THIRTEEN
THEY RAN DOWN a hallway, then another hallway, and finally stopped at a door Malvaron recognized. He was sure it was the one that led to the Celestial Forge. But there was no keyhole, just a facial-recognition lock. There was no way any of them would be cleared for access.
“It’s set to only recognize top-level Astromancers,” Malvaron said.
“Like that one?” Piper asked. There was an Astromancer turning down the hall toward them. The Mysticons hid behind their corner and studied her. She was wearing the same long, hooded cloak that Nova Terron wore. Zarya, Em, and Piper got ready to pounce. If they just knocked the Astromancer out, they could use her face to activate the system.
They jumped out right as she rounded the corner and tackled her.
“Hey! It’s me!” Arkayna pulled off her hood.
“Yay! You made it!” Piper said.
“How’d you get past Nova Terron?” Em asked.
“I distracted him. Got him hooked on this stupid video game,” she said.
“Wait, that’s it!” Zarya said, remembering the video game Doug had been playing nonstop. It was called Avatars of the Apocalypse. She projected an online player list from her bracer and started scrolling through it. “That stupid video game is going to get us through that door. I’m looking for Nova Terron’s profile, which will have his picture.… Got it. BrovaTerron1796.”
She stopped on a pic of Nova Terron and projected it in front of the facial-recognition lock. It scanned the picture, and the door swung open. The Mysticons rushed in and stared at the huge furnace covered in ancient runes.
“The Celestial Forge,” Em said in awe.
“Okay,” Malvaron said, moving quickly. “Put the Dragon Disk in the forge and let’s fire her up.”
Arkayna used an iron clamp to set the fake Dragon Disk into a vat of boiling gold. She and Malvaron stood above it as Em and the girls pumped the machinery to drive up the heat.
“Star of Gygax, now is the hour,” Malvaron said, pressing his hands against Arkayna’s and raising them to the ceiling.
“Imbue this Dragon Disk…,” Arkayna said.
“With your cosmic power!” they recited together.
A blast of starlight shot down through an opening in the ceiling and hit the Disk. The Disk hovered in the air, glowing with a brilliant light. “It’s working…,” Piper whispered.
Just then the doors burst open. Gandobi and Quasarla, two high-level Astromancers, ran in. Their faces were full of fear. “You fools!” Gandobi cried. “You’ve doomed us all!”
Startled, Arkayna and Malvaron turned to see what was happening. The energy they were generating shifted, and a thunderous sound filled the air. The Disk fell, splashing back into the liquid gold.
A huge rift opened in the sky above. It was swirling with a strange green light. Vicious stone gargoyles swarmed out of it, flying directly at the Star Chamber.
“By the Hammer of Harmon…,” Em muttered, watching the monsters in horror.
“Any idea how we seal this rift?” Arkayna called out.
“We will seal the rift,” Quasarla said. “You’ve done enough.”
“Astromancers, light up the sky!” Gandobi yelled. Several mages came into the room and lined up alongside Gandobi and Quasarla. Malvaron came down from the furnace and held his hands up with them. The Astromancers shot magic out of their palms, aiming all their energy up at the rift.
“You and Em protect the city,” Arkayna said to Zarya. “Piper and I will protect the Astromancers.”
Em called their griffins, Topaz and Archer, down from the sky. In a moment, she and Zarya took off toward Drake City.
Arkayna and Piper faced down the monsters pouring from the rift. Arkayna shot bolts from her staff and shattered a few, while Piper threw three hoops, one after the other. They broke a pack of gargoyles in two.
“It’s not working!” Malvaron yelled. The Astromancers were using all the power they had, and the rift hadn’t closed even an inch.
FOURTEEN
“WE NEED MORE power,” Quasarla said, wincing with effort as he and the other Astromancers struggled to close the rift.
“What if we used our Dragon and Phoenix attacks?” Arkayna asked.
“In theory, it should work.” Malvaron held his hands up, all his energy shooting out of them.
“But you could also widen the rift and make it worse,” Gandobi said.
“It’s too dangerous,” a familiar voice said somewhere behind them. They glanced over their shoulders and realized Nova Terron had finally arrived. He must’ve seen the gargoyles swarming the sky. He glared at Arkayna. “Did you cause this?”
