Chapter Eight: Boys Will Be Beasts
The lasers were doing their job well, though very slowly. A tiny hole had burned its way through the thick wall of ice, and a thin stream of water was dripping down the outside. The sight encouraged Jenny to turn up the heat a little more, but her gauges reminded her that her internal temperature was too low for that. As if that weren't bad enough, she was getting claustrophobic. She hated being cooped up in this stupid chunk of ice, unable to move so much as a finger. If she had her way she would just smash her way out, but her arms, legs and even pigtails were helplessly frozen in place. The only movable parts of her body were her eyes, from which the laser beams were emitting. Her plan was to melt the ice from the inside out, until it was weak enough for her to break. Then she would blast off for the mall, find Enchantra, and kick her skinny butt into next week.
However, during her time inside the ice block, Jenny had been able to reflect on just how difficult her fight with the sorceress had been. She wasn't used to fighting an opponent with magical powers, and the witch had known it. She'd used the fact to her advantage and done her best to insult and annoy her, blinding her with anger and frustration. The scar Jenny had left on the witch's face had come from simple dumb luck, and she knew luck wouldn't work more then once. How could an opponent like that be beaten? True, Enchantra was human and vulnerable to injury, but she could avoid her attacks by teleporting. She'd tried mallets, pigtail lasers, palm lasers, claw blades and even her disintegrating ray, but the witch had dodged them all, and struck back with devastating fireballs, lightning and ice, mocking her all the while.
Jenny picked up a muffled noise coming from outside her prison, distracting her thoughts. She turned her beams off momentarily to shift her eyes. There was a blurry black and white shape moving around outside, coming steadily closer and emitting odd honking noises. She switched to X-ray vision to see through the ice more clearly, and was surprised to see a small penguin waddling toward her. It looked up at the frozen robot curiously, blinking its beady black eyes and tilting its head to one side. Jenny didn't have to wonder very hard about what a penguin was doing roaming the streets of Tremorton. It was just another victim of the magic staff Enchantra had stolen from the museum, the Staff of Circe. Jenny hadn't believed the man at the museum when he told her it had the power to change humans into animals, but now there was proof. Even now she could see former humans rolling in puddles, eating from garbage cans, swinging from streetlights or scratching themselves in public. She turned her eye beams back on again, now even more focused and determined then before. Enchantra had said she was going to the Tremorton Mall. Brad, Tuck and Sheldon were certainly still there, as well as Sam, the new girl. Hang on, guys, she thought. I'll be there as soon as I can. Just try not to get turned into anything until then.
The place that had been the Tremorton Mall only a few minutes ago was now resembling the Tremorton Zoo, but the animals were not kept in pens or cages here. They were free to roam around wherever they wanted and pestered the few humans that remained. Several people were standing on top of tables or benches to escape from aggressive creatures like badgers or wolves, while a few others were trying to communicate with former friends and family members. The security guards were nowhere in sight. Most likely they had either been transformed or were hiding somewhere. The culprit of all this seemed to be enjoying the madness. At the sight of her filing her nails on the bench, Tuck yelped and latched onto Brad's leg once again. "It's her! The psycho witch lady!"
Enchantra stopped filing her nails and glared at the child from the corner of her eye. "Psycho witch lady?" she repeated in an icy cold voice. She lifted the staff in her lap and stood up, stowing her nail file within one of her fluttery sleeves. "Your poor manners betray your true nature, boy. Very improper for a human child." She aimed the carved ram's head at him. "The Staff of Circe will give you the form you truly deserve."
Brad clenched his fists and raised himself up to his full height. "Over my dead body, lady!" he shouted. "My brother's annoying enough as a kid! I'm not letting you turn him into a lizard or something worse!"
The woman laughed, sending chills down everyone's spines. "Foolish boy! I am Enchantra, Mistress of Magic! What can you do to stop me? I fear no one, not even your town's silly robot guardian!"
"Jenny?!" Sheldon exclaimed suddenly. Up until now the gangly boy had been cowering in fear behind a potted plant, but now he was bristling with anger and marching straight toward the sorceress. "You horrible fiend! What have you done to her??"
Enchantra smirked dryly at him, amused by his anger. "I've simply made sure she won't disturb me anymore. It's a shame, really. I expected her to be a more challenging adversary. She was far too easy for me to defeat. But then, what can you expect from a teenaged pile of scrap metal?"
