Chapter 7: The Squad, the Princesses, and the Party.
"So will you join us? "Glimmer asked excitedly. She, Adora, and Bow eagerly awaited the answer of the wealthiest person in Etheria, Prince Peekablue. Peekablue closed his eyes and smiled happily before giving Adora, Bow, and Glimmer his answer.
"No, thank you." He told them, still smiling.
The three stared at Peekablue, their mouths agape in shock at his response.
"But...but why?!" Glimmer asked, "We're trying to save Etheria from The Horde!"
"I'm sorry. But I detest war and violence." Peekablue explained, "If you will excuse me, I must get back to the party now. My darling Sweet Bee is probably waiting for me." he said as he began to stand back up, his amble behind bouncing slightly at the movement.
"Wait, Sweet Bee? You know Princess Sweet Bee?" Glimmer asked
"Hmm? Yes, the two of us have been together for a while now." Peekablue said casually, "Well, do svidaniya, enjoy the party." he said as he walked out of the backstage area, his butt once again bouncing with every step out. Hearing Peekablue say that gave Glimmer an idea of what to do next.
"Wha...what just happened?" Adora asked, "Why are we just letting him walk off?"
"Change of plans." Glimmer told Adora and Bow, "Now, we're going to find Princess Sweet Bee and convince her to join, and then get her to convince Peekablue to join." she explained.
"Uhh, alright. Sounds like a plan." Adora scratched her head.
"Are you sure Adora's here?" Catra asked Entrapta. She and her squad parked their vehicle outside of Peekablue's palace. Catra was wearing a dark red tuxedo with an untied bowtie around her neck. With her were Grizzlor and Leech, who were both wearing plain black tuxedos, with Grizzlor's having a deeper cut neckline that showed off more of his chest area.
"Motherboard saw Adora coming here, Catra. I will not doubt Motherboard's data." said Entrapta, wearing a gold-colored dress cut off just above her knees.
"Woah, so this is one of Peekablue's famous parties." awed Scorpia, wearing a pitch-black dress with her shoulders and arms fully open, a belt of red gems at her waist, black heels, and red gem earrings.
"Yeah, looks neat, I guess. Come on, let's go. Mantenna, you-" Catra turned to Mantenna before she was interrupted.
"Yeah, yeah, stay in the vehicle." Mantenna groaned, still wearing his normal Horde attire, "Just let you have all the fun." he murmured. Catra wanted one of them to stay there so they could make a quick getaway, and she chose him, the "least attractive" one.
"Okay, the rest of you just keep quiet; let Entrapta and I do the talking." Catra said
"Wait, but Catra, I-" Scorpia began.
"Want to help, I know. But Entrapta and I are the best at actually talking. So just leave everything to us." Catra said as she and Entrapta made their way to the front door.
"Can I help you?" the female guard asked the two, looking at them skeptically.
"I'm thinking maybe you can. This, is Queen Entrapta of Dryll." Catra said. The guard looked at the pad and scrolled through the list of names and kingdoms.
"Where are the trumpets?" Catra asked annoyed. "We were promised trumpets to announce the queen's arrival!"
"You're not on the list." she simply said, "Dryll isn't even a kingdom on this list."
"What? Excuse me!?" Catra said, putting on her best fake outrage voice, "Entrapta, the queen of Dryll herself, has decided to grace this event with her presence, and you're saying she's NOT on the list?!"
"That's exactly what I'm saying, now move along." the guard said.
"Fine! We, will go. You, can explain to Prince Peekablue why we were not able to attend your little luau or your barn dance, whatever this is. We are leaving, in a huff!" Catra said, trying to make her performance believable. The guard did not look impressed, simply watching as Catra and Entrapta left, much to Catra's internal dismay. Just then, Scorpia walked up to the guard.
"Excuse me? I'm Princess Scorpia D'Ream of Scorpias. These are my escorts." Scorpia said; the guard looked at the list and opened the door for them.
"Welcome to the party, your grace. " she bowed politely.
"Okay, let's head in." Scorpia smiled as she entered the palace. Entrapta, Grizzlor, and Leech followed her, while Catra just stood there in shock.
"What?" Scorpia asked, confused as Catra walked in.
"You're a princess?!" Catra asked in disbelief.
"Well, yeah...did you not already know that?" Scorpia replied, "I thought everyone knew that."
"Yeah, you behind that much?" Grizzlor asked
"It's not exactly an obscure fact." Leech said
"Then why didn't any of you stop me before I made a fool of myself!?" Catra asked annoyed.
"We thought you had a better plan. You ARE our leader, after all." Entrapta said.
"Okay, so what does Sweet Bee look like? There's a lot of people here, she could be anywhere." Adora said, looking around with Glimmer and Bow. Bow then saw someone in the distance.
"Um...I feel like that might be Sweet Bee." he said, pointing the other two to a twelve-foot-tall insectoid woman standing in the crowd, showing clear and distinct bee features and wearing a quite large fur coat.
