Rattle ‘Em Boys!

(Wednesday, 22nd of Lover's Harp Moon, 2021)

Jack couldn't see it well at first, but Jack could have sworn he saw a massive skeleton outside. Before Jack could ask anything though, the building suddenly tilted, and gravity began pulling everything to the lowest point like a slide. The demons picked their children up by their shoulders and summoned their wings to fly the children out of the building through the windows. So that left Jack, Hero, Matt, Alice, Abigail, and Simo alone in what is quite possibly the worst slide ever. The table began sliding, and it would have crushed Jack, Simo, and Alice if it collided with the wall. Jack placed his palm on the table, and extended the other one towards the wall to use the ability he got from Abigail earlier that day.

"Path of the Ocean: Frozen Hunger!" Jack's hands glowed a cyan blue color, and piece by piece, the table was covered in frost.

The wall was swiftly approaching Jack, but the moment his palm made contact with it, the wall was covered in frost. Due to the angel of the sliding table, Jack collided with the wall first, and the wall shattered like glass. Jack fell onto the grass and were about to get up, only for Simo and Alice to land on top of Jack. Matt, Hero, and Abigail all landed on the ground beside the three. The three of them stood up and looked around the camp, noticing six massive skeletons were lifting up the cabins, offices, and even the mess hall they were just inside of.

"What the hell?!" Abigail shouted in disbelief of the giant skeletons. "Well, I hired y'all for a reason. I'm gonna go check in on the kids and demons."

"Good, my muscles were getting tense." Matt excitedly looked at the skeletons. "Okay, I'll handle all of them, you guys go ahead and just do your own things."

"Hey, we're not useless, so count us in!" Alice prepared a sharpie and began drawing a magic circle on her palm.

"I'll help!" Hero unsheathed his short sword, and Jack summoned Ebony Horse behind you.

"Okay...Matt, you take the South, Hero takes the West, Alice has the East, and I go North." Jack scanned the area ahead to see 13 skeletons total, counting the ones he saw earlier. "Simo, you provide covering fire and back us up."

"Got it." Simo cocked his rifle and the four people went in their respective directions to begin the fight.

Matt began running south, where 20 skeletons roamed as though they were searching for something. Matt smiled before jumping into the air, his powerful legs sending him up to the head of one skeleton, followed by Matt delivering a powerful roundhouse kick that sent the skull of the skeleton flying clean off, with the skull colliding with the skulls of four other skeletons. The flying skull didn't lose the slightest bit of momentum after obliterating the first skull, nor the second, nor the third or fourth skulls. Instead, the skull kept on flying through the night sky until it was no longer in view. Matt landed on one of the untouched cabins, and one of the remaining giant skeletons tried crushing the martial artist from above using its massive and powerful fist. The fist collided with Matt, only for the skeleton to suddenly hear a yawn.

"I'm not sure what I expected, since you have no muscle." Matt was using only one hand to hold the skeleton's fist above his head with seemingly minimal effort. "Might as well enjoy what I can."

Matt grabbed the skeleton's hand with the same arm he was blocking it with and pulled it, ripping the skeleton's arm straight off before using that arm like a baseball bat to strike the giant skeleton's chest. The swing held so much force that the entire rib cage and spine shattered, dropping the rest of the bones along with it. Matt turned his attention to the seventh skeleton who gathered his attention, which was about to stomp on him. Matt barely even flinched at the skeleton, and used the sixth skeleton's arm to crush the seventh's torso like he did with the sixth. Matt let out a tired yawn before noticing a loose tile on the roof. Matt picked up the tile and aimed it at three of the skeletons, and then he threw it. There was a powerful boom, signaling that the throwin tile had surpassed the sound barrier. When the tile passed the three skeletons, the force of the passing wind alone crushed their bodies and forced them to collapse. Matt then turned his attention to the 10 remaining skeletons.

"So...who's next?" Matt smiled as he cracked his neck whilst looking at the remaining skeletons.

In the East, a skeleton was suddenly met with a powerful blast of energy towards the chest, causing it to collapse and leaving only 5 skeletons in the East. Alice was having no trouble against them, she was simply sitting on a lawn chair on top of one of the cabins, shooting skeletons using eldritch blast from her palm. Alice was keeping her eyes glued around the area, only to notice one of the skeletons in front of her had its fist raised.

"I guess I can use that power every once in a while..." Alice took a breath in and stood up from her chair. "Alighieri 6th Ring of Inferno: Heresy."

