Legend of the Jedi Princess 3: Return of the Doresho

Brainstorm Part 2

"Oh my gosh!" Omega gasped, reading the text. "I can't believe she'd say that about her own daughter."
"I can understand wanting your kids to do well," said Mariposa. "But it doesn't take a genius to know this will not only have the opposite effect, but it'd more likely to damage them emotionally."
Suddenly, backup arrived. Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, Masters Fisto, Yoda, and Mundi all arrived on their horses. And a couple of Roya's friends arrived in the form of Vivian and Dracona.
"We came as fast as we could!" Dracona said.
"Que es el problema?" Fiesta asked.
"Well..." Omega began, when all of a sudden...
"Ow!" Vivian growled when something was thrown at her head.
"Oopsie." said Tech, the one who threw the ball.
"You hit the funny doggie!" Garrett said, acting like a child.
"I'm a viventia, and that 'doggie' part of me is a wolf!" Vivan said angrily.
That was when everyone noticed the playpen was broken by some of the victim's discovering they could cast spells. And now everyone who was mentally reverted to three years old was running amock!
"Freedom!" Carmine exclaimed, and began running about.
"Not again!" Hunter groaned.
"Ooh! What's that?" Anakin said, crawling on the floor, where he spotted a caterpillar, and he started imitating it by crawling on his stomach.
Ahsoka and Obi-Wan looked especially confused.
"Okay, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say my master has officially lost it." Ahsoka said.
"He may not be the only one," said Obi-Wan, looking at the other adults.
Padme and Lanaisha, Roya's mom, were playing Ring Around the Rosie, Qui-Gon started running around in the palace, Garrett was playing on a rocking horse he was obviously way too big to ride, and Roya's father was swinging on whatever he could find.
"Okay... what is going on?" Obi-Wan said.
"Why is everyone acting like they're three years old?" Magenta asked.
"They've been mentally reverted back to that age," said Carousella.
"Let me guess, a clavatized villain or an escaped prisoner?" Grassi guessed.
"The first one." Boba said. "Madison, a girl on the cheer squad at our school, went crazy during the graduation ceremony and became Brainstorm, who apparently takes people's intelligence. Even Tech's."
That was demonstrated as Tech tied a rope around Little Star and was dragging it around like a puppy on a leash.
"Tech! That's my plushie!" Omega said, taking back her toy.
"What exactly led to the clavatization?" Kit Fisto.
"We think this text message did." Lamenta said. And she read it out loud.
I still can't believe you didn't get valedictorian. I am very disappointed in you. Salutatorian is just second place in smarts, which is first place for losers. Do you have any idea how humiliating this is for me? When your brother was in kindergarten, he graduated valedictorian, and now he's about to get his P.H.D at a top university, while you couldn't beat some lazy princess in something as simple as school. Why can't you be more like your brother?
None of the Jedi could believe what they heard.
"Did one of my birth parents suddenly get released for good behavior and adopt Madison or something?" Comedia asked, being the most familiar with such hurtful words.
"That's just horrible for anyone to say about anyone, especially a parent to their own child." Obi-Wan said.
"Not only that," said Boba. "She called my girlfriend lazy. And Roya is anything but that. She's only thirteen and already started a fashion empire for Pete's sake. She earned that title."
"Now I really understand what you meant when you told me being royal made achievements more difficult." Omega said.
"At least your parents actually recognize when you do well in school." Comedia said. She snorted with annoyance as she recalled her biological parents' responses to any time she got her report card from school. "Literally straight A's every report card, and not even a 'good job, Comedia.'"
"You got straight A's?" Echo said.
"Is that so hard to believe?" Comedia sounded a bit offended.
"It's just, you're usually pretty... well, silly. I thought you spent more time doing pranks and messin' about."
"I confess I did not anticipate it either, but Comedia is actually very intelligent." Ki-Adi said. "I discovered such during all of her study sessions. You should see her IQ scores."
"Read 'em and weep." Comedia showed her new phone, on which she held a screenshot of her scores of an IQ test she took recently.
"How did you get so smart?" Wrecker asked.
"You wanna be a great prankster? You gotta know a lot about complicated things like physics, geometry, and of course chemistry. Pranks and birthday party magicians' tricks... those are all science experiments dressed up as entertainment. How do you think I was able to catapult a pie across the hall to hit right on target at the right moment?"
"That actually does make a lot of sense." Carousella said. "When we were training to be guards, we had to learn a lot of physics and geometry too so we'd know how to angle our trajectories, physical blows, and how to dodge more quickly and swiftly."
"And history too." Crescent said. "Learn from past mistakes so history doesn't repeat itself, and from past successes to calculate a better chance at victory."
"Same can be said for music. It's pretty much math with a beat that you can dance to." Magenta said. "And science involving vibration that creates the sound."
"Brainstorm is no doubt using that intelligence for something devious." Gabby said. "The only thing we don't know is where she is and how to defeat her."
"Well, we know that if Madison was clavatized," said Goldie. "Obviously Mariverde must be planning to have her get your family's crown jewels. But every clavatized villain so far has been more focused on getting what they want versus getting the jewels."
"Where is the last place you saw this Madison, or Brainstorm?" Kit asked.
"At school." Boba said."
"Then that is where we will start." Obi-Wan said.
"But we'll need someone to stay and make sure the others don't hurt themselves." Boba said.
—————————————————————————
Master Yoda, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan accompanied Wrecker, Crosshair, Comedia, and the children and their horses to the school to search. Brainstorm was nowhere to be seen. So, the group split up to cover more ground and search for any clue that may lead them to Brainstorm's whereabouts.
"What exactly are we supposed to find here?" Vivian asked, sniffing around for clues.
"I'm not sure." Obi-Wan said. "However, I do sense a great deal of distress approaching."
"Please, someone help! She's holding my wife!" cried a voice in one of the halls. "My Lilian!"
"Like that?" Peppermint guessed.
Obi-Wan exited the hall to see Mr. Sumner shouting for help.
"Excuse me. Can we help you?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Do you know Princess Roya's whereabouts?" asked Mr. Sumner. "I need her specifically."
"I don't think she's gonna be much help right now." Peppermint said. "If your wife's in trouble, maybe we can help."
"I'm not sure that's possible. She asked for her specifically."
"Who?" said Obi-Wan.
"Brainstorm."
Quickly, Obi-Wan hit his comm to summon everyone to meet in the auditorium regarding a lead on Brainstorm's whereabouts
It turned out that Brainstorm had a message written for Roya.
Roya,
You think you're so clever, so privileged that you don't have to earn anything in your life. Well, I got news for you, Princess. Most of us have to actually work for what we have, and for the things we want. Things like the title of valedictorian, which I worked my entire school career for to start my own fashion empire someday. Unlike you, I wasn't born with servants and valets to do my homework and everything else for me, or gold and jewels to bribe my way to getting A's.