Lily Wong Ch. 21

 Chapter 21

Round Three

"And that's why we need to think up a game plan," Lily said to the others. "Can you help me?"

After meeting back up together, Lily and the gang gathered at the Sapphire Society's secret chamber where she explained what happened between her and the bronze tiger.

"Sure, we will," said Viv.

"I still owe you the last couple of times you helped me," said Eddie. "Count me in."

"Of course I want to help you as well," said Oliver. "But Lily, I hope this means you've learned your lesson this time and that you understand how close you were to really messing up. You charging straight ahead for the sake of others can be a virtue. But you could end up paying a heavy price if you're not careful. And not just you. We could have lost something important to us, if not for the Stone Man."

Lily cast her eyes to the floor in guilt and meekly mumbled, "Sorry."

Oliver pointed out, "I'm not the only one you should be saying sorry to."

And he was right. Lily turned to the twins and said, "I'm really sorry about what nearly happened. Because of me, you might've lost something you loved to do."

"Hey, it's okay," said Eddie. "Like I said, even if I ended up losing my art talent, I know that you'll just get it back."

"Same here," said Viv. "But I stand by my claim that we need to be more careful from now on."

"You're right," said Lily. "Playing it by ear's just not going to cut it now and just depending on the bracelet's power isn't going to be enough. The Schemer's clearly upped his game a whole bunch of levels. In that case, I'm going to have to do the same. I need to get stronger, faster and more powerful overall."

"You're mistaken, Lily," Oliver cut in. "WE have to up our game. Together."

The twins both nodded.

"That's right," said Viv. "We want to help you, but not just from the sidelines."

"Don't forget us!" said Hassan. He and the other library helpers walked into the room having just finished their work upstairs. "We're part of the Sapphire Society too, you know."

"Not to mention," Melody added, "there's no way we're passing up the chance to really master the magic arts."

"Great!" exclaimed Eddie. "Because I think I know a way we can do all that. Take a look at this page in my mom's journal."

Everyone gathered around Eddie as he opened the book to a certain page. 

After taking a brief moment to read, Oliver quipped, "A bit straightforward. But as they say, simple is best."

"Great!" said Lily, giving everyone a look. "Then let's get started!"

**********

A week later, the time had come once again for Lily to face the bronze tiger. Like the last two times, starting from the music building, she and her friends strolled down the road at night when everyone else in school would be having supper. This time, however, the whole Sapphire Society-slash-library helper gang decided to see her off.

They walked in silence, tense with anticipation. Any scarce students still wandering the grounds at this hour simply ignored them, assuming they were just a club that just got done for the day. Nothing was out of the ordinary. That was until halfway down when Lily blinked out of existence.

"HOLY . . . !" cried George. "She's gone! Lily's disappeared."

"Then it's started," said Oliver. Having seen it happen two times already, he and the twins barely blinked.

"Let's hope all that training pays off," said Melody.

"It will," Viv said with conviction. "It will."

**********

There was something different about the Blue World this time, Lily thought as she looked around. But she couldn't quite put her finger on what.

Had she paid closer attention, she would have realized that everything in this world was a lighter shade blue than the last time she had visited. But she was more focused on her rematch with the tiger to notice.

Speaking of the tiger, the huge beast of bronze metal was already there waiting for her, lying just a few feet ahead in the middle of the road while lazily flipping its tail back and forth.

"About time you showed up," it said. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show. A few more minutes and I would have gone straight to your friends to steal what mattered most to them."

Lily scowled at the tiger with disdain and she asked the metal beast, "Oh yeah? And how many have you actually stolen from already?"

The statue replied, "I would think all the recent cancellations and absentees would have given you some idea of that."

Too many, Lily thought bitterly. But it ends now, she promised herself. For real this time.

"Well, I see no reason to delay this any longer," said the tiger. It stood up, stretched its whole body and then straightened up to look Lily square in the eyes. Its tail stretched out on front of it, bearing a large coin at the end. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Lily swallowed and grimly nodded. Doubts of success and fear of failure swirled in her head, but she pushed them all aside, or at least tried to, and bent down at ready. Blue light shined from the bracelet and enveloped her from head to toe.

The tiger raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as it flipped its tail up, flinging the coin in the air for the third time across three games of two-way tag. Lily's eyes rolled up and then down, following the coin as it fell to the ground. As soon as it hit pavement, the game began and Lily sprang into action.

She focused magic power to her legs and then ran straight at the tiger with all her might. The tiger jumped out of the way, but the young girl had been expecting it. Instead of bothering to chase after the bronze statue, Lily just kept on running. She zoomed down the road as fast as a race car at top speed with light trailing behind her like a flag.

The tiger raised its eyebrow as it watched her disappear behind a building before chasing after her, leaving behind its own trail of yellow light. If any normal person had watched the ground from a nearby rooftop, they would see two balls of light crisscross all over the school at a hundred or so miles per hour.

Lily ran and ran, and ran with all her might. She went left, right, and left again. She circled around the history building and streaked towards the dorms, turned right and then headed to the gym.

Halfway across the grass field, Lily dared to peek over her shoulders and found everything behind her blotted out by the tiger's huge, bronze face, the distance between them quickly shrinking by the second.

"I see you've been training," it said. "Good. You've improved tremendously since the last week. Sadly, however, it is still not enough!"

The tiger slowed while talking, but then pounced with a burst of speed. But Lily knew what it was going to do the moment she saw it hunch. She jumped out of the way before she could get smooshed.

Flashback a couple of days ago at the Sapphire Society's training room, which was right next to the main chamber, Oliver gave a lecture.

"The key to victory is observation," he said to Lily and their fellow Society members sitting cross-legged in front of him while clad for gym. "Keep your eye on your opponent. Even if you can't match your enemy's speed or strength, if you can figure out what your enemy's next move is, you can avoid their attack and use their plans against them, and even . . . "

End flashback.

