Chapter 7:
Once on Metamoor, the Guardians saw that there were fires in four parts of the village near the palace. Seeing this they knew they had to split up into teams of two.
"Me and Caleb will take the north while Taranee and Irma take the west.", Will said as they flew towards the village.
"Alchemy and Cornelia. You two take the east side.", Cassidy said. "You up for a team up, Hay Lin?"
"You bet!", Hay Lin said with a wink as they flew towards the south of the village.
Everyone else split up and flew to where they were told to go. The first to reach their location were Taranee and Irma. And boy were they surprised to see what was the cause of the fire there!
"You see what I'm seeing, Taranee?", Irma asked her fellow Guardian as they hovered in the air.
"I see it, but I don't believe it!", Taranee said still shocked by what she was looking at.
Both Taranee and Irma were looking at what looked liked two people in black knight armour. The tops of their helmets were pointed upwards with what looked like axe-shaped blades sticking out of the sides. They both had a shield on their left arms. But what surprised Taranee and Irma were the fact that the knights had a gun-like barrel where their left hand should be and a sword sticking out where their right hands should be. Out of the gun-like barrels shot flames that were causing the fires in the area.
"What gives with these guys?", Irma questioned. "Where did they get flamethrowers?"
"I don't think they're living beings!", Taranee said.
"What do you mean?", Irma questioned.
"Look at how they're moving!", Taranee said. "They move like those toy robots, Peter used to have when he was younger! Plus, I can't sense any life coming from them!"
Irma looked to see that Taranee was right! The knights were moving like robots.
"Robot?", she questioned in shock. "How the heck did robots get here?"
"We can figure that out later!", Taranee said. "Right now, we have to shut them down!", she said as she flew towards them with Irma right behind her.
"This'll be fun.", Irma said as they landed in front of the robots.
Once they saw them, the robots looked the two Guardians up and down.
"Scanning!", one of the robotic knights said. "Scan complete. Subject, Guardians, found. Proceed with capture of target!", it said as the barrels on their arms went inward and a larger barrel came out.
"Capture?", Irma questioned. "It's after us?", she questioned as the robots began to shoot nets out from their new barrels.
"Looks like!", Taranee said as they dodged the nets the robots were firing at them. "But I don't plan on going down so easy!", she snapped as she fired a fireball inside the barrel of one of the robot knights.
"Warning! Warning! All nets destroyed!", the robot said. "Must retreat!", it said as it suddenly took to the sky with the rockets that were in it's boots.
"Oh no you don't!", Taranee said as she fired some fireballs at the robot's boots, destroying the rocket and caused it to fall to the ground and hit the other robot causing them both to explode! "Two with one stone!", she said.
But the explosion caused a large fire. Thankfully, Taranee was able to calm the flames down while Irma was able to put the rest if it out.
"Well, that's was just... weird.", Irma said. "Think we should go help the others?"
"If they need us, they'll call for us telepathiclly.", Taranee said. "Right now, we need to see who needs help here.", she said as she went help anybody who needed it.
"I still wonder where those robots came from.", Irma replied as she put out some smaller fires.
'You and me both, Irma.', Taranee thought to herself as she helped an elderly person to their feet. 'You and me both. But I better warn the others!', she thought to herself as she telepathiclly told the others of what she and Irma saw and fought.
In the south of the village, Cassidy and Hay Lin had just gotten Taranee's telepathic warning just as they ran into two of the same robot knights.
"Looks like we found them!", Hay Lin said. "How do we take them down?"
"Can you distract them for me?", Cassidy asked. "I have an idea!"
"You got it!", Hay Lin said with a smile before flying down towards the robot knights.
Once close enough, Hay Lin began to fly around in a circle around the robots.
"Hi, fellas!", Hay Lin said with a smile as she stopped in front of them. "Catch me if you can!" she teased before sticking her tongue out at them.
"Subject, Guardians, found!", one of the robots said as the both of them switched their barrels to fire their nets. "Proceed with capture!", as Hay Lin went back to flying around them.
