Chapter 10:
Nashi, Cato, Storm, and Roman all gasped.
"She got Aunt Levy too!?" Storm screeched.
"Is she okay!?" Cato asked.
"Yeah," Persephone answered. "Koree and I were able to save her just in time-"
The rest of the Birthday Gang gasped as a set of memories suddenly appeared in their minds.
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They were inside Koree and Persephone's bedroom. A set of Archive Screens were in front of them. Clearly they were seeing from Persephone's persepective as a hand reach out and began typing in all kinds of codes and equations onto the screens.
Koree was lying on her back on the bed across from Persephone, kicking her legs in the air as she tossed a ball up in the air and caught it.
Suddenly a loud scream came from down the hall. The screens disappeared as both girls rushed into the livingroom.
Levy was in the floor on her back, a woman dressed in all black with rainbow hair sat on top of her, strangling her. Levy kicked and struggled but could not rid the woman of her grip.
"Iron Dragon Club!" Koree shouted, her hand turning into a metal pole that shot out at the attacker. The woman simply changed her body density and the attack went straight through her. The change in density gave Levy a short opportunity to breathe, but it disappeared as the woman allowed herself to become solid again.
"Iron Dragon Sword!" Koree screamed, yelling at the top of her lunges as she rushed the woman. As Koree attacked Persephone whispered something under her breath. A tiny screen appeared as she whispered something else.
Despite how much she tried all of Koree's attacks went through the attacker.
"Let go of my Mom!" Koree shrieked as Levy struggled to breathe.
Out of nowhere one of the curtains ripped down from the window and scooped Koree up like a net and held her above the ground.
"K...K...Koree!" Levy choked as she beat on of her fists against the attacker's muscular arms. "Leave them alone…" she wheezed as her eyes began rolling in the back of her head.
With Koree out of the way the attacker changed her body back solid. Out of nowhere an archive screen in the shape of a saw buzzed through the air and embedded itself in the attacker's shoulder, knocking her off Levy.
Levy gasped for breath.
"Archive Secret Arts!" Persephone called. "Protective Cube!"
A cube of Archive Screens appeared around Levy, a magic seal appearing on all six sides. The attacker growled as she stood to her feet, jerked the saw shaped screen from her shoulder, threw it onto the ground and shattered it.
As she did so Persephone waved her hand up. The screen shrapnels flew into the air and began baraging the attacker.
"Augh!" she cried from both pain and shock.
RIP! The curtain Koree was tangled in tore to shreds as Koree leaped to the ground, her entire body covered in iron scales. The attacker changed her body density once more so that the shrapnels went harmlessly through her. She tried to reach into the cube to try and continued her assault on Levy, who was just now starting to regain conciousness. However, as the attacker tried to rech through the screens that buzzed and set a shock through her body, despite it being as thin as air.
"AUGH!"
"Good luck," Persephone scoffed. "The only people who can break that seal are the ones I programmed into the screens before casting the spell. And you ain't one of them!"
Persephone expected the attacked to be angry, but she wasn't, instead she just turned towards her in awe.
"Such power!" she gasped. "And at such a young age!"
The attacker stood to her feet and began to walk slowly towards Persephone. Startled, Persephone took a step back. Koree jumped in front of her, teeth gritted.
"Don't you touch my sister!" she shrieked.
"And a dragon slayer!" she jumped up and down and clapped her heads. "Oh, yes! I must have both of you in my guild!" She held out her hand and a magic stamp in the shape of a setting sun appeared in her palm. Persephone whispered something under her breath as Koree gritted her teeth and changed both of her hands into swords. Koree began swinging her hands wildly at the woman, but the swords just went straight through the attacker.
"Koree! Persephone!" Levy began beating on the walls of the cube. Apparently Persephone had rigged the spell so that whoever was in the cube could not get out on their own. "Girls! Get out of here!" she shrieked.
Persephone waved her hand and the shrapnel pieces flew towards her. Persephone summoned another cube and placed the pieces inside it.
"Analyze," she said as the smaller cube disappeared.
The attacker grabbed onto Koree's wrist and lifted her off her feet, holding the stamp very close to the guild mark on her shoulder.
Another archive saw appeared out of nowhere again and sliced all the way up the attacker's arm. She yelped in pain and let Koree go. Koree dropped to the floor then punched one of her scaly fists into the woman's knee while she was still solid. The woman's legs buckled and she fell to the ground.
"Redfox twins-" Koree began, changing both her hands into saws.
"-double saw attack!" Persephone finished as two archive saws fell down on top of the woman as the same time Koree's duo did.
Unfortunately the woman changed her body density again and disappeared through the floor.
"Huh?" both of the girls said, confused.
"Girls, I told you, get out of here!" Levy shrieked just as the woman reappeared under the cube, knocking it into the air and sending poor Levy inside of it tumbling across the livingroom. The attacker growled in obvious annoyance, rubbing the top of her head.
"I told you you're not gonna be able to get in it!" Persephone shouted as she summoned and threw another screen at the attacker. This screen was different from the others, though, as it had several letters, codes, and numbers flashing all over it. It went straight through the rainbow haired wizard's head and then came flying back to Persephone's hand.
"Such genius!" the attacker gleamed. "Finding a way to counteract my density magic! Were you planning ahead for my inevitable attack?"
