Ian stood behind the bar of his club, watching a Jessica, a girl he had liked since high school, dance. She is so pretty.... but she will never like me, Ian thought. "Maybe there is a magical way to do this... but I can't do that." Ian rubbed his face. Then he got an idea. "But what if someone else does it?" He smiled to himself and grabbed his coat. "Hold the fort while I'm gone," he said to his assistant. Ian then went out the door and into his car to drive home.
~*~*~
Katie was at the manor, curled up in a chair by the fireplace, reading a book. She heard Ian come in the front door. "Back so soon?" she called, closing the book but keeping the place with her finger.
"Well....... I needed to get something," Ian said. He turned from Katie and then ran up the stairs.
"... Right." Katie shook her head and returned back to reading.
Ian went into his room and grabbed the Book of Shadows from the top of the dresser. He began to flip through it while he made his way over to the bed. Ian found the page he wanted and sat down with the book in his lap. "Cupid," he read. "The Angel of love, Cupid uses his love arrows to get people who are destined for each other to fall in love. To summon him, use the following spell." Ian quickly memorized it and then went down stairs into the living room. "Ok stand back!"
"What do you mean 'stand back'?" Katie asked, but stood up and backed up anyway. One never knew what might happen.
"I am going to summon Cupid."
"You're going to do what?" Katie exclaimed, not sure if what she heard was right.
"I said I am going to summon Cupid," Ian said, moving into the center of the room.
"You're crazy, ya know that, right?"
"Yes. Now shush." Katie muttered under her breath and waited. Ian cleared his throat and then began. "Angel of Love come to me, set another's heart free, to love me and see the truth, that I am the one they need on this earth."
All of a sudden pink roses started to appear all over the room. There was then a puff of smoke and Cupid appeared in the center of the room. "Nice diaper," Ian said, and smiled.
Katie raised her eyebrow and stifled a laugh. "So... This is Cupid?" A grin appeared on her face as she stepped forward to sit on the couch.
"Please, help me!" Cupid cried.
Ian frowned. "Help you? What do you mean?" Just then three warlocks appeared, surrounding them. "Uh oh....." One of the warlocks changed into a tiger, while the other ones generated fireballs.
"Big uh oh....." Katie yelped slightly in surprise when the warlocks appeared. Katie held up her hands, closed them into fists, then opened them quickly, hoping for the warlocks to freeze. Two of the warlocks froze, but the tiger didn't. He growled angrily and tackled Katie. "Oof!" She fell to the floor with the tiger on top of her. The remaining warlocks unfroze.
"Oh crap!" Ian yelled. He blew up one that had unfroze and turned to the other. The warlock threw the fireball he had and Ian ducked. It hit a book case and several of the books burst into flames. "Hey! My favorite book was in there! You are gonna get it now." Ian ran forward and slammed his foot into the enemy's chest. He fell back to the ground with a grunt. "Oh you are so unstable," Ian said.
Katie managed to somehow gesture, somewhat wildly, and the tiger flew off of her, only to land a couple of feet away. A bit closer than she would've liked. She looked around quickly. Ian was fighting with the warlock; supposedly he blew the other one up. She didn't see Cupid... A growl behind her made her look to see the tiger ready to pounce once again.
Ian ducked from a swing that the warlock threw. "Oh, that was close." He then slammed his fist into the warlock's jaw. He stumbled back a few feet and a trickle of blood came from his mouth. "Oh I am sorry. Not!" The warlock growled. His eyes then glowed red and beams shot from them. Ian was blasted back into the wall. "Ah!" As he fell to the floor he saw the tiger warlock about to pounce on Kate. She tried freezing the tiger again.
It only made him go in slow motion.
But that that was enough for Katie to move out of the way and run over to where Ian fell. "You alright?" she asked hurriedly.
"Yeah, perfectly fine except for this major pain in my back." Ian stood up. The tiger warlock was standing in front of them, baring its fangs. And the other warlock had conjured another fireball. Ian walked forward a little and glared at the tiger. "Hey kitty, kitty." The tiger roared and leaped at Ian. He clumsily levitated in the air and floated there, flailing his arms and legs. "I need practice!"
"Practice some other time!" Katie hopped to the side while gesturing. The tiger warlock flew into the other warlock, causing him to lose the fireball.