"Sorry, tin men!", Cassidy said as she floated above the robots and froze them in chunks of ice. "But you're on your way to the scrap heap!"
Once she did that, she and Hay Lin landed in front of the froze robots. Cassidy plunked one of them causing it to shatter into pieces.
"Cool!", Hay Lin said as she did the same with the other frozen robot which did the same thing. "Well, that was easy!"
"Yeah! Not to put the fires out!", Cassidy said as she took to the sky and began to put some fires out with streams of water.
"Right!", Hay Lin said as she took to the air and used small twisters to suck up the flames putting them out. "I hope the others are doing okay."
"They're fine! I'm sure of it!", Cassidy said as she continued to put out some fires.
In the east of the village, Alchemy and Cornelia had just put out the last of the fires in that area of the village. With their powers, Alchemy was able to absorb some of the flames around her and send it all into the air where they went out with ease, while Cornelia used her telekinesis to form air tight domes over some fires to let them burn out quickly. Once they were done with the fires, they turned to the two robot knights that they defeated. Both were ripped in half from Cornelia's powers and melted from Alchemy's powers.
"I wonder where they came from.", Alchemy pondered as she tapped one of them with her foot.
"Maybe Taranee can find out.", Cornelia figured. "She's the tech-wiz after all."
"I wonder how the others are doing?", Alchemy replied.
"I believe they're okay.", Cornelia said.
'At least I hope they are.', she thought to herself.
In the north of the village, Caleb had just finished cutting the head off of one of the two robot knights in that area after cutting its arms off. As for Will, she had already taken out the other one by running some electricity through its barrel and into its systems shutting it down.
"Well, that was easy.", Will said kicking the fallen robot. "But what are robots doing om Metamoor?"
"I don't know.", Caleb said as he looked around at the burning buildings. "But we need to put these fires out!"
"To bad our powers can't help with that!". Will said.
Just then, it began to rain surprising Will and Caleb. They both looked up to see Irma and Cassidy firing water down into a small twister Hay Lin had firing the water all around the place to pit the fires out while Taranee and Alchemy were absorbing some of the flames and Cornelia was forming air tight telekinetic domes over some of the fires letting them burn out quickly. It didn't take them long to put the fires out in the area.
"You guys run into robots, too?", Taranee asked.
"Yeah!", Will said. "They weren't as tough as I thought they'd be."
"They may not have been tough, but they still could of done a lot of damage.", Taranee replied.
"But the weird part was that they were looking for us.", Alchemy said.
"Yeah!", Hay Lin said. "One of the two we fought said something like 'Subject, Guardians, found.' Then it tried to capture us!"
"Same here.", Will said. "I wonder who sent them?"
"I wonder where they came from?", Cornelia said. "And if they were made to capture us..."
"They might be after Elyon!", Alchemy finished .
"The palace!", Caleb said as he took to the sky and flew towards the palace with the others right behind him fearing that there were some robots there looking for Elyon.
Once at the palace, they found what was left of four robot knights in a pile. With Elyon standing there with energy glowing around her hands.
"Looks like there were some here, too.", Will said as they all landed next to Elyon.
"Are you okay, Your Majesty?", Caleb asked as he knelt to Elyon.
"I'm fine, Caleb.", Elyon said with a smile as she powered down. "I'm just surprised to see robots here."
"When did you get here?", Alchemy asked.
"And where are Drake and Aldern?", Caleb questioned. "They should be here fighting by your side!"
"I had them stay on Earth to keep Angelo, Selece, and Micheal occupied while I came here to help fight these things. I got a text from Mrs. Kadma about the attack and got here as soon as I could.", Elyon said. "As far as Angelo, Selece, and Micheal know, I'm in the bathroom. I've been gone for at least two minutes.", she said as she opened a fold back to Earth. Got to go!", Elyon said. "Later! Let me know if you find out anything!", she said before going through the fold.
"Will do!", Alchemy said before the fold closed.
