Chapter Eleven: Preparations
Location: Raventide High, Lexistropolis
Date: December 14, 4337
Time: 10:21 A.M.
As Tess and Zen’s *Tarnuff professor (*Spanish-like language*), Mr. James, continued to astonish the classroom at how well he could mispronounce every word in modern *Tropin (*English-like language*), Tess her brother finally became completely lost in whatever he was saying, and turned to the other students, of which all had the same blank expression, which was “Just nod when he makes eye contact and you’ll pass”.
As Zen slowly scanned the area, he noticed that someone wasn’t in class. Lizzy. This was unusually strange, for Tarnuff vocalizing was the only class all three of them were in. Zen whispered over to Chells, who was two seats over, “Hey Chells! Where’s Lizzy?”
Chells shrugged and said “She’ s probably home for the day. I’d be home too, if something like what happened to her, happened to me.”
“What did happen?” zen asked.
“I’ll tell you two after people aren’t in ear-shot.” Chells hinted, resuming his attention to the teach.
Unfortunately Chells, brainiac that he supposedly is, had finished his schoolwork, and had already left more than half of an hour before Tess and Zen. And so, the two chameleons spent the next fifteen minutes looking for their strange blind friend, going through just about every hallway in the school. They eventually gave up, and left to get their lunch.
As they entered the quad with their “Mystery Meal”, they were both astonished happy and angry to find Chells, casually sitting down at a table, in plain sight. “WHERE WERE YOU THIS WHOLE TIME!??!” Tess exclaimed.
“In a word… here… in another… duh.” Chells answered. “Where were you?”
“We’ve been looking for you for the past fifteen minutes.” Zen informed.
“And instead of going to where all students go for lunch, like a normal person,” Chells started, “You chose to scan the hallways until boredom became your reality. Nice.”
“… You should write poetry or something.” Tess suggested. “Anyway, what were yo- hey! What’s that?” Tess pointed to a notebook in front of Chells, with a figure drawn in pencil on one of its pages.
“Something I don’t want you to see.” Chells stated, closing his notebook.
“So you draw huh?” Tess said. “She’s pretty.”
“What?!” Zen exclaimed.
“Chells was drawing a gir-rl!” Tess tuned out, with a smirk on her face. “Who is she?”
“You came here to ask me about your friend who just had a very hard day, right?” Chells said, attempting to change the subject.
“Fine.” Tess groaned. “What happened to her?”
“Well as far as I can tell,” Chells began, “Lizzy and I *found some enchanted bookshelf, which had a puzzle on it. (* Chapter nine through ten*) When we finished it, it created a portal-like thing, which sent us to different locations. Lizzy went into some kind of vision thing… I… think… while I was sent about a mile from the base. When I got back, Lizzy was on the floor, with her eyes glowing green. Then I noticed that she had two weird symbol things on her arm. I was about to coax her out of it, when she started glowing red instead. Right after that she jumped up and did this giant blast to the front of her. I jumped out of the way, and waited until she had stopped attacking, so that I could get close enough to stop her. Once she powered down a bit, I thought that if I drew the symbol in front of her, it would counteract whatever happened to her, so I did… and it worked… I think. Either that or he vision was over.”
“AWESOME!!!!” Tess exclaimed. “Now who was the girl you were drawing?!” Both Chells and Zen gave Tess a cold glare. “Fine. What did the symbol look like?”
“I really don’t think I should draw it.” Chells suggested. “It might activate the curse/spell thing on someone.”
“But then that will be a two-win situation.” Tess implied. “One, we can see what it looks like, and Two THE SCHOOL WILL DIE!!!!”
“… Fine.” Chells sighed. He opened his notebook again, turning quite fast, as not to let the two chameleons see what his previous drawing was, until he reached a blank page. He drew the same symbol from the bookshelf, then waited. Nothing happened.
“Phew!” Zen sighed, feeling a bit light-headed from the trauma. “How did you remember it so well anyway?”
“When a bunch of people are about to die, and drawing a picture is your last resort, it’s kind of important to remember how it’s made.” Chells informed, as if the answer was obvious.
“Must you?” Tess said, annoyed by the semi-insulting reply.
“No, but I’d like to.” Chells responded, humorously.
“Why do I bother?” Tess sighed, as she started away from the table. “Bye Chells… and lady friend.” Chells glared.
“So now what?” Zen asked.
“We call Lizzy.” Tess replied, pulling out her phone, just before dialing.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang. After about two whole minutes of just ringing… Lizzy’s answering machine replied. “Hey this is Lizzy. Congratulations you have patience. How did you get this number?... be-eeeeeep.”
“Hey Lizzy, It’s Tess.” Tess stated. “Just wanted to know if you were okay. Also we wanted to know what happened to you yesterday. But if you’re busy, or angry, or- or you don’t feel like talking, we can call back. But if-“
“Just… stop… talking!!” Lizzy pleaded, picking up her cellphone. “I’m tired, and not okay, but hey! It’s nothing new. You want to know what happened?”
