The Crystal Pyramid
By Magan Lee and Kasey Lee
Copyright © 2012 by Magan Lee and Kasey Lee
All rights reserved.
Chapter one - The two friends
Amanda woke up with a cramp in her stomach. She had been sleeping curled up like a cat. She was 10 years old, way too young to be a Master M.P.O.C Agent, but she was one.
A MPOC agent works for the MPOC society. MPOC stands for Magically Protecting Our Country. They use magical animals to protect the country. Like a regular society, there is a president, a vice president, and teachers who teach the newcomers and apprentices. The magical energy power for MPOC comes from the palm sized Crystal Pyramid.
Amanda’s mother was still clueless about Amanda’s status in the M.P.O.C. society. Amanda had ocean blue eyes and long brown hair always up in a ponytail. Her dad had been missing for the past five years.
“Meow…” Amanda’s magical kitty Sebbi cried.
“Not again!” Amanda cried out in frustration. Sebbi had pawed her sleeping mat out of the room for the 5th time!
“Time to wake up!” called Amanda’s mom, Mrs. Smith from the staircase.
“Mew?” Sebbi asked, for food. Amanda reached for a bag of kitty food and-CRASH- she tripped and fell on the floor.
“Meow!” Sebbi cried frantically.
“Honey, are you okay?” her mom called rushing up.
“Yeah, I think so.” Amanda replied as she stroke Sebbi’s head and gently poured her some food.
“Well…”Mrs. Smith said. “Hurry up and get dressed, the bus is coming in 30 minutes.”
“30 minutes!” Amanda exclaimed, grabbing her cat “C’mon Sebbi!”
After a quick breakfast of milk and toast, Amanda heard the sound of the bus nearing. “I’m going!” She cried over her shoulder as she stepped into her sneakers and stuffed Sebbi, who was meowing in protest, into her backpack.
As Amanda raced out to the bus stop, Sebbi meowed at every bumpy step Amanda took. Can you ever be quiet? First for food, now the bumpiness. Amanda angrily thought.
On the bus Sebbi calmed down. Amanda slid into a seat next to Anne Huegs, who’s also a M.P.O.C agent. Amanda and Anne called themselves ‘The A Girls’.
Unlike Amanda, Anne was only a beginner, so she didn’t have a magical pet. Magical animals can transform into the owners’ ‘picked out’ weapons (in this case, Sebbi could transform into a wand/sword). Anne was already in love with Sebbi, even though Sebbi belonged to Amanda.
“Any messages from the society?” Anne questioned.
“No,” Amanda replied, “did you?”
“Half,” Anne told her.
“Liar,” Amanda accused.
“HALF.” Anne insisted loudly. --------------------??
“REALLY?!” asked Amanda excitedly. “I only got a few letters, M-E-E-T-A-T-S-C-H-O-O-L-F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L-F-I-E-L-D. I can’t figure out what they mean.”
“That spells ‘Meet at school football field,’” Anne, who didn’t like sports, replied in a bored tone, then added, “Do you have a B-R-A-I-N?”
“Sheesh” said Amanda with a snort “Do you have to be such a crab?”
“It has to be from Julian! C’mon!” said Anne, brightening up. The bus was just about to stop at a powder blue house. Anne shouted at the bus driver, “We forgot something at home!” and ran off before the bus driver could even react and tell them to call their parents. Amanda ran after Anne, mouthing a quick sorry to the driver.
“Why did you do that?” asked Amanda angrily when they were a safe distance away. “We could be caught! Don’t do that again!”
“You sound just like my mother.” Anne commented.
“Well I’m NOT!” Amanda burst out. “Now stop playing with Sebbi.” She hated when Anne said that.
“Yes, mother.” Anne teased.
“Let’s go!” Amanda commanded, trying to ignore Anne.
“Can we ride Se-?” Anne pleaded.
“NO WAY!” Amanda replied angrily. After a few more pleads, Amanda gave in. She used her pointer and middle finger to touch her heart, then Sebbi’s head, Sebbi transformed. It was an amazing sight to see a cat turn into a magical wand and on both sides, WINGS! It was more amazing to see two girls actually riding on it.
“LOOK! There’s our bus,” Anne pointed out. “If we go just a little faster we would be there 15 minutes before the bus, according to my calculation.”
“Fine, Sebbi would you go a little faster?” Amanda said with a sigh. Delighted, Anne relaxed and enjoyed the ride.
