A/N: This took faaaar too long to get back to, but here it is at last. As up to date as the dA version, I hope.
So we last left the gang setting up the competing Halloween parties as part of a plan to get Remy to let down his guard so Timantha and her team can get into his manor and rescue Tootie and Romi. However, things get a little tricky...
17
The next forty-eight hours had been a blur of activity for both sides involved in the war of Halloween parties. From booking DJs and caterers, to snapping up as many party supplies as possible, Remy and Michael clashed in every way possible aside from an all-out magic war, a war that Michael would most likely lose if the gloves were thrown down. Even though Remy had little experience with manipulating the stolen mana, it was still more than what the android could do with his repertoire of ancient spells. Even worse was the fact that the moment Michael cast one of those, his cover would be blown. The whole team would know that he wasn't the real Timmy Turner.
So the clashes were restricted to grabbing up things for the two parties, competing for the best treats and favors.
Timantha kept out of sight as much as she could after returning from New York with A.J. in tow. The teen genius had gotten the updates for the mana field generator and busily set to work applying those upgrades. Trixie had squealed with delight at seeing the dress Timantha had gotten while away, waving a gossip magazine about wildly as the brunette hung up the evening gown for display in one of the Ivory Tower's spare rooms.
"Oh my gosh, you went out and got a real Gucci dress with Caleb? But the magazines call him Hounder so that means he really is Hounder, just changed his clothes and put on a pair of sunglasses!" she exclaimed. Timantha gave her a weak smile, nodding in agreement. That day had been more hectic because of the cameras and her own finickiness in the dress she needed. Something distracting, but with enough flow and give that she'd be able to run for it and leap and flip if things went south. In the end, Caleb had dragged her into the offices of the Gucci designers and requested something specifically tailored to her list of needs.
That dress was one of a kind, and priced high enough to make Timantha want to breathe into a paper bag for a month straight. She had actually conjured one behind her back and held it to her face for her first session when the redhead wrote out a check on the spot to pay for the costs. He snatched the bag from her hands and gave her a stern look about it.
"He has several identities to keep his organization under control and still get all the things he's doing actually done." Timantha explained vaguely, "Hounder acts the most like Zelos, so when Caleb needs to be somewhere at the same time as Hounder, he just gets one of the Zelos androids to take his place for a while." She fingered the fabric of the dress, worrying over the plans being made. Despite knowing how everything was going to be set up, masterminding the plans for the party and the infiltration, she still had that deep concern for Tootie. Was she at least being treated okay in that room? Remy wouldn't let her starve, right?
"So did he ask you out?" Trixie suddenly asked, a sly smirk on her face as she nudged Timantha with her shoulder. The brunette yelped, eyes wide and face flushing.
"Wh-what?" she exclaimed, turning to the former Popular with a shocked expression. Trixie giggled behind her hand, winking at her.
"You knoooow~!" she cooed in return, "That A.J. kid! He's got a serious crush on you, didn't you notice? Did he try to ask you out to Remy's party? Did you say yes? C'mon, girlfriend, I need details!"
Timantha's face went blank, mind racing as a stream of 'This isn't happening!'s went screaming through her brain. Oh good Lord, Trixie couldn't possibly be trying to set the two of them up on a date, was she? Oh, gross, gross, gross! But she forced a wide smile that felt more like a grimace and shook her head.
"Ah, n-not really. He might have said something about the party, but I didn't quite catch what he said." she replied and the other teen planted her hands on her hips, eyebrow lifting as she gazed at Timantha's expression.
"Geez, if he's gonna be like that, then maybe he's not good enough to date my best girl friend." she mused aloud and shrugged, "Well, we'll see. Halloween's tomorrow, both parties are set to start at eight pm that night." She reached into her purse and pulled out a flier, holding it up for Timantha to see. "Look, Remy had hundreds of these posted all over Dimmsdale!" she added, pointing at the wording on the paper, "He claims he's going to unveil some great surprise that 'will ease the pain of Dimmsdale' or something. What if it has something to do with the Spires?"
"We won't know till my team's there to check out the mansion and rescue Tootie." the brunette sighed, but took the flier into her hand with a worried look. Whatever that surprise was, it couldn't be enough of an attraction to pull people away from the safety of the party in the park, right?
