"Jesse!" Yelled Lily.

Jesse snapped back into reality. He looked around and saw that the gang was standing in front of an ancient tomb. Three other teams also stood in front of the tomb. They were Team Wise Owls, Team Undead, and Team Dark Deceivers. Jesse saw the red haired boy from Team Dark Deceivers. He gritted his teeth as he looked at him.

"Hey Jesse, quit daydreaming!" Snapped Lily, "who are you staring at?"

"None of your business!" Snapped Jesse, "just leave me alone and focus on the games!"

"I am focused on the games!" Snapped Lily, "unlike you when you were....HEY! Don't walk away from me!"

Jesse ignored Lily's yelling, walked away and took out an iMagiPhone out of his pocket. iMagiPhones are like regular human iPhones except they have lots of different magical abilities and apps. The MagiPhone is basically a cross between magic and technology, Magnology or something (the Wizards are still working on the name). Jesse scrolled through his contact list.

That guy gives me the creeps, thought Jesse, I've seen many of the Dark One's students and minions, even that creepy silent kid, but why does this guy unnerve me? There's something not right about that guy....., even in my premonition dream he gave off an unnerving vibe. He works for the Dark One, but maybe I can find some background information about him.

Jesse selected a contact number and the phone started ringing.

"Hello, this is Anthea. I can't come to the phone right now, so leave a message after the tone," said Anthea's voice mail.

Jesse sighed in irritation.

Seriously?! What is that woman doing right now that is so important that she can't answer her dang phone?! She doesn't have any work to do today and it's not like she has a boyfriend!

"Anthea, it's Jesse," said Jesse, "I don't have a lot of time to talk, but I need you to do me a favor. There's a wizard at the Wizard Games who works for the Dark One. His name is Alister Phoenix and he has long blood red hair. I need you to dig up anything you can find about Alister Phoenix. Where he's from, family, criminal record if any, you know the works. I just need any source of information whatsoever about h-....."

The call ended suddenly. Jesse turned and saw the Gamemaster Ruby. She must've used magic to block the cellphone's signal.

"Excuse me, young man but cellphones must remain off during the Games," lectured Ruby calmly, "you're allowed to use your phone after your team has obtained their daily six points or if your team loses the games. But right now, I'd like to kindly ask you to turn off your phone right now before I confiscate it."

Jesse sighed and put his phone in his pocket. Ruby smiled and vanished. Once Ruby was out of sight, Jesse walked back over to his team muttering "Patronizing rotten little witch...."

"Who's a "patronizing rotten little witch"?" Asked Lily.

"I bet 10 gold pieces he's talking about Jeanette," Barry whispered to Ellen.

"My money's on either Sami or Lily," whispered Ellen with s giggle.

Ellen and Barry sealed their bet with a fist bump.

"Ruby is," said Jesse, "long story, anyway, what's going on here?"

"Nothing, we've just be chatting it up with Team Undead a little while ago while you were gone," said Angela, "apparently they came in second place too at their last game."

"The team that was in first place was Team Dark Deceivers. By the way, are any of you guys getting a weird feeling about that team?" Said Maya.

Everyone except Jesse nodded their heads.

"Yeah, especially that red head kid. That guy doesn't seem right, I have a bad feeling about him," said Hiro.

"Oh you're just saying that because his hair color looks like blood," joked Troy.

"Not true!" Snapped Hiro, "remember what Cecil said about how they won their first game? That's pretty suspicious and creepy!"

"What do you mean? What did they do?" Asked Jesse.

Angela's eyes turned gray. "Team Undead, Team Dark Deceivers and two other teams competed against each other in a race through a magical obstacle course with goal being to be the first team to the safe point," she explained, "They had to fight their way through monsters and a few dangerous animals from the human world. While other teams used strategies against whatever sort of beast that the Gamemasters could unleash on them, Team Dark Deceivers wasted no time slaughtering every beast that got in their way. According to Cecil, two girls from that team would paralyze the monsters or animals with quick jabs and then the red haired boy would use his knife to slice the animal open, ruthlessly killing it. Alexia and Cecil also saw him enjoying himself while killing each beast, as if he obtained pleasure from watching living things suffer in pain and agony. But that's not the worst part of the story." Angela took a deep breath, as if she were trying to repress her sadness. "When the teams were racing to the safe point, Team Dark Deceivers was in second place and a team in front of them had a very high chance of winning. There was no chance that the Dark Deceivers would get first place, at least that's what Team Undead thought before it happened. One of the coming in first place team members who was bringing up the rear behind her teammates, was a short thirteen year old girl who was right in front of the team members of Team Dark Deceivers. Before anyone can do anything, the red haired boy grabbed the girl in front of him and shoved his dagger right into her back and wouldn't let her go until the knife came out through her chest...."

