Chapter Two: To Lure and Destroy

Susiros and Resheph were on the roof of Domino High. While Susiros was sitting on the ground dumping various potion items from a newt's eye to a unicorn's horn into a bubbling cauldron that hovered above the ground, Resheph was impatiently pacing back and forth. In front of the two, an activated custom portal revealed in its wavy entryway a snowy world where a fierce blizzard was taking place.

Resheph finally stopped pacing and yelled, "What ze heck ees taking so long for zose two to get a Leetle Star? Eet cannot possibly take zis long! Zey are een eets natural habitat, for ze love of ze gods!"

"Resheph, calm down," Susiros replied, dropping a phoenix feather into the cauldron. "Those two are probably just taking their sweet time trying to find the best, most perfect Little Star that they can find. After all…" She stood up and walked over to him, placing one hand delicately on his shoulder. "The future king does deserve only the best, right, my sweet?"

Resheph smiled and delicately took her hand. "Oui, mon cher, and zat weel include a queen as deliciously evil and deceptive as you."

Susiros giggled.

At that moment, Styx and Nox came back through the portal. Both of them were dusted with snowflakes and shivering from the cold. In Nox's hand was a little white flower with a dark yellow center.

"H-h-here's your Little Star, m-m-master," Nox said, holding out the flower to him.

"Hmmph! About time!" He grabbed the flower from her and looked it over. "Eet will do." He turned back to Susiros. "Ees ze rest of ze potion ready?"

"Yes, Resheph. All that's left is the tears of the snow queen."

"Or een other words, ze Leetle Star," Resheph smiled. He walked over to the cauldron and held the flower out over it. "Au revoir, Leetle Star."

He dropped the flower into the bubbling mixture. The potion turned a sick shade of violet and started emitting purple smoke.

Resheph laughed out loud. "Ah, eet ees ready!" He zapped up a small, empty glass bottle and dipped it into the mixture. With another zap, a cork was pushed into the bottle's opening. He held the bottle of potion out to Susiros. "Mon cher, do keep zat in your cloak for me for ze moment."

Susiros took the bottle and placed it inside of her red cloak.

"Master? If you don't mind my asking, what exactly is that potion for?" Styx said.

"Ah don't mind at all," Resheph grinned nastily. "Zat potion, Styx, ees a leetle somezing of meh own creation. When a person drinks it, ze next blast ev magic zat zey shoot out weel be specially customized weeth the power to take someone's magical abilities away from zem."

Styx and Nox stared at him. "Is-is that possible, master?" Nox asked.

Resheph glared at her. "Are you questioning eef Ah hev ze power te do such eh zing?"

Nox hurriedly said, "No, no, not at all, master."

"Good." Resheph grinned again. "Now, zen, do you know how exactly magical powers work, henchmen ev mine?"

"Um, not really, master," Styx said.

"I vaguely remember something from school…" Nox said. "…something about a bond between magic and the one that uses it, master?"

"Oui, Nox. When eh person ees geeven magical powers, ze magic becomes embedded een every fiber ev zeir being. Eet ees connected to zeir body end soul, responding to zeir every emotions end every thought when ze being forgets to control zem. Weeth such eh connection established between ze two, do you know what would happen if ze magic suddenly disappeared?"

Styx and Nox thought about that for a moment. "I'd think that the being who had the magic would 'disappear' as well, in a sense, master," Styx replied.

"Exactly! And zat, meh henchmen, ees what's going to happen to zose leetle brats from zees world-once zey are heet by zees magic, zey shall all just…disappear!" Resheph threw his head back and let out a long, villainous laugh.

"Um, master?" Nox asked. "I have a question: If those kids are well aware of your powers and even have a way to prevent getting hit by anything you throw at them, then how are you going to be able to catch a moment to blast them with the magic?"

Resheph stopped mid-laugh. "Ehh…"

Susiros shook her head. "Resheph, Resheph, Resheph….I can't believe you didn't even consider that!" She sighed and zapped up a laptop into her hands. "Lucky for you, I thought of something."

"Ah, merci, mon cher!" Resheph kissed her cheek. He looked back at Styx and Nox. "Remember zees, meh henchmen-behind every great king, zere must always be eh great queen!"

Susiros giggled. "Now, then…" She and Resheph sat down on the ground and Susiros started typing into the laptop while Styx and Nox looked at the screen over their masters' shoulders. "I thought that the way you could catch them by surprise would be by committing a crime which would still get those little brats over here, but without even a little suspicion that the crime was committed by you."

"Oh? So what do you propose, zen?"

Susiros smiled. "Something that would seem quite, quite far from being involved with magic and our world, like, say, a kidnapping of someone with lots of power in this world…someone who would 'obviously' be stolen by a person or group of people who just had to come from a very non-magical environment."

"Deed you hev someone een mind?"

Susiros laughed. "Of course I did," she replied. She finally stopped typing, having found exactly what she was looking for. She pointed at the screen. "This is a person who has a rather infamous reputation. He's quite, quite ruthless in the world of business and electronics, very, very rich, and notorious for being a firm non-believer in magic and fairy tales."

"Hmm…so 'obviously', eef he were taken, zen eet would hev to be beh someone zat held a grudge against him een zees world, not een our world."

"Exactly."

"Perfect!" Resheph grinned; however, a concerned look then spread over his face. "But wait…eef zis person ees reech end powerful, how are we even going to be able to touch heem weethout blowing ze secret ev our world to all ev ze stupeed, magic fearing humans ev zis one?"

"Simple, Resheph," Susiros said. "We get him to come to us alone."

"End how do we do zat?"

Susiros smiled. "We take something of importance to him…something which he'd do absolutely anything to get back…"