…
The window opened slowly, just enough for the head to peek out and become confident there was no one else. Clavat, the high general of an evil world-ending army, sighed in relief. He plopped down onto velvet carpet and shut the black-stained glass behind him. Hearing the clink, he locked it with a latch, and left it as if never touched. He tiptoed through the room, that had one empty table, adorned by single candelabra, and two doors. His way was made to one of them, to his next stop without being seen.
“If I were you, I’d be more ashamed.”
Clavat jumped backwards and picked the table up. The candelabra fell of the table and sprawled two of its candles all over the carpet, which annoyed Penna quite a bit.
“Oh,” Clavat grunted, his eyes wide open, “Wow, you scared me!” He laughed, and the sheepishly put the table down. 
Penna’s demeanor was akin to nanny, who saw a kid pick a cookie from the jar. 
He continued, “You can’t just go around and appear out of nowhere like that! What if I knock you out or something? And…actually, where were you hiding? I thought I checked the whole-“
“Behind the window,” she interrupted.
“Oh!?”
“Did you, or did you NOT, destroy her?”
Clavat’s sour expression turn sour, as he gesticulated in a way that ended in a shrug. 
“Look! I was just…playing with her, alright?” He looked at Penna’s judging eyes. “We both know she is not a threat! She is just one person, and even Lord Vacuo said he was going to take care of her for us! Didn’t he? Besides, I could’ve handled her, if I went seriously,” he said with a smirk.
She rubbed her forehead. “And that’s the reason I am so frustrated…”
Clavat side-eyed her. She was acting impatient, he noticed it quickly. Was it because he screwed up, really? He nonchalantly shrugged again, then looked up to the ceiling.
“Just go and relay the news later.” She fumbled in her pocket and pulled out a deck. As she made her way to the table, she said, “We are being summoned for a hearing from Lord Vacuo himself.”
“Really? Been a while!” Clavat noted, quite gleefully. “The guy is either busy or asleep all the time. Finally, we get to see him again!”
“Must you be reminded, that he is, as a matter of fact, our Lord and Master!?”
Clavat groaned. “Your really gotta go there?”
Penna groaned, still shuffling the deck. It’s like talking to a wall, he expected her to say, but she didn’t.
“I think we all understand how much Lord Vacuo trusts in us,” said the voice suddenly appearing in the room. 
Clavat did not pick up the table the second time, because Penna’s card were there. So instead, his fists were the only thing raised, while amused Brachia.
“Where did you come from!?” exclaimed Penna. Clavat checked on her to see if she really said that.
“From there,” Brachia pointed with her beaded hand to the second door. “You two argued so much, you didn’t hear me walk in!”
The two exchanged glances, then returned to their initial actions. Brachia joined them, by going to the table and taking off several of her beaded bracelets there,
After waiting a few more seconds, watching Penna shuffling the deck so fervently, Clavat just had enough and flailed his arms.
“C’mon,” Clavat said, “I get that you want everything to be perfect or whatever, but why do you gotta be so hardass about it? You think he’s gonna punish us? Seriously? He values us and we do everything for him!”
“He is not a saint who is going to forgive every little sin we made,” she retorted through her teeth, then slammed the deck down. “Just because we are special, Clavat. If you keep acting like that, forget ever appearing in the real plane again!”
“Alright, alright! Geez, whatever.”
Brachia and Penna watched him leave, while stretching his arms lazily. He kicked the candles from the rug onto the floor, which annoyed the card dealer even more. Brachia, clearly hearing that audible scowl, put away the beads and looked at her. She put her head on her dainty hands and assumed a coy look.
“The plan is close to fruition, isn’t it?” Brachia said to her. “Great, right? Everything we worked for, and all done in just few days!”
Penna huffed, then began setting a row of cards over the table.
“Yes, and soon, all who wronged us will be turned into nothing,” she said broodily. “As long, as nothing goes wrong, then it will all come to fruition.”
Brachia bobbed her head. The cards were laying face down, with Penna hovering above them, Brachia felt like she was not needed there. Realizing this, she collected her beads back.
“Maybe it’s too early for that?” She got up next to her friend. “Perhaps we should wait for something else to happen before getting nervous.”
“How is your Torque?”
“Still need some time,” Brachia replied, tapping each bead on a bracelet. “You can’t just rush these things! But, we will get him out, sooner or later.”
“We will.” Penna raised one card to her face. It was a tower. “And soon.”
