoetu!" he commanded, pointing at the gate as Caleb ran straight for it, "Now!" The redhead shot forward much faster than he'd been running -'Holding back to stay close to me, huh?'- as the aluminum melted in red-hot streams of liquid metal, dripping and forming a large hole that the android leaped through. "Okay! Cosmo, Anti-Cosmo! Come on!" Timmy yelled towards the two still battling units. Cosmo lashed out one last time with the Stormreaver, setting a few of the aerial capture units into a chain reaction of explosions before grabbing his anti-self by the back of his coat and shooting towards the open gate.
Timmy leaped in after them, the two Wandas flitting towards their respective husbands while he turned and held his hands out towards the puddles of cooling metal, forcing them to remain liquid and raising them up to the hole he'd made. It was just like the elevator he made in the Dimma-Dump, manipulating the materials around him to form the dome and lift. Molten aluminum rippled up to the gap in the gate and closed over it as units started trying to fly or crawl in. Red cooled back into the dull gray of aluminum and Timmy staggered, feeling drained and exhausted.
He fell backwards, blinking in sleepy surprise as Caleb caught him before he completely collapsed. "You burned through a lot of mana getting us in here." the android muttered, laying one hand on his forehead. There was banging on the gate as the units outside tried to get in. Eventually, the noises began decreasing as fewer and fewer units assaulted the door, and finally... silence.
"They left?" Wanda breathed in confusion, unable to let herself relax.
"No need for them to stay. We've cornered ourselves for them." Cosmo stated in a cold, even tone, distant gaze on the gate as he let the Stormreaver vanish back into his wand. All eyes went to him in a mix of concerned, surprised or horrified expressions. The dapper fairy just shook his head. "Um.. shiny nickle?" he tried saying in his usual chipper tone, but it wasn't believable, just more worrisome to certain parties.
"We should get moving. Search the Spire for Tootie and Romi." Timmy muttered, trying to straighten himself up and feeling his legs go weak instead. He dropped abruptly, the android catching him once again and helping lower him to a sitting position on the floor and providing a support for the brunet to lean against.
"Not until you've rested and regained some mana." Caleb told him firmly, lifting a hand to watch the last of the pink barrier flicker and go out like a candle, "Your protection on me has failed, but the interior of this place seems like it's unaffected by the nullification field outside."
"That might not be the case. Not entirely." Anti-Cosmo mused aloud, gazing upward at the ceiling as he rubbed his chin, "It's possible for the field to be weak inside this ground floor of the Spire, but the generators for the field would likely be located on the upper tiers, near the tip of the Spire. In that case, the higher we go in the search, the more exposure we'll have to nullification and suffer these same side effects." He twitched almost violently then and turned a wide smile on the group. "And then we'll all go loopy doopy and do the monkey tango!"
"Okay, I expected that from Cosmo, not you." Timmy pointed out tiredly. The anti-fairy waved his arms in a fit.
"It's not my fault! It's this blasted transplanted gland of his!" he shot back in frustration, "He gets a piece of me and he starts thinking clearly; I get a piece of him and it ruins my image of perfect genius!"
They rested for a few minutes, Timmy scratching at his cheek and causing dried blood to flake off onto his gloves as he thought over how the night had gone. "Hey, Caleb? Did you get the Adventurer's Band back from Michael?" he asked quietly.
"Hm? Oh, no, I hadn't. It slipped my mind to get it from him. I was in a hurry to get here, after all." the android returned absently, sitting still while Timmy continued using his arm and side as a backrest. The brunet felt the corner of his mouth turn up in a smirk.
"You were worried about me, huh? After I told you I was gonna storm the Dark Spire and rescue Tootie and Romi?" he asked.
"I'd be lying if I said no." Which was a round-about way of saying 'yes', but Timmy was used to Caleb's weird way of showing affection. It was different from the way Cousin Danny said he used to show it, but it was kind of fun to coax out the truth from the words. It was like opening a present; the package might be weird and make no sense, but crack it open and the inside is something cool and fun. "How's your mana supply now?"
Timmy closed his eyes and turned his focus inward, frowning slightly at how much he'd used up and lost over the course of the night. "Not entirely great, but not drained enough to really worry over." he replied, "We can get moving now. Gotta rescue the girls."
"I'd feel better if you had more to work with. As insurance, if you will." Caleb remarked firmly, turning his head to give him a steady glare, "I don't like admitting that your magical alchemy is much more useful and flexible in situations like this than my own magic, but I can't deny the circumstances warrant putting my..." He trailed off, as if fighting to say what came next. "I'm going to have to put faith in your abilities." he finally forced out in a rush, "So drain the mana out of my secondary crystal and absorb it for yourself."
Timmy stared up at him in shock. Did he hear that right? He lifted a finger and stuck it in his ear, wiggling it around to be sure nothing was clogging the passage. Caleb just glared sullenly at him again.
"Don't pick in your ear; you could harm yourself and it's dirty. Besides, you still have dried blood on your gloves." he scolded and Timmy hurriedly yanked his finger back out. "But I meant what I said. We need you with as much mana as we can get you to support your type of magic. I'm offering you the mana in my secondary crystal; I can still work with my main and the magic use crystals."