After another moment of flailing Ian fell to the ground. "Ok... spell..... spell...." He thought quickly. "Um.... Evil warlocks get out of my face, with this spell you shall return to your.... rightful place!" There was a bright flash and the demons faded. "Hey.... I should write that one down."
"You do that," Katie replied. She sighed and started to clean up slowly. Ian looked around.
"Where's Cupid?" There was movement from behind the couch and Cupid stood up. "Oh there you are. Now... mind explaining all this?"
Cupid looked down. "This powerful warlock named Jarel has been sending his minions after me to steal my love arrows."
Ian sat down in the nearest chair and slouched back. "And.... why would warlocks want love arrows?"
"They want to corrupt them to make the arrows evil. That way when someone is hit by one, the first person they see they will hate and try to kill."
Katie sighed again and picked up a ripped pillow. "I just bought this pillow." She looked at Cupid. "Is... Jarel, you said? Is he the one who turned into the tiger?"
"Oh, no. That was just one of his warriors. There are many more and they have all sorts of powers that they stole from others."
"Great. So we can expect more. Many more," she muttered under her breath, loud enough for Ian to hear, but not Cupid.
Ian glanced at Katie. This was gonna be tough. Only awhile had gone by since the two got their powers and so much has happened. He knew how she felt, but they would have to do what they could to help. "Well, we will do our best to protect you. Let's find this Jarel in the book and come up with some kind of a plan to vanquish him."
Katie nodded. "I'll start looking." With that, she walked up the stairs and into Ian's room, where the book was, and started to flip through the BOS.
Ian sighed. "Well..... let's follow her." Ian then turned and walked up the stairs and into his room. He found Katie sitting on his bed, looking in the Book of Shadows. "Anything?" Cupid came in behind Ian and sat in a chair, setting his bow and quiver full of arrows down next to him.
"Kinda sorta... Alright, not really. But I just started." Katie kept flipping.
"All right, well-" Thud! Ian lay on the floor and a warlock became visible behind where Ian had been standing. A two by four was in his hand.
Why didn't someone see that?! Katie thought as she ducked a swing. She grabbed the warlock's arm and flipped him over. He landed on the floor hard. She looked over at Ian; he seemed unconscious. "Damn," she muttered.
A grunt behind her gave her warning. She instinctively ducked as the two by four whooshed over her head. The warlock dropped the two by four with a bang and a fireball appeared in his hand. He threw it at her; Katie tried to jump out of the way in time, but was hit and flew back into the wall. The warlock ran over to Cupid's bow and arrows, grabbed them, and blinked out.
Ian groaned from where he lay and then pushed himself up. "What the hell happened?" he asked as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head.
"A warlock came in, stole Cupid's bow and arrows, and blinked out. What else would happen?" Katie said, a bit more bitterly then intended.
"What?! Why didn't you stop him?"
"You think I didn't try?! I got hit with a damn fireball and got thrown into the wall!"
"Oh... what about you Cupid? Why didn't you do anything?" He looked around. "Cupid? ....Where are you?"
"Over here," came the answer. Ian turned as Cupid stood up from the other side of Ian's bed.
"Wimp," Ian said dryly. Katie nodded and went over to sit on the bed. She put her face on her hands and sighed. "Ok," Ian said, "the warlocks have the arrows, and we still have no plan, and Cupid here is a wimp. Now what do we do?"
"We protect Cupid as best as we can, look through the BOS to try and find something on What's-His-Name, and get back the bow and arrows," Katie said, face still in her hands, causing her voice to be a little muffled. Ian sat on the floor.
"Ok.... but if these guys start shootin those arrows.... how will we be able to protect all those others?"
"They can't make the arrows evil right away, Ian." Katie lied back on the bed.
"Well they will be able to do it soon!" Ian protested.
"And we have no idea where these people are... Let's scry, or at least try to."
Ian looked up at her on the bed. "Right. But if that doesn't work, I'll... make a spell."
"Alright." Katie sat back up and looked down at Ian. "Where's the crystal and map?" Ian pointed.
"Bottom drawer of my dresser."
