Craig of the creek: From beyond the creek

The Emperor's Realm

Craig, Kelsey, and JP were on their raft with Helen and the honeysuckle rangers were all on the raft getting closer towards, the green poncho had stayed behind, to make sure no one went through the overpass while Craig and the newcomer went to sort out the mess in the kingdom, and Will was swimming besides the raft, his head being the only thing showing, will did not want to get on the raft on account of it sinking due to his weight, as they neared the heart of the emperor's domain, Will came out of the water,  slightly surprising this that were in the raft, and spoke "so who was the one who took over your kingdom, did they use fireworks ?"  Raj and Shawn shook their heads "did he use a club ?" Will asked again " yeah, that is what he used, we heard that they destroyed half the throne room in the scuffle with Maya" said Shawn "in the end, he threw both Maya and the king into the maze, they haven't found them yet..." "serves them right for the time they threw us in there." thought Craig before Will began speaking again "well, I know who attacked you, that was Jeremy, he is by far the most ruthless of the darkeners, he is also the heaviest, but his agility surpasses even the most athletic kid, his main weapon, 'the Quake rod' was made by by a... friend of mine back then, they did it by pulling out a root of hickory that had wrapped around a piece of granite" Will explained "not only does it do serious damage to people and structure, if he strikes the earth it will create a small earthquake, strong enough to rank a 0.5 on the Richter scale" at which point JP raised his hand "yes uh... the kid in orange ?" asked Will "what is the Richter scale ?" JP asked "oh, yeah, you still haven't learnt this stuff" Will said with sudden realization before Helen began explaining "the Richter scale is something people use to measure how strong an earthquake is, the higher the number the bigger the earthquake, a Shockwave from Jeremy's thunder stick is about the same of a Shockwave of 12 pounds worth of dynamite going off" "well, yeah, it's exactly that." said Will, astonished at the knowledge of this kid,  before continuing "well, here is the thing, he relies too much on his tech, if you can call it that, and not his senses, if I manage to take his club and use it against him, just like every other time he has tried to take over the Gulch with his friends, you guys try to evacuate people from the castle, it's going to get messy, also, you two" Will turned to Raj and Shawn, "you said that Jeremy tossed them out of the castle and into the bushes ?" "yeah he threw them into a deadly maze" Raj answered "well I need you to find them, they might be seriously hurt" Will told them in a serious tone "we'll try our best" answered Shawn "because we are the-" yeah yeah, I know, the honeysucker troopers" interrupted Will a little impatient "and whatever happens, don't get close to Jeremy, his shockwaves haven't been tested on smaller kids, so it could be a potential hazard to you, Don't get too close, alright ?"  they all noded until they got close to the gate of the kingdom, it was different from when Raj and Shawn had left, there were makeshift scaffolds around the walls of the kingdom, and the mark of the mills were replaced with banners depicting Jeremy's staff, breaking the background of the banner 

 and the kids around were hard at work, they no longer had costumes, but rather normal clothes and were wearing helmets made of tree bark, they passed by with no one saying anything, when they entered the capital, they all saw that it was no longer the same place as before

sure, the capital looked the same, but it felt... off, like someone had gotten rid of something important, but now that it was gone, you couldn't tell what it was, the plaza was empty, but the banners were everywhere, and the castle could be seen in the distance this is when JP spoke "this place freaks me out now, before it was a little intimidating, but now it's all spooky, and what's up with all those hammer flags ?" he spoke quietly "those are banners, they represent they are used to represent who you are, they were very common in the Gulch as a way to claim your base, in this case, the logo represents Jeremy, and the color behind it represents what element he is more familiar with, brown means earth, different colors represent different elements" answered Will casually as they kept making their way through the eerie plaza,  before they hit a fork in the road,  one leading towards the castle, one leading towards the maze, at the exit of which laid Maya and Xavier, both passed out, Will rushed over to them, he checked their pulse, before shouting "they're fine, they just passed out" he opened his backpack and pulled out a water bottle, which he downed in one gulp "shouldn't you be splashing it on their faces to wake them up?" asked Craig confused "no, that was my last drinking water bottle, i'm not about to waste it on some random I barely know" answered will, before looking at Maya "well I've heard of her from when I was 8th grade, I think when she was in 6th, she tried to join baseball but coach wouldn't let her, something about a fiery attitude" continued Will casually as he pulled out a hair-spray bottle "here we go, super-spicy spray" he said triumphantly "this ought to wake them up" Will continued as he sprayed the both of them "what's in the bottle" asked kelsey who was still suspicious of the newcomer "this is super-spicy spray, I brewed this in case my food needed a little spice, but it also has practical purpose, if it is consumed, it will slightly make you slightly faster, and it will even pull you out of unconsciousness because-" "AH ! IT BURNS !" yelled Xavier interrupting Will "GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF ! AH!" he continued yelling until he tripped and fell on a water bucket "yeah, that's how it can make you conscious again..." continued Will "I used jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, water, and a bit of sugar, and salt, along with other spices" finished Will as Maya woke up mumbling "hmm that smells good, did mom make dinner already?" before opening her eyes and seeing Xavier drinking every bit of water from the bucket, a girl she didn't know, Craig and his friends, some rando kneeling beside her, everything was al- wait Craig and his friends?! Maya immediately got up pushing Will over and drawing her bat "what did you little worms do !" she shouted with rage "you tell them Maya !" shouted Xavier who still had his head in the bucket "Xavi, get your head out of the bucket now !" shouted Maya "No because my face still burns !" the former king tried to pull his head out off the bucket, but couldn't "also I'm stuck"  "you cannot be serious" sighed Maya as she facepalmed, she then pulled the bucket out of Xavier's head before turning to Craig and his friends, "look, I don't know what happened, or why you sent that guy after us, but you are going to pay for that !" yelled Maya "they didn't send Jeremy after you guys, he pretty much sent himself"  Will piped in "it's just what they do, don't worry, I'll make sure he won't come back any time soon" Maya didn't know if to trust Will she then looked at Craig and his friends, they seemed to trust him,  "fine, we will help you, as long as you don't take the throne afterwards" sighed Maya "alright....so they are on our side now ?" asked J.P. "looks like it" answered Craig "well I'll make sure they don't try anything funny" sneered Kelsey while pointing her sword at their temporal allies and mortimer chirped in approval, "well, now that we got that settled, how do we get to the castle ?" asked Will, "there is an entrance through the back, guards use it to enter and leave quickly" said Shawn quickly, everyone looked at him "what ? did you all think I was always a honeysuckle ranger?" "OK... well let's go then" finished Will as he started walking towards the Castle.