You can find the new Makeship campaign RIGHT HERE! This is a preorder fundraiser, so we need to reach 200 pin sets sold to get them made! The ultimate goal is 400+ sold! I'll have more details soon and on social media, but I'm really happy with how these three pins came out and I'm really excited to get them in your hands!

If you caught the previous Activity Club pin set campaign I did with Makeship, these pins match them to complete the collection! If you're able and excited to chip in and get yourself a pin set, THANK YOU SO MUCH! If you're willing to help spread the word, or get some for a friend, THANK you! I always appreciate any and all support.

Thanks again! As ever, you can also support Paranatural on Patreon and Ko-fi! Thank you!

~

[Transcript]

        “Lies, you fool!” the Sphinx of Rules hissed down at his brother from the top of Pompom’s tower. “You don’t need to go berserk to win against these witless human grubs!”

        The Sphinx of Rules gnashed his fangs in frustration, having felt his sibling’s power briefly flare to reach his perch.

        No. No. It couldn’t be a lie! Had they really grown that weak?? Had they truly fallen so far from the heights they’d soared as one? Across the yard of the Detention Fortress, the Sphinx of Lies was twisting, growing, as he morphed into a grudge. He let out a mighty roar and lunged at Max, who shrieked and ducked for cover, and Isabel looked back in fear for him as she was forced to leave... but they had frightened armies in their past as the Great Sphinx! They had controlled so many more with one direct, divine command—no clever tricks, no rules, no silly games!

        I used to hate with such FEROCITY! the Sphinx of Rules lamented, feeling now the desperation of the petty grudge they’d nursed against these nasty spectral brats. Our boundless pride was MODESTY when I was them, and we were HER, the greatest Great Wight of them all!

        “...Hey, O’Connor,” Johnny mumbled far below.

        Though he’d bragged that he could handle Isaac’s task for him, the surface of the Student Council’s lighthouse watchtower had proven far more smooth than Johnny had anticipated. After inching up a few feet thanks to pure grit and long-dormant monkey genes that Johnny’s DNA had swapped in to enhance its minmaxed strength build, the Dragon of Detention found himself sweatily spread-eagled on the spire, held to its slick stone surface by little more than the fickle physics of cohesion.

        “I, uh, can totally climb this, but—”

        “I need you to reach the top,” Isaac reminded him, blocked from seeing just how dire Max’s plight was by the watchtower between them. Nonetheless, his only thought was hurrying to help him. “You can do it. Just keep going.”

        “I can do it,” Johnny agreed, and his determination nearly stopped the words from being said aloud.

        Isaac tapped his foot impatiently. What was taking her so long to notice Johnny? He took a deep breath in, prepared to tattletale if it meant—

        “HEY! Like ohmygosh WHAT doyouthinkyou’re DOING downthereJohnny?!”

        Finally, thought Isaac.

        “NO CLIMBINGMYTOWER!!” Pompom declared, and Johnny hooted like a Helm’s Deep Uruk-hai as he was kicked off Pompom’s wall by her new rule and the power of the sphinx.

        Isaac dove to break his fall and, with an updraft’s aid, caught Johnny as he crashed back down to earth. This was not very difficult, as Johnny had only climbed about four feet.

        “I failed you, bro,” Johnny lamented, blinking up at Isaac as he held him in his arms.

        “Yeah,” Isaac said, gazing down at Johnny with a reassuring smile. “You did.”

        Isaac turned the same sparkling expression up to Pompom, channeling the most charming princes of Chivalry X Romance. He could do this. The protagonists of his favorite anime were always winning over distant women while holding rival boys that they disliked (because they’d fallen by coincidence or HAPPENED to be forced to for the sake of plans and tactics).

        “BUT HOW ELSE,” Isaac called out to Pompom in Shakespearean serenade, “IS A LONELY PRINCE SUPPOSED TO REACH HIS PRINCESS?”

        Not far away, Bea spelled out the terms of a vow to destroy Isaac while Max struggled to survive a monster mashup of like three separate labors of Hercules.

        “Like, you boys can WAIT until I’m offtheclock and free to let my HAIRDOWN!” Pompom harrumphed, proudly tossing back a pigtail. “Also I don’tdatelittleWORMS I putinprison because of the lopsidedpowerdynamic?”

        The Sphinx of Rules sidled up unseen beside her. What silly scheme were these pathetic spectrals trying now?

        “Oh! How coherently principled of you!” Isaac swooned, beginning to blush and break out in a sweat. He had to hold out until she said the magic words that he was fishing for...! “What if I were in the Student Council, then? Might I, er, take the stairs to visit? Surely someone is exempt from the draconian decrees of the Detention Fortress—”

        “NO EXCEPTIONS!” Pompom declared through her megaphone. “Like, NOBODY’S ALLOWED UP HERE but ME!”

