Chapter Two. A Surprising Discovery
FIVE DAYS EARLIER
Alex Kenyon was at the house he shared with his aunt Jade Kenyon in Seattle, Washington and he was thinking of recent events during his time with the Quest Team.
Since around the time he spent in Louisiana, he began to have this feeling that the Quest Team was getting tired of him despite the fact that he did nothing for them to feel that way. When they would go out for dinner, Alex would sit there and listen to the team talk and not once did they ask him for his input or opinion.
At first, Alex would smile and hold his head up and felt proud. However, as time would go on, and the friction between him and Race Bannon's daughter Jessie Bannon increased, he stopped feeling the way he did before, and started to look down. Alex would not make eye contact with anyone and he became depressed to the point where he started to think about writing a suicide note. He couldn't take it anymore, so he finally called Jade to let her know what was going on, to inform her what was happening and he decided to leave the team and return to Seattle, at least for a little while.
Alex was down at the cellar of the house going through some of his parents' belongings, which Jade had turned to a rec room/storage area. In an upper corner of the room, Alex spotted a large, ornate chest that he was unfamiliar with, and walked over to it before proceeding to ask his aunt, "Aunt Jade, what is this and what is in it?"
Jade walked over to where Alex was and she answered, "Oh yeah. It belonged to your Mom and Dad. I have never been able to open it, and couldn't. I have also taken it to Doctor Quest before. Both he and Race tried to open it and they were unable to do so as well."
"Maybe I could try." Alex suggested, "It would not hurt."
"Yeah," Jade replied, "Sure. I am heading upstairs to get a drink. You can try to open it if you want to."
With that, Jade walked up the stairs and out of the cellar.
Alex knelt down in front of the chest and examined it. It was beautiful in design. A smooth, dark wood chest adorned with embellishments, and various symbols. There wasn't any noticeable keyholes, which led Alex to think that it could only be opened by a hidden method. He figured to find a way to open the chest, knocking on different parts of the chest to find any hollow areas, thinking maybe Jade, Race or Dr. Quest must have overlooked something. On the right side of the chest below the lid, Alex found a hollow space.
Then Alex was feeling around the chest, trying to find a button or some sort of switch that would open something. On the back of the chest, just below the hinge on the left hand side, there was a well disguised button. Once he pushed the button, a small compartment pushed forward from out of the chest. Inside was a small wax sealed scroll. Alex was rather curious about the scroll and was prepared to pick it up and read it.
"Hey Alex!" Jade called out from the kitchen, "Do you want something to drink?"
"Yeah!" Alex answered, "Water will be fine!"
He continued to look in the box, seeing what was inside. At first, he did not see anything else. Alex then opened the scroll. In the scroll was something to recite, yeah, it clearly was not in the English language, but he was certain he could recite this incantation before him.
After doing so, Alex was in for a surprise to learn by doing that gave him access to the stuff that was inside the chest: totems, amulets, wands, spell books or grimories and much more.
"Oh...my god!" Alex exclaimed quietly, "This is no ordinary box and my Dad...he was no ordinary magician! He was the real deal!"
With that, Alex decided to look into this as it was possible that he could have the very same abilities as well. The thought of that surprises, yet excites him at the same time.
-The-Magic-Within-
At Gotham, a city that was located in New York, a school trip was in session. Jonny glanced around as he, Jessie and Chloe were attending the school trip, and they joined the rest of their schoolmates out of the museum as they have finished looking at the exhibits inside as they were unaware of what was going to be in store for them next.
"So Chloe," Jonny asked, "Enjoying the trip so far?"
"Yeah." Chloe nodded, "You can say that much. I never imagined I would be joining you guys on a field trip on my first month with the Quest Team."
"You got pretty lucky there." Jessie replied.
"And now we are about to have lunch at Texas Roadhouse!" Jonny declared.
Suddenly, a young woman with wavy sandy brown hair and blue eyes wearing a beige top, white pants and white shoes appeared before the three as she came from the trees nearby, "Pardon me. Can I have a moment of your time?"
"Sure," Jonny answered, "What do you need?"
