by Obert Skye
“Of course wizards are real,” Rin said kindly.
“Then you’re a real wizard?” Off-Brand asked.
Rin stared intently at the masked questioner. “I believe you know the answer to that,” he said seriously.
Ozzy took a sip of water and found it hard to swallow. The room was growing smaller and pushing in on him. He could feel something building to a dangerous point—like an overheated radiator about to give.
Off-Brand was supposed to sit down and let the next person ask a question, but he remained standing and continued to shake. The audience could feel a shift of weird energy in the room. Things had been lighthearted and funny, but now they were heavy and intriguing.
“You know,” Rin continued, his eyes on the spider, “Bill gave a fine answer about the plot earlier.”
Bill smiled proudly.
“But,” Rin went on, “I feel I should share something with all of you that no one else has yet seen. An exclusive.”
The audience went silent and slid to the edge of their seats.
Rin reached into the pocket of his robe and pulled out the glass case with the four vials of Ozzy’s blood in it. He set the case on the table in front of him. The audience gasped as if he had just shown them a real infinity stone.
It had not seemed possible, but Ray sat up even straighter. He eyed the vials, knowing that they were more valuable than any infinity stone could ever hope to be.
“These are an important part of this story,” Rin said dramatically, “but their purpose can’t be understood without the most remarkable part of the movie.” The wizard turned to look at Ray. “Mr. Dench, will you bring in the bird?”
Stuck between Rin and Ray, Ozzy and Sigi could feel daggers being thrown back and forth.
“What are you saying?” Ray asked.
“Let’s show them the bird,” Rin said, “the most interesting part of the movie. You do have it, don’t you?”
Ray looked at the glass case in front of Rin. “Of course.” He waved to Ty in the back and the man stepped out a side door.
“This is exciting,” Rin cheered. “Due to Ray’s generosity, this room gets a sneak peek at my favorite character.”
The audience was so pumped up that the possibility of some of them passing out seemed like a real concern. Off-Brand Spiderman continued to stand at the mic, shaking.
Ty was back, and in his right hand he was carrying what looked like a covered bird cage. Cellphones exploded with flashes of light as the ogre delivered the object to Ray. Ty climbed the three stairs and set it on the end of the table near Ray.
Ray glanced at the vials. Rin, Ozzy, and Sigi only had eyes for the cage.
“Do you mind if I do the unveiling?” Rin asked. “Here, you can hold these.”
The wizard pushed the glass case in front of Sigi toward Ray. Ray reluctantly pushed the covered cage past Ozzy toward Rin. The dangerous exchange was taking place in front of thousands of people who had no clue what was really happening.
Ray grabbed the glass case and Rin pulled the cage directly in front of him. The Perennial Five all leaned in closer to see what the wizard was about to do. Ray put the glass case in his lap.
“The Perennial Five is a movie,” Rin said, “but this item makes it a masterpiece.”
The crowd went wild.
Rin pulled off the cover. Lying on the bottom of the cage was a lifeless black metal bird tied up with wire.
The crowd and the rest of the Five were confused.
“It don’t look like a masterpiece,” Bill said.
Ozzy began to stand up to reach for the cage, but he could feel that Ray was now pressing the end of a gun up against his hip in a way that no one else could see. The boy sat back down.
Rin and Sigi opened the cage and Sigi pulled Clark out. She ripped the tape off his back as the wizard undid the wires that were holding his body and beak. They set the bird on the table, but he didn’t move.
Rin rolled Clark over a couple of times, but he wouldn’t perk up.
For the first time there were a couple disappointed groans from the audience.
“Don’t worry,” Rin said. “He’ll come around.”
Ray knew that when Clark came to life, his odds of escaping dropped dramatically. He was done with all of this. He was done being tricked by someone who belonged locked up. He was done wasting his time. He nodded to Ty, who was still standing on the platform. Ty walked over the podium and handed Martin a note.
The crowd was very interested in what was happening.
Martin looked flustered. “I need to read this?” he whispered to Ty.
Ty nodded.
Martin tugged on his collar. “So sorry to have to announce this, but this session will need to end early. We ask that everyone please exit the room in an orderly fashion.”
The crowd was confused.
“Please gather your things and leave,” Martin added.
Some of the audience stood up and began to exit, but most of them began to complain loudly.
“It’s an emergency,” Ty added, leaning into the mic.
That was enough to make everyone move faster. The police at the back of the room were trying to figure out what was going on, and what their role should be.
Ray used the chaos of the standing crowd as an opportunity to jump up from his seat and reach for the bird. Ty stepped away from the pulpit hoping to help. The Perennial Five were not having it. They all jumped to their feet and began to push Ty back.
The various ogres in the audience were pushing through people to get to the stage. Three of them were already there trying to escort Ray safely away.
“Get the bird!” Ray insisted as he was being whisked off the stage.
The hand of a boxy ogre reached up over the front of the table and grabbed Clark. In an instant the bird was swept away into the sea of people.
“Clark!” Ozzy yelled.
