by Libbylawrence
Meanwhile, back in the Land of the Nightshades, King Lareden was watching in amazement along with the golden Melisaunde as the heroes acted upon Mark Merlin’s hastily explained plan.
“Barbie, honey, you have some very special talents,” the sleuth of the supernatural said to the little blonde girl. “You can do things nobody else can do. You ended up here when you made yourself go bye-bye from your home. You do that from time to time, right? You go to your secret place?”
Young Barbie frowned and pouted as if she was about to cry, when suddenly her eyes brightened, and she smiled playfully.
The Blue Beetle whispered to the Peacemaker as they watched, “Mark said he detected true magic in the little girl. He thinks she can get us to the place the magical Porpentine was taken. I hope he’s right.”
“I agree,” said the Peacemaker. “I’d hate to think one little girl’s whim might land us all in some lost limbo.”
“Will you please take us all to your special place?” asked Mark. “Please?”
Barbie smiled brightly, and the Sentinels of Justice and those that had traveled here with them vanished from view.
King Lareden turned to the beautiful archer Melisaunde and said, “That Merlin is brilliant. The magic he detected came not from the mysterious source he spoke of, but from young Barbie. That child had the power to take them to the other-dimensional realm in which Eve is being held. She could make the journey and take them as well. How bizarre, since she seemed like nothing more than a frightened child.”
“And you long to be by their side,” said Melisaunde. “You would die for your sister, but duty calls. This poor liberated realm needs a king, and that dictates that you stay here while others fight your battles. It is the very fabric of the royal paradox. You rule others but may not exercise your own free will.”
Lareden kissed her hand and said, “Yes. I know, but I do not like it.”
***
In the Citadel of the Cuckoo in the Jewelled Land, the Tantoblin and Wilkinson watched uneasily as the Cuckoo gloated on its throne. Two silent Black Guardsmen, standing at each side of the Cuckoo, carefully placed upon their wicked master a massive suit of black armor that gleamed with the colors of the rainbow. Its helmet resembling that of a huge cuckoo bird, while its breastplate with elaborately carved, embossed wing pattern contained the Porpentine along with twelve magic jewels arranged in a circle around it.
“Oh, I know what both of you are thinking,” said the Cuckoo, whose voice was deepened, altered by the suit of armor. “You think that, because the commanding power of my voice is neutralized by the Porpentine when it is empowered in this way, you might be able to finally free yourself.”
“Not I, my Lord,” the Tantoblin said eagerly.
“Nor I,” Wilkinson added nervously.
The Cuckoo laughed. “I know you both better than you know yourselves. Tantoblin, you regret giving me your own jewel and feel lost without its magic, which made you what you once were. As for you, Wilkinson, you are torn between being mad at me for tricking you about Princess Barbara and also wanting your own revenge for me enslaving you. Don’t worry, though — while my order for you to hunt down the fake princess was just a trick to fool that woman while she watched us from the shadows, I will reward you when the Jewelled Land is finally in my complete power.”
“What will happen when you try to forcibly tap into the magical power of the united twelve jewels and the Porpentine together?” asked the Tantoblin, nervously wringing his hands. “Will such a tactic not threaten the very fabric of this realm?”
The Cuckoo smiled beneath the beaked armor and said, “What’ll that matter? I’ll be the Jewelled Land itself, and the world will take the shape I want it to take, if I let it live at all!”
At that moment, Barbie’s magic transported the Sentinels of Justice and their fellow travelers into the throne room. As for Barbie herself, she discovered that she was now twice her age, appearing to be a girl around fourteen years old, her red little girl’s dress now transformed into a lavender ballroom dress that fit her perfectly.
The Black Guard rushed at them from all sides, and Booster Gold smiled as he felt his costume’s equipment come back to life once again. “Boosterrific! My gear is working again!” he said elatedly, holding Barbie back with his left hand as he aimed his right and shot a bolt of energy at the floor before the Guardsmen. The melted rubble stopped them cold as the heroes prepared for battle.
“We need to find the jewels and Eve,” said Liberty Belle.
“Well,” said the Blue Beetle, “since ol’ Beak-Face over there is wearing them on his fancy armor, I’d say we’ve accomplished the first mission.”
