The Kingdom of Toxicveinia

Part XVIII: The Kingdom of Toxicveinia

“But what did it to them?” asked Claudia.

“Our Massssster,” came a hissing voice.

“Who said that?” Claudia exclaimed. The girls turned themselves to face all directions with weapons ready to attack.

“‘Twasss ussss,” the girls’ attention turned to the two gargoyles who began to step down from their stone perches.

“Get away!” shouted Bella.

“Fine, but our puppets will do you in,” shouted one gargoyle. The two spread their wings and jettisoned into the air and flew towards the chapel.

“Puppets?” Diana asked in a confused voice.

“That would be us!” came a booming voice from Jim’s body.

“Pssh. This won’t be hard,” scoffed Bella, “V and I took out three of them before.”

V chimed in, “Using Shade as a tool.”

“Well, you won’t be so lucky this time,” Apollo said in a threatening voice. The girls turned around and saw Apollo, Roxton, and Spike glaring at them.

“Five on six?” Claudia laughed, “We can take you down without breaking a sweat.”

“Do you really think so?” came Roxton’s caustic voice.

“Yes, after all, we have Shade,” said Bella.

“Oh, he won’t pose much of a threat to us for long,” laughed Apollo.

“What?” asked Diana. Suddenly, out of the sky, one of the gargoyles swooped down and whisked Shade off of V’s shoulder.

“Crap!” shouted V and Bella.

“That’s only part of his ‘disappearing act’,” laughed Apollo. At that moment the four other gargoyles appeared overhead, circling around in a hawk-like way. They stopped suddenly and, like a rocket, propelled themselves downward, colliding with the earth with a great force. The tremor threw the girls off balance, as well as the men. The gargoyles flew out of the crater unscathed and Apollo quickly regained his footing. He pointed the scythe at the crater and shouted, “DOWN POUR!”

Rain began to fall in torrents, quickly filling up the hole. When it was full, he commanded the rain to stop. By this time the others had gotten to their feet. Bella had tried to make an attack on Apollo but was detained by V.

“He may be evil now, but somewhere deep inside he’s still my boyfriend,” she whispered in her ear, “Just remember that, they all may be possessed, but inside they still feel for us in some way.” Bella stopped struggling and V released her.

The gargoyle that had hauled Shade away returned above the crater and dropped Shade’s body into the man made lake. When Shade’s body disappeared under the surface Apollo shouted, “Freeze Over.” Pointing the tip of the scythe at the water, a thick layer of ice appeared on the surface of the lake, sealing Shade underwater, destined to drown.

“Beta, Delta, Gamma, Omega!” shouted the gargoyle who had dropped Shade into the water.

“Yessir, Alpha!” replied all four.

“Now that half our souls are in them, lets return to our master and unleash the full potential of power in these men,” commanded Alpha. They flew to their perch atop the Bell Tower.

“Wait, aren’t they as powerful as they can be?” asked Omega.

“Only your puppet is. The other men are in possession of items that allow their power to be further expanded,” came a demonic voice.

“T-t-toxicvein?” stuttered Delta.

“Yes, I have been over looking your plan. It’s very well thought out, except for one thing.”

“What’s that, your majesty?” asked Alpha.

“DON’T CALL ME UNLESS YOU ALL FAIL!” with that his voice vanished as quickly as it had come.

“Okay men, it’s time to attack,” said Apollo.

“Ready to do this, ladies?” asked Claudia.

“We’re ready to kick some puppet butt!” shouted V.

Bella tugged on her arm, “What about what you said before?”

“Just play along.”

The girls were ready to attack, all except for Diana. “What’s wrong?” asked Bella.

“It’s just...” she trailed off.

“Apollo and Jim are my friends and Shade’s going to drown under there,” she was close to tears.

A glint of light reflected off Bella’s ring, she looked at it and a thought crossed her mind, “V! Was Shade wearing a necklace?”

“I think so,” she said, trying to keep the guys away without really hurting them.

“Diana, Shade’ll be fine,” she put her hand on D’s shoulder.

“What?”

“Trust me, he’s not going to die. So, are you ready to fight?”

“Not really,” she said.

“Fine, I think the five of us can handle the five of them. You can work on getting Shade out of the watery tomb,” suggested Bella.