Ozzy was grabbed by Ty, who was attempting to drag him away. Sigi picked up the metal bird cage and swung it into Ty’s face. He fell into the tables, knocking the whole line of them forward and off the stage.
The room was in complete pandemonium. Cops were trying to get control of something they didn’t understand, while people dressed as things they wished to be were being pushed around by ogres.
“We need to get you two out of here!” Rin shouted.
“No,” Ozzy said. “I have to find Clark.”
“And Mom,” Sigi added.
“She’s here?” Rin glanced around excitedly.
“Yes,” Sigi yelled. “She came in with Wills.”
Rin smiled. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”
The wizard turned and clapped his hands together. Instantly everyone not wearing blue dropped to the floor.
Ozzy and Sigi stared at the wizard.
“Marvel later,” he said casually. “Find Clark.”
With only the ogres standing, Ozzy spotted the boxy one who was still holding Clark.
People had begun to get back up.
“I got this,” Bill said.
The big wizard jumped off the stage like a nimble ninja, and when he came down, the floor shook, sending everyone to the ground again.
Ozzy leaped from the stage, running in the direction he had last seen Clark. Sigi kept pace with him.
“Did you see what my dad did?” she yelled.
“How could I have missed it?”
Police officers were yelling at Ozzy and Sigi to stay still, but Gemi was too quick. She cursed them with painful feet, and they all began to howl and writhe in agony.
“They went out those doors!” Ozzy yelled.
Outside of Ballroom B, the scene was equally chaotic. Everyone had heard the commotion and now superheroes were running scared. There were so many people that it was hard to see anything well.
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“Don’t worry,” Jayson said, “I’m an alchemist!”
Both Ozzy and Sigi were surprised to see Jayson running beside them. He muttered a few words and clicked his fingers. The move was more pretentious than interesting.
Soda from food carts and food stands shot out of their dispensers and up into the air above everyone. At the same time, candy from a giant booth promoting a giant candy brand unwrapped itself and shot up into the cascading soda. The affect was a sweet cloud of wet mist descending over everything.
“How does this help?” Ozzy yelled.
“I’m an alchemist!” Jayson cried triumphantly. “Look.”
The cloud of sweet mist was causing everything besides Ray and his ogres to look blurry. The blue men stood out like bright lights.
“Unbelievable,” Ozzy said, as he instantly spotted who they were after.
Ray and his men were on one of the large escalators moving people down and toward the first-floor exits. The moving stairs were crammed with more people than was conceivably safe. Ozzy could see the boxy ogre standing next to Ray as they descended.
“They’re on the escalators!”
The crowd of people trying to get onto the moving stairs was blurry and so thick Ozzy and Sigi couldn’t push through.
“Did someone say Flora?” Flora the Older said, appearing out of thin, sticky, wet air.
No one had, but Flora shouted a few words and the escalators began running in reverse, bringing people back up.
Ozzy saw Ray and his posse still trying to fight their way down in reverse, but the throng of people in front of Ray was too thick.
Someone grabbed Sigi from behind. She turned to find her mother.
“What is going on?” Patti yelled, as a short Incredible Hulk bumped into her.
“Magic,” Sigi yelled back.
“They have Clark!” Ozzy pointed at the hordes of people being forced back up the escalator.
“Who does?” Sheriff Will said.
“That’s Ray Dench,” Ozzy shouted, “with the red hair surrounded by blue ogres.”
The sheriff began to push and shove his way into the bottleneck of people wanting to go down who didn’t realize people were being forced back up.
A small planet came careening through the crowd behind. People tried desperately to get out of Bill’s way. The big wizard had a wand in his hand, and he was zapping anyone he didn’t like the look of.
The sound of gunfire filled the air.
On the escalator, one of the ogres began shooting into the air. Anyone around him did their best to scream louder and get out of the way. The group of ogres surrounding Ray forced themselves down and off the escalator. There were too many people. Ozzy couldn’t move and Ray was getting dangerously close to getting away.
Ozzy’s chest grew tight with anxiety. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Rin.
“They still have Clark,” Ozzy yelled.
“I know,” the wizard replied.
“Can’t you do something?” Ozzy, Sigi, and Patti pleaded in harmony.
“Why not?” Rin said.
The wizard smiled and lifted his arms.
As Rin raised his hands, everyone in the building slowly lifted seven feet into the air—every merchant, every cop, ever ogre, every visitor, every cosplayer, everyone. The only group still on the ground were Rin and his associates.
Ozzy gazed up at all the kicking feet and screaming mouths of those who had suddenly taken flight. Their cries and shouts were so loud that Bill couldn’t take it.
“Excesistaltalkus!”
The hovering populace above them went silent. There was still the sound of emergency alarms going off, and assorted machines humming, but Gemi quickly quieted those down, making the building eerily quiet.
Patti was beside herself. She stared at all the squirming people above her and sat down on an empty couch nearby.
Someone’s boot dropped off their foot and hit Flora the Older in the head.
“That’s enough of that,” she said. “Expentestikpina!”
