There was really no other way to say it, but right this instant, Peggy Lau was floating on zero gravity in what looked like Outer Space.
"How in the world did I get here?" she wondered aloud.
She really had no idea how she ended up here. One moment, she was following a robed lady through a garden full of magical kids to an old building to deliver cookies. And then, suddenly, everything went dark. And the moment Peggy could see again, she found herself in Outer Space.
Well, this place can't really be Outer Space, she thought calmly. For one thing, I can still breath and talk. In that case, I must still be in the school somewhere.
Since coming to this world, Peggy had been through some really crazy stuff. She's flown on magic carpets, chatted with a talking building and, most recently, hung out with actual ghosts on Halloween. Thanks to all that, she had become a little used to this stuff. There was also that advice Boss gave her before sending her on her way.
"Listen, Peggy," he had said to her. "Whatever happens over there, keep calm and don't forget that it's a magic school. As long as you remember that, you should be fine."
He had such a serious look on his face, and had such urgency in his voice that it was like he had no doubt in his mind that something was going to happen.
It felt weird, floating around in zero gravity, but thanks to her time at that ghost mansion, Peggy got used to it much faster. She did a three-sixty scan of the entire place with her eyes, clutching the bag of cookies tightly over her stomach so it wouldn't fly away as she turned and spun around. Out of the corner of her eye, something caught her attention and she turned to find a door just placed stationary at a spot in front of what looked like Jupiter.
Immediately seeing that door as her ticket out of this strange Outer Space space, Peggy kicked off and swam towards it as if she were in water while hugging the bag of cookies close to herself with her right arm. There was a brown, square mat beneath the door which Peggy thought helpful, because it allowed her to firmly plant her feet on something before opening the door. And as soon as she did that, she stepped outside and left the strange room behind her.
Out of Outer Space and into a normal (sort of) hallway, the next step for Peggy was to figure out which way to go. She looked right and left of the big hallway made of marble floor, white stone walls and silk curtains over the window that all look like they belong to a king's castle. Outside of the crystal clear windows, she could see a grassy courtyard, but it didn't look like the one she had passed by earlier. For one thing, the one she was staring at now was much smaller and with less children loitering it.
I must be somewhere deeper in the school, she thought. Well, no point sticking around here. This place is big, so there should be a map somewhere around here.
She turned and walked away. And just as she turned a corner and disappeared, the door to the Outer Space room burst open and out came Daisy, the robed lady tour guide, and the three kids whose magical, paper-mache dragon started this whole mess in the first place.
"Curse it all!" Daisy swore. "Where is she? If it gets out that I let a visitor get lost, I'll be in trouble for sure!"
"And why're we here?" asked the black-haired elf girl.
Daisy glared at her. "Because," she said, "this is all of you guys' fault! Make no mistake! If I get in trouble, I will bring you down with me! Now think! Where do you think she's gone?"
"Well," went the werecat girl, "if she hasn't started panicking yet, she's probably gone to look for a map. Most places as big as this school have maps lying around all over so no one would get lost. I know I've needed a map to get around."
"Right, then let's go find a map," Daisy said. "Follow me, this way!"
With her taking the lead, the Paladia School search party turned and headed down the hall to the right, the complete opposite of where Peggy was going.
"Well, still no map," Peggy muttered to herself after ten minutes of exploring the building. She found a set of stairs and quickly took it down to the ground floor. It was easy enough to find the main exit, but she was reluctant to leave without first finding what she had set out to search for.
There are plenty of students in here, she noted while looking around the lobby. But being an outsider who doesn't belong in this school gave Peggy an awkward feeling and she hesitated to ask for directions. Not to mention, given the size of the school, she wasn't confident she'd even remember or understand whatever directions she was given.
"Nothing to it, I guess," she mumbled to herself. "May as well just try and go from there."
