Vol. 06

Chapter 22

Luna stood in front of the doors of the candy castle waiting for anything. "Luna!" Selina called out as she ran to Luna with Marcella. "Oh? Where's Hermione?" Selina asked.

"She's inside."

"Well that's not fair! Why did she get to go in by herself?!" Selina looked at Luna in wonder.

"I gave her the OK to go in while I wait for you guys to come."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Marcella's paranoia kicked in, alerting Luna and Selina.

Inside the castle, everyone inside were amazed by the wonderful sweets from candies to pastries. On one table two boys were stuffing their faces with mini cakes. "Wow! These are real sweets! Amazing!" At another table, two teenagers were astound by the candies. "These candies look like gems. They're beautiful!" In the middle of this toothache madness, Hermione stood there and watch the commotion.

I may find some kind of clue in here. She thought to herself.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Everyone got their eyes on the Fantasy Prince. "Welcome to the candy castle! Please enjoy the show!"

"YEAH!" The children cheered in excitement. The Prince blew out red dust from his hand spreading all over the castle and around the people. Hermione looked alarmed by the dust and kept alert for anything wrong would happen. The dust eventually vanished and a forest took shape inside the castle. The teenagers were amazed by the beautiful flowers by their feet. "It's like a dream. I wish I could stay here like this forever." Hermione knows this is not normal.

"No way! This just can't be possible!" Hermione started to think fast of what to do.

I will take your energy while you are dreaming. The Prince thought to himself. He waved his hand over the crystal ball that he used on the mechanical animals and the energy from the people started to drain into the crystal ball. Slowly the children became tired and then the adults. Hermione fell on the ground and tried to support herself up and kept an eye on the Prince.

I see! That ball collects energy... Hermione started to loose her consciousness. As I thought, this is the place where everyone disappeared. She blacked out.

Outside of the castle, Marcella felt a unnerving chill down her back. Selina saw her reaction. "What's wrong?"

"Something's happened inside just now!"

"What?!"

"Oh no! Hermione is in there!" Luna panicked. Marcella tried to open the castle's doors.

"It's no use! It's locked!"

"Great! Now what we're going to do?" Selina complained.

"Don't complain about every little thing!" Marcella brought out her temper.

"Aren't you concern about Hermione just a little bit?"

"I didn't say that!"

"I just realized that you're such a cold person!"

"Don't jump into conclusions!"

"Both of you, SHUT UP! Now transform!" Luna shouted.

"Upon the Rule of Mars, Lend me Your Rage!" Marcella transformed.

"Come on, Selina, you too! Don't waste time!" Luna bothered Selina more.

"I know! Upon the Rule of Diana, Lend me Your Light!" Selina transformed, same with Luna.

"Iron Fist, Collide!" Marcella punched right through the door creating a giant hole. "Let's go!"

"She's being bossy again!" Selina complained and follow along without choice. Jason stood in the shadows of the castle keeping an eye on the Guardians. So, you have come, Guardian warriors. Today will be your last day! He continues to collect energy from the captured hostages in the castle. Selina, Marcella and Luna runs down the great hall as fast as they could but were stop mid way by the Fantasy Prince himself. He bowed to the warriors.

"Welcome to the candy castle. I have been waiting for you." Again, he blew out red dust from his hand towards to the warriors. The dust vanished creating a green acre field. The Guardians weren't sure what's going on.

"Be careful! This is an illusion!" Luna warned them. The Prince walked up to Marcella with a wreath of flowers.

"Here, this is a present for you."

"I don't think so!" Marcella grabbed the wreath from his hands, but before she ca toss it away, it transformed into a snake and bit her right through her leather padded glove on her left arm. She dropped the snake on impact, the snake coiled up and turned into stone. Marcella fell onto her knees with pain going through her arm.

"Oh my God! Mars! You called that an illusion?!" Selina panicked and yelled at Luna. The Prince laughed and vanished appearing again further from the Guardians. "Are you alright? How's your arm?"

