Willow's Perfect Storm

by D J DuMont

  Mollesco, Willow thought, concentrating as hard as she could on the words of the spell. Mollesco, Mollesco.

  For the first full minute, nothing happened. Willow worried that she was going to have to actually say the spell out loud. If she spoke, and the spell didn’t work, she’d be in real trouble. The guards would hear her and realize someone was there, then spook and sound an alarm. But if her mental magic wasn’t working, then she had no choice. She wanted to scream out in frustration. All her mental magic ever seemed to do was get her in trouble. It never worked when she actually wanted it to work. She’d spent countless hours with her tutor, trying to perfect her mental magic abilities, but she still couldn’t seem to cast a spell on purpose.

  Calm down, she told herself. Getting upset is only going to make it harder to concentrate. Just think of the magic. Mollesco. Mollesco. Mollesco.

  Suddenly, one of the guards who had been playing chess fell out of his chair, lying unconscious on the floor. Willow’s heart leapt. It was working!

  The other guards all stared at him, looking alarmed. They started crowding around him, checking his pulse and mumbling something about a heart attack. Then, one more guard fell. That’s when the remaining guards must have realized that some sort of attack was going on. They looked around wildly, trying to see where their enemy was. Willow stood right in front of them, but they didn’t know it. Her invisibility spell was holding strong.

  “Sound the alarm!” one guard called out. “Something fishy is going on.”

  Willow knew she only had seconds to finish this job, or the other guards were going to alert everyone in the hideout. Thankfully, her confidence had been boosted by the two guards who had fallen. She could do this. She knew she could do this.

  Mollesco. Mollesco. Mollesco.

  Within seconds, the other guards started falling. The last ones to fall had only a few horrified moments to look around at their fallen colleagues before they too collapsed into unconscious heaps on the ground. Only when all of the guards had fallen did Willow realize that she was shaking violently, and beads of sweat were running down her forehead. She had completed her task successfully, but it had drained her completely. She took deep, panting breaths as she walked back around the corner to Kent, letting her invisibility shield drop completely for the moment to help her magical energy recover.

  When Kent saw her, he gasped. “Willow! Are you alright? You look like you’ve been run over by a train!”

  “I feel like I’ve been run over by a train. That took a lot of effort.”

  “Are they down?”

  Willow nodded. “They’re all down. Let’s get past them before they wake up. The tranquilizing spell should hold them for at least a good half-hour, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

  She turned to hobble back into the courtyard room, with Kent following closely behind her.

  “You could suffocate them all now,” he said. “You’d be able to do it without any worries about them fighting back or sounding alarms.”

  Willow shook her head. “As much as I’d like to, I need to preserve my magical energy and let it replenish. I don’t know what’s up ahead, and I don’t want to be completely wiped out if we face bigger challenges.”

  Like Stein, she thought, but she didn’t say it. Instead, she looked around at all of the doors and tried to decide which tunnel to go down next. She had noticed that one of the doors seemed to have had extra guards watching it, as evidenced by the fact that the pile of guards that had fallen there was larger than in front of any of the other doors. Extra guards might mean something extra important. Alexis perhaps? Or her father?

  “That door,” Willow told Kent, and strode purposefully toward it. When she tried the handle, it was locked. A small, electronic screen next to the door displayed a message asking for the pass code or a fingerprint I.D.

  Before Willow could even say anything, Kent had set down his magic gun and picked up the limp body of one of the guards. He placed the index finger of the guard over the screen, and the door instantly clicked open. Willow let out a happy sigh of relief as Kent dropped the guard and picked up his magic gun again.

  “You are good for something,” Willow teased.

  Kent smiled. “I was good for one thing, at least.” Then he pointed into the dark tunnel that now stretched out in front of them. “Shall we?”

  Willow took a deep breath and nodded. “We shall.”

  She put up her invisibility shield once more and walked briskly forward into the darkness. She had only gone about fifty yards into the tunnel when suddenly she heard the horrifying sound of someone screaming like they were dying.

  For a brief moment, Willow froze, her heart pounding like an anvil in her chest. And then, she took off running in the direction of the screams.

  Those screams sounded exactly like Alexis Walton.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Willow felt like she was running blindly. The tunnel was so dark, without even dim lamps to light the way. But she didn’t dare use a light spell. She didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to herself.

  Not that she wasn’t already drawing enough attention to herself, charging down the tunnel like a crazed elephant. She couldn’t worry about that, though. The noise couldn’t be helped. All she knew was that she had to get to Alexis.

  Briefly, she worried that the cries were fake. Was Stein baiting her with a recording, as he had back at the island?

  Willow had no way of knowing. All she knew right then was that if this was the real Alexis, she was going to help her. And if it wasn’t, she was going to take down whoever was behind the recording.

  Willow’s legs pumped faster, and she could hear the sound of Kent’s feet pounding along behind her. She had to be getting closer! Then, all of a sudden, blaring lights blinded her, and the blasts of loud alarms started ringing through the air.

  “We tripped some sort of alarm!” Kent yelled.

