Name: Chris
Title: call that a comeback (aka; why I've been MIA for so long)
Fandom: Wizards of Waverly Place
Genre: General
Rating: K
Summary: Alex destroys the world. But really, its all Justin's fault. Written for apocabigbang at LJ. Post 'Wizards vs. Werewolves.'
Title comes from the You Me at Six song of the same name.
…0…
Alex had been moping around the apartment for weeks. Weeks.
If anyone understood the biting sting of the end of a relationship, it was Justin. But after it went on for so long, he began to get worried. And then that got upgraded to annoyed.
It wasn't so much that he thought she didn't have the right to be upset. She did. Mason had truly cared about her. But it was the way that she was letting it get the best of her that he just couldn't accept.
Alex just wasn't being Alex.
"Hey, Alex," Max hopped onto the couch beside her. "They're having an all night bloodbath horror marathon at the Angelica. Wanna go? Mom said it was okay."
"No thanks."
So Harper tried.
"I think I need a new look. What from my wardrobe do you think I should get rid of?"
Alex sighed. "I don't know, Harper. It's all fine."
Throwing a pointed look at Justin over Alex's shoulder, Harper made a clucking sound under her tongue and walked over to the barstool beside Max and grabbed one of his cookies.
"I think we're at Defcon 5 over there," she hissed to Justin.
He pursed his lips, nodding his head. Alex's funk wasn't lifting, no matter what they tried. All she had done for the last month and a half was camp out in front of the television. She didn't even bother to insult him anymore.
And frankly, Justin was staring to get worried.
He blew out a slow breath. "Why don't you guys go to the movie? I'm gong to work on her some more."
They headed out, Max asking Harper if she liked Skittles mixed in with her popcorn. She shot Justin a look on the way out.
He walked over and plopped down beside Alex. "So…"
"Justin." She gave him a withering look he knew all too well. "I know what you're doing."
He arched an eyebrow at her. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. You're trying to cheer me up. But I can tell you right now that its not going to work so you might as well just save your breath and get out of my hair."
Anger and annoyance bubbled up in Justin's chest. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to grab his sister by her shoulders and shake some sense into her. And he would have if he thought it would help any. But he knows his sister, better than she thinks he does, and reacting negatively to her in any way is just going to make her defenses go up. Further up.
So he tried another approach.
"I wasn't going to try and cheer you up."
She snorted. "Really?"
"Nope. I was actually hoping for a little commiseration."
Her nose wrinkled, distaste written all over her face. "Isn't that illegal?"
Justin rolled his eyes, grimacing. "No, dirty mind, its not. Commiserate means to sympathize. You're not the only one who recently got their heart broken in case you forgot."
"Oh." Alex's voice went tiny, and the vaguest tint of pink rose in her cheeks. Looking appropriately embarrassed for once in her life, sighed heavily and leaned her head against Justin's shoulder. "Sorry."
It wasn't often that Alex apologized, and even rarer that she actually meant it, so he decided to just not mention it. He was beginning to get somewhere and didn't want to rock the boat before they left shore.
Metaphorically speaking.
"It's okay." Snagging a handful of the popcorn in her lap, he munched in silence while planning his next move.
Odd, how trying to help his sister required him to think like her.
If it was even possible for someone other than Alex to think the way she did. He didn't know if it could possibly be a good thing or not.
When an idea struck him, he decided that maybe it wasn't the worst idea.
"So," he started over, hoping that she wouldn't interrupt him this time, "I've told you what I think will make me feel better. What do you want, Alex?"
"You really want to know?" she asked, voice low and eyes downcast.
Justin nodded, though that part of his brain that told him never to listen to his sister's half baked ideas tingled with trepidation. Alex's voice like that… it was never a good thing. So he braced himself.
"I want… to get even."
Not what he was expecting her to say.
"Even? With Mason?"
Alex snorted again. "Being that he's been turned into a wolf for, like, ever, I don't think I'm going to be able to do that."
"Then who then?"
She shrugged her shoulders, one side of her loose top slipping down on her arms a few inches. "Everyone."
Justin smiled a little. It wasn't exactly funny, but at least it was something. "Care to narrow that down a little bit?"
"Life. In general." She smiled sweetly. "Narrow enough?"
He took the now empty bowl away from her and took it over to the sink. Alex followed him, settling herself and the blanket she had been carrying around like some sort of flimsy armor in the seat Max had vacated. She watched silently as he threw away a few un-popped kernels and rinsed the bowl so the heavy coating of salt and butter that Alex had poured on it would come off in the dishwasher.
"Alex, you can't make the entire world pay because one guy broke your heart."
Crossing her arms over her chest, Alex stared him down, one eyebrow arched. "Oh no?"
The hairs on the back of Justin's neck stood up as his sister gave him a challenging look and flounced off. He sighed, leaning his weight on his hands on the countertop. He shook his bowed head, fearing for the safety for everyone in the borough.
"This is gonna be so bad."
…0…
"Alex!"
She turned around, straw to her lips, apparently no surprise or concern at all at the annoyance in her older brother's voice. "What?"
Justin was, for lack of a better word, thunderstruck. Moping around the apartment was one thing. But now that Alex had brought her nasty attitude into the substation…that was a different matter entirely.
"You cannot tell a group of kids that the world is full of disappointment and evil." He waved his hand at a table full of little girls in matching green uniforms and the lone adult at the table who had finally hung up her cell phone and rejoined them. Probably due to all the crying they were doing.
"Geez, why are your panties all in a bunch?" Alex took a sip of the milkshake she was supposed to be taking to table nine.
Was she serious? "Alex! You don't say those kinds of things to girl scouts!"
She rolled her eyes and popped a French fry into her mouth, chewing loudly. "Relax, Justin. Den Mommy over there will buy them all ice cream and it will all be forgotten. No big." She walked through the kitchen, tray in tow, food and all.
Justin huffed. This was not going well. Not at all.
