Chapter 39
Rescue (Part 2)
"Okay," Oliver started with a clap of his hands. "Let's go over everything one more time so we're all on the same page."
Everyone huddled together with him and nodded.
"Our goal is to rescue Mr. Lin and the Sapphire Princess who're both frozen in a giant pillar made of sapphire stone. From what we already know, only Lily can break them out with help from the magic bracelet so that'll be her job. And that means the rest of us has the job of making sure nothing gets in her way. That includes dealing with the Schemer ourselves. Based on what Lily's told us, his power's no joke. If we have to face him, we got to go full throttle, no mercy. Even if that's not enough to do anything to him, at least it'll distract him long enough for Lily to do what she has to do."
"Let's hope the Schemer doesn't show up then," said Eddie.
"Speaking of the Schemer, there's actually something I should tell you guys," Lily said. After hesitating a bit, she spoke up. "It's something I left out earlier, but - !"
Oliver cut in and said, "The Schemer is actually Director Bluestone. Is that it?"
Lily looked at him in surprise, and then nodded.
"Wait," George cut in. "I thought the Schemer was supposed to be a relative of the director."
"That's just what he told us," Oliver said. "Well, to be exact, he said the Schemer was a member of the Bluestone family, which was true because the director, himself, is a Bluestone."
"But how'd you figure it out yourself?" asked Lily. "Since when?"
"When we waited for the Schemer to go away so we could nab the bracelet back," replied Oliver. "The way he sat in that chair of his was exactly how the director always sat whenever I met with him before. And I've seen him enough times to know his sitting habits by heart, down to the littlest detail. But what about you, Lily? How did you find out the Schemer's secret identity?"
"He told me," said Lily. "He didn't even bother to put on his costume when I came to save Uncle Viceroy."
"I can't believe it," went Hassan. "As far as teachers went, Director Bluestone was the coolest. To think he was a bad guy this whole time."
"But wait," Erin cut in. "That means we'll be fighting a teacher! Isn't that a bad thing?"
"It is," said Oliver. He looked like he had a heavy heart. "But Director Bluestone is also doing bad things. And he has to be stopped from doing any more, even if that means fighting him."
A stifling mood hung over the gang, but it was quickly dispelled by an optimistic Eddie who said, "It'll be fine. Mr. Lin can help us sort this out once we break him out."
His sister pointed out, "Mr. Lin lost to Director Bluestone, remember?"
"Yeah, but like Oliver said before, everything'll work out if we all work together."
"Right you are, Eddie," said Oliver. "Then let's not waste anymore time."
Taking the leader place, he opened the door and stormed out.
After taking a look around, Oliver whispered, "Okay. So far, so good. No Schemer in sight."
No sooner he said that, a multitude of voices speaking at once cut in from overhead and said, "No, but I'm here."
Everyone turned their heads.
No surprise, there was a blue-feathered parrot perched on top of the pillar made of sapphire with Mr. Lin and the Sapphire Princess trapped inside. THE blue parrot.
"I've been waiting for you," it said.
Oliver took a look around. "Just you? What happened to Director Bluestone?"
"Hmph!" The parrot sniffed with contempt. "So you finally realized that Julius was the Schemer all along. But I suppose that's no surprise, since he got tired of waiting for you all to figure it out yourselves and revealed himself.
"Julius doesn't need to waste his time on you," the parrot replied back. "Now that he knows how weak the chosen hero of the Sapphire Bracelet really is, he can ignore you all and turn his attention to better things."
"Well that's good," said Eddie. "This'll be a piece of cake if it's just the bad guy's sidekick."
The parrot didn't like that. "Excuse me? Just a sidekick?"
"Eek!"
"Yikes!"
"Whoa!"
Suddenly, the parrot grew from a speck on top of the room's single decoration to about as big as a grownup elephant. One flap of its wings nearly blew everyone off their feet.
"IS THAT REALLY WHAT YOU JUST CALLED ME?"
The parrot's voices had also grown with its size and echoed several times over in the room.
Viv threw her brother a reproachful look. "You just had to tick off the parrot, didn't you?"
Lily rolled back her sleeve with the bracelet now back on her arm. "Hold on, guys. Let me - !"
Before she could act, Oliver stopped her. "No. You need all the magic power you can muster to break Mr. Lin and the Princess out. We'll handle the parrot. Come on, guys! Let's go!"
He led the charge and ran up close to the monument with a baseball-sized fireball in his hand, which he lobbed at the great, big bird. The parrot hopped off to dodge the attack and then swooped around Mr. Lin and the Sapphire Princess, headed up to the ceiling and then dove down, aiming its beak to skewer the teen detective's heart.
Hassan stepped between the parrot and Oliver and, mimicking the parrot, magically grew three times his original size while holding up an iron, round shield he had pulled out of thin air. The parrot crashed into the shield and exploded into a cloud of blue smoke, only to reappear from behind the monument in its normal size.
The giant version had been a clone the whole time.
Oliver quickly retreated behind his giant friend as the parrot flew over, spitting out a jet of fire. Hassan blocked the flames with his shield.
