Chapter 59: The Missing King
Starfox5
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Chapter 59: The Missing King
"Micah? Who's Micah?" Seacat blurted as she stared at the sorcerer on top of the ridge. He seemed to have frozen in the act of casting a spell with his staff or something. She was sure she hadn't seen him before - she would remember such a pale face and those jagged black tattoos covering his skin.
"Micah's…" Glimmer trailed off.
"My brother," Castaspella said.
"Dad," Glimmer added.
What? Seacat blinked. Wasn't Glimmer's father dead?
"Rahhh!" Adora yelled as she raced up the last few yards to the top of the ridge.
The sorcerer - Micah - jerked, looked at Adora, then vanished down the other side of the ridge.
"Adora! No!" Glimmer yelled - more than a little belatedly.
And Adora stopped, sword held high, right on top of the ridge, glancing over her shoulder. "What?"
"Don't kill him!" Glimmer yelled, starting to run up the slope as well.
"What?" Adora turned, then turned back. "He's gone! What's going on?" she yelled after a moment.
That was a good question, Seacat thought. A very good question. "Let's get up the ridge and secure it before the enemies return!" she snapped.
"No! We need to recover Emily!" Entrapta objected. "She was carried away in the landslide! As were Water-Bot and Carrier-Bot!"
Seacat blinked. Right. The bots.
"We don't have…" Castaspella started to say.
Seacat interrupted her with a raised hand. "Alright. "Scorpia, Perfuma, can you help Entrapta? We'll secure the ridge." Those two should be enough to keep her safe and help dig out whatever remained of the three bots.
"Alright," Perfuma said, smiling at Entrapta. "Don't worry, we'll find them!"
Scorpia nodded, though she glanced back at the ridge.
"We won't leave without you," Seacat told her.
"I don't think you would," she replied. "But something's..."
"We'll find out what's going on," Seacat said as she started to climb the slope herself. After taking her shirt off her thigh and wrapping it around her chest. Then she had to wait and help Castaspella, who was too exhausted to easily make the climb. But they made it without Seacat having to carry her.
"So…" she asked as soon as she reached the ridge. "What's going on?"
"I don't know!" Glimmer said, sniffling.
"We were fighting Glimmer's dad," Adora said.
"I thought he was dead," Seacat said.
"So did I!" Glimmer replied, shaking her head.
"Why would your dad fight us? He had to realise that we're from the Alliance!" Adora shook her head.
"Did we tell him?" Bow asked.
"Yes, we did," Seacat told her. "Perfuma shouted it out in the first battle."
"But…" Bow started to object.
"He must be possessed," Castaspella said. She wasn't looking at them, Seacat noted - she was staring down the slope, into the crater, which was covered in jungle, with a lake in the middle. "Or cursed. The pale skin, the black lines… That's not normal!"
"Uh…" Adora grimaced. "Are you sure that's him? And not some… monster that looks like him?"
"He looks like Micah," Castaspella said. "Just with different skin. And some of his spells… Micah used them when we sparred."
"Yes," Glimmer quickly agreed. "And he didn't attack me when he saw me!"
Seacat frowned. That was true - the sorcerer had shown some hesitation, at least at directly attacking Glimmer. But he had also sent hordes of bots against them.
"He still attacked us, though," Bow said. "And with an army of bots. And that monster." He pointed at the wreck of the giant bot below them.
"He must be magically controlled," Glimmer said.
Castaspella was still not looking at them. "Or he's…" She trailed off, biting her lower lip.
"What?" Glimmer scowled and walked up to her aunt, almost slipping on a loose patch of earth. "What do you think happened?"
"I've seen those sorts of marks before," Castaspella said.
"What? Where?" Glimmer
"When Light Spinner became Shadow Weaver," Castaspella said.
Seacat gasped. Shadow Weaver? That monster? But…
"She did have dark marks on her skin," Adora said in a small voice. "I saw them once when I entered her room and surprised her. But they didn't quite look like those, I think."
"Really?" Glimmer turned. "So, it's not the same!"
"Shadow Weaver fought differently, too," Adora added.
"Because she was changed. But she was Micah's teacher," Castaspella told them. "Before she was turned into… what she was."
"No!" Glimmer shook her head. "Dad's not like Shadow Weaver!"
"But why is he attacking us, then?" Seacat asked.
"He's under a spell! We just have to break that spell!" Glimmer replied.
Seacat looked at Castaspella. She was glancing at Glimmer, but the sorceress didn't look as confident - or desperate - as the princess.
"You can break the spell, Auntie!" Glimmer told her, gripping her hands.
"I'll try," Castaspella said. "But…"
"No 'but'! We'll save Dad!" Glimmer clenched her teeth. "We'll save him, and then we kill whatever Horde scum did this to him!"
"If they're still alive," Seacat pointed out.
"What do you mean?" Glimmer turned to her.
"He was captured by the Horde and sent here instead of having been killed," Seacat explained. "That probably was done on the orders or with the knowledge of Shadow Weaver."
"Do you think she did this to him?" Glimmer gasped.
Seacat shrugged. "I wouldn't put it past her."
"Uh… I think it's possible," Adora added unprompted. "She did try to kill Ca-Seacat, after all."
"But if she used the same spell she tried on Micah…" Castaspella said.
"What?" Glimmer asked. "Tell us!"
The sorceress took a deep breath. "If she did… then there might be no way to save him."
"No!" Glimmer screamed. "We can save him! Adora can heal him!"
"Uh… I don't know if I can heal… possession?" Adora grimaced.
Glimmer turned and glared at her. "Yes. You. Can."
"Uh… right!" Adora's smile wouldn't have fooled a drunk, blind sailor, but Glimmer nodded. "We need to capture him."
Well, Seacat could get behind that. Whatever was up with Glimmer's dad, he was trying to keep them from reaching the First One's base here.
"And how do we do that?" Bow asked. "He can fade through solid material with his magic. And I have trouble hitting him with my trick arrows."
"I knock him out?" Adora suggested.
"As long as you don't accidentally kill him…" Seacat said. Though she couldn't help wondering - privately - if the sorcerer might have died already, and something was animating his corpse. He was so pale, and those lines on his body… She knew those tales about ghost ships and walking corpses she knew were just scary stories sailors told in taverns, but she also knew magic could do the impossible. A dead body, possessed by magic… She suppressed a shudder.
"Yes. Don't kill dad," Glimmer said.
Bow wrapped his arms around her shoulders - he must have noticed as well that she was pressing her lips together and standing far too straight to be OK - and she took a few shivering breaths when she turned to hug him.
Everyone else looked away. Seacat checked on Entrapta and the others down the slope. They were digging out… She narrowed her eyes. Ah, that looked like Emily. Emily after having been keelhauled a few dozen times. But there didn't seem to be any danger around - Perfuma's plants had already pushed the bot's remains to the surface.
When she turned back to the others, Glimmer had recovered her composure. And Adora looked as determined as ever. "I could just blast him with magic healing," she said, raising her sword.
"He might dodge it," Bow pointed out. "He dodged most of our attacks."
"It's not an attack," Adora objected.
"It looks like one - you point the sword at him, energy shoots out of it…" Seacat shrugged. "If you don't know better, it looks pretty much like an attack,"
"But… it's not!" Adora pouted.
"We know that, but he doesn't," Bow told her.
"Yes. Healing magic is very rare - the kind of healing magic that works as fast as yours," Castaspella said. "And speaking of healing…"
Adora gasped, pressing a hand in front of her mouth. "Oh, no! I totally forgot!"
A moment later, Castaspella was bathed in the magic and sighed with relief. "Ah… thank you."
"So, you can recharge her?" Glimmer asked Adora.
"She can relieve my physical exhaustion," Castaspella corrected her. "It's not replenishing magic - that's not how a sorceress's magic works."
"Ah." Glimmer nodded. "Didn't Dad see you heal Seacat in the battle?"
"I'm not sure if he paid attention to that," Adora replied.
"Well, he kept an eye on all of us - I tried making him split his attention and focus on me, but he still was able to avoid you," Bow said.
"Micah was one of the brightest, most talented students at Mystacore," Castaspella said with a sigh and a wry smile. "That's why Shadow Weaver set her eyes on him."
"Ew!" Glimmer grimaced.
"Not like that. She tutored him - in order to exploit his talents for her own plans. She used him to cast a very dangerous restricted spell." The sorceress shook her head. "It changed her when it backfired, but Micah escaped unscathed. Or so we thought."