Angela's eyes turned blue again. Jesse was too stunned for words. Hiro looked pale and looked like he was about to vomit. The rest of the gang was silent.

Alister would murder an innocent girl so his team could win?! Thought Jesse, where have I have heard this before? Didn't I learn about a group of assassins that found pleasure in murder in history class? I know Alister's personality matches the assassins', but what was the name of that group and is Alister with those murderers?

"I hope that little girl is going to be okay," said Hiro.

"She has a hole that goes in and out of her chest and back," said Sami, "I doubt that she'll live through that."

"I just can't believe that guy would do something so horrible so his team could win," said Maya, "because she was fatally wounded, the girl's teammates ran back to help her and as a result, Team Dark Deceivers got first place, Team Undead got second place and the girl's team ended up getting last place because they took her straight to the infirmary instead of completing the race."

The gang glared at Team Dark Deceivers. Most of the members were talking, but Alister just stood their, ignoring them and picked at his nails with his dagger. The dagger Alister used had a black grip, a long very sharp blade that was the color of faded red, like blood stains that are hard to clean out. The dagger also had something engraved on the blade. It was a symbol. The symbol was a raven a spear piercing through its chest.

That symbol! Thought Jesse, It makes sense now! That is the symbol of the Phoenix Clan!

Jesse smacked his hand against his forehead.

How could I be such an idiot?! Thought Jesse, his last name should have tipped me off!

The Phoenix clan was a very well known clan in Wizard City and to other magical cities. The Phoenix clan was a group of ruthless assassins that lived in the shadows of Wizard City. Members of the Phoenix clan were often hired by wizards or humans who know about the existence of wizards for assassination jobs. They were paid very well for each ruthless deed, but the money meant nothing to them. They found pleasure in killing people, they did not care who it was. Animals, demons, humans, wizards; it was all the same. The Phoenix clan members were very sick and twisted, it has been rumored that sometimes they would lick the blood off their blades to clean them. However, Jesse was still puzzled as to how Alister could be a member of the Phoenix clan. Decades ago, the members of the Phoenix clan were killed by Light after the head of the Phoenix clan captured and tortured her angel daughter until she died.

"Hey Jesse, why did you smack your forehead?" Asked Ellen.

Jesse snapped back into reality. His friends were staring at him.

"No reason.....just killing a bug," said Jesse nervously.

Jesse looked down and saw that his lie had made a small rock crack in a perfect half. Before they noticed, Jesse kicked away the rock pieces. The teams continued chatting until Gamemaster Ruby appeared and silenced the teams before she made her announcement.The teams waited in anticipation for Ruby to begin speaking.

"Young wizards," began Ruby, "welcome to the Tomb of Princess Kira and your next game! This tomb was made for Princess Kira, princess of one of the first kingdoms where humans accepted wizards.....before the dark days of the witch hunts...."

The teams booed. Ruby raised a hand for silence. The crowds quieted down.

"I know, I know. The witch hunts were one of the most darkest days for not only human history but for our history as well," said Ruby.

Some people booed and hissed.

"Death to all humankind!" Shouted the two girls from Team Dark Deceivers.

"Wizards are better and stronger than those weak humans!" Yelled Cassandra from Team Undead.

"KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!!!" Shouted Alister.

The rest of the teams seemed unnerved by the people who were booing and hissing at the humans, especially the Magical Elements. They knew that some wizards didn't like humans, but it was still hard to hear considering that they grew up in a city that wizards and humans lived together in peace. Ruby summoned a lightning bolt to strike down to the ground to get the teams attention and quiet them.

"Anyway," continued Ruby, "the Princess of this tomb was acknowledged for her extraordinary intelligence. The princess never fought in a physical battle in her short life, but when it came to strategizing battle plans and trapping the enemy, the battles her warriors fought were won before they even started. However, the one battle she could not win was the internal battle between herself and the fatal disease that struck down the young princess at the age of twenty-three. After her death, her servants placed all of her valuable treasures into this tomb and would appoint guardians to challenge those who entered her tomb. But since it's 2015, her guardians are long gone and her treasure was found decades ago by past Gamemasters. However, even though there is no treasure, this tomb is the destination of your next game!"

