Author's Note: Please read and review.
Chapter 65: VIP
"What in the world was that?!" Mike asked.
"Ssh!" Piper hissed. "We're invisible, but we can still be heard."
"What just happened?" Mike asked quietly.
"I have no idea," Piper answered but pointed at a hole in the wall behind them, "but we can take a look through there. Remember, be quiet." Mike nodded and they crept over to the hole and peered through. There were about a dozen German soldiers on the floor, dead and a group of other Germans pushing themselves up off the floor. One of them was the Devil and one of the other men standing up made Mike's heart stop. He was unmistakable.
"Is that who I think it is?" Mike asked.
"I think so," Piper cringed and indicated a small scythe on the ground that was glowing. "Adolf Hitler. And I think that's what killed those soldiers." Mike watched through the hole as they all started looking around and speaking in German.
"What are they saying?" Mike asked.
"I'm not really sure," Piper said holding up a hand to shush him with. Mike waited and watched. Piper seemed to be trying to listen hard in order to try and translate in her head while the men in the room began arguing. "I think they're saying that thing did all that."
"That scythe killed them?" Mike asked. "How? There's no blood anywhere."
"It's magic," Piper said. "It has a defense mechanism. If it's used wrong, it kills."
"What is it supposed to do?" Mike asked.
"I don't know yet," Piper said. "But the Devil says he knows how to work it."
"And that's probably bad," Mike said. The men continued to speak very heatedly before the Devil picked up the scythe causing everyone who was still alive to back away or duck behind cover. The Devil laughed a little at their reactions, but spoke softly in perfect German to them, though Mike had no idea what he was saying.
"That has something to do with time," Piper said. "He's saying something about it won't kill anyone if it's handled right. He needs one more item to make it work…"
"Time?" Mike echoed.
"I think I know what that is," Piper said slowly. "It's an ancient artifact crafted by Egyptian priests and magicians disguised to look like a normal weapon. But it opens time portals. It was a gift from the gods."
"So how did it kill all those men?" Mike asked.
"Shockwave is my best guess," Piper answered. "I'm not entirely sure, but from what I gathered from the conversation is that the last bomb knocked it loose from its bearing and it released a defensive shockwave. I'm guessing that's where this hole came from, too. My German isn't that good, though."
"So that thing can open a time portal," Mike said. "And it's in the Devil's hands. He's gonna use it and go home, leaving us alone in the middle of a war. We have to stop him."
"The good news is he needs something else to make it work properly," Piper said. "So we have time to formulate a plan."
"Well, we need to steal it from him," Mike said. "I'm going to assume from what I've read in history books they never got that thing to work anyway, so I doubt stealing it would change history."
"Agreed," Piper said. "Now we just have to figure out how to steal it. There are too many high powered weapons in there."
"Can't you freeze everything in there?" Mike asked.
"That's a time device," Piper said. "My power works by manipulating time. I don't know how it's going to interact, but I doubt it's going to work right."
"Ok, so another plan," Mike started before Piper slapped her hand over his mouth. He wasn't sure why until he realized that Hitler and a few other soldiers were walking towards the door. They had to be quiet so they wouldn't be heard. They watched as Hitler was led out the door leaving the dead bodies, the Devil and a few other soldiers alone in the room. Before the door closed, Piper grabbed Mike's wrist and they dashed into the room.
"We need to get that from him," Piper said softly.
"Yes, but how?" Mike whispered.
"Well, I have to at least try to use my magic," Piper answered.
"And if it backfires?" Mike asked.
"I don't know, but I have to try," Piper carefully put up her hands as though trying to freeze the room, but it didn't work. The scythe, however, glowed in the Devil's hand.
"Was war das?" said one of the officer staring wide-eyed at the scythe. The Devil looked down at the scythe in his hand.
