Chapter 17: Escape from Wawanakwa
Chris, the network executive, and Chef Hatchet met near the entrance to the film lot. Chris asked Chef Hatchet, "What are we going to do? They'll surely get here soon!"
"Chris," the network executive said, "If you don't deal with those children, then you can't keep the world anymore."
"I know!" Chris shouted, "Now what do we do?"
"I know!" Chef Hatchet said, "Why not find a police blockade?"
"Chef, you are a genius," Chris said. "Now we just need to find an officer." Just at that moment, someone walked by. "You, there!" Chris shouted, "Are you a member of the RCMP?"
"Why, yes I am," he answered, "What do you need?"
"Go head a police blockade," Chris said, "Do not let anyone leave Camp Wawanakwa."
"I promise to let everyone leave Camp Wawanakwa…" he said.
"No, let no one leave!" Chris corrected.
"That's what I meant," he said.
"Good," Chris said. He, Chef Hatchet, and the network executive walked away.
When they were gone, the officer said, "Oh, crap, now I actually have to try… and not only that, but I'll probably fail! Oh no…"
Courtney's Resistance were about to exit the camp. "Well," Courtney said, "We now probably have enough people to go fight Chris. Let's go."
"Uh, Courtney?" Harold said, "I think that we may have a bit of a problem."
Several Mounties were waiting around the battlefield. Most of them were on horses, but some of them had found flying mounts as well.
"Oh, great," Duncan said, "More RCMP… Just what we needed."
"Okay, everyone," the leader said, "You're all going down! I hope…"
"Alright," Courtney said, "There aren't very many of them, but they can all gang up on us."
"It would be wise to keep ourselves close to each other," Harold said, "That way we can fight them all off."
"Wait," Duncan said, "I spy an opening. I'd say these guys might be a bit inept."
"Okay," Heather said, "So we have to either make it through the crowd or fight them all… those flying ones will be a piece of cake, but the others…"
"Come on, guys, the more time we spend bickering about strategy, the less time we'll have to defeat them," Courtney said, which caused everyone to shut up.
Sixteen people were in the battle. Courtney, Duncan, Harold, and Heather stood in the front. Eva, Trent, Tyler, and Sierra were the next line. Justin, Cody, Katie, and Sadie followed closely behind. For added safety, Noah, Gwen, DJ, and Bridgette stood around.
Duncan did not fear the officer in charge and walked up to him to say, "Listen, dude. Move it."
"I'd love to," the incompetent Mountie responded, stepping to the side.
"That's Duncan," another Mountie informed him, but the phrase was utterly meaningless to the incompetent Mountie.
"Duncan Sheik?" he asked.
"No," the smarter one responded, "The guy we don't like."
"Why don't we like him? He seems like a nice guy," the incompetent Mountie said.
"Ugh," the smarter officer said, "Whatever. Send in reinforcements."
Duncan glared at the smarter officer saying, "You…"
As everyone who was fighting could attest to, however the 'reinforcements' that the incompetent Mountie sent out were barely stronger than Ezekiel, who had been sitting out three consecutive battles not out of necessity to keep the battalion to a small size, but because no one wanted him to get himself killed. Tyler was sent over to help Duncan, but the battle between those two and the "reinforcements" ended quickly and without either of them getting so much as a scratch on them.
Eva found herself getting in duels with the people mounted on dragons, which she won with ease. However, when one of the horsemen took a sword that could harm dragons and their riders greatly to her, she was injured so badly that no one in the party except Noah could heal her completely. Bridgette could too, if she had a more powerful staff with her. Eva and Noah didn't mind the arrangement, however. As for Sierra, she was just thankful that that guy didn't attack her.
Heather took down a number of Pegasus knights by shooting them with her trusted bow, but unfortunately, she ran out of arrows before the end of the fight. Since Courtney had switched to mainly using the CI Tome, which, in addition to being full of powerful light magic, was also extremely durable, she passed her replacement bow onto the currently unarmed Heather.
Katie and Sadie likewise got into several duels with horsemen. Katie managed to beat most of them, whereas Sadie was a little bit weaker against them. One thing that is true is that Justin, who was a bit behind the others as far as battle experience went, benefitted greatly from finishing off Sadie's weakened opponents.
