Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The schoolbell rings. Will gathers her things, then joins the other four guardians as they walk down the hall together. Like every day, after school, they’re all going to go home, finish their homework, then head off to Ye Olde Bookshop for sparring practice with Caleb on the roof.

“I wish it was still spring break,” comments Hay Lin.

“Me too,” adds Will.

“Spring break was, like, over a week ago, why are you guys saying this now?” Says Cornelia.

“Because they still wish it was spring break, duh!” Replies Irma.

Cornelia doesn’t respond.

Just as they approach the door that leads out to the courtyard, someone unseen says, “Hey Corny, did you hear about…”

“Not now Courtnay or Bess,” Cornelia interrupts, brushing it off. Will looks to the source of the voice and sees one of the Grumper twins. Taranee doesn’t look too impressed by Cornelia’s attitude, but doesn’t comment.

As the five girls walk up to the doors, the same Grumper steps infront of the exit, blocking their path.

“You know, I really don’t like it when people can’t tell the difference between me and my sister,” she says.

“Maybe if you didn’t wear the same clothes and hair all the time people could tell you apart!” Cornelia snarks.

The Grumper doesn’t respond. There’s a pause.

“So could you let us pass?” Asks Taranee as politely as possible.

“Tell me my name first. Then I’ll let you pass”

Will rolls her eyes and blows her bangs out of them with a crackle of electricity around her face.

“Ooh! I know this! You’re Bess!” Exclaims Hay Lin, jumping and raising her hand.

“Wrong,” says Courtnay, glaring at Hay Lin.

“So could you get out of our way now?” Snarls Will, leaning forward slightly with her hands on her hips.

“No. You got it wrong, so go find another door”

“Let me try,” says Irma, “Hmm. Do you happen to be Courtnay?”

“Bravo good job. How did you know,” murps Courtnay, still not bugging.

“I dunno, I must be able to read your mind,” responds Irma.

“Come on, let’s go find another door,” says Taranee to the others.

“Lemme guess, you’re the one dating Uriah?” Says Cornelia to Courtnay, having clearly not heard Taranee (although more likely just ignoring her).

“How did you know?” Responds Courtnay.

“‘Cause you’re sure as hell acting like him!”

Just then, Courtnay’s twin walks up.

“You’re dating Uriah?” She says to her sister.

“Oh, Bess! I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you! He told me not to so you wouldn’t feel jealous!”

“No, that’s not why I’m surprised. I’m surprised because I’m also dating him! And that’s exactly what he told me!”

The twins look at eachother in realization, which quickly turns to anger before they charge off together.

“Well I guess she’s out of our way now,” says Irma. The guardians continue out into the courtyard.

“It sure is warm for this time of year,” comments Will upon stepping out into the spring afternoon.

“I swear it was sub zero, like, only a few weeks ago! Now it’s in, like, the lower 80s!” Says Irma.

“Weather works in strange ways,” Hay Lin adds.

As they approach the front gate, they all turn around at the sound of feet storming up behind them. It’s Uriah.

“Cornelia!!” He yells as he stomps towards them. He stops right in Cornelia’s face, who is completely unfazed by his intrusive presence.

“What did you say to the Grumpers?!”

Will notices the two in question watching contently from nearby.

“I didn’t tell them anything. But, for what it’s worth: they did find out about your little game all on their own,” says Cornelia.

“Funny, because they say otherwise”

“Of course they did! They’re the Grumpers! Trust me, I had nothing to do with it”

“Sure you didn’t”

“Not everyone’s a mirror image of yourself you know”

Suddenly, Uriah’s eyes go wide as he looks down at himself before running off.

“Works every time,” says Irma smugly. The guardians continue on their way. 

Later that afternoon, once they had finished their homework and everything else they had to do, they all head to Ye Olde Bookshop. Since Will has to work first, she’s always the last one to arrive.

As she’s biking there from the pet shop, she hears a crack of thunder. It sounds close. She looks to the sky and sees a wall of dark clouds slowly approaching from the west, concealing a glowing greenish sky behind it like an upside down dam. 

A storm is coming. She petals faster.

Soon enough, Will enters the bookstore, where the other four are waiting. They need Will to dial Caleb, as only she can use her quintessence powers to allow a signal to reach through the veil.

The bookshop is completely empty save for the furniture. Everything had been moved upstairs. 

They’ve decided to not start setting up the shop until they own it, and they can’t do that until Cornelia is 18. After all, they don’t want to look suspicious for buying a bajillion books and not owning a bookstore to sell them.

Will begins to dial Caleb, but he doesn’t pick up.

“He must be busy, let’s wait a few minutes,” says Will.

There’s a silence for a few moments, then, to try and make conversation, Will wonders, “Hey guys, do you think the rain in Metamoor is sulfuric acid?”

“Why do you ask?” Replies Irma.

“Well, Mrs. what’s her face was demonstrating with it today in science class, remember? And I just had the thought”

“No. It couldn’t be,” says Taranee, "That stuff is too weak to be sulphuric acid. That said; it is way stronger than any acid rain here on Earth”

“What about the stuff from those vine things in Meridian?” Adds Cornelia.

“That stuff is too strong. I don’t know what either of those acids are, but they’re not sulphuric acid, that’s for sure”

Will’s cellphone rings.

“Hey, it’s Caleb!” She says before answering. 

“Sorry, I’m not gonna be able to make it today,” he answers on the other end, “I’m kinda busy, maybe you could fight amongst yourselves? I can’t talk, I gotta go, bye”

He hangs up and Will relays the information to the others. They all head up to the roof. 

The sky above them now has a green tinge, blanketing everything in its unsettling, eerie hue. A hue that reminds Will of the green crystal lanterns they use in Metamoor. 

It feels like twilight out, but it isn’t. Will doesn’t know what time it actually is though. The streetlights have turned on, and Will can feel a light rain beginning. She looks in the direction that the gusty, throttling wind is coming from. The green sky fades into a wall of gray that touches the earth and blankets the horizon. It looks like the end of the world.

“I think we should go back inside, there’s a mean feeling in the air,” says Hay Lin.

“Agreed,” adds Will with an uneasy tone.

As they walk down the stairs, Hay Lin’s cellphone begins ringing. She pulls it out of her pocket and begins listening to the squeaky voice on the other end. It almost sounds frantic. Then Hay Lin begins, “No, don’t come get me, it'll be safer if I stay here and you stay there. Try not to worry about me, I’ll be fine,” she says. She then says goodbye and hangs up before telling the others, “apparently there’s a tornado warning and my parents want to come and pick me up”

“Your parents are so overprotective,” says Irma. Just then, her cellphone rings too.

“Yes dad, don’t worry, I’m inside,” she answers unenthusiastically before quickly hanging up.

“Well then, anyway, let’s fight in here I guess,” says Will, gesturing to the room.

“Where are the swords?” Asks Cornelia.

“I think Caleb left them on the roof,” Irma recalls.

“I’ll go get them,” says Will.

“You know, we’re supposed to be in the most interior room on the lowest…”

“It’s fine Tara, don’t worry about it,” interrupts Irma.

“You know, you’re the kind of person who actually pays attention to that safety thing on airplanes,” says Cornelia.

“You don’t?!” Taranee exclaims, then breathes a sigh of relief and says, “Well at least you all read the safety manual in the pocket of the seat infront of you”

“You’re supposed to read those?” Realizes Will.

“Those are safety manuals?!" Irma exclaims, “well that makes much more sense”

Suddenly, there’s a loud clap of thunder that makes them all jump, loud enough to rattle the windows in their sashes. The rain begins to pick up as it patters against the glass.

Will’s cellphone rings. It’s her mom.

“Hello?”

“Will, where are you?” Her mom asks in a concerned tone.

“I’m at the bookstore. The one Cornelia wants to own”

“Does it have a basement?”

“No, why?”

“Will. You need to get underground right now. There’s…”

The power suddenly goes out.

“Looks like the phone lines are out too,” says Will as she takes her phone away from her ear and looks down at it.

“Can’t you do something?” Asks Hay Lin.

“I’m trying, it’s not working. I’ve never fixed a dead phone line before. But anyway, follow me”

The others follow Will curiously. They continue heading downstairs until they reach the shop at the bottom. They then head to the office in the back and Will puts her hand on the dusty old 70s TV.

It flickers on, despite not being hooked up to anything.

“This is the local news channel, right?” 

Taranee nods in confirmation. Will turns a knob to turn up the volume. The muffled AM voice says, “...It shows no signs of stopping. This thing is likely over a mile wide, and it’s heading straight for downtown. If you are anywhere in the Heatherfield area, especially near the downtown core, you need to get underground immediately. For those of you just tuning in: this is a mile wide tornado heading right for downtown Heatherfield…”

“Is it an F5?!?” Worries Hay Lin.

“That’s not how it works, Hay Lin,” says Taranee.

Just then, the announcer says, “...I’ve just received word that a mobile radar unit has captured winds inside the tornado over 300 miles per hour. We don’t normally say this, but this is well beyond the threshold, so I think it’s safe to say this is an F5 in progress…”

As he does, Hay Lin smirks at Taranee.

“...if you are anywhere in the Heatherfield metro area, you must get underground or you will not survive. The tornado is currently tracking through the Quarterway Subdivision, likely causing untold destruction. The downtown area lies in the direct path. It will be impacting it in the next five to ten minutes. This is likely going to be an unprecedented event, with deaths in the hundreds, possibly thousands!”

“We need to do something!” Exclaims Cornelia.

“Hay Lin, can you stop a tornado?” Asks Will.

Hay Lin shrugs her shoulders.

“I can probably find a way to do that if you give me a computer and about five to ten minutes,” says Taranee.

“Did you hear what he said?! It will *be* here in five to ten minutes!!” Exclaims Irma.

“If there was a way to stop a tornado, wouldn’t they have done that by now?” Wonders Hay Lin.

“*they* don’t have powers!” Says Cornelia proudly.

“That we know of,” adds Irma, crossing her arms with a smirk.

“Guys! Time is of the essence!” Exclaims Taranee.

“Right,” says Will. She snaps her fingers and the computer on the desk turns on. Taranee immediately sits down and begins clacking away. Will takes out the heart.

“Wait, won’t people see us?!” Exclaims Irma. Will hesitates.

“What choice do we have?!” Squeaks Cornelia.

“Corny’s right,” says Will, “guardians, unite”

The heart splits into the five colored orbs. Taranee continues typing, paying no mind to the glowing orange orb as it repeatedly whips between her face and the screen. Even as she levitates off the chair like a rope is hoisting her to the ceiling by the waist. She only stops for a few moments while encased in the orange ball of energy before immediately getting back to it without skipping a beat once transformed.

“Taranee, are you ready?” Will asks.

“No! I still need more time!”

“But what are we gonna do now?” Asks Cornelia with urgency.

“We might not be able to stop it, but we can still save people. Taranee, come get us when you’re ready. You’ll know where we are,” Will says, looking at the TV.