…
Sam took a swig from her cup of chamomile tea. As she smacked her lips, she reached for the spoon again and the sugar right after.
“Already on the third spoon, really?” the young man, a stork, said from her couch. “Isn’t it sweet enough already?”
“You multi-task well for someone who says he’s too busy to find a job.” She took another sip, and made a satisfied smile.
The stork clapped his beak with a grin in his mouth.
“Streaming IS a job!”
“Sure, mister five views.”
“I only recently started!” the stork denied. “And anyways, heard about Bot Fighting?” 
“I’m not into the nerd stuff, Charlie.”
His eyebrows got raised. “Really?” He pointed to the few figurines that could be seen from her bedroom.
“Not that nerd stuff!” 
He chuckled, then turned back to his laptop. She sat down close enough to peek at his screen. Several windows were opened. Some were of useless stuff, like articles on bot fighting, video pages, and an online shopping page for new microphone. That said, one window was that of his email, which said “Request.” 
Taja’s spirit hovered above their heads, gluing her eyes to his screen. Sam took another sip, as she felt exactly what got the latter curious.
“He is not summoning warriors today,” Sam said, making the spirit deflate.
“Aww,” she left them. “Such waste of my precious time. I may have all of eternity afforded to the dead, but this is unacceptable!”
Sam turned to Charlie. “Got something new?”
“Just need to close few stuff first…” He cleaned up his screen, until finally landing on an article. There was a picture of an old, long-bearded deer man, which Sam recognized immediately. “So! I’ve been doing some research on that Alexander Magus dude, and so far, I think I figured out some very important elements. Like, for example, he is big into jewellery. Also, he enjoys plum juice. He is a fan of vintage cars and-“
“You know,” she interrupted him, “I figured, when you said you had something important, I figured it meant something more than, this.”
“Exactly!” He pointed to the picture of the founder. “And the important thing to tell you…is that I could not find anything on him at all.”
She furrowed her brows, as if to ask if that was all? As if she wanted to know if this was so important to get her to allow him come in so late at night, into her apartment, and bother her during one of few days in the week she had off? Was that really important, huh Charlie?
“But, thankfully,” he continued, getting the message, “I can probably turn it around. Apparently the HERON Institute, you know, where I am from? He is looking to recruit some people…including me.”
Her eyes grew wide.
“Excuse me?” 
“I think I might be going undercover into a cult.”
“Be serious for a second!” She put her cup down, then gazed at the screen. He opened his “Request” email for her, making her eyes grow even wider. “Are you telling me, that your institute, is looking to recruit some students, for some unknown program, and,” she read further, “for money?! And they specifically went for you?!”
“Funniest thing is, not only me.” The stork itched his long neck. “He is going after everyone in my program, even the newyears. Something is about to go down, Sammy.”
Sam lied back on her couch. When she learned that the villains were interested in ARKYO, that was one thing. Learning that the founder could apparently be the same king from long forgotten ancient civilization, one that Taja knew of, that was another. And now, he was using his connection with the partner institute to hire some programmers? Right around the same time, that the generals mentioned some sort of a plan?
“So are they only getting computer nerds?” she asked him. 
“There are others, but the programmers’ turn is now.” He leaned into her couch as well, his eyes listless. 
“So, are you going to accept?” she asked softly. Something about it bothered her to no end. Not since she had dealt with those Torques that she found in a lab. 
That awful, horrible lab.
Charlie squinted to the ceiling. She patiently waited for his response. He would get way quieter, when it came to making more serious decisions like these.
“Maybe, gotta weigh my options,” he said uncertainly. 
“It can be dangerous…” Sam warned him. “You can’t know what they might do to you! What if they are going to throw you fight some Torques? Or, or…”
“Brainwash me? Sacrifice me for some experiment?” he posited, to which she made no attempt to retort. “I think there’d be more talk about it if that’s the case.”
“But what about missing people?” 
“I guess that’s a good point,” he admitted. “You don’t need that many. But then again, what would happen to a few students missing, who got a public request to join a project? I think that might not be what they want. Plus, there is some benefit in going into the enemy’s territory, irregardless.”
“Regardless,” she corrected him.
“Sorry, Miss Soufle.”
“Stop that….” Sam shoved his bony body to the side, and he chuckled. Last thing she needed were some new bad habits from her substitute days. 
