On a normal-ish day on the Isles...
"One day left Boscha, how you holding up?" "Shut up..."
Through Bonesborough, we see Ace with Boscha right behind him, the latter still wearing the maid outfit.
Two weeks flew on by quickly, and it was Boscha's last day working for Ace. A lot of people were looking and pointing at her, and some were laughing. Her face was a dark pink from the
"Don't think this is over, Adri." she said, "The second the next day comes, I'm getting back at you."
"Love to see you try. Besides, if you didn't want to be here in the first place, maybe don't judge people before you know them."
She said nothing back, looking at that stupid smile on his face.
"Anyway, I got stuff to do today, so for today, I'll let Phoenix deal with you today."
As if on queue, a portal appeared and out came Phoenix who walked over and gave Ace a quick hug.
Seeing it as no big deal, Boscha said, "Finally, a break. I don't see how a girl like you can make this day at all difficult."
"Ooh, thank you for signing your death warranty." Ace said before walking away.
"Bye, Ace!" Phoenix said, waving goodbye. When he was far enough, she turned to Boscha with a look that could kill. Her eyes glowed red and her hair rose in multiple directions as she said to her with a menacing tone, "If you think you can get away with calling me easy, you have another thing coming."
Boscha gulped.
"Get ready for the worst day of your two weeks."
Now with Ace, he was lying about having stuff to do, he just felt like giving Boscha something special for her last day.
"What can I do today?" he thought out loud, "I could mess with the bounty hunters coming after me, maybe do a bit of dungeon diving, or I could-"
"Let us go already!"
Hearing a familiar voice, Ace turned his attention to an upcoming alleyway. He walked to it and peeked the corner and saw two men sticking up two friends his age: Willow and Gus.
He smirked before going invisible.
One of them held Gus by his collar.
Said illusionist said in a panic, "Uh, w-we know the Ace of Spades! You're gonna be big trouble if he-"
"*scoffs* Yeah right. As if that kid actually knows about you two."
"*appears in front of them * Y'know, you could be right about that."
Startled, the man let go of Gus, and he and his partner walked back as Ace walked towards them, still talking.
"I don't know if that kid will even know about these two. I mean, have you heard what he can do? He survived both boiling rain and sea at the same time. His axe could cut you in two if you weren't careful. No one can even get close enough to win a fight against him."
He got the two's backs against the end of the alley, and Ace was standing in front of them, still smiling.
"But how should I know? Those are just rumors."
He swiftly grabbed their heads, and slammed them against each other, making them unconscious and hit the ground.
He dusted his hands and walked to Willow and Gus. "You two okay?"
"We are now. Thanks Ace." "Anytime Willow. As brave as it was to stand up to them, maybe leave the bad guys to the pros."
"Well, there weren't any in the area, so..." "Yeah, and it wasn't easy to hold them off."
"Duh, you can't go swinging at someone twice your size. Yeah, I know that's coming from me, who takes on guys like these for breakfast. Little advice? If the other guy's bigger, you gotta be quicker."
Right as he turned to leave, he heard Gus say, "Well, that's easy for you to say. No offense Ace, but not everyone can do what you do."
Ace smiled before turning back around. "Alright, put 'em up."
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah, c'mon, both of you. Trust me, I won't bite. *puts fists up*"
Gus and Willow smiled and went in front of Ace and put their fists up.
"First thing:" Ace started, "don't let the adrenaline get to you. Breathe slow, breathe deep, relax a bit."
They did so as Ace gave them more instructions.
"Keep your hips square at your opponent, let them make the first move. Now use your feet. When they go off balance, look for an opening. *moves right palm above left arm* Gus?"
"Like this? *punches Ace's palm*
"Yep. *moves left palm over right arm* Now Willow?"
She then hit Ace's hand.
"Good. Now this time, let me have it."
"You sure?" Gus said.
"Trust me, the only time someone can hit me is if I let them hit me. Now c'mon, right here in the jaw. Just-" He was cut off by Willow hitting him square in the jaw.
