Chapter Three: Stumped
The group woke up before sunrise the next morning anxiously anticipating a call. Everyone for the most part seemed to sleep decently except Alex and Freddie. The brunette pair was too busy thinking back to the event last night.
Freddie on one hand couldn't still quite grasp the concept of wizards existing. Sure he had played against wizards… in video games, but it was fiction for a reason. Now that he realized they existed added a bit of concern and curiosity to him. He began to ponder whether anyone he knew is a wizard. The sparks from Alex's wand still replayed in his head as he saw himself go from the living room couch to a secret lair which he believed to be a freezer. All the magical things like potions and spell books suddenly weren't so fictional anymore. For some odd reason though, some things looked familiar, but the brunette boy was sure that it was from his dreams and his games.
Freddie realized now that, that was what the man was alluding to in the letter. He knew for sure that if Sam and Carly found out the trio were wizards, they would not be anywhere near them because they had kept a secret like that. Despite the urge to shout out the shocking revelation, Freddie wanted to keep true to his promise to Alex. With a long breath, he calmed himself down enough to not make it obvious something was up.
Alex on the other hand was more nervous than she had been in a while which she found strange. Freddie and Harper were both mortals, but when it came time to finally tell Harper she never even broke a sweat about breaking the ultimate wizard rule. Truth be told, she expected Professor Crumbs to poof in and take away her powers forever. He didn't show up, but still the brunette felt very nervous about the whole things anyways. She tried to assure herself that technically she did the right thing by telling him because he was the only one from the iCarly trio on her side.
"I can't keep doing this!" Carly exclaimed, jumping up from the couch. The group looked at her in sympathy considering how nervous the rest of them were.
Her blonde friend blew out a breath and stood up as well, "Shay is right. Why are we sitting here waiting for those whackos to call when we can try and figure out where they are?"
"That's the problem though." Alex noted, "We'll never be able to find them, heck I'm pretty sure even if we had magic we couldn't find them." Alex and Freddie's eyes opened in shock before quickly looking away. Justin gave her sister a glare as she looked at Carly and Sam. Luckily, they didn't think much of it and simply plopped back down on the couch. Shutting her eyes and blowing out a breath she excused herself from the room and headed downstairs to the sub shop.
"What is going on?" She whispered to herself. "I just slipped up and that never happens! Gosh… thank goodness Carly and Sam never found out."
"You're telling me." A voice stated, causing Alex to involuntarily yelp. She turned around and sighed when she realized it was Freddie, "Sorry didn't mean to scare you."
"It's alright." She responded, "I just don't know what's going on. Ever since I told you about… you know what… I can't think straight anymore."
"Look." Freddie stated placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "You don't have to worry about that. No one is going to hurt you for telling me. Even if Carly and Sam are upset I'm sure they'll come around considering that we need you in order to find our parents."
The wizard nodded her head as she let out a small smile since last night. The boy simply smiled back as the sound of heavy footsteps behind them caused the pair to turn around. Hastily running down the staircase was the rest of the group.
"What happened?" Alex asked concerned.
"They called." Justin simply responded reaching into his backpack filled with survival gear. "They gave us some coordinates and said that we would find what they wanted. I don't know if where we're going is going to have mobile service so I want everyone to grab a walkie-talkie."
"Are you sure this isn't a trap?" Freddie asked, quizzically. "I mean who knows where the coordinates take us."
"It's a chance were willing to take." Max stated, as the groups aside from Alex and Freddie nodded.
"I don't know-"
"Let's go." Alex interrupted, staring at Freddie, "I'm sure we will be fine."
The former tech producer looked at the brunette before sighing and nodding his head, "Alright, let's move out."
The former web hostesses looked at the exchange, trying to see what was up between the pair. Carly knew that Freddie's eyes lit up when he first met Alex and Sam knew that something had to happen in the duration of yesterday to this morning. They looked at each other and gave each other a knowing nod before walking out with the rest of the group.
In the middle of nowhere…
"Where the hell are we?" Sam asked, looking around the remote location. "Are you sure you read the coordinates right?"
"Trust me he did. Justin doesn't make mistakes like that." Max assured, getting a thankful look from his brother.
"Well then we must have walked right into shit's creek because we are in the middle of nowhere." Sam mumbled as the group continued forward. While walking, Carly agreed with Sam that she would try and talk to Freddie and see if he would give her any hints as to what was up.