The sky of patrons all became still and stiff.
“Are they okay?” Ozzy asked.
“They’re fine,” Flora insisted.
With nobody in their way, Rin walked freely down the escalator that had become stairs and onto the first floor. The wizard stepped beneath a hovering Ray and his ogres. The Perennial Five and the rest of the group circled around.
Rin reached up and took hold of Ray’s right leg. He pulled the man down like someone might yank a mower cord.
Ray hit hard against the floor.
“Who has Clark?” Rin asked.
Ozzy pointed up at the boxy ogre.
The wizard pulled him down. He came to a stop on top of Ray. Ozzy leaned down and took Clark out of the man’s coat pocket. The stripe wasn’t covered, but Clark was still lacking enough charge to be alive. Ozzy held the bird in his hands so that the silver strip faced up.
Rin waved his right hand and Boxy Ogre shot back up again. He waved his hand again in Ray’s direction and loosened the red-haired man’s tongue.
“How?” he asked, looking up. “How are you doing this?”
Rin sighed. “I get so tired of saying this. Magic.”
Both Ray and Patti looked sick.
The Perennial Five moved closer to Ray as the red-headed man stood up.
“That’s not true,” Ray insisted. “You found the formula. This isn’t magic—it’s the result of the serum. My serum. Don’t you see what we could do if we worked together?” Ray motioned to the cloud of humans above them.
“We didn’t do that together,” Rin pointed out.
“That formula belongs to me!” Ray was unraveling. “We don’t need the boy. I have the vials. I can crack the code.”
Rin glanced at his counterparts in the Perennial Five. “Do you think you could give us a moment alone?”
They all nodded.
“And can you make sure nobody comes in or out of the building?”
“That’s easy magic,” Bill said happily.
The other four Perennials split up and vacated the area. The fifth stayed right where he was. Once Flora, Gemi, Bill, and Jayson were gone, Ray spoke.
“Good,” he said. “This is a private matter anyway.”
It was a silly statement, seeing how thousands of people were above them standing in the air.
“Forget this talk of magic,” Ray insisted. “With those vials we can control the will of the world.”
Rin sighed, sounding bored by how predictable Ray was. The wizard glanced at Patti, Sigi, and Ozzy, who was still holding an undercharged Clark.
“What do you think?” Rin asked the boy. “Do you think it’s magic?”
Ozzy studied the wizard. His mind emptied quickly, as if it were a bucket and the bottom had dropped out. Then just as rapidly it filled up again. Wave after wave of new thoughts washed up and over his brain. The puzzle he had been trying to put together was coughing up the last few pieces, and the picture it was revealing was one the boy had never thought of.
“Those vials won’t help,” Ozzy said.
The wizard smiled.
“My parents never found the right formula,” Ozzy went on, a new understanding taking over his whole body. “They tested it on me, but it didn’t work. It only changed my finger.”
“What?” Sigi said. “What are you talking about?”
“There is no working discipline serum.”
“What about the people they tested it on?” Sigi asked. “That lady who acted out on stage? That man who walked into the polar bears? Tindale something . . . no, Timsby?”
Rin shuddered at the remembrance of the awful name.
“Those were attempts,” Ozzy said, “but they never got it right. That’s why they couldn’t recr
eate it all those years—they never really had it. They moved to Oregon to hide from Charles and Ray, but they must have still had hopes of finding it on their own.”
“What about you?” Sigi said. “You’ve made people fight and cops drive into the ocean. You’ve made squirrels do what you want.”
Ozzy was silent. He stared at the floor for a few moments before saying,
“It was magic.”
The answer was as much of a revelation to himself as it was to everyone else.
“Finally!” Rin said with relief. “You figured it out.”
“Well, this is nice.”
Everyone turned to see Ray holding a gun and pointing it toward them. They had been so focused on Ozzy’s words that they had failed to keep their eyes on Ray.
The angry man waved his gun from side to side.
“I don’t know how you are doing all of this,” he told Rin. “But it’s a trick and I’ll figure it out.”
In the distance, the sound of something crashing down shattered the quiet.
“What was that?” Ozzy asked.
“It takes a lot of energy to keep everyone up there,” the wizard explained. “I guess one dropped.”
The sound of something falling was just enough of a distraction to give Ray the time to grab Patti’s arm and pull her in front of himself.
Patti said a few things that made it perfectly clear what she thought about Ray. Sheriff Wills tried to move in, but Ray pointed the gun at him.
“Let her go!” Sigi demanded.
“Everyone stay right where you are,” Ray insisted. “I’m going to slip out of here. But this is not the end. I can afford to continue this fight forever. But to make it fair, I’m going to need to even the odds.”
What happened next happened so fast that it would take a wizard to understand it. Ray pointed the gun at Rin and pulled the trigger. But like a low-budget superhero movie, Off-Brand Spiderman leaped in from nowhere and took a bullet for the wizard. Rin reached out and caught Jon in his arms as Ray released Patti and turned to run away. Ozzy set Clark down as he attempted to help the wizard.