Chapter 10
A stone Golem pounded Tech into a wall. He got up, his eyes glowing green as he regenerated, and pounced on it. He kicked it in the head and it fell to the ground. He stood on the pile of rubble that had been alive. "One word: payback." Suddenly, 3 rocks reformed into an arm and grabbed Tech's leg yanking him down. "Alright, it may be 2 words, but that's TOTALLY debatable!" He jumped up and kept fighting.
"Alright," Ace said, "I hate to break a promise, Lex, but I think we may have to fight these guys."
Lexi crouched down into a battle stance and her eyes started glow pink. "I agree, Ace. Let's bring the heat."
His eyes glowing yellow, Ace pulled out the Guardian Strike Sword. "Then let's get fighting! Guardian Strike Sword, attack!" He and Lexi jumped into the fight.
While the triplets started zapping the creatures and Slam went into spin cycle and Duck began to throw eggs, the kids changed into their uniforms and started attacking. Nadine stood back-to-back with Duck and the 2 began to throw fireballs/fire-eggs (except with fire Golems, then Duck threw water eggs). Benny used his flexibility to trip up all the stone Golems and make them fall apart, letting Lexi brain-blast the pieces far apart enough that they couldn't remake. Lucy got into a plant fight with the earth Golems. Robert threw all competing elements at individual Golems, careful not to wear out his power at a single one. Jack began to throw everything he could and stun every Golem he couldn't attack. Sarah screamed every Golem in sight to pieces. Michael turned into an elephant and began to trample a lot of the Golems.
Tech kicked another stone Golem back. Before he could find a way to attack another, a fire Golem came up from behind him and scorched his tail. He jumped up and landed on the sidewalk. He shook himself off. Someone came up and helped him up. "Oh, thanks, I—oh, it's you." It was Austin Wolfe. "What do you want?"
Austin looked behind him and his eyes widened. "Uh, I have to tell you something."
"Oh, great. Every time you 'have to tell us something', it's bad news somehow. Because it's always about someone, something, or even somewhere being in danger. Well, less than an hour/day ago, my eldest daughter and son, who are now trapped in another dimension, were almost poisoned. And now that we try to help them, we end up in a battle against a bunch of Golems and the 9 of us aren't supposed to be fighting. I don't think I can take anymore bad news!"
"Well, then, good news."
"Oh, good. What?"
"Your tail's on fire."
Tech's eyes widened. He looked and saw that his tail was flaming. "YOW!" Before he could react further, he was bombarded by a wave of water. "Thanks, Duck."
Duck took his hand away from the fire hydrant and forced out a nervous smile.
Meanwhile, Daniella worked her way to the sidelines and zapped away all the Golems that came close to her. Suddenly, she took a quick gasp of breath and leaned back against a wall. "Uh oh. Oh no. Not now! REV!"
Rev stopped running and joined the rest of the gang across the way from Daniella and her cries.
"Uh…ORANGES! COCONUTS! NECTARINES? TANGELOs?"
"What's up with her?" asked Austin.
"KIWI? Uh…" Daniella thought it out. "Uh…PEACHES!"
"Peaches?" Rev asked himself, "OH! THE-BABY'S-COMING! I'm-not-ready! This-is-bad-very-bad-very-very-very-very-extremely-b—"
"REV!" Ace stopped him, "Quit ranting and get over there!"
Rev nodded and raced over to his in-labor wife. As soon as a group of Golems noticed that they were occupied, they started to come at the 2. Rev noticed the movement on his GPS and glared at them. "Get-back!" He zoomed in a semi-circle around Daniella, forming a sort of shield that knocked them back. He stopped, his eyes glowing red, and sped back over to Daniella as another contraction started to settle.
The group continued to fight. They kept fighting until 11:00. It was 4 hours of battle (in more ways than one) for them, but 4 days of investigating for Kelly and Ryan…
"Friday" in Anasala…
After sunset…
Kelly and Ryan dropped onto the bed Carmen had zapped up. They had made no progress since "Monday" (Saffron was still the only one with Witch's Snap and she'd almost cleared up).
"I can't believe it," said Kelly, "We've almost literally turned this place upside-down looking for some hint of who could've been the crook. And what do we got? No clues, no evidence, no proof, no nothing!" She took in a deep breath. "Alright, let's think about this. Maybe there's some way we can eliminate some suspects. Who was first to come into contact with us after we got the drinks?"
"That'd be us," said Carmen.
"And you're sure we're suspects?" asked Karen.
"At least, you are," said Ryan, "I mean, it could've been possible. When Mars swooped in, we landed on you."
"Gangway!" Mars zoomed over them, cutting dangerously close to their heads.
Ryan fell backwards into Carmen's arms and Kelly just barely avoiding falling on Karen. Karen pointed at them discreetly, silently zapping some poison into the goblets. Kelly and Ryan stood back up, being careful not to drop the goblets.
"It's still a possibility," said Kelly, "What about Mars?"
