Not long into the journey, Audrey ended up with her head in her mother's lap and ended up falling asleep a few minutes later. Aurora found this a little odd since she hadn't done that since she was seven. Of course Aurora knew there were some problems going on with Chad, but she didn't know how bad it had started to get. Her hand moved down to stroke her daughter's hair as she slept.
The only one who knew that was Evie and she was starting to wonder how much longer this should be kept a secret from everyone else. The more she thought about it the more she was certain that what Audrey was experiencing was no delusion, no mental problem. She was getting more and more certain that Chad was getting past all of the security precautions, including their own monster alarms, to get to his obsession.
Amy glanced at Audrey in that position with her mother and felt a bit of jealousy. Her mother would have never let her do that, though she had slept that way several times on Mal when they were younger. Of course Mal was still a good two feet taller than her younger twin sister and could have still done that.
"Is everything okay with Audrey?" Belle asked quietly to Ben, Mal and Amy.
"We're not really sure." Mal admitted. "It doesn't seem like but we haven't heard anything about it."
"I almost feel like something is going on." Amy added. "I just don't know what." Empathy was only about reading emotions, not thoughts. She had also learned that some of those who were really strong minded had a sort of mental wall that made them hard to read when they wanted to keep something a secret. She had learned early on that Ben, Audrey and Lonnie were one of those types. She guessed it was because of their royal backgrounds.
"Maybe being away from Auradon for a few days will help." Jay said. "New scenery and that kind of thing."
"There must be some way to stop Chad for good." Adam mused as he took his wife's hand. Naturally after betraying Auradon to the invaders, to say nothing of his personal and cruel obsession with Audrey, his royal status had been revoked.
"I wish I knew how." Mal replied. "With Maledict's blade he's become tougher than ever."
It occurred then to Jay that was when she started hearing his voice. She wondered if some demonic power was giving him this new and frightening ability. He hoped to talk to Jason, Tommy and the other rangers who had dealt with these demon things when he got the chance.
Not more than thirty minutes later there was a gasp from Snow White as she looked out the window and their stretch limousine ended up pulling to the side. Everyone was out in an instant to find it had been blocked by Undine and a group of Paradias's soldiers.
"What an unexpected surprise." The sea witch said with a laugh. "To think I'd see all of you traveling along the road to my world."
"Trying to lay claim to something that doesn't belong to you." Melody said with annoyance. "So much like your mother."
"Get them." Undine commanded the soldiers.
Mal looked to Ben, Ellie, and Alex. "You guys keep our VIP's safe." She instructed the armor clad fighters. To the rangers she said, "Let's send Undine and these creeps packing." With that Ben, Jane and Melody used their items to transform while the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.
Undine watched the battle with the soldiers unfold; waiting for the moment her full plan could take effect. Just as she had instructed they were working to isolate the five isle kids from the rest of the team, though they worked some other patterns so as not to make things too obvious. Audrey, Will and Lonnie were isolated in one section; Jordan, Ally and Aziz in another; Miranda and Melody stuck on their own fighting to gain to one side or another.
She finally got her opportunity as Mal, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Amy were all but back to back fighting soldiers. Undine unleashed a rapid stream of bubbles that struck all around them, but then they began to coalesce and entrapped the five of them within.
"Oh, my gosh. Mal! Amy!" Belle gasped.
"What are you trying to do?" Ben demanded to know.
Undine laughed. "Let's call this a speed challenge." She said. She snapped her fingers and a giant frog like monster appeared, he stood on two legs and had a small rounded aquarium like thing on his head. He twirled two blades in either of his hands. "If the rest of you can defeat Frog Borg quickly enough than your friends go free."
The Auradon team tensed up. "And if we can't?" Jane finally asked.
"Judge for yourself." Undine said and with that the large bubble magically started to let in water. "Then they drown. Can any of them hold their breathes I wonder?" She asked and then laughed.
"Jay, Mal, Evie Amy, Carlos." Audrey gasped in fear.
