Chapter 13

Kelly lay asleep on the roof of a building…but it wasn't the roof of the tower of the castle she was knocked out on… Suddenly, she stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open and she slowly came to. She sat up and looked around. It looked like the roof of the tower while she was distorted… "Was it all just a dream?" She slowly and breathlessly stood up. Then her vision cleared up. She looked around again and realized that the "roof" wasn't even for a building at all! The floor of it had holes like a bridge floor… She slowly backed away as she looked down at the magnificent white gown she was wearing. Before she knew it, her foot backed onto air. She almost fell off the suspension bridge but caught herself. Wait, it was a suspension bridge? What happened? She looked around again. Then the memories just before the explosion came back to mind: the magic blast must have pulled them all back to Acmetropolis! She grabbed onto a post and looked out at the city lights and traffic below her. "MOM! DAD!"

Ryan snapped up. "Kelly?" He looked around. He was on top of a building, too. "What happened? KELLY!"

Kelly heard that in the distance, as the wind carried her brother's voice to her and began to blow back her flowing dress and ears. "RYAN! Oh, gotta think of a spell…My family now is separated, take my voice to them so we won't be agitated!" Not the best grammar, but it was still a decent spell. She zapped herself. "Guys!"

Sarah, Michael, Tech, and Sophie all woke up.

"What happened?" Sarah asked.

"Kelly, where are you?" Tech asked. He looked around. "And where am I?"

Sophie looked around. "Kelly? Is that you? What was that explosion?"

Michael looked at the city below him. "OK, what's going on?"

"I don't know anything," Kelly told all of them, "I think that magic explosion on the castle tower zapped us back to Acmetropolis in different locations. The question is, why? And what happened that made that happen? And where are the others?"

"OK, too many questions!" said Ryan.

"Ryan's right, too many questions. I guess the real question we need to answer is…" Suddenly, a bolt of energy came at her. She backed up a few feet, but it still hit the bridge floor and made it break in half, knocking her backward. She grabbed onto the floor of the bridge, placing her fingers through the holes, but as the fragment of the bridge floor broke from everything but the restraints, she started to fall with nothing but her grip on the bridge to hold her up. "…is HOW DO I GET OFF THIS BRIDGE?"

Before her family could figure out what had happened and try to find out where she was to come help her, a guy in a hooded cloak came down, riding on a broom. "Hello, little Halfling. I suppose you don't know who I am."

Kelly stared at him fearfully.

He jumped off the broom and landed on his feet on the breaking fragment of the bridge, putting his weight on it and making it start breaking the part Kelly was holding on to. For some reason, he didn't start falling. "Name's Oberon. And I hope you enjoy the view on this bridge because it's the last thing you'll ever see."

Kelly just kept looking at him, too scared to say anything.

Meanwhile, Ryan was waiting for Kelly's response to his incessant calls. "KELLY! KELLY! WHERE ARE YOU? KELLY! Oh, boy…" Before he could cast a spell to find his sister, the wind picked up. He turned around and saw a dirty blonde woman materialize behind him.

She looked at her hands. She smiled. "My power's back…" She looked at him and stopped smiling. "Halfling…"

Ryan started to back up. "Who are you?"

"Zenith. And I believe this is…" She looked around. "This isn't my land."

"No, it's Acmetropolis. And I…" Ryan jumped off the building and landed on an awning. "And he sticks the landing! I'm glad I was aiming for—" Suddenly, the awning started breaking. "Uh oh." He fell off and landed on the sidewalk. "Ow." He got up.

Arielle ran up to him. "We're in Acmetropolis, aren't we?"

"I'd have to say yes. And now someone named Zenith is up there—"

"WHAT? Zenith is here? She's supposed to be a cat in the Acme Tropics!"

"What? What happened?"

"She was the queen of Anasala just before my predecessor. She abused her power of the throne and was suspended by the Council. If she's here…the jar breaking. Haven must have released everyone currently in punishment!"

