As the agents wandered from place to place, they managed to witness a scene in which six thugs, similar to orcs from video games, with clubs, were chasing a dark-haired young guy.
Following them ran a dog that looked like a hellhound, quickly followed by a large man in a black robe, a wide-brimmed hat and a long luminous chain in his hands. The procession of runners was completed by five flying girls, who looked like teenagers, dressed in pink and blue-green clothings. On their backs they had thin green webbed wings with a black border, somewhat reminiscent of the wings of butterflies or fairy fairies.
Agents watched the chase in fascination, as if they were watching a reality show about aliens live. There's something you don't see every day, for example how scary monsters with clubs and huge luminous chains chasing a guy are being chased by magical fairies of a fragile physique.
- Interesting. How often they should wave them to remain in the air - Sam thought, correlating the volumes of the girls' bodies with the size of their wings, finally realizing that either the laws of physics have no power over this place, or the special effects of this production go off scale.
One of them, running her hands through the air, seemed to conjure a giant jet of water from a nearby lake. The second blew so that a powerful stream of air flew out of her mouth, comparable in strength to a two-point tornado. Part of the monsters that ran after the dark-haired guy slowly rose up, almost choking in the whirlpool arranged by the fairies. The third sorceress, who was wearing glasses, threw a couple of fireballs that came out of her fingers, which painfully seared the skin of monsters; the fourth one touched the ground and long thick curly stems grew out of it, instantly shackling the monsters hand and foot.
Meanwhile, new monsters suddenly appeared near the agents, more terrible than the first ones. "The soldiers of Prince Phobos," as a local resident standing next to Alex called them, began to grab people who were chanting "Down with the tyranny of Phobos!" and push them into cages mounted on wagons. At this time, five winged girls who had just performed magic tricks, the beauty of which could be envied by Houdini and Copperfield together, flew off in an unknown direction.
Seeing this wonderful performance, the three agents joyfully applauded and began to call the actors for an encore. Then, after one of the black monsters that was running after the dog threw a chain and almost ran into someone who, like the spies, was watching the action, on the head, they began to slowly understand that this was no performance, played out by a theater troupe, and the guy is in serious trouble.
Clover's fatigue disappeared. Finally, she saw something attractive.
-Girls, we gotta to help him.
The trio chased after the runners. After outrunning the monsters with jet packs, the agents landed and positioned themselves between a dark-haired guy running into a dead end and a couple of monsters, led by a red-eyed monster in a hat, who were ready to grab him.
-Get some sleep, boys,- Clover squirted some strong-smelling liquid into the noses of the monsters. A moment later, the monsters fell to the ground unconscious.
-Nothing soothes the nerves like lavender and passionflower extract,- Clover said as if she was filming an advertisement and threw a pink spray can into her backpack.
Not expecting for help from strangers, especially of female gender, it was clear from the guy's face that he was slightly surprised. He was dressed in shabby clothes, consisting of a gray-beige coat, a dark T-shirt and trousers. The body of the guy was well built.
-Who are you? -he asked.
-We are your saviors. You don't have to thank us. But when we get out of here, you can call me, - Clover sat down next to the discouraged guy and gave him some paper. Green-eyed brown-haired women were always her type.
-Sorry,- he politely replied, returning the paper, - I have a girlfriend.
Clover felt like she'd just been dumped in the easiest way possible.
The girls led the young man out of the impasse and walked down the street away from the place of the events that had just taken place. The guy introduced himself, his name was Caleb.
-Who were those scarecrows? And why were they chasing you? Sam asked.
- Are you from Earth? Caleb asked, ignoring the question.
The guy thought. Although these girls were dressed in meridian clothes, judging by the fact that they used intricate devices to stop the Hunter and the guards, they were clearly not from here. This often happened when someone inadvertently entered the portal from the other side. And if he does not know anything about monsters, then he is definitely an alien from Earth.
-What do you mean from Earth? Are we not on Earth? - once again surprised, asked Sam. The girls did not expect such an answer.
Throughout their career, the girls have already visited different time and space dimensions, and even in space, when they tried to stop Tim Scam from drying up the planet, but spies have not yet been able to be on other planets.
-How to say. This is Meridian.
- What the hell is Meridian?! -Alex got angry.
