The team came out of the portal as per usual and as soon as they were out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jackie screeched a shrill scream and grabbed Marco tightly.
"What happened!?" Marco panicked.
"NOT AGAIN! FOR GOD SAKES NOT AGAIN!" Jackie buried her face into Marco's chest as she loudly sobbed.
Marco looked up to finally analyse this new dimension and found himself surrounded by a jungle but what scared Jackie was a bit far in the distance, a ruined temple, the place was already overgrown with greenery and moss, it looked like an egipcian pyramid but made out of metal.
Marco got snapped out of his stupor by surprisingly Janna coming to comfort Jackie.
"Shhhh, shhhh, don't worry, look at it, it's made out of metal and it's surrounded by a city, it's probably just filled with death traps, you know? Like the lost city kind of shit." Janna warmly said to her oldest friend.
"You promise? No mummies or anything like that?" Jackie managed to squeak out on a shaky voice.
"You know that if a ghost comes I'll be more than glad to be the victim in your stead." Janna lightly held her friend's hand and gave her a smirk to reassure her.
"You better." Jackie sobbed and allowed herself to be guided by Janna into the direction of the pyramid.
Marco for his part was slack jawed as he watched the whole interaction unfold.
"That was uncharacteristically sweet." Greedy heart was just as flabbergasted as Marco.
"Was she always capable of something like that?" Marco carefully whispered with his face brick red as soon as he felt himself out of earshot.
"What? Am I the only one impressed that you have to bring up death traps to calm the blonde down?" Higgs came up from behind Marco making the latino jump.
"What happened Marco?" Sabrina inquired about Marco's disoriented expression.
"The dumbass was so enthralled with the lesbo pair that he forgot we existed." Brittney said annoyed.
"Ohh yeah, I almost forgot how that felt, you know… when you finally decided you preferred Star." Kelly said as anger slowly grew more apparent in her voice as she just gave an aside glance towards the latino before following Janna and Jackie.
"Let's just enter the stupid pyramid." Hekapoo spat out with spite and went towards the structure.
"WHY!? CAN'T WE JUST SIT STILL AND WAIT FOR THE FUCKING SCISSORS TO CHARGE UP!?" Brittney screamed out in frustration.
"Boss, number one, the one with the scissors possibly is IN the pyramid by now and two the last time we did that we almost got sun lasered to death it would be smart to assess our surroundings." Chantelle said dispassionately before following the rest with Sabrina and Higgs close behind.
"Fucking shit!" Brittney stood stupefied for a second before following.
"Hey, Barfo! You coming or not!?" Brittney screamed to the knight who had been scared stiff since he noticed that forgetting the existence of the rest of the group was not a welcomed gesture.
"I'll give you guys a second of head start." Marco gave a nervous laugh and stood there as he saw Brittney roll her eyes and continue on her way.
"HAHAHAHA, Kelly actually gave you the same stink eye as when she met you again in the library." If Greedy heart could it would be rolling on the floor.
"Can you shut up!? And I mean why even!?" Marco screamed in confusion.
"What do you mean why? What woman likes being blatantly ignored? FUCK what human being likes being treated as if he didn't exist?" Greedy heart was actually angry now.
"I didn't do that!" Marco retorted.
"You sure?" Greedy heart asked with an arched eyebrow and an unimpressed voice.
"Very su- AAHHH!" Marco turned around only to come face to face with Mime who was crossing her arms and had a stern look.
"Eeeeeehehehe… hi… didn't see you there." Marco said nervously.
Mime's only answer was to squint her eyes and march after the rest of the group.
"Let me ask again, Are you sure?" Greedy heart said with a sickening smug edge to its voice.
*Near the pyramid*
The group started to explore near ruins and it came to everyone's surprise.
"This place actually looks modern." Sabrina said in awe as she saw the metal city that had already been overtaken by nature, some tree trunks had already collapsed some of the tall buildings that looked like gigantic tubes with windows.
"I would even say futuristic." Chantelle said as she continuously looked around her.
"If these things were taken care of properly I'm sure they would look like the 'chrome future' we thought we would have in the 2000's." Chantelle said cleaning off the moss of a building with her hand and taking notice that it only took that to give that little spot a mirror sheen.
"Yeah, what do you think happened? This place looks like a post apocalypse after an utopic future, do you guys think it was the A.I. going haywire?" Jackie said with stars in her eyes.
"Maybe zombies but we just arrived so late we missed all the action." A disappointed Janna interjected.
"Oh, oh, What about a viral infection?" Sabrina skipped in place with excitement.
"Girls, from the stuff we've seen dragons is a possibility." Chantelle said with plain confidence.
"Pfff, stupid shit… economic colapse followed by riots until everyone died obviously." Brittney pointed out offhandedly.
The rest of the group sans Marco were looking at the chattering lot horrified.
"Marco… what's wrong with them?" Kelly said, actually hiding behind the latino.
"Yeah, that is plain sadistic." Higgs said with revulsion.
Mime for her part joined Kelly hiding behind Marco.
