Long, long ago, a prophecy was foretold by Fate itself. A prophecy of good & evil, a prophecy of light & dark. One day, far, far into the future, 5 heroes will emerge & save the multiverse from destruction, maintaining balance between the goods & the evils of this world.
These 5 heroes, even though they may not show it or believe it, have strengths & qualities beyond their wildest dreams. Passion, hospitality, kindness, flexibility, patience... this was how Fate had described the prophesied heroes. Even though she had never met these heroes yet, she could see far into the future, & she knew these were the ones.
Now here we are: January 14th, 2023. 5 friends sat in an apartment complex, having a sleepover. They were eating snacks & talking about the logistics of whether Kirby could beat Sonic the Hedgehog in a fight.
“Sonic would just run out of the way, though!” Kalani said. “He’s, like, the fastest thing alive, right?”
“But if Kirby inhaled him & got his powers, Kirby would be just as fast as Sonic is!” Juniper replied, taking a bite out of a pretzel.
“Then they’d just be the exact same speed.” Cherry rolled her eyes. “It’s an unwinnable battle for both of them.”
“If Kirby inhaled Sonic & spat him off of, say, a rooftop, there’s no way Sonic’s surviving that. Kirby wins.” Nora said.
“Kirby’s too nice for that, though!” Leslie said, crossing their arms. “They wouldn’t even be fighting in the first place. They would be eating chili dogs together.”
“Then it’s a contest to see how many chili dogs they can eat.”
“Well, that’s just unfair for Sonic! Kirby would eat all of them before Sonic even had a chance to take a bite.”
“Maybe Sonic just has a skill issue then.”
“Sonic does NOT have a skill issue!”
Cherry yawned. “Damn, I’m tired.”
“It is getting a little late. Maybe we should all conk out for the night.” Kalani said, checking the time on his phone.
“Yeah,” Leslie mumbled, pulling a blanket over itself. “I’m heading to sleepies. Goodnight!”
“G’night!”
The 5 of them soon fell asleep, all cozy & warm in the living room, & nothing questionable happened during that night at all.
That was a lie, by the way. Something very questionable & strange happened that night.
It was a dream. It didn’t feel like a dream, but it didn’t feel NOT like a dream, either. Not a lucid dream, & most certainly not a fever dream. They were simultaneously alone & together at the same time, standing before a shadowed figure.
The figure approached them, holding a necklace in its hands.
“Heroes of the prophecy,” the shadow’s voice echoed in their minds. “You have been chosen to maintain the balance between good & evil in this world, as decided by Fate itself.”
The figure held up the necklace. “The necklace will guide your way.” it said. “Find your way to the book. You will know what to do from there.”
As morning crawled its way into Cincinnati, Cherry, Nora, Leslie, Juniper, & Kalani awoke.
“Ugh, my head hurts..” Cherry grumbled, holding their palm up to their forehead.
“Same..” Kalani yawned. “I had a really weird dream last night. There was this tall shadow thing & it handed me a necklace that looked kind of like a tie &-”
“& it said to find some book?”
“I- Yeah, it did.. how did you know?”
“I had that dream too.”
“Now that you mention it, I also had a dream like that.”
“I did, as well.”
“Did we all have the same dream?”
“I guess so.”
Cherry sighed. “It probably means nothing. Juni, do you know where you keep your tylenol?”
“Bathroom. In the mirror cabinet.”
“Thanks.” She got up & headed toward the bathroom.
Leslie got up as well. “You all want some breakfast? I can make some if you want.”
“That’d be awesome, Les.”
“Alright, let’s see what Juni has in faer fridge.” it said, heading toward the kitchen. As it opened the refrigerator, a scream rang out from the bathroom. Everyone’s heads perked up.
“Cherry!” Nora called out. “You ok?!”
“NO!!!” they yelled back.
The other 4 all rushed to the bathroom to see what the matter was. Cherry stood in front of the mirror, bottle of tylenol in her hands, & a red tie necklace around her neck.
“What’s wrong?”
“The necklace!! Where did it COME FROM?”
“Isn’t that the necklace we all saw in our dreams?”
“Well, my necklace was green.”
“Mine was yellow.”
“Hey,” Leslie pointed at the mirror. “We’re all wearing necklaces too.”
“Huh?”
Everyone looked at the mirror. They were, indeed, wearing almost-identical tie necklaces. Nora’s was yellow, Leslie’s was gray, Juniper’s was green, & Kalani’s was blue.
“Jesus christ. It’s like we sleep-walked our way to a jewelry store & stole these or something.”
“Jewelry stores don’t sell tie-shaped necklaces.”
“Well, where else would we get these?”
“..maybe the dream wasn’t a dream?”
Everyone turned toward Leslie.
“What do you mean it ‘wasn’t a dream?’ We were all VERY MUCH asleep.”
“You all remember that shadow figure from the dream, right? It gave us the necklaces in the dream, & now we’re all wearing the necklaces!”
“That’s.. physically not possible.”
“If it’s not possible, why did it happen, eh?”
“Didn’t the shadow figure mention a book?” Nora perked up. “The necklaces are supposed to guide us to some book.”
“There’s tons of books in this world! That would take literally forever!”
“If this so-called book is real, it would have to be relatively close to us, right? Whatever this shadow figure is wouldn’t hide a book in, like, Europe or something.”
“You have a point. I guess.”
“We should get some breakfast first, though, & there’s barely anything to cook with in your fridge, Juni.”
Juniper crossed her arms. “What, you can’t make a hotdog breakfast, Les?”
“No.”
“Well, where DO we get breakfast, then?”
The group thought about it for a moment.
“Oh! I got it!” Kalani said. “There’s this new banana restaurant that opened up recently. We could go there!”
“Banana restaurant?”
“Yeah. Restaurant that sells bananas. & banana-themed foods.”
“..doesn’t hurt to try, I guess.”
“Alright! Let’s go!!”
The heroes have done their job well. They had proven themselves. Of course, Fate already knew they would. She could see into the future, after all. Her belief in the heroes never faltered, even for just a moment.
Now that Juno had been disposed of, they could begin the next part of their journey. Fate knew exactly where to send them: a land riddled with misery & despair, where evil lurks behind any given corner. If the heroes are able to bring this land back to its former glory... then they would be ready.
“Ready for.. what, exactly?”
Fate turned around & looked down to see Betty standing behind her.
“Oh, my apologies. I was simply rambling to myself.” Fate said. “All shall be revealed in due time, my darling. Don’t you worry.”
Fate’s voice was soothing, sure, but Betty couldn’t help but be nervous. This was something Fate had been planning for over 3000 years, something Fate would only really discuss with Betty, & even then... Betty didn’t know very much of what was happening behind the scenes.
She wished Fate wasn’t so vague all of the time.
-
“Oh, what are we going to do?!”
In a faraway kingdom, a king & queen sat upon their thrones, lamenting the misery that’s fallen upon their land.
“I don’t know! The townspeople are riddled with despair, even though the Festival is approaching soon!” the king sighed.
“Well, you know the beast always comes through during the Festival.” the queen said. “They must certainly be afraid of its wrath.”
“Of course, & not to mention... The Bonekeeper has been around as of late.”
“Jim’s reported that his scarecrows keep going missing as well.. If this keeps up, the Festival this year may be a disaster!”
The doors to the throne room swung open, & in ran the court jester, followed by the kingdom’s psychic.
“Toby! Mirabelle!” the jester shouted. “Mason comes with a vision!”
Mason, the psychic, approaches the two rulers & kneels. “Milords.. I have foreseen something. I saw.. a group of heroes. It seems they will come to our land & restore the peace here.”
This caught the royals’ attention. A group of heroes, coming to save the kingdom of Ampleand? With their help... maybe the Festival will be the best it’s ever been!
It had started fairly normally. Juniper told Juno to go hang out with Kalani that morning, since Juniper had some “errands” to do. Kalani & Juno had spent the first part of the morning playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
As the clock struck 10:08 AM, Kalani turned toward Juno, & asked “So, you ready to get back to the Castle?”
Juno’s face lit up. “Boy, am I!”
“Then let’s hit the road!”
-
“Why do we have to do this so early??”
“Better early than late!”
Cherry pulled her car up into the Auction House parking lot. As part of the plan, Cherry was to be the one who slammed the freezer door shut on Juno, whilst the others were there for backup.
The doors to the Auction House were supposed to be boarded up, but thanks to Kalani & Leslie stopping by a couple days before, they had been blasted down. All the gang had to do was just walk inside, get to the freezer, & prepare.
“This place is so much scarier when it’s dark.”
“I think all places are scary when they’re dark.”
“Not to mention, abandoned.”
“Speaking of abandoned..” Leslie mumbled. “Did Kalani ever mention we found The Auctioneer’s diary here?”
“Wh- no??? How did you find their diary??”
“Well... we were here a few days before to make sure the freezer still worked, but we ended up going the wrong way & found this room with a bunch of The Auctioneer’s stuff in it.”
“Huh. Wonder why he didn’t take it with him.”
“Kalani & I wondered the same thing. He does has the diary with him, so..”
“It’s probably morally incorrect to steal someone’s diary.”
“What do you mean probably??”
-
Earth wasn’t typically made for creatures as tall as Time. Xe were made aware of this quite quickly, noticing how everything seemed so miniscule compared to xym. Nevertheless, it had a mission to do. They had little faith in the heroes, despite Fate saying that they would succeed. Time had to make sure the job actually got done.
They landed near an old, abandoned building, taking a moment to rest & think about what to do from here. Xyr first priority was to find the heroes. It had to watch them from afar, though, partly because it didn’t want to intimidate the heroes. They had never seen a Celestial as tall as Time before, after all.
A sudden sound alerted them. Xe peeked around to see what it was.
A small, metal device with wheels approached the building, turning around & stopping near the pavement. Time watched this with much intensity, never having seen something quite like this before.
Two figures exited the device. Time recognized one of them instantly.
It was Juno.
It took xym a moment to figure out who the other figure was, but quickly clocked them as one of the heroes. It was Patience, as evidenced by the blue tie necklace.
What was Patience doing here with Juno? What was their plan?
“Sooo.. why are we here?” Time heard Juno ask, swinging her arms about.
“Well.. ah..” Patience hummed. “Going to the castle is, uh.. kind of a big process. We all thought it would be easier for everyone involved if we, uh.. did it outside of public view.”
“Ah, I see! I see!” Juno nodded his head. “Makes perfect sense to me!”
Time watched as the two of them entered the abandoned building. If the heroes were planning on freezing Juno in the building, Time had to get in there to watch it happen.
As the wind grew a tad bit stronger, Time stretched, becoming one with the shadows around it. “This should suffice for now,” they thought to themself, making their way into the abandoned building.
-
Everything seemed to be going all according to plan. Kalani & Juno had just gone down the stairs, making their way to the freezer. As expected, the door into the freezer room was wide open, & Kalani knew Cherry was waiting behind to slam it when Juno entered.
“Here we are!” Kalani grinned. “The others should show up aaany moment now.”
“I truly cannot thank you heroes enough, truly!” Juno looked up at Kalani & smiled.
“Of course! It’s our job to help, after all. Now, if you don’t mind waiting in the room next to us..”
Kalani gestured toward the freezer room.
“Oh, of course! I’d be delighted!” Juno said, not moving an inch. “As long as you go in first!”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly go in first.” Kalani held his hand up close to his necklace, just in case. “Go ahead!”
“Oh, that wasn’t a request!” Juno smirked, pulling out a gun. “You go in first!”
Kalani took a step back, tugging on the necklace & entering Hero Mode. Juno held her gun up, the barrel facing Kalani.
“Ok, ok..” Kalani summoned her wand & held her hands up. “There’s no need to get violent here!”
“Well, why shouldn’t I?” Juno’s finger made its way toward the trigger. “I saw the letter Fate sent! I know what you’re planning! If you think I’m gonna just let you freeze me, then you’re dead wrong!!”
Kalani was at a standstill here. If he did or said anything wrong, Juno was going to shoot that gun right at him.
“W-W-Wait! Wait!” Kalani stammered. “If you know about our plan... you would have known about the.. back-up, right?”
“Huh? Back-up?!”
Leslie, Nora, & Juniper emerged from around the corner, in Hero Mode & with their weapons out.
“I knew it was a good idea to not get smoothies before coming here!”
Now Juno was the nervous one, the gun trembling in his hands. “You think that’s gonna do anything?! You really think you can lay a finger on me?! Those weapons will do NOTHING! I’ll shoot! I’LL DO IT!”
“We don’t want any conflict here, Juno..” Leslie tried to de-escalate the situation. “We’re just doing what we were told to do-”
“OHH, it’s always ‘Fate told me to do this!’ & ‘Fate told me to do that!’ You so-called heroes are COWARDS, doing a higher being’s bidding just because she TOLD YOU TO! YOU’RE ALL BEING PLAYED A FOOL! I WON’T STAND FOR THIS!”
“Juno, all we’re asking you to do is-”
BANG!
Juno shot her gun.
It happened so suddenly, nobody in the group could do anything to stop it.
Kalani clutched her right shoulder, which is where Juno’s bullet went through.
“Kalani!!” Leslie rushed to Kalani’s aid.
“I’ve killed the SUN before, you know!” Juno yelled. “A CELESTIAL! I’VE KILLED A CELESTIAL! I COULD KILL YOU TOO! YOU’RE NO DIFFERENT FROM THE REST OF THEM!”
Nora & Juniper held their weapons up, preparing for a fight. “You’re outnumbered, Juno!”
“That hasn’t stopped me BEFORE!!” Juno lifted his gun, aiming at Juniper. “YOU CAN’T STOP ME!! I’ll get back to the Castle on my OWN, without the help of Fate’s little pawns, & WHEN I GET THERE..”
Juno fired her gun again... but nothing came out.
“I- I... uh..”
“Did you run out of bullets?”
“I.. WHO NEEDS BULLETS?!” Juno shrieked, throwing his gun at the heroes. Nora reached over & caught the gun before it could hit anyone. Juno was growing more & more nervous by the second.
“I- I- I’M A CHAOS BEING!! YOU CAN’T DO THIS! STOP! STOP!!”
Nora & Juniper stepped closer toward Juno, pointing their weapons at her. Juno trembled, stepping back a couple steps.
“GET AWAY! YOU’LL REGRET THIS! YOU’LL ALL REGRET THIS!!!!”
Juno stepped back, & back, until the ground beneath him felt cold to the touch.
“FATE WON’T GET AWAY WITH THIS!! & NEITHER WILL YOU! MARK MY WORDS-”
Before Juno could utter another sound, the door slammed shut. Cherry leaned against the door & locked it as the banging on the door began.
“HEY! HEY!!! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT OF HERE!! I’LL KILL YOU!!”
The banging died down after a couple seconds. Whether Juno was frozen already or she had just given up, the group would never know. Not like that was their most current concern, anyway.
“Kalani!”
The rest of the group rushed over to where Leslie & Kalani were. In the midst of all the chaos, Leslie had brought Kalani away from the scene & had him sit up against the wall. Kalani’s hand was still gripped tight over the bullet wound, attempting to keep any blood from spilling out.
“Are you ok?!”
“I.. I’ll be fine..” Kalani mumbled, sounding a bit dazed.
“YOU JUST GOT SHOT IN THE SHOULDER! You need immediate medical attention!”
“I believe that can wait for just a few moments,” an unknown voice echoed throughout the near-empty halls of the Auction House.
The group looked around. The clock on the wall had stopped moving, almost as if time had paused completely.
A familiar shadow emerges from the wall.
“Greetings, heroes.” the shadow hummed. “This is not the form I usually take on, but it’s the one most convenient for all of us currently.”
“You’re.. you’re that shadow creature we’ve seen in our dreams!”
“Precisely. Outside of that, though, I am known as Time. As you may have guessed, I am indeed a Celestial. I came down to Earth today to ensure that Juno has been properly defeated. It seems you five have done a fine job at that.”
“Well.. Kalani did get shot, so-”
“Patience’s wounds will be dealt with. Fate says he will end up ok.”
The group nodded.
“So..” Cherry looked at Time. “Are we gonna get paid for any of the hero stuff we’ve done? We’ve got rent to pay.”
Time fell silent for a moment.
“I’m.. sure Fate can arrange a payment. Now, before I depart... There is one last thing I must tell you. Listen close, heroes.”
The room seemed to grow darker & darker. The only noise the group could make out was Time’s voice.
“Whatever you do.. be wary of Fate. She has something planned, & none of us at the Castle know what it is. We can only assume it has to do with you. Stay safe, heroes.”
The darkness faded away, & with that, so did Time. The clock hanging upon the wall started moving along once more. The group’s nerves had risen, thanks to Time’s cryptic warning.
They had to stay safe. That’s all they knew. & so, that’s what they would do.
Work was quite slow today. Maybe it was because Juniper was waiting in anticipation for the plan tomorrow, or maybe it was because the puppet shop was actually just slow in business. Either way, the day felt like it was going on forever. Sotry glaring holes into Juniper’s skull certainly was not helping the case.
“You got somethin’ you wanna talk to me about, bud?” Juniper asked, sliding aer headphones off.
“Not particularly.” Sotry responded. “I just want to let you know how much I despise you.”
“Awesome. Keep it up.”
Juniper put xir headphones back on & continued to sweep the floor. Sotry was certainly one to hold grudges. This is something Juniper discovered very quickly during their time at the puppet shop. If nobody else was in the shop, Sotry would sit at the reception desk & brood, just watching Juniper sweep & dust, almost as if he was plotting something.