" . . . lead them into a trap!"

After dodging the tiger's attack, Lily took off running again, aiming to lead the tiger straight to the Castle, the mansion-like building that served as the heart of the school. A few hours prior, she used the bracelet to magically weave together a net using metal from melted down suits of armor that formerly decorated the Sapphire Society's secret hangout. A lot of suits of armor was used up to make the net big and heavy enough. It now hung at the side of the building by two pairs of clamps that Lily had morphed out of the wall. Lily had the net enchanted to be as strong and as heavy as possible, and made invisible so only she could see it.

The whole Sapphire Society came together to come up with this plan to set this trap and lead the tiger to it. But this plan was a gamble and depended on how much the Blue World copied the real one.

To Lily's relief, it was a gamble that paid off.

On the way, the tiger managed to catch up again and tried to tag Lily with its nose. But Lily dodged to the side, danced around the tiger and resumed running. Once she spotted the building, she veered to its left and was elated when she spotted the net trap set next to a third floor window.

It looks like Oliver was right after all, she thought. He was the one who thought that the Blue World would copy the real one exactly from when Lily came in.

She stopped the corner of the building and turned around, watching as the tiger fast barreled towards her and braced herself. As soon as it got close enough, Lily jumped out of the way.

Yes, perfect! She thought. The tiger had skid to a stop right underneath the net.

She pointed her finger at the net and shouted, "Release!"

Light shined from her bracelet's jewels and the clamps holding the net let go. The tiger didn't notice the net until it landed perfectly around it. It let out a startled roar and struggled to yank the net off, only to make things worse for itself and get further and further tangled until the net was practically a cocoon.

"Alright!" Lily cheered. The plan worked out better than she thought. But it was not over yet, she reminded herself. She still needed to actually tag the tiger while she still had the chance.

Quickly, she ran over and reached her had to touch the tiger's snout. She expected to feel warm, solid metal against her palm. But instead, her hand slipped through cold, empty air.

Lily was in one instant confused, and then the next horrified when she realized something and spun around to see the tiger sitting behind her.

"Nice try," it said. "But even if I didn't have the power to see through invisibility, I would have noticed your trap a mile away."

Shoulders sagged, Lily whined, "That's so not fair!"

But then she smiled and sang, "Juuust kidding!"

Startled by Lily's sudden change in attitude, the tiger reeled back and went, "Huh?" But it was too late to retreat.

Flashback again to Oliver's lecture . . . "Another key to victory," he said, "is always have a Plan B."

And here was that Plan B: a nifty little spell found in Mary Ann Duskbell's journal that Lily asked the bracelet to cast before closing her eyes. 

Light flashed from the bracelet and bathed the area for only an instant.

After hearing a startled yell, Lily opened her eyes, had the bracelet pour magic power to her hands and feet and charged. Blinded by the light, the tiger didn't see her attack coming. She smacked both her hands against its left side and the added magic power sent the giant, metal beast flying away straight into another building, crashing into the wall before dropping into a collapsed heap on the ground. It was a miracle the impact didn't create a hole in the building. But it left a long, jagged scar on the wall.

Lily stared at the fallen tiger, shoulders moving up and down as she breathed in and out, in and out. The tiger just laid on the ground with its eyes closed and some electricity crackling around its head. And then a laugh broke out of Lily's mouth. It was just a small bit of laughter that soon grew into an almost crazy cackle.

"I won!" she cheered. "I beat the tiger!"

As she gleefully cheered in victory, the tiger stirred and slowly stood back up. 

With a triumphant grin, Lily said to the tiger, "Alright! A deal's a deal. Now give back all everything you stole."

The tiger didn't answer. It didn't even look her way and just kept its head slightly bowed.

Puzzled, Lily frowned and called out, "Hey! Yoohoo! Can you hear me?"

Finally, the tiger turned its head and from its eyes, red light spilled out.

Lily's face quickly fell and she muttered to herself, "Oh, that can't be good."

<== Chapter 20                                                                            Chapter 22 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 20

Chapter 20

Speed Up

"Hey, did you hear about the recital?"

"You mean the one with that really talented viola player? Yeah. I heard she bailed at the last minute. Something about not feeling well?"

"Seriously? How many does that make now?"

As Lily overheard every word nearby students whispered to each other about an abruptly canceled viola recital, she glumly stirred her cereal in the white, non-fat milk. She had not taken one bite out of it yet, but the cereal had already gone completely soft and mushy.

Across the table, Viv and Eddie watched her downcast face with concern. But neither twins could muster up something to say. Needless to say, they knew what was bothering her. 

It's been a few days since Lily battled with the living bronze tiger statue and nearly lost. She and the gang had hoped that this mysterious Stone Man that suddenly showed up took care of the metal beast, but left and right, there was news of recitals cancelling, stage plays being delayed, singing contests losing competitors, and dance shows losing dancers. Word had also spread of sports stars, robot engineers, competitive chess players, and members of the Debate Team calling it quits.

"Even the kazoo player's out."

"No! Not the kazoo player! Anyone but the kazoo player!"

Eddie tried to make Lily feel better, saying, "Just because they're all canceled all of a sudden, doesn't mean the statue had anything to do with it. There could be lots of other reasons."

But then - 

"You know, there's a crazy rumor going around about an evil statue having something to do with it," a nearby girl told her friends. "They say a bronze tiger statue comes to life and goes around stealing the talents of unsuspecting students."

The boy sitting across from her scoffed. "I can buy our school having its own masked hero running around doing good deeds, but an evil statue that comes to life and makes people just not good at something? Come on!"

But that's exactly what happened, Lily thought despairingly. And I couldn't do anything about it.