Melody knew that Amy could swim and she could hold her breath. But she didn't know for how long and on top if it wouldn't matter once the bubble filled with water.
The first problem the five rangers found was that they couldn't summon any of their weapons. The second was squarely a problem for Amy as she could not become intangible and slip through the bubbles. She didn't know why because she was sure these bubbles were not transphasic. But she remembered that Undine knew her quite well rather the rose haired girl liked it or not and may have found her own 'special' way around that.
The bubble started filling with water. A quick glance around showed one of the mysteries of life; there was no evidence of where the water could be coming from.
"Let the challenge begin." Undine said with a wry grin. "Frog Borg, destroy the other rangers."
A/N: Thanks to Dreamer447 for this challenge
"Come on rangers, it's time to hop to it." Frog Borg stated and leapt at them. They all rolled out of the way to surround them.
Lonnie looked to Jordan and Jane, who had landed on her left side. "Isn't there some magical solution around that thing?" She asked the gold ranger who was also a genie and the white ranger. Without Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay they couldn't form the Auradon Blaster. Without the five of them they couldn't form the Auradon Launcher.
Jane shook her head. "Sorry but I have no ideas here." She said. She thought maybe with time and the right equipment she might have been able to find a solution but they didn't have the equipment or the time.
Jordan bit her lip in thought a moment. Then she sighed. "There's nothing I can try that wouldn't leave us one more ranger down. We have to try to finish this thing off before the bubble fills with water."
"Not to put a damper on this already horrid situation, but we still have soldiers to deal with here too." Ally pointed out.
"No, we got these guys." Ben called out to them, wanting so badly to free Mal and the rest of his friends but also wanting to protect his family and the rest of their loved ones. In fact he was sure Mal would tell him to keep Belle and Adam safe. "We'll deal with the soldiers."
"And they won't be alone." Mulan assured the rangers as she found her suitcase and took out a small katana. From the side Jasmine found one of Aladdin's bags and took out two scimitars, one for herself and one for her husband, which she tossed to him. "We're going to help them out."
They were glad for that at least, it was one less concern. And Frog Borg was a big concern, especially as she exchanged his blades for blasters and shot at then jumped up in a twirl, shooting the rangers as he did so.
Audrey rolled with the blow and rose up into a kneeling position and used her elemental blow to launch an electric arrow at Frog Borg. It connected and he fell to the ground, but he landed on four hands and laughed. There was no sign of any effect from the electricity.
"That shouldn't be possible." Aziz said.
Jane glimpsed something on left shoulder blade that looked at least somewhat familiar. "A surge protector. " She said. "It absorbed the electricity."
"I didn't think it worked that way." Melody said.
"Without being able to look at the internal workings of that monster I can't be sure of the details." Jane answered. "But I bet the surge protector is linked up with the nerves of the monster, with its webbed feet on the ground like that it transferred the electricity through its nerves into the ground where it was rendered harmless."
"It won't be that easy to defeat me power rangers." Frog Borg said with a taunting laugh.
"Alright, so we can't fry this thing." Will declared as he summoned his recursive sword. Next to him Miranda summoned her grizzly blades. "So let's try the application of brute force." The two rangers charged the frog monster, the green ranger trying to bring the recursive blade down. Frog Borg jumped up, and then flipped again as the Highlands ranger tried to cleave him with her blades.
"Not very polite rangers." Frog Borg said and then lashed out his tongue, slapping both rangers across the chests and sending them flying.
Doug had a little hand scanner out that he had recently developed with help from Billy when he had been in Auradon and he scanned the little bubble to make one annoying discovery. "Guys, the bubble is magic proof. It can't be taken out that way." He said.
"Glad we didn't waste our time then." Jordan said deadpan as she formed her lamp cannon and fired it at Frog Borg. Instead of trying to dodge he raised his laser and blasted the cannon beam, splitting it into two. He leapt past the gap and then brought his webbed feet hard into the gold ranger's chest.
Audrey glanced up and her eyes widened in horror when she saw the bubble was already waist high for the team, except Amy making it more like stomach high. "We're running out of time quickly." She stated.