"I'd like to know where these things came from.", Caleb said as he looked down at the pile of robot part with a glare. "Today it was twelve of them. Next time it could be a lot more."
"That doesn't sound good.", Cornelia said.
"Ya think?", questioned Irma sarcastically making Cornelia roll her eyes in annoyance.
"Looks like we do need more than five Guardians after all, huh?", Taranee asked Will.
"Maybe we do, maybe we don't.", Will replied. "But right now, I say we take these robots and melt them down."
"Good idea.", Alchemy said. "For all we know, they may have a back up program to repair themselves."
"And that's something we don't need.", Taranee said as they all took to the air and split up to gather the robots they defeated.
Watching most of what happened, from a distance, was an elderly man with silver hair and blue eyes dressed in a pair of black pants and shoes with a white shirt wearing a black cloak holding a small device that had a screen that showed a display of twelve blinking lights that slowly faded out.
"Figures.", the man said with a scowl. "Those robots fight like robots! "If they had the right data, they'd be able to fight better and capture me those Guardians! Not to mention the Meridian queen!", he said as he pulled out a small green crystal and opened a fold with it. "But soon, I'll have the means to improve my robots. And with them, I'll own this world!", he said as he went through fold. "And once I have a foot hold on that world, I'll world on taking over the own planet!", he said as the fold closed behind him.
Once through the fold the cloaked man saw that he was in the Living Room of a penthouse somewhere. In the penthouse was very comfortable furniture and a window view of Heatherfield. The man sat in one of the chairs and breathed a sigh of relief in the comfort of the chair. Just then two men came walking into the room. One of the was Riddle while the other was a young man with blonde hair and green eyes dressed in a pair of tan pants and brown shoes with a white dress shirt and blue sweater.
"Riddle. Raphael.", the man said. "How are things on your end?"
"Well, John Vanders along with Donald and Hanna Robertson are working on improving their microchip.", Riddle reported. "If things go as planned, we'll have what we need to complete our goals."
"Excellent.", the man said with a smile. "What about you, Sylla? How are things at Sheffield?"
"Well, Mr. Hollens, by taking the job of a computer science teacher at the Sheffield Institute, I get to teach a lot of students there. And just like you figured, I now have the five teenagers you told me to keep an eye on.", Sylla explained. "And they do disappear every once in a while. And if I'm correct I caught one of them talking to one of the computers like it was a person. Her name is Will Vandom. And then there's the one named Irma Lair who, if I saw correctly, made the water from a water fountain blast a fellow student in the face when he went to get a drink from it."
"Are you sure of this?", Riddle questioned.
"When she did it, she laughed about it along with her friends.", Sylla said. "She even bowed a little taking credit for it. No one else saw her do this of course."
"They're smart, but not to smart.", Hollens said. "Keep an eye on them, Raphael. Keep an eye out for the object I told you about. When you see one of them with it, let me know as soon as possible. It is the key to great power!"
"Is an object that small really that powerful, Hollens?", Riddle questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Very powerful, Riddle.", Hollens replied with a smirk. "If we can get our hands on that necklace, then we won't need to go after the queen of Meridian."
"Speaking of which, how did the test run of the robots go?", Sylla asked.
"It went as expected.", Hollens said. "The targets came and defeated them. Right now, they're being finished off.", he said with a scowl before turning his attention to Riddle. "I need that technology John Vanders and his friends are working on with Simutech!"
"It'll take some time, my friend.", Riddle said. "We need this to be done right before we go any further. And from what I've got from reading their minds, they'll make sure the chip works, and works well."
"Excellent.", Hollens said. "I've waited this long to get what I want. I can wait a bit longer."
"If I may ask, Mr. Hollens, why do you want the necklace one of the targets may have?", asked Sylla.
"The necklace has caused me a great heartache, my boy.", Hollens said sadly. "A great heartache in deed.", he said as his eyes narrowed. "And so help me, I'll make those responsible for it pay!", he said while clinching his fist.