"Yeah, stuff from while we were growing up just wanted to figure out how the world would end, this might seem more like a fantasy for them than anything else." Marco said embarrassed.
"And how many of them accurately pointed out that "destroying magic" would be the thing that ends the world." Hekapoo sneered.
"What? You aren't going to laugh this time." Marco thought to his heart.
"I was about to say the exact same joke, I feel cheated." Greedy heart sounded like a child throwing a tantrum.
"She's right though." Though it could still push out a little slight that made Marco whimper.
"Hey!" While he was distracted Jackie jumped right in front of Marco scaring the daylights out of him, thankfully both Mime and Kelly kept him on his feet.
"Oh! Sorry dude ehehehe." Jackie sounded a bit embarrassed.
"Hey! We are taking bets on what that pyramid is, who's in? I say it is a giant battery for the city." Jackie said pointing at the big building they were all heading to.
"I have a few Ideas but I'd rather confirm them when we get there." Marco said politely.
"I mean… look at the road we are in and all the roads seem to go towards the pyramid, maybe like a central control for all this tech?" Kelly pondered out loud.
"It's the king's castle." Higgs tried not to make eye contact with Jackie to not show that she was actually into this little game.
Mime made a bunch of theatrical exaggerated gestures.
"Cultural center, I didn't think about that mon ami." Jackie snapped her fingers in a little "eureka" moment.
"And you Hekapoo?" Jackie turned her head towards Hekapoo.
"I'll pass, this place is too eerily familiar, I might get it right by accident." Hekapoo said carefully as she analysed every little detail as she walked.
"Well we are not far off." Jackie said with excitement and ran towards the pyramid.
"Oh, now it's a race!?" Higgs followed with the same excitement.
"If it is you ain't winning." Jackie giggled and doubled the pace.
"It sure is nice to see her in a good mood again." Kelly mused out loud.
"She is great isn't it?" Marco said with a love struck sigh.
"YOU DUMB FUCK!" Greedy heart screamed in a panic inside Marco's head, the latino couldn't even try to figure out why was the commotion all about when he felt a hard punch on his shoulder.
Turning to look he just saw Kelly with a big frown and her hand still in a fist. The green haired woolette just huffed and ran towards the pyramid and once again before Marco could figure out what happened he felt a slap on the back of his head.
"Awesome job, Romeo!" Screamed Heckapoo without even turning around as she ran to the rest of the group.
Marco turned to see Mime who frowned and shook her head before joining the race to the pyramid.
"5 minutes, can you not piss them off for 5 minutes?" Pleaded the exasperated Greedy heart.
"What the fuck did I do!?" Marco retorted with an exasperated scream of his own.
*In the pyramid*
Marco was in awe not by how magnificent or alien the place was… but by how familiar it was. The place was hollow and divided in various floors all of them were little floors in the perimeter allowing the center to be void but the small floors that hugged the walls were littered with departaments with wide doors, and windows advertising products and stores, also there were tons of signs and maps around the place.
"Holy shit it's a mall!" Brittney screamed with excitement as she browsed through the place.
"Oh great! Nobody won the bet." Janna sighed exhasperatedly.
"What were you even gonna win in the bet?" Marco said.
"Bragging rights." Janna said offhandedly.
"HEY! THERE IS NOTHING TO LOOT HERE!" Higgs screamed from the third floor.
"What do you mean nothing! This is a commerce center it shoul-." Brittney kicked down a door angrily only to find the place completely empty.
"What the hell!? THIS PLACE IS EMPTY!" Brittney screamed until something dawned on her.
"HA! That means there were looting and riots, point for me on that one!" Bragged the heiress.
"This place… I know this place." Hekapoo muttered to herself.
"Hey there are counters here and everything, but don't they look a bit off?" Jackie said, looking at the chrome counter with a huge blue concave circle in its center.
"Wait a second…" Sabrina said, putting her hand on top of the blue circle and giving a little chant.
Sabrina's hair began to float and her eyes glowed slightly but that was small potatoes compared with the counter shooting a pillar of blue light straight up right in front of her. The pillar began to divide into ribbons of light that started to jump at the walls of the department creating posters, chairs, floating screens of light and the most important thing, a product appeared right on that concave circle.
"A ring? Did you know a spell for this?" Jackie said as she picked up the simple flat, silver ring.
"*Pant* *pant* No… I just transferred magic from me to the counter." Sabrina said out of breath and looked around to see the place actually looked like a jewelry with lots of counters filled with products along with floating screens displaying catalogues.
"This is unreal." Jackie put her hand on top of one of the newly emerged counters and her hand went through it.
"Woah! Ok this is just another way to display stuff not actual stuff." Jackie said surprised before all the things that had appeared thanks to Sabrina's magic vanished in front of her eyes.
"And that's all my magic can manage it seems." Sabrina said disappointed.
"Not exactly." Jackie proudly showed Sabrina the silver ring that she made.
"It appears that once made it doesn't disappear." Jackie said with a huge smile on her face, a smile that Sabrina imitated, taking the ring in her hands Sabrina ran outside the store she was in.