"You're in big trouble now. The poison will spread through your blood and you'll turn into stone. See?" The Prince explained. Marcella's arm started to turn stone from her fingers and all the way up to her elbow. Selina freaked out in panic.

"Don't panic over something this small! Now I want you to back up, I need some room." Selina did what she said. Marcella closed her eyes, raised her infected arm up and screamed out with the pain. "IRON FIST, COLLIDE!" Marcella used all her strength and punched the ground creating a giant hole on the ground and also freeing her arm. "Whoo! Thank goodness! I wasn't even sure that would work!" Marcella was surprised yet happy. The same with Luna and Selina.

"Alright, there's no time to celebrate! It's time you revealed who you are!" Luna stood her ground, growling her opponent.

"Very well." The Prince bowed at the Guardians again and stopped the illusion, they return in the main hall. "Please wait for a moment." The Prince grabbed his cape and quickly wrapped himself completely creating a white cocoon with him inside it. The Guardians were confused once again. The cocoon started to spin on one spot like a ballerina with the music of Brahms' Lullaby. Luna doesn't want to know what comes next. As the cocoon spins, the white slowly turned into a dark purple. Finally the cocoon stopped spinning and stood. The Guardians were a bit frighten by the fact of not knowing what's inside of that cocoon. The cocoon unwrapped itself returning to it's cape form, the Prince was no longer in white but in a dark shade of purple. His eyes were completely blank white, showing no soul in them. He bowed to them again. "I'm sorry for the wait. Let me introduce myself. My name is Phantasos and I'm here to get you ladies lost in a world of fantasies."

"Looks like Jason has a God up his sleeve. Be careful, this man is the God of Illusions!" Luna explained to the Guardians.

"It seems that wolf of yours knows me than I anticipated." responded Phantasos.

"No matter! I can't forgive you for using the innocent hearts of dreaming souls! Under the Name of Diana, I will defeat you!"

"Like wise, Under the Name of Mars , I will destroy you!"

"Ooh, how scary. Let's go have another dream, shall we?" Phantasos blew out a huge amount of red dust from his mouth spreading it all around the Guardians like a sandstorm. When ended, The Guardians found themselves in a forest of white trees.

"Watch out! It's another illusion created by the God." Luna gave them a heads up.

"We'll be alright this time! We won't fall for anymore stupid traps!" Marcella sounding reassuring.

"I don't know about that." Selina wasn't sure about herself knowing she has been to this place before. The two reacted when they heard something.

"The sound of a horse's hooves! It's coming this way!" Marcella mentioned.

"Be alert!" Luna added. The three waited for whatever is coming. Appearing on a brown horse is a man in a green royalty uniform. Selina was shocked to see him outside of her frequent dreams. Marcella was pretty fond of the man herself.

"Wow! He's gorgeous!" Marcella commented. Selina walked slowly to the man feeling pretty safe about the approach. Marcella followed Selina assuming she knows what she's doing.

"It's you, from my dream!" Selina said. Marcella wasn't sure what she was talking about.

"Hey, hey! That's a trap!" Luna yelled out. Marcella at her heels and looked back at Luna confirming with her. She ran after Selina and tried to stop her from going to the man.

"Guardian Moon! Wait, don't go to him!" Before she could make it to her, the roots of the trees burst out from the ground and quickly grabbed hold onto Marcella pulling right against the tree and wrapping her up, making her immobile. "Damn it! Luna, you got to get Selina out of it!" Marcella yelled to Luna. Selina grab hold of the man's hand and helped herself onto the horse. Luna dashed to Selina as roots burst out of the ground like landmines trying to stop the wolf. Luna manage to dodge a few but until her last step a root eventually grabbed hold of the wolf.

"Guardian Moon! Snap out of it! It's not real!" Luna tried her best to wake Selina up but it didn't work. "You're falling right into the enemies trap!"

