At long last, the hiatus is over. I hope this chapter makes up for the long wait. With that said, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is produced by Dreamworks Animation Television, and both She-Ra and He-Man are owned by Mattel. Enjoy.
Chapter 25: One Last Surprise
"I'm gonna kill him." Adora said frustratedly as she, Adam and Bow walked down one of the many hallways of the Eternian Royal Palace.
"Oh, you don't mean that." Said her brother casually, in a clear attempt to defuse the situation.
"Oh, don't I? Because of Orko's big fat invisible mouth, I can never go back to Etheria. Because even if we do figure out how to bring the planet back to the wider universe, Netossa will strangle me as soon as I set foot on it."
"Don't you think you're overreacting just a bit?" asked Bow, obviously trying to follow Adam's lead. "I mean, I know she's mad now, but Netossa's a grown woman. I'm sure once she's calmed down and talks it out with Spinnerella, she'll realize that you didn't really do anything wrong and get over it."
"Bow's right, Sister Dear." Adam said with an odd but familiar timber to his voice. "And besides, I assert that the real reason you're upset is because now all your friends on Etheria know about your… preferences towards plus-sized women."
Adora opened her mouth to protest, but stopped herself once she noticed the cocky look in her brother's eyes.
'Oh… so that's what you're doing.' She thought to herself as she adopted a cocky look of her own. "Oh yeah, well I oppose your assertion."
"Well I contest your opposition." Adam shot back almost immediately
"Well I object to your contestation."
"Well I repudiate your objection."
"Well I renounce your repudiation.
"Well I eschew your renouncement."
"Well I… uh… I… uh… Dang it! You win again!"
"Heh-Heh. Naturally." Adam said smugly. "But you're getting better. You lasted much longer than last time."
"Um… what the heck did I just watch?" Bow asked dumbfoundedly.
"Oh, it's just a game we made up. It's basically like verbal chicken." Adora explained. "It's fun, but it also kinda sucks because I don't know as many fancy words as Adam."
"Hey, it made you feel better, didn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right." The young princess admitted. "But still, this isn't how I expected my first real birthday to go. My party ended early, Netossa wants to kill me, Spinnerella probably thinks I'm a pervert, and on top of everything else, Glimmer's missing. And nobody even knows which planet she's on! So there's no telling what could've happened to her!"
"Adora! Calm down." Bow said in a stern but supportive manner as he placed a hand on both her shoulders; Adora hadn't realized it, but she'd been hyperventilating throughout that whole spiel. "Look, I'm just as worried about Glimmer as you are, but freaking out about it won't solve anything. We'll find her, Adora. I promise."
"Bow's right. When we work together, there's nothing we can't do." Adam added reassuringly. "And besides, there just might be a way to salvage this evening yet. There's a little surprise for you in the vivarium."
"I don't know. I still haven't recovered from my last surprise."
"Trust me, Sister Dear. This one you're going to love."
XXX
(Meanwhile, on Etheria)
The Crimson Waste is a harsh and unforgiving landscape; home to savage beasts, rogues and worst of all, the ruthless Scorpioni who rule with an iron claw. But in this land ruled by death and violence, a pure and innocent flower blossomed.
'Catra, where are you?' Scorpia thought to herself as she stared over the side of the Amethyst Tower and into the horizon. 'Are you okay? Are you safe? When you dream, are they good dreams or nightmares? Well, don't you worry, Wildcat. I'm coming for you. Entrapta's been working on this thing night and day. We'll bring you back no matter what it takes.'
"Scorpia! Come quick!" Entrapta shouted a short distance away. "I've done it! I've finally done it!"
"Oh, that's great, Entrapta. Congratulations." The arachnoid princess said supportively as she rushed over to join her friend at the central control panel. "What'd you do?"
"This!" the mad scientist declared triumphantly as she presented her much larger colleague with a shiny red apple.
"Uh… thanks, Entrapta. But I'm really not all that hungry."