“Yep.” Tess happily replied.
“*sigh*… It was really weird.” Lizzy began. She explained how the *vision (*Previous Chapter*) allowed her to read and travel through the book, how the fox warned and explained parts of the Phantis state, and described the location that the echidna girl placed one of the files in.
“So do you know where we should be heading?” Tess asked.
“Not really,” Lizzy began, “but I’ll probably figure it out… or go insane from not being able to figure it out.”
“Please don’t.” Tess teased. “*sigh* Alright then. Talk to ya later.”
“Bye.” Lizzy ended, hanging up.
“If it isn’t Stammer and Steriods!” Terry insulted, as she approached the two siblings. “where’s Little Miss Emo?”
“Why do you hate Lizzy so much?” Tess asked.
“Why do you breath?” Terry countered.
“Because I have to.” Tess replied.
“Exactly!” Terry pointed out. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Lizzy stayed home today.” Tess answered.
“Why? Did she get sick from cutting her arm too much? Hahaha!” Terry snickered.
“No, she just couldn’t be here today.” Tess corrected.
“So she’s playing hooky huh?” Terry said. “Just proves even more what I’ve been saying for weeks now.”
“For your information,” Tess growled, “Lizzy had undergone a great deal of trauma, from almost being killed yesterday.”
“Sure she wasn’t trying to kill herself?” Terry insulted again.
“Positive.” Tess glared. “Now if you’ll excuse me, me and my brother have better things to do, than make people feel bad about themselves.”
“Don’t need me for that Honey.” Terry offended.
“Bye Terry.” Tess said, pushing Zen away with her. Exactly two hours later, school was out. Tess and Zen were about to rush out, when they heard someone call out their names.
“Hey, wait up!!!” The voice said. Tess and Zen turned to see Jack running towards them.
“Hi!!” Tess greeted, her mood perking up a bit. “… Who are you?”
“I’m Jack Menson.” Jack introduced. “I met Lizzy a-couple days ago, and well… I wanted to know if she’s okay?”
“O-oooh. You do, do you?” Tess teased, grinning.
“Lizzy had a small problem, so she’s staying home today.” Zen intervened.
“BUT you can call her on her cellphone, or go visit her if you want.” Tess pressed.
“I’d like to… I guess, but I don’t know either.” Jack informed.
“Don’t worry about that! I’ve gotcha covered!” Tess pulled off her backpack, and began skimming through a bunch of pages in light pink notebook, then ripped out a page, and gave it to Jack.
“Thanks… I guess,” Jack cautiously accepted, feeling a bit awkward, “but why does it say ‘Knife Wielder of Doom’ above the phone number?”
“Just a joke a guy named Chells nick-named her with.” Tess informed.
“Oh yeah.” Jack remembered. “He seemed pretty… nice I guess.”
“He’s only nice when he’s on your side- hmmm…” Tess paused, thinking to herself. “… and because he kind of likes Lizzy.”
“R-really?” Jack inquired, nervously.
“Yeah Tess, really????” Zen glared, trying to get his sister to back off.
“Oh yeah!” Tess replied. “She’s just about the only girl he’s ever complimented, but everyone can see that she doesn’t feel the same towards him. If only someone could step in, and save them both from some dark end.”
“Uh… y-yeah…” Jack stammered. “Um… I’ve… gotta go. B-bye.”
Zen waited for Jack to be out of ear-shot then exclaimed “YOU IDIOT!!!!!!! When he goes to stand up for Lizzy’s honor, or whatever, either she’ll kill him and Chells, or Chells will kill him.”
“You worry too much, Zen” Tess comforted. “He’ll be fine. Let’s go over to Lizzy’s, and see how she’s doing.”
“Didn’t we already do that?” Zen put in.
“… Right!” Tess remembered. “Let’s go over to… Nick’s and see how he’s doing.”
“For what reason pray-tell?” Zen asked.
“The *Tasers.” Tess answered. *Mentioned in chapter six*
The two chameleons walked for about an hour, which was mostly consumed by Zen complaining about how they should have either, gotten in the car and driven over, or by some motor scooters.
They arrived at Nick’s house, just in time to see an electronic jolt go flying into the air from inside the garage. Shortly after, a large amount of smoke came pouring out from inside, followed a loud “I’m okay… mostly!”
Tess and Zen slowly made their way through the thick smoke, until Tess had found a fan. She flipped the device on, sending the smoke out. After doing so, they found Nick blotched with black spots, all over his working outfit.
“What happened in here?!” Tess asked loudly.
“I was trying out one of the Tasers, and it exploded.” Nick explained. “But the others work. Want to try them? You can pick your own out, when you’re finished. They all do something different.
Tess and Zen looked over the different Tasers. After a short amount of searching they each chose a Taser, and walked over to Nick.
