We're almost done.
Nico felt herself being pulled towards the portal. It was a horrible feeling, like the pull was ripping her into two pieces. "You bastard!" she shouted. "I gave you the staff and the spellbook."
"But the spellbook is useless to me," said Kenyon. "Only a Minoru can access its powers. That's why I need you."
"But… hnn," Nico crouched and tried to resist getting sucked in. "You're killing me."
"Well, not your body," said Kenyon. "You see, all I need is your flesh and blood to keep opening the spellbook for me. Your soul will be taken as the sacrifice, and what's left behind will be a thrall, a mindless slave. Very much like a zombie, except not nearly as ugly."
"Just wait," she said with anger. "My friends are going to kill you."
"Yes, the turn of events was unfortunate. If they had stayed, the force of the death wave would have debilitated them instantly. They were lucky they left. Looks like I'll have to hunt them down after you die."
"'Unfortunate' is an understatement, Kenyon." Nico and Kenyon both looked to see an old woman with a twice crooked staff walking towards the circle of stones. Kenyon shook with fear.
"Headwitch," he stammered. "I had no idea you had returned. Please, allow me to finish."
The Headwitch glared at him. Her sky blue eyes began to glow. "You allowed the police to hunt our Guild. You made deals with local rulers. You associated with this girl against my wishes."
"You can't hurt me if that's what you're thinking," Kenyon said. "I've collected enough magical items to protect me from all kinds of hexes, spells and curses."
"That you have," said the Headwitch. "That's why I stole one of these." The Headwitch drew a police pistol. Kenyon's eyes grew wide. She shot him three times in the chest.
He screamed and collapsed to the floor. The Staff of One rolled across the roof. The Headwitch levitated over to him. He gaped at her, and barely made the sounds, "Help me."
"You are beyond help." The Headwitch's staff lit up with lightning. A great crackling sound filled the air and flashing lights blinded Nico as the lightning struck Kenyon for several seconds. When it was finished, he was reduced to little more than a skeleton.
Nico, meanwhile, was still being sucked in by the force wave. The Headwitch again used lightning from her staff to strike the portal, and the wave suddenly ceased. Nico collapsed butt first onto the ground.
"You have a complex ritual going on," the Headwitch said. "Ah, the spellbook." She picked the damaged book off the ground next to Kenyon. She flipped through it. "Still unreadable. It appears that the book has not yet chosen its new owner."
"What the heck are you talking about?" asked Nico, still hyped up on adrenaline.
The Headwitch turned to her. "When I heard that Robert and Tina Minoru had died, I was ecstatic. I quickly assembled a force of wizards and witches to come over to LA, under the guise of stealing the Pride's secrets. But that was only part of it; what I truly sought after was the spellbook. It was my heritage you see, I the last minoru."
"You mean… you're a minoru too?" Nico stared as the Headwitch nodded.
"Yes, but imagine my surprise when I discovered that I was in fact not the last minoru, that Robert and Tina's daughter was still running around, playing with magic she knew nothing about. And now that the book has chosen neither of us to be its owner, there's only one thing to do." She motioned to the Staff of One. "Pick it up."
The portal was still open, the ball of light still glowing above it. Nico walked towards the staff, but as she did she asked, "What about the resurrection."
"Without a proper sacrifice it will probably fail. No matter; it is not worth the effort to stop it at this point." Nico picked up the staff. "Face me, girl. We must have a duel."
"A duel?"
"Yes, for ownership of the spellbook, and the heritage of the Minoru clan. A duel to the death."
FVOOM! A fireball shot past the left window of the leapfrog.
"Victor, lock in the auxiliary power," said Chase.
"This is no time for jokes," Victor answered. He maneuvered the leapfrog up so as to not crash into the dragon. Klara and Molly were both shaking, startled by the fireball and sudden rise in temperature the leapfrog had taken.