"By the way, Chester's been talking to the police here a lot lately." Trixie added somberly, leaning back against the wall beside the dress. Timantha gave her a surprised look and the former Popular gave a sad little smile as she kept her eyes on her shoes, twisting her foot from side to side as if to examine her toes. "All the evidence we've managed to collect, he handed over to the Chief of Police himself." she went on, "We're hoping that, maybe, after the Halloween parties were over, they'll reopen Timmy's case and start a new investigation. And maybe they'll use our evidence to prove Remy caused his death."
"I thought Timmy said he didn't really like that idea." Timantha remarked cautiously, and she still didn't like it too much. There was no reason to put Dimmsdale through that much pain again, like pulling the scab off a wound that hadn't fully healed yet and letting it bleed out a second time.
"He doesn't, but we're doing it anyway." Trixie returned haughtily, tossing her head so her hair flowed around her shoulders in that way that Timantha once found mesmerizing as a living ten-year-old boy. "We want the city to know the truth of what happened that day."
"And then what?" Timantha asked, frowning as she planted her hands on her hips. Trixie gave her a blank look and the brunette rolled her eyes. "Once Dimmsdale finds out that Remy murdered Timmy, what do you think will happen? This whole city's dumber than a rock; what's the first thing stupid people do? I mean, they already did it once when they found out about the Spires falling."
The Popular blinked a few times, rolled her eyes in thought, then laughed nervously, helplessly, as she hunched her shoulders. Timantha scowled. Yeah, they would; another riot, much larger and far more hostile this time, and there would be no chance of a fair trial. The entire city would fall on Remy and rip the boy apart to create the second death of a child in their history. And knowing how Dimmsdale would reason things -which would be badly, of course, because of how stupid they collectively are- this one would be justified simply because 'they were doing it for the Heart of Dimmsdale'.
She wasn't having that.
"Just leave the case in Caleb's hands. He's got some other Heroes working on turning it into something that can put Remy in jail alive so Dimmsdale can get what it wants without having to dig another kiddie-size hole in the ground." Timantha pointed out sternly, "I... I mean, Timmy doesn't want more people dying for his sake! Don't you get that?" The other girl said nothing, just frowned prettily and glared at the far wall. Timantha watched her a moment longer, then sighed. "Let's just get Tootie and Romi back first. We'll worry about everything else after that." she remarked quietly, and Trixie nodded in agreement.
Undisclosed location~
The pieces of aluminum foil had managed to be just enough for Tootie to create a small rod of flimsy metal, almost like a pathetic wand of sorts. Whether it would hold up long enough to let her cast Thunder Arrow again on the door was an entirely different matter. She wasn't sure it would last very long, so she held off on using it. Right now, though, Tootie's concern was a strange feeling she'd been having for the past couple of days, a faint headache and odd itching that seemed to be under her skin and just wouldn't leave her be no matter how much she rubbed.
It almost felt like her body was trying to shrink.
Romi spent her time resting nearby, eating the little magical orbs now and then to boost her magic supply. There was a powerful nullifier field around them and Tootie had worried that it would affect her fairy godmother badly, but the orbs seemed to keep her in one piece. At least she hadn't complained about being any worse off than the occasional headache of her own.
"It's possible that Timothy could be planning a rescue. He wouldn't ever leave one of his friends in the hands of his enemies." the fairy remarked, trying her best to keep her godchild cheered up, "Well, not for too long, I hope."
"Heh, heh, yeah. I know he'll come for us." Tootie agreed with a wry smile, rubbing at her arms as she waited for sleep to come, "Knowing him, it'll be big and flashy, so Remy gets the idea to back the hell off. But I just know I'm gonna miss out on Halloween, which is gonna suck." She thumped the back of her head against the wall with a sigh. "And I was planning on doing stuff with Sam, too... what a bummer."
Halloween came far too soon, as did the evening hours. Timantha stared out the window at the setting sun with a sense of dread, dressed in the beautiful gown that Caleb had custom-made for her. Made of a durable satin and colored a deep royal blue, it clung close to her body up top, with a v-neck that displayed a bit more of her cleavage than she was comfortable with. From the waist down, it flared out subtly, with slits on either side of her rising up to mid-thigh, just enough to give her the freedom of movement she wanted. It all clasped back behind her in loops through a silver ring. Opera gloves of matching color, strappy heels in shiny black faux leather, a choker bearing the Heart of Dimmsdale emblem strapped around her throat, and the promised 'magic bracelets' she'd conjured in her spare time completed the ensemble.
