Discovery- V

This one is not my absolute favorite, but it's one of the best parts. It's also kinda cheesy but whatever :p. Enjoy!

Part 5- Metal

Chapter 30: Copycat 

We managed to get a small helicopter to take us to Russia. I can’t see how we were going to afford it, but I try not to ask questions when it comes to the money. I just hope for the best. We were ascending into the pale gray sky. Daniel was our pilot. The rest of the gang and I sat in the back of the helicopter and relaxed. Kaylee’s hand found mine and we gripped each other tight, like for dear life. We had both gone through a lot in the past couple months and we weren’t ready to let go. Misty was playing on her new phone while Christopher wrote furiously on a sketch pad. 

The weather outside started to get windier and windier as the pale gray clouds turned an ugly black color. Lightning bolts appeared all around us and the plane swerved to avoid the bad weather. We all sat up in our seats and waited to see if we had any other monsters after us. But we were wrong, it wasn’t a monster. It was worse.

We all scattered around the inside of the helicopter. I had no idea why though, fear was captivating us and we had no control. Misty crouched down and uttered a scream. A large white wisp entered our helicopter. Everything went black suddenly. When the lights came back on, we were still in flight. There was Misty, on the ground. Her head in her hands, but she was silent. I walked over to her and I heard a gasp coming from the other side of the plane, it was Misty. I was very confused. Christopher gasped and shrank back, whatever brought him to cowardice, I would not like to meet. But unfortunately, I already had. Misty- or other Misty, turned her head around at us and stared blankly. She looked exactly like Misty, but so did the other Misty. “Who are you?” I asked slowly. Then I stepped back in fear, for she spoke with me. She didn’t hesitate a second. How could she have known what I was going to say. 

Her face changed and suddenly she was me. I gasped and collapsed in the seat behind me. “Do not talk!” Christopher mouthed. The being tried to change into his face but changed into a completely different face all together. It was a young boy with brown hair and a strange gleam in his eyes. Before we could get a better look, he jumped in front of the being to block us from seeing the face. The face changed into Kaylee’s face and she jumped back in fright. “Stop it” She said, also to be copied by the being. Christopher took out his sketch pad and drew a small, shaky picture for us to see. It showed a wire connecting us to the being, feeding all of our information in our brains to it. I was confused but not upset. She wasn’t bringing any harm to us in any sort of way. I started to say my next words but they choked in my mouth. It was stealing our words from us. She spoke before I even could, in my voice.  “She isn’t bringing any harm to us, is she?” I stared back in shock, unable to say anything. “Get the mystical-” Misty was cut off by the being. She stared at us and cocked her head. “Weapon?” she said softly. Misty ran over to the being and tried to punch it. Her fist went straight through, Misty’s hand recoiled from it, her fist red and steaming. She screamed and fell over backwards, her wrist writhing and recoiling, bursting with blisters. I ran over to her in concern. She was crying with pain clutching her wrist. Her wrist was in an awkward position, this was NOT good. 

Christopher ran over to the being with the hammer. But something strange happened. The being formed a hammer made completely out of a checkered matter. When Christopher ran over to it with the hammer, he ran over to him with the dark copy of the hammer. Christopher backed off and set the hammer down carefully, the entity did likewise. Kaylee cowered under the seats of the helicopter. The being suddenly turned into Daniel’s face. Then I heard her voice, “You guys okay?” I gasped, then I heard Daniel saying: “You guys okay?” The being then turned into Christopher’s regular face. “Be very quiet.” They both said together. Then Christopher spoke on his own, without the being copying him. “I know who this is. It is very dangerous, make sure. DO NOT SAY ANYTHING!” I was about to ask him why it wasn’t copying him, but I thought better. Misty breathed heavily, still clutching her steaming wrist. 

A steaming white mist came out of Misty’s mouth and went into the beings head. Misty then started to look like an all white human being, her skin was paper white, literally. She was unrecognizable to any of us. The being then started to look more and more like Misty. Christopher gasped and then made a cross over his face with his nimble fingers. He then spoke softly: “I-I  v-volunteer.” He nodded his head, tears forming in his eyes. The being started to turn vica versa, Misty was saved. The being turned into a white mist and went into Christopher’s head. He still looked the same, his eyes rolled backwards and he started to steam with smoke. His neck tilted to the side suddenly. His skin started to change, his skin color turned a deadly white color. His eyes bugged out and he gave us a strange smile. The white’s of his eyes turned into checkered globs. He shook his head and I could faintly hear the rattle of nuts and bolts. What was happening to him?