"Guys! The stores work with magic, we can make anything we want!" Sabrina screamed letting the echo carry the message all around the place and like clockwork all the whole group with the exception of Hekapoo peeked their heads from different corners and floors from the mall.
"Wait! Really! Oh my god! I haven't gone on a shopping spree in sooooo long and this time I get to do it for free! Finally this bullshit situation is starting to have some positives." Brittney was about to cry out of joy.
"Well… I'm in dire need of perfume." Chantelle muttered making sure no one heard her.
"Wooo! If this place used to have magic adepts they might have books on the subject!" Kelly excitedly screamed from the second to last floor.
"Weapons! Armor! Tools for survival! FOOD! Keep your head on the essentials god damn it! We are not here to dilly dally!" Higgs made sure her voice was heard throughout the whole mall.
"Look who's suddenly a team player!" Greedy heart screamed, making the rest of the group laugh.
"Come on, come on, this place works by materialising matter using magic, I have it in the tip of my tongue." Heckapoo who still was on the entrance was pacing back and forth while muttering frustrated with herself.
"So where do we start!?" Brittney screamed.
"Sorry Brittney, a single small ring took quite a bit out of me. We can't just go around getting everything it seems." Sabrina's statement was accompanied by exasperated groans from all around the place.
"Ok, ok, take it easy, if this place used magic, it looks this technological but it is also this ancient… then this place is…" Heckapoo massaged the sides of her head to try to remember.
"Hey guys… I think I found a battery for this place!" Janna screamed from the top floor in front of a giant glass tube that was bound to the floor and ceiling from its ends lots of cables spread all around and disappeared into the building and the middle of it was solely a glass tube with a mouse training wheel inside of it.
"It would make the scissors charging stop but maybe we could use the mall freely if I shove Marcello in here!" Janna screamed her plan.
"Do it! I don't care if I'm stuck in a free of charge mall!" Brittney screamed.
"Yeah! We could get what we need and then take the little ball of evil out!" Higgs weighted in.
"Who agrees with the plan!?" Jackie shouted from where she stood.
"AYE!" Sounded almost unanimously.
"Well, here goes!" Janna said as she opened a little door to put Marcelo into the training wheel.
"Where are we? Where are we?... reactivating the place?-WAIT DON'T!" Heckapoo managed to scream too late as an impossibly bright light lit up on the top floor.
Every single store lit up one by one showing their displays proudly as they did so. Every single person was squealing with excitement as they saw the stores beginning to work.
"Janna take that unicorn out of there NOW!" Heckapoo screamed at the top of her lungs making all of the people there pay attention to her.
"Why?" Janna screamed from the top floor to the woman on the ground floor.
"ALERT! ALERT! UNAUTHORISED PERSONNEL ARE ATTEMPTING TO INFILTRATE THE FACILITY! ALERT! ALERT!" A robotic voice screamed blared from speakers scattered around the mall.
"Because of that, you dumbass, take that unicorn out!" Heckapoo retorted firmly.
"Cristal clear!" Janna screamed as she ran towards Marcello but as she approached the tube the sirens blared even louder.
"UNIDENTIFIED PERSONNEL APPROACHING CENTRAL POWER SUPPLY!" A wall instantly materialised between Janna and Marcelo.
"EJECTING FOREIGN AGENT!" The robotic voice said before the wall propelled forward shooting Janna off the top floor.
"JANNA!" Marco screamed from the floor right below the top one and leaped from the edge of the floor to catch the falling witch.
"And who's catching us!?" Greedy heart's scream was cut short when Marco was grabbed from mid air by his hoodie.
"Janna. Seriously. DIET!" Jackie screamed frustrated as she struggled to lift both the knight and the witch.
"Why only me!?" Said Janna outraged while draped in Marco's arms.
"I'm sure most of this weight is yours and don't argue… with me… right now!" With that last push Jackie was able to lift both of them over her head making them land safely but not painlessly on the ground.
"Nice catch tiger." Janna congratulated the knight while cuddling as close to him as she could and keeping eye contact with half lidded eyes.
"Are you ok?" Both Marco and Greedy heart asked at the same time with the same amount of concern.
"Never better." Janna closed her eyes and snuggled to the latino's chest, the moment lasted for half a second before an explosion occurred right over them.
"Janna, some help?" Sabrina said with her legs shaking and surrounded by bomb scarabs.
Janna looked up and saw a giant buzz-saw being moved by a giant robot arm and it was coming right at her and Marco but was stopped by another 2 bomb scarabs. With that Sabrina fell to her knees and the rest of the scarabs fell to the ground as they withered and turned to dust, Janna saw the whole display with a face of disapproval and stood up.
"Sab, how many times do I have to tell you? Ration how much magic you use at one time!" Janna's eyes glowed blue and a giant vine latched itself into the robot arm operating the buzz-saw.
