A/N: This chapter is the explanation of the plan in between Book 3 Chapters 25 and 26. Might add a few more details as we go! 8/19/23
"Alright, lemme try again," Ace says as he points his pen to the apple. "Just need to bring it forward..." He says as he focuses on the apple, and the apple starting to float.
"Gotta be careful there, Ace," Grim smirks as he slowly brings his apple towards him. "Don't want it flyin' off the handle like last time."
"Shut up, Grim, and you're the one that caused that to happen," Ace says as he glances at Grim.
"Careful...Careful...Careful...." Deuce mumbles as the apple only floats towards him, only for the apple to wobble. "Need...absolute.... focus...."
"If anything, we should be afraid of Deucey there, he's goin' to flip out the most," Ace comments, but Deuce overheard.
"I'm not going to flip out!" He shouts, causing the apple to drop. "Gah! And I was so close..."
"Sure you were," Ace says while his apple gets closer. "Shame that Annie and Jack don't have to do this."
"I don't have magic to do this," Angel comments watching the trio perform their control exercise. "And Jack has more control than all of you that he finished before you."
"Still, it ain't fair," Grim says as his apple drops on the ground, making his sigh. "This is too much!"
"Heh, that's what you get, stupid cat," Ace smirks, making Grim angry.
"I ain't a CAT!" Grim shouts, making Ace drop the apple. He look at Grim in annoyance.
"Hey! You made me drop my apple! Why'd you do that?!"
Grim only smirks at him. "Seems like someone didn't have much control of his magic either."
"Oh, I'll show you control you overgrown furball..." Ace says as he points his pen at Grim.
"Bring it on!" Grim says with a smirk as he prepares a fireball.
"Guys, stop!" Deuce says, coming between the three. "Let's not get any other ideas here, and just focus on the exercise."
"Big talk comin' from the guy who dropped his apple first because of his temper," Ace comments, making Deuce mad.
"What did you say?!" Deuce exclaims. Angel only sweat dropped at the three.
"O-okay guys, let's take a step back...please..." Angel pleads as the boys only look at her then sigh. She sighs in relief, happy at the fact that there would be no magic battle, at least for now. "You guys just need to do it again. It's only 20 feet."
"Hmph, fine," Ace says as he focuses on his apple. "Gotta get better than Deucey here anyway."
Deuce growls at the comment. "And I'm not going to let Ace beat me for this."
"Yeesh, these two sure like to compete at every second," Grim says as he looks at the two teens. "But I ain't one to run away from a challenge! I'm in too!" Angel just sighs at them, at least thankful for the fact that a fight didn't break out.
In the distance, Jack was watching the four, with Angel dispelling the fight between the two teens and going back to their exercise. Since he finished earlier than expected, he decided to take a break, watching the trio's control exercise to pass the time, with Angel reading a book to try to help them out, despite not having magic herself. His eyes land to her, seeing that she was giving some advice to help them out, proving to be effective for a while, only for the group to drop their apples, making them frustrated. He sighs at the scene, knowing well enough alone that the three were idiots for failing at something so simple, but his thoughts went towards Angel, a question plaguing his mind. After the Octavinelle event, Jack realized that there was more to the girl than he thought, after all, this girl was the one who called Leona a coward in his face, figured out Azul's signature spell, AND thought a way get out of the contract she had with him. He did have high respect for her, but the question he had was, how in the world did she convince both Leona and Ruggie to help her out? Sure, she practically blackmailed Leona, but there was definitely more to that.
"Yo, what's up, Jack," Ruggie says behind him, making Jack look at him in attention.
"Ruggie, sir!" Jack attentively says, making Ruggie sigh.
"I told you once, and I'll tell you again, man. You don't have to be stiff," Ruggie states.
Jack only scratches his head in embarrassment. "Sorry Ruggie. You just startled me."
"Hm?" Ruggie hums, curious about the statement. "You must have been thinkin' something real hard for me to startle you."