From the look on Sheldon's face, one would think the witch had just slapped him. He stood motionless for a few moments, just staring at her in disbelief. Then he ground his crooked teeth together furiously and turned a burning red. "You take that back!!" he shouted. "Jenny's an incredible, beautiful woman who's a million times better then you could ever be!"
Enchantra raised her eyebrows in mocking surprise. "Well, well! You're certainly eager to defend her, aren't you? If I didn't know better, I'd say you have some feelings for that contraption! Will wonders never cease?" Then she laughed, a loud, scornful laugh that echoed off the walls.
Never before had Brad seen Sheldon so angry. The boy was twitching all over, and he could almost see steam coming out of his ears. Brad cleared his throat and spoke carefully, trying not to upset him further. "Easy, Sheldon, don't do anything stupid . . ."
Sheldon never so much as glanced at him. He bent down and picked up an empty soda can that was lying on the floor by his feet. "Nobody talks about Jenny that way!" he cried, and flung the can at the sorceress with all his might. Enchantra noticed it just before it bounced off her forehead with a loud and painful clunk!
She took a few stumbling steps backward, blinking and completely stunned. As the can clattered to the tile floor, a reddish mark appeared on her forehead where it had been hit. Then she narrowed her eyes, glaring murderously at Sheldon. "Why, you miserable little . . ." she snarled.
Sheldon's courage quickly disappeared as he realized his mistake. He shrank down and took a step back, a nervous grin pasted on his face. "Uh . . . eh heh heh . . ."
Sam felt her hair and skirt stirring in a breeze, as a low wailing sound seemed to come from all around. She looked at the boys, surprised by the sudden rippling in their own hair and clothing. Enchantra's body was surrounded by a dim red aura, thin arms outstretched to her sides, long hair and cape fluttering wildly. As she lifted her hands above her head the winds swirling around her grew stronger and stronger. Loose garbage began rising off the floor, followed by a few birds and small animals. Tables and chairs were knocked over, glass windows rattled and cracked, and finally Sam and the boys were swept up screaming into the whirling vortex. Tuck shrieked in terror, paddling his arms and legs frantically. Brad tried to grab onto his brother, but the winds pulled them further apart. Sheldon barely dodged an airborne cow, while Sam struggled to hold her flapping skirt down and avoid indecent exposure. The four of them spiraled higher and higher with flying furniture and fauna, passing floor after floor within the indoor tornado, until suddenly, they stopped. The wind died and they simply halted in midair, just long enough for them all to realize how close they had gotten to the ceiling, and how far away the floor was.
Then the law of gravity was restored, and as a result, everyone and everything plummeted straight down. Panicking, Sam flailed her arms wildly in a desperate attempt to stay afloat, but it was no use. As she plunged downward she spotted Tuck a few feet away. On an impulse she reached out and scooped the small boy up in her arms, then looked down. The ground was still some distance away, but it was getting nearer. She could see the railing of the second floor coming closer and closer, and she reached out for it desperately with one hand. Finally her fingers wrapped around the metal bar and gripped it for dear life. Saved! Tuck looked up at the girl's face, his eyes wide with surprise and fear. Sam gave him a small but reassuring smile and lifted him up to the railing. He scrambled over it quickly, allowing her to use both arms to pull herself over. Once on the other side, she grabbed Tuck's hand again and raced to the stairs.
As she jumped down the steps two at a time, Sam could see that Brad had managed to grab onto a table and use it to pad his landing on the bottom floor, while the hood on Sheldon's sweatshirt got snagged on the edge of the "Coffee by Alex" coffee shop's sign. He hung there for a few seconds, dazed and confused. The sign began creaking and groaning, then broke off from the wall and crashed to the floor, taking him with it. As he sat himself upright again, a dark and sinister shadow loomed over him. Sheldon's eyes grew wide in fear at the sight of Enchantra glowering down at him, burning with an angry red light and looking very much like Death itself. The staff in her hand began to glow with a red light of its own, and the sorceress seemed to get bigger as she chanted.
"Staff of Circe, power unleash! Turn this human form to beast!" She aimed the staff at him, and a beam of red light shot out. Sheldon threw up his hands in defense, but to no avail. He was swallowed up in red light, and disappeared in a blinding flash and a puff of smoke.