"Using too much magic in one go is for last resorts only! Remember there is not much magic to spare! Besides if you just use a ton of magic and then it withers and dies because you couldn't keep up it would be a waste anyways!" Janna said while she struggled with the buzz-saw as she was playing tug-o-war with the robot arm.
"Bu-but you've been doing that like five times a day this past month!" The distressed Sabrina said conjuring her own vine.
"And all of them were necessary!" Janna responded firmly. With the help of Sabrina both were able to keep the buzz-saw in place but the stubborn thing began to overtake the twin vines holding it down.
But before the saw could break the vines Kelly leaped from the 4rth floor to cut the robot arm with her ginormous sword to land gracefully beside Janna.
"Guys… I think we should have thought about there being a security sistem." Kelly said distraught.
"I agre-" Marco tried to respond but an incessant "Clank" sound interrupted him.
A group of small robots made of miscellaneous stuff like silverware, jewelry, boxes and what looked like car parts came stumbling at them while visibly electrically charged.
"Kelly, do you have any more weapons in there? Not made of metal preferably." Marco panicked.
"Ehhh… Mind going inside to check?" Kelly slowly backed off.
"You two! Some magic would be appreciated!" Kelly turned on her hill only to see both Janna and Sabrina stopping another 3 buzz-saws.
"Yeah! I'm sure but we are a LITTLE busy!" Janna spat back at the woolette.
"I'm so sorry, Kelly!" Sabrina screamed teary eyed.
Kelly and Marco turned to face the horde of robots with decided expressions.
"This is gonna hurt." Marco said covering his hands with the torn sleeves he still carried around.
"Pffft, I've had worse." Kelly said as she got ready to pounce.
"Hey! where did Jackie go?" Marco asked, confused.
"Jackie was here?" Kelly answered just as confused, relaxing a bit even.
As if on cue Kelly's hair rustled and Jackie shot out riding Nachos.
"I'll see what I can do about the battery! You guys try to hold your ground!" Jackie screamed as she fast approached the top floor with a plastic spatula on hand.
"HEY! I need that for pancakes!" Kelly screamed.
"I'll get you another one! I promise! AHHHH!" Jackie turned for a second only to be violently jolted back to attention because Nachos had to evade another buzz-saw.
"Is it weird that I am both happy to let her lead and afraid that she does so considering that I saw her wet herself over some friendly ghosts?" Kelly said with concern.
"Sounds reasonable to me… but you know…" Marco carefully pointed at the still approaching horde of minibots.
"Don't worry, I didn't forget about those." Kelly put her stance back.
"HAAAAAA!" Both of them charged directly at the horde, Marco slapped robots off of the floor one by one and since the robots were kind of flimsy they shattered on impact with the ground, meanwhile Kelly was swiping a good number of the small clanker with the blunt side of her sword.
The process was slow and most of all painful, Kelly's sword was not isolated to the hilt and hitting so many robots at a time made sure that Kelly felt jolts all the way to her spine every time she felt her arms more and more jittery after every swing until she couldn't even hold her sword at all.
Marco had his hair standing making a spiky afro because of the electricity, every time he slapped a robot off to the ground floor a jolt of electricity made him jump but the problem came after a few robots were thrown off as the sleeves he was using as gloves started to give out smoke.
"Kid, your hands are on fire!" Greedy Heart screamed alarmed as his makeshift gloves were indeed lit aflame.
"AAAAAAHHHH!" Marco screamed and ran in circles until he finally threw the blazing sleeves off the edge of the floor.
"*Huff* *Huff* well... there goes the sleeves." Marco said frozen in fear as the number of robots hadn't decreased it actually looked like it had increased.
"... I can barely hold my sword any more." Kelly said out of breath.
"We can't hold these things much longer!" Sabrina desperately screamed as the saw was inching its way to her face and Janna was in a similar situation.
And suddenly as if it was a flash of light both the robots and the buzz-saws stopped to just as suddenly fall apart, right in front of the stupefied group stood Hekapoo straight and proud… until she hunched over to catch her breath.
"*Huff* *pant* *huff* Stupid useless mortal body." Hekapoo decried her situation but the rest of the group smiled or laughed in both approval and relief.
"H-poo!" Marco jumped with joy to try and hug the newcomer but was stopped by an angry frown and a hand grabbing his collar.
"What the fuck is wrong with all of you!? Not one of you!? Really not a single one of you thought that this place might have a security system!?" Hekapoo screamed outraged at the group that now just looked embarrassed.
"... I'm sorry, I wanted books." Kelly and Sabrina said at the same time while they hung their heads low in shame.
"Great excuse. Hey muscles! Here take these." Hekapoo threw her scissors to Marco.
"The handles are the best of the best in both material and craftsmanship, it is completely isolated so no need to fear electricity." Hekapoo said as she haughtily walked towards Kelly's hair.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Where do you think you are going, Casper the furry ghost?" Janna said furiously.
"To rest, I had to run from the entrance to here and clean the mess you couldn't get out of, I think I've earned it." Hekapoo squinted her eyes and her gaze just dared the witch to question her further.