  Willow didn’t answer, she just kept running. The alarm was both bad and good. On the one hand there was no going back now. Stein and the Dark Sparks would know that their hideout had been infiltrated. On the other hand, a loud alarm like this must mean that something very important was nearby. It must mean that Alexis’ screams were real, and actually belonged to Alexis.

  “There!” Kent yelled as they rounded a curve in the tunnel. Willow didn’t have to turn to see what he was pointing at. She saw it clearly herself: A set of large double doors directly in front of them guarded by no less than six Dark Sparks guards. This had to be where Alexis’ screams were coming from.

  “Now would be an excellent time to try out that magic gun of yours!” Willow shouted at Kent. She was already raising her magic ring, letting the invisibility shield drop in favor of a protective force field shield. No use trying to hide at this point, and she needed to focus her magical energy where it would do the most good. She hoped that whatever weapons these guards had wouldn’t be strong enough to penetrate the protective shield. She also hoped that her magic attacks would be strong enough to penetrate whatever armor they were wearing.

  Only one way to find out.

  “Flamma!” Willow cried out, holding her magic ring high and pointing it in the direction of the guards. A bright purple laser beam shot out from her ring and hit one of the guards square in the face. He’d been wearing a full-faced helmet, but the laser easily penetrated the helmet, and the guard tumbled lifelessly to the floor.

  Beside Willow, Kent shot off blasts from his magic gun, and quickly took down a second guard. They were off to a good start, and Willow felt encouraged. But things got much harder in a matter of seconds.

  After the initial shock of seeing Willow and Kent appear and take out two of their colleagues, the other guards quickly regrouped. They formed a protective line in front of the door, and started blasting off fire from several large guns they’d been holding.

  For several long, long minutes, the air around Willow filled with blasts from the guards’ guns, Kent’s gun, and he
r own magic ring. Smoke and the sparking of laser beams and gunfire filled the air, and Willow could barely see a foot in front of her. She fired off attacks blindly, hoping to hit someone. She heard cries of pain, so she knew she’d had at least some success. But she couldn’t see how many more guards there might be. She couldn’t even see Kent beside her, although she knew he was still standing, since she could still hear and see his magic gun going off. Her protective shield spell over both of them seemed to be holding up well enough for the moment, but would that last? Were more guards coming, with stronger weapons? Was Stein on his way to this battle that had erupted, bringing his own magic gun with him?

  Willow wanted more than anything to face off directly with Stein, but would she be strong enough to win, especially since there were so many other Dark Sparks around to defend him?

  She had to believe that she would come out of this victorious. She was going to rescue Alexis and her father, or die trying. With renewed strength, she roared out, “Flamma,” even louder than before. Sparks flew from her magic ring as her attack spell launched forward, bringing screams of pain from more guards.

  And then, suddenly, the return fire ceased. Willow kept attacking blindly through the smoke for a full minute anyway, not wanting to take any chances. But still, no return fire came. Finally, she ended her own attack spell and let the smoke clear, signaling to Kent for him to lower his magic gun as well.

  On the ground in front of them, several guards lay motionless. Willow hoped their lack of movement meant they were dead, and not just unconscious. What if one of them regained consciousness all of a sudden and attacked without warning?

  That was a chance she’d have to take. She couldn’t hang around here to check the pulse of every fallen Dark Spark. The alarms in the tunnel were still blaring loudly, and it would only be a matter of time before more enemy guards appeared. If Willow wanted to break past the door that these Dark Sparks had been so fiercely guarding, she needed to move quickly.

  “Come on, Kent,” she said as she moved forward. “Let’s see whether our combined strength is enough to knock this door down.”

  Kent followed without a word as Willow stepped over the fallen guards to inspect the door. To Willow’s delight, it appeared that the door had already been quite damaged during the showdown she and Kent had just had with the guards. An electric panel with a fingerprint sensor on it was hanging sideways and had almost detached completely from the door. A computerized voice called softly from the screen, asking over and over for someone to “please provide an authorized fingerprint in order to proceed.”

  Willow raised her magic ring, preparing to blast the screen into hundreds of pieces, when a shout from Kent stopped her.

  “No! Don’t! The way Stein acts, the screen might be programmed to lock and secure the door if someone tries to destroy it. I have a better idea. Here, hold this.”

  Kent handed Willow his magic gun, then bent down to pull one of the lifeless guards up from the ground. With some difficulty, he dragged the guard to the fingerprint sensor, pulled the guard’s black leather glove off, and pressed the guard’s thumb to the screen. Willow felt her stomach turn as she watched. She had no desire to touch a dead person, and she couldn’t imagine that Kent wanted to, either. But he was right: destroying the fingerprint sensor might be a huge mistake. Using a guard’s fingerprint again was a much better idea.

  She held her breath as the screen flashed blue around the guard’s thumb, and the computerized voice announced, “Analyzing, analyzing, analyzing.” And then, to Willow’s utmost relief, the voice said, “Access granted.”

  The door slid open with a soft whoosh, and Willow was momentarily blinded by how bright the lights behind the door were compared to the dim, almost nonexistent lighting of the tunnel. When her eyes adjusted enough for her to start looking around, she felt a wave of terror run through her.