“We got our choices.” Tess informed. “So what should we shoot at?”
“Well let’s see…” Nick turned in different directions, looking for a target then stopped at… nothing. “I guess for now you should just shoot it into the air. They might explode something if touching matter.”
“I’ll go first then.” Tess positioned her Taser to the entrance of Nick’s garage, then noticed that there were two buttons instead of one. Each had an arrow pointing a different diction, opposite of the other. Tess pressed the frontal one, and a Taser-beam shot forward. She pressed the back one, and a Taser shot back at her.
Her reflexes springing to life, Tess jumped out of the Taser’s path, and dropped it onto the floor. “I am so sorry Nick!” Tess apologized. Nick picked up the Taser, and examined it.
“It’s okay.” Nick reassured. “It didn’t break. Why don’t you try now Zen? Don’t worry, it won’t shoot backwards.”
Zen positioned his Taser at the entrance, and fired, but instead of one long-range thread of electricity, three electrical darts sprung out, and landed about one-hundred feet away. They all ran to where the darts had landed, then Nick picked them up, and placed them back inside the Taser/dart-gun.
“How did you come up with all of this?” Tess inquired.
“Well I got like a million ideas in my head, but not all of them worked out.” Nick replied. “These were the ones that did.”
“That is awesome.” Tess complimented. “But are you sure we can keep these? What if your Dad find out?”
“Hey I’m the one that made these things,” Nick stated, “plus my Dad doesn’t care usually, unless I’m fixing the car. They are all yours.”
“Thank you thank you thank you!!” Tess cheerfully complimented, giving Nick a small kiss on the cheek. Nick started blushing right after. “We’re really grateful Nick, but we have to go check on Siera now, if that’s okay.”
“That’s fine.” Nick reassured. “Tell her not to put pink on my outfit!”
“Will do!!” Tess yelled back, as she and her bro ran off. The next forty-two minutes seemed much less boring than the previous, as the two siblings just about lost themselves in playing with their new toys. They continued to shoot their Tasers over and over and over again, sometimes landing them into the snow, until Zen suggested not wasting the batteries.
They arrived at Siera’s house panting, as they reached for the door-bell. “Hello Tess and Zen!” Mrs. Struthers greeted, opening the door before they could ring the bell. “You’re here to see Siera aren’t you?”
“Yep!” Tess happily replied.
“Then would you mind answering me a question really quick?” Mrs. Struthers pleaded. “Do you know why Siera is so… stressed lately?”
“She’s been wanting to make a bunch of weirdo Steam-Punk outfits for some…thing?” Tess failed, attempting to fib,”… I really have no idea.”
“Well then maybe you can cure her.” Mrs. Struthers teased. “She’s in the family room.”
“Thanks. Tess acknowledged, as they walked through the house.
They entered the family room, which to their astonishment, was covered in glow-glue, sewing patterns, fabric, and a large amount of other things which neither of them could recognize. In the middle of all of this was a giant pile of stitched clothing, or also known as Siera Struthers.
“Hey guys!” Siera greeted. “Sorry but I am reeeeeeeally busy right now. Can’t talk for the next twelve seconds!”
Twelve seconds later…
“What-do-ya-need?” Siera said.
“We… came to see if you finished those outfits you were talking about?” Tess informed, starring at the giant mess of clothing. “What is all this?”
“Well, thanks to miss Terry-ble,” Siera started, “I have to do even more fabric work, to get the position in the clothing design for Raventide. I am now designing the fall clothing line for next year, I finished your guys’ outfits for winter and spring, I did some favors, and now I’m trying to make an outfit for me.”
“What did Terry do to make you do all this?” Tess asked.
“She told the principal that she thought I should have to ‘prove myself’ as a school outfit designer, BLECH!” Siera exclaimed. “THEN she got some kind of vote for it, and now I have to prove myself. The only upsides are, ONE, I get to see the look on her face, and TWO, these are really cute outfits.”
“They’re clothes!!!” Zen yelled. “Clothes can’t be-“
“Anyway…” Tess interrupted, “Can we have ours?”
“Yeah, they’re over in that corner.” Siera informed, pointing to an outfit rack. The two siblings rushed over to the rack and skimmed through the various outfits.
THIS, IS, AWE-SOOOOOOOOOOME!!!” Tess exclaimed in delight, holding up her outfit.
“THIS, IS, not.” Zen groaned, raising his outfit.
“I think she did a great job.” Tess complimented.
“She did, but Siera,” Zen stated, “I don’t think we’re supposed to look like super-heroes.”
“Oh pasha.” Siera ignored. “It’s fine. But the best one is what I got for Lizzy.”
“Really?” Tess said, anxiously.
“Yep. See, when you said that she was supposed to be the leader-type,” Siera started, “I thought that I should take what she usually wore, and added to it. And sooooo… TA DAH!”