"*Groan* Ok, you might want to work on your cardio if a couple flights of stairs is all it takes to take you down." Janna said with barely contained rage.
"You know, Janna, you might also want to work on your car…" Sabrina tried to intervene but Janna sent a glare at her direction that made the apprentice witch back off in a second.
"Nothing… I said nothing." Sabrina said alongside with a nervous laugh.
"You better come out of there if we need you." Kelly squinted her eyes and furrowed her brow despite there being no way for Hekapoo to see it.
"Don't worry, I will, I just need to remember exactly where we are." Hekapoo whispered to the woolette.
*At a higher floor of the pyramid*
Chantelle, Brittney and Higgs were huddled together in a corner of a store, Mime was hidden behind the trio just peeking the top of her trembling head as she saw a horde of full grown man size robots inching their way to them.
The robots were formed by what looked like buckets as their torso and heads, their arms and hands were made by sharp tongs and their legs were made by tubes joined by joint balls and they maintained stability with slabs of thick metal as feet.
"Care for another bet?" Higgs said with a confident smile.
"Shoot." Chantelle answered with a slight smirk.
"Whoever beats more of these wins." Higgs stated plain and simple.
"Oh… I'm out then." Chantelle said disappointed.
"What am I winning, red head?" Brittney smugly said.
"Bragging rights." Higgs shrugged nonchalantly.
"I'll take it." Brittney sneered.
"If you win it." Higgs immediately jumped on one of the robots.
"I will." Brittney squinted and threw a punch directly to the head of one of the robots sending it flying and with that robot out of commission Brittney tore a pair of tongs off of its body and used them as a baseball bat against some other robots.
"Ha! You are quite the savage, huh?" Higgs admired the heiress handiwork as a bunch of robots were being sent flying by her mighty swing.
"I'm what, bitch!?" Brittney screamed upset.
"I meant it as a compliment!" Higgs retorted as she imitated the asian woman by tearing off a pair of tongs off of a robot and then using it as a battering ram with a straight line of robots making short work of a number of them.
Meanwhile still in the corner the now terrified Mime hugged Chantelle and the big hipped woman began to pat the mime's head.
"Don't worry, I can't fight a crowd but I can protect you from those two." While Chantelle comforted Mime the laugh of both women echoed around them as they were cackling with glee at the slaughter they were causing.
"Wow, Higgs, I thought we were the sadistic ones." Chantelle said, focusing her attention on the blitz in front of her but Mime poked her on the shoulder pointing at three robots that were able to avoid the berserker pair and approach the two cornered women.
"Well… three I can manage." Chantelle cracked her knuckles and approached slowly but felt another tap on the shoulder.
Turning around she saw Mime vomiting a baseball bat and the artist generously offered the weapon.
"Ohhh… If you are so kind how can I refuse." Chantelle contorted her face into a nice smile but her furred brow showed just how displeased she was with this, Chantelle took the weapon anyways and used it to great effect with all three robots.
When the rest of the group caught up to them the only thing they found was a mountain of trash and a pair of bickering women.
"I took down 45!" Higgs screamed exasperated.
"I~ took down 45, I split that last one in half!" Brittney pointed at herself and then pointed at a half robot nailed to the wall by a pair of tongs stabbed through its head.
"I nailed it to the wall!" Higgs argued.
"Oh come on! Being cut in half it's obviously what took it down!" Brittney kept the discussion going.
Marco and the rest tiptoed around the arguing pair and went to a corner of the store where Chantelle was comforting Mime who was in a fetal position and rocking herself back and forth, her eyes as wide as plates.
"What happened to her?" Marco asked with concern as he kneeled to help comfort her.
"She saw stuff… you know, stuff that only Brittney and Higgs can do." Chantelle pointed at the two still arguing women.
"Where is Heka?" Chantelle asked.
"In my hair, she said she was tired and needed to think about some stuff." Kelly answered promptly.
"... And officer Thomas?" Chantelle continued.
"She went to get Marc-" Janna began to explain before Nachos crashed into the store with Jackie on top of her to the gasps and surprise of everyone present.
"Wh-?" Marco managed to squeak out before Jackie interrupted.
"DUCK!" Jackie screamed and everyone did so as a swarm of robots with the form of eggs with wings with forks attached to their fronts crashed into the store to find themselves embedded on its walls.
"*Pant* *Pant* That thing doesn't want anything near that crazy unicorn." Jackie said frustrated while she explained that the last flying robot went straight to Jackie but she swatted it out of the air with the spatula.
"I'm completely out of ideas." Jackie said distressed.
"Can't we just burst our way in there?" Brittney said seriously.
"I agree." Higgs continued.
"It creates a wall and throws you off the floor." Jackie explained.
"I would suggest Nachos but…" Marco looked at the scratch marks all over his dragon.
"Yeah… we didn't have a good time." Jackie scratched her chin with the spatula.
"Hey!" Kelly took her spatula and haphazardly threw it into her hair.
"… Sorry about that." Jackie's mood was lifted immediately with the little giggle that Kelly's face gave her.
