The Owl House: Spinning into Danger

by Freshoutofpaint

***DISCLAIMER: OC X MAIN CHARACTER*** Let me ask you a question, have you ever wondered in your entire life What If? Well here's a What If story, What If random kid had a certain event happen to him that a very two well known persons had happen to them? And what if this kid made his way to Gravesfield and became friends with a certain Good Witch Azura fan? Swearing/slight gore

7. Chapter 6: The Learning Curve

Chapter 6: The Learning Curve

Timeframe: The First day

Luz awoke early, her heart racing with anticipation for the day ahead. She couldn't wait for her first day Hexside and show everyone what she was capable of. She jumped out of bed and rushed around the Owl House, getting everything ready for the day. Luz could barely contain her excitement as she darted around the Owl House, grabbing ingredients from the pantry and kitchen cabinets to make breakfast. She had been looking forward to the Hexside ever since Principal Bump told her that she and Eric could attend, and now that the day had finally arrived, she was determined to make the most of it.

As she whisked eggs and chopped vegetables for a breakfast scramble, Luz hummed a tune under her breath. She couldn't wait to see all the wonders that hexside had to offer, all the various classes she might take, the creatures she'd study. It was all so invigorating.

After preparing breakfast, Luz rushed to her room to get dressed. She in what was probably record time for her getting ready, tossed on her hexside uniform, the colours were various shades of grey, but she'd probably be allowed to customize it like Gus and Willow. She checked herself in the mirror, brushed her hair, and slipped on her sneakers. She couldn't help but feel a twinge of nervousness, but her excitement quickly overshadowed it.

As she made her way back to the kitchen, Luz caught a glimpse of herself in the hallway mirror. She paused to examine her reflection and realized that she was practically bouncing with energy. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, and reminded herself that this was just the beginning of her journey.

Eda groaned as she heard Luz's excited footsteps rushing back and forth in the hallway. She rubbed her eyes and stumbled out of bed, grumbling about the early hour.

"Luz, what's all the commotion?" Eda asked, stifling a yawn.

"It's the day of our first day, Eda!" Luz exclaimed, bouncing up and down. "I'm so excited!"

"Isn't it for another three hours?" Eda asked with her eyes closed.

"So?" Luz asked. "I'm gonna make sure I'm ready for this."

"Well you might want to make sure Bug-boy upstairs is ready." Eda said sarcastically whilst brewing herself some tea.

"How can he still be asleep?!" Luz exclaimed before she jolted at full sprint up the stairs and into down the hall to Eric's room.

"I was joking Luz!" Eda called out to the excited teenager.

Luz approached the door and knocked on it. "Eric, you awake?" she shouted. "I'm coming in, so you better be decent." Luz said before opening the door.

As Luz opened the door she saw Eric laying on his chest facing to his left, he was the type that would toss and turn in his sleep. Luz would always find it sort of funny that whenever one of them had a sleep over Eric would never wake up in the exact same position, sometimes he had even rolled out of his bed.

Luz stood by the bed and watched Eric continue to snooze away, becoming more and more irritated with every passing moment. She had woken up early, excited for the day ahead, and it seemed like Eric was content to sleep through it all.

"Luz, let him sleep," Eda said, yawning and stretching her arms. "You've got plenty of time before class starts."

"But first day!" Luz protested in the voice of a petulant child. "He needs to wake up, or we'll be late."

"Alright, if you insist." Eda said whilst yawning before turning around and heading towards her own room to get changed.

Eric stirred slightly, mumbling in his sleep. Luz's patience wore thin, she had somewhat of a cunning strategy to use in situations like this with Eric. He knew that when Luz started speaking Spanish it was either because she was signalling, she was getting annoyed, or she was going to say something that other people would be best not hearing, like swearing.

"Despierta, hijo de puta!" she shouted, shaking his shoulder. "Wake up, you son of a bitch!"

Eric shot up straight away in reaction to Luz's demand, he groaned and rubbed his eyes, finally starting to wake up. "I'm up, I'm up." he said groggily.

"It's time to get up and get ready," Luz said, her annoyance still evident. "We don't want to be late our first day, dummy."

"Luz, can't you let me sleep a little longer?" Eric whined.

"No way, Eric!" Luz said, beaming at him. "Today's the big day, and we have to be at our best!"

Eric sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Right, first day at new school," he said, finally fully awake. "Sorry, I completely forgot."

Luz rolled her eyes. "Clearly," she muttered under her breath, noticing Eric's textbooks and notes laying on the floor.

Eric grumbled as he stretched and stumbled towards the bathroom to wash up. Luz continued to rush around the house, setting the table for breakfast and preparing a feast fit for champions.

She knew he couldn't help being a slow waker, but she was just so excited and anxious about the exam that she couldn't help but take it out on him.

Eric emerged from the bathroom, looking slightly more awake than before and wearing the same hexside uniform as Luz, difference being their shoes. He joined Eda and Luz at the table, where Luz had laid out an impressive spread of pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

As they ate, they chatted about what the day might hold. Eric was nervous, but excited to see what Hexside was all about. Luz was practically bouncing in her seat, eager to take on any challenge that came her way.

"So how long until class starts?" Eric asked after washing down his food a class of water.

"About two hours, maybe closer to two hours and twenty three minutes." Luz answered as if she were counting down the individual seconds now.

"Two hours?" Eric asked, a mix of confused and annoyed. "You're telling me that some place we can be within minutes of flying on the broom, you woke me up two hours?"

"Your dad always says "better a hour late than a minute early"." Luz stated, getting the phrase mixed up.

"It's an hour early than a minute late, doofus." Eric said rolling his eyes.

"You know what I mean." Luz snapped back. "How can you not be excited?" she asked confused.

"It's not that I'm not excited, I just really don't have a clue what to expect." Eric shrugged. "I mean, we got the tour from Gus and Willow sure, but I'm just wondering about the curriculum." Eric finished.

"Well we saw the exotic plants that Willow works with, and the illusion spells that Gus can do. So, I'd imagine it'll be a bit of everything." Luz retorted.

"Good point, I think I'm interested in seeing how witches use things like calculus, physics and chemistry in relation to how people back home use them." Eric said standing up from the table. "I'm gonna pack my bag, may as well kill time." He said making his way to the door. "Got plenty of that to kill right now." Eric said in a snarky tone.

Eda couldn't help but laugh at the two teens, she could see the duality of their friendship, where Eric was the more thought focused one, Luz was more centred around feelings. The two were a good balance to each other's extremities, plus when they bickered it was funny. Luz would say something, Eric would correct her, she'd get annoyed, then Luz would call Eric short or be overprotective of him and He'd complain about either the height remark or about being coddled.

Eric walked into his room and started organizing his books off to the side, from fiction to nonfiction, alphabetized to currently reading. As soon as he was done, he looked at the red and blue costume that lay underneath his suitcase and approached it, there were the two mechanical devices that lay on the side of the costume. He grabbed his backpack and folded the costume neatly in the hidden compartment of the bag pack and place the two web shooters on top of the costume gingerly. Eric then opened up his suitcase and nudged the panel on the lid open, there was a selection of small vials, in total there were 30 spaces but 24 vials lay in front of Eric. He jerked his head to face the door as soon as he heard the door creak to see Luz standing there.

"Wach'ya doin?" she asked in a playful tone with her arms behind her back.

"Alright, but of spidey-101 here." Eric said, smiling at his friend and gesturing for her to come over. As soon as she sat next to Eric facing the vials he said "So, you know that I the webs are technically inorganic, and that they are intentionally designed to dissolve after so long?"

"Yeah?" Luz nodded.

"Well these vials are my web-fluid." He stated. "Think of it like ammunition, now once my webs run out…" Eric said turning to face his friend.

"You need to reload?" she asked, finishing off his sentence.

"Yeup, now here's the issue I've got." Eric said facing the vials. "Assuming I'm in the Boiling Isles long term I'm eventually gonna need to restock on web-fluid." Eric explained.

"Yeah?" Luz asked rising an eyebrow "Can't you just make some more?" she asked.

"And we've arrived to the conversational destination." He said. "I'm gonna need to find out exactly how I'm gonna need to make the fluid, what chemical components that are available here." He continued. "Plus, I need to get some equipment."

"Like what?" Luz asked, facing her friend.

"Well, chemistry stuff." He stated. "Not just that, a microscope with a few microscope slides." He said taking two of the web cartridges and putting them in his bag. "Plus I'll need a periodic table from home, and whatever form of a periodic table they've got here."

"And if you run out?" luz asked concerned.

"Well, I go from being the Spectacular Spider-Man to the Justified Jumping-Man, or the Weird Wall-Crawling Wonder." Eric said in a slightly sarcastic tone.

"Well hexside should be a better place than any to start." Luz said smiling. "They've got a potion class."

"That's the main reason I'm coming, it's the best place for me to get the stuff I need." Eric said tossing his bag around his back. "And if I don't find anything there, at least I can try and get a point of reference to start looking."

Luz Looked at her friend for a few more seconds and looked back at the vials within his suitcase. "So how does the web stuff work?" Luz asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Glad you asked." Eric said enthusiastically. "Basically inside cartridges are vacuum sealed, so once the webfluid inside them interacts with the air it goes from being a liquid to a weblike substance." Eric explained. "The main difference being that a couple strands of this webbing can hold an average sized car, so the webs, despite being extremely light are also really durable." He finished.

The two made sure to pack their bags and made sure they had everything for the day that laid ahead of them, and proceeded to make their way down stairs before leaving to start their first day in Hexside.

The three took off in Eda's broom, Eda was in the front, Luz was in the middle and Eric was sitting back-to-back behind Luz. During the flight Eric started reading his own copy of The Good Witch Azura to pass the time, the flight was quick due to traveling overhead and not needing to follow roads and traffic. During the Flight Luz started to show clear signs of distress, she was growing more, and more nervous the closer the three got to the school.

"We gotta go back." Luz said pointing back to the direction her and the other two came from, causing Eda to raise and eyebrow. "This was a mistake." She whimpered. "I'm gonna mess things up again and everyone will see, and…" she rambled before being cut off by Eda.

"All right. You gotta calm down." Eda said firmly "What are you nervous about?" The owl lady asked. "You've been to school before."

"That's why I'm nervous." Luz answered. "At my human school, I didn't make a good first impression." She continued. "This is a chance to be seen as something other than a screwup."

Eric turned his head back from his book. "Dude, you're freaking a little too much here." He said calmly.

Eda turned her head around to face Luz with her typical Owl lady grin "Hey, don't worry what those dorks think." She said with confidence. "You want my advice, walk into class and punch the first kid you see." She explained. "To establish dominance." She said facing forward again.

"Well, I'll be walking behind you in that case." Eric said, causing Eda to laugh a little.

"Aw." Luz said, faking appreciation. "I won't be doing that, but thanks." The thought of being an aggressor not sitting well with her.

The three flew over the last part Bonesborough and entered their decent onto the campus, a long brick road that had two paths of grey slabs lay before them. Eric hopped off first and handed Luz her Backpack. Eda looked at the two, she remembered being at hexside at roughly their age, but that was a good long time ago now.

"Last chance to back out and earn a new Bag Girl Coven patch." Eda said happily whilst brandishing a small green badge. The badge had an image of a kid with a yellow had flipped backwards, black t-shirt and golden ring in their ear, they had four stars next to them, two on each side. They had their hands pushed out and above them was words one word, and below was another. "Quitter" was the word on the top and "Badge" was the word at the bottom. "Quitting: it's like trying, but easier." Eda said as if she had rehearsed this very phrase hundreds of times.

"Tempting, but I'm good, thanks." Eric laughed. "Though the badge would look stylish with my bag."

"Nah, I'll just earn it when I quit showering." Luz said quickly. "Bye" she said to Eda cheery.

"She kidding?" Eda said turning to eric.

"Y'know, I don't actually know." Eric said, turning to face Eda. "Year and a half of knowing her and I still can't tell if she's kidding when she says stuff like that." Eric explained, before waving his farewell to Eda and rushing to catch up with Luz.

"Hold up!" Eda yelled before taking her right hand off and tossing it to catch Luz in the head. As soon as the dislocated hand made contact with the girl she turned around, Eric too.

