Chapter 25: Mysterious Descendants Fail To Kidnap
Lonnie had passed on dinner in order to check on Artemis. The son of Nightmare Moon was still in a coma and under the magical shield protection, which did not reassure Lonnie at all when she came to his house and sat by his bed for almost two hours, hoping that he would burst up in perfect health. But those hopes were for naught.
"It's close to ten, darling," Radiance said when she saw that Lonnie was still here once the former was done cleaning up the house. "You might want to get some sleep. Otherwise, you won't have any strength left for the music event tomorrow."
"At this rate, I don't know if I can even participate while my boyfriend is still knocked out cold," Lonnie said grimly. "I regret arguing with him the last time I saw him."
"My cousin might not me the most social dream-hopper in the world, but his devotion to you is sincere," Radiance told Lonnie as she guided the latter out of the room, leaving Lonnie just a few seconds to glance back at the unconscious Artemis before Radiance closed the door. The two girls walked down the hallway decorated with night sky wallpaper that looked so realistic, it was as if the universal stars were moving along as they reached the front door.
"Pinkamenus must have it worse than I do," Lonnie commented while Radiance opened the front door, sending in a small warm evening breeze.
"Believe me, darling, Flash and Fletcher instantly calmed his sorrows down by taking him to his favorite toy store. I highly doubt he'll scream louder tomorrow if he comes back with a new plush toy."
Lonnie grinned a bit. "Good night, Radiance. Please, keep an eye on Artemis."
"I will." The daughter of Nightmare Rarity nodded. "I bid thee the same advice."
Lonnie then left for the dorms. The night sky was dark, without any sign of moonlight or stars. The air was unusually warm for an end of April evening. Students had begun to go to bed by now, except for the few reformees who had their visiting parents take them out to town for a little family time. Even Ronilda, who usually spoke badly of her parents, decided to give her parents a chance and the three were probably having nacos at a local Bueno Nacho.
The room she and Kory shared was empty since Kory had gone to the Dark Ruler's studio to practice one more time with the band before the music event tomorrow. She had even taken her pet wolf Carmine with her, leaving the room completely silent. Lonnie shivered a bit as she took her toiletry bag, a towel, and a pink slip nightgown (the weather was unusually warm) and made her way to the girls' bathroom. Everything was so silent, it made her feel uneasy, especially with the things going on about Penna and Martin being personally harassed, and with Artemis not around to protect her, she was rather vulnerable.
After five good minutes of soaking herself in hot water and soap, Lonnie stepped out of the shower, dried herself, and put on her nightgown. Just as she was about to fold her towel, something prickled her elbow.
"Ouch!" She picked the thing that poked her like a needle and frowned when she saw that the thing looked like a picked fingernail. "OK, that is...so...ugh."
Lonnie couldn't even speak or move her muscles. It was as if all of a sudden, her body decided to stop responding. Next thing she knew, she fell on the wet tiled floor, unable to blink, speak, or even lift a pinkie finger when two boys she never encountered before stomped on the watery puddles of the girls' bathroom.
"Nothing personal," one of them said as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, carrying her like the firemen did with victims. Except this fireman had an awful scent of car fuel and shaving gel and he didn't even seem to care that his head almost had a visual of Lonnie's bare buttock.
"Let's get the other one," he told his comrade.
Five minutes later, in Martin's house
He sat on the carpeted floor of his living room, his organs relaxed in a Lotus position as he meditated by the fireplace. His lungs took deep inhaling and exhaling as the sound of cracking wood and burning ash echoed in the silent room. After the sour day he had, meditation was the best solution for Martin Fiske.
"Inner peace..." He said quietly between breaths. "Inner peace..."
Another rotten day for you?
A glow caught his eyes' attention. Aside from the fireplace's red glow, he was also faced with the purple glow of a spiritual presence. The spiritual presence of a woman in an exposing teal-and-purple ninja outfit, open-toed boots, fingerless gloves, and a large mass of brown hair tied in a braid that moved like an actual tail. A spiritual presence whose denim blue eyes and vertical scars stared at Martin and whose left arm had a tattoo of the Mystical Monkey Power symbol.
"Don't you ever leave me alone?" Martin muttered at the spirit.
I'm merely looking out for you, the female ninja spirit shrugged.
"For crying out loud, I'm almost eighteen. I don't need protection," Martin snapped quietly. "Well, especially not from your astral projection."
Well, currently I can't do it from where I am right now. The astral projection shrugged casually. Besides, where is your sense of gratitude? Are you forgetting who gave you these at your request? The astral projection leaned in and tapped a finger on each of Martin's claws, making a sound similar to the echoes of clanging glass.
"It was you," he muttered without losing his patience.
And I did it for free! Well, technically I just rid you off something you wanted off your shoulders, but still cheap. The astral projection gave a smug grin. Nothing goes for free, especially with those who can bring great meaning to others. It then sighed. But with you being Monkey Fist's son...it was worth it.
"Yeah, for someone with a history of deals and Monkey Witchcraft, you seem to know my father more than you make it appear. Just how do you know him?"
The astral projection's face wrinkled with sour bitterness. Why don't you ask the one witch in all of Auradon who has a history of breaking families apart? Her body then faded, leaving Martin all alone once more in front of the fireplace.
"Thanks for leaving me hang...MMPH!" A cloth suddenly covered his nose and a strong scent of what he recognized as paralysis toxins went through his respiratory system and into his muscles, weakening him enough to fall on the floor. His eyes could only see feminine black shoes and striped thigh high socks standing in front of him and two male figures stepping inside his living room. To his shock, one of them was carrying a similarly paralyzed Lonnie over his shoulders.