"You think this might be the result of the spell?" Glimmer asked.
"I wouldn't exclude the possibility," her aunt replied. "But we won't be able to find out for certain before we can capture Micah."
Or his body, Seacat silently added. Out loud, she said: "Well, keep an eye on the jungle below us. I'll go check up on Entrapta. And use the mirror to signal to the Victory's Daughter that we're delayed."
Adora frowned before nodding. She understood that she needed to protect the others.
And Seacat needed to check up on Entrapta. If Emily was destroyed…
*****
"And her control unit and memory banks are OK!" Entrapta announced with a tired but wide smile. "Emily's OK. Well, she will be, once I fix her legs, and her cannon, and her power supply…"
"How long will that take?" Seacat asked, looking at the broken shell of the bot. A few lights were blinking, but nothing else seemed to be working - the avalanche had smashed the bot like an empty bottle.
"Uh… a few hours - I've got lots of spare parts here!" Entrapta nodded while her hair kept meddling with the bot's innards.
A few hours? That was a little too long, Seacat knew. On the other hand, she couldn't ask Entrapta to leave Emily behind. And they had no way to take the bot with them. Looking at the princess's smiling face - she could still see tracks of tears - there was only one answer. "Alright, I'll tell the others." She nodded at Scorpia and Perfuma. "We'll be working on ways to capture King Micah without killing him."
"I only need to sting him once, and he'll be out like a light," Scorpia reminded her - her tail wriggled above the princess's head.
Seacat smiled. "Then we just need Glimmer to teleport you next to him once he shows up."
"Exactly!"
"How much longer will this take?" Glimmer asked. Not for the first time. "We need to press on!"
Seacat sighed as she looked at the princess. Glimmer was staring at the jungle below them, in the caldera. Where her father had vanished. "We can't abandon Emily," Seacat told her.
"Yes, we…" Glimmer pressed her lips together, glancing over her shoulder down the slope, where Entrapta was still working on the big bot.
"We're not leaving anyone behind," Adora said.
"Of course not," Glimmer quickly agreed.
Though Seacat had a feeling that if Glimmer didn't know that leaving the bot behind would mean leaving Entrapta behind, she probably would urge them to move on. Well, Seacat understood the feeling. If someone had cursed Sea Hawk like that, and he was hiding in the jungle somewhere… She pushed the thought away. They wouldn't leave Entrapta behind. Certainly not in this jungle, where bots could swarm you. And possessed or cursed sorcerers could blast you from ambush.
Seacat didn't think Micah would hesitate to attack anyone except for Glimmer and Castaspella. If he would hesitate at all. He might have done so - or they might have misinterpreted his actions. Or he had done so, but not because they were his family and he wanted to spare them. Perhaps he was looking for more victims for whatever had taken control of him? And Castaspella would fit the bill. And Glimmer had a staff, like Micah.
"Hey!"
Seacat looked up. Adora was sitting down next to her, stretching her legs. How had she missed that? "Hey," she replied to cover up her reaction.
"Are you OK?" Adora asked in a low voice.
"Me? I'm fine. You healed me, remember?" Seacat smiled and elbowed her.
"I didn't mean that," Adora replied. "I mean… you looked pretty, uh, pensive."
"Just thinking about our mission," Seacat replied.
"Ah. The Heart of Etheria, or Micah?"
"Micah," Seacat replied, glancing at Glimmer. The princess was busy talking to Bow. Probably planning their descent into the crater - again.
"Ah." Adora swallowed. "Well, if I can heal him… Do you think I can?"
"I don't know," Seacat told her. "I'm not a sorceress."
"But do you think I could?"
"I hope so," Seacat replied.
"Oh."
Seacat clenched her teeth. Now Adora looked sad. That wasn't what she had meant to do. "The important thing is to capture him. We can sort out how to cure him once we've saved the world."
"Right. We're here to save the world." Adora nodded firmly, then slumped a little. "From me."
Seacat hissed and slapped her lover on the back of her head. "No, you idiot! We're here to save the world from some thousand-years-old plot by people long dead. Not from you."
"But…"
"No buts!" Seacat moved over, into Adora's lap, facing her, then leaned in until Adora leaned back. "You're not responsible for this. Mara stopped it, anyway."
"But I'm a First One!"
"So? We both were Horde. And we left!" Seacat huffed.
"But…"
"No 'but'!" Seacat leaned in further until Adora was on her back, and she was straddling the taller woman. "You're not to blame for this. Not for the First Ones, nor for Micah - whatever happened to him. Probably Shadow Weaver."
"Yeah," Adora agreed. "That would fit her."
And she was sad again. Damn it! "And that wasn't your fault, either!" Seacat hissed.
"But…"
Seacat kissed her. That, at last, shut her up.
"No 'but'!" she said once they broke the kiss.
"Uh, alright…" Adora trailed off, biting her lower lip. "I'll try."
"Good. We're here to save the world. And blaming yourself isn't helping!"
"OK." Adora licked her lips, then blinked. "Uh… your shirt."
And Seacat noticed that her battered shirt, which was still sporting some blood stains from when she had used it as a makeshift bandage, had somehow fallen off during their kiss. "Oh." She blinked, then grinned. "What did you do?"
"What? I didn't do anything!"
"Really? You didn't want to strip me?"
"No! I mean… I didn't do it!"
"But you wanted to."
"Well…" Adora looked away. And froze. Seacat frowned and glanced to the side. And froze as well.
Glimmer, Bow and the others were staring at them. Or glaring.
Oops.
"Come on, Emily! I know you can do it! That's it! One step after the other! Yes!"
Seacat clenched her teeth as she watched the repaired bot slowly make its way up the slope while Entrapta cheered it on. It was now noon - the sun was shining straight down on them - and the remains of the avalanche had dried out, so every step Emily took threw up a small dust cloud. But the bot, despite looking like a steel bucket someone took a few hammers to, ignored that and kept steadily advancing towards them. Entrapta had done it.
A few minutes later, the bit reached the ridge and settled down on all four legs. And Entrapta patted its battered shell. "Perfect! Well done!"
Emily beeped and blinked something in return which cheered up the princess even more.
"Great!" Entrapta turned towards them. "Emily's fixed. Now I just have to fix Water-Bot and Carrier-Bot."
Seacat winced. "How long will that take?"
"Uh…" Entrapta fidgetted. "They weren't as durable as Emily since they weren't meant for combat, so… Their memory banks are intact!"
But the rest probably not. Seacat shook her head. "Let's take their memory banks and repair them later when we've done what we came here for."
"But…" Entrapta sighed. "I guess that's for the best. I'm not sure I have all the parts for both. We have lots of broken bots, but a few specialised parts I took from my stash on the ship."
Good. Seacat really didn't want to wait any longer. And Glimmer wouldn't wait any longer, she was certain.
They had to reach the Heart of Etheria today.
"Let's go!" she said.
"Yes!" Glimmer jumped up so quickly, Seacat almost thought she had teleported. "Let's save Dad!"
"And the world," Seacat reminded her.
"Yes, that too."
"So..." Adora cleared her throat. "Is the plan still that Scorpia stings him?"
"Unless we find a better plan, yes," Bow said. "We need to keep him from escaping once we spot him - I have a few trick arrows left that might do the job. But the problem will be holding him once we have him. If he can fade through solid wood and metal, he can probably fade through what rope we could use to tie him up."
"Or through the hands we hold him with," Seacat pointed out.
"I'll keep him sedated," Castaspella said. "But it means I won't be able to do much else - keeping someone as strong as my brother asleep will take most of my attention. Unless you can sting him again without endangering his health," she added, looking at Scorpia.
"Uh…" The big woman scratched the back of her head. "I haven't actually done that. One sting generally takes out anyone, and, ah - we had prisons for that."
Prisons designed by Shadow Weaver. Seacat clenched her teeth. Well, the witch was dead. And they didn't know if the poison in Scorpia's stinger would work in the first place - whatever controlled him might make him immune to such an attack. But they had gone over that before. "Let's go!" Seacat repeated herself and started climbing down the slope into the caldera.
Adora overtook her at once, as she had expected. As did Glimmer, which meant Bow did as well. Seacat would've preferred keeping the princess in the back, but Glimmer would never agree to that. And if Micah really hesitated to hurt her, she would be pretty safe up front. Hopefully, at least.
