Benjamin and Isabelle continued running up and down the floors to avoid the heat-seeking ice meteor rocks sent out after him.

The two hid inside the empty cafeteria. Wondering what to do next, Isabelle and Benjamin crawled underneath a table, hoping nobody would see.

“How long do we have to stay here?” Isabelle asked.

“Until we know the coast is clear,” Benjamin replied.

“Hey, Master?” Harry, who was hiding in his Master’s magenta hat, called to his attention.

“Yeah, what is it?” Benjamin questioned.

“We got to go back.”

“I know, that’s my crystal sphere that cretin took.”

“Not that, well, not only that, but I think he took my sister.”

“Chi-Chi?”

“Now that I think about it, where did she go?” Isabelle pondered. “Did we leave her back there?”

Before Benjamin had time to reply, the café’s doors swung open, and a small group of people walked in and looked around. Fear of being spotted if staying any longer, the group snuck out from the back door and headed to another hallway.

Benjamin and Isabelle continued on their merry way. They sighed in relief, knowing they lost the others, for now.

“Ok, now, how can we find Chi-Chi while avoiding these goons?” Benjamin questioned curiously.

It didn’t take long for Isabelle to point out the clone that leaned his back against the wall with a smug grin on his face.

“There he is, after him!” Benjamin shouted.

Benjamin and Isabelle gave chase as the clone dashed away to the higher floors of the school. Benjamin had a hard time catching up to the imposter, as he ran too fast.

When they finally made it to the school's top floor, he seemed to have disappeared. When they checked through the windows, to their surprise, it seemed like there were plenty of clones running amok and causing mayhem everywhere they turned.

“Where did they all come from?” Isabelle asked, holding her hands over her mouth in disbelief. “Why, and how, are there so many of you!?”

“Aw, man, how are we supposed to find the one that took Chi-Chi at this rate?” Benjamin wondered, feeling down on his luck. “And my crystal sphere too!” He added. “Wherever he is, he will pay!”

Harry looked over and noticed flashing lights outside the window. He got up, peeked out of the windowpane, and gasped.

“Guys,” Harry called out to his Master and his assistant, “I think I found the culprit!”

“You did?” Benjamin and Isabelle exclaimed in unison.

“Yeah, come and see for yourselves!” Harry cheered.

The two went over to the windowpanes and gasped at what they saw. Benjamin clones swarmed and surrounded the three as they backed them up against the window.

.-.-.-.

Back outside, the doors lead to an underground basement opened up. Troy headed out and sealed the doors shut with his magic. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stared into the horizon, amidst all the mayhem surrounding him. He placed his hand behind his ear, listening to all the chaos ensuing inside Streterra.

“Sounds like Lauren’s done a fantastic job over there. I like the sounds of that.”

Just then, Aoguro showed up again to give Troy a report.

“Aoguro, weren’t you supposed to be watching over Glenda?” Troy asked. Aoguro whispered in his ear, and he nodded. “I see, so that’s how it is. Well then, I guess it’s time to stir up more chaos!”

Troy made a portal appear on the ground while many Benjamin clones marched in a single-file line toward the school.

“Do you still have that spell book I lent you?” Aoguro summoned the book from thin air, landing on his head. “Yeah, that’s it.” Troy reached over and took the book from him.

Just as he was about to open it, however, the windows behind him broke. Two people and a hamster jumping out got his full attention. He didn’t have time to react as the trio landed on him, knocking the book from his hand.

As everyone gained their composure, Harry looked over and ran over to get the book. “Hey, look, Master!”

“Oh no, my book!” Troy exclaimed.

“Your book?!” Benjamin cried.

“Ao, get my book!”

“I don’t think so; Harry, get to it!”

Harry and Aoguro rushed to snatch the book away. As they jumped towards it, the object moved away and levitated.

An aqua-colored arrow attached to the book slowly moved over to Isabelle, who stood there the whole time. She got out her laptop and re-activated it just in time.

“I got the book!” Isabelle declared proudly.

“What? No!” Troy shouted.

“Way to go, Isabelle!” Benjamin cheered. The boy then realized that he never thought he’d say something like that in his life, especially not to a human like Isabelle. Benjamin turned and noticed the girl giving him a silly wink in response.