"Just try and not be too much of a goody loose shoes." She said pointing at the two "You've got this."

"Thanks, Eda" Luz said. "In fact, I've written a heartfelt sonnet to commemorate this occasion." She continued pulling out two sock puppets that looked like Eda and Luz. But as soon as she turned her head up to face the owl lade she was already several feet up in the air flying in the opposite direction from the school.

"Ooops!" Eda yelled. "A gust of wind just got me. See you after school, bye!" she continued, drawing out the "e" in the word "bye".

"You're gonna do great, kids." She said whilst mimicking Eda's voice and using the sock puppet to look like it was speaking. "Thanks, puppet Eda." Luz thanked the pupped.

She turned back around and saw Eric looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "What?" she said confused.

"Oh, no, nothing." Eric said rolling his eyes. "I'm sure you're gonna make the best first impressions with your sock puppet display." He said in a jokingly manner.

"Shut up." She said shoving by her friend.

Eric and Luz walked up the long path towards the school, the trees leading up to the building were massive, maybe three or four stories high. They chatted about the day that laid ahead of them before passing a massive blue sign that was held above their heads, it read in bold, yellow text "Welcome to The New Semester" and past it were five on their right tapestries that flowed in the wind, a green one with a more plant based theme, a brown one with a lot of rocks that looked like inside it, a blue one with two figures holding a mirror, one was upside down and the other standing right-side up, a yellow one with what looked like a curbed bottle with liquid inside it, a purple one with a strange, evil looking face smiling inside it.

On the opposite side were four more tapestries, back at the start was a more orange looking one that had an image of an egg with a fork tongued creature hatching from said egg and strange beasts at the bottom of the image, the next one was a more reddish tone with what looked like strange looking musical notes and a horned figure playing some kind of piano looking contraption, the next was a strange figure horned surrounded by various shades of blue and their hands wrapped in some kind of cloth, and a deep purple one that had a person with a moustache wearing glasses holding an orb. The campus grounds looked alive with plenty of students coming and going, one was carrying three large books, another one had hitched their unicorn onto the bike rack, and another was approaching the two humans.

Luz was walking around the place excited, looking at all the various tapestries and wondering what magics she'd learn, Eric's bewilderment was equal to Luz's excitement. The lad was curious to the meaning of the tapestries, he knew that there were different forms of magic that fell into regimented categories, also known as "covens", but lacked the information to discern what coven meant what, though the green one being plant related was painfully obvious. Eric made his way up to Luz who was chatting with a green haired girl in a pink hexside outfit, she was carrying two books whilst an abomination followed in tow, carrying another two larger books in its hands.

"Congrats on getting in." Amity said to luz with a smile. "And not being in the baby class" she said leaning forward.

"Thanks, Amity." Luz said, returning the smile. "Up top." She continued, extending her hand upwards to a high five pose. The two witches proceeded to high hive when they noticed Eric approaching.

"Oh Amity I think you'll recognize my friend here." Luz said point to Eric. "From the library." She continued.

"Oh yeah, you're the one in the mas…" Amity said putting her hand forward to shake Eric's hand before being cut off.

"Yeah, uh, sorry out introductions were only one sided." Eric said taking the witch's hand to shake. "I'm Eric. Uh, also keep certain details of the encounter on the down-low, please." Eric asked politely.

"Oh, that's right." Amity said recognizing what the human boy meant. "Luz told me to keep that a secret." Amity continued. "I don't know if Luz mentioned but I told my brother and sister, I didn't know it was supposed to be a secret."

"Don't worry about it, I wasn't exactly conscious for the encounter so can hardly blame you." Eric said.

"Well it was nice meeting you." Amity said. "Properly this time, I have to get going now, but I'll see you two around." She said as she walked away, the large purple creature following and pumping into Eric, some of its purple ooze latching onto him.

"Great, it slimed me." Eric said in disgust.

"Come on, Egon, you can get cleaned inside." Luz said rolling her eyes shoving Eric forward to the school.

"Actually it's Peter Venkman that gets slimed." Eric said, correcting Luz's knowledge of a classic movie.

"Nerd." She laughed.

"Coming from the girl that can name the exact page and chapter a specific quote from The Good Witch Azura would be from." Eric retorted.

"I'll have you know that just makes me more cultured." Luz said closing her eyes walking forward and putting on a sarcastically superior act.

"Oh, sorry "Lady Luz", truly your knowledge of literature is more vast than the world's biggest library." Eric said whilst putting on a sarcastic, posh voice. "Do lead the way, in order that a humble peasant like me may learn from one so great."

"Very well." She snapped. "Follow, my Butler Neil, you might just learn something from my infinite wealth of knowledge." She said walking in front of Eric.

The two laughed at each other's attempts to one-up each other in their game of sarcasm, something that Eric had plenty of training in and that Luz was naturally adept in.

"I still can't believe it, our first day in hexide." Luz said fixing her bag around her shoulders. "A chance to discover my true magical potential." She said with a raucous grin.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Eric asked.

"Oh, sorry, "our" magical potential." She corrected herself. "And maybe meet a hot, yet vulnerable upperclassman." She said mischievously.

"You know there is grass nearby?" Eric's question was more of a statement. "You may want to touch said grass."

"shut up." Luz said, sticking her tongue out towards Eric.

"Both of you shut up." A familiar voice said coming from Luz's backpack and then pocking it's head out of the bag.

"King?" Luz said in confusion before being ooped in the nose by the little demon. King jumped out of the bag and onto the ground between the two humans.

"Why were you in my bag?" Luz asked.

"You're a free ride to the best buffet in town." King stated confidentially.

"Wait, Hexside does a buffet?" Eric asked. "Ah, sweet." He continued, thinking of all the exotic foods that he could eat, however Eric's hunger turned to disgust as he saw King jump from the ground next to Luz and into the garbage can. "Wait, no." Eric said in disbelief.

"Yeup, the trash cans here are filled with half-eaten gold." King explained, emerging from the garbage can with a donut that had half a bite taken from it.

"Okay, but if anyone asks, you don't know us." Luz said turning around and walking away, with Eric in tow.

"Have a wonderful school day, person-i-don't-know." King said looking away from the two Humans. As he turned around he saw a lager student who was wearing the same color of uniform as Amity who had spikes around their head.

"I really needed to hear that." The figure said in a small yet happy voice.

As the two humans approached the front of the school they were greeted with yet more familiar, friendly faces.

"Luz, Eric." Gus and willow shouted in excitement.

"Hello, fellow hexoleos." Luz said.

"Hello, new classmates." Willow said giving the two a wink.

"You did it, guys." Gus said as he moved his finger to summon a spell, then a large, glowing text appeared above his head saying "Better luck next time!"

"Hah." Eric snorted. "Encouraging words."

"Sorry. I was covering all my bases." Gus said with guilt over his face.

"No, no, I like it." Eric said. "You know what they say about putting all your eggs in one basket." He said trying to humor the younger boy.

"So, do you know who those witches are?" Willow asked, pointing towards the tapestries behind the two humans. "Those are the heads of main nine covens." She explained. "Each one excelled at a magic school like Glandus, St. Epiderm and, of course, Hexside." She continued. "Are you prepared to enter these hallowed halls?" Willow finished, gesturing towards the front door.

Luz and Eric looked at each of the tapestries, studying them and discerning their meanings.

"Hmm, that's what I'm gonna figure out right now." Luz said running up the stairs and into the building. "See you on the other side, friends."

"Hopefully today is less eventful like last time." Eric said walking up the stairs after Luz. "See you guys later." He continued, turning back to wave at Gus and Willow.

"See you guys later." Gus shouted, waving his hand through the air again in order to try and get the correct phrase to appear, however this one read "Goodbye forever!". Willow stared at Gus with a "how could you?" expression on her face. "You know what, I'ma just get rid of these." Gus said, trying to cover his guilt.

Principal Bump sat in his office, a large room filled with strange looking objects and books, there were the nine coven tabards hanging on the wall behind him and above his bookcases. There was a large plant which seemed to have three heads, or flowers with razer sharp teeth. He looked at his schedule for the semester, looking at things like budgets, faculty meetings and equipment orders. He had a small orb sitting on the right hand side of his schedule book which emitted a voice from it, the voice sounded like a news reporter from a human realm with the tone and delivery of it's message.

"A terrible development at Glandus High School." The reporter in the orb said. "Students were found unconscious and without magic, the cause remains unknown." The voice finished.

This news caused a surge of joy through Principal Bump, as he looked up and laughed. "Hah, take that, Glandus!" he yelled. "looks like this year's Grudgby match is going to be a forfeit." He said smugly, though his excitement was instantly calmed as he watched two Humans walk in to his office.

"Hiya Princy-B." luz said giving Bump the finger guns. "Can I call you that?" she asked happily. Eric looked at luz from the side of his eye and back to bump, nervous about being in yet another new school and not knowing what to expect, he gave Principle Bump a small hand wave and said nothing.

"Absolutely now." Bump said, not tolerating any of Luz's antics. "Now, today we'll be visited by the Emperor's Coven for a routine inspection." He explained. "If we want to impress them, you two will need to join a coven track before they arrive." He said pointing at the two.

"Alright, sounds simple enough." Eric said with a smile on his face.

"Actually, Principle Bump." Luz said, causing an "Oh no." to come from Eric's mouth. Whenever Luz would deviate from a plan things tended to take a turn for the worst, and Eric was beginning to already get worried, and class hadn't started yet. "I've made my own schedule." She said, presenting a large piece of paper with a bunch of classes and such written on it. "First, vet care for mythical beasts, then healing and dealing, and then after lunch…" she explained before being cut off.

Principal bump took the bottom of the paper and examined it quietly and quickly, then laughed. "Studying multiple tracks at once?" he said as if a small child said something silly. "No one does that." He explained.

"Then I'll be the first." Luz retorted.

"No, you won't." Bump said with a matter of fact in his voice, he grabbed the large book that was on the side of his desk and presented it to the two humans, it read "Rule book". It had the emblem of a sword with wings and an orb on top of it. "According to the rules, a good witch needs to hocus-focus." He continued. "You can only pick one of the nine tracks." He said pointing above to the nine tabards. "And you do not want to embarrass me in front of the inspector." He said with a finality in his voice that reminded Luz and Eric that they were already on thin ice due to the escapade in the detention room.

"But all the tracks are so cool." Luz quickly said disappointedly. "Is there some sort of enchanted article of clothing that could sort this out for me?" she asked.

"Well, there used to be but.." Bump said, having a flash back to the incident with the hat before shuddering.

"I don't know If I can just choose one." She said looking to the floor sad.

"Then I'll choose one for you." Bump said putting his hand on Luz's shoulder, he pointed at the nine flags at the top of the room and proceeded to use an extremely intricate method of deciding such things. "Eeny, meeny, miney, moe," Bump said, finger landing on the yellow flag with a bottle of liquid as it's main sigil.

"Oh, yes." Bump said surprised at his own choice, "the potion track, you humans are filled with liquids, right?" the principal asked.

"Well yes actually, people tend to think it's around the seventy percent margin, but that's not exactly true." Eric quickly chimed in, having a chance to demonstrate his knowledge. "The correct amount is between fifty five and sixty five, depending on an individual's hight and biomass." He finished.

"I see," bump said nodding his head. "Well, you just landed yourself in the potions track too." He waved his finger around twice and a green circle appeared around Luz and one around Eric and made it's way upwards passed their bodies, they noticed the whites of their unforms changed to a yellow color.

"Not exactly my choice of color, but I'm not complaining." Eric said, impressed at the change of color of his uniform.

"I guess I always have liked pouring things into other things." Luz said whilst looking at the new style of her uniform.

"Just remember to actually get your work done on time here." Eric said, teasing his friend. Her reply was silent but the roll of the eyes were enough for him to get the message.

