Teenage Sorcerers: Prophecy Foretold

Chapter 16: Splitting Up

"Our groups being put together to figure out this Crystal Calamity stuff was a mistake...we have a couple of good times together, but most of the time we're butting heads, that shouldn't be how a team works." Lulu sighed as he rested his arms on top of the rocking chairs arms. "Let me ask you something," Rana looked down at him, "Who are the leaders of the two groups separately?" "I'm the leader of my group and Sabbi's the leader of the Midnight Crusaders." "So that means you're both the leaders of this new large group. Tell me, what's the relationship like between Sabbi and you?" "It's alright, she's the only person from the Midnight Crusaders that I'm familiar with and I can consider somewhat like a friend, but even then that's not saying much." "I see..." Rana went over to the kitchen area and took two grilled cheese sandwiches, bringing the second sandwich over to Lulu. "And have you thought of getting along with her better? Especially since you'll be working together and it'll set a good example to the rest of your group to get along better." "I could try, but I don't see it necessary for Sabbi and I to get too close. Even if it'll set a good example, as long as we are comfortable enough to work alongside each other, it shouldn't be an issue." Lulu began eating his grilled cheese sandwich as Rana gently cut his own sandwich. "That may be true, but it'll definitely make things easier. And who knows, maybe she and the others will become good friends of yours and your large group would become even more powerful." Rana smiled softly as he took one half of his sandwich and began to eat. Lulu thought about what Rana had just said before seeing the door to the girls bedroom open. "Guys, lunch is ready!" Chaz called out for everyone to hear, making the rest of the group rush out of their rooms to eat. As everyone grabbed a sandwich, Lulu decided to get up from the rocking chair and go over to Sabbi. He realized that Rana was right about being a good example to the group and everyone being friends would benefit a lot in productivity. The only slight issue was that Lulu didn't even know if Sabbi saw him as a friend as well. He gently held onto Sabbi's shoulder, making her look over at him in confusion. "Hey, what's up?" she asked him as she took a bite of her sandwich. "Are we friends?" Lulu declared with a bit of a higher pitch in his voice. Sabbi tilted her head in confusion from the sudden question, before starting to giggle. "Duh, of course we're friends!" Sabbi smiled as she continued eating her lunch. Lulu stood there, a bit surprised by Sabbi's response. He didn't think that Sabbi considered him as a friend as well, but he liked knowing now that she did and that their friendship was mutual. After everyone had their lunch, some of the teens went back into the bedrooms to relax while the rest stayed behind to help Rana clean up the kitchen. "Do you guys want to check out the realm warp machine? Maybe Lucius got a good amount of it built." Rana suggested to the group, some of them immediately agreed to it. Lulu and his group stayed at the house while the Midnight Crusaders left with Rana. Once they made it to the section of the forest that they remember the realm warp machine was, they were all confused when they couldn't find the machine. The large indent in the ground from the machine proved that they were in the right spot, but the machine was gone. "What happened to the machine?! Did someone steal it?!" Kennethn panicked as he gripped onto Bryan in worry. "Kennethn, stop freaking out." Bryan grunted as he quickly grew irritated by Kennethn's reaction, but also patted his back in an attempt to comfort him. "Yeah, maybe this is the process Lucius has to go through to fix the machine! Right, Rana?" Andre looked over at Rana with a reassuring smile. Rana didn't turn to look at Andre or even answer his question, he just stood there in silence while staring down at the indented spot in the ground. "Something's wrong with Lucius..." Rana finally spoke up as he kneeled down and caressed the edges of the indent. "What? What do you mean?" Chaz went to Rana's side, who stood back up and had his eyes widened. "The machine wasn't stolen, it was destroyed..." Rana seemed to slowly become anxious as he tried to calm himself down. "Rana, relax! How do you know the machine was destroyed?" Sabbi went in front of him and gently held his arms. Rana took some time to calm down before going back to a calmer state. "Lucius told me when he was creating the realm warp machine that if the receiving end disappears from its resting location, it means that the main entry of the machine was destroyed..." Rana sighed a bit as he held Sabbi's arms in return. "But...why would Lucius destroy the machine when we're all here and he's in the human realm..?" Sabbi frowned and she looked down in confusion. "I don't know...maybe he accidentally destroyed it in the process of repairing it..?" Rana tried his best to rationalize the situation. Sabbi let