Chase strapped on the fistigons, and then slammed a button on the controls. Before Victor could ask what the heck the blonde kid was doing, Chase had gone up the top hatch. Victor stared in disbelief; he did not even know they had a top hatch. Chase felt the rush of wind as he stuck his head outside the top of the leapfrog. Next to come out were the fistigons, which he used to push himself up a little bit higher. The leapfrog had turned around and was approaching the dragon again.
Chase thought hard about something witty to say, but then realized that no one would be able to hear him at this height and speed, which meant he could yell whatever he wanted.
"Burn you *&%$ing Jurassic Park reject." Chase shot a fireball at the dragon, which spun around and shot a fireball ten times the size in return. Chase smiled. The fistigons allowed him to control and shape fire, so he deflected the blast, making it circle around the leapfrog, and finally fly back at the dragon's head.
"Wow," said Klara, breaking her nose on the leapfrog's window.
"That was cool," admitted Molly.
The dragon, in a rage, shot another fireball, and Chase repeated the trick, hitting the dragon right in the eyes. It stumbled around, roaring, knocking itself into a skyscraper and causing debris to fall over the streets.
"We can't control it anymore," said one of the Guild members. "Summon it away!" The dragon slowly grew transparent and finally disappeared altogether.
"Archaeologists are going to have fun with those footprints," said Victor.
Karolina approached another group of wizards and witches on the ground. "Surrender yourselves."
The wizards aimed their spells. Then there was a giant CRASH as the leapfrog landed behind them, severely cracking the pavement and causing at least one witch to tumble over.
"SURRENDER YOURSELVES," screamed the leapfrog's announcer. The Guild members put up their hands.
Karolina sighed. "It took you guys long enough."
The leapfrog's hatch opened and the two girls quickly ran out. Klara noticed some moss growing on a building wall. Not much, but something she could work with. Molly, noticing another group of wizards, picked up a lamppost and yelled, "Princess Powerful Smash!" But before she could reach them, Klara had wrapped their legs up in vines, immobilizing them and pulling them to the ground. "Aww," said Molly, "Not fair. You're supposed to be my sidekick."
"Stop!" A group of policemen approached them. "You are all under arrest."
Karolina flew over them. "Are you insane? We're on your side. Look, your boss Mister Fatsacks probably got the city into this mess, never mind what he did to us."
"Freeze," the policeman persisted.
"YOU FREEZE," shouted Victor from the leapfrog's announcer. The police stumbled backward. "PEOPLE ARE IN DANGER AND WE'RE HELPING YOU GUYS WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT." The leapfrog jumped away, and Karolina flew towards Klara and Molly. The policemen noticed one wizard levitating a man upside down.
"Well, heck," one officer said, "We could use the help."
"I don't want to fight you," protested Nico.
"It's customary to bow, girl, not make weak excuses. Like this." The Headwitch gave a slight bow from the waist. "Or would you prefer a curtsy?"
"Look, if you want the spellbook, just take it. It's caused me enough trouble already."
"The duel has begun. Disarm." A white energy bolt emitted from the Headwitch's hand and knocked the Staff of One out of Nico's hand. "No," said Nico. She stretched out her hand and the staff came back to her, as it by telekinesis. "Hmm," said the Headwitch. "That staff must really like you. No matter. Rain of Fire."
"Heat Shield." Several small meteors descended upon Nico, but an invisible shield that her staff created destroyed them as they hit. The girl kept trying to reason with the witch. "Seriously. Just. Take. The spellbook."
"That would be futile," the Headwitch explained. "It has not chosen an owner, so neither of us can unlock its secrets until one of us is dead. And I didn't spend all those years infiltrating the wretched Guild as my family died out in order to lose to an impudent child. Lightning Strike."
"Rubber," said Nico the moment she heard "lightning". As expected, a lightning bolt emitted from the Headwitch's staff, but a suit of rubber appeared around Nico which absorbed the damage. When Nico moved, the rubber simply fell off. The Headwitch laughed.