His hands were shaking, he was in there somewhere. He slowly walked over to the helicopter door. He screamed, fighting back an invisible and deadly force. He opened the door to the helicopter and Kaylee tried to run over to him, but I stopped her. He looked at us and blew a kiss, he then dropped out of the helicopter, and into the cold ocean below. Kaylee screamed and started sobbing, Misty was still knocked out because of the excruciating pain in her wrist. Daniel was still unaware, for all I knew. And I, I was starting to tear up and I held Kaylee close.

Then a water splash echoed from below and a boy came up to the door. He had white skin and blue eyes. He had black hair and pearly white teeth. He winked at us. “Who are you?” I asked. I’m the regenerated version of Genie Of Golden Shackles. Who are you Nathaniel?” He then stopped and shook his head, I could still hear the distant rattle of nuts and bolts. He had killed himself and regenerated as a mixture between him and the copycat. As if reading my mind he spoke. “But I am in control now, just a little minor differences.” He had all the abilities of copycat but he was also Christopher, but he was pint-sized. Kaylee ran over to him and gave him a bear hug. From behind her he gestured with his thumb and gave me an approving look. He was Christopher alright, but he was a little insane now, at least more than usual. 

We were back on board, an almost to Russia. 

Chapter Thirty-One: An Enemy In Authority

We saw Russia from the window of the helicopter. Christopher and I sat next to each other. “So who was copycat from earlier?” Christopher leaned back and put his hand over his eyes. “No” He just said. I could tell it was a really touchy subject for him. Misty had her arm in a strange metal cast that Christopher had formed to stop the pain. She was resting now though. Kaylee was relaxing and I wasn’t sure if she was sleeping or not. I then saw something that made my heart stop.

There was a large megatron in Russia with a picture of a man I knew all too well. I translated with google translate on my iPhone (that I had found in the Temple of Fire) the board to make out: Your Governor, John Smith: Running for a Sustaining Position in Government against Boris Tracie. “John Smith: Your Man For The Job!” On the billboard showed a large man with pearly white teeth and long dreadlocks that reached to his waist. He was the man I hated most, and he was in the government!

He smiled at me in the billboard, almost as if he could really see me. I leaned over to Christopher and explained him the whole story about the man, and killing Kaylee’s family. He said he already knew, for some reason he knew the rest of the tale. How could he have known about this man?

I then showed him the billboard and he let out a gasp. “He’s in government?!” He said incredulously. I nodded; “There is something not right with that!” “We have to stop him.” Christopher began. “He will take over this whole dang city if we let him go for another term.” I nodded, “Then how come the city isn’t already destitute if he already had a term here?” Christopher touched his hands to his temples and his eyes glowed a sickly yellow. “He has found the power source for metal energy recently” Christopher recited carefully. “If he gets elected next term, he will use the metal energy to brainwash and use the people of Moscow for his personal benefit.” I gasped, “he can’t do that!” 

“The whole reason he ran for governor was to send people out to find you.” Christopher said. “Like the copycat?” At this Christopher shook his head, “That wasn’t working for anybody.” 

 Daniel landed the helicopter at an airport in Moscow. As we slowly walked to the exit, I could feel a couple of pairs of eyes on us. I did not like the feeling of being followed, the others didn’t seem to know who we are. A security guard stepped up to us. He cleared his throat and held up a piece of paper with my face on it. “Nathaniel Stone, you are under arrest!”

Misty immediately punched him square in the jaw, with her metal cast. The mans head twisted to the side in an awkward angle. He then put his head back the way it was. He was not human.

I then swiftly took out the sword and sent a wave of water towards him. He was immediately affected by the wave. His skin started to turn a coppery color and he fell to the ground in a tangled mess. “He was a metal man created by the metal source,” said Daniel. We ran out of the airport and hitched a taxi to the nearest motel. Inside of the taxi, the man turned around and pointed a rifle straight at my face. “You’re going to the police” He said. The cab was too small for me to use a wave against him, we’d all drown. Christopher punched him in the gut, it did nothing. Then Kaylee took a water bottle out of her bag and splashed the taxi driver. The taxi driver rusted and fell to the ground like the security guard earlier. “How can he understand us and we him?” I said to Christopher. “John Smith has already started controlling these people with the metal source. The few we’ve seen are already his slaves. He must of already wired something in everybody’s brain to make they’re language English here.” I nodded slowly, “His name isn’t John Smith, is it?” Christopher shook his head, “Nobody knows his real name. Most people who know him refer to him as The Puppeteer.”

“Okay.” Kaylee said, “we should probably get out of the taxi now.”

We exited the taxi and found ourselves fairly close to our location as Christopher says.  We walked carefully into a motel, getting strange looks as we purchased a room. Christopher had provided paper bags to cover our faces (which Kaylee was opposed to). 

We got to the dusty room and told the rest of the group about The Puppeteer running for government. “How do we stop him?” Daniel asked. Christopher reached in his bag slowly and we all waited in anticipation for what he had to show. Simply he brang out a chess board and we groaned, expecting the best. He took the chess pieces out and laid them on a simple chess board. 