Good thing Martin was paralyzed, otherwise he would have scolded the aggressors for kidnapping a lady while she was in the middle of cleaning up and carrying her around in a very ungentlemanly manner.
"Now that we got our shopping list checked," the one carrying Lonnie said while the other male threw Martin over his shoulder in a similar manner, "let's get the hell out of here."
At Penna's house
"You look glum," Daylight commented to her cousin. The two royal cousins from the Fae Realm were having evening tea, a classic etiquette of fairy aristocracy, at Penna's house, and while Penna was bringing over her steaming homemade several leaves herbal tea in a teakettle along with some cups to the small drawing room she had, Marius seemed to be anything but eager to drink tea.
"Am I really so selfish and arrogant, Daylight?" he asked while he absently stared at the window, which showed the empty sidewalks and green fields of Malevia Village. His cousin looked at Penna, who merely shrugged to say that she had no idea what was going.
"Let's just say you..." Daylight snapped her fingers for the right words. "Have a tendency to expect things to go your way. Why? Is it Kit and Junk again?"
"No," Marius sighed. "Fancy Pants and I had an argument and...let's just say that he most likely viewed my opinions as selfish."
"There's someone in Auradon Prep called Fancy Pants?" Daylight frowned. "That's weird."
"No, that's just his nickname for one of his new friendly rivals, Martin Fiske," Penna said as she filled a teacup with tea and handed it to Daylight, who almost jumped out of her seat when she took a sniff of the tea.
"Wow! That's a strong fragrance!" The princess exclaimed.
"Sorry," Penna said sincerely. "My several leaves tea is a peculiar recipe made out of seven different herbs. I mostly drink it to keep my senses sharp and alert." She filled another cup and handed it to Marius. "So, what did you and Fiske argue about?"
Marius sighed as he took the cup of tea. A simply shake of his head meant that he didn't want to say anything at all. Despite the strong fragrance of the tea, he prepared to drink the beverage until he spotted something outside the window and ended up spitting his tea on the window. "GREAT MOTHER OF PUCK!" The girls ran to see what he saw and gasped when they saw a trio of teenagers running through the empty street with Martin and Lonnie hanging on their shoulders like rag dolls. Without hesitating, Penna rushed to the drawing room's left wall and pushed out of the way a painting of Adam and Eve, revealing a red button the size of her fist.
"What are you doing?" Daylight exclaimed. She got her response when Penna punched the button three times, causing a blaring red siren to ring through not only her house but the entire campus as well. The lampposts outside began to blink with red lights.
"What the hell is this?" Marius shouted as the three rushed outside.
"Security protocol in case of emergency at Malevia Village!" Penna shouted. "Each house has it!"
KIDNAPPING ALERT! KIDNAPPING ALERT! KIDNAPPING ALERT!
"Is the alarm really this accurate?" Daylight shouted.
"Only if you punch the button three times!"
They ran outside, where a turmoil of descendants and faculty made their way like a stampede of gazelles surrounding a pack of lions. Only the gazelles were all in their pajamas and bearing whatever they thought was useful as a weapon and the lions were just three predators that consisted of a punk boy with green dyed hair, a dark-skinned boy with curly hair as white as his eyes, and a girl in a black, purple, and blue stereotypical witch minus the hat attire.
And the lions were carrying two unconscious gazelles in their nightwear.
Following the security protocol, a squad of Hun kids filled the front rows and aimed their guns, axes, swords, and other weapons at the intruders. Ben made his way through the crowd. "You're surrounded!" He shouted. "As king of Auradon, I demand that we do this peacefully! Please, release the hostages!"
"Whatever," the punk boy rolled his eyes. He glanced at the white-eyed boy, who dropped Martin next to the girl's feet and began to agitate himself. His body began to turn into dull color and texture like a sack used to make ragdolls, and he screamed an inhuman scream as he suddenly grew ten feet tall and his toes and his fingers merged together to make him look like a monster with needles sharper and thicker than tree trunks for arms and legs. His hair and eyes vanished, giving him the face of a wrapped mummy with a cruel grin bearing fangs that smiled at the horrified crowd.
"HOLLOWGAST!" Ingwer shouted from somewhere in the crowd.
The hollowgast, as was its species, roared at the terrified crowd and unleashed tentacles of tongues at the Hun kids, sending most of them flying into other people or even fences. Mal tried to cast a spell on the hollowgast.
"Beware for swear..." She got cut off when the punk boy managed to steal one of the Huns' wooden clubs and hit the daughter of Maleficent straight in the head.
"Mal!" Ben lunged at the punk boy, who just punched him hard in the stomach to make him fall on the ground. Jessie took the opportunity of sneaking behind him in the hopes of hitting him with a hammer, but he managed to grab her by the wrist and twisted it, causing her to scream in pain and let go of the hammer as he twisted it even harder.
"Let her go, you big bully!" Minuit aimed a magic blast at him just to get intercepted by the black blast of the witchy girl and harm Minuit instead.
"Not..." Penna suddenly felt herself burning. "On..." Her remaining needles shook through her skin. "My...BABIES!" With unimaginable speed, she threw her fists at the punk and the witch instantly. The first let go of Jessie, but while his comrade screamed from the blow she just got in the stomach, he hardly flinched. He didn't even seem to freak out when Penna, with her eyes literally burning with fury, squeezed his neck with her nails threatening to pierce through his skin.
"Hopefully you have a good reason for me to not just crushing your neck!" she hissed. Her squeezing increased until Marius and Daylight flew in and pulled her by the arms, restraining her. "Let me go!" She said angrily.