The giant bot had left huge tracks in this part of the slope, which made climbing a little harder than it would've been, she noticed.
"Eeep!"
Seacat whirled and froze. Emily was stumbling, legs failing to find purchase in the softer earth! If the bot lost its balance, it would roll down the slope. And Entrapta was balanced on top of it - if she didn't get thrown clear, she'd be crushed!
Seacat started towards them, but vines erupted from the earth, wrapping themselves around the bot's legs and stopping it from falling over.
"Thanks, Perfuma!" Entrapta cheered. "Emily's ground pressure is a little too high for this terrain, I think. I need to make climbing claws for her!"
Seacat had a brief vision of a bot with claws on its legs. It wasn't a nice image. Not at all. "Can you ease Emily down the slope?" she asked.
"Yes," Perfuma said. "It'll be slow, though."
"That's no problem," Seacat assured her. Anything was better than risking another landslide here.
She turned and saw that Adora, Glimmer and Bow hadn't stopped - they were almost at the treeline already. Frowning, she set out to follow them. They could've waited for her, at least!
But they stopped at the jungle, and she caught up with them shortly afterwards. "Did you see anything?"
"No," Adora replied. "But anything could be hiding in there."
Seacat agreed - the underbrush was denser than in the jungle on the other side of the ridge. And their enemy, Micah or whoever had done it, had already proven that they could hide an army of bots in the jungle.
"So, we agreed to wait for Entrapta and Perfuma," Bow went on.
Seacat glanced at Glimmer. Judging by the way the princess was scowling, she had disagreed with that decision. But as long as she went along with it, that was fine.
Seacat cocked her head, her ears twitching. "I don't hear anything suspicious," she told the other. Then she blinked. "And that is suspicious."
"What?" Adora asked.
"I don't hear any animals. Not even birds," Seacat explained. "Either they are all in hiding and staying silent because something scared them, or… there aren't any animals in the jungle."
Bow winced. "Either explanation is bad." He looked at the jungle with narrowed eyes.
Seacat nodded. "Yes." She listened again, but she could only hear a few insects buzzing nearby. No sound of anything larger.
She really hoped that the animals had been scared away - she didn't want to enter a jungle where animals disappeared.
"Whee!" Entrapta arrived on Emily, which slid the last few yards to them, and the princess jumped off, letting her hair catch her fall. "That was fun!"
The bot beeped, and the princess frowned. "You were perfectly safe!"
Seacat wondered - privately - if bots could get scared. After surviving - sort of - a landslide, Emily might not be too keen on risking another. Seacat certainly wasn't.
Then Castaspella, Scorpia and Perfuma arrived. Perfuma looked a little tired - same as Castaspella.
"Something's wrong with the jungle," Bow told them. "Seacat can't hear any animals."
"Oh! Let me check my scanner!" Entrapta said.
Perfuma bent down and touched the ground, plants growing under her hand. After a while, she frowned.
"I don't detect any higher animals near us!" Entrapta announced.
"And I don't detect the usual signs of animals eating plants, other than insects," Perfuma added.
"So… something is keeping animals out of this jungle," Bow said.
"Or wipes them out if they enter," Seacat pointed out. "What could it be?"
"Something is controlling the plants, but that was the same on the other side," Perfuma said. "So, that can't be it."
Seacat tilted her head. Still, only the buzzing of insects. A lot of buzzing, actually.
Oh, no! She gasped. "Bugs!" she blurted out. "There're lots of bugs coming!"
"Bugs?" Adora asked.
"A huge swarm!" Seacat explained, looking around. They couldn't... They had to… How did you fight a swarm of bugs? With fire! "We need fire!"
"What?" Glimmer asked.
"Uh-oh!" Bow paled. "Do you hear this?"
"Yes," Seacat snapped. "We need to prepare fire to keep them away."
"Bugs? A swarm of them?" Entrapta asked.
And there they came - Seacat could hear the swarm fly towards them. And crawl.
Then she saw them. A cloud of flying insects and a wave made up of crawling bugs coming at them. They swept through the underbrush like a freak wave.
Emily's gun bellowed. A second later, a bush blew up in the middle of the swarm. It didn't seem to affect them at all - they kept coming.
Castaspella raised her hands, and a shining yellow shield appeared - just in time to have the swarm crash into it.
Seacat hissed as she saw the bugs cover it, blotting out the sun as they tried to find a way through it. And those were just the flying bugs. More were on the way. And the noise they made - it hurt her ears!
"I can't keep this up forever - their weight is adding up!" the sorceress snapped.
"We need fire!" Seacat repeated herself, yelling loudly. "Something to burn them. Oil!"
"I've got one flask, but I need it to lubricate Emily!" Entrapta said.
"You can repair her!" Glimmer turned towards the princess. "We can't be repaired if we get buried under bugs. "Dad!" she yelled. "Call them back!"
"I don't think he's hearing us over all the noise from the bugs," Bow yelled.
"This is bad," Scorpia said, loud enough to be heard. "I know those bugs. Flying Stone Wasps! They paralyse their prey. A swarm can even take down a minotaur!"
"I can construct a zapper!" Entrapta said. "Just give me an hour or two!"
Damn. Seacat growled. "We need to burn them!" But a flask of oil wouldn't be enough.
"Wait!" Perfuma held her hands out. Vines shot up from the earth, winding themselves around the magic shield. Forming a wall. But…
"That won't stop the bugs!" Glimmer yelled.
"Not yet!" Perfuma shot back. "But… Once the walls are ready, set them on fire!"
"What?"
"Set them on fire!" the princess repeated herself.
Adora looked at her for confirmation. Seacat nodded. They didn't have a better plan, anyway.
Adora grabbed the flask from Entrapta, Soaked a rag with it, then wrapped the rag around a stone. "So… how do I get it through the shield?"
"Drop it, then set the vines on fire and redo the shield!" Perfuma replied. "Hurry!"
That sounded like suicide. But they had no choice now - the rest of the bugs had arrived. "Do it!" Seacat snapped, taking a deep breath
A moment later, the shield disappeared. And a burning rag flew towards the closest vine.
And a new shield appeared around them - a fairly smaller one. And one that hadn't kept all bugs out. Seacat swiped at the bugs trying to sting her while she heard shrieks and grunts from the others. "Keep them off of Castaspella!" she snapped, standing next to the sorceress. If Castaspella's concentration broke...
Adora was there, swinging her sword - broadside - and splattering bugs around. But it wouldn't be enough once the shield broke.
Seacat glanced at the burning vines. The fire was spreading all along the vines. And so was thick, dark smoke. Smoke… She narrowed her eyes. The bugs were… dropping in the smoke. And the scent… "What are you burning?" she yelled.
"The vines have aromatic oils in them. People use them to deal with bees to get the honey from bee hives!" Perfuma explained. "I thought of them after my first visit to Scorpia."
"Oh." Seacat smiled. "Good thinking! This will…" She coughed. The smoke was inside the shield, now.
"Uh… They usually wear masks," Perfuma said before she coughed as well.
Damn, that smoke was nasty! Seacat had another coughing fit.
"Cover your noses with a piece of cloth! Soak it in water!" Adora yelled.
By the time they had managed to soak their rags, Seacat was constantly coughing and could barely see anything inside the shield.
But the bugs were dropping like flies. Or something.
"I don't… feel… so good!" Entrapta managed to say between coughing,
"Get to the ground!" Perfuma yelled, then coughed, "The.. air… is better here."
Seacat was already crouching and simply dropped down. The air was better, if not by much, but it helped.
And slowly, the buzzing noise disappeared, followed by the chittering noise of the ground-bound swarm. After a few minutes and more coughing, Seacat spoke up in the sudden silence: "I think you can drop the shield now."
Castaspella didn't say anything, but a gust of wind hit Seacat's face, and the smoke started to clear.
Damn. She turned on her back and drew deep, coughing breaths. That had been close. Too damn close.
"We really need to capture Micah," she said.
If he had worse tricks of his sleeve, they might not survive.
"We have to find him first," she heard Adora whisper.
Well, that was the problem, wasn't it? Although… "I have an idea!" Seacat said, grinning.
Adora would hate it, but it was their best chance.
"We need you to play bait," she told Glimmer. "Lure him out so we can capture him."
"What?" "What?" "No!" Glimmer, Bow and Castaspella blurted out.