“We” He said gesturing to the King “Are here. They” He said gesturing to the other king “are they’re. We send someone that they don’t know or have never seen.” He moved a bishop to the dark king. “They will let that lucky someone right through their security. For he can only be, just a country-man.” Christopher smiled demonically. “After he knocks out their defenses” Christopher moved some of the black pawns off the board and moved the white pawns up to the black king and queen. “The rest of the team will advance.” In a violent motion he knocked the black team off the board.

I rubbed my hands and smiled. “Perfect. Just perfect. Only one problem though... how are we going to get this person?” Christopher smiled. “That’s easy.” He reached into my backpack and pulled out the mask of comedy. “Как это?” “Huh?” “Do you like it?” He had a long beard now, with an amazingly cool handlebar mustache. He was covered in small marks, and had green eye, a protruding nose, and yellow teeth. He wore a baseball cap, underneath which grew very short hair. “Whoa!” “Yeah. Okay, so here’s the plan. I have to go to the rally being hosted tonight, courtesy of John Smith. I eliminate the guards, and then you guys get in.” “Okay, go it.” 

Later that night, we waited anxiously in the shadows outside the meeting place. We watched Christopher go in, and a few minutes later one of the guards walked inside. He never came back out. The crowd entering started to die down, and we watched Christopher eliminate the other. Everyone was inside, and we sneaked inside, and found a seat. The dreadlocked man was onstage, waving at the crowd. “Friends, friends.” He spoke. He then suddenly tensed up. He took out a large staff with a skull of a ram on the top. He waved the stick around the stage. Then, people around us started to change. Their skin became a coppery tone, their eyes became cold and lifeless. Misty stifled a scream. He was turning them into his personal slaves. 

Then, everybody started to turn back to normal. They walked and chatted outside, like the performance was over. But the only problem was, they talked in English. Christopher sneaked around while me and the rest of the gang went back to the hotel and hoped for the best.

                                                                    ***

Christopher went behind the curtain, he was now the man with the long beard. The Puppeteer bumped into him and looked at him suspiciously. “Master John Smith. I await orders.” Christopher almost laughed at this point; he had seen this same scene on a TV show back at the hotel. The Puppeteer smiled and said, “The back room, down the hall and to the left. Deliver this.” He handed Christopher a small package reading: Fragile. Christopher, immediately out of The Puppeteer’s sight, went into the men’s bathroom and opened the package in a secret manner. He saw inside was a small wand with the head of a ram on the top. “If we could use this on the city of Russia, we could reverse all of them and save them.” A guards boots suddenly tromped into the bathroom. Christopher hid in a stall and stood on the toilet seat. He saw the flash of a flashlight, then it was gone. The Puppeteer had split the metal source into two parts. One part for him and one part for..... Who was his accomplice? It puzzled him, but he had to get out of their.

 

If he didn’t deliver the package, The Puppeteer would know something was up. So he put the wand in his jacket pocket and walked over to the room with an empty package. The men were all in a semicircle that went around the front of the room. 

Christopher set the package easily on the table. A person came from behind him and bumped into him. Everybody gawked. He heard a thud as the mask fell to the floor. Everybody now approached him with their hands out. Christopher acted suddenly. He switched off the light switch, leaving everybody in complete darkness. He didn’t care if he got out, he was going to have some fun!

He sent an orb of water towards the first man and he fell to the floor in a rusty puddle. But. unfortunately, he was the only metal man in this room. 

He flipped over a tall man’s punch and sent an elbow to the back of his head with SNAP sound. 

A large man with a pocket knife approached him hurriedly, this was too easy. He sent an orb of magic at the chandelier, sending it down on 5 people. He then took a bottle from the refrigerator behind him and smashed that on the man’s head. But the refrigerator produced a light. Everybody saw where he was. He tried to move but a man sent a fist in his jaw. He shot a water ball at the man but he ducked, now seeing where the attack was coming from. A man was standing behind him, propping up the refrigerator door. Then the men had a sudden facepalm moment. Christopher managed to get out of their grip and switch on the light. He had taken a gun from one of the men. He smiled mischievously, and said, “I’ll take this. Hasta la pasta!” He shot at The Puppeteer a few times, and then ran down the hallway and toward us, firing over his shoulder. We could see The Puppeteer deflecting the bullets and ordering the men to go after us. However, with a well placed wall of rock, we escaped. 