  She was standing in what looked like some sort of laboratory, with bright lights, test tubes, and cold, steel instruments all over the place. In the center of the room, strapped to an exam table, Alexis lay, unmoving.

  “Alexis!” Willow screamed, running toward her. Her friend’s face was as white as a sheet, with angry red scratches running across it. Frantically, Willow felt for a pulse. Tears of relief filled her eyes when she found one.

  “She’s not dead!” Willow exclaimed, turning to look at Kent.

  Kent nodded, but he didn’t keep his eyes on Willow and Alexis for long. He scanned the room nervously, his magic gun raised high and ready to shoot.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said. “There were guards in here that fled for some reason, which means we were lucky to find this room empty. But it’s not going to stay empty for long. I’m sure there are more guards on the way.”

  Willow frowned and tugged at the thick leather straps that held Alexis down to the table. It would take forever to unfasten them properly, so she pointed her magic ring at the first strap and said “Scindo.” A sharp laser beam sprung from her ring, and she used it to methodically slice through strap after strap.

  “How do you know there were guards in here that fled?” she asked Kent without looking up from her work.

  “Well, for one thing, I doubt Alexis would have been left in here alone. And for another thing, that door over there. It leads to another tunnel and it’s badly smashed. Someone left in a hurry. At least, I’m guessing that’s what happened. The guards in here must have realized that the guards outside were losing their battle to protect this room. Instead of standing their ground, those cowards fled.”

  “Hmm. I guess that’s possible,” Willow said, slicing through another row of straps. Why had the Dark Sparks used so many straps for one petite teenage girl? It was complete overkill. “But you’re also speculating quite a bit.”

  “Speculation or not, I’m sure there are more guards coming, and they’re not going to be happy to see Alexis abandoned to us like this. We need to get out of here before they arrive.”

  “No argument from me on that,” Willow said. “I’ve almost got her freed. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, exactly. I don’t see any blood anywhere. She has some superficial wounds, but that’s it. She doesn’t look good, though. No color at all in her face, and her breathing is shallow. She needs medical attention as soon as possible.”

  “Let’s get her to safety, and then worry about her injuries.”

  Kent was sounding more nervous with every passing second, and Willow didn’t blame him. The uneasy feeling in her stomach was growing stronger as well. They’d been lucky to get to Alexis and find her unguarded, but that luck wasn’t likely to last.

  “Got her,” Willow said as she sliced the last strap. Then she pointed her ring at Alexis and said, “Levis.”

  The weightlessness spell made Alexis as light as a feather, and Willow easily hoisted her friend over her shoulder. She didn’t like using magic directly on Alexis when the girl was so weak. Who knew what further toll magic might take on her body? But Willow didn’t have much of a choice. She wouldn’t be able to move very fast if she tried carrying Alexis at her full, normal weight. Kent might be able to move marginally faster, but Willow wanted him to help keep a lookout, and to keep his magic gun at the ready in case he needed to defend them.

  Willow took one last, longing look around at the laboratory. She was sure it contained all sorts of information about Stein’s evil schemes, and it would have been immeasurably helpful to the Dragon Heart Agency for her to gather up that information. But every second of delay was another second that might cost Alexis her life. With a frustrated grunt, Willow followed Kent as he ran back toward the tunnel they’d come from.

  They had barely reached the door when Kent yelped in pain and fell backward. Willow’s heart sank, and she raised her magic ring, ready to attack whoever had just attacked Kent. Would she be able to hold Alexis and fight at the same time? Even though Alexis was weightless, Willow still had to be careful to keep a tight grip on her so she wouldn’t fall. And Will
ow’s magical energy was being taxed to the max at the moment. Between holding up a protective shield spell and a weightlessness spell, not to mention the tracing spell so that she kept a map of the tunnels stored in her ring, Willow didn’t have a whole lot of magical energy left for launching defensive attacks.

  But Kent was sprawled on the floor rubbing his forehead in pain, so attack she must. Willow raised her ring toward the darkness of the tunnel and was about to speak the words of an attack spell when a familiar voice stopped her.

  “Wait! Don’t attack! Are you crazy?”

  Willow took a step back, and lowered her ring just slightly. “Locke? Is that you?”

  All she could see in the dim tunnel were the outlines of the still-motionless guards whom she and Kent had defeated on their way into the lab. There was no sign of the guard who had attacked Kent. Willow looked back at Kent and saw that he was springing to his feet, still rubbing his forehead in pain but looking otherwise unharmed. She didn’t see any blood anywhere on his body.

  Willow looked back at the tunnel. “Locke? Are you there?”

  She started raising her ring again. Was this another one of Stein’s tricks? Had he somehow recorded Locke’s voice to use as bait?

  But then, she heard Locke’s voice again. “Concelo deleo.”

  A whooshing sound met Willow’s ears, indicating that Locke’s invisibility spell was ending. A moment later, she saw him clearly, standing right in front of her and rubbing his forehead as well.

  “What in the world are you two doing?” he asked, his voice loud as he tried to make sure he was heard over the sound of the alarm sirens, which were still blaring. “I was heading toward this room to see what all the commotion was when suddenly Kent came barreling out and ran straight into me. I’m going to have a huge knot on my forehead!”