School life at Musain College for Faeries was super fast-paced, which was why Cosette was quite surprised to remember that she and the Amis had a punishment waiting for them. It was nearly two weeks after the incident in Magix City when Professor Javert called the five of them into his office.
When they entered, he was glaring at them short-sightedly and polishing his monocle. When they were all squirming with discomfort and anticipation, he finally screwed his monocle back into place and steepled his fingers on the desk in front of him, like a more dignified and intimidating Mr Burns. "It took me a while to find a suitable punishment for your infractions," he began, "but eventually I decided on the simplest one: cleaning."
"Cleaning?" Enjolras said. He looked disgusted.
"Yes, cleaning, Prince Enjolras," Javert said. He was enjoying himself far too much. "While the rest of the school enjoys a picnic in the Bluebell Clearing in the Roccaluce Forest, you five will clean this whole school from top to bottom."
"The whole school?!" Jehan gasped in dismay.
Javert smirked. "No, only the stairs, corridors, classrooms and bathrooms." He clapped his hands twice, and five mops and buckets appeared. The buckets were full of soap, cloths and dusters. "You will find that you have no access to your powers," Javert continued, "so these are your work-tools." He smugly handed a mop to Enjolras, who looked thoroughly confused.
Courfeyrac looked confused too. "What a strange object," he murmured. He pulled a PDA out of his shirt pocket and began typing a description of the mop into it, but Professor Javert snatched it off him and shut it.
"I almost forgot," he grinned. "You can't use technology either." He locked the PDA in one of his desk drawers."
Despite the fact that they were being punished, Éponine burst out laughing. "The look on your face, Courf!" she giggled. Courfeyrac was wearing an expression of wide-eyed surprise with his mouth wide open, and it did look pretty funny. His mouth clamped shut when Éponine laughed at him, and he glared at her.
"It wasn't that funny. You're being irrational."
Javert cleared his throat loudly. "Tomorrow I will be conducting an inspection. It better all be clean! Now go!"
Courfeyrac and Jehan had decided to start with the staircase up to the dormitories. Courfeyrac still looked unsure of how to use the mop, and Jehan offered to help him, but he shook his head.
"Nah, I'm sure I can figure out how to use these primitive instruments," he insisted. He picked up the bucket and tipped the cleaning products onto the floor, narrowing his eyes as he examined the inside of the bucket.
"Are you sure?" Jehan chuckled. Coming from a planet where magic was regarded as something to only be used in special circumstances, they were well accustomed to using a mop and bucket to clean. Courfeyrac, however, came from a world of precision and technology, and it showed.
"Of course I'm sure!" he said, putting the bucket on his head and tucking the handle under his chin like a strap.
"Are you sure you're sure you don't want my help?" Jehan giggled.
"I can handle the situation, Jehan," Courfeyrac said confidently. "Don't worry." He grabbed the mop, turned it so the brush part was pointing up to the ceiling, and began using it to dust a picture frame. "See?"
"Oh, yes," Jehan sniggered. The picture frame, made to be dusted with something far less coarse, lost the fight with gravity and crashed to the ground. "I see."
Courfeyrac blinked at the picture frame in surprise. "I think I may have fucked up," he said uncertainly, and Jehan laughed out loud.
"Now will you let me help you?"
The Musain amphitheatre was a circular room looking down onto a central stage area with a long table in the middle. The walls were the same pink as the outside of the castle, and the seating banks were made up of blue plushy cushions. The floors were yellow, and the windows were arranged around the top of the room, and it was in here that Enjolras, Cosette and Éponine had chosen to begin cleaning - well, Cosette and Éponine were cleaning. Enjolras was perched on the central table, writing in a notebook.
Cosette was scrubbing at a particularly stubborn stain between two of the seats in the third row. "Ugh, I can't wait to be done here," she groaned.
Éponine scowled over at Enjolras from were she was dusting the spider-webs off a window. "We'd be done a lot sooner if Prince Privilege would help us."
Cosette nodded in agreement. "We agreed that you would do the floors, Enjolras," she said sternly.
Enjolras glanced up from his notebook. "No, you two agreed. I have an important essay to write! Do you want me to be behind on it?"
