Chapter 4 – Midnight Rendezvous
Dr Sergei's first lesson was officially over, and the gym once again began to be emptied, restored to its former state. The collapsed scaffolding was in the state of being removed thanks to Dom, Zulfequar, Lushen, Viewtifulboi and a few others. Sturm was telling Tamani and Kilai about his time in solitary confinement, and Day and Bliss were trying to duel people left, right and centre, which resulted in the gym being emptied faster than usual.
Magics, Sahara and Kari found the Owl Headmaster in the Owl School campus - the Dragon Headmaster, for some reason, had decided to take "the scenic route" back to his own school.
"Hmm, a strange dream?" the Owl Headmaster looked puzzled. "And all three of you saw it?"
"Yeah," replied Magics, while behind him, the other two nodded, and the three of them began to describe the dream. When they mentioned Dr Victor's name, the Headmaster visibly went pale.
"Y-you really saw that?" He half-stammered. Dr Victor was the person responsible for the destruction of the previous world, but that was decades ago... Dr Victor would be an ancient geezer by now, if not dead.
"Oh, and there's something else. Right after we all had that dream, this Dr Sergei decides to come. When was the last time we had any new instructors? It was always either you, or Melanie and Mike, and Mike charges everyone a ton of Mar to come to his lessons, which always end in 'take care of yourself now, we don't want any more injuries,' which hasn't come true even once!"
"I'm sure Dr Sergei was just teaching you the way he teaches you. After all, Mike sends you into hard dungeons and wait til all of your gear is broken, right? That's just the way he teaches," the Owl Headmaster replied.
"I don't think that was teaching," Magics looked away, but the Owl Headmaster wouldn't hear another word.
"That's enough from you, Magics," he said, getting impatient. Every instructor has their own methods. Some may be a bit more eccentric than others, that's all."
"Then Dr Sergei must be bonkers," Sahara protested.
"He does seem a little weird," Kari noted.
"Not you two as well," the Owl Headmaster sighed in disbelief. "I'm sure you all have your favourite teachers and hated teachers, but loathing them to this extent is a bit too far, don't you think? Not another word," he spotted Magics opening his mouth in protest, and immediately closed it. "It's one thing to accuse teachers with proof, but you're working on a pure coincidence. I will not believe anything unless there is proof, and unless I see that proof, Dr Sergei is just another teacher with a unique teaching method. He's only been here a day, and I don't see anyone else saying anything about it. Give him a chance, ok?"
He walked away before anyone else can say another word.
Magics turned to the other two, furious.
"Just how oblivious can you be?!" Magics shouted disbelievingly.
"He's right, though, we have no proof," Kari said.
"Then we'll just have to get some," Magics said determinedly. He wasn't about to go down without a fight. "Let's go back to the dormitory for now, then meet in my room at midnight."
Kari and Sahara looked a bit uneasy. It was especially difficult for Sahara to sneak across the gym at night, and the monsters become incredibly aggressive, making it more dangerous to travel by Greenville, but with some coercion from Jace's toaster and Kaly's chilled pies, Sahara was forced to give in.
"Fine," she said reluctantly, nursing the bump on her head with one hand, while eating a slice of pie with the other. But is it ok with just the three of us?"
"We'll try to ask around," Magics said. "More importantly, do you think you can make it here at around midnight? The gym gets really hard to sneak past at night, you know."
Sahara looked slightly distracted, but recovered her composure almost immediately, and confirmed that here would be no problems.
"Alright, see you tonight, then," replied Sahara, taking a bite out of thin air and applying the pie to her head as she disappeared in the direction of Dragon school.
"I'm glad Kaly isn't here to see this," Magics whispered to Kari as they both watched Sahara walk away, the juices of the pie trickling down her purple hair and staining it brown.
Dr Sergei grumbled as he retraced his steps out of Derk's cellar, and emerged in her dormitory, almost knocking into a huge pile of Momo fruits next to her bed from the dizzying staircase. Steadying himself, he quickly jumped out of her window, and landed deftly on the floor, as Magics and Kari entered the dormitory from the main entrance, asking anyone and everyone they could find for some help. Seizing his chance, he rolled into a nearby bush, and began to eavesdrop.
"Are you interested?" Magics asked a passing Yuumei, while Kari posed the same question to Max, but both were declined. On the other hand, Uii, Bui and Viewtifulboi were more than keen to take up the offer. The Captain overheard this, and also eagerly accepted. Cristina also resorted to accepting, with some bribery in the form of cookies.
Sergei grinned to himself. A midnight excursion for his sake? He couldn't be more flattered. Now if only he could find a reason to make their "outing" worthwhile...
The Dragon Headmaster walked down the yellow dirt road in Fortville, thinking deeply about the new instructor. Dr Sergei had told him that he had "big plans" for the students' mental and physical development. Just what these were exactly, he wasn't too sure. All he had to go on were Dr Sergei's own words to himself and his Owl counterpart.
"Hey," said a voice behind him. The Dragon Headmaster turned around, and there stood Dr Sergei, a casual grin on his face.
"Oh, it's you," the Dragon Headmaster seemed indifferent. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"I've come up with my next lesson plan," Dr Sergei replied. The Dragon Headmaster looked astounded - it took himself at least a week to come up with one, meaning that the students had lots of free time.
"I'm afraid I'm going to need a volunteer from the audience..." Dr Sergei began.
"Good luck with that," the Dragon Headmaster began to walk away, but Dr Sergei stopped him.