go of Rana and hugged herself as she stared down and the machine's indent. "What do we do now?! Without Lucius, we won't know how to restore the Crystal Calamity!" Kennethn started freaking out again, this time with Bryan joining him, but not as much. "Forget about the Crystal Calamity, how are we going back home?!" Bryan cried out before getting grabbed by Kennethn and shaken around in panic. "Aren't you worried about Lucius?! He wouldn't just destroy the realm warp machine, there has to be something wrong!" Andre exclaimed while trying to keep his cool. It took a while for everyone to eventually calm down from the situation, all of them walking back to the house, but now at a slower pace compared to how they started. By the time they got to the house, Lulu and the others had noticed the sudden change in everyone's behavior. "Are you guys okay? Did something happen while you were out?" Bora went over to the group and asked with clear concern in her voice. "The machine...it's gone." Rana managed to speak out of the worry he was feeling. This caused two sided reactions from the others, Josephine and Aurora were freaking out and demanding more information while Lulu, Malik, and Bora didn't believe it was true. "It's true, the machine was gone when we went to the spot! We wouldn't lie about something like this!" Kennethn exclaimed as he tried to calm Josephine and Aurora down. Rana explained to Lulu and his group about how the machine's destruction process works, which caused a spew of accusations amongst the teens. "Lucius was trying to trap us here all along! You guys were distracting us so he could trap us here, weren't you?!" Aurora yelled at the Midnight Crusaders, immediately putting the blame onto them. "What?! No! That wouldn't make any sense since we're trapped here too! None of us can go back home!" Chaz quickly stood her ground and yelled back at Aurora. "He probably trapped us with them so they could kill us off before we stopped them from restoring the Crystal Calamity! Blanche warned us something like this would happen!" Josephine added, Aurora nodding in agreement. "Hold on, I thought we agreed that Blanche was lying about the Crystal Calamity being bad! Lucius already gave us more than enough proof that the Crystal Calamity was good!" Andre quickly butted into the argument. "Wait a second, we didn't agree to anything about Blanche being a liar, the only thing we agreed on was that the Crystal Calamity was real! Blanche was right the whole time, Lucius is trying to corrupt the sorcery realm and he wants us to go down with it! That's why he left us all here! That's why you guys want to restore it so badly! " Malik chimed in with anger written all over his face. "No it's not, you idiot! This whole realm is at stake and we're trying to save it before it's too late! It's harder for us to do it without Lucius's knowledge on the situation, that's why we're so urgent on trying to find clues on what's wrong with the Crystal Calamity and how to restore it on our own until he comes back! And we know he'll come back to us sooner or later!" Bryan got up into Malik's face as he shouted at him. "Guys, please stop! Lucius wouldn't do anything like that! Lulu, you believe us, right?" Sabbi turned to Lulu, who remained quiet during the whole feud. "C'mon Lulu, are you really going to believe Sabbi's group over your own? Blanche warned us about them and we tried to give them the benefit of a doubt and now look where it got us!" Aurora went over to Lulu and pushed Sabbi to the side. Lulu stared at Aurora for a few seconds before turning over to Sabbi. "Is this why you said I was your friend? Were you trying to emotionally manipulate me into thinking we were friends so I could trust you?" "What? Of course not! I genuinely consider you as my friend!" Sabbi looked up at Lulu, but her response only fell onto deaf ears as Lulu grabbed his hammer and went towards the front door. "C'mon guys, we're leaving." Lulu motioned for his group to come with him, all of them nodding as they grabbed their weapons and followed him outside. "Guys wait, don't jump to sudden conclusions!" Rana called out to Lulu's group, but they all ignored his words. "Lulu, you can't just leave, we need to work together to save this realm! And besides, you guys don't even know where to go!" Sabbi yelled out to Lulu, only for him to turn back towards her. "We know where to go..." he spoke sternly before quickly turning back to his group. "Hurry guys, we have to destroy it!" Lulu called out, them all agreeing and running with him towards the town square. "Destroy it? What are they talking about?" Rana scratched his head a bit in confusion. "Oh no...guys, we gotta go after them!" Sabbi yelled as she rushed back into the house. "What? Why?" Chaz asked as she peeked inside the house to see Sabbi grabbing her plastic sword. "They're going to the building that the Crystal Calamity is being held in!" Sabbi called out to her group, causing Chaz and the others to rush inside and grab their weapons before following Sabbi into town.