Chapter 13 – Fifth Academy: Electricity
Finally deciding to allow Runt to carry me until my paralysis wore off, we continued traveling to the next academy. We had camped one more day before I was able to at least lift my head. Whatever these nightmares were, they were serious business. Either that or they are getting so real, my brain can't tell the difference and even now believes that I am effected by the toxins...Nah! Anyway, it was only after we set down for the night did Wakko notice something in the distance, "Hey look guys, I think that's the Silver Palace." And sure enough it was. We had traveled all the way back to the castle and didn't even notice it was there, approximately an hour or two away. However, since we had already pitched our tent and set out our camping stuff, we decided it would be a good idea to camp out under the stars for one more night. Boy was that a mistake.
The weather turned bad faster than it does in Florida. The whole night it was beating down rain and windy as a storm. It got so bad, the Warners pulled out anvils to help keep the tent staked to the ground. Lightning crashed so often we were scared out of our wits, and it took us nearly forever to fall asleep. There was hardly any time to dream that night. Before we knew it, the sun rose in the horizon and we still were dead tired. There wasn't much for me to do. I was just beginning to be able to move my legs by that time. After traveling for another exhausting day, we finally reached our destination, the Academy of Thunder. Ditching the idea of entering on the get go and having to take the guardian's test while dead tired, we pitched tent early and nearly fell asleep in the dirt.
Around eight hours later, we arose like zombies, worn and exhausted. After a quick breakfast from the magic fridge, we were more energized for the trial ahead. We pushed the large arched doors open and entered the academy unaware of what lies ahead. In the distance where the arena was, we could see flashes of light bouncing everywhere. From side to side, up and down, diagonal, and every which way. As we approached closer, a bolt of lightning zinged by us, scaring us half to death. It zinged around some more for a while until it slammed in to the center of the arena and burst in brilliant flashes of light. Finally, the lightning stood up in a humanoid shape and shouted, "Heeeeeey Kids!" in a nasally high cracked voice. We simply stood there in sheer shock of fear. I think Wakko even "let himself go" as well. Yakko then leaned toward us and whispered, "Is this guy seriously the thunder guardian?" "Yes I am!" it responded mimicking a game show host's voice. "And the challenge for today's competitors iiiiiis..." suddenly there was the sound of a drum roll and he switched to a goofy child's voice, "Out prank me!" "Does this guy remind you of someone that scares the daylights out of you? He does me." Yakko retorted to his siblings. They simply nodded while staring at the being made of electricity.
"Ok, mister electric-personality, we'll take you on your challenge." Yakko finally answered. The thunder guardian then gave them a sinister grin and zipped off as a bolt of lightning. His voice rang in the air, "The entire academy is the field. Use it as you see fit." Then the Warners got to work and huddled together to discuss their prank. After a few minutes of listening to mumbling and watching Dot poke her head out of the huddle every once in a while and giggling, they scattered to set off their gags.
First was Dot, the guardian caught up to her in one of the libraries, climbed along the walls until he got within a certain distance, and unleashed his energy into some nearby books, seemingly bringing them to life. The books jumped off of the shelves and flapped their covers like they were bats and darted directly at Dot. Dot actually didn't even notice the books until one of them smacked her in the back of the head, sending the electric energy jolting through her body. She wound up like a burnt piece of toast. "No mama, I was a good girl today..." and fell backward to the ground. Landing on her back, nearly unconscious.
The guardian then made his way to Yakko and tried to sneak up on him to scare him silly. When he got close enough, Yakko spun around and sprayed the guardian with a spray bottle full of water. The result was rather...shocking. The guardian began to jolt, fizz and electrocute himself, jerking around in various shapes and intensities. Yakko simply glanced at us and flicked his eyebrows upward three times and simply walked away.
Dot finally woke up from her daze and slowly stood up only to nearly get knocked with one of those electrically charged books again. With a lump on the back of her head, she ducked and dodged the best she could, however two more books struck her and she received an electric shock both times. Charred to a crisp, she fell onto her back once again.
The guardian finally recovered from his own electrocution and charged after Yakko who walked out of a random classroom with a pair of large wires in his hands. "Ah, just who I was looking for." Yakko said to the guardian. "Could you hold these please?" he added handing the guardian the wires. The guardian stopped in his tracks and said, "Oh sure" thinking that Yakko had it hooked up to a power source and was just going to try to electrocute him. However it would simply provide the guardian with more power. Instead, nothing happened. Yakko simply walked over to the other end of the disconnected cords and pulled out a power box from behind his back. The guardian's smile turned to a frown and asked, "Is that rechargeable battery box..." "...Dead? Yah!" Yakko said, and then hooked the cords to the power container and supply box. The guardian could feel himself be pulled into the cords. Finally he was completely sucked through the cords and traveled all the way into the power box. When Yakko disconnected the power box it was apparent that the guardian was temporarily trapped. You could hear the guardian's voice echoing from inside the battery box say, "Well this didn't go the way I had planned." And with that, Yakko grabbed the power box and walked with it back into the center of the arena.