"Penna, stop it!" Marius shouted. "You're not a murderer!"
"Then you obviously don't know your own girlfriend," the punk boy commented. He still held Lonnie over his shoulder, and it was just hard for anyone to imagine how on earth he managed to both fight people while holding a hostage at the same time. Meanwhile, the hollowgast marched just above him and hissed its tongues at Penna, daring it to attack his friend once again.
"Penna, hold yourself together..." Daylight warned.
"They harmed my...BABIES!" She yanked the two hybrids off her and roared. The crowd gasped when they saw that not only was she now the furious Penna De Mort they all knew, but something old was growing out of her back.
"Her...her wings!" Jessie gasped despite her twisted wrist as they all watched Penna fly towards the hollowgast and fought it with her bare hands. Some flinched when they saw that even without her magic, you do NOT want to piss off Penna De Mort in a hand-to-hand combat. Even the punk and the witch flinched at the sight.
"You and your brilliant ideas!" The witchy girl whined to the punk boy in a thick German accent.
"Whatever."
Penna threw the hollowgast onto a vehicle and tackled it with a headlock.
"Should we...calm her down?" Daylight asked nervously to Minuit.
"Unless we want have the country to be her new battlefield," Minuit said.
The hollowgast then did something unexpected: it morphed one of its needle hands back into a hand and slashed Penna on the cheek with his sharp fingernails. The impact weakened Penna and she instantly fell to the ground, looking as helpless as the two hostages while the hollowgast reverted the hand back into a large needle.
"Penna!" Marius flew and grabbed Penna out of the way before the monster could try impaling her.
"OK, it's time you cool off, pal!" Forkjølelse Vinter shot an ice blast at the hollowgast, only it was agile to dodge it and ended up freezing Napoleon Moriarty instead. "Oops."
Florence Poison Isley hit the ground in the hopes that one of her small earthquakes of vines would restrain them, but the witch just used her magic to create force fields over them, making the rest injured.
"Let's get the Hell out of here," the punk boy said. He picked up an unconscious Martin and threw him over his other shoulder while the hollowgast picked him and the witch up with its arms, giving them a ride over the now screaming crowd.
"Great," Marius mumbled. "Now what do we do?"
As if he asked for a miracle, a jet of green muck hit the punk and the witch off the hollowgast, gluing them to the ground like cement while Marius and Daylight flew to catch Martin and Lonnie respectively. Ruby and Gilliard jumped in the scene, with the son of Gill wiping his mouth from the remains of the green muck he had just spit. But Ruby looked even more dangerous when she pulled out a bat-fashioned tranquilizer gun from her nightrobe, the punk boy suddenly chuckled nervously.
"You wouldn't shoot an old friend and fellow thief, would you?" He asked.
"Normally, I'd only shoot once," Ruby said in an out of character calm tone, "but since my such good old friend tried to kidnap my boyfriend, I'll be generous." She shot three times in his groin, shocking most of the surrounding males. The punk couldn't even scream or bend over since Gill's muck had him strapped to the ground and the three darts Ruby just shot at him put him in a sleeping mode.
"DWIGHT!" the witch girl shouted while she struggled to get out of her restrains. She was calling to the hollowgast, who began to turn its attention to Ruby. But before it could attempt to attack her, it stopped and sniffed the air.
"Dwight!" His accomplice shouted. But 'Dwight' was too busy crawling on all fours and sniffing the air in search for the scent it seemed to have picked. Students moved out of the way for the monster as it continued sniffing until it reached the source of the scent. One of the VKs was standing there, looking calm in her black-and-white polka dotted pajamas as she held a button-designed silver soup bowl with a hot, steaming red colored soup in it. The hollowgast crawled slowly as it approached her and inhaled the scent of the soup, giving a big toothy grin as it licked its missing lips with its multiple tongues.
"Hungry, aren't you?" Otrera Beldam asked him sweetly as she brought the bowl closer to the beast. It sniffed and grinned even wider, giving a strange pleasing purr. "Of course it's your favorite. Do you want it?"
"Dwight, are you that much of that Stockholm syndrome victim?" the witchy girl snapped. "That's the Other Mother's offspring! She's just trying to honey-talk you out of our job!"
'Dwight' seemed to complete discard his associate's comment and preferred to give a begging nod to Otrera. "Open wide," she said.
Everyone watched in awe as 'Dwight' opened its mouth for Otrera to gently pour in the soup, making the creature unleash a series of pleasant moans. The more Otrera fed it, the more it reverted back into his original human appearance, only now Dwight was pleasantly blinking his white eyes at Otrera's button ones.
"We're screwed," the witchy girl muttered.
The next day
"We get paralyzed and nearly kidnapped, and the only thing that the bad guys get are being locked in the gym?" Lonnie muttered as she continued to pat her head with the ice pack that she and Martin got once they recovered.
News had gone all over the campus and even out in half the country that mysterious VKs unknown to those from the Isle had tried kidnapping the daughter of Mulan and the son of Monkey Fist and that Penna De Mort ended up growing her wings back out. If Havoc Discord from St Luther didn't have such a fascination for turning roads into caramel quicksand, the campus would have been flooded instead with the paparazzi.
"Easy for you to complain...OW!" Martin patted his forehead with his ice pack while he and Ruby sat on one of the picnic tables in the courtyard and the latter tried to bring back Martin's senses by massaging him on his puncture joints.
Ronilda came in with Melgo and Gladiola in her human size. "You guys, OK? We heard about the kidnapping attempt," Melgo said.
