Chapter Eight:
Moana and Audrey dropped several floors, landing with a light thump on a thick vine that Audrey conjured after throwing down a group of seeds from her pocket.
"Where were you held?" Moana asked.
"The basement," Audrey responded. "But we thought they got rid of that lab,"
Moana reached into her shirt, pulling out a locket with a blue and white shell locket attached. She popped it open to reveal a faintly glowing green stone, carved all over in similar markings to her tattoo.
"What is that?" Audrey asked. Moana smiled, then moved towards the stairs, checking the stone for a change in hue.
"Old family heirloom," She smiled. "Mix of magic and some alien tech,"
The girls ran down the stairs, making their way towards the basement. When they got to the furthest public level, Moana repeated the trick she'd performed upstairs, breaking through the floor into the secret level and dropping them into the lab.
"This is it," Audrey said. "This is where they held us,"
"My sister is down here," Moana confirmed. "I can feel it,"
"It's too high tech in here though," The Florakenetic muttered. "Our powers wouldn't get us anywhere, we need someone techy… like Ted,"
"Hey Ted, can you help us navigate a secret laboratory?"
Ted, who had forgotten he was still on the comms with the others, reeled a little as he slammed into a Cy-bug. A few feet away, Shockwave phased through a Cy-bug and let it crash into another, then cackled loudly.
"Like, from the computer?"
"That's where you are, right?"
"Well, actually I'm not," Ted answered awkwardly, ducking to avoid a Cy-bug and pulling up the tracking system he'd inlaid into the LORAX suit. "Okay, I can meet you in two minutes,"
"You can do what?"
True to his word, Ted met Audrey and Moana in the lab two minutes later, having followed the holes in the floor to them.
"What is this?!" Audrey asked, gesturing wildly at the power suit, but Ted ignored her and set to work on the computers to try and find any place that Te-fiti could be held in.
"She's not far," Ted realized, surprise laced into his voice. "This is weird,"
"Where is she then?" Moana demanded.
Ted opened the main door, leading the group through a series of empty glass cells. Audrey involuntarily cringed as she passed one where the floor was covered in dead clover stems.
That was her cell.
Ted kept going, ducking off into what looked like a side closet at first glance. When the door opened, it actually led into another lab and cellblock.
And inside the cell, lying unconscious on her back, was a young woman.
"Te-fiti!" Moana cried, running to the glass cell. The girl inside stirred, sitting up weakly.
Her skin tone, although paled from lack of sun, was similar to her sisters. Her hair had less of a curl and more of a dreadlock look, and the tips were an earthy green.
"What?" She whispered, voice cracked.
"Te-fiti!" Moana cried. "It's me!"
Te-fiti's eyes clouded over. She breathed hazily, not focusing on the others in front of her.
"This is a trick, isn't it,"
"No!"
Ted managed to unlock the cell, and Moana ran in, sliding to her knees and grabbing her sister's shoulders.
"Tuafafine matua, o a'u, laitiiti!"
"Moana?" The older girl blinked, then squinted and reeled back in surprise. "Moana!"
The girls crushed each other in a hug, and Moana slowly helped Te-fiti stand. Her sister was wearing the gray jumpsuit that the others had been forced into, but it was torn at the bottom, despite her being the star prisoner.
"Glad you're out," Audrey said. "I'm Fleuria, I was kidnapped by O'Hare too,"
"Thank you for finding me," Te-fiti said. "It's been so long since I've talked to someone…"
She trailed off, then winced, surprising everyone. When she looked up, Te-fiti's green eyes had turned a strange red, and her face contorted before her eyes changed back.
"They tried to alter my powers," She said. "It did not go well,"
Before anyone could ask her any more questions, the building shook, almost knocking Te-fiti back down.
"I may have forgotten to tell you guys there was a Cy-bug attack going on outside," Ted muttered.
Outside, Shockwave, Fiore and Empousa were fighting hard. Even Wrecker had shown up on comms, chewing his protegee out as he fought solo a few streets away.
It was the worst attack Sugarus had seen in a long time. The city was swarmed. Cy-bugs were crawling up and down buildings, breaking into banks and department stores, even getting close to the edge of the suburbs.
Empousa and Fiore fought from the rooftops, trying to snipe the flying bugs out of the air before they could touch down.
Shockwave was moving as fast as she could, phasing, shocking and doing her best to solely protect the ground level. Cy-bugs were easy to take done, but the amount was what hurt her. Vanellope wasn't invincible, as much as she would have loved to think that.
Vanellope almost tripped over some of the rubble that now littered the ground, she looked up at the O'Hare building, glinting at the edges with the sunlight that had just started to appear over the edge of the roof.