As if she could read Lily's mind, Viv leaned over and said softly to her, "Hey, you don't need to beat yourself up over this. This isn't your fault."

Lily, however, shook her head and said, "Maybe not. But I'm the only one who can stop it. I should have."

"Hey, don't worry about it," said Eddie. "You'll get it next time. All you have to do is find a way to keep it in one spot long enough to tag it."

Losing her temper, Lily snapped, "I tried! But not only is that thing super fast for its huge size, it's also super tough!"

"What's this about something super fast and tough?"

Lily jumped in surprise, whirled around and saw her Uncle Viceroy standing behind her.

"Uncle Viceroy!" the young girl cried out. "What are you doing here?"

"I spotted you and just thought I'd stop by and say hello before I head to the classroom," the history teacher explained. "Anyway, you said something about something tough? What are you talking about?"

"Well . . . " Lily hesitated, desperately racking her brain for something to say. There was no way she could just tell him about the tiger, but there was also no way that she could just make something up. Her uncle would just see through the lie.

Luckily, Eddie came to the rescue and said, "Say, Mr. Lin! If you were playing a video game and there was this boss monster that's too strong for you to handle, how would you beat it?"

Uncle Viceroy raised an eyebrow. "Is having trouble in video games what got you in a bad mood, Lily?"

Lily opted to hold her tongue.

"Well, it's not like I don't understand," her uncle said. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How to beat a video game boss that's too strong, huh? Well, that's easy. You train and level up until you're strong enough."

"What if you don't have enough time to train or level up?" Lily blurted out. She knew they were just talking about video games, but she thought any advice was better than nothing.

Uncle Viceroy asked, "Are you in the middle of some kind of limited time event?"

"Well, no," Lily replied hesitantly. "But I'd like to finish what I'm on fast."

To her relief, her uncle didn't question further and said, "I see. Well, you'll probably still need to level up, but another way to even the playing field would be buffing."

"Buffing? What's that?" asked Lily.

Uncle Viceroy raised an eyebrow. "You play video games and don't know what buffing is?"

"I just don't know a lot of video game lingo, okay?" Lily snapped. "Is that so bad?"

"Okay! Sorry! My bad!" said Uncle Viceroy. "Geez! No need to get all testy. Anyway, buffing means a boost to your stats."

Lily blinked. "Stats?"

"How strong you are or things like that," Uncle Viceroy explained. "Anyway, even if you're a bit under-level, you can still overwhelm the enemy with a good buff or buffs. Though, of course, the higher your level, the better the buffs, and the better your chances of winning."

"So, like," went Viv, "you can use, like, a magic spell to make yourself faster if you need to be faster?"

"Like, yeah," said Uncle Viceroy. "Something like that."

A magic spell to make you faster? Of course! 

Lily sprung to her feet, feeling like she could just kick herself. She felt she should have realized it right away. The answer was so obvious. If the tiger was faster than her, then she should have just used magic to make herself even faster!

"Thanks, Uncle Viceroy," she said. "You've been a big help!"

Uncle Viceroy smiled and replied, "Sure! No prob - Hey! Where are you going?"

Lily had suddenly run off. Not stopping, she turned and replied, "Just remembered I needed to go somewhere."

Viv and Eddie followed close at her heels.

"Don't spend too much time on games!" Uncle Viceroy called out. "It'll be both our skins if your mom starts hearing you're late on your homework."

The trio replied back, "Got it!"

With a bemused smile, the history teacher watched his niece and her friends disappear out the door. Once they were gone, he turned to leave himself when he happened to overhear some students whisper about something interesting.

"Did you hear about that boy who's really good at painting?" asked a boy.

A girl replied back, "Yeah! They say he got a mental breakdown, screaming something about how he can't paint anymore because of a giant, talking tiger."

Eyes furrowed, Viceroy Lin's smile dropped into a grim frown and he continued to walk away.

**********

Night fell once more over Bluestone Academy and under the cover of darkness was Lily and her friends on the lookout for the bronze tiger. 

After that talk about video games with Uncle Viceroy, Lily, Eddie and Viv met up with Oliver at the Sapphire Society's secret chamber where Lily told him her plans to meet the tiger again and how she planned to beat it this time. Oliver had been flipping through an old Sapphire Society yearbook when his juniors came in.

He was all on board with the idea of magically boosting speed to beat the tiger at its own game, but -

"Don't you think it's too soon to go after the tiger tonight?" he asked. "I think you could do with some practice before facing him. Especially if its as tough as the parrot. And unlike that time at the forest, you'll be facing the enemy alone."

"But we don't have time to practice!" Lily argued. "The longer we put this off, the more people end up the tiger's victims! We need to stop it now!"

Reluctantly, Oliver backed down.

"Alright," he said. "We'll go find the tiger tonight. But only because things are more urgent now with the kazoo player out. That dude deserves the Nobel Prize."

The gang slowly made their way down the road, each holding a part of a single blue rope that Lily pulled out of the magic bracelet.

"Sooo, remind me again why we're all holding a rope?" asked Eddie.

"Well," said Oliver, "last time, Lily got separated from us and pulled into some kind of parallel dimension we're calling the Blue World, where she had to face the tiger alone."

"And this rope is supposed to stop that from happening again?" Viv finished.

Oliver nodded and said, "Right-o. And since this is a magic rope, we shouldn't have to worry about anyone cutting it."

A voice from above spoke up and said, "That's clever of you, young detective."

Oliver and the twins looked up and spotted a huge, blue parrot sitting on top of a lamppost.

It looked down at them with eyes full of contempt and said again, "That's clever of you. But not clever enough."

"You again!?" Eddie cried out, throwing the bird a hateful glare.

"Me again," said the parrot, taking the boy's hate with indifference.