"It's called the Staff of One, isn't it? That means you can use spells only one. Lightning Strike."
"Miss me!" The bolt deflected and flew out into the air. Nico figured that although she could cast spells only once, her staff was a lot stronger. "Many me's." The Headwitch blinked. There were no less than twenty copies of Nico standing around her now. But which was the real one. "What's the matter?" They all said. "Has this impudent girl outsmarted you?"
"True from," she said. A spotlight descended upon the real Nico.
"Shit."
"Leg Freeze." Nico could not think of a block. Her legs clamped together and she felt to the ground. But still holding the staff, she yelled, "Just Go Away."
The Headwitch disappeared. Nico looked around for half a minute. She was alone, safe, although her legs were still magically tied together. A simple spell should take care of that. "Unwind." The legs snapped back to normal. Nico stood up and dusted herself off.
Then the Headwitch teleported in right behind her. "Death touch." Nico felt cold fingers grasp the back of her neck. A wave of shivering traveled all over her body, and suddenly she could not control her limbs anymore. She fell to the ground; her head was spinning and the air was feeling very damp. The Headwitch's voice began to echo. "The secrets of the Minoru clan are mine."
Nico's sight began to fade. Am I dying, she thought. She tried to mouth the spell "heal", but the Headwitch had kicked away her staff. It was alright, she thought, Kenyon taught me how to use spells without the staff. Heal, she kept trying to say. Heal. Come on, heal! The message wasn't making it to her mouth right. Nico thought she heard someone laughing. Then everything went black.
"Nico. Nico, wake up." Nico looked into a pudgy face. The image was blurry at first, but it slowly came together. She took note of the features. Dimpled cheeks. Rimmed glasses. Purple hair…
"Gertrude!" The girl was even dressed in her old clothes. Nico ran to hug her, but to her surprise fell right through as if Gert was a ghost.
"Woah there, Sister Grimm," Gertrude said. "Show a little patience. You're not dead yet."
"Not dead? But… oh." Nico looked down at her body, spread out on the building's roof like a snow angel. "Crap. But if I'm not dead, then why am I here? Why are you here?"
"What am I, a magic expert?" said Gertrude. "You probably forced yourself into astral projection form the last minute. As for me, given that I don't believe in souls I'm probably just a hallucination."
"Not, you're real, Gert," said Nico. "You're here because of the ritual. See the white light down there." Nico pointed. "That's supposed to be your body forming."
"Sorry Nico," said Gert, "There isn't an inch of me in there. Gertrude is dead."
Nico sighed. Then tears started to well up, even though she could not be sure they were real tears given she was not actually in her body. "I'm sorry Gert," she sobbed. "I tried to bring you back. But Kenyon lied to me. The ritual needed a sacrifice and I… I just made a mess of everything."
"There, there girl," said Gertrude. "You didn't let me finish. I'm not in the light because I'm really dead. I can't be brought back. However, there's someone else who didn't really die, who's stuck in limbo, and who was in your mind at the time."
"In my…" It slowly hit Nico, but it hit her like a sledgehammer. "You mean… no it… it was supposed to be you, Gert, it was supposed to be you."
"But it isn't," Gertrude replied evenly.
"Alex? You're telling me Alex is forming down there?"
"Looks like," said Gertrude. "But hey, enough about who's coming back to life, we've got to make sure you don't die. Get back into your body, and kick the gray hair out of that old witch."
Nico looked down. She noticed that the Headwitch had picked up the spellbook and was studying it. A sudden feeling of calmness and determination overtook Nico; she knew what to do.
"Gert," she said, "I really missed you. We all did. I miss you so much."
"That's nice," she answered. They hugged, and no one fell through each other this time. Nico squeezed as hard as she could, and Gertrude did so in return. "Now," Gertrude disengaged the hug and pushed Nico away, "Back in you go."