"Huh…Alright, let's go." Adora said as the three of them maneuvered around the other guests and towards the large bee woman, who was standing near a fountain in the ballroom.
"Excuse me, miss? Are you Princess Sweet Bee?" Glimmer asked.
"Hmm? Yeah, I'm Sweet Bee." the bee woman said, her voice sounding soft and sweet, in stark contrast to the insectoid mandibles it came out of.
"I'm Princess Glimmer of Brightmoon, and I'd like to ask you something."
"Alrighty~" Sweet Bee nodded with a smile.
"I would like to ask if you-" Glimmer began, before she was interrupted by someone shouting loudly over the crowd, making everyone fall silent.
Catra was looking around the party, trying to spot Adora. Scorpia was doing her best to keep up with her, trying and failing not to bump into anyone. After a lot of quick apologies, she reached the determined catgirl.
"C-catra, wait. What's the plan?" Scorpia huffed, the rest of the squad catching up with them as well.
"We'll look for Adora, obviously!" Catra groaned annoyed.
"Mmm, we should split up, so we cover more ground." Entrapta mused.
"Good idea. If anything goes wrong, we signal each other." Catra nodded in agreement. But as she was about to leave, Entrapta stopped her.
"What kind of signal do you want? Do you want kind of subtle, like-" Entrapta asked before leaning down and whispering sensually into Catra's ear, Catra shuddering uncomfortably as her ear twitched.
"Or something more like-" Grizlor chimed in and beat his chest rapidly.
"Oh, how about this-" Scorpia said before putting a claw to her mouth and shouting loudly "Ca-caw! Ca-caw!"
The room went silent as all the partygoers stared in their general direction, Catra cringing internally. She poked Scorpia in the side to shut her up.
"Subtle. Let's get to work." Catra rolled her eyes before walking off.
"Huh, that was weird…" Glimmer muttered as she looked across the room to try to find the source of the bizarre noise. She turned back around...only to find that Sweet Bee wasn't there anymore. Glimmer stood there, dumbfounded at how she had managed to lose the huge bug woman as Bow and Adora caught up with her.
"She was right here!" Glimmer gestured wildly at the empty spot.
"Don't worry, we'll find her." Bow said as the three of them started searching. As they walked through the mass of people, they passed by one particular catgirl.
"Well, look who it is~ Alright guys, I found-" Catra spoke up, before realizing the others had already split off.
"Ugh, I take my eyes off them for one minute..." Catra grumbled before walking off in search of her squad.
"Champagne, ma'am?" a servant offered, before Catra smacked the tray of drinks out of her hands.
Grizzlor and Leech were looking around the ballroom area.
"Man, I heard these parties Peekablue hosts were fancy. Never thought I'd see one myself." Grizzlor said, admiring the ornate decor of the palace and the party. And partaking liberally of the free champagne.
"Yes, it is quite the visual spectacle." Leech rolled his eyes dismissively.
"Geez, would it kill ya to sound genuine?"
"Parties aren't exactly my specialty." Leech grumbled, wishing he could be anywhere but here right now.
"Come on, K'ull'leussh, let's have some fun." Grizzlor nudged him.
"I told you never to call me that in public." Leech glared at Grizzlor. Grizzlor just rolled his eyes and walked over to a group of women talking, introducing himself with a charming grin.
"Leech, what are you two doing!? I found Adora, let's go." Catra said as she walked up to them.
"You found her or you caught her?" Leech asked.
"Who cares? I saw her, so let's go capture her." Catra hissed annoyed
"You can go. I'll stay here; the idiot has his mind occupied right now." Leech said, glancing over at Grizzlor, showing off his muscles to the ladies.
Elsewhere in the ballroom, Entrapta was getting a good look at the many guests. She got all up in their faces as she admired the quite magnificent appearances some had. She strutted over to one man at the party, clearly the same species as Peekablue, with orange skin, shorter hair, and a rear end that, while nowhere as big as Peekablue's, was still noticeably large.
"Well hello there~ You are quite the cute one." Entrapta smiled at the man, liking his lips as her eyes lingered on his wide hips, "Would you like to join me tonight?" she wiggled her eyebrows.
"I am flattered." The man smiled at her, "But I am taken. Besides, you are not my type."
Entrapta pouted in disappointment and turned around. She approached the next person she saw and tried to flirt with them. Catra spotted her going from person to person, trying, and mostly failing, to hook up with them. Figuring that Entrapta was clearly too occupied to help her, Catra sighed and decided to tried to find Scorpia. She then saw the large muscular woman talking with a woman in a pink dress with flowers in her blonde hair.
"Scorpia. Come on, I found Adora." Catra nudged her.
"Oh, Catra, right, I'll-, uh, be right with you." Scorpia smiled somewhat distracted as she returned her attention to the woman in the pink dress, a blush forming on her face. It was clear whatever she was doing was going to keep her attention away from what Catra wanted.
"Ugh, forget this. I can get Adora myself." Catra huffed as she stormed off, pushing over a small statue on a table in annoyance.