Suddenly, memories flushed back of her days, trying to make those kids behave. It was a new challenge every other day. Like a kid getting bullied, who then peed his pants, and she had to deal with his mother for daring to put her little angel in danger. Or a certain someone, who would rather pay attention to hr groupies than to her class, and just throw snide comments at her dress. Or even that one, nice if odd girl who handed her some weird green insect, which apparently turned out to be a stink-bug (she still can’t forget that horrible smell). Then there was that son of the vice-principal….ugh, what a little self-imposed brat.
But none of them stood a chance against the ultimate troublemaker. Everyday, there was some fight or some sort of act of misbehavior he got involved in, and she was the first to hear it. Whenever she spoke to him, he would just say something to annoy her, if not subtly insult her. Thankfully, he was never in class during the worst of his days, but she was still responsible for putting a report on him, or talk to his caretaker, Miss Cheshire. And better not get started on that old croon. She felt like the latter was going to curse her whole family with her evil eyes.
Sam took a deep breath and calmed herself. It was one thing for sure, she hoped she would never have to deal with that town or those kids again.
“How’s your spirit doing?” Charlie asked out of the blue.
“Tell him about the others!” Taja exclaimed, suddenly reappearing above her head. “Tell him, please! I beg you!” The spirit was jumping with excitement, right on top of Sam’s tolerance.
The squirrel-lady raised her hand to stop her. “She found her friends,” Sam relayed to Charlie. “From her previous life.”
“Really?” he looked at point beyond the table. “Your cute girl friends are here?!”
“Are you for real?” Sam asked, exasperated, but not surprised.
“Are you BEING for real,” he corrected her smarmily.
“That’s not…” Sam stopped and hummed herself to calm. “And she’s behind you.” She pointed to Taja hovering over the stork.
“Oh!” He raised his hand, and Taja responded by high-fiving it. He pulled it back and retracted his fingers, feeling a slight tinge on it. Like a clump of air just hit it and left an electrical charge under his skin. “Where are they?”
“We don’t know.”
“Who has them?”
“That either.”
“Could it be someone from that town?” Charlie rested his beak, while Sam’s eyes grew in horror. “I mean, remember what you said? Way back then? You were outside of the museum, talking to me? You said there was a flash of light, which you had no clue where it came from. Few days later, you got this power. I always remembered that conversation, you know, because of the weird static when I listened to you. In fact, I think I heard a ghost back there. Which, I theorise, was her!” He pointed above his head, causing Taja who sat at the opposite side of the table to look.
Sam opened her mouth, only to close immediately. This made too much sense, even though she never considered it. This power just sprang out on her out of nowhere. She rarely questioned something like this. And yet, there it was, a rather straightforward answer. A terribly, horrifyingly obvious theory. She lowered her head down on her hands.
“You know, it would be interesting to see who it could be. You had so much to say about the town, I gotta learn more myself,” he chuckled.
Sam dove into a pillow. She moaned, while Charlie and were busy with the laptop. 
Why couldn’t she get rid of that town?
…
Chester trudged into girls’ room with a bag in tow. Flora cringed having to see her belonging dragged on the floor.
“Okay, put it right there,” she said to him, “and gently!” He obliged, by letting it fall from his hands, making minimal noise. She would later yell him for how he treated some of the stuff inside, but that’s not important for now.
Chester dusted his hands off and then approached Barbie. Both girls were luckily given two beds, a luxury not afforded to the boys since they will have the same number of them, despite having one extra person. She was on the edge of her bed, tapping her phone methodically.
“Whatcha doing?” he asked. When he peeked, he saw that she was punching up a number.
“Trying to call my Mom! I hope this will work…” She pressed call, and it began to ring. Soon after, a voice came from the speaker. Her face lit up and she said, “It did! Hi mama! Yes, it’s me! How are you?”
As she chatted with her parents, Chester spun around. Flora was on her phone as well, texting. He had little interest in asking what she was doing. But as he moved to the door, he stopped, thought to himself again, screwed his face a bit, then finally turned to her.
“You talking to someone?” he asked, stiffly.
“Abigail, why?” she looked up to him.
“You still speaking with Abigail?”
“Of course I am! She finally got a phone, and can text me properly! Do you know how hard it was to talk to her for these past months?”
“You kept in contact with her the whole time?”
“Is that what bothers you?” Flora scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Look, when I make a promise, I intend to keep it! So you better remember this next time you try testing my patience.”