When they landed, it turned out for once…Anne was right. Not a soul was in sight at the football field. Amanda and Anne walked towards the field, half believing that they would actually see Julian Radcliffe.
Julian Radcliffe was their late president. She was struck by artificial lightning bolt, 10 times in a row and died. The KOTW, or King Of The World chemically created the lightning bolt. The only way to bring Julian back to life was to give her soul the Crystal Pyramid. Unfortunately, there is only one and it was currently in the possession of Rose and Rebbeca Cicilio.
They still remembered that faithful night. Their secret MPOC hideout had been found out and several of the faithful MPOC agents had been gunned down with machine guns during the meeting. They had been totally unprepared. Julian was ushering the two A girls towards the exit, where an MPOC escape vehicle had sat waiting. She helped push the girls on. But right when she was heaving herself up, a bolt of lightning shot out of the sky and electrocuted her. But she still had some fight left. She was just about to crawl back up, when another bolt of lightning came, then another... Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam! She got hit ten times in a row. Anne remembered looking towards the lightning bolts and seeing that they had come from a hideous red machine. Smoke had been covering up so much of the machine that she could only make out the shadow of a controller. She quickly turned her head and looked down at the dying Julian Radcliffe. Tears blurred her eyes, and she quickly wiped it off. Amanda tried to look strong as she held Julian’s hand, but anyone could see she was trying to keep herself from sobbing. Julian gazed at them with her kind, brown eyes. “Please,” she said, “I don’t have much longer to live.” “NO!” Amanda and Anne shouted together, “You’ll be okay! Help is coming! It’ll be alright- sob” Julian Radcliff shook her head, “I know I cannot be saved. Just protect the Crystal Pyramid.” Her eyes glazed and the light from them had died.
But even her last dying wish had not been fulfilled. During the invasion, the KOTW had stolen the Crystal Pyramid. Otherwise, they could have revived her in a few days.
Amanda and Anne peered at each other and knew exactly what each other was thinking about. They stepped onto the deserted football field. “Juliann, Juliann?” The two frightened girls called again and again. Suddenly, they heard a loud cackle. Suddenly another cackle sliced through the air. A voice boomed out ‘Hello my pretty ones…” followed by another cackle.
Chapter Two - Tornado Winds
Amanda woke up with aching arms and a quite upset stomach. She was tied back to back with Anne on a chair, hands tied, and their mouths were gagged. Oh No! Amanda thought as she peered out the window at the never-ending sea, we’re trapped on the Tornado Winds, the largest ship in possession of the K.O.T.W.! The owners of the Tornado Winds were Rebecca and Rose Cicilo. They were the harshest sailors of all time. The mouth gagging didn’t bother Amanda. She opened her particularly big mouth and pushed the cloth out with her tongue. In the corner of the room, she saw the sacred Crystal Pyramid, which the K.O.T.W. stole from M.P.O.C.. Scared to think what would happen if the K.O.T.W. used the Pyramid, Amanda shook her hand hardly, trying to wake Anne up. Finally, Anne w
oke up.
“Meow…” Sebbi mewed, crawling out of the backpack.
“Sebbi!” cried Amanda surprised they didn’t tie her up. “Would you claw through these ropes?” Amanda asked in cat language.
Meow… was the respond.
“Oh great, no hope. I thought you were the one with the brain.” Anne said discouraged.
“I am.” insisted Amanda. Just then, the ropes around Anne loosened and fell off.
“Good Sebbi, Sebboo” cooed Amanda. The ropes on Anne also fell loosely on the floor. Then suddenly, the door swung open. Out came Rebecca and Rose Cicilo. They looked startled for a second, but quickly recovered. “GET ‘EM!!!” Rebecca and Rose shrieked at the exact same time. In came running many mad servants with all sorts of different weapons, but none of them had a gun.