“I know the girl lacks real experience with her magical powers,” said Felina, “but did she have to bring us right to the creep’s house?”
“Fifi, the gems are here,” said Belle. “I think that’s what Barbie’s power reacted to.”
The Countess hissed as guards closed in on them. Assuming the form of a bat, she soared over their heads even as the agile Felina bounded over the same startled guards.
Liberty Belle kicked out at Wilkinson as the rat pulled a gun out of his trenchcoat and aimed it at her heart. “Don’t have any magic powers, huh?” she quipped. “Don’t feel bad. Once we put you in the dungeon, you’ll have years to practice some card tricks.” Wilkinson admired her beauty even as he tried to aim the gun, but one swift kick sent it flying from his grasp.
The Peacemaker lived up to his one-man-army reputation as he found that his many weapons actually worked in the Jewelled Land. He blasted away at the Black Guardsmen with concentrated plasma blasts that stunned but did not kill them. Nearby, Blue Beetle blinded others with strobes from his BB-Gun. Felina, meanwhile, crashed into the Guardsmen and hurled them bodily across the room, clearly relishing her newfound powers. The Countess swooped down as a bat and drove back other Guardsmen as Liberty Belle and the Beetle lashed out at them with their own skills.
Lady Quark faced down the Cuckoo himself. “You sit upon a throne, yet you demean the very ideal of royalty by your base and ignoble nature.”
“Really?” said the Cuckoo, grinning beneath the beaked armor. “That may very well be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. I may make you my maidservant once I teach you proper manners.”
Lady Quark’s eyes flashed as the energy crackled across her golden costume, and her power surged to fill the room. This power was soon halted when the Cuckoo smothered it with one raised hand, causing black energy to surge through the hall, laughing coldly as the Sentinels collapsed and fell as one.
“I am supreme here!” the Cuckoo cried. “You have brought the true Princess Barbara to me. I’ve already recovered the scattered jewels, as you see, and I’ve added the Porpentine to my breastplate. Now, while you watch in helpless fear, the Cuckoo will become one with the Jewelled Land!”
The Tantoblin watched nervously from the side. He had reluctantly surrendered his own jewel to his evil master. With all twelve magic jewels and the Porpentine gleaming on its armored chest, the Cuckoo was indeed powerful. Wilkinson nursed the bruises Liberty Belle had given him, but he said nothing.
The Sentinels of Justice each knew that in some way the wicked fiend was about to become an absolute power in this strange dimension. They also still dared to issue their challenge despite knowing that the Cuckoo would be unbeatable after that ascension.
As all of the jewels began to glow brightly on its armor, the Cuckoo cried out, “Now nothing shall stop me!”
Mark Merlin whispered furiously to Booster Gold, who had already placed Barbie into’s Felina safekeeping. Mark and Booster raced forward and shouted, “This might!” He hurled his cat pendant at the Cuckoo, while Booster projected his force-field.
The field was not generated around his own body, but tightly contained the Cuckoo’s form and the magic surging through its glowing armor. As the raw power had no escape route, a brilliant explosion soon shook the room.
“Did he trap the Cuckoo within that dimension in the pendant as well?” asked Lady Quark.
Liberty Belle shook her head as the light dimmed and she saw a second figure fighting within the tightly constructed force-field. “No,” she cried, “but he’s freed the Succubus!”
Indeed, the black-and-white-striped woman loomed above them all as something in the contact between the pendant and the jewels on the Cuckoo’s armor had released her from her prison.
Shocked, Booster Gold shouted, “Merlin, you blew it this time!”
Mark Merlin shook his head and said, “I know what I’m doing. Don’t you see? We couldn’t stop the Cuckoo, but she just might be able to do it for us.”
The Countess stomped both of her high-heeled boots and said, “Are you just stupid? If she gets all that power instead of him, she’ll crush us all like bugs!”
“One foe at a time is enough for me,” said Liberty Belle. “Look — she’s furious!”
The Succubus was radiating power of her own as she clawed fiercely at the Cuckoo’s armor, shrieking, “You used me! You lied to me! You promised me an army, when all you wanted was for me to secure the jewels for you!”