Well, almost.
"I take it I'm not the only one feeling uneasy about what will transpire tonight?" Anti-Cosmo murmured beside her, fluttering his bat's wings as he gazed out at the city. People were already leaving their homes, in costumes or in fancy dress, depending on which party they were attending. It seemed like the city was still divided; from what Timantha could see, an equal number of citizens were going to the party in the park and the ball at Remy's mansion.
"Yeah. Something's going to go wrong. I just don't know where or how." the brunette replied softly, hands gripping the windowsill. She leaned out, closed her eyes and just let the cool breeze play over her face and hair. Just for a moment, she wanted to pretend that none of this existed, that she wasn't a girl and undead and fighting to save her hometown, that all the stress and fear and hurt and fury was someone else's problem and all she had to do was just stand there and feel at home in the wind.
"Girlfriend, if you don't get back in here before you ruin that hair I spent hours brushing, I'm gonna smack your butt." Trixie's voice cut into the young immortal's thoughts. With a yelp of surprise, she pulled herself back inside as Anti-Cosmo poofed himself into the earring guise, dangling down in an elegant design to match her dress. Once assured that his cover wasn't blown she looked over at the older girl, jaw dropping at her outfit.
The familiar apparel of the Amity Park Goth looked so bizarre on Trixie; really, what possessed her to dress like Sam Manson? The Asian grinned and spun on her heels, the combat boots strange on her feet as she did a twirl. "What do you think?" she asked of Timantha, "I want to see the look on Tootie-Fruitie's face when she gets back and sees me dressed up as her Goth idol. It'll be so worth it!" Timantha just blinked rapidly before bursting into laughter.
It felt good to laugh and Trixie's confidence that Tootie would be back with them in order to see the outfit bolstered her own. From the looks of the smile on Trixie's face, that seemed like the effect she wanted. The anti-fairy on her ear just huffed under his breath in that faintly exasperated way that someone who didn't really mean it would use.
"Thanks for that, Trixie." the brunette returned warmly, "I really needed the boost." They both smiled at each other, then jumped collectively when Chester stuck his head in the doorway and yelled out to them.
"Hurry it up, guys! I mean, gals!" he declared, waving an arm at them excitedly, "We're doing last minute briefs in the war room before we split into teams!" The girls nodded and Trixie began following the blonde before pausing to look back at Timantha.
"I'll catch up in a bit." the brunette told her and pointed at her bare ear, "Gotta find my other earring." A good excuse for just a bit more private time. The other girl nodded again and hurried off, makeshift ponytail bouncing as she ran. Once alone, Timantha headed back to the window and looked out again, this time with her eyes on the remaining three Dark Spires still standing, puncturing the sky over the city in the dying light of day. That sense of dread had receded, but still it lurked just under her thoughts.
.
The last minute briefing just confirmed everything the team knew they'd be doing that night. A.J., Chester, Mark Chang and Timantha would be going to Remy's party to rescue Tootie and Romi. The three boys would be responsible for getting through the hall of nullifiers and destroying them so they could rescue the two without harm. Timantha was to be on hand for combating Remy if the boy billionaire tried using the aionis staff and Timmy's stolen mana against them.
"You could always try flirting with him to keep him distracted." Trixie suggested to the brunette with a laugh.
"Ew, gross! No!" Timantha immediately rejected the idea. A.J. nodded emphatically, agreeing with her.
"He's not even her type!" he declared, waving a hand around wildly in the air. The group stared at him, blinking in unison, before going back to looking towards Michael, the android still posing as Timothy Neogene.
"Timantha will do what she can to keep Remy off your backs, okay?" he remarked with one eyebrow raised quizzically, a hand resting on his hip, "Why are we even arguing over how she does it?"
"So we go in-side the puny human's dwelling and retrieve the Tootie while the other Tur-ner does... whatever." Mark parroted for his own sake and nodded, "Good plan."