"I've seen a bunch of weird things in my life, but this is just weirder," Gilliard said as he pulled out a paper pad with scrambled notes and cartoony doodles of the three teens who were now locked up in the gym and were the reason for classes being cancelled as well as the music event. "Three VKs that never came from the Isle? This is would be epic if they hadn't tried to kidnap my best friend." He gasped. "Maybe it's the sign of my theory concerning the cloning apocalypse!"
"He believes that the world's going to end with scientists trying to create clone duplicates of everyone rather than reproduce live births." Martin rolled his eyes.
"Science created my dad into Gill and the mutation got transferred into me!" Gilliard pointed out. "Anything can happen!"
Ruby sighed in frustration at Gilliard's ridiculous philosophy. "They're from the Raft, obviously."
"You heard about it too?" Ronilda asked in shock.
"I could ask you the same thing," Ruby replied coldly.
"Will you too just stop?" Martin muttered quietly. "So, both of you know about the Raft. Big whoop, you got something in common. But please, for once, can you stop bickering and give my poor head a break?"
His current and ex girlfriends blinked, trying to register what he just said.
"So, what's the Raft?" Lonnie asked.
"It's an underwater prison created to hold villains that not even the Isle Of The Lost's barrier could contain," Gladiola answered Lonnie's question. Ronilda gawked, causing her bonded Troll to roll her eyes. "You forgot that I was napping in your hair back when Nicki Fury told you this stuff and you two played detectives with Sternia."
"What does Snape's daughter have to do with this?" Martin asked.
"Because during her depression after Principal Melchior unfairly expelled her from the mandrake root fiasco, she overheard three voices with suspicious plans before they disappeared," Ronilda explained. "And then during the Easter Festival, we went to check your kitchen with Nicki and found that the Tiger Breath explosion came from a plate full of incense hidden underneath one of your floor tiles..."
Martin's head perked up at the mention of a plate. "Was it a china plate with the Swedish Alps on it?"
"Booyah."
Martin facepalmed himself and got up. "It's official. My life is over."
Before anyone could say anything else, Mr. Barkin and Shari, who had just come from the area in the school where the gym was located, accosted them. "What happened back there?" Ronilda asked.
"The King played another one of his touchy feeling antics," Barkin said firmly. When he saw the students just blinking at them, he said in better English: "The newest delinquents are being placed under a combination of rehabilitation and house arrest."
"Only it's more like school arrest," Shari pointed out.
"Ben's letting them in Auradon Prep?" Gilliard exclaimed. "OK, I get the dude's belief in 'I want to give VKs a chance in good', but we don't even know these guys!"
"I agree with Gilliard here." Lonnie put down her ice pack. "For crying out loud, I was dragged in my nightgown, paralyzed, and with my bare butt near the face of the guy who happened to have punched Ben in the stomach!"
"That's Aaron for you." Ruby shrugged.
"Aaron?" they all said.
"OK, time out." Shari made the time out symbol with her hands. "How come you know this guy, Alley Cat?"
Ruby bit her lips and scowled, which could only mean one thing to the others. Whatever happened between her and this guy was back when she used to be the vigilante mercenary Shadow Seeker.
"Aaron was caught by a bunch of underground crooks planning on adding him to their human cargo for human trafficking. Since most of the victims were abducted kids, the parents willingly offered to pay me big time for each kid I saved," Ruby explained. "While I was able to smuggle out the other kids through the sewage system beneath the warehouse they were held in, I had a hard time freeing Aaron. Apparently the crooks found out he was an imprisoned villain's kid, and with the proper shackles and connections, they could have easily bribed the government into giving them a million dollars for the capture of a supposedly escaped villain."
"So, you helped him escape too." Gladiola said.
"Yep. In the end, I got the cash I was promised, but when I asked Aaron where his parents were, he told me his dad was locked up in prison and Aaron escaped in the hopes of finding a good place worth living with his dad after he broke out the latter, so I..."
"You didn't!" Melgo exclaimed.
"I split my cash in half with him. We went our separate ways and a week later, I find out he was arrested and they confiscated his money. I paid him a late evening visit at the jail they held him in before shipping him back to his prison and I said: 'Sorry you have to go back to the Isle.' He then said: 'I'm not from the Isle but the Raft. Consider yourself lucky if you end up in the Isle, because the place is Hell itself.'" She sighed. "That was the last time I saw him."
"So you're hardly friends with him." Martin grinned a bit. "What a relief."
"Paranoid much?" Gilliard joked.
"Am not!" Martin protested, making his cheeks burn in a red color just like the red on his martial arts uniform.
"You freak out whenever your girlfriend interacts with other guys, including teachers like Mr. Barkin!" Gilliard pointed at Barkin, who merely got a suspicious glance from Shari. Martin just slumped back on his chair, crossed his arms, and pouted, causing the others to giggle.
Later, at lunch
Normally, anyone who's been training hard for a Pride Games event in particular would be infuriated when the event was cancelled and lash out at somebody in particular. But today was a rare exception.
True, almost all the students from the two schools were freaked out about having at least one guard in each hallway keep an eye on three free criminals who had recently attempted to kidnap two students (one who fought the forces of evil and saved the world and the other being a walking host of ancient power), but at the same time they were all curious. Just like the VKs from the Isle knew each other by heart, their friends from Auradon Prep and St Luther knew them as well as one person would know every single clothes in his closet, and the three new VKs were like three individual socks that just appeared out of nowhere. Who were their parents? Why did nobody ever hear from them? So far, the only details they could get last night were that they were dealing with a paranoid witch, a hollowgast who seemed to have developed an infatuation for the daughter of the Other Mother after she gave him soup, and a punk who had no problem kicking the butts of the king of Auradon himself.