“That sounds like a plan,” Diana moved away from the fight and made her way to the far side of the crater and hid behind some upturned rocks as she saw the gargoyles flying back to the scene.

“This is ridiculously unorganized,” Apollo said to himself as he over looked the fray before him. “Morgan, you take Lizzy. Spike, Claudia. Jim, Zelda. Roxton, Bella. I’ll take care of V and Diana.”

“Yesir!” replied the men. Breaking from the clump of fighting the men spread out against their female opposite. Leaving only Venus to fight Apollo.

“Where’s your sister?” Apollo asked.

“I was wondering the same thing.”

Before the fights could continue the gargoyles returned to take their puppets to a respective battlegrounds. Omega took Jim and Zelda to the Sacred Grove that the gate blocked off. Gamma held Morgan and Lizzy at the clearing. Delta took Spike and Claudia to the Chapel. Beta took Roxton and Bella to the Castle’s Entrance. Alpha whisked Apollo and V off to the cemetary.

“Something’s amiss,” Toxicvein grumbled to himself. Looking over the five battlegrounds from his Citadel in the sky.

Battle Omega

Omega dropped his two fighters in the Sacred Grove. The bodied landed with a thud on the dirt ground. The battlefield was enclosed by trees. The trees grew so tall that they intertwined overhead and blocked out most of the light. As Jim and Zelda stood up, their eyes adjusted to the darkness.

“I can’t see a damn thing!” shouted Jim.

However, Zelda could see perfectly fine, wandering around in the dark for eighteen years gave her the upper hand. She watched as Jim staggered around in the darkness. “This shouldn’t be to hard.” She threw off her hood and unsheathed her blade. She began to charge at Jim and a voice came in her head, “Don’t hurt him that bad, he’s not all bad.” She slowed down and dropped her sword. The clanging had alerted Jim to Zelda’s whereabouts and his eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

“There you are,” Jim pulled back his arm and made a fist.

“Jim, don’t,” but before Zelda could finish her plea, Jim planted a punch to the side of her face that sent her falling sideways. When she hit the ground, she made an attempt to get back on her feet. A whoosh of air passed her ear and she glanced to that side to see Jim’s sword sticking out of the ground. Luckily for her, he missed her head with his throw. She rolled the other way, and as she did her robe fanned a breeze and ice began to form along the ground. She gasped at this and made a quick roll for her sword and managed to pick it up before it was frozen over.

Jim, however, was not so lucky. His sword was frozen into the ground. He grabbed the hilt and try to pull it free. In his struggle, Zelda began to feel a chill over come her feet. She tore off her robe and saw ice forming on her shoes. She quickly realized the robe had the ability to freeze things. She stripped herself of the robe and tossed it over the struggling Jim.

“What’s this?” he said when the robe made contact with him. While he was distracted Zelda checked him from the side and sent him slipping to the icy ground. It wasn’t long after that he was frozen over with a thin layer of ice.

“Well,” Omega said to himself as he watched from overhead, “The boss said this would be the easiest puppet to defeat. Shouldn’t have let a mortal do a job I could’ve handled.” He swooped down and landed with a thud behind Zelda. His landing was forceful enough to shatter the thin ice that coated the ground.

“What the hell?” shouted Zelda, turning to face Omega. She dipped down and removed her robe from Jim’s body, he began to thaw out. She watched as Omega moved closer to her. She held her sword, ready to attack.

“Do you really think that sad excuse for a sword could actually hurt me?” Omega taunted her. Zelda’s knees began to shake.

“D-don’t b-be n-nerv-vous!” came the stuttering voice of a chilly Jim. The evil possessive spirit was expelled from his while he was frozen and it made its way back to Omega. The wisp appeared as warm air in the chilly battleground. As it made its way past Zelda she moved her focus from Omega to the spirit and slashed at it with her sword. As the blade pierced the air it emitted an unbearable screech. Zelda’s robe created a barrier that shielded her from the sound waves and Jim’s ears were still thawing out. However, with nothing to protect his ears, Omega’s scaly skin turned to stone and he shattered into thousands of small pieces.