"What are you doing here?" Oliver demanded to know. "And what do you mean by 'not clever enough'?"

"Just take a look behind you," said the parrot.

Oliver, wary of any tricks, slowly looked over his shoulder. And then he whirled around, frantically looking left and right.

"Lily's gone!" he cried out. "She's disappeared again!"

**********

Lily stood in a world that looked exactly like her old one, except this one was covered in a blue glow. She was back in the Blue World, once more alone. And laid out in front of her, staring back at her with its head lifted was the bronze tiger.

"Took you long enough," said the tiger. "I was beginning to worry that I might run out of people to steal talents from."

Lily glared at it. "Oh yeah? Well it ends tonight! This time for sure, I'll take back everything you stole!"

"Oh?" The tiger stood up. "Do you have some kind of special plan this time?"

Choosing to keep her plan a surprise, Lily responded menacingly, "Just you watch."

"Very well, then," said the tiger. Its tail whipped to the front, balancing a large coin. "Same rules as last time. We start when the coin hits the ground."

"Got it," said Lily. She pulled back her sleeve, exposing her bracelet and its shining jewels, and got ready to run.

The tiger flipped its tail up, flinging the large coin high into the air, which spun one, two, three times before dropping back down. 

While the coin was still halfway in the air, Lily silently had the bracelet activate the magic spell. Suddenly, the whole world around Lily looked bluer and more wavey, as if blue jelly covered her eyes. And in an instant, the coin's fall slowed until it was hardly moving at all.

Well, at least I know it works, Lily thought while staring at the coin with a bemused smile.

Thanks to her new magical superspeed, everything looked like it was moving in slow motion. It took several minutes before the coin finally hit the ground, although it probably only took a second or two in reality.

DIIIIIING!

Lily sprang into action. She leaped forward to slap the tiger by its snout. But before her hand could land on it, the tiger jumped back fairly quickly, putting several feet distance between them.

"Wha-!?" Lily cried out.

"Oh, don't look so surprised," said the tiger. "You already know how fast I can go. It's why you came up with that spell in the first place."

"I guess the cat's out of the bag then," said Lily. "But that's okay. At least now we've got an even playing field."

The tiger sneered. "That's what you think."

And then, in the blink of an eye, it disappeared.

Lily stared with dismay and horror at the empty space the tiger left behind. 

"Where'd it go?"

Panicked, Lily looked left and right, searching for the tiger, only to find it sitting behind her at the end of the road several meters away. After blinking once, all she could see was the tiger's bronze face while feeling the hot air venting out of its nostrils.

"Foolish child!" the tiger roared.

Startled, Lily fell down. She looked up, dazed, as the tiger exploded into a rant. 

"Did you really think you could make yourself faster than me just like that? Magic like that takes more than just telling some toy what to do. Like with all things, you need to put your heart in it! Draw out every last drop of power! Magic spells are meaningless without power behind them!"

The tiger inched menacingly closer to Lily. She wanted to crawl away, but she was paralyzed and could not move.

"And now," said the tiger, slowly lifting its right paw over its head, "because you didn't understand such a simple thing, you . . . LOSE!"

The tiger brought its paw down, fast as lightning. Lily flinched, expecting her cranium to go splat. But instead, she felt like someone had gently stacked a pillow on top of her head. It didn't hurt at all. However, that was little comfort to Lily who knew what came next.

"Now," said the tiger, "one of your friends is going to lose something special, just like the singers, the dancers, and the kazoo player!"

Lily said nothing and simply stared at the ground.

"I wonder whose beloved talent should I go for? Eddie's drawing talent? Or maybe Oliver's detective skills?"

So racked with guilt, Lily pressed her fingers hard against the rough pavement, hard enough to break skin. But it was hardly enough to distract her from the feeling of her stomach twisting in guilt.

Above, she heard the tiger mutter, "Hmm. I suppose that's enough. Now - !"

BOOM!

Both Lily and the tiger turned their heads. 

BOOM!

There was a flash of blue light.

BOOM!

Cracks appeared in the air with bright light seeping. They started small. But with each impact from out of literally nowhere, they got bigger and bigger. If this was anything like last time, then Lily had a feeling she knew what was going on:

The Stone Man was coming.

"Not again!" groaned the tiger. "But at least this time, I ended the game before he showed up. That's good timing."

More like bad timing, Lily thought bitterly. If only the Stone Man had showed up just a little bit earlier, she might not have lost. Seriously, this was really bad timing.

And then her eyes lit up and she glanced at the tiger, distracted by the ever growing crack in dimensions.

Maybe it's not bad timing after all.

"Anyway, I must bid you farewell, Lady Sapphire. But we will meet again. I hope you'll do better next time. I would hate to run out of people to steal talents fro-!"

With no time to lose, Lily sprang, literally and latched onto the tiger's hindleg.

Dismayed, the tiger cried, "Hey! Let go! Let go now!"

In defiance, Lily shouted back, "No!"

The tiger tried to shake Lily off its leg, but she stubbornly clung on.

"Let go! This is no joke! That stone menace will be here in any moment! No one controls him! He will destroy everything in his sight, including you!"

But Lily just kept holding on and shrieked, "I DON'T CARE!"

And she meant it. This was probably her best and only chance to protect her friends and prevent them from losing something important. There was no way she was going to let it slip by.

A big stone fist burst through the crack. That was when the tiger finally gave in.

"FINE!" it shouted. "What do you want?"

"You already know," screamed Lily.

"Okay! One final game! One week from now. You lose, I really WILL take your friends' talents!"

Lily was hoping for it to give up on taking them and give back the ones it already stole. But she figured this was probably the best she was going to get, so she shouted, "Deal!" And she finally let go.

"Ow!"