But she never got the chance. As she turned around to address some kids chatting at a corner, she heard something go pitter-patter on the ground. She looked down and saw something that made her eyes pop out. Just as she was starting to think nothing could surprise her anymore, she found a vase, a big, expensive-looking one, with human baby legs standing in front of her.
She stared at the vase, and it sort of looked like it stared back at her. And then the vase turned at its baby feet heels and took off running out of the exit.
"What. Was. That?" Peggy spoke while staring at the exit the vase used.
More pitter-patter reached her ears, but this time, they were from something harder and heavier. A red-haired human boy tumbled into the lobby from the left hall, out of breath as if he had been running a marathon.
"Sorry . . . But . . . has anyone . . . seen a really . . . expensive vase run by here?"
Peggy and everyone else in the lobby answered by wordlessly pointing their fingers at the front door.
Realizing that the vase he was chasing had gotten outside, the boy dropped to his knees with a face of utter despair.
"Now what do I do?" he moaned. "That vase is super expensive! If anything happens to it, I'll be expelled for sure! Not only that, it'll take decades to pay back the vase! And after all that hard work my parents put to get me here!"
Peggy sighed. After hearing something like that, there was no way she could turn a blind eye.
"Hey, kid!" She called out to the boy.
The boy looked up, puzzled, and then pointed to himself.
"Yes, you," Peggy said. "I'm here to drop off something to a guy named Stonecrest. You know where is office is?"
The boy nodded.
"Great!" Peggy said. "In that case, you can show me the way and I'll help you look for that vase. Sound good?"
"Well - " went the boy, but Peggy cut him off.
"My name's Peggy," she said. "What's yours?"
"Alan," said the boy. "But-!"
Peggy cut him off again and said, "Anyway, come on. We better hurry or it'll get away."
The boy had no time to answer and followed Peggy out of the building.
"I think it went this way," she said. And together, they turned right and disappeared.
It was at that moment that Daisy and her entourage showed up. Daisy looked around, turning her head left and right fast like a rabid dog.
"Blast!" she shouted. "She's not here! Where is she?"
"She should still be somewhere in the building," said Alan. "Let's try that way."
And again, they went the complete opposite way of Peggy, as if today was Opposite Day or something.
Together, Peggy and Alan went east of the building.
As they brisk-walked alongside it while keeping an eye out for the runaway vase, Peggy asked a question.
"By the way," she said, "why'd that vase suddenly sprout legs and started running? What were you trying to do?"
"I was trying to make a clay doll move on its own," the boy explained. "But something went wrong with the spell and I accidentally hit the vase."
Just as they turned the corner, Peggy spotted the vase dancing on top of a railing post that was part of some white stone stairs that dipped down a small hill.
"There it is!" shouted Alan.
As if it could hear him, the vase suddenly jumped off the railing post, onto the grassy hill and ran down. Peggy and Alan ran after the vase and were just catching up to it, when it suddenly leaped in front of a tiny girl no bigger than one foot, with four strips of light attached to her back that looked sort of like wings. Having seen such tiny people fly around the coffee shop before, Peggy instantly knew the girl was a fairy.
The fairy girl was fluttering in the air like a butterfly with one hand holding a book while the other waved a wand around. She had been aiming at an apple left lying on the ground, but when she flicked her wand -
ZAP!
The expensive vase with baby legs became FIVE expensive vases with baby legs and all ran in different directions. Both Peggy and Alan couldn't help but scream in horror at that.
When she saw what she had done, the fairy girl went, "Ah. Wait, wasn't that the expensive vase that was donated to the school by the King himself?"
"Which one do we go after?" Alan shouted. "Which one's the real one?"
"Hey," Peggy called out to the fairy girl. "That was your spell that made four more of those things. Can you tell which is real?"
"Uh . . ." The fairy girl hesitated before answering. "Technically, they're all real."
"What do you mean?" Peggy asked. She had a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer.
"Well, that type of cloning spell I used is one where all the clones are connected to each other," said the fairy. "So if something happens to one of the clones, the others will feel the same thing."
