Masterminds: A Waverly Place Fanfic

Part 1:

Crucial FYI: If you haven't read my fanfic Instincts, please read it first. This direct sequel would have spoilers and probably be very hard to follow otherwise. It'll all fit into place this way. If you have read Instincts and are prepared, make yourself comfortable and get ready for the next level.

Relatively to the present, around a week earlier…

The remaining agent of living metal called out, "no! Listen to…" It never got to finish the thought as a second random lightning bolt pierced its wires. To Alex's escalating sadness, the mechanized being's vents overloaded to the point of inner combustion. It fell defeated and inactive to the hardness of the steps. Alex desperately covered her ears as the biggest rumble she ever heard echoed in this well of hollow efforts. The extinct monstrosity tumbled to the sixth floor. Alex's wand fell to the platform under her feet. Alex ignored her tears.

She muttered, "the cycle of darkness will end…now and forever more." Alex picked up the wand. She cast out another path with a way, "Cerebellum Eraslum!" Alex dropped the wand, clutching the manifesting ache in her head. She fell to the platform, joining her brothers in subconscious.

An hour later…

"Where…where am I?" A confused Alex Russo begun to get up with a groan, on the middle of an x shaped set of steps sloping downward. Around the ground steps were an entwined structure of vines shaped in the form of archways…one for each set to be more precise. At least, the ice like surface at their bases looked solid enough to be ground. Over Alex's head was what seemed to be in her growing awe shifting old fashioned medieval towers, making up most of the surrounding atmosphere without lack of oxygen or conflict with the scene. She deduced with a chuckle, "I must be dreaming….although I never put anything like this in my diary." Alex corrected herself a little uneasily, "at least I think I do." A near deafening sound of breaking glass resounded abruptly to the underhanded reactionary protection of her eardrums. She noticed in deeper vision the towers bombing down on the splitting ice ground, followed by huge geysers sprouting from the stretching holes. Alex remarked, "someone must've known I was coming." She instinctively walked down the only garden path beyond a particular arch, even before the tower like missiles begun.

A hauntingly familiar voice replied coldly, "is that any way to greet someone who knows you too well?" Alex turned around on impulse to see Gigi Hollingsworth, forming from the reforming tidal wave around the arch.

Alex pointed out with a half smile, "you sure have a sense of familiarity about you." The rest of the water rush seemed to just pass on by, as if the 2 teenagers were encased in a bubble of air.

Gigi chuckled uneasily…"and yet the name Gigi doesn't strike a chord?" The thinning wall of water transformed the garden into an urban styled aquarium.

Alex commented with a spirited sigh, "to be honest, I'm not sure what's truly in accordance."

Gigi laughed cruelly…"you really have your cloth coming unraveled, don't you?"

Alex retorted to her surprise, "a tapestry is only as good as the weaver, and a weaver can make any as good as new…but often not without a story to tell." Gigi suddenly shifted into a more persuasive and manipulative mood, along with the chilling change of scenery. The former aquarium was now a maze of ice blocks freakishly in the shape of bricks, with a small round table to match the material. Gigi and Alex begun to sit on opposite sides of this furniture…more specifically on leather cushions resembling the tops of saddles.

Gigi soothingly continued, "I could volunteer one you'd be quite pleased with."

Alex insisted, "please do."

Gigi put a hand on one of hers…"perhaps I have underestimated you, my sister."

Alex smiled slyly, retracting her hand…"why do I get the feeling that I shouldn't trust you?"

Gigi implied cunningly, "isn't that the fun in schemes…recreational rivalry?"

Alex challenged daringly, "but how would proposing a story lead to a successful scheme if I then already know where the scheme will end up?"

Gigi chuckled in rebuttal…"not if the two of us team up for this round."

Alex added inquisitively, "and the objective?"

Gigi answered to her amazement, "bringing civilization the full meaning of enjoyment."

Alex deduced coolly, "then you must have an awaiting side of your own."

Gigi replied, "I do, and they're interested in you too if you want to join."

Alex pushed, "first, explain they."

Gigi revealed nervously, "all I know is that these powerful beings call themselves the Identity and can shift through dreams."

Alex assumed, "so, we're stuck in dreams?"

Gigi nodded…"according to the Identity, there are very few like themselves who have retained their full identities and mobility."

Alex pointed out, "so, it's not just me…Alex?"

Gigi remarked cheerfully in agreement, "good thing our personalities and representative names stuck, or we'd be truly lost from unconsciousness."

Alex drummed her fingers on the table delicately in thought…"right before I form a conclusion, what would bringing the full meaning of joy entail?"

Gigi deduced confidently, "simply an overlapping balance of tricks and counteractive tricks in replacement of civil justice."

Alex commented approvingly, "in essence, crime blended equally with law. This is a legendary undertaking." She put her fingers away from view.

Gigi grinned…"I take it your answer is just as thought out?"

Alex assured her, "I'd be proud to join the cause." She offered her hand to Gigi, who shook it positively.

Gigi assured her back, "you won't regret it."

Alex wondered in partial alarm, "hold on…what was that?" The 2 glanced around to see the ice start melting to the cycling flames and steam around them. A miscellaneous pair of shadows shone from the other side of the fire, charging towards them with quarterstaffs.

Gigi realized in shock, "those aren't the Identity!"

Alex cried out, "run!" The 2 unorthodox friends sprinted towards the edge of a vaporizing glacier, the stalkers giving chase. Gigi and Alex split off onto neighboring afloat glaciers. The attackers leaped next to them, landing on an ice sheet in the middle. Their figures were masked by the ongoing flames among the glaciers themselves. Gigi shifted nervously away from the rising flames, crawling below the smoke. Alex kicked off the back of her aflame iceberg, gaining speed on the melting stream. One fighter struck a quarterstaff against the center glacier, using it as direct leverage to edge the glacier closer.

A vaguely familiar voice called out, "get down!" The middle glacier ended up cracking to the point of exploding from the apparent flames, propelling the tumbling fighters closer to their targets.

Gigi called out in fear, "Alex!" Gigi was on a barely existent glacier, with a mounting tidal wave charging too fast to jump away from. Alex passed from drifting ice block to ice block as if they were mere stepping stones, running straight for the tide.

Alex called back, "Gigi!" She tumbled onto an ice disk, grabbing on tight as it got caught up in the wave. Alex instinctively lowered her soaked feet to grips with Gigi's underarms, launching her onto a distant snowbank to safety. Alex suddenly lost her grip, sinking into the water as a fighter nearly missed her with a quarterstaff. The fighter slipped on the ice disk, vanishing in a big splash. Alex's body was rammed out of the wave, landing in spiraling unconsciousness on a newly formed glacier piece. The second but blurred fighter was about to swoop its hand at Alex's neck, when Alex with her last ounce of strength tugged this hand over the glacier's edge. She coughed out water, shortly before lying head up against the glacier in unconsciousness. What Alex faintly saw through the coughs was a second blurred figure, looking down at her as if she already lost this war of thought.