Lonnie moved in with her tessen's and Frog Borg merely jumped back to avoid each of her attacks. Aziz moved in from the other side with his spiral spear and tried to strike the monster. He leapt on top of the long weapon, wrapped his tongue around Aziz's neck and then jumped up, shoving him into the pink ranger.
Amy dove to the bottom of the bubble to confirm that there was no way out. She then resurfaced and had to move her hands to stay afloat. "There really is no way out down there." She said.
"Any chance a spell could work from in here?" Carlos asked Mal. He had heard that magic wouldn't work out there from Doug but he hoped maybe it would be different for those inside the quickly water filled bubble.
Mal glanced around. She could think of a few possibilities but she wasn't sure she could cast anything from in here with the water rising as it was. She also had a feeling the magic block didn't go one way. "Something tells me it wouldn't work in here."
Outside Frog Borg blasted at Ally before she could try using her crystal cards and then jumped out of the way as Lonnie again tried to use her tessen's to attack him.
This was frustrating Audrey as she figured out why Undine chose a frog monster that could hop about the area. All the monster had to do was delay the fight until the bubble filled with water and not long after that the five of them would drown. They had to win the fight to stop that, assuming they could even trust Undine's word in the first place which was a really big if to start with.
Elsa was beginning to realize this to too as she watched her daughter, her nephew, and their brave friends fighting. She watched the fight and remembered what Doug had said about no magic being able to get through the bubble. But she also recalled that from what little had even been looked into about it, no one knew where her abilities had come from, nor where her Ellie's had. So as far as anyone knew it wasn't magic, maybe they could do something about it. "Ellie." She called.
Ellie looked to her mother. "I think we can save your friends." She said to her daughter. "But we're going to have to combine our powers to do it."
She seemed confused. "To do what mom?" She asked.
"We're going to use our combined powers to freeze that bubble so that it can be shattered apart." The Queen of Arendelle answered. Ellie looked at her, feeling very uncertain about that. "I know how you feel, it's a risk." She agreed. "But that frog monster is moving around so much there's no way to defeat it before time runs out and that is what Undine is counting on. This might be out only chance."
Ellie knew the score as well as Lonnie did. There strongest weapons required Mal and the others, plain and simple. And if the five of them drowned she wasn't sure how they would be able to fill that void in the team, let alone in their own hearts and minds. But if this failed and if they were responsible…she shook that off. She already knew what Mal would have done. "Let's get to work."
Ellie stood beside her mother and the took her hand. They raised their entwined arms and aimed it straight at the bubble. The two channeled their ice powers together into an ice beam that struck the bubble.
"What are you doing?" Undine demanded. "Don't let them do that." She commanded the soldiers.
To the others it seemed to scream the two were on the right track. The two knights and the three adult fighters resumed their efforts against the soldiers. And now the rangers except for Miranda, Aziz and Melody helped as well. The other three kept Frog Borg distracted.
"Are they trying to freeze us to death?" Carlos asked as he felt the water getting colder. "Maybe give us hypothermia?"
"That's just a pleasant side effect." Mal joked with a roll of her eyes. "I think their real intent is to freeze the bubble and then shatter it."
"Can they do that?" Amy asked. "We can't do anything to get out of here."
"It might work." Evie said. "The ice might cancel out whatever magical effect that Undine has around the bubble."
"How do we stop from freezing to death?" Carlos asked.
"Everyone get closer to me." Amy replied. As her twin sister and three chosen siblings did as she instructed she placed her hands on the water. "I'm going to use my control over fire and water to keep this area warm. It shouldn't interfere with what they're trying to do but it should stop us from feeling the effects of it."
"It'll be like a sauna but with a winter wonderland outside." Evie said jokingly.
"Sauna?" Jay said with a laugh. "Man, I'm dating Audrey and even I don't know what that is."
"Yeah well it takes a bit more for me to relax than simply ramming into people on a tourney field." Evie replied with a mock roll of her eyes.