Peggy put the pieces together in a flash. "Are you trying to tell me that if one of those things breaks, then all of them, original included, will break too!?"
The fairy nodded.
This just gets worse and worse, Peggy thought.
"Now what do we do?" Alan moaned.
"What else?" said Peggy. "We have to find them and then catch them."
"I can help you find them," said the fairy girl. "Since my magic is what split them up, I can use a simple locator spell to figure out where they are."
"Great!" said Peggy. "But even if we know where they are, how do we catch them? They're really slippery little pests."
"In that case, might I interest you in these fine products made by yours truly?"
"Gah! Where'd you come from?" Peggy, the fairy, and Alan all jumped in surprise. None of them noticed the vampire boy walk up to them from behind, so it was as if he just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He was older than the other kids, around mid-to-late teens, with blond hair and had eyes so narrowly opened, it looked like they were closed.
In his hands, he held three poles, each a foot longer than he was tall. The poles all had light fabric, triangle sacks at the end. No matter how anyone looked at it, those poles this newcomer carried were butterfly nets.
"My apologies for startling you," said the vampire. "I was walking by when I noticed you three appeared to be in a PICKLE of a jam and thought I'd help out by offering you something that could help."
"And that would be some flimsy-looking butterfly nets?" Peggy said while eyeing the nets doubtfully. "Why were you carrying them around in the first place?"
"Ha ha ha," laughed the vampire. "Though they look flimsy, they are anything but. Made from the strongest materials to be found and put together by yours truly, who is a certified GENIUS alchemist, these babies can hold up to two metric tons worth of stuff. And space is not an issue because it has been enchanted to be bigger on the inside, way bigger. What do you say? Care to take these babies for a spin?"
Peggy narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"What's the catch?" she asked.
"No catch," said the vampire boy. "Just tell me what you think of them, preferably in as much detail as possible."
"You're just trying to use us as guinea pigs, aren't you?" Peggy said.
"I wouldn't put it like that," said the vampire boy.
So, he IS trying to use us as guinea pigs, Peggy thought.
Cutting through her thoughts, the vampire spoke up again.
"You might want to hurry up and decide," he said. "It looks like that vase is about to replay Humpty Dumpty."
He pointed towards a red brick wall that surrounded and separated a short, house-like building from the rest of the school. There was a bronze sign attached to the wall, but it was too far away from Peggy to read. Sitting on top of the wall, kicking its tiny feet back and forth was one of the vase copies.
It swayed back and forth, back and forth, dipping further and further over the edge. And then, it dipped too far and started wobbling in a way that made Alan scream in horror.
"Gimme that!" yelled Peggy. With no time to waste, she snatched one of the nets from the vampire boy and ran as fast as she could while going, "Hee-hoo, hee-hoo, hee-hoo!"
She was just a few feet away from the wall when the vase finally bent over too much and began a great fall. Desperation taking hold, Peggy jabbed the net forward like a sword fencer going for the kill. She barely made it in time for the rim of her net to meet the rim of the vase, causing the priceless artifact to bounce high. And then, with a twist of her wrist, Peggy swung the pole up and the vase was swallowed whole into the net.
After bringing the net back down, Peggy peaked inside. While doing that, Alan and the fairy rushed over.
"Miss Peggy!" Alan cried out. "Is the vase okay?"
After a brief moment of silence, Peggy looked up, grinned and flashed a thumb up. When she looked inside the net, she could clearly see the vase kicking about and rolling harmlessly around a field of white fabric. That vampire boy wasn't kidding when he said the net was way, way bigger on the inside.
"Alright, you two," Peggy said. "Grab a net and let's get going. We still have four more of those things out there."
"Right," said the fairy girl. "The closest one is this way! My name's Aria, by the way."
After being given a net by the vampire boy along with Alan, Aria the fairy girl took the lead and showed the rest of the gang the way. She led the gang down the courtyard to a large, rectangle building with a green, round roof, which turned out to be the school gym.