"Practising what you're going to yell at people over the internet doesn't count as an essay, Enjolras!" Éponine snapped. He opened his mouth again and she steamrollered over him. "And don't you dare play the royalty card!"
"This is important!"
"Look," Cosette interrupted before the fight could turn nasty. "Let's just get to work and get this done." She poured the cleaning liquid into the bucket of water and stirred it with the mop. When she looked up she realised Enjolras had gone back to his notepad, and on a whim she picked up the bucket and flung soapy water at him.
"Hey!" Enjolras yelped.
"I saw that notepad, Enj," Cosette giggled. "You weren't writing an essay. You were designing a revenge scheme to get back at Javert. We don't need to get back at him, we broke the rules and it's fair enough that we're being punished."
Éponine nearly cackled. "Good one, Sette!"
"Oh yeah?" Cosette raised an eyebrow at her. "I've got some for you too!" She swung the bucket back, and Éponine was drenched too. She hurried to grab her own bucket.
When Courfeyrac and Jehan entered, the room was no closer to being cleaned, but the floor was awfully slippery. Cosette, Enjolras and Éponine were all lying on the floor, all of them drenched in sudsy water. Jehan raised their eyebrows. "Whoa, what happened in here? A tornado?"
Enjolras slowly got to his feet. "Oh, we were just working some stuff out, right?" he giggled.
Cosette got up too. "Right!" she laughed.
Éponine gave them a thumbs up from where she was lying. Jehan looked seriously exasperated. "What a wreck," they groaned.
Courfeyrac nodded. "We'll never finish at this rate."
Enjolras looked thoughtful. "Why not ask the boys at Corinthe for a little help?" he suggested.
Jehan snorted. "Oh, sure. Then when we get caught, we'll be grounded for infinity."
"Well, I think it's a great idea," Cosette grinned.
"But isn't it, like, cheating?" Courfeyrac said worriedly, but Cosette shook her head.
"Nuh-uh. Professor Javert said no magic and no technology. He didn't say no flesh and blood."
"Right!" Éponine agreed. "And when everything's cleaned up, we can have a party!"
It was hard to argue with that logic, and the Amis hurriedly finished cleaning the amphitheatre and the classrooms before Enjolras called Prince Marius (whom he'd exchanged numbers with on the way back from Black Mud Swamp) and invited him and his friends to the party. The main hallway was still rather dusty by the time the boys arrived (on cool hovering motorbikes that Cosette found out were called 'hoverscoots'). They looked on in confusion as the five Faeries continued mopping.
"I thought you said this was a party," Bahorel said grumpily.
"It will be," Cosette reassured them. She'd managed to find four extra mops in a storage cupboard. "Just as soon as we've finished cleaning. Here!" She threw the mops to each of the boys, who managed to catch them - except Bahorel, who made no attempt and instead glared contemptuously at it when it hit the floor.
Éponine cranked up the music, and the cleaning party got started. Her philosophy was that everything was better with music, even cleaning floors. It was quite an odd sort of party; mainly because Enjolras and Prince Marius had begun a heavy debate about first the Andros Division, with Marius claiming it was for the best while Enjolras was in disbelief that anyone could support the splitting of a nation, which then devolved into a heated discussion of the civil war in Eraklyon. Combeferre and Courfeyrac seemed to be having a pretend swordfight with the mop handles, and Cosette and Grantaire were blushing every time they made eye contact. Bahorel was still his normal grumpy self, and Éponine still found it oddly attractive. Meanwhile Wolter had come to join them, and was delightedly sitting on the end of Jehan's mop while they pushed it gleefully around the room, grinning crazily.
Soon the room was clean, and the group headed up to the Amis' apartment to have a real party. Music blared, and Bahorel passed around cans of something that smelt like cider but was far lighter on the mind and the stomach. Cosette and Courfeyrac were dancing together, and Cosette commented that the cleaning party had gone pretty well.
Courfeyrac agreed. "Everything is done, and I found out that Combeferre has scary-accurate knowledge of the Battle of Domino." He grinned. "So, how's it going with you and Grantaire?"
"Oh!" Cosette blushed. "Well, he's, uh, really nice…"
"Mmhmm…" Courfeyrac giggled. "I see that blush. Well, according to social convention, a party is the perfect time to get to know someone! Get in there, girl!"
