victory_road | ANOMALY DETECTED

The cat's just a cat, albeit a rather large, pony-sized cat. He has no special abilities to speak of. Keeping distance is a good idea.

"I am safe. I have my magic again, even if only, I suspect, for a brief time. I should be able to protect myself. But if not, I have my pokemon to assist me with keeping me from being harmed."

Actually, the talk of magic gives Geddoe an idea. It's probably a long shot, but doesn't hurt to ask...

"I don't suppose your magic includes some kind of teleportation spell."

You know, to make a quick getaway from the persistent legendary.

"As it so happens, it does."

Even used it a few times.

Back home, of course.

"I can summon one now for us if you so desire."

No guarantees about where you'll end up, of course. It is the Fourth Wall Weekend.

"Why not? Beats waiting for this guy to get cranky again."

Tapu Koko merely tilts its head at that. It has not idea what you're talking about, sir!

Keldor's rather large cat doesn't like the way that Tapu is acting, pretending to be all innocent-like.

Make with the getaway, dad!

"As you wish."

For something as involved as a portal spell, you need all the energy you can muster, and for that, he needs an amplifier.

The Havoc Staff is just such an object.

With the Havoc Staff in hand, he waves it in an arc, with energy flowing from the ram's skull that adorns one end, forming a kind of cloud. On the other side is an other location, but what it is is indistinct, as is to be expected with portal spells.

Oh, Tapu Koko isn't pretending. It just has all the attention span of a toddler on a sugar rush. Not that that really makes matters any better.

Geddoe has to keep his eye on the Tapu, so he can't properly watch Keldor working his magic, just get a vague idea out of the corner of his vision. Once the spell seems to be prepared...

"It'll probably try to follow me, so we'll have to move quickly."

And end the spell as soon as they're through. Geddoe will wait for Keldor to give the okay--it's his spell, Geddoe's not going to jump to conclusions--then book it. He'll just have to trust that Keldor does the same.

"Now," he instructs. "We must go, now."

Panthor doesn't wait for another invitation and hops through. Hopefully there are no other zappy things on the other side.

"You must go next."

Since he's the one casting the spell, the portal will vanish if Keldor goes through ahead of Geddoe.

He doesn't have to tell him twice. Geddoe books it through the portal as soon as he gets the go-ahead. Hopefully Keldor's quick to follow, because it'll probably only take a moment for Tapu Koko to realize it's being ditched and get angry again....

Y'know, when people get shoved into lockers, it's not usually because they're using it as the other side of a portal to get away from tetchy Electric type pokemon who feel like zapping people "for teh lulz".

But the door is shut closed in Keldor's face as he attempts to push it open, causing him to stumble back in surprise.

Apparently, the kid who shut it must've gotten the locker that doesn't seem to close properly long enough to lock without having to hold the door in place [when is the janitor or whoever looks after these things going to fix that?]. Assuming there's a kid on the other side of the door.

"What is going on?" he demands, as if there's someone on the other side who can hear him. The freaking thing won't budge!

Did someone padlock the door behind them as they arrived inside a school hallway? :3

Well this is... it's something, all right. Frankly, Geddoe has no clue what these metal boxes are for, as they're clearly too small to be some sort of jail cell. Also, they're clearly made of metal, which means using his rune is going to be a no-go.

Not that he has much time to think about it before he hears Keldor yelling next to him.

"Can you find some kind of latch?"

It's hard to feel around with gloves on, and even if he wanted to take them off, there's not nearly enough room to do so.

He pats this side of the door, checking for latches, knobs and other handles.

"There is not much I can find. It appears it can only be opened on one side."

And it's a little too cramped to safely do magic, either, so if there's a padlock, something other than the dial might turn.

"Dude!" a muffled voice says. "It sounds like someone's inside your locker!"

"No way! You're hearing things!"

"No really! It's like someone's slapping it or something!"

Well. There's someone on the other side, it seems.

"Assist us, please! We are trapped inside this metal prison of yours!"

"Okay, there might be someone in there. And he talks fancy, too."

Zoar's feathers... He's going to get made fun of for his vocabulary, on top of ending up inside ... whatever this is, isn't he?

"Hmm...."

Well, maybe there's help to be had, maybe there's not. Geddoe's already thinking of an alternative, just in case. There's so little room to move, it makes things difficult, but... Well, perhaps if he twists so that his back is braced against the back of the locker, and his feet against the door, and pushes... Well, we'll see how sturdy those hinges are, won't we?

If the hinges are bad enough that the door needs to be held shut so the lock can be put on, then it's probably worth a shot, at least.

