Chereads / Boiling Gems (The Owl House x Steven Universe) / Chapter 72 - Chapter 68: A Seemingly Normal Day

Chapter 72 - Chapter 68: A Seemingly Normal Day

Summary: A day that's all perfectly normal and nothing is wrong

Sugar was shaken from her slumber as her new master stood up, yawning. "Mornin Sugar." He groaned out, cracking his back.

"Hhsss." She moved off the boy, as he began walking to the bathroom to do things nobody should witness.

"I know, I'm not a morning person either, but I got school. It's so weird. I used to hate the place with a burning passion, but now it's like my third or fourth favorite place to be." The boy said from the bathroom.

"Hhsss." Yes, that was fair, it really brought hatchlings together.

"Yeah, I suppose so." The sound of flushing was heard, followed by scraping of teeth. "Still, it's better to wake up before Luz or Mom hog the bathroom. I will never understand why women need so long to shower and do their hair."

"Hsssh." Better keep that quiet around his lady friend.

"Boscha I understand. She's perfect in every way and perfection needs to be preserved. Everyone else I don't. I mean, mom's the one who trained my hair to hold most of my stuff in it, I wonder why she ever washes it to begin with."

"Hhhss."

"Entry, never thought about that." He muttered. "Speaking of romantic friends … Owlbert has a Girlfriend but he only ever talks with mom about it."

"Hhss?" She could totally make him talk.

"Nah … well okay, maybe later, but my question was is there … anyone, thing, you're interested in?" He asked, coming back into the room to put on that uniform.

"Hsssh." Everything.

"Everything?" He asked.

"Hsssssh." Everything. Male, female, palisman, beast, demon. She's poked her head in every pie so to speak.

"Never thought I'd see a female palisman be a womanizer, but here I am." He muttered. "Hopefully none of those kisses disappointed you."

" Hssssh. " She never stopped at just kisses. It's like hunting prey. You observe for a while and strike at their weak spot, and from there, everyone was putty in her clutches. And then it was an easy step forward to tier fifteen.

"Isn't fifteen where you grow kids from trees?" He asked as he buttoned his uniform.

" Hssh." That wasn't how it was done at all, but yes. She had quite a few hatchlings of her own over the years.

"Hopefully nobody has to hassle with you over child support." The boy lightly chuckled as they made their way downstairs. "Hey Mom, what's for breakfast?"

"Oh, hey Lucifer, I'm getting the grub hash ready, just wait a sec." The child's mother called out to him, and immediately something felt off. The lady smelled more of magic than usual, where there wasn't any before.

"Hhhsss." She voiced her concern to the child.

Her boy looked surprised. "Really?"

"Hhsss." She called him Lucifer, not Lucci.

"Fair point … hey mom, what did you use to say about objects you find off the street? Keep em and don't waste em?"

"No, it was double check for hexes, and sell them off as impressive tools. Don't tell me Luz is rubbing off on you." She smirked.

"No, just double checking." Her boy asked before whispering to her. "That's definitely something mom would say. You think the curse is messing with her head or something?"

"Hssh." If that was the case, then she could sense its presence. Right now it was like the curse wasn't there at all.

"Hey bro, whatcha talking about with snakey over there?" What appeared to be the furry child King asked as it pulled up a seat. "Nothing secret or suspicious I hope."

"Nah, no secrets from you Bro." He smirked. "So, what's the plan for today, King?"

"I'm feeling lazy, so I'm just gonna stare out of the window and wait to see if my dad shows up."

"Really?" Lucci raised an eyebrow. "I thought you let go of most of the daddy issues when you discovered your sonic powers."

Their eyes widened. "Ah….Just because I got powers doesn't mean I don't want answers, I'm still curious, you know?"

Her boy groaned. "You're lucky you and Luz are so curious about the past, I for one and absolutely done with it." Lucci looked around. "Where is Luz anyway? I didn't see her waiting for the shower upstairs."

That crazy wall demon chuckled. "She spent the night off at Amitys, mwa mwa mwa." Well that bird work thing seemed as normal as ever. And by normal, sugar meant deranged.

"Really? When her mom absolutely hates us?" Lucci brought up. "I would've thought she'd get sent back here covered in abomination slime by the guards."

"You say that it's impossible for a family of criminals to break into the place." The woman that looked like Eda retorted.

"Yeah, but it's Luz….she's terrible at doing stuff like this by herself." Lucci remained skeptical.