It was always a relief when Alph or a customer came into the shop. If it was a customer, Sotry would be too busy helping them to sit & sulk, & if it were Alph, Sotry would typically avoid Juniper’s presence altogether.
Juniper wondered if Sotry was still upset over his “president of the world” plan being foiled, & if Sotry even knew it was an unrealistic plan to begin with. Then again, everything about Juniper's life had been unrealistic ever since ey got the necklace, so who’s to say?
Nevertheless, though.. Juniper wanted to make peace with Sotry. She knew Sotry would definitely never forgive her now, & Juniper wasn't going to try & get on his “good side” at this point in time, but if the two of them could find some common ground..
“Hey, Sotry,” Juniper slipped zyr headphones off again. “Have you ever watched a TV show before?”
“...No.”
“Oh, really? I think you might enjoy some of them. There’s this one I’ve been meaning to watch for a while, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe we could watch it together or something-”
“Not interested.”
“Wow, you’re quick to throw that idea away. Why not?”
“I’ve got... better things to do with my time.”
Juniper tilted xaer head. “& what exactly is it that you do with your time?”
“It’s none of your business.”
“Oh, well.” she shrugged, putting her headphones back on. “If you ever change your mind, you know how to contact me.”
-
175 dollars by Tuesday was the goal.
Cherry was quite close to this goal already, thanks to the gigs she’s been doing around town. All she needed was 30 more bucks, & she’d be able to pay rent for the month. After that’s out of the way, & after Cherry gets into the groove of their new job, paying rent should be a lot easier.
For now, though, she had to find a way to snag $30 before February ended. Their first shift was on Monday, which did not give her a lot of time to get paid, so Cherry would have to get that last bit of money another way.
It was at this point in the middle of Cherry’s thinking that she heard a knock-knock-knocking come from her door. Cherry wasn’t expecting anyone today, but their curiosity was what made them open the door up.
“Hey.”
“NATALIE?!”
Indeed, there stood Natalie Fiala, at Cherry’s apartment door.
“How’d you know I live here?!”
“Oh, a little birdie told me.. but that’s not relevant right now. I’ve heard you & your hero friends seem to be down on your luck currently.”
“Can you get out of here?”
“No, I’m evil. It’s my job to be annoying.”
Natalie waltzed into the dorm like she owned the place & promptly sat down on Cherry’s sofa. “I like the new hair, by the way. Suits you.”
“..thanks?”
“My pleasure. Now,” Natalie turned to face Cherry. “How much more do you need to pay for rent?”
“Why would I tell you?”
“Because I can give it to you... for a price.”
“I’m not paying you to give me money.”
“No- Not like that. Listen, you want me outta here so badly? It’ll go faster if you just answer my question.”
“Fine.” Cherry sighed. “30 bucks.”
“Perfect.” Natalie grinned, pulling out her wallet & taking out 30 dollars. “I’ve got the money. It’ll be yours soon if you agree to my terms.”
“If you make me humiliate myself in public, I’m gonna-”
“No, no, nothing like that. I just want to challenge you to a duel.”
Cherry was taken aback. A duel?!
“You seem confused. Want me to explain what a duel is?”
“No- I know what a duel is. WHY a duel, though?”
“You all refused to fight me in that Walmart about a month ago. If I’m going to be your group’s arch-rival, we’re going to have to fight.”
“We refused to fight you because all you have is a squeaky hammer.”
“That was a month ago. I’ve got new tricks up my sleeve.” Natalie grinned, fanning herself with the 30 dollars in her hand.
“If you want this money, you’re going to meet me at the abandoned Pizza Hut at 6:30 tonight. If you win, the money is yours. But if you lose.. well, you can probably guess what happens if you lose. Will you take my deal?”
Cherry really, really did not want to take Natalie’s deal.. but she really needed that money. Plus, what could Natalie really do to them, anyway?
“I’ll take your deal.”
“Perfect!” Natalie shook Cherry’s hand & hopped up off the couch. “See you tonight!”
-
It was a lovely day today, & Nora had decided to bring Sorrel along to get smoothies as a celebration.
“Congrats on getting hired!” she cheered. “When's your first day?”
“Thanks! Ah.. I believe I start tomorrow!”
Sorrel had just gotten hired at that puppet place they applied to. It was quite a momentous occasion for them, considering they didn't think they'd get hired that quickly.
“That's awesome!” Nora nodded, taking a sip of her smoothie. “I.. haven't had that much luck in terms of actually getting employed, but I've got most of the money from doing odd jobs around the city.”
“I’m sure it'll happen eventually. You said you applied to DQ, right?”
“Indeed! I'm still waiting for them to get back to me for an interview..”
Sorrel took a sip from their smoothie. It was nice living with their sister again after so long, but they knew they had to move out eventually. The next thing on their list would be to find a place to live.
$175 a month was very generous for rent. Sorrel knew they weren't going to get that kind of deal anywhere else. The only other place they could go until they saved up again was..
“Do you think Mom & Dad would let me move back in?” they asked.
“Oh- uh..” Nora seemed a bit caught off-guard by that question. “I think they would.. wouldn't that mean you would have to tell them you dropped out, though?”
“That's what I was thinking. They would be so disappointed in me, even more so since I haven't told them for months.”
Setting their smoothie down, Nora looked up at Sorrel. “Do you remember in middle school, when I was failing history class? I hid that from Mom & Dad for so long.”
“Oh, they were pissed when they found out.”
“Yeah.. getting yelled at right after parent-teacher conferences was not fun.. but they understood why I had lied to them. After the waterworks were over with, we were able to work things out & get a tutor to help me out.”
“Wasn't I your tutor?”
“Exactly!” Nora chuckled.
“The point I'm trying to make here is.. well.. they'll understand. It'll be tense, sure, but Mom & Dad care about us. They'll be more than willing to help you out- Are you crying??”
“No..!” Sorrel sniffled, clearly crying. “My.. eyes are just sweating!”
“Sure.”
“But really though..” Sorrel wiped their eyes. “I think that was exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks, sis.”
“Of course.” Nora grinned, finishing up their smoothie. “Now, first one to the car is a rotten banana!”
“Hey, wait!!! I'm not done with my smoothie!!”
-
“July 24th, 2019..”
Kalani was bored, so he had taken to reading The Auctioneer’s diary. It had been quite interesting, & learning about all of the neat auctioneering facts had been fun. The part she was at now, though..
“It's my birthday today!” the page read. “My 18th, in fact!”
Kalani thought that was quite interesting. Sorrel had turned 18 just a month before in 2019. Knowing that The Auctioneer was around the same age as Sorrel was intriguing.
“I'm going to invite Brooklyn & Quinn over to that old auction house today to celebrate! I wonder what presents they're going to get me!”
The rest of the entry wasn't very long, it was just another auctioneering fact. But when Kalani turned the page..
“July 26th, 2020..”
This next entry was just over a year after the last one! The Auctioneer had mentioned during their battle that they had been locked in a freezer for a year, which is how their skin got all blue & cold.. Kalani was starting to piece things together.
Puck’s friends had locked him in that freezer in the Auction House, which is what Kalani was about to read about on the page.
“I'M OUT. I'M OUT. THE ONLY REASON I KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS IS BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN KEEPING TRACK. ONE TALLY MARK A DAY KEEPS THE FROSTBITE AWAY.”
Their handwriting was shaky & unstable. The whimsy from his words was gone.
“THEY LOCKED ME IN THERE. THEY SAID IT WAS FOR MY OWN GOOD. WHAT KIND OF PERSON ATTEMPTS TO FREEZE THEIR BEST FRIEND? BUT I LIVED. SOMEHOW.”
“& I WILL MAKE THEM FEEL HOW I'VE FELT FOR THE PAST YEAR.”
The Auctioneer’s story was so captivating.. Kalani couldn't help but continue reading! She flipped the page to the next entry, July 27th of 2020. The first thing Kalani noticed in this entry was whilst the handwriting was still shaky, it was no longer written in all capitals.
“I found them yesterday. It was easy, really. They had moved in together, without me. I was supposed to have moved in with them a year ago. We were SUPPOSED to be together no matter what. We were friends.”
“That is clearly no longer the case. Using a couple of tranquilizer darts I had found, I knocked them out & brought them to the Auction House, & locked them in the freezer, just as they had done to me.”
“Today, I returned, to see how they were holding up, to see if they would repent. But something curious happened.. something unexpected. Quinn & Brooklyn had turned into stone statues.”
“I was amazed, & had many questions. Why hadn't I been turned to stone, like my old friends had? What made me different? An answer never came to me, but an idea did.”
“The Auction House was old. The city was sure to close it down soon. If I bought it, & auctioned off these statues.. well, I’d just be living the dream, wouldn't I? :)”
Kalani could not believe what he had just read. The Auctioneer turned their friends to stone, & auctioned them off?
“They did not need to go that far..” Kalani mumbled to herself, turning the page.
It was blank.
That was the end of the diary. Puck must have abandoned it, for whatever reason. What that reason was, Kalani didn't know.
He was determined to figure it out, though.
-
“Thank you for coming today.”
“Whatever.”
The clock had just hit 6:30 pm. Cherry & Natalie stood across from each other at the abandoned Pizza Hut. Cherry did not want to be here, but they really, really needed that $30.
“You remember the rules, don't you?”
“Sure. If I win, you hand over the 30 bucks. & if I lose..”
“If you lose, then I get to join your magical group!”
Cherry didn't care to tell her that that wasn't possible.
“Additionally,” Natalie continued. “To make this ‘fair’, any use of weapons or powers are not allowed. Do you understand?”
Cherry nods. She didn't want to enter Hero Mode anyway, so this was just convenient.
“Good. Then let's get started.”
Cracking her knuckles, Cherry prepared themself for the duel. Natalie initiated the fight by rushing over & shoving Cherry into the chain-link fence. They quickly recovered, bouncing themselves off of the fence & approached Natalie, attempting to punch her.
SNATCH!
Natalie grabbed a hold of Cherry’s wrist, a smug grin on her face.
Without thinking too much, Cherry used her other hand to grab onto Natalie's wrist, slamming it down. The shock made Natalie release her grasp on Cherry's right wrist.
“Ooh, nice one.”
“...Thanks.”
Natalie was running up to Cherry again, presumably to push her into the fence again. Cherry slid to the left right when she approached them, causing Natalie to stumble for a moment, before regaining her balance.
She turned to look at Cherry.
Cherry looked right back at her.
She started running toward Natalie again, ready to punch, anticipating a wrist snatch this time. They slid to the right exactly when Natalie went to get their wrist, & used this moment to sock her in the cheek.
Natalie had little to no reaction, implying she was used to this. She rolled up her sleeves & sprinted up to Cherry, grabbing her wrist & spinning her around before she even had time to react.
When Natalie had decided that Cherry was adequately dizzy, she let go & let them spin all the way into the wall of the abandoned Pizza Hut.
Her head was throbbing, & everything was swirling around in her vision.. but she was still standing. “Well,” Natalie chuckled, that smug grin still on her face. “I think this means I win-”
Cherry stumbled over to Natalie, & delivered an extremely-deserved uppercut straight to her face.
“OW!”
Natalie lost her balance, falling over & hitting the chain-link fence behind her. Now it was Cherry who had the smug grin on their face.
“You were saying..?”
Grumbling, Natalie reached into her pocket & pulled out the $30. She handed it over to Cherry.
“Fine. You win. Whatever.”
Cherry gladly took the $30 & put it in her pocket. Wiping the sweat off of their forehead, they thought for a moment. That fight.. it had actually been quite fun. Cherry could barely believe it herself, but she did enjoy the thrill of it all.
“Hey,” they turned toward Natalie. “Same time next week?”
Natalie looked up at her & smiled.
“Sure.”
-
Juno was restless.
Juniper had already gone to bed a few hours ago, promising Juno that “tomorrow will be the day, I swear it.” He had been getting quite fed up with waiting so long to enact his plan.
Hopping off of the couch, Juno started pacing around the dorm room. She might as well just take things into her own hands at this rate.
As he paced, an object piqued their curiosity. On the kitchen counter, there sat a metallic yellow & gold envelope. It was open, & a letter laid within it. Standing on her tippy-toes, Juno reached up to grab the letter, her bright yellow eyes illuminating the area just enough to be able to read it in horror.
It was a letter from Fate herself, informing the heroes of Juno’s plan. Reading through it, Juno suddenly realized why the heroes had been putting off taking him back to the castle for so long. They already knew what he was going to do!
“Of course!” Juno hissed. “Of course she snitched on me! She’s FATE, after all!
The bottom of the letter made his anger & fear rise even more.
“Unfortunately, fending off Juno with your weapons will not suffice this time. A creature such as her must be permanently stopped. Frozen, if you will.”
Juno threw the letter to the ground. “So that’s how they wanna play, huh?”
CHAPTER 28 - PULL THE STRINGS, MAKE 'EM RING
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“Welcome to Dollar General!”
After one of the most boring interviews of its life, Leslie had landed the job at Dollar General! They were quite excited about it, especially considering they were going to be working with Natalie.
Speaking of Natalie, she was the one showing Leslie the ropes!
“You know what a cash register is, right?”
“Of course I do!”
“Ok, good, ‘cause I’m gonna teach you how to use it.”
& so, Leslie’s official cash register training began. Natalie explained the various parts of the cash register to Leslie, like the till drawer, the buttons & how to use them, scanning items.. all of this & more. The till drawer has to be opened with a key, which is usually kept in a drawer near the cashier’s side of the checkout station. In order to check out the sales total of the day, Leslie had to turn the register key to “X”, whereas turning it to “Z” would reset the sales total of the day.
Leslie never knew listening to someone explain how cash registers work could be so interesting. Although.. Leslie probably wouldn’t be paying attention if it were anyone besides Natalie. Natalie’s voice was just so captivating, Leslie couldn’t help but listen to what she had to say.
“Did you get all that?”
“Huh? Oh- Yes!”
Well, listening to the information didn’t necessarily mean processing the information.
-
It was quite a joyous day for Kalani, for his job application at the deli place he applied to had been accepted! She was now officially a waiter, & her first shift was tomorrow, at 4 PM.
As Kalani celebrated his new job, there was a knocking upon his door. She opened the door to find Cherry standing there, with her hood pulled all the way over her hair.
“Hey, ‘Lani.”
“Cherry! Come on in!”
Cherry took a step inside Kalani’s dorm, shutting the door behind them.
“So what brings you to my lovely abode?”
“Well..” Cherry hummed. “I need your help with something.”
Cherry pulled off the hood that was previously obscuring her hair. Instead of the long hair that Cherry had had her whole life, it was now shaved short, right below her ears. Kalani was shocked.
“Oh my goodness- You SHAVED YOUR HAIR?!”
“Yup! Surprise..!” Cherry grinned, doing jazz hands.
“It suits you so well, oh my god! Why didn’t you do this sooner?!”
“Well, I would’ve, but.. you know my family. Now that my mom’s officially cut me off for good, I think I can finally.. be myself.”
“That’s awesome!!”
“It is! & I know exactly what drastic decision I’m going to make next!”
Cherry pulls something out of their hoodie pocket. It’s a box of black hair dye.
“Oh, this is probably what you need my help with!”
“Precisely.” Cherry nodded. “You’ve dyed Leslie’s hair & Juni’s hair before. You’re the only person I trust with this, ‘Lani.”
“Well, Cherrypop! I won’t let you down!”
-
“Here we are!”
Nora was quite busy yesterday, so this was the earliest time in which she could show Sorrel where their next job would be. She parked her car as the two of them hopped out.
“Welcome.. to the home of those puppets who tried to kill us!”
Indeed, the two of them were standing outside of Alph’s Amazing Animatronics. Nora saw a job posting online for a door greeter, & while she wasn’t particularly interested in that type of job, it could be perfect for Sorrel.
“Wait- they tried to kill you?!”
“Long story. I’ll explain later. Let’s just get in & get you a job application.”
The two of them entered the shop, only to be greeted by none other than..
“..Sotry?”
“Oh.” the puppet snarled. “One of Juniper’s little friends.”
“I.. had no clue you worked here!”
“It’s.. a long story. I'm sure Juniper would love to explain it to you in detail.”
“Why would Juni-”
Before Nora could question him further, Juniper stepped out of the shop’s bathroom, with a mop in hand. The three of them stared at each other in shock.
“Juni??”
“..Nora! Sorrel! What a.. pleasure to see you here!”
“You never told us you got employed here of all places!”
“Listen- I was gonna tell you all eventually, but then all the Juno stuff started happening, &-”
“Are you two going to buy anything or not?” Sotry interrupted, turning his head to look at Nora & Sorrel.
“Oh! We’re here for a job application, actually!”
Sotry seemed quite upset at this news, but he got out an application anyway & handed it to Nora, who promptly handed it over to Sorrel.
“Wait, Sorrel’s gonna work here?”
“If they get hired, yeah.” Nora shrugged. “They've gotta move outta my dorm eventually.”
“Well, having a coworker who hasn't tried to stab me would be pretty cool.”
“Seriously, you two need to tell me that whole story.” Sorrel said, filling out the application. “You can't just say you almost got stabbed by a puppet & not elaborate on it.”
“Maybe one day.”
-
“Alright, Cherrypop! Take a look in the mirror!”
“Woah..”
After a couple hours of nonstop gossip & hair-dying, Cherry took their first glance in the mirror & got a proper look at their new, black hair. It was absolutely stunning. Cherry felt like a whole new person now.
“This is.. amazing, Kalani. Thank you.”