Jack looks to Ruggie. "Actually..." he starts, getting Ruggie's attention. "I was kinda wondering...You guys helped us out with the Octavinelle contract, how did Angel manage to get both yours and Leona's cooperation?"
Ruggie's eyes widen at the question. "Wait, she didn't tell you?"
"I only know about the fact that she held up Leona's sleep. That's it," Jack states, making Ruggie sigh.
"Yeah, I guess you guys just got the gist of it," he says, making Jack confused. "The truth is she's scary than most of the women in Sunset Savanna."
"Huh?" Jack stammers. "She is?" He asks, looking at the girl pleading for Ace, Grim, and Deuce to stop throwing apples at each other.
"No doubt about it," Ruggie says as he puts his hands behind his head. "Lemme tell you how it really went down..."
Ruggie walks into Leona's room, a yawn escaping his mouth as he sees that Leona was sitting in his bed with Angel standing in front of him. "What's all the noise to keep me awake?" Ruggie groggily asks.
"Ruggie," Leona states, making Ruggie respond. "You should be quiet and listen." He turns to Angel. "You better have a good reason to wake me up, and it better be a good one too," he threatens, and Angel just smile at him.
"Oh, I'm sure after what me and Grim did, we do," she says. "I just want your help with breaking Azul's contract."
"Didn't we say we wouldn't help you?" Ruggie says as he leans on the wall, arms crossed. "Can't afford us to help you out, ya know."
"Oh yes we can!" Grim happily states, making Ruggie confused and Leona to sigh.
"These herbivores woke up me with this proposition," Leona says, making Ruggie shocked. "Sayin' they got a plan to cheat Azul out of his own game."
"What?!" Ruggie exclaims, looking at Angel. "You do?" Angel just nods at him.
"It's quite easy: just steal the contracts from the vault," Angel states, making Ruggie look at her in disbelief.
"You want me to go into Octavinelle and steal the contracts, with Azul and the Leech Brothers in tow? Yeah, no way that's happenin'," Ruggie says as he shrugs. "You would think that you came up with a good plan, but that's basically suicide."
"You didn't let me finish," she says. "Obviously, going in to steal the contracts with Azul there wouldn't be easy, but what's one thing Azul cares more aside from his contracts?"
Leona scoffs. "That lounge of his," he answers.
"That's right," Angel agrees. "For Azul, the lounge is a front for most of his business transactions. After all, he did get the headmage to allow him to have it in the first place to start these deals on campus."
"But what's that gotta do with stealing the contracts?" Ruggie asks, making Grim smirk at him.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Grim says to him. "If Azul cares about the lounge, he would want to make sure it's properly taken care of. When I was workin', I heard a bunch of students sayin' that everythin' gotta be perfect for the lounge. No mistakes, no losses they say."
"So far, Azul wants to make sure that the lounge is in tip-top shape, that nothing goes wrong," Angel states. "So, what if we caused a little trouble for him?"
"Trouble?" Ruggie asks. "What kind of trouble?"
Angel smirks. "The trouble that only the students of Savanaclaw could cause."
"So, what I'm hearin' is, you want to use my students to cause a distraction?" Leona states.
"Of course!" Angel proudly answers. "I'm sure you know why."
Ruggie thinks for a moment. "Knowin' our students, they would fight at the simplest of reasons."
"With that, those brainless fish at Octavinelle wouldn't know how to handle it without that cephalo-punk's help," Leona finishes.
"That's gonna be our distraction," Grim states. "More than likely, Azul's gonna be tucked away in the VIP room, and this gonna get him out!"
"But wait a second," Ruggie says. "It would be impossible to cause a distraction with the Leech Brothers around. They'd shut it down in an instant."
"Not if they're not there," Angel speaks. "They're goal is to prevent ME from getting the photo, so they'll be busy trying to keep an eye on me from getting the photo, too busy to worry about the lounge. While they're gone, you just have to steal the key for the vault from Azul and take the contracts while he's away."