They cut through the basketball court currently being used by two teams of owls, a hallway full of doors that led to small, private arenas where lots and lots of explosions could be heard from, and entered the pool area where girls and boys in ballroom dresses were waltzing on top of the blue water. At the feet of the water-walking dancers, the belly of a vase could be seen jutting out of the blue surface.
"I got it," said Aria before zipping towards the pool on her wings.
Even though she was carrying a net several times her size, she skillfully weaved around the legs of the dancers and flew after the vase that just kicked around, unnoticed, in the water. And then, in one smooth swing, the fairy scooped the vase out of the water and into the net. After that, Aria crossed over to the other side of the pool where she flashed a thumbs-up to the others. So engrossed in their dancing, the dancers still didn't notice a thing even as the gang moved on elsewhere.
As soon as Peggy closed the door behind her, Daisy and her crew barged in. They apologized to the tuxedo-wearing walrus sitting by the record player, took a brief look around and then left, going the opposite way of Peggy and company.
The next place Aria led Peggy and Alan to was the library building at the back of the school. Well, Aria and Alan called it a library building, but it was really more like a teeny-tiny storage shed kept at the backyard of a teeny-tiny house.
"THIS is a school library?" Peggy spoke up in disbelief. "It looks like a backyard storage shed! And it even looks like it's made of plastic!"
"Come on!" shouted Aria as she pulled the door open. "Quit dillydallying and get in! That vase isn't going to find itself you know!"
It turned out, much like the enchanted nets that the young vampire loaned the crew, the library was bigger on the inside. Much, much, MUCH bigger.
It was a labyrinth of bookshelves stretching every which way as far as the eye could see, left and right, bottom to top. It was as of Peggy had stepped into a world of nothing but books. And these books could fly.
Like pigeons, books fluttered left and right above Peggy's head. And on one particularly big green book sat a vase swaying back and forth, much like a certain other vase that tried to act out the story of Humpty Dumpty. Luckily, Aria spotted the vase right away and caught it before it could fall off the book, bringing the number of vases captured to three.
The fourth vase was found at the old school house right at the very back of the school grounds. It was spotted tap dancing at the front doorstep by a huge number of people who couldn't help but cheer in awe of its lit dance skills. Everyone had such a great time watching that Alan was reluctant to catch the vase and end the fun. But just when he mustered enough courage to do just that, the vase disappeared in a flash of gold light.
"Huh? Where'd it go?" Alan wondered. He looked left and right, but Vase #4 was nowhere to be found.
Peggy glanced at Aria for an answer, but she just shrugged her shoulders, having no clue.
And then a thought crossed Peggy's mind and she quickly looked inside her net.
"I knew it," she muttered. "The vase i caught earlier's gone!"
"What!?" Alan cried out.
He and Aria exchanged looks and quickly looked in their own nets. But just like Peggy, they could not see the vases they had captured. The vases had vanished without a trace.
"Seriously?" Alan moaned, dejected. "What on Emeron happened?"
"If I had to guess," said Peggy, "that clone spell of Aria's worn off and the copies merged back with the original."
"In that case," said a brightened up Alan, "we just have to catch the original and we can finally call it a day! So, where is it, Aria?"
"I don't know," Aria replied bluntly.
"Okay!" shouted Alan. "Then off we - Wait, what?"
Aria repeated herself and said, "I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Alan shouted. "You found the other four, didn't you?"
"That was back when my spell was still in affect," Aria said. "Now that it's gone, I don't have any way of finding it! On the other hand, shouldn't YOU know where it is? You're the one who gave it those freaky baby legs in the first place. That's your own magic, so why can't you track it down yourself?"
"I don't know how!" Alan snapped.
Aria looked at him in disbelief and said, "What kind of Paladia student doesn't know how to track down their own magic spell?"
It seemed like all hope was lost. But then a voice came down from above that rekindled young Alan's hope.
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