Meanwhile, on Kandrakar, the Guardians had returned there to inform the Oracle on what happened in Meridian.
"I see.", the Oracle said. "It seems that the threat has begun to make its move."
"But where did those robots come from?", Cornelia asked.
"From your home world of Earth, young Guardian.", the Oracle said surprising the Guardians.
"For real?", Irma questioned.
"I'm afraid so.", the Oracle said. "Someone on Earth wants to take over Metamoor. And they have a few allies to help them."
"Well, looks like we have our work cut out for us.", Cassidy said. "We could sure use those two other Guardians now."
"In time, Cassidy.", the Oracle said. "But for now, return home and get some rest. You will need your strength to fight when the time comes.", he said as he opened a fold to Earth. "Be warned, Guardians. This enemy will try to find you on Earth. So be extra careful in how you conduct yourselves."
"Which means no using your powers unless you really need to, Irma.", Hay Lin said to her best friend.
"I have no idea what you're talking about.", Irma said as she headed through the fold.
"The water fountain you had spray Uriah.", Taranee replied as she went through the fold.
Once they all were through the fold, the Oracle closed it and began to rub his chin while looking into the Viewing Pool.
"It may be time to bring the two new Guardians into the fold sooner than I think.", the Oracle said when thought came to him. "And I may have to help Queen Elyon give some warriors an edge when it comes to fighting any more of those machines.", he said as began to ponder things.
Later that evening, Elyon was in her bedroom getting ready for bed. She was dressed in a night-gown and about to get in bed when a fold opened up in her bedroom.
"What the...?", she began to question when Halinor came walking through the fold. "Ms. Clarkson?"
"Hello, Elyon.", Halinor said with a kind smile. "I am sorry to come here at this time of night, but the Oracle needs to speak with you."
"Oooookay.", Elyon said as she put a robe and slippers on.
Once on Kandrakar, Eylon foun herself standing in the main hall of the fortress where the Oracle was waiting for her.
"Greetings, Queen Elyon., the Oracle said with a bow of respect that Elyon returned. "I know this is late but I felt that this was the right time to do this."
"To do what, Oracle?", Elyon asked.
"To show you how to infuse weapons with some of your power.", the Oracle said. "I need you to pick seven people who you know will use empowered weapons wisely. But for now, I will show how to infuse weapons with power. It shall not take long."
"Then let's get started.", Elyon said ready to learn what the Oracle was willing to teach her.
The next day, Elyon had Drake find W.I.T.C.H. and Aldern find Cassidy, Alchemy, and Cornelia and have both groups meet her under a tree outside of the school.
"Looks like the gangs all here.", Irma said sarcasticlly.
"That's right.", Elyon said. "I wanted to only tell this once."
"Tell us what, Elyon?", Cornelia asked.
"That the Oracle taught me something that may help us against this new enemy.", Elyon answered.
"What did he teach you?", Taranee asked.
"He taught me how to infuse weapons and objects with some energy.", Elyon said. "Now I just have to pick seven people to have infused weapons."
"May I suggest us.", Irma said. "I mean who better than the Guardians to have super weapons?"
"Actually, maybe the infused weapons should go to members of your Honor Guard.", Cornelia suggested.
"Like Drake and Aldern.", Alchemy said. "And then there's your parents."
"I was thinking the same thing.", Elyon said. "I mean you guys have your powers. You don't need special weapons."
"She had a point there.", Taranee said in agreement getting a huff and a pout from Irma.
Just then the bell rang letting students know that school was about to begin. Wasting no time, students began to head into the school. But unknown to our heroes, they were being watched by Sylla, who was in his classroom looking down at them.
'What are they talking about?', he thought to himself. 'Looks like I'll have to keep an eye on their friends as well.', he thought to himself as some students came into the classroom.
"Stupid, Corny!", Irma said as she was walking with Will and Caleb to their Homeroom. "We could be having super weapons to fight with if she didn't open her mouth!"
"Well, Elyon already planned on giving her Honor Guard infused weapons.", Will replied.