"While you twerps are doing that, Timmy's gonna host the party in the park with the rest of us." Vicky added, waving one of the party fliers before herself, "Chip's gonna do some song to remind everybody who the real Heart of Dimmsdale is. That should be enough to keep eyes on us so you'll have an easier time getting my sis and her toy back."
"Then we all know our roles. Remember, we've only got one shot at this." Michael remarked firmly, looking at each member of the team to be sure they understood the seriousness of the situation, "We can't wish for a do-over; we still have three Spires up and that's strong enough to screw up a big wish like that. So make this count."
Buxaplenty Manor~
Rented limousines and cars pulled through the drive-around, dropping off party-goers dressed in their very best outfits. The manor grounds were beautifully decorated with black ribbons and streamers, glittering as though dusted with crushed diamonds. The manor was full of lights, strings of them hung from trees and bushes where ribbons weren't already placed, and people either lingered around outside, admiring the views, or were streaming into the manor itself.
Timantha stepped out of the rented limo, worried gaze fixed on the manor as she bit delicately into her lower lip. That dread feeling had never really gone away. A.J. stepped up beside her, a concerned expression on his face.
"Everything okay, Timantha?" he asked her. The brunette blinked and gave him a weak smile, nodding despite feeling far from okay. "Well, Mark and Chester are already heading inside, so we should be going too." the boy genius murmured and started fidgeting nervously, "Um, uh, w-would you l-like to-?"
"It'd be better if we went separately." Timantha interrupted softly. Need to nip that in the bud, if only for her own sake. A.J. looked down, the sting of rejection on his face, and she immediately felt bad for it. "As, um, nice -yeah, nice- as it would be to go in with you, I need to keep myself separate from The Others in order to keep Remy distracted without making him suspicious." she added quickly, "It's not you, really! We just have to focus on our mission."
"Right! Date later, Tootie now." A.J. huffed with renewed confidence and self-importance. He marched towards the steps, moving stiffly as he made his way into the manor. Timantha watched him until he vanished inside, then sighed heavily. One of her earrings twitched in response.
"Are you still thinking something is going to go wrong?" Anti-Cosmo whispered.
"Yeah, it's really messing with my focus." Timantha muttered and pressed her fingers to her forehead, "But then, it's been going in and out for a while now. I can't seem to hold my thoughts together for long. Is this part of being a girl in her teens?" She pinched the bridge of her nose, then pulled her hand down and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I just need to keep it together long enough to free Tootie and Romi." the brunette decided and took a deep breath before making her own way to the manor.
.
Inside the manor was a sight to behold. The main foyer and nearly every room she could see was full of people, drinking champagne and nibbling on appetizers, chatting with others and dancing in the ballroom where a small orchestra played. Timantha felt more lost than when she went through the place back when she was rescuing Apollo and Chester. Where would Remy be when his mansion was full of random people?
She drifted from room to room, giving polite smiles as greetings to some of the party-goers while she searched. The guy had to be around here somewhere, lording it up and waving that scepter with her stolen mana around like he was some kind of mini-emperor. And... there go her thoughts again, scattering wildly before she could rein them back in. She wandered back to the ballroom, looking around herself for any glimpse of white tuxedo and blonde hair she could find. Nothing.
"Tch. If he's not going to be here, then I'm going to join the guys at the hallway." Timantha muttered under her breath, "With you and Anti-Wanda with me, I won't be affected by the nullifier field." Anti-Cosmo just hummed, a tone of concern painting the sound. Not satisfied with the response, the young immortal turned on her heel and stepped out of the ballroom, unaware of the pair of eyes that had been watching her every move.
"Wanda...?"
.
She found the boys trying to covertly destroy the half-spheres lining the corridor. Primly-dressed men and women kept wandering around the area, which meant A.J. and Chester were constantly scrambling to yank Mark back from the corridor and whistle as they loitered around the entrance, trying to look like they weren't up to anything. Timantha grinned at the sight. How often had she done the same thing herself in other, similar situations?
"Having trouble, guys?" she asked with a laugh as she approached the group. They looked her way in surprise, A.J. jumping to attention with a broad smile on his face.
"Some, yeah. Every time we get set up to destroy these things, some idiot comes bumbling by, asking if this is the way to the bathroom." Chester griped, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the rest of the party-goers in general. A.J. nodded and gave Mark a suspicious glare.