Kate nodded and gestured. The drawer opened and a crystal and map flew out to land on the bed. "Ok... Jarel." She swung the crystal over the map in a wide circle. It almost landed, but kept spinning. She looked over at Ian. "I think they might've warded the place or something. I felt a tug, but it didn't land on a spot."
"Hmm....... I have an idea. Hand me that two by four." Katie gestured slightly and the two by four floated over to Ian. Ian grabbed the board out of the air and held it tightly, closing his eyes and concentrating. After a few moments the premonition came. Ian took an intake of breath and after a second, opened his eyes. "I know where they are."
"Where?" Katie asked while starting to get up.
"They are in the woods behind the Junior High. I saw them corrupting the arrows. That should happen soon then. Let's go."
"They're in the woods behind the Junior High?" Katie asked. "Wouldn't demons go to like, an abandoned warehouse or something?" She followed Ian downstairs.
"Well what does it matter? But we have to come up with some kind of plan.... and my head hurts way too much." He stopped near the bottom of the stairway and turned back to Katie. "You think of something."
"Okay. How 'bout this. We run in screaming bloody murder, I freeze, you blow them up, nick the arrows, and then run out really fast?" Katie said in false cheerfulness.
"Um.... I doubt that will work in this case." He looked up behind Katie to Cupid. "Hey.... be a pal and grab that big book on my bed." Ian then turned and went down the rest of the way.
"Alright... How about we run in, say a spell, THEN take back Cupid's stuff?" Kate said, trailing Ian down the stairs while Cupid went up.
"Well first we need to find Jarel in the book, come up with a spell, fight the demons, and then if those arrows have already been corrupted then we have to find some way to..." He walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer, "...un-corrupt them."
"And that's why you're looking in the freezer?"
Ian glared at her. "No.... I am getting an ice pack for my head." He grabbed one and shut the freezer door. Ian then sat at the kitchen table and put the ice pack to his head.
"Maybe you should lay down on the couch or something for a little bit," Katie said, concerned.
"Oh yes, and let warlocks run around and shoot arrows at people that will make them crazy and kill the first person they see."
Katie shrugged. "Just trying to help," she muttered. She sat down on at the table at the end.
Cupid came in with the book and sat it in front of Ian. "Well let's see what we can find here....." Ian opened the book and started to page through it. "Oh this is taking to long. Info I want on Jarel I must find, show me the correct page so I can be at peace of mind."
The pages of the book glowed and a breeze came out of no where. The pages flipped in the wind quickly and then landed on one page. "Ah! There we go." Ian scrolled down the page. "Oh.... oh this is bad."
"Bad? What's bad? Bad is never good," Katie said worriedly.
"Well... it says that he has A LOT of powers and that many are not known. Also that he is one of the main leaders of the underworld, and that he has many people working for him. Oh and one more thing. No one has even come close to beating him."
"Oh yay," Kate said sarcastically. "Is there a spell or something that may help?"
"Nothing. We either have to make one up, try to destroy him with just our powers, or..... run like the wind."
"I like the run like the wind plan, myself."
Ian sighed. "So do I, but that would be wimping out. Don't be a Cupid, Kate." "Alright, alright." Katie rose and went over to the cupboards. "I'd rather make a potion then." She pulled out a caldron and set it on the stove.
"Do you have any idea what you are doing?"
"Kinda." Katie put random ingredients into the pot. Ian groaned.
"Oh no...... you are gonna blow us up!"
"Oh come on. The worst I could do is burn our house down."
Ian looked up at Katie. "Ha ha.... very funny. But the longer we waste time those warlocks are out there corrupting love arrows and shooting people with them."
"Well, get over here and help me then." Katie reached over and grabbed a pig's foot. She dropped it into the pot quickly.
Ian got up and went over to Katie, setting his ice pack down on the table. "Hey Cupid, do you know anything that can help us?"
Cupid looked up from where he was sitting at the table and shook his head. "I am sorry. I usually try not to be around demons."
Katie rolled her eyes. "I see that."
Ian watched Katie just randomly put in a few more things. "Katie stop. You will kill us all. Let's just make some potions that could help us. Smoke bomb potion..... acid burning potion..... um.... one that will make a flash of light and blind them..... stuff like that. It's all in the book. And I can start making some spells that could help us also."
"Okay." Katie dumped the stuff that was already in the pot and started to put in ingredients for an acid potion.
