All Aboard a Trip to Chaos!

“Hoooly fucking shit!” Eloi shrieked, crouching behind a tree as scraps of wood continued to rain. “That was waaay too close!”

“Oh my stars, you saved our lives, Dorothy,” said Cherry, holding her trembling knees.

Dorothy rubbed her head. “I-I don’t know how, but I woke up feeling something terribly wrong in the air… To think the train’s already here!”

“Could it be a sixth sense?” asked Clover.

“M-Maybe?”

“Now is not the time to ponder,” said Horace. He pulled out his crimson watch and depressed on its crown, fast transforming into his raven robes. “All of you, get back on your feet!”

Everyone brushed off the debris and straightened their backs, gripping tightly onto their weapons. The masks Ren gave began to glow in the dark, and not for long, their vision of the forest grew brighter.

“Oh, thank god,” said Eloi. “These things have night vision!”

“Wow, we didn’t have to make any light after all,” said Theodore. “I wish Ren explained it sooner…”

“Speaking of Ren, where did he go?” asked Dorothy.

“There’s no bloody way that guy ran off,” said Charlie, rubbing his head. “He’s probably—”

A groundbreaking horn sent another massive soundwave, forcing everyone to cup their ears.

“Ohh, thank god for these earplugs too,” Theodore grumbled, tightly cupping his ears with radiating ear devices. “Ugh, I swear to god. Why the hell does it have to be a train of all things?!”

A massive crimson laser shot through the air, striking the train. It hissed and roared, curling around itself and raising its head as it met face-to-face with a knight with an indigo cape. Solomon brandished his lance and lunged for its head, but the train repelled him with a headbutt.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Charlie muttered, gaping his eyes in fear and astonishment. “That thing… that thing doesn’t look like a train…”

“That thing is acting like a freaking snake!” cried Cherry, clutching her head. “It’s a giant reptile! You’re telling me the train used to actually be a dragon?! And they’re real?!”

“Did that bloody train conductor know he was driving a whole snake?!” Eloi shouted.

“I… I don’t know,” Charlie murmured.

“By the gods,” Horace muttered, squeezing his spear. “I can’t believe this is all real…” He turned to Solomon just in time as the serpent headbutted him again, sending him straight to the ground with a crashing thud. He clicked his tongue and started to float. “Everyone, do you remember the drill?”

“Of course,” said Clover, brandishing his rapier. “You and Solomon go and stop the train. We’ll deal with Monty’s henchmen.”

Horace nodded. “May the stars smile upon you all,” he said, swiftly soaring away.

“Oh god, it’s finally happening,” said Cherry, taking a deep breath. She molded an arrow and began to aim. “Alright, bring it on!”

Everyone else also went into combat positions, their backs facing against each other. For a brief moment, nothing happened, until Penelope pointed at the slightest sign of movement through the thicket.

The emerging silhouettes began to dance in the shadows, darting through the trees and branches and gradually getting louder by the second.

Gunshots rang out seconds later.

One bullet almost grazed Clover’s cheek until he deflected it with his sword. “Urgh, bloody hell!” he hissed. “Into formation!”

He and Charlie quickly molded a thick wall, immediately blocking all the incoming projectiles. Cherry, Theodore, and Penelope took aim with their weapons and fired back, knocking down a few in the process.

Someone in the shadows tried charging up a ball of electricity, only for Theodore to shoot their hands away before they could fire. “Everyone, watch out for the nasty-looking spells!” he said. “They’re definitely explosives!”

“No need to say it twice!” said Cherry, shooting multiple arrows and maneuvering them around the tree trunks. One arrow struck someone’s hand holding a grenade, and as it fell, it exploded on impact, blowing a few people away.

Yikes, hope she didn’t kill anyone by accident.

Intensely focused, Penelope continued to shoot at the henchmen’s weapons, particularly the ranged ones. Each bullet landed on a blade, a bow, or a gun, and not a single one struck flesh.

A few cloaked figures landed behind the group’s exposed backs.

Dorothy and Eloi immediately slid forth and struck them at their heads and hips, knocking them unconscious on the spot. More and more lackeys circled the youths, but their numbers hardly concerned the one-woman army that was Dorothy. Without breaking any sweat, she swiftly knocked them all out one blow at a time, Eloi aiding beside her. With a swing of her halberd, she sliced through the ground and blasted them away.