"I know what that is and I still don't use it." Mal said with a laugh of her own. "But we can have that debate later." They all crowded as close to Amy as possible. Mal placed her hands on Amy's shoulders to lend her any strength that she could.
Undine now tried to move in and stop Ellie and Elsa and Melody got in the way. "I won't let you stop them Undine." Melody swore. "I won't let you kill Amy and my friends."
"You pathetic little fish." Undine snapped and tried to slap Melody with her tentacles but the dual princess blocked with the trident. For just a moment she could almost imagine their mothers in this sort of conflict as well even though that had never happened.
"How much longer can they do this before they exhaust themselves?" Belle wondered.
"I don't know." Ben answered his mother. "I've never seen Ellie have to use her powers for this length of time."
"They've got to be getting to the point where it's frozen through." Doug said. "At least judging from these readings."
The two of them could feel it too as the bubble froze up. As Ben, Alex and most of the rangers kept the soldiers at bay while Aziz and Miranda kept Frog Borg hopping and Melody kept Undine sufficiently occupied. "It's time." Ellie said.
Ben nodded but wasn't sure how to get the bubble to break. Something that large froze up well but solidly. Then he heard a voice that inflected Use us! Coming from the Praeleanthor sword. Without another thought he tossed his sword where it sliced through several of the soldiers before impacting right through the frozen bubble where it shattered into millions of icy pieces, then whirled right around back into the young king's hand.
Amy had heard the voice too, heard the power behind it. She was glad that it was on their side. The five of them landed on their feet, water running off of their bodies from the center the rose ranger had kept warmed up.
"Jay!" Audrey gasped and threw her arms around the black ranger tightly. He felt her shuddering and wondered why a moment before he realized why; she was crying in relieve. "You're okay."
"Feeling a little cold." Jay said as he hugged her back. "But getting warmer by the second."
"You okay little sis?" Mal asked Amy.
Amy nodded. "Yeah. More than okay to help you make some frog legs out of that monster." She replied.
"Not that you'd eat that." Mal couldn't help but poke fun at her sister. Amy shoved her good naturedly. The truth was that none of them would have eaten frog legs though.
"You've ruined everything!" Undine spat at Melody.
Melody couldn't exactly understand why she made that decision. Technically it had been Queen Elsa and Princess Ellie who had done the freezing after all, and no one had played guardian for them to so any more or less than she had. "As much as I'd like to take the credit for it, it was a team effort." She retorted.
Undine gave off a roar and slapped Melody hard in the side of the head. If she hadn't had a helmet it probably would have fractured her skull. She landed hard on the ground. She leapt out at Melody and probably would have landed hard enough to break a few ribs despite everything until Miranda intercepted her pounce with a kick to the sea witch's chest.
The Highlands ranger landed in front of the aqua ranger. "Don't be takin' yer eyes off of the ball there witch." She advised as she twirled her blades, ready to fight. "It might be the last mistake ye ever make."
Lonnie was over by their sides now. "Are you guys okay?" She asked, touching Amy and Evie's shoulders lightly.
"We're okay." Evie said. "Let's take this thing out."
Audrey and Jay released each other. "Just the seven of us?" The red ranger asked.
Mal nodded. "Still enough soldiers to go around. Let's do this the old fashioned way." She glanced at Amy and laughed a little. "Well, more or less."
"Well let's see what you can do then." Frog Borg said and fired his lasers at them.
The girls flinched back and raised their arms as Carlos and Jay put some of those Tourney dodging skills to the fore as they ran past the attack. Carlos leaned down so the black ranger could roll over his back and slash the frog monster. Then Carlos came up with a dual slash, destroying the lasers.
"I got more than that." Frog Borg stated simply.
"So we've seen." Carlos reminded him.
Amy and Audrey leapt at him now; Amy with her rose lance together and Audrey with one of the pointy ends of the elemental bow extended. They both jabbed him in the chest hard. He stumbled backwards and Lonnie followed suit, using her hurricane tessen's to take the blades out of his hands.
"Why don't we take a page from the tourney book ourselves?" Mal suggested to her blue haired chosen sister.