Ian grabbed a notepad from a drawer and sat at the table. "Hmm.... what can we do?" He then got an idea and wrote: 'I call upon the element of the air, your power with me share, blow away these evil beings, dead now is their meaning.' Ian looked up at Katie. "Got one."
There was a small bang and a puff of smoke came from the pot. "Me too."
Cupid looked at the two of them. "Anyway I can help?" he asked. Ian thought for half a second and then said, "Yes. Stay out of the way." Katie nodded as she put the potion into two bottles.
Ian began to write another spell and Katie said, "Next, the bright-light potion... thing." She put the bottles on the counter and started up again. "Do you think that maybe we should just summon Jarel here? It would surprise him. Might give us an advantage."
"Uh... no. Maybe we should just go to the woods. Bigger playing field. Yet..... we can't just let those guys run around creating havoc. But on the other hand we need to be prepared."
"Make your mind up." Katie added another ingredient and the potion was finished; she put it into two bottles. "Here or there?"
"There. Ok, I will make one more spell, we will go and do our best, and save the day again! .... Well in this case, night." Cupid stood up and walked over to them.
"What about me?" he asked.
"Stay here and don't touch anything."
"And stay outta sight," Katie said pointedly. "I doubt the neighbors will think that a man in… That is dressed like you, is casual."
"Ok Kate. Get movin on that next potion."
"Yeah, yeah..." Katie began dropping ingredients into the pot once again.
Ian sat down at the table and wrote another spell. "Hmmm.... this will have to do." There was another small bang from the pot a moment later.
"Done!" Katie said, filling another two bottles. "Alright, take one of each," she told Ian, taking three bottles; one of each potion. Ian quickly grabbed the remaining bottles and put them in his pocket.
"Ok. I have three spells here, we have three potions each, and.... our powers. Ready?"
"Not really, no." But Katie walked quickly into the hallway to get her light jacket. Ian followed her. She grasped Ian's arm and orbed them behind the Junior High.
"Ok..... See anything?" Ian whispered. It was pitch black and there was an eerie silence around them.
"Besides some trees? No." She started walking farther into the woods, not making a sound. Ian walked quickly behind Katie. After a minute or two they got deep into the center of the woods. They stopped and looked around.
"I still don't see anything. Do-" There was then the snap of a twig behind them. Ian spun around to see a tall warlock. Then there was a bright flash of light and Ian spun again. A large fire was in the center of the clearing. Warlocks stood all around. "Oh..... I think this is an ambush."
"I couldn't tell with all the warlocks surrounding us." Katie saw a warlock raise his hands, aiming at her. A bolt of what seemingly looked like lighting lashed out, hitting her in the chest. She flew and landed a few feet away, dazed.
"Katie!" Ian had no time to help her. The warlocks advanced. Ian quickly took out one of them by blowing the warlock up. But there were still a lot more. Four surrounded him and they were too close for Ian to do anything but use his martial arts.
"Ugh..." Katie moaned and quickly stood up. Four warlocks had surrounded Ian, and three were coming her way. She quickly gestured the direction Ian was, causing two warlocks to fly back and hit a tree. The three warlocks that were coming toward her hesitated for a second, but kept coming. She orbed and appeared in the middle of two, surprising them. One quickly conjured a fireball, but Katie orbed back to her pervious position and the fireball hit one of the other warlocks.
Ian smiled. Katie was getting really good. But there was no time for compliments. Ian levitated into the air and kicked one of the warlocks in the head. He stumbled back a few feet, but the kick had been weak. Ian fell back to the ground. Some of the warlocks started to back off. They all went and made a circle around the fire. "What are they doing?" Ian asked.
"I'm not exactly sure," Katie replied. Just then the fire started to move violently. It took the shape of a man, and then the fire became that man. The only light now was that of the stars. The man spoke.
"Bravo you weak minded fools. You made it this far. I am impressed. But no one has defeated me.... it can't be done. And while we stand here, my warriors are out there shooting people with my new toy. You have lost."
Katie raised an eyebrow. "You're sure about that?" She moved closer to Ian. "Let's try one of those spells," she whispered. Ian nodded and then took out one of the spells. He held it in front of them and they read together.