“Theo, your battle tactics are working!” said Cherry.

“It’s working so well that I’m growing suspicious,” said Theodore, scanning around. He widened his eyes, gawking as the serpent violently twitched around while Solomon and Horace showered endless blows against it. “Oh god, I hate being right sometimes,” he muttered, sharply inhaling. “Everyone! Brace for stage two!”

“What?!” everyone else exclaimed.

The serpent’s tail swiped through the thicket, flattening the trees in its way. As Solomon stabbed his lance through its head, it shrieked and slammed its tail into the ground, delivering another massive shockwave.

Fueled by sheer adrenaline, everyone quickly formed a shield and braced for impact. As soon as the wave reached the group, it blasted everyone off their feet and sent them all flying over the trees, separating them in seconds.

✦☆✦

Explosions and roars grew muffled as Cherry groggily opened her eyes. Still in a daze, she gradually registered the ground far beneath her and snapped herself out of it. She jerked around, barely finding out that her skirt got stuck on a branch and left her dangling at the tip of a tall tree.

She flinched as the serpent continued to roar at a distance, briefly watching Solomon’s and Horace’s battle in awe. Those two were extremely strong—she and everyone already knew that—but she couldn’t help but send prayers for their safety nevertheless.

She carefully scanned the view below her, finding herself shaking a bit from the sheer height—and the hostile silhouettes fast approaching her tree. She swallowed and gripped onto her bow, but the moment her filtered mask caught someone familiar, an idea sparked. She deeply inhaled and sliced off the branch with a sharp streak of Crimoire, promptly landing on another.

“Eek!” cried a familiar voice, dangling on the same branch she landed on. His golden eyes locked onto hers, gradually relaxing by the second. “O-Oh, Cherry, you’ve scared me for a second there…”

“Hey, Theo,” she said in relief. “Are you alright?”

“Aside from my ears, I’m perfectly fine. I’m totally not freaking out because of a dragon train monster or anything.”

Cherry giggled and helped him back on his feet.

“Thanks,” he said, massaging his shoulders. “Ugh, I was afraid either the train or Monty’s goons would separate all of us to take us down easier. Or, at the very least, make us drain too much stamina before we even help the fight against the train…”

“But you managed to predict it as one of your dozens of scenarios.”

Theodore smirked and spun his dual pistols. “And that I did!” he said pridefully. “Alright, stage two is still in motion! We go and take out Monty’s goons after us…”

“...And regroup back with the others!” Cherry molded a few arrows and aimed. “Let's go!”

The two began to rain down a series of Crimoire arrows and bullets, piercing through shields and destroying weapons. One of Cherry’s arrows struck a figure at their chest and splattered it onto the clothes. Her arrow vaporized, and as the figure inhaled its particles, they rolled their eyes back and drifted off to dreamland.

Theodore’s bullets, on the other hand, delivered a menacing shower of tasers, shocking anyone unfortunate enough to get hit by one. Those who did dropped their weapons and screamed in pain as static wrapped their bodies, twitching around until they collapsed and went limp.

Someone raised a shield and blocked them all off. With a smirk, Theodore snapped his pistols together and charged them up. Seconds later, he shot out a beaming red laser, smashing through its shield and tasering the poor fellow unconscious.

“Woah, your guns can shoot lasers?!” asked Cherry.

“Actually, I was copying their moves,” said Theodore. “Ren gave me these guns wholly empty, so I figured they’re open for multiple uses!”

“Wow, that’s amazing… Oh!” A light bulb lit up in Cherry’s mind, and she molded three, thick arrows, aiming all of them at a tree stump. On impact, it exploded into multiple, tiny arrows, and each one struck a lackey and sent them to sleep.

Theodore whistled. “Not bad. You’re learning fast too!”

Cherry grinned back. “Let’s finish this quickly!”

With that said, the ranged duo swiftly cleared out the remaining henchmen. Even so, only two people could see so much through those masks.

One hidden figure slid from their hiding spot and raised their gun, its muzzle aiming at the back of Cherry’s head.

Without hesitation, they pulled the trigger.