“So, this is the book that Troy guy’s been using, huh?” Isabelle said to herself as the book drew nearer to her with a more serious expression on her face.

Aoguro floated over to sneak up on her and steal the book right back. Harry looked over, noticed what he was about to do, and pounced on the Pilkon. Aoguro moved to the side and caused the hamster to topple over.

Harry got back on his feet in no time and leaped from behind, trying to stop the Pilkon, but only dragged him and impeded his progress.

“Give me back my book!” Troy exclaimed as he shot dark matter at the girl.

Isabelle quickly pressed another key on her laptop and deflected the magic with her shield. Benjamin stepped in and blocked the way so Troy could not approach Isabelle. Finally, the arrow disappeared, and the book fell onto Isabelle’s lap.

“I wonder what’s in this book that’s so dangerous...” Isabelle set the laptop down gently and opened the book.

“No, don’t—!” Troy tried to stop her, but he was too late. The girl had opened the book, and a purple aura scattered around the area.

“What’s happening to her!?” Harry panicked as Isabelle screamed in pain.

“I don’t know!” Benjamin shouted. “What’s the book even—?”

“Her human body cannot contain the dark magic in the book,” Troy explained. “There’s no way she can handle all that power by herself. She’s weak, and if she tries to hold all of it in...”

“Isabelle, no!” Benjamin hurried over and pried the book from her hands before anything terrible could happen to her. The spell book fell to the ground, right near Troy’s feet.

“Benjamin?” Isabelle looked up, her eyes watering. “You saved me?” She rubbed her eyes and smiled. “T-Thank you.”

“Yeah,” Benjamin muttered, looking away, unsure how to respond. “Well…”

“Are you alright?” A familiar voice asked through the laptop, temporarily breaking the tension.

“Yeah, I think so... Nicholas?” Isabelle went over to the laptop and saw he was on the other side of the screen. “How are you doing this? Are you communicating through—?”

“Never mind that,” Benjamin interrupted, “Do you know how we can beat this guy?”

“You’re asking him?” Isabelle asked.

Sparks shot at Benjamin and Isabelle from the laptop, which they both dodged. They both looked up and saw Troy, with the book in hand, being carried into the air as the weather went crazy around them. More Benjamin clones showed up and surrounded the two.

“We got to get out of here; it's way too dangerous!” Nicholas cried. “Hurry and create the portal again, stat!”

“On it!” Isabelle replied.

Troy spewed out darker synergy magic as Isabelle used her force shield to reflect it off. Benjamin and Harry hid underneath it while the girl worked with the keys to see which button did what.

Benjamin helped, too, by trying to use telekinetic magic for his wand, which was back at their base of operations. Finally, Isabelle activated the portal, and the others scrambled to get out.

Before Harry could escape with them, he heard some banter between Troy and another Benjamin clone. He turned and noticed the clone had two different things in his hands; the hamster couldn’t recognize the second thing the guy had.

“Oh hey, there, Nimajneb, what’s up?” Troy greeted the clone, “Did you get them?”

“Sure did.” Nimajneb showed him the drawer with all the crystal spheres.

“Excellent!” Troy complimented.

“Also, what should I do about this?” Nimajneb had also gotten a magenta floating orb behind himself and brought it to full view for his Master to see.

Harry squinted his eyes and noticed what was inside the bubble. “Chi-Chi! Can you hear me Chi-Chi!?”

There was no reply. Chi-Chi just floated there with her head hung low and back turned on her brother.

Benjamin stopped and turned to see that Harry didn’t follow him to the portal. “Hey, Harry, something wrong?”

Harry knew they wouldn’t stand a chance and didn’t want to put his Master and friend on the line. But he didn’t want to abandon Chi-Chi when he had finally found her at reach.

“Sorry, Master, I’m not going back.”

“Uh... what?”

“I can’t leave Chi-Chi behind! Go on without me!”

“But—”

“Just hurry and go before it’s too late!” Harry pushed his Master inside the portal just as it was about to disappear.

Benjamin screamed for his name, but his visions grew fader, and soon the location disappeared.