"As you can see, I reign supreme." Audrey said to Mal as she took an elegant bow beside the newly made bed in the new room that Evie and Miranda were going to share.
Mal gave a slow burst of half claps. "Oh, yeah. You are the absolute queen when it comes to making an impeccable bed." She said with amused laughter as Audrey took another bow. She had thrown together Miranda's bed while Mal had made Evie's.
From the dresser both Amy and Lonnie had to laugh a bit at the purple haired girl and the brunette princess. It made them all feel kind of good though that they could all laugh so comfortably, even with the on and off tension that Amy seemed to have around Audrey.
Of course the rose haired girl could also acknowledge why that tension had been there too. A part of it had been knowing what she did about Ben's status with her when her sister and friends had first come to Auradon and the hostility she had initially shown them. But she also knew that they had worked past it, and the friendly display of bed making between the two was evidence right there. No, the real reason was because Audrey's worst attitude had seemed so similar to Undine at her best and that had scared her. But getting to know Audrey and getting unwittingly reacquainted with Undine reminded her just how far Audrey was from that level.
While the four of them were getting Evie and Miranda moved in Melody, Ally, Jordan and Miranda herself were working on the room next door where Melody would be staying at, but not alone. Two new students were transferring to Auradon Prep. This was no rumor as Mal, Amy, Jordan, Jane and the newly enrolled magical student Melody had heard this from Fairy Godmother herself in their magic class, and the two new students would in fact be joining them in that class. They knew one of them was a girl since she would be staying with Melody.
The other was a boy as he would be staying with Ben, the young king and volunteered for that one. Will, Aziz, Jay and Ben were at the boy's dorm getting that ready. Carlos, Doug and Jane were at the command center working on a new weapon. They still had other problems after all.
With the two beds made Audrey and Mal went to grab a couple more things from the room that Amy and Mal would now share. It was then that Audrey decided to ask Mal about what she had noticed earlier. "What happened to your hand?" She inquired.
Mal paused. She wasn't sure exactly what to tell Audrey. "I don't know, I wasn't paying attention when it happened." She told the brunette princess and her second in command. "I just kind of got a small, nasty cut there." She reached for some of Evie's things. "Like a paper cut but I don't know where."
Audrey had gotten a couple of paper cuts in her life without knowing where, but none big enough for the wrappings the purple haired girl had on. "I'm guessing you got yourself pretty good." She replied.
"Seems like it." Mal agreed, still sounding confused about how that happened. Since she was not facing Audrey the brunette princess didn't see Mal flinch slightly.
Meanwhile Amy's hand brushed the dresser and she flinched. "Are you okay?" Lonnie asked her fellow pink ranger.
"I got a paper cut yesterday on my palm. It's still kind of sensitive to pressure." Amy explained to her.
"Those really are the worst kinds of injuries." Lonnie said with a nod. "There are those who say a paper cut is worse than being shot, but I don't know if anyone has ever put that to the test before."
"I sure wouldn't want to be the one to try that experiment out." Amy noted.
"Can't say I blame you there." Lonnie assured her.
Mal and Audrey came back with some of Evie's stuff just Evie herself came in. "Cool." She said as she looked at the beds. "Great job." She started forward to deal with the things that were most important to her; her clothes. "Amy, this would look so cute on you." She commented to the younger twin.
Amy glanced over. The single shoulder strapped silk top did look kind of nice but it wasn't her color. "It's cute, but I think it would clash with my hair." She noted.
"What doesn't?" Audrey said with a smile. For a moment Amy wasn't sure how she should take that. "Oh, wait. Maybe the cashmere tank I have wouldn't. It might look a little big on you but the right pair of pants would mitigate that one." She added. Amy gave a little mock glare at the fact that Audrey had pointed out she was a smaller than them, but she couldn't go off on her for that when Mal did that to her too, and she had come to realize Audrey was almost as much of a sister as Lonnie or Jane. And in fairness she had offered to let Amy try on something of hers.
"Okay." Amy said with a nod. "That'd be great." She said.
"Oh, wait." Mal said and looked to Audrey. "It's that one you wore to the beach the first time we all went, right?" She asked and the brunette princess nodded. Mal looked to her sister. "Yep, that will look really good on you."
"I think I have a headband you could borrow too." Lonnie said to her.
Amy rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay I get it." She said with a giggle. "We'll try it sometime but I'm not a dress up doll." Lonnie gave her a quick squeeze around the shoulders. "So how is Melody's room coming along?"
"It's pretty much done." Evie answered her as she hung the top that had started the conversation in the first place in the closet. "Melody hasn't gotten a lot of her stuff from her own room yet because she wasn't entirely sure she'd end up enrolling here."