"Oh, boy… We have to get everyone here!" Ryan called them all and in a few minutes, everyone but Amanda, Joy, Haven, and Kelly was collected on the street. "So who all are we dealing with?"

"Well, Zenith for one. She was named the queen and abused her power in various ways and was banned by the Council to this realm as a cat in the Acme Tropics. And Mars we all know. And then there's Sloane, who killed a Council member in cold blood and tried to kill me with her own mother's sword."

"Huh?" asked Nadine.

"Sloane Nimbus," Daniella explained, "Her mother was a Light Guardian."

Arielle nodded. "And Temperance, who, despite her name, had a short temper."

"She was the Seer in the Coven before Joy came along," said Eric, "Went berserk with a vision one day and killed 5 people with her bare hands."

"And Ajax," Arielle continued, "He was awful. Daring, like his name means. He was a Werewolf, so half the stuff he did happened under the light of full moon and he was pardoned for all that. But in the sunlight, he raped 3 girls, beat up 2 more, and then murdered 5 Warlocks, 4 Witches, 7 mortals, and an iguana." Everyone looked at her. "It is a LONG story!"

"And then, of course, Haven," Shaya added.

Arielle sighed, sorrowfully. "Right."

"And Eronor and Orthane," added Wendy, panicking.

"They're not gonna escape, trust me. Even if they got their power back, they're not gonna get out of containment."

"Wait!" said Penelope, "Ajax wasn't the worst. And neither were Eronor and Orthane. What about Oberon?"

"Right! The revolutionist. The guy led a revolt against Eronor bidding thousands of lives in return."

Wendy's eyes widened. "This happened before we left?"

"Just before."

"How come we didn't hear about this?"

"The Light Guardians, especially your parents, were informed, but they weren't allowed to tell anyone, even you. Oberon did not only that, but he worked undercover for several other evildoers that have died since then: the Order of Black Snakes, Graham the Goblin and his friends, army upon army of Necromancers. And every time one died, he took their power. I'm surprised we were able to contain that much power for so long. Whether he'll come back or the people he took power from, I don't know, but we can't let him loose in the city."

Lexi listened carefully and gasped. "I think we're too late for that. He's got Kelly!"

Meanwhile…

At the bridge…

Austin was walking along the streets. He came up to the bridge and heard something. It sounded like a girl screaming. He looked up at the second level and saw Kelly still hanging onto the breaking bridge for dear life. But she didn't have a lot of time left. The supports were breaking! Austin raced over to one of the bridge columns and ran up the ramp. When he came to the column, he put his foot on the wall of it and kicked off to make a somersault through the air. Before losing his inertia, he hit the wall of the nearest building and kicked off it as fast as possible. As soon as he got near the bridge's second level, he grabbed onto the sewer-grate-styled floor of the bridge and swung up onto it.

Kelly saw all this. "Impressive." The bridge started breaking again. "Care to top it?"

Austin raced over there. "Why didn't you zap yourself off?"

"I couldn't think of a spell! I'm panicking!"

Austin kept running to her, but was zapped back by a bolt of energy before he could get close.

Oberon was on top of the column nearest Kelly. "Back off, Wolfe!" He jumped up onto the suspension and looked around.

Austin got up and ran for Kelly again but was bounced back by an invisible field.

"Shield spell, buddy. Can't get to your girl now."

Kelly looked at both men in turn, fearfully, and then looked down at the water 50 stories below her.

"Don't look down!" Austin commanded her.

"You know, usually when people say 'don't look down,' it makes you wanna look down!"

"Well, close your eyes!"

Kelly nodded and obeyed. But even with her eyes closed, she was seeing something…

Zenith fell on the sidewalk. She looked back up at Tech and kicked him, knocking him backwards into a tree. He started trying to get up, but couldn't move. Zenith glared at Sophie and zapped her back into the street. As she slowly started to get up, a car came at her…

"SOPHIE!"

Kelly's eyes snapped open. She looked at Austin. "Forget about me! Go find my family and help them!"