"Pfft! As if!" Persephone scoffed. "I only learned that spell to keep Lorelle's crummy hands off our stuff...Elena…"
Elena gasped and took a step back as Persephone held up the screen that had gone through her head. "When this went straight through you I was able to get a peak into you mind. So now I know what your goal is and your next move!"
"Ah-ha-ha-ha!" Elena jumped up and down and clapped. "Oh, so brilliant! So talented! So young! Yes, you are brimming with potential! I mus, MUST have you! But, I guess I'll have to wait until next time. I can let you have the upper hand for long!"
And with that she disappeared through the ground.
"C'mon," Persephone said once she was gone, grabbing Koree's hand and racing out of the house. "Mom, stay put! Dad will be back soon. He can let you out."
"Wait, where are you two going!?" Levy shrieked. "Koree, Peresphone! Get back here this instant! Girls! Girls!"
But the two were already gone.
"Where are we going?" Koree asked as she and Persephone ran along Magnolia's busy streets towards the guild hall.
"Her next targets are Aunt Sherry and Aunt Jenny. We've gotta stop her before she gets there!"
"How?" Koree asked. "We barely got a hit on her!"
Perspehone grinned smuggly as she looked back at her sister. "We'll call for back up!"
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"Like you saw," Persephone explained from where she and Koree were riding a horse at top speed towards the Blue Pegasus Guild Hall. "She's got density magic like Lorelle and telepahty. What you didn't see is she's also got some cloning magic."
"Cloning magic?" Cato gasped from where he and the rest of the Birthday Gang were still in the play area. "So there could be more of her."
"Yeah," Persephone said. "Using the blood samples I got from those shrapnel pieces I've analyzed I can track this version of her, but I can only get rough guestimates for the other four versions of herself. That's her limit. Five clones. I got that from the blood analysis too. Each one has a different personality. The one we're chasing is excitement. The other four are anger, sadness, happiness, and disgust."
A map appeared in all of the Birthday Gang's minds. "Anger is somewhere in Crocus. Sadness is in Hargeon. And Disgust is in Acalypha. Hapiness keeps moving around. Right now she's on Hakobe Mountain but she'll probably leave out again soon."
"Acalypha and Hargeon?" Roman asked.
"Yeah," Persephone answered.
"What about it?" Storm asked.
"I overheard my Daddy telling Mommy about three women who died. Two were from Hargeon ad one was from Acalypha. I think...I think this woman must be the one that killed them!"
"And she must also be the one attacking our Mommies here in Crocus," Storm said.
"And she's gonna kill Aunt Jenny and Aunt Sherry if we don't stop her," Koree added.
"She's getting close, as you can probably see on your maps I gave you," Persephone said. "Since you guys are in Crocus you are closer and can get to her faster. We'll catch up with you of course, but if you don't slow her down we won't make it in time!"
"So we've gotta get out of here!" Nashi exclaimed.
"But how can we get out with my Mama and Roman's Mama watching us?" Cato asked.
"Can't you make an illusion with your thought projection, Roman?" Storm asked.
"Well, yeah, but it won't work on Mommy," Roman said. "Her artificial eye letsher see through illusions."
The four were silent, then Roman sighed. "I'm gonna regret this later but we have no choice…"
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"Yee-haw!" Minette squealed as she, Eva, and Von rode down the hospital hallways on a food trolley.
"Big brother was right! This is fun!" Eva cheered.
"You three get back here this instant!" Erza shouted as she chased after the triplets.
With Erza out of the play area for the moment Roman cast a thought projection and he, Cato, Nashi, and Storm snuck out of the play area behind Mirajane's back as she watched on after Erza chasing the triplets, whispering an "oh, dear," as she held a hand to her face.
"I wanna try too!" Igneel shouted, jumping over the play area fence to chase after the rogue food trolley.
"Welp. Can't say I didn't see that one coming," Nashi sighed as she and the other three snuck towards the staircase leading outside.
"Mommy's gonna kill me once she finds out I gave 'em that idea," Roman groaned.
"We'll worry about that later," Storm sighed.
"There's a train leaving the station closest to you in ten minutes," Persephone said over her telepathy, indicating the spot on her map. "Don't know how you'll get tickets, though. And it only goes past the guild hall, not stop at it."
"No problem," Nashi said. "I'll just use Styx to get us in and out."
"Doesn't that spell wear you out, though?" Storm asked.
"You got any better ideas?"
"We've still gotta come up with a plan," Persephone said. "This woman's really tough. Hitting her is hard, and even when you do hit her she just gets up again."
"Can't you put one of those protective bues around her?" Nashi asked.
"No, I can only make one at a time," Persephone said. "And the one I put on Mom's still up. I guess Dad's not home yet."
"So we need some other way to trap her," Roman said.
"Not really. Just a way to knock her out," Persephone said.
"But you said it's hard to hit her," Storm said.
"Right, so if any of you have a spell that can knock someone out in one go, please let us know."
"I...um...I might have one," Cato said. "But I can only cast it once because it takes up all of my magic energy. I'm thinking about it right now. Persephone, can you see it?"
"Yeah, I see it," Persephone said. "I think it will work but if you can only use it once then we've only got one shot at this."
"Right!" the whole Birthday Gang stated.
"So, here's the plan…"