"I dunno, she's gotten better." Hooty stated. "Sometimes I lose her, and I'm laser focused and always paying attention to every-A BUG!" The demon shot forward into the hallway. Why did this moron have to stay the same?

"You know what, I'm just gonna head to school right now. Gotta keep my grades in Bard and all that." Weird, from what Lucci mentioned, Beast keeping was what gave him the most trouble.

"Alright, see you latter kiddo, don't do anything I wouldn't do, and don't do anything I would do!" The supposed Owl lady waved to him as her boy went out the door.

Lucci closed it and waited about a minute before the door demon popped his head. "Okay, something definitely weird is going on back there. They know me, but there's specifically bits that are missing, like they forgot the context."

"Shhhss?" Memory parasites?

"I could beat their heads in and jog up their memories!" Hooty howled. "It'll be fun!"

"Keep the damage to the minimum until we know what's going on. Until then, don't let them leave the house." Lucci asked. "I'm not sure if we're dealing with something dangerous, so we need to be cautious. Think you can do that, buddy?"

"Absopositively lootly, Lucci … I shall be subtle …" The house demon went inside. "Hey Eda, want to have a tea party!?"

"Sugar, fly before the blood starts spilling everywhere."

"Hsssh."

========================================================================

Lucci shook his head, trying to focus on a plan. Right now, he needed to get to the beast keeping class, then figure out what beast could be causing … whatever the heck was going on with Eda and King.

He walked forward, beginning his walk to class. "Hey Lucci." Willow moved up to him. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, I've just had the weirdest morning so far." Lucci admitted honestly. "Have you ever had one of those days where it feels like the entire world is out of place?"

"Yeah, like this one time every flower in my room was placed on the right instead of the left. It was just a prank from papa, but still." Willow nodded.

"Exactly. It feels like someone put my entire world on the left side of everything. Problem is that I have no idea who's pulling the prank in this scenario."

"Maybe it's Luz?" Willow asked. "Wouldn't be the first crazy thing she's done."

"Weirdly enough I haven't seen her all day …" He frowned. "Have you seen Amity?"

"Yeah, they're both right over there with Boscha." The plant girl said without grimacing or wincing, something that was definitely out of character 

"Are…are you okay with that?" Last he checked, Boscha still hated her, and the feeling was very mutual.

"I mean, I don't like her, but I've learned to tolerate her." Willow stated. "For your sake at least." For his sake?! Willow would never under any circumstances ever tolerate Boscha. Not for his sake, or Amity's, or even Luz's!

"Hey, can we talk about that project in private real quick?" He asked. "I wanna make sure you don't accidentally pick up something humans can't be around." Decent enough excuse if whatever this was had her memories.

"Ah sure." The thing that looked like Willow shrugged carelessly before following him. Seems like whatever this was tried to for the path of least conflict.

"Hey, I think I finally got the solution to avoid being knocked out by sleep spells." He said as they entered the closed room.

"Ooh, sounds neat. What is it?" The thing asked.

"Stopping the ability to take in air." He moved fast after closing the door, grabbing her throat and placing a bubble inside of her mouth, and nose. "Now if you don't want to pass out, you'll cooperate and let me tie you up."

"Lucci, what-what's gotten into yo-"

"I'll tell you what's gotten into me. Everyone around me is just a little off." Lucci growled. "Mom called me Lucifer, King for some reason is still focused on his dad, Luz supposedly spent the night with Amity at her house, and you didn't get irritated at Boscha. It's like someone took clip notes of events in my life and badly read them out loud."

"Luc-"

"Now, sit down, don't move, or I expand the bubble even more." He growled, making the bubble in her mouth grow …

Snap

Until her jaw was dislocated by accident. Shit. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

Snap

It kept breaking open, along with the nose, opening wide to move the bubbles out of their body, before shrinking back to normal. "... No point in disguises …" The thing raised their arm. "You know, I don't have the personality, or the context, or the raw bottomless power … but I do have all of Willow's muscle memory and plant knowledge …"

"Shapeshifter … basilisk!" Lucci exclaimed; taking out his palisman.

"Correctomundo! The name's point hundred seventy two!" She shouted, sprouting a tree from the ground and launching him through the door. "In any other situation I would have run …" They grinned. "But not when we've got you surrounded."

