Well this has come along a lot quicker than I thought, procrastination is real! I hope you enjoy where this is going, there should be more action/drama in the following chapters as they gear up for battle. All mistakes are my own, I really know nothing about New York except what google tells me :) Please feel free to leave a review if you have any thoughts on the story. Have a nice day!
Jacob stared at the leather bound tome in his hands, it's brown cover had a warm well-loved quality to it, and as he flicked through the yellowing parchment filled with handwritten notes and drawings, he could almost feel Newt's compassion for his beasts rising from the pages.
"So erm where should we start?" he asked Queenie, who was peering around the book lined hut.
"I was just thinking about that, I've got a spell from my school days which might be of use to us," she smiled as she turned to him. With a brief look of concentration she gave a her wand a quick but determined flick, and the book in Jacob's hands began vibrating, with a startled yelp he let it go.
"Oops, sorry honey," Queenie apologized with a quirk of her lips.
"It's okay," Jacob responded distractedly, as he watched her spell go to work with fascination. The book he'd just dropped didn't fall to the ground, rather it and several other volumes were floating drunkenly at head height. The pages then began turning rapidly, as if a spectral hand was rifling through them, and when a desired page was reached it slid from the book, and hung in the air with one word, Mishipeshu, highlighted in gold. Soon the air was filled with pages, and the books flew neatly into a pile on Newt's desk, now devoid of all useful content.
"Wow..just wow," Jacob exclaimed, reaching a hand up to brush his fingertips on a page near his right ear.
"Neat huh, and when we're done I'll just do the counter-spell and they'll all return to their rightful places..this always came in handy when we had exams," Queenie explained as she began plucking the pages from the air. Noticing Jacob was still standing in awe, she gave his shoulder a little nudge, her arms now filled with parchment.
"Come'on silly, we have work to do," she laughed, Jacob roused himself and took half of the parchment stack from her.
"Okay..okay so what are we looking for precisely?" he asked, peering down at the dense text on the first page of his pile.
"Any information really, the Mishipeshu's behaviour, defences, weaknesses..that kinda thing," she responded as she set herself down in a comfy arm chair, while Jacob took up residence at the desk.
That's how Newt and Tina found them several hours later, studiously bent over their respective parchment piles, both taking notes of useful points, Jacob by hand and Queenie on a notebook floating beside her.
Tina cleared her throat to alert the pair to their presence,
"Hey guys, this looks productive," she said stepping forward to peer over Jacob's shoulder at his notes.
"Tina! Newt! How did it go?" Queenie asked, relieved for a reason to stand up after sitting still for so long.
"Better than expected actually..we have two days to come up with a solut- hey, what have you done to my books," Newt said with an appalled tone, cutting off his explanation.
"Oh don't worry honey, I'll put them back together when we're done," Queenie said appeasing the disgruntled looking Newt,
"Anyway you were saying.."
"Right sorry, the President gave us two days to come up with a way of safely containing the Mishipeshu...but if we can't find an answer or there is another attack..she will take the forceful approach," he sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face and continued,
"I'll need to make some alterations to my case, so that we can catch it securely..we just have to find a way of getting it into the case without incident."
"Have you two found any pertinent information?" Tina queried
"Well a lot of it was just anecdotal accounts, rehashing what you'd already told us buddy," Jacob nodded at Newt, "..the main thing that comes up is how much it loves copper,"
"Well at least that explains why it's hanging around Buttermilk Channel," Tina said, Jacob and Queenie made noises of agreement, while Newt looked perplexed.
"The Statue of Liberty sweetie, can't get more coppery than that," Queenie explained good naturedly.
"Ahh right of course..didn't even cross my mind...but anyway, now you say it, I do remember hearing that before..they can be very protective of copper deposits, this is helpful..anything else?" Newt said hurriedly, a slight blush of embarrassment rising in his cheeks.
"Er from what I can tell it has control over the bodies of water it resides in as well as the atmospheric conditions, which may make approaching it hard, oh and it has a nasty bite," Queenie responded with a grimace.
"Okay good, this is a solid start..so copper is looking like bait, we just need to find a way to approach it and contain it...which maybe tricky..but good work," Newt summarised offering the pair a flash of a smile.
"Do you think the case will be able to hold it?" Tina asked.
"I think so, I've had dragons and Frank of course..and he was in a bad state when I got him..so angry..and the sheer power..anyway the case held then, so I think it should now..I just need to make adjustments, which may take a little while," Newt said with more confidence than he felt.
"Adjustments? Is that like what you did to contain Beatrix ?" Jacob queried.
"Ah I suppose I never really explained how the case works, after all that kerfuffle.." Newt said sheepishly.
"It's gotta be an undetectable extension charm, right?" Tina said curiously.
"Correct..that is the underlying spell that gives the case it's size and portability, but on top of that there is a complex web of spellwork that my Transfiguration Professor helped me with..any way the long and short of it is that I can alter any habitat as I see fit, set the cyclic nature of day and night and create barriers..but it draws on my magic so normally I let everything tick along as it should..but it is possible to create an impenetrable area to hold a creature," Newt explained enthusiastically, the case was one of his proudest achievements, and he didn't often have anyone willing to listen to him, or more importantly anyone he trusted enough to reveal his secrets to.
"It's gotta be one of the most impressive pieces of magic I've seen," Tina smiled at him, before her face creased into a worried frown,
"But you said it draws on your magic, are you going to be strong enough to do this..you haven't really had an opportunity to fully recuperate since the subway?" she asked putting a concerned hand on his arm, as the others regarded him with equally uneasy expressions
Newt smiled and took her hand, despite the pressure of what was to come, he felt truly blessed to have a woman who cared so much for him, as well as friends who had his back.
"I can do it, I just might not be at full strength afterwards," he looked round at the group,
"None of us can do this alone, it's going to take all of us, but I have faith that we can do this..together,"
"Together," they echoed.