The next morning, the crew gathered around the kitchen, sitting at the bar and awaiting the breakfast Raul was preparing. Zara announced that Robyn was free this early afternoon and so they should go that day. When Zara said that they would be taking the train, Jewel and Jay immediately said they would tag along.
"Great, we'll need your help with better disguises too, Jewels," came her reply, "The more the merrier. And most importantly, the more agents, the safer Evelyn will be. I almost got my butt kicked by that insect the other day because I was too busy trying to hold on to Evelyn."
It was only at this time, Evelyn realized when they called the TOs insects, they weren't doing it in a derogotory way. They actually were insects.
"Careful, you're starting to become super protective again," Jay said, sitting on top of the counter in nothing but a nightgown. They were sitting cross-legged, hunched over some portable game console and seemingly losing whatever game they were playing, "I think you're getting attached because she looks exactly like 'you know who.'"
Evelyn cocked a brow and turned to Zara, who sat on the stool to her left, "Who?"
Zara didn't meet her gaze and, instead, stayed facing Jewel, "She can't even use magic and if anyone sees her face, she'll be public enemy number one," she explained, "Do you have any disguising magic we could use, it wouldn't be wise for me to go on a train without at least altering my appearance and Glory knows what Evelyn looks like with a mask."
Evelyn had a feeling she knew who.
"I've got some invisible powder," her sister answered, standing next to Raul, handing him spices from the tall cabinet as he requested, "It doesn't have a lot of Essence built up yet, so it might not be that strong."
"Invisibility powder is probably not the greatest idea anyway," Zara shook her head, leaning her face into her palm, "Even if we're invisible, we can still be felt. And if we're felt, the spell will wear off quicker. If the train is crowded and that's our only disguise, we'll be done before Glory even sees us."
"Hmm, I might have some morph potion, but it'll probably be even weaker," Jewel skipped off into her room after handing Raul some grey looking cinnamon, "Let me see what I have,"
Zara sighed and turned to Jay, "You've never been to Waru City have you?"
Jay didn't look up from their game, "Nah, to be honest, I don't know most of Diamond," they explained, "Neither does Jewels probably, we mainly only hit up Raul's cabin, the forest, and the caves. We go to Jackson's to get pizza from time to time but meh. I'm more excited to see the Waru tinao."
Zara turned to Evelyn, "A tinao is like an ethnic group of magicians. The woman we're going to see today, Robyn Vi, is apart of the Waru tinao," Zara explained, "But she's likely the only one left, so sorry 'bout that, Jay."
Evelyn frowned, "What do you mean?"
"The royal family has been using magicians as slaves and other forms of labor to help them with magical technology," Zara looked at the counter grimly, "They've trafficked a lot of magicians, forcing them into hiding. Robyn and possibly two other magicians are rumored to be the last of the Waru tinao that's still in Waru. That's also why she's a bit snappy, she's a bit jaded. She also doesn't like me, so be prepared to give an arm and a leg."
"She doesn't like you because you worked for the princess?" Jay asked, "I mean I'd have a grudge against anyone who worked for those a-holes."
Zara shook her head, "Not exactly, it's complicated," she turned to Evelyn, "But she's very interested in the discovery of magic, as most magicians are, so she probably won't turn us away. Even when I ask her for petty favors, she doesn't turn me away. It's just that her services are expensive."
"Well yeah, like you said, magicians are far and few between," Jay snorted, "I'm surprised you haven't actually given her an arm and leg yet."
Before Zara could answer, Jewel came stumbling into the room with a small tray with nine tiny vials tucked inside. Four of the nine vials were filled with a murky brown liquid.
"So I do have some morph potion but it's very weak," she explained, "The slightest spell could probably dissolve it, so we really need to stay out of trouble. But, at the very least, no one will be able to recognize us, right?"
Zara nodded and turned to the rest of the group, except for Raul, who still had his back turned to them as he plaited their dishes happily.
Zara fixed her face stolid and crossed her arms. Evelyn supposed this was Zara's leadership mode.
"We eat breakfast in no later than fifteen minutes," she began, "After that, everyone will take a bottle of morph potion and drink it only after they shower. The steam may cause you to sweat it off too early. So right after eating, take your showers, drink your potion, and then get yourself ready for the day. We still need substantial time for the potion to fully kick in. Alright?"