"I expect you both to be on your best behaviors." Principal Bump said with his hands behind his back. "Based on the costly repairs from recent incidents, we could really use a donation from the Emperor's Coven." He said, looking at a massive letter saying "bill" on his pinboard on the wall. "Now, off to class." Bump said causing a small magical glow to appear around Luz and her friend and moving them out of the room. He smiled and hoped that the two humans would fit in and not cause trouble, though his smile faded away instantly as he heard a scream coming from outside, he ran to the window and exclaimed in a panic. "The choosy hat, it broke free…"

Luz and eric walked down the hall and entered their classroom, there was a table in the middle of the class nearby the window, Eric sat at the seat closest to the window and Luz at on the seat on Eric's left side. They both looked around with smiles on their faces, eager to learn about what types of magics and potions they'd be creating here. He looked at the teacher, a figure with pale, green skin, an avian looking beak with glasses sitting on their nose, teal coloured hair and an outfit that had a mix of yellows, oranges and browns.

"Welcome to a new semester." The teacher said. "Let's get stirring." They said enthusiastically. "Today we'll make fog brews" They said as they held a small circular bottle up and then tossing it onto the floor. Upon contact with the ground the bottle smashed and when the chemicals interacted with the air a blue-grey fog appeared and the teacher was gone. The class was silent for a split second and they leapt onto their feet from laying prone on the floor in front of students. "Begin." They exclaimed.

The members of the moved around and took cauldrons, wooden mixing spoons and some glass vials from the cabinets underneath the tables. Eric handed Luz her stuff from the cabinet in between them and took out his own equipment, Luz handed Eric his text book and note book from Eric's bag. The two, along with the rest of the class got themselves ready by pulling out to the correct page, the page contained different measurements for the various alchemical materials needed for the brew. Eric started mixing some of the small vials with the liquids, following the instructions to the letter, Luz mimicked his actions.

"Just like back home." He said, gingerly dropping small volumes of liquid into the cauldron.

"Yeah, just like back home." Luz said, copying the action but more quickly than eric.

"Makes you think, doesn't it?" Eric said mixing the cauldron slowly. "If this is basically chemistry, what are the other classes here are like compared to the ones back home."

"Yeah, but Bump said "Hocus-Focus" so gotta focus." Luz said looking at her cauldron and mixing the contents. "Besides, potions are fun." She spoke. "I could spend the rest of my life studying this, right?" she explained, not sure if she was convincing herself or Eric.

Then all of a sudden, a muffled explosion could be heard, the two humans looked at each other and glanced through the window, Luz walked to the window whilst Eric leaned over from his seat. They saw two students, one of them was Willow, standing confidently, and the other was a single eyed person with a crescent shaped head and a yellow bow tied to one of the horns. The wind howled as the two glared at one another, the wind causing leaves to fly by the two and the grass to shake in anticipation for what was about to happen. Such a scene could only be described as a scene from a movie where two warriors stared at each other before doing battle in a one-on-one duel to the death, the finality of such a duel wasn't present at hexside, but this duel certainly would've looked like a duel to the death to an untrained eye.

The crescent shaped head student pulled out an orb which pulsated with magical power, it pulsated faster, and faster and faster, to such a point where it stopped pulsating and maintained a steady glow. As the glow became more stationary a purple energy could be seen coalescing behind the student and it took a semi-humanoid shape which looked like an Egyptian mummy that was lit ablaze with purple fire.

"Wait, they have personas here?" Eric said, slack jawed from the surprise.

"Looks kind of like it." Luz whispered. "I think they're from the oracle track."

"Not gonna lie, having second thoughts about potions now." Eric laughed before turning back to his work.

Willow drew a circle in the air and slammed it into the ground, causing the ground to rumble and the soil to burst forward several meters from her location, at the edge of the bursting soil emerged a large flower like creature with large vines protruding from It's sides. The plant's bulb opened and into four petals, each petal having a singular eye and at the centre a toothy maw.

"The plant track." Luz said. Barely containing her excitement.

"That looks nasty." Eric said leaning back at the window. "Remind me not to get on Willow's badside." He said turning back to his work.

Luz was amazed at the sight before her, she had no idea such magics could exist. She was incredibly jealous of the two witches, not just the two witches outside, but the rest of the witches in the over tracks. They'd have the ability to learn much more different magics with incredible abilities, whilst She would only learn something that was more or less the same as the class she had to take back in the Human realm. Before she had the chance to turn around a small rumble came from behind her and beside Eric, Luz's cauldron was spewing a green fog all around, the fog was so dense it clung to clothes.

"Ahem." The teacher cleared their throat, staring at Luz.

"Sorry, sorry." She quickly apologized before heading back to her station and started mixing, causing the smoke to stop spewing from the cauldron.

"That's rough." Eric said, patting down the smoke off his clothes.

Luz sighed in embarrassment, it was her first day of school and already she was making her typical mistakes. She tried to focus on the task at hand, but after seeing the display outside she couldn't help but feel out of place simply brewing potions.

Sometime passed and the bell rang for their next class, the class cleaned up after themselves and put their equipment away and proceeded to walk outside.

"Oh, boy." Luz said rotating her left shoulder. "Stirring is the pits." She continued, feeling discomfort in her shoulder.

"So, what's next?" Eric said walking behind her with his hands in his pockets.

"Let's see." Luz said pulling out a parchment of paper and examining its contents. Her stomach fell as she saw it was nothing but potions, one of the classes even said "potions 'till you die" and the following one after it "Potions after death."

"Uh huh." Eric said looking over Luz's shoulder. "I'm guessing there's a theme here." He laughed.

"Oh, man." Luz sighed. "I'm sorry elbow." She said to her elbow and dangled her lower arm back and forth.

"Hey could be worst, could be dealing with one of the weird goop monsters." Eric spoke to cheer his friend up. "Those things give me the heevie geevies." He said shuddering. "I'm gonna head to the bathroom, I'll see ya in class." Eric said as he walked off.

"Yeah, see ya." Luz said looking at the parchment with an unhappy expression on her face. As she looked up she saw the student that was dueling willow outside, they placed their orb into the case in front of Luz and walked away. "A crystal ball." Luz said in awe, remembering the events that took place outside. "Maybe it can show me if I'm on the right track." The thought spoke out loud. She considered it, maybe she wasn't on the right track after all, maybe she was supposed to do plant-based stuff like Willow, or illusions like Gus, maybe even abominations like Amity. But as soon as the thought than through the young girl's head she quickly shrugged it off. "No, don't be tempted." She said to herself, pulling herself away from such ideas. "It's your first day, make a good impression." She said firmly to herself, as if she was a parent scolding a child. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath and walked away from the class room and down the hall. But fate had different plans for this young witch, as she doubled back towards the crystal balls and grabbed the exact one that was used by the student who recently placed it there. As she grabbed the ball and turned around the mummy looking figure appeared from the orb, looking less intimidating than before, but still intimidating. It looked at Luz and pointed towards her and spoke in a ghostly voice. "You will be in trouble very soon." The ghostly looking creature said.

Luz was amazed, maybe this was proof that she was indeed on the wrong track, maybe she was supposed to be on the oracle track. "wow" she said in amazement, only seconds before realizing exactly what was said to her by the apparition. "Wait, what'd you say?" she asked with slight concern showing in her voice.

Her heart sank as she heart a familiar voice clear their throat behind her, she turned around to see principal Bump who looked disappointed but not surprised in her. But before she could say anything principal bump took her by the arm and started escorting her down the hallway, in the opposite direction from where Eric had went. As she was lead down the hall she tried to plea with Principal bump who seemed adamant in not listening to a single word she had to say. Luz grabbed the potion she had made in class earlier and slammed the bottle onto the ground in order to evade capture, but it only puffed up a little cloud of smoke rather than a large blue-grey cloud it was a small, pitiful lime green one. Luz's hopes of escape lay shattered, just like the class on the floor.

"Yeah, I figured that wouldn't work." She said in a defeated voice.

Principal Bump rolled his eyes and took Luz's arm again and continued to escort her down the hallway, Luz turned around as she heard the rummaging from the nearby garbage can and saw King poking his head out.

"King!" she called. "Vouch for my character!" she continued.

For a moment king was almost ready to defend his friend, but them remembered the words from earlier. "Uh, right." He said unsure. "I don't know you." He continued, giving Luz a wink.

Luz glared at king, realizing that he was only doing as he was instructed to do, a result of her own making. She eventually neared a dark grey door which's window had three iron bars down it, already Luz was thinking it was looking like some kind of prison and the door hadn't yet been opened. She was worried about what she'd see here, her first time in detention was a miracle that she had gotten out alive, and that was with the assistance of Gus, but now, she hadn't a single person she could rely on. The door opened and Principal Bump shoved Luz in, when she looked inside she was surprised, no worms eating and cocooning students, no evil pit of death, just a couple desks, three students and a teacher, oddly not unlike what detention in the human realm would look like.

"What is this place?" she said, a mix of confusion and worry layered through her voice.

"This is a place where all troublemakers go." Principle Bump replied as he moved his hand through the air, causing the same green light to appear from earlier, only this time it changed her yellow outfit to a soulless grey. "The detention track." Bump stated.

Eric walked down the hallways of Hexside, his mind buzzing with the excitement of the day ahead. He had already attended his first class in the potion track and was feeling confident about his abilities. As he made his way through the crowded halls, he couldn't help but notice the other students rushing to and fro, some with books clutched tightly in their arms, others engaged in hushed conversations with their friends. One student with five eyes was rushing by Eric, clearly in some kind of hurry, another was laughing at the toilet paper stuck to the student's show.

"Some things never change." Eric said to himself with a smile as he remembered school back in the human realm. Growing up Eric was a sickly young boy which caused him to always look gaunt, as he grew into a teenager he started to fill a bit more but always had pale skin and bags under his eyes, even after when the Spider had bit him. During his mentorship under Miles' wing he learned that Peter Parker had let people bully him in order to hide his secret identity, Miles never really had such an issue thankfully, but Eric fell in line with peter's luck when it came to dealing with bullies. "Erie Eric" some of the kids used to call him because of his gaunt features, and everyone always thought he looked like a skeleton compared to some of the other students. Eric refused to do any form of swimming during the school hours, he knew as soon as people saw how toned he was, their opinions would change, and all you would need is one student to start connecting the dots together and then it wouldn't be long before his identity as Spider-Man was found out.

He passed a hallway and saw a large, green skinned student with three eyes, two upper thangs and two lower tusks and another student it looks like from what Eric could remember the student's outfit's colour matched Amity's which would place him in the abomination track, a shudder crept over Eric at the thought of one of those weird slime monsters being anywhere near him. He saw the large student towering over another student who looked as if they would've been in the "Dark blue, which track was that again?" Eric thought to himself. They looked as if they were trying to get their book off the larger student who was dangling it above them.

"Come on, Donnie." The larger one said mockingly in a gruff voice. "Just a little higher." He said laughing.

"Come on, Gurnt." Donnie said. "This isn't funny, I'm going to be late." They pleaded.

"Funny for me." Gurnt said dismissively, waving the book up in the air.

Eric looked at the commotion "Typical, bullies around every corner." He thought to himself disappointedly. He wanted to help the other student but if he was going to keep up his appearance as "weak little Eric" he couldn't just barge into the scene, or could he. Time came to a slowing half as thoughts ran through Eric's head, he could help out, this wasn't the human realm, maybe it wouldn't matter if others knew he was Spider-Man here, he'd never come back to the Boiling Isles after he leaves. If he leaves.

He remembered the situation with the portal and the thought of being trapped on the Boiling Isles came back to the forefront of his mind, if people here knew he was Spider-Man the very things he was warned about back home could happen, after all he was a human, not a Witch, and the risk of others knowing his secret and potentially getting hurt was too great. Especially considering the fact due to his unorthodox arrival to the Boiling Isles caused the young boy's secret to be accidentally found out in rapid succession.

As he was ready to turn around he felt a small weight on his belt, it barely registered, it was more the sensation of something moving on his belt. He reached his hand around to his back and felt a glass object, the potion he had made earlier in class. "Fog brew." Eric muttered to himself, remembering it was a good way to break light of sight, just like the teacher had done in front of his class' very eyes.

Eric Turned back and saw the smaller witch being picked on by the bigger witch and a certain phrase came into his head as he held the bottle in his hand "Well, with great power." He muttered to himself. He took out the books from his bag and put the bottle in a very unbalanced stance on top of his books and proceeded to carry them down the hall. He had to make this look convincing, no need to risk getting involved in potential encounter with someone that was a few feet taller than him, and especially with Principal Bump's patience thin due to the prior events with the detention room involving Luz and Gus. He approached and as soon as he got within range he made sure to bump into the smaller student, witch promptly caused the bottle to roll off his books.

