Mistakes Made
Minori stomped through the village, grumbling cursed under her breath. The sweetypies waved and called out to her, only to be met with no response as Minori made her way to the village gate.
"Minori! Wait!" Violet called jogging up to her. "You need to calm down, you're fuming."
Minori stopped. They stood in the plaza, next to the town's fountain. "Oh really? You believe you know what's best for me?" Minori's voiced took on a growl. "You're the last person who knows what I need!" Minori jabbed Violet in her chest.
"You ju-"
"No!" Minori shouted over her. "You don't get to throw your logic over the issue, not this time!" Minori took off once more, Violet falling in behind her. "Not once, have you ever had my back! You know what I need? I don't need your fucking logic to calm me down! I need my sister, I need you to have my back! But you never do, you always take the other side!"
"You never think things through!" Violet shouted back. "You need-"
"What I need is someone less selfish for a sister."
"S-selfish?!" Violet stammered. "I'm constantly having to look out for your sorry ass! You want me to side with you? Don't make dumb moves!"
"But it's never because you're supporting me, is it?" Minori looked back, her eyes beginning to well up. "It's because you're waiting for me to crash and burn. Do you have any idea what it's like, for your best f-, sister, to never have your back?"
Violet's eyes widened. "Minori..."
"I'm out of here." Minori bolted off, leaving through the front gates. Violet chased her down, her kimono's loose cloth flapping as she pumped her arms.
"Minori!" Violet caught up to her in no time, jumping in front of her. She knew the look in Minori's eyes, the look she wore whenever she was about to do something dangerous. "I can't let you do this."
"You can't stop me," Minori lunged forward, reaching for Violet's hat, hoping to take it away from her. In a wide arc, Violet batted away Minori's arms. Minori reached out again, but when Violet moved her arm, Minori grabbed it. Twisting on the ball of her foot, she had her sister's arm over her shoulder, tucking her hips, she threw Violet off balance, and using her shoulder as a fulcrum, threw Violet over her shoulder.
Violet hit the ground, the air knocked out of her. While she attempted to pull the air back into her lungs, Minori took her chance and pulled the hat off her head. With the hat in hand, Minori dashed through the trees for a few seconds, before flinging it like a frisbee into one of the trees. It would probably take Violet thirty or so minutes to build up the courage to climb the tree to get her hat back, more than enough time to sprint to the nest.
A wasps nest is made by the queen, they scrape wood fiber from wood materials and chew them to make wood pulp by mixing the materials with their saliva. Minori was able to find traces of the nest from wood pulp left around this sector of the forest. The wood pulp had a greenish tint to it. The Queen must have green saliva. Chunks of the pulp were scattered about, forming smaller nests with their own colonies of wasps.
The wasps seemed to ignore Minori as long as she didn't get too close to their nests. The nests on the outer edge were the size of baseballs, now she has progressed far enough to where the nests are the size of basketballs.
There were so many, if this force hit Pure Heart, somebody was definitely getting hurt. Violet and Ashaki wanted to wait? Let their numbers multiply? That's insane, she needed to find the Queen and kill it, now.
After some time, Minori followed the trail to the mouth of a cavern. Green chunks of wood pulp stuck to the walls, and if she listened hard enough, she could hear buzzing echo off the walls. With a deep breath, Minori plunged into the dwelling of the Queen wasp.
Violet arched her back, craning to see her hat, caught in the branches of the tree. It was pretty high off the ground, a little too high for her liking. Minori took her fear of heights and used it against her.
The cause of Violet's phobia escaped her, but ever since she was a child, she was uneasy with high places. It took everything to sit in Tanya's truck on the trip over. Violet constantly asked Tanya to pull over under the guise of grabbing supplies, though in actuality, she was trying to still her beating heart and try not to faint from hyperventilation.
The tree seemed to stretch higher the more Violet looked up at its leaves. Her stomach turned, she quickly threw her eyes to the ground, her chest heaved with every breath. Nope, there's no way she can get that hat back, not without shutting her eyes the whole time.
"Aunt Violet!" Adorabat flew up to the purple clad hero, Badgerclops close behind her.
"What are you two doing here?" Violet asked, taking the chance to not think about climbing the tree.
"You guys never came back," Badgerclops answered. "We came out make sure everything was alright."
"Everything is... adequate. Just a spat between sisters." Violet glanced back at the tree. The glance didn't go unnoticed, Badgerclops looked up, the glint of the sun's light hitting the golden hat was prominent amidst the foliage.
"Why is your hat in a tree?"
"As stated, a spat between sisters."
"Here, let me get that for ya." Badgerclops' robo arm stretched out, extending all the way into the tree, grabbing the golden hat. "So where did Minori run off to?" Badgerclops offered the hat back to Violet.
"Off to cause trouble," Violet took the hat from Badgerclops, resting it atop her head once more. The familiar weight of the weapon placed her at ease, and her heart rate began to ease. "I need to tell Ashaki, she's going to want to know about Minori."
"How do you know she doesn't already?" Badgerclops asked. "Between her mysticism and those contacts, she seems overpowered as hell."
"Even the contacts have limits," Violet pushed past them, moving in a rush. "I'm running out of time."
Mao Mao sat in his office, finishing up the day's paperwork. Between the monsters and the sky pirates, he's never had the chance to do the paperwork. But now, Mao Mao had to admit, he's gotten a lot of work done the past few days.
Mao Mao adjusted his posture, stretch outwards to loosen his stiff body. Looking up from his desk, his eyes shot wide, surprise nearly knocked him out of his seat. "When did you get back?"