No, this wasn't … Alpha, Twicepta, Three, Ivan, Vee, that should be five. Did the Emperor make more, and those things escape? Twicepta and Alpha would have been left as corpses to revive after all … wait. "Surrounded?"

"Yeah." He turned his head, and saw the approaching Luz, Boscha, and Amity, the Boscha one looking especially savage and hungry. "You think we'd stop at replacing one kid at this school?"

"... I will admit … I thought I caught this one before it got too bad."

"Pfft, guess the Mighty Manticore Menace thinks highly of himself." The Luz once cackled. "Oh no…we don't just have your family replaced, we have the entire school. Maybe more, who knows?" She grinned, before opening their wide and gross mouth. "Titan knows you won't!" There was a moment of silence. "... Right, you can't be sucked up by Basilisk."

"If there's anything you share with the real Luz, it's her ability to not think through situations." Lucci grinned, bubbling his first and punching the copy straight through the wall.

"She does have an army." An abomination fist hit him in the side, sending him skitting.

"Yeah, an army that clearly doesn't comprehend how screwed they are by attacking me." Lucci bubbled up the fist, and sent it rolling right into the Amity copies head.

"Counter spin counter spin counter spin!" They muttered in a mantra, trying to move the goo inside of the bubble to slow it down.

"Not on my watch. Amity already tried that on me once." He snapped his fingers, popping the bubble and getting the pink goo all over the girl. "Tick, tick, boom."

Kaboom

The copy was sent flying, leaving only the Boscha clone. "You know, it'd be a real shame to mess up such a pretty face." Lucci admitted.

"Yeah, too bad I don't have the same reservations." They tossed over some explosive potions.

"Funny, neither do I." He bubbled up the potions before they could be set off, and slammed right into the clone, elbowing it right in the chest and pinning them against the wall. "Now tell me, what are you getting at here? Why are there so many Basilisk when only five were brought back?"

"We can tell you the full story once we put you behind bars." The copy grinned.

"Ah news flash. If you knew anything about who you're copying, you'd know that many have tired, and no one has succeeded." 

"What about everyone?" … He turned to see every teacher at Hexside stare at him, led by principal Bump, who blinked sideways.

"So by the whole school … you meant … everyone in the whole school." Lucci pieced together.

"We aren't the strongest individually, so we're not one to exaggerate." The bump copy nodded.

"Hhhsss." Yeah, maybe it was best to GET THE FUCK OUT OF DODGE!

========================================================================

Amelia groaned. "Ever since I quit the Banshees, I've had way too much freedom." She complained to Bo.

"You're complaining about being free?" The healer student sent her a curious look.

"Yeah, suddenly your whole life is bound up, and then, bam, so much freedom that you realize you don't really have anything to do. I read every romance book in the library and everything." Surprisingly an easy task when you didn't have to focus on healing from concussions and collapsed lungs. "Was my entire life really just all about following Boscha?"

"Amelia, that was ALL of our lives." Cat noted. "Pretty sure over half the school knows us as just Boscha's groupies."

"Hey there Boscha's groupies." A kid waved as they walked.

"Why did that moon girl have to be right?" Amelia groaned. "Come on, there has to be more to me than just grudgby and knowing every romance novel cliche and trope." 

"Have you thought about writing your own stuff?" Cat suggested. "If you know every trope, then you know what makes something good and something bad. You could put your own spin on things or something."

"Maybe …" She could definitely throw in some curveballs here and there. "Oh, what about a toxic relationship revolving around an addiction to a person's mind melding into another for self validation?"

"Oooh, sounds messy and intriguing." Cat nodded. "The dangers of a codependent relationship."

"And maybe another could be a curse from the moon." Oh now she was getting ideas.

"Any polyamory?" Bo questioned.

"Maybe … but first i'd have to make sure-"

Crash

They turned to see Lucci, falling through a wall. "Seal it off!" He shouted, throwing pink shield after pink shield at the hole, panting. "Alright, safe for now …" He noticed them all. "Or not!"

"Okah, I know that Boscha's boyfriend was crazy, but I didn't think he was this deranged." Amelia muted as the guy sent rapid fire buzzsaws at them. "Hey, watch it! I just got my hair done!"

"Sorry, can't take any chances!" He said, looking around rapidly. "There's an army of Basilisk in this school. We need to warn somebody, maybe a Coven Head on our side?"

"Army?" How did an extinct species keep popping up?

"Yeah, the entire school's partially filled with them, and none of them are peaceful." Lucci grumbled. "Pretty much everyone I know has been replaced, and they're all gunning for me now.."