Everyone else nodded and the rest of the breakfast was eaten with little chatter. Like little soldiers, they all heeded Zara's order and, in exactly fifteen minutes, retreated to their respective rooms. Evelyn's loft didn't have a bathroom, so she had to shower, drink the potion, and change in the bathroom.
After her shower, she dried herself off, cracked the door open to let the steam from her shower out, and then downed the vial after it cooled up.
She wanted to see it happen so, while standing in front of a mirror, she leaned over the bathroom counter. She was fascinated, watching her skin change first from a deep bronze to a dark brown. Her hair disintegrated before her eyes and was replaced with a blonde buzzcut. Suddenly she was much skinnier and taller, her face slimming down and her eyes curving more downward. The bandages on her right hand, the hand that still shone a faded green from Officer Glory's poison, needed to be tightened.
After ten seconds of gawking in the mirror, Evelyn was staring at a completely new person. Her blue sweater dress was now far too big for her and her yellow wedges felt a lot roomier than usual.
Once she was ready for the day and walked back into the kitchen, she found out that she was the last to arrive.
A figure with pale pink skin and black bob, wearing Zara's white crop top and black skort stood in the middle of the room, texting someone frantically on Zara's iphone. Another person, much shorter than the rest of them (except for Raul of course) and white sat on the counter where Jay had sat the same morning, fully immersed in a game on Jay's console. Then there was a dark brown figure with green dutch braids leaned up against the counter, elbow deep Jewel's seemingly endless gold clutch purse.
When Evelyn entered the room the imposter Zara looked up and smiled, "Oh wow," she mused, "you're tall,"
"Everybody ready then? I wanna drop ya'll off quickly," said Raul's voice. Evelyn nearly did a double take upon realizing that Raul was sitting crosslegged on the fake Zara's head, tangled in her hair. "I have new pastry I wanna try making, but it takes at least ten hours,"
And so, at Raul's enthusiasm, as if he were a parent dropping them off at the mall, they all filed into his car (Jewel taking one of the passenger seats), threw on some black masks, and made the journey to the train station.
The ride was met with idle chatter, Evelyn not really into it and still thinking about Jay's words.
I think you're getting attached because she looks exactly like 'you know who.'
Evelyn was trying to think of all the mentions of Eve from Zara thus far. She clearly knew a fair bit about the princess, even what side the mole on her cheek was on. Yet, every time someone brought her up, the other girl would change the subject far too quickly for Evelyn to gauge what their former relationship was.
To be honest, it seemed clear they might have been involved, but Evelyn really didn't want to think of that. She really didn't want to think about how the most logical solution for Zara fighting for and then later leaving the other side was that she was romantically involved with Eve and then had a brutal falling out.
But this brought up another issue that Evelyn didn't want to think about either.
It was such a lose-lose situation because when Zara didn't speak about Eve, her thoughts would assume the worst; but when Zara did speak about Eve, Zara seemed to confirm all the worst thoughts.
But why was the idea of Zara and Eve being involved so uncomfortable for Evelyn? And, most importantly, was Jay right? If Zara was romantically involved with Eve, was she only nice to Evelyn because she reminded her of a better version of Eve? Should she be offended?
The train station, to Evelyn's surprise, was very similar to the train station where she was from. They easily bought four train tickets, using Raul's credit card and made their way to their designated platform. Zara was right, though, the station was crawling with insecta Transit Officers in bright purple uniforms walking and flying around. But they had not yet seen Glory. Zara suggested he might be on a train or maybe even in another kingdom at the moment. Evelyn hoped for the latter.
The train came pretty shortly and, as Zara had told her days ago, it looked very similar to a car just bigger.
The trains were long pod-shaped ovals of metal, painted emerald green. When they stepped inside the sliding doors, there were handles along the sides and ceiling, just like on Earth. However, as if there were tiny cars, the train was sectioned off in little pods with the same layout as the backseat of Raul's car. They sat somewhere toward the ends, near the door to the next train car. Zara and Jewel sat across from each other, the two of them taking the window seats, and Jay and Evelyn sat next to them.
