/A truly aptly named chapter. Contains scenes of torture and sadistic measures to maintain discipline in Grunty's troops… You'll see. All characters are Rare's. As it stands, most – in fact all – of Cauldron Keep below Klungo's third battle arena is mine. All the things the characters do, are mine. I do NOT own any characters in this particular chapter. Though I'm not sure if the Dodgem Dome enemies are really called Gremlins./

The Gathering Storm

At last! After two long years of powerlessness she had the power to make her foes tremble. First she must inspect her keep; then she would have to dig out her emerald-eyed statue; while only doll-sized she would need it to blight the land. She could see to the construction of a larger model once a workforce had been gathered. But first she must impress her power on Klungo. She blasted the divider around the tanks with her spell. It flashed green for an instant and then simply ceased to exist.

"Missstresssss looks well. Doessss misssstressss like her new body?"

"Very much! But I have a score to settle. See my power; know my mettle!"

The murky green glow filled Grunty again and she shot a bar of the Void's power at Klungo. A green glow enveloped him.

"Two years! Two years I have suffered the Sunday kick-around. Two years I spent in that foul sack. Two years I spent imprisoned in that foul sack. And where were you Klungo? WHERE WERE YOU? MAKING STUPID GAMES!"

It was not possible to pay Klungo back for two years' worth of kick-arounds, but Grunty meant to try. Using her spell she CRASH! smashed him against the ceiling, CRASH! smashed him against the floor, CRASH! against the ceiling, CRASH! against the floor, CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!…

It took some time for her temper to wear down. Once it had she flung Klungo into a corner disgustedly. Good. That should cure him of any ludicrous expectations of gratitude. Now she must motivate the fool, give him hope. She addressed the battered, whimpering hulk in the corner.

"You may yet redeem yourself, Klungo. The HAG1 was destroyed in the last confrontation between me and that idiot bird and bear. You must build it anew."

"Yessss misssstresssss", said Klungo, "anything. Klungo will be good thissss time. Promissssse."

Excellent! The fool was hers now. He would remain loyal now that she had broken him.

"How long? I need that machine now!"

"Three weekssss, missstressss. One week to sssstand. Two weeksssss to walk. Three weekssss to build."

Of course – Klungo's injuries. Those needed seeing to. The fool could hardly labour in a sickbed. Grunty reached out to the Void's power once more.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!", cried Klungo.

He felt as though a thousand knives were tearing through his flesh. But he could feel bones knitting… skin closing… bruises fading. And in the pain a dark, warm glow of energy.

"How long?", repeated Grunty.

"One week, misssstresssss", said Klungo with a silly grin.

"Good."

Now she could attend to her Keep. She decided to pick upher statue en route; the storerooms were just above the Lab, after all. She made her way up the stairs.

She strode through the public storerooms to a door marked 'Witches Only'. The shrivelled forms of Gruntlings who chose to ignore the sign littered the ground by the door. Grunty chose such reminders of discipline carefully; each Gruntling was missing a hand – the same hand that had been laid upon the doorknob. The dark enchantments on the door would hold the Gruntling in place as it bled to death; those same enchantments vaporised the offending hand. Grunty paid neither enchantments or corpses any mind as she stepped through the dead with a crunching sound and laid her hand on the doorknob. She laid her hand on the door.

Most of the room's contents were junk – old, failed potion formulas, dud spells, Furnace Fun and Tower of Tragedy questions that the stupid bear and bird had somehow managed to answer. There were a few treasured possessions though – shots of the bird and bear hemmed in during the three-on-one Dodgem Dome challenge while a Gremlin collected Twinklies – if only the bear and bird had stayed hemmed in – and her Brentilda dartboard.

Brentilda was the white sheep of the family and had chosen the path of a fairy godmother – of all things! – over that of a witch, as any decent Winkybunion should. She had helped the bear and bird by telling them personal things about Grunty – for example, that she wore purple underwear with yellow spots, knowledge needed for her Furnace Fun – and had mysteriously disappeared after her first defeat, no doubt as soon as she got wind of Mingella and Blobbelda, Grunty's other sisters, looking for her with revenge in mind. No time for that now; she sought her statue.

Ah! There it was, right under her failed beautification potion. She bent down and grabbed it.

The floor was too cluttered to test her statue there; she had to choose a bare patch of wall.

The emerald eyes of the statue glowed, and twin lances of bright green light struck the wall. A patch of stone grew pitted and diseased-looking; the taint spread as she maintained the beam.

Tooty had been rescued – she had seen her at the kickball game – so resuming her original plan of stealing her beauty was not an option. There were two ways to become the most beautiful being alive. The first was to become more beautiful yourself; that, she had tried and failed at.

The second was to corrupt the world. She cackled insanely as she made her way into the upper levels of the Keep. Klungo, a floor below, cowered at the sound. Grunty was clearly utterly mad.

Sunday came around again, and the gang made its way to the top of Cauldron Keep. The brightly coloured sack lay discarded on the floor.

As one they bolted for Jinjo Village. The Jinjo King must be told of this disaster.

/I was on FORM when I wrote this little beauty. Read, review, and understand why this fic has a Teen rating all of a sudden. Because Grunty is now a psychopath (well, more of a psychopath, anyway). Updated for spelling/grammatical errors./