Chapter One: New Job

Several years since we last heard from Nita and Kit:

Nita sighed, tucking a tendril of her mousy brown hair behind her ear, as she looked at her manual again. For some unknown reason, she was on active status again. Usually, this wouldn't be a problem, but this time, like the last few times, was different. Her best friend and wizardry partner, Kit Rodriguez, was not.

That unsettled her. Not to mention that it seemed dangerous, but she had no idea what she was supposed to be doing. She was pondering this when there was a pop of displaced air causing said best friend appeared on the scene.

"Hey Neets," he began enthusiastically.

"Hello" murmured Nita her eyes glued to her status, Kit observed, like it was a death sentence.

Curious, Kit leaned over her shoulder, asking, "What are you looking at, pareja?" he used his pet name for her. Seeing what it was that she was looking at, he flipped his own manual open, and stated lamely, "You're on active status without me again."

"I know," was her limp reply. "It makes no sense, does it? We're partners, aren't we?"

Kit nodded. "Sure are, pareja." He was just as confused as Nita was, but ploughed on bravely. "What do you have to do, do you know?"

"Dunno," was the quiet reply as Nita propped her head on her elbows, then gazed out the window. It was nearing sunset, which Nita loved for some reason that Kit could not fathom, so they watched the slowly dimming sun as it passed over the hills and out of sight.

"Nita!" Dairine's voice rumbled into her room as she herself skidded in, Spot tucked under her arm. Apparently she had learnt of Nita's status. "Why do you keep getting all the good jobs?" Nita raised her eyebrow and to this she answered in a tone that was impossible to read.

"Where on earth are you getting the idea that all my jobs are good? You do remember the killed algae from last week, surely? Who says this one will be good – it seems fairly dangerous, after all. Not to mention that I haven't a bloody clue of where to start looking."

Dairine frowned, setting Spot down and asking for the danger rating. Spot shook his tiny head. "I am not at a liberty to tell you,"

"Nita, Spot won't tell me!" she wailed. This caught Kit's interest.

"What is it, pareja?"

Dairine giggled at something that neither Kit nor Nita noticed. Nita shook her head silently, and the recently tucked strand of hair flew out of place. Kit tucked it back, making Dairine giggle even harder. "Please Neets?" he gave her a puppy dog face. Dairine was hard pressed not to burst out in full strength laughter.

Nita sighed. "It's pointless to try to resist you, isn't it?"

Kit nodded, and winked, setting Dairine into another bout of giggling. "9/10F to 1/10S" she admitted grudgingly.

Dairine pulled at her hair, looking away determinedly. Usually, it would be 1/10F to 9/10S. The other way around was far more dangerous. Kit gaped for a second, before sitting on the bed next to Nita. "It's alright, pareja, you'll be fine, I promise."

"How can you promise that?" Nita sniffled, only now letting on just how afraid she was. "How?" she asked again angrily, throwing her hands out and knocking them both out of the room, the door slamming shut behind them. Dairine went to open the door, but when she touched the knob she immediately pulled back. The handle was as hot as red metal and Dairine looked at her hand, red burn marks already appearing. Kit looked at her hand and drew in breath. He thought that he might be able to get in and reached for the door but Dairine grabbed his arm before it made contact.

"Are you completely stupid? Don't touch it, transit!" Kit nodded, so he and Dairine set up the spell, grinning happily when they felt the transit take place. For some reason they closed their eyes so that when they opened them they realised that they were not in Nita' room. They looked around, then they noticed that they were in a parallel world. "You realised," said a booming voice behind them.

"You're the Transcendent Pig," Kit gaped at him in disbelief.

"I am," was the only reply they got.

Dairine butted in like so many before her, to ask a question. "What's the meaning of life?"

The Pig looked at her and told her that she did not need to know "Anyway, what is your human obsession with the meaning of life?" he shook his head and looked at Kit.

"Why are we here?" Kit asked him warily.

"That's the sort of question you should be asking! Bravo! You are here because Nita is feeling strong emotion, of which kind I shall not reveal, when she feels strong emotion she obviously thinks of this place and because you could not go in her room, she sent you here instead without knowing it."

"That takes a lot of power," commented Dairine

"You underestimate your sister?" It sounded like a question. "All power is not shown in the manual, well at least not for her anyway." he stated quietly not meaning for anyone to hear him, but Dairine did.

"Show us how much power she has then?" said Dairine boldly. The Transcendent Pig opened a big book he pointed to a page that read:

Callahan, Juanita .T.

DETERMINATION POWER: 20.30
DREAM POWER: 20.00
EMOTIONAL POWER: 26.40
PENDING POWER: 98.00
PHYSICAL POWER: 27.20
OTHER/REVEALED POWER: 8.10
TOTAL POWER: 179.90

Dairine's mouth fell open and was about to comment then thought the better of it and asked, "How much power do I have?" thinking that they all might be just the same. The Pig opened to another page:

Callahan, Dairine

DETERMINATION POWER: 2.06
DREAM POWER: 2.04
EMOTIONAL POWER: 2.03
PENDING POWER: 2.05
PHYSICAL POWER: 2.02
TOTAL POWER: 10.20

"What about my revealed power?" asked Dairine bossily.

"Nita is the only one with that kind of power; it's how much is shown in the manual."

"Oh," Dairine replied despondently.

Kit was still comparing the pages. 'No wonder she's so good at magic and always gets given the dangerous jobs,' then he chuckled slightly. 'and we thought that Dairine was stuffed with power!'

"You want to keep those two pages, eh," queried the Pig. He nodded dumbly, amazed at how much power Nita had.

"You must NOT tell Nita until she has FINISHED THIS JOB,"

"Oh," Kit was slightly disappointed to tell the truth. "Okay."

"Oh, and by the way. If you want to know the meaning of life you have to understand what those pages mean. Show your seniors. Goodbye."

The pig faded and Dairine looked at the pages in Kit's hands, "Let's go to see Tom and Carl."

Nita's Room:

They appeared in Nita's room seconds later, wondering how they got there. But then they saw Nita. "Are you okay?" Kit asked gently.

But Nita ignored her question and said, "I have a question for you, Kit. What are you carrying those papers around for? Show me!" she snarled, strangely out of character.

Both Kit and Dairine looked at her and then at each other uneasily "Hurry up!" said Nita with haughty impatience and then Kit made a decision. And he was gone with a pop.

Dairine guessed he had gone to Tom and Carl to 'show his seniors' as the Pig had put it and went after him, only just hearing Nita mutter "May the rain catch them up wherever they are, I didn't need those pages anyway, they were probably not that important."

Nita's eyes flashed and she forgot the incident, back to being a normal girl again. "Where're Kit and Dairine?" she asked herself.

Apparently means 'Partner,'

Revised: January 2006