“Anytime!” Kalani grinned. “So what are you gonna do first as the all brand new Cherry?”
“Well..”
Before Cherry could get another thought out, her phone buzzed in her pocket.
“Well, I guess the first thing is checking my phone,” they chuckled, taking out their phone to check the notification. It was an email from the café she had applied at. Kalani peeped over Cherry’s shoulder as they read the email aloud.
“It is with great pleasure to announce that your application has been accepted, & you have officially been.. HIRED!! I GOT HIRED!”
“Woo!! Let's go, Cherry!! You get it, girl!”
“This is so exciting! But also so nervewracking- I've never had a job before!”
“You'll do great, Cherrypop! I’m sure of it!”
Cherry set her phone down on the kitchen counter, sighing. “Are you sure?”
“Of course! If you can fight off a horde of bananas & get the goddamn SUN & MOON back together, you can totally be a barista!”
“Well.. fighting bananas is way different from making coffee, ‘Lani.”
“Just imagine the coffee machine is like that Pim guy, & the coffee that comes out is the.. yeah, this metaphor doesn't sound as good as I thought it would.”
“Not a metaphor, since it uses ‘like’ or ‘as.’ You fucked up the simile.”
“Ah, you're right! But my point still stands, Cherry. You'll do fine. I believe in you.”
“..Thanks, Kalani.”
-
It was quite late in the afternoon now, & the whole group had now gathered at Arby’s, to eat some food & discuss a plan.
“Juno hasn’t been bugging you guys too much the past few days, has he?”
“I mean, it was kind of annoying when she broke down my door that one time, but other than that...”
“Juno broke down your door?!”
“Well, yes, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We need to find a way to freeze him.. somehow.”
“Oh!” Leslie perked up. “Kalani & I broke into The Auction House yesterday & we found out that the freezer in there still works!”
“You two broke into The Auction House?!”
“Well, I wasn’t gonna do it alone.” Kalani shrugged, taking a bite out of his food.
“Wait, this is good news, actually! If the freezer in The Auction House works, then we can use that to stop Juno!”
“True! But.. how do we get Juno into The Auction House?”
“Do you think he’d respond well to us asking if he’d like to be turned into a statue?”
“Proooobably not.”
As the group deliberated on what to do, Kalani was trying to come up with a plan in his mind. Juno was quite the threat; the Celestials made sure the group knew that. If none of them could come up with the perfect plan to stop Juno, then the entire multiverse as they knew it would fall apart.
She thought back to just last month, when The Auctioneer had tricked the group into getting into The Auction House’s freezer room. They had led the group on a scavenger hunt for it & everything. Kalani thought... maybe he could trick Juno the same way The Auctioneer had tricked him!
“Guys, I think I have an idea.”
“What’s up, ‘Lani?”
“What if we tricked Juno into getting into the freezer room?”
“..& how would we do that?”
“Let me explain.”
Kalani grabbed a napkin & pulled out a Sharpie, & started drawing something out on it.
“The idea is simple,” he said. “I will get Juno to come to The Auction House with me, under the impression that this is where we’ll get her to the Castle. Once I convince him to go into the freezer, Cherry - who will be hiding behind the freezer door - will shut the door & lock it, so Juno can’t get out.”
“What about the rest of us?”
“You three will be there for backup, in case Juno tries anything.”
“Sounds good to me!”
“Yeah, I’m down for this.”
“Quick question,” Leslie perked up. “When are we doing this?”
“Oh, uh..” Kalani hummed. “Let’s say.. tomorrow? Not tomorrow, I have work tomorrow... Sunday?”
“What’s up?”
“Not you, Nora. I meant the day.”
“Oh! Yeah, I’m free on Sunday!”
Everyone appeared to be in agreement, so they decided Sunday would be the day. Until then, the group would just have to finish their meal & make it through Saturday.
They could do that, right?
-
“& how are the heroes doing?”
Sun, along with Good & Evil, sat in Time’s throne room. It had been a few days since Good & Evil had delivered those letters to the heroes, & Sun was quite curious as to what they had been up to.
“Fate has informed me that the heroes have devised a plan.”
“Oh, goodie!” Good & Evil both cheered, in sync with each other.
“That is good news indeed, but..” Sun hummed. “Whatever they have planned, I truly hope they can enact it soon. The stress of Juno possibly coming back is really affecting Mr. Moon & I, & I can tell it’s taking its toll on you as well, Time.”
“Fate seems to have confidence in the heroes. It's almost as if she knows they’ll succeed.”
“The heroes haven't failed us yet!” Evil perked up.
“Yeah! You should've seen when Kindness used their scythe to get that device out of the banana’s hands!”
“Oh, that was so cool!”
“I know!”
Time cleared xyr throat, pausing Good & Evil’s conversation. “I've seen the heroes in action. I've watched them with Fate, after all. They have ended up quite strong, but.. Juno is a special case. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to do it.”
“We’ve all got our doubts surrounding the situation, Time, but if Fate is sure that everything will be fine, then it’ll be fine!” Sun reassured Time.
“Fate was also the one who let Juno into the castle 2000 years ago, & we all know how that ended.”
“Well, it’s not like Fate could’ve predicted Juno shooting Sun! Who knows how he even got that gun in the castle to begin with!”
“I’ll bet you 20 human currencies that she snuck it in under her toga-”
“Will both of you stop that?!” Time raised its voice, glaring at Good & Evil.
“Eep!”
Good & Evil both shut their mouths as Time sighed, looking wistfully out of the open wall in their room. “I’m just worried.. Humans are imperfect creatures, Sun, & we both know that first-hand. They’re going to mess up somehow & then Juno’s going to-”
“Time. Listen to me.”
Sun took a hold of Time’s hand, looking into xyr eyes. “It’ll be fine. I promise. Bit ironic how I’m the one telling you that, huh?”
“It’s.. very ironic, yes.”
“It is! But.. if your worries do get the best of you, & you feel the need to go to Earth, then-”
“I.. am not going to Earth. I can’t go to Earth. That’s against the rules.”
“We went to Earth!” Good & Evil said, in unison.
“Well, you two have an exception, because Fate specifically told you to go to Earth. I cannot go to Earth, for that is a direct violation of the rules Fate has set, & I am not one to disobey my girlfriend.”
“You would not believe how worried I was at first when I found out Spring & Storm had gone to Earth,” Sun started. “especially considering, you know... but everything turned out fine! The heroes found them, kept them safe, &.. you know the rest of this story, I’m sure. The point is, if Spring & Storm haven’t gotten in trouble with Fate for going to Earth, then neither will you!”
Time sighed, taking this in & thinking about it. Sun made a very good point there, about how Spring & Storm had not been punished for their escapade down to Earth. Mr. Moon had reprimanded them after everything was over with, but that was it.
“...Fate said the heroes were enacting their plan two days from now.” Time looked back at Sun.
CHAPTER 27 - ERRANDS, CHORES, & OTHER VARIOUS JOBS
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“But you said you were gonna take me back to the Castle today!”
“I know, but I’m busy today..”
To Juniper’s surprise, Alph had gotten back to them relatively quickly, & they had gotten the job. Juniper felt lucky, since most employers don’t really hire that quickly. Maybe it was because Juniper & Alph already knew each other, from the theater incident. Either way, Juniper was grateful for it.
“Maybe one of the others can get you there.” Juniper said, putting on xyr shoes.
“Ughhh,” Juno groaned. “I guess so.”
“I’m sorry, bud.”
Juno huffed. Juniper could tell she was upset, especially since voi said voi would take her to the Castle yesterday. It sucked to not be able to fulfill Juno’s request, but Juno was lying. Juniper hoped he didn't suspect anything.
“See ya later.” xae said, grabbing xaer backpack. “Tomorrow. I promise.”
“You said that yesterday!”
Ignoring Juno, Juniper made pheir way out of the dorm room & out to the bus stop. She still hadn't told the rest of the group about the job at the puppet shop yet. The whole Juno business was more important than that.
The bus drove up to the stop. Juniper hopped on the bus & sat in a random empty spot. As they got comfortable, the bus started driving again.
Juniper popped in aer earbuds & put on the music to make the ride go faster. It wasn't anything much, just Missed the Friction by sElf.
Vae sighed, looking out of the window. Kalani had stopped by the day before to give xym a letter, supposedly from the Celestials. The letter referred to them as “Flexibility,” which they were choosing to ignore, but the letter also mentioned that Juno planned on destroying the Sands of Time.
What were the Sands of Time? Why were they so important? The letter said that the Sands of Time being destroyed caused a danger to everybody, but why? Juniper was desperate for answers.
The bus rolled to a stop. Juniper looked up, noticing ey were at eir stop.
Thanking the bus driver, Juniper hopped off the bus & walked the rest of the way to work. As previously mentioned, it was a janitorial job. All Juniper had to do was clean. That was easy! Ze could do that! The prospect of Sotry being one of vivs coworkers was.. not very exciting, but Juniper was sure vivs first day would go fine.
-
Picking up trash in the park wasn't necessarily Nora or Kalani’s first choice, but someone’s gotta do it. Besides, they needed something to keep them busy, & it was on the schedule Cherry sent in the group chat.
“So is Sorrel getting a job too?”
“Uh.. maybe? I’d have to ask.”
“They should. It’d help out a lot, especially if they're gonna be living with you for a while.”
Nora picked up a few candy wrappers with her trash grabber. “I know they had a part-time job back in Cali, but they probably had to quit to move back here.”
“That makes sense.” Kalani shrugged, using her trash picker to grab an empty, crushed soda can.
“By the way, that letter we got.. it said something about having to freeze Juno, right?”
“That.. is correct. If the Auction House isn't completely destroyed, I was thinking we could do it there.”
“God, the Auction House. Almost forgot that place existed. Who let that building stay up for as long as it did?”
“Beats me. Guess the Cincinnati government didn't care about the human freezer in the Auction House.”
Nora & Kalani put the trash in their respective trash bags as a small gust of wind whooshed by them.
“So if we’re using the Auction House’s freezer.. how are we gonna get Juno in there?”
“I.. actually don't know. We should plan this out sometime.”
“Well, we better plan it out soon then! How about Friday, at Arby’s?”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll text the others once I get the chance.”
-
Dog-walking wasn’t that bad. It was actually quite good for keeping Cherry’s stamina up. What sucked about it is the fact that these dogs had a specific path for their walks.
Leashes in one hand, map in the other.. not the most effective way to walk a dog, but Cherry needed the cash. She took a right turn down the sidewalk, making sure the dogs didn't start straying from the path. Who knew dog-walking could be so exhausting?
Cherry had no music to listen to during their walk, so the best they could get right now was their thoughts. These thoughts currently drifted toward her mother.
The way most people would describe Sienna Russell was influential, powerful, & modest. Cherry would describe her as a giant pain in the ass. As the eldest child, Cherry was always expected to be a role model, to be the example. Also as the eldest child, her mother critiqued every single thing about Cherry.
It was always “Your dress isn't long enough,” or “Don’t wear your hair down,” or “You should wear more makeup.” Things of that nature. Cherry just wanted to wear what she wanted, & do what she wanted, with no snarky remarks from her mother.
When college finally came around, Cherry thought that this would give her the freedom she had been craving all her life. Even though her mother expected her to wear dresses & act all high & mighty at college, Cherry knew they could get away with not doing it. It wasn't like she’d find out or anything.
Except, she did, when Poppy & Carmine told her mother about the mall. For the past few years, Cherry had been coasting off of the rent payments & occasional checks from their mother, but now.. that was gone.
In a sense, that also meant Cherry's mom was gone from her life as well. If her kid isn’t going to uphold the family standards, then why bother?
This gave Cherry an idea. She knew exactly what she was going to do once she returned back to her dorm room.
-
“So what's it like to work at Dollar General?”
Leslie stood next to the Dollar General register, talking to none other than Natalie. Since Leslie had applied for a job at Dollar General, Natalie seemed like a safe bet to talk about what it's like there.
“Ah.. it sucks? It’s just like any other job, really.” Natalie shrugged. “I'm usually on register duty, so I get the worst of it. Stocking items is alright though.”
“I see, I see..” Leslie hummed, writing down notes in a tiny notepad.
“I don't plan on working at Dollar General forever, so.. don't get used to it?”
“Alright.. I can do that.”
“My real dream is to be a big Twitch streamer!” Natalie proclaimed. “Unfortunately.. that doesn't quite pay the bills just yet.”
“Oh!”
Leslie seemed quite surprised by this. This was the first time Natalie had ever mentioned livestreaming.
“This is news to me! You stream on Twitch?” it asked, interested.
“Well- Occasionally, yes,” Natalie replied, fidgeting with her hands. “I'm not that big. I've only got, like, 20 concurrent viewers.”
“20’s pretty good! I’m sure you'll get there eventually! Just keep at it!”
Natalie smiled, her face blushing light red at Leslie's comment.
“..Thanks, Les.”
-
“So, how’re you likin’ the job so far?”
“Oh, it’s great!”
Juniper was currently on his lunch break, & so he was eating a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. Alph decided to join phem with an Italian sandwich of his own. Work had actually been quite nice so far, if Juniper just ignored Sotry glaring at aem the whole time.
Speaking of Sotry, Juniper was curious as to how he even ended up working at the puppet shop after the incident at the theater.
“So, ah..” Juniper started, taking a bite out of purrs sandwich. “If I may ask, how.. did Sotry end up working here?”
“Oh, funny you mention that! That's the first time anyone's ever asked!”
“Really?”
“Yeah!” Alph nodded. “You remember that little ‘president of the world’ schtick Sotry tried ‘ta pull, right?”
“How could I forget? He tried to stab me.”
“Well, I had a talkin’ with him that night, after all that stuff at the theater happened. As it turns out, I had indeed accidentally given ‘im sentience! Can't believe it took me months to figure that out, heh. Anyways, after chattin’ with him for a little while ‘bout some things, we decided to come up with a little proposition. As long as he doesn't try anything like what he did at the theater again, he can work at the shop!”
Juniper nodded along, paying attention to every word Alph was telling him.
“& what happened to the other puppets?” Juniper asked, taking another bite out of dews sandwich.
“I.. haven’t quite figured out what to do with ‘em yet.” Alph shrugged. “They’re currently sittin’ in the back, turned off completely. I was considerin’ making them employees too, but.. they’re not like Sotry.”
Not like Sotry? What did Alph mean by that? Juniper remembered something Sotry had said during their battle at the theater, about him programming “false sentience” into the other 4 puppets. Maybe that was it.
Or maybe, it was because Sotry was supposed to be the star of the show. It was both Alph & Sotry’s intention for Sotry to rise to fame, even if their methods.. differed. Even if Sotry tried to take over the world, it was still Alph’s creation. She probably cares a lot about Sotry if she was willing to keep him around.
An alarm on Alph's phone rang as Juniper took the last bite out of zyr sandwich.
“Oh! Break time’s over!” Alph said, finishing off his sandwich. “Back to work we go!”
“Yup.. back to work indeed.”
-
It was a bright new day for Nora. Thursday the 23rd, around 6 days until rent was due. She had applied to a few different places, but none of them had gotten back to her yet, which was unfortunate.
She didn't let it get to her, though! Nora was confident she’d get the money needed in time, especially with Sorrel around.
Speaking of Sorrel, they had attempted to make pancakes this morning. The pancakes were a tad bit overcooked, & there was a little bit too much egg in them, but it was the thought that counted.
“Thanks for the pancakes,” she said, taking a bite of her food.
“Least I could do.” Sorrel shrugged, eating their own pancakes as well. “The job hunt can be hard. It took me forever to get that job back in Cali.”
“Yeah. & on the topic of jobs, you should try & get one too.”
Sorrel raised an eyebrow.
“Are you sure about that?”
“Of course! It'd help with rent, & if you're planning on moving out eventually, you'll need money for your own place.”
“Huh. I guess so.”
They took another bite out of their pancakes, thinking about Nora’s suggestion.
Nora continued to eat her own food as well, now thinking about why Sorrel was so apprehensive toward the idea of getting a new job. She knew their parents still didn't know about Sorrel dropping out. If Sorrel got a job somewhere their parents were likely to go, they’d be in hot water. So..
“I know exactly where you should get a job.”
-
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Of course!”
Kalani had brought Leslie along to break into the (now shut-down) Auction House. He wanted to see if that freezer was still in there, & if it still worked.
The door to the Auction House, along with its windows, was boarded up, due to its closure. The duo assumed it was gonna go up for sale soon, but the freezer that turns people into statues would probably have to be removed first.
“Well..” Leslie sighed. “Let’s get these boards down!”
Kalani & Leslie grasped onto the boards nailed over the entrance of the Auction House & started tearing at them with all of their might. No matter how much they pulled & tugged at the boards, they would not budge.
“Jeez, whoever put these boards up nailed ‘em pretty tight.”
“Yeah.. guess we’ve gotta do this the fast way.”
“Guess so. Let’s do it.”
As it turns out, Leslie & Kalani had vastly different visions for what “the fast way” was. Leslie tugged on their necklace & transformed into Hero Mode while Kalani was preparing to ram into the wooden boards.
“Kalani- Kalani, wait! What are you doing?!”
“Huh? I was gonna bust the boards down!”
“Why?! We can just use our weapons!”
“Oh. I didn’t think of that.”
Kalani transformed into Hero Mode as well, summoning her wand.
“Let’s do this!”
Using the wand, Kalani bursted a few magic shots into the wooden boards, making some holes. Leslie used its scythes to rip the boards off, allowing for an easy entrance.
