The next two days were uneventful. We didn't do much other than train. I brought some tools from the workshop I could use as weapons. I figured relying solely on Hachiko and Malg was not a good idea. From the shop I grabbed a small battery powered hand saw for close quarters and a nail gun for long range combat. Tulip showed me the proper stance to fire the nail gun to control the recoil, as well as some basic sword slashes and stabs I could use with my saw, she even taught me how to do her judo throw.

We agreed that we couldn't train Alex quickly enough for her to be able to help us fight. We considered the possibility of her being more in the back of the fight, supporting us by redirecting attacks and getting us closer or farther away with her portals. Ultimately, we decided on having her destroy the data of all the magic that’s been happening in the school and then playing it by ear after that. 

Antonio could completely control the water from his own body. If he wanted to control a bigger body, he would have to put a bit of his into it and concentrate very hard. This is how he was able to control the sprinklers. Turns out he “used" the toilet, so he was able to establish a connection with the school’s water. And for the storm a couple days ago he spit into the sewers and evaporated the water to create the clouds. Both very gross, kinda makes me want to change schools knowing the toilet water is connected to the sprinklers, which I'm pretty sure is illegal. 

Guams was the simplest yet the most dangerous. Whatever part of the ground he touches, whether it is cement or steel, as long as its earth like, he can levitate and mold it into any shape. Thankfully, he does have two weaknesses. He can’t add more earth to his control if there is something in the way of him touching it, this includes things like a piece of paper, his clothes or stone already under his control. The second weakness is if a piece of rock he is controlling is destroyed, he can't control it without touching it again. 

Tyrone wielded the element of fire. He can produce incredibly hot flames which come from his hair. They are not limited to the size of his hair, but the fire must always start from his hair. Antonio also explained that he doesn't need to be touching or connected to his hair to light them on fire but needs to be within a certain range of them, Antonio was unsure of the exact amount. This is how they managed to light all the textbooks on fire. Since we aren't allowed to take the textbooks home Tyrone was able to put a strand of hair into each of the textbooks during first period when the classroom was empty.

When asked about the book, Antonio says they got their powers when they first opened Nature's Pandemonium. However, Tyrone never allowed anyone else to even hold it after that. He kept the book to himself and only accidentally let out its name to the others once, which is why Antonio was so surprised when I knew it. One thing he did notice about the book, which he said could've been his imagination is that when the book was open, Tyrone’s fire seemed to ignite quicker and burn hotter than ever. 

Last night I finished the blood ritual, choosing the word “Bellator” on Malg. I gave him a couple more battle based runes, such as the ability to unleash a sonic scream, a rune to allow him to secrete a poisonous liquid out of his body and the same abilities Hachiko has. I decided not to carve the rune that would let him breathe fire, in case Tyrone could take control of it. 

Alex had set up a system using mini catapults that would launch the coins causing them to form into portals when they received a Bluetooth signal from her phone. Using this device, she has made it so that we can get in and out of the school with ease. This is also how she was able to create the portal in the alley way.

Those are the highlights of the last two days. Antonio couldn't train with us every day since he still needed to keep up appearances with the other two. I wasn't contacted by The Lady of Dreams, not that I particularly wanted to talk to her. I didn't really feel like being interrogated on whether I would kill them. On the night of the final day, March 15th, Tulip, Brad, Alex and I sat around her garage dressed in black and animal masks, waiting in horrid anticipation.

“Could we go over the plan one more time?” Alex asked, fidgeting with her weapon. 

“Sure.” Brad sympathized. “First, we're going to create a portal into the school. Then we're gonna confront Guams and Tyrone and we're gonna try to negotiate with them to just give us the book and leave and ibn return we will destroy the evidence.” 

“And if it doesn't work, we fight but don’t kill them unless absolutely necessary.” Tulip added, her longsword and daggers glistened in the hue of the hanging fluorescent garage light. 

“Alex?” I asked. “Are you sure the portal system is working?” I asked, desperately hoping that it wasn't, so I wouldn't have to take a life tonight. 

“For the twelfth time, Yes I've tested it half a dozen times and it works perfectly." She snapped. 

“Ok, then all we have to do is wait for Antonio to let us know they are in position, and we go through the portal," I sighed nervously unsure of what was to come and what I would need to do. “If anyone wants to back out now, I don't think anyone would blame you.” 

“They threatened my family, I don't let that slide.” Brad said with hatred in his voice.  He was wearing an all-black outfit, a black scarf obscuring his face, and a pair of brass knuckles on his hands. He also had a pair of oven mitts and zip ties stored in his back pocket that he planned to use to restrain Guams.

“Yeah, and if we don't stop them now, more innocent people are gonna get hurt.” Tulip added.  She was wearing the same clothes as Sunday with the addition of a bullet proof vest, and a tiger mask I made her since her blades reminded me of claws.

