“He obviously didn’t go to Engineering,” Opal muttered to Yazmyn.
“Where did he vanish to? Inconsiderate, that’s what this is!” grumbled Yazmyn. “How are we supposed to follow him if he continues choosing dark corners to hide in?” Just then, the minister they were tailing brushed past them. “Hey! Rude!” protested Yazmyn. The minister didn’t even acknowledge her! “…What, is he deaf?”
“No, look at the eyes,” replied Opal. Yazmyn humored her…then realized his whole face was a blank smile.
“…Hypnosis?” guessed Yazmyn.
“It’s gotta be,” agreed Opal. The minister then pressed a button near the door.
“Access to this room,” replied a computerized voice, “requires authorization sigil.” The minister created a magic circle, then it turned into a strange symbol. He then thrust the symbol into the crystal near the button. “Thank you, Minister Terry. Sigil accepted.” The door then opened and the minister entered the room.
“And what are you up to in there, I wonder?” mused Yazmyn.
“That’s just an empty storage room,” remarked Opal. “Something’s up.” The door shut as they spoke. “Dang it!”
“Now what?!” groaned Yazmyn.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got access,” assured Opal. She pressed the button by the door.
“Access to this room,” said the computer, “requires authorization sigil.”
“Yeah, yeah, here it is,” grumbled Opal as she made her sigil out of a magic circle and thrust it into the crystal near the button.
“Thank you, Apprentice Protectorate Opal Garcia. Sigil accepted.” The door opened.
“Come on.” Opal led Yazmyn into the room.
“At least the lighting’s better,” remarked Yazmyn. “Hey, there he is!” She pointed out the minister.
“The device…is in position…Mistress,” the minister sighed happily.
“Device? What device? That sounds nasty,” said Opal.
“Let’s get some answers,” said Yazmyn. She and Opal approached the minister.
“Hey! Minister Terry, what are you doing in here?” called Opal. “What’s that thing?” Yazmyn got a better look, then her eyes went wide when it started beeping!
“Get back, you lunatic!” she yelped. “That’s an Entrooper bomb! You let that thing off, you’ll bring the roof down on our heads!”
“Detonation…imminent…Mistress,” sighed the minister happily. Then…his clothes and skin turned to stone as he sighed in bliss!
“High Witches preserve us!” swore Opal.
“COME ON! GET AWAY!” shouted Yazmyn as she grabbed Opal’s arm and ran! The bomb went off and the explosion knocked the two girls to the floor. They were bruised, but otherwise unhurt. The explosion blew a hole in the wall leading to the outside. Sauntering in was a lady made of stone smoking a cigarette.
“I do love me some minions that obey me,” she purred as she released the smoke from her mouth. “Makes the petrification process much more pleasurable for all parties.” Her minions approached as did their Entrooper legion. “Secure all landing strips,” she ordered. “Proceed to engineering. Crush all…ooh!” She caught sight of Yazmyn and Opal. “Well, well, well, lovely little girls…a pity you’re so squishy and soft. But I can certainly change that. All you’d need to do…is breathe deeply.” Her cigarette smoke then curled around the two. “Breathe deeply…let blissful obedience take hold.”
“Sorry, I’d rather not get lung-cancer through second-hand smoking!” retorted Yazmyn as she and Opal pulled out their transformation seeds. “Yellow Lady Rose of Lightning…”
“Orange Lady Rose of Sand…”
“I desire to bloom!” The Transformation Seeds expanded and enveloped them, then turned into rosebuds, then bloomed into yellow and orange roses as Yazmyn and Opal leapt out.
“I, Yazmyn Jacobson, the Yellow Lady, am the Rose of Lightning!”
“I, Opal Garcia, the Orange Lady, am the Rose of Sand!”
“…You’re disobedient, is what you are!” snarled the woman. “Entroopers, slaughter them!”
“Happily, Dame Petrify!” replied the Entrooper Commander. “The yellow one is one of the Earthlings that killed Lord Typhoon and made my predecessor report failure to Emperor Entropy! I’ll happily take revenge!” The Entroopers pulled out their guns and fired. Yazmyn and Opal took cover, then Yazmyn fired back with her guns.
“We can’t fight them alone!” grumbled Yazmyn. “We need reinforcements!”
“I’ll make the call!” replied Opal. “You just give us as much time as you can buy us!”
“Got it!”
Ruby, Wilma, Grace, and Belinda’s Comms Compacts buzzed. “Hm?” asked Belinda. Wilma opened hers up and saw Opal’s face.
“Opal?” asked Wilma. “What is it?”
“Yazmyn and I are in storage area 4!” explained Opal. “Minister Terry is dead!”
“Minister Terry?” asked Malachite, overhearing the call.
“He set off a bomb and now Entroopers and their masters are pouring in from outside!” continued Opal. “I’m sensing a void where their masters’ souls should be! They’re led by a living statue called Dame Petrify!”
“Dame Petrify?!” yelped Malachite. “She replaced me when I abandoned Emperor Entropy!”
“Dame Petrify!” hissed Wilma. “She and her minions killed my parents during the attack! I’m going in there!” She pulled out her Transformation Seed. “White Empress Rose of Light, I desire to bloom!” Her Transformation Seed enveloped her, then turned into a rosebud, then bloomed into a white rose and she leapt out in her outfit.