"There appears to be a little witch here," the Devil said in English looking around the room. "That's what that was. A little invisible witch who thinks she can freeze time. Not with this in here, sweetie. You can't touch me. Show yourself, or I'll order them to fill this room with bullets."
"What do we do?" Mike whispered.
"On my signal, grab the scythe," Piper said.
"What signal?" Mike asked but she didn't answer. She waved her arms at the soldiers with the guns sending them flying into the far corners of the room. Mike darted toward the Devil instinctively since he was now the only one left standing and knocked him to the ground. The Devil yelled as the scythe was knocked out of his hand. Piper tried to make it come to her magically, but it must have been protected. It glowed again and stayed where it was.
"Get up!" the Devil roared at the soldiers around him. "Steh auf! Schießen sie!" One of the soldiers who was able to get up pointed a gun near Mike and began firing before Piper was able to knock him off his feet again.
"Mike, grab the scythe!" Piper yelled. Another soldier stood up and started spraying bullets across the room. Mike felt a sharp pain in his shoulder as he dropped to the ground to take cover before Piper could use her powers to rip the gun from the soldiers hand.
"Blood," the Devil smiled pointing at the ground where Mike was lying. His shoulder was bleeding a little and the Devil could see the blood. "Er ist da! Tötet ihn!"
"Mike, grab it, now!" Piper exclaimed knocking over every soldier who stood up like bowling pins and ripping their guns far from their grasps. Mike pushed himself up and darted toward the scythe, but the Devil caught him by the pants and Mike fell to the ground, smacking his face hard against the concrete floor. The Devil reached in his pocket and pulled out a knife as he pinned Mike to the ground.
"Show yourself!" the Devil roared. "Unless you want more blood spilt!" Mike looked at Piper who appeared to be getting tired. All the soldiers were standing and some had pulled small pistols from their waistbands in place of their high powered rifles. Piper couldn't keep them from shooting and knock the Devil off Mike at the same time. Mike knew she had no choice but to surrender. Piper lowered her arms and at the same time they must have become visible once again because the Devil smiled. "Fesseln sie."
The soldiers moved toward Piper and grabbed her. The Devil was still pinning Mike to the ground, so unfortunately all he could do was watch as they pulled her to a chair and tied her up to it tightly. His mind immediately started running through other ways they could get out of this, but he couldn't think of anything. With Piper not being able to freeze the room, they were sitting ducks. The Devil finally got off him and went to grab the scythe again as the soldiers grabbed Mike and tied him to a chair next to Piper.
"You know, I really should have them execute you," the Devil said. "But I might have another use for you first."
"You kill us and you get stuck here," Mike said. "You may never get that thing to work."
"Oh I will," the Devil answered. "I'm only missing one thing to make it work."
"What's that?" Mike asked.
"The blood of a witch," the Devil smiled at Piper. "I thank you for bringing it to me."
"Leave her alone!" Mike exclaimed struggling against his ropes.
"Relax, Michael," the Devil said with that evil smile Mike hated so much. "We won't do anything to her yet. This is actually fortuitous. I have a chance at revenge right here, right now. Not only will I be able to get home, but I'll leave the four of you stuck here with no way out. And to top it off, I'll get to make all four of you watch as I drain every last drop of blood from Piper's body." Mike struggled against his ropes some more, trying desperately to get out, but it was no use. The Devil turned to the soldiers and spoke to them in English, presumably so Mike would understand. "Go find his friends. There should be three more. They're probably hiding out above ground. Look in the buildings that are still standing. Burn the town down if you have to, but bring the other three to me alive."
Micky didn't want to open his eyes. His stomach hurt and his head even hurt. He felt a heavy weight at the end of the bed and next to him. The last thing he remembered was Peter trying to help close his stitches. Unwillingly, he slowly opened his eyes and looked around a little. He saw a Peter curled up at his feet and Davy curled up next to him. They'd both fallen asleep and he didn't want to do anything to wake them. So instead he just lay there for a while.