"Ah, shit." Eric said aloud, trying to sound convincing before the bottle smashed.

Upon the contents of the bottle interacting with the air it quickly produced a thick cloud that enveloped the three students, Eric used this time to quickly put his books down and move hastily towards Gurnt. He weaved out of the way of Donnie and as soon as he was sure he was within range of Gurnt he performed a small jump, or at least a small jump for someone who's vertical jump height ranged around the one hundred and eighty inch area. His feet left the ground without making a sound, and there, he saw it, the silhouette of Gurnt's hand holding something rectangular shaped. "The book." He quickly thought to himself. Eric snatched the book out of his hand and when he landed he placed it on the ground between Donnie's legs. The smoke was starting to clear, Eric quickly got back to where he was standing and started fake coughing. As the smoke cleared bystanders saw three students coughing, Eric turned around to Donnie and spoke.

"Sorry, misstepped there." Eric said in a meekly tone. "Great, now my potion is screwed." He said turning his head to the floor looking sad and trying to continue walking. However, he was stopped once Gurnt grabbed his shoulder and swung him around.

"You new here?" Gurnt asked in a harsh tone.

"Y-yes." Eric asked in a voice that showed clear fear. "I'm sorry about what happened, it's my fault. I should've put the potion in my bag, I'm really sorry." He spoke rapidly.

Gurnt looked at Donnie who picked up their book and had already started quickly walking away from the situation, he turned his head back to Eric and glared at him.

"Since It's your first day, I'm letting you off." He said, shoving the human boy several feet down the hall, causing Eric to trip over his own feet. "But you give me reason to, then…" Gurnt said before causing a purple glow to appear from his fist and then that all too familiar purple slime coalesced into a massive fist. "Gurnt get to go smashy-smash." He said with a vicious, bloody thirsty grin over his face.

"Okay, don't screw with this guy." Eric thought to himself. "Okay, thanks." Eric said standing up and brushing himself off and hurrying down the hall to his next class.

Eric entered the Potion class alone and scanned the room for Luz. The classroom was bigger smaller than the last one, on the chalkboard to his right there as writing that read "Potions: components and alchemical structures.

"Sweet, this sounds more like chemistry." Eric thought to himself with a smile. He had arrived at the class a couple minutes earlier than he had intended to, so Luz was possibly still with Willow, Gus and Amity. Each one of them seemed to give Eric a warm welcome, most people in the Boiling Isles had, except Principal Bump but he was rightfully angry, and it was simply the "Old trademark Spider-Man luck" rearing its ugly head yet again that caused Eric to be in the wrong place in the wrong time, a common occurrence that he deals with.

Eric took his seat and began to prep his potion, trying to focus on the instructions and the ingredients, but his mind kept drifting. He couldn't help but compare the potion-making process to chemistry back in the human realm. While there were some similarities, the potions here were more magical, and he found it fascinating. While both subjects were based on scientific principles, there were some key differences.

For one, potion-making relied heavily on the use of magical ingredients, something that chemistry didn't have. In his chemistry class, Eric had to rely on pure chemicals to achieve the desired reaction, while in his potion class, he had to use magical ingredients with specific properties to achieve the same result. The magical properties of certain ingredients varied in terms of the requirements to get the desired results, one of these was due to the temperature of the person creating the potion, another was due to the time of the day, another had time of the year. Eric was baffled at such things, it made no sense from a scientific point of view. The temperature was one thing, rather strange but this was a strange land, but the potions what would react differently depending on the chronological requirements left Eric dumbfounded.

"Typical magic B.S" he thought to himself as he raised was writing in a quickened pace due to his frustration.

Additionally, the equipment used in potion-making was completely different from what he had used in chemistry. Instead of Bunsen burners and flasks, Eric was using cauldrons and pestles. It was a bit of a learning curve for him, but he found it fascinating, nonetheless.

Despite the differences, Eric was excited to learn more about potions and alchemical structures. It was a new world of science that he was eager to explore, albeit one that seemed to feel as if there were trick questions around what should be every fact.

The Teacher, a 4"3 tall human-looking witch with a massive beard and clean, shaved head looked towards the struggling human. He walked over from his desk and saw the young human hard at work, he was impressed. The young human was picking this subject up quick, though there were a few major mistakes, but what could the Teacher expect, he knew that humans relied on gadgets due to their lack of magical qualities.

"Struggling there, laddie?" The teacher said in what could described in a strange mix of Irish and Scottish accent. "Notice ya strugglin', need a hand?" He asked in a friendly tone.

"Sorry Mr. Burntwood." Eric said, jolting his head up quickly after realizing the teacher standing next to him. "I'm just used to more, Human chemical solutions rather than magical ones." Eric explained, feeling somewhat embarrassed as he never really needed a teacher's assistance before.

"Dinnae be worrying, wee laddie." Burntwood said with a smile on his face, the Irony of the statement not lost on Eric due to their height difference. "What's your issue?" The teacher asked, hopping onto the desk and sitting.

"well, it's just that I don't understand the chronological mechanics of the potions." Eric explained pointing out the text book that he was reading. "It says here that certain components, typically herbs, work differently depending on certain times they're used." He explained. "Like, I'd understand if it was a yearly thing, that'd bake more sense based from a botany point of view. But strange specific timescales such as specific dates and specific times of the day, I just don't get it." Eric continued, showing clear signs of frustration.

The teacher let out a bellowing laugh. "You humans really don't have any magic back home, do you?" Burntwood asked, wiping a tear from his eye from the laughter. "Listen laddie, you're overthinking it too much, just follow along with the text book, it isn't that complex. What you're talking about is in the realms of Chronomagics, which are completely hypothetical."

"Chronomagics? You mean, time magic?" Eric asked in surprise.

"Aye, obviously they don't exist. But assuming they do, it'd be in the realms of the wild witch theory, a theory that prescribes to the notion that some magics can indeed blend over to other forms of magics, such as how oracle magics and technically be views as bleeding over into illusion magics." Burntwood explained eagerly. "However, there is no basis to these claims and wild magic is strictly prohibited, by law of Emperor Belos." Burntwood said, changing to a stern voice. "Remember young'ins, remember what Big Bump says: Hocus Focus." The teacher said, doing a really good impression of Principal Bump which prompted a few laughs from the students that sharply fell silent. "What? I got something in my beard?" he asked in confusion.

"Ahem." A voice with authority coughed, prompting the small teacher to hop of the desk and see who was standing at the door.

"Ah, Principal Bump." Burntwood said blushing, caught in the act of making fun of his superior and colleague. "I was merely explaining the dangers of wild magic to wee Eric here." He said, jamming his thumb backwards in Eric's direction.

This caused Bump to glare at Eric, not out of malice, but in the same way a parent would catch their child doing something naughty. "And, I take it you'll heed the wise words of your instructor?" Bump said sternly looking directly at Eric. Eric felt as if the whole world disappeared for a split second, as if he was the only person in the whole world. And that the ice that he was standing on was rapidly beginning to fracture.

"Y-yes sir, Mister Burntwood was explaining the mechanics of how chronology fits into alchemical practices." Eric said in a nervous voice. "I was struggling and he was explaining…" Eric spoke before being cut off at the sign of Principal Bump raising his hand.

"Ah, that's fine." Bump said in a more friendly tone. "I'd imagine, considering your background with a lacking of magic, it'd be difficult to understand certain elements of certain subjects." Bump spoke. "Just make sure to Hocus Focus, otherwise you'll join your friend in the detention track." He said in a more stern voice.

Eric's shoulders relaxed, not out of a feeling of relaxation, but more that they had slumped down in disbelief. "Please tell me you're kidding." Eric asked in a monotone voice, trying to keep his disbelief and annoyance at Luz, yet again getting in trouble, hidden.

"I wish I were, regretfully." Principal Bump replied before turning his attention to Mr Burntwood. "Mr Burntwood, would your students on an early break?" He continued. "I'm showing the inspector around and she'd like to examine the student's work, as is." Principal Bump finished.

"Aye, sure, I guess." Mister Burntwood said confused. "Just make sure you're all back here after your break, everyone." Mister Burntwood addressed the class. "Otherwise, I can't guarantee that I wont introduce that candy tax I mentioned last semester." He said jokingly.

The Students all started to make their way out of the classroom, grabbing either notes or leaving them there for their return. As soon as Eric had stepped outside his spidey sense went off. It was a strange feeling, like a tingling sensation that started at the base of his skull and spread throughout his body. He looked around the classroom, trying to pinpoint the source of the danger, but there didn't seem to be any. Eric's heart began to race as he tried to calm himself down. He only saw Principal Bump and Mister Burntwood in the classroom talking, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He looked around the room again, searching for any sign of danger.

"Trouble, laddie?" Burntwood asked, leaning to the side and noticing Eric's sudden change of body language.

"Y-yeah." Eric said looking at the teacher. "Bad headache, and thought I heard my name being called." He lied, hoping that the teacher would buy into it. The smaller teacher shrugged and returned to the conversation with Principal Bump.

He turned around and there walking towards him was a woman wearing a great uniform, a small, darker grey patch or cloth draped over her shoulder, she had what looked like a police badge on the left side of her chest and she was carrying a clipboard in her right hand, at the mere sight of her Eric's spidey sense started to intensify. He was still getting used to his spidey sense, he remembered that Peter told him that in certain cases, depending that if the danger is too great and that if it gets close really quickly the spidey sense can throw you off balance and even hinder you in some cased. "Trust me, I battled a group of weirdos called The Ancients. I was better off relying on my natural born senses." Peter's words echoed in Eric's head, but that didn't change the migraine that was starting in his head, the feeling as if Eric had been slammed into a wall headfirst by the Rhino, or even the other tough guy was too much. He felt staggered slightly and caught himself, the woman drew closer, each step from her boots rippled in his head, his stomach turned, He felt like he was going to throw up, as if he had walked off a roller coaster pre-spider bite. As she drew closer she adjusted her clipboard and looked at Eric dead in the eye. "Is there a problem, young man?" She asked in a voice that suggested concern, but failed to hide the absence of concern.

"Yeah, I get these headaches every now and again." Eric said trying to relax, failing at it. "I just gotta splash some water in my face and grab a drink." He said taking a single step away from her.

Her eyes quickly darted at the motion Eric just made, all he did was take a single step back and that was enough for her to see through his words, though she didn't do anything except provide a rather creepy smile. "That's fine, the emperor's coven can't be having potential recruits like yourself feeling as you do." She said maintaining that smile. The smile sent a shiver up Eric's back, an unwelcome feeling, especially with how he's feeling. "Get yourself some water, I hope you see you very soon." She said as he walked into the room with the headmaster and teacher.

"Oh yeah." Eric said quickly walking away. "Total bad guy." He thought to himself. His walk was less of a walk and more of a slight jog, he hastily entered the boy's toilets, the same ones as before. He walked over to the sink and ran the tap, the tap's cold water came blasting out, Eric upped the pressure a little too much and adjusted it, he ran his hands under the could water and cupped it, then splashed it onto his face. The further away from the woman he got the better, and this splash of cold water was just what he needed to quiet down his spidey sense, though the feeling of annoyance returned as he remembered Principal Bump's words.

"Luz, what the hell?" He thought to himself. "Detention track, what the hell is that supposed to be?" His thoughts continued. His annoyance boiled into anger, and quickly subsided. Getting angry wasn't going to help anyone, and he didn't even know if Luz had done anything wrong. Maybe it was just the typical Spider-Man luck happening rearing it's unwelcome gaze towards his friend he thought. He gave himself another splash of water and rinsed his face off with his sleeves and walked out. "Might as well check and see what's exactly going on." He thought to himself as he walked out the door.

Amity put her books in her locker and sighed. "Stupid Human." She thought to herself. She and Luz had been on much more friendly terms since their night at the library, getting almost stitched into a book by a horrorfied version of a beloved children's book character had that way of bringing people closer. "Closer." She thought to herself, feeling a slight warmth in her face, but as soon as the warmth came she shrugged it off. Luz was such an oddity compared to most of the people in the Boiling Isles, which was already filled with unique individuals, but Luz, Luz was something different. There was something about her, the carefree attitude she had was admirable, and adorable, humans were indeed strange. She laughed at the fact that during their horrifying experience at the library, Luz still somehow was able to find time to joke around, there was something about the fact that even in one of the worst moments of Amity's life, Luz still somehow managed to make her laugh. The warm feeling came back, this time in her chest, a feeling as if her heart had pulsated the warmth into existence, Amity wasn't sure how to feel. She closed her locker and sighed. "Ugh, this is so weird." She mumbled to herself.

