The Necromaniac 4th of July Special

A Necromaniac 4th of July Special...

"The Pyro Caper"

Ya know, there seems to be a holiday specialized for each school of magic. Like the holiday of the Necromancers is Halloween, the day of the Theurgists is Earth day, Storm Wizards have tornado and Hurricane season, and so on and so forth. But if there's one day where pyromancers go wild, its the 4th of July. For this year's 4th of July, Professor Dalia Falmea, along with her Fire Elf helpers, decided to launch fireworks at Firecat Alley. So all of the wizard students in Ravenwood Academy gathered near the Firecat statue in the Center of Firecat Alley. I was pretty excited because Professor Falmea always built epic fireworks! Some of my favorites from last year's were "Meteor Strike", "The Dragon's Fury", and "The Grand Phoenix". I couldn't wait to see this years! The fireworks were being launched by Falmea and her little helpers at the top of the ramp that lead up to the street on the farther side of Firecat Alley. Fire Elfs could be seen moving around carry all kinds of stuff from fuses to wooden crates. I was sitting in row of necromancers (and was also sitting next to Sestiva, hehe), while Skelly was sitting at the very back, waiting for the show to begin. He didn't know it, but I had stuck a little Red, White, and Blue hat on top of his Skull which had little American flags sticking out. It was too funny!

I don't know why, but I got a bad feeling in the pit of my gut all of the sudden. I could sense that something might go wrong here, but I was hoping that I was just having a stomach ache or something.  Then I saw Professor Falmea step up at the top of the ramp with a microphone.

"Greetings Students of Ravenwood!", she said. The crowd was cheering with anticipation. After a few seconds, the crowd quieted down. "I am so glad to be here today to wish you all a Happy 4th of July! Not only that, but to also perform one of my favorite hobbies, Firework launching!" The crowd began cheering again, but quieted quickly to listen to what else the professor had to say. "So without further ado, enjoy the show! This first firework is called 'Immolation'!" Right on cue, a large, red flare shot high into the sky, which broke apart into several streaks of light. They kept going up and then stopped. They were still streaking and they hadn't exploded yet. And then, they started coming down. Fast. Right towards the crowd.

Oh crap, I thought, gonna have to think fast! Ethan, I began saying in my head to my icy alter ego, shield the crowd! "You got it!", Ethan Winterbreaker replied in my head. I grabbed Sestiva and pulled her out of the way of the incoming fiery shower and under behind the firecat statue nearby.

"What's happening?!", Sestiva asked me with a worried expression.

"I don't know," I began to say, "But it appears as if someone sabotaged the fireworks. Stay here while I protect the crowd."

I began to transform as light blue smoken began swirling around me. The atmosphere around me became frigid and ice symbols were flashing from the smoke. Finally the smoke cleared and Ethan Winterbreaker had taken physical form. He the ran around the side of the statue, heading back to the crowd. The crowd began to scatter. Some had gotten out of harm's way but some weren't as lucky. Ethan leaped into action and began casting icy wards over the remaining crowd for protection. The bright flares flashed intensely as the battered against the ward. After the raining flares stopped, Ethan made the ward disappear. Ethan had done his job so I took on physical form again. I ran up the ramp to see Professor Falmea. I could see Fire Elves scrambling and investigating some of the Fireworks they had spent days building.

"Professor!", I called to Falmea as I arrived on the scene, "What's happening?!"

"Oh and who might you be?", the Professor asked, not recongnizing me.

"Maybe this will refresh your memory." I transformed and Stephen Fireblade took on Physical form. "You see," Stephen began saying, "That was my cousin, Timothy Lighttalon."

"Oh, Stephen! That was a surprise! So anyway, it appears that the fireworks we built were sabotaged. We spent days building them and even tested a few out just last night and they worked fine but it appears that they seemed to be sabotaged over night."

"That's odd." I began looking through Stephen's eyes, seeing the Fire Elves moving around. But after some observation, I saw something wasn't right. "One of these Fire Elves isn't really a Fire Elf", Stephen told the professor.

"What?! Are you sure?!"

"Well, that's the only explanation. The only one who knew about where the fireworks were being held were you and the Fire Elves. And it appears that the Fire Elves wouldn't normally do something like this. Sure, they may be mischevious sometimes but they're not evil. It's out of their nature to plot something like this. So it appears one of these Fire Elves is something else in disguise. And I may have a theory as to who or what could've caused this." I looked at each of the Fire Elves, and I noticed something. One of the Fire Elves had a Fire Emblem on its cheek. Then it was clear to me what was going on. It wasn't paying attention to me so I picked up a pebble and threw it at it. The pebble hit its target. The Professor gasped when the Fire Elf's eyes grew red as it turned to look at me. It then leaped into the air and began firing arrows at me. I lunged at it, dodging the arrows. When I met it at midair, I backhanded it, knocking it out of the air. It hit the the pebbled street with a thud. It began to glow with a scarlet color and began taking on its true form. This was no Fire Elf, this was a Scarlet Banshee in disguise. The Scarlet Banshee let out a hiss as it disappeared into the one of the towers nearby.

"I figured it had to be a Scarlet Banshee, since they are known for sometimes transforming into creatures of fire and causing havoc. But the good thing is that when they transform, they will have an unusal feature that will make them stand out", I explained to the Professor after taking physical form again. "The scarlet Banshee disappeared into that tower. You and the elves fix the fireworks while I go and take down the Banshee."

I ran down the ramp and towards the tower across the bridge near the Firecat statue. I decided to bring Skelly along in case things got hairy. Sestiva wanted to tag along too so she did since I didnt mind bringing her along. We entered the tower, and waiting in the middle of the empty room was the Scarlet Banshee. It was ticked that we foiled its plot and it wanted revenge. With a snap of my fingers, Skelly sprung into action. He attacked the banshee with a full out tackle, which is a deadly move, coming from a bone drake. But Skelly was then sent flying back by an explosion of fire. The Scarlet banshee had transformed into a Helephant. I then had an idea to take down this thing quicker. I transformed and Ethan took on physical form again. He began casting and Ice Spell. He then summoned a Snow Angel. The Banshee in Helephant form charged toward the Snow angel. Just before it could reach it, the Snow Angel blasted the Helephant with a huge amount of Ice energy, sending it flying back and crashing into the wall. It began to glow scarlet red again and transformed back into its regular Scarlet Banshee form. It layed there, knocked out cold (no pun intended). I took on physical form again. Then something went wrong. The tower was beginning to collapse. It must have been from when the banshee crashed into the wall as a helephant. We had to get out of there fast. We started running out. Sestiva was in front of me. But then she tripped on the way to the door. I ran and quickly picked her up and then made one last dive out of the door as the tower collapsed behind us. It took a few minutes to rejoin the group because the vicinity of the area was clouded in dust from the collapsing of the tower. Finally, I returned to the professor to check up on the fireworks. By the time I got there, I was relieved to find that the fireworks had been repaired.

A few minutes after rejoining the crowd, Falmea began speaking again.

"Sorry about earlier, the fireworks had been sabotaged. But now thanks to the help of a friend, the show can now begin for real this time!"

The crowd cheered as the show of lights began. There were some really neat fireworks. Falmea was truly a master of the flame. The fireworks would explode into a shower of lights and sparks, shining bright lights everywhere. Oohs and ahs came from the crowd as they were viewing this great spectacle. I really enjoyed watching it. After the show, Professor Falmea thanked me for saving the fireworks show. I dont think I would call it 'saving the fireworks show', but it was the least I could do..