Gwen and Trent worked closely together with Cody and Sierra again. The four of them helped to finish off the remaining battle opponents, including one horseman with a lance that could easily become deadly. He used it on Cody, who luckily, was resilient enough to survive the blow, but Sierra was so angered by the situation that she did not allow the enemy to be so lucky. Cody was pleased to see that Gwen was the one healing him. Harold was a bit close, but he was not close enough to heal Cody immediately.
The only opponent left now was the incompetent Mountie leading it all. He should have been a cinch to beat, except for the fact that he was carrying an item that would make anyone miss, even if they were as accurate as Duncan.
Duncan attacked him, saying, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah! We'll beat you!"
"You seem like a nice kid," said the Mountie, "So I'm gonna let you get the first blow in."
"Fair's fair," Duncan said. He hit the first time he attacked but missed the second time. Heather, frustrated, decided to take the next shot.
"Get out of our way," she demanded.
"No," responded the Mountie.
"Then I guess I'll have to move you the hard way," Heather said. The good news is that she hit with both shots, but the bad news is that neither one got him out of the way.
Harold calculated that he could hit the Mountie at least once, but would probably not be able to hit twice, unless he very skillfully sneaked an attack in. "Who let you into the force?" he asked.
"Oh, my brother," the Mountie responded.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Harold asked.
"Because my brother is the boss!" he responded.
Harold shook his head in pity. He said, "I almost don't want to fight you. Almost."
Harold's prediction turned out to be right, as he only landed one blow on the incompetent Mountie. He switched tactics, and threw a javelin at Trent (who was himself not armed with something he could throw). He said, "I made a promise to not let anyone out. I intend to keep that promise."
Courtney shouted, "Don't block our exit!"
"Pardon me," the Mountie said, "But I think you suck."
"Hey!" Courtney shouted.
"Did I do good that time?" asked the Mountie.
"You're really incompetent," Courtney said, and she hit him with the CI Tome, which killed him.
"I…messed up," he said as he died.
"Look!" Duncan shouted, "The opening is completely unguarded. Let's go!" Courtney, Duncan, Harold, and Heather led the others out of the camp.
Meanwhile, Chris was pacing frantically, and looking like he was about to tear his hair out.
"Chris," the network executive said, "Please calm down."
"How? You've been given me so much advice to panic this entire time, and now that I actually am you don't want me to…" Chris said. "Make up your mind, Moni…"
"CHRIS!" the network executive shouted, "Don't call me that name!"
"Okay, fine," Chris said, "But they're getting so close now…"
"Chris, don't worry," the network executive said, glaring at him. "I told you that I'd take care of everything when Chef fails."
"I won't fail," Chef Hatchet said, "I've got this trusty weapon: CHEF'S HATCHET!"
"Weren't you going to tell him that was a spear?" the network executive asked Chris.
"Eh, I tried, he wouldn't listen," Chris said.
"Whether it's a 'spear' or a 'hatchet' is NOT THE POINT. The point is that, you won't have to deal with those meddling kids any longer," Chef Hatchet shouted.
"Well, in that case, I wish you luck," Chris said.
"I ain't gonna need it," Chef Hatchet answered. He laughed, and so did Chris.
Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include alternate battle dialogue (Ezekiel fights Incompetent Mountie), alternate versions of the beginning dialogue (Harold died; Duncan died; Heather died; two or more of them died), Courtney and Geoff's Support (Level A), Courtney and Heather's Support (Level C), Alejandro and Lindsay's Support (Level C), Katie and Trent's Support (Level A), Katie and Justin's Support (Level C), Sadie and Trent's Support (Level A), Sadie and Justin's Support (Level C), Bridgette and Leshawna's Support (Level B), DJ and Geoff's Support (Level A), Gwen and Trent's Support (Level A), Gwen and Leshawna's Support (Level B), Noah and Cody's Support (Level A), Noah and Eva's Support (Level B), Tyler and Ezekiel's Support (Level A), Tyler and Lindsay's Support (Level C), Harold and Beth's Support (Level C), Leshawna and Lindsay's Support (Level C), Heather and Lindsay's Supports (Level C), and Lindsay and Beth's Supports (Level C)