"It's too dangerous!" Adora protested.
"We know Micah hesitated to attack you," Seacat explained. "We don't know why, but he attacked others like Bow. So you've got the best chance here to avoid a fight."
"Yes. He attacked me quite stubbornly," Bow said. "But we don't know if he'd spare Glimmer - if he can spare her."
"Yes. And he also hesitated to attack me," Castaspella added. "I should play bait!"
"No!" Glimmer shook her head. "You're the only one who can deal with whatever spells he can cast. And I can teleport to safety if something goes wrong. And he didn't attack me."
"He sent his bots against you," Adora said. "I should play bait. You can teleport Scorpia to him and strike him as soon as you see him!"
"We didn't see him most of the time when we fought him before," Seacat pointed out. "That's why we need a bait who can make him hesitate."
"Like I did before," Glimmer said. She slowly nodded with a firm expression. "I need to do this. For Dad!"
"No, you don't!" her aunt objected. "I can do it as well. And I can stand up to him, giving you more time to catch him. I've countered his attacks before. And we need you to teleport to him."
"And we need you to deal with magic," Seacat told Castaspella. "He might not hesitate to attack you."
"Glimmer's not expendable." Bow frowned.
"If anyone is risking their life as bait, it should be me. I can withstand most attacks," Adora insisted.
Seacat rolled her eyes. "And we need you to heal anyone hurt in the fighting."
Adora frowned at her. "But I'm She-Ra. It's my duty to protect you!"
"And that means not sacrificing yourself pointlessly," Seacat shot back.
"What? You think this is going to be a sacrifice?" Bow looked shocked.
"No!" Seacat trend to face him. "There is a risk, but Glimmer can teleport. And Adora can heal her - if she's not trying to sacrifice herself."
"I'm not!" Adora claimed. "But I am the toughest. I will be fine."
Glimmer rolled her eyes. "And Dad won't hesitate to attack you. He doesn't know you. You can't be bait. It has to be me."
Seacat nodded in agreement. "And we have to be ready to capture him."
"And how do we do that if he's too far away and Glimmer is the only one who can reach him?" Adora asked.
"Simple," Glimmer replied. "I teleport to Scorpia, then to him."
That was probably their best shot. It might be better to have Adora play bait, but they hadn't been often able to spot Micah in the fights so far, and Glimmer couldn't teleport blindly. She had to lure the sorcerer out. Even though that would also be much more dangerous for Glimmer. Not that Seacat would think that Glimmer would let that stop her.
She glanced at Adora, who was frowning as well. So, her lover probably shared her take on this.
"Glimmer…" Bow started, stepping towards her.
"Bow! I have to do this! I have to save Dad!" Glimmer shook her head.
"But… you don't have to do it like that!"
"I'm the best choice for this." She gripped his hand. "Please."
Bow pressed his lips together, then took a deep breath. "I hate it."
"But…?" Glimmer faintly smiled, and her eyes looked a little wet.
Another sigh. "I don't see a better alternative. I really don't."
That pretty much summed it up. The two embraced, and Seacat sighed as well.
"Alright," she said after a while when none of the two seemed to be ready to break their embrace any time soon. "Let's get this organised. Before we have to fight even more bugs."
"Oh, I think I've cracked that," Entrapta spoke up.
"What?" Seacat turned to face her. As did everyone else.
"They had to control the bugs somehow, didn't they?" Entrapta asked.
"Magic," Castaspella replied at once.
"Well, that was one possibility. But I noticed some weird readings - there was a sound too low to hear by anyone of us. And it was directed at us. I think that was how Micah controlled the bugs. Or whoever controlled them," Entrapta explained.
"A sound we can't hear? Huh?" Adora asked. "How would that work?"
"We can't hear it, but bugs can sense it," Entrapta told her.
"Ah."
"Like a whistle that only some people can hear," Scorpia said. "We - the Horde - experimented with that a while ago, or so I'd heard. It was never fielded because concentrating so many people in the same unit, so they could listen to commands no one else heard, was not worth the effort or something."
"Whatever," Adora said. "You can stop another such attack?"
"Emily can! Once I modify her audio and speaker system!"
The bot beeped.
That sounded reassuring, in Seacat's opinion. "Do that. And we'll be looking for a good spot to ambush a king," she told the princess.
"We can't just walk around in the jungle with Glimmer in the lead," Adora protested.
"Why not?" Glimmer asked.
"Micah would be suspicious of such a change in our usual tactics," Adora explained.
"If he's fully in control of himself," Bow pointed out. "He's been on the island for over a decade, at the least," he said.
"We don't know that," Castaspella disagreed. "Shadow Weaver might not have sent him to the island right after he got captured."
Seacat winced. She had been held by Shadow Weaver; she knew what that meant. And if Shadow Weaver had experimented on Micah or was responsible for his situation… "He might not be stable at all," she said.
"He didn't attack me," Glimmer retorted.
"He did attack us," Bow told her.
"He doesn't know you. He knows me. And Auntie."
"Anyway," Adora cut in, "if he expects me and Bow to take point, we should do that. For a while, at least. Then we take a rest, and Glimmer plays bait. Close by."
"How do we know when he notices her?" Bow asked. "If Glimmer yells, then he'll realise we'll attack him."
Another good question.
"If we rest, I can surround us with a network of plants that detect footsteps," Perfuma said. "I can't do it while we walk, but give me some time, and I should be able to sense him near us."
"What if he travels in the canopies?" Bow asked.
"That's trickier. Trees don't sense people climbing on them. And if I cover them with vines which could sense someone touching them, he might notice," the princess replied.
"I can cover the canopies," Bow said.
"But can you spot him in time for us to react?" Adora asked. "I mean, for us to send out Glimmer?"
Bow frowned. "I have to try."
"Oh, we could plant sensors around us!" Entrapta said. Apparently, she had finished working on Emily. "I can use some of the sensors from the bots we destroyed. If you place them around our campsite, we'll have ample warning of his approach. I think. Unless there's magic that fools sensors."
"There are ways to hide your presence," Castaspella said. "But they mostly fool sight, not sound. There are spells to mask the sound of you as well."
"And ground- and tree-based vibrations?" Entrapta asked.
"I…" Castaspella frowned. "I don't believe so?"
"Great! Seismic detectors, it is! This will be fun!"
"Yes, fun," Seacat muttered. "Well, then we rest here while Entrapta works on her sensors and Perfuma grows some plants." And Seacat would try not to worry too much over the time they were losing - or the possibility of this ambush being turned into a counter-ambush.
Seacat sighed. Entrapta was happily dismantling more bot parts. Perfuma had her hand on the soil again, eyes closed. Listening to plants. While she sat in Scorpia's lap. "I missed that," she said.
"Huh?" Adora stopped looking at the jungle around them, hand twitching over the hilt of her sword, and turned to face her. "What did you miss?"
"That they are a couple," she explained.
"They?"
Seacat nodded at the two princesses.
"Oh! You didn't notice?" Adora smiled.
Seacat narrowed her eyes at her lover. "And when did you?"
"Uh…" Adora blushed. "When Scorpia asked me for advice about courting. On the ship."
Seacat blinked. "She asked you for advice?"
"Hey!" Adora frowned. And pouted. "I courted you, didn't I?"
"I seduced you," Seacat countered.
"I started it!"
Seacat chuckled. "Well, you weren't very good at it, but I'll grant you that."
"Hey!" More pouting.
Seacat grinned, leaned over and kissed her. "And it was cute!"
"Mh." Adora sighed. "Anyway, I just told her to be honest and ask. And it worked!"
Well, Seacat couldn't argue with that.
"So, I do give good advice about love!"
Seacat snorted. "Are you trying to claim you helped Glimmer and Bow out as well?"
"Well…" Adora twirled her fingers. "I did nudge them. A little."
Seacat shook her head. "Adora the matchmaker. Who would've thought?"
"Hey!"
More pouting and more kissing. Perhaps, Seacat thought as Adora held her in her arms, they could look for a little more privacy…
"And I'm done with the first batch!"
And there was Entrapta, beaming at them while she held up half a dozen metal boxes with red lights in them. "Here are the first sensors! They'll detect people moving in a radius of ten yards, so think of that while placing them!"
"Thank you." Seacat smiled at her as she took a step back from Adora, then looked up at the jungle's canopy above them and did a quick calculation.
They were going to need a lot more sensors if this was supposed to work.
