CHAPTER 32 – THE ABSCONDENCE
Current Time
A pelican broke off a hard chunk of Boston cream pie that it had saved through the winter and fed it to its litter at the base of the red-brick student center. "Alright, I can teleport again. My mojo is coming back" Priya reported to Alexa, who was just a little bit dizzy after the jump. Reconnecting, the fiefdom channels formed simple networks until the scientist heard the pleasant hum of Etheria's voice in her head. "That was better than the cream cloud … well done," she complimented, "the word-signs have been cleared from the entire continent and they are making a final stand in Baltimore Maryland. Hogarth and I are directed the regiments there now. The city and the surrounding landscape have been terraformed by their light beams". "Excellent, this will be an easy cleanup. I'm bringing Alexa and the others should be there by Friday. We'll move on Baltimore on Saturday" she confirmed, then walked into the student center. Running a personal errand, Priya met once again with Hook, convincing him to publish her paper after some preliminary edits. Gingerly he surveyed each page, licking his thumb and turning the page. He did that about one hundred times as the scientist fought an internal battle, and won. White tufts of hair above his ears wagged eagerly as the last paragraph was read, and he looked up to her, nodding in consent, "Approved for consideration by the journal. Very good thesis, you may take a mint on the way out". That night her breathe was minty fresh.
Saturday afternoon a tremor in the air landed somewhere on the outskirts of the coastal seaport. Spell infantry were engaged with a throng of chastity belt robots. Joining them from atop a hill she called "kite shredder!" and the crowd changed into kites that danced as the air was filled with a trembling breeze. Quickly they cut through the metallic army, dicing them into pieces, then returned back to their original shape. Numerous soldiers complained of being able to feel molecules moving underneath their skin, and so she healed them of that ailment. As they entered the city, they passed by harmless streams of sand that fell from upside down shoes. A hovering skull cried ketchup from one eye and mustard from the other to intimidate them, but they continued onward. The towers beckoned, even if the streets were mostly empty. Huddled in an alleyway a group of grim reapers smoked their scythe pipes. Looking farther into the city, a few word-signs that scouted the periphery away from the main group altered the city with their beams, turning buildings into deep fryers into which clouds from the sky dropped, becoming fried clouds that then dripped hot oil like rain onto anyone foolish enough to come close enough. Then the first wave came, attacks by altered clothes-hangers. Imagine a giraffe or zebra with a long neck. Then imagine that neck bent into the shape of a triangle. Opening their mouths, they fired rockets into the ranks of the spell infantry. Fighting ensued, until only a remainder was left. Teddy arrived, with a speech convincing them to join their cause. Eventually the rest of the patrons reinforced with their regiments, each taking a fraction of the city. Baltimore was sealed away by the turbulence from aerial attack, only being accessible by land. Finding they could not contend with their number, the word-signs employed Abscondation to spread them thin, that ability of the turbulence to transport someone far away by random means. Priya pressed forward, knowing that such a tactic could not kill its target. Gradually, their forces were pinned. Lined up defensively in a phalanx at the center for the city, the word-signs waited for their approach, not moving until a man who paced atop a rooftop who had been driven mad by the turbulence lifted up a chocolate chip cookie. Each of the ten chocolate chips parted and rose upwards until each was gobbled up by ten disembodied heads in one bite. That being the signal, the phalanx moved. During the battle Ostigim was absconded away when a pair of blue-jeans came near her and inverted its pocket, which was a sock puppet that gobbled her up. It ran into a dry-cleaners and jumped into a washer. Snow was absconded away after noticing her powers had caused it to likewise winter all across a city block, and she licked a street light post, her tongue getting stuck. The pole lifted up and flew away. After that Dazin was removed as his shadow detached, ran into the street and removed the cover of a manhole, then picked him up and tossed him in. Next Veles was absconded away as tray of ice cubes released its contents. Each of the cubes became an elevator as you would find in a city building, and one of them took her against her will, drifting out of sight. The others followed suit as the word-signs fell, firing their beams with abandon. By then the battle had been won. Not wanting to lose the last of them, Priya grabbed onto the last elevator as it followed the rest, being flown away as well.