The four of them fly out the window to the alley behind the bookshop then up into the sky. The rain has died down a bit, but Irma still has to make a ‘bubble' around them to protect their wings.

They all fly across the city towards the place the man on TV had been pointing to.

“Do you think we’re gonna be famous after this?” wonders Cornelia.

“I hope so,” says Irma.

“Maybe noone will see us since they’re all inside?” Wonders Hay Lin.

“That is, assuming everyone’s inside,” Will says.

“Yeah, who listens to those annoying warnings anyway,” adds Irma.

As they approach the area, it becomes harder to fly with the ever strengthening crosswind.

“Is *that* the tornado?!” Exclaims Cornelia, pointing.

“There’s no way. That looks nothing like a tornado,” says Will.

“It’s a tornado,” confirms Hay Lin.

Will realizes Hay Lin is right. The thing is nothing like what you typically think of when you picture a tornado. It’s wider than it is tall, and more resembles a large, dark, spinning cloud on the ground. It’s scary looking. And it’s massive. As they get closer, the crosswind gets so strong Hay Lin needs to intervene to keep them on track. Soon, they all land near the tornado, on a street with houses along either side.

“Maybe we should go where it’s already been and see if anyone needs help?” Suggests Cornelia, yelling so she can be heard over the freight train sound roaring from the huge vortex nearby.

“Or maybe I could try to stop it? I could just try anything, you know! Better that than waiting for Taranee!” Suggests Hay Lin.

“You might make it even bigger!” Says Irma.

“Ok, but I think the most important thing right now is which way is it going?!” Says Will.

“I don’t think it’s moving,” says Cornelia.

“Uh, guys, it’s heading right for us!” Exclaims Hay Lin.

She’s right. And Will hadn’t even noticed. It’s so close now that the dark gray churning mass takes up Will’s entire field of vision. It’s coming fast. The wall of speeding clouds and debris that is the edge of the twister is moving down the street laid out before them, consuming block after block as it approaches where they stand. The thundering freight train sound gets louder and louder.

“Come on!! We need to get outta the way!” Cries Irma.

“We won’t make it in time! It’s too big!!” Replies Cornelia. 

“Hay Lin, can you do something!!!?” Yells Will.

“I can try!”

The wind gets stronger with every passing second. Will has to shield her face. To her annoyance, her wings act like sails, threatening to sweep her away. She tries to position them so they don’t, but it’s easier said than done.

The wind gets stronger. The trees stop swaying, and are instead held in a constant bent position by the force of the wind. The wall of sideways rushing dust gets closer as it barrels down the street.

“Everyone get behind me!” Calls Hay Lin. They do; everyone wraps their arms around the person infront of them, facing into the wind with Hay Lin in the front. Will looks to her side. The edge of the tornado grows closer every passing second. Dirt begins blowing across the asphalt like snow in a blizzard. Shingles begin coming off rooftops. The freight train sound becomes deafening. Will feels like she’s tied to a railway track with an oncoming train. She watches the row of houses along the street swallowed up one by one faster than she can count. Each house is one closer than the last. Will’s ears pop. Then, in the blink of an eye, the last few houses are consumed and everything goes dark. 

Will closes her eyes. The roar of the freight train goes from being *a* sound to the only sound. It’s everywhere, there’s nothing else. Not because there simply isn’t, but because there can’t be. The roar is too overpowering. If the train had been approaching, now it’s passing over. Will’s ears pop again, this time so hard it hurts. 

But she isn’t blown away by the wind. She’s still there. Still holding on to the body infront of her, and she still feels arms wrapped around her own. She opens her eyes and looks up from the ground. Hay Lin is at the front of the row with her arms stretched before her. The clouds and dust spray to the sides infront of her hands like a power washer on a windshield, leaving a space in the wake to keep the rest of them safe. They’re all in a sort of reverse wind tunnel. It feels and sounds like they’re inside a jet engine.

And then…

**TWOMP**

Will doesn’t know what happens, but for a brief moment, she feels herself being taken by the wind. Her feet are pulled off the ground, and it almost feels like she’s about to be ripped from Irma infront of her. But it’s over quickly and she finds herself in exactly the same place as before. Still holding onto Irma. But Will doesn’t feel Cornelia’s arms around herself anymore.

Hay Lin thrusts her arms to the sides like she’s pushing open two walls. Sweat drips down her scrunched face. The tunnel of air begins to widen and get rounder. The rocketing dust/clouds begin closing behind Will like they are infront of Hay Lin, but in reverse. They find themselves in a bubble of safety. There’s another *thwomp*. Will flinches, but nothing happens. Then it happens again, and this time, Will doesn’t close her eyes. The zooming linear flow around them becomes completely disorganized for a brief second, but immediately returns to its previous state in an instant. Then there’s another thwomp and it happens again. Will prepares for another one, but it doesn’t come. Instead, the flow becomes faster and faster like they’re inside a rocket engine. It sounds like it too. Then, for a few seconds, it all stops, only for the supersonic blast to immediately return, but now in the opposite direction, encasing the bubble once again. Shortly after returning, the flow weakens slightly, but still contains immense power. There are a few more thwomps, each of which causes the flow to become completely disorganized for only a split second, just like before. Once those pass again, the blast of air slows and soon, the world beyond the fading bubble slowly becomes visible once again. They all let go of eachother. Will looks around, but there’s no sign of Cornelia… or anything at all.

The houses around them are all gone. Reduced to the bare concrete slabs of their foundations with nothing but bent anchor bolts sticking out of the concrete like little hairs. The trees have all their bark completely stripped clean off by the wind, leaving the white inner wood underneath bare and exposed. They look like they’ve been standing dead for a long time, but were alive and healthy no more than 30 seconds earlier (although it felt much longer). Even the grass had been torn from the very dirt in some spots.

Noone could have survived this. At least, not above ground, that is.

Hay Lin pants, out of breath. Then she faints and collapses to the dirt-caked asphalt.

“Cornelia!!!” Will calls through cupped hands. She breathes a sigh of relief as she sees her crawling out of a ditch.

“Hay Lin, get up, we need you!!” Exclaims Irma, frantically shaking her. 

Will walks over, “lemme try”

She touches Hay Lin’s arm and zaps her. She quickly jolts up to a sitting position, clunking her noggin into Irma’s. They both rub their heads.

Will looks back to the giant tornado as it moves away from them, continuing on its path of destruction as it charges towards the city center.

“Guys, do hear that!” Exclaims Irma. Will listens and hears faint cries for help.

“It’s coming from over there,” she says, pointing. They take off and fly over a few blocks of pulverized houses. The damage gets less extreme the further they go from the center of the mile-wide path of destruction. They see a man trying to pull something out of a pile of rubble that was previously a house. He’s crying for help. The guardians land around him. Will realizes the thing he’s tugging on is an arm, sticking out of a pile of bricks. He seems shocked by what they are, but doesn’t acknowledge it, and seems more relieved by the fact someone is there to help.

“Stand back,” says Cornelia. She swipes the pile to the side, revealing a bloody woman underneath. She’s not moving. The man quickly kneels down beside her and touches her neck, then breathes a sigh of relief.

“She needs to get to the hospital!” He says. Irma immediately grabs the woman and takes off.

“Wait!! Take me too!” Calls another person, grasping their bloody arm and running after Irma. She flies back down and tries to pick up the other person, but is barely able to fly with both of them in her arms and has to set them down again.

“Here, I’ll take this one,” offers Will, taking one of the two people. “Cornelia, Hay Lin, find as many people as you can,” instructs Will before taking off alongside Irma. As she flies away, Will sees flashing lights coming down the street. She and Irma exchange looks. They set the two people down on the side of the road, right where the emergency vehicles will see them. They fly back to help Hay Lin and Cornelia, and when they arrive, they see Taranee there too.

“Great! You guys are here! I know how to stop the tornado, come on!”

Taranee quickly flies off.

“But these people need us!!” Exclaims Hay Lin.

Irma says, “There’ll be plenty more where that came from if that thing goes downtown. You know, the areas we all live!”

“You know, Uriah also lives…”

“CORNELIA!!” Screams Will.

“Coming!!”

They all fly off, and as they do, Taranee begins to explain, “So Hay Lin, you need to increase the RFD so that it becomes outflow dominant”

“English please?”

“You need to increase the cool dry air going into the tornado so that it overpowers the warm, moist air that’s keeping it going. You’ll know what airflow you have to increase because the wind on that side of the tornado will be stronger. Does that make sense?”

“I think so. I don’t know if I’ll have enough strength though!”

“You have to try!” Says Will.

“You’re right, I’ll try! No, I will! I’ll do it! Wait, where’s the tornado? I don’t see it anymore!”

“I don’t see it either. It must be rain wrapped!” Realizes Taranee, “There, you see that dark spot? I think it’s in there. Irma, you’re gonna need to shield Hay Lin from the rain so she can get close enough!”

“What will we do?” Asks Cornelia.

Will answers, “Me and Corny will stay out of the rain packaging or whatever it’s called in case something goes wrong. Taranee, you should go in there with Hay Lin and Irma to make sure they’re doing everything right”

“Good idea,” says Taranee.

“Come on, let’s go!” Calls Irma. She and the other two fly off and disappear into the fog of speeding rain that conceals the tornado.

Will looks down at the destruction on the ground far below.

“We need to go down there and help people!”

“No. We need to be at the ready in case the others need us!”

“You’re right,” says Will reluctantly.

Her and Cornelia follow behind the tornado. Soon enough, they are able to make out the churning mass of clouds once more.

“I think it’s smaller!” Says Will.

“It’s hard to tell,” adds Cornelia.

Taranee approaches them.

“Guys! Hay Lin’s been sucked into the tornado!!”

“What are we gonna do!” Exclaims Cornelia.

“Maybe we could go in after her?” Suggests Irma.

“No, we’ll get torn to shreds. She’s the Guardian of Air, she’ll probably be fine,” says Taranee.

Hay Lin was trying to pull more cold air into the tornado. It was exhausting. She could never have moved such a massive quantity of air if the powerful winds of the storm weren’t on her side. Even still, it was exhausting. Especially after having drained so much of her energy resisting the full force of a massive F5 tornado (one of the strongest of all time as a matter of fact, as they would later learn). 

Resisting the very wind she was trying to intensify was becoming increasingly difficult as her strength left her, but she still gave it everything she had. Then the world ceased to exist as she fainted once again.

Hay Lin wakes up staring into blackness. She feels light as a feather. She looks around. To her sides is blue sky, but it has a gradient as it slowly transitions to the nearly black void above her. It’s like being high up in a plane, but the dark gradient of the sky is even starker. She must be so high up right now. She realizes the only reason she can probably breathe is because she’s the Guardian of Air. She looks around and sees an ocean of flat clouds stretching out in all directions. She smiles with her mouth open, chuckling as she tumbles around like a leaf. She quickly snaps out of it as she remembers what she’s supposed to be doing. She looks around, the clouds look like they go on forever like an ocean. She doesn’t want to go back into the storm, but she can’t see any other way back down but to go through it. She doesn’t know where she is, for all she knows, she could be a million miles away from heatherfield. But there’s only one way to know for sure.

