It was only after two days that the travelling ensemble found themselves travelling on a long bus trip again, only now they were preparing for their confrontation with Scorpio. Lisa could often be found planning tactics and mixing potent chemicals together with beakers and glass tubes found in her coat pockets. Andre found whatever he could that was heavy around him and started to lift them and do certain workouts that trigger and develop his muscular strength. May sharpened her arrows by forming a red glow on the tip using her hands, while Mark silently like always, practiced his abilities with swords. Adrian helped with everyone with their practices and abilities; very rarely did he practice his own skills in magic. Lucy, danced and did ballerina twirls mostly, but sometimes when she grew tired of dancing she would join Lisa in making chemical potions that may aid them during battle. Only Claire found herself muddled with what to do to refine her "Star Magic". Looking confused, Lisa then approached her and sat down right next to her. "Don't worry about a thing. I've been planning a tactic to defeat Scorpio. Since Adrian is going to worry about you a lot, you keep to the back and let everyone handle the rest."
"But there must be something I can do!" Claire urged. Lisa nodded her head, "You have to contain Scorpio's powers in that amulet of yours. That's what you have to do. There's no need for you getting hurt."
Claire took a deep breath and felt as the weak link of the team, despite her newfound powers.
"Finally, that trip took ages!" Lucy said, stretching her arms wide and getting off the bus. "Don't wonder carelessly out of the bus, it's dangerous just to do that these days." Andre said, looking around cautiously after taking the last step out of the bus. "Geez, you're not my mother you know!" Lucy said in annoyance. She looked on the distance and rushed with the breeze. "Oh my goodness, everyone come here! Quickly."
Lisa ran towards Lucy with all seriousness. "Don't tell me that Scorpio has appeared already. Everyone be on your guard!" she commanded.
"No, silly. It's the Austin music festival. I really want to go!" she said. She then burst into laughter, "Scorpio has appeared already, you really need to take a chill pill!"
"Your light-heartedness may be a great quality, but really doesn't help in these instances." Lisa said annoyed with Lucy.
"I wouldn't mind going either" Socrates said. "Okay, then we can go together, it's on tomorrow."
"Excuse me, what about the issue that may be at hand at the moment?"
"It will be days until the next booking is made, so I guess they can go to the Austin music festival if they wanted to" Shawn replied.
Shawn was right. It was only after two days that they travelled the long road to confront Scorpio. May spent her days in Austin walking around with Shawn and Angela getting to know them more and eventually being good friends Of course, she brought Andre along without his permission. Mark spent most of his times in the park either practicing his swords or surprisingly, reading a book. Adrian and Claire watched a movie together in the theatre and then went onto check into the city to see if anything exciting was happening. Lisa, spent all day in the hotel room sitting on the bed. Lisa, although very much the leader of the ensemble spent much of her time alone, not really associating much with them. Occasionally she would crack the rare joke or laugh at something that wasn't sensible, but she was very serious most often. Most of the time the others thought she might have been planning strategies for each beast or observing the ancient glyphs that they collected previously from when they picked up Claire or Adrian. But it still lingered in their minds. Lucy and Socrates abruptly barged in the hotel room one night drunk and dizzy. They eventually woke everybody up, constantly being yelled by the group (except from Adrian and Claire. Adrian urged Claire not to go outside for her "well-being"). Lisa was frustrated with these events and by the next morning Lucy and Socrates fell ill and slept peacefully through the morning till the afternoon.
On the second day, Lisa went out of the hotel room very early in the morning to sneak into the store where the tours were being organized. She sneaked in, with her gun to make sure of her safety and concealed herself in dark clothes. As she checked the database, on the computers and the manual log on the counter tables, she saw an interesting black mark penned on the signature at every time the driver "Jude Barker" drove the bus. It was a darkly inked magic circle. Lisa gasped, when she checked that nearly all the months posted after Shawn's incident had this peculiar magic circle mark on the paper. "Husband and Associates" date: 17th February 2007. Passengers: Government Land Surveyors: Graham Jones, Wyatt Richards, Ryan Parker, Loretta Day and Robert Lane. Other passengers: Shawn Lane, Angela "Margaret" Lane, Darren Peters, Sophie Henderssen and Albert Whitaker under the care of Nurse: Penelope Elliot." The log read. Adjacent to the reception counter was a photocopier and Lisa used it to copy all the logs out and walked ran out the doors of the touring store.
As the bus travelled along the desert, the group suddenly realized that sandstorms were happening in one area. The driver headed towards the sandstorms. Lisa then going towards the driver and yelled, "Do you want to get us killed?" even though she wanted this to happen in order to confront Scorpio. "What's happening?" Shawn Lane was in the bus. Why is he driving into the sandstorms?" The doors to the bus then opened, "Enjoy your stay in the desert." The driver said, his voice almost zombie-like. The bus driver turned then lay there dead cold. Lisa inspected his badge until it came across his name… "Jude Barker."
"Shawn! Isn't this the bus driver on the day of the incident?" Shawn ran towards Lisa until she let out a bit gasp. "Oh my goodness… But how?"
The sandstorms stopped. Shawn then looked outside the window, "This is exactly what happened on the day." She then crawled in into an empty space and screamed. Her daughter also being a witness to her mothers screams. She held onto the same balloon she had 3 days previously. "Why did we listen to them when they said they wanted to come along. What a burden." Mark said, jumping of the bus and running to the distance. "That idiot! You're going to get yourself killed!" May yelled out, forming her angel wings again and flying out to chase him. "May. May!" Andre cried, then chasing her out. "This is not the way it's supposed to turn out! They are at great danger. Why aren't they sticking to the plan?" Lisa growled, walking out of the bus and getting out her alchemy gun. Lucy crouched down and held Shawn. "Don't worry, things are going to be okay." Lucy promised Shawn. She then ran out of the bus, in her high-heeled boots and taking out her large bladed fan out of her handbag. "It's a mystery isn't it" she looked towards the distance, pretending as if this was televised. It was only Socrates, Angela, Shawn, Adrian and Claire on the bus. "We better head out there Claire, to help them." Adrian stated. Claire nodded her head. "Right!" Claire then turned back, "What about them?" Socrates rose up and jumped on the top of a passenger seat to be seen. "Don't worry I can handle it!"
Then both Claire and Adrian ran out the bus, placing their trust in Socrates to protect both Angela and Shawn. As they ran, Claire could just see the bus getting smaller and smaller. But in the distance a screamed resonated in the desert. The group gasped, realizing that the scorpion that zombie like creatures was approaching the bus, while dog-sized scorpions appeared out of the sands. The scorpions then approached the group, readying their stingers. Mark sliced them open with his sword. Lucy's fans acted as boomerangs, as she threw the bladed fans and expecting them to return. Lisa shot them with her alchemy gun, rock like projectiles acted as bullets. Adrian creates magical spheres and beams that flew striking them. Andre used his fists and punched them into tiny pieces, while May flew high up in the sky striking them at a distance with her ice arrows, impaling the zombies to their death.
May looked at the direction of the bus and suddenly noticed quicksand occurring near the bus. She then flew closer to the direction only to notice a very large stinger that idly lied at the top of the anomaly. "Oh no" was what she thought.