"Azul would wanna figure out what the noise is himself so it'll be perfect to get him when he least expect it," Grim says to Ruggie.
Ruggie thinks about the plan for a moment. "Okay, I see where ya goin' with this plan, but what about the contracts? It's not like we can get far with them. He's gonna notice sooner or later something's off."
"That's where Leona comes in," Angel says, looking at Leona laying on the bed, seeing that his gaze was on her, interested in her next words. "We don't need to go far with the contracts, just enough distance where Azul wouldn't have much control over them. Once we reach that distance, Leona will sand them with his signature spell."
Ruggie looks at Leona is disbelief at the plan so far, shocked at the smirk he sees on his face as he listened to the plan. "Ya goin' to use me to destroy the contracts once and for all, huh rabbit?"
"Leona's signature spell is the only thing that could destroy all 226 contracts in one go," she explains. "It would be too much of a hassle to try and find the specific contract we need one by one, plus Azul would figure it out before we even find it."
"You want me to steal 226 contracts?!" Ruggie exclaims in shock at the amount.
"Not 226, per se..." Angel says as she thinks about it. "Just all the contracts in his vault." Ruggie eyes widen at the thought. "You could do that, right?" She smiles at him.
Leona chuckles. "She got ya by the tail there, Ruggie." Ruggie only sighs at the amount, mumbling how it's too much work, but could only do it. "So, rabbit," Leona says as he looks at Angel. "How far you want the contracts to be? Obviously, it's a no in the VIP room."
Angel thinks for a moment. "We don't need to go too far, just enough where Azul wouldn't have much control over it, so...maybe a little bit outside the dorm itself."
"Huh?" Grim looks at her curiously. "Why that far? We could do it in the lounge."
"I see where ya goin' with it," Leona speaks up, getting everyone's attention. "You don't know how far his reach is. Like you guys said, he was able to put a spell on the scroll when he was outside the VIP room. Based on when you guys fought him before, you don't know if his reach could go throughout the dorm as well. It's an herbivore move to have an escape route, and getting it outside the dorm itself is the escape route, am I right?"
Angel nods. "That'll make it less conspicuous and give you extra time to finish it once and for all since Azul would have to check the vault just in case. Then he would have to see who exactly did it and follow through with the plan."
"And what if we can't distract him enough? Then what?" Ruggie asks skeptically.
"Heh," Grim smirks. "I have no doubt that a couple of rough guys like you can cause a fight big enough to make Azul try to figure how to stop it."
Ruggie thinks for a moment then sigh. "I guess I could do it... When do you want this to happen anyway?" He asks. "Knowin' you, you probably want to get it over with as soon as possible."
"Hmm..." Grim thinks. "It would have to be at a time no one would expect, but not too late...A time that even Azul wouldn't expect it to happen."
Leona looks at Angel, seeing that there's a smile on her face. "Lemme guess, you thought of this as well, huh?"
"Yes, I did," Angel says. "It would have to be a time where even Azul wouldn't expect anything to happen, like, maybe..." She smirks. "As soon as the lounge opens for example."
"That early?!" Grim and Ruggie exclaims.
"You two need to think about it," Leona speaks. "If a commotion is caused as soon as a place is open, they'll be scramblin' like mice, trying to figure out how to solve it before things get worse. Take advantage of their panic to strike, right rabbit?" He smirks.
"That's all it takes," Angel smiles at the two, while they stare at her dumbfoundedly. "But, I do have a bit of request."
"Sheesh, you're askin' me to steal Azul's key, over 200 contracts, and escape from the scene, what's the next one?" Ruggie sighs as he listens.
"I want it to happen to as soon as the sun starts to set."
The three only look at her in shock while she smirks at them. "Oi," Leona says, glaring at her. "I want you to know that your time limit is as soon as the sun sets. You ain't gonna have much time to pull this off, and you can't stay here once the plan fails."