Battle Beta

The castle’s porch and front landing were encompassed by a giant force field, impenetrable from the inside. Beta dropped Roxton and Bella through the top of the dome, both landed on the ground with a thud. With the healing spell cast on him wearing off, his wounds began to ache again and he lay on the ground, incapacitated. Bella got to her feet and looked at the body laying there. “If he’s out, this shouldn’t be much of a challenge.” She found a rock on the ground, picked it up and lobbed it at Roxton. It connected at his shin and he winced in pain.

Above the dome, Beta was looking down at the fight, “Time for a boost.”

Suddenly, Roxton’s eyes glowed bright red and he began to hover off the ground. He was placed down on his feet, “Now the fight begins.”

Bella picked up another rock and chucked it at Roxton. He stood motionless as the rock rushed towards his face. Just as the rock was about to make contact with his face he whipped his katana out from behind him, with reflexes so fast that made it look like he pulled it out of the air, and sliced the rock in two. Each half flew past either side of his face.

Bella stood speechless. “Anymore, Little Missy?”

She remained stunned.

“You shouldn’t be a problem to finish off,” Roxton was taunting her.

“No fair!” she said, “I don’t have a sword!”

“Fine, I’ll play without my blade. I’ll have the satisfaction of destroying you with my bare hands.”

Bella picked up another rock and tossed it at Roxton, but he vanished and reappeared behind her in the blink of an eye. “What the hell? Where did he go?”

“Surprise!” he said in a deathly tone. She jumped and he grabbed her about the waist with one arm and her neck with the other.

“Oh, I wish Shade told me how to work this thing,” was all she could think about as she was struggling for freedom. As she began to tire, she was slipping in and out of consciousness. In a pensive of thought-filled sleep she saw Shade.

“Shade, I don’t know what to do,” she said. Roxton was puzzled that the body had stopped struggling and was now talking to someone who was drowning.

“Just focus your energy to the ring,” was the response she received from Shade. She felt her body slump to the ground as she forced her eyes to stay closed. Roxton was getting ready to finish her off. She concentrated all her energy to the ring which sent out bolts of electricity throughout the dome. Roxton was leaning over the ring as it unleashed it’s energy and it sent him flying into the dome wall. He collided with a bone crunching blow and then he fell face first into the ground.

Beta swooped down to see his puppet unconscious on the ground. As the spirit left Roxton’s body it was caught by a bolt of electricity, causing it to shatter which also destroyed Beta. The lightning storm stopped and the force field fell. Bella got to her feet as pieces of stone fell from the sky. She walked over to Roxton.

“You okay?”

He moved a bit. His body was blacked by the scorches from the electricity. His arms were both broken and his wounds were opening up again. Oozing blood from just about all the parts of his body he still managed to get to his feet.

“ZOMBIE!” shouted Bella, she picked up another rock.

Roxton saw her motion towards the rock, “No, its Roxton. Human Roxton. I’m not going to hurt you. Please don’t throw that rock at me.”

“How do I know you’re really Roxton?”

“Because I am the greatest person in the world,” he said.

“Yup, that’s definitely Roxton,” she said.

“See, I told you.”

“No one else I know, except maybe Spike, has a ego as big as yours.”

“Why thank you,” Roxton said with a smile.

Bella noticed something strange. His beaten body looked as if it was hovering off the ground. “Roxton, why are you hovering?”

“Because I’m awesome like that.”

“I’m getting nowhere with this,” she said to herself. “Anyway, lets go find Shade.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Battle Delta

The roof of the chapel had fallen in on itself when the Gargoyles smashed into the ground making Shades Drowning Pool. Delta dropped his playthings into the chapel. As the two fell, Delta mumbled a spell that caused a force field to enclose the chapel. He took his place upon his perch on the Chapel’s Roof and watched as the battle unfolded inside.

Claudia and Spike landed on the floor with a thud, but with lighting fast reflexes they both jumped to their feet.

“I wonder if I could make things a bit more interesting than two humans fighting,” Delta spread his wings and the dome around the chapel changed the lighting from day to night, and a full moon appeared beaming down at the chapel.

As the light hit Spike and Claudia they began to wince. Spike fell to his knees as his muscles began to bulge and hair began to overtake his body. His shirt, pants, and gloves didn’t rip as he grew, in fact they grew with him.

“Oh, look at that, the items grow with Spike,” Delta said to himself.

Claudia stood tall as her transformation occurred, her nails began to grow and her teeth grew sharper. The ring on her finger glistened in the moon light.