"Micah? Who's Micah?" Seacat blurted as she stared at the sorcerer on top of the ridge. He seemed to have frozen in the act of casting a spell with his staff or something. She was sure she hadn't seen him before - she would remember such a pale face and those jagged black tattoos covering his skin.
"Micah's…" Glimmer trailed off.
"My brother," Castaspella said.
"Dad," Glimmer added.
What? Seacat blinked. Wasn't Glimmer's father dead?
"Rahhh!" Adora yelled as she raced up the last few yards to the top of the ridge.
The sorcerer - Micah - jerked, looked at Adora, then vanished down the other side of the ridge.
"Adora! No!" Glimmer yelled - more than a little belatedly.
And Adora stopped, sword held high, right on top of the ridge, glancing over her shoulder. "What?"
"Don't kill him!" Glimmer yelled, starting to run up the slope as well.
"What?" Adora turned, then turned back. "He's gone! What's going on?" she yelled after a moment.
That was a good question, Seacat thought. A very good question. "Let's get up the ridge and secure it before the enemies return!" she snapped.
"No! We need to recover Emily!" Entrapta objected. "She was carried away in the landslide! As were Water-Bot and Carrier-Bot!"
Seacat blinked. Right. The bots.
"We don't have…" Castaspella started to say.
Seacat interrupted her with a raised hand. "Alright. "Scorpia, Perfuma, can you help Entrapta? We'll secure the ridge." Those two should be enough to keep her safe and help dig out whatever remained of the three bots.
"Alright," Perfuma said, smiling at Entrapta. "Don't worry, we'll find them!"
Scorpia nodded, though she glanced back at the ridge.
"We won't leave without you," Seacat told her.
"I don't think you would," she replied. "But something's..."
"We'll find out what's going on," Seacat said as she started to climb the slope herself. After taking her shirt off her thigh and wrapping it around her chest. Then she had to wait and help Castaspella, who was too exhausted to easily make the climb. But they made it without Seacat having to carry her.
"So…" she asked as soon as she reached the ridge. "What's going on?"
"I don't know!" Glimmer said, sniffling.
"We were fighting Glimmer's dad," Adora said.
"I thought he was dead," Seacat said.
"So did I!" Glimmer replied, shaking her head.
"Why would your dad fight us? He had to realise that we're from the Alliance!" Adora shook her head.
"Did we tell him?" Bow asked.
"Yes, we did," Seacat told her. "Perfuma shouted it out in the first battle."
"But…" Bow started to object.
"He must be possessed," Castaspella said. She wasn't looking at them, Seacat noted - she was staring down the slope, into the crater, which was covered in jungle, with a lake in the middle. "Or cursed. The pale skin, the black lines… That's not normal!"
"Uh…" Adora grimaced. "Are you sure that's him? And not some… monster that looks like him?"
"He looks like Micah," Castaspella said. "Just with different skin. And some of his spells… Micah used them when we sparred."
"Yes," Glimmer quickly agreed. "And he didn't attack me when he saw me!"
Seacat frowned. That was true - the sorcerer had shown some hesitation, at least at directly attacking Glimmer. But he had also sent hordes of bots against them.
"He still attacked us, though," Bow said. "And with an army of bots. And that monster." He pointed at the wreck of the giant bot below them.
"He must be magically controlled," Glimmer said.
Castaspella was still not looking at them. "Or he's…" She trailed off, biting her lower lip.
"What?" Glimmer scowled and walked up to her aunt, almost slipping on a loose patch of earth. "What do you think happened?"
"I've seen those sorts of marks before," Castaspella said.
"What? Where?" Glimmer
"When Light Spinner became Shadow Weaver," Castaspella said.
Seacat gasped. Shadow Weaver? That monster? But…
"She did have dark marks on her skin," Adora said in a small voice. "I saw them once when I entered her room and surprised her. But they didn't quite look like those, I think."
"Really?" Glimmer turned. "So, it's not the same!"
"Shadow Weaver fought differently, too," Adora added.
"Because she was changed. But she was Micah's teacher," Castaspella told them. "Before she was turned into… what she was."
"No!" Glimmer shook her head. "Dad's not like Shadow Weaver!"
"But why is he attacking us, then?" Seacat asked.
"He's under a spell! We just have to break that spell!" Glimmer replied.
Seacat looked at Castaspella. She was glancing at Glimmer, but the sorceress didn't look as confident - or desperate - as the princess.
"You can break the spell, Auntie!" Glimmer told her, gripping her hands.
"I'll try," Castaspella said. "But…"
"No 'but'! We'll save Dad!" Glimmer clenched her teeth. "We'll save him, and then we kill whatever Horde scum did this to him!"
"If they're still alive," Seacat pointed out.
"What do you mean?" Glimmer turned to her.
"He was captured by the Horde and sent here instead of having been killed," Seacat explained. "That probably was done on the orders or with the knowledge of Shadow Weaver."
"Do you think she did this to him?" Glimmer gasped.
Seacat shrugged. "I wouldn't put it past her."
"Uh… I think it's possible," Adora added unprompted. "She did try to kill Ca-Seacat, after all."
"But if she used the same spell she tried on Micah…" Castaspella said.
"What?" Glimmer asked. "Tell us!"
The sorceress took a deep breath. "If she did… then there might be no way to save him."
"No!" Glimmer screamed. "We can save him! Adora can heal him!"
"Uh… I don't know if I can heal… possession?" Adora grimaced.
Glimmer turned and glared at her. "Yes. You. Can."
"Uh… right!" Adora's smile wouldn't have fooled a drunk, blind sailor, but Glimmer nodded. "We need to capture him."
Well, Seacat could get behind that. Whatever was up with Glimmer's dad, he was trying to keep them from reaching the First One's base here.
"And how do we do that?" Bow asked. "He can fade through solid material with his magic. And I have trouble hitting him with my trick arrows."
"I knock him out?" Adora suggested.
"As long as you don't accidentally kill him…" Seacat said. Though she couldn't help wondering - privately - if the sorcerer might have died already, and something was animating his corpse. He was so pale, and those lines on his body… She knew those tales about ghost ships and walking corpses she knew were just scary stories sailors told in taverns, but she also knew magic could do the impossible. A dead body, possessed by magic… She suppressed a shudder.
"Yes. Don't kill dad," Glimmer said.
Bow wrapped his arms around her shoulders - he must have noticed as well that she was pressing her lips together and standing far too straight to be OK - and she took a few shivering breaths when she turned to hug him.
Everyone else looked away. Seacat checked on Entrapta and the others down the slope. They were digging out… She narrowed her eyes. Ah, that looked like Emily. Emily after having been keelhauled a few dozen times. But there didn't seem to be any danger around - Perfuma's plants had already pushed the bot's remains to the surface.
When she turned back to the others, Glimmer had recovered her composure. And Adora looked as determined as ever. "I could just blast him with magic healing," she said, raising her sword.
"He might dodge it," Bow pointed out. "He dodged most of our attacks."
"It's not an attack," Adora objected.
"It looks like one - you point the sword at him, energy shoots out of it…" Seacat shrugged. "If you don't know better, it looks pretty much like an attack,"
"But… it's not!" Adora pouted.
"We know that, but he doesn't," Bow told her.
"Yes. Healing magic is very rare - the kind of healing magic that works as fast as yours," Castaspella said. "And speaking of healing…"
Adora gasped, pressing a hand in front of her mouth. "Oh, no! I totally forgot!"
A moment later, Castaspella was bathed in the magic and sighed with relief. "Ah… thank you."
"So, you can recharge her?" Glimmer asked Adora.
"She can relieve my physical exhaustion," Castaspella corrected her. "It's not replenishing magic - that's not how a sorceress's magic works."
"Ah." Glimmer nodded. "Didn't Dad see you heal Seacat in the battle?"
"I'm not sure if he paid attention to that," Adora replied.
"Well, he kept an eye on all of us - I tried making him split his attention and focus on me, but he still was able to avoid you," Bow said.
"Micah was one of the brightest, most talented students at Mystacore," Castaspella said with a sigh and a wry smile. "That's why Shadow Weaver set her eyes on him."
"Ew!" Glimmer grimaced.
"Not like that. She tutored him - in order to exploit his talents for her own plans. She used him to cast a very dangerous restricted spell." The sorceress shook her head. "It changed her when it backfired, but Micah escaped unscathed. Or so we thought."
