Chapter 5
The girls slowly opened the door to the huge fort. It was dark inside except for the various lit torches (about 2 in each hall). The Loonatics stuck their heads through the door, too.
"It's all clear," said Daniella, standing up straight and letting in the rest of the group before closing the door firmly behind her.
"Remind me again why we are in here," Lexi requested.
"Because if we can get the focus crystals from this place, then we can use their power to stop the March and we can't do it without you," said Daniella.
"Well-I-think-it's-a-great-idea-because-if-this-guy-could-really-destroy-both-our-worlds-then-we-need-to-try-anything-we-can-to-stop-him," said Rev.
"I have no idea what you just said, but I agree," said Daniella.
"Daniella, can we focus, here?" asked Wendy, "Get it? Focus?" She laughed, but only Duck joined. "What? You don't get it?"
"Well, I get it, but it's not funny," said Tech. Sophie giggled at Tech's remark.
"Let's just go before this laughing drives me insane," said Wendy.
"Too late," said Daniella. Rev giggled at that.
The friends went down the hall cautiously. They stopped at the end of the hall and looked around a corner. They saw 3 strange creatures. One of them was a snake with a scorpion tail. Another was a lion with a scorpion tail. The last one was a 5-foot-tall scorpion.
"This Order of the Scorpion is really obsessed with scorpions," said Lexi.
"Like we didn't notice that," said Wendy, "They enchant the guard creatures with venomous tails so that any one 'unwanted' can enter here without dying."
"I've got an idea of how to get past them," said Sophie, withdrawing a foot-long stick from her backpack.
"What are you going to do with that?" asked Duck, "Poke their eyes out?"
Sophie waved the stick. Suddenly, all 9 of them were invisible. The stick was a wand! "Be quiet," said Sophie, "I can't stop noises without making us unable to communicate with each other."
"Alright," said Daniella, "Just take our hands."
"Wow," said Duck, "your hands are amazingly soft, Wendy. It's like you've got fur."
"Duck, you've got 10 seconds to let go of my paw before I brain blast you."
"Whoops, sorry, Lexi."
"OK, does everyone have this right, now?" asked Wendy.
"Yeah, one problem," Tech said, "Who's stepping on my tail?"
"Ooh-sorry-Tech-I thought-that-stone-felt-weird."
"That's it," said Ace, "Forget about the couples, it's not working out. Everybody grabbed each other's hands." They did this right. "Good, now let's go."
Everyone worked their way, slowly and quietly, down the stairs toward the creatures. Before the creatures could notice their presence, Sophie shouted "NOW!" and the snake creature was hit by Lexi's brain blast, the lion creature was hit by Ace's laser vision, and Duck tossed a fire egg at the scorpion.
The spell faded. The 9 friends could now be seen again. Daniella got closer to the creatures and used her own wand to undo the enchantments placed upon them. They turn to a lion cub, a small snake, and a normal scorpion. She did another spell and the animals were placed inside a chamber of energy.
"Now that they're gone, we can go get that crystal," she said, going up another set of stairs to a pillar of stone. She pressed part of it and it fell apart. She did a retrieval spell, but nothing happened. "It's gone. It's not here!"
"Where could it be?" asked Wendy.
"I don't know," Daniella answered, "Let's keep looking for the others."
They drew closer to another hall with 3 creatures exactly like the first ones only slightly bigger. Tech used his magnetic power to throw a nearby metal pillar at the lion creature, Slam punched the snake creature before it could do anything in response, and Rev got on top of the scorpion, running off quickly before it could sting him so that it stung itself. Daniella did the same spells and the creatures were found to be adults this time.
"That's weird," said Daniella, "They were all supposed to be the same size." She went to the next pillar, this one of water and did a spell on it and nothing happened. "What's going on in here?"
They went down the final hallway and saw…nothing.
