"Who's Calvin?" I asked. "Lisette said his name before the trial started."
"Me."
The voice came from above me, and I looked up to see the frowning ginger who totally gave off intimating vibes. I tried to fight off the urge to cringe before I pouted my lips and then pointed at him.
"Why are you being all intimidating to a stranger?"
"What?"
"You're hovering like that, as if you're going to start stuff. I'm an innocent bystander!"
"Who fell from the sky, on top of our girlfriend, with orange hair, odd eyes, and an aura that's a little too threatening for my liking," he dryly voiced. "Now who the fuck are you? Answer or I'll pull my gun out and shoot your brain-" He paused before he looked to the sky. "Oh for fuck's sak-" He took three steps back but couldn't avoid the collision. Someone crashed right on top of him, and the two of them crashed into the ground.
"And I OOP-" the four quads announced while Jade squealed. "Visitor! Kill!"
She moved to start skipping around the two as the suited person sat up to brush their suit. "Jeez. I'm not doing that again. Go find our Notorious Queen, they said. I'm their only hope, they said. I swear, I'm beating Connor up."
"Kaito!" I said in glee as he turned his head to look in my direction. His annoyed face morphed into relief. He then looked down at the guy he'd fallen on. "Who are you?"
"Fuck off," Calvin growled and tossed Kaito right off of him.
"Sorry," Jade apologized. "Calvin's a bit cranky today."
"Every day," the quads announced.
Kaito sat up to look in their direction. "Holy crap. Quadruplets? That's a first. We have a bunch of twins where we are," he voiced.
Zackery chuckled. "Trust us. We have a twin problem here as well," he concluded.
"KILL!" Shadow Jade was behind Kaito a second later, making him flinch before he looked at her and then at Jade, who I was still sitting on.
"Um..." He pouted his lips before looking at me. "Brianne. We have to get back."
"How exactly do we do that?" I asked. "As if dropping into another universe by accident is totally a common thing."
"Lisette said I can use my gift to concentrate on where she is and we'll be back in the court room," Kaito announced as he got up. Shadow Jade was still inspecting him. She reached out to tug at his ponytail.
"Long hair? Girl?"
"No," Kaito replied. "I'm a boy."
"But long hair. Kill!"
"Um. Don't kill me because I have long hair."
"Girl. Kill!"
"I'm a boy. Please don't kill me."
"Why?"
"Because?"
"Hmmm." Shadow Jade stared at him before a unicorn plushie appeared in her grasp. "PLUSHIE!" She presented it to his face, and he blinked for a moment as if recovering from this crazy interaction.
"Are you trying to give that to me?" he inquired.
Shadow Jade nodded. "Come back and be Jade and Shadow Jade’s friend!" she announced and pointed to me. "With pretty girl!"
"I'm pretty?" I inquired.
"Definitely pretty," the four quads concluded with a nod.
I looked over to Jade as if worried she'd be upset by the compliment, but she just stared at me. "What?" she finally asked.
"Aren't you upset by their compliment?"
"Why? You are pretty. Why would I be upset?"
"That's like the normal response of girls?"
She shrugged. "Apparently I'm the odd ball in that philosophy," she replied with a proud smirk. "Just the way I like it."
I grinned and bobbed my head. "Welcome to the club."
"Fan club of oddballs. Cool," she agreed as I got up and offered my hand.
"Just in case you don't remember, I'm Brianne Marie Harlow."
"I remember." She smirked as she accepted my hand. I helped her up. "Jade Masters or Jade Storm."
"Jade Storm is cooler," I complimented. "No offense to whichever is your surname."
"Storm's my agent last name," she assured me. "No offense taken."
"KILL!" We both flinched as Shadow Jade appeared right in between us, which broke our handshake.
"And this is Shadow Jade."
"Hello, Shadow Jade," I greeted.
"You guys better go back," Jade prompted. "If you have exploding pens with you, something tells me you guys were in the middle of something important."
"Ya." I gave a nervous smile before I looked around them as the quads and Calvin moved to stand behind Jade and Shadow Jade while Kaito was at my side.
He slipped his hand in mine as Elsa did a final run around the white and black cats before returning to my shoulder.
"MewMew!"
"Mawe!"
"Minx says bye," Jade translated.
"So does Elsa," I acknowledged. "Sorry for the abrupt intrusion and departure, but let's actually hangout some time!"
"Certainly," Jade declared. "See ya, Brianne and her boyfriend."
Kaito began to blush as he squeezed my hand. "Kaito," he simply introduced. "Thanks for your help."
We were already beginning to fade as the spinning sensation of warping began.
"Bye-bye. Kill!"
"I can't believe that just happened."
"Admit it! That was cool as fuck."
"Jade, you have some cool universal friends now. Aren't you happy?"
"Sure, sure," she replied. "She reminds me of Alice."
Their voices faded away as we completely vanished and began to materialize in the courtroom, but the familiar name Jade mentioned caught my attention.
Alice. Like my sister Alice? Does she know her, too?
"Brianne. Kaito!" Various voices announced as we fully emerged in the courtroom.
Jax, Connor, and Finnick were at my side in seconds while Lisette giggled. "I'm going to assume you met my girlfriend and team," she concluded as her eyes landed on the unicorn plushie Kaito ended up bringing along.
"I guess so," Kaito replied and waved the little blue unicorn. "Bomb safely destroyed."
"Excellent." Starlight sighed in relief as she, Katsume, and Sebastian arrived on our right side. "Can we declare this case over?"
"Where's Elisha?" I asked as I looked around, realizing she wasn't anywhere to be found. Neither were Eliza, her mother, Officer Waters, or the members of the magic council.
"Arrested and dragged out of the room," Katsume announced.
"The council stepped in and prevented her from killing herself right here in the courtroom. Her family was taken to put in their testimonies and work shit out," Starlight elaborated. "Pretty big deal to find out your daughter is the reason your whole family was torn apart. We'll have to do another investigation into how deeply rooted Elisha's control is on Officer Waters because he's already in big trouble with multiple infractions of fraud, tampering with evidence, lying, and so forth. Man, I need some coffee."