Everyone stood there for a bit, deep in thought until a very loud bug called everyone's attention and they saw a big scarab that had a wick attached to its head, the scarab did a few laps around the group until it settled on Janna's outstretched finger.
"Duh." Janna raised her eyebrow and had a smug smirk on her face.
"So we are just gonna hope that your magic is better than this whole building?" Marco inquired incredulously.
"Oh believe me I will be better than this whole city if that brings Marcello back." Janna said in a decisive manner.
"Anyone that wants to stand back and think of something better while this place is making more death robots, please, be my guest." Janna said after crossing her arms and turning on her heel to leave the store. Everyone followed the witch with differing amounts of confidence.
*At the top floor.*
The top floor was completely barren with the exception of the entrance and the aforementioned tube that fed the whole building and that was currently imprisoning a very eager Marcello as he was running on the training wheel with gusto.
"UNAUTHORISED PERSONNEL APPROACHING!" The robotic voice blared once again.
"We heard you the first time!" Janna screamed and her eyes started to glow blue.
"Sab, now it's the time to use all the reserves you've got." Janna turned to her apprentice who nodded and her eyes started to glow as well.
"Soooooo~ we just charge ahead and trust you?" Jackie asked her oldest friend.
"Can you do it?" Janna gave her a smug smirk.
"Do you even need to ask?" Jackie rolled her eyes at the insinuation.
All of them sans Janna and Sabrina charged ahead and from the floor another wall appeared.
"Frigid wave!" Janna put her hands on the floor and a wave of icy mist rolled and expanded in front of her freezing the ground in front of her.
"Jump!" Marco ordered and everyone followed, they jumped over the wave that managed to freeze into place the emerging wall.
Then a bunch of buzz-saws appeared from the ceiling and were going straight to the group. Marco threw one blade from Hekapoo's scissors to Jackie and a small nod was all the police-woman needed to throw herself to the saws and slice them into bits alongside the knight and they both stood their ground there cutting every new saw that emerged.
The tube behind the wall began to glow and with that a bunch more trash robots started to drop down from the other side of the wall to face the group. Higgs and Brittney looked at each other with a sickening smile.
"What do you say, squinty eyes? We are both back to 44?" Higgs said with excitement.
"You are on, ginger." Brittney responded and both of them began the slaughter once again.
The tube once again glowed and a swarm of flying egg robots threw themselves at the group but Sabrina from the back made a finger gun with her right hand pointing directly at the swarm.
"Humming thunder bird!" From Sabrina's finger a small yellow hummingbird took flight leaving a trail of lightning in its wake and with little effort the hummingbird went to every robot in the swarm one by one deactivating them and letting them drop to the floor.
But some of the flying robots were able to break through the onslaught and threw themselves directly at the two witches, Janna and Sabrina barely noticed a single robot gunning for them before a hard hit sent the robot flying.
"Batter up." Chantelle said with the baseball bat that Mime gave her and took a batting position to hit any other robot.
"Didn't know you played baseball." Both Sabrina and Janna said surprised but the big hipped woman giggled.
"I don't but this is a good start." Chantelle said as she lifted her leg high and brought it down alongside the bat to hit another robot.
"That's for pitching." Sabrina said with a giggle.
"Noted." Chantelle smiled and winked at her old cheerleading partner.
"You two just focus on magic." Chantelle gave the magic duo a relaxed smile and went back to bat.
"On it." Janna said making her hands glow bright "Strength of giants."
Janna's spell made a beeline towards Kelly making her glow red and the woolette ran head first towards the frozen wall that crumbled like a bunch of stacked cards against the librarians headbutt.
"Wow can I get that one on the regular? That was awesome." Kelly said in awe at her handy work, looking at the destroyed wall with a child like glee.
"I'll think about it!" Janna called with a cackle from the other side of the floor.
Mime for her part had already reached the tube and had already opened the door and grabbed Marcello from the tube.
"HA! What are you gonna do now you useless tin can!" Janna gloated but the tube still had energy left as it glowed and a bunch of portals opened under every person on the floor.
"You cheating sack of shi-." Janna managed to say before everyone was swallowed by the portals.
*On the garbage disposal*
The portals spat out the group in a big room filled with trash, after a harsh landing they checked their surroundings.
"Is everyone ok?" Marco called for everyone and started to look for them.
"I'm here." Marco heard a groan and went towards it to find Chantelle lying on her back.
"O God!" Marco panicked.
"Don't worry sir. Diaz, I can walk." The secretary struggled to stand up and Marco hurried to help her but when Chantelle felt Marco near she pushed him away.
Marco stared at Chantelle in disbelief and the secretary blushed and looked away.
"Sir. DIaz… Please let me do this on my own, now it's not a good time." Chantelle said not looking at Marco in the eye.
"...Ok." Marco replied, still visibly worried.
"What's up with her? She would usually pretend she fell so that we end up on top of her." Said the mystified Greedy Heart, Marco just ignored him.