"Pssst, Freddie." Carly whispered, trying not to get the attention of the rest of the group.
"What's wrong Carls?" Freddie whispered back, continuing to look forward.
"I just wanted to ask you something is all."
"What is it?" He said, looking at her, "Do you need us to stop? We can take a break if you want-"
"No Freddie, this isn't about me."
"Oh… then what is it?" The brunette boy asked, glancing at his friend.
"I just wanted to ask if-"
"We're here!" Justin interrupted, causing Carly to curse under her breath.
"What exactly is here?" Max asked, now a little bit sceptical himself. "All I see is a tree stump."
The group all sighed in frustration, unsure of what exactly to do next. Freddie looked at Alex who was quite confused. He couldn't help but think that the coordinates were wrong, but then again he highly doubted that. What exactly could those evil people want from such an empty location like this? Exhausted he walked up to the tree stump looking to take a seat, but instead he found a note stuck on.
The note read, "The item which we seek is below the stump. You know what to do Russo children. P.S. You better hurry."
Freddie blew out a nervous breath and looked back at the group who were busy trying to set up camp and start a fire. He quickly ripped out the note and shoved it into his jacket pocket. Pondering what to do, he walked back a few minutes later and saw a fire lit while the group was sitting down.
"Hey guys." He stated walking up to the group who looked up at him, "I'm going to go walk around the premises and make sure it's safe." Alex noted the fact that he was making direct eye contact with him and she stood up and dusted her pants.
"I'm going to go with him. He might need protection." Alex noted; a phrase that her two brothers and Freddie understood. Carly looked at Sam who simply rolled her eyes and shook her head with disgust as she chewed on her beef jerky.
Once Alex and Freddie were far enough away from the group he looked around and pulled the note out of his pocket. The female wizard looked at him curiously before taking the note and reading it aloud.
"What are we going to do?" She asked worriedly.
"What else can we do, your brothers and you are going to have to tell Carly and Sam that you guys are wizards." Freddie explained, not being able to find any other smart solution.
"Well if you come with us then that shouldn't be an issue now should it?" A voice exclaimed, causing Alex and Freddie to turn around. Standing in front of them, was a trio of men. The leader was fairly slim, but his menacing grin brought fear into the brunette pair. His two henchmen on the other hand were very strong and had a very insane look bulging from their eyes.
"Who are you? Are you the one that took our parents?" The pair questioned, causing the man to chuckle maniacally.
"No, that is our boss." He explained, before him and his henchmen pulled out wands, "And our mission… is to bring you." Freddie pushed Alex out of the way as a bolt of red light hurdled towards them.
"Run Alex!" Freddie yelled, as he was hit by the casted spell and flung to the ground. His legs and hands had some sort of invisible chain on them, restraining him from getting up.
The female wizard was hiding behind a tree, trying to fire without getting out of cover but once the attack became heavier she turned to look at Freddie. He simply nodded allowing her to escape. She stared at him one last time before running as fast as she could to find the rest of the group. The brunette boy saw the female wizard fading into the distance as he turned to the three men.
"Not sure why your girlfriend ran." The leader exclaimed crouching down, "We didn't want her anyways. Our target was solely you." He turned to look at his two friends before stating, "Hurry on and grab him, boss wants us to deliver him quick." Freddie looked as the two men inched closer, before everything went black as a bag was placed over his head.
Meanwhile, Alex was running towards the smoke in the distance. She had been running for quite some time before she stopped and leaned against a tree as she began gasping for air. Her clothes were covered in dirt from Freddie pushing her into safety. Her chin was a little bruised from the impact of the fall and her hands were still trembling. Despite fighting people that wanted to kill her, her spell was casted inches away from one of the men, nearly killing him. Never in her life did she think she would be that close to killing someone before.
"Alex?" A voice asked with concern. The brunette quickly pulled out her wand and turned around, thinking it was one of those men.
"Whoa, little sister it's just me." Justin stated raising his arms in defense. The brunette dropped her wand to her side as she looked at her older brother. "What happened Alex? Where is Freddie? We saw a light show from afar, so we extinguished the fire. Max is protecting Sam and Carly, so I went to find you two."
Her heavy breathing soon turned into tears, as she started to take in what happened a minute ago. Freddie is gone. The only person that she felt safe around ripped from her. The brunette hugged herself not from being cold, but for comforting herself. Justin sighed as he pulled his sister into a hug as she continued crying.