Most of the other students at this point were either still in their respective classes, she had gotten an earlier break in order to prepare for her demonstration for the inspector from the emperor's coven, she started to walk, and then turn back, and walk again, and turn back again. The only word she could describe how she was feelings "Shy?" she thought to herself, "No that's not right, weirded out maybe? No that's still not right." She continued pacing back and forth.

"Why am I being such an idiot about this." She said to herself out loud. "So, you two go to the same school now. That doesn't change anything." She continued rambling before sighing, unaware that half of the human population of the Boiling Isles that she had met just witnessed her ramblings. She ran her hands through her hair and took a sharp breath and exhaled. "Come on Amity, you're a Blight. Get yourself together." She said trying to shift her thoughts. "Focus, this demonstration for the Emperor's coven needs to be one hundred percent, no room for screw ups." She said to herself out lout again as she started to walk down the hall and towards the auditorium. As she progressed there were more students starting to trickle out of their classes, various students from each of the nine tracks, each of them vastly different from one and another. As she walked around the corner, she saw her brother Edric and her Sister Emira walking towards her, Amity had a really good relationship with her siblings, even if some times they annoy her and she in return snitches on them.

"So Amity, a little birdy just told us that Bump wants you to do the abomination presentation for the emperor's coven, that true?" Emira asked with a smile on her face.

Amity looked at her siblings, both of them had smiles on their faces, not this mischievous kind that a sibling may have to tease another, but of those that were genuinely happy. "Yeah, I rehearsed it this morning, so I should be good." She replied to her sister.

"Very nice mittens, you'll do great, we're sure." Edric said. "So, where's your human buddy?" He asked. "Figured she'd be around you, since it's her first day and all."

Amity's heart started to quicken, not much, but enough for her to register it, luckily there was no sign of blushing or anything. "I haven't seen her since her or her human friend since this morning." Amity answered, brushing a bit of hair behind her ear.

"Oh that's right, Luz isn't the only human here now, is she?" Emira asked as she had just remembered the details of the second human's arrival. "Talk about dropping by." She said laughing to herself. "What's he like?" she asked.

"He's nice, same as Luz." Amity answered, the feeling in her heart subsiding at the mention of Luz's friend Eric. "Funny enough, he's actually shorter than her, but he seems okay." Amity said, chuckling at the height difference of the two humans as she recalled Luz's stories about Eric's ability to lift up objects that weighed in the tons, the thought of someone who was only an inch smaller than Luz and roughly the same physique was strange but also funny to imagine.

"So, when you say the same as Luz?" Edric said whilst moving his eyebrows suggestively.

"ugh, shut up." Amity said rolling her eyes. "Anyway, are you two going to be at the auditorium?" she asked.

"Sorry sis, but we're busy with a book report, but we're sure you'll knock'em dead." Edric said apologetically.

"It's fine." Amity said with a smile. "I've got some prep work to do, so I'll see you guys after school."

The three green haired siblings said their goodbyes and parted, Edric and Emira heading towards the Library and Amity making her way past to the auditorium, as she walked down the halls she saw Eric, he looked a little rough. It had only been a few hours since she had formally met Eric but in those hours he looked as if he had all of a sudden became really Ill, he was fixing something in his bag, Amity couldn't see what exactly it was but there was a green piece of cloth that he gingerly dropped into his bag pack and fixed it in place before taking items out of his locker and back into the bag. Amity approached the human boy, if he was as nice as Luz had mentioned it couldn't hurt getting to know him.

"Hey Eric." Amity said as she approached him. "How are you feeling?" she asked, pointing out his pale complexion.

"Uh, fine thanks." He answered, hurrying stuff into his bag. "Sorry, Amity was it? Eric asked whilst looking as if he was in pain.

"Yeah, are you alright? you look kind of rough." She asked, taking note of the expression that ran over his face.

"Yeah, it's a headache, really bad one." Eric answered, obviously covering something up.

"You know I know about your thing, right?" Amity asked in a hushed tone, trying to hint towards Eric's secret.

"Yeah." Eric answered, realizing that Amity saw through his cover up. "It's difficult to explain, I've got this "Sense" that goes off when trouble's nearby and it's been going haywire since the inspector had shown up." He explained.

"Why, it's a routine inspection from the emperor's coven?" Amity asked confused. "It's not like there's actually trouble, unless Bump gets angry." She continued.

"Oh yeah, take it you've heard?" Eric asked, turning to face Amity.

"Heard what?" she asked concerned.

"Luz got tossed into the detention track." Eric answered frankly. "I spoke to someone who saw it, she was seen coming from this morning's potion class and then using one of the oracle track's orbs. Bump instantly sentenced her to detention."

"Oh no." Amity sighed sadly. "Why'd she do that, surely she would've known about the rules?"

"Oh yeah, Luz does this kind of crap all the time." Eric explained whilst rubbing his forehead with his eyes closed. "She, uh, she's got the tension span of a goldfish." Eric said through gritted teeth.

"Goldfish?" Amity asked tilting her head to the side slightly.

"Never mind." Eric chuckled. "So, what about yourself, how's your day been anyway." Eric asked.

"Good, I'm going to be representing the abomination track in front of the inspector." Amity answered with a smile on her face. "It should be simple enough; I told my siblings that I rehearsed this morning so I'm expecting it to go well."

"That's good to hear." Eric said, but he wasn't able to continue with what he was going to say as his spidey sense was going ballistic now, like when the inspector was talking with him earlier. Each single step was like a punch to the head from The Rhino as he heard the familiar footsteps of Principal Bump and the Inspector. Amity turned around and saw the duo walking down the hallway towards her and Eric, Bump was explaining the educational goings on and pointing out which students were prime candidates for the emperor's coven, the inspector however didn't look interested in the educational prospects, only the students that were being pointed out to her. Eric felt that same headache getting worse and worse as she grew closer to him.

"And here's out star pupil from the abomination track, Amity Blight." Principal Bump said putting his hand on Amity's shoulder. "She's been one of our top students this year, her prospects are looking really well, some of Hexside's best on record." Bump boasted.

The inspector did that horrific smile again, revealing bone white teeth, as she leaned towards Amity. "Believe me, my dear, it's my upmost pleasure to meet you." She said, shacking Amity's hand, the very smile on her face whilst the way she said that was causing Eric's spider sense to act as if it was screaming in his head, but why? She was just some random desk jockey, probably spends more time pushing pencils rather than actually casting spells, everything about her seemed normal. And that was just it "How many times have Peter and Miles told me that sometimes it's the most normal people that will possess the most danger. "Eric thought to himself.

"But why, why is she setting off my spider sense?" Eric asked himself. "Everything about her visually seems normal, and I'd guess the teachers could handle any kind of trouble tossed their way, plus with an army of magically equip students at their side, you'd have to be a maniac to attack this place." He continued, trying to slink away from the three. Which worked successfully as the three walked towards the auditorium.

Amity performed her presentation with spectacular reception, she earned the praise she had gotten, she had her abomination lower her to the ground and smiled. "And that concludes the presentation from the abomination track." She said proudly. Amity had always taken herself seriously and only recently realized too seriously, but the work, time and dedication to her profession had paid off, this was the key to the emperor's coven. She bowed with one arm going over her lower torso and outstretching the over hand, her abomination mirroring her pose right down to the last detail and with perfect timing, showing her exceptional control over abominations.

Principal Bump was astounded with the performance, he was not only proud of Amity's performance, but he was ecstatic to hear the inspector's feedback. "That was some real Hexside magic, huh." He said eagerly awaiting the appraisal from the inspector, giving her a playful nudge in the arm.

The inspector stared with the same smile that had sent shivers down Eric's back, she was thrilled at the demonstration of magic and delighted at the prospects, only the reasoning that she was delighted was different than what anyone in the auditorium, no, the whole school could've predicted. "Yes." She hissed. "This is good." She said standing on her two feet. "But let's see if your student can put up more of a fight." She said with a ferocity that left Bump confused for a split second.

"Yes, yes. Wait. What?" The principal said, realising what was just said.

The Inspector slammed her two hands onto the stage and stared right into Amity's eyes, that grin of hers extended from cheek to cheek as her neck elongated into a serpentine fashion, two gills formed out of her ears and her eyes became more amphibian rather than humanoid, she moved her head towards Amity and licked her lips and then her eyes.

"Is this, uh, Part of the inspection." Principal Bump asked confused.

Amity saw the inspector transform in front of her, she assumed it was some form of illusion magic, or something specifically taught to the emperor's coven witches. She reeled back in surprise of the unexpected transformation and then she managed to steel herself, her mind for a split second drifted back to the conversation with Eric earlier. "I've got this "Sense" that goes off when trouble's nearby and it's been going haywire since the inspector had shown up." The words echoed in her head, but it was too late to provide any form of a warning or do anything. She gripped her right hand into a fist and shouted. "Abomination, fight." She commanded the large slimy monstrosity.

The abomination ran towards the inspector and growled, clearly ready for combat and obeying it's master's will. It ran towards her and attempted a body slamming manoeuvre, but rather than connecting with something humanoid shaped instead it connected with something larger as the inspector grew to be around twenty foot long and more serpentine, morphing her legs into a single, long tale. The inspector moved it's head upwards and flipped the abomination in the air, and as soon as the purple familiar came down, it was swallowed whole by the large creature that had revealed itself to be the inspector, The serpent moved toward amity, moving it's neck around from side to side, mimicking that of a snake about to strike and spoke. "The magic at Glandus High was tasty." It said, licking its lips of some of the abomination slime that remained before craning it's head towards the young, green haired witch. "but I hope yours will be more filling."

The mere mention of such a threat and display was enough to instil fear within Amity, she looked at the large serpentine monster in front of her, speechless and hadn't even realized that she was starting to walk backwards. However, at the large threat that presented itself towards his student, Principal Bump wasted no time by leaping into action, he sprinted from his seat, up the stairs onto the stairs on the side of the stage and in front of Amity and the monster. "Amity, Stay back." He yelled positioning himself in front of the two. "she's an imposter." He exclaimed as he swirled his hand through the air to conjure a spell to deal with the beast, an attempt that was in vain as the serpent opened it's large, toothy maw almost in a hundred and eighty degree angle, not unlike a sneak about to devour its prey. Bump felt a strange sensation as he felt the very wind itself move towards the creature as if being sucked into a vacuum, he felt a strange numbness crawl over him and noticed his spell that was almost ready enter the monster's mouth. He felt all the strength leave him and everything went dim, then black.

Amity looked on in horror at the display in front of her. "How could the principal of a school of witches fall so easily?" she thought to herself. The sight in front of her, she would've thought Principal Bump had perished if it hadn't been for the signs of his chest slowly drawing in air and exhaling it. She turned her attention towards the creature which was staring at her with it's large, malicious smile, and attempted to summon the first spell that came to her mind, at this point she wasn't thinking, she was just reacting. However her attempt at defence was wasted, as the created mimicked it's previous action and Amity too, had fallen to the ground, she heard a few of her fellow students screaming and attempting to bolt towards the door, then, nothing.

Eric was washing his hands in the bathroom, he quickly went into the bathroom before heading back to class, and to toss on an outfit underneath his clothing, an outfit which just so happened to be very well concealed with the clothes on the top, luckily Eric enjoyed the warm more than the cold, unlike his dad, otherwise this would be very uncomfortable, but a bit of spandex underneath some cloth wasn't anything to worry about. His spider sense though, it started throbbing again, and again, the intensity constantly growing, he groaned in pain and quickly snapped out of it as he heard a commotion outside. He approached the Boy's bathroom door and popped his head out and saw something rush by. To the typical person It would've been a blur of motion, but for someone who travels at high speeds and needs to be able to process information at a quickened rate in order not to fly into the side of a sky scrapper, it was almost as if someone moved a long, leathery, reptilian billboard in slow motion behind him. Eric's instant reaction was to jolt back, his body moving at such a force he performed one of the stunts that was from a movie about humans living in a digital world ruled by evil machines, he aimed his hand towards the door and webbed it shut.

