Chapter 44
United
Rewind time a few minutes back . . .
After performing a jump-punch through the ceiling, Mr. Lin landed on the floor above and shed the stones that made up his armor, using them to make a staircase for the others to climb up with. Tanja was the first.
She took a look around, noting the oddly-shaped black cases. "Looks like we're in a storage room for the school's band."
Suddenly, Mr. Lin cried out, "Oh shoot!"
"What's wrong, Mr. Lin?" asked Hassan.
The history teacher replied, "One of my clones spotted Lily and Safira."
"Really?" cried Bluestone. "Where are they? Is Safira okay?"
"Depends on your meaning of okay," said Mr. Lin. "They're having a showdown with that rotten piece of cotton candy."
George raised an eyebrow. "Rotten piece of cotton candy? Do you mean the spirit of Fafnir, Mr. Lin?"
"Yep."
"WHAT!?" Bluestone cried out in dismay. He turned and ran to the hole, but Mr. Lin stopped him with a restraining hand on his shoulder.
"Hold it, Bluestone," he said. "Just where do you think you're going?"
Bluestone whirled around and shook Mr. Lin's hand off. "Don't try and stop me, Viceroy! I should never have gone with you! I should've just gone after Safira!"
"Don't be ridiculous!' Mr. Lin snapped. "The way you are now, you wouldn't make it one step!"
"THEN WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE WE DO?" shouted Bluestone. "NOTHING? Need I remind you your own niece is there too?"
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?" Mr. Lin roared back. "EIGHTEEN CLONES ARE TRYING TO GET TO THEM RIGHT NOW! FIVE ARE ALREADY THERE, BUT THEY ALL GOT THEIR HANDS FULL WITH AN ARMY OF HORRORS! YOUR ARMY OF HORRORS!"
"Guys! GUYS!" Tanja jumped in. "This is no time to be arguing. You remember what that magic eight ball said, right? If we're going to win this, we need to work together. To be united."
Mr. Lin looked at her. "Say that again?"
Puzzled, Tanja said, "We need to work together?"
"No, the other thing."
"To be united?"
"That's it!"
"What's it?" asked George.
Mr. Lin didn't answer. Instead, he marched over to the back of the room and pulled a sheet off a large drum that was up to his belly in height. With a wag of his finger, dust gathered over his hand and transformed into a steel chisel which he proceeded to use to carve something into the side of the instrument.
"You do know you're vandalizing school property, don't you?" Warren pointed out.
Mr. Lin snapped at the parrot, "Oh, like you actually care. The school can just take the repair costs out of my paycheck."
"What ARE you doing, Mr. Lin?" asked Alejandro. "And is that supposed to help Lily somehow?"
While moving onto the next drum, Mr. Lin explained, "Back when I was stranded in another world, me and some friends visited a village or a town that made musical instruments with special powers. When that town was attacked by an army of weird, avant-garde art statues, me and my friends used those instruments powers to send the entire village's feelings over to Gwendolyn, a witch. The instruments turned those feelings into energy, powering her up enough to obliterate the army with a single spell."
“How much of that do you think is actually true?” Melody whispered to Alejandro. Alejandro answered with a shrug.
"I get it now!" exclaimed Hassan. "We're all going to power up Lily so she can take down Fafnir, using drums you modded to have powers just like those instruments at that village!"
"Uh," went Melody, "is no one going to point out the crazy that is Mr. Lin saying he visited another world?"
Excited, Tanja cried out, "Ooh! Is this one of those power-of-friendship things? Is it? Is it?"
"Ya darn right it is!" Mr. Lin set aside the second drum and started working on a third.
Warren the parrot scoffed. "The power of friendship, you say? I know the adventures me and Father created for you lot made it seem like one, but this is not some children's wishy-washy cartoon show! This idea is utterly absurd!"
Bluestone, however, felt differently. "I understand how you feel, Warren," he said. "But we are out of options now. And you should already know this: Viceroy Kevin Lin is an absurd man, and making absurd things happen is what he does best."
"So is now a good time to tell us why you wear glasses when your eyes are fine?" Tanja asked.
Mr. Lin rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine! The glasses block out light that bothers my eyes. I've asked for years to have the lightbulbs switched out for something more eye friendly, but the school never got around to it, even though it only took them two months to install that huge jacuzzi underneath the teacher dorms."
"Alright!"
