Twisted-Wonderland: Heart of the Night

Prologue 17: United Front First!

~Mine Entrance~

All of us we're set in position, now on to the next phase of the plan.  Ace and Deuce we're off to the sides of me to better ambush it.  Meanwhile, I was with Grim behind the bushes in the middle with the mine entrance dead set in our field of view.

I gave Grim a push since he was hesitant about starting the plan.  Now Grim was out in the open, but the monster didn't come out.  Grim was relieved but took a pause before looking my way.  I silently gestured him to go on and gave him a thumbs up to say I got your back.  He didn't like that idea of me protecting him so he turned to face the entrance.  But I could tell he was calmer after my gesture of reassurance, he just wanted to act tough.  That's why I did it, it would get him motivated.

"Hey, Beasty!  O-o-o-over here!", he shouted with his arms up the air.

"Grrrr....  LeaAAAAAAAVVEE!!!", the monster responded as it came out of the mine.

"Gah!  It's coming!", Grim started running back to me.

"Over here, beasty!", I rose out of the bushes making myself noticeable.  Grim latched onto my shoulder as I walked out of the bushes.

"Grr!?  There... thief... too.  Wont give...  Mine...  Mine!!", when the monster saw me, it flew out with its rage coming right at me.

I leapt out of the way before it made contact and Grim flew out of my shoulder from the impact landing.  But that was nothing compared to the punch the monster tried to pull on us.  It left a big hole in the ground.  "Pyah!  That punch looks like a knockout if it lands!", Grim's face was in horror.  "We have to get it as far from the tunnel as possible.", I got myself up quickly in order to lure it to me.  I ran a little ways in the forest behind me, while making sure to get's its attention.  We were soon in an empty space near the cottage we ran into, that's where Ace and Deuce we're lying in wait.

"Go away!  Go away!!", the monster managed to growl clearly to understand it.

"It's pretty far from the tunnel now!", Grim told me.  I ran towards to the trees to hide my presence to give the signal.  "Now!", I called out to them.  Ace was the first to respond.  "Ok, I got this!  Let's go, Extra Large Tempest!", Ace waved his pen over his head gesturing a wind tunnel.  As he swayed his arms, magic wind started to whirl its way up to make a sizable wind tunnel.  It was bigger than the wind displays when made against Grim.  "And the Great Grim's Fire Special!  Ffnaaaa!", he leapt from my shoulder.  As he was in the air above the wind tunnel, he breathed fire magic at the monster.  As both magic spells we're heading towards the monster, they collided and ended up making a huge inferno tunnel with the maneuvering of the wind.

"Guaaaaahh!!?", the magic made a big impact as it hits the monster, forced him back a bit.

"How's this!  I can even fan Grim's shoddy flame into an inferno!", Ace was psyched to the outcome.  "It's not shoddy!  Ugh, every word out of your mouth pisses me off!", Grim landed from his jump and yelled at Ace's feat while Ace ignored him.  

(!)* You're one to talk, stupid raccoon! *(!)

"The monster is caught in the fire tornado!", I too was in awe of what two form of magic's combined can do.  "Calm down...  Take aim...  The biggest, heaviest... thing I know...", I could see Deuce mustering his thoughts as he prepared his pen.  "Come forth, Cauldron!", Deuce stroke his pen.  At the word of his command, a cauldron appeared over it's head and dropped on top with a heavy fall.

"Guaaa!?", the cauldron hit the side of it's head, making a new crack spilling some more ink.  The monster struggled to get up.

"Got it!  Nice work everyone!  Hey, look!  The monster looks flat as a pancake just like Ace earlier!", Grim mockingly laughs.  "You don't need to bring that up again!  Jeez, today just isn't my day.", Ace groaned at the mention of his humiliation, he had little red beats on his cheek as he rub the back of his head.  "Let's go get the magic crystal while that thing can't move.", Deuce made the call.  I got out from hiding behind the trees, and ran alongside the others as fast as we could to make it back to the tunnel.

"!?  Waaaaaaaaiiitt!!!!", as we passed it, it fought harder to move when it realizes where we're heading.

We made back to the tunnel and reached all the to the end, where we found the crystal.  "There!  A magic crystal!", Deuce pointed out as the crystal was within our view.

"Hands ooooooofffffff!!", we could hear the growling cries from outside the tunnel that it startled us.

"Crap!  That thing is almost free!", Ace panicked a little.  "Oi, Deuce!  Throw some more stuff on it!", Grim demanded Deuce.  "Eeeh, something heavy!? C-come forth!  Cauldron!  And, uuummm, ummmm, cauldron!?  One more, cauldron!", Deuce hastily conjured up more cauldrons since he couldn't think of anything else when he was put on the spot.  

"Nnnguaaa!!"

Even though we we're inside the tunnel, we could hear the impact fall on the monster multiple times.  The monster was at the edge of the open space with a mountain of cauldrons toppled on him, holding him back.  "Do you have nothing but cauldrons in your repertoire!?", Ace yelled at Deuce.  "Shut up!  I'm at my wits' end here!", Deuce yelled back and frustrated.  While those two bantered, Grim went ahead and used fire magic to get the crystal out and hurried back.  "We got the magic crystal!  Let's skedaddle!", Grim brought the crystal to me.  "Roger!", Ace.  As we we're running to the exit, the roaring grew louder.  When we made it to the entrance the monster was able to knock off all the cauldrons.  We didn't think it get free that quick, but that wasn't the worst of it.  It noticed something shiny in my hand and that's when it lost it.

"That.. is...  MIIIIIIIIINNNEE!!!"

Well, we're in trouble now...