"On top of that, what Mark here did manage to shoot out was done using a laser blaster I've never seen before." he added, "Like... alien technology." Timantha stiffened, eyes shooting over to look at the disguised alien in his green tuxedo who just stood there smiling hugely at them in complete obliviousness. She was greatly reminded of Cosmo just then, and for a split-second wondered how he and Wanda were doing with Michael. "Hey, Mark; where'd you get that blaster?" A.J. asked.
"Tur-ner says that everything I use comes from the IN-ter-net!" Mark declared, throwing his arms -and the blaster- up into the air. He brought them straight down at his sides, still smiling widely, then abruptly stuck them out to catch the quite-obviously-alien blaster gun before it could hit the floor and go off.
Three pairs of eyes just stared at him in silence.
"Uh, right." Chester muttered, "That kid is just too weird. And we hang out with the undead one."
"Hey!" Timantha protested indignantly and the blonde lifted his hands with a shrug.
"No offense to your cousin, but you gotta admit it would be kind of weird to be undead." he amended. The 'undead' kid sighed and let her shoulders droop helplessly. Couldn't be helped; he was kind of right.
"Ugh, can we forget about that right now and get on with saving Tootie and Romi?" she finally griped and pointed towards the adjoining hallway that still had people loitering around in search of the ever-elusive bathroom, "I'm going to build an illusion around us. Maybe that'll keep other people away long enough for you guys to finish destroying those nullifiers."
"But magic doesn't work around them." A.J. pointed out with a raised eyebrow, "That's the reason why we need to destroy them."
"I'm using a different kind of magic. Just trust me on this!" Timantha declared in exasperation and focused as hard as she could on the image in her mind. A bubble of deep violet grew out from around her, shifting around as it molded itself to match the image in her mind. A wall, solid brick, to appear as if it cut off access to the corridor from the adjoining hallway; she built the illusion and then placed it firmly before herself, backing into the corridor to avoid breaking it in case someone tried to get through and tripped over her.
"Did you just conjure a solid brick wall?" A.J. questioned in surprise while Mark turned around and started firing a steady beam of energy at a nullifier, Chester taking a baseball bat to another one. "I thought Timmy was the only human who could conjure stuff!"
"It's not conjuring!" Timantha growled, "And be quiet! I haven't got the sound-proofing part of the illusion put in place." She strained to fit the idea of silence into the wall, cutting off the noise in the corridor from anyone on the other side of the illusion. When had dark magic become such a difficult thing to work with? As much as she didn't like it, she'd been able to manipulate it just as easily as her regular magic. Now it was like trying to mold quick-drying cement instead of clay. Once the illusion was in place, she carefully relaxed, keeping an eye on the wall to be sure it held without her constant concentration.
"It appears to be holding, but I wouldn't count on it lasting for very long." Anti-Cosmo whispered, Timantha's other earring dangling about merrily. She counted herself doubly lucky -funny to say that with anti-fairies so close to her- that Anti-Wanda decided to just watch everything in silence and that the color earrings the couple chose to disguise themselves as was dark enough to hide the tiny black crowns emblazoned on the studs holding the long teardrop-shaped accents.
She nodded and put one last mental shove out to get the barrier in place. "There. It's not gonna last us all night, so hurry up." Timantha breathed out.
Remy was finding it more and more difficult to keep the false smile on his face as he stood by the model of a park with the little statue of himself shaking hands with the toy Timmy. People would come into the display room and 'ooh' or 'aah' over the model, clapping their hands and nodding approvingly. Though he was certain this was gaining him a lot of merit towards becoming the new Heart of Dimmsdale, the strain of having all these plebeians in his beautiful home was beginning to wear on his nerves.
On top of that, Juandissimo had the nerve to disappear into the party as well, claiming he just wanted to check up on things. He must have remembered that he had yet to meet his quota of preening in front of a mirror...
Still, things were going well. A great number of people had appeared for his party, probably far more than were going to the mongrel's little 'shindig' or whatever.
He tapped his fingers on the crystal ball holding the orb of mana, his smile becoming a bit more genuine. Yes, everything was going perfectly. He had magical power of his own, the idiots of Dimmsdale were practically eating from his hand and even with only three Spires up, the mongrel wasn't doing anything to them with the little Goth brat in his possession. This Halloween was going splendidly.
