Chapter 228 - Hero

"Are you sure about this?" Gem approached Von in the hallway after saying he's going to tell Venedette about what happened and just let her decide what they're going to do next for the sake of transparency, and apparently, trust.

"Yup, I know my mom, she's not someone who will make a big deal out of this mess. She rarely even goes down here just because she has too little care about these things. Halma would be a different story though," Von said and was about to proceed with the call when he saw something interesting in his stat-hut.

"Huh? Why is Fily awake and on her way here?" Von said which piqued Gem's curiosity, especially since her stat-hut was still broken.

"Fily's going here? Why? Did she know about the mess we've made? Maybe she's coming to help! I should get going-!"

"Wait! You don't even know where she is," Von said and held Gem's hands to bring her back to the laboratory.

"Let's just wait for her here, I'm sure she'll find her way even without your help," Von said and returned back to what he was going to do.

But the idea of Fily coming down to help them just suddenly sank into Von's realization.

"Maybe we don't need to tell my mom about this mess anymore," he said, which made Gem curious as to why his mind suddenly changed.

"Why?"

"Because Fily's coming here, maybe she can help us in cleaning that icy cold mess?" Von said and shrugged before turning off his stat-hut and putting her head beside Gem who was watching the two flight potion enthusiasts argue about the procedure of the potion.

"Hmm, you're right…" Gem said, paying little attention to what Von was saying because how she immediately got distracted by Lei and Petunia's argument could possibly lead to another mess if they don't watch them closely.

"I'm going to go and help them inside, in case something bad happens and they'll make a mess again," Gem said, moving away from Von who was standing too close to her against the door.

"Oh, sure… I'll just wait for Petunia here then," Von said and smiled before turning around and wondering why he said that.

"Ah, I should've just shut my mouth. How am I going to go inside there now?" he thought to himself and just floated in the air, even though sitting on one of the chairs inside was much better and less draining than that.

***

"Guys! Fily's coming here," Gem announced as she entered the room which made Lei's face harden and Petunia's face glow in relief.

"Really? She's coming here? Thank goodness! I can finally have someone else to rely on with this intricate work!" she said and pulled the mixing bowl from Lei aggressively, placing it down on her gummy cloud and mixing it on her own even though her paws could not grip the whisk's handle properly.

"L-Let me just…" Gem awkwardly tried to get the whisk from Petunia's struggling paws which she then gave to Gem without question.

"Why is she awake though? I thought she was supposed to sleep until Friday? And where's Von? Is he still not done contacting Venedette?" Petunia asked while measuring the ingredients which she still hasn't mixed with the potion due to the amount of concentration that she'll need to perfect it, which was very hard to do considering that Lei was watching her and distracting her a lot by just standing there and being annoying to look at.

"About that… I'm also not sure. Maybe we can ask her when she gets here?"

"And why isn't she contacting us? Is she okay? She would usually call us first or at least leave a message if she wanted to go to us," Petunia said and place everything that she was working on for the flight potion on the table and paused while waiting for Fily to arrive.

"Hmm, you're right," Gem said and held her necklace that had stopped freezing and was back to normal temperature now, out of hobby.

"And maybe she did, but my stat-hut is broken, so I couldn't reply," Gem said after realizing that fact after holding her necklace.

"Then she should have messaged me, Von, or Lei instead. I'm sure she knows that we're all in the same location by now."

"And so does Venedette, what's taking Von so long?" Petunia and Gem heard Lei mumble before going outside to check on Von without notice.

"Ah, he's waiting for Fily," Gem said but was already too late because of Lei's speedy travel to the hallway.

"So," Petunia said, "You're going to help us now or what?" she said and turned around to return back to her work.

"Of course," Gem said and let go of her necklace, rushing beside Petunia to show her that she was really willing to help make that flight potion no matter what.

"Mr. Gemini? Lady? Are you guys there? The Salamandite's temperature is now okay, why are you still not answering me?" Gem tried reaching her systems through her thoughts but none of them was still responding.

"I guess having the Salamandite back to its normal temperature has nothing to do with fixing you, huh?" Gem added and pouted from another failed attempt.

As a result, Gem only focused on helping Petunia with the steps to complete the potion which usually takes a lot of time so they could still make progress while waiting for Fily who was usually very slow when it comes to traveling.

"Just put it there and we'll wait for thirty minutes for that device to completely cure the formula out of that nasty cloud," Petunia instructed her while pointing at the machine where the tube with the cloud's sample should be placed into.

"Would this jar be enough for us all?" Gem asked just for the sake of conversation while putting the tube properly into the machine.

"Of course not. Do you think I'd purposely pick two cloud jars and use just one because I want to?" Petunia asked and rolled her eyes which only made Gem giggle at her silly answer.

"Oh, then shouldn't you tell Fily to pick another one of those cloud jars from the storage on her way so we can make enough flight potions today!" 

"Yeah, and those other fifty things that were ruined by the sudden storm thanks to Lei," Petunia said, which Gem did not understand enough since she was not there when Petunia and Lei picked the ingredients for the flight potion earlier.

"So you're not going to contact her?" Gem said, following in Petunia's footsteps and watching her lit up the fire for the old school cauldron that she was still using for her own procedure.

"I'm going to wait until she contacts me," Petunia said stubbornly and placed the cauldron with water on top of the stove and waited for it to boil while the two boys were still taking their time outside.

"Should I call them?" Gem asked as she noticed Petunia's occasional glances at the door as if she was anticipating for someone to come in.

"Nevermind, just focus on your task," Petunia said and shook her head away from the thought of needing to see what those two boys were up to just to prevent more chaos from happening.

"Hmm, okay," Gem said and just shrugged while going back to her station where the machine that she used earlier said there are still thirteen minutes left for the solution to be completely done.

"Has chemistry always been this boring for you? I wonder how you managed to last long in that forest doing this stuff without any machinery?"

"Who said I didn't use machinery?" Petunia asked which made Gem doubt her assumptions.

"You had machinery in the middle of the forest?" Gem asked with eyes open wide as if she could not believe what Petunia was saying.

"You don't believe me?" 

"Of course I do! I just… how did you get that machinery then? Did you make them yourself? Or did you buy them from someone?"

"It's the latter."

"You can buy machinery from somebody in the middle of the forest? Really?" Gem said, still could not believe how such things would be possible.

"Like I've told you before, the clients come to me, not the other way around. I give them options to pay me with cash or with something useful in exchange for those potions that they use for only God knows."

"Oh, that's clever."

"What other stuff could you use the money for in the middle of the forest and away from civilization anyway?"

"Right," Gem said and laughed after finally realizing how Petunia was able to survive in those places without having money or connections.

"So how did you get to know Venedette again?" Gem asked, not sure if she heard about the story yet at all or if she had just forgotten about it.

"She was just there, in the right place, at the right time, for me to realize just how much I still wanted to live instead of just disappearing without a trace," Petunia said while looking up which made Gem recall that same moment in her life where Venedette made her remember the main reason why she should live and not give up in life during her lowest point.

"She's a hero."

"A real one."