It seemed that Alex was taking her 'make the world' pay thing a little too seriously. So far she had already set off three alarms around the city, broken up two relationships and somehow even imagined to sabotage a marriage proposal in Central Park.
And it hadn't even been a week yet.
"Alex," he followed her through the kitchen and on in to the lair, "I get that you're angry, really I do, but you've got to stop."
Alex stopped dead in her tracks, pivoting on her heel. Justin managed to catch himself just in time to prevent crashing into her. She drew herself up to her full height, looking him straight in the eye. He wanted to fidget, couldn't really help it. His sister can be scary when she gets all determined and stuff. Way scary.
Not that he would ever actually admit that though. Not to her. She would never let him live it down.
Ever.
"Oh really?"
In his head, Justin kept chanting 'do not blink, do not blink' over and over - his own personal mantra. Blinking equals weakness.
'I can do this,' he thinks, 'I can be the man here.'
"Really." His voice came out just this side of shaky. Damn it.
All he got in response is that evil little Alex smirk that always managed to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand to attention and flopped herself on to the little red velvet bench.
"If you want me to stop, Justin, all you have to do is make me."
Justin snorted. As if anyone had ever, ever been able to make Alex do something that she didn't want to do. The idea of possibly tying her up on top of the Statue of Liberty flitted briefly through his head, but he really, really did not want Alex's little snit to end with him in jail.
It left him, basically, with only one viable option.
"What are you going to do, Alex? Keep going, screwing up everything in everyone's lives until what - the world ends?"
Alex's head tilted to one side, and that infuriating smirk slipped, only to be replaced by a look that was ten thousand different kinds of even scarier.
She was wearing her thinking face.
He didn't see it a lot - of which he was more than thankful.
The only thing Justin running through Justin's head at that moment was that the world was so utterly screwed.
…0…
Evil Genius.
That term had been applied to his sister on more than one occasion, usually when she was attempting to talk her way out of some wholly deserved trouble.
And never had there been such a better description of her ever created.
So how was Justin to think, or even suspect, that he would give her an idea? Inadvertently, but still.
He had to wonder if that made what happened next his fault.
It doesn't matter. She would figure out a way to blame him for it anyway.
…0…
She started with the table of college kids from NYU that liked to come in to the sub station on Saturday afternoons. They way Alex saw it, college kids were gullible by nature. They were pretentious and conceited and so convinced of their own superior knowledge on every subject under the sun that convincing them of something - anything - was almost too easy.
It basically boiled down to him and the fact that he should have known that she was up to something. And he most definitely should have put a stop to it.
Because seriously - since when did Alex volunteer to wait on a table?
Bribed? Occasionally. Threatened? Daily. But volunteer?
Never.
Signs of the Apocalypse, Take 1.
"Did you guys hear?" The sentence, tossed off by a tall guy in a Godfather tee shirt, caught Justin's ear as he buses the table over from them. It wasn't as if he tries to eavesdrop. "That waitress just told me that there are signs of the world ending showing up."
One of the girls in the group rolled her eyes behind her black nerd chic glasses. "Please. Where did she see these so called signs? In her horoscope?"
'If only…'
"No," he went on. "Apparently, there like these magical signs that only certain people are aware of -"
"Magical people?" One of the others asked, in a high breathy voice that Justin sincerely hoped was all for the purpose of mocking. Going through life with a voice like that…
The rest of the group snickered. Cheeks taking on a very obvious pink tinge, the guy muttered under his breath - something that sounded like the periodic table - before he raised his head up and started speaking again. "People," he stressed the word, and the snickering ebbed - but just barely, "who know what to look for."
"And a high school waitress is one of those people?" Glasses girl cracked up, and from out of nowhere the old fashioned railroad sign that had hung on the wall since before Justin was born came loose and swung downward, just narrowly missing her right ear.
She jumped up, white as a ghost, and bolted from the restaurant.
Jerry scurried out from the kitchen, his grin big and bright and obviously forced. Doing the fake laugh that he tended to adopt whenever anything seriously bad happened that he wanted to downplay, he turned around as he spoke, addressing the entire restaurant and the worried looking diners. "No worries, everything is fine. That particular sign," he gestured at it, too emphatically, "was hanging a little crooked and I guess it just wasn't refastened properly. Nothing to be concerned about."
Still, most of the patrons sitting along the walls settled their checks and left.
Alex, seated in suspicious silence at the counter with her sketchpad in hand, never even looked up.
Once their father was out of earshot, Justin snatched her pencil out of her hand and hissed, "Was that really necessary?"
"Groundwork, Justin," she told him. "Groundwork."
…0…
Step Two, it turned out, involved the Tribecca Prep football team.
"No seriously." Justin walked up to the group just in time to see Alex's eyes flashing bright. She was obviously getting really in to whatever new tale she was spinning. "The world is like, ending. Soon. The signs are everywhere."
Jeff Block, the enormous blonde linebacker that had been cheating off Justin since the third grade and the pee wee league combined overtaxed his brain, took a step back from Alex, eyes wide. "Dude. That is messed up."
The rest of the guys gathered around nodded, mumbling solemnly.
Justin banged his head against the nearest wall.
…0…
"I just don't get it."
Looking up from where he had his homework spread out over the dining room table, Justin saw his father shaking his head, and flipping through channels. Every one it seemed was currently on a live feed of some sort of rally slash protest going on in Central Park and it had taken over every major station in New York and the surrounding states. Except for the kiddie channels but even Jerry wasn't that desperate.
Apparently, groups of high school and college kids around Manhattan had gotten it into their heads that the apocalypse was looming and they were strategizing.
Under the age of thirty, strategizing was really just code for lots of loud whining and complaining.
"Can you believe this?" Jerry asked the room at large, voice dripping with incredulity. "Standing in the middle of the park yelling about the end of the world and signs being all over. What's gotten into kids these days?"
Justin threw a pointed look at his sister. She shrugged, popping a potato chip into her mouth and grabbing the remote from where their dad had set it on the coffee table. Undoubtedly sensing an onslaught of violence or reality TV coming, he got up and walked out of the room.