Chapter Thirty-Two: How to Rig a Russian Election

The night of the polls were coming soon. We had decided that since there was no way that anyone could beat The Puppeteer, we would rig the election votes. We waited outside the polls at about 3:00 AM, and mugged the people counting. It sounds bad, but we couldn’t let the Puppeteer win. One kind of looked like Daniel, and one like a grown up-version of Misty, so we used the mask on me to make me look old enough. Kaylee could pass for an 18-year-old. We walked inside to the people, and having “borrowed” the people’s ID’s, and having created a fake one for Kaylee, we were in.

The first people started streaming in to the Moscow polls, and my fears were realized- over 50% had filled it in for The Puppeteer. When the authorities weren’t watching, we took erasers and filled it in for the other candidate, Boris Tracie. It was hard work, but we changed the vote every five minutes when the people running it took a break. The polls were getting crowded, and it became harder and harder to fill the right answer in. The standings were even worse than I thought- now over 75% had voted for the Puppeteer. It was hard to believe that so many people were voting for the position of mayor, but I guess that everyone either loved or hated him.  

The results were in. Christopher had managed to duplicate the masks for us with some sort of magic. It was funny, we weren’t even worried about finding the temple. Christopher had said, that when we find the other metal source, we can connect the two and get to the temple of metal. 

We heard a loud drum solo, then we gasped. John Smith stood out on the podium and waved to the people. I gawked: “How! I was sure we had rigged it!” Christopher shook his head, “Someway or 

another, he rigged the rigged voting ballot It’s insane!” 

The Puppeteer waved, seemingly right towards us. “I hate him” Misty said quietly, her cast plunking down on the table.With the mask on, Misty now had dyed blue hair and a long pointed nose. I looked a little like a teen pop star. With spiky black hair and pearly white teeth. Christopher had a very distinct jawline and giant ears. Kaylee had strawberry red hair and a large frame. 

We had to wear these masks to avoid any public appearance. The most played advertisement around here was the one with all of our faces on wanted posters. Dead or alive.

We sulkily sulked back to the hotel. Me and Christopher were sharing one room, while Kaylee and 

Misty were sharing another. Daniel had a couch in the back of me and Christopher’s room. “We have to wave this” Christopher held up the large staff in front of us. “In Front of everybody. Then everybody will change back to regular Russians.” “But how?” Daniel asked. “Live TV.” Christopher answered. 

“The Puppeteer’s next speech is tomorrow at 5:30. If we can pop up in the background and wave the staff, we can turn everybody back to normal.”

“But how are we going to get on LIVE TV?” Misty commented. 

“We sneak in on one of his speeches and wave the staff in the background?” I asked. Christopher sighed, “I think that’s all that we really can do.” “But how are we going to get through security?” I asked. This time Kaylee spoke up, “We don’t have mythical weapons of power for nothing.”We were going to use our weapons of power to get past the guards. Go onto live TV. And wave the metal source in front of everybody to change them back to normal. 

“But we haven’t considered how we get the other half of the metal source” Daniel said. 

Christopher yawned. “Try and beat him. As a team. He might not be able to handle it. Then we take the metal source from him. He does always keep it around. Anyway, we take the metal source from him and open up the portal to the metal kinhat’s a lot of stuff” Kaylee remarked. Christopher shrugged, “Not if you think about it.” 

I clapped my hands together and sighed deeply. “Well, time for bed everybody.” We all walked it back to our separate rooms and started getting ready for bed. We had, had a very interesting day with all the bitter disappointments and seemingly impossible tasks. We tried to fall asleep, but it was nearly impossible, with the stress of what was happening. I just hoped that we could pull it off the next day. 

The next day, we all woke up and gathered in my room. “Guys,” I said, “Here’s the plan. The enemy speaks today here (I pointed at the maps screen on my phone) and it’s sure to be live. In fact, I’m almost positive.” Daniel cracked his knuckles. “Let’s get this show on the road.” 

Chapter Thirty-Three: We Make A Public Appearance

We had lost our driver to regeneration so we decided to hitch a cab, like ordinary citizens. Thankfully, this person did not like John Smith, as he told us, so he wasn’t a robot. He railed on about him as we drove to the site of the speech. He dropped us off there with a tip of his hat and we saw the empty podium. We had about 2 and a half minutes before he made his appearance. A man came up to us excitedly. “Can you believe this is going to be broadcasted to the WHOLE WORLD. Everybody says he is going to do something exciting this time!” We all gawked. “A-all over the world?” I said.

The man nodded and skipped over to the rest of the crowd. “He is going to control the whole world.” I said. “Unless we stop him!” Christopher replied. We ran over and ducked under the curtain. We were backstage. A man in a security guard uniform ran up to us. Misty took out the sword and sent a wave of water towards him. We kept running forward, destroying his bodyguards and getting closer and closer to our target. Then, we heard a booming voice say: “Governor John Smith is coming to speak to you.” People cheered, we sprinted towards the stage but were blocked by a man in a long trench coat. Stepped in our path. He held a sawed-off shotgun and had a long scar running from his eye to his lower lip. “Five, Four” The voice was counting down and the man shot right at me. But I tried to dodge and the bullet hit my shoulder. 