Ben and Fairy Godmother had tried interrogating them since dawn, but the three of them didn't give details as to why they tried kidnapping Lonnie and Martin. The only things they got from them were their names and the hollowgast shyly asking if he could see Otrera again.
"Aaron Duncan, Dwight Barron, and Leona Ernst," Ben said at lunch when some kids at lunch had gone to him and asked about the three VKs, who had decided to exclude themselves from the other students and Leona had cast a force field around the trio. "That's what they said their names were."
"Ernst?" Ingwer frowned and tapped her fingers on the table she was sitting at. "Why does that name ring a bell?"
"Maybe it's one of your mother's cousins?" Sean suggested.
"My mom doesn't have any cousins." They looked at the trio. Leona looked like a normal fourteen-year-old girl with Caucasian skin almost white enough to make her look feverish, a black sundress with a night blue gypsy shirt underneath it, purple elbow-length opera gloves, feminine black shoes, and blue and purple striped thigh high socks. Her dark hair was cut just above her shoulders and curled up just near her ears and topped with her witch hat. Aside from his white hair and eyes and dark-skin tone, Dwight was a sixteen-year-old boy with scholar white robes underneath a blue leather waistcoat, purple pants, black running boots, and a pair of black shades resting on his hair. As for Aaron, the obvious leader of the group, was the eldest and surprisingly old enough to be out of high school. His skin was peach-toned and his eyes in a blue icier than the blueberry soda the lunch menu had. The right side of his head had shaven strands of black hair while the left side was tilted into five dreadlocks dyed in three different colors of lime green and, which not only made each dreadlock look like the sharp quills of a porcupine but also as if no matter where the light him, the shadows on his green hair looked like they were purposely dyed this way. His beige and mud green T-Shirt had a camouflage fashion, only he wore a dark grey shirt underneath it New England style. His grey crocodile scaled belt held up a baggy teal pant with blue spike designs at the ends while his feet wore red and grey running shoes. His main accessories included a nose ring, three earrings on his left ear, and a spiked collar necklace matching his pants' color, and his goatee was particularly shaven to look like three vertical lines. Overall, if there was one thing in common his body and his clothes shared, it was a dark skull motif he had on his T-shirt, the elbow areas of his grey shirt, the pockets of his pants, and as a tattoo design on half the left side of his neck.
Out of those three, it was pretty evident that while Dwight and Leona may have magical powers that could disadvantage Aaron, he had enough ruthlessness and cunningness to jump at them and crack their limbs if he wanted to.
"We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die," Leona began to mutter and scratch her face. "Great. My mask is itching."
"Keep whining and I'll give you your last facial," Aaron said crossly, making Leona sink back in her seat.
"Yeah, she's definetly not your cousin," Sean ended up concluding with Ingwer.
"So...who wants to say something first?" Ben asked. Nobody said anything or they just stuck to whistling and eating their meals.
Karl and Otrera stepped towards them with a cart full of food-invested dishes. The trio looked at the food and put their hands to their stomachs, failing to hide their gurgling stomachs. "You guys seemed rather hungry, so we cooked something up for you," Karl said with a smile. "Of course, we can't feed you with that thing out." He pointed at the force field.
"I'd rather starve," Aaron said coldly.
"Suit yourself. Dwight, would you like some more of that eyeball soup?" Otrera asked Dwight, who instantly got excited.
"D...did she just say 'eyeball soup?'' Audrey tried very hard not to throw into the quiche she was eating.
"Hollowgasts just love to eat eyeballs," Ingwer said, making Audrey hold her mouth even more. Meanwhile, Dwight nodded to Leona, who nervously snapped her fingers and caused the force field to disappear, leaving Karl and Otrera the opportunity to give these two their meals while Aaron just sat there with his arms crossed, biting his lips in frustration as he watched Dwight feast on his new favorite soup and Leona wolf down on a cheese and mushroom omelet that Karl had made.
"This is so good!" Leona mumbled with her mouth full. "You really go to try this stuff, Aaron."
"Yes. After eating food poisoning meals back on the Raft, I'm just going to try out the food made by our hosts who just happen to know that your favorite food is a cheese and mushroom omelet," Aaron said coldly. "Once again, I'd rather starve."
"Suit yourself," Otrera shrugged. "Oh, and if you don't eat, I'm sure I know a VK or two who won't mind force-feeding you cursed food until you bloat because you tried to kidnapped two of their friends."
Aaron was scowling.
"She's gotta point. We've also got at least one cannibal around here," Karl said while pointing at Chronos Vonreptile, who was sharping his teeth with his knife while staring at the Hook twins, who shivered and ran away to the farthest table. "Bet ya the guy won't mind breaking his codfish diet for just one day... OUCH!" Karl yelped when a standing Aaron, who revealed his height to be close to six feet tall and eight inches, pulled his hair. He was not taller than a basketball player, but he could surely scare an entire team with his attitude.
"Will you please shut up if I agree to eat this mush?" Aaron said the magic word with so much difficulty, it was as if his bad boy persona was desperately trying to crush his polite manners begging to eat.
"Yes..." Karl squeaked. Aaron let go of Karl's hair, giving the latter the chance to quickly put a plate full of cooked peas and a chicken and black bean burrito and make a run for it with his cart. Many watched as Aaron suspiciously poked the burrito before finally deciding to bite in the dough-covered Mexican junk food and eat in silence.
"Is he always like this?" Otrera asked Dwight Barron quietly in order to avoid provoking the punk.
"He's a lot worse if you mention the CITs," Dwight shook his head. When Dwight spoke, his voice was like the one of a sassy African-American actor who was trying to cool down after too many years of movies and paparazzi. "Especially when you're purposely trying to annoy him."