"Alex." Justin sat beside her on the couch. "Joke's over. Time to stop egging this whole thing on."
She glared at him, disdain swimming in her big eyes. "Hey, all I did was put a few ideas in the heads of some really naive people. Is it my fault that they decided to run with it?"
"Since they're running amok in Upper Manhattan, then yes."
Her nose wrinkled. She slouched down on the couch, finding some show about designers and sticking the remote behind her back - an old habit to keep him from getting it - before answering. "Amok? Do you stay awake nights making these words up?"
Throwing his hands up, Justin stomped up to his room and went to bed.
It would all calm down soon. He was confident.
…0…
Right in the middle of a Trig pop quiz in second period, Justin realized that it was not going to calm down soon.
Tommy Jeffs coming to class with skulls and cross bones drawn all over the collar of his shirt (Justin recognized Alex's style) was one thing, but looking up to see Mrs. Collins reading Ten Things to Know for the End of the World was another. Even Zeke had a copy of The Apocalypse for Dummies sticking out of his backpack.
The problem he'd been chewing over for fifteen minutes had just cleared up before his eyes when the intercom crackled to life, the speakers shrieking minor feedback.
"Attention Students." Mr. Laritate sounded calm. Too calm. His words were a steady, even monotone that Justin had never head him use. Two whole words and no cowboy speak. Signs of the Apocalypse, Take 7. "Due to recent events, the school board had issued a temporary suspension of classes. Until further notice, school is hereby canceled."
Several students whooped, a few more tossed their test papers up in the air.
Mr. Laritate went on, Mrs. Collins shushing the rowdiest of the noise makers. "Please make your way calmly to your lockers to collect your things and then proceed out of the building. The building will be locked in exactly fifteen minutes."
Outside his classroom, Justin zipped up his backpack, and a peel of laughter broke into his thoughts. His head shot up, eyes zeroing in on his sister standing at her locker with Harper and flirting with some guy Justin vaguely recognized from his gym class. She fluttered her lashes up at him, doing the hair flip thing and then he watched as the guy leaned in, speaking in low tones, and blocking Justin's view of his sister's face, only to pull back looking like someone had just told him his dog died.
He walked off, looking the very definition of dazed and confused.
Justin yanked Alex away from Harper, asking her to find Max and make sure he got home all right, and pulled her away from the crowd. Once they were safely behind a tall row of lockers in the science hallway, Justin took hold of Alex's shoulders and all but shook her. "What did you do?"
Eyes wide, Alex opened her mouth and then clamped it shut. It wasn't often that Justin expressed his anger physically. He was usually more content to just sputter in indignation until Alex poked him or called him a dork and that was that.
This was different.
But then, Alex had never orchestrated a riot before. Not that he was aware of.
And he preferred to keep it that way.
Alex must have come back to herself, snapping out of her shock. Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared a little bit - never a good sign. She smacked Justin's hands away. "Like the looting and fires and stuff going on is my fault."
Well if she wants to get technical…
Justin sigh, suddenly feeling very tired. "Let's just get home before Mom and Dad hear about this and come looking for us."
…0…
On the way home Justin had to pull his sister away from various safety hazards. Turned out she was right about the fires and the looting.
And of course Alex, being Alex, wanted to stop and look at it all.
The only difference between Alex at five and Alex at sixteen was her being infinitely more sinister.
But he had to draw the line when she tried to grab a snazzy Mp3 player out of the busted front window of an electronics store.
"What? Its not like anyone is going to miss it!"
His work was never done.
…0…
Max and Harper had fashioned themselves aluminum foil hats by the time they got home, and were picking through Justin's monster hunting equipment.
"Hey!"
Wearing the string of garlic she'd made after he had started dating Juliet, and what he thinks is one of his mother's rosaries, Harper stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Max made a very good point, Justin. What if all the monsters in the Wizard world find out about the world ending and decide to come here and have a human buffet? We need to be prepared."
"And you think tin hats are the way to do that?" Alex asked.
Max raised a finger to his lips. In a loud stage whisper he hissed, "They're so the aliens can't probe our minds."
A smile threatening the corner of her lips, Alex widened her eyes in a mock look of innocent curiosity. "So now its monsters and aliens?"
"Well it only makes sense, Alex." Harper said slowly. "The monsters pick us off, and then the aliens study the carnage."
Justin scrubbed a hand over his face. Seemingly oblivious to his aggravation, Harper and Max continued going through his gear, opening various tubes and bottles to sniff the contents. He turned to Alex, only to see her texting away. Snatching the phone out of her hands, Justin pointed at the odd tableau of Harper and Max sitting on the dining room table dressed like refugees from a bad Halloween party. "Look at this, just look. Are you proud of yourself?"
"What? I didn't do this."
Her denial is no surprise. "You convinced some college kids that signs of the apocalypse are coming and now look - the whole city is falling apart. And you did it just because you could."
"It was your idea," she tells him flatly, arms crossed over her chest.
He tugs at his hair, all of the annoyance and irritation of the last few days bubbling up. "It was a figure of speech!" Exhaling a heavy breath, Justin collapses onto the sofa, burying his hands in his hair. "I never meant for you to actually try to destroy the world for kicks."
Harper looked up from her rummaging. "Alex did this?" She shot a look over at her best friend. "Alex, that wasn't very nice." With that, she went back to the task at hand, oohing over a magical flare that Max had just found.
Alex rolled her eyes, and perched on the arm of the couch facing Justin, her toes brushing the outside of his thigh. He glanced up at her, wearing the disappointed big brother face that Alex was fairly certain he had to have a patent on.
"So maybe - just maybe - this is a teensy bit my fault." She pushed her hair out of her face. "I'm not admitting to anything, but you know, it wasn't supposed to actually happen. Who knew those film geeks would take me seriously!"
"What about Jeff Block?"
She scoffed. "Jeff Block is an idiot, everyone knows that. He was begging to be manipulated this way."