The books finally fizzled out fell to the ground and Dot was finally able to stand up, however charred and dizzy, and make her way back to the center to see how her brothers did. For some reason, Wakko never moved from his spot in the arena while his siblings went off to conduct their part of the contest. Yakko meticulously placed the power box in the center of the arena and clicked on the power switch, allowing the guardian to escape. Looking around confused and in shock he turned around to see the Warners grinning at him contently. Dot swaying back and forth from the three lumps on the back of her head. She was still disoriented from the shocks as well.
"We win." Yakko stated. The guardian gave the Warners a dirty look like he was going to accuse them of cheating. "Not yet. I still need one more thing from you." He said. "And that would be?" Yakko asked. "I need..." the guardian stated dramatically, "A rubber band!" he added calmly to make it sort of funny. Wakko pulled out his gag bag and pulled out a thick large rubber band and gave it to him. The guardian then placed the band against his fingers and pulled back the front part of it as far back as he could and snapped the band against Wakko's forehead. As the guardian was laughing uncontrollably, Wakko whipped out a large mallet and brought it down upon him, smashing him into a flat disk. "Oh kay, you win." The guardian exclaimed in a disoriented and squeaky voice.
A few hours went by while we waited for the guardian to regain consciousness. Ace treated Dot's injuries while we waited. Finally the thunder guardian woke up holding his head due to a headache. He turned around to see Wakko happily staring at him while sticking out his tongue. Jerking backward like he was genuinely afraid of Wakko. "Oh kay wise guy. I think you owe us some info." Yakko exclaimed. "Uh...yah. The spell of wishes cannot be found materially, but the last of the guardians may open the gate, if you look past your eyes and guide your fate." The guardian nervously said shifting his gaze back and forth from Yakko to Wakko. Acting like he thought Wakko was going to eat him or something. Wakko simply stood by with his tongue sticking out like always. "Oh kay. You may leave now! The little one is scaring me." "I'll show you scary! I didn't even get a chance to even pull my prank." Dot mumbled to herself while Ace was healing her wounds. "If you are looking for the queen, you might wanna try the Academy of Frost. That's where she said she was going." The guardian said then looked back at Wakko nervously and in great fear of him. "Well I gotta go. Lots of guardian stuff to." The guardian nervously laughed and vanished like turning off the light in a room.
Our group decided to rest for a few hours before heading back to the palace to get our bearings again. After returning to the palace, Yakko brought our group to the long dining table and spread the map out in front of him. "Ok, I see a pattern here gang. Somehow the queen is always remains a day ahead of us and always lets us know where she is going. Now there are only a few academies left and the guardian said that she was headed for the Academy of Frost next. If we take into account that she has been traveling to each of the academies in accordance to their opposite elements... I propose we travel..." and he placed his finger in the point where the map showed the Academy of Nature. "...here!" He then finished his sentence. "How is ice the opposite of wood?" Dot asked. Yakko simply shrugged his shoulders. "Just call it a hunch." He then said.
We decided to get to sleep early today, in order to get a head start in catching up with the queen. While Dot and I were lying in bed, she decided to ask me while staring at the ceiling, "Have you noticed that the challenges started getting easier as we progressed through the academies?" I yawned and thought about it. She was right. The challenges nearly killed us the first time. However, they have been getting progressively easier as we progressed to all of the different academies. "If that pattern holds true, the final test should be a cinch." I deduced. "I don't know." Dot said with worry in her voice. "I've got a bad feeling about the other challenges." After that I fell into slumber. Dot however, simply couldn't sleep she was worrying about that feeling in her gut. When she turned to me she found me stirring in my sleep. I was having one of those nightmares again. Ace was battling against a humanoid monster made of silver crystal. His body covered in crystal spikes and standing several hundred feet tall. Only this time, Ace was fighting in a room that resembled a dungeon or a sewer or even a tomb. All I know is that the room was enormous, there was a stream of clear water flowing through the very center of the room, there were large arched doorways on opposite sides of the room and along the other walls, there were rectangular holes that looked about the size of the drawers in a morgue, some of them even had mummified bodies placed in them with golden jewelry placed meticulously nest to the heads. The battle was fierce and long, Ace ducking, dodging, and attacking using spells. It was when Ace landed on the ground when the battle swung in the beast's favor. The creature unleashed a shock wave from its mouth that pinned Ace to the ground. And then the creature simply stomped on him as if I wasn't even there. When the creature lifted its foot off of him, Ace was both crushed and impaled by the creature's spikes. It then turned its attention to me and made a motion to stomp on me. I shot up at the shock and woke up again with Dot looking at me with genuine worry in her eyes. She made an effort to calm me down for a while. Once again I was drenched in my own perspiration from the nightmare. However I am happy to say that the dream did nothing to me, and my paralysis was completely worn off. After having a small drink of water, Dot brought me back to the bed and we both tried to go back to sleep.