“Not intentionally,” she replied.
He cast an energy sphere around Arkayna and Piper, locking them inside. The two Mysticons pounded against it.
“Hey! We can seal the rift!” Arkayna yelled.
“Silence, Dragon Mage,” Nova Terron said. He turned back to the Astromancers and raised his hands up to the sky, ignoring the captured Mysticons.
Arkayna could feel the rage building inside her. They’d come so far and tried so hard. She knew she could fix this. He just had to give her a chance.
“No one silences me!” she called out. Her staff sparked, and a huge bolt of power shot out, breaking the sphere apart. Arkayna and Piper stepped out, triumphant. “Unleash the Dragon!” Arkayna cried.
“Fly, Phoenix, fly!” Piper yelled.
Arkayna’s and Piper’s bracers shot out their Dragon and Phoenix avatars. The two mystic creatures spun around each other as they soared toward the rift, smashing gargoyles along the way. They flew directly into the rift and disappeared into darkness. Arkayna and Piper watched, waiting, hoping their plan would work. Finally there was a brilliant flash of light, and the rift sealed itself. The sky was whole again.
The gargoyles exploded. Rocks and dust rained down. Then the Astromancer Academy was completely quiet.
“Thank the stars,” Arkayna said. She let out a deep breath.
It wasn’t long before Em and Zarya returned from Drake City. They’d battled the gargoyles, stopping them from destroying everything in their wake. The gargoyles had cut the cables on a train car, almost sending hundreds of passengers tumbling off a bridge. But Em and Zarya had saved them.
Still, as soon as they returned, Nova Terron got angry all over again. He didn’t seem to care that they’d successfully closed the rift. He stood in front of Malvaron and the Mysticons and began his lecture.
“You broke into the Academy, you freed a felon, and you deceived and defied me,” he said.
“And all because you thought you could create a Dragon Disk?” Gandobi asked bitterly. He held up the Disk. “Look at this pathetic imitation—”
Before he could go on, the Disk floated right out of his hands. It glowed with a brilliant light. “That’s … impossible,” Quasarla muttered.
“That’s what we do best.” Em smiled.
The Disk projected the fourth riddle in midair. The Mysticons stepped forward to read it, knowing it was only a matter of time before Dreadbane received the same clue.
“Time to stop the apocalypse. If you don’t mind, we’ve got work to do,” Arkayna said to Nova Terron.
“So you do, Dragon Mage,” he replied, a small smile forming on his lips. Whether he admitted it or not, the girls could tell he was pleased. “So you do…”
They read the riddle as fast as they could, and Em immediately decoded it. For all her talk about hating riddles, she was pretty good at figuring them out. They ran for the door, taking off just as the sun rose on the horizon.
FIFTEEN
ARKAYNA, PIPER, AND Zarya zoomed through the air on their griffins, Dreadbane’s army close behind them. He’d figured out the riddle as fast as they had. Now Dreadbane, Tazma, and an army of skeleton warriors were all on their bone vultures, racing toward the last Codex piece. The Mysticons dodged blasts from the villainous army chasing them and tried to stay in the air.
&nbs
p; Piper flung a hoop, knocking a skeleton warrior off his flying vulture. He fell onto the street below. Zarya shot two arrows, blasting skeleton warriors apart. “How much longer do we have to keep these boneheads busy?” Zarya asked.
“Till Em gets her Codex piece,” Arkayna said. She fended off a pack of skeleton warriors coming at her from the side.
Piper hooped two more skeletons off their vultures, as Zarya and Arkayna circled the Royal Tower. There, on the tall, thin spiral at its top, was Em. She shimmied her way up to the highest point. She’d nearly reached it.
“Above a place of queens and kings,” she said, repeating the riddle, “celestial-powered justice springs.”
She took a deep breath and raised her sword, hoping she was pointing it at the right place. There was some sort of secret portal above the Royal Tower, and in it was her piece of the Codex. She just had to make sure her aim was exactly right.…
“Okay, here goes nothing,” she said. She fired a stream of magic into the air. It exploded and opened a small hole. The purple Codex piece appeared, hovering in the air. “By the Hammer of Harmon!” Em cried. “It’s—OW!!”