"You think this might be the result of the spell?" Glimmer asked.
"I wouldn't exclude the possibility," her aunt replied. "But we won't be able to find out for certain before we can capture Micah."
Or his body, Seacat silently added. Out loud, she said: "Well, keep an eye on the jungle below us. I'll go check up on Entrapta. And use the mirror to signal to the Victory's Daughter that we're delayed."
Adora frowned before nodding. She understood that she needed to protect the others.
And Seacat needed to check up on Entrapta. If Emily was destroyed…
*****
"And her control unit and memory banks are OK!" Entrapta announced with a tired but wide smile. "Emily's OK. Well, she will be, once I fix her legs, and her cannon, and her power supply…"
"How long will that take?" Seacat asked, looking at the broken shell of the bot. A few lights were blinking, but nothing else seemed to be working - the avalanche had smashed the bot like an empty bottle.
"Uh… a few hours - I've got lots of spare parts here!" Entrapta nodded while her hair kept meddling with the bot's innards.
A few hours? That was a little too long, Seacat knew. On the other hand, she couldn't ask Entrapta to leave Emily behind. And they had no way to take the bot with them. Looking at the princess's smiling face - she could still see tracks of tears - there was only one answer. "Alright, I'll tell the others." She nodded at Scorpia and Perfuma. "We'll be working on ways to capture King Micah without killing him."
"I only need to sting him once, and he'll be out like a light," Scorpia reminded her - her tail wriggled above the princess's head.
Seacat smiled. "Then we just need Glimmer to teleport you next to him once he shows up."
"Exactly!"
*****
"How much longer will this take?" Glimmer asked. Not for the first time. "We need to press on!"
Seacat sighed as she looked at the princess. Glimmer was staring at the jungle below them, in the caldera. Where her father had vanished. "We can't abandon Emily," Seacat told her.
"Yes, we…" Glimmer pressed her lips together, glancing over her shoulder down the slope, where Entrapta was still working on the big bot.
"We're not leaving anyone behind," Adora said.
"Of course not," Glimmer quickly agreed.
Though Seacat had a feeling that if Glimmer didn't know that leaving the bot behind would mean leaving Entrapta behind, she probably would urge them to move on. Well, Seacat understood the feeling. If someone had cursed Sea Hawk like that, and he was hiding in the jungle somewhere… She pushed the thought away. They wouldn't leave Entrapta behind. Certainly not in this jungle, where bots could swarm you. And possessed or cursed sorcerers could blast you from ambush.
Seacat didn't think Micah would hesitate to attack anyone except for Glimmer and Castaspella. If he would hesitate at all. He might have done so - or they might have misinterpreted his actions. Or he had done so, but not because they were his family and he wanted to spare them. Perhaps he was looking for more victims for whatever had taken control of him? And Castaspella would fit the bill. And Glimmer had a staff, like Micah.
"Hey!"
Seacat looked up. Adora was sitting down next to her, stretching her legs. How had she missed that? "Hey," she replied to cover up her reaction.
"Are you OK?" Adora asked in a low voice.
"Me? I'm fine. You healed me, remember?" Seacat smiled and elbowed her.
"I didn't mean that," Adora replied. "I mean… you looked pretty, uh, pensive."
"Just thinking about our mission," Seacat replied.
"Ah. The Heart of Etheria, or Micah?"
"Micah," Seacat replied, glancing at Glimmer. The princess was busy talking to Bow. Probably planning their descent into the crater - again.
"Ah." Adora swallowed. "Well, if I can heal him… Do you think I can?"
"I don't know," Seacat told her. "I'm not a sorceress."
"But do you think I could?"
"I hope so," Seacat replied.
"Oh."
Seacat clenched her teeth. Now Adora looked sad. That wasn't what she had meant to do. "The important thing is to capture him. We can sort out how to cure him once we've saved the world."
"Right. We're here to save the world." Adora nodded firmly, then slumped a little. "From me."
Seacat hissed and slapped her lover on the back of her head. "No, you idiot! We're here to save the world from some thousand-years-old plot by people long dead. Not from you."
"But…"
"No buts!" Seacat moved over, into Adora's lap, facing her, then leaned in until Adora leaned back. "You're not responsible for this. Mara stopped it, anyway."
"But I'm a First One!"
"So? We both were Horde. And we left!" Seacat huffed.
"But…"
"No 'but'!" Seacat leaned in further until Adora was on her back, and she was straddling the taller woman. "You're not to blame for this. Not for the First Ones, nor for Micah - whatever happened to him. Probably Shadow Weaver."
"Yeah," Adora agreed. "That would fit her."
And she was sad again. Damn it! "And that wasn't your fault, either!" Seacat hissed.
"But…"
Seacat kissed her. That, at last, shut her up.
"No 'but'!" she said once they broke the kiss.
"Uh, alright…" Adora trailed off, biting her lower lip. "I'll try."
"Good. We're here to save the world. And blaming yourself isn't helping!"
"OK." Adora licked her lips, then blinked. "Uh… your shirt."
And Seacat noticed that her battered shirt, which was still sporting some blood stains from when she had used it as a makeshift bandage, had somehow fallen off during their kiss. "Oh." She blinked, then grinned. "What did you do?"
"What? I didn't do anything!"
"Really? You didn't want to strip me?"
"No! I mean… I didn't do it!"
"But you wanted to."
"Well…" Adora looked away. And froze. Seacat frowned and glanced to the side. And froze as well.
Glimmer, Bow and the others were staring at them. Or glaring.
Oops.
*****
"Come on, Emily! I know you can do it! That's it! One step after the other! Yes!"
Seacat clenched her teeth as she watched the repaired bot slowly make its way up the slope while Entrapta cheered it on. It was now noon - the sun was shining straight down on them - and the remains of the avalanche had dried out, so every step Emily took threw up a small dust cloud. But the bot, despite looking like a steel bucket someone took a few hammers to, ignored that and kept steadily advancing towards them. Entrapta had done it.
A few minutes later, the bit reached the ridge and settled down on all four legs. And Entrapta patted its battered shell. "Perfect! Well done!"
Emily beeped and blinked something in return which cheered up the princess even more.
"Great!" Entrapta turned towards them. "Emily's fixed. Now I just have to fix Water-Bot and Carrier-Bot."
Seacat winced. "How long will that take?"
"Uh…" Entrapta fidgetted. "They weren't as durable as Emily since they weren't meant for combat, so… Their memory banks are intact!"
But the rest probably not. Seacat shook her head. "Let's take their memory banks and repair them later when we've done what we came here for."
"But…" Entrapta sighed. "I guess that's for the best. I'm not sure I have all the parts for both. We have lots of broken bots, but a few specialised parts I took from my stash on the ship."
Good. Seacat really didn't want to wait any longer. And Glimmer wouldn't wait any longer, she was certain.
They had to reach the Heart of Etheria today.
"Let's go!" she said.
"Yes!" Glimmer jumped up so quickly, Seacat almost thought she had teleported. "Let's save Dad!"
"And the world," Seacat reminded her.
"Yes, that too."
"So..." Adora cleared her throat. "Is the plan still that Scorpia stings him?"
"Unless we find a better plan, yes," Bow said. "We need to keep him from escaping once we spot him - I have a few trick arrows left that might do the job. But the problem will be holding him once we have him. If he can fade through solid wood and metal, he can probably fade through what rope we could use to tie him up."
"Or through the hands we hold him with," Seacat pointed out.
"I'll keep him sedated," Castaspella said. "But it means I won't be able to do much else - keeping someone as strong as my brother asleep will take most of my attention. Unless you can sting him again without endangering his health," she added, looking at Scorpia.
"Uh…" The big woman scratched the back of her head. "I haven't actually done that. One sting generally takes out anyone, and, ah - we had prisons for that."
Prisons designed by Shadow Weaver. Seacat clenched her teeth. Well, the witch was dead. And they didn't know if the poison in Scorpia's stinger would work in the first place - whatever controlled him might make him immune to such an attack. But they had gone over that before. "Let's go!" Seacat repeated herself and started climbing down the slope into the caldera.
Adora overtook her at once, as she had expected. As did Glimmer, which meant Bow did as well. Seacat would've preferred keeping the princess in the back, but Glimmer would never agree to that. And if Micah really hesitated to hurt her, she would be pretty safe up front. Hopefully, at least.