They started heading into the Auction House, Kalani stepping inside first as Leslie followed. The place looked totally different from the last time they were here. The lights were all out, the only source of it being from the cracks in the boarded-up windows. Tables were knocked over, vases were shattered, & surprisingly, the door down to the basement was opened up.
“The basement door is open? Strange..”
“At least we don’t have to bust it open.”
“True.”
Walking carefully & being sure not to step or trip on anything, the duo made it down to the basement, which was not in any better shape than the upstairs. Unlike upstairs, the basement had no light source whatsoever, meaning Kalani & Leslie weren’t able to see anything.
“Don’t worry! This is easily solvable!”
Transforming out of Hero Mode, Kalani grabbed his phone from his pocket & turned on the flashlight. Now with a source of light, the duo could continue their expedition.
The hallway right after the stairs stretched in both directions, & Kalani couldn’t remember which way the freezer was, so she & Leslie started heading toward the right. The flashlight from Kalani’s phone illuminated the dark hallway just enough for the two of them to walk through it.
“Hey, ‘Lani?”
“‘Sup, Les?”
“Doesn’t this hallway feel... longer to you than it did before?”
“A little bit. Maybe this isn’t the right way..”
As the duo continued down the hall, they came across a room with a sign upon the door, which read “DO NOT ENTER (unless you’re Puck)” written on it in purple marker.
“..Puck? Who’s Puck?”
“Huh.. I’m not sure. Based on all the purple though... I’d be willing to guess that ‘Puck’ is The Auctioneer’s real name.”
“They have a real name?”
“I guess so? We won’t find out unless we get into this room.”
Kalani grabbed a hold of the doorknob & turned it open. To her surprise, the door was unlocked. Both of them stepped carefully into the room. Kalani shone the flashlight around to see what it was like inside of the room.
It was unnervingly neat, unlike the rest of the now-abandoned Auction House. Old, dusty pictures, photo albums, & even a diary were in this room. There was no lightswitch on the wall, but rather a pull-chain that hung below a ceiling light. Leslie pulled on the chain. The light flickered on for a few seconds, & then it powered off again.
“Ah, darn. Light doesn’t work.”
“Unfortunate.”
Due to the lack of a functional ceiling light, Kalani opted to just use his phone flashlight to look around.
“Hey, ‘Lani? Can you shine your light over here?” Leslie asked.
Kalani turned over to shine the light over at Leslie, & whatever they were holding. It was an old photo of 3 kids, none of which Leslie or Kalani immediately recognized.
One of them was a ginger kid, wearing a green dress & their curly hair was tied up in pigtails. The next was a kid with brown hair, wearing a blue tank top & a pink skirt. The final one was a kid with short, black hair, wearing a purple t-shirt with a star on it.
All three of them were posing in the photo, with the kid in the purple shirt in the middle. There were words written in childish handwriting on the photo in Sharpie. It read “Best Friends 4ever!”, & all of the kids had signed their names. Quinn, Brooklyn, &... Puck.
“Was this.. was this The Auctioneer when he was younger?”
“I think so..”
“So they used to be human, just like us..”
“Huh... do you remember what The Auctioneer said during our battle? He mentioned that he had been stuck in a freezer for about a year or so. Maybe that’s what made them all.. blue.”
Setting the old photo down, Leslie continued looking around the room with the help of Kalani’s flashlight shining the way. A lot of the items in this room consisted of photos similar to the one they had just looked at.
“Yo, Les! Check this out!”
Kalani had found a diary with a purple cover sitting upon a shelf, surrounded by various books & manuals on the art of auctioning.
“This must be their diary..!”
“Looks old.. like everything else in this room.”
He took the diary out of its place on the shelf & opened it up. The first entry was dated back to early 2019, & it went into great detail on how The Auctioneer ended up getting into auctioneering in the first place, how it was his life goal to own an auction house, & much more. Some of the entries after that talked mainly about how their days have been & some obscure auctioning facts.
“Kalani, I don't think we should be looking through this diary..”
“I mean, what are the chances they're gonna find out?”
“Probably low, but.. aren't we supposed to be looking for the freezer?”
“Oh, shit- The freezer! You're so right, Les!”
Kalani closed the diary shut. “He probably wouldn't mind if I took this to read in my free time, would he?”
“I'm sure he would mind if he ever found out, but.. there’s a reason they left it here.”
“Yeah. Let's go, uh, find that freezer now.”
-
Work was quite slow today.
Maybe nobody wanted to buy any puppets today, or maybe people were just busy. Either way, the shop was nearly empty, which left Juniper a lot of room to sweep & dust around. Ey had eir headphones on listening to music while cleaning, which ey were grateful for. Any other job probably wouldn't have allowed Juniper to listen to music on the clock.
As Juniper finished up sweeping the aisles, he took a look around & noticed that it was just him & Sotry inside the shop. Alph must've gone out to get some supplies, Juniper thought.
For the past day & a half Juniper had been working at the puppet shop so far, Sotry had been avoiding conversation with xym. Juniper was fine with that, considering their history together.
“Juniper.”
It was Sotry who had said that. Juniper could tell, even with their music on.
“What's up?” Juniper asked, taking zir headphones off.
“Come over here.”
“..why?”
“Just do it.”
Juniper was not about to argue with the puppet that nearly stabbed her, so she obliged & walked closer to the register.
“Alph has told me to apologize to you for the.. incident at the theater. Unfortunately for him, I am not very sorry, & will not be doing that.”
“Oh, ah-”
“If Alph asks, you tell her I apologized to you. Got it?”
“Uhh, yeah.. no, I’m not doing that.” Juniper shrugged.
Sotry didn't seem very surprised about Juniper’s denial.
“I should have expected this.” it groaned. “You're quite stubborn, after all.”
“That I am, my friend! But, like, seriously? Maybe stop lying to Alph.”
“Why should I?”
Juniper sighed. “Alph kept you around for a reason, Sotry. She cares about you, whether you like it or not. The least you could do is to stop hiding things from him.”
Sotry fell silent, pondering this. Before either of them could say much more, though, the door to the shop opened up as Alph returned with some new supplies in hand.
“Aw, look at you two gettin’ along!” Alph smiled. “Knew y'all would get to bein’ friends eventually!”
“Friends” is not the term that Juniper would have to currently describe zaer relationship with Sotry, & based on the conversation they just had, Sotry wouldn't use that term either.
Acquaintances seemed more befitting. They knew each other, sure, but they certainly were not friends. Juniper hoped that maybe one day, Sotry would stop being so sour.
Getting the job application from Sotry & filling it out took a little longer than expected. Juniper guessed Sotry didn’t want to be coworkers with aem either, which was fair.
After that, zae had to go to the store & pick up some food (Juno had a lot of fun in the shopping cart, it seemed). Then, fae went back over to Cherry’s dorm room to introduce everyone to Juno & the plan for tomorrow. The rest of the group just shrugged & agreed.
But now, finally, she was able to relax. As Juno got tucked into the couch, Juniper laid down in zheir bed, got all snuggled up under the covers, & conked out.
It was a restless sleep, though. In eir dreams, Juniper found emself face-to-face with the same shadow creature from before, when ey first got the necklace.
“Hero..” the creature’s voice echoed. “You must tread cautiously. Juno is not as he seems.”
Juniper tried to ask what the shadow meant by that, but nothing came out when zae tried to speak.
“Juno is a danger to us all.” the shadow creature continued. “Any mistake you make with her could lead to death, one way or another. Stay cautious. Don’t listen to a word he says.”
Before he knew it, Juniper was awake again. Phey turned to look at the time. It was only 5:46 in the morning. As voi took a few breaths, 2 questions came to mind.
Did the others have that dream, & is Juno really a threat?
A buzz from their phone answered one of those questions.
Leslie: did anybody else have that weird dream
Nora: i did!
Cherry: i did too.
Juniper: same here.
Kalani: yeah 👍
Cherry: what the hell was that even about.
Cherry: “juno is not as he seems” ???
Nora: the last time we all had a dream like that was when we got the necklaces in the first place
Nora: maybe this prophetic dream has a good point.
Cherry: but what are we supposed to do? all we know is that juno wants back in the castle.
Kalani: i think i might know what’s up ☝️
Kalani: remember what sun & mr. moon told us a couple days ago when we were at mercury ☀️🌒
Leslie: uhh. no :p
Kalani: they said if we met anyone named juno, we have to avoid him at all costs. juno was the person who shot sun. 🔫
Juniper: OH SHIT youre right
Juniper: THATS why the name juno felt so familiar to me
Cherry: ugh so now on top of trying to pay rent in time now we have to deal with the dude who shot sun
Leslie: what could juno want back in the castle for though?
Nora: presumably to shoot sun again
Juniper: well whatever her plan is we should probably stop it.
Cherry: but how do we stop him?
Juniper: i dunno! that’s what i’m asking!
Leslie: if we all meet up at my dorm we could probably brainstorm somethin
Leslie: plus i can make us breakfast :3
Kalani: well i can never say no to a leslie breakfast 🍳
Juniper sighed, getting out of bed. Of course ae would let a villain into aer apartment, knowing aer luck. She slipped on her slippers & made her way to Leslie’s dorm room. Whatever Juno had planned, the group was planning to stop it.
-
The group sat around on Leslie’s couch as it served them all some bacon & eggs. It was a little bit early for breakfast, but it’s better early than late.
“Mmmfh.. these are really good, Leslie!”
“Thanks!”
Leslie sat down with their own plate of bacon & eggs. Somehow, throughout everything the group has been through so far, Leslie always manages to keep a smile on its face.
“So! What’s the plan?” Leslie asked, only to be met with a resounding silence from everyone in the room.
“Yea, uh.. We’ve got nothing.”
“Nothing! We can work with that!”
“No, Les. Not really.”
Kalani tried to think of ideas. Juniper had said the day before that the group was going to get Juno to the Castle the next day, which doesn’t give the group a lot of time to plan anything.. unless?
“I know how to kill two birds with one stone!” Kalani announced.
“We’re killing birds?”
“It’s a metaphor. Anyways, how about we use our jobs as an excuse until we can come up with a better plan?”
“Our jobs that we.. don’t have yet?”
“Ah, yeah. Those jobs.”
“I’m sure we can find some odd-jobs to do around the city until we get hired!”
“Ooh, good thinking! Why didn’t any of us think of that earlier?”
So, the group planned all throughout breakfast. Pretend to have a job while they do chores around town, & (as per Nora’s suggestion) get in contact with one of the Celestials, since they likely know what Juno’s personality is like.
“Alrighty, I’ll have a schedule posted for all of us in the group chat by, uh.. soon.” Cherry said, stretching.
“Sounds good!”
-
Juno tossed & turned in his sleep. He was having that dream again. It was more of a memory, really, but Juno liked to pretend it’s a dream.
Despite this, the “dream” was extremely vivid in her mind. Juno could remember it like it was yesterday.
The fake court-like room that had been set up in the Castle penetrated Juno’s memory. The yellow & blue glowing podiums everyone stood at seemed duller than they had been in person. Juno had stood before Betty, Time, & Fate, & his job was to convince the three of them that he did not, in fact, kill Sun.
It was quite difficult to lie to the Celestial capable of seeing the future, though.
Before she could get a single word out, the Celestials standing before her stopped her from speaking, telling Juno that there was no use in defending herself. Everyone already knew Juno was the culprit.
Juno had no clue why Fate ever allowed him to live in the Castle in the first place, if she was able to predict Sun’s death, but what he did know is that he’d never forget the punishment provided to him.
“You have been sentenced to life on Earth for the rest of eternity.”
Those words.. Juno would never forget them. Especially not after she had gotten her revenge. He giggled to himself, knowing that these so-called heroes Fate had specifically appointed would be its downfall.
-
It was quite later in the day now, as the plan had been put into action. While everyone else was off doing gigs around Cincinnati, Kalani was going through the book to see if Juno was mentioned in it at all. She read & read, but to her disappointment, there wasn’t any information. Kalani suspected the book may have been on Earth long before Juno had shot Sun.
As he sighed & shut the book, Kalani heard a knocking on his door. Kalani got up to answer it.
“Hello! Delivery for Patience!”
Despite this person wearing a post officer uniform & holding an envelope, Kalani could tell this was not a post officer. It was two creatures trying to pull off the trenchcoat trick, but instead of a trenchcoat, it was a post officer uniform. Not to mention, this “delivery” seemed to not be for Kalani.
“Uh.. there’s nobody named ‘Patience’ living here.”
She could hear mumbling from the creature underneath, presumably talking to the creature on top.
“Evil, you dunce! The heroes don’t know about that yet!”
“Oops, my bad!”
The mention of heroes made Kalani think these were Celestials. Nobody else knew about the hero thing (except for Natalie & Sorrel).
“Um.. you guys can just come in if that’s easier.”
“Oh, thank Fate!” Evil sighed, “walking” inside of Kalani’s apartment. “I did not want to do that trick for another second.”
“It was your idea, Evil!”
“Oh, whatever, Good.”
As they came inside, the post officer uniform came off, revealing the two creatures in their entirety. One was pure black, with white eyes, & the other was the opposite. They looked to be around the same size in terms of height.
“Hi! I’m Good-”
“-& I’m Evil!”
Good appeared to be the pure black one, whilst Evil was the pure white one. They both offered a handshake to Kalani.
“The name’s Kalani. Nice meeting both of you.” she nodded, shaking both of their hands. “I assume you both are Celestials.”
“That would be correct!- Evil, what are you doing?!”
“Oh, just inspecting the long throne.”
The “long throne”, as Evil had called it, was Kalani’s couch.
“That’s.. not a throne.”
“It is now!” Evil proclaimed, sitting on the couch like royalty.
“Anyways,” Good continued, showing clear disdain for Evil’s actions. “We come bearing news from Fate herself!”
“Oh- Yes, yes! Very important news!”
“I.. assume that’s what the envelope is about.”
“Yup!”
Evil hands the envelope over to Kalani. It was a metallic yellow & gold gradient, & kind of felt like a sheet of metal.
She opened up the envelope & pulled out the letter inside. The paper had a nice texture to it, & the handwriting was quite elegant. Kalani began to read the letter.
“Dear Patience,
We all at the Castle of Celestials would like to inform you of the threat you’re about to assist. Juno is a known chaos-causer around the multiverse; she is not a Celestial. He was banished to Earth for eternity after the murder of Sun.
Juno plans on destroying the Sands of Time once she returns to the Castle. This poses an immense danger to everybody, including Juno himself. You & the other heroes must prevent this from happening.
Unfortunately, fending off Juno with your weapons will not suffice this time. A creature such as her must be permanently stopped. Frozen, if you will.
I’m sure you'll figure out what to do from here. Best of luck.
Sincerely, Fate.”
“We have letters for the others as well. You were just our first stop!”
“I see..” Kalani hummed, folding the letter up & setting it aside. “So why does this letter refer to me as Patience?”
“Oh, uhh..” Good & Evil glanced at each other, unsure of how to respond. “That’s just how Fate has always referred to you.”
“Fate.. refers to me as Patience?”
“Yea, it’s like this whole thing. Something about values, I think? Fate’s never told us why.”
“The other heroes also have names like that as well!”
“That’s intriguing.”
Good stretched a little bit, grabbing the hat of the post officer outfit & tossing it over to Evil.
“Well, we best get going now!” Good announced, picking up more of the post officer outfit from the ground. “Got a lotta mail to get through today!”
“Y’know, I could just deliver the letters myself.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah.” Kalani shrugged. “Just seems more convenient for everyone involved.”
“Well!” Evil grinned, hopping off of Kalani’s couch. “That’s quite kind of you!”
“Yes, indeed! We shall go inform Fate of the good news posthaste! Good day to you, Pati- eh, Kalani!”
As Good & Evil scampered out of the dorm room, Kalani sat down on his couch, sighing & thinking back on the letter. It had mentioned that Juno can only be defeated by being frozen. Kalani knew of only one place that could freeze people.
The group was huddled up in Cherry’s dorm room, listening to her every word. Cherry had called the group in for an emergency meeting. It was of the utmost importance.
“The 5 of us are all in immense danger.” she warned. “If we do not want to face our demise, we must act fast. We need...”
They all listened in suspense.
“..to get a job.”
Everyone gasped.
“A job?!”
“Yes, a job. We will be KICKED OUT OF THESE DORMS if we do not acquire one.”
“I thought your mom was paying for all of our rent.”
“Well, my sisters snitched on me. Remember the mall?”
“Ahh, yeah, I remember.”
“Exactly. Starting on March 1st, we will need to pay our own rent.” Cherry explained. “Today is the 20th. We have 9 days to get employed & get paid. The job hunt starts NOW.”
Cherry clapped their hands. As soon as she did so, everybody in the room immediately whipped out their phones, searching for places that were hiring in Cincinnati.
“That deli place on campus is hiring!”
“Ooh, you should apply!”
“I should!”
“If you get hired, be sure to give us discounts on the sushi, ok?”
Juniper was having quite a bit of trouble finding a place that he would be interested in. A lot of jobs in the area barely paid minimum wage, which wasn’t incredibly ideal when trying to raise $175 in 9 days.
As xae perused the job listings, there was one that caught xaer eye. It was a janitorial job, at a puppet store. Not just any puppet store, because Juniper recognized the name. It was Alph’s Amazing Animatronics.
Disregarding the obvious, the job actually seemed quite enticing. It paid well, & based on the description it appeared easy enough to do! However.. Juniper wasn’t so sure how well the others would take to working at the puppet shop.
“Yo, Juni! Found anything yet?”