In the Musain Castle courtyard, violet light flashed briefly, and the three Witches of Patron-Minette appeared. Claquesous looked around and noticed the lights on in one of the apartments. "Hey," she snapped at Babet. "Didn't you say the school was empty?"
"Guess I was mistaken," Babet frowned. "They're all supposed to be at some dumb picnic in the woods." He and his cousins all pushed off from the ground and took to the air without the help of wings; Witches used dark energy to fly. They hovered at the balcony of the apartment, peering in at the party. "Those ridiculous Faeries," Babet rolled his eyes.
Inside, Enjolras and Prince Marius were continuing their discussion of magical politics, while Combeferre, Bahorel and Grantaire watched the other Faeries dancing. Combeferre groaned quietly. "I want to ask Courfeyrac to dance, but I look ridiculous when I dance," he sighed. Bahorel snorted.
"Combeferre, you look ridiculous even when you're not dancing."
Grantaire nudged him sharply in the ribs. "Oh, stop it, Rel. I can see you checking out Éponine."
"Who?" Bahorel said hurriedly. "The girl with dark hair? She's alright, I guess."
Outside, Babet snapped his fingers and he and his coven vanished, reappearing in the newly cleaned entrance hall. He turned to his cousins with a look of seriousness on his face. "Let's conjure up the Vacuums," he said.
Gueulemer's eyes widened. "The Vacuums? Why? They're made to store only the most powerful and mystical magical energies. Enjolras is in there, we can just get him alone and take his ring."
Babet shook his head. "I'm starting to wonder if it's maybe not contained in the ring of Solaria," he confessed. "When we were at Musain on the night of the gala, I could feel it close by, even though the ring wasn't actually in the jewellery box. I think it's hidden somewhere else in this school."
It was a fair enough point, and each Witch pressed their hands together as though in prayer, forcing a little bottle to appear in front of each of them with a whispered cry of "Vacuums!" The bottles could feel each others' presence, and merged together into a single beacon of light. It hesitated for a moment, before leading the Witches up the staircase and along a corridor. They followed, confident that the Vacuums would lead them to what they so desperately coveted.
When they got to the top of the staircase, Gueulemer paused. "Wait!" he cried. "Just in case those Faeries come looking…" He sent a bolt of lightening at the floor, and where it struck a cloud of smoke appeared, morphing into something huge, something that roared.
Marius was cracking open a can of the fruity drink when the roar shook the room and he nearly spilled it on himself. Cosette laughed a little. "Is Enjolras making you nervous?" she teased, ignoring Enjolras' flushed cheeks and 'zip it' motions. "His bark is worse than his bite, I promise." A thud that made the entire room shake quickly put that theory to bed.
Enjolras dashed over to the open balcony door. "It came from someone left their TV on?"
With a loud crash, a plush velvet sofa flew through the balcony doors of a room across from theirs and landed on the lawn. Enjolras shuddered. "Maybe not."
Bahorel gave a sharp whistle, and the four hoverscoots leapt into the air from where they'd been parked, hovering next to the balcony in readiness. He, Marius, Grantaire and Combeferre all hopped onto their respective bikes, and flew over to the room, taking a short-cut to the smashed door. The Faeries took a little longer to get there, having to go by foot, but when they arrived the Wizards were examining the destroyed room. There was an enormous hole in the wall where something had crashed through.
"What kind of creature could do this?" Combferre murmured.
Courfeyrac was examining a large gash in the wall. He plucked a piece of dark fur out of it. "A big and heavy creature."
"Oh golly, thanks so much for that," Bahorel said sarcastically. "I never would have guessed."
Courfeyrac scowled. "It's a little over eight feet tall and weighs close to a ton. Its fur is bristly, it has long horns and multiple clawed limbs. It also has a musky odour. Detailed enough for you?" There was another thud, this time close by, and he was nearly knocked off his feet.
Grantaire narrowed his eyes. "That must have been it."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Marius said impatiently. "Let's go!" He raised his hand, and Cosette watched in amazement as water droplets appeared in the air, finally forming a broadsword.
Grantaire raised his hand, and flames appeared in his palm, forming a sword. Bahorel was holding a sword too, although she'd missed how he'd formed it, and Combeferre had drawn a handgun. They started down the corridor, and Enjolras followed them. "We're coming too!" he insisted.