The giant bot had left huge tracks in this part of the slope, which made climbing a little harder than it would've been, she noticed.
"Eeep!"
Seacat whirled and froze. Emily was stumbling, legs failing to find purchase in the softer earth! If the bot lost its balance, it would roll down the slope. And Entrapta was balanced on top of it - if she didn't get thrown clear, she'd be crushed!
Seacat started towards them, but vines erupted from the earth, wrapping themselves around the bot's legs and stopping it from falling over.
"Thanks, Perfuma!" Entrapta cheered. "Emily's ground pressure is a little too high for this terrain, I think. I need to make climbing claws for her!"
Seacat had a brief vision of a bot with claws on its legs. It wasn't a nice image. Not at all. "Can you ease Emily down the slope?" she asked.
"Yes," Perfuma said. "It'll be slow, though."
"That's no problem," Seacat assured her. Anything was better than risking another landslide here.
She turned and saw that Adora, Glimmer and Bow hadn't stopped - they were almost at the treeline already. Frowning, she set out to follow them. They could've waited for her, at least!
But they stopped at the jungle, and she caught up with them shortly afterwards. "Did you see anything?"
"No," Adora replied. "But anything could be hiding in there."
Seacat agreed - the underbrush was denser than in the jungle on the other side of the ridge. And their enemy, Micah or whoever had done it, had already proven that they could hide an army of bots in the jungle.
"So, we agreed to wait for Entrapta and Perfuma," Bow went on.
Seacat glanced at Glimmer. Judging by the way the princess was scowling, she had disagreed with that decision. But as long as she went along with it, that was fine.
Seacat cocked her head, her ears twitching. "I don't hear anything suspicious," she told the other. Then she blinked. "And that is suspicious."
"What?" Adora asked.
"I don't hear any animals. Not even birds," Seacat explained. "Either they are all in hiding and staying silent because something scared them, or… there aren't any animals in the jungle."
Bow winced. "Either explanation is bad." He looked at the jungle with narrowed eyes.
Seacat nodded. "Yes." She listened again, but she could only hear a few insects buzzing nearby. No sound of anything larger.
She really hoped that the animals had been scared away - she didn't want to enter a jungle where animals disappeared.
"Whee!" Entrapta arrived on Emily, which slid the last few yards to them, and the princess jumped off, letting her hair catch her fall. "That was fun!"
The bot beeped, and the princess frowned. "You were perfectly safe!"
Seacat wondered - privately - if bots could get scared. After surviving - sort of - a landslide, Emily might not be too keen on risking another. Seacat certainly wasn't.
Then Castaspella, Scorpia and Perfuma arrived. Perfuma looked a little tired - same as Castaspella.
"Something's wrong with the jungle," Bow told them. "Seacat can't hear any animals."
"Oh! Let me check my scanner!" Entrapta said.
Perfuma bent down and touched the ground, plants growing under her hand. After a while, she frowned.
"I don't detect any higher animals near us!" Entrapta announced.
"And I don't detect the usual signs of animals eating plants, other than insects," Perfuma added.
"So… something is keeping animals out of this jungle," Bow said.
"Or wipes them out if they enter," Seacat pointed out. "What could it be?"
"Something is controlling the plants, but that was the same on the other side," Perfuma said. "So, that can't be it."
Seacat tilted her head. Still, only the buzzing of insects. A lot of buzzing, actually.
Oh, no! She gasped. "Bugs!" she blurted out. "There're lots of bugs coming!"
"Bugs?" Adora asked.
"A huge swarm!" Seacat explained, looking around. They couldn't... They had to… How did you fight a swarm of bugs? With fire! "We need fire!"
"What?" Glimmer asked.
"Uh-oh!" Bow paled. "Do you hear this?"
"Yes," Seacat snapped. "We need to prepare fire to keep them away."
"Bugs? A swarm of them?" Entrapta asked.
And there they came - Seacat could hear the swarm fly towards them. And crawl.
Then she saw them. A cloud of flying insects and a wave made up of crawling bugs coming at them. They swept through the underbrush like a freak wave.
Emily's gun bellowed. A second later, a bush blew up in the middle of the swarm. It didn't seem to affect them at all - they kept coming.
Castaspella raised her hands, and a shining yellow shield appeared - just in time to have the swarm crash into it.
Seacat hissed as she saw the bugs cover it, blotting out the sun as they tried to find a way through it. And those were just the flying bugs. More were on the way. And the noise they made - it hurt her ears!
"I can't keep this up forever - their weight is adding up!" the sorceress snapped.
"We need fire!" Seacat repeated herself, yelling loudly. "Something to burn them. Oil!"
"I've got one flask, but I need it to lubricate Emily!" Entrapta said.
"You can repair her!" Glimmer turned towards the princess. "We can't be repaired if we get buried under bugs. "Dad!" she yelled. "Call them back!"
"I don't think he's hearing us over all the noise from the bugs," Bow yelled.
"This is bad," Scorpia said, loud enough to be heard. "I know those bugs. Flying Stone Wasps! They paralyse their prey. A swarm can even take down a minotaur!"
"I can construct a zapper!" Entrapta said. "Just give me an hour or two!"
Damn. Seacat growled. "We need to burn them!" But a flask of oil wouldn't be enough.
"Wait!" Perfuma held her hands out. Vines shot up from the earth, winding themselves around the magic shield. Forming a wall. But…
"That won't stop the bugs!" Glimmer yelled.
"Not yet!" Perfuma shot back. "But… Once the walls are ready, set them on fire!"
"What?"
"Set them on fire!" the princess repeated herself.
Adora looked at her for confirmation. Seacat nodded. They didn't have a better plan, anyway.
Adora grabbed the flask from Entrapta, Soaked a rag with it, then wrapped the rag around a stone. "So… how do I get it through the shield?"
"Drop it, then set the vines on fire and redo the shield!" Perfuma replied. "Hurry!"
That sounded like suicide. But they had no choice now - the rest of the bugs had arrived. "Do it!" Seacat snapped, taking a deep breath
A moment later, the shield disappeared. And a burning rag flew towards the closest vine.
And a new shield appeared around them - a fairly smaller one. And one that hadn't kept all bugs out. Seacat swiped at the bugs trying to sting her while she heard shrieks and grunts from the others. "Keep them off of Castaspella!" she snapped, standing next to the sorceress. If Castaspella's concentration broke...
Adora was there, swinging her sword - broadside - and splattering bugs around. But it wouldn't be enough once the shield broke.
Seacat glanced at the burning vines. The fire was spreading all along the vines. And so was thick, dark smoke. Smoke… She narrowed her eyes. The bugs were… dropping in the smoke. And the scent… "What are you burning?" she yelled.
"The vines have aromatic oils in them. People use them to deal with bees to get the honey from bee hives!" Perfuma explained. "I thought of them after my first visit to Scorpia."
"Oh." Seacat smiled. "Good thinking! This will…" She coughed. The smoke was inside the shield, now.
"Uh… They usually wear masks," Perfuma said before she coughed as well.
Damn, that smoke was nasty! Seacat had another coughing fit.
"Cover your noses with a piece of cloth! Soak it in water!" Adora yelled.
By the time they had managed to soak their rags, Seacat was constantly coughing and could barely see anything inside the shield.
But the bugs were dropping like flies. Or something.
"I don't… feel… so good!" Entrapta managed to say between coughing,
"Get to the ground!" Perfuma yelled, then coughed, "The.. air… is better here."
Seacat was already crouching and simply dropped down. The air was better, if not by much, but it helped.
And slowly, the buzzing noise disappeared, followed by the chittering noise of the ground-bound swarm. After a few minutes and more coughing, Seacat spoke up in the sudden silence: "I think you can drop the shield now."
Castaspella didn't say anything, but a gust of wind hit Seacat's face, and the smoke started to clear.
Damn. She turned on her back and drew deep, coughing breaths. That had been close. Too damn close.
"We really need to capture Micah," she said.
If he had worse tricks of his sleeve, they might not survive.
"We have to find him first," she heard Adora whisper.
Well, that was the problem, wasn't it? Although… "I have an idea!" Seacat said, grinning.
Adora would hate it, but it was their best chance.
"We need you to play bait," she told Glimmer. "Lure him out so we can capture him."
"What?" "What?" "No!" Glimmer, Bow and Castaspella blurted out.
"It's too dangerous!" Adora protested.