“Oh, she has one of the rings,” Delta said, “this fight should be interesting.”

As Spike stood up from his transformation and looked at his unripped clothing, Claudia bound forward and slashed her claws at him. Her claws caught Spike on his arm, tearing part of the shirt and breaking his skin. Blood oozed from the cut.

Spike turned to face Claudia, he stomped his feet on the ground and vines sprouted from the stone flooring. He commanded them forward to bind Claudia. She slashed at them as they came towards her, but her attempts were futile. The vines kept growing back, each time thicker than before. She tired out and the vines bound her in place.

The vines held her upright from their positions around her on the floor. Spike punched the ground and the ground shook, and a hole appeared right below Claudia. Spike commanded the vines to snap from their places and the bound up Claudia fell into the pit, helpless.

“Haha, you couldn’t beat me if you tried,” laughed Spike. Walking slowly to the pit where he would char broil Claudia. Before he had time to lift his hands to shoot flames he heard a scream from Claudia. “I haven’t set you on fire yet, why are you screaming?”

“Something’s crawling on me, inside the vines.”

“Oh, that’s all? I shall continue then.” Spike was about to shoot the flames at her as he heard a few vines snap and saw a black blur shoot out of the hole. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?” asked Claudia.

“That thing that just came off of you.”

“Turn around,” came a third voice.

“Who’s there?” shouted both werewolves.

“Redwing,” came the voice.

“You can talk?” asked Claudia.

“Yes,” but only nonhuman creatures can here me.

“So we can hear you because we’re werewolves?” asked Claudia.

“Exactly.”

“Enough!” shouted Spike, “I’ll just finish off both of you.”

“You gotta catch me first,” said Redwing. The small spigbat flew around Spike head. Spike was spinning around trying to catch the bug.

“What’s happening?” Delta said to himself as he saw Spike fall to the ground.

Redwing flew into the hole were Claudia stand and quickly gnawed through the vines. As he did they withered and died. Spike was regaining his footing after falling down from his dizzy spell. Claudia was climbing out of the hole and Redwing was hovering over her.

“Redwing, go find something silver on the alter, I’ll hold off Spike,” whispered Claudia.

“Yes’m,” he flew off to the alter and began to look for a silver item. He spotted a silver candlestick that lay on the floor. He flew to it and with all the strength he had he lifted it up in his legs.

Claudia took her sword out of its sheath and charged once more at Spike. He quickly dodged her stab by diving to the floor. He spun himself around and tripped her with his legs. As she fell, she dropped her sword and clipped her ring on the hilt, causing the ring to emit a spark. She scrambled to pick up the sword but it was too late. Spike was standing with his foot on her back.

“I’ve got you under control now,” he laughed. She continued to struggle. He lifted his foot a little to give her false hope of escaping. As she hunched her back to get up, he quickly took his foot from behind her and kicked her in the side and hooked her on his foot. He flipped her on to her back and she lay motionless on the ground. Spike held one hand out and shot a huge flame at Claudia. The fire caught the wood work around her and enclosed her in a fiery tomb.

Spike stood admiring his work. “Hey jerkwad!” came Redwing’s voice. Spike turned his head and collided with the silver candlestick. As Spike fell in pain, Redwing released the candlestick.

“Well, at least he killed the girl,” said a Delta, satisfied with his work. The force field vanished and the faux night was gone and sunlight rushed into the chapel. Delta left his perch and flew into the building to examine the carnage. Spike was laying on the floor and as he transformed back into a human and the flames began to die out around Claudia. Redwing hid under a fallen rafter as Delta entered the building. As Spike’s transformation ended a redlight was expelled from his mouth in a cough. Uninterested in the coughing puppet, he looked at Claudia. Not a single burn mark on her body. “How can this be?” He looked and saw the ring on her finger was glowing red and orange. “No, something caused the ring to shield her.”

As he said this, the red light was getting closer to him, Redwing shot from his hiding place and sliced through the spirit. The red light burst as Delta was looking at Claudia’s sword. Part of the handle had melted away. “Master, I have failed you.” Delta froze back into a statue and then he shattered into pieces.

The ring stopped its shielding and Claudia opened her eyes. She saw Spike laying on the ground, holding his head. She got to her feet and rushed over to him. “Spike, are you okay?”