She dives down into the sea of misty clouds and disappears into the fog. She pushes through the whiteness, thinking she’d be doing this for a very long time until she reaches the ground. But to her surprise, she bursts out of the clouds into openness, surrounded by huge fluffy clouds in all directions. It’s so spacious. But she still can’t see the ground. She’s still high up in the atmosphere; the air still feels light.

She continues flying downwards. She soon realizes she is flying down alongside the stem of a cloud in the shape of a giant mushroom, and she had previously flown through its ‘cap’. She realizes she doesn’t seem to be moving, despite flying as fast as she can. Then Hay Lin realizes why: it’s not her, the clouds are just so incredibly massive. The scale feels almost unreal. She knows how fast she’s flying; fast enough to cross an entire neighborhood in seconds. But she doesn’t seem to be moving at all. She looks back up at the top of the mushroom above her and realizes she is making some progress.

She pauses to take it all in for a moment, and that’s when she realizes she’s no longer in control, she’s still being pulled down by some kind of downdraft. She doesn’t know where it’ll take her, and could resist it, but decides to let it carry her, as it’s taking her in the direction she needs to go anyway. At least, for now. Then she gets an idea.

Hay Lin spreads her arms out and lets the air billow infront of her like a snowball. It’s completely invisible, but she can feel its presence. It quickly gets massive, many hundreds of feet wide, far bigger than anything she could move on her own. But she’s not moving it, it’s simply tumbling along the stream of air with her. All she has to do is keep the ball together. If it’s cold air the tornado doesn’t like, then it’s cold air it’s gonna get.

The air current that carries her along starts to speed up and starts to turn diagonally as it approaches the cloudtops below. The grey cotton flickers with white light from deep within. The wind begins to level out as she and her giant churning invisible ball splash into the dense stormclouds, making a huge opening in them that slowly closes back up behind.

After flying through the rough storm, Hay Lin emerges from the bottom of the clouds over the city below. The wind is carrying her straight into the tornado, and quickly. 

The huge, wedge-shaped funnel is no longer obscured by rain. She lets the ball go and flies away as it’s sucked up into the twister. It almost looks as if a huge fist punches it as the giant circulating mass absorbs the glob of air and tries to keep its balance.

Will doesn’t see Hay Lin; she’s a mere speck compared to the massive beast of a tornado. She also doesn’t notice the twister beginning to slowly sputter either. It’s hard to notice if you weren’t looking for such oddities due to the dynamic nature of the thing.

But she does realize it abruptly beginning to veer north. Then Hay Lin flies up to her and the others.

“Hay Lin!! You’re ok!!” Will exclaims as she and the others fly over to meet her.

Irma exclaims, “I thought you were slabbed for sure!”

The others look at her in confusion.

“Nevermind”

“Anyway,” says Hay Lin, “I think it’s working!”

“What’s working?” Taranee asks.

“I dunno! I did something, and I think it’s working!”

“Makes sense to me,” says Irma.

“Soooo, do we just sit here and watch it as we hope for the best or what?” Says Cornelia.

“Yeah, I guess so,” answers Will.

They watch as the tornado continues to go north. It’s clearly shrinking, and it now looks much more like what you typically expect a tornado to look like. It has a cylinder shape, resembling a pipe or a girthy pillar. It continues arcing back around westward. Then it starts to come back towards them. 

But then, curiously, several smaller tornadoes appear to materialize around it. They orbit the main funnel like a carousel, and almost resemble tentacles as the vortexes dance around eachother. The spinning amalgamation comes back around, closing a full loop from where it first started veering north. It continues on its previous path to the east, towards the skyline of downtown.

“Hang on, I got this!” announces Hay Lin as she darts towards the twister. She shrinks to a speck as she zooms towards it; a speck which is immediately swiped up by one of the grey flailing ropes as it passes around the front of the coresel. The others trust her and wait anxiously as the tornado continues on its rampage through the city, every second something is being torn to shreds. But worst of all: it’s getting worryingly closer to areas Will is familiar with, which are unfortunately more densely populated. 

The circling vortexes begin to get obscured as a translucent sheathing materializes around the entire structure, slowly obscuring the carousel of smaller tornadoes within a much larger one.

Will realizes what those ‘thwomp’ sounds from before were.

Before it fully returns to its previous state though, it suddenly takes another hit by Hay Lin. It begins veering north again. The smaller tornadoes within quickly dissipate, either sputtering out into nothing like dwindling ropes or merging with the main vortex in the middle. It soon becomes a cylinder shape once again, and this too is thinning. Its girth gets smaller and smaller until it can’t stay straight anymore and starts slowly squirming around like a dangling rope before it finally dissipates for good as it sputters into nothing, leaving behind a path of untold carnage through the suburbs of Heatherfield.

But it could’ve been so much worse. 

“Come on guys! We need to go down and help!” Exclaims Hay Lin.

“No, we need to go home! Our parents must be worried sick! Imagine if they come looking for us!” Says Taranee.

"You’re right,” says Will reluctantly, looking down at the destruction below, “come on”

Chapter Text

Will enters her apartment and is immediately greeted with a big hug from her mother. 

“Thank god you’re ok!” She says as she wraps her arms around her daughter.

Will notices Dean standing by. He opens up his arms with a broken smile as Susan unwraps herself from Will. Will makes an awkward expression at Dean. He drops his arms and looks let down. Will hugs him.

Her attention immediately shifts to the TV. She hurdles over the back of the couch and watches, hoping for no mention of her and the guardians. It shows an aerial view of the damage from a helicopter. It then cuts to a reporter on the ground.

“As you can see, the damage here is incredible. Blocks upon blocks of homes reduced to rubble, some completely swept away. There are currently confirmed reports of multiple fatalities, but so far, no exact number is known. Several reports also claim to have seen angels that came down to help people from the rubble, and others claim to have seen them flying overhead shortly after or before the tornado struck. But authorities are dismissing such claims as rumours…”

Will breathes a sigh of relief. “Rumours, only rumours,” she thinks.

Cornelia is driving with Irma sitting in shotgun. She’d already dropped off the other three.

“I really wish I could afford a car,” Irma mutters. As they drive down the street, ambulances and firetrucks whizz past in the direction they’re heading with sirens blaring.

They soon cross the tornado’s path of destruction. Houses are missing roofs, and debris litter the streets. Irma knows this place. She bikes past these houses every day. 

“It never got this close to downtown,” Irma points out. Suddenly, she gasps and comes to a realization as she quickly turns around to look out the back window. But there’s too many trees and houses in the way to see anything.

The car comes to a halt. Irma faces forward again and realizes there’s a fallen tree in the road. Cornelia pulls into a driveway to turn around. They go to the next street over, and as they do, Irma squints her eyes as she tries to see the clouds over yonder through the passing trees.

“Corny, I think there’s another one! Another tornado!” She says.

Cornelia looks skeptical. 

“Are you sure? You know it *did* hit this spot, right? It was just as it was ending”

“Realy?” Irma says, raising an eyebrow.

“You were watching it too, weren’t you? You were literally right above me! And besides, the storm's prolly outta the city by now anyway, so even if there is another one, it’s no big deal, no need to worry”

“Why would you say that!? I’m not a worrier! Far from it!”

Cornelia doesn’t respond.

Then Irma stiffens up as she realizes she wasn't really paying attention to where the tornado was. They pass through the damage path once again as they round the block, and about a dozen or so blocks later, while driving down the same street, they pass through it yet again, and this time it’s much wider, and the damage is more severe, but still nothing like what they’d seen after it stuck them. After they clear the destruction once again, Irma realizes they must now be inside the ‘loop’ it made; as that would only make sense given where they are.

Then they turn down Irma’s street. She stiffens up and leans towards the window, anxiously watching the houses pass by.

“Please, please, please, please!!” She mutters over and over, holding quadruple crossed fingers close to her face. Then the houses start to become damaged again, and they quickly become more and more ruined as they approach hers. 

“No…. no… no… no, no, no, nonono!!” 

The car slows to a stop. Houses destroyed far beyond salvation line the street. Irma’s heart drops to her feet. She gets out of the car before it even comes to a full halt and runs to a nearby pile of rubble that has nothing but a few walls sticking out. She comes to a stop infont of it and cups her hands over her mouth.

“Mom!! Chris!!” She calls. She climbs up onto the pile. “Hello?!?!!”

A familiar car pulls into the debris-littered driveway. Irma sees it and her eyes sparkle. She leaps off the pile and runs up to the vehicle. Her mom steps out and Irma slams into her with a massive hug, almost knocking her off her feet.

“Where were you?!? Where’s Chris?!!”

“I was looking for you! Chris is ok. He’s in the car. He doesn’t wanna come out”

They continue hugging as Anna hugs her daughter in return.

“Where’s dad?”

“He’s helping people. I don’t think he’ll be home for a while”

Irma looks back at the ruins of the house somberly.

“I don’t think *we’ll* be home for a while,” she says. She looks back to her mom, “What’ll we do now?”

“We’ll salvage what we can, then we’ll rebuild. Don’t worry, I’ve booked a hotel for us”

Irma turns around and sits on the ground by her mother’s feet, hugging her knees to her chest, looking at the rubble as her eyes begin to water. Cornelia sits down beside her.

“You know, if we come back at night, we and the others can get this cleaned up a little more efficiently together,” she says.

Irma doesn’t respond.

“I’ll take that as an ok”

The next day, on her way to school, Will stops to pick up a paper from a newsstand.

“What have I become?” She thinks as she realizes what she’s doing. But she’s picking it up for a reason. 

She looks down at the headline:

“MASSIVE TORNADO RIPS THROUGH HEATHERFIELD. 36 KILLED; DOZENS MISSING”

She begins reading. She needs to see if there’s any mention of the guardians.

“Wensday - Search and rescue efforts continue after the tornado that ripped through the Greater Heatherfield Area yesterday evening. The twister -which reportedly had winds in excess of 300 mph- has already been given a preliminary rating of F5 by experts. 36 have been confirmed dead, with an additional 39 reported missing, and likely hundreds injured. An estimated 5,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, some reduced to only their foundations. On one street, even the asphalt has been stripped from the road. Surveyors have estimated that the damages will “almost certainly exceed 1 billion dollars”. This will undoubtedly go down as one of the worst tornadoes in the country’s history…”

Will stops reading. She flips through the rest of pages, when an image stops her dead in her tracks. It’s a grainy picture, but it clearly shows several human figures with wings. She begins reading the attached article.

“Several eyewitness reports claim to have seen “winged angels” helping people from the rubble. Some even claim that they are responsible for the tornado stopping just before entering the densely populated downtown area. These were initially assumed to be false rumours, but several photos and videos have come out, giving credence to these claims. The more superstitious believe these angels to be real, but many are calling it some kind of hoax, and are quick to point out flaws in the story, for example, one man argues that “If these so-called ‘angels’ were so kind and good-hearted, and had the power to stop a tornado, why would they standby and let it wreck so much death and destruction, only to stop it just before downtown? It just doesn’t make sense!””