He leveled a look at her. But it had no effect on her whatsoever. Typical.
That seemed to be the end of it as far as Alex was concerned. She flopped down beside Justin on the couch and snatched the remote from the coffee table. The channel flicked to life, CNN lighting up the screen.
"Reports of mass looting and rioting in the streets of Manhattan and the outlying boroughs continue to escalate, spreading outwards in to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Several local Manhattan schools have canceled classes indefinitely, and area businesses are preparing to shut down in preparation for more thefts."
Justin shot Alex a hard look. She shrugged, flipping over to another channel.
"Breaking news, the story that signs of the end of the world that have reportedly been showing up in large quantities all over New York City have recently made it to the halls of local DC area schools, leading to mild hysteria and panic, sending several children home early and prompting officials to bring in child psychologists to help calm fears."
The frown on Justin's face deepened, and he grabbed the remote from Alex. He shut the TV off. "Happy now? You've driven children in Washington to therapy, Alex."
She shrugged. "It probably would have happened with or without me. These are the children of politicians after all."
So maybe she had a point.
…0…
Jerry and Theresa, having fallen prey to the mass hysteria themselves, shut down the sub station and went to every store they could get to that was still open to stock up on canned food, bottled water, and candles.
"Mom," Alex said gently, taking a large box of matches out of her mother's hand, "we're wizards, remember. We don't really need the candles."
"Oh no," Theresa replied. "If someone notices that we're doing fine up here without the basic survival tools then we're going to be the first ones to get eaten."
Justin yanked his sister aside. "Hear that, Alex? Mom is afraid that we're going to be eaten."
She snorted. "Yeah, Mom was also convinced that the USS Tipton was going to sink because the boat had tip in its name. She's not exactly the most rational person alive, Justin."
She did have a point.
He hated it when that happened.
"Well… what about Dad?" They both looked over to where their father was sitting under the dining room table wearing a foil hat like Max and Harper, fiddling with an old CB radio he had brought up from the basement, a look of intense concentration on his face.
"Its Dad."
Another point.
Signs of the Apocalypse, Take 15.
…0…
The sun had just set when the lights began to flicker overhead. Six pairs of eyes raised to the ceiling as they continued to blink.
"This is bad, right?" Max asked, and then the lights went out entirely.
"Yes, Max," Justin told him. "This is bad."
…0…
A few minutes later Theresa discovered that the water was out as well, along with the heat and the phone line. She picked up her cell from the outer pocket of her purse and flipped the cover open. "No signal."
"The towers must be down," Jerry guessed, checking his own. He turned to the kids, who were assembled on the couch. "Okay guys, we're all going to sleep down here tonight. Go grab your stuff and bring it down here."
"Um, Dad, it's dark." Max pointed out.
"You have wands," he reminded Max, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You go with your mom to get some stuff, Justin, you go with Harper, and I'll go with Alex."
Everyone headed off, assembling back in the living room with piles of quilts, pillows, and the warmest pajamas and socks they could find. Justin charmed a thick blanket to hang in the middle of the room so everyone could change, and Alex pulled a large ceramic bowl over to the coffee table and lit a magical fire in it.
"My bowl!" Theresa wailed.
Jerry patted her arm consolingly. "Relax, honey. It's a magical fire. No scorches or anything."
That seemed to mollify her a bit, and she began opening cans of soup to fix for dinner.
Alex settled down beside Justin. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth, a look on her face that he was unaccustomed to seeing. "You okay?"
"No. I shut down New York City, Justin. And probably other places as well. I am definitely not okay."
He shook his head, certain he was hearing things. "Is that… guilt that I'm hearing there?"
Eyes rolling skyward, she pulled her favorite blanket tighter around her shoulders. Lower lip sticking out in an exaggerated pout, she fixed the biggest puppy eyes she could manage on him. "I hate you."
Tossing an arm around her shoulders, Justin pulled her against his side. He felt her body relax against him, her breath leaving her in a shudder. She burrowed her head into his neck, tugging on both her blanket and the fabric of his shirt at once.
"You can fix this, right Justin?" she mumbled, voice small and sad and childlike. "You can fix anything. You always fix my messes."
A hole opened up in Justin's heart. Alex never liked to show how much she depended on her dorky big brother, but she did, and he knew it. It just so happened that sometimes they both had a bad habit of taking for granted that he would always be able to clean up whatever spilled as a result of her actions. It was one of those things that just… was. It was a given. And truth be told, he tended to get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Not to mention the bragging rights.
But this was one time that even his magical abilities and knowledge of robotics and science weren't going to help him. It wasn't as if he could transport over to the power company and fix… whatever it was that made the power go out in a major metropolitan city. Even he wasn't that good.
Lowering his lips to rest against the crown of her head, he whispered, "I don't think so, Alex."
…0…
Alex woke up when a sense of cold crept up her arms. She rolled over in search of warmth, only to find an empty space where Justin had been when she fell asleep a few hours before. Sitting up, she lit up the tip of her wand to see by. Harper mumbled in her sleep on Alex's other side, shifting around a little, but didn't wake up.
"Go back to sleep, Alex."
She turned her head, seeing Justin at the window behind the table in the dining room, his silhouette outlined only by the tiny light coming from the tip of his own wand. Wrapping her blanket around her shoulders, she grabbed his from the sleeping bag he had been sleeping on and walked over to him. "You're gonna freeze." She slung his blanket over his head.
He pulled it off, scowling. Without a word, he turned back to the window, staring out at nothing. Literally nothing. The entire city was black. Alex shivered. She moved closer to Justin instinctually. She looked out over the familiar scene of the New York skyline beyond the buildings of Waverly Place, completely obscure in the dark. If not for the moon, the entire scene in front of her eyes would be a huge void of color and shape. It made her suddenly feel very, very small.
And knowing that she was somehow responsible for it… no matter if it was true or not, intentional or not, the very idea of holding that much power, was terrifying.
"This is all my fault," she whispered. "I destroyed the world."