"Maybe so. But we may have been able to talk her into changing her mind.", Caleb said.
"Corny is going to pay for that!", Irma said with a smirk.
"And just how do you plan on doing that?", Will questioned.
"Weeeeeeeell, I planned on using this for Uriah.", Irma said as she pulled out a thing of gum. "But I think I'll use this on Corny.", she said as she showed Will the gum.
Once she saw what was written on the gum's wrapping, a smirk grew on her face.
"Now that, I can live with.", Will said. "When do you plan on doing it?"
"Around Lunch.", Irma said. "Study Hall is after it and I'm doing the radio show. And seeing as you're in the same Study Hall as Corny, you'll know when it'll start kicking in on her.", she said as they neared Will and Caleb's Homeroom. "And when it does, you can text me."
"Why?", Will questioned.
"You'll find out when you text me.", Irma said with a smirk. "Later!", she said before heading to the room the radio station was.
As for Will and Caleb they entered their Homeroom and sat next to each other waiting for the teacher to come in and get things started.
'I don't even want to know what they're planning.', Caleb thought to himself. 'I just hope that it doesn't get us in trouble.', he thought as the teahcer came in and turned the TV on so the students could watch the news before classes started.
Meanwhile, at Simutech, John, Donald, and Hanna were already working on their chip and making it work with computer controled vehicles that could drive those that couldn't drive, due to disabilities, around.
"Well, it seems to be working pretty well.", Donald said as they watched the computerized car drive long the course, they had set up behind the building, pretty well.
"Yes, it does.", Hanna said. "But I'd rather be safe then sorry later on."
"We feel the same way, Dear.", Donald said. "Which is why we're going to keep working on this until we're sure it's ready for use out in the real world."
"Exactly.", John said checking the readings on the computers. "The last thing we need is for these cars to get into an accident."
"No kidding.", Donald said. "So, how was Angelo's first day at Sheffield?"
"Pretty well.", John said. "From what he tells me, he along with Selece and Micheal are doing the school's newspaper with some other students.", he said. "Will included!", he said with a grin.
"Not only that, but Micheal and Selece may be part of a band.", Hanna replied.
"And let's not forget that Selece is trying out for the school's gymnastic's team with a friend she made yesterday.", Donald said. "And then there's Micheal and his online girlfriend that he finally met!", he said with a laugh. "That just put the icing on the cake!"
"One day and the three of them have planned out all kinds of things.", John said. "At least we don't have to worry about them getting board at school!", he said getting a laugh out of Hanna and Donald.
"Now here's a question for you, John.", Hanna said. "When do you and Jun plan on tying the knot?"
"Seriously!", Donald said. "You two have been together for what? Two? Three years?"
"I know. I know.", John said with a sigh and a smile. "If things go well, it'll be sometime this Summer. We're hoping for an outdoor wedding."
"That sounds wonderful!", Hanna said with a smile. "I remember our wedding. It was in the park. The sky was blue with a few clouds. All fo our friends and family were there on a warm spring day. I'll never forget that day."
"Neither of us will.", Donald said as she smiled at his wife who smiled back at him.
"And how are we all doing?", Riddle said as he came walking up to the three of them.
"We are doing well.", John said. "And the computerized car is working well. But to be safe, we'll have to do some more test."
"Of course. Of course.", Riddle said in agreement. "We don't want to sent out computerized cars that may get into an accident, would we?", he questioned after reading their minds."
"You've read our minds.", Donald said.
'If only you knew, Mr. Robertson.', Riddle thought to himself while smirking on the inside. 'If only you knew.'
A/N: Looks like Riddle is working with others in all of this. Will Sylla see Will with the Heart or will he see Cassidy instead? And how long will it be before Riddle can get his hands on the finished tech that John, Donald, and Hanna are working on? And who will Elyon pick to give infused weapons to? And will Irma be able to pull of her prank on Cornelia? And if she does, will Cornelia be seeking payback? And will there be another robot attack on Meridian? Only time will tell.
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