"So we're off the subtly route now?" Cat brought up, smirking. "Good, I've always liked the direct approach more."

The two of them began to shift with wide grins. "We may be healers, but we know ways to take you down." Bo's face … she was a …

"Ah!" Amelia shouted in horror. "Basilisks!" This was how it ended, wasn't it?

They turned to her with confusion. "Wait … we didn't replace you?"

"But our code was to act so normal no one would suspect a thing." The other one added. "No one is that boring naturally."

"Oh come on! Seriously!? I was opening up emotionally to you guys about that!" Amelia exclaimed. "You meant none of that!?"

"Of course not. We were making sure to play out our roles in case there was anybody left we needed to get. That's how infiltration works, duh." The one that was Cat answered.

"Okay, bright side … an ally!" The pink boy rushed at her, encasing her in a bubble. "Please tell me you noticed someone acting less unnatural, because at this rate you and I are the only ones left!"

"Not really, no. Like I was telling these two earlier, I've had a lot of free time to myself since I quit the Banshees." She told him. "The only ones I can name at the top of my head are maybe Amity's siblings, they've signed up for that whole multitracking thing with a couple other people lately, it's gotten pretty popular."

"Then off we go!" He stared at the cracking pink wall. "Because the army's after us as it is!" He placed her on his palisman, flying forward through the halls.

"My fortune never said anything about this!" She screamed as she was taking in the windbreaker speeds. "I don't know whether or not that's a good thing!"

"It's a thing all right, it's definitely a thing!"

========================================================================

"Dang it, I don't know what to sign up for." Edric complained as he looked over his sheet. "So many fun options, but I don't wanna overload myself like little round ears."

"Just stick with what you love, Ed." Em smirked, poking his head. "I love poking people with needles, so I'm going with healing on top of illusion."

"You were always one for messing with dolls." He snarked right back. "Hmm … maybe something for pranks." Potions we're good for that. Mix one or two ingredients and 'accidently' make a stink bomb in class.

"There you go man." She smirked. "All it takes is a little ingenuity, and soon you-"

The door burst open, as Curly top and a green haired girl rushed in. "Barricade the door, I've got the windows!" The boy shouted, throwing shields everywhere.

"Huh, never thought I'd see the day you'd be crashing into our personal space. Something good must be happening." Edric snickered.

"Not the time!" The girl shouted, placing desks on the door.

"Ooh, adventure time?" Em asked with a smirk. "Haven't been on one of those since the school went crazy. We're gonna have another fun time together, Curly head?"

"Believe me, any other time, I'd just skip to bisecting you two and feeding the top halves to Hooty, but unfortunately for me and the rest of the isles, I have no choice." Lucci growled, looking out the window. "Tell me; have things been weird around your house lately?"

Ed thought about it. "Hmm … Mom's been her normal wicked self, dad's inside of his lab all the time as usual, and nothing changed about Em's sleep patterns." 

"…you watch your sister in her sleep?" The other green haired asked.

"Doesn't every brother?" Ed questioned. "The only thing off was dinner last night, mom and dad talked to each other like regular people at the table instead of business partners."

"Most disturbing thing I've ever seen." Em shivered.

"Of course, they're all just a little bit off." Lucci snapped his fingers."There's an army of Basilisks that have taken over the school, my family, and probably a majority of the Isles."

Ed's eyes widened in surprise. "I knew that relationship was moving too fast … wait, MITTENS!" He grabbed the boy. "Is she okay?"

"Don't know. I blew up her copycat after punching Luz's into a wall and slamming my girlfriend's into another." Lucci explained. "Second weirdest morning I've ever had." If his sister's life wasn't in danger, he'd ask what the first was. "So far the four of us are the only ones still ourselves."

"Okay, then it's the four of us against the world." He moved back, placing an arm around his sis for comfort. "We can take them and rescue our little Mittens, right?"

"Yep." She smirked, placing an arm around his, a hand on his neck … wait, usually she was stopping him from the intimacy. "Now, nobody moves, or my nails cleave his head off faster than the Manticore kid can kiss it better."

"I thought you said they were clean?!" Lucci yelled at the other girl.

"They seemed alright to me!" The girl shouted back.

"Muscle memory is still a memory … although I am disturbed by the context of how I got that as an out." What looked like 'Em' shivered.

"Em, what's happening?"