“If Tulip dies then I'm out of friends.” Alex echoed with determination. She was dressed in all back, on her head were stylized welding goggles, and was holding what looked to be a potato gun. Instead of being loaded with potatoes, it was loaded with coins. 

“Ok, I just wanted everyone to have the chance.” I lied, I wanted to have an excuse to not do this. 

“Well, I can't be sitting around while we wait. I'm gonna go do some stretches.” Brad said, as he got out of his chair and started to stretch in a corner of the room. 

“I'm gonna make sure my coin cannon works.” Alex said, as she went to one of the piles of junk and started to tinker away. 

“Hey Ink, you okay?” Tulip asked, already knowing my answer. 

“No, I'm nervous as hell and I need this to works because if not I'm going to have to kill two of my best friends all because I went crazy.” 

“This isn't your fault you couldn't have known that that would lead to this,” Tulip tried to defend.

“Doesn't make what I did any better, doesn't change that I hurt th-him" I muttered the words struggled to leave my mouth.

“Well, you aren't wrong, you did a bad thing I don't think there's a lot you can do to make up for it, but this is a start at least.” She admitted, looking back that’s what I always liked about Tulip never afraid to tell me when I'm in the wrong, but still offer some advice.

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“Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind.” I weakly nodded at her to which she smiled and patted my shoulder. as if on cue, all our phones lit up with a text from Antonio saying one simple yet dreadful word. 

“Here.” 

“Ok everybody, it's time to go Mask up.” I announced strapping my bunny mask on.

“Right!” Tulip said, as she put on the tiger mask.

“Ok, then let's do this!” Alex yelled, pulling up a medical mask and shooting a coin, creating one half of the portal. Brad stopped stretching just as Alex had sent a signal on her phone causing the exit of the portal to appear, revealing a small white room with a couple sinks and toilet stalls.

“Hey Alex, where does this go?” Brad asked readjusting his scarf.

“To the girls bathroom.”

“Wait, why there?” I asked. 

“It was the only place to think of where I could hide the catapult without it being discovered.” She defended. 

“Why not put it in a supply closet or something?” Tulip pointed out. 

“Look, we're wasting time, let's go,” she said, trying to usher us along. As we walked through, Brad and I looked around. 

“Huh, thought there would be a couch in here," we said in unison. “Eyy." we said while pointing finger guns at each other. 

“Guys, focus.” Tulip said face palming. As we quietly made our way out of the bathroom, I turned on my Shimmer Sense and started to lead the way. After a minute or so, I started to see a faint glow of orange. When we caught up to them, we were about halfway from the gym to the security office, right next to the theater. They were wearing casual clothes, nothing covering their faces or fingerprints. 

Tyrone was holding Nature's Pandemonium in one hand, while lighting up the room with fire in the other. Guams was right beside him, hands in his pockets, it looked like he would've been whistling, if they weren't sneaking in. Antonio was standing further back, he was constantly turning his head, clearly looking for something, probably us. As we walked forwards, I turned off my Shimmer Sense. and yelled. “STOP!” 

Tyrone turned his head and looked at me. He was angry. Not backing down, I continued to walk forward with Tulip and Brad at my sides, Alex staying hidden in the shadows. “Who are you?” He couldn't see through our disguises, and his flame burning brighter in response. 

“Who we are doesn't matter. We know everything you three have been doing and we want to offer a peaceful solution. If you hand over Nature's Pandemonium and promise to never use your magic again, we will delete the school’s video footage of you setting fire to the textbooks. Please, I do not wish to hurt you. So, I ask you three be reasonable and surrender the tome.” 

“Be reasonable? Fine, I'll be reasonable! If you leave now, I won't burn you to ash!” 

“I'm afraid we can't do that," Tulip defied drawing her blade readying a defensive stance. 

“Fine then let's brawl let's see who comes out on top when we have the powers of the nature on our side!” Guams roared doing a back handspring causing parts of the floor tiles to start to float and orbit around him. 

“That's right Guams. With these powers, I am a KING compared to you lowly peasants. So come on three vs three. Let’s see how badly I break you!” Tyrone yelled with a sinister smile, as his arms were fully covered in red hot flames, the book seemingly unaffected. 

“Actually, it’s two vs four.” Antonio called out, as two watery spears pierced through the two’s backs causing them to fall to the floor in pain. 

“You betrayed us!” Tyrone screamed. 

“You betrayed yourself. This has gone way too far and if I need to stop you, so be it.” Antonio responded with watery tendrils coming out of his back.

Brad ran forward swinging his fist into Tyrone, who was still getting up. Tyrone, seeing this, ignited the front half of his body just in time, pushing himself away from the attack. Guams jumped to his feet and started to launch floor tiles at Brad which were blocked at the last moment by Tulips barriers, the words of the poem glowing bright blue. 