Will looks up from the paper, revealing her face in a highly displeased frown-snarl. She blows her bangs out of her face and electricity crackles around her eyes.

A middle aged man in a bowler hat sits down beside her on the bench and opens a newspaper aswell. Then she realizes she’s sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper, crossing her legs. 

Her disgruntled frown turns to a disgusted one.

“Why am I acting like an old person?” She asks herself, being sure to make her statement loud and clear. The man beside her looks at her slightly confused. Will throws the paper behind her, gets up, and walks off. He continues to look at her oddly as she walks away before returning his attention to his paper like nothing happened.

“Looks like we’re an urban legend now,” Will murmurs to herself as she gets on her bike and continues on her way.

At school, Will overhears several conversations about the ‘angels’. Any conversation about the tornado -which is most conversations- quickly turns to the so-called ‘angels’. People seem to be very divided as to whether or not the angels are real. There seems to be a general consensus that these aren’t your typical angels from Heaven, but rather something else; some sort of supernatural being.

At lunch, the guardians all sit together as usual.

“So guys, I wanted to tell you something,” says Cornelia.

“Is it about all this ‘angel’ nonsense?” Asks Will, “I’ve had enough of that to last me a lifetime. Wait, where’s Irma?” She remembers, “I didn’t see her in class”

“You didn’t hear?” Realizes Hay Lin.

“Her house got hit by the tornado. I thought you knew,” says Cornelia.

“I didn’t know either! Is everyone ok?” Asks Taranee.

“Yeah, they’re all ok. What I was gonna tell you all about is that I promised her we’d go there tonight to help clean up and salvage what we can. She’s been doing that all day you know”

“Where’s Alchemy? Doesn’t she normally sit with us too?” Wonders Taranee. Cornelia shrugs her shoulders.

“So, do you think we can be a bit less cautious with being seen now since people will just assume we’re the angels?” Asks Hay Lin. 

“No. We’ll have to be even more cautious,” says Taranee, “People will be trying to spot us, trying to gather evidence. But the less evidence there is to support it the better. And besides, noone has any reason to suspect it’s us”

“I agree,” says Will.

“Now that it’s out there, doesn’t it defeat the entire point of keeping it a secret?” Asks Cornelia.

“No. We will keep it under wraps. That’s what grandma wanted”

“And besides, as I said: noone has any reason to suspect it’s us”

“Suspect you’re what?” Calls a voice from nearby.

“Oh, nothing!” Cornelia calls back in return.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be talking about this stuff with so many people around,” murmurs Hay Lin. The others nod in agreement. A few moments later, Hay Lin says, “Uh, Cornelia, behind you!” 

She turns around in her seat and sees Kurt standing behind her.

“Fuck off! Whatever Uriah told you to do or say to me, I’m not interested! Leave me alone!”

“You’ll regret this,” he says as he walks off.

“I swear, that jackass will do anything for revenge, anyway have you guys seen my new earrings?”

Just then, Matt sits down at the table with them, saving Will from having to listen to Cornelia compliment herself for the rest of lunch break.

“Hey, Will!”

“Hey Matt!” She says as she kisses him on the cheek. Will blushes.

“Did you guys just see that? Because I just saw that,” says Cornelia, smirking.

Hay Lin takes a long gasp that slowly transitions into a squeal. Taranee rolls her eyes subtly.

“Someone turn the kettle off,” says Will.

Cornelia pinches Hay Lin’s ear and she stops.

“So, what do you guys think of all these angel rumours?” Matt says.

“Oh, please, I’ve heard enough about those stupid angels,” Cornelia complains.

“Well I for one believe they’re real,” says Hay Lin.

“Of course you do, you believe everything!” Says Cornelia.

“What about you, Matt? Do you think these ‘angels’ are real?” Asks Will.

“Of course! I’m looking at one right now”

Will blushes.

“And that you are,” says Irma smugly.

“Wait, how did you get here?!?” Exclaims Will.

“I drove my mom’s car. I just wanted to drop by to give this to Hay Lin,” Irma says as she holds out her palm. Hay Lin gasps in excitement as she takes a small item out of the open hand.

“My lucky penny!!” She exclaims as she holds it up in her fingers, “I knew I left it at your house!”

“Under my house, actually,” corrects Irma.

“How do you know that’s the same one?” Asks Will

“Yeah, it’s not like there’s a bajillion of them that look exactly the same,” adds Cornelia.

“I got an expert to make sure,” answers Irma. “An expert that is definitely in this building right now, by the way”

“Hey, Irma, what’s your opinion on the angels?” Asks Matt.

“What angels?”

Taranee answers, “The ones that allegedly stopped the tornado”

“Oh! Those angels! Oh, they stopped the tornado alright! I saw them do it with my own eyes! There was one of them that was particularly attractive, and very beautiful…”

Cornelia leans forward, intrigued.

“...she had brunette hair, and curves like…”

Taranee glares at Irma. Cornelia folds her arms and slouches back; disappointed.

“Anyway, I need to get back home…” 

Her smile sags and she eyes the ground.

“...at least, to what’s left of it,” Irma finishes before walking off.

After school, Cornelia is walking to the parking garage a block from the school. It’s the same one she always parks in.

“Hey, Cornelia!” Calls a voice from behind. She instantly recognizes it.

“Fuck off Kurt, I said that at luch. Lemme guess, you're gonna do whatever you were gonna do then now because now noone’s watching, right?”

“I just wanna tell you something!”

“Well I don’t wanna hear it!”

“I think you do!”

“No I don’t!”

“Yes you do!”

“No I don’t!!”

“Uriah is planning on dumping sulfuric acid in your face!!”

Cornelia instantly turns around and looks at Kurt with a new expression. She remembers when the teacher showed them pictures of victims of that stuff in science class the other day. It was to warn them of the dangers of it during a demonstration. They’re faces were completely melted and disfigured.

“He wouldn’t do that,” says Cornelia, “He’s not a good person but he wouldn’t do something like that. That’s too far, even for him”

“That’s what I thought too, but I was wrong. That’s why I’m telling you”

“But, why?” 

“He said that this is what you get for stealing his girlfriends. And don’t say you didn’t”

“I didn’t”

Kurt grunts.

“Hey! I never said ‘you didn’t,’ I said ‘I didn’t’. Now, you clearly don’t want him to, so aren’t you gonna try to stop him?!”

“Of course not! He’s my friend! But I think this time he’s gone a bit too far, so that’s why I’m telling you. You’re still a douchebag for what you did to him, by the way. I’m not gonna say you don’t deserve this”

Kurt turns his back and walks off. Cornelia stands there, unsure of what to do. She can’t let this happen. She realizes she’s holding her hand against her cheek. It’s not touching, but it’s close enough to feel.

Chapter Text

That night, at around 3 AM, Cornelia’s red punch buggy drives around Sheffield Institute. She had already helped out with the others at Irma’s. Tomorrow -or rather today- is Saturday, so she thankfully doesn’t have to worry about sleeping in till noon. 

She sees Uriah’s truck parked in the reserved parking spaces for the teachers behind the building. It’s the only vehicle there. She parks across the street. 

“Parallel parking is so much easier when there’s no other cars on the street,” she thinks. She crosses the street and makes her way around to the front of the school and enters the courtyard. Everything is so quiet.

Uriah probably had to find some clever way to sneak inside, but all she needs to do is walk up to the front door.

The dark empty school is eerie, almost surreal. By this hour, even the janitors have long since left.

She wanders the familiar yet unfamiliar halls. She hasn’t heard a single sound other than the reverberating tapping of her own footsteps since she entered the building, but she’s on high alert, knowing Uriah could be hiding around any corner.

Soon, she hears banging. Her ears prick up immediately. She follows the sound to the science lab, as expected. Also as expected, the door is open. The banging suddenly stops as she approaches the open door. She peers inside. The metal door to the closet where the chemicals are stored is still shut. She cautiously walks inside and up to the sealed door. She tests the knob. It’s still locked. She doesn’t dare unlock it, else risk Uriah getting in. As she touches the knob, a crinkling sound is heard as the mechanism inside is turned to a crumpled ball of metal, making it impossible to unlock.

“I know you’re here, Uriah!” She calls to the empty room. 

“ ,” responds the dead silence.

She slowly walks back out to the hall. As she creeps away from the door to the lab, the banging starts again. She immediately bolts back into the room. It’s silent. The closet is still shut. Cornelia grumbles, then walks away again. 

She hides behind a wall so he wouldn’t be able to see her if he peered out the doorway. Soon enough, the banging starts again. But she doesn’t engage. She waits. After a while, the banging stops, but not because of her. Then, the sound of a large, heavy object scraping across the floor is heard, followed by a large crash. The object is slid around a bit in various directions before the noises stop completely. Cornelia jogs back around the corner and looks into the lab. The door to the closet is wide open, and the doorknob has been punched straight out of its socket, leaving only the round hole where it had been like a hole punched in a sheet of paper. 

Cornelia suddenly feels something she hadn’t felt in a long time: fear. And it’s not for her life. 

Suddenly, she hears the sound of feet pattering quickly, echoing through the empty halls. She jolts her head from side to side as she looks around frantically.

“Hello, Uriah?!” She calls, trying to mask her fear. The place suddenly goes silent again.

“I know you’re here! You won’t take me by surprise!”

The stakes have never been higher. She can’t lose the one thing that makes her feel like she has a place in the world; this world, at least. She’s afraid of becoming a disfigured monster. The thought of looking in the mirror and seeing a partially melted wax figure every day makes her shutter. Magic can’t heal scars.

She continues standing in the middle of the hall on high alert for several minutes, instantly turning to face the slightest noise the instant she even thinks she hears or sees something in the corner of her eye. 

She then plays it safe. Too much is at stake. She burrows her face into the wall and covers it with her hands from the sides, protecting it for the precious gem it is. She opens cracks between her fingers on each side so she can see beside her.

Then she feels him behind her. 

“Are you crying already? As much as I like to see it, it’s a bit early”

“I’m not crying, I know you're holding that acid right now. Why, why are you doing this?! This is evil! And trust me, I know evil”

“You took the Grumpers from me, you’re clearly trying to make it so that if I can’t have you, noone can. And so I’m just returning the favor”

“Is that how you interpret this!? You think that I still want you?! I hate you!!! You’re seriously so stuck up that you can’t see how someone could possibly not like you?!!”

“Says you!”

Cornelia turns away from the wall and barks in his face

“Hey! I say things like that to make myself feel good! Noone’s perfect, and you of all people are…”

She’s cut off as he splashes the liquid at her. She dodges it with ease. They both stare at eachother. Cornelia looks at him in a way she never had. He seems to consider splashing the remaining acid at her, but appears to have second thoughts as he bolts off down the hall instead. She bolts after.