        The Sphinx of Rules squealed as he was hurled from his perch by the force of his own power, spiraling into the air above the prison yard. Isaac grinned and pumped his fist.

        “ARGGH! WHY, YOU LITTLE—”

        Isaac seized the air to drag a downdraft from the sky, disguising his flourish as a princely bow of surrender to Pompom. The Sphinx of Rules swept sideways just in time, taking flight to dodge the sudden gust. He strafed the wall to right himself, then began to circle the tower and the Detention Fortress—angry, still aloft, and out of reach.

        “Dang it—!” Isaac swore. He already couldn’t use most of the elements his weather powers let him wield, and now he’d lost the element of surprise, too! 

        He had to blow the sphinx out of the sky before it had the sense to perch somewhere his wind blasts couldn’t reach. He had no time to spare. Isaac had to go help Max!

        “You’re a weird little dude,” Johnny commented, still cradled in Isaac’s arms. Repeated use of Friendship Fusion had inured him to the embarrassment of being carried like a princess while in combat.

        “Thanks,” Isaac said with a genuine smile, failing to realize that the Sphinx of Lies had chased Max out of range. “Say, um. Got any ideas for dealing with this jerk now that he’s airborne?”

        Johnny squinted at the purple phantom circling above them.

        “That thing there? Can’t you shoot it with those lightnin’ legs of yours? Or fly like we saw you guys doin’ the other night?” Johnny’s eyes went wide. “Can I fly now?”

        Isaac blinked. He’d had another weird idea.

        “...I’m going to do something deeply inadvisable. It’s a gamble and it’s not going to pay off.” Isaac nodded. That was proof his plan was smart and would succeed. 

        “Heck yeah, brother,” Johnny grinned. That was what he did for fun like almost every day. “Can you put me down first, though?”

        “You bet,” lied Isaac, preparing to do much the opposite. 

        A pair of big, blue spectral energy arms appeared at Isaac’s side—his best attempt at imitating Isabel. They were strong enough to execute his plan, at least, which hinged on Johnny’s newfound spectral substance. Isaac’s phantom limbs seized Johnny by the shoulders, lifting the gobsmacked bully off the ground.

        “Oh my GOSH!” cried Isaac. “Look, he’s FLYING! Someone should tell him NOT TO DO THAT!” 

        Desperate times called for desperate measures, Isaac reassured himself. Mr. Spender could deal with the coverup later, probably.

        “WHAT THE—?!” gasped one student.

        “HE’S A WITCH!” another shrieked, getting in the spirit of the chapter.

        “The Dragon of Detention has achieved a new level of spiritual power,” a bully kingpin correctly theorized. “I had my doubts after Johnny let some weird nerd hold ’im like a sleepy little kitten... but it is cool that he levitates.” The student cast a shrewd look at a stunned Juvie, and at Max as he threw himself against a distant wall for no good reason. “Things are about to get pretty interestin’ around here...”

        “AAAAAAH! Like, this is why we CAGEYOUFREAKS!” squeaked Pompom. In a very useful moment of panic, the eighth Black Saint Councilor-General invoked her earthly authority to staunch the spread of otherworldly chaos. “I totally shouldn’thavetoSAYthis, but... NO FLYING??”

        A giddy Johnny remained aloft, because he wasn’t actually flying. The Sphinx of Rules, however, felt his wings lock up as Pompom’s newly indiscriminate authority reverberated through the fortress. The spirit screeched in fury, swiftly plunging towards the ground.

        “Okay I’m out of CLEVER MOVES!” cried Isaac, and he hurled Johnny at the sphinx with all his strength. “SORRY, SORRY, SORRY—”

        “I’M DA DRAGON OF DETENTION,” Johnny roared, briefly forgetting his objections to the title amidst the peace and purpose he had found as a projectile.

        KA-BAM!!

        Johnny crashed into the Sphinx of Rules headfirst, and the whiplash of the impact sent the spirit skipping like a stone. The Sphinx of Rules slid to a stop in a shower of feathers, mumbled something incoherent about rueing the day and divine retribution, and then collapsed to take a one-hit-KO catnap.

        Cheers erupted from the other inmates, though they didn’t know a battle had been won. Student Council officers rushed the yard to restore order, but their commands and Pompom’s went unheeded... at least until Bobblehead set one paw upon the parapet, and another on the hilt of their huge sword. The power of the now-unconscious Sphinx of Rules had flickered out, leaving only threats and muscle to constrain the rowdy inmates.

        “C’mon, c’mon! Let’s go help Max!” Isaac shouted over the commotion, reclaiming a blissful Johnny from the crowd that he’d been surfing in a daze.