"Well, convenient I put this on underneath." Eric thought to himself as he stood up and started to remove his Hexside uniform.

"Don't worry Luz." Willow said in a cheery tone. "Once we talk to Bump, we'll get everything sorted out." Willow spoke as she radiated optimism.

Luz felt bad she thought she had made connections with the other students in the detention track, she said some words that weren't the best choice and caused emotional harm towards them, the guilt she felt was immeasurable. "I know, but that's the point if people get hurt on the way." She asked in a tone that was riddled with sadness.

Gus rested his hand on his chin and pondered Luz's statement. "That is a fair question." He stated before realizing the spectacle in front of him and his friend's "Here's another question." He said before screaming and pointing. "What the heck is that."

Luz and Willow's attention were brought to one of the teacher's running from a large serpent creature, the teacher had attempted to turn back in some form of defiance and summon a spell in order to hold the beast off, but as the spell was cast and a green energy was fired at the creature it didn't work. The creature swallowed the energy whole and drained the teacher of his magical abilities, causing him to flop to the floor in pain.

The sight of what just happened caused the three young witches to scream in a mix of shock, confusion and fear, which alerted the creature to their presence. The large snake-like beast laughed at the children's fear as it's hunger grew at the sight of new prey.

"More cute morsels." It said mockingly.

Willow wasn't having any of it as she let go of Luz and waved her finger in the air to summon a spell. "We may be cute." She said as she slammed her hand onto the ground causing the large plant-like entity from earlier to be summoned and erupt from the ground only three meters away from her. "But we're nobody's morsels."

Gus, inspired by Willow's act of bravery decided to leap into action as well, he ran in front of the Plant creature and waved his hand through the air, yelling "Time for a power up." Casting a spell onto the plant that transformed some of its vines into two, muscular arms. The plant quickly addressed its new form before turning its focus onto the large monster that lay before it. The plant sprung forward, using the momentum of its speed it prepared for an uppercut, but sadly the physical blow was not to land as the large monster wrapped its tale around the plant and devoured it, causing Gus and Willow to lose their magical essence and fall to the floor weak.

Luz watched her two friend fall to the ground, she had to do something. But what could she do, she had to think of something anything. She acted on sheer instinct at this point as she ran forward and pulled out her drawing pad, activating the ice glyph she had sketched earlier and tossing it into the mouth of the monster. The monster caught it in its mouth and attempted to eat the paper, but the glyph was already activated and thus was cast within the creature's mouth, the white, cold pain was agonizing, so much so that it bellowed in agony.

"It burns! It burns" it exclaimed in pain, but the pain was short lived. It reared its head and snarled at the human girl and her friends in front of it "You'll pay for that you Little…" the creature snarled before being interrupted by a heavy amount of kinetic force to its face.

"Now, now, watch your language, children are present" a familiar voice yelled.

Luz couldn't believe what she had seen, as if from nowhere, not even having time to think about another thought, another friend had appeared, just in time for her to toss Gus over her shoulder.

"Get out of here, I'll deal with the Gucci handbag." Spider-Man yelled.

Luz was all too aware of who was hidden under the mask, but that didn't stop her from trying to reason with her friend to not fight. "But, Eric…" she shouted before Spider-Man cut her off.

"Is fine." He said giving her a wink, the mask mimicking the expression. "He's somewhere safe, now go!" Spider-Man finished before turning back to the large beast.

Luz nodded her head and grabbed Willow as well, forcing her to her feet and running away from the situation.

As soon as the others were clear Spider-Man leapt to the ceiling and snapped his fingers to get the monster's attention.

"You know, in my profession, it's common to run into overly large lizards." Spider-Man said with a grin that was hidden under his mask. "But damn, you're the ugliest one I've seen. You get rejected by the society?" he said in a mocking tone, trying to get the creature angry and focused on him.

The large creature laughed at the humanoid that was stuck onto the ceiling. "You're strong I'll give you that, but let's see how you do without your magic." It said as it started to create the vacuum that had drained Amity and Bump of their magical properties earlier, but to no avail the figure that kicked it was still on the ceiling. "I-I don't understand" it said confused, before having its mouth webbed shut.

"Now, someone smart could piece it together easily. But since you're not that smart I'll just keep ya guessing." Spider-Man said landing on the floor.

The monster ripped the webs from it's mouth and snarled at the impudent little arachnid in front of it. "That's fine, I can still rip you apart. Piece by Impudent piece." It hissed.

"Ah, now we reach the levels of banter that I've been looking for, bit unoriginal but I'll have my team call your team." He said leaping onto the wall and started crawling rapidly to lead the creature away from Luz and the others.

The creature Lunged at Spider-Man, "Good" he thought, as he now had the creature's undivided attention. Before the creature's jaws could clamp down on Spider-Man he had already shot a web further down the hall on the opposite side wall and leapt and pulled himself, almost launching himself nearly fifty meters down the hall. He turned back to see the thing slithering quickly towards him. "So, looks like the Boiling Isles does have super villains." He chuckled to himself before dodging yet another attack and leading the creature away.

Luz was struggling with carrying Gus over her shoulder, she needed him to try and be able to move on his own two feet so she could have enough strength to support Willow as well. She nudged Gus gently with her shoulder and spoke. "Hey, Gus, buddy." She said in soft voice. "I'm gonna need you to try and move on your own, I'm not gonna be able to carry you much longer" the strain in her voice being evident of the lack of strengths. It's not that Gus didn't want to move, but he struggled, this beast that drained him of his magical essence made him feel weak, as if he had never possessed the slightest bit of strength, but he was able to muster something to answer his friend's request. "I…can…try" he said slowly. Luz stopped running as the three turned around a bend and she slowly lowered Gus to the floor, Gus' legs wobbled as he stood upright. "Don't worry Gus, I know a place to hide for safety." Luz said in a hushed tone. As soon as Gus was balanced enough Luz took Gus' arm and draped it over her neck, the same way she had done with Willow in order to support them both, then continued moving down the hallway. She wasn't able to go into a full sprint as she was supporting her two weakened friends, but she was able to move fast enough to get to the desired door within a few seconds. As she got closer to the Door she moved herself fast, granting her a bit more momentum to move faster and enough strength to kick the door wide open. There laid a space filled with doors on the ground, doors on the walls and ceiling, these were the doors the other "troublemakers" had shown her, a useful tool that she was now extremely thankful for being shown, as this might've held the key to keeping her, and her friends alive.

"Guys!" she exclaimed; panic laced through her voice. "I need your help!" she said moving her friends inside the space.

There were three students sitting on the floor, a tall skinny boy with brown eyes, a brunette with muscular features who's long hair remained in a bun held up by something spikey and a dog looking creature that had a human face with glassed. Each one of them didn't look excited at the prospect of seeing Luz again due to the events that transpired earlier that morning. "Oh." The brunette muttered. "You're back." She continued.

Luz didn't have time to mess around or argue, she needed to help her friends, and most importantly, try and stop the creature from doing more damage before more people got hurt. She was thankful a certain wall crawler had arrived when he was needed, but she wasn't sure if hey could handle it, perhaps if he was one of the other Spider-Men who had years of experience she'd feel more relaxed, and the knowledge of this Spider-Man's identity only fuelled the anxiety of the current situation. "I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, but please listen." She begged, struggling to keep Willow and Gus up. She had done her best but Luz was never one for raw strength, she might've been one of the fastest runners in her school back in the human realm, but when it came to lifting heavy objects she was shamefully lacking, she let out a scream of pain as she felt a jolt of the feeling rush through her knees and back as she fell to the ground on her knees, loosing grip of Willow who slumped from Luz's shoulder and onto the floor, barely conscious.

At this point two of the three witches immediately gasped in shock, their anger completely dissipating at the scene in front of them. "What happened to them?" Vinney asked in shock.

Luz set Gus down gently and turned to address the question asked of her. "Something horrible is loose in the school." She said walking towards a green door with a bronze handle. She opened the door to display a horrible scene. The creature was feeding on the magical essence of a student with a spikey head, purple uniform. It was quickly stopped as it received to an uppercut to its jaw from a figure that pounced at it from the wall, she knew who it was but that still didn't take away from the shock and horror of the scene.

The very shock and horror of the scene caused Vinney to sprint towards the door and say in a hushed tone "Don't let it see us." She said as she closed the door quickly. "I think that's a Greater Basilisk. I heard about them in a class." She explained. "My cousin at St. Epiderm said she saw one, but those things should be extinct." She said in a serious voice.

Luz had remembered hearing something about students left in a horrible condition at another school. "Gladus, was it?" she thought to herself, but she brushed the needless thought away and turned to her friend. "It must've attacked the other schools, and now it's come for us." She said turning to the taller student. "We have to do something." She said in a voice filled with determination.

"But if Bump catches us mixing magics again…" the taller student said in a shy voice. "He'd kick us out of school." Vinney finished the sentence.

"What a load of bullshit." Luz thought to herself angrily. The only real solution to the situation is right in front of them, but if they all followed the rules the school would be doomed. She remembered the sight outside, Spider-Man seemed to be holding his own, but there were too many student inside the school in order to protect them all, It wouldn't've mattered if there were a hundred witches and a hundred Spider-Men, as long as someone got hurt that would be one person too much. Luz leapt from the walk way above and landed next to Willow and Gus and pointed at the two. "Hexoleos are getting hurt and we're the only ones who can save them." She stated with a matter of fact in her voice. "We're troublemakers, right?" she said, glaring at the three students above. "So, let's get out there and make some trouble." She said, her voice full with determination and conviction.

The three students each looked at one another, they didn't need to say a single word because the human had a point. They were the only ones that would be able to save the school at this point, so they had to act, and act swiftly.

Spider-Man lept from wall to wall, attempting to keep the attention of the Basilisk, the Basilisk's attention was divided between the annoyance that was bouncing from wall to wall, keeping it's mouth closed with it's annoying webs and attacking it as soon as it's guard went down. But this was a Greater Basilisk, the strongest and one of the oldest of it's kind, it could squash the bug easily, only if it'd held still.

A student popped their head out of the class room and both Spider-Man and the Basilisk turned to look at the student with long, green hair and a mole under here eye. She looked like a slightly older and taller version of Amity, It must've been Amity's sister Spider-Man had realized. She gasped and stood there in shock, as the creature opened its maw, ready to drain the Magic from in her. But luckily the person in the Red and Blue costume interviewed by slamming the soles of his feet onto the creature's head, forcing the Basilisk's mouth shut.

"Keep everyone inside, if you've got a way with communicating with anyone on the outside make sure to do that. I'll try and hold off granny scales here." Spider-Man quickly spoke as he shot a web onto the door and pulled it shut, then shotting more webs to make sure the door stayed shut, even if the Basilisk would slam into it.

This momentary distraction could've cost Spider-Man his life hadn't it not been for his spidey sense, the basilisk flipped the young boy into the air and belted him with its tale. He was quick enough to brace himself but that didn't change the fact he now felt like an overly dressed ping-pong ball being bounced around as he bounced and rolled across the hall way, he held his side and groaned in pain. Not the worst hit he's ever taken, not by far, but still, a solid hit was a solid hit. He looked at the Basilisk making its way towards him, the evil smile replaced with a grimace of pure, shear hatred.

"It's not just magic that can sustain me, I'm happy with having some juice meat as well." It spoke in an angered voice.

"I wouldn't recommend that, Spiders are just bone, not really any meat on us." He quipped whilst making his way onto his feet.

"How thoughtful of you to raise such a concern." It said in a mocking voice. "But sadly, for you, I don't mind crunchy food." It said, licking it's lips.

The two started at each other for a long second, not one had recognized the small piece of paper that landed on front of the basilisk as it started slithering towards the hurt hero. As it moved within inches of the paper it started to glow blue and then a massive pilar of ice emerged as the Basilisk was ejected from its current position and it slammed into the wall behind Spider-Man. He shot a couple webs onto the lockers and launched himself across the floor and passed the Ice pillar, as he slid across the floor the Basilisk's gaze met him, nothing there but total malice. Any damage this creature takes isn't enough, after all the pain it's caused, Spider-Man would be glad to see a few of its teeth knocked out. As he came to a sliding halt then rolled and brought himself up to his feet, now the Ice pillar in front of him and the basilisk, there he saw a familiar face.