The Cuckoo’s shredded armor began to crumble as power cascaded through its glowing body. “Of course that’s all I wanted. I’m the Cuckoo. What I want is the only thing that matters!” The jewels began to float off its crumbling armor and hover between them, slowly revealing the Cuckoo’s hidden form as the Succubus continued her fierce assault.
“Her magic is trying to steal the jewels,” guessed Belle. “And she may just succeed.”
“That’s my pink necklace!” Barbie cried. “I had it for my birthday, but then it got lost. I looked for it everywhere, but couldn’t find it!”
“She means the Porpentine,” said Felina. “She must have come in contact with that magical gem at some point.”
Booster Gold told the former little girl, “Honey, I’ll buy you a whole jewelry store after I take down Mr. and Mrs. Warmth over there.” He cursed and said, “Merlin, I just lost my force-field. The energy’s been drained. Forget what I said before — I still trust you. Only, what’s the plan?”
“We let one of them access the power,” said Mark Merlin.
At that moment, Eve Eden rushed into the room and hurled herself in the direction of the struggling pair. When the Cuckoo had received the rush of raw magical feedback caused by the combination of its spell, Mark’s pendant, and Booster’s shield forcing the energy back into his own body, it had lost control of the living castle, including the dungeon below.
Eve had led the Hieromancer and Colonel Knowledge, along with several other prisoners, to freedom. She was happy to see her friends, but her duty was clear. She had a plan, and she vowed to carry it out or die trying. As she reached the combatants, she shifted to semi-shadow form and then back again with each hand on one of their bodies. An explosion knocked her through the air as the Succubus and the Cuckoo, engulfed by magical fire, fell to the ground.
Lady Quark rocketed skyward and caught Eve in midair. “Are you hurt?” she inquired.
“My bruises have bruises,” said Eve, “but I’ll live. Thanks for the catch!”
“Guys?” said Booster Gold, taking a few steps toward the fallen despots, who had both been knocked unconscious by the magically empowered explosion. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
The other Sentinels moved forward and saw what their teammate was pointing at. There, next to the Succubus — who was nearly a dead ringer for Eve Eden except for her chalk-white skin and black stripes — was the Cuckoo, whose armor had shattered to reveal her true form, that of a little blonde girl in a red dress who would have been Barbie’s perfect twin if the latter hadn’t suddenly doubled in age upon entering the Jewelled Land.
“She looks just like me,” said Barbie. “Why does she look like me?”
“She might look like you, kiddo,” said Booster with an assuring smile, “but she’ll never be as awesome as you are.”
“We may never know exactly why these two look like they do,” said Liberty Belle. “But I suspect the Succubus and the Cuckoo may be more similar in nature than we’d realized. Perhaps, in seeking to usurp the rule over these respective realms, certain demonic entities had to infiltrate the royal families from within, being born to them, and thus ended up with a family resemblance. If we ever track down the Incubus, the male counterpart of the Succubus, we might discover that he looks a lot like Eve’s brother.”
Mark Merlin rushed over to retrieve the fallen jewels. “I’m guessing these belong to you good folks,” he said as he started handing them out to the liberated prisoners.
The Countess, watching the scene, wondered if she could use one of her new powers here, and concentrated. Suddenly, the rodent in the trenchcoat called Wilkinson swung back one clawed paw and reached up to slap the Tantoblin across his face. The gray-clad, white-bearded man had been edging forward to slyly grab one of the jewels of power for himself or his master.
Felina then pounced on the Tantoblin, knocking him to the floor before he could take any of them. She sat on his back and pinned him to the ground with ease. “You don’t get any gems, bud,” she said.
The very round Colonel Knowledge likewise struck Wilkinson down flat with one beefy hand and said, “My word, I’ve wanted to do that for ever so long!” The gaunt Hieromancer, clad in a new robe, nodded approvingly at his old friend.
“Aw, lemme alone,” grumbled Wilkinson, rubbing his fur in pain. “I’m no longer under the Cuckoo’s power, ya dimwit! The Bride of Dracula over there freed me. And if you want things to stay that way, by Murphy, you’d better put a muzzle on it while you still can!”
