Part 6
Max and Justin are standing in the lair, Max holding onto a compass and Justin staring down at it. The arrow on the compass is spinning in out-of-control circles.
"You're not doing it right," Justin huffs.
"What's not to do right?" Max argues. "Hold the compass-" he raises the compass up to Justin's eye level, "Check. Think of Alex-" he closes his eyes and says, "I'm picturing that time Alex yelled at me for eating pudding off the floor."
"No, Alex stopped you from eating something that wasn't pudding off the floor," Justin reminds him.
"Don't confuse me with the details, I'm trying to focus on Alex." Max squeezes his eyes shut even harder, but the compass still continues to spin wildly.
Justin taps a finger to his chin. "I don't understand. Family members can always tap into each other's magic signatures as long as the wait isn't too long. Her trail should still be really strong…" He looks down at the ground while he thinks, then appears to have an idea. Waving his finger at Max, he says, "Try feeding some of your magic into it. Maybe it can use the similarities between yours and Alex's magic to lock onto her signature."
"Okay," Max nods, and pushes a little of his power into the compass. It begins to sparkle and the needle slows down significantly, but it continues to spin around the poles.
"Close, but not enough," Justin mumbles to himself. He reaches his hand out over the compass, but Max pulls it away.
"What are you doing?" Max asks.
"I think if I add some of my power to it, too, it might be able to find Alex."
"Or, using your powers on it might make the whole thing explode into a crazy brain-eating cloud monster," Max says, cupping the compass to his body away from Justin.
"Taint doesn't eat brains, remember? And, I didn't create the compass; therefore, it won't explode. It won't hurt anything to try."
Max shakes his head. "But it does hurt something, Justin. It hurts you."
Justin sighs and puts a hand on Max's shoulder. "It doesn't hurt that bad, and as long as you do that cool, disintegrate the sand cloud in mid-air thing again, I'll be fine."
Max scrunches his face up as his thinks, then holds the compass out again. "Okay," he says reluctantly, "But don't get any of your mutant magic on me – I don't want my hand to explode."
"Your hand isn't going to explode – just, hold out the compass."
Max holds the compass out as far away from his body as possible, and cringes back as he begins to feed his magic into it again. Justin takes in a deep breath and, hand hovering next to the compass, lets some of his own magic trickle into it. The black lightning begins slowly crawling around his shoulder and creeps down his arm as he continues to allow his magic to flow. The compass slows its spinning even more, then begins to just tick back and forth between the east and west directions. At the same time, a thin, black smoky line rises up from the compass and begins to collect in a black cloud.
"Justin, stop," Max pleads, watching the lighting shooting up and down the entire length of Justin's arm.
Justin shakes his head no, gritting his teeth against the pain stubbornly. His hand begins to shake, then shivers start coursing through his body. Max drops the compass and uses the hand he had previously cast the sand-destroying spell on to knock the black cloud out of existence.
"Why'd you do that? We almost had it!" Justin yells.
"Look at you!" Max yells back, "You're cold, again. If I have to stop and heat you up every time you use your magic, we're not going to get any-"
Justin looks surprised, "Max, you're a genius."
"I am? Wow, never thought I'd see the day where you'd be saying that to me."
"It's like you said: I get colder every time I use my powers. That means my magic is directly connected to the Breezer, which is connected to the Breezer charm. It's not Alex we need to be tracking, it's me."
"But, you're standing right here," Max points out.
Justin looks blankly at him for a second. "I take it back, you're not a genius."
"Darn, I knew it was too good to be true," Max says, snapping his finger in disappointment.
"What I meant was, I can use the compass to trace my own magic signature straight back to that charm-"
Max speaks excitedly, "And then we can destroy it, and then go back to WizTech to get that black stuff out of you, and then you can use your powers again to find Alex!"
Justin sighs. "No, Max. The Longcapes and Dr. Evilini have the charm. We find the charm, we find them. We find them, we find Alex."
"Ohhhhhh…Okay, let's do it."
"Okay," Justin bends down and picks up the compass. "Warm me up, first, then we'll try this again."
Max nods and holds his hands out towards his brother.
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Alex shifts awkwardly until she can sit up on her knees. She looks around again, frowning at the nothingness surrounding her.
"This is sort of lame for a revenge plan, isn't it?" she asks.
Ronald looks at her, confused. "Lame? We're stealing your powers to take over the world while you get to sit here and rot for eternity. How is that lame?"
"How is it not lame? 'Oh, no, I'm going to die of boredom! Oh, the horror!' Please, I could do so much better."
Dr. Evilini steps forward. "And what, exactly, would you have done differently?"
"Well, I have to admit, getting Justin with the Breezer was a pretty good start – you actually had me worried – but it's just sort of gotten pathetic from there." Alex thinks for a second before continuing, "I know, making me redo my worst day at school over and over again would be a good one…or sticking me in a world where only convention freaks live…ooh, or making me do dishes for eternity…"
As she speaks, Alex very carefully fidgets at her boot until she is able to grip the tip of her wand. Slowly, she begins to pull it out and rotate it in her tied hands until it is pointing towards her.
"…and, I think I've given you enough ideas." She quickly improves a spell, "I need these bindings to undo, so I can get away from you!"
The orange ropes slide off and Alex gets up to run.
"Hey, get back here!" Ronald yells. "How'd she get out of those?" he asks Dr. Evilini.
"I forgot to lock the spell," she mumbles. "But don't worry – she can't get very far."
Alex sneaks a peak back and notices they aren't chasing her. Shrugging, she keeps going until they look small in the distance. She slows down and keeps walking forward, muttering, "Gotta remember to thank Justin for constantly reminding me about spell locks….now, how do I get out of here?" Two more steps later, she literally runs into the yellow sky. It springs her backwards, knocking her to the ground.
"What the?" she asks, standing up to investigate. She holds her hands out, pressing them into the soft, rubbery barrier that she had thought was a distant sky on the horizon. Turning back, she sees Ronald and Dr. Evilini laughing at her before they slowly begin walking in her direction.
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The compass needle bounces around a few times before it suddenly splits in three, two needles bending up towards the sky at an angle and the third needle settling on the southeast direction.
"Almost there," Justin gasps, trembling a little against the lightning in his shoulder and the cold.
A light shoots out from the third needle, creating a holographic display in the air showing Ronald Sr. rummaging around in drawers, looking frantic. A few seconds later, another light comes from the other two needles, merging into one flickering, fuzzy image of Evilini and Ronald Jr. walking and laughing.
"I can't tell where they are," Max says, squinting at the hologram. "Can we adjust the color quality on this thing – the sky looks yellow."
"Yellow?" Justin asks.
"Yeah, yellow with swirly clouds, I think," Max confirms.
"I know where Alex is," Justin grins, stopping his magic flow into the compass. Immediately, the holograms explode into the black clouds of sand, and Max is quick to destroy them before they can attack Justin.
Justin rushes over to the table, scribbling something on the notepad sitting there.
"What are you doing?" Max asks.
"Leaving a note for Dad. Once we get to Alex, we're gonna need him to get us back out."
"Back out of what? Where are we going?"
"To a void pocket," he says, throwing down the pencil. Standing up, he looks back down at the compass, and his trembling hand holding it. "Max, I need to keep using this to find exactly where Alex is. Can you keep up with the sand and the cold at the same time?"
Max looks down at his own hands, then purses his lips, nodding. "Looks like I'm gonna have to."
"Good," Justin smiles, "Then let's go get our sister back."