"She might have to go out to replace some of it." Mal said as she set Evie's makeup box on the table in the center. "Miranda might have to as well come to think of it. She didn't get the chance to bring stuff either, and her home isn't around the proverbial corner the way that most of ours are."
"No, it's further away, kind of like Agrabah." Audrey agreed and frowned a little. "How do you think they do it?" She mused and the girls looked at her. "Being so far away. I mean we're in basically a boarding school but nothing is stopping me from going home to my parents if I wanted too." She looked to Lonnie who had to nod in agreement as nothing was stopping her either. She looked to Mal and Amy. "I know the concept of going home is a little weird but tell me you couldn't see yourselves spending a large amount of time in the caste with Ben and his family."
They couldn't. Amy couldn't think of anything else she would rather do with her spare time than to sit in Belle's library and read all of the books contained within it. It had helped also that she had seen a whole history section of the sea in there that she was sure Melody would have liked too. She had never found anyone who she could have literary discussions with and liked that she could be one of those. Mal meanwhile would have preferred to spend time with Ben of course but they could do that anywhere, including the castle.
Evie also knew if she wanted too she could have moved in with her step-sister. They had already discussed spending a weekend together if the circumstances ever allowed it to happen. Audrey was also sure her parents would let Jay come if she asked them. Whether or not he would be willing was another matter but not something she was worried about pursuing at the moment. Carlos wasn't exactly that lucky as he had not found any relatives like Evie had and he had not really bonded closely with anyone outside of the team, though being interested in Jane had potential.
The looks on the twins' faces proved Audrey's point. "But Aziz, Jordan and now Miranda don't have the option of spending a weekend at home with their parents." She made eye contact with each of them as she spoke. "I just wonder sometimes how they do it."
It was Mal who spoke now. "Because they have us. We're their family now too. Alice has accepted Aziz here just as Aladdin and Jasmine accepted Ally there. Miranda and Jordan…well, it's harder to figure that one out. Miranda just got here after all and Jordan is, well she's kind of an enigma. Sometimes she seems to be so glad to be around all of us and sometimes it's like she wonders why she sticks around." Mal replied.
"I think that might be a genie thing." Evie volunteered. "They have all that power and they think it separates them." She hung a couple of dressed protected by plastic in the closet now. "Only being a ranger has made Jordan think that maybe it isn't that simple."
"Does that apply to evil too?" Audrey asked curiously.
After a moment's thought Mal nodded. "I think for some it does." She agreed. "Mom always tried to raise me to be as evil as she was and for a long time it seemed like it was working, Amy notwithstanding." She sat on Evie's bed and Amy came over to sit by her. "I saw Evie as a threat if she ever got past herself, no offense." She added to Evie as the blue haired girl laughed a little and nodded her understanding. "And Carlos as…well, not."
"What does that mean?" Lonnie asked, not sure she understood.
"What Mal means is that look at the three of us. Mal's mom cursed a baby and tried to kill the prince who was going to awaken her. My mom tried to kill Snow White because she was prettier. Jay's dad tried to take over Agrabah, has killed countless people and even sought unimagined power." Evie explained as she leaned against the closet door. "And then you have Carlos, whose mother tried to kill Dalmatians for a fur coat."
"Many places have animal cruelty laws against things like that." Audrey pointed out.
"I know." Evie nodded. "But really it doesn't equal out on the grand scale compared to attempted murderers and despots."
"Okay, she has a point." Lonnie conceded.
"Exactly." Mal agreed. "For the longest time I never even understood why they were there and thought they were kind of just wasting space." She sighed a bit as she thought about the days on the isle. "For the longest time Amy was my one ray of…well, hope of goodness there. It was a long time before the four of us became the friends you saw being drafted into your school."
"That's not precisely true." Amy interrupted. "Remember the class with Ms. Gothell. She asked how far each of us would go to achieve our evil goals." She rolled her eyes a little. "I of course failed that miserably, adding to my mother's crushing disappointment in me. But one of the few lines Mal was not willing to cross was to kill."
Audrey and Lonnie smiled a little at that one. It was nice to hear.
"You guys have it a little easier." Evie noted softly. "When was the last time you two disappointed your parents or truly thought that they didn't love you?" She asked the Auradon princesses.
They didn't even have to think about that one. "Never." They said as if it were rehearsed. Audrey knew even a year ago her mother had not exactly approved of her attitude but she had never confronted her about that. It was a sense though that seemed to have diminished ever since Audrey had become a power ranger.
"That was never our lives." Amy said softly. "And even though Cinderella is coming to realize she has lost her son, there is a part of her that will always love him for what he was. It's something I could never expect from my mother."
