The great escape
Opening the cage wasn’t hard, not with the lockpicks enchanted to defeat all locks, even the enchanted ones. While Uncle George couldn’t sell them that way, Teddy was given the special version of them with a strict warning to use it only in an emergency unless he wanted to be grounded for a very long time.
Today, Teddy counted as an emergency.
Shisui confiscated most of the pranking supplies but Naruto and Teddy still had a decent amount of the merch in their pockets. The young metamorphomagus understood why. Shisui was the oldest and clearly the most capable.
Mummy always said the one most experienced should lead, even if the leader should never ignore others as well.
Shisui didn’t ignore Naruto and Teddy.
The two boys tiptoed after Shisui like obedient ducklings while the older boy checked if the way was clear. He often glanced at the boys following him to make sure they were fine. Teddy appreciated this, he really did. It made him feel that his new friend cared!
The cavern they found themselves in had only one exit and when they finally reached the narrow passage Shisui stopped their party and started listening. Taking his cue from the older boy he tried to listen as well but there was nothing.
‘Do you hear that?’ Naruto asked though, his voice barely audible.
Shisui looked sharply at the whiskered boy and nodded at him to continue speaking.
‘There is… a noise out there?’ Naruto mumbled and angled his head to listen better. ‘Like a lot of people making noise together.’
The Uchiha frowned and started to walk again, the two younger ones right after him. When the tunnel started to get lighter, he motioned to them to plaster themselves to the wall. They hurried to obey him and he nodded in approval before putting a finger to his lips, reminding them to be quiet.
They nodded in understanding.
Shisui climbed the wall all the way to the ceiling, where he plastered himself to the surface and started crawling in the direction of the area where the noise was coming from.
Now, Teddy could hear the faint sound of chatter. It didn’t sound like grown-ups though. He wondered what it was all about. Teddy exchanged a look with Naruto who looked just as puzzled.
The time went on. Teddy is not sure how long it took before Shisui returned for them. His expression was grave and maybe a little bit sad. At the questioning gazes of the other boys, he sighed. With a gesture he made them go back until they moved enough of a distance that their voices wouldn’t be heard.
‘There are more cages, the only difference is that there are kids in them.’ Shisui whispered urgently. ‘There’s maybe ten of them. They are guarded by two shinobis.’
The boys gasped and both paled. It sounded terrible and there were enemies to fight. Their chances to avoid confrontation went down fast.
‘We need to help them!’ Teddy insisted hotly while remembering to keep his voice down.
Shisui looked at the young shapeshifter with sadness on his face. He shifted guiltily.
‘We can’t…’ he whispered. ‘Not like that. What we need to do is to get out and tell adults about that. Or when someone notices us we must do enough ruckus that we would be noticed.’ the oldest said insistently.
Teddy wanted to argue but Naruto shushed him with a frown.
‘We can’t fight adults like that. If they are strong like tou-san then it would be over before we know it. Tou-san can always avoid my pranks so they would too.’ Naru mumbled softly, sounding almost petulant and Teddy frowned.
Everything in him told him he should help the other kids too. If it was him he would want someone to rescue him. But Naruto was not wrong. If the baddies were anything like Uncle George or Auntie Hermione or Uncle Ron or Uncle Bill or Merlin forbid like Mummy, then they would be back in the cage very soon.
Their chances were already bad, Teddy knew. They didn’t have an escape ready as any good prankster should have. They didn’t know the place. They didn’t know the baddies too.
With heavy heart and guilt burning in his tummy he nodded once, a frown etched into his chubby face. Silently he made a promise to make sure that some adults would go back for the other children. He would even ask his Mummy to make sure. She was scary when seriously angry but she always made things better. Mummy was a superhero. She would make things right.
With a sad sigh, Shisui gave Teddy and Naruto gloves and socks that allowed anyone to walk on walls. Puzzled but trusting, both put them on.
‘We’ll crawl on the ceiling, just like I did before. You’ll go first, I will go after you.’ he instructed them.
Teddy had an idea and from his pocket took out some of the candies. Those weren’t in the shop just yet but…
‘Those can make us invisible for a few minutes. Uncle George was still testing them.’ Teddy whispered. ‘They are safe but sometimes it wears off sooner, sometimes later.’
Shisui hummed but took the candy, Naruto following. At the same time, the boys swallowed the small candy.
The effect was instantaneous.
They were invisible.
Soon enough they were crawling on the ceiling in the direction of the the only other exit.
Teddy made the mistake of looking down on the kids in cages below them. It stopped him in his tracks until he could feel Shisui bumping into him and hurrying him gently but insistently. He looked away and started to move again.
It didn’t take them long before they found themselves in another narrow corridor.
‘Stay on the ceiling!’ the oldest reminded them in an urgent whisper.
Not even a minute after they could hear the steps of someone getting closer.
Teddy got a good look at the men below them. There were two masked guys that reminded him of those Death Eaters but without heavy cloaks and with swords. Between them was a man in a strange, long dress that looked like nothing Teddy have ever seen. He had an eyepatch on one of his eyes and scars on his face. He looked old and scary.
Behind himself, he could hear Shisui taking a deep, shuddering breath.
Soon they disappeared into the chamber with the kids.
‘Fast! We need to go! They are going to find out we escaped!’ Shisui hurried them.
Naruto made a strangled noise but they started to crawl as fast as they could.
They even made decent progress in a short amount of time!
