1.
2521 A.D.
Location: Earth, Capital of the Galactic Alliance
Time: 1500 hours galactic standard time.
A young man of about 15 was walking through an archaeological site at the top of a mountain somewhere in England. He had brown hair and ice blue eyes. He was wearing a white and red leather jacket, that covered a black shirt and blue jeans.
He had just stopped to examine something that one of the diggers was working on, when suddenly there was a pinging sound that seemed to be coming from his wrist under his jacket.
Pulling back the sleeve of his jacket he revealed a white leather medieval style armband. The red crystal mounted in the silver plate in the band was blinking and making he pinging sound. He tapped it and a hologram appeared above it. the image was of an auburn-haired green-eyed girl.
"Yeah, Bella," he said, "What's up?"
"Any luck Jacen?" she asked,
"There's nothing definitive yet just like I told you when you called me five minutes ago!" replied Jacen
"Well keep looking." Said the girl, "I am positive that this is the location of the original Cackle's academy!"
"Oh, I Believe you." replied Jacen, "You've never been wrong before and you are the Alliance's foremost expert on the history of magic."
"Yeah, yeah, Belladonna Jade, child prodigy, brains to spare." Said Bella, "I've heard it all before."
"Hey I've been there too," replied Jacen, "I've lost count of the number of times that I've been introduced as "Jacen Blackstone boy genius, or the boy captain of the galactic defense magic corps!"
Yeah well, I'll bet you don't have half my frustration," said Bella, "All my supposed brains and the one mystery that I've never been able to solve is what happened to my 10 greats aunt Mildred Hubble."
"Did you ever figure out what happened to Cackle's academy, Bella? Asked Jacen trying to change the subject, "Why its original location was all but erased from the history books?"
"Not specifically but that was the other reason I was calling you," replied Bella, "I was researching in my family's archives when I came across some old records from teachers and faculty members of Cackles and I came across a spooky coincidence.
"What is that?" asked Jacen
"Cackles academy disappeared from its original location not long after My ancestor Mildred Hubble disappeared!" replied Bella
"That is very interesting timing." Said Jaden, "Are you thinking that the two events may be related.
"Well like you said the timing is very interesting!" replied Bella, "I may just be a step closer to the answers I'm looking for."
"We can only hope." Replied Jacen.
Suddenly there was a loud bang as a plume of smoke and dust covered the site and the ground started shaking. Dirt, and shattered rocks rained down over the entire site. Making a sound like food sizzling in a frying pan.
"Bella, I got to go!" said Jacen, "I'll call you back!"
He tapped the crystal and disconnected the call.
He turned and stormed over to where the commotion had started. He found three of the student diggers from New Cackles Academy "NCA" standing there staring at a huge scorched hole in the rocky earth in front of them!"
Jacen scowled and turned on them.
"Okay, which one of you knuckle-heads, was using concussion blasts to dig with again?!"
No sooner were these words out of his mouth when caught sight of a certain blonde digger trying to hide behind the others.
"Lena Hallow!" he growled, "I should've known, are you trying to destroy the whole site?!"
"This dig is taking too long!" grumbled Lena, "I was just trying to speed things up!"
"Archaeology takes patience, Lena," sighed Jacen
Before he could say anything else, he was interrupted by the sound of crumbling rocks. He and the others turned just in time to see the bottom of the hole, Lena had blown in the ground, fall away revealing the entrance to a cave.
"It's a cave!" said one of the other diggers named Tom Paddock
"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" muttered Freya Foxglove
"Alright," said Jacen flashing one last glare at Lena, "I'm in charge here so it falls to me to check out this cave and make sure Miss Trigger-happy here hasn't destabilized the whole top of the mountain!"
Jacen brushed his hand over the crystal in his armband and it turned clear and began to glow brightly. A glowing orb came out of the armband and floated up into the air. Then it followed Jaden as he levitated down into the cave.
When he reached the bottom, almost a hundred feet below, he looked around. It looked Like the rest of the cave was secure. Lena's concussion blast had opened a weak spot in the roof of one of the many passageways that he was sure were all over the inside of this mountain.
Then he spotted a soft white glow coming from around the corner at one end of the passageway he was in. his curiosity getting the better of him he went to see what it was.
When he rounded the corner, he found himself at the entrance of a giant underground chamber! But it was what as in the middle of the chamber that really caught his attention.
There encased in magical Ice was a girl of about 14 with long brown hair that she wore in two long braids. She was holding a silver-grey tabby cat in her arms. She was wearing what appeared to be a slightly disheveled version of the ancient uniform of Cackles academy and her shoes were untied.
A realization exploded in Jacen's mind and he reached down and tapped the crystal on his armband. The crystal switched to communication mode
"Belladonna Jade." He said speaking the name of the person he wanted to contact
"What's up Jacen?" she said, picking up almost immediately
"Bella," he said, "I think I know what happened to Mildred Hubble!"
To Be Continued…Let me know what you think!