“AH- Uh- Yes, actually! I have!”
“Oh, sweet! What is it?”
“I.. uh.. have to go there right now so I can’t tell you but I’ll tell you later when I get hired bye!!!” Juniper spoke, a little too fast & a little too nervously. Zhe quickly rushed out of the dorm room, to the surprise of everyone else.
“Wow, they’re in a hurry.”
“Must be a good job if she’s applying that fast.”
-
“Fate said what?”
“I know, it’s horrible... & right after Sun comes back, too.”
Sun & Mr. Moon sat in Time’s room. Time had called the two of them in there for a brief meeting, about something Fate had foresaw.
“I thought it would be best to inform you two as soon as possible, since you two were... the most affected by Juno’s actions.”
“Why would he be coming back, though? Why now?”
“..Fate didn’t say. Whether she knows why or not, that’s a different story, but.. she told me Juno wanted to destroy the Sands of Time.”
“Destroy the Sands of Time?! Does Juno know what damage she’ll cause?!”
“It does not matter if he knows or not. What matters is that we have to stop him before he does it... but how?”
Time sighed, sitting in xyr throne. Sun & Mr. Moon glanced at each other, knowing exactly how to stop Juno.
“We.. think we’ve got an idea, Time.”
-
Ding!
Juniper stepped into the puppet store. It looked relatively about the same as the last time, except there were more customers than before. Ze guessed that Sotry’s whole “president of the world” schtick gathered some interest in the shop.
With a spring in its step, Juniper walked up to the counter.
“Hi! I’d like to-”
Juniper got a good look at the person manning the register.
It was Sotry.
“Oh..! Um! Hey... Sotry!”
“..Juniper.”
“What.. brings you here?”
“I.. work here now.”
“Oh! Interesting!” Juniper grinned nervously, knowing fae were about to apply to a job where fae would have to be coworkers with the puppet who tried to kill faem.
“Anyways.. ah... do you have any-”
Ding!
A new person just entered the puppet store. Juniper & Sotry both turned around to see who it was.
“Hello, hello!”
The person who had entered the puppet store could barely be considered a person, in full honestly. It was around 4 feet tall, green, & had bright yellow eyes. It also wore a long toga-esque piece of fabric, which is unrelated to its creature-ness, but important to know.
“Welcome to Alph’s Amazing Animatronics.” Sotry said. “How may I help you today?”
“I was wondering if anyone here knew any prophesied heroes!”
Juniper froze.
“Ha..! Uh! Nope! No prophesied heroes here at all!” xix chuckled.
“Gee, really? That’s a shame!” the creature looked dejected, staring right at Juniper’s necklace. “I was really hoping for some prophesied heroes to help me out with something!”
The words “help me out with something” echoed in Juniper’s mind. Whatever problem this thing might be having, Juniper & aer friends might be able to help. Not to mention, this person’s inhuman look made Juniper think it was a Celestial.
Juniper glanced around for a moment. Was voi really about to turn down helping out a Celestial?
“I’ll be back in a minute, Sotry!”
-
“How’s the job hunt going for you so far, ‘Lani?”
“I just sent an application to the Walmart with the ballpit.”
“Ooh, exciting! I applied to Dollar General!”
Cherry, Nora, Leslie, & Kalani were still in Cherry’s dorm room, applying for jobs online.
“Why Dollar General? That’s oddly specific.”
“Well.. I just thought it’d be fun!”
“What’s so fun about Dollar General?”
“For starters, they have.. eggs!”
“..I see.”
“Well,” Cherry stretched her arms. “Let’s hope we all get calls back from the places we applied to.”
“Yeah. & speaking of applications, where did Juni run off to in such a hurry?”
“I wonder. We’ll have to ask later.”
“Or we could just text him?”
“Huh. I guess we could do that.”
Kalani takes out his phone & shoots a text over to Juniper, asking where ey went.
“That should do it!” she grinned. “Now, we wait.”
-
“You said your name was.. Juno?”
“Yup! That’s me, the one & only!”
Juniper & Juno stood in an alleyway next to the puppet shop. The name “Juno” sounded familiar to Juniper, but phey couldn’t quite place it. It’d probably come around to her eventually, but for now she decided to see what Juno needed help with.
“Alright.. & you said you needed help with something?”
“That is correct!” Juno grinned. “You see, I’m a Celestial, but I’ve somehow found myself on Earth! It’s been sooo long since I’ve seen all of the others, I bet they’re just missing me right now!”
“Man, I’m sure they are. I assume you want us to get you back to the Castle?”
“Precisely! We’d all appreciate it!”
Getting Juno back to the Castle seemed like an easy task for the group. Juniper was sure everyone else would be willing to help out! Before Juniper could agree to anything, though, xaer phone buzzed.
“Oh- Hold on, Juno.”
Taking out their phone, Juniper looked at the text they had just received. It was from Kalani, asking where ze went.
“Ooh! What’s that?” Juno asked, trying to get a peek at Juniper’s screen.
“Oh, this? It’s my phone.” he responded, typing up a response to Kalani. “It lets me talk to my friends even if we’re not next to each other.”
“A phone! Interesting!”
Sending the text, Juniper put faer phone back in faer pocket. Xe looked back at Juno, who was staring intently at xem. Juniper could tell she wanted to ask if they’d help her get back to the Castle of Celestials.
“There’s a few things I’ve gotta do today, but you can hang out with me until we get you back to the Castle.”
A grin grew on Juno’s face, his eyes quite literally lighting up.
“Oh, thank you!” Juno spun around in joy. “Thank you so so so soooo much!”
“It's the least we could do,” Juniper chuckled. “Hope you're able to be patient ‘til tomorrow, though!”
The group had devised a plan. They were to go back to Mercury, find Sun again, & get aem to follow the group over to where Mr. Moon, Spring, & Storm were. That’s where Mr. Moon would explain their side of the situation to Sun. Spring & Storm were there to support both Mr. Moon & Sun if need be.
“We’ll see you three in a little bit!” Leslie waved.
“Good luck out there!”
As the group started to make their way near Mercury’s surface, they spotted something - or someone - leaving its orbit.
“Wait, what the hell is that?” Nora asked, pointing toward the figure.
“It looks like..” Juniper squinted. “..Sun!”
“Sun?!”
“What are ae doing leaving Mercury?”
“I don’t know..”
“Well, what are we waiting for? Go talk to them!” Kalani lightly nudged Mr. Moon.
Spring & Storm flew up to Sun first. Nervous, Mr. Moon followed. As expected, Spring & Storm were the first to enter Sun’s gaze. Ae stopped in place, looking at the two girls.
“..Spring? Storm?”
“Hi, mom!”
Overflowing with pure happiness, Sun embraced Spring & Storm in a giant hug.
“Spring! Storm! Oh, how I missed you two so much!”
“We missed you too, mom!”
“Mwah! Mwah!” Sun kissed the two girls on the forehead. “Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve been able to do that!”
As Sun released the embrace, they spotted Mr. Moon floating toward them.
“Um... hi, Sun.” nov waved.
“..hi, Mr. Moon.” Sun glanced away, aer face turning red.
“I, um..-”
“I’m sorry..” Sun interrupted. “..for leaving all those years ago. I was young, & newly alive again, & angry & foolish &.. thinking about what the heroes told me earlier made me realize this.”
“Oh- Oh, my dear! You don’t need to apologize!”
“I must apologize! ‘Twas my fault, after all.”
“While we were partially to blame for it all, it was Juno’s actions that were the catalyst.”
The two Celestials both had tears running down their cheeks as they came in for an embrace.
“I’ll never forget you ever again, my love!”
Sun & Mr. Moon kissed for a moment. Their embrace ends, but they hold hands as they look at the group.
“Thank you, heroes, truly! Without you, I don’t think I ever would’ve seen my true love again!”
“Aw, it wasn’t all us. Spring & Storm played a pretty big part in it too.”
“Of course, of course! Spring & Storm helped a lot!”
“They’re absolutely wonderful, aren’t they?”
“They.. sure are!”
“Well,” Sun smiled, looking into Mr. Moon’s eyes. “I believe I should make my return to the Castle of Celestials now.”
“Yes, indeed! Time will certainly be surprised to see you return!”
The group smiled, slightly relieved by the fact that they didn’t have to fight anyone. Spring & Storm floated over to them, with a big grin on their faces.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou THANK you so so so much!” Spring said, shaking all of the groups’ hands with each “thank you” that came out of her mouth.
“We’re very glad we were able to help you!”
“You have no clue how much this means to us, heroes. We’re incredibly grateful.”
As Spring & Storm joined their parents to go back to the Castle of Celestials, the older Celestials looked at the heroes once more.
“Before we depart, we have one word of advice for you all. If you meet anybody by the name of Juno, avoid him at all costs, ok?”
“That sounds.. easy enough. We’ll make sure to do that!”
“Brilliant! Farewell, heroes!”
“Goodbye!”
The group waved off the Celestial family as they flew back to the Castle. As soon as they were nowhere in sight, the heroes took a sigh of relief.
“I am so glad that’s over with.”
“Me too. As fun as hanging out in space is, I am INCREDIBLY exhausted.”
“Hey, you could probably put this on your resume, Cherry!”
“I could, if employers would believe it.”
& so, our heroes chatted along the way back to Earth.
-
“Boring.. boring.. boring...”
Juno sat in an abandoned shed, flipping through various TV channels. Life on Earth had been quite boring for the past 2,200 years. The most exciting thing that’s happened to her in the past century was the invention of cable television.
He landed on the news channel, talking about something that had happened the day before.
“5 girls were seen fighting the puppets off. It is currently unknown if they were actors in the college play or not, as they seemed to leave shortly after the fight was over.” the news reporter read.
“Wait a minute..” Juno hummed. “I recognize those colors!”
Red, yellow, gray, green, & blue.. those were the colors of those heroes Fate mentioned back when Juno lived at the Castle of Celestials!
If the heroes were already fulfilling the prophecy, Juno could use them to his advantage to get back into the Castle of Celestials! But what would Juno do, once she was back? She hummed & hawed to herself for a moment.“THAT’S IT!” he declared, a stroke of genius overcoming her. “I’ll destroy the Sands of Time! That’s sure to cause some real chaos, even more than me shooting Sun!”
CHAPTER 23 - THE CASTLE OF CELESTIALS
[wattpad link]
---
“Welcome to the Castle of Celestials!”
The group stared in awe at the Castle of Celestials.
“Wow... this place looks beautiful.”
“Pretty boring once you’ve been living here for 3000 years. It’s just a big ol’ castle.”
“Just wait until you see the inside!!” Spring grinned, twirling over to the entrance of the Castle. The others followed suit, taking their first step into the Castle of Celestials.
It was like nothing they had ever seen before. The walls were glowing white & yellow & blue, their colors ever-shifting. It was almost ethereal, seeing something so bright & gorgeous in the depths of the galaxy.
“Holy shit. We don’t have anything like this on Earth.”
“Alright. You 5 have to be quiet when we go to Dad’s room. Fate would be so mad if she ever found out we brought humans to the castle.”
“I’m sure this ‘Fate’ would make an exception for the ‘heroes of the prophecy’, yeah?”
“Maybe. Just be quiet.”
The 7 of then were silent as they traversed the Castle of Celestials. The Castle seemed bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. It was absolutely awe-inspiring.
After a few minutes, the group found themselves outside of a room with the symbols of the sun & the moon painted upon the door. The heroes could only assume this is where Spring & Storm’s father resides.
Spring knocked on the door a couple of times, in a rhythmic manner.
A moment later, a voice cried out from inside the room, saying “Come in!”
Spring opened the door as she, Storm, & the heroes entered inside the room. The room was fairly large, with a bed in the distance. A few feet in front of the bed were 2 thrones: a yellow one with a sun symbol & a blue one with a moon symbol. The yellow throne was empty (as to be expected), but the blue throne had someone sitting in it.
From the looks of it, they appeared to be around the same height that Sun was. Their hair was blue, & curly just like Storm’s was. The skirt they wore went down to their ankles, sort of representing the water. Based on all of the moon imagery, the group assumed that this was Mr. Moon.
Wiping a tear off of novs face, nov looked up & saw Spring & Storm standing there. The stars in their eyes lit up instantly.
“Spring! Storm!”
Leaping out of their throne, Mr. Moon ran up & wrapped their kids in an embrace.
“Oh, how I missed you two so much! You had me so worried! I thought you’d never come back!” nov sobbed.
“Of course we’d come back! We’re not stupid!” Storm chuckled. “We did miss you, though.”
“Sorry for leaving, Dad..”
“You know leaving the Castle is against the rules.. but I’ll let it slide just this once.”
Releasing from the hug, Mr. Moon caught a glance of the group.
“Oh, & who might these people be?”
“Oh, these are the heroes!”
“The- the heroes?” Mr. Moon gasped.
“Yea, we uhh.. took care of your kids on Earth.” Cherry said.
Mr. Moon approached Cherry & shook their hand.
“Oh, I cannot thank you enough for keeping my children safe!”
“It’s the least we could do.”
“Anyways, uh.. your kids also wanted us to get you & your ex back together?”
“Oh..” Mr. Moon sighed. “I suppose that makes sense. It’s been 2,200 years since they’ve last seen Sun..”
“Yeah, maybe not telling us what happened to Mom until yesterday wasn’t your best move, Dad.”
“Yeah, my parents dealt with their divorce a lot better than that.”
“It’s just..”
Mr. Moon spun around & sat back in their throne.
“Usually it’s easy to forget someone when their presence isn’t there. But Sun... I could never forget aem now. Not after the mistake I had made. & I don’t think I’ll ever get a proper chance to apologize.”
The group glanced at each other, & then back at Mr. Moon.
“What.. caused the split, if I may ask?”
“Well..-” Mr. Moon choked back tears. “When a Celestial dies, they don’t die forever. It’s only for a certain number of years. Sun was dead for around.. 200 years, give or take. I had nearly forgotten about them when they returned, due to having to take care of Spring & Storm, & having to raise & set the sun for them each day.”
The group was listening very intently to Mr. Moon’s story.
“Sun was.. understandably very angry when ae learned ae fell out of my memory. I tried to make it up to them, but... but..”
“But they left to go live on Mercury for 2000 years, never to be seen again..?”
“..Precisely.”
Mr. Moon curled novs legs up to novs chest. “..& it’s all my fault.” nov sobbed.
Cherry scuffled over closer to the Celestial.
“Listen, dude..” Cherry started. “It’s not your fault. Well.. not entirely your fault, anyway. Sun shouldn’t have gotten mad at you for something that was out of your control, & you shouldn’t have waited 2,000 years to tell Spring & Storm.”
Mr. Moon nodded, for this was the truth.
“It’s not too late to reconcile with Sun, though!”
“But.. but they’re on Mercury! No other Celestial is able to withstand the temperatures there!”
“We’ll help you, then. Come on.”
Test flights out in the field went better than expected. The group got the hang of it pretty quickly, & the two Celestials seemed pleased with their fast progress.
“Alright!” Kalani flew over to Spring & Storm. “I think we’ve got this!”
“Perfect!” Spring said as she & Storm flew up as well. “We’re ready for our first stop: Mercury!”
“Wait- Mercury?”
The group wasn’t sure if they had heard her right.
“Oh, c’mon. We told you about this yesterday. Our mom’s on Mercury. You have to go there.”
“You think we can walk on Mercury’s surface? We’re humans!”
“We never said you’d be walking.”
“Ok. Fair.”
“I suppose we’ll just be flying across Mercury then?”
“Pretty much!”
“Well, I’m not gonna question the logistics of that. Let’s hit it!”
-
“Mr. Moon? Are you doing alright?”
Time poked xyr head through the door to Mr. Moon’s room. Mr. Moon lifted their head up from their arms, looking at Time with tears in their eyes.
“Oh, jeez. Worse than I thought.” Time sighed, walking into the room & sitting next to Mr. Moon. “Listen. Fate said Spring & Storm will return safely. It’ll be fine.”
“But- But it’s been a DAY! It’s been one whole day since they left!”
“It’s been 2000 years since Sun left. I’m sure they’re safe.”
“Well, I’ve gotten used to that!” Mr. Moon sobbed. “I just want my kids back, Time!”
Time took a breath, wrapping one of its arms around Mr. Moon.
“I might not know exactly how you feel right now, Mr. Moon, so I can’t entirely relate, nor can I go down to Earth & get them myself. All I can do is listen. Hopefully letting your emotions out will make you feel better.”
Sniffling, Mr. Moon leaned novs head against Time’s arm.
“Thank you, Time..”
-
“Here we are!! Mercury!”
The group was now floating right outside of Mercury’s surface. None of them were entirely sure how this was possible, considering they were human, but that was the least of their concerns currently.
“Wow. Mercury is a lot blander than I thought it’d be.”
“It’s Mercury. I don’t know what you expected.”
“So.. what’s the plan?”
“Well, none of us will be able to walk on the planet, due to how hot it is, which means you’re gonna have to fly.”
“Good thing we had flight practice this morning.”
“Hold on. You’re phrasing that like you’re not going with us.”
“We’re not. Well.. I should phrase that better. We can’t.”
“What? Why not?”
“We’re the youngest Celestials out there. We wouldn’t last out there.”
“But us humans can?”
“Well, you’re the heroes.. from the prophecy. I assume you can.”
“I mean, if we’re somehow able to breathe in space, I don’t see why we can’t survive Mercury.”
“Good luck, you 5!” Spring grinned, waving them off.