The building suddenly shook, and Vanellope groaned and got ready to jump back into the fight. Instead of more Cy-bugs, thick vines erupted from the bottom corner, exploding out of the brick and concrete and winding their way up the skyscraper to stabilize it.
Four figures appeared in the dust hole left behind. Vanellope let out a sign of relief as she recognized Ted's new gleaming armor and Audrey's orangey red hair.
The new addition, who she realized was Moana's missing sister, used her friends arms for support as she stood straight and breathed in her first fresh air in years. She took in the new sunlight, seemingly growing stronger in seconds.
Te-fiti stepped forward. She knelt down and put her hands into the dirt of a nearby flowerbed. She breathed in, then out, and with a woosh, thin vines erupted from every green space nearby.
The lashed past Mavis, Onceler and Vanellope, wrapping around the Cy-bugs and pulling them back. Te-fiti strained, but the bugs strength was too much for her to win out. It was a stalemate.
The bugs were trapped, but for who knows how long.
Audrey ran to help the other earth super, using her powers to add to the vines. As she finished, the rest of the team met her on the street.
"We need to end this," Mavis muttered. "Soon."
"The beacons," Moana realized. "Candy used beacons to control them!"
"So what?" Onceler muttered.
"You're saying we need a beacon to summon the bugs back, but overall, we'd just be destroying them," Ted realised. "We'd need a lot of energy for that!"
"I'm a lot of energy," Vanellope suddenly said. "We can use me,"
"How?"
"Rig her up to the power grid at the roof of the building," Ted said quickly. "If she's connected, and produces enough electricity, it'll travel up and act like a beacon-"
"Which will bring the bugs back and crash into the building!" Audrey realized.
"How do I even get up there?!" Vanellope muttered. Behind her, Onceler and Mavis shared a look.
"We've got you covered," He said.
At the top of O'Hare Air, Onceler used thin vines to attack Vanellope's arms and legs to the tall electrical structure. From the ground, Ted ran the older by through the instructions he needed to make the beacon. All around them, the Cy-Bugs strained at the bit to get away and attack.
"This could get really bright, so… maybe leave?" Vanellope whispered to Mavis. "I know you're sensitive to light,"
"I'll be fine," The older girl insisted. "Besides, I'm not leaving you or Oncie,"
"Is everyone ready?" Ted asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Audrey answered. Her own set of vines had been added to the ropes holding the bugs down, but hers were more secure than Te-fiti's, despite being a lesser amount.
"Moana," Te-fiti said quietly. "You should go,"
"What? No!"
"It's the safer option," Her sister said. "You and the other boy need to help the civilians that are still out here. The Cy-bugs will destroy the building, we can't let anyone else be hurt,"
Moana looked like she wanted to fight, but stopped herself short.
"Alright,"
"Light her up,"
"Go time Van," Onceler said. The youngest super nodded, and started conjuring the lightning.
The electrical power grew, the light getting brighter and brighter, turning Shockwave into a mini sun.
It pulsed up the metal tower in to the sky, and as Vanellope poured more power into the electrical ball, the brighter the makeshift beacon became.
"You okay?" Onceler asked Mavis, who was wincing a little.
"I'll be fine," She insisted, but it came out scratchy and hurt. Instead of arguing, Onceler stood in front of her, doing his best to block the burning.
"Let them go!" She yelled into her comm, and the vines holding the Cy-bugs back snapped. With a whirr of mechanical wings, the bugs slammed into the building, causing Mavis, Onceler and Vanellope to stumble and almost fall.
Vanellope held on a little longer, but her vision started to swim. Bugs were hitting either the building or the beacon, and debris has already started to fall - along with the skyscraper itself.
As she blacked out, Vanellope finally felt her mind clear.
All of the hatred, anger and suffering she'd held inside after the abductions - they were finally gone.
Later:
The O'Hare Building was mostly a pile of rubble in the middle of Sugarus. Parts of Cy-bugs were scattered over the street, some still twitching.
Audrey and Te-fiti were making their way throug the rubble as the police and firemen searched for evidence. They wrapped the Cy-bugs in vines and crushed them, speeding through the composting process to destroy the monsters that had been plaguing the city for months.
"Have we found them yet?" Ralph asked. His face was streaked with dust and soot, but he was still lifting heavy beams to help the emergency services.
"No," Ted muttered. "And they aren't responding on comms either,"
Ralph made a noise, but Ted couldn't tell what it meant. Before he could ask, there was a shout from Moana, who was further up on the pile of building pieces.
"I found them!" She yelled. "All three of them!"
Authors Note: Almost done! Just the epilogue after this. I hope you've liked this little side story alongside the main one.
