PIPER GRABBED THE Codex piece and ran for it, but Dreadbane leapt onto the carousel. He blasted her with his sword, sending her flying. She fell and skidded across the pavement. The Codex piece tumbled away in the other direction.
Tazma stared up at the sun, raising her arms to cast a spell. “Shadowy powers, fill the sky,” she called out, “with the most savage of steed, the dark pegasi!”
Dark magic erupted from her hands, turning the horses on the carousel into shadowy, winged creatures that broke free of their reins. Dreadbane and his army climbed on top of them and flew into the air.
“Bring me the Codex piece!” Dreadbane shouted as he circled menacingly above the girls. “And destroy the Mysticons.”
“Never!” Arkayna shouted as she ran to the Codex piece. She was closing in, but then Dreadbane swooped down and fired a blast that sent her flying.
Em fired her Star Sword’s energy at Dreadbane, but a skeleton blasted her. Zarya and Piper tried to strike back with their arrows and hoops, but the skeletons closed in on them, sending them running for cover. Tazma raised her arms in the air again, summoning shadow tendrils. They tangled the Mysticons in their dark web, trapping them.
“They’re all yours, my liege,” Tazma said.
Dreadbane swooped down on his pegasus and hovered in front of Zarya. “You are nothing, Mysticons,” he growled. “You are curs. You are whelps. You are the dirt beneath my boot. Prepare to meet your doom.…”
SCHTAAAACK!
Something small and hard hit Dreadbane, throwing him off his horse. He fell to the ground with a thud. “What was that?” he shouted.
The Mysticons turned to see Doug standing beside the Mysticons’ griffins. “Twinkly Mare!” he shouted. He’d found his toy—and used it to stop Dreadbane.
But before Doug could do anything else, Tazma shot her dark magic at him, tying him up in its web. He frowned at the Mysticons. “Sorry, girls … that’s all I got.”
The Mysticons and Doug watched in horror as a skeleton presented the Codex piece to Dreadbane. They fought against the magic holding them, but it was no use. They were trapped.
As soon as Dreadbane had the piece, he walked over to the girls, raising his sword in the air. He was about to land a final blow when a familiar voice called out to them.
“No horsey’s too small for Twinkly Mare!”
Barnabus, the security goblin, jumped off the balcony and came flying down. He shined his flashlight in Tazma’s eyes, blinding her. Then he landed directly on Dreadbane, knocking him to the ground.
“My eyes!” Tazma screamed as she wheeled around, her magic weakening.
Barnabus ran up to the Mysticons with a vacuum cleaner from the mall. It was the perfect gadget for sucking up the dark energy holding the Mysticons captive. Barnabus also noted that it was currently on sale.
The Mysticons jumped onto their griffins and began a new attack from the air. Piper flew down and snatched up the Codex piece. She cracked it open, and orange energy rose up into the air as a giant phoenix. Then the energy swarmed around Piper’s wrist and turned into a bracer there. “Let’s celebrate!” Piper said, aiming the bracer at Tazma and Dreadbane. The two villains backed away, terrified.
Piper fired. An orange energy bird flew out of the bracer, spiraling toward Tazma and Dreadbane. It was Piper’s Phoenix avatar. It knocked them both down, then flew up into the sky, taking out a row of skeletons. The remaining skeletons retreated, but the Mysticons chased after them.
“Stay and fight!” Piper called, feeling the rush of her new power. “Stop being such scaredy-skeletons!”
The other Mysticons laughed as the skeleton army retreated into the distance.
“You did good, kid,” Zarya said to Piper. “I guess we can be Mysticons and also have fun.”
Piper smiled. Maybe she’d accidentally led Dreadbane’s army into the mall, and maybe she’d accidentally drawn their attention to the Codex piece, but the Mysticons had gotten it back, and no one was hurt. As the most impulsive Mysticon, she was always going to make a mistake here or there, but all the Mysticons could see that she’d done some things right, too. She was growing and learning.
And when Dreadbane came for them again, she’d be ready.