“Three, Two!” Our masks all fell to the floor with a wave of the man’s hand. We tried to stop him with the weapons but they were useless against him. “One, Zero!” Lights flashed everywhere and I let out a yelp as I felt another bullet connect with my knee. I focused really hard and tried to connect with the fantasy world in my head. I imagined a beam from the rafters coming down and crushing the man. 

“Friends, friends” I heard John Smith say melodiously. A man screamed, “ANARCHY” and threw a pack of marbles at him. Men in black suits took the man away while one of his advisers tripped over the marbles. The man falling knocked down a mic-stand in the background which hit the large man in the back of the head. He fell over backwards and our path was cleared. Everybody had a couple of bullet wounds but we would survive. We ran towards the stage, John Smith cleared his throat again.

“Friends. As I was saying before I got so rudely in-” BOING. Misty had swung her metal cast, hitting The Puppeteer over the head and knocking him out. 

Everybody gasped as Christopher raised the staff over his head and waved it around. A wave of white matter absorbed the room. Then, it was gone. People walked out of the room, back to normal. We all laughed and cried, this was amazing! The Puppeteer stood up, a large welt forming on his forehead. He looked so mad I almost stumbled back, just by the sight of him. He ran over to me and put his finger on my temple. 

I was instantly transported to a white land. The gang was with me, we were all facing him. The Puppeteer opened his mouth to talk, he closed it then and charged at us. He dove at me and I tried to dodge, but to giant clay hands appeared on either side of me, knocking me down. I tried to get back up but the clay hands pinned me down. The Puppeteer walked up to me, a wide smile on his face. The suddenly Kaylee hit him square in the jaw with the hammer, he stumble backwards a little. 

‘How’s your family?” He asked with a smile. She looked at him strangely, “What do you mean?” He then looked back at me, pinned and helpless. “You didn’t tell her. Well I guess I have to spill the beans.” A portal opened up, the same one that I saw. I couldn’t bear to watch this next part.

Christopher then performed a miracle. He shot a bolt of pink lightning at the portal, making it close before the killing part. He then blocked a clay mace with a shield of dark matter. After that, he jumped over The Puppeteer and sent a pink lightning blast toward the small of his back. The Puppeteer did a 360 flip and fell on his back with a groan.

Daniel clapped while Misty had her jaw wide in amazement. The Puppeteer stood up slowly but too slowly. I broke free of the clay hands and hit him with the pike, sending a wall of earth his way. The earth crumbled under his touch but by then, Misty had hit him in the crotch with her metal cast (which seemed to be doing her very well so far). He bent over and Daniel hit him with the handle of the whip, making him bend over backwards. He shot a large dark matter ball at Misty and she was suddenly absorbed into nothingness. I ran to the spot where she was and all I found was some specks of dust. We all ran at the Puppeteer but he flew into the air and shot another dark matter ball straight at Daniel. He disappeared just like Misty did. The dark matter balls shot at, at least 200 miles per hour. He then shot one at Kaylee and she disappeared. It was just me and Christopher. The Puppeteer shot a ball at Christopher but he made a stone wall to block the hit. “WHAT IS HE DOING!” I yelled to Christopher over the sound of the portals disintegrating. “GET BEHIND THE WALL!” He answered.

I dove behind the stone shelter, narrowly dodging a shadow portal. 

Christopher snapped his fingers and the stone wall turned into a stone building. The bricks building themselves to form a cocoon around us. The sounds outside were muffled by the stone walls. “He is trying to kill us!” Christopher said matter-of-factly. “Did he kill-”NO, he did not kill the rest of the group. He merely wanted us to think that we did to break our spirits. He WAS in fact trying to kill us two. We’re the only ones that really pose a threat to him. He probably just transported the other members of the group to some random place.” 

Then the bricks closed in and there was no light, but Christopher started to hum and sing. The bricks seemed to fall apart and crumble.

 

“The iron returns to dust and ash

 Upon mere sand a fortress will crash.

 The diamond returns to the seashore, the platinum to misty moor.

The value of silver and the gold

Will return to lands untold.

The opal from inside the dust

Shall return, but it will be crushed.” 

The bricks fell away to dirt and minerals. Christopher stepped over the pile of dirt and calmly levitated a piece of earth. “Never enclose a master of Earth inside of bricks.” An emotion flickered briefly over the Puppeteer’s face- it almost looked like fear. That was impossible, though. He stepped forward. “I believe that while earth is a potent magic, the arts of Summon and Control will triumph.” He sighed at this point. “You’ve just gotten in my way- this is a step of the master plan. I suppose I could manage without the people of Russia.” I stepped forward.