Glimmer, Bow and Adora continued their search for Sweet Bee. They found her standing by a table with various finger foods, nibbling on a piece of meat on a skewer.
"Princess Sweet Bee!" Glimmer said, quickly teleporting to her location.
"Oh, hello again." Sweet Bee greeted her warmly. She grabbed a walnut and absentmindedly shoved it into her mandibles, cracking it open and swallowing it.
"Hi. Okay, so, I know your kingdom is recognized as neutral, but I would really like you to consider-" Glimmer said before she heard a loud crash. She turned to look, seeing a handful of people standing around the remains of a small statue onto the floor. One of the servants growled annoyed as she squatted down to clean it up, while two more were pushing past the crowd, trying to catch someone Glimmer couldn't see.
"Alright, we don't have much time, so-" Glimmer said, turning back around before seeing Sweet Bee gone once again.
"Seriously!?" she fumed annoyed. After a quick look around, she saw Sweet Bee was now all the way across the ballroom.
"Come on, let's get to her and just be upfront about it this time." Adora said determined. Glimmer sighed and nodded before following after her. As they made their way past the other partygoers, Catra spotted them from a distance.
"Aha! Now I got you." She grinned as she made her way towards Adora. However, before she could get close, she was stopped by two of the servants stepping in front of her.
"Out of my way, bird brains!" Catra snarled at them.
"Hold it right there." A voice spoke up. Catra turned around to see Prince Peekablue walking up to her, accompanied by two more servants.
"There you are. You've been causing quite a bit of trouble." He said annoyed.
"I'm on official Horde business, Prince Posterior; get out of the way." Catra snarled.
"Fowleria is recognized as a neutral kingdom. Meaning any and all members of The Horde abide by its laws while here." Peekablue told Catra, "And you've broken quite a few of them. Trying to enter under a false identity, breaking palace property, and assaulting my staff." He glared.
"Security, escort this woman out of here." He ordered, and the servants grabbed her and began dragging her out.
"Hey! Get your dirty hands off of me!" Catra replied, trying to struggle her way out of their grip. She looked around for her squad mates. She spotted Scorpia, dancing with the blonde woman.
"Ca-caw! Ca-caw!" Catra called out, trying to signal to Scorpia to help her out. Scorpia, however, was too busy enjoying herself dancing to notice Catra's calls, leaving the catgirl to make a fool of herself as security guards grabbed her and began dragging her out of the palace, much to her objection.
Meanwhile, Glimmer, Adora and Bow managed to make their way to Princess Sweet Bee's current location.
"Princess Sweet Bee, would you please join the Rebellion?!" Glimmer said, not wanting to give her any time to wander off again.
"Mmmmm," Sweet Bee pondered, "okay."
"Wait, really?" Bow asked, shocked at how easy that was.
"Yeah. I'll join. Sounds like fun." Sweet Bee smiled.
"Okay, cool. Um, could you maybe convince Prince Peekablue to join as well?" Glimmer asked
"Sure, I'd love my sweet Peekablue to join with me."
Glimmer and Bow paused for a couple of seconds before cheering in celebration.
"We did it!" Adora cheered, "So now what do we do?"
"Well...want to enjoy the rest of the party?" Glimmer asked the other two.
"Sure." Bow said
"Um, sure, okay. Wow, my first mission is a success!" Adora smiled
Catra yelped as she was thrown out of the palace, right into one of the bushes. Grumbling as she plucked the leaves out of her hair, she walked to the vehicle they came in, Mantenna waiting.
"So...how did it go?" Mantenna snorted, looking amused at the karma Catra seemingly suffered for leaving him with the hover car.
"Don't even start." Catra groaned; she might have succeeded if not for her squad all getting distracted. She REALLY wished she could have gotten Kyle in this group; he would have gotten the job done in no time, but Hordak told her Kyle was on some supposedly important mission. She sighed; what mission could be so important that Kyle couldn't help her get Adora back?
Elsewhere on Etheria, a rebel base was being set ablaze. The bodies of rebel fighters littering the area, Horde soldiers setting fire to the buildings. A single rebel crawled on the ground, his body badly bruised and beaten; he tried his best to crawl away despite the pain he was in.
"So here's how this is gonna work," said the deep digitized voice of Kyle as he slowly walked around the rebel, "I'm gonna ask you a real simple question, nothing too hard." he began talking. The rebel tried to reach his arm for a gun next to another dead rebel, before Kyle, just as the rebel's hand touched the gun, pressed his foot down on both the hand and the firearm. The gun was entirely crushed under the immense weight, the rebel's hand suffering the same fate. The rebel screamed in pain as Kyle squatted down.
"And you're gonna answer that question. Ready?" Kyle asked, the rebel still reeling in pain in response, "Good." he said before he took his foot off the hand and grabbed the rebel by the neck, lifting him several feet off the ground. The rebel's eyes stared directly into the glowing lenses of Kyle's helmet.
"Where is King Micah?"