“Oooh, guess being a princess gives you a lot of time to do stuff like this, huh?” he said, smugly. His grin didn’t disappear even as she shot daggers at him.
“Heave-Ho!” a voice shouted and both kids looked over to the entrance. It was Fotia, carrying a bag over his head. It was about twice the size of him. “That is all, Lady Flora!” he exclaimed, and placed it down right down on the other bag. It was for this reason that Flora didn’t yell so harshly at Chester later, as Fotia took the other part of the blame, but that’s not important now.
“Thanks, Fotia,” she said, already back on her phone again. Chester noted how quickly she switched from talking to doing her own stuff.
After looking at her and Barbie, the hedgehog quickly realized that the only other person free was Fotia. He looked over to the bird-boy and then felt his spikes tingling his neck again. He wasn’t interested in doing that. But he also wasn’t going to let it go so easily.
“Hey Fotia!” Chester called, getting the latter’s attention. “Is there any word from Pierre in there?”
Flora looked up at them immediately.
Fotia sighed, and bitterly shook his head. “Unfortunate as it is, but he has grown silent again. Mayhap we should ask Her Highness to connect,” he turned to Flora, “as we did so before. I have little understanding of the origin behind this condition, and I am just as, if not more, concerned of this as you are. So much so, that my concerns eat away at me everyday! Oh, poor Young Pierre, why must you be locked away!? Do you not miss your own body!? Oh, woe is him!!!”
The room became silent for the moment. Immediately later, Barbie continued talking, explaining to her mother the noise.
“You’re telling me!” Chester exclaimed, nearly as dramatic as Fotia did. “It’s like he doesn’t want to come out, or something!” 
Fotia coughed into his hand. Flora glanced at the two attentively.
“Can you read his thoughts? Cause I’m pretty sure you can,” Chester said, folding up his arms.
“I think…” Fotia looked away from them, “I am not able to do this for you, at the moment, Young Azure.” Just before Chester could ask for more, “BUT, Young Pierre’s condition can surely be defeated! We must believe in our strengths! In our wills and prayers! For he may not hear me, but surely shall hear you, oh good friend of his! Come! Let us all pray to the power of the crystal! The power of Mother, the Creator of us all! What do you say, eh?”
Chester raised a single brow, and made a face, which from him, was supposed to mean, “You really think we gonna believe this? Really?” Unfortunately, Fotia could never notice it, nor understand why they wouldn’t.
“Pierre!” a sudden voice came from outside the room. Fotia turned away from them, as they heard Mr. Mouton say, “Would you mind coming with me?”
“Of course…DAD!” Fotia shouted vigorously. He got puzzled looks from everyone. “Your words of familial do sound too odd. Off I go.”
He left before anyone, especially Chester, could say a word. Not that he thought he could’ve.
“There he goes,” he said, becoming listless.
“You know,” Flora said from her bed, “I kinda wonder about him constantly calling us ‘Young Azure’ or ‘Young Rose.’”
“Uh-huh.” Chester slowly moved to the window.
“But, he calls him ‘Young Pierre.’”
“Yep.”
“You think he’ll come out?”
Chester didn’t say anything at first. But then admitted, “I guess we’ll just have to wait.” He glanced at the car outside.
“Cause the thing is,” Flora continued, “I remember the feeling that Rose had, when the whole thing of trying to get him out happened, and like, it was weird. It was as if it was confusing, for her. Like, you know, you do something, like lift some weight and think they are heavy, but they are like ten times lighter?”
“Mhm,” replied Chester, not even looking back.
Fotia walked out with Mr. Mouton outside and entered the same car he looked at. The two drove off to somewhere, though Chester had no idea to where. The whole situation made it much of a mystery. Several months, it looked like that Mr. Mouton has noticed nothing at all.
Nothing at all.
“My parents say hi to you all!” Barbie chirped in.
The other two gave in theirs’s in return.
“They said hi!” she giggled. “I miss you so much, Mama.”
“Oh! Barbie,” Flora turned to her, “wanna go to the café? It’s about to close!”
“Oh right! Let me just finish this up. Mama..?”
As she continued talking, Flora looked at Chester. After trying to get him to turn around to her, she finally said once he did, “Make sure to tell Tom!”
“Okay, okay.” 
“Meet you there!”
“Sure,” Chester replied, still thinking about Fotia. It was hard to get him off of his mind.
Their little team has grown a little bit closer as of late. Kind of unfortunate that not all of them are like that. 
Not yet, anyways.
…