“Nice times, like, a-million!” Tess complimented. “You even have a sheath for Lizzy’s dagger!”
“…Ditto.” Zen added blankly.
“Thank ya very much.” Siera said, smiling. “It wasn’t easy, but it was definitely fun. Hey, are those the Tasers we talked about?”
“Yep.” Tess said, handing Siera one.
“Nice!” Siera complimented. “I didn’t think he was actually gonna make them. Do they work?”
“Yeah, but these are the only ones so far. Sorry.” Zen apologized.
“Eh, don’t worry about it.” Siera reassured. “I haven’t made any of the other outfits yet, so you’re okay. Oh yeah. That reminds me. I’m making the outfits, Nick is making the gadgets, Chells is… being himself, and Lizzy is probably practicing being bossy or something, but what are you two doing to get the agency ready?”
Tess and Zen froze. They had completely forgotten what to do. They were the ones chosen to not only get everyone organized, but get some special location, to set up in. “… We have to go.” Tess said, as she and Zen ran out of the house, and back to their own, trying to think of how to catch up. Siera didn’t even have enough time to say “HEY!”, which she still said.
“OH MAN-O-MAN-O-MAN!!!!” Tess panicked. “WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!?!?!”
“Calm down Tess.” Zen said, attempting to comfort his sister.
“THERE IS NO WAY ON HYBRIA THAT I AM CALMING DOWN!!!!!” Tess yelled at her brother. “WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET EVERYTHING ORGANIZED, AND GET THE SPACE, AN-“
“Ba da be de de be do do, be ba di di doooooooo” Tess’s phone rang.
“DEEEEEEEEEEMOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!” Tess exclaimed, jumping into the air, in shock.
“Or just your phone.” Zen said, pulling Tess’s cellphone out of her backpack-pocket. “Hello?”
“Hey Zen.” Lizzy greeted. “Just calling to see if you guys are busy right now. I was wondering if mayb-“
“Sorry, Lizzy but apparently we’ve got a lot to do.” Zen slowly spoke out, distracted by his sister, who was muttering to herself, while what would appear to be a dance of stress.
“Oh come on!” Lizzy yelled. “What’s so big?!”
“Well Tess apparently signed both of us up to be the ones to get the location for our Phantis file gig, and we haven’t even began to start.” Zen informed.
“Oh, is that all?” Lizzy commented. “I can take care of that.”
“Really?” Zen asked, in slight disbelief.
“Yeah, I’ve got this hide-out place that we can use, but I’ll need to make some changes to it. One second here and… got it! Okay send this link to the others. It’s the location.” Lizzy sent a text with an image link on the end. Call me when you get it sent.”
“Will do.” Zen responded.
“Thank you.” Lizzy thanked, hanging up. Zen then brought over the phone to Tess and yelled to her “Yo!!! Stress-Queen, calm down. Lizzy fixed it!”
“Oh… okay.” Tess replied, halting her over-reaction. “So now what?”
“We send this link to… ev-er-y-bo-dy... aaaaand… there!” Zen sent the link to the others, then put the phone back inside the backpack-pocket.
“Again, now what?” Tess inquired.
“We go get the drawing board, and my laptop, then bring it to our new site.” Zen finished, as they started back home, calmly this time.
Meanwhile at Lizzy’s end…
“Okay. Time to go.” Lizzy said to herself ghosting out of her room, and out to the front-lawn. She then started running through the side-walk, until arriving at a *nature-dump-reserve *an area where dead trees and plants are kept for fertilizer production*
The black-cat, made her way to a fallen oak, then took out her dagger and though it into the ground. She then used her psychic connection with the knife, to make it spin around and around, drilling into the ground, making a large hole that continued to grow. As she drilled through, she thought about the oak in front of her, then it hit her. “I know where the file is.” Lizzy thought to herself, as she paused from her digging.
She then waited for a moment, and thought out her options. She could go for the file now, and risk being seen, or wait until the others came, and be able to get it more secretly. After much thinking, she turned back to the large hole she was digging, then continued to drill.
She drilled for about a minute or two, until a small amount of the debris caved into a small underground room. “Now the new ‘H.Q.’ is ready.” Lizzy thought to herself, as she jumped into the room.
Location: Raventide High, Lexistropolis
Date: December 14, 4337
Time: 10:21 A.M.
As Tess and Zen’s *Tarnuff professor (*Spanish-like language*), Mr. James, continued to astonish the classroom at how well he could mispronounce every word in modern *Tropin (*English-like language*), Tess her brother finally became completely lost in whatever he was saying, and turned to the other students, of which all had the same blank expression, which was “Just nod when he makes eye contact and you’ll pass”.
As Zen slowly scanned the area, he noticed that someone wasn’t in class. Lizzy. This was unusually strange, for Tarnuff vocalizing was the only class all three of them were in. Zen whispered over to Chells, who was two seats over, “Hey Chells! Where’s Lizzy?”