"Hey! I'm here!" Kelly screamed from the top of a pile of garbage that she jumped off of.
"Are you ok?" Marco asked with concern.
"Yep!" Kelly said with a huge smile while she flexed her arm.
Marco gave a sigh of relief and then looked scared again.
"And H-poo?" Kelly gave him a knowing look.
"Still here, haven't made a peep, she might be napping actually." Kelly said, trying to lighten the mood but then she saw the limping secretary.
"Are you ok, Chantelle? Want me to help?" Kelly tried to help but Chantelle stopped her.
"I'm ok, don't worry." Chantelle gave a strained smile and despite her reservations Kelly backed off.
"Ok, we are missin-." Marco tried to keep a list in his head but a sound of muffled screams called his attention. Going where the sound was they found Jackie trapped upside down inside a pile of trash as her legs were flailing wildly.
"Look at them thighs!" Greedy Heart said with joy.
"Now is not the time!" Marco whispered angrily to himself as he grabbed Jackie by the ankles and pulled.
"Oh God! That was an experience." Jackie said taking a deep breath after being taken out of the garbage.
A pair of loud voices approached them and taking a look they found Higgs and Brittney loudly arguing with each other. Higgs was piggybacking Janna and Brittney was doing the same to Sabrina.
"Can't we just agree on a stalemate, we lost to the fucking building anyways!" Higgs screamed exasperated.
"No way! I lost to the building, not to you!" Brittney argued.
The pair got near the rest of the group and without even acknowledging them, they just left the girls in the care of the rest as they kept arguing, Marco bridal carried Janna and Kelly did the same for Sabrina.
"Either shut them up or kill me, I don't care which." Janna said with tired desperation as she tried to shield her ears.
"Where is Marcello?" Janna asked before Marco could even open his mouth.
"I don't know." Marco replied and his heart sank when he saw that Janna looked genuinely distressed until a loud whistle called their attention.
On top of a mountain of garbage Mime was sitting and with pride she lifted her hands that were holding the black unicorn in his mini size.
"Marcello!" Janna screamed with joy and basically jumped off of Marco's grasp while Marcello did the same with Mime's hold and turned into his horse size to run down the garbage pile.
"I'll never let you off my sight again." Janna sobbed as she snuggled to the unicorn's chest.
"Ok dude, you are only at a half chub if you stop staring at the… admittedly cute scene you might manage to keep this on the down low." Marco heard Greedy Heart whisper in his head.
"Really, Barfo?" Brittney said disappointed.
"AAAAAAHAHAHAHA! Not even that is impressive from you, fake knight!" Higgs guffawed while pointing at the latino's crotch.
"I insist nothing impressive but nothing that can't be worked with either." Chantelle said with authority.
"Can we stop this talk?" Marco pleaded and looked at Janna who was giving him a shy smile and the witch then gave him a small wink.
"I need to go somewhere." Marco said with desperation as she fled while hiding his crotch.
"Go where?" Jackie asked to his retreating form.
"ANYWHERE!" Marco retorted.
After Marco was out of their line of sight Higgs still had a fit of the giggles.
"That was a bit excessive don't you think?" Jackie asked.
"Nah!" Higgs hastily dismissed.
"I remember now!" Without much anticipation Hekapoo bursted out of Kelly's hair.
"Ahhh!" "What the fuck dude?" "You are gonna give me a heart attack!" Everyone jumped in surprise at the sudden revelation.
"Where are we?" Hekapoo paid no mind and just looked around.
"Yeah, you missed a bit, long story short, portals and garbage disposal or dump, thanks for your help by the way." Janna said dismissively and Hekapoo just stared at her for a bit before regaining her bearings.
"Ok, anyways we are-." Hekapoo tried to hurry with her explanation but…
"KELLY! BRING HEKAPOO HERE! SHE NEEDS TO SEE THIS!" Marco screamed from the other side of the place.
"OH! COME ON!" Screamed the exasperated Hekapoo.
The whole team hurried to where they heard Marco and they found the latino staring at a wall that had a mural painted in it.
"Yep… now I'm a hundred percent sure where we are." Hekapoo said with revulsion as she saw the mural. The mural was a painting of Glossaryck vomiting, the vomit filled rivers and there were a bunch of red people feeding from the river to then go and raise a city.
"This is the first civilisation to ever use magic." Hekapoo groaned out.
"What? Did I destroy another civilisation?" Marco pulled his head in a panic but Hekapoo slapped him in the back of the head.
"Hold your horses, look at this place, do you believe this amount of decay happens in five years?" Hekapoo tried to bring the knight back to his senses.
"I-I… I guess not." Marco still sounded confused but he was now listening.
"These guys went the way of the dodo way before I was even born." Hekapoo said firmly.
"Wow! So this blue guy is kinda like a representation of magic or something?" Sabrina examined the mural with amazement and curiosity.
"No, he is the personification of magic just like my uncle is the personification of time." Hekapoo patted the mural.
"... Waiiittt~." Sabrina started to turn from the mural to the furry woman.