Austin started to say something, but the bridge creaked again. "I'm not gonna leave you!"

"I'll be fine! I'm a Witch! I'll get myself out of this! Just go!"

Austin nodded and got up and ran off.

Kelly closed her eyes again.

Oberon jumped onto the bridge fragment, shocking Kelly and making her open her eyes again to look at him. "You'll get off this ride when you're dead."

Kelly just looked at him… She got up her courage and let go of the bridge with one hand, zapping him with her now free hand and knocking him back. She rolled over and started climbing up the halfway-attached bridge fragment to get back on the bridge and run off.

Oberon got up and jumped over there, grabbing her by the throat but not lifting her from the bridge. "Just for that, I'm gonna kill you a little bit more than usual."

Kelly looked at him again, whimpering.

Ryan looked into an alleyway. Nothing. "All clear over here."

Saffron looked into an alleyway across the road from him. "Here, too."

Ryan picked up a walkie-talkie. "Clear on the north side of West Street."

Michael came up behind his brother and picked up his own walkie-talkie. "Rye, I'm not gonna tell you again: I'm right next to you."

Ryan looked at him. "Right, sorry." He picked up his walkie-talkie again. "Over."

Michael glared at him. "Can I borrow that for a second?"

"Sure." Ryan handed it to him.

Michael hit him in the head with it.

Ryan grabbed his head. "OW!"

The 2 started clawing at each other.

Sophie came up and separated her sons.

"You know," Sarah said, "It would actually help us stop fighting if we knew where these guys were!"

Suddenly, dark storm clouds began brewing overhead. The clouds gathered together and zoomed down to earth, slowly turning into a person.

"That Ajax?" Lucy asked Arielle. She nodded. "Of course."

Ajax got up. He looked around… He spread his hands out. The ground before him flew up and zoomed at them.

Everyone was able to dodge them except Brad, who flew backwards…right into Haven. He forced out a nervous smile. "Hey, sis…"

Haven growled and kicked him, knocking him backwards into a brick wall.

Jupiter saw this. She prepared to zap Haven, but took a step back and walked right into Mars. She gasped and whirled around. "Mars!"

"Here's a word I think you'll be familiar with: payback."

"Look, about this afternoon…"

"What, how you tortured me for 2 hours straight to break my spell?"

"I kicked you twice! That's it! Granted, I did kick you pretty hard both times, but it's nothing compared to what you did to me. What you took from me…"

"What? Parenthood?"

Jupiter gasped. Did he know?

"Your folks had it coming."

Oh. He was talking about her parents. "No, they didn't. You did. You deserved everything the Council gave you."

"No, I didn't. You did. And you're about to get it."

Jupiter started to run and ran into a blonde woman. "You must be Temperance. Hi." She glared at her. "Bye." She started to run off. Temperance zapped her and she flew forward into a brownish-brunette girl. "And you must be Sloane."

Sloane smiled. "Good guess." She backhanded her, sending her flying back into a tree and knocking her out.

Zenith came up from the roof of a nearby building. She was at least 25 stories up, but it didn't stop her. She jumped off the building and landed next to Sloane. She held up her hands and rapidly took them down to her hips, making the earth shake and crack beneath her feet. The effects didn't last long, but did make the major part of a power line break off and start falling towards Jupiter.

Slam noticed the problem and went into spin cycle to grab her and take her out of the way.

The power line hit the ground where Jupiter had been lying. If it weren't for Slam, she would've been electrocuted.

Slam let Jupiter down.

She looked at him and smiled. "Thanks."

Slam nodded.

"I hope Kelly's OK in all this," said Tech.

"Kelly can handle herself," Sophie assured her husband, "Right now, we have to deal with these crazies."

Austin then came up and saw Ajax, Mars, Haven, Temperance, Sloane, and Zenith. He realized why Kelly had sent him down there and raced up to them. When Mars prepared to zap Jupiter, he came up and kicked him in the legs, knocking him over. When Mars started to get up, he jump up and did a spin-kick, knocking him down the street and then landing on his feet.