Chells shrugged and said “She’ s probably home for the day. I’d be home too, if something like what happened to her, happened to me.”
“What did happen?” zen asked.
“I’ll tell you two after people aren’t in ear-shot.” Chells hinted, resuming his attention to the teach.
Unfortunately Chells, brainiac that he supposedly is, had finished his schoolwork, and had already left more than half of an hour before Tess and Zen. And so, the two chameleons spent the next fifteen minutes looking for their strange blind friend, going through just about every hallway in the school. They eventually gave up, and left to get their lunch.
As they entered the quad with their “Mystery Meal”, they were both astonished happy and angry to find Chells, casually sitting down at a table, in plain sight. “WHERE WERE YOU THIS WHOLE TIME!??!” Tess exclaimed.
“In a word… here… in another… duh.” Chells answered. “Where were you?”
“We’ve been looking for you for the past fifteen minutes.” Zen informed.
“And instead of going to where all students go for lunch, like a normal person,” Chells started, “You chose to scan the hallways until boredom became your reality. Nice.”
“… You should write poetry or something.” Tess suggested. “Anyway, what were yo- hey! What’s that?” Tess pointed to a notebook in front of Chells, with a figure drawn in pencil on one of its pages.
“Something I don’t want you to see.” Chells stated, closing his notebook.
“So you draw huh?” Tess said. “She’s pretty.”
“What?!” Zen exclaimed.
“Chells was drawing a gir-rl!” Tess tuned out, with a smirk on her face. “Who is she?”
“You came here to ask me about your friend who just had a very hard day, right?” Chells said, attempting to change the subject.
“Fine.” Tess groaned. “What happened to her?”
“Well as far as I can tell,” Chells began, “Lizzy and I *found some enchanted bookshelf, which had a puzzle on it. (* Chapter nine through ten*) When we finished it, it created a portal-like thing, which sent us to different locations. Lizzy went into some kind of vision thing… I… think… while I was sent about a mile from the base. When I got back, Lizzy was on the floor, with her eyes glowing green. Then I noticed that she had two weird symbol things on her arm. I was about to coax her out of it, when she started glowing red instead. Right after that she jumped up and did this giant blast to the front of her. I jumped out of the way, and waited until she had stopped attacking, so that I could get close enough to stop her. Once she powered down a bit, I thought that if I drew the symbol in front of her, it would counteract whatever happened to her, so I did… and it worked… I think. Either that or he vision was over.”
“AWESOME!!!!” Tess exclaimed. “Now who was the girl you were drawing?!” Both Chells and Zen gave Tess a cold glare. “Fine. What did the symbol look like?”
“I really don’t think I should draw it.” Chells suggested. “It might activate the curse/spell thing on someone.”
“But then that will be a two-win situation.” Tess implied. “One, we can see what it looks like, and Two THE SCHOOL WILL DIE!!!!”
“… Fine.” Chells sighed. He opened his notebook again, turning quite fast, as not to let the two chameleons see what his previous drawing was, until he reached a blank page. He drew the same symbol from the bookshelf, then waited. Nothing happened.
“Phew!” Zen sighed, feeling a bit light-headed from the trauma. “How did you remember it so well anyway?”
“When a bunch of people are about to die, and drawing a picture is your last resort, it’s kind of important to remember how it’s made.” Chells informed, as if the answer was obvious.
“Must you?” Tess said, annoyed by the semi-insulting reply.
“No, but I’d like to.” Chells responded, humorously.
“Why do I bother?” Tess sighed, as she started away from the table. “Bye Chells… and lady friend.” Chells glared.
“So now what?” Zen asked.
“We call Lizzy.” Tess replied, pulling out her phone, just before dialing.
The phone rang, and rang, and rang. After about two whole minutes of just ringing… Lizzy’s answering machine replied. “Hey this is Lizzy. Congratulations you have patience. How did you get this number?... be-eeeeeep.”
“Hey Lizzy, It’s Tess.” Tess stated. “Just wanted to know if you were okay. Also we wanted to know what happened to you yesterday. But if you’re busy, or angry, or- or you don’t feel like talking, we can call back. But if-“
“Just… stop… talking!!” Lizzy pleaded, picking up her cellphone. “I’m tired, and not okay, but hey! It’s nothing new. You want to know what happened?”
“Yep.” Tess happily replied.
“*sigh*… It was really weird.” Lizzy began. She explained how the *vision (*Previous Chapter*) allowed her to read and travel through the book, how the fox warned and explained parts of the Phantis state, and described the location that the echidna girl placed one of the files in.
“So do you know where we should be heading?” Tess asked.
“Not really,” Lizzy began, “but I’ll probably figure it out… or go insane from not being able to figure it out.”
“Please don’t.” Tess teased. “*sigh* Alright then. Talk to ya later.”