"Don't you get it, you moron,we've already gotten to your whole family." The Em-fake snorted. "We left you alone because of all the Blights, you were by far the least threatening and notable."

"No …" Everyone he cared about was taken.

"... Alright." The boy grabbed the green haired girl. "We're gonna bust through the ceiling."

"Wait, you're leaving me behind!?" He shouted.

"Dude, come on, you're not fooling anyone." Curly Top rolled his eyes. "You're obviously a clone pulling off an act to make us take you in for even deeper infiltration."

"No, seriously, I'm not a fake, I just figured out what was going on!"

"Riight, nice try. It just so happens two kids in school went unnoticed because they were so below average. The odds are completely believable." Lucci replied sarcastically. "Once is coincidence, two is a scheme."

"You know … you raise a valid point." The green haired girl nodded.

"Stop thinking like a con man for once and help me out, I need to save my family!" Aw man, don't tell him this was how it ended.

"Yes, of course, the most basic thing anyone who knew Edric would say." The boy nodded along, forming a drill. "Alright, escaping in three, two, one …"

KASPlOOOSH

In a blink of an eye, the room glowed pink for a brief second and sent the em clone flying outside. "Haha!" The boy shouted. "Got you to drop your guard you crazy bitch!"

"Dude! You were faking it!?"

"Yeah, that was both to trick the basilisk, and payback for the stand up, asshole." Lucci picked Edric up. "Now we're even." Hey, silver lining!

"So what's the plan now?" The girl asked. "Hide out in the sewers until we can figure out where they're base is?"

"No, we're going to the most indestructible and unbreakable place in the entire isles to plan our next move…The Owl house!"

"That seems like a terrible idea." Ed deadpanned. "Everyone there will probably be taken over if they managed to get everyone but you."

"Not everyone." Lucci smirked. "They may have been able to reach King, mom, and Luz, but they'd never be able to replace Hooty. He's a house demon, and he never sleeps, so it's next to impossible to replace him."

"Okay, if you says so." Edric didn't have much of a choice. "So…thanks for saving me and all." He scratched his head and blushed. "If you wanna maybe get dinner sometime.."

"Again, have a girlfriend, and so not the time." Lucci rolled his eyes.

"Right right." Just focus on his family now. "... So who's the girl?"

"Seriously!?" The girl screamed. "I was friends with Amity for years!"

"Oh right, Cat right?" For some reason that made the girl pull her hair out.

========================================================================

Hooty watched the grass, and the trees, and the sky, and the trees, and the clouds, and the trees, and the grass, and the Lucci, and the trees … "Hey Lucci!" He greeted the boy as he showed up with some strange looking people. "Oh, did you exchange Willow and Gus?" He asked, looking them over. "... It doesn't seem like you got a good deal."

"Hey!" The discount Willow and Gus shouted.

"Necessary evil, Hooty, believe me when I say it's temporary." Lucci answered. "We figured out why everyone is a little off. The school and our family have been replaced by Basilisk , and we probably should assume Bonesburrow and the rear of then isles have suffered the same fate."

"Oh, that's not good at all." He moved to the window. "King, people are being replaced with Basilisks, we gotta get you defended."

The little guy stared at him. "Maybe Lucci's new friends are Basilisks tricking him! They must have disguised themselves after Willow and Gus, but did such a bad job they decided to be other people!"

"Dude, seriously, I feel like people are purposely attacking me today for no good reason." Discount Willow grumbled.

"Attacking … that's something a Basilisk would say!" Hooty shouted. No wonder Lucci was off.

"You're playing a chess game you can't possibly comprehend." Lucci told King. "It's one thing to get Hooty on your side, it's another to stay by his side." Lucci kneeled down at King. "Tell me, are you prepared to listen to his eight hour hoot song of friendship, because he will sing it if I ask."

Hooty gasped. "I rarely get to sing that!" So many hours of changing his vocals.

"No … you're bluffing, your bluffing!" King accused.

"You have his memories … Am I one to pull a bluff?"

"Yes." King instantly responded.

"Against family, yes … but I know the truth." The boy gave a dark grin. "Your call."

"No..no you can't, you'll be affected too!"

"Don't know what you're talking about, I like his singing." Lucci smirked, winking to Hooty. "Time to dust off your vocal chords Hooty. Make it extra loud too."

"How is singing supposed to-" He ignored the discount Willow, as he began his masterpiece.