Ryan saw all this. "You have gotta show me how to do that!"

The group started fighting, every magic one using magic and every mutant using their powers (so Austin was pretty much alone, but he did keep doing some pretty cool moves).

Austin finally got back-to-back with Rev. "Rev, you're pretty fast, right?"

"Well-they-didn't-call-me-the-speed-demon-of-Acmetropolis-for-nothing-right?"

"Right. Well, you have to go find Kelly and get her back here fast! She's in some serious trouble."

Rev sighed. "Isn't-she-always?" He sped off. He jumped up and started flying off. When he was far enough out of the way of the fight, his eyes started glowing red. "Alright-Kelly-let's-see-where-you-are-just-need-a-few-seconds-to-calculate-it-with-my-GPS-AHA! Got-it! The-North-Bridge!" He flew off for the bridge.

Kelly finally grabbed Oberon's wrist and squeezed it. Oberon let go of her throat and kicked her in the face. She, in response, grabbed his leg and yanked it. He fell onto the breaking bridge fragment, but his spell still held and he didn't fall. She came up a few more steps and kneed him in the groin. While he was recovering from that blow, his spell broke and he started falling. Halfway down, he grabbed onto the bridge floor. He looked up and saw Kelly continuing to climb up. He started after her. He was moving faster than she was and eventually caught up with her. The bridge creaked again. Neither seemed to notice the supports starting to crack. While Kelly was preparing to start climbing again, Oberon grabbed her leg. She kicked him in the face with the other foot. She started climbing faster.

Rev came in about then. He looked at Kelly and saw her fighting off a blondish-brunette Warlock and the bridge breaking under them. He gasped. "Kelly!" He raced over there. As soon as he got close to her, though, he was bounced away by an invisible field of energy. "What? Maybe-this-time-this-time-this-this-this-OW!" He finally got hit with a bolt of blue lightning and bounced back with a bent beak. "Ow…I hate magic." He shook his head rapidly, straightening his beak out.

Kelly sensed all the magical activity in her vicinity and turned around to see Rev trying to break Oberon's field spell. "Rev!"

Rev looked at her. "Hey-Kelly! Boy-are-you-in-a-pickle."

Kelly scoffed and kicked Oberon again, harder this time. "You're telling me." The bridge creaked again and one of the 5 support bars broke. Kelly screamed as the bridge fell farther down and farther to the right, making her lose her grip on the bridge and start falling. She grabbed the bridge floor just as she past Oberon. When he started to kick her, she grabbed his foot and pushed his knee into his groin. She started climbing again.

Oberon glared at her. "Quit doing that!"

"You-go-girl!"

Kelly glared at her uncle.

"Sorry."

She kept climbing while Oberon recovered from that hit, trying to think of a spell at the same time. When Oberon started climbing after her again, she got it, remembering her magic block: "Arseonica Morcressias!" She zapped him and he…turned into a pineapple. "Thank you, magic block. Stupid panicking." She kept climbing, but another support started broke. "REV!"

"I'm-coming!" Rev started flying at her, but the shield was still up.

Kelly knew she wasn't getting off the bridge until Rev could get to her. She turned over again and held out her hand, starting to push a shield of her own onto the field to break it. She kept pushing. The third support bar kept breaking. She had to break the field, her family was in danger! Finally she saw her silver energy cracking the royal blue energy and fragmenting Oberon's shield. Rev was thrown back a ways, but Kelly smiled upon realizing that she'd succeeded. She'd actually cast a major spell correctly after getting her power premature! She wasn't a failure. "I'm not a failure. I'm a Witch. An actual Witch. A mutant, Coyote anthro, half-blood, premature W—" The next support broke. She screamed as the bridge started breaking again. "REV!"

Rev zoomed back up and saw the 2 final supports snapping. "KELLY!" He sped over to her.