“Bye.” Lizzy ended, hanging up.
“If it isn’t Stammer and Steriods!” Terry insulted, as she approached the two siblings. “where’s Little Miss Emo?”
“Why do you hate Lizzy so much?” Tess asked.
“Why do you breath?” Terry countered.
“Because I have to.” Tess replied.
“Exactly!” Terry pointed out. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Lizzy stayed home today.” Tess answered.
“Why? Did she get sick from cutting her arm too much? Hahaha!” Terry snickered.
“No, she just couldn’t be here today.” Tess corrected.
“So she’s playing hooky huh?” Terry said. “Just proves even more what I’ve been saying for weeks now.”
“For your information,” Tess growled, “Lizzy had undergone a great deal of trauma, from almost being killed yesterday.”
“Sure she wasn’t trying to kill herself?” Terry insulted again.
“Positive.” Tess glared. “Now if you’ll excuse me, me and my brother have better things to do, than make people feel bad about themselves.”
“Don’t need me for that Honey.” Terry offended.
“Bye Terry.” Tess said, pushing Zen away with her. Exactly two hours later, school was out. Tess and Zen were about to rush out, when they heard someone call out their names.
“Hey, wait up!!!” The voice said. Tess and Zen turned to see Jack running towards them.
“Hi!!” Tess greeted, her mood perking up a bit. “… Who are you?”
“I’m Jack Menson.” Jack introduced. “I met Lizzy a-couple days ago, and well… I wanted to know if she’s okay?”
“O-oooh. You do, do you?” Tess teased, grinning.
“Lizzy had a small problem, so she’s staying home today.” Zen intervened.
“BUT you can call her on her cellphone, or go visit her if you want.” Tess pressed.
“I’d like to… I guess, but I don’t know either.” Jack informed.
“Don’t worry about that! I’ve gotcha covered!” Tess pulled off her backpack, and began skimming through a bunch of pages in light pink notebook, then ripped out a page, and gave it to Jack.
“Thanks… I guess,” Jack cautiously accepted, feeling a bit awkward, “but why does it say ‘Knife Wielder of Doom’ above the phone number?”
“Just a joke a guy named Chells nick-named her with.” Tess informed.
“Oh yeah.” Jack remembered. “He seemed pretty… nice I guess.”
“He’s only nice when he’s on your side- hmmm…” Tess paused, thinking to herself. “… and because he kind of likes Lizzy.”
“R-really?” Jack inquired, nervously.
“Yeah Tess, really????” Zen glared, trying to get his sister to back off.
“Oh yeah!” Tess replied. “She’s just about the only girl he’s ever complimented, but everyone can see that she doesn’t feel the same towards him. If only someone could step in, and save them both from some dark end.”
“Uh… y-yeah…” Jack stammered. “Um… I’ve… gotta go. B-bye.”
Zen waited for Jack to be out of ear-shot then exclaimed “YOU IDIOT!!!!!!! When he goes to stand up for Lizzy’s honor, or whatever, either she’ll kill him and Chells, or Chells will kill him.”
“You worry too much, Zen” Tess comforted. “He’ll be fine. Let’s go over to Lizzy’s, and see how she’s doing.”
“Didn’t we already do that?” Zen put in.
“… Right!” Tess remembered. “Let’s go over to… Nick’s and see how he’s doing.”
“For what reason pray-tell?” Zen asked.
“The *Tasers.” Tess answered. *Mentioned in chapter six*
The two chameleons walked for about an hour, which was mostly consumed by Zen complaining about how they should have either, gotten in the car and driven over, or by some motor scooters.
They arrived at Nick’s house, just in time to see an electronic jolt go flying into the air from inside the garage. Shortly after, a large amount of smoke came pouring out from inside, followed a loud “I’m okay… mostly!”
Tess and Zen slowly made their way through the thick smoke, until Tess had found a fan. She flipped the device on, sending the smoke out. After doing so, they found Nick blotched with black spots, all over his working outfit.
“What happened in here?!” Tess asked loudly.
“I was trying out one of the Tasers, and it exploded.” Nick explained. “But the others work. Want to try them? You can pick your own out, when you’re finished. They all do something different.
Tess and Zen looked over the different Tasers. After a short amount of searching they each chose a Taser, and walked over to Nick.
“We got our choices.” Tess informed. “So what should we shoot at?”
“Well let’s see…” Nick turned in different directions, looking for a target then stopped at… nothing. “I guess for now you should just shoot it into the air. They might explode something if touching matter.”
“I’ll go first then.” Tess positioned her Taser to the entrance of Nick’s garage, then noticed that there were two buttons instead of one. Each had an arrow pointing a different diction, opposite of the other. Tess pressed the frontal one, and a Taser-beam shot forward. She pressed the back one, and a Taser shot back at her.