"So how do you know a freaking magician?" Jewel asked, in a low volume voice.
Zara smiled, "I already told these guys, but Robyn gives me info sometimes for a hefty price," she explained, "I also told them how she hates me so don't expect too much. I'm hoping her intrigue of Evelyn's circumstance will persuade her to help us."
"Why does she hate you?" Jewel's eyes widened, leaning in closer.
Zara hesitated, glancing over at Evelyn for a fraction of second, "Well," judging by her tone, she was choosing her words very carefully, "Well, at my old job, I screwed her over. Big time. Unforgivably. It's best not to bring it up though, especially not around her."
"Well then how-" Jewel was interrupted by the train screeching to a stop. A few people stood up and got off, while even fewer people trekked on. A second later, a purple Transit Officer in a matching compression shirt walked through the train car and asked them for their tickets.
Once their tickets were checked, stamped, and stuffed into the back of their seats. The officer gave them a brief nod and walked into the next car through the indoor doorway.
Evelyn released the breath she didn't know she had been holding and, after a few minutes, the train began moving once again.
"We're the third stop," Zara assured, "The second stop is not too long, but the third one will take the longest to get to. Hopefully we don't run into you-know-who."
Her phone made a beeping sound which apparently startled her, based on how her eyes widened. She quickly whipped it out and switched it to silent mode before answering a text from an unsaved number.
Evelyn didn't mean to look at what Zara was typing, but she caught the words, "No removal this time. We'll leave it out. Thx." before Zara sent the text out and pocketed her phone once again.
"Anyway, like I was saying," Jewel shook her head, "How strong is she? She's a freaking magician, she knows like all six cases right?"
Evelyn didn't know what 'cases' were, but it sounded like a big deal. Jay leaned forward too, "Yeah, have you seen her fight?"
"Hm," Zara bit her lip, looking at the ceiling in thought, "For most of the time, I've known her, she's been in hiding. But she has done some incredible things."
"Like what?" Jay egged on.
"Well, she mains fire, but she can also do enchantment spells like Jewel," Zara smiled at the memory that swam into her head, "I remember this one time, a suspicious person came into her shop one day. It was insane, she conjured a dragon out of fire that could only be seen by him, and it chased him down the block. It probably took a lot out of her, 'cause she slept the entire day the next day but it was definitely worth it. Everyone thought he was insane after that and he skipped town and I think he's living in Lore Kingdom right now." she giggled at the memory.
"That's so cool, dude," Jewel sighed, as the train stopped again. Zara was right, the second stop had come pretty quickly.
No guard had come by to check their ticket this time and so the doors closed, leaving only the party of four in their morph potion disguises on that particular train cart.
Zara turned to the whole group, "Okay, this last stop may take a while to get to, so I would try to get a nap in while you can."
As they continued to chat, a person finally popped out of the train cart door. Instead of a man to take the tickets, it was the creature they've all been dreading to see again.
Officer Glory.
He wore the same uniform he did before and now had three friends with him. They were all also fluorescent-skinned and wearing a venomous purple police uniform.
He sauntered down the aisle of their cart, leading the conversation with his followers, that sickening grin still on his face.
"Yeah, posteponed the ball two whole weeks," He scoffed, "I can't even wear something nice is the annoying bit. I like to dress up too, you know? Have a little fun?"
He groaned, "But I gotta stay in uniform and keep watch because apparently, some Red Coats are planning something against the Mayor of Villa. I was like, 'yeah I'll help but I don't really care much for that man,'" he rolled his eyes, "Good riddance, honestly."
Without even pretending to check their tickets, Glory passed by the group as he continued to complain, not noticing them due to their disguises.
Even with the disguise on, Evelyn was a pile of nerves and she could tell Zara was too by the way she tensed at the sight of the officer. Evelyn nearly sighed in relief when he walked past them.
But then he stopped.
Evelyn began to panic.
Glory's comrades asked him why he stopped and he turned around slowly, his cold yellow eyes trailing back over to the group. With no explanation, he took a long and deep sniff of the train despite him not having a nose before nodding to himself and eyeing the group curiously, his smile growing ominously wider when his gaze landed on Evelyn. Much to her dismay, he calmly made his way back to the group, walking at an agonizing pace.