"FRIENDS ARE THE BEST! THE BEST BEST BEST! BETTER, THAN EVEN, BUUUGS !" Hooty made sure to sing loud enough to scratch up his throat, making him cough, but kept going anyway, making sure to keep that personal touch intact. "Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalallalalalalalalalalalhhooootlalalalaaalala!"

"Aaaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhhhh!" King immediately fell to the ground, along with the discount friends, screaming in joy as tears fell from their eyes.

"Why do you live with this nightmare!" Discount Willow screamed in utter horror.

"Nightmare? He's the reason I sleep soundly at night." Lucci smirked. "Don't know why anyone would hate it, he's singing from the heart, and that needs to be encouraged."

"FRIENDS ARE SUPER SPECIAL, FRIENDS ARE MAGICAL! AND MAGIC IS GREAT AT BEING FRIENDLYYYYY !!"

"Give up, please, before we all die!" Discount Gus pointed at King.

"So horrible!! So horrible! I don't want to live on this planet anymore!" The little guy ran to a nearby shelf and grabbed a handful of Lucci's favorite poison. "Come to me, sweet death!" And are it all in one bite, instantly shaking and convulsing in the ground, where he laid unconsciously as foam dripped from the little guy's mouth, which shifted into something bigger and scaly.

"Honorable gasp!" Hooty exclaimed.

"That's what I was telling you." Lucci fiend to him. "Good job big guy, you did well today."

"Success!" Hooty cheered.

"Dude…that was just messed up." The girl gagged.

"The twisted mind of the child of the Owl Lady." Discount Gus shook his head.

"No time to feel guilty about it, we have more imprint matters to get to." Lucci pounded his fists. "To sum things up, Hooty, this is Amelia and Edric, and everyone we know and love is gone, replaced by a massive force of Basilisk who have replaced who knows how much of the town by now."

"I don't get how." Edric stated. "They acted way too on point for comfort."

"Oh, I have the bestiary!" Hooty grabbed the big book of animals Eda usually had and dragged it over.

"Nice." Lucci flipped through the pages. "Lets see … green, glassy eyes, see through flim … here we go." He pointed to a picture. "Phantom Basilisks. Able to copy the memories and skills of whoever they touch … "

"So … they know everything you've ever done, and won't underestimate you." Ed noted.

"Too late for that, they've already done that." Lucci smiled, before frowning. "Though with the scale of this new invasion, the numbers are going to be a bit of a problem to deal with."

"Yeah … I can't really see a good plan to take out … all of that." Edric answered. "Even with hit and run tactics it would probably take ages."

"That's not even getting into why there are so many basilisk to begin with. There's only supposed to be one more left, and they're all going by these weird point numbers." Lucci shook his head, heading towards the door."You guys stay here, I'm heading out to solve this." He told them.

"Are you insane!?" The Blight boy grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Most likely, but it's the best choice we have." Eda's son nodded. "We can be replaced at any time and no offense, it's not like the rest of us are longtime friends that know each other."

"LUCCI HOW COULD YOU!?" Hooty screamed.

"I meant them, Hooty, not you." Lucci groaned. "Point is that this isn't exactly a rag tag group of underdogs. They skipped me because I was too dangerous to approach, and you two because they overlooked you guys."

"Well, why don't we use that?" Amelia pointed out. "They're not expecting anything from me or Edric, so we could probably jump in and surprise them or something. Aren't you supposed to like a con master or something."

"Also think about it like this." Edric added in. "They probably started to copy Coven Heads with how high their numbers are. And if they get the skills of anyone they touch …"

"They'll be just as hard to fight as the real deal." Lucci groaned. "Okay, just need information, from somewhere …"

"Wait a second, didn't you have a replaced mom or something?" Amelia asked.

There was a thud, followed by the Owl Lady falling from the upper floor. "Hey there, just disabled the security power source so Hooty can't protect you all while our numbers invade, kay byeeee!" She shouted, running off into the woods.

"Great, we have no choice but to move now." Lucci groaned. "I'm going to set up a bubble around the house. That gives us about ten minutes of protection at best if they're attacking hard. You two get Hooty into his porta body."

"Cool! Someone else gets to move me!" He shouted with joy. "By the way, has there always been ten of you, or am I dizzy from the lack of energy?"

"Can't we just leave him behind?" Edric asked.

"I could always just walk out of here by myself and leave you behind. Your choice." 

"I call the beak." Amelia stated.