"Well?" Dragaunus snarled from behind the small Saurian when Chameleon appeared on the command deck of the Raptor.
"AH!" Chameleon shouted, nearly jumping out of his scales. "Geez, boss, don't do that!"
"Did you find out how long Wildwing's mask has been missing?" the Saurian overlord growled.
"Yeah, he hasn't been seen with it since the mage showed up a couple weeks ago," the shape changer replied.
"Hmmm," Dragaunus hummed. "That is most – interesting."
"There's something else you should know," Chameleon added.
"Does it involve the mask?" Dragaunus demanded.
"Well, no," Chameleon answered.
"Then it can wait," Dragaunus snapped as he turned and stomped off.
"But the mage isn't dead," Chameleon told the empty room.
Thursday morning Raleigh found Mako standing in the doorway of the kitchen staring into the room. From the way she slightly turned her head, he knew that she had seen him and he didn't have to warn her of his presence. He slipped his arms around her and she turned to face him.
She didn't normally cuddle with him, but he wasn't going to complain. She gave him a kiss that made him start to wonder if he could get them both back upstairs. Before he could make any suggestions, she stopped the kissing and gave him a squeeze.
"Thank you," she murmured.
"You're welcome," he sighed happily. "What did I do so I make sure to do it again?"
"Cleaning the kitchen for me," she said with a smile before letting him go and stepping into the room in question.
He opened his mouth to say something and then stopped. A frown creased his forehead as he followed her into the kitchen and looked around. The place practically sparkled.
"I didn't clean the kitchen," he hesitantly stated.
"Well, I didn't do it," she replied as she turned to face him. "I was tired last night and went to bed early. I left the dinner dishes soaking in the sink."
"I remember," he responded as he looked around. "Did you get up in the middle of the night and clean it?"
"Raleigh, I think I would have remembered doing that," Mako grumbled unhappily.
"I don't know what to say," he told her.
They both looked around the room for a good minute. This was just getting a little freaky. Between Ruby showing Raleigh that magic was real and Gipsy insisting that she was seeing fairies, the man was starting to get a little wigged out.
"Why don't you go get Gipsy ready while I make breakfast," Mako suggested as she opened the fridge. "We'll figure out what fairy cleaned the kitchen later."
"Sure," Raleigh hastily agreed as he headed back into the hallway.
He was going to have to have a talk with a certain duck about suddenly clean kitchens.
"Good morning, Raleigh," Ruby greeted while she climbed into the truck.
"Morning," Raleigh responded a bit nervously as she got settled in the passenger seat.
"Is everything ok?" she asked while he started to drive, immediately picking up on the man's discomfort.
"No, I'm good," he answered a bit too quickly and she raised an eyebrow at him. "How's the bike coming along?"
"I called the bike shop last night and it's supposed to be ready today," she replied. "Thank you for letting me keep it."
She was still surprised that Raleigh's former tenant had left the bicycle behind. She had found it Tuesday in large closet in the master bedroom. It needed a bunch of work, but the frame was sound. She had no idea why the man had left it behind.
"Not a problem," Raleigh said. "I figured you could use it more than me, so there was no reason for me to have it."
"Well, you could have sold it to recoup some of your losses from this Kevin guy," Ruby suggested.
"Unless the bike had belonged to some famous racer, I doubt I'd get enough for my troubles," he stated. "You might as well have it. Once you get it fixed up, you won't need to walk everywhere."
"Maybe I could use it to get to the condo and back," she said.
"You might want to rethink that one," as he pointed out the amount of traffic getting on and off the freeway. "This place is zoo in the morning and evenings."
"Good point," she replied as they slowly drove past the traffic jam. "I'll have to see if there are any safe ways to get back and forth without having to go past the onramps and off-ramps."
"How's the cleaning coming along?" he asked and she detected the nervousness was back.
"The garbage is finally all picked up," the duck told him. "I plan on scrubbing the bathrooms today. The place doesn't smell as bad as it did on Monday, but it's still pretty ripe in there. Hopefully replacing the carpets will do the trick."
They drove on in silence. Ruby could see something was bothering Raleigh, but she had no idea what. He nervously drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and seemed to be checking around them a lot more often than normal.
"Is everything ok?" she questioned. "You seem pretty jumpy."
"Guess I shouldn't have had that extra cup of coffee this morning," he joked and she stared at him.
"I know when people are lying to me, Raleigh," she stated unhappily and she could tell that surprised him.
"Is there such a thing as…" the man started and he could feel his face getting warm.
"Is there such a thing as what?" she prompted several seconds later.
"As cleaning fairies?" he finally finished. "You know—fairies that clean."
"No, fairies don't clean," the mage answered, a bit confused. "They'll play pranks on you and hide your socks in the weirdest places, but they don't generally clean. Why?"
"Well, it's just that this morning, when Mako and I got up, the kitchen was clean and neither one of us cleaned it," the man explained.
"That sounds more like brownies," she said, a bit confused about why the earth Elementals would be helping in his home.
"What does dessert have to do with cleaning the kitchen?" he inquired.
"Not the food," she chuckled. "Brownies are magical creatures that like to clean."
"Ok, but why would they clean my kitchen?" he questioned.
"I have no idea," she replied, just as confused as he was.
Did she dare tell him that brownies only lived in buildings where there was a magic user?
Siege stared at the strange energy readings and scowled. He hated being stuck on the Raptor all of the time and he was looking for an excuse to go out and cause some mayhem. The energy readings he was getting weren't making any sense to him.
"Whatch ya doin', buddy?" Chameleon asked as he came into the command center.
"Tryin' to figure out these weird energy readings," Siege grumbled and Wraith appeared at that moment out of a mystical fog.
"What energy readings?" Wraith questioned as he came over to the consul.