Her reflexes springing to life, Tess jumped out of the Taser’s path, and dropped it onto the floor. “I am so sorry Nick!” Tess apologized. Nick picked up the Taser, and examined it.
“It’s okay.” Nick reassured. “It didn’t break. Why don’t you try now Zen? Don’t worry, it won’t shoot backwards.”
Zen positioned his Taser at the entrance, and fired, but instead of one long-range thread of electricity, three electrical darts sprung out, and landed about one-hundred feet away. They all ran to where the darts had landed, then Nick picked them up, and placed them back inside the Taser/dart-gun.
“How did you come up with all of this?” Tess inquired.
“Well I got like a million ideas in my head, but not all of them worked out.” Nick replied. “These were the ones that did.”
“That is awesome.” Tess complimented. “But are you sure we can keep these? What if your Dad find out?”
“Hey I’m the one that made these things,” Nick stated, “plus my Dad doesn’t care usually, unless I’m fixing the car. They are all yours.”
“Thank you thank you thank you!!” Tess cheerfully complimented, giving Nick a small kiss on the cheek. Nick started blushing right after. “We’re really grateful Nick, but we have to go check on Siera now, if that’s okay.”
“That’s fine.” Nick reassured. “Tell her not to put pink on my outfit!”
“Will do!!” Tess yelled back, as she and her bro ran off. The next forty-two minutes seemed much less boring than the previous, as the two siblings just about lost themselves in playing with their new toys. They continued to shoot their Tasers over and over and over again, sometimes landing them into the snow, until Zen suggested not wasting the batteries.
They arrived at Siera’s house panting, as they reached for the door-bell. “Hello Tess and Zen!” Mrs. Struthers greeted, opening the door before they could ring the bell. “You’re here to see Siera aren’t you?”
“Yep!” Tess happily replied.
“Then would you mind answering me a question really quick?” Mrs. Struthers pleaded. “Do you know why Siera is so… stressed lately?”
“She’s been wanting to make a bunch of weirdo Steam-Punk outfits for some…thing?” Tess failed, attempting to fib,”… I really have no idea.”
“Well then maybe you can cure her.” Mrs. Struthers teased. “She’s in the family room.”
“Thanks. Tess acknowledged, as they walked through the house.
They entered the family room, which to their astonishment, was covered in glow-glue, sewing patterns, fabric, and a large amount of other things which neither of them could recognize. In the middle of all of this was a giant pile of stitched clothing, or also known as Siera Struthers.
“Hey guys!” Siera greeted. “Sorry but I am reeeeeeeally busy right now. Can’t talk for the next twelve seconds!”
Twelve seconds later…
“What-do-ya-need?” Siera said.
“We… came to see if you finished those outfits you were talking about?” Tess informed, starring at the giant mess of clothing. “What is all this?”
“Well, thanks to miss Terry-ble,” Siera started, “I have to do even more fabric work, to get the position in the clothing design for Raventide. I am now designing the fall clothing line for next year, I finished your guys’ outfits for winter and spring, I did some favors, and now I’m trying to make an outfit for me.”
“What did Terry do to make you do all this?” Tess asked.
“She told the principal that she thought I should have to ‘prove myself’ as a school outfit designer, BLECH!” Siera exclaimed. “THEN she got some kind of vote for it, and now I have to prove myself. The only upsides are, ONE, I get to see the look on her face, and TWO, these are really cute outfits.”
“They’re clothes!!!” Zen yelled. “Clothes can’t be-“
“Anyway…” Tess interrupted, “Can we have ours?”
“Yeah, they’re over in that corner.” Siera informed, pointing to an outfit rack. The two siblings rushed over to the rack and skimmed through the various outfits.
THIS, IS, AWE-SOOOOOOOOOOME!!!” Tess exclaimed in delight, holding up her outfit.
“THIS, IS, not.” Zen groaned, raising his outfit.
“I think she did a great job.” Tess complimented.
“She did, but Siera,” Zen stated, “I don’t think we’re supposed to look like super-heroes.”
“Oh pasha.” Siera ignored. “It’s fine. But the best one is what I got for Lizzy.”
“Really?” Tess said, anxiously.
“Yep. See, when you said that she was supposed to be the leader-type,” Siera started, “I thought that I should take what she usually wore, and added to it. And sooooo… TA DAH!”
“Nice times, like, a-million!” Tess complimented. “You even have a sheath for Lizzy’s dagger!”
“…Ditto.” Zen added blankly.
“Thank ya very much.” Siera said, smiling. “It wasn’t easy, but it was definitely fun. Hey, are those the Tasers we talked about?”
“Yep.” Tess said, handing Siera one.
“Nice!” Siera complimented. “I didn’t think he was actually gonna make them. Do they work?”
“Yeah, but these are the only ones so far. Sorry.” Zen apologized.