After hitting the ground, the world around her was no longer blue, the tiger was gone, and she was surrounded by her friends, looking at her with a mix of worry and astonishment. Past them, she saw a familiar blue parrot take off.

After watching the parrot disappear into the night sky, she turned her gaze back to her friends and asked, "So, what did I miss?"

"That," said Oliver, "should be our line."

<== Chapter 19                                                                               Chapter 21 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 19

Chapter 19

The Tiger's Game

"Well, this is the place," said Oliver. "Anything from the bracelet, Lily?"

Lily glanced down at the bracelet and then shook her head, replying, "No reaction."

It was around Seven at night and Lily and the gang were out near the music building, here to look for the bronze tiger statue that Adwin Jacobs had said was alive and took his singing talent away. At this time, there was scarcely anyone else around because it was dinner time, making now the perfect time for Lady Sapphire to work some magic without being seen. 

"I don't see anything out of the ordinary here," said Viv. She and her brother, Eddie, scanned their surroundings with their hands cupped over their eyes.

"Yeah, all's quiet," said Eddie. "Is this really the right place?"

"Well, there's the music building over yonder," Oliver said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder towards the round building behind him. The lights shining at the base of the building exposed its true white color while the top was shrouded in black night. "We should be close. Let's look around a little bit more. If this case is anything like the last two, then there must be a secret magical entrance to some underground chamber. I don't see how else a ten-foot tall metal tiger could just move around unnoticed."

"Speaking of that tiger," Eddie said as the gang slowly strolled further down the road, "it's pretty horrible what that thing did. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Adwin. I can't imagine not being able to do something you love anymore. I know if it had been me and I could not draw anymore, every day would be like a punch in the gut."

"Then don't you think you should hang back this time, Eddie?" said Lily. "If we do run into that tiger Adwin mentioned, you really could end up not being able to draw anymore."

"Oh, I'm not worried," said Eddie. "Even if that does happen, I just know that we'll get it back. After all, we've got the great Lady Sapphire with us!"

"Oh, don't you start with that too!" Lily moaned.

"Come on, Lily," said Oliver. "Are you seriously going to say that there's not one part of you deep down that's enjoying the whole mystery girl hero bit?"

"Not one bit," Lily said. "I'm all for helping people who need it, but it's just . . ."

"Just what?" asked a curious Viv.

"Well . . ." Lily hesitated, struggling to find the right words. "It's just . . . the pressure, you know? From everyone's expectations. Just imagining letting people down can be painful. And all that attention? I just don't do well in the spotlight's all I'm saying. Does that make any sense, guys?"

There was no answer.

"Guys?"

Lily turned around, but there was no one behind her. She turned three-hundred sixty degrees, but didn't find a single soul.

She called out again, "Guys? Where are you? Are you hiding right now? Come on, this isn't funny!"

Still, there was no answer. Not even a peep.

"Just where did everyone go?" Lily wondered aloud. She didn't notice them go anywhere. They all just disappeared.

Or could it be LILY was the one who disappeared?

As she looked around, she noticed something unusual about her surroundings. Everything was faintly blue. The roadway was blue. The buildings were blue. Even the patches of grass illuminated beneath lampposts were blue. And when she took a look at her own hand, she saw that her skin was also covered in a shade of blue.

"Could it be a trick of the lights?" she wondered. She realized that maybe was not the case when she heard a low, beastly growl and turned around to see a tiger slowly creep out from behind a building.

It was exactly how Adwin described it: unnaturally huge and made completely out of dark bronze metal. Earthy orange light shined where its eyes should be. And each time it took a step, each time its muscles rippled at the slightest, there was metallic screeching. The screeching continued until the tiger finally came to a stop right in front of Lily and sat down.

Lily looked up to its eyes and swallowed. The tiger was both taller and thicker than the parrot in its giant form.

"I have been expecting you, Lady Sapphire," the tiger said. 

It took a little while before Lily spoke up. "Y-you have?" she said.

The tiger nodded. "Of course. The Schemer predicted you would come for me. I believe you wish to take something form me."

 She felt like she had heard the tiger's voice somewhere before, but she couldn't quite place her finger on where. But that wasn't important right now. Nor was it important hearing the tiger mention the Schemer, who Lily knew was behind this, again. What was important was getting back what the tiger had stolen from Adwin.

The look of distress on his face was still fresh in Lily's mind and the memory filled her with determination.

"That's right," she said, giving the tiger a fierce glare. "I'm here to take something from you, something that didn't belong to you in the first place. You stole something very precious from Adwin and I will get it back!"

The bronze tiger laughed. "Ha! Brave words, little girl. Just try and defeat me if you can!"

"Name your game," Lily said.

"The game is two-way tag," the tiger said. "It's simple. Each of us will try to tag the other. First one to get tagged, loses. We can use magic however we like, but projectiles do not count. Shields are okay. If I lose, whatever I have taken will be returned. But if you lose - "

"Let me guess," Lily cut in. "You'll take my shoes?"

"No," said the tiger. "You will pay with your friends talents!"

Flashback to something Eddie said just a few minutes ago: "I know if it had been me and I could not draw anymore, every day would be like a punch in the gut."

Lily's blood ran cold and she yelled, "You leave my friends out of this! If you want to take someone's talent, take mine instead!"

But the tiger refused. "To you, other people are more important than yourself. Because of that, paying with other people's precious talents is way more valuable than paying with your own."

"Then - !"

The tiger cut Lily off and added, "It is too late. I will not negotiate. And if you turn back or refuse to play, I will go after your friends anyway."

"That's not fair!" Lily complained.

"Child, life is not fair. Now what will it be?" asked the tiger. "Will you take my challenge? Or will you forfeit your friends' talents without a fight?"

Lily bit on her lower lip to keep from screaming. Panicked, she thought to herself, What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? If I take the challenge and lose, Eddie and the others will lose their talents! But if I do nothing, they'll lose their talents anyway!

