Scene 16 - December 19th

Exterior “Higgins Museum”, Late Morning

Abraham Armstrong

The castle Max had built appeared to have a relatively standard layout, from what I remembered of a special on castles we had watched at some point during the summer - he had probably remembered the same special when building it, in fact. It had a central keep within a wider stone wall, one which would no doubt be quite effective at keeping out mundane police.

The New Champions, however, had no such trouble, and Anima simply landed the roc golem on the outer walls. “Castles don’t work too well against flying enemies,” she commented. “I mean, walls are a good base for protective enchantments, but Max doesn’t seem to have any.”

“They certainly fail without archers,” I agreed, hopping out of my seat. Anima dismounted as well, and the golem shifted slightly as she retracted the white lightning that had let it move. “Now, if I know Max, he’ll be in the main hall. Probably sitting in some kind of throne.”

“A real drama queen,” Emilia croaked in agreement, then flew off my shoulder and down into the courtyard. Halfway down she transformed into a large snow leopard.

I hopped down myself, absorbing the weight of my landing with a slight twist of power, the only sound being the crunch of snow beneath my boots. “Broadcast: I’ll catch you,” I told Anima through my earpiece. We were using the magical versions that Holly had created - he had made a large stockpile of them over the last month or so, and while their range had turned out to be more limited than that of the electronic ones, they were more secure. Not to mention that Zookeeper could use them even through transformations. “No sense in wasting more of your energy.”

She leapt out without hesitation, and I held out my arms to catch her. Another twist negated the kinetic energy of me catching her, and we turned to the face the heavy doors that barred us from the interior of the keep. “How did Max expect the city to deliver tribute?” Anima asked. “I mean... the main portcullis is closed, the main door is closed...”

I sighed. “I was thinking about that on the flight, actually, and... however narcissistic Excalibur has made him, I don’t think there’s any way that Max would be dumb enough to think that he’d actually get any tribute from the city.”

Anima frowned. “Then why...?”

“He’s after something else,” I said grimly. “He must have known that this would draw a lot of attention to him and all available heroes would come to respond. That must have been his real goal with this stunt - I just can’t figure out what he intends to get out of it.”

“Do you think it’s a distraction?” she asked. “That he’s not here at all, he’s actually off doing something else entirely?”

I shook my head. “That doesn’t feel right. That’s certainly one of Max’s standard plays, but his usual method is to have one of his actor friends appear in his costume somewhere, like he did when he robbed the Bellini Archives. Something on this scale? What on earth could it be a distraction from?”

Emilia transformed back into a raven and fluttered up to my shoulder to say, “It doesn’t have to be a distraction from something else he’s trying to do, it could just be a distraction from his actual goal. What if he’s intending to capture and ransom us?”

“For what?”

“For the magical knowledge Arthur Peregrine keeps,” I guessed. “It... makes sense. More than that he genuinely thinks he should be a king, at any rate.”

“He could have wanted Arthur to come in person, too,” Emilia said. “I mean, he did steal a powerful magical artifact, which would normally bring him running - just our bad luck that he’s busy the next few days.”

I nodded, then shook my head. “No, wait, this doesn’t add up. Originally he was after a book, not the sword...”

“Right...” Anima rubbed her temples. “Still, he’s a smart guy, right? Maybe he came up with this plan after getting the sword?”

“...I think I’ve got it,” Emilia said. “He comes looking for the book, and finds Excalibur instead. He realizes that Arthur must have the actual book, and decides to ransom the sword back to him in return for the book, or for similar books. To get Arthur’s attention, he needed to do something big and public with Excalibur - thus, this whole stunt.”

“I think you’re right,” I agreed. “Hopefully we can talk him down, with that in mind - the sword may have messed with his head, but if he sees that there’s a non-violent way to get what he wants - instead of, say, kidnapping us and using us as leverage in a second attempt to get at Peregrine - I think he’ll take it.”

“We can give it a shot,” Anima said.

“Hypnos, any thoughts?” I asked, toggling my earpiece. “...Nic? You there?”

“No signal,” Anima said, producing her phone. “Something is jamming us.”

“Well, that’s what Loki’s earpieces are for... if only their range could reach the Compound.” I sighed. “Well, we can’t turn back now.”

“How are we opening the door?”

“Dear, if you wouldn’t mind?”

“I’m not sure how a deer will help.”

I snorted at Emilia’s joke - her beak hung open in an approximation of a goofy grin as she glanced between me and Anima, who just rolled her eyes. She shrugged her wings and flapped off my shoulder.

A quick transformation, and an elephant shoulder-bashed the door, making the castle shake. A second slam, and there was a cracking sound that I assumed was the deadbolt cracking off the heavy wood of the antique doors - a third, and they were open.

“Honey, I’m home!” I called out as we stepped inside.