A noise of disbelief came out of Justin's throat. He shook his head, leaning back on the window behind him so he could face her. "You didn't destroy the world, Alex. In a few days, hopefully just a few, everyone will figure out that the world is not ending and then things will get back to normal. Its like Y2K panic."
Alex frowned. "I was too young to really remember that, Justin. Its all a big blur of Dad wanting to build a bomb shelter in the basement and mom convinced that we all should get last rights before midnight."
Their gazes darted over to where their parents were sleeping on the floor.
"They don't really handle catastrophes well, do they?" Justin mused.
She shook her head. "Not at all."
Justin brought his wrist up to look at his watch. It was getting close to morning, and there was no way he was going to be able to get back to sleep. He was too wired. Adrenaline was running through his system in spurts, brought on by the sheer fact that his sister, who never, ever, purposely did anything that would either benefit or hinder anyone but herself. She wasn't that ambitious, not beyond the occasional prank.
And she had single handedly shut down the largest city on Earth.
It was enough to make him wary. Sure Alex'd had some weird pull over him her entire life - mainly owing to the fact that she had a tendency to lash out at him when she didn't get her way. Going along with her, or ignoring her, was generally just easier than getting in her way.
It all came knocking at his (metaphorical) door sooner or later regardless.
Through the tiny light of his wand, Justin could see that it was almost dawn anyway. The black, black sky was lightening up to a dark grey. It wouldn't be too long before the sun came up…
…so it was no big deal if he just helped it along.
"I need some sight," he said, pointing his wand upwards, "let there be light."
Streaks of pale pink began in the distance, cutting through the dark, growing brighter and turning orange until it was officially daylight outside.
Alex fixed her eyes on him, lips pursed.
He fidgeted. That stare was highly disconcerting. "What?"
She shook her head, saying nothing and went back to her sleeping bag.
…0…
From what he could remember, Justin hadn't head any weather reports calling for rain at all that week, and yet it had started to drizzle soon after Justin brought the sun up. Drizzle soon turned into showers, and then a torrential downpour that darkened the sky and drove the few people who had ventured out of their homes back inside. He huffed glumly, elbow propped on the windowsill.
Justin usually paid great attention to the weather. How else would he know the appropriate attire to wear to avoid getting sick.
"I hate rain," Alex mumbled from the couch. She was slouched down with her feet in Harper's lap, trying to draw something on her sketchpad. Letting it fall down onto her stomach, she closed her eyes and pouted. Harper was wearing a headband with a small battery light attached to it around her forehead, shining it down on the book she was reading. She glanced over at Alex and clucked her tongue before focusing her attention back on her book.
Max was tossing a hackeysack up in the air and catching it. He seemed to grow bored, and took his wand out, floating it around in mid air, turning in circles until he, again, grew bored and it fell on Harper's head. She shot him a look.
"Sorry."
Alex raised her wand, flicking it in Justin's direction. "I'm sick of this rain, send it to Spain." Her wand lit up, the beam hitting the glass and then the rain stopped as if someone had turned off the spigot in a bathtub.
"Alex!" Justin exclaimed.
She pushed herself up and glared at him. "Oh, so you can raise the sun early but I can't get rid of the rain?" She didn't wait for him to retort before going on. "Do you wanna be the pot, or the kettle?"
In a fit of true maturity, he stuck his tongue out at her.
The rain cleared, the faintest rays of sunlight breaking through the clouds.
And just as suddenly, the slits closed back up and the rain began to pour again, even harder than before.
Alex walked over to the window and braced a hand on Justin's shoulder, leaning over his head to peer out at the sky. "That wasn't supposed to happen." Raising her wand and saying the same spell again, the downpour stopped, but for a shorter time than before it resumed. She angled her head at Justin. "Would all this," she nodded her head in the direction of the weather, "affect our powers?"
Before he could answer - not that he had an answer - a loud twanging of a guitar resonated through the loft. All four of them looked at each other, confused.
It became obvious when a dark figure faded into sight, focusing into Mother Nature in all her black leather clad glory.
"What do you two think you're doing?" she demanded, not even waiting for them to catch their breath at the surprise of seeing her again. "I thought we understood each other after our last conversation - messing with the weather is not for your personal amusement or convenience." Coming to a stop in front of Justin, she leaned over him, almost nose to nose, and pointed her black tipped finger in his face. "Do we need to revisit the idea of your own personal earthquake? Because I'm still rather fond of the idea myself."
"As am I." Alex broke in between them, her 'You're going to agree with me before I'm even finished' look plastered on her face.
Granted it tended to work better when she wasn't wearing her pancake and waffle pajama bottoms and fuzzy stripped socks.
"And as much as I would love to see him," she absently patted his shoulder behind her without even looking at him, "shaking and bouncing all over the place, the rain thing - that was sort of my doing."
Justin poked her in the side. Hard.
She rounded on him. "What was that for?"
"You're taking the blame. Off me. Just making sure I'm not dreaming."
Alex made a face at him.
Mother Nature focused on Alex, pulling her away from Justin. "I know you did the rain, but he did the sun first, so it's more of a second strike thing for both of you."
At the words 'second strike' Justin jumped up from his chair, just as Max and Harper both edged their way towards the stairs. "We're just gonna…" Harper gestured down towards the sub station, where Jerry and Theresa were throwing out the food that had spoiled overnight with no electricity. When no one paid her any attention, she grabbed Max by the wrist and pulled him down the stairs. "Yeah."
Slowly working her way behind Justin, Alex crouched down so that only the top of her head was visible behind her brother's shoulder. "Um… my offer of the dating advice still stands, if that helps any."
Justin kicked at her toes with the back of his heel.
"Well, ordinarily I could be persuaded to overlook this - just this once, but seeing as how Wizards all over are messing with the weather then I don't think I can."
Alex straightened up, pushing herself up with her hands on Justin's shoulders to look Mother Nature in the eye. "So there are all kinds of people doing the same thing but we're the ones you're going to pick on? That doesn't sound very fair."