The group sighed, descending down to Mercury. The more they entered the planet’s atmosphere, the hotter it got. Mercury was typically known for being hot during the day, so this made sense to the group.
Hovering right above the surface, the group started their search, chatting along the way.
“Jesus fuck, it’s smoltering here.”
“I think the term is smoldering?”
“I said what I said.”
“Fair enough.”
“When our high school counselor asked us where we’d be in 5 years, I’d never have guessed that ‘being on Mercury’ would be a plausible answer.”
“Well, you know how it is.”
“Yeah.”
“..Do you think we should have asked what the person we’re looking for looks like?”
“That would have been a good idea. We should have done that.”
“C’mon. Who else is going to be on Mercury? Look at how BARREN this place is!”
“Yea, totally barren. Aside from the thing staring at us.”
“The huh?”
The group looked up ahead. A figure, far away, seemed to be looking right at them.
“I don’t see anything. It’s all blurry.”
“I mean, it is kinda dusty here.”
“Ok, but like.. that’s totally a person staring at us.”
“Maybe it’s who we’re supposed to be looking for! C’mon!”
“‘Lani, wait!”
Kalani flew ahead of the group, up to the figure. They were a lot taller up close (Kalani suspected they were around 10 feet tall), & it looked like their hair was made of fire. Their eyes were pure yellow, almost like they were glowing.
“Hello, ma’am &/or sir! Pleasure to meet you!”
The figure looked confused as the rest of the group caught up to Kalani.
“..What are you humans doing on Mercury?” they finally asked, after a minute. “You shouldn’t be able to survive here.”
“Uh.. magic?” Nora shrugged.
“Oh, c’mon. Magic can’t be our only explanation.”
“It kind of literally is the explanation though. Because of the necklaces.”
The figure raised an eyebrow. “Necklaces?”
“Oh, yea. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of the prophecy.”
“I have. 5 heroes will emerge one day, something something good & evil. It was all Fate would talk about back at the Castle.”
Something clicked in the groups’ heads. This is who they’re supposed to be looking for!
“Oh! You’re from the Castle of Celestials?”
“I- ..I was, yes.”
“Why don’t you live there anymore, if you don’t mind us asking?”
“Well..”
The Celestial clenched their fists.
“It’s.. a long story.”
“It’s fine. We’ve got all day.”
“You 5 are not going to sit here all day on Mercury waiting for me to tell my story.”
“We’ve waited longer during our trip to Texas. Can you believe how hot it gets there?”
“Of course. I’m the Sun, after all.”
Honesty, the group should have guessed that this was Sun. They literally have a symbol of a sun on their shirt.
“Well, from what we’ve been told, you’ve been here on Mercury for over 2000 years because of some.. Mr. Moon dude?”
Sun took a deep breath.
“Mr. Moon.. was my husband. After Juno shot me, I was dead, taking 200 years to recover. During this time, it seems that nov had forgotten about me.”
“Well, if I didn’t see my future husband, wife, or spouse for 200 years, I might forget about them too.”
“You humans don’t get it. You don’t just forget about someone you were in love with.”
“So.. what did you do?”
“We... we got into a fight, & eventually, I declared that I was going to Mercury. &.. here I am.”
“Do you think you’d.. ever go back to the Castle?”
“Not in a million years.” Sun crossed aer arms.
“What about your kids, though? Spring & Storm?”
Sun froze at the mention of Spring & Storm.
“I... I miss Spring & Storm, but..” Sun stammered, trying to think of something to say. “They probably don’t remember me either. If Mr. Moon can forget about me so easily, then my own kids wouldn’t remember me, either.”
“But they do remember you! That’s the whole reason why we’re here!”
“They- They do?”
“Spring & Storm specifically requested that we heroes get you & Mr. Moon back together.”
A couple of tears (made of lava?) started flowing down Sun’s face.
“They remember me! My kids remember me!” Sun sobbed as ae spun around in joy.
They came to a stop all of a sudden.
“But.. I don’t know if I want to return to the Castle.” they murmured. “As much as I love my kids, I.. can’t stand Mr. Moon. I can’t stand nova & novs glistening eyes, & novs beautiful smile, &-”
“Sounds to me like you’re still into them.” Cherry said.
“What? Of course not.”
“Nobody describes someone they hate like that.”
“Doesn’t Natalie describe Leslie like that all the time?”
“She does?”
“Listen, this isn’t about Natalie. The point is, I don’t think you hate Mr. Moon. It’s just been so long since you’ve last seen them, & the last memory you have of them is the fight. Maybe if you go & talk to nova again, you two will reconnect, or something. I don’t know.”
Sun sighed, taking what Cherry had just said in. Ae stepped away after a moment, aer hair & eyes starting to glow.
“You need to go.” they said.
“Wait, we do? Why?”
“Go. Now.”
Sensing that things could potentially get dangerous if they stayed, the group decided to heed Sun’s warning & leave. Before their departure, Nora told Sun to think about what Cherry had said before about Mr. Moon.
The trip out of Mercury was a lot faster than the trip into Mercury. Although, I suppose that’s how it is with most back-&-forth trips.
“Damn, that was crazy what you said back there, Cherrypop. It’s almost like you’re a real marriage counselor.”
“Well, you know how it is with psychology majors.”
As the group left Mercury’s atmosphere, they met back up with Spring & Storm, who were waiting there patiently for them.
“Hey! Welcome back!”
“Took you long enough. What happened down there?”
“Well.. we talked with Sun &.. I don’t think they’re entirely open to reuniting with Mr. Moon.”
“Aw.”
“Well, that just means we’ve gotta enact Plan B!”
“Plan B? What’s Plan B?”
“Brace yourselves, because we’re headed to the Castle of Celestials!”
Something was shaking at Nora, rudely interrupting her awesome dream about applying to become a chair.
Opening her eyes & rubbing them, she could kind of see now: it was Sorrel awakening her.
“What do you want?” she yawned, stretching her arms.
“There’s kids in our living room.”
“Huh..? What are you-”
As she sat up in bed, Nora remembered what had happened the day before. She had let Spring & Storm stay at her apartment for the night. Nora guessed she had completely forgotten to tell Sorrel before she went to bed.
“Oh! You mean Spring & Storm?” Nora asked, shoving the blanket off of her. “I offered to let them stay the night here before we got their parents back together. Don’t worry ‘bout it.”
“I thought you were a magical hero, not a marriage counselor.”
“It's a long story.”
“I’ve got time. Not like either of us have a job anyway.”
Hopping out of bed, Nora made her way to the kitchen as Sorrel followed. She made breakfast (pancakes!) while explaining yesterday’s events to them.
“So.. they’re like, gods or something?”
“I guess so, yeah.”
“& they want you to.. get their parents back together?”
“Pretty much.”
“I hope you’re gettin’ paid for this. Rent’s due soon, yea?”
“Yea, but Cherry’s mom usually handles our rent for us.”
“That’s.. nice of her.”
“Yup. Not sure how much longer that’ll last, though.” Nora chuckled, flipping the last of the pancakes onto the plate. “Do you know if Spring & Storm are awake yet?”
“When I walked in, they were fast asleep on the couch. Probably still are.”
“Alright. You think you could carry a few of these plates for me?”
“Sure.”
Nora & Sorrel each grabbed 2 plates each as they walked over to the couch, where Spring & Storm were. She had given them pillows & blankets to sleep with, along with some old clothes Nora had lying around for pajamas. She didn’t want them sleeping in jeans, after all. Spring was still asleep, but Nora could see Storm was waking up a bit.
“Hey, Storm.”
“..g’mornin.”
“I made breakfast,” Nora smiled, sitting the two plates of pancakes on the coffee table. “Thought you might be hungry.”
“Oh, um.. thanks.”
Storm sat up & took one of the plates off of the coffee table. She grabbed the fork & cut off a small bite out of the pancake, eating it.
“Mm.. this is good.”
“Thank you! I’m glad you like them so much!”
Taking another bite out of her pancakes, Storm took a glance at her sister, who was still sleeping soundly.
“Classic Spring. She always sleeps in at the Castle.”
“I tend to sleep in a lot as well,” Nora chuckled, taking one of the plates from Sorrel’s hands & sitting down in the recliner. “I’ve missed a lot of classes this semester because of it.”
Sorrel, not wanting to attract the attention of Spring & Storm, went to go eat their pancakes in a separate room.
“Anyways..” Nora hummed. “We’re supposed to get your parents together again today, yea?”
“Yup.” Storm nodded. “We’ll have to go up into space to go it. I suppose you haven’t been there yet, yea?”
“Yea, no. We’ve never been to space. I’m not even sure how we’re supposed to get there.”
“Well, you have the book. I’m sure there’s definitely something in there about it. I haven’t read most of it myself, but.. y’know.”
“You haven’t read the book?”
“No. Only Fate & Betty were allowed to read it before sending it down to Earth.”
“Ah.. I see. Well, Kalani has the book, so I’ll have to text him about bringing it over here.”
Setting her pancakes aside, Nora took out her phone & sent a text to the group chat.
Nora: yo can u all meet up at my apartment
Nora: bring the book while ur at it kalani
“There we go!” Nora grinned. “It’s only 8 AM, they should be waking up soon anyway.”
The moment the words fell out of Nora’s mouth, she spotted Spring waking up.
“Good morning!” she yawned, stretching her arms out.
“Yo.”
“Good morning, Spring! I’ve made breakfast if you’re hungry.”
“Ooh,” Spring said, sitting up. “Those look good.”
“They are.”
The next 5 to 10 minutes consisted of the girls eating their breakfast & waiting for the others to show up. As Nora finished her pancakes, there was a knock at her door. She got up & answered it, & lo & behold: it was the rest of the group.
“G’mornin, y’all!” Nora smiled as her friends entered her apartment.
“Good morning!”
“Yea, good morning. Do we have to do this at 8 in the morning?”
“Hey, nobody said we were leaving right now.”
“..fair.”
As everyone got settled in, Kalani set the book down on the coffee table.
“One magical book, as per your request, madam.” Kalani said, winking at Nora.
“It’s an absolute pleasure,” Nora said, opening the book up. “Now let’s see.. what page are we supposed to go to?”
“I dunno. Just flip around until you find something relevant.”
“Alrighty.”
Nora flipped through some of the pages until she landed on a page titled “Flight”.
“This seems on-topic, I think.” Juniper hummed.
“Yea, let’s see what this says..” Nora said, leaning in to read what was written. “‘As heroes, you will need a way to get around quickly without hassle. This is why we have granted you with the power of flight.’”
“Ok, first of all, that’s sick as hell. Second of all, since when was flight considered not a hassle?”
“Flying would definitely help us get to class faster..”
“‘In order to fly, you will need to enter Hero Mode-’ Of course. ‘-& simply lift yourself up into the air.’”
“Sounds easy enough. Let’s try it.”
Pulling on their necklaces, the group transformed into Hero Mode.
“This’ll be fun to watch.” Storm chuckled.
“Alrighty!” Leslie grinned. “It says we just have to lift ourselves off of the ground, right?”
“Yup. That’s what it says.”
“So we’re supposed to jump?”
“Maybe? Are we allowed to jump in here?”
“I don’t think anyone lives below me. I’m sure it’s fine.”
Kalani jumped up. She landed right back onto the ground.
“It didn’t work.”
“Maybe I should have kept that pull-up bar my dad gave me when I was 9. That would be pretty helpful right about now.”
“Have you tried double-jumping?”
“Double-jumping isn’t real.”
“Yea, you’d be the one to know double-jumping isn’t real, wouldn’t you, Cherry?”
“Oh, whatever. It wasn’t that bad.”
“You literally tried to double-jump onto the school roof & ended up banging your face against the wall.”
“So? It could have ended worse.”
“How do you even attempt a double-jump in the first place?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not whatever Cherry did, that’s for sure.”
“Remember that one video of those dudes fighting & there was the one guy who jumped & hung there in the air for a solid 2 seconds?”
“How could I forget? That was fucking cool.”
“What if we tried to do that?”
“But how?”
“Maybe we just have to think about it! Like with the weapons!”
“Surely that’s not gonna-”
Leslie hopped up into the air. As a surprise to everyone (including Spring & Storm), it managed to stay in the air.
“Woah! I’m doing it!”
“Well. I stand corrected.”
“Nice job!” Spring grinned.
“Thank you!”
Leslie floated down to the ground, landing with a little trip in their step, but mostly calm. “Maybe we shouldn’t be flying in the apartment, though. Might be safer to try it outside.”
“Well, thankfully, outside is where we need to go next. So let’s do it.”
During the drive to the mall, Spring & Storm had explained to the group why exactly they were on Earth in the first place. Apparently, their father had told the girls about their mom running away to Mercury last night, when nov SHOULD have told them about it 2000 years ago. That was pretty much the gist of it, anywho. Now, Spring & Storm want to have a little fun on Earth before they deal with the divorce.
Cherry pulled her car into the parking lot. As everyone unbuckled their seatbelts, they hopped out of the car.
“Welcome.. to the mall.” Cherry said, gesturing at the mall. “Ta-dah.”
“Oooh! It’s so big!” Spring gasped, in awe of the mall.
“Man, I haven’t been to the mall in years!”
“We literally went last month.”
“Your point?”
“What are we waiting for?! Let’s get in there already!”
The 7 of them walked into the mall. It was massive inside, as most malls are. Shops & stores were lined across the walls, with an escalator leading up to a second floor, with presumably more stores. In front of the group was a map of the mall, labeling where all the stores & exits were.
“Alright, mall time!” Kalani cheered.
“Wait! Before we go anywhere,” Nora started. “It’s going to be impossible for all 7 of us to shop if we all have to stick together. I think we should form 2 separate groups.”
“There’s 7 of us, yea? These groups are gonna be uneven.”
“I for one approve of this group idea. Even if it’s uneven, it’ll be fun.”
“Ok, fine. We can do groups.”
& so, the group strategically split themselves into 2 groups. The first group was Leslie, Spring, & Juniper, while the second group was Cherry, Storm, Nora, & Kalani.
“Alright. Let’s agree to meet back at the food court in.. an hour? Is an hour good?”
“We can work with that.”
“Alrighty! See you in an hour!”
With that, the two groups went on their merry way.
“So!” Nora clapped her hands together. “What store are we hittin’ first?”
“I don’t actually know. We only went here because Leslie wanted to get a present for Natalie.”
“We could.. go to Dillard’s? Have you ever been to Dillard’s, Storm?”
“This is literally the first time I’ve ever left the Castle. I don’t know anything about your human locations.”
“Yea, that’s.. fair, actually.”
“I think you’d like it. C’mon!”
-
Leslie & Juniper found themselves inside of Old Navy. Juniper had asked where Spring wanted to go, & she spun around & pointed at the Old Navy. Leslie doubted it’d find anything Natalie would want in an Old Navy (it seemed like Spencer’s or Hot Topic would be more her style, anyway), but it could use a new pair of jeans anyway.
“Ooh! What’s that?” Spring asked, pointing toward a mannequin styling a blouse & a pair of leggings.
“Oh, that’s a mannequin!” Juniper said. “People use them to model clothes & all that sorta jazz.”
“That’s neat!” she hummed. “I didn’t know humans had different types of clothes.”
“You- You didn’t?” Leslie questioned.
“No. The only other human I’ve met is Betty, & she doesn’t talk about what Earth was like often.”
Betty.. that name sounded familiar. It was in the list of Celestials that Leslie & the group were reading just a week ago.
To avoid talking about Celestials in the middle of an Old Navy, the group decided to put the topic at rest & ask more about Betty later.
“Oh! These look cool!” Spring ran up to a pair of jeans with a flower embroidered on it.
“Oh, that is cool.” Juniper nodded. “If it’s in your size, you could probably get it. What size are you?”
Spring turned to look at Juniper.
“Oh. Yeah. I don’t think Celestials know what pant sizes are.”
“I mean, hey! If they’re too big or too small, we could probably get Natalie to fix ‘em up. She did make that villain costume herself, after all.”
“Well, I’ve never worn pants before, so this’ll be an exciting experience!” Spring grinned. “I’ll take ‘em!”
-
“So what, this place just sells.. foot gloves?”
“They’re called shoes.”
“Whatever.”
Cherry, Nora, Kalani, & Storm were in Dillard’s, a very widespread department store. The group typically didn’t go in here often, but it seemed like a general enough store for them to go to for now.
“I mean, Dillard’s sells more than just shoes. There’s bags, dresses, jewelry.. I think this is where I got my first skirt, actually!”
“Oh yea, this is where you got your first skirt! It was you & me & Sorrel, who had just gotten their driver’s license, & they took you here to shop around!”
“Why did you tag along again? I always forget.”
“I think I wanted to skip out on some event my mom wanted to take me to. I dunno.”
“Can we just shop?” Cherry crossed her arms.
“We are shopping! Look at all this shopping I’m doing!” Kalani grabbed a sweater off from the hanger it was on. “Look! Doesn’t this look cool?”
“That does look.. kind of cool, actually.” Storm said.
The sweater was dark blue, with a yellow thunderbolt design crocheted into it.
“Oh, yea. Thunderstorms are kind of your thing, huh?”
“Duh. Why do you think my name is Storm?”
“I mean, if you want the sweater, we can get it for you.”
“Really?”
“Of course!”
“Well, then.. I’ll take it.”
-
A feeling of dread & agony quickly washed over Leslie & Juniper when they saw what store they were headed to next. It was purple, bright, sparkly, & not a very good place to get your ears pierced (Leslie would know, from experience).
Claire’s.