“No! Nothing that I have done has fit inside your master plan! Did Mordred? Did the WPA? Did Soul Prophet? No! Those aren’t part of your ‘master plan’!” He chuckled. “They were never controlled by me. In fact, I have no idea what they plan. He pointed a finger in my face.” We have a common objective though. You. I’ll simply let them fight it out, and I’ll take the rewards.” He winked. “Bye now.”  The room around me floated away, and I was kneeling on the ground at the campaign place.” An announcement went over the loudspeaker. “Due to recently-developed and frightening health concerns, John Smith has turned down the position of the Mayor of Moscow. We announce the other candidate, Boris Tracie, as the winner!” The entire crowd groaned and tromped off. I shook my head. “What just happened?” Christopher put his arm around me, and explained, “Kid, I really have no idea. Now we have to find the others. Seriously.” I nodded. “Got it.” Just then they came running up to us. “OH MY GOSH YOU’RE ALIVE!” said Kaylee and ran towards me, giving me a hug. Christopher held his arms out, but he was ignored by Kaylee. She kissed me, full on the lips, and it was one of the happiest moments of my life. We stopped when Misty cleared her throat. “If I'm not interrupting you two love birds over there. May I ask, did you get the metal source?’ I gasped, we hadn’t gotten the metal source. Then, Christopher pulled the two pieces out of his coat pocket. “How did you get those?” I asked in awe. “I simply took them from his pocket while he was looking away.’

We all smiled and Christopher clashed the two pieces together. A black portal appeared leading to the Armory. The last temple. We all held hands and dove  into the swirling black abyss. Together.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Don’t Move A Muscle

We appeared in this dusty old room seemingly made out of weak clay. The ceiling was at least a mile high with a sparkling glass roof that revealed a destitute city with burnt rooftops and broken statues. We were literally in a dystopia. There were no doors on either side of us, and no windows besides the roof. “This is the Armory?” Daniel asked strangely. “Has to be” Christopher murmured. We then heard a fluttering noise all around us. Christopher looked around and put a hand to Kaylee’s mouth to keep her from screaming. “Don’t. Move. A. Muscle.” Christopher  said quietly. ‘Why?’  Kaylee asked. We had all frozen in our spots and we not moving any muscle.

 “There are creatures around us. They look a little like giant insects. They don’t have a sense of smell or a sense of taste. They don’t have sight, but they can hear movement. And movement only, we’re safe talking but any movement. They could be on us.” Kaylee gasped. I felt myself start to sneeze. I let out a loud sneeze and suddenly my vision was a blur. I could see large antennae and a bug-like face. A could feel skin being torn off of my flesh and I let out a scream. The large bug flipped over to the side and lay stone dead. Christopher had somehow killed the beast without moving a muscle. Then I saw smoke come from his eyes. “You shot him. With your eyes?” I asked amazed

. “Don’t move.” He repeated. I looked over to the dead bug without moving a muscle. I could see that it was green with a thousand tiny eyes and two large bat-like wings. It had at least ten legs with little hairs sticking straight up. “We can’t stay like this forever.” I commented.

 Christopher then turned around to face me as a green blur shot towards him but he spun on his heel and sent a large pink lightning bolt, killing the bug instantly. “Everybody, get behind me.” We all hesitantly ran towards him and  we could see he was firing pink lightning at all of the bugs trying to attack us. We all stood in a single file line behind Christopher. “There is a door right next to us.” We all glanced at the wall. “No there isn’t.” I said. He cleared his throat again. “There is a DOOR right next to us.” Just then a hole in the rock wall broke open and we ran into the other room. Christopher swiftly closed the rock wall behind us. 

“This is the secret door, they don’t want us to go to.” Christopher commented. There in the secret room stood a long hallway. “Another one of these.” Misty complained.

We started to tread down a long hallway and Kaylee came up to me. “What did the Puppeteer mean about my family.” I stuttered and said, “I don’t know, he was probably just tricking us into believing 

that something was going on.” And even though I was sweating like crazy, she bought it. We kept walking down the long hallway, side by side and holding hands. “The bugs are actually made of tin.” Christopher commented. “Really” I said “that seems so strange, they look so alive.” Christopher nodded his head. I think that’s the extent of what we’ll find in this temple. A bunch of man-eating bugs.” “Peachy.” Misty said sarcastically. 

We came to a large room, that looked a lot like the first. Except of course for the one thousand tin bug -eggs on the ceiling. Along with that there were a lot of metal bugs on the walls and on the floor. Christopher cursed.  “Get out!” He said “Get the heck out of here!” We started to run towards the exit of the door but the bugs were all on us. We were drawn into the middle of the room by the bugs. Christopher made a shield out of pink lightning but the bugs were slowly ebbing away at the force of the shield. Outside of the shield, it was a swarm of tin bugs, they were all over the place.