“We’d better do the same, Grace, Belinda!” directed Ruby. She, Grace, and Belinda then pulled out their Transformation Seeds. “Red Lady Rose of Fire…”
“Gray Empress Rose of Balance…”
“Black Empress Rose of Darkness…”
“I desire to bloom!” The resulting giant roses they leapt out of were red, gray, and black.
“Right,” declared Ruby, “let’s get to the storage-!”
“Wilma can go, you three can’t!” protested Malachite as he blocked their way!
“I’d advise you, Malachite,” hissed Belinda, “to get out of the way at once!”
“If Tanza is on its way here as Pat and Bethany believe,” said Malachite, “we must know what we’re up against. That’s your area of expertise, not mine.”
“We can’t just let Wilma fight alone with-!” protested Ruby.
“I’ll send the Gaian Guard down there to assist Wilma,” soothed Malachite. “We’ll get them out.”
“As long as the rest of us get Gaia out of this mess,” remarked Grace sardonically.
“You’re wasting time, you lot.” Malachite then created a magic circle and made a call through a crystal he carried. “Gaian Guard, full alert,” he ordered. “Get down to storage area 4 now. Full combat status.”
“Ruby!” called Pat as she approached in her Cosmic Rose outfit.
“Pat, where’s Bethany?” asked Ruby.
“At the Mana Pools with Gabi,” replied Pat.
“I’d better go there,” said Belinda. “I’ve been there before and Bethany could use all the guidance she can get.”
“Be careful,” bid Ruby.
“Ruby, we need to start evacuations,” said Pat. “I’ve already cleared it with the Lord Vice-President.”
“All right. You’d better walk me through how to evacuate people,” directed Ruby. “Telepathically, I think.”
“You and I had the same idea,” said Pat. “Come on.” She led Ruby to where they would conduct evacuations.
Gabi and Bethany were in their Cosmic Rose outfits and slipping on suits over them. “Feels weird,” remarked Bethany, “putting a suit over my outfit.”
“Th-The outfit’s not all th-that protective against the heat o-of the M-Mana Pools,” explained Gabi.
“Pat made the same comment,” remarked Bethany. “Did she try it?”
“No, I did,” replied Belinda as she got in. “Is there a spare suit for me?”
“R-Right here, Belinda,” replied Gabi as she handed over a suit. Belinda had a bit of a problem in tucking her skirt’s train into the suit comfortably.
“While you were getting here, Belinda,” said Bethany, “I had to divert some of the scanner links to get a look inside the Mana Pools from out here.”
“I didn’t know the consoles here could do that,” replied Belinda.
“Th-They can’t,” said Gabi. “B-Bethany had to ask the c-computers very nicely.”
“Ah, learned how to program through magic, huh?” asked Belinda.
“It’s a lot similar to Earth programming languages,” said Bethany. “I figured that we need a basic layout of the Pools if we’re gonna tamper a little.
“Wh-What did you find?” quizzed Gabi.
“That there’s a high level of impurity in the Pools,” explained Bethany.
“Does that matter?” asked Belinda. “We can still manipulate the Pools from here and-.”
“N-No,” said Gabi, trying to put on a brave face. “W-We have to solve that mystery. M-Maybe it can g-get Abuela back if she isn’t…” She trailed off.
“Knowing her, I doubt she is,” said Belinda. By now, everyone was in their suits.
“Come on,” said Gabi. She opened the doors and Bethany could feel the heat, literally!
“WOOF!” she said. “That’s really oppressive heat!”
“That’s too high,” warned Belinda.
“Th-This feels like…like incub-bation heat!” panted Gabi. “S-Something’s wrong with the d-draining systems! C-Come on!” She grabbed Bethany’s hand and pulled her into the room with Belinda following. The room was an enormous cavern with multicolored liquid flowing in various pools in the floor. The Roses had arrived on a walkway overlooking the pools and Gabi looked down. The liquid was bubbling like water set to simmer. “Th-That’s not right!” gulped Gabi. “The mana sh-should be s-still! C-Come on! Down this ladder!” The Roses climbed down the ladder and made their way to the bottom floor.
“What could-?” Before Bethany could finish her sentence, something leapt out of one of the pools! It looked like a maggot with four long tentacles and tiny eyes. Its tentacles lashed out at the Roses.
“I think we found our impurity!” gulped Belinda. “Come on!” More of the maggots pulled themselves out of the pools, some of them using their tentacles to move across the ceiling!
“What in-?!” yelped Bethany.
“Come on! Back up the ladder!” urged Belinda.
“What are these things?!” called Bethany.
“Entrooper larvae!” revealed Belinda. “The Mana Pools have been turned into an incubation room for them!”
“The air’s thick with them!” yelped Gabi as the larvae swarmed the Roses and started grabbing them!
“WE…HAVE TO GET…OUT OF HERE!” urged Belinda. “MOVE! UP THE LADDER! QUICKLY!”
“I CAN’T!” replied Bethany. “THEY’RE ALL OVER ME!” The Entrooper larvae were swarming the place now! “BELINDA!”