“I should be,” he took his hand of his head and there was a small bump. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” said Claudia.

Screech, screech, oink, screeeeeech. Came a sound from over their heads.

“What’s that?” asked Spike.

Claudia looked up and saw Redwing hovering over them. “It’s only Roxton’s pet. I think it’s trying to tell us something.” Claudia helped Spike to his feet.

“Wouldn’t it be amazing if he could talk to us?” Spike said.

“Spike, you have the weirdest thoughts,” Claudia laughed. Redwing landed on Claudia’s shoulder and then flew out the door. “I think he wants us to follow him.”

Battle Gamma

In the field where everyone was taking from a giant dome enclosed the five that remained there. Gamma watched his battle between Uncle and Niece unfold. He knew Shade’s body was in the icy clutches of the pond that was enclosed at the far end of the battlefield. However, Diana was hiding behind some of the turned up earth along the sides of the pond.

Morgan was wielding his ax as Lizzy prepared her elbow blades. Morgan rushed forward, the ax head extended to hit her from a distance, to avoid being clipped with her blades. Lizzy blocked the oncoming halberd with her blades. The shock of the sudden hit vibrated down the handle of the ax and into Morgan’s arms. He involuntarily dropped his weapon. Lizzy threw her weapons down and picked up his ax. She bumped him aside him the butt of the handle and knocked him across the stomach with the handle. Morgan fell to his knees, gasping for air. Lizzy went to remove the helmet from his head, but as she touched it a great chill came over her.

“Finally, his helmet comes into play,” sneered Gamma.

Over by the lake, Diana watched the pitiful battle from behind some upturned earth. She looked at the frozen lake, “Don’t worry Shade, I’ll get to you soon enough.” She picked up her shovel and carefully made her way to the center of the lake.

Below its surface, something interesting was occurring. Shade was just floating along in the water in the deadman’s float. His back was up against the cold ice. Managing to survive because of his elemental necklace, his body survived in its vegetative state. Inside his head something was going on.

“What’s with the cold?” came a voice in Shade’s head, “Not to long ago I had total control over him and now he’s just... just freezing.”

“Who there?” asked another voice, this one sounding more like Shade.

“The second spirit occupying this body,” responded the first voice.

“Antonio?”

“Yes.”

“Get out of me this instant!”

“No, not until my duty is complete,” he responded, his voice was calm and relaxed.

“What’s that?”

“If I told you, there would be no fun in letting it unfold.”

“But... but...”

“No buts,” the voice sighed, “We need to bring Shade back to a state of consciousness.”

“Haven’t we been doing that for sometime now?”

“No, you’ve been doing that. I’ve been keeping him out.”

“Well, look where that landed him.”

“I’m not exactly where we are, but he isn’t moving, he’s just sort of drifting in an unconscious state,” Antonio’s voice was becoming more friendly than evil.

“How do I know this isn’t part of your plan?” Shade’s voice asked suspiciously.

“You don’t,” he laughed, the evil returning.

“Then why should I trust you?”

“I don’t know, why should you?” he said in a caustic tone, “Oh, that’s right, maybe because I can do this!”

Back at the battlefield, Lizzy looked at the hand she touched the helmet with. The tips of her finger that made contact with the ice cold solid we as black as night. A chill overcame her as she spoke, “Fr-fr-fr-frostbite?”

In he moment of shock, Morgan got his second wind and stood tall. He stole back his ax from her clutches and pushed his niece to the ground. “Pitiful girl, I thought I raised you better than that.”

For the first time, Lizzy was witnessing her Uncle as an evil man. Tears started to gather in her eyes. “Don’t.”

“Like you can stop me,” he was raising his halberd over her.

She looked at her positioning. She was within reach off knocking Morgan off balance. She only had one chance. She made a foul swipe with her legs that connected at Morgan’s ankle. He winced, and that split second of time wasted allowed Lizzy to get to her feet. Not wanting him to knock her back down yet, she ran behind her Uncle and kicked him behind his knees.

He fell to the ground, his eyes watering in pain. He dropped his halberd to his side. “Damn you! You know I don’t have good knees.”

“You asked for it,” Lizzy scoffed, she retrieved her blades. As she picked up her blades she noticed a little ball of fur resting on one of them. Shaking. “SQUISHY!” she said in a high voice.