. Even some of the eggs started to crack. Our shield was keeping us safe now, but it wouldn’t hold for long. I started to see some cracks in the shield as the bugs mercilessly rammed their disgusting bodies against it. Christopher let out a scream as he held the shield up with his hands. He was the only thing between us and the bugs. “HELP HIM!” I yelled over the sound of the flutter of wings and the buzzing of the bugs. We all pitched in and held up the roof along with Christopher. The cracks seemed to form in the shield and the bugs started to give up. We were doing it!

Just then, I saw something that made my heart stop and I almost dropped the shield. A colossal bug, at least ten times the size of the other bugs, made its way towards us. “THE QUEEN!” Christopher yelled. “DUCK!” We all dropped to the floor just in time as the queen bug shot a bolt of sticky matter through the shield, and right over our heads. “We can’t escape!” I heard Daniel yell over the buzz of the bugs. Christopher then said something that sounded like.

“Pama La Racosheni!” 

The floor dropped beneath us and we all found ourselves hurtling through darkness. We had, in fact, escaped the bugs. But we were about to face a challenge that was so terrible. We would be begging for the bugs to come back. 

Chapter 35: We Meet The Tin-Man

We dropped onto a cold floor. The room was completely lighted. I could see a large ceiling, very much like the other ones in the temple. “What did you do?” Misty asked Christopher, awe-struck. “Used a very dangerous amount of magic to save all of your butts.” Christopher held his stomach and sat down on the ground. We came to his aid on either side of him. “I’m fine” he said and swatted our hands away.

A creaky voice came from the shadows. “Hello, children.” We all whipped to face it, and we saw that the voice had emitted from a tin man standing in a corner. “I see that the bugs have not killed you yet, and perhaps it is a good thing.” He stepped forward, toward us. “I suppose that they left the fun for me.” 

He started moving quickly toward us, and, panicking, Christopher shot a bolt of lightning at him. It seemed to bounce off without effect. Daniel growled and lunged at it with the hammer. The robot raised a hand to block it, and it bounced off. We all gasped. Neither magic nor mythical weapons could hurt it. In a fury, I grabbed the whip and with a crack, whipped the tin man. It kept moving, quickly, its emotionless face frowning down at us. I was scared. Why the heck was a tin man chasing us?

Misty slashed at it with the sword, but it bounced off, as did the wave of water. It stopped in front of me, and said. “ARMOR. THE KEY.” I stepped back, and it extended a hand and punched me square in the gut. I fell backwards, shocked. “Christopher! The Puppeteer’s things!” I yelled as the metal man moved forward to kick me in the gut. He tossed them to me, and I caught them, holding them out towards the robot. Tinny (as I will call him) reached out and accepted it. “Come with me. To the forge,” said Tinny and moved off. We all followed him, walking toward his corner. He placed a hand on the segment of the wall, and the building seemed to open up. 

The walls fell away and, suddenly, the chamber that we were standing in was huge. The biggest thing in it was the fireplace, where a bluish-green fire crackled. “Place the weapons on the table.” A huge stone block of earth was ahead of us, and we laid the weapons on it. The pike started to glow, and I picked it up. “Do you wish to make armor for five?” asked Tinny. I responded in the affirmative, and he told me to make twenty-five long, flat, and wide slabs of earth.

 It took several times before I produced a satisfactory one, but I finally got it. It was very hot in the room from the fire crackling. After I had made twenty five, Tinny told me to place the pike back on the table. 

The whip started to glow. Kaylee picked it up, and Tinny ordered her to go fed the fire with the whip. The armormaster (Tinny) told me to meditate, along with Christopher, and to pour energy into each of the pieces. We were exhausted after this, but he ordered us to sprint these over to the fire before the energy left them, then to toss them in. We panted, tired, after this, while they heated up, and Kaylee was having a hard time keeping it going, so Daniel pitched in and took her place. Misty had sat down on the floor and was drawing in the dirt. We were informed that the armor was hot enough to remove, so we used equipment (which I’m sure was enchanted) to remove it.

 Immediately, Tinny told Misty to strike each piece of armor with the sword to help it cool off. I noticed that the pieces of earth had acquired a sheen, and almost looked like metal. We were all really tired by this point, but the work was not over. Each of us seized a non enchanted hammer and started pounding recklessly on the plates to soften them for formation. 

This was where Tinny came into play. Being impervious to fire, he shaped the metal into armor and let them cool for while. It was almost done. We had to smash each with the Hammer of Air, and none of us were up to the task. 