"That's weird," said Sophie, "Where are the--" She screamed before she could finish her sentence. She jumped in the air and landed in Tech's arms. Before any of them could ask why she had screamed, they saw a swarm of scorpions and a rattlesnake at the end of the hall in front of a pillar of fire. "Don't move, don't move, and don't drop me, Tech." Sophie squealed in fright and buried her face in Tech's shoulder, careful not to touch him with her hands and use his power again and make him drop her. Tech was unwilling to put her down, afraid that it may shock the creatures surrounding them.
Daniella held her wand tighter as Wendy got out hers. Sophie took her head out of Tech's arms and got out her wand. She zapped the scorpions at the same time that her sisters did. All of the creatures were hit by the conjoined spells and the scorpions disappeared, leaving behind the rattlesnake. Sophie got out of Tech's arms and Daniella did a spell to make the snake float and tossed it against the wall, knocking it unconscious.
Before anything could happen, all 9 of them ran to the pillar and found it empty as well.
"I don't get it," said Tech, "Why leave this place so guarded if the crystals aren't here to be guarded?"
"I don't know," said Daniella, "Wait, did you hear that?"
"No," said Lexi, "and if I of all people didn't hear it, than you must be delusional."
"No, I heard it, too," said Sophie. Wendy looked around and found nothing. Sophie noticed a rope and pulled on it.
The ground underneath their feet opened up.
"Uh oh," said Ace.
All of them fell through the hole, landing on a pad of dirt in a pile, Duck on bottom, Slam on top. They all got up, exercising their sore muscles.
"Where are we?" asked Tech.
"I don't know," said Sophie, "and I can't see a thing. Daniella?"
"I didn't even know that there was anything there besides the pillar," said Daniella, "Wait, I've got an idea." She held out her wand. "Litonia!" Her wand was lit with a glowing flame. She held it out farther and the entire hall could be seen up to the fork at the end of the hall. She placed her wand's flame within a torch on the wall and every single other torch in the hall was lit so that they could see everything.
The group approached the end of the hall and looked down both of the halls. Both of the halls turned.
"I'll-go-check-them," said Rev, getting ready to zoom down one of the halls.
"Wait," said Daniella, "we don't know what Eronor could have set down here if there's anything down here. Let us go."
Wendy and Sophie lit their wands and each went down a different hall. Daniella stood guard with the Loonatics. Suddenly, Sophie came running back from the right hall, screaming.
"There's...it's...I--"
"Whoa, whoa, Sophie, calm down," Tech said, "What happened?"
"I don't know," said Sophie, "I saw a giant scorpion, it stung me, I dropped my wand--"
"WHAT?" Daniella and Tech shrieked at the same time.
"You dropped your wand?" Daniella asked.
"You got stung?" Tech asked, "Where?"
Sophie took off her shoe. Her foot was a scorching red. In the place where the scorpion had stung her, there was a huge puncture wound that was oozing in blood. When the scorpion had stung her, it had dragged it stinger deep into her foot.
Tech was a little afraid to do what he was thinking of doing, but he had no choice. He placed his hand on the wound on her foot. The same searing pain erupted in his arm that Sophie had produced in the museum. He was ready for it this time, and willing to fight back as she slowly healed. The pain wasn't so bad on him, but what he didn't mean to do was transfer the pain slightly to her. They both felt deep in pain as Tech realized that she was finally fully healed and let go. Both of the coyotes fell to the ground, next to each other, and gasped for breath as they slowly regained what little consciousness they both had left.
Wendy came running back to them just as Sophie and Tech fell over. "Are you guys OK?" she asked.
"Yeah," Sophie said, "Now."
"We're fine, thanks," said Tech, getting up from the ground and grabbing Sophie's sleeve to help her up, careful not to touch any skin and release her uncontrollable ability.
"Good, cause I found the crystals," said Wendy, holding up the 3 purple diamonds that they had been looking for so long.
"Thanks, Wendy," said Daniella, taking the jewels from her sister and waving her wand to retrieve Sophie's wand (which came flying back from the other hall and went straight into Sophie's hand) and then transporting them all out of the fort, "Let's never come back here again."
"Agreed," they all said at the same time as they ran off back to the Loonatics HQ, leaving behind the fort that was infested with deadly creatures.