Mrs McClain looked up at her daughter, her eyes wide open in shock. Immediately she turned to Rafa and the others.
"What caused this?!" She asked calmly.
Immediately, the others pointed at the blue eyed girl. She looked at them and gasped, taking her mask off.
"What, NO!" She immediately said in her defence. "I only dropped her, I…"
"You dropped her?" Mrs McClain asked, giving her a nasty side eye.
"I'm sorry, my lady," she bowed immediately in reply.
Mrs McClain exhaled, turning her sights back on Juniper. Then she placed her hands on her waist and sighed.
"It's alright Sabrina, that's not what caused this anyway," she replied. "Something else happened." At that she turned to the group, looking at them one by one…and it was then she noticed the alien shooters that they had apprehended. "Anaxmatians," she sneered. "The dumbess bounty hunters in the galaxy."
"They were probably the cause," said the tallest, Rafa that is, as he walked closer to Mrs McClain. "They shot her with something."
"Shot her?" Mrs McClain raised a brow, walking closer to the aliens. Then she picked up one of their strange guns and peered at it as though she was a robot analysing the thing. Then she frowned. "Argatite bullets?!" She growled, "you shot my niece with Argatite bullets?" She stood over them, glaring, with an intimidating aura that sent pure chills down Nugan and his companion's spines.
"Argatite bullets?" The Vilomite holding them down asked, "but those aren't supposed to kill Vilomites, are they?"
"They aren't," Mrs McClain replied, turning her gaze back to Juniper, "but they do act like tranquilizing darts for us Esmeralda, nasty, painful, instant tranquilizing darts."
At the sound of that, all of them took off their masks, revealing each of their faces. There was Amron, Rafa, Esmeralda, Sabrina, and Sarafina. They looked at Juniper with pity all over their faces, then they turned to the Anaxmatians and frowned.
"What do you want us to do with them, Commander?" Amron asked, cracking his knuckles.
Mrs McClain walked closer to Juniper's body. "We'll handle them later," she replied. "I need to calm the Princess down before she destroys this town, for the hundredth time. System activate!"
At the sound of that, a red holographic screen the size of a monitor screen appeared before her, showing her five options to choose from. They were all in a strange language that resembled characters from the Japanese language but with more edge and confusing notes. She clicked on one of the options and suddenly the screen broke, dividing into three separate holographic screens with eight different options on each.
Mrs McClain exhaled, shaking her head. "What to use, what to use," she muttered to herself.
"But how are you going to stop her without the help of Sir Orpheus and Lady Nebula?" Sarafina asked. "Didn't you need their help the last time this happened?"
Mrs McClain groaned. "I did, but they're not here, are they Sarafina?!"
Sarafina pouted. "I was just asking," she replied, folding her hands.
Mrs McClain exhaled, turning back to Juniper. The ball of electricity growing in between her hands was already so big it was the size of an extra sized bowling ball.
"Ah shit, this isn't good," Mrs McClain said to herself. "I can't force her to stop, I might die in the process. Maybe if I…" she attempted to tap on one of the options on the screen on the right, but then she stopped. "No, that won't work. Ah…this could…" her finger suspended before it could tap on an option on the left screen. Then she exhaled, shaking her head, "this is a mess."
Right at that moment, they heard the sound off police sirens approaching the school grounds.
"We've got incoming!" Amron warned.
Right at that moment, Mrs McClain exclaimed, "I've got it!"
Then she tapped on an option on the middle screen and suddenly, a small glowing cube, no larger than a child's lunchbox, materialized above the trio of holographic screens. It hovered midair like a drone—silent, precise, and pulsing gently with an ethereal glow. Every edge of the box shimmered with multicolored light, the hues twisting and shifting in mesmerizing patterns, like glass soaked in northern lights. The air around it grew still, as if reality itself was holding its breath.
Mrs McClain's fingers rose, slow and deliberate, and with a graceful wave of her hands—her fingers outstretched like a maestro guiding her final note—she dragged her palms outward. The tiny cube reacted immediately, expanding with her motion, its sharp corners stretching as if pulled from invisible threads of energy. It grew wider, taller, deeper, until it became large enough to completely encase Juniper's floating body.
The air crackled softly as the cube adjusted its form, rotating once like a satellite adjusting position in zero gravity, and then—snap!—it locked into place. A seamless enclosure of glowing, translucent energy surrounded Juniper, whose eyes still glowed blue with fury and hands still nurtured the plasma ball made of electricity.
The others looked around as the wind they had been fighting to resist suddenly stopped, enclosed by the box created by the commander.
Mrs McClain stepped forward, her feet clicking sharply against the cafeteria tiles. She raised her head, and her eyes began to glow—not softly, not faintly, but in full cosmic blaze, two searing beams of pure blue power lighting her face like an ancient deity awakening. The box shimmered in response, reflecting the same glow, its surfaces pulsing with matching energy that made the entire cafeteria ripple with unnatural light.
And then, in a voice that echoed through the walls like thunder over a quiet sea, she shouted,
"Box of Illusion activate… Birth of Safe Haven!"
At that, the box ignited. A blinding light exploded from its core—so bright, so sudden, that everyone in the room shielded their eyes. For an instant, it was as if a tiny star had been born inside the cafeteria. The glow grew so fierce it painted shadows across the walls, swallowing every color in the room until all that remained was white. And then, there was silence, the light vanished and with it, the box. The holographic box had flickered out.
The three holographic screens before Mrs McClain disappeared, and the ball of electricity that had been growing between Juniper's hands evaporated with a pop, leaving nothing behind but a faint static hum that slowly faded into stillness. Juniper's body, now limp and unconscious, fell forward from the air—like a feather drifting from heaven.
But before she could hit the floor, Mrs McClain was already there, catching her gently in her arms like a mother embracing her newborn. Juniper's head rested against her shoulder, her face calm, and very peaceful. And right at that moment Armed officers in black armor swarmed into the cafeteria through the broken glass windows and the doors, room, their boots stomping loudly across the polished floor, guns raised, flashlights sweeping. Their eyes darted around, alert, breathing heavy, tense.
But they found no one. No living soul stood in sight. Only scattered chairs overturned in chaos, trays lying broken on the floor, and a handful of lifeless bodies crumpled on the ground like discarded puppets.
"Clear!" One shouted from a corner.
"Clear!" Another screamed from the section where the food used to be served.
"It's clear upstairs too!" Another exclaimed.
"That's funny," one of them said as the forensic team waltzed into the scene. "I could have sworn I saw lights in here earlier," he reached into his pocket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and lit one, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke. "Must be these damn cigarettes."