Erin and Melody both took something out from their pockets that instantly grew into large butterfly nets with flicks of their wrists. They swung the nets at the parrot, but it quickly flew back up the ceiling before the nets reached.
While the parrot was kept busy, Lily seized the chance to run over to the pillar and placed her hand on the warm sapphire stone. After giving her uncle and the Sapphire Princess a quick look, she focused all her energy into the bracelet and gave it a command.
"Alright, bracelet! Time for a revenge match! Let's break them free!"
The bracelet answered with a flash of light shining from its jewels. In reaction, the huge sapphire stone also shined.
Startled by the blinding light, the parrot squawked and shrank away, before growing ten feet tall. It turned while using one wing to shield its face and roared out, "LILY WONG!"
It hunched down, looking like it was going to jump on Lily. But it got jumped on instead by Oliver, Alejandro and George. The parrot tried to shake the boys off, but then Tanja dove onto the pile too, and the parrot's legs finally buckled under their combined weight and it collapsed onto the floor. "Oof!"
"Hurry, Lily!" Oliver cried.
Lily yelled back, "I'm trying!"
She pushed everything she had into breaking the giant sapphire open, but it showed no signs of cracking. Lily, on the other hand, could feel her head throbbing while the world went swirly. And then the light on the jewels became noticeably dimmer.
Oh no! She thought. It can't be that after all this time, my power's still not enough. For what did I go through all that trouble for then?
Just as she started to despair at failing a second time here, she felt a pair of hands on one shoulder.
"Here, Lily," she heard Viv's voice say. "Let me give you a boost!"
And then Lily felt another pair of hands on her other shoulder.
"Don't forget about me," said Eddie.
The throbbing left Lily's head and the light on the huge gemstone grew brighter again. Not only that, a jagged line appeared across the Sapphire Princess' face. And then another.
Elated, Lily thought, It's working! It's working this time.
All over the huge gemstone, more cracks appeared. She could feel it vibrating against her palm, followed by a growl coming from her uncle. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"
"Almost there," she mumbled. "Just a little bit more!"
"NO! STOP!"
Suddenly, a girl's voice cried out. It was so loud that it drowned out any other kind of noise and created waves that sent shivers down everyone's spine. Including Oliver's, who, while laying on the parrot's feathery back, felt something shatter in his head as the waves passed through him.
He was suddenly hit with a flashback to a forgotten past and then remembered that today was not the first time he found out Director Bluestone was the Schemer. He actually found out a lot earlier.
But that was not the only thing he realized.
"Director Bluestone wanted Lily to get stronger. Everything has been going exactly as he planned. Even now!"
The parrot overheard the teen detective's mumbling and glanced back, thinking, Oh, this is not good.
But it was too late for the parrot to stop what happened next.
At the top of his lungs, Oliver panickily shouted, "Lily, stop! It's all a trick! We're doing exactly what Director Bluestone wants!"
"Huh?" Lily turned with a start and let go of the sapphire stone for just a little moment. But then, there was an explosion of blue smoke next to her. And out of it, appeared Director Bluestone who grabbed Lily by the bracelet on her wrist and forced her hand back on the sapphire.
Lily felt the rest of her power drain out in an instant and her knees buckled. At the same time, a pulse burst from the palm of her hand and spread all over the huge sapphire, causing it to explode into a cloud of fine, powdery dust.
It knocked Lily to the floor alongside her friends and Director Bluestone. Director Bluestone was the first to recover. He was already on his feet, crying, "Safira!"
As Lily gingerly sat up, the dust cloud settled and disappeared, and she could see two figures standing in the middle of the chamber: Uncle Viceroy and the Sapphire Princess.
"Safira!"
With a big smile plastered on his face, Director Bluestone ran to the Princess. But the Sapphire Princess did not smile in return. Instead, she screamed, "No! Stay away!"
Director Bluestone froze. His smile dropped to a distraught frown. "Safira, it's me! It's Julius Bluestone, your father!"
"Father!?" Everyone cried out in surprise.
The Sapphire Princess was Director Bluestone's daughter this whole time? But then why would he have her trapped in that huge gemstone? Wait, but Oliver said this was what he wanted.
"Grrrr!" Lily furiously scratched both sides of her head. Her confusion put her over the tipping point. "Just what is going on here!?"
Nobody answered her. All eyes were on the father and daughter pair having a less-than-happy reunion.
"Safira, please! I've waited so long to speak with you again!"
But the Sapphire Princess, Safira, refused to let her father come closer. "No! Please, just stay away! It's too dangerous!"
Director Bluestone caught on quick that something was wrong and frowned. "Dangerous? What is dangerous?"
The Sapphire Princess didn't answer. Instead, someone else spoke. Something else.
"She speaks of me, Son of Thaddeus Bluestone."
It was a voice that was deep, dark and full of malevolence unlike anything Lily had heard before. The source of the voice was a cloud of thick, black smoke swirling around over the Sapphire Princess' head.
With a wicked, evil cackle, the black smoke made a loud and triumphant announcement.
"AT LAST! I, THE EVIL DRAGON FAFNIR, AM FREE!"
No comments:
Post a Comment