A pair of demonic horns emerged from her forehead and a dark aura surrounded her body. Black and red wings shot out from her back as her hands and feet became covered in black scales and her nails turned into claws. Her irises changed from their dark and murky blue color to a glowing orange color. Alice used her wings to soar up into the sky, and a demonic magic circle appeared in front of her. Alice placed her hand on the circle, and pitch black flames shot forth, engulfing the skeleton in front of her in a pillar of flames. The four remaining skeletons all turned their attention to her, and Alice snapped her fingers whilst looking at the skeletons, and all four were suddenly engulfed in pitch black flames. The flames didn't go out no matter how many times the skeletons tried rolling. One of the skeletons tried jumping into the nearby lake, but the flames didn't go out.

"Well that was easy." Alice flapped her wings to keep herself in the air before looking at how the other fights were going. "Did...did Matt just beat 8 skeletons using two other skeletons???"

Jack was piloting Ebony Horse against 13 skeletons, using Ebony Horse's tail to swing at one of the skeleton's torso, this skeleton tried blocking the swing with it's arms, but Ebony Horse proved stronger than it. As the night went on, Ebony Horse got stronger and stronger, all while being covered in an indigo aura. Why was Ebony Horse covered in an aura?

"El Tarot Familia: Azure Sister, the Moon." Jack held up a tarot card of the moon, and it covered the t-Rex's body in an indigo aura. "Looks like it gets stronger the higher the moon is in the sky. I should really thank Juana for giving me this card."

Two of the skeletons managed to grab onto Ebony Horse, holding the mech in place while one skeleton in front of the mech began kicking the mech's head. Jack summoned 12 Months, and turned it into its November form, which is a rocket launcher. Jack then popped his upper body out of the mech though the hatch on the back and aimed at the skeleton dead ahead. Jack fired the rocket launcher, and the rocket struck the skeleton dead in the chest. With an explosion engulfing the skeleton's upper body, Jack snuck back into the hatch and sent 12 Months back home. While the front skeleton collapsed, Jack spun Ebony Horse around, knocking down the two skeletons that were holding the mech in place. All three skeletons collapsed into a pile of bones, and you turned Ebony Horse to two skeletons that were rushing towards the mech. Jack popped his torso out of the hatch once again, this time to summon Silent Princess. Jack made a dog hand sign, and a glowing purple arrow made of magic appeared on Silent Princess' bowstring. Jack drew the arrow back and took aim at the skeleton on the left. Jack let the arrow fly, and when the arrow collided with the skeleton's sternum, a giant jackal head shot out from the bone to swallow the skull whole.

"Path of Energy: Thunderous Plasma!" Jack let the glowing cyan arrow fly towards the next skeleton, and the arrow hits the skeleton in the shoulder, causing an explosion of plasma to engulf the entire shoulder plus parts of the ribs and neck.

Both skeletons collapsed onto the ground, and Jack watched as four more began running towards him. Jack wanted to know how skeletons could run, but Jack decided not to question it as he decided to pilot Ebony Horse fully and set Silent Princess to the side. Jack pulled a lever, and Ebony Horse's mouth began charging a bright, indigo colored beam. Jack held down a single button until he pushed the lever forward, and Jack released the button at the same time. From Ebony Horse's mouth, a white and indigo breath of flames shot out from the mech's mouth, enveloping the four skeletons and turning the bones to ash. That left only three skeletons left. Ebony Horse released a lot of energy from that last attack, so Jack decided to give it a break. Jack summoned Nursery Rhyme, and popped Jack torso out of the hatch again, this time with an idea as to how to use it. Jack flipped through the Spellbook, and he noticed how most of the spells only consist of nine elements.

"Rain Drops!" Jack pointed at the three remaining skeletons, and there was no magic circle, but something did happen.

From nowhere in the night sky, massive water drops formed, and these droplets were the size of entire cars. These water droplets swiftly rained down onto the skeletons, with every droplet causing the bones to crack under the sheer weight and force of the water. Piece by piece, the skeletons collapsed and were shattered apart. All the skeletons in the north were defeated, and Jack let out a hefty sigh, he was exhausted.

"Man...switching between weapons is more tiring than I expected..." Jack sat in the chair inside Ebony Horse, and using the radar, Jack could see that there were no more skeletons. "Wait, weren't there like 30 in the west? How are they all gone?"

In the West, Hero was looking at the bones of his fallen enemies while he sheathed his shortsword.

"Yay! I won!"

(Timeskip, brought to you by Hero being his usual dumbass self)

Soon, the police arrived and all the demons were questioned along with their respective kids. Abigail was standing on the porch of her office, deep in thought while Simo cleaned the barrel of his gun. Jack watched as Alice stood in the middle of a certain magic circle, back in her normal form, and with a black aura surrounding her. Matt was taking a nap on the wooden bench, while Hero napped on his shoulder.

"This is so freakin weird." Abigail commented as she paced along the wooden porch. "None of the demons summoned have any idea as to what the hell that was, nor do any of them have any summoning abilities. Who the hell would do something like this?"

"Maybe someone who does something like this but with angels, and they're trying to purge the demons out of this land." Simo suggested, and Abigail looked at him.