"Let's do it." Evie agreed as she extended her mirror force shield. "Ready when you are M."
Mal released a meteor strike from her dragon's eye staff and Evie willingly collected it into mirror shield before reflecting it right at Frog Borg, sending him reeling back hard. "Time to bring it together." The purple ranger announced.
Mal placed her dragon's eye staff; Audrey's elemental bow going underneath it. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind it and the compact extended around it. Jay's soul scimitar went in the middle and then on either side was placed Lonnie's hurricane tessen's, Carlos's earthquake claw daggers, and Amy's rose lance. They took the Auradon blaster and fired at the Frog Borg, destroying him in a blaze.
Undine saw her monster's destruction and Miranda was preventing her from taking her anger out on the girl whose mother ruined her life. With a growl of anger she dove in the ocean and the few remaining soldiers vanished.
The rangers powered down. Mulan and Wendy caught Ellie and Elsa as they were ready to pass out from exhaustion. Snow White ran over and hugged Evie tightly. "I was so worried for you." She said softly.
Evie hugged her back. "I'm okay sis." She promised. When her step-sister released her Doug hugged her.
Jane was by Carlos. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly as she took his hand.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said with a laugh. "Even the cold doesn't seem so…so cold now."
Ben picked Mal up by the waist and twirled her around a moment before setting her down into a hug. "Mal, I was so worried about you…all of you." he said as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, rubbing her back gently.
Mal hugged him back, enjoying his warmth after their near fatal ice bath. "Sorry you had to go through that." She said to him gently as she laid her head on his chest. "Of course, sorry we all had to go through that."
Belle leaned down and wrapped Amy in one of her jackets before hugging her. "You look so cold sweetie." She said.
"It kind of was." Amy said. "Even before Ellie and Queen Elsa did that."
Alex leaned down next to her and placed his hand on her shoulders, sending a hint of his own energy into her to warm her up. "Good thing our magical powers aren't really magic after all, huh?" He asked with a smile.
"Yep, good thing." Amy agreed with a small giggle as Belle went over to hug Mal and Ben. She then looked over to Melody, who was being helped by Miranda. "Are you okay Melody?" She asked her friend.
"Sure." Melody answered. "It might be better once the ringing in my right ear stops." The two laughed a little, knowing that soon it would fade. "At least I don't have any broken ribs to show for it." He added.
Adam, Aladdin, Aziz and Will got the limousine taken care of so that they could get back onto their journey to Melody's home kingdom. "Is everyone well enough to continue on?" Adam asked as he looked at everyone with concern.
"It's got be better than hanging out by the coast on our own and hoping Undine doesn't decide to try for some kind of repeat performance." Elsa replied. "I think we should move on."
No one argued with the Queen of Arendelle and they got back into the limo. Audrey stayed close to Jay as if keeping him warm though Jay was sure it was as much to comfort herself as it was him, not that he had any problem with that. Carlos and Jane sat with their hand intertwined. Evie sat in between Snow White and Doug, her head on her step-sister's arm and her hand in Doug's. Amy sat in between Mal and Belle. Her head was nestled under Belle's arm. Ben meanwhile was holding Mal gently against him.
"I heard it speak." Ben told her.
"What?" Mal asked confused.
"The Praeleanthor sword." The young king elaborated. "When we figured out it had to be broken the sword said to 'use us'."
"Us?" Jay questioned.
"Remember that it was made by an ancient civilization." Mal replied. "If there is any sentient part in them like it was in that other weapon that Amber mentioned, then there is more than one…well, personality in it." She squeezed Ben's hand gently. "It, they, whatever wanted you to know that they could help."
"Should we be worried about a semi-sentient sword?" Audrey wondered idly.
"I think it has to do a lot more than let Ben know it's willing and able to help us before we panic about it." Amy answered softly. "I could feel when it spoke to Ben. There was nothing in that tone that worried me."
"I agree with Amy." Mal concluded. "Right now we have bigger things to worry about than semi-sentient sword that so far has our best interests at heart."