Jesse and Alexia both gulped. Their skin turned pale and sweat began to trickle down their faces. They also shuddered a bit. Lily and Cassandra caught a glance at their teammate's face. They both sighed.

Oh boy, please don't tell me Jesse is claustrophobic, thought Lily.

For pete's sake Alexia, you're Dad's successor, thought Cassandra, How pathetic....

"Ever since the past Gamemasters founded this tomb, we have been using it for the games," said Ruby, ".....that is, after we made some....um...improvements to make it safer. This tomb was originally a complete deathtrap. Anyone without proper knowledge of the many booby traps in the tomb would have be killed instantly. Now the tomb has...safer traps. Traps in the tomb include trapdoors, switches in the wall and floor that will release a lion or bear, poison geysers and a lot of other traps that I forgot about but know that they are safer."

"Is the poison in the geysers lethal?" Asked a member of Team Wise Owls.

"In ancient times, yes. But today, no," said Ruby, "the poison in the geysers only cause limb numbness, hallucinations and temporary insanity. Now let's move on to the rules of this game!"

Ruby said the last side effect so fast that most of the teams didn't quite catch it, so they decided to just dismiss it and continued listening to Ruby.

"The rules of the games are simple," explained Ruby, "in order for your team to win, ALL members of your team must enter and exit this tomb while passing several physical and mental trials. While you walk through the tomb, there will be several ends that have two different paths. One path will lead your team to a physical challenge and the other will lead to a mental challenge. Mental challenges will be the faster way to go....if you're a genius that is. If you go through the mental challenges, then you'll only have one chance at passing. If you fail, your team will have to go right back where they started. However if you pick the physical challenge, you'll have multiple chances depending on how many team members you have. All team members of each team will participate in this game so the more your team has, the more chances you get if you pick the physical challenge. Now if we all understand the rules of this game, please enter the tomb and wait for the starting signal."

Team Wise Owls and Team Dark Deceivers entered into the tomb, but Team Undead and Team Magical Elements were having some complications. Both Jesse and Alexia were shuddering with fear.

"Come on Alexia! It's just a stupid tomb! You've been in hundreds of them when Dad was training you!" Snapped Cassandra.

"But the souls I helped Dad collect were of dead tomb robbers who were in crumbling tombs that had holes in the walls and no ceilings," said Alexia nervously, "this tomb has only two exits and I bet they'll seal up the first one the second we step in!"

"You do realize your fear is very irrational," said Ellen, "didn't you both basically grew up in the Underworld and the Underworld is technically underground."

"It's different!" Snapped Alexia, "the underworld is not a confined space! There's tons of  space in the underworld! There's hundred different kinds of civilizations living down there!"

"Well suck it up!" Snapped Cassandra.

"And that goes double for you too, Jesse," said Lily.

Jesse forced a very crooked and uncomfortable looking smile.

"No prob, I'll just walk right into that tomb with no way out and walls that invade your personal space...." Said Jesse nervously before crouching onto the ground, hugging his legs and shuddering.

Barry slapped Jesse's back. "That's the spirit dude," said Barry, "now let's go in!"

But Jesse refused to move. Team Undead were able to force Alexia into the tomb, so the Magical Elements knew they had to hurry up and get Jesse to move.

"Do you know what else is a confined space?" Asked Lily, "the closet we're going to push you into if you don't move your butt to that tomb!"

Jesse didn't budge.

"Step aside, bad cop," said Sami, "let the good cop handle this."

Hiro snickered. "You're the good cop?! Right, and I'm Lady Gaga!"

"Actually it's the truth," said Sami, "I'm the good cop, Lily's the bad cop, Maya's the creepy cop, Ellen's the crazy cop and Angela is the serious cop."

"I think you and Angela have confused your roles," snickered Troy.

Sami slugged his arm. Sami sat down next to Jesse.

"Jess, ignore Lily. We didn't know you had this phobia," said Sami with sympathy, "This game must be harder on you than any of us and that must be totally unfair."

Barry raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Do you really mean that, Sami?" Asked Barry.

"Nope, grab him!" Shouted Sami.

Sami, Lily and Troy grabbed Jesse and pushed him into the tomb.

"I....hate you guys...sooo......much!" Growled Jesse.

"We know," called Sami. Sami faced the others. "He'll get over it later. C'mon, we've got a game to win!"

The Magical Elements joined the other teams in the tomb, awaiting for the game to start.