"You really did fall into the trap. I will take your energy while you are dreaming." said the man in the green uniform. Selina wasn't sure what he was talking about. He took out his crystal ball and waved his hand over it. Before the ball took any effect, a green leaf attacked his hand making him drop his ball to the ground and then a vine wrapped it's self around Selina's waist and pulled her into a another man's arms, Guardian Earth. The illusion stop, Luna found herself tangled up with lose rope and the same with Marcella. Selina looked up to the man who saved her.

"Hey, you saved me!"

"I guess I did." he responded still holding onto Selina. "You should dream only when you're sleeping. Until then, good bye!" Guardian Earth let go of Selina and dashed out through a high window. Selina stood there in shock of what just happened. Marcella got herself untangled from the ropes and ran to Selina.

"Are you alright?" Marcella grew concern for her colleague.

"All that was an illusion? Not real?!" Selina just realized what had just happened and grew very unhappy. Phantasos picked up his crystal ball making the Guardians very nervous.

"I will let you dream one more time." He mentioned.

"Let's get out of here for now!" Luna growled out and turn for the run, the same with the two Guardians. Phantasos blew out another sandstorm of red dust but they manage to escape it. They made it to the room where all the people were kept, finding Hermione struggling to get up from the floor.

"I shouldn't have come all by myself." She said under her breathe.

"Hermione! Are you okay?" The group ran to Hermione helping her up.

"Ahh, you came here to help me, how nice!"

"I hope we can, but..." Marcella wasn't able to finish her sentence when they heard Phantasos right behind him. "Uh-oh!" Hermione saw the crystal ball and remembered.

"Everyone, that bloody ball is what absorbs the energy!" Hermione pointed it out.

"Really?" Marcella responded.

"All three of you need to work together!" Said Luna.

"Upon the Rule of Mercury, Lend me Your Speed!" Hermione transformed despite her energy level. All three stood their ground ready for a fight.

"Oh?" Phantasos wasn't expecting a third warrior.

"Aim for that crystal ball!" Hermione yelled out. "Quicksilver Haze, Surround!" She blew out a large amount of quicksilver creating a thick fog, making it very hard to see through.

"Oh? Where did they go?" Phantasos looked around to see if he can find one of them. Up above, he saw Marcella coming down to him with pumped fist.

"Iron Fist, Collide!" Marcella punched the crystal ball to the ground causing it to shatter and the impact exploded making Phantasos loose balance and injuring himself. Selina grabbed her discus and set it to fly.

"Silver Moon, Watch my Aim!" Selina released the weapon and watch it fly to her enemy.

"I can't move without my energy! Oh well." Phantasos just stood in defeat waiting for impact. When finally got hit, he turned into a pile of dust.

"Yes! We did it!" Selina jumped in the air with joy.

Jason hiding in the shadows, lost his orb of energy. Boy, is he mad! "DARN YOU, GUARDIAN WARRIORS! You will pay for this!"

For the duration of the day, the girls celebrate their victory by helping themselves to a cone of ice cream for each of them. "Listen! You were able to win because all of you worked together! Don't forget about what happened today." Luna said it proudly.

"Yes, I know!" Hermione responded getting tired of Luna gloating ever second. Marcella look over to Selina wondering what happened back at the castle.

"About that guy that you thought he was real, who was he?" Marcella had to ask.

"Beats me, why you ask?" Selina continue to lick her ice cream hoping to change the subject.

"I don't know, you seemed like you know him or something."

"Don't be ridiculous! The guy is an illusion, remember?" Selina tried to cover up whatever is out there already.

"Okay, if you say so." Marcella let it go, but had a hunch.

"Anyway, interested on a water gun race? I bet ya I can beat you in five seconds flat." Selina wanted to have fun that day and she will have it like it or not.

"Yeah right! I bet that I can do better in three!"

"I'll race you there!"

"You're on!" The two ran to the games tent and amazing not dropping their ice cream cones at the same time. As the great Cyndi Lauper use to say 'Girls just wanna have fun!'. :)