Unaware of the pandemonium outside, sweetypies Benny and Penny sat in front of the oven, watching cake batter expand in its pan.
"Oh, I do hope that it will all turn out okay," said Penny.
"Surely it will," Benny replied.
Their hopes would be dashed when their front door swung open, Tanya scanning the room, her eyes locking onto the newlyweds. "Come on you lovebirds," Tanya jumped over to them, turned off the oven, and scooped up the puppy sweetypies. "Evacuation time," Tanya ran outside, where Mao Mao and dozens of her clones were pulling sweetypies from their homes.
"B-but, our cake," Penny stammered.
"Will be there when you get back!" Tanya replied.
Mao Mao directed some sweetypies west, where a line of them were beginning to form as they left the vicinity. Tanya placed Benny and Penny down, pushing them into the crowd.
"How's it looking?" Tanya called to a clone perched on the rooftops.
"Minori and the Queen are still duking it out up there!" The clone called back. "Some wasps are beginning to straggle, they're coming dangerously close!"
"Well isn't that peachy," Tanya mumbled to herself.
"We're still making good time," Mao Mao noted. "You keep the people moving, I'll take care of the stragglers!" Mao Mao scaled the drainage pipe of the closest house, vaulting onto the rooftops. Mao Mao leaped from one rooftop to the next, slashing at the wasps as he passed by. "You're not gonna get me again!"
•••
Minori tumbled over the back of the queen wasp, digging her claws into the back of the monster for purchase. Twenty minutes, she's fought this thing in the air, using its own body as her footing. Her claws were barely able to break the exoskeleton of the bug. Minori thought about slashing the wings, but when she tried, the wings rapid motion batted her hand away, and it hurt her hand like hell when it did.
The stinger on the was was a foot long, she tried to rip it out, but it was imbedded good. Unfortunately, it would seem like Ashaki was right again. They should have waited to form a proper plan of attack. Now she was stuck hundreds of feet in the sky, over a populated area, in the midst of an emergency evacuation.
Why do I always do this? Minori asked herself.
•••
Mao Mao slashed down the last of the stragglers, for now. Looking towards the swarm, he could make out a few more breaking formation. This may be a good way to test his new technique. He had been taking what Tanya told him to heart, "You feel powerless? Then get stronger!" When he had time in the day, he would practice the new technique in the woods, close to the lake near the kingdom.
However, the monster was too far away and moving too erratically to aim properly. He may even hit Minori and knock her off of the wasp queen. The stragglers were upon him, seven total. This time, Mao Mao was ready, he paid attention to each of the targets, taking their path-finding into account. With three swipes of Geraldine, he slaughtered all of the wasps. Four with the first swipe, two with the second, and the last one's path took it away from his second swipe, so it got one all its own.
This was such a mess, out of everyone who currently held residence in the Sheriff HQ, the only long distance fighters were Ashaki and Badgerclops, both of which were a distance away. Badgerclops was on the move, and Ashaki was up at the castle last he checked. For word to travel up the spire, it would take too long. So until Badgerclops arrived upon the scene, they would have to hold the line.
The next wave to separate from the warm numbered to be about 13. First a lucky number, now an unlucky one. Mao Mao wasn't going let luck decide how this turned out, he'd assure victory himself if came down to it. Mao Mao somersaulted over the the wave, spinning in tandem, Geraldine swiping down slashing a few with every turn. By the time his paw pads touched the other side of the rooftop as he landed, only five wasps remained. With two more swipes, five become zero.
Mao Mao looked back into the sky, there must've been hundreds, if not thousands of more wasps swirling around Minori and the Queen.
"Mao Mao!" Cried the high pitched voice of Adorabat, swooping in, landing on Mao Mao's shoulder.
"Adorabat!" Mao Mao was surprised that Adorabat had already made it back. "I thought you were with Badgerclops and Violet!"
"I flew ahead," Adorabat looked up to the swarm hovering hundreds of feet above them. "Is Minori up there?"
"Yeah," Mao Mao confirmed. "Probably during it out with the Queen right now." Mao Mao turned to Adorabat once again. "Adorabat, I need you to fly to the castle, and get Ashaki, you're the only one who can get there quickly."
Adorabat's eyes went from her usual wide with wonder, to steely focused. "You got it!" Adorabat took off as fast as her little wings could carry her, her small form becoming smaller as she flew off towards the spire.
Mao Mao allowed himself to break out into his devilish grin. It was starting to feel like they could pull through this monster attack.
