PERSPECTIVE: ZOE
I slid into the passenger seat and buckled in, and Jackie got in the driver's seat.
"What was that about?" she asked.
"Marie's an anxious person by nature. Has to read up on all the facts about a topic before deciding something, or spend like five minutes in the cafeteria line trying to choose between a chicken taco or a pork one. Pretty much any situation she's in, she turns the options over and over in her head, always trying to be as exact as possible whenever possible."
She chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like Inez alright.
"Anyway, who do we nab first?" I asked.
"I'd say Buzz and Delete first, but they're his henchmen, so I think they're gonna be more Matt's and Marie's territory. Next in the hierarchy is Wicked, primary antagonist, as well as resident of, the kingdom of Happily Ever After." She typed something into her Skwakpad. "We should be there in about half an hour."
"Great. In the meantime… would you mind filling me in on whatever you can tell me about this…" I gestured to the universe around us. "... place?"
WICKED'S CASTLE
What stood out immediately was the… flamboyance of the castle. It was decorated all in magenta and a pinkish-lavender, with black and dark purple accents here and there, and some parts sort of stuck out, and at weird angles that shouldn't have been possible. It seemed like the only thing keeping it together was magic. It was tall, even for a castle.
"So… she designs homes for a living? I may be a lowly computer science major, but I think I could do better than this," I remarked.
"Interior designer. And no, that's more of a hobby, her job is being headmistress of a magic school. Yes, like Harry Potter, but college," Jackie said.
"I never really got into Harry Potter, I'll be honest," I replied, more focused now on the size of the building. "How tall do you think it is?"
"The castle? 350 feet. Had to measure it once, used shadows, position of the sun, angles."
"Smart kid… or maybe I was just never all that good at geometry. More likely."
"Come on, though, let's try to head in," Jackie suggested. She rang the doorbell, which resulted in the muted boom of a gong that sounded at least the size of a large bedroom. Half a minute later, a redheaded woman dressed in a purple witch's costume, which contrasted with her skin so strangely that I could swear she had jaundice, answered the door.
Her voice was shrill. "Oh, an Earth brat I recognize," she said, looking pointedly at Jackie, "and one I don't. Who the hell are you?"
"Huh?" I cleared my throat. "Oh, I'm Zoe. I'm with her." I motioned to Jackie.
"Clearly. Anyway, what do you two want?"
Jackie piped up, thinking on her feet. "We figured we'd stop by and hear all about your latest projects, ma'am."
The lady perked up some, giving only about a half second of thought to letting young strangers into her house so readily, clearly excited for a chance to show off, and rushed us in. "I have some tweaks for design in various parts of Hex University, but what's really taking up a good portion of my time right now is a request from a friend of mine - he needs a room of his… how should I say it? House-car? One of the rooms in it needs to be redone completely, to fit with the rest of the whole monstrosity. So he says. Personally, I'd just re-do the entire thing, but I guess that's just my point of view…"
Wicked went on and on and on for what must have been at least half an hour, more maybe, while leading us up a long, long spiral staircase in its own tower of the castle, eventually ending at a dead-end ceiling. She pulled out a wand and spoke some spell, then tapped the wand against the wood above us, and a hatch up into the tower's attic appeared. She pushed it open so that it thunked loudly against the wooden floor. As we entered the room itself, the most noticeable thing was how bland it was compared to the rest of the castle: the walls were bare stone and mortar, home to various diagrams and schematics and the like hung with tape, and the floor felt shambled together and held up only by magic… probably the case, now that I think about it.
"Well, girls, what do you think?" the witch asked, as if she expected us to understand what was going on in any sense.
"Uh… what is this all for?" I asked.
"For the Grim Wreaker! Were you not listening to me?" It was difficult to tell whether she was genuinely offended or just being sarcastic.
Gonna be honest here, I kinda zoned out - next thing I remember is the hatch slamming shut, the gap between it and the floorboards sealing with magic, and Jax stomping with all her might.
PERSPECTIVE: MARIE
The smell was what hit me first: copper, burnt hair, and wax, not counting the alcohol in front of him. Upon closer inspection, his skin was the color of avocado, as I'd seen before, but it had a shine to it that made him look like a spray-painted soda can that's been rolling around on the side of the road for weeks, and now I was able to get a better look at the rest of him - his body shape was like a beer bottle flipped upside down, and his eyes seemed to bulge. The hair on his head was no doubt a wig with how unnatural it looked, even accounting for the rest of him. (I still couldn't wholly believe I wasn't dreaming - I still can't, even now.) He was staring at the wood under his hands, tracing the grains with his fingernails. He seemed so deep in thought that I couldn't tell whether he knew I was there until he spoke up.
"What do you want, you overgrown Earth brat?" His attitude was like vinegar.
"Calm down. I just want to talk," I said, not needing to fake a bit of exhaustion.
"Hmph… what about, huh? You want to pick my brain for my next plot against Motherboard? Ha! Even if I had one, why by code would I tell you?"
"You have a point…" I pulled out a piece of gum. Bad habit, but it can be helpful when I need to think something over. "Well, is there anything you would like to talk about?"
He gave it some thought, then began to speak, but at just the same moment something in his pocket started going off, like an alarm. He pulled out what I could only assume to be a cell phone, or its equivalent, and rolled his eyes and audibly sighed when he saw the number that was calling.
"Hello, Wicked, my dear… What? What's that? Slow down, slow - you've got an infestation of mirth rats? Well, I'm not so sure I - oh, yes, of course." He paused for a moment, and a vicious smile grew on his face. He slid off the barstool, mumbling 'hmm's and 'yes, yes'es and the like. "I'll be right over… and I'll bring the rest of their party with me." He pulled me by the wrist to the door, and motioned over to the others still in the booth to follow, apparently confused by their uncertainty regarding whether or not to try and at least keep me safe from the avocado Tin Man. In fairness, this isn't the kind of thing that happens often. At all, really, to anyone, minus us six.