"I know," Angel calmly states with a smirk on her face. "But I'm sure you guys would agree with what I'm about to say."
"What is it then?" Leona asks.
"I'm sure you guys would love to see Azul being frazzled at the fact that he won't get what he wants at the last minute," she gives them a devilish smirk, sending shivers down Grim and Ruggie's spine. "Don't you guys want to relish in the fact that we just stole a win from him, right from under his nose? See his face is despair as he doesn't get what he wants?"
Ruggie only looks in fear at the girl, hearing her plan and seeing the face she made, almost as if enjoying thinking about Azul's despair. He looks over to Leona, seeing a smirk on his face as he looks at her, not knowing if it's because of the thought of Azul in despair or the fact that she was able to come up with a plan so evil that he even enjoyed it. He looks at her eyes, seeing that what she said was completely serious, and he felt like if he tried to refute any of it, he would either get a stare unlike no other from her, scolded by Leona, or maybe both, and he didn't want to test his theory.
"Heh," Leona chuckles. "Looks like you ain't different from us, rabbit. You're quite evil when you put your mind to it. Fine, I'll go along with the plan."
"You will?" Angel asks, glad that her plan got Leona's attention.
"Yeah, sure, why not? Sounds like quite a sight to see," he smirks. The statement only make Angel and Grim smile.
"We did it, Angel!" Grim exclaims as the two only celebrate the news. Ruggie only looks at the two in shock, seeing that Leona of all people agreed to do something that he wouldn't do normally.
"Oi, Ruggie," Leona calls out, getting his attention. "Now that you heard the plan, go back to sleep," he commands, making Ruggie confused.
"Wha...Huh..?" Ruggie mutters, trying to make sense of the situation.
"If you understand, then go back to sleep," Leona says as he yawns, trying to situate himself on his bed to sleep. "And I'm talkin' to you too, herbivores," he says to Angel and Grim, who stopped celebrating to look at Leona. "We got the plan, now don't bother me anymore."
Angel and Grim looked at each other, still happy at the fact that they got Leona on board with their plan, then looked at Ruggie, who just stare at the two dumbfoundedly. Angel just out a finger to her lips, almost as if saying to stay quiet about it, and he understood her, slowly leaving the room as the two get situated on their makeshift bed, while still wondering about the events he just heard.
"...And that's what happened," Ruggie says, finishing the story while Jack only look at him in shock. "Man, I know that I got a meal out of it, but Angel is one scary person when she puts her mind to it. I can still feel my fur standing up thinking about it."
"She planned all that...?" Jack says as he looks to the four, seeing Angel smiling at the three for finally getting the apple close to them as they catch their breath. "I didn't know any of that."
"Well, I bet she didn't want to tell you after everything that happened," Ruggie shrugs. "But even Leona had to look at her in respect after all that. He doesn't show it, but he respects her, not because of his principles, but because she did what he didn't expect. It's no wonder he hasn't gotten her for the blackmailin' yet."
"Don't you respect her as well, Ruggie?" Jack asks.
"After that all whole thing, of course I do," Ruggie states. "I wouldn't want to get on her bad side or be her enemy. Who knew a harmless girl had such an evil plan hatching in her head."
"Huh," Jack says as he crosses his arms, looking at the four, who spot him, waving at him. "I guess my respect towards her is guaranteed," he smirks.
"If you didn't think she didn't deserve respect before, then you're crazy," Ruggie says with a sigh.
"Well, thanks for telling me, Ruggie, and still thanks again for the help," Jack says to him as he walks over to the four, with Ruggie seeing that Jack talked to Angel for a moment, only for her to be confused with what he said as he walks off.
"Sheesh, if she got the respect of Jack and Leona of all people, I'm scared of what she's goin' to do with everyone else," Ruggie mumbles as he walks away from the group.