With that thought in mind, Remy decided to grace the masses with his presence and left the display room.
"Can't you go any faster?" Timantha demanded after a while. Watching the guys break nullifiers down at what felt like a crawl was getting to her. Mark was burning through them just fine, a few seconds with the alien laser and the nullifier sphere was just sludge on the floor. Chester, however, was taking too long in smashing the bat against them. The wood was splintering and he hadn't even gone through five of them!
"Man, are all girls pushy like this?" Chester grumbled under his breath, "Or is it just the magical ones?"
"Oh for crying out loud..." Timantha groused and stomped down the hallway herself, "Chester, stop it. I'm gonna need you and A.J. to work on breaking down that door. These nullifiers are mine." She stretched an arm out, hand open and facing the remaining devices down his half of the corridor. Mark could handle his half just fine, and should be done by the time the boys opened the door.
Chester just rolled his eyes and headed for the locked door with the boy genius at his side. "You seriously wanna date that chick?" he asked the other. A.J. just made several indecipherable noises that sounded like his tongue went into spasms outside his mouth, a dreamy look on his face. The blonde half-swore he saw little hearts floating around him. "You have some strange taste in girls." Chester sighed. "Then again, girls have strange tastes in guys, too." he amended, thinking of Trixie and Tootie both.
The two of them bent to work on prying open the door, jumping at the sound of several small explosions behind them. They spun around in shock, eyes wide and jaws dropped at the sight of the wall of nullifiers smoking, empty holes where the devices had been, now nothing more than shattered pieces of metal, hard plastic and silicon scattered over the floor. Mark was laughing maniacally, burning a line through the wall now, indiscriminately searing laser-fire through panel and nullifiers alike. Timantha just stood there, waving her hand free of lingering smoke and blowing over it with a faint grimace.
"That was strange. Dark magic's never burned me like that before." she grumbled, "Something's definitely not right."
The rest of the nullifiers finally melted into slag and dripped all over the floor. Mark pumped his fists into the air in victory. "Now to retrieve the Tootie!" he declared and ran for the door, arms still above his head, "Banzaaaai!"
"Ah! Wait! Don't go in yet! The door's still locked!" Chester and A.J. both exclaimed frantically, waving their hands before themselves. Timantha watched from where she stood, wincing at the loud crash of bodies and wood splintering as Mark barreled through the door like a bull.
"Well, that's one way of doing this." she remarked offhandedly, folding her arms under her bust, "I hope you three didn't land right on top of Tootie!" There was silence and she raised an eyebrow, tilting her head slightly. "Guys? You okay in there?"
Wood shifted around, things crashed a bit more, and Chester finally stumbled out of the room on unsteady legs, head hanging as he braced himself against the doorway by one arm. His clothes were torn and dusty from the collision. Timantha stared at him, dread coiling in the pit of her stomach as her face paled. Something had gone wrong; that awful feeling from earlier had been right all along.
"Chester! What happened?" she finally demanded in fear.
"Timmy got played. We all got played." the blonde answered in a flat, dead tone. A.J. and Mark stepped out after him as well, looking defeated, their tuxedos ripped and dirty as well.
"What do you mean? What's going on?" the brunette demanded of them, her voice shaky. Chester just lifted his free hand, a simple black wand topped with a gold star clutched tightly in his fist. Timantha gasped, eyes wide in realization. "That's... that's Romi's wand... isn't it?" she murmured, more statement than question.
"Yeah. The Fairy Wand Locator couldn't find it, so we assumed that it meant Tootie and Romi were being held in places with nullifier fields." the boy genius explained as if she were clueless, "Chester already checked Bender's office with Chip, and she wasn't there."
"That left this place, the same place I was held prisoner for a while earlier this year." Chester growled, "But she's not here, both of them aren't here! All that was in there was the damn wand!"
"Well, then if Tootie and Romi aren't in there and they weren't at Bender's, then where could Remy be keeping them? There's no way of tracking either of them without some kind of GPS tracking chip on them!" Timantha cried, hands flying up to her head, "What am I going to tell Vicky? She's going to murder me!"