Silence reigned for a moment before Ally, Melody, Jordan and Miranda came in. The could feel the grave atmosphere from the conversation. Melody moved over and sat in front of Amy, taking her hand. She squeezed back gently.
"We were…talking a bit about our lives." Evie said as she brushed away a small tear. "How different it is here from the Isle and how different our families are."
"I can only imagine." Miranda said gently. Her grandmother was strong willed, her mother was extremely strong willed and the third generation continued that tradition in spades. But behind all of that they all loved each other. She couldn't imagine it any other way. "I wish I knew what to say."
"There's nothing to say." Mal said simply. "What's done is done, the past is the past." She smiled at the girls there and thought of Will, Jay, Carlos, Jane, Aziz, the closeness they'd made with the Auradon teens families and of course Ben, he was never far from her thoughts. "What matters is what we have here and now. And one thing is clear;" She squeezed her sister's shoulders as she looked at them all, stopping at Evie and Audrey. "It's as strong as steel."
"Right on." Amy agreed with a smile at everyone including Audrey and a kiss on Mal's cheek.
The iPhones chose that moment to go off. Melody seemed shocked as she had not gotten one yet, like Jane she transformed with an item rather than an iPhone. Miranda and Amy weren't entirely used to the various tone. The rest knew it was a monster alert. "We need to get to the command center." Ally said. The girls left the dorm areas.
Getting to the command center was easy enough and the guys were already there. Lonnie wrapped Will in a hug, Audrey wrapped Jay in a hug, and Mal wrapped Ben in a hug. Evie made her way to the top to put a soft hand on Doug's arm. "What's going on?" She asked.
"It's back." Doug told them all even as he looked to Evie. He pressed a button and on the screen was the one who got away, Spider Spear Shark had reemerged from the beach. This time it was full of innocent people who were trying to get away.
With a gasp and a curse he realized that Whitney and Callie were there too. Cinderella had taken the two girls to the beach after school that day. "We have to go." He said.
"We do." Mal agreed. They started out of the command center and took out their iPhones, except for Ben, Jane and Melody who retrieved their items of power. As they left campus toward the beach they transformed.
Whitney and Callie had screamed the instant they saw the thing. It was a mix of a shark and spider, how could they not? Then it had started to leave the ocean and it was freaking people out. It had snapped at Callie's leg and only Whitney pulling her away, both of them tumbling into the sand, stopped that nasty bite.
Some of them tried to distract the creature but were easily tossed aside by the appendages which looked sturdier than it would on a normal spider. It had given Cinderella enough time to pull her daughter and her friend away from immediate harm.
In all honesty it didn't seem to care who got hurt. A slice of the bladed arm left a deep gash in one of the lifeguard's arms. An off duty guard who worked at Aurora's castle still tried to get in the way and received broken ribs for his trouble.
Whitney picked up a glass and tossed it at the monster. It shattered on the face, leaving a small trail of what she could only assume was blood from a cut. It growled at her and started forward. "I'm going to tear you apart for that little girl." He warned.
"Leave her alone." Callie tried to demand and caused it to laugh at her too.
"Yeah, that seems like a good idea to me too." They heard. Whitney laughed in delight as the green ranger, her brother, kicked the thing in the muzzle hard and then slashed it with his recursive sword. Then she saw the other rangers show up too, including an aqua one she had never seen before.
"Did Undine come with?" Amy asked a little worried and a little wearily.
"I don't see her." Melody told the rose ranger.
"We have to worry about what's in front of us." Carlos said. "Because it's ugly and angry and looks ready to try to take out heads off."
"Doug, how long before our weapon is ready?" Jane asked over the helmet intercom.
"Another few minutes for the finishing touches." He replied and the white ranger even thought she could hear him working in the background. "Just try to keep him busy for that long."
Spider Spear Shark lowered its body and raised six of its appendages and fired at them , sending them all sprawling through the sand. Amy felt a sharp pain on her right elbow which was odd since she landed on her left side. Mal meanwhile felt her left ankle give a bit of protest despite landing on her right side.
Moving quickly the Spear Spider Shark started toward the team. Ben was up with the Praeleanthor sword and Will was up with his recursive blade. They moved in and blocked the descending blades from the arms of the shark mutant.
"Legs that should be as flimsy as silk, feel the clamping of everlasting restraint." Mal called out with a flash of green in her eyes. For an instant the monster felt restrained but the spell had one flaw there; the appendages were not flimsy at all and in fact snapped through the attempted restraints.