"No, silly. This isn't for eating. This is the culmination of all my hard work. This is the first step towards Lord Hordak's ultimate victory."
"But… it's an apple."
"Not just any apple. This apple is a science apple. A pioneer in the fields of transportation and quantum mechanics. Mere moments ago, I successfully teleported this very apple from one side of the tower to the other. Without compromising its atomic structure or making it explode."
"Oh… well, that's great news. Does this mean we can finally use this thing to bring Catra back?"
"Not quite. Before we can progress to Phase 2, we have to test this machine on something living; preferably something with higher brain functions so we can make sure it doesn't cause any neurological damage. I'm sure we can find a volunteer around here somewhere."
"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa!" said Scorpia in frantic disbelief. "You wanna use one of our fellow Horde members as a guineapig for a machine that's been making fruit explode? Isn't that a little drastic?"
"Oh, I wasn't suggesting you, Scorpia. You're the commanding officer here."
"Oh… well then I guess it's not that drastic."
"Of course not. It's perfectly safe, most likely. I'd volunteer to test it myself, but I'm the only one who knows how to work the controls."
"True. So how do we pick our guineapig, I mean, volunteer?"
"Simple. We just approach the problem scientifically. Emily! Come here, girl!"
Upon hearing its master's call, the spherical robot quickly scuttled over to her side; beeping and booping with artificial glee.
"Good girl. Now, bring up your new holo-display."
After a few quick, affectionate beeps, Emily obeyed its master and projected a three-dimensional image of a large rectangular screen with an icon resembling a chibi Entrapta head in the middle.
"Very good. Now, compile a list of all Horde Foot Soldiers currently stationed at the Amethyst Tower."
Searching…
12,082 Matches Found
"Excellent, now of these matches, compile a list of everyone whose most recent performance review contains the word 'Expendable'."
Searching…
12,082 Matches Found
"Okay… Perhaps that wasn't specific enough. Emily, perform another search with the same parameters, only this time use the words 'Undisciplined', 'Uncoordinated', 'Unimpressive' and 'Objectively Unattractive'."
Searching…
9,237 Matches Found
Upon seeing this, the mad scientist just deadpanned, before throwing her arms up and declaring.
"Oh, the heck with it. Let's just use Kyle."
XXX
(Several Minutes Later)
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLP!" screamed the poor, pasty, comically unathletic young foot soldier known as Kyle as he was forcefully manhandled onto one of the teleportation platforms by his much burlier coworkers. "Rogelio! Lonnie! Somebody help me!"
"Now, now, Kyle. There's no need to be so dramatic." Entrapta said as she continued to fiddle with the controls. "You're about to become the first Horde Soldier ever to be successfully teleported from one end of the tower to the other. Think of it as an adventure."
"I hate adventure!"
"Wonderful! Now just hold still while I finish calibrating."
It was clear that Kyle wanted very much to flee for his life, but the two guards pointing guns at him kept him glued to where he was standing. Naturally, Scorpia had some reservations about using one of her teammates as a test subject, but if it meant they were one step closer to rescuing Catra, then she was willing to make that sacrifice. And besides, Entrapa had assured her that there was only a 2.39750021% chance of catastrophic failure, so in all likelihood Kyle would be just fine.
Probably.
"What the heck?" exclaimed a familiar voice from somewhere close by. "Scorpia! Are you out of your mind?"
As expected, Lonnie was standing behind her, looking quite cross; along with Rogelio who was looking most distraught, or at least more emotional than he usually looked.
"Oh, hey guys. What's up?" the arachnoid princess asked innocently.
"What's up? You're trying to kill our boy Kyle, that's what's up!" the irate foot soldier replied bluntly.
"What? No, the machine works fine now. Entrapta says so."
"Entrapta's brain is still scrambled from when she got electrocuted!"
"That's ridiculous. She's perfectly fine."