As they run down the hall, Uriah darts into the men's bathroom, and Cornelia follows.

They both slip on the floor as they round the corner, although Uriah is the only one who loses his balance. Their shoes squeal on the recently washed tiles.

Uriah bursts into a stall. Cornelia follows just in time to see his feet crawling out an open window near the ceiling above the toilet. She climbs onto the toilet just in time to grab one of his feet, but instead pulls off his shoe and he disappears out the window. She climbs out after. She looks around and sees him running down the street. Cornelia runs after.

She chases him across a crosswalk, but as she does, she’s nearly run over by a car as it slams on the breaks. She looks at the driver. He’s pointing at the crosswalk sign on the other side of the street. It’s a red hand.

“Oh come on! It’s 3 AM!!” 

He begins shaking his head in disapproval.

“But it is though!”

He doesn’t respond. Cornelia growls at the sky and is about to continue running, but before she can even start, he honks at her. She looks back at him, about to say “what’s your problem!”. But the moment she looks at him, she realizes he’s now pointing to the other side of the street, signalling her to go back to the beginning.

“Are you serious right now?!?” She shouts. She prepares to run after Uriah again, but just as she does, he jerks the vehicle forward as a warning.

“Fine!! Be like that, *dad*!!”

She stomps back to the curb she came from. Her 3 AM mind doesn’t seem to put two and two together that she has power over metal. 

The man drives off. Cornelia suddenly feels a little less pissed at the guy once she realizes he’s actually pretty generous, as indicated by the writing on his van that says he gives out free candy. He also seems to be in quite the hurry aswell.

Cornelia realizes she’d lost sight of Uriah.

She pulls out her cellphone and dials Will.

Will is suddenly awoken by the blaring schoolbell of a phone on her nightstand. She rolls over, picks it up off the ringer, and puts it to her ear.

“Hey Taranee, where’s the portal?” She moans.

“There’s no portal. It’s Cornelia, I need you to transform me”

“What? Why?” Will moans in response.

“Funny story, so, um… uh, I kinda fell in a hole, and I need to fly out. I was… um, sleepwalking”

“Don’t you have earth powers?”

“It’s, like, a really deep hole. I tried, It’s too high, need to be transformed”

“Sure, fine, whatever, earth, unite,” Will moans, looking at the heart on her nightstand beside the phone. It emits a green orb that floats away and phases through the wall. Will hangs up the phone and falls back to her pillow, instantly going back to sleep.

Cornelia puts her phone back in her pocket. She then realizes she should probably get somewhere less exposed. She jumps into a nearby bush. The orb enters after her and the bush glows green for a few moments before Cornelia bursts out into the night sky.

Uriah is running down an alley, when he hears Cornelia’s voice say, “Hey, dickhead!”

He stops in his tracks and looks around, but doesn't see her.

“Up here!” She calls.

He looks up and sees her hovering above him. He steps back slowly in disbelief as she sinks to the ground, gracefully landing on one foot before setting down the other. He looks at her with an open mouth.

“You’re, you’re…”

“I'm what? ‘Cause I can guarantee you you’re gonna get it wrong”

He splashes the whole flask of sulphuric acid at her. A wall of stone quickly rises from the earth between the two of them, all the liquid splatters onto it before it slides back into the ground.

“Are you a witch?!”

“Yes, but not in the way you think, now then…”

She stops as he tries to splash the contents of the flask at her again. Nothing comes out.

“Wow. You’re even stupider than I thought! Even I can tell that thing’s empty, and I’m not even holding it!”

Uriah raises the glass bottle over his eye to look inside, despite the fact that it’s transparent. Then a small drop comes out. 

He screams in pain as he covers his eye with both hands, dropping the flask on the ground, shattering it.

Cornelia can’t help but to chuckle. If he sustains any permanent damage from this, it would be of his own doing. He collapses to the ground, squirming around as he clenches his eye.

“Serves you right!” She says, standing over him with her hands on her hips.

“Imma tell everyone!! Imma tell them about your little secret!!” He yells.

“Oh, you can tell all the people you like, but guess what? Noone. Is gonna. Believe you. Tootles!”

And with that, she flutters off, leaving him alone in the alley.

Chapter Text

Uriah passes Cornelia in the hall that Monday as she arrives at school. One of his eyes is wincing and bloodshot. He looks at her in a way he never had. She likes it.

Cornelia immediately heads to the principal's office and knocks on the door.

“Come in!”

Cornelia enters.

“So you know how someone broke into the chemical closet over the weekend?”

“Yes. How did you know about that?”

“A little birdy told me. And I know who it was. It was Uriah Dunn. He tried to throw acid at me last night,” says Cornelia. The principal looks dismayed, but also skeptical.

“Elaborate,” instructs the principal in a serious tone. Cornelia sits down and begins telling a cover story that roughly correlates with what actually transpired. Pretty much everything minus the magic. She doesn’t include the fact that she broke into the school at night either in order to keep herself out of trouble.

“If what you say is true, this could be a criminal offence. Do you have any proof of this?”

“No,” admits Cornelia.

The bell rings.

“Very well, I will look into it”

After school the guardians are gathering their things from their lockers. Irma closes hers and says to the others, “So, uh, guys, there’s this donut shop I go to sometimes, and I was wondering if we could all stop by there together”

“I don’t see why not,” shrugs Hay Lin.

“I can drive!” Announces Cornelia.

They follow her to her car in the parking garage near the school, as they’re walking, Taranee says, “So I was thinking about starting a fundraiser for families affected by the tornado”

“I like that idea,” says Irma.

“What should we do?” Asks Hay Lin.

They cross the street and enter the dull echoey space. The high pitched squeak of a slipping tire reverberates from somewhere in the concrete structure. Cornelia always parks here due to the free parking.

“I was thinking we should brainstorm,” responds Taranee.

“Hold that thought,” says Cornelia. The others see what she’s looking at: Uriah is sitting on the hood of her car, crossing his arms.

“There you are, Corny. I’ve been waiting for you. Didn’t expect you to bring your friends,” he says.

Cornelia puts her hands on her hips and grunts, “Uriah, what are you up to? You better not have popped my tires!”

“Don’t worry, I can fix them if he did! At least, temporarily that is,” says Hay Lin.

Uriah stands up and walks over to the girls.

“Oh, I don’t want any trouble. I just wanna talk. About last Friday night”

“Should, uh, we go?” Suggests Will, pointing away.

“No, stay,” Cornelia says with a quick glance back at her friends.

“What happened last Friday night?” Asks Irma.

“Good question. I’d like to know the answer to that myself,” says Uriah.

“Well, for starters, I spent the night sleeping. Shocker, I know. So if you saw me, it must've been a dream. Can I go now?”

“Oh I’m not done with you. I know what I saw, and I know it wasn’t a dream,” he says, pointing to his reddened eye.

“What did you see exactly?” Inquires Will, raising an eyebrow.

Cornelia tenses up a little.

“Quiet, gingy! I’m talking to Cornelia”

“Hey, I’m not a ginger! My eyes are hazel. Thank you very much!” Snarks Will in offence.

Cornelia looks somewhat relieved. Uriah adds, “but if you must know, Cornelia came down to me with wings, I think she was one of those angel things! And she, like, rose a pillar outta the ground! And she sprayed sulphuric acid in my eye!”

The other guardians glare at Cornelia. She cringes.

“You’re tryna tell me this wasn’t a dream?” Says Irma.

“I swear, it wasn’t, see! I can show you where it happened! I swear it was real!”

“Ok buddy, you can leave us alone now,” says Will. They all walk past him. He lets them. Cornelia is the last to pass, as she does, she murmurs to him,

“Ever heard the tale of the Boy Who Cried Wolf?"

He grunts. 

A pen floats out of his pocket and lands her hand.

“I was wondering where that went,” she says, examining it. Uriah is wide eyed. Cornelia continues towards the car as Uriah’s head follows her, still shaken.

In the car, Irma is sitting at the wheel when there’s a knock on the glass. She looks to the side and sees Cornelia bending over in the window, pointing to the back seat with her thumb. Irma rolls her eyes and gets out. Cornelia takes her place.

“I think someone has some explaining to do,” says Will, glaring at Cornelia from the passenger seat.

“So, uh, funny story…” Cornelia begins.

Uriah continues watching them creepily from outside the car. Then his cellphone rings. He answers.

“Principal Knickerbrocker?! How do you have my number?!”

He listens for a few moments, then his expression turns uneasy.

“Right away,” he says.

Uriah enters the office and sits before the principal.

“Can you explain why I found this in your locker?” She asks sternly as she slams a security camera on the desk. It had clearly been forcefully ripped from what it had been attached to, with wires hanging out of the connection point. A drop of sweat meanders down Uriah’s cheek as he stares at it infront of him. The principal is crossing her arms.

“You can’t see what’s on that, can you?” He asks sheepishly.

“I already have,” she says.

Uriah tenses up even more.

“Wait, are there,  uh, more of those?” He asks.

“Only a few, and none of them show anything. But upgrading the security system has just moved up on the priority list. Though, that’s not what we’re here to discuss. Why did you take a vile of sulphuric acid from the chemical closet?”

“Oh, um, like, I, uh, you know, was just, uh, missed the demonstration, so, uh, I just, like, decided to try it myself! You know!” He says with a shrug. 

Knickerbrocker points her forehead at him, unconvinced.

“If what Cornelia tells me is true, then there could be criminal charges involved. Judging by your track record, I highly doubt what you say is the truth. Unfortunately (or fortunately for you) I can’t prove what you did with what you stole. But the fact of the matter remains: you stole and damaged school property and trespassed on school grounds after hours”

“I’ve done all those things before though!”
Kate becomes cross, “That’s my point,” she says sternly, then adds, “Uriah Dunn, you are expelled from Sheffield Institute”

The red punch buggy pulls up infront of a donut shop.

“...so you just left him there?!” Exclaims Hay Lin.

“Pretty much yeah,” says Cornelia.

“I don’t remember that exchange at all,” recalls Will.

“I’m not surprised. You were practically still asleep"

“Wait, how did you transform back?” Wonders Taranee.

“I didn’t. Speaking of which, I just remembered! I can take this off now!” Cornelia unbuttons and removes her tan denim jacket, revealing her guardian top underneath. Her wings spring out from behind her.

“Ahhh, that’s much better. You have no idea how uncomfortable that is on your wings”

“Tell me about it,” says Irma, “Wait, so you’ve been in guardian form all weekend?! Also, how come your wings didn’t just rip through that?”

“You gotta wear something strong. I wish I knew that beforehand, now I have to mourn the loss of my favorite shirt!”

“Every shirt is your favorite shirt,” says Taranee.

“Oh I know! That’s why my wardrobe is the best!”

“I don’t have a wardrobe,” says Irma, looking at the ground.

“Guardians, disjoint,” Will says unexpectedly, holding the Heart of Kandrakar. Cornelia transforms back.

“Why did you do that!?”