"Come, come. A little participation won't kill you," Dr Sergei tried to persuade the Dragon Headmaster.
"I'm sure some of the students are more than willing to participate. After all, you'd have them experience any scenario, right? I'm a busy man, Frank. I have lots of things to organise, and repair work to oversee."
The Dragon Headmaster walked away along the path. Enraged, Dr Sergei took out a stun gun from his pocket, and threw it at the Dragon Headmaster. Caught unawares, the Dragon Headmaster collapsed on the ground, slightly burnt from where the stun gun had hit him on the neck.
Everything was now set in motion...
Sahara had rushed to TeamRocket's guild room inside the dormitory as fast as she could, where Pypski, Hatake, Day, Bliss, Hideki and a few others were discussing Dr Sergei's lesson, and how the charming powers of Day's inner bunny had worked wonders yet again, owing to the fact that the lesson had finished sooner than they had expected. A strong smell of Kaly's semi-frozen pie accompanied her in the room.
"Something smells good," DayBunny sat up, suddenly alert.
Disregarding Day's comment and the incredulous stares that she was getting, Sahara burst into explanation about the scheculed meeting with Magics that night.
"Sounds fun," Pypski agreed. "I'm not saying I believe anything Magics is saying, but Sergei did seem sort of odd ending the lesson like that. What time tonight?"
"Outside the owl dormitory, we're meeting Magics and his team there tonight, around midnight."
"Day, Bliss, Hatake, you're with me and Desert," Pypski immediately said, then looked around the room. "It can't hurt to bring a few more people..."
Her eyes scouted the room for people, then decided.
"Rooz, Nightwolf, Han, Ducky, and Rhainbow, you guys be on backup in case we need help."
"Got it," KnightofHan replied, while the other four nodded.
"Then let's meet up at 11pm outside the dormitory, then we can start making our way there."
"Oh, Desert, by the way," Pypski turned to Sahara, who looked back at her blankly.
"When did you dye your hair brown?"
Night stealthily crept over Kasmari as the students from Dragon School crept across the gym, avoiding being detected by the spotlights around its circumference, and keeping their voice low to avoid any voice-triggered alarms.
"What're you guys doing?" a voice suddenly yelled, causing alarms to blare across the gym.
Pypski whirled around suddenly, and saw Jace and Kalysto. Sighing in frustration, she gestured them to hurry up, and broke into a run, while the alarms wailed constantly. Upon reaching the narrow pathway leading up to Owl School, she suddenly gestured for everyone to press against the wall.
The door to Owl School opened, and Mecher Mike appeared, shining a fancy torch into the darkness. After making sure nobody was there, he shrugged and went back into the school.
"Can we ambush him? Please? Just this once?" Rhainbow pleaded. As much as everyone else wanted to, they couldn't risk restarting their progress.
"Let's go," signalled Pypski once the coast was clear, and the group hurried through the door leading to Owl School.
"What the..." Magics looked slightly shocked. "Sahara..."
"The more the merrier, right?" Pypski said, grinning.
"No... I mean, what happened to your hair?" Magics said, stifing a giggle, while the Captain looked away, and Viewtifulboi burst out laughing. Sahara fired a disruption field at Viewtifulboi, which hit him with so much impact that he was thrown into the air, unconscious before he hit the floor.
"Ah, I see you're all here," said a voice from the shadows. The door to the dormitory slammed shut, revealing Dr Sergei, who walked towards them slowly.
"Well, my students, you're just in time. I have a special lesson planned out for you tonight! Now, follow me to the pilot. I have a treat planned for you!
"Oh, and I wouldn't dilly-dally if I were you. You can say that this is a matter... of life or death."
Almost immediately, he took another device from his pocket, and from it emitted a high-pitched shrill noise which caused the shielding devices to resonate intensely in their armour, causing their energy to drain.
"Where the heck does he even get those from?" Pypski whispered furiously. Dr Sergei seemed to have an infinite number of devices at hand, almost enough to rival Professor Lemerande and Dr Wong.
"If you don't want another taste of that, then follow me," sneered Frank Sergei.
The group followed Sergei into the Marble Plane, where he pressed a gun to the pilot's head.
"You know where to go," he grinned, before causing all the students to faint with his device.
After what seemed like forever, and the students found themselves on a platform surrounded by a giant pool of lava. Another look, and it became clear to them that they were in the mouth of a volcano. Cliff-like formations forming the top of the volcano cone towered above them, while the Dragon Headmaster, still stunned, was lying on his face in a cage over the lava.
"So, my dear students," came Dr Sergei's voice over a loudspeaker. "Welcome to the Skalari Arena of my secret testing lab. I have been willing to try this out for a long time now, so allow me to explain. Actually, the rules are simple. You have 30 minutes to eliminate all of the Skalari. If you successfully do so, then you can rescue your precious Headmaster. If you fail, however..."
At this point, he imitated the creak of the cage door opening.
"Splash!"
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted you!" Magics yelled in frustration.
"Up there!" Pypski pointed suddenly to a small house on the top of the volcano.
"It's too late now, we have to save the Headmaster first, or the ducks say there'll be trouble," Hideki noted.
"We'll save the Headmaster first, then expose Frank Sergei for the fraud he is," Hatake gritted his teeth, pulling out his claws.
"Are you ready?" came Dr Sergei's sneering voice. "Remember, 30 minutes... or splash!
"Of course, you're doing this all for the sake of academic practise and progress! If there are no more questions, then your time..
"Starts...
"NOW!"
A klaxon blared across the arena.