"Gangway!" Mars zoomed over them, cutting dangerously close to their heads. As he swooped in too fast for anyone to see a wing-beat, he opened a bottle he carried in his claws and poured it into Kelly and Ryan's drinks and then dropped it on the floor and let it roll under the table where no one would notice it. He sped up to the banister near the ceiling as Kelly and Ryan stood up.
"Again, still possible," said Ryan.
"If I'd known playfulness like that was going to get me in danger of spending more years in feathers," Mars said from his banister, "I would've left you alone."
"You did say you were gonna destroy us all," said Kelly.
"Yes, after I got my magic back. I never thought of doing it when I was still incarcerated."
Kelly rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"What about me?" asked Shaya, "When could I have done something against you?"
Kelly looked at her.
"Can't you wait till the banquet actually starts to gulp down your juice?" asked Karen.
Shaya waved her hand at them. In doing so, she zapped some poison into the drinks Ryan and Kelly carried. She stopped drinking.
"I mean, any gesture can be a spell down here," said Kelly.
"Oh, that is…" Shaya thought about that. "…probably true."
"Or maybe Brad did it by himself," suggested Ryan.
Brad saw Kelly getting a vision. He seized the moment and zapped some poison into her drink and her brother's. He zapped the instruments when Kelly's vision faded and they drowned out her voice of warning with their music.
"Hold it, you skipped a few," said Kelly, "What about the Coven here?"
"You know," Saffron told Kelly and Ryan, "usually we just walk into the kitchen and take what we want when we're hungry. When we do have a banquet like this, which is usually on rare and/or special occasions, it's mainly a normal sit-down of some sort. But for you guys she went all-out." She propped her elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand. As she did, she waved her finger inconspicuously and zapped some poison into their drinks. "I can't imagine why."
Or…
Penelope scoffed and raised her hand, waving it briefly enough as to zap some poison into Kelly and Ryan's drinks. "Whatever you say."
Or…
Amanda glared at Penelope. "Penelope, you need some work." She rubbed her temple as if she had a headache, twitching her finger enough to zap some poison into Kelly and Ryan's drinks. "And now I do."
Or…
"You want me to read your mind?" Joy asked Kelly, "I've been trying to work on spells like that."
"Sure." Kelly held out her hand.
Joy closed her eyes and began to trace Kelly's hand with her forefinger. As she traced Kelly's hand, Kelly and Ryan's drinks stirred as through her finger were stirring in the poison being zapped in. "You're thinking of…pickles."
Or…
Eric slowly turned to glare at Joy. "Joy, how many times do I have to tell you?" He raised a finger and waved it so fast that no one would notice him zapping poison into Kelly and Ryan's drinks. "1: Keep your mind clear when you're doing spells like that."
"All possibilities," said Ryan.
"That just leaves Haven," Kelly said.
Before people started coming into the banquet hall, Haven took out a bottle of poison and poured it into 2 goblets that sat right next to each other. When Kelly and Ryan began to approach the floating tray, she peeked through the door to the kitchen and zapped the tray so that it would turn and Kelly and Ryan would pick the 2 poisoned goblets.
Or…
Haven appeared behind them. "Ahem." They all turned to look at her. "If you're done…" She clapped her hands and the food began to come in and serve itself. While everyone was looking at that, she zapped Kelly and Ryan's drinks to poison them. "Made it all myself."
"And there are 2 ways she could've done it," Kelly said, "So there's no telling with her."
"This is ridiculous," said Ryan, "There has to be something here that can tell us something about what happened. Some sort of…fingerprints or…"
"If they zapped the poison in," said Karen, "it would be a magic fingerprint. And when Arielle inspected the goblets, she said she couldn't find anything, so it must have been too common or not there."
Kelly then thought of something. "Magic fingerprint…That's it! Every possible way they could've poisoned our drinks in particular involved them zapping the goblets…except Mars. If they did, their CREST would be on the goblets or revealed through a spell! And if there isn't one, then Mars did it!"
"Kelly, that's brilliant!" Arielle said, "Why didn't one of us think of that 4 days ago?" She waved her hand over the goblets as Kelly raced over there to test her theory. When Arielle stopped casting her spell, Kelly grabbed the goblets and investigated them. Finally, she found a symbol hear the bottom of the goblets. "AHA! Gotcha!" She investigated the symbol. "Wait, that can't be right…this looks like Arielle's crest."
"What?" Ryan ran over there. "Well, maybe it appeared when she cast her spell to reveal the crest…" He then examined it. "Wait a minute…" He held up the symbol to where he saw it right next to the symbol imprinted on the wall. "The star on the wall is surrounded by 5 smaller stars. The star on the goblets is surrounded by 3."
Arielle gasped. "It can't be…" She turned to her little sister. "Haven…" Everyone looked at the sisters in silent shock.
"Are you sure you're not mistaken?" asked Kelly, "Like if one of the stars is off by a tip or—"
Arielle snatched one of the goblets and looked at the symbol. "No… My crest has 5 small stars, Brad's has 4, and Haven's has 3. No one else in the realm has a similar symbol. Haven did this."
Haven folded her arms, sighed, and looked at her sister. "Busted."