Brad stood several feet away, watching everything. Sam had joined him at his side, and Tuck had resumed his position behind his brother's legs. A few other people and animals had recovered from the windstorm and were watching the scene curiously. As the smoke cleared, identical expressions of shock appeared on Sam and Brad's faces. Tuck peered out from behind Brad's legs cautiously to see what had happened. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull from what they saw. Where the nerdy comic book geek Sheldon Lee had been standing before, a small black rat crouched on all fours, blinking in bewilderment.
Enchantra's cool, confident smirk returned as she lowered the staff. "Let this be a lesson to all of you, mortals!" she announced. "Anyone who dares to defy the mighty Enchantra will pay a heavy price!"
As the other human onlookers gasped and murmured to each other, Sam suddenly realized that she was standing by herself. Tuck and Brad had vanished when she wasn't looking. "Psst!" someone hissed at her. She turned and saw Brad and Tuck's heads poking out from behind a pillar. Brad was waving at her with one hand. "Quick! Over here!"
She wasted no time in joining them. "Guys, this is really, really bad." she whispered, hoping Enchantra hadn't noticed them. "We need a plan, and we need it now."
"Yeah, we know." Tuck agreed. "But she's way too powerful!"
Brad nodded. "You heard what she said earlier, right? She already did something to Jenny! What can we do against somebody like that?"
Sam rubbed her chin, eyebrows drawn together in thought. "I think she did that tornado trick on her own, but she needs the staff to turn people into animals. Maybe if we can get it away from her, we can stall for time until Jenny gets here."
A grin slowly spread across Brad's face, but Tuck remained skeptical. "Oh, right! Of course! And how do you suggest we get the staff? If that crazy lady can make tornadoes indoors, who knows what else she could do to us??"
Brad patted his small brother's head. "Not to worry, little bro! I know just the kind of distraction for this situation. Sam, you wait here. Tuck, you're coming with me." Before either of them could argue, Brad had Tuck under his arm again and had dashed off behind another pillar. He peeked out from behind it to make sure Enchantra didn't see them, then dashed over to the wall, where an emergency fire hose rested within a glass case.
"Brad, what the heck are you doing??" Tuck whispered with annoyance.
"I told you not to worry." Brad whispered back, placing him on the ground. "Now, listen carefully, this is what we're gonna do . . ."
Meanwhile, Sam stood watch behind her own pillar, growing steadily tenser. Enchantra had seated herself at a coffee table and was entertaining herself by harassing the remaining humans. She pointed a thin finger at a short girl with glasses. "You! Homely mortal! Fetch me a mocha latte, on the double!"
The girl folded her arms, insolent, offended and not very bright. "What are you gonna do to me if I don't?" she asked in a snotty tone. "Turn me into a chipmunk?"
Enchantra smirked. "Chipmunks can't make coffee." A small orb of flame appeared floating above the palm of her hand. "Besides, I have more painful ways to teach you respect."
"Hey, Enchantra!" a voice shouted, which Sam quickly recognized as Brad's. He was standing several feet away from the witch's table, clutching a long hose with both hands. From his posture and is expression, he seemed unusually confident. The other end of the hose was attached to the wall, where Tuck stood poised with his hands on the hose's spigot. He looked far less assertive then his brother did. "Too much coffee is bad for your health!" Brad continued, aiming the hose's nozzle at the witch. "Why not have some water instead?"
Tuck took this as his signal and twisted the spigot with all his might, releasing a flood with a hissing swoosh. Brad braced himself as a powerful jet of water surged forth and sprayed out of the nozzle directly at Enchantra, but the witch had seen it coming and disappeared in a puff of smoke. She reappeared standing on a bench nearby and Brad quickly redirected the jet of water, but she only vanished again. This time Enchantra reappeared levitating in midair, and came to rest on top of the fountain, her lips twisted in an irritated frown. "If you were expecting to melt me, young man, it won't work. But if you enjoy water so much, I can provide you with plenty of it!"
Brad sensed nothing ominous in the woman's words and simply aimed the hose at her again. Enchantra lifted one hand lazily and flicked her wrist, and the water from the hose doubled back sharply, arcing backwards in an impossible curve. Brad's jaw dropped in shock at the obvious defiance of the laws of physics, until he realized that the stream was aimed at him. By then it was too late, and he was thrown off his feet and onto the floor, coughing and sputtering. Surprised, Tuck quickly twisted the spigot until the water stopped flowing. He was about to go to his soggy brother's side when a red light brought him to a halt. Enchantra had the staff aimed at Brad, and it was glowing again.
To be continued . . .