•••
Ashaki stood on one of the many rafters in the throne room. From what she could tell there were no mechanisms hidden in the wood. Snugglemane insisted that the lost records of the kingdom were in a hidden room somewhere in the castle, but she had already found them all. X-ray sight came in real handy when it came to sniffing out hidden passages, and the mechanisms to reveal them.
But maybe, just maybe, there was a method that rendered her contacts useless to seeing through the veil of mystery. There was something hidden behind that veil, and every ounce of her being wanted to pull the curtain aside. This had always been a trait of hers, whenever she saw a magic trick as a child, she'd lay awake at night, thinking about how that trick was performed, picking it apart until she knew the ins and outs as well as the original performer did. So the thought of her contacts being obscured by another party has a chill up her spine.
The comically large doors of the castle were pushed open, a small blue bat flapping about went around the room, screaming to know where Ashaki was.
"Relax Adorabat, I'm up here," Ashaki called down to her. "What's the situation?"
"Shaki!" The name immediately irked her, that was the nickname Minori had given her, a nickname Ashaki never cared for. "Wasps! Swarm! Minori! Fight! Mao Mao! Evacuate!" Ashaki tried to motion for Adorabat to calm down in her excited state. But using context clues, Ashaki could figure this out.
Wasps, swarm, Minori, fight, Mao Mao, and evacuate. The wasps probably swarmed and are attacking the kingdom, hence the urgency, so Mao Mao must be evacuating the citizens in response. Which leaves the words Minori, and fight. Anyone who didn't know Minori wouldn't get it, but Ashaki would place money on Minori going to fight the Queen, which must've angered the swarm to attack in the first place.
"I understand," Ashaki affirmed her. "Take me to Mao Mao!" Adorabat quickly turned and headed back out the door, Ashaki using her levitation to follow. The high altitude of the castle was partnered with whipping winds that threatened to nearly rip the cape off her shoulders, tugging at her fur as she descended, the chaos unfolded in front of her eyes.
Down below, Mao Mao fended off waves of wasps that were breaking from the bigger swarm. Tanya and clones of herself breaking into sweetypie homes and pulling them into the evacuation. The real one was keeping an eye on the swarm, the one closest to Mao Mao. Just on the edge of the perimeter, Badgerclops and Violet have just stepped over the threshold of the main gates. Whereas in the sky, a tumultuous swarm folded over itself again and again, and Minori was caught in the middle, punching the Queen in the face... wait a minute, that wasn't a Queen, that was a-
Ashaki looked back to Mao Mao, beelining for him, moving as fast as her levitation would allow. This was so bad, they weren't prepared for that thing. If they didn't stop the jade wasps here, that was it.
"Mao Mao!" Ashaki called out, unleashing a small barrage of chi bullets, decimating the current wave of wasps. "The swarm!"
"We know! Minori is up there fighting the queen."
"That's the issue! That's not a queen, it's a kaiserin wasp!" Ashaki stated as she landed on the roof. Mao Mao furrowed his brow, confused.
"A kaiserin? What's that?"
"Imagine a queen wasp, now make it much bigger, stronger, and wiser. A kaiserin is the state of a wasp when it's been around for a long time, and has knowledge of how to deal with threats," Ashaki paced across the rooftop. "I should've known, you told me about how they attacked in waves, and the way they spread throughout the town last time, that was the kaiserin controlling them from the distance, giving them orders."
"Doesn't matter," Mao Mao said, shocking Ashaki with the statement. "Nothing has changed, we'll evacuate the citizens, and deal with the monster when we have free reign."
Ashaki opened her mouth to say something, but she thought about Mao Mao. She should follow his lead, but there was a much more efficient way to deal with the matter. But she also wanted to make things up with Mao Mao, maybe if she took control, and dealt with the monster, that would help? No, it wouldn't.
"Understood," Ashaki nodded, levitating off the roof, she took a position next to Mao Mao. There wouldn't be a need to look after the sweetypies, Badgerclops and Violet were literally just around the corner. They would assist Tanya and Adorabat with the citizens.
The waves of wasps kept coming and in greater number. Between Ashaki and Mao Mao, they were able to defend the evacuation efforts. Once the final sweetypies was out of harms way, Tanya, Adorabat, Badgerclops, and Violet clambered to join Mao Mao and Ashaki.
Once everyone was gathered on the roof top, they stared up at the swirling swarm. It would be a few minutes before someone said anything.
"What's the plan exactly?" Badgerclops asked, the query was followed by silence. "So, no plan?"
