Chapter 12: Punishment Ducking
Meanwhile, in a building, there are seven different mirror-like areas, each of them has a mirror of their own design. They each have green lighted candles, with dark purple frame on the entryway. And each of them have a different crest emblem on the top of the entryway. Everything seems quiet in the hallway, until Ace, who is supposed to be serving his punishment, arrives on the scene
Ace sighs, "Yeah right, like I'm gonna wash a hundred windows. I'm just gonna go back and -"
Suddenly, Grim bursts through the hallway doors and shouts, "AHA! GOTCHA, PUNK!"
Briar, Sereia, and Trinket are able to catch up to him.
Ace turns around and flinches, "Oh no! They saw me!"
Grim rushes to Ace upon seeing him, "Stop right there, pal! No fair gettin' a head start! Wait!"
"Who in their right mind would ever wait!" Ace says, and runs off, "Seeya!"
Seeing him running off, Grim angrily says, "No way are you gettin' out of this! You think I WANNA wash windows?!"
With that, Grim begins to chase Ace down the hall, Briar and the others begin to chase after him.
Briar calls out, "Grim, wait!"
"Wait for us!" Sereia calls out.
Trinket rings in reply.
The girls continue to face Grim who is in hot pursuit of Ace.
Up ahead, another boy is walking to the Hall of Mirrors himself. This boy is a student, judging by the uniform, and is weaning the same band around his arm as Ace and has the same red gem pen. The boy also has dark blue hair and teal eyes, his hair brushed mostly to the side while a portion hangs down on his left side.
He soon notices the commotion, "...Hm?"
He soon sees Ace running towards him.
Ace screams, "Outta my way!" and runs right past the young boy.
That catches the boy by surprise, "Hey! What gives?!"
Then Grim runs past him and continues to chase Ace. Briar, Sereia, and Trinket come to a stop and see the boy.
Briar says, "Sorry about this, and we apologize for the little uh, scene we're making. Can you please help us catch him? The boy with the spikey hair."
"You want me to cast a spell to stop him?" The boy asks, shocked.
"If you can, yes. We really need him to come with us to the cafeteria," Briar says.
"He's shrinking his cleaning responsibilities," Sereia adds.
Hearing that makes the boy say in shock, "What? That's not right! But how to stop him? Like freezing his legs? Or bind them with a rope. Or maybe I could… Hmm… No…"
Just then, Grim shouts, "I don't care how! Just do something! Anything!"
"Anything?! Anything huh…" The boy says, confused.
Then the boy became determined, "All right!"
He brings out his pen and says, "Here goes anything!" He waves it and shouts, "I summon thee… something heavy!"
Just then out of nowhere, a cauldron appears over Ace, and falls right on top of him, making a loud 'thud' upon impact.
Ace screams, "Bwaaah?! What?! A pot?!"
Grim begins laughing, "Ah ha ha ha ha! Look, girls, look! That Ace guy got crushed beneath a giant cauldron! It squashed him flat! Aha ha ha!"
Then turns to Ace with a smirk on his face, "That's what you get!"
"A cauldron? I wasn't expecting that. I may have overdone it this time…" The boy replies.
"I think it's kind of effective. Not something I've thought of, but seems effective all the same," Briar says.
Ace groans in pain as he gets himself out from under the cauldron, "Owwww!"
Then turns to Grim and the girls with a stern expression, "What are you bothering me for? You guys coulda just banged out the work yourself!"
"There's no 'banging out' a hundred windows," Sereia sternly says.
"And the Headmage ordered you to. He said that all of them have to wash a hundred windows in the cafeteria. We already got half of them done. You have to handle the rest. You're lucky that Grim decided to go after you himself, I was about ready to go to the principal's office myself," Briar sternly adds.
"You have to wash a hundred windows as punishment?" The boy questions.
Then asks, "What the heck did you do?!"
"I was just screwing with that furball a little," Ace says, shooting a glare at Grim.
Then turns to the boys, "... Okay. And the statue of the Queen of Hearts got a teeny bit charred. Sue me."
Then Grim says, "You forgot to add that you almost got Briar and Sereia charred as well."
Hearing this has the boy in shock, "You damaged a statue of the Great Seven?! No wonder he flew off the handle at you!"
He shrugs his shoulders with a sigh, "And you managed to get into THIS school, how could you get in trouble on the very first day?"
"Oh, shut up. Who are you, anyway?" Ace replies, bitterly.
"My name is Deuce. Deuce Spade. Don't you remember your own classmate Uh…?" The boy, Deuce, answers, and stops a little.
Ace shakes his head in reply, "You don't remember my name either, do you?"
"That's not the point! You shouldn't try to shrink an order from the headmage! And you should make women do it all over the world!" Decue says with his arms crossed.
Ace sighs and rubs the back of his head where he has gotten injured, "Yeah, yeah, message received… Fine, let's bang out the windows already."
"Right," Briar says.
Then turns to Decue, "Deuce, right? I'm sorry, but we haven't been properly introduced. I'm Briar Hawthorne, it's nice to meet you."
"It's a pleasure to meet you too," Deuce says.
Sereia happily says, "I'm Sereia, and if you can guess. I'm a doll."
