Chapter 213 - Upsetting

"How was he able to do this without being detected?" Venedette muttered to herself after collecting the fiftieth Feorus rock from the roof of the kitchen.

She watched Von roam around the places they have collected the other Foeruses initially but it was like someone's been putting it back to where they got it from.

"Hey, leave it. I'll take care of this," Venedette said to one of the guards taking care of the sack of Foeruses that she and Von had collected for the past thirty minutes.

"A-Are you sure?" the guard asked with a shaking voice as if he should not leave his post even though the Princess was already asking him to.

"Yes, go join the others," Venedette said firmly and took one of the three sacks of Foeruses that the two guards were monitoring earlier while they were just leaving, and to her surprise, her intuition did not fail her at all.

"Stop right there," she said to the guards whom she just ordered to leave her earlier.

"Care to explain this?" Venedette lifted the sack full of regular stone instead of the Foeruses that she and Von had been collecting earlier.

"W-What?" the guard on the right said in surprise while looking at his partner as if he was not to be blamed here, "I don't know what happened," he even added, making Venedette's temper lose its last straw.

"You," she said to the other guy who was just looking down and hiding his hands under his uniform.

"You don't have anything to say?" Venedette added and noticed him stepping back towards the end of the roof slowly like he was about to do something.

"You caught me," he said, finally making eye contact with Venedette and exposing his creepy smile with that familiar face as he opened his arms and fell on his back, exposing the stolen piece of Foerus on his hands which he did not even bother protecting with a glove or something thick so the fire wouldn't reach his skin.

"No!" Venedette shouted and immediately dropped the sack of Foerus on the floor before zooming in to catch the crazy scientist who was just about to commit some serious trouble to the castle.

"Ahhh!" Venedette shouted when the mad scientist sprayed a handful of Black lily powder to her face and attempted to ignite it with the Feorus rock, but thankfully, Von was quick to respond and held the guy's burning hands away from Venedette's face while in mid-air.

"Mom! Hang on!" Von said and used his full power to pull the guy up higher to the sky while Venedette was still distracted by the powder.

"Argghh! Whatever!" Venedette said and quickly wrapped her hands around the mad scientist's neck and helped Von push him up higher to the sky while her other hand locked the guy's left arm behind him.

"Aghhh! So that was your plan all along! You think we're stupid to fall for that silly little trick?!" Venedette said and tightened her grip on the guy's neck and left arm while trying her best to keep them both balanced without her vision and with Von's help.

"Of course I'm not stupid! I just didn't expect you to catch up to my plan immediately," he said while struggling to get out of Venedette and Von's hold.

"Well, you're stupid for not catching that," Venedette said and knocked his head with a headbutt, making the stupid scientist unconscious and thus, heavier to carry on Venedette's side.

"His hands are melting mom! What can I do?" Von said while keeping a safe distance from the Feorus on the scientist's hands who just lost his consciousness by holding his wrist and elbows instead of his hand while still helping Venedette keep him up in the sky.

"For now, let's bring him a safe distance away from the castle until all the Black lily powder has been cleaned from the air."

"What about the Foeruses on the rooftop?"

"Let's leave Lei and Petunia to take care of it."

"But they can't fly!"

"Then tell them to get Fily and Gem's help! Since we caught this outsider now, there's no need for them to do a lookout on the tunnels now, do they?"

"Okay," Von said and flew ahead of his mom to guide her where they should go while her vision was still obstructed.

And while Von was leading the way, Venedette took it upon herself to give the orders to the rest of the team while using her Stut-hut even with her eyes closed.

***

"They got him! Hey, Fily! Are you there?" Gem said while carefully patting Fily's shoulders and almost had a heart attack when Fily just suddenly inhaled and opened her eyes as if she had just come back to life.

"Huh? Yes, I'm here. Should we go now?" Fily asked and blinked before noticing Gem's awkward position in front of her who looked just like someone who had seen a ghost.

"Oops, sorry. Did I scare you?" she asked and laughed while offering a hand to Gem who was now pouting because of her careless response.

"What happened to that thing you were doing? Did you get what you were looking for?" Gem asked while returning to her normal self.

"I did," Fily said and smiled at Gem even though she was really upset on the inside.

"Okay… Do you want me to carry you? Venedette seems like she really needs our help right now with those lava rocks or whatever that she just left on the roof."

"Sure, I can even blow those black lilies away from the castle with my Super puff."

"Great idea!" Gem said and easily carried Fily with her arms before flashing outside of the tunnel with her super speed.

"Gem! Fily!" Lei suddenly called out to them from the end of the hallway with a tall girl beside him, wearing a lilac dress and sporting silver hair and green eyes.

"Is that Petunia?!" Gem said in shock before stopping precisely in front of them, even blowing Petunia's dress and hair away with her speed's after-effects.

"Yup," Lei responded while Petunia was just behind him, sniffing around and covering her nose from the invisible powder that was spread into the air.

"Gosh, Black lily powder really smells awful," she said and smiled at Gem and Fily who were both dumbfounded by her sudden change of appearance.

"I look awesome, I know," Petunia said as if she was humbling herself before covering her nose again.

"Y-You look like a teenager now. Wow," Gem said before shaking her head and getting her priorities straight, "Fily's going to blow all these away before it spreads to the roof, do you guys know where the Feorus is?"

"It's on the roof," Lei said, also getting his mentality back on track with the current situation and away from Petunia's distracting evolution.

"I know, but which roof?" Gem said and peeked outside the windows hastily.

"You know what? I'll just look for it upstairs," Gem said and immediately sped up away from them and into the tower where she usually hung out with Fily and Petunia before.

"I'll go with her," Lei said and ran without waiting for their response, which left Petunia and Fily to work with each other instead.

"That was fast," Fily said, pertaining to both Lei and Gem's departure and Petunia's improvement with her human age.

"Yeah I know, can you please put this stuff away first? I don't even have my super-senses with me right now but I could still smell them thanks to my memories."

"Fine," Fily said and took a deep breath before performing her Super puff which blew the tainted air away from them and outside of the windows.

"Wait, I need to confirm with Gem first if the Foeruses has been disposed of already," Fily said after stopping with her Super puff.

"Oh, right… There's going to be fireworks in this castle if that happens," Petunia said and sat on the bench while looking away from Fily who felt like she was not in the mood to talk to her at all.

"Nice dress you got there," Fily said and sat beside her, also looking away to avoid the undeniable awkwardness between them which was caused by her insecurities.

"Yeah? It's actually my Gummy cloud-"

"I know."

"And of course you know, I'm not saying you don't know though, is there something wrong? You look upset ever since you saw me," Petunia said in one breath, having a hard time resisting her mouth from spilling her thoughts which she thought was not a good idea because Fily's the type to keep her feelings to herself… well that is of course if she even has feelings other than happy and angry.

"It's not because of you…" Fily finally said and put her head on Petunia's shoulders for the first time, "I think using that potion that Halma gave me for the whole week just exhausted me a lot, both mentally and physically."

"Well then you should go back to sleep now, I'm sorry for bothering you with my problem."

"No, it's okay. I planned to go back to hibernating after this anyway. I still have a lot of pages to unlock, you know?" Fily said and let Petunia hug her, which was, of course, just a cover to the fact that she was really upset but by a completely different thing than what she could tell Petunia and the others.