"Not too long ago," Tanya answered. Her hand rested on her hip, her sultry eyes looked down at him while he remained seated. "Give me a quick update, what all happens while I was away?"
Mao Mao's expression soured. "Same old stuff, daily monster attacks, Badgerclops slacking off, sisters fighting. I guess there's Adorabat taking training sessions with Ashaki."
"Why is the kid training with your sister?"
"Apparently Adorabat has an affinity for the mystic arts," Mao Mao waved his pen around. "She wanted to learn, so she's studying with my sister."
The tone in Mao Mao's voice didn't fall on deaf ears with Tanya. Despite the facade he put on, she could tell he didn't like what he was saying. "Let's get out of here."
"What?" Mao Mao said, not sure what Tanya was asking of him.
"You heard me, when was the last time it was just the two of us?" Tanya slammed her hands on the desk, Mao Mao slightly jumping in his skin. "Just like old times, you and me! What do you say?"
Mao Mao mulled it over for a few seconds. What did he have to lose really? This may do him some good. "You know what? Yeah, why not? Let's go Keyes!!"
"That's my Mittens!" Tanya and Mao Mao left the HQ, patrolling across the roof tops of the villagers houses. Tanya leaped across the gap easily. Looking back, she saw Mao Mao take a couple steps back before getting a running start. Jumping the gap, Mao Mao tucked and rolled, hopping back up to his feet. "Yeah~! You still got it!"
"Got it? I never lost it!" Mao Mao boasted, puffing out his chest.
"Then you won't mind a little race, then." Tanya walked to the halfway point on the roof.
"Only if you don't mind losing," Mao Mao took position next to Tanya, both of them dropping into a ready position.
"Oh Mittens, you're so cute~," Tanya looked around the roofs of the surrounding buildings. "First one to the bakery wins. Ready, set~."
Tanya took off, already jumping the next roof. Mao Mao exclaimed, calling her a cheater as he chased after her, attempting to close the gap. Tanya threw a leaf out, conjuring a leaf clone of herself.
The clone clasped her hands together, offering Tanya a foothold. Stepping onto her hands, The clone alley-ooped Tanya over the next gap. Once she was over, she looked back, giving her clone a nod.
The clone offered Mao Mao a boost as he neared. Mao Mao raised his foot, ready to jump the gap. The moment he put his weight on the foot that Tanya's clone held, the clone poofed into smoke, throwing Mao Mao off balance. Tumbling over the last couple of feet, Mao Mao went over the edge of the roof. Mao Mao wrapped his hand around the grip of Geraldine, pulling it from the scabbard and burying it the wall of the building. The scrape of metal on stone rang out in the alley as Mao Mao came to a stop.
Looking up, he saw Tanya leaning over the edge of the opposing building, smiling down at him. "How was your trip?" She called out to him.
"That was low! Even for you!" Mao Mao called back to her. Mao Mao began scaling his way back up the building, hand over hand.
"You're just upset that you fell for the oldest trick in the book," Tanya teased. The banter ended when both of their ears flicked. The slight sound of buzzing sent a shiver down their spines. Instinctively, the cast their eyes to the skies, looking for the source of the buzz.
"Where's that sound coming from?" Mao Mao grumbled.
"Over there!" Tanya pointed to a cloud shifting in the wind. Mao Mao squinted, trying to see what Tanya pointed out. Hidden within the shifting puff, a mass of dots swirled and folded with the shift cloud.
"What is that?" Mao Mao wondered, shading his eyes with his hand. Tanya pulled a leaf out, turning it into a telescope lens. Extending the cylinder, she peered through lens, after witch Tanya frowned. "You may wanna see this."
Tanya tossed the lens over to Mao Mao on the opposing roof. Taking a look through the lens, the object in question was really a swarm of jade wasps. Amidst the swarm, one wasp out sized the others, it looked about twenty, maybe thirty times bigger than the average jade wasp. But the real kicker, was the splotch of orange, white, and black, dancing around on the giant wasps body.
"What is Minori doing?!" Mao Mao exclaimed. Pulling his phone from his sash, Mao Mao dialed a number. It rang for a few seconds before a click.
"What's up dude?" Badgerclops said.
"Where are you?"
"Adorabat and I are outside the walls at the moment. Is something going down? Oh, Violet is here too."
This wasn't good, it would take a bit of time for those three to come back, and Ashaki was back at HQ. Scattered around the kingdom, and the swarm was right on top of them.
"You need to get back to the kingdom as fast as you can," Mao Mao said urgently. "The swarm is here!"
"What? Already?!"
Mao Mao hung up, placing the phone in its pocket, he looked back towards the swarm. Did it get bigger? No! It's coming closer!
The Queen buzzed over the rooftops, Minori punching it repeatedly. The swarm of Jade Locusts following behind.
"Let's go," Mao Mao jumped off the roof, Tanya close behind.
"Shouldn't we help your sister?" Tanya asked.
"Minori's bangles make her impervious to their stings, she'll be fine for now," Mao Mao busted down the door to a sweetypie's home shouting and urging them to evacuate. "The people don't have that luxury, evacuation is the priority right now."
Despite his stoic attitude, he was worried in reality. Even if he and Tanya both worked on evacuation, with her clones as support, it'll be cutting it close. 'Badgerclops, Adorabat, Violet, Ashaki, please, get here soon!'
Writer's Note: Sorry the chapter is a little late, I've been feeling a bit burned out lately. I'll try to have the next chapter on time! Sorry again!