Justin kicked her again, and stepped forward. He clasped his hands together, slipping into the peacemaker mode that never failed to not work on Alex and Max. "Listen, Mother Nature, Alex and I are very sorry about interfering in your very, very important, delicate work, and we promise to never do it again. No matter how bad it gets out there." He tacked on the last bit hoping it would convey to her just how serious he was.
No such luck.
"I don't think so."
Feeling his shoulders deflate, he asked why not.
"Because I have a feeling," she said, waving her hand at the window and the chaos going on in the streets, "that all of this, was somehow your doing." She pointed a finger at Alex, who squeaked a little, and shot her eyes towards her brother. He gave her the 'don't look at me' face and sat down at the table.
"So, how does a month of rain - no, wait, thunderstorms - sound to you?"
Glancing at each other, Justin and Alex both gulped as a large peel of lightning tore across the sky.
Mother Nature disappeared, grinning. Alex, sheepish look on her face, shrugged. "At least we can see when there's lightning?"
…0…
Though he would never be able to say how exactly it happened, Jerry had somehow convinced Justin to take a look at the CB radio. The regular radio stations had given up a few hours before, after reporting that the hospitals were turning away squaters, going as far as to station security guards at the doors to keep away all those that weren't experiencing a legitimate medical crises.
A few moments after Justin picked it up, the CB crackled to life.
Grinning like a kid on Christmas morning who had just unwrapped a tricked out new bike, Jerry settled down with it at the table, tuning the channels until he came across two truckers - one outside Des Moines, the other Dayton - discussing how all the interstate highways were either backed up for miles or completely deserted, which dissolved into were there was any gas stations still open that sold diesel.
"Oh my God," Alex whined, "its spreading."
The front door burst open, and Zeke stumbled in with a light like Harper's attached to his fisherman like rain hat.
"Oh cool, it's the Gorton's fisherman," Max said. "What's up?"
Pulling his hat and slicker off, Zeke sat down next to Harper, taking the mug of hot chocolate she offered him gratefully. "Man," he said, "its like the end of the world out there."
"That's the theory," Justin said, tossing a pointed look at Alex.
Theresa brought Zeke a towel from the bathroom off the kitchen. "Zeke, what are you doing out in all this? You should be home."
He thanked her, running the towel over his hair. Even with the hat on he was still soaked down his neck. "Oh, my parents took off before the power went out, but now they're stuck at my Grandma's in Scranton, in pretty much the same boat and well, being home by yourself in the dark is kind of dull."
"Why didn't you go with your parents?" Harper asked.
Shrugging, he grabbed an apple slice off the plate in the middle of the floor that both she and Alex were picking from. "I figured if it was happening here, then it was only a matter of time before it spread other places. And if we survive the apocalypse," he said, fairly bouncing in his seat, "think of the stories we'll be able to tell."
Justin caught Alex's hand just as she was about to connect with Zeke's face.
Jerry settled on the couch behind the kids. "Any news, Zeke? Do they know what's going on out there?"
He shook his head. "No. The Times managed to get out the morning issue before closing up, but it was mostly just speculation - you know, theories, terrorist cells, Pentagon. All the usual."
Alex's eyes snapped up, and she shrank back against Justin's arm. "Pentagon?"
"You know, the military. There was some talk of mobilizing, but you know how that goes. Talk."
"I know what the Pentagon is," Alex snapped. Several pairs of eyes swiveled in her direction. "In theory."
Theresa sat beside her husband, tucking her feet up underneath her. "What about the police?"
Zeke laughed, making him choke on his hot chocolate a little. "The are no police."
"What?"
Nodding, he went on, patting Harper's hand. They could all see the way she visibly paled at his words. "My neighbor's friend's cousin, apparently he went down to the 73rd precent and it was empty. No one there." He looked around, from face to face, pausing for dramatic effect. "Deserted. He said it looked like the dawn of the dead in there."
Alex's lips curled up in a grimace. "Your neighbor's friend's cousin?" Zeke nodded. "Well that sounds reliable."
"Alex…" Her mother chided.
Max sat down, fixing a serious look on their new addition. "The question, Zeke, is this." He took a deep breath, leaning forward. "Did you bring any fish sticks?"
Zeke opened his mouth, but closed it just as quickly. He turned to Harper, who just shook her head. "I wouldn't."
…0…
By the time night fell, and the candles were slowly burning down, Justin pulled his dad aside and asked him his opinion on telling Zeke about magic, if for no other reason than them being able to make something to eat.
Which he knew would work.
"Zeke, " Justin said, sitting his friend down on the couch - just in case he fainted, it was probably best he not fall on the floor and incur permanent brain trauma - he pulled Alex to his side and looked between them. "Alex has something she wants to tell you."
Looking somewhat panicked, his eyes shot to Harper over Alex's shoulder. "You're not, like, going to confess your love for me or something, are you? Because I know that in dire times like these, there is sometimes a sense of urgency-"
Justin clamped a hand over his mouth, trying not to laugh at the murderous look in his sister's eyes. She turned her head towards Justin. "Can I turn him into a candle or something else useful?"
"No."
The furrow in Zeke's brow deepened, his eyes darting back and forth between Justin and Alex, over their shoulders at Harper, and even to Jerry and Theresa behind them. He was starting t o panic. And when he panicked, he started to sweat. Rapidly. It was only a few seconds before Justin pulled his hand back and wiped it on his sweatshirt.
Zeke gulped. "Candle?"
Giving a pointed look at his sister, Justin motioned towards his friend with his eyes. Alex stuck her bottom lip out, huffing a breath of air through her nose. Justin repeated the action, this time in a more blatant fashion. Finally, Alex rolled her eyes and made a noise of frustration. "Fine. Zeke, you know Justin's a drama queen, right?"
"Alex!"