"He's afraid of counselors in training?"
Dwight and Leone quickly glanced at each other and then at Aaron, who gave them a cold drop it glare.
"I said nothing," Dwight sighed.
Some of the other students glared at Ben, who chuckled nervously. The sound of water tapping in the windows gave out that they were now stuck with the showers of rain outside.
"Anybody want to watch TV?" Grinchelda waved a small remote in her hand as she stepped inside the cafeteria. "I just managed to create a channel hacker so that we can watch any international channel we want."
"Isn't that, you know, illegal?" Audrey asked, nervously glancing at the guards keeping an eye out on the trio.
"No, it's watching whatever you want on TV for free," Grinchelda said with a smug.
"Why does that sound so familiar?" Aaron said bitterly.
"OK, whatever you do," Dwight cautiously raised his hand as a warning sign to the others, "do not ask or talk about Texas." Many gulped at his comment.
"Ugh! I hate Texas!" Grinchelda rolled her eyes.
For the first time in like a minimum of twelve hours, Aaron blinked. "You do?"
"Seriously, it's the worst cowboy land I've ever been to! Last summer I went there with Ronilda and her uncle Slim and Melgo's parents while my parents were out on their fourteenth half-anniversary. We went to this evening karaoke Hoedown Throwdown party, and as soon as I started dancing and yodeling my dad's tune, we got chased with pitchfork-wielding sheriff because everyone thought I was some sort of cattle stealing yodeling freak! Not only was I banned from Santa Anna but now Texas is the second state in Auradon I can't put my foot in!"
Aaron looked in some sort of cold relief at Dwight, who just shrugged.
"Hang on," Leona asked. "If Texas is the second state you're banned from, then what's the first?"
"Kansas," the daughter of the Grinch muttered. "Never go fly your sled there during a school outing, otherwise all the farmers will start believing your a green-skinned witch trying to ruin the corn harvests."
Leona nodded in agreement.
"You guys got any channels of preference?" Grinchelda showed her remote. "As long as it's not a show with hair salon advertisements, I'm good."
"I'd kill for a hair salon. Or actual hair." Leona put her hand on her long dark locks and pulled it , making everyone gasp when they saw that her head was smoothly, ghastly hairless, and covered with awful red scratches.
"Wow!" Grinchelda exclaimed. "Seriously, you guys don't have any doctors that work on people with cancer where you're from? This is an outrage! Where are our rights for healthcare?"
"That's horrible!" Audrey agreed.
"Should I do it?" Leona scratched her chin while talking to Aaron.
"You'd better hope Dwight makes a good lawyer," Aaron said with a flat shrug. The witchy girl sighed as she put her hands behind each ear and began to oddly pull of something matching her skin color as if she were removing a facial mask. But when her eyes, lips, and other facial features seemed to move off with the coat, they realized that Leona's face was actually a mask. Most of the cheerleaders present in the room yelped and fainted when they saw that Leona's face was actually full of wrinkles outlining each of her skull's edges and covered with dried out white skin. Her real eyes were bigger but with smaller dark irises, giving her a psychotic look. She had absolutely no eyebrows, her lips were cracked, and her nostrils were rather big. Just adding in her baldness made her look even scarier.
"Now I know why the last name rang a bell." Ingwer facepalmed herself. "You're the daughter of Eva Ernst, the Grand High Witch."
"Yay." Leona then bursted into tears. "Go on, laugh at me! I'm ugly!"
"You sure are," Aaron said.
"Can you go to the bathroom?" Dwight spat.
"Sure can." Aaron got up and headed for the boys' bathroom, hissing at the guards who gave him warning glances. Dwight and Leona, despite the latter's crying, sighed in relief.
"Finally! I thought I wouldn't get another Aaron reprieve!" Dwight said as he stretched his arms.
"But if he's such a bully, why do you follow him around?" Otrera asked while Evie gave Leona a tissue to dry off her tears and helped her put her mask and wig back on, making her look back to her usual disguised self.
"Nah, Aaron's no bully. He's just what we call a bad reformee back at the Raft," Dwight said as he finished the rest of his soup. "He pulls a bad boy act all the time just because he doesn't like admitting he has a soft side."
"The punk boy who twisted the wrist of the Joker's daughter, hit the daughter of Maleficent with a club, and punched the king in the stomach...nice?" Grinchelda rolled her eyes.
"Yep. Just like how your dad was green-hairy eight-year-old who drew pictures of Santa's sleigh exploding in midair yet he was so sweet enough to make out of scratch a Christmas present for your mom," Leona said.
Grinchelda gasped. "How did you know that?"
"The Raft has the largest control room in all of Auradon with computers and screens showing live footage all over the worlds," Dwight explained. He wiped off the remains of his soup sticking on his lips with one his several tongues. "Only one of our inmates has the right to permanently use it."
"They let a prisoner have access to all the security footage?" Ben put his hands on the table, demanding more information since they were now talking freely. "How on earth is this safe?"
"Probably because the only thing that Texas does in that room is amuse herself in watching random people get into embarrassing situations or hack into the international networks just to broadcast anonymously the insulting videos." Leona turned her head to the security camera that stood on one corner of the ceiling. She stood up on the table and angrily pointed her finger at it. "You hear me, McLean?" She shouted. "I bet you're enjoying this right now while your little Cookie serves you a yummy coconut sundae on your plushy couch in the control room!"
"McLean? As in Chris McLean from TOTAL DRAMA?" Grinchelda pulled out her phone. "I got to brag about this on the fan blog!"