"Oh really?" Lonnie asked derisively before attempting to prove her point. "Hey, Entrapta, what day is today?"
"Haberdashery." The mad scientist replied without looking up from her work.
"Very good, and what color is your hair?"
"Uh… lobster. Like a medium light lobster."
"Perfect. Thanks." Lonnie said before turning back to Scorpia with an I-told-you-so look on her face.
"Okay… so maybe her speech center is still a little buggy, but her math and science centers are just fine. The teleporter thingy is perfectly safe."
"Oh yeah, then why aren't you the one testing it?"
"Um… because I'm the commanding officer."
"Not anymore! Consider this a mutiny!"
And with that said, both Lonnie and her reptilian companion stormed past the arachnoid princess, knocked over the other two guards and stepped onto the now glowing platform to help their friend.
"Hey, stop that! Not cool guys!" Scorpia cried out as she ran after her apparently former teammates. "Seriously guys, I order you to stop mutining! Or mutinizing. Mutineering?"
Just as the platform started to hum, the arachnoid princess managed grab hold of the three potential traitors; putting all of them in a collective headlock to keep them from running off.
"Okay… so, I'm sensing some hostility here. Maybe even a little resentment." Scorpia said pleasantly as the glowing grew brighter and the humming grew louder. "And yeah, maybe I deserve some of it. Maybe using Kyle as a guineapig was kind of a jerk move. But you know, I think that if we all just take a deep breath and hug it out, we'll realize just how silly we… Hey, does anyone else smell burnt toast?"
And then everything went pure white.
XXX
(Several More Minutes Later)
After what felt like an eternity, Scorpia awoke to the sweet smell of flowers and a sore back. As the rest of her senses slowly returned, the arachnoid Force Captain found herself sitting in what appeared to be a patch of daisies, honeysuckles and pink roses surrounded by an infinite white void. Her three companions were laying all around her; unconscious, but with peaceful looks on their faces.
"Whuh… What is this place? Where am I?" she mumbled to herself groggily as she struggled to compute what was happening. "Is this the afterlife? Am I… am I dead?"
"YOU STUPID, STUPID IDIOT!" shouted an irate but familiar voice; rattling Scorpia's brain back into lucidity. "LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO MY FLOWER SCULPTURE!"
As her vision cleared, Scorpia soon realized she wasn't really in an infinite void, but rather in a massive, indoor garden. And what she'd thought was a patch of flowers was in reality the remains of some sort of colorful floral effigy; as evidenced by all the broken pieces of wood and chicken wire.
"I spent all week working on that!" the shouter continued, now revealed to be a talking horse with wings. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to build a flower sculpture when you don't have hands? Well do you?"
"Oh man, I am so, so sorry." She said, feeling genuinely guilty for causing someone else any kind of inconvenience. "Is there anything I can do to help? Maybe I can… hold on, don't I know you from somewhere?"
Just then, a large pair of double doors opened a short distance away and an oddly familiar trio walked in.
"Surprise, Baby Sister!" said the first one to come in. "The perfect bookend for your special day. Just the thing to take your mind off What the Hell?"
"Take my mind off what the hell? What is that? Some kind of Eternian expression for What the Hell?" exclaimed the second person to come, whom the arachnoid princess recognized instantly. "Scorpia?"
"Adora? And… Boy Adora? Okay, now I'm really confused."
"That makes four of us." Said the last person, the archer whose name Scorpia still hadn't learned. "Just what the heck is going on here?"
XXX
(Meanwhile, back on Etheria)
"Huh… well that's strange." Entrapta said to herself as she continued to go over the calculations on her data pad. "They all should've rematerialized by now. I wonder what…"
Just then, the mad scientist noticed something she hadn't before; something that made her cheeks turn bright red.
"Oh… Oopsie Daisy." She said, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. "Forgot to carry the 9."
End Notes:
I'm back, baby!
Thanks for reading.
See you in the next one.
Peace.
