Chapter 18: Cornering the Suspect
Not long after, the group arrives in front of Room 2B.
Briar turns to the others, "Alright, Cater, Grim, Riddle, and I will go inside to find Ruggie, the rest of you stay here until we come out."
"Of course," Tanzanite says.
"Be careful," Sereia says.
"We will," Briar says.
Riddle opens the door to the classroom, and the four walk inside. They also see a few other students in the classroom.
Just then, Grim calls out, "All right, where's Ruggie Bucchi?!"
Just then, they hear someone call out, "Right here."
The group turns to see Ruggie raising his hand, and looking bored.
Ruggie then notices the group, "Ah... It's you guys again. I really hope this isn't about that deluxe grilled cheese. We traded fair and square."
However, everyone is not buying it, not this time.
Riddle walks up to Ruggie and calmly says, "Ruggie Bucchi, we need to ask you some questions about the spate of injuries that have befallen prospective Spelldrive tournament players."
"Oh ho. This sounds like some serious business," Ruggie replies.
"How about we move to the hall and keep this in the figurative DMs, if you catch my drift?" Cater says.
"I'm cooperating. Let's all try to be gentlemen, now," Ruggie replies.
Though deep inside, he suspects that they've figured him out.
Then the group leaves the classroom and enters the hall.
"Very well," Riddle calmly says, "While we do not yet know exactly what transpired, it is abundantly clear that your signature spell is a dangerous one. I will be casting 'Off With Your Head' to—"
Suddenly, Ruggie says, "But Riddle, are you sure you should be casting such a powerful spell without your magical pen?"
"Huh?" Riddle says, confused.
Riddle reaches into his pocket and grows shocked, "Wait...what?!"
He looks down to notice his Magepen is gone, "What happened to my magical pen?!"
Grim looks at Cater and notices, "Hey, Cater! Your pen's gone too!"
Cater quickly notices the pen is not in his pocket either, "You're kidding me! How?!"
Sereia soon notices, "Grim, your magestone is gone too!"
"Myaaaah!" Grim panics.
Sereia, Tanzanite, Jasper, and Briar look to notice their magepens are gone.
"Our pens are gone too," Jasper panics.
Tanzanite notices something else is missing from Briar, "Briar, your medallion is gone too!"
"What?!" Briar exclaims in shock.
She looks around her neck, and is shocked to see her precious medallion.
Suddenly, they hear Guggie snickers, "Shyeheehee! Children of privilege, every one of you. So unprepared. So complacent. Like stealing candy from a baby." and holds out everyone's magestone pens, and Briar's medallion.
Grim freaks out, "Myah?! He cast his spell to snatch your pens away without us even noticing?!"
"Puh-lease. As if I'd need magic to do that!" Ruggie says with a smirk on his face, "Anyway, having a showdown in the hallway is not on my agenda for today, so I'll be on my way. Toodles!"
And runs off.
"Hold it right there! Give back my magestone!" Grim shouts in anger.
"And give back my medallion!" Briar calls out and chases after them.
The twins, Sereia, and Trinket do the same. Riddle and Cater soon follow after.
"Curse you! You will halt if you value your head!" Riddle angrily says, and tries to cast the spell, "Off With—"
But Cater stops him, "Whoa, Riddle, stop! Don't be a hero, man!"
"We gotta catch him and get our stuff back!" Briar says.
"After him!" Jasper shouts.
Everyone continues to dash off and try to catch up with Ruggie to get their stuff back.
Meanwhile, at the different parts of the hall, Ace and Deuce are walking down.
Ace turns to Deuce with a smirk on his face, "Dude, your flamingo-feeding outfit was insane. Who knew they made leopard print in hot pink?"
"L-look, it's not like I had a choice! It's all I had in pink!" Deuce says, embarrassed.
"I can't believe we still gotta follow weird rules like that. But I guess it's better than it was," Ace replies.
Suddenly they hear someone shout, "Coming through!"
Ace and Deuce stop in their tracks and look to see Ruggie running past them at top speed.
"What was that about?" Ace questions.
They turn back to see Briar and the others running towards them too.
Cater notices the boys, "Oh! Ace, Deuce! You boys are a sight for sore eyes!
"Huh? What's going on? Why are you running?" Ace asks.