“Eh, don’t worry about it.” Siera reassured. “I haven’t made any of the other outfits yet, so you’re okay. Oh yeah. That reminds me. I’m making the outfits, Nick is making the gadgets, Chells is… being himself, and Lizzy is probably practicing being bossy or something, but what are you two doing to get the agency ready?”
Tess and Zen froze. They had completely forgotten what to do. They were the ones chosen to not only get everyone organized, but get some special location, to set up in. “… We have to go.” Tess said, as she and Zen ran out of the house, and back to their own, trying to think of how to catch up. Siera didn’t even have enough time to say “HEY!”, which she still said.
“OH MAN-O-MAN-O-MAN!!!!” Tess panicked. “WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!?!?!”
“Calm down Tess.” Zen said, attempting to comfort his sister.
“THERE IS NO WAY ON HYBRIA THAT I AM CALMING DOWN!!!!!” Tess yelled at her brother. “WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET EVERYTHING ORGANIZED, AND GET THE SPACE, AN-“
“Ba da be de de be do do, be ba di di doooooooo” Tess’s phone rang.
“DEEEEEEEEEEMOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!” Tess exclaimed, jumping into the air, in shock.
“Or just your phone.” Zen said, pulling Tess’s cellphone out of her backpack-pocket. “Hello?”
“Hey Zen.” Lizzy greeted. “Just calling to see if you guys are busy right now. I was wondering if mayb-“
“Sorry, Lizzy but apparently we’ve got a lot to do.” Zen slowly spoke out, distracted by his sister, who was muttering to herself, while what would appear to be a dance of stress.
“Oh come on!” Lizzy yelled. “What’s so big?!”
“Well Tess apparently signed both of us up to be the ones to get the location for our Phantis file gig, and we haven’t even began to start.” Zen informed.
“Oh, is that all?” Lizzy commented. “I can take care of that.”
“Really?” Zen asked, in slight disbelief.
“Yeah, I’ve got this hide-out place that we can use, but I’ll need to make some changes to it. One second here and… got it! Okay send this link to the others. It’s the location.” Lizzy sent a text with an image link on the end. Call me when you get it sent.”
“Will do.” Zen responded.
“Thank you.” Lizzy thanked, hanging up. Zen then brought over the phone to Tess and yelled to her “Yo!!! Stress-Queen, calm down. Lizzy fixed it!”
“Oh… okay.” Tess replied, halting her over-reaction. “So now what?”
“We send this link to… ev-er-y-bo-dy... aaaaand… there!” Zen sent the link to the others, then put the phone back inside the backpack-pocket.
“Again, now what?” Tess inquired.
“We go get the drawing board, and my laptop, then bring it to our new site.” Zen finished, as they started back home, calmly this time.
Meanwhile at Lizzy’s end…
“Okay. Time to go.” Lizzy said to herself ghosting out of her room, and out to the front-lawn. She then started running through the side-walk, until arriving at a *nature-dump-reserve *an area where dead trees and plants are kept for fertilizer production*
The black-cat, made her way to a fallen oak, then took out her dagger and though it into the ground. She then used her psychic connection with the knife, to make it spin around and around, drilling into the ground, making a large hole that continued to grow. As she drilled through, she thought about the oak in front of her, then it hit her. “I know where the file is.” Lizzy thought to herself, as she paused from her digging.
She then waited for a moment, and thought out her options. She could go for the file now, and risk being seen, or wait until the others came, and be able to get it more secretly. After much thinking, she turned back to the large hole she was digging, then continued to drill.
She drilled for about a minute or two, until a small amount of the debris caved into a small underground room. “Now the new ‘H.Q.’ is ready.” Lizzy thought to herself, as she jumped into the room.
Nzelde and Lizzy were split up at birth and Nzelde was found by 2 'loving' people. So loving that they abused her and used her like a slave. On Nzelde's 16th birthday they told her the truth which drove her into running away. When she reached the forest, she somehow regained her memories and was hell-bent on finding her sister.
She succeeded and found her being attacked by a cyclops. Nzelde got so pumped up and pissed off that she helped. She admitted to being Lizzy's sister then the 2 just made sure that they were related. When they got proof, they agreed to joining forces but then, one day Nzelde found out that her sister was evil when she saw Lizzy killing hoards of knights-good knights. She questioned Lizzy about this. She said that yes, she was evil-ish. Not entirely. This made Nzelde want to make her sister good. When Lizzy overheard her sister's plans she lost it. She turned against her and evilness seeped in.
She succeeded and found her being attacked by a cyclops. Nzelde got so pumped up and pissed off that she helped. She admitted to being Lizzy's sister then the 2 just made sure that they were related. When they got proof, they agreed to joining forces but then, one day Nzelde found out that her sister was evil when she saw Lizzy killing hoards of knights-good knights. She questioned Lizzy about this. She said that yes, she was evil-ish. Not entirely. This made Nzelde want to make her sister good. When Lizzy overheard her sister's plans she lost it. She turned against her and evilness seeped in.