“Someone could see you! We’re in the middle of the city!”

“But those were my favorite pants! Now they're gone!”

“Guys, can we hurry up? My date is waiting,” says Irma.

“You’re what?!!” Squeeks Hay Lin, very intrigued. Irma sighs.

“That’s why I wanted to come here. I wanted to show you guys that, um…” She winces, then sputters, “...I’m in love with Alchemy!”

The others look at eachother. Irma is still wincing.

“Please don’t judge me,” she murmurs.

“Why would we do that?” Questions Will rhetorically. Irma breathes a large, vocal sigh of relief and drops her shoulders right down.

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Asks Cornelia.

“I think I know why,” says Taranee, “Alchemy’s parents?”

Irma nods.

“So you didn’t trust us?” Asks Will.

“No, I trusted you, it was for Alchemy. It took alot of talking to finally convince her she could trust you guys”

“I see,” says Taranee.

”Well I guess that explains why you’ve been so much less flirty lately,” remarks Cornelia.

Irma sighs.

Then there’s a knock on the window. It’s Alchemy, knocking on the other side of the glass Irma leans against. Her mood instantly brightens up and she rolls it down.

“Hey, guys, are we gonna get donuts or what?” Alchemy says in anticipation.

The guardians exchange looks, then all nod their heads in unison before exiting the vehicle.
They all head inside the shop. Uriah’s truck pulls infront of the store across the street, but noone exits.

As they stand in line, they continue to talk.

“So about that fundraiser,” reminds Taranee.

“You guys are doing a fundraiser? For what?” Asks Alchemy.

“Oh, for the families affected by the tornado,” says Taranee.

“You mean like Irma?” Alchemy says, turning her head to her. Something then crosses her mind and she leans into Irma’s ear and whispers something in it.

“Oh, don’t worry, I already told them,” she says. Alchemy looks at the other four and blushes, slightly cringing. 

They step up to the counter. Irma is about to order, but Cornelia doesn’t let her. She does instead.

They all step outside and begin munching on a box of donuts. Irma tries to grab the box from Cornelia on the way out but she swipes it away. She offers one to Taranee, who refuses.

“I dunno, donuts aren’t very healthy,” she says.

“I mean, they’re healthier than crystal meth,” adds Irma.

“Fair enough,” says Taranee with a shrug as she takes the cake bagel from Cornelia and begins to eat it, “but did you know they’re more addicting?” She adds. 

“Yeah right,” says Cornelia sarcastically.

“No, it’s true! Sugar is more addictive than any drug!” Taranee says, upholding her statement.

“But anyway, as for the fundraiser?” continues Taranee.

They begin to brainstorm. They don’t notice Uriah’s truck still parked across the street.

Chapter Text

Megan’s stomach growls. 

“I know, I know, you can be patient!” She scolds it. 

She finally reaches the summit of her hilltop that overlooks Helmina and sits down. There she waits. Waiting for some creature to approach that she can kill. She checks her bag and looks for what she can use.

“Well that limits my options by *alot*,” she complains, “it’ll take all day for something I can actually kill with stuff to come by!! Who cares about preserving my energy!! Why can’t I just duplicate my stupid food!! Then we wouldn’t have to do this!!”

“Your magical energy will run out someday just like mine did. It’s no wonder there are so few of our kind, all they do is duplicate food!”

“What choice do we have! You’re acting like my mom!”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t, I’m just making an observation”

Several hours later, Megan sees a glow coming from her bag.

“Finally!” She shouts in excitement as she quickly unbuttons it and pulls out a glowing portal compass. She immediately puts her bag over her shoulder and begins running down the hill, following the compass. She runs through the wasteland for about 5 minutes until the light from the compass ceases. She stops, sighs, turns around, and begins walking back in the direction she came.

About halfway back, she spots something. Some sort of creature. Hopefully it’s actually something she can kill and eat, unlike the other few things she’d seen pass by the hill. Thankfully, those things hadn’t noticed her.

She examines it closer. She still can’t tell what it is.

“Should we take a closer look?” She asks.

“It wouldn’t hurt… Actually, it might hurt”

Megan starts towards the creature. Walking quickly to catch it before it disappears from view. She looks through her bag to see what kind of weapons she has, and finds a pair of moonblades. They’re knives in the shape of a hook, which makes them very versatile. They somewhat resemble sickles.

“I wonder if I can still use these,” she says. She throws one and it flies through the air until it loops back around to her like a boomerang and she uses the other knife to catch it. The hook latches onto its twin and Megan grabs the handle with her free hand. This is why they always come in pairs, after all, how else are you gonna catch a boomerang knife?

The creature seems to notice this, as it begins towards her. Thankfully, there’s a creek in the way. As all lakes and rivers in Metamoor, it flows with acid, and because of this, they’re seared into the ground, forming deep chasms.

As she gets closer to the creature, Megan is able to make out its details.

“Is that an arachnebrate?” She says, “I thought those were extinct!”

“As did I”

The arachnebrate reaches the crack in the ground first. It hesitates for only a moment, then attempts to jump across, only to disappear beneath the surface. But Megan knows these things. It must’ve used its web to grab the wall, and is probably now climbing its way up the other side - the side she’s on. Megan begins to run, trying to reach the ravine before the arachnebrate can get back to the top. This would give her a great advantage. 

She does, and peers down into the darkness. Sure enough, a loose web is dangling off the rock, but nothing is attached to the end. Higher up, closer to her, the arachnebrate is climbing straight towards her. She can’t knock it off somehow, then it would just use its web to grab back on. Megan draws the moonblades.

“No backseat fighting, ok?!” She says.

“Ok, I’ll only comment”

“No!! I need to focus!”

“Ok, get yourself killed”

“Thank you. Now shutup”
Megan throws one of the moonblades into the gorge. The arachnebrate jumps backwards to evade it and lets itself fall back a dozen feet or so before grabbing hold of the wall again. Megan holds out the other hook and catches the flying one before returning it to her other hand then throwing it again. She repeats this a few times, and every time it manages to evade. She realizes it’s not working and looks around for anything she can use, she doesn’t see anything at a quick glance, so she jumps into the chasm.

She digs the blades into the opposite wall and slides down it like fingernails before coming to a halt just opposite the creature. It jumps across to her, and she fires a shockwave at it, slamming it back into the opposite wall, but it seems unharmed as it immediately grabs hold and launches itself at her yet again. She unhooks the blades and jumps to the other side immediately after the arachnebrate lands beside her. She digs her claws into the rock.

The creature jumps at her yet again and she jumps in retaliation once again. She slices it as she passes over it in midair. Upon hitting it, she doesn’t even touch the blades to the rock on the other side and immediately bounces back off the opposite wall with her hands and feet, landing right on the creature's back, digging the talons into it. It scratches and throws her off, sending her falling into the abyss. She frantically tries to grab at the opposite wall. She feels the moonblades scrape it, but they don’t grab hold. Then her feet hit the shallow acid creek at the bottom. She hears and feels the snap of a tree trunk as both her legs break from the impact. She collapses to her hands in the shallow acid, then looks up and sees the arachnebrate crawling up the cliff. She tries to stand up to climb after but immediately feels the uninteresting feeling of pain that causes her collapse back with a splash.

“Ugh! Why haven’t my legs healed yet!”

She throws one of the moonblades at the creature. It nicks its leg, causing it to slip, but it doesn’t fall. The arachnebrate nears the top, its hands only seconds away from grabbing the ledge. Megan throws the other one, even though the previous is just beginning to loop back around. It misses entirely, and her attention immediately shifts to the one now hurdling back into the ravine. She stands up again; her legs are healed. She positions herself and holds her arms out to catch it in her hands (not with her hands). 

She uses her hands instead of her body to avoid it hitting any vital organs.

The curved blade pierces out of the back of her palm and comes to a halt, spraying blood in her face. She tries to catch the other one in the other hand, but it embeds itself into the side of the chasm before reaching the bottom.

“Fuck,” Megan mutters in frustration.

She unbuttons her bag and reaches inside. After digging around for a few moments, she pulls out a teleorb. She closes her bag, squeezes the orb until it glows, and throws it. A few moments later, she appears on the surface again, she looks around quickly and spots a trail of blood, which her eyes follow to the fleeing arachnebrate. She pulls the moonblade from her flesh, throws it at the creature, and it lands a direct hit. The creature collapses to the ground. Hopefully, it’s dead. She starts walking in its direction; there’s no need to run. 

“Why didn’t you just duplicate the moonblade?”

“I will! I don’t need to yet”

“What if you missed and lost it? Then you’d have none”

“Thanks for sticking to that stupid agreement this time, ‘cause you’re definitely not acting like my mom now!” Megan lies.

There’s no response.

“That’ll make her shutup,” Megan thinks to herself, looking smug.

When she reaches the arachnebrate, Megan finds its bloody body pulling itself along the ground with the moonblade still inside it. She jumps ontop of it and stares at it straight in its four glowing eyes. Her eyes glow aswell as she transfers her energy to it to boil its blood. But as she makes the connection, she gets a glimpse of its thoughts, and what she sees shocks her.

“This isn't an aranchnebrate,” Megan realizes. Instead, she does something else with the energy she’d transferred: the creature underneath her begins to shrink and morph until it becomes a small, bloody, middle aged woman. The woman looks at Megan in horror and tries to get away, but her heavily wounded body is only capable of so much. She scoots along.

“Hey, hey, I didn’t know who you were, ok? I can heal you. Miranda, right? We’re near Helmina. I can get you to the rebellion. You’ll be safe from Phobos and the Royal Guard there, ok?” 

Miranda nods, she stops trying to scoot away, but is still very scared.

She says, “that’s not in the books, where did you learn to do that?”

“What, you mean transform you?”

Miranda nods, “The only wizard I’ve ever seen transform someone other themself is Phobos”

Megan scratches the back of her head, “My parents taught me,” she lies, “I don’t remember much about them, but they taught me to do that. I’m Megan by the way, Megan Hoxath”

“That’s cool and all, Meggie, but I’m kinda in alotta pain right now, could you hurry up and heal me!!”

“Of course”

She pulls the moonblade out of Miranda’s shoulder, licks off the blood, grabs the handle in both hands, and says, “dyelbnoom”

She pulls it in two and stuffs the pair back in her bag, and pulls out a bottle of dark red liquid - her blood.

Miranda’s eyes lighten up and she snatches the bottle out of Megan’s hands, pops off the cork, and begins drinking, only to make a slightly disgusted face as she does.

“This tastes so much better when I’m an arachnebrate,” she says before continuing to drink.

“I’m definitely gonna use those moonblades more often, I forgot how fun they were to use”

Meanwhile, Thorwin stands atop the under construction town hall, looking out over Helmina. It really isn’t much of a town hall though, more of a keep to protect the rebellion if Helmina is taken. Cornelia had helped with some of the construction whenever she had the time. 

