Winston Academy Middle School: Year 2

Chapter Thirteen: We Have a Plan

After the somewhat sporadic and all-over-the-place discussion, we kinda have some form of a plan.

Basically, we decided that we would track down Hector, then follow through with a suitable rescue plan. Since we didn't know the situation fully, we decided to not overplan first.

How were we going to track Hector down, you say?

It's actually quite simple. Apparently creatures of the dark side do not have body heat. Instead, they radiate coldness. So the plan was to use heat-detecting devices to find a particularly warm item up in the sky, where it would generally be colder.

Fredrick owns one device, but it was back at his house. He needed to grab it first, which was exactly what he did.

We joked about mixing up birds or other flying creatures with Hector while we waited for Fred to retutn. That would've been a bit strange, though it would've been kind of hilarious, too.

Soon enough, a male figure holding some cables and boxes popped out of the portal in the lobby. He gestured for us to come closer, which we obeyed.

"This, is an infrared camera." Fred announced dramatically.

Quite a few of us immediately started inspecting and touching the device, curious  to see how it works. But we had a mission to do, so the inspection had to be halted.

So, with the device on hand, we walked to the nearest balcony and pointed it to the sky.

"That's the Thundrecloud. Nope, that's some birds. Also no, that's a bat. Some trash flying around, warm for whatever reason. Dude, that's the sun!" Kaiden watched the device's screen.

"Can you even use this thing?" Felice asked Fredrick, who was flailing the camera around almost aimlessly.

"Kind of. We don't know where Hector is, right?" Fredrick defended himself.

"Oh, gosh, just give it to me." Willow cut in.

Fredrick surrendered and gave the tool to Willow. Willow quickly pointed it to the sky, then moved it slowly from left to right.

"Stop, no, back to the left just a little. I said just a little. There! Do you see that? I think that's Hector!" Kaiden pointed to a small blob on the screen. It glowed, reds and oranges and yellows on the dark, bluish background. Bingo.

The blob was definitely not bird-like in any way. It was suspended in midair though. So we came to one conclusion, and that conclusion was that Hector was up there.

"Coordinates?" I asked.

"Huh?" Amethyst scratched her head.

"If Winston Academy's ground floor is zero - zero - zero then it's forty - fifty-three - thirty. Take one unit as a meter." Kaiden answered.

"What even is that, man?" Theo tilted his face in confusion.

"Coordinates, x - y - z. You know them,  right?"

"No?"

"Didn't you learn them in 6th grade or something?"

"Negative. For them, at least." I saw Theo and the Moores shake their heads

"Guys, what foreign language are you even speaking in?" Ruby asked.

"They were all speaking English. 'Negative' is military language for 'no'." Joan explained.

"Coordinates is math." Michel added.

"Why do we not understand?" Ruby asked again.

"Who knows. It doesn't matter anyway. What's important is we've figured it out." I said.

"And that Hector isn't in that creepy forest." Willow noted.

~●~●~●~

"Now for the rescue plan. What would it be?" Joan started.

"Um... since it isn't too far, we could just walk there, right?" Amber guessed.

"Yeah, but how do we get up? I mean, thirty meters isn't very short at all." Michel stated.

"Can you harpy Hybrids fly that high?" Felice questioned.

"Um, maybe, I haven't tried, and I don't know the theory." Theo replied.

"Uh-huh. Probably best to not risk it." I advised.

"Stairs and ladders won't cut it. Magic?" Willow suggested.

"Can the two of you make some really tall transport system that can get us up to the height we need?" I looked at the elf Hybrids.

"We can try a materializing spell. But that's quite advanced for an eighth-grader. It's good enough that we each can make a five-centimeter block. Or we could try a building spell. We need something to build out of, though," Kaiden stopped to breathe,"like-"

"Air?" Ruby blurted.

"No, too...gassy. It's best to go with a solid material, so we don't have to solidify it first."

"Water?"

"I said a solid."

"Jelly?" Jasmine laughed.

"Actually better than water- just fragile, bouncy, and unstable."

"Oh, I've got it!" Joan beamed,"wood."

"Easily found, tough, and not slippery, unstable, or bouncy. I think we've found it." I summed up.

"Wait, where will we find that much wood? I mean, none of you have a forest's worth of chopped timber lying around, yeah?" Fredrick suddenly said.

"We can use a duplicating spell, which is much easier to execute than a materializing spell. Just find us a large branch and a stick." Kaiden told us.

"Like this one?" Amethyst waved one she found from the ground.

"Yes, exactly." Kaiden nodded.

"Though I'm guessing we need to make sure they're solid and strong enough, right?" I commented.

"Definitely yes. You really don't want the staircase to suddenly collapse, do you?" Willow agreed.

"Okay then. All in?"

"Yep."

"Then let's start looking for the sticks and branches, shall we?"