"These," Siege nearly growled. "I'm tryin' to figure out what's creating them and why they're moving."
Wraith watched the screen with little interest for a few moments. Then the wizard's eyes went wide and he took a closer look. He tapped a few buttons to make sure he wasn't imagining things.
"Well, this is interesting," Wraith nearly purred.
"What is interesting?" Dragaunus almost snarled as he stalked into the room.
"Do you remember how that foolish hen released a large burst of energy the other week?" Wraith questioned.
"Yes," Dragaunus grumbled as he took his seat. "What about it? You said it didn't do anything."
"I thought it didn't, but it appears it did," Wraith replied.
"What did it do?" Dragaunus demanded.
"It's awakened the magic in humans with the latent abilities," Wraith answered, almost acting happy about it.
"This hardly seems to be something to be happy about," the overlord growled.
"Oh, but it is something to be very pleased about," the wizard responded gloatingly. "Humans won't realize what's going on and will not be able to command the magic they have."
"So?" Dragaunus almost hissed.
"So, they have no way to defend themselves and I can strip them of their magic," Wraith nearly chortled with glee.
"And then all of that power will be mine!" Dragaunus shouted.
"Of course, my lord," Wraith said, bowing deeply so his master would not see his displeasure. "And with no mage to interfere, nothing can stop us."
"Uh, guys?" Chameleon called.
"Not now, you fool!" Dragaunus ordered. "We have plans to make."
The radio was playing some upbeat song about shaking something off. Ruby was in the middle of scrubbing the bathtub in the master bathroom and wasn't really paying attention. That's when the first sylph came streaking in.
You must help! the air Elemental nearly shouted.
"Help what?" Ruby asked in confusion.
You must save them! a fairy insisted as she zipped into the room.
"Save who?" the mage questioned.
Before the sylph or fairy could answer, more air Elementals joined the first two insisting that Ruby help several someones, but she wasn't getting an answer as to whom she was supposed to help. She didn't want to yell at the flighty things, but she wasn't getting anywhere by letting them blather on.
A second later the radio made a very annoying noise that cut through the din of the air Elementals. She and the magical beings turned toward the small device where it sat on the counter.
"This is an Amber Alert!" the voice on the radio announced. "Several children from the Anaheim, Long Beach and Los Angeles area have been kidnapped by large, reptilian monsters. Please be on the look out. The police have issued a shelter in place for all schools, daycares and parents with small children. Do not go outside unless it is an emergency. Continue to listen to this station for further updates."
The annoying noise repeated and then the radio returned to a commercial. Ruby got up and turned the thing off before turning to the Elementals.
"Is that what you were trying to tell me?" she asked them.
YES! they yelled in unison.
"Do you know where they are?" Ruby questioned and they looked at each other. "I can't help if I can't find them."
She didn't have asked who took the children. 'Large, reptilian monsters' narrowed the list of suspects down to the Saurians.
We'll look, one of the sylphs stated.
A moment later the bathroom was empty of Elementals. Shaken, but not sure what to do yet, Ruby went back to the tub to finish cleaning it. Just as she reached the basin, she felt her world spin and she collapsed on the floor.
"Gipsy," she gasped just before she passed out.
Raleigh was going over the plans for the building his crew was working on when the phone call came in. It took him several minutes to get a coherent sentence out of Ashley and when he did, he felt his world drop out from underneath him. His child had been stolen by giant, evil lizards.
He was running towards his truck before he even realized what he was doing. He had to do something. He couldn't wait for the police and he knew someone who had the power to help find his child. At least, that's what he hoped.
When Raleigh found Ruby, she was just starting to pick herself up off of the bathroom floor. He grabbed her by her upper wings and dragged her to her feet. She stared at the man a little dazed and was eternally glad that her magic protected her. She had the distinct feeling that if it didn't, the blood would have been cut off from the rest of her wings.
"Gipsy," Raleigh started and then choked.
"She's in danger, I know," Ruby finished for him.
"How did you…" he started.
"Several air Elementals came and told me," she stated, not wanting to explain about the promise she made to the little girl.
"Fairies?" he questioned.
"Among others," she replied.
"We have to do something," he forcefully stated.
"I agree," she quickly responded. "But we can't do it alone."
"Then who do we go to?" he inquired, the soldier in him wanting action NOW! "The police? The military?"
"The Mighty Ducks," she answered.
"We need to find my daughter!" he yelled giving her a small shake. "Not play a game of hockey!"
"Wildwing and his team have been fighting the Saurians since they got here a year ago," she told him as calmly as she could. "They're the best ones to go after Gipsy and the others."
"Others?" Raleigh asked in confusion. "What others?"
"Didn't you listen to the radio?" Ruby asked and Raleigh shook his head 'no'. "The Saurians have been taking kids from all over Anaheim, Long Beach and Los Angeles."
"Why?" he snapped as he gave her a shake. "Why did they take my baby girl?"
"I don't know," she replied as she used magic to force his fingers off of her. "But I intend to find out."
With that, she turned and left the bathroom with the upset father right behind her. They were headed for the parking lot when Raleigh stopped them.
"We can't leave the condo open like this," he stated as he started to head back inside.
With a wave of her hand, all of the doors and windows slammed shut.
"If this was a horror movie, I'd be freaking out about now," he said.
"If this was a horror movie, you would have been inside," she reminded him.
"Good point," he replied as he started for his truck again. "Let's go!"
He didn't have to tell her twice as they raced for his vehicle. Finding Gipsy was of the utmost importance. Ruby dreaded what the Saurians would want with these kids and she really didn't care to think of the magical backlash she would get if she couldn't keep her promise to the girl.
Author's Notes: An Amber Alert is issued when a child is abducted in the United States. You can find out more by Googling it.