Late in the middle of the night, Ruby(wearing her onesie) peeked over the side of the wagon while sneakily watching the sleeping group huddled up against Zalroth. Ruby squinted her eyes at Zalroth's face until she confirmed he was also asleep before quickly ducking back into the wagon.

"Ok, everyone's asleep." Ruby whispered as she joined Charlotte and the other kunoichis(who were all wearing onesies) in the group huddle.

"So, what do you think the chances are the guy who attacked the villagers is also the Phantom?" Alex asked.

"It's hard to say; what do you think Ruby?" Charlotte asked.

"Well, the lead I got from the Phantom's piece of clothing seems to have led to a dead end." Ruby mentioned.

"A dead end?" Elizabeth asked as she held a sleeping Star in her arms. Ruby nodded her head and contemplated how to phrase her explanation.

"Yeah, the trail I got from the clothing seems to lead to the rough area we're in right now, that being the travelling villagers, before going cold." Ruby explained. The group nodded their heads as they continued to discuss their options.

"Although some things don't add up, the lead given to us by the pocket watch seems to be our best shot and if it's a red herring we can always just return to the villagers for more clues." Heather said.

"Yeah, that makes sense and who knows maybe we can get Sophia and her sensei to help us." Alex remarked in a joking manner. Charlotte seemed tempted by Alex's idea before shaking her head.

"That wouldn't be a good idea, we can't get the public involved in our mission, especially one issued by a magistrate." Charlotte stated.

"Yeah-yeah we don't wanna get held liable for putting some in...". Alex suddenly realised something and sat up straight.

"Wait isn't he also after the person who might be the Phantom; then Isn't he going to eventually run into the guy anyway? So wouldn't it be bad on our part if we don't inform him about the potential danger?" Alex asked with a smug smirk. Charlotte seemed surprised at Alex's unusual concern for another person.

"You just want to take advantage of his immortality to convince him to help us so you can be lazy." Charlotte boldly stated. Alex smugly chuckled and rested her arm on a crate.

"But you're right, it wouldn't be right to not tell him about the possibility of who the guy might be." Charlotte added. The group continued to talk amongst themselves for a little bit more before ending the group huddle and going to sleep. Ruby climbed into her sleeping bag and yawned.

"I wonder what Xero's up to right now, heh, probably something really boring.". Ruby lightly chuckled to herself as she went to sleep as well.

Meanwhile, Xero loomed high above Lady Fox's mansion as he stared at a particular spot of the cliff face close to the mansion's estate. Multiple lady bug drones returned to Xero right as Karock arrived and floated over to Xero.

"Hey there, you're Xero I take it?" Karock asked. Xero nodded his head and bowed to Karock. Karock embarrassingly waved his hands and pleaded with Xero to not be so formal. Xero nodded his head before glancing behind himself.

"So is that the house we're supposed to raid?" Karock asked as he looked down at the mansion below the two. Xero shook his head and pointed at the spot on the cliff face he was looking at moments ago.

"I see, so the captives are being held in a hidden base located inside the cliff?". Xero nodded his head.

"Well, I assume the spot you were pointing at is the best place to breach the base from?". Xero nodded his head and the two discussed a plan, although Karock was the one exclusively talking.

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"Ok, so I'll sneak into the cliff base through the mansion, deactivate the base's security, free the captives and bring them to the breach point." Karock reiterated before Xero handed Karock a one-eyed blue high-tech visor. Xero put the visor on(the side of his face that the mask didn't cover) and a map appeared on the visor. Karock gave Xero a thumbs up before he flew down to the mansion, while Xero reactivated his cloaking camouflage.

Karock peaked into a window and saw the coast was clear. He quickly seeped through the tiny gap in the open window. Karock turned himself into a black circle before delivering across the room and under the door.

Karock slivered through the hallways, darting up the walls and remaining stationary on the ceiling as a maid carrying a plate of food walked under Karock. The maid walked around a corner before Karock continued on his way. Karock arrived at a door surrounded by two guards and after checking the map confirmed he needed to go through there.

"What's even behind this door anyway, that Lady Fox would need it to be guarded twenty-four seven?" one of the guards asked. The other guard shrugged.

"We don't get paid to ask questions... but if I had to guess probably something expensive." the other guard remarked.