“TRANSFORM!!!” yelled Amanda and Sebbi did. This time, Sebbi turned into a long jeweled sword. The beauty of the sword awed many servants, which gave Amanda an advantage of knocking some of them down. But Anne didn’t have a weapon. Fortunately she picked up a knife from a dying chef. But the chef was not about to give up the knife. He clung onto it until he was dead. By the time Anne had full grip on the knife a maid had a knife above her and was about to stab her. Anne dropped to the floor and rolled- just barely -out of the way. Anne had known rolling into a wall would come but just not so soon. As her body crashed helplessly against the hard wooden wall as the maid held the knife with two fingers, her frown turned into a smirk and asked, “Nowhere to roll, eh?” As Anne was about to answer, the maid fell backwards, dead. Behind the dead maid, Amanda stood smiling. As soon as Anne saw that everyone was dead or had fled, she grinned and gave Amanda a thumbs-up. But then the ship started to shake violently. “What’s happening?!” Anne shouted. Before Amanda could answer, water flooded the ship and they soon found themselves waist deep in the water. “Run!” Amanda shouted as she un-transformed Sebbi and put her in the backpack. Anne looked around furiously for the Crystal Pyramid, but Rebecca and Rose already took it, and they were jumping into the sea from an open window. Anne thought, we’d have to get it later. By now, the water was already up to their necks. Anne cracked open a window with her fist, took a deep breath and dove out. Amanda did the same, although it was harder because of her floating backpack.
Chapter Three - Salamander Beach
When they finally reached land, they were soaking wet. Sebbi was now clawing the backpack trying to get out. When Amanda had enough strength to un-zip the backpack, Sebbi climbed out half dead. She took two steps and collapsed onto the soft beach sand.
“SEBBI!” Amanda and Anne cried at the same time. Amanda rolled Sebbi on a leaf of a coconut tree and tried to push the water out of her. After many pushes, Sebbi managed to meow softly for food.
“Quick!” Amanda commanded, “Reach into my pack and pull out some Cat Crisps.”
“It’s empty!” Anne exclaimed. “Now what?”
“Get my ham sandwich” Amanda instructed franticly. “Give her the ham!”
Anne fished through Amanda’s backpack. She quickly found the plastic bag containing the sandwich. Fortunately, the plastic bag had kept all the water out. Anne ripped a large chunk off of the ham and gave it to Sebbi, who mewed for more. Soon, Sebbi had finished the whole ham, but she was still not satisfied.
“Here, hold her!” Amanda said, handing Sebbi to Anne. “I’m going to climb the coconut tree for 3 more coconuts.”
“Okay!” agreed Anne, happy that she was going to get a coconut to eat. As it turned out the coconuts weren’t very ripe. Amanda broke open the coconuts with a rock and let Sebbi drink the juice. After their meal the sun had already set, so the three couldn’t return home.
Anne looked for a sign that said Salamander beach. Her family had come here for vacation, so she knew that it was about 45 miles from home. Tomorrow, the girls thought, we will venture home first thing in the morning. They built a mini shelter among some trees and settled in.
That night was the creepiest night yet for Amanda. She had never spent a night away from home. For Anne, the night was no different from the rest. She had run away from home exactly 15 times.
In the morning, the girls flew home on Sebbi who was still very tired and could go no faster than a boat without a motor.
The mothers, on the other hand, were very anxious until the girls came home. The girls were greeted with plenty of hugs and kisses. After a day or two though, the girls faced their consequences. They were grounded and had to promise a bunch of boring things like ‘I would never run away from home again’ and ‘I would NEVER skip school again’. After their promises they lost some privileges like ‘no internet’ and ‘no jumping out of windows’.
Chapter Four - The Meeting
*WOOF…* A dog barked outside. The dog kept barking until Amanda opened the door. It was Scruffy, Anne’s (UN-magical) dog. Scruffy had a bright red note taped to his Royal Blue collar. It must be from Anne, Amanda thought. As she took the note, she wondered what it could be; they were both grounded and lost the same privileges such as being forbidden to use the phone.
“Amanda!” Her mom called from the kitchen, “Don’t you DARE sneak out the door!”
“Okay.” Replied Amanda absent-mindedly. The note said: Meet me at the place in the park at M-i-d-n-i-g-h-t –Anne. Sheesh, Amanda thought. She wandered up to her room and sat down at her desk. In her messy handwriting she wrote: Okay crab. Bring some food or I’m NOT going! –Amanda. She found some wax in the kitchen and melted it. Then she ‘waxed’ it to Scruffy’s collar. She whistled and called, “Back, home, Scruffy!” As soon as she said it, Scruffy took off.
Soon after Amanda was tucked in for bed, she heard the sound of the TV downstairs. That meant that
Mrs. Smith was up and alert. After some hours that seemed like years, the TV turned off. Coast is clear, Amanda thought. She whistled softly and Sebbi ran up. After a midnight snack of bread and cheese, they climbed down an old piece of rope that Amanda had tied to the maple tree outside her window. She had used it often to sneak out of the house to meet with Anne.