"He's gone. They took him." She whispered, much to the fear of Justin. The evil people may have made some menacing threats, but now they knew that they would live up to them.
"It's okay Alex." Although it wasn't. "We'll find him." Although it may be impossible.
"We have to tell Sam and Carly what we are." She exclaimed as the pair broke their hug. "Freddie knows, I told him. We can't keep anymore secrets if we want to be safe and find Freddie and our parents. He found a note on the stump. Whatever they want is under it and we both know how we are going to get it."
The male wizard sighed and nodded. "I wished it never came to a point where we had to expose ourselves, but it has… Let's go and get you cleaned up." The female wizard nodded as she walked with her brother, looking back periodically in hopes that Freddie would be behind her. When they reached the group and told them what happened to Freddie, Carly simply started to cry and Sam looked down in anger and depression.
"You guys said that we were hiding something from you and… we were. But in order for us to rescue our parents and Freddie we have to show who we truly are. My brothers and I… are wizards." Alex explained, as Sam and Carly looked in shock similar to how Freddie looked at her.
"Wizards?" Carly asked, "Like casting spells and stuff?"
"Yes, watch." Max stated, pulling out his wand and creating a fire much to the amazement of the former web hostesses. Justin extinguished it and pulled out the note that Alex had given him on the way there.
"They said in order for us to give them what they wanted, we needed to use magic." Justin explained, "And that is what we have to do."
No one in the group disagreed as they were too scared about what happened or beginning to doubt what would happen to them. Justin, Alex, and Max all walked towards the tree stump and aimed their wands at it. Carly and Sam watched intently as the three wizards shouted a spell, causing the stump to hover above the ground.
"One of you check what's underneath it." Justin stated to the two girls. Carly stood frozen to the ground in what she was witnessing, causing Sam to sigh and walk towards the stump. She stooped under it and saw the hole. She reached for the object buried under some dirt and yanked it out. Once she was out of harm's way, the trio dropped the stump. Turing to the blonde, they noticed she was holding a message in a bottle.
"What does this one say?" Alex asked.
Sam yanked the cork off and unrolled the paper. She looked at the paper and read, "Congratulations children, you managed to finish the challenge of honesty. As promised, your parents shall live another day and you will receive some info. Don't think things shall always be this simple; the real tests have yet to come. That is all."
As soon as she was done, the phone given to them began to buzz. Justin noticed the new voicemail message and tapped the icon as the group huddled to hear it.
"Where are we going?"
"Some place safe. Away from all of this madness. Those two guys are going to kill each other and everyone else in the process."
"But what about everyone else Steven?"
"Look, I don't care. We will be fine. After we escape, then nothing will ever happen again."
"Do you promise?"
"Of course. Let's go before it's too late."
*Click
"Who was that?" Max asked, not knowing the voices of the two people from the voice message.
"It's my mom and dad." Carly noted, "What exactly where they running away from?"
"I don't know, but I do know that our parents live another day." Justin said, breathing a tiny sigh of relief." We should head back home before the storm brews. We'll figure out everything from there."
The group nodded as they walked away, but looking back just wondering if Freddie would somehow appear… He didn't.
Somewhere…
"Rise and shine." A voice said, as the bag over Freddie's head was taken off. The brunette boy closed his eyes from the strain of the bright light in the room. Once his eyes regained focus he noticed he was sitting on a chair in someone's office. His hands and legs were still cuffed and he noticed a man looking out the window. He could hear the waves crash below as the moon was covered by the clouds.
"Is he awake?" The man asked still gazing outside.
"Yes sir." The henchman confirmed.
"Good, my guards will escort you and give you your pay."
The three henchmen nodded as they turned around and walked outside.
"Funny how our world goes doesn't it." The man exclaimed, "The Earth spins and the sun and moon rises and sets. But we are too busy trapped in our own torture to notice."
"Okay I don't know who you are or what the hell you're trying to say." Freddie replied, bluntly not really caring at the moment.
"Oh Freddie, but you do." The man said, turning around. Freddie's eyes lit up as he saw the face of the man. He was in disbelief of what he was seeing.
"DAD!?"
AN: And that's the end of the chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it. Sorry for the late upload, but like I've stated in my other fanfics, I've been very busy.
Stay tuned for the next chapter.