"Hello, passengers," He said slowly. He crouched down into a squat so he was at eye level with most of them.
"Hi," Jay answered for the group, probably not wanting Zara's voice to be recognized, "Our tickets already got stamped."
Glory's gaze shifted to the tickets tucked into their seat back for a second and then back at Evelyn wickedly.
"By any chance," he slowly reached down and grabbed Evelyn's wrapped hand, "Did I shake your hand in a hotel the other day?"
Evelyn's eyes widened and before she could come up with a lie, a horrible pain made its way up Evelyn's arms and spread to the rest of her body.
She yelped to her feet and snatched her hands away, scowling at Glory but not wanting to give up her act, "W-what was that for?"
"I'm sorry, my dear," he grinned, "It seems I've accidentally melted your disguise away,"
She was now back to the deep brown tone she was born with, also her buzzcut was replaced with her original locs. The potion's spell was gone.
"Why is it always me?" she grumbled.
Before anyone else could act, Zara shot up. With her fist now encased in ice, she threw a punch aimed at Glory's face, but he caught it with his hand, his smile darkening but not dropping. Not only did the ice melt away at Glory touch, but Zara's disguise seemed to melt away as well.
Unlike Evelyn, Zara just growled at the pain and pushed Glory backward. They both jumped back but Glory just took the opportunity to spin around and kick out one of his skinny legs, which Zara dodged expertly.
"What will an ice mage do without water?" Glory smirked, "it seems we're too high in the air, far away from any fresh soil to get water from. How will you manage?"
"I can kick your ass with just the sweat on my knuckles, Glory," Zara raised an eyebrow.
"How disgusting," the officer laughed, "Jet and Pluto, gather the others. Landon, help me detain this criminal."
Then, Evelyn gawked from the floor as Zara did the strangest thing in a matter of 3 seconds flat.
She shouted, "Fortify!" and arranged her arms in a strange position across her body; both hands having her fingers crossed, her right arm bent in front, and her left wrist the crook of her right elbow. "Luna," she summoned, quickly changing positions to having her hands now covered in a large frosty ice tiger claws connected by a dense ice chain that wrapped around her back.
Glory's smile deepened.
Zara turned to Jay and Jewel, "Get Ev out of here!"
Without having to be told twice, Jewel--still in disguise-- jumped out of her seat with massive gold wings sprouting from her back. She fluttered over to Evelyn and scooped her up like a mother bird by her underarms before zooming out to the next train cart.
The doors were automatic so as they flew through, the doors to each cart opened. Evelyn dangled by her arms and, facing the other direction, watched as two of Glory's colleagues (Jet and Pluto, she guessed) sprouted insect wings and followed them at a horrifying speed.
"They're catching up to us," she said to Jewel who only mumbled something she couldn't hear through the sound of people shouting as they zoomed from each train car.
"We're approaching the bathroom," Jewel yelled after they entered the sixth cart, "When I drop you, run into it as fast as you can. They'll be too stupid to notice you gone."
Sure enough once they got a few cars in, Jewel dropped her back to her feet without warning. Evelyn did a somersault and face planted into the floor of course. Feeling like she definitely failed, she covered her head with her hands and waited for the evil insect police to take her away.
Luckily, Jewel knew how to do her job (distract the police as a PPU agent) apparently, because after Evelyn very clearly failed to run into the bathroom, the fairy, in a flash of yellow light, crashed through the train window and flew out over the train. The dumb insects that were midflight and not holding on to a chair like the other passengers (or the floor like Evelyn), were unfortunately sucked through the hole instantly, shooting out of the train cart.
While papers, tickets, and passengers' belongings flew around and fought against the harsh winds that they now had to deal with, Evelyn took this time to get herself to together. Most passengers were already really terrifiedly making their way to the next train cart or trying to grab their luggage so that they could get to another train cart, Evelyn was able to get back up and limp her way into the bathroom. With shaky hands, she locked herself in, slapped the toilet seat down and sat on it, trembling.
Eyes shut tight and hand firmly across the mask over her mouth, she tried to reason with herself.
You're gonna be in your Spiderman Phase soon. This is your chance to learn how to calm down. Her heartbeat was definitely still irregular but breathing almost normal.