"She'll probably take it out on Timmy, not you." A.J. pointed out. Which in her mind was even worse since the role of 'Timmy' was currently being played by Michael, and if Vicky got her hands on him...
"Brr... that's not going to end well." she whimpered, clutching her arms in a huddle, "Caleb won't hit a girl, Caleb won't hit a girl... no, some of the bad guys he faced were girls. He'll hit a girl... he'll own on a girl..."
"Tough luck, Brahs. No Tootie to retrieve here." Mark commiserated with them for all of three seconds before perking right back up, patting the boys on the shoulder cheerfully, "Well, I'm gonna hit the dumpster out back before they start chucking that hi-de-ous good food into it! Catch ya later, dudes!" And he dashed off before anyone could think to call him back.
"He'll be fine. Remy still has no clue he's with The Others." Timantha sighed, rubbing her head, "But now we're back to square one! Where the heck are Tootie and Romi being held?"
From behind her back, a familiar accented voice spoke up. "I may be willing to tell you that bit of información... if you will help me with something first." Juandissimo offered with a dark purr. Timantha spun around, glaring furiously at him as A.J. and Chester both straightened themselves, scanning the area quickly for signs of Remy. "Have no fear, my little flowerbud. Remy is catering to his ego for now." the vain fairy told her with a smarmy smile that fell into a thin little smirk, "However, my offer stands only if your gentlemen guards leave this place."
"Why you little-!" A.J. yelled, stomping towards the fairy and looking ready to pummel him. Timantha threw out an arm to bar his way, eyes narrowed at Juandissimo.
"Hang on." she muttered and then raised her voice, "How do I know you're not just gonna turn me over to Remy? Why should I believe you when you say you'll tell me where Tootie and Romi are?"
"I give my word as an honorable fairy, I will tell you if the gentlemen leave and you help me." Juandissimo returned and clapped a hand over his heart dramatically, "I swear it upon my love for mi amor, Wanda!" Timantha raised an eyebrow at him before turning to the two boys growling behind her.
"Go find Mark and get out of here. Head back to the others at the park and tell them what happened here." she whispered quickly, "I'm going with Juandissimo." At the pair of outraged cries of protest, she simply shook her head. "He swore on his love for Wanda; that's not something he takes lightly, so I'll trust him for now." the brunette told them, then gave them a small smile, "I'll be fine, you guys. Just go and make sure Remy doesn't see you, or call Timmy and have him wish you over to the park."
A.J. didn't look entirely convinced but Chester blinked, then straightened himself up to his full height, looking down at her with a stern gaze, as if to dare her to try hiding any doubts about the situation she was getting into. She just stared back, glowering up at him. Eventually, the blonde nodded and turned to the dubious third member of their group.
"She'll be okay, A.J., so chill. Let's get the weird kid and get wished to the park." Chester told him, "We need to get a jump start on coming up with a new plan anyway." He started walking out of the corridor, clutching the wand in one hand and giving Juandissimo a dark glare as he passed. A.J. hesitated for a few moments, giving Timantha a worried look before he sighed and followed the Leader of The Others out as well.
With them gone, Timantha focused her attention on the fairy still hovering before her, scowling in displeasure. "All right, Juandissimo. You've got my attention. What do you want?" she growled.
"Come with me. There is something I need you to open for me." Juandissimo murmured and fluttered his wings, flying out of the corridor and down the adjoining hallway.
"This may just be paranoia speaking in place of logic, but has that feeling of dread left you yet?" Anti-Cosmo asked quietly. Timantha shook her head slowly. "Hm. It hasn't left me either. Tread most carefully, dear nece."
She swallowed hard and began walking, keeping herself alert for any chance of a double-cross.
.
Down below, Remy happened to glance up at the movement of people on the hallway above him, the sight of a wall blocking off his nullifier-filled corridor giving him reason to pause in confusion. How had that gotten there? His gaze swept over the walkway and landed on the figure of a girl dressed in deep blue and black, a brunette. She had a peculiar expression for a high-class citizen of Dimmsdale, a very determined and wary look on her face.
She looked like she knew something the rest of the plebs didn't.
"Hm. And where are you off to, my dear?" Remy muttered under his breath, gripping the scepter tightly. This bore investigation...