She knew that the only way out was to accept the tiger's challenge and win. But she had no idea if she could actually beat the tiger. Especially now that she was alone, with no backup. In fact, it was only thanks to her friends' help that she foiled the Schemer's other schemes to make trouble.

Getting impatient, the tiger spoke up. "Choose! You have five seconds. Four seconds. Three seconds. Two -!"

Left with no more time to think, Lily shouted, "Okay! Okay! I accept your challenge! Happy?"

A low, rumbling purr escaped the tiger's throat. "Verily."

Lily never heard that word before, but she guessed it meant "Yes".

The tiger crouched down so that its eyes were on level with Lily's. It whipped its tail between them, showing Lily a big, gold coin or medallion balanced precariously at the tip.

"We start when the coin hits the ground," the tiger said.

Lily nodded and grimly replied, "Got it."

"Ready?"

Honestly, no, thought Lily. But she saw little point in telling the tiger that and merely nodded.

The tiger whipped its tail up, tossing the coin in the air. Round and round it spun before finally dropping back down. But Lily didn't pay the coin any attention. Her eyes were locked onto the tiger's. They were both crouched down, ready to spring any second. And then -

Ding!

The coin hit the ground and bounced. 

Lily jumped and the tiger pounced.

Lily threw herself to the right to dodge the tiger's attack, hit the ground and rolled. She picked herself up just as the tiger sprung at her again.

Lily ducked down and the tiger flew over her head, landing behind her. She twisted around with a plan to make the bracelet conjure a fishing net to ensnare the metal beast. 

"Net!" she shouted.

Light flashed from her bracelet and out flew a square-shaped mesh big enough to blanket a grownup elephant. But before it could be ensnared, the bronze beast let out a mighty roar strong enough to blow the net away, back where it came.

Lily was already running around the tiger before the net hit the ground and she dove to slap the tiger's right side. But in the blink of an eye, the tiger disappeared, only to reappear right behind her. She would have been tagged before she knew what hit her, if the tiger had not roar and alerted her to turn around.

As soon as she saw the giant paw drop down over her head, she jumped back, falling painfully on her behind.

"Ow!"

She bounced back onto her feet and ran, stopping to turn around just as the tiger crouched down to leap.

Again and again, Lily and the tiger leaped and jumped around each other, almost as if they were dancing. For a creature as big as a house and made entirely of heavy metal, the tiger was fast. It always disappeared, only to appear right behind Lily whenever she went on the attack.

It's toying with me, she thought. It was painfully clear to the Lady Sapphire that the tiger could have tagged her anytime it wanted, but chose not to. It was also painfully clear, why.

"Come on, come on! What's the matter, slowpoke?" 

The tiger taunted her as it jumped and jumped, and jumped every time Lily swiped and swiped, and swiped.

"Too slow!"

Lily tried binding the creature using chains of blue steel she commanded the bracelet to conjure. The chains tightly wound themselves around the tiger, who sat without resistance. But then -

"Too weak!"

- with a simple flex of its muscles, the tiger shattered the chains and sent the pieces flying. One of those pieces flew straight into Lily's forehead.

"Ow!'

She took a step backwards and slipped over a line of bricks that separated the road and the courtyard that fronted a nearby building, falling onto the grass. And then, as soon as Lily picked herself up, she found her nose just an inch away from the tiger's. Hot air brushed against her cheeks when the tiger snorted.

"Game over," it said.

Lily's heart sunk and she despaired at her failure and the thought of her friends paying the price for it.

The tiger inched its face closer. Lying on the ground, there was no way Lily could retreat. All she could do was watch as her loss became final. 

But just before its nose could boop Lily's, the tiger stopped and pulled back.

Lily was relieved that the living, bronze statue wasn't breathing on her face anymore, but she was also confused. Why did the tiger suddenly stop?

Following its gaze to the left, she soon found her answer. Right over the middle of the road, there was a flash of blue light. And then a jagged crack appeared, as if the air itself was made of glass. There was a second flash of light, and the crack got bigger. It was clear that something on the other side of that crack was trying to get in.

The tiger turned its gaze back to Lily and said, "Luck is on your friends' side today. We will call this game a draw. But although your friends have been spared, I will not stop taking other people's talents. Keep your eyes and ears open, Lady Sapphire, and know that the victims of tomorrow are your fault."

Done speaking to Lily, the tiger moved between her and the crack in space. Past the bronze statue's legs, she could see the crack shatter and in burst what looked like an assembly of stone cylinders in the shape of a man. 

Named the Stone Man by Lily on the spot, it stood almost as tall as the tiger on all fours. Its shell was dark gray like the pavement it stood on. And from the rectangle opening on its head piece where eyes would be, Lily could see two wispy balls of light.

The Stone Man let out a man-like, but loud, echoing roar. And then it, the bronze tiger and everything else in front of Lily was covered in blinding, white light.

The next thing Lily knew, she was sitting on the grass, the world no longer covered by blue, and her friends came running over from down the left road.

"Oh, thank goodness we found you!" Viv said.

"Where've you been, Lily?" asked Eddie. "You suddenly disappeared. Did something happen?"

"Questions and answers will have to wait," Oliver cut in. "We had a run-in with your uncle earlier while looking for you, Lily. We tried to pretend everything was okay, but I'm sure he must have sensed something amiss. So we need to make ourselves scarce and fast."

Lily said nothing and just stared at the empty space the tiger and the Stone Man had been.

Oliver frowned. "Lily? I say, are you listening?"

He exchanged concerned looks with the twins. And then Viv walked over and crouched down next to her roommate.

"Lily? Is everything okay?"

Finally, Lily turned, looked at her friends and shook her head.

"No, Viv," she said. "Everything is not okay."

