Chapter 7

Sophie knew the spell Eronor had cast on her. She couldn't move. When the spell wore off and she was released, she would be sacrificed. She knew Tech wouldn't let that happen, but he and her sisters had no idea where she was. She didn't even know where she was. She struggled against her invisible bonds, but nothing happened.

"Struggle all you want," said a male voice, "You're not getting out until the spell is released."

The man walked closer to reveal that he was none other than Eronor.

"I thought it was you," said Sophie, "Let me go! You can't destroy me if my sisters aren't here, anyway."

"Yeah, but they will be here in no time looking for you," said Eronor, "And when that happens, they'll be mine."

"That's not going to happen," said Sophie, "The Loonatics will stop you."

"Those mortal animals? Compared to me, they have no power. They'll go with you and your sisters. And even if they do find you, they won't get past my guards. And if they do, nothing and no one gets past me. After you guys are out of the way, nothing will save your parents, and then, I will be unstoppable."

"My parents?"

Eronor left the room cackling loudly. Sophie knew that she and her friends were doomed if anything went wrong. She closed her eyes and saw nothing but Tech.

"Tech…"

She opened her eyes, hoping that he would appear. Nothing was there.

* * *

The 2 sisters and coyote and roadrunner searched rapidly and hopefully for Sophie. With Rev's super speed, the 4 of them were handling 7 computers at the same time looking for her genetic reading. There was no sign of her.

"Maybe he took her back to Anasala?" suggested Tech.

"No, when our people exiled him to your realm, they took away his ability to transport back to Anasala," explained Daniella, "He can do almost any spell otherwise though. They didn't really think it through when they just took that ability and nothing else. For all we know, we could be without her reading either because she's hidden through a concealment charm or because she's already…you know."

"That's it!" said Tech, angrily getting up from his chair and starting to leave the room, "I'm not going to let that happen! I'm going to find her if it's the last thing I ever do!"

"Yeah, that's--what?" Wendy cried, "Tech, you can't! If Eronor finds out that you like her, it will be the last thing you ever do. What do you think Sophie would think about that? What do you think she would do if she were in your place?"

At this thought, Tech hung his head, his ears drooping as he began to cry. Wendy sat back down and Tech saw nothing but Sophie's face as the tears poured down.

Rev rushed up to him. "Don't-cry-Tech-I-feel-the-same-way-about-Daniella-and-did-I-just-say-that-out-loud?"

"Yeah, you did," said Daniella, getting up from her chair, "You really like me like that?" Rev nodded. Daniella smiled. "Hey, Duck!"

Duck "quacked" in. "Did I hear you call me?"

Wendy got back up and walked over to him. "If I were in this situation, would you be concerned for me?"

"Of course," Duck said, "What kind of question is that?"

"Yeah, exactly how much concern would be involved here?"

"Well, uh, I like you," said Duck, shyly. Wendy smiled.

"OK, now that we have that established," said Tech, "ARE WE GOING TO TRY TO SAVE SOPHIE OR NOT?!"

"Oh, we're going," said Wendy, "And we're going to save her no matter what happens."

* * *

The 8 friends had arrived at the spot where Daniella claimed Eronor was banished to. There was a small hut on the outside, but when they slowly opened the door, they saw a huge lair, highly guarded by the Order of the Scorpion.

"How are we going to get past them and find Sophie?" asked Ace.

"We can't," said Wendy, "There's too many of them. There's no way we'd be able to sneak past them all."

Ace got out his sword. "Who said anything about sneaking past them?" His eyes glowed yellow again as he jumped through the door and attacked the various guards. He wiped them out one by one using his karate skills and his laser vision until there was nothing left in the room but him and a pile of unconscious Warlocks.

"I'm surprised they didn't use any magic on you or anything," said Lexi.

"Sometimes when they're not prepared for it, they don't have enough time to concentrate during an attack and can't launch a spell," said Daniella, referring to the Order's guards who now lay around, scattered on the floor, "Now let's go get Sophie back."