"Uh, fine. Baby." Inhaling and exhaling quickly through her nose, making her nostrils flair, she made a grand show of being opposed to what she was going to do and then, after muttering under her breath for a few seconds, finally started speaking. "Okay, so, you know this whole 'end of the world thing'?"
His head bobbed.
"Well, it was sort of…" Darting a glance at Justin, she grinned at him. "It was Justin's idea, but sort of my fault."
Justin shot to his feet. "Whoa. How was it my idea?"
Alex was so busy looking at him in annoyance that she didn't even notice that Zeke had, in fact, fainted.
…0…
In hindsight, it probably would have been a good idea if, before telling Zeke that they had orchestrated the ending of the world, they had told their parents.
While Theresa and Harper went about reviving Zeke, Jerry set to lecturing his two oldest children.
"Off all the stunts you've pulled over the years, this takes the cake young lady."
Max laughed. "Alex just got 'young ladied.'"
Glaring at him, Alex squirmed in her chair. "I didn't mean to do it."
"Alex, this is the largest city on Earth, and thanks to your little game it is effectively shut down. And its spreading. Without the stock market up and running, other countries are panicking. I heard on the CB that this is spreading. The London Times is predicting the problem to spread overseas soon."
Eyes the size of saucers, Alex shrank back against her chair. "Wow."
She actually sounded… awed. Impressed even.
Justin's head dropped forward. Things were just continuing to go downhill.
…0…
One radio station, based out of the Bronx, was still broadcasting somehow.
Max happened across the station later that night when the feeling of Zeke's eyes on him, heavy and slightly afraid, got to be too much for all of the Russo's to handle. Harper was doing her best to talk him through it, but it wasn't as easy for him as it had been for her to accept it all.
After all, she had found out at Pop Con and got to float in outer space. Zeke found out because the wizards surrounding him had brought about Doomsday.
Possibly.
Well, it was looking that way.
But as soon as it became apparent that there was an honest to God radio station still operating, he gathered around it with the rest of them.
"Its entirely possible that this out of nowhere ocean falling over the Tri State area could be yet another sign. Its biblical people!"
So it wasn't actual news. But it was still something.
Jerry flicked his eyes between his kids over the once again burning magical fire. "Was that you two as well?"
They looked at one another before answering. Alex shrugged and Justin nodded, an entirely silent conversation. It had happened before, but it was always unnerving to see them communicate with each other so easily. So personally. Even for their family.
"It was, sort of, a punishment."
One of Jerry's eyebrows arced upwards. "A punishment?"
Alex bit her lip. "Mother Nature can really hold a grudge."
"I don't want to know any more." Jerry plugged his fingers in his ears, not looking fazed at all that his children were slowly dismantling the world around them.
On the radio, the guy talking, in a thick Jersey drawl, went on about plagues and pestilence, with a little Nostradamus name dropping thrown in for good measure. Then, just when they were all ready to turn it off and just go ahead and turn in for the night, he actually said something worthwhile. And it caught everyone's attention.
"Listen to this everyone, it seems that a few NYU students, who organized the now infamous rally in Central Park a few days ago, are now claiming that they first heard that there were magical signs of the apocalypse popping up around the city, visible to only a few people, from a teenage waitress in a small, family owned sandwich shop located on Waverly Place."
Everyone stole a furtive glance at a reddening Alex. Zeke inched his sleeping back further towards Harper - and away from Alex.
"Cool, Alex is famous," Max mused. Justin's hand shot out and smacked him in the back of the head.
"Seriously," Jersey guy went on, "if the entire world is going up in flames based on the word of some random high school chick, you really have to wonder what the world is coming to - and I have a feeling that it is not, nor anywhere near, the end of days."
Alex huffed. "Oh, I am so turning that guy into something green and scaly."
…0…
Signs of the Apocalypse, Take 27.
Later that night, as all the light from the full moon - which still had two days left in the lunar cycle - dimmed and then went out, shrieking could be heard from the streets below and the surrounding apartments.
Justin stuck his head out the window. "It's a lunar eclipse - it was supposed to happen!" He didn't know if anyone would be able to hear him or not, but it was worth a shot.
"Actually, Justin, " Zeke said, "the eclipse wasn't due to occur for another three weeks."
Alex tossed a pillow at his head. "Don't make me send you to Mars."
Zeke shut up.
…0…
The next morning, as the rain continued to pour, and Alex was painting her nails - prompting Justin to shout at her about her priorities in the face of adversity and Alex to magically zip his lips together - a fire broke out in the hardware store across the street.
"How can a building catch on fire during a thunderstorm?" Jerry wondered, sticking his head out the window.
Zeke started to explain it to him, but catching the evil eye that Alex tossed in his direction, he clamed up and sat back down to the game of chess that he and Harper were playing by light of the camping lantern Justin had transformed from a book about the history of the Boy Scouts.
Very fitting.
Max walked in, a shovel under his arm, munching on a candy bar.
"Max Russo," his mother demanded, hands on her hips and fury in her eyes, "where have you been??
"Uh, fire in a rain storm." He sprawled out in the armchair beside the door, peeling the Greenwald's sticker off of the wooden handle of the shovel he had brought in with him.
"Max," Justin was afraid to ask, was convinced that he would regret it, "why do you have a shovel?"
"Oh the Greenwald's gave it to me. They're making a run for the Yukon. I bet Hawaii is nice this time of year." He balled up his candy wrapper and tossed it into the magical fire. It was gone in a second. "We'll need it when the germs come after us."
"Germs?" Harper's voice made no attempt to hide his doubt. It was Max after all.
He nodded, propping his feet up on the coffee table, only to have his mother knock them off. "Yeah, some big medical research lab was broken into last night. The word on the street is that it's the work of terrorists stealing top secret bacteria and stuff. For like, weapons."
Jerry smacked himself in the forehead. "Alex, if we don't all die of some flesh eating disease, you are grounded for the rest of your life."
…0…
Why it took Justin three days to get the idea of them all using the portal in the lair to escape into the wizard world was beyond him.
He blamed the stress. It was distracting him.