"But..." Timmy began to protest before Caleb reached around to poke the boy on the tip of his nose with his free hand.
"You did it once before without my permission, when you drained my mana to create that shield the night we brought down our very first Dark Spire." he reminded, eyebrow raised, "I'm giving you that permission to do it again, and now you waffle?"
"Is it gonna hurt?" the brunet asked worriedly, sitting up and facing the android. Caleb shook his head, watching impassively as Timmy lifted a hand and reached out to place it flat against his chest. "I only need a little bit, okay? Just a little."
"Timmy Turner, if you don't drain it dry, I'm going to make you wish you'd reconsidered retreating to assault this tower another day." Caleb told him in that tone of voice that made even the most hardy of Heroes shrink back from him. Timmy squeaked and turned his attention on seeking out the crystal to draw mana from. According to Danny, the main crystal was in the center of Caleb's chest, his 'heart', the magic crystal was on the left and the spare was on the right.
He sought out the crystal on the right and felt the gem, carefully probing it for the amount of mana it stored. His brow furrowed slightly as he sensed tiny cracks on its surface -'Damage from the nullifier field, I bet.'- and quickly sent extra filaments of his own mana in to check the other two crystals. They were also damaged slightly, and he could feel trace amounts of mana seeping out, which he ended up drawing out to himself without truly being aware of it.
"Nngh! Not those ones!" Caleb muttered with a tiny grunt of pain, "Focus!"
"S-sorry!" Timmy apologized hastily, and carefully grabbed onto some of the escaping mana to mesh into the cracks, picturing them crystallizing to seal the damages. There; that should make up for that. "I thought you said this wasn't going to hurt!"
"Do you remember me actually saying that?" the android rebuked.
"You shook your head!"
"In some cultures, shaking your head means 'yes'."
Timmy growled and grumbled under his breath but went back to that rightmost crystal, sending tendrils of his own mana in to wrap around the gem and drain out the contents for himself. Right away he began to feel much better, more refreshed and energized. He started to pull his hand away, only to give a little jump when Caleb grabbed his wrist and held it in place.
"I said all of it. If you make me repeat it once more, I'll snap your wrist." the android hissed darkly and tilted his head as the blades of the Stormreaver curved around his neck from behind, their edges glittering under the florescent light of the Spire loading dock.
"Break his wrist, and I will end you." Cosmo whispered just as icily.
"What is it with being inside this place that brings out the worst in people?" Timmy sighed in frustration to cover the panic rising in the back of his mind, "No one's breaking anything; no one's ending anyone! Just calm down, the both of you!"
"I'm reconsidering staying around for the rest of this mission." Anti-Cosmo remarked to his wife and Wanda. Both of them just gave him a flat glare and he shrugged. "Just wanted to put a damper on this rather volatile situation."
The spare crystal was eventually drained of all mana, Caleb uttering little whimpers of pain throughout the process, and Timmy sat back to rub at his wrist while Cosmo poofed away the scythe and floated away aimlessly. "Um, thanks... for the mana boost." he muttered, "Could have done without the threat to my arm, though."
"Sorry." Caleb muttered back, "Old habit. Trying to break myself of it." He stood up and helped the brunet to his feet. "So, how do we start?"
"From the top and work our way down. That way we can just get the whole 'being close to the source of the field' thing over with fast." Timmy planned and ran for the back of the loading dock, "Look! Here's a couple of elevators. Let's take one to the top and get started." He pressed the call button and watched as the doors parted to reveal a spacious room. "Hm, cargo elevator, maybe?" he mused as Caleb, the fairies and the anti-fairies all hurried inside. Timmy looked over his shoulder at the scarring on the aluminum gate where he had resealed it, then shrugged and stepped into the elevator himself. The doors closed and they were on their way to the top for their rescue mission.
A few minutes later, the other set of elevator doors opened and Tootie stepped out with Romi on her shoulder. "That was the most boring fifteen minutes of my life." the girl grumbled to herself, stalking forward and jumping down from the platform to the loading dock driveway.
"It was a refreshing break, compared to everything else." Romi sighed, "Too bad it's about to end."
Tootie made her way up to the aluminum gate, pausing in surprise as she spotted the signs of welding all around the edges of a roundish shape in the metal. It looked like someone had taken a blowtorch, cut a large arch in the gate, then put the piece back and did a half-assed job of welding it back into place. She tilted her head, trying to figure out who the heck did that and why.
"Um, Tootie? I think someone else is in here." Romi told her in alarm, pointing towards the other elevator doors, "The light over the second elevator is on." The Goth blinked and looked over her shoulder at it, frowning in thought as she put two and two together.
"Could it be... Timmy and the gang are here to rescue us?" she exclaimed in realization. She ran back to the elevators, scrambling up the platform she'd jumped, and then banged her fists on the doors. "Hey! I'm down here!" she yelled and stepped back, gazing helplessly at the ceiling. No use; the team had to be well on their way up to another floor to look for her. How had they even thought to look for her inside a Dark Spire? "Come on, Romi! We're going back up there!" she told her fairy and ran back to the first elevator, pressing the call button to open it up. Romi wilted as she fluttered over to sit on her shoulder again.
"Oh dear. I hope we have enough fairy orbs to last us through another round." she sighed.