“Squishy? What’s a Squishy?” Gamma said to himself, “Is that girl so crazy that she names her weapons?”

Squishy uncurled himself and looked at Lizzy with big eyes. “Awh!” she said.

Squishy was looking over her shoulder, she was on her knees holding him cupped in her hands. He began to shiver and point over her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you,” she said, unaware of what he was trying to tell her.

“It’s too late for that,” came her Uncle’s voice. As she turned to look at her Uncle, squishy leapt out of her hands and scurried towards the lake. Morgan was pointing the tip of his ax at her face. “Freeze!” A blast of icy wind shot forth and encased Lizzy as an ice sculpture.

“I’m very proud of the outcome of this fight. I have this strange feeling my brothers have not met with success as easily as I have,” he smiled, “Time to take out the puppet.” Gamma walked over to Morgan, clapping his clawlike hands together, “Bravo, Morgan. Bravo.”

“The applause aren’t necessary,” he responded, being modest.

“Oh, but of course they are,” he Gamma responded smugly, “Do you mind if I have a look at your helmet?”

“Sure, I don’t see why though,” he said, removing the helm, “It’s just a translucent piece of metal.”

Taking the helm from Morgan, “Oh, of course it is. I would just like to say that I held an article of clothing worn by an infamous Captain in Toxivein’s army.”

“A Captain?” he said.

“Yes, a Captain. But not just any captain. A captain in Toxivein’s army,” Gamma placed the helmet upon his head and smiled evily.

“Well, I don’t know who Toxivein is, but– What are you doing?” asked Morgan.

Gamma was pointing one of his clawed fingers at Morgan, “Freeze!” Morgan became an ice sculpture like his niece.

At the lake, Diana was hacking away at the icy surface when the ground began to shake. “What’s happening?” she said to herself. She dropped her shovel and made her way quickly back to solid ground where she saw Squishy curled in a ball. She picked him up, “Are you okay little fella?”

Below the surface Antonio’s spirit had stirred up cast a spell to awaken Shade. “What are you doing?” came Shade’s voice.

“Getting us the hell out of here.” Antonio began sending shockwaves in all directions from Shades body. Shaking the earth around the lake and breaking the ice above them. Next he pulsed heat throughout Shade’s body to warm him up. “Are you just going to watch me? Help.”

“How?”

“You’re his actual spirit, wake him up.”

Shade’s spirit concentrated its energy and began to bring Shade back into existence. His eyes opened up and he began to struggle to free himself from under the water. “My work is done for now,” came Antonio’s voice, and then it faded into silence.

“I gotta get outta here,” Shade said to himself, “I can’t breath underwater.” He looked down at his necklace and remembered that he could. He breathed a sigh of relief. He looked up and saw a crack in the ice. “Maybe, just maybe,” he thought. He swam to the surface and held his hand to the crack. He concentrated on heating his hand up to send a fiery blast through the surface. “FLAMES!” he shouted as bubbles left his mouth. A flame shot from his hand up through the ice.

“What the hell?” said Diana, turning around to look at the lake.

“What’s happening?” Gamma said to himself, he turned to look at the lake. “This isn’t good.”

“Shade?” asked Diana, as the flame died down and a body came crawling out of the lake.

“Yeah, its me,” he said. She came rushing to him and helped him to his feet. His clothes were soaked. She hugged him, and she found it surprising that he was so warm for someone who had been submerged over a frozen lake. She made a movement to kiss him, but he moved away.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“We’re not alone,” he said. Squishy climbed onto Diana’s shoulder and covered his eyes. “No, I don’t mind you Squishy.” He smiled.

“Then what do you mean?” asked Diana.

Gamma came flying over to the lake and he saw the two of them standing there, “He’s alive?” Gamma lifted his finger and pointed it at Diana. Shade saw the helmet on his head and his finger aimed at Diana. Before he could yell freeze Shade pushed Diana away from him and told her to get the helmet off of the gargoyle.

Shade picked up the shovel that was resting on the ice. He was being barraged by blasts of ice and was deflecting them with the shovel until he could attack.