"What's TOTAL DRAMA?" Evie asked, since she was still catching up to the existing TV shows in Auradon.
"It was this reality show where a bunch of teenage contestants do wacky challenges, get eliminated, and the last one standing wins a ton of cash!" Grinchelda yelped in excitement. "MONBOY#1 just comment my post! 'Seriously, TD is so like the best show ever! Can't believe that the loony Chris has a kid!'" She typed back. "OMG! Remember that episode where he got his house blown up? That was like totally epic!"
"Just tell Aaron that you liked how his dad blew up McLean's house, I'm sure he'll forget you being a fan of the show," Leona smirked. Unfortunately, Leona's comment made Grinchelda squeal even more.
"OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!" She hopped so high to the point that she ended up bouncing all over the walls until one of the Troll teens used his hair to catch her and bring her back to the solid ground. "Aaron is the son of Duncan the Delinquent? He's like one of my favorite TD contestants." Her phone beeped and she answered it. "'Yeah! That's like my favorite episode in season 5! Shame loony Chris put Duncan the Delinquent in jail!' Oh, well guess what, MONBOY#1! Duncan's got a..."
WHAM!
Grinchelda fell unconscious on the ground after Mina used her empty tray to hit Grinchelda on the head. She pulled out a small gray gun out of her pocket and aimed it at Grinchelda. A blue ray hit the green girl and turned her into a glowing blue ice cube.
"I'm going to rehydrate Grinch back at the dorms," she sighed and left the cafeteria.
"So, why was the show cancelled?" Otrera asked Dwight as she handed him and Leona small plates full of mini strawberry tarts, which got them excited.
"Animal abuse, teenage harassment, illegal non-tolerated lawyers, radioactive exposure, and physically and mentally breaking anyone who's been on the show," Dwight listed with his fingers. "Chris McLean was then arrested when the countries united, but because he was among the few villains who couldn't be contained by the Isle's barrier, he was incarcerated in our beloved underwater prison. He whined all the way until the guards got sick of it and allowed him three privileges."
"What privileges?" Ben asked.
"A pompous house in the First Sector, access to the control room, and that his least favorite TD contestants got incarcerated as well."
"But that's not fair!" Audrey said in shock.
"Frankly, the contestants that ended up in the Raft were just the rotten ones who still bugged him," Leona listed as well. "I mean, we've got the 'manipulative' Heather and Alejandro Buerromuerto because their making out annoyed McLean, and now their kid Holly works as a performer in one of the First Sector clubs..."
"Ezekiel got stuck with his kid in a Third Sector cell because he tried dipping McLean in a toxic waste tub," Dwight added.
"And just for accidently getting McLean's head stuck in a toilet, Scott and his kid Scarlett are stuck at working in the First Sector Aquarium."
"He was pretty cruel with Courtney. I mean, yeah, she's annoying and bratty and she unfairly used her lawyers on him, but forcing her in a Third Sector cell while her daughter Carly lives all by herself in the First Sector orphanage? That's brutal!"
"At least she didn't get any bad maternal influence." Leona tapped her forehead. "Hello, have you seen what's behind my face? And that happened five seconds after she cut my cord off my stomach?"
Audrey had to cover her mouth in order to avoid throwing up and Jay gently patted her on the shoulder as a sign to hold on.
"And what about Aaron's dad?" Otrera asked. "What was loony McLean's excuse for shipping Duncan the Delinquent and Son to the Raft?"
Dwight gave an amused chuckle and wink at Otrera, making her slightly blush. "Funny. That's exactly the name of the garage they run in the First Sector. To answer your question, Duncan the Delinquent was the contestant that Chris McLean bugged the most and suffered major backstabbing. The dude only tried out for the first season of TD just to get out of juvie, but McLean then forced him to unwillingly continue in the next seasons because he was both one of the most long-lasting competitors and very popular among the fans for his tough-bad-boy-exterior-yet-soft-insides persona. And Duncan tried like everything to get out while at the same time trying to win a million dollars."
"He did win the cash in TOTAL DRAMA ACTION." Leona sighed. "No comments on what happened to it."
"Dirty player, pyromaniac, willing to fight back a fake psycho-killer with a chainsaw, bike builder," Dwight listed, "broke up with two girls, bullied, occasionally cheated, quit the show at the beginning of the third season because he didn't want to sing but McLean hunted him down...Honestly, McLean deserved it when the Delinquent blew up his house in season 5. Tragically, that ended up with Duncan's elimination and a transfer from juvie to local prison."
"Once the countries united, Duncan the Delinquent was held under brief supervision while he and some other 'bad reformees' were to be trialed for their Anti-Heroic Resumé," Leona continued for Dwight. "But thanks to Chris McLean annoying security with his demands, Duncan the Delinquent was forced onto the Raft. Aaron was hardly five months old when it happened."
"That trial should have taken place," Ben sounded irritated. Sure, Aaron Duncan had led a kidnapping attempt on two of his friends, but still, that situation was unfair.
"Sorry pal, that case was closed nineteen years ago." Dwight shrugged.
"He's nineteen?" Ben gasped. No wonder Aaron Duncan was the leader of the trio.
"I just have one little question." Otrera sweetly blinked at Dwight Barron, making him madly blush. "Why did you try kidnapping Lonnie and Martin?"
Leona instantly gagged Dwight's mouth with her hand. "Don't! Zemo will have our hides! Or worse, his new boss will!"
"Zemo?" One of the VKs marched his way through and grabbed Leona by the neck, raising her just high enough for her to barely touch the floor. A guard ran over along with Ben, Madison Hatter, and Amelia Hall in the hopes of making him let go of the witch he was threatening to suffocate.