"Oh titan, are you okay? Sorry"
"Didn't feel a thing." Ace said, not showing any sign of pain at all. "Now Gus?"
Gus went ahead and hit Ace on the other side of his face.
"Not bad, you two. Keep that up and you'll do great. Trust me, take it from someone who knows.
Lesson over, see you two."
Ace then walked off.
The next day, at Hexside...
We see Ace at his locker, pulling some stuff out.
When he closed the locker's mouth, then patted it, he heard three someones call his name.
He looked and saw who it was.
"Hey, Superstar. Hey, Willow. Sup, Gus."
The three of them went up to Ace, and Luz was the first to speak.
"Willow and Gus told me about what happened yesterday, and I was wondering if it was possible if you could teach us something else."
"Alright, shoot."
"Do you think that maybe, you could teach us your level of magic?"
"Wait, you guys want to learn Adri level magic?"
"Yeah! Please Ace?"
"Well..."
He then saw Luz's puppy dog eyes in her pleading face.
"Sure, alright."
The three of them cheered.
"Meet me at my training grounds after school. Dress for the occasion, because there's gonna be movement involved."
It's later and we see the four of them at Ace's training area.
Ace is pacing in front of his friends who were all in workout wear.
Phoenix was there, but she was watching from the side.
"So, you three know magic but you want to know magic the Adri way? You want to learn magic so you can be as cool as the Ace of Spades? Well, you're wrong. I can't turn you into me, but I can turn you into a slightly advanced you. First things first,"
Ace snapped his fingers and the charms that he gave everyone shined for a second.
"Whoa, what did you do?"
"Don't ask me, Gus. Do a trick and see for yourself."
Gus made an illusion of Ace and he ruffled Gus' hair, shocking the three of them.
"Yep. When I want to, I can make those charms I game you boost your magic into Adri level magic.
Now, let's into this basic-ish training. Get ready."
Ace made Red appear in his staff form and he rode above watch his friends.
"Right now, I want to hear what you guys want to learn from me. Luz, what thing do you want to learn?"
"Well, I know the portals are a family thing, but I want to get around like you do: as quick, and with style. Like your tornado spin."
"Aw, thanks. Okay, we'll get you started first to get things started. Since I feel like Luz'll be at a disadvantage on this, here's a little something on me."
Ace opened a portal, and some small squares of paper came out. He swirled them around in a small tornado, and lightning struck down on the tornado shooting them all over the place.
They then stopped in midair before all zooming into Luz's back pockets taking her off guard.
She took two of them out and gasped excitedly when she saw them.
Ace just gave her two new glyphs: one was for wind, the other for lightning.
He's something I bet you didn't know: those two spells aren't the easiest ones to master at this age. Believe it or not, Ace mastered those at three years old.
"*squeals* Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Don't say I never gave you anything. Now then- Uh, Luz? That's not a good idea-"
Luz had a wind glyph in each hand and she tried to copy Ace's tornado spin, but Ace paused when she ended up being blown off her feet and into the grass behind her.
"Well, that's one way to not get off the ground." he quipped hoping to break the tension. He got back on the ground and helped Luz back up.
He got in front of her and said, "Okay, here's how to do it right:
*closes hands* Hold the wind magic in, then get your body ready to spin around."
Luz got two new wind glyphs ready. She held them in her hands, closed them, then copied Ace's ready position.
"Now, at the same time, spin, release the magic, and spring yourself up in the air." Ace demonstrated as he did his tornado spin, and looked at Luz as he was in the air in his tornado.
"See? Now you try."
Luz inhaled, then exhaled. "Spin, release, spring up. At the same time."
Luz opened her hands, which activated the glyphs, spun quickly, and when she jumped up, she wind magic help shoot her into the air up to Ace's altitude and she was in the middle of a tornado of her own!
She nor Willow, nor Gus, could believe it. She managed Ace's tornado spin! One of his best tricks!
"Wowza!"
"Well done, Superstar! But, be a little careful. They can boost you up and hold you in the air for a while, but not forever."