Christopher had collapsed after removing them from the fire, and pounded weakly on the metal when it had to soften up, Kaylee after fueling the fire, Daniel after hammering out Misty and Kaylee’s part too, because Kaylee was collapsed and... wait a minute, where was Misty? We looked around the gigantic room, and I spotted her in a corner, sipping a chilled latte and being fanned with a palm leaf.

No... I was hallucinating. Misty had collapsed after working with the sword. I had somehow ended up on the ground after softening the armor. The metal was getting worse and worse after the time we had spent relaxing. I was tempted to let someone else do the work, but it was my duty. I had dragged everyone along on this quest. I hauled myself up, and started to work.

As I hit things with the hammer, I thought back. Had I really dragged everyone along on this trip? I remembered meeting Daniel. Suddenly I spotted one of those fighter pilots flying high above me. I took out the hammer and sent a gust of wind swirling his plane out of control. He shot at me once and had pretty good accuracy. (I now had a large hole in my suitcase.) Then he flew down low and saw me lying there. ”Get up kid!”  he shouted angrily at me. Later that day, I guess he had somewhat accepted me. “Run. Now!” The pilot shouted. I hopped into his plane, slid the door closed with a slam, and slumped against the wall. “Get me to Indonesia, please.” The pilot glanced at me in disbelief. “The farthest I can take you is Africa. It’s because of fuel, even though I have a full tank, and besides, why would I do that?” Okay, I’m pretty sure that Daniel had actually wanted to get involved, seeing that he was a former employee of the WPA. And he was a dwarf. That too. It was pretty shocking when I first found that out, but it was okay now. 

I had finished the first five pieces, and Tinny arrived to take them. Somehow, by remembering my friends, I was pulling through. Misty was a bit of a different case. I realized this on the next set I hammered. I freed the slaves, and they stampeded straight over the guards. I guess they went to help with the fight, but one teenage girl stayed behind. She looked about fourteen (my age). She said, “You guys need help much more than the battle does.” I looked outside the door. A slave was piggybacking a soldier, bonking him on the head with a shield. “Yeah.” Without her, we probably wouldn’t have made it through the Castle of Earth. She had solved a riddle posed by a freaky monster, and we would have been eaten if she hadn’t solved it. She had got us to Hawaii, through methods that we didn’t quite see coming. Such as attacking the lady at the front desk of the airport. That was kind of funny. 

Daniel had found the strength to get up, and he picked up the first set of armor that was completed. As he touched, one of them attached itself to his arm, molding to his body shape, and he fit the rest on easily. “Hey, I kind of feel... connected to this armor. Like it was made for me, you know?” He smiled and went to wake Misty up, just as I placed the second set down. 

I went to work on the third set. Kaylee was even weirder than Misty and Daniel combined. When we first met her, she was possessed by Soul Prophet. And Soul Prophet could have eaten our souls. Not pleasent. But somehow it all worked out, thanks to Christopher. Then I remembered when I actually met Kaylee, not Soul Prophet.  Soul Prophet turned to me. “I’ll spare your friends because I like you. Until next time!” She smiled cheerily, and then, when I expected her to disappear, said, “Oh, gosh, I’m not possessed anymore!” Her body suddenly crumpled on the ground. She then steadily got to her feet and made a surprisingly fast recovery for someone who was apparently possessed a minute ago. The girl was standing before me. “Hey, who are you?” I had no idea who the heck she was at the time, but that didn’t matter. She became my best friend, and to the rest of the gang, my girlfriend. Which I had to admit, was pretty awesome. 

The third set went into the pile. Then I started working on what was sure to be Christopher’s. I had liked Christopher the least from the start. But that had changed- he had become my magic teacher. That was amazing. When we met, I had my doubts. Out of nowhere stepped a man. He looked around 25 with white-blond hair and a gleaming smile. He had a british accent and pale skin. 

“Who are you?” said Misty, smirking. “Why I,” the man said gesturing to himself “am the Genie of Golden Shackles. Though I prefer the name Christopher.” He had a slight bounce to his step and his eyebrows raised with every word he said. I didn’t like him. I realized that he had helped me along every step of the impossible journey, though. Like it or not, he was definitely part of the team. I had grown to like him, though. 

Finally, the only set left was mine. The rest of the gang had gathered around me by this point. Daniel stepped up and tried to take it from me, but it was my job. I had to finish it. I thought about me. Did I really want to go on this journey? It had wounded me, depressed me, and nearly killed me. Then I thought back to when we had gotten through the Castle of Earth. I know that someday, I’ll think back and say that maybe these times weren’t all that bad. I realized that that was still true. And I was happy about that. It would not be so bad after all. With that, my set was done. I was good. I lifted it onto me, and I instantly felt better... happier. It made me feel like I was reliving the happiest moment of my life, and then I realized that the armor had a magic beyond protecting us- the armor was who we were.