When they found themselves at the crossroads they could hear screaming from behind them. Shisui was right. Teddy heard a bad word leaving Shisui’s mouth before he told them to go left.
They crawled until they heard steps behind them once more.
‘Don’t stop!’ Shisui ordered them before throwing something behind them.
Soon enough Teddy heard a loud crash and then… BOOM!
He glanced at the explosion and saw the fireworks taking shapes of dragons, unicorns, thestrals, leprechauns and all of them appeared to go at their pursuers. Their light made the entire tunnel seem like it was a sunny day.
Before him, Naruto became visible suddenly.
‘Run!’ Shisui called.
Teddy stood up and wow, it was weird to stand up upside down. He grabbed Naru and they started running as fast as they could. Behind them was Shisui who didn’t let them go too far from him.
At the end of the tunnel, more masked people appeared but Teddy was prepared. With the excellent aim, he threw a bottle of daydream charms. Those Quidditch practices with his family helped, he was sure. He would need to thank Uncle Ron…
The escapees cowered their noses to make sure not to breathe in the fumes. After all, they only needed to incapacitate their pursuers. The daydream charms worked well, all of the masked people stopped in their tracks.
With a giggle, Naruto threw the portable swamp under their feet to make sure they wouldn’t move for a long, long time.
Shisui laughed breathlessly before grabbing both Naruto and Teddy.
‘I run, you make trouble!’ he called over the sounds of fireworks still going off.
Teddy and Naruto exchanged grins.
From his pocket, Naruto took out a hurricane in a bottle while Teddy took out his Instant Peruvian Darkness Powder. Together they threw the products. They collided in the air and exploded. The sound of howling winds spread in the corridor.
Soon they found themselves on a staircase.
‘We should throw something down to make them think we could go that way.’ Teddy suggested.
Shisui looked thoughtful for a moment before jumping down with them. Soon he threw the entire package of creepy crawlies there, smoke and glitter bombs promptly following.
Before Teddy could see the effect, the sound of running could be heard behind them.
Naruto grabbed Teddy’s hand and pulled him to run up the stairs as quietly and as fast as it was possible. They went two levels up when they saw a small hole in the wall that was long but on the other side was light. Sunlight, more importantly.
‘Explosion?’ Naruto suggested.
Shisui grinned at them and took out another firework from his pocket. With a snap of his fingers, the fuse was lit. Shisui put the firework in a way that would make sure it would get out and be noticed.
They started running up the stairs again.
Teddy was breathless but he was not tired. He was excited. Was it how his Mummy felt during her adventures? If so, he wanted to have more adventures. It would be best if those adventures were less scary but he wanted to experience them again.
It was easy to lose themselves in a pattern. Run, throw something behind them, sometimes chose a way on the crossroads but it was easy. No matter what was happening, they weren’t stopping and they weren’t slowing down.
Until they found themselves faced with two people without masks this time, blocking their way.
Shisui pulled the boys behind him and visibly prepared himself.
Then they moved. It was so fast that Teddy could not keep up with them until one of them paused, did some gesture and opened his mouth as if he prepared to spit on them.
‘Take that!’ Naruto called and aimed a yellow sweet into the man’s mouth.
The man turned into a canary and squeaked at them. During this time Shisui pulled the woman attacking him down. Soon, the woman was encased in a cocoon of instant glue. From experience, Teddy knew it stayed sticky until a counter potion was used on it. Which was good.
After a minute of running, they saw a dead end. Or would be a dead end if they could not stick themselves to the walls, anyway. The only way was up but over them a streak of sunlight was visible.
Shisui went first. He tied a thin but unbreakable rope in his waist so if it was needed he could pull the younger ones out. The hole in the ground was high and it took them at least a few minutes to find themselves in the open air.
In a bout of genius, Teddy covered the hole in a biting cloth. The person who would go out first would have a nasty surprise when it would try to strangle them, right?
Shisui took Teddy’s hand and pulled him into a run once more. Before them, Naruto was already speeding through the trees.
The hope of freedom and safety made Teddy all the more determined and despite the burning in his legs, he pushed himself to go even faster.
From the trees and bushes around them people came. They looked like all those baddies before and this time there were way too many of them for it to be easy to escape. Shisui cursed.
‘There’s nowhere to run…’ one of them started but he was interrupted.
The ground started to shake violently and then it shifted. From the soil corpses and skeletons started to appear and rise. They looked hideous and creepy but Teddy was not scared at all.
He was relieved.
Mummy was here.
The dead threw themselves on the bad people. Shisui pulled the boys behind himself and backed them into the massive tree to make space for their sudden allies.
The baddies tried to fight back, they really did. There was fire, there was lightning, there was water but the undead were relentless. Every time one of them fell, another took its place without pausing. And the dead never stopped coming.
From the other side of the forest, they could hear the barking of the dogs. Somehow it calmed Shisui down. From the trees, a band of ninjas came out running.
Minato-san was leading them.
Next to him was Mummy and she looked angry.
Uh oh.
Then her eyes landed on Teddy. Despite being half-hidden behind their older friend, his Mummy noticed him without an issue.
When Teddy started to run, he was not the only one.
Naruto was hot on his heels to get to his dad as fast as he could.
And then his Mummy hugged him tightly. She smelled like smoke, sweat and the forest but to Teddy, it was not important. In her arms, he was in the safest place in the entire universe.