"That can't be right, the closest angel summoning camp is on the other side of the country." Abigail continued to think. "Besides, they would have used holy water or something, not massive skeletons. Skeletons are usually on the darker side of the spectrum of magic. Demon or necromancy territory."

"Are there reports of any witches or something similar in the area?" Jack asked, and Abigail shook her head. "Necromancers, anything?"

"I'm not sensing anything." Alice suddenly speaks up, and her magic circle disappears. "Usually people who dabble in dark arts have at least some darkness around them, but I'm not sensing anything other than us warlocks."

"Well skeletons don't just pop out of nowhere, someone had to have made them." Abigail scowled in annoyance while looking around. "Maybe there is a rogue student...nah I don't wanna assume any of these kids are capable of doing anything like this."

"What, what if they don't use dark magic?" Jack had a crazy idea as he remembered that Nico turns into a mirror, which somehow led him to this odd conclusion. "What if they copy magic and stuff? Or pocket dimensions?"

"Copy magic...I'm not sure." Abigail shrugged. "People like you who can learn different kinds of magic through any sort of medium, like you, are super rare, but someone who can flat out copy magic is close to impossible to find."

"But is it possible that someone could copy a demon summoning spell and not have any darkness lingering around them?" Jack asked, and no one knew the answer. "Well...shit, guess we have another mystery on our hands."

"Watch, by the end of the school year we're gonna have a bunch of unsolved mysteries that we'll just have to live with forever." Alice sighed as a bunch of construction workers passed by carrying the bones.

"Construction workers?" Simo curiously watched as the construction workers moved the bones to what looked to be a massive dump truck.

"Not exactly, it's more like they're repairmen who repair everything from monster attacks and dispose of the body parts." Abigail was now leaning up against one of the wooden beams of the porch. "Their profits come from the monster corpses, which often have alchemical properties and thus make them profitable."

"Alchemical properties..." Jack thought to himself, then he remembered that Demonic Bones were an ingredient he needed for the Librarian's potion. Jack got up and ran to one of the construction workers who was carrying a bone. "Hey! Guys! I need a bone please!"

"Erm, are you one of them folks to took down at least one of them giant skeletons?" The construction worker examined Jack, his eyes focusing on your prosthetic.

"Yes, and this leg is a lethal weapon, so don't worry too much about it." Jack was then handed the bone, which looked to be a part of the giant finger bone. "Thank you sir."

"Yeah yeah, it's kind of an unwritten rule that we have to give requested body parts to Guardians and Guardian Trainees." The man rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. "Since it's one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, only 1 in 100 end up making it through all the trials and shit. So we kind of have to respect ya, especially if ya killed the monster."

"Alright, thank you sir!" Jack thanked the man, and then his words suddenly made him think of something.

What kind of job did Jack end up signing up for?

At least 30 meters away, Joan hid in the bushes as she examined the scene before her. The demons checked the children to make sure they were safe and uninjured. Abigail explained to the cops what had happened, Simo was looking around, Matt and Hero were still asleep, and Alice was talking to Jack about something. Joan's eyes were glued to Alice though, they remained focused even as the voice suddenly spoke in her head.

"Did the experiment go as planned, Joan?" A cold, elderly woman's voice could be heard in Joan's head.

"Yes, the spell was successful, their goal was not met, however, would you like for me to try again?" Joan asked in a hushed voice, a voice that only she could hear.

"No, what matters is that you successfully performed the ritual and gained a patron for yourself." The voice declined Joan's offer. "That patron allows you to create monsters...impressive, I need time to think about how I can use this new power of yours."

"Very well." Joan's eyes remained locked on Alice as she giggled from a joke you told her. "The girl...she's growing up well."

"Alice? Of course she is, I have tabs on her everywhere." The voice replied flatly. "She's still not ready, yet. She still needs to mature more before we try anything."

"Herakles and Geppetto have increased security around her, they must know your intentions." Joan reported, and the voice growled. "Suggested action?"

"Those two fools can't do shit on their own, I just need to send you in there after you gain more power and taking Alice will be like plucking a fruit of knowledge from the forbidden tree." The voice laughed. "Don't worry, she won't replace you...soon."

"Yes my la-"

Before Joan could finish her sentence, a bullet grazed past her, scratching her cheek and making her hair fly. The source of the bullet was Simo, who not only had the scopeless rifle in his hand, but the attention of everyone around him. Joan scowled before a black smoke enveloped her body, Joan soon disappeared, leaving everyone confused.

"Simo, what the hell was that?" Jack asked the sniper, whose eyes were glued to where Joan once was.

"A wolf I'm guessing." Simo didn't exactly know what he shot at, but he knew whatever he shot at had malice. Simo didn't look away from Joan's spot, all he knew was that something was there.