Caleb walks up to him and says, “I’ve finalized my decision: I think we should altermere Cornelia. She’d be a massive help with the rebuilding effort. I know it’ll make her powers weaker, but she’ll have almost all of her power as long as her altermere on Earth is in human form. Besides, it’s much more likely something will come up here than on Earth. In which case, the altermere with essentially full strength will be at the frontlines. Even if something does come up over there, that altermere will have the others”

“Ok, are you going to contact Will?” Asks Thorwin.

“No, it’s not urgent”

Vathek runs up to them, “Caleb, there’s someone outside the wall who wants to see you,” he informs.

“I told you for the last time! You are banned!” Says a woman standing guard atop the wall.

“But I have someone who knows the palace better than anyone else!”

“Then hand them over!”

“No!”

Caleb walks up and signals the person atop the wall to step aside. He takes her place and looks down at Megan, who’s holding Miranda in her arms.

“As I expected,” he says, then asks “who’s this?” Referencing Miranda.

“My name is Miranda. I’ve spent almost my entire life in Phobos’ palace, and I want to help you defeat him. Please, you can never imagine what I’ve been through”

“And I’m guessing you won’t give her to us unless you come too, Megan?”

“That is correct”

“Do you always have to make things so difficult?”

“Yes”

There’s a pause.

“How about we let Miranda decide,” says Caleb.

“Me?! I, I don’t know!? I, uh, hmmm… I wanna talk to the guardians”

Caleb hesitates. “Very well then,” he says as he pulls out his cellphone.

Chapter Text

Irma pulls up infront of what was her house, driving her mom’s car. She looks out the window and sighs deeply with remorse. She doesn’t get out. The car drives away.

Irma enters the hotel room that is now her home.

“What happened to the house?!”

“It got hit by a tornado, remember?”

Irma grunts. “But all the stuff we still haven’t dug through, it’s all gone! Nothing!”

“Oh, did I not tell you? They cleared it all away so they could start rebuilding, isn’t that great!”

Irma looks at the ground and frowns. Her mom puts her hand on her shoulder.

“I know it can be hard to let go of things, but not all that can be salvaged must be,” she says. Irma strongly disagrees, but doesn’t say so.

“You’re right. I guess now we’re one step closer to having a proper home again,” Irma says. Just then, her cellphone rings. She answers the call.

“Irma, the guardians are needed in Helmina,” says Will on the other end.

“On my way,” replies Irma. She hangs up, turns her attention to her mom, and says, “sorry mom, gotta go”

“But you just got here!”

“Yeah, but now I’m just leaving! Bye!”

Shortly later, Vathek is waiting by the portal anchor in the town square. A portal opens above it. Out step the guardians. 

“Caleb is on the wall,” he informs them, pointing, before walking off to return to his business.

Irma comments, “I think we should pick a new portal name, every time you open it my tummy starts pleading for some yummy wummy chicky”

She rubs her stomach as she speaks the last few words.

“You know, I thought you wore that corset of yours because of things beyond your control, but I’m starting to think otherwise,” remarks Cornelia.

“Hey, I get more exercise than most girls my age thank you very much! Even the good looking ones. Now then, Will, could you transform us so that I don’t have to walk all the way up there?”

“Absoulutly!” She says, taking out the heart. 

The guardians land atop the wall beside Caleb and peer down through the crenulations.

“Meggie, or the other one?” Asks Cornelia.

“If it was Megan, I wouldn’t’ve called you,” says Caleb. They fly down to Megan and Miranda, who has healed enough that she’s now standing on her own.

“Hi,” says Miranda with a shy little wave.

“And you are?” Inquires Will.

“That’s a long story, but my name is Miranda. And I’ll start from the beginning:”

She sighs, then begins, “I was an orphan as a child. I don’t know what happened to my parents, all I know is they never came home one day. I don’t remember their names, I don’t know if I ever knew them. All I ever knew them as was ‘mom’ and ‘dad’.

“Like all orphans, I was taken to the palace to work as one of the many people that kept the place running. The queen and king quickly grew very fond of me, and entrusted me to look after their son. I was only 3 at the time…”

“...wait, wait, wait, so you were a baby looking after a baby?!” Interrupts Irma in realization.

“No, stupid. Years here are longer, remember?” Cornelia corrects her.

“Cornelia! Don’t be so rude!” Taranee scolds politely, Cornelia looks offended. “But you’re right…” Taranee continues, Cornelia instantly brightens back up again. “...she would’ve been somewhere between the ages of 9 and 12 in Earth years”

“Anyway,” Miranda continues, “If you hadn’t guessed already, that son was Phobos. Yes, I hate to admit it, but I raised Phobos…”

Much to Miranda’s mild annoyance, she’s interrupted by Irma once again, “Wait, you’re that Miranda?!?” Irma exclaims, “Like, the one from Yan Lin’s story?!? Now that’s what I call a plot twist!”

“Yes, I’m *that* Miranda. Anyway, I always saw the evil in Phobos. When I told his parents, they scolded me and told me I was crazy. So I trusted them, and I denied it. For years I…”

Irma suddenly yips.

“Are you gonna say something?” Asks Miranda rudely.

“Yeah, it’s starting to rain. We should probably get inside”

“Agreed,” says Will. They all take off. Will picks up Miranda.

“Wait! What about me!” Cries Megan. They halt and look back at her.

“You’re banned, remember?” Says Cornelia.

“Also, doesn’t the rain not affect you? Since you’re a witch and all?” Adds Will

“Come on guys, she’s been living out here for months. She’s probably lonely,” Taranee says.

“Yeah! That’s it!” Says Megan.

“Ok, fine, she can come over, but just for now,” allows Caleb.

Taranee flies back down and snatches up Megan. Then they all fly over the wall into Helmina. Cornelia grabs Caleb as she passes over the top.

“You didn’t need to do that you know,” he tells her.

“I know! But I did!”

Uriah lifts open the lid of the barrel he’s hiding in as he hears the sound of fluttering wings pass overhead. Sure enough, he sees the five girls flying to the castle under construction at the center of the town. Some of who are carrying people dangling beneath them by the shoulders. 

Uriah always thought castles would be bigger than that, but given, he had never seen a real castle before now. Unbeknownst to him, he still had never seen a real castle before. 

He pushes on the wooden sides, lifts the barrel up, and begins waddling in the direction of the ‘castle,’ somehow completely unaware that the moment he starts moving, all the heads in the busy square immediately turn to the barrel. Unrelated to that, he suddenly drops it to the floor and tucks his head down to close the lid. He’s not sure why he did this, but that’s what they always do in the movies, so that’s what he’s doing. Everyone’s still looking at the barrel.

“Someone thinks they’re being sneaky,” a meridianite man mutters with a crooked grin to the human next to him, his thumb pointing to the oddly positioned barrel in the middle of the square. The two chuckle. The barrel gets up again and begins moving. Their chuckle slowly turns into a laugh.

Then it begins to rain. Everyone runs inside. A drop splashes on Uriah’s cheek; kicked up from someone's foot. It burns his skin. He’s glad he has this barrel, although he quickly realizes it’s not enough, as the acid starts dripping through the gaps between the planks that make up the lid. He quickly waddles up to the wall of the ‘castle,’ under the protection of the scaffolding that surrounds it. He skirts around the edge of the building until he finds an open door and heads inside. He hears voices, some of which he recognizes. He follows them. They lead him up some stairs, which he has trouble making it up in his barrel, and tumbles down twice before successfully making it to the top. He heads down the hall until he finds the door the voices are behind. He puts his ear to it and listens.

“...I ate alot more guards after that. Phobos did not want news of your return getting out. One time, Yan Lin came. I thought I would have to eat her, but it turns out that wasn’t the case. Once you were revealed, he became more determined to kill you guardians. He wanted to use your demise as a display of power and dominance. He probably still does. He tried to keep the news of your return within the walls of Meridian, and I don’t know if he succeeded. Caleb, you have something to say?”

“Yes, what if he hasn’t succeeded? Maybe we could try spreading the news of the guardians’ return to the rest of Metamoor. Then we could…”

Uriah stops listening. He’s heard enough. All he needs to do is find these ‘Walls of Meridian,’ which should lead him to this Phobos guy. And then he can ‘dispose,’ of Cornelia once and for all. For a brief moment, he thinks that might not be the best solution.

“No, she deserves it,” he thinks. He lowers his head back into the barrel and waddles further down the hall.

Chapter Text

The barrel containing Uriah plops itself down infront of another door. Out he pops like a jack in the box. The lid is on his head like a sombrero. He opens the door, sees what’s inside, then lowers himself back into the barrel and wandles down to the next door and does the same thing.

“Finally!” He exclaims upon seeing what lies on the other side.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the building, Will says, “Did you hear that?” As she interrupts Miranda. The others shake their heads.

“I could’ve sworn I heard Uriah’s voice say ‘finally’”

Cornelia stands up. “Oh no he didn’t,” she grumbles sternly before busting out into the hall.

“URIAH!!!” She screams loud enough to make everyone but Megan and Caleb flinch. She storms down the hall. The others look at eachother. Will, Irma, and Hay Lin follow after curiously.

Uriah is rolling up a map he’d taken off the wall when he hears the voice of his ex shouting his name echo through the stone building. He seizes up before quickly hoping back in his barrel, pulling the lid over himself. He breathes a sigh of relief. He’s safe.

Cornelia storms up to the doorway and towers over the barrel. The other guardians stop in the hall after Will spreads out her arms to give the two some space.

Cornelia begins talking in an incredibly sarcastic voice, “Oh, would you look at this barrel here? Seems to be right in the road. Why would someone put it here? I better move it”

“No!” Shouts Uriah.

“Oh, well since the barrel said so, I won’t then”

Cornelia whips her long straight hair as she turns to the side and walks back down the hall to the others. But stops in her tracks about halfway there. She stamps the floor like a sheep and a brick juts out of the ground directly beneath Uriah. It hits him in the balls and the brick hoists him out of the barrel by the pelvis; the lid falls to the side. He cries in agony before falling backwards into the hall, grasping his groin in pain. Cornelia turns around as the brick begins to move; levitating. Uriah watches it in horror as he crawls back up against the wall behind him. Cornelia looks on proudly from just down the hall, the other three peering out from behind her. 

The brick drops and lands right in his balls yet again. He screams. He picks it up and throws it at Cornelia in anger, only for it to stop in mid air inches before her smug face.

“Don’t think you have good aim,” she says, “I did that for dramatic effect”

“Cornelia, stop!” Exclaims Taranee. The other four quickly turn around to see her flying down the hall at them from behind. Uriah takes the opportunity and bolts off, grasping his lower stomach in pain as he runs.

“Cornelia, you can’t just torture people!” Taranee scolds.

“He literally tried to melt my face off!!”

“Guys he’s getting away!” Shouts Irma, pointing.

They all fly down the hall, round a corner, and see Uriah standing infront of a window, hesitating. The rain has stopped, at least for now. The moment he sees them he jumps out, landing on a woman below to break his fall before running off. The guardians fly after him as Taranee helps the woman to her feet before continuing after.