Ace snapped his fingers as he lowered himself to the ground. Intangible glowing rings appeared around and above the dirt track along with some stone pillars that rose out of the ground.
"Okay, Luz, here's your task. Go across the track and see how fast you can go in a lap." "Okay. Sounds fun." she said, lowering to the ground.
"Here's some pointers: when you run then do a tornado spin just right, you'll go farther. Another thing: if you're focused enough, you can go back into the air after landing, so pay attention to how and where you land. One more tip: when you land on the side of a pillar, blast yourself off it, and you'll get some airtime and more speed."
"Wow, okay. Thanks Ace."
"Ace," Willow started, "Aren't we gonna run with her?"
"Not right now. I just want Luz to get to a time that the three of you can try to beat."
Luz went to a starting line that was made on the track. Phoenix counted her off, and the human went off.
"Okay, you two, your turn. What stuff do you guys want to learn to do the Ace way?"
"I thought it was cool how you can just attack someone in just a few seconds." Yeah, you were so quick with those two guys yesterday. And strong too, you knocked them out just by bumping their heads together." "Can you teach us some of those attacks?"
"Of course I can. Superstar!" he shouted so Luz could hear him from where he was, "when you finish come find us in the ruins!"
"Got it!" she shouted back.
He gestured the two of them to follow Ace into the ruins that were in the middle of the training area. Phoenix also followed.
He then spoke while walking, "The way I use combat is more than just punching, kicking, magic, and quipping, it's about how and when to do something on the fly; knowing what to do by knowing what I've done."
They stopped when they were next to a ruined arch.
"Gus, here's a neat trick; since you can make illusions you can touch now, when you punch someone, make another fist like this."
Ace put up a fist and made an illusion of it right in front of it.
"Now, when you hit someone, it'll feel like they got hit by the same fist twice in a row.
Now, Phoenix, if you would be so kind." "Sure thing."
Phoenix rose her hands up and two orbs of water rose from the boiling sea, to right beside her.
"(to a surprised Willow and Gus) I know, I didn't believe it at first either."
"Well, when you're surrounded by water most of your life, you learn a few things." Phoenix said before turning the forms of the water into silhouettes of people. They're water dummies.
"Now Gus, with this one on the left, I want you to use that trick I showed you. Remember what I told you yesterday. But, I want you to take it down differently though. When you feel like the time is right, to take it down, double left hook, then double right, then jump up and kick it to the ground."
"I'll give it a shot. *gets in front of water dummy* (to himself) Okay, Augustus, hips square, use your feet, wait for an opening. *puts up fists*"
The dummy bowed at Gus before trying to attack him. Gus managed to dodge and avoid ever hit and swing from it.
It didn't take long for Gus to try out that finishing move that Ace said.
After a quick spell circle, Gus gave a dummy a double left hook, then a double right, he jumped up, and kicked it into the dirt!
Everyone cheered for him. Even Luz who just came in and saw what happened.
"Nice, dude. Willow, you're up. With that charm boosting your magic, try making something like these."
Ace made a dark green vine with some small thorns sling from his palm and towards a rock, connecting to it.
"These vines are what I used when I made Abom-carnAceion. They look like nothing, but they are strong." Ace said before yanking the rock off the ground with one hand.
He stopped it with his feet as it came flying at him.
"Try something like that on the dummy."
Willow nodded at Ace, before getting into fighting position. The dummy bowed at her before trying to attack her.
After dodging and blocking some melee hits, Willow went at it. She created a vine akin to the one Ace showed her, used it to grab the dummy by the face, catching it off guard, yanked with every ounce of strength in her arm, and when it came flying at her, she punched it in the face and exploded into water on impact!
"Great work. Superstar, your turn. Let's work with that lightning glyph. This move's great for when you're in a tight spot."
Ace made some dummies of his own appear around him.
"This one's pretty simple:" he then did as he instructed. "Jump up, and when you come back down, strike the ground when your fist hits it!"
When his fist hit the ground, a lightning bolt struck down from where he was standing, and the lightning zapped every dummy around Ace!
