Chapter 105 - Pyro Show (Step 4)

"A pyro show," Fily said while drawing a rough sketch of fire around the village's picture on the whiteboard.

"A what?" Petunia, who most likely spent her time living under the rock, asked curiously.

"A fire show." Fily said, emphasizing the word 'Fire'.

"Oh," Petunia said and sat back as her eyes sparkled just by the mention of it.

"Do you think we could pull that off?" Fily said while looking at Princess Venedette meaningfully.

"Well, if we could get the village people to agree then I guess there won't be any problem about that," Venedette said and whispered an order to Sir Fred who immediately made a call after.

"What else?" Venedette said after that moment of silence.

"So, here," Fily pointed at the edge of Gamora's Village near the mountain on the edge of the island, "This is the backdrop of this store where Von and Lei would be brought to enter the same tunnel which you both saw inside the store, right?"

"Yes," Venedette said.

"And we can only see two to three houses being burned in the background," Fily said while pointing at the prophecy in Sir Grand's hands, "Which means, we can just sacrifice these three houses right behind the store and save the rest by putting up a pyro show just beside it."

"Okay, let's do that," Venedette said, agreeing to Fily's idea.

"But do we really have to sacrifice those houses? I mean someone could still be living there, right?" Petunia pitched in.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I told my guards to put flame resistance inside the houses so only the outside could be burned." Said Venedette.

"Oh, okay… So, when do we start moving?"

"As soon as possible," Fily said while looking at Von and Lei from the other side of the building, running away from the maids.

***

"They're coming," Venedette said when she spotted both Von and Lei looking defeated at the hands of an old stinky Crone.

The Crone was even surprised by the number of people in front of their secret shop, anticipating for the pyro show to start.

"This is it," Venedette said and flew closer to the store coming from the edge of the island.

"Why are there so many people?" The Crone complained while pulling Von and Lei back to the tunnel's door underground not far from the old shop.

The two boys were so angry and distressed that they didn't even bother to shout for help when they got out. All the thoughts in their head were just running around the concept of how they could make Petunia and Fily pay for what they've done to them.

"Here, just don't bump into people, alright?" another Crone said and gave Posy an invisible backpack, containing the same invisible mobile container they used inside the castle just earlier.

"Why can't they just connect the tunnel systems? This is so annoying." Yorela (the hunchback Crone) complained while wearing the invisible backpack.

"You're the only one with wings so it's understandable for you to be the only one allowed to go there." Posa (Yorela's sister) said before helping Posy push the boys out of their tunnel door and into the worn-down shop right across from it.

"Where's Petunia? Why are they so late? Those Crones are probably using their advanced technology yet again and I can't sense them from this far!" Venedette exclaimed while starting to get annoyed by the noise of the event and slowly going into panic mode after not seeing any signs of Von and Lei on the ground.

"Welcome friends to the Special last-minute Pyro show of 4016! Where today, we are going to celebrate the arrival of our Queen Halma to this island just this week!"

"Huh?" A lot of people gasped because of what the event announcer said.

"Ehhh? You had no idea that the Queen is on the island since last week? Well, at least now you know it! First of all, let us welcome our first performer, come out on stage Mr. Fire is the light guy!" the announcer said energetically which caused a lot of cheers from the crowd.

"Whoo!"

"It's like a last-minute festival here! I'm glad we went here even if it was just to check it out." Someone in the crowd said.

"I live here so it's not really that hard to attend this last-minute event hihi." Another one replied which was then the beginning of the first pyro show even in Gamora's Village.

"We're here!" Petunia said while catching her breath after arriving beside Venedette near the pyro stage where they were watching from.

"Okay, I think they're using the sense disruption box again. Could you sense where they are? The distance from the tunnel system's exit isn't that far from the store but I made sure to put a lot of obstacles on the way, especially this one." Venedette said and pointed at the very narrow puzzle-like passageway not far from them which she particularly made in front of the store as an obstacle course for the Crones disguising as a lining guide for the pyro show's audience to follow.

"Yes, they're stuck over there," Petunia said while highlighting her senses even more just to double check her guess. "Yup, they're really stuck over there."

"Okay guards, your turn." Venedette signaled her people to start with the sting operation after getting the news of the Crone's leader leaving the tunnels.

The goal of the sting operation was to capture every single traitor on this island and the Crones left underground thanks to Fily's expertise on hacking the tunnel's blueprint which they were only supposed to start after getting a go signal from Venedette.

"Is it our turn next?" Petunia said excitedly while anticipating for Fily to arrive soon after her.

"Not yet," Venedette said while watching the Crone let go of her pesky little invisibility gadget just to pass through the narrow steel borders that Venedette set up in advance for the event.

"Now," Venedette said and pressed the remote ignite button on her hands, causing two loud explosions on the houses behind the shabby store that removed everyone's attention from the event and into the explosions beside them, exposing the two Crones who were now carrying both Von and Lei by their limbs shamelessly beside the pyro event.

"Wait, is that the prince?"

"What the heck are those old grandmas doing?"

"Oh my gosh, Lei!!!" 

The people said with overlapping voices after recognizing the kids on the grandma's shoulders as they tried their best to carry the two on their own.