"More like, still working on it," Tanya corrected. "Got anything Mittens?"
Mao Mao turned to Ashaki, "What else can you tell me about the kaiserin? What abilities does it have, how tough is its exoskeleton?"
"I feel like I missed something," Badgerclops said.
"Yeah, what's a kai-soo-reen?" Adorabat added.
"Kaiserin," Tanya said. "In another language it means 'empress'."
"You speak that language?" Violet asked, slightly astonished.
"Of course, I can speak about seven other languages," Tanya said proudly.
"Impressive," Violet said. "Ashaki, how many languages do you speak again?"
"Twenty-seven, although I'm currently teaching myself another one for twenty-eight."
"Off topic," Mao Mao exclaimed, looking back to Ashaki for the answers to his earlier questions.
"Right, the exoskeleton is about as hard as stone, so you better have a hard hitting attack if you wish to break through it. But besides the control of wasps, it doesn't have much except flight and the toxic stinger."
"Okay," Mao Mao cupped his face with his hand, deep in thought. "I think I may be able to take care of the kaiserin, but first things first. We need to dispense of the rest of the swarm, and get Minori out of the fray."
"I can disperse the swarm," Ashaki offered. "But that would mean the rest of you would have to deal with them." Ashaki looked back to the others.
Tanya scoffed. "Think we can't take care of ourselves?" Tanya pulled a patch of leaves out, and with a puff of smoke, they rolled out into beekeeping suits, each fit and tailored to everyone's body type.
"Good, but what about Minori?" Mao Mao asked.
"As soon as the swarm is dispersed, I can make a platform for you two to stand on," Ashaki said. "However, I'll be unable to do anything else."
"We'll make do," Mao Mao responded. "Everyone, get to your positions."
•••
Badgerclops and Adorabat sat on a separate rooftop from Tanya and Violet, who each housed their own roofs. Badgerclops fidgeted in his bee suit.
"It'll be okay," Adorabat reassured him. "We can do this!"
Badgerclops smiled at the kind gesture Adorabat gave him. "Thanks, but that's not what I'm worried about."
"Then what is it?"
"Just- I don't know," Badgerclops struggled to find the words he was looking for. "It feels like Mao Mao's sisters have been pulling most of the weight around here ever since the arrived. We haven't done much in comparison. I'm starting to see where Mao Mao gets his insecurities."
"Then we just have get stronger!" Adorabat responded.
"I wish I had your confidence Adorabat."
•••
Mao Mao stood on a green fluorescent platform, Ashaki levitated next to him, the two sat in silence as the platform rose up to the queen.
"You said you could defeat the kaiserin," Ashaki stated. "How exactly do you plan to do that?"
Mao Mao looked down at Geraldine gripped in his hand. "Back at the castle, during that Moon Moth mess, I learned I could do something new. Then I began to think, what else could I do? After some time, and secret practice in the woods behind HQ, I figured out a new technique, one that's probably more powerful than Lunar Lash."
"Lunar Lash?"
"A special technique that I developed, Geraldine condenses the light she emits, and lash out in a single swing."
Ashaki eyes widened, that was a serious technique, one that required a ton of skill and mastery of his legendary weapon to use. Ashaki theorized that most of the legendary weapons had secrets and abilities that hadn't been recorded in the family records, but this proved it. It wasn't just her contacts that had several abilities, other weapons did too. Now she was more intrigued than anything about about the weapons locked in the Mao family vault.
"Broth-" before Ashaki could say anything, Mao Mao dropped into a ready stance, Ashaki quickly looked to see that they were within range of the swarm. Ashaki readied herself, holding out her right palm, it glowed the usual emerald color. Her palm now tied to the platform, Ashaki reaped back her arm, the platform floated backwards in accordance. Like throwing an invisible ball, the platform shot forward, at the apex of the throw, Mao Mao launched off.
Ashaki quickly dissipated the platform, she had to disperse the swarm before Mao Mao came down and onto the swarm. She needed to move fast, throwing her hands out, she targeted not the swarm but the air around it. The particles in that space began to vibrate, the friction heating up the space. Mao Mao was almost at the apex of the throw, Ashaki canceled the technique, and just as he was about to fall into the midst of the swarm, it dispersed blown away by rushing winds.
When air heats up, it expands and rises, and cold air moves in to take its place. Using this method, Ashaki created gusts of wind to disperse the swarm for Mao Mao. Now she had throw the swarm to the ground level. A few more gusts of wind oughta complete the task. Until then, it's just Mao Mao and Minori.