"Now you try." "Bring it on!"
Phoenix smiled as she made three water dummies form around Luz.
Like her friends did, she avoided and countered the melee attacks. When she felt like it was the right moment, she did the move Ace showed her.
She put a lightning glyph over her fist before jumping up then punching the ground, which activated the glyph, which made lightning strike down and zap the dummies!
"Great job, Superstar. Okay, people, let's head back to the tracks."
Ace led them back to the tracks to help them copy his way of getting around like Luz originally wanted.
Luz managed to do a lap in at least five minutes. The three of them listened to Ace's instructions, and helped them make it around the whole track in less than three minutes.
As they got back to where they started, they took a break and the three of them were sweating.
"Not bad guys." Ace said, handing each of them a juice box, "Just keep this up, and you'll be as good as me someday."
"Thanks Ace." Willow said before taking anouther sip of her drink, "Same time tomorrow guys?"
Her friends looked at each other before nodding.
"Great to know you guys like my teaching. Y'know, it feels nice teaching you guys these things. Usually, I don't go spreading my secrets around to people, but for you three, I'll always make an exception."
This actually became an occurring thing that happened through the week.
Everyday after school, Ace was teaching his friends his tips and tricks with movement, fighting, and sneaking.
Yet, when they went home for the day each time, Ace had to deactivate the charms. As fun and cool as it was to have Adri level magic, they still liked having their level magic.
At most times, it wasn't easy for them to get control of.
Anyway, right now, it's the day before the weekend, and we see Boscha storming through the hallways with a sour mood on her face. Her friends following, concerned, and knowing why.
Two weeks. Ten weekdays, and four weekends, of humiliation in the form of a maid outfit.
"I'm so gonna make him regret coming to this school." she said, showing the building rage on her face.
Amity, Skara, and Amelia looked at each other. She wasn't right about that exactly. It wasn't entirely Ace's fault she got in that mess in the first place.
Then again, he got on her nerves. She had to be smart this time though.
"Call it what you want, but I think you have a grudge."
Speak of the devil; Ace was right there, leaning against the locker.
Just the sight of him made Boscha's blood boil.
To ease the tension, Amity spoke up. "So, Ace, what've you been up to?"
"Oh, the usual: messing with people, swinging my axe around, playing with Red a lot, giving people headaches, and I just added 'teaching magic techniques' to my schedule."
"Wait, what?" Skara asked, confusing the four of them.
"Well-" Ace was cut off by an alarm going off and then Principal Bump speaking on the intercom.
"Everyone get to cover, terrorists have just entered the school! Do not exit until I say it's safe!"
Everyone in the halls immediately went to the nearest classroom to get to somewhere secure.
Yet, someone who easily knew they could take them on didn't, and you can guess who they are.
However, he wasn't the only one.
We see Ace looking around the corner, where there were a couple of grown men looking around for people.
"Time for a little bit of fun."
He was about to go in, but the he heard Gus' voice. "Mind if we join you?"
Ace turned around and saw his three friends.
"That depends; you guys up for it?"
"Yeah!" they all said determined.
"Okay, follow my lead, and listen exactly to what I say."
Ace used his magic to shift their gravity, so now the four of them were creeping on the ceiling.
There were five witches in the hall: two at the other end with their backs turned, and the other three were looking around.
Ace then whispered, "Okay, Gus and I take out the two at the end of the hall. Girls, you two have to silently deal with the other three. Got it?"
They nodded.
Gus and Ace crept to the end of the hall, leaving Willow and Luz.
One of the terrorists was snooping in a locker, when suddenly a vine landed on then wrapped around his face, silencing him. Another grabbed him by the ankle, and in a second, it was yanked up and was hanging upside-down by the ankle.
He couldn't scream for help because his face and mouth were covered. Right before he could use his own magic to get free, Willow used the plant magic and used some of the same vines to wrap up his body like a fly caught in a spider's web.
She used her magic again and yanked the second witch by the arms using two more vines. When he was yanked up high enough, he was swung into the wall, and frozen to it by one of Luz's ice glyphs.