"We are giving away some samples of our sweet candy called X-Rays." the woman explained to the teens, "they are about a dollar per sample, and if you like them, my boss would be very happy to know that. His information is on the bags of your samples. All donations are going to my boss's cancer treatments and he would be very happy with you guys helping us."
"Well," Jessie answered, "Give us a minute to talk it over."
"Sure thing."
Jonny, Jessie and Chloe all looked at each other as they were slightly in weary of this mysterious young woman.
"I do not know about this." Jessie told her friends.
"Maybe it might be a trick." Jonny stated, "but for her boss to get the cancer treatment he needs, it kinda makes me feel good to help."
"I know how you feel." Chloe replied.
"I only hope that this is not a scam." Jessie stated.
"I agree on that too." Chloe nodded.
The three were back facing with the young woman who was waiting patiently for their answer.
"Sure." Jonny told the young woman, "We will be glad to help out. Just how much was it you said?"
"A dollar." the young woman smiled, "Over a few hundred people have given donations buying the X-Rays across this country and the benefits are helping my boss."
Jonny, Chloe and Jessie each paid a dollar and they each got a pound of the mysterious X-Rays that were inside a grayish black bag with a white piece of paper attached to it.
"Thank you." the young woman told the three, "my boss will be very happy by your contributions."
Then, the young woman left with a smirk on her face that the group failed to acknowledge.
At the Texas Roadhouse, the class had their lunch.
"This is the first time that I have been in a roadhouse kind of place." Jessie told her friends, "and I gotta say, I am not impressed one bit."
"Neither am I." Chloe added.
"I know." Jonny replied, "Most of this food is either too salty or too spicy. What is their deal?"
"The only thing I got is their steak and cheese fries." Chloe stated, "And this meat is kind of dry while the cheese fries are not up to par. Give me a break!"
One of the teachers finally stood up and she said, "I notice that most of you guys are not very fond of this food. Who here is not satisfied with their lunch?"
Many of the students, including Jonny, Jessie and Chloe raised their hands.
"Okay." the teacher nodded, "Mr. Barrett is paying for the lunch here as we speak. I shall take you guys to Wendy's."
Everyone cheered.
After Mr. Barrett paid for the meal at the steakhouse, the school headed over to Wendy's where they would end up getting a much better lunch as the teacher paid for that one. Kendra got her chicken nuggets, fries, cherry Coke Zero and chocolate frosty. The other teens got burgers, fries and a drink along with a frosty.
"Now, this is much better!" Jonny exclaimed.
"I shall say so myself." Chloe added, "Much better!"
As the three were eating their lunch, they decided to look into the X-Rays that they were given. The X-Rays looked like skull and bones type of candy that would see around Halloween time.
"Isn't it a bit early for Halloween?" Jessie asked.
"Perhaps." Chloe answered.
"You girls think that this candy is suspicious?" Jonny asked.
"There is just something about these X-Rays that just do not seem right." Jessie answered.
"Well if it makes you feel better," Jonny grabbed one of the so called candy, "I will try one of them out to see if there is something wrong with it or not."
He placed the piece of "candy" in his mouth, chewed it and swallowed it. He didn't have an immediate response before looking at his friends.
"See?" Jonny told them, "It tastes like what candy should taste. Sweet. You guys are just being paranoid."
"I guess I'll try one too, Hot Shot," Jessie took a "candy" and ate it as well, "Wow, you were right."
Suddenly, the three were alarmed by a loud thump. They looked to see that one of their classmates was having a seizure.
"She needs an ambulance!" a boy near the seizing girl shouted.
The female teacher who paid for the Wendy's lunch was already on it, "We need an ambulance here at Central City McDonald's. I have one of my students having a seizure."
"Has she taken any drugs?" Jonny asked.
"The only thing I seen her take were those strange X-Ray candies," the boy answered, "that was being sold by a strange kooky woman asking for donations for her boss's cancer treatment."
Swiftly, Chloe threw her sample of the X-Rays in the trash can as Jonny and Jessie noticed.
"You got the right idea there." Jessie said before she and Jonny went to throw away their sample of the X-Rays as well.