"Yeah, I'm not proud of it." Hekapoo cut the topic before it could come up.
"But coming back to this place… I don't know a damn." Hekapoo shrugged.
"What?" All the group screamed at the same time.
"I know shit about this place besides what I just told you." Hekapoo leaned on the wall.
"It's name?" Sabrina asked.
"Nope." Hekapoo said nonchalantly.
"How did it collapse?" Marco Inquired with urgency.
"No idea." Hekapoo kept the aloof act.
"What kind of creatures populated this place?" Kelly was now just trying to get something out of Hekapoo.
"Well… The mural might give a few clues." But the woman remained uninterested.
"How did they use magic?" Jackie questioned firmly and Hekapoo gave herself a second to think and then she opened her mouth, everyone present leaned in to listen.
"Beats me." Everyone face palmed at Hekapoo's smug answer.
"How can you not know about this place? Your fucking father created this place." Brittney remarked with her arms crossed.
"Pfff, you think THAT helps at all? Here, check this out." Hekapoo sneered at Brittney's observation.
"Marco, do you remember the MHC my brothers?" Hekapoo asked sweetly.
"Hummm. Rhombulus, Lekmet and Omnitraxus." Marco recalled the high commission.
"Do you remember Reynaldo?" Hekapoo kept with the sweet act.
"...Who?" Marco was taken aback by that statement.
"EXACTLY! Reynaldo was also a part of the magic high commission but he was also a mistake so he got taken somewhere else by Glossaryck and he never talked about him again." Hekapoo screamed furious.
"I'm sure you remember that absolutely everything felt like it was planned when it came to that annoying blue fuck, do you know why that was?" Hekapoo pointed an accusatory finger at Marco.
"Because he could see the future or something?" Marco answered with his hands in the air and took a few steps back.
"NO! It was because the asshole never opened his useless yap when it came to his mistakes! This place was a mistake so nobody knew what the fuck happened with it!" Hekapoo's accusatory finger went from Marco to the painting of her father on the wall.
"All he was ever good for was being a dick and acting smug about it! FUCK YOU!" Hekapoo flipped the mural off and ended up a panting mess after her rant.
"Wow, and here I thought you had daddy issues, boss." Chantelle said smugly to Brittney.
"H-poo?" Marco approached the pale woman but once again her hand stopped him.
"I'm fine, thinking about that asshole just riles me up, that's all." Hekapoo regained her breath and again leaned on the wall.
"You should improve your approach if you are taking advice." Greedy Heart said with little to no mockery in its voice.
"Ok, we should find a way out of here and-" Jackie sensed that the talk had ended and decided to get down and dirty.
"No." But Janna interrupted.
"Why is that?" Jackie turned to the witch with a firm question.
"I'm tired, we could activate another alarm if we try to use the mall with Marcello and the only thing we could need is clothes and if you look at the mural the people here had two heads, wings and a tail, I don't think we can use their clothes." Janna said without missing a beat.
"We could adapt the clothes." Sabrina helpfully offered.
"Nope, gonna take a nap." Janna just plopped into the ground and immediately started to snore.
"... Anyone for not taking any more risks here?" Jackie asked and Sabrina just passed out.
"Ok, looks like we are all overdue for a nap." Jackie giggled.
"Kelly, do you mind?" Jackie asked sweetly to the woolette.
"All right, hope the smell is not that strong inside." Kelly let her hair down and everyone but Jackie entered.
"You are not going in?" Kelly asked concerned.
"I'll check the surroundings first, then nap time for me." Jackie winked at the woolette before going dumpster diving.
*A few hours later*
"Can we use the scissors now? I'm tired of this place!" Brittney whined and Janna checked the scissors.
"Yep, let's go." Janna said dispassionately and opened the portal.
"Did you find anything interesting?" Kelly asked Jackie when they were the only ones left.
"Yep… But I'll tell you what it is later." Jackie put a finger to her lips and winked before throwing herself into the portal and Kelly stood there concerned for a bit before doing the same.
*Author's notes*
ITTTTT'SSSSSSS DOOOOONEEEEEEE.
Sorry for the long wait but I have lots and lots and lots of news.
First, I went to English school to try and improve my grammar for you guys. Long story short, I'm now a certified english teacher… and my grammar still sucks! So if anyone has the heart to actually help me improve (even if it is just pointing me in the direction of helpful resources) I will be eternally grateful.
Second. I finally have an AO3 account, I was really tiptoing around Lemons because sincerely I'm afraid of because I was here when there was a purge of lots of those, I don't want that for this story so I will stay in line here… and put all the saucy stuff on my AO3 :D just let me warn anyone who is waiting for that: don't expect much from me on that front.
Finally. I will try to fix grammar mistakes on the other chapters and my other stories and this time I mean it because I want them all touched up and pretty before I start putting them into the AO3 I already gave them a peek and at the very least I can correct the typing mistakes I made, so the stories won't continue before I finish with the rewrites and uploading to AO3 (same user name as my FF) and that will take time... again, sorry about that.