Seeing an opening I reached for my pocket crying out, “Hachiko Crescite et confortamini, Crescite et confortamini!” Causing Hachiko to grow to the size of a wolf running forward biting into Tyrone’s side. He retaliated by punching Hachiko with a flaming fist, pushing Hachiko backwards. Tyrone quickly ignited his legs, pushing himself up into the air. He started to rip out and throw his hair which quickly ignited into bright burning balls of fire. 

I was barely able to dodge them. I tried my best to maneuver through Tyrone's torrent of flame. This posed a difficult problem, since with Tyrone in the air and constantly throwing fire, it would be nearly impossible to land a hit on him. My only chance was to try to find an opening to bring out Malg knowing that his wings would be able to deal with Tyrones flying no problem. Thankfully it seemed like the others were having better luck. 

Guams was trying to create some distance from the others by staying low to the ground and launching floor tiles every time he took a step back. It was ineffective though since Brad would either punch or power through them starting to close the distance. When Brad managed to get to Guams, he grabbed him in a bear hug and threw him to the ground. Guams tried to get up, but Tulip ran forward spinning around slashing into him again and again her sword leaving. 

“AUGGHH!” Guams cried out in pain, before being interrupted by Antonio propelling himself into the air above him, surrounding himself in an orb of water, launching a blast of water at the ceiling sending himself rocketing towards Guam slamming into and sending him flying against a wall. “THAT'S ENOUGH!” Guams cried out as he slammed his hands on the floor creating an earthy shockwave pushing everyone back.

Seeing this Tyrone grit his teeth and yelled, “COME ON GUAMS, YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS!”

Seeing him distracted I threw Malg yelling. “Crescite et confortamini, Crescite et confortamini!” Malg to grew to the size of a grizzly bear. There stood a beast with two heads; one head of a majestic golden lion and the other head a devilish gray goat; with a pair of wings one black and one white; four legs and a long black snake as a tail.

Malg let out a battle cry. “AYUGREHEHH!” as it charging at Tyrone who had to use all his strength to not be pushed back by it. He was a Chimera a creature from Greek myth a monster that probably has a ton of history and interesting stories centered around it but one I chose because it looked cool.

“BUNNY, WHAT THE HECK?” Tulip cried out as she dashed towards Guams. 

“WHAT IS THAT THING?” Alex yelled, who still had not gone to the security room. 

“It's called a Chimera. It's from a Greek myth. NOW GET TO THE SECURITY ROOM!” 

“Right, sorry!” she said as Alex started to run away. 

“Huh, a Chimera, a man-made creature formed from several animals using the power of alchemy.” Guams said in admiration. “I love those things, but I couldn't help but notice you left out one animal. Let me fill it in for you!” Guams cackled, slamming his hands against the floor causing the ground to lift and move towards his body. The mass of earth surrounding him grew bigger and bigger. It shaped itself becoming more and more refined, until it had four legs each with three sharp claws, a giant prehensile tail, a long snake-like neck with devilish curved horns, sharp jagged metallic teeth, and two large reptilian wings. 

There in the main hallway of our high school stood Guams as a twenty five foot-tall stone dragon. His head broke through to the ceiling above. He looked towards Tulip who had done the worst damage to him and charged. Tulip was barely able to form a barrier ball before Guams made contact. 

It was the age-old question of what happens when an unbreakable object meets an unstoppable force, but it was unbreakable not immovable. All I could hear were the screams of agony as she was slammed against her barrier ball tearing through wall after wall. The other two stood in shock with Tyrone looking on gleefully with a truly wicked smile. 

“WHAT ARE YOU GUYS WAITING FOR? GO HELP TULIP!” I screamed. 

“Bu—” Brad tried to argue. “I'LL BE FINE. I CAN'T RISK TULIP. GO NOW!” 

“Right.” Antonino nodded as he and Brad started to run as fast as they could to wherever Tulip and Guams had ended up. 

“YOU KNOW, AS MUCH AS I'M ABSOLUTELY PISSED AT ANTONIO FOR BETRAYING ME, I DO LIKE HIS STYLE!” Tyrone said, as with great effort he threw Malg to the ground. Curled himself into the fetal position and using fire started to spin in the air. Adding more and more fire onto himself with every rotation until he became a flaming saw blade rocketing towards me. 

Just as I thought I was about to die, a golden portal opened right in front of me redirecting Tyrone into the theater. I looked down the hall to see Alex furiously typing away at a computer with one hand and holding out her gun in the other. “Thank you!” I yelled as I ran towards the drama room pulling out my nail gun and hand saw, the saw spinning faster than ever before as if powered by my fury.