Mr. Lin and everyone else stood behind drums that he had carved alien symbols on, holding drumsticks ready over their instruments. In front of them was a giant mirror floating in the air, created by Mr. Lin so that they could all see Lily and Safira, and what was going on in the chamber with Fafnir.
Mr. Lin's drumsticks went, Pak! Pak! Pak! "Let's . . . get . . . PUUUUUMPED!"
**********
All across the school, a fierce, rapid drumbeat could be heard. It woke students and teachers alike out of their slumber. Hundreds of heads poked out of hundreds of windows trying to figure out where that music came from. But all anyone knew for sure was that the music would allow no wall, no distance, to stop it from reaching every single ear in the school, not even the walls of an ancient underground lair used by a family of evil wizards.
As soon as Lily heard the drums, she was suddenly filled to the brim with energy. And she could also hear familiar voices cheering along.
"Go Lily!"
"You can do it!"
"Show that rotten piece of cotton candy what a Lin can really do!"
"Don't give up, Safira!"
"Don't let two-hundred years of hard work go to waste!"
All of Lily and Safira's friends sent words of encouragement, and lent the girls strength. But even with their added power, the bracelet still could not peel Fafnir off the floor.
Just a little bit more, Lily thought. If only we can get just a little bit more power!
And then came another familiar voice. This one was much closer than the rest.
"Need a hand?"
Lily looked up and was both surprised and happy to see Oliver, Viv and Eddie poking their heads down over the hole in the ceiling along with another Uncle Viceroy clone in his Stone Man armor.
The clone jumped down. He landed outside of the wall of light the other five clones held up, and then spun round and round, turning into an indoor tornado that pulled in and then tossed aside Fafnir's minions as it traveled around the room. This gave the other clones a chance to push the rest of the army back.
White-blue frost flew out of Oliver's hand, which created a platform of ice that looped around the cloud of smoke, before touching down next to Lily and Safira. After sliding down the platform, Oliver and the twins placed their hands over Lily and Safira's, adding their magic energy to the girls'. The bracelet's pull on Fafnir instantly became several times stronger.
"No!" the dragon cried out in horror. He went sliding closer to the bracelet, leaving long, deep gashes across the stone floor. "Impossible! IMPOSSIBLE! To not only be defeated, but VANQUISHED by few ragtag children and teachers!"
"Actually, Fafnir," said Oliver, "it's not just a few children and teachers. You know that drumming that's going on right now? While me and the twins were rushing over here, we heard our friends' voices being carried along with it. I figured they were trying to help Lily in some way and thought, 'Why not invite everyone else to join the fun?' So I whipped out my phone and sent out a text message to every person on the school's phone book to do one thing: cheer for Lady Sapphire. If you listen closely, you'll know that quite a lot of people have answered the call."
"GO Lady Sapphire! You can do it!"
"I don't know what's going on, but I'm rooting for you, Lady Sapphire!"
"I still owe you for getting back my singing voice. So if you need my support, you've got it!"
"If not for you, I would have lost my late grandmother's brooch forever. Thank you!"
"GO! GO! LADY SAPPHIRE! GO! GO! LADY SAPPHIRE! GO! GO! LADY SAPPHIRE!"
"Sounds like a lot of people, doesn't it?" Oliver said with a smug grin. "I'm betting the whole school's got our backs right now. Well, Lily's back really. No surprise, given all the good she's done for everyone as Lady Sapphire. Anyway, the point is you're up against hundreds of people right now. Even a dragon like yourself can't handle the power of that many, Fafnir. And that means . . ."
"It's over for you!" Lily declared. "Come on, everyone!"
Thus, Bluestone's prediction about unity being the key to victory came true. With the power of the entire school united as one, Lily and her friends finally dislodged the cloud of smoke from the floor.
With nothing to hold onto now, Fafnir went flying towards his to-be prison, screaming despairingly, "NOOOOOOOO!"
He managed to stop himself from being completely guzzled into the bracelet for just a few seconds, long enough to throw one last angry promise at Lily and the gang.
"DON'T THINK THIS IS OVER!" he shouted. "I WILL NEVER BE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! EVEN AFTER I LOST THE BATTLE AGAINST THE WARRIOR SIGURD, I REVIVED! AND AFTER BEING DEFEATED BY THE HERO SIGFRIED, I REVIVED AGAIN! ONE DAY, I WILL RETURN! AND WHEN THAT HAPPENS, I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!"
And then he disappeared into the bracelet's jewels. Not a single waft of his smokey form remained.
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