"We know Micah hesitated to attack you," Seacat explained. "We don't know why, but he attacked others like Bow. So you've got the best chance here to avoid a fight."
"Yes. He attacked me quite stubbornly," Bow said. "But we don't know if he'd spare Glimmer - if he can spare her."
"Yes. And he also hesitated to attack me," Castaspella added. "I should play bait!"
"No!" Glimmer shook her head. "You're the only one who can deal with whatever spells he can cast. And I can teleport to safety if something goes wrong. And he didn't attack me."
"He sent his bots against you," Adora said. "I should play bait. You can teleport Scorpia to him and strike him as soon as you see him!"
"We didn't see him most of the time when we fought him before," Seacat pointed out. "That's why we need a bait who can make him hesitate."
"Like I did before," Glimmer said. She slowly nodded with a firm expression. "I need to do this. For Dad!"
"No, you don't!" her aunt objected. "I can do it as well. And I can stand up to him, giving you more time to catch him. I've countered his attacks before. And we need you to teleport to him."
"And we need you to deal with magic," Seacat told Castaspella. "He might not hesitate to attack you."
"Glimmer's not expendable." Bow frowned.
"If anyone is risking their life as bait, it should be me. I can withstand most attacks," Adora insisted.
Seacat rolled her eyes. "And we need you to heal anyone hurt in the fighting."
Adora frowned at her. "But I'm She-Ra. It's my duty to protect you!"
"And that means not sacrificing yourself pointlessly," Seacat shot back.
"What? You think this is going to be a sacrifice?" Bow looked shocked.
"No!" Seacat trend to face him. "There is a risk, but Glimmer can teleport. And Adora can heal her - if she's not trying to sacrifice herself."
"I'm not!" Adora claimed. "But I am the toughest. I will be fine."
Glimmer rolled her eyes. "And Dad won't hesitate to attack you. He doesn't know you. You can't be bait. It has to be me."
Seacat nodded in agreement. "And we have to be ready to capture him."
"And how do we do that if he's too far away and Glimmer is the only one who can reach him?" Adora asked.
"Simple," Glimmer replied. "I teleport to Scorpia, then to him."
That was probably their best shot. It might be better to have Adora play bait, but they hadn't been often able to spot Micah in the fights so far, and Glimmer couldn't teleport blindly. She had to lure the sorcerer out. Even though that would also be much more dangerous for Glimmer. Not that Seacat would think that Glimmer would let that stop her.
She glanced at Adora, who was frowning as well. So, her lover probably shared her take on this.
"Glimmer…" Bow started, stepping towards her.
"Bow! I have to do this! I have to save Dad!" Glimmer shook her head.
"But… you don't have to do it like that!"
"I'm the best choice for this." She gripped his hand. "Please."
Bow pressed his lips together, then took a deep breath. "I hate it."
"But…?" Glimmer faintly smiled, and her eyes looked a little wet.
Another sigh. "I don't see a better alternative. I really don't."
That pretty much summed it up. The two embraced, and Seacat sighed as well.
"Alright," she said after a while when none of the two seemed to be ready to break their embrace any time soon. "Let's get this organised. Before we have to fight even more bugs."
"Oh, I think I've cracked that," Entrapta spoke up.
"What?" Seacat turned to face her. As did everyone else.
"They had to control the bugs somehow, didn't they?" Entrapta asked.
"Magic," Castaspella replied at once.
"Well, that was one possibility. But I noticed some weird readings - there was a sound too low to hear by anyone of us. And it was directed at us. I think that was how Micah controlled the bugs. Or whoever controlled them," Entrapta explained.
"A sound we can't hear? Huh?" Adora asked. "How would that work?"
"We can't hear it, but bugs can sense it," Entrapta told her.
"Ah."
"Like a whistle that only some people can hear," Scorpia said. "We - the Horde - experimented with that a while ago, or so I'd heard. It was never fielded because concentrating so many people in the same unit, so they could listen to commands no one else heard, was not worth the effort or something."
"Whatever," Adora said. "You can stop another such attack?"
"Emily can! Once I modify her audio and speaker system!"
The bot beeped.
That sounded reassuring, in Seacat's opinion. "Do that. And we'll be looking for a good spot to ambush a king," she told the princess.
"We can't just walk around in the jungle with Glimmer in the lead," Adora protested.
"Why not?" Glimmer asked.
"Micah would be suspicious of such a change in our usual tactics," Adora explained.
"If he's fully in control of himself," Bow pointed out. "He's been on the island for over a decade, at the least," he said.
"We don't know that," Castaspella disagreed. "Shadow Weaver might not have sent him to the island right after he got captured."
Seacat winced. She had been held by Shadow Weaver; she knew what that meant. And if Shadow Weaver had experimented on Micah or was responsible for his situation… "He might not be stable at all," she said.
"He didn't attack me," Glimmer retorted.
"He did attack us," Bow told her.
"He doesn't know you. He knows me. And Auntie."
"Anyway," Adora cut in, "if he expects me and Bow to take point, we should do that. For a while, at least. Then we take a rest, and Glimmer plays bait. Close by."
"How do we know when he notices her?" Bow asked. "If Glimmer yells, then he'll realise we'll attack him."
Another good question.
"If we rest, I can surround us with a network of plants that detect footsteps," Perfuma said. "I can't do it while we walk, but give me some time, and I should be able to sense him near us."
"What if he travels in the canopies?" Bow asked.
"That's trickier. Trees don't sense people climbing on them. And if I cover them with vines which could sense someone touching them, he might notice," the princess replied.
"I can cover the canopies," Bow said.
"But can you spot him in time for us to react?" Adora asked. "I mean, for us to send out Glimmer?"
Bow frowned. "I have to try."
"Oh, we could plant sensors around us!" Entrapta said. Apparently, she had finished working on Emily. "I can use some of the sensors from the bots we destroyed. If you place them around our campsite, we'll have ample warning of his approach. I think. Unless there's magic that fools sensors."
"There are ways to hide your presence," Castaspella said. "But they mostly fool sight, not sound. There are spells to mask the sound of you as well."
"And ground- and tree-based vibrations?" Entrapta asked.
"I…" Castaspella frowned. "I don't believe so?"
"Great! Seismic detectors, it is! This will be fun!"
"Yes, fun," Seacat muttered. "Well, then we rest here while Entrapta works on her sensors and Perfuma grows some plants." And Seacat would try not to worry too much over the time they were losing - or the possibility of this ambush being turned into a counter-ambush.
*****
Seacat sighed. Entrapta was happily dismantling more bot parts. Perfuma had her hand on the soil again, eyes closed. Listening to plants. While she sat in Scorpia's lap. "I missed that," she said.
"Huh?" Adora stopped looking at the jungle around them, hand twitching over the hilt of her sword, and turned to face her. "What did you miss?"
"That they are a couple," she explained.
"They?"
Seacat nodded at the two princesses.
"Oh! You didn't notice?" Adora smiled.
Seacat narrowed her eyes at her lover. "And when did you?"
"Uh…" Adora blushed. "When Scorpia asked me for advice about courting. On the ship."
Seacat blinked. "She asked you for advice?"
"Hey!" Adora frowned. And pouted. "I courted you, didn't I?"
"I seduced you," Seacat countered.
"I started it!"
Seacat chuckled. "Well, you weren't very good at it, but I'll grant you that."
"Hey!" More pouting.
Seacat grinned, leaned over and kissed her. "And it was cute!"
"Mh." Adora sighed. "Anyway, I just told her to be honest and ask. And it worked!"
Well, Seacat couldn't argue with that.
"So, I do give good advice about love!"
Seacat snorted. "Are you trying to claim you helped Glimmer and Bow out as well?"
"Well…" Adora twirled her fingers. "I did nudge them. A little."
Seacat shook her head. "Adora the matchmaker. Who would've thought?"
"Hey!"
More pouting and more kissing. Perhaps, Seacat thought as Adora held her in her arms, they could look for a little more privacy…
"And I'm done with the first batch!"
And there was Entrapta, beaming at them while she held up half a dozen metal boxes with red lights in them. "Here are the first sensors! They'll detect people moving in a radius of ten yards, so think of that while placing them!"
"Thank you." Seacat smiled at her as she took a step back from Adora, then looked up at the jungle's canopy above them and did a quick calculation.
They were going to need a lot more sensors if this was supposed to work.
*****
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