Amanda noted that she wasn’t “jumping” out of the window as she swiftly slid down the rope. As they reached the ground, Amanda wondered if the fallen oak tree in the park was towed away yet. It was one of their all-time-favorite-hiding-spot, and the place where they would be meeting. But ever since the lightning storm struck the tree, there were always construction workers at the site by day. Amanda walked into the park and found that it was not towed away yet. She sat down at the base of the tree and waited. She had no doubts that Anne would have any problem sneaking away. After all, she had snuck away from home 15 times.
Chapter Five - Spike and Rose
When Anne reached The Place, she was a bit late.
Anne was about to shout out an apology to the shadow under the oak tree when she realized that it was a very ‘colorful’* man, and not Amanda. That man was covered from head to toe with strange tattoos. He had a Mohawk which was dyed pink, wore a t-shirt with an M.P.O.C. STINKS sign on it, and was a little bit on the large side. He was texting someone. As her eyes looked around for Amanda, she located two mysterious shadows. Anne quietly approached the shadows and saw that one was Amanda. She was holding the note in her hands. The other person was too dark to make out. The stranger and Amanda both saw that Anne was approaching. Amanda ran over and the dark figure paused for a moment, and quickly whistled really shrilly. Startled, Anne looked up. The colorful man also heard the whistle, and stomped over.
“Sup, captain Rose?” the tattooed man asked.
“How’s your day, Spike?” The dark figure that was Rose replied sweetly. “Can you do me another favor by catching these,” She paused glaring at Amanda and Anne, “Rascals?” She finished looking innocently.
“ No problemo!” Spike boasted. Amanda and Anne jumped up and sprinted away as Spike charged after them. After a few minutes of chasing around a tree Spike gave up. ??
? Too f-fast!” Spike stammered breathlessly. Rose shrieked, “You useless piece of garbage!” and quickly hopped onto her red motorcycle and chased after the girls. The frightened girls ran off quickly. They ran out of the park and into a dark alley with a lot of twists and turns. The A girls had no idea where they were, only that Rose was a hair length away from them. Rose snarled and flexed her talon-like nails. Amanda and Annie ran faster, but were so busy looking behind them that they didn’t notice the giant wall that loomed in front of them. They ran into it.
Annie cried, “It’s a dead end!” As they turned around, they heard a shrill, cruel laugh and saw a helmeted Rose on a motorcycle heading straight for them. The motorcycle skidded to a halt in front of them. The motorcycle’s headlight beamed on them. Amanda and Annie shaded their eyes with their arms. Rose grabbed out a handgun from her back pocket. Amanda immediately put her hands up, Anne followed suit.
Rose snarled, “You ought to be glad the boss wanted you alive, or else I would’ve killed you both without using a bullet.”
“That’s not possible.” Anne muttered under her breath.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of screeching tires as a long, sleek, black limousine pulled up next to Rose. Amanda and Annie peered hopefully at the limo, hoping it was someone from the M.P.O.C. Society coming to help. But as the window rolled down, the string of hopes snapped. Spike leaned over the window with sunglasses on his eyes and a cigarette in his mouth.
He cackled, “Rose, you should be happy I stole this limo for ya. It cost me three minutes!”
Rose puffed back her smooth, blond hair, batted her eyelashes and said sweetly, “Thank you, Spikey-hun.”
They immediately turned back to the girls, who were staring awkwardly at them.
Rose broke the silence, “Shall we do the business?”
“’Course.” Spike replied with a sly smirk on his face. They left the girls wondering what “The Business” was. They soon found out. Spike came out of the car with a giant club in his hand. The girls were knocked out cold.
Chapter Six - Mansion
Amanda woke up in the limo with a searing pain in her back. She remembered where she was and looked around. Anne was still out cold next to her. Amanda tried to yell for help, but soon found out that her mouth was sealed with duct tape, pink duct tape. Her arms and legs were bound together by rope. So was Anne’s. Suddenly, Anne woke up. They looked out the limo window, and gasped. What they saw was a giant mansion larger than a castle and even more magnificent. The mansion itself had six floors, and countless rooms. Around the bright green lawn, many statues and fountains were erected. These were many statues of a particular man. Amanda thought she remembered this particular person, but couldn’t quite lay her finger on it.