He smiled a little to himself knowing his friends were so close to him in his time of need. He tried desperately to ignore the pain in his stomach, but couldn't. He groaned a little in pain, still trying not to wake up either one of his friends, but failing. Davy grumbled awake and yawned before looking at Micky. Once he realized that Micky was awake, he tapped Peter a little until Peter woke up.
"I didn't mean to wake you up," Micky said. "I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize," Peter said. "How are you feeling?"
"My stomach hurts, but I'm better than before," Micky admitted knowing lying would only be fruitless. They knew him better than that.
"We shouldn't have fallen asleep anyway," Davy said pushing himself up and looking down at Micky's stomach. "We need to check your bandages."
"I'll get some water," Peter said as Davy checked Micky's bandage.
"I'm fine, Davy," Micky said, though it hurt a little when Davy unwrapped him.
"Yeah, but we need to change these every 4 hours, Leo said," Davy answered.
"Here, you go," Peter said coming back in with a glass of water. "This was the only glass not broken. The only other thing in the house was some bread."
"I'm fine," Micky said. His stomach really hurt too much to eat anyway. "You guys eat some."
"How does it look?" Peter asked as Micky drank a little bit of the water.
"Actually it looks pretty good," Davy said. As Davy re-wrapped the bandage around Micky's stomach, they heard the sounds of heavy footsteps crunching the ground outside.
"What is that?" Peter asked. "You think that's Mike and Piper?"
"No," Davy answered as Peter walked toward the window. "Too many footsteps. It's something else."
"Peter, get away from the window," Micky hissed.
"I'm just looking," Peter said. "I'll be careful."
"Peter," Davy said. "I think you should move away from the window, too."
"German soldiers," Peter whispered peering out through the curtains. "About half a dozen."
"Get away from the window!" Micky hissed louder. "Now!" But Peter didn't back away. He wasn't listening to any of them.
"It looks like they're looking for something," Peter said.
"Yeah, probably us!" Davy whispered. "Get away from the window."
"They have lots of guns," Peter said. "Very big, scary guns."
"Exactly why you need to GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOW!" Micky hissed trying to be quiet but sound commanding anyway. Davy left the bed and pulled Peter away from the window.
"Peter, they're probably looking for us," Davy said. "Get away from the window so they don't see us."
"If they're looking for us, though," Peter said fearfully, "doesn't that mean that Mike and Piper."
"Let's hope not," Micky said. "Just stay quiet." Peter nodded, but they heard the sound of someone trying to get in the front door. Micky's heart stopped for a second, but when the sound stopped, he breathed a sigh of relief. Only a second later, however, they all jumped at the sound of shattered glass.
"We have to run," Davy exclaimed rushing to Micky's side to try and grab him.
"Run where!?" Peter exclaimed just as they heard the door was busted in. "We can't go anywhere with him! He's too weak, he'll tear his stitches!"
"We can't very well, fight!" Davy exclaimed.
"So don't let them in!" Micky said indicating they should barricade the door. Before they could, the door slammed open and half a dozen German soldiers entered the room, guns drawn.
"Uh…" Davy started trying to diffuse the situation. "Look, we're just normal people. We have nothing to do with any of this. Please, just-"
"Shut up," one of them said firmly in a thick German accent. "You are Davy, Micky and Peter?"
"No," Peter tried lying, "you got the wrong people. Have a nice day."
"We already have your friends," the soldier said gruffly and Micky's heart dropped. "You can come easily, or we can force you."
"You have Piper and Mike?" Micky asked.
"They are fine," the soldier said. "For now. But they may not be if you put up a fight. The man helping us has quite the temper."
"Fine," Micky said realizing they had no choice but to surrender. If they put up a fight, they'd each be hurt, if not worse. And who knew what would happen to Mike and Piper if they did.
"That one's hurt," the German soldier told his men as Peter and Davy put their hands up in surrender. "Be careful with him."