Bahorel shook his head. "You have no powers right now, remember? You're currently useless in a fight. Stay where it's safe, little Faery." He and the other Wizards vanished down the dark corridor.
"Was he serious?!" Éponine blinked in shock a little. She shook her head and beckoned to the Amis to follow her. "Come on, we can cut it off from the other side."
They ran down a different corridor, unaware that Patron-Minette was unknowingly following them. Their Vacuums had latched onto a magical trail of some sort, and they were curious as to where it would lead them.
The Wizards had entered one of the downstairs classrooms, and Grantaire held up a handful of flames, lighting up the room and illuminating a hole in the ceiling. "It went up that way," Marius murmured.
Meanwhile the Faeries were in the upstairs corridor, with Éponine leading the way. The power had gone out at some point, and she couldn't really see where she was going, but suddenly she walked into what seemed to be a wall. A very smelly, somewhat sticky wall.
She backed away, gagging. "Ugh. I just hit something really funky, I think we missed a spot."
The wall moved, and in the dim light from the window they realised it wasn't a wall at all, but the monster: a gigantic four-armed Minotaur. It opened its mouth, revealing sharp fangs, and roared loudly, spraying spit everywhere.
Enjolras looked furious and ready to confront the monster, but Cosette reminded him, "Enj! We have no powers!" and he hurriedly backed away from the Minotaur. The Amis dashed away down the corridor with the Minotaur in hot pursuit, and although neither group knew it, Patron-Minette still following them. The Minotaur paid no mind to the scratches it was making in the walls, and suddenly it pounced, nearly spearing Cosette with its horns, and she scrambled away in a hurry. The dust from the plaster walls made things even more confusing, and the Minotaur nearly caught Courfeyrac, but missed and instead got its horns stuck in the wall. Jehan approached it crossly.
"You are one nasty critter," they informed it. "Maybe this will freshen you up." They pulled a bottle of perfume out of the pocket of their embroidered jeans, and spritzed the Minotaur with Rosey Bliss. It did not look very impressed.
"Jehan, get away from that thing!" Courfeyrac yelled. "I think you made it even angrier!"
"Maybe a different scent…?" Jehan suggested, but changed their mind when the Minotaur managed to yank one of its horns free. "Nope, you're right. Relocating now." They darted back to join the Amis.
"Out of the way, Faeries!" Bahorel yelled from the other side of the monster. "This might get messy!" He started running towards the Minotaur.
"Bahorel, wait!" Grantaire yelled. "Let's take him down as a group!"
"Why?" Bahorel grinned. "I've got this covered -"
The Minotaur punched him in the face, sending him crashing through a stained-glass window into another room.
As Bahorel lay on the ground, semi-conscious, Patron-Minette followed their glowing light into the room he'd been knocked into. Seeing Bahorel, Babet raised his eyebrow. "Well, what do we have here?" he commented.
Claquesous knelt down next to Bahorel. "Interesting…" she said. She sounded fascinated. "This guy has a very strong negative force… he's on a level with us. And he's cute too. What do you think?"
Gueulemer rolled his eyes. "I'm not impressed. And you're wasting time!"
Babet tilted his head to one side. "I think he could be useful, but not yet. Let's keep moving for now."
Watching the Wizards battle the Minotaur, Jehan spoke up. "We've got to do something! The Minotaur's beating them to a pulp!"
"But we don't have anything to fight with," Courfeyrac pointed out.
A noise behind them made them turn. Enjolras had dashed off and returned carrying the five buckets and mops - complete with cleaning liquid. He grinned at Courfeyrac. "There's always something to fight with!" he insisted. "All we need is a plan."
Cosette grinned too. "And I think I might have one!"
As the three remaining Wizards were thrown against the wall, the Minotaur turned at the sound of the loud clanging. The Amis were whacking the mops against the buckets, creating a huge din. "Hey, monster!" Éponine yelled. "We're over here!"
The Minotaur charged, and the Amis dashed off down the hall, sending the mops and buckets flying. Jehan grinned at Cosette. "You ready?"