Willow then lowered Luz to the ground, and upon contact, the gravity magic was gone and she was able to walk on the floor. She snuck to the last one and the woman was looking through a classroom window. Right when she was about to open the door, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
She turned around and saw the human right behind her smiling.
She was about to use a spell circle to harm Luz, but an electric shock went throughout her body and she went out like a light and fell to the floor.
She then looked at the end of the hall and saw the two witches, one man and one woman, and they were still standing.
Until a second later, at the same time, one was knocked backwards onto the floor after getting kneed in the chin, and the other was flung forward onto the floor then attached to the floor by abomination goo.
The one who was flung forward was the only one conscious and she said, "Guys, were being attacked!"
She got no answer. She didn't know the others weren't on their feet right now.
"Sorry, I'm afraid your friends can't contact you at the moment." Ace said, as he and Gus became visible again.
He was about to interrogate her when Gus said, "Wait, can I do it? Please, Ace?"
Ace shrugged his shoulders and Gus crouched down and had a serious expression on her face.
"Okay, you old hag, what's going on? What're you doing at Hexside?"
Dang, Gus. What's Ace been teaching you guys these past few days?
"You really think you can scare me, kid?" the woman said, raising one eyebrow.
"I can't, but he can." Gus gestured to Ace. He was standing by a window as he waved back with a grin with his spade glowing. As if to make her more feared, a mountain in the back round was suddenly struck by lightning and the top of it was zapped off of it.
"No, no, no, no, no! Don't let him near me!" she said, trying to break her bonds free.
"If you don't wanna play with Ace, then tell us what the plan is."
"We're putting an explosive in the gym! There's more of us in there! The boss is one with the missing hand! That's everything, now please don't let that kid hurt me!"
"Don't worry, he won't." Luz said before zapping her unconscious with a lightning glyph.
It took a bit but they made it.
Right outside the gym, the four of them peaked through the double doors' windows.
There were about thirteen terrorists in the room. Two of them were attaching a bomb to the wall. They pressed a button on it and the timer started at twenty minutes.
Ace then said, pointing with a scar over his green scaly face and reptile eyes, "That's the boss alright, he's wearing a bomb vest, too. We gotta take him out first, after we deal with the bomb."
"So, how're we doing this, Ace?" Luz asked.
Ace surveyed the room before saying, "Okay, Gus, Willow, I need you two to go in and shut off the bomb. Then, I want you guys to lure the boss to the door somehow. Luz and I'll take out the boss when he's close. Got it?"
They nodded.
"Good. Gus, catch." Ace handed Gus a seed. "Put it around your ear."
He did so and some sprout grew from it and grew across Gus' outer ear.
"It'll help you hear me. When you disarm the bomb, I'll walk you through it with the the earbud. Everyone ready? Let's do this."
Ace opened one of his portals, which led to the rafters above the gym. Gus and Willow went through and made their way above the bomb.
Thanks to that traversal training from Ace, they made it without flaw, and with no sound.
When they were above the bomb, Willow used her plant magic and wrapped some vines around Gus. Gus then used his illusion magic to make the vines and him invisible as he was lowered to the bomb.
"(whisper tone) Okay. I see the bomb and there's four wires. Two are to the power source, one's to a fan, and another's red and has an exclamation mark."
"Let's not touch that one." Ace said, "Okay, first detach the wires to the power. Trace the wires to the other end and unplug them from there."
"Got it."
Gus did so and unplugged the wires. But when he did-
"What the-?! The timer changed to thirty seconds!"
"Huh, it's a collapsing circuit: something that relies on an electric circuit to stay switched off."
"Okay, so what now? The fan?"
"Yeah, then the last wire. You might wanna hurry, though."
Gus almost panicked and went and unplugged the fan's wire, then the red wire.
"Phew, did it."
Gus tugged on the vines twice, and Willow pulled him up.
While doing so, Gus pulled a snail out of his pocket before throwing it on the floor. It rolled across the floor and went *dink* when it hit the doors to the gym.