With fury and his face turned red, Riddle shouts, "The culprit! He's getting away! You need to apprehend Ruggie Bucchi immediately! Housewarden's orders!"
"Whaaat?!" Deuce panics.
"What does this gotta do with us?!" Ace asks, startled by the sudden outburst.
"It's a long story, but Ruggie is the culprit behind the incidents and the accidents the students were having! He's the reason why Trey got hurt!" Briar says.
"What?!" Deuce asks, shocked and angry and turns his head to see where Ruggie runs off too.
Ace asks, "Are you serious?"
"We're serious, and now he has taken all our magepens and my medallion. We gotta go after him," Briar says.
"We gotta stop him!" Sereia says.
Ace sighs, "Fine, but I better get a full explanation when we caught him."
"Then let's hurry and catch him," Deuce says.
And with that, Briar and the others, including Ace and Deuce, chase after Ruggie.
Meanwhile, Ruggie is standing somewhere in the hall, when he notices the group chasing him has caught up with him.
"Myah! We've got you now!" Grim shouts.
"Give us back our stuff!" Jasper says.
"What, you think some freshmen and a weasel can catch ME? Ruggie asks in remark, "All of you look as slow as molasses—and I'm not talking about your runnin' speed!"
Grim hisses in anger, "I am NOT a weasel!"
"Save it! We got work to do!" Ace says.
"Catch me if you can!" Ruggie says and starts running.
"Quick, after him!" Ace shouts.
With that, the group chases after them. Ruggie continues to run fast down the hall while Briar and the others chase after him.
"Ruggie is running pretty fast!" Briar says.
"I'll catch up to him," Deuce says, and begins to pick up the pace, and is running faster than the others.
"Wow. Deuce is running really fast," Sereia says, surprised.
"Remember, Deuce is on the Track and Field Team," Ace says.
"Yeah," Briar says.
Ruggie looks behind to see the group are catching up, especially Deuce.
With a grin, Ruggie says, "I thought you Heartslabyul guys were nothin' but tea-partying softies… But y'know something? Color me impressed. I take it all back!"
"Keep talkin'. I'm this close to wiping that smug grin off your face," Deuce says.
Then Ace says, "Would you just let us nab you already? I don't wanna lose my head again, thanks!"
"If you want me so bad, then maybe you should work harder to catch me!" Ruggie says, and continues to run down the hall.
And the chase continues, Briar and the others continue to chase after Ruggie and it feels like they're chasing him around the school halls.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the other hallway of the school, Jack is walking down the hall after finishing up with a few things in class. His wolf-like ears caught the sound of multiple footsteps and turned his head to see Ruggie running down the hall and running past him.
Suddenly he hears someone shout, "Get back here!"
Then see Deuce and Ace running past him. What catches his attention is to see Briar and her friends run past them as well. Jack wonders what's going on and what they're up to. So seeing that they're already down the hall far enough, Jack decides to follow them. Rugie continues to run down the hall and notices that the group chasing him are getting exhausted. Ruggie stops running to see the group has stopped running and is breathing heavily in exhaustion. Even Trinket is heavily breathing and tired from the flying.
"How do you like THIS?!" Deuce asks.
Deuce manages to wave his magepen and summons a cauldron that crashes in front of him.
"Yipe!" Ruggie yelps.
Ruggie sees the thing is getting a little serious, "O-okay, yeah. Maybe that one was a little fur-raisin'..." Then grins, "...but unlike you guys, I'm not on my last legs! Byeee!"
And runs off.
Still breathing heavily, Ace says, "Hah... Hah... H-how's he not even winded after all that running?!"
"We need a plan. We need to catch him before he gets away," Tanzanite says.
Then Briar an idea appears in her head, and Ace notices the expression Briar has.
Ace grins and says, "I know that look, you have a plan, don't you."
"Yeah," Briar says.
Then explains, "Ace, Deuce, Trinket, and Grim, you guys continue to chase after Ruggie and lead him to the Courtyard. Sereia, Tanzanite, Jasper, and I will get to the other side and corner him in the courtyard."
"So we're going to ambush him," Deuce says.
"Like a rat caught in a trap," Jasper says with a smirk.
"That's one way to put it. Come on, let's go," Briar says.
And with that, the three friends split off in different directions so they can catch Ruggie. Unknown to them, Jack has seen and heard the whole thing. Hearing the plan, he decides to follow them, to see what they're up to.