"Let's do it!" Cosette pulled the bottle of cleaning liquid out of her belt and squirted the soap onto the floor, as did the other Faeries. The monster slipped over in the goop, and went crashing through the wall into the entrance hall, falling down the two-story drop and landing with a thud.
The Amis and the Wizards (including Bahorel, who had regained consciousness) dashed down the stairs to examine it. They began speculating on what it was doing in the school, but Cosette had a more pressing question: "Where did it come from, and are there more of them?"
Enjolras examined the monster. "I'd say this is a special gift from Patron-Minette-R-Us."
"I think we should go to Headmaster Myriel's office and use his crystal ball," Cosette suggested. "Maybe we'll be able to see what's actually happening in Musain."
Jehan looked worried. "We can't go into Headmaster Myriel's office when he isn't in there!"
"It's strictly against the rules," Courfeyrac agreed.
"Yes, but right now we're the only ones who can do anything to protect our school!" Cosette pointed out. Her friends thought it over, and ultimately agreed that it was the lesser of two evils.
As they entered the enormous office overlooking the courtyard, Bahorel paused and narrowed his eyes. "We're not alone in the building," he said. "I can sense it."
"What if it's another monster?!" Jehan gasped. "What do we do?"
"Everyone hide," Cosette whispered.
Patron-Minette entered Myriel's office, following their glowing light. Babet narrowed his eyes. "That's strange. The Vacuums indicate that the greatest power in the dimension is in this room, but I don't see anything. I guess we'll just have to tear the place apart until we find what we're looking for."
"I don't think so!" Cosette snapped, jumping onto the desk. The three Witches nearly fell out of the air in shock, and suddenly the lights snapped on.
Bahorel grinned from next to the light-switch. "Hello!" The other Faeries and Wizards exited their various hiding places and surrounded the three Witches.
"What are you doing here?" Babet snapped.
"No, what are you doing here?" Cosette replied, equally as angry.
"Just what I was going to ask all of you," came a voice from the doorway, and everyone turned to see Headmaster Myriel enter the room. "Up until now, I was under the impression that this was my office."
Cosette's cheeks coloured. "I know it looks bad, but we can explain!"
Luckily, Headmaster Myriel accepted their explanation with no quandaries, made the Minotaur vanish in a puff of smoke, and simply insisted that the Faeries see off their guests politely. Cosette grinned awkwardly at Grantaire as he put on his helmet. "Sorry the party got derailed, Grantaire."
The redhead laughed. "Actually, I had a really nice time."
Enjolras was saying enthusiastically to Prince Marius, "But you can't seriously think that the division is healthy -" when suddenly the curly-haired boy cut him off by pressing a kiss to his cheek. Enjolras' cheeks were redder than his candy-apple-red crop-top.
Combeferre straightened his glasses, smiling awkwardly at Courfeyrac. "So, uh, memorable evening?"
Courfeyrac laughed. "Definitely."
Jehan meanwhile was waiting with bated breath to see what Bahorel would say to Éponine, especially after they'd been checking each other out all night. They were disappointed, however, when the magenta-haired boy shrugged and said, "Next time you Faeries have a party? Don't invite me."
"Fine!" Éponine snapped, but Jehan didn't miss the flush creeping up her neck.
As the boys drove off back to Corinthe academy, Headmaster Myriel turned to Patron-Minette, who all looked thoroughly embarrassed. "As for you three, I must inform you that your behaviour this evening has been totally unacceptable in every way. I will be writing to Headmaster Thénardier tonight, and he will no doubt punish you as he sees fit. Now, back to school all of you!" He snapped his fingers, and Patron-Minette vanished in a burst of golden light.
Javert, who had been waiting silently by Myriel's side, turned to glare at the Amis. "And now to deal with all of you!"
The Amis headed straight up to Headmaster Myriel's office. They were all incredibly nervous, but to their relief when they got there he was smiling. "Now, I've looked at the situation as a whole, and so I will not reprimand you," he informed them. "This evening's events have shown that you can handle difficult situations intelligently, creatively and without magic, so I will give you back your powers. You have acquitted yourselves admirably." He snapped his fingers, and Cosette, Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Jehan and Éponine each felt a warmth enter their chests. They hadn't noticed it before, but they all felt more complete now, and it was a relief. And by his smile, Cosette reckoned Myriel could sense their relief too.