Diana and Squishy were sneaking around behind Gamma as Shade kept him distracted. They reached a point behind him where she could easily throw something at him and make contact. “I need something to throw at him,” she said, she looked at the ground and couldn’t find a small enough rock. Squishy scurried down to her hands and curled himself up. “Don’t be scared.” He uncurled himself and shook his head. He stood on his hind legs and mimed a throwing movement. “Oh, you want me to throw you?” Squishy nodded and curled back up.

Diana threw Squishy at the gargoyle and he uncurled mid flight and planted himself on Gamma’s back. He scurried up his back and managed to prop the helmet off a little. Diana crept behind Gamma and removed the helm and picked up Squishy. She hurried over to Shade.

Gamma attempted to shoot another blast of ice, but realized he no longer had the ability. He was to focused on the battle and didn’t notice the squabbit stealing his helm.

Diana appeared next to Shade with the helm in her hands. “Now what?”

“Put it on and freeze that S.O.B” said Shade.

She put it on, “How do I freeze him?”

“Point your finger at him and yell..”

“FREEZE!” Diana shouted and a burst of ice shot from her hand and froze Gamma. She laughed, “That tickled.”

“Great, but he’s not dead. I think me missed something.”

“Well, this is where Morgan and Lizzy were fighting,” said Diana.

“What happened to them?”

“They were frozen.”

Shade looked towards the other end of the field and saw the two ice people. “I’ll get them out,” he began to move, Diana was still standing there, “Are you coming?” She began after him.

When they reached the two ice sculptures, Shade pointed the end of the shovel at Lizzy and said, “Thaw.” Heat radiated from the shovel and melted the ice. He did the same to Morgan. Diana watched in amazement at how Shade was doing these magic tricks again.

Squishy’s eyes were focused on something else. As Morgan thawed a ball of red light was expelled from his nose. Squishy leapt from Diana’s shoulder and slashed at the ball. It shattered and he landed on his feet. Shade helped Lizzy and Morgan to their feet and Diana picked Squishy back up. There was a load explosion from the other end of the field as Gamma’s ice sculpture exploded. The force field fell.

All was quiet after that, Morgan and Lizzy picked up their weapons from the ground. Behind them the gates creaked as Jim and Zelda found the way out of their battlegrounds. “What’s going on?” asked Jim.

“Shade, you’re not dead!” shouted Zelda, running over to her cousin and giving him a hug.

“Well, you have Diana to thank for that,” Shade winked at her and put his arm around her. “She broke through the ice and pulled me out.” Shade pulled her closer and kissed her. He whispered to her, “They don’t know of my abilities, so go along with it.”

The group there was talking amongst themselves when Roxton, Bella, Spike, and Claudia showed up. Both girls were glad that Shade was okay and they rushed over to see him. The guys were all oblivious to what had happened to him. Squishy rushed down from Diana’s shoulder and scurried over to Spike. He climbed to his shoulder and began to cuddle against his face.

Redwing flew from Claudia’s side to Roxton’s head. “Redwing, you’re back.” Redwing let out a happy screech.

“Well it looks like we’re all here,” said Lizzy.

“Wait,” said Diana, “Where are Apollo and V?”

At that moment, from the other side of the castle a burst of white light shot into the sky and the ground began to shake. Everyone rushed to the graveyard.

Battle Alpha

Alpha swooped down low of the cemetery. He placed Venus on the end furthest from the gate and he placed Apollo in front of the gate. He flew to the middle of the cemetery and landed on his perch. He raised his hands up over his head and the wrought-iron fences shot out of the ground and closed at the top, forming a giant cage. Near the top of the cage, the gate fell open.

Venus looked up at the small exit about forty feet over her head. “There’s no way I’m getting out of this, I have to stop Apollo before anything bad happens to him or me.” She looked at the sword that she held. “I don’t want to hurt him, but I’m going to have to.”

“Venus! Venus!” came Apollo’s voice from the distant end of the cemetery. Luckily for her the cemetery was laid out like a labyrinth and the homicidal Apollo would have trouble getting to the other end. Unfortunately, she was going to have to find him before she could get out of the cage.

“Okay, V, you can do this,” she proceeded through the graves as quietly as she could, following the sound of Apollo’s voice to lead her closer to the center of the cage. She had managed to avoid confrontation with Apollo for a good time. She could see mausoleum where they had been earlier, which was at the center of the maze; however, she failed to notice that Alpha was perched within a short range from there.