Karock slowly moved down the wall and seeped through the top of the locked door. Karock dropped to the ground, while reverting to his kid form, and looked around at the metallic walls and floor.

"Seems to be made of dawnite, no wonder I couldn't sense anything until I got in." Karock commented as he tapped the wall. Karock could sense there were only around four adults, whom he figured were bandits, who were awake while the rest were sleeping. Karock checked the visor's map before hurrying down the corridor while avoiding the cameras.

A bandit was watching multiple monitors when they noticed a weird black looking smug on the monitor displaying the area right outside the room.

"What the?" the bandit muttered as they stood up from their chair and walked over to the room's door. They opened the door and noticed Karock looking around his surroundings.

"How did they manage to-" the bandit wondered to themself before realising the large yellow zelkio empire insignia on the back of Karock's cloak. Karock turned around and the moment the bandit saw Karock's face he instantly recognised him. The bandit made a b-line for a large button by the monitor before being grabbed by a large shadowy hand.

Karock pulled the bandit towards himself before letting go of them and chopping them in the neck. The bandit crashed into the ground in a knocked-out state. Karock quickly floated over to the security control panel and lowered all the security to the lowest level.

"Xero I've lowered the security, so be on standby." Karock whispered into the visor before flying out of the room. He quickly flew back to the security room door and shot a paralysing lightning bolt at the bandit before hurrying off again.

Karock arrived at a heavily armoured door and confirmed with the map if the captives were behind it. Karock raised his fist and increased the size of his arm to six times its size. He recoiled his arm and went to punch the door.

"What the hell are you doing!" a bandit yelled as a few of them rushed at Karock.

A few of the captive children heard the bandits fighting on the other side of the door.

"Wonder what's going on out there?" a young tanned girl, who has eight black squid tentacles with dark blue undersides for hair, asked as she pressed her face against the bars of the door causing a slimy substance to trickle down the bars.

"Who knows Zariah maybe they're arguing who gets to do the examination this week." a slightly older light brown furred humanoid rabbit girl snarked as she flicked her short dark brown hair away from her orange eyes.

"Do you think so big sis Coco? But they sound oddly violent." Zariah asked as she dangled from the door and looked down at Coco with her large dark royal blue eyes with a crystal texture over them.

"Say, when do you think Lulu's going to come bac-" Zariah asked before a loud bang startled her, followed by the heavily armoured door flying past their room.

"Something happened!" Zariah excitedly shouted as she squished her head through the bars and looked over at the crumbled door. She looked in the direction the door came from before becoming even more excited.

"We're saved!" Zariah proclaimed causing other children to murmur as Karock walked in front of Zariah. Zariah squirmed her way through the cell's window bars and hopped next to Karock.

"Hey, you're that Karock guy who just became a magistrate right?".

"Sure am" Karock replied before he raised his left arm. His arm splitter into multiple shadowy tendrils before launching them into all of the cell doors and, in one swift move, yanked all the cell doors out of their doorframes. All the children and the three women quickly gathered around Karock.

"Alright everyone, follow me.". Karock instructed as he guided everyone through the hallways before randomly stopping.

"Why'd you stop?" Zariah asked.

"Just waiting for the shortcut." Karock replied.

"Alright, Xero you know what to do.".

After a split second, an orange ion beam drilled and ripped through the wall directly in front of Karock.

"Woah so cool!" Zariah said before a shadowy tendril wrapped around her, and everyone else's, waist. Karock flew out of the cliff face with the ex-captives trailing behind him and flew over to Xero(with the gem embedded in his right hand slowly decreasing in brightness).

"Extraction complete." Karock said as he lifted his hand for a high five. Xero tilted his head making Karock embarrassingly cringe.

"It's a thing people do when they complete an objective." Karock explained. Xero slowly looked at his left hand before giving Karock a high five. Karock giddily did a fist pump, which Xero copied.

"So... should we wait for daytime to start the siege or do it right now?" Karock whispered to Xero. Karock sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Not going to give me a straight answer, huh, fine..." Karock raised his free arm and shot a ball of light magic into the air.

A platoon of zelkio knights spotted the ball of light Karock shot before it exploded into a giant beacon and loud bang.

"That's the signal, alright everyone move out." the commander of the platoon stated before multiple platoon knights stormed the mansion from every direction.