The boss was somehow the only one who heard the noise and went to pick it up.
When it came to the door, Luz put a wind glyph on it before standing back next to Ace.
Ace signaled with his hands, 'One, two, three' and on three, they kicked the door open.
With Ace's leg strength, and the force from Luz's wind glyph when her foot touched it, it blew the doors off the hinges and they broke when they hit the boss.
He fell unconscious, then Ace came over and piked him up before he fell, and deactivated the bomb vest.
When he deactivated the vest, he threw it through a portal to the boiling sea, as the rest of the terrorists came over and prepared some spell circles.
"*makes spade glow* What do you think, Superstar? Cause my money's on the kids."
"*pulls out glyphs* You might be right Ace, but I think I guess you could say I have a, vested interest."
Ooh, nice one.
Gus and Willow appeared next to Luz and Ace. Ace activated their charms, and a huge fight broke out. Four teens wiping the floor with eleven adults.
Thanks to all of Ace's training, there were no slip-ups.
Luz put two ice glyphs on the ground. And when she step on them as she started running, she had ice at the bottom of her feet, and was now skating around as she fought.
Willow had four vines wrapped around her and raised in the air, giving her some aid.
Gus used his magic and three other Gus's appeared and helped him fight.
Ace just finished knocking a goon out when he said, "Heads up!" and punched then knocked another goon in the air.
Willow's vine caught them, and as she somersaulted, he slammed them into the floor and knocked back another goon. Luz happened to be skating in that direction, and she slid under them, and left a wind glyph on the ground as she went by, which blasted them in the air. She then jumped up then slammed a lightning glyph into the floor which zapped three goons that were then taken out by all three of Gus's illusion selves. Another one was about to use healing magic to get their partners up, but it felt something hit them twice to the right, then twice to the left before it was knocked into the wall. Gus turned visible before boosting Ace in the air with his hands when he ran at him. Ace then covered two goons in his flames, making them panic, and when he landed, he summoned his axe, and swung it knocking the goons out, and into the walls.
Ace's friends went next to Ace in front of the remaining goons.
"And then there were four." Willow said.
The four of them got back. One Ace was enough, but it felt like there were four of him!
"Ace, ideas?"
"Well, Gus, I say we end this with a move that'll blow them away. *makes spade glow and looks to Luz* Thinking what I'm thinking, Superstar?"
"I think I'm thinking, what you're thinking, Ace. *pulls out wind glyph*"
The two of them joined hands and did a tornado spin together, making a large tornado as Willow and Gus hung onto them. They each did a spell circle and now Willow's vines were larger and growing out of and around the tornado, and Gus made multiple illusion versions of the four of them floating in and out of the tornado.
The remaining four goons tried to run, but they were then yanked inside the tornado by the four of Willow's vines.
The illusions then went ahead and gave the four of them punches and kicks left and right.
Half a minute later, they were flung in four directions before the tornado dispelled and the four of them lowered to the ground.
It took a second of silence before Ace's friends hugged each other before cheering for themselves, while Ace crossed his arms and smiled at them.
A bit later, outside the school, the criminals were being taken away, with everyone in the school watching them get cuffed and put in the carrages.
Ace wiped a nonexistent tear from his eye before saying to his friends, "I taught you guys too well."
"Ace, we owe you, and your teaching one." Luz said, "I was scared that we wouldn't make it."
"Yeah, when I had to deal with that bomb, I almost passed out." Gus said.
Ace chuckled. "Well, I told you guys yesterday, fear can be an acronym for two things, 'Forget Everything And Run',"
"or 'Face Everything And Rise'." The four of them said at the same time before laughing.
After that, Bump declared that everyone should go home for the day.
When Ace walked his separate way, he stopped when he heard Willow said, "Hey Ace, aren't you gonna deactivate these charms?"
He looked back and said, "Nah, you guys can have them like that 'til midnight. Think of it like a prize for my star pupils. Have fun, you three." He then continued walking.
His friends looked at each other before smiling.
A couple of hours with Adri level magic? Now they owe Ace two.