Caleb thought for a while, decided that the earthlings, with the exception of the Guardians, did not need to know much about the Kingdom, not to mention Metamoor and the Veil, and decided to help the girls find the portal. And then give them to the Guardians. Let the earthlings decide their own issues.
-Hiterfield suburb,- he lied. -You must have come here through the blue glow, right?
- How to say hit, rather some of us were more than just curious - Clover looked askance at Alex.
Suddenly, a small green creature with yellow eyes appeared out of nowhere.
- Caleb, hi. What are you doing?
Clover "frightened" clung to Caleb.
- Oh, who is it?
- Blank, lead us to the portal, - the guy commanded the green man.
-Who is this? asked Passling, studying the unfamiliar faces.
-Guests from Earth,- Caleb said, winking at Blank.
Blank smiled conspiratorially.
-Blanc understood. Follow me, I will guide you.
As they walked, the passling tossed an unknown little thing to Caleb.
- So you're fifteen? And you look at all twenty-five, - Clover continued to flirt slightly disappointed.
- What is it? Alex asked, seeing how Caleb dropped some golden object.
- What the soldiers of Phobos were chasing, - despite the girls, he said and put the relic back into his pocket.
-Phobos? - Asked Alex, - Who is it? Local king?
- Sort of, - Caleb chuckled, remembering that he was talking to ignorant earthlings.
- And who were the those girls that were flying after you? -Sam asked, unhappy with Caleb's dodges.
- What girls? ... ah ... local inhabitants, - Caleb said, moving a little forward.
As soon as Caleb turned the corner, he was attacked by three monsters that Clover had just knocked out.
- This can't be happening. "Sleep spray" is super powerful. They couldn't wake up so quickly! - Clover said in surprise.
-Unless Jerry gave us an untested gadget,- Alex said skeptically, as if this was a common occurrence.
-Capture them! -shouted the leader of the guard.
One of the monsters in front of which the dog ran, with a face, or rather the absence of it, resembling a skull with red eyes and an old hat, threw a chain at Clover. The chain hit her hard on the calves of her right leg and wrapped around her ankle. Clover threw a heavy stone lying next to the beast, then taking advantage of the monster's confusion, she freed herself and made a roundhouse kick with both legs. From which the man seemed to dissipate and a flock of bats flew out from under his robes.
At this time, the rest of the monsters grabbed Alex and Sam in an armful and tried to stuff them into a cage. Sam was trying to get something out of her backpack, Alex was pounding with her hands the big paw of the monster that grabbed her. Caleb fought with bare hands, trying to protect the girls, but he was caught before the spies.
Running up to the cage and trying to unsolder the bars with a laser lipstick, Clover felt someone grab her from behind, and then, taking away her backpack and laser, pushed her into the cage in which the agents were sitting.
- The rebels are captured along with their leader. Tell Prince Phobos that the guards too, - one of the monsters ordered, hanging a lock on the cage and throwing a backpack with lipstick inside. - I'll be later.
-Don't be afraid. The Guardians shall release us,-Caleb reassured the girls when the wagon started.
- Guardians? Are you talking about those magic winged fairies?- Alex asked.
-How could he confuse us with them? And why were we put in cages?- Sam asked, puzzled by the stupidity of the monsters.
Caleb thought that they would still have to somehow pass the time, and in the castle he would need to grab weapons for the rebels, and decided to tell the spies about the Guardians of the Veil and a little about what awaits the girls in the castle, and at the same time find out who they were.
-Interesting story. Don't mean to offend you, but we are of little interest in the politics of this world. Magic? What a nonsense!- Sam said, after Caleb enlightened them on the history of Meridian, the Guardians, and the current ruling cruel prince Phobos.
- I could be a queen. At least here, - Clover began to imagine how she would seduce the prince and make this world a better place. For example, she will issue her first decree to build fashion stores in this backwater like "Groove" in Beverly Hills.
-Clover, stop dreaming,- Sam knocked her head.
The girls tried to unsolder the cage with laser lipstick again. But seeing that Clover was not going to run away, they decided to stay with her.
- Girls, let's look at the prince. We can always run away.
The journey was not easy, but not painful either. Gradually the mountains gave way to hills covered with light vegetation. They passed several villages, in which, at the sight of people locked in cages, the inhabitants began to hide, and somewhere whisper about the troops of Phobos, burning the houses of the rebels. When approaching the castle, Sam noticed a lot of thick stems of roses entwining the city, which was already visible from afar.