The Codex piece fell, bonking her on the head. She caught it just before it could tumble to the ground. As soon as she opened the book, energy surged through her. It formed a gorgeous purple bracer on her arm.
“My unicorn bracer!” she said. “Woo-hoo!”
She leapt from the tower and whistled. In seconds Topaz swooped underneath to catch her. They soared through the sky and joined the other Mysticons in battle. Arkayna, Piper, and Zarya were still holding off Dreadbane’s army. When they saw that Em had the bracer, they turned to go.
“Mysticons, on me!” Arkayna called as she swooped down a street.
“Don’t let them escape!” Dreadbane roared.
He and his army pursued the Mysticons closely. They followed the girls down narrow streets winding through Drake City. One of Dreadbane’s blasts knocked Zarya off her griffin. She landed on a rooftop with a grunt.
“Say good-bye, Mysticon Ranger!” Dreadbane shouted.
“Why?” Arkayna asked. “You’re the one who’s leaving!”
Arkayna, Piper, and Em had turned to face him, and they were all holding their bracers up. “Unleash the Dragon!” Arkayna yelled.
“Fly, Phoenix, fly!” Piper said.
“Battle Unicorn, charge!” Em ordered, loving the way the power felt. For the first time in her life, she knew she could do anything.
The Phoenix, Unicorn, and Dragon shot out from the three Mysticons’ bracers. The energy beings rushed Dreadbane’s army, blasting them back. A huge explosion of green, purple, and gold dust filled the air. Dreadbane spun around on his vulture and flew as fast as he could in the other direction.
“Retreat! Retreat!” he ordered his army.
As Em landed to check on Zarya, she felt the energy surging through her arm. It had only been a few moments since she’d gotten her bracer, but she was amazed with how her powers already combined with the other Mysticons’. The Mysticons were stronger now than they ever were before. They’d found the fourth Codex piece—her Codex piece—and defeated Dreadbane. Now they just had to get Zarya’s piece back, and the quest for the Codex would be complete.…
PART FOUR
DREADBANE’S LAIR
SIXTEEN
THE MYSTICONS SPRAWLED out on the top of the Hill of Heroes, watching the stars. It was a perfect evening. There wasn’t a cloud in sight.
“What an amazing view,” Arkayna said.
Em pointed to balls of light in the distance. They looked like huge shooting stars. “By the Hammer of Harmon! That’s the Jaxxon Cluster. It’s a meteor shower that passes by our realm every two hundred years.”
Zarya took a bite of her snorg skewer. It wasn’t that she wasn’t impressed, it was just that it was hard to be excited about anything right now. Dreadbane still had her Codex piece. She was the only one of the Mysticons who didn’t have all her powers, and she had no one to blame but herself. If she hadn’t trusted Kitty, none of this would’ve happened.…
A foz leapt up and grabbed Zarya’s snack right out of her hands. “Hey! Get back here!” she yelled, and scrambled to her feet.
“Right, it’s foz season,” Arkayna said. They were out in swarms this time of year. Sometimes you’d turn around, and there’d be three on your shoulder.
“Most annoying time of the year!” Zarya shouted. “What pests! No offense, Choko.”
She dove forward, grabbing her skewer out of the foz’s grasp. Choko darted in front of her, and the tiny creature stared up at her and Choko, its eyes wide with fear. Then it turned and ran in the opposite direction.
“Way to show ’em who’s boss, Choko,” Zarya said.
“I don’t think Choko scared them off…,” Arkayna said, terror in her voice.
Zarya spun around to see one of the meteors zooming toward them. It was a giant ball of fire and rock, big enough to ruin them all. The Mysticons ran out of the way as it crashed into the Hill of Heroes. Pieces of rock and ash rained down on them. It took a few moments before they were sure they were safe.
As they got back to their feet, an image projected over Drake City. It was of Dreadbane, his skeletal face smiling in delight. “Did you enjoy the fireworks, Drake City?” he asked. “If the Mysticons don’t deliver the rest of the Codex pieces to me within the hour, I will divert the rest of the meteor shower and burn Drake City to the ground.”
The Mysticons looked up at the rest of Jaxxon Cluster, soaring toward the realm. There was no way they’d ever give their Codex pieces to Dreadbane. But how would they stop him from destroying all of Drake City in revenge?