"We call upon the element of air, your power with us share, blow away these evil beings, dead now is their meaning!"
There was a slight breeze and then it grew stronger and stronger. Then a whirlwind appeared and all the warlocks were sucked into it.... except Jarel. The spell ended and it was just Kate and Ian against Jarel.
"Oh nice spell," Jarel said. "But it was not enough."
Ian glared and then whipped out the acid burning potion. He threw it, but Jarel just held up a hand and the bottle exploded before it got to him. The contents fell to the ground and burned the surrounding grass. "Uh oh...." Ian said quietly.
"We have to distract him somehow..." Katie said, thinking quickly. "Ok, got an idea..." Katie handed Ian all of her potions except for the acid one. Then she quickly orbed to appear behind Jarel. He looked around quickly, not knowing where she went. Ian took both of the bright potions and threw them at Jarel's feet. There was an ultimate flash of light. Jarel screamed out in rage and rubbed his eyes. "I can't see!" Katie threw the acid potion at Jarel's back. He screamed in pain and rage, but didn't go up in flames and die. Jarel swung around quickly to face Katie, conjuring up an energy ball. He threw it and hit Katie. She flew back several feet and hit a tree hard, which caused her to get knocked out.
Ian yelled out in rage. "No! Evil monster that stands before me, leave now, let us be!" There was a flash of light and Jarel was gone; back to where he came from. Ian ran to Katie and lifted her into a sitting position. "Katie!" Ian shook her. "Come on, wake up!"
Katie slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Ian, confused. "Ugh..... What happened?" Her memory was a little fuzzy, and her head hurt horribly.
"I sent Jarel away with a spell. Now we got to do something about your head." Ian breathed in deeply and then let the air out. "Ok.... I call upon the healing rain, ease Katie's headache, ease her pain." Ian looked at Katie. "Well?" The pain left.
"Thanks. It worked. Now, where to you want me to orb us to?" Katie asked.
"I don't know..... let's try a finding spell. Evil warlocks we wish to find, let me see in my mind, the place, where they dwell, show us the way so we may send them to hell." A picture appeared in Ian's head.... fuzzy at first, but then it was clear. "They are in the town square. There are so many people there at this time! We have to stop them."
"Alright, let's go." Katie orbed both of them to an alley very near the town square. She walked out to stand at the end of a crowd, trying to see over the people's heads.
"Oh no..... how are we going to stop this with all these people?" Ian heard screams over the crowd. Shouts of people trying to kill each other. Riots were everywhere. Police tried to get through. "It's like.... war."
"It is war." Katie jumped to the side when she saw a misaimed punch come her way.
"Ok," Ian said, a plan coming into his mind, "we throw the smoke potions, go in, take out as many warlocks as we can, and anyone about to kill each other.... freeze them. Ready?"
"Ready." Ian took out both of the potions. "Now!" He threw the potions into the center of the crowd. Smoke billowed up and stretched out over the town square. "Let's go..." Ian ran into the smog, looking for the warlocks.
Katie ran into the crowd, while freezing them, following Ian. Through the smoke, she saw a couple warlocks; one with a bow, and one with the arrows. "There," she told Ian. Ian turned to where Katie pointed. He could faintly see them through the smoke. Ian ran forward and kicked the bow out of the warlock's hands. He then gestured sharply and the warlock exploded. The other one grabbed the bow. He put an arrow on it and shot Ian in the leg.
"Ah!" Ian turned in pain and then looked up... at Katie. "Why didn't you freeze it?! This is your fault! I hate you!" Katie looked down to see a 'hate arrow' in Ian's leg.
"Ok, Ian... You know you just got hit with a hate arrow. What you're saying isn't you." Ian pulled the arrow out and threw it down.
"Oh shut up! What do you know?!" Ian ran towards Katie and levitated into the air. He slammed his foot into her head and then came back down. Katie fell to the ground.
She rubbed her head and glared at Ian. "Oh, I don't have time for this..." She got up, froze Ian and faced the warlock. Katie held out her hand and the bow came to land at her side. She drew another piece of paper from Ian's pocket. Reading from it, she said quickly, "Warlock that stands before me, die now, I vanquish thee!" The warlock screamed out in anger and pain, and then disappeared in a funnel of fire. "Cool." She turned back to Ian and unfroze him.
