Chapter 11
A Crimson New Year's
The new year was fastly approaching the world of Emeron. To celebrate, the Owner of the coffee shop had everyone gather at the roof to watch the fireworks. Or at least that was the plan. But fate had other ideas.
When Peggy arrived at the coffee shop, she spotted her boss talking to a short, stout man with a big, potato-shaped nose. Whatever they talked about seemed serious to Peggy, judging by their grim faces.
Unable to brush aside her concern, Peggy approached the men and asked, "Is everything okay?"
The Boss and the short man, a dwarf, turned at the sound of Peggy's voice.
"Oh, it's you, Peggy," said the Boss. "No, everything is not okay. This is Slate Copperland, an alchemist in charge of making the New Year fireworks."
It turned out a major water pipe accident caused the fireworks warehouse to flood earlier in the afternoon. No one was hurt, thank goodness, but all the fireworks to celebrate the new year were completely ruined. Not wanting the festivities to be canceled, Copperland and his crew scrambled to piece together some magic items that could replace the fireworks. But that only led to another problem: not enough magicians to use the items.
"The way me and the crew made 'em," said Copperland, "you need a decent amount of magic power. Each of us, me included, can maybe use one for a few shots, but that ain't nearly enough for the extravaganza that the Baron's looking for."
The Baron is the man in charge of the whole land that the town of Featherkeep, along with seven other towns and two small villages, sat on. Basically, he was a really, really important guy.
"Why not?" asked Peggy. "Can't he just make do with fewer this year?"
"As far as nobles go, our Baron's pretty reasonable, so if this was a normal year-end festival, maybe," said the Boss. "But that's not the case, is it?"
"No, it ain't," said Copperland. "You see, one of the Duke's kids took a liking to one of the Baron's kids. So, the Baron invited the whole Duke's family to watch the fireworks, hoping to get the two families to get more friendly."
"In case you don't know, Peggy, a duke is way more important and richer than a baron," Boss explained. "I can see why this is a big problem for you, Slate."
Copperland nodded and said, "Aye. Between canceling the fireworks show or putting on a half-baked one, either way, I could lose my head."
And so, unable to turn down the dwarf's plea for help, the Boss agreed to lend a hand. Not wanting to be left behind, George begged his father to bring him along. Peggy volunteered to help as well. And so, led by a dwarf, the vampire, the werelion boy, and the young human lady hurried off into the night.
They followed the dwarf to the outskirts of town, on a grassy plain currently covered in snow, where some men and women scurried about around a few dozen metal poles capped with colorful, glowing crystals. The crystals were duct-taped to the poles.
"Oi, Copperland," he said, using the dwarfs last name. He had a huge frown on his face from looking at the setup the dwarf's crew made.
"Yeah?" Copperland responded innocently.
"Don't tell me those poles with the glowing stones stuck to them with TAPE are the magic tools we're using," Boss said.
"They are," said Copperland.
Boss groaned and rubbed the spots above his eyebrows, as if he just got a huge headache.
"I'm no alchemist," he said, "but even I can tell that we'd be lucky to get even one shot out. This is the best you and your crew can do?"
"Hey, we may be alchemists, but we're only good for making fireworks," Copperland said. "Can't you do anything about it?"
"Not without help," said Boss. "And we're going to need a lot of it. What about the guys at the Magic or Alchemy Departments? Can't you get them to help out?"
"No," said Copperland. "Didn't you hear? They all got food poisoning from some bad shrimp they had at the mayor's party last week. Why do you think I came to you, a coffee shop owner of all people, for help?"
"No wonder I haven't seen the Head Magus lately," Boss muttered. He let out a tired sigh. "And I'm guessing most of the town's pro spell casters were also at the party?"
"Most of them work for the town, after all," Copperland said.
Boss groaned.
"This is quite the pickle," he said. "Without some decent help, I don't see any way out of this mess."
"Can't you just use a magic spell or something and blast the sky with some pretty lights?" Copperland asked.
Boss scowled and said, "For the kind of show you want to put on, you know that's impossible for me."
"But aren't you a Four-Star spell caster, Boss?" Peggy asked. "I still don't really get the whole star thing, but I thought having four stars mean you're a really powerful magic user."
"I only got four stars to my name thanks to my cleverness and magical know-how," Boss explained. "My magic power's actually not all that great. I CAN make a pretty decent fireworks show on my own, but it would take me a lot of time to get everything set up for it, time we definitely don't have now."
"Hey, I have an idea!" George cut in and announced. "If we can't get anyone from town to help us, maybe we can ask some visitors, instead."
"Visitors?" said Peggy.
"Yeah!" said George. "You know, travelers and such visiting for the festival. I'll go see if anyone wants to help out!"
And then he ran off.
"Hey!" Boss shouted. "Get back here, George! How many times do I have to tell you not to run off on your own and talk to strangers? You hear me, young man? Get back here, I said!"
But the young lion cub had already disappeared into the darkness.
"Ugh! That boy!" Boss groaned. "Peggy, you wait here. I'll go and grab him before he gets into any real trouble."
But just as he was about to run after his son, the young lion cub showed up again and announced, "I'm back!"
That was fast, Peggy thought. But who's that with him?