"Hey. Hey!" one of the kids says, hearing the sound of metal straining against a weight being pressed against it. "If this gets broken I'm gonna be in so much trouble!"

The locker is already kinda broken; having weight put on the other side of the door in order to open it won't make it less broken.

"Please stand clear of the door! I do not want anyone injured by my friend here!"

"Could you please speak like a normal person?"

"My diction will be the least of your worries if my friend falls on top of you, so stand clear!"

Well, that confirms he at least has a way out. Geddoe pauses for the moment, though.

"Open the door and it won't be a problem."

"Okay, okay, man. Chill. I'm opening it up."

There's a sound of something being turned, then a click, then finally the sound of metal sliding against metal, which allows the wonky door to open of its own accord, before it's opened all the way by the kid on the other side.

"How'd you all get in the— Whoa! Nice kitty!"

There's doubtless a comment to be made here that Geddoe wouldn't have had to resort to such measures if someone had opened the locker in the first place. Suffice it to say though that rather than trying to explain, he just glances at Keldor after stepping out. It was his magic, after, if anyone has any clue how they ended up here it'd be him. Probably. Hopefully.

It might be his magic, but it wasn't his intent to get them all inside—of all things—a metal box. If anything, he'd put it down to two things:

1: Portals are most effective when you have an idea of where you're going. Keldor was effectively navigating blind; leaving things to chance since "we gotta get outta here" was more pressing.

2: It's been a while since he did any magic at all. Of course he'll mess up a la Orko and have them end up in a locker.

"Easy kitty. Don't eat me or nothin'."

"Panthor will not harm you unless you try to harm me."

He looks about the place while the kid gives Panthor nervous looks. It appears to be a corridor of some kind, with doors along both sides.

"Is this some sort of portal nexus?"

"'Portal'? Dude. You talk weird. What do you mean?"

"What is on the other side of these doors?"

"Oh. Books. Coats. Lunch. Stuff. School things."

"This is a ... school?"

"Well yeah. You're in Canterlot High School. And I'm very late for class. So bye mister. Bye kitty!"

Not the most enlightening conversation, but still enough for Geddoe to get a general idea.

"It's probably just another thing to do with this weekend... You wanna try that spell again, or see if we can just walk out?"

There's always a chance that if a teleportation spell randomly brought them here, walking out the front door will randomly take them somewhere else.

"'This weekend'?"

That's a little baffling. But the thought of doing magic if he can't do it correctly is more concerning.

"I think it would be prudent to walk. I am very much out of practise, and so it might be wise to wait until I am sure that I can attempt anything complex like a portal."

A few magical exercises are in order.

"No one told you?"

Did the weird weekends ever come up in their conversations? Geddoe can't really remember. Certainly they'd first met during one, but he for one had been a bit more focused on making sure a fight didn't break out, or something.

"All right." He's not surprised by that answer, and a quick glance around tells him which way to go, so he starts walking.

It's no fancy intuition, mind, he just spotted the Exit sign.

"What were they supposed to tell me?"

And was he supposed to ask about it? Had he neglected to inquire about something?

Was he too busy acclimating to think about it?

"Are you saying that this is a thing that will happen again?"

Curse his oversight! Why didn't he think to question people about it?

Oh dear. Well, best to clear things up a bit.

"You remember when you first showed up here? You could use magic then, maybe some strange things happened, stuff like that. That only lasted a few days, though."

Around the corner and--ah, there's the next sign. Whoever made this building was apparently quite thoughtful!

"That happens a couple times a year, people like to call 'em 'weird weekends' usually. A lot of strange stuff happens for a few days, then the world's back to normal again."

In Keldor's estimation, this is a school designed to educate those on the lowest rungs of the IQ ladder, if they need to be told what an "exit" is, or which way to go to find it. But he's keeping that thought to himself.

"So I should expect this to happen at regular intervals."

He sighs.

"I cannot believe it did not occur to me to learn more about the last one I experienced."

Maybe that's why he ended up here. He belongs in a place like this if he could commit such an error as that.

Regardless of the intent of the exit signs, they're still terribly convenient just now, so Geddoe sees no reason to complain.

"Yeah, once in the spring and once in the fall, seems like."

Why? No one seems to know. Geddoe had just heard about them by asking around for information for a newcomer in general. It never hurts to gather what you can.

"I think places like this showing up might be new, though."

"At least I can expect them to be punctual."

That's a feature he can appreciate. It makes it easier for him to get ready if he knows what to expect and when.

Especially if it means getting back things like his magic.

"The school is new. But regaining one's magic is something I can expect to happen whenever these 'weekends' occur, yes?"

If the typist says you can have it, Keldor.

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Since it's Keldor's portal, feel free to pick where they ended up!

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