Leslie was certain it wasn’t going to find anything here for Natalie’s birthday, & Juniper’s punky aesthetic clashed with the store’s vibrant colors. Nevertheless, this is where Spring wanted to go, & the two of them weren’t about to say no to a Celestial.
Spring was in awe of everything in the store. It kind of reminded Leslie of when they walked into Claire’s for the first time. They just desperately hoped Spring wouldn’t ask to get her ears pierced here.
“Ooh! Look at this!” Spring gasped, holding up a pendant with a little white daisy on it.
“Oh, that’s cute!” Juniper smiled. “I think that’d be perfect for you!”
“Really?!”
“Of course! C’mon, let’s go pay for it!”
As Juniper & Spring went up to the front counter, Leslie looked at all the necklaces that Claire’s had to offer. It wasn’t sure if Natalie would like these necklaces, let alone want a necklace at all. If they had known it was Natalie’s birthday beforehand, Leslie could have made cupcakes for her. They sighed, holding a pair of BFF Yin & Yang necklaces in their hand.
Yin & Yang are, to put it in simple terms, opposites that are interconnected. Did Leslie & Natalie really feel interconnected? Without delving too deep into it, the two of them could be considered opposites. Light & dark, passive & active... All sorts of things that are together in some way. Leslie’s only known Natalie for a month, but she’s always been intertwined in their heroic adventures. Helping out with the bananapocalypse (as Leslie liked to call it), fending off Pim & The Auctioneer, & even fighting the puppets on stage. Despite only having a squeaky hammer as a weapon, Natalie might as well be just a part of the group as anyone else.
Leslie grabbed the necklaces off from where they were hanging.
-
“So.. how do I look?”
Storm stepped out of the dressing room. Instead of the dress & hood the group had met her in, she now donned the sweater from earlier, along with some ripped jeans & fuzzy boots.
“Oh! You look so cute!”
“Fuckin’ awesome, girl.”
“Thank you!” Storm spun around a little bit. “This.. ‘sweeter’ thing is a lot softer than I had anticipated, but I do like it. A lot.”
“I’m glad you enjoy it! Clothes shopping can be so much fun sometimes. We really need to do this more often!”
“Oh yea, totally. It has almost been an hour though, so we should-”
Cherry paused, spotting 2 girls entering the store they were currently in.
“Oh no.”
“Huh? What’s up?” Nora asked.
“My sisters are here.” Cherry shuddered.
“Oh, Poppy & Carmine? We haven’t seen them in years!”
“Yea, for good reason. Those bitches always got on my case for breakin’ the rules.”
“Ohh, yea, now that I think about it, they were kind of dicks to all of us, huh?”
Poppy & Carmine turned around & spotted Cherry.
“Cherry!!” Carmine waved as the two of them walked toward the group.
Poppy & Carmine were dressed a lot more fancy than Cherry was. Carmine, the middle sister, wore a white tube top & red, baggy pants. Poppy, the youngest, wore a red dress with a white belt & an opal necklace around her neck. Along with that, Poppy also had a red headband keeping her hair behind her, & some fancy dangly earrings. If you put Cherry, Poppy, & Carmine in a line together, you wouldn’t be able to tell Cherry was even related to them.
Cherry groaned, stuffing their hands into their hoodie’s pockets. “Hey, Poppy. Hey, Carmine.”
“What a pleasant surprise running into you here!” Carmine grinned.
“Hey, what’s up with the necklace?” Poppy asked, pointing at the red tie necklace around Cherry’s neck. “You didn’t have that last time we saw you!”
“Jesus, you’re not even going to say hi?”
“Greetings are reserved for people who don’t wear lame old hoodies & necklaces shaped like ties.”
“Oh, whatever. You & Mom have always been on my case over what I wear.”
“Well, we are Russells.” Carmine said. “We’re expected to be the example.”
“Yea, & as the oldest out of all of us, you should know that the best, Cherry.” Poppy crossed her arms.
Cherry groaned. Nora & Kalani stepped back a little, Storm following along.
“Who cares about being the example or whatever?”
“You know Mom only pays for you & your friends’ rent because she thinks you’re out wearing dresses & being fancy instead of wearing trash like this, right?” Carmine raised an eyebrow.
“Of course I do.” Cherry lied.
“You have a standard to uphold, Cherry. We all do. So you better start upholding it.”
“WELL THIS HAS BEEN A GREAT MEETING BUT WE HAVE SOMEWHERE TO BE!” Kalani grinned, pushing Cherry out of the store as Nora & Storm followed. “YOU TWO HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY! SPARKLE ON!”
As soon as the group was out of range from Poppy & Carmine, Cherry sighed, sitting down at a table in the food court (which just so happened to be nearby).
“God, I fuckin’ hate my sisters.”
“Yea, they suck bad.”
“They’re probably gonna tell my Mom about this encounter & she’s gonna stop paying for our rent. I honestly considered going into Hero Mode just to fuckin’.. stab ‘em with my sword or something. I don’t know.”
“I don’t even think you’d need the sword, honestly. Haven’t you been working out? You could just beat ‘em up!”
“Yea! You’re right!”
“You are not going to beat up your sisters, Cherry.”
“Well, duh. But I wish I could.”
“Hey! Over here!”
The group looked up & saw Leslie, Juniper, & Spring from across the food court.
“Les! Juni!” Kalani waved.
The two groups ran over to each other.
“Did you all have fun?”
“Yea, it was awesome!”
“Storm, check out my new outfit!”
Instead of the yellow & orange dress Spring was wearing earlier, she now wore a yellow t-shirt with a pocket (a picture of a flower was on the pocket), some jeans with a flower embroidered into them, & flip-flops. A necklace with a white daisy on it was also around her neck.
The rest of the day went as well as it could. After the group had lunch at the food court, they went to the park, which Spring & Storm had enjoyed quite a bit. Then, they visited the museum for a bit & got some stuff at the gift shop.
By the time the group made it back to the dorm building, they were absolutely worn out.
Cherry parked their car as everyone unbuckled their seatbelts & hopped out.
“Jeez, it’s getting late.” Cherry yawned, looking up at the sunset. “We should be heading to bed soon.”
“What about us?” Storm asked.
“Yea, where are we gonna stay?”
“Oh, you two can stay in my apartment if you want!” Nora suggested.
“Really?”
“Of course, I’ve got plenty of room! Hope Sorrel doesn’t mind!”
“Wow.. you 5 truly are heroes.”
“I suppose we are!” Leslie chuckled.
“& tomorrow, you 5 are gonna get our parents back together!”
“Oh. I forgot about that. There goes my Saturday.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine!” Kalani said, a twinge of doubt in his voice. “Let’s just head to bed for now. G’night, everyone.”
“Goodnight!!”
The sound of thunder had awoken Cherry from her slumber. It was Friday, the day after the performance. Their body was a little sore from the Sotry battle, but they’d live.
Rubbing her eyes, Cherry reached for her phone & checked her notifications. There was a weather alert for rampant thunderstorms, & an university-wide email informing students that classes were cancelled. Cherry didn’t have any classes today anyway, so they didn’t care.
What she did care about, though, was the weather alert. It was the middle of February! It shouldn’t be storming, especially not in Ohio. Determined to get to the bottom of this, Cherry opened up the group chat to inform their friends about it. Unsurprisingly, the group chat was fairly active this morning.
Leslie: ya so nat’s birthday is today & i was thinking of getting her something :p
Nora: well what does she like
Leslie: ummm she likes cool bikes & punk stuff
Leslie: i think
Leslie: havent known her for very long
Juniper: didnt she try to steal the book from us
Kalani: yea she did do that didnt she 🤼♂️
Leslie: well YEA but
Leslie: shes nice. & pretty
Ignoring the current conversation going on, Cherry decided to hop in.
Cherry: yo.
Nora: oh hey
Leslie: gm cherry!
Kalani: wassup 🐎🤹♀️
Cherry: yall seen the weather.
Juniper: yea. storms. classes canceled
Nora: since when did you care abt the weather cherry
Cherry: since now apparently.
Cherry: i think this thunderstorm is a little sus if u ask me.
Kalani: lol sus 🟦
Cherry: oh whatever
Cherry: point is it shouldnt be storming in february.
Juniper: are you sayin theres
Juniper: like
Juniper: some kind of villain making the rain
Cherry: all im saying is that these villains tend to be back to back. pim & auctioneer were back to back, & we just fought that sotry dude last night.
Cherry: clealry there’s something going on.
Cherry: clearly*
Kalani: clealry
Nora: clealry
Leslie: clealry
Juniper: get their ass
Nora: anyways i thought you didnt care abt the hero stuff
Nora: you even said the outfits were dumb & stupid
Cherry: i think studying psychology is dumb & stupid too that doesnt mean im not a psychology major.
Cherry: also like theres a prophecy or whatever. :/
Kalani: i mean
Kalani: australia has storms in february 🌧⛱
Leslie: oh yeah true
Cherry: that’s entirely off topic. also we’re not even in australia.
Nora: if we WERE to be in australia though it would be perfectly fine for it to be raining
Juniper: february storms bring march flowers i guess
Cherry: we literally aren’t in australia. we’re in ohio.
Cherry: & i say we investigate this right now
Kalani: well classes are cancelled so we might as well 💥💥
Kalani: not like i have classes today anyway 🧦
Leslie: but i still have to get a birthday present for nat :0
Cherry: ok fine.
Cherry: we can go shopping afterwards at the mall.
Leslie: yippee :-D
Nora: alright i’ll meet u all downstairs
Sitting up, Cherry turned their phone off. “Alright..” she yawned. “Let’s do this.”
-
The sounds of rain hitting the ground seemed to be unavoidable. No matter which direction you went in this city, the rainfall wouldn’t let up. Storm sighed as thunder roared in the distance.
The young Celestial was sitting on her cloud, which was currently a dark gray. As her name would suggest, she has the ability to control the weather (or more particularly, the rain). It’s not necessarily controlled by her emotions, but sometimes that does happen, & right now is one of those such cases.
Yesterday was rough for her, especially considering what Mr. Moon had told her the night before. Storm’s mother, Sun, had been gone for 2000 years, & she had just learned last night that they were, in fact, alive & currently living on Mercury. It was a horrid feeling, having the knowledge that this had been kept a secret from Storm for over 2000 years. She still loved Mr. Moon, of course (nov was her father, after all), but she was mad at him right now. For good reason.
As the pitter-patter of the rain hit the grass in the field, another voice came approaching toward her.
“Storm?! Storm! There you are!”
“Spring?! What are you doing here?!”
It was Spring, Storm’s sister & best friend. She was a lot more cheerful than Storm was, & it clearly showed.
“If you’re going to Earth, I might as well too!”
“You’re not supposed to be here!”
“You’re not supposed to be here either!”
“..fair. You should get back to the Castle, though. Mr. Moon & the others are probably losing their minds right now.”
“Oh, don’t you worry! We’ll be fine!”
“But.. y’know..”
“I bet you Juno isn’t even around this area! Plus, this is our first time ever being on Earth. We should explore it some, at least!”
Storm sighed, her cloud getting slightly lighter in color.
“I guess you’re right.” she said. “Can we stay here for a bit longer, though?”
“Of course!” Spring smiled, sitting down on the grass. “I don’t mind at all! Keep the rain coming, girl!”
-
“Jesus Christ!”
The group, all bundled up in their rain gear, stepped outside of the apartment complex & was immediately blasted with the most amount of rain & wind they’d ever been met with.
“It’s like a thunderstorm out here!”
“Yea, clearly.”
“So, Cherrypop, how are we supposed to find the source of the rain in the first place?”
“What, do you expect me to think things through? You’re the smart one in this group, Nora.”
“You’re the psychology major! Don’t call me the smart one!”
“You’re majoring in medical engineering!”
While Cherry & Nora were having this discussion, Kalani had pulled out his phone & opened up the weather map.
“Look,” Kalani said, pointing toward the map. “The red is where the storm is the most intense, so that might be where the source is.”
“We’re not going to the part of the storm that’s the most intense.”
“It’s not like it’s a hurricane! We’ll be fine!”
“Alright, fine. Let’s go.”
The group piled into Cherry’s car as they started driving toward the red point on the map. Kalani sat in the passenger’s seat, keeping an eye on the weather map in case anything happened to change.
Despite the danger that comes with riding during a storm, it was actually quite nice. The sound of the rainfall hitting against the windows was relaxing.
“Has the map changed at all?” Cherry asked.
“Nope.” Kalani replied. “Still the same.”
“Alright.”
“Do you think we could turn on some music? It’s a bit quiet in here.”
“Sure, go ahead & connect your phone.”
Juniper whipped out faer phone & connected to the car via Bluetooth. Ae started playing aer playlist, which just so happened to have started with Spring & A Storm by Tally Hall.
“Huh. Fitting song.”
“It’s not spring. It’s still winter.”
“But there is a storm.”
“Whatever. Let’s just continue driving.”
-
“What do you mean Spring & Storm are gone?!”
Two Celestials, Mr. Moon & Time, stood in a room with two thrones, both labeled with the sun & the moon respectively. Mr. Moon sat in the moon throne as Time stood before nova.
“I- I don’t know! I told them about Sun & they left the castle! What if they get lost or hurt or-”
“Calm down, Mr. Moon.” Time put a hand on novs shoulder. “Tell me, do you know where they are now?”
Mr. Moon went silent.
“Mr. Moon. Tell me. Where did they go?”
“..Earth.”
“EARTH?! Why EARTH of all places?! Don’t they know Juno’s down there?! Why didn’t you try to stop them, Mr. Moon?!”
“I- I tried! They wouldn’t listen to me! I... I’m a horrible father, Time..”
“No, no you aren’t! You’ve done the best you can raising Spring & Storm for the past 2000 years alone. Besides, they’re just children. Children are known to act out.”
“But they ran away to EARTH, Time! That planet’s like a death trap!”
“Just breathe, Mr. Moon... they’ll be fine. I’m going to go tell Fate. Will you be fine on your own?”
Mr. Moon curled novs legs up to novs chest, hugging them ever-so slightly.
“Fate probably already knows. She knows everything, after all.”
“If she knows everything, she’ll know Spring & Storm will come back safely. I’ll be back, Mr. Moon. Just hang on tight.”
“..ok.”
-
Cherry parked her car in an empty parking lot, right next to a massive field.
“Are you sure this is the place?”
“That’s what the map says, so it’s gotta be.”
“In the field?”
“In the field.”
“At least it’s not a restaurant, or an auction house.”
“True. Let’s go.”
Unbuckling their seatbelts, the group hopped out of the car & started walking into the field. The rain fell heavy on them & the ground, lightning crackling in the distance.
“Maybe we should have brought umbrellas.”
“You think?”
“Honestly, with how hard this rain’s coming down, it probably would have broken the umbrellas.”
“If we stay out here any longer, it’s gonna break our bones.”
“That’d be fun to explain to a doctor. Like, ‘Hey, doc. Broke my arm. Yea, it was raining outside.’ Y’know?”
“The doctor wouldn’t believe you if you said that.”
“The doctor could take one step out in this field & believe me.”
“Hey, what’s that?”
Nora pointed over to something in the distance. It looked to be 2 kids, sitting & talking. One of them looked like they were on a cloud.
“Are those kids?”
“Looks like it.”
“What are they doing here in the middle of a thunderstorm?”
“How’s that one sitting on a cloud?”
“Hey, maybe they know why it’s raining!”
“They’re kids. What could they do?”
“Uh.. magic.”
“...yea, fair.”
Adjusting her raincoat, Cherry walked up to the two kids.
“Cherry, wait!”
The two kids appeared to both be girls, & they both had long, pointy ears as well. Not like that was much of a concern to Cherry. After all, if magic was real, then people with elf ears can be real too.
“You.” Cherry pointed at the girl sitting on the cloud. Both of them looked up at Cherry.
“What do you want?”
“Did you make this rain happen?”
“Maybe. What’s it to you?”
“Stop the rain. Now.”
“Make me.”
Sensing that a fight was about to break out, Leslie & the other girl quickly intervened, carefully pulling Cherry & the storm-cloud girl away from each other.
“Hey- Hey! Woah! Everyone calm down!”
“We don’t need a fight here, ok?”
“Well, maybe I wanna fight!” Cherry unzipped their coat, revealing their red tie necklace.
The two girls gasped.
“Wait! Is that one of the necklaces from the prophecy?!”
“You know about the prophecy?!”
“Of course we do! We are Celestials, after all!”
“Spring!! You can’t just tell people that!”
“But the necklace! They’re the heroes!”
“We don’t know if they all have necklaces!”
“We do all have necklaces, for the record.”
The other 4 unzipped their raincoats slightly, revealing their necklaces.
“Oh. I stand corrected, then.”
The girl that wasn’t on the cloud (her name was Spring, as the other one had said) reached her hand out for a handshake.
“It’s nice to meet you, heroes!”
“It’s.. nice to meet you, too.” Cherry said, hesitantly shaking her hand.
“I’m Spring, & that’s Storm!” Spring pointed at herself & then pointed at Storm.
“I’m Cherry. That’s Nora, Leslie, Juniper, & Kalani.” Cherry pointed at all of their friends in the order in which they said their names.
“Hey,” Kalani started. “If you two are Celestials, aren’t you supposed to be up in the castle?”
“Oh, you actually read that part of the book?”
“Of course we did.”
“Well, yea, we’re supposed to be in the castle, but.. well.. it’s a long story.” Spring hummed.
“We’ve got time. We should probably get out of the rain, though.”
“Yea, speaking of the rain, can you turn it off?”