"I thought I told you to get out of here." He said, less annoyed and more confused at seeing Luz appear out of nowhere. "I've got this covered." He spoke.

"Firstly: you need help, you can't do this alone, there's too many people. Secondly: I had this bit written up and I'm getting to perform it. Thirdly: I've survived the Boiling Isles before you got here, I can handle myself." Luz said, her confidence matching her friends.

"Well, at least the quippage is on point." He shrugged. "What's the gameplan?" He asked, standing next to his friend.

The basilisk was furious and surprised, it's never had this kind of trouble before. The other schools were easy enough to infiltrate and deplete from the inside, Hexside would've gone well too, hadn't it been for that pesky spider. It slammed it's fists onto the ground and glared at the ice pillar, a mixture of anger and confusion. "Now, where did that come from?" It asked itself, just as a voice spoke.

"From the humblest of beginnings, a hero will rise." A female voice spoke from behind the pillar, another voice whispered loudly behind it, not loud enough for the basilisk to make out what was said, but lough enough to hear the voice of the annoying spider. It seemed like there was a couple exchanges of minor bickering before the speaker once again repeating herself, with a minor adjustment. "Fine!" luz exclaimed. "From the humblest of beginnings, two heroes will rise." She said in an exacerbated voice, before leaping out from the side of the pillar, along with Spider-Man. "I've trained with a secret society to discover the power of mixing magic." She said with her hood concealing her face.

"And I was bitten by a radioactive spider." Spiderman said waving his hand in a friendly gesture towards the Basilisk.

"We are…" luz said taking off her mask before being interrupted by the basilisk.

"Dinner!" the basilisk hissed as it pounced towards the two. It slammed into the pillar of ice as the two dodged it's attack and starting making their way down one of the hallways of the school.

The two were running at a good speed, Spider-man not going full speed in order to Keep attention divided between him and Luz. "That was cheesy." He said running shoulder to shoulder with his friend. "I mean If you're gonna introduce yourself like that, you need to make it more flashy."

"Would you shut up for a second." Luz said almost out of breath, full of fear and adrenaline as the creature was gaining on the two.

"Sure would suck if we had a plan." Spider-Man said looking at his friend.

"Alright!" she exclaimed. "Vinney, do the thing, do the thing!" she continued to yell. As the two passed one of the cross sections of the corridors a smaller creature, but not a small one by any means, slammed into the basilisk, toppling it over. It had a set of wins, a feline torso and a pigeon's head and front talons.

"Attagirl, Puddles." Vinney said proudly of her familiar. "Jerbo, now!" she called. Prompting the taller boy from earlier to summon large vines to grab the basilisk down into the room full of doors, though not before the beast could slash the birdlike creature on the side with its claws, drawing a fair amount of blood that it licked from its hand as it fell.

Luz and Spider-Man ran by Vinney and went into the hole, Luz doing a simple jump and Spider-Man doing a flip, something that made him clearly look like he was showing off. The two fell several feet and landed on the basilisk, causing the basilisk to fall through yet another hole that it was stuck in, then proceeding to follow alongside it. The basilisk slammed into a hard wooden surface and the two landed on the stomach of the creature and both performed a flip, Spider-Man landing first and putting his to hands out to catch Luz in his arms.

"I'd say that was a solid seven point five score." He said happily.

"Oh please" She said still in his arms. "Clearly it was a nine at least" she continued. Causing the two to laugh for a split second. "Alright, all on you barcus" she said jumping from Spider-Man's arms and onto the ground.

The dog creature from earlier emerged from behind a set of curtains and put one paw on the basilisk's hand and poured a purple potion on it. This feeling of the strange liquid caused the creature to stir and begin to regain it's senses. "Where am I?" it asked aloud. Barcus started barking with his eyes glowing a deep purple color, this unsettling sight caused the basilisk to feel fear, a lot of feat. "What's he doing, what'd he say?" it asked afraid of what the question may reveal.

"He's reading your palm, and your future looks bleak." Luz said with a cocky smile on her face. As she turned around to give the signal for puddles and Jerbo's abomination to cut a wire they were holding which dropped several sandbags onto the Basilisk's stomach, causing the mass that was originally at the stomach to make it's way towards the beast's mouth. The basilisk attempted to keep it's mouth closed but it failed as all the magical essences erupted from it's mouth in a show of blue light that broke off and swirled into individual directions. It was a sight to behold, it there was something beautiful about the lightshow in front of the heroes, who all turned around and congratulated another, Luz turned around to face Spider-Man and realized something was off. "Wait, you're taller…" she blurted out.

"Platforms." Spider-Man replied, lifting his foot up. "Helps absorb kinetic force, means that I don't potentially break a foot from landing too hard." He explained.

"So, Luz who's your friend here?" Vinney asked, gesturing towards the guy in the red and blue costume.

"Really?" He asked. "No one gets the concept of the suit." He sighed in defeat, which prompted laughter from the others around.

"Do you think you should get going?" Luz asked, as she noticed color beginning to return to Principal Bump and then Amity.

"Yeah." He said. "Make sure pickle puss here doesn't send you guys into detention again." He said shooting a web onto the ceiling. "Also, your friend Eric is safe…I may have accidentally locked him in a closet, or was it a bathroom?" he announced looking at Luz. Before anyone could say anything, he leapt into the air and landed at the door to the auditorium and ran through the door.

"I can't believe we did it, we…" luz said before being cut off by a familiar voice. The voice caused her to tense up and turn around, only to see principal Bump approaching her and her new friends.

"Leaving your homeroom, mixing magic and…" he rhymed off before pointing above his head. "Is that a secret hideout?!" luckily not noticing Gus and Willow who were observing the whole situation unfold.

Luz was fed up with Bump's overzealous rules, the school was saved only because her and her friends broke said rules. She crossed her arms and looked at the principal dead in the eye. "Yeah, it is." She said sternly. "Let's think about this principal Bump, why would kids in the detention track need a secret hideout?" she asked in an attempt to lead the principal to a desired conclusion.

"I don't care to know the ins and outs of rascality." He replied, turning his eyes back to Luz. "But if the emperor's coven can send an actual inspector this time…" he said uninterested in Luz's point before being interrupted by the human.

"Okay, you need coven money." She said understandingly. "But if you have to hurt your students to get it, what's the point?" she asked. "They saved Hexside. They should be allowed to study what they wish."

Principal Bump shrank into himself, feeling embarrassed that a fourteen-year-old was able to provide such insight that a man of his age clearly should've had. "but…" he muttered.

"Come on Principal bump, give 'em a break." Eric said climbing onto the stage, clearly no one recognized that he had entered, or rather, re-entered.

"Yeah, do the right thing ya dingus." Gus chimed in before hiding back out of Pump's sight.

The principal sighed in defeat, allowing himself to smile at the youthful wisdom that was on display, he had to admit it, if it weren't for a mixture of bravery and creativity, the basilisk would've probably succeeded in draining the school of magic. "Alright." He said smiling. "I'm smart enough to know when I've made a mistake." He turned around and regarded three of the original "troublemakers", a term that seemed more endearing rather than a brand of shame now. "Which of the tracks would you like?" he asked prompting an excited gasp from Vinney.

"Healing and beast keeping." Vinney quickly answered.

"Plants and abominations." Jerbo answered proudly.

Barcus let out a singular bark, making Eric wonder how people here could understand what the dog-like student was saying. "Then so be it." said the principal as he waved his hand through the air, causing the student's colors to change to represent the respective tracks the students desired. "But if any of you cause more property damage, I'm feeding you to the choosy hat." He said with a with a mixture and finality and humor in his voice. "And you two?" Bump asked Eric and Luz.

"Oh, I still can't choose." Luz answered shyly. "Maybe it's crazy, but I wish I could study a little bit of everything." Luz said in a low voice, however the sad tone in her voice was replaced by surprise and amazement as she realized her outfit changed to represent a mix of each track.

"And you?" Bump turned his gaze to eric. "Which ones look more suited to your liking?" the principal asked.

Eric thumbed his chin in thought, thinking at the prospect of each track. He thought about the musical one but then decided against it, no one needed to hear the sounds of suffering he'd make a poor instrument endure, the plant one seemed like fun, but botany wasn't Eric's biggest hobby. He stood there for a long second and stared at his own sleeves and then turned back to the headmaster. "Actually, Principal Bump." Eric said. "I'm fine in the potion track." He continued.

Luz and Principal Bump looked at each other confused and turned back to face Eric. "Oh, come on Eric." Luz said in a happy voice. "Think of everything you're missing." She said.

"I can only make this offer once." Principal bump stated. "In order to ensure your continued success here we don't really permit students to constantly transfer from one track to another without good cause."

Eric looked at the two, he saw the golden opportunity that laid before him, but decided against it. He was fine with learning potions, but not for the reason he's state. "Well, I'm a top student in chemistry back home." Eric stated. "And learning more about chemical structures here might benefit me back home, where there's no magic." He continued and then met Bump's gaze. "I'm totally fine with just being in the potion track." He said with a smile on his face. "Thanks for the offer, Principal Bump."

"You're more than welcome." Principal Bump stated before turning back to luz. "You know, only one other student wanted to study every track." A fact that caught both Luz and Eric off guard, "why would anyone only want to study one track here" a shared thought appeared in both of their heads. Principal bump waved his hand through the air, summoning the graffitied portrait that was in the secret room the other students had been using to study the other tracks. "Unfortunately, she was never given the opportunity." He said with regret in his voice.

Principal Bump waved his hand through the air, causing the portrait to glow green for a split second and after it stopped, the graffiti ceased to exit. Revealing a young student with Long, ginger hair and yellow eyes. She was clearly wearing a potion track uniform but that wasn't what shocked the two humans, what shocked them was the fact it was their current guardian in the local Isles, Eda Clawthorne.

"I should've guessed." Luz said with a smile on her face.

"Now if you excuse me, I have rather angry words to send to the emperor's coven." Principal Bump said, climbing down from the stage. "Words that children best not hear." He muttered under his breath loud enough for everyone to hear.

The group of students laughed at each the principal's clear sign of frustration as he walked away, Luz approached the others, happy at their new situation.

"Oh my titan, I can't believe this is real." Vinney said, beaming with joy.

"I know, It's a total one-eighty from earlier." Luz said jumping with joy. "Oh by the way, this is my friend, Eric." She said introducing the other human to her new friends.

"I've got the feeling I've missed something." Eric said scratching the back of his head, feigning ignorance. "Can someone explain what happened?"

"Wait, you didn't hear?" Jerbo asked confused. "There as a basilisk, and not just a normal basilisk, a greater basilisk." He explained.

"Oh, right, yeah." Eric said. "That's the large snake looking thing?" He asked. "I spent my time in a bathroom, hiding." He followed up.

"Didn't that Spider-Guy save you?" Vinney asked. "He mentioned he wasn't sure if he left you in a closet or a bathroom." She laughed.

"Yeah, the basilisk almost got me." Eric said looking away, pretending to be embarrassed. "wrong place wrong time, lucky Spidey was in the right place in the right time. Used his webs to secure the door and made sure the basilisk couldn't get in, though it didn't bother." Eric continued.

The school ended early due to some staff and students still feeling weak from the Basilisk's magic draining hunger. There were students who were being seen to by members of the healing coven and the emperor's coven, who came to assess the situation, the other students who were able to leave on their own accord were all gathering their things and leaving.

Eric and Luz walked out of Hexside, still a bit shaken from the recent basilisk attack. They walked in silence for a bit before Luz broke it.

"I can't believe we pulled that off," Luz said. "I mean, I knew Hexside was going to be dangerous, but I didn't expect that."

Eric nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that was intense. But at least we made it out okay." He looked turned back to see some of their classmates struggling to their feet, feeling dizzy. "it's a good thing no one was hurt too seriously."

As they turned a corner, they saw Eda waiting for them. "Hey, you two! How was your first day at Hexside?"