It was enough of a distraction though that Jay and Lonnie leaped out and struck the monster with their weapons. Audrey and Melody followed through by swinging their long elemental bow and trident against the monster's appendages, causing the thing to tumble over.
"Looks like he's fallen and can't get up." Carlos quipped as they saw the struggle the monster was having trying to stand up again since the appendages couldn't get a firm grip on the sand and his arms ended in swords.
"Now would be a great time for that weapon." Evie said to Jane.
"I know but I don't think it's ready yet." Jane replied.
Then the Spear Spider Shark rotated around to face them and lowered its appendages at them and fired again. Evie moved in with her mirror force shield and collected the energy to reflect it back at the monster. It worked, but the impact got the monster on its feet again.
"Clever move." Aziz had to grant. He was glad the monster didn't seem to have enough intelligence to speak and accept the begrudging compliment.
It started to attack with its appendages again but this time the group scattered to avoid the attack. It then lashed out and struck Mal hard in the chest. She hit the ground hard and had to struggle to recover her breath.
Melody gasped in shock as Amy, who couldn't have been any further from the monster at that moment without not being part of the battle, reacted the same way. She wasn't sure what to make of that.
Any attempts to capitalize on Mal's recovery was aborted, once again by Ben but this time with Audrey backing him up. The both took a swing at the monster but he leapt back to get some bearing and then brought the bladed arms right down on both red ranger and Auradon Knight.
Jay and Lonnie moved in on the monster now even as Ally and Carlos tried to get to the back and flank it. The monster swiped at the black and pink rangers, both of whom managed to block the attack, and then was caught off guard as Carlos's claws struck his back and Ally's crystal cards cut into him in several places.
Spider Spear Shark immediately whirled around, slashing Jay and Lonnie with one of the swords in the process and turned to the two rangers. One blade got Carlos in the chest hard even as its jaws clamped around Ally's waist. She let out a scream of pain.
"Let her go." Aziz demanded as he moved in with his spear. He wasn't sure how to free Ally though without the chance of hurting her in the process. Jordan likewise took aim at him with her lamp cannon but as it twirled slightly she saw the chance that he'd get Ally as well.
Amy stood and bit her lip. She had to try something. "Melody." She said to the aqua ranger, to who she hoped was her friend. She reflected for an instant how nice it would be to have a friend that was truly hers and not a friend who she had met solely because of Mal. So far the daughter of Ariel was the closest one she had, not that it was easy to want what she wanted when normally she was so shy. "I have to try something. Be ready to blast that shark freak whether it works or not." She requested.
For a moment Melody hesitated and then shook her head. "I'll be ready to blast him when your idea does work." She corrected her confidently.
Amy started toward the monster and Ally in his jaws. She already knew she could walk through objects, the evidence of that being shown to everyone when he had slipped through the gladiator's barrier to fight him and give Mal the healing potion. She suspected she could even walk through people too but that had never been put to the test. The twist her was she had to slip by the shark thing, get a hold of Ally and move her into whatever influence she had to make herself able to do that, then get away from the shark monster as she wasn't sure energy would go through her. Especially magical energy like what the trident would generate.
The Spider Spear Shark saw her coming and unleashed a stream of energy at her with its blade. She barely dodged that, though she stumbled a bit. As she wasn't actually hurt though Mal didn't feel it, which was something that Melody did notice out of the corner of her eye as she waited for her time to act.
Amy leapt out, making herself go through the attempt blade strike from the shark. She came into contact with Ally's arm and let herself become solid to get a hold on it and her, then before it could cause any damage she tried to lose her consistency again, thinking it would either work and take Ally with her or it wouldn't at and at least she wouldn't harm Ally with the attempt.
It was to her surprise as much as anyone else's that Ally slipped out of the shark monster's grasp right along with her. Amy got worried though as she realized that she didn't have the energy to try to pull herself and Ally away from the monster, they would still get hit by Melody's attack.
Two things happened at once. Melody followed through with her agreement with Amy no matter how reluctant that was and unleashed a stream of energy at the shark monster from the trident even as Miranda herself used her own time manipulation to get a hold of Amy and Ally and moved them out of the way.
"Next time ye try a crazy stunt like that, it might be a good idea to let me know about it so I'm prepared to save you next time." Miranda said to Amy as she sat them down.
Amy blushed a little at the point. "Yeah, you're right. I'll have to remember that." She admitted.
The team got back together as the attack ended and the Spider Spear Shark was again on its back. "Doug, is it ready yet?" Mal asked now.
"Ready and waiting." Doug said to them with triumph in his voice. Mal, you'll have to be in the back of the formation, everyone else needs to be in a two by two formation."
