Battle of Bones (Anomaly Saga #5)

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Catricia opened her mouth to say something, but Chaps held his hand up in the air. "Sorry, everyone, but please don't talk right now. I'm going to need full focus. Mega-Gorblus is a rather serious threat!" He faced Chapalina again. "Chapalina, you're me. So I trust you the most! Tell me all you can about what's been going on. Perhaps we can piece this puzzle together using both of our stories."

Chapalina nodded. "Brilliant idea! Only a Chaps could think like that! Alright, let's see here . . . Sandy and Locket kidnapped Chaos and brought him to Piano. Piano is keeping him contained using Operation Croissant. At least, as far as we know. He may have escaped in that time. You know how Chapses are! Hmm, what else . . ."

Chapalina paused. "Oh! Right! On our way to find you for help, we ran into problems. A powerful '90s looking guy and a woman in armor made of skulls. Quite the duo! Cheesy and edgy. We beat them, though. They're on that massive butterfly on top of that tree."

Chaps looked up. "Well, give me abs and call me Skeletor . . . that's Copernicus! But how? He died! Wait. Mega-Gorblus. That ominous force of a bloke is famous for tying himself to a 'host' person of sorts, isn't he? How much of Copernicus is really even Copernicus?"

Chapalina shrugged. "No idea! But he's clearly important."

"Right." Chaps started pacing around the snow. "This is not very 'poggers'," he said. "Did I use that right?"

Preston gave him a thumbs up.

"Good. Alright, now . . . if Mega-Gorblus is truly back, this is a much greater threat than even the Destroyer of Worlds. We are going to need all the friends we can get to defeat him! Now, excuse me while I use my phone to FaceTime Leta. We need to tell her and Leo and Jenna and Chandler and everybody to get to Ohio instantly. We meet at the door."

"Leo!" Sandy exclaimed. "We need him! He's gotta sacrifice himself!"

This set the entire group off, all of them talking over each other until all everyone could hear was an unintelligible mess.

"Silence!" shouted Nick suddenly. Everyone went quiet. Nick took another bite of his burger. "Sandy, Chaps. Continue."

"I think I know what you're talking about," said Chaps, typing something on his phone, "but let's clean that cupboard when we come to it. We don't want anyone to die." Chaps' phone rang a couple times, and then Leta picked up.

"Hey, hey!" she said. Various screams and shouts sounded in the background. "Don't worry, we're not under attack. Just training! Ariana's gotten really good really fast. That girl is wild."

Chaps nodded. "Brilliant! But there's something we must speak about."

"Oh, yeah, is it that Mega Blunderbuss? Something like that?"

Chaps' jaw dropped off, but he quickly re-attached it. "How did you know it was Mega-Gorblus?!"

"Oh, Chandler and Alice just got back from their visit with their friend. They found something about a Mega-Superdust guy returning. This is that, yeah?"

"It is, and we are all in grave danger. Leta, I need you, Leo, Jenna, Daniel, Ariana, Chandler, and Alice all to go to Ohio instantly. You'll meet me and everyone else at the door. We found River, so she can help. We're going to confront Mega-Gorblus."

"I gotcha, I gotcha." Leta nodded. "How should we get out there?"

Chaps took a deep breath, despite not having any lungs. "I bestow upon you a great honor. You may take the Chaps-copter."

Leta grinned. "Heck yeah! We'll be right over. See you there." She ended the call, and Chaps put his phone back under his hat.

"Well," said the skeleton, "no time to waste! You're allowed to talk now, too, by the way. We're going to Ohio, and we're taking Copernicus and Edgy Lady with us."