Chapter 11

     “Whoa…”
     The lab group stared in awe at the mansion. It was actually pretty pleasant looking, with a couple wings of three-layered housing, and with water fountains and decent landscaping. It would have been quite an amiable little estate if it weren’t for the moat of scorching red-hot lava encompassing it.
     “He doesn’t like trespassers,” Strufis explained.
     He walked up towards the moat, which was separated almost as an afterthought by a short rail fence, like the ones that separate the lines at a theme park.
     “Why would he need something like this in the middle of the woods?” Anastasia asked. “Or does he just like lava?”
     Strufis glanced around the fiery moat, across the banks and around the perimeter. “It’s that, and also you’ve got to remember that people like the Naturals lurk around here, and they otherwise wouldn’t exactly be all buddy-buddy with the relative of a prominent scientist living in their midst.”
     He called out, “Hey!! Mr. Delanore! We’re here to—argh, why do I bother?” he shook his head with annoyance. “He never answers his gate unless he’s expecting, and even then he has this attitude…Say,” he said, thinking of something, “remember how we got across the river before? With ammonium nitrate?” He took it out and poured some into his hand. “Why don’t we try it here?”
     Drew pondered. “Hey, wait a second. I remember reading something else about ammonium nitrate. It’s in ice packs, but it’s also a fertilizer. It’s also something else—hey wait, I remember now! If it’s heated to around 300 degrees Celsius, then it decomposes rapidly and it—”
     “Hey, couldn’t hear ya. Could you say that aga—” Strufis dropped a handful into the lava stream.
     PLOOM!!
     “…yeah, it explodes.”
     “Strufis, are you okay?” The four ran up to Strufis, who was covered in ash.
     After a dumbfounded pause, he coughed in reply. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Pride a bit desecrated, but I’m fine.”

     “So…what now, then?” said Heather, who had been growing more agitated, and grouchy, after they had been standing there for a while, trying to figure out what to do. “We’re wasting our time here. We’d better get past this lava, or we’d never be able to get this over with and go back home. Not to mention that we’re being pursued by a bunch of demented, raggedy old woodchoppers swinging their axes and waving their bows and arrows around. And of course they have to have helicopters, too. No thank you, I’d rather not be a part of some reenactment of the Aroostook War.”
     “Okay, okay. We know,” Anastasia consoled, “We all feel the same way. Just calm down a bit, all right? We’ll be able to figure this out together.”
     Meanwhile, Phillip had been lobbing small pebbles and branches into the fiery river. As each of them plopped into the lava and sizzled, he became more and more puzzled. “Take a look here, will you all?” He took a rock, a larger-sized one than those he had been throwing, and heaved it into the moat. The rock turned around once, and promptly disappeared. “This rock is basalt,” he explained. “It’s a volcanic rock, formed when lava cools and solidifies. Because of all the air bubbles in the lava, it should have a very low density – and hence, be able to float on both water and lava.”
     “But we just saw it sink as soon as it hit the lava,” said Strufis. “That means…either the rock isn’t basalt…”
     “…or the lava isn’t real,” finished Drew. “The heroes find that they’ve been set up, but before they can react, the boss appears out of nowhere and starts breathing liquid fire on them. Dun dun dun…” He grinned and shook his head. “Good thing this isn't a video game.”
     “Hmm…hold on a second,” Phillip muttered, lost in thought. “I noticed something else peculiar with the lava here. Normal lava, at least in our world, is usually quite viscous. It doesn’t flow very fast, unless there is a huge eruption accompanied by a lot of heat. Here, all we have is a moat. And yet, if you take a look at it, the lava is moving quite fast.”
     They all moved around him for a closer look. Indeed, the lava current was quite swift. Swirls and eddies formed around a few of the larger pieces of rock, but for the most part, the lava sped through the channel carved in the ground.
     “Strufis…” continued Phillip pensively, “…do you have any magnets with you? Probably one that you don’t mind losing… I have an idea what this might be. I want to test out something…”
     Strufis rummaged through his pouch and dug out a small pale blue one-inch-diameter sphere. Wisps of white swirled around the ball in all directions, providing for a mesmerizing effect.
     “Ooh, it’s pretty,” said Anastasia, very much intrigued, “It’s a lot like…summertime cumulus clouds. Actually, it’s better than that!”
     “Pretty or not,” said Strufis, “it’s quite handy. It’s used as a temporary magnet in case one of us scientists needs to ionize something or attach one thing to another. It lasts around fifteen seconds or so. I’ve got stronger ones and ones that last longer, but naturally those are more expensive and can’t be replaced as easily, so this'll do as a disposable. That work?”
     Phillip nodded. He took the ball and lobbed it high in the air towards the middle of the current. When it fell to about ten feet above the lava, it began surging upwards to meet the ball. At first in small streams but soon in sheets, lava rose from the moat and encased itself around the ball. It rapidly increased in size; by the time it fell beneath the surface, it had become a fireball three or four feet in diameter.
     “Whoa…Crazy…”
     “What was that?”
     Even Heather nodded, her eyes wide with interest.
     “Yeah. Like I suspected.” Phillip, observing the effect, nodded. “The ‘lava’ isn’t really lava. It’s been disguised to look like it, but the properties couldn’t be changed to match. The rocks, particularly the basalt, along the banks of the moat are here to throw off intruders…making them think it really was lava. And for a moment there we were fooled, too.”
     “Wait, I remember something from that video we saw in class!” Heather exclaimed. “Lava isn’t affected by magnetic fields. But plasma is! It has atoms stripped of their electrons, so they’re delocalized. That’s why it can be manipulated by strong magnetic fields…which is what scientists use to contain plasma when they create it in their labs to study.”
     “Exactly.”
     “Wow,” said Strufis, quite impressed, “You figured this out a lot sooner than I probably would have.”
     Phillip shrugged. “Well, nobody else seemed to be able to figure it out, so…”
     Strufis examined the width of the plasma stream. “Okay, I think…if we mix and match the different types of magnets I’ve got, I think we can break up the current for long enough for us to get across. It’ll take some good swift but patient handwork, though, and I’ll need your guys’ help.”
     “After breathing over a titration lab for an hour during a block period, I think we can handle it,” Phillip retorted.
     Strufis’s plan was simple in concept, but complicated in execution: create a pathway free of plasma with posts of magnets, but since they had limited range and time, they would have to grab the ones from the beginning and run them over to the front while the existing magnets kept the path clear. Drew made a comment referring to Moses to which Strufis expressed some disbelief that their dimensions overlapped so much that even religious references were transferable.
     Two designated “hub” people would hold few expensive permanent magnets Strufis had while the other three would throw out the temporary magnets that would allow the “hubs” to move forward. It was a lengthy, tense process during which Heather nearly ground her nails to the nubs with anxiety. Considering that they would be burnt to a crisp if they messed up, they could understand how she felt. (Except of course their nails were intact.)
     When they finally reached the far banks safely, they heaved a sigh of relief. Phillip massaged his shoulders, which had gotten stiff from the intensity of the situation. “You know, if I had a choice between doing that again and taking the AP test right now…I’m not quite sure what I’d answer.”
     “Dude, the AP test would be fluff points compared to that!” Drew retorted.
     “Well, it looks like we just need to cross the courtyard from here,” Strufis said, looking ahead. “Not too far now.”