#9

Five days passed, during which Rainbowland seemed a ghost town, save for two places: the mines, and the Colour Castle. Red oversaw the mass excavation of colour crystals, and Blue kept close tabs on the conversion of those crystals into star sprinkles. In the castle, the kids are hard at work searching for some way to combat the poison soiling the earth. Violet was immersed in the various prototypes for very long distances two-way communication, a few breakthroughs proving promising. moonglow spent the nights using the sprinkes given her to transfer a reserve to the stars, while Storm used hers to create an early frost all across the Earth, drenching the soiled patches with inches upon inches of rain. On Earth, Brian was doing his best to gather as much information on the incidents as he could, though it wasn't very hard, because it seemed that across the board, no one knew anything. Krys had left soon after putting Rainbow to bed, and nothing yet had been heard from him, no word on his progress in finding Orin.
On that fifth day, Brian returned with what hard facts he could gather, met by a small crowd of sprites. They welcomed him, then led him into the castle and up to Rainbow's room. There, the kids were gathered on chairs around Rainbow's bed. She was propped up by soft pillows, looking much better than she had.
She looked up when she saw him, a smile lifting on her lips. "Welcome back, Brian." Puppy Brite leapt down from the foot of the bed and ran over to Brian, welcoming him in his own way, while Kitty remained curled up beside Rainbow.
He knelt down to pet Puppy. "Thanks, Rainbow. You look much better." He stood again and took the seat Canary offered him.
"Thank-you; I feel much better. We were just discussing the progress that's been made. I see you haven't been slacking off."
He held up the notebook with his observations, handing it to Violet since she'd know best what to do with it. "The creature's moving at a constant speed, not slowing down or speeding up. And from what's been released, no one's been able to replant anything."
"I see. Let's hope this is similar to radioactivity, because if that's so, the Earth should heal itself over time."
"And if it's not?" Lala asked.
"Then it'll be up to us to refertilize the earth," she replied simply. She gently scratched Kitty's ears. "I guess all we're waiting on now is word from Krys."
Violet spoke up, rubbing the back of her neck, "Maybe he should have waited for me to finish the two-way. Then we could have tested it better."
"It'll be fine, Violet. Nothing you've invented so far has failed to do what you inteded it to," Rainbow said with a smile.
"First time for everything," Stormy chimed in, she sitting in one of the windows on the other side of the room.
Rainbow shook her head. "Cynical, as usual."
"You may want to watch what you say, Stormy. Your rain and frost haven't done anything to slow down the spread of poison," Violet said as she looked up from Brian's notes.
That didn't sit well with anyone.