Perfection~ MAL* BOOK 3

the voodoo arcade

The seven V.K.s arrived and parked outside an alley that led to Celia's dad's place. They got off their bikes to follow Celia. Mal noticed her hands weren't wrinkly anymore.

"Hey. I'm me again." Mal said happily as she felt her face and saw her hair was back to its purple color.

"Duh. Evil magic doesn't work here. Kind of the point." Celia pointed out, before walking down the path to a door that had 'Pa Deranje' on it.

"Welcome back." Evie said to Mal.

"Thank you." They followed Celia as she put her helmet down on her fortune table and walk towards the metal door. Celia smiled at the group before knocking on the door. There was a pause before someone on the other side of the door knocked back Celia knocked again and the door opened up. She gestured them inside Dr. Facilier's voodoo arcade.

"Daddy!" Celia called out to her father. Facilier airlifted her up and spun her around.

"Here she is." Facilier said. They did a little dance together, making the V.K.s smile. It was rare for good parents to be on the Isle.

"Come on. And.. And... Ho!" Facilier bent down for his daughter to plant a kiss on his cheek, but Celia flicked his top hat and tried to run. Facilier caught her and hugs her. Etta ran over and jumped on Facilier's back just as they were about to walk away.

"Etta Heart, you's best get off of me." Facilier said. Etta hopped off and was pulling into a bone crushing hug by the Shadow Man.

"Sorry, uncle F." Etta apologized.

"Come here little rascals." Facilier said, pulling Celia and Etta was him to his table of fortune telling. "Ah! So, what kind of hustle you got going on with them shiny people?"

"No hustle. I got friends on the other side." Celia bragged. She went over to grab the key to Hades' lair.

"Ah! I hear you. I hear you." Facilier said before looking at Etta. "What about you, fire child?"

"Nothing much, but I did make sure people know if I lose my temper, they'll lose their head." Etta said, making Facilier smile proudly at his girls.

"We're on a mission." Celia told her father. "I'm kind of a major player so that's why I can't stay long."

"You make sure you get your cut." Facilier reminded. Celia and Etta nodded, understanding.

Carlos, standing by an old model TV, put in a coin to turn it on. He sat down as news of Auradon was the first thing to appear.

"Alerts of the sleeping spell keep coming in as it spreads throughout Auradon." The new reporter said. Carlos was shocked and turned to call his friends over.

"Uh. guys. Come look at this." Carlos called out. The others quickly surrounded him to watch the news.

"There are rumors that Sleeping Beauty's daughter, Audrey, is behind the spell. We're trying to discover who is responsible for these vicious lies, and which villain has perpetrated this evil. We have an update. It's what? It's moving this way? It is moving this way."

Anthony's eyes widened in panic. What if something happened to Araina and his baby? What about Cori? He knew Audrey would try to get to Cori just to get Mal angry. He hoped Orion did what he asked him and is keeping them safe.

*~*~*~*~*

The V.K.s grabbed what they needed and walked out. The first thing when opening the door was to see Harry Hook, Gil and some other pirate sitting on their bikes.

"Wow! Rookie mistake?" Carlos exclaimed.

"Long time nay see." Harry said mockingly as he sat on Jay's bike. A large grin was on his face.

"Get off my bike, Hook." Jay called angrily.

"Catch me if you can, Jay." Harry shouted as he drove away with the other pirates.

"Over the roofs." Anthony pointed out.

"Cut them off." Jay told them. Jay, Anthony, Carlos, and Evie split up to catch up to the pirates. Celia and Etta tried to follow, but Mal pulled them back.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, not you. They got this. We gotta go find the ember." Mal told the girls.

"Good timing." Celia told Mal. "It's right about his nap time." Celia started lead the way towards Hades' lair. They made it to a fenced up cave at the entrance. A skull was in the front and above it was the sign 'GET LOST!'. Celia inserted the key and twisted it. Before she could open the door, Mal got her attention.

"Hey." Mal said, looking at the sign behind Celia and Etta. On the sign was a three headed dog with the word 'Beware'. "How big is that dog?" Celia looked back at her with a grim look.

"You'll see." Celia answered, before opening the door. She walked in first, but turned around to look at Mal and Etta to give them a heads up. "Okay, stay quiet. It echoes, like, crazy in here."

They walked even further into the cave and Mal and Etta jumped at the sound of loud dog barking.

"Come on." Celia gestured for them to keep moving. "Come, come." Etta moved towards Mal and took her hand, a bit afraid of the dogs barking. Mal squeezed the poor girls hand to comfort her, before they moved to bike that had mining hats at the ready. They each turned them on and put them on top of their heads before getting on the bike.

They rid through the tunnels. Blue lights flickered on and on and dog barks echoed from wall to wall. Celia gave Mal and Etta a thumbs up as they came to a stop. They were now in front of Hades' lair. Walking down carefully from the creaking steps of the stairs, Celia pointed at a sleeping Hades on the couch. Next to him was his ember.

All Etta wanted to do was hide. She wasn't ready to confront biological father. They continued down the stairs when the barks started again. That's when Celia smiled and pointed at the record player, where the dog sounds were truly coming from.

Mal was about to walk straight towards Haiti's when Celia stopped her. She gestured for now to go to the right so she could sneak up behind Hades. Mal did so and went behind the curtains to go around. Etta followed but inside stayed there to hid.

As Mal crept behind Hades, Celia walked toward the record to turn it off, since it was annoying her. The action had caused Hades to wake up.

"What are you doing here?" Hades ask Celia without opening his eyes. His shades still on. Etta covered her mouth and sunk further back behind the curtains.

"I noticed you were low on canned corn." Celia said as Hades lifted his head to look at her. She tossed him the can he caught with one hand. The other, however, shot out and caught Mal's wrist just as she had the ember in her hand.

Mal, too shocked to move, it made Hades grab the ember and slowly turn to face her. He leaned in, eye level to her.

"Hi, Dad." Mal said simply. Just with that, Etta pecked out of the curtains with a 'Say what now?' face.

*~*~*~*~*

Sorry for errors.