Straight-Up Not Having A Good Time At Night Raven College: Prologue

Prologue Chapter 13: An Urgent Deadline

Even though she wasn't great at running, Kat was at least able to keep Ace and Deuce in sight. They zigzagged across the campus, shooting blasts of sparkles at the dodging Grim.

Despite their best efforts, their teamwork was frankly atrocious...
When it looked like they had him cornered, they'd start arguing, and he'd slip away while they were distracted.
She wanted to yell at them to get it together, but she was too far back...
And also too out-of-breath.

Eventually, they ended up back in the cafeteria. At this point, her legs decided it was high time for a break, buckling and dropping her to the floor.

Grim was still managing to evade Ace and Deuce. He dodged their magic with ease, skittering through the tables and benches like he had a serious case of the zoomies.

"AUGH!" Ace yelled, panting. "Dammit-- will you STOP JUMPING AROUND LIKE THAT?!"

"Heh heh heh!" Grim cackled, scrambling up one of the tall candelabras.
"Come an' get me-- catch me if you can!"

He wiggled his butt, then jumped, grabbing onto one of the low-hanging globes of the chandelier.

Deuce ran forward, grabbing the candelabra before it could fall over.
"HEY!" He shouted up at Grim, who had jumped onto another globe, grinning down at them.
"Come on-- it's no fair climbing up the chandelier to escape, you coward!"

As Kat got to her feet, her mind started to work frantically. Breathing hard and licking her lips, she hurried towards the scene of the chaos.
Okay... Maybe they could stack the tables up?
They'd put them back afterwards, obviously, but-- they might need the benches, too....
Deuce was the tallest, but she couldn't use magic... So maybe she should climb up? The others could catch her with magic if she fell... But what if Grim breathed fire at her? And was catching her with magic even possible?
Maybe Ace could use his wind magic-- or would that just end up flinging her right into a wall?

"Uh... I- I haven't really learned much flight magic yet," Deuce muttered.

He turned away, starting to pace a little with a hand to his chin.
"Could I summon anything to hold onto him? Uh-- um...."
After a moment, he perked up, slamming a fist into his hand.
"Ah-- I GOT IT!" He exclaimed eagerly.

Ace, glaring up at Grim, turned to him with a sigh.
"Please tell me you've come up with some kind of good idea--" he began.
Then he blanched, taking a step back.
"Uh-- hey. What the hell are you doing?!"

Uh-oh.
Stomach giving a nervous lurch, she sped up.

Ace was grinning nervously, raising his hands like he was being held at gunpoint.
"Uhh... Why are you pointing your magical pen at me?"

Sure enough, Deuce was aiming the jeweled pen at him. The red jewel glittered, light starting to gather around it in a swirl.

"Because I'm going to throw you," Deuce replied, squaring his shoulders.

Oh, great-- there was absolutely NO way that THIS was going to end well.

"Hey, hey-- HEY!" She interrupted, jogging the last few feet.
"Everybody just calm down-- let's just--"

"Are you fuckin' kidding me?!" Ace demanded, taking another step back. "There's no way-- UWAAAH!"

Too late.

The jewel on Deuce's pen flashed, and a beam of white sparkles shot out, surrounding Ace.
His feet left the ground, and he spluttered, arms flailing.
"GAH! H-Hey-- STOP! Put me down, dude! I'm serious-- do NOT throw me! Stop! STOP!"