Will snatches up Uriah.

“Wilma?!”

“Will”

“What are you?! Please don’t hurt me!! I’m sorry for everything I ever did to you!!”

“No you’re not!” Snarks Cornelia.

Will sets him down ontop of a tall chimney stack. The guardians hover in a circle around him.

“What are we gonna do with him?” Asks Hay Lin.

“Well we definitely can’t send him back to Earth,” says Taranee. 

As the guardians talk amongst themselves, Uriah tries to look for a way down, and quickly seems to realize there is none.

“I have alot of questions right now,” he says to the girls.

“I’m sure you do,” replies Cornelia smugly.

“We should talk to Caleb and Vathek about what to do with you,” suggests Taranee.

“Good idea, Corny, you stay here and keep an eye on him,” says Will.

“With pleasure!”

The others fly off, leaving Cornelia with Uriah. She slowly flies in circles around him as she says, “Look at you, so scared! So confused! Trust me, I won’t hurt you (unlike you if you were in my position right now). But anyway, nevermind all that. What’ve you been up to lately? Been a long time since we had a proper chat!”

“Aren’t you afraid of heights?!” He asks.

“I was, but… wait, I never told you that?! Oh, lemme guess, the Grumpers? You don’t need to answer that question by the way. But as for yours: I *was* afraid of heights. Then I realized that, you know, I can fly! Unlike you!”

“Ok, ok, whatever. Where are we? What the hell’s going on right now!?”

“This place? This is Metamoor. Lively, isn’t it? As for me, I’m a Guardian of the Veil, you know, protector of the universe, all that stuff. And you? You’re just a dumb asshole”

The chimney then begins to rumble. Uriah tenses up. The brick stack begins to fall over. He panics. After a few seconds, the chimney comes to a sudden halt at roughly a 45 degree angle. Uriah’s breath is still heaving from the panic as he grasps the edge to keep himself from sliding off.

Cornelia begins laughing hysterically.

“Was that you?!” He asks, “how’d you do that?!”

Uriah yelps as the chimney quickly straightens itself, bringing him right to Cornelia’s face.

“Magic,” she whispers through a smirk. He then scrunches his lips as he tries to kiss her. She flies backwards, disgusted.

“Eew!! Don’t even try it. I am NOT in love with you. In fact, your face makes me gag!”

“Well that’s hurtful!”

“Says you!”

Hay Lin flies up to them, interrupting their argument.

“Cornelia, they need you,” she says.

“Coming! Don’t go anywhere, you dick! Not like you can anyway”

The two fly off together, leaving Uriah alone atop the chimney.

Several minutes later, he hears a voice call from below.

“Hey! Watcha doing up there Earthling?” The male voice calls. He looks down to the man in the street looking up at him. Although to call him a ‘man’ is rather generous. He’s one of those weird things Uriah had seen everywhere.

“How do you know where I’m from?” He asks. The man doesn’t answer and begins to climb the building, then the chimney, and sits down on one of the pots beside Uriah. It’s obvious he is very experienced in climbing.

“Your clothes kinda give it away,” he says, “My name is James, and there’s only one way you’re going back home, and that is if the guardians brainwash you”

“If they what?!”

“Don’t worry, this is why I came up here. I can get you home without having to do that. Here, take these. This is a portal compass. It’ll point to a portal whenever it glows, and this is a teleorb. This’ll get you out of Helmina. Just squeeze it, throw it over that wall, and it’ll…”

“Like this?” Asks Uriah in interruption as the teleorb begins to shine in his hand.

“Yes! Now throw it!”

He does.

“Nothing happened”

“Just wait”

“Nothing’s hap-” Uriah’s cut off when he disappears in a flash of light.

In a flash, Uriah suddenly finds himself in completely different surroundings; much more desolate surroundings. He looks behind himself and sees the same wall towering over him. He looks down and realizes he’s still holding the compass.

“I should probably get away from here before those ‘guardians’ notice me,” he thinks. He then jogs off into the wasteland. As he does, he pulls out the stolen map from his pocket and unfolds it. It keeps blowing in his face as he runs, so he waits until he concludes that he’s far enough away from the town, then slows to a walking pace and begins to examine the map.

He notices the name ‘Helmina,’ and remembers that was what that James thing had said the name of the town was. At least, he thinks that was what James was referring to. His goal, however, couldn’t be more obvious: the biggest name on the map: ‘Meridian’.

“This can’t be all of Metamoor, can it?” He thinks. He then realizes what he’s looking at is probably only a small part of it.

After seeing a mountain off in the distance scraping the ceiling of swirling black clouds, he looks back down at the map and sees only one mountain nearby. That had to be it.

He looks at where he is in relation to the mountain and Helmina on the map, and he now knows what direction he has to go. So he heads that way.

“I am a true genius,” he thinks.

He continues to examine the map as he walks.

Around the city of Meridian, he notices several Xs over circles drawn at different locations around the city. A few of the circles however don’t have Xs through them. He’s unsure what any of that could mean, and doesn’t really care either.

After about an hour of walking, Uriah hadn’t seen a single sign of life. Actually, he had seen lots of signs of life: mostly abandoned houses, dead trees, and the occasional skeleton (both humanoid and not). But no signs of living life. 

That is until he sees a tower structure of some kind, but assumes it’s abandoned too and keeps walking. 

Shortly after, he hears the first real sign of life. He hears a sliding sound of some sort, and tries to find the source. Then, to his shock, he hears a loud screeching noise. He instantly turns towards it and sees a huge centipede-like creature with glowing eyes speeding towards him. 

Uriah hits trips over himself as he runs before instantly getting back to his feet. He looks back for a quick second to realize he’s far too slow to outrun the slimy beast. He jumps behind a rock and shuts his eyes tightly, only able to hope for the best.

He hears a rolling sound, then another loud screeching noise like the one before, but this one sounds more like a painful cry. He stands up and looks over the rock to see a strange 5-legged crab-like creature standing over the centipede thing, although upon closer inspection, it doesn’t really resemble a crab at all. Somehow, the centipede thing had been severed in two at the middle, as if a sawblade had cut it; although a very dull one. The crab thing is eating the centipede thing from its month on its underside. Unfortunately, its meal is somehow still alive and screeches desperately as its already dismembered body is being eaten. The new creature doesn’t seem to have noticed him, so he sneaks off before it does.

Soon enough, exhausted, Uriah spots a wall dotted with towers upon the horizon.

“That has to be it!” He thinks as he begins to jog towards it. As he approaches, an arrow twangs into the ground a few feet infront of him, stopping him in his tracks.

He stands confused for a few moments, unsure of what to do, then continues approaching cautiously, only to be jumped by another arrow to his left. He dashes off until he hides behind another rocky outcrop and looks at the map again.

He sees the circled Xs around the city. He knows which way he came from, and so his massive, throbbing, genius brain is able to determine the rough location of the nearest one. It’s one with an X. 

He begins heading to it, being sure to keep his distance from the wall. Then he hears something. He looks around quickly and sees another one of those horned humanoid creatures riding towards him on a giant ostrich-like bird of some kind. Both he and his feathered steed wear armor. Uriah gasps and begins to run. Thankfully, he’s quickly able to find a tunnel of some kind in the side of a rock face. It’s at about the location the X on the map should have been, and about the size of a doorway. He runs into the darkness. The man on the bird immediately reaches the mouth of the tunnel behind him and realizes it's too small. He hops off, takes out a lantern that emits a green glow, and runs after. Uriah runs as fast as he can, into the dark void infront of him and he hears the clanking of boots behind him. Suddenly, the tunnel comes to an unexpected dead end and he slams into the wall, falling to the floor. The armored creature stands over him and raises his sword, but before he kills Uriah, he pauses.

“An Earthling!” He realizes, his voice echoing in the small space. “The king will want a word with you”

He puts away his sword and violently pulls Uriah to his feet.

The guardians step out of a portal on the roof of Ye Olde Bookshop, in human form.

“I’m not sure how I feel about this,” says Cornelia somberly, looking at the gravel, hugging herself.

“We don’t know if he’s dead, he’ll probably come back. Let’s just be glad we’re not James right now, he’s definitely in biiiiiiig trouble,” Irma says.

“I know, it’s just…” Cornelia stops and sighs. She doesn’t finish her sentence, probably unsure of what to say.

“There’s nothing we can do about it right now,” says Will, “We have no idea where he is. The best we can do is wait till a portal opens”

“That reminds me!” Exclaims Irma, “I thought of an idea for the fundraiser!”

“How did that remind you of…”

“...nevermind,” Irma interrupts Cornelia, “So you see, I was thinking: you know how you suggested a recycling drive, Tara?”

“Yeah, is that what you wanna do?”

“Sorta. Do you guys know what they’re doing with all the wreckage from the tornado?”

“Probably taking it all to the landfill," Taranee answers.

“Exactly! But what if it, you know, wasn’t?”

“That’s actually a pretty good idea. I’m sure all that metal would be worth alot”

“And how exactly would we get access to all that stuff?” Cornelia says.

They all think for a moment as they walk out of the shop.

“I’ve got it!” Exclaims Taranee, “what if we ask Principal Knickerbrocker about this? Turn it into a school fundraiser, but not for the school, you know? I’m sure she’d be more than happy to try and arrange something! After all, this is affecting the entire city"

A few days later, the slow beeping sound of a dump truck backing up is heard in the small parking lot behind the school.

”I think this was an excellent idea you five had,” says the principal, “Helping the community get through this and reducing waste in the process!”

There’s suddenly a loud sound as the dump truck lifts up its back and tons of rubble spills out into a pile in the parking lot.

Hay Lin looks at the pile with unease. “What about, you know, pieces of people?” She worries.

“We discussed that, remember? I’m sure they would’ve checked it for anything like that if it was on its way to the landfill,” says Will.

“And besides, that’s why we have lost and found,” adds Irma, pointing to a bin that had been set up as part of the fundraiser.

“That’s not what it’s for,” says Cornelia.

“It can be though,” replies Irma.

“Hopefully not,” murmurs Taranee.

Suddenly, a gasp from behind them is heard as Alchemy pushes through the other students with a big smile across her face and dives into the pile of junk. Irma smiles.

“Is this why you wanted to do this?” Will asks.

“Partially,” Irma answers.

Epilogue

“And that is everything you can tell me about them?” Phobos asks.

“Yes, your majesty”

“Thank you, Uriah Dunn. What you have told me will be very useful”

“How can I help you destroy them?” Uriah asks, grinning wickedly as he steps closer to the throne.

“You won’t be,” says the king. He suddenly pulls his sword from beside himself and slashes the kid’s throat, instantly soaking his shirt in blood like a large red baby bib. Uriah makes a wheezing sound as he grasps at his neck before collapsing to the floor infront of Phobos looking down on his body with a blank expression.

“Miranda! I have a mess that needs cleaning!” He calls to the ceiling. Then, after a few moments of silence, he mutters, “Oh, right,” before calling, “Cedric!!”