The group made it past the rest of the guards to a hall that led straight to the room where Sophie was being held captive. They could even see the door.

"Are you sure she's in there?" Tech whispered.

Wendy closed her eyes. "Yes, I can hear her thoughts." She opened her eyes. "But we don't know what Eronor has guarding this hall."

Daniella looked around. She didn't see anything. She nodded to signal that the coast was clear and the group all made their way through the door. As soon as they were all in there, the doors slammed shut behind them…even though none of them had touched it. They all approached the door and tried to open it. "It's locked."

"Great," said Duck, "Now what do we do?"

Lexi detected a life form with her super hearing. "Do you hear that?"

"Of course we don't, Lexi," said Duck, "We don't have your hearing, you know."

"Yeah, I know, I was just curious as to whether or not you could hear it," said Lexi, her eyes glowing pink as she looked around, "It sounds like some sort of hissing noise."

"Hissing?" asked Daniella, suddenly realizing what Lexi meant, "Uh, don't move." She made her way to the corner of the hall and looked around the corner. She saw scales. She gasped and quickly made her way back to her sister and friends. "If any of you see something that doesn't look like one of us, close your eyes."

"Uh, why do we have to do that?" asked Tech.

"Because there's a giant snake around the corner and I think it might be a Basilisk," whispered Daniella.

"A what?" asked Duck.

"It's a giant snake that scares spiders and kills people by looking them in the eye," explained Daniella.

"OK, slightly scared now," said Tech, whimpering a little as he spoke with his ears drooping.

Ace looked and saw a tail against the wall. "Oh, boy." He got out his sword again and began to slowly walk to the corner like Daniella had done. Before the snake could look his direction, he jumped at it and dug his sword deep into its flesh. The snake screeched as it tossed him around trying to get the sword out, but Ace wouldn't let go. "This…was…not…a…good…I…dea!" Ace said as he was flung around, only speaking a syllable at a time every time he reached his friends again.

The snake finally gave up as the sword went in deeper and landed on the ground, inches away from Tech. He pulled back his foot a few steps and then, when he knew it was dead, walked closer. He was curious as to what exactly the creature was. Just as he leaned over to examine the thing, one of its eyes opened. Tech closed his eyes in time to keep it from seeing him, but the last move the snake made was to dig its fang so deep into Tech's fur that it came out of its mouth as it died. Tech howled in pain as the fang injected its venom into his bloodstream.

From the other side of the door, Sophie could hear Tech's cry. "Tech…"

Tech pulled out the fang and used his power to make the wound go away. It healed, but it wouldn't stop bleeding…

"How is that possible?" asked Tech.

"Basilisk venom works in weird ways," said Daniella, "The only way to really heal it is with Phoenix tears. Don't worry, you'll be fine eventually."

The door suddenly opened and the group rushed in to find Sophie. Daniella saw her first and realized what spell Eronor had placed on her. She waved her hand and Sophie could move again. Sophie got up and ran up to hug her sisters and Tech, all 3 at the same time.

"I knew you'd come back for me!" said Sophie, "I just knew it! We've got to get out of here now."

"We just got here, defeated near 100 guards and a Basilisk just to rescue you and you're focused on leaving?" asked Wendy. Sophie nodded. "OK."

Before any of them could go back through the door, it slammed shut just like the other one had. All the lights went out and Daniella, Wendy, and Sophie had to light their wands again. They looked around. Nothing was there. They looked up and saw Eronor with his own wand.

"I thought you'd get this far," he said, "Too bad you're not going any farther."

"Forget it, Eronor," said Sophie, "This between you and our family. Leave them out of this."

Eronor smiled mischievously. He waved his wand and launched out a spell. They all ducked and the spell bounced off the wall behind them and ricocheted throughout the room. It was too dark to see anything, so when the girls tried to protect the Loonatics, they all caught Slam. The spell hit all 5 of the others. They were pretty much bouncing off the walls trying to deflect it, but it didn't work. Their eyes all faded to black. Eronor had cast a mind control spell on them.