<== Chapter 18

Poem: The Treasure Box

Open not the Treasure Box

Questions, Inquiries and Demands will go nowhere 

No Crowbar will pop the Lid.

Inside, no Treasure will you find

No Gold, Jewels or Art.

Nothing with Desire for Judging Eyes 

And Judging those Eyes will be 

Disappointment at the Truth.

Such is a Foregone Conclusion.

To those Eyes, only Garbage lay within.

Only Trash held by this Treasure Box 

The Toys of babies

The Scribbling of Children

Thus the Treasure Box remains closed.

Rather obscured eternally 

A shield from Storms with Opinions 

No key will anyone find.

Buried where none can reach.

Thus eternally closed

So is this Treasure Box.

Lily Wong Ch. 18

Chapter 18

The Singer and the Tiger

Just a quick recap, Lily and Viv skipped school to find and rescue Eddie who had disappeared after going off on his own to investigate the X marked on a map they found penned by the Waller twins' long-lost mother. The girls found Eddie trapped in a secret, underground maze that all three had to traverse and overcome its many deadly obstacles in order to get out. Towards the end, they encountered not only the evil magical parrot, but also the Schemer himself. After a brief exchange of words, the parrot and the Schemer left, allowing Lily and the twins to escape the maze only to encounter more unexpected trouble: the wrath of a teacher who was rightfully angry at the three friends for skipping school.

"Yikes," said Oliver after Lily and the twins gave him the rundown of their last adventure while having breakfast at the dining hall. "I know Mr. Lin's not shy about punishing kids for rule-breaking, but this is the first time I've heard he actually got angry about it."

"You're telling me," said Lily. "He almost looked like my mom for a second there."

Eddie took responsibility and claimed that everything was his fault. He explained that he was following clues in hopes of learning more about his and Viv's missing mom and ended up trapped until the girls came to his rescue. 

Of course, Eddie left out all the dangerous magic stuff. But his story was enough to convince Uncle Viceroy who softened up a bit after learning about how the twins' mom disappeared and sympathized with them. However, that didn't stop him from giving the trio a week's worth of detention to clean his classroom and write apology letters to their other teachers for skipping, starting the next day.

"I know us teachers get paid to be here," he said, "but we're still choosing to spend the majority of our daily lives to look after you. I hope you understand what that means."

He also added, "I'd have you start detention tonight, but there's a faculty meeting at Five today."

End flashback.

Rubbing his chin, Oliver went, "Hmm. So that's why this mystery helper of ours said that Five would be our best chance to investigate X."

"Gee, if only a certain someone here was patient enough to wait, then we wouldn't be in all this trouble," Viv said, giving her brother a sideways glance.

Dismayed, Eddie fired back, "Oh, so NOW you think we should have listened to that message? Remind me again, who was it that didn't want to go check out X in the first place because they didn't trust it?"

"It's not about trust," Viv snapped. "It's about being careful!"

"Okay, you two, settle down," Oliver cut in, sounding like a parent chastising their kids. "No need to get so heated. Eddie, Viv is just looking out for you because she's worried you could get into trouble or worse. And Viv, I'm sure you already know, he just wants to do whatever he can to get your family back together."

Viv crossed her arms and grumbled, "Yeah? Well, it's a little too late for that."

Oliver raised his eyebrows. And then, in a higher pitch voice, he said, "Okay. Moving on before things get more awkward, I got a case that's going to need Lady Sapphire's attention."

Lily was more curious about what Viv's grumbling meant, but at the mention of Lady Sapphire, she turned her full attention to Oliver and asked, "What have we got now?"

"Not sure yet," Oliver said. "I don't even know what the real case is."

"Seriously?"

"Please don't look at me like that, Lily," Oliver implored. "It's really hurtful. Anyway, take a look at this."

He pulled out his phone to show everyone the message:

"Speak with Adwin Jacobs."

After reading that single sentence aloud, Lily looked up and asked, "Who's Adwin Jacobs?"

Oliver replied, "You're still new to the school, so I can't blame you for not knowing who he is, but he is one of Bluestone Academy's top singers. He's only a year older than me, but his singing could put pros to shame. Never lost a contest. But that should be no surprise, since his dad was a South African pop star and his mom owns a record label company."

Eddie raised his hand. "Dumb question: who sent that message?"

"No sender I.D.," said Oliver. "But that alone is enough to tell us it's the same guy or gal that's been sending us useful tips by hacking our phones. I still haven't pinpointed who exactly yet, but I'm close."

"Well, putting aside our mystery computer geek," said Lily, "sounds like this Adwin guy might have had a run-in with the Schemer. That can be the only reason why the geek wanted us to talk to him."

Oliver's phone pinged with a new message: "DON'T CALL ME A GEEK!"

"Not surprised," said Lily. "We already know you're watching and listening to us from someplace far away. Why don't you just show yourself already?"

They all waited, but nothing new came through. 

"Fine, be that way," said Lily. "Anyway, we should go have a chat with Adwin."

"One step ahead of you, Lily," said Oliver. "I already messaged him for a meeting."

After Lily and the twins finished their detention for the day, they went straight to the library. They found Hassan working at the front desk, scanning barcodes of returned books. When he spotted the trio, he gave them a nod and told them to head to the back corner where a shortish black teen sat opposite of Oliver around a school desk with books of all colors backdropped behind them.

Innocently, Oliver asked, "How was detention . . . is what I'd like to ask, but your faces tell me it must not be all that great."

"Ya think?" Lily answered sourly.

Curious, the teen with Oliver asked, "What happened?"

"Nothing!" snapped Lily. "We swept the floors, wiped the tables, wrote apology letters and spent the rest of the time doing homework. Nothing so bad. Or it should've been. But the whole, gosh darn time! We had to listen to an audio recording of Uncle Viceroy singing a cover of some old baby show's theme song. ON ENDLESS LOOP!"