Then Trinket flies to Deuce and rings happily, introducing herself.
"And this is Trinket," Briar adds.
Deuce looks at the little Fairy, "A Tinker Fairy? They're not usually seen around here."
"A Tinker Fairy?" Briar asks.
"They're also known as Crafting Fairies. They craft stuff like clothes, paints, anything needed for fairies to change the seasons around the world," Ace adds.
"Sounds cool," Briar says.
Then says, "Well now that we got that out of the way, I think it's time for us to head back to the cafeteria."
"Fine fine…" Ace sighs, but notices something off, "Huh?"
"What…? What's wrong?" Sereia asks.
Then Ace asks, "Is it just me, or does it seem quiet here."
"Now that you mention it, Grim is being pretty quiet. A little too quiet," Briar says.
Ace looks around and says, "The Furball! He's gone!"
The girls become shocked and notice that Grim has disappeared. The others rush outside of the building to see Grim escaping towards Main Street.
He happily shouts in pride, "Ah ha ha ha! I'll let you guys handle the rest! See ya, suckers!"
And continues to run off.
This makes Ace angry, "You caught me so YOU could run away yourself!"
"What?! I can't believe him! He's supposed to be helping too!" Sereia angrily says.
Trinket rings with a disapproving look on her face and her arms crossed.
Ace turns to Deuce, "Hey! You there! Uh… Juice!"
"My name isn't 'Juice.' It's Deuce! With a D!" Deuce says, feeling offended.
Ace crosses his arms, "This is partially your responsibility, you know! So help me catch that little furball."
"How is this my responsibility?" Deuce questions.
Ace turns to Briar, "Because this girl can't use magic. That means this is up to you and me, and the little doll and fairy!"
Briar turns to Decue, "Deuce, you don't have to help us if you don't want to. Grim is my responsibility, not yours."
Then turns to Ace, "You however, have to help since it's you and Grim who got us into this mess."
"Yeah Yeah…" Ace says, annoyed.
Then Decue says, "Still, I'll try to help you. It doesn't seem fair for you young ladies to go chasing him around."
"Thank you for the help, and sorry for dragging you into this," Briar says.
"Let's not stand here, let's go catch that little furball," Ace says.
"Right!" Everyone replies with a nod.
With that, the girls and the boys run out and begin to chase Grim. Grim is running down the area of the school and soon stops to see the others catching up to him.
Ace calls out, "You better stop right there, furball!"
Grim shouts, "Make me explodey hair!"
Then Grim begins to run away.
"Then a game of cat and mouse it is!" Ace says.
Then he turns to the others, Follow me! You too, Juice!"
Then chases after the cat creature.
Offended, Deuce calls out, "How hard is it for you to say my name right?!"
"Come on Deuce, let's go after them," Briar replies.
"Alright," Deuce says.
With that, the others hurry to follow Ace who is chasing after Grim. The group continues to chase the cat down Main Street, past the statues and continue to chase after and Deuce bring out their pens and try to use their magic to help capture him. Sereia decides to use her water magic to assist them. They chase him practically at a different part of the school. Grim grins and lets out a chuckle, until he comes to a stop to see that there's nowhere else to go.
Grim panics, "Ack! I got nowhere to go - !"
That gives the group enough time to catch up to Grim.
"One more push, and we've got this in the bag…" Ace says.
Just then, both Ace and Deuce say, "If I stop him with my magic!"
That catches Ace's attention, "Hey, could you NOT steal my schtick? Step off!"
"Or you could just stay out of my way!" Deuce says.
Sereia and Trinket look dumbfounded to see them fighting.
Briar gets between them, "Come on guys, this isn't the time to argue!"
Suddenly, Grim says, "Whoo! Now's my chance!"
Just then, Grim runs right past them.
"Grim, come back!" Briar calls out.
Ace shouts, "Hey! WAIT!"
With that, the group begins to chase after Grim once more. They soon chase Grim out of Main Street and heading towards the school, more specifically to the courtyard. Ace, Deuce, and Sereia continue to use their magic at specific times to try and capture the cat demon. Briar and Trinket aren't able to do much, but they have to help capture Grim or they're all going to be in deep water.
Just then, Grim stops to see that he doesn't know where to run to. With that, Briar and the others have Grim cornered.
Ace says, "Don't forget! You gotta wash all the windows by yourself if I catch you. You said so!"
"Nuh-uh! I did not!" Grim protests.
"Grim, this is no time to be following around! If Crowley finds out about this then we're all going to be in deeper trouble!" Briar angrily says.
"Yeah! It's yours and Ace's fault we're in this mess!" Sereia says.
Ace brings out his pen, "Match the timing of your magic with mine, Deuce!"
Suddenly, Deuce lets out his magic towards Grim, which isn't that effective.
"Huh?!" Deuce says, confused.
Ace turns to Deuce, "Were you even listening! That was way too soon!"
Suddenly, Grim says, "Lucky me! Time to make a break for it."
And Grim runs past them once more.
Grim!" Sereia calls out.
"Come back!" Briar calls out.
With that, everyone begins to chase Grim once more. They continue to chase after the annoying cat creature, and practically chase Grim all over the school.