Alpha saw her as she made a dash for the mausoleum. He laughed to himself and summoned his puppet to the mausoleum.

V reached the mausoleum and leaned her forearms on the cold stone walls. She placed her forehead upon her arms and began to catch her breath. She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Did you think you could really avoid me that easily?” asked Apollo.

V let out an angered sigh.

“I’ll take that as a ‘Yes,’” Apollo said. He grabbed her with one arm around her waist and the other on her shoulder. The staff of the scythe was pressed against her waist.

“Let... me... go!” she shouted, struggling to get free.

“Admit to me that you were cheating on me with Shade and I won’t hurt you. Deny it and you’ll be in for a surprise,” he whispered into her ear.

“I don’t like Shade, and I never did!” she said.

“LIES!” shouted Apollo. He spun V around so she was facing him, his arm still around her waist, and slapped her across the face. “ADMIT TO ME THAT YOU LIKE HIM!”

“I. Don’t. Like. Him,” she said. He slapper her again. This continued for several more minutes. V’s cheek’s were red and her eyes were tearing.

“I’m going to give you one last chance. Tell me you have feelings for Shade or there will be severe consequences,” he threatened.

“I didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice,” V said to herself, she slowly lowered her hand down to grasp the hilt of the sword.

“What was that?” Apollo asked.

“I said, ‘I love Shade, he’s nice to me and treats me like human, not a slave like you do!’”

“See, it wasn’t that hard to admit the truth, now was it?” he asked.

“Lying to you isn’t as hard as killing you will be,” she said, a tear making its way down her cheek.

“What?”

She removed the sword and lunged at Apollo. He managed to get away, but suffered a small slash across his right leg.

“Missed me, missed me. Now you gotta kiss me,” he taunted her.

“I’d never...” she started to say and then an idea crept into her mind. “Alright, I’ll kiss you just to show you how much more I love you than Shade.”

“That seems reasonable,” Apollo smirked and began to walk towards her.

V’s grip on the sword tightened as he moved closer to her. He put his arms around her, scythe still in his grasp, behind her back. He closed his eyes and moved his lips closer to hers. She took a deep breath and did the same. They kissed and she kept him going for a minute. In that time she managed to slowly take her sword out from behind her, but as she made a move to stab him he released her and dodged the blade.

“Missed me, again!” he taunted.

“Would you like another kiss?”

“I’m not falling for that again,” he said, “I’m going to finish you off before you cause me any more trouble!” He took the scythe and aimed the top of it directly at V’s solar plexis.

She didn’t move. She looked directly at him, “Apollo, if killing me is going to make you happy, by all means, go ahead. I just want you to know the truth, I never had any feelings for Shade. I have always loved you, I only kissed him because it was a thank you for getting me out of the frozen tomb. Even you were happy that he got us out of there. Be thankful he got us out of those. If he didn’t we would never have been together.” Her cheeks were red and her she was crying as she spoke. Her brown eyes were filled with tears waiting their turn to run down her cheeks.

She moved her hands in front of her, the blade of the sword stood directly in the path of the scythe.

“I’m sorry, V,” Apollo said. He dropped the scythe.

“Apollo are you really back?” she asked, as he wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

He kissed her on the cheek, and as he moved his lips off her cheek the spirit that had possessed him flew out. He wiped the tears from her eyes and hugged her again.

“NO, this isn’t how it’s supposed to end!” shouted Alpha. The spirit was still hovering around the two lovers. Alpha left his perch and landed behind Apollo. He picked up the scythe and aimed it at the two of them. “Two birds with one stone,” he laughed.

V opened her eyes and saw Alpha holding the scythe behind them, moving closer and snickering to himself. She pushed Apollo out of the way and slashed an upper cut with her sword, unknown to her, she had sliced through the spirit.

Just as the blade of the scythe was about to slash V’s neck, Alpha turned to stone and shattered. The scythe fell to the ground. V let out a sigh of relief. She turned to her boyfriend, “I love you, Apollo.”

“I know you do.” They moved in for a kiss, as they were about to the ground began to shake. A crack was appearing in the ground as the giant cage turned back into gates and a huge burst of white light shot upwards from the crack, illuminating the sky.