Luz and Eric looked at each other before Luz spoke up. "It was... eventful. We were attacked by a basilisk."

Eda's eyes widened in surprise. "A basilisk? That's no joke. Are you two okay?"

"We're fine," Eric reassured her. "But it was definitely scary."

Eda nodded. "Well, I'm glad you're both okay. Let's head back home."

They made their way back to the Owl House, where Eda poured them all some drinks. As they sat around the kitchen table, Luz and Eric recounted their experience to Eda in more detail.

Once they finished, Eda let out a low whistle. "You two are lucky to be alive. You know, it takes some real guts to take done one of those nasty critters."

Luz took a sip from her cup and rested it on the table. "Yeah."

"We got lucky." Eric stated. "If it wasn't for Luz's quick planning with a few of the others in the detention track." Eric said trailing off. "I don't wanna think about what could've happened if the basilisk started to go for food that requires a bit more of a bite."

Luz looked at Eric with a small smile due to his compliment, he wasn't shaken up about the situation from his own perspective, but more so the fact something like this happened in a school of all placed. "So, this is what it's like then?" Luz asked. "Saving lives?" continued, looking at her cup.

"Yeah." Eric answered. "It's a great feeling, but all it takes is one mistake and then someone can get hurt." He continued. "But someone has to do it, and as I said. It's a good feeling when no one gets hurt, well except the bad guys that is."

Luz nodded and fell silent, clearly trying to deep in thought from Eric's words. She knew that the hero stuff that the Spider-Men did was dangerous work, and she knew the Boiling Isles was dangerous as well, but this was different. The typical person may read about a shocking event that happens in another part of the world of even their country or town and it won't phase them due to the distance, but actively being involved in a life threatening situation caught Luz off guard, more so than the time her and Eda had to deal with the warden not too long after she had arrived here. Eda looked at the two teenagers, feeling bad that their first day was a lot more hectic than it should've been, she turned to look out the window, it was getting dark, and she sighed.

"Ok, how about this." She said trying to lighten the mood. "I need to quickly run into town and take care of some business, I was going to leave it until tomorrow." She said looking at the two. "But seen as how you two had your first day of school spoiled, I'll tell ya what. How about you two go and grab some food then meet me afterwards and we'll head back here, sound good?" Eda explained.

The two humans' moods instantly lightened up, both of them containing smiles on their faces. "But isn't it a school night?" Eric asked.

Eda instantly laughed. "Of course, it is, you can still go out late." Eda replied after she stopped laughing. "Don't be such a dweebus, I'm not gonna give you into trouble for staying out late, well not too late anyway." She continued before turning to King. "And you're coming with me." She said.

Luz and Eric, with Eda leading the way on her flying staff, travelled from the Owl House to Bonesborough. The journey was smooth, they arrived at the town in no time, and Eda gave Luz and Eric some gold coins to get food while she tended to her own business.

When they arrived in Bonesborough, they decided to explore the town a bit and grab something to eat. They wandered through the narrow streets, taking in the sights and sounds of the lively marketplace. The smell of spices and roasting meats wafted through the air, and they could hear the chatter of merchants haggling with customers.

"You know, for someone without any…" Eric said, clearly trying to put the right words together whilst in public. "Any abilities that lay outside of a typical human's skill set, you handled yourself really well back there." Eric finished with a smile on his face.

Luz was walking, clearly still in thought about the days events, though more relaxed now she was able to process the day. "Thanks." Luz said with a smile on her face.

The two walked down the streets, it was getting later and some of the market stalls were beginning to wind down. They saw a few of the stall owners packing their things into various boxes and load them into wagons, some of the more local ones had what looked like family, friends and co-workers bring their contents into their houses, however, as the market stalls were closing down the smell of various foods started to waft around the Luz and Eric. Eric's stomach grumbled loud, so much so even Luz heard it, she turned around and saw Eric blushing with his hand over his stomach.

"Maybe we should get food before my stomach starts to eat itself." he said smiling and scratching the back of his head.

"Good Idea." Luz said laughing at her friend.

They bought some food and found a quiet spot to sit and eat. They talked about their first day at Hexside and how they felt about everything that had happened. Eric admitted that he was nervous about the challenges that lay ahead, but he was also excited to learn more about magic and the boiling isles.

Luz looked at the passers-by, she saw groups of friends, couples and families going about their personal businesses and imagined what group were doing. She imagined one of the families, two ladies who were the same hight and what looked like three hyperactive twins. "Triplets" she mentally corrected herself. Luz imagined that they were out on a family and tonight was their last night in town. She turned to Eric who bought a bigger portion of food and was in the middle of inhaling it, he mentioned that the amount of calories he needs to burn was astronomical, that it was the main reason why whenever he goes home he's constantly stuffing his face with hidden candy bars, sodas. If it weren't for Eric's inhuman abilities he probably would have diabetes and be the size of the empire state building based off the amount of food he needs to eat. Luz smiled as she remembered the other day Eda was complaining about the amount of food that someone, who was more or less visually the same physique as Luz would eat. "If this kid doesn't hurry and get back to the human realm, he's gonna eat every ounce of food on the boiling isles." Eda had mentioned in Luz's small flash back.

"Hey quick question." Luz blurted out to Eric. "Does the mask have your prescription built into the lenses?" she asked.

"Prescription?" Eric asked, his mouth full of food before swallowing. "You mean like glasses?"

"Duh, that's what I just asked." She replied.

"Ah, right." Eric nodded, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "I actually don't need glasses, haven't since I was bitten by the spider." He explained.

"Wait, you don't?" luz asked confused. "So why do you wear them if you don't need them."

Eric sat back on the bench and let out a small burp. "What, you don't think they make me look stylish?" Eric asked with a grin on his face, facing Luz.

Luz rolled her eyes. "Dude, is that the reason you wear them, to look stylish?" she asked, clearly seeing through her friend's quip.

"Nah, well sort of, I do think I look better with them on." Eric answered. "But that's not the reason." He stated. "I've needed my glasses all my life, like ever since I was a little kid. So if I stopped wearing them all of a sudden, it'd seem really weird." He explained.

"That makes sense." Luz said, putting her left overs in the trash can only a couple feet away before sitting on the bench again and watching the sunset. "How many others know?" she asked, a piece of sadness slipping through her voice.

"Let me think." Eric said, pondering whilst doing the same thing but having a completely cleaned out box that had no left overs what so ever. "There's the first two Spider-Men, then there's you and Eda, Amity and her brother and sister, King," Eric said counting whilst using his fingers. "That's about it."

Luz turned to look at her friend. "So, did you tell the other Spider-Men about yourself, or did they figure it out." She asked.

"Figured it out." Eric answered nonchalantly. "Ems was the only person I actually told, and she told me to give it a try." Eric explained, reminiscing the conversation he and his sister had about his new powers after she had found out. "After a while of starting off, the other two Spideys tracked me down, thinking I was just another impersonator, and they pretty much took me under their wing, showed me the ropes." Eric explained.

There was a sudden quiet between the two as both of them remembered Eric's sister, Emily. Luz looked back at Eric whose facial expression was unreadable, he had a decent poker face. "I know I've already asked why you never told anyone about this, but can you remind me?" Luz asked, staring at Eric.

"As I've said, I don't want people seeing me differently. I just wanna keep things the way the were before I got these powers." Eric explained, his eyes moving towards the ground at his feet. "I get picked on, a lot as you know." Eric stated. "And if things stay the same as they are, it feels like…" He said, his voice falling short as the words he was wanting to say chocked in his throat.

"I get it." Luz said, putting her hand on Eric's, trying to console her friend. Eric looked at his friend and the two stared at each other for a second.

Luz listened attentively as Eric recounted the memories of his beloved sister. They had been close, and she had always been there to encourage him, even when he doubted himself. He then shared with Luz how Emily had convinced him to embrace his abilities and become Spider-Man. Luz could see the mixture of emotions on Eric's face as he remembered the joy and pride his sister had felt when she saw him in action for the first time.

"I've picked up this, habit you see." Eric said, barely able to keep his emotion in check. "Wrong place, wrong time…" He stated. "There was, this guy, a mugger, I was supposed to meet Emily at Times Square. So I stopped the mugger, made my way over to where I was supposed to meet Emily, and she called me, rather than meeting there she told me to meet her a couple blocks down." He continued. "If I was where I was supposed to be, on time…" Eric said, with his voice falling short. "Stupid street racing assholes." Eric said, his voice cracking with tears.

As Eric continued to share his story, Luz could feel the sadness and guilt that Eric had been carrying for so long. She tried her best to comfort him and reassure him that Emily would have been proud of him for becoming Spider-Man. Eric appeared comforted by her words, and they both sat in silence for a while, watching the beautiful sunset.

Luz's heart ached for her friend, but at the same time, she felt grateful to be there with him, sharing this moment. She knew that Eric was a strong person and that he would always carry the memory of his sister in his heart. As they watched the sun slowly disappear behind the horizon, Luz felt a sense of peace and contentment wash over her. She was happy to have been able to listen to Eric's story and provide him with some comfort.

As Eric and Luz made their way back towards the market, they continued to chat about their memories back home. Eric found himself laughing at Luz's silly stories, her infectious energy easing some of the lingering stress he had been carrying from the day's events. He couldn't help but feel grateful for her presence.

As they approached the market, Eric noticed how Luz's confidence had grown since arriving in the Boiling Isles. Her head was held high, her eyes scanning the crowd with an air of determination. Eric found himself admiring her even more, a feeling he couldn't quite explain.

Eric couldn't help but notice how different Luz was here in the Boiling Isles. She was confident and brave in a way that he had never seen before. The way she had handled the basilisk showed just how strong and capable she really was. He found himself admiring her in a new way and seeing her in a different light. As they approached Eda, Eric's heart started to race. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't help feeling nervous around Luz. He was starting to realize that his feelings for her were more than just friendship. He tried to brush it off, but it was hard to ignore the butterflies in his stomach.

As they reached the market, Eda greeted them with a warm smile. "Hey, kiddos. Did you have a good time?" she asked as they climbed aboard her broom.

"Yeah, it was nice to get out for a bit," Eric replied, stealing a glance at Luz.

Eda chuckled. "I bet. You must have had a great time." She said, noticing Eric's staring at Luz.

Luz grinned, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "Yeah, we did. Thanks for letting us go out, Eda."

"Anytime, Luz. I'm just glad you both had fun," Eda replied as she took off into the sky.

As they soared through the air, Eric couldn't help but steal glances at Luz. Her hair was ruffled by the wind, her eyes shining with excitement. He found himself lost in thought, contemplating the way she had grown since their arrival in the Boiling Isles. The ride was bumpy, but Eric and Luz found themselves laughing and whooping with excitement, Eric's melancholy forgotten in the thrill of the moment. As they flew over the rooftops of Bonesborough, he felt a sense of freedom that he had never felt before.

Finally, they arrived back at the Owl House, where Eda landed her broomstick with a flourish. Luz and Eric thanked her for the ride before heading inside, eager to settle in for the night. As they climbed the stairs to their rooms, Eric found himself thinking about Luz once again, unable to shake the feeling that something had changed between them.

"Our reports say that "The Spider-Man" helped a group of students dispose of the basilisk." Kikimora spoke. "So, that leaves us with an interesting situation right now." She said.

Emperor Belos regarded the small, red-skinned creature's proposition with intrigue. "Go on, Kikimora." He said calmly.

"If for example, this interloper is focusing on taking care of things like petty crimes, and even more serious situations like the one in Hexside." She said. "We'd have a surplus of town guards, that would be more bodies for logistics." The small demon explained.

"And more logistics would help us prepare for the day of unity, perhaps earlier than expected." The emperor said, putting his two hands together in contemplation. This news was better than anything he had expected. No one had ever seen Belos' face as it was always hidden behind his royal mask, but Kikimora was certain he was smiling. "Dispatch Lilith, have her speak with this Spider-Man." Belos said, looking down from his throne towards Kikimora. "Have her speak with this Spider-Man, and find out what he knows about this domain. If he is so respectful to the law, he might very well work to our advantage."

Kikimora stood up at a very fast rate, in any other case she might've made herself dizzy, but luckily she was fully composed. She bowed to her emperor and made her way to deliver her orders to Lilith Clawthorne.