The two Celestials glanced at each other, processing the question. After a moment, they turned back to look at Cherry.
“Only if you do something for us.”
“Alright. What is it?”
“We want to g-”
“We want to experience a day on Earth!”
“Spring!”
“What? It’s true!”
“I mean, yea, but I’d rather find a way to get our parents back together!”
The group looked at each other.
“I mean.. we could do both.”
“You can?!”
“We can?”
“Yea. Classes have already been cancelled today anyway, so.. we might as well!”
“Besides, we need to go to the mall to get Natalie a present anyway! This is a great opportunity to do that!”
Storm sighed. “Alright. One day on Earth. & then you’re getting our parents back together. Got it?”
“Hey, hold on a minute here!” Cherry said. “Do we look like marriage counselors to you?”
“I don’t know what a marriage counselor is, but I’m sure it couldn’t be that hard.” Spring shrugged
“Plus,” Storm twirled a strand of hair in her finger. “If you don’t do it, the rain stays.”
“Ughh. Fine.”
Storm snapped her fingers. All of a sudden, the rain was gone. It was a bright, sunny day now.“Alright!” Spring cheered. “It’s time for the best day on Earth ever!!”
The rest of the show went on without a hitch. No puppet attacks, no audio malfunctions, no accidents. As the group walked backstage to the sound of the audience cheering, Juniper stretched its arms.
“Whew! What a performance!” Juniper grinned.
“Yea, I see why y’all like doing this now.” Cherry chuckled. “Maybe I should get into acting.”
“We can’t have 3 theater kids in the group! 2 is more than enough!”
“We should probably take these costumes off, huh?”
“Yeah, probably. Let’s go do that.”
The group went on to the dressing room as Natalie sat on a block backstage, browsing her phone. Allie walked up & sat next to her.
“Is your arm feelin’ any better?” she asked.
“A little. Probably gonna be bruised by tomorrow morning,” Natalie chuckled.
“Well, you better rest up. Maybe skip class or something.”
“I’ll be fine. It’s not an animal bite, so risk of infection is low or something.”
“Alright, well, at least get a bandage on that or something. Looks bad.” Allie said, walking off.
The group comes back from the dressing room, in their normal clothes.
“Alright, I am starving!” Nora stretched her arms. “We should head by Arby’s or something.”
“Yea, absolutely. I could go for some curly fries.”
“Hold on,” Leslie said. “Before we go, I wanna do something.”
Leslie walked over to Natalie & sat by her.
“Hey, Nat.”
“Oh, uh, hey.”
“I just wanted to say, um.. thank you for fending off those puppets earlier. You were very brave to do that.”
“Well- They were gonna hurt you, &.. y’know, I can’t let my rival die. Y’know.”
“Yea, yea. Your ‘rival.’ If there’s, uh, anything I can do to help with the bite or anything else, I’m a text away. Alright?”
“..Alright.”
Leslie got up, waving at Natalie.
“Have a nice night!”
“You too.”
Reconvening with the group, Leslie did a little twirl. “Alright! Let’s go get some Arby’s!”
-
It was a quiet night in the puppet shop. There were barely any customers, especially at this time of night, so Alph was sweeping & cleaning the shop. He had the news up on the TV as well, so it wasn’t completely silent. As she swept, she took a glance up at the TV to see what was happening.
“A performance of Beauty & The Beast at the University of Cincinnati has been hijacked momentarily by 5 puppets. After a fight with an unknown actor, the puppets fled & their location is currently unknown. The following clip is a recording from the audience of the hijack happening.”
The clip started playing on the TV. A person stood onstage as 5 puppets climbed up onto the stage & started attacking the person. Alph recognized the puppets instantly.
“No- It can’t be..”
He continued watching the clip. Another actor ran out onto stage & started tussling with the puppets, pushing the green one off the stage. Alph could see his face clearly. It was Sotry.
“That’s not Sotry, is it?”
Dropping the broom, Alph quickly ran behind the counter & opened up the back room, flipping on the light.
The puppets were gone.
The only things in there were the usual, & a small stack of posters that Alph had never seen before, sitting on the work desk.
Alph grabbed one of the posters & ran.
-
The group was outside now, heading to Cherry’s car. It was quite dark out, but the street lamps were on, so they could see fairly well.
“Alright! Who’s ready for some Arby’s?!”
“Woohoo!!”
As they approached the car, they heard a voice yell at them.
“STOP RIGHT THERE!”
“Huh?”
The group spun around. Standing behind them was Sotry, along with 4 other puppets, which were red, yellow, blue, & gray respectively.
“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Cherry groaned. “What do you want?”
“You’ve torn down my posters, you’ve broken my arm, you five are actively ruining my campaign.”
“What, your campaign to be ‘president of the world?” Juniper asked. “That’s not a real thing!”
“Also, we didn’t break your arm.” Kalani said. “That was Natalie.”
“Regardless, the damage you’ve done to my reputation is outrageous-”
“All we’ve done is tear down your stupid posters-”
“SILENCE!” Sotry snapped. “I’m speaking!”
“Alright, alright, jeez.”
“Anyways, our revenge comes now. Puppets..” Sotry pointed at the group. “ATTACK!”
The puppets started charging toward the group.
“Oh shit.”
The group quickly pulled on their necklaces, transforming into Hero Mode. As they summoned in their weapons, Leslie paused.
“Wait, I thought we agreed to not fight them!”
“We said only to fight when absolutely necessary, & they’re literally about to maul us to death.”
“But someone made these puppets! We can’t just- Ow!”
The red puppet had ran up & hit Leslie in the face.
“Leslie!”
“Oh, so that’s how you wanna play it?” Sotry chuckled. “You don’t want to hurt us? That makes my job a lot easier then!”
“But someone must have built you, yea?” Kalani asked, fending off the blue puppet.
“Well, yes, but it’s none of your business.” Sotry said. “Alph was an idiot, accidentally programming sentience into me. He never would have seen this coming.”
“Alph.. isn’t that the guy who runs the puppet shop?”
“Precisely. & that’s all I’ll say on the matter.”
It seemed like Sotry wasn’t gonna speak for much longer, so all the group could do was fend off the other puppets.
Cherry, despite the couple of weeks she’s spent working out so far, still struggled with wielding her sword a bit. They could see some improvement, though, seeing as how they were successfully using their sword as a shield against the red puppet. Nora, Juniper, & Kalani, with their range-based weapons, could whip, jab, & blast at the puppets from a far-away distance. Leslie, meanwhile, was in hands-on combat (not literally, it was using its scythes) with the gray puppet.
The gray puppet went in for a punch. Panicking, Leslie flung (again, not literally) their scythes at the gray puppet, cutting off its arm & its head. Everyone turned to look over as the now-decapitated puppet collapsed onto the concrete.
“Oops.” Leslie mumbled.
“Oh, how disappointing.” Sotry rolled his eyes. “Wyndo was easily replaceable anyway. No need to mourn.”
“Wait,” Nora started, using her whip to fend back the yellow puppet. “You said Alph programmed sentience into you, right? Why?”
“Well, it was by accident, of course, but she did program sentience into me nonetheless.” Sotry said, blatantly ignoring his earlier statement about not speaking any further. “To Alph, I’m the star of the show. Shining & elegant. He wanted to make me perfect.. but Alph’s idea of perfect is different from mine.”
“& what exactly do you mean by that?” Cherry asked, using her sword to slice the oncoming red puppet in half.
“Alph’s goals for me & my goals for me are similar: dazzle the world with my performance. Our methods, however, differ. While Alph expects me to perform & sing & entertain, my plan is purely political.”
“You.. were supposed to be a performance puppet?” Juniper asked, using xaer spear to jab at the yellow puppet’s chest.
“That was my.. intended purpose, yes. In an attempt to perfect my code, Alph had accidentally made a grave mistake: giving me sentience.”
“& he just.. never bothered to fix it?”
“Of course not. I was smart enough to make sure Alph never found out. In the dark hours of the night is when I would work, teaching myself how to code so I could give the others a false sense of sentience. I’m the only true sentient one out of all these other scraps of wood. I gave them all false sentience to follow my every command.”
Everyone paused, even the puppets that weren’t fully destroyed, to look at Sotry.
“What are you all staring at me for?”
“You just admitted to, like, some of the most fucked up shit I’ve ever heard!”
“So? Not everything is all sunshine & flowers. Sometimes to get what you want, you have to use force.” Sotry snarled.
“Well.. that’s not very nice.” Leslie mumbled.
“Kindness isn’t always the answer to all your problems, pipsqueak. Now..” he said, grasping Juniper’s spear & yanking it out of buns hands.
“Hey!”
Sotry, despite his broken arm, lifted the spear up into the air, aiming it at Juniper. “You, Juniper, were the one who started tearing down my posters. You’re the reason this is all happening.”
“How do you know my- oh, yea. The cameras. Carry on.”
“You’re acting way too nonchalant for this, Juni-”
“MAY I FINISH?”
“Sorry, jeez.”
“Anyways.. if you & your little friends never started tearing down my posters, we would have left you alone. You just had to go & meddle around in business that wasn’t yours. Prepare to-”
“SOTRY!”
A familiar voice rang out in the parking lot. Sotry immediately froze as everyone glanced to see who was there.
It was Alph.
Alph stormed up to Sotry, holding a poster in her hand. Juniper & the others instantly recognized it. It was one of Sotry’s posters.
“What is the meaning of this, Sotry?” Alph asked, holding the poster up to Sotry’s face.
“Um.”
Instead of the bold & brash Sotry that the group had been dealing with, he seemed more.. timid, perhaps, now that Alph was here.
“Uhh..” Juniper said. “Your puppet is trying to become president of the world. Also he’s sentient.”
“Is that true?” Alph asked, looking straight at Sotry.
Dropping the spear in its hands, Sotry replied, “...yes.”
“We’re discussing this later.” Alph said. “Sotry, bring the other puppets back to the shop. Now.”
Without missing a beat, Sotry left, dragging the other puppets along with him.
Sighing with relief, Alph turned to face the group. “I’m so sorry y’all got wrapped up in that-”
“WE’RE SORRY FOR DESTROYING YOUR PUPPETS!” Leslie wailed.
“In our defense, they were trying to kill us.”
“They shouldn’t have been tryin’ to kill ya. Either way, it was all in self defense, & I can fix ‘em up!”
“Oh, ok! So you’re not mad at us!”
“No! Why would I be mad? Sotry’s the one in trouble here.” Alph chuckled. “Y’all did a good service today, preventing this ‘president of the world’ thing & all. I respect y’all for that.”
“It’s the least we could do. We are heroes, after all.”
Alph nodded. “Well, I’ll be on my way to give Sotry a stern talkin’ to. Hope to see y’all by the shop again!”
“Goodbye!!”
With that, Alph walked back to her car. The group sighed, tugging on their ties & transforming back into their normal clothes.
“Thank god that’s over with. A fight right after a theatrical performance? Really?”
“Yea! We should be getting paid for this, at least!”
“We gotta pay rent somehow. These so-called ‘Celestials’ should be giving us, like, a grand each.”
“Last time I saw, there wasn’t a finance Celestial.”
“Oh, whatever! Let’s just go get some Arby’s!”
“Woohoo!! Arby’s!”
-
“So you LIED to us?!”
Three Celestials stood in a room. One stood at around 10 feet tall, while the other 2 were around 5 feet. They seemed to be in the middle of an argument of some sort.
“I didn’t lie to you!” the tall one said. “I- I was just protecting you!”
“Protecting us from WHAT? The TRUTH?!” one of the shorter ones yelled back.
“Storm-”
“Our mom has been gone for over 2000 years & you only bothered to tell us where ae are NOW?! Why would you not tell us when ae LEFT?!”
“You have to understand, Storm, it was for your own good-”
“My own good? My own good?! You know what would be for my own good?! If ANYBODY had told us what happened to our mom after Juno shot them!”
“I’m sorry, Storm.. please, let me make up for it-”
“STAY BACK!”
The taller Celestial tried to approach Storm, but she pushed them away, making them stumble for a moment. She sighed, trying to hold back tears.
The clock ticked as Sotry & the other puppets stood outside the theater room. They were waiting for it to become 8 o’clock. That’s when their plan would be enacted. Sotry even thought about doing a little speech on-stage as well, maybe sway some people into rooting for him.
“..Sotry?”
“What.”
“What happens if we go out there & they’re not on stage?”
“Well, we wait until they are on stage then.”
“Alright.”
A moment of silence.
“What happens if Alph finds out?”
“He won’t. I’ve made sure of it.”
“But what if he does?”
Sotry sighs. “In the event that Alph does find out that we’re sentient & trying to take over the world, we will simply just dispose of her accordingly.”
The clock struck 8.
“Now, c’mon. It’s showtime.”
-
The play was going swimmingly. It was almost time for the intermission. All Leslie had to do was get through this scene & then they could take a small break.
It was the scene where Belle’s supposed to run out of the castle & get surrounded by wolves. The Beast is supposed to save her from the wolves & go back to the castle with her. A few ensemble members were dressed up as wolves backstage, ready for their cue.
Leslie could see the doors to the theater open up ahead, but they weren’t too concerned about it. It was probably just a late-comer. Leslie pretended to stop & catch its breath (as it said to do in the script). They looked ahead at the audience, spotting something strange.
Sotry, the puppet from the puppet shop (& the political posters), along with 4 other puppets following him, were approaching the stage at high speeds.
The puppets got up on stage. The gray puppet lunged at Leslie head-on. Quickly thinking, & following the script, Leslie grabbed a stick prop & used it to defend itself. Maybe if they treated the puppets like the wolves, they would just go away eventually.
As the puppets surrounded Leslie, it realized it was not going to be able to use this stick prop to hold them off for much longer. They would have to get into Hero Mode in front of the entire theater, &-
“RAAGH!”
Natalie, also following the script, ran out from off-stage & started fighting off the puppets. The puppets, who clearly were not expecting this, fought back. Sotry “bit” into Natalie’s arm, making her yelp in pain.
She pushed Sotry off the stage in an act of self-defense. Leslie could hear something break. Snarling, Natalie glared at the other puppets. They quickly ran out of the theater, Sotry trudging along with them.
Leslie couldn’t tell if it was acting or for real, but Natalie fell to the ground, clutching the arm that Sotry had bitten. They approached Natalie & helped her get back up on her feet, walking her backstage.
The lights in the theater faded on as the intermission began. Natalie sat down in a chair backstage, grasping her arm.
“Ok, what the fuck was that?” Natalie asked.
“Seconded,” Allie said. “I also want to know what those puppets were.”
The group stared at each other as the rest of the cast & crew stood there, confused. They were trying to think of how to explain what had just happened on-stage without revealing their hero identities or that Juniper had literally exposed when & where the show was taking place by accident.
“Well, y’see..” Juniper started. “You guys have seen those posters out & about, right?”
“You mean the ones with that green puppet guy? Yea.”
“I’ve seen ‘em too.”
“Yea, the group & I have taken it upon ourselves to.. uh.. tear those posters down. Because being president of the world is kind of bad. HOWEVER, it turns out that there are cameras above each poster, so the puppets have, like, recognized us, & kind of want us dead.”
“Wow, that’s fucked.”
“It is.”
Allie handed Natalie a small cup of water, turning to look at the group.
“Do y’all think you’ll be ok out there? I mean, if the puppets come back & all that-”
“We’ll be fine!” Juniper said. “We’ve been through worse.”
“Alright, well, the intermission ends in 10 minutes, so you take all the time you need to rest.” Allie said.
Ignoring the irony of that comment, Cherry turned to the others.
“Ok. You four. Back here.”
The group walked further backstage, so nobody could hear them talk.
“Alright,” Cherry sighed. “Those puppet things are fucking after us.”
“Clearly we did something to piss them off.”
“We ripped their posters apart. Of course they’re pissed at us.”
“How did they even find out we were here?” Leslie asked. “There’s no way they could have known.”
The other four froze. Juniper had told the group about xyr fuck-up in the car while Leslie was tearing down a poster outside, so Leslie had no idea!
“Well, uh..”
“Juni told them.”
“What?!”
“Hey! Don’t phrase it like that!”
“You did tell them, though.”
“By accident! Allie & I were talking about it next to one of the cameras!”
“Enough.” Cherry sighed. “The point is, those things want us DEAD. For what reason? I don’t know. Probably related to the posters. But if we’re going to enter Hero Mode, it has to be after the show, out of sight from anybody else.”
“Someone built those puppets, though! Why can’t we just.. avoid conflict?”
“Yea, because that’s what we need to do: not fight back when we’re getting mangled to death by a sentient puppet.”
“I mean, it worked in Undertale.”
“He’s right. It did work in Undertale.”
“This isn’t Undertale, though.”
“How about we come to a compromise? Only fight back if absolutely needed?”
“That works. Let’s just hope this doesn’t get on national television.”
-
“We flubbed it! We absolutely flubbed it! Now what are we gonna do?!”
The puppets stood outside the theater building, trying to think of what to do next. The other puppets were distressed, but Sotry just leaned against the wall. There wasn’t much he could do. That fall off of the stage did a number on him, dislocating his left arm & all that.
“Sotry, what are we gonna-”
“Shut up.”
“Huh?”
“Shut. Up.”
The other puppets shut their mouths.
“That beast that attacked me on stage ruined our whole plan. Best case scenario, we’re on national television.”
“That’s the best case scenario?”
“Can it, Islo,” Sotry bonked Islo in the head with its functional arm. “We must stay vigilant. & once the performance ends, we’ll give those kids a piece of our mind.”