George had disappeared for only the briefest of moments before coming back, but he did not come back alone. Right at the werelion's heels was a tall figure, half man and half gray-furred wolf, wearing a red, Chinese-style suit beneath a matching long, flowing cape. Over the wolfman's eyes was a pair of dainty, round glasses.
"Nihao," he said in greeting. "I was told you were having trouble here. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Peggy had never seen the wolfman before, but it looked like everyone else knew him. Every member of Copperland's crew stopped what they were doing and all together, gasped. Copperland, himself, dropped his jaw and stammered, "The-the-the-the-the-the-the-the-!" George, however, seemed just as clueless as Peggy.
"What's wrong, everyone?" he asked.
Boss was the first to snap out of it.
"Ahem!" He coughed and paused to take a look at the wolfman, and then sighed. "I am so sorry my son dragged you here," he said to the wolfman. "I hope he didn't bother you in any way."
"Oh, no not at all," said the wolfman. "We just ran into each other. He said there was some trouble and he needed help, so I had him bring me here to see what I can do. What is all this, anyway?"
Copperland and his crew just stared at the wolfman with dropped jaws and popped-out eyes, so it fell on Boss to explain.
"We're actually in charge of the New Year's fireworks show," he said. "But I'm sure you can guess how that's going right now."
"I do," the wolfman said, nodding his furry head. He gently pushed his glasses up his snout and gave the poles with glowing rocks a quick glance. "And I really don't think it's a good idea to shoot magic into the sky with those things. With the way you stuck those poles together with the magic stones, they're more like bombs than magical tools. Actually, they're just straight up bombs."
Everyone took a few steps away from the poles as fast as they could.
The wolfman stroke his chin thoughtfully. Although his voice sounded young, the way he spoke and carried himself made him appear much older than Peggy herself.
"If you don't mind, may I tinker with these magic tools?" he asked. "I believe I have a solution to this problem of yours."
Copperland gasped. "I-i-is that alright, sir? We really don't want to bother you."
"It's no bother, I assure you," said the wolfman. "My parents taught me that we should always help others when they need it. Now, let me see here . . ."
Everyone gave the wolfman space while he knelt down to take a look at the closest pole. As he went to work, Peggy decided to ask her Boss a question burning in her mind.
"Hey, Boss," she said. "Who is that guy? It looked like everyone but George knows him. Going by how freaked out they are, is he famous?"
Boss gave Peggy a glance and said, "Since you're from Earth, it's no wonder you don't know. Yes, I know that werewolf. And yes, he's famous. Going by the style of his clothes, those power gloves that barely keep a lid on a boat-load of magic power, and, well - "
"Phew!" went the werewolf, rubbing sweat from his head with his forearm. "All done!"
All the poles had been arranged in a circle and shot out strips of red lightning that connected them to each other. At the center of the circle was a flat pool of red light that looked unmistakably like a portal to somewhere else.
"-THAT, there's no doubt about it," Boss continued. "That's the hero of the Zhao Empire, its greatest alchemist and one of its strongest fighters, famous for beating up a dragon with his bare hands and wiping out an army of monsters solo, Jing the Crimson Storm."
"Okay," said Peggy, "normally, I'd say the stories about this guy are way overblown, but there's a HUUUGE hunk of metal rising out of that red vortex thing that looks like the hand of a Megazord."
Boss blinked. "What's a Megazord?"
"A giant robot," Peggy said. "Hey, is that another vortex showing up next to the first one? And it also has a giant robot hand? Wait, and there's another one. And another one. "
All across the grassy field, disks of red light appeared with hand-shaped, giant hunks of metal rising out, as if the giants inside those red disks were reaching for the stars. They number more than twenty.
"Hmm, this should be enough," said Jing. "I'll save the rest for another time."
"Save the rest? You have even more!? Peggy cried. This is just insane, she thought. This is easily the craziest thing she had seen since coming to this world.
Ignoring Peggy's bafflement, Jing pulled out a pocket watch to check the time.
"Almost here," he announced. "Ready? Five . . . Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . ONE!"
The werewolf threw a finger at the metal hands, and from their fingers, beams of light flew towards the sky where they bloomed into giant red roses and dandelions. Hundreds of shapes rapidly decorated the black night, disappearing as fast as they were appearing. On and on it went, as if the metal hands and their metal finger cannons had an endless supply of ammo.
All over town, everyone looked up at the sky to marvel at the loud work of art that signaled the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one.
Looking out her living room window, Mrs. Arkansas the old lamia remarked, "Copperland has really outdone himself this year."
"But still, why only red fireworks?" the armored chief director of Paladia School wondered as he watched the show from his office.
"Maybe they didn't have enough supplies to make other colors?" Daisy guessed.
Outside, on the roof of Alan's house, he remarked to Aria, "Meh. Have to cut corners somewhere, I suppose."
Back at the grassy field, everyone watched the sky while sitting down on fancy chairs with leather cushions that Jing pulled out of one of the vortexes he created.
"Whoa!" George cried out. "So awesome!"
Awesome was one way to describe this, Peggy thought. And she sighed.
She glanced at Boss whose face looked as tired as she was feeling. They gave each other shaky grins and then exchanged their New Year's greetings.
"Happy New Year's, Boss."
"Happy New Year's, Peggy."
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