*
Back at the Royal Palace, the Mysticons tried to create a plan with Malvaron’s help.
“How did Dreadbane get the power to divert an entire meteor shower?” Arkayna asked.
“Tazma must’ve found a spell in their Codex piece,” Malvaron said.
Zarya cringed at those words. “You mean my Codex piece. If I hadn’t let Kitty get the Dragon Disk, this wouldn’t be happening.”
“Hey, all that matters is stopping Dreadbane,” Em said.
“Yeppity yep!” Piper said. “We’ll just creep into that creep’s evil lair and get everything back.”
“There’s just one problem,” Arkayna said. “We don’t know where Dreadbane’s lair is.”
“Wait!” Zarya’s eyes lit up. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it sooner. Kitty was the reason this had all happened, but she also could be the solution. “We don’t know where it is, but we know someone who does!”
“After Kitty stole the Dragon Disk from us, she sold it to Dreadbane,” Em said, nodding.
“And I know just where to find her,” Zarya said.
They gathered their supplies and headed out into the night.
There was only one sky pizzeria in all of Drake City. At least a few pirates were always there, challenging patrons to arm-wrestling matches or scamming the pizzeria’s owner, Mama Calamari.
Zarya led the way as they burst through the pizzeria doors. “Kitty Boon! Let’s talk.”
“Sorry, not really in the mood,” Kitty snapped. She was tall with long, wavy black hair that she tied back with a pink handkerchief. It seemed like she was always surrounded by her fellow pirates, who were known as the Pink Skullz.
“Well get in the mood,” Arkayna said. “Dreadbane’s going to destroy the city.”
“It’s a Mysticons problem,” Kitty said. “Pink Skullz, let’s take these to go.”
She and her pirate crew threw pizzas at the Mysticons. Zarya got hit in the face with one. She wiped the sauce from her eyes and saw the pirates fleeing in all directions. “Get them!” she called out.
Kitty and Kasey, her right-hand man, ran for the exit. But Piper and Em cut them off before they could get there.
“If it isn’t Mr. Heartbreaker,” Em said, annoyed. She had history with Kasey. He’d pretended to like h
er, but he’d only been using her to help Kitty get the Dragon Disk.
“Mysticon Knight,” Kasey said. “Please, I beg your forgiveness. I was a jerkface.”
Em was about to tell him off, but Kitty pulled him away, toward another exit. Arkayna blasted a fire bolt at them, sending them tumbling backward.
“Just tell us where Dreadbane’s lair is,” she said.
“Classified info, sorry,” Kitty said. She pulled a lever next to the table, opening a trapdoor in the floor. She and Kasey dropped down out of the pizzeria and took off on two delivery boards that had been hovering below.
SEVENTEEN
ARKAYNA, PIPER, AND Em stared down through the hole as the two pirates flew off into the night. “Come back here, you coward!” Arkayna yelled.
But Zarya wasted no time. Maybe Kitty didn’t want to give up Dreadbane’s location, but Zarya had an idea about how she could get it anyway. She took off on her griffin, racing to get to Kitty and Kasey’s pirate ship. She carefully snuck in and found Kitty in one of the ship’s main cabins, about to eat another slice of pizza.
Zarya blasted the pizza out of her hands. “As I was saying,” she muttered, “we need your help.”
Kitty looked up in shock. “You’ve got some serious stealth skills, Mysticon Ranger. Now use them to get off my ship.”
“Drake City’s about to go up in flames, and you don’t care?” Zarya asked. “How is the destruction of millions of people not your problem?”
“Because Drake City did nothing when pirates destroyed my village and took me, my little brother, and my best friend away from our home,” Kitty shot back. “You have no idea how horrible it was.”
“Actually, I do,” Zarya said. She transformed back into her regular form. There was no mask and no Mysticon outfit between them now. Kitty could see the Mysticon Ranger was really Zarya, her friend from all those years before.
“By the seven skies,” Kitty said. “It’s you, Z-Star!”
“I showed you the truth because I trust you,” Zarya said. “Now, trust me. If Dreadbane releases those meteors—”
“You want to stop the meteors?” Kitty asked. There was a look in her eyes that Zarya knew well. Kitty clearly had a plan.
Mysticons: Quest for the Codex Page 4