"Zeniko Zemo? Is he still alive? And on the Raft?" Franz Schmitz, the son of the Red Skull shouted at Leona. "Tell me now!"
"I...I can't!" She whimpered.
"Franz, pal?" Madison grabbed his friend's left arm. "If you strangle her, she won't tell you."
"I will if you let her go." Dwight stood up from his seat and walked over to Franz, who instantly let go of Leona and snapped at Dwight. "Talk."
"Before you do," Noir told Dwight as she got up from her seat and addressed Franz, "are we talking Zeniko Zemo as in Baron Zemo's son Zeniko?"
"You know him too?" Franz calmed down a little.
"Only by reputation and rumors that go through supervillains," the daughter of Blackfire said sternly. "I just know that he's the son of the original creator of HYDRA, leader of a gang called the ZAM-Trio...and rather pathetic."
"How is the leader of a terrorist group 'pathetic'?" Audrey asked in confusion.
"Back in the days, Zeniko was a terrifying HYDRA co-leader with his father Baron Zemo and the other two members of his ZAM-Trio at his side," Franz explained. "With their powers combined along with their sadistic hearts bloodier than Hell, they terrified everyone in HYDRA. Even my father the Red Skull didn't dare to argue with Zeniko and his forces."
"But the most terrifying part about the ZAM-Trio alone?" Madison said ominously. "Not only are his accomplices lethal dangerous and mostly killing people for sport like Zeniko, the only thing these two did that he personally didn't was assassinate their own parents with their bare hands because they didn't want their powerful natures to be overpowered by their parents'."
"Penna tried to kill Voldemort," Evie pointed out.
"Not the same." Franz shook his head. "De Mort tried to kill the Dark Lord because she was tired of being his abused slave. Zeniko's accomplices' parents were nothing like Voldemort. They were said to be loving towards their children and gave them great guidance and training so that they could create great evil destinies for themselves. And their kids repaid them for their generous evil training how? By murdering them in order to get them out of their way and mark a new step in their lives."
Even the guards gasped at a description of such evil.
"So yeah, they were pretty cruel," Madison said. "But then three or four years ago, Zeniko's flame got sprayed on. No one in HYDRA knows who it was because Zeniko had his gang kill anyone who asked, but the only thing we ever got to know was that whoever wrecked his reputation also made him lose an arm and his father."
"That's when we all began to realize that he was just a pompous idiot who bossed us around and yet, by not being able to keep his left arm and his father alive, he was ruining the HYDRA reputation," Franz nodded. "So my father organized a mutiny against him and the ZAM-Trio got kicked out of HYDRA. We never heard from them since. We assumed they were hiding to get revenge on getting kicked out, but since we never heard about what happened to them, we concluded that they must have gone on the Isle Of The Lost. But then when we were shipped there, my father sent troops to search everywhere in the city. The Huns even let us investigate, but the ZAM-Trio weren't there."
He looked at Dwight, who nodded and gave him the answer. "You're right. They ended up arrested and shipped in the Raft, not because the barrier couldn't contain them, but because Nick Fury and all those who knew about the secret prison was afraid that Zeniko's rage and obsession would wreak havoc among the villains on the Isle."
"His rage and obsession?" Ben asked.
"Zeniko Zemo was not angry at HYDRA for rebelling against him. No, he was enraged at the one who ruined his life in the first place when he killed Baron Zemo and destroyed Zeniko's arm to the point where he had to get an artificial bionic one. Like a bloody game of cat and mouse, Zeniko and his gang hunted down his arch-foe for years, murdering any remaining underground criminal who might be connected to his hated enemy.
"Then just last year or so, the ZAM-Trio failed yet another attempt to catch the sneaky prey and the authorities caught them. They were locked up in Third Sector cells, which are usually reserved for the most lethal prisoners in the Raft. We villains from the First and Second Sectors knew that we wouldn't be safe unless they stayed in their cells until just last month, when the Pride Games were announced, someone managed to neutralize the security and break the ZAM-Trio out of the Third Sector. While they broke out, they took the opportunity of releasing all the Third Sector villains and force the guards to obey them and give them a submarine to go to Auradon unless they wanted their families killed."
The students gasped. A prison out of control and run by villains who were even more dangerous than those on the Isle? To think that having peace was impossible.
"Zeniko's new boss had just one condition for the gang and that was to bring him back some new chew toys from Auradon Prep," Dwight continued. "The only cough in all this contagious story is that, while Zeniko wanted to fill his part of the deal, he was more obsessed with revenge, so after they failed to bring what he wanted, especially after Zeniko was busy blackmailing his foe, their boss decided to go to plan B." He stopped talking. He and Leona suddenly began to have desperate looks in their eyes.
Otrera knew what that meant since her own mother did it once. "Zemo's new boss threatened to harm your parents."
"My father, Leona's mother, and Aaron's father," Dwight confessed. "The monster never showed his face to us when he blackmailed us, but when he had Texas McLean show us a video of our parents being dragged to the Third Sector...I'm sorry, but we were forced to bring him Fa Li and Fiske before the Pride Games were over or he'd kill our parents."
"But why? Why does he want them?" Mal asked. "And if Zeniko is more interested in killing his arch-foe than doing what his new boss asked..."
"You don't get it, do you?"
The sudden voice of Aaron Duncan, who was leaning on the doorway and listening to the conversation without getting noticed, got everyone's attention.
"Zeniko Zemo's arch-foe, the one who destroyed his arm and killed Baron Zemo through the ancient illegal seven chakra blocking technique," he said sternly, "was Martin Fiske."