Pulling on the handle, he found it stuck. So he tried again.
The mail slot appeared and an official looking letter fell onto the floor at his feet. He picked it up, groaning when he saw the contents.
'Dear Magical Creature,
Due to recent influx of powered beings taking up residence in the wizard realm, we are asking all who have remained in the mortal world to please be patient and not try to enter until everyone has been appropriately, if dangerously, settled.
Thank you for your patience.
P.S. If you have no objections to dragons, return this letter for further inquiries.'
Justin tore the paper into several strips and threw them angrily to the floor. Then he stomped on them for good measure.
"Feel better?"
He looked up at his sister, taking no amusement in the fact that she was wearing Harper's headlight headband above her eyes like a dystopian Rambo. She was holding her wand up for extra light, but the tiny beam kept flickering. "My magic is shorting out. Did you find out anything?"
Justin directed her attention to the paper under his feet. "We can't go to the wizard world, or get any help from the Wizard Council I'm assuming. We're on our own."
Dropping down onto the little red velvet bench, Justin cradled his head in his hands, feeling the tension of the week tightening his muscles and twisting his stomach.
He felt the warmth of Alex's body beside his before he looked up. She sat with her face to the front, not looking at her brother. "I'm sorry, Justin."
"For what?"
"Destroying the world." She looked over at him. "Epic rain and looting have already gone down, and now it looks like biological warfare isn't far behind."
Deep inside of Justin's heart, something twisted. Snaking his hand down to hers where it rested on her knee, he laced their fingers together, and tugged her against him. "Alex, you didn't do this. You made up some lame story and a few obviously not very bright people believed you. You couldn't have actually thought you could end the world just by trying."
"Don't forget the sign." A tiny smile appeared on her face.
Justin laughed. "Of course, the sign. That was actually a pretty nice touch."
Alex sighed. "How do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Make it all seem okay. Make it seem like everything around isn't, literally this time, falling apart?"
He rolled his shoulders. "Practice. When your parents come home one day and hand you a bundle of pure evil, you learn to adapt when the implosions happen."
Alex knocked against him, their shoulders banging together. "Dork."
"At least I didn't end the world," he shot back, standing up and leaving the lair.
She trailed after him, tossing throw pillows at his head. "It was your idea. Don't think I'm letting you off the hook."
…0…
Around ten o'clock that night, after Justin had already drifted off to sleep and was mumbling about devil clowns, the electricity flickered to life overhead.
It was the light that roused him into consciousness, but it was Alex and Harper screaming and jumping around that ultimately pulled him out of dreamland and back into the real world.
A world with electricity.
"Am I still dreaming?" he wondered, not wiling to trust anything in his drowsy state.
Alex, grinning like he had never seen her do in her entire life, actually got down on the floor and hugged him.
Signs of the Apocalypse, Take 38.
"Definitely still dreaming," he grumbled.
Alex pulled away. She pinched him for good measure.
"Ow, what was that for?"
"You're awake."
…0…
With electricity came heat, and then the water a few hours later. No one wanted to go to sleep once they were able to do all the things that they hadn't for the preceeding days, and Zeke even began to ask a few questions about magic, finding the whole thing 'fascinating' on a scientific level with the fear of impeding doom looming over them.
Once the water came back on, it turned into a drawing of straws over who got the first shower.
Except for Justin and Alex. As their father put it, "You try to end the world, you wait your turn for hot water."
A police officer knocked on the door, just checking in before dawn, and Zeke went to call his parents in Scranton to see how they were doing. Things were slowly going back to normal. A siren was even heard off in the distance.
Justin looked over at Alex, who was flipping through channels on the tv, hoping that one of them would come back on air sooner rather than later. He was beginning to think that having electricity, but no phone and no means of entertainment, was even harder on her than nothing at all.
"So…" he began, "do you really think we're going to have a month of rain?"
Alex shrugged. "Who knows? Even if we do, I just hope that the personal earthquake thing was just a bluff."
"Personal brush fire?" Justin guessed. "Tsunami? Oh I know, our own personal flood."
Nose scrunching in distaste, Alex kicked half heartedly at his foot with her toes. "That sounds vaguely gross."
Pondering that for a few seconds, he decided she just might have been right.
It was turning into an alarming trend.
A few seconds of uncomfortable silence pass before Alex sighed and let her head fall back against the top of the couch cushions.
It piqued Justin's curiosity. "What's on your mind?"
Not looking up at him, she blew her breath out in a slow, steady breath. "I came this close to ending the world, just to see if I could, we've been on the weirdest version of a family camping trip ever, and we had to tell Zeke about magic."
"And?" Justin prompted, wondering where her summary of the ninety six hours of bizarre happenings was leading to.
She met his gaze, looking sheepish and pained. "All of that, and now that its over, I can't help but think about Mason. Still." She smushed a pillow against her face. "What is wrong with me?"
Justin sat beside her. "Nothing. Its normal, now that the stress of everything that's happened is ending, that your mind would go back to what you were thinking about prior to it."
"You ever consider becoming a shrink?" Alex asked, a look much too innocent to be trusted on her face. "You'd be good at it."
He smiles at her, and they fall into another silence. This one completely comfortable.
"Thanks, Justin," she said, her words barely audible. "For not throwing me to the wolves. Or, you know, for telling on me."
"Anytime." It slipped out before he could stop it. Shaking his head, he fixed a serious look on his face. "No, not anytime. Let's just not destroy Manhattan again any time soon, okay?"
"Oh, psh, Justin. This is going to be a great story to tell your kids one day."
He looked more alarmed by that thought than by anything else that had happened. He stood, plastering his palms to his ears. "I did not just hear that, I did not just hear that."
Cracking up, Alex falls back onto the couch, ready for sleep. A shower could wait.
Before she drifted off, Alex heard Justin call back down to her from the top of the stairs.
"The next time you break up with a guy," he yelled, "I'm locking you up in your room."
She grinned, snuggling into her blankets. It would be fun to see him try.
…0…