You're going to become stronger than him. You're going to learn magic. But first you have to learn how to stop being sc-
"There you are."
Before Evelyn could even finish her thought, skinny green fingers punctured through the crack of the bathroom door and ripped it off its hinge. Evelyn screamed and nearly stumbled backward, bumping into the wall behind the toilet. There was no way out. Nowhere to run.
The officer stood over her with a manic smirk, eyes wide and intense. Two other sets of green arms had grown out of his torso, the lowest ones holding his hip. He big opaque wingsets were also out.
"You're quite slippery, aren't you?" he reached out to grab her with his middle set of arms.
She tried to smack him away but he managed to grip her side firmly. "Screw off!" she shouted at him, "I'm not scared of you!" she lied.
He raised an eyebrow, "You really should be, dear,"
Without any other word, his dragonfly wings began to flutter and they were shooting out of the broken train window, Evelyn caught in one of his multiple pairs of arms.
Once they were out of the train, Evelyn stopped squirming and pushing him, for fear of falling into the foggy canyon the train was cruising over.
He flew her high into the sky to the point where she could hardly even see Jewel and the other two officers anymore.
She tried to stop her body from trembling and fixed him with a glare until he finally stopped flying higher. This high in the air, the only sound was that of Glory's beating wings, keeping them in the air.
"You're going to kill me?" she asked, sounding firm but actually very very terrified.
He scoffed, "My dear, I don't even know who you are yet," he grinned, "That's all I want to know. Then I'll probably kill you,"
With his top set of hands, he reached forward and snatched off Evelyn's mask before she could even try to protest.
For the first time since meeting him, Glory's smile dropped completely. He stared at Evelyn in shock, into the face of the tyrant he worked under.
Evelyn's hands shook, but she balled them into fists. It was time to stop being useless. It was time to prove to this guy that she wasn't scared of him, even if she really was.
"Who are you?" he asked slowly, eyes so wide with confusion that it almost looked comical.
Without answering, Evelyn decided to take the opportunity that she had caught him off guard. With as much force as she could muster in her semi-athletic body, she rammed her forehead into the officer's as hard as she could. This resulted in seeing stars and momentary triumph, as Glory's head gave a disgusting squish on contact and they were both knocked backwards away from each other, Evelyn finally free from his grip.
Evelyn's victory was very short-lived because the moment she was separated from Glory, she realized she was freefalling from the sky to her death.
She shrieked and kicked out her arms and legs as if she were swimming helplessly. She stared into the foggy cavern below her, growing closer and closer, vocal cords shredding from screaming so hard.
"Evelyn!"
Flailing her limbs to spin herself around, she saw an unmasked Zara above her, freefalling towards her direction.
Unlike Evelyn, she wasn't screaming, she wasn't freaking out. She was set straight in a diver's position, black hoody flailing around her as she reached out her arm, fingers outstretched.
"Grab my hand!" she screamed, "I got you!"
Evelyn stretched her arm out as well as they grew closer and closer, still hurtling towards the ground. For some reason the ice mage was smiling, and just that much made Evelyn smile a little too as they reached out for each other.
Their fingers intertwined the closer they fell until Zara gripped her wrist and pulled her closer, Evelyn could hear that Zara was actually giggling hysterically, "I saw you headbutt Glory. I can't even-- what were you-- you're insane!"
Despite their situation, Zara looked as calm and happy as ever, "That was really freaking cool."
Before Evelyn could respond or even remind her that they were about to DOC when they hit the ground, Jay, now with large moth wings sprouted from their back, grabbed Zara by the arms and flew her up towards the surrounding city the train was approaching.
Before Evelyn was left plummeting to her death, Jewel caught Evelyn with a great grunt by the armpits again, flittering through the sky with her shimmery golden fairy wings.
Now that she knew she wasn't about to die, she was able to catch her breath and looked up at Jewel.
"He saw my face," Evelyn shouted to her against the wind, "Glory, I mean."
"We saw," Jewel said purtly, face etched with concern, "That's probably why he ba offcked. Let's get into town and get what we need before he snaps out of his shock."
And just as professional as Evelyn expected, Jewel zoomed through the clouds, following Jay the moth, until they finally saw it, the big bustling skyline of Waru City.