“He’s got a point there,” said the Peacemaker, kneeling down next to the Cuckoo, where he bound and gagged it before it could awake, even as Booster Gold distracted Barbie from the sight of her evil twin by handing her the Porpentine.
Lady Alianora appeared in the room at that moment. “With the Cuckoo no longer in power,” the white-dressed woman said, “my own magic allows me entrance here. I will secure the Cuckoo in a place where it can no longer influence anyone again. It will pay for its crimes, and the Succubus as well.”
Leaning down, Alianora kissed Barbie and said, “You will be fine, my child. We will return you to your home, and you will remember this merely as a dream. One day, when you are of age, I shall return and bring you back here, where you will fulfill your true destiny as Princess Barbara.” Barbie nodded sleepily, smiling as she held her necklace.
“You set me up,” said Eve. “You wanted me to end up here so the Cuckoo could get the Porpentine. Why did you want him — or, uh, her — to obtain that powerful artifact and the twelve jewels, knowing how much power it could give her?”
“I can answer that,” said Mark. “She didn’t — she only wanted it to think it had them all. Your capture made that seem likely. See, the Cuckoo never had all the real jewels. I left one of them, an emerald, on Earth when we first accompanied the Succubus to her realm. I could tell she was posing as you, since I sensed her true nature when our hands touched. Using an old stage trick of my Uncle Mort’s, I palmed the magical gem and gave her an ordinary pendant I’ve been carrying around with me since we left Eve’s apartment. I wanted the Succubus to try to tap into that power, figuring it would be like trying to run a machine with a missing fuse, which would short-circuit her. It did, which is why I didn’t mind if she or the Cuckoo tried their spell with what they thought were the real jewels. I knew one was a fake.”
Mark turned to the white-dressed regal woman and extended his hand. “Lady Alianora, here is the true emerald for you to give to whoever deserves it most,” he said with a courtly bow as he gave her the jewel.
“Who are you?” Eve asked him suddenly. “You remind me of someone I know.”
“I’m Mark Merlin,” he said, smiling warmly. “You knew me better as Memakata. It’s… a bit of a long story.”
“Eve, with the Succubus down for the count, you can return safely to the Land of the Nightshades any time you want,” explained the Peacemaker with some satisfaction. “In fact, you have family there. We established your brother as the Nightshade realm’s new ruler. He’s a great guy, and he’s eager to see you again.”
Eve, whose eyes had begun tearing up as he told her about her brother, hugged him and wept softly. “I’ve prayed for a reunion for so long,” she said.
“My daughter,” said Alianora, “you have saved the Jewelled Land and truly deserve the title of Princess Royal. It was your quick thinking that defeated them both so completely.”
“Yeah, what did you do, Eve?” asked Booster. “I thought just tossing a house on them would do the trick.”
Eve smiled and said, “I tried to shove them both briefly into and out of the Nightshade realm. I couldn’t get there from here myself, but I figured forcing them into such an attempt might distract them long enough for all the magic they were channeling to stun them.”
The Countess turned to face Alianora and said, “What about me? I need you to change me back to my stunning self.”
“I am sorry,” said Alianora. “The magic that changed you is alien to my own. No one can restore you except for the Succubus, and we dare not allow her to access her former power. I intend to dampen her senses so I may contain her here along with the Cuckoo.”
The Countess gasped and said, “You mean I’m stuck like this?”
Felina bounded over and said, “It’s not so bad. Maybe we can join the Sentinels and see the world. We can even be heroines. We’ll get through it.”
“Countess, you’re a great actress,” said Booster. “You can play Countess Von Bludd on the big screen as well as the TV. I’ll buy the rights to her. Why, you could be another Vincent Price.”
She sniffed and said, “You mean, I could be a star again?”
Booster grinned and said, “Horror movies are big at the box office this year.”
Liberty Belle led Felina aside and asked, “Maddy, you really don’t mind your new look?”
The former supermodel Maddy Lopez smiled and said, “I love it. I feel so free, and I wouldn’t change back for all the swimsuit cover shots in the world.”
Alianora whispered to Eve as they prepared to leave, “I have rewarded you for your efforts, dear. The magical time-displacement between this realm and your Earth will be a boon to you. You will see.”
“I don’t think I understand, but thank you,” said Eve.