Kelly looked up. The fourth support snapped and then finally the last one. Before she could fall, though, she felt herself…flying? She opened her eyes and saw the waters pass beneath her. She looked at Rev and smiled. "Thanks."

"No-problem-but-you-so-owe-me-I-mean-not-in-an-IOU-sort-of-way-since-we're-technically-blood-but-I-just-saved-your-life-and-by-the-International-Superhero/Supervillain-Rules-I'd-say-that-you—"

"Rev, forgive me for stealing a line, but watch where you're talking!"

Rev looked up and saw that they were headed for a giant building. He zoomed up and headed back for the street the gang was still fighting on.

Kelly shook herself off. "Please, do not flip me like that again."

"And-I-repeat: Sorry." He kept flying. Finally, they landed by a tree and rejoined the fight.

Arielle saw Kelly coming. "Kelly! How'd you get away from Oberon?"

"Magic block came in handy. I turned him into a pineapple."

"Wow…" Sophie said.

Kelly smiled and turned back to Austin. "So now you're helping instead of warning?"

"Sometimes I come in handy."

Kelly smiled again and prepared to fight.

The fight restarted.

Arielle cornered Haven. "Haven, I know you feel like I betrayed you, but you have to understand that—"

"What? You meant it for the best? You were thinking of me? No, you weren't. If you were, you would've given it to me, you would've made me your alternate, you wouldn't have done something so stupid and heartless as how you betrayed me!"

"That's not what happened! If either of us is heartless, it's you. You weren't like this until you got your hands on that dark magic. You were never supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be different. If you had stayed away from the dungeon, maybe you would have the throne."

Haven scoffed. "Like I'm supposed to believe that."

Arielle shook her head. "No, I guess you're not. Well, believe this: I want my sister back."

Haven stopped smiling entirely. "Huh?"

Arielle jumped on her and pinned her to the ground behind the tree. She held out one hand at the bad guys and started strangling Haven with the other.

Haven closed her eyes, struggling against her. Finally, she opened her eyes to reveal that her eyes were entirely blood red. Before she could fight back again, a dark energy flowed back through her and into Arielle.

Arielle fought off the magic's force and kept holding out her hand at the bad guys. Finally, the dark energy flowed out of her and ran right into Ajax, Temperance, and Sloane. Haven was cleansed, Oberon was a pineapple, and Ajax and Temperance and Sloane were unconscious and not likely to wake up soon. That just left Zenith and Mars.

Haven got up. "Arielle…"

"It's OK, Haven. It wasn't you."

Haven almost starting crying. "It was me. That was the problem. You're my sister, I was never supposed to…" After this, she did start crying. Arielle took her into her arms to comfort her.

While everyone was watching this, Penelope, Saffron, and Eric zapped Zenith and their combined spell knocked her out.

"And everything works out," said Sarah happily.

"Not for me, it doesn't," Jupiter sighed.

"Oh, boo-hoo," said Mars, "You know, Witches like you have a name: crybabies!"

Kelly growled and stormed over to him. "You know what? Jupiter is fine. The problem is you! You're self-centered, egotistic, conceited, blood-thirsty, unthinking, brainless, thoughtless, insensitive, cares-for-no-one-but-himself-and-bloodshed, and, on top of all of that, a great, big, idiotic jerk!"

"Sticks and stones, kid. What are you gonna do about it?"

Kelly groaned. "You wanna what I'm gonna do about it? I'll show you what I'm gonna do about it." She snapped her fingers in his face and started waving her finger. "Frekensidesin, Kor Frish, Zura la KAM!" A puff of smoke emerged around him and he turned back into a black-feathered crow.

Daniella's eyes widened. How'd she swing that?

Mars looked at himself. "Oh, not again!"

Wendy looked at her niece. "And yet you can't zap up anything else but pineapples?"

Kelly smiled at her.

Haven forced out a smile, making Arielle smile.

Kelly turned around to look at Austin. He was gone again. She, instead, smiled at Jupiter, who smiled back.