"Stupid witch!" Ian swung his arm at Katie. Katie ducked quickly, avoiding the punch.
"Hey, calm down." The smoke was beginning to clear. People that Katie had frozen earlier became unfrozen. Ian spun around in a circle and slammed his foot into Katie's stomach. She fell back to the ground. Ian raised his hands to destroy her. Katie stood up and quickly orbed behind Ian just as the ground exploded where she had been. "You don't want to kill me. It's the magic talking."
Ian spun around. "Quiet!" Ian raised his hands again, but just then Cupid appeared between them. He held up his hands and twin blue beams shot into Ian's eyes. Ian blinked. "What...? What happened?"
"Oh, nothing much. You tried to kill me, once again," Katie said good-naturedly. "Same old thing."
"Oh.... well if it that's all, no biggy." There were screams from around them. "Ok, thanks Cupid, now do the same thing to all them." Cupid sighed and shook his head. "I can't. I only had the strength to cure you. The two of you must do the rest."
"Some help you are," Katie muttered. "Alright... spell... Think of a spell..." she told herself. "... These people who have been swayed, may they once again see the truth."
Ian looked at Katie. "What was that? Was that a haiku?" Kate shrugged. "I couldn't think of a rhyme." The crowd began to calm down. "But it worked."
"Ok. Grab the arrows and let's get out of here. Everyone will just think this was a riot. Nothin supernatural about it." Katie ran over to the arrows and picked them up. Then she followed Ian out of the crowd. Ian and Katie stopped in the alley with Cupid. "Now let's go home and..... uncorrupt these things."
Katie nodded and orbed them all to the manor. "I've no idea how though."
"Well..... Cupid, ya got any ideas?" Ian looked him at him with hopeful eyes. Cupid took the arrows and bow from Kate and set them on the table in the kitchen. He raised his hands over them. His hands glowed along with the bow and arrows.
"It is done. Jarel's plan has failed, and most of his warriors are dead. He will not return until he has gathered new forces to him and has come up with another devious plan. I thank you."
Katie nodded. "You're welcome. If you need any more help, let us know."
Ian held up his hand. "Wait a minute... We helped you. So you have to help me. I summoned you for a reason you know."
Cupid smiled slightly. "Yes, I do know. You want Jessica to love you. Well my arrows will only have a person see the truth, that they do love that other person. But Jessica does not love you. And deep down you know that you do not love her. I am sorry, but that is just how it is."
Ian frowned. "This coming from a man in a diaper?"
Cupid gave Ian a stern look. "I changed my appearance before, but people did not know who I was. So I changed back. Thank you again for your help." He then disappeared.
"Well..... all that for nothing."
"Hey, we saved the day again. That's always an up-lifter." Katie sat down at the table.
Ian sat down next to Katie. "Uh huh. Well it has been a long day. Like all others. Almost got killed a number of times."
"Ah, the life of witches," Katie said a bit quietly. "You said it......." Ian muttered. "I've got to get back to the club. Wanna come with me and hang out?"
Katie shrugged. "Why not?"
"Ok. I'm too tired to drive. Orb us to the back office."
Katie nodded, held Ian's arm and orbed them to his office. "Is there anything I can do to help out?"
"There is nothing to do right now. The party has already started." He nodded toward the door, where music could be heard along with the voices of many people on the other side. "Well....." he said. "Actually there is one thing."
"And what is that?" Katie asked.
Ian smiled and said, "Have fun."
Katie smiled back. "My favorite thing to do." She then opened and stepped out into the main room. She started towards a table. Ian followed her and then stopped when someone tapped his shoulder. He turned to an amazingly beautiful woman standing there. "Can I help you?" Ian asked her.
"Yes you can. Dance with me." She took his hand and then started to pull Ian toward the center of the room. Ian glanced at Katie and shrugged. Katie watched Ian dance for a moment, when a young, cute, man came to stand in front of her. "Dance?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied, grinning. He took her hand and pulled her near Ian and his dancer partner and they started dancing.
A/N: Ta-daa! Wow, I almost can't believe it myself... Two episodes up in three days! ...Granted, that also happened with I first put this up, but you know. Expect another one up while I procrastinate over doing math homework. Heh.