It was pure torture. To make matters worse, Lily thought, it's now stuck in my head!

Oliver whispered to Eddie, "Out of curiosity, what song was it?"

Out of the corner of his mouth, Eddie whispered back, "Let's just say I hate dinosaurs now."

"Anyway, Oliver," the teen cut in. "Do you mind finally explaining what this is all about? And who are these kids?"

"I was just about to get started on that, Adwin," said Oliver. "These three are my sidekicks."

"You're STILL going with that?" Viv grumbled reproachfully.

Oliver acted like he didn't hear and continued. "As for why I called everyone here, I just thought that you could use our help."

Adwin was taken aback. "Help? Me? What could I possibly need help with from an Encyclopedia Brown wannabe?"

"Oh, I think you already know," said Oliver. "And it should be Sherlock Holmes wannabe." He leaned closer to Adwin and propped his chin over his clasped hands. "You need help finding your lost voice."

Lily exchanged looks with the twins and then cut in. "Uh . . . Oliver? Isn't Adwin talking just fine?"

There was a short pause and then -

"Oh! Sorry, I misspoke. I meant to say his lost SINGING voice. Basically, he can no longer sing because the ability was taken from him."

Wide-eyed in astonishment, Adwin asked, "How did you know?"

To which, Oliver grinned, pointed both thumbs at himself and replied, "Future greatest detective in the world, remember?"

"What's in it for you?" was Adwin's next question. "I can't see what you gain by helping me."

"What? You can't just believe it's out of the goodness of our hearts?" Oliver asked.

Adwin scowled at him.

Looking hurt, Oliver said, "That really is the case, you know. But, I will admit that your problem sort of relates to something I've been looking into with my sidekicks since the start of the year. I feel like tackling your problem will get me and my sidekicks one step closer to tackling ours."

Adwin gave Oliver a look and then glanced at Lily and the twins. And then, after taking a moment to think, he asked, "Do you guys really think you can get my singing back?"

With a confident grin, Oliver replied, "Positive."

Adwin let out a resigned sighed. "Alright. I could use all the help I can get. I'm so close to the end of my rope anyway that I'll even take help from one of those super rats I heard Mr. Lin keeps as pets."

Lily blinked. "Uncle Viceroy keeps what now?"

This was how Adwin's story went:

One night, after practicing late at the music hall like usual, he was on his way back to the dorms when he heard a loud, metallic clanging noise from behind one of the nearby buildings. Curious, he went over to see what it was. To his surprise, he found a huge bronze statue sitting in the middle of the road.

"It was a tiger," he said. "A big one, sitting tall with its head almost reaching the second floor window."

At first, Adwin thought it was another art project that some student accidentally left behind. But then, just as he turned to leave, the metal statue moved. It shifted into a crouch and slowly circled around him.

Adwin was stunned, wondering if he was dreaming this or that maybe all that practice was finally getting to him and he was hallucinating.

The tiger gave him a look with its glowing, earthy-orange eyes and then took a deep breath in. As it sucked in air, a ball of light appeared out of nowhere and flew into its mouth, swallowed down its throat.

And then, as if the night could not get any weirder, the moving, metal tiger statue began to talk.

"I have taken that which is most precious to you," he said in a deep, gravelly voice. And then, it disappeared in a swirl of wind.

"And that was it," Adwin said. "It was all a bit too much for me to process, so I numbly went back to my dorm and pretended it never happened. I didn't understand what it meant until the next day when I had practice."

The day after encountering the tiger, Adwin was at the music hall like always, at the same sound booth like always, doing warm-ups like always. Everything was the same as any other day. But when he opened his mouth to do some actual singing, no sound came out. 

Over and over again, he tried to sing, but he couldn't make even a single tune. He tested and found he could still talk just find. It was only when he tried to sing that his voice failed him. 

Lily noticed Adwin's fingers curl into tight fists as he spoke of his loss. They shook as a pained grimace flashed on his face. There were many differences, but somehow his demeanor reminded Lily of Melody when she told her story.

"That was when I realized," Adwin continued, "that blasted tiger had taken my singing from me. I tried looking for it, hoping to get my singing back, but I could never find it. And no one's seen or heard anything about a huge, bronze tiger, let alone one that could move, talk, and apparently steal people's ability to sing. Not that I could tell anyone that's what the tiger could do. They'd think I was nuts."

"Well, don't you worry," said Oliver. "We'll find that tiger, and we'll get your singing voice back in time for you to win that contest coming up in a few days."

Adwin looked up and looked Oliver square in the eye. Lily stood right behind Oliver, and she could see the desperation on Adwin's face as he tried and failed to maintain a calm demeanor.

"I don't care about that," he said. "I just want my singing back. Singing is my love, my passion, and my life. To me, losing one measly contest . . . No, even losing every contest I ever have would be better than never being able to sing again.  I don't care who, what or how. Just please, give me back my singing!"

"We'll everything we can!" Lily blurted out. "We promise."

Adding gave her a wide-eyed look and then softened up and sighed.

With a self-desparaging chuckle, he said, "I've really fallen far if I need a kid to cheer me up. But thanks, Lady Sapphire."

Lily smiled back and replied, "You're welcome."

But then that smile flipped into a frown.

"Wait, what!?"

Adding snorted. "Come on. You guys believed my story a little too easily. Not to mention, our school's very own Sherlock happens to get some new sidekicks around the same time those rumors started? It was obvious one of you was Lady Sapphire, or at least in cahoots with her."

"We really need to work on the whole secret identity thing," said Eddie. "This is the second time in a row our secret got exposed. And we've only had two cases!"

<== Chapter 17                                                                        Chapter 19 ==>