Each of the were curious, except Jane who knew what this was about since she had helped design it. "Come on everyone, let's make it so." Jane said.
Mal stood in back as Doug had said to do. Then they lined up in pairs; Melody and Amy, Ben and Evie, Audrey and Jay, Ally and Aziz, Jordan and Miranda, Will and Lonnie, Carlos and Jane. "It's time for the Auradon launcher." Jane said and a large object like a bazooka appeared in their hands. It was vaguely reminiscent of the zeo cannon that the Zeo rangers had used on the isle.
The Spider Spear Shark managed to get itself upright by then. With their hands on the launcher they could feel the energy being drawn into the cannon. Mal pulled a little switch in back and let some of that gather before saying, "Auradon launcher charged and ready to go." She glanced up at the small screen and saw it had targeted the monster that was trying to approach them. "Locked and loaded, firing." The launcher released a huge stream of energy that headed straight toward the monster and caused it to explode in huge blaze of glory.
The launcher disappeared even as Jay shouted out, "Yes !" And then swept Audrey up into his arms with an enthusiastic hug. He could hear Audrey laughing in delight.
"Awesome." Melody said with a giggle and Amy laughed too. "That felt so cool."
Jordan realized one thing with that. She could feel echoes of power from the ancient civilization that the Earth rangers had said built the Praeleanthor sword and the other mystery weapon. She was sure that at least that power could be trusted, quite unlike the Maledict blade that Chad used.
"Will." Whitney said and ran over to hug him. He knelt down to pick up his little sister.
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
"Yes, thanks to you." She looked to the other rangers. "Thanks to all of you." She wasn't quite old enough yet to know that Lonnie and Will were dating but she was smart enough to know they were close in some way and so she saved her broadest smile for the pink ranger.
"That worked great." Evie said to both Jane and Doug. "Thanks so much."
Cinderella promised to get Whitney home and the team powered down and returned to the command center. Melody stopped Miranda and let the others get a little ahead of them. "Something is wrong with Mal and Amy." She said softly.
Miranda thought about trying to say she was wrong but there was no point. "Aye, I've noticed that too. Ever since we met that sea witch." She replied. "I noticed that Mal has wrappings over right hand and heard her tell Audrey it was from a paper cut."
"Amy has a paper cut on her right palm too, from yesterday." Melody said. "And I've noticed Amy reacted to Mal's pain during that initial burst today. They landed on opposite sides of their bodies."
Miranda pointed out the thing that Melody hadn't gotten to point out as yet. "But when Amy stumbled on her way to assist Ally, Mal didn't seem to feel that one." She said. "I think whatever's going on, whatever it was that Undine did it's only related to pain."
"I mean I suppose we could be wrong." Melody allowed reluctantly. "They are twins and they can feel things about each other after all." She shook her head. "But something tells me not that kind of extent."
"Ye haven't heard that when Mal and the others arrived here, Maleficent forced them to forget about Amy." Miranda said to her. "If they were able to feel each other's pain then there is no way that she could have forced Amy from Mal's mind." She shook her head softly. "No, something else is goin' on here and we have to find out what, somehow."
They found Fairy Godmother and Doug waiting for them at the entrance to Auradon Prep. Evie went over and placed her hands on Doug's and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. When she pulled back he was blushing and she giggled, "That was for the extraordinary weapon that we got."
"You know Jane had a hand in that too." Carlos reminded Evie.
Evie laughed. "That she did and I thank her too for that." She said with a smile at Jane. "But if a kiss like that is in order I think it's going to have to come from you." That got giggles from the girls when his face lit up like a Christmas tree.
Fairy Godmother felt like she had to put that one on the back burner. "Children, we're actually here because we wanted you guys to meet a couple people." She looked at those in her magic class. She knew Evie should be there, they all did, including the blue haired girl, but she refused to take an active role in it and she wasn't going to make Evie do so.
At a table nearby sat a boy with short brunette hair and eyes that seemed almost full of fire and energy. He was scribbling in a notebook as if that were the only way to contain that nervous energy. Across from was a girl with long blonde hair and light blue eyes. Her reaction was the opposite of the boys as she sat there with perfect calm as she read a book. Amy's eyes brightened when she saw it was a book she had read many times even on the isle. They both turned to see the approaching crowd and both offered smiles of warm greeting.
"Mal, Amy, Princess Audrey, King Ben, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Princess Lonnie, Jane, Jordan, Ally, Prince Aziz, Will, Princess Miranda and Princess Melody." Fairy Godmother introduced as formally as possible, never in fact having used the royal terms in introductions before. "Meet Prince Alex and Princess Ellie of Arendelle; the son of Princess Anna and the daughter of Queen Elsa."